WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ President Donald Trump says Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will leave his post on Jan. 1. Trump announced Mattis’ new departure date in a tweet, and said he’s naming deputy defense chief Patrick Shanahan as acting secretary.
The move comes just three days after Mattis resigned in protest over Trump’s decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria. Mattis originally said he would stay through February to ensure an orderly transition.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019. Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!
[The South African] Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats who served as the international high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, died Saturday at the age of 77, his party announced. A young Paddy Ashdown training with the Special Boat Service (SBS) in 1959
He made an “immeasurable contribution to furthering the cause of liberalism” and will be “desperately missed”, the Lib Dems said in a statement.
Ashdown, a former special forces officer, led the centrist Liberal Democrats in opposition from 1988 until 1999, reviving their fortunes after years in the wilderness. He served as the international high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006.
He revealed in November that he was being treated for bladder cancer.
“I have the best of people and the best of friends to fight this with, which makes me, as so often in my life, very lucky,” Ashdown said.
Current Lib Dem leader Vince Cable said it was a “hugely sad day” in British politics and paid tribute to Ashdown’s talents beyond the political arena, including as an author, a marine and in the diplomatic service.
Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May said she learned of his death with “great sadness” and praised his service to Britain and the international community.
“He dedicated his life to public service and he will be sorely missed,” she said.
Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair said Ashdown was a “political visionary” who was “motivated by values of compassion, decency and a profound commitment to make the world a better place”.
“He was one of the most talented politicians never to hold high office, but as leader of the Liberal Democrats he nonetheless had a major impact on British political life,” said Blair, who was in power from 1997 to 2007.
“He had courage, personal and political, unafraid to speak his mind yet always open to the views of others.”
Blair’s successor Gordon Brown said Ashdown was “one of the towering political figures of our generation who spoke always as a strong European, a committed internationalist and a dedicated constitutional reformer”.
#1
At the moment it doesn’t look like the current crop of Britain’s politicians has anyone to match the stature of Mr.Ashdown. May some prove able to rise to the occasion as he did.
[Middle East Monitor] Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was yesterday banned from Facebook for posting anti-Muslim content.
The saga began on Thursday after Yair Netanyahu wrote on Facebook that: "There will not be peace here [in Israel-Palestine] until: 1. All the Jews leave the land of Israel. 2. All the Muslims leave the land of Israel. I prefer the second option."
The post quickly gained traction in Israel, with the Times of Israel reporting that it had "garnered over 750 reactions as of Friday evening, [...] most of them in agreement". Yair then continued his anti-Muslim tirade, writing in a separate post: "Do you know where there are no terror attacks? In Iceland and Japan. Coincidentally there’s also no Muslim population there."
According to Haaretz, Yair also wrote a third post in which he called for "avenging the deaths" of two Israeli soldiers killed last week and the expulsion of Palestinians. Although Facebook had removed these posts on the grounds that they were in violation of its community rules, Yair shared a screenshot of the post, prompting the social media giant to yesterday block his account for 24 hours.
Taking to Twitter, Yair claimed he had been blocked for calling out Facebook on its removal of the posts, saying: "Unbelievable. Facebook blocks me for 24 hours for simply criticising it! Thought police."
[Middle East Monitor] Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz, a member of the Saudi royal family, died yesterday at the age of 88, as reported on Anadolu Agency.
His death was confirmed by his son Prince Abdulaziz Bin Talal on Twitter adding that condolences will be received for three days starting Sunday.
Born in 1931, Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, held many senior government positions in Saudi Arabia. He is considered a supporter of reform in the ruling family and resigned from the Allegiance Council in 2011.
He is the father of Saudi billionaire Al-Waleed Bin Talal.
Last year, Al-Waleed Bin Talal was among the princes who were detained at the Ritz-Carlton. The luxurious hotel was transformed into a detention centre for the extremely wealthy detainees when Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman launched an anti-corruption drive against Saudi Arabia’s royal family, wealthy businessmen and senior government officials. It was reported that Bin Talal was held in a room like a cell and had a difficult and uncomfortable time in detention.
[Middle East Monitor] Egyptian security forces killed 14 suspected militants in the restive Sinai Peninsula, according to the country’s interior ministry as reported on Anadolu Agency.
A ministry statement said the militants were killed in a shootout during a raid on a "terrorist" hotbed planning attacks in the North Sinai city of Arish.
The ministry’s narrative could not be verified from an independent source.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/23/2018
12:06 ||
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[NY Post] Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou's arrest in Vancouver on Dec. 6 led to immediate blowback.
Furious Chinese Communists have begun arresting innocent Canadians in retaliation. So far, three of these "revenge hostages" have been taken and are being held in secret jails on vague charges. Beijing hints that the hostage count may grow if Meng is not freed and fast.
Even for a thuggish regime like China';s, this kind of action is almost unprecedented.
So who is Meng Wanzhou?
Currently under house arrest and awaiting extradition to the US, she will face charges that her company violated US sanctions by doing business with Iran and committed bank fraud by disguising the payments it received in return.
But to say that she is the CFO of Huawei doesn't begin to explain her importance ‐ or China's reaction. It turns out that "Princess" Meng, as she is called, is Communist royalty. Her grandfather was a close comrade of Chairman Mao during the Chinese Civil War, who went on to become vice governor of China's largest province.
She is also the daughter of Huawei's Founder and Chairman, Ren Zhengfei. Daddy is grooming her to succeed him when he retires.
In other words, Meng is the heiress apparent of China's largest and most advanced hi-tech company, and one which plays a key role in China's grand strategy of global domination.
Huawei is a leader in 5G technology and, earlier this year, surpassed Apple to become the second largest smartphone maker in the world behind Samsung.
But Huawei is much more than an innocent manufacturer of smartphones.
It is a spy agency of the Chinese Communist Party.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2018
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#1
her and Feinsteins driver seem to be the tip of the iceberg!
[Guardian] The US government has waded into the scandal of the German journalist for Der Spiegel magazine who faked stories on a grand scale over years, calling it proof of "institutional bias" in the media against America.
In a scathing letter to the magazine’s editors, Richard Grenell, US ambassador to Germany, claims the journalism of Claas Relotius, who resigned from the German news magazine last week, was symptomatic of anti-American bias across the mainstream media. "It is clear that we were the victims of a campaign of institutional bias," Grenell wrote to Der Spiegel, in a letter also seen by the daily newspaper Bild. He said he was aghast at the way "anti-American coverage" had been facilitated by the magazine.
Relotius had made many reporting trips to the US, and at least three of the resultant stories are now known to have been entirely or partly made up. They include an article published in March 2018 about a 59-year-old woman who travelled by bus around America to witness death row executions. It emerged last week that it had been completely fabricated.J
Earlier this year Relotius interviewed 99-year-old Traute Laufrenz, the last survivor of the anti-Nazi White Rose resistance group, in Charleston, but at least parts of the text and details of when the interview took place are also believed to have been made up.
Der Spiegel yesterday issued an unprecedented mea culpa, printing a plain cover in its trademark orange, with the words: "Tell it like it is. On our own account: how one of our reporters falsified his stories and why he was able to do so." Inside, over 23 pages, it details the drama surrounding the Relotius revelations, and praises his colleague Juan Moreno, who uncovered the scandal.
"This house is shocked," it wrote in a leading article. "What’s happened to us is the worst thing that can happen to an editorial team." It accused Relotius of "relying not on research but on his imagination". In a 10-page essay entitled "A Nightmare", the magazine offers an in-depth exposé of how the scandal came to light and the methods he used to cover up his tactics. Moreno, the journalist who revealed the scandal, is also given space to explain how he had come to the shocking conclusion that his colleague was fabricating material. Moreno started his own research against the will of Der Spiegel’s editors, and was almost fired over his repeated accusations, which his bosses at first did not want to believe.
PEARLAND, Texas (BP) -- After World War II, decorated Army veteran Jesse Whitley returned home and became a soldier for the Lord, serving as a Baptist pastor and preacher for more than 45 years.
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, World War II veteran Jesse Whitley, 99, received his Green Beret from Sgt. Justin Mayrant of the 19th Special Forces based in San Antonio.
"Sgt." Whitley, who celebrated his 99th birthday Dec. 14, received renewed recognition on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, with Green Beret status for his service in a special forces unit nicknamed "the Devil's Brigade."
It came as a surprise to Whitley, who faced combat action with the First Special Service Force against the Japanese in Alaska's Aleutian Islands and against the Germans in Europe.
Whitley joined the U.S. Army on April 25, 1939, at age 19 in Texarkana, Ark., where he grew up. He was honorably discharged on Oct. 31, 1945.
The Veterans Day ceremony was held at First Baptist Church in Pearland, Texas. Whitley lives in the Houston suburb with his daughter, Vicki Cumbie, having moved from Arkansas about a year and a half ago.
FBC Pearland member John Triplett spearheaded the effort to obtain Green Beret status for Whitley, who served in the First Special Service Force (FSSF), forerunner of the current U.S. Army Special Forces, whose elite troops wear the iconic Green Beret.
The FSSF garnered WWII fame for a 99-day period in 1943 when it operated behind enemy lines primarily at night, inspiring a 1966 book and a 1968 film based on the book, both titled "The Devil's Brigade."
It may be just the accident of what I read, but it seems to me that a lot of our WW2 vets live to ripe old ages. They're just plain built tough. The other day I met a 94-year old sailor who was at Normandy, and I'm fairly certain that with the right motivation he could have kicked my ass up and down the stairs.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/23/2018 11:42
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#2
my dad's 92 and a WW 2 Navy vet and still kickin"
#3
Not just vets, Matt. My mother will be 93 in February. She recently increased her target lifespan from 120 years to 130. She is still pretty sharp, and definitely more energetic than I.
But to be fair, the less healthy of that generation have already died.
#4
Agreed, tw. The amazing woman who taught me everything I know about my profession died a couple of years ago at age 104. She threw a 100th birthday party for herself, with the explanation that at her age she didn't go to very many class reunions.
And, OT, but thanks for that explanation yesterday about the mods.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/23/2018 13:12
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[MEMO] Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sent military forces to areas controlled by the Kurdish YPG group in north-east Syria, Turkey’s Yenisafak newspaper reported.
The paper said the forces will be stationed with US-led coalition troops and will support its tasks with huge military enforcements as well as heavy and light weapons.
Quoting the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the newspaper reported that a convoy of troops belonging to an Arab Gulf state recently arrived in the contact area between the Kurdish PKK/YPG and Daesh in the Deir Ez-Zor countryside.
This comes at a time when Ankara is preparing to launch an expanded military operation with the Free Syrian Army against the Kurdish PKK group in the northeast of Syria.
Saudi and Emirati military advisers have in recent months met with officials of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered by Turkey as terrorist organisations, at the US base in north-east Syria.
There are fears of Arab-Turkish confrontations that will be the first of their kind on Syrian soil.
#5
Perhaps the Donald had a chat with the Saudis and Emirates before announcing the US withdrawal.
A big part of the freakout in the media and elsewhere is over the fact that Trump didn't pre-announce his intentions. How dare you do this with consulting us and giving us a chance to bitch, whine and disparage before hand?
Leaving aside the idea that regional powers might play a role in regional affairs, I do like the suggestion that this is a thank-you to Trump for not jumping on the Kashoggi bandwagon.
#6
Upon reading beyond the headline and second sentence:
This has been in the works for a while without me noticing. Besoeker’s article is dated November 22, 2018, while the Read link is from the end of May. From the May article:
Saudi, Emirati and Jordanian military officials visited an international coalition military base in the Kurdish Syrian region of Kobani yesterday, according to local sources.
Al Jazeera reported that the officials met leaders of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces and field commanders in the international coalition during their 24 hour visit.
The Anadolu Agency said that the visit was aimed at establishing Arab military units in the region whose nucleus would be Al-Sanadid Forces, one of the factions affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces. Sources stated that in the upcoming period, the units would form one of the Border Guard Forces, with Saudi funding.
The Turkish news agency confirmed that each associate of these units would get $200 per month, and added that points of contact would be established in Al-Hasakah and Qamishli to receive and run the affairs of the associates.
The news agency also said that the aforementioned meeting was held with officials of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey considers terrorist groups. Anadolu quoted local sources as saying that in April, Saudi Arabia sent aid to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syria.
The news agency added that on October 2017, the Saudi minister of Gulf affairs, Thamer Al-Sabhan, visited the city of Raqqa, which is controlled by the party, and met US officials there.
Turkey rejects any international intervention to support the Syrian Democratic Forces, an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (PKK).
Good find, Besoeker, and a news site to add to our list. This is exactly why I waited for the other shoe to drop after yesterday’s announcement. President Trump has neatly hornswoggled Sultan Erdogan I “the much beloved”.
#7
How dare you do this with consulting us and giving us a chance to bitch, whine and disparage before hand?
Actually, I think there is a component of needing g time to coordinate both their narrative and attack that they didn't get. I wonder if they'll learn from this. So Trump seems to have seen the same thing we did and had it covered no matter what direction things went. Now we just have to hope it works as planned ....
#8
Upon further thought, supposedly Mattis quit largely because of this. Does that still hold true? Maybe this is something that Trump came up with after he quit? Maybe the Saudis figured it out themselves?
#9
According to an Ay Pee article this morning, Turkey sent more troops — a commando unit in 50 vehicles, whatever that means — into Syria overnight. But now, instead of facing only cleverly fighting Kurdish irregulars armed with light weapons, the Saudi and Emirati contingent is now in place with heavy weaponry.
#11
Trivia question: How many reporters would look at that photo and write, "Three tanks"?
Posted by: Matt ||
12/23/2018 11:57
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Are the Saudis bringing the one thing the US would not give the Kurds?
Artillery. If so then this is huge.
Going back to the battle of Omdurman, regional armies are usually on the receiving end of western artillery. Give the Kurds heavy artillery will let them continue to punch well above their class.
All they would need is SAMs or MANPADs to shoot down the Turkish AF, and there would be hell to pay by the Turks for any incursion.
However, initially, it is likely the Turks will try to use their proxies in the FSA to probe for weakness. If they do and the Kurds respond with their usual ferocity, it will go badly for the FSA.
The the Turks will have to decide if they really want to risk the kind of disaster you imply.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/23/2018 13:39
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#14
Now that you've explained it and the timeline, the Saudis being in the works means Trump's exit wasn't necessarily as sudden as the Media has made it look.
Trump actually prepping replacements from Saudi and UAE? I hope its true. And in the process getting the Kurds Artillery? Dream come true for the Kurds. Doing this in advance to his announcement of a "withdrawal" should NOT be "news", and yet here it is only now coming to light yet reported on a while back.
The puzzle pieces are coming together now with Kashoggi and the Saudis, the withdrawal from Syria, and a surprising lack of complaining coming from the Kurds themselves.
I would bet the Kurds would gladly trade the 2000 US troops in the AO for real artillery of their own and some US special ops advisers/trainers.
I think we've been had by the MSM and their editorial bias of simply refusing to cover things if it doesn't fit their narrative or if they do not understand the implications at the time.
Anyone know where I can find recipes for Crow? I may be needing one quite soon.
#15
This is exactly the sort of maneuvering I would expect coming from Trump. The timing and the media so unprepared. Perhaps salutations a bit much for Trump alone but a masters chess player he appears to be. The mud throwing and mockery of him hides the moves he makes and so spectacular success seems so unexpected. I have said this before that more is to come. Pass the popcorn.
#16
A Turkish foothold in Syria would not be welcomed by the Russians. The entire region is a powder keg. I suspect POTUS' decision will soon be vindicated.
[Mil Times] Some educators genuinely care about their pupils. There are those who go out of their way to tutor, mentor, offer advice or even take personal interest in the struggles impacting their students' lives at home.
Then there’s Charlotta Turner, a professor of analytical chemistry at Sweden’s Lund University, who, upon learning that one of her doctoral students was in hiding in an Islamic State war zone, dispatched a heavily-armed mercenary squad to rescue the student and his family.
Firas Jumaah was completing a doctorate thesis under Turner in 2014 when he received a terrifying text message from his wife, who was home in northern Iraq with the couple’s two young children: ISIS fighters had captured an adjacent Yazidi village and were killing the men and enslaving the women.
"My wife was totally panicking," Jumaah told Lund’s University Magazine LUM. "I took the first plane there to be with them. What sort of life would I have if anything had happened to them there?"
After arriving in Iraq and reuniting with his panicked family, Jumaah packed up some of their belongings and moved them to a hideout in an abandoned bleach factory, Sweden’s The Local reported. All the while, the family could hear the sounds of ISIS gun fire getting closer with each passing day.
Amidst the chaos, Jumaah sent a text message to Turner to inform her that he likely wouldn’t be finishing his doctorate thesis.
"I had no hope then at all," he said. "I was desperate. I just wanted to tell my supervisor what was happening. I had no idea that a professor would be able to do anything for us."
But Turner is not just any professor. And as the saying goes, "Those who can, do. Those who cannot, hire mercenaries to get Jumaah the hell out of there."
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/23/2018
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#1
And what charge of non-PCness will she be arrested on?
[Babylon Bee] U.S.‐A crowdfunding campaign aiming to build a US-Mexico border wall out of old copies of Left Behind and its many sequels has raised $7 million in the first few days of funding.
The GoFundMe campaign is asking for $1 billion to collect and transport all the millions of copies of books in the Left Behind series for assembly into a towering wall that will secure the nation's southern border.
"This will both help the nation recycle its rapture fiction and provide an impenetrable barrier against those who would enter our country illegally," the campaign's creator wrote. "It's a green, environmentally conscious plan that will also help us regain a biblical eschatology."
At publishing time, the campaign had added Tyler Perry DVDs to the list of construction materials.
[Intellectual Takeout] A 19th-century peace activist once asked, "Is it possible that any Christian, of whatever sect, who believes the New Testament to be anything better than a fable, can doubt for a moment that the time will come when all the kingdoms of the earth shall be at peace?"
Jesus Christ, as both a religious and historical figure, has been chronicled as the "Prince of Peace." He was the man (or son of God) who instructed his followers to turn the other cheek. This philosophy of love, forgiveness, and the rejection of violence is difficult to mesh with a modern age that has fought two world wars. Reaching even farther back, it’s hard to reconcile Christ’s message with the violence inflicted by Christians against both non-Christians and other members of the faith.
But one moment, found in the bloody, secularized 20th century, stands out: the Christmas Truce of 1914.
World War I had begun in August, engulfing most of Europe. On the western front, a German invasion of France by way of Belgium had stalled just 50 miles outside of Paris. Fighting quickly devolved into trench warfare, with German and British-French lines divided by a no-man’s land of barbed wire, shell holes, and death. Soldiers lived and died in trenches of mud and dirt, infested with fleas and other vermin and often flooded with water that was knee deep. Winter added frost and bitter cold. The war that people on both sides said would be done by Christmas showed no sign of ending. By December, after barely five months of combat, casualties on all sides numbered over two million.
Yet that Christmas Eve, an unexpected sound could be heard above the din of gunfire: soldiers on the German side singing Stille Nacht, the original German-language Silent Night. Small fir trees, makeshift replacements for the grand Christmas trees back home, had been placed. The constant fighting might have had the effect of increasing religious reflection. During the opening months of the war in 1914, churches in Germany were fuller than they had ever been, even in working-class areas infamous for secular and anti-clerical politics.
After much hesitation, soldiers on the British side began to poke their heads out of the trenches. The Germans did not fire. The Brits responded by applauding and singing their own English version of the carol. The two sides then met together in no man’s land. Frederick James Davies, a private in the 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, described his experiences in a letter home to his mother: "They [the Germans] were only fifty yards away from us in the trenches. They came out and we went to meet them. We shook hands with them.... They also gave us cigars but they didn’t have much food. I think they are hard up for it. They were fed up with the war." They exchanged "cigs, jam and corn beef" and Davies added that he had "a good chat with the Germans on Xmas day."
#1
...And the leadership on both sides was utterly furious afterwards. The commanders made very sure afterwards that nothing like this could ever happen again.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/23/2018 7:10
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[Neon Nettle] KISS guitarist Ace Frehley went against Hollywood anti-Trump rhetoric arguing that Americans should either support President or consider leaving the country.
Appearing on the "Juliet: Unexpected" podcast, the 67-year-old said he usually avoid the topic of politics but expressed anger about people who "jump on the bandwagon against our government.
"I hate politics," Frehley said."I don’t like talking politics, and I don’t think politics and music mix. I frown on musicians who get up on a platform and start talking about the president or complain about ‐ I just don’t think it belongs."
[American Thinker] Amid all the back and forth about who the biggest deporter is among presidents, and whether deportations are up or down under President Trump, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has released some impressive numbers: 256,000 deportations of immigration lawbreakers, mostly for committing additional crimes beyond the initial border break, in 2018.
Sweeping raids across the United States has seen violent gang members apprehended by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, with more 256,000 illegal aliens deported in 2018 alone, according to reports. Pedophiles, child abusers, and violent gang members are among those deported by ICE this year, including 95,360 illegal aliens living in the U.S and 160,725 caught by Border Patrol crossing into the country. The most notable deportations are the 95,000 illegal aliens living throughout the interior of the country.
That's more than 701 per day, in a 365-day year. Picture what 701 looks like in a crowd, and the scope of the deportations looks clear.
This, to be pessimistic, tells us a lot about how many immigration lawbreakers are out there, including ones who commit crimes here and haven't been caught.
But it represents a 5% rise in deportations of illegal aliens, an 11% rise in deportations of illegal aliens who have been convicted of crimes and a whopping 85% rise in deportations of known gang members, with all figures in comparison to 2016, President Obama's last year in office.
That suggests progress. The gang deportations suggests that President Trump and his homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, are pretty serious about getting rid of these plagues on society.
[Red State] One would think it is rather cut-and-dried. Article 6 of the US Constitution reads, in part:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
This is not all that hard to understand. But, for progressive Democrats, an orthodox Christian causes a reaction much like Lucifer coming into contact with Holy Water. When Amy Coney Barrett was being grilled by Dianne Feinstein at what was supposed to be a confirmation hearing but looked more like an atheist auto-da-fé, there was this remarkable exchange.
When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you. And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country.
[American Thinker] It's great fun watching critics of President Trump twist themselves into pretzels in order to denounce him. They evidently don't mind making fools of themselves by doing a 180-degree reversal of previous positions simply because Trump is now doing what they formerly supported, so it must be wrong.
Two amusing examples follow. Joe Simonson of the Daily Caller News Foundation:
[Intellectual Takeout] I saw the headline scroll across the marquee as I drove by the public radio station this morning: gene-edited babies are officially a thing.
The news comes out of China at the hands of researcher He Jiankui, who genetically edited a pair of twin girls. According to The Associated Press, Jiankui is well-meaning and used his gene alterations to infuse the twins with "an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus."
Jiankui, however, does not seem to be taking responsibility for the problems his work may cause. As he implied in a statement to The Associated Press, his job was simply to present the possibility that such experimentation can be done. "’Society,’" he says, "’will decide what to next.’"
But is today’s society equipped to decide what is best in this age of new scientific exploits? C.S. Lewis didn’t think so. In a weirdly prophetic passage from The Abolition of Man, Lewis explains what happens to a society when it chooses to manipulate its young before birth:
"Each generation exercises power over its successors: and each, in so far as it modifies the environment bequeathed to it and rebels against tradition, resists and limits the power of its predecessors. This modifies the picture which is sometimes painted of a progressive emancipation from tradition and a progressive control of natural processes resulting in a continual increase of human power. In reality, of course, if any one age really attains, by eugenics and scientific education, the power to make its descendants what it pleases, all men who live after it are the patients of that power. They are weaker, not stronger: for though we may have put wonderful machines in their hands we have pre-ordained how they are to use them."
Lewis goes on to explain that such a scenario is even more problematic if it is birthed in a society which has thrown cultural norms to the wind:
"And if, as is almost certain, the age which had thus attained maximum power over posterity were also the age most emancipated from tradition, it would be engaged in reducing the power of its predecessors almost as drastically as that of its successors."
This signals what Lewis calls "the final stage in the conquest":
"The final stage is come when Man by eugenics, by pre-natal conditioning, and by an education and propaganda based on a perfect applied psychology, has obtained control over himself. Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to Man. The battle will then be won. We shall have ’taken the thread of life out of the hand of Clotho’ and be henceforth free to make our species whatever we wish it to be. The battle will indeed be won."
But who will have won it? And will the winner be able to use that new-found power in a responsible, reliable manner? That’s highly unlikely, notes Lewis:
"I am very doubtful whether history shows us one example of a man who, having stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently. I am inclined to think that the Conditioners will hate the conditioned."
The creation of genetically edited babies is certainly a huge leap forward for science. But in a relativistic society like ours where there are no absolutes, will such power become a dangerous tool wielded against the very creatures who made such power a reality?
[Townhall] CNN decided to "investigate" the number of people who lie on the 4473 forms, which are used when someone purchases a firearm. It asks basic questions like your name, address, date of birth and if you've committed a number of criminal violations. When you fill it out you check a simple "yes" or "no" on each question. Lying on 4473 is a felony that can result in a hefty fine and up to 10 years in prison.
What's silly is it took an "investigation" for CNN to realize a fact that gun rights advocates have been saying for years: criminals lie. And the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) very rarely prosecutes those who are caught lying on the form.
[Times of Israel] Demonstrators briefly block major junction in Israel’s financial hub amid push against price hikes, government corruption.
Hundreds of Israelis took part in "yellow vest" demonstrations in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest the cost of living in Israel and alleged government corruption.
The protests, which began earlier this month, were inspired by the nationwide demonstrations in France over the past month that were set off by a fuel tax increase.
In Israel, protests have centered on a recent wave of announced price hikes in electricity, water, gas and cellphone bills, as well as food products, insurance and property taxes.
[The Hill] Call it the tranquil shutdown. As the government careened toward a partial closure Friday night, lawmakers in both parties did a peculiar thing: they started heading home.
The absence of urgency ‐ and the utter disregard for the bad optics of conceding failure before the clock ran out ‐ strikes a sharp contrast with spending impasses of the past.
Previous debates were marked by a fierce scramble to find agreement right up to the deadline ‐ complete with marathon midnight meetings and wee-hour floor votes ‐ followed by hours or days of frantic negotiations to reopen the government, if only as a public demonstration of congressional competence.
Not this time.
As roughly a quarter of the federal government went dark at midnight Friday, there were few signs of life in the Capitol. The halls echoed with emptiness as leaders in both parties had departed hours before and many rank-and-file lawmakers were already on planes back home for the December holidays.
#4
The troops will be paid. From An Nahar yesterday:
About three-quarters of the government, including the military and the Department of Health and Human Services, is fully funded until the end of September 2019, leaving 25 percent unfunded as of Saturday.
Most NASA employees will be sent home, as will Commerce Department workers and many at the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Agriculture and State.
National parks will remain open, but most park staff will stay home while Washington is unable to accomplish one of its most basic tasks -- keeping the government up and running.
[NYSun] The idea that the resignation of General Mattis as secretary of defense is a startling development that comes out of the blue strikes us as wishful thinking on the part of critics of President Trump. The general may have been irked by Mr. Trump’s plan to pull our GIs out of Syria. The record suggests, though, Mr. Mattis’ tenure as defense secretary has long been on borrowed time.
For in respect of policy, General Mattis has always struck us as crosswise with the president. This was foreshadowed before the 2016 election, when the general, at the time the former commander of CentCom, was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer at an Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. That’s the appearance where the Jar Head blamed our troubles in the Middle East on Israel.
After praising our "valiant" secretary of state, John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State... , the general complained at Aspen: "I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel, and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Paleostinians."
So why the new president put General Mattis at the top of the Pentagon is a mystery. Mr. Trump, after all, had just won the presidency in a campaign focused against precisely the foreign policy of President Obama and Secretaries Kerry and Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... . Mr. Trump took to the voters their support for the Gay Paree climate accord and the Iran appeasement and hostility to the Jerusalem Embassy.
In winning the election, the President gained a mandate on every one of those issues (the Jerusalem embassy had been sought for 20 years by an almost unanimous Congress). None of the President’s promises could have been a surprise to General Mattis when he took the Pentagon job. Yet he groused about them constantly. It’s amazing to us that Mr. Trump didn’t dismiss General Mattis earlier.
This is a context in which the general’s letter of resignation is, to our ear, all too arch. The general writes that he has "strongly held" views on "treating allies with respect" and "being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors." He also writes that we must "advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values."
...Our own view is that having a "sort of" ‐ or even an actual ‐ Democrat in a Republican cabinet isn’t the worst thing. It could even be a virtue, particularly in foreign policy, where our differences are supposed to stop at the water’s edge. It requires, though, the figure from the out-of-power party to have a tough enough hide to be in the minority and to understand that our constitutional structure makes any president the adult in the room.
#2
"I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel, and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Paleostinians."
Complaint or realpolitic assessment of the facts? I'd say it was true. Does that mean we should suck up to the Paleos? (Hint: No)
Also, that was then. Right now the Arabs have bigger concerns than blaming Israel for all their problems, namely Iran. We see hints of Israel and the Saudis recognizing their shared interests, if not outright cooperation, and no one gives a poot about the Paleos who are reduced to begging for money and fighting internal turf wars.
Credit to Mattis for actually resigning and not enlisting in the Deep State like so many others. Random thought: is it possible that Mattis accomplished what he set out to do and felt he was done. Note that I'm discounting pretty much everything I read in the press about the situation.
#4
Good at fighting armed enemies, not good at fighting bureaucrats. Posted by Bright Pebbles
Very likely the case. Mattis a Marine (and always a Marine) having to supervise a infantry division (+) of feckless, Pentagon bureaucrats. Add to that the frustration of working with the WH. I suppose we were lucky he held out for two years.
A Trump administration official says Defense chief James Mattis will leave as of January 1, some two months before his planned departure of February 28.
Trump will name Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan as acting secretary on January 1.
[The Hill] The mood at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill darkened with the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis.
A Pentagon official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Friday, described the mood inside the building as "eerie."
"Obviously it’s close to the holidays so you don’t expect to see a lot of people, but there’s just a general fear of the unknown," the official said.
The news that Mattis will leave at the end of February came on top of an already heavy plate of turmoil: President Trump’s full withdrawal from Syria, the consideration of a drawdown in Afghanistan, a looming government shutdown and tanking stock markets.
But the Mattis exit was the cherry on a sour sundae, given his standing as the most respected member of Trump’s Cabinet across the political spectrum.
It left officials and lawmakers in a gloomy mood, worried that Trump’s moves in Syria and Afghanistan are just the beginning.
"Imagine a mentor or a friend, someone you thought would be there for the entirety of your tour, someone who everyone thought really highly of, suddenly not there anymore. ... People are really bummed," the Pentagon official said.
Mattis submitted his resignation letter to Trump on Thursday following the president’s decision to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria and as he mulls halving the number of troops deployed to Afghanistan.
#1
He's getting ready to 'ruck up' and move on. Celebrate the man's numerous contributions and prepare the drop zone for the next man or woman's arrival. A lengthy bemoaning of Mattis' departure is not healthy. It's the attitude of a feather merchant, not a warrior.
#6
I'd be good with Haley/Mattis. "Gentlemen, you can either pass the bill I want or deal with (points) him."
Posted by: Matt ||
12/23/2018 12:24
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#7
...reminds me of I, Claudius. After the Praetorians set Claudius on the throne and before the assembled Senators, said he didn't want the job but he got it anyway and if the Senate objected they should explain it to them (the Pretorians). Great scene.
[The Hill] Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Saturday called for congressional salaries to be furloughed during the next government shutdown.
Roughly a quarter of federal agencies closed when Congress failed to meet a midnight funding deadline on Friday. Lawmakers arrived Saturday at the Capitol as congressional negotiators try to find a path forward on a deal to end the funding lapse.
"It’s completely unacceptable that members of Congress can force a government shutdown on partisan lines & then have Congressional salaries exempt from that decision," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.
"Have some integrity," she added, calling for salaries to be furloughed for the next shutdown.
#5
She is right, but I would stop their pay until they pass an actual real budget, not these COR. Do your real job schmucks or no money for you. And no breaks either. Hell, we should start fining them as well. $10,000/day sounds right. Paid toward the debt.
#6
Next constitution, in the legislative section, decree that if appropriations for the following year are not passed by the fiscal year end date, all members of congress are barred from elected or appointed government positions for 10 years. You better believe they'll get it done with a lot of compromising regardless of party.
#7
She is an idiot, but like stopped clock getting the time right twice a day, she is right on this one.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/23/2018 12:26
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#8
Anyone even leftist can observe an unfortunate situation, the problem is that the left's "solutions" are worse than the problem itself and caused by their deep ignorance/dunning kruger problems.
[Breitbart] Carita (Indonesia) (AFP) ‐ At least 62 people have been killed and nearly 600 injured in a tsunami in Indonesia that may have been caused by a volcano known as the "child" of the legendary Krakatoa, officials said Sunday.
Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the wave, which hit beaches without warning in South Sumatra and the western tip of Java about 9.30 pm local time (1430 GMT) on Saturday, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.
At least 43 people died and 584 people were injured across three regions.
#4
...sort of like the hottest year on record (systematic recording having only started near the latter half of the 19th century with instruments no longer used).
Tenured professor or student ?
[Breitbart] Gun control activist David Hogg announced Saturday that he has been officially accepted to Harvard University.
Hogg emerged as a gun control activist following the February 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas attack and continues to seek restrictions on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.
On December 9, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Hogg mocked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for sharing Bible verses on Twitter, pushing Rubio to pass gun laws instead.
On December 8, Breitbart News reported that Hogg was pushing a federal sales tax on all firearms, despite the fact that such a tax would run the risk of making firearms cost prohibitive for poorer Americans who may need them most.
On October 29, 2018–two days after the attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue–Hogg mocked President Trump’s suggestion that places of worship acquire armed protection. No security was in the synagogue when the attacker struck.
#7
SAT score was in the bottom 3%. This was Liberal Affirmative Action for his admission as a PoliSci major. Had he been a conservative, the score would have been too low. The child simply isn't all that bright.
[Breitbart] A Mexican migrant assaulted a Tucson Sector Border Patrol agent after illegally crossing the border from Mexico on December 19. The agent had to be taken to a hospital for injuries sustained after being struck in the head with a rock.
A Brian A. Terry Station Border Patrol agent received a call to assist with suspected illegal activity near a residence south of Bisbee, Arizona. As the agent attempted to arrest the subject, the migrant resisted and began fighting with the agent. During the fight, the migrant allegedly struck the agent in the head with a rock and escaped, according to information obtained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials.
Other agents and an Air and Marine Operations aircrew joined in a search for the absconded migrant. Using night-vision technology, the agents found the man and quickly placed him in custody, officials stated.
[PRESSTV] On another deadly day in the disputed region of Kashmire, six people have been killed by Indian soldiers during an attack in the section of the region under the control of the New Delhi government.
On Saturday, Indian forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in Tral area of Pulwama district, located south of Kashmire’s main city Srinagar.
A shootout ensued, culminating in the death of six Kashmiris, inspector general of police Swayam Prakash Pani said.
As the news of the killings spread, hundreds of people erupted into the streets in Tral in a public display of anger at the deadly event. They clashed with police. According to witnesses, tear gas was used to disperse the crowd.
Authorities have suspended train services in Kashmire Valley and shut down mobile internet services to prevent the unrest from spreading.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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#1
Paks riling up the rubes?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2018 8:15
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[DAWN] A man from Sargodha, demanding to be made the prime minister, climbed a mobile tower in Islamabad on Saturday to call attention to his demands, DawnNewsTV reported.
The man not only called for the authorities to make him the premier but also proposed that if they do so, he would ensure Pakistain's debts are paid off within the next six months.
The situation escalated when the man, who was waving the Pakistain flag as he put forth his demands, threatened to jump off if he was not made the prime minister immediately.
Faced with an increasingly sticky situation, the district administration along with police officials came up with an inventive solution. They approached mimicry artist Shafaat Ali to help defuse the matter.
A mobile phone was then handed over to the man under the pretense that he would be speaking to Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... . Shafaat Ali reportedly pulled off a convincing impression of the prime minister and was able to talk the troubled man into getting down from the tower.
The man was taken into police custody and shifted to Kohsar Police Station.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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Stainless steel is correct, but different mixture of alloys & new architecture. Unlike Atlas, Starship is buckling stable on launchpad even when unpressurized.
[APNEWS] An explosives-packed vehicle detonated at a military checkpoint near Somalia’s presidential palace, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 20 others, police said. The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... myrmidon group, which often targets Mogadishu, grabbed credit for the attack.
Those killed include three staffers from the London-based Universal TV station, including prominent journalist Awil Dahir Salad, said police Capt. Mohammed Hussein, who gave the toll of dead and maimed.
The bomber targeted the checkpoint near the rear entrance of the heavily fortified palace, Hussein said. A politician and a deputy mayor of Mogadishu were among those maimed, he said.
Soldiers also were among the dead, Col. Ahmed Mohamud said.
The blast and a second, smaller one nearby appeared to target those heading to work on what was a business day in the Horn of Africa nation.
A plume of smoke rose over the capital as ambulances rushed to the scene.
"At first I saw a vehicle driving to and fro, then we tried to stop people walking here and there, and then in the blink of an eye the vehicle went kaboom!, causing havoc," traffic police officer Mohammed Harun told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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[Rudaw] Border officials at Ibrahim Khalil customs zone report a 17%-decrease in trade between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... and the Kurdistan Region.
Truck drivers who used to make two trips across the border a day are now down to one.
Truck drivers crossing the border daily carrying good from Turkey say that the increasing number of check points and tariffs on Iraqi roads has led to the slowdown of trade between the two countries.
Two thirds of all imports from Turkey is destined for the Iraqi market.
One trader said that some Ottoman Turkish businessmen are now taking their cargo to Iraq by sea and to the port of Basra, bypassing the land border with the Kurdistan Region.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi security forces locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! on Saturday a fighter belonging to the terrorist Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... a state-run security media body was quoted as saying.
"The terrorist was fighting for Islamic State’s so-called al-Qadisiya army," Baghdad Today News Agency quoted the Security Media Center as saying in a statement, adding that the arrest was made in the "June First" neighborhood in southern Kirkuk.
According to the statement, the myrmidon "was referred to the Iraqi judiciary for legal action."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/23/2018
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[KhaamaPress] At least ten turbans were killed during a clash and Arclight airstrikes in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan, the Afghan Military said Saturday.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the Afghan Air Force carried out airstrikes in Sari Hawz area of Pashtun Kot district, leaving at least 2 turbans dead.
The statement further added that five turbans also sustained injuries and four of their cycle of violences were destroyed.
A clash also broke out between the Talibs and the security forces in Jat Arkalik and Nawdri villages of Qaisar district, leaving 8 turbans dead and 16 others maimed, the 209th Shaheen Corps added.
The anti-government armed Death Eater groups including Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... have not commented regarding the report so far.
Faryab is among the relatively volatile provinces in North of Afghanistan. The Talibs are active in some of districts and often attempt to carry out attacks against the government and security forces.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan cops have thwarted a suicide kaboom on a governmental compoiund in southern Zabul province of Afghanistan, the local government officials said.
Provincial governor’s front man Gul Islam Sayal said a jacket wallah detonated his explosives after he was shot at by the security forces.
Sayal further added that the suicide bomber was looking to target the district administrative compound of Shinkai district.
He said only the suicide bomber was killed in the kaboom and no one else including security personnel has been hurt in the incident.
The Ministry of Interior also confirmed the incident and said the suicide bomber was identified and rubbed out in a police check post in Sado Khan Village.
The anti-government armed myrmidon groups including Taliban ...Arabic for students... have not commented regarding the report so far.
Zabul is among the relatively volatile provinces in South of Afghanistan where Talibs are active in some of its district and often attempt to attack the governmental and security institutions.
[PRESSTV] Leader of Britannia’s main opposition party Labour Party has rejected the idea of a second vote on the country’s withdrawal from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , saying Labour would go ahead with Brexit if it wins a potential snap election meant to end the current political uncertainty.
Corbyn said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper on Saturday that the Labour would prefer to respect the choice of the British people who voted for leaving the EU in a referendum in June 2016.
The 69-year-old Socialist, who faces divides in his party over Brexit, said the best option for a Labour government, if elected to power in early elections, would be to return to Brussels and seek a renegotiation of Brexit deal signed by current Conservative-led government.
"You’d have to go back and negotiate, and see what the timetable would be," said Corbyn, making a reference to the current schedule for Britannia’s exit from the EU, which is March 29, 2019.
[Ynet] Nearly 300,000 Syrians have returned to their country after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's two cross-border operations in northern Syria, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Turkey has carried out two operations, dubbed "Euphrates Shield" and "Olive Branch", against Kurdish YPG militia and 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.... in northern Syria. Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization.
I’m afraid I do not see any cause and effect here. But that 300,000 Syrians felt safer in Syria than in Turkey is certainly a significant change, regardless of the reason.
#1
Alternatively... Turkey depopulates areas of pesky Kurds, such as the Afrin area, and repopulates it with more tractable residents. This is an old, old Ottoman Empire tactic -- the *old* residents want to kill the new settlers who are forced to become loyalists to the Sultan in self-defense.
[BREITBART] Austria has announced plans to automatically block asylum for migrants colonists who arrive with the help of smugglers, with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stressing the importance of "smashing the business model of human traffickers".
Asylum policy in Austria "must head in this direction" in order to make the system fairer, stated interior minister Herbert Kickl this week, telling Kronen Zeitung that the "existing system" in which migrants colonists who pay criminal smuggling gangs have a significant advantage in reaching Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... "is the most unjust and inhumane one possible".
Appearing on Austrian public broadcaster ORF to speak on the issue of third world migrants colonists taking boats to Europe, Chancellor Kurz struck a similar tone, telling the channel’s Report programme: "It is not the poorest who flee, but the ones who can afford to pay [people-smugglers]."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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#1
Actually a very clever idea. The left is process obsessed and this will catch them in a major bout of hypocrisy. I hope Trump is taking note.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/23/2018 10:35
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[PRESSTV] The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps holds the main and final stage of massive exercises in the Persian Gulf, launching an "offensive" component in Iran's defensive strategy for the first time.
The Great Prophet 12 drill entered its final chapter in the general area on Saturday, with IRGC chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari saying "we hope the enemies have more than ever grasped the power of our response."
"This was a response to allegations made by the enemies who should know that the defense capabilities of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran are deterrent, and as the Eminent Leader [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ...the successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the actual dictator of Iran... ] has said, 'if they try to hit us once, they will definitely be hit 10 times more'," Jafari told news hounds.
The IRGC Ground Force’s chief Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said the drills take place on a strategic and defensive level proportionate to the enemies’ potential threats.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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#1
"They're 'offensive' ?"
"You bet, they stink on ice!"
(H/T to Mr. M. Brooks)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/23/2018 7:13
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Baghdad Operations Command announced, on Saturday, arresting four persons on different charges, in different areas in Baghdad.
Alsumaria News reported that Baghdad Operations Command has tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! four persons in different areas in Baghdad, including a woman who is charges of fraud.
The Command said in a statement that the security forces managed to arrest four persons on charges of terrorism and fraud in different areas of Baghdad, while added that the 44th brigade of the command arrested a person on charges of terrorism in Hay al-Basatin area, northeast of Baghdad.
Furthermore, the Command revealed that the 1st brigade of the Federal Police arrested one person on charges of terrorism in Nahrawan area, south of Baghdad, while arrested another one on same charges in Karada area and a woman on charges of fraud in the area of al-Ghazaliyah.
The Command explained that all the arrested persons were transferred to the competent authorities to receive their punishment.
[DAWN] Four members of a tribe were rubbed out in a suspected 'honour' killing case in the Lotar area of Upper Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... on Friday, DawnNews reported on Saturday citing local police.
According to Kohistan District Police Officer (DPO) Raja Abdul Saboor, the quartet, which included two women and two men, were murdered on the orders of a jirga (tribal council) and over suspicions of illicit relations.
The police official said that the slain men and women were cousins and that their bodies have been transferred to Dasu Rural Health Centre for post-mortem examination.
DPO Saboor said that a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against a certain Rehmat Ali ‐another cousin of the dear departed.
Furthermore, the DPO said that investigation into the case as well as raids to arrest the accused are underway.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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[KhaamaPress] The Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan (MoD) has claimed that 54 snuffies have been killed during separate operations conducted jointly by the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in the past 24 hours.
According to a statement released by MoD, the operations were conducted with the help of the close air support of the coalition forces based in Afghanistan.
The statement further added that the operations were conducted in 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.. , Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... , Ghazni, Daikudni, Zabul, Farah, Balkh, Faryab, and Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... provinces.
At least 29 of the snuffies were killed in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province and 9 others were maimed, MoD said, adding that 19 snuffies were killed and 7 others were maimed during the operations while 2 cycle of violences were destroyed in Pashtun Kot and Sherin Tagab districts of Faryab province.
The Afghan forces also killed 6 snuffies in Posht Rod district of Farah province and two others were maimed in Shajoi district of Zabul and Washir district of Helmand province, MoD added in its statement.
The anti-government armed hard boy groups including Taliban ...Arabic for students... have not commented regarding the operational update of the Ministry of Defense so far.
[KhaamaPress] The Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan (MoI) on Saturday informed regarding the arrest of a police officer affiliated with the Talibs in western Farah province of Afghanistan.
According to a statement released by MoI, a police officer who was serving in police ranks in Farah police commandment was tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by the Criminal Investigation Department operatives of the ministry.
The statement further added that the police officer was involved in facilitating an attack on police forces on 11th November which resulted into the martyrdom of 22 coppers and officers in Farah province.
The detained police officer has confessed to the charges against him, MoI said, adding that the suspect has been handed over to the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... for further investigations.
The anti-government armed turban groups including Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... have not commented regarding the affiliation of the detained police officer with the group so far.
This comes as incidents involving insider attacks among the security ranks have increased comparatively during the recent months in some of the restive provinces of the country.
[APNEWS] Spain’s Foreign Ministry gave permission Saturday to an aid boat carrying 311 rescued migrants colonists to set course for Spain after Italia and other Mediterranean countries did not answer its request to dock.
The boat belonging to the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms saved 313 migrants colonists Friday in waters near Libya. A baby and its mother were then evacuated from the boat.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said Malta denied the aid boat permission to dock and the boat’s calls to Italia, La Belle France, Tunisia and Libya have gone unanswered.
The aid group said it now has permission to enter the Spanish port of Algeciras. On its Twitter account, Proactiva said "it will be many and difficult days sailing, but we have a safe port."
[DW] Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insists Italian ports "are closed" after the latest docking request by a Spanish migrant rescue ship. The populist Rome government has taken a hard-line approach to the refugee influx.
Although the number of migrants colonists crossing from Libya to Italia has fallen sharply since its peak last year, this part of the Mediterranean has been the deadliest for those attempting to make it to Europe. More than 1,300 migrants colonists have perished trying to reach Italia or Malta since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Despite obstruction by some European countries, several charities, including Germany's Sea-Eye are still operating in the Mediterranean. One of Sea-Eye's rescue ships set off from the southern Spanish port of Algeciras earlier this week, as the narrow stretch of water between Morocco and Spain has increasingly become the preferred route for migrant crossings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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[Rudaw] President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's decision to withdraw US troops from Syria risks shattering a cornerstone of Washington's Middle East policy by allowing Iran to consolidate a "land bridge" to the Mediterranean.
The much-bandied about scenario that sees Iran redrawing the regional map by entrenching a land corridor across Iraq, Syria and Leb is becoming a reality, analysts say.
Continued on Page 49
#3
MODS: When you Google "Rantburg," you're site doesn't show up as it usually does at the top. You have to go to a Rantburg reference at the bottom of page 1; something from 6 days ago.
jvalentour, were you always this stupid, or did you get an extra bowl of Moron Chex from your Antifa buddies at the World Socialist Web News this morning?
[Telegraph] A group awarded more than £140,000 of EU funding hosted a speaker who described Zionism as a global "criminal enterprise" that seeks control of "democratic rights".
Speaking a fortnight ago on a panel organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission,
... a non-profit based in London since 1997, the group has been described as “the most conspicuous promoter of Khomeini jihadism in the UK, ... [and] is said to be close to Iran.” They advocate for Sharia law, BDS, and Muslim prisoners, and are a key organizer of London’s annual Al Quds Day activities...
Ramon Grosfoguel, a Puerto Rican academic, said the state of Israel was an "extremist organization" that has the "audacity" to label Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, and Hezbollah, the holy warrior groups, as terrorist organizations.
Addressing the IHRC's conference in London, Prof Grosfoguel also claimed that "Zionists" were "encouraging the rise of extreme right new fascist ...anybody not a leftist... groups".
The disclosure comes after The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that the European Commission had signed off more than £140,000 in funding to the group.
The Telegraph can also disclose that the IHRC published a post on its website praising Omar Abdul Rahman, the krazed killerholy man convicted for conspiracy to levy a war of urban terrorism against the US.
In the 2013 post, while he was in prison, the holy man is described "a living example of courage and unshakable faith for the Moslem Ummah today."
The IHRC urged supporters to write to him during Ramadan, with a sample letter stating: "Your life is such an inspiration to me ‐ how you battled the challenges in your life to continue to struggle for what you believed in."
Last week The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that the European Commission had allocated more than £140,000 to the IHRC in 2016.
The group organises the annual Al Quds rally in London at which demonstrators call for the destruction of Israel.
The European Commission said last week that it was preparing to "terminate" its funding agreement based on allegations that the IHRC had "expressed anti-Semitic views."
Addressing the IHRC conference earlier this month, Prof Grosfoguel said: "The Israeli State is an krazed killer organization that practices and promotes terrorism.
But at the same time they have the audacity of declaring terrorist and anti-Semitic the same organization that resists their atrocities."
In a video of the event posted on the IHRC Facebook page, Prof Grosfoguel is seen describing Zionism as "a criminal enterprise that pretends to be normalised everywhere and that has the audacity to criminalise everybody who resists them."
He added: "There's a Zionist industry that has put together a global institutional framework to put things upside down and make us believe that what they're doing is defensive and resisting the terrorists.
"In the process of shaping the institutional framework to criminalise critics of Israel and to criminalise support to the resistance, they are contributing to the elimination of basic democratic rights in the west and encouraging the rise of extreme right new fascist groups."
Dave Rich, head of policy at the Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism, said: "This speech evokes classical antisemitic conspiracy theories, with its talk of global Zionist frameworks and lobbies controlling what people think, and it does so to encourage people to support terrorist groups that are banned in this country. It is yet another example of the IHRC's extremism."
He added that it was "appalling" that the European Commission had agreed to fund the IHRC. Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, a counter-extremism group, said it was "disgusting" that the IHRC's website contained a "fawning" message about Abdul Rahman.
He said: "How can this convict who wanted to destroy innocent lives, masquerading as a Sheikh, produce anything but revulsion in anyone for his collusion in a major terrorist plot? "
[PJMedia] Just a heads up if you are one of the many who together donated over $13 million to the effort, dear Reader, and if PJ Media is not one of your regular stops.
#2
...my guess, the nexus would indicate that GoFundMe may have an internal problem, either plainly very poor automation security or its an inside job. Given the number of breaches in corporations in the past few years, you bet the credit card companies are doing their damnedest to prevent repeats. That would imply the breach has to go back to the point of centralization.
[PRESSTV] A French official says his country has pledged backing for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed anti-Damascus alliance of mainly Kurdish holy warriors, amid the planned withdrawal of American troops from the Arab country.
The Elysee Palace official said that advisers to French President Emmanuel Macron had assured SDF of their support in a meeting with the group's figures, including co-chairs Ilham Ahmed and Riad Darrar, in Gay Paree on Friday.
"The advisers passed on a message of support and solidarity and explained to them the talks La Belle France had with US authorities to continue the fight against ISIS," the official added.
The remarks came two days after President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... unexpectedly announced that the US would be pulling all its 2,000 forces out of Syria. He also claimed victory over the ISISTakfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terror outfit in the war-torn state.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... La Belle France, a leading member of the US-led coalition, purportedly fighting ISIS in Syria, said that it would keep troops in Syria.
"For now of course we remain in Syria," La Belle France's European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said on CNews television, noting "the fight against terrorism is not over."
Separately, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Gay Paree had started talks with Washington on the timeframe and conditions for the US's Syria withdrawal.
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[PRESSTV] The Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, resistance movement says it will not agree to the creation of a Paleostinian state in the Gazoo Strip, warning that US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's so-called "deal of the century" is aimed at the establishment of a Paleostinian state in the impoverished coastal enclave only.
"We reject this deal, which seeks to undermine the Paleostinian cause by taking the issues of al-Quds and refugees off the table," Sami Abu Zuhri ...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... said in an exclusive interview with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s official Anadolu news agency.
He added, "Our right extends to the whole Paleostinian territories, not only the Gazoo Strip. Our major goal is not only Gazoo, but the liberation of all Paleostine."
As that otherwise sophisticated perfesser fella said, in insistent innocence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.”
The senior Paleostinian official further noted that the "deal of the century," the details of which Washington has yet to disclose, is a plan for regional peace rather than a solution to the Israeli‐Paleostinian conflict.
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[Rudaw] The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... is concerned about an estimated 6,000 civilians human shields trapped by ISIS in Hajin.
"We are of course aware of continuing reports of intense fighting in and around Hajin enclave, with estimated 6,000 civilians human shields trapped by Da’esh in desperate conditions," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told Rudaw’s Majeed Gly on Friday.
"Sustained access to civilians displaced by ongoing hostilities in the immediate vicinity of the Hajin area has remained very challenging," he added.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) broke the back of ISIS defences in Hajin last week, after weeks of stalemate, but are fully in control of only 35 percent the town, estimated SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali on Friday.
And ISIS is fighting to regain territory. The SDF forces came under an intense attack by gunnies in Hajin’s Abu Khatr village, said Bali. The Kurdish-led forces were defending themselves against ISIS boom-mobiles and heavy weapon fire, with the aid of coalition air support.
The civilians human shields are caught in the middle. Conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 200 civilians in the last month of fighting in eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
Some 1,700 civilians were able to flee the town as the SDF advanced, but the gunnies also executed more than 700 of its prisoners when it was under military pressure.
Civilians who do escape are sheltering in makeshift circumstances and Dujarric said they have difficulty accessing the IDPs as "the area remains largely inaccessible due to current instability."
The UN's warning and ongoing intense festivities firmly contradict US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s recent claim that he "defeated ISIS in Syria."
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said that Trump’s announcement and order to pull American troops out of Syria "may have given it [ISIS] a new lease on life."
A "military free-for-all" if ISIS has the space to regroup and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has the freedom to attack the SDF, will "have devastating humanitarian consequences," ICG warned.
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[APNEWS] The director of a TV station critical of President Daniel Ortega was accused Saturday of inciting terrorism after authorities raided and shut down the station’s offices in their latest salvo against independent media and nongovernmental organizations.
Miguel Mora’s wife, Veronica Chavez, who is also a journalist, accused police at a news conference of carrying out a "kidnapping" of her husband "on orders of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and (first lady and Vice President) Rosario Murillo."
Mora appeared in court in the morning wearing a blue prisoner’s uniform and was formally accused of "provocation, proposition and conspiracy to commit terrorist acts," according to a court document.
The document alleged that Mora, through the 100% Noticias channel, incited hate with messages and "false news" that purportedly provoked people to violent acts in protests this year that have demanded Ortega’s exit from office.
Mora was locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! in a police raid Friday night in which agents also took control equipment from the station. The channel went off the air, and the national broadcast regulator issued a statement banning cable operators from carrying its signal.
"They had everything planned," Chavez said. "They waited until Miguel ended his IV Poder program and began to surround the station. Then they entered in force as if they were after a dangerous criminal, they pointed guns at us and they took him away."
Chavez said she and four others were also arrested, and she was the only one to be freed three hours later. The 100% Noticias station had previously been forced off the air for over 10 days in April before being allowed to resume broadcasting.
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[PRESSTV] Stunning images taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) show a massive ice-filled Martian crater on the cold and dry red planet, the closest candidate that is expected to somehow harbor life and become humans’ next destination for a rainy day.
The images, which have been taken by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter, shows the 82-kilometer-wide Korolev crater, located in northern lowlands of Mars, filled with permanent water ice as thick as 1.8 kilometers in deep places, ESA said in a statement.
"The very deepest parts of Korolev crater, those containing ice, act as a natural cold trap: the air moving over the deposit of ice cools down and sinks, creating a layer of cold air that sits directly above the ice itself," it added.
The reservoir is speculated to contain some 2,200 cubic kilometers of water ice ‐ same as the volume of Canada’s Great Bear Lake. This colossal amount of water ice could be important for the survival of future colonists, and might even help them to return back home, as water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.
The outstanding photographs, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), were created after it captured five different "strips" of the crater, each one coming from a different orbit as the Mars Express probe flew overhead. By combining the strips the HRSC managed to produce single images.
The HRSC is capable of picking out features 10 meters wide, or as small as 2 meters when used in super-resolution mode.
The crater, which depicts such a beautiful winter wonderland on Mars, is named after chief rocket engineer and spacecraft designer Sergey Korolev (1906-1966), dubbed the father of Soviet space technology. He was the head of iconic space exploration missions, including the Sputnik, Vostok, and Voskhod programs.
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter swung into orbit around Mars on Christmas Day 2003.
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#1
and might even help them to return back home, as water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.
Musk thanks them for the info and begins laying out Mar methane/oxygen factory site plans.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2018 8:43
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#4
Abdul, from the Muslim Aleutians:
"A pool to perform the ablutions...
On Mars! I must race
To this wonderful place
With my culture's unique contributions!"
[DailyMail] Brett McGurk (center) has moved up his departure date two months after very publicly stating the possibly catastrophic outcome that could result should President Trump (right) elect to pull American forces at this time. The veteran diplomat, who got his start in the administration of George W. Bush and was appointed to his current post by Barack Obama teachable moment...
What, dear Reader, are the odds that he’s a closet NeverTrumper?
now joins Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (left) in an administration exodus of experienced national security officials. Mattis, who is the most respected foreign policy official in the administration, announced on Thursday that he will leave by the end of February.
McGurk’s letter, submitted Friday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was described to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Saturday by an official familiar with its contents. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before the letter was released and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump is acting to pull all 2,000 US troops from Syria and has now declared victory over ISIS, contradicting his own experts’ assessments. Many politicians have called his action rash and dangerous.
The decision will fulfill Trump’s goal of bringing troops home from Syria, but military leaders have pushed back for months, arguing that the ISIS group remains a threat and could regroup in Syria’s long-running civil war.
That sounds like it was not a sudden impulse responding merely to the mood of the moment...
McGurk said at a State Department briefing on December 11 that "it would be reckless if we were just to say, ’Well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now.’ I think anyone who’s looked at a conflict like this would agree with that."
Clearly not.
A week before that, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US had a long way to go in training local Syrian forces to prevent a resurgence of ISIS and stabilize Syria. He said it would take 35,000 to 40,000 local troops in northeastern Syria to maintain security over the long term, but only about 20 percent of that number had been trained.
Considerably more than that have been trained, but they kept skiving off with their weapons to join Al Nusra and similar groups instead of sticking to the plan.
McGurk, 45, previously served as a deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran, and during the negotiations for the landmark Iran nuclear deal by the B.O. regime, led secret side talks with Tehran on the release of Americans imprisoned there.
Did he, indeed? Fascinating.
Taking over for now for McGurk will be his deputy, retired Lt. Gen. Terry Wolff, who served three tours of active duty in Iraq.
Jim Jeffrey, a veteran diplomat who was appointed special representative for Syria engagement in August, is expected to stay in his position, officials said.
#2
No one remembers the calls for 'On to Berlin' and Eisenhower's decision to stop at the Elbe. He didn't think it was worth the amount of American lives it would take when someone else would do the job. There would be complications because of that decision. However, we sit here now and those complications have all long since evaporated.
#3
The problem with this article is the reference to Syria's northeast. If that refers to Syria's Hasaka Province, there are indications that the region, heavily populated by Kurds, will receive the support of US forces. The fact that US forces will leave Syria does not indicate that US forces will leave Iraq Kurdistan, and Kurdish troops in Hasaka can be supported by US forces present in and around Irbil.
#7
I also thought leaving the battle space was a bad idea. As it turns out the President had a plan in motion already to swap US forces for Saudi and Emerati forces. That they were able to pull this off without telegraphing the plan is impressive. Perhaps it is another explanation for Kashoigi’s demise.
#10
Trade a Muslim Brotherhood journalist life for those of our troops on the line. Don't make me choose. Someone who gets paid a lot more than me, to make those decisions is in place.
[IsraelTimes] As many groups distance themselves from national leadership over co-chairs’ ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, some worry divide could undercut the movement.
This is a heartening response to Tablet Magazine’s long and well-researched report on the subject, seen here.
Man allegedly identified as Abu Elias found living as US citizen in Washington DC
He claimed it was 'f***ing lies' that he was involved in the terror attack in 1988
This comes after daughter of former terrorist claims Ahmed Jibril led the plot
Elias dismissed claims made by author Douglas Boyd that he was Jibril's nephew
A man suspected of planting the Lockerbie bomb has been discovered living in a suburban town in Washington DC under a different name.
Once allegedly identified as Abu Elias, the Syrian-born American father claimed it was 'complete lies' that he was involved in the terror attack that killed 270 people 30 years ago.
Elias hit out at former Cold War spy and author Douglas Boyd who claimed Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrah - the man convicted of the attack - was falsely imprisoned.
And the suspect, who lives 20 miles from the Lockerbie Cairn Memorial at Washington, told the Daily Mirror he was innocent.
Author Boyd claimed the man is now working at a school in the US capital under the name Basel Bushnaq.
Mr Boyd told the Mail on Sunday that shortly after the disaster, the Paleostine Liberation Organisation, keen to boost its credentials as a political rather than terrorist organization, published an 80-page report claiming the PFLP-GC had been paid to blow up the plane ‐ by Iran.
It also named Elias as a prime suspect for breaking into the Pan Am baggage store in Heathrow and planting the bomb. The baggage handling area had been broken into with bolt croppers shortly before Flight 103 took off.
Campaigners have long claimed it was Elias who planted the brown Samsonite suitcase on the flight before it took off for New York.
This comes after the daughter of a former terrorist said her father admitted to relatives that his cell leader, Ahmed Jibril, led the 1988 plot to down Pam Am flight.
Jordanian Saha Kheersat, 43, claimed her father Marwan Khreesat left his wife a dossier of evidence showing that Jibril - Marwan's boss in a Paleostinian terror group - was paid millions of pounds by Tehran to criminal mastermind the attack.
Author Boyd, in his recent book Lockerbie: The Truth, claims it was Jibril's nephew Elias that broke into the baggage storage at Heathrow to plant the device.
The Paleostine Liberation Organisation and the CIA have also previously named Elias as the suspect of the bombing.
Asked by the Daily Mirror if he was ever known under the name of Abus Elias, he said: 'No. I have been subject to more than 90 hours of investigation from Scotland Yard and the FBI, and they are through with me.'
He added: 'I'm not the nephew to no one. The bit you are talking about is full of f***ing lies. It's a bloody lie.'
When asked by The Daily Mirror where he was on December 21, 1988, he said: 'I was in the United States. The FBI saw my journal they know I was in South West Washington DC handling my job.'
He later admitted that the identity he is currently living under is not his birth name.
And the suspect branded Mr Boyd a 'son of a b***h', the Daily Mirror revealed.
Author Boyd wrote in his book: 'Megrahi was convicted on a tissue of lies. Little of the evidence against him can be taken at face value.
'It is a story of incompetence, vengeance, political expediency and then a cover-up orchestrated from the highest levels in London and in Washington ‐ where the real bomber is said to live today, under cover of a witness protection scheme.'
The former Libyian security officer Megrahi was convicted in 2001, the only person found guilty of the bombing.
He was locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! for 27 years but died of prostate cancer at home in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... aged 60 in 2012 after being released on compassionate grounds in 2009.
It is believed he planned to reveal Elias' identity before he died in a bid to clear his own name.
But shortly after he was freed SNP politician Christine Grahame used Scottish Parliamentary privilege to identify the man she named as Elias.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) announced earlier this year that a full review of the case is to be carried out to decide if a fresh appeal against Megrahi's conviction can be made.
[BLOOMBERGQUINT] Teams of marksmen next year will patrol swaths of Rio de Janeiro with high-powered weapons and a license to kill, said a security adviser to Governor-elect Wilson Witzel.
As many as 120 sharpshooters will accompany police incursions into the slums of Brazil’s postcard city to exterminate gun-toting criminals, according to Flavio Pacca, a longtime associate of Witzel who the governor-elect’s press office said will join the administration. The shooters will work in pairs -- one to pull the trigger, one to monitor conditions and videotape deaths.
"The protocol will be to immediately neutralize, slaughter anyone who has a rifle," Witzel, a federal judge and former Brazilian marine, told news hounds in Brasilia on Dec. 12. "Whoever has a rifle isn’t worried about other people’s lives, they’re ready to eliminate anyone who crosses their path. This is a grave problem, not just in Rio de Janeiro, but also in other states."
Rio has long exemplified Brazil’s charm and its chaos, and what happens there echoes at home and abroad. Like President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, Witzel cruised to victory in October promising a brutal crackdown on criminals who make daily life a harrowing ordeal. Rio will be a proving ground for Bolsonaro’s philosophy of maximum force -- and whether law enforcement devolves into a storm of extrajudicial killings. For Raj
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#1
Come on - 'license to kill' is right in the headlines and I don't get a James Bond picture?
[ATimes] As a snapshot of business sentiment in China, the picture appears to be coated in a gloomy veneer. Results of a survey of chief financial officers employed by Chinese companies illustrate a crisis of confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.
While the polling sample by one of the world’s "Big Four" accountants, Deloitte, was narrow, the overall view was decidedly bleak.
More than half of the 108 senior executives surveyed from a mix of multinational, state-owned and private sector companies in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau reported their businesses had been hit by trade war tariffs.
When asked to describe the "changes in sentiment" during the past six months, 82% of those polled said the economic outlook had become less optimistic.
"There has been a sharp shift in sentiment," William Chou, the national managing partner of the Deloitte China CFO Program, said in a release announcing the results this week.
Trade patterns
The reason for the downturn, he pointed out, was the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, despite planned peace talks to thrash out a deal, and concerns about slowing growth.
According to the study, 59% of those surveyed also felt that trade volumes would decline in the next 12 months, while 74% expected the yuan to weaken further against the dollar in the coming year.
These shifting trade patterns, in turn, would benefit Southeast Asia, 53% of those executives polled confirmed.
"Southeast Asia has been developing itself as a manufacturing hub and the changes may provide it unforeseen opportunities," Deloitte said. "The region may also benefit from companies shifting manufacturing capabilities to avoid some of the trade protectionist measures."
[DAWN] Air strikes by the US-led coalition killed 13 jihadist fighters and 14 of their relatives on Friday in eastern Syria, a war monitor said.
The strikes came two days after US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s decision to pull troops out of Syria raised fears the holy warriorIslamic 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 would use the vacuum to regroup.
"At least 27 people were killed this morning in al-Shaafa," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
He said eight children were among the 14 civilian victims and added several people were seriously maimed in the strikes.
The raids targeted IS positions in al-Shaafa, one of the two main villages in the last pocket of territory still controlled by IS in the Euphrates River valley.
Close to 1,000 IS fighters have been killed since Kurdish-led forces, backed by coalition air strikes, launched an operation on that pocket in September.
Trump said he was ordering a withdrawal of the estimated 2,000 US troops in Syria because IS had been defeated, an assessment rubbished by many, including in his own camp.
On Friday, the leadership of the Kurdish force that has spearheaded the fight against IS warned it might have to pull back from the anti-jihadist front if a US withdrawal invites a Ottoman Turkish military assault against them.
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[PRESSTV] Thousands of protesters from all over The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... take to the street in Istanbul to demonstrate against the rise in the cost of living in Turkey.
Banners held in the protests make references to the "yellow vests" movement in La Belle France, which began as a demonstration against fuel price rises but snowballed into anti-government protests.
The protest, organized by the KESK, a confederation of public service workers unions, drew people from all over Turkey, including the northwestern provinces of Edirne, Bursa and Yalova.
They shouted "work, bread, freedom" and also carried banners saying "the crisis is theirs, the street is ours" and "Haziran" which means June in Ottoman Turkish. June refers to the mass 2013 demonstrations against President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... , sparked by the planned redevelopment of Gezi Park in Istanbul.
Saturday's protest comes almost a week after thousands of people demonstrated in another KESK rally against the cost of living in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
The Ottoman Turkish economy has come under heavy strain since a currency crisis in August and inflation reached 25.24 percent in October, a 15-year-high. Although inflation dropped to 21.62 in November, the price of everyday goods remains high.
Since the start of this year, the lira has lost nearly 22.5 percent in value against the US dollar. The country's economic growth has also slowed down raising fears of a recession after the economy contracted by 1.1 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter.
A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of shrinking output based on a quarter on quarter comparison.
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[DAWN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... would take over the fight against the krazed killerIslamic 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.... (IS) group in Syria after pullout of US troops from the country, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, in the latest upheaval wrought by Washington’s abrupt policy shift.
The surprise announcement by US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... this week that he would withdraw roughly 2,000 troops has felled a pillar of American policy in the Middle East. Critics say Trump’s decision will make it harder to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s seven-year-old conflict.
For Turkey, the step removes a source of friction with the United States. Erdogan has long castigated his NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ally over its support for Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters against IS. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group and an offshoot of the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), fighting for Kurdish autonomy across the border on Ottoman Turkish soil.
The roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria, many of them special forces, were ostensibly helping to combat IS but were also seen as a possible bulwark against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , who had retaken much of the country from his foes in the multi-sided civil war, with military help from Iran and Russia.
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#1
Suuurrre, they will. Just like they fought ISIS until that reporter looked inside the humanitarian supoles trucks and found neatly stacked weapons, courtesy of the Turkish government by way of, as I recall, the same IHH that attacked Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmara during the first Gaza flotilla.
[Rudaw] The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) urged the US to reconsider its decision to withdraw from Syria.
The defeat of ISIS "is an integrated process based on drying up the intellectual resources and addressing the social and cultural factors that help the emergence and spread of the terror epidemic that threatens the entire world," said Saadi Pira, PUK spokesperson, in comments published by the party’s media.
Pulling out of northern Syria, a region that has become a headquarters in the fight against extremism in Syria, "undermines the balance of power" in the country and the region, ultimately weakening global counter-terror efforts and puts at risk efforts to find a political solution to the Syria conflict, he argued.
The result will be "new wars... and bloody conflicts," and puts the Kurds in Syria at "imminent risk," he said.
America’s allies have widely criticized President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s shock decision to declare ISIS "defeated in Syria" and bring US troops home.
Defense officials are considering an option that would allow small numbers of US special forces to be based in Iraq and “surge” across the border on raids, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous military officials. This would allow the US to continue its support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and would keep up the pressure on ISIS.
By all reports, the Pentagon was not involved in the decision. Trump’s Secretary of State James Mattis resigned over the matter.
Defense officials are considering an option that would allow small numbers of US special forces to be based in Iraq and "surge" across the border on raids, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported, citing anonymous military officials. This would allow the US to continue its support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and would keep up the pressure on ISIS.
La Belle France and Britannia, who both have troops on the ground in northern Syria, have said they will not follow Trump’s lead and order a withdrawal.
Aid agencies have warned that the US withdrawal could result in a new humanitarian crisis.
Pulling out some 2,000 US troops and American air power "will create a power vacuum that will likely lead to a new round of conflict," said Hardin Lang, vice president of Refugees International.
"Renewed fighting will disrupt communities, displace additional populations, and could trigger another humanitarian crisis," he said.
Civilian populations in northern Syria have few options of where to go if they have to flee. The border to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... is closed off to the north and west. Areas to the south are controlled by the regime, include expanses of desert, and end with the closed border to Jordan. The only option may be to go east, to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
Middle East analyst Daniel Benaim advised the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to develop a humanitarian contingency plan in case of a resurgent ISIS in Syria or a Ottoman Turkish attack on the Kurds.
#1
Good. Maybe it'll teach those Carbon Criminals with their primitive kerosene-powered rockets a lesson about how important it is to protect the atmosphere.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force will receive seven new light attack and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft with the first delivery scheduled for next month.
"The Afghan Aviation Modernization Program (AAMP) seeks to address ANDSF aerial fires and lift gaps and replace the Mi-17 fleet with U.S.-made helicopters while ensuring sustainment costs are affordable," the Department of Defense said in its latest report on Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan.
According to the report, as of the end of December 2018, DoD has delivered to Afghanistan 30 UH-60s for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) and the first five new armed MD-530 helicopters to add to the 30 that were fielded previously.
The report further added that the first AC-208 attack/ISR light fixed wing aircraft will be delivered in January 2019, with a total of seven scheduled to be fielded through March.
"The AAF pilot training is maintaining pace with AAF growth milestones and incoming platforms," the report said.
[KhaamaPress] The shadow military chief of Taliban ...Arabic for students... for northern Parwan province has been killed in an apparent infighting, the local security officials said Friday.
Provincial Police Chief Mohammad Mahfuz Walizada said Mullah Qadir, the shadow military chief of Taliban has been killed along with two others in Jabal Saraj district.
He said Mullah Qadir has apparently been killed in an infighting among the Talibs.
Muhfuz further added that another Taliban bully boy has also sustained injuries during the clash which took place late on Thursday night.
The anti-government armed bully boy groups including Taliban have not commented regarding of Mullah Qadir so far.
Parwan has been among the relatively calm provinces in North of Afghanistan but the security situation in some of its remote districts has tanked during the recent years.
The Talibs are active in some of the districts of Parwan and often attempt to carry out terrorist related activities.
[APNEWS] A French judicial official says the alleged gunman who shot and killed five people in a Christmas market attack this month in Strasbourg had pledged allegiance to 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.
The judicial official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, said Sherlocks have found a video stored on a USB key in which Cherif Chekatt had claimed allegiance to the bad boy group. The video was at Chekatt’s home.
Chekatt, 29, died in a shootout with police two days after his Dec. 11 attack at Strasbourg’s popular Christmas market.
Shortly after his death, the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency claimed he was a "soldier" of the group. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had rejected the claim as "totally opportunistic."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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#1
"It's a mystery, we'll probably NEVER know his motivation...
This just in: Annnndddd.... it's Islam"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2018 9:56
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Hey all - you might have heard that there's just been a "volcano tsunami" in Indonesia. I'm on it - explainer shortly. The USGS won't be providing data this time thanks to the government shutdown, but I'll do my best to source the best information for you all.
[TabletMagazine] According to ’respondents who experienced some form of anti-Semitic harassment in the past five years,’ 30 percent of the perpetrators were Moslem, 21 percent were left wing, and only 13 percent expressed right-wing views.
All too often, the issue of anti-Semitism in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... is written about as an amorphous problem, like it was some noxious vapor floating in the ether that occasionally inflicts itself on individual Jews. In reality, it usually manifests in three distinct forms‐left, right, and Moslem. Earlier this month, the European Union
Continued on Page 49
#2
...cause they're socialists first and foremost. "You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other." Matthew 6:24
#4
I am with you TW. I offered to dump someone into a campfire and bash them with a rock hammer when they wouldn't shut up about jew this and jew that. And this was in rural Tenn. I told him I doubt he'd ever even met a real one. The sheer hatred is insane.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/23/2018 9:15
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#6
Anti-semitism isn't like other forms of prejudice. Most overt prejudice doesn't really manifest unless there's a target present for the prejudiced to start in with the ugly crapola. But the anti-semite just needs a trigger word to go all the way over the top. As a result of private schooling, I've been around Jewish people my own age - and their parents and grand parents - my whole life and I don't for the life of me understand how the hell the garden variety anti-semite gets so worked up. Anti-semites are creepily obssessed.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/23/2018 10:27
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#7
Thank you, gentlemen. You hearten me.
To clarify, because my original post was written in the middle of the night, I do not think that jvalentour and Procopius2k — whom I otherwise admire immensely — are Joo-haters, or even Jew-dislikers. I don’t doubt that as they read the responses to their comments they are recalling all the Jews they know who do not fit their description. But the locution is a species of argumentative laziness that gives permission to those who really do hate, not to mention insulting the surprising number of Rantburgers who are either Jewish themselves or have Jewish friends and relations.
#9
I identify people by what they do, not the label hung on them by others or even themselves at times. Pious people are to be respected period. Western Civ is based upon their works and contributions. As imperfect as it may be, it is far greater than what has been offered up in place of it.
#10
The "problem" with the Jews is that it is a religion as well as an ethnic group and the two sides don't necessary agree on things but get lumped together anyway.
#11
It's like 'Americans'. We get lumped in with those even of long blood line here (whether that includes 1/1024 Native American or not) who by act and deed are either tribalists or globalists and have no commitment to being American. They'll take the descriptive and the benefits that go with it though.
#14
...which strangely enough is why the Soviet Union didn't object at the start. On May 17, 1948, three days after Israel declared its independence, the Soviet Union officially recognized Israel. They would take a different policy later.
#15
what is a "kibbutz" but perfect socialism on a micro scale and they work!
The reason the kibbutzes work is because membership is entirely voluntary, 746. The other reason is that those who arrive donate their possessions to the community, and — as I understand it — those who walk away leave most of their share of the equity behind. Then there is the unpaid labour of all the happily working tourists, and the fact that most kibbutzes are engaged in profitable enterprises to support the communism within.
The ones that did not take these steps died long ago.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/23/2018 9:29
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#3
I haven't been able to find any info regarding whether the drones activity is continuing, but the couple who were arrested were released without charge.
Sussex Police Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said: “Both people have fully co-operated with our enquiries and I am satisfied that they are no longer suspects in the drone incidents at Gatwick.
“It is important to remember that when people are arrested in an effort to make further enquiries it does not mean that they are guilty of an offence and Sussex Police would not seek to make their identity public."
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/23/2018 9:35
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#4
According to the Sun, the ex-squaddie — some sort of English military slang — and his wife have been released because they’re innocent, and
Cops are now trying to find the true culprit - with Gatwick Airport offering the £50,000 reward through Crimestoppers.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Four 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.... forces of Evil were killed on Saturday in an Arclight airstrike that targeted their hotbed in Nineveh province, the Iraqi military announced.
"A force of the 20th division of the Nineveh Operations Command came under attack by a group of Islamic State forces of Evil during a security operation in Atshana Mountains in Nineveh," Ayn Al Iraq website quoted the Security Media Center as saying in a statement.
"The assailants expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after the attack into a tunnel at the Atshana Mountains," the statement read, adding that the U.S.-led international coalition later launched an airstrike targeting the tunnel, killing four Islamic State myrmidons.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/23/2018
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[APNEWS] Cuba’s National Assembly on Saturday approved an update of the country’s constitution, the final step before a national referendum expected to approve the new charter in February.
The new constitution contains more continuity than change, although it recognizes the de-facto modernization of Cuban society over the last decade. The constitution maintains Cuba as a centrally planned economy ruled by a single Communist Party, but recognizes private property for the first time and paves the way for a separate referendum on legalizing gay marriage.
It also creates the role of prime minister alongside the current president, as well as provincial governors.
Legalizing private property is a formal recognition of significant change in Cuban society since former President Compañero Raul Castro ...Fidel's little brother... permitted home and auto sales, creating a booming real-estate market, and allowed more than half a million Cubans have permits to work as entrepreneurs. Hundreds of thousands more work full or part-time in the private sector without licenses.
The new constitution also recognizes worker-owned cooperatives for the first time as a legal form of production in every sector of the economy, while maintaining Cuba’s largely inefficient and stagnant state-run industries as the central means of production.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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[APNEWS] Thousands of people marched in anti-government protests Friday in Budapest, upset over labor law changes, increasing corruption and limits on academic freedom under Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s nationalist government.
The protests, which started last week, have given the country’s fragmented opposition a chance to work together as they challenge Orban, who has led the country with increasing powers since 2010.
The satiric Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party hosted a downtown march Friday night in the Hungarian capital with speeches, chants and signs critical of Orban.
One sign said "I want to give birth to a stadium," poking fun at two of Orban’s preoccupations: Increasing the nation’s birthrate and filling the country with white-elephant sports facilities.
Protesters gathered outside Parliament and marched to the offices of President Janos Ader in Buda Castle to rebuke him for signing the labor changes as well as other legislation creating a new court system under government control.
The new courts will hear most cases involving the state, from taxation issues to electoral disputes, so having them under government control creates a sharp conflict of interest and reduces their independence.
Since returning to power eight years ago, Orban has been reshaping Hungary. New laws governing the media and churches have been enacted while the state has an ever-increasing presence in all walks of life, from industry to the arts and sports.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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#1
"Thousands". EU paid, I'd bet
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2018 9:07
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#2
Frank, I'm betting on Soros paid but will embrace and "AND".
[DailyMail UK] At least 20 people have been killed after a tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption hit beaches in Indonesia.
The wave hit beaches around the Sunda Strait late on Saturday night. The country's Disaster Mitigation Agency confirmed around 165 people have been injured.
It is believed the tsunami was caused by an undersea landslide following the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano.
It is understood the wave hit beaches on the Sunda Strait - between the islands of Java and Sumatra.
In September, at least 832 people were killed by a quake and tsunami that hit the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, which is just east of Borneo.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2018
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[DailyMail] A tenth person has died during the Yellow Vest protests in La Belle France as demonstrations resumed today, with police pulling their guns on activists amid fierce festivities in central Gay Paree.
A 36-year-old motorist, who has not been identified publicly, died when his car collided with a lorry at a road block erected by protesters in Perpignan last night, in the south of the country.
A local police front man said: 'The victim was with a group of demonstrators when the accident happened just before midnight on Friday. An enquiry has been launched.'
Protesters also gathered around a tollbooth on a French motorway on Saturday causing huge queues of vehicles and long delays.
Meanwhile Brussels faced renewed demonstrations after a month of mass protests which have seen at least 400 people detained following festivities with police.
[PRESSTV] Iran has executed a corrupt businessman for appropriating more than 10 trillion rials ($100 million) mainly by defrauding banks and a major oil refining firm.
Hamid-Reza Baqeri-Dermani, nicknamed "the Sultan of Bitumen," was hanged on Saturday after conviction on the charge of "corruption on earth," which carries capital punishment.
The conviction had been issued by Tehran’s Public and Revolution Court, which had studied the 25,000-page case concerning Dermani and his associates.
The court found him liable for stealing the sum through fraudulent activity, including forming a fraud network, mass-scale smuggling, bribery, and setting up front and cardboard firms.
The activities would enable him to value properties at far higher than their actual price before leasing them.
On one occasion, he secured a staggering bank loan using forged documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
[The South African] Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats who served as the international high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, died Saturday at the age of 77, his party announced.
[Middle East Monitor] Egyptian security forces killed 14 suspected militants in the restive Sinai Peninsula, according to the country’s interior ministry as reported on Anadolu Agency.
[NY Post] Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou's arrest in Vancouver on Dec. 6 led to immediate blowback.
[Guardian] The US government has waded into the scandal of the German journalist for Der Spiegel magazine who faked stories on a grand scale over years, calling it proof of "institutional bias" in the media against America.
PEARLAND, Texas (BP) -- After World War II, decorated Army veteran Jesse Whitley returned home and became a soldier for the Lord, serving as a Baptist pastor and preacher for more than 45 years.
[Neon Nettle] KISS guitarist Ace Frehley went against Hollywood anti-Trump rhetoric arguing that Americans should either support President or consider leaving the country.
[American Thinker] Amid all the back and forth about who the biggest deporter is among presidents, and whether deportations are up or down under President Trump, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has released some impressive numbers: 256,000 deportations of immigration lawbreakers, mostly for committing additional crimes beyond the initial border break, in 2018.
[Red State] One would think it is rather cut-and-dried. Article 6 of the US Constitution reads, in part:
[Townhall] CNN decided to "investigate" the number of people who lie on the 4473 forms, which are used when someone purchases a firearm. It asks basic questions like your name, address, date of birth and if you've committed a number of criminal violations. When you fill it out you check a simple "yes" or "no" on each question. Lying on 4473 is a felony that can result in a hefty fine and up to 10 years in prison.
[Times of Israel] Demonstrators briefly block major junction in Israel’s financial hub amid push against price hikes, government corruption.
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary 
[Breitbart] A Mexican migrant assaulted a Tucson Sector Border Patrol agent after illegally crossing the border from Mexico on December 19. The agent had to be taken to a hospital for injuries sustained after being struck in the head with a rock.
[DAWN] A man from Sargodha, demanding to be made the prime minister, climbed a mobile tower in Islamabad on Saturday to call attention to his demands, DawnNewsTV reported.
the personification of Somali state failure...
[Ynet] Nearly 300,000 Syrians have returned to their country after 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[DAWN] Four members of a tribe were 
[KhaamaPress] The Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan (MoD) has claimed that 54 
[Rudaw] President 
...anybody not a leftist...
[PJMedia] 
[PRESSTV] A French official says his country has pledged backing for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed anti-Damascus alliance of mainly Kurdish
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
[PRESSTV] The 
[PRESSTV] Stunning images taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) show a massive ice-filled Martian crater on the cold and dry red planet, the closest candidate that is expected to somehow harbor life and become humans’ next destination for a rainy day.
[DailyMail] 
[BLOOMBERGQUINT] Teams of marksmen next year will patrol swaths of Rio de Janeiro with high-powered weapons and a license to kill, said a security adviser to Governor-elect Wilson Witzel.
[DAWN] Air strikes by the US-led coalition killed 13 jihadist fighters and 14 of their relatives on Friday in eastern Syria, a war monitor said.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force will receive seven new light attack and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft with the first delivery scheduled for next month. 
[APNEWS] A French judicial official says the alleged gunman who shot and killed five people in a Christmas market attack this month in Strasbourg had pledged allegiance to the 
[DailyMail] 
[APNEWS] Cuba’s National Assembly on Saturday approved an update of the country’s constitution, the final step before a national referendum expected to approve the new charter in February.
[DailyMail UK] At least 20 people have been killed after a tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption hit beaches in Indonesia. 
