[Guardian] It was 10 o'clock on a Friday night in spring 2014 and I was sitting on the sofa in my one-bed Paris apartment when I received a message from a French terrorist based in Syria: "Salaam alaikum, sister. I see you watched my video. It's gone viral -- crazy! Are you Muslim? What do you think about mujahideen?"
A journalist, I had been writing about European jihadis in Islamic State for about a year. I created a social media account, using the name MĂŠlodie, to investigate why European teenagers were attracted to Islamic extremism. I spent hours scanning feeds filled with descriptions of gruesome plans. I had spent that night on my couch, flicking from account to account, when I came across a video of a French jihadi who looked about 35. He wore military fatigues and called himself Abu Bilel. He claimed to be in Syria.
I would later learn that he had spent the past 15 years waging jihad all over the world. But for the moment, I knew nothing of the bellicose man on my screen, proudly unveiling the contents of his SUV glove box: a thick stack of Syrian pounds, candy, a knife. He removed his reflective Ray-Bans, revealing darkly lined, black eyes. I knew that Afghan soldiers wore kohl around their eyes. Still, seeing a terrorist with eyes made up like my own was surprising. He was good-looking. He spoke perfect French, with what to me sounded like a very slight Algerian accent. He smiled broadly as he beckoned viewers and called for hijrah: leaving a land of unbelievers to join an Islamist country.
Lengthy article. I hope this capability is being properly exploited.
[Guardian] The remains of a man police believe shot and wounded a Utah state park ranger in 2010 and eluded more than 100 officers in a desert manhunt were found on Thursday, authorities said.
Skeletal remains believed to be those of Lance Leeroy Arellano were discovered in a narrow cave near Moab, the Grand county sheriff's office said in a press release. Arellano was 40 when he disappeared.
Five years ago officers spent days searching rugged desert canyons and caves for Arellano after identifying him as the suspect in the shooting of Utah park ranger Brody Young.
Young, who was 34 at the time, survived the shooting with injuries to his arm, leg and abdomen.
The sheriff's office said a college student discovered the remains in the cave. Nearby was a bag containing a handgun, ammunition and binoculars.
[Guardian] Fellow climbers found Japanese adventurer's gloves after she unhooked from rope and went behind a boulder for a break on Mount Kurodake. The Japanese mountaineer Kei Taniguchi has died in an accident while climbing in the snowy Daisetsuzan range in northern Japan's Hokkaido. She was 43.
Merry Christmas and joy to all our fellow Rantburg citizens!
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/25/2015
09:06 ||
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#1
A song of Joy for our hearts from Walt Kelly (we miss you):
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you!
Hunky Dory's pop is lolly,
Gaggin' on the wagon, Willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!
Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!
And a Merry Christmas to all..........
MR
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/25/2015 9:42
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#2
A very Merry Christmas to all who serve and keep us safe in our beds at night. You are the true heroes in the world. May the good Lord bless you and keep you and your family safe and in good health.
#7
A Merry Christmas to all from Alaska! Might even get some snow tomorrow.
Mullah Richard----the whole Walt Kelly carol. Brings back memories as a kid, when I was an absolute fanatic of Walt, due to his word play. Here is another Walt carol:
Churchy la Femme:
Good king Sauerkraut look out!
On your feet so porous
While the snoo lay round about
Deep with crispness chorus
Owl:
What's "snoo?"
Churchy la Femme:
Not much, how's you?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/25/2015 13:17
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#8
Merry Christmas from the Family. Peace on Earth and goodwill to men.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/25/2015 15:07
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#13
Merry Christmas and Fröhliche Weihnachten from sunny warm Germany (We're doomed)
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/25/2015 20:03
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#14
Thanks, Mullah. We were having a Christmas carol sing-a-long at our work pot-luck lunch earlier this week, and of course I sang the first verse of that song.
[Then had to sing the rest of the lyrics from the original song - couldn't remember the rest of the Boston Charlie lyrics. :-( Will print this for the future.]
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/25/2015 20:04
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#15
Y'all are funny - thanks.
Merry Christmas! :-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/25/2015 20:07
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#16
Merry Christmas from the Gulf of Mexico, 78 degrees with 92% humidity. But still 67 degrees inside my work unit.
#2
Oooh, but were they subject to microaggressions? Did they have safe spaces? Did the Germans affirmatively consent to close-quarters combat?
Posted by: Matt ||
12/25/2015 10:39
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#3
It should of been obvious that the poor Germans needed an intervention to help deal with their anger management isues. Clearly it wasn't their fault as their mommies didn't love them enough
[PJ Media] Police and counterterrorism officials are looking for a man who stole dozens of industrial propane tanks from two Philadelphia facilities last week, law enforcement sources told NBC10.
Security footage from the facilities show a man loading 43 tanks of various sizes into a dark-colored minivan, according to sources.
Twenty-four of the tanks are said to be the size and style used to fuel forklifts, sources said. Also taken were nine tanks that hold 100 pounds of fuel, four 50 pound tanks, four 33 pound tanks and two 2 pound tanks, according to sources.
Investigators sent out a bulletin to authorities across Northeast Philadelphia asking them to be on the lookout for the van and thief.
Dozens of propane tanks were also reported stolen from several locations in Independence and Lee's Summit, Missouri, earlier this month.
Around the same time, managers from five Missouri Walmarts alerted law enforcement about Middle Eastern men purchasing large numbers of untraceable disposable cellphones from their stores. Several law enforcement agencies in Missouri have reportedly notified the FBI about the bulk purchases.
Seems to me there ought to be at least some truth here. I can bend a couple of welding rods to make them into L-shapes and hold the short ends in my hand with the long ends pointing forward. As I walk around the wires cross and uncross over each other in consistent locations. My brother can't do this. Maybe it's the sewer line coming out of the old house, maybe it's the electrical wires, maybe it's the iron in the rocks. Maybe it's water. I don't know.
Usually, the boundary between science and science fiction is as distinct as the difference between the 6 o'clock news and "The Simpsons." Wherever the line blurs, you're bound to find contentious debates. One of the longest-running of these disagreements centers on dowsing, a supposed sixth sense that enables people to find underground water using a forked branch, pendulum or pair of bent wires. There is no scientific reason why dowsing should work. Yet, it apparently works well enough and reliably enough to keep the practice alive.
The success of dowsers doesn't surprise the people who know the most about finding underground water, hydrogeologists for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). They point out that the United States is so water-rich you can get wet drilling just about anywhere, if you drill deep enough. Far harsher criticism of dowsing and dowsers comes from outside the mainstream scientific community. Two organizations, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), http://www.csicop.org/si, and the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), http://www.randi.org, are actually working to discourage the practice, which they both dismiss as paranormal nonsense. To make their point that dowsing is a sham each has staged demonstrations in which dowsers were asked to find buried pipes. Dowsers did no better than the laws of chance predict. JREF is so confident of its position it promises to pay $1.1 million to anyone who can "prove" dowsing works.
Yet Dowsers Flourish
Like bees unaware they are too aerodynamically challenged to fly, dowsers don't let the skeptics get them down. In fact, the ranks of dowsers have been steadily growing. Forty years ago, about 50 dowsers and curiosity seekers were drawn to Danville, Vt., for a 1-day National Dowsing Convention. That get-together led to the creation of the American Society of Dowsers (ASD), www.newhampshire.com/dowsers.org, which now counts about 4200 members. Lest you dismiss dowsing's popularity as just another New Age fad, take a close look at the 16th century drawing to the left. The men wearing traditional miners' clothing are holding the same type of forked stick in use by many dowsers today.
Now comes a massive set of data that suggests there may be some validity to dowsers' claims. The encouraging words are contained in a study financed by the German government and published in the Journal Of Scientific Exploration, http://www.jse.com/betz_toc.html, which is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published at Stanford University.
The project was conducted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit in the hope of finding cheaper and more reliable ways of locating drinking water supplies in Third World countries.
Researchers analyzed the successes and failures of dowsers in attempting to locate water at more than 2000 sites in arid regions of Sri Lanka, Zaire, Kenya, Namibia and Yemen over a 10-year period. To do this, researchers teamed geological experts with experienced dowsers and then set up a scientific study group to evaluate the results. Drill crews guided by dowsers didn't hit water every time, but their success rate was impressive. In Sri Lanka, for example, they drilled 691 holes and had an overall success rate of 96 percent.
"In hundreds of cases the dowsers were able to predict the depth of the water source and the yield of the well to within 10 percent or 20 percent," says Hans-Dieter Betz, a physicist at the University of Munich, who headed the research group.
"We carefully considered the statistics of these correlations, and they far exceeded lucky guesses," he says. What's more, virtually all of the sites in Sri Lanka were in regions where the odds of finding water by random drilling were extremely low. As for a USGS notion that dowsers get subtle clues from the landscape and geology, Betz points out that the underground sources were often more than 100 ft. deep and so narrow that misplacing the drill only a few feet would mean digging a dry hole.
As impressive as this success rate may seem, it doesn't do much to change the minds of skeptics. Their preference is to test dowsing under more controlled conditions. Back To The Lab
Anticipating this criticism, the German researchers matched their field work with laboratory experiments in which they had dowsers attempt to locate water-filled pipes inside a building. The tests were similar to those conducted by CSICOP and JREF, and similarly discouraging. Skeptics see the poor showing as evidence of failure. Betz sees the discrepancy as an important clue. He says that subtle electromagnetic gradients may result when natural fissures and water flows create changes in the electrical properties of rock and soil. Dowsers, he theorizes, somehow sense these gradients and unconsciously respond by wagging their forked sticks, pendulums or bent wires.
Low-Energy Sensor
There is ample evidence that humans can detect small amounts of energy. All creatures with eyes can detect extremely small amounts of electromagnetic energy at visible light wavelengths. Some researchers believe the dark-adapted human eye can detect a single photon, the smallest measurable quantity of energy. Biologists also have found nonvisual electric and magnetic sensing organs in creatures from bacteria to sharks, fish and birds. Physiologists, however, have yet to find comparable structures in humans.
Betz offers no theories of how dowsers come by their skill and prefers to confine his speculation to his data. "There are two things that I am certain of after 10 years of field research," he says. "A combination of dowsing and modern techniques can be both more successful, and far less expensive, than we had thought."
#2
While at Camp Geiger in 1968, 2d Force Recon had a class on dowsing from a Marine who just returned from Khe Sahn. He used bent coat hangers. It's better with copper, but still works great for me.
#5
Works.
Works well. Water, powerlines, signal cables, gas lines, tunnels with lighting conduits, all kinds of stuff. Remember 3 finger: force, torque, emf?
One wire in each hand forms a open resistive circuit. The two leads cross and the biocircuit is completed.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released a handful of sensitive documents Thursday morning dealing with terrorism suspect Anwar al-Awlaki and the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
The Christmas Eve document dump includes 16 pages of heavily blacked-out emails about the events surrounding the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans.
The DNI emails about Benghazi are heavily redacted and appear to contain little new information. Several of the emails discuss the drafting of an assessment of the threat level ahead of the attack, which was being prepared for Congress in the months after four Americans were killed in the attack.
Other emails include periodic press clippings about the state of Benghazi in the years after the incident, which were meant to give staffers "situational awareness."
Another document released Thursday is a memo to the State Department that shows the DNI signed off on a proposal to revoke al-Awlaki's U.S. passport about seven and a half months before he was killed by the U.S. in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen.
News that al-Awlaki's passport was revoked by the State Department before he was killed was reported back in 2012. In the 2011 memo, released Thursday, the DNI told the State Department that it "concurs with the proposal to revoke the U.S. passport of Anwar Nasser al-Aulaqi."
A previously released Justice Department memo from that time found that the government did not see any constitutional problems with killing al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, because of his alleged leadership roles with al Qaeda.
Other documents released Thursday are related a 2013 update about how to mark sensitive human intelligence that has been gathered. Another relates to the schedule of National Counterintelligence Executive William Evanina in early 2015.
The documents were released as part of a "proactive disclosure" under the Freedom of Information Act. The government and public relations firms have been known to release unflattering information around major holidays or weekends to blunt the news effect.
#1
The Hildebeest transmits hundreds, possible thousands of collateral and TS/SCI messages over an UNCLAS computer, but these Benghazi documents must be heavily redacted.
As Syrian rebels hunkered down, trying to maintain control of the city of Homs while under assault from the forces of President Bashar Assad, a Rochester pizza shop owner more than 5,000 miles away tried to do what he could for the besieged rebel army.
There was another insurgent army that could come to the rescue of the rebels, Mufid Elfgeeh believed, according to federal court records unsealed Wednesday. And that army was the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
When Elfgeeh pleaded guilty in federal court last week to trying to recruit two men for ISIL, he acknowledged how he tried through social media to be a liaison between a rebel commander at Homs and ISIL forces. But the documents unsealed Wednesday show that the negotiations were much more extensive than previously acknowledged by federal officials or in court records.
The documents also pose a question still unanswered: Was Elfgeeh simply a lone self-radicalized individual, one who had expressed a willingness to kill returning American troops, or had he actually developed some contacts within terrorist circles in Syria and the Middle East?
Via Facebook, Elfgeeh communicated with a man he believed to be a battalion commander under siege in Homs. Elfgeeh worked to link the commander with ISIL forces, with an understanding that the rebels would pledge allegiance to ISIL if helped.
The newly released records do not definitively state that the individuals communicating with Elfgeeh were rebel leaders and ISIL sympathizers. But Elfgeeh clearly believed the men on the other end of the social media connection where who they said they were, and the court documents -- FBI affidavits seeking search warrants for Facebook communications -- show that federal agents suspect the online conversations were authentic.
Elfgeeh's attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Mark Hosken, declined to comment Wednesday. Federal officials have also declined comment in the aftermath of Elfgeeh's guilty plea.
The battle for control of Homs lasted almost three years, with anti-Assad forces once in control. But the rebels were eventually battered by the Assad regime military.
According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Albert Zenner, Elfgeeh was in contact in March 2014 with a rebel who indicated that brigades in Homs "needed support to break a blockade." Elfgeeh suggested that ISIL could help, and Elfgeeh was put in contact with a battalion commander.
That individual emphasized that the situation was serious, and stated that they wanted Elfgeeh's guidance and support.
(The names of those whom Elfgeeh communicated with are redacted in the documents.)
Elfgeeh allegedly spoke via Facebook with the commander of the Green Battalion of the United Rebels of Homs-Al-Murabitun, which was blockaded within the city. The forces had unsuccessfully tried to connect with ISIL.
After further discussions about the siege "Elfgeeh agreed to contact a doctor in Egypt who Elfgeeh believed had connections with ISIL and see if he knew how to contact the leadership of ISIL."
On March 11, 2014, Elfgeeh exchanged Facebook messages with an individual, asking if he was with "the State," or ISIL. The man answered, "upon you is peace, God willing," which the FBI interpreted as an affirmative answer to Elfgeeh's question.
Elfgeeh said there were rebels in Homs who wanted to coordinate with an ISIL leader, and the individual messaged back that he would connect Elfgeeh with "one of the brothers" via Skype. Elfgeeh said he was "in the west" and couldn't communicate via Skype.
They discussed a way to connect the blockaded commander with "the Sheik," identified in the affidavit as a prominent ISIL leader, Umar al-Shishani, a commander who led numerous successful ISIL military operations.
Elfgeeh then became the conduit, attempting to forward social media addresses between the rebels in Homs and individuals with ISIL. Whether those links were made is unclear.
On March 22, 2014, Elfgeeh showed an informant working for the FBI his list of Facebook friends. He identified one as a rebel leader fighting in Homs, and said, "we are coordinating with them on the grounds that they want to pledge allegiance to the State (ISIL) and they would like the State to support them with ammunition and weapons."
Weeks later, Elfgeeh told the informant that he believed the commander had been "martyred," or killed in battle.
Elfgeeh is scheduled to be sentenced March 17. His plea agreement calls for a sentence of 22½ years, but U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford will ultimately decide the sentence. Send pizza boy to Syria with a Star of David tattooed on his weenie.
Elfgeeh ran a pizza shop and mini-mart on North Clinton Avenue when he was arrested in a sting in May 2014 by the FBI, Rochester police and other law enforcement agencies that are members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
#1
Via Facebook, Elfgeeh communicated with a man he believed to be a battalion commander under siege in Homs. Elfgeeh worked to link the commander with ISIL forces, with an understanding that the rebels would pledge allegiance to ISIL if helped.
But I thought we learned that FB was off-limits following the recent Farook terrorist attack in California.
#2
But I thought we learned that FB was off-limits following the recent Farook terrorist attack in California.
In the matter of visas, yes. Me, I'd be more interested in the pizza shop transactions, especially the credit card ones. I suspect not all of them were for delivered pizzas.
#5
Ah, yes - the pubs. Especially a certain one that was in Georgetown. The gallon-tip jar on the corner of the bar, for the "Cause." Those had the patronage of a certain and Democrat clientele, though. Practically a get-out-of-jail-free card.
When a veteran or member of the armed forces dies, he or she is entitled to a ceremony that includes the presentation of a U.S. flag to a family member and a bugler blowing Taps. Most of the time, there is a three-volley rifle salute if requested by family members. But now, if the deceased served in the Air Force, the three-volley salute is not an option because the Air Force can no longer support riflemen for funeral services for veteran retirees.
Seven member services for retirees included six members to serve as pall-bearers, a six member flag-folding detail, and a three riflemen to fire the salute. Veteran's funerals now only receive the services of two-member teams, who provide a flag-folding ceremony, the playing of taps, and the presentation of the flag to the next of kin.
"To me, without the 21-gun salute, it just does not make it complete a proper military burial," veteran Wayne Wakeman told Honolulu's KHON 2 News. "I think because of sequestration or the lack of funds or whatever excuse they're giving, that they had to hit the veterans."
Wakeman is correct in supposing the cut is due to sequestration, the 2013 automatic federal spending cuts required by the Budget Control Act of 2011.
Rose Richeson, from the Secretary of the Air Force's Public Affairs Press Desk, told We Are The Mighty the policy of restricting the funeral honor is an Air Force-wide requirement.
"The requirement is consistent with DoD policy which require a minimum of two personnel," Richeson said. "Any number of personnel above two that is provided in support of military funeral honors is based on local resources available."
A three-volley salute is the correct term for what is commonly (though mistakenly) referred to as a 21-gun salute. There are often seven riflemen, totaling 21. The origin of the three-volley funeral honor lies elsewhere, according to the Tom Sherlock, an Arlington National Cemetery Historian. A 21-gun salute is reserved for Presidents of the United States or visiting heads of state.
#2
Many veterans organizations in populated areas offer the honor guard and ceremonial ritual with and without 'official' representation.
...in support of military funeral honors is based on local resources available.
The 'unexpected' consequence of 'downsizing' your military and stationing them NIMBY. They don't have standby teams, manpower is pulled from duty personnel. They can't do it everyday on no notice. They're not going to send a team out that has to stay overnight at a civie motel with weapons.
#1
Open Carry is where I personally part company with 2nd Amendment supporters. Open Carry is the equivalent of carrying a sign and asking for trouble. The open display of firearms [gun on the hip] may also be a signal of other more disturbing problems with the person carrying.
Concealed Weapons permits require a background check. Open carry does not. If you're on your own property or walking down the road to rabbit hunt, or if Open Carry is a 'condition of employment'... no problem.
#2
I agree with part of what you said, but here in Tennessee we do have to go through a background check and pass a thorough firearm safety class that includes marksmanship. This class also includes knowing the laws and situations that are applicable to the situation. People who openly carry scare me.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/25/2015 9:30
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#3
OK, here's the background on this this issue: the Concealed Carry Law in the state of Texas requires two working points. (1) That you pass the carry and use tests to get a license (2) That the firearm remains concealed at all times.
There have been occasions here where individuals have been busted because, for instance, a Constable could pick out the shape of a pistol though a tee shirt. And when you are violated on the carry laws, guess what, you lose the right to carry.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/25/2015 9:52
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#4
Plenty of psychopaths can pass a background check, including law enforcement.
Paying a fee to exercise a right is not a right, but a privilege, and it runs counter to the concept of what a right is. If you think that paying a fee and passing a background check makes you more qualified to carry concealed or not, you are no better than the statists who want to impose background checks on every gun transaction.
#5
If you think that paying a fee and passing a background check makes you more qualified to carry concealed or not.....
More qualified? Yes, compliance with THE LAW should be a 'qualifier.'
I think all would concur with the law prohibiting convicted felons from purchasing firearms. A NICS (4473) check helps prevent felons from purchasing and obtaining firearms.
#6
I guarantee you love the law a lot more than it loves you. Those laws were passed without two critical qualifiers: Consent of the government and Constitutionality.
I frankly don't give a sh*t if every Rantburger agrees with background checks. They're wrong, and they are unconstitutional.
#7
The open display of firearms [gun on the hip] may also be a signal of other more disturbing problems with the person carrying.
Probably true but making it very simple to identify at a distance those persons who are armed & possessed of certain, possibly, undesirable personality traits isn't altogether a bad thing. If open carry is illegal they'll still be armed, just harder to spot.
#8
Imagine if you will, a gunshop or sporting goods store WITHOUT Federal background checks [4473], and forced 'by law' to sell a gun to anyone who walks through the door.
Imagine if you will, 'straw purchases' [buying a firearm for someone else who cannot] being legal.
If you believe background checks are discriminatory, unconstitutional, and should be outlawed, then logic would follow that nearly anyone could practice medicine, be a police officer, fly a airliner, or.... become president, without some sort of checking system.
#9
Without federal law concerning guns, no one would be "forced" to sell to anyone.
And you miss the point. You are talking about a privilege, not a right, something with requirements you must meet in order to satisfy the mandarins appointed to rule over you.
These are matters that should not affect free people.
Many people view the right to keep and bear arms as right that applies only to them and whomever the can target through legislative means to remove those rights.
The FBI NICS "appeals process" is a cynical fraud.
#10
I just think that public open carry is stupid. Since I live in Houston, a target rich environment if there ever was one, the last thing I want to do is warn the predators that I have the means to defend myself or others. Open carry doesn't mean much when you get shot at from behind.
#11
Without federal law concerning guns, no one would be "forced" to sell to anyone.
Please show me ANY commodity [not covered by Federal or State Laws] that a seller can legally REFUSE to sell to a buyer without threat of discrimination or lawsuit.
Your logic trail would enable me or anyone else to purchase dynamite or enriched uranium at will.
#12
Markets for all products are not the same. Laws assume that they are. Not every gun store would sell explosives, and not every customer would be in the market for explosives.
DAMASCUS – Subsequent to reaching an agreement with the Syrian regime’s army, militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) starter to evacuate their strongholds in the southern suburb of Damascus, activists reported on Thursday.
The radical group and the regime’s army reached an agreement earlier this week, entailing the withdrawal of ISIS militants from Damascus suburb towards Raqqa–the ISIS de facto capital in northeastern Syria.
“Dozens of vehicles carrying ISIS militants were seen existing the al-Qadam district in the southern suburb of Damascus towards the highway that leads to Raqqa,” media activist Ismael al-Shami told ARA News in Damascus.
“This is the first batch of ISIS fighters withdrawing from Damascus, as the group is expected to further evacuate the districts of At-Tal and al-Hajar al-Aswad in accordance with the recently reached agreement between the group and the pro-Assad army,” al-Shami reported.
After taking over several areas in the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus, ISIS militants have been locked in fierce clashes with rebel factions and pro-Assad troops.
It is not clear yet which factions would take over those districts after ISIS withdrawal.
[ALMANAR.LB] In her latest interview on al-Jazeera English, Italian Journalist from Paleostinian origin, Rola Jibril asked the Saudi General Anwar 'Eshki: "Why does ISIL in Raqqa teach Saudi curricula?" but she tended to answer instead of him: "Because you match with ISIL more than any other groups in the region."
Same curricula have been slammed by Director of Gulf Affairs Institute in Washington, Ali Ahmad, in a televised interview. He described them as: "Full of bold expressions that consider most of the Muslims as infidels, create enmity and fight the other... they are Takfiri ...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... sectarian mobilizing curricula that make the student think as if we are living a war with the other Muslim and the other citizen," ...with the Muslim "who doesn't follow Wahabism as an interpretation for Islam, as well as the Christian, Jew and other different persons."
Under the "Major polytheism," Saudi curricula exclude entire Islamic groups from Islam, such as Sufism, Imamate, Ismailism and Mu'tazila. All of this is mentioned boldly in the education curricula. The book of "Tawhid" for the third secondary class of the scholastic year (2006-2007) considers that "what is blatant infidelity, is roaming around the tombs to approach those buried inside, offering sacrifices and vows for them, and praying for them seeking their help, or the sayings of the exaggerators of Jahmi and Mu'tazila"... or such as the Batiniyya doctrine and philosophers, according to the course of the third secondary class (2013-2014) page 33. Takfir reaches the followers of the divine religions as well.
The expression of (blatant infidelity) is common in the language of the Saudi curricula, as a jurisdictional judgment that raises the sense of responsibility among students towards the beliefs of others. This sense holds them a duty to (repudiate), which obliges them to conduct what replaces the blatant infidelity with the honest belief, which legalizes destruction and killings, since infidelity and faith couldn't coexist.
In other words, the (blatant infidelity) is provocation to kill on which the very small kid is raised in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , until he becomes able to press the destructive button to detonate an kaboom.
"A human would either be originally infidel such as Jews, Christians and idolatrous... and considering them infidel is a duty, and he who doesn't consider them infidel or doubt their fidelity is also infidel," this is how the "Tawhid" course of the third secondary class of the scholastic year (2013-2014) page 30 considers all other religions and sects as non-Muslims, after considering all other non-Wahabi Muslim groups as committing major infidelity which provides considering them infidel and legalizing their killing.
Director of Religious Freedom Center in Freedom House, Nina Shea, said: "We are worried because their curricula call for intolerance with other religions and cultures including the other Islamic doctrines and interpretations," those curricula are still "full of thoughts of hatred against Christians, Jews and other Muslims, starting from the first elementary class' curriculum to reach the twelfth year with more violent language."
In an article entitled "Schools Funded by Saudi Arabia Teach Religious Hatred", Caroline Davis and Gray Baton wrote on February 6 of 2007 for the "Daily Telegraph" on the schools based in the United Kingdom. Citing "Professor of English in the King Fahed's Academy in Acton, West London, Collin Kook, 62 years: the scholastic books used by students at the academy describe Jews as "misshapen" monkeys, and the Christians as "pigs". According to him, students were asked to "mention some of the characteristics of misshaping Jews."
In the same article, "American Rights Group Freedom House highlighted some scholastic books in its report of 2006, in which it described (the Saudi curricula of hatred) quoting some book that orients students to announce fighting against infidels to spread the belief."
Such texts explain how 19 Saudis would participate in the September 11 attacks of 2001 which targeted civilians, in addition to many other crimes committed in the Muslim world by the Takfiris against non-Muslim minorities just like the crimes that slaughtered Muslims.
Also under the title of "loyalty and repudiation", in the course of "Tawhid" for the third secondary class of the year (2013-2014) page 107, it is allowed to be loyal to "the infidels" only in the cases of fear, obligation, weakness and force, while keeping hatred and hiding it.
As such points stress the idea of keeping animosity against the infidels (the Muslims who are judged as infidels, Christians and Jews who follow divine religions), this allows the ruler or the king to deal with them and make agreements under the banner of interest, to find an exit for a crisis that has always been in front of the Saudi kings in justifying their relations with the Western regimes.
The same course in page 108 mentions: "It is thought that getting engaged in pacts with infidels is prohibited and it is considered as surrendering to those who oppressed, which provides excluding them from Islam. This speech is not ultimate as the ruler of Muslims would find an agreement with the infidels in some situations and times serving the interests of Muslims or protecting them from something evil. This agreement would also include a sort of compromise or disgrace towards Muslims, but it serves a bigger interest or deters a bigger corruption."
With this opinion, Saudi rulers faced the criticism they were subject to as they allowed French forces to bomb Mecca and confront the movement of Juhayman al-Otaybi in 1979. They also came with the same opinion when the as-Sahwa movement in the Kingdom rejected the Saudi alliance with the United States in the second Gulf war in 1991, or even when criticizing the Saudi role in the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Obeying the Ruler
As Saudi curricula unleash the thought of considering Muslims and non-Muslims as infidels, it keeps what allows it to manage Takfirism and control it. Here the secret hides in the title of "Obeying the Ruler" who must be "offered the pledge of loyalty and agreed upon."
In the book of "Tawhid" for the third secondary class (2013-2014), page 99 says that obeying the ruler is "one of the greatest religious duties in which religion doesn't stand without." Hence, it stresses that "it is prohibited not to obey the ruler and to argue him even if he was committing injustice, oppression or sin,"... "Because this disobedience would lead to riot, corruption, evil and imbalance of security and bloodshed," considering the ruler as sacred even if he was tyrant is provided by the Saudi curricula at a time when they consider Muslims, who consider the saints as sacred whether they were alive or dead, as infidels.
In his early years of education, the Saudi kid learns terms like: heresies, atheism and monotheism. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... in his last years, the Saudi student would have been able to identify such terms and apply them in reality to consider everybody as infidel, drawing an incomplete image for the enemy, and waiting the judgment of the ruler...
This is how the image of the enemy is drawn in the Saudi religious curricula, and this is how arrogance and occupation are found innocent while fighting them is banned under the title of "obeying the ruler."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
This does explain that little Saudi monster, JUSTICE, who plagued us for a while. The poor kid never had a chance to develop normally.
[AA.TR] Seven trustees have been appointed to an additional 15 companies related to Istanbul-based Kaynak Holding -- which has been accused of harboring links to the Gulen movement, judicial sources said on Thursday.
The move was made in accordance with a decision by Istanbul's Anadolu Criminal Court of Peace no: 2 after a police investigative committee found these companies to have organic links with the holding.
Thursday's ruling follows a similar move for 19 other companies, a foundation and a labor union connected to Kaynak Holding. These were also taken over by trustees last month.
Kaynak Holding is being investigated for allegedly providing financial support to what Turkish officials describe as the 'Gulenist Terror Organization'.
This refers to the movement led by U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, which is accused of plotting to overthrow the Turkish government by infiltrating state institutions, mainly the police and the judiciary.
Kaynak was also the subject of a tax investigation last year.
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12/25/2015
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[ALMANAR.LB] Iraqi forces have continued to register gains in their ongoing effort to free the city of Ramadi from holy warriors of the so-called 'Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group, Iraqi military sources reported on Wednesday.
"Clashes remain ongoing between counter-terrorism forces and ISIL holy warriors who have taken up positions only a few hundred meters from Ramadi's local government HQ," Ibrahim al-Fahdawi, head of security in the city's Khaldiya district, said.
Iraqi troops are now preparing to storm Ramadi's Al-Hoz district in which the government HQ is located, Walid al-Duleimi, a colonel in the Iraqi army, told media outlets.
On Tuesday, Iraqi security forces backed by US-led coalition air power launched a major operation aimed at capturing Ramadi, the regional capital of Iraq's western Anbar province.
They have since managed to seize two districts in the southern part of the city.
A few days before the operation, Iraqi planes dropped leaflets over the city calling on local residents to leave the area within three days.
In November, Iraqi security forces -- backed by pro-government units -- managed to establish control over roughly half of Ramadi.
In June of last year, ISIL overran djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... -- Iraq's second largest city -- before moving on to occupy additional territory in both Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi government forces, along with pro-government units and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, now seek to retake ISIL-held areas with air support from the US-led coalition.
Over the last year, US-led coalition warplanes have struck numerous ISIL positions in both Iraq and Syria, forcing the takfiri group to withdraw from a number of areas it had previously captured.
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12/25/2015
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[ALMANAR.LB] The United States launched air strikes against Taliban gunmen in southern Afghanistan, after storming the strategic opium-rich district of Sangin, NATO said Thursday.
"US forces conducted two strikes in Sangin... on December 23 against threats to the force," a spokesman for the military coalition said.
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12/25/2015
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[Tolo News] Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... provincial council members on Thursday said that the lack of security balloons, after foreign troop's withdrawal in the province, has led to the increase in Taliban activity in the province.
During the time of foreign troops presence, Sangin province alone is reported to have had at least 65 security balloons, said officials. But following foreign troops withdrawal late 2014, these balloons were removed, they added.
Sources told TOLOnews however that security forces have neutralized a large part of the activities of the Taliban in Helmand and other parts of the country but Afghan intelligence agencies still need detection devices and other facilities to monitor the bad boy group's activities.
Despite hundreds of foreign troops still being in the province, Helmand has witnessed large scale Taliban attacks in recent weeks. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the group was reportedly kept under control while balloons were in the air.
But officials say the situation in Helmand at the moment is serious. They claim the Taliban has made gains on districts in the province.
Before the attack on Sangin district, the Taliban is believed to have carried out an attack on Camp Bastion in Shorab district.
"We have always complained about a lack of cooperation between Afghan securities forces in Helmand. In the past we had enough facilities beside balloons to fight Taliban in Helmand - facilities no longer in place," said Bashir Ahmad Shaker the head of Helmand's provincial council security committee.
In the early years up to 855 large and small bases of foreign troops in Afghanistan were engaged in activities against faceless myrmidons and in other intelligence activities but with the handover of security responsibility to Afghans a large part of their facilities were transferred out of the country, officials said.
"We have advanced in Sangin district and we have broken the Taliban siege. And Taliban operational head in Helmand Mullah Nasir along with 50 other Taliban were killed," MoI front man Sediq Sediqqi said on Thursday.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Defense talked about the advancement of Afghan forces in Helmand especially in Sangin district and said there was good coordination among the security institutions.
"At the moment we have our operations against the faceless myrmidons in seven provinces and we have lots of advancement in Helmand and we are trying to not harm civilians," said Dawlat Waziri MoD front man.
Taliban have played an active roldein Helmand for a number of years - especially as it is a key opium producing hub.
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12/25/2015
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[WESTFIELDTIMES] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians.... said on Wednesday the government's economic vision would focus on increasing the efficiency of government spending as well as raising returns on investments, according to the Twitter account of the Saudi Shura Council.
King Salman officially inaugurated a new session for the consultative body earlier on Wednesday. He was also cited as saying that the economy had maintained real growth despite economic volatility and declining oil prices.
The world's top oil exporter is facing severe fiscal pressure this year as a result of cheap oil prices, running an annual budget deficit of over $100 billion and forcing Saudi authorities to begin reining in state spending.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... Salman said Riyadh had been able to preserve its public debt levels and reiterated Saudi Arabia's support for a stable oil market, which he said would protect the interests of current and future generations.
His comments were not delivered in the brief televised speech he made to the council, but were distributed to its members in paper form afterwards and then released on its official Twitter account.
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12/25/2015
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A record number of French Jews moved to Israel this year, an immigration official said on Thursday, citing anti-Semitic violence and economic insecurity in the European country as causes.
La Belle France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, having grown by nearly half since World War Two to some 550,000.
A lot of that growth came from the immigration of Francophone Jews from France's former North African colonies and their subsequent offspring.
The community has been jarred by an increase in security threats and Islamist turban attacks such as January's gun rampage at a Gay Paree kosher market that killed four Jews.
Israel's quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, which encourages immigration, said some 7,900 French Jews had relocated to Israel in 2015, a 10 percent increase from the previous year.
"Each has his or her reason, including the economic crisis, personal security, terrorist attacks, and, in some places and times, an anti-Jewish mood," agency front man Yigal Palmor said.
Though not final, the immigration figure falls short of Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky's prediction after the kosher market attack following the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... shootings in January that more than 10,000 French Jews would move to Israel this year.
Palmor said wider Jewish immigration to Israel reached a 15-year high in 2015, with around 30,000 new arrivals. He noted a high number of arrivals from economically troubled Russia and civil war-torn Ukraine.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
Subsidizing the non-productive and punish the productive. Where could this end?
[WASHINGTONPOST] Two thousand miles from Syria, 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.... is trying to expand its territory by establishing a branch in what its fighters call the "little emirate": the war-torn country of Somalia.
Winning ground there won't be easy. Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... , a Somali group linked to al-Qaeda, has a long-standing presence in the country at Africa's eastern edge and has threatened those who join the Islamic State with death. But that hasn't stopped a trickle of fighters -- likely a few dozen -- from switching sides, raising concerns among U.S. officials, who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars of aid in a new Somali government and a regional military campaign against Islamist murderous Moslems.
Somalia holds potentially huge rewards for the murderous Moslem group: It is a marginally governed nation with the continent's longest coastline and borders three U.S. allies -- Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya.
"Looking at Somalia, ISIL is trying to insert itself and then may threaten to move into Kenya," Rose Gottemoeller, the State Department's undersecretary for arms control and international security, said at a roundtable in Johannesburg this month. ISIL is an acronym for the Islamic State.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
The "Global" in OWG Global Islamist-Jihadist Caliphate [Nukulaar?], + also Global Jihad = Global Mohammedan conquest [Nukulaar?].
[Tolo News] Badakhshan officials said Thursday evening that a blast was reported in Chakaran area if Wardoj district which is believed to have claimed the lives of a number of imported muscle.
The incident took place at about 5.30pm.
According to Badakhshan police no details were available. They said however that it appeared the blast was the result of differences between the Taliban.
The Taliban has not yet to commented on the incident.
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12/25/2015
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[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] The Syrian tragedy is truly unique and cannot be compared to others; it had revealed masks exposing truths covered up and hidden beneath the Arab stage of politics.
Moreover, Syria's battlefield was the place where a Hezbollah paramount was taken down quietly without creating a buzz or a sign of national or international care. It was only Hezbollah that arranged a funeral represented by memorial ceremony service followed with dubbing it's, previously honored for Israeli imprisonment, commander a martyr.
Those who exclusively eulogized their "Martyr" are active members of Hezbollah specially employed for the sake of making announcements that comprise of details on the party's deaths "deaders", which now are seen as reports that had lost the interest of them being circled around and published.
Hezbollah latest eulogy: "Kuntar has been killed by Israel", an unconvincing statement with no logic standing behind it, because there is no apparent motif pushing Israel to kill someone that is fighting far off their borders all the way in Damascus. Others explain the incident as a result of a mistake by Russian Arclight Arclight airstrike; some also went all the way to interpreting that Russia has stabbed Hezbollah in the back.
The sole credible explanation remaining is the Syrian Opposition claim of perpetrating the operation of attacking the six story building, burying Kuntar under rubble.
No one was concerned with who killed Kuntar, since he was killed in his fight for Iran, Assad's regime, and Hezbollah.
This mass indifference might finally raise Hezbollah and other organizations' alarm on the fact that no one buys the lie they are portraying under the bleak comical impression of them defending Lebanese -Syrian- Paleostinian grounds.
The role they have long portrayed for themselves has been brought to an end, despite a fair majority of Arabs and Lebanese people buying into it, there were always the southern families that saw into it after being the first to pay up with dear blood, and were the closest to the reality of the battlefield.
The Syrian crisis and the regime's foul play against millions of Arabs has revealed their truth, shook the historical pillars they are based on and exposed their rallying cry and holy sacrament.
The public now asks if the heroes were truly "heroes", or were they mere merchants and proxies for foreign plans?
Was there any truth to what they have been told over the past decades, or was it all piled up superstitions?
Does Samir Kuntar deserve to be dubbed a hero for killing a three member Israeli family, or is he a criminal for participating in the death of 300 thousand Syrians?
Syria today altered all conviction and apprehension; people in addition to Hezbollah's society are forced to relook into the past with today's unfolding knowledge.
Supporters claiming that times have changed, and that today is a different story unlike the past, that had represented times of resistance and strife for ethics and glorified cause, renouncing all their present actions, must pause for a second and reconsider.
If we look back over past decades it is evident that they reflect mere chapters in a book that writes off its conclusion with what is happening in Syria today. Hezbollah's "resistance" is a title to a crime fiction, in which we can read about covering up evidence and falsifying facts, the connotation "resistance" itself was intended for taking over the Lebanese government and using it to cancel out any defiance, laying down the foundation for an opposing front like the alliance with Tehran in order to control the region.
News is read separately, but if we were to read it out as a whole we can conclude that those who killed a third of a million Syrians are the same people behind the tens of assassinated Lebanese citizens. They carried out an agenda based on eliminating any opposition, which was manifested in Rafic Hariri, Gebran Tueni, and George Hawi along with many others; in addition to their previous attempt on assassinating the late prince of Kuwait alongside targeting Arab and gulf airlines and touristic companies.
Moreover this is how we can truly interpret the story after tracing it back to its start point in the 80's, back when Iran along with Syria decided on interfering in the fight against Israel as an excuse for keeping their foot put down on Lebanese soil, holding up arms, and kidnapping foreigners; after they managed to get rid of the Paleostine Liberation Organization that was also giving the two powers a run for Leb.
Israel invaded Leb and eliminated the PLO; despite the perpetrator of the attempt on assassinating the Israeli ambassador in London was an affiliate of Assad's regime, Israel still used it as an excuse for the invasion.
In turn, Iran and Syria were the greatest benefactors of Hezbollah's "resistance", and by adopting the project that founded it, thus affixed Leb's occupation threatening the world through organizations run by them.
In the name of Paleostine, they were able to dominate the entire country, erecting training camps for Arabs to fight other Arab citizens in Iraq, Gulf, Yemen, and Syria.
We can no longer fall into the trap of superstition and false excuses, like "the defense against Israel". I do not know if Iran, Hezbollah, and Assad realize that the monstrous slaughter happening in Syria today, has written down a new page in history that cannot be overlooked nor forgotten.
The "story" of resistance and defense were never true, not for a second over the past years. Their days of taking advantage of the Paleostinian cause are over.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Thursday, a source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced, that 11 people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast north of Baghdad.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, a bomb exploded near shops in Sabaa al-Bour area north of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding nine others,” adding that, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead bodies to the forensic medicine department, while an operation was carried out to search for the perpetrators of the bombing.”
[BALTIMORE.CBSLOCAL] The city of Baltimore expects to reimburse other local police and fire agencies from across Maryland a total of $1.8 million for responding to the civil unrest that followed the death of Freddie Gray last spring, a city front man said Thursday.
The tally includes both requests that have been paid and those still under review, Howard Libit said in an email. He said he expects all the requests to be paid.
The requests are for overtime, equipment costs and other expenses claimed by about 30 public agencies and volunteer fire companies in 16 of Maryland's 23 counties.
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12/25/2015
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[THEGATEWAYPUNDIT] French anti-terror police have detained a woman found with a fake pregnant belly which they suspect she may have been planning to use to conceal explosives for a suicide kaboom.
The arrest of the 25-year-old Muslim convert and her 34-year-old partner came as La Belle France remains on high terror alert during the Christmas holiday season, a month and a half after attacks by Islamic faceless myrmidons killed 130 in Gay Paree.
The couple were jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! late last week in Montpellier for condoning terrorism. Investigators later found the fake belly when they searched their home in the southern town.
The fake belly had been covered in aluminium foil in a possible attempt to make its potential contents undetectable at security gates, a source close to the investigation said.
Female jacket wallahs have hidden explosives in fake pregnancy bellies for attacks in the Middle East on many occasions, and the prosthetic stomachs have also been used to conceal drugs.
Police also found myrmidon Islamist propaganda on the couple's computer in their home in Montpellier, and the woman had searched online for information on how to make bombs, a police source said.
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12/25/2015
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[Chicago Tribune] Two men were killed, and six other people, including a prominent reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... rapper known as King Louie, were maimed in shootings Wednesday in Chicago, police said.
In the Austin neighborhood, a man was shot to death in a home in the 1000 block of North Lamon Avenue about 6:15 p.m., said Officer Thomas Sweeney, a police front man. The man, 39, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on the scene.
He was identified as Nathan Smith of the same place where he was fatally shot, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
Police News Affairs did not immediately have any detailed information on the circumstances of the shooting, but Sweeney said no one was in jug.
Less than half a mile away from the evening killing, a 33-year-old man was shot to death about 1:45 p.m. in the 1100 block of North Leclaire Avenue, said Officer Nicole Trainor, a police spokeswoman.
A man and a 55-year-old woman were both maimed in the shooting. The woman told officers a gunman approached, shot the man and then fled on foot, Trainor said.
The man suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He's dead, Jim! a short time later. He was identified as Christopher Ruffin, of the 3400 block of West Superior Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Earlier, officials said Ruffin was living in Richton Park, but that information was not correct.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
"Black Lives Don't Matter - in Chicago"
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/25/2015 0:13
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Top||
#2
Where's the gain in power and extortion in that? Since even the dead vote (loyally), live or dead doesn't matter.
[ABCNEWS.GO] A long-standing dispute sparked a shooting at a crowded North Carolina shopping mall on Christmas Eve, police said, and an off-duty officer fatally shot a man who pointed a gun in his direction.
Police said no one else was shot and there were no other reports of injuries. The shooting was not a random act but rather the result of a feud among people who knew each other -- though there was no indication it was gang-related, Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said.
During the fight, a weapon was brandished and shots were fired about 2 p.m. at Northlake Mall in Charlotte, Putney said. Shoppers who were crowding the mall for last-minute gifts hid in stores and locked themselves inside, officials said. Police could be seen blocking all mall entrances.
Jake Wallace, 24, of Boone, North Carolina, was in Dick's Sporting Goods when shots rang out nearby -- about 30 feet outside the store, near Journey's shoe store on the lower level, according to police.
"I thought someone dropped something. It was extremely loud. Didn't think anything of it," Wallace said. "You don't think gunshots. But then I heard a rapid fire. Once hearing that, there was no mistaking it. It sounded like someone was unloading a clip."
Chaos erupted as shoppers dove for cover or tried to get out the door, Wallace said.
Don Willis, who works as a valet at the mall, said he heard gunshots, then saw a wave of people exiting the mall.
"It was wild. I heard the first shot and I thought, 'Wait. What was that?' And kind of like started turning around and walking and saw this huge line of people -- wave of people coming -- and I thought a bomb was about to go off, and I just took off," he said.
Putney said Officer Thomas Ferguson was working off-duty at the mall when he heard the shots and confronted the man who pointed a gun in his direction.
The officer then "fired his service weapon," Putney said. The suspect was given emergency aid, but medics pronounced him dead He's dead, Jim! shortly afterward, officials said. Police identified him as Daquan Antonio Westbrook, 18.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
BlackLivesMatter asshats set to protest at the mall in 3----2----1..
[The Hindu] A team of intelligence officials are rushing to Delhi after they discovered that one Hyderabadi boy was spotted in the company of al-Qaeda murderous Moslems on Afghanistan-Pakistain border.
The boy with the nom de guerre of 'Omar Hyderabadi', was reportedly spotted at a terrorist camp of al-Qaeda in a remote area on Af-Pak border by members of a module of al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) which was recently busted by Delhi Special Police.
Except the bare details, the module didn't know precise details of Omar but they confirmed that the youngster from Hyderabad was part of the AQIS network.
"For the first time a Hyderabadi's name having connections with al-Qaeda cropped up," said top intelligence officials.
They had information that Omar was from either Chanchalguda or Barkas localities. Their inquiries indicated that Omer had flown to one of the Gulf countries a few years ago and had come in contact with the terrorist network and through them approached Pakistain's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) officials.
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[MB.PH] A Basilan ...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts... -based commander of the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... Group (ASG) and his security escort were apprehended by a composite police and military team at a local wharf in this city Wednesday morning, a few minutes after the bandit leader disembarked from a ferry boat.
Zamboanga City Police Director Sr. Supt. Angelito Casimiro yesterday identified the tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! ASG leader and his escort as Commander Suhod and Abu Haris, respectively.
The two were arrested at around 8 a.m. Wednesday, minutes after they disembarked from M/V Anika, a ferry boat serving the Zamboanga City -- Isabela City, Basilan route.
Casimiro said Commander Suhod was one of the leaders involved in the kidnapping of the employees of the Golden Harvest Farm in Basilan province few years ago.
The arrested men are now in jug of the Philippine National Police-Anti-Kidnapping Group for proper processing.
Casimiro said the arrest of Suhod was a result of an information they received from their informant, who tipped them on the arrival of Suhod in this city.
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12/25/2015
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[ALMANAR.LB] Yemeni army and popular committees fired a toshka (SS-21 Scarab) missile on al-Anad military base in the southern Yemeni province of restive Lahj ... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement , killing and injuring dozens of Saudi-led forces and mercenaries.
Yemeni sources first reported the missile attack which is part of the army and committees' retaliation for the brutal attack by the Saudi-led aggression against the Arab impoverished country.
Sabaa news agency then quoted army front man, Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman as confirming the rocket attack. Toshka missile attack
"The missile unit targeted a gathering for the aggression forces in al-Anad military base with a Toshka ballistic missile," Luqman announced.
The front man praised the army and the committees, saying the rocket hit its target with high level of accuracy, noting that the attack came after intelligence surveillance activity.
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#1
Sure not payin off to be a merc in this war.
Posted by: chris ||
12/25/2015 9:32
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#2
The payoff is gorgeous, just not for the payers or payees...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2015 12:02
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#3
Don't bunch up. People getting lazy in the threat assessment department and a lack of skills in operating beyond fixed installations. Or the Saudis might consider anti-theater ballistic missile capabilities to cover their asses.
[ALMANAR.LB] Preparations are taking place in south of the Syrian capital to take the bandidosbandidos hard boys of the so-called 'Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group out of the region in the coming hours.
Main points are the AL-Hajar Al-Aswad neighborhood and some parts of the Yarmouk Paleostinian refugee camp.
Buses were brought to evacuate ISIL the gunnies, who began two days ago to remove barriers and open roads between the Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and the Al-Qadam and Sabina areas.
Some of the bandidosbandidos hard boys want to go to the northern province of Raqqa, while the majority would prefer to cross into the city Mare` in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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[Tolo News] As embattled Afghan troops continue to battle forces of Evil in volatile Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , volunteers in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... city on Thursday flocked to blood banks to donate blood to help maimed soldiers - a move widely hailed by local residents.
The volunteers paid homage to troops who continue to battle forces of Evil in the volatile province. They have in turn called on the nation to support the security forces that fight the terrorists.
"We are proud of the national army, national police and all other security organs - personnel who bravely and courageously defend our national pride, dignity, the motherland and the dignity of the people of Afghanistan and offer sacrifices of their lives in this way. Our blood is nothing, even we can donate our lives to them," civil society activist Dr. Nisar Ahmad Musaddiq said.
"As the security forces continue to fight the enemies of Afghanistan, we are prepared to donate our blood, we can fight shoulder to shoulder with the security forces if needed," a member of Herat provincial council Ghulam Habib Hashemi said.
The volunteers have called on the people across the country to come forward in support of the security forces.
"A blood donation campaign is underway here, I came to donate blood and hope that the rest of our countrymen also participate and donate blood to those who are in need of it," Herat resident Mohammad Taha Sadiq said.
Health officials have said that a large amount of blood has so far have been collected and part of it will be donated to provincial hospitals.
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12/25/2015
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[TODAYSZAMAN] Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday accused pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas of "treason" for criticizing the downing of a Russian jet by Turkish F-16s near the Syrian border last month.
Demirtas visited Moscow on Wednesday and met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks. Speaking at the start of the meeting, he said the downing of the Russian warplane was "not right."
"They take sides with whoever The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is facing a crisis with. Demirtas saying in Moscow that Turkey's downing of the Russian jet was wrong is a total disgrace and treason," Davutoglu told a meeting of businessmen in Ankara.
"Our main duty is to raise our voice against Russian cruelty. Supporting Russia while it kills civilians in Syria is treason not only against this country but also against humanity."
Responding to Davutoglu, the HDP said the prime minister's remarks are "unacceptable."
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12/25/2015
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[TODAYSZAMAN] Ankara is looking to revive military cooperation with Israel and looks forward to purchasing key technologies like advanced UAVs and reconnaissance and surveillance systems from Tel Aviv, sources told Today's Zaman.
To the dismay and protest of regional countries and its Arab allies, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in the mid-1990s cultivated closer ties with Israel on the military front and carried out joint modernization programs with the Israeli military. Facing an embargo from Western countries over reports of human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... abuses in its fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Southeast during the tumultuous 1990s, Turkey turned to Israel to reinforce its depleted arsenal and bought much-needed military equipment. At the time, Turkey found in Israel a reliable ally to count on and signed treaties in military cooperation, a development during the Welfare Party (RP)-led government in 1997 that sent alarm bells across capitals in the region.
The close relationship was most evident and visible when Israeli pilots were trained in Turkish airspace, using an air base in Konya. The relationship took a dramatic turn, however, when Israeli navy forces cracked down on activists on the Mavi Marmara ship bringing humanitarian aid to Gazoo in 2010.
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[AA.TR] Germany is withdrawing its Patriot missile systems from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , about three years after bringing them in.
Sources from the Turkish port of Iskenderun said the Danish ship with the patriot missile systems left Turkey on Tuesday. The ship is headed to Germany.
The German government has previously said that the mandate of the mission would end on January 2016.
Germany had deployed Patriot batteries in the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras in January 2013, as part of a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... mission to counter possible threats from Syria.
Germany provided two of five NATO batteries and around 250 personnel for the mission.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
If Turkey is going to throw in with Iran and Syria, they don't need that stuff, right?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2015 9:22
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraq's intelligence service said Thursday it detained 40 members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group as part of a major operation in Baghdad and Diyala provinces.
"The Iraqi national intelligence service, in coordination with Baghdad and Diyala security forces, carried out an operation which resulted in the arrest of 40 members of varying rank," a statement said.
Diyala is a province just northeast of the capital where ISIS has not had fixed positions in almost a year but has carried out several deadly suicide boom-mobileings.
"Many bombs, suicide belts and cars used by the holy warriors were seized, as well as large amounts of money they used to fund their criminal activities," the statement said.
The intelligence service said the detained ISIS members had requested assistance from cells in other parts of the country, suggesting the group is weakened in Baghdad.
The swoop was the continuation of an operation that had already resulted in more than 30 arrests and the dismantling of a boom-mobile-making cell in Baghdad in March.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Brussels police have locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a man in connection with the Nov. 13 murderous Moslem attacks in Gay Paree which killed 130 people, federal prosecutors said on Thursday, bringing the total number of arrests in Belgium to nine.
The man was arrested earlier this week but prosecutors kept it quiet in order not to alert potential accomplices, a front man for federal prosecutors said. More details will be released later on Thursday, he said.
Belgian newspaper DH reported that the man arrested had been contacted by Hasna Ait Boulahcen, who gave shelter to the presumed ringleader of the Gay Paree attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Boulahcen and Abaaoud were both killed in a police raid days after the attacks.
On Monday police detained five people in several searches in Brussels, but all were released later that day.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Wednesday, Baghdad Operations Command announced the continuation of the liberalization operations south of Fallujah, while indicated to the killing of 30 terrorists and the dismantlement of 45 improvised explosive devices.
The spokesman of Baghdad Operations Command Saad Maan said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The heroes of Baghdad Operations Command are continuing the liberation operations in southern Fallujah (62 km west of the capital), dismantling 45 improvised explosive devices and cleansing the liberated areas.”
Maan noted, “The SWAT team managed to kill eight terrorists and dismantle 12 improvised explosive devices in Naemeh area,” indicating that, “The army’s sixth brigade killed 13 terrorists and destructed two vehicles belonging to the enemy in Ma’ameer area.”
“The army’s seventeenth brigade were able to kill nine terrorists, while dismantled 33 improvised explosive devices and destructed three sites for the enemy in Bostan al-Tikriti area,” he also added.
KOBANE – After one day of starting its military operations in the southern countryside of Kobane, the Kurdish-Arab alliance of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expelled militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) from six villages in the area, military sources confirmed on Thursday.
The SDF, which has earlier recaptured more than 220 villages and towns in Hasakah province from ISIS, announced on Wednesday evening the start of a new military campaign against the extremist group south of Kobane.
“Hours after launching the anti-Daesh campaign south of Kobane, our (SDF) units regained six villages from the terror group,” said SDF spokesman Vidan Zinar, using another acronym for ISIS.
Units of the SDF, which include Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, have regained the villages of Saharij, Jabbad, Abidat, Marwaha, Mazra’a and al-Mansiyah near Kobane after bombing ISIS positions with heavy artillery.
The SDF spokesman confirmed the death of at least ten ISIS militant fighters in the operation, adding that the rest “escaped the area towards their headquarters in northern Aleppo”.
The western-backed alliance has also seized a large deal of ammunition and three ISIS vehicles in Thursday’s operation.
Speaking to ARA News in Kobane, Kurdish member of the SDF Sarhad Abbas said their units are now preparing to storm ISIS headquarters near Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River.
“Liberating Tishreen Dam from the terror group would cut one of the main ISIS supply lines, as it links Raqqa province with Manbij city in the northern countryside of Aleppo,” the source said.
DAMASCUS – At least 17 civilians were killed and 25 others injured in renewed airstrikes by the Syrian regime’s air force near the capital Damascus, local sources reported on Thursday.
Syrian fighter jets launched several raids on the opposition-held district of Hammuriyah in southeastern Damascus.
“The raids caused mass destruction in residential buildings and shops in central Hammuriyah in the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus countryside,” civil rights activist Muhammad Nasser told ARA News in Damascus.
“The civil defense activists have collected the bodies of 17 victims, while more than 25 others were pulled from the rubble and transferred to a field hospital for treatment,” Nasser said.
A medical source in the targeted district told ARA News that activists were searching for victims under the rubble until the midnight on Thursday.
“There are more victims under the ruins of the destroyed buildings but the lack of equipment prevents the activists from rescuing them,” the source said, adding that the injured are in need for intensive care while the field hospital suffers sharp shortage of staff and medicines.
“The death toll will definitely increase in the coming hours if we do not receive the needed supplies urgently,” the source said.
Armed rebel groups are in control of Hammuriyah district. The Syrian regime forces have repeatedly bombed the district and its surroundings in Eastern Ghouta after accusing the rebels of using the area as a basis from which they shell regime-held neighborhoods in central Damascus.
[Miramar, FL] The unidentified employee was seen getting into the back of a police car Wednesday night as the body of the gunman remained inside the restaurant. Police were waiting for a search warrant to inspect the body for identification, Rues said.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] China should play a more active role in fighting Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a senior figure in a body that advises Iran's Supreme Leader said on Thursday, according to the country's Fars news agency.
China relies on the Middle East for oil supplies, but tends to leave diplomacy there to other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britannia, La Belle France and Russia.
"China can significantly help the regional peace and stability by becoming more active in the fight against the Islamic State," said Mohsen Rezaei, who has the title of Secretary of the Expediency Council, after meeting members of a Chinese delegation in Tehran.
China has called for greater coordination after attacks in Mali and Gay Paree and the downing of a Russian warplane by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , but has long said there is no military solution in Syria, with state media criticizing the West and Russia for air strikes.
But this month a Chinese-language song purportedly released by Islamic State put Chinese officials on alert that they need closer global cooperation against Islamist militancy.
Beijing warns that some members of the Muslim Uighur ethnic group, from the western region of Xinjiang, have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Rezaei said if China plays a more significant role in the fight against ISIS, "Iran can fight against Islamic extremism in Central Asia through cultural activities and interaction with Chinese Muslim community."
Shiite power Iran has ramped up its military presence in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS controls large areas. The Sunni Islamist group views Shiites as heretics.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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[TODAYSZAMAN] Imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, one of the actors in the Kurdish settlement process who has remained silent recently despite the chaos prevailing in the Southeast, will apparently reemerge as a figure in future talks on the Kurdish issue and a new constitution under the government's control, many experts have agreed.
As tensions in the Kurdish-dominated eastern and southeastern regions of the country run high due to constant festivities between security forces and the PKK, Öcalan seems to be one of the trump cards in the government's hands for the post-conflict process that may usher in the resumption of the derailed Kurdish settlement process.
Future Kurdish talks might run simultaneously with the discussion on a comprehensive change to the Constitution into a more democratic one based on equality among the diverse ethnic groups of the country. The future talks are expected to take place after the PKK is crippled by security forces in the ongoing military operations in the Southeast. Intensified operations have been targeting the gunnies since the summer to deal a serious blow to the PKK and its influence in the region.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chairman Ümit Özdag argued on Wednesday the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the PKK and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) had reached a consensus on giving autonomy to Kurds, releasing Öcalan from prison and the return of PKK gunnies nested in Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
Özdag further claimed the deal is based on Kurds granting support for Erdogan's long-desired intention to replace the current parliamentary system with an executive presidential system that will pave the way for one-man rule. In return, the government will recognize Kurds' right to autonomously govern the Southeast.
When the AK Party under then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
launched the Kurdish settlement process in 2012 with the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) holding regular talks with Öcalan, who is being held in a prison in Imrali Island, and the HDP, there was a glimmer of hope on finding a solution to the Kurdish issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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[BREITBART] 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.... (IS) is in the process of installing a "little emirate" in the East African nation of Somalia, where the rule of law is virtually non-existent and the government holds very little sway.
Islamic State jihadis are fighting over turf with Al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... , the Al Qaeda-linked krazed killer Islamist group that has long been the predominant caliphatist outfit in east Africa. Al-Shabaab has even publicly threatened Islamic State converts with immediate execution, according to the Washington Post, which estimates that a few dozen people have pledged to IS despite the threats.
But another report surfacing Thursday claims 200 Al-Shabaab fighters have abandoned their group for the Islamic State. Kenya's police chief told the AP that the IS franchise is already operating on the Kenya-Somalia border and has carried out several attacks in recent weeks.
Even with the United States dedicating its own troops (and hundreds of millions of dollars) to helping train Somalia's military against Islamist insurgencies, they have made little progress to combat the threats posed by the Islamic krazed killers, largely because the government's reach into society is severely limited.
Moreover, the government has often capitulated to the demands of Al-Shabaab, which is known to target non-Muslims in its terror operations. This week, the government banned Christmas celebrations, worrying that publicly respecting the Christian holiday would lead to an Al-Shabaab attack.
Islamic State continues to grow slowly in Somalia, with Muslim holy mans becoming inspired by their successes in the Middle East and North Africa.
"Right now, [Islamic State is] the best propaganda machine going," Matt Bryden, a Somalia expert at Sahan Research, told the Washington Post. "It would give [Islamic State] entry to Kenya without lifting a finger," he warned.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
The majority of Al-Shahab is repor sworn or aligned to AL-Qaeda, NOT the ISIS/ISIL.
As per the post-MO Afghan-Taliban-vs-ISIS in Afghanistan, don't be surpirsed iff we see similar occur in Somalia in due time - ditto ala the BOKO HARAM BOYZ.
#4
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Posted by: Matt ||
12/25/2015 10:34
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#5
All of their points about the "white men" left out the fact they were Democrats, the party of slavery.
#6
Please let us know where this is published to avoid driving traffic to Salon.
A legitimate point, whitecollar redneck. badanov had originally presented the entire editorial with the in-lines it cries out for; unfortunately, I revealed a hitherto unsuspected bug in the current iteration of the Rantburg program when I Page 49'd it, which deleted the text.
I was raised democrat but was in college during part of the civil rights movement. When I realized that all of the governors, police chiefs, etc., that were standing on the steps of the colleges and siccing the dogs on the marchers were DEMOCRATS, I left the party and vowed never to EVER vote for one again.
The current theme of the democrats has done nothing since offer any temptation of returning to their fold.
I turned 21 in 1966 and my first vote in a Presidential election was for Richard Nixon.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/25/2015 20:12
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#10
Soooooo IIUC, one more PCoorect-Deniable reason among several already as to why-n-how Humanity won't be exploring or colonizing Deep Space in righteous Anti-Solar, Anti-GWCC, etc. indignation???
You know, THE REASON WHY "OWG" + "GLOBAL GOVT." IS AKA "SPACE GOVT-ORDER".
[FAMILY GUY'S GREAT IRISHMAN PETE GRIFFITH STARING ANGRILY/MENACINGLY AT THE SUN, THE SAME "FEELING ALL HAUGHTY + SAFE-N-SECURE UP THERE", here].
Oh yes, Sun, you will surrender like France to Peter + Earth, oh yes you will!
I don't have to bring up Guam Taotamonas 1960'S-1970'S = 2014 "EDGE OF TOMORROW" and
"INTERSTELLAR" do I???
[ABCNEWS.GO] An Arizona man already accused of helping plan an attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas in the spring also planned to fight with 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 and inquired about explosives to attack a Super Bowl game, an indictment states.
The document released Wednesday charges Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Prosecutors allege he researched traveling to the Middle East to fight alongside the group and inquired about the types of explosives that would be needed to blow up a mall and the stadium in metro Phoenix where the 2015 Super Bowl was held.
Kareem's attorney, Daniel Maynard, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on Thursday.
Kareem is accused of researching the trip and seeking the pipe bomb information with Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, who were killed in a May 3 shootout with police outside the cartoon contest in Garland, Texas.
An earlier indictment accused Kareem of providing the guns used in that attack, hosting the gunnies in his home to discuss the contest, and practicing shooting with Simpson and Soofi in the desert outside Phoenix.
The new charge alleges he encouraged Simpson and Soofi to carry out violence in the United States in support of Islamic State and impose retribution for U.S. military actions in the Middle East.
A section of the indictment describing Simpson and Soofi's trip to the cartoon contest says they were carrying a printed paper version of the Islamic State flag.
Cosme Lopez, a front man for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, which is prosecuting Kareem, declined to say whether authorities believe the Texas attack was carried out on behalf of Islamic State.
Maynard previously said the case was trumped up and based largely on an unreliable confidential informant.
Maynard has sought to stop prosecutors from using al-Qaeda promotional materials found in Kareem's possession as evidence during his trial. A ruling has not yet been made on the request.
The indictment says Kareem, Simpson and Soofi began in 2014 to conspire to support Islamic State and considered targeting military bases, individual military service members, shopping malls and the Super Bowl.
It says Simpson and Soofi drove to Yuma and other spots in Arizona near military installations after discussing the plan to attack bases.
In a bizarre turn, authorities say Kareem faked having being struck by a car in a parking lot and later tried to make an insurance claim in a scheme intended to support the conspiracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2015
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#1
Arizona man. Yeah, that's a real vato name he's got there...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2015 9:24
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#2
...yeah, and we need to import more. (Do I need to put a /sarc on that?)
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A fire tore through the intensive care unit and the maternity ward of a Saudi hospital before dawn on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and injuring 123, officials said.
The fire broke out at the general hospital in the southwestern port city of Jazan, the capital of the Jizan region, one of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's poorest areas.
The civil defence agency said 25 people died but a later statement by Health Minister Khalid al-Falih put the corpse count at 24. Two of the dead were security guards and one was a child, officials said.
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A Houston-based restaurant chain has declared itself “politically incorrect” in the spirit of Christmas.
Two weeks ago, five locations of Berryhill Baja Grill posted signs on its respective restaurant doors, warning individuals that staff may greet them with “Merry Christmas” or say “God bless America.”
The signs read: "Notice. This store is politically incorrect. We say Merry Christmas. God bless America. We salute our flag and give thanks to our troops, police officers and firefighters. If this offends you, you are welcome to leave. In God we trust."
Berryhill CEO Jeff Anon directed staff at the franchise locations to post the signs after becoming fed up with what he believed to be anti-Christmas sentiments around the holiday-- the last straw was Starbucks' decision to put out generic red cups this year, reports KTRK.
"I don't think anybody means anything bad or mean when they say Merry Christmas, and I just thought somebody had to stand up and say enough of this," Anon said.
[IsraelTimes] Fathi Hamad, former interior minister known as one of the most radical figures in terror group, funded and trained cell; is in touch with IS in Sinai
The man behind a Hamas terror cell uncovered by the Shin Bet domestic security agency in the West Bank is former Hamas interior minister Fathi Hamad, Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel Wednesday. Hamad, considered one of the strongest Hamas figures in the Gaza Strip, often operates independently of the organization’s political branch. Hamad was instrumental in pushing the “West Bank branch” terror cell of suicide bombers, directed by him and other Hamas figures in Gaza, according to sources.
On Wednesday, Israeli officials from the Shin Bet security service announced they had busted a Hamas terror ring in the Palestinian town of Abu Dis planning suicide bombings and other attacks. The use of suicide bombings by Hamas have not been seen since the Second Intifada over a decade ago, and it remains unclear how other Hamas officials treated Hamad’s initiative.
“The West Bank branch” was founded by officials in Hamas’s military wing, and is comprised of former prisoners released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit swap that were deported to the Gaza Strip.
Heading the branch is Abd el-Rahman Animath, of the Tzurif cell that kidnapped IDF soldier Sharon Edri, and Mazen Fuqah, a former Jenin resident who was responsible for suicide bombings during the Second Intifada.
Hamad is well-known as one of the most radical figures in Hamas today. He is suspected of a string of bombings near the houses of Fatah operatives, and is thought to be in contact with Salafi organizations and Islamic State fighters in the Sinai Peninsula. He assists the “West Bank branch” both with funding and military instruction.
While the Shin Bet released information on the busted terror cell on Wednesday, details of the group have reached the Palestinian Authority over a week ago. Hamad is also one of the central figures opposing reconciliation with the PA.
As part of his role in the Hamas government, he was responsible for its security services in Gaza and is influential within the Hamas military wing.
The Shin Bet, alongside the IDF and Israel Police, have thus far arrested 25 Hamas operatives, the majority of them students at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, who they suspect were preparing to attack Israeli targets, the agency said in a statement. The arrests were carried out over the past few weeks.
The service also uncovered a makeshift laboratory in Abu Dis, in East Jerusalem, which was being used to create the explosives necessary for bombing attacks. It said the cell was controlled by Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip.
“This case reveals and highlights again the involvement of the military arm of Hamas from the Gaza Strip, which operates continuously with the intent of carrying out mass-casualty attacks within Israel and the West Bank,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
[IsraelTimes] The Shin Bet uncovered a large Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terror cell, among whose members were Israeli citizens, which planned to carry out suicide kabooms and other terror attacks in Israel, the security service revealed on Wednesday.
The PA's warning was based on information gleaned from interrogations of Hamas operatives tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! by PA security services, which showed that the terror group's leaders in Gazoo and abroad have sent orders to local commanders to escalate their activities -- from encouraging protests and stabbing attacks to more dramatic and deadly assaults on Israeli civilians.
The ringleader of this terror plot uncovered by the Shin Bet was 24-year-old Ahmad Jamal Mousa Azzam from Qalqilya in the West Bank.
Azzam was recruited by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, operatives from the Gazoo Strip in order to set up a terror cell in the West Bank. The 24-year-old remained in constant contact with his controllers in the Strip, the Shin Bet said.
Hamas taught Azzam, a student from Al-Quds University in Abu Dis with campuses in east Jerusalem and al-Birah, how to create boom belts and vests, as well as improvised explosive devises which could be used against both civilians and security forces.
Once he became a member of Hamas, Azzam recruited other students from his university who assisted him in every aspect of the plot, from renting apartments to use as laboratories to purchasing the chemicals and materials necessary to create the explosives, as well as volunteering to act as jacket wallahs in the planned attacks, according to the Shin Bet.
Two of the people Azzam recruited were Israeli citizens who would be able to move more freely within Israel than West Bank Paleostinians.
Hazem Ziad Amran Sandouqa, a 22-year-old resident of Jerusalem's Old City, purchased some of the materials necessary to create the explosives and also provided intelligence on potential Israeli targets.
Fahdi Daoud Muhammad Abu Qaian, a 19-year-old Bedouin Israeli from the Negev, agreed to actually carry out an attack, the Shin Bet said.
During Abu Qaian's interrogation he revealed to officers that he had accepted Azzam's request in October to either carry out a suicide kaboom with an explosive vest or drive an exploding car into some Israeli target.
The two Israeli citizens also confessed to the Shin Bet that they support 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.... and other Salafi terrorist groups.
In addition to those directly involved in carrying out the attacks, the Shin Bet also found others who assisted Azzam in purchasing the materials necessary. Some of the chemicals and equipment found in the laboratory were purchased within Israel, the service found, while others were purchased in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"In our checks of the materials and equipment that were seized in that location, it became clear that this was a laboratory that was prepared to create meaningful quantities of different kinds of explosive materials,” the security service said.
In addition to the Abu Dis terror cell, the Shin Bet also busted a Bethlehem-based group that was also associated with Azzam. Some of its members also came from Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, and were recruited in order to serve as suicide bombers, the agency said.
Issa Nasser Issa Shoka, a 19-year-old student at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, agreed to carry out a suicide kaboom and also to help Azzam transfer money between the West Bank and Gazoo.
Shoka acted as one of the leaders of the Bethlehem cell, recruiting Muhammad Waleed Ahmad Sarhkhan, 20, as well as Muhammad Na'im Issa Ali, 19, to carry out a suicide kaboom and other attacks, the Shin Bet said.
"The planned wave of terror attacks proves that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, led by its military wing, has removed itself from the terrible distress of the population of the [Gazoo] Strip," the agency added.
#1
Hamas controls Gaza and must take responsibility for the welfare of its people.
Yet despite Hamas unrelenting hostility Israel persists in supplying electricity and water to Gaza and in allow transportation into it.
Why not force Hamas to surrender b y turning off the water and electricity and closing all entry points until it surrenders,
The terms of surrender should be arrest of all militants, and supervised disarmament.
If Hamas decides to fight, respond, but allow no external supply of any kind.
[ALMANAR.LB] More of the terrorists' hideouts and vehicles are getting destroyed as the army units targeted their positions and sites in various areas across the country, state-run SANA news agency reported.
In Aleppo, army units destroyed targeted positions of the so-called 'Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group in the villages of Sharbaa, Rasm al-Kabir and Rasm al-Kama in the eastern countryside of the province.
A military source told SANA that hideouts and vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns were destroyed in the operations.
More vehicles for ISIL faceless myrmidons were destroyed in al-Bab city, 38 km northeast of Aleppo city, and in the surroundings of al-Nairab Airport, 10 km east of the city.
Al-Nusra Front-linked faceless myrmidons had some of their centers hit and destroyed by the army units in Orum al-Kubra and al-Zirbeh villages in western and southwestern Aleppo.
In the northwestern countryside, an army unit directly hit gatherings of faceless myrmidons in Hreitan town, leaving many of them dead and destroying their weapons and vehicles.
Sites of al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... faceless myrmidons were targeted in the neighborhoods of al-Lairamoun, Bani Zaid, al-Sakhour, al-Sheikh Khodr and al-Rashidin in Aleppo city.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian activists and 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.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group say the hard boyz have seized a district previously held by Syrian troops in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour.
The industrial district of Deir el-Zour fell to the group late Wednesday following an attack and fierce festivities between the two sides.
The ISIS-affiliated Aamaq news agency said Thursday that the group began its attack on the district with three successive suicide operations that struck Syrian army outposts inside.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the ISIS capture of the district.
The city in the country's east is held mostly by ISIS but Syrian troops control a few districts inside and the Deir el-Zour airport on the outskirts of the city.
Families of ISIS fighters to leave south Damascus in U.N. deal Shouldn't they be sold into slavery?
Hundreds of families of ISIS hard boyz and some injured fighters are expected to leave rebel-held areas in southern Damascus under a U.N.-brokered deal, a monitor said on Thursday.
Rami Abdulraham, head of the UK-based Observatory for Human Rights, said safe passage would be given from the Paleostinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on the outskirts of Damascus and neighboring Hajar al Aswad.
The families and some fighters will be taken to the ultra-hardline myrmidon group's stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria and other ISIS-controlled areas over several months, ultimately ending the group's presence in areas near the Syrian capital.
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[TIMESOFISRAEL] If Hezbollah attacks Israel in retaliation for the alleged Israeli liquidation of terror chief Samir Kuntar, Israel should direct its own response not at Hezbollah alone, but at the state of Leb in which it operates, former National Security Council chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland said Wednesday.
Since a full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war will likely involve many thousands of rockets falling on Israel's civilian population centers, while Israeli strikes against Hezbollah alone will leave the world "indifferent" to the results of the conflict, Eiland wrote in an oped in the Ynet news site.
The goal of a broader assault on Leb, the former head of the IDF's planning and operations branches explained, would be to raise the costs for both Hezbollah's allies and the international community, leading to pressure on Hezbollah to cease rocket fire on Israeli cities.
"If and when hostile activities begin from Lebanese territory, [Israel] should lead to a war between the State of Israel and the state of Leb. In the Second Leb War we tried to defeat Hezbollah alone, leaving the state of Leb, its government, army and infrastructure 'out of the game.' If that's the way we run the third Leb war, the results will be a lot grimmer than in the previous war."
While Israel "allegedly" improved its capabilities against Hezbollah since 2006, "Hezbollah has relatively improved much more than we have," Eiland wrote. "So if there is such a conflict, and if it lasts 34 days (like the Second Leb War), the damage, casualties and destruction in the State of Israel will be unbearable."
That leads to a "simple" conclusion: "The next war will be waged against the state of Leb. In addition to Hezbollah targets, we should also attack the Lebanese army, the infrastructures in Leb, the airports and seaports and any other strategic assets. Since no one in the world (Syria and Iran on the one hand, and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Europe and the United States on the other hand) is interested in Leb's destruction, and since that will be the inevitable result of an all-out war between Israel and Leb, there will be huge global pressure on all sides to reach a ceasefire after three days rather than after 34 days, and that's exactly what Israel needs."
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#1
Why wouldn't Israel just attack Iran if their lapdog Hezbollah attacks Israel?
Otherwise they are just playing the game .
#2
There a lot of dead nuc researchers in Iran who would say that Israel has been attacking Iran. And yes, Israel should drop a few reminders on Iran to to give them second thoughts.
[YAHOO] Kenyan police warned Thursday of the risk of attacks by Islamist Shabaab murderous Moslems claiming they had split into rival factions, with some shifting allegiance from Al-Qaeda to 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.... .
"They have split, and as a result of the split, particularly those ones along ideological lines or religious lines are very keen to promote that competition by proving a point," police chief Joseph Boinnet told news hounds Thursday, as Kenyans prepare to celebrate Christmas in the east African nation.
"They plan to prove a point by staging attacks," Boinnet added, without giving more specific details.
"That makes us in real and present danger of being hit by those murderous elements."
The Shabaab, East Africa's long-time Al-Qaeda branch, is headquartered in Somalia where it is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, which is protected by 22,000 African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops, including Kenyan soldiers.
The Islamists have lost much ground in recent years but remain a threat in both Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, where factions have carried out a series of attacks, including the killing of at least 67 people at Nairobi's Westgate Mall in 2013 and the massacre of 148 people at a university in Garissa in April.
The holy warriors say the attacks are retaliation for the Kenyan military presence in Somalia and "war crimes" committed by Kenyan troops.
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Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
The money quote:
The aircraft finally landed in Kandahar in Afghanistan. Kandahar, at the time, was controlled by the Taliban. Armed Taliban forces had surrounded the aircraft at the Kandahar airport. Some reports suggest that the Taliban, desperate for international recognition, wanted to play mediate between the hijackers and the Indian government. But India declined.
It was clear to the Indian authorities that the hijackers had the backing of the Taliban. Amidst stiff domestic resistance, a team of officials led by the MEA Joint Secretary, Vivek Katju and RAW officials flew to Kandahar to carry out the negotiations which was centred around securing the safe release of the passengers. On 31 December, 1999, the passengers were released after India swapped its prisoners.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Thursday, a source in the army’s eighth mechanized infantry division in Anbar Province stated, that the engineering unit managed to cleanse al-Thubat and al-Aramel areas south of Ramadi, while dismantled hundreds of improvised explosive devices in the city.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “A force from the engineering unit of the army’s eighth division managed to cleanse al-Thubat and al-Aramel areas south of Ramadi, while dismantled hundreds of improvised explosive devices in its roads and buildings.”
“An army force clashed with ISIS elements south of Ramadi, killing 20 of the organization’s elements including 2 snipers and inflicting human and material losses upon them,” he added.
Noteworthy, the Anti-Terrorism, police and army forces managed to liberate the areas of al-Thubat, al-Aramel, and al-Bakr south of Ramadi during the past couple of days.
[THEHILL] Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley says plans to deport hundreds of illegal immigrants in a series of raids are not befitting of the Christmas season. “A Christmas Refugee Roundup sounds like something [Donald Trump] would concoct,” O’Malley tweeted Thursday. “Remember: Jesus was a refugee child who fled death gangs.”
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under:
#6
...You know how I know O'Mallethead has never read Scripture?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/25/2015 10:26
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#7
Yeah, but he didn't take an EBT card and he didn't try to impose sharia on anybody.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/25/2015 15:08
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#8
I love (/sarc) how these hopelessly ignorant atheists try to tell me what Christianity is. I wonder if the muslims feel the same way when the morons do it to them?
#10
So was Mohammad. Again, turned out bad for those that took him in.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/25/2015 21:49
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#11
The Holy Family fled because Herod had been told that the King of the Jews had been born in his land. He saw that as a threat to his power and feared usurpation.
Nowadays, O'Malley and his ilk still deal with usurpers and threats. True, some backward places like Arkansas still do "mysterious auto accidents". And there is the rare falling-out-of-the-window or the "suicide" in a remote area. But nowadays it's more about character assassination, even if it has to be fabricated. Sooo much more civilized, doncha think?
[TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES] After spending 444 days in captivity, and more than 30 years seeking restitution, the Americans taken hostage at the United States embassy in Tehran in 1979 have finally won compensation.
Buried in the huge spending bill signed into law last Friday are provisions that would give each of the 53 hostages or their estates up to $4.4 million.
Victims of other statesponsored terrorist attacks such as the 1998 American embassy bombings in East Africa would also be eligible for benefits under the law.
"I had to pull over to the side of the road, and I basically cried," said Rodney V Sickmann, who was a Marine sergeant working as a security guard at the embassy in Tehran when he was seized along with the other Americans by an angry mob that overran the compound on November 4, 1979. "It has been 36 years, one month, 14 days, obviously, until President B.O. signed the actual bill, until Iran was held accountable," he said.
The law now stands to bring closure to a saga that riveted the nation and ruptured America's ties with Iran. The very agreement that won the hostages' release in 1981 barred them from seeking restitution.
Their legal claims wererepeatedly blocked in the courts, including an appeal denied by the Supreme Court. Congress tried but failed to pass laws granting them relief.
But this year, vindication came in a decision that forced the Gay Paree-based bank BNP Paribas to pay a $9 billion penalty for violating sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Some of that money was suddenly available for victims of state-sponsored terrorism. Congress was also motivated by many members' anger over the Iran nuclear accord, which was hailed earlier this year as a herald of warmer relations with the Islamic Theocratic Republic. Hostages were subject to physical and psychological torture during their long ordeal, and many regarded the thaw as frustrating and premature.
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#1
Buried in the huge spending bill signed into law last Friday are provisions that would give each of the 53 hostages or their estates up to $4.4 million.
I'm sure that will impress the widows and children of those left behind at Desert One.
[BUSINESSINSIDER] Afghan forces backed by U.S. air strikes pushed back a Taliban onslaught Thursday in a strategically important district in the southern Afghan province of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , officials said.
Sangin district had been besieged by the bully boyz for weeks before an uptick in the ferocity of the fight this week sparked concerns it could fall to Taliban control.
But civilian and military officials said Sangin remained in government hands after the United States conducted two Arclight airstrikes overnight, and Afghan military helicopters dropped food and ammunition to soldiers and police who had been surrounded and trapped inside the district army base for days.
The presence of a small contingent of British troops, who arrived in the Shorab base -- formerly Britannia's Camp Bastion during their Afghan combat mission -- on Wednesday had helped boost morale of both civilians and security forces, officials said.
Overnight, the Taliban captured parts of the center of Sangin district around the district governor's compound, but the Afghan forces, bolstered by reinforcements, soon succeeded in driving them further out, said Akhtar Muhammad, a police commander in Sangin.
"An hour later we recaptured that building and now we have it," he told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
In recent days, the Taliban assault has threatened to overrun Sangin, a major poppy-growing area in Helmand, raising alarm that Afghan forces were too overstretched to fend off the insurgency. The Taliban this week pronounced they had seized control of the district, but the claim was widely refuted by Afghan officials.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Taliban murderous Moslem group on Thursday condemned the renewal of sanctions by the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Security Council (UNSC) which include financial, travel and arms-trade restrictions on the group and its supporters.
"The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns the sanctions by the UNSC," states a statement released by the group.
Taliban statement further states that the sanctions would have a negative impact on the grinding of the peace processor.
"We see the above obstacles created in front of peace as an intentional effort to sabotage the grinding of the peace processor," the statement adds.
In another part of the statement, the group threatens to continue fighting until (according to them) an Islamic system is established.
The United Nations Security Council voted Monday to extend existing sanctions against the Taliban for another 18 months, expressing concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.
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[Tolo News] Government buildings and district police headquarters in Ghormach district in Badhgis province - including the center of the district - have been recaptured from the Taliban by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), confirmed officials.
Mohammad Reza Rezai, an Afghan National Army front man in Faryab said that on Thursday morning an operation was launched to retake Ghormach. The operation, under the leadership of the Afghan National Army and with the participation of Afghan National Police and the Afghan National air force, was successful.
According to Rezai, the center of Ghormach district had been under the Taliban control for about two months. When the Taliban captured the district a police commander and 11 other soldiers were killed, he said.
The Taliban has yet to comment on the recapture. However festivities are still underway in three parts of the district between government forces and the Lion of Islam group.
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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.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A record number of French Jews moved to Israel this year, an immigration official said on Thursday, citing anti-Semitic violence and economic insecurity in the European country as causes.
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
A Houston-based restaurant chain has declared itself “politically incorrect” in the spirit of Christmas.
[ALMANAR.LB] More of the terrorists' hideouts and vehicles are getting destroyed as the army units targeted their positions and sites in various areas across the country, state-run SANA news agency reported.
[THEHILL] Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley says plans to deport hundreds of illegal immigrants in a series of raids are not befitting of the Christmas season. “A Christmas Refugee Roundup sounds like something [Donald Trump] would concoct,” O’Malley tweeted Thursday. “Remember: Jesus was a refugee child who fled death gangs.”
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Taliban
