Federal authorities have joined the search for a teenager who was serving probation for killing four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck after invoking a defense that he suffered from "affluenza." Too affluent to appreciate the gravity of his crime, doncha know.
The Tarrant County district attorney's spokeswoman confirmed to The Dallas Morning News Thursday the U.S. Marshals Service is involved in the search for Ethan Couch, 18. The FBI says arrangements are being made for the bureau to join the search as well.
Couch is wanted on suspicion of violating his probation by failing to check in with his assigned officer. Suspicion? He failed to report and his probation officer went to his home address and found it vacant. He's gone. On Tuesday, lawyers for Couch confirmed that authorities had issued the juvenile equivalent of an arrest warrant. Investigators are also seeking the boy's mother, Tonya Couch, with whom he had been living. On Wednesday, Anderson expressed concern that Couch and his mother had fled the country. Ya think?
On the night of June 15, 2013, Couch drove his Ford pickup into a crowd of people who were attempting to assist a stranded motorist . Two passengers in the pickup suffered serious injuries when they were thrown from the vehicle, including one who can no longer move or talk.
Couch's attorneys claimed at trial that his irresponsible lifestyle was due to wealthy parents who coddled him. The teen was sentenced to 10 years of probation and ordered to attend a rehab facility.
It's one of those times when you hate to say 'I told you so,' but I told you so," Anderson said. "I knew he was going to end up in more trouble." Nah, he ain't in trouble no more. Mommy is protecting him in some tropical paradise that has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Maybe Libya.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/18/2015
13:43 ||
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[The Gorka Brief] The government couldn't look at the social media postings of Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook. I discuss the implications of this on the Hannity show.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/18/2015 14:09
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#2
Of course, it's not off limits. They just chose to willfully blind themselves as it makes their job easier. Of course, if it does apply, then I'm guilty of about 10 yrs worth of civil rights violations.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/18/2015 14:43
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We're going to get a lot of these stories as idiots on the internet get in on the action. As of last night:
[PennLive] A Harrisburg man accused of conspiring and attempting to 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.... of Iraq and the Levant -- commonly known as ISIL -- appeared in federal court in Harrisburg on Thursday afternoon.
Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz, 19, was tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! at his home in the 1700 block of Fulton Street Thursday afternoon. His appearance before Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson marked the first court appearance for Aziz, a short man with a beard who couldn't be much more than 5 feet tall.
A soft-spoken man, Aziz, who wore a gray long-sleeved T-shirt and gray sweat pants and sandals, accepted the counsel of assistant federal public defenders, Lori Ulrich and Heidi Freese during the proceeding. Carlson read the charges Aziz is facing to him. Aziz answered the judge in mostly 'yes' and 'no' statements during the hearing that lasted about 15 minutes.
Carslson told Aziz he could face up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000, followed by three years of supervised release, if found guilty of the charges the U.S. Attorney's Office lodged against him.
The U.S. Attorney's Office maintains Aziz attempted to provide material support to ISIL by promoting hateful rhetoric to groups on social media and supporting individuals in their plans to travel overseas to join the foreign terrorist organization.
At least 57 twitter accounts since July, 2014, because Twitter shut down each one pretty quickly.
A search of Aziz's residence produced a tactical style backpack in his closet that contained high-capacity weapons magazines, ammunition, a knife and other survival items, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Aziz is next scheduled to appear in court for a combined preliminary and detention hearing at 3 p.m. on Dec. 23. Carlson said he set the date in hopes of giving counsel for Aziz and the U.S. Attorney's office enough time to fully grasp the complicated nature of the case. Aziz will be held in federal custody at least until the preliminary hearing date.
"(The case) involves an array of complexities for counsel, international in scope," Carlson said. "They should have time to prepare."
PennLive published a series of articles as the story evolved. Here's the round-up, updated as of 10:20 this morning.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/18/2015
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#1
Is there no end to the evil that is the Amish!?
[Daily Caller] Federal workers in mega-prosperous Washington, D.C., could soon be commuting for free, and American taxpayers are on the hook.
The $1.1 trillion spending bill Congress will take up this week fully covers peak-hour Metro fares for federal workers in the D.C. area, doubling their current tax-paid transportation benefits.
The catch-all spending bill increases federal employee Metro benefits from up to $130 a month to as much as $255 a month. The hike more than covers maximum fares of $5.90 from any point on the system to any other point on the system during rush hour, both ways, over a 21-workday month.
Some argue the federal transit subsidy only perpetuates Metro's history of poor service and safety, because many riders don't have to sacrifice their own budgets to pay for the service. More than one in three Metro riders works for the federal government, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
h/t Instapundit
[TraditionalRight] Donald Trump's recent proposals to register Islamics living in the United States and to bar more Islamics from entering this country until we can determine how to separate the dangerous ones from those who are not dangerous show that he is the only candidate who understands what a Fourth Generation war will be like. The hysterical denunciations from all other candidates except Senator Cruz demonstrate they don't get it. While that alone may not be enough to indicate Trump would be a good president, it strongly suggests none of his opponents are fit to hold the office. Whether they like it or not, or understand it or not, Fourth Generation war is what they and this country are facing.
In 4GW, primary loyalties shift away from the state--someone's native state or one to whch they have immigrated--to a wide variety of other things, including religions, races and ethnic groups, and cultures. Immigrants who do not acculturate are especially likely to become Fourth Generation threats, because they probably will not give their loyalty to a state whose culture is not their own (and to which they may be hostile).
Measures such as those Trump proposed vis-a-vis Islamics will be routine in a world of Fourth Generation war. Any state that wants to survive will have to take them, and stronger actions as well. If a population becomes a base for 4GW on a state's soil, that state may have to expel them. There may be no other way for the state to perform its primary duty, maintaining order. Any state that cannot maintain order--safety of persons and property--will disappear.
Cultural Marxism forbids us to acknowlege any of these realities, which is why culturally Marxist politicians (Democrats actually believe the stuff; Republicans are too cowardly to challenge it) and institutions such as the New York Times editorial page have frothed at the mouth over Mr. Trump's entirely reasonable proposals. Cultural Marxism says all cultures are wonderful, peaceful, "vibrant" sources of enlightenment, except our own culture, Western culture, which is evil and oppressive.
#1
Mr. Trump’s proposals do not indicate he has studied 4GW. I would guess he has probably never heard the term. His reactions are instinctive. But they are sound. They reflect reality.
This is something I've been saying to anyone who will listen. Trump has good instincts. He has strong survival instincts. He doesn't need a fancy education or years of experience in the Senate. He has business experience and he is streetwise. That's what we need.
#2
And that is part of the reason why they hate him so much. He might actually address and solve the problem instead of simply talking about it or exploiting it for his own gain.
#3
Trump has already done quite a bit to attack the stupidity of Cultural Marxism. He senses quite a bit of backing. Most likely (and unfortunately) because Washington has chosen to stick its collective head in the sand, these incidents will continue; these incidents will only increase his support.
Don't know if this should be in WOT Politix or WOT operations---because, IMO, EU is just as much a terrorist organization as PLO.
The Czech parliament passed a resolution on Thursday urging their government not to implement a European Union decision to label Israeli products exported from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
Czech leaders denounced the EU resolution, with Czech media reports quoting Culture Minister Daniel Herman as saying in the parliamentary debate it was "absolutely necessary to reject the efforts to discriminate against the only democracy in the Middle East." Strange Czechs. They take in Christian refugees from ME. They refuse cooperate with the rest of Europe's war on Israel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as "talented" and "outstanding," welcoming his stance on Russia.
"He is a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented," Putin told journalists after his annual press conference in Moscow.
"It's not up to us to judge his virtue, that is up to US voters, but he is the absolute leader of the presidential race," Putin added.
Asked about the prospect of a new US president during the three-hour news conference, Putin, whose relationship with Barack Obama is strained at best, said "we first have to understand who it is going to be."
"Whoever it is, we are ready and want to develop our relations with the United States," he said, adding that unlike the US, which "always tries to tell us... who to elect and who not to elect," Russia doesn't do any such thing.
"That would be dangerous," Putin said. "They say the prosecutor there threatens to put you in jail if a foreign monitor approaches the voting queue closer than five metres (yards) away."
Trump, a tycoon and one-time reality television star who has unexpectedly become leader of the Republican presidential candidates' race, has gained both fans and enemies recently for inflammatory remarks against Muslims.
Speaking after a mass shooting in California by a Muslim couple believed to have been radicalised, Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslims from entering the United States "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday called Trump's comments "divisive, stupid and wrong."
Putin said that Trump's comments to his domestic audience while on the campaign trail were not Russia's concern, but added that he likes the Republican hopeful's statements on Russia.
"On domestic politics, his manner of speaking, what he employs to raise his popularity" -- that is none of Russia's business, Putin said. "It's not our concern to evaluate his work."
- 'I would talk to him' -
Some of Trump's statements on Putin were apparently music to the Russian president's ear.
"He says that he wants a different level of relations, tighter and deeper relations with Russia, how can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it," Putin said.
Trump was asked during one of the debates in September what he would do to get Russia's military presence out of Syria, and answered that he would first get Putin's respect.
"I will get along -- I think -- with Putin, and I will get along with others, and we will have a much more stable -- stable world," Trump said in September. "I would talk to him. I would get along with him."
But Trump also said in October he would like to "sit back" and watch as Russia continues air strikes in Syria, suggesting it could be a "trap" that could bog down Moscow.
Russia's military operations inside Syria have been expanding in recent weeks, and the latest Russian deployments, made without any advance notice to the U.S., have disrupted the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to support Syrian rebel forces fighting against the Islamic State near the Turkey-Syria border, just west of the Euphrates River, several Obama administration and U.S. defense officials told us. This crucial part of the battlefield, known inside the military as Box 4, is where a number of groups have been fighting the Islamic State for control, until recently with overhead support from U.S. fighter jets.
But earlier this month, Moscow deployed an SA-17 advanced air defense system near the area and began "painting" U.S. planes, targeting them with radar in what U.S. officials said was a direct and dangerous provocation. The Pentagon halted all manned flights, although U.S. drones are still flying in the area. Russia then began bombing the rebels the U.S. had been supporting. (U.S. manned airstrikes continue elsewhere in Syria.)
Inside the top levels of the administration, officials are debating what to do next. The issue is serious enough that Secretary of State John Kerry raised it with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met on Tuesday, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General John Dunford has discussed it with his Russian counterpart as well, a spokesman for U.S. Air Force Central Command told us.
There is a new crisis for the international effort to destroy the Islamic State, created by the Kremlin. The U.S. has stopped flying manned air-support missions for rebels in a key part of northern Syria due to Russia's expansion of air defense systems there, and the Barack Obama administration is scrambling to figure out what to do about it.
Russia's military operations inside Syria have been expanding in recent weeks, and the latest Russian deployments, made without any advance notice to the U.S., have disrupted the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to support Syrian rebel forces fighting against the Islamic State near the Turkey-Syria border, just west of the Euphrates River, several Obama administration and U.S. defense officials told us. This crucial part of the battlefield, known inside the military as Box 4, is where a number of groups have been fighting the Islamic State for control, until recently with overhead support from U.S. fighter jets.
But earlier this month, Moscow deployed an SA-17 advanced air defense system near the area and began "painting" U.S. planes, targeting them with radar in what U.S. officials said was a direct and dangerous provocation. The Pentagon halted all manned flights, although U.S. drones are still flying in the area. Russia then began bombing the rebels the U.S. had been supporting. (U.S. manned airstrikes continue elsewhere in Syria.)
Inside the top levels of the administration, officials are debating what to do next. The issue is serious enough that Secretary of State John Kerry raised it with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met on Tuesday, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General John Dunford has discussed it with his Russian counterpart as well, a spokesman for U.S. Air Force Central Command told us.
"The increasing number of Russian-supplied advanced air defense systems in Syria, including SA-17s, is another example that Russia and the regime seek to complicate the global counter-Daesh coalition's air campaign," said Major Tim Smith, using another term for the Islamic State.
The increasing number of Russian air defense systems further complicate an already difficult situation over the skies in Syria, and do nothing to advance the fight against the Islamic State, which has no air force, Smith said. He added that Russia could instead be using its influence with the regime to press President Bashar al-Assad to cease attacking civilians. "Unhelpful actions by Russia and the Syrian regime will not stop coalition counter-Daesh operations in Syria, nor will such actions push the coalition away from specific regions in Syria where Daesh is operating," said Smith.
Smith did not deny the administration officials' characterization of the situation in Box 4. Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told us that the U.S. continues to fly manned and unmanned strike missions in the areas of Syria where the Islamic State is active, including strikes Wednesday in the northeastern towns of Manjib and Mara. He also acknowledged that Russia's recent deployment of air defense systems have complicated U.S. air missions there.
In Washington, top officials are debating how to respond to Russia's expanded air defenses, said another administration official who was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. The administration could decide to resume flights in support of the rebels fight Islamic State, but that could risk a deadly incident with the Russian military. For now, the U.S. seems to be acquiescing to Russia's effort to keep American manned planes out of the sky there and "agree to their rules of the game," the administration official said.
With U.S. planes out of the way, Russia has stepped up its own airstrikes along the Turkey-Syria border, and the Obama administration has accused it of targeting the rebel groups the U.S. was supporting, not the Islamic State. The Russian strikes are also targeting commercial vehicles passing from Turkey into Syria, the administration official told us. The Washington Post reported that the Russian strikes have resulted in a halt of humanitarian aid from Turkey as well.
These heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia on the ground run counter to the public outreach Kerry has been pursuing as part of his effort to kick-start a peace process between the Syrian regime and the opposition. In remarks at the Kremlin Tuesday, Kerry said he was "grateful for President Putin" and looked forward to cooperating with Russia on the fight against the Islamic State. Kerry will meet with Russian leaders again Friday in New York.
Kerry also said the U.S. is not pursuing "regime change" in Syria, comments that were seen by many as another step away from the long-held U.S. call for Assad to step down. The latest U.S.-Russia talks didn't focus on Assad's status, Kerry said, adding that he was working to establish a political process that would allow Syrians to choose their own leadership.
While the diplomacy drags on, the Russian military continues to place Assad in a stronger position and constrain the coalitions' operations, said Matthew McInnis, a former Iran analyst for U.S. Central Command and now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "The Russians are trying to create zones where they would have to give permission for U.S. flights," he said. "The Russians are increasingly defining the military landscape by their actions."
#1
Interesting. The Russians know who they support - ol' Pencilneck and the status quo. Champ supports the good guys, but he doesn't know who they are. Some of the targets of the Russians and Champ happen to overlap.
Oh, well. I think I'll stick a bag of popcorn in the microwave and await further developments.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/18/2015 8:27
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#2
Might 'splain that story yesterday about the US F15s being pulled from Incirlik.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/18/2015 9:54
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#3
I think ol' pencilneck was the only one who was protecting Christians, among others, the only one who was not radical Islamic. Unfortunately, he also was/is a butcher. It seems like Putin thinks like "the enemy of my enemy" is my friend -- a addition to a great power move to gather influence in a strategic area. (Since a once great power was purposefully, internally demoted and demeaned.) Main purpose -- no Islamic terrorists. Bottle them up; let them fight each other. Stop Americans from supporting them!
#5
Yes they can Lone Ranger. Any weapon that can be fired from a fighter can be mounted on almost all our drones. We have some really big drones that could carry the smaller nukes if needed I would think. Their weight and size are similar to our bigger conventional bombs.
#6
Given that a NATO member nation and erstwhile trading partner shot down one of their planes, the Russians would be idiots not to actively track anything in the air.
#7
There are some things missing from this article. Like, is the radar from the SA-17 actually locking on, or just tracking? They'd be stupid not to track, but locking on could be construed as an act of war. Also, do we want to share IFF information with the Russians? I'm sure they have it anyway, but maybe not a complete understanding. We could create something that would provide limited identification in the war zone without giving away the whole farm. Of course, Obumble WANTS to give away the whole farm, along with Syria and Iraq - the blowhard.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2015 18:46
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#8
Lay down a little "Israeli ECM." Let them track THAT coming in.
Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen continued to shell residential areas in the Southeastern Taiz city in violation of a UN-brokered ceasefire, prompting the national army and resistance to respond, a Yemeni news website reported on Thursday.
Two resistance fighters were injured in the artillery shelling by the Houthis and their coup allies in the besieged city on Wednesday, Masdar Online said.
It quoted military sources as saying artillery clashes erupted in various parts of the city after the legitimate army and resistance opened fire in response to Houthi shelling.
The report said the rebels also targeted Seena area in Western Taiz with artillery and machine gun fire on Wednesday.
It quoted the sources as saying one Grad rocket was also fired by the Houthis from their positions in Northwestern Taiz but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The report said intermittent clashes also erupted in other areas but that there were no air raids by the Arab coalition in respect of the ceasefire which was announced on Monday midnight.
A man who bought the assault rifles used by his friend in the San Bernardino massacre has been charged with terrorism-related counts.
Federal prosecutors say Enrique Marquez was charged Thursday with conspiring with Syed Rizwan Farook to commit terrorism in 2011 and 2012. Marquez also was charged with illegally purchasing two assault rifles used by Farook and his wife to kill 14 people at a holiday gathering of Farook's health department co-workers on Dec. 2.
Authorities previously said Marquez had legally purchased the high-powered guns. Marquez faces an additional immigration charge for a sham marriage with a member of Farook's family.
Sham marriage -- what, no nookie?
The 24-year-old Marquez was a neighbor and longtime friend of Farook's, and the two later became related through marriage. Marquez and Farook's brother are married to sisters from Russia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2015
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#1
The dots failed to be connected? Perhaps the Bureau was looking for yard signs.
A religious studies kook professor at the University of San Diego who is concerned about growing anti-Muslim rhetoric has started a silent protest, with students and faculty wearing yellow stars marked “Muslim.” Bahar Davary, associate professor of theology and religious studies, came up with the idea during her class “Islamic Faith and Practice,” an introduction to Islam, and her students suggested several designs.
I bet they did...
The yellow Star of David is what the Nazis required all Jews to wear prior to the Holocaust. The crescent moon and word “Muslim” draw the connection with today’s politics.
Actually, it looks like a deliberate provocation, and I suspect that's just what Ms. Davary intended...
“What it symbolizes is that there have been people who have been made to be the ‘other’ throughout history,” said Davary, an Iranian-American whose academic specialty at the Catholic university is Islam.
Last month Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he would require all Muslim-Americans to register in a national database, and subsequently proposed banning Muslims from entering the country. Ben Carson, another Republican contender, has said he could not support a Muslim as President.
“It’s not only Trump. It’s not only Ben Carson,” Davary said. “There have been anti-Muslim actions taking place. In some ways it’s frightening.”
Which is why anti-Muslim hate crimes in the U.S. run way behind anti-black and anti-Jewish hate crimes...
Davary’s students first began wearing the stars, and then other University of San Diego faculty members. She estimates there are over 100 being worn on campus, with more people asking for the stars every day. “By wearing these, we’re simply inviting conversation about this topic,” she said.
"Inviting conversation" the progressive way, in which you shut up and do as you're told...
For now, it’s a campus protest only. She advises her students not to wear the stars off campus in case the meaning is misunderstood.
I think she's perfectly understood...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2015
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#3
I remember a story by a US Army officer stationed in Saudi Arabia on a training mission. He handed over several training manuals to his Saudi counterpart.
Unfortunately the manuals used 6 pointed asterisks to indicate footnotes. The Saudi officer said these were "Stars of David" and my friend was trying to insert Zionist propaganda into his instruction manuals. My friend was labeled a Zionist spy and had to leave the Kingdom.
i.e: This is all fake.
Posted by: frozen al ||
12/18/2015 13:00
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#4
I must have missed the classes on Jewish terrorism and acts during the interwar period in Germany. /sarc off
BADIN: Hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets in Luari Sharif town of Badin District, following the killing of a school teacher and set more than 50 shops and some houses on fire in the area.
School teacher Mohammad Aslam Keerio was shot dead on Thursday, allegedly by members of a rival group, local residents said.
Luari Sharif town, located some 13 kilometeres off Badin city, is home to many shrines. The town has seen many clashes on the issue of management of shrines as both rival groups in the area claim ownership of the shrines.
Tension gripped the area after Keerio was killed. An infuriated mob took to the streets and set shops and houses on fire to express their anger against the incident.
The eye witnesses told Dawn that around 50 shops were ransacked and set on the fire.
Following the incident, heavy contingents of police under the supervision of SSP Badin Ibrar Hussain Nekokar reached the spot and tried to control the tense situation.
So far the bloody tussle between two groups, who both claim to be real custodian of the shrines, has claimed dozens of lives during past three decades.
SSP Badin, while talking to the local journalists, said that police was trying its best to calm down the situation.
“We have arrested a number of miscreants involved in the riots and arson,” he added.
People of both the groups are accusing each other for the tense situation in the town and have demanded to carry out a judicial inquiry into the incident. However, no case was registered till the filing of this report.
Later in the day, a large number of relatives of the victim staged a sit-in outside Badin Press Club to protest against the killing of Keerio, and the reluctance of the police to register an FIR against the people involved. They demanded an independent probe into the incident.
Meanwhile, the people of Gopang community told Dawn that their women and other innocent people were arrested by police without any justification.
Members of Libya's rival parliaments on Thursday signed a landmark, UN-sponsored deal on forming a unity government that will strive to bring peace to the war-ravaged country.
I think the over/under is 11 days...
Supporters of the agreement hope that rival political factions and militias will embrace the deal and agree on a ceasefire, so that they can fend off the Daesh group, which is expanding its gains in the North African country.
The document was signed in Morocco by Emhemed Shoaib, the deputy speaker of the internationally recognised Libyan parliament, and Salah Al Makhzoum, the second deputy of the Islamist-backed parliament based in the capital, Tripoli.
"This is just the beginning of a long journey for Libya," said UN envoy Martin Kobler, who attended the Morocco ceremony. "Signing is only the first step on the road of putting Libya back on the right track."
Al Makhzoum said while the deal is not perfect, it's a step to rescue Libya from collapsing and ensure its unity.
The speakers of the two parliaments - Tripoli-based Nuri A.M. Abusahmain and Aguila Saleh Issa from the east - were not at the Morocco ceremony. The two, who are seen by analysts as hard-liners, held talks on Tuesday in Malta to forge a separate deal without UN involvement. Afterward, they issued a statement saying the representatives who travelled to Morocco were not mandated to represent the parliaments in the talks.
Before the start of Thursday's ceremony, Al Makhzoum and Faraj Abu Hashem, the spokesman for the east-based parliament, said that 88 lawmakers from the two parliaments were present at the signing. The eastern parliament has 156 known members, while the rival parliament in Tripoli has 135.
The foreign ministers of Turkey, Italy, Spain, Qatar, Tunisia, and Morocco also spoke at the ceremony in support of the deal. Among the first to welcome the deal was French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who praised the accord and promised to support efforts by a new unity government.
"The priority should now go toward creating a national unity government," he said in a statement. "That's the condition for tackling terrorism and trafficking that threaten the security of the region and Europe."
And to get the oil flowing again...
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The Obama administration appears to be on the cusp of the largest round of transfers of Guantánamo Bay detainees in a single month since 2007, a move that could reduce the detainee population there to as low as 90 by mid- to late January, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has notified Congress in recent days that he has approved 17 proposed transfers of lower-level detainees, said the officials. Congress has required Mr. Carter to certify that security standards have been met at least 30 days before any transfers.
In recent weeks, President Obama has twice stated that his goal is to reduce the number of detainees at Guantánamo Bay prison to the double digits from 107 by the end of this year.
President Obama wants to close the Guantánamo prison in Cuba before he leaves office in a little over a year. His administration has stepped up efforts to find countries to take 48 detainees on a transfer list and moved to speed up the work of a parole-like board that might approve the release of others who are currently recommended for indefinite detention.
The Republican-led Congress, however, has shown little interest in lifting a ban on bringing any detainees to a prison inside the United States, which is Mr. Obama’s plan for those who are either facing trial or are deemed too dangerous to release.
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In a harrowing incident that harkened back to the days of the Nazis, a Jewish cemetery in Sochaczew, Poland was desecrated on Sunday with anti-Semitic slogans and symbols and pro-ISIS messages. The cemetery sits among other graves for Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
Hate-filled slogans such as “F*** Jews” and “the Holocaust never happened” were scrawled across the Ohel HaTzadik memorial, next to threatening slogans such as “Islam will dominate” and “Islamic State was here.” Another featured a Star of David hanging from a noose. The entire Jewish population of the town was wiped out by the Nazis in World War II.
Paul Rozdzestwienski, Director of the Museum of the Sochaczew and Battlefield on Bzura, said “As museum professionals and at the same time residents of Sochaczew, we are ashamed of such behavior and would like to ask all residents to help organize the restoring of dignified appearance to the Sochaczew cemetery.”
Jonny Daniels, founder of the Holocaust memorial organization From the Depths, said, “It’s very worrying for us to see this blatant act of antisemitism and anti-Israel graffiti on a site of Jewish memory and memorial in Poland. The acts are becoming all too commonplace, and all decent peace-loving people must stand up against them.”
Many are concerned with a reported rise in anti-Semitic incidents across Europe, as well as the declining Jewish population in many countries.
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Jordan dismissed a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot from the Kingdom’s air force after he refused to visit Israel as part of a joint military venture between the two neighboring countries.
Pilot Majdi al Samadi is reported to have said to his commanders that he was “trained as a pilot not to cooperate with Israel but to fight it”
The command was given as part of a joint military venture between the two countries which last month conducted joint training operation sin the United States.
News of the incident was not announced by the military or the government, prompting the pilot’s relatives to go public with their outrage. The family of the pilot is angry over the fact that the military will not provide al-Samdi with the same benefits other discharged soldiers receive.
Correct. He disobeyed an order. I'm sure the Jordanian military has the equivalent of "discharged under less than honorable conditions"...
According to reports, the family will continue to rally the public to its side “with the goal of ending Jordan’s relations with Israel.”
In 1994 Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty. Nonetheless, the Hashemite kingdom’s ties to Israel remain deeply unpopular in a country where Arabs of Palestinian descent comprise a majority of its subjects.
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#1
"Arabs of Palestinian descent" for idiots journalists i guess Jordan Kingdom is in Arabia...
[IsraelTimes] Soldiers met with barrage of stones, Molotov cocktails during Qalandiya operation, army says; total of 19 terror suspects placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! including 4 Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, members
IDF troops were shot at during clashing with Paleostinian protesters early Thursday morning during a raid in the West Bank town of Qalandiya, north of Jerusalem.
No soldiers were maimed in the incident, the army said in statement.
According to Paleostinian media reports, security forces raided dozens of homes and businesses in the town, including the Rajh Medical Center and the local youth center.
The army said soldiers from the Binyamin Brigade including the elite Duvdevan unit arrested two terror suspects and seized weapons stockpiles of knives, guns and ammunition during the operation but were met with violent protests from Paleostinian youths.
"The operation was accompanied by riots in which hundreds of Paleostinians threw stones, rocks, Molotov cocktails and other objects from roofs at the security forces. The soldiers responded with non lethal anti-riot measures [which can include rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon]," the army statement read.
Thursday's raid came as part of a series of overnight operations across the West Bank. The IDF said a total of 19 Paleostinian terror suspects were arrested, including four men described as Hamas members. Ten of those arrested are suspected of direct involvement in recent attacks on civilians and security forces.
[Rudaw] The US-led coalition hammered 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.... (ISIS) bases on the Makhmour fronts by air late Thursday, a day after Peshmerga forces were involved in heavy festivities with the snuffies on multiple fronts, a Kurdish military official told Rudaw.
"Coalition warplanes heavily bombarded the Daesh [Islamic State] (ISIS) bases in the villages of Sultan Abdullah, Matantar and Kudila in the west, east and south of Makhmour," said the official, who added that an unspecified number of snuffies were killed or maimed.
He said that the air raids began at 5:30 pm.
Peshmerga forces repelled a series of intense ISIS assaults on Wednesday, and some on Thursday, on multiple fronts that included the Khazar front near Erbil and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... 's Bashik military camp.
Kurdish forces killed at least 70 snuffies in Wednesday's fighting, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said. It also reported Peshmerga causalities estimated at six dead.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/18/2015
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(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – On Thursday, a security source in Kirkuk province stated that the security forces arrested 66 wanted and suspects during a raid and search operation in northeast of the province, while pointed out to the arrest of 53 refugees that do not have formal approvals for residence.
The source said in a brief statement received by IraqiNrws, “Today, a force from the emergency police raided Banja Ali neighborhood north-east of the province, and was able to arrest 66 wanted and suspects”.
The source, who asked to remain anonymous, added, “The force seized three stolen vehicles,” noting that, “They arrested 53 individuals, mostly refugees who do not have a formal residence approval.”
Noteworthy the security forces at the province of Kirkuk carry out raid and search operations from time to time which result in the arrest of several wanted people for criminal offenses and terrorism.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/18/2015
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LAHORE: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police apprehended six suspected activists of the banned sectarian outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ) from Lahore on Thursday.
The CTD spokesman claimed that the arrested activists were running the affairs of proscribed LeJ after the death of Malik Ishaq.
The police also claimed to have recovered a huge amount of explosives and electronic detonators from the arrested accused.
Three suspects were arrested from Khokhar Chowk area near College Road, while the other three were nabbed from Baidian Road, the CTD spokesman said.
The arrested accused are namely Umer sajid Jhangvi, Hidayatullah Farooqi, Muhammad Sadiq, Inamul Haque, Ataullah Usmani and Muhammad Yaseen.
Moreover, two separate First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered in CTD police station against the six suspects over possession of explosives.
In July this year, former LeJ chief Malik Ishaq along with his two sons Usman and Haq Nawaz was killed in an alleged exchange of fire with police personnel
A spokesman for CTD Multan at the time had said Ishaq and his two sons were taken to Muzaffargarh to aid in the recovery of arms and explosives.
As the police party was returning after making the recovery, it was attacked by some 12 to 15 gunmen following which an encounter ensued.
Ishaq and his sons were arrested by the CTD only a week before the alleged encounter took place.
The LeJ is also said to have links with Al Qaeda. The organisation was banned more than a decade ago by former president Pervez Musharraf.
Ishaq, who was the leader of the feared organisation, was implicated in dozens of cases, mostly murder.
Afghan security forces officials from Speen Zar 808 Zone in Kunduz said on Thursday that the Taliban is no longer safe in the province as night raids and airstrikes have been launched in order to eliminate the insurgents once and for all.
According to Kunduz security officials, so far dozens of insurgents have been killed during these night raids and many tanks belonging to the Taliban have been destroyed.
Officials said foreign forces were also playing an effective role in the operation.
"Let me tell you night raids were stopped and the enemy was sure that at night there was no one to go after them. But we have started night raids again in Kunduz and so far the Taliban has suffered heavy casualties," said Sher Aziz Kamawal 808 Kunduz zone police chief.
Meanwhile provincial acting-governor Hamdullah Danishi also emphasized the importance of the operation in Kunduz province.
"The importance of night raids is that at night government forces suffer less casualties and the enemy suffers more and also bigger operations can be conducted," said Danishi.
Kunduz residents have welcomed the move but appeal to government to rid their province of the Taliban.
"Night raids are very good and the government must remove those Taliban who are still active close to the city and bring security back to the city," said Zamarai one of the residents.
"We ask the government to return security to the province because the situation is not good in the province and Taliban are active in every part of Kunduz," said Abdulhaq another resident.
#1
Wasn't it that drug-addled Caped Taliban Crusader Karzai that had the night raids stopped?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2015 9:53
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The Taliban have tanks? Maybe I haven't been paying very close attention but that is a surprise. Why are they allowed to have tanks? Where did they get tanks? The Paks?
[AnNahar] German authorities Thursday raided, shuttered and banned a Muslim association and mosque they accused of supporting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group in Syria and Iraq.
Police in the southwestern city of Stuttgart searched the site and delivered a notice that the center had been disbanded and its property confiscated, said the interior minister of Baden-Wurttemberg state, Reinhold Gall.
"We do not tolerate associations that advocate the use of violence to promote religious concerns and collect donations for terrorist groups," said Gall, without reporting any arrests.
He charged that radical preachers and fundamentalist Islamists, mainly from western Balkan states, had frequented the Islamic Educational and Cultural Centre Mesdschid Sahabe.
Of about 50 people who had traveled to Syria from Baden-Wuerttemberg to join the fighting, at least 10 had been visitors of the mosque, and three of them had since died, he said.
The center had previously been raided in March, when police confiscated computers, data storage devices, smartphones and documents as evidence, said the minister in a statement.
"The association supports, in the form of the so-called Islamic State, an Islamist group that carries out religiously-motivated attacks against persons and property," Gall charged.
"Through the association, donations have been collected for terrorist groups and fighters recruited for the conflict in Syria. In addition, the association and its members glorify jihad and religiously motivated terrorism."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#3
They can't do that! President Obama will protest! The Lightbringer will send a strongly-worded protest! He'll bring in the Big Guns - the United Nations! The Germans will rue the day!
Yes, it's sarcasm.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/18/2015 13:38
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#4
I think the French have discovered that mosques in their country are centers of un-French activities, and have shut down quite a few. Maybe the Germans caught a clue.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2015 18:48
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#5
See also LUCIANNE > GERMAN EX-ISIS MILITANT: COORDINATED ATTACKS PLANNED ACROSS EUROPE.
Amerika???
* RELATED ZERO HEDGE > ISLAMIC BLITZKRIEG COMING TO GERMANY, ARRESTED JIHADIST WARNS.
To roughly occur at or near the same time - ALL THATS NEEDED IS A KNIFE [or any available weapon of choice?], A LOVE FOR ISLAM, + A WILLINGNESS TO KILL LARGE NUMBERS OF INFIDELS.
An Egypt military court has sentenced nine Egyptians to life in prison for their involvement in a failed attack on tourists at a famous pharaonic temple, army officials said on Thursday. Two others were also sentenced to seven years in jail on Wednesday for the attack, which prosecutors say was carried out by members of the Egyptian affiliate of the Daesh group.
On June 10, at least three heavily armed men riding in a taxi made their way past a security checkpoint into the parking lot of the Karnak temple in Luxor, southern Egypt.
The taxi driver grew suspicious and alerted the police, saying they spoke in Arabic and used some French words. Surveillance footage shows that, when police approached the men, the assailants pulled assault rifles from their bags and opened fire on nearby cars as tourists disembarked from buses.
One of them killed himself by setting off an explosive vest he was wearing, while police killed an accomplice and seriously wounded another. Sixty bullet holes were found on a bus, a source close to the investigation said.
More than 600 tourists were present in the temple at the time of the attack. Twelve men were referred to a military trial for their involvement in the attack, but one defendant died in custody, army officials said.
He fell down the stairs. Elebenteen flights...
Those sentenced on Wednesday were Egyptians, while prosecutors have previously said that the two men who were killed during the attack were foreigners. Prosecutors say the assailants had been recruited by the Egyptian affiliate of Daesh, which is spearheading an insurgency against security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[AlAhram] Some 800 to 1,000 migrants tried Thursday to break into the Channel Tunnel near La Belle France's port city Calais in a desperate bid to reach Britannia, local officials said.
"We noted the presence of 800 to 1,000 migrants" near the tunnel, a local official told AFP, as a police source described the number seeking to cross the Channel as "unprecedented" for a single day.
"As they approached the tunnel, several migrants tried hard to slow down the flow of traffic so they could climb into the trucks," the source said.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw some people climb on top of trucks heading towards Britannia.
"Security forces were deployed... objects were being thrown at them, and they had to resort to using tear gas," police said in a statement.
Some 4,500 people fleeing war and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa live in notoriously squalid conditions in a makeshift camp in Calais known as the "Jungle".
Why is this permitted?
Earlier this month a 16-year-old Sudanese boy was hit by a van on a motorway close to the Channel Tunnel, becoming the 18th person to die trying to reach Britannia from Calais since June.
[AnNahar] Turkish security forces have killed 25 Kurdish bandidosgunnies this week as they battle suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) inside two flashpoint towns, security sources said on Thursday.
The operations conducted inside the towns of Cizre and Silopi in the southeastern Sirnak province, backed by curfews, mark a new escalation in five months of fighting with the PKK since a truce collapsed.
Twenty-four PKK members have been killed in Cizre since the operations began earlier this week, while one was killed in Silopi, security sources told AFP, increasing an earlier toll.
The authorities had already announced on Wednesday that eight PKK fighters had been killed in Cizre.
According to Turkish media, some 10,000 members of the police and army have been deployed in Cizre and Silopi in one of the biggest operations yet against the PKK, who have erected barricades and ditches inside the towns.
Although analysts have called for peace talks, the authorities led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... have said Ankara must "eradicate" the PKK which in recent months has again built up a significant presence in urban centers.
"The bully boyz wanted to paralyse daily life in these towns by intimidating inhabitants who they had extorted," Interior Minister Efkan Ala told the state-run Anatolia news agency.
Cizre has a population of some 100,000, while Silopi has over 80,000 people.
He said the authorities had seized 2,240 weapons, ten tons of explosives and 10,000 Molotov cocktails from the myrmidons.
Images published by Anatolia showed heavily armed soldiers backed by tanks going house-to-house in the towns and firing from street corners.
The authorities also imposed blanket and open-ended curfews in the two towns, the latest in a succession of such measures across the southeast that have angered activists.
There have also been growing tensions over a curfew in the Sur district of southeastern Diyarbakir province -- also mainly Kurdish -- that has been in place almost uninterrupted since December 2.
There were new festivities early Thursday between police and pro-PKK sympathizers in Diyarbakir, an AFP correspondent reported.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced on Thursday, that eight people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast near shops southwest of Baghdad.
The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded, this morning, near shops in Bayaa neighborhood southwest of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding seven others.”
The source, who requested anonymity, added: “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the body of the dead man to the forensic medicine department, while a raid and search operation was carried out to search for the perpetrators of the bombing.”
A proposal to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States has ignited a bitter debate in Washington, but more than 10 times that number of people from the embattled country have quietly come to America since 2012, according to figures obtained by FoxNews.com.
Some 102,313 Syrians were granted admission to the U.S. as legal permanent residents or through programs including work, study and tourist visas from 2012 through August of this year, a period which roughly coincides with the devastating civil war that still engulfs the Middle Eastern country. Experts say any fears that terrorists might infiltrate the proposed wave of refugees from United Nations-run camps should be dwarfed by the potential danger already here.
If most were Syrian Christian refugees (who are terribly persecuted in their homeland) it wouldn't be an issue at all. But most are something else...
“The sheer number of people arriving on all kinds of visas and with green cards, and possibly U.S. citizenship, makes it impossible for our counterterrorism authorities to keep track of them all, much less prevent them from carrying out attacks or belatedly try to deport them,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Numbers obtained from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection show 60,010 Syrian visa holders have entered the U.S. since 2012, including 16,245 this year through August. Additional numbers provided by a Congressional source showed another 42,303 Syrians were granted citizenship or green cards during the same period.
"It is highly unlikely that the 102,313 Syrians who were admitted over the past three years were effectively vetted," said spokesman Ira Mehlman, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "Even in countries where we have a strong diplomatic presence, the sheer volume of background checks being carried out precludes the kind of thorough vetting that is necessary."
The Syrians being admitted are coming directly from their homeland, usually through the U.S. visa program, as opposed to the refugees President Obama is seeking to take in through U.N.-run refugee camps. Most have secured legal entry before they arrive.
"Refugees are part of the admitted category," said Jaime Ruiz, spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "Their cases are approved prior to arriving into the U.S."
Those who escaped Syria’s grinding civil war, which has killed an estimated 300,000, and made it to the U.S. are more likely to be those with the money and means to access the U.S. immigration bureaucracy, say experts. But even that system is susceptible to fraud.
A government official who expressed astonishment at such large immigration numbers from a relatively small country, said approximately half are legal permanent residents and the remainder came here on visas, the latter of which remains a point of contentious concern.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#4
Just for giggles I had a look at the RCP poll average. Nationally, Bernie is at 31.2 to Clinton's 55.3 - he's 24.1 points behind. Now, he has some momentum and some time, but that's a pretty big deficit to make up just to win the nomination.
Morocco military court has sentenced respectively three Morocco military personnel to three years in prison after the suspects were found in possession of an IS flag, reports say.
The three men positioned in Tichla region, were caught three month ago after the national gendarmerie received information that they were in position of the flag. The gendarmerie found the flag in the house of one of the suspects after a search. He told on a second whom he said gave him the flag. The second revealed the name of a third whom he said also gave him the flag after he designed it.
All the three soldiers had been suspended from their job for three months and had been incarcerated under the instruction of the military court. Reports add that further investigations, scientific revealed that the third soldier who designed the flag was in touch with an extremist at Sale. However the man later confessed that he designed it out of curiosity after searching on internet.
Idle hands are the workshop of the devil...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[DENVERPOST] Spain's next prime minister could be a young pony-tailed university professor, or perhaps a leather-jacketed lawyer who once posed nude in campaign posters. Sounds like they're really well-qualified.
They demonstrate just how much Spanish politics has changed in the four years since the last general election. I mean, look at all Cicciolina accomplished.
A severe economic crisis, crushing unemployment and incessant corruption cases have turned many Spaniards away from the staid, career politicians who head the mainstream right and left parties that have alternated in office for decades. Three words: Otho, Vitellius, and Galba. And the same applies to us.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – A security source in Salahuddin province announced on Thursday, that the ISIS has attacked Samarra south of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad) from the southern and western axes, taking advantage of the bad weather.
The source reported for IraqiNews.com, “The organization launched, at dawn today, an attack on Samarra (40 km south of Tikrit) from the southern and western sides, taking advantage of the bad weather conditions and thick fog.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added: “The organization began the attack with four booby-trapped vehicles driven by suicide bombers, followed by clashes and mortar fire,” noting that “The attacks were concentrated on the center of Sharif Abbas Street and the village of Haji Hussein.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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[AlAhram] Turkish authorities detained two suspected 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.... Lions of Islam (ISIS) at Istanbul's main international airport carrying at least 150 original European passports, an official said Thursday.
Counter-terror police detained the suspects, a Syrian and a Turk, at Ataturk Airport after they flew in from a European country, finding they had stuffed the passports into pizza ovens, media reports said earlier.
"Airport police... found at least 150 fake passports among their personal belongings," a Turkish government official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
The private Dogan news agency said the police seized a total of 148 European passports hidden inside "five mini-pizza ovens".
The suspects have been taken to the anti-terror headquarters of Istanbul police for questioning, it added.
Two hidden cameras, scores of memory cards and SIM cards were also seized, it added. Dogan had said that the passports were all original.
Long criticised for not doing enough to stem the flow of holy warrior fighters across its volatile border with Syria, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has stepped up fight after a number of deadly attacks on Turkish soil blamed on ISIS, which is also called ISIL or Daesh [Islamic State], making almost daily arrests of would-be holy warriors.
"Today's arrests exemplify how effective the anti-ISIS measures have been," said the official.
"We look forward to working more closely with source countries to keep ISIS fighters away from Syria."
Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Thursday that Turkey has imposed entry bans on 33,746 terror suspects from 123 countries since the Syria conflict began.
In addition, 2,783 holy warrior suspects from 89 countries have been detained in Turkey and deported.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
"They're mine. I have multiple personalities"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2015 10:49
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... fired off an angry tirade against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Thursday, ruling out any reconciliation with its leaders and accusing Ankara of shooting down a Russian warplane to impress the United States.
In comments littered with crude language, Putin dismissed the possibility that the downing of the warplane over the Turkish-Syrian border last month was an accident, calling it a "hostile act".
"We find it difficult if not impossible to come to an agreement with the current leadership of Turkey," said Putin, addressing almost 1,400 news hounds in a cavernous hall inside a Moscow conference center.
"On the state level, I don't see any prospects of improving relations with the Turkish leadership," he said of Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... .
Ties between Russia and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... member Turkey have been severely strained since the November 24 incident, which led to deaths of two Russian military officers.
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[REUTERS] A French court has ordered Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to face trial over her role in a payout of some 400 million euros ($434 million) to businessman Bernard Tapie, her lawyer said on Thursday.
The case, which has roots dating back more than 20 years, will be heard by magistrates at the Cour de Justice de la Republique, which judges ministers for crimes in office, La Belle France's prosecutor general said.
Lagarde, who is accused of alleged negligence over the Tapie affair while serving as La Belle France's finance minister, said she would appeal against the decision, adding that she shared the prosecutors' view there was no basis for any charge against her.
"Ms. Lagarde would like to reaffirm that she acted in the best interest of the French state and in full compliance with the law," said a statement issued by her office.
Thursday's court decision came as a surprise as La Belle France's top prosecutor had recommended in September that investigations against Lagarde in the case be dropped.
"A decision like this is incomprehensible," her lawyer Yves Repiquet told Rooters.
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(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – On Thursday, a security source in Salahuddin province stated that “Peace Brigades” had managed to foil an attack by ISIS west of Samarra.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “Peace Brigades repelled an attack by ISIS west of Samarra (40 km south of Tikrit,” adding that, “The Peace Brigades had inflicted heavy losses upon ISIS.”
Noteworthy, Iraq witnesses an extraordinary security situation with the continued military operations to expel ISIS from the areas under their control.
Posted by: badanov ||
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The Europeans can't possibly know who is coming in, because they're coming from all over the world, with all sorts of false and sort of true papers. Another way they differ from the Jews fleeing the Nazi Holocaust. Ditto for Obama administration claims about vetting, unfortunately.
[AnNahar] After an eight-month investigation, Rio police this week dismantled a network that had provided 72 Syrian immigrants with fake Brazilian identification documents, news reports said Wednesday.
The network had provided the Syrians with birth certificates, identity cards, voters' cards and passports, according to the government news agency Brasil.
The group was headed by a 71-year-old Syrian with a permanent visa in Brazil, Ali Kamel Issmael.
He's the only person in the world doing this, of course...
With the complicity of two civil-registry officials in Rio de Janeiro, the network ripped out pages from birth registries of the 1960s and 1970s and replaced them with new identities, the news agency said.
Always easier to fashion new identities when you have someone on the inside...
Brazil, which has a large Catholic Syrian community, has officially accepted 2,097 Syrian refugees since civil war broke out in that country in 2011. Most however have been unable to find work, speak no Portuguese, and would rather move to Europe.
Particularly to benefits-rich Germany...
A majority of the 72 "Syrian-Brazilians" were registered between 2012 and 2014. They include Issmael's wife, Basema Alasmar, who was incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... in the police crackdown.
As a legal resident of Brazil, Issmael has been released to appear on his own recognizance for a court hearing.
Wanna bet he skips town?
The Rio police believe that many of the Syrians have left Brazil because only 39 possessed the "Natural Persons Register" card known as the CPF, without which transactions as simple as purchasing a cell phone are difficult in Brazil.
According to the Globo news channel, 17 of the fake Brazilians used their falsified documents to apply for U.S. visas.
...and nobody knows how many have overstayed their legal visas, separate from those who'd arrived illegally.
Don't worry, I'm sure ICE and FBI vetted them carefully...
The documents scandal has given Brazilians yet a new source of concern as the country prepares to host the Summer Olympic Games next year.
Police commissioner Aloysio Falcao, who is leading the investigation, said the police were asking for the fake passports to be canceled, adding that national security was "at stake."
GENEVA – Canadian authorities convicted a teenager of a terrorist offense for trying to travel overseas to join the extremist group of Islamic State (ISIS).
The 16-year-old boy, whose identity remained anonymous under the Canadian law of protecting minors, became radicalized through following ISIS’s propaganda videos and communicating with suspected jihadists.
So a 16 year old planning to go to where he can kill people is still a 'minor'...
The teenager was reportedly turned in to police by his parents, who suspected their son was radicalized and planned to go to Syria to join ISIS jihadists.
He was convicted by a Canadian court on charges of terrorism for trying to join a banned organization. The teenager was also prosecuted on a robbery case that took place in Oct. 2014 with the intention of using the C$2,200 stolen funds to fly overseas to Turkey and from there to Syria, where ISIS controls a large territory.
According to officials, the boy faces up to 25 years in prison. The sentencing is expected to take place in January.
(IraqiNews.com) Erbil – According to a security source in the province of Erbil, an armed group shot the political bureau of Kurdistan Islamic Union in Erbil, noting that the authorities began an investigation to determine the causes of the incident.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews, “Unidentified militants opened fire, last night, at the political bureau of Kurdistan Islamic Union in Erbil,” while pointed out, “The attackers used machine guns.”
The source, who asked not to be identified, added, “The attack did not result in any casualties,” indicating that, “The security forces arrived in the area of the incident and opened an investigation to determine the causes”.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union is identified as one of the lead parties in Kurdistan region and has 10 seats in Kurdistan Parliament.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) -- Afghanistan's intelligence agency has detained five weapon suppliers of Taliban in northeastern Takhar province.
A statement released by the NDS on Thursday states that Abdul Samad S/O Haji Juldish, Hasibullah S/O Haji Noor Mohammad, Mohammad Gul S/O Juma Khan, Qurban S/O Sharif and Sediqullah were incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! during separate raids.
According to the statement, the arrested bandidosholy warriors were providing weapons and ammunition for the group who also had hand in planting landmines and a number of other terrorist activities.
A footage released by the NDS shows an undetermined amount of Afghanis confiscated from the arrested terrorists.
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[Ynet] The United States and its allies on Wednesday conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and Syria in its latest round of daily air attacks against the Lion of Islam group, the coalition leading the operations said.
In a statement released on Thursday, the US-led Combined Joint Task Force said 11 strikes near six Iraqi cities hit several tactical units, fighting positions and vehicles. Seven strikes near four cities in Syria also struck a training camp, a headquarters building and other targets, it said.
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Remember folks: The ceasefire expires next Monday
UN-brokered peace talks agree on full resumption of humanitarian aid to Taiz.
Participants at Yemeni peace talks hosted by the United Nations in Switzerland agreed on the full resumption of humanitarian aid to the city of Taiz on Thursday and planned to move onto wider issues to put a permanent end to the war, a UN statement said.
Hudna! Hudna! Hudna!
"The consultations will continue in the next few days and seek to define a clear way forward with a special focus on specific areas," the statement said after a third day of talks.
These would include a sustainable national ceasefire, the release of prisoners and detainees, the withdrawal of forces and creation of interim security measures, the organised return of heavy weapons to the state, the restoration of state control over public institutions and the resumption of an inclusive political dialogue, it said.
[Tolo News] Heavy festivities are ongoing in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province between security forces and the Taliban with reports emerging that a number of outposts have fallen to the Death Eater group, local officials said on Thursday.
Clashes are reportedly taking place in Washir district -- the scene of fierce fighting on Wednesday night, said officials.
According to one source, who did not want to be named, about 20 security force members were killed in the clash and a further 20 have been captured by Death Eaters.
However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... local security forces have not yet confirmed the number of casualties among security forces nor that troops were captured.
Helmand has been the scene of increased violence in the past few months, especially in Sangin, Marjah, Nahar-e-Saraj and Washir districts of the province.
This comes after the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that the United States and Britannia have deployed at least four special-operations teams to Helmand, stepping up their direct intervention in support of struggling Afghan government forces trying to fight off advances by Talibs.
The Taliban has taken control of at least four districts in Helmand, a major focus of U.S and U.K combat operations until late last year, and now threaten areas bordering the lovely provincial capital Lashkar Gah, local officials told the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reports that at least 2,000 Afghan forces have been killed or maimed in Helmand in the past year.
Preventing the lovely provincial capital from falling into the hands of the Taliban is a priority for U.S Army Gen. John Campbell, the commander of the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... military coalition in Afghanistan, coalition officials said.
However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... local officials have refused to confirm or deny the reports of coalition troops being sent in to the province.
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12/18/2015
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[Rudaw] Peshmerga forces repelled an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) assault Thursday on the Kaske font in western djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , killing 10 faceless myrmidons and wounding many others, a Peshmerga official said.
"ISIS myrmidon launched a two-pronged assault against Peshmerga bunkers in the village of Shindokha on the Kaske front by taking advantage of the bad weather, but they were defeated," Majid Khalid, a Peshmerga commander, told Rudaw by phone.
Khalid added that two ISIS armored vehicles were destroyed before they reached the Peshmerga frontlines.
The Peshmerga were attacked on multiple fronts on Wednesday and killed at least 70 myrmidons, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said.
In the confrontations at least six Peshmerga were killed by a group of ISIS jacket wallahs.
"At approximately 1600hrs on 16 December, Peshmerga forces repelled several ISIL attacks across Newaran, Bashik, Tl Eswed, Khazir and Zerdk Mountain," the KRSC added.
In coordination with U.S. air power they destroyed 11 incoming ISIS vehicles, foiling three car kabooms and killed several suicide bombers.
ISIS also fired a barrage of mortar shells on the Turkish training camp in Nineveh killing two members of the Sunni mobilization force, commanded by former governor Atheel Nujaifi, and wounding six others.
Nujaifi told Rudaw by telephone that Turkish trainers were unhurt. However The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's official Anadolu Agency contradicted him when it reported that four Turkish soldiers were maimed in the attack.
Sarbast Trwanshi, commander of the Peshmerga forces on the Nawaran front, 10km northeast of the ISIS-occupied Mosul, confirmed the death of an ISIS leader known as Abu-Hamudia, who in festivities with Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/18/2015
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[UPI] An Air India technician died after he got sucked into the live engine of an airplane as it was being pushed back for takeoff at the Mumbai Airport.
The incident at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Wednesday traumatized many of the 100 or so passengers who were on the flight, The Times of India reported. The technician was identified as Ravi Subramanium.
The incident may have occurred due to a miscommunication between the aircraft's co-pilot, who was in training, and Subramanium. The co-pilot and pilot, a senior captain, have been indefinitely grounded as investigations continue, NDTV reported.
The A-319 aircraft was en route to Hyderabad when it was being pushed back with the help of technicians from the parking bay toward the runway. Most planes can only move forward so a tow van helps push planes back.
"No one knew what happened. All of a sudden we hear that we heard that the technician has been sucked into the engine," an airline official said, as quoted by The Times of India. Another official said "the body has been badly mutilated."
Edna: It will be bold! Dramatic!
Bob: Yeah!
Edna: Heroic!
Bob: Yeah. Something classic, like, like Dynaguy. Oh, he had a great look! Oh, the cape and the boots...
Edna: [throws a wadded ball of paper at Bob's head] No capes!
Bob: Isn't that my decision?
Edna: Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers? Nice man, good with kids.
Bob: Listen, E...
Edna: November 15th of '58! All was well, another day saved, when... his cape snagged on a missile fin!
Bob: Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb...
Edna: Stratogal! April 23rd, '57! Cape caught in a jet turbine!
Bob: E, you can't generalize about these things...
Edna: Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex!
[shouts]
Edna: No capes!
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2015
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Armed terrorists militants ambushed police on patrol in the volatile area of Lamu County and opened fire on a vehicle, reportedly injuring several people including police officers.
Witnesses told The Standard last evening that two policemen were killed but state authorities discounted the claims asking for calm pending verification of conflicting reports from the scene.
There were conflicting reports of where the attack took place with some reports indicating the attack occurred at Milihoi, between Mpeketoni and Hindi townships at around 6.30p.m. James Ole Seriani, the top government official in charge of the joint task force leading operations against insurgents in Lamu County, told The Standard that “there was some shooting between Mkunumbi and Koreni and police officers have responded and the operation is still going on”.
He said he had little information but confirmed that he had received a report that “one person was injured and a vehicle burnt around 6.30 this evening”.
Ole Seriani said the vehicle was a civilian one but added that he has not received any reports of police deaths. Crispus Mutali, the head of anti-terrorist operations in Lamu who is also the county’s AP Commandant told The Standard that “I am still on scene and I cannot release a statement now.”
Sources on site alleged that at least two people were killed and shooting had spread southwards towards Mpeketoni where residents reported loud explosions and helicopter overflights.
The attack has occurred just hours after the state extended a curfew in the northern parts of Lamu for 90 days to allow a multi-task force operation against Jaysh Ayman, a militant offshoot of al Shabaab, which has been active in Mpeketoni and other parts of Lamu since mid-last year and is responsible for many attacks on civilians, police and military targets.
The group claimed responsibility for the June 14 2015 massacre of mainly 65 Christian men in Mpeketoni and the June 14 attack on a Kenya Defence Forces camp at Baure in northern Lamu.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Members of Libya's rival parliaments on Thursday signed a landmark, U.N.-sponsored deal on forming a unity government that will strive to bring peace to the war-ravaged country.
Supporters of the agreement hope that rival political factions and militias will embrace the deal and agree on a cease-fire, so that they can fend off 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.... Death Eater group, which is expanding its gains in the North African country.
The document was signed in Morocco by Emhemed Shoaib, the deputy speaker of the internationally recognized Libyan parliament, and Salah al-Makhzoum, the second deputy of the Islamist-backed parliament based in the capital, Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , among others.
Libya slid into chaos following the 2011 toppling and killing of dictator Muammar Qadaffy ... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV... . Over a year ago, it was further torn - in addition to having two parliaments - between the internationally recognized government, based in the country's east, and the Islamist-backed government in Tripoli.
"This is just the beginning of a long journey for Libya," said U.N. envoy Martin Kobler, who attended the Morocco ceremony.
"Four challenges in particular will immediately test the abilities of the new government," he said. "First, to face immediately the dire humanitarian situation in the country. Second, an inclusive national security dialogue.
Third, the fight against Daesh [Islamic State] (the Islamic State group) and other terrorist groups, and fourth, a particular attention to Benghazi and other areas."
The agreement has detractors on both sides who seek a separate deal without U.N. involvement.
"We know well that the document of political accord in its current form is not the perfect thing that everyone wants, but at the same time, this political accord is a stage on the path to rescue Libya from collapsing and to ensure its unity," al-Makhzoum said.
Shoaib said the deal is meant to say "goodbye to weapons" that Libya is awash in. The agreement also established a nine-member named presidential council that will be tasked with choosing the Cabinet.
The speakers of the two parliaments - Tripoli-based Nuri A.M. Abusahmain and Aguila Saleh Issa from the east - were not at the Morocco ceremony. The two, who are seen by analysts as hard-liners, held talks on Tuesday in Malta to forge a separate deal without U.N. involvement.
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weapons and ammunition ahead of an expected offensive against 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.... (ISIS), in Hasakah province.
In an exclusive report late Wednesday Rooters wrote that the SDF forces are expected to launch an offensive against ISIS in Al-Shaddadah, a town south of Al-Hasakah province.
The majority of the SDF rank-and-file are members of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) smaller numbers of Arabs, Assyrians and Turkmen are also fighting under the same umbrella.
This latest shipment of ammunition was, the US claims, directly delivered overland to the 5,000-strong Arab force within the SDF.
Similarly when it air dropped 50 tonnes of bullets and grenades to the YPG last October Washington said it was intended for Arab rebels but YPG leaders claimed they had picked up some of the ammunition.
Al- Shaddadah is a strategically important town for ISIS and it is the group's last foothold in Hasakah Province. Capturing it would further cut off that group from important highways and put more pressure on their so-called "capital", Raqqa.
[WASHINGTONPOST] Democracy for America, the progressive group that helped lead the move to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to run for president, threw its support firmly behind Behind Sanders on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2015
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Does this mean they have given up on Fauxcahontas? Every cloud has a silver lining!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/18/2015 8:33
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Wondering the same thing Bobby. BTW, are Biden and Fauxcahontas still living? Nothing heard from either of them lately.
A Palestinian tried to attack Israeli soldiers with a knife in the West Bank on Thursday and was shot dead, the Israeli army claimed, the latest incident in more than two-months of violence.
"During routine security activity in Hawwara, forces spotted a suspect and approached in order to question him," the army said in a statement of the incident near Nablus in an area where Israeli settlers and Palestinians cross a military checkpoint.
It said the man ran towards the soldiers, who opened fire, "resulting in his death".
Palestinian security sources said Israeli authorities had taken the body of the Palestinian, as has occurred regularly. Members of his family identified him as 15-year-old Abdullah Nassara. He had been to school that morning for an exam, which he attended, but never returned, his family said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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He had been to school that morning for an exam
Well, he learned something.
The Obama administration cannot be sure of the whereabouts of thousands of foreigners in the U.S. who had their visas revoked over terror concerns and other reasons, a State Department official acknowledged Thursday.
The admission, made at a House oversight hearing examining immigrant vetting in the wake of major terror attacks, drew a sharp rebuke from the committee chairman.
“You don’t have a clue do you?” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Michele Thoren Bond, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
They usually don't...
Bond initially said the U.S. has revoked more than 122,000 visas since 2001, including 9,500 because of the threat of terrorism. But Chaffetz quickly pried at that stat, pressing the witness about the present location of those individuals.
"I don't know," she said.
Ms. Bond is a political appointee and suffers from the same problems that most of the rest of the Obama team political appointees have: she's a clueless, talentless hack whose main job is to look after Democratic Party interests first and always...
The startling admission came as members of the committee pressed administration officials on what safeguards are in place to reduce the risk from would-be extremists.
At issue is how closely the U.S. government examines the background of people seeking entry to the country, including reviews of their social media postings.
Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told committee members that such checks aren't being done in an abundant manner, and he was not specific about when or how it would occur.
Leon's not even sure of his own name...
Lawmakers are trying to ascertain which safeguards are in place to ensure that extremists are not exploiting a variety of legal paths to travel to the United States.
One of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters came to the U.S. on a K-1 fiancee visa last year despite the fact that the FBI believed she was already radicalized. Tashfeen Malik came to the U.S. on a K-1 fiance visa in July 2014 and passed multiple background checks and at least two in-person interviews, one in Pakistan and another after she married Syed Farook. FBI Director James Comey has said Malik and Farook communicated privately online about jihad and martyrdom before they married.
Lawmakers at times angrily pressed officials on why even public social media wouldn't routinely be looked at for vetting those trying to enter the country.
"If half the employers are doing it in the United States of America, if colleges are doing it for students, why wouldn't Homeland Security do it?" said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. "We don't even look at their public stuff, that's what kills me."
DHS did launch three pilot programs specifically aimed at reviewing social media postings as part of the immigration vetting process.
Pilot programs. They'll take about a decade each; they're screening Usenet right now...
"There is less there that is actually of screening value than you would expect, at least in small early samples, some things seem more ambiguous than clear," Rodriguez told lawmakers Thursday. He said foreign alphabets frequently used in social media posts were a challenge to translate.
It's not like natural language processing can only be done in English...
"We all continue to believe there's a potential for there to be information of screening value ... particularly in high risk environments," he added.
Both DHS and the State Department are reviewing the process for vetting visa applications, including the K-1 program, and have been directed by the White House to create specific recommendations for improvements.
Sometime in 2017...
DHS is specifically reviewing policies on when authorities at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can look at social media posts as part of the process for evaluating applications for certain visas.
"There are some legal limits to what we can do," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday. He added that he thinks reviews of social media should be done more often, but did not provide specifics.
Nor will he...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2015
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#1
What's the big deal they're just...umm... "Undocumented". Yeah...that's the ticket.
#3
Sadly there are no surprises here. This administration has established a well earned reputation for allowing terrorists into the country. Might be interesting to tally all the victims.
Investor's Business Daily article about the ongoing transformation of our military leadership that will resonate for years after he is gone. Catastrophic impact on those who are tasked to lead the fight to defend the nation.
#4
As always bad journalism. It might be truth and with a Marxist President like Obama doesn't surprise me, but for that article to have any value, it needs to get to other years information.
#5
Plenty of evidence
And that's 2013, after which I was told shit is dire.
It's a shell force after every democrat President. Every time.
Hell, I covered this in my timeline long ago as it was happening.
However, I knew of some Flag Officers that needed to be purges and that should not count on his record....
But the "Leadership" of new appointments should.
#6
Looking at the list at http://www.standupamericaus.org/breaking-news/obama-purging-the-military-197-officers-in-5-years/
I see that 157 were Army Majors presumably terminated as part of a reduction in force (RIF) during 2011, and 24 Naval officers who were let go in 2012 were Commanders and Captains - most of the were likely O-6'S who were passed over as part of another RIF.
So - a grand total of 16 appear to have been flag officers.
The bogosity of the headline number pretty much impeaches the credibility of the entire story.
#7
Purges, hell! It's the resignations in the middle grades who had to put up with the normal bs having to deal with even greater crap flavored PC. Those who 'can do' have no problem finding a job on the outside. Guess no one learned from the collapse of the Iraqi army rife with politically reliable 'leadership'.
#8
I seem to remember this happening with every president, maybe more so with O.
What should be interesting is the purge when a Republican is president in 2017.
I suspect the "gay" meme drys up pretty quick.
#10
I seem to remember a number of general officers that were "asked" to retire, such as Gen. Ham in US African Command, and a couple of more. Not all at once, but spread out over the last seven years. I also know two general officers who were told they would NEVER get promoted, that they were guaranteed shitty jobs, and "suggested" to retire. And I'd bet there are a heckuva lot more than 197 -- closer to 400. Not to include RIFs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2015 21:08
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The European Commission announced on Wednesday a 16-point action plan worth almost 300 million euros ($327 million) to address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement in the Horn of Africa, the EU executive body said in a statement.
Most of the money is used to pay the Euro apparatchiks (salaries, benefits, Land Cruisers, hookers); the rest goes into the pockets of prominent Somalis and ends up in Switzerland...
The plan includes pillar-action points aimed at addressing migration in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia) in general, as well as particular actions and recommendations for particular states.
The plan includes efforts to create employment opportunities and better living conditions in specific areas of Ethiopia, facilitate the return of refugees, who are currently hosted in the region and in Europe, to stable areas of Somalia of Somali, improve the reintegration of South Sudanese refugees in host communities of Uganda or create favorable conditions for their return, and support the implementation of the peace agreement in South Sudan and the return of internally displaced persons.
One of the overall objectives of the action plan is to promote sustainable voluntary return and reintegration by building national capacities.
The more important objective is to spend the money, preferably in ways that can't be audited...
The project aims to investigate and prosecute cases of human trafficking and smuggling and improve border management, as well as developing policies and legislative frameworks.
Prosecute cases of trafficking? So there's a provision in this for Carla del Ponte...
The new plan also recommends the improvement of the recruitment framework for migrant labor. To this end, governments, social partners and other stakeholders should efficiently manage recruitment within the overall labor migration process.
The U.S. does migrant labor just fine without all the overhead. Just check out the farms, landscaping businesses and poultry processing houses...
The implementation of the action plan will start in early 2016.
The money will be gone by late 2016...
The first 10 points of action will be implemented and financed jointly by the European Commission and EU member states, in partnership with African countries, the European Commission said.
The other six actions are to be financed under the Development Cooperation Instrument, the EU’s major financial tool for development cooperation in the 2014‐2020 period.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Don't sign that cheque, I believe I may have found the problem.
[FORTUNE] For nearly a week, the media and political worlds have been wondering who paid $140 million to purchase Nevada’s largest daily newspaper, The Las Vegas Review-Journal. The primary buyer had taken great pains to remain anonymous, but Fortune has learned from multiple sources familiar with the situation that it is Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Adelson, a major Republican Party donor who hosted Tuesday night’s debate at his Venetian property, had been widely rumored to be the buyer—including by employees at the Review-Journal itself, which this morning ran a front-page story that detailed Adelson’s ties to Michael Schroeder, a regional Connecticut newspaper publisher who was the only person listed on regulatory filings related to the sale. LVRJ, if you remember, was the home of Righthaven, which screwed the 'Burg and something like 90 other websites with the threat of copyright lawsuits. I hope its new owner vetoes any future brilliant ideas coming out of it.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A fitting end to a nasty interlude. May it prove profitable for him.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The murder of the young Syrian activist took place close enough to his family's home that his youngest brother heard his piercing scream. Ibrahim Abdelqader's attackers stabbed him dozens of times and left his partially decapitated corpse hanging from a doorframe.
His family and colleagues say he was killed by a secret operative from ISIS who befriended him before he struck. The message from ISIS was clear: Its enemies are not safe, even across borders.
More than a month after the slaying of Abdelqader and his friend Fares Hamadi, the media collective that Abdelqader belonged to - which secretly documents life at the heart of ISIS's self-proclaimed caliphate - has been forced into deep hiding.
ISIS grabbed credit for the murders in a video message warning that "every apostate will be slaughtered silently." It was a grim riff on the media collective's name - Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a reference to the Syrian city of Raqqa that has become synonymous with ISIS and its efforts to build a caliphate.
Last month, the activist media group collected the 2015 Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award for its work in one of the most terrifying cities of the world, monitoring ISIS and countering its steady stream of propaganda with factual accounts.
Their reports from Raqqa have tackled everything from the conscription of children to the sexual slavery of Yazidi women brought from Iraq. They have documented public killings, flagged the death of Western hostages, and tracked the bombs dropped by the Syrian regime, the U.S., La Belle France and Russia.
Now the Oct. 29 killings of Abdelqader and Hamadi raise concerns about the safety of anti-ISIS activists in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , a country that only recently grasped the scale of the terror threat within its own borders.
The killings extended the reach of the campaign ISIS already wages against the collective. In the mosques of Raqqa, Friday sermons regularly feature diatribes against the activists. ISIS killed three men this year that it accused of belonging to the network, although members said they actually were the father and friends of activists. On Wednesday, an activist with the group, Ahmed Mohammed al-Mousa was killed in the northwest Syrian province of Idlib by masked assailants.
"They have threatened all of us," says Abdelaziz Hamza, a co-founder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, who traveled to the U.S. in November to receive the journalism award. "We don't know who could be the next one."
Abdelqader, 22, and Hamadi, 20, were murdered by ISIS operatives in the southern Turkish city of Sanliurfa on a balmy night that the two friends thought would be perfect for relaxing with a water pipe.
The media activists say the man who boasts he criminal masterminded the attack was a familiar face - Tlass al-Surur, a wide-eyed scrawny young man who had arrived from Raqqa a few months earlier. They say Surur claimed he had come to Turkey to seek work and slowly won Abdelqader's trust, enough to carry out regular visits to his home.
All Syrian media activists, whether they are documenting the daily grind of atrocities committed by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... 's government or the sensational violence carried out by ISIS, take precautions.
Abdelqader was careful, with a sharp sense of digital security and a general distrust of strangers. He masked his identity by using the pseudonym Baz al-Furati when dealing with Arab-language news networks.
But ISIS was cunning. Surur cultivated a friendship with Abdelqader in Turkey over the course of months.
Some say Surur lured Abdelqader by introducing himself as an ISIS defector, which would have presented the prospect of an irresistible trove of information. But Abdelqader's brother Ahmed insists the ruse was less elaborate, saying Ibrahim simply warmed to Surur.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[FOXNEWS] Finance ministers from the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council will meet Thursday to adopt a resolution aimed at disrupting the outside revenue that 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.... murderous Moslem group gets from selling oil and antiquities, from ransom payments and other criminal activities. And here it's only been 14 1/2 years...
The Islamic State group is already subject to U.N. sanctions under resolutions dealing with Al Qaeda. But the proposed resolution, sponsored by the United States and Russia, elevates ISIS to the same level as Al Qaeda, reflecting its split from Al Qaeda and the growing threat it poses especially in the Mideast and North Africa.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who will chair Thursday's meeting, said when the meeting was announced earlier this month that disrupting the Islamic State group's financing and cutting it off from the international financial system "are critical to effectively combating this violent terrorist group."
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told news hounds Wednesday that the meeting is an unprecedented chance to bring together the people with the technical abilities to track and cut off funds to "starve" the Islamic State group of resources.
The Islamic State group, also known as ISIL and Daesh [Islamic State], controls a large swath of Syria and Iraq, including oil and gas fields, though bombing campaigns by the U.S.-led coalition and ground forces have enabled Iraq to regain some territory.
While the resolution is aimed at cutting off some of ISIS' outside revenue streams, a U.N. diplomat and U.S. official said the majority of funding for the murderous Moslem group comes from internal sources which are difficult to disrupt. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The U.S. official said getting at ISIS' revenue is a serious challenge because much of it is internally generated from oil and gas sales which have the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually as well as from taxation and extortion. This is in contrast to Al Qaeda, whose funding typically comes from outside donors, including charities and kidnapping for ransom.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Oil...schmoil...the real money is in antiquities.
[AlAhram] Delhi police have busted a suspected Al-Qaeda cell and placed in durance vile Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! a founder member of the Death Eater group's India wing, officials said Thursday.
Police said they had arrested "radical bad boy" Mohammed Asif, 41, who allegedly led the group's recruitment and training wing in India and was a founder member of Al-Qaeda on the subcontinent.
"Long and intense periods of deploying human sources in the vulnerable pockets of Islamic radicalisation led to the zeroing in on certain suspects," police said in a statement.
"A trap was laid and in a swift and professional operation, accused Mohd. Asif was apprehended" when he went to meet a contact at a flyover in New Delhi, the statement said.
Two others were also arrested in the case, one for allegedly attempting to radicalise students at a madrassa in Uttar Pradesh state and another for financing the group's activities, Press Trust of India reported.
All three have been remanded in jug, according to police and PTI.
In September 2014 Al-Qaeda announced it had set up a new branch on the Indian subcontinent seeking to invigorate its waning Islamist bad boy movement.
India placed several states on high alert after the group launched the new branch to "wage jihad" in South Asia.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra... said at the time the new operation would take the fight to Myanmar, Bangladesh and India, which has a large but traditionally moderate Muslim population.
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12/18/2015
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There was bemusement tonight following reports that a US special forces team landed unexpectedly at the Al-Wattiyah Airbase, controlled by troops loyal to the government and were told by local forces to go away.
The Libyan Air Force has claimed that 20 well-equipped Americans arrived at the airbase to the south-west of Tripoli with what appeared to be a dune buggy. Puzzled local commanders are reported to have told the foreigners that they had no knowledge of any mission and that they should leave.
It appears that after milling around and having their photographs taken, with assault rifles slung over their shoulders, the men agreed to depart in the aircraft that had brought them. Some sources say that their plane carried a UAE registration.
News agencies are reporting that Pentagon sources have confirmed that the men were on special mission with the agreement of the Libyan government. However, no official confirmation has yet come from either the Pentagon nor the US Defence Department.
The apparel of the Americans – some were wearing jeans and baseball caps – has cast doubt on the likelihood that they were serving soldiers. One military analyst told the Libya Herald this evening that among the many “odd features”, the men appeared to have no personal communications equipment, generally an essential for special forces units.
It has been suggested that this was a hit team tasked with striking at the IS base at Ajaylat outside Sabratha.
If these were indeed US special forces then the failure of their mission is reminiscent of the fate of six British SAS troops who were landed near Benghazi in March 2011, during the Revolution and promptly arrested. Their operation was never properly explained though it was believed that they were supposed to be a close-support detail for visiting UK diplomats.
#3
A force of 20 personnel [plus crew] 'air landing' without solid pre-coordination, communications, and successful hand-off by reception committee comprised of one or two of their own? Going in blind without coordination with indigenous personnel fails doctrine and is clearly a recipe for a cock-up.
Sorry, fails the smell test. I wonder if it was actually SF or someone else ?
Russia has made clear to Western nations that it has no objection to Syrian President Bashar Assad stepping down as part of a peace process, in a softening of its publicly stated staunch backing of Assad ahead of talks in New York, diplomats said.
Russia, like Iran, has been a firm ally of Assad and is intervening militarily on his behalf against anti-government forces in the five-year civil war that has claimed more than a quarter million lives. Both Russia and Iran have long insisted Assad’s fate should be decided in a nationwide vote.
Western powers, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others reluctantly agreed to allow Assad to remain in place during a transition period, a compromise that has opened the door to a shift on the part of Russia, Western diplomats said.
“What you’ve got is a move that will end up with Assad going,” a senior Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Police are revealing more about a report of a group of men asking about the Bagnell Dam. Miller County Sheriff Bill Abbott tells Lake News that the Camden County Sheriff’s Office forwarded a security tip regarding the hydroelectric facility to the FBI.
Police tell KMIZ-TV that the incident happened about two weeks ago at the Golden Corral in Osage Beach. A deputy was eating lunch and the wait staff told him about the group of men. Staffers said the men were asking questions about the dam. They wanted to know if they could rent a boat and tour the dam.
"So what are you boys interested in?"
"Umm, fishing."
"What's with the pipe bombs?"
"How else you go fishing, infidel?"
The Camden County Sheriff’s Office tells Lake News that they received a tip about a group of “Middle Eastern” men asking about Bagnell Dam. The police department forwarded that report to the FBI and a joint task force on terrorism.
The Miller County Sheriff’s office have have been in contact with the St. Louis security office for the dam. Patrols of the dam are continuing as normal.
“With recent things going on in our country and around the world, people are kind of a little bit more alerted. It’s everyone’s responsibility to watch out for each other. We all live in this community, and we’re going to notice things that seem out of place and if we don’t notify the proper authorities, who will?” Officer Corporal Scott Hines told KMIZ-TV.
Until you get sued for seeing something and saying something...
Police say the report does not mean that there is any reason to be overly concerned. People should be aware and alert as they go about their business.
It would seem to me to be a big mistake for someone to mess with a dam in rural Missouri. Enough guns, pickup trucks, huntin' dogs and bass boats that you'd never get away with it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
That's not much information about the gentlemen in question. How many, who were they, and what was found on their cell phones and social media?
[NOLA] Lee Circle will lose the statue of its namesake after the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 Thursday (Dec. 17) to remove four monuments related to the Confederacy from their prominent perches around the city. "E pur si muove."
Besides Gen. Robert E. Lee, statues of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard at the entrance of City Park and Confederate president Jefferson Davis in Mid-City and the obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Liberty Place at the foot of Iberville Street will all come down.
"The time surely comes when (justice) must and will be heard," Mayor Mitch Landrieu told the council as he called for the statues to be put in a museum or a Civil War park. "Members of the council, that day is today. The Confederacy, you see, was on the wrong side of history and humanity."
Once again, hat tip to the famed Rantburg Graphics Department (RGD).
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2015
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Jefferson Davis is good riddance but Beuregard??? He spent his last years helping Blacks!
#8
For those who are wondering about the Battle of Liberty Place:
The Battle of Liberty Place was an attempted insurrection by the Crescent City White League against the legal Reconstruction state government on September 14, 1874, in New Orleans. Five thousand members of the White League, a paramilitary organization of the Democratic Party, fought against the outnumbered Metropolitan Police and state militia. The insurgents held the statehouse, armory, and downtown for three days, retreating before arrival of Federal troops that restored the elected government.
In 1891, the city erected a monument to commemorate and praise the insurrection from the Democratic Party point of view. The white marble obelisk was placed at a prominent location on Canal Street. In 1932, the city added an inscription that expressed a white supremacist view.
Posted by: frozen al ||
12/18/2015 13:17
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#9
More inane B.S. in the quest to achieve stupidity. What does New Orleans plan to do, erect monuments to Obama? Next, the PC police will try to remove any reference to JFK because he supported the Bay of Pigs and Castro might be offended. Any references to Truman will also be erased because he dropped the A-bomb on Japan and offended the Japanese. Any reference to WWII will be dropped because we won the war. You can't win anymore; it offends the underachievers. Any reference to the Alamo will be punished because the illegals think this is their country. This stupidity is appalling--Nothing like wearing it on your sleeve and removing all doubt.
The Civil War was an incredibly important part of our history--too important to be removed or erased. It seems the barbarians are in charge these days. Not unlike ISIS or the Taliban blowing up antiquities. Similar to book-burning by the Nazis--get rid of what you don't want to see or hear.
#10
New Orleans, known for her morals!
Her politics, barrels of quarrels.
Who'll be her new teraph,
Dem Chinaman sheriff
Or rock-ribbed Repub Robert Charles?
Flanked by his national security team, President Obama reassured Americans that there was "no specific, credible threat" against the country ahead of the holidays.
I think that means that TSHTF sometime tomorrow...
"We do not have any specific and credible information about an attack on the homeland," Obama said today at the National Counterterrorism Center. "That said, we have to be vigilant."
Yes, if you see something, say something, unless it's about a Muslim lad with a clock -- then you'll be sued. Or if it's about a Muslim woman because sexist. Or about a Muslim man because racist...
Obama said security experts are constantly hard at work putting up safeguards to prevent terrorists from entering the country, while at the same time bringing the fight to terrorists plotting overseas.
See how smoothly he lies? We have virtually no ability to screen the "refugees", airport security is a joke, and we're certainly not taking the fight to ISIS.
Obama also urged “resilience” in the wake of the attack in San Bernardino, California, calling it “one of our greatest weapons” in the fight against terrorism.
It would be better both to be resilient and to gob-smack the terrorists...
“When Americans stand together, nothing can beat us,” Obama said. “We cannot give in to fear or change how we live our lives because that’s what terrorists want, that’s the only leverage they have.”
Except the progressives have spent the last half-century working to ensure that we never stand together. Ask George Bush about how well the Left stood with him against terrorism...
It's a similar message to one given in November by the president in the immediate wake of the terror attack in Paris, where he sought to reassure the American people that there was no "specific, credible threat" facing the homeland during the Thanksgiving holiday.
But following the attack in San Bernardino, an ABC News/Washington Post poll out Wednesday showed just 22 percent of Americans express confidence in the government’s ability to prevent lone-wolf terrorist attacks.
He reassured us right before that attack, as I recall...
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QUETTA: Two suspected militants were killed in an `encounter’ with security forces in Awaran area of Balochistan on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Frontier Corps Balochistan said that FC personnel launched a search operation in hilly areas of Awaran on intelligence that armed militants were hiding there. The FC men cordoned the area on which armed men opened fire, he said.
A heavy exchange of fire continued for two hours, resulting in death of two suspected militants. A large quantity of arms and ammunition was seized.
Meanwhile, security forces arrested two suspects from Barkhan area who were identified as Noor Muhammad and Noor Ali. They were taken into custody during patrolling in Barkhan town and later handed over to the authorities concerned for interrogation.
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.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Couch confirmed that authorities had issued the juvenile equivalent of an arrest warrant. Investigators are also seeking the boy's mother, Tonya Couch, with whom he had been living. On Wednesday, Anderson expressed concern that Couch and his mother had fled the country. 
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as "talented" and "outstanding," welcoming his stance on Russia.
A man who bought the assault rifles used by his friend in the San Bernardino massacre has been charged with terrorism-related counts.
A religious studies 
A proposal to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States has ignited a bitter debate in Washington, but more than 10 times that number of people from the embattled country have quietly come to America since 2012, according to figures obtained by FoxNews.com.
Hey! Don't look at her, look at MEEEEE ! 
[DENVERPOST] Spain's next prime minister could be a young pony-tailed university professor, or perhaps a leather-jacketed lawyer who once posed nude in campaign posters.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[REUTERS] A French court has ordered Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to face trial over her role in a payout of some 400 million euros ($434 million) to businessman Bernard Tapie, her lawyer said on Thursday.
[DAILYCALLER]
"If you know the whereabouts of these two men, contact your local....." 
The European Commission announced on Wednesday a 16-point action plan worth almost 300 million euros ($327 million) to address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement in the Horn of Africa, the EU executive body said in a statement.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[FOXNEWS] Finance ministers from the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council will meet Thursday to adopt a resolution aimed at disrupting the outside revenue that the 
Zawahiri
[NOLA] Lee Circle will lose the statue of its namesake after the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 Thursday (Dec. 17) to remove four monuments related to the Confederacy from their prominent perches around the city.
