#1
Money shot: Why in the name of all that is sane and electable would the campaign for a presidential hopeful try to stop people from reproducing its campaign materials? It is literally the most dunderheaded, anti-electable tactic I can imagine in a twenty-first-century political campaign.
Farsnews (Iran's official spokesholes). HT to Weasel Zippers. Is there anything else this traitorous trio of ValJar, Obama, and Kerry can do for the Ayatollahs and against Americans and Joooos?
(FNA)- 4 Iranian-American nationals who were held for various charges in Iran have been freed under a prisoners swap deal, Tehran's prosecutor announced Saturday afternoon.
"Based on an approval of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and the general interests of the Islamic Republic, four Iranian prisoners with dual-nationality were freed today within the framework of a prisoner swap deal," the office of Tehran prosecutor said.
The four Iranian-Americans, Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmat, Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosrawi Roudsari who were jailed in Iran on various charges in recent years, have all been released.
Some English and Persian websites have wrongly named Siamak Namazi as the fourth inmate freed under the deal today. Namazi remains in jail for his charges are financial, and not political.
According to the swap deal, the US has also freed 7 Iranian-Americans who were held for sanctions-related charges and demanded the Interpol to stop prosecution of 14 other Iranian nationals. these are the conspirators and bombers of the Jewish Center Bombing in Argentina. Christina was covering that up but she's out now
The 7 Iranian inmates freed by the US have been named as Nader Modanlou, Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afqahi, Arash Ghahreman, Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Sabounchi.
A senior Iranian legislator citing an IRGC report on Rezaian's case said in October that he has been imprisoned for his attempts to help the US Senate to advance its regime change plots in Iran.
In late July 2014, Iran confirmed that four journalists, including Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, had been arrested and were being held for questioning.
Rezaian's wife Yeganeh Salehi, a correspondent for the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper, the National, was also arrested at that time, but she and two others were released later.
According to the Constitution, the Judiciary is independent from the government in Iran. riiigghht
Some reports earlier this year had spoken of a potential prisoner swap between Iran and US following the Vienna nuclear deal in July.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016
11:40 ||
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#1
hmmm. It was there in Preview...I think. Here it is
Thanks.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016 13:10
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#3
VIENNA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The day before the Obama administration was due to slap new sanctions on Iran late last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry the move could derail a prisoner deal the two sides had been negotiating in secret for months.
Kerry and other top aides to President Barack Obama, who was vacationing in Hawaii, convened a series of conference calls and concluded they could not risk losing the chance to free Americans held by Tehran.
At the last minute, the Obama administration officials decided to delay a package of limited and targeted sanctions intended to penalize Iran for recent test-firings of a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
The link is a German TV news report. Here's a summary:
In Dortmund, Germany three North African men accosted and attacked two transsexual men. One of the attackers said "You whores must be stoned.
The assailants then picked up stones from a rock garden(?) and threw them at the victims.
A police patrol became aware of the situation, stopped the attack and arrested the suspects.
The police will apologize and release the perps in 3 .. 2 .. 1...
Same way Microsoft does. They didn't need this tech to "compete" until now. Watch them, uh, abruptly embrace it, and use a pile of money to catch up quick...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/16/2016 10:39
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[ARANews] CIZRE -- At least five non-combatants were killed, including three children, in Turkish bombardment on the Kurdish town of Cizre in Sirnak province, southeast The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , local sources reported on Friday.
The Turkish army continued its military operations against Cizre town for the third week under the pretext of combatting rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
"The Turkish troops hit on Friday civilians' houses in the neighborhoods of Dag and Shah in Cizre town with heavy artillery shelling. Five people were killed, including three children," a local civil rights activist told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... for security concerns. "Also, four other civilians were maimed in Friday's bombardment.
"Cizre suffers constant cut of electricity and water, and a sharp shortage of medicines and food. Civilians are suffering the most under the ongoing military campaign," the source reported.
Cizre town has been under army siege for weeks, while a 24-hour curfew has been imposed by the authorities. The artillery shelling by the army forces repeatedly hit residential neighborhoods in the town, causing more than 50 civilian casualties in the past three weeks.
[ARANews] Warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition bombed a building where leading members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) radical group were meeting in Iraq's northwestern province of Nineveh, activists reported on Friday.
At least 30 ISIS holy warriors, mostly military commanders and security officials, were killed in the Arclight airstrike.
Speaking to ARA News in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , head of Nineveh Media Office Raafat Razazi confirmed the death of prominent ISIS officials in the U.S.-led Arclight airstrike.
"Leading members of ISIS were holding a meeting to discuss the recent preparations to defend the group's major bastion of Mosul against the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi army troops. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... the coalition targeted the building where the gunnies were meeting, killing at least 30 of them," Razazi said.
"This was one of the most painful strikes to ISIS, as the group has lost several military commanders and security officials who used to plan ISIS's operations in Nineveh province, especially in Mosul city and its suburbs," Razazi told ARA News.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/16/2016
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[dw.com] The leader of Germany's federal police has said that the number of militants returning to the country from the Middle East is on the rise. The police stressed, however, that no attack in Germany is imminent.
As far as they know. But with that many potential jihadis to watch, compounded by trying to vet 1.1 million known migrants who arrived in 2015, there's no way they are catching even most of what is going on.
[DAWN] Representatives from Google failed to clinch a deal with the federal government because the IT ministry, despite all impediments having been cleared, has still not been able to issue the official notification to unblock the video sharing site Youtube, it has been learnt.
According to details, Google administration has spent millions of dollars to build and launch 'YouTubePK' on the request of Pakistain's IT ministry, to help regulate the content locally.
However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the officials from Google had to return empty-handed on Thursday without arriving at a deal with the government, an official privy to the development shared with Dawn.com.
The Pak authorities on Tuesday had discussed the matter of lifting the ban on YouTube as Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, after five-hour-long deliberations, asked IT Minister Anusha Rahman to take steps for issuing a notification for unblocking YouTube in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] SIALKOT: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) sealed a mosque-cum-seminary and tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! 14 people in Mundeyki Goraya village on Thursday.
The mosque and seminary were being run by the defunct bad boy organization Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... (JeM).
A bigwig said that a contingent of CTD and police raided and sealed Jamia Masjid and Madressah Al-Noor located some 14km from Daska. The team detained 14 activists of the banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization but did not reveal their identities.
The official said that the record and printed material from the seminary were seized during the raid and people taken into custody were whisked away for interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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It's Friday, and the Gazan lads have nothing better to do than practice their sling work and battle cries.
[IsraelTimes] Army says troops opened fire when 'dozens of rioters breached the buffer zone' in Strip; soldier lightly hurt by stones in West Bank
Paleostinian sources said Friday that two people were killed in festivities with IDF soldiers in separate incidents in the Gazoo Strip.
In the first incident, a youth was killed during a riot near the Bureij refugee camp, in the center of the coastal strip. Ashraf al-Qudra, a front man for the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Health Ministry named him as Mohammed Abu Zaida, 18, and said he died after being shot in the neck.
Two other Paleostinians were maimed during the festivities east of Bureij, he added.
The IDF confirmed it had fired on protesters after they breached the "buffer zone" along the border.
"Dozens of rioters have breached the buffer zone and are attempting to damage the fence," a spokeswoman said. "Forces shot rioters posing a threat of infiltration and the riot is ongoing."
Several hours later, another Paleostinian youth was killed during a confrontation with Israeli troops, local media said, according to Channel 10 television.
In the central West Bank, an IDF soldier was lightly hurt when Paleostinians hurled stones at an army force close to Beitunia. The soldier was treated at the scene and later evacuated to hospital, the Walla website said.
Molotov cocktails were thrown at two buses south of Karmi Tzur in the Eztion settlement bloc on Friday afternoon, Army Radio reported. There were no injuries.
[Gulf Today] Philippine president Benigno Aquino on Friday said he hasn't received any "credible" threat from terror groups following an attack in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least seven and injuring 24 others that Daesh claimed responsibility for.
Aquino assured the government would not let down its guard as he ordered security agencies to closely monitor the activities of groups that pose a threat. He said, "I have ordered intelligence agencies to do the monitoring specifically in the communities to determine the existence of such threats."
In a related development, the Philippine military and police declared a "heightened alert" nationwide as they asked the public to be vigilant and help the country address such threats.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Mayoralgo dela Cruz reported that soldiers had disrupted training being conducted by the Abu Sayyaf to show support for the Daesh last December on the island province of Basilan. He disclosed the troops killed the fugitive Malaysian bomber Mohammad Najib Hussein, alias Abu Anas. and also captured an Abu Sayyaf camp in Al Barka, Basilan.
According to Mayoralgo, the military offensive disrupted Abu Sayyaf propaganda showing the training of alleged Daesh supporters.
[Rudaw] Iraq's defense ministry announced Thursday that its forces had killed a wanted 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) leader responsible for the execution of civilians and the criminal mastermind behind many boom-mobiles.
Mohammed Abul Manaf al-Rawi was severely maimed in air strikes on January 7, and died at the Shifa hospital in the tonw of Albu Kamal in Anbar on Wednesday. .
Al-Raqi was reportedly the al-Qaeda's suicide kabooms criminal mastermind in Iraq prior to joining the Islamic State, said the defense ministry.
A defense statement said that al-Raqi was behind many car kabooms Baghdad and Ramadi and carried out numerous executions in Hit and Rawa in the Western Anbar province.
Another prominent ISIS figure behind many boom-mobiles in the Kirkuk area was killed in a coalition air strike this week.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/16/2016
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New information has come out of the standoff between patriots in Oregon and the federal government, essentially over the way an out-of-control federal judiciary imposed an unjust sentence on a father and son for something that is not even a crime.
Interestingly, David Ward, the sheriff of Harney county was involved in the trial against Dwight and Steve Hammond and was a federal witness. He is a federal retiree, as I understand it, and while none of that would indicate he was not a Constitutional Sheriff, I wonder why that information did not come out before.
Additionally, as it turns out, the Hammond attorney was told by federal officials to avoid contact with any of the occupiers, or the government would make the lives of the Hammond family hell, as they put it. It sounds as though the government has something to hide, and they are willing to go to illegal lengths to hide it.
And it may well have something to hide. The protesters let it be known that agents for the Bureau for Land Management in the last week conducted a shredding party at their Oregon headquarters. What documents were being shredded is unknown.
A group in Arizona, Veterans on Patrol (VoP)(Facebook), took a road trip to the wildlife refuge to, in their words, "extract a war fighter." Apparently the unidentified veteran had let it be known he expected to be killed by the government, and left his family to go to Oregon.
The group headed by Lewis Arthur went to the wildlife refuge, met with leader Ammon Bundy and other top leaders, two of whom returned the courtesy and physically assaulted one of the group.
The VoP group said before they entered Oregon that they were going there unarmed and with supplies to help, and only to extract the still unidentified veteran. They came away empty handed.
One of the VoP leaders who appeared in Oregon, Lewis Arthur, appears from videos I have seen to be a tough minded, straight talking individual, who strongly believes in his mission to help homeless veterans by providing food, shelter and showers, as well as other services. I can see how VoP's presence may have upset the occupiers. Not many people you meet will refuse to take credit for the good they are doing and give credit to the Almighty, but Lewis Arthur does.
When a veteran came up missing in Arizona, and was later found, I remarked on his Facebook page, "I'm glad you found him," to which he replied, "I didn't find anyone."
People like that can be hard to take.
Loads
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Prices for pistol ammunition were steady, while prices for rifle ammunition were mostly steady.
For the third week straight prices on .223 Remington ammunition, the commercial version of the 5.56x45mm round has gone up, this time increasing a substantial .04 each. I suspect 5.56x45mm rounds have gone up more. To get an idea of the nature of the spike, .223 Remington ammunition went up in price around the same time last year because of an ATF proposed rule which would have banned M-855 ammunition because it was considered armor piercing. That spike lasted about 8 weeks, going from .23 per round in November, 2014 all the way to .30 per round in February, 2015 before settling down to .23 per round, where it stayed until last December. At the time I attributed the spike to the ATF proposed rule. This latest could be some other fear factor, such as the proposed "Assault Weapons Ban" introduced to Congress two weeks ago, but one thing we can rule out are costs to make and bring to market, which should be substantially lower because of fuel costs.
Prices for used pistols were higher across the board, while prices for used rifles were mostly higher.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Quality Made Cartridges, Store Brand, FMJ, Brass, Reloads, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Quality Made Cartridges, Store Brand, FMJ, Brass, Reloads, .25 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammunition Supply Company, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Freedom Ammunition, Store brand, FMJFP, Brass, .22 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each)
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Natchez Shooters Supplies, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Cased, .18 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammunition to Go, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Cased, .17 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each)
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .28 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: +.04 Each (!!)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: J&G Sales, Brown Bear, steel cased, FMJ, .30 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Brown Bear, steel cased, FMJ, .27 per round (From Last Week: +.05 Each)
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition Supply Company, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .37 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .34 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))
7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Wolf WPA, steel case, FMJ, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: TrueCaliber.com, Wolf WPA, steel case, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (9 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammomen, CCI, RNL .08 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 325 rounds: Ammo2U, Federal, RNL, .08 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $590 Last Week Avg: $551 (+) ($616 (40 Weeks), $476 (16 Weeks))
California (185, 185): Smith and Wesson M&P Sport II: $600 ($650 (50 Weeks), $400 (19 Weeks))
Texas (227, 223): DPMS: $675 ($700 (45 Weeks), $350 (40 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (95, 99): Mixed Build: $525 ($700 (39 Weeks), $300 (27 Weeks))
Virginia (130, 133): Ruger AR 556: $600 ($750 (45 Weeks), $480 (5 Weeks))
Florida (300, 298): Smith & Wesson M&P Sport: $550 ($650 (29 Weeks), $380 (41 Weeks))
[Tolo News] U.S officials formally delivered four Brazil-made Super Tucano attack aircraft to the Afghan defense ministry on Friday in an effort to help embattled Afghan cops carry out their counter-insurgency missions in the volatile country in days to come.
After receiving the first batch of Super Tucano combat aircrafts, acting minister of defense Masoom Stanekzai said that the planes will be used in battles against the Lions of Islam in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. and Helmand
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
The U.S. government spent $486 million to buy and refurbish 20 older C-27A airplanes from Alenia, a unit of Italia's Finmeccanica SpA, but later canceled the program because a lack of spare parts was severely limiting their availability for military use.
[ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian army's intensified operations against terrorist organizations have resulted in achieving more advances in various areas, establishing control over more areas in Aleppo eastern countryside.
Aleppo
Army units established control over al-Abboudiyeh village, to the southeast of Ein al-Bayda village, and al-Ajouziyeh village in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, sources on the ground told SANA on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind... army Units targeted hideouts and gatherings of ISIL holy warriors in al-Bab, Arran, Tal Beijan, Qiter, al-Mifilseh and Wadiaa in the eastern countryside of Aleppo province.
The army's operations resulted in destroying vehicles and sites, in addition to heavy and medium weapons.
The army also inflicted heavy losses upon holy warriors in al-Mansoura village and Khirbet Hazmar in the western countryside of the province.
In Aleppo city, a number of bad boyz were potted and their weapons and ammunition were destroyed during army operations in the neighborhoods of al-Ameriyeh, al-Rashidin, al-Khalediyeh, al-Lairamoun, al-Kastello and Bani Zaid.
An army unit destroyed arms and weapons for al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... holy warriors in al-Ameriyeh, located on the southeastern outskirts of Aleppo city.
Daraa
In southern Syria, an army unit destroyed a vehicle for al-Nusra (Qaeda Branch in the Levant) holy warriors west of al-Bajabjeh quarter in Daraa al-Balad neighborhood in Daraa city.
A number of bad boyz were potted and their arms and weapons were destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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"Many activists and militia members are now suspecting that the undercover agents were planning to act as agent provocateurs and create trouble in order to frame the protesters for things that they did not do. This theory is supported by the fact these undercover agents were reportedly bothering locals and acting in a threatening manner.
However, mainstream media has reported that militia members were harassing locals, but now that version of events is being brought into question considering the fact that undercover agents were posing as militia."
#1
That would be highly unprofessional for FBI undercover agents so I doubt it. Now CIs, that is a different situation.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/16/2016 0:47
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#2
actually harassing locals? Extremely unlikely (But not impossible - see ruby ridge, waco, etc.) for actual law enforcement employees. If documented, it could potentially undermine the legitimacy of the cops in the eyes of the jury.
Now an Informant (paid snitch) working for the cops (to get a charge reduced or dropped, for example) tend to be the sort who are undisciplined enough to do stupid, potentially cover blowing things like this.
I wonder if the militia guys did a little background checking of any "volunteers" and found something interesting. If I were involved in such activities, my first reflex upon being joined by someone I did not know would be to look this person up, and see if anything "odd" shows up.
#8
...See, there's the problem: if the terrorists were attacking government employees or facilities, they'd be all over 'em. After all, then THEY would be the targets. But as long as they're just whacking civilians, it's not gonna make much difference.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/16/2016 22:07
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[AlAhram] Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamists have killed nearly 1,200 people in neighbouring Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... 's far north since 2013, the communications minister in Yaounde said Friday.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary told news hounds that the group had staged 315 raids in the border region during this period and carried out 32 suicide kabooms.
"In total, 1,098 civilians, 67 of our soldiers and three police officials have been killed in these barbaric attacks by the Boko Haram terrorist group," Bakary said.
Since July last year, Cameroon's far north has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS group.
This year, the number of attacks in the region has increased to a near daily basis with simultaneous incursions in some areas.
"In the face of such unjustified and gratuitous harrassment our defence and security forces have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy," he said, adding that the group had been so weakened that it was now taking recourse to kabooms, often staged by women or girls.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/16/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! 12 academics for signing a declaration denouncing Ankara's military operations against Kurdish holy warriors. The move comes after more than 1,200 scholars were being investigated for criticizing the Turkish State.
The Anadolu Agency, as cited by AP, says the 12 who were detained by police are lecturers at Kocaeli University in the northwest. Police are still processing the paperwork for nine other academics, who will also be arrested.
The 1,200 academics had been accused of allegedly participating in "terrorist propaganda" after they signed a declaration condemning military operations against Kurdish rebels in the southeast.
News of the investigation was reported by Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency.
Around 1,200 academics from 89 universities, including prominent foreign scholars such as Noam Chomsky ...intellectual and political theorist of a socialist persuasion. He is noted for being so far out in left field he can't see the shortstop on every issue he pushes... , David Harvey and Immanuel Wallerstein, signed the declaration, which was titled: "We won't be a part of this crime."
It called on the authorities in Ankara to end the "massacre and slaughter" in southeast Turkey and lift the siege of Kurdish towns and cities. The declaration also accused Erdogan of waging a war against his own people.
"The responsibility for the present self-inflicted crisis in the country must lie squarely with Erdogan, who perceives the Kurds... as obstacles to his plan to establish supreme rule for the Turkish presidency," the declaration said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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[DAWN] SIALKOT: An anti-terrorism court handed down death sentence on four counts and 30-year hard jail to a convict police inspector in a murder case of two Daska-based senior lawyers on Thursday.
The court ordered Shahzad Warraich to pay Rs400,000 as financial compensation to the families of the two slain lawyers.
Judge Chaudhry Imtiaz Ahmed awarded death sentence on two counts under section 302 of the PPC and another two counts under 7-ATA to the convict.
According to the prosecution, the convict police inspector had rubbed out Daska Bar Association president Rana Khalid Abbas and senior lawyer Muhammad Irfan Chohan in front of the main gate of the Daska City cop shoppe on May 25, 2015, when lawyers clashed with tehsil municipal workers over some issue and allegedly abused police when it intervened.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
and allegedly abused police when it intervened.
Pak lawyers seem more like a criminal gang than legit barristers. I think another 1000 dead might be a good start
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016 10:48
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[Tolo News] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... between Afghan cops and the Taliban is underway in Gereshk district in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province.
Tribal elders in the province warned if fresh troops are not sent in, the collapse of the district will also lead to the fall of Helmand province.
They called on government to send in reinforcement troops so as not to let Gereshk district to fall to the Taliban.
A tribal elder from the district said that Gereshk was a strategic district and its fall could lead to the fall of Helmand province.
"It has been almost one week that security troops in the district have not slept, they haven't received any equipment and as compared with the enemy they don't have enough weapons," he added.
He stressed that if government failed to send in fresh troops and take other necessary measures, then the fall of the district will definitely lead to the fall of Helmand province.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella grabbed the cocoanut cream... Gereshk district chief, Muhammad Sharif, said that if reinforcement troops are not deployed, they will not be able to ensure the security of the district.
"We urge leaders of security organizations to act on time and move forward, because it is still early. Send us more troops. The security troops that are currently stationed in the district are on the defensive," he said adding, "although the national army has supported police forces in the district, it was not enough and more measures should be taken."
Afghan soldiers, who are fighting on the frontline against the Taliban in Gereshk district, said due to lack of enough weapons they cannot move forward. They, however, claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties on bully boys.
An Afghan soldier said that dead bodies of the snuffies are on the ground and the Taliban are trying to take away the bodies.
"It has been five days that we are fighting. We have defeated them. In every fighting, 10 to 12 snuffies are being killed. They (the Taliban) cannot stand against us," he added.
The fighting has forced scores of families to leave their houses in the district. The displaced families seek humanitarian assistance.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
GERESHK-where the German circus geeks live in the off season wunderbar and farten nugguty!
#2
And hier Ich thoughten der circus Mir der lflashing lights were auf Sarsota geganen.
Keaton Beach, 1988. Eating fried mullet at a seaside dive, suddenly a rumble of many motor cycles. I am like ah fooey, time to go. They came in with maximum leathers, no colors and mostly spoke Hohe Deutsch. Upper class Germans on a motorcycle tour of the South. Once I figured that out (24 minutes), Gemütlichkeit decended upon the joint. I walked back to house at about 4 am. I may have left the tab, actually I did leave the tab. :)
#4
Not enough weapons? Existing troops are unarmed? Maybe grab the weapons from the bad guys that you kill. By weapons does the author mean ammo? Is he looking for a spectre gunship?
[NRTTV] A mobile clinic and medical team is on its way to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, where the local community has reported that 32 people died of starvation in the last 30 days, United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... (UN) agencies said on Friday (Jan. 15).
The Syrian government has given permission for the mobile clinic of the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy to enter the town and has also agreed for vaccination to be carried out.
"[The World Health Organization] has called for mobile clinics to go in Madaya. So we got an agreement and the first mobile clinic has gone this morning to Madaya. This mobile clinic is operated by Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy and is a team, it's a medical team that will do medical examinations inside Madaya", Tarik Jasarevic of the World Health Organization (WHO) told a news briefing in Geneva.
The local community's relief committee told officials of the United Nations' World Food Programme that 32 people had died of hunger in the last 30 days.
The United Nations hopes to send convoys to Madaya and the rebel-besieged towns of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib next week, but no date has been set for Zabadani, OCHA front man Jens Laerke said.
U.N. children's fund UNICEF confirmed cases of severe malnutrition among children in Madaya, where aid was delivered this week to thousands of people affected by the months-long blockade.
"We can confirm that cases of severe malnutrition were found among children in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya. Our UNICEF representative and the team were particularly saddened and shocked to have witnessed the death of a young boy, Ali, a severely malnourished 16-year-old who passed away just in front of them", said UNICEF front man Christophe Boulierac.
Dozens of deaths from starvation have been reported by monitoring groups, local doctors, and local aid agencies from Madaya, which is besieged by Syrian pro-government forces.
UNICEF said that out of 25 children under the age of five screened by its staff and the World Health Organization, 22 showed signs of "moderate to severe" malnutrition.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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[Ynet] Lebanese security forces said on Thursday they had nabbed a senior member of an al Qaeda-linked murderous Moslem group that has carried out attacks in the country.
A security source described Bilal Mezher as an "important catch", close to Sirajeddine Zureiqat, head of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades ... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed... . Mezher, who is Lebanese, was arrested in a special operation in Naameh area south of Beirut.
"This special operation is part of a wider campaign to arrest gunnies and all those linked to terrorist groups," the source told Rooters.
The Abdullah Azzam group, named after a Paleostinian regarded as the one-time spiritual mentor of al Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... , has claimed attacks across the region including a double suicide assault on Iran's Beirut embassy in 2014.
The Azzam Brigades are designated by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.
[DAWN] Police on Friday enjugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta in connection with Thursday's ransacking of a Pakistain International Airlines (PIA) office in New Delhi, Times of India reported.
Gupta, who heads the Hindu Sena -- a group of right-wing Hindu hardliners -- grabbed credit for the vandalism at PIA's office and vented anger at Pakistain, holding it responsible for the siege at the Pathankot air base as well as at the attack on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif recently.
"Gupta has been arrested under Sections 120B (being party to a criminal conspiracy), 147 (rioting), 149 (being the member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 427 (mischief causing damage to property)and 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) of IPC," the police was quoted as saying.
"The police are still looking for the other Hindu Sena members who were involved in the vandalizm," DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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Rescue crews are searching for 12 passengers on board two U.S. Marine Corps helicopters that crashed off Oahu's North Shore late Thursday night.
The Marine Corps confirmed there is an active search and rescue operation underway for two CH-53E helicopters each with six personnel aboard. Officials said the helicopters collided near Haleiwa and landed in the water.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Sara Mooers said the Marine Corps Air Station in Kaneohe requested assistance following reports of a collision at around 11:40 p.m. She said a Waialua resident reported hearing aircraft and then saw a fireball. Another individual reported seeing a flare. Upon further investigation, the Coast Guard determined it was a possible Marine Corps aircraft collision.
"Crews discovered a life raft with no one on board and visible flames on the water," Mooers said. Sad story. More at the link.
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: Federal Ministry for Water and Power on Friday claimed to have "restored power supply to all major cities of the country two to three hours after reports of a power breakdown" that affected almost 70 per cent of the country.
"The two transmission lines of 220 KVA and 500 KVA were completely repaired by 12:45 am last night. The supply load increased gradually, normalising at around 4:45 pm," front man for the Ministry of Water and Power said in a statement.
The front man added that the four distribution companies in the south remained largely unaffected but generation units tripped in the north zone due to higher loads than capacity.
Earlier on Friday, reports suggested large sections of the country ─ approximately 70 per cent, according to according to National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) sources ─ lacked power supply after a 220KVA transmission line tripped in Punjab's Muzaffargarh district.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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[DAWN] Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... has reacted strongly to a statement made by United States President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... that both Pakistain and Afghanistan were among the countries that would continue to face instability and turmoil for decades.
"Whatever the US president said about instability in Pakistain and Afghanistan are his predictions and have nothing to do with ground realities," Aziz told a breakfast meeting with Chinese scholars, diplomats and media persons organised by a think thank here on Friday.
In his last State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Obama had warned: "Instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world -- in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistain, in parts of central America, Africa and Asia," he said.
"Some of these places may become safe havens for new terrorist networks; others will fall victim to ethnic conflict, or famine, feeding the next wave of refugees."
Disagreeing with Obama in his address, the adviser said, "Pakistain is taking decisive action against terrorism and militancy and days to come will witness more stability here."
As far as Afghanistan is concerned, Aziz said, "instability exists but Pakistain is making all out efforts for establishing peace and stability there."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] PESHAWAR: Armed bully boyz attacked an Afghan consulate official's residence in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. 's posh Town area in the early hours of Friday, SP Cantonment Area Kashif Khan said. Consulate official Humayun Yousafzai is unhurt.
Unidentified gunnies on cycle of violences opened fire on Yousafzai's house around 2am, the SP said.
Initial investigation revealed a sub-machine gun was used to fire at the house and 29 bullet casings have been recovered from the site of the attack, he said.
Photos from the scene of the crime show the boundary wall of the house marred with bullets.
Bullet holes seen in the boundary wall of the house. ─ Photo by author
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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[Free Bacon] Two former U.S. attorneys said the FBI will likely reach a determination in the next few months in its investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server, and based on publicly available evidence said the bureau could have a strong criminal case.
"I expect the FBI to conclude the investigation within 60 to 90 days and make a recommendation to the Justice Department, and I believe they will recommend a series of charges involving the classified information," said Joseph DiGenova, who was U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan administration.
The FBI has been investigating whether classified information was mishandled over Clinton's private email server since at least August. The probe reportedly has expanded to include contracts awarded by the State Department in relation to Clinton Foundation donors.
"These classified information cases are relatively simple cases to get into, and the FBI knows that what the Clinton people did with regard to her server was a clear violation of federal criminal law," DiGenova added. "It is the negligent handling of classified information, which is prohibited by statute, and this is a gross example of it, and it dwarfs the information in the [David] Petraeus case."
Matthew Whitaker, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa under President George W. Bush, said there is growing public evidence that laws were broken.
"Based on what we know in the public record, I think there are some serious legal violations," said Whitaker. "There's got to be more that we don't know. I think that could be really incriminating evidence, if it's like anything we've already seen."
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/16/2016 1:12
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#3
Who actually believes that Hillary will be meaningfully charged with anything by the FBI?
Do you actually believe that the Law in the US is equally applied to everyone...or is the Law based upon Money and Power?
Oh?
If Hillary is above the Law. We will know sometime before April of this year. Meanwhile lets all sing the Star Spangled banner and bend over.
Remember when you were a kid and you pledged Allegiance to the Flag in the Fifty Grade with your hand over your heart?
Remember when you enlisted in the US Marines because your Country meant something to you? Remember when you were ready to die for your Country?
What does it matter now? No, I'm serious. My son has the sword and the Ring and the folded Flag now...and I am 79 years old. After three Combat deployments, I'm lucky my kids even know me. I'm so stupid I still pray.
#4
I believe Comey is a straight shooter that will not let the evidence be whitewashed by Lynch's DOJ. I expect he would take it public, doing as much damage as if she were indicted. She'll never be convicted, she has a D behind her name
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016 11:26
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#5
If it keeps her out of the White House at least that will be something.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2016 12:24
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As the war continues, the planners plot their next moves.
[AnNahar] French warplanes bombed an Islamic State communications hub near Mosul in northern Iraq overnight, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.
"Last night we bombed a Daesh telecommunications center, a propaganda center, near Mosul," Le Drian told BFMTV, using an Arabic acronym for the IS jihadists.
"We have struck seven times since Monday," Le Drian said of the French bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.
"Daesh is pulling back in Iraq" where it has lost control of the cities of Sinjar and Ramadi, Le Drian said.
IS fighters seized Raqa in Syria in early 2014 and declared it the capital of their so-called caliphate. In June the same year, the jihadists seized Mosul.
Another major Iraqi city, Ramadi, fell in May 2015 but local Iraqi forces -- backed by coalition air support and troop training -- recaptured the town at the end of last month in what was seen as a major blow for the jihadists.
Sinjar was recaptured in November with the help of Kurdish forces.
Since coalition air strikes began in August 2014, the Pentagon estimates IS has lost about 40 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq, and about 10 percent of the land it claimed in Syria.
"The battle for Mosul will have to be taken on one day," Le Drian said, adding that it would be "much more complicated."
"Iraqis and Kurds must be sufficiently war-hardened to take on this battle."
Defense ministers from the seven countries taking part in the anti-IS coalition -- France, the United States, Australia, Germany, Italy, Britain and the Netherlands -- will meet in Paris on January 20 to discuss their military strategy.
"We are going to see how to increase our efforts in Iraq and Syria," said Le Drian.
Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said Wednesday that recapturing Raqa and Mosul would be key to the ongoing fight against the jihadists.
Raqa and Mosul "constitute ISIL's military, political, economic, and ideological centers of gravity," Carter said, using an alternative acronym for the IS group.
"That's why our campaign plan's map has got big arrows pointing at both Mosul and Raqa. We will begin by collapsing ISIL's control over both of these cities and then engage in elimination operations throughout other territories ISIL holds in Iraq and Syria," he added, without giving a timeframe.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/16/2016
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[NYDAILYNEWS] Brewer also told Poppy Harlow "my executive team is very diverse, and I make that a priority. I demand it of my team and within the structure. And then, every now and then, you have to nudge your partners, and you have to speak up and speak out."
Many people are now speaking out against Brewer, calling her racist and using the Twitter hashtag "BoycottRacistSamsClub." Sam's Club, which has 650 stores nationwide, is owned by Walmart.
"I am so disappointed in you @SamsClub You should be ASHAMED! I'm NOT spending another cent! #BoycottRacistSamsClub," read one tweet.
"If Sams Club hates white males so much, then we'll take our business elsewhere!," read another.
"You hired a CEO based on race instead of skillset," another user wrote.
Some people on social media did come to Brewer's defense.
"Did the ppl who are outraged & tweeting about a #SamsClub #boycott actually here the interview or just jumping on the hype?" one user tweeted.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon could not immediately be reached for comment, but he praised Brewer in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
We made an effort to check out Costco, last week, with a neighbor who is a Costco member -- just because I was rather annoyed with MS Brewer's ill-considered blatherings regarding diversity at the suppliers she deals with. (As if it is any of her business) We've had a membership at Sam's for a good few years, mostly because the nearest one is closer than the nearest Costco ... but we were sold. (They offered the neighbor a $10 gift card for the referral, and me the same for signing up ...) We'll likely let the Sam's Club lapse.
As Insty keeps reminding us -- the wonderful thing about the Obama Administration is all the racial healing.
#5
I take it Sams Club doesn't carry Alaskan Crab. Those boats on 'Deadliest Catch' are mighty pale.
[Ever notice the hubbub about diversity is usually around warm office jobs with noticeable salaries and not the grubby, dirty and sometimes deadly jobs? Privilege]
#7
Years ago a story like this had a devastating impact on K-Mart. 60 Minutes found evidence that K-Mart would routinely lay off or fire store managers after they got into their forties because their salaries and benefits were getting too expensive. It seemed to be a clear cut case of age discrimination. I don't see too many K-Marts anymore. Whatever happened to them?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2016 12:38
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Reminds me of when Michael Jordon was asked why he wasn't more outspoken in his politics, his answer was "...because Republicans buy athletic shoes too".
#13
A pillow! A daughter is haltin'
The breath of the dad she's still faultin':
"Goodnight, little Sammy!"
"Good--mpph, mmph-mphh--Mammy!"
Sleep tight, you old racist, Sam Walton.
#15
the list of walmart stores closing in feb 2016 is here
four sam's club stores are on the list
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/16/2016 19:57
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#16
I've never at foot in a Walmart because of the way they treat their supply chain and drive them offshore. These big stores pay low wages and give nothing back to the local community - everything comes in from away, and the community doesn't share in the economic flow.
[DAWN] LAHORE: A 15-year-old boy near Lahore cut off his own hand believing he had committed blasphemy, only to be celebrated by his parents and neighbours for the act, police told AFP Friday.
Local police chief Nausher Ahmed described how a holy man told a gathering at a village mosque that those who love the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) always say their prayers, then asked who among the crowd had stopped praying.
The boy raised his hand by mistake after apparently mishearing the question.
The crowd swiftly accused him of blasphemy so he went to his house and cut off the hand he had raised, put it on a plate, and presented it to the holy man, the police chief said.
The incident took place at a village in Hujra Shah Muqeem town, some 125 kilometres (77 miles) south of Lahore, the capital of Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... province, about four days ago, according to the policeman.
Ahmed said that he has seen a video in which the boy is greeted by villagers in the street as his parents proclaim their pride.
No complaint has been made, he said, so no police report has been filed and there will be no investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Paging Charles Darwin to the white courtesy phone....Charles Darwin....
#5
Next Friday, the Imam cried, "Stand,
All you who'd not give your left hand
To keep it from smearing
Our ever-endearing,
Soft, quilted, two-ply al-Koran!"
[ALMANAR.LB] Four Maoist rebels have been killed in a shootout with police in a forest in central India's Chhattisgarh state, security forces said Friday.
Police said the shoot-out happened early Friday morning in Bijapur, around 470 kilometers (290 miles) from state capital Raipur.
"After the fierce shootout, bodies of one female and three male Maoist cadres, along with four rifles and four Chinese hand grenades, have been recovered," Bijapur district police chief Kanhaiya Lal Dhruv told AFP.
The remote, underdeveloped region of the state is believed to have been a rebel stronghold for nearly two decades.
Police said that they had launched a search operation after an intelligence tip-off that the Maoists were in the forested Ganglaur area, where the shoot-out occurred.
Officers are still searching for weapons and the bodies of any more rebels killed in the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
Maoist? That seems outre even for the chicoms.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/16/2016 1:17
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#2
" shoot-out happened early Friday morning"
04:00? RAB? No recovered bullet?
Posted by: Thrusoque Dark Lord of the Veal Cutlets8401 ||
01/16/2016 14:25
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[PJMedia] For more than a decade the U.S. government has known that "Arab extremists" are entering the country through Mexico with the assistance of smuggling network "cells," according to State Department documents obtained by Judicial Watch that reveal among them was a top Al Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI. Some Mexican smuggling networks actually specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States, the government documents say. The top Al Qaeda leader in Mexico was identified in the September 2004 cable from the American consulate in Ciudad Juarez as Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah. The cable was released to Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act.
The new intelligence records were released as a result of an ongoing JW investigation into the critical national security threats on the southern border, specifically those created by Islamic terrorists teaming up with Mexican drug cartels to infiltrate and attack the U.S. In response to JW's reporting in the last two years the Obama administration--through various spokespeople, including FBI Director James Comey--has vehemently denied that Islamic terrorists are operating in Mexican towns near American cities or entering the U.S. through the famously porous southern border.
No real surprise here, if you've been paying attention for the past decade or so. Is it entirely coincidental that the ranks of "immigrants" from Latin America have suddenly swelled as the legion of "migrants" from the Islamic ummah have invaded Europe? The drug cartels already have a thriving traffic in cross-border people smuggling, so they're a natural fit with Islamic infiltrators taking advantage of both the Bush and Obama administrations' laxity in enforcing border security.
[NRTTV] While praising The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's massive artillery and tank fire at Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) as very effective, US military officials based in Baghdad said Ankara should inform its allies, including the US, before such a large operation.
Operation Inherent Resolve front man Col. Steve Warren said during a State Department briefing via a teleconference from Baghdad, "Well, we've seen the Turkish fire some artillery to very good effect in the Manbij pocket," describing the fight as "a World War I style situation."
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... Warren did state that there should be more intelligence sharing between Turkey and the other coalition member states, including the US.
"We want to ensure that we know exactly where they're [Turks] going to strike before they strike," he said.
He added: "So [what] we've identified is the Turks filling a need, right? There were some weather problems; we were having difficulty providing the type of air power we wanted to provide, and the Turks filled in with artillery fire. So it was perfect. It happened the way it was supposed to happen."
The area known as the Manbij pocket is a 98-kilometer stretch along Turkey's southern border with Syria, which Western powers complain has not been sealed off.
On Thursday (Jan. 14) Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey killed 200 IS holy warriors in cross-border operations, in an operation where Turkey fired 500 shells which began after an IS jacket wallah killed 10 German tourists in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet Square on Jan. 12.
Close to 200 holy warriors were "rendered ineffective" -- the government's term for "killed" -- in artillery strikes in the past 48 hours, Davutoglu said.
It was unclear how Turkey verified the number of killed or their membership in the Lion of Islams' group.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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An Army report says a one-star general and 11 other people associated with an Army biodefense laboratory face potential punishment for failures that contributed to the mistaken shipment of live anthrax to other labs over a period of years.
The report Friday names Brig. Gen. William E. King, who commanded the lab at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah as a colonel between 2009 and 2011. It faults him for actions that perpetuated a complacent atmosphere among lab workers.
The report's findings were first reported by USA Today.
The report sought to assign blame for conditions at the lab that came under public scrutiny when it was disclosed in May 2015 that live anthrax from the Dugway lab had been shipped by mistake to 194 other labs.
[Tolo News] Local officials on Friday confirmed the death of Hafiz Saeed -- one of the key leaders of Daesh [Islamic State] -- in a drone strike by foreign troops in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
Achin district chief Ghalib Mujahid told TOLOnews that Hafiz Saeed Not the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, another learned hafiz.
was killed with 10 other fighters in the air strike which was carried out in Zhwara area in the district.
He said that the son of Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , another key leader of the group, is also among the dead.
This comes after reports in last July confirmed the death of Hafiz Saeed along with 30 others in a drone strike in the district.
Saeed was a former leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) before pledging allegiance to Daesh [Islamic State].
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
Not the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, another learned hafiz
damn. I wuzza hoping
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016 8:46
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[IsraelTimes] After the tough and tumultuous years that the camp endured, today, even as the "intifada of knives" rages elsewhere, local residents are enjoying one of the calmest periods they have experienced over the past decade. And many don't want it to end.
"There have been no Jews here for months, and the Paleostinian Authority has not come in either," says M., a former wanted man who served a four-year sentence in a PA jail and was an inmate in an Israeli prison before that.
"So you see: Everybody here is calmer."
M., a father of three, knows all the Israeli news hounds on Paleostinian affairs by name. During the Second Intifada, he accompanied Zakaria Zubeidi, the commander of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, around the camp. Zubeidi has lived in Beitunia (Ramallah) ever since the PA forced him to move there so that it could keep a close eye on him.
M. and a few of his friends are waiting for passengers in the camp's downtown section, near the Sheikh Khalifa Mosque. The Jenin Refugee Camp Barbershop is near us, and the group of men in their 20s and 30s run a Jenin-style gypsy cab service in which passengers travel from one place to another in the camp -- for money, of course.
"How do you explain the fact that no resident of the camp took part in the 'intifada of knives' over the past three months?" I ask him.
"It's not an intifada. It's a fad," he says. "Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Jericho -- nothing is happening in any one of those places. Things have calmed down even in Hebron. True, people were killed there, but it's a passing phase. The ones that created this intifada were the media and Facebook.
"And let's be honest," he continues. "What did we gain from the Second Intifada? What did we get? Those of us who live here in the camp paid the heaviest price. And what did that do for us? Did we get representation on the Revolutionary Council [one of the leadership groups] or on the Central Committee [Fatah's supreme leadership group]? So why should we take part in this? What will we get out of sending a kid to stab somebody with a knife? Just yesterday [Monday], some teenager tried to stab a person near Hermesh. Did that get anybody upset?
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The question of minimum marriageable age for girls reverberated in the National Assembly Standing Committee on Religious Affairs, where an amendment proposing that the minimum limit be raised to 18 years was declared 'un-Islamic' by committee members.
PML-N MNA Marvi Memon, who is also the head of the Benazir Income Support Programme, had suggested several changes in the Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2014.
Currently, the minimum legal age of marriage in Pakistain is 16 years, under the Child Marriage Act 1929.
Committee members and officials from the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), however, maintained that introducing an age bracket for girls of marriageable age was a western idea, contrary to the culture, traditions and family values of Muslims.
Conscious of the sensitivity of the subject and obviously wary of offending the sensibilities of religious-minded politicians over the matter, Ms Memon began her presentation very cautiously, repeatedly stressing that she was a practicing Muslim who adhered to the teachings of Islam and held the Holy Koran and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in the utmost esteem.
Highlighting the proposed amendments, she said that apart from limiting the minimum age of marriage to 18 years, the new bill called for rigorous imprisonment up to two years and a fine of Rs100,000 for violators.
Under the 1929 act, the punishment for a man over the age of 21 or a woman over the age of 18, who marries a minor girl or a boy is simply one month in prison and/or a fine of Rs1,000.
PML-N's Hafiz Abdul Kareem, who is the committee chairman, then invited CII officials for their opinion.
"Girls can be eligible for marriage after the age of nine years, if they attain puberty and the same is usually 12 years for boys," Inamullah, CII's chief research officer, read out the decision of the council.
"Anything contrary to the life of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is unacceptable. He married Hazrat Ayesha when she was six years old and her 'rukhsati' was held at the age of nine," he added.
JUI-F's Maulvi Agha Muhammad and JI's Sahibzada Yaqub of Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , also opposed the proposed amendment, stopping short of terming it downright blasphemous.
PTI MNA Ali Mohammad delivered a mini-sermon of his own. After reciting several verses, he announced that all political activities and the seats in parliament could be sacrificed to maintain the honour and dignity of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).
"Marvi [Memon] is not an Islamic scholar, nor am I. But the appropriate body [for such decisions] is the CII and their point of view is correct," he said, adding "There is no point discussing this bill now".
While most committee members agreed with his view point, Ms Memon tried to push her point home.
If this suggestion is so anti-Islam, what will become of the Sindh Assembly, which recently passed a law setting 18 years as the minimum age for marriage, she posited. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... even her party colleagues in the committee did not back her and instead, criticised her severely.
Ruling party politician Malik Abdul Ghafoor Dogar insisted that the CII was correct, adding, "As for the Sindh Assembly; they have to enter their graves and we are [each] responsible for our own [grave]."
The only support for Ms Memon came from MQM's Kishwer Zehra, who openly supported her efforts, saying, "I strongly believe that girls below the age of 18 should not be married."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
"Islam says that wymyns over the age of 12 are wrinkled old crones unsuitable for marriage"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016 10:30
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#2
Un islamic to not be a pedophile.
Posted by: chris ||
01/16/2016 12:31
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Zionist Army revealed its fresh estimations about Hezbollah rocketry power, noting that the party obtained sophisticated Russian anti-ship missiles, Yakhont, which can strike all the marine vessels and oil platforms along the Paleostinian coast.
The Zionist sources expressed deep worry about this development, considering that it will tremendous effects on the movement of the Israeli navy.
The sources added that the Zionist army has launched continuous drills to confront Hezbollah threats that include, according to the enemy's analysis, launching anti-ship rockets and abducting Israeli boats.
It is worth to note that Hezbollah managed during 2006 war to strike Zionist Saar 5 warship.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... vowed Pakistain would eradicate "evil" honour killings as he congratulated director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on her Oscar nomination for a harrowing documentary on the practice.
"A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness," which follows the story of a rare survivor, was nominated in the documentary short category of the Academy Awards on Thursday.
Hundreds of women are reportedly murdered by their relatives in Pakistain each year on the grounds of defending family "honour".
Their male murderers are often "pardoned" by relatives under the country's controversial Islamic blood money laws that allow murderers to escape punishment.
A statement from the Prime Minister's Office late Thursday offered Chinoy, who made history in 2012 when she won Pakistain's first Oscar for another documentary, Nawaz's congratulations.
"Honour killings, the theme of the film, afflict several segments of Pak society," it quoted the premier as saying.
He expressed the government's commitment "to rid Pakistain of this evil by bringing in appropriate legislation", the statement continued, adding that Chinoy's "insights" could prove helpful.
Chinoy said on Twitter she was "delighted" that the prime minister had made the commitment.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
"He offered her congratulations and Government Security protection"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016 10:50
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[dw.com] In no other industrialized nation have so many people applied for asylum in the past year than in Germany. Around half of the applications are rejected, but that seldom has consequences for the applicant.
In this digital age, it's not just millions of banal emails that are sent around the world, but also important messages. Information that can spark a massive reaction. Like the fact that, in Germany, the risk of being deported, despite a rejected asylum application, is pretty small. Refugees know this, and it's one of the reasons why Germany remains their preferred destination.
Wilfred Burghardt, the former leader of a committee on repatriation, known as AG Ruck, says the flaws in Germany's deportation system are a significant "pull factor." Clearly, the Achilles heel of Germany's generous asylum law is the lack of consequences that follow rejection. The biggest obstacles to deportation are:
Unknown identity
Around 80 percent of asylum seekers arrive in Germany with fake papers, or no papers at all. That's especially true for migrants from countries where there is no war or persecution. Aid organizations say that many people opt for fake papers because there are no legal means to enter Germany. But it's not possible to deport a person without any papers once their application for asylum has been rejected. Even once the country of origin has been established, many states refuse to take their citizens back.
Until recently, it was the case that, once an applicant had exhausted all legal means to be granted asylum, the authorities would assign a date for deportation. But in many cases, the person could no longer be found on that day. Now, the system has changed so that asylum seekers are no longer told on which day they are to be deported. In some cases, families hide one of their children with friends or relatives in order to delay deportation. Following verdicts from the European Court for Human Rights, taking people into custody prior to deportation is no longer allowed.
Legal hurdles
Rejected asylum seekers do have some legal recourse. Refugee organizations will often help them file an appeal, so that the decision is reviewed. Certain illnesses or courses of therapy can help delay deportation or at least allow the applicant to remain in the country as an illegal foreigner. Once that status has been exhausted, there is still the hardship application, and as a last option, church asylum.
Overtaxed bureaucracy
The massive increase in the number of refugees and, correspondingly, asylum applications, almost brought German bureaucracy to its knees. At times, there were more than 600,000 unprocessed applications on hold. In the meantime, the immigration authorities and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Nuremberg have hired additional staff. Applications are now supposed to be processed in three months, and not the six months or longer that was the case previously.
Psychological inhibitions
Nobody likes to deport people. That seems to explain the psychological resistance that can be observed at the German state level, given that the states are responsible for more than 90 percent of deportations. Local politicians seldom go on the offensive when it comes to repatriation decisions; they fear the negative headlines that would follow, for example, when a family of six is driven to the airport and forced to board a plane.
But such inhibitions are weakening in the face of the uninterrupted influx of refugees. In addition, more countries, such as Kosovo, Albania, and Montenegro, have been declared safe countries of origin, so that applicants from these countries can be sent back. There is also an ongoing discussion about whether or not extend safe country status to Morocco and Algeria.
[NJ] Days after video of a brutal beating surfaced online, officials say they are stepping up crime-fighting efforts at one of the city's busiest intersections.
Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose called the incident "unfortunate"
The disturbing footage surfaced Sunday just hours after a man was left visibly bloodied by several attackers at the corner of Broad Street and Market Street – the heart of the city's "Four Corners" historic district.
Though the incident occurred in broad daylight and carried on for several minutes, no police can be seen on the video, despite the presence of a mini-precinct less than a full block away.
Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose called the incident "unfortunate", and said he planned to add reinforcement to the city's metro division – which patrols the areas in and around downtown – as a reorganization of police, fire and emergency management personnel allows for more officers to shift from desk duty to the street.
"I think that it's a systemic problem down Broad and Market," he said. "We have to make that a priority, because that is our central business district."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
One stupid white dude against a street pack.
The guy did take some hits though.
[ALMANAR.LB] Oil prices slumped to fresh 12-year low points Friday, as dealers prepared for increased Iranian exports to the market against a backdrop of a global supply glut.
New York prices hit $29.39 a barrel, a level last seen in November 2003. Brent meanwhile dropped to $29.45 -- the lowest level since February 2004.
Crude prices have shed three-quarters of the value in 18 months and dropped under $30 this week for the first time for 12 years.
But Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said prices may have hit or are nearing the end of their downward spiral.
"If we're not at the lows, we're very close to the lows for oil," he told AFP. "I do expect to see a turn very soon."
How many times has he been wrong in the last year?
Oil prices have shed more than 15 percent already this year as investors worry about the prolonged oversupply crisis and weak global economic outlook, particularly in chief energy user China.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... with major producer Iran poised to hike output after the lifting of Western-backed nuclear sanctions, some analysts have warned of further losses for crude.
The implementation of a deal between the two sides, allowing the removal of sanctions, is expected by Sunday.
At about 1230 GMT, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March retreated $1.06, or 3.4 percent, to stand at $29.82 a barrel. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery plunged $1.46, or 4.7 percent, to $29.74 compared with Thursday's close.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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#1
....Admittedly, my 401k has taken a beating the last few days, but I'm perfectly happy to see these prices for a while yet. Let the Arabs and Persians get a good idea as to what that stuff tastes like - because they know good and well they may end up eating it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/16/2016 16:58
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#2
I imagine nations get pretty nervous when this happens to the value of their only product.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/16/2016 18:14
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#3
I seem to have broken the comments somewhat. Sorry, mods.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/16/2016 18:14
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#4
These prices are costing me my job. Not a big deal as I was about to retire anyway. But also costing the jobs of 40% of my co-workers, including a large number with only a few years of experience and still paying on student loans.
#6
My company has cut our pay 30% and we've had almost 50% of our fellows laid off. They're still cutting despite the fact we can barely crew the rigs we have left.
[dw.com] A town near the German cities of Cologne and Bonn has banned male refugees from the municipal pool after sexual harassment complaints. Tension is high in Germany over immigration and women's rights.
A suburb of the German city of Bonn has forbidden adult male refugees from visiting the town's public pool, a city front man announced on Friday. After women at the municipal pool in Bornheim had begun complaining of sexual harassment, said the front man, it was clear that immediate action should be taken to protect the rights of the women.
Initially the men, who live in a shelter in Bornheim while they await the results of their asylum applications, were given access to the municipal pool as part of a small package of benefits. Soon, however, women began going to the manager saying the men's behavior was unacceptable.
While none of the incidents amounted to anything illegal, the city said it was important first and foremost to make it clear to the men that in Germany, the rights of women are sacrosanct.
"Once our social workers tell us that they have got the message, we'll terminate the measure," said Markus Schnapka, head of Bornheim's social welfare office.
Germany has been on edge about immigrants and sexual violence since a string of sexual assaults were carried out, many by asylum seekers, in the city of Cologne, which is very close to Bonn, on New Year's Eve. The attacks have sent shockwaves through a country that usually has a great deal of faith its public institutions.
The scandal has touched everyone from the Cologne chief of police, who has since stepped down, to the state of North-Rhine Westphalia's regional government, to Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... herself and her open-door policy for refugees.
[dw.com] For the first time, a majority of Germans say the country cannot manage the influx of asylum seekers, compared to 46 in December. Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... only 37 percent find the crisis manageable.
Perhaps that explains this, from an otherwise uninteresting Deutsche Welle article about something else:
The wide attention on the Cologne assaults has obscured the fact that 2015 saw 887 attacks on refugee centers, including 79 cases of arson.
[NRTTV] Iraq has sent an armored army division and a police strike force into the southern oil city of Basra to disarm residents amid intensified feuding among rival Shi'ite Muslim tribes, local officials and security sources said on Friday (Jan. 15).
Forces had been deployed earlier to restore calm to rural areas running north of the city towards West Qurna and Majnoon oilfields on Wednesday (Jan. 13), but a local official reassured foreign companies their assets were secure.
"Tribal fighting has never been in areas close to (oil) fields. It has not affected work on these fields. The roads to Rumaila, West Qurna and the Zubair district and the center of the city are safe and we do not have any issues in this regard. They (the forces) are here to protect the citizens and not the (oil) companies because the companies are completely safe and we do not have any problems with that. The forces that arrived in the city with the Iraqi Prime Minister (Haider al-Abadi) are to protect the people of Basra," said Sabah al-Bazouni, head of Basra's provincial council.
The tribal fighting and military response are a sign of the growing problems that could face foreign oil companies, even though they operate far from areas of conflict with Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS).
The disputes have forced Baghdad to divert critical security resources from the frontlines with those Lions of Islam in the north and west to the south, where oil fields account for more than 85 percent of production by the major Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member.
"They (forces) have entered areas north of Basra. Then they will enter all the neighborhoods of Basra. They are disarming areas that have seen a lot of tribal festivities. These areas are well known by former police and army forces of the Basra Operation. These areas will be disarmed," Bazouni said.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi held his weekly Cabinet meeting on Wednesday (Jan. 13) in Basra where he called on security forces to "strike with an iron fist (against) the gangs that tamper with Basra's security".
With tanks and heavy machine guns, the security forces entered overnight the northern Basra district of al-Hussein, a flashpoint for tribal fighting also known as al-Hayaniya. Backed by army helicopters, they began raiding homes and seizing weapons, according to the head of security committee of Basra's provincial council, Jabar al-Saadi.
Security forces incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... around 30 people on criminal charges and seized machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and large ammunition caches, the security sources said.
As the holder of the world's fifth-biggest crude reserves, oil makes up around 40 percent of Iraq's gross domestic product and more than 90 percent of fiscal and current external receipts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] The UN human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... chief voiced alarm Friday at the spiraling violence in Burundi, decrying allegations of security forces gang raping women, ethnic killings and mass graves filled with more than 100 bodies.
"All the alarm signals, including the increasing ethnic dimension of the crisis, are flashing red... A complete breakdown in law and order is just around the corner," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein warned in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2016
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[IsraelTimes] Proposal receives splits leadership of Paleostinian terror group, but political chief turns it down for fear of offending Sunni states
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has rejected a proposal by Tehran to restore ties in return for its support in Iran's current battle with Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , a source in the Paleostinian terror group told pan-Arab paper Asharq al-Awsat on Friday.
According to the report, Khaled Qaddumi, Hamas' representative in Tehran, met two weeks ago with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif, who offered to renew Iranian financial support for the group on a regular basis and according to its needs, if Hamas were to officially declare its allegiance to Iran over Saudi Arabia's execution of Shiite holy man Nimr al-Nimr earlier this month.
According to the sources, the proposal triggered a dispute within Hamas. The heads of the organization in the Gazoo Strip supported normalization of ties with Tehran, while Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... -based politburo chief Khaled Mashaal was reluctant to commit, fearing that Hamas would lose its support among Sunni Arab states. As such, the report says, Mashaal officially rejected the offer from Iran.
"The equation is clear: as a liberation movement, we need the support of everyone," a Hamas official in the West Bank told the newspaper. He stressed the group "will never join an alliance against the Sunni world."
Relations between Iran and Hamas have been shaky since the Paleostinian organization came out against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , a key Iranian ally, and left its headquarters in Damascus with the outbreak of the country's civil war in 2011.
Tehran gradually halted its support for the Paleostinian organization; it was also recently reported that Iran has ended its financial backing for the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , probably due to its position on the civil war in Yemen.
Flag of the Gazoo-based Paleostinian faction Harakat al-Sabireen right) alongside that of Leb based Shiite terror group Hezbollah (left). Both organizations are backed by Iran.
Flag of the Gazoo-based Paleostinian faction Harakat al-Sabireen right) alongside that of Leb based Shiite terror group Hezbollah (left). Both organizations are backed by Iran.
Hamas could well still be receiving getting money from Iran, albeit on an ad hoc basis. The organization did attempt recently to draw closer to the Islamic Theocratic Republic, even claiming sponsorship of the activities of Shiite group Harakat al-Sabireen, which does enjoy Iranian support.
Harakat al-Sabireen, which translates to "movement of the patient ones," broke away from Islamic Jihad in May 2014, and has symbols almost identical to those of Leb-based Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Founder Hisham Salim this week told the Paleostinian news agency Ma'an that the group, like Hezbollah, is directly funded by the Iranian government, but stressed that his group was non-sectarian, non-religious and certainly not a "Shiite movement."
We never hear about them, but they must be doing more than blockading Yemen's ports against Iranian resupply.
[AlAhram] Egypt's National Defence Council extended the deployment of troops fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Gulf area, the Red Sea and the Bab Al-Mandab strait
Egypt's National Defence Council agreed in a meeting on Monday to extend the deployment of Egyptian Armed Forces units in the Gulf area, the Red Sea and the Bab Al-Mandab strait for an additional year, or until the end of their mission.
Egyptian naval and air force troops have been participating in the Saudi-led military operation in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... against Iranian-backed Houthi fights since March 2015.
The council meeting in Cairo was headed by President El-Sisi and was attended by the ministers of defence, finance and interior, as well as the parliament speaker, the prime minister, and the Armed Forces chief of staff and branch commanders.
The meeting, which was also attended by the heads of the General Intelligence Service and military intelligence, involved discussions on the latest national and regional security developments as well as the fight against terrorism in North Sinai.
[IsraelTimes] Armed men storm Ouagadougou hotel popular with Westerners; La Belle France calls incident a 'terrorist attack'
At least 20 people have been killed and another 15 maimed in an ongoing assault on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... on Friday night, a hospital chief told AFP.
"For the dead, we do not have a precise figure, but there are at least 20 dead," said Robert Sangare, the head of Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.
"We have had at least 15 maimed with bullet wounds and others who suffered injuries during the panic to escape."
An Al-Qaeda affiliate grabbed credit for the attack on the four-star Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou. The "mujahideen brothers" of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb "broke into a restaurant of one of the biggest hotels in the capital of Burkina Faso, and are now entrenched and the festivities are continuing with the enemies of the religion," the SITE Intelligence Group quoted an Arabic-language AQIM message as saying.
The French embassy called the assault a "terrorist attack" and the US Embassy in Ouagadougou tweeted: "We are closely following the situation downtown."
Sporadic exchanges of fire between the attackers and security forces could be heard near the hotel in the city center, an AFP news hound said, in an attack that began around 7:45 p.m. GMT.
An News Agency that Dare Not be Namednews hound near the scene said that several cars were also ablaze outside the 147-room Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou. The AP news hound saw an armored vehicle with security forces arrive nearly three hours after the attack.
A video uploaded to YouTube claimed to document the attack from near the hotel.
Video can be seen at the link.
Witness Vital Nounagnon told the AP that he saw four men attack the hotel and neighboring Cappuccino Cafe about 7:30 p.m. Another witness who gave only his first name, Gilbert, said that when security forces first arrived, they turned around rather than confront the attackers.
"But we know that the gunnies won't get out of the hotel alive," he said. "Our country is not for jihadists or terrorists. They got it wrong."
While Burkina Faso has largely been spared the violence wracked by Islamic bad boy groups in Mali, a Romanian national was kidnapped last April. Jihadists have attacked hotels before in neighboring Mali, including a devastating attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in November that left 20 people dead.
Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country, has been in turmoil since its longtime president was ousted in a popular uprising in late 2014. Last September members of a presidential guard launched a coup that lasted only about a week. The transitional government returned to power until Burkina Faso's November election ushered in new leaders.
Security forces battled suspected Islamist fighters who were holding hostages at hotel used by foreigners in Burkina Faso's capital on Friday, gendarmes and witnesses said.
The gunnies stormed the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou's business district, burning cars outside and firing in the air to drive back crowds before security forces arrived, prompting an intense exchange of gunfire.
The hotel is sometimes used by French troops with Operation Barkhane, a force based in Chad and set up to combat Islamist forces of Evil across Africa's vast, arid Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... "It is continuing at this time. We are trying to know how many attackers they are to better coordinate our actions. Hostages have been taken. The operation could take several hours," a bigwig with the national gendarmes said, asking not to be named.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/16/2016
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#1
Looks like AQ is competing for market share with "The JV Team."
[AnNahar] Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab snuffies stormed an African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... base manned by Kenyan troops in the country's southwest on Friday, with several killed in fierce shootouts.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta that "regrettably some of our patriots in uniform paid the ultimate price" as he offered condolences to the families of those killed, without giving details of how many died.
Somali army colonel Idris Ahmed said a Shabaab suicide commando blasted into the El-Adde base in the Gedo region, which borders Kenya and Æthiopia, in a pre-dawn attack.
"There was suicide kaboom followed by the fighting and it seems that the base was stormed," Ahmed said.
Both Somali troops and Kenyan soldiers with the AU force, AMISOM, are deployed at the isolated base.
"Our gallant soldiers reacted swiftly to protect their camp - to protect their peace and stability that they are in Somalia to secure, and to protect our country from its enemies," Kenyatta said in a statement.
Shabaab front man Abdiaziz Abu Musab claimed 63 Kenyan troops were killed, but this could not be immediately verified.
"The mujahedeen fighters carried out a successful operation this morning on a military base at El-Adde, and they have killed many of the Christian soldiers from Kenya," Musab said. "We have counted 63 dead bodies inside the base."
The Shabaab frequently exaggerates the number of troops they kill, while AMISOM rarely gives exact tolls.
The attack came as politicians met in the southern port of Kismayo, with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud leading a "National Consultative Forum" to debate planned elections due later this year.
"Somalia is no longer a failed state," Mohamud said in a statement, which made no reference to the attack.
"Somalia is building a strong foundation to support a better future."
Local elder Hussein Adam said he heard a huge kaboom followed by intense gunfire for about 45 minutes.
"We don't know about the casualties, but people who went there saw many dead bodies strewn around," he said, having spoken to those who went to the base.
The Shabaab, fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed and AU-protected government, has launched a string of similar attacks.
In September 2015, Shabaab fighters stormed a Ugandan AMISOM base in Janale district, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Mogadishu in the Lower Shabelle region.
And in June, Shabaab killed dozens of Burundian soldiers when they overran an AMISOM outpost northwest of Mogadishu.
The snuffies also stage frequent suicide attacks in the capital.
But the 22,000-strong AMISOM force has also made significant gains against the Shabaab, pushing them out of several strongholds in the southwest.
The Shabaab have also staged attacks in Kenya, killing at least 67 people at Nairobi's Westgate Mall in 2013 and massacring 148 people at a university in Garissa in April 2015.
The snuffies say the attacks are retaliation for the Kenyan military presence in Somalia and "war crimes" committed by Kenyan troops.
But Kenyatta said the troops would continue in their mission.
"We will hunt down the criminals involved... our soldiers' blood will not be shed in vain," he said.
[AnNahar] Berlin wants Algeria and Morocco to take back their nationals with no residence permits in Germany after a sharp rise in asylum seekers from the two North African countries, officials said Friday.
Alarmed by the spike in North African arrivals, German authorities want their countries of origin to help in their swift repatriations, in order to free up resources to deal with asylum seekers fleeing war and violence.
But the German authorities have in recent weeks flagged problems in expelling Algerians and Moroccans, saying their countries of origin were often unwilling to take them back because of missing identity documents.
"We have a repatriation agreement. That means, everything is regulated on paper. But in practice, we know that it remains problematic in some cases," said government front man Steffen Seibert.
"That must be dealt with so that the agreement can be put into action."
All foreigners who did not have residency rights in Germany are required to leave, including citizens of North Africa, he said. "And there we have to talk about how the repatriations can be carried out."
Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... raised the issue this week when Algeria's Abdelmalik Sellal visited, although the Algerian premier had sounded a note of caution, saying it was essential to first "ensure that they really are Algerians".
Under pressure over the same issue, Tunisia has also raised concerns about the true identity of potential deportees.
"There are asylum seekers in Europe who destroy their identity documents and once they are incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! by police, they pretend to be Tunisians even though they are not," an official from the Tunisian foreign ministry said.
"The state has to ensure that the migrants are really Tunisians. Sometimes these checks take time," he added.
The numbers of Algerian asylum seekers arriving in Germany rose from 847 in June to 2,296 in December, while those from Morocco jumped from 368 to 2,896, the interior ministry said.
The issue has taken on a new urgency following a shocking spate of sexual assaults against women on New Year's Eve, which has been blamed on North African and other Arab migrants.
Cologne police said 652 complaints have been filed over the violence, including 331 relating to sexual violence.
Of 19 suspects identified by Cologne police so far, 14 are from Morocco or Algeria.
[ConservativeTreehouse] The suit seeks a court definition of the term to clarify whether Cruz -- who was born in Canada to an American mother -- can or can't serve if elected.
PJMedia points out that the lawyer got himself barred from practicing in Pennsylvania and Louisiana for "disciplinary infractions", which sounds dreadful. It will be intersting to see whether the courts throw this out as premature or choose to consider it, and if so what is decided.
#4
Not true, AA. Most of the lawyers here are Pubs, with an occasional Dem tossed in. My dad was (dead currently),and my uncle and one of my cousins are hard core attorney Republicans.
#5
So John McCain was born in Panama with parents being US citizens making him a "natural born American". Does that not make Ted Cruz one too since his mother was a American?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2016 11:28
Comments ||
Top||
#7
If you can get an American citizenship through one parent, you are "natural born". Otherwise you are "naturalized", aka become an US citizen through tests and an oath.
I see this as little more than trying to knock Cruz out and to dirty the waters to hide Trump's failings.
The dhimocrats really fear Cruz and will do anything they can to discredit him.
#9
Surprised to hear Neutron Schwartz wasn't dead, frankly. As memory serves, he also had other bar problems related to the Agent Orange cases years ago. As appointed insurance counsel, took over a case for his client's co-defendant in a complicated trust case about 30 years ago, his office was a nightmare. Later discovered my client had committed perjury. Strongly suspected he and his client knew of the perjury, quickly settled the case. Sort of character that makes you want to take a shower if you even have him in eyesight.
#10
The problem isn't whether or not he is truly a citizen. We all know he is. It's that there are many out there who believe he isn't so they will vote for someone else. If it works out, Trump won't take him on as VP unless this is settled beforehand simply for clarity in voters' minds. It's easy to do, he should just do it.
#11
There really needs to be better definition of the law in this area. It will have to be settled by the Supreme Court, or better still, a Constitutional Amendment. Unfortunately, I don't think the courts will/can hear a case until after the fact, in this case, after the election. So it could easily take a year before Cruz could be sworn in, if he was elected. What happens during the interim? Speaker of House assumes the duties of the office?
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.
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
[DAWN] LAHORE: A 15-year-old boy near Lahore cut off his own hand believing he had committed blasphemy, only to be celebrated by his parents and neighbours for the act, police told AFP Friday.
An Army report says a one-star general and 11 other people associated with an Army biodefense laboratory face potential punishment for failures that contributed to the mistaken shipment of live anthrax to other labs over a period of years.
[dw.com] In no other industrialized nation have so many people applied for asylum in the past year than in Germany. Around half of the applications are rejected, but that seldom has consequences for the applicant.
[ALMANAR.LB] Oil prices slumped to fresh 12-year low points Friday, as dealers prepared for increased Iranian exports to the market against a backdrop of a global supply glut.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[ConservativeTreehouse] The suit seeks a court definition of the term to clarify whether Cruz -- who was born in Canada to an American mother -- can or can't serve if elected.
