This'll help the economy, right?
President Barack Obama is about to unveil an ambitious plan for a "21st century clean transportation system." And he hopes to fund it with a tax on oil.
Obama aides told POLITICO that when he releases his final budget request next week, the president will propose more than $300 billion worth of investments over the next decade in mass transit, high-speed rail, self-driving cars, and other transportation approaches designed to reduce carbon emissions and congestion. To pay for it all, Obama will call for a $10 "fee" on every barrel of oil, a surcharge that would be paid by oil companies but would presumably be passed along to consumers.
#2
Obama will call for a $10 "fee" on every barrel of oil, a surcharge that would be paid by oil companies but would presumably be passed along to consumers.
"Presumbably".......whahahhaha. Where the fok else is going to come from ?
[REUTERS] A suspected U.S. drone strike overnight killed a top Islamist murderous Moslem commander in southern 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... who had run al Qaeda's combat operations and had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, residents said.
In nine months of civil war and a Gulf military intervention in Yemen, the United States has kept up a drone campaign there against al Qaeda and increasingly, Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... murderous Moslems, who have continued to carry out attacks.
Impoverished Yemen has suffered fierce fighting and humanitarian crisis since March, when a Saudi-led Gulf Arab coalition began near-daily air strikes to rout the Iran-backed Houthis and restore the central government.
Jalal Baleedi was killed by a drone strike as he was traveling in a car with two others in coastal Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province.
According to media reports and some analysts, Baleedi may have recently defected from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... (AQAP) to become the chief of Islamic State's Yemen branch.
The U.S. State Department said Baleedi was involved in planning attacks on Western diplomatic targets in Sanaa in 2013 and put a reward of up to $5 million for information that would bring him to justice.
Al Qaeda bandidosbandidos bad boys rallied in Abyan capital Zinjibar and planted the group's black flag on government buildings and setting up checkpoints on main roads and the highway leading to the port city of Aden, Yemen's temporary capital some 40 kilometers (25 miles) away.
Another strike on Thursday killed six al Qaeda bandidosbandidos bad boys in a car near al Rawda city in Shabwa province, residents said.
AQAP has taken advantage of the war pitting forces loyal Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... bully boyz based in the capital Sanaa to grab territory and operate more openly.
But the group has faced ideological competition from Islamic State, which has siphoned off recruits as it has launched spectacular attacks against Shi'ite Muslim mosques and government targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
10:56 ||
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#1
I don't ever seem to hear of an Al Qaeda leader being killed by Saudi air strikes.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 12:16
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#2
Funny coincidence, that.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016 15:40
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SWEDEN — a nation that hasn’t been in a fight for more than 200 years — has been issued a chilling warning by a top general: expect World War III “within a few years”.
“The global situation we are experiencing and which is also made clear by the strategic decision leads to the conclusion that we could be at war within a few years,” the statement reads. “For us in the army we have to, with all force we can muster, implement the political decisions.”
Major General Anders Brännström made the stark statement in a brochure being distributed among attendees of an armed forces conference next week. General Brännström wrote that increasing tensions in the region had caused a shift in Sweden’s military strategic thinking. No longer is it gearing towards assisting international policing operations. It’s now focused on the “capability of armed battle against a qualified opponent”.
Sweden’s military was now optimising its armed forces for “a threshold effect against military attacks and ultimately defend Sweden”, he said.
Sweden has historically maintained a neutral stance, particularly in both World Wars.
Particularly in WWII, when for some odd reason they didn't join the Allies against Germany. Hmm, I'm sure there was a reason...
In recent years, however, it has been seriously pondering joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as it strengthens its ties within the European Union.
Russia has reacted strongly to this suggestion — probing Swedish waters with spy submarines and combat jets as a signal of its displeasure.
Sweden’s intelligence agency Sapo last year published a report stating that the biggest espionage threat against the country was now Russia.
“We should be aware that we are continuously being exposed to intelligence gathering and campaigns. We also know that areas in our region, the Baltic and increasingly the Arctic, constitute areas of friction between Russia and the West,” General Brännström told another military conference earlier this month.
Russia’s recent bellicose behaviour in Ukraine and threatening posture against the small Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — once part of the former Soviet Union — has only strengthened Sweden’s interest in joining the western alliance.
A poll late last year put 41 per cent of the population as now in favour of joining NATO, with 39 per cent against. Five years ago, only 23 per cent supported the idea.
Why would NATO want another member that isn't willing to carry its own weight in defending itself? NATO has plenty of members like that already. And we already have enough fighting heavy barbers...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/04/2016
10:45 ||
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#1
Probably not a great time to be importing large numbers of military age foreigners who hate and despise everything about your western, liberal, socialist, permissive Scandinavian garden.
Reuters reports that Bashal al-Assad's forces have made major advances behind a major Russian air offensive and are now poised to destroy the non-ISIS rebels opposing the Syrian government is rocking the foreign policy establishment. "After three days of intense fighting and aerial bombardment, regime forces, believed to include Iran-backed Shia militias, broke through to the formerly besieged regime enclaves of Nobul and Zahra."
...Apart from derailing the administration Syrian initiative, the return of Assad from political death behind the bombs of the Russian airforce calls into question the sincerity of president Obama's policy in the region. By contrast with the Russians it seems almost as if the administration were simply going through the motions of combat. The performance of the miniature, "rust bucket" Russian air force has formed an invidious baseline to what the USAF has achieved.
...Someone has to ask: what goal does America still have in the Middle East beyond defending the tattered political image of president Obama?
The real scandal in the Hillary Clinton emails are not the technical violations of security the administration has abetted, which Andrew McCarthy convincingly details. It is the mind-boggling incompetence manifested by the emails themselves. The offensive in Aleppo shows Obama has either gotten everything wrong or was dishonest to begin with.
#2
Richard F is a smart guy but he has some problems with this opinion piece.
1. At least part of Aleppo has been held by the Assad forces since the rebellion against Assad began. In fact, most of the time pro Assad forces held most of Aleppo. Thus when Assad forces make some incremental gains it is not "The Fall of Aleppo"
2. It certainly is true that the Free Syrian Army has taken a massive beating lately. However, given all the other forces in the battle (including anti Assad forces like ISIS and Al Nusra which also hate the FSA), the destruction of the FSA is inevitable in any case.
3. Which emails show incompetence in Syria? Richard doesn't mention which ones and so it is impossible to understand the basis of his 'real scandal' opinion.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/04/2016 8:24
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[Ynet] A Kansas man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to attempting to detonate a boom-mobile on the Fort Riley military base in Manhattan, Kansas, in support of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , the Justice Department said.
John T. Booker Jr. of Topeka, who is also known as Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, was locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! in April 2015. He pleaded guilty in US District Court in Topeka.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/04/2016
02:31 ||
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[PJ Media] Google Fiber and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have partnered to bring "ultra-high speed" 1 gigabit Internet to public housing units in many cities -- a connection speed much faster than the average household in the United States.
West Bluff Townhomes in Kansas City, Mo., has become the first public housing development with a 1 gigabit or 1,000 mbps Internet connection through the ConnectHome Initiative. Google Fiber said the speed has been provided free of charge and at no cost to HUD.
According to the most recent State of the Internet report, the average U.S. Internet connection speed was 11.9 mbps.
Verizon Fios currently offers up to 500 mbps for a high monthly fee of $269.99 per month for residential Internet. Comcast offers a 2,000 mbps package for $299.99 per month. A Google Fiber 1,000 mbps speed costs $70 per month for those living in an area where the service is available. The service is currently limited with plans to expand to more states in the future.
HUD Secretary Julian Castro, who is on the list of likely Democratic vice presidential candidates and has been actively campaigning for Hillary Clinton, said the connection in the public housing units would be about 100 times faster than average connections in the U.S.
"In the coming months, we'll bring this high-speed broadband to 1,300 public housing families in the Kansas City metro area," he said.
HUD also announced that the gigabit speeds would eventually be available at HUD assisted and affordable housing in all fiber cities, including Atlanta, Durham, N.C., San Antonio and Nashville.
Castro said the high-speed connection would ultimately reach 200,000 children in 28 communities.
Dennis Kish, CEO of Google Fiber, said the public housing residents would not be charged any fees for the speed and would not have to sign a contract.
"The gigabit speeds are being offered to all of the residents who are in the public housing that we are connecting. We feel as though there is a rising tide that we can help create in our country by really reaching out to residents who do not have an opportunity to connect to the web and help reach that digital divide," he said.
#1
This article merely appeals to popular envy of those in "public housing" and completely ignores the fact that Google Fiber (where it is available) vastly outclasses its paid alternatives. That is the real scandal.
I once sent an ISO of a DVD (4GB in size) to a cousin in South Korea. It took me 24 hours to upload it. It took him 18 minutes to download it. He has just the usual South Korea broadband at his place.
#2
Dreamers. More money in drugs. Welfare. The projects. They want to keep them down on the farm. Now with little or no police protection, I guess they have to buy protection. Try to break away the bros will keep you in line. What, you think you are better than us?.
#3
Dennis Kish, CEO of Google Fiber, said the public housing residents would not be charged any fees for the speed and would not have to sign a contract.
Of course not! Go with the gov't 5 year provider 'bundle' contract. Individual subscribers can always cancel or forget to forward payment. No brain'r here. Next......
[Wash Times] In the unfolding political and legal drama surrounding Hillary Clinton and her private server, one name has been conspicuously missing.
Bill Clinton.
There has been scant mention of the former president's possible role and potential exposure in the server/classified material controversy, which now represents an existential threat to Mrs. Clinton's presidential ambitions. But perhaps his role may be more central that we've been led to believe.
Rather than simply focusing on Mrs. Clinton's actions as secretary of state, the FBI investigation may be proceeding along two tracks: his and hers. So far, two areas of focus have been mentioned.
One is the possible abuse of highly sensitive information by Mrs. Clinton through her use of a private, unsecured server. The other involves possible violations of public corruption law: whether she and Mr. Clinton used her position as secretary of state to further the interests of the Clinton Foundation. When these two apparently separate tracks are looked at conjointly, two major questions arise concerning Mr. Clinton.
First, did Mr. Clinton, in fact, own, pay for and house on his property the server used by Mrs. Clinton while she was secretary of state? And second, did he touch, read, see and/or use any of the classified documents that appeared on that server, and if so, did he have the appropriate clearances and approval?
#1
This whole situation can be summed up in two words: Dumpster Fire.
I was one of those bitter types that was furious that B & H seemed to get away with it.
Seeing them finally get something vaguely resembling justice at last leaves me feeling hollow. Death by a thousand leaks in public, and the spectacle of B being the first former president to be brought up on charges... I don't know how I feel.
#3
whether she and Mr. Clinton used her position as secretary of state to further the interests of the Clinton Foundation.
Similar to her communications security violations, somehow I believe we've transitioned from a question to a statement of fact, but I suppose that would be the work of a jury to decide.
#4
Nguard, Funny, I feel good about it. For the sake of the republic I'd like some justice to show nobody is to big to jail and send a message to anyone thinking of following in their footsteps.
I do feel sick that I think they'll skate somehow.
#5
With every regurgitated pseudo news report, the media is further distancing the likelihood of any jury. There will be no unexposed juror pool from which to select.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the most expensive military program in the world, is even more broken than previously thought. The jet can't tell old parts from new ones, randomly prevents user logins into the logistics information system, and trying to eject out of it will likely result in serious neck injury and maybe death. A Pentagon office is warning that the plane is being rushed into service.
The Pentagon's office of testing and evaluation on Monday released a report detailing major problems, or "deficiencies" with the aircraft. The report follows the release of a December memo by Michael Gilmore, the Department of Defense's director for Operational Test and Evaluation, or OT&E. The report goes on to question the logic of pushing other governments to purchase large blocks of the aircraft until the issues are fixed.
The Air Force is currently scheduled to announce their version of the plane is ready to begin flying, known as "initial operating capability," in August or December at the latest. That follows the Marines declaring their version flight ready last summer. After that, the next F-35 milestone is the initial operational test & evaluation phase, scheduled for 2017, in which program watchers test of the plane is operationally capable but also effective. That 2017 projection is unrealistic unless the Air Force takes some serious shortcuts in testing, according to the new report.
So what's wrong with the F-35? Below are some of the report's key findings.
The Version That the Marines Are Using Is Very Buggy And I'm sure the other two are just fine.
The Marines rushed to finish testing their version of the aircraft in May of 2015 in order to declare initial operating capability by July. The report describes serious problems with the computer software, (the Block 2B version of the software) in the Marines' F-35 variant. Those software problems include "in fusion, electronic warfare, and weapons employment result[ing] in ambiguous threat displays, limited ability to respond to threats, and a requirement for off-board sources to provide accurate coordinates for precision attack."
After the report came out Monday, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, of the F-35 program executive office, issued a statement to cast the report's findings in a rather more flattering light. "Once again, the annual DOT&E report points out the progress being made by the program," the statement read, as though responding to a different report altogether. "This includes the U.S. Marine Corps declaring Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in July 2015. The USMC declared IOC with Block 2B software because it provides increased initial warfighting capability. Marine F-35s have the necessary weapons to conduct close air support, air interdiction and limited suppression/destruction of enemy air defense missions."
That means that the $90 to $180 million Joint Strike Fighter shares many--if not necessarily all--of the same close air support capabilities as the $18.8 million A-10.
ALIS Is Still Terrible, Perhaps Even Getting Worse
In a 60 Minutes segment, reporter David Martin in 2014 made famous problems with one of the F-35's key computers, the Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, the internal diagnostic system on the plane that was supposed to keep track of the health of virtually every part. The system was heavily resistant to human overrides. After the segment aired, the Joint Program Office claimed that the override issues had been fixed.
Unfortunately, ALIS's various updates have left many of the old problems intact and added new ones, according to the report. "Each new version of software, while adding some new capability, failed to resolve all the deficiencies identified in earlier releases," it states. Quick! Hire more offshore programmers!
The program executive office acknowledges software bugs remain "the program's top technical risks ... There is more work to accomplish in both mission systems software and ALIS before the end of the development program."
Lockouts, Confusion, etc.
What forms do these bugs take and what can they do the plane? Here a few of the more alarming finds:
The F-35 doesn't know its new parts from old parts. The computerized maintenance management System, or CMMS, "incorrectly authorizes older/inappropriate replacement parts."
The F-35 fails to detect if it's been flying too fast or what effect that might have. "The Integrated Exceedance Management System, designed to assess and report whether the aircraft exceeded limitations during flight, failed to function properly."
The plane "randomly prevented user logins" into ALIS. "Sorry Dave, I can't do that."
The plane doesn't know how broken broken parts are: "The maintenance action severity code functionality...designed to automatically assign severity codes to work orders as maintenance personnel create them--did not work correctly." How can I be overdrawn, Dave? I still have checks!
The plane's crews need to phone Lockheed Martin tech support because the plane can't handle the data it needs to process in order to run missions. "Managing data loads associated with mission planning required extensive contractor support." "Here, you talk to it! [Hands phone to F-35]
The F-35 Will Kill You If You Try and Eject From It Sorta like that psycho ex-girlfriend . . . .
Even more terrifying than flying an F-35 is trying to get out of one by ejecting from it.The entire ejector system is incredibly flawed, as Defense News has pointed out previously. OK, first the canopy, then the pilot! OK, I gotta write the ECO to get that programming fixed. I'll do it after I get back from vacation and send it to the offshore programming experts.
Pilots under 136 pounds aren't allowed to fly any F-35 variant. "You said you wanted them to be able to eject, they can eject. You didn't say you wanted them to live."
Pilots under 165 pounds have a 1-in-4 chance of death and 100 percent chance of serious neck injury upon ejecting, according to the testing office. "You said you wanted them to be able to eject and survive, they can eject and survive. You didn't say you wanted them to be able to walk again."
"The testing showed that the ejection seat rotates backwards after ejection. This results in the pilot's neck becoming extended, as the head moves behind the shoulders in a 'chin up' position. When the parachute inflates and begins to extract the pilot from the seat (with great force), a 'whiplash' action occurs. The rotation of the seat and resulting extension of the neck are greater for lighter weight pilots," the report states. Ouch.
It's a lot to fix. Yet the program executive office insisted that they could remain on schedule to reach operational test & evaluation by the end of the summer of 2017. "Although the DOT&E report is factually accurate, it does not fully address program efforts to resolve known technical challenges and schedule risks. It is the F-35 Joint Program Office's responsibility to find developmental issues, resolve them and execute with the time and budget we have been given," Bogdan stated.
Stop Block Buy
Perhaps the most important item on the report's to-do list is to stop pushing the so-called block buy program wherein partner governments agree to buy a larger number of planes up front, in a "block," rather than incrementally. The testing office saw that as a possible recipe for huge numbers of faulty aircraft and bugs becoming harder and more expensive to fix.
Block buy, defense companies like to argue, is one means for pushing down the per unit cost on the incredibly expensive planes, helping the program push out 450 for the United States and partner nations between 2018 and 2020. But the savings realized through block buy might be illusionary, according to the testing office.
"Is it premature to commit to the 'block buy' given that significant discoveries requiring correction before F-35's are used in combat are occurring, and will continue to occur, throughout the remaining developmental and operational testing?" the report asks.
Governments wishing to lock in those savings have to agree to the block buy this year. In light of the new report, they may be asking some similar questions in the months ahead. And it's going to be a bi+ch to give them their money back after they've already spent it on vaporware.
[AnNahar] Re-establishing European borders as a result of the migration crisis could cost La Belle France more than 10 billion euros per year, according to a study published on Wednesday.
The vast influx of refugees and migrants has seen calls grow for Europe's borderless Schengen zone to be abandoned and tougher immigration controls imposed.
But a study by La Belle France Strategie, a government-linked think tank, said the impact on trade, tourism and transport would trigger losses of up to two billion euros per year in the short term, not including the cost of implementing the new controls.
Half of that loss would come from a loss of tourists, the study said, while up to 10,000 people who commute across the border could lose their jobs.
"In the longer run, widespread permanent border controls would decrease trade between Schengen countries by a factor 10 percent to 20 percent," the study said.
If stringent border checks continued for a decade, the annual costs would rise significantly with La Belle France seen losing 0.5 percent of GDP in 2025 -- more than 10 billion euros.
Across the same period, the Schengen zone as a whole would lose 0.79 percent of GDP, equivalent to a loss of 110 billion euros, the study estimated.
That is not all -- foreign investors may be discouraged and financial flows disrupted, though the study said such factors were tricky to evaluate.
The Schengen area was set up in 1995, allowing passport-free travel through 26 countries, most of them in the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , and is held up as one of the major European achievements.
But in recent months, faced with an unprecedented surge in migrant and refugee numbers from the Middle East and Africa, several countries including La Belle France have reimposed temporary controls.
The EU has put pressure on Greece -- the arrival point for most migrants -- to strengthen its border and registration process.
If Greece fails to comply with the recommendations, Brussels could authorize EU member countries to exceptionally extend border controls within the Schengen area -- including with Greece -- for up to two years.
[AnNahar] The Lebanese army killed six terror runaways on Wednesday and locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! 16 individuals in raids on Wadi al-Arnab and al-Joumrok neighborhoods in the northeastern town of Arsal, an army statement said.
The groups were said to have links to the latest festivities in Arsal.
The military carried out raids on positions of the terror group of Ahmed Ammoun, the criminal mastermind behind the recent incidents in the border town, injuring him in the back, and killing Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... Death Eater Anas Khaled Zaarour.
Ammoun was arrested together with Abou Bakr al-Raqawi and a group of Syrian nationals committing to the Islamic State group.
Explosives and suicide belts were also confiscated.
The army deployed in the town and patrolled its neighborhoods.
"It was our largest operation against Daesh [Islamic State]... in terms of size and the number of people killed and captured," a military front man told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
The army said in a statement that its "lightning" raid was launched on the basis of information that the jihadists were planning attacks on military posts and to kidnap civilians in Arsal.
Moreover, the military raided the house of Abdul Rahman al-Flaiti aka Nougo in the al-Joumrouk neighborhood in Arsal and arrested seven people, Voice of Leb radio (93.3) said.
The dead body of a Syrian man was found in the trunk of a vehicle that belongs to Nougo, it added.
In the Bekaa town of Zahle, the army apprehended Hassan Youssef al-Flaiti in Ablah, and Syrian Bassil Ahmed Salloum in the town of Mtayleb in Metn on suspicion of belonging to terror cells, the army orientation directorate said in a statement.
Thirty-one Syrian nationals were also taken into custody in the northern district of Akkar for failure to possess identifications cards and for illegal entry to Leb.
The detainees were handed to the related authorities.
Later during the day the army raided an IS hospital in Arsal and arrested 16 snuffies including Ahmed Noun.
The terror group had plans to target army position and kidnap citizens from Arsal.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/04/2016
00:00:00 ||
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It's not getting any less strange as time goes on.
[AnNahar] A man found with guns in a Disneyland Gay Paree hotel was on Tuesday condemned by a French court to six months' house arrest and made to wear an electronic tagging bracelet.
Prosecutors had sought a nine-month suspended sentence for the 28-year-old who was found to be carrying two handguns, ammunition and a Koran when he was jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! last Thursday.
Disneyland Gay Paree said the guns were picked up by routine scanning of the man's bags at the hotel entrance.
A police source said at the time of the arrest that preliminary investigations did not point to terrorism, and that the man had said he was carrying the guns because he feared for his safety.
The Gay Paree restaurant worker, a convert to Islam, will spend his sentence at his mother's house in the Loiret region southwest of Gay Paree.
The court in the city of Meaux, east of the French capital, also banned him from carrying firearms for five years.
The defendant, with long hair in a bun and a short beard, told the court that he had bought his first gun to defend himself after being the victim of an act of aggression.
He added that he had acquired the second pistol after the November 13 jihadist attacks in Gay Paree that left 130 people dead.
Described as "a boy with a big heart" by his girlfriend and a "pathological liar " by the judge, the man told the court that had not wanted to leave his firearms at his mother's home where he was living.
Despite the discovery of the guns and the Koran, and after several Islamist attacks in and around Gay Paree last year, Sherlocks had quickly ruled out the possibility that the defendant had been planning a terror attack.
Prior to this case the defendant's only brush with the law had been for a traffic case.
[AnNahar] A Greek court on Tuesday formally charged a Swedish jihadist of Bosnian origin with "terrorist activity" after he and an alleged accomplice were caught trying to cross into The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , a justice source said.
Mirsad Bektasevic, 28, is a suspected jihadist recruiter operating under the codename 'Maximus'.
He had been incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in Sarajevo in 2005 after a police search of his home found an explosives belt, explosives and a video of a masked man advocating attacks against the U.S. Capitol and the White House.
According to U.S. officials, Bektasevic at the time belonged to a small group of holy warriors hoping to create an Al-Qaeda affiliate group in Sweden, where he moved as a boy during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2007, a sentence reduced to eight years on appeal, and was released in 2011.
Bektasevic and another 19-year-old Swedish passport holder of Yemeni origin -- identified by Greek media as Al Hasani Amer -- were arrested over the weekend at the bus station of Alexandroupolis, near the border with Turkey.
They were found in possession of two machetes, army uniforms and other combat paraphernalia.
Both have been charged with membership of a terrorist group and bearing combat weapons with the aim of supporting a terrorist group.
Their lawyer said they were in the area for tourism and had purchased the weapons as souvenirs.
The two men arrived in Greece by plane from Sweden nearly two weeks ago, traveling by bus to Thessaloniki and then to Alexandroupolis with tickets bound for Turkey, police said.
Security concerns in Europe are high after revelations that some of the jihadists behind the Gay Paree terror attacks in November slipped into Europe posing as refugees.
Do not annoy the Corsicans. They share their annoyance.
[AnNahar] The front window of a Muslim butchery was sprayed with bullets during the night on the French island of Corsica, where communal tensions have flared in recent months, local prosecutor Eric Bouillard said Wednesday.
The butchery, in the center of the resort town of Propriano, was "hit with a torrent of heavy-weapons fire," said Bouillard. No one was injured.
Corsica, known as the "Isle of Beauty" for its turquoise waters and picturesque mountains, was rocked by anti-Arab riots over Christmas.
Protests erupted after firefighters and a police officer called to a low-income neighborhood, mostly home to North African immigrants, were ambushed and attacked.
Demonstrators shouting slogans such as "This is our home!" and "Arabs get out", vandalised a Muslim prayer hall and set fire to books including copies of the Koran.
Six people have been charged in connection with that unrest.
#2
The symbol of the Unione Corse is the same as the symbol for Corsica generally: the Maure, or Moor's Head, a depiction of a black human head with a rag tied around the forehead, on a white field. In the case of a member of this society, this symbol is often worn as a pendant or a watch fob. (that's wikipedia)
Basically a mafia. Maybe muxxies just late on the protection money....
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
02/04/2016 23:41
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[AlAhram] The two hard boyz were planning attacks on security forces in response to the killing of an Agnad Misr murderous Moslem group leader, the interior ministry said
Egypt's interior ministry said that the two hard boyz killed on Wednesday in the Cairo suburb of Maadi were planning attacks in response to the earlier killing of an Agnad Masr murderous Moslem group leader by authorities.
The ministry said that the hard boyz were planning to target several public figures, including politicians, and army and police members.
The police said in an official statement that the two "terrorist members" were involved in several terrorist operations.
The planned attacks were in retaliation for the recent Killing of Agnad Misr leader Ahmed Galal Ahmed Mohammed Ismail.
The circumstances surrounding Ismail's death remain unclear.
Ismail's family says he was placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! at a police checkpoint in Maadi on19 January then forcedly disappearced. His corpse was found with a gun shot in the head earlier this week.
Earlier this week, Egypt's semi-official National Council of Human Rights asked the ministry to investigate the death of Ismail.
Officials say the hard boyz killed in the Maadi raid Wednesday had previously committed deadly acts against security forces including the murder of an army conscript on the Autostrad road in Cairo; the killing of two low ranking coppers in Helwan.
The attacks also included the bombing of a policeman's car also in Helwan; and the liquidation of North Sinai's Sheikh Khaled Khalaf El-Menei, who was killed for allegedly collaborating with the security apparatus in the troubled governorate.
Earlier on Wednesday, authorities said that the two men were rubbed out by security forces when they fired on police during a raid on a hideout in the Hadaek El-Maadi district in southern Cairo.
Police officials said they had received information that the hard boyz possessed several weapons, including suicide belts and RPGs.
Two coppers were maimed in the shootout, which lasted six hours.
Authorities announced in recent weeks the killing of several hard boyz during raids on apartments in and outside Cairo.
The banned-Moslem Brüderbund group, whose top leadership are currently nabbed Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! and facing trials on criminal charges, has accused authorities of killing unarmed members of the group in various raids.
Agnad Misr, a small Islamist murderous Moslem group designated by the government as a terrorist group in 2014 - has claimed several deadly attacks against security personnel, mostly in the capital of Cairo, since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Moslem Brüderbund.
[DAWN] All domestic and international flights of Pakistain International Airlines (PIA) remained cancelled on Wednesday, airport officials said, as the strike resulting from employees' protest against the national carrier's proposed privatisation entered its third day on Thursday.
PIA employees continued their protest outside major airports across the country, which came as the federal government invoked the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1952, in the PIA for six months.
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02/04/2016
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[ARA News] ERBIL – The Slovenian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday that it will offer military equipment and training to the Kurdish forces of the Peshmerga in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Slovenia emphasized its support to the U.S.-led coalition in the war on the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group.
Defense Minister Andreja Katic said in a statement on Wednesday that her country will offer military support to the Kurds who are combatting ISIS jihadis on ground in northern Iraq. Katic added that Slovenia will also offer up to 15 military instructors to the U.S.-led international coalition as a support to counter-terrorism efforts.
She said that the Slovenian military instructors would start training Kurdish soldiers in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan “probably in the second half of the year”.
This is the first time that Slovenia takes action in the war on ISIS.
“Slovenia will take part in solving the main global challenges,” Katic told a news conference. “Preventative action at home against such complex, cross border threats is no longer sufficient.”
The Slovenian military equipment to be offered to the Kurdish forces is worth 650,000 euros ($710,000), according to the Defense Minister.
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02/04/2016
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#1
Slovenia emphasized its support to the U.S.-led coalition in the war on the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group.
[KhaleejTimes] A Palestinian poet condemned to death in Saudi Arabia for apostasy has had his sentence reduced to prison time and lashes instead, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Ashraf Fayadh was sentenced to death in November by a court in the southwestern city of Abha. He faced charges including blasphemy, spreading atheism and having illicit relationships with women.
His defense lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, said in a statement posted online that an Abha court has quashed the death sentence and issued a new appeals verdict of 800 lashes and eight years behind bars. The lashes are to be meted out 50 at a time. Fayadh must also publicly repent and denounce his works in the media, the lawyer said. The attorney said he intends to formally object to the latest ruling. Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings would sympathize.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
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[POLITICO] The National Archives is fighting a lawsuit trying to force disclosure of several draft indictments of Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another William Jennings Bryan ... prepared by a Whitewater prosecutor in the 1990s.
In a brief filed late Tuesday, Justice Department lawyers and the Archives argue that disclosure of the draft indictments would lead to an unwarranted invasion of Clinton's privacy and violate a court rule protecting grand jury secrecy.
"Despite the role that Mrs. Clinton occupied as the First Lady during President Clinton's administration, Mrs. Clinton maintains a strong privacy interest in not having information about her from the files of the Independent Counsel disclosed," wrote Martha Wagner Murphy, chief of the Archives "special access" branch that stores records of former independent counsels. "As an uncharged person, Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another William Jennings Bryan ... retains a significant interest in her personal privacy despite any status as a public figure."
The conservative group Judicial Watch, which filed suit for the records in October under the Freedom of Information Act, is arguing that Clinton's ongoing bid for the presidency reinforces the public interest in records about her alleged misconduct.
Grand jury records aren't supposed to be released. Period.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Guess a little trip to the Hope AR library is in order.
[REUTERS] The Syrian army and its allies have broken a three-year rebel siege of two Shi'ite towns in northwest Syria, government and rebel groups said on Wednesday, cutting off a main Death Eater route to nearby The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... The two towns of Nubul and Zahraa, with an estimated 60,000 population, are connected to the border by areas under the control of Kurdish militias that provided them some access.
Al Manar, television channel of Leb's Hezbollah Lion of Islam group, joined Syria's army and state media in reporting the breakthrough, which it said came after the army moved in from towns secured in a recent offensive in northern Aleppo province.
A Levant Front rebel said the siege was broken "after three days of legendary resistance by the revolutionaries facing the Russian military machine, an after more than 500 raids by Russian air planes".
"Less than 3 km separate the regime from cutting all routes to opposition-held Aleppo," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said. "It did in three days what it failed to do in 3-1/2 years."
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No point in negotiating until the fighting reveals the final winner.
[JOURNALSTAR] The U.N. envoy for Syria has announced a "temporary pause" in peace talks in Geneva amid intensified fighting, saying the process will resume later this month.
Speaking to news hounds after a meeting with opposition leaders, Staffan de Mistura insisted "this is not the end, and it is not the failure of the talks."
De Mistura said both sides were "interested in having the political process started," and that he had set a new date of Feb. 25 for the resumption of the talks.
The announcement comes just two days after de Mistura opened the first talks in two years aimed at ending a five-year war that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced an estimated 11 million people.
Syrian forces backed by Russian Arclight airstrikes have advanced in northern Syria in recent days, leading the opposition to accuse Damascus of negotiating in bad faith.
Syria's state news agency SANA says rebels have fired several rockets at residential areas in the southern city of Daraa, killing 10 civilians and wounding 41, most of them women and kiddies.
Daraa is contested, with parts of it held by forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... and others by members of armed opposition groups trying to overthrow him. The rockets hit government-held areas.
The news agency says that in a separate attack Wednesday, rebels fired several rockets and mortar shells at the Harasta suburb of the capital, Damascus. It says one shell slammed into a high school, wounding three staff members.
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02/04/2016
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[Ynet] Jeb Afridi, active in the Muslim student organization, suspected of committing attack at a restaurant an Israeli delegation was supposed to dine at in 2014.
India's security forces placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! a suspect last week who allegedly committed a terror attack in 2014 and planned on carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in Bangalore.
According to India's National Investigation Agency (NIA), the suspect arrested is Jeb Afridi. He is a resident of Amdabad and is active in the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Afridi is suspected of committing a terrorist attack on Church Street in Bangalore on December 28, 2014, and of being involved in other incidents in Bangalore and elsewhere. His remand was extended by 10 days.
According to the NIA, he went kaboom! a small bomb outside a restaurant atwhich an Israeli delegation was supposed to dine. A woman was killed and three were maimed in that attack. There were no Israeli casualties.
Contrary to claims made by the NIA, the Israeli Consulate said it was not aware of an Israeli delegation, official or not, that was supposed to visit the restaurant in question that evening.
In addition, the NIA statement said that the suspect admitted to an arson attempt at the Israeli Visa Services offices in November 2015, and was suspected of being involved in and organizing similar activities in India.
Ziv Shalvi, deputy consul general of Israel in Bangalore, said he was satisfied overall by police work and the Indian authorities in their daily cooperation with the consulate, but did not specifically reference the present case or recent publications.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Two bombs went kaboom! a few hours apart from each other 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 Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... on Wednesday.
The first one which was a landmine went kaboom! on a Ford Ranger vehicle leaving two people maimed in Behsood District of Nangarhar province.
Ataullah Khogyani, spokesperson for the governor of Nangarhar province said the Ford Ranger was on its way to the capital city Jalalabad when it struck landmine in Samarkhil area.
The victims are security guards of the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The second blast was caused by a magnetic bomb in the capital city of Khost province which left one person maimed.
No group has grabbed credit for the kabooms.
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[MEDIAITE] Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz apologized for his campaign's statements made on the day of the Iowa caucus strongly implying that Ben Carson ... a neurosurgeon who is under the delusion that being brilliant qualifies him to be president.... was dropping out of the race.
Carson strongly condemned the tactic Tuesday morning, calling it a "dirty trick," and Cruz front man Rick Taylor got an earful from MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski for it. In response, the Cruz campaign issued a public apology to CNN.
Last night when our political team saw the CNN post saying Dr. Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, our campaign updated the grassroots leaders just as we would with any breaking news story. That's fair game.
What the team should have done is send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out.
That was a mistake from our end, and for that I apologize to Dr. Carson.
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#2
Not calling the Carson team or Carson personally to verify the facts is inexcusable. A caucus wide, blanket notification points to a rather obvious systematic attempt to harvest default voters.
I never liked the 'duel-citizen' thing either, and my dislike did not begin with Trump making it an issue.
Perhaps someone else is better suited for the job.
#3
#2 Besoeker: I LIKE that concept of a "duel-citizen". Question my citizenship/whatever and I'll challenge you to a duel. I think the world would be a better place with that idea in use.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 11:23
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Personally I think caucus voters should assume any last minute news the day of the caucus is bull$hit and except for the big election nobody should drop out on voting day anyway, that's just screwing with your loyalists.
#7
I also would like to see a timeline showing the vote counts before the rumors and after. Carson's numbers were higher than expectations at the end of the night and it seems that if this had a big effect on Carson's numbers they are unlikely to have all gone to Cruz.
I think Trump is just trying to crap on everyone so that his loss (after proclaiming victory in Iowa for months) doesn't seem so bad. Trump, crush 'em in New Hampshire, don't run around whining. Its' sad.
[MEDIAITE] Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean Former Dem governor of Vermont or Rhode Island or one of those dinky states. Howard lost his bid to be president by shrieking and screaming and acting like a loon. Then they made him chairman of the Dem national campaign committee, where he continued doing the same things only nobody paid any attention.... tried to claim on MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday that Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry L. Stimson ... had never received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from colleges, only to be shot down by the show's executive producer later in the segment.
Host Mika Brzezinski first brought up Clinton's speaking fees, asking whether they'd be a problem when it came to relating to college students. "These kids... will be strapped with $90,000 in debt or $120,000 in debt and she's making $225,000 in one hour," she pointed out.
But Dean took umbrage at that suggestion. "She's not getting $225,000 for speeches in front of colleges," he insisted.
"Yes, she is!" co-host Joe Scarborough said.
"No, she's not," Dean said obstinately. "Which colleges?"
"Howard, it's a matter of record!" Scarborough said. "Alex, Google it and we'll give him the answer in 10 seconds."
A few minutes later, Morning Joe executive producer and beer-shotgunning expert Alex Korman cut in to read off what he had found: "UNLV in October of 2014, she got $225,000. Then a month later, UCLA, she got $300,000."
To his credit, Dean admitted he was wrong. "I stand corrected," he said. "I will humbly eat crow, Joe. Do you have a serving of crow?"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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But Dean took umbrage at that suggestion. "She's not getting $225,000 for speeches in front of colleges," he insisted.
So, does that mean Dean now understands what this means?
It's pretty bad when even MSLSD can't defend one of their own.
[Ynet] Hezbollah fighters killed at least four members of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in a rocket attack on their car in northeastern Leb on Tuesday, a security source said.
The incident took place in a restive area near the Syrian border, just outside the Lebanese town of Arsal, which Nusra Front and Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters overran briefly in 2014 before withdrawing after festivities with the army.
Shi'ite Hezbollah has previously targeted Sunni Islamist fighters in the area who have staged regular incursions from Leb's war-torn neighbour.
Nusra Front and Islamic State - themselves enemies in Syria's conflict - have in the past week clashed in the outskirts of Arsal. Nusra Front initiated the fighting with its jihadist rival by trying to capture IS positions in the area, the source said.
IS counter attacked, pushing Nusra Front out of positions it controlled east of Arsal.
The festivities killed several fighers on each side, the source said.
[Ynet] The United States and its allies conducted 20 strikes against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and six in Syria on Monday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement.
The strikes in Iraq included six near Qayyarah, three near Kisik and four each near Ramadi and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , where they destroyed an Islamic
State homemade explosives cache, a murderous Moslem checkpoint, four staging areas and a weapons cache, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Tuesday.
Other strikes included one near Albu Hayat, where a tactical unit was hit and a staging area destroyed, and Habbaniyah, where an air strike destroyed two vehicles, three front-end loaders and another homemade explosives cache, it said.
An Islamic State tactical unit was hit in a strike near Sinjar.
In Syria, the coalition said, two strikes near the murderous Moslems' stronghold of Raqqa destroyed three excavators and a tactical unit. Two gas and oil separation plant well heads were hit by two strikes near Dayr Az Zawr and two strikes in Manjib hit a training facility and destroyed three buildings, it said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[CBSNEWS] A U.S. official said Wednesday that it appears a low-tech bomb exploded on a passenger jet over Somalia earlier this week, CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan reports.
No terror group has grabbed credit for Tuesday's blast. The kaboom blew a hole in the jetliner shortly after takeoff and left one man missing. The plane landed safely in Mogadishu.
Residents of Balad, a town about 18 miles north of Mogadishu, found the body of a man who might have been blown out of the Airbus 321, said police officer Mohammed Hassan.
Abdiwahid Omar, the director of Somalia's civil aviation authority, told state-run Radio Mogadishu that authorities were not sure if the body was the missing passenger.
Government officials also said no evidence had been found so far of a criminal act.
Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, CEO of Daallo Airlines, did not rule out that a bomb planted on the aircraft was responsible.
"At this stage, everything is possible. We cannot rule out anything at this stage," Yassin told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
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#1
no evidence had been found so far of a criminal act.
Not that it wasn't a criminal act, just that no definitive evidence has been found. So far.
This is reporting?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/04/2016 7:49
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Any chance missing guy is also the bomber? In a perfect world....
[NHREGISTER] South Korea warned on Wednesday of "searing" consequences if North Korea doesn't abandon plans to launch a long-range rocket that critics call a banned test of ballistic missile technology.
The South's rhetoric about unspecified harsh consequences comes less than a month after North Korea's defiant fourth nuclear test and as diplomats at the U.N. work on strong new sanctions against the North.
North Korea on Tuesday informed international organizations of its plans to launch an Earth observation satellite on a rocket between Feb. 8 and 25, and if North Korea's past patterns are any clue, angry warnings by its neighbors and Washington probably won't dissuade a coming launch.
The launch declaration, which is meant to warn civilians, shipping and aircraft in the area about the rocket and falling debris, follows North Korea's disputed claim on Jan. 6 to have tested a hydrogen bomb, the country's fourth nuclear test. A launch would be seen as a snub by North Korea of its only major ally, China, whose representative for Korean affairs landed in the North for talks on Tuesday.
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#1
NOKOR likely can no longer wait for Beijing to formally reunify wid Taiwan, whenever that may be; and iff recent incidents wid the PLA is any measure neither can CHINA???
NOT Year 2100, not Year 2050 or even Year 2030, but ASAP AMAP ALAP.
No "Sole" Base rights or strategic access for the PLA from the predominantlyPro-US "First Island Chain" = UNLEASH THE DOGS OF WAR, + LET MIL CONFRONTATION + FIREPOWER + TACNUKES? DECIDE THE ISSUE.
[MEDIAITE] Today, President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... made the first appearance at a U.S. mosque in his seven-year presidency. He and the Council on American-Islamic Relations ... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ... selected the Islamic Society of Baltimore for the big event. He made some valid points and included some touching moments, but detractors are continuing to rail against his choice of mosques.
In 2010, the Islamic Society of Baltimore was placed under FBI surveillance following the arrest of one of its members. The member had been planning to bomb an Army recruiting center near the mosque in Catonsville.
According to Investor's Business Daily, the would-be attacker was 25-year-old convert Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain. Hussain had assured other worshipers that he had "brothers" who could supply him with the necessary bomb-making materials. His plans to combat the Army came from his interpretation of the Koran's mandate to "fight those who fight you."
An undercover FBI agent was placed in the mosque, but leaders within the community objected to being monitored. Another agent was dispatched to take questions and concerns from the mosque's leadership, who felt what the FBI was doing was entrapment.
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leaders within the community objected to being monitored
Somebody outed the UC?
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Wednesday, that ten people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast in northern Baghdad.
The source said in a press statement, “This morning, a bomb exploded near a popular market in Tarmiya District in northern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding eight others.”
The source, who requested anonymity, added, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead bodies to the forensic medicine department, while imposed restricted measures in anticipation of the presence of other bombs.”
(IraqiNews.com) Diyali – A security source in Diyali province said on Wednesday, that a civilian had been killed in a militant attack east of Baqubah.
The source reported for IraqiNews.com, “Today, unidentified militants attacked a civilian near a house in the western outskirts of the district of Kana’an (20 km east of Baqubah) and opened fire from their weapons, resulting in his immediate death.”
The source added, “A security force cordoned off the area of the incident, while transferred the dead to the forensic medicine department.”
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A local source in Kirkuk province said on Wednesday, that the ISIS militants seized houses of civilians in Hawija, while pointed out that the militants forced those people to pay 50 thousand dinars in exchange for staying in their homes.
The source said in a brief statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The ISIS began, today, to impose a levy on the homes of civilians in Hawija and the areas of al-Abasi, Zab and Riyadh (55 km southwest of Kirkuk), due to the escape of the majority of young people and government staff from those areas.”
The source, who requested to remain anonymous, added, “The ISIS told the residents to pay 50 thousand dinars in exchange for housing in their homes,” pointing out that, “The ISIS elements expelled dozens of civilians from their homes.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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[LAWNEWZ] Justin Sullivan, who was accused of helping ISIL plan terrorist attacks, has now been indicted for the unsolved murder of his neighbor John Bailey Clark.
After Sullivan's June 19, 2015 arrest, the FBI searched for weapons at his home, tipped off by an undercover agent. Eventually, they found a crawl space with a .22 rifle, a black ski mask, a lock pick, and a silencer.
Authorities say the rifle was used to murder Clark, and a grand jury in Burke County agreed Monday. The 74-year-old man was found buried in a shallow grave December 2014.
Sullivan's father called 911 on his son last year for burning his religious belongings. They can be heard arguing throughout the call.
"You put gasoline in the house!" dad can be heard saying.
Sullivan, 19, faces seven federal counts, according to the Department of Justice: attempting to provide material support to ISIL (the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant); receipt of a silencer in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony; receipt and possession of an unregistered firearm; concealment and storage of a stolen firearm; use of interstate facilitates in the attempted commission of a murder-for-hire; and two counts of making false statements to FBI agents.
"According to allegations in the indictment, Sullivan attempted to provide material support to ISIL by acquiring weapons and planning to conduct deadly attacks on our soil," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin. The feds say Sullivan planned to commit liquidations and mass shootings for the terrorist organization.
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[GatestoneInstitute] Key points:
o N24 television has reported that up to 50% of "asylum seekers" have gone into hiding and their whereabouts are unknown. They presumably include economic migrants and others who are trying to avoid deportation if or when their asylum applications are rejected.
o Tens of thousands of migrants destroyed their passports and other identity documents before arriving in Germany. It may take years for German authorities to determine the true identities of these people and their countries of origin.
o Even if Germany sends these individuals back to the countries where they first entered the EU (usually Greece, Hungary or Italia), with a borderless Europe, migrants can easily make their way back to Germany.
o German authorities are downplaying migrant lawlessness, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiment.
So far it is mostly purse snatching. But there have been an awful lot of purses snatched.
o Migrants are still coming to Germany at the rate of about 2,000 per day.
During the height of winter, when the Mediterranean waters are rough, and the land routes inhospitable. Spring comes in less than two months.
o "Eight to ten million migrants are still on the way." -- Development Minister Gerd Muller.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Wednesday the Commander of the 3rd special operations brigade in the Anti-Terrorism Bureau Major General Samy Kadim al-Aredi announced the destruction of ISIS armory in al-Sijariya area east of Ramadi.
“The forces from the Anti-Terrorism Bureau, army and Anbar police have advanced to liberate al-Sijariya, al-Juwbiya and Husaiba areas east of Ramadi from the ISIS control,” Aredi said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com.
Aredi added, “The forces engaged with ISIS fighters in al-Sijariya and managed to destruct the ISIS armory in the area, including mortar detachments, machine guns and guided missiles,” pointing out that, “Heavy human and material losses were inflicted on the enemy.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The Head of Khalidiya Council in Anbar Province Ali Dawood announced on Wednesday, that the nephew of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in an Iraqi air strike east of Ramadi, along with eight of his companions.
Dawood said in a statement released by Anbar News Agency and followed by IraqiNews.com, “Today, Iraqi Air Force conducted an air strike on the so-called ISIS sharia court in Albu Bali area in Khalidiya Island east of Ramadi.”
Dawood added, “The strike resulted in the death of Abu Ahmed al-Samarrai the nephew of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, along with eight of his companions, as well as Adel al-Bilawi, the Military Commander of Albu Bali area.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The commander of the Rapid Intervention Forces Maj. Gen. Tamer Muhammed Ismail announced on Wednesday the killing of 11 ISIS elements as well as the destruction of two shelters for them in Husaiybah area east of Ramadi.
Ismail said in a brief statement received by IraqiNews.com, “Today, a force from the Rapid Intervention Forces clashed with ISIS elements in the area of Husaiybah (7 km east of Ramadi), resulting in the death of 11 [ISIS] elements as well as the destruction of two shelters for them in the area.”
Ismail added, “The scorpion force belonging to the Rapid Intervention Forces was able to kill two ISIS elements, one of whom was targeting the special vehicle of dismantling the explosive devices.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – Baghdad Operations Command announced on Wednesday, that the Iraqi security forces had gained control over the area of Albu Shajal west of Saqalawiyah in the province of Anbar.
The commander of Baghdad Operations Maj. Gen. Abdul-Amir al-Shammari said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The Iraqi army’s 14th brigade managed to gain control over the area of Albu Shajal west of Saqalawiyah,” pointing out that, “The forces had inflicted big losses upon the enemy.”
Shammari added, “The forces were also able to detonate three booby-trapped vehicles.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Wednesday the Mayor of Fallujah Sadoun Shallan described the humanitarian situation in the district as very difficult, while indicated that the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) booby-trapped all the district’s entrances.
Shallan said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The humanitarian situation in Fallujah is very difficult, and there are five thousand families who suffer from tragic humanitarian situation where there is no food or medicine,” adding that, “We called the government, United Nations, humanitarian organizations and the international coalition to prepare secured passages in order to evacuate a number of families who became victims of ISIS and the tragic humanitarian situation.”
Shallan also pointed out, “ISIS booby-trapped all the entrances to Fallujah, and trying to kill the biggest number of its residents.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/04/2016
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A Thai ranger was gunned down while traveling with his wife in Narathiwat province on Tuesday morning. The attack occurred in Sai Buri district. Sukiphli Nasae and his wife were on a motorcycle when they were attacked. Sukiphli was killed at the scene. His wife was wounded when the motorcycle fell to the road.
Yves here. Stocks around the world took a nosedive today, due to WTI sliding to under $30 a barrel, as well as disappointing earnings announcements from Chevron and BP, along with a warning from Standard & Poors.
But the bigger cause of the sour mood which apparently swept from oil stocks into the broader market, was that a rumored deal among Russia, Iran, and the Saudis is nowhere near as imminent as the hype of last week would have investors believe. And there’s an obvious reason why.
As we indicated last year, when Saudi Arabia embarked on its oil-price-cutting strategy, which is what refusing to reduce production to support prices amounted to, it looked like a masterstroke. It had several sets of opponents in its crosshairs. The firs was US frackers, who posed an intermediate-term threat if the shale boom and resulting government subsidies supported the construction of LNG transport facilities (which on a cold-blooded economic calculation are not justifiable given that under the old normal, shale production would have peaked around 2022 and started declining gradually, then more sharply around 2030, and that assumed no curbs due to earthquakes or water supply impact). Second was clean energy, which becomes much less attractive if conventional energy becomes cheap. Third was Saudi Arabia’s geopolitical opponents, most important Russia and iran.
Recall that the Western media went all in on the story of Russian vulnerability. In 2015, Europe tightened sanctions, and the Western leaders were in barely-veiled terms calling for regime change in Russia, on the premise that Putin could not survive the one-two punch of low oil prices and foreign sanction.
Here we are, in 2016, with barely an acknowledgment of that period. Not only did the Europeans overestimate Putin’s vulnerability, but the Saudis badly underestimated theirs.
It’s impossible to know what scenarios the Saudi officialdom ran, but it appears their downside case was not that much more dire than that of conventional wisdom as of early 2015: that oil prices would be low for the first half of 2015, and would recover to more or less their former level in the second half of the year. One has to think the Saudis allowed for some overshoot in terms of what then would have been seen as a dire scenario, say oil below $60 for nine months.
In other words, the Saudis simply did not anticipate that both government and private producers had the same incentives: to keep pumping because they needed the revenues so badly. And the deterioration of the Chinese economy and lousy fundamentals in Europe mean that low oil prices haven’t led to an upswing in consumption to offset the surplus supply.
And they further underestimated the staying power of some of those players. As John Dizard pointed out early on, US shale players would keep going as long as they had access to funding (and they also got adept about cost reduction, in cutting back at higher cost sites and increasing output at ones with better economics). And even though oil is an important export for Russia, it is far more diverse an economy than is widely understood and much closer to being an autarky than one-trick-pony Saudi Arabia.
So the severity and probable extended duration of low oil prices has blown back on Saudi Arabia in a very nasty way, particularly since its government and society have become very dependent on a high level of oil revenues.
Russia and Iran are thus able to exploit the fact that the Saudis are hoist on their own petard. They won’t do an oil deal unless they also get a deal on Syria. That is something the Saudis will find very hard to swallow. But all that Russia and Iran have to do is stand pat. The Saudis can’t take protracted budgetary hemorrhaging and they know that. But it may nevertheless take time for the Saudis to swallow their pride and make the necessary concessions (and figure out how to make them look like peace with honor). And the longer this impasse persists, the more Mr. Market will continue to fret.
#1
The Soddies are likely looking for a face saving way out. If the non-OPEC oil producers agree to make (token) cuts in production then the Soddies could declare victory and start ratcheting down their own production.
Funny how you haven't heard a peep from the peak oil crowd.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 11:02
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[DAWN] THE chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, Mohammad Khan Sherani, has indicated the CCI was ready to review Section 295C of the Pakistain Penal Code if it received a request from the government. This statement comes at a time when a committee appointed by the federal government is already working on law reforms for the past one year or so.
By now, we all know that Section 295C in its existing form is prone to abuse and has led to serious miscarriage of justice in thousands of cases. Thus some significant changes to the substantive law, if not its outright repeal, and procedural aspects would only be reasonable.
The basic question is whether there is any justification to refer back the question of blasphemy to the CII when all available evidence points to the need for some obvious reform.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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#1
Isn't criticizing the blasphemy law blasphemy?
' Catch-22.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 11:06
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[Khaleej Times] Hundreds of people fled a conflict-hit area of southeast The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's largest city Diyarbakir on Wednesday, taking advantage of the lifting of a curfew to escape any further festivities between security forces and Kurdish bully boys.
A Rooters witness said people left the city's Sur district with suitcases, televisions and carpets on the back of pick-up trucks and handcarts, deserting an area damaged heavily in fighting since a curfew was declared there a month ago.
"It's always the ordinary people who suffer," said Mehmet Ceylan, 45, carrying a bundle on his back. "I've lived in Sur for years, and I've never witnessed a scene like this."
Hundreds of bandidosforces of Evil and security force members have been killed since July when a ceasefire collapsed, triggering the worst violence in two decades and wrecking hopes for a peace deal in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 since 1984.
The chief district administrator's office in Sur, encircled by UNESCO-listed Roman-era walls, on Wednesday declared the lifting of a week-old curfew in Sur's western parts. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the eastern side remained under round-the-clock curfew.
The state says the curfews, also in place elsewhere in the southeast, are imposed so police can remove barricades, bombs and ditches set up by the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Three soldiers were maimed in festivities in Sur overnight, and one later died in hospital, a security source said.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said it had not been able to communicate for three days with a group of people, some maimed, trapped in a basement in the southeastern town of Cizre, under curfew since mid-December.
At least six of the 31 people in the building, which has largely collapsed, have died over the past two weeks and others are seriously maimed, the HDP said on Wednesday.
The government has denied its security forces are preventing ambulances from reaching the building and has accused bandidosforces of Evil of firing on emergency workers.
Separately in Istanbul, unidentified gunnies opened fire late on Tuesday on the premises of an association, killing one man and wounding three others, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.
It followed a similar attack on Monday, when two people were killed and seven maimed in an Istanbul suburb after armed assailants fired on a teahouse. Police detained six people in connection with the first shooting, Anadolu said.
It was not clear if the attacks were politically motivated, but they tapped into concerns that violence may spread to Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and its commercial and tourism hub.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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Rudy Giuliani would understand.
Israel's parliament passed a law on Tuesday expanding police powers, allowing them to stop and frisk suspects without probable cause, the latest attempt to crack down on near-daily Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
Critics say the law will allow police to racially profile minorities and Arabs. Which other minorities?
Bahai'i, perhaps. Druze. Aramean-Israelis, formerly known as Christian Arab-Israelis. Israel is part of the Middle East, so there are subterranean complexities beneath the simple surface.
While previously police could only search people suspected of carrying a weapon, under the new measures officers can search any-one in areas declared by district police commanders to be possible settings for "hostile sabotage activity." They can also search people they suspect might commit violent crime.
Israel's internal security minister Gilad Erdan of the Likud party said the law is "an important enhancement of the police's ability to more effectively battle terrorism and violence." Arab lawmaker Jamal Zahalka said that it was "clear the main people affected will be Arabs and people who look like Arabs." That's who's been stabbing people at random.
Israel also resumed the demolition of homes belonging to Palestinian assailants. On Tuesday, the military said security forces measured the home of Amjad Sukkari, 34, a Palestinian police officer who shot at Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint Sunday, wounding three before troops shot him dead.
Israel says home demolition deters attacks, but critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016
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#1
critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.
Letting millions of these creatures into your countries amount to collective punishment for the original population---punishment for electing you.
#4
At this point, what could the beast's soul actually be worth? I mean how much bargaining power would Hitler have had when in the bunker?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 18:50
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#5
Good post Pappy.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 18:50
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#6
Maybe she's getting a little help in getting lucky?:
"That’s a memorable choice of words, considering that, on a spring day in 1995, according to an account published by Bob Woodward, the Washington investigative journalist of Watergate fame, Clinton ‘communed’ with Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House solarium. Jean Houston, an author with something of the New Age about her, was visiting the First Lady at the White House, and proposed, Woodward writes, that Clinton "search further and dig deeper for her connections to Mrs. Roosevelt." Clinton closed her eyes, and spoke to Roosevelt—and then she spoke as if she were Roosevelt herself. Houston later told the New York Times that this was more “brainstorming” session than séance, but all the same, a conjuring: “an imaginative exercise to force her ideas, to think about how Eleanor would have responded to a particular problem.” At the dedication for the Four Freedoms Park, in 2012, President Bill Clinton joked about this incident. He said, “As all of you famously learned when I served as president, my wife, now the secretary of state, was known to commune with Eleanor on a regular basis. So she called me last night on her way home from Peru to remind me to say that: That Eleanor had talked to her and reminded her that I should say that.""
A drone strike has killed three fighters of the terrorist group of the Islamic State (IS) which is locally known by its Arabic name ‘Daesh’ in eastern Nangarhar province.
Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, spokesperson for the police headquarters of Nangarhar province said the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) attack was conducted in Bandar area of Achin District around 04:00 PM on Tuesday.
He said the attack left three insurgents of Daesh killed.
According to Col. Mashriqiwal, there was no harm to civilians in the drone strike.
It comes a day after four strikes killed 29 militants of the group in the same district.
The air strikes also destroyed the group’s radio ‘Voice of the Caliphate’ which was running a propaganda campaign against government and recruiting fighters for insurgency.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/04/2016
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And once they've done the proof of concept, it can be applied to serious problems like Israel lovers and global warming denialists.
[IsraelTimes] Pilot program will use algorithm to divert would-be snuffies to anti-radicalization websites, where they will 'find a community of hope, not harm'
Google said Tuesday it is considering using its search algorithms to dissuade potential jihadists from engaging in bully boy activities, British media reported.
A bigwig at Google told British members of Parliament that under the pilot program being planned, people entering queries believed to be tied to terrorist activities and extremism would be referred to anti-radicalization results.
Anthony House, Google's senior manager for public policy and communications, was speaking before MPs along with representatives of Facebook and Twitter about efforts to counter extremism on the internet.
"We should get the bad stuff down, but it's also extremely important that people are able to find good information, that when people are feeling isolated, that when they go online, they find a community of hope, not a community of harm," he said, according to the Guardian.
The search and social media giants have come under growing pressure to monitor and censor content on their services in recent years, as these have increasingly become platforms for bully boy groups to communicate and spread their propaganda to potential new recruits.
It is believed that around 30,000 imported muscle have joined 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.... in Syria and Iraq from around the world, with many of them recruited through the internet.
[IsraelTimes] Police find knives, military-style waistcoat and rifle shoulder-strap among belongings of Swedish passport-holders headed for Syria
A Greek magistrate on Tuesday ordered two men to remain in jug pending trial on charges of attempting to travel to Syria through Greece to join the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
The two men, born in Bosnia and 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... but travelling on Swedish passports, were tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! last week near the Greek-Turkish land border. Police confiscated two hunting knives, a military-style waistcoat and a rifle shoulder strap from their belongings.
They have been charged with membership in a terrorist group, arms possession and possessing military equipment with the intent of supplying a terrorist group.
The suspects' lawyer, Menia Polychroni, says her clients deny any wrongdoing and are tourists who don't understand why they were arrested. No trial date has been set, and Greek authorities have the right to hold suspects in pre-trial detention for up to 18 months.
Officials haven't named the men, aged 29 and 20, but say the 29-year-old was released from prison in 2011 after serving six years for possessing explosives and threatening to carry out an attack. The man had been arrested and convicted in Bosnia before he was transferred to serve the last part of his sentence in Sweden.
Polychroni says her clients claim they have no links to terrorism.
"They accept that they are Islamists, but pacifists," she told journalists outside the magistrate's office in the northern Greek town of Alexandroupoli.
Police say the suspects were arrested during a routine check at an Alexandroupoli bus terminal, where they had bought tickets for a border village that is close to an official border crossing to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Polychroni said they had bought the knives as souvenirs in Athens, where they stayed for about four days after arriving on a flight from Copenhagen, Denmark.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/04/2016
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#1
The suspects' lawyer, Menia Polychroni, says her clients deny any wrongdoing and are tourists who don't understand why they were arrested.
Officials haven't named the men, aged 29 and 20, but say the 29-year-old was released from prison in 2011 after serving six years for possessing explosives and threatening to carry out an attack. The man had been arrested and convicted in Bosnia before he was transferred to serve the last part of his sentence in Sweden.
Sometimes I'd like to take their lying lawyer mouthpiece and slap the shit outta them
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/04/2016 8:57
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#2
They accept that they are Islamists, but pacifists
yeah that computes
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
02/04/2016 23:50
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[THEDAILYBEAST] Britain’s prime minister wanted to use the threat of a referendum on membership in the European Union to extract concessions. But what’s extracted may be the UK.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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[DAWN] In a major breakthrough, intelligence agencies have claimed to have incarcerated Please don't kill me! the main controller of the attack on the Bacha Khan University that left about 20 people dead and several others maimed, credible sources said.
According to them, Waheed Ali alias Arshad, categorised as "Terrorist A", was arrested in Nowshera last week.
"He had made arrangements to flee to Afghanistan and hired a taxi to take him to the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham. Had there been any further delay, the man would have slipped away," the sources said.
"He had shaved his beard and had packed up. His taxi was intercepted and he was picked up after positive identification," said the sources, requesting they not be identified.
In his initial statement, according to the sources, the alleged controller who is in his early 30s said the planning of the attack on the university had been in works for six months in Achin district of Afghanistan, the base of the hard boy commander Khalifa Omar Mansoor alias Omar Naray.
He said he had surreptitiously made videos of the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Regiment Centre and a cop shoppe in Mardan as possible targets and taken the footages in a memory chip to Omar Naray, but the plans had been dropped because of heavy security in the two places.
The criminal mastermind and planners, Waheed said, later opted for Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan and prepared a group of four bully boyz to carry out the attack. He said that he was the one who had made the video of the four attackers with Khalifa Mansoor and that was the reason why the Abdul Wali Khan University was mentioned in the video.
He said Khalifa Mansoor had provided him Rs1 million to execute the plan and procure arms and ammunition for the attack. The plan to attack the Abdul Wali Khan University was also cancelled because of better security arrangements and the criminal mastermind was informed about the new target in Charsadda.
According to the sources, the suspect said he had brought with him two attackers while the other two were already with another controller, Riaz, in Charsadda. He identified the four attackers, including an Afridi, one from Orakzai, one from Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... and one from South Wazoo.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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Here's the FlightAware track.
THE UK GOVERNMENT is facing demands to reveal the details of a secret flight through Scottish airspace which was at the centre of a plot to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The plane, which passed above the Outer Hebrides, the Highlands and Aberdeenshire, was dispatched from the American east coast on June 24 2013, the day after Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow. The craft was used in controversial US 'rendition' missions.
Reports by Scottish journalist Duncan Campbell claim the flight, travelling well above the standard aviation height at 45,000 feet and without a filed flight plan, was part of a mission to capture Snowden following his release of documents revealing mass surveillance by US and UK secret services.
That the flight passed over Scotland, airspace regulated by the UK, has raised questions over UK complicity in a covert mission to arrest Snowden and whether any police, aviation or political authorities in Scotland were made aware of the flight path.
Alex Salmond, the SNP foreign affairs front man and Scotland's First Minister when the flight took place, has called for full transparency from the UK Government over the case.
He said: "As a matter of course and courtesy, any country, particularly an ally, should be open about the purposes of a flight and the use of foreign airspace or indeed airports."
"What we need to know now is, was this information given to the UK Government at the time. If so, then why did they give permission? If not, then why not? As a minimum requirement, the UK authorities should not allow any activity in breach of international law in either its airspace or its airports.
In a better world the world simply would not know what our CIA is doing...
[DAWN] IT is unbecoming of a leader of a democracy to talk in a way that is insensitive. Despite the tragedy that befell the protesting PIA employees, when two of their colleagues were killed on Tuesday, 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... adopted a hostile approach towards the union protesters. In close proximity were some of his ministers who echoed his tone and practically equated PIA union protesters with 'enemies of the state' and warned that they may lose their jobs. All this at a time when workers were insecure about employment and on a day when they were absorbing the shock of the law-enforcement action against them and the death of their comrades. Whatever one's own opinion of the unions, the protesters and the health of the airline may be, allowing peaceful demonstrators to be killed or injured is a grave tragedy and should be acknowledged as such by the leadership.
For their part, the protesters also need to realise that many people are getting weary of their tactics. They have proven their point by grounding the airline and should now work towards winding down their protests. Disrupting the lives of the people for too long may not win them the sympathy they see as crucial to their cause. They need to realise that the status quo has become untenable in PIA and a large effort is needed to rescue the national carrier before it collapses altogether, or becomes an even bigger burden on the taxpaying public than it already is. One of the demands that has been put forward by the union's joint action committee is that "PIA's employees be provided a chance to reform the airline". How are we expected to take this demand seriously? Do they have any plan or vision that goes beyond bravado or sloganeering to undertake such a massive task? What do they propose be done about the accumulated losses which have climbed to Rs300bn?
Cooler heads need to step in to save the situation from deteriorating further. The opposition parties should not see in this episode an opportunity to make political hay. The PTI thought it could ride the anger of the traders against a withholding tax and ended up looking foolish when the traders cut a deal with the government and wound down their protests. That mistake ought to be avoided. The need of the hour is for all political forces to urge calm and restraint, stop taking extreme positions, and work towards getting PIA back in the air once again rather than fan the flames of anger. As a first step, the government should refrain from applying the Essential Services Act to PIA. Instead, the focus should be on how to put the airline back on track. But that will not happen so long as bluster and bravado are calling all shots.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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#3
Black Mamba's cannot be blamed for being born. Making the Mamba a house pet however is another issue entirely. The fact that this fellow Obama was elected twice, and the Hildebeest enjoys the popularity she does is an indictment on the electorate.
#4
Capt. John Smith, key leader in the Virginia at Jamestown found 1607, was a former slave of Muslims. Wiki "Smith is reputed to have killed and beheaded three Turkish opponents in single combat duels, for which he was knighted by the Prince of Transylvania and given a horse and a coat of arms showing three Turks' heads. However, in 1602 he was wounded in a skirmish with the Tatars, captured and sold as a slave. As Smith describes it: "we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market"."
Of such has been the glorious part Islam has played in America!
#8
I used to think those who claimed Obama is a Muslim were nuts. Anymore, though, I think they were right all along.
If Barack Obama were a stealth Islamic agent on a mission to destroy-- or at least weaken-- America and soften it up for an eventual Muslim Brotherhood takeover and the replacement of our system of government and our Constitution with Islamic Law, how exactly would his behavior be any different from what we have seen these last 7 years? I can't see any difference.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/04/2016 9:15
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#9
Oh, come on, he lies all the time. Why stop now?
#10
how exactly would his behavior be any different from what we have seen these last 7 years?
We actually had that discussion three or four years ago. Epic thread, really - wish I could find it, because none of us could come up with a single thing Champ would be doing differently if his intent was to trash or destroy the US.
#18
"He was on the phone. He said 'Ma'am, ma'am, do you know which street this is?' " Hodge said. "He got me shook up, that's all I can say. It surprised me because I never seen the guy before."
But yeah, if by a series of Mercury/Gemini/Apollo voyages to discover how not to deal with dar islaam and its onerous culture, eventually discovering The New and The Rest of the World.
Look, when Europeans would rather trade with the Mongolian Golden Horde than dar islaam, its time to have a true look at yourselves.
[DAWN] Bangladesh summoned on Tuesday Pakistain's high commissioner to lodge a protest after a Bangladeshi official in Islamabad was detained for four hours, two Dhaka officials said, amid a worsening diplomatic row between the two countries.
Weeks of rising tension in the relationship were sparked in late November by the executions in Bangladesh of two opposition leaders convicted of crimes against humanity during the 1971 war.
At the time, Pakistain's foreign ministry had expressed "deep concern and anguish" at the executions, describing the trials of those involved in alleged atrocities during the conflict as "flawed".
The Pak high commissioner was summoned after the Bangladeshi official in Pakistain was detained for hours on Monday, hours after police in the Bangladeshi capital had detained an official of the Pakistain High Commission, citing his "suspicious movement".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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#1
'Tis more that that, as We're-Supposed-to-be-the-World's-First-Muslim-Nuclear-Superpower-NOT-Iran PAKISTAN = TURKEY = is a OWG Co-Superpower wannabe, + is itching to expand its sphere of influence.
[DAWN] In a bizarre move, the elementary and secondary education department has directed all schools that if the concerned watchman is unfit to handle a weapon then he should bring any of his relatives trained for that purpose.
All the district education officers have been communicated the decision taken at a meeting recently held in the secretariat of the department to review security situation.
A circular, issued to the director of elementary and secondary education and all DEOs of the province for immediate implementation, says that the matter of the school Chowkidar (watchman) should be discussed with the parent-teacher councils (PTCs).
The circular available with this scribe says that if the PTC agrees, the watchman will be provided with a shotgun and the DEO concerned should immediately take up the case with the local authorities for issuing a licence in this regard.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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[Ynet] DEA nabs terror network laundering millions on behalf of narco mobs in order to finance terrorism and operations in Leb and Syria.
The United States' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on Monday declared that an international enforcement operation had caught a Hezbollah network responsible for laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Latin American narco mobs and funding its operations in Syria and Leb with the profits.
According to CNN, four people were tossed in the calaboose Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! thanks to the operation, which involved seven countries, including La Belle France, Germany, Italia and Belgium.
CNN quoted a statement by DEA Acting Deputy Administrator Jack Riley saying that the targeted division provided "a revenue and weapons stream ... responsible for devastating terror attacks around the world." The network also reported that the investigation in the case began last February and that more arrests are expected.
The Hezbollah network apparently cooperated with South American narco mobs, which sent the terror group profits from cocaine deals in Europe and the US. Hezbollah retained some of the money, then laundered the rest and returned it to South and Latin America.
DEA front man Rusty Payne told CNN that purchasing and selling high-end used cars was the method for laundering the money, with the launderers occasionally hiding the cash inside the vehicles.
The alliance between Hezbollah and the cartels is partly the result of plummeting oil prices and decreased support for the group by Iran. Operatives' salaries have also dropped, causing a crisis in morale.
Hezbollah began laundering money for narco mobs in the 1980s via Lebanese immigrants in South America. Terrorism expert Matt Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told CNN that the group will soon be able to raise more funds through drug deals than by any other means.
The U.S. Treasury Department last week imposed sanctions against Noureddine and Hamdi Zaher El Dine, another alleged Hezbollah money launderer. Noureddine's Trade Point International also was placed under sanctions.
Among those tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in the raid were leaders of the Leb-based terror group's European arm, accused by Washington of laundering Hezbollah funds through a Lebanese front company.
The effort formed part of DEA's Project Cassandra, which targeted a global Hezbollah network responsible for the movement of large quantities of cocaine in the United States and Europe.
The drug network was established by Imad Mughniyah, the global operations chief of the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group, who died in a kaboom in Damascus on February 12, 2008, reportedly in a joint Mossad-CIA operation that required special approval from US president George W. Bush.
It is currently controlled by Abdallah Safieddine and another high-profile terror suspect, Adham Tabaja, according to the DEA.
Hebzollah is designated a terror group by the US, Israel and a number of Sunni Arab states. The EU recently declared the group's military wing a terror organization, but left its political arm off the blacklist, despite Israeli lobbying.
[Ynet] Terror group's military branch confirms deaths, vows to continue digging offensive tunnels.
A tunnel collapsed on Tuesday in the central-southern area of the Gazoo Strip, killing two members of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,'s military branch, an official statement from the group said on Wednesday.
The statement also promised that the group would continue digging attack tunnels.
Sources in Gazoo reported the collapse in the Nusayrat refugee camp to Ynet on Tuesday, but officials would initially neither confirm nor deny this. They did, however, affirm that a Paleostinian was killed "in an event in the center of the Strip". Announcement of a second death soon followed.
The dead men were identified as Ahmed A-Zahar and Fuad Abu Atiwwi. According to the reports, eight additional people were maimed in the incident.
A week ago the collapse of an additional tunnel was reported in the Tufach neighborhood in the north of Gazoo City. After a day of silence, Hamas officially admitted that the tunnel indeed collapsed and that people were missing. According to a statement by the military branch, contact was lost with the tunnel unit's squad as a result of the tunnel collapse caused by stormy weather. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... Hamas avoided publishing the number of missing persons on whom the tunnel collapse.
Earlier this week, IDF forces were using engineering equipment at the Gazoo border in order to detect tunnels. Concurrently, classified technological means for the detection of tunnels are being installed.
The IDF has been drilling and looking for Hamas tunnels for more than a year, each time at a different location on the border. Residents in settlements along the Gazoo border have become increasingly concerned about Hamas's tunnels .
The IDF sent a message to the settlements' representatives that the working assumption, as has been published, is that Hamas is digging attack tunnels and continues to prepare for the possibility of escalation. The military is thus using a process of elimination, checking areas in order to rule them out as possible tunnel locations.
Despite the recurring claims of residents in the Gazoo vicinity of suspicious noises heard from deep underground, so far no offensive tunnel has been discovered in Israeli territory since Operation Protective Edge. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... engineering teams review each complaint on its merits.
#1
I wonder how effective a Mine Clearing Line Charge (MICLIC) deployed and exploded along the Israeli side of the border would be in collapsing tunnels?
Next time a tunnel is found an experiment should be conducted....
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 13:49
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#2
More sea water!
"The Americans also tried to flood the tunnels, but did not succeed because there were water drainage holes in the tunnels. “Every twenty or thirty meters the tunnelers dug a water drainage hole to prevent flooding” (Mangold, 1985, 76)." The Cu Chi Tunnels
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 14:33
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Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/04/2016 15:03
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#4
Argon. Place gas permeable well pipes down to the water table in an underground fence around Gaza, and flood the pipes with Argon. Extend the system via horizontal pipes to the basements of all hospitals and mosques.
[ARA News] KOBANE – Dozens of militant fighters from the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group were killed in military operations by the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.
The YPG leadership said in a statement on Wednesday that 98 ISIS jihadis were killed in fierce attacks by the Kurdish units in the last two weeks.
“Our forces carried out 14 new military operations against Daesh strongholds in northern Syria and were engaged in 10 clashes on the border with Turkey over the past two weeks,” the Kurdish command center in Rojava said, using another acronym for ISIS.
“At least 98 terrorists were killed and several more were arrested by our (YPG) forces,” it said, adding that 20 Kurdish fighters lost their lives in clashes with ISIS militants.
The recent Kurdish military operations against ISIS took place in Syria’s northern provinces of Hasakah, Raqqa and Aleppo.
The YPG forces have reportedly seized a large deal of ammunition and weapons from ISIS militants during the recent clashes, including 44 Kalashnikov rifles and 40 hand grenades, beside dozens of mortar shells and explosive devices.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/04/2016
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[ARA News] QAMISHLI – An Iraqi airstrike near Ramadi has killed a number of militants of the Islamic State (ISIS), including head of the Sharia Court and other ISIS officials, local sources reported on Wednesday.
Muhammad Ghandour, aka Abu Dujana al-Masri, who served as Sharia chief in the ranks of ISIS, was reported dead in an airstrike that hit eastern Ramadi in Anbar province.
Al-Masri, an Egyptian jihadi who was known for his loyalty to al-Qaeda before joining ISIS, was named as the head of Sharia Court in northern Iraq by the group’s Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“He was killed along with other Sharia officials in an airstrike by the Iraqi army east of Ramadi,” an Iraqi officer told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Amer Hamid al-Assawi, another leading member of ISIS and commander of Ramadi operations, was also killed in the airstrike, according to the Iraqi official source.
This comes just a day after a U.S. strike hit a convoy for the Islamic State radical group in northwestern Iraq, and killed the Emir of the ISIS-controlled district of Tal Afar, Ammar Mustafa al-Zakiyah.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/04/2016
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[REUTERS] The National Football League's Rams left behind more than bitterness when the team ditched St. Louis for Los Angeles last month - it left a stadium saddled with about $144 million in debt and maintenance costs. When the Baltimore Colts left it was in the dead of night, after assuring the city they were staying. I don't know what the Saint Louis Browns did when they left to become the Baltimore Orioles. Probably about the same thing the Los Angeles Rams did when they moved to St. Louis.
Taxpayers will now shoulder the remaining payments for the Edward Jones Dome with only the help of revenue from tractor pulls, volleyball tournaments, concerts and the like. That's why we have taxpayers, isn't it?
St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed has asked the NFL to help pay off the stadium, but so far has gotten no response. This is known in trade circles as "the finger."
"The fans are being left holding the bag," Reed said. "I think they should factor that into the total cost of the move." "But... But... My season ticket!"
The leftover debt and maintenance costs are another example of the NFL's negotiating prowess with many cities, sports economists said, and also reflects larger problems with the deal St. Louis struck with the Rams. Tell it to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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#1
Instead of getting weepy, the St Louis folks should be getting busy. St Louis is somewhat of shithole - but nowhere near as awful as Detroit, or Baltimore. It might be hard to entice away a Superbowl contender (albeit from a murder record city), but how hard can it be to talk the Lions into relocating.
Or - even "'Dem Bears". Much as they may like Chicago (another murder award winner), the coming financial collapse of the city is sure to drive taxes through the roof.
#3
The citizens voted stadium construction down repeatedly. The democratic voter process was eventually overridden by local pols and taxes were levied for construction.
#4
Detroit and Saint Louis are the foundation of America. Live in St Louis, and traveling for work to Detroit next week. And we ain't makin' web pages or ipads for the ladies, rather radars, alloys, and armor.
#9
NFL owners seem to think they're all entitled to the kind of stadium that top tier teams like Dallas, New England and Denver have. The Chargers's owner wants one too. He wants the City of San Diego to build him one when the city can't even fill it's pot holes or fix it's rusting water mains before they break and create embarrassing sink holes. It's corporate welfare at it's worst. I like watching football on TV but I don't care if these guys have to find a high school that'll let them play on their field.
#12
There's always the Super Fan Self-Tax(tm) in which supporters can individually help finance a new stadium, sort of like Kickstart, but not on the backs of the rest of the community. Why haven't they done that? /rhet question
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A local source in Kirkuk Province announced on Wednesday, that the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) executed two people by firing squad while trying to escape from the areas controlled by ISIS in Hawija south-west of Kirkuk (250 km north of Baghdad).
The source said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “ISIS fighters arrested, before noon today, two people who tried to escape from Hawija to Hamrin Mountains in order to reach the secured areas by the security forces.”
The source added, “ISIS fighters took the two civilians to the center of Hawija and executed them by firing squad on charges of leaving the land of Jihad and Caliphate, in addition to cooperating with al-Hashed al-Shaabi and the security forces.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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[DAWN] Eighteen Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) Death Eaters 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's Sajna group were killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan's Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province on Monday night, security sources said.
Members of the TTP offshoot were holding a meeting in Paktika's Birmal area during which its leader Khan Said Sajna was expected to appear, sources said.
It is pertinent to mention that Sajna was reported killed in a drone strike last year, but the information had not been independently verified. The Mehsud tribal faction, which Sajna heads, had not denied claims of Sajna's death at the time.
Of the TTP men killed today, 14 belong to the Mehsud tribe and four to the Wazir tribe.
Claims relating to the strike and the deaths could not be independently verified.
Khan Said Sajna became TTP's deputy leader following the death of Wali-ur-Rehman in May 2013. He fought in Afghanistan and is believed to be involved in the attack on a Naval base in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Sajna is credited with criminal masterminding a 2012 jailbreak in which the Taliban freed 400 inmates from a prison in Bannu.
Khan Said Sajna leads the Mehsud faction, which split from TTP in May 2014 after former TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a United States (US) drone strike.
In a public statement following the split, he stated his continued commitment to terrorist activity. The US designated Sajna a global terrorist in Oct 2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2016
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#1
Wehell, AFAIK the US Govt. + Other are still saying we're still in the so-called "Zombie Apocalypse"???
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.
[REUTERS] A suspected U.S. drone strike overnight killed a top Islamist
Impoverished Yemen has suffered fierce fighting and humanitarian crisis since March, when a Saudi-led Gulf Arab coalition began near-daily air strikes to rout the Iran-backed Houthis and restore the central government.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the most expensive military program in the world, is even more broken than previously thought. The jet can't tell old parts from new ones, randomly prevents user logins into the logistics information system, and trying to eject out of it will likely result in serious neck injury and maybe death. A Pentagon office is warning that the plane is being rushed into service.
[KhaleejTimes] A Palestinian poet condemned to death in Saudi Arabia for apostasy has had his sentence reduced to prison time and lashes instead, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hillary Clinton
North Korea
[THEDAILYBEAST] Britain’s prime minister wanted to use the threat of a referendum on membership in the European Union to extract concessions. But what’s extracted may be the UK.
Wazoo
[DAWN] Eighteen Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) 
