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Freed Gitmo detainee, ex-bin Laden aide returns to former career
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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China-Japan-Koreas
Seoul's spy service says North Korea is preparing attacks
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently ordered preparations for launching "terror" attacks on South Koreans, a top Seoul official said Thursday, as worries about the North grow after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

In televised remarks, senior South Korean presidential official Kim Sung-woo said North Korea's spy agency has begun work to implement Kim Jong Un's order to "muster anti-South terror capabilities that can pose a direct threat to our lives and security."

He said the possibility of North Korean attacks "is increasing more than ever" and asked for quick passage of an anti-terror bill in parliament.

North Korea has a history of attacks on South Korea, such as the 2010 shelling on an island that killed four South Koreans and the 1987 bombing of a South Korean passenger plane that killed all 115 people on board. But it is impossible to independently confirm claims about any such attack preparations. The South Korean presidential official did not say where the latest information came from.

Earlier Thursday, Seoul's National Intelligence Service briefed ruling Saenuri Party members on a similar assessment on North Korea's attack preparations, according to one of the party officials who attended the private meeting.

During the briefing, the NIS, citing studies on past North Korean provocations and other unspecified assessments, said the attacks could target anti-Pyongyang activists, defectors and government officials in South Korea, the party official said requesting anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media publicly.

Attacks on subways, shopping malls and other public places could also happen, he said.

The official quoted the NIS as saying North Korea could launch poisoning attacks on the activists and defectors, or lure them to China where they would be kidnapped.

The Saenuri official refused to say whether the briefing discussed how the information was obtained. The NIS, which has a mixed record on predicting developments in North Korea, said it could not confirm its reported assessment.

The standoff with North Korea is not expected to ease soon, as Seoul and Washington are discussing deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system in South Korea that Pyongyang warns would be a source of regional tension.

The allies also say their annual springtime military drills will be the largest ever. South Korea's defense minister said Thursday that about 15,000 U.S. troops will take part, double of the number Washington normally sends.

The North says the drills are preparation for a northward invasion.

Seoul defense officials also said that they began preliminary talks on Feb. 7 with the United States on deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, the same day North Korea conducted what it said was a satellite launch but is condemned by Seoul and Washington as a banned test of missile technology.

The talks are aimed at working out details for formal missile deployment talks, such as who'll represent each side, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

The deployment is opposed by China and Russia too. Opponents say the system could help U.S. radar spot missiles in other countries.

The United States on Wednesday flew four stealth F-22 fighter jets over South Korea and reaffirmed it maintains an "ironclad commitment" to the defense of its Asian ally. Last month, it sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to South Korea following the North's fourth nuclear test.

Foreign analysts say the North's rocket launch and nuclear test put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 17:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As long a champ is still in office, it may be Kim's only shot.

Yes, optimist here.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/18/2016 21:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ben Carson Called Muslim Americans "Schizophrenic" for Loving Islam and American Values
One of their five impossible things to believe before breakfast, I suppose.
Misconceptions and blatant ignorance about Muslim Americans abound, and Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson doubled down on his own rhetoric Tuesday. He went so far as to call Muslim Americans "schizophrenic."

Breitbart News Daily host Stephen Bannon asked Carson on Tuesday if American Muslims' religious values were at odds with their nation's political values, Politico reported.

"Only if they're schizophrenic," Carson said. "I don't see how they can do it otherwise, because you have two different philosophies," he added, later referring to Islam as a religion Muslim Americans "bought into" and arguing that the Prophet Muhammad was "in no way comparable to Jesus Christ."

"As a Muslim it is offensive to be accused of schizophrenia," Saba Ahmed, president and founder of the Republican Muslim Coalition told ThinkProgress of Carson's remarks. "There are tens of thousands of Muslims in this country who love American values and their religion at the same time. I am one of them."

The damage of generally using a term for a medical illness, like "schizophrenia," in a derogatory way is well documented. As Arun Chopra, a British consultant psychiatrist and researcher, told the BBC in 2011, using medical terms this way is "tremendously damaging" and "part of the process of creating a stigma around mental illness. You would never hear it used in relation to a physical condition. You wouldn't hear someone being described as a bit diabetic."

It's not the first time Carson has made an ignorant comment about Muslim Americans. In October, he stated his opposition to the possibility of a Muslim American presidential candidate due to their "different loyalties," according to MSNBC -- a comment that built on his assertion a month prior that Islam is inconsistent with the Constitution, as the Guardian reported in September.

His stance is unfortunately not an anomaly in the United States at large. In 2015, a number of mosques were attacked in the United States and Islamophobic attitudes were evident on college campuses, city streets and beyond. A 2015 YouGov poll found that this stance is one held by the majority of Americans: 55% of those surveyed had a somewhat or very "unfavorable" opinion of Islam.

As a potential leader of the United States, Carson would seemingly do well to pledge his support for all Americans rather than bolster factually unfounded attitudes toward an already marginalized group.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 17:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Pentagon tells Russia where US commandos are based in Syria
I wonder if they communicated via some home-brew mail server.
The Pentagon has asked Russia to stay away from parts of northern Syria where US special operations forces are training local fighters to combat the Islamic State group, military officials said Thursday.

The acknowledgement Russia knows approximately where the highly covert US commandos are based is significant because the Pentagon has repeatedly stressed it is not cooperating with Moscow as the two powers lead separate air campaigns in war-ravaged Syria.

The Pentagon last year said it was sending about 50 special ops troops to work with anti-IS fighters in Syria, though officials have said next to nothing about their whereabouts or progress since, and have worked hard to ensure no information about the commandos' presence is released, citing security reasons.

Lieutenant General Charles Brown, who leads the US air forces in the Middle East, said US officials had asked Moscow to avoid "broad areas" in northern Syria "to maintain a level of safety for our forces that are on the ground."

He added that Moscow had itself asked the US-led coalition to avoid some of the airfields the Russian military is using.

"They don't want us flying close to (these,)" Brown said. "Typically, we don't fly there anyway. So, that hasn't been an issue."

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was aware of the unusual request.

He said the Pentagon only provided broad geographic descriptions of where the US troops are, not their precise location.

"There was an effort made to protect the safety of our people from the risk of Russian airstrikes. ... Those steps were taken, and those, so far, have been honored," Cook said.

The United States has since August 2014 led an international coalition against the IS group in Iraq and Syria.

Russia entered the Syria conflict in September, when it began bombing rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Russia says it is attacking the IS group and other "terrorists."

Though coalition and Russian planes generally operate in different parts of the country, military officials fret about the possibility of an unintended clash between the two sides.

The Pentagon has held a series of "deconfliction" talks with Russian counterparts to outline procedures in case of a mishap.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 17:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli soldier dead in West Bank Palestinian stabbing attack
A off-duty soldier was killed and another Israeli moderately wounded when two Palestinians stabbed them in a supermarket in the occupied West Bank on Thursday before being shot, officials said.

A 21-year-old victim was taken to Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek hospital in serious condition, where he was pronounced dead after extensive efforts to resuscitate him, a spokeswoman said.

He was later identified by the Israeli army as Tuvia Weissman, a soldier from Maale Mikhmas, a nearby settlement, who was off duty at the time of the attack.

A moderately wounded 36-year-old was being treated in hospital.

Medics said the two had sustained stab wounds to their torsos and that three women who witnessed the attack were being treated for shock.

"Two Palestinians entered the Rami Levi (supermarket) in Shaar Binyamin (industrial zone) and stabbed two Israeli civilians," a police statement said.

"The two terrorists were shot and neutralised by an armed civilian at the site."

A hospital spokeswoman said one of the assailants was in a moderate to serious condition and was being treated for gunshot wounds. The second assailant was in serious condition and being treated at Shaare Zedek.

Palestinian sources said the two assailants were both 14-year-olds.

The supermarket is located in an Israeli-controlled industrial zone near Ramallah frequented by settlers.

Since October 1, Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks have taken the lives of 27 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

At the same time, 172 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 17:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Obama Refuses to Hit ISIS's Libyan Capital
The terror group is gaining ground in Libya. But the Obama administration has said no to a Pentagon plan to go after ISIS there.

Despite the growing threat from the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Libya, the Obama administration has turned down a U.S. military plan for an assault on ISIS's regional hub there, three defense officials told The Daily Beast.

In recent weeks, the U.S. military--led by its Africa and Special Operations Commands--have pushed for more airstrikes and the deployment of elite troops, particularly in the city of Sirte. The hometown of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the city is now under ISIS control and serving as a regional epicenter for the terror group.

The airstrikes would target ISIS resources while a small band of Special Operations Forces would train Libyans to eventually be members of a national army, the officials said.

Weeks ago, defense officials told The New York Times that they were crafting military plans for such strikes, but needed more time to develop intelligence so that they could launch a sustained air campaign on ISIS in Sirte.

But those plans have since been put on the back burner.

"There is little to no appetite for that in this administration," one defense official explained.

Instead, the U.S. will continue to do occasional strikes that target high-value leaders, like the November drone strike that killed Abu Nabil al-Anbari, the then-leader of ISIS in Libya.

"There's nothing close to happening in terms of a major military operation. It will continue to be strikes like the kind we saw in November against Abu Nabil," a second defense official explained to The Daily Beast.

The division over what action the U.S. and the international community should take in Libya speaks to the uncertainty about when and where ISIS should be countered.

For Europe, Libya is uncomfortably close and already a jumping off point for migrants willing to take on the rough Mediterranean waters in search of asylum. ISIS pronouncements have previously pointed out that Rome is nearby.

For the United States, there are major concerns about allowing another ISIS hub to emerge in the region. The Libyan city of Sirte is under ISIS control and some believe the terror group seeks to turn Sirte into a center of operations, like Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

Leaders across Europe have hinted that more should be done in Libya but have fallen short on specifics. In an interview with Der Spiegel last month, the German envoy to Libya said: "We simply cannot give up on Libya."

According to U.S. military figures, there are roughly 5,000 ISIS fighters in Libya, a spike from 1,000 just a few months ago. Defense officials believe that ISIS supporters are moving toward Libya, having found it increasingly difficult to travel to Iraq and Syria.

Perhaps because of that, Sirte, and areas around it, are increasingly falling victim to ISIS's barbaric practices. And some are urging the international community not to wait until Sirte falls further under ISIS control, and filled with fighters mixed in with civilians.

According to this report, residents there cannot leave the city freely as ISIS fighters--many of them from Egypt, Chad, Niger, and Tunisia--inspect cars for signs of residents trying to escape. As in Raqqa and Mosul, residents do not have access to cellphone or Internet networks and live under an ISIS judicial system that issues death sentences to those who do not practice the terror group's brand of Islam.

Moreover, in nearby cities like Ras Lanouf, ISIS is destroying oil installations, cutting off a key potential source of revenue for any newly cobbled unified Libyan government. ISIS has set its sights across the country, from Misrata in the west to Derna in the east.

Some fear the terror group is hunkering down in places like Sirte in preparation for a potential U.S. offensive.

The administration had said that it would not intervene until Libya, which now is governed by two rival governments on opposite sides of the country, had created a single entity to govern the state.

At a press conference Tuesday, during this year's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, President Obama referred to United Nations efforts to help build a government in Libya, suggesting any military effort could create even more political fractures. On Sunday, a member of Libya's Presidential Council announced that a list of 13 ministers and five ministers of state had been sent to Libya's eastern parliament for approval.

But while the president said the U.S. would go after ISIS "anywhere it appeared," he stopped short of saying the U.S. would expand its effort in Libya unilaterally.

"We will continue to take actions where we've got a clear operation and a clear target in mind. And we are working with our other coalition partners to make sure that as we see opportunities to prevent ISIS from digging in, in Libya, we take them. At the same time, we're working diligently with the United Nations to try to get a government in place in Libya," the president said. "And that's been a problem."

Some military officials believe Obama feels that France and Italy, which both have hinted at intervention, should take the lead on any military effort. Both countries were key to the NATO-led campaign in 2011 that led to Gaddafi's fall. Still others believe the United States wants to limit its war against the Islamic State to Iraq and Syria.

Since Gaddafi's death in October 2011, the state has become especially susceptible to outside extremists. With no tradition of an independently strong state military, militias have served as security forces and now are unwilling to disarm.

With no stable government or security forces, parts of Libya have become vulnerable to groups like ISIS looking for territory to set up a self-described caliphate.

As many as 435,000 of the country's 6 million people are internally displaced, according a recent UN report. An estimated 1.9 million require some kind of humanitarian aid. And as of August, 250,000 migrants had entered, turning Libya into a key hub for those seeking to enter Europe.

Tuesday marked the five-year anniversary of Libya's Arab Spring. It's now considered a bittersweet day, rather than the beginning of a democratic movement the protests launched that day once promised.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 16:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Multiple sources raise serious questions about Hillary Clinton's physical health
Personally, I have been thinking her recent behaviors suggest a stroke, but maybe it's both that and Post-Concussion Syndrome. Bill at one point said that it took her six months of hard work to get "better". Hilla does not need to be our president. Too much is at stake to have another addle-brained president.
Several sources have raised serious questions about Hillary Clinton's fitness to serve at president of the United States based on her physical health. Some of these individuals are people who observed her in various settings that called her mental and physical status into question. Others are physicians who reviewed the 2012 ABC News report after Clinton's fall and subsequent concussion.

Non-medical observers

Breitbart News reports that John Cardillo, a former NYPD officer who provided VIP security details, knows two sources (a federal agent and an NYPD officer who worked a security detail) who observed Clinton's health-related behaviors over the past several years. Neither officer knows the other, yet their stories are almost identical. Observations include witnessing Clinton become pale, sweaty, disoriented, fatigued, dizzy, on the verge of fainting, and/or unable to walk to her car after giving a speech.

Republican strategist Roger Stone told Breitbart News he was also aware of Clinton's health problems and does not believe she has the physical stamina to be president, stating: "A number of New York Democrats, very prominent, well-known, wealthy New York Democrats, told me last year that Hillary had very significant health issues and that they were surprised that she was running in view of her health problems and her lack of stamina. So far, she's run a very controlled campaign." Stone also referenced Huma Abedin's comment in an email that Clinton is "often confused."

Medical opinions

Dr. Jane Orient, medical doctor, stated that "[c]oncussions can cause long-term damage including cognitive problems, even when standard studies including CT or MRI look normal. Not saying Mrs. Clinton has any of the above -- just speaking generally and hypothetically."

Daniel Kassicieh, D.O. (osteopath), neurologist, agreed with Orient about the possibility of Clinton suffering long-term cognitive symptoms. He has stated that concussions in older adults can be more serious, resulting in a condition known as post-concussion syndrome. Symptoms include persistent dizziness, complaints of memory difficulties, forgetfulness, loss of ability to focus on complex tasks or concepts, and indecisiveness. Risk factors for developing post-concussion syndrome include age (Clinton was 65 when this happened) and being female.

Kassicieh noted that he has treated many post-concussion syndrome patients and believes that Clinton is suffering from this based on reports he has read and observation of her behaviors, stating: "I think she has latent post-concussion syndrome, and I can understand that as a politician they would want to be covering that up." He further noted that as a neurologist, he would not want a president with this diagnosis, because "super high-level cognitive abilities are clearly impaired and even their routine multitasking high-stress abilities are affected because post-concussion syndrome patients in general don't tolerate even moderate work, stress-related environments." Kassicieh added that if Clinton is suffering from post-concussion syndrome, her symptoms could appear "well beyond a year" after her concussion.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, internal medicine physician, confirmed that symptoms could last more than a year after a head injury of the sort Clinton suffered and that symptoms are "not trivial" and are "very serious," particularly for individuals in their 60s.

Dr. Nicholas C. Bambakidis, neurosurgeon, appeared less concerned than others, stating that the type of blood clot Clinton had is often without cause and can be associated with any number of factors. If untreated, the clot can progress, cause brain bleeds and/or swelling that can result in a stroke, and can, in some cases, be fatal. However, Bambakidis confirmed that if treated in a timely fashion, there should be no longstanding issues with a person's health, and that this appears to be the case with Clinton.

Breitbart News compiled a list of questions and sent them to Clinton spokesman, Nick Merrill, including:

1) Does Secretary Clinton have difficulty with fatigue, dizziness and being disoriented? Does she have difficulty after speeches and during debates continuing for lengthy periods of time--or for instance walking back to her car after events?

2) Is she suffering from latent post concussion syndrome?

3) Is she being completely honest with the public about her health? Does she have a clean bill of health?

4) Is she able to conduct high level cognitive abilities on the same level she has been able to throughout her life? Is she able to conduct routine multitasking high stress abilities on the same level she has been able to throughout her life?

5) Does she have or did she have a transverse sinus thrombosis, or blood clot?

6) Is she capable of serving as President of the United States with these conditions and symptoms?

7) Has she done tests with a doctor on a treadmill? Has she gotten a doctor-supervised sleep study? Has she worked with a doctor on metabolic studies? Has she gotten cancer screenings?

8) Does she have a medical team attending to her? What are the details of that?

Merrill responded by telling Breitbart News that Clinton's doctors already answered those questions and the information is in her health statement. Clinton's doctor (since 2001), Lisa Bardack, wrote in a letter that she deemed Clinton fit to serve as president. Bardack confirms the following:

•Healthy 67-year-old female.
•Current medical conditions: hypothyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies.
•Prior health history: (1) 1998 and 2009: deep vein thrombosis, (2) 2009: elbow fracture, (3) 2012: concussion, (4) 2012: stomach virus causing dehydration, fainting, and a concussion, and (5) 2013: transverse sinus venous thrombosis; anti-coagulation therapy; concussion symptoms resolved within two months; follow-up tests showed complete resolution and total dissolution of the thrombosis; tested negative for all clotting disorders; put on daily anticoagulation as a precautionary measure.
•Family history: (1) father who lived into his 80s and died of a stroke, (2) mother who lived into her 90s and died of a heart attack, and (3) one brother with heart disease.

The doctor's letter noted various preventative tests and screenings that have all been negative and confirmed that Clinton's last physical in March of 2015 showed she was in excellent health. Her letter ended:

In summary, Mrs. Clinton is a healthy female with hypothyroidism and seasonal allergies, on long-term anticoagulation," Dr. Bardack wrote. "She participates in a healthy lifestyle and has had a full medical evaluation, which reveals no evidence of additional medical issues or cardiovascular disease. Her cancer screening evaluations are all negative. She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States.

In June of last year, Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, wouldn't commit to releasing Clinton's full health records. The letter from Clinton's personal physician was forwarded to Breitbart News after that Mook interview.

No health records. Just a letter. Lots of questions.

Sounds about right for Hillary Clinton.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 16:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  JFK was in pretty bad health his last 6 months in office.

FDR was in awful condition
Posted by: lord garth || 02/18/2016 16:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Breitbart may be a Trump organ anymore. Be wary and skeptical.
Posted by: Omomoth Thruth5561 || 02/18/2016 18:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Pro football players have a concussion protocol with various stages of evaluation. They're not allowed to play again until they pass the final stage. Perhaps Hilarity should be subject to the same protocol...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2016 18:56 Comments || Top||

#4  She has the level of focus of a six year old after 30 minutes on a merry-go-round.

Too much Adderall?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/18/2016 20:03 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Jihadist run over by ex-girlfriend - Caution, very graphic video
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 11:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice open field tackle. I hope the Patriots sign the bugger - LB Jerrod Mayo retired this week!
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Hah! Why was she pissed? Was he sleeping with another prettier ovine lady?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 13:19 Comments || Top||

#3  'Animals Gone Wild'
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 13:32 Comments || Top||

#4  'Animals Gone Wild'
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 13:34 Comments || Top||

#5  'Animals Gone Wild'
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 13:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Someone steered him wrong
Posted by: BigEd || 02/18/2016 16:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Looks like Mel Tillis invaded Skidmark's mmmmouse
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/18/2016 16:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
SF brouhaha erupts over letter complaining homeless "riff raff" were turning the city into an "unsafe" and filthy "shanty town."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 09:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Home Front' Culture Wars? A culture war alright, but unfortunately, no longer 'Home Front.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Any bets this precious snowflake voted 'D'?
Cause and Effect, Dickweed.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/18/2016 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny thing is, all he's doing is basically telling the truth. I take it nobody in SF is required to read the Emperor's new clothes anymore.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/18/2016 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, dear. The poor little leftist darling does not want to lie in the bed he made.

1. Elections have consequences, darling. Choose wisely next time

2. Virtue signaling comes with a price. If you don't like the price, don't do the virtue signaling.

3. Welcome to the outer darkness, newly minted thought criminal. You will have to do some remedial study to adapt & catch up with the rest of us thought criminals, but you will find the outer darkness has it's compensations.
Posted by: Nguard || 02/18/2016 10:57 Comments || Top||

#5  It is a town of universal deceit.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2016 11:36 Comments || Top||

#6  And one of the those leftie "sanctuary cities."
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 12:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Come on now, they have toilets.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 13:23 Comments || Top||

#8  SF is Bridgeport with seals.
Posted by: regular joe || 02/18/2016 19:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Freed Gitmo detainee, ex-bin Laden aide returns to former career
[FOX] A hardened Al Qaeda fighter who served as Usama bin Laden's jack-of-all-trades before spending a decade at Guantanamo Bay made a military prosecutor's prophecy come true when he resurfaced on the field of battle in Yemen, where he is one of the terror group's top leaders.

Ibrahim al-Qosi, a Sudanese native who once served as Usama bin Laden's cook, chauffeur and bookkeeper, appears in the latest video released this week by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), some three years after he was released from the U.S. military facility. The 55-year-old Al-Qosi is one of the Al Qaeda chapter's top men, according to the Foundation For Defense of Democracies' Long War Journal blog.

"One of the main reasons the United States was willing to return him to Sudan was the U.S. confidence in the government of Sudan's program and its confidence that Mr. al-Qosi would not represent any kind of threat to the United States," his attorney, Paul Reichler, said in July, 2012, when Al-Qosi was freed. "If they had considered him a threat, they would not have released him."
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 09:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No one could have anticipated this. No one, not even our "Top Men"!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  This was the low-level chauffer who was going to go back home and "tend" his goats?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 13:22 Comments || Top||

#3  "....the United States was willing to return him to Sudan was the U.S. confidence in the government of Sudan's program..."

and surely the government of Sudan is perfectly credible
Posted by: lord garth || 02/18/2016 16:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Aside from Fox, how much coverage does this or any of the other Democrat Administration fiasco's get in the Lame-Stream Media. Absolutely criminal journalism to cover for Champ and Lurch, Hilda, Holder, Jeh, Rice, ValJar, the IRS jackass, the HUD twit, and that lamentable duo in our much esteemed legislative branch, the Nancy-Harry.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/18/2016 17:42 Comments || Top||

#5  I fail to understand what that question has to do with Obama's basketball bracket.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/18/2016 19:45 Comments || Top||

#6  I hope that a low level official at least had the common sense to embed a tracking device in the b*stard.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 19:53 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Kenya army says it has killed Shebab intelligence chief
[AFP] Kenya's army said Thursday it had killed the intelligence chief of the Shebab insurgents and 10 other commanders in an air strike in Somalia.

The US government had placed a $5 million bounty on the head of spy chief Mahad Karate, with Kenya celebrating what they called a "major blow" to the Islamist force.

Kenyan troops, part of an African Union force in Somalia (AMISOM) fighting the Islamist insurgents, claimed to have killed Karate, a top commander also responsible for internal security, in an air strike at a Shebab training camp earlier this month.

"The killing... is a major blow to the terrorist group," the Kenyan army statement read.

Karate -- head of the Shebab's Amniyat unit, a special security wing responsible for intelligence, attacks and assassinations -- is said to have been involved in plotting the 2015 massacre of 148 people at Garissa university in north-east Kenya.

"The Kenya Defence Forces, under AMISOM operations, would like to confirm that Mahad Mohammed Karate... and 10 other middle level commanders were killed in a major KDF strike," in southern Somalia on February 8, the statement read.

The claims could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate reaction from the Shebab.

Additional: Islam Media Analysis
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 09:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like Karate got the chop.
Posted by: Grunter || 02/18/2016 10:55 Comments || Top||

#2  go to your room, Grunter
;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 11:17 Comments || Top||

#3  "This is Operation Hi Karate, and the go sign is "Sweep the leg"."
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/18/2016 20:09 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq sentences 40 to death over Islamic State's mass killing of captured soldiers
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 09:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  I am more than a bit surprised the Iraq gov't thinks trials are warranted in dealing with IS.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International denounced the trial leading to the death penalties, saying it was "fundamentally flawed" and had displayed "a reckless disregard for justice and human life".

Boo hoo hoo.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 10:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Did Amnesia International protest when ISIS slaughtered the Iraqi soldiers? No? Then STFU.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/18/2016 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  if AI is bitching, you are probably doing something morally appropriate
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 02/18/2016 22:46 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Feckless liberal farmers feed Central African refugees, hoping to be eaten last.
[New Observer] Two South African white liberals who opened their farm to hundreds of Central African invaders who had fled "xenophobic violence" in that country, have had to flee in fear for their lives after their adopted "refugees" took over their farm and physically drove them off.

According to a report in local media News24, the two leftists, Andrew and Rae Wartnaby, have been threatened with murder by the same people they had set out to help.

The drama began in July 2015 when the Wartnabys "opened their 20-hectare farm to 143 foreign nationals, including children," who were displaced during "xenophobic attacks" by South African blacks upon other black illegal immigrants from central Africa.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 09:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Andrew and Rae Wartnaby have a very bright future in American politics, should they decide to hire immigration lawyers and suffer the five to seven year struggle of legal immigration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 9:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Or they could come in thru mexico.
Posted by: Nguard || 02/18/2016 11:03 Comments || Top||

#3  The religions in Central African Republic. Catholic, Moslem, and Nativist. A Nativist killed and ate the leg of a Moslem who killed his brother. The Catholic Female President of the country told the Nativist that what he did wasn't nice, but the guy was not prosecuted. Saw the article in mid-2014
Posted by: BigEd || 02/18/2016 16:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Two South African 60 million German/Swedish/French/British white liberals who opened their farm conutries to hundreds millions of Central African Muslim invaders who had fled "xenophobic violence" in that country their shitholes, have had to flee in fear for their lives after their adopted "refugees" took over their farm cities and physically drove them off.
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 02/18/2016 23:47 Comments || Top||


University of Cape Town chaos caught in pictures
[IOL] Cape Town - Students from the Rhodes Must Fall movement went on the rampage at the University of Cape Town on Tuesday. The students, frustrated with the housing crisis and other challenges, set historic paintings and a plaque from the Smuts Hall residence alight at the foot of Jameson stairs.

The students also raided the dining hall at Fuller residence, and stripped the hall of its decor and paintings.

A Jammie Shuttle was set alight on Lower Campus, another was damaged in a stone-throwing incident and the office of the rector, Dr Max Price, was set alight. Eight students were arrested.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 08:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK, so Cecil was mean and evil and stuff. You're giving back his scholarship money, right?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/18/2016 9:24 Comments || Top||

#2  IMA still awaiting condemnation from Rhodes Scholarship winner Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 9:27 Comments || Top||

#3  ..right after the denunciation of that grand Klansman Bird from WV. Purity! Virtue! Send in the Red Guards!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2016 9:48 Comments || Top||


Europe
Bulgarian PM to Meet Afrikaner Farmers
h/t Gates of Vienna
The Prime Minister of Bulgaria will meet a delegation from one of South Africa's largest commercial farming unions in June this year with the aim of exploring opportunities for Afrikaner farmers in that country.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/18/2016 07:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Donald Trump: Since RNC '€˜In Default,' Pledge Now Voided, I '€˜Can Do What' I '€˜Have to Do' to Win
h/t Gates of Vienna
GOP presidential frontrunner Donald J. Trump tells reporters here that his pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee is now void because the Republican National Committee, along with local and state GOP factions, is stacking debate audiences with donor class officials.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/18/2016 07:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And so it begins. I thought he sounded like a Donk a few days ago, slamming Bush on WMDs. Now he's exposed the spoiled brat side - "I don't like the rules, so I'm going to play another game."
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2016 7:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't do it Donnie.....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/18/2016 7:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Sigh. Surprise meter please.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/18/2016 10:17 Comments || Top||

#4  *Tap tap tap* Hey, did anyone put fresh batteries in this surprise meter?

*presses self test button* It seems okay.
Posted by: Nguard || 02/18/2016 11:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Keeping his word was never a strong suit for this jackass.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/18/2016 11:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, he's right about stacking the audiences. If it makes no difference to the donors, then give the tickets to a truly representative audience. But they won't. Because it makes a difference.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 12:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Trump hasn't broken his word - he's "evolved". If you haven't noticed he does that alot.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/18/2016 13:01 Comments || Top||

#8  Yeah, what a fool. He thought the RNC would play fair.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/18/2016 13:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Goodbye Reagan blue collar democrats, hello socialism.

The Left believes in the fantasy that socialism is economically viable.
The Right believes in the fantasy that its still a constitutional republic.

Both lie to themselves that if they just get the right person in place, he/she can make it work. Too much power and money has been concentrated to scale back. Those holding it are not going to politely give it up. It's an oligarchy. Your real choice is Caesar, Pompey or Crassus.

The choice is between anti-American socialists or a boorish pro-American crony capitalist. I held my nose for liberals passing as in Bush I, Bush II, Romney, and the Trunks version of Hillary, McCain. If it comes to it, you can hold your nose too.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2016 13:59 Comments || Top||

#10  Not a dime's worth of difference between Hildebeest and Bush III. If it comes to that I'll vote third party in protest. It won't make any difference because Bush-Clinton turned California blue with illegal immigration so my vote is nullified anyway. Republicans are so stupid they gave the state with the most electoral votes to the Democrats. That's how they lost me. Screw 'em.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/18/2016 14:25 Comments || Top||

#11  That agreement was created by the GOP to buy time. The stupid GOP thought Trump would implode but instead eh has done better. So now Jeb and the establishment would rather back Hillary than Trump. Trump has no choice; the GOP cannot be trusted.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/18/2016 14:42 Comments || Top||

#12  It'll be fascinating to see his numbers if he breaks away. Somehow I think they'll go down big time but maybe the Republican label is keeping a lot of Union folks from joining up with Trump.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/18/2016 15:32 Comments || Top||

#13  It would be interesting to see him go independent, and to see Bloomberg run as an independent. We'd have a European style multi-party election for once.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/18/2016 15:32 Comments || Top||

#14  Maybe that's what we need because this Bush-Clinton business isn't working any more.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/18/2016 15:45 Comments || Top||

#15  Whaddaya mean "any more," #14 EU?

When did it ever work?
Posted by: Barbara || 02/18/2016 16:22 Comments || Top||

#16  The thing I like least about Trump that he's constantly whining about others not being "fair" to him... journalists, the GOP and what have you.

He should know best that life isn't fair, and that It's a lot easier to make a billion when you get started with daddy's millions. And if you can't handle Megan, how will you handle the Russians, the Chinese, the Saudis or Pudgy?

Being president is not about yourself, Donald.
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/18/2016 16:34 Comments || Top||

#17  So many misread him. Especially the media types.He has the people behind him. He was reaching out to the people who are usually left out. He will pull form all demographics. He is a master at controlling the media. The elites and those who think they are elites don't get it. They want to control who gets to play in this game.
"DONALD J TRUMP AWARDED AN HONORARY CAMELOT CASTLE KNIGHTHOOD IN ENGLAND.

Today Camelot Castle - England - Formally recognized Donald Trump's Humanitarian deeds and Services to Humanity and awarded him an Honorary, Hereditary Camelot Castle Knighthood - Henceforth at Camelot Castle Donald Trump shall be referred to as Sir Donald Trump of Camelot.

Today at the Round Table, Camelot Castle England, Donald Trump was awarded an hereditary, honorary Camelot Castle Knighthood and was made a of Knight of
The Round Table. This Historic and noble, very rarely granted honor, "The Excalibur Award" was awarded to Mr Trump along with the Arms and Colors of Camelot Castle for extending tremendous courage and noble intentions towards his country and to the world." Let the dogs bark this wagon train is moving on.
Posted by: Dale || 02/18/2016 17:53 Comments || Top||

#18  What did that post #17 mean? Can someone translate it to English?
Posted by: Galactic Coordinator Guelph7496 || 02/18/2016 18:00 Comments || Top||

#19  "Though Donald's not modeled on Ronald,
He needn't by you lot be coddled!
A new suit of armor
Encumbered the charmer
As from the Round Table he waddled."

No diss to Dale. I'm leaning Trump myself, barring better reasons than I've heard thus far to put the pin back in.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/18/2016 18:48 Comments || Top||

#20  Good as always ZF. Suit of armor indeed. I enjoy the Camelot idea. Only a person larger than life could assume such a title. Hillary, hardly, Sanders no way. We have a grand show to watch. The silent majority is silent no longer. Now he is a magnificent target from both sides. I hope he has good security.
Posted by: Dale || 02/18/2016 20:15 Comments || Top||

#21  I disagree - much as I dislike Bush III, he is still so much less odious than Clinton that one should hold one's nose and vote for him rather than third party or staying home. Have we learned nothing from 2008 & 2012?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/18/2016 20:32 Comments || Top||

#22  If Dale's post is giving GCG7496 brain hiccups, I can't wait until he encounters one of Joe M's belt-fed masterpieces with a fritter on top.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/18/2016 22:49 Comments || Top||


Hildebeest's unsecured email likely had info on Klingon Afghan source
[Legal Insurrection] BLUF: Based on the timing and other details, the email chain likely refers to either an October 2009 Times story that identified Afghan national Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half-brother of then-Afghan president Hamid Karzai, as a person who received "regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency" -- or an August 2010 Times story that identified Karzai aide Mohammed Zia Salehi as being on the CIA payroll. Ahmed Wali Karzai was murdered during a 2011 shoot-out, a killing later claimed by the Taliban.

Fox News was told the email chain included then-Secretary of State Clinton and then-special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and possibly others. The basic details of this email exchange were backed up to Fox News by a separate U.S. government source who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 03:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So Hilly's sloppy, self-indulgent practices got somebody wacked? At this point, what difference does it make?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2016 7:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Like she cares. Being unFOIAable was more important
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 8:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Starting to wonder if the rigors of campaigning might be killing her. Starting to wonder how I feel about that...
Posted by: Iblis || 02/18/2016 10:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Starting to wonder if the rigors of campaigning might be killing her. Starting to wonder how I feel about that...

How do I feel? Faster please!
Posted by: Spinesing Gray3122 || 02/18/2016 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Starting to wonder how I feel about that...

You forgot your sarc tag. ;-)
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 12:18 Comments || Top||


Watchdog: It's 'Hard To Believe' Top State Dept. Official Was Unaware Of Hillary's Email Server
[Daily Caller] The president of the conservative watchdog group Citizens United says it is "hard to believe" that Patrick Kennedy, the State Department's under secretary for management, was unaware that Hillary Clinton used a private email server during her stint as secretary of state.

Last week, The Daily Caller reported that the State Department claimed that Kennedy, a 42-year veteran of the agency, was unaware that Clinton was utilizing the private email server as part of her off-the-books email setup.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner also said that Kennedy told the House Select Committee on Benghazi during an interview earlier this month that he did not know about the server.
The stench and smoke of Birkenau were similarly ignored.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 03:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perjury comes to mind.
Posted by: Galactic Coordinator Guelph7496 || 02/18/2016 4:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Did he ever look her up in his Outlook Directory, cuz she wasn't there? So he had to add her private email addy manually. Lying f*cker
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 8:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Not in the US State .gov global, never was, never intended to be.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 8:57 Comments || Top||

#4  The mere face that he emailed Hillary means he knew, because a normal email address didn't exist. Every time he sent her an email, it had to go through the State Dept firewall.

In his defense, he probably didn't know Hillary had f**ked up the firewall on her own private network. Thus her emails had no security at all.

To remind all 'Burgers:
Hillary's email server can to the public's attention when an UNEMPLOYED Rumanian TAXIDRIVER hacked into Hillary's email server. The guy likes to hack as a HOBBY and found Hillary's server with no security whatsoever. It makes you wonder what professional hackers were able to do.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/18/2016 12:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Hilda was operating a shadow government outside of State? I'm shocked (sarc).
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 13:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, they can't even crack an iPhone.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 14:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Dunno whether to believe that iPhone business or not.
If we're supposed to believe the FBI doesn't know what's on there, maybe that's true.
If we're supposed to believe that none of the three-letter fiefdoms know, we wonders, aye we wonders.
Posted by: james || 02/18/2016 19:36 Comments || Top||

#8 
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 02/18/2016 20:31 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Turkey says wants secure strip on Syrian side of border, including Azaz
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
wants a secure strip of territory 10 km (6.2 miles) deep on the Syrian side of its border, including the town of Azaz, to prevent attempts to "change the demographic structure" of the area, Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said on Wednesday.

Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes have advanced towards the Turkish border in a major offensive in recent weeks. Kurdish militia fighters, regarded by Ankara as hostile murderous Moslems, have taken advantage of the violence to seize territory from Syrian rebels.

Turkey has accused the Kurdish militia of pursuing "demographic change" in northern Syria by forcibly displacing Turkmen and Arab communities. Ankara ultimately fears the creation of an independent Kurdish state occupying contiguous territories currently belonging to Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

"There is a game being played with the aim of changing the demographic structure. Turkey should not be part of this game," Akdogan said in an interview on the AHaber television station.

Rebel stronghold
"What we want is to create a secure strip, including Azaz, 10 km deep inside Syria and this zone should be free from festivities," he said.

Azaz is the last rebel stronghold before the border with Turkey north of the Syrian city of Aleppo, part of what was, before the Syrian government offensive, a supply route from Turkey to the rebels fighting Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
It has come under heavy assault in recent days, but Turkey has said it will not let the town fall into the hands of the Kurdish YPG militia.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Turkey wants more ethnic cleansing? Trying to finish the job? WTF.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  yeah, ask Israel or Egypt how well that's working.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 15:09 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Anbar Antics: 15 die
ISIS claims Iraqi helo shot down

(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – An Anbar police source disclosed on Wednesday that a pilot was killed and another injured by an ISIS attack on their helicopter south of Fallujah contrary to government claims that the helicopter crashed due to technical failures.

The source said in an interview with IraqiNews.com: “A helicopter belonging to the Iraqi Army crashed in the area of Albu Duaij in the Amiriya district south of Fallujah during a military operation by Iraqi Security Forces to cleanse a number of areas of ISIS positions.”

The source added that: “The helicopter crashed due to an ISIS attack, killing the pilot and injuring another,” noting that “the security forces evacuated the bodies of the two pilots.”

Noteworthy, joint forces are besieging ISIS positions in Fallujah and continuing efforts to liberate it from ISIS.

15 ISIS Bad Guys have a Very Bad Day

(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – On Wednesday the leader of Albu Nimir tribe, Naeem Kawood, announced the killing of 15 ISIS elements in a tactical operation west of Ramadi.

Kawood said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “A force from clan Albu Nimir, with support from an army force consisting of 3 Hummer vehicles, carried out a tactical operation against ISIS elements in the village of al-Amiriyah located east of al-Baghdadi (90 km west of Ramadi).”

Kawood added, “The force managed to kill 15 ISIS elements and destroy three platforms, in addition to inflicting big human and material losses upon the ISIS ranks.”

Iraqi militia rocket artillery destroys ISIS HQ

(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The Shia militia of Saraya al-Jihad announced on Wednesday the destruction of the ISIS headquarters in the area of al-Thurthar during a rocket shelling by the Saraya forces.

Saraya al-Jihad said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Our rockets force, based on intelligence information, destructed immune ISIS headquarters including the main headquarters southeast of Thurthar during a rockets shelling by Jihad-3 missiles.”

The statement added, “The shelling resulted in direct hit, while flames as well as smoke had been spotted rising from the headquarters.”
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


ISIS executes boy for having dirty pics on phone
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – An informed source in Nineveh Province announced on Tuesday, that the so-called ISIS beheaded a boy east of Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad) on charges of having obscene pictures and songs on his cell phone.

The source said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, ISIS slaughtered a boy named Ayham with a knife in Nabi Younis area east of Mosul, on charges of having obscene pictures and songs on his cell phone.”

The source, who asked anonymity, added, “The execution was carried out after arresting the boy 20 days ago in Nabi Yunis market,” noting that, “ISIS members delivered the child’s body to his family with his head separated from his body.”

The kid musta drawn a bad calendar because:

ISIS detains 141 for possession... of cell phones

(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – A local source in Nineveh Province announced on Wednesday, that the so-called ISIS had detained 141 of its members in the city of Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad) for possessing cell phones, while pointed out that ISIS prevented its fighters of using cell phones to lessen the possibilities of communicating with the security forces.

The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “ISIS arrested 141 of its fighters at checkpoints west, east and south of Mosul, for possessing cell phones.”

The source, who asked anonymity, added, “ISIS prevents its members of using cell phones, lest they will communicate with the security authorities.”
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe the Feebies should hire ISIS to open the Apple Phone that is so much in the news.....

Snark of the day.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/18/2016 7:40 Comments || Top||

#2  musta had his Pr0n showing on his lock screen lol
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 02/18/2016 22:51 Comments || Top||


Britain
Britain bans public-sector boycotts of Israeli suppliers
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Local authorities and public-sector organizations in Britannia are banned from boycotting Israeli suppliers under new government rules, and violators could face severe penalties, the British government said on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the new rules as a boost for his government's battle against a Paleostinian-led international boycott campaign. Paleostinians criticized the decision, saying it would reinforce Israel's occupation of territories they seek for an independent state.

The British Cabinet Office said that apart from where legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been imposed, procurement boycotts by public authorities were "inappropriate".

In a statement, it said such boycotts "undermine good community relations, poisoning and polarising debate, weakening integration and fueling anti-Semitism".

The new rules coincided with a visit to Israel by Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock during which, in a speech, he voiced opposition to "those calling for boycotts".

In welcoming remarks to Hancock and a British trade delegation to Israel, Netanyahu said: "I want to commend the British government for refusing to discriminate against Israel and Israelis and I commend you for standing up (for) the one and only true democracy in the Middle East."
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Africa Horn
Police probe 3 Shaboobs over Kenyan murders
Kenya’ security officers said Tuesday they were interrogating three Al-Shabaab suspects over last month’s attack in the coastal town of Lamu where two people were killed and houses torched. The suspects Jamaa Ahmed Mohamed Alias J, Mohammed Halil Hassan and Ahmed Hilobe Alie from Somalia, allegedly attacked Kaisari village in Pandanguo and killed the two locals before setting a blaze their houses.

Several people were also injured during the raid. The three were arrested within Mpeketoni area and transferred to Mombasa court under heavy security officers on Tuesday.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Alexander Muteti said the suspects were directly linked to the attack and will stand trial for murder. He requested the Mombasa Court to detain the three in a prison station until next week Thursday.

They were arraigned before Mombasa High Court judge Justice Dora Chepkwony who granted the prosecution time to detain the accused before they are officially charged. Chepkwony ordered the two to undergo a psychiatric assessment and be assigned lawyer before they can be allowed to stand trial.

It is in the same Kaisari Village where nine men were beheaded when Al-Shabaab militants staged an attack on July 16, 2014 just a day after over 60 other people were massacred by militants in Mpeketoni. Security has since been setup to deter attacks perpetrated by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Human Rights Watch says Taliban child soldier recruitment surges
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Human Rights Watch
... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge....
(HRW) says Taliban forces in Afghanistan have added scores of children to their ranks since mid-2015 in violation of the international prohibition on the use of child soldiers.

The rights group's research shows that the Taliban have been training and deploying children for various military operations, including the production and planting of improvised bombs (IED).

In a report released on Wednesday, HRW writes that in Kundoz province, the Taliban have increasingly used madrasas, or Islamic religious schools, to provide military training to children between the ages of 13 and 17, many of whom have been deployed in combat.

"The Taliban's apparent strategy to throw increasing numbers of children into battle is as cynical and cruel as it is unlawful," said Patricia Gossman, senior Afghanistan researcher. "Afghan children should be at school and at home with their parents, not exploited as cannon fodder for the Taliban insurgency."

Human Rights Watch interviewed relatives of 13 children recruited as Taliban soldiers over the past year, and verified these claims through interviews with civil society activists, political analysts, and the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
. Despite Taliban claims that they only enlist fighters who have achieved "mental and physical maturity," and do not use "boys with no beards" in military operations, some of the children recruited from madrasas in Kunduz, Takhar, and Badakhshan provinces are 13 or younger. The Taliban have previously denied"the use of children and adolescents in Jihadic Operations," but its deployment of individuals under the age of 18 violates international law applicable in Afghanistan and in cases involving children under 15 is a war crime.

Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS engineers destroy bridge near Kobane
KOBANE – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Wednesday bombed a key bridge over the Euphrates River in northern Syria.

The Qereh Qozak Bridge, which links Kobane with the northern countryside of Aleppo, was used by the group to move between southern Kobane and Jarablus city on border with Turkey, before the Kurdish units retook large areas in the vicinity of the bridge in late 2015.

“Daesh terrorists detonated explosives and bombed the bridge completely,” spokesman of the Kurdish forces of People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Kobane, Hebun Osman, told ARA News, using an acronym for ISIS.

“The terrorists have bombed the bridge to prevent the Kurdish fighters from using it against them in the battles,” the official said.

The Kurdish YPG fighters and allies of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have recently regained large territories from ISIS in the vicinity of Kobane in northern Syria after fierce clashes with ISIS.

In December 2015, Kurdish-Arab alliance of the SDF expelled ISIS militants from the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River, which has for long served as a supply line for the extremist group between its de facto capital of Raqqa and the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Engineering. Hah
Posted by: Whusotle Grinelet5340 || 02/18/2016 5:30 Comments || Top||

#2  try and live without it. Hah
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 7:24 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nigerian Army Launches Brutal Attacks On Boko Haram Camps
[EWN.CO.ZA] The Nigerian Army has continued its offensive operations claiming to have destroyed all of Boko Haram terrorists’ camps and enclaves around the dreaded Alagarno and Sambisa forests.

On Tuesday, troops of 81 Battalion and 251 Task Force Battalion patrol team, cleared Boko Haram camps located at Komala, Dole, Kumshi and Moadori around the fringes of Alagarno forest.

Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, Acting Director Army Public Relations, in a statement said troops killed two Boko Haram terrorists and captured two notorious terrorists binging down all of Boko Haram terrorist flags hoisted in the village.

Nigerian army destroy Boko Haram terrorists camps in Alagarno and Sambas forests. Picture: Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman/Nigerian army public relations

He claimed that the Nigerian troops also recovered two Toyota pickup vans, forty motorcycles, Improvised Explosives Making Devices (IEDs), stockpile of foodstuffs and fuel dump. The patrol team also recovered horses and donkeys used for transportation by the terrorists.

Colonel Usman indicated that both wounded civilians and military personnel are receiving treatment at the unit’s Regimental Aid Post.

This success was recorded as a result of the quick response to a distress call of an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on Kuda village along Butuku road, troops of 143 Battalion swung into action, unfortunately the terrorists fled after setting the village on fire that led to the death of an elderly woman.

The escaped insurgents regrouped and attempted to cross through Magar Bridge but they were pre-empted by elements of the Battalion who killed two terrorists and wounded several others.

Nigerian army destroy Boko Haram terrorists camps in Alagarno and Sambas forests. Picture: Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman/Nigerian army public relations

Sadly, three soldiers and four locals sustained injuries, while the troops recovered one Toyota Buffalo vehicle mounted with an Anti-Aircraft Gun with registration number 081375, one General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) with registration number 132042, a loaded G3 rifle magazine and 30 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO) ammunitions link.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Aid reaches residents of besieged Syrian towns - U.N.
[IN.REUTERS] Trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered five besieged areas of Syria scheduled for deliveries on Wednesday in a U.N.-backed deal to deliver help to thousands of trapped residents, the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
said.

The Syrian government approved access to seven besieged areas after crisis talks in Damascus on Tuesday, a week ahead of a planned resumption of peace negotiations between Syria's warring parties.

The U.N. estimates there are 486,700 people in around 15 besieged areas of Syria, and 4.6 million people in hard-to-reach areas. In some, starvation deaths and severe malnutrition have been reported.

One hundred truckloads of aid were given to about 100,000 people, the U.N. said, as convoys entered Madaya, Zabadani and Mouadamiya al-Sham near Damascus which have been under siege by government forces, and the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, which are surrounded by rebel fighters.

There have been several aid deliveries to Madaya and Zabadani and to al-Foua and Kefraya this year, but each has to be carefully synchronized between the warring sides so that convoys enter simultaneously.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


The Grand Turk
Ankara rocked by deadly car bomb explosion
At least 28 people have been killed and 61 more wounded in a large explosion targeting a military vehicle in heart of the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Gaziantep, said initial reports suggested a car bomb had caused the explosion on Wednesday night and the target had been Turkey’s military personnel, who were travelling in a separate vehicle. The death toll rose steadily on Wednesday night, with those wounded in the blast sent to hospitals across the city.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an urgent emergency meeting with top level security officials in Ankara.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but government officials said they were treating the incident as a “terrorist” attack.

Analysts and unnamed Turkish officials said the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) armed group would be among the leading suspects.
They usually are whether they did it or not. But we also might consider how a Rooshun-backed group might do this about now, and ensure that the PKK gets the blame...
The explosion was heard across the capital when it went off at about 6.15pm local time.

The attack happened at the height of evening rush hour, not far from Turkey’s parliament, government buildings and military headquarters. Witnesses shared images on social media showing a large plume of smoke rising into the sky and and local news footage showed a large fire burning at the site of the explosion.

“This is really in the heart of the Turkish capital – it is clearly a message to the Turkish government,” Khodr said. “This is the fourth major explosion in Turkey in the past few months.”

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said in a speech that the “blatant, treacherous attack” was well organised.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter the attack was an act of terrorism. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had been due to leave for a trip to Brussels later on Wednesday, cancelled the trip, an official in his office said.

Turkey has become a target for ISIL, with two bombings last year blamed on the armed group in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara. The latter killed more than 100 people.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  False flag. Excuse to invade Syria.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/18/2016 12:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Revenge for great-grandfather Mannix?
Posted by: Shipman || 02/18/2016 13:59 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
NDS detains Taliban commander 'dressed like a woman' in Paktika
Aretha Franklin, please pick up the white courtesy phone
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
(NDS) -- Afghanistan's intelligence agency has locked away
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
a Taliban capo who had dressed himself like a woman in Paktika
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
province.
It's those frilly underpants. They're so... Islamic.
A statement released by NDS on Wednesday identifies the terrorist as Khozar Ali son of Gul Sof.

According to the statement, Khozar Ali alias Chapai was arrested during a special operation in Barmal District. A Kalashnikov and four magazines were also confiscated from the possession of the terrorist.

When Taliban wear women's dresses, they try to track security forces in order to escape from the target areas.
The beard is a dead giveaway...
Statements released by NDS usually do not contain exact date of the achievements but they usually come after recent activities.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  The beard is a dead giveaway...

not necessarily, nor is the unibrow
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 13:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Was he escorted by a male relative? No? Might have been what gave him away.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 14:47 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
ABC programming head exits; successor is a network TV first
[BIGSTORY.AP.ORG] The head of the ABC Entertainment Group is departing amid low ratings, to be replaced by the first African-American to head a broadcast TV network.

ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee has decided to leave, the network announced Wednesday.

His successor is Channing Dungey, who has been ABC Entertainment Group's executive vice president for drama development, movies and miniseries, overseeing drama pilots and the launches of series.

Dungey shepherded ABC hits including "Scandal," ''How to Get Away with Murder" and "Quantico."

The changeover comes a year after Ben Sherwood became president of the Disney-ABC TV Group and after Lee's nearly six years as programming chief.

"Channing is a gifted leader and a proven magnet for top creative talent, with an impressive record" of helping to create compelling and popular series, Sherwood said in a statement.
"And she's the right color! But, really, we picked her because she's so talented!"
Dungey is both the first black network programming chief and a rare female executive. Change has come faster for women than minorities in the TV executive ranks, with Jennifer Salke serving as NBC's entertainment president and, at Fox Television Group, Dana Walden sharing chair and CEO duties with Gary Newman.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The head of the ABC Entertainment Group is departing amid low ratings, to be replaced by the first African-American to head a broadcast TV network.

Oh, yeah - I'm expecting a rebound in ratings any week now.
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Interestingly, I've never seen any of those shows. I watch 'Agents of SHIELD' and my wife watches 'Once Upon A Time'. And we watch them on Hulu, not cable.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/18/2016 5:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Any other 'demographic' / 'special group' that this appointment satisfies that is not mentioned?
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/18/2016 10:06 Comments || Top||

#4  We may not have seen this exact movie, but we do know the modern Hollywood Magical Negro trope.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/18/2016 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Dungey shepherded ABC hits including "Scandal," ''How to Get Away with Murder" and "Quantico."

All with 'strong' female leads marginalizing male protagonists. Got a take on a 'Buffy' storyline for them.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 14:03 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Kurd, Arab troops take 2 villages in Hasakah
HASAKAH – Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Wednesday drove militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) from two villages in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province.

The Kurdish-Arab SDF alliance has expelled ISIS militant fighters from the villages of Mashtal an Mishwar near the al-Hawl town on the Syria-Iraq border.

“Subsequent to fierce clashes, our forces were able to liberate Mashtal and Mishwar from Daesh terrorists,” a spokesman for the SDF told ARA News in Hasakah, using an acronym for ISIS.

At least 14 ISIS militants were killed and a dozen more wounded under heavy bombardment by the SDF troops.

“The terror group was forced to withdraw from both villages under heavy blows by our forces,” the official said, adding that Wednesday’s gains would help the SDF to continue its anti-ISIS progress in Hasakah.

In the meantime, the U.S.-led coalition conducted three airstrikes on ISIS fighting positions in southern al-Hawl, which reportedly facilitated the SDF progress on the ground.

The SDF, which includes Kurdish, Arab and Christian units, had earlier liberated more than 240 towns and villages from ISIS militants on the border with Iraq, including the key town of al-Hawl which has been for long used by the jihadis as a supply route between Syria and Iraq.

The alliance is currently preparing for an extended military operation against the radical group in the city of Shaddadi –the main bastion for ISIS militants in Hasakah province.

The SDF units have recently launched a new military campaign in northern Raqqa and Aleppo, and recaptured large territories from ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked groups.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Tawergha woman killed by militiamen in Tripoli camp
It has been disclosed that a Tawerghan woman was shot dead by gunmen when tbey broke into the Tawerghan refugee camp in Tripoli’s Falah district on Monday night and started firing.

In response, the Tawergh local council has said it holds the Libya authorities as well as the international community responsible for her death as well as for all the other human rights violations suffered by the displaced Tawerghans.

Naming the victim as Halima Abubakr Faghi, a mother of three and whose husband is allegedly currently held prisoner in Misrata, the council said it did not know if she was deliberately targeted or caught in the firing when the militiamen stormed the camp.

The council is largely based in the the squalid Falah camp, one of the main accommodation centres for the displaced Tawerghans. Over the past four years, it has been subject to numerous attacks, almost always by Misratan forces, in which several Tawerghans have either been killed or seized and taken away.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran interested in cooperation with Japan to build small N. power plants
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi announced Tehran's willingness to cooperate with Japan in building small nuclear power plants.
Goodie. Let's get one of the most technologically advanced nations to help Iran to build the bomb...
Salehi made the remarks in a meeting with Special Advisor to Japanese Prime Minister Katsuyuki Kawai in Tehran on Tuesday afternoon, Fars News Agency reported on Feb.17.

During the talks, Salehi called for the development of cooperation in scientific and technological fields, adding that Tehran is also interested in cooperation with Tokyo in areas related to nuclear safety, building 100-MW nuclear power plants, and other peaceful uses of nuclear technology.

Kawai, for his part, underlined the need for the expansion of bilateral ties, and said, "Good proposals were raised during the meeting which will be precisely studied by the Japanese government."
Translation: not so fast, buster...
This is while Iranian and Japanese Foreign Ministers Mohammad Javad Zarif and Fumio Kishida in a meeting in Tehran in October had similarly underlined the two countries' resolve to boost cooperation in different arenas, specially in nuclear technology. Salehi visited Tokyo in November 2015 to hold talks with the Japanese officials about expansion of nuclear cooperation, specially safety standards.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now that oil prices are down Japan is a little less interested.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 13:39 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Suicide bomber kills at least 10 recruits at Yemeni army camp
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A jacket wallah killed at least 10 recruits at a Yemeni army camp run by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, medical sources and an official said.

They said several other recruits were also maimed in the kaboom at the gate of Abbas camp in Buraiqa, a district of the city of Aden, which had been recently set up to absorb new conscripts to an a new army being set up by Hadi's government.

No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, the latest in a series of bombings that had rattled the city since Saudi-backed forces captured Yemen's second largest city from the Iran-allied Houthis in July last year.

Hundreds of new recruits were at the gate trying to register their names to join the Yemeni army, they said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Caribbean-Latin America
Pope Francis warns that 'God will hold accountable the enslavers of our day'
[LATIMES]
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Like the Leftists, the moslems, the one wor4ld frauds, the democrat party, and self righteous leftist Pontiffs that do not study the Bible.

Confusing slavery with economic refugees, corruption of language, and not knowing your Wheelhouse is an absolute embarrassment.

You are awful.
Posted by: newc || 02/18/2016 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Pope Gramsci I - does yoking private sector producers to the apparatus of state count as slavery in your world?

Because it does in the real world.
Posted by: no mo uro || 02/18/2016 5:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Marxism is a modern form of state slavery.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2016 6:07 Comments || Top||

#4  The protocol, even for Murder was this:

You must ask to cross a border first. Then, if you make it to a new village, you must ask the town Elder (Chief) if it is permissible for you to stay there. "Take me to your leader"

That is just Genesis.

If this idiot Pope cannot get the beginning right, the end will be hell In Deed.

So screw this. You know more than him about THE WORD
Posted by: newc || 02/18/2016 6:27 Comments || Top||

#5  In the parable of the Talents, when the guy given one talent failed to do anything with it, Jesus didn't have the master take from the guy who had 10 to give it to the loser. Instead, he took the one away from him and gave it to the one who had 10. (Matthew 25:24-29).

Ever heard the phrase (usually said complainingly) "him who has, gets"? It's biblical, and Jesus supported it (Matthew 25:29).

I believe the fault of concentrating on the one fact that seems to support one's cause, while ignoring the 9 that contradict you, is a congenital syndrome that afflicts Leftists. One would think that, given a mind laced with so many self-inflicted holes, that they would be easy to defeat. I was quite puzzled by their success until Ted Cruz' speech about how tbeir ineptness was aided and abetted by Republican leadership.

Then it all made sense...
Posted by: ptah || 02/18/2016 12:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Check out your Dictatorship of the Proletariat when discussing 'slavery'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2016 20:55 Comments || Top||

#7  What's the antipope's view of Heaven not allowing in unrepentant sinners?

Is God unChristian?

Asking for a friend.
Posted by: charger || 02/18/2016 23:59 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Teen accused of impersonating doctor, stealing from patient
[BIGSTORY.AP.ORG] Malachi Love-Robinson had all the trappings of a medical practice — an office, a lab coat and stethoscope.
If I buy a lab coat I can practice medicine, too.
What he didn't have, authorities say, was a medical license — few 18 year olds do. Now the Florida teen is charged with practicing medicine without a license and theft after he allegedly performed an exam on an undercover agent and took almost $3,500 from an 86-year-old woman seeking treatment for stomach pain. He's also accused of stealing three checks from her that he cashed for almost $2,800.
One check should be enough to have him jugged, but it's not anymore.
Love-Robinson was released on $21,000 bail on Wednesday, one day after his arrest.
Why the peanuts bail?
"Those are just allegations," he told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview.
That's kinda step two in any criminal prosecution.
Love-Robinson called a Wednesday night news conference and arrived a half hour late. He would only say that his attorneys are working to resolve the charges and that he hopes the community will pray for him. He declined to answer any questions.
He's praying he's suddenly gonna age ten or fifteen years and grow a degree in medicine.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No word on any investigations regarding Obamacare stealing from patients
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/18/2016 7:47 Comments || Top||

#2  check his "Lawyers" for actual admission to the Bar
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Or Trappist Monk
Posted by: Shipman || 02/18/2016 14:27 Comments || Top||

#4  What surgeon shall root out the nidus
Where festers acute hyphenitis
That leaves the community
Lacking immunity
Crushed under youthful detritus?
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/18/2016 18:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Question should be 'Did his patients benefit from his care at least as much as from their other/previous doctors?'
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/18/2016 20:24 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuela hikes gas prices for first time in nearly 17 years
[BIGSTORY.AP.ORG] Venezuela's government is raising gasoline prices sixtyfold -- the first increase of any kind in more than 17 years as the country struggles with an economic collapse. Yet drivers will still be able to fill their tanks for pennies.

President Nicolas Maduro announced Wednesday that he was increasing the price of gas as part of a series of measures designed to help with the falling price of oil, which makes up 95 percent of Venezuela's export earnings.

He raised the price of 95-octane gasoline from .097 bolivars a liter to 6 bolivars per liter, and 91-octane gasoline from 0.07 bolivars to 1 bolivar per liter.

The hike may have symbolic importance, but gas still remains virtually free in Venezuela. Calculated at the widely used black market currency exchange rate, the price per gallon will be a few U.S. cents. In contrast, a beer costs around 300 bolivars while a basket of strawberries costs about 800 bolivars.

Maduro said the increased gasoline revenue will go to finance the government's social programs.

The socialist president had been talking about hiking gas prices for more than a year. It's a touchy issue in Venezuela, where memories are still vivid from 1989 riots in Caracas that erupted after the proposal of a series of austerity measures including a hike in gas prices.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  No food, growing unrest, global drop in gas prices...

I've got it - let's increase the price of gas!
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Aren't they afraid of how this will impact inflation?~
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm impressed they still have gas to increase the price of.

Hey, if you're looking for a steel mill, I know some Pakistani dudes who'll sell you one real cheap.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/18/2016 9:39 Comments || Top||

#4  SS, during one their frequent refinery outages the actually imported finished gasoline from The Empire at market price and then gave it away.

A form of Deadweight loss.
Conversely, deadweight loss can also come from consumers buying a product even if it costs more than it benefits them. To describe this, let's use the same nail market, but instead it will be perfectly competitive, with the government giving a 3 cent subsidy to every nail produced. This 3 cent subsidy will push the market price of each nail down to 7 cents. Some consumers then buy nails even though the benefit to them is less than the real cost of 10 cents. This unneeded expense then creates the deadweight loss: resources are not being used efficiently.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/18/2016 14:38 Comments || Top||

#5  ^Wiki
Posted by: Shipman || 02/18/2016 14:39 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Panel denies parole to Sirhan, assassin of Robert F. Kennedy
[BIGSTORY.AP.ORG] Sirhan Sirhan was denied parole Wednesday for fatally shooting Robert F. Kennedy after a confidante of the slain senator who was shot in the head forgave him and repeatedly apologized for not doing more to win his release.

Paul Schrade's voice cracked with emotion during an hour of testimony on his efforts to untangle mysteries about the events of June 5, 1968. The 91-year-old former labor leader said he believed Sirhan shot him but that a second unidentified shooter felled Kennedy.

"I should have been here long ago and that's why I feel guilty for not being here to help you and to help me," Schrade said.

The men faced each other for the first time since Schrade testified at Sirhan's 1969 trial. Schrade apologized for not going to any of Sirhan's 14 previous parole hearings.

As Sirhan left, Schrade shouted, "Sirhan, I'm so sorry this is happening to you. It's my fault."

Sirhan, who had nodded politely when the victim addressed him, tried to shake hands with Schrade but a guard blocked him.

Commissioners concluded after more than three hours of intense testimony at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Center that Sirhan did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As Sirhan left, Schrade shouted, "Sirhan, I'm so sorry this is happening to you. It's my fault."

No, you symp fool. It was Sirhan's fault
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Sirhan, a native of Jerusalem,...

And by 'native of Jerusalem', we mean Palestinian.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/18/2016 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Lone wolf?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/18/2016 11:55 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Hadi reveals evidence of Hezbollah's involvement in Yemen
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi has revealed that the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, sent him a letter explaining Hezbollah's role in the fighting in Yemen.

Speaking at a presser in Ankara on Tuesday, following a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
, Hadi said Nasrallah wrote to him stating "Our fighters arrived in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
to teach the Yemeni people the essence of governing."
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Caribbean-Latin America
Panama detains Lebanese over laundering and trafficking for Hezbollah
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The search for suspects affiliated to fund raising activities for Hezbollah around the world, is ongoing, thus effecting U.S. resolutions, which were issued recently by the Congress. Most recently, and following the Congress resolution, a suspect was arrested for involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering operations for Hezbollah in Latin America.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


India-Pakistan
Two policemen shot dead in Lahore
[DAWN] Two coppers manning a picket in the placid provincial capital's Iqbal Town area were bumped off by three unidentified motorcyclists on Wednesday evening.

Both the slain coppers, Constables Muhammad Asif and Mubashir, were deployed from police lines to perform duty at a security check post in Chanab Pulli area, said a senior police official.

The coppers signalled three motorcyclists to stop but they shot up them. Both the officials suffered critical injuries and were rushed to Jinnah Hospital where the doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.

Iqbal Town Division Superintendent of Police (SP) Operations Dr Muhammad Iqbal told Dawn that police have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to nab the attackers.

He said the attackers fled towards Moon Market area after shooting the coppers.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Convicted terrorists shifted to Adiala
[DAWN] RAWALPINDI: Three convicts linked to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) were transferred to Adiala Jail after they were convicted under the Army Act on Tuesday, security sources said.

The sources said the prisoners, identified as Shawala Khan from Mohmand Agency
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
and Mohammad Zeeshan and Nasir Khan from Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
were tried by a military court and then shifted to Adiala Jail.

All three convicts were said to be involved in terrorism-related cases, and were put in separate barracks of the jail amid tight security.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


'Use of tobacco not permitted in Islam'
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The use of tobacco is not allowed in Islam and the federal government is taking steps to control its use, including legislation and will be making efforts to control the increase in tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

This was said by Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Mohammad Yousuf at a workshop arranged by The Network for Consumer Protection on Tuesday. He said people should stop smoking and that the media should play an active role in making that happen.

Executive Coordinator of The Network, Nadeem Iqbal, said since the devolution of powers to the provinces, a controversy had risen about whether health was in the jurisdiction of the provinces or of the federal government.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Mass rioting in 10...9...8...7...
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/18/2016 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Let the executions begin.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 0:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Big deal. Our U.S. Progressive Religion decided long ago that tobacco was not permitted.

Tobacco is a dirty weed.
I like it.
It satisfies no normal need.
I like it.
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean,
It's the worst dang stuff I've ever seen.
I like it.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2016 7:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Tobacco is not permitted but child buggery is?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 12:56 Comments || Top||

#5  in several moslem countries there is a decree along this line (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia)
Posted by: lord garth || 02/18/2016 19:17 Comments || Top||


Cop's killer, three accomplices killed in Tank 'encounter'
[DAWN] TANK: Police claimed on Tuesday to have killed a cop's killer along with his three accomplices in an encounter at Gara Pather village here on Tuesday.

District police officer Rasool Shah told media persons that Shahid Ullah had killed Constable Tariq Kundi during checking at Latif checkpost here, and had managed to escape.

Mr Shah said police encircled a house in the area following reports that Shahid Ullah along with his accomplices was hiding there. However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
the outlaws hiding there opened fire on the personnel and lobbed hand grenades at them.

The police officer said during the ensuing exchange of fire Shahid Ullah, his three accomplices identified as Omar Ali, Zohaib Hassan and Asmat Ullah were killed. Weapons were also recovered from the house, he added. After the postmortem at the district headquarters hospital, Tank, the bodies were handed over to their relatives.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
S. Korean president says it's time to get tough with North
[DAWN] South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Tuesday signalled a tough new approach to derailing North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, promising an uncompromising and more assertive response to Pyongyang's provocations.

In a strongly-worded televised speech to the National Assembly, Ms Park warned that South Koreans had over the years become "numb" to the threat from their northern neighbour, and said it was time to take a more courageous stand.

North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test last month and followed that up on February 7 with a long-range rocket launch that was widely condemned as a ballistic missile test banned under UN resolutions.

Arguing that efforts to foster cooperation with the North had led nowhere, Ms Park said it was time to prioritise the stick over the carrot in bringing Pyongyang into line.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  What's she gonna do, invade?
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 0:19 Comments || Top||

#2  They've been trying to make nice at Kaesong so the Norks would have some spendingmoney. They could shut down that stupidity permanently.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 0:22 Comments || Top||

#3  It strongly appears the "Status Quo" in NE Asia + on the Korean Peninsula is DE FACTO GOING TO BE UNILATERALLY FORCIBLY CHANGED, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER + THE VERY NEAR TERM, N-O-T TOWARDS YEAR 2050.

* FYI YONHAP NEWS > CHINA URGES SOUTH KOREA, US TO "WITHDRAW" FROM THAAD PLAN, as the latter poses a threat or danger to CHINA'S NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS IN THE KOREAS + NE ASIA.

* SAME > NORTH KOREA COULD CONDUCT FIFTH NUCLEAR TEST WID LITTLE OR NO WARNING: 38 NORTH [Website].

* SAME > NORTH KOREA PREPARES FOR TERROR ACTIVITY AGZ SOUTH KOREA: INTELLIGENCE UNIT [ROK National Intelligence Service].

RELATED TOPIX > US PENTAGON: NORTH KOREAN SPECIAL FORCES ARE "HIGHLY TRAINED".

* SAME > EXPERTS: NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR TEST MAY TRIGGER VOLCANIC ACTVITY [Mt. Baeku].

Thats ridiculous - any Man-Made Volcanism will be REGIONAL = RING OF FIRE, NOT JUST LOCAL.

SILLY KIMCHEE.

NORTH KOREA/TWO KOREAS = GUAM + PEARL HARBOR 1941 USN BB US "OKLAHOMA" = OVER-FRACKED US STATE OF OKLAHOMA = "WILL SINK-N-CAPSIZE"???

* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > US WARNS NORTH KOREA ON PLUTONIUM BOMB PRODUCTION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 1:43 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Jesus does not want you to be hit men, pope tells Mexican youth
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saying Jesus would never ask them to be “hit men”, Pope Francis begged young people in Mexico’s gang-infested heartland on Tuesday to shun the lure of easy money and big cars offered by drug traffickers.

Gang wars over the methamphetamine trade have torn the western state of Michoacan apart. Widespread kidnapping and extortion by gangs have sparked an uprising by vigilante groups.

“It is a lie to believe that the only way to live, or to be young, is to entrust oneself to drug dealers or others who do nothing but sow destruction and death,” he told young people at a stadium rally in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan.

“Jesus would never ask us to be hit men,” the pope said. “He would never send us out to death.”
Mom wouldn't want them to, either. So why do they do it?
The money's good and the wimmin love them...
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  D *** NG, I KNEW IT!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 1:27 Comments || Top||

#2  When Pope Gramsci I sends the message that covetousness is a virtue, not a vice - which he frequently does - he also sends the message that anything done in the name of envy is OK.

That's why they want to be hit men, father. If you spent more time trying to save the souls of your flock and less trying to be a leftist SJW, maybe these boys would understand that the impulse to make lots of money to be "equal" by any means necessary is wrong in the first place.
Posted by: no mo uro || 02/18/2016 5:46 Comments || Top||

#3  While that is true, in the realm of what Yeshua would do, chasing your ass with a whip is very much in the realm of possibility.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/18/2016 10:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Probably about as useful as Clinton's "midnight basketball" as a crime prevention tool.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 12:53 Comments || Top||

#5  At least he got one thing right.
Posted by: newc || 02/18/2016 17:30 Comments || Top||

#6  In denial about the fact protestant and jewish societies are generally more civil and better run than catholic ones.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/18/2016 18:53 Comments || Top||

#7  There are a lot of 'Jesus' in Mexico. I suspect some would indeed want you to be a hit man.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2016 20:54 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Baghdad Bomb and Bullet Bulletin: 3 die
2 die in bomb attack

(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Wednesday, that nine people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast southwest of Baghdad.

The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded, this morning, near the shops in Bayaa District southwest of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding seven others.”

The source, who requested anonymity, added, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead bodies to the forensic medicine department, while cordoned off the area of the incident and barred approaching it.”

Unidentified gunmen kill civilian in eastern Baghdad

(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A police source announced on Wednesday, that a civilian was killed in an armed attack in eastern Baghdad.

The source stated in a brief statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “Today, unidentified gunmen shot a civilian in New Baghdad area in eastern Baghdad, killing him immediately.”

The source added, on condition of anonymity, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the dead body to the forensic medicine department, while opened an investigation into the incident.”
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Land of the Free
Apple encryption case risks influencing Russia and China, privacy experts say
[Guardian] Analysts and lawmakers warn FBI that ramifications over its demand that Apple unlock San Bernardino killer's iPhone 'could snowball around the world.' Authoritarian governments including Russia and China will demand greater access to mobile data should Apple lose a watershed encryption case brought by the FBI, leading technology analysts, privacy experts and legislators have warned.
Who owns the 'different' iOS with back-door after it's been created? Apple? The FBI? Is the FBI required to erase all their copies after use? How do we verify that?

What if other law enforcement agencies want it? The NSA?

What if Apple starts getting "requests" from law enforcement that aren't backed up with a judicial order?

Mr. Cook is exactly right. We can fight terrorism and crime without compromising our civil liberties. Few of us trust a government that unleashes Lois Lerner and Eric Holder on the population, and then covers up for them.

And as this piece correctly notes, whatever the U.S. government gets, the Russians and Chinese (and Indians, and Japanese, and French, and Germans, and Pakistanis) will get as well. That is what keeps Mr. Cook awake at night.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Authoritarian governments including Russia and China will demand greater access to mobile data should Apple lose a watershed encryption case...

Sounds like complete horseshit to me. Russia and China wouldn't want to crack phones otherwise?
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Best explanation of FBI request at this link
Posted by: 3dc || 02/18/2016 1:00 Comments || Top||

#3  The fourth amendment allows the government to compel you to give up something that exists. I am unaware of a precedent where it compels you to create something new.

Make a copy of the sim card. Every 10 password tries, restore, repeat until you guess right.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 9:15 Comments || Top||

#4  To be clear, make ASF (figure it out) number of copies and try them in parallel.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 9:22 Comments || Top||

#5  ZDnet had this to say:
In short, if Apple enables even a single-use back door, the existence of such a thing will undoubtedly be used against us. Even a special-case one-off crack like the one the FBI has requested certainly will could break lose and compromise security.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 9:29 Comments || Top||

#6 
I am unaware of a precedent where it compels you to create something new.

Apparently there is an old law supporting the gov's demand.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 9:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Great. So the government can dig out an old law and force you to sleep with Hillary in order to find out more about those emails?
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/18/2016 11:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Apple can always state, "We tried but it is not possible".

Ball in your court. (Ok, ok; I am off to my room.)
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 11:56 Comments || Top||

#9  That is a most unpleasant thought, EC.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/18/2016 11:59 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm not sure what an activist leftist Supreme Court would say...
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/18/2016 12:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Interesting the FBI request was about 'THIS DEVICE' and all actions requested would be undertaken on 'THIS DEVICE' in such a manner as to not destroy the content nor violate the controls.

Given a known IOS filesystem architecture and a discoverable public key, I think I would undertake a different tact if I just wanted access to the poop.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 14:49 Comments || Top||

#12  #3 SIM card has nothing to do with this - it's a passcode lock - you get 10 tries and if these fail, the phone is disabled, i.e. "wiped"

Me, Id guess his PIN is 0911
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 02/18/2016 23:31 Comments || Top||


Iraq
ISIS Top Dawg detained in Diyala
(IraqiNews.com) Diyali – al-Saidiyah District Council announced Wednesday the arrest of one of the most prominent ISIS leaders in Hamrin area in the vicinity of al-Saidiyah.

The head of the district council, Ahmed al-Zarkoushi, said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “A security force from al-Saidiyah Police (60 km northeast of Baqubah) set an ambush in the western vicinity and managed to detain the so-called Abu Daham, one of the most prominent ISIS leaders in the area of Hamrin.”

Zarkoushi added, “The arrest of Abu Daham paves the way to uncover a lot of mysterious crimes by ISIS and the fate of the lost among civilians.”
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kirkuk Korpse Kount: 14 die
ISIS executes 4 in Kirkuk

(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A source in Kirkuk Province announced on Wednesday, that the so-called ISIS executed four people south of Kirkuk for helping the families to escape from the areas controlled by the organization.

The source said in a brief statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “Today, ISIS members executed four people by firing squad in Hawija District southwest of Kirkuk, after arresting them at dawn today.”

The source, who requested anonymity, added, “ISIS executed them on charges of facilitating the escape of families from the areas controlled by ISIS in al-Alam area,” noting that, “The execution took place in a public square in Zab District (95 West km Kirkuk).”

ISIS executes 8

(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk Province revealed on Wednesday, that the so-called ISIS executed eight civilians by firing squad on charges of leaving the land of caliphate.

The source said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “ISIS executed eight civilians by firing squad in al-Riyad area, while trying to escape to al-Alam area in Salahuddin Province through Hamrin Mountains.”

The source added, “ISIS executed the civilians for leaving the land of caliphate and threw their bodies in the desert.”
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


10 ISIS Bad Guys die in Tikrit
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – The Federal Police Command announced on Wednesday, that ten members of the so-called ISIS were killed in a bombardment targeted their headquarters in Makhoul Mountains north of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad), while indicated that three ISIS leaders were arrested in the Samarra and Balad.

Federal police Captain Raed Shakir Jawdat said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The Federal Police forces continued its military operations in Salahuddin and Ramadi, while hunted ISIS members in Baghdad and Samarra,” adding that, “A rocket attack launched by the Federal Police targeted ISIS monitoring points, sniping detachments and mortar shells in Makhoul Mountains north of Tikrit.”

“The operation resulted in the killing of ten members of ISIS. The Third Division of the Federal Police was also able to arrest three ISIS leaders during the security operations that were carried out in Samarra and Balad in Salahuddin Province,” Jawdat continued.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Minister claims PPP let Maulana Abdul Aziz off the hook
[DAWN] Ostensibly aiming to deflect the pressure that had been building on him to act against Maulana Abdul Aziz
...nutball holy man who runs the Lal Masjid in the heart of Pakistain's capital. After instigating a rebellion against the state in 2007, he was caught trying to sneak away dressed in a burka. He rejects democracy as un-Islamic, which it probably is...
-- the former Lal Masjid
...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been...
holy man -- Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Mukhtar Belmokhtar may not be dead yet
Long long piece at WaPo -- short story is, Mukkie may not be as dead as he was imagined to be. Read and see what you think.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Mourabitounes

#1  The US Govt. verified "Zombie Apocalypse" goes on.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 0:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Mooooookhtar !
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 2:38 Comments || Top||

#3  the Mukh'tar chant of strength, "Larak tarath."
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 15:05 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
2 Levies men, boy gunned down
QUETTA: Two Levies personnel and a young boy were killed and two others injured in an attack on a house in Barkhan district, about 400km from here.

According to officials, unknown men attacked the house of Levies officer Mohzan Khan Sherani on Tuesday night, killing him, his son and a constable on the spot. Two guests were injured.

The banned Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2016
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  #jeanslivesmatter
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 02/18/2016 22:43 Comments || Top||


'Pakistan, a nuclear power that can't operate a small steel mill?'
[DAWN]
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Once the producer of almost half the country's steel needs, state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills' (PSM) cavernous factory buildings on the outskirts of the metropolis stand eerily still.

There's your problem, right there. Probably costs less to get it from China in any event.
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  OWG Co-Superpower IRAN = OWG Co-Superpower Wannabe + Iran Best-Frenemy-Forevar! PAKISTAN = PAKISTAN-NEEDS-EVERYTHING-FROM-ANYONE = PAKISTAN STILL HAS A CHANCE TO PAR OR USURP IRAN???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 1:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Coverage suitable for missile assembly.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 14:53 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Kops surround Montana family home after reports about firearms
A Montana family gave their neighbors quite a scare while enjoying a favorite TV show Sunday evening.

A 911 call came in at 7:28 p.m. from a Great Falls neighbor who heard “screaming from a house about someone having a gun,” according to Great Falls Police Department notes from the call. A second caller helped the seven responding officers locate the house.

Great Falls Police Department Sgt. Brian McGraw said the officers surrounded the residence, responding to a disturbance possibly involving a gun.

“We had a whole bunch of guys on that one,” he said.

The call notes say the officers heard “loud talking” from inside the home and observed “flashing lights.”

According to the notes, the officers saw two adults and several children, ages unknown, watching “a show about firearms” with two windows close to the TV opened. Everyone appeared to be OK.

McGraw said he later found out the show was the midseason premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead, an hour-long drama chronicling life during the zombie apocalypse.

Based on the outcome, no report is required for the call. The call notes do not include what the family had to say about the police response.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I am reading between the lines correctly, this sounds like they got swat-ed by a neighbor.

Posted by: Nguard || 02/18/2016 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe more to this than reported:
watching “a show about firearms” with two windows close to the TV opened

Went to wunderground.com for historical weather info for that date and time of day in Great Falls MT. Outside temps were 45 degrees. The windows may have been opened to harass the neighbors, which apparently succeeded. Hardly seems like opening the windows would have been a necessity.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/18/2016 9:49 Comments || Top||

#3  you are most likely correct, Anguper Hupomosing9418. It sounds like a feud between neighbors that escalated to the point of one party calling in the cops on the other party.

I almost feel sorry for the sheriff in that area- he is going to have to deal with that nonsense until one of the parties either dies or leaves.
Posted by: Nguard || 02/18/2016 10:50 Comments || Top||

#4  If I were that sheriff I would make it a point to find nit-picky violations on both persons property each time they wasted my time.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/18/2016 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Who gets the bill?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 14:50 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
White students undergo weekly 'deconstructing whiteness' program at Northwestern University
[THECOLLEGEFIX] White college students are undergoing a weekly "deconstructing whiteness" program at Northwestern University.
I never used to be a racist...
The "6-part workshop series for undergraduate students who self-identify as white" launched in January and runs through March, according to the university's website. Students enrolled chose to do so -- it is voluntary.
"You must voluntarily enroll in the reeducation program."
A front man for the prestigious private university located outside reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
declined to give The College Fix details on the program, such as how many students enrolled and how it's been received so far.
I'm sure a wonderful time has been had by all.
"It's part of Northwestern's Social Justice Education effort to create learning opportunities for our students," Bob Rowley, a front man for the campus, told The College Fix in an email, providing a link to the social justice webpage and adding: "Beyond that, we don't have anything more for you on it."
Learning opportunities other than Engish Comp or Calculus or Organic Chemistry, which don't provide nearly enough challenge.
According to a report in the campus newspaper, the workshops focus on "terminology used in conversations of race, the history and meaning of whiteness, white guilt and the difference between intellectualizing and feeling racism."
You know, I'd really like to get some of the Privilege. I think I'll go oppress somebody.
"There's a lot of space on this campus for conversations to happen around issues of privilege and specifically around issues of white privilege," Michele Enos, assistant director of the university's Social Justice Education office, told The Daily Northwestern.
Why does a university need a "social justice" office? I'm definitely missing something here.
A poster advertising the workshop series posed rhetorical questions such as: "What is my role in doing anti-racist work?"
When I was young and undoubtedly stupid I stuck my neck out and a time or two my chin for blacks. That was back in the days when we'd occasionally walk into a place and be told "we don't serve Negroes here." Actually, that wasn't the term we usually heard. I can see now that I wasted my time and energy. I wouldn't want to send my grandkids to a university that discriminated against them because they're white.
or "why do I have to feel guilty about being white?" and "how can I talk about race as a white person?"
By doing exactly as you're told...
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Deconstructing' local law enforcement, electrical services, sanitation and city water will soon follow. What medical services are still available will be provided by the government. It's best that you make preparations to leave at once. Pack lightly and please take enough meds for a minium of 30 days.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 2:32 Comments || Top||

#2  And from the Daily Caller, Phase-II:

South African Students Loot University Buildings, Torch Portraits Of White People
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 3:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Social justice -ism
Posted by: Galactic Coordinator Guelph7496 || 02/18/2016 4:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I want to run a "Deconstructing blackness and why that culture is a path to poverty" course.

Where do I get my grant?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2016 6:10 Comments || Top||

#5  You just know they have a "Deconstructing blackness and how the white man keeps us down and we deserve reparations and immunity from criminal prosecution" course out there.

Or is that embedded in the regular 'education'?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/18/2016 8:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Cause Deconstruction works so well in Detroit.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2016 9:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Those the gods deconstruct they first make sit mad courses.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2016 11:35 Comments || Top||

#8  I was angry when I made my remark about wasting my time and energy. What we did back then -- and no, I never joined any protest marches -- was what was right. I still believe that people are born equal and deserve the chance to make something of their lives.

That was like a beautiful woman, whom we, the people rescued. Northwestern and its siblings are like the hideously deformed children she gave birth to.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 12:19 Comments || Top||

#9  Just suppose a black person decided to attend the class - not for credit, of course, but to audit the class, to see how white privilege can be dealt with.

Would he/she/they be allowed to sit in the class?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2016 12:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Universities are rapidly placing themselves in the category of "irrelevant" with this drivel.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 12:55 Comments || Top||

#11  The mariner: 'Once, off of Haiti,
I saved an insensible lady.
Redeemed from the ocean,
She dreamed up the notion
That I be her Moby, me matey.'
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/18/2016 18:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Ben Franklin (electricity), Alexander Bell (telephone), Henry Ford (automobile), Abraham Lincoln (freed the slaves), I could go on and on and on and on about the real truth.
Posted by: Ho Chi Crinens5363 || 02/18/2016 18:19 Comments || Top||

#13  This is so perverted and silly.
Posted by: newc || 02/18/2016 22:56 Comments || Top||


Arabia
World Food progam owns ships seized in Yemen
Sounds like the UN has chosen sides in Yemen
Or someone among their number associated with this program has.
RIYADH: The World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday said communications equipment that Coalition forces have stopped from entering Yemen on one of its chartered ships belonged to the United Nations.

The UN humanitarian organization said the Mainport Cedar, which was diverted to the Saudi port of Jazan on Feb. 11, was carrying a cargo of humanitarian relief supplies bound for the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida.

But the WFP’s revelation only raised questions. Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, the coalition’s spokesman, said the communications equipment discovered on the ship during an inspection were similar to that used by the Houthis.

Moreover, the equipment were not declared by the WFP.
“It sustains the militias in their combat. Why did they not declare it?” Asseri said by phone.

The vessel was carrying a container of medical supplies from the Netherlands and two containers of food from Iran, and had originated its journey in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, Asseri said.

Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition in a war against the Houthis and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh last March in an effort to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

It has imposed a naval blockade to stop weapons being imported.
The equipment included computers, satellite dishes, solar panels, encryption systems, individual communication devices and other material often used for military purposes and found by Coalition forces in Houthi bases on the Saudi border, Asseri said.

Coalition forces, who had imposed a blockade on Yemeni ports as part of its campaign, accuses Iran of supplying the Houthis with weapons. Iran denies involvement in the conflict.

In September, the coalition said it had seized an Iranian fishing boat carrying 18 anti-armored Concourse shells, 54 anti-tank shells, shell-battery kits, firing guidance systems, launchers and batteries for binoculars destined for the Houthis.

In view of the incident, Asseri said the coalition has asked the WFP to ‘review your procedures, review your personnel’ to make sure this does not happen again.

Abeer Etefa, senior spokesman for the WFP, confirmed that the agency had received a request by the coalition.

“WFP has been asked by the coalition forces to resubmit the paperwork regarding the humanitarian IT equipment,” she said in an e-mail.

Nearly 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen since coalition forces intervened in March last year to stop Houthis and Saleh’s forces from ousting the UN-recognized government of Hadi.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Hillary ordered aide to remove heading: hid Sid Blumenthal as sender
Each batch of Hillary Clinton emails seems to bring with it more evidence that the former secretary of state did not want other Obama administration officials to know that she was in regular contact with her longtime friend and political hatchet man, Sidney Blumenthal.
Because Sid is her bag man. And everyone in Chicago knows what a bag man is...
The latest evidence comes in a Sept. 30, 2010 email released on Saturday which shows Clinton ordering her assistant, Jill Jiloty, to “remove the heading” from an email that Blumenthal sent her from their mutual friend, former Amb. Joseph Wilson.
Who also is no prize...
The email contains a lengthy letter from Wilson, who served in the Bill Clinton White House. In it, he provides Hillary Clinton with a detailed tick-tock of a trip he had made to Iraq on behalf of a power company for which he was consulting at the time and slammed the U.S. military’s presence in Iraq, saying that the experience left him “slack jawed.”
Nope, no conflict of interest there. The Iraqis need Joe's special expertise to pull their chestnuts out of the fire, that's all...
“Berlin and Dresden in World War II were devastated but they and their populations were not subjected to seven years of occupation that included ethnic cleansing, segregation of people by religious identity, and untold violence perpetrated upon them by both military and private security services,” wrote Wilson, who is perhaps best known for NOT debunking the claim that Saddam Hussein attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger.
Stupid editorializing. We know better...
“I have not been to Gaza but suspect that the dehumanizing effects are somewhat similar.”

Clinton was seemingly embarrassed by something in the email, but it wasn’t Wilson’s aggressive condemnation of the U.S. military’s presence in Iraq. Instead, the email indicates she was worried by Blumenthal’s involvement in the email chain.

“Pls print three copies but remove the heading from Sid so it is just the memo from Joe to me,” Clinton wrote to Jiloty.
You can't expose the bag man. If you do he can no longer carry the bag...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “Pls print three copies but remove the heading from Sid so it is just the memo from Joe to me,” Clinton wrote to Jiloty.

In deference to concerns for operational security no doubt. She's always been a stickler for OPSEC.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 2:45 Comments || Top||

#2  So, it is discovered that The Beast is into beheading?
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 02/18/2016 12:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Can't we just jug her a$$ and be done with her?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 13:20 Comments || Top||

#4  As she perhaps has done to many before her.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 14:56 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China: Missiles have been on South China Sea island for years
[CNN] Chinese sea and air defenses on a disputed South China Sea island have been in place for years, Beijing says, but reports of their existence Wednesday alarmed the country's Asian neighbors.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said Wednesday it had confirmed that surface-to-air missiles had been deployed on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Islands chain in the hotly disputed sea.

U.S. officials told CNN that commercial satellite imagery showed the deployment of missile batteries.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Milyuhns + Dilyuhns + Tilyuhns of years, ergo are "no big", ergo no reason for the US-Allies to fear let alone for China to remove.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  ION GUARDIAN.UK > BEIJING MISSLE MOVE IN SOUTH CHINA SEA COULD MAKE US THINK TWICE ABOUT GETTING TOO CLOSE [IIUC @Twitter = ... ... (too close to) Guam? Hawaii? Okinawa?]. THE DEPLOYMENT OF MISSLE LAUNCHERS TO WOODY ISLAND [Paracels = Chinese Xishas] IS A CONSCIOUS EFFORT BY CHINA TO EXTEND ITS STRATEGIC FOOTPRINT AND WILL TEST AMERICA'S [POTUS Obama's?] METTLE.

YUUUP - Beijing/China is UNLIKELY TO BACK DOWN + WILL MATCH US MOVES TIT-FOR-TAT.

* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [RFA Radio Free Asia] BEIJING MISSLE MOVE RAISES POLITICAL TEMPERATURES IN SOUTH CHINA SEA [Regional Nations].

* YOHNAP NEWS > CHINESE MEDIAS WARN BEIJING MAY DEPLOY MORE MISSLES [to NE ASIA Region] AGZ US MISSLE SHIELD IN SOUTH KOREA.

VERSUS

* JAPAN TIMES > US UNSURE IFF CHINA SAM [Surface-To-Air Missle(S)] DEPLOYMENT ON ISLAND FOR LONG-TERM, XI NON-MILITARIZATION CLAIM HIT, by Obama Admin Officios.

* GUARDIAN.UK > SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE: US MILITARY WILL CONTINUE TO OPERATE IN REGION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 1:21 Comments || Top||

#3  OOOPS, forgot SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST > CHINA MAY SEND ANTI-SHIP MISSLES [ASBMS] TO SOUTH CHINA SEA IFF TENSIONS FLARE WID US: ANALYSTS. "AIR DEFENCE" IS MAIN PRIORITY FOR CHINESE FORCES IN THE REGION, OBSERVER SAYS.

DF-21? DF-26 "Guam/Carrier-Killer"???

China may also step up or increase other Military ACtivities as pertinent.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 1:56 Comments || Top||

#4  "Oceana is at war with East Asia. Oceana has always been at war with East Asia"
Posted by: Nguard || 02/18/2016 15:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Hell, the "island" hasn't really been there for years.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/18/2016 21:27 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Houthis begin recruiting drive in Tihamah
Houthi militias side by side with their Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ally have imposed mandatory recruitment across several districts in Tihamah. They are threatening citizens, forcing them to undertake military training, logging over 72 hours, in preparation for their dispatch to frontiers. Houthi militias are planning for the recruits to fight under a slogan called “the day of the horn”.

Recruitment is mainly focused on the sons of the southern region of Al Hudaydah Governorate: ad Durayhimi district, al zraniq district, and Bayt al-Faqih district. They also targeted areas were they dominate, and have promised all those who stand down from recruitment and fulfilling their war duty to face imprisonment and payment of fines for backing down.

Intimidation is forcing people to abandon their homes and families in fear of being immediately put to death in case they refused to fight under Houthi calling.

Coincidently, the Popular Resistance launched a series of attacks on Houthi headquarters and training centers, inflicting mass damage, in a response opposing the oppression citizens are being forced to and the compulsory militant recruitment they are being subjected to.

The Resistance also went after militia members at one of the checkpoints in Al Hudaydah, according to a media office in Tihamah.

Popular Resistance forces in Tihama have promised a striking response against militants for all the consequent violations they have been committing. Houthi militia had agitated the Popular Resistance by their constant kidnap of children beneath 15 years of age and chucking them into battle fronts.

The resistance also tackled down a Houthi headquarters in Tihama, in addition to bombarding governmental directorates that were transformed into barracks overrun with militants. The militants had taken advantage of governmental facilities in hopes of diverting the attention of Arabian coalition’s air forces.

A military source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Yemen’s national army monitors all military militia movements in regions under their jurisdiction. They send back information to higher military leaderships, so that militant action is dealt with and orders are issued according to the approved military plan and in coordination with the Arabian coalition forces.

Crimes committed by Houthi militias surpass all international customs. It is particularly incriminating to insert citizens and minors in local battles between conflicting parties, sources pointed out.

Laws are set for the protection of civilians from military operations, however, Houthi militias and supporters of the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh have no regard to local or international conventions when it comes down to recruitment.

Popular Resistance forces have entrapped a governmental buildingin the Dhamar Governorate, which had previously fallen into the militant dominance. The resistance established checkpoints across security exits and mountainous areas surrounding the building, in case of any unpredictable movement and for the confrontation to those militants escaping battlefronts. All these efforts came after fierce clashes the Popular Resistance led last August, in which they resulted in the ejecting militia and Saleh supporters from several zones.

As for the battlefield in Taiz , Sadam al- Haribi, media Popular Resistance Spokesman, said that there are three running fronts at the moment : al-Ghomayta front, al-Shareej front , and al-Hifaan front. The Popular Resistance is trying, by winning those fronts, to gain access to al- Rahidah city and later head towards al-Hobaan. He pointed out the remarkable advance in the resistance’s progress, at al-Hifaan front. They seized three main mountains and are currently undertaking aggressive battles at al-Hitari Mountain. Should they get hold of al-Hitari, they will evidently be winning over al-A’abous region.

Collaborative effort put by the Popular Resistance yielded in rising victorious over several fronts and taking down of tens of militants. However, Yemen’s national army has transferred bodies of killed militants to secure areas, in a notion of respect for the dead. Alternatively, Houthi militants are notorious for acts of corpse disfiguration, Spokesman al-Haribi added.

West of Yemen, specifically at al-Haseeb, the Popular Resistance reached 4 kilometers deep into the zone. The slowed advancement can be referred to several reasons, one of which is the presence of civilian neighborhoods, Spokesman al-Haribi explained. Building rooftops are infested with militant snipers, in addition to Houthis usage of heavy-weight artillery against civil residential areas, he added.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russia, Iran to reinforce military cooperation
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow and Tehran were ready to step up their military cooperation after meeting with his Iranian counterpart on Tuesday.

"I am convinced that our meeting is going to contribute toward reinforcing friendly relations between Russian and Iranian armed forces," said Shoigu in a statement.

Iran's Hossein Dehghan and Shoigu spoke about "the necessary measures for the progressive development" of their military cooperation, based on the accord signed in January between Tehran and Moscow, the statement said.

The two countries are also "ready to coordinate their approaches on a large number of global and regional issues", Shoigu added, speaking in the "context of the growing crisis in the Middle East.

The Russian defense chief did not speak specifically about Syria, where Russia on September 30 sent in its warplanes to lauch air strikes at the request of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
, who is also supported by Iran.

"Our countries face the same challenges and threats in the Middle East region and it is only together that we will be able to fight them," Shoigu said.

Iran and Russia, long-time allies of Syria, have also reinforced their military and nuclear cooperation since the signing in July of an historic accord between Tehran and the world powers on the Iranian nuclear programme.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  "I am convinced that our meeting is going to contribute toward reinforcing friendly relations between Russian and Iranian armed forces," said Shoigu in a statement.

Thanks to Kerry and the Champ, sanctions are now lifted and the checks have cleared.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 2:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks to Kerry and the Champ, sanctions are now lifted and the checks have cleared.

"I'll have more flexibility after the elections"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/18/2016 2:51 Comments || Top||

#3  The further they reach, the weaker their grasp at home.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/18/2016 15:06 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Drone attack on Al Qaeda kills 3
A drone attack on two public buildings controlled by Al-Qaeda militants in south Yemen killed three people on Monday, a local official said.

The dawn attack also badly damaged the offices of public water and telecommunications utilities in Huta, capital of Lahij province, the official added.

No details about the three victims were immediately available.

Witnesses said two drones overflew Huta both before and after the attack.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Banned groups using name of IS: Nisar
[DAWN] Being much more forthcoming than usual, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture...
on Tuesday named certain 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 which, he said, were using the name of a middle-eastern terror group that had no actual footprint in the country.

Reiterating his stance that the Lion of Islam 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 -- also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh [Islamic State] -- did not have a foothold in Pakistain, he said that Lions of Islam from proscribed organizations had rallied under the IS banner.

For example, he said, that when Lions of Islam using the Daesh [Islamic State] name were picked up from Daska, they were found to be associated with Hafiz Saeed
...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
's Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
. In Sindh, he said, the Hizb-e-Islami group had been using the IS name.

There are around 45 terrorist organizations operating in Pakistain and some of them are using the Daesh [Islamic State] name, he said, adding that, "These [groups] are on the [radar] of intelligence and security agencies".

He also revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would soon send New Delhi a formal request, seeking permission for a special investigation team -- looking into suspected Pak links in the attack on Pathankot airbase -- to visit India.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Aafia's family moves IHC to meet her in US
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday sought reply from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister Secretariat on a petition filed to facilitate a meeting of Dr Fauzia Siddiqui with her sister Dr Aafia Siddiqui
...American-educated Pak cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. In September 2010, she was sentenced to 86 years in jug after a three-ring trial. Siddiqui, using the alias Fahrem or Feriel Shahin, was one of six alleged al-Qaeda members who bought $19 million worth of blood diamonds in Liberia immediately prior to 9-11-01. Since her incarceration Paks have taken her to their heart and periodically erupt into demonstrations, while the government tries to find somebody to swap for her...
.

Aafia, a Pak neuroscientist, is serving an 86-year prison sentence in the US for attacking American soldiers in Afghanistan.

After a preliminary hearing, Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi of the IHC issued notices to the respondents and adjourned the hearing till the next week.

During the hearing, Sajid Qureshi, the counsel for Dr Fauzia, informed the court that unknown people had extended threats to his client for pursuing the case of her detained sister.

Advocate Qureshi expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
s over the health condition of Aafia and said the US authorities did not facilitate even a telephonic contact of the family with her.

He said it had been over two years since the family of Aafia had spoken to her on telephone.

Now, apparently, the facility has been withdrawn as none of her family members can talk to her despite making repeated calls to the jail.

He requested the court to ask the prime minister to take up the matter with US President Barak Obama to facilitate a meeting of Aafia with her family.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Iraq
Radioactive material stolen in Iraq raises security concerns
[IN.REUTERS] Iraq is searching for "highly dangerous" radioactive material stolen last year, according to an environment ministry document and seven security, environmental and provincial officials who fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by 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 material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, went missing in November from a storage facility near the southern city of Basra belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford, the document seen by Rooters showed and officials confirmed.

A front man for Iraq's environment ministry said he could not discuss the issue, citing national security concerns. A Weatherford front man in Iraq declined to comment, and the company's Houston headquarters did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The material, which uses gamma rays to test flaws in materials used for oil and gas pipelines in a process called industrial gamma radiography, is owned by Istanbul-based SGS The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, according to the document and officials.

An SGS official in Iraq declined to comment and referred Rooters to its Turkish headquarters, which did not respond to phone calls.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the United States was aware that Iraq had reported a missing specialized camera containing highly radioactive Iridium-192 to the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
nuclear watchdog, in November.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  Fear of "Dirty Bombs".

* See also RUSSIA TODAY > ISIS AFTER EU NUCLEAR PLANT? PARIS ATTACKERS SNOOPED ON BELGIUM NUCLEAR BOSS, MEDIA REVEALS.

GERMANY-criticized rundown or discrepit Belgium NucPlant.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2016 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  You want to buy 500,000 Fire Detectors? Srsly?
Posted by: Shipman || 02/18/2016 14:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Bomb hoax at Karachi University causes panic
Which would be nothing compared to the panic from a real bomb
KARACHI: Karachi University was partially evacuated on Wednesday after police received reports of three bombs on campus, DawnNews reported, but was declared clear after a sweep by the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS).

Police control received reports of the bombs on their emergency 15 number, after which the BDS was called in to secure the university, police sources said.

Superintendent Police (SP) Gulshan Farhad Ahmad said police were alerted about a bomb targeting a book fair at the gymnasium hall. The BDS, after checking the hall, said it was clear.

Areas surrounding the building are also being checked for bombs, he said, adding that those spreading misinformation will be found.

Meanwhile, a number of students and faculty members, who requested anonymity, told DawnNews that educational activities at the university were not affected by the reports.

Security concerns at KU
After the attack on Charsadda's Bacha Khan University earlier this year, educational institutions across the country have been on high alert.

However, an inspection of KU's boundary wall, spread over 1,350 acres, has shown that the structure has completely fallen in least at two places. The space created by the fallen wall is sufficient enough for a large truck to pass through. The point is found to be used as a waste dumping ground by people living in the neighbourhood.

At other points, the height of the wall is as low as five feet. Besides, the wall has also developed big holes. Huge bushes, a large number of commercial nurseries and car repair workshops along the boundary wall are some other security risks the campus faces.

According to sources, the administration had in January failed to take any concrete measure to improve campus security even after the Army Public School tragedy and the targeted killing of two KU teachers despite the fact that it received Rs300 million from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) during the past year to improve campus security but failed to utilise it.

The sources said an inspector of the KU watch and guard department had earlier complained about the broken boundary in writing in August 2015 but no action was taken.

The KU administration inefficiency, sources said, could also be gauged from the fact that the university had yet to release the Rs70,000 that had been requested six months ago by its own department for building the boundary wall of the foreign students’ hostel.

The installation of surveillance cameras has also been pending for the past seven months.

Currently more than 27,000 students are enrolled with the KU while the number of teaching and non-teaching staff is over 4,000.

Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Kurdish woman leaves her husband in Istanbul to join Kurd force
Tough lady. I wish her well.
(IraqiNews.com) The young Kurdish Hassiba Nawzad could not continue her path towards Germany with her husband after seeing the conditions of Yezidi women in the grip of ISIS. She decided to leave her husband in Istanbul and return back to Iraq to volunteer in the ranks of Peshmerga forces.

Nawzad said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “I left my husband in Istanbul months ago on our way to one of the European countries, after seeing the conditions of Yezidi women in the grip of ISIS.”

She said that her husband insisted to emigrate to Germany together, but she decided to return to volunteer in the ranks of Peshmerga forces to fight ISIS.

Nawzad also revealed that currently she is a volunteer in Noran axis and will continue to do her duty to eliminate the terrorists in her homeland.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Obama to skip Scalia's funeral
[POLITICO]
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Classless buffoon

What an ignorant disrespectful thing to do.

Even if you hated what he did, you have to honor who he was...
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/18/2016 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Scalia was white. If it'd been Beyonce or Harry Belafonte or Jessie Jackson he'd be rending his garments.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 0:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Like we were expecting anything less?
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 0:25 Comments || Top||

#4  That whole party.
Posted by: newc || 02/18/2016 0:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Respecting Scalia's wishes no doubt.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 2:22 Comments || Top||

#6  It's not that he's dumb as shit---it's practically a requirement for his job in this new brave world, it's that he has no more manners than a street dog.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/18/2016 4:13 Comments || Top||

#7  There ya go--insulting street dogs.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/18/2016 7:53 Comments || Top||

#8  He's going golfing, no doubt. Foreign funerals (like for a Constitutional Textualist and Originalist) are Slow Joe's job
Posted by: Frank G || 02/18/2016 8:42 Comments || Top||

#9  In a way, I'm glad. If Obama went to Scalia's funeral Mass, he would probably receive Communion. (Clinton did this one time when he attended Mass.) To Catholics, this is a sacrilege. Slow Joe is at least nominally Catholic. Although, given Joe's support for abortion, he should be excommunicated in my opinion.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/18/2016 9:36 Comments || Top||

#10  OK. Now I can skip anything doing with yours.

[and the old army joke - No sarge I won't piss your grave cause when I get out I promised myself never to stand in these long lines again]
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2016 9:42 Comments || Top||

#11  If we could just get Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt to attend. I'm certain the Champ would turn up.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 10:14 Comments || Top||

#12  That's who he is. That's what he does.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/18/2016 10:15 Comments || Top||

#13  Yet another bit of patina to the luster with which his presidency will be held ........
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/18/2016 11:19 Comments || Top||

#14  Shameful. He gave more respect to Trayvon Martin.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/18/2016 12:46 Comments || Top||

#15  "Obama to skip Scalia's funeral"

Lucky Scalia. And Scalia's family.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/18/2016 16:17 Comments || Top||

#16  0bean has better things to do. Like meet with Black Lives Matter folks instead.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2016 17:25 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Three killed by Qaddafi sympathisers in Revolution Day clashes in Sebha
[Libya Herald] Three people have been killed in an outbreak of violence in the southern city of Sebha. Another 35 have been wounded, eight of them seriously.

“One young man was shot and killed by a sniper while sitting in front of his house today,” Sebha Mayor Hamed Rafeh told the Libya Herald this evening, accusing pro-Qaddafi sympathisers of deliberately launching the violence on the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution. They were using snipers as well as firing missiles, he said.

The other two locals were killed last night when the violence – so far largely confined to the central district of Manshiya – started.

Of the eight seriously injured, four had been flown to Tripoli for treatment and the other four were being treated in Sebha. They and the other injured would be flown to Tripoli or Misrata tomorrow, the mayor explained.

There have been attempts to negotiate with the Qaddafi supporters. They had been asked to meet today at the local police station but had refused to go, Rafah said, adding that the supporters were not only members of Qaddafi’s own Qaddadfa tribe, they also included refugees from Sirte and Tawergha who were currently staying in Sebha.

“We have to stop this,” he said.“But we need a good army. We have nothing to stop the fighting.”

There are reports this evening that a private school owned by a member of the Qaddadfa was set on fire.

The attacks have been condemned by the House of Representatives.
Posted by: badanov || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Obama: Syria 'not a contest between me and Putin'
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] U.S. President Barack Obama
The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person...
insisted Tuesday that Russia had made a strategic error in propping up Syrian ruler Bashir al-Assad, but said the conflict was not about him and Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Predicting a "quagmire" that drains Russia's assets, Obama said "this is not a contest between me and Putin."

"The real question we should be asking is what is it that Russia thinks it gains if it gets a country that's been completely destroyed as an ally, that it now has to perpetually spend billions of dollars to prop up?" Obama said.

"Putin may think that he's prepared to invest in a permanent occupation of Syria with Russian military. That's going to be pretty costly."

"About three-quarters of the country is still under control of folks other than Assad. That's not stopping anytime soon."

Obama said an internationally backed ceasefire due to take effect within a week, would be difficult to achieve, laying some of the blame at Putin's door.

"It's hard to do, because there's been a lot of bloodshed," said Obama.

"If Russia continues indiscriminate bombing of the sort that we've been seeing, I think it's fair to say that you're not gonna see any take-up by the opposition."

Russian bombers have been supporting a Syrian government offensive on Aleppo, and Moscow is Assad's closest ally.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  I don't think Vlad read the memo
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/18/2016 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Not playing is an excuse for not winning.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 0:18 Comments || Top||

#3  If only Obama pretended that Putin was a Republican.
Posted by: Raj || 02/18/2016 0:22 Comments || Top||

#4  He's right, there really is no contest.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2016 2:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like he's still defending his choice to abandon Iraq.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2016 7:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Did he leave the press conference early too?

Snark of the day.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2016 9:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Did he leave the press conference early too?

P2K with the sneaky Snark of the Week.
Posted by: regular joe || 02/18/2016 11:39 Comments || Top||

#8  *snort*

Obama was after the ISJV with the urgency of an old man picking out new golf shoes, when Russia outscores his total effort in one inning.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/18/2016 20:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Then Russian video was released and people were like

Putin bombing ISIS like whoa
1000 kilogrammers like whoa
Bringing in the Arty like whoa
Gonna build a new base like whoa

So suddenly we discover that there are convoys of vehicles on a trade route with Turkey and we bomb them using A-10s. With leaflets. Then we get around to destroying some of them.

And we were like, "Leaflets? WTF!"
And Erdogon was like, "My money, WTF!"

So here we are, with The White House inventing words like deescalation. Shoot, fellow travelers MsF get bombed and crickets.

So yeah, maybe there isn't a contest, like that white boy in Gran Torino.

And y'all military, I know the house has a smell because of the bats in the attic, it isn't you.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/18/2016 20:56 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
19 sent to jail in six-year-old girl's rape, murder case in Karachi
[DAWN] KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday sent 19 suspects to prison in a case pertaining to the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl.

The victim had gone missing on Jan 25 from a wedding hall in Orangi Town and her body was found in an underground water tank in the hall on Jan 31. She along with her parents and a younger sister had gone to attend the marriage of her neighbours.

The police recently enjugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
some employees of the wedding hall and after the end of their physical remand, the investigation officer produced them in court again.

A judicial magistrate (west) sent them to prison on judicial remand and directed the IO to complete the investigation and submit a report.

The police said that an initial medical report confirmed that the victim was subjected to a sexual assault and died due to cardio-respiratory failure.

However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
the report of a chemical examiner was still awaited while the DNA samples of the suspects had also been sent for analysis, they added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
50[untagged]
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3Commies
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2Govt of Syria
2Hezbollah
1Govt of Iraq
1al-Qaeda
1Mourabitounes
1Hamas
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Islamic State
1Boko Haram
1Govt of Iran

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2016-02-18
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Wed 2016-02-17
  44 Daesh militants killed in Nangarhar's Achin District
Tue 2016-02-16
  British Sniper Decapitates ISIS Executioner
Mon 2016-02-15
  Taliban confirm losing 13 fighters in Paktika drone strikes
Sun 2016-02-14
  Boko Haram kills at least 30 people in northeastern Nigeria
Sat 2016-02-13
  Turkish artillery hammers airfield near Aleppo
Fri 2016-02-12
  Syrian rebels launch offensive on pro Syrian troops in Latakia
Thu 2016-02-11
  Female Suicide Bombers Kill 58 in Nigeria
Wed 2016-02-10
  New Hampshire primary: Trump, Sanders win
Tue 2016-02-09
  Russian police arrest 7 Islamic State militants
Mon 2016-02-08
  ISIS executes 300+ in Mosul
Sun 2016-02-07
  North Korea fires long-range rocket despite warnings
Sat 2016-02-06
  Yemeni Army's Tochka Strikes Saudi-US Aggression Camp in Marib, Kills 104
Fri 2016-02-05
  6 al Qaeda operatives die in Yemen drone strike
Thu 2016-02-04
  Head of AQAP killed in Yemen drone strikes: residents

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