The University of Missouri Board of Curators on Thursday fired a communications professor who was captured on video scrapping with a police officer and a student journalist during campus protests last year.
The board voted 4-2 in favor of firing Assistant Professor of Communication Melissa Click, who had been suspended with pay from the school since Jan. 27.
Click has the right to appeal the termination.
"The board respects Dr. Click's right to express her views and does not base this decision on her support for students engaged in protest or their views," said Chairwoman Pam Henrickson, who voted against Click's termination, in a statement viewed by The Columbia Tribune. "However, Dr. Click was not entitled to interfere with the rights of others, to confront members of law enforcement or to encourage potential physical intimidation against a student."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016
16:46 ||
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She's a nasty piece of work, who was clearly trying to be "too cool for school" by indulging her fantasies of still being a student activist.
Grow up, honey, and join the adult world - think of this firing an "an intervention" to try to extract you from your delusional world. You aren't "Joan of Arc."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016 20:45
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#4
The part I find amusing (other than the whole rest of it, I mean) is that when the going got tough, this proud feminist icon called for "some muscle", presumably meaning some big strong men to come to her aid.
#5
She didn't call them to come to her aid. She called them to beat up or otherwise intimidate people (gender and ethnicity not specified, could be white men, could be black women) she wanted intimidated.
President Obama reportedly is considering nominating Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to the Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
The nomination of a Republican would be seen as an attempt by Obama to break the Senate GOP blockade of any of his choices. Just to send the Pubs into a frenzy.
However,
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval took himself out of consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday. Link
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/25/2016
16:16 ||
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Sandoval says he doesn't want to be a pawn in this political chessmatch.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/25/2016 16:39
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[Fox] One upstate New York city is planning an unconventional approach to combating a growing heroin epidemic: Letting addicts shoot up on government property under the supervision of medical professionals.
Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick unveiled his controversial proposal to open a supervised injection facility during an interview with The Associated Press released Monday. The facility would provide a space for users to inject pre-purchased drugs with clean needles under the watchful eye of healthcare professionals who could, in theory, keep them safe and direct them to addiction services.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016 15:27
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No ethical "medical professional" will be associated with this. And people like me will challenge any who do.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016 15:39
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Maybe it's difficult for local authorities to know what to do if they have a crisis on their hands and they are at their wits end. At the national level, securing the border would be a good place to start.
#4
You can't stop people from doing stupid things to their own bodies. Enabling doesn't seem smart. Spiking the (illegal) supply with a drug that makes you feel ill might help.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/25/2016 16:43
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#5
#3 Maybe it's difficult for local authorities to know what to do if they have a crisis on their hands and they are at their wits end
their "wits end" was a very short drive
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016 16:59
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North Korea said it would "create a planet without the United States," as the United Nations Security Council prepared to pass a tough resolution against Pyongyang this week and the United States and South Korea are preparing a joint military exercise. Careful, if you do that, it might increase global warming. Pyongyang made the statement Thursday in state-controlled newspaper Rodong Sinmun. In its editorial, North Korea also warned that South Korea and the United States could be turned into a "sea of fire," Yonhap reported. Looks like they're pissed. "Sea of Fire" guy got recalled from the reeducation camp retirement.
North Korea is strongly opposed to the military exercises that take place annually on the peninsula. Key Resolve, expected to be one of the biggest military drills to be held in March, is being carried out with the goal of "decapitating" the Kim Jong Un regime, according to Pyongyang. I thought it was supposed to be several times bigger than anything done so far.
"How dare they try to hide the dazzling sun [Workers' Party Secretary Kim Jong Un], our destiny, humanity's destiny," Pyongyang said in statement, according to South Korean news service News 1. "Let us make 10 million missiles that would turn South Korea's presidential Blue House and the United States into powder." Too bad you don't have ten million missiles.
But the threats could be coming from a sense that North Korea's security is being threatened. The joint drills are equivalent to a "declaration of war," Pyongyang said, and repercussions could follow. U.S. military bases in the Asia-Pacific region would be turned into "ashes," North Korea stated in its warning. They could follow. Or not.
The Rodong also ran photos of the 1950-53 Korean War and the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, captured by the North in 1968. Let's see you do that with a ship armed with something more than ELINT.
North Korea warned its adversaries against attack, saying "millions of youth can turn themselves into human bombs" if it meant protecting Kim Jong Un. I thought his Corpulence was so smart he could cure AIDS. Can't he figure out a solution other than to send human waves of suicide bombers out to slaughter?
Pyongyang also denounced South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who marks her third year in office.
In 2019 the Army expects to roll out a new, lighter body armor system. The armor will provide at least as much protection as today's system, but with more comfort, and greater flexibility to adjust based on the mission, Army officials said. Maybe it will be like the Aztec's armor and be made of feathers?
The Torso and Extremities Protection, or TEP, program cleared the engineering and development phases last summer, and will move into a few years of limited production and testing. During that time and beyond, technology advances may be integrated.
Already, improved ballistics materials have allowed the Army to cut the weight of TEP, when compared to the Army's current heavy-duty option, the Improved Outer Tactical Vest. The IOTV, when loaded with heavy plates, weighs about 31 pounds, while a comparable TEP system checks in at about 23 pounds, or 26 percent lighter. OK, maybe lots of feathers.
"That's the main mantra of this program: to be the next generation of body armor at a lighter weight," said Lt. Col. Kathy Brown, the program manager for Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment at Program Executive Office Soldier.
Brown said the Army pushed with industry to reduce weight while meeting future threats. In addition, the ability to add and subtract different elements and plate inserts in the vest, is a real "highlight," Brown said. .In addition to TEP, the Army is developing new body armor plates and a new head protection system.
Soldier feedback has already played a major role in development of TEP, Brown said. Trials by soldiers at three different installation, as well as by Marines and special operations units, provided design advice and feedback. Brown said that ultimately helped produce a system earning a 95 percent positive feedback.
"One great aspect of the Soldier Protection System is we really listened to the voice of the customer, the soldier," Brown said. "Based on feedback from the soldier we were able to make design changes."
A policy paper distributed by the U.S. military is under fire for perpetuating a number of bizarre theories about extremism, such as claiming that wearing an Islamic hijab amounts to "passive terrorism."
According to Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept, a recently re-published book from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory includes a chapter entitled "A Strategic Plan to Defeat Radical Islam" written by Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies who identifies as a former extremist. The chapter, also called a white paper, is framed as a plan to combat terrorism, but includes a number of odd, largely unsubstantiated ideas as to how extremism is created -- namely, that hardline extremist ideology (specifically Salafi Islam) takes root when women begin wearing hijab, a traditional Islamic head covering. I think he's got the cause and effect thing backward: the hijab is a sign of Salafism, not vice versa.
"[Extremism occurs when] increasing numbers of women begin to wear the hijab, which is both a symptom of Salafi proliferation and a catalyst for Islamism," Hamid writes. "In turn, the proliferation of militant Salafism and the hijab contribute to the idea of passive terrorism, which occurs when moderate segments of the population decline to speak against or actively resist terrorism." By choice, or by force?
As The Intercept points out, Hamid's theory -- which includes a diagram showing hijab as one of the three core methods of radicalization -- does not appear to be "supported by empirical evidence." Hijabs are commonly worn by millions of Muslim women, the overwhelming majority of whom neither sympathize nor participate in terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam. Wearers of hijab include U.S. Olympic fencing team star Ibtihaj Muhammad, women's rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, and Islamic journalist, feminist, and peace prize winner Tawakkol Karman -- none of whom, like countless other Muslim women, are in any way affiliated with extremism, "passively" or otherwise.
The author offers other bizarre theories for radicalization as well. He postulates that extremists -- especially suicide bombers -- are created as a result of "sexual deprivation," arguing that "suicide bombing is prevalent among young males when the testosterone level is highest."
"Speaking from my own experience with the radical groups, I believe young Muslims are motivated to join radical groups because of sexual deprivation," Hamid writes, going on to imply that suicide bombers only kill themselves because they are promised sex with beautiful women in heaven. "Addressing the factors causing deprivation in this life can interrupt the radicalization process and reduce the number of suicide attacks by jihadists."
Muslims in America and elsewhere were quick to blast the report on Twitter using the hashtag #PassiveTerrorism.
I wonder if the oligarchy there is regretting setting up that Kim cult.
A former bodyguard to the late Kim Jong Il said the current North Korean leader leads a life of luxury while ordinary North Koreans die of hunger.
That was true when Daddy was the chief poofy-haired dwarf...
After speaking at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, defector Lee Young-guk told Voice of America Tuesday Fat Boy Kim Jong Un should be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. According to Lee, Kim has built 14 luxury villas for his enjoyment and makes seasonal visits to each retreat to go hunting or swimming. I wasn't aware that plankton had to be hunted . . . .
The defector said that as the leader of North Korea Kim should be taking care of his people, but is instead pursuing his own interests. There is a Chinese saying that wealth never survives three generations.
Lee added Pudgy Kim should take responsibility for the countless North Koreans languishing in political prison camps, where they are dying from hunger, malnutrition and beatings.
Information control in North Korea is tight, and the Pyongyang regime "closes the eyes and ears" of the people -- preventing most, even senior officials, from ever knowing anything about Kim's lavish lifestyle and the abject conditions in the prison camps.
Lee said Suet Face Kim needs to be referred to the ICC, if it means North Koreans can now know the truth about the leadership.
The defector worked as the late Kim Jong Il's bodyguard between 1978 and 1988. He was imprisoned at Yodok concentration camp for five years after his arrest in 1994, when he attempted to flee the country. Lee left North Korea permanently in 1999 and gained entry to South Korea in 2000. He currently works as an activist at a North Korea human rights organization.
Lee's criticism of the corpulent Kim Jong Un comes at a time when the North Korean leader is shaking up the bureaucracy and making significant changes in the country's system of governance, Yonhap reported.
A recently published South Korean research paper that analyzes political trends in North Korea stated Kim Jong Un is moving away from his father's "military-first" policies in favor or returning more power to the Korean Workers' Party and bolstering economic development.
That's only half-true...
Kim Jong Il's policy of prioritizing the military's needs was costly for North Korea and added to the famine that killed millions in the 1990s, according to U.N. estimates.
MIT professor and intellectual Noam Chomsky attributes Donald Trump's success in the Republican presidential primary to "fear" and a "breakdown of society."
In an interview published Tuesday, AlterNet's Aaron Williams asked Chomsky for his thoughts on Trump's "surprising progress." After a second-place finish in Iowa, the billionaire has stormed to consecutive double-digit wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
"Fear, along with the breakdown of society during the neoliberal period," Chomsky responded. "People feel isolated, helpless, victim of powerful forces that they do not understand and cannot influence."
Chomsky compared the political environment that's allowed Trump to flourish to the 1930s, when the U.S. was in the Great Depression. "Objectively, poverty and suffering were far greater," Chomsky said. "But even among poor working people and the unemployed, there was a sense of hope that is lacking now, in large part because of the growth of a militant labor movement and also the existence of political organizations outside the mainstream."
Trump and Hillary Clinton are leading in their respective primaries, but Chomsky demurred when asked who he thought would win the White House.
"I can express hopes and fears, but not predictions," he said.
Chomsky has contributed to Bernie Sanders' campaigns in the past but said he would "absolutely" vote for Clinton over the Republican nominee if he lived in a swing state. So he'd prefer to go further past the breaking point before inviting Socialism ==> Communism. Got it.
In an interview last month, Chomsky praised Sanders but said the Vermont senator didn't have "much of a chance" due to "our system of mainly bought elections."
#1
"Fear, along with the breakdown of society during the neoliberal period," Chomsky responded. "People feel isolated, helpless, victim of powerful forces that they do not understand and cannot influence."
So would that include a President who can't be influenced, Noam? The President who will not be influenced by the majority of the House and Senate because they are all "obstructionists"?
Or is it all Bush's fault?
Intellectual? I do not think that word means what he thinks it means.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/25/2016 12:59
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Of course Noam has been working diligently for a total breakdown of our society for more than 50 years.
The Navy may consider alternative aircraft carrier configurations in coming years as it prepares for its new high-tech, next-generation carrier to become operational later this year, service officials have said.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the first is a series of new Ford-class carriers designed with a host of emerging technologies to address anticipated future threats and bring the power-projecting platform into the next century.
Once its delivered, the new carrier will go through "shock trials" wherein its stability is testing in a variety of maritime conditions; the ship will also go through a pre-deployment process known as "post-shakedown availability" designed to further prepare the ship for deployment.
Navy leaders are now working on a special study launched last year to find ways to lower the costs of aircraft carriers and explore alternatives to the big-deck platforms.
The Navy study is expected to last about a year and will examine technologies and acquisition strategies for the long-term future of Navy big-deck aviation in light of a fast-changing global threat environment, service officials said.
Configurations and acquisition plans for the next three Ford-class carriers -- the USS Ford, USS Kennedy and USS Enterprise are not expected to change -- however the study could impact longer-term Navy plans for carrier designs and platforms beyond those three, service officials have said.
Although no particular plans have been solidified or announced, it seems possible that these future carriers could be engineered with greater high-tech sensors and ship defenses, greater speed and manueverability to avoid enemy fire and configurations which allow for more drones to launch from the deck of the ship.
They could be smaller and more manueverable with drones and longer-range precision weapons, analysts have speculated. At the same time, it is possible that the Ford-Class carrier could be adjusted to evolve as technologies mature, in order to accommodate some of the concerns about emerging enemy threats. Navy engineers have designed the Ford-Class platform with this ability to adapt in mind.
The service specifically engineered Ford-class carriers with a host of next-generation technologies designed to address future threat environments. These include a larger flight deck able to increase the sortie-generation rate by 33-percent, an electromagnetic catapult to replace the current steam system and much greater levels of automation or computer controls throughout the ship, among other things. The ship is also engineered to accommodate new sensors, software, weapons and combat systems as they emerge.
The ship's larger deck space is, by design, intended to accommodate a potential increase in use of carrier-launched technologies such as unmanned aircraft systems in the future.
The USS Ford is built with four 26-megawatt generators, bringing a total of 104 megawatts to the ship. This helps support the ship's developing systems such as its Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, and provides power for future systems such as lasers and rail-guns, many Navy senior leaders have explained. The USS Ford also needs sufficient electrical power to support its new electro-magnetic catapult, dual-band radar and Advanced Arresting Gear, among other electrical systems.
As technology evolves, laser weapons may eventually replace some of the missile systems on board aircraft carriers, Navy leaders have said.
"Lasers need to get up to about 300 kilowatts to start making them effective. The higher the power you get the more you can accomplish. I think there will be a combination of lasers and rail guns in the future. I do think at some point, lasers could replace some existing missile systems. Lasers will provide an overall higher rate of annihilation," Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, Program Manager for Carriers, said last year.
Should they be employed, laser weapons could offer carriers a high-tech, lower cost offensive and defensive weapon aboard the ship able to potential incinerate incoming enemy missiles in the sky.
The Ford-class ships are engineered with a redesigned island, slightly larger deck space and new weapons elevators in order to achieve a 33-percent increase in sortie-generation rate. The new platforms are built to launch more aircraft and more seamlessly support a high-op tempo.
The new weapons elevators allow for a much more efficient path to move and re-arm weapons systems for aircraft. The elevators can take weapons directly from their magazines to just below the flight deck, therefore greatly improving the sortie-generation rate by making it easier and faster to re-arm planes, service officials explained.
The next-generation technologies and increased automation on board the Ford-Class carriers are also designed to decrease the man-power needs or crew-size of the ship and, ultimately, save more than $4 billion over the life of the ships.
Also discussed:
Future Carriers, Emerging Threats, Future Carrier Air Wing.
See Steve, I figured out how to truncate an article! ;-) Excellent, grasshopper...
#1
Well, after authoring a lengthy piece with multiple URL references (which previewed fine but did not post!), I can only say: The Future of the US Navy's Aircraft Carriers is to be targets.
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/21/why-is-iran-building-giant-mock-up-of-u-s-aircraft-carrier/comment-page-4/
Wow. A teenager who expresses regret for her actions and appreciation for a remedy. Must be serious.
Marlin Stivani Nivarlain is a 15-year-old Swedish girl. Last year, her boyfriend became obsessed with ISIS, and she followed him to Syria to join the group.
Last week, Kurdish forces stormed an ISIS-held town near Mosul, Iraq, where they found Nivarlain and rescued her.
Shortly after her rescue, Nivarlain was interviewed by the Kurdish outlet Kurdistan 24, and described her boyfriend's radicalization, her trip to ISIS-held territory, the miserable life she encountered there, and her joy at being rescued.
Nivarlain says she met her (unnamed) boyfriend in mid-2014. "At first, we were good together," she said. "Then he started watching ISIS videos, talking about ISIS, stuff like that."
She was confused when he said, months after they met, that he wanted to take her to join ISIS. "I said OK, because I didn't know what ISIS is, what Islam means, nothing," Nivarlain explained.
They left Sweden on May 31, 2015. After taking a series of trains, buses, and cars to Syria, they eventually settled in the ISIS-held Iraqi city of Mosul -- where life was far from what she'd expected. "In the house, we didn't have anything: no electricity, no water, nothing," she says. "In Sweden we have everything; when I was there, I didn't have anything."
She then decided to try to escape. She got a phone and called her mother in Sweden, telling her, "I want to go home."
Her mother then contacted the Swedish government, and some time later she was rescued -- though the video redacts her discussion of the actual rescue, thus leaving any connection between her call and subsequent escape a mystery.
The key part of Nivarlain's story, to my mind, is her complete ignorance of what's happening. We often tend to hear about teens who join ISIS as corrupted by ISIS propaganda -- and indeed, that appears to have been the case with Nivarlain's boyfriend. But Nivarlain simply went along because it seemed like a cool thing to do. It was teenage rebellion, not sincere ideological conviction, that dragged her to hell.
A December report from the Soufan Group, a consulting firm that studies terrorism, found that social media alone does not motivate most recruits. Rather, most recruitment happens through communities: real-life hotbeds of ISIS support where people meet in person and convince one another to travel to Syria and Iraq.
"While the power of the Islamic State's social media outreach is undeniable, it appears more often to prepare the ground for persuasion, rather than to force the decision," the Soufan Group explains. It continues:
[A]s hotbeds develop, recruitment through social media becomes less important than via direct human contact, as clusters of friends and neighbors persuade each other to travel separately or together to join the Islamic State,
Cases like Nivarlain's are very rare, which is part of what makes her story so affecting.
"I want to thank [the Kurds] to send me back to Sweden, and meet my family again, and a happy life," Nivarlain says at the end of her video, smiling. In the last shot, it's not clear if she's laughing or crying.
h/t Instapundit
Ace ruminates on leftist piety as a kind of status signalling:
I've heard it called "Luxurious Concerns." That is, your concerns mark your social status. If your concerns are about keeping your job, paying your rent, or whether your kids' school is any damn good, you're worried about Big Things, and therefore you are marked as a Struggling Person. Only those who have really made it -- who are at the top of the economic and social order -- have the luxury of worrying about the Small Things. And if you worry about the Very Small Things, or indeed the Microscopic Things, then, well and truly, you have arrived... If you can't afford a Luxury Car, or a Luxury Apartment, you can at least adorn yourself with Luxury Worries. It's very cheap. Easy, too... Our modern class of intellectually-insecure social climbers are posing as connoisseurs of offensiveness.
In America, Donald Trump -- whom many of the experts thought had no chance -- is dominating the polls. In Britain, meanwhile, much of the public seems to be mobilizing in favor of exiting the troubled European Union -- a British Exit, or Brexit.
Writing in The Spectator, Brendan O'Neill puts this down to a class revolt on both sides of the Atlantic. And he's right as far as he goes, but I think there's more than just a class revolt. I think there's also a developing preference cascade. O'Neill writes: "In both Middle America and Middle England, among both rednecks and chavs, voters who have had more than they can stomach of being patronised, nudged, nagged and basically treated as diseased bodies to be corrected rather than lively minds to be engaged are now putting their hope into a different kind of politics. And the entitled Third Way brigade, schooled to rule, believing themselves possessed of a technocratic expertise that trumps the little people's vulgar political convictions, are not happy. Not one bit."
Well, that's certainly true. Both America and Britain have developed a ruling class that is increasingly insular and removed from -- and contemptuous of -- the people it deigns to rule. The ruled are now returning the contempt.
But while there's a class component here, it's not as strong as some might suggest. Trump does well among college and post-college educated voters, too, and the Brexit is suddenly developing support from the sort of political class leaders who used to be pro-Europe. The difference is that the upper-class types have been less willing to show it.
In both cases, it may be that the lower classes are expressing their views more openly because they have less to lose. Express the "wrong" opinions in British or American politics or academia and it's the (figurative) gulag for you; if you work at a fast-food place, the consequences are generally less steep. But when enough ordinary voters express an opinion, the elites may feel safer, too.
In his terrific book, Private Truths, Public Lies:The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification, Timur Kuran writes about the phenomenon he calls "preference falsification": People tend to hide unpopular views to avoid ostracism or punishment; they stop hiding them when they feel safe.
This can produce rapid change: In totalitarian societies like the old Soviet Union, the police and propaganda organizations do their best to enforce preference falsification. Such regimes have little legitimacy, but they spend a lot of effort making sure that citizens don't realize the extent to which their fellow-citizens dislike the regime. If the secret police and the censors are doing their job, 99% of the populace can hate the regime and be ready to revolt against it -- but no revolt will occur because no one realizes that everyone else feels the same way.
This works until something breaks the spell and the discontented realize that their feelings are widely shared, at which point the collapse of the regime may seem very sudden to outside observers -- or even to the citizens themselves. Kuran calls this sudden change a "preference cascade," and I wonder if that's not what's happening here.
#2
I have talked with college kids who differently are afraid to express their views for fear of what the PC crowd will do to them. Interestinghy hypothesis.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/25/2016 12:29
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The small gay community in conservative, Muslim-majority Indonesia is facing a sudden and unexpected backlash [only an ignorant or ideological type would find this unexpected but that's the msm for you]
, with ministers and religious leaders denouncing homosexuality, LGBT websites blocked and emboldened hardliners launching anti-gay raids.
When a minister criticised counselling services for gay students at a university last month, it triggered a heated media debate and was the start of what activists say has been a sustained assault on gay rights.
Hardline Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu this week labelled the influence of the gay community "a threat" and said fighting it was akin to "a kind of modern warfare".
"It's dangerous as we can't see who our foes are, but out of the blue everyone is brainwashed," he was cited as saying by news website Tempo.
The government has shut down a slew of websites, ordered TV programs depicting gay lives off the air and demanded all instant messaging apps remove same-sex emoticons -- like men holding hands and the symbolic rainbow flag -- or face a ban.
Indonesia's top Islamic clerical body has revived a push for gay sex to be criminalised, saying it is not only "deviant" but against the country's founding principles, and lawmakers are reportedly considering drafting an anti-homosexuality bill.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/25/2016
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Your comment is so right, lord garth. Democrats (& others) on Twitter regularly whine at me for being a gay guy who votes Republican (not that I mind the discussion that follows, though I usually - surprise! - get blocked). Meanwhile we have a president who mocks legitimate concerns over the spread of Islamism as "fear of widows and orphans". As I tell them, if you think a person who believes a child is better off with both a mom and a dad is a bigger threat to gay people than thousands of unvetted immigrants from the heart of Daeshistan, you're either very ignorant, or highly committed to a faith-based dogma. On second though, I don't much blame them for preferring to block me to trying to respond logically to that challenge. It doesn't seem to cause them to question the idea that THEY are the tolerant ones, however.
#2
Attack them based on how being blocked makes you feel. It will drive them crazy.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/25/2016 16:46
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Ahaha! Of course, I have to say that before they block me or they won't see it. Because they are so often people who claim the GOP are religious fanatics, they often get perturbed when I accuse them of being dogmatic about their faith-based views.
#4
a gay guy who votes Republican (not that I mind the discussion that follows, though I usually - surprise! - get blocked).
Apparently, in order to usher in a New Age of Freedom and Diversity, we all need to think alike. No doubt there is some Marxist verbiage that makes this seem less stupid than it is.
h/t Gates of Vienna
The South African economy is 'in crisis' says the country's finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
The comments came ahead of his Budget speech, in which he cut the country's growth forecast for 2016 to 0.9%, down from 1.7%. He conceded the economy was struggling with shrinking growth, 25% unemployment, and widespread poverty.
The South African currency, the rand, which has halved over the past five years, fell after the speech. It dropped 2.25% to make one rand worth around $0.0639.
#1
Gordham's solution sounds vaguely familiar. Senator Bernie Sanders to the white courtesy phone please, Bernie Sanders:
Pravin Gordhan, South Africa's finance minister, right, sits beside Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, left, before delivering his 2016 budget speech to parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Gordhan stuck to a pledge to bring down the budget deficit, targeting civil-servant jobs and increasing wealth taxes to stave off a credit-rating downgrade to junk.
h/t Instapundit
Donald Trump is the most famous narcissist in the world. That fact probably seems obvious to you, given Trump's continuous self-promotion. Mental health experts agree with your assessment. Trump hits most of the checkboxes for the diagnosis.
The biggest tell for narcissism is a belief that you are better than other people. For example, if Trump believed he could run for President -- with almost no political experience -- and dominate the Republican party in only a few short months, that would be an example of...
Okay, wait. That one doesn't work. Apparently his self-image was spot-on in that one specific case. It was the rest of us who got that one wrong.
But still, Trump obviously has an inflated self-image. For example, there was the time he thought he could transition from being a real estate developer to being a best-selling author of a book about negotiating, but then...shit. Okay, that example doesn't work.
Okay, how about this example: Remember when Trump thought he could transition from developing real estate and being a best selling author to becoming a reality TV star and then...okay, forget that one. That sort of worked out for Trump.
Um...okay, I have one. Remember all of the Trump real estate and casino businesses that failed? I think there were a handful of big failures. That's a terrible track record when you consider Trump's hundreds of successful projects that...shit. Okay, that example doesn't work when you put it in context.
But the ego on that guy. For example, Trump thinks models are attracted to him. Models! Ha ha! And they are, but my point is that I forget what my point is. Something about his ego? Yes, that's it.
Anyway, Trump thinks he is smarter than most people just because he has a high IQ and went to great schools. Usually that does mean you are smarter than 98% of the public, but in this case it was probably just luck, because obviously all of us are smarter than Trump. I mean, look at his haircut!
[FOX] Legal experts say the assignment of career Justice Department attorneys to the case shows the FBI probe has progressed beyond the initial referral, or "matured," giving agents access to the U.S. government's full investigative tool box, including subpoena power for individuals, business or phone records, as well as witnesses.
The Associated Press reported earlier this month that career lawyers were involved, but Lynch's comments are the most expansive to Congress.
"If the FBI makes the case that Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information and put America's security at risk, will you prosecute the case?" Republican Congressman John Carter asked Lynch during a budget hearing.
"Do you know of any efforts underway to undermine the FBI's investigation? And please look the American people in the eye and tell us what your position is as you are the chief prosecutor of the United States," Carter pressed.
Lynch replied, "...that matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice. They follow the evidence, they look at the law and they'll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate."
#1
No need to appoint an independent special prosecutor and make the process political, we'll handle everything here at DoJ and control the release of public information, the media and news leaks.
#5
...that matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice.
The multiple use of the phrase 'career independent' is quite telling. Something akin to a menu entry of....'Jumbo shrimp Jumbo'
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/25/2016 10:39
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#8
Is this the same Department of Justice career independent lawyers that, despite the Inspector General's recommendation to prosecute Humanity Abadi for embezzelment, refused to do so? Ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/25/2016 13:39
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#9
What is "career"? They got tenure? Or are the rest now part time due to Obamacare somehow? Or they outsource a lot?
#10
I am confident that considering the evidence already public that most DOJ attorneys are spending there time looking for legal reasons not to pursue Hillary or any of her cronies.
Why, yes. Yes he does
It didn't take long for the two Cuban-American presidential contenders to smell a Havana rat.
"You wake up this morning to the news that the president is planning to close GuantĂĄnamo ‐ maybe even giving it back to the Cuban government," Marco Rubio said Tuesday while campaigning in Las Vegas.
Dropping the "maybe," Ted Cruz said at a Reno rally, "I believe that President Obama intends to try to give the GuantĂĄnamo naval facility to RaĂşl and Fidel Castro as a parting gift."
Indeed, a diplomat familiar with the administration's Cuba maneuvering tells me the White House has seriously considered giving in to RaĂşl Castro's demand to hand over GuantĂĄnamo. America has controlled the naval base since 1903. Since the 1959 revolution, the Cuban government has said GuantĂĄnamo is an occupied territory that must be returned.
Most recently, RaĂşl Castro demanded turning Gitmo over as a condition for renewing relations.
White House officials say that, yes, Obama believes the detention facility should be closed down ‐ but no, not the naval base. RaĂşl opened a US embassy last year anyway. So unless there's some secret deal to change all that during Obama's March 21 visit, let's assume that, for now, we still have the base. Legacyâ˘
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016
08:51 ||
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[6 views]
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As predicted here on the Burg quite a while back. Stay tuned for the 2017 ribbon cutting ceremony and ground breaking of the Obama People's Library and Re-Education Center.
#3
I just don't think so. Gitmo is of vital strategic importance. You wouldn't want a Russian or Chinese leased naval base at the doorsteps of Florida.
Sorry, but not even Obama will do such an idiotic thing unless he wants to retire in Havana and miss out on all that money he will make with "speeches" in the next years.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/25/2016 11:50
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#4
EC,given Obama's hatred for America and especially its military, I don't think it is beyond him to turn Gitmo over to the Cubans. Having a Russian or Chinese base there would just be icing on the cake.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/25/2016 12:05
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#5
We need to put whatever replaces Gitmo in four different places: Honolulu, San Francisco, Manhattan, and Martha's Vineyard, so that when the lawfare hits the fan and they get released, they're walking the streets in the areas that voted for that c***.
#7
Actually he could do it without Congress. The Guantanamo treaty says that the base would revert to Cuba if the U.S. "abandons" it.
The Commander in Chief could recall all troops and abandon the base.
But please, let's be realistic. This is NOT going to happen. The military and the American public would fry him alive.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/25/2016 17:21
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#8
The military and the American public would fry him alive.
Even though Obama has the standard Leftist hatred of the military, he *is* the Command and Chief of the armed forces, and half of America voted for him twice.
This is a man in search of a legacy. At this point, I would be surprised if Gitmo did NOT end up in Cuban hands.
[Kanuk Journal] Europeans need to eat less beef and consume less dairy products in order to reach the EU's climate goals, according to a new study by Swedish researchers.
"Reductions, by 50 percent or more, in ruminant meat (beef and mutton) consumption are, most likely, unavoidable if the EU targets are to be met," according to the findings published in the Food Policy journal.
But Stefan Wirsenius, one of the authors of the study written by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and the SP Technical Research Institute, said there was no need to give up meat completely.
"Poultry and pork cause quite low emissions," he said. Dairy products are also problematic, according to the study. Producing 1 kilogram of protein from dairy results in emissions four times greater than for an equivalent amount of poultry.
"EU and US consumption of cheese and other dairy products is among the highest in the world. If we were to replace some of the dairy with vegetable products, such as oat milk, we would have a better chance of meeting our climate targets," Wirsenius said.
The European Union wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, when compared with levels from 1990.
#7
OK, I'm just taking those dangerous cows off the fields by eating steaks.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/25/2016 12:03
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#8
Eating more eurines would get the desired result quickest...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2016 13:49
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#9
Thank gawd the cowboys slaughtered the bison that covered America's Great Plains. Otherwise global warming would have started a century earlier.
Now if we can just take care of all those vast herds of African ruminants. And don't forget the termites! Cluster bomb love, that's what I'm thinking. Do it for the planet!
[Defense One] The Syrian war looks different depending on which protagonists you focus on. Here are just a few ways to look at it.
Russia's bombing campaign in Syria marks a new phase in the Syrian conflict, now in its fifth year. Launched in late September, in response to rebel gains against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the strikes were a prelude to a mid-October ground offensive by Syrian government forces to retake territory in the northwest of the country; meanwhile, the United States appears poised to expand its military presence on the ground.
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be trying to strengthen Assad's position ahead of potential political negotiations, brokered by major powers like Russia and the U.S., to end the civil war, writes David Ignatius in an essay for The Atlantic's new project, "What to Do About ISIS?" But so far, he adds, Russia's partnership with the Shiite-led governments of Syria and Iran has only deepened the divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims that are at the center of the war.
Syria's conflict has devolved from peaceful protests against the government in 2011 to a violent insurgency that has drawn in numerous other countries. It's partly a civil war of government against people; partly a religious war pitting Assad's minority Alawite sect, aligned with Shiite fighters from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, against Sunni rebel groups; and increasingly a proxy war featuring Russia and Iran against the United States and its allies. Whatever it is, it has so far killed 220,000 people, displaced half of the country's population, and facilitated the rise of ISIS.
[Atlas Shrugs] Sweden is already borrowing 10,000,000 kroner per hour to finance Muslim immigration. Muslim migrants will cost Sweden 14 Times their National Defense Budget. Who is going to defend the Swedes from the invaders?
Willis Ă berg, head of housing issues at the Swedish Migration Board, boasted that the organisation was 'thinking outside the box'.
'... having a theatre sounds really nice. Those who are going to stay at the ship will probably have to do that for quite a bit of time while their applications are being processed. So they need every encouragement they can get.'
Does anyone think that putting Muslim migrants on a luxury liner to live will give them unrealistic idea of what to expect from their host country?
Desperate Sweden is forced to hire luxury cruise liner with theatre, gym and swimming pool to house 2,000 refugees at a cost of ÂŁ65,000 A DAY
The Swedish Migration Board rented the Ocean Gala for £65,000 a day Cruise liner boasts a swimming pool, theatre and numerous restaurants Officials admitted they needed to 'think outside the box' to deal with crisis But locals living in town of HärnÜsand object to it mooring in their harbour
By Ulf Andersson and Flora Drury For Mailonline, February 17, 2016: Thousands of migrants are being given rooms aboard a luxury ocean liner which comes complete with a theatre and swimming pool because Sweden can no longer cope with the numbers arriving at its borders every week, it has been revealed.
Sweden's Migration Board is renting the Ocean Gala -- once the world's largest cruise liner where holidaymakers pay ÂŁ2,500 for a two-week break -- for at least the next year at the eye-watering cost of of ÂŁ65,000 a day.
When the giant cruise ship is full it will provide bed and board for 1,790 migrants -- about the number arriving in the country every single day at the height of the crisis.
A spokesman said: 'Having a theatre sounds really nice. Those who are going to stay at the ship will probably have to do that for quite a bit of time while their applications are being processed. So they need every encouragement they can get.'
[Wash Times] The Obama administration is preparing to crack down on sanctuary cities, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Congress on Wednesday, saying she would try to stop federal grant money from going to jurisdictions that actively thwart agents seeking to deport illegal immigrants.
Her announcement marks a major policy reversal for the administration, which for years has opposed legislation that would have forced such a crackdown.
Ms. Lynch also said the federal Bureau of Prisons will no longer release illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities and instead will turn them over to immigration authorities to be deported. That is a response to last summer's killing of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco.
"This is a very significant change, and we're deeply grateful to you," Rep. John Abney Culberson, Texas Republican, told Ms. Lynch at a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee.
[The Daily Caller] Israel's Minister of Defense claimed that Iran is setting up a global terror network which is poised to commit attacks on the U.S. and Europe on command.
Moshe Ya'alon warned that the "sleeper cells" being set up by Iran are collecting weapons, intelligence and gathering operatives on Wednesday while on a trip to Cyprus. He believes that Iran is creating "emissaries" intended to spread the Islamic revolution worldwide.
"The Iranian regime through the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps is building a complex terror infrastructure including sleeping cells that are stockpiling arms, intelligence and operatives and are ready to act on order including in Europe and America," said Ya'alon.
He noted that the Syrian civil war has created "widespread infiltration by murderous, merciless terror organizations."
#3
Meanwhile 200 miles from Iceland Mary listens and observes.
Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain,
Maryland!
Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain-
"Sic semper!" 'tis the proud refrain
That baffles minions back again,
Maryland!
Arise in majesty again,
[Washington Examiner] Attorney General Loretta Lynch confirmed Wednesday that President Obama cannot legally move detainees from Guantanamo Bay to any United States territory.
"That is the state of the law," Lynch told a House Appropriations Committee panel, citing defense legislation signed into law by Obama last year.
"It's certain that we would be prohibited from doing so. I'm not aware of any efforts to do so at this time, in any event," she said in response to a question about the Pentagon's plan to close the 15-year old detention facility in Cuba.
#2
No sense bringing them here and disrupting the fledgling ISIS domestic terrorist network.
Bribe a foreign gov't to take them and you've hit the trifecta. You're rid of a fat, aging terrorist, emptied GITMO, and you've recruited a paid foreign asset.
#3
Saw a comment at PJMedia pointing out that Ms. Lynch may try to behave nicely to create a case for her being Obama's nominee for Scalia's position. the GOPe needs a really good excuse to give up and roll over, and so this might provide it.
#4
Ref #3. Yes quite interesting her recent news breakout. Her credibility might be bolstered a tad if just fok'n ONE of the Beest's inner circle were to be brought up on charges. Failing that, what she sez is meaningless drivel.
My guess is the FBI has discovered Obama regime fingerprints all over the email scandal.
The number of private contractors working for the U.S. Defense Department in Iraq grew eight-fold over the past year, a rate that far outpaces the growing number of American troops training and advising Iraqi soldiers battling Islamic State militants.
The sharp increase, disclosed in a recent Pentagon report to Congress, underscores the military's reliance on civilians even for missions with relatively small troop presence.
"If you look at the size and the composition of the forces that have been deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, that's changed markedly in the past year," said Rick Brennan, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corp. and a retired Army officer.
As of January, 2,028 contractors were in Iraq, up from just 250 one year earlier, according to the Pentagon's data. There are roughly 3,700 American troops there now, compared to 2,300 in January 2015.
That number of military contractors represents just a fraction of the contractors employed by the U.S. in Iraq. In addition to the 2,028 Pentagon contractors, another 5,800 are employed by other agencies, including the State Department.
In the 1980s, the U.S. military decided to hire contractors to work in support roles that had historically been done by troops. That includes jobs like food services, maintaining housing units, water purification and "all those those other things that go with maintaining troops in the field for a long time," Brennan said. The plus-up in Iraq is likely for contractors in those types of roles.
"What's occurred then is as you deploy more forces to theater, you have to provide increased total number of contractors," Brennan said.
During the Iraq War, there was a little bit more than one-to-one ratio of contractors to soldiers, he said. Now in Iraq, more than 30 percent (618) of the contractors are working in maintenance and logistics jobs. Nearly 20 percent (381) are translators and 13 percent (263) are in base support positions, according to the data. Contractors are also working in security, transportation, construction, communication support, training, management and administrative roles.
Nearly 70 percent of the contractors are American citizens, 20 percent are third-country nationals and the remaining are local Iraqis. The number of contractors the Pentagon can employ in Iraq is not capped, according to Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve.
Many of the contractors in Iraq and neighboring countries are from well known warzone companies like KBR, DynCorp, and Fluor Corporation, the three firms hired by the Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LogCap. The Pentagon awards individual "task order" deals to these each time it needs to support troops overseas.
"It makes tailoring a unit much more responsive to the needs of the commander because you don't have to try to rip people [with a trade specialty] from other installations," Brennan said.
KBR, in a November presentation to investors, said its LogCap services work in Iraq "grew in the period with further growth possible."
Besides the LogCap contractors, the Pentagon can award independent contracts, according to Andrew Hunter, a former Pentagon official who now director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington. In some instances, the Pentagon hires contractors already working for the government in order to speed up the process.
Even though U.S. troops withdrew fully from Iraq in 2011, many contractors stayed behind working at the American embassy or in logistical roles maintaining Iraq's military equipment.
Congress ordered the Pentagon to provide detailed information about battlefield contractors following an incident in which private military contractors working for Blackwater USA killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad in September 2007.
Not all contractors in the warzone are base guards, laundry workers or chefs. The CIA and other intelligence agencies still use contractors like the former Blackwater or $2.2 billion firm DynCorp and other for paramilitary services. The number of those contractors, some who are closer to the battlefield than the military advisors, is classified and unknown to the public.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, has sent Congress regular updates about the number of contractors being employed in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2008. In July 2008, just following the 2007 troop surge, there were 162,428 Pentagon-funded contractors in Iraq, according to the data.
#2
KBR, DynCorp, and Fluor Corporation, the three firms hired by the Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LogCap. The Pentagon awards individual "task order" deals to these each time it needs to support troops overseas.
Yes, yes, yes, we've been briefed on the contracting efforts, 'K-Street', DoS at Benghazi, but little on the colossal LogCap cock-up of a program that simply keeps on giving.
ISIS threatened Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey on Wednesday with promises that its hackers are fighting back against efforts to wipe social media platforms of accounts promoting terrorism, Vocativ discovered.
A 25-minute propaganda video showing pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey covered with bullet holes was uncovered by Vocativ deep web analysts on the social-media site Telegram, which ISIS frequents. The video is titled "Flames Of The Supporters," and ends with a direct threat to the two CEOs.
"You announce daily that you suspend many of our accounts, and to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league," text on the video clip reads. "If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete your sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true."
Twitter said earlier this month it suspended 125,000 accounts "for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS." Facebook has said that it works to ensure that terrorists don't use the site, and that it removes content supporting terrorism.
The Islamic State isn't taking the actions lightly. A group of ISIS hackers calling themselves "the sons of the Caliphate army" released a video on Wednesday claiming to show them hacking Facebook and Twitter accounts by changing profile pictures and posting ISIS materials and propaganda on the platforms. ISIS claims it hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, more than 150 Facebook groups and more than 5,000 accounts on Twitter. "Many of these accounts have been given to supporters," it says.
The video and its claims are part of the terror group's war of words in a wider propaganda campaign that has aimed to show defiance against efforts targeting its online operations. A February report by George Washington University Program on Extremism said the amount of pro-ISIS content available on Twitter has been limited by account suspensions since last summer. Suspensions have also devastated the reach of specific ISIS-affiliated users who have been repeatedly targeted, the report said.
Over the last several months, ISIS supporters have responded to efforts to minimize its Twitter reach by moving to other platforms such as the messaging app Telegram. In the past, dating back to at least September 2014, ISIS supporters have called on "lone wolves" to target Twitter employees and even kill Twitter co-founder Dorsey.
[IsraelTimes] Sapper called in to disarm explosives at kiosk outside the Old City; overnight, security forces arrest 18 Paleostinians in the West Bank
Israel Police caught two East Jerusalem men with pipe bombs and ammunition hidden in their kiosk outside of Herod's Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem on Wednesday.
A police sapper was called in to disarm the home-made bombs, which were found in a food stand. The suspects were in their 40s and have been brought in for questioning, a spokesperson said.
Police did not immediately say whether they suspected the incident was terror-related or criminal. "An investigation has been opened into the motives and circumstances of the incident," the spokesperson said.
Overnight, the IDF and Border Police jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! 18 Paleostinians in the West Bank. Eight of the Paleostinians were arrested for being members of the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terror group, while three were brought in for so-called popular terrorism, the IDF's term for rock throwing and participation in violent protests, an army spokesperson said.
The suspicions against the remaining seven suspects were not provided and the IDF refused to elaborate, saying only that they were involved in "some sort of illegal activity."
It was the second night in a row in which comparatively large numbers of Paleostinians have been arrested. On Monday night and early Tuesday morning, 19 people were arrested in the West Bank.
In 2015, the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police arrested over 3,000 Paleostinians for affiliation with terror groups, rock throwing and other charges, resulting in over 1,900 indictments, according to statistics released by the Shin Bet on Tuesday.
[IsraelTimes] Embattled Sunni government accuses Shiite group of training separatists, orchestrating attacks
Yemen's embattled government accused Leb's Hezbollah Shiite militia on Wednesday of sending fighters to support Iran-backed Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels controlling parts of the war-ravaged country including the capital.
The government has evidence of "Hezbollah's involvement in the Houthi war against the Yemeni people," its front man Rajih Badi said in a statement published by the official Saba Net website.
Hezbollah bully boyz are present in "the battlefields along the border with Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ," where attacks from 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... have killed about 90 civilians and soldiers in the kingdom since March last year, said Badi.
Hezbollah is taking part in the Yemeni war on the ground by training the Shiite Houthis and orchestrating attacks against Saudi Arabia, said Badi, urging "international legal measures" against the movement.
"This evidence is documented and Hezbollah cannot deny its role in the destruction it is contributing to through the clear moral and logistic support" for the rebels, said Badi.
Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition battling the Houthis and their allies since last March in support of the government.
The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... says the war has left more than 6,000 people dead.
[Ynet] The Yemeni government has captured documents and bodies of Hezbollah holy warriors, demonstrating the extent of the Hezbollah's involvement in the war betwee the Houthis and the Hadi regime supported by Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and the GCC.
The Hadi regime front man Rajeh Badi said, "this is a blatant interference in the affairs of an independent state, and performing these hostilities against the legitimate Yemeni government and the Arab coalition forces would exacerbate the crisis."
#1
Well, of course. Iran supports the Houthis and Hezbollah are the Ayatollahs' paid puppets. Start sending maimed and dead ones back, like in Syria, and it gets old, quick
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016 13:18
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[IsraelTimes] Victim evacuated to Jerusalem hospital; manhunt launched for attacker in suspected terror attack
An Israeli man was severely injured when he was beaten and stabbed in central Ma’ale Adumim early Friday.
Investigators are looking at the incident as a possible terror attack.
The believed attacker, a Paleostinian said to be in his early 20s, expeditiously departed at a goodly pace. A manhunt was launched for him, including in Paleostinian villages near the West Bank settlement, which lies east of Jerusalem.
A knife and an ax were found at the scene, the Israel Hayom daily reported.
The injured man, a security guard in his early 40s, was treated by Magen David Adom rescue medics at the scene and taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem.
He arrived in hospital unconscious and attached to a breathing apparatus.
[IsraelTimes] Baquer Namazi, first American placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! since January prisoner swap, held in Evin prison, wife says; son also placed in durance vile in Iran
Hostages: it's what Caliphates do.
Family and friends say a US citizen who is the father of a detained American in Iran has been tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! by Iranian authorities.
Baquer Namazi, whose son Siamak has been held since September, was arrested on Tuesday.
His wife wrote in a Facebook post that she was told he is now in Tehran's Evin prison.
Haleh Esfandiari, a friend of the Namazis and a Mideast expert at the Wilson Center, said Namazi is more than 80 years old and a dual US-Iranian
State Department front man Mark Toner said the US was aware of reports an American was detained in Iran. He wouldn't comment further out of privacy considerations.
The arrest would mark the first of a US citizen since last month's prisoner swap between the two countries.
Iran released four Americans, including Washington Post news hound Jason Rezaian, only last month, in what was seen as a gesture of goodwill upon the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal.
The others were Amir Hekmati and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, Washington said. A fifth American, identified as Matthew Trevitick, was also to be released as part of a different process.
In exchange Washington said it had granted clemency to seven Iranians, six of whom are dual US-Iranian citizens, and dropped charges against 14 more.
The seven Iranians freed by the US were Nader Modanlou, Baharam Mekanik, Khosrow Afghahi, Arash Ghahraman, Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh, and Ali Sabounchi, according Iran's judiciary and the state broadcaster.
Another American, Robert Levinson, 68, of Coral Springs, Florida, has been missing in Iran for close to nine years. CNN quoted Levinson's family as expressing happiness for the families of other Americans released in the prisoner exchange, but said it was "devastated" that he was not among those released.
Iran says it does not know the whereabouts of Levinson, who is Jewish.
#3
Maybe he will give Iran a B83 nuclear weapon, along with a design manual, in exchange. You know, to help his new BFFs to skip all that tedious research.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/25/2016 9:56
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[IsraelTimes] Veteran Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,gunnies among those slipping into Egypt, sources say; Cairo aware of the trend and trying to stop it
Despite Egypt’s relentless efforts to seal off its side of the Hamas-run Gazoo Strip, a steady if light stream of Gazooks are managing to leave the Strip and join the ranks of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters locked in combat with Egyptian forces in the Sinai, sources in the Strip said Thursday.
The Gazoo fighters are crossing mainly via the last few tunnels still connecting the Sinai Peninsula to Gazoo. Egypt has closed most of the smuggling tunnels in recent years.
Some of those crossing to join IS have fought against Israel in the past, either as members of Hamas or of Salafi-jihadist terror groups, the sources said.
The fighters are crossing into Egypt with the knowledge of Hamas’s military wing, which supervises the tunnels, the sources said. The Egyptian administration is aware of the trend and trying to prevent it.
The fighters are leaving in small groups, but are gradually coming to constitute a fairly substantial number of recruits to Sinai Province, the IS affiliate that is fighting the Egyptian army in Sinai. The sources did not have a firm figure for how many fighters have crossed the border.
Two of the best-known operatives who have crossed into to Egypt are Mahmoud Za’arah and Muhammed Shahin, both of whom have played an active part in festivities with the IDF. Za’arah and Shahin are said to be among those training Sinai Province fighters.
According to the sources, there are currently just 10-15 active tunnels between Gazoo and Egypt, a drastic decrease compared to three years ago, when the number was 650-700. Only a few solitary tunnels connect the Rafah crossing area and the triangle of borders -- Egypt, Israel and Gazoo -- in the Kerem Shalom area, they said.
Egypt has flooded tunnel areas and demolished hundreds of houses close to the border at and around Rafah. Sinai Province gunnies attack Egyptian military targets on a near-daily basis.
The fact that Gazoogunnies are crossing into Egypt to fight with IS further underlines the scale of Egypt-Hamas hostility. Cairo is said to be steadfastly opposed to any idea of easing the pressure on Hamas by giving Gazoo access of some kind to a seaport. The Hebrew-language Haaretz daily reported on Wednesday that some senior IDF officials support the idea, and that a range of possible port arrangements -- including an artificial offshore island to hold a port -- are being discussed at senior military and political levels, in part because of the worsening economic situation in Gazoo and consequent Israeli concern over renewed conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon flatly oppose all such ideas, however, the newspaper report said.
ERBIL – The Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group has executed an Imam in Mosul city in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh province on Wednesday, after accusing him of “fighting the Caliphate”.
Fawasz Hussein al-Wanli, Imam of Ali Bin Abi Talib mosque in Mosul, was arrested last Friday after delivering a speech calling on the people of Mosul to take up arms and fight against ISIS.
“Imam al-Wanli was known as one of the main opponents to ISIS in Mosul. He considered the ISIS alleged Caliphate as a tyrant regime aimed at eliminating all moderate Muslims in the region,” local media activist Abdullah al-Malla told ARA News in Mosul.
After four days in detention, the Sharia Court ordered the jihadis to publicly execute the Imam.
“He was beheaded on Wednesday evening at the al-Gharbi square in front of hundreds of people,” and eyewitness told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
ISIS Executes Over 1000 People in Mosul
The Islamic State has released a list of names of more than 1000 people who have been executed over the last few months in the city of Mosul in Nineveh province, northern Iraq.
The victims have been executed at the hands of ISIS jihadis on different charges.
The extremist group has posted the lists of the victims’ names on the walls of the Sharia Court in central Mosul, local sources confirmed last week.
“The names of 1065 people who have been executed by the group were posted on the walls of the ISIS-led Sharia Court,” rights activist Muhammad al-Jarjari told ARA News in Mosul.
“The group was very proud of killing so many innocent civilians on baseless charges,” said al-Jarjari.
This is the first time that ISIS releases such documents to the public.
“It is a new way to terrorize the people of Mosul,” the source said.
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Sharia Court in the city last Wednesday to check the lists.
“People headed to the location where the names of the victims were posted in order to look into the destiny of their family members who have disappeared over more than a year of ISIS control in Mosul,” media activist Abdullah al-Malla said.
Speaking to ARA News, al-Malla added that most of the victims whose names were included in the documents “have been killed in mass executions at the hands of ISIS jihadis”.
“A large number of those civilians have been summarily executed by firing squad in Mosul suburb. Most of them were accused of opposing the ISIS self-declared Caliphate and cooperating with hostile troops like the Kurdish Peshmerga and the western coalition,” the source reported.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/25/2016
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#1
hearts and minds, boy-os
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016 9:03
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#2
Too bad that thing about not killing another Muslim isn't working.
[ALMANAR.LB] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on Wednesday said Syrian Kurdish forces must remain outside the scope of a ceasefire agreed between Syria's warring parties, just like Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... snuffies of ISIL and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front.
"If Daesh [Islamic State] (ISIL) and Al-Nusra are kept outside the ceasefire, then the PYD-YPG must similarly be excluded from the ceasefire for it is a terrorist group just as they are," Erdogan told local officials in Ankara, referring to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG) forces.
The US and Russia have announced a ceasefire in Syria will come into effect on Feb. 27, but said that ISIL and Nusra Front will be excluded.
"Our allies must understand that they are at a crossroads... It is a fact that the [the Democratic Union Party] PYD and YPG are terrorist organizations that are extensions of the PKK," Erdogan said.
In an apparent response to US statements calling the YPG an effective partner in the fight against ISIL in Syria, Erdogan said the notion that the YPG was supported because it is fighting ISIL was a "great lie."
"The PYD is supported because it fights against ISIL. Nusra Front is also fighting against ISIL. Why is it bad?" he asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
We need to bring back state sanctioning of assassinations. Erdroga an fat boy first.
Posted by: chris ||
02/25/2016 8:19
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#2
Taking bread out of the mouth of Russian children, chris?
Turkish military helicopters killed nine Kurdish militants in strikes near the southeastern border with Syria on Wednesday, security sources said, in a conflict becoming increasingly intertwined with developments in Turkey's war-torn neighbour.
The Cobra attack helicopters launched the assault at around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) as a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters travelled through a mountainous area near the Idil district of Turkey's Sirnak province, the sources said.
Parts of Idil were placed under 24-hour curfew last week as the security forces carried out an operation against the militants. That was part of a wider military campaign which began last December in towns in the mostly Kurdish southeast following the collapse in July of a ceasefire with the PKK.
The Turkish armed forces shelled YPG positions in northern Syria in the days after the attack and bombed PKK camps in northern Iraq, as the government vowed that those responsible would pay the price. Clashes inside Turkey have also continued.
On Tuesday, security forces killed six PKK militants in Idil and two others in the Sur district of the region's largest city Diyarbakir, the armed forces said in a statement. A soldier died of his wounds after coming under attack from PKK fighters in Sur on Wednesday, it said.
The statement also said security forces had detained four members of the PKK and PYD, the political arm of the Syrian YPG, on Tuesday in the Akcakale district of Sanliurfa province, two of whom had sought to cross the border from Syria illegally.
Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) murderous Moslem targets in northern Iraq late on Wednesday, hitting logistical centres, ammunition depots and shelters, security sources said. The jets took off from an air base in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, sources said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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The US Congress should postpone an immediate vote to reauthorize the 2006 Iran Sanctions Act until further along in the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Sputnik reported.
"I don’t think there is a need to rush here. I would like to see how the [JCPOA] implementation goes," Kerry said when asked if he supports the immediate congressional reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act.
We won't have to suffer this fool much longer...
The 2006 sanctions against Iran are set to expire at the end of 2016. US lawmakers have argued to reauthorize the act in the event Iran fails to comply with the terms of the internationally negotiated nuclear agreement reached last July.
Kerry encouraged lawmakers to "not immediately" consider the Iran sanctions reauthorization, saying, "we are just beginning now to see the full implementation" of the JCPOA.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least seven members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces were martyred in the latest wave of violence across the country, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said.
In a statement released to the media, the Ministry of Defense (MoD), said the Afghan soldiers bit the dust while suppressing the terrorist activities of the krazed killer groups in the past 24 hours.
According to MoD, the operations were conducted in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , Ghazni, Uruzgan and Kandahar province of the country where heavy casualties to the anti-government armed snuffies were incurred, including the affiliates of ISIS terror group and other hard boys.
There has been a sharp rise in the casualties of the Afghan national security forces since they took full control of the security responsibilites from the coalition forces at the start of last year.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... the Afghan cops have stepped up counter-terrorism operations across the country as the Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant during the recent months.
According to the earlier estimates by security officials, the Afghan army deaths stood at 4 service members daily on average which is mainly caused due to improvised bomb (IED) attacks.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... the number could be much more higher as the security situation has sharply deteriorated recently despite efforts to put an end to the ongoing violence through reconciliation process.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The anti-government armed gunnies have suffered heavy casualties during counter-terrorism operations led by the Afghan armed forces in the past 24 hours.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said over 50 gunnies were killed and 15 others were maimed in the latest operations led by the Afghan army.
A statement by MoD said at least 2 suspected gunnies were also incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! and various types of weapons, ammunition and explosives were confiscated.
At least 10 gunnies affiliated with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group and 14 gunnies belong ing to the Taliban group were killed and 7 othrs were maimed in a joint operation by security forces in Achin district, MoD said.
The statement also added that 19 others including 2 commanders of the gunnies were killed in Dand-e-Ghori district of northern Baghlan province, 4 others were maimed and 2 more were arrested.
Another myrmidon was killed in southeastern Ghazni province, 2 others were maimed, while 3 others were killed in Uruzgan province, MoD added.
According to MoD, a myrmidon was killed and 4 others were maimed in a separate operation in Shahwali Kot district of southern Kandahar province.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan intelligence operatives jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a group of thirteen Lions of Islam involved in major terror related activities in northeastern Takhar province of Afghanistan.
The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) said the detained individuals were involved in terrorist activities, including liquidation of religious holy mans, tribal elders and kidnappings.
NDS said the intelligence operatives have also confiscated some weapons and explosives including an Ak-47 rifle, a pistol and hand grenades from the detained individuals.
The anti-government armed bully boy groups have not commented regarding the detention of the suspected Lions of Islam so far.
Takhar is among the relatively volatile provinces in northeastern Afghanistan where anti-government armed Lions of Islam are actively operating in a number of its remote districts.
The Afghan intelligence earlier announced a group of suspected Lions of Islam including Taliban's shadow judge in Darqad district of Takhar.
The Talibs took control of Darqad district following an offensive launched around five months and was late retaken by the security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] Fearless Leader of the Islamic Revolution ...Iran's doddering head theocrat... in Iran, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei stressed on Wednesdday that despite 37 years of pressure, enemy failed in their plots against the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
In a speech addressing thousands of people from the city of Najafabad at the Imam Khomeini Mosque downtown Tehran, Imam Khamenei urged high turnout in the parliamentary elections which will take place on Friday.Imam Khamenei
"When enemy witnesses that after 37 years [since the victory of the Islamic Revolution], [and] with all [kinds of] pressure, cruel sanctions and spiteful and damaging propaganda it has failed to prevent people's allegiance to the establishment," it comes to realize the grandeur of the Islamic establishment, Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The Leader said enemy is attempting to create a "false bipolarity" in Iran like "pro-government and anti-government parliament," stressing that the Iranian people will stand up to enemy plots They're everywhere! They're everywhere! by voting in the upcoming elections.
The next elections for the 10th term of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) and the 5th term of the Assembly of Experts will take place simultaneously on February 26.
"The Iranian nation wants a pious, committed and brave parliament that is not deceived by the enemy tricks; a parliament that attaches importance to dignity and independence [of the country] and stands up to the greed of powers whose hands have been cut off from Iran," said the Leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian army seized a town in Aleppo southeastern countryside as it advanced towards Khanasser, field sources told al-Manar.
The sources said that the Syrian army established control of Rasm al-Nafel town, adding that the Syrian armed forces also secured the surroundings of Shalala al-Kabira town following festivities with ISIL Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... holy warriors.
Various kinds of arms were used during the festivities which killed and injured several terrorists, the sources added.
The Syrian army go ahead with its offensive in Aleppo southeastern countryside, the sourced said noting that the armed forces are advancing towards the strategic town of Khanasser.
The Syrian army and allies also managed to advance in Daraya in western Gouta in Damascus countryside, controlling several buildings.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Khurasan University (KU) which is a private educational institution will provide free education to 120 students in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. KU President said during a presser on Wednesday that he has requested the education directorate of Nangarhar to identify outstanding boys and girls to him who graduated from 12th grade in the educational year 1394.
Ahmad Farouq Kamal added that these students would be granted admission to the engineering, economic and computer science faculties.
Kamal also offered a 50 percent discount for all girls who have graduated from 12th grade in the same year and desire to continue their studies.
Deputy Governor Mohammad Hanif Gardiwal who also attended the presser in Nangarhar Governor House Media and Information Office praised Khurasan University for its unique step for promoting education.
Gardiwal encouraged other private educational institutions to step forward and help those who are unable to proceed with their degrees for economic reasons or their marks did not match the areas of education they selected during the last Kankor 'university entry test' taken by the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] South Korea dismissed on Wednesday China's warning that the planned deployment of a US missile defense system could damage ties, stressing that it was to counter "growing threats" from North Korea.
"The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) is a measure of self-defense against growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea," presidential front man Jeong Yeon-Guk said.
Jeong said the issue would be "decided in accordance with security and national interests," adding that "China will have to recognize the point."
The remarks came after Chinese ambassador Qiu Guohong Tuesday warned that installation of the THAAD system on the Korean Peninsula could "destroy" relations between Beijing and Seoul.
China has repeatedly protested since Washington and Seoul announced plans to deploy the missile defense in the South, in response to North Korea's recent nuclear test and rocket launch.
But Tuesday was the first time that a Chinese diplomat or official has warned of the effect on diplomatic ties with Seoul.
South Korea's foreign ministry said it was taking "necessary measures" about Qiu's comments without elaborating further.
"Before raising an issue about the THAAD deployment, it will be reasonable to consider the root of the problem," the ministry said.
The THAAD system fires anti-ballistic missiles to smash into enemy missiles either inside or outside the Earth's atmosphere during their final flight phase.
The interceptor missiles carry no warheads, instead relying on kinetic energy to destroy their targets.
The allies announced their intention to begin talks on its deployment following Pyongyang's long-range rocket launch on February 7, which was seen by the US and its allies as a covert ballistic missile test.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] Russian jets carried out 187 Arclight airstrikes on terrorist targets in Syria in the course of 62 sorties during the past two days, the Russian Defense Ministry front man said Wednesday. Areas where warring sides agreed to cease hostilities and start negotiations were not targeted, he emphasized.
The Russian Aerospace Forces continue to attack turban groups in Syria which are not included in the cessation of hostilities agreement and are designated as terrorist organizations by the UN, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
"During the past two days, 187 targets in the provinces of Hama, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and Homs were struck in the course of 62 sorties."
A Su-34 bomber destroyed over 10 strongholds and neutralized more than 50 gunnies in the Hama province, he elaborated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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KARACHI: Three suspected terrorists were killed in a shootout with Rangers in the Manghopir area of Karachi on Wednesday, said a spokesman for the paramilitary force.
The spokesman said Rangers personnel started a search operation in Manghopir on reports about the presence of some terrorists. The raid turned into an exchange of gunfire.
“The armed men in the hideouts attacked the Rangers team when they were taking positions following a tip-off about the presence of terrorists in the area; more forces were called in to join the operation and after an exchange of gunfire three terrorists were killed. They all belonged to a banned outfit.”" said the spokesman.
He claimed that the suspects, who are yet to be identified, were involved in a missile attack on Razmak Cadet College besides taking part in the murder of at least 50 army men and 12 police officers.
The ‘operation’ against criminal elements in Pakistan’s commercial hub was initiated back in September 2013 after the federal cabinet empowered Rangers to lead a targeted advance with the support of police against criminals already identified by federal military and civilian agencies for their alleged involvement in targeted killings, kidnappings for ransom, extortion and terrorism in Karachi.
A high-level apex committee meeting chaired by the Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif on May 14, 2015 had decided to implement effective policing and surveillance in the "vast suburbs of Karachi", to prevent what the military spokesperson said were "sneaking terrorist attacks".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Malwarebytes informed me that it prevented VBScript from loading in my browser when I visited one of the articles. I don't suppose there is much that can be done about this, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.
#2
That sort of thing is why we archive most of the articles.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016 1:55
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#3
Jeez, I've been in the stacks, it's kinda dark in the annex with that dry cold you get in an old open stack system, in the dawnzerlylite I saw A SeaFoam Green Apparition which was not scary, but rather friendly, "keep your nick and don't troll the regulars" it said. I then put on my curly toed slippers and exited, stage left.
Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Tuesday that Washington is considering a "Plan B" to deal with Syria if Damascus and Moscow are not serious about negotiating a political transition.
And it's gonna be great! Oops, sorry, wrong demagogue...
Briefing US lawmakers, Kerry said he had told Russia's President Vladimir Putin the United States would not wait more than a few months to see whether Moscow's ally Bashar Al Assad is serious about talks. But he would not be drawn on details of any "Plan B" that he would advise President Barack Obama to adopt if efforts to mediate a political deal to end the Syrian civil war fail.
Diplomatic sources and US Press reports suggest the new plan would involve more direct US and allied military involvement, but Washington remains very cautious about being drawn deeper into the conflict.
Great, we can be fighting against ourselves again. And what's the "allied military involvement" going to be -- another company of Belgian heavy barbers?
"When I met President Putin, I said to him very directly that the test is not going to be proven in six months or a year and a half, when the election is supposedly scheduled," Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "We're going to know in a month or two whether or not this transition process is really serious."
The ceasefire will not include actions by or against the Daesh militant group nor Syria's Al Qaeda offshoot, but Kerry hopes it will halt Russian and Syrian attacks on opposition rebel factions.
If it sticks, Kerry and Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergi Lavrov - joint organisers of the 17-nation International Syrian Support Group - will push Assad and the rebels to negotiate a political transition, with a new constitution and elections. Some of the US senators expressed skepticism about the plan, but Kerry insisted Putin would not want to see Russian forces bogged down in a drawn out war if his ally Assad refuses to engage politically.
"There is a significant discussion taking place now about 'Plan B' in the event that we don't succeed at the table," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Plan B is to close Syria, transfer ISIS to the USA and give Syria to the Castro Brothers.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar said Wednesday that the bad boy groups pursuing violence would face onslaught by the security forces, insisting that the ongoing reconciliation efforts is the best option for the anti-government armed bad boy groups to give up violence.
Atmar further added that the foreign bully boyz waging violence against the Afghan people will not be part of the reconciliation process.
In his remarks during the delivery of Russia's military aid to the Afghan cops, Atmar said foreign bully boyz including Al-Qaeda and other terror networks are fighting in the country besides the insurgency led by the Afghan Talibs.
Atmar further added that the Afghan cops will be equipped and the process will continue so that the military options can be used to eliminate the menace of terror by the foreigners.
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... Atmar insisted that the government of Afghanistan will continue with its efforts to put an end to the ongoing violence led by the Afghan bad boy groups.
He also praised the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) for their devotion and sacrifices, saying the government and elders of the country will always remember them.
The plane carrying 10,000 Ak-47 assault rifles from Russia arrived to capital Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... this morning.
The delivery of the assault rifles is part of Russia's support to bolster the capabilities of the Afghan cops to fight the menace of terrorism.
Russian President's special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov said late in December last year "Russia has been consistently pursuing the policy of providing comprehensive assistance to Afghanistan in the establishment of a peaceful, independent, stable and self-sufficient state, free from terrorism and drugs."
The Afghan government has stepped up efforts to attract the regional as well as global support to equip the Afghan national security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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It was a landmark moment for the beleaguered energy industry and one heavy with both symbolism and economic implications. The Theo T was ushering in a new era as it left the U.S. Gulf Coast bound for France.
The implications -- both financial and political -- for energy behemoths such as Saudi Arabia and Russia are staggering, according to Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank and a former venture capitalist. "It's a game changer," he said.
For the Saudis and their OPEC cohorts, who collectively control 40 percent of the globe's oil supply, the specter of U.S. crude landing at European and Asian refineries further weakens their grip on world petroleum prices at a time they are already suffering from lower prices and stiffened competition. With Russia also seeing its influence over European energy buyers lessened, the two crude superpowers last week tentatively agreed to freeze oil output at near-record levels, the first such coordination in a decade and a half. Meanwhile, back at the ranch,
U.S. LNG cargoes, in combination with a bevy of new gas projects in Australia, will probably add 15 billion cubic feet of daily supply to global markets in the next few years, Genscape's Michael said. That would be a 43 percent addition to the 35 billion currently bought and sold internationally.
"We will definitely replace Russia as the lowest-cost supplier," Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., said of the U.S. expansion. "All of these things will have geopolitical and economic consequences. It's a win-win for the U.S. and the West." In spite of 0bama. Who sez that America ain't still great? :-)
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Old World versus New World, North-SOuth Americas versus Eurasia, NORTH AMERICAN UNION [NAU]versus Darth Putin'S EURASIAN CUSTOMS UNION [EEU] ... ...
Espec to be the One-n-Only, World-acknowledged TRUE "MACKINDER'S WORLD ISLAND".
#4
At this point, the Chinese are not buying the coal anyway. Shift all the money being put down the ethanol-wind-battery ratholes to clean coal and robotic mining research and reap the benefits in 10-20 years.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2016 13:45
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(IraqiNews.com) Wasit – The police department in Wasit Province announced, that the police forces arrested 25 suspects, including a terrorist in different areas in the province.
The police department said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Wasit police arrested 25 suspects on different charges in al-Masouliya axis.”
The statement added, “The emergency police force backed by Anti-Terrorism intelligence also arrested a terrorist north of al-Suwaira, two suspects based on Article 406 of the Penal Code, as well as two suspects carrying fake currencies.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/25/2016
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[IsraelTimes] Tehran, flush with cash from sanctions relief, will give slain attackers' families $7,000, envoy says, and $30,000 to terrorists' families whose homes Israel demolishes
Iran will pay thousands of dollars to families of Paleostinian Death Eaters killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis, Tehran's ambassador to Leb said Wednesday.
Mohammad Fateh Ali said Tehran will give $7,000 to families of "deaders of the intifada in occupied Jerusalem" and a further "$30,000 to every family whose home the occupation has demolished for the participation of one of its sons," according to local news reports.
Twenty-nine Israelis and three non-Israelis have been killed in a wave of Paleostinian terrorist attacks and violence since October, during which over 170 Paleostinians have also been killed, some two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during festivities with troops, according to the Israeli army.
Jerusalem slammed the announcement of Iranian financial aid to terrorists, saying it was another example of Iran's continued aggression towards Israel.
"This is further proof of Iran's deep involvement in support for anti-Israeli terrorism," read a Foreign Ministry statement. "After the [nuclear] agreement with world powers, Iran has allowed itself to continue as a major player in international terrorism."
Israeli officials frequently warned that the lifting of sanctions on Iran would free up billions of dollars that Tehran could funnel into funding terror activities.
Israel's Channel 2 reported Wednesday that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials met recently in Tehran with Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Al-Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, and discussed Iranian funding for the terror group. He said he "kissed the foreheads" of all those thousands engaged in anti-Israel activities, the TV report said.
Tehran reportedly upped financial support to Hamas, the Gazoo-based terror group, after signing of the nuclear deal with Western powers last July.
The historic agreement gave Tehran access to an estimated $100 billion dollars in frozen money and opened up the country's economy, long hampered by sanctions, to international business.
Ali's statements were made at a presser attended by Hamas officials, who reportedly praised the initiative and thanked Iran for its support. However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... Ali seemed to open up the terror incentives to all Paleostinians, not just Hamas members.
Earlier in the day, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon warned that Iran was paying for and readying sleeper cells to attack targets in Israel, the US and Europe.
[INDIATODAY.INTODAY.IN] An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistain yesterday sentenced two Masood Azhar led Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM) activists to 10 years in prison for raising funds for the banned outfit. This is the first instance of the Pakistain government cracking down on snuffies ever since India provided evidence allegedly showing Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... 's participation in the Pathankot terror attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[STRIPES] They have served in a role almost unique in the U.S. military, that of the caisson horse.
Caisson horses pull coffins to burials at Arlington, bringing former officers and service members killed in action in America's wars to their grave sites with haunting uniformity and precision.
The choreographed procession, led by a riderless horse, is one of the most solemn and stylized rituals in the nation.
Kennedy and Quincy performed it about eight times a day, every other week, in every sort of weather. But since they are now unsuitable - Quincy, an 11-year-old quarter horse, is having trouble with his feet because of navicular disease, and Kennedy, a 15-year-old Standardbred, acted out too many times - members of the public have the rare opportunity to adopt a caisson horse.
The horses will go free to two lucky new owners, but the vetting process is strict. Smith said that a herd manager from the Army will travel to prospective homes to make sure the horses find suitable places to spend the rest of their days.
Applicants can visit the horses on Tuesdays at Fort Myer, the Army installation adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery. The six-page application, available online, asks questions including, "How often do you think a horse should be wormed?" and "If you go on vacation, what would you do with this animal? If you had to move, what would you do with this animal?"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Feed me, water and care for me,
and when the day's work is done,
provide me with a shelter,
a pasture large enough for me
to run, romp and play.
Talk to me, your voice often means
as much to me as the reins.
Pet me sometime that I may serve you
more gladly and learn to love you.
Never strike, beat, or kick me when I don't understand what you want,
but give me a chance to understand you.
And finally oh master,
when my youthful strength is gone,
do not turn me out to starve or freeze,
or sell me to some cruel owner
to be slowly tortured or stoned to death,
but do thou, my master,
take my life in the kindest way, and
your God will reward you here and hereafter.
You will not consider me irreverent
if I ask this in the name of Him who was born in a stable...
#4
Even among Democratic party operatives, she’s acknowledged as “awkward and uninspiring on the stump,” carrying “Bill’s baggage with none of Bill’s warmth.” New York magazine described her “failing to demonstrate the most elementary political skills, much less those learned at Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie.” Last year the White House was panicking at her levels of electoral incompetence, her questionable decision making, and her inclination for taking sleazy shortcuts.
So the Donk party is out of control, too? Overrun by a personality cult?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/25/2016 7:40
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#5
On the other hand - "I continue to believe that Trump will not be president. And the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people," said Obama. They recognize that being president is a serious job. It's not hosting a talk show or a reality show, it's not promotion, it's not marketing, it's hard. It's not a matter of pandering and doing whatever will get you in the news on a given day."
I wish I was clever enough to make up this stuff.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/25/2016 7:45
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#6
"I continue to believe that Trump will not be president. And the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people," said Obama.
Says a Marxist who lied his way into the job. As for the media (aka Party Operatives), they're not fooling enough people this time around.
#8
Polls and media heads have done their best to run him into the ground and he just gets stronger. They have had him fail every week since he announced. He is not part of the inner circle. The IVY league born wealthy crowd. Money control people have gone to Rubio who in my opinion is a RINO to do their bidding(cross the isle, accommodate). I would love to see Trump clean house. Bush was Mr. nice guy and left Democrat holdovers. They stabbed him in the back as often as they could. Trump is showing them how ineffective they are and they don't like looking unable to control outcomes.
Trump or Cruz may have a chance to stop the descent if it's at all possible. I think the Cruz wants to. I'm not sure about Trump. The rest of the crew I'm sure of.
Rubio will try and continue the slow inexorable descent into the chaos.
Hillary and Bernie will push us off the cliff to make sure the bottom is reached as fast and as fatally as possible.
#10
Example: Trump mob connections that are not being asked by the big progressive media outlets... yet. Conservatives asked these LAST SUMMER year and they go unanswered and unaddressed by press. And folks like some suppoerters here ar so enamoured of the tough talk they seem oblivious to the glaring flaws that will eventually bring Trump down in the general election.
Read up, there are important questions around Trump.
This is the best overall summary by a real conservative, Dana Loesch, as to why no personal that cares for this nation should be supporting Donald Trump
Posted by: Herb the Wide4371 ||
02/25/2016 8:45
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#11
Just on queue. Any businessman doing business in NYC in the 60s, 70s, and 80s probably touch or were entangled in some part of the mob. Anything like Kennedy the Martyr and the mob? K Street is just another mob but with better suits and lawyers.
Note for you sunshine - it's not a constitutional republic anymore. It's an oligarchy. You have your choice of Pompey, Caesar or Crassus.
#17
Of course, the American people are still jittery about socialism. But they're less jittery then they used to be, and Bernie does a good job portraying Socialism as being about little more then paid family leave and sickdays.
#18
I don't trust anyone who spends much time dogging Trump while not addressing Hillary, Bernie, and Obama.
One of those 4 folks loves this country--the other three don't. You don't have to like Trump, but there are better uses of one's time than dogging him. I'd prefer Cruz, but I'll gladly accept Trump if it means a White House free of Obama, Clinton, and Sanders.
[ELUNIVERSAL] Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States of waging a "smear campaign" against the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who might have lost a referendum which sought to extend his mandate. Last I heard, he had lost...
Maduro stressed that Morales has won eight votes in the last 10 years with more than 60% of ballots. "This is the narrowest result ever," he asserted.
"A smear campaign was launched against Evo; he is the most honest leader America has even known, he is an upright leader who has been accused of nameless things. It has been an everyday campaign to destroy Evo and the project of the peoples," he added.
"Who is behind all of this? The empire (the US), which seeks to destroy all the independence processes," Maduro stated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
"He lost one round. Now we play best out of three"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016 9:13
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"A smear campaign was launched against Evo; he is the most honest leader America has even known"
Pure as the driven snow, he is. And if anyone was an expert on snow, it'd be Evo.
LATAKIA – A car bomb attack hit a command center for pro-Assad Russian forces in Latakia province in western Syria on Wednesday evening. The blast has reportedly claimed lives of a dozen Russian soldiers, according to security sources.
“A huge explosion hit a security building in central Jableh city of Latakia province, where senior Russian forces were holding a meeting with Syrian army commanders,” a source close to the Syrian national security department told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The explosion was caused by a car bomb that hit the main entrance of the building,” the source said, adding that the initial death toll has reached ten people, mostly Russian soldiers.
Syrian rebel groups of Ahrar al-Sham and Bayan issued a joint statement on Wednesday midnight, claiming responsibility for the attack.
Latakia is the heartland of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Pro-Assad forces and allied Russian troops have been trying to fortify the province in a bid to deter any attacks by the rebel groups. However, the Syrian armed opposition has recently seized several towns and villages in Latakia countryside, mainly near the Jabal al-Turkman.
At least 13 people have been killed in airstrikes carried out by Saudi jets in Yemen’s northern Jawf Province, Press TV reported.
The Yemeni al-Masirah television said on Wednesday that the airstrikes, which targeted trucks carrying foodstuff eight times, took place in Jawf’s town of al-Matammah. Different areas in Jawf were also attacked by Saudi airstrikes.
The news source also reported an airstrike against the town of Sirwah in the eastern Ma’rib Province. Two residential areas and a medical center also came under attack in Sirwah.
Meanwhile, Saba Net news agency, citing a Yemeni military source, said army forces backed by Popular Committees had managed to seize a warship belonging to mercenaries fighting for Saudi Arabia. The warship was reportedly seeking to enter the al-Fazeh port area off the coast of Khokha, near Hudaydah.
The region of Abas in northwestern Hajjah province also came under Saudi attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Love that, attacks against trucks carrying foodstuff. Powdered baby formula maybe? And what about the trucks carrying fluffy bunnies?
13; it's a start.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/25/2016 17:28
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Yemen’s army and forces from the Popular Resistance were able to recapture a strategic military camp near the capital Sanaa, exclusive photos obtained by Al Arabiya News Channel show.
The photos of Fardhat Nahm camp near Sanaa showed destruction of facilities belonging to Iran-backed Houthi militias and forces loyal to ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh by the Saudi-led coalition.
The destruction of Fardhat Nahm came after the coalition forces targeted with their air raids Houthi militia base camps in Harf Sufyan district of Amran, north of Sanaa.
Other strikes have been conducted on the Dhale Governorate in southern Yemen.
Meanwhile, the recently appointed Deputy Supreme Commander of the Yemeni Army Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar stressed the importance of continuing the fight against Houthi militias and Saleh forces, in accordance to the U.N. resolution 2216, and said his army will continue to free other districts from militia control.
[Daily Excelsior] Police and Army have enjugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a teenage Fidayeen of Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... (JeM) outfit from Baramulla who carried out an attack three months ago along with his three associates at an Army camp near the Line of Control (LoC) in Tanghdar area of North Kashmire's Kupwara district.
Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, son of Walid Mohammad Gujjar resident of Sialkote tehsil Dehska in Pakistain was arrested by Police and Army's 52 and 46 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) from Baramulla. His three associates Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were killed inside Army camp at Tanghdar on November 25.
Arrest of Gujjar is a major success for police in North Kashmire as he is the only Fidayeen of Afzal Guru squad of JeM who was arrested after carrying out the attack on 3/1 GR battalion headquarters at Tanghdar. The Guru squad of JeM carried out three Fidayeen attacks so far including last month's Pathankot attack on Indian Air Force base.
Gujjar was part of four Fidayeen who carried out attack on the Army camp in Tanghdar on November 25 last year. He has told his interrogators that he set afire the Oil depot inside the Army camp at Tanghdar and destroyed several vehicles before he was asked by his colleagues to leave.
The Fidayeen told his interrogators that the group of four JeM gunnies were launched from Athmuqam in Pakistain Indian Kashmiree (PoK) and was tasked to carry out Fidayeen attack on any camp near the LoC. "The group with the help of GPS devices started on foot on November 24 at around 10 pm. from near the LoC on PoK side and continued their journey till they reached the Tanghdar Army camp in around 6-7 hours", he told interrogators.
"After they carried out the attack, Gujjar was the only teenager in the group who was asked by his colleagues to leave. He fled to nearby forests and was there hiding for three days. He was asked by his handlers that he should go to Kupwara and they will help him. After three days, he changed his clothes and boarded a Sumo along with his weapon from Tanghdar. He reached Kupwara where he befriended some people who helped him to travel to Baramulla", Gujjar told his interrogators.
In Baramulla town, the Fidayeen spent around 15 days. However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... he was arrested by police after his suspicious movements. Later, police arrested a person who gave him shelter and where he had dumped his weapon. Police also detained 7 people who have provided him shelter and assistance and also recovered his weapon. However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... others were let off and only two were arrested.
Coming from a well off farmer family in Sialkote, Gujjar has five brothers and two sisters. He is the middle one. He was lured by his school friend who is also a JeM krazed killer into militancy. He received three month's training in JeM camp where he was motivated for Jihad besides arms training.
Army eliminated his three associates, in a shootout inside the Army camp in Tanghdar in which a generator operator of Military Engineering Service (MES), Tanveer Ahmad Sheikh, was also killed and an Army man injured on November 25 last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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– and the International Media Is Asleep At the Switch
Dear International Editor:
Listen and understand. The game changed in Venezuela last night. What had been a slow-motion unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all of a sudden.
What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.
Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsored paramilitaries on motorcycles roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting.
People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shooting tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We have videos of soldiers shooting civilians on the street.
And that’s just what came out in real time, over Twitter and YouTube, before any real investigation is carried out. Online media is next, a city of 645,000 inhabitants has been taken off the internet amid mounting repression, and this blog itself has been the object of a Facebook “block” campaign.
What we saw were not “street clashes”, what we saw is a state-hatched offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents.
Here at Caracas Chronicles we’re doing what it can to document the crisis, but there’s only so much one tiny, zero-budget blog can do.
After the major crackdown on the streets of large (and small) Venezuelan cities last night, I expected some kind of response in the major international news outlets this morning. I understand that with an even bigger and more photogenic freakout ongoing in an even more strategically important country, we weren’t going to be front-page-above-the-fold, but I’m staggered this morning to wake up, scan the press and find…
Nothing.
Hat tip to a loyal Rantburg citizen on Facebook. Venezuela is about to crash and burn due to yet another failed attempt at socialism. Now that the Bolivarian Socialists have grabbed everything that can be looted (and now that Hugo's daughter is the richest person in South America), it's time for naked violence to keep the population down. A lot of innocent people are going to die.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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#1
And this is the state economic and social model that Bernie and his useful idiot supporters want to implement in the US.
#6
Just remember Jimmy Carter 'certified' a fraud racked election. Virtue signalling on his part to avoid a potential civil war. The price has been paid for years now by the people of Venezuela and will continue to accrued interest.
That's the same Jimmy who didn't back the Shah of Iran, giving the world the resurgence of fundamental Islam, the hostages, the signal for the Russians to invade Afghanistan and the opening for Saddam to initiate the Iran-Iraq War, followed by the invasion of Kuwait. However, Jimmy was virtuous in not backing that strong man in Iran.
#9
i agree with you. communism is evil. i do like public health care, being from australia we are used to it. also roads, fresh water, sanitation services and education.
plus police and military
but apart from that.... nothing should get funded. No public housing for a start. And no CGT tax - tax on inflation. No property taxes (if you buy it you own it, why should the govt charge you rent on what you own??)
However there is a point -- if you post stuff that is 2 years old, and it appears to be a crisis unfolding, maybe let the readers know the date so that they know it is not breaking news, of something happening right now.
otherwise people will be thinking Caracas is about to go up in flames ...
#10
There is no reason to treat 5% of an issue as 95% of the marketed bullshit. And eat everyone's money for a bullshit program that was bankrupt before it's start - MR $250 BRILLIANT in Un-funded Debt future. Time to ignore it and build a choooo chooooooo train to ignore this?
[ALMANAR.LB] Libya's local military brigades have forced ISIL snuffies out of Sabratha after the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... Death Eaters briefly entered the center of the northwestern city in the crisis-hit African country, authorities say.
Sabratha's municipal council said in a statement on Wednesday that the fighting broke out after local brigades attacked suspected ISIL hideouts 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of the city.
The ISIL elements then "took advantage of the security vacuum downtown and spread out all over the city" before they were forced out by the local brigades, the statement added.
Sabratha's mayor also stated late on Tuesday that the festivities had left at least four brigade members dead and five others maimed.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... local media reported that as many as 17 brigade troops were killed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... an unnamed security source from the western city of Zintan said authorities had agreed to treat the injured brigade members from Sabratha.
Since August 2014, when militias seized the capital Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , oil-rich Libya has had two parliaments and two governments with one, the General National Congress (GNC), run by the rebels in the capital, and the internationally-recognized administration in Tobruk. A UN-backed government of national unity is awaiting parliamentary approval.
The city of Zintan has allied with the internationally recognized government while Sabratha supports the rival administration.
On Friday, the US carried out an Arclight airstrike on a suspected ISIL training camp in Sabratha, killing almost 50 people, among them two Serbian diplomats kidnapped in Libya last November.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[NYPOST] President B.O.'s policy -- well, his lack of one -- when it comes to confronting America's enemies was on full and embarrassing display Tuesday.
First, the president unveiled his long-delayed plan to close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, saying that keeping it open is "contrary to our values."
It was dead before arrival. Even Democrats weren't rushing to endorse it.
After all, just three months ago, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill that bans moving the detainees to the United States. (The Senate vote was 91-3.) And moving them here is the only way to close Gitmo.
Second, Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... conceded that his much-touted ceasefire in Syria, set to take effect Saturday, "may be" little more than what a Democratic senator called a "rope-a-dope deal."
With Washington as the dope.
"I'm not going to vouch for this," said Kerry. With good reason: It doesn't cover ISIS, the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and other terrorist groups -- nor anyone who cares to fire at them. For months, Russia's been bombing anyone it wants to while claiming to be targeting ISIS.
Plus, no one knows how (or even if) violations will be handled. The whole thing depends on the good will of Iran, Bashir al-Assad 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... -- who's sure to continue Arclight airstrikes against anti-Assad forces.
The Gitmo plan is just as hollow -- and with even less justification, despite the president's repeated and dubious claims.
The remaining detainees aren't "low risk" -- those were mostly freed before Obama took office. They're very much high-risk -- like the five top Taliban capos Obama sprang in exchange for Bowe Berghdal, who now faces court-martial for desertion.
On Tuesday, in fact, a Gitmo "alum" was tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... by Spanish officials, who said he was part of an ISIS recruiting cell.
Just more proof that when it comes to threats to the nation, this president lives in the land of make-believe.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Well, at least "let's pretend" is a plan . . . .
#4
The whole Left world view is based on fantasy which is why their programs fail so often. Even with repetitive failure they refuse to reexamine the fallacious foundations of that world view.
A 10-member group of Daesh fighters that lay down their arms and joined the peace process on Wednesday claimed they were financed and equipped by Pakistani military and also trained in Pakistan.
They said that Pakistani military provides light and heavy weapons to Daesh fighters in Afghanistan.
"Pakistani military gave us weapons and used to tell us that Afghan forces are infidels and you must kill them," said Zaitoon, a former Daesh fighter that joined the peace process.
Arabistan, Zaitoon's co-fighter, said: "I was tasked to fight in Nazian district [in Nangarhar]. We used to present our daily report to Punjabis and Pakistanis and they encouraged us to fight the Afghan government."
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Nangarhar Provincial Council Malik Nazir said the 10-member group has joined the peace process due to efforts by the High Peace Council (HPC) office in the province and also with the help of the Afghan security forces.
"There were 24 men in two groups – the first group was 14 Taliban fighters and the second group included 10 Daesh fighters who for the first time joined the peace process," Nazir stated.
[ALMANAR.LB] A long and convoluted opinion piece translated from Arabic, which may be why it makes so little sense. The main thrust seems to be that the insidious Saudi plotters against the decency and honor of Leb, Syria, and the Islamic Republic should keep sending money and not withdraw funding just because the lines have been drawn and the real rulers of Leb are on the other side.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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[Ynet] 17-year-old suspect residing illegally in Israel says he was influenced by Paleostinian propaganda and entered Israel through security fence breaches.
A 17-year-old Paleostinian residing in Israel illegally was jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... by security forces on suspicion of committing a stabbing attack in Rahat two weeks earlier, it was cleared for publication on Wednesday.
Shlomit Ganon, 65, from Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev, was lightly maimed in that attack. The suspect was arrested three days after the attack. He confessed to the act, reenacted the stabbing and led the Sherlocks to the knife that he threw away. The prosecution is expected to indict him for attempted murder.
The suspect, a resident of Yatta, south of Hebron, with no previous criminal record, exploited breaches in the security fence to enter Israel. He did agricultural work with relatives in Rahat, where he lived with family. Several relatives were also arrested on suspicion of helping him enter Israel and helping him hide in the days after the attack.
During his interrogation, he said that he had been influenced by Paleostinian propaganda against Israel and took part in riots and stone-throwing against Israelis near Yatta in recent months.
Shortly after the stabbing, he returned to the scene of the crime, and bravely ran away again after noticing police forces. "He ran at first, not knowing where he was going," said an official source. "At some point he even returned to the scene, saw the commotion and continued to run away."
The suspect eventually returned to his residence in Rahat. Once a video of him showing him running away was posted online, he confessed to his brother that he committed the attack. They both fled to Hebron with the help of traffickers of undocumented immigrants colonists, who did not know about their ties to the attack. Several days later, security forces arrested him at Yatta.
The stabbing occurred when Gonen and her family visited the market in Rahat. The investigation revealed that the attacker stabbed her after noticing that her family had gone into a store in the market and she was left alone.
[DAILYCALLER] Rima Nelson disappeared from public view after the St. Louis Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital she managed potentially exposed 1,800 patients to HIV, was closed twice for serious medical safety issues and ranked dead last in patient satisfaction.
But Nelson wasn't fired. Her VA superiors hid her literally on the other side of the Earth in 2013 at the department's only foreign facility, a seldom-used clinic inside the palatial U.S. Embassy in the Philippines capital city of Manila.
She resides in a government-provided condo and gets the same $160,000 salary she made in St. Louis, which allows her to live like royalty in a country where the average person makes only $2,500 a year.
The Manila VA office provides outpatient care and disability checks to the few surviving Filipino World War II veterans who fought alongside Americans against the Japanese. The occasional American veteran who happens to be in the country can also get outpatient care in the Manila VA facility.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Napoleon died in exile on Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Just say'n.
[Ynet] 30-year-old Captain Eliav Gelman, a relative of fallen soldier Benaya Sarel, hit by bullet fired by IDF forces aimed at terrorist attempting stabbing attack; terrorist moderately maimed.
A 30-year-old Reserves Captain Eliav Gelman was killed Wednesday afternoon by gunfire targeting a terrorist who attemped a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem.
Gelman's brother is married to the sister of soldier Benaya Sarel, who was killed during Operation Protective Edge.
Eyal Gelman, the dear departed's brother and Kiryat Arba's security guard, eulogized him. "My brother fell in battle," he said. "In a battle that we have known for a long time. But the people of Israel have experienced the battles and the pogroms since the first battle in 1873. My brother, too -- my dear brother -- you entered this circle, the same silver tray that for 150 years this people, this revival generation continues to redeem the land of Israel and build the State of Israel. God have given and God has taken away, may the name of the Lord be blessed."
The terrorist, Mamduh Amru, a 27-year-old school teacher from the village of Dura south of Hebron, attempted to stab the officer at Gush Etzion Junction. Soldiers from the Haruv Battalion of the Kfir Brigade shot the terrorist and maimed the latter moderately.
An official says Somali federal Govt troops backed by African Union soldiers (AMISOM) have retaken control of more villages near Mahaday town in middle Shabelle region from Al shabaab militants.
Mahaday district commissioner Ahmed Hussein Afrah, told Radio Shabelle that SNA and AMISOM forces captured El-baraf and Adaley after Al shabaab fighters abandoned the areas before the allied troops moved in on Wednesday. Afrah said the forces have faced “No resistance” from the fighters who fled the villages as the advancing forces approached the towns and villages under the militants’ control for seven years.
“SNA and AMISOM have entered the El-baraf and Adaley near Mahaday peacefully. The local residents remained indoors. No displacement,” said Mahada district administrator.
Officials say Operation was aimed at “liberating more areas” to help the Somali federal government expand its control and help ease humanitarian suffering of the population.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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The leader of Al Shabaab’s local branch in Kenya threatened more violence inside the country during arecent lecture to soldiers at a training camp following last month’s attack on Kenyan troops in El Adde, Somalia. Al Shabaab is the official arm of al Qaeda in East Africa.
The leader, Ahmed Iman Ali, also discussed the rationale for targeting the Kenyan troops in neighboring Somalia.
“Know for sure that disaster has struck El Adde. The Kenyans were warned again and again and again,” Ali said, according to an English translation of a video released by the al Qaeda-linked Global Islamic Media Foundation (GIMF). Ali went on to say: “Right now as I speak to you, the only thing that I bought was my turban. My gun, my pouch and my uniform are all war booty from (Kenyan troops).”
He then discussed crimes allegedly committed by the Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) in both Kenya and Somalia.
“The first time our sister who was pregnant was thrown by the kuffar [apostates] from the third floor,” Ali said. “Another sister in the same area was also thrown from the top of a house until her spine broke. In Mandera, they came and kidnapped our mother who had five children and was their support.”
The jihadist then threatened Kenya with future attacks by saying Shabaab will force Kenya to “change their flag by erasing all the colors except the red one as an indication of the blood that we will spill in Kenya.” He concluded his threat by stating “the Kenyans immersed themselves into a war whilst they did not fully comprehend the meaning of war.”
In the video, Ali also directed his focus to the families of the killed KDF soldiers, as well. “If the family of the person owning this gun that is numbered 490 is looking for their son, let them know that I am now in possession of the war booty taken from him.” Additionally, he stated that “Any Kenyan who has lost their family members from the army that was defeated by the lions of Shabaab should contact us.”
In discussing El Adde, Ali referenced last months attack on a Kenyan base in the southern Somalian town in which over 60 KDF troops were reportedly killed. Shabaab has put the number even higher at 100 KDF troops killed. Just a few days later, the KDF withdrew from El Adde and Shabaab captured the town.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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In the aftermath of the liberation of Leithi and other Benghazi districts, there reports of IS fighters shaving off their beards and changing into jeans and T-shirts in a bid to try and blend in with the crowd and escape.
One report doing the rounds this evening tells of a women who went back to the family home in Leithi and was then seen by soldiers to emerge a little while later with a clean-shaven young man, her son. Questioned, he said that he had been hiding in the house for several months and had not dared go out.
His story did not convince so he and his mother were taken in for further questioning. Investigations led the authorities to believe that, far from hiding all these months, he had been with the so-called Islamic state (IS) and when they had fled had shaved his beard and changed clothes, hoping to evade detection.
There is speculation that a lot of IS beards in Benghazi are coming off at the moment. It is, however, in marked contrast with the situation in Sirte.
There, IS have again decreed that shaving of beards is forbidden, that moustaches must be trimmed and that those who continue to wear trousers or jeans – in their view highly suspect anyway – must wear them cut above the ankles.
This is not the first time that IS has issued such a declaration – and the fact that it has had to be repeated indicates that it has been ignored. Those who ignore the ruling this time, IS warned, will be severely punished – that goes too for any barber who dares trim a hair on any man’s beard.
IS seemingly enjoys handing out severe punishment.
Like Qaddafi beforehand, it also enjoys making changes just to show that it is in power. Earlier this month, it reportedly announced that the weekend in Sirte had changed from Friday and Saturday to Thursday and Friday. Ironically the only country in the world where the weekend is Thursday and Friday is Shiite Iran.
Saudi Arabia used to have a Thursday-Friday weekend, but changed it some years ago to Friday-Saturday to bring it in line with all other Muslim countries.
Beards have always been optional in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Uh, uh, D *** NGED WOMEN + THEIR CIVILIZATION IS RUINING A PERFECTLY GOOD GLOBAL HAIRY JIHAD???
#2
I could write the script for a pretty good Peter Sellers movie about this. It would involve a man with a beard on one side of his face who has to twist his head in order to satisfy whomever he might be talking to.
#4
Similar to what the Iraq Republican Guard and Fedayeen folks did in 2003.
Our family Marine stated that all you had to do was look at their shoes to make an educated guess. The locals wore flip-flops or beat-up sneakers and the 'suddenly ex' military wore good hiking shoes, steel-toe work shoes or combat boots.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/25/2016 12:31
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ERBIL – Dozens of militant fighters from the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group have surrendered to the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, an official said on Wednesday. The militants have reportedly surrendered to the Kurdish forces after fleeing their fighting positions in Mosul.
Peshmerga spokesman Qadir Qadir confirmed in a statement that dozens of ISIS members arrived on Wednesday evening to a Peshmerga-held area east of Mosul and handed over their weapons at a Kurdish security checkpoint.
“The militants had evacuated their strongholds in Mosul suburb and surrendered to the Kurdish Peshmerga,” Qadir said.
The official added that the ISIS dissidents have been transferred to a Kurdish security center in northern Iraq for interrogations.
“This indicates an apparent collapse within the ISIS military leadership in Mosul. The group will sooner or later fall apart. Corruption and brutality of ISIS commanders against the people have caused a clear state of mistrust between its members,” the Peshmerga spokesman said, adding that the Kurdish forces and allies will soon announce the liberation of Mosul.
In the meantime, an informed source in Mosul told ARA News that the group has moved a large deal of its heavy weapons from Mosul and sent them to Syria’s Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, amid continuous advance by the Kurdish Peshmerga army and Iraqi troops in northern Iraq.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/25/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A security source in Anbar Province announced, that the headquarters of the so-called ISIS in Heet and Kabisa Districts had been destructed by a bombardment carried out by the international coalition aviation west of Ramadi.
The source said in a press statement, “The international coalition aviation, backed by the army’s 7th brigade conducted an air strike on ISIS headquarters in Heet and Kabisa south of Heet.”
The source added, “The bombardment resulted in the destruction of the headquarters, while inflicted heavy human and material losses on ISIS.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – A tribal leader in clan al-Jerissat in Fallujah said on Wednesday, that the ISIS elements executed four civilians from the residents of Fallujah on charges of spying for the benefit of the security forces in the city.
Majid al-Jerissat, the leader in clan al-Jerissat, said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “This evening, elements of the ISIS carried out the execution of four civilians from the people of Fallujah by shooting them dead in a park in the center of the city on charges of spying for the security forces.”
Jerissat called the central government and security leaders to “start an extensive military operation to retake Fallujah and lift the siege on besieged families and prisoners.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/25/2016
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The United States and China were expected to reach final agreement Wednesday on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests, diplomatic sources said.
And a sternly worded resolution it is!
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a joint news conference with Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that Washington and Beijing made "important progress" in their sanctions negotiations. Kerry also said the two sides have come up with a draft and were reviewing it.
Final agreement is expected when Wang meets with U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice, the sources said.
Other sources said that the draft calls for blacklisting three key state agencies overseeing Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs as well as espionage operations -- the General Reconnaissance Bureau, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and the National Aerospace Development Administration.
You'd have thought that the "atomic energy industry" would have been blacklisted about fifty years ago...
They are among about 30 individuals and entities to be sanctioned by the new resolution, according to the sources. Also to be blacklisted are North Korean trading and financial firms accused of involvement in illicit activities, they said.
The General Reconnaissance Bureau has been accused of masterminding a series of provocations, including the 2010 torpedoing of a South Korean warship and the 2014 cyber-attacks on Sony Pictures, while the other two agencies are in charge of the North's nuclear and missile programs.
How about just drone-zapping them some dark night?
Other possible sanctions could include restricting oil provision to the North, including a ban on jet fuel supplies, and banning imports of coal, iron and other mineral imports from the North, one of the biggest sources of hard currency for the impoverished nation.
'Possible' sanctions. They kid, they kid...
Following final agreement between the U.S. and China, the Security Council is expected to circulate it among the other 13 council members for review. Unless any objection is raised, the draft will be referred to a formal council meeting for adoption.
After the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test, the Security Council pledged to adopt significant sanctions, but has not been able to do so because China has balked at imposing harsh measures on Pyongyang.
Amid the deadlock, the North flouted the Security Council again with a banned missile launch on Feb. 7.
Beijing has condemned the North's nuclear and missile tests but has been lukewarm about calls for a stern response. Analysts have long said Beijing fears that pushing Pyongyang too hard could lead to its collapse, instability on its border and the ultimate emergence of a pro-U.S. nation.
Which is something we could all manage together -- China, the ROK, Japan and the U.S. could each get something from that.
Chinese cooperation is key to putting together any meaningful sanctions and its implementation as it is one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council and the main provider of food and fuel aid to the impoverished North.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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#1
China is the provider of nearly everything in NOKOR, wid its role or trade dominance forecasted to keep getting ever-bigger.
WAR OR PEACE, THE END GAME FOR NOKOR IS EVENTUAL CHINESE TAKEOVER BY ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, AND TO INCLUD POSSIBLE POTEN ANNEXATION/ACCESSION TO CHINA.
As long as the US-Allies fail to find a way to get China + Taiwan to peacefully reunite, PUDGY = NOKOR WON'T STOP TRYING TO DEV NUKE-WMDS FOR HIS COUNTRY.
He will intentionally cause or start a US-China War iff he has to. NOKOR GOING DOWN = EVERYBODY GOES DOWN WID IT.
North Korea's army politburo chief Hwang Pyong-so has been absent from recent military events attended by leader Kim Jong-un.
"We're trying to find out what's happened," a government source here said.
Check with the local anti-aircraft gun squad...
Hwang's name was not mentioned when the official Rodong Sinmun listed the names of senior officials who accompanied Kim when he watched a concert by the North Korean Army band on its 70th anniversary on Tuesday. He was also missing when Kim watched a military drill and an aerial exercise last Saturday.
Hwang was last seen at a banquet celebrating the North's recent rocket launch in Pyongyang on Feb. 13. Pundits say he was likely taken ill. But he could also have fallen victim to ongoing purges that most recently put former Army chief Ri Yong-gil out of action last month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Maybe they decided he was the guest of honor at a weapons test.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The Governor of Anbar Province, Suhaib al-Rawi, announced on Wednesday, that the liberation of Fallujah is going to be a lot faster than retaking the city of Ramadi, while emphasized that the local government has completed the establishment of safe paths and havens for the displaced.
Rawi’s Office said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, that the latter “visited a camp belonging to al-Hashed al-Sha’bi in Ramadi and met with the commanders, while listened to a detailed explanation of the military set plans to liberate the rest of the province,” adding that, “The liberation regiments will be launched towards areas under ISIS control. The liberation of Fallujah is coming and it will be faster than Ramadi.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/25/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban group representatives based in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... insist on preconditions of the group as direct talks between the Afghan government and representatives of the Taliban is expected to take place in the first week of March.
Admitting that the group is unaware of the potential upcoming direct talks with the Afghan government, a front man for the group's political office in Qatar, Mohammad Naim told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that they have not changed their preconditions for joining the grinding of the peace processor, which he had announced at the Pugwash research center in Doha on January 23.
The precondition of the Taliban including complete withdrawal of the foreign forces from Afghanistan, official recognition of Taliban's political office in Qatar, removal of Taliban from United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... terrorist blacklist, halt to the arrest and elimination of Taiban, and release of the Taliban inmates from prisons.
Pakistain has offered to host the first round of direct talks between the Afghan government and Taliban representatives following the conclusion of the fourth round of Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) meeting on Tuesday.
"The QCG member states invite all Taliban and other groups to participate through their authorized representatives in the first round of direct peace talks with the Afghan government expected to take place by the first week of March 2016," according to a joint statement by QCG.
The statement further added that the fifth round of the QCG meeting will take place in Islamabad immediately after the first round of direct peace talks.
The delegations were led by Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, Pakistain's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing and U.S. Charge d'Affaires, David Lindwall.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
And the PAK Taliban???
* FYI BHARAT RAKSHAK < [News24] ISIS FACTION CLAIMS PAKISTAN PROVIDED WEAPONS, TRAINING TO ISLAMIC STATE [+ Taliban]IN PAKISTAN.
After the fast-moving events on the ground in the Benghazi war between the Islamic State and Ansar Al-Sharia on one side and the Libyan National Army (LNA) recognized by the House of Representatives and led by the politically divisive figure of Khalifa Hafter on the other side, Libya Herald asked a Benghazi resident today for an update.
The resident confirmed that the “areas that have been totally liberated are Leithi, Buatni, and Sidi Feraj. Hawari is almost 90-percent liberated”.
Asked where most of the of IS/Ansar Al-Sharia (AA) were located, he said that “most of IS/AA are gathering in the Gwarsha and Ganfouda districts as the centres of these places would likely be the last places to be liberated”.
“Sabri, Suq Al-Hout and Garyounis are being attacked heavily today by the LNA”, he confirmed.
Libya Herald asked the resident where he thought IS/AA were receiving their munitions and human support from.
“From Sabri (to the north and north of the Suq Al-Hout) to Ganfouda (in the south of the city) it is an open coastline. They can get their supplies from there, not from Mreisa Port.”
“It is presumed that they are stocked up and keep many supplies in their areas. We have seen the army break up some of their weapon stores and they found a lot in them,” he explained.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/25/2016
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RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has given the go-ahead for the initiation of the final phase of operation Zarb-e-Azb in the Shawal valley region of North Waziristan.
The go-ahead was given by the army chief during his visit to forward positions of the army in Shawal valley. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) stated that the army chief was briefed regarding operational gains and impending operations. The deep and forested ravines of Shawal valley and the area of Data Khel are frequently used infiltration routes used by the militants, the army chief was told. The last phase of the operation aims to clear the last remnants of the militants from their hideouts in the forested ravines, isolate them and destroy them in detail, while also severing their links to their abettors across the country.
General Raheel Sharif expressed complete satisfaction over the gains and the effects of the operations and acknowledged the resolve of the army troops to fully eliminate the militants. “The sacrifices of the soldiers will not go waste and we will achieve our ultimate objective of a terror free Pakistan,” said Sharif while addressing the troops. ISPR added that the troops have regrouped, reinforced and have moved to jump-off positions for the final phase. The chief of army staff was received by Lieutenant General Hidayatur Rehman, Commander 11 Corps Peshawar on his arrival.
Military operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched in North Waziristan on June 15 following a brazen militant attack on Karachi’s international airport and the failure of peace talks between the government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) negotiators. The number of attacks in Pakistan has fallen around 70 percent, due to a combination of the military offensive against Taliban bases along the Afghan border and government initiatives to tackle militancy. Army had launched a ground offensive in Shawal Valley in August last year. Fighter jets had been targeting militant hideouts in the agency. The heavily forested ravines of the Shawal Valley are dotted with Taliban hideouts and the area is a key smuggling route into neighbouring Afghanistan.
[ELUNIVERSAL] During an interview with private TV news channel Globovisión, Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles said, "My proposal is a recall referendum or a constitutional amendment to avoid a social explosion or a coup," in reference to the current situation in Venezuela. Recalling whom? The legislature or Maduro? Or both?
"The person who governs the country must be aware of the social reality and the needs of the population (...) We are not a middle-class nation. Most Venezuelans are poor," Capriles stressed. That could be taken as a dig at Maduro...
Similarly, the governor noted that the country's social, economic and political "recovery" involves "a lot of effort and work." It's getting a little late for "recovery" efforts. The first step is to round up all the Bolivarians. That isn't going to happen peacefully.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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#1
Careful. Sad Panda might take offense at your suggestion, Pink Mod
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2016 9:11
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#2
Sad Panda is in the first cohort to go.
And it's salmon, dammit!
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2016 14:47
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PESHAWAR: At least five Frontier Corps personnel were wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast near a security checkpost in South Waziristan tribal agency's Wana area on Wednesday.
A security forces' vehicle was on routine patrol when the IED, planted along the roadside, exploded wounding five FC personnel, according to security sources.
The injured were shifted to agency headquarters hospital in Wana.
Meanwhile security forces initiated a search and strike operation in the area.
The attack took place while Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif is visiting front lines in North Waziristan tribal agency's Shawal tehsil, according to a tweet by Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt -Gen Asim Bajwa.
The army chief is meeting troops who are stationed in the area and participating in Operation Zarb-i-Azb.
A similar IED explosion on Tuesday had injured seven Frontier Corps (FC) personnel in South Waziristan's tehsil Tayarza.
North and South Waziristan are two of seven semi-autonomous tribal areas on the Afghan border which have for years been a hideout for militants of all stripes, including Al Qaeda and the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as well as foreign fighters such as Uzbeks and Uighurs.
A long-awaited push to clear insurgent bases from North Waziristan was initiated in June 2014 following a bloody Taliban attack on Karachi airport finally sank faltering peace talks.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... on Tuesday criticized new police restrictions imposed on those traveling along the main migrant route through the Balkans, where hundreds of Afghans have been blocked from crossing into Macedonia, News Agency that Dare Not be Named reports.
Police chiefs from EU nations Austria, Croatia and Slovenia plus non-members Serbia and Macedonia agreed last week to only allow in people "arriving from war-torn areas."
They decided migrants must carry identity documents, be fleeing a conflict zone and have a "registration form issued by Greek authorities." The new rules block entry for people wanting to reunite with families, avoid military recruitment or escape "personal disputes."
"(We) have concerns about this approach, and will raise the matter with the relevant countries," the EU's executive arm said in a statement.
The move has stranded thousands of Afghans and others in Greece, where an average of 4,000 asylum-seekers land each day, even though some of the Afghans could potentially qualify for asylum.
The UN's refugee agency said the new police orders are "resulting in increased protection risks for refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly those with specific needs, such as unaccompanied and separated children."
It said the measures increased the risk that legitimate asylum-seekers could be turned back or "stranded in the open, exposed to freezing cold weather and at risk of violence and exploitation."
The medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders also denounced the police measures.
"European governments on this route continue to invent new and arbitrary criteria, with the sole goal of reducing the flow of people -- at any cost, and in complete disregard of humanitarian needs," said humanitarian adviser Aurelie Ponthieu.
The organization said 60 Afghans are trapped in a no-man's land between Serbia and Macedonia. Serbian authorities say they must register in Macedonia but Macedonian authorities are refusing to let them back in.
Earlier Tuesday, Greek police removed hundreds of migrants from a camp at the border with Macedonia following a protest that halted freight rail services to other Balkan countries. Authorities said the mostly Afghan migrants were being put on buses bound south for Athens. Journalists were refused access to the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2016
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The University of Missouri Board of Curators on Thursday fired a communications professor who was captured on video scrapping with a police officer and a student journalist during campus protests last year.
North Korea said it would "create a planet without the United States," as the United Nations Security Council prepared to pass a tough resolution against Pyongyang this week and the United States and South Korea are preparing a joint military exercise. 
Pyongyang made the statement Thursday in state-controlled newspaper Rodong Sinmun. In its editorial, North Korea also warned that South Korea and the United States could be turned into a "sea of fire," Yonhap reported.
A policy paper distributed by the U.S. military is under fire for perpetuating a number of bizarre theories about extremism, such as claiming that wearing an Islamic hijab amounts to "passive terrorism."
MIT professor and intellectual Noam Chomsky attributes Donald Trump's success in the Republican presidential primary to "fear" and a "breakdown of society."
The Navy may consider alternative aircraft carrier configurations in coming years as it prepares for its new high-tech, next-generation carrier to become operational later this year, service officials have said.
[Kanuk Journal] Europeans need to eat less beef and consume less dairy products in order to reach the EU's climate goals, according to a new study by Swedish researchers.
ISIS threatened Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey on Wednesday with promises that its hackers are fighting back against efforts to wipe social media platforms of accounts promoting terrorism, Vocativ discovered.
ERBIL – The Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group has executed an Imam in Mosul city in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh province on Wednesday, after accusing him of “fighting the Caliphate”. 
Turkish military helicopters killed nine Kurdish militants in strikes near the southeastern border with Syria on Wednesday, security sources said, in a conflict becoming increasingly intertwined with developments in Turkey's war-torn neighbour.
The US Congress should postpone an immediate vote to reauthorize the 2006 Iran Sanctions Act until further along in the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Sputnik reported.
[ALMANAR.LB] 
[ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian army seized a town in Aleppo southeastern countryside as it advanced towards Khanasser, field sources told al-Manar.
North Korea
[ALMANAR.LB] Russian jets carried out 187 
Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Tuesday that Washington is considering a "Plan B" to deal with Syria if Damascus and Moscow are not serious about negotiating a political transition.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar said Wednesday that the
It was a landmark moment for the beleaguered energy industry and one heavy with both symbolism and economic implications. The Theo T was ushering in a new era as it left the U.S. Gulf Coast bound for France.
[INDIATODAY.INTODAY.IN] An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistain yesterday sentenced two Masood Azhar led Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM) activists to 10 years in prison for raising funds for the banned outfit. This is the first instance of the Pakistain government cracking down on 
[Dhaka Tribune] 
[The Diplomat] Russia gives Afghanistan 10,000 assault rifles, but abstains from joining American efforts at peace talks.
[ELUNIVERSAL] Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States of waging a "smear campaign" against the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who might have lost a referendum which sought to extend his mandate.
[Daily Excelsior] Police and Army have 
– and the International Media Is Asleep At the Switch
...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...
North Korea's army politburo chief Hwang Pyong-so has been absent from recent military events attended by leader Kim Jong-un. 
