The Assembly, tackling the important issues of our time.
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California’s Legislature has approved regulations on cow flatulence and manure ‐ both blamed for releasing greenhouse gases.
The measure was approved shortly before the end of the legislative session Wednesday after its author, Democratic Senator Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens, agreed to give dairy farms more time to comply.
The legislation seeks to reduce methane emissions associated with manure to 40 percent below their 2013 levels by 2030. Methane is one of several gases known as short-lived climate pollutants that don’t persist for long in the atmosphere but have a huge influence on the climate.
#5
Excellent! We've killed off the bison. Now we're starting to deal with The Cow Menace. That just leaves termites world-wide and those vast herds of herbivores on the African plains. CO2 free world, here we come!
h/t Instapundit
After shaking my head about it, I had to respond in some fashion. These people are stupid and cowardly, but in a bizarrely self-destructive way. They invert all priorities. If you were to say "who is a greater threat to LGBT folks on campus" and ask them to compare random Americans who may or may not carry next to pro-Sharia refugees from Syria they would surely select the first group as the greater threat. Why, even speaking about the second would be terribly wrong and bigoted.
And you sit there, and ponder it awhile, wondering what sort of mental disease could be responsible for this peculiar brand of doublethink. I’m starting to call it "Anti-Think". It’s like thinking, except in the exact opposing direction. It contains all the mechanisms of thinking, but reaches a destination in equal magnitude away from sense. If zero were to be not-Think, and 1 were to be Think, then Anti-Think would be -1. Anti-Think results in an objectively worse conclusion than not thinking at all.
...Someday, historians will look back at our age and wonder what kind of magical propaganda was created that an entire generation of people could be educated in how to make decisions in direct opposition of all sense, evidence, and reason. It will be seen as the greatest historical coup of all time.
[Mail] Hillary Clinton 'couldn't recall' answers to FBI questions about secret server because of CONCUSSION - and didn't know what 'classified' markings were, agency reveals
Clinton was interviewed by the FBI on July 2 but the meeting wasn't tape recorded or conducted under oath.
The only surviving account of the grilling was released Friday by the FBI. It shows that the former secretary of state claimed she didn't recall ever being trained on how to handle classified information.
She also said she couldn't recall receiving any emails that she thought didn't belong on an unclassified system
Told FBI agents that she didn't remember anyone ever raising a red flag about the sensitivity of the material in her emails.
Said she was concussed in 2012 when she was receiving guidance so couldn't remember. Also revealed Colin Powell warned her not to let her emails get in to public records
Speaker Paul Ryan calls her handling of secrets 'downright dangerous' FBI release the files hours before the Labor Day weekend begins.
h/t Instapundit
It was international free trade--the free and open trade of political favors. I’m referring to the live from Mexico City two-man television talk show and press conference co-hosted by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The Trump-Pena trade show coincided with the 271st day of an American domestic no-show. 271 is (by one count) the number of days that had passed since Hillary Clinton’s last stand up, unscripted press conference.
As I write this column, the usual menagerie of mainstream media are struggling to interpret the verbally unscripted Trump-Pena trade show. Get a clue: the trade show’s thoroughly scripted video imagery dominates the words. Mainstream media in their respective countries portrayed Trump and Pena as inevitable antagonists. Think of that as a Campaign 2016 mainstream media narrative truth.
To the deep dismay of mainstream spinsters on both sides of the Rio Grande, the nattily-dressed Pena and sartorially-appropriate Trump smiled, remained calm, and treated each other with respectful dignity. In fact, they were rather darn friendly--tough guy friendly. Though they held the show on Enrique’s home turf, Donald more or less emceed (with interpreters), which seemed to work for both men. Did we witness open diplomacy? I think so--a rare example of authentic open diplomacy, where both men win. Dare we call it Art Of The Deal?
h/t Instapundit
A mother who pleaded guilty to fraudulently enrolling her six-year-old son in the wrong school district has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Tonya McDowell sent her son to an elementary school in Norwalk, Connecticut, instead of her home city of Bridgeport.
...Authorities told the hearing that she used a babysitter's address to enroll her son in kindergarten in Norwalk when he should have attended schools in Bridgeport, her last permanent address.
#5
Ran my Dad's sailboat aground near Bridgeport in 1969. Spent the night in the police station and totally bombed by Trig Regents Exam the next morning. Got the boat off ok at the next high tide and had it lifted and repaired (pretty minimal) at a local boatyard. While there it was robbed of all movable items of value - more than the repair cost. Not fond of Bridgeport.
"Nice continent ya got there. Be a shame if something happened to it."
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... will not apply a readmission agreement with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... meant to stem the flow of illegal migrants colonists if it does not get the visa-free travel to Europe it has been promised, its EU affairs minister Omer Celik said on Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference in Ankara with visiting EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, Celik also said Turkey was committed to its March agreement with Brussels on migration and that it was fulfilling its responsibilities.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/02/2016
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The locals are tired of thievish Gazans (they have a reputation, apparently, deserved or not) waiting for months for the next border opening? Or is President Sisi trying to build goodwill among the Gazan common folk ahead of the next blow to Hamas?
[AlAhram] Egypt will re-open the Rafah border crossing with the Gazoo Strip in both directions on Saturday and Sunday for the upcoming Eid El-Adha holiday, after opening them for three days earlier this week, state news agency MENA reported on Thursday. Eid al-Adha falls in the second week of September and lasts for four days.
The crossing has been open since Tuesday to Paleostinian pilgrims leave Gazoo to go on Hajj.
The Islamic festival is significant because it marks the annual Hajj, or the Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in 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... .
[IsraelTimes] An IDF soldier was shot and moderately wounded while guarding a group of religious Jews visiting the Joseph’s Tomb holy site, in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, early Thursday morning, the army said. The injured soldier was brought to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for treatment and is currently in stable condition, an army spokesperson said.
The shots were fired at the entrance to the Balata refugee camp, which is located a few blocks away from the tomb, on the outskirts of Nablus.
“The circumstances of the incident are being investigated,” the army said in a statement.
Local residents also rolled burning tires and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at troops guarding the area. The forces responded with riot dispersal tactics, and the visitors were able to complete their prayers “as planned,” the army said.
Some 16 buses full of visitors entered the Palestinian city early Thursday morning, according to the IDF.
The military, along with the Border Police and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, oversees such pilgrimages to Joseph’s Tomb every month. According to Jewish tradition, the biblical patriarch is buried in the tomb, while Muslims say a local sheikh is buried there.
The tomb is located inside Area A of the West Bank, under complete Palestinian Authority control. The IDF bars Israeli citizens from entering Area A without authorization.
While gunfire is relatively uncommon, local Palestinians regularly attack the soldiers guarding the visitors with rocks, firebombs and burning tires.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, the IDF also arrested six suspected members of the Hamas terror organization in the West Bank. Four of them were arrested in the Hebron area, while the other two were picked up near Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
[IsraelTimes] A Palestinian woman was detained by security personnel at a West Bank crossing on Thursday night on suspicion that she planned to carry out a stabbing attack, police said. According to a police statement, the woman “raised the suspicions” of security guards at the Qalandiya checkpoint, who stopped the 21-year-old for questioning and a further search.
During the check, the woman “admitted that she planned to carry out an attack and had thrown [away] the knife,” police said. A search of the area found the discarded knife nearby, and the woman was taken away for further questioning.
There have been other attempted stabbing attacks at the Qalandiya checkpoint, a major crossing point between Jerusalem and the Qalandiya refugee camp north of the capital.
Defense officials have pointed to a trend among some young Palestinian women who, often due to personal problems, have in recent months attempted to commit suicide by staging knife attacks against soldiers and police with the expectation that they will be shot.
[PJ] In the current issue of Commentary my friend Rabbi Meir Soloveichik discusses J.R.R. Tolkien's fascination with the Jews, who are of course the Dwarves in the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as Tolkien himself stated in a 1971 BBC interview. Tolkien was no anti-Semite (not, at least, according to the canonical definition, namely someone who hates the Jews more than is absolutely necessary). His views in The Hobbit were typical of the philo-Semites of the 1930s: the Jews/Dwarves are "calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people...if you don’t expect too much."
In The Lord of the Rings, completed after the Holocaust, Tolkien turned more sympathetic, depicting a great Elf-Dwarf friendship, and presaging (as Rabbi Soloveichik points out) a Jewish-Christian alliance against the forces of evil. One might add that in The Silmarillion, Tolkien's early (but posthumously published) compendium of Middle-Earth mythology, the Dwarves were created before the Elves, just as the Jews came before the Christians--but by mistake, in Tolkien's account.
In the Dwarves' quest for their ancient homeland in the Lonely Mountain, Rabbi Soloveichik observes, Tolkien evinces a certain sympathy for Zionism.
#5
I always thought the battle of Helm's Deep was The Great Siege of Malta, with the cavalry relief mirroring Vinceno Anastagi's raid of the Turkish camp while Veletta's troops were in dire straits, tricking the Turks into thinking a Spanish relief force had landed, panicking the troops, and relieving the siege.
I read a great argument that Helm's Deep was really Jan Sobieski and the winged hussars making an improbable march and nailing the Turkish troops sieging Vienna.
On reflection, I think the latter best fits Helm's Deep, as the Siege of Malta continues for quite a bit after Anastagi's raid, but Sobieski's charge breaks the Turks into a wild retreat ending the Siege of Vienna that day.
[Townhall] Give Obama some credit, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told the media on Wednesday in an editorial for The New York Times. Earnest, who has the thankless job of trying to defend the president's agenda, lectured journalists for their negative press regarding the White House's lack of transparency. That's not fair, Earnest wrote, arguing that the president practices an open doors policy for reporters.
President Obama, as a matter of policy, invites White House journalists to cover his formal remarks at fund-raisers, even when they are held in a private home. Previous presidents have granted, at best, intermittent access to such events.
Earnest also pointed out the White House's Data.gov website, an online database that offers the press thousands of documents related to the federal government, as proof the administration is transparent.
It’s a short op-ed by the New York Times standard, because Earnest has little evidence to back up his claims.
Reports prove that the Obama White House doors may as well be bolted shut. For instance, it has one of the worst records in terms of FOIA requests, honoring just one out of every three - and judging by the White House's staff changes last year, it seems they had no intention of fixing the problem.
[Townhall] FOLLOWING Donald J. Trump's sublime immigration address, critics--essentially all Big, Crooked Media--charged that Trump's Arizona speech represented a sharp departure from the tone he took earlier that day, with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. A reversal, if you will.
Nonsense. With President Nieto, Donald Trump was at once patriotic, forceful and diplomatic.
In close to two decades of analyzing American politics, I've yet to hear an American leader address his Mexican counterpart as forcefully as Mr. Trump addressed President Nieto. Trump came across as a man-of-the world, to whom interfacing with foreign dignitaries was second nature.
It's always been the case that Americans in power collude with Mexicans in power to bully and manipulate a powerless American People into accepting the unacceptable: The imperative to welcome torrents of unskilled illegal aliens, at an incalculable cost to the safety of America's communities, the solvency of its public institutions, and the sustainability of the environment.
Strolling through the ancient Mayan and Toltec ruins with President Vincente Fox, in 2006, George W. Bush was not talking-up American interests. He was plotting amnesty with an unholy trinity comprised of John McCain, Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter. Sly Fox was the silent partner.
Most memorably, Bush, who would wrestle a crocodile for a criminal alien, went on to indict and viciously prosecute two brave border-patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. For shooting a drug dealer in the derriere--in the process of defending their countrymen--Bush unleashed his bloodhound, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, on the two patrolmen and jailed them.
h/t Instapundit
"Bigots, anti-Semites, and terrorist advocates" are "spreading hatred and inciting violence" from within the halls of the United Nations with full backing of the international organization, according to a report that shines new light on the lack of proper administrative oversight at Turtle Bay.
Accredited advocacy groups permitted to operate at the U.N. have been using the international organization as a platform to legitimize anti-Semitism, hatred of the Jewish state, and support for terrorism, according a new report issued by Human Rights Voices, a group that monitors bias at the U.N. and the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.
..."The UN cannot simply wash its hands of any responsibility, since its own selection and approval procedures belie any claims that UN officials are ignorant of NGOs’ purposes and content," the report said. "And none of these excuses addresses the fact that the buck stops with UN member states, who are the ones charged with the responsibility of awarding or continuing UN accreditation for NGOs in the first place." But, does the UN does so knowingly?
#3
That's what folks at R-burg have been saying for a long time. We (the U.S.) support people who hate us and do not have our best interests at heart. Time for UN-Exit?
There is a legend out thisaways about the region formally forming its own state, as they were not adequately represented in the respective states' governments.
In order to show solidarity they came up with a name which included Kansas, Colorado, and Texas.
Guess what they came up with, and why the movement began to sputter.
Kotex.
Dunno. Could be a joke from Oklahoma or New Mexico.
More than 100 inmates in a Scottish prison have signed up to receive kosher meals, despite the fact that there were officially nine Jewish prisoners in Scottish jails from 2013-2014.
An official at Glenochil Prison in Clackmannanshire in Scotland said the prison must provide the kosher meals to the prisoners if they claim to have converted to Judaism, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported Wednesday.
"Where previously we have always had a very minimal Jewish prison population we have seen a huge rise," prison spokesman Tom Fox said.
Prison officials believe the inmates think the kosher meals are "nicer." A wee gifilte fish with your haggis?
#3
It's a prison. They can demand to see a certificate or letter of conversion from the converting rabbi. This may lead to some of them going through the conversion process -- with an Orthodox rabbi that should take about three years of intense study and repeated challenges to see if the desire to convert is real. And then there is the circumcision as part of the ceremony, so that would be an easier check of those making claims, and a check on those less serious about the process.
[Daily Caller] New emails released by Judicial Watch in connection with its probe of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation indicate Clinton Foundation donors lobbied senior Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin for diplomatic passports. And what was the stated requirement or justification ?
Abedin responded positively to the donor inquiries, according to the email.
The donors in question include Doug Band and Justin Cooper. The email indicates that Band reached out to Abedin in 2009, when she served as deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of State, and asked for her help in obtaining diplomatic passports for him, Cooper, and a third individual identified only by their initials.
"We had them years ago but they lapsed and we didn’t bother getting them," Band wrote. Of course Foggy Bottom is not cooperating or providing additional information. With Black Passport and exemption of flight carry-on screening or inspection, just about anything could be transported in or out of the country. The normal methodology is 'Diplomatic Pouch,' but that would draw the attention of Embassy Regional Security Officer (RSO) personnel. It probably won't happen, but I'd really like to see someone thoroughly dig into this one.
Continuing the discussion started late yesterday here.
#1
"With Black Passport and exemption of flight carry-on screening or inspection, just about anything could be transported in or out of the country. "
This has not been my experience. The black book really gets you nothing when traveling other than the using the Diplomat line at immigration. You are still required to go through screening. Other than being able to flash the passport around to look cool, it actually makes travel more difficult as several countries require you have a diplomatic visa in the black book as opposed to traveling visa free on a blue/tourist passport.
This whole stinks for sure. They said they had them before. Dip ppts are only goof for 5 years. Wonder when the got the first ones and why??
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
09/02/2016 7:47
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#3
It depends on the country you are traveling to. Some countries which usually request visas from regular travelers will waive visa regulations for bearers of a diplomatic passport.
This is true for Russia. Germans need a visa for Russia but with a German Diplomatic Passport you may present yourself at Russian Immigration without a visa.
The immigration officer will then decide whether you are let in or not.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/02/2016 16:35
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[MEDIAITE] A retired police officer saved a life earlier this week, attracting enough attention that Headline News decided to interview him on Wednesday. While the interview itself was fairly standard, something perplexing happened when the network re-aired it throughout the day.
Steve Eckel and Sara Mazzone were both outside a New Jersey shopping center on Monday, when they noticed a four-month-old girl left inside of a locked car as temperatures climbed into the 80s. The New York Daily News reports that after alerting employees at a nearby Kohls and calling 911, Eckel remembered that he had a sledgehammer in his car, and he broke the windows so he could get the girl out.
On Wednesday, Christi Paul interviewed Eckel on HLN to get details on the rescue, at which time he was wearing a blue pro-Donald Trump shirt. HLN re-ran the interview about an hour later, at which point the "Trump for President 2016" on Eckel’s shirt was noticeably blurred out.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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#1
Guy carries a sledgehammer in his car?
Fantastic.
I have a window punch/seat belt cutter, but I don't think it contributes to global warming nearly enough to match sledgehammer.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry informed on Thursday that two people were killed and eight others wounded in a bomb blast to the north-west of Baghdad.
Sharing details the source said, “A bomb exploded at noon today close to shops in Shula area, north-west of Baghdad. Two people were killed and eight others wounded.”
“Ambulances rushed to the area and transported the wounded to a nearby hospital and the bodies of the deceased were sent to the forensic department. Security force cordoned off the area of incident,” further added the source seeking anonymity.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – Iraqi security forces have killed a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest to the north of Baghdad. He intended to target the visitors heading to the holy city of Kadhimiya, on the anniversary of Imam Jawad’s martyrdom.
The Operations Command in a statement, said, “According to intelligence inputs and after coordinating with one of command’s informers, we killed a suicide bomber in Tarmiya, to the north of Baghdad”.
“The dead suicide bomber was intending to target civilian visitors visiting Kadhimiya,” the statement added.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Ministry of Interior revealed that two persons were killed and four others injured in a bomb blast in western Baghdad.
“An improvised explosive device exploded, at afternoon today, near a popular restaurant in Hayy al-Jihad area in western Baghdad, killing two persons and wounding four others,” the source informed.
The source added, “Security forces rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital and the bodies to the forensic medicine department.”
ALEPPO – Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) arrested on Thursday a number of Turkey-backed rebel fighters near Syria’s border city of Jarablus, military sources said.
The rebels captured by the YPG were members of the pro-Turkey Sultan Murad Brigade, that has been fighting alongside Turkish army forces in Jarablus.
“Our forces have detained several mercenaries from the Turkey-backed groups in the vicinity of Jarablus on Thursday,” a spokesman for the YPG told ARA News, adding: “The operation comes in response to the detention of four of our fighters who have been tortured and publicly humiliated by those mercenary groups.”
According to the YPG leadership, four of its fighters were arrested by Turkey-backed rebels last Monday while they were trying to evacuate civilians from war-torn parts of the Jarablus city in northern Syria. After their arrest, the Kurdish fighters have been paraded across Jarablus without clothes and exposed to torture in public.
“We promise our people and our fighters, that we will hold these terrorists accountable for their evil deeds against our imprisoned fighters,” the Kurdish leadership said an earlier statement.
In the meantime, dozens of civilian casualties were reported in Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes near the border city of Jarablus, according to local activists.
Turkey-backed rebels and the Turkish army captured the city of Jarablus from ISIS on 24 August without a fight. Immediately afterwards, clashes started to erupt between US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) –led by YPG– and the pro-Turkey factions.
“After invading Jarablus city, Turkey tries to cut off the YPG-SDF supply routes in northern Syria and prevent those forces from eliminating ISIS terrorists,” Ali Battal, member of the Syrian National Democratic Union, told ARA News.
[CHICAGO.CBSLOCAL] A 24-year-old man was killed and a 23-year-old man was grazed by a bullet in a shooting in the West Lawn neighborhood late Wednesday night, capping off the most violent month in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... in 20 years.
Chicago police said there were 90 homicides in August, and a total of 472 people shot in 384 separate attacks. The city has not had that many murders in one month since August 1996.
As he has several times before, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said a relatively small group of repeat gun criminals are responsible for the the vast majority of gun violence in Chicago. The department maintains a watchlist of sorts, called the "strategic subject list," which relies on an algorithm to try to predict who is most likely to be involved in a shooting ‐ either as the shooter or victim ‐ by analyzing data such as gang affiliations, criminal records, past shootings, and previous contact with police.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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Democrat area at the hands of lawless constituants. In other words those black lives don't matter.
Posted by: Punky Dark Lord of the Munchkins9523 ||
09/02/2016 0:40
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Seems to me your 'algorithm' needs a little tweaking. And by a little I mean a lot!
#5
Level of violence in Chicago and the level of violence in the entire country of Israel, Gaza, and the region, might be an interest analysis and comparison. I suspect a grand level of hypocrasy, but I'd reckon such a comparison is off limits.
#6
What sort of gun control Laws do they have in Chicago?
And in Gaza the populace usually use knives on one another and Jewzzz if they are not people who build rockets. It might be a cultural thingy.
Moslems don't usually belong to the the democratic party unless they also are Constitutional scholars as well. Kizr Khan doesn't happen to live in Chicago does he? Just asking. he might, I don't know.
#7
As he has several times before, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said a relatively small group of repeat gun criminals are responsible for the the vast majority of gun violence in Chicago.
#8
The department maintains a watchlist of sorts, called the "strategic subject list," which relies on an algorithm to try to predict who is most likely to be involved in a shooting ‐ either as the shooter or victim ‐ by analyzing data such as gang affiliations, criminal records, past shootings, and previous contact with police.
I'm guessing I could probably save them some programming and give their computers a rest.
Concerns have been raised over the sharp increase in deaths of Afghan National Security Forces' members, with roadside mines being one of the key reasons for this spike.
The ministry of defense (MoD) said on Thursday that the Taliban's move to hit the Afghan Security Forces and the use of roadside mines was why soldiers were being lost every day.
However, former military officials have said that poor war management on the battlefields is also one of the reasons.
These days, security forces are busy fighting the Taliban and the scale of these clashes is resulting in a heavy death toll among security forces.
But the MoD said the number of insurgents killed by security forces far outweighs the number of soldiers killed by militants.
Muhammad Rad Manish, spokesperson for the ministry of defense said: "The enemy wants to take revenge and that started battles in every corner of the country which resulted in the increase in deaths among Afghan troops."
Currently Afghan security forces are embroiled in clashes with the Taliban in a number of provinces, but Helmand and Kunduz are the deadliest by far.
Meanwhile, the commander of Resolute Support in Afghanistan said recently that in July alone more than 900 Afghan soldiers were killed in battles.
"Afghan forces get killed because of poor management. Officials need to train the soldiers based on the warzone situation so as to decrease the number of soldiers being killed, but they do not consider this," said Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, former deputy for the ministry of interior.
Battles in Helmand and Kunduz have been ongoing for months now and the Taliban is still extremely active in the provinces.
These battles have also resulted in the Afghan forces losing some districts to the Taliban. Even the regions that have been taken back from Taliban are not completely secure, said analysts.
Atiqullah Amarkhil, a military analyst said: "Security forces do not have coordination with each other in the regions fighting the insurgents. They do not know how to manage the war; they even do not know how to defend the soldiers and the country."
Exact numbers of fallen soldiers in recent battles have not yet been released.
[Inquirer] The number of troops hunting down the Abu Sayyaf in the southern island province of Sulu is expected to grow to about 9,000 by next week, the Philippine military said on Thursday, amid taunts by the ruthless kidnap-for-ransom militants that it was prepared for a jihad.
The deployment is the largest concentration of troops in a single area in recent memory. It comes shortly after 15 soldiers were killed by the Abu Sayyaf in fierce battles this week in Jolo, where the terrorists are holding a number of foreign hostages.
President Duterte called on citizens to be vigilant against retaliatory attacks in the wake of intensified military operations. Duterte said, "You should be on guard since we're hitting them hard. I expect some…retribution also from them. That's their reprisal."
He said the rebels "do not live by the laws of civilization. They are really evil."
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Alhabsi Misaya said they were ready for the offensive, as he called on all Tausugs to join in a jihad. Misaya, in text messages, said the Abu Sayyaf had anticipated that "by Sept. 1, the Abu Sayyaf and soldiers of Duterte will test each other in a liberation."
Misaya, under the command of Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron, said this would be "the last war of Patikul to the finish."
"If they are given courage, this war is more fierce than in Zamboanga,” he wrote adding that they would rather "initiate the attack against the soldiers of Duterte."
"The Abu Sayyaf is ready with its more than 1,000 forces to do a jihad," Misaya added.
Lt. Gen. Mayoralgo dela Cruz said he received a similar message but minimized the Abu Sayyaf's real force as being between 200-250. Dela Cruz said the military would prefer the Abu Sayyaf launched their attacks as "it's better to be this way, so that we will no longer be hunting them."
Posted by: ryuge ||
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At least five people were reportedly wounded during a brief clash between the supporters of the former King Habibullah Kalakani and First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum in Kabul this afternoon.
The incident took place in Shahrara area of the city as scores of supporters of the former king arrived in Shahrara to rebury the remains of Kalakani after shifted from its previous place.
According to reports, the supporters of Gen. Dostum opposed with the reburial of Kalakani in Shahrara hill, claiming that the place belongs to the Uzbek people of the country.
However, the supporters who are mainly comprised of the Tajik nations of Afghanistan insisted that the remains of the former king should be reburied in Shahrara hill.
The funeral service of Kalakani and his 16 comrades was organized in Eid Gah mosque of Kabul city which was attended by several government officials, parliament members, and some residents of the country.
Kalakani took control of the country following an uprising in 1929 against Amanullah Khan’s regime and remained as king of the country for a period 9 months, from from January to October of the same year.
However, Nadir Khan took control of the country shortly by toppling the regime of Kalakani and hanged him alogn with some of his comrades.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Day 9 of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s Euphrates Shield Operation saw the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , the Turkish military and Turkey-backed Islamist proxies capture four villages from ISIS.
The four villages captured were Sabuniyah east, Sabuniyah west, Tell Aghbar and Sha’inah, that all lay west of Jarablus. These advancements now being the Turkey-backed bandidosforces of Evil within 6km of Sarjur lake.
Meanwhile in al-Rai however, ISIS recaptured 4 villages from the Turkey-backed bandidosforces of Evil putting a huge dent on there offensive to connect their areas of control in al-Rai and Jarablus.
Interestingly however was the fact that days ago Turkey-backed Islamist proxies caught and tortured Kurdish YPG bandidosforces of Evil caught. In return, Islamist’s involved in the beating and torture were they themselves caught by the YPG.
The Turkey military had no casualties with the Free Syrian Army and Islamist proxies only having 3 maimed from a land mine. No reports on YPG or ISIS casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[LATIMES] Nothing was going to stop Nelson Rivas from joining the Taking Caracas demonstration on Thursday -- not his wheelchair, not the six-mile distance over uneven pavement, not the whiffs of tear gas, not the ominous threats of arrests from President Nicolas Maduro.
"I came to demand that the recall election take place according to the constitution," said Rivas, 35. "Whatever your point of view, the condition of the country is the worst."
Crowds surge into the streets to demand recall of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduroled Francisco de Miranda Avenue, one of three main streets in the capital brimming with thousands and thousands of protesters, mostly dressed in white. Surrounding him were people carrying posters reading "No more socialism," "Maduro Out," and "Venezuela wants a recall."
Marchers such as Rivas said life in Venezuela has become a daily ordeal of standing in endless lines for food, for government services, for medical care.
The demonstration, aimed at speeding up a recall campaign against the 53-year-old president, was also a forceful repudiation of the leftist politics that are falling out of favor across Latin America.
At its peak in 2008, the left held the presidencies of eight of the 10 most populous countries in South and Central America. But those regimes have lost popularity as steep drops in commodity prices badly damaged their economies and left less money to spend on the poor.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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#1
Where are all the displays of solidarity from the Bernie Bros?
Shouldn't they be down there supporting their boy Nick?
#6
Heard a long piece on National People's Radio (NPR) yesterday talking about the riots in Caracas. First story on Venezuela at NPR that I've ever heard.
Talked about food shortage, insane inflation rate, and 'coup' to get rid of Maduro, but *no* mention of socialism or how Venezuela used to be one of the richest countries in S. America. Just bad luck, I guess.
#8
Its not just "socialism" that is the problem. No condemnation of socialism is complete unless it includes the point that *graft* and outright *theft* accompanies socialism at its every appearance. To those who pull the strings, the graft and theft are features of socialism, not bugs.
#9
The problem is that graft, theft and corruption wile always present with socialism they are also present in every other system and can be used by the socialists as targets.
It's the power of the politicians that is the graft engine.
#10
First story on Venezuela at NPR that I've ever heard.
It's called "salvaging one's journalistic credentials." Apparently the reek has gotten too noticeable for the turtleneck-wearing liberal set to ignore.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Yemeni Army announced that they intend to expand their military operations beyond the Saudi border after weeks of fighting the Saudi-led Coalition in the Jizan, Asir, and Najran regions.
According to Yemen-based Khabar News Agency, the Yemeni Minister of Defense General Sharif Luqman promised to expand military operations in 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... because of the ruthless Arclight airstrikes conducted by the latter’s air force all over Yemen.
The Yemeni Army and Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... forces have already seized a large chunk of territory in southern Saudi Arabia, while also expelling the pr-regime loyalists from the Yemeni capital.
General Luqman did not indicate how far he is willing to send his forces in Saudi Arabia, but given their current status, they could push as far north as Abha.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Fatah Halab launched a new offensive in the quiet provincial capital of Aleppo on Thursday, targeting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) controlled Mallah Farms along the Castillo Highway.
Fatah Halab stormed the Syrian Arab Army’s positions from two different axes at Mallah Farms, taking advantage of the latter’s recent redeployment of several soldiers from the Tiger Forces to the Hama Governorate.
Following a series of intense firefights that lasted most of the day on Thursday, the Syrian Armed Forces finally routed the jihadist rebels from the al-Mallah Farms area.
Fatah Halab’s abrupt offensive on Thursday was the first time in nearly two weeks that their forces have made a serious attempt to recapture the al-Mallah Farms in northern Aleppo.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Shortly after seizing the Technical College in southern Aleppo, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and pro-government factions managed to liberate the nearby villages of al-Qarassi and al-Amiriyah in a counter-offensive aimed at besieging rebel-held eastern Aleppo and ultimately capturing the entire city.
Major skirmishes are currently ongoing at the Armament School in southern Aleppo.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the SAA has a long way to go if government troops are to reverse all the military advances Jaish al-Fatah and Fatah Halab have conducted during the summer of 2016. Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Cynthia backed into the galley, the barbecue fork held in front of her. Jack! she called. Where the hell are you?... Jaish al-Fatah has also reopened the Hama frontline, adding further pressure to the SAA’s highly stretched supply line running from Hama to Aleppo.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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After weeks of continued battles, hundreds of Lashkargah city residents are deeply concerned about the Taliban's deepening grip on Helmand's provincial capital.
Angered by what they call a never-ending war, hundreds of residents in Lashkargah on Thursday came together to urge government to step up its efforts to improve law and order in their region.
TOLOnews correspondent Sharif Amiri who is with Afghan security forces on the frontline in Nawa district of Helmand has reported that the militants are slipping into the capital – especially at night.
"Security has deteriorated over the past month, we gradually lost several districts and the security of Lashkargah is also getting worse. We want security," said Sardar Mohammad Hamdard, a civil society activist.
"There is no security if you travel 300 meters away from here, the Taliban attack during the night," said Mohammad Tamim, an Afghan soldier in Helmand.
"We are now fed up with the war, we want security, security is key for people to live in peace," said a resident of Nawa, Gul Mohammad.
While there appears to be no end in sight to the Taliban's insurgency in the war-weary region, the business community and residents still have not lost hope for a better tomorrow and restaurants and hotels in Lashkargah continue to do business well in to the night.
Helmand was once a key Taliban stronghold has been embroiled in an increasing battle this year - despite numerous promises by the Afghan security institutions to eliminate the militants in the war-hit province.
The United States’ Africa Command (Africom) reported that it had conducted its 99th airstrike against IS in the Libyan city of Sirte since operations began on 1 August this year.
In its latest report released yesterday (Tuesday in the US), Africom revealed that as part of its Operation Odyssey Lightning it had struck seven main sets of targets in Sirte on Monday 29th August.
These included IS fighting positions and Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device:
The latest US revelations of airstrikes in Sirte against IS come as the Presidency Council/Government of National Accord-affiliated (PC/GNA) Bunyan Marsous forces continue to battle the remnants of IS in Sirte.
Yesterday, Faeiz Serraj, head of the PC/GNA flew into Sirte and visited the Ougadougou Centre, until recently IS’s headquarters. Serraj, along with other PC members, including his deputy Ahmed Maetig, from Misrata, spoke to senior commanders.
The IS terrorists have now been pushed back to their very last position which is in Sirte’s Third District. Though there is an eagerness to finish off a four-month fight that has cost more than 400 largely Misratan dead and 2,500 wounded, there is a reluctance to take more casualties in what is clearly the final stage of a now uneven battle.
The assumption is that IS is running out of fighters and ammunition, and becoming militarily weaker. Yet Sunday’s suicide car bombing in which 35 were killed and dozens injured demonstrated the danger of a desperate enemy that has little inclination to surrender.
Posted by: badanov ||
09/02/2016
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#1
Odd that they don't seem to be announcing their airstrikes in Iraq and Syria anymore... At least, no announcements have appeared for some time on the websites where I used to see them almost daily.
#2
I'm of the inclination that the ringmaster is directing attention to the ring in the right, because the lion-tamer in the middle ring is having problem with his beasts named Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, and the clowns in the left ring are too drunk to get out of the DNC-electoral-campaign clown car.
A further 820 military personnel have been dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), the Defense Ministry has announced, while the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen has ordered his followers to stay away from media outlets.
“The suspensions from the TSK are being carried out with meticulous efforts. The heroic soldiers, who are loyal to their nation and people, are performing their duties with success,” a tweet sent from the official Twitter account of the Defense Ministry read.
The personnel were dismissed over their links to the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), believed to have masterminded the failed July 15 coup attempt.
“The Turkish Armed Forces will continue its service and will be further strengthened as it is cleansed from FETÖ member traitors,” the statement also read.
According to the ministry, a total of 648 of the dismissed military personnel are currently under arrest, while the total number of dismissed personnel since the failed coup attempt has reached 4,451.
The 820 dismissed military personnel from the land and naval forces do not include generals, but only officers and noncommissioned officers.
Some 3,631 soldiers, including generals and admirals, were previously dismissed from the army in light of the two state of emergency decrees issued after the failed seizure of government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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Turkish military experts on Thursday cleared mines from the area of the Syrian town of Jarabulus captured from Takfiri insurgents last week, using controlled explosions that sent clouds of dust and smoke into the sky, an AFP photographer said.
Pro-Ankara Syrian militants, backed by Turkish aviation and tanks, took Jarabulus from ISIL terrorists in a lightning operation and now enjoy full control of the town.
The de-mining operation on the Syrian side of the border was easily visible from the Turkish border town of Karkamis, with the controlled explosions creating huge white-and-grey clouds of smoke and dust.
An AFP photographer on the border heard at least a dozen explosions and said that the de-mining work was continuing.
ISIL insurgents are believed to have left large quantities of mines and explosives around Jarabulus and operations to destroy them have been in progress since the capture of the town a week ago.
Artillery fire could also be heard on the other side of the border, AFP added.
Turkey says its offensive inside Syria, which began with the capture of Jarabulus, is aimed at ridding the border area not just of ISIL but also a Kurdish militia that Ankara regards as a terror group.
But Turkish strikes on the Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia (YPG) have worried the United States, which regards the group as an ally in the fight against ISIL.
Posted by: badanov ||
09/02/2016
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Venezuela's leftist government said it was removing its ambassador from Brazil and freezing relations with the neighbouring country after Wednesday's removal of President Dilma Rousseff, which it condemned as a "coup."
Look at the bright side: Nick the Mad won't be asking Brazil for financial aid...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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#1
I've got to ask. It's not their country and I know commies scream about "International" but they never do "International" so why do they care enough to get upset?
#3
Left wing qua Marxist government has bit the dust in Brazil and Argentina, is hanging by a thread in Venezuela, is under threat in Ecuador and Bolivia. South America has received a wakeup call, which happens about every forty years.
The US Department of State added the commander of the Islamic State’s nascent force in Somalia to its list of specailly designated global terrorists today. Abdulqadr Mumin, the leader of the small cadre of Islamic State fighters in the East African nation, defected from Shabaab late last year.
What took us so long?
State identified Mumin as “the head of a group of ISIL [Islamic State]-linked individuals in East Africa” and “a former al-Shabaab recruiter and spokesman.” Since he pledged to the Islamic State in October 2015, he has “expanded his cell of ISIL supporters by kidnapping young boys aged 10 to 15, indoctrinating them, and forcing them to take up militant activity.”
Before defecting from al Qaeda’s branch in in East Africa to the Islamic State, Mumin appeared in numerous Shabaab propaganda videos.
In April 2015, he appeared in a video where he incited fighters in the Golis Mountains in northern Somalia to wage jihad. Later that month, he gave a speech in a video that documented an attack on an African Union force in Lower Shabelle.
And in July 2015, he was featured in a propaganda tape that highlighted a Shabaab attack on a Burundi convoy near Leego. Burundi troops later withdrew from Leego after the attack.
When Mumin defected to the Islamic State in October 2015, it was reported that no more than 20 of the estimated 300 Shabaab fighters in the semi-autonomous Puntland region in Somalia, where he is based, joined him.
While Mumin has pledge allegiance to the Islamic State’s emir, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the Islamic State has yet to reciprocate and named an official province in Somalia or East Africa. This may be due to the fact that Mumin has failed to rally a significant number of jihadist to the Islamic State’s banner.
Shabaab, which is waging a deadly insurgency in Somalia and even controls some towns and rural areas in the south, boasts thousands of fighters in its ranks, while Mumin has less than 100 fighters under his command.
Mumin has operated a makeshift training facility, known as the “Commander Sheikh Abu Numan Training Camp,” in Puntland. In April 2016, Mumin appeared in a video that depicted just over a dozen fighters training there.
The camp is named after Bashir Abu Numan, a former commander who was killed by Shabaab’s Amniyat – the rival group’s internal security and intelligence branch – after he defected to the Islamic State in late 2015. [See LWJ report, Islamic State highlights ‘first camp of the Caliphate in Somalia.’]
Since Mumin swore allegiance to Baghdadi in October 2015, his group has only claimed three small-scale attacks inside Somalia. On April 25, the Islamic State claimed its first attack, an IED blast against an African Union convoy in Mogadishu.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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[Dhaka Tribune] This is the big news of the day ‐ Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the second most big shot of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) is dead. According to latest reports, al-Adnani was killed in a US air strike near the town of al-Bab in Northern Syria on Tuesday. As he was the the chief front man and propagandist of the group, he was often described as "the voice of ISIS." However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... as Rukmini Callimachi of The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... (NYT) notes on Twitter, "[al-Adnani] was far more than the mouthpiece of IS. He was head of the Emni, the secret service of IS which plotted external terror attacks."
How important was al-Adnani (real name: Taha Subhi Falaha) for Bangladeshi ISIS jihadis? An indication of that can be found in an infamous ISIS video featuring three Bangladeshi jihadis in Raqqa, the ISIS capital. In that video, which was recorded at an intersection of a shopping street just two blocks away from the ISIS headquarters, Bangladeshi ISIS fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali (real name: Tahmid Rahman Shafi) refers to al-Adnani as "our Sheikh." According to him, the gruesome slaughter of foreign nationals and Bangladeshis at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka "was just a glimpse" of a global war envisioned by the Sheikh.
There are indications that al-Adnani was indeed the principal patron or sponsor of ISIS operations in Bangladesh. This was first revealed by Rukmini Callimachi as she interviewed Harry Sarfo, a former ISIS member now serving a prison sentence in Germany. During the interview, Sarfo told Callimachi that a regional division of the Emni ‐ ISIS secret service headed by al-Adnani ‐ was responsible for plotting and executing the "recent café attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh."
It is also highly likely that Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury ‐ the alleged criminal mastermind of the Gulshan attack ‐ was sent to Bangladesh by al-Adnani himself or one of his deputies overseeing the "Asian affairs division" of the Emni. Chowdhury left Canada sometime in 2012/2013 and received training in Syria before being deployed as an ISIS coordinator in Bangladesh. He was recently killed ‐ some believe executed ‐ by a special police unit in Narayanganj.
These deaths ‐ al-Adnani’s in al-Bab and Chowdhury’s in Narayanganj ‐ will certainly have a crippling effect on ISIS operations in Bangladesh. However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... as the NYT journalist Callimachi points out on Twitter: "I would caution people not to see this as a blow ISIS can not recover from. [The organization] is built to survive deaths."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian army continued targeting the terrorist organizations in many areas across the country, killing their members and destroying their vehicles, SANA reported.
Hama
The Syrian Army regained control over Maardes village in the northern countryside of the province, killing scores of terrorists.
The Syrian Air Force targeted positions of Jaish al-Fatah bandidosforces of Evil in the northern countryside of Hama province, hitting their gatherings and movements in the cities of Mourek and Tibet al-Imam and in the surroundings of al-Buwaida village and Souran town, a military source told SANA Thursday.
Large numbers of them were killed and scores of vehicles, some equipped with machine guns, were destroyed in the air strikes.
The source said later that air strikes were launched against gatherings of bandidosforces of Evil from "Jaish al-Nassr" and "Jund al-Aqsa" in the surroundings of Souran town that left 10 bandidosforces of Evil dead, including Abu al-Zubair al-Hamwi, Adel Dakhan and Mahmoud Dakhan, and a BMP vehicle destroyed.
The Air Force also destroys tens of vehicles and armored cars for the terrorist organizations on the axes of al-Latamina, Tibet al-Imam, al-Lahaya and Maarakba in the northern countryside of Hama.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, Gloria slowly backed away from the eight-foot bull frog. If the creature croaked she would surely be deafened... the terrorist organizations acknowledged on their social media pages the death of many of their members, among them the "military leader of the so-called "Sukour Kaer Zita Brigade within Jaish al-Nassr" Rashid al-Hajji.
Aleppo
The Syrian Air Force destroyed several dens for terrorist groups and inflicted heavy losses upon the bandidosforces of Evil in personnel and weaponry in Kafr Hamra on the northwestern sides of Aleppo city.
The army’s Arclight airstrikes targeted the terrorists’ movements, destroying a convoy of vehicles and killing and injuring many bandidosforces of Evil on the axis of Khan Touman in Aleppo southwestern countryside.
Sweida
An army unit destroyed ISIS oil tanker trucks and killed all of the bandidosforces of Evil escorting them in the area east of Shaghaf village in the eastern countryside of the southern Sweida province.
Daraa
An army unit destroyed a mortar position and killed all the bandidosforces of Evil operating it in al-Nueimeh town in the eastern countryside of Daraa.
A terrorist group was targeted to the south of Daraa dam, with its members getting killed or injured.
Army units also killed a number of bandidosforces of Evil in Daraa al-Balad area in Daraa city, including Yehya Abu Zreik, the military leader of "Al-Tawhid Brigade" terrorist organization who is nicknamed "Abu Qutada".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk province informed on Wednesday, that the two ISIS members have surrendered before Peshmerga forces in Rashid.
Sharing details the source said, “The two ISIS members surrendered before the Peshmerga forces in Rashad vicinity. The duo is under detention and are being interrogated.”
“Most of the ISIS fighters are living in anxiety these days as a major chunk of their fighters have escaped from battleground after the outfit received fatal blows in various quarters,” added the source seeking anonymity.
Posted by: badanov ||
09/02/2016
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[RFE/RL] The Chinese Embassy in Bishkek has suspended the issuance of visas to Kyrgyz citizens after a terrorist attack against the embassy compound. Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry said that Kyrgyz citizens who applied for Chinese visas might receive their passports with or without Chinese visas back at the ministry's office.
Kyrgyz officials have said that a suicide car bomber rammed the gates of the Chinese Embassy compound in Bishkek on August 30 before detonating a bomb inside the car, killing himself and wounding three Kyrgyz employees of the embassy. Officials in both countries have called the incident a terrorist attack.
China's Foreign Ministry said that Beijing "will work with Kyrgyzstan to quickly obtain concrete information on the people and groups" behind the bombing.
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Marcel Lazar, 44, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to unauthorized computer access and aggravated identity theft
Lazar is best known for hacking an email account of a Bush family member
In doing so he revealed private family photos and paintings
The hack resulted in leaked emails, medical information, photographs, home addresses and telephone numbers, according to the indictment
Lazar claimed earlier he hacked into Hillary Clinton's private email server, but FBI Director James Comey have said he was lying
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
If he had hacked into Hillary's server, he would have been given the death penalty.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/02/2016 9:25
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[AlAhram] Germany's military launched a pilot project Thursday to help Syrian refugees learn civil reconstruction skills, in hopes that they will eventually be able to help rebuild their homeland. Over 12 weeks, military experts are teaching 120 refugees engineering, construction, sanitation and other skills in three four-week courses.
"The goal is for these young people to get good basic training," Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt, where one of the training centers has started giving classes.
Ahead of the event, von der Leyen said the idea is that the eventual rebuilding of Syria will need "more than just new stones, it will take people with confidence and diverse skills."
Even if the refugees decide not to return home, she said the program will help them acquire the skills they need to work in Germany.
[IsraelTimes] A Nice court finally suspended the burkini ban on Thursday after authorities in the French Riviera resort had defied a ruling by the country’s highest administrative court. Judges in Nice said the July 14 terror attack on the French Riviera city gave insufficient grounds to justify such a ban.
The decision Thursday follows last week’s ruling by France’s highest administrative court to suspend the bans introduced by around 30 towns, mainly in the sun-drenched southeast. Nice and several other towns had ignored the ruling and kept their bans in place in the midst of a raging debate over religious clothing in secular France.
Nice was one of the first French towns to ban the Islamic swimsuit this summer, with city authorities claiming there was a risk to public order from wearing the garment after a jihadist in a truck ploughed into crowds on the city’s waterfront, killing 86 people. But the city’s administrative court ruled Thursday: “In the absence of such risks, the emotions and the concerns resulting from terrorist attacks, and especially from the attack on July 14, are insufficient grounds to legally justify the contested ban.”
The court also found that burkinis posed no risk to “hygiene, decency or safety when swimming.”
At least 30 fines have been issued in Nice since the burkini ban was introduced.
Turkish jets killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq in air strikes on Thursday, the military said.
The strikes near the town of Cukurca in a mountainous part of the border province of Hakkari come after a series of attacks launched by the PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey. A ceasefire broke down just over a year ago.
Posted by: badanov ||
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Why do I think ISIS' idea of a media center is a mud hut with a satellite dish on the roof? What else do they need? ISIS media center destroyed in Qa’im
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A security source in Anbar Operations Command informed on Thursday that an ISIS media center was destroyed in Al-Qa’im district, to the west of Anbar.
Sharing details the source said, “Iraqi F16 fighter jets attacked Rummana in Al-Qa’im before noon today. An ISIS media was destroyed, killing a number of members of the outfit.”
“The air raid was carrying out based on information shared by the National Security Service,” the source further said seeking anonymity.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Heet District Council in Anbar province today announced that total curfew has been imposed in the district till further notice. The curfew has been imposed anticipating further possible attacks on the civilians.
Head of Heet District Council Mohammed al-Hiti said, “Security forces have imposed a total curfew in entire Heet and the curfew will continue till further notice. The curfew has been imposed in anticipation of further possible attacks on civilians and combat troops.”
“For the safety of the civilians, apart from imposing the total curfew, the security forces have also taken up strict measures and have deployed a number of security patrols for tightening up the security of the area,” Hiti added.
It may be mentioned here that security forces liberated majority of Anbar’s cities including Ramadi, Fallujah, Rutba and Heet.
2 sectors on Fallujah cleared of ISIS Bad Guys As today's game of Islamic Whack-a-Mole, Iraqi Home Edition continues
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Anbar Provincial Council announced that improvised explosive devices and ISIS remnants were completely removed from the northern and western sides of Fallujah. It also vowed to free the remaining areas of the city in the coming few days.
Member of Anbar Council Mohamed Yassin said, “Security forces and bomb squads backed by Civil Defense Directorate managed to remove all the improvised explosive devices, booby-trapped houses and ISIS remnants from the northern and western sides of Fallujah.”
“The displaced families will start to return to the city starting from September 15. All areas in Fallujah were subjected to terrorist attacks that left large number of military remnants and improvised explosive devices,” Yassin added.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Commander of Al-Jazeera Operations, Maj. Gen. Qassim Al-Muhammadi announced, on Thursday, that 10 ISIS fighters were killed in an airstrike carried out by international coalition aviation at western Anbar.
Mohammadi in a statement said, “The international Coalition Aviation today bombed an ISIS hideout at al-Bikr neighborhood to the north of Heet city, some 70 km west of Ramadi. The hideout was destroyed completely apart from killing ten ISIS fighters who were present in it during the time of the airstrike.”
It may be mentioned here that ISIS has dominated the Heet Island since mid-2014, while the security forces are preparing for a military operation to regain it.
Posted by: badanov ||
09/02/2016
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Hezbollah mujahidin (fighters) targeted a major post for Nusra terrorists in Arsal barrens on the northeastern border of Lebanon with Syria.
Hezbollah employed the various rocketry and artillery weapons in the attack which killed or injured a number of terrorists and inflicted heavy losses upon them.
Additional video report at the link
[ARA News] TEL ABYAD – The Turkish border police opened fire on a group of Syrian civilians who have been trying to cross into Turkey after fleeing Raqqa province on Thursday. At least two civilians were killed and several others injured, activists and eyewitnesses told ARA News.
A group of 12 civilians were trying to cross the border into Turkey from the Kurdish-populated village of Fwelan in the vicinity of Tel Abyad city in the northern countryside of Raqqa, when the Turkish border guards opened fire.
“Two of them were killed and five others were injured,” media activist Hambervan Kousa told ARA News in Tel Abyad.
The injured were transferred to the Tel Abyad national hospital for treatment. “One of the injured is in a critical condition,” the source said.
“It was not possible to pull the bodies of the two victims as the Turkish forces continued firing,” an eyewitness told ARA News.
Turkey has closed all its border gates with Syria’s Kurdish region of Rojava, which forced civilians to seek alternative routes in order to cross the border looking for a safe haven. Dozens have been killed by the Turkish border guards over the past two years, mostly Syrian Kurds.
Barrier Wall
In the meantime, the Turkish authorities started building a barrier wall on its southern border near the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane, while activists say that the Turkish move comes in a bid to cut off communication between Kurds on both sides of the border.
On Sunday, thousands of people in Kobane, including officials of the Rojava administration, protested near the border to condemn the Turkish move.
The Rojava Self-Administration issued a statement condemning the Turkish barrier wall project, and called on the international community to take action and stop the Turkish violations on the border with Syria.
“The Self-Administration in the Kobane canton condemns this aggression by the Turkish state against the people of our region. We appeal to the international community to break its silence and put pressure on the Turkish government to stop those violations,” it said.
“We gathered here today to condemn the barrier wall project launched by Erdogan and his government,” Zaibar Kurdi, one of the Kobane protesters, told ARA News on the border with Turkey. “We hereby tell them you may build a barrier wall that may reach the sky, but you’ll never be able to separate our people.”
The Turkish barrier wall project is being implemented from the Mursitpinar crossing with a depth of 20m inside the Rojava territory in northern Syria.
“Our protest is aimed to deliver a message of condemnation to the Turkish government for this clear violation. This racist barrier wall is meant to hit the Kurdish people and separate them from each other in northern and western Kurdistan,” protester Muhammad Ahmed told ARA News in Kobane.
This is not the first time for Turkey to build such a barrier wall on its borders with Syria’s Kurdish region. A similar wall has been built near the cities of Qamishli, Derik and Afrin.
Speaking to ARA News, director of the Kobane Health Commission, Hikmat Ahmed, said: “Turkey has been training and funding ISIS terrorists for years, and after its agenda has failed it started to invade our region with tanks and warplanes. At 05:00AM this morning the Turkish forces bombed the Amarna village and injured innocent civilians who are now being treated in Amal hospital in Kobane. And now building this barrier wall shows the Turkish attempt to separate our people.”
“We strongly condemn those actions,” he said.
Posted by: badanov ||
09/02/2016
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Some profound silliness on the part of Wapo. Researchers have known for decades that women tend to beat men on environmental metrics. They generally use less fuel and energy. They eat less meat. They're more concerned about climate change. They're easier to fool, in other words. They're smaller, more compact when young, better built (hubba hubba!), eat differently and smell different.
James Wilkie, a business professor at the University of Notre Dame, wanted to understand what drives this gender eco-friendliness gap. After years of exploring psychological bias, he and his colleagues developed a theory. How's this: Men are designed for more physical activities. They're larger in build, stronger as a group, and fleeter of foot. All this overlaps in a kind of gender Venn diagram that's not closer to a perfect circle. As they grow older, men tend to become meaner and less group-oriented, not quite silverbacks but I think definitely a leftover -- and again, think Venn, not universal. Women tend to become softer, more comforting.
"Men’s resistance may stem in part from a prevalent association between the concepts of greenness and femininity and a corresponding stereotype (held by both men and women) that green consumers are feminine," they assert this month in the Journal of Consumer Research. "As a result of this stereotype, men may be motivated to avoid or even oppose green behaviors in order to safeguard their gender identity." Silly researchers. They misspelled personal sanity. So it has everything to do with gender stereotypes and nothing to do with several million years of evolution and adaptation and cognate behavior in animals from the same evolutionary background can be discounted? Scientific method at work is a wonderful thing.
The researchers conducted a set of experiments, each designed to gauge if we actually do ascribe gender to green products and whether such perceptions impact our willingness to use them. They found people consistently connect environmentally conscious goods to their idea of femininity.
The first survey of 127 college students asked respondents if they thought green products appeared masculine, feminine or neither. Most participants, both men and women, said items designed to protect the planet seemed feminine. As mentioned above, there's a reason for that. Wimminzez are more pliant, easier to fool.
Another group of 194 students took an online quiz instructing them to imagine two grocery store shoppers, one carrying a green reusable bag and another toting a plastic sack. The quiz asked: Which seemed more eco-friendly, wasteful, masculine and/or feminine? The green shoppers seemed to respondents more eco-friendly and feminine, regardless of their gender. The plastic shoppers came off as more wasteful and masculine. Pretty funny. At the grocery store I shop at (years and years ago, BTW), tote bags and paper bags became the latest Green rage, and then subsequently store policy. Then a genius marketeer came up with the idea of allowing plastic bags in the self serve line. Everyone else got paper bags. Now you can ask for plastic, and I do so, loudly. The observable point is that even though they still do offer paper bagging, plastic bags for all their characterization of being not environmentally friendly went down the sh*tter, along with the motivation.
The researchers next gave a group of men phony gift cards and told them to pick from a selection of batteries, which included a green option. In both a faux Walmart and an online shopping scenario, the men avoided the green choice. “Self-perceptions of femininity suggest that threats may also influence private behavior,” the authors wrote. Given the choice I would have not purchased the green battery, mainly because green products are known to be unreliable, having yet to live up to their hype and their perception of value. Honest, I didn't check my man card. It was straight up economics. I suspect you take a woman out on her own with a coupla babies riding around with her in the grocery store, she'll be looking at her household budget, not checking her woman card, whatever that is. She'll buy whatever has the best value, not what "saves the planet."
Wilkie’s team also found men in the studies were more likely to donate to an environmental nonprofit group that had a “masculine” logo — one with darker colors and bold fonts — than to an organization that displayed lighter tones and “frilly” letters. Logos didn’t have an impact on where women said they’d want to donate.
A similar trend emerged in an experiment at a BMW dealership. When presented with two versions of the same “green” car, men favored the one called the “Protection Model” over the “Eco-friendly Model.” Women, meanwhile, weren’t particularly swayed by either title. One look at the price of those driving machines would have been enough for me to look elsewhere. "Okay, cool. Can we see some pickup trucks, now?"
A woman in the market for a BMW either wants a fun driving car because she likes to drive aggressively, or she wants an expensive piece of vehicular jewelry. Neither is enhanced by being labelled either Eco or Protection.
“Stereotypical feminine behavior and attitudes are more in parallel with taking care of the environment,” Wilkie said of the findings. “Male traits tend to conflict with this idea of maintaining a nice environment for other people.”
Professor Wilkie is a bigot who has never observed suburban men mowing the lawn. When I mow the lawn, I take out the lawn mower, go round and round until the grass is mostly about the same shorter height, then put the mower back in the garage. When Mr. Wife mows the lawn, he edges before with one machine I don't touch, then after mowing he blows all the clippings off the driveway and sidewalk with another machine I don't touch. And if there is a chance that the clippings will clump instead of falling neatly between the standing grass blades, he uses the bagger and takes the captured clippings to the mulch pile in the back to break down into mulch. One of us cares a great deal more than the other.
Wilkie blames stereotypes. People who care about the environment are perceived as nurturing, gentle caretakers. Pop culture says they're barefoot hippies with long hair and flower crowns. That image clashes with traditional masculinity. Ya think?
Previous research, Wilkie noted, suggests that men are socially penalized more for breaking gender norms when it comes to the products they use — or even the drinks they order. “If a man at a bar were to order a girlie drink, he might get some looks,” Wilkie said. “He might get some snickers. He might even get into a fight.” Just what is a girlie drink? Help a fella out here?
A woman requesting something that reads masculine, such as, say, a whiskey on the rocks, probably wouldn’t encounter that problem. “Some people might even be impressed,” he said. None of that seems to be surprising. Men are more likely to have trouble admitting having same gender sex, for example, than wimminzez.
Carrie Preston, director of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Program at Boston University, said it’s concerning that feminine-seeming goods or actions repel some men. “That says what’s feminine is bad, is lesser, is second class,” she said. “Although men’s and women’s roles have changed significantly, masculinity hasn’t changed as much.” And it's not likely to.
Caring about what people think of your drink choice or grocery bag may seem silly. There’s nothing inherently feminine about recycling, and some would argue that femininity itself (and how it’s marketed) is a cultural creation. Still, a 2011 survey from the global marketing firm Ogilvy and Mather found 82 percent of adults in a nationally representative sample said “going green” is more ladylike than manly. I woulda hung up the phone on that question.
Marketers are unlikely to shatter gender expectations overnight — or nix the belief that feminine is lesser — but a packaging or messaging tweak could draw more men to the green movement. Or to a bowel movement.
"Despite a prevalent stereotype that green consumers are more feminine than non-green consumers," the researchers wrote, "we show that men’s inhibitions about engaging in green behavior can be mitigated through masculine affirmation and masculine branding." That's if you're brain dead.
#2
"Old Yellow was ladylike lemon..."
"And Red, in its manly persimmon!"
"So why did they ban it?"
"We're saving the planet
with Green, the new Soylent for women!"
No kidding. Dunno why I don't read him more often (nuff inferiority complex already?). Cuz when I do, I wonder, life being so short, why I'd read anything else. Thanks, man. Didn't post this the other day (cuz it sucked, and I like valentour), but what the hell...
A painful dilemma. No, crippling.
Brass blasting and church bells a-rippling.
I'm standing, stunned, blinking:
"What's wrong, dude?" "I'm thinking."
To choose between godhead and Kipling?
#4
Maybe because women are at the top end of the food chain while men are the ones most likely to die while on the dirty jobs that keep the chain operational. Men get to see 'nature' up close and personal in a manner the vast majority of women seek to avoid.
#7
Here's an executive summary: green is for chicks and sissies. Now where's my stipend ?
Posted by: Regular joe ||
09/02/2016 13:46
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#8
Discarded birth control and hygiene products cause a great deal of damage to the environment.
And laundry detergent, and Bounce sheets, and makeup and all the industrial waste from the production of smart phones, and other modern conveniences which disproportionately benefit women -- oh, and socialism, which tends to be more popular with women.
When oh when will the ladies "lady up" and give up all those icky modern contrivances?
#9
I kicked the Earth's ass today with a shovel, then flayed a sunflower. I will celebrate my victory with a whiskey and change the best non-green battery to the laserlyte so I can impale the Earth with lead tomorrow then pour a girlie drink into its open wound. Then maybe some fireworks.
Suspected Al Shabaab assailants have staged an overnight attack on Somali National Army (SNA) base near the southern agriculture-rich town of Afgoye.
Reports said the gunmen who are believed to be Al Shabaab members fired RPgs on the SNA outpost at Addow Dibille area in the outskirts of Afgoye town controlled by allied troops.
There was no immediate information on the casualties, but local residents said they could hear heavy gunfire used in the fight between the gunmen and SNA soldiers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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Thailand’s military government has announced peace talks can go ahead with Muslim separatists in the far south of the country but insisted they observe a ceasefire.
What's the over/under?
Separatists from the far south Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat are suspected of involvement in a string of bombings last month in several tourist towns that killed four people and wounded dozens.
A decades-old insurgency in the deep south of predominately Buddhist Thailand flared in 2004 and more than 6,500 people have been killed since then, according to the independent monitoring group Deep South Watch.
Talks between the government and insurgents began in 2013 when Yingluck Shinawatra was prime minister of a civilian government but have stalled since the military threw her out of office in 2014.
The Thai defence minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, said negotiations would restart on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
General Aksara Kerdphol, the Thai government’s lead negotiator, said the rebels had to show good faith by ending violence.
“I have been instructed to tell the groups that there must be a peaceful situation on the ground before we are willing to sign any document,” he said.
Malaysia’s Bernama state news agency said Thai officials would meet representatives of the Mara Pattani “separatist umbrella group”.
Bangkok-based analyst Anthony Davis, at security consulting firm IHS-Jane’s, said a ceasefire was unlikely as the main group behind the violence, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), had been left out of the talks.
Wonder why -- perhaps because they're the main group behind the violence?
“BRN has made it entirely clear that they reject the current process of peace talks between Bangkok and the group of small factions-in-exile in Malaysia called Mara Pattani,” he said.
The three ethnic-Malay majority provinces were part of a Malay sultanate before being annexed by Thailand more than a century ago.
You do have to wonder if the Thais would be smarter just to let the provinces go...
The 11-12 August bombings in several towns including Hua Hin, Surat Thai and on Phuket island spread alarm in a tourist industry that had been largely spared a spillover of violence from the insurgency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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[Dhaka Tribune] How they knew each other, how close they were and how they had walked together down this dark path, has not yet been found out. What is certain is that they all left home on the same day, February 3.
Shazad Rouf Arko, Nibras Islam and Tousif Hossain left their families at the same day from their residence at Basundhara Residential area, Uttara and Dhanmondi area accordingly.
Tousif completed his O Levels and A Levels from Maple Leaf School of Dhanmondi.
Then he went to study at the Kuala Lumpur campus of Australia’s prestigious Monash University around 2012 where one of Tousif’s friends was Nibras, according to the general diary filed by Tousif’s father Dr Ajmal Hossain with the Dhanmondi cop shoppe after he went missing. Ar Ajmal also said that they had contacted Nibras’ family and learned that he too had gone missing the same day.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... it could not be confirmed if any GD was filed after Nibras went missing.
Nannu Miah, caretaker of the building Tousif lived in, told the Dhaka Tribune that the boy usually came to Bangladesh in a regular interval and most often went outside in the afternoon carrying a bag. He had the bag also on the day he went missing.
Inspector (investigation) of Dhanmondi cop shoppe Helal Uddin said they had tried to find Tousif but could not find him. His last known location was in Dhanmondi.
Nibras completed his O Levels and A Levels from Turkish Hope School in Uttara near where he lived and then went to North South University. Then he quit halfway and left the country for Monash University in Malaysia in around 2013.
According to police Tousif and Nibras returned to Bangladesh in November 2015 on the same day.
When Nibras was studying at NSU he became friends with Arko. Both of them enjoyed playing football and were active in social media. One of the students of the time told the Dhaka Tribune that he knew both of them for their football skills but they hardly ever played in the campus.
In his LinkedIn profile, Arko mentioned that he had worked as an apprentice at Berger Paints since April 2015.
Arko’s father Touhid Rouf filed a GD with Vatara cop shoppe on February 6, saying he left his home in the early hours of February 3. His last cell phone location was near his residence, said SI Mizanur Rahman, IO of the missing complaints.
They were first found together when Shahbagh police jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! three people near the Institute of Engineers in Ramna for their alleged plotting of subversive activities.
The arrestees were Raiyan Minhaj alias Raimu alias Armin, 24, Ahmed Sammur Raihan alias Chiller, 23, and Towhid Bin Ahmed alias Riyaj alias Kachhi. Later police filed a case against them under the anti-terrorism act. The three were now on bail.
According to the police six other young men expeditiously departed at a goodly pace that day. The arrestees however named Arko, Nibras and Tousif. But they did not confirm their real identities.
Nibras was killed in Operation Thunderbolt by the Army at Gulshan Holey Artisan Cafe on July 2, Arko was killed in a DMP SWAT drive ar Kallyanpur called Operation Storm 26 and on August 27, Tousif was killed in an operation by SWAT in Naraynganj’s Paikpara area with the criminal mastermind of Gulshan attack Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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[WASHINGTONTIMES] President B.O. objected Thursday to a new governing board to oversee health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs, saying it would undermine the VA secretary’s authority and make it harder for the scandal-ridden agency "to implement transformative change." The president said the recommendation by a national commission for a new "board of directors" for the nation’s largest health care system also would "weaken the integration" of the VA’s medical program with other services. He also said the Justice Department has advised that the extra layer of oversight "would violate the appointments clause of the Constitution."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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#1
The totally corrupt Justice Department strikes again.
#2
You don't need oversight. You just need to start firing people. Oversight, more rules and more regulations are just excuses not to fire people for their failures. 'Everybody gets a gold star*' BS.
*When you are older, the term is golden parachute.
#3
A very good friend has cancer as a result of exposure to agent orange in Vietnam. He was a Captain, was awarded the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He has been denied care at the VA because, "We have no record of you serving in Vietnam". He produced his Bronze Star citation and his purple heart citation to no avail. Even our Congresscritters are unable to help so far. I know two others who got the same letter. The rot is complete.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/02/2016 9:20
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#4
Deacon,
Any links to his story? Or more info? What VA facility did he go to?
#6
Deacon Blues: That is... I can't think of words to do justice, for what is going through my mind. I'd suggest contacting a campaign to pressure the VA, but Lord knows they wouldn't give a damn if Jared Fogle was a regional director for them.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/02/2016 11:57
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#7
DAV, VFW, will help. Go to them. They are motivated and by God will do something.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/02/2016 18:30
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#8
Ditto ref Whiskey Mike's comment above.
Also, make sure he's got a copy of his DD-214 which SHOULD show Viet Service and dates, award of the Viet ribbon, Bronze Star, etc. Copies of order also may help.
The Obama administration has denied claims by a Washington thinktank that Iran has secretly been granted exemptions to a multilateral nuclear agreement signed last July in Vienna.
But nobody believes them.
A report by the Institute for Science and International Security alleged that a joint commission set up to implement the Vienna deal had allowed Iran to keep more than the agreed maximum of 300 kg of low enriched uranium (LEU) by excluding waste material in Iran’s nuclear facilities. If enriched further, LEU could be used in a nuclear warhead.
The institute’s director and co-author of the report, David Albright, said that this and other exemptions were granted by the commission in secret.
“One of the biggest problems is we are being denied information in these cases,” Albright said. “If the joint commission has so many powers to change this deal, shouldn’t we know what they’re doing?”
The state department denied that the 300 kg LEU limit set down in the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA), had been breached.
“There’s been no loosening of the commitments and Iran has not and will not under the JCPOA be allowed to exceed the limits that are spelled out in the JCPOA,” spokesman John Kirby said. He added the only violation of the terms of the deal had been a temporary surplus in Iran’s export of heavy water (which can be used in nuclear reactors to produce plutonium), but that had been corrected. Kirby also said the secrecy of the work of the joint commission, which represents all parties to the deal, was stipulated in last year’s deal, signed by six world powers (the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China), the EU and Iran.
“This is in compliance with the JCPOA which says the commission’s work should be confidential unless all parties agree otherwise,” Kirby said.
So how about an audit and release of information? Nobody trusts you.
As well as noting the heavy-water surplus, Albright’s report said that “lab contaminant” containing 20% enriched uranium was being overlooked by the commission, and that Iran had been allowed to retain 19 “hot cells” larger than the specifications laid down in the JCPOA. Hot cells are special containers that allow technicians to handle radioactive matter with special gloves while being shielded. They can be used to separate plutonium from spent fuel on a small scale.
Kirby noted that the joint commission was given the authority to approve larger hot cells than envisaged in the agreement.
“We aren’t saying anything has been violated here,” Albright said. “But the number of these hot cells is surprising. We don’t know how many are being monitored by the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], and again, why is this secret?”
James Walsh, an international security expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that it was the norm for arms control agreements to have secret sections.
“Secret doesn’t mean evil. It’s just standard operating procedure, and as this report says itself, Obama notified Congress. Congress has known this from the beginning,” Walsh said. On the question of the “hot cells”, Walsh added: “The report admits these are being used for producing medical isotopes. There is no plutonium reactor in Iran. A reactor is years away, so allowing the existing hot cells is not a proliferation danger.”
James Acton, the co-director of the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “The more complicated and comprehensive your arms control agreement, the more questions it throws up in implementation.
“Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the US had to destroy its stockpile by 2012, but it wasn’t possible to meet that deadline. People didn’t see that as an attempt to undermine the convention, and a pragmatic solution was found,” Acton said. “There is the same principle at work here.”
Did he say that at the time?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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#1
So we are all in agreement then that if that were secret exemptions then that would be a very very bad thing.
#3
“Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the US had to destroy its stockpile by 2012, but it wasn’t possible to meet that deadline. People didn’t see that as an attempt to undermine the convention, and a pragmatic solution was found,” Acton said. “There is the same principle at work here.”
The word meaning has changed in 4 years although the semantic content remains the same.
Syria’s government secured a deal to restore its authority over another rebellious Damascus suburb on Thursday while Syrian rebels captured new ground in a lightning advance on the central city of Hama and suspected government airstrikes killed 25 civilians in the surrounding province.
The Syrian capital’s western suburb of Moadamiyeh, which a UN report said was gassed with toxic sarin in 2013, has suffered a three-year government siege that left its estimated 28,000 residents with dwindling food and medical supplies.
On Thursday, Moadamiyeh’s residents agreed to let President Bashar Assad’s government restore its security presence and political institutions in the suburb, according to Hassan Ghadour, a resident and leading negotiator of the deal.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: badanov ||
09/02/2016
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#6
Is there is a "Syria" other than a Caliphate of Damascus and its tributary possessions surrounded by the vicious Turkish scum to the North, the Bedouin rabble to the South, and the abominable Persians to the East?
#7
Reading the author's snarky comments about animal-themed mercenaries is priceless if you have any knowledge of the history of warfare in the region -- particularly how the Byzantines built their army. Local militia, of doubtful loyalty, to hold ground and mobile field armies to do the real fighting...
#9
Putin is likely to regret his Syrian adventure as much as we have regretted some of ours. I'd be perfectly willing to sit back and watch it from the safety of my couch.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/02/2016 11:33
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#10
Wish him well. Stay the fok out and let the sand kaffr's fight it out.
Japan’s defence ministry has requested a record budget to counter growing Chinese military activity around a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The ministry is seeking 5.17 trillion yen (£38bn) for the year beginning in April 2017. That marks an increase of 2.3% from last year, and is the fifth annual increase since Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, came to power in late 2012 vowing to bolster the military to address a surge in Chinese naval activity and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
The latest budget request marks a continuation in the shift in focus away from Japan’s northern maritime border with Russia – where cold war Soviet forces once posed a threat – to an 870-mile chain of southern outlying islands stretching from the Japanese mainland towards Taiwan.
Much of the hardware on the defence ministry’s shopping list is designed to counter potential threats to Japanese territory in the East China Sea, including the disputed Senkaku islands, which are also claimed by Beijing.
At the heart of the strategy is the development of a mobile amphibious force – modelled on the US marine corps – that would be able to respond quickly to an attempt to invade the Senkakus, which China refers to as Diaoyu.
In the single biggest outlay, the ministry wants more than 100bn yen to upgrade Japan’s Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles, seen as the last line of defence against a nuclear or conventional attack by North Korea. The improvements will dramatically enhance the PAC-3’s range and its ability to target incoming missiles.
The Senkakus are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and potentially huge oil and gas deposits. The uninhabited islets are administered by Japan, but Chinese vessels have stepped up incursions into waters near the territories in recent months.
To improve Japan’s ability to patrol the islands, ministry officials want to spend 95bn yen on six Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters, as well as more than 90bn yen on four Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and six Boeing Chinook twin-rotor helicopters.
How about establishing a small base in the islands? Look at how China is changing the situation in the South China Sea by building bases. Put a base on a suitable island in the Senkakus with a runway, some helicopters and patrol aircraft, a company of soldiers, and appropriate monitoring gear. You don't need more.
Incursions by Chinese planes into Japanese airspace near the Senkakus were met with a record number of scrambles by Japanese fighter planes between April and June, while Tokyo continued to resist Beijing’s requests for talks on the dispute.
As a prominent member of a group of conservative politicians who believe the postwar constraints imposed on Japan’s military are unfair and out of date, Abe wants the country’s self-defence forces to play a bigger international role that includes possible involvement in overseas conflicts.
Last summer, his governing coalition pushed through controversial security legislation that reinterpreted Japan’s war-renouncing constitution to allow the armed forces to exercise its right to collective self-defence – or coming to the aid of an ally – for the first time since the end of the second world war. Despite the broader scope afforded Japanese troops by the new laws, speculation is mounting that Abe, whose coalition dominates both houses of parliament, will attempt to ditch article 9 of the US-authored constitution, which restricts Japan’s military to a purely defensive role.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Faylaq al-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa (Al-Qaeda franchise) attempted to capture the Alawi village of Ma’an on Thursday after seizing several points from the Syrian Armed Forces earlier this week.
Despite their best efforts, the jihadist rebels of Jund al-Aqsa and Faylaq al-Sham were unable to capture Ma’an village after several attacks on the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) defenses.
According to Faylaq al-Sham’s official media wing, they lost a total of 14 military personnel during the battle for Ma’an on Thursday; however, only 8 of them were identified:
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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Two youths from Peshawar city of Pakistan were arrested by the Afghan intelligence operatives before they manage to carry out attacks in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of Nangarhar province.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the two youths have been identified as Shakirullah son of Khanzada Gul who is originally a resident of Peshawar city while the second bomber was identified as Sajad son of Riaz who is also a resident of Peshawar cty.
The two bombers have confessed that they were trained in Haidar Khord Madrasa in Peshawar city by Qari Bilal.
NDS further added that the two youths were identified and arrested from Torkham shortly after they entered Afghanistan from the other side of Durand Line.
According to NDS, the arrest of the two Peshawar youths by the intelligence operatives proves that the training camps of the terrorist groups are still operating on the side of the line.
This comes as the Afghan officials have long been criticizing Pakistan for allowing the terrorist groups to use its soil for planning and coordinating attacks in Afghanistan.
The Afghan officials are saying that the Taliban group leadership and the Haqqani network leaders are based in Pakistan from where they plan attacks in Afghanistan.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army’s "Tiger Forces" and their allies reportedly captured the village of al-Iskenderiyah after launching a counter-attack against Jund al-Aqsa (Al-Qaeda franchise in Syria) in northern Hama.
In addition to seizing al-Iskenderiyah, the Syrian Armed Forces have managed to clear much of the area around Ma’ardes, leaving a small pocket of resistance at the outskirts of this small town.
Not all reports from Hama have been uplifting; in fact, ground activists in the province are reporting that a massacre took place at a village recently captured by the jihadist rebels.
According to these local ground activists, the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) and Jund al-Aqsa reportedly executed over 90 civilians (unverified) in the town of Souran, making this the last largest massacre to take place in the Hama Governorate since the Ma’an massacre in 2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United States and its negotiating partners agreed "in secret" to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in last year’s landmark nuclear agreement in order to meet the deadline for it to start getting relief from economic sanctions, according to a think tank report published on Thursday.
The report, which was released by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, is based on information provided by several officials of governments involved in the negotiations. The group’s president David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and co-author of the report, declined to identify the officials, and Rooters could not independently verify the report’s assertions.
"The exemptions or loopholes are happening in secret, and it appears that they favor Iran," Albright said.
The report ignited a chorus of Republican criticism, including from the campaign of presidential nominee Donald Trump. His campaign sought to link the findings to Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Frederick T. Frelinghuysen ... , who was secretary of state when secret talks were held with Iran but had left office before formal negotiations began.
"The deeply flawed nuclear deal Hillary Clinton secretly spearheaded with Iran looks worse and worse by the day," said a statement issued by retired Army General Michael Flynn, a top Trump adviser. "It’s now clear President B.O. gave away the store to secure a weak agreement that is full of loopholes."
The Clinton campaign did not immediately comment on the report.
Among the exemptions were two that allowed Iran to exceed the deal’s limits on how much low-enriched uranium (LEU) it can keep in its nuclear facilities, the report said. LEU can be purified into highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium.
The exemptions, the report said, were approved by the joint commission the deal created to oversee implementation of the accord. The commission is comprised of the United States and its negotiating partners -- called the P5+1 -- and Iran.
One senior "knowledgeable" official was cited by the report as saying that if the joint commission had not acted to create these exemptions, some of Iran’s nuclear facilities would not have been in compliance with the deal by Jan. 16, the deadline for the beginning of the lifting of sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The United States and its negotiating partners agreed "in secret" to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in last year's landmark nuclear agreement in order to meet the deadline for it to start getting relief from economic sanctions, according to a report reviewed by Reuters.
I hear Darth Vader's voice in the background: "Pray I don't alter it any further."
The report is to be published on Thursday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said the think tank’s president David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and co-author of the report. It is based on information provided by several officials of governments involved in the negotiations, who Albright declined to identify.
"The exemptions or loopholes are happening in secret, and it appears that they favor Iran," Albright said.
Among the exemptions were two that allowed Iran to exceed the deal's limits on how much low-enriched uranium (LEU) it can keep in its nuclear facilities, the report said. LEU can be purified into highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium.
The exemptions, the report said, were approved by the joint commission the deal created to oversee implementation of the accord. The commission is comprised of the United States and its negotiating partners -- called the P5+1 -- and Iran.
One senior "knowledgeable" official was cited by the report as saying that if the joint commission had not acted to create these exemptions, some of Iran’s nuclear facilities would not have been in compliance with the deal by Jan. 16, the deadline for the beginning of the lifting of sanctions.
And so...
The U.S. administration has said that the world powers that negotiated the accord -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- made no secret arrangements. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the joint commission and its role were "not secret." He did not address the report's assertions of exemptions.
Of course it wasn't a "secret" -- the P5+1 all knew. How could it be a secret? So okay, they didn't tell the little people...
The report's assertions are likely to anger critics of the nuclear deal. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to renegotiate the agreement if he's elected, while Democrat Hillary Clinton supports the accord.
Albright said the exceptions risked setting precedents that Iran could use to seek additional waivers.
Albright served as an inspector with the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team that investigated former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program. While Albright has neither endorsed nor denounced the overall agreement, he has expressed concern over what he considers potential flaws in the nuclear deal, including the expiration of key limitations on Iran's nuclear work in 10-15 years.
The administration of President Barack Obama informed Congress of the exemptions on Jan. 16, said the report. Albright said the exemptions, which have not been made public, were detailed in confidential documents sent to Capitol Hill that day -- after the exemptions had already been granted.
They weren't about to ask permission...
The White House official said the administration had briefed Congress "frequently and comprehensively" on the joint commission's work.
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, a leading critic of the Iran deal and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters in an email: "I was not aware nor did I receive any briefing (on the exemptions).”
As part of the concessions that allowed Iran to exceed uranium limits, the joint commission agreed to exempt unknown quantities of 3.5 percent LEU contained in liquid, solid and sludge wastes stored at Iranian nuclear facilities, according to the report. The agreement restricts Iran to stockpiling only 300 kg of 3.5 percent LEU.
The commission approved a second exemption for an unknown quantity of near 20 percent LEU in "lab contaminant" that was determined to be unrecoverable, the report said. The nuclear agreement requires Iran to fabricate all such LEU into research reactor fuel.
If the total amount of excess LEU Iran possesses is unknown, it is impossible to know how much weapons-grade uranium it could yield, experts said.
The draft report said the joint commission also agreed to allow Iran to keep operating 19 radiation containment chambers larger than the accord set. These so-called "hot cells" are used for handling radioactive material but can be "misused for secret, mostly small-scale plutonium separation efforts," said the report. Plutonium is another nuclear weapons fuel.
The deal allowed Iran to meet a 130-tonne limit on heavy water produced at its Arak facility by selling its excess stock on the open market. But with no buyer available, the joint commission helped Tehran meet the sanctions relief deadline by allowing it to send 50 tonnes of the material -- which can be used in nuclear weapons production -- to Oman, where it was stored under Iranian control, the report said.
The shipment to Oman of the heavy water that can be used in nuclear weapons production has already been reported. Albright's report made the new assertion that the joint committee had approved this concession.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016
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#1
"Democrat Hillary Clinton supports the accord....."
Mai Oui, that goes without saying. Its a secret arrangement made by a democratic party and not to be questioned by the little people or peasants.
The very idea.
Okay Hemingway, lesson number two from me:
I know who you are. From my moderator's perch, I (and Pappy) see your IP. No matter what nym you pick or have picked for you, you're the same IP.
So stop changing names. I'm going to suggest one to you, you might like it -- "Hemingway1961". Regardless, pick ONE nym.
A bomb blast killed a Syrian woman and wounded at least eight other people in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, the state-owned National News Agency reported.
The explosion hit near the mainly Christian town of Zahle, NNA said, publishing a photograph of the elderly woman with her white shawl stained with blood.
The Red Thingy Cross said one of the wounded was in serious condition.
Lebanon has been struck by several deadly bombings since the conflict in neighbouring Syria erupted in 2011.In June, eight suicide bombers, some of them linked to the Islamic State jihadist group, attacked Al-Qaa village near the Syrian border, killing five civilians.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The national debt hit $19.5 trillion for the first time ever this week, a little more than seven months after it hit the $19 trillion mark. The debt clocked in at $19.51 trillion at the end of Wednesday, the Treasury Department reported Thursday afternoon. Precise debt figures on any given day are released on the following business day. The national debt hit $19 trillion for the first time ever on Jan. 29. When President B.O. took office in early 2009, the total debt was $10.63 trillion, which means it has almost doubled under his watch.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2016
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#1
I'll bet dollars to Donuts it's way way more than that.
#5
Meanwhile the Federal Gov't continues to pressure the Fed banking system to keep interest rates low. Any elevation will throw the federal budget interest payment expenditures ($283b - 7% of budget) into absolute chaos.
The gov't long ago went into the business of borrowing money and paying handsome returns in order to support their schemes. They've since put the banks out of business and stifled personal investment and the economy.
#6
The central Bank marxists have been manipulating interest rates below the natural risk rates.
They did this to destroy banks.
There is no way on earth the natural market balance between savers and borrowers has interest rates at ~0%.
It's a total joke.
#8
Don't forget the Ministry of Truth reporting of 'real' inflation. If it wasn't for frackers, we and the economy would already be hammered the tax known as inflation. If you're rich and connected you're protected by the Fed and Treasury along with your bought and paid for Congresscritter*. If you're middle or working class, you're screwed.
*"Tax the rich", but create a Byzantine tax system in which they get to protect their assets and income. See - kabuki theater
#9
Another Cloward-Pivens, Saul Alinsky success for Obama in his goal of collapsing the system. Hillary will be Obama on steroids. People vote for a lot of stupid reasons such as it would be cool to elect the first black POTUS or first womyn POTUS--no matter that such people are intent on destroying the country or feathering their own pockets. It strikes me as sophomoric to do that--kind of like electing a guy for homecoming queen or a dog for student body president such as was done in the late '60s and early '70s in some universities as a protest of the cause du jour--it's juvenile and irresponsible.
#10
I read a letter to the editor in our local newspaper where the woman came up with the following non sequitur: "I read 50 magazines a month, and I think Hillary Clinton is the way to go." As they say, "You can't fix stupid."
#11
"Tax the rich", but create a Byzantine tax system in which they get to protect their assets and income. See - kabuki theater
The rich will pay up to about 25% tax, as I recall. Raise it higher than that, and they can afford to adjust their investments so that their net tax after deductions falls back to that point.
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.
[Mail] Hillary Clinton 'couldn't recall' answers to FBI questions about secret server because of CONCUSSION - and didn't know what 'classified' markings were, agency reveals
The United States’ Africa Command (Africom) reported that it had conducted its 99th airstrike against IS in the Libyan city of Sirte since operations began on 1 August this year.
[Dhaka Tribune] This is the big news of the day ‐ Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the second most 
Turkish jets killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq in air strikes on Thursday, the military said.
[Dhaka Tribune] How they knew each other, how close they were and how they had walked together down this dark path, has not yet been found out. What is certain is that they all left home on the same day, February 3.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] 
Syria’s government secured a deal to restore its authority over another rebellious Damascus suburb on Thursday while Syrian rebels captured new ground in a lightning advance on the central city of Hama and suspected government airstrikes killed 25 civilians in the surrounding province.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Faylaq al-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa (Al-Qaeda franchise) attempted to capture the Alawi village of Ma’an on Thursday after seizing several points from the Syrian Armed Forces earlier this week.
Hillary Clinton
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The national debt hit $19.5 trillion for the first time ever this week, a little more than seven months after it hit the $19 trillion mark. The debt clocked in at $19.51 trillion at the end of Wednesday, the Treasury Department reported Thursday afternoon. Precise debt figures on any given day are released on the following business day. The national debt hit $19 trillion for the first time ever on Jan. 29. When 
