[Federalist] This is the break that Donald Trump has needed since the first Presidential debate.
The latest Rasmussen poll shows that Trump has gotten a much-needed boost from his second debate with Hillary Clinton, and has now taken the lead in this race.
Trump is beating Clinton 43% to 41% which is up from the 43%-39% lead Clinton held yesterday, and significantly better than the 7-point lead that she held on the Monday after the debate.
As it sits right now, Gary Johnson dropped in popularity to 6% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein is sitting at a whopping 2%. 4% of people would still like to see another person in the race, while another 4% remain undecided.
Of the 84% of people who are certain they will vote in the election next month, Trump leads Clinton 49%-46%, and among those who may change their minds between now and November, Clinton is ahead of Trump 40%-37%, with Johnson picking up 19% of support and Jill Stein jumping up to 4%.
Trump is garnering 75% of Republican support and a surprising 15% of Democrats, while Clinton has 76% of Democrats backing her, and 13% of Republicans. Gary Johnson is receiving 13% of the "unaffiliated" vote, but Jill Stein is among the single digits with both Republicans and Democrats.
This is just the news Trump needed and with the end of the election season coming up shortly, he’s going to need all of the good news he can get.
#1
State by state is what matters. And that looks far worse. Utah for instance, what the heck is going on there? Wicsonsin has flipped for CLintona s well, and Trump is reducing his operation in Virginia 9i.e. giving up those electoral votes).
Ask President Gore how important National votes are compared to state votes.
Posted by: Clem Protector of the Texans8088 ||
10/13/2016 13:23
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#2
It's as if all the media hysteria of the past week was designed to demoralize the Republican establishment. Not Trump voters (myself now included), because they understand the media industrial complex is the Democrat Party. At least I an now a bit more positive about our ability to climb out of the shit we've been mired in for some time now, as a significant number of citizen finally see the light, and they are pissed.
#4
This goes to show you just how bad Hillary is. Put it this way - Hillary still trails, despite the US Government injustice department covering her crimes up, the press in a headlong rush to cover her scandals up, and then holding damaging things until the worst last moment on Trump, and Trump himself being the worst giant turd of a candidate.
Remarkable just how bad Hillary is. She (and Trump, ironically) goes to show you just how badly some people can fool themselves into supporting scumbags because of a personality cult.
The best this means is Trump may actually beat her. The worst is that she wins but is so crippled even the press and bureaucrats can't hold her humpty dumpty government together and she becomes an abject lesson in failure as president.
The very best outcome for the country is that they both have illnesses which keep them from office, and we welcome President Pence to office.
(FYI, many of us warned you about the dirt on scumbag Trump not coming out until now, back in winter and spring when we could have elected someone other than this bozo, because any of them were polling as stomping Hillary flat - this is a fight that didn't need to happen had the whole personality cargo cult been a driver in this election).
#9
Typically they sample more Democrats than Republicans to account for the supposed percentages among the population. I wonder if they are keeping those percentages up to date.
#10
The problem is this is a national preference poll, not the state by state. The reality is, Trump now needs to figure out how to win the electoral college without Pennsylvania (down by 9 at the latest) and Virginia (pulling out).
With formerly solid GOP states like AZ, NC, GA and OH as tossups, this becomes unlikely. Not to mention big must-have states like Florida.
To win the election, All Hillary has to do is hold the states that are polling "solid" or "likely", and grab 10 electoral votes more from the "tossup" states.
That means Trump MUST run the table in OH, NC, GA,FL,AZ, and *Minnesota*. Period. Trump loses even one of those and Hillary takes even ONE of those and she is President.
Now after doing that, there are 2 EV left in Maine, 6 in Iowa and 6 in Nevada. Maine doesn't matter, its not enough to put either of them over the top. Trump needs 1 of the 2, Hillary needs both.
So there you have it. Popular polls mean nothing. State polls mean everything, especially in those must-win formerly GOP states OH NC GA and AZ, and of course Florida.
The joker in the deck, the one that could give Hillary the race is Minnesota - the state where the state penitentiary inmates fraudulently elected Al Franken to the senate.
#11
One last note: if McMillian (or whatever the guy's name is) wins Utah, and Trump otherwise runs the table, the US House of Representatives will elect the President.
#12
Oldspook, the other 16 Pubs ran poor campaigns were just as bad as Hillary. Sadly.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/13/2016 15:43
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#13
Utah for instance, what the heck is going on there?
Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz and Glen Beck.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/13/2016 15:44
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#14
..so Utah would rather have Hillary appoint the next 2 to 3 SCOTUS justices to strike down the 1st and 2nd Amendment? At least the Mouth released his list of potential appointees which didn't send tectonic shocks among 'conservatives'.
#16
Save Mr. Trump being the beneficiary of the most incredible Hail Mary pass in political history, I believe we should get used to another President Clinton for that time which we as a Nation have left.
#17
Abu, telling me Rubio or Cruz is just as bad as Hillary? REALLY?
Im going to give it to you Army style: Are you genuinely that fucking stupid? Saying they are the same as a criminal, an abortion promoter, a Soros lackey, a serial liar, someone who leaks classified, someone whose political enemies conveniently end up dead - that takes an intellect of the sort that spends most of his slack-jawed time drooling on his shoelaces.
Stop and think about what you just said - and consider that grand idiocy of that sort is exactly why people think Trump supporters like you are angry fools.
#18
Prepare to fight now. We know the battle coming up. We pretty much know its going to be Hillary. We now have to target Congress to win it, and then find them some spines - and concentrate on replacing McConnell and other appeasers in the next round of elections.
#19
Neither Romney nor Cruz are active in Utah. Stop with the conspiracy idiocy. Trump dissed Mormons, and expects it to not have consequences? Its Trump who is screwing up by opening the door for the morality play, which fed McMullen and the splinter group. Stop being blind and having to make stuff up to excuse your candidate's horrible performance. The adults are getting tired of this crap from childish minds - and we are the ones who are going to have to try to clean up your mess.
#20
Why am I still fighting? Its what I know, and I owe at least that much to the generations that follow. Otherwise why do any of the things we did to win the cold war, and all the conflicts following them?
[Army News Service] WASHINGTON -- Lt. Col. David P. Diamond, who provided aid to victims and assistance to Boston Police in the immediate aftermath of the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, has been awarded the Soldiers Medal for his actions that day.
It was Sen. John McCain who pinned the medal on Diamond's chest during a Capitol Hill ceremony Sept. 27. Among those in attendance were Secretary of the Army Eric K. Fanning, Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey.
"This is really a reflection of my profession of arms, not of myself," Diamond said, after receiving the medal. He serves now as legislative affairs officer within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. "I come from great stock, and great training and great leadership. It's a culture, a family we have developed together. Those actions are really representative of what we all do in the military."
Back on April 15, 2013, Diamond was serving as a legislative affairs officer with U.S. Special Operations Command. He and his family were in Boston, so that he could run in the marathon. He said for that day, he'd set a personal goal for himself to run the race in less than four hours -- something he had never done before. He completed the race in 3 hours and 56 minutes.
After he crossed the finish line, he said, he waited for other runners to finish, and for results and awards to be given. He sat near the finish line to recover from the race.
"I just sat down on the side of the road to kind of collect myself, do some texting, find where my family was," he said. "That's when the bomb detonated."
Within five minutes of finishing the race, Diamond heard the first of two improvised explosive devices go off. He was but 50 yards from that explosion. There was a "VIP bridge" there that allowed certain spectators to cross the road and move into the bleachers that had been set up for them. It was that bridge, he said, that had shielded him from the first blast.
Con't.
I think the Chinese "fishermen" just spoiled any future fun.
China said Wednesday that South Korea needs to stay "reasonable and cool-headed" even after Chinese fishermen rammed and sank a South Korean coast guard speedboat in the Yellow Sea.
China’s appeal to South Korea followed a warning Tuesday from Seoul, which said its coast guard vessels would be armed and ready to use to force against Chinese fishing boats that defy their orders.
The argument started last Friday, when -- according to officials in Seoul‐ a 100-ton Chinese fishing boat slammed into a 4.5 ton South Korean speedboat that was trying to expel the Chinese fishermen from waters off the western coast of the Korean peninsula.
South Korean officials summoned China’s ambassador to express the government’s outrage over the incident and said that its coast guard vessels would be equipped with mounted machine guns from now on.
"We will actively respond to Chinese fishing boats that obstruct justice by using all possible means if needed, such as directly hitting and gaining control of those Chinese fishing boats as well as firing common weapons," Lee Choon-jae, deputy chief of the South Korean coast guard, told reporters.
The spat between South Korea and China comes after Beijing has riled up most of its maritime neighbors -- and the United States -- with its expansive claims and aggressive behavior. China has built artificial islands in the South China Sea, provoking U.S. naval patrols in order to defend the right to free navigation, and sparking a tougher posture from Vietnam, Indonesia and others. In the East China Sea, China and Japan are at loggerheads over Chinese natural gas platforms that Tokyo says are both encroaching on disputed territory and potential military sites.
Tensions are already running high between Beijing and Seoul over South Korea’s decision to deploy U.S.-made missile defenses on its territory. Beijing views that as a threat despite Seoul’s insistence that the weaponry is aimed at countering the threat posed by North Korea. Until the announcement on missile defense, relations had improved in recent years years amid expanding trade and shared concerns over North Korea’s volatility.
The feud between China and South Korea over fishing rights in the Yellow Sea, which started about 15 years ago, has ramped up in recent months. South Korea’s ministry of defense alleges that Chinese fishing boats were caught operating illegally in 520 cases between January and May of this year, compared to 120 instances in all of 2015.
Although no one was injured in last week’s incident, the dispute has taken a deadly turn in the past. Clashes left a Chinese fishing boat captain dead in 2014 and claimed the lives of a South Korean coast guard member in 2011 as well as two Chinese fishermen in 2010.
Much to the irritation of neighboring states, China also subsidizes its fishermen. In the South China Sea, Beijing pays its fishermen to operate in far-flung waters as a "maritime militia" to back up its far-reaching territorial claims. In the Yellow Sea, however, there is no evidence that China is encouraging fishing boats to sail into Korean coastal waters, or that the fishermen are part of a wider strategic land grab, experts said.
Still, China does not impose any penalties on fishermen that are poaching in South Korean waters and Seoul "feels China does nothing to crack down on this illegal fishing," said Gregory Poling, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"As long as they make it back to the line in China, there have been no consequences" for the fishermen, he told Foreign Policy.
While South Korea demanded that China rein in its fishermen and recognize the "gravity" of the situation, Beijing accused Seoul of endangering its citizens.
"Concrete measures must be taken to ensure the safety and lawful rights and interests of Chinese personnel," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a press conference.
With a more prosperous Chinese population ready to spend more on seafood, coupled with dwindling fish stocks in Chinese waters, the country’s fishermen have an incentive to take a more aggressive approach in Korean coastal waters. And the Chinese fishermen often exploit tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang by taking advantage of the de facto maritime boundary between the two adversaries.
The Chinese fishermen sometimes sign contracts in North Korea to cross the boundary -- known as the Northern Limit Line -- to fish in South Korean waters. Reluctant to trigger a military conflict with the North, South Korean authorities have tended to take a cautious approach to the Chinese fishermen when they are operating around the boundary line.
But in June, South Korean naval ships and U.S.-led forces staged an operation to push out Chinese boats fishing in the mouth of the Han River estuary, which lies near the sea border between South and North Korea. Under the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, the area is designated as a "no man’s land." No foreign ships are allowed to sail in the military buffer zone except those registered by either South or North Korea.
Earlier in March, a blood clot moved to Stephens's lungs, causing her to lose consciousness. Her panicked husband attempted to perform CPR on her while calling 911.
"She was gasping, and I could feel her heart beating out of her chest, but I couldn't get a pulse," Pendley told KPRC.
"The 911 operator answered the phone, and she said, 'This is Crenshanda, may I help you?';
"[I said,] Wife's passed out I need an ambulance," Pendley told the station. "She said, "OK" and she hangs up on me."
And, unsurprisingly, there is more.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
10/13/2016
12:02 ||
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Why do I get the feeling a semi-literate saw the word "crescendo" and thought it looked nice?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/13/2016 20:22
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#5
A young Angeleno, Yolanda,
Was treated by Juan in his Honda
To Gus's and coleslaw
(then parking off Crenshaw),
And after nine months came Crenshanda.
(3) interesting e-mails purportedly from the hacker are posted at the site. Unable to cut-and-paste - sorry.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
10/13/2016
11:48 ||
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#1
The piece containing comments about HRC and/or Obama "starting a war (international incident) with Russia to cover up released emails"....something I've had in the back of my brain housing group for weeks.
Entirely too much Russia bashing going on.... IMHO.
Potential scenario: A poll sinking HRC checks into Bethesda Naval hospital on 1 Nov. Grim prognosis issued via networks.
Simultaneous attacks in the South China Sea, Korea, the Gulf, and the Ukraine prompt a US Nuclear alert and mobilization. Mysterious explosion destroys Trans-Alaskan pipeline pumping stations. Congress convenes emergency session to meet crisis and postpone election.....
#6
One more tidbit to the story. Hillary/Obama sold Uranium to the Russians. No understanding of why. The Russians do not need it. The only answer I can get to is the Uranium DNA, isotopes, is traceable back to the US. Any bomb or dirty bomb will immediately be traced back to us. We would deny it, and then WW3 would be off and running. Especially if they nuked one of the Chinese spratley island bases...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/13/2016 18:12
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#7
Here is some more on what the Russians have apparently been up to, along with some analysis. I've found the website to be credible: http://formerspook.blogspot.com/
"The entire leftist media is told exactly what to print, what to ask and what to think by the Clinton campaign. The bottom line of what's coming out so far is that the entire mainstream media is controlled and scripted by the Clintons and democrats. In other words, the "mainstream" media is now nothing more than an extension of the state. They are banning together to destroy Trump and protect Hillary. In doing so they have become Hillary."
Thinking more like Benny Hill -v- Caligula, but whatever works.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
10/13/2016
11:42 ||
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#1
Trump giving a real stem winder now. But..but..but..he's supposed to be running away!
Btw, the "Benny Hill" reference includes his personal life. The man was a little quirky, but a true and honest man. And funny as hell.
h/t Instapundit
Israel faces a unique window of danger from Nov. 9 to Jan. 20: What might President Obama do in his final days in office to slam the Jewish state?
Start with Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent flat refusal to promise a US veto on any upcoming anti-Israel resolution in the UN Security Council.
...We don’t expect Obama to see the light this late in the game. But if he moves to grab another "legacy" item at Israel’s expense, he’ll only further set back hopes for any progress on the Israeli-Arab front.
Amal Clooney nearly caused an international incident at the Iraqi UN Mission of Iraq in Manhattan when she lectured the ambassador on Islamic State and showed up with an unauthorized camera crew.
According to the New York Post, the human rights lawyer wife of George Clooney originally demanded to meet with the prime minister at the mission during the UN General Assembly, but that was rejected and she settled for the country's UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim, two Iraqi officials confirmed. Nothing like a raging sense of entitlement to win people over
She arrived with Yazidi refugee and Noble Peace Prize nominee Nadia Murad on September 15, and, right from the get-go, she used a "dismissive, lecturing tone" with Alhakim while discussing how to bring captured IS fighters to justice, one official said.
When the conversation turned to the Yazidi people, Clooney made it seem as if they were the only religious sect in Iraq being slaughtered by IS, the official said.
The ambassador and his staff tried to offer her a "full picture" outlining each group targeted by IS, but Clooney was "completely uninterested" and "tone deaf to the whole thing," the official said, noting, "It was highly offensive. I have had cousins decapitated." SJW don't care about facts. Just about getting their feelings met.
Alhakim, who had 65 of his own family members exterminated by Saddam Hussein's ruthless regime, became infuriated with Clooney and, at one point, turned to her, stating, "This is highly insulting. This is very unacceptable," the official said.
Despite Clooney's "obnoxious" behavior, the tense meeting lasted about 80 minutes because the Iraqi diplomats wanted "to be respectful to Nadia," the official noted. I would have thrown that entitled bitch out on her nose
When the meeting finally ended, the parties went downstairs to the lobby, where Clooney's "media team" carrying film equipment had shown up unannounced ‐ a violation of standard protocols that required pre-approval by the mission, the official said.
Clooney requested an on-camera interview with the ambassador, but was quickly shut down and escorted outside with her posse.
"The main issue is what she did and how she did it is absolutely outrageous and using a victim of war crimes as an accessory and political currency. That makes my blood boil," the official said. This is how they operate to get their way.
Clooney's personal assistant did not return an email request for comment and efforts to reach the lawyer by phone were unsuccessful.
[Reuters] All it took was a pair of bolt cutters and the elbow grease of a few climate activists to carry out an audacious act of sabotage on North America's massive oil and gas pipeline system.
For an industry increasingly reliant on gadgets such as digital sensors, infrared cameras and drones to monitor security and check for leaks, the sabotage illustrated how vulnerable pipelines are to low-tech attacks.
On Tuesday, climate activists broke through fences and cut locks and chains simultaneously in several states and simply turned the pipelines off.
All they had to do was twist shut giant valves on five cross-border pipelines that together can send 2.8 million barrels a day of crude to the United States from Canada - equal to about 15 percent of daily U.S. consumption.
The activists did no damage to the pipelines, which operating companies shut down as a precaution for checks before restarting.
The United States is the world's largest energy market, and the infrastructure to drill, refine, store and deliver that energy to consumers is connected by millions of miles of pipeline that are impossible to protect entirely from attack.
"You're not manning these things on a permanent basis. It's not viable," said Stewart Dewar, a project manager at Senstar, an Ottawa-based company that authored a 2012 white paper on pipeline security. "It's too expensive."
There are more than 200,000 miles (322,000 km) of oil lines and many times that of natural gas lines across the United States. Thousands of rural and often remote pumping and valve stations dot the country.
The cost of posting armed guards at valve stations, usually found every 20 miles along the underground pipelines, would be prohibitive, said Dewar.
For companies, there are few options to police the parts of their pipeline networks that sit above ground, such as the valve stations.
#1
More than a few years back the enviros attacked the logging industry out west. They succeeded in avoiding arrest for a time. When caught, they were severely punished. Attacks then ceased.
#8
Take note how easy it is. You can't protect it all. If and when a civil war breaks out, a lot of places are going to be without. NIMBY will bite deep.
#12
Well, if you believe that climate change is as bad as the liberals do, this sort of thing would be warranted. Heroic, even! I suppose that'll be their legal defense.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/13/2016 13:17
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#13
Didn't Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" (WW3) begin with an attack on pipelines in a refinery?
Its national defense infrastructure. Treat it as such. Better fences, maybe electric and some concertina. Remote monitoring. I'd pony up a couple pennies a gallon to cover operating it.
#16
"..."You're not manning these things on a permanent basis. It's not viable," said Stewart Dewar, a project manager at Senstar, an Ottawa-based company that authored a 2012 white paper on pipeline security. "It's too expensive...."
Not so expensive in 2016. An integrated system of cameras, barriers, drones, satellites would be about 25% of the cost of a similar but not-as-good integrated system in 2012.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/13/2016 21:58
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[SouthAfricaToday] A man wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle shot two Boston police officers who were responding to a report of a domestic disturbance, before being shot and killed by other officers, police said.
The two wounded officers were hospitalized in “extremely critical condition” early Thursday morning.
“Domestic calls, as you know, are probably the most volatile. You never really know what you’re walking into,” said Police Commissioner William Evans. “And I think we see right now the dangers of our job.”
Evans said the suspect fired at the officers late Wednesday night shortly after they arrived at a home in the city’s East Boston neighborhood. Several other officers who were stationed outside ran inside and exchanged gunfire with the suspect.
“Two of the officers dragged their fellow officers out of the line of fire so they were in a protected zone, and the officers continued to engage in a gun exchange,” Evans said.
The officers shot and killed the suspect and then began administering first aid to the wounded officers, one a 28-year veteran, the other a 12-year veteran of the force.
“One officer had his hand in one of the wounds and I think that was instrumental in getting the officer down to Mass General quickly,” Evans said.
Both officers were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where they were being treated for serious injuries. Nine other officers were being treated at Tufts Medical Center for trauma, stress and minor injuries.
Police, initially concerned that their might be a second suspect, ordered residents to shelter in place. That order was later lifted.
Police did not identify the suspect or the two wounded officers.
#5
The guy claimed he had a private security company and was a 'bounty hunter' yet couldn't legally carry? Either he was a first class nut job or the cops are 'fibbing.'
It was either this or confront Iran directly.
U.S.-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory on Yemen's Red Sea Coast early Thursday, officials said, a retaliatory action that followed two incidents this week in which missiles were fired at U.S. Navy ships.
I was wondering when we'd get around to this...
The strikes marked the first shots fired by the U.S. in anger against the Houthis in Yemen's long-running civil war. The U.S. previously only provided logistical support and refueling to the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, including supporters of Yemen's former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
While the U.S. military has been focused on al-Qaida in Yemen, the Houthis had not been a primary target of American forces until the missile launches from Houthi-controlled territory this week.
No information on casualties from the U.S. missiles was provided by American officials. The three radar sites were in remote areas, where there was little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage, said a military official who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The destroyer USS Nitze launched the cruise missiles, the official said.
President Barack Obama authorized the strikes at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. U.S. officials had said earlier that the U.S. was weighing what military response to take.
"These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway," Cook said following the U.S. action. "The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb and elsewhere around the world."
Loai al-Shami, a Houthi spokesman, declined to comment immediately on the U.S. strike.
Early Wednesday, two missiles were fired at the USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyer that is conducting routine operations in the region with the USS Ponce, an amphibious warship. Neither missile got near the ship, said a U.S. military official.
The missiles were fired from the Yemen coast, near the location used Sunday when two missiles were launched at the same two ships, said the official. A second official said it wasn't clear whether the ship's countermeasures caused the missiles to hit the water on Wednesday or if they would have landed there anyway.
"These unjustified attacks are serious, but they will not deter us from our mission," the chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, said in a statement Wednesday. "The team in USS Mason demonstrated initiative and toughness as they defended themselves and others against these unfounded attacks over the weekend and again today. All Americans should be proud of them."
The missiles fired on Sunday were variants of the so-called Silkworm missile, and both also fell harmlessly into the water. The Silkworm is a type of coastal defense cruise missile that Iran has been known to use.
Sunday was the first time that U.S. ships were targeted by a missile launch from Yemen. Last week, an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/13/2016 7:03
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#2
It seems that reporters conveniently forget that when the US was challenged in the Persian Gulf then President Ronald Reagan ordered an attack on the Iranian Navy. The destruction was such that Iranian belligerance ceased.
#5
Iranian Revolutionary Guard operators for the Iranian Silkworm-clone? This could explain the "misses" as Inshallah quality control plus vulnerability to counter-measures.
#6
Likely IRGC supervision and IRGC/Houthi operators on both the radar and launch sites. Houthi and Iranian eyeballs on small craft providing additional spotting.
[ABC.au] Two 16-year old teenagers were placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... by the state's Joint Counter-Terrorism Team at Bankstown in Sydney yesterday, in the lane behind a Moslem prayer hall.
They were found in possession of two large bayonet-style knives, bought earlier that day, and religious notes that allegedly pledged allegiance to 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.... One of the boys is a relative of Hamdi Alqudsi
..the 42-year old, two-wived, Sydney grandfather who recently met his just reward...
, who has been enjugged Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! for helping young Australians travel to Syria to fight in the country's civil war.
The pair did not appear in Parramatta Children's Court this morning and did not apply for bail, and it was formally refused. In opposing bail, police said the pair posed an unacceptable risk to the community.
They are due to return to court in December, unless they apply for bail before then.
One of the two facing terrorism-related charges in Sydney allegedly referenced the murder of NSW Police employee Curtis Cheng, telling his mother he would do "something to them that they have never seen before".
Photo of the moving black object labelled as his mother can be seen at the link.
Police have alleged the teenager attended a protest four years ago at Hyde Park.
"He allus been trouble, yer honour!"
Police said the teenager's co-accused had shown no remorse for his actions, and while in jug could be seen laughing and joking.
According to the documents, he was stopped by authorities while attempting to enter a region that is controlled by an internationally recognised terror group.
"The Turks caught 'im trying to sneak into Syria, yer honour, so they sent 'im home."
It is also alleged that when he returned to Australia he was found in possession of electronic material believed to have been produced by Islamic State.
At a presser this morning, police said the boys had been charged with acts in preparation to commit a terrorist act and with having membership with a terrorist organization.
"Those charges are extremely serious charges with the acts in preparation to commit a terrorist act with a maximum of life imprisonment," NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said.
Police said they were "well aware" of the teenagers.
"We will be alleging this attack was inspired by Islamic State," she said.
"What we do know, though, is that the actions, we will allege, were enough to say they were preparing to do an attack, although we don't know specifically where that attack was going to take place," Deputy Commissioner Burn said.
She said it was is "the 11th imminent attack... we have prevented in this country. There have been four attacks, three have been in NSW".
As part of their operation, officers searched a number of homes and also a prayer hall.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/13/2016
02:18 ||
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[Free Beacon] The Washington Post fact checker team gave President Obama "Four Pinocchios" for claiming that his administration fired "a whole bunch of people" who were in charge of facilities at the Department of Veterans Affairs since the VA scandal began in 2014, determining that the statement was completely false.
Obama is not the only one accused of misleading the public about the number of people held accountable for manipulating patient wait-time data at the VA. Department Secretary Robert McDonald has twice received Four Pinocchio ratings for making similar claims.
[Atlanta Constipation] A Floyd County teenager died from a traumatic brain injury after he was struck while playing a game called "jump the car."
Kobe Thomas died Sunday after he was struck by a car, Channel 2 Action News reported. The 16-year-old was playing "jump the car" with a group of friends when the incident happened. The game involves jumping over a car as someone drives toward you.
If it wasn't Thomas' smile, it was his basketball skills that amazed and put family, friends and admirers alike at ease.
#4
I guess bloody knuckles, mublety peg and "buck, buck, guess who's number's up?" are just too tame for these energetic kids...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/13/2016 8:55
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#5
Seen this done on many TV shows. Jump straight up and the car drives under you. Get the timing right and jump high enough and it's "easy".....make a mistake and.....................................................oops.
Kind of like sky-diving. As Mythbusters says "Don't try this at home."
[LibyaHerald] The pregnant wife of one of the leading Salafists in Khoms died today when gunmen tried to kill her husband.
According to reports from Khoms, 100 kilometres east of Tripoli, gunmen started firing at Nasser Abu Sabah who was driving in the town with his wife at the time. She was hit and died instantly.
The attackers are unknown. Although there have been some clashes between rival families in Khoms it is suspected they may be Islamic State (IS) sympathisers. Although IS dogma is derived from Salafism, it has regularly targeted Libyan Salafists, regarding them as ideologically tainted.
(IraqiNews.com) Diyala – Tigris Operations Command announced on Wednesday destructing 20 vehicles belong to ISIS on the borders between Diyala and Salahuddin.
Commander of Tigris Operations, Lieutenant General Mazhar al-Ezzawi, said in a press statement, “Forces from Tigris Operations, police and army, backed by al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia, conducted a military operation west of al-Adim vicinity on the borders between Diyala and Salahuddin, and destructed 20 vehicles belong to the ISIS.”
Ezzawi added, “The operation was also conducted with the cooperation of Army Aviation,” noting that, “The combat detachments also discovered a vehicle belongs to the ISIS containing the bodies of two ISIS militants, as well as dismantling many explosive devices that were planted by the ISIS members to hinder the advance of the security forces.”
The areas between Diyala and Salahuddin are witnessing active movements of ISIS sleeper cells from time to time, in order to disturb internal stability and security.
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[DeutscheWelle] Jaber Albakr, a Syrian suspected of planning a terror attack in Germany, has been found dead in his jail cell. He was suspected of planning to carry out a kaboom on an airport
A Syrian man suspected of planning to carry out a kaboom on a German airport was found dead in his jail cell after committing suicide, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.
"On the evening of October 12, 2016, Jaber Albakr, who was suspected of planning a serious attack, took his life in the detention centre at Leipzig correctional hospital," the ministry said in a statement.
AlBakr was incarcerated Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! on Monday following a two day manhunt after security forces found explosives in his apartment in the eastern German city of Chemnitz.
It is unclear how the suspect was able to kill himself in his cell despite being under surveillance due to the risk of suicide and a hunger strike. DPA news agency reported AlBakr hung himself.
The 22-year-old Syrian refugee was subdued and handed over to police in Leipzig on Monday by three other Syrian refugees, who have since been described as heroes. They reportedly invited the runaway to stay in their apartment, only to realize shortly later that Albakr was being sought after by police.
Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, said Albakr was preparing to carry out an attack on a Berlin airport within days before the raid on his apartment.
Albakr arrived in Germany last year and had been granted asylum after passing security checks. Investigators say they believe he was motivated by 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.... " and may have become radicalized while in Germany.
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#2
It is unclear how the suspect was able to kill himself in his cell despite being under surveillance due to the risk of suicide and a hunger strike. DPA news agency reported AlBakr hung himself swallowed his foot.
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10/13/2016 14:27
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[AlAhram] The president of Cairo University, Gaber Nassar, has decided to abolish the religion field on all university certificates and documents it issues related to students, staff, and professors, the academic told a local television programme on Tuesday.
The decision, which came into force on Tuesday, will be applied in all faculties and institutions at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
"We noticed several complaints about the possibility of discrimination between students due to the mention of religion. Lately I was surprised to see that a department head in one of the faculties was distributing an application that included the religion and the denomination," Nassar told satellite channel al-Nahar al-Youm by phone.
He added that when a student is asked to write his religion, he may feel that he will be discriminated against because of it.
"At Cairo University, we don’t take random decisions, we take decisions to amend illegal or unconstitutional situations," Nassar said, adding that the university had no law or bylaw that stipulated that the religion field should be included, saying that at present some faculties issue certificates which include the candidate's religion and others do not.
Nassar added that those who don’t abide by the new decision would have disciplinary action taken against them.
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Municipality of Tehran and Metropolis, the World Association of Major Metropolises, signed an agreement in Iran's capital on Sunday to boost mutual cooperation in various fields. Baseball? Snowshoes? Walleye tourism?
The agreement was signed by Mayor of Tehran Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and President of the Board of Directors of Metropolis Denis Coderre, at a ceremony at Tehran's Milad Tower on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters, Qalibaf highlighted Tehran's close ties with Metropolis over the past two decades, expressing the hope that the new agreement would result in stronger cooperation with the association. Pointing to the presence of Mr. Coderre in Tehran, who is also mayor of Montreal, Qalibaf hoped that Tehran's Municipality could find ways to promote cooperation with the Canadian city in the municipal and cultural affairs.
Tehran Municipality has been member of Metropolis since 1992 and has participated in most of its past programs.
#1
MONTREAL — The Globe and Mail
Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 2:00AM EST
Montreal is about to celebrate its 375th anniversary, but Quebec’s economic engine is not aging gracefully. So alarming is its decline that a group of business leaders is pleading for urgent action.
“Montreal has been slowly decelerating for 15 years, and now it shows. Another 10 years of this and we will be in clear and present danger,” said Jacques Ménard, chairman of BMO Nesbitt Burns and president of the Bank of Montreal in Quebec.
[Tolo News] ISIS's propaganda machine, largely credited with effectively attracting fresh recruits, has been weakened by military setbacks in Iraq and Syria, a US study said Tuesday.
The jihadist group's photo and video dissemination has been cut drastically year over year, research by the West Point military academy's Combating Terrorism Center revealed.
While 700 pieces of media were produced by ISIS in August of 2015, numbers began declining late last year, with only 200 put out during the same month in 2016, the researchers said.
"It is clear that the organization has been forced to cut back these activities in response to the increasing amount of counterterrorism pressure brought to bear against the organization," said the study.
It also noted there were fewer images depicting a well-running jihadist "caliphate" in the form of schools, libraries, police and public services.
"This decline suggests that the group is struggling to maintain the outward appearance of a functioning state," the study said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start on his third quart... videos showing the execution of spies have increased significantly, demonstrating either "paranoia" amid increasing pressure or challenges from within that are causing a public display of brutality.
The view that ISIS's online outreach is weakening is shared by a number of experts in the field, said JM Berger, a US specialist known for his studies on jihadists' Twitter presence.
ISIS's propaganda arm has been decimated by coalition strikes and has found a tough time amid a crackdown by social networks, he said.
"They have less media available now, it is more difficult to find, and the content itself is considerably less optimistic and less varied," he told AFP.
"All of this is likely to continue to depress their recruitment efforts, although it doesn't completely mitigate the problem," he said.
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[Tolo News] The Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Wednesday criticized the recent remarks made by first Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... on the Afghan army's action against threats.
"These remarks are not from military specialists. They would have specialty in other fields, but the way that we work is that first we assess the situation to see where is the enemy and how are their forces and facilities. And then we decide and determine our forces and equipment to be used against
them," said Mohammad Radmanish, deputy front man for the MoD.
Recently Dostum said in an interview with TOLOnews that the security forces are not using good methods to fight the Taliban.
"The war in Afghanistan cannot be run by computers. It cannot be done the way you sit in a base and give orders to a regiment commander via computer. It cannot be done that you order the battalion commander and then the regiment commander and at the end the forces remain weak on the battleground," Dostum said.
He added: "This defect is with the generals and commanders of regiments as they are not willing to take action themselves."
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie ducked another tomato... a number of military analysts said they believe that soldiers based in military bases should be ready to face any kind of threat from myrmidons.
"The equipment, assessment and monitoring of check posts are always very important," said military commentator Atiqullah Amarkhail.
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A wheelchair-bound woman was gang-raped by up to six migrants at a Swedish asylum centre after asking if she could use their toilet, it has been reported. The woman, in her 30s, was sharing a taxi home with a man after going in the medieval town of Visby on Sweden's Gotland island when she asked to stop off.
Her fellow passenger invited her inside before she was brutally set upon in the toilet, her lawyer said.
The assault sparked anger in the town and extra police were called to the island when an angry mob attacked the asylum centre with rocks.
The victim's lawyer Staffan Freriksson said the abuse started in the toilet and several other men joined in. He added: 'Where they came from we don't know. This was going on for a couple of hours.
'She got paralysed in this situation and was not able to bring herself to resist physically, other than saying no.'
He said his client is unable to walk long distances and needs a wheelchair. She was eventually able to escape the building.
Six men aged in their 20s were arrested in the days that followed they were later released. Sweden's Expressen newspaper reported that the suspects were all asylum seekers and that the attack allegedly took place at asylum accommodation.
The head of Gotland police Torbjörn Nilsson said: 'Gotland is safe, compared to other places, and there are few crimes compared to the rest of the country. But the way people have now acted is unprecedented.'
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#1
the abuse started in the toilet and several other men joined in
One Muslim, one Jew, one Christian, one Catholic, one Buddhist, and one Hindu, right?
But the way people have now acted is unprecedented.
#3
When IKEA starts depicting these sorts of tableaux in their print catalog and web site, you will know it's the new normal...
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Six men aged in their 20s were arrested in the days that followed they were later released Sweden's Expressen newspaper reported that the suspects were all asylum seekers and that the attack allegedly took place at asylum accommodation.
So... because the six were Muslim and it took place at the asylum center, its OK? So they were released? Did they also get the commemorative T-shirt with matching socks?
All lies!
[AlManar] South Sudan’s government was on Wednesday forced to deny President Salva Kiir had died, following days of rumors over his health that have heightened tensions in the capital Juba.
“This is a mere lie, there is nothing as such, Salva Kiir has not even been sick,” Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth told journalists in Juba, slamming “wild rumors” he said aimed to divide the people of South Sudan.
The rumors have been doing the rounds on Twitter, and even spread as far as Uganda where Kiir, 65, was reported to have fled for medical treatment.
Residents of Juba reported a higher than usual presence of soldiers on the streets, as the rumors coincided with mounting concerns over an uptick in violence in the troubled nation in recent weeks.
South Sudan, which gained independence in July 2011, descended into war just two and a half years later when Kiir in December 2013 accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.
Numerous attempts to shore up a fragile truce failed, and in a major setback to peace efforts, fierce clashes erupted in Juba on July 8 this year between Kiir’s guards and troops loyal to Machar.
The international community has expressed deep concerns over a spread in violence since the July clashes, which pushed the number of refugees from the war-scarred nation past the one-million mark, according to the UNHCR.
In a further blow to peace hopes, Machar last month urged “a popular armed resistance” against his rival’s government.
Machar, who fled to Khartoum in the July fighting, on Wednesday left for South Africa for medical tests.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on Wednesday said it was “extremely concerned over increased reports of violence and armed conflict in various parts of the country in the last few weeks.”
In the town of Leer, in the north, UNMISS forces reported heavy artillery and gunfire exchanges between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar, leading to an unspecified number of deaths and sending local populations fleeing.
In a statement UNMISS said it had been denied access to an area where some 21 civilians were reportedly killed in an ambush on the road between Juba and the southern city of Yei over the weekend.
#1
South Sudan should be divided in thirds. Viz., Western state (Dinka), Eastern state (Nuer, Murle, Shilluk) and Equatoria (numerous ethnicities). Western and Eastern would each have access to indigenous petroleum resources and be economically viable. And if given a plebiscite Equatoria would likely join Uganda. Sadly, the Kiir-Machar impasse will never be resolved until both are dead.
[CNN] Russian hackers have already scored key goals in their apparent bid to disrupt the US presidential election, according to researchers monitoring the closely fought political campaign.
Allegations of dumping sensitive data, infiltrating official servers, manipulating online blogs and even hacking voter records, say analysts, have fueled concerns Moscow is trying to influence the election outcome.
"Anything that undermines the legitimacy of the electoral process is bad news for democracy," said professor John Naughton, co-director of the Technology and Democracy Project at Cambridge University in the UK.
The Kremlin categorically denies any Russian state involvement in hacking.
Some of the emails, later released online, contained embarrassing details of the Democratic Party's inner workings, including correspondence revealing how opposed some party officials were to Hillary Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders. The damaging revelations eventually forced Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down as Democratic National Committee chair in what could be an unprecedented example of the Kremlin not covertly, but directly, intervening in US politics.
Both Trump and the Kremlin deny any links to hacking or to each other, but the issue again surfaced in the second US presidential debate on Sunday.
"We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election," said Clinton, the Democratic Party nominee, during a heated exchange in the debate.
"And believe me, they are not doing it to get me elected. They are doing it to influence the election for Donald Trump."
Suspicions have been fueled by the tightly controlled Russian media, which have made no secret of their preference for a Trump presidency.
Whatever the truth, the Putin factor has emerged as a key issue in the US presidential campaign and that in itself may be interpreted as a victory by the Kremlin.
The issue of US electoral intervention also raises broader, much darker concerns -- that go way beyond Russia -- about the way the Internet can now be used not just to promote democracy but also to undermine it.
"Only now are we beginning to see the long-term impact of the technology," Naughton warned. "We are beginning to find out what the Internet really means."
#5
Point AC. It could very well be that all this agitprop is not to change the vote. It's to make us believe - or, at least, entertain a reasonable doubt ("I know I wasn't influenced, but maybe other people were") - then they fake the results.
#6
Paper is no guarantee as a long history of the usual suspects will show (See - Battle of Athens). However, there is at least an implied accounting trail and is least susceptible to outside manipulation than on line digital. Besides, the only creatures who need 'instant' results are the media (it's showtime) to for their breathless coverage (and ad revenue generation).
#7
Rumor alone might get a number of Democrats to support cleaning up the system to prevent voter fraud (since despite report after report the Democrats seem unable to believe voter fraud exists).
[IsraelTimes] Israel checking whether the 3, who were deported to Turkey, are tied to Iranian global terror plots against Israelis
Three Iranian nationals were caught in Italia with forged Israeli passports, Channel 2 News reported Wednesday night.
Italia updated Israeli authorities on the incident and deported the three to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... via Serbia, according to the report.
Security officials are looking into possible connections between the three and attempts to carry out terror attacks against Israelis throughout the world.
In January two Iranians were tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in India after attempting to board a flight using fake Israeli passports. The two were reported to be a married couple who had been living in India for the past several years and intended to use the fake passports to immigrate to the United States.
In 2014, two Iranians were arrested at an airport in Nairobi, Kenya, after attempting to enter the country using fake Israeli passports. They were sentenced under anti-terrorism laws to two years in prison and ordered to pay a large fine.
Manbij – Zainab Ali is the first Arab woman to join the Asayish security forces in Manbij city, in northern Syria. The unprecedented step is considered a revolution on the conservative traditions in this area, traditions that have been for long seen as violating women’s freedoms by keeping them indoors.
Zainab says she joined the Asayish forces to fight for the freedom of Arab women in the conservative society of Manbij.
“I am proud to join the Asayish forces, especially after suffering a lot of suppression in my private life. Being a part of those forces would give me the opportunity to protect other women in my society and fight for their rights,” she told ARA News. “Before the liberation of Manbij, women were extremely oppressed. However, now the women’s rights are a priority for the local administration.”
More that 50 women have so far joined the recently established Asayish police in Mnabij. The Asayish was first launched by the Kurdish Self-Administration in northern Syria.
The number of female police officers is increasing, as Arab women in Manbij have been looking at Kurdish female fighters of Rojava as a symbol.
“Now we have more equality between men and women. This was our main demand,” Fatima Khalaf, a member of the Manbij Traffic Police, told ARA News.
The women inside the Asayish Department are performing different tasks in various positions, such as conducting investigations, supervising police work and dismantling explosives that have been left by ISIS.
It’s worth mentioning that when ISIS was in control of Manbij, the jihadi group used to treat women in a degrading and brutal way. This has led dozens of women to participate in running the city after its liberation from ISIS at the hand of the Kurdish-Arab alliance of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in August. Women are now responsible for protecting the city and administrating the people’s affairs side by side with men.
“Under ISIS, women in Manbij have suffered a lot. We had no basic rights. Women had to stay indoors. Now the situation is completely different. Every woman has the right to criticise and actively participate in the society,” Fatima told ARA News. “I feel myself free of all the traditional constraints now.” Video report at the link
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UN's rights chief warned Wednesday that Donald Trump's statements pointed to a "dangerous" figure emerging on the world stage if he won the US presidency.
At a presser in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he was "not keen or intent on interfering in any political campaign."
But, he said, in light of the "unsettling" and "disturbing" comments from the US presidential candidate it was only right to sound the alarm.
"If Donald Trump is elected, on the basis of what he has said already, and unless that changes, I think that it is without any doubt that he would be dangerous from an international point of view," Zeid said.
He referred to Trump's call to bring back interrogation techniques that legal experts say amount to torture.
And, he said, Trump's attacks on "vulnerable communities" such as Moslems, immigrants colonists and minorities "suggest that they may well be deprived of their human rights." ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... Last month, Zeid launched a scathing attack on populists such as Trump and Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, calling for action to halt "demagogues and political fantasists."
He had also compared Trump to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, La Belle France's leader of the National Front Marine Le Pen, and leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Doesn't this guy have some homosexuals to hang or women to stone?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/13/2016 7:32
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#6
We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph! - Governor William J. Le Petomane
#7
Dangerous to the UN? Well, thats what most of us want! I think this guy may not realize that this kind of "criticism" will not stop trump, it actually gets him more votes! Ivory towers...
#8
Besoeker is right, this will only help Trump. A PAC should cook up a commercial with this kind of stuff with a tag "With all the right enemies he must be doing something right."
[ALMASDARNEWS] Negotiations to surrender the rebel-held east Aleppo pocket have begun between the Syrian Arab Army's High Command and Islamist groups, a local source told al-Masdar News on Wednesday afternoon.
The two parties are currently negotiating the possible exit of all Islamist groups from east Aleppo, via the contested Bustan al-Qasir District.
If the Islamist groups agree to the terms offered in today's negotiations, the Syrian Armed Forces will be in full-control of some east Aleppo neighborhoods.
While the Syrian Armed Forces have found some rebel groups to negotiate with, large Islamist factions like Harakat Nouriddeen al-Zinki and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... (formerly al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front) refuse to speak to the government and their Russian allies.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi will be ready to welcome worshippers by the end of 2017, a businessman overseeing the project said on Tuesday.
The temple is being built on land donated by the government of Moslem Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. Hindus currently travel to Dubai, the UAE’s tourism and commercial hub more than 100 km (60 miles) away, to perform prayers.
The government announced it was allocating land to build the temple during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hundreds of thousands of Indian Hindus live in Abu Dhabi.
Indian billionaire businessman B.R. Shetty, who is chairman of the Temple Coordination Committee, said: "The UAE is a great example of religious tolerance with people of different nationalities living in harmony here."
The temple project will be funded privately, he said. The government has allocated 20,000 square meters of land in Al Wathba, just outside Abu Dhabi city.
Indians make up the largest expatriate group, about 2.6 million or 30 percent of the UAE population, according to figures from the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Dubai also has a Sikh Gurdwara and both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have Christian churches.
Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan will be the chief guest at India’s annual Republic Day parade next year.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians.... Bin Abdel Aziz has ordered that the victims of last week’s attack on a Yemeni funeral who are at death's door be transferred outside the country for treatment.
King Salman instructed aid officials to coordinate with the Arab coalition fighting rebels in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and the legitimate Yemeni government "to facilitate the evacuation of those maimed... and needing treatment abroad," the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
More than 140 people were killed on Saturday, in what is largely claimed to be an air raid on a funeral ceremony for the father of a rebel leader in the Yemeni capital Sanaa
The Saudi-led coalition initially denied any responsibility in Saturday’s attack in Sanaa, but have since launched an investigation into the incident.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Turkish government will soon restart efforts to change the constitution and expand presidential powers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday, reviving the controversial plan after an opposition leader signalled his support.
President Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... since 2003, has pushed for a new constitution with an executive presidency at its centre that places him firmly in charge. Some opinion polls in the past have shown a majority oppose the change.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... Erdogan has consolidated both his power and popularity since an abortive coup failed to oust him on July 15. Some 240 government loyalists and 100 rogue troops were killed in the spasm of violence.
A state of emergency imposed in July to root out plotters from the security and civil services has allowed the government to rule by decree.
"Turkey must give the de facto situation a legal status," Yildirim, a loyalist whom Erdogan appointed to the job in May, told members of the ruling AK Party in comments aired live.
The system will help state institutions work more harmoniously and ensure political stability is lasting, he said.
Turkey's most popular leader in 80 years, Erdogan was elected to the top post in 2014 after serving three times as prime minister. The current charter describes the office as largely ceremonial.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The US Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to consider a lawsuit that accuses former senior government officials of abusive detentions of immigrants colonists rounded up after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
At issue is the responsibility of former attorney general John Ashcroft, former FBI director Robert Mueller and other officials of the administration of then-president George W. Bush, who argue they are immune from prosecution.
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaeda operatives in New York, Washington and aboard a commercial airliner, US authorities questioned and detained more than 750 immigrants colonists because they lacked the proper immigration documents.
The plaintiffs say they were targeted because they were Moslems or of Arab descent, and were held for no valid reason.
They recounted abusive detentions, including being held in isolation, deprived of sleep, and subject to insults and physical abuse by guards.
Two of the current eight Supreme Court judges have recused themselves, after apparently having worked on cases that could pose a conflict of interest.
The hearing is not yet scheduled but will come before the court's annual session ends in late June. The case could be heard by seven judges if the vacant spot on the nine-judge panel is filled.
If the hearing comes before January 20, when President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... finishes his second term, it would mean his Democratic administration would be defending the Republican Bush administration.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] As The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Iraq traded insults over the Turkish troop presence outside djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... on Tuesday, the United States urged its allies to resolve the spat before a major offensive on the city.
Iraq is preparing to fight to liberate Mosul from ISIS with support from the United States and a broad -- though sometimes fractious -- coalition of international partners.
But recent preparations for the looming offensive have been overshadowed by tensions between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... and Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
Abadi has repeatedly urged Turkey to withdraw troops deployed near the northern city in an area nominally part of Iraq but controlled by forces loyal to the country’s autonomous Kurdish region.
Erdogan has refused, insisting that Turkey has a role to play in liberating the city from the turban, and with tempers rising, both sides have resorted to insults.
In Washington, State Department front man John Kirby said the operation would be led by Iraq and that it was a matter for Baghdad which forces should be deployed on its sovereign territory.
"The Turkish forces that are deployed in Iraq are not there as part of the international coalition and the situation in Bashiqa is a matter for the governments of Iraq and Turkey to resolve," he said.
Ankara maintains an estimated 2,000 troops in Iraq, around 500 of them in the Bashiqa camp training local fighters whom Turkish media say will join the battle to recapture Mosul.
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#1
Because everything seems to get worse when Jawn Kerry gets on an airplane for the ME, I fear things will only get worse...
#5
I've got a bad feeling about the Mosul campaign. Iran will try to start something with US troops and it turns into a free for all. And Putin will just sit back and watch.
[AnNahar] Leading rebel officers were among those killed in the weekend air strike on a funeral in Yemen's capital, blamed on pro-government Arab coalition warplanes, according to official media reports on Tuesday.
Funerals for several top rebel-allied officers and officials killed in Saturday's strike were held in Sanaa on Tuesday, rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported.
The Iran-backed rebels have blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the air strike, one of the deadliest since the alliance launched a military campaign against the Shiite Death Eaters in March 2015.
After initially denying responsibility, the coalition said Sunday it was ready to investigate the "regrettable and painful" strike, while UN chief Ban Ki-Moon demanded a "prompt and impartial" probe.
Three commanders of the elite elite republican guard brigades, loyal to former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... who is allied with Shiite Houthis, were said to be among those killed.
They were named by Saba as General Ali al-Jaefi, head of the elite republican guard and Brigadiers Abdulmalik Marzooq and Ali al-Hamzi.
General Ahmed Manea, a member of the supreme security committee, was also among those killed in the air strike which killed at least 140 people and maimed more than 525 others according to the UN.
Deputy security chief of Sanaa province, Ahmed al-Shalef, and the head of the rebels' civil status authority, brigadier Yehya al-Rowaishan, were also listed as killed in the attack.
[Tolo News] At least 15 people have been killed and more than 30 maimed in an kaboom near a mosque in Balkh district of Balkh province on Wednesday afternoon, local officials confirmed.
Munir Ahmad Farhad, front man for Balkh's governor, said that an IED exploded near a mosque.
Some of the maimed are at death's door, hospital officials said.
No group, including the Taliban, have grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2016
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[AnNahar] Turkish police have detained dozens of people including pro-Kurdish party officials, accusing them of spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a security source said on Wednesday.
At least 49 people were detained for allegedly spreading "terror propaganda" and "membership of a terror group", as part of an operation against the PKK in Van and Hakkari in eastern and southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , the official told AFP.
Among the detainees were several officials from local branches of the pro-Kurdish, left-wing Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
The Turkish government says the party has links to the PKK -- a claim the HDP denies.
Two members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were killed this week in two attacks that were blamed on PKK hard boys.
It was not immediately clear if the latest arrests were linked to a police hunt for the perpetrators of the attacks in Van and in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/13/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Iraqi media outlets reported on Wednesday, that the Islamic State (ISIS) gave the families of Mosul 24 hours to change the names of their newborns that the group see as inappropriate for the state of caliphate.
Al Sumaria News revealed that a committee belongs to the ISIS searched the newborns data in the city of Mosul over the last days, and marked about 120 newborns’ names, and after that the ISIS gave the families of these newborns 24 hours to change their names for being inappropriate for the state of caliphate.
“The decision raised a notable discontent and resentment amid the people of Mosul,” Al Sumaria News added.
The Islamic State took over the city of Mosul in June 2014, to be one of its key strongholds in Iraq.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The Islamic State members sold houses belong to a number of security members, professors and government employees in Nineveh province for 25 million dinars per house, Al Sumaria News reported on Wednesday.
The media outlet stated, “ISIS Diwan al-Hisba sold houses belong to security members, professors and government employees for cheaper prices,” pointing out that, “The ISIS sold the houses for 25 million dinars each, while the real price is more than 100 million dinars per house.”
The Islamic State is controlling the city of Mosul since mid-2014, while the security forces are preparing to launch an assault to storm into the city and liberate it from the ISIS grip.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2016
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#2
I agree Putin doesn't want Ukraine, except for the Russian bits. However, he does want the Dardenelles, which indicates any war will be with Turkey.
Those S300/400 missiles he is bringing in. Are they to defend against the ISIS airforce?
One day after its Ambassador to the US told the world the US and Russia had "frozen all communications" between the two nations, Russia test-launched THREE nuclear-capable missiles. But in a surprise move, rather than fire from its Plesetsk Cosmodome as announced and expected, Russia instead first launched a Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) from its Kalmar class (Delta-III) K-433 Georgiy Pobedonosets submarine located in the Barents Sea.
After that, came the launch of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from the land-based Plesetsk Codmodome.
Russian forces fired the third nuclear-capable rocket from a Pacific Fleet submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan, state-run RIA Novosti reported.
Each of these missiles are capable of carrying up to TEN warheads which can be tasked to strike ten different targets. Thus, had this been an actual strike, ten cities in Europe would be gone and twenty cities throughout the entire United States would also be gone . . . at 3:00 in the morning while most of us in the United States were sound asleep.
This is a not-so-subtle warning that Russia is not playing games with NATO or the West with regards to Ukraine and Syria. If the US and NATO continue to encircle Russia with NATO missiles (presently in Poland, Romania and now, Moldova), and continue to attack Syria with proxy armies composed of Al-Qaida and ISIS terrorists, both NATO and the US face actual war on our own territories, delivered with lightning speed, that would smash life as we know it.
If one was to utilize a different analogy, let's say a Rattlesnake, today's launched would be like the snake shaking its Rattle over pending danger to itself, warning its adversary it is about to be bitten.
The US and NATO are completely in the wrong with regard to events that have taken place over the past few years in Ukraine and in Syria and if we in the west don't wide-up and wise-up fast, putting a halt to our aggression, then "the end" is rapidly approaching for those poorly thought out policy decisions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/13/2016
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[AlAhram] At least 10 people were killed and scores injured on Wednesday in violent festivities between Shia Moslems, civilians and security forces across northern Nigeria, according to members of the pro-Iran group Islamic Movement in Nigeria and witnesses.
Despite being banned in one northern state, thousands of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) members had taken to the streets for the annual Ashura march, a major Shia festival.
Soldiers and police opened fire on an IMN procession in the town of Funtua in northern Katsina state, killing 10 people and injuring scores of others, IMN front man Husseini Yero told AFP.
"We now have the dead bodies of 10 of our members killed by soldiers and coppers who opened fire on our procession," Yero said.
Two Funtua residents, who asked to remain anonymous because of security concerns, confirmed seeing 10 bodies and "several" people with injuries.
The violence comes less than a week after northern Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai banned the group as an "unlawful society", saying it was a security threat and calling for security forces to "vigorously" arrest its members.
In the city of Kaduna, a mob looted and torched the home of the IMN leader in the city. Hundreds of men sacked the home of Mukhtar Sahabi in the Tudun Wada area before setting it on fire.
"We are still trying to confirm the fate of two of our members that were in the house," said IMN member Ishaq Saleh. "We are afraid they might have been killed."
In northern Nigeria's largest city of Kano, dozens were maimed when mobs attacked the IMN procession with stones, police said.
"The IMN procession was attacked by hoodlums who pelted them with stones for blocking the roads, which denied many people access to the market and the main hospital in the city," said Kano police front man Magaji Majia. "We treated 17 people injured by the mob in our clinic and rescued 138 IMN women from the mob."
Clashes between the Nigerian military and IMN supporters led to over 300 deaths in December last year. Two days of violence began on December 12, when supporters of the pro-Iranian holy man and IMN head, Ibrahim Zakzaky, refused to allow the chief of army staff's convoy to pass through the northern city of Zaria in Kaduna state.
Rights group Amnesia Amnesty International later accused Nigeria's military of "excessive force".
IMN leader Zakzaky, who lost an eye and was left partly paralysed in the violence, has been held in jug since December, with fears the military crackdown could result in a violent uprising similar to the devastating Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... insurgency.
#1
"The IMN procession was attacked by hoodlums who pelted them with stones for blocking the roads, which denied many people access to the market and the main hospital in the city," said Kano police front man Magaji Majia. "We treated 17 people injured by the mob in our clinic and rescued 138 IMN women from the mob."
Perhaps there's a lesson here for BLM protests blocking highways and roads
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/13/2016 14:22
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well, yeah, but if LE is ordered to stand down, and a regular citizen goes solo, what do you think will be the end reault? BLM are literraly untouchable under Obama/DoJ/FBI
not like we live in a civilised country like Nigeria /sarc
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
10/13/2016 23:50
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi air defense forces shot down a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s 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 ... militia toward Khamees Mushait city in the kingdom’s southwest on Tuesday night, a Saudi-led coalition said in a statement carried by the state news agency SPA.
The Houthis said on Twitter that their missile was aimed at 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... ’s King Faisal Military Camp located about 40 km (25 miles) north of the Yemeni border.
But the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces destroyed the missile before it could cause any damage, according to the statement by the coalition, which since March 2015 has been fighting the Houthis and launching air strikes across Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... to try to restore the Saudi-backed government of exiled President Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Saudi forces responded to the missile attack by attacking the launch site, the statement added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2016
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[IsraelTimes] A 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... n lobbyist in the US has called for "a collaborative alliance" between Riyadh and Jerusalem based on regional and economic interests, citing "a historic opportunity" for a new era of peace and prosperity.
Salman al-Ansari, president of the recently established Saudi American Public Relations Affairs Committee in Washington DC, wrote in The Hill on Tuesday that Israel is uniquely situated to assist its neighbor in its economic development in the coming years.
Israel, he noted, was "one of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced countries in the field of mining," as well as "a world leader in the water engineering industry" -- both matters of significant interest to the developing Arab Kingdom.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have no formal ties. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... it has long been rumored that the two countries have held clandestine discussions on matters of regional security, and talk of warming relations has proliferated in recent months.
Perhaps the chief incentive for such a thaw is the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers -- a deal that leaves Riyadh concerned over its position in the Middle East.
Al-Ansari stressed that the two nations share security concerns, with both "facing constant threats from bad boy groups that are directly supported by the totalitarian government of Iran."
Israel and Saudi Arabia, he argued, could serve as "the new twin pillars of regional stability," and together could help foster peace and development throughout the Middle East.
He urged leaders on both sides not to "stifle" the opportunity for both countries to develop these mutual goals.
Recent months have seen various signs of the change in tone between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
A media campaign in Saudi Arabia in August sought to combat anti-Semitism in the kingdom, in a possible effort to prepare public opinion for deepened relations with Israel.
In late July, a retired Saudi general visited Israel, heading a delegation of academics and businessmen seeking to encourage discussion of the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative.
Meanwhile a former Israeli minister, who met with the visiting Saudi delegation, said peace between the nations was very much "in the cards."
[Jpost] Thousands pray at Western Wall without incident; Jerusalem deputy mayor calls for cancellation of all Arab construction in capital, deportation of terrorists’ families.
A 20-year-old Arab man who threw Molotov cocktails at border police during a riot in southeast Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood was rubbed out shortly after Yom Kippur commenced on Tuesday night, as police responded to two other riots in Arab areas in the capital.
According to police, rioting broke out in Isawiya, Jebl Mukaber and Silwan less than an hour after Judaism’s holiest day began.
"Arabs living in these neighborhoods threw petrol bombs and rocks at officers who responded to a dangerous and life-threatening situation," said Police front man Micky Rosenfeld on Wednesday night. "One resident in Silwan, who threw a petrol bomb at officers at close range, was injured critically and died. Police attempted to treat him for his injury, but local residents removed his body from the scene and he died a short time later."
The dead man was identified in Arab media as Silwan resident Ali Atef Ebrahim Shoyoukhi, 20, who was released from prison earlier this year after serving a 15-month sentence.
Shoyoukhi was buried a few hours after later.
Police dispersed the remaining rioters using non-lethal force, Rosenfeld said, adding that no other serious injuries were reported.
Despite the violence in east Jerusalem, Rosenfeld said thousands of Jews prayed at the Western Wall in the Old City without incident.
Over 3,500 officers from multiple units have been canvassing the capital during the High Holy Days, Rosenfeld said.
Also on Tuesday night, Paleostinians fired at soldiers near the West Bank security barrier in the vicinity of the village of Ni’lin. Soldiers who were dispatched to the area by an army lookout returned fire and the suspects fled, the IDF said.
Units from the Efraim Territorial Brigade conducted searches in the area and incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! a number of suspects following the exchange of fire.
The closure imposed by the IDF on the West Bank was gradually lifted after the end of the holiday on Wednesday night.
In the Upper Galilee over the holiday, shots were fired at three houses of the same family in Beit Jann, with no injuries reported. While in Deir el-Asad, near Karmiel, the house of a 30-year-old local was damaged from gunfire, with no injuries reported. In both cases the background is unknown and police are conducting an investigation.
Another shooting occurred in the Beduin village of Shakib al-Salam, southeast of Beersheba, where a man was maimed and treated in fair condition at the city’s Soroka-University Medical Center.
Public in small town deliberately kept in the dark about plans to move in 100 Syrians I can see how someone from Syria would really enjoy the change in scenery! Maybe show them the movie White Christmas for cultural assimilation prep?
Get out your best long staple, Egyptian cotton hankie, dear Reader. It will be necessary.
I stalk old lovers on social media. Long happily married, it's not out of any desire to imagine what might have been. I have no interest in what might have been. But I am a profoundly curious person, and so I wonder what has become of the handful of men I spent months and even years of my life with. The economics major, now a pharmacist in Florida, who was so kind; the MBA at George Washington, now a Manhattan IT director, who was not. The first one, a high school scholar-athlete, now an executive in upstate New York, our hometown. As the cliche on TV goes, "Been through a lot..."
The first one.
According to Ellen McCarthy's Washington Post article on first love, our "first," "maintain[s] some power over us, a haunting, bittersweet hold on our psyches."
Really? Perhaps I'm odd.
Yes. Thirty years on, his Facebook page was the one I checked most often, once or twice a year maybe, when curiosity struck. After all, we were together for almost four years, in a relationship that began with the headiness and confusion of first everythings, survived the angst-suffused negotiations of teenage and adult expectations and mellowed into its own kind of love. Give yourself 40 years. First loves become a dim memory.
I don't remember much angst. I knew I didn't know what I wanted, but I assumed I'd figure it out.
There seemed no harm in looking in on him occasionally. In the past ten years, he'd married and had a son. With two sons of my own, I was happy for him. It all seemed very innocent.
Until it wasn't. Until the moment, a few months ago, late at night, when I was scrolling through my feed and decided to see if there was there was anything new in his life.
At first, the page looked the same as always. The wedding portrait that was his profile photo, him in his gray morning coat, standing tall, broad, with a little less hair, his darkly beautiful Indonesian wife seated and smiling beatifically at the camera in a stiffly beaded white gown. The banner photo of his oddly somber preschooler under the carnival lights of a merry go-round.
No new posts. I should have stopped there. But I didn't.
I pressed the link to his "likes." The Celtics, "A Fish Called Wanda," "Excalibur"—which we'd watched on video, curled together on my parent's sofa, back when VCRs were new. "The Last Samurai." "Battlestar Gallactica." And then, my fingers stiffened over the keyboard.
Ex-boyfriend needs to tighten up his security settings. This is creepy.
Donald J. Trump for President. Oh no!
Perhaps it was a joke site. I squinted, brought the screen closer.
It wasn't.
I stared for several minutes in disbelief, my eyes stinging. Later, when I laid beside my husband, who breathed peacefully in sleep, the tears would run sideways into my hair. My ears.
Donald J. Trump for President. How awful!
And the thing we know, to the deepest core of our being, is that the writer is defined by the fact that she first gave her heart to a future Trump-lover, which places her far beyond the pale of polite society. At this point the only thing she can do is mark her ballot for Trump, then do right by the husband and sons she adores by quietly disappearing from their lives until the day she dies. No wonder she weeps inconsolably. After all, she destroyed four lives that day in her fifteenth year when she noticed that bright, gentle athlete.
In the old days she would have made herself a nice, warm bath and opened her wrists...In the Post article, Jefferson Singer, a psychology professor at Connecticut College (coincidentally my ex's alma mater and also my own) says the first relationship is important because it is the one we will measure every relationship that follows against.
For years after we parted ways, I sat in movie theaters dramas or romantic comedies silently amazed that I had allowed myself to stay for so long with someone who would only watch Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson or Chuck Norris movies. Who regularly lost entire weekends to college football or basketball, while I sat beside him idly paging through Glamour or Mademoiselle, one game blurring into the next. Who believed the only fiction worth reading was the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, while I had begun to wander haphazardly from Fitzgerald to Anne Beattie, Hemingway to Chaim Potok. Who? Chaim Potok is excellent, but he's an acquired taste.
And still I never would have prophesied: Donald J. Trump for President. You poor dear!
I was only 15. Easily led. Then 16. 17. 18. Almost 19. He could be gentle, my first love. He could be tender. In spite of the physical intensity of those years, he never forced himself on me. Not once. He was tall, muscular, and I always felt safe in his arms at a time in my life when I wanted nothing more than to feel safe in someone's arms.
Long after we had broken up, my mother told me that during those years together he had sent my father, who chain-smoked Salems, a package containing a smoking cessation program he'd ordered from TV, along with a letter begging him to quit. To see my father die of lung cancer, he implored, with the sweet, brash audacity of youth, would surely break my heart. Seems like a nice guy to me. My father never did quit, not then at least, though he would go on to break my heart in other ways.
How do you reconcile such a gesture—my Michael Furey moment—with: Donald J. Trump for President. I don't. You must be sooo devastated! Singer again, who has also written a great deal about the psychology of autobiographical memory, says too of first love, "It's not just about the other person. It's about who we were at the time."
Finally, I was someone who walked away, when I was 19 and he was 21, because his world, the world he defended so ardently, as if shielding a fragile army of war game tiles painstakingly laid upon a board, was too narrow and dark. Oh jeez. A wargamer! Strike two! Leave that man for your nearest metrosexual. You'll be much happier! So narrow. So dark. I could not broaden it and I could not stay, those first steps leading me to fall in love forever one day, five years later, in front of Frederick Edwin Church's "Rio de la Luz" in the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. Upper-level. December 18, 1989.
A room flooded with light.
And yet. Right or wrong, I could not have foretold this. Any of this.
Round-ups. Bloody rallies. Women on their knees.
Donald J. Trump for President. Find a nice bottle of Tennessee sour mash and drink it down. No glass. Neat. You'll feel much better having passed that loser by!
Still I return to the page, hopeful the link might be gone one day, deleted in a fit of sanity. Instead my heart rends more ragged each time, memory growing more faint. Like the photo of a couple on the sticky leaves of an old album, we vanish to a yellow nimbus, the acid steadily erasing us.
The number of literary cliches in this travesty of self-indugent emoting would have gotten her an A when she was fifteen, a solid C in her college freshman English class, and is thoroughly embarrassing in a middle aged woman who assesses herself as superior, cultured, and sophisticated.
#2
Athena moaned, sad and befuddled
That she and a moron had cuddled.
A pale yellow nimbus
Shone down from Olympus
To Earth, where it presently puddled.
#4
Smart, athletic, fun guy who goes on to a successful life avoids sad-sack stalker bitch.
Here's a hint toots, if it isn't too late - your nutty professor is wrong. If I measured other relationships based upon my first I would never have had any and no kids.
I mean, shit lady, you cry yourself to sleep next to your, um, man, thinking of boyfriends past who have not thought of you in 10 years or whatever.
I'd say your own article is your hint you are off.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/13/2016 12:13
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#6
"How do you reconcile such a gesture—my Michael Furey moment—with: Donald J. Trump for President."
Perhaps as an executive in NY he is more aware of the economy, has been forced to fire people, perhaps even spent time unemployed. Perhaps the writer who goes out of her way to show how elite she is by naming off her books is living in a sad little bubble.
[Tolo News] Afghan cops successfully ended a nine-day siege by the Taliban of a military base in Qarghan hill, Phul-e-Khumri, in Baghlan, rescuing 120 security force members.
The turbans had surrounded the base nine days ago. The siege ended when troops were brought in from other parts of the province.
Gen. Shaor Gull a military commander in Baghlan said that during the operation 34 Taliban members were killed, 60 were maimed and four others were tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... by the Afghan cops.
According to him, during the operation a Taliban tank was also destroyed.
Meanwhile in a separate clash between security forces and the Taliban in Zabul province one police officer was killed and four others were maimed, officials said.
According to the officials, festivities started along the Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... -Kandahar highway.
On the other hand, the Taliban conducted a rocket attack, which hit a house, in Shah Joy district of Zabul. Two women were killed and four men were maimed.
Local officials in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... also reported rocket attacks in Helmand province.
According to them Taliban fired off three missiles from the third zone of Lashkargah city to the capital.
There were no reports of casualties.
Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Yellow Wolf clutched at his chest and fell from his horse... a source told TOLOnews that Taliban once again resumed their attacks on parts of Helmand's second zone and have entered the area. Clashes are ongoing.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Tolo News] Kunduz security officials said on Wednesday they have pushed the faceless myrmidons out of Kunduz city and will continue their clearance operations.
The festivities between security forces and Taliban lasted 11 days.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the crisis led to thousands of families fleeing their homes. The local economy was also badly affected as most businesses and shops have been closed for more than a week.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Tel Abyad – Turkey’s military targeted on Wednesday headquarters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) near the city of Tel Abyad in northern Syria.
“The Turkish artillery bombed the YPG-held village of Khenitiya in Tel Abyad countryside, targeting a YPG security office,” Kurdish officer Salih Watti told ARA News.
The attack, which took place in the afternoon on Wednesday, caused material damage. No casualties were reported.
However, the Kurdish YPG troops responded to the fire’s source by launching artillery shells against the Turkish army forces stationed near the Syrian border.
It was not immediately clear whether the YPG bombardment caused any casualties among the Turkish forces.
“We stressed earlier that we won’t remain silent towards the Turkish violations on the border. We will respond to any attacks by Turkey’s military,” YPG officer Watti said.
On 28 September, at least nine civilians were killed and several others wounded in a Turkish artillery attack. The shelling occurred in Kahila, a Kurdish town near the Syrian border city of Tel Abyad. In a statement, the leadership of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) condemned the Turkish attack. The YPG said that Turkey is targeting Kurdish areas in northern Syria “to undermine the Kurdish progress against ISIS.”
“We’ll not allow Turkey to continue those violations at the border. We are ready to respond and we’ll do whatever it takes in order to stop this offensive against our people,” the YPG leadership said in a statement.
The Kurdish YPG and their allies from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), captured the strategic city of Tel Abyad in June 2015. The conquest of Tel Abyad was disconcerting for ISIS militants due to its location. Tel Abyad is only 90 km from Raqqa –the group’s de facto capital in Syria.
Since ISIS was driven from Tel Abyad, Kurdish positions have been exposed on two fronts. The YPG has to guard against Turkey’s military on one hand, and ISIS on the other.
Speaking to ARA News, YPG officer Habun Osman accused the Turkish government of supporting ISIS in their campaign to retake Tel Abyad. Osman believes that the Turkish government desires “to assist the terror group [and] export its oil to the black market via Turkey.”
“Before the YPG-SDF forces retook Tel Abyad from ISIS in early 2015, the terror group used to export its oil tankers through this border crossing to the black market,” Osman said.
“When ISIS was in control here, Turkey never attacked the group’s positions. Now that Tel Abyad is under Kurdish control, the Turkish Army continues to attack the area,” the YPG officer told ARA News.
This is not the first time Turkey has targeted Syrian Kurds. According to military sources, the Turkish Army has launched more than 22 attacks on Kurdish positions in northern Syria. Most of the attacks targeted YPG-held areas in Aleppo and Raqqa Governorates.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2016
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Last Friday the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) publicly named the Russian government for directing "the recent compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations." It claimed that the disclosures of hacked emails "on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process", while "only Russia’s most senior officials could have authorized these activities."
President Vladimir Putin in a recent interview to Bloomberg denied that Russia on a state level had anything to do with the email hacks, but his claim that "the important thing is the content that was given to the public, and not the search for who did it" suggested more than a cursory knowledge of the matter. His further claim that the Russian government did not possess the kind of sophisticated sense of U.S. domestic politics to pull off such a tricky game sounded lame. The Russian Foreign Ministry maintains a granular understanding of the intricate details of U.S. presidential and party politics. The Russian Embassy in Washington keeps about a dozen diplomats on the beat. It is not, as some claim, that the Russians suddenly discovered the DNC last year.
While the publicly available evidence linking Russian intelligence to the hacks is inconclusive and may even suggest a false flag operation to entangle Moscow in a brawl with Washington, the U.S. Intelligence Community had a high degree of confidence in Russian involvement even in July and the fact that they publicly named Russian intelligence as perpetrators suggests that they have definitive proof. 'The greatest threat to the U.S. is Russia.' And the Obama response was ?
#3
My question, too. Not to imply the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is the bagful of crap weasels they are, but this has all the makings of an engineered media controversy.
This also raises the question: Why don't you morons secure your servers? If you leave the front door open, don't be surprised when a raccoon walks in.
These people can't manage an email server but they want to run the country. If NBC only knew...
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/13/2016 12:15
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#5
If NBC only cared.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/13/2016 13:41
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#6
A naive question, but did somebody actually provide any evidence that it's Russians?
I'm skeptical. A lot of leaks came out before the end of the democrat primary; my first thought was pissed Bernie supporters, then deflect and say it was Those Russians! because an inside job would be embarrassing.
Now, if something like that was the case and I were Russia being thrown under the bus, I could see why then they would get active.
As for the Hillary server, I would guess, who didn't hack it?
#8
The Russian education system is very good at technical subjects and they have always produced good engineers. It's no surprise they have some of the best hackers.
My guess is that the Russian authorities got involved after the hacks occurred when the hackers were shopping around for a buyer for the material.
[AlAhram] A US destroyer has for the second time in four days been targeted by a missile fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen, a US defense official said Wednesday. The USS Mason detected an incoming missile at about 6:00 pm local time (1500 GMT) and deployed unspecified countermeasures, the official said.
Mason has the AEGIS system, so we can guess...
"It is unclear if the countermeasures caused the missile to hit the water, or if it would have hit the water on its own," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... No one was injured and the ship was not struck.
On Sunday, two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... fell short of the Mason while she patrolled the Red Sea off the coast of the war-torn country. Both missiles hit the water before reaching the ship and no one was injured in that incident, officials said.
Wednesday's attack saw a "coastal defense cruise missile" fired from a Huthi-controlled area south of al-Hudaydah, the unnamed defense official said.
[ArabNews] WASHINGTON, United States: The Pentagon said it would respond “at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner” after a new, attempted missile attack on a US Navy destroyer off the coast of Yemen on Wednesday, the second such incident in four days.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the USS Mason detected at least one missile launched from Houthi-controlled territory near Al Hudaydah, Yemen.
“The ship employed defensive countermeasures, and the missile did not reach USS Mason,” Cook said in a statement.
Other US officials said the USS Mason, which was accompanied by the USS Ponce — an amphibious transport dock — fired defensive salvos in response to the missiles, neither of which hit the ship or caused any damage as it operated north of the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.
The USS Mason detected an incoming missile at about 6 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) and deployed unspecified countermeasures, a defense official said.
“It is unclear if the countermeasures caused the missile to hit the water, or if it would have hit the water on its own,” the official said.
The renewed attempt to target the US Navy destroyer will add pressure on the US military to retaliate, a move that would represent the first direct US military action against Houthis in Yemen’s conflict. The Pentagon hinted about possible retaliatory strikes on Tuesday.
The incidents, along with an Oct. 1 strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
The Houthis, who are battling the internationally-recognized government of Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour Al-Hadi, denied any involvement in the previous attempt to strike the USS Mason or the nearby USS Ponce on Sunday.
But US officials have told Reuters there is growing indications that Houthi rebels, despite those denials, were responsible for Sunday’s incident.
The rebels appeared to use small skiffs as spotters to help direct the missile attack on the warship. The United States is also investigating the possibility that a radar station under Houthi control in Yemen might have also “painted” the USS Mason, something that would have helped the Houthi fighters pass along coordinates for a strike, the officials have said.
Simple: destroy the radar station, and any others that 'paint' our ships...
The Houthis, who are allied to Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, have the support of many army units and control most of the north including the capital Sanaa.
Reuters has learned that the coastal defense cruise missiles used against the USS Mason on Sunday had considerable range, adding to concerns about the kind of heavy weaponry that the Houthis appear willing to employ and some of which US officials believe is supplied by Iran.
[DailyMail] 'He was like an octopus,' she told the Times. 'His hands were everywhere.'
Leeds, who told the newspaper the incident 'was an assault', said she rushed to the back of the plane to escape Trump's advances.
The second woman the newspaper claims was touched inappropriately by Trump is Rachel Crooks. Crooks was a 22-year-old working as a receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate company based in Trump Tower in Manhattan, when she says Trump kissed her on the mouth without permission while in an elevator.
'It was so inappropriate,' Ms. Crooks told the New York Times. 'I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.'
Crooks told the newspaper the incident took place after she shook hands with Trump in an elevator and he allegedly refused to let go. She says he then began kissing her on the cheeks, before then kissing her lips.
Con't.
Very much. And an attempt to Herman Cain him in the process. I truly hope it does not work.
Not a fan of trump, but rather much more fearful of the alternative.
and to be honest- trump does cause apoplexy in all the right people. Even if he does turn out to be a dud, it will be worth it just for the schadenfreude!
#5
I'll do some serious bragging now. Maybe as a foreigner I understand Americans better than they do. And I tell you this: If I were in charge of the Trump campaign, he'll look a lot better.
A man with the personal (and public) history can never be defensive and "sex scandals" in the U.S. will kill you if you retreat.
So do not hide. What Trump needed to do when the Alicia Machado trap was laid out was not to attack others. No, what he should have said was this:
You know who I am. It's all out there. I'm that larger than life person you want, not a conniving politicians. I'm a man. Hell, a macho. I love women. Always have. Treated them well most of the time, sometimes I didn't. Sorry. Dig out all you want about me. I lived my life to the fullest, and all you hypocrites out there wish that you could say the same about your life. Deal with it.
If you vote for me you'll vote for an authentic man who will look after you, who will look after America and throw all those hypocrites out.
Try me, you'll like it.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/13/2016 0:41
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#6
Maybe as a foreigner I understand Americans better than they do.
The Media will be harping on this for the next six weeks nonstop. Even if its proven that they 4 are liars paid by Clinton or Soros - they will repeat it as the truth nonstop.
#13
The stories wouldn't go far without all that stuff Trump said himself. He knows what he said. And because he knows, his approach to the issue is lethal.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/13/2016 1:09
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#14
Trump's lawyers have sent a "cease and desist" letter to the NYTimes. Elsewhere it is reported they are preparing a law suit. It is interesting to speculate that given the blatantly stupid statements by Times editors the successful prosecution of a libel suit might cause the NYTimes to, in effect, repay Trump for expenses incurred during his election campaign.
#17
Clearly, all these women coming forward now would prefer a president who watched them being groped, then defended the groper.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/13/2016 13:26
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#18
I do have a question.
The "First Class" accuser was skimming along in an aluminum tube being groped by the stranger sitting next to her, and she didn't alert the flight crew?
As I recall, the '80's was the wind-down period for the Second Wave of Feminism where a woman had little to fear in reporting an assailant.
No alarm seems to suggest Ms. Leeds may have had some regrets when the (implied or expressed) "call me" went unrequited?
#20
Anyone that didn't see this coming wasn't paying attention. The news organizations held this from the primaries to make sure Trump won, and then held until now so they could slime Tump when it hurts worst and has the least amount of time to recover.
Who is going to hold the press responsible for manipulation of the election, for choosing a side and then working like Pravda for it?
#21
Trump supporters may not be bothered by this, but people who aren't members of his fan club already are being pushed away by it, no matter how you supporters try to pretend otherwise. Independents are what will decide this race, and Trump is going to lose some of them over this. Stop with the excusing bad behavior from your candidate, condmen it, and move back to the topic of how much of a criminal Hillary is. And by the way. "He (Bill) did it Too" is stupid and is about as valid an argument now as it was in kindergarten. Stop it, it makes you look stupid and detracts from an other argument syou may have.
#24
Defense doesn't win elections. If you give this more attention, and continue to attack the accusers, it calls more negatives on Trump and lets them play the victim card.
Dismiss them once, and get this off the news. Trumps supporters (and his own ego) are his worst enemies in things like this, like the mess with the Khans. Address it, dismiss it, then get back on the attack against Hillary. Determine the subject to the press rather than the other way around.
It's not all that easy to sue a billionaire. You want to have deep pockets.
And think of the Cosby case.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/13/2016 18:25
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#27
@European Conservative
Only if the billionaire fights it in court rather than settling, which is what most people would expect. So far there is no evidence any of them even talked to a lawyer.
#28
"Crooks was a 22-year-old working as a receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate company based in Trump Tower in Manhattan, when she says Trump kissed her on the mouth without permission while in an elevator."
Without witnesses or camera, impossible to prove. You'd only have a chance if the molester already had a record.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/13/2016 18:40
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#29
The claims stink. And the Times.
Waiting for more info.
#30
As I have commented before, I don't like Trump. But I must admit it would have been a fascinating idea to run his campaign. It was winnable. But not the way it was run.
And yes you need to UNDERSTAND the rules if you want to break them. You don't walk into a debate with a seasoned politician unprepared.
Trump seems to be unable to formulate and lay out a thought properly. Every time he is just about to make a point, there comes his terminally annoying "btw", he totally changes the subject and the point is lost.
Hillary is easy to beat. Concentrate on her most important weaknesses: Emails, corruption etc. and make your point. And if you can't do it properly, just return the ball.
Want an example? Don't whine about your opponent getting more debate time than you do. Turn this into an advantage.
So what he could have done when Hillary offered her usual non-excuse. Say this:
"I gladly yield my 2 minutes to Hillary so she can explain in detail why her actions were not a crime. And if that's not enough, she can have my next 2 minutes as well. Or the next 30 minutes."
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/13/2016 18:54
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Iraqi forces are preparing for a battle that is expected to take place in the coming few days to liberate the city of Mosul from the grip of the terrorist group, ISIS.
Iraqi media outlets mentioned that around 5,000 fighters belonging to ISIS occupy the city of 1.3 million besieged residents.
News websites reported that 65,000 Iraqi soldiers divided into 6 divisions are expected to participate in the imminent battle.
Around 10,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are expected to participate in the battles that will take place in northern and eastern axes of Nineveh plain.
Around 24,000 members of Nineveh Police and al-Hashd al-Shaabi Milita are ready to participate in the battle as support forces. Iraqi Air Force in coordination with the air force of the US-led coalition will provide air cover for the ground operation.
In a related development, al-Hashd al-Shaabi Milita Forces announced on Monday that 14 of its members were killed by 5 Katyusha rockets fired by ISIS militants at Camp Zilkan north of Mosul.
Media outlets revealed that only 76,000 tents have been set up to receive Mosul families, while at least 300,000 tents are supposed to be set up to receive the large number of families expected to flee the city at the start of the battle.
[ARA News] Erbil – The radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) may use chemical weapons to protect its main Iraqi bastion of Mosul, officials said on Wednesday.
Informed sources told ARA News that after seizing chemical weapons in Syria, ISIS militants moved a large deal of those weapons to Mosul, in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh Governorate.
“ISIS has brought several shipments of chemical weapons, particularly chlorine and mustard agents, to Mosul earlier this week,” the head of Nineveh media centre Raafat al-Zarari said.
The move comes ahead of the Mosul operation, planned by the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraqi Army troops, supported by the US-led coalition.
The operation, which is expected to start within weeks, is aimed at capturing the city of Mosul from ISIS and expel the radical group from its main bastion in northern Iraq.
“If those reports are confirmed, we may face a more complex situation in the battle for Mosul than expected,” a Kurdish Peshmerga official told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We are aware of ISIS moves in Mosul. The group has recently changed its main positions inside the city and installed new checkpoints in Mosul suburb. The terrorist group is willing to put all of its strength in the upcoming battle for Mosul,” the official said. “Using chemical agents during the fight is highly possible, and we’ll make our preparations for such a scenario.”
Previous Chemical Attacks
On 21 September, ISIS militants hit an Iraqi army base with shells that reportedly contained mustard agent.
According to a joint investigation by the United Nations and a chemical weapons watchdog, the ISIS group has used banned chemical weapons. Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria have been exposed to several chemical attacks by ISIS, according to reports.
Also, on 18 September, ISIS launched a chemical attack on the villages of Um Hosh and Herbel in Afrin District northwest of Aleppo. The attack led to the injury of five civilians and three members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who were transferred to the Afrin Hospital. A medical sources in Afrin told ARA News that the injured suffered from suffocation. “The victims have been clearly exposed to a chemical gas attack.”
Speaking to ARA News, Rezan Heddo, a member of the Syrian Democratic Council, said: “ISIS and other radical Islamist groups in Aleppo province are in possession of chemical weapons. They have used those weapons in several attacks on populated areas in Aleppo province, especially against the Kurds.”
In April, the SDF leadership confirmed that several shells containing chemicals dropped on their positions in the vicinity of Shaddadi city [60 km south of Hasakah city] northeastern Syria. “On April 26, ISIS terrorists pounded our fighters’ positions in the Taqa village near Shaddadi with mortar shells containing toxic chemicals. 15 fighters of the SDF have been injured and suffered suffocation by toxic gases.” A Medical source in Hasakah told ARA News that investigations confirmed the SDF fighters have been exposed to an attack by chemical agents.
Also in April, ISIS militants launched an offensive on positions for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, using rockets filled with chlorine gas. At least one fighter from the Kurdish Peshmerga forces was killed and four more wounded in the attack. Local activists confirmed that ISIS attacked the Peshmerga forces in the fighting front of Kweir in Makhmur district with chemical weapons, killing the Kurdish fighter Jaffar Omar Karim and wounding four others, who suffered suffocation.
The Kurdistan Regional Security Council (KRSC) said that the ISIS hardline group has repeatedly used chemical weapons against the Peshmerga forces on several fighting fronts in the region.
In November 2015, the Peshmerga forces have repelled an attack by the radical group, during which ISIS was planning to use chlorine gas against the Kurdish troops in a military base near Erbil, according to the Peshmerga leadership.
In August 2015, Officials in Iraqi Kurdistan confirmed the use of mustard agent by ISIS extremists against the Peshmerga forces. The Peshmerga Ministry in the Kurdistan Region said in a statement at that time that blood tests have shown the use of the chemical agent by the terror group against the Kurdish forces. At least 35 Peshmerga soldiers have been exposed to the mustard agent, while some of the injured soldiers have been taken abroad for treatment.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2016
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[AlAhram] A booby-trapped drone launched by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group murderous Moslems killed two Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and maimed two French soldiers earlier this month north of the IS-controlled city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Kurdish and French officials said on Wednesday.
The drone blew up when Peshmerga fighters tried to lift it after it crashed to the ground, Jabbar al-Yawar, secretary general of the autonomous Kurdish region's defence ministry, told Rooters. "It seems it was booby-trapped."
The French newspaper Le Monde reported on Tuesday that the drone had been intercepted in flight on Oct. 2 and went kaboom! near the Kurdish and French soldiers when it hit the ground. It was unclear, Le Monde said, whether the drone was remotely detonated or carried a timed bomb.
Yawar, speaking from Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, said the French soldiers had been training Kurdish fighters near the site of the drone crash near the town of Dohuk.
Peshmerga forces plan to take part in a planned U.S.-backed Iraqi military offensive to oust the Islamic State group from Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and the last urban centre still under IS control in Iraq after a series of government offensives to reverse the jihadists' lightning seizure of territory in 2014.
The U.S.-led coalition against IS includes French, British, Canadian and other Western military contingents.
The two maimed French soldiers were immediately returned to La Belle France for medical treatment and one of them was "between life and death", according to Le Monde. It said other French soldiers were also lightly maimed by the blast but gave no details.
French government front man Stephane Le Foll confirmed the injuries.
"Yes. They were maimed by a drone that landed and then went kaboom!," he told news hounds after a weekly cabinet meeting.
La Belle France has about 500 troops in Iraq as part of a U.S.-led coalition The numbers include special forces that have been training Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
In anticipation of the offensive to dislodge them from Mosul, IS murderous Moslems have placed booby traps across the city, dug tunnels and recruited children as spies, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/13/2016
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Left-wing UK activists have slammed the Stop the War coalition (STWc) over its refusal to heed a call by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to protest Russian air strikes on Syria.
The vice-chairman of Britain’s Stop the War coalition on Wednesday said he opposed protesting against Russian bombing of Syria because “the media and politicians” are trying to portray Moscow as the “only problem”.
Chris Nineham was interviewed by the BBC after Johnson on Tuesday urged his group to protest against the ongoing Russian bombardment of rebel-held east Aleppo.
Nineham said his organisation has protested against the Russian war in Syria with “statements” but that they would not be calling for a public rally to demand an end to Moscow’s backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war against various rebel groups.
“We do not want to contribute to the jingoism and hysteria that is being whipped up against Russia, because that hysteria is being used to try and justify an escalation of the British war effort,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
STWc's stance on Syria, however, has divided left-wing activists in the UK, many of whom believe there should be more grassroots action in support of Syrian civilians.
Mark Boothroyd, a Labour party activist and founding member of Syria Solidarity UK, said that the STWc position on Russia was "completely unprincipled". Boothroyd dismissed the oft-repeated argument by coalition that they only targeted their own government's actions as that was where they could apply leverage.
"Yes I think we should oppose Britain when it's doing things which are not good for the civilians of Syria, and its support for Israel and its backing of Saudi Arabia in its attack on Yemen, but we can also protest other countries when they're carrying out other barbarisms. It's just political consistency and speaking to principle."
Current leader of the opposition Labour party Jeremy Corbyn was a former president of the STWc and spoke at their conference on Saturday. His stance on Syria has been criticised by some of his own supporters, who argue he has been unwilling to sufficiently critcise the Assad government or condemn Russian bombing.
On Monday, a petition was launched by left-wing activists and Labour party members calling for a change in Corbyn's position with regards to Syria, warning that "failure to act on this issue now threatens to undermine practically and politically much of the work done over many years by the anti-war movement."
Peter Hill, a member of the pro-Corbyn pressure group Momentum and signatory to the petition, told MEE that he believed that there should be active campaigning against Russia's actions in Syria.
"As the open letter to Jeremy Corbyn stated, I think that anti-war activists and socialists should condemn the actions of all states which commit acts of aggression and war crimes, not only those of Western powers or states aligned with the West," he said. "I too am sceptical about the motives and interests of Western powers involved in Syria, but I do not see this as a good reason to hedge about condemning Russia and the Assad regime, as the Stop the War Coalition have done.
"Protests at the Russian embassy are an entirely appropriate response to the atrocities committed by Russia in Syria."
#1
Stop The War and related movements are only there to harm the West. Their deluded followers are trying to do what the organization was ostensibly founded to do, hence the confusion.
#4
Left-wing UK activists have slammed the Stop the War coalition (STWc) over its refusal to heed a call by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to protest Russian
[AlManar] 15 Saudi soldiers were killed and 40 others were injured after frustrating their advance attempt towards Mount Al-Dood in Jizan.
The Yemeni Army and Popular Committees launched rocketry attacks on various Saudi military sites, inflicting heavy losses upon them.
Ansarullah movement leader Sayyed Abdol Malek Badreddine al-Houthi delivered a speech on Ashura occasion, stressing the Yemeni steadfastness in the face of the US-administered Saudi war.
Sayyed Houthi underscored that the Yemenis are confronting a war on their values, hailing all those who support Yemen against the Saudi aggression, including Hezbollah and his Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] The Russian air force has intensified its raids on neighbourhoods in eastern Aleppo after attacks carried out by the Syrian regime’s forces aimed at recapturing southern neighbourhoods in besieged eastern Aleppo failed. Opposition forces also recaptured most of the sites that the regime advanced on and the attacks suggest that the Syrian regime and Russia are attempting “to put pressure on the civilian population to get out of Aleppo” according to what an opposition source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Russian jets renewed heavy air strikes yesterday after five days of relative calm during which the number of air strikes fell to a low level. At least 12 civilians were killed in the escalation that coincides with diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict coming to a standstill. Activists said that Russian warplanes targeted the Fardous neighbourhood, central Aleppo that is controlled by the opposition.
The opposition source in Aleppo said that the regime’s forces “are compensating for their inability to advance on the ground with aerial bombardment”.
A correspondent for AFP said that raids on residential neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the city took place at around noon and that they specifically targeted the neighbourhoods of Al-Qaterji, Al-Maysir, Qadi Askary and Bustan Al-Qasr. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that “12 civilians, including at least four children were killed during intense Russian raids on the neighbourhoods of Bustan Al-Qasr and Fardous”, and that many people were still trapped under the rubble. According to the director of the Observatory Rami Abdul Rahman, “Russian raids today are the heaviest on residential neighbourhoods since about a week”.
Air strikes carried out by Russia and the regime on the northern countryside of Latakia have stopped. Russian warplanes had previously stepped up raids on opposition sites in Jabal Al-Akrad which is situated in the northern countryside of Latakia. The Syrian regime’s forces recaptured all sites that opposition factions advanced on during the battle of Ashura on Monday night. The battle was launched in order to recapture areas that it lost in the area during the past year.
#1
The death toll from the Russian action in Syria is probably above 4000 by now.
This is a triumph of the 'smart diplomacy' of the Obama/Clinton/Kerry 'reset', 'red line' and 'negotiate' strategy.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/13/2016 7:33
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#2
The Russians are doing to Obama Inc what the Donks do to the Trunks. Smile, nod their head, agree, and then do what they want to do anyway. See - the Scorpion and the Frog.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Forces from the army’s 7th brigade backed by tribal fighters are preparing to liberate Haditha-Baiji road, north of Anbar Province, Al Sumaria News reported on Wednesday.
Al Sumaria News stated, “The 27th regiment of the army’s 7th brigade was assigned to liberate Haditha-Baiji road, north of Anbar.”
“The tribal fighters will join the army forces in the operation, in order to secure and control the road after the liberation operation,” Al Sumaria News added.
The Haditha-Baiji road is located north of the city of Haditha in Anbar Province, and it is a desert road, where the Islamic State group (ISIS) members are usually deployed.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2016
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[Yahoo.UK] As relations between the West and Russia steadily deteriorate, Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots have been given the go-ahead to shoot down Russian military jets when flying missions over Syria and Iraq, if they are endangered by them. The development comes with warnings that the UK and Russia are now "one step closer" to being at war.
RAF Tornado pilots have been instructed to avoid contact with Russian aircraft while engaged in missions for Operation Shader – the codename for the RAF's anti-Isis work in Iraq and Syria. But their aircraft have been armed with air-to-air missiles and the pilots have been given the green light to defend themselves if they are threatened by Russian pilots.
"The first thing a British pilot will do is to try to avoid a situation where an air-to-air attack is likely to occur — you avoid an area if there is Russian activity," an unidentified source from the UK's Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) told the Sunday Times. "But if a pilot is fired on or believes he is about to be fired on, he can defend himself. We now have a situation where a single pilot, irrespective of nationality, can have a strategic impact on future events."
The RAF Tornados aircraft will be armed with heat-seeking Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles (Asraams, also called AIM-132 missiles). These weapons, which cost £200,000 each, can reach triple the speed of sound and have a longer range than other air-to-air missiles, allowing RAF pilots to shoot down enemy aircraft without being targeted themselves.
The Sunday Times' report quoted a defence source as saying: "Up till now RAF Tornados have been equipped with 500lb satellite-guided bombs — there has been no or little air-to-air threat. But in the last week the situation has changed. We need to respond accordingly."
"We need to protect our pilots but at the same time," said another source. "We're taking a step closer to war. It will only take one plane to be shot down in an air-to-air battle and the whole landscape will change."
[UKDefenceJournal] Several news sources have reported over the weekend that RAF Tornados bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq are to be armed with air-to-air missiles to protect them from attack and that RAF pilots have been cleared to fire on hostile Russian jets. The Sunday Times features a similar story and quotes a military source who is alleged to have said “up until now there has been no or little air-to-air threat, but the situation has changed and we need to respond accordingly”.
An MOD spokesperson said: "There is no truth to this story."
Russia had summoned Britain’s defence attache in Moscow to explain reports that RAF pilots had been authorised to shoot down Russian aircraft in the Middle East, the Foreign Office says.
The Foreign Office said the reports, over the weekend, had been inaccurate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/13/2016
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#1
I can't imagine anything in Syria worth going to war with Russia over.
I think the original intent was to replace Assad with a MoBro to, along with a MoBro Egypt, put pressure on Israel, have Netenyahu lose the election, and give rise to a Paleo state, Peace in Our Time and Legacy, leftists put a kewpie on the mantel.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Scores of Islamist forces of Evil were killed and maimed as the Syrian Army, aided by allied force, seized several parts of Sheikh Sa'eed District of southern Aleppo. Pro-government sources reported that several hardline forces of Evil have been captured alive by government forces inside the recently captured district.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2016
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[Breitbart] France's President Hollande has admitted that his country has a problem with Islam and has warned that France’s national symbol could one day be a woman in a burka. He has also questioned the patriotism of French football stars of Middle Eastern descent.
His comments have been revealed via a new book titled A President Should Not Say That... The book details 61 private conversations Hollande held with Le Monde journalists Gerard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme between 2012, shortly after the President's election, and this year.
The comments reveal that Hollande has changed his mind on mass migration into France during his tenure, admitting "I think there are too many arrivals," the Daily Mail has reported.
And on France's Muslim population, one of the largest in Europe, the President is said to have commented: "It's true there's a problem with Islam, it's true. It's not in doubt."
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.
Amal Clooney nearly caused an international incident at the Iraqi UN Mission of Iraq in Manhattan when she lectured the ambassador on Islamic State and showed up with an unauthorized camera crew.
[Free Beacon] The Washington Post fact checker team gave President Obama "Four Pinocchios" for claiming that his administration fired "a whole bunch of people" who were in charge of facilities at the Department of Veterans Affairs since the VA scandal began in 2014, determining that the statement was completely false.
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Municipality of Tehran and Metropolis, the World Association of Major Metropolises, signed an agreement in Iran's capital on Sunday to boost mutual cooperation in various fields.
[Tolo News] The Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Wednesday criticized the recent remarks made by first Vice President Abdul Rashid 
Left-wing UK activists have slammed the Stop the War coalition (STWc) over its refusal to heed a call by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to protest Russian air strikes on Syria.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] The Russian air force has intensified its raids on neighbourhoods in eastern Aleppo after attacks carried out by the Syrian regime’s forces aimed at recapturing southern neighbourhoods in besieged eastern Aleppo failed. Opposition forces also recaptured most of the sites that the regime advanced on and the attacks suggest that the Syrian regime and Russia are attempting “to put pressure on the civilian population to get out of Aleppo” according to what an opposition source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
