Russia is expected to sail its only aircraft carrier through the English Channel later this month amid strained relations between London and Moscow over the Syria crisis.
Royal Navy chiefs and their Nato allies are drawing up plans to escort up to eight Russian warships
...including an ocean-going tug...
which are due to leave port imminently to join the country’s air strike campaign against Syrian rebels.
Admirals believe the Kremlin will use the voyage as an opportunity for a show of strength as it passes Britain, and expect the carrier’s aircraft to launch flying drills off the British and French coasts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/15/2016
11:10 ||
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#1
They will need air-cover, hopefully the RAF is up to the task. I mean it's shades of the channel dash. You know.. On 2nd thought meet them with fire-fight tugs and fireworks, maybe a royal barge with a band. The English could do this, ring the bells along the route? Hell yes, invite to Portsmith for a tour of the Victory, give them a Peek at the Queen Elizabeth and a good dinner.
I'm sorry this song sounds so smutty,
But skippers, stay close to your buddy!
He'll help you with plugging
(and maybe some tugging)
When littoral combat gets muddy.
The Egyptian Air-force assaulted a number of Islamic State positions based in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday in response to a deadly terror attack carried out by the terrorist organization the previous day, according to Channel 10.
The Egyptian military reportedly killed over 100 ISIS fighters in the excursion while destroying outposts and armories belonging to the militants in a three hour attack, Channel 10 citing an Egyptian military spokesperson reported.
Impressive.
Cairo targeted the terror organization after Islamist militants killed 12 members of Egypt's military in North Sinai province and wounded six more in an attack on a checkpoint on Friday, the military said, adding that it killed 15 militants in return.
If they knew where the bad guys were, why did they wait to be attacked?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
10/15/2016
10:07 ||
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[Reuters] Around 55 people were killed in Iraq in attacks on Saturday that targeted a Shi'ite Muslim gathering, a police check-point and the family of a Sunni paramilitary leader opposed to Islamic State, according to security and medical sources.
The escalation comes as Iraqi forces are getting ready to launch an offensive to take back Mosul, the last Iraqi city still under control of Islamic State, in northern Iraq.
The heaviest toll was caused by a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive vest in the middle of a Shi'ite gathering in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding 33.
The explosion went off inside a tent filled with people taking part in Shi'ite Ashura rituals, which mourn the killing of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein in the 7th century.
Islamic State claimed the attack in an online statement.
Some people were also in the tent to mourn the death of a local resident, authorities said. The tent was set up in a crowded market in the city's northern al-Shaab district.
Gunmen believed to belong to Islamic State, a Sunni group, earlier in the day staged two attacks north of Baghdad, one targeting a police check-point and the other the house of a Sunni militia chief who supports the government, police sources said.
Eight policemen were killed and 11 others wounded in the first attack which took place Mutaibija, south of the city of the city of Tikrit, while the militants had three dead in their ranks.
In the second, the wife and three children of Numan al-Mujamaie, the leader of the Ishaqi Mobilization militia, were killed when gunmen stormed his house in the town of Ishaq in his absence.
The assailants fled, chased by security forces, and later killed themselves by detonating explosive belts, police said.
[Chicago Tribune] Excerpt - "He seems to ignore their advice," Hayden said. "Why would you assume this would change when he is in office?"
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Several former intelligence officials interviewed this week believe that Trump is either willfully disputing intelligence assessments, has a blind spot on Russia, or perhaps doesn't understand the nonpartisan traditions and approach of intelligence professionals.
#1
Interesting assessment General Hayden. Would you care to comment on President Obama's interest in the 'President's Daily Breifing (PBD)' conducted by the CIA?
Has President Obama's attention to the PDB "changed" since he came into office? Feedback from the CIA is rather lacking in this regard. Enlighten us if you would.
..."or perhaps [Trump} doesn't understand the nonpartisan traditions and approach of intelligence professional."
Please sir, let me give you a quick mental image of DNI Jim Clapper, testifying before congress. Would the response to tragic events in Benghazi shed any light on the "nonpartisan traditions and approach of intelligence professionals ?"
Trump doesn't accept the advice of the intelligence agencies? That's the friggin story? C'mon, give me a break.
The story is what is contained in those DNC files--however they were obtained. The files show the collusion between the press, government, and Hillary's campaign to rig the election against Sanders as well as the Pubs. Why the hell would one believe anything coming from the Federal government at this point in time? Thought Hayden was a Hillary supporter.
#12
Also, I would like to nominate "the nonpartisan traditions and approach of intelligence professionals" as Snark of the Day.
Posted by SteveS
Ditto SteveS. I had to read it two or three times before I could believe it. The graphic is from Powell's 5 Feb 2003 'WMD Trailor' presentation at the UN. That's Director Tenet seated directly behind Powell. I'm not faulting Powell, he didn't prepare the PPT's. My point is, the Klingons knew full well the trailers had nothing to do with WMD.
[Fox] "The next step in this is going to be the need to use deadly force against the Iranians. I think it’s coming, it’s going to be a maritime confrontation and if it doesn’t happen immediately, I’ll bet you a dollar it’s going to be happening after the presidential election, whoever is elected."
--Admiral Stavridis on why a deadly confrontation with Iran is coming sooner or later
Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, joined Kilmeade & Friends to discuss the latest on the growing hostilities between the U.S., Iran & Yemen and why the next step is to use deadly force against the Iranians. Plus, Stavridis explains why we need to confront Russia in the cyber world and be more than defensive by showing the Russians we will not be a piñata.
#2
I’ll bet you a dollar it’s going to be happening after the presidential election, whoever is elected."
That statement surely involved a virtual Kilimanjaro of mental contemplation. Admiral, can I call you Jim? Yes, let me introduce you to State Dept spokesperson John Kirby. Perhaps you two know one another. Great minds and all of that.
[AnNahar] Raising tensions with Iraq ahead of the planned U.S.-backed operation by Iraqi troops to retake djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... from 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.... (IS) jihadists, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is seeking to have its say over who controls and lives in the city once the gunnies are ousted.
Ruled for nearly half a millennium by the Ottoman Empire, Mosul is considered by mainly Sunni Moslem Turkey to be part of its natural sphere of influence in the Middle East.
Ankara is watching uneasily the potential involvement of Shiite and Kurdish militia in the offensive, insisting that Mosul must keep its Sunni Arab Moslem majority as before IS took over the city from woefully unprepared Iraqi troops in 2014.
Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has in turn reacted angrily to the presence of hundreds of Turkish troops on its territory, ostensibly with the aim of training Iraqi troops to retake the city.
The tensions prompted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... to launch an attack on Iraqi Premier Haider al-Abadi that was venomous even by his sharp standards, telling the Iraqi leader to "know your place" and even saying "you are not at my level."
Not to be outdone, Abadi hit back by mocking Erdogan's appearance on FaceTime to rouse supporters on the night of the failed July 15 coup.
- 'Say in the future' -
Erdogan "is concerned about the future ethnic and sectarian composition of Mosul and its environs, and wants to make sure Kurds and Shiites don't get an upper hand," said Aykan Erdemir of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Turkey has appeared hugely sensitive to any notion it has been left out of the decision-making process ahead of what is likely to be the biggest battle yet in the fight against IS.
According to the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... , the city still has a population of one million. Aid groups have warned hundreds of thousands could flee at the start of the operation.
Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey wanted to take part in the operation but would engage a "plan B or plan C" if it was turned down. He did not expand on the nature of the plans.
"Ankara does not want to be left out of the equation in Iraq. Erdogan is trying to make sure that he has a say in the future of the affairs in Mosul as well as Iraq," said Erdemir.
Erdemir said that after training Sunni militia to prepare for the liberation of Mosul, Ankara feared Baghdad would back Shiite militia as a key element in the planned offensive.
- 'Day after Mosul' -
Turkey is wary of seeing a similar picture emerging as in Syria, where the United States chose a Kurdish militia detested by Ankara as its prime ally on the ground in the fight against IS.
Ankara sees the Syrian People's Protection Units (YPG) as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought the Turkish state for decades and has its rear bases in northern Iraq.
"Erdogan is preparing for the day after Mosul," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.
"Ankara realizes that Iraq will be a weak state and they want a zone of influence in northern Iraq to protect Turkey from instability coming from Iraq."
"Ankara wants to prevent the PKK from taking territory, taking advantage of a vacuum after ISIS," he added.
- 'Same mistakes' -
Before the emergence of IS in Iraq, Turkey had major ambitions for Mosul, opening a vast consulate but then finding its entire 49 strong staff was taken hostage by the jihadists in June 2014.
The hostages were later freed in September 2015 amid murky circumstances and, symbolically, the consulate building was destroyed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike in April 2016.
But Burhanettin Duran of the Foundation for Political Economic and Social Research (SETA) said that the United States risked making the same mistakes of poor post-conflict planning that marked its occupation of Iraq.
"The U.S. is on the brink of a new mistake," he said, saying that by siding with the Iraqi government the United States was effectively backing Baghdad's Shiite Iranian allies.
"Omitting Turkey from the Iraqi agenda or placing the country into a secondary position due to the pressure from Iran will not create a new and peaceful Iraq."
#1
Mosul is considered by mainly Sunni Moslem Turkey to be part of its natural sphere of influence in the Middle East.
So much for the idea of sovereign nations that you can consider cities in other nations to be part of your sphere of influence. I assume then that Montreal is within the US sphere of influence. This could open whole new vistas for organizing the plebs and proles.
[Ynet] Three Turkish soldiers were killed and 12 were maimed on Friday when three separate roadside kabooms hit military vehicles in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's largely Kurdish southeast, security sources said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the sources said Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) faceless myrmidons were suspected of having planted the bombs.
The bomb which killed the three soldiers was set on a road between the provinces of Diyarbakir and Mardin. The two others were in the provinces of Van and Hakkari and maimed 12 soldiers, two of them critically, the sources said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/15/2016
06:55 ||
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[AnNahar] Assailants on Friday fired at least two rockets near the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, striking a depot used by a fishing company, news reports said. No one was hurt in the attack.
Dogan news agency said the rockets were fired from a mountainous area near a highway linking Antalya and the town of Kemer. The target of the attack may have been tanker truck carrying fuel, the agency said.
Several ambulances and fire-fighting trucks were sent to the scene, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Antalya, Dogan reported.
The motive of the attack in an area that is a major tourist destination was not known.
The Antalya governor's office confirmed that an kaboom had occurred in the area and said an investigation was launched.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has been rocked by a spate of deadly attacks 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 forces of Evil or Kurdish rebels.
The country is still reeling from a failed military coup in July, blamed on the followers of U.S.-based Moslemholy manFethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... Earlier reports said the target may have been a tanker ship moored at sea.
[AnNahar] The General Security and the Army Intelligence were able to arrest two would-be jacket wallahs who had plans to blow themselves up at two religious locations in the southern suburbs of Beirut, As Safir daily reported on Friday.
One of the bombers was jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! by the General Security on October 5 at the Cola area in Beirut. During investigation, he confessed that he had been preparing to blow himself up within two days (Friday, October 7) inside one of the biggest mosques in Dahiyeh during Friday prayers, according to the daily.
The Army Intelligence arrested the second would-be suicide bomber.
It was clear to the Sherlocks that the handler of the two would-be suicide bombers was the same person -- an 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.... "emir" in Syria's Raqa city -- and that he dispatched them at the same interval.
However the would-be bombers had no contact with each other, although they received the orders from the same handler, added As Safir.
At the same time, it was revealed that two groups provided the culprits with logistical support. They secured their transportation means and residence in Leb until the date of bombing.
Moreover, on Thursday at dawn, the General Security arrested in the area of Bhamdoun a group of eight people inside a warehouse that contained explosives and ammunition.
The warehouse belonged to a man who swore allegiance to the 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 and who acted like a weapons trader.
He opted for selling ammunition and weapons to relatively every terrorist organization, said As Safir. The patrol found explosives and a FlyCam capable of carrying a small bomb.
The warehouse owner confessed during interrogation that he was selling explosives to several terrorist organizations, including the IS.
"If only you came yesterday, you would have found six FlyCams equipped with kabooms," five of which were sold to al-Nusra, he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/15/2016
06:55 ||
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#2
The immediate firstgen active defense is apparently the full choke 3in 12 gauge with long range estate loads. The nextgen passive defense probably is a regional jammer with coverage that exceeds blast radius.
[AnNahar] Iran has tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! 11 people on suspicion of planning suicide kabooms on behalf of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and seized large quantities of explosives, local media reported on Friday.
It was the latest in a series of alleged plots by the Sunni forces of Evil uncovered in Shiite Iran which has been a major supporter of the campaign against them in neighboring Iraq.
"Eleven people were arrested and the terrorist group dismantled," General Ahmad-Ali Goudarzi, who heads the security forces in the southern province of Fars, was quoted as saying.
"Dozens of cars and cycle of violences, as well as 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives, were seized."
The Mehr news agency quoted the province's deputy governor as saying those arrested were believed to be members of IS.
The jihadist group regards Shiites as apostates and has carried out numerous attacks against Shiite civilians in both Iraq and Syria.
Iran's powerful intelligence and security service have so far managed to shield the country from similar attacks, but they have reported a marked increase in alleged plots in recent months.
In June, the intelligence ministry said it had thwarted a jihadist plot to carry out dozens of kabooms across the capital Tehran.
Several other arrests and festivities with Death Eaters were reported over the summer.
On October 4, General Mohammad Pakpour, land forces commander for the elite Revolutionary Guards, said 12 "counter-revolutionary terrorists" had been killed trying to enter Iran's western province of Kermanshah from neighboring Iraq.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/15/2016
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#1
Commissioner Schulkin hasn't exactly reinvented penicillin, but I thought the giggly snowflake interviewer was entertaining. Goading him to admit that he was somehow a closet pub, quite interesting.
With 29, only Texas at 38 and California at 55 have more electoral votes than NY. California is obviously no longer an issue. Texas is trending Blue. Anyone doubt the value to the Democratic party of illegal immigration, Muslim immigration, or tens of thousands of Syrian refugees ?
[Breitbart] An internal audit commissioned by the Clinton Foundation in 2011 revealed that the Clinton's family charity may have misled the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) when it claimed, under penalty of perjury, that it was enforcing a policy against conflicts of interest.
The audit -- apparently requested by Chelsea Clinton, revealed by Wikileaks, and posted by the Daily Caller -- was conducted by the law firm Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett. It addressed deficiencies in the Clinton Foundation's structure and oversight, including the potential for conflicts of interest due to the Hillary Clinton's role as Secretary of State.
The auditors noted that "some interviewees reported conflicts of those raising funds or donors, some of whom may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gifts." They also flagged a potential problem in the charity’s IRS filing:
... the IRS Form 990, which is signed under penalties of perjury and is publicly available, asks (a) whether the Foundation has a written conflict-of-interest policy, (ii) whether directors, officers, and key employees are required to annually disclose interests that could give rise to conflicts of interest, and (iii) whether the Foundation regularly and consistently monitors and enforces compliance with its conflict-of- interest policy. The Foundation indicated on its 2010 Form 990 that it has a written conflict-of- interest policy, requires annual disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, and monitors and enforces compliance with the policy. However, we did not find evidence of that enforcement.
The auditors concluded with a recommendation (original emphasis): We recommend that the Foundation establish a gift acceptance policy and procedures to ensure that all donors are properly vetted and that no inappropriate quid pro quos are offered to donors in return for contributions.
However, a report compiled in August 2013 on the internal review, published on the Clinton Foundation's website, implies that the new gift acceptance policy and procedures had not yet been adopted. Hillary Clinton had already left the State Department earlier that year.
#1
Remember that with the Clinton's 'intent' matters. Nothing to see here just another interesting oversight, mistake, no big deal, isn't there worse crimes....
[Zero Hedge] Even the Wall Street Journal is now fed up with the biased media coverage of the 2016 Presidential election as revealed by a scathing article written by Kimberly Strassel, a member of their editorial board. As Strassel points out, it's almost impossible to turn on the TV without hearing about Trump's "lewd" comments while coverage of Hillary "uniformly ignores the flurry of bombshells" inherent in the various WikiLeaks, FOIA releases and FBI interviews.
Con't.
#7
She and Obean did send the guy who made the video to jail for about a year. Dinesh D'Souza did some time in prison also. In the U.S., the left likes to call it re-education unless you are deemed an "irredeemable."
#9
The media likes two thin gs: new and juicy.
Sex always sells. New sex stories sell even better.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 16:23
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#10
Well now, reasonable people can agree, sins is a very strong word. I suggest involuntary mis-steps or Oopsies, which is less hurtful and non-sexist (I think).
[Wash Times] The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a coalition of pro-life pregnancy centers on Friday, upholding a California law that requires them to refer patients to publicly funded contraception and abortion services, even if doing so violates their moral and religious beliefs. The Crown shall decide who lives and who dies.
The decision upheld a lower court ruling saying California law AB 775, or the FACT Act, does not violate the First Amendment rights of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and two other faith-based nonprofits.
Matt Bowman, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the appellants, called the decision a "clear violation" of constitutionally protected rights to freedom of speech and religious expression.
"It’s bad enough if the government tells you what you can’t say, but a law that tells you what you must say--under threat of severe punishment--is even more unjust and dangerous," Mr. Bowman said in a statement. "In this case, political allies of abortionists are seeking to punish pro-life pregnancy centers, which offer real hope and help to women."
"Forcing these centers to promote abortion and recite the government’s preferred views is a clear violation of their constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms," he continued. "That’s why other courts around the country have halted these kinds of measures and why we will be discussing the possibility of appeal with our clients.
Con't.
#1
Surely, this is not the end to this litigation. However, should Clinton win and name the next Supreme Court justice another foundation stone of our democracy will be chipped away.
Farah Police Chief Mohammad Ghaws Malyar on Friday said more than 150 insurgents were killed in military operation carried out by security forces in parts of the province.
He said the army's Special Forces were on the frontline of the battle and Taliban militants are retreating from northern parts of the city.
"Over 150 militants were killed in security forces military operation in northern parts of the city. Most of them were killed in Posht Rod district when the army helicopters targeted a hideout of the Taliban," Malyar said.
He added security forces have closed the ways to prevent insurgents from leaving the province.
Meanwhile, a number of Farah residents welcomed the security forces' efforts at a gathering in the province.
"We really appreciate the efforts of the security forces and all those who have taken part in defending our soil and have stood against terrorists," said Dadullah Qane, member of Farah Provincial Council.
Meanwhile, security forces in Farah urged the displaced families to return to their homes.
"As a soldier, I will defend Farah and my entire country. I am ready to ensure the safety of its residents. As a result of our efforts, all militants were pushed back from the city," said Mohammad, a soldier.
An explosion rocked Kabul city late on Thursday evening leaving at least one person dead and two others wounded, security officials said Friday.
The incident took place in Karte Naw area of the city located in the 8th police district after a magnetic bomb was detonated.
The security officials in Kabul are saying that the bomb was planted in a vehicle belonging to the traffic police and a driver of the traffic department was killed.
The officials further added that two civilians were also wounded in the explosion and the Ranger vehicle was destroyed.
No group including the Taliban militants has so far claimed responsiblity behind the incident.
This comes as back to back coordinated attacks rocked Kabul city on Wednesday night, leaving at least 18 people dead and scores of others wounded.
The first incident took place in a shrine in Karte Sakhi area of the city as hundreds of people had gathered to mark the Ashura day.
The second incident took place hours after the first blast after a number of gunmen stormed a mosque where the Ashura mourners had gathered.
The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group claimed responsibility behind the attack.
[AnNahar] A Pak Taliban-trained turban leader was behind deadly attacks in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine state that have sparked a military crackdown and sent thousands of terrified residents fleeing the area, Myanmar's president said Friday.
A little-known group called the Aqa Mul Mujahidin carried out the border post raids on Sunday that left nine coppers dead, the presidency said in a statement, linking it to a Rohingya turban outfit called the RSO experts have long considered defunct.
Its leader spent six months training with the Taliban in Pakistain and received funding from unspecified organizations in the Middle East, the statement added.
"The leader of the group is Hafiz Tohar, 45, from Kyauk Pyin Seik village, in Maungdaw township," said the statement, according to an English translation of the name from Burmese.
"He studied with the Taliban for six months in Pakistain."
Troops have poured into restive northern Rakhine since Sunday's raids, locking down an area where most residents are from Myanmar's persecuted Moslem Rohingya minority.
At least 26 civilians have died in the ensuing skirmishes -- rights groups say the army has been gunning down unarmed Rohingya on the streets, but the army says troops have been defending themselves against attackers.
Details of the killings and the ensuing lockdown by the military have proved difficult to confirm on the remote and tightly controlled area.
A front man purporting to represent the RSO has vigorously denied any links to the border raids in a statement sent to AFP.
- Hundreds of gunnies -
The violence has raised the specter of sectarian unrest in 2012 that ripped the impoverished state apart, leaving more than 100 dead and driving tens of thousands of Rohingya into squalid displacement camps.
Families have been streaming out of Maungdaw on foot, their worldly possessions stuffed into carrier bags and plastic buckets or strapped to the front of bicycle rickshaws.
Around 180 teachers, workers and residents were also airlifted out of the region on Thursday, while hundreds of government staff have poured into the state capital Sittwe.
AFP spoke to witnesses on Friday in Warpaik, a village close to where the first border post was raided and where the military said they discovered flags and scarves bearing the RSO logo the previous day.
One elderly resident, who asked not to be named for her safety, described being set upon by hundreds of gunnies: "About 500 or 600 people attacked in three places," she said.
"About 40 of us ran up a nearby hill with the children. We got hurt because we slipped and fell down as we ran," she said, showing injuries on her foot.
"They were shooting with guns. They only bravely ran away when soldiers arrived. If soldiers hadn't come, we would have all been killed."
- 'Jihad videos' -
She identified the attackers from videos that have been circulating on social media that appear to show a group of armed Rohingya men calling for Moslems around the world to rise up in jihad in support of their cause.
The three unverified videos, all shot in what appear to be rice fields and bamboo jungles similar to the landscapes along the Myanmar and Bangladesh border, have sparked concern that some from the hitherto largely peaceful group may be becoming radicalized.
The Rohingya's plight has long been a rallying call for international jihadist organizations including the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and Pakistain's Taliban, but there has been little evidence that jihadist ideology has taken root among them.
"The videos appear to be entirely authentic," said Anthony Davis, a security analyst with IHS-Jane's, pointing out the front man was using the Rohingya's Chittagong dialect of Bengali and carrying weapons like those authorities say were used in the border guard raids.
"The footage shows what appear to be a rabble of typical Rohingya youths -- poorly dressed, ill-equipped and apparently untrained."
An aide of Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, did not confirm whether the videos were real, but said the government "doesn't feel worried" about it.
The violence in Rakhine has posed a challenge to her newly elected government, which took power in March from a military junta that ruled the country for 50 years.
Facing international criticism for not doing more to help the Rohingya, she recently appointed a commission led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... to investigate Rakhine's troubles.
Investigators believe the Florence woman arrested on charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism was helping her husband, a radicalized member of the Islamic faith who is serving a life prison for first-degree murder, with a plot to murder a warden.
FBI agents arrested Michelle Bastian, 49, Wednesday morning at her workplace, a bakery in Chandler called Urban Oven where she was a bookkeeper. They also served search warrants at her Florence home.
According to court paperwork released Thursday, this investigation goes back to May when "a known source" reported to the Arizona Department of Corrections that Thomas Bastian, Michelle's husband, was a believer in Islam and had become radicalized. In September, the same source told the FBI that Thomas "was planning to create an explosive device in order to kill people, to include the prison warden."
According to court paperwork, the source's information was corroborated by evidence discovered during a search of Thomas' cell In his cell?! Is there no longer incarceration censorship?
including a publication called Inspire, which is put out by al-Qaida, and another called Dabiq, which is distributed by ISIS.
"The objective of these publications is to provide detailed instruction on how to commit acts of terrorism and to praise those that have successfully carried out attacks," the arrested officer wrote. "Located within a stack of detailed handwritten notes on how to construct an explosive device were several pages from an issue of Inspire that contained information on how to construct a bomb out of materials found in "your mothers kitchen."
The mail made it past prison security because it was labeled as "legal mail.'"
Mustafa Mohammad al-Amri, Notorious commander of Fatah al-Sham Front (the newly-formed al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group previously known as the al-Nusra Front), and 11 of his men were killed in heavy clashes with the Syrian government forces in al-Sa'an region in Northern Homs province.
On Thursday, the Syrian fighter jets launched heavy airstrikes on terrorists' positions in Northern Homs, inflicting heavy damages and death toll on the militants.
The air force inflicted heavy losses on the terrorists and destroyed their check points, centers and machinegun-equipped vehicles in the villages and towns of al-Waz’iya, Deir Foul, al-Saan al-Aswad, al-Rastan and to the North of al-Ghanto in Northern Homs.
On Wednesday, the Syrian fighter jets carried out fresh rounds of combat flights over concentration centers of ISIL and Fatah al-Sham Front (the newly-formed al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group previously known as the al-Nusra Front) in Northern and Eastern Homs, inflicting tens of casualties on the militants.
Syrian warplanes bombed heavily Fatah al-Sham's defense lines in Talbiseh, Kafr Laha and Tal Zahab, claiming the lives of tens of militants.
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Thousands of Iraqi security personnel guarded areas in and around Karbala to protect hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims flocking to the shrine city for annual mourning rituals.
Shia in Iraq have come under frequent attack by Wahhabi terrorists of ISIS who regard them as heretics and who still control some territory in Anbar province, to the west of Karbala, though attacks in the city itself are rare.
Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, is buried in Karbala, and Shia pilgrims pack the city each year for Ashura commemorations, which mark his martyrdom in the 7th century.
"Our forces from the army and local and federal police took strict security measures culminating today to protect pilgrims in and around Karbala," police spokesman Colonel Alaa al-Ghanimi said.
"Forces from the Hashed al-Shaabi have implemented security measures to control areas in the west of Karbala province," Ghanimi said, referring to an umbrella organization for pro-government militiamen.
According to Ghanimi, some 30,000 security personnel are taking part in efforts to guard the city and its surroundings. Ghanimi said there had been no security breaches so far, and while ISIS frequently targets Shia in Baghdad and elsewhere, Karbala is usually much more secure.
The number of pilgrims participating in the Ashura commemorations is expected to be huge, with Karbala deputy governor Ali al-Mayali saying it was expected to reach three million. Some 250,000 pilgrims have arrived over the past two days, Mayali said.
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[LI] I mostly missed the Ken Bone phenomenon. I either wasn't watching or wasn't listening when he asked a question at the last presidential debate.
He then became a media darling, though I'm not really sure why. Something to do with his red sweater, apparently. And the fact that after the debate he said he started off leaning towards Trump, but was impressed with and considering Hillary.
It was a perfect pro-Clinton media meme, common guy journalists otherwise would mock becomes cool because he moves from Trump to Hillary; a good example for the common folk to hear about.
Bone then sought to cash in, selling a version of his red sweater and doing other stuff to make a buck and promote himself.
Then he got boned.
By the same media that loved him, but I suspect never really accepted the conversion from Trumpist to "I’m with her" enthusiast.
The pretext was an Ask Me Anything (AMA) forum at Reddit. During the AMA Bone used his prior username, rather than creating a new one, and in searches it turned up that some of this comments at Reddit in the past were about .... sex.
CNN was on the case almost as quickly as Donna Brazile forwarded that town hall question to the Clinton team, Ken Bone leaves seedy comment trail on Reddit:
Con't.
The ISIS media outlets released a documentary on the biography of Bilal Zakaria Ahmed, known as Bilal al-Iraqi, one of the group's military leaders who participated in many violent attacks against the Peshmerga forces and civilians, particularly the massacre of the civilians on the Baghdad-Kirkuk road and attacking the Iraqi military bases.
Al-Iraqi was born in Sleman Bek district near Tuz Khurmatu town in southern Kirkuk province. He joined the terrorist group after it emerged in Iraq and invaded a large proportion of the Iraqi territory. The terrorist group confirmed that he was killed on December 27th, 2014,
Golly. Almost two years ago...
by the Peshmerga forces and the anti-ISIS global coalition in southern Kirkuk.
Good job, Peshmerga! That will ease the pain of the Kurdish people.
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Washington, Aden-The latest military developments in Yemen have taken a new path after the U.S. navy hit Houthi radars along the Yemeni coast.
Washington asserted on Thursday its readiness to launch new strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen if they keep attacking U.S. ships facing the country’s shores.
Through its threat, Washington was also indirectly warning Iran, which provides Yemen’s insurgents with weapons.
Speaking during a press conference in Washington, Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook said the U.S. forces knock out three positions, the U.S. thinks had played a role in launching the missiles against USS Mason on Sunday and Wednesday.
“The U.S. will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate,” Cook said.
Earlier, the Pentagon had said that the USS Mason ship had launched a number of missiles at three military positions, controlled by Houthis along the Red Sea shores.
The Pentagon added that the U.S. missiles, authorized by President Barack Obama, hit radar sites in the city of Mukha in the Taiz province, and in Khoka and Ras Isa in the Hudaydah province.
The Pentagon spokesperson said Iran was playing a role in the Yemeni crisis by helping Houthi rebels.
In an earlier warning to Tehran, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said that the U.S. Department of Defense would make sure that anybody who interferes with freedom of navigation or anybody who puts US Navy ships at risk “does so at their own peril.”
Davis added: “It’s no secret that Iran has been actively supplying them and giving them the tools of war.”
Yemeni observers told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran had provided the rebels with modern missiles capable to hit naval ships in the Yemeni ports.
On Thursday, Yemeni vice-president Lieutenant General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar condemned the attack on the U.S. ship in Bab al-Mandab. During a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller, al-Ahmar said: “This terrorist attack reveals the size of the plot that Houthis aim to serve, and which includes threatening neighboring countries and the international community.”
He said that threatening international fleets is an unacceptable violation that will be faced by the Arab Coalition.
Yemeni observers said that the attack on the U.S. navy aims to push Washington into the ongoing war between Houthis and the National Army, which is supported by the Arab Coalition. The observers said that by shoving the U.S. into the war, Houthis plan to assert their claims that Washington was involved in the Yemeni war.
#1
US has NO legitimate allies in the M.E.. Israel is hated by the US Regime and Iran is loved by Valjar and Obie but hated by the American people. Syria has just given Putin a permanent warm water naval base, Tartus, Syria per the following news release, not even covered by the US media.
Президент РФ Владимир Путин подписал закон, ратифицирующий соглашение о размещении российской авиации в Сирии. Об этом сообщили в пресс-службе Кремля. Соглашение о размещении военной авиации в Сирии бессрочное и применяется с момента его подписания. Военную операцию в Сирии Россия проводит с сентября 2015 года. Основные пункты базирования российских военных - авиабаза Хмеймим и пункт материально-технического обеспечения флота в Тартусе, который также станет постоянной военно-морской базой.
#2
"Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law ratifying the agreement on the deployment of Russian aviation in Syria. This was reported in the press-service of the Kremlin. Agreement on the deployment of military aircraft in Syria indefinitely and applied from the time of its signing. Military operations in Syria, Russia is pursuing since September 2015. The main points of the Russian military bases - an air base Hmeymim and paragraph logistics fleet in Tartus, which will also become a permanent naval base."
Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Friday, a monitor said, as world powers prepared for new talks on a ceasefire.
“Very intense air raids targeted several neighborhoods from dawn until mid-morning,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He had no immediate word on casualties.
Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, a spokesman for the White Helmets rescue force in Aleppo, said that air raids had battered the city and its outskirts overnight but had calmed by 11:00am (0800 GMT).
“There are still people stuck under the rubble in (the opposition-held district of) Tariq al-Bab and the rescuers are working to get them out,” Abu al-Leith told AFP.
Syria’s military had said earlier this month that it would reduce bombardment of eastern parts of the city to allow civilians to leave, but strikes have intensified again this week and left dozens dead.
More than 370 people, including nearly 70 children, have been killed in regime and Russian bombardment of east Aleppo since government forces announced a landmark offensive to take the entire city on September 22.
An estimated 250,000 people still live in eastern parts of Aleppo, under opposition control since mid-2012.
Switching forces
Duhok – Militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) evacuated on Friday their headquarters in Tel Afar District in northern Iraq.
The group has withdrawn from the city of Tel Afar and other parts of Nineveh Governorate, including the towns of A’nna, Rawah and al-Qaim.
“Dozens of ISIS military vehicles have left Tel Afar carrying weapons and militants. Most of the vehicles headed to the Syrian border,” local media activist Adel al-Jabouri told ARA News.
Informed sources reported that major ISIS headquarters in Tel Afar and its suburb were seen empty on Friday.
The evacuated positions included offices of the al-Hisba Police department, Sharia Court buildings, jihadi training camps and weapons’ storage centres.
Furthermore, ISIS militants have bombed the Tel Afar Hospital before withdrawing from the area. “The hospital’s building has been destroyed completely. The group bombed it by detonating a large deal of explosives,” al-Jabouri reported.
“By evacuating those parts of Nineveh, ISIS is trying to avoid further losses under coalition’s airstrikes,” the head of Nineveh media centre Raafat al-Zarari told ARA News.
“ISIS is mainly focused on the battle for Mosul at the moment, considering the evacuated locations of a less strategic importance,” he said.
In the meantime, the US-led coalition said it will continue to attack ISIS in Mosul. “[ISIS] shows no sign of really trying to leave Mosul at this point. Really, what they’ve done is they’ve continued to dig in, build elaborate defenses and so we’re really ready for a tough fight there,” Colonel Dorrian, a coalition spokesman said.
Last week, Abu Azzam al-Muhajir, an ISIS militant from Saudi Arabia, told ARA News there are at least 7,000 militants “ready to defend Mosul.”
“Also, there are still 500,000 civilians living in Mosul, and they will not accept [their] return to the central government’s authority and rule by the Shia,” al-Muhajir said.
An ISIS source told ARA News that group has cordoned all the roads to Nineveh Governorate and has completed almost 80 percent of their field works around Mosul. Those field works include a row of trenches, which are reportedly filled with crude oil. The trenches can be set alight to obscure visibility. ISIS has also erected concrete barriers near neighborhood entrances and key road junctures.
Local officials in Helmand on Friday said Lashkargah city, the provincial capital, is faced with serious security threats and that they need more reinforcements to secure the southern city.
"It is difficult to defeat the insurgents if more troops are not deployed to the city, because right now the war has intensified in most parts of the city," said Karim Atal, head of Helmand Provincial Council.
A security source told TOLOnews that due to a lack of coordination among Afghan security forces, U.S troops have taken the war leadership in Helmand. However, local officials have rejected the claim.
Meanwhile, a number of displaced families in Helmand said they are facing with an unknown fate.
"The residents who are hosting the displaced families are in trouble. Nearly 10 to 20 families are living in one house. Children are going through difficult times. Believe me, tonight I have not slept even for a single minutes," said Jalat Khan, member of a displaced family in Helmand.
"All people have left. You will not find a home with residents here," said Mir Hamza, another displaced person in the province.
Meanwhile, Abdul Jabbar Qahraman, head of military operations in Helmand said they need only one week to defeat the insurgents in the province.
"As a general, I have assessed the dimensions of the war and the abilities of the enemy. Remember that from now on, I will need only seven days to end the conflicts in Helmand," he stated.
He added: "After this, anyone, any commander and any policeman who leave their position, will be treated based on the law," said Abdul Rahman Saber, head of police operations in Helmand.
[Ynet] ISIS has crushed a rebellion plot in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , led by one of the group's commanders who aimed to switch sides and help deliver the caliphate's Iraqi capital to government forces, residents and Iraqi security officials said.
ISIS executed 58 people suspected of taking part in the plot after it was uncovered last week. Residents, who spoke to Rooters from some of the few locations in the city that have phone service, said the plotters were killed by drowning and their bodies were buried in a mass grave in a wasteland on the outskirts of the city.
Among them was a local aide of ISIS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... , who led the plotters, according to matching accounts given by five residents, by Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on ISIS affairs that advises the government in Baghdad and by colonel Ahmed al-Taie, from Mosul's Nineveh province Operation Command's military intelligence.
A Mosul resident said Islamic State had appointed a new official, Muhsin Abdul Kareem Oghlu, a leader of a sniper unit with a reputation as a die-hard, to assist its governor of Mosul, Ahmed Khalaf Agab al-Jabouri, in keeping control.
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#1
Sent to me in an email, and intended as humor. Perhaps this is an example of humor masking truth:
"ISIS has a foolproof way to avoid destruction. All it has to do is make a large contribution to the Clinton Foundation."
#2
The Saudis and Russians made a big discovery after the fall of the Soviet Union: that you couldn't beat the United States the country, but you could corrupt American politicians for what amounted, in their world, to chump change. You could spent a billion dollars on some useless piece of Soviet military junk, or you could spend on a junket. The junket was more effective. - cite.
The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) confiscated at least 50 rockets and 10 mortar rounds as the militants were looking to use them for a series of attacks in western Nimroz province.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the rockets were seized during an operation in Chahar Borjak district of Nimroz on Thursday.
No further details were given regarding the arrest of any suspect during the operation.
The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.
Nimroz is among the relatively peaceful provinces in western Afghanistan but the anti-government armed militant groups are active in some remote parts of the province.
The discovery and confiscation of the rockets in Nimroz comes as the Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant during the recent months.
The group announced its spring offensive in mid-April this year and since then has staged numerous attacks across the country, including capital Kabul.
Sporadic clashes are still going in some parts of the country including the northern Baghlan and Kunduz province where the Taliban insurgents launched a major attack to take control of the strategic Kunduz city.
At least four soldiers of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) were injured in a suspected terrorist attack at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Indian-held Kashmir.
"Terrorists attacked a convoy of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in Zakura on the outskirts of Srinagar on Friday. Four jawans were reportedly injured in the attack," reported The Times of India on Friday.
According to a Hindustan Times report, security forces immediately cordoned off the area and launched search operations to track down the suspected militants.
The Arab coalition carried out a series of air strikes on positions belonging to the Houthis and military forces loyal to the former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh in the governorate of Saada.
According to the German news agency DPA, Popular Resistance sources said that coalition aircraft launched six air strikes on positions belonging to Houthis and Saleh’s forces in the two regions of Al-Souh and Al-Fir’ in the Kitaf Directorate, Saada.
The sources added that the sound of heavy explosions was heard at those sites in addition to columns of smoke rising as a result of the raids. They added that those raids coincided with the beginning of a demining operation carried out by the national army and the Popular Resistance’s forces which aims to demine the main roads surrounding the Al-Buq’ port “in preparation for the advance on the governorate of Saada”. According to sources, the “mines impede the progress of the army and the Popular Resistance towards Saada, and obstruct them from taking control of new sites”.
Furthermore, a senior military source revealed that the senior leadership of the Yemeni armed forces held lengthy meetings during the past two days to study all the options available in order to stop the rebels from targeting the Yemeni border and military targets, the latest of which was a US destroyer.
[AlManar] A special operation was carried out by the Yemeni army and popular committees in the border area of Boqa’a exit against the Saudi aggression forces, killing 40 mercenaries.
The military media circulated a video which shows the operation and broadcasts the voices of the Yemeni fighters who expressed their full readiness to defeat the Saudi aggression.
The Yemeni forces also attacked a number of Saudi military sites in Jizan, inflicted severe damages upon them.
in the context of its open criminal war against the Yemenis, Saudi escalated its air raids against the various residential areas in Yemen, causing much losses.
Yemen has been since March 26, 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition.
Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.
Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive ex-president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.
Suspected terrorists militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula attacked an army checkpoint on Friday, killing 12 soldiers and wounding eight, according to security and medical officials.
The officials said the terrorist attack took place about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the Suez Canal, near the town of Bir el-Abd, where the wounded were taken for treatment before they were ferried to the city of el-Arish to the east. A military statement confirmed the death toll, but said six troops were wounded. The military said 15 of the terrorists attackers, who arrived at the checkpoint in all-terrain vehicles, were killed and an undetermined number of others were wounded in an ensuring gun battle.
According to the officials, the terrorists militants opened fire on the checkpoint with light arms and heavy machine guns. The officials had no information on casualties among the militants.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack though it bore the hallmarks of the local affiliate of the extremist Daesh group, which is based in Sinai. Calling itself the "Emirate of Sinai," the group is leading the insurgency in the strategic region bordering Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in a brief statement later Friday that the latest attack would only strengthen Egypt's resolve to continue the "battle for building and survival."
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I confess that I'm not sure why I keep reporting these: the tit-for-tat between the Shaboobs and ANISOM likely will go on longer than the Hatfield-McCoy feud, with about as much significance to the rest of the world.
Fighters with the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al shabaab have fired several mortar rounds at AMISOM military base in Qoryoley district in Lower Shabelle region, second shelling on AU forces base in a week.
Confirming the incident, the city’s police boss Ali Aden Ali, told Radio Shabelle an AMISOM military outpost outside the town came under mortar fire from Al shabaab militants on Friday evening.
“An army base belonging to Ugandan peacekeepers serving with African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in east of Qoryoley was attacked with mortars by Al shabaab,” said the area police chief.
He added at least two civilians sustained wounds when a mortar shell fired from AMISOM base, in response to the Al shabaab attack struck their house in Qoryoley, some 120Km southwest of Mogadishu.
Qoryoley, which is a key town in southern Somalia has witnessed frequent ambush attacks since Somali and AU forces wrested its control from Al shabaab in March, 2014.
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#3
Just tracking, just like we do Mali and Israel, where I've seen the situation described as "mowing the grass." If we keep an eye on it, we'll notice when things suddenly get much worse. Or, like in Israel at the moment, when enough miscreants are locked up that not much happens until Hamas finds a new set of tools.
Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef on Thursday said “a small holocaust” was taking place in Syria.
He has a point.
Yosef, during an inter-religious meeting with Palestinian Muslim clerics hosted by President Reuven Rivlin, said the world must not be silent in the face of the atrocities taking place in the country that has been consumed by civil war since 2011.
“Every day not far from here, as we sit here, men, women and children are murdered in Syria, and particularly in Aleppo,” Yosef said during the meeting. “Millions of refugees are homeless, hundreds of thousands of others are starved, under siege. They are not our friends, but they are human beings who are suffering a small holocaust.”
Yosef said that Jews in particular, who endured the Holocaust and the murder of 6 million people as “the world looked on and remained silent,” must not do so now.
“As Jews we must not stay silent. The call must be heard from here: A genocide will not be allowed to go by quietly — not in Syria and not anywhere else, and not against any people.”
At the meeting Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders issued a call against religiously inspired violence.
Also attending the conclave at the President’s Residence, hailed as the first of its kind, was Sheikh Mahmoud Habbash, the Palestinian Supreme Sharia Court judge and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Islamic affairs adviser.
“God created life and commanded life. Therefore, we denounce the killing of innocents or any kind of aggression against the other,” said a joint statement released after the meeting.
“We believe the deliberate killing of or attempt to kill innocents is terrorism, whether it is committed by Muslims, Jews or others. In this spirit, we encourage all our people to work for a just peace, mutual respect for human life and for the status quo on the holy sites, and the eradication of religious hatred,” the statement said.
The mayor of Aleppo on Thursday also described the intense bombing campaign by the Syrian and Russian militaries as a “holocaust.” He decried the inaction of the international community to stop the killing in the war-torn city.
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#1
Awesome! Now that's some serious Deep think, I must agree.
#3
Yosef said that Jews in particular, who endured the Holocaust and the murder of 6 million people as “the world looked on and remained silent,” must not do so now.
That's only if you see Holocaust as something exceptional in human history. That is, if you're an historical illiterate. However, if you are an historical illiterate, IMO, you don't have a right to an opinion.
#6
I'm a devotee of the Golden Rule, Shipman. And, if Arabs want to kill each other - more power to them. The way I see it, every Syrian killed is one less AK-47 pointed at my son's head.
An increasing number of North Koreans are defecting from Russia where some 20,000 of them labor in often inhuman conditions, a source said Tuesday.
The source said about a dozen North Korean workers at a single construction site in Russia have recently told South Korean authorities that they want to defect. Altogether some 40 North Koreans including loggers in Siberia have defected and are staying in a shelter in Russia.
Workers typically escape in groups of three or four. They are reportedly motivated by appalling working conditions and relentless pressure from the North Korean regime to cough up more hard currency.
Another source in China said since the severe flooding of the Duman River last month, the regime has been forcing workers overseas to donate US$100 to 150 each to a flood relief fund. "This kind of extortion is causing more North Korean workers overseas to defect," the source added.
Most of the North Koreans in China and Russia know about the recent defection of senior officials overseas.
"The North is sending more officials to China and Russia to keep watch on workers there, but it seems difficult for the regime to prevent expat workers from defecting," a government official here said.
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Top|| File under: Commies
Spanish and Moroccan security authorities Wednesday announced the arrest of four suspected Islamic State group militants in a joint security operation.
Two of the suspects were arrested in Spain by the country’s security forces, the interior ministry announced. The first suspect; a Spaniard of Moroccan origin, was arrested in the city of Gijon.
The second, a Moroccan citizen, was arrested at San Sebastian (Basque country). The two ISIS militants were very active in propaganda activities on social media, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The suspects indulged in promoting the group’s “military victories, social media progress and other deeds.” Besides the promotion of the victories, the two men also promoted the group’s videos acclaiming violent acts, reports further say.
The militant arrested in Gijon established a secured computer network that enabled him to evade police surveillance, the statement stressed. He used virtual telephones, some tools used by IS members to remain anonymous.
The individual arrested in the Basque country has been active in the recruitment of would-be jihadists. He actually recruited new members for the group because he was in contact with uneducated and underprivileged youths who are easy prey for the terrorist group.
The two men nabbed in Morocco were active in the Northern cities of Tetouan and Fnideq, said the Moroccan Interior Ministry in a statement. They are accused of recruiting new fighters for the terrorist group. According to the Moroccan interior ministry, the two militants had close contact with IS fighters operating in Syria and Iraq.
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Police are investigating threats made against a Dearborn mosque after it was announced online that a building which was previously a Baptist church would now be turned into the New Islamic Institute of America.
After the announcement of the change made by Imam Sayid Hassan Qaz-wini via Facebook, a woman commented a series of threats toward the new mosque.
“I live right there, I seen them working on it, I should blow it up,” said one of the posts made by the woman, who has since been identified as a 26-year-old mother who lives nearby.
The woman’s threats didn’t stop there; she went on to to post two more serious threats toward the mosque:
“Them Arabs, they need to leave America, they are slowly changing everything, it ain’t gunna be America anymore in about a year…bet,” the woman said.
Continuing on with her threats, her last post was the most shocking:
“That Arab church will be burnt down, hopefully there ain’t kids in there” she said.
The woman who made the threats later apologized online, but the threats remain shocking in nature, and possibly criminal.
“When you threaten children, it doesn’t get any lower than that” said Azzam Elder, attorney for the Amity Foundation, which recently purchased the building.
Dearborn police said they’re taking the threats seriously and the woman could face felony charges.
As you read this, let's remember the Rantburg policy about threatening the lives of Americans, any Americans, in the comments. As in, don't do it.
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#1
“When you threaten children, it doesn’t get any lower than that”
Tehran's provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Khatami condemned the Saudi regime for its continued slaughtering of the civilians in Yemen.
Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people on Tehran University campus on Friday, Ayatollah Khatami said, "The most recent Saudi crime in Yemen was horrendous; the Saudi fighter jets pounded a hall where a funeral ceremony was being held in four airstrikes with 800-kilogram bombs and killed over 400 civilians."
He reiterated that the US is helping the Riyadh government in its aggression against Yemen, and said, "The US drones are helping the Saudi regime round-the-clock."
He wished that the world of Islam would soon see the collapse of the Saudi regime.
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Unidentified gunmen on Friday opened fire on a paramilitary patrol in Quetta, killing three soldiers before fleeing the scene, officials said. The soldiers from the Frontier Corps were hit in the head while patrolling on foot in Sabzal, a neighborhood in west Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.
“Two of them died on the spot while the third succumbed to his injuries in hospital,” said Khan Wasay, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps.
Wasay said the motive for the attack was unclear, but Quetta was already on alert for the month of Muharram.
Abdul Razzaq Cheema, a senior police official, in Quetta confirmed the attack and casualties.
No group has yet claimed responsibility but Baloch separatists demanding greater autonomy have been waging an insurgency for years, and the province is also riven by sectarian strife and violence.
Separately, four people including a soldier from the Frontier Corps were wounded on Friday after intercepting a suicide bomber on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the Kurram tribal district.
Security officials said the bomber was trying to cross into Pakistan at the Kharlachi Gate, but “his attempt to create a big disaster was successfully foiled.”
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[FrontPage] If you're wondering what's going on in Yemen, Iranian backed Houthi Jihadists whose slogan is "Allah Akbar, Death to America, Death to Israel, A curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam."
The Houthis are involved in a religious war with various Sunni groups, some backed by the Saudis. Obama has kept the US hovering uncertainly around the edges of the conflict. Then the Houthis attacked US naval vessels. Did Obama's covert cash drops to Iran help make it happen, Adam Kredo at WFB asks.
Leading members of Congress suspect a portion of a recent $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran may have been used to help arm and support Yemeni terrorists who recently fired missiles on a U.S. Navy ship in the Red Sea, according to a new congressional inquiry that seeks to determine how U.S. taxpayer funds are being used by Iran to boost its global terror operation.
Iran is believed to have used a large portion of the $1.7 billion, suspected to have been paid by the United States as part of a ransom to free U.S. hostages, to fund its global terror operation and strengthen its military, according to conversations with lawmakers who told the Washington Free Beacon that U.S. taxpayer funds are likely being used to sponsor attacks on American military forces.
The weekend attack on the U.S. Navy by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels has sparked another official inquiry surrounding the cash payment to Iran, with a group of 17 senators now seeking to obtain an official assessment by the Pentagon of how Iran has allocated this cash to its military operations.
Lawmakers, led by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas), are petitioning the Pentagon to provide a full analysis of Iran’s military activity since last summer’s nuclear agreement went into effect.
Considering the likelihood that the money went to the Revolutionary Guard, the odds are good that it would have been swiftly poured into Jihadist operations, if not in Yemen, then elsewhere.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
10/15/2016
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#1
"May have" is cute. He may have rolled over in bed last night. He may have needed to pee when he got up this morning. But he DID send money to Iran...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2016 10:46
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#2
It appears or bribe $ will come back to us - with extreme prejudice.
A California university is reassuring anxious illegal immigrant students that they have nothing to fear from U.S. Border Patrol agents on campus, promising the school will refuse to enforce immigration law.
The campus-wide email was prompted by an upcoming career fair at which U.S. Customs & Border Patrol agents will be recruiting.
Last year, students protested the presence of CBP and ICE agents, heckling and harassing the officers as they tried to speak with students interested in joining the agencies.
[Guardian] A former contestant on the Apprentice, Summer Zervos, on Friday accused Donald Trump of groping or aggressively kissing her on two separate occasions in 2007, when she met the businessman in private for what she thought were going to be discussions about job opportunities.
I am dreadfully sorry folks. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I believe he's finished. Truth or fabrication, he cannot escape the burden of assumed guilt concerning these sexual abuse claims. Likewise, he cannot overcome the bias of the media, the betrayal and desertion of the republican party, an extremely low level of support in the Black and Latino communities, or a full-time POTUS/FLOTUS/Bill Clinton - HRC campaign road show. The obvious break-down of the 'Rule of Law' (Attorney General/FBI) has also negatively impacted his chances of success.
The so-called Electoral College is clearly not working in his favor. He's losing the battle for female votes, the NEA, Federal Employees Union, and other organized labor groups are queued up against him. The hard-core ROE v. Wade crowd will never support him. The anti-gun lobby and the entitlement crowd are strongly non-supportive. As an accomplished wealthy white male, Class discrimination haunts him.
I would recommend we belay the Trump bashing. I doubt any of the republican slate could have done much better, some possibly worse. There is a larger dynamic at play here, something theatrical in nature involving great sums of money and global power. It may just spell the end of our perceived democratic process.
The canary is no longer chirping and sits motionless in an egg laying position on the bottom of it's cage. If the bird were not a male, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Only divine intervention will save this race.
#1
Besoeker, sorry I disagree. Almost every other Republican would have beaten Hillary, and even Donald had the chance to do so.
We shouldn't blame it all on the media. The media actually was beginning to lick blood with all those mails, foundation corruption and health issues.
But every time the media was about to get down to business with Hillary's failures, the Donald stepped in with some stupid speech or action. And the campaign didn't stop him. They must have know that Hillary would play the sex card. Because the Hillary campaign vetted Trump much better than the Republicans.
Trump was about to take the lead before the first debate, then he walked right into the Machado trap. Had he prepared for it (and that something like this would come up was a no brainer), he could easily have saved his campaign.
He could just have said: Sorry Alicia, lo siento mucho, I know I have been a jerk sometimes, that actually came with the media career, and if you inspect my past you'll find a lot more examples of me being a jerk. That was then. IÄm glad that despite my words you turned out to be a fabulous businesswoman.
I do no longer do all those crap. I have a wonderful family, an adorable wife, and all my passion is for America.
Can I go back to explaining now what I will do if you elect me President?
That's all. And further attempts would be fruitless, because as we have seen, all the jerk stuff he did happened at least a decade ago. He doesn't do this now, obviously.
Instead he doubled and tripled down with stupid Twitter rants and interviews. He lingered in his "safe" space at Fox News (Hannity) and got fooled by his successful rallies. He saw thousands of cheering supporters and thought that these would turn into millions of voters just like that.
He completely forgot to get out the vote, to make all those traditional non-voters vote. The non-voters were his chance to win in a landslide. The blue collar men, the hardworking women.
He blew it. Bigly.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 0:52
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#2
As usual, you make some valid points EC. I must ask however, if none of the republican candidates could come even remotely close to defeating Trump in the primary, how could they possibly hope to conquer the Clinton machine ?
Whichever way the race goes, I am certain the outcome will be debated for many years.
We do 'live in interesting times.' I hope we survive them.
#4
First: It's a lot easier to beat 16 competitors. Trump had the best strategy for that (not that I liked it much). I thought Marco Rubio would have been a strong contender. But Kasich, a sound if boring Republican, would have beaten Hillary, too. Ted Cruz maybe not. Jeb! never really showed up despite all that money thrown at him.
Actually I thought Hillary would be hard to beat a year ago. But Bernie Sanders showed how vulnerable she was.
Trump antagonized too many minorities. He could have made a strong case against illegal immigration but he forgot to bring the LEGAL immigrants along for the ride.
And let's face it: Trump was always about Trump. The "only I, and I alone can fix it" was over the top. America doesn't work that way.
And how was he going to fix it? Without Congress? No way. Also, his promises were also vague. Very vague. Make America great again? Great slogan, but not much beef. He needed to develop a few convincing ideas, engage Republican senators and representatives, present them to the people in a way everyone could understand and appreciate.
Second Amendment? He could not make the case how Hillary would abolish it. He needed to remind the people how Hillary would do it: Appoint Supreme Court judges who would then reverse DC v Heller. The liberal Supreme Court would shred Judge Scalia's landmark ruling, that the right to keep and bear arms didn't just apply to the militias, but to the people. The Court would simply say, that Scalia was wrong, we revert that, the Second only applies to state militias. Since these do no longer exist, the Second no longer applies to anyone. Here goes your right, without Congress being able to do anything about it.
EXPLAIN this, in clear and simple words. America, this is how Hillary will abolish the Second without even doing anything herself.
And the First will follow, once a liberal Supreme Court gets into the "hate speech" thing. Again, explain what could happen.
Trump always shot with pellets, never with a bullet.
And last: Hillary is an (elderly) woman. Treat her with all the respect you treat an elderly woman with (it doesn't matter whether she deserves it). Make your point, be polite, turn her weapons against her. Always let other women go for the attack.
Don't call her Crooked Hillary, don't threaten to throw her into jail. This just rallies women against you, the male bully, the chauvinist pig.
No, politely ask at the debate: Mrs Clinton, you kept info on your server that is so highly classified that I can't even mention the content. Would you be so kind to explain to the American people why you think you didn't break the law while people who did a lot less harm are sitting in jail now?
Clinton Foundation: Look for the most egregious cases of corruption and hammer then home. Again, bullets, not shrapnel. Always stay on the message.
And her health? God, no ad attack. No, do a friendly announcement like that:
"I'm dismayed to learn that Mrs Clinton isn't feeling well. I understand that the fight against Bernie Sanders has been brutal. Please take all the rest you need and get well again. I will refrain from any political attack in that time."
It's easy. Know your enemy. And of course, pick up everything Bernie Sanders said and try to win over his supporters. You have a common enemy: The banksters. Just skip the socialist crap.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 2:32
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#5
I must ask however, if none of the republican candidates could come even remotely close to defeating Trump in the primary
They came very close, but they were hamstrung by a message that works better at election time than in the GOP primary, where immigration restriction and import restrictions were key issues of 2016. Trump had the smallest margin of victory (1441 delegates, 44.9% of the popular vote) for a GOP nominee going back a good long while. Both McCain (1575, 46.7%) and Romney (1575, 52.1%) had it wrapped up around the same time Trump did (May), with their opponents bowing out by March and April, respectively.
The problem wasn't Clinton's machine or even Trump's own foibles - it's that Trump is not making a serious run for office. A serious run would require massive ad expenditures to sway voters who are non-political and don't make a special effort to look at candidates issue-by-issue. He hasn't raised the money and he sure as heck isn't spending his own.
While Clinton was saturating Olympic coverage with ads, Trump wasn't even a blip on the radar. Clinton ads are a fixture on network TV, whereas Trump is non-existent. From what I see, Trump's tweets are being drowned out by network TV editorializing against him and saturation anti-Trump ads. And he is spending a lot of time giving speeches to his supporters - which is good for GOTV - to the faithful. But where's the outreach to uncommitted voters who make their decisions based on what they see in the media, whether through ads or network news? What do they know of Trump other than scandal coverage and Hillary's ads, if Trump doesn't run ads selling them on why they should vote for him or against Hillary?
#6
Around this time in 2012, Romney was running a point behind in the polls. He lost by 4. The Donald is running 6 points behind. Without ads to take his message directly to voters, he is finished. Non-committed voters aren't going to show up at his rallies - they don't go to political rallies, period. Romney's campaign (including PAC's) spent $1b to lose by 4 points against the left's Reagan. Trump is about to lose by 10 points against the left's least charismatic crook in a good long while. And the difference is surely that Trump will spend $300m in the campaign vs Clinton's $1b. This is a rerun of McCain's 2008 campaign, but worse - McCain was only outspent 2 to 1.
#7
"Non-committed voters aren't going to show up at his rallies - they don't go to political rallies, period."
It might have been a bit different with Trump rallies, but of course GET TO KNOW your fans, place volunteers who help with registering etc.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 3:05
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#8
And yes it seems that Trump was never able to pony up a billion. He may not have had all that money he claims to have, at least not in cash.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 3:09
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#9
OTOH there is no need to despair. This great country will survive 4 years of Hillary (she'll never get a second term).
Keep the House, focus on the Senate races, direct all your money there.
With a Republican Congress Hillary's hands will be mostly tied.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 3:12
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#10
It might have been a bit different with Trump rallies, but of course GET TO KNOW your fans, place volunteers who help with registering etc.
Two types of voters are needed to win elections. Rallies energize the party faithful, increasing the participation rate. Non-political / independent voters are persuadable, but don't really follow the news that closely. Them, you need to reach through ads. You can't necessarily sway them to vote for you, but you can hope to persuade them not to vote against you. Stateside, they're at least 20% of actual voters. Election victory depends on winning at least half of them.
That's what ads are for - to tell them what's in it for them if the candidate these ads promote wins the election. GOP candidates are always at a disadvantage because the media runs editorials disguised as news stories that attack the GOP. And then there are the Democrats' ads. A GOP presidential candidate who doesn't run ads will lose and lose badly. It's not even so much to have a positive effect for the GOP candidate as to counteract the barrage of negative news coverage by the left-wing media as well as Democratic ads.
#11
I must also say that Democrats are good at ads. They really employ professionals.
The few ads from Trump I have seen were gloomy, not uplifting.
And that "apology video" from Trump Tower? Who for crying out loud was in charge of that?
ISIS does better hostage movies.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 3:22
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#12
EC. Our people are becoming a corrupt people. If Hildebeast becomes president and successfully with stands all challenges to the results, this nation continues its fall from Grace and the Deplorables will be the target of the rath of Hildebeast. Islamic Jihad will reign supreme against the Deplorables. This is going to be bloody.
Posted by: Pearl Flomons5711 ||
10/15/2016 3:45
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#13
EC: Your comment, "But every time the media was about to get down to business with Hillary's failures, the Donald stepped in with some stupid speech or action." is a sure indication that you do not comprehend just how viciously the dominant left-wing American media works.
#15
There is a cancer in this country and it is not the fault of Donald Trump. Trump merely pulled back the shroud on something very pernicious and ugly. The cancer is the left/Progressives and their agenda for the fundamental transformation of the country. They have infiltrated and corrupted every institution in the country.
#16
That said, what is to be done about it?
Posted by JohnQC
Not certain John. The only other contemporary model is the financial implosion of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The so-called 'Trump Revolution' appears to have been put down.
#19
Ah yes, destroy the opposition will to resist. The Left treats politics as just another war. Most others treat it as sideshow or at most an irritation of their attention. Remember, nothing matters to them but power. Everything else is expendable. As long as you treat it as anything else but war, they'll win. And they relish in so many who demand perfection ("Caesar's wife must be above suspicion") which they play so effective against the rubes.
#20
Wonderful gloom and despair. Only problem is, Trump doesn't needs ads and the rest of this shit --- because, for the first time since Reagan, a republican candidate runs on issues. If, more than half American voters are not sick and tired of all this sh*t, then to hell with you!
#21
Both my wife and I got groped by Donald Trump. We're not whining about. However, if there is any possibility of getting some boodle, we might whine?
#25
Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich...none of them would have been any better in office than Hillary...might have been even worse. Remember, George W Bush left us with the mortgage meltdown which he had to have seen coming but did nothing about it. Bush left the border with Mexico wide open and endorsed the transfer of our jobs and industry to China. Bush got us involved in enormously expensive and futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These days there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. The Republican party is extinct. At least Trump put up a fight.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2016 13:43
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#26
Abu, let us remember something. Bush invaded Iraq & Afghanistan after Muslims killed several thousand people in NY. Clintons bombed sh*t out of Serbia (and restarted the war with Russia) because they were bored. And that was twenty years ago - before Hillary became demented.
#29
grom, Bush fought the wrong people after 911. He should have gone after the Soddies and the Paks. We know that now. I think he knew it then.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2016 15:13
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#30
The problem is that the Bushes and the Clintons are all in bed with the Soddies. Trump is not.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2016 15:14
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#31
@Shipman
Thanks, and sorry for the delay, we went hiking in the mountains today.
I run a business that trades with the U.S., also have lived in the U.S. for a while and I'm deeply involved in Transatlantic politics (Atlantikbrücke etc.).
Venezuela is a very interesting thing to watch, if you want to learn how fast socialists can ruin a prospering country.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 15:51
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#32
You mods are terrific!
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2016 16:04
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#33
Bush fought the wrong people after 911. He should have gone after the Soddies and the Paks. ... I think he knew it then.
I disagree on two particulars.
(i) I don't think of George II as evil - just a well meaning idiot (like another George II).
(ii) Pakis are just the muscle. Saudis are brains & paymasters.
#37
“I am completely shocked and bewildered by my cousin, Summer Zervos, and her press conference today. Ever since she was on The Apprentice she has had nothing but glowing things to say about Mr. Trump,” John Barry, Zervos’ first cousin, said in the statement. He went on to say, “That was until Summer invited Mr. Trump to her restaurant during the primary and he said no. I think Summer wishes she could still be on reality TV, and in an effort to get that back she’s saying all of these negative things about Mr. Trump.”
President Park Geun-hye’s advisory panel on unification policy has proposed a reintroduction of US tactical nuclear weapons and the constant stationing of other advanced strategic assets on the peninsula as deterrence against North Korea’s evolving threats.
In a recent paper, the National Unification Advisory Council made an array of policy suggestions, raising the need to better utilize top-notch US weapons systems such as the F-22 stealth fighter and B-2 nuclear bomber.
On home ground, Seoul should bring forward the establishment of its own Kill Chain and Korea Air and Missile Defense pre-emptive strike schemes, which are currently scheduled for the early 2020s to be used with the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system expected to be deployed here late next year.
#1
In situations like this I think deeply and pull out an old campaign button from '68 the year of the Monkey, I absorb the truthyness from the button and ask myself.... What would Nixon do?
I hadn't been to the gun range in Canton Lake in eight months when I went on Friday. I took a total of 360 rounds, with six, 30 round magazines.
These are the facts:
Rifle: Bulgarian 5.45x39mm AK-74, built from a kit
360 rounds, all fired.
5 stoppages: 1 "stovepipe" and four extractor failures.
The four extractor failures I attribute to ammunition problems. The rifle fires a round, but instead of the extractor grabbing the spent casing and ejecting it, it is left stuck in the chamber. The next round cycles in, but can't be chambered because of the stuck casing.
I am forced to remove the magazine, remove the extra cartridge, remove the muzzle brake, assemble the cleaning rod and tap the stuck cartridge out. This simple process is made difficult by a smoking hot barrel. The process takes about two minutes per stoppage.
I can't explain the stovepipe. This rifle had bolt over base problems until I fixed it by changing the angle of the magazine, and all through that process I went through about 400 rounds and never had a stovepipe.
I have been thinking about changing from the 60 grain cartridge to a 55 grain hollow point cartridge. The 60 grain bullet is ten percent heavier than the standard 53 grain 7N6 Russian issued round, and so the bullet drop at 200 yards is almost five inches instead of being around 2 inches. The last time I went to this range I had to adjust the sighting leaf to the 300 meter band and aim low.
What the standard 7N6 round is supposed to do is to allow the rifleman to fire on his target from zero to 400 meters, with the sighting leaf at 100 meters. The rifleman is supposed to aim for center mass, which is the groin area. The rifle is sighted to about 9 inches above that, so that the round will hit between the chest area at close range to the groin area at 400 meters.
With a bullet that is more than 10 percent heavier you obviously can't do that reliably, so adjustments have to be made to account for the differences.
My performance was much better this time around. At the rifle range, the state of Oklahoma made some real improvements in the target frames. Where before there were basically none, now there are steel frames with a .500 inch thick rubber mat, 4 by 2 feet. At 200 yards, it makes the target much easier to see. I hit the paper target (6x6 inches) about 10 percent of the time, whereas before I didn't hit the target (36x24 inches) at all.
The shooting conditions were near perfect: 51 F, overcast with a cool southern breeze. Another 20 degrees cooler would have been perfect.
The young woman who processed the rental car asked me, as a matter of conversation, what I was planning to do with the car. I told her I was going somewhere to help out a friend. It is a Zen thing: a peaceful, easy feeling that I doubt Gersh would understand.
Loads.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Prices for pistol ammunition were mixed. Prices for rifle ammunition were mostly lower.
Prices for used pistols were mostly higher. Prices for used rifles were mostly higher.
New Lows:
None.
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: -.02 Each After Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: South Georgia Outdoors, CCI Blazer, FMJ, Brass Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Edmonson Sporting Goods, Own Brand, Brass Casing, Reloads, .25 per round (From Last week: +.02 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo Mart, Buffalo Cartridge, FSFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Mart, Own Brand, FSFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .19 per round (From Last Week: (4 Weeks))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt!, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt!, Maxxtech, FMJ, Brass Casing, .15 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt!, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Wideners, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: -.02 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Hotshot, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt!, Brown Bear, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .34 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: BulkAmmunition.net, Tulammo, Steel Casing, FMJ, .34 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: -.02 Each After Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: TrueCaliber.com, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .22 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammoman, Federal, RNL, .06 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds (2 Box Limit): Natchez Shooters Supplies, Federal, RNL, .06 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks))
Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: %551 Last Week Avg: $517(+) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $476 (3Q, 2015))
California (263, 256): Mixed Build: $480 ($650 (1Q, 2015), $400 (2Q, 2016))
Texas (264, 266): Anderson AR15: $600 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (150, 152): Smith & Wesson Sport II: $600 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (165, 172): Palmetto State Armory: $550 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $475 (23 Weeks))
Florida (384, 377): American Tactical Imports: $525 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))
The director-general of the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO signaled her dismay and opposition to her organization’s own members on Friday, a day after they adopted a resolution that rejects the historic Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem.
Though she did not explicitly mention the resolution, Irina Bokova made her disapproval of the motion clear, saying that efforts to deny history and Jerusalem’s complex multi-faith character harm UNESCO.
“The heritage of Jerusalem is indivisible, and each of its communities has a right to the explicit recognition of their history and relationship with the city,” Bokova said in a statement.
Bokova noted that the “cultural and spiritual traditions” of all faiths in Jerusalem “build on texts and references, known by all, that are an intrinsic part of the identities and history of peoples.
“To deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list,” she said. “When these divisions carry over into UNESCO, an organization dedicated to dialogue and peace, they prevent us from carrying out our mission.”
It was not immediately clear what steps, if any, Bokova intended to take in light of her statement. The resolution was approved Thursday at UNESCO’s committee stage. It must still be validated by the Executive Board of UNESCO when it meets early next week, but the wording is unlikely to change.
Earlier Friday Israel informed Bokova that it was suspending its cooperation with UNESCO over the vote, with Education Minister Naftali Bennett saying the motion was a denial of history that “gives a boost to terrorism.”
Bennett, who serves as president of Israel’s National Commission for UNESCO, said all meetings with UNESCO officials, participation in international forums and professional cooperation would be suspended until further notice.
UNESCO’s draft resolution, sponsored by several Arab countries, referred to the Temple Mount and Western Wall only by their Muslim names and condemned Israel as “the occupying power” for various actions taken in both places. Israelis and many Jews around the world view the move as the latest example of an ingrained anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, where Israel and its allies are far outnumbered by Arab countries and their supporters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/15/2016
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#1
The Bulgarian Bokova is a U. of Maryland grad who has done a decent job at UNESCO. She has spent her career fighting anti-Semitism, and she is perfectly aware that the move to politicize Jerusalem will likely mean the end of crucial US funding (which has happened previously) should Trump win the presidency. (
[AlAhram] Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has ordered the Rafah border crossing with the Gazoo Strip be opened on Saturday and Sunday as well as from 19 to 22 October, al-Ahram Arabic website reported.
The border crossing will be open on both sides to allow humanitarian cases to cross.
One and a half million Paleostinians living in Gazoo have been under land, air and sea blockade by Israel since 2006.
The border wtih Egypt has been kept closed by Egyptian authorities for several years, although Cairo periodically opens the border for short periods to allow civilians with foreign passports, Paleostinian students and those with medical needs to travel back and forth.
The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), has accused Kaduna State government of committing acts arson, butchery, murder and arbitrary arrest of its members.
The President of IMN Media Forum, Mr. Ibrahim Musa, said in a statement on Thursday that the security operatives unleashed on their members the worst forms of state-sponsored terror tactics ever known, through a well-designed plot involving arson, butchery, murder and unwarranted arrests of IMN members in their states.
You can read their statement at the link. Conveniently forgotten by the IMN is why the Kaduna police are conducting operations in the area.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/15/2016
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Useful to read what Assad is commenting on publicly. He's almost as much of a lying snake as David Brock...
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Saudi Arabia had made a pledge to throw support behind him in case the Damascus government broke off all forms of relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“If we were to move away from Iran and announce that we were refusing all relations with Iran, they said they would help me,” Assad said in an exclusive interview with Russian-language tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda released on Friday.
He specified that the offer was made after the start of the conflict in Syria over five years ago.
Well, we see how that went...
The Syrian leader also praised Russian military operations in Syria, stressing that Takfiri terrorists have lost ground as a result of Russia’s military intervention in the conflict-plagued Arab country.
Turning to government forces’ push to drive militants out of Aleppo, Assad highlighted that the recapture of the strategic northwestern city, located some 355 kilometers north of the capital Damascus, will offer the Syrian army a springboard to liberate other parts of the country and send terrorists back to Turkey.
“It's going to be the springboard, as a big city, to move to other areas, to liberate other areas from the terrorists. This is the importance of Aleppo now," Assad said.
“You have to keep cleaning this area and to push the terrorists to Turkey to go back to where they come from, or to kill them. There's no other option. But Aleppo is going to be a very important springboard to do this move,” he commented.
Assad went on to say that Turkey's actions in Syria are international law and amount to an invasion.
He also described the ongoing foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria as a conflict between Russia and the West. Assad hoped that Russia could persuade neighboring Turkey to change its policy towards Syria in light of a rapprochement between Moscow and Ankara.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Syrian president drew parallel between Daesh, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front) and the so-called Free Syrian Army terrorist groups, stating that they are not different from one another concerning their nature.
“When it (the Free Syrian Army) started to grow and it became impossible to hide the crimes of beheadings, the West was forced to accept the existence of al-Nusra Front. But it is actually the Free Syrian Army. It is Daesh. They have the same roots and move from one area to another,” Assad said.
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Dozens of Iran-backed Houthi militias were killed after Saudi forces foiled their attempt to claim control over the kingdom’s checkpoints near the border, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent reported.
The Saudi forces were able to target the militias before they stepped a foot near the Alab crossing in Dhahran Al-janoob province south of the kingdom.
The Saudi attack has prompted the Houthi militia to further withdraw from their positions.
#6
A glance at the mirror. Tongues lolling,
They followed her always. One, bawling,
Stood out from the masses:
He'd broken his glasses,
But that didn't stop him from Kralling.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The Islamic State (ISIS) imposed a partial curfew on people and vehicles movement in Mosul from 8 pm and until 5 am.
Al Sumaria News stated “ISIS informed its security detachments to impose a partial curfew on people and vehicles movement in Mosul from 8 pm and until 5 am for unknown reasons.”
“There are also a notable unusual movements of trucks that transfer wooden boxes -that are believed to carry weapons- to special centers inside Mosul,” Al Sumaria added.
The Islamic State imposed its control over the city of Mosul in June 2014, to be one of its most important strongholds in Iraq.
(IraqiNews) Nineveh – Reuters news agency revealed on Friday that the terrorist group ISIS thwarted a rebellion lead by a deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to help Iraqi forces retake the Iraqi city of Mosul which ISIS considers to be the capital of its so-called caliphate.
Civilians and security officials said that the terrorist group executed 58 people suspected of involvement in the conspiracy that was discovered last week, the news agency reported.
Citizens present in the city, in phone calls with Reuter’s reporters, explained that the plotters who were caught by ISIS were buried in a mass grave in the outskirts of Mosul after they were drowned to death.
According to information gathered from several sources, Reuters indicated that a local assistant of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi led the rebellion, but the agency did not mention the plot leader’s name in order to maintain the safety of his family.
The news agency also did not reveal the identities of eyewitnesses who spoke to its reporters in phone calls for security reasons.
Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on ISIS affairs, told Reuters that the plot participants were arrested after a message in one of their phones about a weapons transfer operation was intercepted.
The person who had the message on his phone, during ISIS’ investigations, admitted that weapons were hidden in three different locations and were intended to be used to support the Iraqi army in conjunction with its imminent battle to liberate the city.
According to Hashimi, ISIS militants bombarded 3 houses where the weapons were hidden.
“These are ISIS members who revolted against the group. This indicates that the terrorist group started to lose the support given by its members,” spokesperson of the Iraqi Counter-terrorism Service Sabah al-Numani told Reuters.
Numani elaborated that his agency, during the past two months, managed to open communication channels with agents who began to provide the agency with intelligence information that helped it wage raids on sites belonging to the terrorist group in Mosul.
The news agency mentioned that ISIS delivered a list of the names of the 58 people were were executed to a hospital to inform their families but did not deliver the dead bodies.
“ISIS withdrew the IDs of its local leaders to prevent them and their families from fleeing the city,” Ahmed al-Taie, military intelligence officer in Nineveh province, told Reuters.
Iraqi officials say a massive ground assault could begin this month, backed by U.S. air power, Kurdish security forces and Shiite and Sunni irregular units as reported by Iraqi News.
Save The Children humanitarian organization confirmed that dozens of children were killed while trying to escape from the area of Hawija in northern Iraq under the control of the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group.
“In recent days, a large number of children were found without water, and died in difficult terrain (due to thirst) or killed in bomb blasts,” the UK-based organization, said in a statement Thursday.
The group said the family of five had lost two children because of the explosives, and it was not able to move their bodies for fear of the presence of other mines in the area where the two had died.
Iraqi forces are expected to begin a massive offensive to regain Mosul from ISIL, the largest city in Iraq.
Earlier, the city of Hawija in Kirkuk province (southeast of Nineveh) has been liberated in conjunction with the Battle of Mosul.
Five boys were injured today when a rocket landed near where they were playing football outside Benghazi’s Benina sports stadium.
All five were taken to Jalaa hospital from which two were released after treatment for shock and minor wounds. The other three have been kept in but their injuries are not reported to be life-threatening.
The rocket is thought to have been fired from Ganfouda where IS and Ansar Al-Sharia terrorists and their allies in the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council are still surrounded but frustrating efforts by the army to overrun their final large position in the city. The terrorists are also continuing to hold out in downtown Sabri and Suq Al-Hud.
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[FrontPage] Never in American history has anyone as unfit and undeserving as Hillary Clinton run for U.S. President. While she stands on the threshold of being elected to the White House, she quite literally belongs in a prison cell. This article lays out the case against her, chapter and verse.
Clinton's Private Email Server & the Espionage Act
Throughout her entire four-year tenure as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton never acquired or used a government email account. Instead, she transmitted -- in violation of government regulations -- all of her official correspondences via a private email address that traced back to a secret, private, unsecured server that was housed at her New York residence.1 And immediately after those emails were subpoenaed by Congress, Clinton instructed a team of her advisers to unilaterally delete, with no oversight, almost 32,000 of the roughly 60,000 emails in question.2
Clinton claimed that her reason for having used only a personal email account, rather than both a personal and a government account, was that she found it "easier," "better," "simpler" and more convenient to "carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two."3 It was eventually learned, however, that Mrs. Clinton in fact had used no fewer than 13 mobile devices to access emails on her private server, but the FBI was unable to obtain any of those devices in its investigation, in some cases because Clinton aides had been instructed to smash them with a hammer.4
Clinton originally assured Americans that not even one piece of classified material had ever been transmitted via her unsecured, secret, personal server. But now it is known that at least 2,079 emails that she sent or received via that server, contained classified material.5 As the eminent broadcaster and legal scholar Mark Levin has made plain, each of those 2,079 offenses constituted a felonious violation of Section 793 of the Espionage Act.6 And each violation was punishable by a prison sentence of up to ten years.7
In January 2016, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said "the odds are pretty high" that Russia, China, and Iran had compromised Clinton's unsecured email server.8
But hey, who cares? At least Mrs. Clinton, unlike Donald Trump, never engaged in crude, private trash talk that was recorded on tape. And all of her disparaging, condescending, hate-soaked, fiction-laced denunciations of her political rivals are delivered in measured, solemn, well-rehearsed tones. And she of course respects women deeply. In fact, she respects all people, including the 315 million Americans whose personal and national security was compromised when Mrs. Clinton willfully allowed top-secret information to wind up in the possession of our country's most hostile enemies around the world.
Con't.
Usual mishmash of comments by officials, all of whom speak off the record on condition of anonymity. Salt required.
U.S. President Barack Obama and his top foreign policy advisers are expected to meet on Friday to consider their military and other options in Syria as Syrian and Russian aircraft continue to pummel Aleppo and other targets, U.S. officials said.
Some top officials argue the United States must act more forcefully in Syria or risk losing what influence it still has over moderate rebels and its Arab, Kurdish and Turkish allies in the fight against Islamic State, the officials told Reuters.
One set of options includes direct U.S. military action such as air strikes on Syrian military bases, munitions depots or radar and anti-aircraft bases, said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
This official said one danger of such action is that Russian and Syrian forces are often co-mingled, raising the possibility of a direct confrontation with Russia that Obama has been at pains to avoid.
U.S. officials said they consider it unlikely that Obama will order U.S. air strikes on Syrian government targets, and they stressed that he may not make any decisions at the planned meeting of his National Security Council.
One alternative, U.S. officials said, is allowing allies to provide U.S.-vetted rebels with more sophisticated weapons, although not shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, which Washington fears could be used against Western airliners.
The White House declined to comment.
The ultimate aim of any new action could be to bolster the battered moderate rebels so they can weather what is now widely seen as the inevitable fall of rebel-held eastern Aleppo to the forces of Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It also might temper a sense of betrayal among moderate rebels who feel Obama encouraged their uprising by calling for Assad to go but then abandoned them, failing even to enforce his own "red line" against Syria's use of chemical weapons.
This, in turn, might deter them from migrating to Islamist groups such as the Nusra Front, which the United States regards as Syria's al Qaeda branch. The group in July said it had cut ties to al Qaeda and changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
The U.S. and Russian foreign ministers will meet in Lausanne, Switzerland on Saturday to resume their failed effort to find a diplomatic solution, possibly joined by their counterparts from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran, but U.S. officials voiced little hope for success.
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[SouthAfricaToday] Three members of a Kansas militia group were charged Friday with plotting to bomb an apartment complex that’s home to Somali immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City, a thwarted attack prosecutors say was planned for the day after the November election.
The arrests were the culmination of an eight-month FBI investigation that took agents “deep into a hidden culture of hatred and violence,” Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.
A complaint unsealed Friday charges Curtis Wayne Allen, 49; Patrick Eugene Stein, 47; and Gavin Wayne Wright, 49, with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Their first court appearance is Monday.
The men are members of a small militia group that calls itself “the Crusaders,” and whose members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs, according to the complaint.
The FBI began a domestic terrorism investigation of the group in February, and a confidential source attended its meetings in southwestern Kansas.
In a June meeting, Stein brought up the Orlando nightclub shooting, and proposed carrying out a similar attack against Muslim refugees in Garden City, according to the complaint.
They ultimately decided to target the apartment complex because of the number of Somalis who lived there and the fact that one of the apartments was used as a mosque. The complex houses about 120 Somali residents, Beall said.
The complaint said that Stein discussed the explosives used in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh.
The men, who were arrested in Liberal on Friday morning, performed surveillance of the apartment building and prepared a manifesto, Beall said.
In a profanity-laced conference call that law enforcement monitored, Stein said the only way “this country’s ever going to get turned around is it will be a bloodbath,” according to the complaint.
If convicted, the men could be sentenced to up to life in federal prison without parole.
The case is the latest involving militia groups in the state. Earlier this year, a planned armed protest outside a Wichita mosque prompted the Islamic Society of Wichita to cancel an appearance by a speaker whom protesters believed supported terrorism.
The Justice Department’s National Security Division created a new position a year ago to help coordinate investigations into violent homegrown extremism, like the one that resulted in the three arrests.
#2
The men are members of a small militia group that calls itself “the Crusaders,” and whose members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs, according to the complaint.
I've got news for you... Those are not extremist beliefs. If the FBI can't prove intent, well then....
#4
The timing of this case stinks. The important thing is that tape that the media will incessantly play for the next month. They don't actually need a conviction to drag Hillary across the finish line.
BTW, did the FBI have a guy on the inside? Maybe making helpful suggestions?
#5
For the record, every ethnic group out here hates the Somalis. They are an arrogant, rude culture with absolutely no connection with any other ethos.
The criminals don't like them because they are competition, the illegals don't like them because they take their jobs, the legals don't like them because they are lazy and incompetent, the blacks don't like them because they hate the American black, the whites don't like them because they camp out at popular businesses as a general nuisance, the Chinese and Laotians are treated as total inferiors.
It isn't xenophobia or whatever, it is at least 5 years of data points. People have changed their shopping habits, marketing will tell you this is a big deal. Hell, I don't think the Somalis like it either, if the Somalis have ever been happy about anything.
No, I do not condone this charge. I am pointing out that all the other groups, including the Asians (above mentioned plus Thais and Phillipinos) have at least a starting point for interactions. Even the most reluctant of English/Spanish speakers has learned enough of the other's language to at least sign language through an interaction. They all know how to cue for a line. Know how to drive. Work hard.
#10
Following Shabelle and Garowe Online as I do, at this point I'd be pleased as punch if we'd put a fence and a moat (yes, with alligators and sharks with fricking lasers on their foreheads) around Somalia and leave the sad place to its own devices. The one rule being: nobody escapes. Not even to Yemen.
I had some sympathy for them in 1992 when GHWB put the Marines in there for a humanitarian mission. Good idea, I thought, we can help that part of the world and it will be to our benefit. 24 years later and my sympathy meter reads zero to six decimal places. The Somalis aren't grateful and don't appreciate what the world has tried to do to help (as foolish as the UN can be and as self-serving as ANISOM clearly is). The refugees here in the US? Well, as swksvolFF points out, they aren't exactly seizing the opportunity, are they.
I'm pretty much done with them. Send the refugees back home. Let them all chew qat. Let them all brutalize each other. They don't like us? Good, that makes us even.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/15/2016 15:16
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#13
" Where does the "confidential source" end, and the "Agent provocateur" begin?"
Indeed. It feels like we are repeating the Nixon era. Only this time the courts and the media approve.
On a separate note:
I fear the unrestrained importation of Muslim immigrants. However I am truly shocked at how well behaved our Lewiston Maine Somalis are. The women that I've talked to speak flawless English and typically wear a colorful headscarf of convection. The biggest hazard is their driving: At a 4-way intersection a Somali woman will always yield no matter what.
This is what a Hillary presidency will bring against ordinary people in the U.S. And if you say it couldn't possibly happen here, remember, that's what they said about forcing people to bake cakes for a gay wedding...
A Dutch court on Friday upheld hate speech charges against anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, meaning his trial will now start later this month.
"The court rejects all the defence's objections," judge Hendrik Steenhuis told The Hague district court.
Wilders' lawyers last month urged judges at a preliminary hearing to drop the charges against the far-right leader, slamming it as a "political case" ahead of elections due in March.
But in his ruling, Steenhuis said prosecuting Wilders will "not affect his political freedoms or that of his Freedom Party."
How one can ban his speech and not affect his political freedom, I confess, flummoxes me, but then I'm not a Y'urp-peon judge...
The trial, which will now start on October 31, focuses on comments made at a March 2014 election rally in The Hague, when Wilders asked supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?"
When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!" a smiling Wilders answered: "We're going to organise that."
His lawyers argued Wilders had merely "put forward his party's political programme", and insisted he had a fundamental right to freedom of speech. Continuing with the case to trial could have "far reaching political consequences for democracy in the Netherlands," his lawyer had argued.
Judge Steenhuis on Friday said: "Just because... Wilders or his party have not been prosecuted over the last nine years because of their viewpoints about Moroccans... doesn't mean that he won't be prosecuted for any statements about Moroccans now."
Translation: they'll keep prosecuting him until they silence him.
Wilders has remained unrepentant, insisting at his last court appearance that he only said "what millions of Dutch citizens think," and adding he had "no regrets."
He tweeted the same comment on Friday, adding the hashtag "#pleurop," a vulgar Dutch way of telling someone to "go away."
It was a deliberate echo of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who in a recent TV interview made headlines by using the phrase to suggest Dutch citizens of Turkish and Dutch descent who failed to assimilate should return to their countries of origin.
The prosecution of the platinum-haired politician comes as his Freedom Party has been riding high in the polls ahead of the March vote. But the PVV recently lost its lead to Rutte's liberal VVD party.
Wilders's remarks triggered 6,400 complaints, and criticism from within his own party.
The proper way to handle this: if you're not a PVV party member, vote against them, and if you are, vote for someone else to be leader. It's called "democracy", and once upon a time Europe knew how to do that.
Some 56 people and five organisations have registered as victims of the comments and at least 34 witnesses have come forward, judges have said.
The whole point of registering as a "victim" of someone else's speech is odious, anti-democratic, and suicidal to a free society.
Although judges on Friday allowed 40 claims to go ahead, they capped the amount sought as damages at 500 euros, dismissing the 21 other claims.
Wilders is described as the "most heavily-guarded man" in the Netherlands. And since the 2004 assassination of anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh, he has had around-the-clock protection.
But he has drawn heavy flack recently from fellow MPs after saying he would close all mosques and confiscate Korans -- which he famously compares to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- should he win the elections.
If found guilty, Wilders could face up to two years in jail or a fine of more than 20,000 euros ($22,000).
In an earlier 2011 hate trial Wilders was acquitted when judges ruled his remarks targeted a religion and not a specific group of people.
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A couple days old but noted by Instapundit yesterday. Useful backgrounder on what ISIS is doing in Mosul. All this could have been prevented except for Barack Obama's ego and pride.
Islamic State terrorists militants have placed booby traps across the city of Mosul, dug tunnels and recruited children as spies in anticipation of an offensive to dislodge the terrorists jihadists from their Iraqi stronghold, Iraqis and U.S. officials said.
Mosul, home to up to 1.5 million people, has been the headquarters of Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in northern Iraq since 2014 and the militants are making complex preparations to prevent Iraqi security forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, taking it back.
The battle for the city, expected later this month, will help shape the future of Iraq and the legacy of U.S. President Barack Obama.
It will shape the future of Iraq, but Champ's legacy is secure, and not in a good way...
Even if Islamic State is driven out, there is a real danger of sectarian strife, especially if civilian casualties are high in a mainly Sunni city wary of the Shi-ite led Iraqi government and the Shi'ite militias it depends on.
The terrorists jihadists, who swept into Mosul almost unopposed two years ago as Iraqi forces shamefully fled, have rigged its five bridges with explosives, prepared car bombs and suicide attackers and stepped up surveillance, according to four residents who spoke via telephone or social media.
"They are digging in to fight for Mosul. They are more cautious, shaving their beards to blend in with the population and constantly moving their headquarters around," said former finance and foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party with access to intelligence on Islamic State movements in Mosul. He and Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, both said the group was moving men and equipment through underground tunnels.
"You see a terrorist fighter go in one place and pop up in another," said Dorrian. "The entrances are always exposed and those are a priority target."
Islamic State terrorists fighters have put up concrete embankments and are using concrete T-walls to block points of entry for the attacking force, he said. Mosul residents said the terrorists militants have also dug a two meter by two meter trench around the perimeter of the city to be filled with burning oil to make air strikes more difficult.
Aid groups have expressed concern over the prospect that many civilians could be killed in the fighting. About 200,000 people are expected to flee within the first two weeks of fighting, said Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq.
What should Iraq do, Lise -- just give up?
The planned coalition attack is part of a concerted assault that has reclaimed territory from IS in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
The terrorists militants have recently lost control of the Iraqi cities of Falluja and Ramadi and are threatening to execute anyone discussing "liberation" in Mosul, according to residents and Sunni militia forces who spoke to relatives there.
One resident said children as young as eight, sometimes armed with pistols and knives, have been deployed across the city to monitor and inform on the population. The children recruit other children for the same task.
"It’s a really heartbreaking scene to see Mosul’s kids becoming future terrorists. I taught my seven-year-old son all about autism to pretend he’s mentally ill to avoid being recruited by Daesh," the resident said by WhatsApp, using an Arab acronym for Islamic State.
"They are desperate and they could force even children to fight once government troops are at the doors of Mosul."
Other residents say they have begun using older mobile phones which cannot carry applications like Viber, WhatsApp or Facebook messenger, because Islamic State terrorists fighters are highly sensitive to the use of smart phones which make it easier to pass information about their terrorist operations to security forces.
Terrorists Jihadists sit on the rooftops of tall buildings on the edge of Mosul with night-vision binoculars to watch for anyone trying to escape and terrorists fighters are making holes in the streets with jackhammers to place improvised explosive devices.
"It would make it like hell if they placed bombs in each hole," one of the residents said.
The campaign could either increase the chances of a unified Iraq or break it up if sectarian clashes follow as various groups compete for influence in the country's second largest city, Iraqi officials say.
Well, that about covers all the possibilities...
Before a single shot has been fired, Iraqi security forces have been working in Mosul to sway community leaders away from the group, a Western diplomat said.
Zebari said there were signs of a nascent resistance movement in the city, where some residents have spray painted "wanted" signs on the houses of Islamic State terrorists fighters and commanders, risking death. The terrorists jihadists have started bringing women along for surprise house searches so they can check that female residents, who are not allowed to mix with men outside the family, are not hiding anything from the group.
“They are desperate, they look afraid , this is the first time they use their women in searching houses," a Mosul resident, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, told Reuters over social media.
"Two days ago, I rushed to my house door after hearing repeated knocks and when I opened the door I saw three women in Islamic hijab showing only their eyes with three Daesh terrorists fighters behind them," the resident said.
All the residents said the terrorist group was using cranes to lower fighters beneath bridges in the city to place explosives there.
"They carry out the booby trapping of the bridges during the night to avoid air strikes," said one.
Some Islamic State terrorist leaders and fighters have been leaving for the town of Tal Afar, also under Islamic State terrorist control, or further on across the Syrian border, U.S. officials said.
The security forces have been buoyed by victories against the group in Falluja and Ramadi, but face an additional challenge as Iraqi officials squabble over the composition of the fighting force for Mosul, Iraqi officials said. The primary goal is to keep Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias out of Mosul to avoid sectarian clashes in a Sunni-majority city.
Shi'ite militias will be allowed to take the lead in operations to retake Hawija, a nearby town controlled by Islamic State terrorists, officials said.
They hope that driving Islamic State from Mosul will debilitate the terrorist group, although it could still threaten Iraq.
"They could go underground and carry out terrorist acts," Zebari said. "But not as an organized movement."
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The ISIS has established a number of defence lines inside and outside Mosul to resist the Iraqi forces during the battle of retaking the city, said a Peshmerga commander.
Aras Hasso Mirkhan, the commander of Peshmerga forces on Makhmour front, said that they have learned that ISIS has withdrawn a number of its forces from the outskirts of Mosul to form a defence line inside the city. He also noted that the militant group has set up the first fortification line around Mosul to resist the Iraqi forces' efforts of entering the city.
ISIS has decreased its forces around Mosul in order to further fortify the defence line it has set up inside the city since ISIS knows "the fall of Mosul will lead to its demise," said Mirkhan, calling on Mosul residents to cooperate with Iraqi forces.
Mirkhan added that the Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces will move onto Mosul from different directions and liberate the city in some consecutive stages.
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KARACHI: Four suspected militants were killed in a shootout with Rangers here on Thursday.
Officials said that Rangers conducted a raid in Gadap, in an isolated area near the Northern Bypass, on intelligence reports about the presence of some militants and criminals there. The raid turned into an exchange of fire.
“Rangers personnel cordoned off the area,” said a spokesman for the paramilitary force. “The armed men in the hideout attacked personnel of our team when they were busy taking positions. The attack led to retaliation from Rangers, which triggered exchange of gunfire. After an encounter, four militants were killed.”
He said Rangers had recovered arms and explosives from the militants’ hideout and a search for their accomplices were under way.
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.
Also, I would like to nominate "the nonpartisan traditions and approach of intelligence professionals" as Snark of the Day.
[Zero Hedge] Even the Wall Street Journal is now fed up with the biased media coverage of the 2016 Presidential election as revealed by a scathing article written by Kimberly Strassel, a member of their editorial board. As Strassel points out, it's almost impossible to turn on the TV without hearing about Trump's "lewd" comments while coverage of Hillary "uniformly ignores the flurry of bombshells" inherent in the various WikiLeaks, FOIA releases and FBI interviews.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
Mustafa Mohammad al-Amri, Notorious commander of Fatah al-Sham Front (the newly-formed al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group previously known as the al-Nusra Front), and 11 of his men were killed in heavy clashes with the Syrian government forces in al-Sa'an region in Northern Homs province. 
[LI] I mostly missed the Ken Bone phenomenon. I either wasn't watching or wasn't listening when he asked a question at the last presidential debate.
Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Friday, a monitor said, as world powers prepared for new talks on a ceasefire.
A California university is reassuring anxious illegal immigrant students that they have nothing to fear from U.S. Border Patrol agents on campus, promising the school will refuse to enforce immigration law.
President Park Geun-hye’s advisory panel on unification policy has proposed a reintroduction of US tactical nuclear weapons and the constant stationing of other advanced strategic assets on the peninsula as deterrence against North Korea’s evolving threats. 
'Tell me Lionel, what is your book about ?' 
