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Fidel Castro dies aged 90
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
09:15 1 13:30 Rob Crawford [15]
08:58 1 10:18 Warthog [9]
08:23 5 22:43 newc [14]
08:21 6 22:26 OldSpook [11] 
05:33 4 21:46 Charles [7]
03:51 10 23:18 OldSpook [10]
03:34 12 23:21 Procopius2k [11]
03:19 7 13:09 Frank G [7]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Texas State Trooper Hit by Gunfire from Mexico
[ABC] A Texas state trooper has been wounded on the Texas-Mexico border by a bullet traced to a gunbattle underway on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

Lt. Johnny Hernandez of the Texas Department of Public Safety says the trooper was struck in the leg by what may have been an errant bullet from across the river.

Hernandez says it was unclear if the gunfight involved the Mexican military or state police. The Texas state trooper was hit about 1 p.m. Friday while on foot patrol in the Starr County border community of Fronton, about 105 miles upstream from Brownsville.

The trooper, whose identity hasn't been released, was airlifted to a McAllen hospital, where he was in stable condition with what Hernandez says is a non-life-threatening wound.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 09:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Waiting for the reports of the return artillery fire...
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/26/2016 13:30 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
The Heritage Flag Co. (Video)
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 08:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  excellent. Patriotism is not dead in America...always been there just waiting the last 8 years for the petulant child to leave.
Posted by: Warthog || 11/26/2016 10:18 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli rabbi says it's OK to break Sabbath and shoot Arab arsonists amid raging wildfires
[RT] It is permissible to break the Sabbath in order to stop, and even shoot, Arab arsonists, according to the municipal chief rabbi of Safed. Another spiritual leader suggested that the wildfires raging in Israel are divine punishment for the delay in legalizing outposts in the West Bank.

"The prime minister described the arson as terrorism ... it’s a miracle that people weren’t burned alive, but we don’t rely on miracles. It’s certainly permitted and required to violate Shabbat to stop the fire and the arsonists. And if necessary, also to shoot them," the rabbi said on Facebook.

Eliyahu believes that if the permission had been introduced earlier, the cities of Beit Me'ir, Carmiel and Haifa "would have been spared from this disaster".

"I hope that the chief of staff and the police commissioner will give clear instructions to soldiers and police officers and citizens drawn from the fact that the fires have not finishes, and it is their responsibility," he added, according to Ynetnews.

As firefighters keep on struggling to bring the wildfires under control, Israeli police have arrested 13 suspected arsonists so far, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan told reporters.

"The highest likelihood is that the motive is nationalistic," Erdan told Army Radio. He said there were "minorities" among the suspects, apparently referring to Arab Israeli citizens or Palestinians. At least four of those arrested, according to AP, were Palestinians.

Meanwhile, a number of reports emerged in the media saying that young Arabs had been seen celebrating and thanking Allah for punishing Jews. At the same time, Israel Today reports, many of the Arabs living in Israel have been ready to provide shelter for those who had to evacuate from the burning areas.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 08:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm ok with that.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/26/2016 12:05 Comments || Top||

#2  saving a life takes precedence over shabbat
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2016 12:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Fully agree
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/26/2016 15:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Fires will suck oxygen out of the tunnels, killing any crawlers. The diminished foliage will also make portals and hideaways easier to find. Too bad they weren't controlled.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 15:48 Comments || Top||

#5  It is already in Mitzvot. Should not have to even be said.
Posted by: newc || 11/26/2016 22:43 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban leaders may have moved to Afghanistan from Pakistan
[WAPO] KABUL, Afghanistan -- After operating out of Pakistan for more than a decade, the leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban movement may have moved back to their homeland to try to build on this year’s gains in the war and to establish a permanent presence.

If confirmed, the move would be a sign of the Taliban’s confidence in their fight against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. It could also be an attempt by the militants to distance themselves from Pakistan, which is accused of supporting the movement.

The Taliban’s leaders have been based in Pakistani cities, including Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar, since their rule in Afghanistan was overthrown in the 2001 U.S. invasion after the 9/11 attacks.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the leadership shura, or council, relocated to Afghanistan "some months ago," although he would not say to where.

One Taliban official said the shura had moved to southern Helmand province, which the insurgents consider to be part of their heartland and where most of the opium that funds their operations is produced. The official refused to be identified because of security reasons.

Other Taliban sources said the justice, recruitment and religious councils had also moved to southern Afghanistan. The statements could not be independently confirmed.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office said it had no confirmation that any such move had taken place.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 08:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  "Quetta was getting to violent and crazy. We had to move"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/26/2016 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  "too". Jeebus. "Fidel! More coffee, dammit!"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/26/2016 8:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Pakistan wants plausible deniability for the actions of the Taliban again.

I wonder what they have planned
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4 
I wonder what they have planned


Watch India. Haven't the two of them been getting worked up again lately?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/26/2016 13:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Ima wondering if the Paks didn't have the US elections in mind (either candidate.)
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 14:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Moving the Talib back to Helmand does give the ISI a fig leaf when the Taliban inevitably commits one atrocity or another, as well as ensuring the heroin money continues to flow and fund things in the region, as directed by the ISI in large part.

It also takes most, if not all, of the dronezaps out of Pakistan, which have been putting a lot of pressure on the Pak government from their own people.

Still, good point about something being up. It can be seen as suspicious.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 22:26 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Trump's Appointments Continue to Impress
h/t Instapundit
If, as is often said, personnel is policy, the Trump administration may prove more impressive than many conservatives expected. His nominations so far have been outstanding. The latest is his choice of Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education. DeVos is a school choice activist who puts the interests of children first‐especially inner-city children‐rather than the interests of teachers’ unions. The New York Times, intending to express outrage at her selection, came up with this heartwarming headline: "Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Education Pick, Has Steered Money From Public Schools."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2016 05:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When is he going to get to Mike Rowe?
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 11/26/2016 7:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Saving Mike Rowe to cover the firings in the bureaucracy or legislation through McConnell's office? That would be an exposé worthy of a weekly show (to p***off it audience).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2016 7:57 Comments || Top||

#3  It's dirty work.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  If Mike Rowe joins Trumps Admin, I think it's proof we live in a simulation. There is now way this is reality otherwise.
Posted by: Charles || 11/26/2016 21:46 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Army Corps to close Dakota pipeline protesters' camp
[The Hill] The Army Corps of Engineers plans to close off a swath of North Dakota land that for months has housed a campsite for anti-pipeline protesters.

The Army Corps sent a letter to the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe Friday that said all lands north of the Cannonball River will be closed on Dec. 5, the Associated Press reported.

"To be clear, this means that no member of the general public, to include Dakota Access pipeline protesters, can be on these Corps lands," the letter from Col. John Henderson reads.

Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault told the AP that the land to be closed includes the Oceti Sakowin camp on Army Corps land where many protesters have set up.

Another camp, Sacred Stone, sits on the opposite of the river and will not be affected by the Army Corps decision.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 03:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Winter is coming
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2016 8:04 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder how many of these "protesters" were no big fan of the Malheur activity. Shoe, meet other foot.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/26/2016 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Army Corps heads musta realized Obama's gone in 2 months. Politicized ain't gonna cut it any more
Posted by: Frank G || 11/26/2016 9:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Time for D-9s On Parade!
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 11/26/2016 9:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Locals and the tribe are getting mighty damned tired of these white kids treating it like its Burning Man - and the enviro terrorists who are causing all the damage and violence.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 9:43 Comments || Top||

#6  ...Realistically though, what can the Army/CoE do to get 'em off of there? This is a civilian law enforcement matter (and the Current Gummint wouldn't go in and force them off to save its life), which means either this statement was just for show or North Dakota has had enough of their shiat...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/26/2016 10:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Time to reanimate Janet Reno. That's what the bolts on her neck are for...
Posted by: Regular joe || 11/26/2016 13:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Apparently Soros's check got tied up in the election chaos.
Posted by: ed in texas || 11/26/2016 13:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Another case of "injun lovers" blocking their better life as usual? The democrat party never changes it's pretensions, it only makes them count.

Fakers don't have a gas or electric bill from their house, they need to leave or be escorted out.

No live there, no pow-wow.
Go home.
Posted by: newc || 11/26/2016 23:17 Comments || Top||

#10  Wonder if they're going to get a new Saint Pancake to volunteer to stop a D9?
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 23:18 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
CNN's Christiane Amanpour Compares Trump to Erdogan and Ayatollahs
[GP] CNN’s Christiane Amanpour received the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award from her liberal colleagues for her work in the cause of press freedom at the International Press Freedom Awards.

Amanpour is a committed leftist. During her acceptance speech Amanpour compared Donald Trump to the Iranian Ayatollahs and Turkish hardliner President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Amanpour railed against Republican president-elect Donald Trump and called on liberal media to defeat him.
Unreal.
We in the press, by our power, can actually undermine leadership. ~ Christiane Amanpour
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 03:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If he were Erdogan, your ass would be in prison right now. Stupid lefty presstitute should just be called a leftist activist, not a reporter.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  She's red from Hong Kong to Karachi...
Photographer's vest and Versace.
It may not be pleasant,
But, boy, to be present
When Comrade Christiane meets Fallaci!

Oof. Forcing 'em this morning. Rattling off the porcelain.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/26/2016 10:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Bravo Zen!
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 10:50 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought that one was pretty darned good, Zen!
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 10:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Zen at his worst rhyme is better than my best
Posted by: Frank G || 11/26/2016 13:08 Comments || Top||

#6  I understand Trump is doing a visa review in the first 100 days.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 16:02 Comments || Top||

#7  I'd like to see him do a total passport invalidation on Day 1 followed by a total re-examination of those passports. We don't want all those Hollywood types up here in Canuckistan.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 11/26/2016 16:23 Comments || Top||

#8  We in the press, by our power, can actually undermine leadership. ~ Christiane Amanpour

Does she realize this 'power' and their credibility is fading every day? Trump's ready to bypass and ignore the media for four years. Where will 'the press' be at that point?
Posted by: Raj || 11/26/2016 16:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Castro left without taking this silly wanker with him ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 16:38 Comments || Top||

#10 
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 11/26/2016 17:16 Comments || Top||

#11  This is not a reporter. This is a political partisan and a propagandist.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 22:34 Comments || Top||

#12  ...you'd expect anything else at CNN?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2016 23:21 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Sea ice about the same as in Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1917 expedition
[Daily Caller] Scientists were shocked by what they found while pouring over accounts by famous South Pole explorers from about a century ago -- findings that could change the way experts think about Antarctica and global warming.

Researchers found that Antarctic sea ice extent has barely changed since Ernest Shackleton’s botched expedition to map out the South Pole in 1917.

Antarctic sea ice conditions in Shackleton’s day mirrored those of today, according to a new study using logs compiled by Shackleton, in addition to data from other noteworthy Antarctic forays during the early 20th Century.

Lead researcher Dr. Jonathan Day and his team were the first to calculate Antarctic sea ice conditions prior to the 1930s. Day estimates sea ice extent ranged from 3.3 and 4.3 million square miles and continued to grow into the 1950s.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 03:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A few months ago I read The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who accompanied Scott on his push to the Pole, but who (among many) was not selected to go to the Pole itself (and so lived to tell the tale).

At one point, in a preliminary expedition, he and several other men camped on the sea ice, at a spot which you would have thought "as good as terra firma". Shackleton had had a depot nearby.

They woke in the middle of the night to find the ice cracking. One of their ponies was missing, having fallen into a crack that opened beneath him. The immediately scrambled to leave, their solid ice turning to ice floes, and the men barely got to solid ground in time. (There's a gripping bit about the ponies which I'll spare you.)

That vast shelf of solid, as they thought, ice had broken up and was swept out to sea within the course of a day or two. This suggests that maybe the extent of sea ice isn't as permanent or indicative a thing as the media believes.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 11/26/2016 4:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Shocked?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2016 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  This suggests that maybe the extent of sea ice isn't as permanent or indicative a thing as the media believes.

This could be said about anything sciencey that the media believes implicitly even as they report it entirely wrong.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/26/2016 9:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Shocked?

US news media trying to catch up with the Brits for hyperbole.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 10:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Scientists were not shocked, because they understand the science is not settled. Global warming alarmists were disappointed, though.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/26/2016 12:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Not surprising. It will grow and shrink in cycles along with the warming and cooling cycles in the area.

Just like everywhere else in the world.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/26/2016 12:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Consensusy Science™. Who needs data?
Posted by: Frank G || 11/26/2016 13:09 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Fidel Castro dies aged 90
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/26/2016 00:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  There's fiesta in Miami tonite!

One of the best Novembers EVAH!

Cubs win!

Evita loses!

Fidel dead!

Snark of the day.
Posted by: Pholurt Uloluling1696 || 11/26/2016 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Obama and the Commie Democractic party are having a terrible month.
Posted by: Ebbavirong Wholumble4323 || 11/26/2016 0:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks be to God. RIP.
Posted by: rammer || 11/26/2016 1:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Sic transit hijo de puta (Hemingway)
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/26/2016 1:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Will Obama make an appearance at the funeral?

Posted by: Sgt.D.T. || 11/26/2016 1:49 Comments || Top||

#6  He will probably deliver the eulogy...
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 11/26/2016 2:32 Comments || Top||

#7  There once was a commie named Castro,
Whose rule was mostly disastro.
Feeling sad for his kin,
Comrade Obama stepped in,
Now he's dead so remains just one a$$hole.

My apologies to Zenobia. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 11/26/2016 3:01 Comments || Top||

#8  'If el Trumpo wins, adios my friends.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 3:02 Comments || Top||

#9  I was in Cuba about 30 years ago. A couple of things I remember.

A grocery store had a total of 13 different products. I counted them.

The white part of town had paved streets. The black part of town, unpaved dirt.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/26/2016 6:19 Comments || Top||

#10  ...Adios, Jefe. You have a great deal to answer for on the Other Side.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/26/2016 7:31 Comments || Top||

#11  "Kinda hot here, huh, Che?"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/26/2016 8:45 Comments || Top||

#12  Whose rule was mostly disastro.

The limerick is in some ways the most creative of the formal poetic forms, it seems to me. I love how you made rule into two syllables so neatly it was only on the second reading that I caught it, gorb. And the innate mockery of a limerick is all the ode that evil man -- whose evil was only limited by the fact that his area of operation was only a mid-size island instead of the continent his ambition encompassed -- deserved.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/26/2016 9:04 Comments || Top||

#13  ..and Gen Francisco Franco is still dead
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 11/26/2016 9:22 Comments || Top||

#14  Obama and the Commie Democractic party are having a terrible month

And, judging by this morning's broadcasts, the media is doing its best not to burst into tears - again.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 10:16 Comments || Top||

#15  Castro is now smoking cigars in hell

Says the Devil: Those aren't cigars.

Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 10:29 Comments || Top||

#16  Did Donald twist Castro's bandana,
Or deal him some deadly banana?
The Lider's a nuisance?
A little tube loosens...
And fifty years late, it's mañana!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/26/2016 10:39 Comments || Top||

#17  My prediction: Obama goes to Havana and speaks at the state funeral...
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 10:43 Comments || Top||

#18  Definitely champagne popping worthy news!
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/26/2016 10:43 Comments || Top||

#19  Whenever an old communist dies in his bed, it represents a failure of the West.

Sorry that doesn't rhyme or anything.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/26/2016 10:45 Comments || Top||

#20  Zenobia....

Bravo...just...bravo...(stands, claps slowly as a single tear runs from one eye)

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/26/2016 10:48 Comments || Top||

#21  We can expect Fidel Kaepernick to attend the funeral.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 11/26/2016 10:55 Comments || Top||

#22  First, this should be in WOT, he was a terrorist. Second, I wonder if Obama will attend the wedding or set the flags at half staff...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 11/26/2016 10:59 Comments || Top||

#23  He missed both:
Day of the Dead, Nov 2
Revolution Day, Nov 20

Overstayed his welcome.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 11:01 Comments || Top||

#24  All jest aside, the members of the Moron Stream Media are outing themselves as commies at a breakneck clip today.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/26/2016 11:31 Comments || Top||

#25  Obama now has a post presidential opportunity to lead and live in his utopian dream. Early polls have Obama up 11 points over Rahul.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/26/2016 11:52 Comments || Top||

#26  "I'll need something sharp for the burial...
But brotherly, not too funereal.
They're sending the Granma,
So brush off my Panama,
And tell 'Chelle we're heading for Mariel!"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/26/2016 12:24 Comments || Top||

#27  At dockside the monster hung, twitchin'.
"I think now it's safe to go fishin'."
His Communist poobah,
The shark that ate Cuba,
Would soon be a dead superstition.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/26/2016 12:55 Comments || Top||

#28  Make Cuba Great Again!
Posted by: Tennessee || 11/26/2016 13:25 Comments || Top||

#29  Kaepernick's gonna need a new T-shirt...
Posted by: Raj || 11/26/2016 13:29 Comments || Top||

#30 
Obama goes to Havana and speaks at the state funeral...


Minor correction: A weepy, heart-broken Obama goes to Havana and speaks at the state funeral...
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/26/2016 13:38 Comments || Top||

#31  Okay, Trump has made his statement on Castro and it is a righteous bitch slap.

Obama will say..................what?

Obama has already said that he is going to be a virulent opponent of Trump and anything he tries to do. Will he do it from a HQ in Cuba?
Posted by: AlanC || 11/26/2016 14:10 Comments || Top||

#32  Problem is when a Commie goes to hell the Devil will run out of fire.
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/26/2016 15:28 Comments || Top||

#33  Celebracion música, by a Cuban Refugee, Gloria Estefan


Posted by: Thremp Borgia7600 || 11/26/2016 15:46 Comments || Top||

#34  As the Pope and Obama mourn the death of Castro, and as Trump responds calling for the freeing of Cuba from Marxism, well known symbolic refugee Gloria Estefan releases the following statement about, not necessarily the death of a human being, but the desire for the death of his ideology:

"Although the death of a human being is rarely cause for celebration, it is the symbolic death of the destructive ideologies that he espoused that, I believe, is filling the Cuban exile community with renewed hope and a relief that has been long in coming. And although the grip of Castro's regime will not loosen overnight, the demise of a leader that oversaw the annihilation of those with an opposing view, the indiscriminate jailing of innocents, the separation of families, the censure of his people's freedom to speak, state sanctioned terrorism and the economic destruction of a once thriving & successful country, can only lead to positive change for the Cuban people and our world. May freedom continue to ring in the United States, my beautiful adopted country, and may the hope for freedom be inspired and renewed in the heart of every Cuban in my homeland and throughout the world."
Posted by: Thremp Borgia7600 || 11/26/2016 16:15 Comments || Top||

#35  I joined the Rantburg conga line (seniors section).
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 16:20 Comments || Top||

#36  Not a twitter guy, but every now and then will put a hashtag query into the search engine. Just tried "#castroisdead" and got some amusing graphics.
.
Posted by: OregonGuy || 11/26/2016 16:30 Comments || Top||

#37  Trump’s statement on Castro is everything these revolting lefty reactions aren't
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 11/26/2016 18:21 Comments || Top||

#38 
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 11/26/2016 18:29 Comments || Top||

#39  FYI Pope did not exactly kiss him like Obama did. It was carefully diplomatic worded language. The Church has to look out for the priests it has for all the faithful there, so it couldn't be straight up like Trump, nor could it stay silent.

The Vatican’s carefully crafted 9-line telegram avoided using words of support, going instead with strict formulas, hence showing closeness to those who are grieving but avoiding being seen as supportive of the Castro regime.

Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 19:38 Comments || Top||

#40  If you want to blame the Catholic Church for anything, blame the damnable Jesuits who educated Castro and put Marxist ideas in his head. He rewarded them by having them expelled from Cuba.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 20:01 Comments || Top||

#41  Throughout old and new testament scripture the prophets were fearless and stood up to the tyrants of their time, and even though sometimes mattered their bold stand made a world of difference. Perhaps the reason tyrants do so well in Latin America is because the Christians are Catholic?

Supposed Quote from Fidel Castro 1974 - "The Americans will come and talk to us when their president is African American and the Pope is from Latin America."
Posted by: Male || 11/26/2016 21:39 Comments || Top||

#42  Anticatholic bigotry is ugly. Stop it.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 22:01 Comments || Top||

#43  I have no respect for any religious denomination, only the Truth, which cannot snd will not be silenced :-) .
Posted by: Male || 11/26/2016 22:20 Comments || Top||

#44  El viejo murió! Glad to see el monstruo dead.

Sad to see some taking this as an opportunity to bash others.

Celebrate the moment. Hopefully Soros is next.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 22:57 Comments || Top||

#45  Yes Pope Francis is a foolish man, and quite often says some pretty stupid things, but the Catholic Church dogma is quite clear. The 1949 Papal decree on Communism states that Catholics who profess Communist doctrine are to be excommunicated as apostates from the Christian faith.

Follow that with Pope Saint John Paul II and his extensive philosophical and theological condemnations of Marxism and his explicit shut down of "liberation theology" movement, as well as the emphasis on Subsidiarity, and its fairly plain that this pope is on thin ice when it comes to charges of heterodoxy. As a matter of fact several of his Cardinals have recently called him out formally on violating previously established Catholic dogma. The problem is that he's not nearly as smart as his predecessors and does lean left, both of which are causing problems that the leftist press is ready to amplify and spin their way.

But Catholicism is not a problem, it can be a solution to communists and dictators if the Pope and Cardinals are brave enough, just ask the Poles. That's the truth of the matter.

"Male" if you had a respect for the truth that you claim, then you'd not be so disingenuous with your statements and the inherent prejudice and bias you present in them.

I suggest that you might want to keep things to the topic at hand instead of dragging up century-old Know-Nothing calumnies and KKK inspired insinuations. However, if you want to keep with the ignorant Catholic baiting, go right ahead, but beware I will unload on your ass because I'm an old man and I don't suffer fools for long.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 23:04 Comments || Top||

#46  Trump delivered one the best Castro-is-dead statements today. He continues to surprise and impress.

I still have some reservations, but this crow I'm eating is quite tasty at this moment.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 23:09 Comments || Top||

#47  Glad to see you still lurking around o.s.. But let me make one thing clear to you. You are as harmless as a pus*y cat.

We are DEFINITELY on topic. The Truth brings life, freedom and prosperity. The Lie brings death. Ask 2500+ people shot to death by Fidel Castro's firing squads. Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia, Mexico and now hundreds of illegals are pouring into the U.S. to vote for the same thing 7 days a week and then to pay homage to Mother Mary 1 hour a week. They are pouring in by the thousands to cancel your vote, bro.

Everything coming at us is to be tested by a fire that consumes the Lie totally or the Truth will be just as non-existant here in a generation or two just as it is still non-existant on the Cuban island. Just ask the mother of a young man "vanished" by the regime in Havana yesterday for being too jubilant about the latest news. He is now an EXAMPLE to all Cubans, bro.
Posted by: Dino the Younger6012 || 11/26/2016 23:41 Comments || Top||


Good Morning
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Setting cookie..... Hmmmmm... chocolate....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/26/2016 2:02 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Erdogan, Putin discuss attack on Turkish soldiers in Syria
[Al Ahram] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
discussed the conflict in Syria and attacks on Turkish troops there in a phone call on Friday, sources in Erdogan's office said.

Three Turkish soldiers were killed and ten maimed near the Syrian city of al-Bab in an air strike thought to have been carried out by Syrian government forces on Thursday, the Turkish military said. Russia is among the main backers of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
Erdogan told Putin that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
respected Syria's territorial integrity and that an incursion launched in August to drive 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) snuffies from the border is evidence of Ankara's determination in fighting bully boy groups.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Its a start. I for one am more than willing to look the other way
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 23:12 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Duterte urges Abu Sayyaf to stop abductions, begin talks
[Reuters] Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday appealed to the Abu Sayyaf to end their campaign of piracy and kidnapping and begin direct talks with him, offering an olive branch towards a brutal terrorist group he previously vowed to destroy.

Just a few months ago, Duterte said there could be no peaceful solution for dealing with the Abu Sayyaf. But with 10,000 troops in the southern Philippines unable to curtail the hostage-taking and with civilians in the line of fire, he said all-out war is not the answer.

"I can be nasty, I can be a bad boy but I am talking about the nation. I can do it even now. I can bomb the hell out of them...but what would it bring us? You kill 20,000, you wipe out, blast it to kingdom come. Would it bring us peace if I use force? If you want to talk I can go to them anywhere. I can go alone. Let us give our people a chance," Duterte said of destroying the Abu Sayyaf, after visiting soldiers injured while fighting the rebels.

Yesterday, he said talks could happen if the militants stopped their illegal activities. He said, "I will build a hospital in Basilan, don’t kidnap the workers, allow them to work but if you can really stop it for a while, we'll talk."
Posted by: ryuge || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian tries to stab troops in East Jerusalem, is shot dead
[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian man armed with a knife tried to stab a member of the security forces at a checkpoint in the East Jerusalem refugee camp of Shuafat on Friday evening and was rubbed out.

Police said there were no Israeli injuries.

"At the barrier of the Shuafat refugee camp Friday evening, a young Arab man approached security forces with a knife and tried to stab one of them," Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Forces "replied by neutralizing him," she added, later confirming he had died.

A later statement said a row had broken out during a search of a minibus at the entrance of the camp.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There needs to be a special graphic for these happy endings.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/26/2016 13:27 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Justice Department Suing Two Towns For Refusing To Build Mosques
Enjoy these last few weeks, guys -- the new boss has all sorts of new ideas, but this is not likely to be one of them.
[DAILYCALLER] The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing a town in New Jersey for bias after municipal officials refused to approve plans to build a mosque.

In a new court filing, the DOJ alleges that the Bernards Township Planning Board discriminated against the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge (ISBR) and violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act during a lengthy application process that ultimately resulted in the town’s denial of the proposed project.

The town is accused of discriminating against ISBR on the basis of its religion, applying standards of review to the ISBR it had not applied to other congregations and assemblies, and imposing a burden on members of the ISBR for practicing their religion.

"RLUIPA ensures that municipalities must treat religious land use applications like any other land use application," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement. "But here, township officials kept moving the goalposts by using ever-changing local requirements to effectively deny this religious community the same access as other faiths."
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tie DOJ up in court actions until January 20
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/26/2016 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I used to work in Basking Ridge. Plenty of old money around the horse farms to employ the best lawyers to drag this out as much as possible.
Posted by: Warthog || 11/26/2016 10:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Now accepting bids for a pork processing center.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Tax dollars at work. No Saudi money to finance this?
Posted by: Regular joe || 11/26/2016 12:55 Comments || Top||

#5  The Saudi money went a bit higher up.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 20:44 Comments || Top||

#6  The case will be dropped in late January.

I hope the DOJ folks involved with the decision to file will be relieved of their jobs--fuck them.
Posted by: Crusader || 11/26/2016 21:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Put a pig feedlot next door and a processing plant on the other side.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 22:33 Comments || Top||


Arabia
7 Houthis die in air raid in Marib
[Al Arabiya] A raid launched by the coalition forces targeting the rebels’ military bases in the Serwah region in the west of the Marib province region has killed seven Houthi militias and those belonging to Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Witnesses confirmed that the raid targeted a military force of seven rebels in the north, burning down their vehicle and killing them all.

Earlier, as many as 23 others were killed in Taiz by the raids conducted by the coalition and the clashes that erupted on the fronts there. According to al-Hadath sources, the rebels are asking the citizens of Rawd region in west Taiz to evacuate their houses.
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Africa Horn
Seven killed in Mudug fighting
At least seven people are confirmed killed and dozens wounded in a heavy fighting between Al shabaab militants and local militiamen in Mudug region of central Somalia on Friday.

The combat flared up when armed Al Shabaab fighters attacked a militiamen stationed at Dumaye village, about 50Km away from the seaside city of Harardhere in Mudug region. A senior Al Shabaab number three commander named Abdullah Salad was among those killed in the battle near Harardhere, a former pirate bastion and current Al shabaab stronghold.

Sources said the fighting broke out when local residents in Dumaye rural area took arms against Al shabaab over Zakah collection (an Islamic levy on wealth).
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Afghanistan
2 militants blown by own explosives in East of Afghanistan
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least two bandidos murderous Moslems were killed in an kaboom triggered by own explosives in eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province of Afghanistan.

The provincial police commandment said the incident took place in Ghani Khel district on Thursday, leaving two bandidos murderous Moslems dead and two others maimed.

A commander of the bandidos murderous Moslems identified as Lal Mohammad was also among those killed in the kaboom.

The anti-government armed holy warrior groups including the Taliban murderous Moslems have not commented regarding the report so far.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
President Aoun hails major operation in Arsal
[ALMASDARNEWS] Lebanese President Michel Aoun
...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
hailed the major operation carried out by the Lebanese Army in the northeastern town of Arsal on Friday in which a senior commander was detained along with other terrorists.

"Such major operations boost stability in the country and put an end to the terrorist plots and disclose their perpetrators," Aoun said, according to the National News Agency, NNA.

The Lebanese Army detained on Friday a senior ISIS commander, Ahmad Youssef Ammoun, along with 11 forces of Evil in a pre-emptive operation in the outskirts of Arsal.

President Aoun meanwhile, ordered to continue investigations with the 11 detained forces of Evil in a bid to disclose more terrorist cell operating in the region, NNA added.

The Lebanese army announced on Friday that his special forces staged a raid in Arsal. In a statement the army said that Ammoun along with 11 forces of Evil were enjugged
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
, noting that the senior ISIS commander was critically maimed during the operation.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Arkansas representative switches parties, giving GOP supermajority in House
[ARKANSASONLINE] State Rep. David Hillman of Almyra announced his switch to the Republican Party on Tuesday weeks after being re-elected to his third term as a Democrat, solidifying the GOP's "supermajority" control of Arkansas' lower house.

Republicans picked up nine seats in the 100-member House on Election Day and then padded their lead the next day when then-Democratic Rep. Jeff Wardlaw of Hermitage announced his party switch.

With Hillman's announcement, Republicans now control 75 seats in the House and have the three-fourths majority needed to pass appropriations bills without any support from Democrats. The Democrats narrowly avoided having Republicans pick up a supermajority in the Senate, where they control 24 of the 35 seats after picking up two on Nov. 8.

"After much prayer, thought, and consultation (and a few sleepless nights) in order to better represent the changing political views of the people in our district, I have decided to change my party affiliation to Republican," Hillman said in a statement.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "After much prayer, thought, and consultation (and a few sleepless nights) in order to better represent the changing political views of the people in our district continue passage on the USS Boodle, I have decided to change my party affiliation to Republican,"

fify
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 11/26/2016 0:08 Comments || Top||

#2  IIRC he ran unopposed in his district. Gives him more freedom to exercise his options and work for his constituents/district.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2016 8:01 Comments || Top||


Europe
German air force scouting alternatives to Turkey base
[Ynet] Amid frosty relations with Ankara, Germany is considering moving military planes involved in the international mission against ISIS from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
to Jordan, Kuwait or Cyprus.

The Defense Ministry says it's scouting alternative locations to the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey at the request of Parliament.

German politicians have repeatedly been prevented from visiting the base after passing a resolution that labeled killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.

German daily Bild, which first reported the move Friday, says military officials plan to travel to Amman on Saturday.

Bild reports that moving Germany's Tornado reconnaissance jets and a refueling plane from the Turkey base would take several weeks.

The German air force planes aren't currently flying combat missions
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  I understand the Germans are familiar with Crete...
Posted by: ed in texas || 11/26/2016 13:31 Comments || Top||

#2  ...IIRC, there's a major Brit airbase on Cyprus.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2016 14:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Israel might be a bridge too far...
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/26/2016 15:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Jordan, Kuwait or Cyprus

Hopefully 'all' is an option.
Interesting Iraq isn't mentioned.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 16:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Wish we'd move our base out of Turkey too. But hard to move Nukes without Erdogan making a move to seize them.
Posted by: Charles || 11/26/2016 21:41 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Anbar Antics: 7 die


7 ISIS Bad Guys have a Very Bad Day in Anbar

Anbar – (iraqinews.com) Seven Islamic State militants were killed in an airstrike by US-led fighter jets west of Ramadi, an army source said Friday.

‘International coalition air forces bombed today two vehicles belonging to ISIS at the 110th Kilometer, west of Ramadi,” a source at the army’s Anbar operations command told Alsumaria News. He added that the strike killed seven militants on board.

“Group elements were on their way for an attack on a security point,” said

Local sources have recently said that the group had kidnapped 250 former police and army agents, accusing them of acting as informants for security forces and consequently enabling the forces to locate militants and kill them.

Several ISIS militants were killed over the past week as airstrikes targeted their havens and combat vehicles in Anbar towns. Security authorities say the strikes are carried out based on intelligence information.

Iraqi government and popular troops, assisted by a US-led international coalition forces, have been on a major campaign since mid October to clear the country, most notably the city of Mosul, from Islamic State militants who took over large areas of Iraq in 2014.
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Arabia
Saudi Arabia: 11 missiles launched on al-Tuwal
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least 11 missiles were launched into the southern border village of al-Tuwal in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent has confirmed.

The attack comes as coalition forces were still pounding Yemeni militia targets across the border by Friday afternoon near the cities of Jazan and southern Dhahran.

The cross-border operations come on the same say a raid was launched by coalition forces targeting the rebels’ military bases in the Serwah region in the west of the Marib province region that killed seven Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
militias and those belonging to President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
Witnesses confirmed that the raid targeted a military force of seven rebels in the north, burning down their vehicle and killing them all.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian child dead as Israel wildfires reach West Bank
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A two-year-old Paleostinian boy has died after his house caught on fire in the town of Beitin in Ramallah as authorities investigate the cause.

The boy’s death comes as Israeli firefighters kept battling the flames in wooded hills around Jerusalem and in northern areas on Friday, with support from Paleostinian firemen and emergency teams from Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Italia, Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
Israeli police have jugged
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
13 people on suspicion of arson as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has accepted additional help from Egypt and Jordan.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahwazi-Arab rights activist calls on Iran ‘to restore Arabistan’
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The head of Ahwaz Human Rights Organization has called for Iranian officials to restore the original name of the country’s southern region of Khuzestan back to the original 600-year-old name of Arabistan.

Dr. Karim Abdian’s statements came during the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
Forum on Minority rights on Friday which focused on ethnic and minority people’s rights around the world.

"Ahwazi-Arabs or Arab minorities in Iran suffer from denial of its identity crises, among other socio-economic crises," Abdian said.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Another OBGYN hospital destroyed in Syria’s Aleppo
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A hospital specialized in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) in the Syrian city of Termanin was targeted by air raids on Friday, leaving two reported dead and several injured.

Al-Zahraa hospital, located in the border region between Aleppo and Idlib, was reported to be one of the few remaining OBGYN hospitals in the area.

Doctors who were working at the hosptial sent pictures Al Arabiya English showing the destruction caused by at least one reported Arclight airstrike.

About 250,000 people in eastern Aleppo have been under siege since Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
’s army, aided by Iranian-backed militias and Russian jets, cut off the last road in early July.

The last operating hospital in the rebel-held district was destroyed by Russian fighter jets last week, leaving the besieged people without access to medical care.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
India threatens to cut water to Pakistan
[ALMASDARNEWS] Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that he is "committed" to cutting the water supply to Pakistain because of hostilities in the volatile Kashmire region.

Modi said at the opening of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the city of Bathinda on Friday that the government was "committed" to getting "farmers their rights."

"Now every drop of this water will be stopped and I will give that to ... Indian farmers. I am committed to this," Modi stated.

He said he also already setup a task force to oversee that "each drop of water" does not reach Pakistain.

Under an internationally mediated agreement between India and Pakistain signed in 1960, named the Indus Waters Treaty, the water of six rivers, namely Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, are to be shared between the two countries.

On November 24, Sartaj PrunefaceAziz
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy...
, Pakistain’s adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs, said in response to Modi’s decision that the revocation of the Indus Waters Treaty by India where water of the Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers, are to be shared between the two countries, "can be taken as an act of war."

Islamabad will "react befittingly" if Modi attempts to violate the Indus Waters Treaty, Aziz warned.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Paper gets cut paper covers rock water rusts cutting instrument makes paper soggy and rounds rocks play the damn game the right way what idiots!
Posted by: Goober Wittlesbach5685 || 11/26/2016 6:09 Comments || Top||

#2  From Natl Geographic, October 2011:
Nearly 30 percent of the world's cotton supply comes from India and Pakistan, much of that from the Indus River Valley. On average, about 737 billion gallons are withdrawn from the Indus River annually to grow cotton—enough to provide Delhi residents with household water for more than two years. "Pakistan's entire economy is driven by the textile industry," said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "The problem with Pakistan's economy is that most of the major industries use a ton of water—textiles, sugar, wheat—and there's a tremendous amount of water that's not only used, but wasted."
Posted by: Heriberto Greper9897 || 11/26/2016 9:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting, two of the four elements, fire and water used as instruments of war. Air and earth remain. I wonder if that counts as nuclear winter?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 15:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Dig in Skid air-fuel burst on the way
Posted by: Shipman || 11/26/2016 17:53 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Syrians jailed for blocking ambulance carrying Al-Nusra terrorists to Israel
[ALMASDARNEWS] Two Syrians living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have been sentenced to prison by an Israeli military court for blocking an ambulance transporting Islamist fighters operating in Syria from being treated in Israel.

Amal Abu Saleh was sentenced to seven years and eight months in jail with a $3,000 fine, whilst Bashira Mahmoud was sentenced to 22 months in prison and fined $1,000 dollars.

According to SANA, Israeli forces placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
the two along with 24 others in June 2015, when residents of the village of Majdal Shams blocked the ambulance and prevented it from transporting two injured bully boyz from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham
...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant...
, formerly known as Jabhar 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 .. ...
Amal’s uncle, Sheikh Nazih Abu Saleh, said the court ruling was "hostile" and that it was the right of those in the Golan Heights to block bully boyz being treated in Israeli hospitals.

Ahmed Sheikh Abdul Qader, the governor of the city of Quneitra in southwestern Syria, called the ruling "provocative" and spurred on human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
organizations to force the Israeli regime to release Syrians held in its prisons.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


-War on Police-
Shootings of police skyrocketed this year
[THEHILL] The number of coppers who were shot and killed this year jumped 67 percent compared to 2015, according to the latest data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Sixty coppers died from firearm-related incidents so far in 2016, up from 36 by this point last year. The overall number of police fatalities, including traffic deaths and other causes, increased 18 percent.

The data covers from Jan. 1 to Nov. 25 of 2016 and 2015.

This year has also seen the most assassinations, or ambushes, on police since 1995.

Texas and Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, the largest states in the U.S., saw the most police fatalities, followed by Louisiana.

The data comes nearly a week after a San Antonio cop was shot to death in a traffic stop. Officials have described the attack as an "assassination", similar to the recent police shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Yemeni snipers kill 3 Saudi soldiers
[ALMASDARNEWS] Yemeni soldiers killed three Saudi soldiers with sniper fire at the al-Alab border crossing in the Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
n southwestern border region of Asir on Friday, al-Masirah television reported.

The Yemeni soldiers backed by the Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
militias also launched several missiles at the al-Sarqah military camp in Asir region, although there have been no reported casualties.

The Yemeni forces also prevented a Saudi-led attack consisting of Hadi loyalists and mercenaries in the Rabuah district of Asir.

PressTV also reported that Yemeni forces lobbed a barrage of artillery rounds at a gatherings of Saudi soldiers in Beit al-Moshqaf and Madrasah al-Qawiyah areas in Jizan, located 967 kilometers southwest of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Bangladesh
Four killed in Pabna ‘gunfight’
[Dhaka Tribune] Four suspected robbers have been killed in a "shootout" with Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Joynagar area under Ishwardi upazila of Pabna district.
"It's the RAB! Open indiscriminate fire!"
The identities of the dear departed could not be ascertained yet.
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Aaaiiieee! Rosebud!"
"Who wuz dat?"
"Dunno! Keep firing!"
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!"

RAB 12 Company Commander ASP Beena Rani Das told the Dhaka Tribune: "Acting on a tip-off,
[RING!]
Cop shoppe! Sergeant Shafiq speaking!
Lissen! Dis is Mahmoud da Weasel! I got a tip for youse...

we conducted a drive to catch a group of 15 robbers who were looting a rice mill in the area around 3:30am on Friday."
"Harrr! Bring up the rickshaw, boys! I smell rice!"
"Sensing our presence, the robbers opened fire targeting us."
"It is they! Quick, lads! The shutter gun!"
[KERPOW!]
"Take that, coppers!"

In retaliation, RAB fired back that left two robbers dead on the spot.
[BANGETTA BANGETTA BANG BANG BANG!]
"Take that, foul miscreants!"
"Aaaiiieee! I am undone!"
"There goes another one! Who was that?"
"Dunno! Wudn't me!"

She said the elite force also detained five maimed robbers with the help of locals and one of them died on way to hospital.
[gasp] [rattle] rosebud!
Besides, two rice-laden trucks were seized in the drive.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Taliban Überstürmbannführer among 4 killed in Nangarhar province
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A commander of the Taliban group was among at least four holy warriors killed during festivities and military operations in eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province of Afghanistan.

The provincial police commandment in a statement said a commander of the Taliban group identified as Ghorzang was killed during a clash with the security forces in Hesarak district.

The statement further added that two more holy warriors were also maimed during the festivities.

According to the provincial police commandment, at least two holy warriors were killed when an bomb went off prematurely in the same district.

The anti-government armed bully boy groups including the Taliban forces of Evil have not commented regarding the reports so far.

This comes as the Afghan cops tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
the explosives expert of the Taliban group in this province last month.

According to the local security officials, the detained Taliban expert has been identified as Ghulam Akbar who is originally a resident of Rodat distrit of Nangarhar.

The officials further added that was previously maimed in a premature kaboom and resumed his operations to manufacture improvised bombs after he recovered.

The Talibs and forces of Evil belong to other bully boy groups frequently use homemade improvised bombs to target the security forces and government officials and employees.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
President Putin gives Russian citizenship to American film star Steven Seagal
[Al Ahram] President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
has given a Russian passport to U.S. action film star Steven Seagal, calling it a sign of a thaw in relations with the United States.

The 64-year old actor has been a regular visitor to Russia in recent years and has accompanied Putin to several martial arts events.

Seagal also has vocally defended the Russian leader's policies and criticized the U.S. government.

After awarding Seagal citizenship through a presidential decree earlier this month, Putin hosted the actor at the Kremlin on Friday and handed him the passport.

Putin told Seagal he hopes the ceremony, which was shown on Russian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, is "also a sign of a gradual normalization of the relations between the countries."
Pic at this Guardian link. Damn, Seagal has let himself go in retirement...
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And Canada breathes a sigh of relief.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Can you be stripped of US citizenship if you accept a foreign one?
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/26/2016 15:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Ask Jorge Ramos. Seems OK with voting in Mexico and America.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2016 17:50 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey reinstates over 6,000 teachers suspended after coup
Lots of very annoyed mothers whose children have been running amok without teachers...
[Al Ahram] Turkish authorities have reinstated over 6,000 teachers suspended after the July failed coup accused of terror links, the education ministry said on Friday.

"6,007 personnel suspended over links to terrorist organizations have returned to their jobs," the ministry said on Twitter.

Tens of thousands of teachers were suspended or sacked over links to Kurdish bully boyz and coup plotters since July 15 when a rogue faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
from power.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  The 6,000 large have been, er, "in-ter-viewed" and found yetkili.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 11/26/2016 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like their teachers union is at least as powerful as those in the US...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/26/2016 11:43 Comments || Top||

#3  The problem being: if the teachers aren't on the job, who's going to keep a eye on the kids?
Posted by: ed in texas || 11/26/2016 13:28 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korea-China trade on steady rise despite sanctions
Trade between North Korea and China increased for the third straight month in a row last month, inviting doubts over whether China is effectively taking part in the international community's economic sanctions' on its traditional ally, Chinese trade data showed Friday.

According to monthly data released by China's General Administration of Customs, the two communist countries traded goods worth US$525.24 million in October, up 21.1 percent from $433.73 million a year ago. In the figure, China exported $286.86 million worth of goods to the North, up 16.1 percent on-year, and imported $238.38 million worth from the North, up 27.6 percent from a year before, the data said.

The monthly increase marked the third in a row since August, when the bilateral trade marked a 29.9 percent rise on-year in sharp comparison with a 9.1 percent drop in April following the U.N. Resolution 2270 adopted in March against the North's nuclear test in January. The figure also posted an 8.1 percent decline in May and a 15.7 percent decrease in July, except for a 9.4 percent hike in June.

In particular, China's exports of construction materials and vehicles have been noticeably on the rise, which apparently has something to do with ongoing bilateral infrastructure construction projects in their border areas.
And construction of new nuclear facilities and rocket plants...
Since March, China has been participating in the latest U.N. sanctions which require mandatory inspections of all cargo going in and out of the North and bans its exports of coal, iron and other mineral resources, a key source of hard currency that accounts for nearly half of the economically-devastated country's total exports.

"In fact, trade between the North and China has not been greatly affected by the sanctions as they are not applied in the case of cargo or exports for livelihood purposes," said Lim Eul-chul, a senior researcher at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

He pointed out that the North's trade with China accounts for more than 90 percent of its total external trade.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fires Rage Near Jerusalem as Israel Arrests Arson Suspects
[BLOOMBERG] Large brush fires swept across hills outside Jerusalem, after Israeli police detained arson suspects following days of severe blazes in the country.

Residents of towns in the Jerusalem Mountains were evacuated on Friday while dozens of houses were burned down. Israel accepted offers of firefighting help from Egypt and Jordan and police front man Micky Rosenfeld tweeted a picture of Paleostinian firefighters working alongside their Israeli counterparts in the city of Haifa.

Fires have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the past four days, with officials saying many began almost simultaneously and were probably due to arson. Israeli police chief Roni Alsheich on Thursday said that where arson was the cause, it was likely "nationalist," a phrase authorities use to describe attacks by Arabs. Police said they have placed in durance vile
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
13 people for suspected arson or incitement to start fires.

While several blazes are now largely under control, firefighters fear that strong winds could reignite them. The fires are the worst to hit Israel since 2010 when 42 people died in a forest region south of Haifa.

“I’ve accepted the offer of help in putting out the fires from Egypt and Jordan,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter. “Egypt will send two firefighting helicopters and Jordan will send fire trucks.”

They will join vehicles sent by the Palestinian Authority and aircraft from Russia, Cyprus, Turkey, Croatia and Greece already battling the flames. A massive Supertanker firefighting plane from the U.S. arrived late on Friday, according to Channel 2.

Fires that spread through the northern port city of Haifa are apparently “acts of terrorism,” and the government will compensate residents for loss of property, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said.


Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


The Grand Turk
Migrant crisis: Turkey threatens EU with new surge
[BBC] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
has warned that he will let hundreds of thousands of migrants colonists travel on to Europe if pushed by the EU.

He was reacting to a non-binding vote by the European Parliament to freeze talks on EU membership for Turkey.

The MEPs were alarmed by Mr Erdogan's "disproportionate" response to a failed coup attempt in July.

The migrant numbers reaching the Greek islands have dropped since an EU-Turkey deal in March to curb the influx.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Threaten Turkey with economic sanctions and closing the borders. I'm sure the Greeks would love being paid to shut down the Turks.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 10:25 Comments || Top||

#2  New weapon of destruction: "refugees". Pretty simple to stop, but few in Europe have the courage to do so.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 23:11 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
2 cops, soldier, LeT comdr among 5 killed in Kashmir
[Daily Excelsior] Two coppers of Jammu and Kashmire Armed Police, an Army man and two Lions of Islam including Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
commander were killed in two separate militancy related incidents in Kashmire today.

Militants fired on cops of 18th Armed Police Battalion of Jammu and Kashmire Police near Bus Stand Kulgam this afternoon killing two of them and critically injuring another.

The killed cops have been identified as Head Constable Tanveer Ahmad and Constable Jalaluddin of Kulgam while the injured has been identified as Head Constable Shamsuddin.

Sources said that a group of four masked Lions of Islam of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who came in a Santro car bearing registration number JK18-2207 fired at three cops who were performing law and order duty at Kulgam town. Another cop who was holding a teargas thrower fired a tear gas at the Lions of Islam who left the car behind and fled through nearby orchards.

The Lions of Islam left the cops in pool of blood who were rushed to hospital where two were brought dead and another critically injured was shifted to Srinagar for treatment.

Immediately after the attack, senior police and Army officers reached the spot and massive manhunt was launched against the Lions of Islam responsible for the attack.

A wreath laying ceremony was held in District Police Lines Kulgam where floral tributes were paid to the two cops killed in the attack. DIG SKR Nitesh Kumar led the civil, coppers and jawans in laying floral wreaths.

In the meantime, an Army jawan and two foreign Lions of Islam were killed in a shootout in Naidkhai area of North Kashmire’s Bandipora district this morning.

A police official said after receiving a tip off, security forces including SOG and 13 RR of Army cordoned off Manzpora village of Naidkhai and launched a search operation. As the searches were underway, Lions of Islam who were hiding in the village opened fire, on troops killing a soldier Naik Chandra Singh.

The shootout continued for an hour during which two foreign Lions of Islam were rubbed out. Two AK 47 rifles, one pistol, one bag containing a matrix sheet, two AK magazines, 30 AK rounds, two grenades and one GPS.

The two Lions of Islam had infiltrated into Kashmire this year along with three others in June this year through Macchil sector of Kupwara. Two of their associates were killed early this week in Hajin area of Bandipora. They have been identified as Abu Suraqa and Abdullah.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, Agent 49 felt gingerly for his head. It was still there. He had been hoping differently...
Army today said a murderous Moslem after being persuaded laid down arms and surrendered before security forces in Tujjar area of Sopore in North Kashmire’s Baramulla district. The Army said a pistol was recovered from the murderous Moslem. He is the second murderous Moslem of LeT in North Kashmire who surrendered before security forces since November 4.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


Forced conversions
[DAWN] ON Thursday, Sindh did Pakistain proud. The provincial assembly spoke with one voice, resoundingly and with conviction, for minority communities living in Sindh when it unanimously passed a law criminalising forced conversions. Tabled last year by a PML-F politician, Nand Kumar Goklani as a private bill, the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Act, 2015 stipulates a sentence of between five years and life imprisonment for those found guilty of forcible conversion, along with a fine to be paid to the victim. Anyone who performs or facilitates the marriage of a victim of forced conversion is liable to a three-year prison term as well as a fine payable to the victim. Where forced conversion is alleged, the victims will be given 21 days by the court to arrive at an independent decision regarding their change of faith before action under this law is initiated. And a change of religion by minors will not be recognised until they reach the age of majority.

Although the Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of religion, the situation demanded the passage of such a law. Forced conversions have long been an unfortunate reality here, an inevitable consequence of the ideological narrative that has pervaded the public space over the past few decades. In such an environment, it is difficult, even risky, to argue that compelling a person to change their faith through duress or pressure, whether physical, emotional or psychological, is immoral and unethical. For the same reason, forced conversions are almost impossible to reverse: if victims assert their adherence to their original faith, it can attract accusations of apostasy and leave them vulnerable to religious vigilantism. Human rights organizations estimate that around 1,000 women and maidens of tender years -- largely from Hindu and Christian families, in Sindh and Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

respectively -- are forcibly converted every year after being kidnapped, and then married to Moslems, often the abductors themselves. While it is admittedly not always easy to determine if a conversion is forced or whether the individual has taken the step of their own volition, a law such as the one recently passed addresses the circumstances in which forced conversions usually happen and ends the impunity with which the perpetrators practise it. Unlike many other laws that address social ills, it should also be comparatively easier to implement.

However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
this progressive legislation will almost certainly draw the ire of self-appointed guardians of the faith, the same lobby that creates an intimidating atmosphere in courtrooms where families of women and maidens of tender years allegedly converted by force seek justice for their loved ones. Not only should the politicians hold their ground, but other provinces should follow suit. By signalling so decisively to the nation that coercion in matters of faith is unacceptable, Sindh has laid down a framework that can enable us to be a better people.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Unlike many other laws that address social ills, it should also be comparatively easier to implement.


Ummm...such as gender preference?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:52 Comments || Top||


Kashmir is not India's personal property to be inherited, says Farooq Abdullah
[DAWN] Former Jammu and Kashmire chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Friday, while cautioning the Indian government, said that Kashmire is not India's "personal property to be inherited", News18.com reported.

Farooq Abdullah was commenting on the Indian parliament's standing resolution on Kashmire. "Is this your forefathers property?"

He was addressing a gathering in Chenab Valley, in the presence of his son and Omar Abdullah, who has also served as Kashmire's chief minister.

Farooq Abdullah also said that Pakistain is one of the stakeholders of the Kashmire issue which even the government of India has accepted, adding that the India will have no option but to start talks with Pakistain so that the "atrocities through which people of Jammu and Kashmire are undergoing will come to an end."

Kashmire has been divided between rivals India and Pakistain since 1947, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies


Kashmir issue will be resolved through indigenous struggle, says Pruneface
[DAWN] Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj PrunefaceAziz
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy...
on Friday told politicians in the National Assembly that the Kashmire issue would only be resolved through indigenous movements within India-held Kashmire led by the younger generation.

Aziz said Pakistain would continue extending political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri cause on international and bilateral forums.

"We have been taking our diplomatic campaign forward with zeal since Prime Minister Nawaz's speech regarding the Kashmire issue in the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
General Assembly.

"The movement has not lost any of its zeal even after the aggression against it and Pakistain will continue to support it," he reiterated.

Pakistain is willing to hold a dialogue with India on all issues, on the condition that the Kashmire dispute is brought to the table and a resolution sought in accordance with United Nations resolutions, Aziz said.

"Even though we have a policy of neighbourly relations with all neighbouring countries we will stick to this policy on Kashmire issue," he said. "These are the points of our international policy, which has always remained the same, even though there is a shift in its intensity from time to time," he explained.

He added that Pakistain "will respond in kind to any Indian violence as we have the capability to defend our borders."

The adviser's statements come days after Indian troops targeted a passenger bus and ambulance across the Line of Control, and killed three Pakistain Army soldiers and 10 civilians in various incidents of 'unprovoked' firing.

Tension between the two countries is again at a peak following an alleged Indian 'surgical strike', unrest in Kashmire and the Uri army base attack in September.

Since then there have been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing in Kashmire, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians.

Modi stepped up a drive to isolate Pakistain diplomatically after the Uri army base attack in September in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed. Hours after the attack occurred, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed Pakistain a 'terrorist state' and accused Pakistain of involvement.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS recruiter twice declared dead has reportedly been captured
[ALMASDARNEWS] An Australian ISIS recruiter that has been declared killed twice, including by the Australian government, has been captured alive according to reports.

Neil Prakash, also known as al-Cambodi given his mixed Cambodian and Fijian heritage, has been linked to organizing a beheading of a police officer in his native Melbourne, Australia's second largest city.

He travelled to Syria in 2013 and has been wanted by the Australian federal police since August 2015.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation News spoke to a Turkish official who said that the ISIS recruiter was nabbed
Please don't kill me!
several weeks ago after Australian authorities contacted The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
saying he was intending to enter the country. They said that al-Cambodi was arrested trying to cross from Syria into Turkey using false documents and a fake name.

In a statement, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter-Terrorism Michael Keenan said: "As a matter of longstanding practice, the Australian Government does not comment on matters of intelligence or law enforcement operations.

"Prakash has been linked to several Australia-based attack plans and calls for lone-wolf attacks against the United States," he added. "He has actively recruited Australian men, women and kiddies, and encouraged acts of terrorism."

Al-Cambodi converted from Buddhism to Islam in 2012 before leaving Australia for Syria in 2013, suggesting he was converted by radical Salafi elements in Australia that operate mostly unchallenged by the Australian government.
Update from The Times of Israel at 3:00 p.m. ET:
Australia asks Turkey to extradite Neil Prakash
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  "Snake Plissken - I heard you were dead!"
Posted by: Raj || 11/26/2016 17:03 Comments || Top||


Lebanese Army detains 11 ISIS Baddies, including Underboss
The Lebanese army said on Friday it had arrested a leading local ISIS group commander and 10 other members in a special operation on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The army said special forces from the intelligence and other troops carried out the dawn attack on an ISIS base in the mountainous area of Wadi al-Araneb on the border with Syria.

“They clashed with (ISIS) militants with different weapons and managed to break into the headquarters where they captured 11 of them, including the dangerous terrorist and ISIS emir (leader) of Arsal, Ahmed Youssef Amoun,” said the army in a communique.

According to the military, Amoun was seriously wounded in the operation, and a medical source told Agence France Presse he had been transferred to a hospital in Beirut for emergency treatment.

The communique said the ISIS commander was involved in preparing car bombs used in attacks in various parts of Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold for the so-called Hezbollah.

It also accused him of involvement in attacks on military posts during bloody gunbattles in the region in August 2014 when ISIS and al-Nusra Front briefly overran the town of Arsal.

As the jihadists withdrew, they abducted 30 soldiers and policemen, five of whom were subsequently executed.

The 16 hostages held by Al-Nusra were released in December 2015 after lengthy negotiations, but there has been no progress on the release of the nine held by ISIS.

Hezbollah has sent fighters to Syria to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad against rebels seeking to topple him.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for several explosions in Lebanon over the past two years that killed scores.
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Europe
France on the Verge of Total Collapse
[GatestoneInstitute] France is in turmoil. "Migrants" arriving from Africa and the Middle East sow disorder and insecurity in many cities. The huge slum commonly known as the "jungle of Calais" has just been dismantled, but other slums are being created each day. In eastern Paris, streets have been covered with corrugated sheets, oilcloth and disjointed boards.

Violence is commonplace. France's 572 "no-go zones," officially defined as "sensitive urban areas", continue to grow, and police officers who approach them often suffer the consequences.

No terrorist attacks have taken place since the slaughter of a priest in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on July 26, 2016, but intelligence services see that jihadists have returned from the Middle East and are ready to act, and that riots may break out anywhere, any time, on any pretext.

Although overwhelmed by a domestic situation it barely controls, the French government still intervenes in the world affairs: a "Palestinian state" is still its favorite cause, Israel its favorite scapegoat.

For many years, France seems to have built its entire foreign policy on aligning itself with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC): 56 Islamic countries plus the Palestinians. Originally, France's dreams might have been of displacing America as a world power, accessing inexpensive oil, business deals with oil-rich Islamic states, and the prayer of no domestic terrorism. All four have been washouts. It is also obvious that France has more urgent problems to solve.

The Palestinians began to use international terrorism, and France chose to accept this terrorism so long as France was not affected. At the same time, France welcomed mass-immigration from the Arab-Muslim world, evidently as part of a Muslim wish to expand Islam. The Muslim population has since grown in numbers, while failing to assimilate.

More and more, French Muslims consider themselves Muslim first. Many claim that the West is at war with Islam; they see France and Israel as part of the West, so they are at war with them both. They see that France is anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, but they also see that several French politicians maintain ties with Israel, so they likely think that France is not anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian enough.

They see that France tolerates Palestinian terrorism, and seem not to understand why France would fight Islamic terrorism in other places.

To please its Muslims, the French government may believe it has no choice other than to be as pro-Palestinian and as anti-Israel as possible -- even though it looks as if this policy is failing badly in the polls.

Perhaps France's current government is hoping that it might delay the disaster a bit and avoid a civil war. Perhaps, they might hope, the "no go zones" will not explode -- at least on their watch.

France today has six million Muslims, 10% of its population, and the percentage is growing. Polls show that one-third of French Muslims want the full application of Islamic sharia law. They also show that the overwhelming majority of French Muslims support jihad, and especially jihad against Israel, a country they would like to see erased from the face of earth.

Jews are leaving France in record numbers, and these departures do not stop. The rest of the French population clearly sees the extreme seriousness of what is happening. Some of them are angry and in a state of revolt; others seem resigned to the worst: an Islamist takeover of Europe.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm very sorry to hear that.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2016 3:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Find your spines, Frenchies. Round up the vermin and throw them into the sea.
Posted by: Omomort Cheager7040 || 11/26/2016 7:30 Comments || Top||

#3  The US should take in all the refugees being forced out by the Arab/Islamic invasion of Europe.

All the arab/islamic invaders of the US should be deported to Libya or KSA.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/26/2016 7:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Brings to mind France in 1935.
Posted by: Heriberto Greper9897 || 11/26/2016 10:03 Comments || Top||

#5  France today has six million Muslims, 10% of its population, and the percentage is growing.

"Brings to mind FranceUS in 1935 2016"

Can a tidal wave of cultural assimilation be denied or even controlled? Consider music and fashion, apparently the US is no better at it than France.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Fillon could be interesting. Free market and a Catholic conservative. Would prefer him to Marine Le Pen.
Posted by: European Conservative || 11/26/2016 15:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Interestingly, DeGaulle said "After me the abyss" and I wonder if he had a crystal ball when he said that
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/26/2016 15:51 Comments || Top||

#8  I like the motto of 617 Squadron, Après moi le déluge.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/26/2016 16:01 Comments || Top||

#9  The single bright-side of this is, when France goes, it will be a call to those willing to take action elsewhere.
Posted by: Charles || 11/26/2016 21:51 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi massacre
[DAWN] AS the Death Eater 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 gets pounded on the battlefield, it has resorted to a familiar tactic: the mass slaughter of civilians. On Thursday, around 100 pilgrims returning from Arbaeen -- as Imam Hussain’s chehlum is also known -- in Karbala were killed as a massive truck bomb ploughed into buses in the Iraqi town of Hilla. Most of the victims were reportedly Iranian. Between 17 million and 20 million people had gathered in Iraq over the past few weeks to march to Karbala for Arbaeen. Protecting this mass gathering of humanity was indeed a challenge for the Iraqi forces; around 25,000 troops had been dispatched to Karbala for security. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
while the administration managed to protect the holy city, the hard boyz struck a relatively more vulnerable spot. Some commentators have said the Hilla attack could be a diversionary tactic to take attention away from djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, where the Iraqis are leading the operation to liberate this key city from IS clutches. The Iranians are playing a major role in assisting Iraqi forces, which is why, in its claim of responsibility, IS boasted it had targeted Iranians. Another major motivation for the attack is, of course, the rabidly sectarian nature of IS. Earlier this year, after the Iraqi government had freed Fallujah from IS’s grip, the terrorist outfit carried out a devastating bombing targeting a market in Baghdad’s Karrada area. Over 340 people were killed in that atrocity in July.

For Iraq to turn the page on it recent blood-soaked history, it is essential to ensure that IS does not have any space to operate from in the country. In order to prevent more horrific loss of life, the Mosul operation must be taken to a successful conclusion; the administration must remain on guard as IS has pledged to carry out more attacks on Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf. In the aftermath of the Hilla tragedy, Iranian President Rouhani has called for an "all-out fight" against terrorism. Indeed, this is a call that all countries in the region should support. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
for such a fight to be successful, the Syrian quagmire needs to be resolved, as it has become a magnet for hard boy fighters. Naive as it may sound in this world of cunning geopolitics, regional countries as well as global powers must put aside their political differences and concentrate on the defeat of IS for the security of the entire region.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  It's their culture. What right do we westerners have to interfere and try to impose our norms on these people?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2016 3:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Whatever all that blood is nourishing, it sure ain't Jefferson's "tree of liberty..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/26/2016 8:31 Comments || Top||

#3  ISIS sure is enough to make one consider that whole deal about going after families. ISIS needs to be exterminated and that may be the only way to be sure.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 10:36 Comments || Top||

#4  enough to make one consider that whole deal about going after families

Apparently bulldozing their apartments isn't sufficient.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:48 Comments || Top||

#5  In Karbala ripen in autumn
The blood-nourished apples of Sodom.
They're not too nutritious
And taste pretty vicious,
But better not waste 'em -- we bought 'em.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/26/2016 11:35 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Massive explosion rocks city of Gaziantep near border with Syria
[EXPRESS.CO.UK] Witnesses reported a defeaning blast at around 8.20pm GMT, while photos taken at the scene show smoke billowing across the skyline.

The first official report dismissed the explosion as nothing more than the sound of a jet flying at supersonic speed.

It read: "All possible leads for explosion claim investigated and nothing found. Could be jet plane going supersonic."

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Caribbean-Latin America
Colombia FARC leader says will support 2018 president who backs peace
[Al Ahram] Colombia's Marxist FARC will support a presidential candidate in 2018 to prevent a peace accord being modified or scrapped, rebel leader Rodrigo Londono said on Friday, an apparent bid to block former President Alvaro Uribe's right-wing party taking office.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a drug cartel based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border.
signed a peace agreement with the government on Thursday, converting it into a political party that will have some weight when President Juan Manuel Santos stands down.

Speaking to the international press, Londono, 57, said there is a struggle in Colombia between those who want peace and those who want the five-decade war to continue. He agreed there is a risk that a political opponent could seek to alter the accord once in office.

"This is a long-term project. To consolidate peace after over 50 years of confrontation won't be achieved in a few months or years. We think the next government, the next president, should guarantee the continuity of the process," said the veteran fighter, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko.

"It should be a transitional government."

The government and FARC worked for four years in Cuba to negotiate an end to the region's longest-running conflict, which killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions in the Andean nation.

An original draft was rejected in a plebiscite last month as too lenient on the rebels, forcing the two sides back to the negotiating table for a second, slightly modified document.

The still-popular and powerful Uribe spearheaded the push to reject the original accord and wants deeper changes to the new version. He has called for protests and may seek a new referendum to scrap the accord.

Despite widespread relief at an end to the conflict, many among Colombia's largely conservative residents are angry because the deal will not jail FARC leaders who committed crimes like kidnappings and massacres. It also allows them to hold political office.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Castro's dead. Now they want peace.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:20 Comments || Top||

#2  According to polls in Columbia, the citizens feel that there's a shortage of lampposts available to hang enough FARC members. So it might be sticking point.
Posted by: ed in texas || 11/26/2016 13:34 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian rebel group attack Aleppo using chemical weapons
[ARA News]. Aleppo – Syrian Islamist rebels launched on Friday an offensive on a Kurdish district in the northern city of Aleppo, using chemical gas, eyewitnesses and activists reported.

Fighters from the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham –formerly al-Nusra Front– reportedly shelled the Kurdish district with rockets that contained mustard gas.

The offensive killed at least six people, including two children. Also, more than 15 suffocation cases were reported in the Kurdish district subsequent to the attack.

“The wounded were immediately transferred to a makeshift hospital run by the Kurdish Red Crescent in Sheikh Maqsoud,” a local media activist told ARA News.

Doctor Mihemed Hamke, the director of a hospital in Sheikh Maqsoud, said that the initial investigation showed that the victims were exposed to a chemical agent during the shelling on Friday.

“The injured suffered suffocation, skin burning and vomiting. These are obvious symptoms of exposure to mustard gas,” Dr Hamke told ARA News.

Sheikh Maqsoud has been under siege by Syrian Islamists for over three years. Violence has recently intensified in the district as Kurdish People’s Protect Units (YPG) have tried to establish a buffer zone.

“Armed groups surrounding the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo city have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks that have struck civilian homes, streets, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians and displaying a shameful disregard for human life,” Amnesty International said in an earlier report about the developments in the Kurdish district.

This is not the first for the Syrian Islamist rebels to attack Sheikh Maqsoud with chemical weapons.

On March 8, 2016, the same groups hit the Kurdish district with phosphorus agent, causing dozens of casualties among civilians. “Radical groups launched dozens of rockets filled with yellow phosphorus element,” the Kurdish YPG leadership said in a statement at the time.

Human rights activist Rezan Hiddo appealed to the international community and human rights organizations to intervene and stop the fierce attack on the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud.

“We do not see any sympathy with the Kurdish civilians who suffer under those barbaric chemical attacks in Aleppo,” Hiddo told ARA News. “Lives of hundreds of Kurdish children are at risk,” he said, adding that Sheikh Maqsoud district suffers a sharp shortage of medicine.

From Al Manar via Russian Today: Russia: New Evidence of Chemical Warfare against Aleppo Civilians

[AlManar] Russian said on Friday that its military experts have reported finding new evidence of chemical warfare against Syrian civilians in Aleppo.

The Defense Ministry said an unexploded mortar shell uncovered in Aleppo contained mustard gas, Russia Today reported.

Ammunition containing the chemical agent was reportedly used in a devastating attack on a village in the Aleppo province conducted back in September.

“An express-analysis of the contents [of ammunition] carried out using a portable infrared spectrometer revealed the presence of vesicant chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard. We’ve taken roughly a 20 milliliter sample from the shell. Afterwards it was sealed tight and delivered to the Russian Center for reconciliation of opposing sides in the Syrian Arab Republic for further investigation,” a representative for Russian Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RChBD) told journalists.

The recovered chemical round is a crude homemade 240-mm mortar shell, with a capsule in the rear. The capsule contained from 0.5 to 1.5 liters of a black oily liquid, which proved to be a chemical warfare agent.

Over 40 people were injured in the attack they displayed typical symptoms of mustard gas poisoning.

Russian experts previously produced evidence of chemical munitions usage by militants. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that chlorine and white phosphorus had been found in nine samples from southwestern Aleppo.
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


The Grand Turk
Turkey slams Austria’s arms embargo
Turkish Defense Minister has condemned Austria’s arms embargo on Turkey, saying that the decision will fuel motivation in Turkish industry to produce indigenous arms.
What arms does Austria make that Turkey might want?
“We have slammed Austria’s embargo. I am sure that such steps will fuel considerable motivation for Turkey’s defense industry to create indigenous arms,” Fikri Işık said on Nov. 25, adding that Turkey overcame a much severe embargo after the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation.

The National Council of Austria on Nov. 24 unanimously supported a motion for the government to restrict the sale of arms to Turkey, the Austria Press Agency reported.

All six parties to the council backed the nonbinding motion, which urged the government to consider the “threat of armed conflicts” as well as the human rights situation when considering approval of such exports.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  What arms does Austria make that Turkey might want?

Steyr-Mannlicher: small arms, including a well-known assault rifle.

Glock: handguns.

Noricum: artillery and artillery ordnance.

Steyr-Allradtechnik: all-wheel drive trucks and combat vehicles.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 9:58 Comments || Top||


PKK kills Turkish soldier in Diyarkabir
One soldier was killed on Nov. 25 in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the Lice district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Security forces and PKK militants engaged in an armed conflict during an operation in the district. One soldier was heavily wounded during clashes and transferred to the Selahaddin Eyyubi State Hospital in Diyarbakır. He later succumbed to his injuries despite all medical efforts.

The security forces’ operation to apprehend PKK militants in the region is ongoing.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Residents of jihadist-held suburb protest against the war and demand peace
[ALMASDARNEWS] Residents of the al-Tal suburb in west Damascus flooded the streets on Friday to protest against the war between jihadist rebels and Syrian Arab Army (SAA).

The protesters in al-Tal, who are likely anti-government, demanded both sides reconcile and put an end to the war inside this suburb.

Video footage of this demonstration was captured by local residents on Friday afternoon; it shows the protesters chanting for peace inside al-Tal
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syrian Army regulars advance in Aleppo
How many times have we seen this news in the last six months?
ALEPPO, SYRIA: The Syrian army Friday advanced in Aleppo after pounding the city’s rebel-held east with air strikes and shelling that killed dozens, adding to the despair of more than 250,000 civilians under siege.

The US military, meanwhile, announced its first combat loss in Syria, saying a service member had been killed by a bomb during an offensive against the Daesh jihadist group.

Ten days into the latest government offensive to recapture all of Syria’s battered second city Aleppo, regime bombardment has killed nearly 190 civilians, according to a monitoring group.

The capture of east Aleppo would represent the regime’s biggest victory in Syria’s five-year civil war, dealing a potentially decisive blow to the rebels.

On Friday, regime forces pounded several eastern districts with air strikes, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Clashes also rocked Masaken Hanano, east Aleppo’s largest district, more than 60 percent of which is now under the control of regime forces, the monitor said.

State television said army units were advancing into Masaken Hanano “from three axes.”

Civilians in the east have been under army siege since July, with food and fuel supplies dwindling and international aid completely exhausted.

The Observatory said four children fled Friday to Sheikh Maqsud, a Kurdish-controlled enclave between the government-held west of Aleppo and the east.

But rebels prevented “dozens of families” from Bustan Al-Basha from leaving, it said.

And regime raids on two villages west of Aleppo killed at least 15 civilians on Friday, four of them children, according to the Observatory.

Damascus says residents and surrendering fighters are free to leave, and accuses the rebels of preventing civilians from doing so and of using them as “human shields.”

Residents of eastern Aleppo endured a brutal night of bombardment Thursday during which 32 civilians, including five children, were killed in air strikes and artillery fire.

“I’m terrified by the army’s advance and the increasing bombardment,” said Abu Raed, a father-of-four living in Fardos neighborhood. “There’s no safe place for me and my family.”

On Thursday night, rescue workers in several parts of the east battled to extricate civilians trapped under the rubble of bombed buildings.

In Bab Al-Nayrab, an AFP cameraman saw rescuers battle for more than an hour to pull out a seriously wounded boy. The lower part of his body was trapped and the back of his head badly gashed. He cried out “father, father,” as the rescuers used pickaxes to break up the concrete surrounding him.

“Living under these circumstances is unbearable,” said 43-year-old Mohammed Haj Hussein, in Tariq Al-Bab district. “There’s no work, there’s no food, and the bombing is incessant... I want to get out of here by any means possible.”

Abu Hussein, speaking from Bab Al-Nayrab district, added: “I don’t know what the UN is waiting for. Why don’t they at least evacuate the children and women?“

Retaliatory rocket fire by the rebels has killed at least 18 civilians in the government-held west, 10 of them children, according to the Observatory.

The UN says it has a plan to deliver aid to Aleppo and evacuate the sick and wounded that rebel factions have approved. But Damascus has yet to agree, and additional guarantees are needed from Moscow, UN officials say.

On Thursday, the head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, warned there was no plan B to help civilians in east Aleppo.

“In many ways plan B is that people starve, and can we allow that to happen? No we cannot,” he said.

Further east, in Raqqa province, where a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters is battling Daesh, Washington suffered its first combat loss in Syria, the coalition announced. It said the service member died on Thursday from wounds caused by an improvised bomb near the town of Ain Issa.

US special forces are on the ground in the area supporting an offensive to retake the city of Raqqa, the jihadists’ de facto Syrian capital.

The death came as Americans celebrated their Thanksgiving holiday.
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Government
Trump speaks with leaders of five nations, his team says
[Al Ahram] U.S. President-elect Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
has recently spoken with the leaders of Greece, Hungary, Panama, Slovenia and Sweden, his transition team said in a statement on Friday. The leaders of the five nations talked to Trump in recent days and congratulated the Republican on his Nov. 8 victory in the U.S. presidential election, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what was said?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2016 3:23 Comments || Top||

#2  "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes....."
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/26/2016 3:28 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder what was said?

Quite a bit about continued economic support I expect.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Six if you count California...
Posted by: ed in texas || 11/26/2016 13:36 Comments || Top||

#5  We still have diplomatic ties with California?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/26/2016 13:42 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Passenger trains collide in Iran, at least 40 killed
[Al Ahram] At least 40 people were killed and 100 injured when one Iranian passenger train collided with another at a station about 150 miles (250 km) east of the capital Tehran, and the corpse count is likely to rise, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.

President Hassan Rouhani ordered an acceleration of rescue efforts as well as an investigation into the cause of the deadly crash in the northern province of Semnan.

Video footage showed four derailed carriages, two of them on fire. A front man for Iran's Red Islamic Thingy, Mostafa Mortazavi, told the semi-official Fars news agency that firefighters were trying to control the blaze.

"I was sleeping when the crash happened. I thought it was an air strike ... When I opened my eyes, there was blood everywhere," a hospitalised passenger said.

Fars quoted Semnan provincial governor Mohammad Reza Khabbaz as saying the corpse count was expected to increase. The governor of Tabriz told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that the moving train had 400 passengers on board. It was not clear how many passengers had been on the second train. Fars had earlier said 100 had been rescued.

"Out of the 400 passengers ... 48 are missing. They might be hospitalised or left the area... but there is a high possibility that they were killed," Rahim Shohratifar told Tasnim.

The semi-official Mehr news agency said four of the dead were railway employees aboard the trains.

Khabbaz told Iranian television it appeared that a train entering the Haft-Khan station on the outskirts of Shahroud ploughed into another that had broken down there.

"The initial investigation suggests that a mechanical failure, possibly caused by cold weather, forced the express train, operating between the cities of Tabriz and Mashhad to stop (at Haft-Khan)," Khabbaz said.

A local official told state TV that the remote location of the crash had slowed rescue efforts. "So far only one helicopter has reached the scene because of access difficulties," said local Red Islamic Thingy chief Hasan Shokrollahi.

Iran's rail network aged badly under economic sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear programme, making it difficult to modernise rolling stock, and safety standards suffered.

The sanctions were lifted in January after Iran reached a deal with world powers to limit its nuclear activity.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Iran's rail network aged badly under economic sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear programme, making it difficult to modernise rolling stock, and safety standards suffered.

No mention of graft and general laxness?
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Both pilots doing the headbump?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Didn't see the red signal protecting the stopped train? Stopped train's flagman didn't go back to protect the train? Never heard of western safety standards?
Posted by: Bobby || 11/26/2016 12:35 Comments || Top||


Iraq
The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi Edition

ISIS continues its war on civilians in Mosul

Erbil – (Reuters) A medic peeled blood-soaked bandages from the arm of a boy in the emergency room of a hospital in northern Iraq, revealing the full extent of the damage inflicted by an Islamic State mortar attack.

“Is something wrong with my hand?” the boy asked his father, who stood over the stretcher covering his son’s eyes to prevent him seeing the wound.

“It’s nothing, just a small wound,” replied the father, Abu Nidal, as the medic inspected the mangled remains of the boy’s hand, maimed beyond repair.

Around them were dozens of other civilians who have been wounded in areas of Mosul since they were retaken from Islamic State by Iraqi forces trying to dislodge the militants from their largest urban stronghold in Iraq.

The civilians say are not accidental victims caught in the crossfire and that Islamic State has been targeting them.

“In any area liberated by the army, Daesh (Islamic State)considers us apostates, so it is permissible to kill us,” said the boy’s father, who asked not to be identified.

His son had insisted on accompanying him to buy flour at a market in the Zahra neighborhood of Mosul when a mortar bomb hit them, nearly three weeks after Iraqi forces entered the district.

As Iraqi forces edge forward in Mosul’s eastern districts, taking pains to avoid harming civilians, Islamic State mortar and sniper fire is hitting the people it ruled harshly for more than two years.

With more than 100,000 men backed by an international coalition arrayed against an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 insurgents inside the city, there is little doubt Iraqi forces will eventually prevail. The question is at what cost.

PRICE OF FREEDOM
An average of 100 casualties are arriving each day at the hospital in the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, where those with wounds too serious to be treated at field clinics on Mosul’s outskirts are rushed, a hospital administrator said.

In the burns unit, a 28-year old woman lay wrapped in bandages, only part of her face showing. Ten days after the army retook her neighborhood, she was making bread when her stove was knocked over during a mortar attack and she was set ablaze.

“They (Islamic State) harmed us after the liberation,” she said in a weak voice.

About 70,000 of Mosul’s estimated population of 1 million have fled to camps in the surrounding area, according to U.N. figures, but the majority have remained in their homes.

“We decided to stay because my mother and father are ill and it’s hard to live in a camp,” said 42-year old Abu Abd al-Rahman. That decision cost him a leg, he said, folding back a blanket to show a stump below the knee.

“May God take revenge on them,” he said.

Despite the growing number of casualties, the wounded praised the conduct of the Iraqi security forces and said it was a price worth paying to be free again from Islamic State.

“We are happy to be liberated, but Daesh spoiled it,” said 38-year-old Abu Ahmed, a blanket covering a leg wound after he was shot by a sniper. “They have no mercy”.

Across the corridor was Ziyad Younis, who buried his elder brother en route to the hospital. He is now tending to a nephew wounded in a mortar attack as he had breakfast.

“Our one hope was to be liberated; we didn’t expect it to be like this,” he said.
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Government
Trump names Don McGahn as White House Counsel
[Al Ahram] U.S. President-elect Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
has chosen Don McGahn, a well-known campaign finance lawyer, as his White House counsel and K.T. McFarland, a national security analyst, to be his deputy national security adviser, a transition official said on Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar 'turned away by Bangladesh'
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar where they have been attacked by security forces are being pushed back by the Bangladeshi authorities, according to Amnesty International. Those that do make it to makeshift camps in the town of Cox’s Bazaar are facing shortages of food and water, and some are suffering from severe malnutrition.

The Rohingya are fleeing military operations in Myanmar in which scores of people have been killed and as many as 30,000 displaced. The attacks are in reprisal for an assault on three border posts last month that left nine Myanmar police officers dead, but the Rohingya have been persecuted in the country for years.

Bangladeshi border guards have detained and forcibly returned hundreds of people, Amnesty said on Friday. The actions were in violation of international law, which prohibits the return of people to a country or place where they are at serious risk, it added.

“The Rohingya are being squeezed by the callous actions of both the Burmese [Myanmar] and Bangladesh authorities,” said Champa Patel, Amnesty’s South Asia director.

“Fleeing collective punishment in Burma, they are being pushed back by the Bangladesh authorities. Trapped between these cruel fates, their desperate need for food, water and medical care is not being addressed.”

She added: “The Bangladeshi government must not add to the suffering of the Rohingya. They should be recognised and protected as refugees fleeing persecution, not punished for who they are.”
As if Bangladesh doesn't have enough problems. Who exactly pays to maintain the refugees?
Earlier this week, a senior UN official, John McKissick, accused Myanmar of seeking to ethnically cleanse the country of its Muslim minority.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, has been criticised for not doing more to end the military actions, which – according to witness accounts given to Amnesty – include firing at villagers from helicopter gunships, torching hundreds of homes, carrying out arbitrary arrests and raping women and girls.

The Myanmar government has denied allegations of human rights violations by the military and has accused “Rohingya lobbyists” of disseminating fabricated accounts. Access to the area for aid workers, human rights monitors and independent journalists is effectively barred, said Amnesty.

There are about 1 million Rohingya in Myanmar who are denied citizenship. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh, many of whom live in camps in Cox’s Bazaar. The Bangladesh government has refused to grant refugee status to Rohingya arriving from Myanmar since 1992.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
At least five killed, 27 wounded in Afghan triple bombing
[Al Ahram] At least five people were killed and 27 others maimed in a triple bombing in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province Friday, provincial officials said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the three bombings in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, which is a hotbed of IS militancy.

"Five people were martyred in three kabooms in different parts of Jalalabad of Nangarhar province this morning," provincial front man Ataullah Khogyani told AFP.

Khogyani said the first blast was a roadside kaboom which detonated outside the house of a senior prison official, Abdul Hakim, killing him and a child and wounding six others.

The second blast came outside the fire brigade office -- from where the first rescuers are usually dispatched after an attack -- killing three and wounding 21.

Khogyani said the third blast came as people gathered at Hakim's house after the first blast, but there were no casualties.

Dr Najib Kamawal, director of the Nangarhar civil hospital confirmed the toll.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraq
Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces in Iran’s game plan
As Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have been closing in on Tal Afar, a town 33 miles west of Mosul, through the western Mosul axis, the organization’s top commanders have openly discussed their post-Islamic State plans to secure the border with Syria and push into the country. These senior militia commanders are closely affiliated and coordinated with Iran.

The spokesman of Iranian-backed Harakat al Nujaba vowed on Nov. 18 that the PMF, as “one of Iraq’s security institutions,” was ready to pursue the Islamic State into Syria per the request of the Syrian government and the approval of the Iraqi government and parliament.

On Nov. 16, Iranian-backed Badr Organization leader Hadi al Ameri told the press in Baghdad that Damascus had requested the PMF to deploy to Syria following the expulsion of the Islamic State from Iraq, and that the PMF would establish security by the border area, according to statements carried in Al Waght. Iraq’s Prime Minister Hayder al Abadi echoed Ameri on border security on the same day, and had announced to the media earlier that Baghdad and Damascus were coordinated for exerting border control. Abadi, however, did not immediately comment on deployment to Syria.

The PMF is a 120,000-strong army with at least 80,000 fighting under the banners of Iranian-backed militias. It is a valuable pool of manpower and recruits for Iranian-led operations. The PMF’s planned moves to establish presence by the border with Syria and shift into the war there reflect important components of Tehran’s long-term strategies in Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, the PMF seeks to cement itself as a fabric of the state. The Iraqi Prime Minister’s order this past year to establish the PMF as an independent military institution in an effort to exercise more control already legitimizes their continued existence beyond the 2014 mandate based on the fatwa of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to drive the Islamic State from Iraq. That threat is pressing as long as the group controls Raqqa and has a presence in Iraq. Unless Iraq can train between 50,000 – 100,000 troops, which it does not appear to have the will nor means to effectively do so, the PMF can make a strong case that its mandate is unfulfilled and that it fills security voids, pushing back against calls from certain quarters for dissolution and disarming.

The PMF’s mentors, the IRGC in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have reinterpreted their respective raison d’etre of guarding the revolution and resisting Israel – both entities have transformed over the course of decades into dominant military institutions with political, economic, and cultural influence. The PMF has similar aspirations to ascend in Iraq, and its key leaders who are beholden to Iran see themselves as part of the “Axis of Resistance” led by the Islamic Republic
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Terror Networks
Hezbollah Leader: Donald Trump Is ‘Racist’
[BREITBART] The number 2 leader of Shiite Iran narco-terrorist proxy Hezbollah, echoing other jihadist groups, has denounced President-elect Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
as "racist."
What on earth does such a word mean to Hizb'allah, predicated as it is on being the master version of the Master Religion, fated to rule all mankind?
In an interview with Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency, Sheikh Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
, Hezbollah’s second-in-command, noted that the protests against Trump show the United States in a "real crisis."

"The demonstrations will change equations in the U.S., and the new president might withdraw from implementation of some of his decisions," he added.

The leader of Hezbollah, based in Leb, argued that Trump’s plans for the United States would spell trouble for everyone.

Trump has vowed to take a stronger stance against Hezbollah’s benefactor Iran and Islamic terrorist organizations.

Qassem suggested that whoever becomes president in Iran, the Islamic Theocratic Republic will continue to provide funding to the terrorist group Hezbollah.

The United States has officially designated the Shiite group a terrorist organization.

Qassem’s accusation that Trump is "racist" is consistent with comments by other radical Islamic terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda and the Moslem Brüderbund (MB), in response to the results of the U.S. presidential election.

MB, which has been praised by Democrats President Barack Obama
teachable moment...
and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton
... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, sometimes described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as a crook...
, denounced "racist" Trump’s victory over the former secretary of state as a "disaster" for the Arab and Moslem world.

Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a jihadist who has nearly 60,000 followers on Twitter, gloated about Trump’s victory over the Democrats, suggesting that it "may be the beginning of America’s fragmentation and the era of its breakup."

He also tweeted that the the election of Trump "reveals the true mentality of the Americans, and their racism toward Moslems and Arabs and everything. He reveals what his predecessors used to conceal. So his victory further exposes America and its appendages."

Moreover, a Yemen-based newspaper affiliated with al-Qaeda, Al Masra, has accused Trump’s choice for White House strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, of being racist.

Bannon is the the former executive chairman of Breitbart News and host of Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125.

"He has already published racist titles against women, Jews, and Moslems. Bannon has changed Breitbart website into far-right forum for Neo-Nazis groups who believes in the white race supremacy and anti-Semitism," reported al-Qaeda’s newspaper, warning that Bannon would bring "white race supremacy" into the White House.

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Auditioning for his next job as a "The View" panelist.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 11/26/2016 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  From the mouths of the M. Brotherhood. And the NAACP and SPLC. All funded by...
Posted by: jvalentour || 11/26/2016 1:42 Comments || Top||

#3  What on earth does such a word mean to Hizb'allah, predicated as it is on being the master version of the Master Religion, fated to rule all mankind?

Experience shows that the word (whatever it means) evokes desirable response in members of Western elites when applied to common enemies.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/26/2016 3:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Wonder how many times he voted too. Appears he's a Democrat.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2016 8:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Why would anyone care what a Muslim thinks in regard to morality? Fuck them.
Posted by: Crusader || 11/26/2016 21:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Wasn't aware "Muslim" was a race...
Posted by: Charles || 11/26/2016 21:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, the meaning of Iran is "The Race", so always remember tho the accuser is.
Usually a racist.

Is that A worst sin? Not hardly.
BEARING FALSE WITNESS IS
Posted by: newc || 11/26/2016 23:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Master! The Shia nation of Aryan is calling everyone else racist too.

...
Posted by: newc || 11/26/2016 23:13 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Suspected Ruritanian U.S. warplanes bomb Shaboob camps in Qoryoley
Suspected Ruritanian U.S. military jets have launched an airstrike on Al Shabaab training camps in southern Somalia on Friday, and officials and local residents said.

After the air raid, foreign troops backed by Somali commandos units swooped into Dugulle area, about 48Km away from the southern town of Qoryoley in Lower Shabelle region, sources said. The allied troops were reportedly encountered a resistance as they engaged in a fierce gunfight with the Al Qaeda-linked Al shabaab fighters in the area.

A local resident in Dugulle told Radio Shabelle that they could heard intense gunfire and explosions as a result of the airstrike and the ground combat. The aerial bombardment has sent a thick plume of smoke billowing into the air, he added.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa Subsaharan
ISIS-aligned Boko Haram block aid to thousands of desperate refugees
[ALMASDARNEWS] The United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
has said that ISIS-aligned Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
bully boyz are not allowing humanitarian operations aimed for tens of thousands of Nigerian refugees living in northern Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
Leo Dobbs, a UN front man, said a team had able to pre-register more than 21,000 refugees who had fled Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.

"It was the first time we have been able to visit these people and there are believed to be many more," he said.

Dobbs said the refugees in northern Cameroon "urgently need assistance."

Dobbs continued by saying that the UNHCR "would like to help and have helped in a little way, but the continuing Boko Haram threat is a hindrance to regular access."

Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


-Land of the Free
This Week in Guns, November 26th, 2016


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A push is on nationwide to change the National Firearms Act to deregulate sales of silencers. I have been reading about this for a while, and while I offered nothing in commentary, I do have an opinion about it.

The most recent news is that the USMC is considering equipping entire rifle units with silencers.

Professionals use silencers, as in special operations people. The silencer reduces muzzle flash in some cases and reduces sound. The argument for legalizing silencers for the civilian shooter is the health and safety benefit of reducing noise exposure.

As I understand it, silencers are most effective when coupled with subsonic munitions. Watching videos a few years back, I recall one in which the shooter was demonstrating his silencer before a crowd at a range, first firing regular 5.56x45mm rounds with slightly reduced noise, and then using subsonic cartridges for a profound reduction in noise.

But using a silencer comes at a cost. Silencers reduced the muzzle velocity of the round being fired. If you plan to use a silencer when hunting, you will receive, in my opinion, very little advantage outside of the noise reduction. A round fired from a rifle fitted with a silencer will have its impact and penetration reduced.

Another cost is operation. Very few semiautomatic rifles can handle subsonic munitions. Firing a round from an off the shelf semiautomatic forces the operator in some cases to manually cycle the feed. If you are hunting for that one kill shot against game, it's not a problem.

The most vexing problem is re-zeroing your rifle to take advantage of the silencer. Some ARs, such as the A3 models are made without any sights at all. The owner/user has to install his own sights, then zero into the rifle to as small a cone as possible, then adjust the zero at a rifle range.

It ain't like Hollywood where you slap on the trusty, rusty suppressor in the field, then go shooting bad guys. It takes work and planning.

Professionals using suppressors are trained in its use to get the greatest tactical advantage in the noise reduction rating. That said, you can still hear the rifle being fired.

Don't read all this as an opinion against silencers. If you got the money, honey, etc.

And then there's this.

Loads.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Prices for pistol ammunition were steady. Prices for rifle ammunition were mixed.

Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mixed.

New Lows:

Virginia: .223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic): ATI Omni Hybrid Limited Max: $465

Pistol Ammunition

.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo Mart, Buffalo Cartridge, RSFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))

9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Red River Reloading & Outdoors, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .16 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel casing, .16 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))

.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel casing, .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))

.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: +.04 Each (!)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Sportsman's Outdoor Superstore, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .40 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: AmmoLiquidator, Century Hotshot, FMJ, Steel Casing, .41 per round (From Last Week: +.05 Each (!))

7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition Depot, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .24 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged)

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammo Fast, Aguila, RNL, .07 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Ammomen, Aguila, RNL, .07 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles


.223/5.56mm (AR Patte$555rn Semiautomatic) Average Price: $490 Last Week Avg: $550(-) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $476 (3Q, 2015))
California (322, 287): Del-ton: $560 ($650 (1Q, 2015), $400 (2Q, 2016))
Texas (286, 258): Diamondback: $475 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (155, 146): Palmetto State Armory: $475 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (202, 196): ATI Omni Hybrid Limited Max: $465 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $465 (CA: $475 (28 Weeks)))
Florida (383, 381): Spikes Tactical: $475 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,145 Last Week Avg: $1,030(+) ($1,359 (2Q, 2015), $820 (3Q, 2015))
California (87, 90): Mixed Build: $950 ($1,700 (4Q, 2014), $850 (3Q, 2015))
Texas (90, 94): Bushmaster: $1,050 ($1,500 (4Q, 2014), $700 (18 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (21, 20): DPMS: $1,500 ($1,600 (2 Weeks), $700 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (48, 47): Rock River Arms LAR8: $1,500 ($2,750 (44 Weeks), $800 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (76, 68): DPMS LR-308 Sportical: $725 ($1,950 (30 Weeks), $500 (3Q, 2015))

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $570 Last Week Avg: $595(-) ($668 (19 Weeks)), $450 (3Q, 2015))
California (86, 75): Century RAS47: $650 ($800 (25 Weeks)), $320 (4Q, 2014))
Texas (81, 83): AMD 65: $625 ($800 (45 Weeks), $350 (3Q, 2014))
Pennsylvania (43, 42): IO: $500 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $375 (1Q, 2015))
Virginia (53, 44): IO: $600 ($700 (25 Weeks), $350 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (94, 95): CAI N-PAP M70: $475 ($700 (38 Weeks), $300 (4Q, 2014))

30-30 Winchester Lever Action Average Price: $337 Last Week Avg: $406(-) ($495 (7 Weeks), $296 (3Q, 2015))
California (0, 0): None Available: $0 ($1,000 (5 Weeks), $180 (2Q, 2015))
Texas (16, 16): Marlin: $400 ($550 (1Q, 2015), $300 (1Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (15, 17): Winchester 94: $350 ($450 (1Q, 2015), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Virginia (9, 9): Marlin 336: $300 ($670 (29 Weeks)), $250 (51 Weeks))
Florida (23, 22): Marlin 336: $300 ($500 (1Q, 2015), $250 (2Q, 2015))

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $385 Last Week Avg: $409(-) ($515 (16 Weeks)), $350 (4Q, 2015))
California (213, 207): Rock Island Armory: $495 ($800 (16 Weeks), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Texas (236, 244): Llama Especial: $400 ($600 (4Q, 2014), $325 (3Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (160, 155): American Tactical Imports: $330 ($550 (2Q, 2015), $300 (2Q, 2015))
Virginia (162, 150): Interarms 1911-A1: $300 ($575 (43 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Florida (363, 350): Springfield: $400 ($500 (42 Weeks), $250 (1Q, 2015))

9mm (Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic) Average Price: $261 Last Week Avg: $253(+) ($358 (39 Weeks), $245 (31 Weeks))
California (263, 258): Kel Tec P11: $315 ($500 (39 Weeks), $200 (4Q, 2015))
Texas (347, 333): Smith & Wesson SD9VE: $250 ($355 (1Q, 2015), $200 (3Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (293, 287): Sccy CPX-2 : $200 ($350 (4Q 2014), $200 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (259, 243): Glock 34: $290 ($425 (47 Weeks), $189 (34 Weeks))
Florida (600, 565): Bersa BP9: $250 ($400 (36 Weeks), $190 (16 Weeks))

.40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic) Average Price: $274 Last Week Avg: $321(-) ($399 (44 Weeks), $262 (24 Weeks))
California (87, 88): Mauser: $350 ($560 (46 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Texas (126, 121): Walther PPQ: $250 ($425 (4Q, 2014), ($210 (9 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (99, 101): Taurus PT140: $200 ($450 (33 Weeks), $200 (13 Weeks))
Virginia (67, 62): Smith & Wesson SD40VE: $290 ($450 (2Q, 2015)c $275 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (161, 156): Smith & Wesson M&P40C: $280 ($400 (1Q, 2015), $199 (4Q, 2015))

Used Gun of the Week: (South Carolina)
Smith & Wesson revolver Chambered in .32 Long
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks, Chris, for the good balanced article on silencers. Like my late dad used to say, "it's not the answer to a maiden's prayer." It's a tool for appropriate applications.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/26/2016 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  The argument for legalizing silencers for the civilian shooter is the health and safety benefit of reducing noise exposure.

I'm reminded of the Nyclad bullet and it's introduction to reduce lead pollution on indoor ranges. Homegrowns quickly moved to a Teflon coating in hopes of increased penetration.

I expect the single pulse/reaction mass issue will quickly be addressed once the $200 tax stamp registration requirement is removed.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:45 Comments || Top||

#3  And great video clip, Bad.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Granted, it's just symantecs but the correct term is "suppressor" not "silencer". This may sound trivial but the anti-gun factions continue to perpetuate the vision of Hollywood assassins as a way to limit the commercial sale of these tools.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 11/26/2016 12:08 Comments || Top||

#5  #4 DepotGuy
You are right about the correct term being suppressor. I yam corrected.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/26/2016 14:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Just semantics...
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2016 16:06 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Mosul Offensive News
Iraqi militia commences fifth phase of offensive operations

Nineveh – (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Sha’bi popular militias announced Friday the beginning of a fifth decisive phase of its advancement towards the strategic, Islamic-State-held town of Tal Afar, Nineveh.

The militia’s media service said Friday it had liberated the village of al-Aazal, west of Mosul, as operations launched.

The latest phase, which concluded on Wednesday, had seen the mostly-Shia militia consummating a siege on the city and liberating several villages on its outskirts after taking control of its vital military airport. Its commanders said the fifth phase would see the troops advancing further towards the center of Tal Afar.

A spokesperson for Asaeb Ahl al-Haq, a component of al-Hashed al-Sha’bi, said in a statement that the current stage of operations are specifically targeting the Tal Abta neighborhood. He said his troops had managed to take over the villages of Um Nekheila and Toffaha as operations proceeded.

Tal Afar has been a concern for Turkey which had said it feared that Shia paramilitary forces engaged in combat, most notably al-Hashed al-Shaabi, could carry out retaliatory measures against Sunni Turkmen residents of the town.
Turkey has demanded the government in Baghdad to ensure that the militias stop at the siege on Tal Afar airport.

The takeover of Tal Afar airport represents a major victory for the militias as it stands as a vital step towards the liberation of the whole town and cutting the last ISIS supply corridor to Syria.

Iraqi militia captures villages in Tal Afar

Nineveh – (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Sha’bi militias said Friday they had recaptured one more village on its way to liberating the strategic town of Tal Afar, Nineveh, from Islamic State militants.

The militia’s media service said they took over the village of Khodeir southwest of Tal Afar. “Al-Hashd has engaged in ferocious fights with ISIS elements,” adding that the group uses civilians as human shields.

“Al-Hashd had also brought down an ISIS-run drone in Um Nekheila village, and also destroyed two booby-trapped vehicles.”

Earlier today, the militia announced the beginning of a fifth decisive phase of its advancement towards the town, beginning the operation with liberating the village of al-Aazal, west of Mosul.

The latest phase, which concluded on Wednesday, had seen the mostly-Shia militia consummating a siege on the city and liberating several villages on its outskirts after taking control of its vital military airport. Its commanders said the fifth phase would see the troops advancing further towards the center of Tal Afar.

A spokesperson for Asaeb Ahl al-Haq, a component of al-Hashed al-Sha’bi, said in a statement that the current stage of operations are specifically targeting the Tal Abta neighborhood. He said his troops had managed to take over the villages of Um Nekheila and Toffaha as operations proceeded.

Tal Afar has been a concern for Turkey which had said it feared that Shia paramilitary forces engaged in combat, most notably al-Hashed al-Shaabi, could carry out retaliatory measures against Sunni Turkmen residents of the town.
Turkey has demanded the government in Baghdad to ensure that the militias stop at the siege on Tal Afar airport.

The takeover of Tal Afar airport represents a major victory for the militias as it stands as a vital step towards the liberation of the whole town and cutting the last ISIS supply corridor to Syria.

50 ISIS Turbans eat it near Mosul

Nineveh – (IraqiNews.com) Fifty Islamic State militants were killed and 32 others were arrested on Friday as Iraqi Federal Police proceed with operations to liberate area south of Mosul.

A statement by the police service said operations have also resulted into the destruction of four barracks, adding that efforts continue to comb the villages recaptured over the past few days, presumably from booby-traps and landmines.

Iraqi joint police and army forces, assisted by US-led international forces and popular militias, have been in battles with ISIS in Mosul, the extremist group’s last bastion in Iraq, since operations kicked off in mid October.

Battles and military advancements from all directions over the past week have effectively isolated the province of Nineveh from the rest of Iraq, as well as cut ISIS’s vital supply lines from Syria.

According to statements by the Iraqi Interior Ministry and the US-led international coalition, at least 1500 ISIS fighters have been killed since operations to recapture Mosul launched.

Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Baghdad Bomb and Bullet Bulletin: 2 die


2 die in bomb attack in Hussainiya

Baghdad – (IraqiNews.com) Two people were killed and six others were wounded when an IED blast rocked a commercial area north of Baghdad.

Jordan’s news agency, Petra, quoted a Baghdad police officer as saying that the bomb went off near a commercial area in Hussainiya, 10 Km from Baghdad.

Security forces cordoned the area off and victims were taken to hospitals, according to the officer.

Iraq has seen a surge in violent attacks since Islamic State militant captured large areas of the country in 2014. The United Nations said earlier this month that 58000 people died due to violence since then.

ISIS is currently struggling to defend Mosul, its last strategic foothold in Iraq, against continuous, successful advancements by Iraqi security forces and popular militias. With attacks carried out at several areas other than Mosul, supposedly by ISIS, observers and security officials believe the extremist group is trying to divert attention from its defeats in Mosul as well as to distract the focus of the assaulting security troops.
Posted by: badanov || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: WoT
One by One, ISIS Social Media Experts Are Killed as Result of F.B.I. Program
Superb piece in the NYT -- yes, that NYT -- about a program you haven't heard of and perhaps shouldn't be hearing about. But since it's in the NYT now you can read it. Just the first few paragraphs here to whet your appetite.
In the summer of 2015, armed American drones over eastern Syria stalked Junaid Hussain, an influential hacker and recruiter for the Islamic State.

For weeks, Mr. Hussain was careful to keep his young stepson by his side, and the drones held their fire. But late one night, Mr. Hussain left an internet cafe alone, and minutes later a Hellfire missile killed him as he walked between two buildings in Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State’s de facto capital.

Mr. Hussain, a 21-year-old from Birmingham, England, was a leader of a band of English-speaking computer specialists who had given a far-reaching megaphone to Islamic State propaganda and exhorted online followers to carry out attacks in the West. One by one, American and allied forces have killed the most important of roughly a dozen members of the cell, which the F.B.I. calls “the Legion,” as part of a secretive campaign that has largely silenced a powerful voice that led to a surge of counterterrorism activity across the United States in 2015 as young men and women came under the influence of its propaganda.

American military, intelligence and law enforcement officials acknowledge that the Islamic State still retains a sophisticated social media arm that could still inspire attacks like those in San Bernardino, Calif., and in Orlando, Fla., and remains a potent foe suspected of maintaining clandestine cells in Europe. But they point to the coordinated effort against the Legion as evidence of the success the United States has had in reducing the Islamic State’s ability to direct, enable or inspire attacks against the West.

Initially the threat posed by the Legion was primarily seen as a problem for law enforcement officials. But as the threat worsened last year, and the F.B.I. stepped up the monitoring of terrorism suspects around the country, the bureau pressed the military to focus on the group, according to current and former American officials.

While American and British forces conducted a series of drone strikes on members of the group, the F.B.I. sifted through thousands of the Legion’s followers on social media to figure out who had actually been inspired to take action. In the last two years, it has arrested nearly 100 people in cases involving the terrorist group.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  One bad guy, one Hellfire missle. $70,000 per shot is certainly one way to bust a budget.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/26/2016 7:23 Comments || Top||

#2  "...roughly a dozen members of the cell..." Killed one a year since the cell's founding. Par for the FBI course.
Posted by: Heriberto Greper9897 || 11/26/2016 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Takes that long (and costs more than $70k) to filter through the layers of lawyers.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/26/2016 9:41 Comments || Top||

#4  compare the cost of that vs the "arrest, incarceration and trial" method.

Trump may not be so soft toward the human shields of mass murder promoting psychopaths.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 11/26/2016 10:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm really kind of partial to the .50 caliber aneurysm myself.

But Pappy's critique would probably make that moot.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/26/2016 11:04 Comments || Top||

#6  I wonder if someone's tried putting a stabilized M2 on a drone. Gotta be cheaper than wasting anti-tank munitions on them.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/26/2016 13:29 Comments || Top||

#7  I do have to wonder just how much Law-fare the new leadership will put up with. Most of the mentioned DoD NSS Advisor and DCI leadership names being bandied about do not come to mind as the sort of persons who want JAG calling the shots, and tactical ROE field decisions made and critiqued from desk jockeys in the pentagon.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/26/2016 22:30 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Two wanted militants gunned down in southern Thailand
[Bangkok Post] Two militants wanted on a number of arrest warrants were shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with rangers in Yala province around noon on Friday. The clash broke out shortly after the two men aboard a motorcycle refused to stop for a search at a security checkpoint in Raman district. The two fired shots at the rangers, who returned fire and killed them.

The pair were identified as Masupiyan Yakumor, wanted for murder and attempted murder and separatist activities in Raman and Bacho districts. The rangers had set up checkpoints on local roads after receiving information from area residents that militants were active at Ban Aekaeng village.

Authorities believe the duo were in the area planning attacks.
Posted by: ryuge || 11/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency



Who's in the News
20[untagged]
9Islamic State
7Sublime Porte
3Govt of Pakistan
3Commies
3Govt of Iran
3Govt of Syria
3Houthis
3Taliban
2al-Qaeda
2al-Shabaab
2al-Nusra
1Thai Insurgency
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Boko Haram
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Abu Sayyaf
1Hezbollah

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On Sale now!


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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
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trailing wife
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2016-11-26
  Fidel Castro dies aged 90
Fri 2016-11-25
  Suicide truck bomb kills about 100 in Iraq, mostly Iranian pilgrims
Thu 2016-11-24
  Wayne State University police officer dies after being shot in head
Wed 2016-11-23
  ISIS ‘resisting till their last breath’ in Sirte, Libya
Tue 2016-11-22
  ISIS claims responsibility behind Kabul mosque bombing that left 32 dead
Mon 2016-11-21
  Turkey’s Erdogan warns NATO on sheltering ‘terrorist’ plotters
Sun 2016-11-20
  Three Pakistani Men Apprehended in U.S. at Arizona Border
Sat 2016-11-19
  Taliban shadow governor among 11 killed in North of Afghanistan
Fri 2016-11-18
  Haftar forces claim victory in Benghazi
Thu 2016-11-17
  Final 3 Minnesota men sentenced in Islamic State case
Wed 2016-11-16
  Police make raids against suspected 'IS' supporters across 10 states in Germany
Tue 2016-11-15
  167 ISIS Turbans die in rebel combat operations in Raqqa
Mon 2016-11-14
  Turkey backed rebel units close on Al-Bab
Sun 2016-11-13
  Rangers kill Jundallah chief in Hub
Sat 2016-11-12
  Iraqi forces massing to break into Mosul airport

Better than the average link...



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