A lawyer for Naked Capitalism accuses WaPo of running a debunked list of “fake news” sites in the “sensational” story compiled by a dubious team of researchers, without substantiating their claims or giving Naked Capitalism a chance to respond to the allegation. The Washington Post’s actions constitute defamation, the lawyer writes in the letter published Monday.
“You did not provide even a single example of ‘fake news’ allegedly distributed or promoted by Naked Capitalism or indeed any of the 200 sites on the PropOrNot blacklist,” James A. Moody writes. “You provided no discussion or assessment of the credentials or backgrounds of these so-called ‘researchers’ (Clint Watts, Andrew Weisburd, and J.M. Berger and the ‘team’ at PropOrNot), and no discussion or analysis of the methodology, protocol or algorithms such ‘researchers’ may or may not have followed.”
Naked Capitalism is a finance and economics blog started in December, 2006, with a stated goal of “shedding light on the dark and seamy corners of finance.”
h/t Instapundit
[AmericanThinker] When the Soviet Union fell, all the little commies didn't wake up the next morning and say, "You know, those wacky Americans were right all along! Let's go do some freedom and liberty stuff!"
No, they woke up bitter and furious...spreading out among the intelligentsia of western Europe; Great Britain; and, to a lesser extent, the United States. They were welcomed by their fellow travelers: first and foremost, the misfit toys inhabiting the islands of academia ‐ who were already busily nurturing bitterness and envy among their charges with the care of a master gardener.
...Tired of being beaten about the head and shoulders while those we elected to defend us stood by holding the coats of our abusers, we elected a brawler of our own.
Those repudiated on November 8, 2016 have not yet fully realized that voters hadn't failed to understand what we saw when they revealed their inmost desires to us. Rather, we understood all too well, and we turned away, revolted by the sight.
When they fully comprehend the enormousness of their rejection, we had better be prepared, because these are people who would see the whole nation brought to ruin before permitting it to succeed despite them.
This election was a modern-day Fort Sumter ‐ the first shots of a long and brutal struggle to come.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2016
13:40 ||
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#1
I see dis one before. She's pregnant by an ambitious boy from Saskatchewan who was raised poor but got a foot-hold in the Moose fur trade thanks to a distant relative. It's gonna be an Albertian Tragedy
#2
She comes from a hoity toity family and their love is forbidden. She's gonna be disinherited when the old man finds out. He's gonna tell her "Never darken my door again!" Then he sends his muscle -- Ferrante and Teischer -- the teach the young moose fur peddler a lesson. I think I seen da movie.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2016 15:05
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#3
How refreshing. She appears to have both oars in the water. IMA thinking honeymoon photo.
A three day snow event at high elevations in Hawaii (the big island) ended yesterday. It left a snow cover above about the 10k' level. The link goes to a tweet by Scott Bachmeier.The tweet contains the satellite image showing the snow cover as of late daylight yesterday.
#2
I think Al has been in DC the past few days because, later today, the "Climate Reality Project" is broadcasting their annual 24 hour event. Their office is at 750 9th Street, NW just 2 blocks south of K street.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/05/2016 14:59
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#3
Obviously photoshopped! Didn't the warmists tell us we're heating up the earth? I'm not falling for this malarkey.
Where's that Kool-Aid?
Posted by: Big Dark Lord of the Bunions7288 ||
12/05/2016 18:18
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#4
Global warming.
Is there anything it can't do?
Note: Global warming is now doing business as "Climate Change"!
[Epoch] American Airlines flight attendants are seeking a full recall of new uniforms, claiming the clothes have given them headaches, rashes, eye irritation, burning skin, as well as respiratory issues. Due to so many of advanced age, it could be the shingles.
According to a CNN Money report on Friday, Dec. 2, more than 1,600 health complaints have been lodged by flight attendants.
The airline said that it has hired an independent lab to test the outfits for fit, wear and allergic reactions. It also offered uniforms made of alternate materials.
#1
China possibly. I can find no information on who manufactured these clothes. I know that Vietnam has had issues with clothing made in China. Red marks left on skin after wearing bras and underwear. Something like a burn as I was told by a Vietnamese friend.
#7
Nothing wrong with wool but what did they use to clean it and dye it? Formaldehyde?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/05/2016 12:01
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It's the melamine.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2016 15:08
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#9
Buffeted by the storm and tearfully repenting of my misspent youth, I put the plane down in a little bay -- and very neatly, too, if I say so myself. A quick reconaissance of the the jungle behind the beach has revealed an abundance of fruit trees and promising game trails, at finding which I promptly gave most poignant, humble thanks to the Almighty for His providence. So here I sit, stranded but safe enough for now, upon a desert isle with none to keep me company but a planeload of British schoolboys trainee flight attendants in itchy woolen uniforms.
[Wash Times] The secretive teams of Green Berets guiding rebels in northeast Syria have expressed frustration with the amount of micromanagement they receive from a top-heavy headquarters in Iraq and the United States.
Special Forces sources tell of support staff watching the free-spirited Green Berets on reconnaissance aircraft and then criticizing their performance as they conduct the mission officially described as "train, advise and assist" the multi-ethnic Syrian Democratic Forces. The Americans and SDF are fighting their way toward Raqqa, the Islamic State terrorist army’s home base in Syria. Some of the "assisting" has drawn the Americans into firefights.
One officer chalked up the complaints to the sensitive political situation of U.S. troops on the ground in a chaotic country amid competing groups of Arab, Kurdish and Turkish forces, all converging with different objectives. The Green Berets, known officially as Army Special Forces, must act under strict combat rules after President Obama approved their insertion one year ago.
"Based on the very high-level approval required to conduct operations, it can be extremely frustrating for the teams," the officer told The Washington Times. "We just don’t have the latitude we had during our years in Iraq, and that can be frustrating for the teams. The progress over the last year has been slow. Each team may not see it during their rotation, but cumulatively we’ve made significant progress against Daesh while maintaining relationships with Turkey and Jordan. In my many years in Special Forces, I’ve never been involved with a more complex mission."
The Islamic State is also called Daesh, ISIL and ISIS.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/05/2016
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#1
My guess is the aerial 'drone management' is conducted by neither clueless politicians nor senior military brass. But that's just a guess.
#2
Never served so much as a minute in the military. And any of you who served should be happy about that. I respect the hell out of you that did, but, I've had an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide since I was 2 and it would not have worked out well.
That said, I remember hearing about this kind of $hit in Viet Nam and also I heard about the institution of fragging. How bad does it have to get before the controllers "feel their pain"? Wasn't that one of LBJ's problems?
The desperate need to impose power and control. It then creates a mother-may-I environment. Too many things happen too fast on a battlefield to have one 'brain' handle it all. Then the enemy is able to exploit that overload. Time and again demonstrated at the NTC in the 80s. We're back.
#5
Eight years of this has bred an entire cohort of officers and senior NCOs who see careers advanced or ended by the mother-may-I syndrome. It takes years to wash out or ruthless culling. Given the new secdef, I'm thinking the latter. A new crop of 04 and 05 need to be brought up quickly.
#6
Or maybe bring back a bunch of O-5 and O-6 that were forced out by the empty suit's perfumed warriors in the Pentagon...A lot of fine soldiers and great leaders with initiative and guts are drawing retirement checks that would love to get back in it.
[PJ] Two days after Cuban dictator Fidel Castro bit the dust, Black Lives Matter memorialized him, and the reasons for it are not pretty. Castro killed thousands of his own people, imprisoned many more, caused 1 million refugees to flee to the United States, and even canceled Christmas. But Black Lives Matter celebrated him -- because he provided a refuge for cop killers. Former Black Panther Party (BPP) member and cop killer in Cuban exile, Joanne Deborah Chesimard aka Assata Olugbala Shakur
"Although no leader is without their flaws, we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante," reads the declaration, published by the "Black Lives Matter" account on Medium.com. While the movement has no single leader, this Medium account attempts to speak for it, and it has 12.6 K followers. Moreover, the sentiments expressed in this article echo the Marxist demands of the Movement for Black Lives, which speaks for a broad coalition of groups in the movement.
The key lesson Black Lives Matter learned from Castro? "Revolution is continuous and is won first in the hearts and minds of the people and is continually shaped and reshaped by the collective," the article declared. "No single revolutionary ever wins or even begins the revolution. The revolution begins only when the whole is fully bought in and committed to it. And it is never over."
Yes, Black Lives Matter said this of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people. If any "revolutionary" least exemplified the idea that "no single revolutionary ever wins or even begins the revolution," it is Fidel Castro. Or rather, it would be, if Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot hadn't set records even Castro couldn't beat.
#1
If your observations lead you to conclude that there have been forces of anarchy and sedition active in this country for many years, you might be correct.
[Breitbart] Several migrants sexually molested 18-year-old girls at an annual celebration for young people in Munich after the city’s mayor had reached out and invited the migrants to attend.
Socialist mayor of Munich Dieter Reiter invited 1,300 young people to attend a traditional celebration, inviting several migrants, as well. According to reports, the migrants harassed and sexually assaulted numerous teen girls, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports.
"There is no tolerance for such behaviour at all," Mayor Reiter stated after the allegations came out in the German press. The event, which happens on an annual basis, sees all 18-year-olds in the city invited to the city hall to celebrate and have fun. On the upper level of the building, a dancefloor complete with DJs was set up and was the location where the assaults began.
[Breitbart] Retired Gen. David Petraeus said early Sunday that he did not cast a vote for or against President-elect Donald Trump because he does not vote, the Hill reports. Trump is considering the former CIA director for secretary of state.
"I don’t vote, so that’s an easy answer," Petraeus told ABC’s This Week. "And I also did not support him nor did I oppose him. Nor did I support or oppose any other candidate. I’ve truly tried to be apolitical, nonpolitical," he said Sunday.
He also said on the program that the president-elect was "quite pragmatic," commenting on his meeting in New York City last week with Trump for a potential cabinet position.
Trump is considering several other people for the State Department, including former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
#2
I was 'apolitical' while in service, never registering with either party but still voted in the general elections. Then discovered that I didn't want to associate with either of them anyways.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Venezuela is issuing new higher-value notes to help deal with some of the practical problems of soaring inflation. The central bank said that six new bills ranging from 500 to 20,000 bolivars would come into circulation on 15 December. Currently the largest note is 100 bolivars and worth about two US cents.
Over the past month, the currency has tumbled by 60% against the dollar on the black market.
"[This] will make the payments system more efficient, facilitate commercial transactions and minimize the costs of production, replacement and transfer ... which will translate into benefits for banking, trade and the general population," the central bank said.
On Friday, Venezuela's credit card and cash machine system froze, leaving businesses unable to process transactions and having to ask for cash or to delay payment.
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro blamed the problem on a cyber-attack. He maintains that the economic crisis is being backed by the US.
The government last published figures for inflation in December 2015, putting it at 180%, but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that next year's prices will rise by more than 2,000%.
#3
This has gotten ludicrous. Blaming Obama for trying to harm a socialist economy??? Now that's funny right there.
I've read some funny things in the last few days; no one uses a wallet anymore cause you can't put enough money in one to buy anything; merchants weigh money instead of counting it. That's funny right there.
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
......
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
OPEC’s agreement to cut production for the first time in eight years has the potential to balance the oil market, as long as everyone sticks to it, former Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said, Bloomberg reported.
"The only tool they have is to constrain production," al-Naimi said of OPEC at an event in Washington, D.C. "The unfortunate part is we tend to cheat."
OPEC on Wednesday agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels a day, while Russia and other oil producers committed to reducing their own output by another 600,000. The deal spearheaded by Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih represents a departure from the pump-at-will policy promoted by al-Naimi when he was oil minister. OPEC adopted that policy in 2014.
Remarking on his approach, al-Naimi said he wasn’t opposed to production cuts in 2014, as long as everyone participated. They wouldn’t, he said. "There’s not much you can do if there is no maximum cooperation between the producers."
He also expressed skepticism that Russia, considered a wildcard during talks, would follow through on its promise to reduce output. "Will Russia cut 300,000?" he said. "I don’t know. In the past, they didn’t."
Saudi Arabia still has production potential, according to al-Naimi. During a panel discussion with Hess Corp. Chief Executive Officer John Hess and former Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Andrew Gould, al-Naimi said his country has untapped shale-oil and gas reserves, and advancing technologies would only bring shale production costs lower.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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Some 38 aid agencies have said that at least five million Somalis are facing acute food security crisis due to poor rains in the Horn of Africa nation.
More "bad luck"...
In a joint statement early this week, the agencies include Oxfam, Relief International and World Vision said vegetation conditions have worsened and drought conditions intensified and continued to affect pasture, water, livestock and crops.
“All actors involved need to immediately react to the situation by responding to calls for aid from the humanitarian actors operating in Somalia to ensure that the communities in the affected regions are given lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” it said in a joint statement received in Mogadishu.
The Horn of Africa nation is currently undergoing a drought that has put a severe strain on a large number of livelihoods.
Poor April-June rains coupled with poor October-December rainfall prospects have led to worsening of food insecurity situation and efforts to reduce levels of vulnerabilities continue to be undermined by irregular weather patterns.
According to the FAO-managed Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), more than 1.1 million people cannot meet their daily food requirements, while another 3.9 million Somalis require livelihood support to reduce the risk of sliding into crisis.
According to the agencies, severe drought in semi-autonomous region of Puntland is directly affecting approximately 150,000 people and has displaced an additional 12,000 people, according to an inter-agency assessment conducted in September.
“Food prices have gone up and some have doubled which in retrospect places the vulnerable populations are in dire need. Pastoral households interviewed reported that they trek an average distance of 60 km to access water points for both human and livestock consumption,” the agencies said.
In Somaliland, The FSNAU and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) reported in September that 31 percent of the population, or more than one million people, will be in need of humanitarian assistance in Somaliland until the end of 2016. Acute malnutrition has worsened and 248,000 people face acute food security crisis.
An estimated 89 percent of the pastoralists have lost at least one animal, while 77 percent of animal deaths are attributed to the drought.
According to the agencies, while access in Lower and Middle Juba Regions restricts information, satellite-monitored rainfall trends show the regions to be the most worrying in all of Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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[AmericanThinker] At first I dismissed the Democrats' subsidized street riots and vandalism, moronic election recount demands, and perfervid attacks on Trump and his supporters in the press as a demonstration of their juvenile, narcissistic refusal to accept defeat. Then I read the brilliant essay by Angelo Codevilla
It’s a bit long and I know your Sundays are busy but if you can’t read it all at once, I’ll summarize what I think are the most significant points in the hope that if the topic is of interest you’ll read it all. He traces the notion of political correctness from the 1930 Communist movement through Antonio Gramsci’s “cultural hegemony” configuration to the modern Democratic Party and finds in them a familiar strain: Much more at the link
Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland troops have retaken control of the seaside city of Qandala located in Bari region from pro-Islamic state militants on Sunday after a combat. The regional forces have launched last week an assault to drive out the ISIL-affiliated fighters from Qandala, 75Km east of Puntland’s commercial and port town of Bosaso.
In mid October, Heavily armed pro-ISIL militants led by former Al shabaab leader Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin have captured the town from Puntland army.
On Saturday, at least seven Islamic state members were killed in clashes between Puntland forces in Bashaashin village, just 50km west of Qandala town in Bari region, reports said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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[IsraelTimes] In pulling off conference without a hitch and sidelining rival Dahlan, PA president has good reason to be pleased... for now.
The Paleostinian news agencies on Sunday published the first results in the Fatah Central Committee elections for key positions in the political party.
Coming in first place was Marwan Barghouti, held in Israeli prison for murder after orchestrating deadly terror attacks during the Second Intifada, followed by Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Paleostinian Football Association (PFA). For months, Rajoub has been seen as the most popular personality in Fatah, after Bargouhti, of course, and Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
Continued on Page 49
Long analysis piece from WaPo. What's interesting is the number of people who saw something but didn't say anything because they were afraid of being labeled "racist" and being harassed by the government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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#1
Same kind of folks that give Obumble the high "approval" poll numbers. In reality, people really don't support him or his policies at anywhere near those levels. Just afraid to be labeled racist.
[al-Manar] The Syrian army regained full control over Al-Tall city in the Damascus province, the Russian Defense Ministry stated on Sunday.
“The city of Al-Tall in the Damascus province which had a pre-war population of over 60 thousand, fell under full control of the Syrian Armed Forces,” the Russian Defense ministry said.
The area was previously held by the Nusra Front militant group, an al-Qaeda affiliate outlawed as a terrorist organization in many countries, including Syria and Russia.
Moreover, over 500 terrorists from Jabhat Fatah al Sham (former al-Nusra Front), 1,500 members of their families, have been moved out of the Syrian city of Al-Tall to Idbib.
“The opposition militants took advantage of the amnesty, announced by the President of Syria. They stopped fighting and through negotiations expressed the desire to flee [from Al-Tall] to Idlib. Before the departure, they handed the government forces all their heavy weapons, as well as over 200 units of small arms and ammunition,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Over past week more than 2,500 militants in various regions of Syria have been granted amnesty, the Russian Defense Ministry added.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/05/2016
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At least 2 loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in a US drone strike in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
The provincial police commandment in a statement said the two militants were killed in the restive Achin district.
The local officials further added that the ordinary civilians did not suffer any casualties in the raid.
The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have not commented regarding the report so far.
Both the Afghan and US forces conducted regular strikes against the loyalists of the terror group in this province.
The increased raids, usually involving drone strikes, by the US forces followed a broader role granted by the Obama administration earlier this year.
The broader role was granted amid concerns that the loyalists of the terror group are attempting to expand foothold in the country and turn the eastern Nangarhar province into a regional operational hub for its fighters.
The deputy house speaker of the Afghan parliament Zahir Qadir earlier warned that the loyalists of the terror group are attempting to establish the Khurasan Caliphate in Afghanistan and are busy expanding their presence in some of the difficult terrains of the country.
Speaking during a session of the parliament late in the month of October, Qadir warned that the group will become successful in establishing the caliphate if they managed to seize control of Tora Bora in Nangarhar.
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Violent clashes have renewed in the Libyan capital of Tripoli between rival militias as they aim to control more areas. Renewed?
These clashes are viewed as a setback to Libya’s UN-backed government of national accord which arrived in March to the capital upon the approval of some of the strongest armed factions.
The scene of burnt cars, explosives and destroyed buildings has become common in Tripoli as clashes have intensified between armed factions for more than two weeks now.
These street battles using heavy weapons worry Tripoli's residents. Meanwhile, cement and sand barriers across the city's neighborhoods hint the battles will prolong.
Clashes renewed due to disputes on controlling territories between militias from Tripoli and other extremist militias that are originally from Misrata.
Civilians and fighters have been killed as a result. According to medics, it's been difficult to transfer them to hospitals due to the heavy gunfire.
As political parties continue to exchange accusations regarding the delay in forming a cabinet to save the country, residents fear another round of clashes amid reports that some brigades are mobilizing their forces on the neighborhoods' entrances.
A prominent leader of the loyalists of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group was killed during a clash with the security forces in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan.
According to the local officials, the senior ISIS leader, identified as Mohammad Nasir, was killed after launching an attack on the security forces check posts in Darzab district.
District administrative chief Rahmatullah Hashar confirmed the report and said at least two members of the terror group were also wounded during the clashes.
He said additional forces have also been sent to the area to repulse the attack by ISIS loyalists.
The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as the First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum said earlier in October this year that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group plans to deploy at least 7,000 fighters in northern parts of the country.
Gen. Dostum made the remarks upon his arrival in northern Faryab province to supervise counter-terrorism operations following the fall of Ghormach district last week.
He said the ISIS terrorist group is attempting to deploy foreign militants mainly citizens of Syria, Iraq, Lebannon, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Chechnya.
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that despite Democrats losing the House, Senate, and almost two-thirds of state houses, the American people don't want a new direction.
The California congressman appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday and instead said the issue facing Democrats is simply a failure of communication.
DICKERSON: "The Democratic Party is in a moment of questioning about its identity. You were reelected to lead the Democrats in the House. What do you tell Democrats who want a new direction and then, go to you, what are you going to do differently?"
PELOSI: "Well, I don't think people want a new direction. Our values unify us and our values are about supporting America's working families. That's one that everyone is in agreement on. What we want is a better connection of our message to working families in our country, and that clearly in the election showed that that message wasn't coming through. But we are united in terms of the security of our country, which is our first responsibility. To be smart and strong and not reckless in how we protect the American people, strong in how we protect our economy."
See, it's not that the Democrats have fundamentally mis-read the country, nor is that they have an abiding disrespect for the heartland. It's the "messaging" that's all wrong. If only Hillary had worn better lipstick...
Didn't Sarah Palin once say something about putting lipstick on a pig?
Pelosi also downplayed her party's losses in 2010 and 2016, telling CBS's John Dickerson "You're forgetting that we went up so high in 2006 and 2008." It seems the DNC powerbrokers feel the same way. Enjoy your political wilderness for the next 8 years.
#7
And I sincerely hope and pray she remains in CONTROL. And that they never learn or suspect that they are Clueless. May it please God to keep them staring and blind to what and who they really are. And Keith Ellison endorsed by Bernie Sanders and other savants of the Left....I fall to my knees and beseech heaven...thank you thank you.
Impotent and crippled they march into the glorious light of Next Tuesday. Yes, yes. "We have to Vote for it before we can read it or know what is IN it." The veritable Wisdom of the ages flows from her botoxed mouth. The MANIFEST destiny of the Democratic party. The LEGACY of Obama revealed to mortals. I am overcome with divine Joy.
#10
What folks REALLY don't get is 1) these people are moving towards a militant solution. 2) study the rise of socialism and communism and you will see that the day will come when politics will be abandoned by them and will by force will be the solution, Pelosi/Obama/Jarret etc. etc. supported the Occupy movement. 3) There STOP fawning over these people remaining in power in hopes it weakens them. Put them in prison before they regroup and start inching closer and closer to brute force. Ask the hundreds of Trump supporters that were physically assaulted as has never before witnessed in history in this country. Brute force against law enforcement and law and order by these leftists that will continue to ratchet up until these people are put away.
#11
And if you don't think these people are capable of it, you can be assured the kind of people they are importing as "refugees" from some of the most violent areas of the world certainly are capable. The active point blank assassinations of our law enforcement officers encouraged by the left will soon come to any right wing person near you in a position of power. Sometimes known as Jihad. You people need to wake.
#12
If you were to actually support working families and the security of the country, that would be an enormous change of direction.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/05/2016 8:25
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#13
And if you don't think these people are capable of it, you can be assured the kind of people they are importing as "refugees" from some of the most violent areas of the world certainly are capable.
They were called Hessian mercenaries the first time. Trenton and Bennington come to mind. I don't think the areas you are referring to had a 2d Amendment. Break the leash and find out what the Hessians found out.
#14
The Hessians did not import their entire families and were appropriated entire communities to lay claim to. And neither does thier King George live across the sea.
[Downtrend] The Russian-made jeep genericization of a once-proud name Vehicle is a UAZ-469
ferrying the ashes of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro broke down and needed to be pushed on Saturday en route to the late leader’s final resting place.
Castro’s ashes were interred in a private ceremony Sunday morning, ending nine days of official mourning, Fox News is reporting.
The breakdown of the jeep in the midst of adoring crowds chanting "Long live Fidel!" was symbolic of the dual nature of Castro’s Cuba. While his legacy inspires fierce adulation by many of the nation’s citizens, others continue to grumble about Cuba’s autocratic government, inefficient bureaucracy and stagnant economy.
Rural Cubans’ lives have improved with the arrival of doctors and teachers in once-ignored backwaters, however, it has been a struggle to earn a living under the island’s one-party socialist government and its stifling economic rules.
But those realities were seemingly not at the forefront of the minds of the throngs crowding the two-mile route the Russian jeep traveled to Santa Ifigenia cemetery.
Castro’s tomb stands to the side of a memorial to the rebel soldiers killed during a 1953 Castro-led attack on Santiago’s Moncada barracks. Castro’s final resting spot is in front of the mausoleum of Cuban national hero Jose Marti.
The Cuban military fired a 21-gun salute and crowds at the entrance to the cemetery sang the national anthem as the ashes entered about 40 minutes later. The ceremony lasted more than an hour and took place out of the public eye after Cuban officials made a last-minute cancellation of plans to broadcast the events live on national and international television. International media were also barred from the ceremony.
The decision to hold a private ceremony came the morning after Castro’s brother, President Raul Castro, announced that Cuba would prohibit the naming of streets and monuments after the former leader, and bar the construction of statues of the former leader and revolutionary icon, in keeping with his desire to avoid a cult of personality.
"The leader of the revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality and was consistent in that through the last hours of his life, insisting that, once dead, his name and likeness would never be used on institutions, streets, parks or other public sites, and that busts, statutes or other forms of tribute would never be erected," Raul Castro told a massive crowd gathered in the eastern city of Santiago.
#5
Knowing that Jeep is part of Chrysler and now owned by Fiat, and also knowing that while it isn't really germane, the following acronym comes to mind:
[DAWN] The Indian government on Sunday did not allow Adviser to 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... to hold a scheduled presser on the sidelines of Heart of Asia Conference, citing "security reasons".
In sheer violation of diplomatic norms, the adviser was also barred from leaving the hotel premises and the media persons were not allowed to meet him in the hotel.
Furthermore, the Indian authorities stopped Pakistain's High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit to enter the Media Centre set up at the conference venue.
Arguments took place between High Commissioner Basit and security officials on his interaction with the Pak media persons.
Later in the day, after returning from Amritsar, Aziz addressed a presser in Islamabad and said, "Pakistain does not need to be pressurised in terms of counter-terrorism efforts."
"We have done more in terms of counter-terrorism efforts in the last three years than any other country in the world."
Aziz said we are now sharing our experiences of counter terrorism with the rest of the world.
Pakistain attended the conference to show solidarity with Afghanistan and the country’s commitment to peace and security in Afghanistan, he maintained.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2016
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[TheHill] As an Australian, I have often considered the United States as the leader of the international stage, however I believe there is something that Australia has done that puts it ahead of the United States - the control of firearms.
A matter of faith, is it? Outside facts won't sway you then, dear Writer.
Orlando, Newtown, Charleston, San Bernardino, the list of cities in which mass shootings take place goes on. America has been painted in red because of the mass shootings that take place here too often.
The access that individuals have to firearms allowing these mass shootings is part of the problem. When twenty bodies of school children lay lifeless across an elementary school, and fifty people in a nightclub who were dancing one second and shot dead the next, we have to ask ourselves when is enough, enough?
It was a single mass shooting that took the lives of thirty-five Australians to prompt the government to take action to ensure history would not repeat itself, and indeed it has not to this day, twenty years after the incident. To the everlasting problem of destroying civil liberties in Australia.
A subject our own Anon1 has discussed in these pages from time to time. Incidentally, the Australian press reported in October that in addition to four jihadi attacks perpetrated since September 2014, eleven were foiled before being executed. Wikipedia has an interesting list of terror attacks since 1854; the first jihadi attack was in 1915, by an Afghan/Indian supporter of the Ottoman sultan.
Am I saying that Australia is the safest and happiest place on earth after these reforms? I am saying Australia is the most deluded when it comes to firearms.
No.
I do, however, feel safe walking down the street at night alone. I can enter a crowded area without thinking of people shooting me down. I feel like I can enjoy my life and relax knowing that the access to a gun is very hard and restrictive in Australia. Nice. Now only the people who would do you harm with a firearm have access to firearms.
Feelz go back to faith again, but are not necessarily reflective of reality.
Coming to America, I drive down a road and see signs advertising, “Guns for Sale,” and it makes me uneasy.
More feelz, poor dear.
There is something about America that makes the ownership of guns ordinary, and mass shootings normalized. What more can America do? Does the American public even want to do anything? Mass shootings are rare per capita, believe it or not. Disarming everyone else who has a firearm does not make those who refuse to take responsibility for their own safety safer.
Experience shows that mass murderers keep killing until stopped. The easiest way to stop a mass killer is with a gun, and the quickest way to do so is to have an armed citizenry intervening while the professionals are still underway.
It was not the background checks of Australian citizens, nor the age required to purchase a gun, nor a gun license that reduced gun violence in Australia. No, it was the seizure of over 640,000 weapons by the Australian government. Less than 20 percent of firearms total, and that is if you assume that every firearm turned in was a semiautomatic gun. I'm willing to bet the number of semiautomatics turned in is less than 10 percent, if that.
Taking weapons from citizens - could such a thing ever take place in America?
No.
I know, as an Australian, we say all too much just how much Americans love their guns, and I know we are not the only country who has this impression. Whilst certainly not all Americans feel this way, the idea that the American government could take away the weapons of American citizens would seem an outrage to many. America is an arsenal of democracy. It is the bastion and the last hope of liberty in the world. Forcing gun registration and seizure would destroy that permanently. After that, there could be no return. The idea that people would be safer after gun control is enacted would in fact make the whole world less safe, not just America. After gun control, there is nowhere to go, nowhere to take a stand. And honey, this isn't about how Americans "feel." This is about the existential threat to liberty that your preference, taking firearms away from people, would mean.
The reality is, a background check is not going to substitute for all of the guns that are already in America. In America today, the number of registered guns is roughly equivalent to the number of people living here, if not more. Background checks are an abomination to liberty.
In America today, how many more guns are owned illegally by gang members and other criminals? How many are owned illegally for protection by ordinary citizens living in cities where permits are impossible for ordinary citizens to get?
Walking down the streets of Richmond, I saw a man with a gun in its holster on the side of his shorts, and I know this scene is one that can be seen in many other states. To know there is a man walking around with the power to end my life, and those around me with a pull of a trigger is not safe. You are clearly uneasy about seeing a man walking down the street strapped. I have an idea: get a gun, and learn to use it properly and safely.
Did the gentleman in question suddenly pull out that gun and shoot our writer without provocation, or shoot anyone else -- with or without provocation? No? Then the writer's unease was unreasonable, merely bigotry; demonstrably she was perfectly safe.
But here is the irony in the situation, Americans feel the need to carry guns for self defense, but if there were no guns in the first place (or at least not in the vast amount that there are in the country today) people may not feel this way. I know in Australia we do not feel the need to bear arms for our protection. The people of America will not part from their guns so easily as the people in Australia were able to. First she says gun confiscation, but now, as the end of her missive, Australians parted from guns because they were "able to." Was no law passed, or was it somehow voluntary? Which is it? Was it voluntary or was it forced? You can't say at the top of this article that gun confiscation was not a choice and then hint later that it was. Which is it?
Until there is a change in society, and it has been decided that enough is enough, mass shootings will remain a bloody part of American life. Again, mass shootings in America are not common per capita.
It's not about shootings, O silly exchange student, but attempted mass killing. Only last week a Somali brought to America with his family only two years ago as a refugee attacked his classmates at Ohio State with a car and a kitchen knife. Had a policeman not arrived within a few minutes, it wouldn't have been only a few wounded, but a good many more both wounded and dead. Had any of the students been armed, stopping him might not have taken even that long.
Kaia Delaney is exchange student from the University of Queensland studying at the University of Richmond. She has produced multi-media news stories for 4ZZZ, a community radio station in Brisbane, Australia.
#1
As an Australian, I have often considered the United States as the leader of the international stage, however I believe there is something that Australia has done that puts it ahead of the United States - the control of firearms.
We left English control only because of guns. You didn't. You may speak something of a kindred language but you still lack a kindred birth of independence. Ours wasn't granted. It was taken by force. And its been understood since that beginning, that the gun in the hands of its citizens made it possible.
#2
The delusion starts with the idea it takes a gun to end a life.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/05/2016 0:20
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#3
But here is the irony in the situation, Americans feel the need to carry guns for self defense, but if there were no guns in the first place...
See Chicago--the laws that are already in place aren't enforced. Until the criminals are denied the guns they possess, leave the rest of us (law abiding citizens) the hell alone.
#4
As an Australian yes 640,000 firearms were destroyed but shooters purchased 400,000 new ones to replace them. it is known from import and manufacture there are 5 million firearms however only HALF of these are registered. Illegal handguns used by criminals are on the rise as criminal dont like the idea of complying with firearm laws
#6
The writer forgot to add that the areas with most stringent gun control have the highest gun murder and violence against helpless (unarmed) victims.
When hogs are disarmed... jambalaya!
The Jews? Well, there's still the messiah.
Inquire of the Maya,
A Hindoo pariah,
And tell 'em all "Hiya!" 'Bye, Kaia.
#10
There is something about America that makes the ownership of guns ordinary, and mass shootings normalized.
At first read, this piece could be dismissed as simply written by someone with ignorance of acknowledged US liberties. Many individuals have been conditioned to believe that "rights" are asked for and then granted by a benevolent monarch or goverment. However, the informal association fallacy above reveals this as just another attempt to peddle the usual anti-second ammendment trash from an outsider perspective. Do your business and move back to your safety zone sister.
[IsraelTimes] Bodies of Paleostinians found after the Egyptian army filled the tunnel with water, leading to its collapse.
Four Paleostinians have been found dead in a smuggling tunnel linking the Gazoo Strip to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, local officials said Sunday, accusing the Egyptian military of flooding it.
The four men aged 22 to 45 "were found dead after the tunnel they were working in was flooded nine days ago by the Egyptian army," local authorities in the Gazook city of Rafah near Egypt’s border said in a statement.
Consequences. And the deaths of the Hamasniks, too.
Earlier Sunday it had been reported that two bodies had been found, while another two Paleostinian men remained missing.
The report did not say if the men belonged to the terrorist group Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, which rules the Gazoo Strip, or to one of the numerous other armed factions that operate there.
Egypt has not confirmed the information, though it has destroyed hundreds of tunnels in the area, alleging they are used to transport arms and Lion of Islams.
In recent months, at least 20 Gazooks have died in tunnel collapses, most of them reportedly members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and there have been dozen of such cases since the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory, Igor and Oleg were discussing what the quickest way might be to deal with the monster... Paleostinian sources in Gazoo reported that Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", Civilian Defense drills are taking place in the Gazoo Strip, with the gang launching rockets toward the sea in the morning.
Also Sunday morning, Israeli naval boats fired shots in the direction of Paleostinian fishermen while sailing off of the coast of Gazoo city this morning before they returned to Gazoo.
A few hours later, the navy fired warning shots toward another boat, which ignored the shots, leading to the detainment of two fisherman and seizure of their boat.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Aerial view photos have show damage dealt to the five bridges connecting the east and west banks of Tigris River in Mosul by US-led aircraft.
The images, posted by the US-based think-tank, Stratfor, show the damage sustained by the bridges in operations seeking to close in on Islamic State militants in the east, where Iraqi troops have been advancing and clearing villages from the militant group since the launch of their major operation mid October.
Commanders at the US-spearheaded Global Coalition to Counter ISIL have recently clarified that airstrikes against the bridges were aimed at rendering them unusable, rather than to completely demolish them.
There are, however, fears that the damage could hinder attempts by civilians in the city to flee from ISIS’s grip, especially with estimates noting that more than one million civilians are currently within the group’s hold to use them as future human shields.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Badr Organization said Sunday its fighters held off an attack by Islamic State militants near the strategic Tal Afar airport in Mosul.
The militia, fighting under the flag of the broader al-Hashd al-Shaabi, said in a statement that a brigade from the militia “fought off an attack by ISIS on the village of Ein al-Hossan near Tal Afar airport,” adding that the forces seized 8 Hummer vehicles, a bulldozer and belonging to the extremist group, and detonated a booby-trapped car.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi recaptured the strategic airport of Tal Afar last month, celebrating the takeover as a major step towards besieging the ISIS stronghold town, encircling the militants inside Iraq and cutting their supply and escape routes with Syria.
Iraqi government forces, backed by volunteer militias and US-led international troops have been on a wide-scale campaign to clear Mosul from Islamic State militants since mid October. Government and militia commanders have said that operations succeeded in largely isolating Nineveh from the rest of Iraqi provinces.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) An Officer at Nineveh Operations Command announced on Sunday, that security forces detonated two booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the Islamic State group, in eastern Mosul.
Captain Iyad Ziad said in a press statement, “Iraqi army forces managed to detonate two booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the Islamic State extremist group in al-Bakr area, in eastern the province.”
“Iraqi forces intensified their presence in liberated neighborhoods to prevent the ISIS militants from sneaking into these areas,” Ziad added.
In a related context, nearly 25 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed, while 80 others were wounded in the last few hours by rockets shelling launched by the ISIS on the areas of al-Zohour, al-Akhaa, al-Bakr, al-Qadisiyah, al-Tahrir, al-Mharebeen, al-Zahraa and al-Jame’a, in eastern Mosul.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/05/2016
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#1
The Iraqi offensive has run out of steam...ISIS launching local counterattacks...not long before the cries for US troops to pull their behinds out of the fire begin.
#3
Street to Street and House to House is the worst nightmare of the infantry. Even worse than attacking a hilltop fortified enemy.
Give these guys a break and realize that taking Mosul will be a long slow grind...they have fellow Iraqis by the thousands in Mosul and how do you root out ISIS if they are comingled with the civilians and dressing like women???
Its time for the Hammer and Anvil...shift the main attack to the west and force ISIS into the forces on the east.
[IsraelTimes] Reports identify main suspect as ’Abdelhakim,’ a man in his 40s of Moroccan descent connected to Amsterdam’s Arrayan Sunni mosque.
Dutch police tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! several suspects in connection with jihadists’ unrealized plan to attack a synagogue in the country’s capital city a year ago, a local daily revealed.
The main suspect belonging to the ring, which is connected to Amsterdam’s Arrayan Sunni mosque, is a man in his 40s of Moroccan descent with a goatee and a receding hairline who possesses considerable knowledge of Islamic writings and drives a white Audi, according to a police document obtained last month by the Telegraaf daily.
The Dutch police’s TCI counterterrorism unit has been monitoring the suspect for month in connection with his alleged plans to strike, with accomplices, a synagogue in southern Amsterdam last January, according to the Telegraaf report. The report said the suspect calls himself "Abdelhakim." Several Moslems have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the alleged plan.
Two right-wing Dutch politicians, Louis Bontes and Joram van Klaveren, last week queried the justice ministry on actions taken to protect Dutch Jews.
Separately,
...very separately. But read on dear Reader:
on Friday the Dutch daily Volkskrant reported that the country’s domestic intelligence agency, the General Intelligence and Security Service, had spied in 2009 and 2010 on the far-right politician Geert Wilders over his contacts in Israel and the extent of their influence on him.
Unexpectedly -- that they reported this, not that it was done. The entire Dutch establishment seems to be anti-Israel.
Dutch media for years have suggested that Wilders, an anti-Islam populist and staunch advocate of Israel whose wife according to some reports is Jewish, is being paid by Israel or pro-Israeli groups. In 2012, Volkskrant published a caricature deemed by some critics as anti-Semitic, featuring Wilders receiving a wad of cash through a hole in a wall and saying in Hebrew: "Politely thanks."
No comment.
According to Volkskrant, counterintelligence officers interviewed 37 people in connection with the probe into Wilders’ ties to Israel, which is highly unusual for the security service because it involves a politician. There were "serious questions on Wilders’ loyalty and possible Israeli influence on him," according to the Volkskrant, a left-leaning newspaper with an editorial attitude that is anti-Wilders and highly critical of Israel.
I note that he was never prosecuted for this, which implies they couldn't find proof of misbehaviour.
That doesn't stop Volksrant from making vile accusations. They're never inhibited the way decent people are...
The report on the alleged terrorist plot by members of the Arrayan mosque community came amid discussions on replacing the permanent police protection at some Amsterdam synagogues with a cheaper video surveillance system that is favored by the municipality.
"They're only Jews, after all, and the government has increased expenses for resettling the Syrian refugees."
The Jewish community of the Netherlands opposes the plan, citing elevated risk.
So it now appears.
The attack allegedly planned by the main suspects and at least two suspected accomplices, who were identified in the police document only as Izzy and Ibo, was part of a larger terror plot timed to occur on the last day of 2015, the Telegraaf reported based on the leaked document.
KHYBER AGENCY - At least 12 suspected militants were killed and several others injured in airstrikes carried out by PAF jet fighters in Rajgal in the Koki Khel area of Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Sunday.
Official sources said that the fighter planes targeted hideouts of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Bara-based defunct outfit Laskar-e-Islam.
Resultantly, 12 suspected militants were killed and several others sustained injuries. The casualties could be confirmed independently due to the area being inaccessible to the media.
In 2014, the army launched a major operation in other parts of FATA including North and South Waziristan against insurgents who routinely attacked government officials and civilians.
Few days back, four heavily-armed suicide bombers attacked a military facility in Mohmand Agency and killed two soldiers, but failed to storm a busy mosque inside. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA), claimed responsibility for the attack on Ghalani Camp in Mohmand Agency.
Two of the attackers were shot dead and two detonated their explosive vests, preventing a "huge disaster", the army said.
[DAWN] Mehnil Ahmed is expected to arrive in Multan on Monday (today) for a medical examination which will determine his gender. The result will determine whether or not he can stay married to his wife.
The examination was ordered after police submitted a report to court saying that Ahmed was born female but had married Ayesha Sajjad, whose mother has filed a case to retrieve her daughter.
Mehnil Ahmed, a resident of Kot Sultan, Layyah district, had married Ayesha, a resident of Taunsa Sharif, on April 26 in Multan.
On June 25, Najma Sajjad, Ayesha’s mother, filed an abduction case at the Taunsa Sharif city cop shoppe, stating that Ahmed had kidnapped her daughter, who was at most 18 years old, with the help of five others on June 22. She said that Ahmed had previously kidnapped her daughter for three days and returned her to her family on June 10.
Ayesha then filed a petition in the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court, through her counsel Mian Bashir Ahmed Bhatti, on July 2, requesting the court to quash the police case against her husband and his relatives. She said that she was 22 years old and had married Ahmed of her free will. She told the court that her family wanted to marry her off to someone else, which was why they had filed a fabricated and false case with the police. She said that she had not been kidnapped or forced to marry Ahmed, but her mother was now trying to force her to end her marriage and be with someone who was unacceptable to her.
She said that she had discussed the matter with the SHO overseeing the case, but it was obvious that the police were favouring her mother.
Ayesha requested the court to quash the case in the interest of justice.
Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, on July 4, directed the SHO to submit a report on the matter. In a criminal miscellaneous petition, the court granted the accused a week’s protective bail.
In another petition on July 23, Ayesha claimed that police had not followed court directions [to submit a report] and were harassing her and the accused. She requested the court to direct the SHO not to harass and pressurise her or the accused till a final decision on the main petition.
On July 25, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu directed the police not to harass the couple and to appear before the court with complete case records at the next case hearing. The police submitted its report the next day.
The report claimed that Ahmed’s gender had changed and that he had been living at Ayesha’s house for a year. It stated that a copy of the protective bail was received on July 5 but neither the petitioner nor the accused had joined police investigations.
The report said that the matter of the marriage was complicated because Ahmed was born female and was named Nazia Ahmed Hassan. It said a medical examination regarding the gender change was required.
On September 6, Ms Najma filed a civil miscellaneous petition through her counsel Sajjad Hussain Khan Malazai, stating that Ahmed and his family had pressured her daughter to file a plea seeking quashment of the FIR.
She claimed that the nikahnama, provided by the accused, and the contract of marriage were illegal. "It is necessary in these circumstances and also a requirement of law to separate the chaff from the grain regarding the gender change," she stated.
She demanded a complete medical examination of Ahmed, terming it crucial for conclusion of the matter.
On November 30, Justice Ali Baqir Najafi ordered that Ahmed be medically examined on December 5 to ascertain his biological sex. The next hearing of the case will be held on Dec 8.
Ayesha’s counsel Usman Bhatti said the case should have been concluded after the allegedly kidnapped person had confirmed that she was not kidnapped. "Ahmed’s signs of a gender change are clear and the results of a medical examination will confirm that he is a male," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Yahoo.com] Israel was embroiled in fresh controversy on Sunday over its purchase of submarines from German company ThyssenKrupp after reports that the country's arch-enemy Iran holds a stake in the firm. The attorney general had already ordered police to look into allegations of improper conduct in the planned purchase of the submarines, and reports of Iran's link to the company have fuelled more criticism.
Israel sees Iran as its main enemy in the region, and suggestions that the Islamic republic would benefit from the Jewish state's defence purchases have made headlines. Media reported that Iranian holding company IFIC continues to own a 4.5 percent stake in the German firm.
"Israeli money, Iranian profits," a headline in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Sunday.
ThyssenKrupp told AFP that IFIC owned around seven percent of the company until May 2003, when it fell below five percent, without providing details on the size of its current stake, if any.
Reports at the time said the United States had pressured ThyssenKrupp to reduce Iran's stake to below five percent. The Iranian state's representative on the company's supervisory board was also removed.
Israel is reportedly negotiating to buy the three submarines at a combined price of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), to replace the oldest vessels in its existing Dolphin fleet, which began entering service in 1999. It already has five of the state-of-the-art German submarines, with a sixth due for delivery in 2017, Maariv newspaper reported.
Last month, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit ordered police to probe allegations of improper conduct by a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the planned purchase of the vessels. Media reports have alleged a conflict of interest over the role played by the Netanyahu family lawyer, David Shimron, who also reportedly represents the Israeli agent of ThyssenKrupp.
The German firm told AFP they require their partners to get approval when they hire subcontractors and that there has not been a request for such an approval from their Israeli representative Miki Ganor. They are conducting an internal investigation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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#1
Awferchrissake. Iran ought to be the one that is embarrassed.
[DailyMail] Dakota Access Pipeline protesters cheered as the news emerged and cried 'Mni Wiconi', or 'water is life'
Corps of Engineers said they would not be granting an easement for the DAPL to cross Lake Oahe
Federal agency said they would explore alternate routes for the pipeline on Sunday afternoon
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council Chairman Harold Frazier told DailyMail.com that he was 'shocked'
Thousands of veterans arrived this weekend to support the protests as temperatures hovered at 30F
Protests were thought to intensify after evacuation was ordered and area was to be shut down on Dec 5
'Instead, the Corps will be undertaking an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternate routes.'
'We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and do the right thing.'
'The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will forever be grateful to the Obama administration for this historic decision.'
#2
'The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will forever be grateful to the Obama administration for this historic decision.'
I seem to remember the Native Americans being grateful for historical administration 'decisions', until they became mugged by reality.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/05/2016 10:49
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#3
A big lefty dream has always been to check off on their tax returns what they don't want their tax money to be spent on. Time to make that a reality. Blue regions that don't like energy development or defense spending should get their wishes, with all the ramifications that follow from those choices.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/05/2016 11:10
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#4
Obama is given credit but there may more to it as he also called in the Feds in the first place. Trump has already done more than O in 8 years before he is even inaugurated. He advocates energy independence, has shares in DAPL, AND called in the North Dakota governor....he is open to outside ideas and at least listens to legitimate concerns over the Ogalala Aquifer. What about other solutions, like maybe a refinery built outside the sacred area near the drilling site? He also plans infrastructure improvements that can generate even more blue-collar jobs plus the shortage of housing can be addressed by a builder. It is an art to get the restless Natives to make a deal with the government and O has done nothing constructive, imho.
Posted by: One Eyed Speaking for Boskone7919 ||
12/05/2016 12:35
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#5
Fucking Bourgeois Assholes always keeping the Proletariat down.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army commanders said forces killed two Islamic State suicide bombers in Anbar while the group claimed 20 deaths among the military troops.
The army’s 7th division said the attackers sneaked into a military outpost on Beiji-Haditha road , west of Ramadi.
“A sentry force managed to kill the suiciders and detonate the explosive belts before they could make it to the facility,” said the division’s commander, Nuaman al-Zawbai. “That did not leave material or human losses among the forces,” he added.
However, ISIS-run news agency, Amaq, said the attackers did enter the facility, engaged with the troops and blew up themselves, leaving more than 20 soldiers dead and some army vehicles destroyed.
ISIS is reportedly confining thousands of civilians in Annah and Rawa as potential human shields while preparations are still underway for an offensive by government and tribal forces against the group there. Security and tribal militias occasionally fight back attacks by ISIS on their locations in the province.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/05/2016
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[Ynet] A prisoner from Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... at the Guantanamo Bay detention center has been released and sent to the West African nation of Cape Verde for resettlement.
The Pentagon says the release announced Sunday of Shawqi Awad Balzuhair lowers the number of prisoners held at the US base in Cuba to 59. Twenty of those remaining have been approved for release.
Balzuhair has been held at Guantanamo without charge since October 2002 following his capture along with several other suspected al-Qaeda bandidosbully boyz in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Pakistain. A US government review board determined he was a "low-level murderous Moslem" and approved his release in 2016.
The US does not send prisoners back to Yemen because of the civil war and had to find another country to accept him. Cape Verde accepted another prisoner in 2010
[Fortune] Its planet-destroying laser is scary, but its energy bills are truly terrifying.
The British energy supplier Ovo has put some very well-spent hours into a comprehensive calculation of the operating costs of the Death Star, which will return to the spotlight in the December 16th movie Rogue One. They conclude that operating the planet-destroying starbase would cost 6.2 octillion British pounds, or $7.8 octillion, per day—that’s $7,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. To put this piece in perspective -- it's just advertising for the movie...
To put that absurdly large number in perspective, $7.8 octillion is more than 100 trillion times the $70 trillion annual global economic activity of Earth, or 30 trillion times the roughly $200 trillion in wealth on our little blue planet.
Ovo’s analysis, conducted in collaboration with physics blogger Stephen Skolnick and Dartmouth mathematics Professor Alexander Barnett, approaches the granularity of a good business model (if your business is blowing up planets to intimidate a rebellious populace). A few of the highlighted line-items include about $52 billion per day for lighting, and $200 million per round of laundry. More at the link
#10
Resist every effort to downsize
Whilst praying the damned thing don't capsize;
Maintain the facade
Till you've sold them abroad
And cash in on bulk sales to your allies.
Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Ministry of Interior (MoI) said on Sunday they have identified Taliban's strategic operating centers and that security forces will target these facilities in winter.
The second 'Shafaq' operation is already underway to eliminate insurgents in insecure regions, officials said.
"The operation will focus on the elimination of insurgent strongholds, their routes and their recruitment centers," said Mohammad Radmanesh, deputy spokesman of MoD.
MoI also said currently 20 operations are being carried out by security forces in different areas of the country and this will continue through winter to spring.
"Shafaq Operation is designed to target key Taliban leaders and to eradicate their resources," said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the MoI.
Usually, during winter, Taliban leaders go to the Gulf States to raise funds in order to continue their insurgency. This year, however, it is believed that the Taliban will receive little money and that security forces have a chance to eliminate them.
Oil prices remain low, so belts must be tightened and extravagances cut out altogether.
"Aid from the Gulf region for the Taliban has decreased and they (Gulf countries) only support Haqqani Network," said Jawed Kohistani, a former military officer.
Reports also indicate that operations by the security forces in winter will put pressure on insurgents and that this will minimize the war during spring and summer.
"Security forces have always taken a defensive position. The winter operation should be launched to eliminate the insurgents and they should not be able to fight against security forces next spring," said Asif Seddiqi, a senator.
However, the lack of cooperation between security departments, poor war management, a weakness in the intelligence departments and challenges in air operations are perceived as challenges that security forces constantly face.
[DAWN] Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... i Prince Hamad Bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani along with members of the royal family arrived here on Saturday. They're gonna help eliminate the last of those pesky bustards.
Hasan Nawaz, son of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , received the guests at the Lahore airport and took them to the Sharifs’ Jati Umra residence at Raiwind where the premier hosted a luncheon for them.
The arrival of the Qatari prince is being seen in the context of a letter he submitted to the Supreme Court here in the Panama leaks case.
Al-Thani had stated in the letter that his father had longstanding business relations with Mian Mohammad Sharif, the father of PM Sharif, which were coordinated through the prince’s eldest brother.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!... Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... has left for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... to meet the Turkish president.
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12/05/2016
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[EXPRESS.CO.UK] Police scrambled to contain confrontations between the “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West” group, PEGIDA, and pro-immigration counter-protestors.
A video of the dramatic encounter caputures the moment where riot police form ranks to stop pro-immigration protestors reaching the nationalist group, founded in 2014. The open-borders hooligans – who held banners saying “make racists afraid again” – set bins and pieces of wood ablaze and lit a bonfire in the middle of the road before physically barging the police.
Bizarrely, one protestor dressed as Santa Claus held a sign saying “Santa says no to racists”.
Police had to extinguish a fire and unblock the roads. The protestors also set fire to litter and containers.
Riot squads prevented the two protest groups – held at different parts of the city – from meeting.
Officials confirmed 11 people were arrested but police refused to say what group they were from. Police spokesman Rasmus Skovsgaard said arrests were made for vandalism and violations of public order, as well as one case of violence against a public official.
As many as 100 people attended the pro-immigration rally, the spokesman added, with no information an the number of people at the PEGIDA protest.
PEGIDA was founded in 2014 by German national Lutz Bachmann. The movement aims to resist and oppose Islamic extremism and calls for stronger enforcement of laws to curb immigration.
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12/05/2016
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#1
11 people were arrested but police refused to say what group they were from
Let me guess......
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/05/2016 10:00
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Russia’s FSB security service has said it has killed an “emir” of the Islamic State group in a raid in the volatile North Caucasus.
The FSB said in a statement that “among the neutralised bandits was the head of the Caucasus region’s branch of the Islamic State, Rustam Aselderov, also known as Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Qadari, and four of his close associates”.
The FSB said 35-year-old Aselderov was involved in blasts in the southern Russian city of Volgograd which killed 34 people in 2013. He was fighting for another Caucasus insurgent group at the time. It also linked him to twin car blasts in Dagestan in 2012 that killed 14 and injured at least 120. The FSB said he also organised a foiled attack that was to take place in Moscow’s Red Square on New Year’s Eve in 2010 involving two female suicide bombers.
The warlord pledged allegiance to the Isis leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in December 2014, the first major militant to do so in the Caucasus.
Aselderov previously fought with the local Caucasus Emirate insurgent group, taking over as leader of its Dagestan branch in 2012, the FSB said.
Russia in October offered a 5m roubles (£62,000) reward for information on Aselderov’s whereabouts.
The FSB said a joint operation with the interior ministry had cornered Aselderov and his fighters in a private house in the city of Makhachkala, where it found “automatic weapons and a large amount of ammunition and explosives”.
Posted by: Pappy ||
12/05/2016
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[DAWN] THE victory of Masroor Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in last Thursday’s by-election is cause for considerable concern. A few observers disagree with this alarmism, and suggest the success of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... , the Muttahida Deeni Mahaz, or any of its related incarnations, is based on their responsiveness to local service delivery concerns. We are told they are able to deliver mundane public goods such as access to policing, justice, sanitation, and paved streets better than other local elites. Hence, the time-tested axiom of ’all politics is local’ explains why urban voters in Jhang have been consistently voting for Sunni bandidosgunnies since the mid-1980s.
While patronage politics may be part of the story, it fails to account for the entire picture, especially in instances where opposing candidates are also capable of delivering patronage.
Continued on Page 49
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two civilians were killed and seven others were wounded on Sunday when an IED exploded north of the capital, according to security sources.
The bomb was planted on the side of a main road in Saba al-Bour, north of Baghdad.
Baghdad recurrently witnesses suicide bombings and booby-trap explosions, The violence surged with Islamic State militants taking over large areas of the country.
On Friday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said violence during November claimed the lives of 926 civilians and wounded 930 people.
Since 2014, violence surged in Iraq with the Islamic State militants taking over wide areas of the country, and the United Nations said earlier this month that 58000 people died since then.
Observers believe ISIS have begun to target several areas across Iraq to divert security focus on Mosul, where the group fights to defend its last bastion in Iraq under the brunt of continuous advancements by Iraqi government and popular troops.
[EXPRESS.CO.UK] AN Afghan migrant has admitted the rape and murder of a medical student, who also worked voluntarily at a refugee centre.
As Slats the Full Bosomed4549 mentioned in comments yesterday.
Maria Ladenburger, the daughter of a high-ranking EU official, was returning from a party in the university city of Freiburg in Germany when she was assaulted on a cycle path.
She was raped and then drowned before her body was found in the River Dreisam.
The shocking incident happened on October 16 but details have only been released after an arrest on Friday.
The suspect, an Afghan migrant, was caught after police found DNA on a scarf near the path. The scarf reportedly belonged to Maria.
They also found a strand of hair on a nearby blackberry bush.
Officers then trawled CCTV to see find people with a similar hairstyle, which led them to the suspect.
Following his arrest the suspect, aged 17, pleaded guilty to the attack and will be sentenced next year.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... prosecutors say he can still change his plea and it's unknown if he has admitted raping Maria.
The unnamed migrant arrived in Germany last year as an unaccompanied minor and lived with a local family in the city.
Ms Ladenburger reportedly worked in her spare time helping out in refugee homes in Freiburg. But it is unclear whether she ever met her murderer before he took her life.
The dead girl's father is Dr. Clemens Ladenburger, a lawyer who works as the right hand man to the legal director of the European Commission.
But Dieter Salomon, the mayor of Freiburg warned people not to "apply perpetrator background for sweeping judgements, but to view it as an isolated incident".
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... police are also investigating whether the murder of Maria is linked to another killing just a month later. Carolin Gruber was sexually assaulted and murdered in an attack at the same spot. The 27-year-old was found in woodland elsewhere in the city on Novermber 10.
Crime among unaccompanied male refugee has in general been on the rise of late. In picturesque Garmisch-Partenkirchen the mayor recently wrote to Bavarian state authorities pleading for help in dealing with them at a hostel, while a nationwide alcohol ban has been imposed at all their accommodation centres.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2016
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#1
But Dieter Salomon, the mayor of Freiburg warned people not to "apply perpetrator background for sweeping judgements, but to view it as an isolated incident".
In other words, do not use your gottgegeben gesunder Menschenverstand (Gott given common sense).
#2
But Dieter Salomon, the mayor of Freiburg warned people not to "apply perpetrator background for sweeping judgements, but to view it as an isolated incident".
I'd like to hear that from her father before I'll even consider it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2016 8:30
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#7
"I could see her ankles and it drove me insane!"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/05/2016 8:45
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#8
When Muslims attack, react fleetly!
The news must be covered completely,
So stifle those guesses
And muffle your presses --
These cases are dealt with discretely.
#13
An Æthiop poet petitely
Wrote rhymes representin' real reetly.
Of course that old Negro
Don't freestyle like we do,
Nor shuck, swear, or swagger so sweetly.
[ARANews] Idlib – Russian warplanes on Sunday launched several airstrikes on Syria’s northwestern Idlib Governorate, killing and wounding dozens of people, activists reported.
At least 44 civilians were killed and dozens of others wounded in the airstrikes, which targeted rebel-held populated areas in Idlib.
The Russian airstrikes reportedly hit the towns of Kafr Nabal and Maarat al-Numan.
“Kafr Nabal was hit by four airstrikes. At least 21 civilians were killed, including children,” local media activist Hassan al-Omari told ARA News, adding that more than 30 others were injured in the Russian strikes on Sunday evening.
The air raids targeted a crowded marketplace and a residential complex in the town.
“Rescue teams are still searching for survivors under the rubble,” al-Omari reported.
In Maarat al-Numan, dozens of casualties were reported after Russian fighter jets hit the town with some six airstrikes.
“So far dead bodies of 23 victims were pulled from under the rubble,” human rights activist Ahad al-Khalil told ARA News in Maarat al-Numan.
“Also, dozens of civilians were injured in the air raids. They were immediately moved to a field hospital for treatment,” the source reported.
Russia, a key supporter to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, began a military intervention in in Syria in September 2015, unde rthe pretext of fighting terrorist groups.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in November that their forces had begun a “major operation” targeting rebel-controlled areas in Homs and Idlib.
Arab News sez the death toll is 46
BEIRUT, Lebanon: At least 46 people were killed in suspected Russian air strikes on several areas of Idlib province in northwest Syria on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitor said those killed in the strikes, on three locations in the province, were mostly civilians.
The Observatory says it determines whose planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
The toll included 26 civilians, among them three children, killed in the town of Kafr Nabal, and another 18 people who were killed in the town of Maaret Al-Numan.
In Kafr Nabal, an eyewitness told AFP that warplanes carried out several strikes.
“Six strikes hit houses and a crowded local market,” Hossam Hosber said.
In Maaret Al-Numan, an AFP photographer saw local residents and White Helmets rescue workers trying to reach survivors in the rubble at a vegetable market hit in a strike.
The Observatory said most of those killed in Maaret Al-Numan were civilians, but that the identities of four of the dead were still being confirmed.
The monitor also reported two additional deaths, one in an earlier strike on Maaret Al-Numan and another in Al-Naqir, also in Idlib.
And it said six civilians, four of them children, had been killed in a government barrel bomb attack on the town of Al-Tamanah in the south of Idlib.
Russia began a military intervention in support of President Bashar Assad’s government in September 2015, and says it is targeting “terrorists.”
It has dismissed reports of civilian casualties in its strikes and says it only target militants.
In November, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian forces had begun a “major operation” targeting Idlib and Homs provinces.
Idlib province is mostly controlled by a powerful rebel alliance known as the Army of Conquest, which groups Islamist factions with jihadists of Fateh Al-Sham Front, formerly Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.
Most of Homs province is controlled by the Syrian government, but small parts of the countryside in the region are held by a range of rebel groups.
More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria since the country’s conflict began in March 2011.
[DAWN] The Heart of Asia conference concluded in Amritsar on Sunday on an unhappy note for Pakistain, which was criticised roundly as a base for myrmidon groups whom the conference statement described as a big threat to peace and security in the region.
The statement named 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... , Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Haqqani group as posing threats to region together with other groups fomenting terrorism in the neighbourhood and beyond.
Foreign Affairs Adviser 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... countered the claim, calling the criticism ’simplistic’.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... there was relief for Pakistain as the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain too came up for criticism together with Jundullah.
Pakistain was also applauded for hosting Afghan refugees for three decades. Mr Aziz also found occasion to briefly exchange pleasantries with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting with a clutch of other foreign ministers.
"We remain concerned by the gravity of the security situation in Afghanistan in particular and the region and the high level of violence caused by the Taliban, terrorist groups, including ISIS/DAISH and its affiliates, the Haqqani network, Al Qaeda, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, East Turkistan Islamic Movement, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... , TTP, Jamaatul Ahrar ...A Pak Taliban splinter group that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough... , Jundullah and other foreign terrorist fighters," the statement said.
Acknowledging the support that terrorism derives in the region, the statement demanded an immediate end to all forms of terrorism, as well as all support to it, including financing of terrorism.
"We recognise that terrorism is the biggest threat to peace, stability and cooperation in our region. We encourage the international community to continue to assist the government of Afghanistan."
Mr Aziz said his attending the Amritsar meet despite ’escalation’ along the Line of Control was testimony to Pakistain’s ’unflinching’ commitment for lasting peace in Afghanistan.
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Hasakah – Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) launched on Sunday a major offensive on the ISIS-held town of Margada in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah Governorate.
The Kurdish units hit ISIS headquarters in Margada with mortar fire and heavy artillery, causing casualties in ISIS ranks.
“Daesh has suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment under heavy blows by the YPG,” Kurdish officer Salah Osman told ARA News, using another acronym for ISIS.
The operation comes in response to an ISIS-led attack on YPG defenses in southern Hasakah.
“Earlier in the day, ISIS militants launched a mortar attack on the YPG security checkpoints in the towns of Kashkash and Fadghami, in the southern countryside of Hasakah, causing several injuries in YPG ranks,” media activist Payman Mirkhan told ARA News. “The Kurdish forces responded by bombing Margada in one of the fiercest offensives against ISIS headquarters there.”
The town of Margada is the last ISIS stronghold in Hasakah. It is located on the administrative border between Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor.
Islamic State militants have been trying to fortify Margada in order to protect their headquarters there. The group has dug trenches in the vicinity of Margada. “Islamic State members have dug a trench around the northern part of Margada. The project is expected to proceed and cover the town’s suburbs from all sides,” Azzam Khallawi, a local media activist, told ARA News.
The group has also planted dozens of landmines in the vicinity of Margada in a bid to impede the advance of the YPG and allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
“We are already aware of those tactics by this terrorist group,” an SDF spokesman told ARA News. “ISIS believes […] fortifications could prevent our forces from retaking Margada but we assure them that we’re prepared for any scenario.”
ISIS launched a similar project in November 2015, fortifying its headquarters and digging trenches near al-Hawl. However, the project was ultimately unsuccessful as ISIS was driven from the border town by US-backed SDF fighters.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had driven ISIS out of the strategic Shaddadi city in southern Hasakah last February. The progress came after the SDF units cut off a main ISIS supply route near Syria’s northeastern border with Iraq.
“Our next target is Margada. Our operations will continue until we regain the entire region from ISIS,” SDF official spokesman Talal Silo told ARA News in an earlier interview.
Furthermore, the SDF alliance had seized control of a key gas facility and main financial resource for the Islamic State in Hasakah. The western-backed forces regained control of the Jibisa gas facility, located about 12km east of Shaddadi city.
The facility had been used by ISIS for nearly two years as a source to fund its operations. Informed sources told ARA News that ISIS used to produce 5,000 gas cylinders a day in Jibisa to be sold at the black-market. Jibisa gas facility is considered one of the main gas facilities in northern Syria for its huge production that has been feeding power stations in central Syria. The facility was run by some 500 workers, including specialized engineers, technicians and workers.
The SDF, which includes Kurdish, Arab and Christian units, had earlier liberated more than 255 towns and villages from ISIS militants on the border with Iraq.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/05/2016
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Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Five-hundred refugee families in Diyala are wary of returning home due to past blood feuds as old as ten years, according to a local source.
“A tribal blood feud dating back to 2006 is preventing 500 refugee families from returning home in Khailaniya (47 km northeast of Baqubah),” Alsumaria News quoted the source as saying, on condition of anonymity.
“Government, political, tribal and security leaderships have made tremendous efforts for months to resolve the tribal feud and return the displaced families home after they had spent more than two years at refugee camps in Khanqin (105 km northeast of Baqubah), where they live in miserable conditions.”
Violence between 2006 and 2008, as well as that which erupted with the rise of the Islamic State in 2014, ignited bitter tribal feuds at some regions, especially in Diyala’s town of Maqdadiah.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been displaced since ISIS took over several provinces in Iraq in 2014. The United Nations has recorded at least 73000 refugees from the city of Mosul alone as Iraqi troops continue six-week-old operations to liberate the city from the extremist group.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The only field hospital erected by Iraqi government troops in Mosul has become unable to admit more injured civilians as Islamic State militants continue to shell areas they have lost to the advancing troops, Anadolu Agency reported.
According to doctors, the hurdle coincides with inability by Iraqi forces to storm several districts of Mosul as militants rely on booby-traps, snipers to heold off the troops, and a network of underground tunnels to facilitate their movement.
Mohamed al-Sawwas, a doctor at the makeshift facility in the town of Kokajli, was quoted by Anadolu Agency as saying that ISIS has been “relentlessly” bombarding densely-populated recaptured areas with mortar and artillery missiles.
He revealed that the hospital has become “unable to admit more injured persons after they reached 80 cases in a few hours late Saturday,” noting that many of those are suffering “very serious” wounds.
According to Sawas, “The hospital has run out of medical appliances, such as sterilizers and first-aid medicine,” which made medical workers helpless with cases that require medium or high-risk surgeries.
The United Nations and other refugee assistance bodies have recently warned that refugees from Mosul continue to suffer difficult living conditions that exacerbated with rainfalls at al-Khazir and Hassan Sham camps near Mosul. Food and water shortages are also biting people who remain in the city, with the main water pipe feeding the city damaged in battles, coupled with electricity cuts.
Iyad Rafed, a member of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, was quoted on Saturday as saying that refugees started to set up sand barriers to prevent water from seeping into their tents.
[ARA News] Damascus – Islamic State’s (ISIS) jihadists on Sunday executed a Syrian rebel fighter in the Qalamoun District in Damascus suburb.
The fighter was captured during clashes between ISIS and Syrian rebel groups in Qalamoun.
Ahmed Abdulkarim al-Hayik, a fighter of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), was executed by ISIS militants on charges of ‘fighting against the Caliphate’.
“Al-Hayik was a member of the Ahmad Alabdo Battalion of the FSA. The battalion has been in fight with ISIS militants in the district for months,” local media activist Wassim al-Doghmush told ARA News.
“By executing al-Hayik, ISIS tried to send a massage to the FSA factions that it’s still in control of major parts of the Qalamoun area and is capable of imposing its version of the Sharia law,” Doghmush said.
[Al Arabiya] ISIS in Syria’s Raqqa province have declared amnesty for those who are spying on the extremist group and turn themselves in, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday, according to activists.
Activists spoke about ISIS’s attempt to seduce and lure civilians migrating from the northern part of Raqqa towards the occupied area by granting housing and salaries as well as food rations and electricity in return for their sons joining the militant group.
Earlier in November, a military operation launched under the name of “the wrath of the Euphrates” by the Syrian democratic forces in an effort to expel ISIS from its main stronghold in Syria. The battles have caused the displacement of more than five thousand people during the first few days, who passed from Ain Issa through a private passage monitored by the Syrian Democratic Forces, according to the operation’s spokeswoman in an interview to Agence-France Presse on November 10.
The SDF gained control of the dozens of villages and farms in early November, and is now 30 km from the city of Raqqa, according to the spokeswoman confirmed.
[Al Arabiya] Sources close to Al Arabiya reported the deaths of dozens of civilians at the hand of an ISIS booby-trapped tanker that exploded on Saturday, in the newly-liberated Qadisiyah neighborhood east of Mosul.
Media sources indicated that the bomber driving a booby-trapped tanker blew himself up in the morning in the Qadisiyah neighborhood, killing at least 24 and wounding dozens more, including women and children. The sources added that the militant group targeted the civilian residents of the neighborhood for their cooperation with anti-terrorism forces.
Amid an imminent final military push to boot ISIS out of Mosul and the elation its residence for the deposition of the notorious militants, some are alarmed and expressed their skepticism and fear of likely violations and abuse by Iraqi military following its integration with the Shiite-led Popular Mobilization Units.
Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al Abadi, announced in a statement published Friday, that the decisive battle against ISIS is looming soon, emphasizing that Iraqi army is advancing from all axis to restore Mosul. As the military offensive to drive out ISIS mount, more people are forced to flee the area, prompting the UN and aid agencies to warn of a humanitarian crisis, especially as winter increases the suffering of the displaced people living in refugee camps.
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Defensive weapons that can intercept and destroy enemy missiles before they can harm the United States or its allies have been a key part of military strategy for decades, but the rules of the game are changing.
More countries have or are developing long-range missile technology, including systems that can carry multiple warheads, known as Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs) and/or decoys.
"Both China and Russia possess the MIRV capability for their ballistic missiles. In 2014, reports confirmed that Iran too had developed Multiple Re-entry Vehicles (MRVs) for their ballistic missiles. Cold War literature suggests that MIRVs are first strike weapons and could be strategically destabilizing," independent consultant Debalina Ghoshal wrote in a June 2016 report for the Federation of American Scientists.
"The United States realizes these threats and is working towards a robust missile defense system," she said.
Last year, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency awarded contracts to Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin and Boeing to begin designing what is known as a "Multi-Object Kill Vehicle" or MOKV, which could destroy several objects in space with a single launch.
"Ten years ago, we had a single kill vehicle on a single interceptor. Kill vehicles today are the size of a toaster ... This MOKV program is the latest iteration," John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, told Seeker.
Raytheon's plan, which is scheduled for a concept review in December, is to load multiple MOKVs onto a single missile for launch. Each MOKV would be outfitted with sensors, a steering and propulsion system and communications equipment that will allow them to zero in on an individual target and hit it, destroying the object by sheer kinetic forces.
The impacts would take place beyond Earth's atmosphere, but on a trajectory that would send the resulting cloud of debris back into the atmosphere, where it burn up, Pike said.
A major technological challenge is figuring out how to differentiate between bombs and decoys, such as balloons that look like they might have a hydrogen bomb aboard.
The military hopes to begin proof-of-concept demonstrations late next year and a non-intercept flight test in 2018. If successful, the Missile Defense Agency would conduct an intercept test in 2019.
#3
Leftists like to say "It's like trying to hit a bullet with a bullet - it's just not possible." But it has been done repeatedly. Leftists then say "Your missile defense system won't do anything to stop a smuggled in nuke!" This is about like saying "Your cancer cure does nothing for the common cold, and therefore is useless." Lefty pretzel logic over and over. No wonder they ran a candidate that a wild-card like Trump could beat...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/05/2016 11:01
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#4
"Your missile defense system won't do anything to stop a smuggled in nuke!"
Then we beef up the border security... They'll so want that won't they?
The U.K. government is funding ISIS to the tune of $723 million, according to leaked British government documents. The leaked documents reveal the British government is sending $723 million in “aid” to Somalia while admitting it is “certain” to be used to fund terror groups ISIS and Al-Shabaab.
The revelation that the UK is funding ISIS comes in a leaked 41-page business plan drawn up by the UK’s Department for International Department. The Daily Mail reports that the document, leaked to The Mail on Sunday, outlines strategy until 2020, and is marked ‘Official Sensitive’ on every page.
In a detailed ‘risk register’, it rates the probability of taxpayers’ funds being ‘misused or diverted by listed terror groups or criminal gangs’ as ‘certain’ and ‘likely to grow in the next six to 12 months’ as tensions rise ahead of elections. It also accepts there is a similar ‘certain’ risk rating – highlighted in red – that consultants will be unable to travel to insecure areas to monitor spending.
‘This is so alarming,’ said one Minister. ‘The public will be deeply concerned that their hard-earned cash is literally being handed out to terrorist organisations.’
Ian Austin, the Labour MP for Dudley North, said he planned to table questions to Ministers. ‘Taxpayers will be horrified to find their money is going to terrorists at a time when police forces here are having budgets cut and officers are losing their jobs,’ he added.
Other leaked papers expose that Britain is still sending bilateral payments to India worth £70 million this year, despite pledges to end such transfers last year amid concerns over funding a nation with its own aid agency and a sophisticated space programme.
They also show Britain is giving cash to countries, including major aid recipients, despite high risks of corruption and concerns over the effectiveness of projects.
DFID officials admit that despite international diplomatic efforts in Somalia led by former Prime Minister David Cameron, large parts of the country are insecure and that the al-Shabaab group ‘appears to have had a resurgence’.
Yet the UK is doling out £568.4 million, despite the document admitting ‘Somalia remains an inherently high-risk operating environment.’
Officials set out tactics for mitigating such problems, including use of ‘trusted partners’ on the ground.
But the shocking revelations will fuel concerns that British cash is being misspent as billions are diverted into fragile states, worsening rather than alleviating problems.
Earlier this year, there was fury among many MPs after this newspaper revealed that British aid was ending up in the pockets of Palestinian terrorists.
There have also been cases of aid being ‘taxed’ or stolen in conflict zones by groups such as al-Shabaab, the fanatics behind the 2013 slaughter in a Kenyan shopping centre. A leaked UN report has warned of ‘high level and systematic abuses’ by Somali government officials who have passed weapons to the group.
In recent months, Islamic State has become more active in Somalia, even briefly capturing a town in the semi-autonomous Puntland region six weeks ago.
The 18 draft and final business plans cover 16 countries, the continent of Africa, and climate change strategy.
For all the discussion of value for money, poverty reduction and risk protection, they make alarming reading as the British aid budget soars to £16 billion by 2020.
From Mozambique to Malawi, officials admit there are high chances of corruption. In Pakistan – our biggest aid recipient, getting £375 million this year – analysts admit that human rights and space for civil society are on ‘a downward trajectory’.
DFID accepts there is a risk that its ‘programme delivery will be associated with unintended, negative consequences’.
Ethiopia, the second biggest aid recipient, is receiving £332 million, with much of the money funnelled through government systems.
Officials say this is ‘acceptable’, although ‘opposition political parties, independent media and formalised civil society organisations are constrained’.
DFID sources said there was always risk working in conflict zones: ‘We have robust plans to mitigate against this but, on occasion, losses will occur. We are rigorous in investigating any concerns relating to funding.’
The source added that they were investing in India’s poorest people, of whom there are still 290 million, in line with previous pledges to generate growth and jobs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
Very simple solution.
Stop.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/05/2016 8:48
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[DAWN] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined hands to lash out at Pakistain on terrorism as the subject took centre stage at the inauguration of the sixth Heart of Asia ministerial conference on Sunday in Amritsar.
The theme of the conference is 'enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the Heart of Asia region', and speculation was rife that India and Afghanistan would seek to pin Pakistain on terrorism.
Ashraf Ghani opened the conference by snubbing a $500 million pledge from Pakistain for development projects in Afghanistan, saying Afghanistan 'needs aid to fight terrorism', Times of India reported.
"We need to identify cross-border terrorism and a fund to combat terrorism. Pakistain has pledged $500m for Afghanistan's development. This amount can be spent to contain extremism," Ghani said, directly addressing Foreign Affairs Adviser 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... who was in attendance at the two-day moot.
"Afghanistan suffered the highest number of casualties last year. This is unacceptable... Some still provide sanctuary for terrorists. As a Taliban figure said recently, if they had no sanctuary in Pakistain, they wouldn't last a month," the Afghan president thundered.
"I don't want a blame game, I want clarifications on what is being done to prevent the export of terror," Ghani said.
He emphasised the need to "confront the fifth spectrum in the room, which is terrorism" and called on Pakistain to "verify cross-border activities".
The Afghan president appreciated India's support to Afghanistan, which he said comes "with no strings attached".
"The relationship is based on shared values and beliefs," Ghani said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi says he is resigning after a stinging defeat on a constitutional reforms referendum that he staked his premiership on. Wagner actually wrote an opera about this. Rienzi gets killed in the end.
“Good luck to us all,” Renzi told reporters after saying he would tell a Cabinet meeting Monday afternoon he is resigning. Then he will tender his resignation to the Italian president after 2 1/2 years in office.
Renzi conceded defeat after exit polls showed his proposal losing by a margin of about 60 percent to 40 percent in Sunday’s referendum.
Renzi said the reforms would have cut Italy’s bureaucracy and made the country more competitive. His opponents were hoping to tap into the populist sentiment that has been gaining ground in Europe and the U.S.
Almost 70 percent of the electorate turned out to vote, first reports from polling stations indicated, underlining the stakes after Renzi's resignation pledge turned the vote into a de facto referendum on his leadership and record.
The projected result was in line with what opinion polls had been indicating up until November 18, after which the media were banned from publishing survey results.
President Sergio Mattarella will be charged with brokering the appointment of a new government to run Italy until the next general election, which has to take place by the spring of 2018.
Opposition parties denounced the proposed amendments to the 68-year-old constitution as dangerous for democracy because they would have removed important checks and balances on executive power. Spearheaded by the populist Five Star Movement, the biggest rival to Renzi's Democratic party, the "No" campaign also capitalised on Renzi's declining popularity, a sluggish economy and the problems caused by tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Italy from Africa.
[IsraelTimes] Germany, La Belle France, Greece praise results as far-right party’s huge following on scocial media vents it anger.
Austria’s voters have resoundingly rejected anti-immigration and eurosceptic Norbert Hofer’s bid to become the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ’s first far-right president, a result greeted with relief from centrist politicians across the continent.
Instead, Greens-backed independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen swept 53.3 percent of Sunday’s vote against 46.7 percent for his rival from the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe), according to public television projections.
"Today it is not an exaggeration if I say that today we see a red-white-red -- the flag of Austria -- as a signal of hope and change. A red-white-red signal from Austria to all the capitals of the European Union," Van der Bellen, 72, said in Vienna.
The official result of what has been an ugly and polarising election in normally peaceable Austria, lasting 11 months, was not expected until Monday. But on Sunday an "incredibly sad" Hofer conceded defeat.
"I congratulate Alexander Van der Bellen on his success and call on all Austrians to stick together and work together," Hofer said on Facebook.
Establishment politicians in Austria and Europe had been nervous about a possible Hofer victory in a year that has seen two monumental political upsets already: 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... winning the US presidential election and Britannia deciding to leave the EU.
It came shortly before exit polls suggested Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had lost a high-stakes constitutional referendum also held Sunday -- following a "No" campaign spearheaded by the populist Five Star Movement -- on which he has staked his job.
Hofer, like Trump and "Brexit" proponents, had stoked concerns about immigration and globalisation, vowing to "get rid of the dusty establishment", seek closer ties with Russia and fight against "Brussels centralising power".
Following the arrival of a record number of migrants colonists last year including many fleeing war in Syria, Hofer had also declared that Islam has "no place in Austria", seeing Moslems as a danger to the country’s values, traditions and security.
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Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Commander of Tigris Operations, Major General Mazhar al-Ezzawi announced seizing two explosive vests in an operation near Baqubah.
Ezzawi said in a press statement, “Security forces from Tigris Operations managed to seize two explosive vets ready for detonation, in a military operation on a hideout near Baqubah.”
“The operation was carried out based on accurate intelligence information,” Ezzawi explained. “The [Tigris] Operation managed to foil several terrorist plans during the previous months to weaken stability and security in different areas of Diyala,” Ezzawi added.
Tigris Operations announced seizing many explosive vests in different areas of Diyala in the last months during different military operations.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/05/2016
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) ‘We Are Coming, Nineveh’ Operation Command announced on Sunday liberating two villages in Sharqat district, in northern Salahuddin. Also, the forces raised Iraqi flag over the buildings of the two villages.
Commander of the Operations, Lieutenant General Abdel Amir Yarallah, said in a press statement, “Troops of Salahuddin Operations and the army’s 60th brigade, managed to liberate the villages of Jadida and al-Nahiya al-Kubra, in Sharqat district, in northern Salahuddin province.”
“Moreover, security forces raised Iraqi flag over the buildings of the two villages, as well as inflicting heavy human and material losses on the enemy,” Yarallah added.
“The [security] forces are also advancing to liberate the remaining areas in the district,” Yarallah explained.
In 29 November 2016, Salahuddin Operations Command announced liberating the villages of Shayal al-Abli and Shayal al-Imam in Sharqat district.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Security forces managed to free the village of Sahl al-Madeef in Sharqat district, in northern Salahuddin, Lieutenant General Abdel Amir Yarallah announced on Sunday.
Yarallah, Commander of ‘We Are Coming, Nineveh’ Operations, said that troops of Salahuddin Operations and the army’s 60 brigade liberated Sahl al-Madeef village.
Security forces also raised Iraqi flag over the village’s building. In addition, they inflict heavy human and material losses on the enemy, Yarallah added.
Furthermore, [security] forces are advancing to liberate the remaining areas in the district,” Yarallah explained.
In 29 November 2016, Salahuddin Operations Command announced liberating the villages of Shayal al-Abli and Shayal al-Imam in Sharqat district.
Posted by: badanov ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ARANews] Duhok – The US-led coalition has stepped up its air campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group in Syria and Iraq, targeting the group’s major strongholds, officials said on Sunday.
The coalition has launched a new wave of heavy airstrikes in the past 24 hours, bombing ISIS command centres, resources and tactical units.
In Syria, the coalition strikes destroyed three oil wellheads in the ISIS-held city of Al-Bukamal, an ISIS command and control node in Raqqa, two ISIS tactical units in Ayn Issa, and an oil tanker truck and an oil wellhead in ISIS-held areas in Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
In Iraq, the coalition air raids destroyed five ISIS-held buildings and disabled a bridge near Hawija, beside destroying two ISIS tactical units and an explosives factory near Mosul, and an ISIS vehicle bomb factory near Rawah.
The coalition said in a statement on Sunday that attack, bomber and fighter jets have participated in the strikes.
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
During a special operation, carried out by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, a terrorist – Azerbaijani citizen Emin Jami, has been killed, the service said in the message. According to the message, Jami tried to detonate a suicide belt, and was eliminated.
The message said Jami was convicted in 2007 for his activities within the terrorist organization, led by Naif Al-Badavin. After Jami was released from prison earlier this year, he has been planning terror acts in Azerbaijan, the message said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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Spokesman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini said Sunday that Russia fully delivered all parts of S-300 air defense system to Iran and the two countries have agreed to develop logistical and technical cooperation, IRNA reported.
Not to worry, the Israelis know how to activate remotely the 'off' switch'...
Naqvi-Hosseini said that the air defense system was finally handed over to Iran despite the ups and downs and Iran currently has taken possession of the technology as well as air defense technology.
MP of Varamin said that given the full implementation of the S-300 deal by Russia, there is no need for pursuing complaint with the International Court of Arbitration over delays in delivery of the air defense system. Fortunately, Tehran and Moscow have excellent ties in the field of arms interaction, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I'm guessing the Russians sold it to Iran knowing it will just get destroyed five seconds after we cross the line of departure into Iran.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[PJ] Two days after Cuban dictator Fidel Castro bit the dust, Black Lives Matter memorialized him, and the reasons for it are not pretty. Castro killed thousands of his own people, imprisoned many more, caused 1 million refugees to flee to the United States, and even canceled Christmas. But Black Lives Matter celebrated him -- because he provided a refuge for cop killers.
'Apolitical' or windsock rule? I'll go with windsock.
Venezuela is issuing new higher-value notes to help deal with some of the practical problems of soaring inflation. The central bank said that six new bills ranging from 500 to 20,000 bolivars would come into circulation on 15 December. Currently the largest note is 100 bolivars and worth about two US cents.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that despite Democrats losing the House, Senate, and almost two-thirds of state houses, the American people don't want a new direction.
[Downtrend] The Russian-made jeep 
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
[DAWN] 
Russia’s FSB security service has said it has killed an “emir” of the Islamic State group in a raid in the volatile North Caucasus.
[Vice] Marites Flor was held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf alongside Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall. She survived. They didn't. This is her story.
Defensive weapons that can intercept and destroy enemy missiles before they can harm the United States or its allies have been a key part of military strategy for decades, but the rules of the game are changing.
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
[ARANews] Duhok – The US-led coalition has stepped up its air campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group in Syria and Iraq, targeting the group’s major strongholds, officials said on Sunday.
Spokesman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini said Sunday that Russia fully delivered all parts of S-300 air defense system to Iran and the two countries have agreed to develop logistical and technical cooperation, IRNA reported.
