[Breitbart] Democrats’ efforts to raise suspicions about alleged -- and, thus far, imaginary -- links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government may have backfired spectacularly.
The spotlight is now on President Barack Obama and his administration’s alleged surveillance of the Trump campaign, as well as his aides’ reported efforts to spread damaging information about Trump throughout government agencies to facilitate later investigations and, possibly, leaks to the media.
On Sunday morning, the White House released a statement indicating that the president would ask the congressional committees investigating Russian hacking theories to add the question of "whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016."
Media outlets continued to repeat that the story was based on "no evidence," though the evidence was plain.
President Donald Trump originally tweeted about the alleged surveillance -- which radio host Mark Levin called a "silent coup" by Obama staffers keen to undermine the new administration -- on Saturday. Levin’s claims, reported at Breitbart News early Friday, were in turn based on information largely from mainstream outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. Heat Street was one non-mainstream source, but the BBC also reported similar information in January. So, too, did the UK Guardian, which is a mainstream source (albeit with a decidedly left-wing slant, hardly favorable to Trump).
All day Saturday, former Obama staffers tried to put out the fires. A spokesperson for President Obama responded -- and Obama aide Valerie Jarrett tweeted:
"A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."
As Breitbart News’ Matthew Boyle noted, however, it was a "non-denial denial." It is worth examining the statement in detail.
[DeutscheWelle] Police have tossed in the calaboose more than 20 members of a holy warrior group suspected of launching attacks against security forces. The chief prosecutor said one of the group's leaders is a runaway living in Germany.
Bahrain uncovered a 54-member "terrorist organization" involved in prison breaks and attacks on security forces, reported the state-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA) on Saturday.
Police tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... 25 members of the holy warrior group, 10 of whom were former inmates, the report said. The remaining suspects appeared to be on the lam.
The suspects face 16 charges, including killing two coppers during a prison break, attempted murder of another police officer, sheltering holy warriors and joining a terrorist group. Prosecutors said only four of the suspects denied the charges.
Authorities said they found "large quantities of explosives, detonators and hand grenades" alongside pistols and AK-47 assault rifles.
Bahrain's chief prosecutor Ahmed al-Hammadi told BNA that several of the holy warrior group's operations had been planned from outside the country, including from Germany.
"One of the group's leaders is based in Germany, where he helped several members go to Iran and Iraq to receive training on using explosives and firearms at the Revolutionary Guard camps ahead of carrying out their terrorist crimes in Bahrain," al-Hammadi said.
In February, Bahrain executed three men found guilty of perpetrating a kaboom that led to the death of three coppers in 2014.
Bahrain's Sunni-ruling authorities have faced backlash from the Shiite-majority population after banning the main opposition group, arresting anti-government activists and revoking the citizenship of the country's Shiite spiritual leader.
Manama frequently accuses Iran of fomenting civil unrest and supporting attacks against security forces, allegations which Tehran has long denied.
[Ynet] Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern on Sunday called for a European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... -wide ban on campaign appearances by Turkish politicians to avoid having individual member countries like Germany come under pressure from Ankara.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... said on Saturday it would defy opposition from authorities in Germany and the Netherlands and continue holding rallies in both countries to urge Turks living there to back an April 16 referendum to boost President Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
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[DeutscheWelle] The Turkish government has been actively cracking down on African schools run by the controversial Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen. Now, Gulen schools in Æthiopia have changed hands. Due to pressure from Ankara?
Everything is the same on the Nejashi Ethio-Turkish International Schools' website. The top of the page reads: "Registration Starts for 2016-17 Academic Year." Photos feature children playing basketball in front of a school building, and high-end technology in the classroom is emphasized. But the most important news about the school is missing: According to media reports, all six Nejashi schools in Æthiopia have been sold. The news agency AP quoted school administrator Cecil Aydin as saying the decision had been made "for economic reasons."
Some 2,000 students attend the six educational institutions, which offer complete K-12 schooling. Yearly tuition is more than $2,500 per student (2,353 euros). Most parents in Æthiopia cannot afford the cost, but the country's elite like to send their children there.
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[Right Scoop] "This is crucially important. Everybody’s missing the point. The incredible scandal here is the Obama administration was investigating top officials in the Trump campaign, maybe even Trump himself during the course of the election!
Listen to this from the WSJ today. ’U.S. investigators have examined contacts Attorney General Jeff Sessions had with Russian officials during the time he was advising Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.’
They were investigating a sitting United States Senator who hadn’t done anything? They’re investigating a sitting Attorney General who hasn’t done anything? Based on what premise? The fact that he was advising Donald Trump? Is this not appalling and shocking to you?"
#1
U.S. investigators (Democratic Obama drones) have examined contacts Attorney General Jeff Sessions had with Russian officials during the time he was advising Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to people (the same Democratic Obama drones) with familiar the matter.
Does that make more sense, now?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/05/2017 7:56
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#2
You mean the administration that used the IRS to cripple an opposition political movement also used the national security apparatus to attack an opposition political movement?
Huh. Almost like the one constant in the Obama administration is unbound lust for power.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/05/2017 16:03
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#3
Among many other rocks needing to be flipped over, the FISA request/approval/disapproval documents need to be looked at by the DoJ, House and Senate Intelligence committees.
#4
Actually, the Clinton Foundation Scandal is the source of all of this. The dems did everything to prevent Trump from being elected because of the tentacles of the Clinton Foundation. I swear that I believe the pay for play went straight to the white house and everyone that was a Democratic appointee across the entire spectrum of the executive branch was on the take.
What is Obama trying to "squirrel" us from?
This Russian ambassador thing is so transparently foolish that it has to be a red herring away from the real story.
[Daily Caller] South African president Jacob Zuma this week called for the confiscation of land owned by white people in his country -- without any restitution made to the Caucasian property owners.
In a speech given Friday morning, Zuma said the proposal would be the result of establishing a "pre-colonial land audit of land use and occupation patterns" that would determine what land needs to be taken. The move would require an overwhelming majority in parliament to change the law to allow the expropriation, according to The Telegraph.
"We need to accept the reality that those who are in parliament where laws are made, particularly the black parties, should unite because we need a two-thirds majority to effect changes in the constitution," the South African president argued.
Zuma had previously mentioned the land grab in a speech to parliament last month, but this week marked the first time he had explicitly called for altering the law to do so.
h/t Instapundit
[LawNewz] President Trump recently tweeted claiming that former President Obama wiretapped him during his campaign. One can only imagine how nuts the media would have gone if the roles had been reversed: President Trump wiretapping either Obama or the Clintons, though his DOJ could have authority to do just that given the expansive leaks of intelligence information by Obama and Clinton supporters the last few months. Heck, he could wiretap the media at this point, legally and legitimately, as the sources of these unlawful leaks, for which Obama himself set precedent.
Do liberals understand what Pandora’s Box Obama opened up by Obama using the powers of the NSA, CIA and FBI to spy on his political opponents? IMO, the only law these "people" understand is: "It feels so right, it can't be wrong"
...If the stories are correct, Obama or his officials might even face prosecution. But, we are still early in all of this and there are a lot of rumors flying around so the key is if the reports are accurate.We just don’t know at this time. The stories currently are three-fold: first, that Obama’s team tried to get a warrant from a regular, Article III federal court on Trump, and was told no by someone along the way (maybe the FBI), as the evidence was that weak or non-existent; second, Obama’s team then tried to circumvent the federal judiciary’s independent role by trying to mislabel the issue one of "foreign agents," and tried to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "courts", and were again turned down, when the court saw Trump named (an extremely rare act of FISA court refusal of the government, suggesting the evidence was truly non-existent against Trump); and so, third, Obama circumvented both the regular command of the FBI and the regularly appointed federal courts, by placing the entire case as a FISA case (and apparently under Sally Yates at DOJ) as a "foreign" case, and then omitted Trump’s name from a surveillance warrant submitted to the FISA court, which the FISA court unwittingly granted, which Obama then misused to spy on Trump and many connected to Trump. Are these allegations true? We don’t know yet, but if any part of them are than Obama and/or his officials could face serious trouble. From your mouth to the ear of G*d, and I hope Donald & Co won't be deterred by some false considerations of "reconciliation" - the only reconciliation vile progs understand and accept is other side's unconditional surrender - ask people whose businesses were destroyed for refusing to cater to gay weddings.
#1
Obama has never been held accountable by law or the media. He got away with droning an American citizen; Wire tapping American media, using the IRS against political opposition...... no need to go on.
#2
Why do I get a feeling of parallels with Turkey? Hey, Donkeets, the coup failed in Turkey, see what is happening to the 'opposition'. Don't play that game here. Trump is not a GOPe. He's a New Yorker. It's nothing personal, it's business.
#4
I would bet the tap was placed in November after a FISA request was granted because the Obama administration alleged money laundering by Trump with Russian banks. No evidence was found but the tap remained.
When are these stupid democrats going to understand that Trumps "tweets" are baited hooks. I'm sure he has all the documentation he needs and he is seeing how many idiots get sucked into the fiasco.
This is the third time he has set them up and I wouldn't be surprised if the democrats are bugged to obtain evidence on how their conspiracy will try to cover up Trumps proof they bugged the Trump Tower.
#5
He does like to set little traps for them, doesn't he?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2017 16:26
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#6
Trump is not going to fold like the usual GOP wet noodle. He will fight.
He will fight. However the cowardly GOPe House Senate will fold and/or stab him in the back. He better get this under control. And, BTW, what is the deal with Sessions recusing himself? I always knew he was squish.
#7
Hopefully the Republican Congress will see that Trump's approval ratings don't drop when he fights back and like good politicians they'll learn the lesson.
#8
Trump likes to set up and bait his trapline. Maybe he will catch a McCain or a L-Graham creature. Trap lines are set usually for fur bearing animals---for their hides.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/05/2017 22:01
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[The Mail] As Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill's claims that she had never met with Sergey Kislyak were proven to be untrue, six more Democrats have been revealed to have met with the Russian Ambassador.
Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island sat in on the meeting with Kislyak and McCaskill, Fox News reported.
The seven Democratic leaders met with the ambassador to discuss the blockade of US adoptions in Russia in 2013.
Klobuchar said in a statement that she was at the meeting to tell Kislyak about the families she met in Minnesota. McCaskill was one of the slew of Democratic lawmakers demanding Attorney Jeff Sessions' head after it was revealed he had met with Kislyak twice last year.
The Missouri senator had denied meeting him saying in her ten years serving on the Armed Services Committee, she was involved in 'no call or meeting' with the Russian diplomat.
Her claims were quickly disproved after Charles C.W. Cooke of the National Review discovered tweets saying otherwise. 'Off to meeting w/Russian Ambassador. Upset about the arbitrary/cruel decision to end all US adoptions, even those in process,' she tweeted on January 2013.
That same year in August, McCaskill tweeted again: 'Today calls with British, Russian and German Ambassadors re: Iran deal. #doingmyhomework.'
She told USA Today the meeting was with around a dozen other senators.
#2
Yes, but we know that all Democrats are people of sterling moral character and deep seated American patriotism. We don't know anything of the kind about Flynn or Sessions.
[TheBlaze] Ben Rhodes, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, came to his former boss’s defense Saturday after President Donald Trump accused Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in the later stages of last year’s presidential campaign.
Quote tweeting Trump’s original tweet, Rhodes fired back at Trump, "No President can order a wiretap."
"Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," he added.
#3
Andrew McCarty: Understand the significance of this: Only the Justice Department litigates before the FISA court; this was not some rogue investigators; this was a high level of Obama’s Justice Department — the same institution that, at that very moment, was whitewashing the Clinton e-mail scandal. And when Justice seeks FISA surveillance authority, it is essentially telling that court that there is probable cause to believe that the targets have acted as agents of a foreign power — that’s the only basis for getting a FISA warrant.
In this instance, the FISA court apparently found the Obama Justice Department’s presentation to be so weak that it refused to authorize the surveillance. That is telling, because the FISA court is generally very accommodating of government surveillance requests. Unwilling to take no for an answer, the Obama Justice Department came back to the FISA court in October
he doesn't have to issue an order, he just makes his wishes known. I heard a statistic on Fox News this AM: 35,000 FISA requests were granted, 12 were not. This is one of 12. Kinda stark, hmm?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2017 6:52
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#4
'35,000 FISA requests were granted, 12 were not.' Time to order a new rubber stamp ?
#10
#3 Andrew McCarty As Frank G. posted, this came right out of Loretta Lynch's Justice Dept.; the most corrupt, weaponized, and politicized dept. in Obama's cabinet.
#13
and I typo'd his last name. I blame lack of coffee.
McCarthy
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2017 11:35
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#14
Note that this Ben 'we may have to lie to you to get what we want' Rhodes.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/05/2017 11:42
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#15
As Special Advisor to the President and Deputy NSA - Ben Rhodes and all his perfumed prince lackies most likely facilitated the failed June 2016 FISA request. That is why it was rejected. Rhodes will soon find out that there are very few G Gordon Liddys left in this world, and when the FBI visits...the weak will snitch...I hope that sick feeling in his gut stays with him.
#16
As Special Advisor to the President and Deputy NSA - Ben Rhodes and all his perfumed prince lackies most likely facilitated the failed June 2016 FISA request.
He seems like a knowledgeable fellow, albeit a bit concerned. I hope his affairs are in order. Could be some difficult times ahead for knowledgeable fellows.
[WND] WASHINGTON ‐ The Obama administration’s former Attorney General Loretta Lynch has made an impassioned video plea for more "blood" and "death" on the streets ‐ a video that was later posted on the Facebook page of Senate Democrats as "words of inspiration."
The video is less than a minute long and begins by stating that people are experiencing "great fear and uncertainty," with the unstated implication it is due to Donald Trump’s takeover of the White House.
Without offering any specifics, Lynch goes on to say that "our rights" are "being assailed, being trampled on and even being rolled back."
But the strongest words come in a statement that seems to suggest the answer is street action that will inevitably turn bloody and deadly.
"I know that this is a time of great fear and uncertainty for so many people," Lynch says. "I know it’s a time of concern for people, who see our rights being assailed, being trampled on and even being rolled back. I know that this is difficult, but I remind you that this has never been easy. We have always had to work to move this country forward to achieve the great ideals of our Founding Fathers."
#6
Arrest her for inciting a riot when it happens.
Also lady, you really want us to start killing each other? We are very close as it is and if you brownshirts pick on the wrong type your brownshirts will get ventilated. It won't just stop there either since your people are determined to start a war. Think Bosnia for a recent example.
If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. And it will score you, your family, friends and your lands.
#7
Without offering any specifics, Lynch goes on to say that "our rights" are "being assailed, being trampled on and even being rolled back."
Whose rights are you talking about? "Plea for more blood and death on the streets." Loretta, what in the hell are you talking about? Are you on drugs?
Loretta, you are a disgrace. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for meeting with WJC on a plane in Phoenix to stop indictment of HRC and you ought to be ashamed of your seditious/treasonous comments here. You are as bad as your predecessor for breaking down law and order in this country. Holder was charged and convicted criminal of contempt for lying to Congress and he was up to his ears in Fast and Furious gun-running. He ran interference for Obama and his weaponizing government against its people (Recall the IRS and Lois Lerner, e.g.). Obama is not going to get a 3rd term even in his shadow government. Your team lost, get over it. Obama is not going to get a 3rd term.
#8
Arrest her for inciting a riot when it happens.
Arrest her now.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2017 10:13
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#9
The Obama administration’s former Attorney General Loretta Lynch has made an impassioned video plea for more "blood" and "death" on the streets...
Ummm no. Her comment was of historical perspective of those that fought for civil rights. There's much to criticize the Obama DoJ and AG Lynch in particular - this ain't one of them. God Almighty people - getta grip.
#10
After listening to the video, I'm with DepotGuy on this one. WND pulled a 'CNN Fake News' move and misquoted what the c&^% actually said. I'm no fan of this c)&%, but the video / audio and what this 'column' claims was said are two different things.
#11
The only grip I am gonna get is around a liberal facist's neck.
Every time Trump supporters go outside, they get attacked. The left is doing everything it can to legitimize political violence. While the statement was in a "historical context", the fact she is making it like she did is to suggest the violence today is ok and even necessary.
These people don't make one statement without calculation and a former AG making round about connections between violence of the past and today and saying it is necessary will only egg the brownshirts on.
These people are pure evil and are trying shut up people talking about them and intimidate everyone that isn't on their side to slink away into the shadows and shut up.
#15
Ah.. those were good times grom... before that brat of a kid blew up my workplace.
It isn't as bad as the media makes it out though. The rise of Trump's popularity and the collapse of the media's trust shows that middle America isn't buying what the left is selling. Further attacks are also pushing them further away from the left.
However, the left is in full panic mode. Especially if we find proof of wire taps and deep state collusion with Obumble to bring down Trump. They will only get more violent as their fall becomes complete.
#16
To be candid Darth, I don't believe you can beat these people - the new class, without fighting dirty. So far, I haven't seen any signs that Trump is either willing or able (given that the entire gov employees are new class or aspirants to) to do so.
#17
After his friend on the right is hit in the head, a prepared Trump supporter delivers.
Posted by: George Elmuter1684 ||
03/05/2017 14:21
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#18
No need for bleeding or dying if you're obeying the law.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2017 17:43
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#19
Red meat (with a stink). Fulmination.
Much better to mock this "oration"
With imagery: power
And privilege. Now, her
"Let's you and them fight!" Revelation.
[PJ] What is it about the city San Francisco that makes the rest of the country want to grab them by the shoulders and shake the silliness out of them?
That wasn't quite what I had in mind...
The city is known for adopting policies that set them apart from the rest of the U.S. -- so much so that it makes you wonder if they want to remain a part of the United States.
A few years ago, a referendum was passed that ordered the National Guard not to recruit in local high schools. They allow homeless people the run of the city, letting them use the streets as restrooms and homeowners' stoops as bedrooms. And, of course, their status as a sanctuary city leaves their citizens -- and visitors -- wide open to violent crime from illegal aliens.
Now the city has made the rest of us a little less safe from terrorism. The mayor and chief of police have withdrawn from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force -- a 104-unit body that shares intelligence on potential terrorists and terrorist attacks.
#5
"In some cases, California laws conflict with federal law, said John Crew, a retired attorney who works with activist groups, including the ACLU and Council on American-Islamic Relations on law enforcement and civil rights matters.
“This issue is really about the need for local police officers to comply with state and local laws and policies even when they are working with the FBI JTTF,” Crew said.
Neither Crew, nor his many allies in San Francisco, are apprehensive area residents may be in danger because of a lack of representation on the JTTF.
[Breitbart] President Barack Obama’s Department of State sponsored the July event in Ohio where Sen. Jeff Sessions met the Russian ambassador for the second time in 2016, according to the organizers of the event.
The July 20 meeting in Cleveland was used by the Washington Post’s March 1 headline to double the number of meetings where Sessions met with Russians in 2016. "Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose," said the headline, which has created a mini-scandal as Democratic partisans push for Sessions’ resignation from his post as the nation’s Attorney General, amid Democratic claims that the Russian government helped Donald Trump win the 2016 election.
The two-day event was hosted by a civic organization, Global Cleveland, whose website cites the state department’s role:
#4
Anytime the Dems offer to do something for you, call in sick. Safest thing.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/05/2017 12:00
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#5
Putin is on the money.
Although it doesn't stand for a darn thing. Putin was addressing the U.S MSM and his remarks did not change anything with the MSM. Our MSM has abdicated its role of a free press contrary to what McCain and others say.
[GEO.TV] On March 2, 36 years ago, TV screens flashed with a news item that shook Pakistain, damaged its democratic struggle against military dictatorship and created an irreversible split in the Pakistain Peoples Party, as well as the Bhutto family.
The year was 1981. A passenger aircraft of the Pakistain International Airlines, on its way from 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... to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
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#1
One of the activists was Altaf Abbasi, who is said to have a role in the 1972 hostage incident of Israeli players.
Up to 25 people attempting to cross the Mediterranean are feared dead following a search operation off the coast of Libya that ended with the rescue of 115 others, according to local authorities.
Libya’s coastguard said the victims’ rubber boat sank around 3am (05:00 GMT) on Friday, some five kilometres off Tajoura, just east of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, because it was overloaded and taking on water.
Apparently the NGOs got the coordinates for the pickup rescue wrong...
“Our coastguards carried out a search operation in that area off Tajoura in attempting to find the missing ones, but no one was found,” naval forces spokesman Ayoub Qassem told the Reuters news agency.
Those rescued, including six women, were mostly from sub-Saharan African countries, the coastguard said. One of the survivors was from Bangladesh, Qassem added.
That's a long way from the coast of Libya. How'd she get there?
Libya is the main human smuggling point for people hoping to reach Europe by sea, usually crossing in flimsy inflatable craft loaded with small amounts of fuel in an attempt to get them only as far as EU rescue vessels stationed in international waters.
Last month, the bodies of 74 people were found washed up on a beach in Zawiya, western Libya, after the engine of their vessel was stolen.
Hundreds of people have died en route to Europe since the start of 2017, according to the United Nations. More than 4,500 people died attempting the crossing last year.
In early February, European Union leaders agreed on a controversial plan to help stem the flow of people from Libya. Under the agreement, the bloc would provide Libya’s government with funds to increase efforts to stop boats from crossing territorial waters and to “break the business model” of people traffickers who helped 181,000 refugees enter the EU through Libya and Italy last year. The announcement was strongly criticised by human rights groups which said such plans increased risks and the chance of abuses.
Perhaps because it also breaks THEIR business model...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2017
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The European Union is expected within days to sign off on plans for a small military command centre in Brussels, a symbolic step towards deeper defence ties that the UK will not seek to block.
Right next door to NATO headquarters. It'll make for a quicker commute...
After years of stop-start moves, European leaders vowed to improve defence co-operation in the wake of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the spread of conflict and instability on the EU’s southern and eastern borders.
The plans took shape last year when EU ministers agreed a blueprint to improve Europe’s response to conflicts and crises, although ideas for a Brussels headquarters were scaled back. The UK secretary of state for defence, Michael Fallon – a long-term sceptic on EU defence – backed the initiative because there was no “EU command and control”.
EU foreign and defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday are expected to take the next step, with an agreement expected on establishing a “military planning and conduct capability”, a Brussels-based team to command existing army and civilian missions.
Expected to start work this spring, the unit would command three existing EU military training missions in Mali, Somalia and Central African Republic. In future, it could be running missions aimed at peace-building and disarmament.
The UK is not expected to block the plans, which have to be agreed by all member states. Diplomats and officials said there was a logical strategic gap to fill, pointing out that traditional military structures mean a field commander is supported by an officer at a distant headquarters.
In a sign of the political sensitivities, countries debated at length whether the head of the new body should be called a “commander”, before settling on “director”. That person is likely to be the head of military staff in the EU’s foreign policy service, with a team of 30 people. “We are not looking at some enormous new building [in Brussels],” said one diplomat.
Not today. Next year's budget, however...
The EU runs 16 military and civilian missions, including the British-led naval force protecting ships from Somali pirates, operated from Northwood in north-west London, and a small civilian team working to keep the peace in Georgia, following the Caucasus state’s 2008 war with Russia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2017
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[Right Scoop] It’s being reported that at least 300 companies are already lining up to build the wall on the southern border:
300 companies have already said they are interested in helping build a border wall between the United States and Mexico, Jane King at the Nasdaq reports.
According to CNN Money, the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection Agency asked the companies to submit a proposal to design and build structures near the United States border with Mexico. The proposals will start to come in next week.
The companies interested in helping range from construction companies to fence builders to concrete firms.
"There’s really nothing to say at this point. It’s all very speculative. Once we get the details, we’ll examine whether it’s something we’d move on," said Terry Willis of Caddell Construction who does major government construction projects around the world, including U.S. embassies and prisons. "Not every company is a serious bidder."
Congress will need to approve the funds that will be needed before construction of the wall can begin.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2017 10:50
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#6
Israel has the technology. Nearly zero attacks. The cost reductions and deployment is enviable. "In Israel, the separation barrier is seen as a success, in spite of the enormous costs. The military and political classes are happy to remind the public that since the barrier was erected, infiltration into Israel by suicide bombers has fallen to almost zero." Advancements ongoing.
#7
Are you kidding? Somebody yelled 'Multi Billion Dollar Government Contract!' and companies start airdropping Airborne Sales Engineers on the office.
I'm waiting to hear about the minority owned set-asides.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/05/2017 11:56
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#8
I'm thinking of the counter-sniper patrols to protect the construction crews.
...Hebron is Hamas Central in the West Bank, so we can safely assume he is a member...
placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! near Tomb of the Patriarchs after arousing suspicions of Border Police.
The man, said by police to be in his 20s, was arrested at a Border Police checkpoint leading to the site after officers found a knife in one of his pockets.
According to Hebrew media reports, the Hebron resident was searched by police earlier in the day at the same checkpoint, and his return aroused officers’ suspicion.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by security forces after stabbing and lightly wounding a Jewish resident of the West Bank settlement outpost of Havat Mor, south of Hebron.
[ARA] The Kurdish National Council (KNC) on Friday accused the Kurdish youth group Ciwanen Soresger of burning the Yekiti party building in Qamishi city, in northeastern Syria. I'm guessing this is inspired and financed by Turkey.
The Asayish security forces of the local administration said they have tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! the perpetrators and will protect KNC offices.
The tensions follow festivities between the Rojava Peshmerga ‐affiliated to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)‐ and the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) ‐affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)‐ in the Yezidi region of Sinjar in which several were killed.
The youth group Ciwanen Soresger is seen as close to the Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD) and previously was also accused of burning down the ARTA FM radio station in the town of Amude in April 2016. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... at that time the Kurdish security police announced that the perpetrators were arrested and officials said they received prison sentences.
Moreover, in the town of Dirbêsiyê, the KNC said that ’PYD forces’ stormed the local KNC office and took down the Kurdish flag.
However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... Fidan Hessi, spokesperson of the Asayish forces in a statement said that the security forces of the local administrations led by the PYD on Friday prevented an attack on the KNC office in Dirbêsiyê. They said that they have arrested the perpetrators who burned the Yekiti office in Qamislo.
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[DAWN] As the civil and military leaders vowed on Friday to continue "indiscriminate" counterterrorism operations with "full might", they also stressed maintaining national consensus on the fight against terrorists.
This resolve was expressed at a high-level national security meeting, which was the first huddle of its kind since the army announced operation Raddul Fasaad last week after a spate of terrorist attacks across the country that brought into question the sustainability of the ’successes’ achieved through the military’s operation Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... and over 26,000 intelligence-based and combing operations.
Continued on Page 49
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#1
"except those on our ISI payrolls, of course"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2017 7:14
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 18 Taliban Lions of Islam including nine commanders of the group were killed during the counter-terrorism operations in eastern Laghman ...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a reputionagreat wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
province of Afghanistan.
According to the local government officials, the holy warriors were killed during a series of air and ground operations conducted on Friday night in Alisheng district.
Provincial governor’s front man Sarhadi Zwak confirmed that eighteen Taliban Lions of Islam including nine commanders of the group were killed.
Zwak further added at least ten Taliban Lions of Islam also sustained injuries during the operations.
Laghman is among the relatively calm provinces in eastern Afghanistan but the anti-government armed Lion of Islam groups have recently increased their insurgency activities in this province.
The Taliban Lions of Islam launched a coordinated attack to seize control of the provincial government compound last week.
But the local officials said the attacks were repulsed by the Afghan cops and heavy casualties were incurred to the assailant Lion of Islams.
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[Wash Times] U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Friday said a border-adjustment tax like the one being pushed by congressional Republicans would be a "powerful mechanism" to balance the budget but did not endorse the specific proposal they’re lobbying for on Capitol Hill.
"We have to balance" the budget, he said on CNBC. "Border adjustable is certainly one powerful mechanism for doing that, but let’s see what else evolves."
There has been an intense internal GOP debate over imposing the 20 percent tax on imports in order to raise about $1 trillion over the course of a decade.
"I think there will be something found to fill the trillion-dollar hole. Whether it will be exactly border adjustable -- and if it is border adjustable whether it’ll be in exactly the same form and size -- is an open question," Mr. Ross said.
"I haven’t said that we’re in accord with anything like a 20 percent border adjustable tax," he said.
Proponents have said the move would end a "made in America" tax and encourage U.S. production, since foreign-made products sold in the U.S. face a lower tax burden than American-made ones.
#2
Easiest, best and most easily-justifiable thing to do is to impose an excise tax on remittances leaving the country.
To the extent that illegal aliens don't pay an income tax, a 10% excise tax on money sent back 'home' would compensate the country for the income generated. Explain it that way and the elites will look even more foolish than they usually do in saying no.
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03/05/2017 11:32
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[Iraq News] Iraqi security forces managed to foil an attack launched by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , west of Ramadi, and also killed a number of the group’s holy warriors, a security source told Alsumaria News on Saturday.
The source said, "Security forces managed to foil an attack launched by the Islamic State on an army battalion, west of the city of Rutba (310 km west of Ramadi)."
"A number of the Islamic State’s members were killed, and a vehicle belonging to the group was destructed during the attack," the source added on condition of anonymity.
Noteworthy, Rutba District is controlled by joint forces from the army, police and tribes, and attacked from time to time by the Islamic State group.
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[Daily Mail] Islamic students at a Sydney private school threatened to behead non-Muslim staff and declared themselves ISIS sympathizers, staff alleged. Police feared students at Punchbowl Boys High School were being radicalized after principal Chris Griffiths did not cooperate with a de-radicalization program.
Griffiths and deputy principal Joumana Dennaoiu were removed from their roles at the Muslim-majority school after an investigation by the Education Department. The two were stood down for allegedly stopping female teachers from participating in official events such as the Year 12 graduation ceremony, and other issues.
Several employees claimed non-Muslim staff were verbally attacked, including with threats of beheading, by Muslim students declaring themselves ISIS sympathizers. Not only were these incidents not reported to police, the 'actively hostile' relations were so bad police liaison officers couldn't access the government school for the past 2.5 years.
Officers said Griffiths converted to Islam in 2014 and claimed relations between police and the school broke down after he was appointed two years ago. A senior constable said, "Students were being told that if 'the pigs' stop you, to film them and refuse their directions. The students were being led down a dangerous path by the principal. We had concerns about radicalization."
The Education Department said it conducted an "extensive appraisal of the school's policies, procedures and management", prompted by a series of serious staff complaints in 2016, before removing the pair. It said the investigation revealed "a high level of staff disunity and disharmony" and "increased disengagement" of the school from the community.
Griffith's predecessor Jihad Dib, who is now the NSW state MP for Lakemba, said exclusion of any kind was wrong. Under Dib's leadership, the school was transformed from a campus controlled by Middle Eastern gangs where violence and drug dealing were common, to a high performer with much better literacy and numeracy rates.
A suspect in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader has claimed he is the victim of a conspiracy by Malaysian authorities attempting to damage the honour of North Korea. Ri Jong Chol, a North Korean, accused Malaysia of using coercion to try to extract a confession from him.
The nerve of them, trying to get a murder suspect to confess!
Kim Jong-nam was murdered on 13 February at Kuala Lumpur International airport, after being assaulted by two women who Malaysian police believe smeared his face with VX, a chemical classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.
Ri told reporters outside the North Korea embassy in Beijing on Saturday that he was not at the airport on the day of the killing and knew nothing about the accusation that his car was used in the case.
The first part is irrelevant, and the second part is falsifiable...
Ri was in Beijing en route back to North Korea after Malaysia deported him. His arrival at the Beijing international airport early on Saturday was greeted by a swarm of South Korean and Japanese reporters, but Ri was whisked away from the chaotic scene by Chinese police before he was able to make any statement.
Outside the embassy, Ri told reporters that he was presented with false evidence in Malaysia, and police showed him pictures of his family in detention. “I realised that this is a conspiracy, plot, to try to damage the status and honour of the republic,” Ri said.
Kim Jong-un’s regime meanwhile bristled at suggestions the US might relist it as a state sponsor of terror because of the assassination. “The US will keenly realise how dearly it has to pay for its groundless accusations,” said North Korea’s foreign ministry. There have been calls from some members of Congress to reinstate the listing, which was removed in 2008 by George W Bush as part of disarmament talks that proved unsuccessful.
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[Iraq News] A Federal Police officer informed on Saturday, that the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group blew up ten houses, while executed seven families, south of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Colonel Khodier Saleh said in a press statement, "The Islamic State group blew up ten houses, few hours before the security forces storm into Nabi Sheth area, south of Mosul."
"Security forces managed to recapture Nabi Sheth cop shoppe," Saleh explained.
"The Islamic State also executed seven displaced families, which were captured by the terrorist group while they were trying to escape from Tal al-Rayan village, south of Mosul," Saleh further added.
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[DAWN] Afghan Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal on Saturday said Pakistain does not have a justification for the continued closure of crossing points on the Pak-Afghan border, and that his country might send in chartered flights to airlift stranded Afghans in case the border is not reopened soon.
In a message posted to his Facebook page, Zakhilwal said he had talked with Pakistain's de facto foreign minister, 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 convey that if an opening was not allowed for the return of stranded Afghans within two days, he would ask his government to send chartered flights to lift them.
"This, however, would reflect very poorly [for Pakistain]," he added.
Zakhilwal said the argument presented by Pakistain -- that the border closure is intended to stop Death Eaters from crossing over -- does not carry any weight, as "these points such as Torkham and Spin Boldak have been manned by hundreds of military and other security personnel" and have all the necessary equipment and infrastructure in place to prevent such a possibility.
"Continuous unreasonable closure of legal Pak-Afghan trade and transit routes cannot have any other explanation except to be aimed at hurting the common Afghan people," the envoy said in his social media post, apparently in breach of diplomatic protocol.
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[DAWN] A US State Department report released on Friday labelled the Altaf Khanani group as a money laundering organization and accused it of laundering billions of dollars for organised crime and terrorist outfits.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs William R. Brownfield told a briefing in Washington that the State Department had delivered its 32nd International Narcotics Control Strategy Report to Congress on Wednesday. "It is, however, the first time that we are discussing and rolling this report out before the media in nine years," he added.
In its section on Pakistain, the report notes: "The Altaf Khanani money laundering organization (Khanani MLO) is based in Pakistain. The group, which was designated a transnational organised crime group by the United States in November 2015, facilitates illicit money movement between, among others, Pakistain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), United States, UK, Canada, and Australia."
The group "is responsible for laundering billions of dollars in organised crime proceeds annually. The Khanani MLO offers money laundering services to a diverse clientele, including Chinese, Colombian, and Mexican organised crime groups and individuals associated with designated terrorist organizations", the report adds.
It describes Pakistain as strategically located country at the nexus of south, central and western Asia, with a coastline along the Arabian Sea. The report notes that Pakistain’s mostly non-existent borders with Afghanistan, Iran and China facilitate the smuggling of narcotics and contraband to overseas markets.
"The country suffers from financial crimes associated with tax evasion, fraud, corruption, trade in counterfeit goods, contraband smuggling, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling/trafficking, terrorism and terrorist financing," the report points out.
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[DAWN] RAW ... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man... ALPINDI: The family of a man who died during a police crackdown against kite flying in Sadiqabad on Friday placed his body in front of the Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... Hospital (BBH) and blocked traffic in protest against the police.
According to Mohammad Ashraf, the brother of 50-year-old Mohammad Aslam, a police party entered the victim’s house to arrest his two sons who the police claim were flying kites.
Aslam is said to have been punched by a policeman which caused heart failure. The victim was pronounced dead at BBH, outside of which his family staged a sit-in. They shouted slogans and blocked traffic on Murree Road for more than an hour. Two ambulances which were transporting patients at death's door were also stuck in the traffic jam and the patients’ family members had to appeal to the protesters to give way to the ambulances.
The protesters gave way to the two ambulances after the intervention of senior police officials and moved towards Chandni Chowk, where they resumed their sit-in. They dispersed after senior police officials ensured them that those found responsible will be held to account. The police deny the family’s claims.
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#1
Well, I suppose one could drop a shuttlecock bomb from a kite.
Another idiot known wolf taken off the street. Here's hoping he has interesting connections..
[IsraelTimes] Elvis Redzepagic tells authorities he was prepared to strap on a bomb and sacrifice himself for jihad.
A New York man repeatedly traveled to the Middle East to try to join the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... or another bad boy group in Syria and later told authorities he’d been prepared to strap on a bomb to sacrifice himself for jihad, prosecutors said Saturday.
Continued on Page 49
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#1
And now he can fight not to drop the soap in prison shower.
#3
Bosnian seems possible, Bright Pebbles. A search of the name suggests it might have originally been Albanian. From the article:
Redzepagic, who lives in Commack, told authorities after his arrest that he’d become a devout Moslem while in Montenegro, in the Balkans, and believed a cousin was a battalion commander in Syria for the Islamic State or the group once known as the Nusra Front, according to the court complaint.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The loyalists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have beheaded two men in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
According to the local government officials, the incident took place on Friday in a remote village of the restive Achin district.
The district administrative chief Esa Khan Zwak quoted has told VOA’s Afghanistan service that the two men had their heads chopped off and their dead bodies were left in an open area.
There are no further details available regarding the identities of the two men and the charges based on which the terror group’s loyalists executed them.
Zwak said efforts are underway to ascertain the identities of the two men and hand over their bodies to the families.
The latest horrific execution of the two men by ISIS loyalists comes as the Afghan forces are busy conducting counter-terrorism operations to suppress the insurgency of the Lions of Islam in some restive districts of Nangarhar.
The local officials earlier said ISIS loyalists have sustained heavy casualties during the Shaheen-25 operations which were launched weeks ago and are still being conducted in volatile districts, including Haska Mina, Achin, and Kot.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A key member of the Taliban group was jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by the Afghan cops in capital Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), said the detained holy warrior has been identified as Idrees son of Ahmad Gul who was involved in various terrorist related activities in Kabul.
According to a statement by NDS, Idrees was arrested during an operation conducted in Bagrami district of Kabul.
Idrees was recruited by two key Taliban group members Nikmal and Abdullah who are involved in transportation of landmines and explosives.
NDS further added that Idrees was involved in various insurgency activities including bombings and kabooms in Bagrami district of Kabul.
The statement by NDS also added that Idrees was specifically involved in bombings in Hussain Khel district that led to the martyrdom of seven Afghan soldiers and destruction of their three vehicles.
The arrest of the key Taliban member comes as the group has been attempting to expand their activities and insurgency in some key cities of the country, including capital Kabul.
The group staged two back to back coordinated suicide kabooms in Kabul last week that left at least 22 dead and over one hundred others maimed.
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After another brief delay due to nearby fighting, the water plant in Avidevka began operations on Saturday, according to Russian language news accounts.
The water plant, set in a no mans land in Advievka stopped working twice, the first time due to shelling and the second time because plant workers refused to show up. The refusal was in part because both sides were firing mines from mortars into the area.
Ukrainian sappers cleared mines on Thursday, but a further delay was encountered due to fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian backed separatists.
Rebel media claimed that Ukrainian artillery fire resumed in the vicinity of the water plant on Friday, but so far no reports have emerged that the water plant has stopped work.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the region a total of seven Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in fighting and shelling in Donetsk and Lugansk.
Friday evening two unidentified Ukrainian border guards in Marinka were wounded in small arms fire and mortar directed against their checkpoint. According to the lb.ua news report, the gunfight lasted 30 minutes.
Elsewhere, rebel artillery fire hit Ukrainian positions in southern Donetsk near Mariupol Friday. According to a separate lb.ua news report, rebel 122mm artillery fire hit Novogrigoevka, Novomikailovka and Lebedinskoye. Rebel mortar fire fell on Vodyanoye, Marinka, Krasnogorovka, Novotroiskoye and Shirokino.
Also on Friday, rebel 152mm artillery hit Ukrainian positions at Krimenskoye and Troitskoye. Rebel forces also fired mortars in Lugansk at Katerinovka, Troitskoye, Popasnaya and Novoaleksadrovka.
Two Ukrainian soldiers were reported wounded on Friday.
On Saturday, according to yet another lb.ua news report, rebel 122mm artillery fire hit Ukrainian positions in southern Donetsk at Bogdanovka, Novotroitskiye and Vodyanoye.
In Lugansk on Saturday, rebel 152mm artillery hit Ukrainian positions at Popasnoaya and Kalinovka. Rebel 122mm artillery and 82mm mortar fire was reported at Novoaleksandrovka, Krimenskoye, Popasnaya and Katerinovka.
Ukrainian reports were that three Ukrainian military were wounded on Saturday,
According to rebel media, Ukrainian artillery fire hit 11 residential buildings in Gorlovka, Zaitsevo and Donetsk on the night of March 3rd to March 4th. The artillery fire knocked out electrical power in the Petrovskiy district of Donetsk city.
On Saturday rebel media said that Ukrainian forces fired on their positions a total of 2,000 times, a number which includes small arms fire. Among the locales hit were the Donetsk airport, Spartak and Yasinovataya.
Militias have captured a string of key Libyan oil ports in the fight against eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, sharply escalating the country’s civil war and throwing international peacemaking efforts into doubt.
Oh, there was no doubt...
The Islamist Benghazi militia struck at al-Sidra, Libya’s biggest oil port, and Ras Lanuf, its biggest refinery, overnight on Friday, forcing Haftar’s Libyan National Army to retreat.
Army spokesman Col Ahmad al-Mismari said the militias had overrun the main airfield at Ras Lanuf, with the army pulling back to avoid damage to oil facilities. He said the Benghazi defence brigades, militias originally from Benghazi who were driven out of the city by Haftar’s forces last year, attacked the ports from four directions on Friday.
Airstrikes failed to halt the drive, in which militia units entered the ports in fighting that has left at least nine dead. Renewed strikes were launched against the militias on Saturday morning, while army reinforcements massed for a counter-attack in what has become a see-saw struggle to control Libya’s vast oil wealth.
“The attackers were armed with modern tanks and a radar to neutralise our air force,” Mismari said. “But the battle is ongoing. The situation in the ‘oil crescent’ remains under control.”
Haftar’s forces seized al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf, together with nearby ports Brega and Zueitina in an offensive last September that dealt a major blow to the UN-backed Gvernment of National Accord, whose militias had controlled them.
Haftar supports Libya’s parliament, based in the eastern town of Tobruk, which opposes the GNA in Tripoli, and both sides have made gaining control of the ports their priority.
The Tripoli government denied involvement in the attack, condemning it as a “military escalation” and called for all sides to cease fighting.
Britain’s ambassador to Libya, Peter Millet, tweeted his concern that the battle may shatter the country’s oil industry. “I follow with great concern fighting in the ‘oil crescent’ which threatens Libya’s oil and the lives of civilians,” he said.
The oil ports have been the focus of months of fighting, with the Benghazi defence brigades launching offensives against them in December and February that were broken up by airstrikes.
The fighting also risks opening a divide among outside powers, with Haftar backed by neighbouring Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, while the GNA has support from the United States, Britain and most European Union powers.
In recent weeks Russia has been trying to broker talks between the two governments to form a power-sharing administration with a prominent role for Haftar. The move was backed last month by the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, who said: “That’s the crucial question: how to make sure that Haftar is in some way integrated into the government of Libya.”
The United Nations has also been mediating a plan to restructure the GNA to incorporate Haftar, while the GNA itself is struggling in Tripoli, with its forces fighting street battles against militias from a third would-be administration, the “salvation government”, for control of the capital.
With reinforcements pouring into the oil ports fighting on Saturday, hopes of a peace deal may be vanishing. “No room for political negotiations in the near future,” tweeted Libyan analyst Mohamed Eljarh. “Today’s developments make political solutions even more difficult to achieve.”
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[Iraq News] A local source in Nineveh Province declared that two members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... were killed, and two others were maimed, while trying to plant explosives inside a house, west of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Alsumaria News reported on Saturday.
The source said, "Two members of the Islamic State were killed and two others were maimed, while planting explosives inside a house in the eastern neighborhoods of Tal Afar, west of Mosul."
"The house belongs to a security member, who was executed two years ago by the Islamic State group," the statement added.
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[Iraq News] A police source informed that two civilians were maimed in a kaboom near a popular market, north of Baghdad, Alsumaria News reported on Saturday.
The source said, "An improvised bombwent kaboom!, at noon today, near a popular market in al-Shaab area, north of Baghdad, wounding two civilians."
"Security forces cordoned off the area of incident, while ambulances transferred the maimed to a nearby hospital to receive needed treatment," the source added on condition of anonymity.
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[DAWN] GUJRANWALA: Nearly three years after Saba Qaiser’s father and uncle shot her in the face, rolled her in a rug and threw her in a river for marrying without their consent, the 21-year-old is again afraid for her life.
After surviving the attack in Gujranwala, Ms Qaiser was determined to ensure the men were brought to justice.
Even though her father and uncle were tossed in the calaboose I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! and locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! , she was pressured by relatives to forgive them under a law that until last October allowed killers who had been pardoned by family members to walk free.
Since the case did not go to trial, the men were released after two months in jail.
"Although I had to tell the court that I had forgiven them, I never did from my heart," said Ms Qaiser, whose story was told in the 2016 Oscar-winning documentary, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness by filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Her uncle never forgot the "dishonour" she had brought on the family, and when he came across a trailer for Ms Obaid-Chinoy’s film last year, he was furious, she explained.
"He came to my house at night and asked for me and started shooting from his pistol. I was lucky to survive his attack," said Ms Qaiser, whose left cheek bears a scar running from mouth to temple from the previous attack.
Her father and uncle were once again taken into custody, in April 2016, and are expected to be freed later this month after she decided not to press charges against them.
Women’s rights campaigners say the case illustrates the difficulties of prosecuting such crimes despite new legislation against "honour killings", which removed the loophole that once enabled pardoned killers to go free.
The new law was passed in October 2016 -- three months after the murder of an outspoken social media star, Qandeel Baloch, whose brother was arrested in connection with her death by strangulation.
The new law still gives victims’ relatives the option of forgiving attackers, but only in cases where the culprits have been sentenced to death. Even if a pardon is given, attackers face a mandatory life sentence.
After the attack, Ms Qaiser’s mother was forbidden by her husband from seeing her daughter and forced to move to Sargodha from her daughter.
She visits her husband in prison every week. But as soon as the visit is over, she secretly sees her daughter.
"My husband is not angry at her. It’s his brother who provokes him and after they are out of the jail, we will break ties with him," she said.
Her daughter, however, fears the matter will not end there.
"He’ll be madder at me and will want to harm me for sending him to jail for the second time," she said in the dimly-lit room where she lives with her husband and two children.
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[AlAhram] Italy's foreign ministry said Tuesday it had asked a prosecutor to investigate the suspected sale of European visas by officials at its consulate in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.
The move followed reports that entry visas for Italy and the rest of the Schengen border-free zone that covers most of continental Europe were being sold for up to 10,000 euros ($10,600) a time to buyers deemed a security risk by other European consulates in the region's capital, Arbil. A ministry investigation identified irregularities in the visa issuing procedures at the consulate and the official in charge of the section has been replaced, the ministry said in a statement.
Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that at least 152 visas had been issued in return for illicit payments. Around half went to Kurdish locals and the rest to other Iraqi nationals or Syrian refugees, the daily said.
[IsraelTimes] Swedish police say at least 15 people have been injured when a fire broke out overnight at one of the country’s largest refugee centers outside of Vanersborg in southwestern Sweden. Police spokesman Tommy Nyman says two people were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries after jumping out of a second-floor window to escape the blaze and 15 people in all were treated for smoke inhalation. He said police received the alarm at 4:15 a.m. Sunday and all 158 people in the building were evacuated. Firefighters extinguished the flames.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Nyman said police would open an investigation.
Last year, there were 112 fires at Swedish refugee and reception centers, most of them arson.
[Ynet] German police have arrested two Syrian men, one of whom is suspected of involvement in the killing of 36 Syrian government employees in Syria in March 2013 and committing war crimes, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Abdalfatah H. A., 35, is suspected of being a member of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and of carrying out a death sentence. With other members of his unit, he is believed to have killed 36 employees of the Syrian government who were protected under international law, said the prosecutors.
He was arrested in Duesseldorf in north-western Germany.
[IsraelTimes] Former French culture minister Christiane Taubira, who last month granted a wide-ranging interview to Mehdi Meklat, 24, of the Les Inrocks magazine, said she would not have afforded him that access had she known that in the years 2012-14, he wrote under a pseudonym on Twitter numerous anti-Semitic, misogynistic and homophobic messages. The tweets, which surfaced as Meklat was promoting his latest book, included reference to Jewish greed, Hitler and gas. Some were authored by Meklat on his Twitter account, while others appeared under the pseudonym Marcelin Deschamps.
The revelations have stunned France as Meklat, a native son born to a Muslim family from Northern Africa, had been widely regarded as a progressive proponent of religious and ethnic coexistence amid rising tensions among Muslims, Jews and others in France.
[IsraelTimes] A French high school student of Kurdish descent who tried to murder a Jewish teacher in Marseille was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, Israel Radio reported Friday. The prosecution initially sought a punishment of 10 years against the perpetrator, an ethnic Kurd from Turkey who was still a minor at the time of the attack last year.
At the time, he said he was acting in the name of Allah and that he was affiliated with the Islamic State terror organization.
According to the AFP news agency, this is the first time that a minor under the age of 18 was tried in France for a jihadist attack. The youth, whose name was not published in the media, was 15 when he attacked Amsellem and fled the scene after the victim fought him off using a Bible to shield his body from the knife.
[IsraelTimes] Center for Information and Documentation on Israel asks government to scrap Rotterdam forum titled ‘Palestinians in Europe’ scheduled April 15. CIDI said it has made repeated appeals to Morocco-born Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb (Labour), who has spoken harshly against anti-Semitism, to prevent the forum.
[AnNahar] Star trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf is being investigated by French police for kissing a 14-year-old girl while she was his intern, a justice official said Friday. The incident dates from 2013 when the Franco-Lebanese musician, who has played with Sting and Elvis Costello, is alleged to have kissed the girl at the end of her internship.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the inquiry centers on "sexual interference, which is different from sexual assault because it involves the consent of the minor."
Maalouf, now 36, is alleged to have sent the secondary school student a text message asking her to send him a picture of herself naked, French daily the Parisien reported.
A little different than a peck on the cheek...
Beccuau said she could not confirm this, but said Maalouf had said it was "a one-off incident that he immediately regretted" when he was questioned last year after her parents went to police. If charged and convicted, the jazz musician could face up to five years in jail and a fine of up to 75,000 euros ($79,000).
FAKE NEWS: Sweden’s Integration Minister Admits Lying to BBC About Rape Stats
4 March
Sweden’s Integration Minister, from the ruling liberal party, has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn after she falsely told BBC the number of reported of rapes in Sweden was falling.
Government Report: Islamists Building ‘Parallel Society’ in Sweden Aided By PC Culture of Silence
4 March
Aided by a politically correct culture of “tolerance”, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is secretly building a “parallel” society in Sweden by infiltrating organisations and political parties, a government report has concluded.
Spanish NGO Ferries 250 African Migrants to Italy
4 March
MADRID (AP) — A Spanish organization says its rescue ship has saved 250 migrants in danger of capsizing near the Libyan coast.
At Nearly Four Million, Immigration to Germany in 2000s Near Double 1980s Turkish Surge
3 March
Even before the Europe Migrant Crisis realised its full potential and saw millions of so-called refugees streaming into Europe, Germany welcomed millions of “non-Europeans” in the decade leading to 2015, dwarfing even the massive movement of Turks as guest workers
Calais Mayor Bans Food Distribution in Bid to Quell Migrant Returns
3 March
The Mayor of Calais has banned food distribution to migrants in the city in a bid to prevent yet another ‘Jungle’ migrant camp from springing up.
Calais Aid Groups Defy Order to Stop Feeding Migrants
3 March
PARIS (AP) — Aid groups feeding migrants in the northern French port city of Calais are defying a municipal order to stop.
European Commission Encourages Detention of Failed Asylum Seekers
3 March
Failed asylum seekers at risk of absconding can be detained for up to 18 months while awaiting deportation, the European Commission has announced.
Swedish Authorities Accuse Migrant Crime Whistleblower Cop of ‘Hacking’ Police Computers
3 March
Peter Springare, the police officer who posted on Facebook his frustrations on the levels of migrant crime in Sweden, is now being investigated by authorities who claim he “hacked” into police computers.
Wilders: ‘Scandalous’ that EU Has Stripped Le Pen of Parliamentary Immunity
3 March
Dutch anti-mass migration firebrand Geert Wilders has slammed the European Parliament after it voted to lift parliamentary immunity from Front National leader and MEP Marine Le Pen, leaving her exposed to prosecution and imprisonment just weeks before the French presidential elections.
American Journalist Told to Leave Sweden No Go Zone by Police
3 March
American video journalist Tim Pool claims he was told to leave the Stockholm no go suburb of Rinkeby by police after masked men started following him.
Hungary’s Second Anti-Migrant Fence on Serbian Border to be Built by May
3 March
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A new fence being built by Hungary to stop migrants from entering the country will be completed by May 1 and a state of emergency giving authorities additional powers to secure the borders has been extended by six months, government officials said Thursday.
Gatestone: Migrant ‘Child’ Who Turned Out To Be Adult Threatened To Kill Foster Mother
2 March
Gatestone Europe reports on the remarkable testimony of a foster mother who had a migrant male placed with her who claimed to be 12 years old, but soon become violent towards her and her family and later transpired to be
German Mayor Appeals for Calm as Syrian Arrested for Killing Old Woman
2 March
BERLIN (AP) — The mayor of Cottbus in eastern Germany is urging people to remain calm after a young Syrian was arrested on suspicion of killing an elderly woman in December.
Le Pen’s Globalist Rival: Don’t Worry About Mass Migration, Newcomers ‘Renew Our Society’
2 March
Maintaining that mass migration is inescapable and will only accelerate, former investment banker Emmanuel Macron said immigrants are good for France and bring “fresh bursts of creativity and innovation” to society.
Austria Will Encourage Failed Asylum Seekers to Leave by Cutting Aid, Food
2 March
Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka has announced the government intends to stop supporting failed asylum seekers with food and shelter to encourage them to leave.
Migrant Who Murdered Pensioner Asks for Death Penalty
2 March
A migrant who robbed and then brutally murdered a German pensioner and wrote “the time of revenge has come” in Arabic on her wall has asked the judge for the death penalty. His request was denied.
Ten Incidents in Ten Days That Proved Trump Right on Sweden’s Migration Problem
2 March
The media and Swedish politicians were in an uproar after President Donald J. Trump chose to highlight the negative effects of mass migration in Sweden. But ten days later, here are ten incidents that proved him right.
EU Threatens Nations Not Resettling Migrants From Italy and Greece Fast Enough
2 March
The European Union is pleading with member countries to step up the relocation of asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece, seeking to give new momentum to a plan that has fallen far short of its targets.
#1
We attrited our strategic lift and green transportation trace over the past 20 years. We had to contract it our during this last mess. And transportation was a mess.
#2
The formalization of the Bataan strategy. Too far to reinforce adequately, too small to hold out long. We go nuke or accept the lost. Expendable troopies not consulted. How about trashing the 1950s strategy and deploy troops according to the ability of the region to defend itself, if it want to.
Well, the non-deployed force is big enough to move to the Mexican border where it may actually be useful in defending the United States.
#3
Well, the non-deployed force is big enough to move to the Mexican border where it may actually be useful in defending the United States.
I believe an attachment under jurisdictional control of the Border Patrol might actually be legal. Same, same use of the Navy littoral by the Coast Guard.
[IsraelTimes] Tehran is set to capitalize on removal of international sales restrictions under nuclear deal, according to new US intelligence.
Iran is likely to capitalize on the expiration of an international arms embargo in 2020 to purchase new warships, submarines and cruise missiles, according to a new assessment by the US Office of Naval Intelligence.
The February report noted that, with restrictions on conventional arms sales under the 2015 nuclear deal ending in 2020, Tehran will be able "to pursue foreign acquisitions that have been inaccessible since sanctions were imposed on Iran’s nuclear program."
The report said Iran sees its naval forces as critical to warding off threats, and its defense strategy is thus highly focused on the development of its navy.
"Acquisitions will continue along established trends with an emphasis on smaller, faster [vessels], equipped with sophisticated weaponry, and acquired in large numbers," it assessed.
The Islamic republic will likely seek submarine-launched anti-ship cruise missiles and new torpedoes.
"After 2020, Iran may look to foreign acquisitions of ships and submarines with a wide array of weapons suites. Reportedly, Iran has entered into negotiations with Russia to acquire the SS-N-26 Yakhont coastal defense cruise missile, as well," the report said.
On Monday Iran announced that it tested two missiles during a series of naval drills in the Persian Gulf. One was fired from a submarine, it said.
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said the Nasir missile, which he described as Iran’s latest submarine launched cruise missile, "successfully hit its target" during its test launch, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The most recent Iranian missile firings follow the launches of a ballistic missile and cruise missile in late January -- both of which are nuclear capable -- with the former resulting in new US sanctions on a number of entities involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and a warning from US President 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... that the Islamic Theocratic Republic had been "put on notice" and that "nothing is off the table" in terms of a military response to perceived Iranian provocations.
In January the outgoing B.O. regime said that on the one-year anniversary of the implementation of the nuclear deal, Tehran was seen to be "upholding its commitments" under the accord.
The White House said the deal had achieved "significant, concrete results," such as subjecting Iran to an intrusive inspection and verification program, reducing its uranium stockpile by 98 percent and dismantling more than two-thirds of its centrifuges.
The accord paved the way for Iran to reenter the international finance system, freeing up Iranian assets estimated to be worth $100 billion to $150 billion, although the administration insisted that figure is, in reality, much lower. In April 2016, US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State... said Iran had received, by then, roughly $3 billion.
[SCMP] Jordan hanged 15 death row prisoners at dawn on Saturday, its information minister said, in a further break with the moratorium on executions it had observed between 2006 and 2014.
Ten of those put to death had been convicted of terrorism offences and five of "heinous" crimes, Mahmud al-Momani told the official Petra news agency.
Those executed included one man who was convicted of an attack last year on an intelligence compound that killed five security personnel, al Momani said. Another five were involved in an assault by security forces on a myrmidon hideout in Irbid city in the same year that led to the death of seven faceless myrmidons and one police officer, while the rest related to separate incidents that go back as far as 2003.
A judicial source said the authorities also executed a gunman who last year rubbed out outside a court a Christian writer who was standing trial for contempt of religion after sharing on social media a caricature insulting Islam. Also among the 10 was a gunman convicted of firing at a group of Western tourists near the Roman amphitheatre in downtown Amman in 2006, killing one Briton and injuring five other people, the judicial source added.
The five other executions were for rape and sexual assault.
All were Jordanians and they were hanged in Suaga prison south of the capital Amman.
King Abdullah had said in 2005 that Jordan aimed to become the first Middle Eastern country to halt executions in line with most European countries.
Courts continued to hand down death sentences but they were not carried out.
But public opinion blamed a rise in crime on the policy and in December 2014 Jordan hanged 11 men convicted of murder, drawing criticism from human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... groups. Opinion hardened after the murder by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) of captured Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh whose plane had crashed in a jihadist-held region of Syria in December 2014 while serving with a US-led coalition.
Grisly footage posted in February the following year of him being burnt alive in a cage outraged the public. Swiftly afterwards, Jordan hanged two people convicted of terrorism offences, one of them Sajida al-Rishawi. She had taken part in a 2005 suicide kaboom on luxury hotels in Amman organised by IS’s forebear, al-Qaeda in Iraq, but her explosives failed to detonate.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2017
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#1
15 is good
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2017 0:08
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#2
Say what you want, but death penalty does cut down on recidivism.
President Trump’s “love” of Caterpillar, Inc. apparently wasn't deep enough to spare the Illinois-based manufacturer from a multi-agency federal raid linked to its overseas subsidiaries and tax practices.
The company, which makes mining and construction equipment, was slapped with three search warrants by the feds on Thursday.
On Friday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed that the raids were part of an ongoing probe against the company.
“The Commerce Department has enforcement responsibilities both on imports and on exports, so it’s an important part of our function,” Ross said on CNBC. “We’re going to be even stricter on enforcement, particularly on inbound goods that shouldn’t be.”
The escalation of the government’s dispute with Caterpillar comes as the Trump administration promises to reform corporate taxes and design a system that makes it attractive for companies like Caterpillar to keep their businesses stateside.
#2
The problem is not mounting a big laser on an aircraft. The Army (yes, the Army) has been flying the Airborne Laser Adjunct Aircraft since Reagan was Pres. Anti missile defense research.
The problem is the power supply.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/05/2017 11:41
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#3
Sooo...you're already flying. Mount a windmill on the fuselage. Presto! Power supply! Where do I collect my Bill Nye Science Award?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2017 11:57
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#4
How much power does a laser welder need? Hook six laser welders up and you have a weapon. Get a couple of Honda generators ....
#5
The answer Lonzo is "A LOT". The problem with lasers is they lose power the farther they go as the beam will diffuse slightly and the particulates in the atmosphere, and the atmosphere itself will absorb the engergy. Enough power to cut steel and close range, no problem. Enough power to cut through metal at 50km away... you need a huge amount of power to do so.
Currently we use chemical energy to generate lasers and chemicals are heavy. Most of the 747 they tested this with was chemical vats to generate the 10kW they needed for it and they could only fire it a few times before the chemicals were depleted.
An explication of the nothingburger that is the FISA wiretap case In the run-up to the election Louise Mensch and others broke the story that the Obama Justice Department and federal law enforcement authorities had obtained a Trump-related FISA warrant in October following the denial of an earlier FISA warrant request the previous June. On its way out the door the Obama administration trashed the “minimization” procedures protecting the privacy of American citizens caught in the FISA net. Andrew McCarthy raised a red flag in the troubling NRO column “FISA and the Trump team.” Earlier this week the New York Times reported the involvement of Obama administration officials in disseminating the information obtained along the way.
Breibart has posted a useful timeline with links, as has the Conservative Tree House site. In his NRO column today, Andrew McCarthy provides this summary of events to date as part of his inquiry into the “recusal” of Attorney General Sessions from something or other this week. Here is an excerpt:
While the commentariat was rending its garments over the mere prospect that Trump might have his political adversary, Hillary Clinton, investigated if he won the election, Obama was actually having Trump investigated.
To rehearse briefly, in the weeks prior to June 2016, the FBI did a preliminary investigation, apparently based on concerns about a server at Trump Tower that allegedly had some connection to Russian financial institutions. Even if there were such a connection, it is not a crime to do business with Russian banks — lots of Americans do. It should come as no surprise, then, that the FBI found no impropriety and did not proceed with a criminal investigation.
What is surprising, though, is that the case was not closed down.
Instead, the Obama Justice Department decided to pursue the matter as a national-security investigation under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In June, it sought the FISA court’s permission to conduct surveillance on a number of Trump associates — and perhaps even Trump himself. It has been reported that Trump was “named” in the application, but it is not publicly known whether he (a) was named as a proposed wiretap target, or (b) was just mentioned in passing in the application.
Understand the significance of this: Only the Justice Department litigates before the FISA court; this was not some rogue investigators; this was a high level of Obama’s Justice Department — the same institution that, at that very moment, was whitewashing the Clinton e-mail scandal. And when Justice seeks FISA surveillance authority, it is essentially telling that court that there is probable cause to believe that the targets have acted as agents of a foreign power — that’s the only basis for getting a FISA warrant.
In this instance, the FISA court apparently found the Obama Justice Department’s presentation to be so weak that it refused to authorize the surveillance. That is telling, because the FISA court is generally very accommodating of government surveillance requests. Unwilling to take no for an answer, the Obama Justice Department came back to the FISA court in October — i.e., in the stretch run of the presidential campaign. According to various reports (and mind you, FISA applications are classified, so the leaks are illegal), the October application was much narrower than the earlier one and did not mention Donald Trump. The FISA Court granted this application, and for all we know the investigation is continuing.
There are two significant takeaways from this. First, a FISA national-security investigation is not a criminal investigation. It is not a probe to uncover criminal activity; it is a classified effort to discover what a potentially hostile foreign government may be up to on American soil. It does not get an assigned prosecutor because the purpose is not to prove anything publicly in court — indeed, it is a major no-no for the Justice Department to use its FISA authority pretextually, for the real purpose of trying to build a criminal investigation. More at the link
#1
The fact that the June FISA request was denied is significant and under reported. Check this out - out "Over the entire 33-year period, the FISA court granted 33,942 warrants, with only 12 denials – a rejection rate of 0.03 percent of the total requests."
#2
Wiretapping is the surreptitious electronic monitoring of telephone, telegraph, cellular, fax or Internet-based communications.
Wiretapping is achieved either through the placement of a monitoring device informally known as a bug on the wire in question or through built-in mechanisms in other communication technologies. Enforcement officials may tap into either for live monitoring or recording. Packet sniffers -- programs used to capture data being transmitted on a network – are a commonly-used modern-day wiretapping tool. A variety of other tools, such as wiretap Trojans, are used for different applications.
whatis.techtarget.com
Trump organization most likely have IT people who setup and maintain on site email, web and telecommunications servers and equipment and do not use third party hosting and email services. If someone is trying to gain access to voice and electronic data, they will have to monitor traffic to and from the firewall at Trump Tower. It would be difficult to get past a good firewall, unless they were able to get a Trojan piece of software behind the firewall, and have it send out hard drive data to a listening IP address that belonged to the regime.
This is probably why they went to FISA. The firewall was successful causing some desperation as Trump gained a lead on Hildabeast and the only way to monitor anything for hopefully some dirt was through FISA. They took the risk and expect Hillary to be caught up in this.
#4
#3 The entire effort is a diversion. What are they (the Obama Shadow Gov't) attempting to mask, to hide? Posted by: Besoeker
Foolish over reach by an arrogant administration. Rhodes is arrogant. Looked a little further into the FISA court numbers... During the Obama administration out of 7,876 FISA request that only 3 requests were denied and 1 of these was a request to wire tap the Trump campaign. What were they doing - tapping an active campaign?
#6
The Nixon Watergate Scandal also involved monitoring political opponents.
The term Watergate, by metonymy, has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included such "dirty tricks" as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides also ordered investigations of activist groups and political figures, using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Watergate Wikipedia.org
The possible use of the NSA to illegally monitor many others domestically and internationally is what Obama may be trying to cover up. This may be the tip of the iceberg.
#8
Certainly may answer the question about General Mike Flynn's conversations being discovered and monitored.
Obama held no friendship for either Putin or Trump. Both men had similar views on Obama. The 'evil Russian hacker' theme appears to be a sort of Foggy Bottom manufactured honey trap or fishing expedition, with FISA being a tool of discovery. Marching as many Trump people past the Russians as possible, then publicizing it, appears to be the objective.
Enter the one time, aspiring fiction writer Ben Rhodes:
Wiki bio: In a controversial profile in the New York Times Magazine, Rhodes was quoted "deriding the D.C. press corps and boasting of how he created an 'echo chamber' to market the administration's foreign policy," including the international nuclear agreement with Iran.
Emphasis added.
#9
Well, it is pretty much out in the open that Obastard is running the process out of his fancy Kalorama digs according to the NYT which said the goal was to impeach or force the resignation of Trump before the next election cycle.
The fact that this clear definition of what the defeated party is doing is not being blasted over the air ways in red letters ten feet high is enough for me.
This is a dangerous slippery slope for the donks and if they are not careful and don't watch their 6 this entire thing can and will blow sky high and it will expose the duplicity of the media and the democrats in how they view government and elections...as if the corruption of the last regime wasn't enough.
#10
Final para of Wesley Pruden 'Wash Times' editorial from yesterday's Burg:
The Democrats call their scorched-earth attacks on the new president “the resistance.” But it is accurately described as “an insurrection.” They’re determined to destroy a duly elected president of the United States, by resignation or impeachment if they can, and if that doesn’t work, maybe something more sinister will be employed. We’ve never before seen anything like this. We’re sailing in uncharted water.
#12
Pity the poor Russians. They get all the blame but none of the benefit for their alleged nefarious deeds.
Pity the poor Russians. They had to make the hard choice between somebody who, at least promises, to restore their old enemy the USA and a demented witch who was bound to start WWIII.
#15
The Donks are calling for an investigation of Russia connections. Let's do have a "real" investigation and get to the bottom of this. I have a feeling it would end up driving a stake in the black hearts of the Donks.
#16
The Donks are calling for an investigation of Russia connections. Let's do have a "real" investigation and get to the bottom of this. I have a feeling it would end up driving a stake in the black hearts of the Donks.
I would dearly love to see the bank records from the 1970s of top radical groups and operatives, including John Kerry and Obammer's former terrorist buddy.
#19
Former DNI Clapper said today there was no FISA national-security investigation. And further, if there had been one "at that level" he would have known about it. Something big is gonna give on this one way or the other.
#21
I would dearly love to see the bank records from the 1970s of top radical groups and operatives, including John Kerry and Obammer's former terrorist buddy.
I'm sure Vlad has them - you might not like his price.
#22
Oh trust me on this one Vlad would play those cards in a heart beat if it would result in less hostility between us and Russia.
I really don't think Vlad wants another Cold War. I think the empty suit administration wanted it for the graft they could generate on contracts for weapons systems. I also think they decided to use this on Trump when it wasn't working on Vlad.
If Trump does get a full blown investigation, a LOT of people will go to jail, Clapper, Rhoades, Lynch, ValJar, and most of the democratic leadership.
[Daily Excelsior] Fierce shootout is on in South Kashmire’s Tral area after security forces trapped at least three bandidosmurderous Moslems of Hizbul Mujahideen in a village while equal number of bandidosmurderous Moslems managed to flee from cordon in Shopian area last night after a brief shootout.
Security forces this evening cordoned off Oppo village in Tral area of Pulwama and launched searches. A local murderous Moslem commander, Aqib Molvi, his associates Sabzar Ahmad and a foreigner Hammas Bhai are believed to be trapped inside a house.
Security forces blasted off a portion of the house but the intermittent firing was going on. Sources said that Aqib Molvi made a phone call to his family and informed them that he has been trapped in the village.
Massive festivities erupted in Oppo village soon after security forces launched a search and cordon operation following an input about the presence of murderous Moslems.
Clashes also erupted at Tral Town after news about trapping of bandidosmurderous Moslems spread. As the searches were underway, locals came out of their houses and resorted to heavy stone-pelting to disrupt the operation against bandidosmurderous Moslems suspected to be present in the village.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the operation was on in the village when reports last came and additional contingents of security forces were brought in to tighten the cordon.
Security forces have also imposed curfew in the area to prevent bandidosmurderous Moslems from fleeing the area.
The protesters pelted stones on police and CRPF during which they snatched an INSAS rifle from a CRPF officer, Sub Inspector Harjinder Singh, in Main Town of Tral near Jama Masjid.
At least three bandidosmurderous Moslems who were trapped by security forces in Chillipora village of Shopian district in South Kashmire since last night escaped after a brief shootout.
Security forces launched search operation after receiving input about the presence of three bandidosmurderous Moslems of Hizbul Mujahideeen including Saddam and Irfan in Chillipora. As the searches were started, the bandidosmurderous Moslems fired upon the security forces, leading to a shootout. The exchange of fire continued till late last night but under the cover of darkness, the bandidosmurderous Moslems beat feet from the village.
The locals had come out of their houses and pelted stones on security forces. The operation that was put on hold late night was resumed this morning but there was no fresh firing after which the operation was called off.
Due to massive stone-pelting, an armoured vehicle of 14 Battalion of CRPF skidded off the road and overturned, resulting in injuries to 11 CRPF men. Amid heavy stone-pelting on overturned vehicle, security forces opened fire and also used pellets to control the stone-throwers, resulting in injuries to three protesters. One protester identified as Inayat Ahmad was hit by a bullet in his hand and he was referred to Bone and Joints Hospital Srinagar.
The festivities in the area continued throughout the day intermittently and several other youths sustained minor injuries. Police used teargas shells to disperse the protesters. The situation remained tense in Heff and Chillipora throughout the day.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 61 Death Eaters were killed and 33 others were maimed during a series of counter-terrorism operations across the country in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Saturday.
"This joined operation of the Defense Security Forces was held by supporting of the artillery and air forces in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , Kapisa , Urozgan , Kandahar , Farah , Zabul , Ghazni , Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... , Takhar , Baghlan and Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... provinces," a statement by MoD said.
According to the ministry, 17 were killed in Arghandab district of Zabul and one Lion of Islam was maimed, while 7 Death Eaters were killed in Alishing district of Laghman ...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a reputionagreat wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
"Similarly , as a result of an operation in Balablok district of Farah , and Darqad district of Takhar , 18 Death Eaters killed , 24 others including 2 commanders maimed ,also , 3 hideouts , 3 cycle of violences , 2 PKM Machine guns and 4 AKM machine guns destroyed," the statement said.
In the meantime, in Talabarfak and Doshi districts of Baghlan, 15 Death Eaters were killed and 6 others maimed while 4 others were killed and 2 were maimed in Dashte Kabli are of Ghazni province.
"Afghan National Army as nation’s defense force, is ready to give sacrifice to ensure peace and security for people and has strong determination to eliminate terror groups," MoD added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2017
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#3
" Wilders represents the real concerns and fears of lots of his countrymen about immigration and Dutch identity." He sees the problem but knows he will have to fight too many of his own people. He is prudent. Currently new and virulent Muslin extremism grows in his country. Unfortunately more suffering among his people must and will occur before they realize the dangers they have let in among their midst.
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: The security forces on Friday tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! 35 suspects, including six bandidosholy warriors and 19 illegal Afghan nationals, and seized unlicensed arms and ammunition during a search operation in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency ... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though... Official sources told Dawn that a curfew was imposed in Shah Kas locality of Jamrud ahead of the ’search and cordon operation’ in light of a tip-off about the presence of suspects in the area.
They said the security forces held 35 suspected people, including six bandidosholy warriors and 19 Afghan nationals without valid travel documents. The sources claimed two arrested men were involved in the recent kabooms in Jamrud tehsil. They said the arrested men were shifted to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location for interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2017
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[Iraq News] Twelve people, including women and kiddies, are being treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , where Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... is fighting off an offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces, the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... said on Saturday.
The U.N.’s World Health Organization has activated with partners and local health authorities "an emergency response plan to safely treat men, women and kiddies who may be exposed to the highly toxic chemical," the agency said in a statement.
It said all 12 patients had been received since March 1 for treatment which they are undergoing in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, east of Mosul.
Four of them are showing "severe signs associated with exposure to a blister agent". The patients were exposed to the chemical agents in the eastern side of Mosul.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) said on Friday that five children and two women were receiving treatment for exposure to chemical agents.
The ICRC statement did not say which side used the chemical agents that caused blisters, redness in the eyes, irritation, vomiting and coughing.
Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting and launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris river on Feb. 19. The eastern side remains within reach of the holy warriors’ rockets and mortar shells.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2017
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Wash Times] Major media outlets are having a field day attacking Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump. His offense has been naming "radical Islam" as the enemy. For example, The New York Times carried an op-ed on Feb. 24 by Steven Simon and Daniel Benjamin, both former Obama foreign policy officials, titled "The Islamophobic Huckster in the White House." It was peppered with inaccuracies. This I know from having first met Mr. Gorka in Budapest some 15 years ago and from having lectured with him a number of times in both military and civilian venues since then.
Contrary to the op-ed, he does not say that Islam is the enemy, but Islamism, or that the current conflict is "a historic clash of civilizations," a thesis I have heard him rebut in front of a large Muslim audience. As a sign of desperation, others have stooped to the level of reductio ad Hitlerum, suggesting that Mr. Gorka is an anti-Semite for his former political associations in his native Hungry. If this charge were not so noxious, it would be amusing since he is unabashedly pro-Israel.
...like most of the Trump administration including President Trump himself, both openly pro-Israel and accused of antisemitism.
How is one to understand the hysteria surrounding this issue?
Loss of power and privileges? Interruption in the long march of the revolution?
It reminds me of another era in which I was a participant as a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. In the early Reagan years, anyone who spoke of the Soviet Union in the same manner as the president was considered a dangerous person. Recall that in 1983 Mr. Reagan named the Soviet Union an "evil empire." He said it was an error to consider the conflict "a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil." The press and people in academe generally reacted with horror at this crazy cowboy. If you named America’s enemy, you became the enemy.
[AFP] The Philippine military said on Sunday it had recovered the body of the elderly German hostage who was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf militants last week.
Military officials said marines found Kantner's body on Saturday evening on the militants' remote island stronghold of Sulu, more than 600 miles south of Manila. Military spokesman Edgard Arevalo said,
"The Armed Forces of the Philippines continues with all efforts to make good (on) its commitment to return the remains of the kidnap victim to his homeland to accord to him the decent burial he deserves."
Kantner's remains are in a military hospital morgue while officials prepare documents to transport the body. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte apologized on Tuesday for failing to save Kantner and said the military had stepped up operations against the rebels.
Posted by: ryuge ||
03/05/2017
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] The Russian military has informed the United States about moving convoys to Syria’s Manbij, and US operations in the area remain unaffected, US Department of Defense spokesperson Jeff Davis said in a briefing on Friday.
The Russian General Staff said Friday Russia’s center for the reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria has sent the first food and medical supplies convoy to Manbij.
"We were aware of this. The Russian government has informed us of it as well," Davis told news hounds. "It has not changed anything we are doing."
Davis said the United States has noticed and observed these humanitarian convoys moving into the area. He claimed that they have also brought "some armored equipment" with them.
The spokesperson underscored that the United States wants to see all parties on the ground in Manbij in order to ’continue focus on fighting the ISIS terror group.’
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iran announced it had successfully tested S-300 air defense system in Damavand military drills on Saturday.
"The S-300 air defense system has been tested... in the presence of government and military officials," state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.
A number of high ranking Iranian military officials also were present in the drills which was held in an unnamed air defense base, IRNA news agency reported.
The operation was aimed at evaluating the performance of the S-300 system in targeting a wide range of missiles and drones as well as assessing the human performance in operating the system.
Iranian military personnel completely operated the system according to simulation scenarios which replicated detection, identification, tracing, and targeting of the potential aerial threats.
The system also fully managed to target and destroy aerial vehicles successfully.
Iran’s activation of the defense system comes amid mounting tensions with the new US administration of President 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... , who imposed sanctions after Iran tested a medium-range ballistic missile in January.
The deal to buy the S-300 system was originally signed in 2007 but Russia suspended it in 2010 citing a UN ban on arms sales to Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
So, did they actually shoot something down, or just squirt one off into the blue? It only counts if you hit something.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/05/2017 11:49
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#2
the S-300 has never been tested in an actual combat situation
it has done well in tests
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/05/2017 12:38
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[ARA] The US-led coalition is sending more armored vehicles to the north of Manbij city near the Sajur river in order to deter hostile acts between the the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , and to ’keep the focus on ISIS’, a coalition spokesperson said on Saturday.
Also, a Russian aid convoy arrived to western Manbij for the same goal.
"[The US-led] coalition has taken this deliberate action to reassure Coalition members and partner forces, deter aggression and keep focus on defeating ISIS," Air Force Col John L. Dorrian Spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) said.
"[The coalition] has been active in and around Manbij since Summer of 2016, when the city was liberated from ISIS [ISIS]," he tweeted.
The US-led coalition has also "increased force presence in, around Manbij to deter hostile acts, enhance governance & ensure there’s no persistent YPG presence," according to Colonel Dorrian.
While the Americans are positioned north of Manbij, a Russian aid convoy arrived west of Manbij on Saturday, with pictures shown online of a fighter of the SDF-linked Manbij Military Council (MMC) hosting a Russian flag.
This comes after an agreement between Russia and the Kurds, to hand over some villages to the Syrian government to create a buffer zone in order to prevent festivities between the Turkish-led Euphrates Shield operation and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
"We have noticed and observed and are aware of the fact that these humanitarian convoys sponsored by the regime [of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... ] and Russia have been moving into Manbij, and that they have some armoured equipment with them," Pentagon front man Navy Captain Jeff Davis was quoted by the Turkish government outlet TRT.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
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.
[The Mail] As Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill's claims that she had never met with Sergey Kislyak were proven to be untrue, six more Democrats have been revealed to have met with the Russian Ambassador.
'35,000 FISA requests were granted, 12 were not.' Time to order a new rubber stamp ? 
[WND] WASHINGTON ‐ The Obama administration’s former Attorney General Loretta Lynch has made an impassioned video plea for more "blood" and "death" on the streets ‐ a video that was later posted on the Facebook page of Senate Democrats as "words of inspiration."
The European Union is expected within days to sign off on plans for a small military command centre in Brussels, a symbolic step towards deeper defence ties that the UK will not seek to block.
[DAWN] As the civil and military leaders vowed on Friday to continue "indiscriminate" counterterrorism operations with "full might", they also stressed maintaining national consensus on the fight against terrorists.
[Daily Mail] Islamic students at a Sydney private school threatened to behead non-Muslim staff and declared themselves ISIS sympathizers, staff alleged. Police feared students at Punchbowl Boys High School were being radicalized after principal Chris Griffiths did not cooperate with a de-radicalization program.
A suspect in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader has claimed he is the victim of a conspiracy by Malaysian authorities attempting to damage the honour of North Korea. Ri Jong Chol, a North Korean, accused Malaysia of using coercion to try to extract a confession from him.
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
[DAWN] GUJRANWALA: Nearly three years after Saba Qaiser’s father and uncle shot her in the face, rolled her in a rug and threw her in a river for marrying without their consent, the 21-year-old is again afraid for her life.
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[Daily Excelsior] Fierce 
By Justin Fox
[AFP] The Philippine military said on Sunday it had recovered the body of the elderly German hostage who was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf militants last week.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iran announced it had successfully tested S-300 air defense system in Damavand military drills on Saturday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
