I woke up at 5:15 this morning realizing I forgot to file one set of extensions, so I got them out a few minutes later. Around high noon both the IRS and the Mass. DOR accepted both of them, so I thought I got one past them both. But noooo!
WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service today granted many businesses affected by this week’s severe winter storm additional time to request a six-month extension to file their 2016 federal income tax returns. The IRS is providing this relief to victims and tax professionals affected by this week’s storm (known as Winter Storm Stella) that hit portions of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Business taxpayers who are unable to file their tax return by today’s due date (March 15, 2017) can request an automatic extension by filing Form 7004, available on IRS.gov, on or before March 20, 2017. Form 7004 provides a six-month extension for returns filed by partnerships (Forms 1065 and 1065B) and S corporations (Forms 1120S).
Eligible taxpayers taking advantage of this relief should write "Winter Storm Stella" on their Form 7004 extension request (if filing Form 7004 by paper). As always, the fastest and easiest way to get an extension is to file this form electronically.
The IRS will continue to monitor conditions and provide additional relief if circumstances warrant.
[DW] Dutch PM Rutte has claimed victory in elections in the Netherlands that saw his party beat out far-right challenger Wilders. Some see the Dutch poll as a litmus test for populists ahead of French and German elections.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte's center-right VVD party has fended off populist leader Geert Wilders in parliamentary elections that have garnered international attention.
With over 90 percent of the vote counted Thursday morning, Rutte has clearly won the largest share of seats. The VVD are predicted to gain 33 seats, followed by Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) in second with 20 seats. The Christian Democrats (CDA) and the D66 emerged in a two-way tie for third with 19 seats each. The Green-Left significantly boosted their representation by winning 14 seats. The social democratic Labor Party (PvdA) suffered a massive loss of seats, leaving them with only nine.
Various other smaller parties also captured single-digit seat counts.
Six main parties will enter parliament: the ruling VVD, Wilder's PVV, the centrist D66, Green-Left, the Socialist Party and the PvdA.
There's a cute little bar graph at the link showing the vote distribution and changes since last time, done in colours designed to frustrate the partially colour blind. It seems to me that though Mr. Wilders did not do as well as hoped, he did pretty well for having essentially stopped campaigning a few weeks ago on security concerns. His one-member party is well positioned to play the loyal opposition.
Opposition he'll be, too, since all the other major parties have said that they won't allow Wilders into any coalition government. Usually the second place party is part of a governing Euro coalition government, but Wilders apparently is ucky.
#1
Wilders sees the existential danger to his nation. He is dedicated to saving her. The Dutch will go for the status quo for now. It will take more hits from the hordes of invaders for them to change their minds, unless they decide to roll over.
Lessons also for the US. Trump is facing much the same thing with the dems and their fellow travelers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/16/2017 13:38
Comments ||
Top||
[Disabled Vets] Veterans upset by a Florida VA facility’s tardy hanging of photos of President Donald Trump and VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, took action Tuesday.
The facility was the West Palm Beach VA. The Congressman’s name that hung the photos was none other than double amputee and Army veteran Brian Mast (R-Fl).
Rep. Mast noticed the facility still lacked images of its leadership and took matters into his own hands. He found two proper photos of the President and Secretary and ensured they were hung in the proper place within the VA facility.
#1
FOX just announced the VA is preparing to publish a memo directing their facilities to (paraphrasing) 'present appropriate POTUS photo pending receipt of the official copy.'
The hanging of an official copy will not cure the 'not our president' attitude of flagrant disrespect.
Dubai-based construction technologies firm Cazza has announced plans to build the world’s first 3D printed skyscraper.
The firm will be able to 3D print high rises using a new construction technique called ’crane printing’. Cazza will use cranes with added units that are specifically created for building 3D printed structures 80m and above.
CEO of Cazza said: "When we first thought of implementing 3D printing technologies, we were mostly thinking of houses and low-rise buildings. Developers kept asking us if it was possible to build a 3D printed skyscraper. Through our technologies, we will be able to build architecturally complex buildings at never-before seen speeds." I wonder if they can print fireproofing?
A mechanical engineer at Cazza, said: "The material side leaves vast possibilities with concrete and steel being just one of many materials that can be used with 3D printing." Concrete and steel is one material? Now THAT'S news!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/16/2017
08:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Concrete and steel is one material? Now THAT'S news!
Not to worry, Bobby, this Dubai engineer has an Egyptian or Palestinian assistant who deals with "minor" details.
[Telegraph] Where do you go if you recently handed over the reins to one of the most stressful jobs in the world, have memoirs worth $60 million (£49 million) to write, and have a new-found love of kitesurfing?
For Barack Obama, the answer is French Polynesia. The former US president slipped quietly into Tahiti by private jet yesterday, touching down at Faa’a International Airport near the capital of Papeete at about 3.30pm. He is expected to stay in French Polynesia for the next month, but his initial visit to Tahiti was a short one.
According to local television channel Tahiti Nui TV, Mr Obama left the island just 30 minutes later aboard a smaller, private plane bound for eco-luxe resort The Brando on the nearby atoll of Tetiaroa. Formerly the Tahitian royal family's favourite retreat, Tetiaroa later became the home of legendary actor Marlon Brando, who bought parts of the idyllic atoll in the 1960s.
#6
He'll be much too busy to pay attention to events back home, which is as it should be... and Mrs. Obama can no doubt organize the household to her satisfaction much better without him underfoot. I foresee a great many such solo trips until the money runs out.
#9
Coincidence; Obama had a quick stop in Hawaii 48 Hours before the Judge blocked Trump's travel ban, only minutes away from the Judges home. Suspicious to me.
Before flying to French Polynesia
Posted by: Jan ||
03/16/2017 18:59
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Coincidence; Obama had a quick stop in Hawaii 48 Hours before the Judge blocked Trump's travel ban, only minutes away from the Judges home. Suspicious to me. Before flying to French Polynesia
[METRO UK] A letter bomb has detonated at the offices of the International Monetary Fund in the centre of Paris. The letter exploded when it was opened this morning.
A police source in France said that one person was slightly injured to the face. No other damage has been reported from the incident in western Paris, a police official said.
The Paris police department said on Twitter an operation was ongoing at the offices of the IMF and World Bank after a person was hurt following the apparent explosion of a suspect package.
#1
Addressed to Wolfgang Schaüble, the finance minister, the package came from Greece and contained "an explosive mixture" that could have caused "considerable" damage, said police.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration will end federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
On a background call with reporters Wednesday, Mulvaney said defunding public television and public radio, including National Public Radio, will not be immediate because of the nature of government contracting.
"We proposed ending funding, but technically what you'll see--it's an elimination--but you'll see an amount of money in the budget, and it is some amount of money that's necessary for us to unwind our involvement with CPB," Mulvaney said during the briefing on the administration's budget blueprint. "So you won't see a zero next to it, but the policy is that we're ending federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."
"Next year it might be zero, it may take a while to unwind that relationship, it's just the nature of contracts," he said.
The Washington Free Beacon previously reported defunding NPR and public radio would likely take years because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets its funding two years in advance.
#1
Could fund it with Social Security money 50 years ago for your Great Society programs. Today they have to print money to pay their debt of money spent like this to SS recipients who paid in. Don't we feel good? /rhet question
#2
While I hope this happens, I'll believe it if and when CPB, NPR, NEA, NEH, etc., etc. are fully defunded in the final budget passed by Congress.
Planned (non)Parenthood should be at the top of this list. When the usual lefty's/MFM scream, the Pubs should just say "If this and the rest of these programs are so important to you, Soros and your other megadonors are free to fund them."
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has blocked some military training and other work with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... "partner countries" in an apparent escalation of a diplomatic dispute with EU states, officials and sources said on Wednesday.
Turkey was not immediately available to comment, but sources said it had blocked NATO's 2017 rolling programme of cooperation with non-EU countries, including political events, civilian projects and military training.
Turkey is angry at several western European countries for stopping it holding political rallies to promote an April 16 referendum granting President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers.
Erdogan has compared Germany and the Netherlands to fascists and Nazis, but as fellow NATO members, Turkey is unable to block cooperation with them. A NATO official said Turkey's action was ostensibly aimed at Austria, which is not a member of the alliance but is a partner country.
"We regret the current situation and the impact it is having on all of our cooperation programmes with partners," the official said. "We count on our ally Turkey and our partner Austria to solve their bilateral issue swiftly."
Austria, last year led calls for the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... to end Turkey's EU accession talks, criticising its response to a failed coup when it locked away Please don't kill me! tens of thousands of people. Turkish referendum rallies have been cancelled in Austria.
Austria's defence ministry confirmed the Turkish block. A front man said there was no immediate effect on ongoing missions, but could cause problems in the longer term "for example for the preparation of missions in Kosovo, because there are joint training programmes."
Another NATO official said some events had already been cancelled.
"We hope maybe some will still take place at a later time," he said. "The problem is a political one. We hope the situation will calm down after the referendum."
Turkey's action potentially affects all 22 NATO partner states, including Sweden and Georgia, some of which contribute troops to NATO missions in places such as Afghanistan and Kosovo.
A senior diplomat from another non-NATO state said: "The longer this continues, the bigger the volume becomes of cancelled and postponed activities between NATO allies and partners and the more problematic all this becomes."
"This concerns some education events, training, military exercises, so that will make practical cooperation more and more difficult in time. The interoperability of NATO allies and partner countries will suffer."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/16/2017
05:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Wednesday put on trial a top UN court judge on charges of links to the group blamed for the failed July 15 coup, in a case that has caused anger and held up legal proceedings over the Rwanda genocide.
Aydin Sefa Akay, a top judge attached to the UN's Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), was detained in September at the family home and had been held in detention since.
He is charged with "membership of a terror group" over alleged links to the organization of Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , the US-based preacher blamed by Ankara for the July 15 coup bid.
Specifically, he stands accused by the Turkish authorities of downloading and using a messaging app called ByLock which Ankara says was used by the plotters to prepare the coup.
Akay and his lawyers took part in the first hearing at the Ankara criminal court, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
If found guilty, he faces up to 15 years in jail.
In his statement, Akay denied the charges, saying he was not a member of Gulen's group. "I am not one of them," he said.
According to Anadolu, he admitted downloading Bylock but said he had not used any password to access the system.
His lawyers called for his release, arguing Akay should enjoy immunity due to his status. But the court ordered he be kept under arrest, setting the next hearing for April 13.
Possession is nine tenths of the law.
Akay had been working with the UN international court trying suspects over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and his detention has paralysed proceedings into an appeal hearing of former Rwandan minister Augustin Ngirabatware.
The UN court has already said Turkey has failed to comply with its obligations and said it would report Ankara to the UN Security Council.
Presiding judge Theodore Meron has insisted that Akay, a former diplomat who was nominated to the bench by Ankara, has diplomatic immunity and has repeatedly voiced concern over the conditions of his detention.
Under a state of emergency imposed after the coup, Turkey has embarked on a relentless crackdown against alleged supporters of Gulen, arresting some 43,000 people.
[Independent] The CIA can now kill potential terror suspects with drone strikes after being granted new powers by President Donald Trump, according to a new report.
The new authority ‐ said to have been granted shortly after Mr Trump’s inauguration ‐ takes drone strikes out of the sole control of the military, sparking fears about accountability. The 'Military' never had 'sole control.'
Under the drone policy of the Obama administration, the CIA could find a suspect, but the armed forces would carry out the actual strike. CIA 'found suspects?' Unless something has changed drastically, elements of DoD or Other Gov't Agencies generally 'found' targets.
#1
Under the drone policy of the Obama administration, the CIA could find a suspect, but the armed forces would carry out the actual strike.
Flag thrown. Important fact omitted: ...."carry out the actual strike" once approved by the CIA, just as in the past.
This article attempts to link POTUS to the ongoing CIA action. I believe the term is 'ownership' in the modern parlance. Additional factual evidence required.
[Zero Hedge] The ironically named Rear Admiral Bruce Loveless (so many potential one-liners here but we'll let you create your own), along with 8 other senior Navy officials, including four retired captains and a retired marine colonel, have been arrested today in the so-called 'Fat Leonard' bribery scandal and charged with bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators.
According to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed today, the Navy officers worked together to help Singapore-based defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis (a.k.a. "Fat Leonard") and his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), pull off a 'colossal fraud' that cost the Navy ‐ and ultimately U.S. taxpayers ‐ tens of millions of dollars.
The indictment alleges that, among other things, 'Fat Leonard' and his associates repeatedly bribed Navy officials with "meals, entertainment, travel and hotel expenses, gifts, cash, and the services of prostitutes." Per RT:
#1
I thought "rotating LBFMs" we're called spinners.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/16/2017 7:29
Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's kind of like revolving or rotating your tires. For safety reasons and extended mileage you should always go to a trained professional.
A spinner is what you use to get your nuts off.
[Wash Times] Private messages between President Trump’s former campaign adviser Roger Stone and an entity implicated in the Democratic National Committee hack may have been discovered by the U.S. government during the course of a broader probe targeting the Republican strategist’s personal communications, Mr. Stone alleged Wednesday.
Mr. Stone told The Washington Times on Wednesday that he believes his telephone and internet conversations were accessed by the U.S. government in accordance with a warrant issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a federal law that lets investigators eavesdrop on "agents of foreign power" and their activities.
The Smoking Gun reported first last week that Mr. Stone, 64, swapped private Twitter messages in 2016 with "Guccifer 2.0," a persona directly involved in last year’s historic DNC hack and widely believed to be a front deployed by Russian military intelligence. Mr. Stone later provided copies of those conversations to The Times, but defended the interactions as "completely innocuous."
Weighing in nearly a week later, Mr. Stone said in a statement Wednesday that The Smoking Gun article is "rife with information that could only be learned by surveillance of my domain and eavesdropping on my email, phone calls and texts."
"There is additional information in the story as well as in several of the spinoff stories that could only have been acquired by surveillance of my communications -- further evidence that a FISA warrant was approved to monitor my email and computerized data," Mr. Stone told The Times, adding that "someone inside the system" must have illegally provided details of the probe to The Smoking Gun.
[Breitbart] Zoltán Kovács, official spokesman for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has responded to accusations of wrongdoing by "ivory tower" editors at The New York Times by saying that they "just don’t get" the European migrant crisis.
If they 'got it' their entire world view would collapse. It's not that they don't get it, they can't allow themselves to get it...
The newspaper’s editorial board claimed that Prime Minister Orbán was "playing the European Union for a patsy" on 13 March, urging the bloc’s central authorities to take action against his government.
"It’s easy to be charmed by the human rights nonsense when you’re penning editorials from an office in Midtown Manhattan," replied Kovács on an official government blog post. "But we’re running a government responsible for the safety and security of our citizens ‐ as well as the citizens of Europe ‐ on the front lines of this crisis, and we see this struggle differently."
#3
They won't till they're forces to house 'migrants' in their own domicile. They can do a vetting process, but we get to use the same one for any others.
#4
They won't get it. Even on their knees with the sword severing their neck they won't get it. It will always be someone else's fault who wasn't as enlightened and evolved.
Do hark, in darkest Cambridge,
From the Kennedy School to the Yard,
And be awed by the wicked odd English
Of Harvardians talking for God!
while I'm going random...
You wanted 'em, Gotham -- you got 'em.
("G*ddammit, Mayor Hillary Rodham!")
Then ("Fly, fly, my pretties!")
It's Chelsea... and kiddies
("What, Charlotte should start at the bottom?")
[Bloomberg] Nonetheless, there may be reason to take the gist of Trump's tweet seriously. At least this is the upshot of the latest turn in the story. On Wednesday Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence panel, and that body's ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff announced they were seeking information on how the identities of American citizens picked up in eavesdropping on foreign targets were unmasked in more widely disseminated intelligence reports.
This is important because of the case of Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser. He resigned after the Washington Post reported on his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak, that took place after Trump's victory but before his swearing in. At the time, the story was about how Flynn had not come clean about an element of those conversations, touching on sanctions just imposed on Russia.
But another big part of that story is how the intercepted communications of an incoming national security adviser found its way into the newspaper. Earlier this month, Obama's last director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said there were no Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants that he knew about targeting Trump or his campaign. This surely means that Flynn was caught on a wiretap of the Russian ambassador. Normally, the names of Americans "incidentally collected," to use the intelligence community's phrase, are redacted from reports that are sent out to senior government officials. Was Flynn's name redacted in this case? If not, were summaries or transcripts of his conversation widely distributed within the government? Which would have made it easier to leak.
That's what Nunes and Schiff want to know. In a March 15 letter to the heads of the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency, they asked for the total number of times a U.S. person's identity was unmasked between June 2016 and January 2017. They also want to know the names of any U.S. persons unmasked in incidental collection who were affiliated or part of the Trump or Hillary Clinton campaigns in this same period, and who inside the executive branch asked for these names to be unmasked.
#1
Surveillance by any means is just another form of colloquial 'wiretapping'. The NSA has been doing it for at least a decade on all of us at one time or another.
#2
If the NSA is looking at my activities they'll be bored to tears. On the other hand, if they're following my internet wanderings, no doubt they have learnt useful things and met interesting people -- I certainly have. :-)
#5
Item (1): Clapper has been demonstrated to have lied in congressional testimony, so, there's a discount figure involved in his statements.
Item (2) Clapper said there were no "warrants that he knew about"; i.e. there could have easily been some, he just wasn't in on it ahead of time.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/16/2017 17:59
Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Projectile believed launched by Salafist group landed in an empty field late Wednesday.
Israeli Air Force jets struck two Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", installations in the north of the Gazoo Strip early Thursday in response to the latest rocket fire from the territory at Israeli communities nearby, the army said.
There were no immediate reports about damage or casualties from the Israeli strike.
Less than two hours before the strike, a rocket fired from the Gazoo Strip landed in an empty field in the Sdot Negev Regional Council near Netivot.
The rocket went kaboom! on impact. No one was hurt and no damage was reported from the kaboom.
The "code red" siren did not trigger, as the army’s sensors determined the rocket would not land near a populated area.
Security forces combed the area.
Initial assessments suggested that the rocket was not fired by Hamas, which rules Gazoo, but by radical Salafist groups in the strip, according to Hebrew media reports citing military sources.
A rocket was last fired at Israel from Gazoo in late February, leading the IDF to launch air strikes against five Hamas installations in the territory.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire and other attacks emanating from the territory.
[IsraelTimes] Envoy Nikki Haley ...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... says Washington outraged by publication; Sec-Gen Guterres distances self from it; Israel slams it as ’despicable.
Guterres distanced himself from the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) but US Ambassador Nikki Haley said it should be scrapped altogether.
"The United States is outraged by the report," said Haley in a statement. "The United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... secretariat was right to distance itself from this report, but it must go further and withdraw the report altogether."
Based in Beirut, ESCWA is comprised of 18 Arab countries, according to its website, which lists the state of Paleostine as a full member, and works to strengthen cooperation and promote development.
"That such anti-Israel propaganda would come from a body whose membership nearly universally does not recognize Israel is unsurprising," said Haley.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon earlier slammed the commission for releasing the report which accuses Israel of establishing "an apartheid regime that oppresses and dominates the Paleostinian people as a whole."
The report was compiled by Richard Falk, a Princeton professor emeritus with a long track record of vehemently anti-Israel rhetoric who previously was the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Paleostine, and by Virginia Tilley, an American political scientist who authored the book "The One-State Solution" in 2005.
Haley described Falk as "a man who has repeatedly made biased and deeply offensive comments about Israel and espoused ridiculous conspiracy theories."
[IsraelTimes] The Shin Bet announces the arrest of four Paleostinian men involved in a pipe kaboom and plotting additional shooting attacks.
The security service says it broke up a two-man terror cell outside of Jerusalem in January that was responsible for a pipe kaboom that maimed an IDF soldier in October.
The alleged pipe bomb-throwers were part of the "al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade," Fatah’s military wing, the Shin Bet says.
They were also behind a number of other incidents, in which explosives were thrown at soldiers, the Shin Bet adds.
"In addition, the cell members planned to carry out shooting attacks at security forces in the area," the agency continues.
The two suspects were picked up on January 9, the agency says, but details of the case remained secret until now.
The agency also says that later in January it enjugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! two other Paleostinian men outside Hebron for allegedly planning to carry out a shooting attack on "Israeli security forces and civilians" in the area on behalf of the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terrorist group.
On January 30, the Shin Bet picked up Muhannad Jabber Mahmoud Abu Sal, 28, and Ahmad Abd al-Rahman Hasan Abu Sal, 25, who are suspected of planning to carry out shooting attacks for Hamas, the agency says
The two men came from the al-Aroub refugee camp. The younger Abu Sal previously served time in an Israeli prison for belonging to Hamas, the Shin Bet says. He recruited Muhannad and "was supposed to acquire the weapons for the attack," the Shin Bet adds.
The security agency has handed over the findings of its investigation, and indictments are expected in coming days.
[IsraelTimes] Border Police troops arrest a 17-year-old Paleostinian after they found a knife among his belongings during a search at a checkpoint near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron.
He was transfered to security forces for interrogation, police say.
[Ynet] IDF, Border Police, Shin Bet and Israel Police forces nabbed Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! 23 wanted terror suspects overnight Tuesday in the West Bank. The suspects are all wanted in connection with terror activities and violent protests against security forces and civilians.
[IsraelTimes] No Israelis seriously injured as Paleostinian teenager drives into bus stop at West Bank’s Etzion Junction.
A Paleostinian teenager allegedly attempted to ram her car into a bus stop at the Etzion Junction in the central West Bank on Wednesday, prompting Israeli security forces to shoot and wound her, the army said.
No Israelis were seriously injured in the incident, though a 28-year-old Israeli woman in "advanced stages of pregnancy" was taken to the hospital after experiencing a panic attack, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.
The 16-year-old Paleostinian driver was critically injured from the crash and IDF gunfire, according to Arab media. She received medical treatment from the Israel Defense Forces and was taken to the hospital, MDA said. She was identified by Arabic media as Fatemah Taqatqa from Beit Fajjar, a Paleostinian town south of Bethlehem.
The incident occurred shortly before 4:00 p.m.
Surveillance footage from the scene, first posted on social media and later released by the IDF, showed the car veer across multiple lands of traffic and crash into the metal bollards surrounding the bus stop.
According to the military, the teenager specifically targeted the troops stationed at the junction, but both soldiers and civilians could be seen standing at the bus stop.
Local Bethlehem media reported that the driver’s cousin, Amjad Taqatqa, was locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! shortly after the attack. The IDF could not immediately confirm the report.
The Etzion Junction’s bus stop and hitchhiking post has been the scene of a number of terror attacks in late 2015 and early 2016, including both car-rammings and shootings. The busy junction sits at a major crossroads in the Etzion settlement bloc between Jerusalem and Hebron.
The vehicular attacks forced the government to install metal poles around the junction’s bus stop in order to prevent attacks, which have waned over the past year.
[IsraelTimes] Jewish community centers in three states were hit with bomb threats between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, with at least two coming via email. All were deemed to be non-credible.
JCCs in St. Louis, Atlanta, and Boulder, Colorado received the threats, according to local news reports. The threats in St. Louis and Boulder came via email; Atlanta’s JCC would not comment on the nature of the threat. All three JCCs had received bomb threats this year.
The scares are the latest of nearly 150 bomb threats to hit JCCs, Jewish day schools and other Jewish institutions since the beginning of the year. The threats have mostly come in waves, via phone and email. Many of the institutions have been threatened more than once.
Also Tuesday, the website for the metropolitan bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... area’s Walk for Israel was hacked and peppered with hate-filled and anti-Semitic expressions.
[IsraelTimes] The investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica produces an interactive map that chronicles over 300 anti-Semitic crimes across the United States from the past few months.
The graphic, which is published Wednesday, is a companion to an article ProPublica ran last week, “In an Angry and Fearful Nation, an Outbreak of Anti-Semitism,” which found evidence of over 330 incidents of anti-Semitism between last November and early February.
Both are part of ProPublica’s “Documenting Hate” series, which the company launched last year to “gather evidence of hate crimes and episodes of bigotry from a divided America.”
The interactive map links each pin to local news reports from across the country, allowing users to access the original news stories for each instance of anti-Semitism. About 160 of the incidents involve vandalism, such as spray-painted swastikas and other defacement of public spaces.
USS Carl Vinson arrived at the southern port of Busan, in South Korea, to join the annual joint military exercise
South Korea military source says heightened presence is part of plan to decapitate North Korean leadership
Pyongyang has long condemned the annual joint drills - called Foal Eagle - between South Korea and the US
Tensions have escalated with missile launches from North and assassination of Kim Jong-Un's half-brother
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency claims the heightened military presence is part of a plan to decapitate North Korean leadership. They claim a military official, who wished to remain anonymous, told them: 'A bigger number of and more diverse U.S. special operation forces will take part in this year's Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North's war command and demolition of its key military facilities.' Interesting photos and a vid @ link.
(BasNews) The Syrian Kurdish National Council (ENKS) headquarter in Girki Laki town, 70 km east of Qamishlo in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), was bombed early on Wednesday.
The ENKS headquarter in Girki Laki was exploded by the forces affiliated with the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Rojava. The ENKS local board member Ismail Hammoud told BasNews “ENKS’ official headquarter in Girki Laki was bombed and an armed force affiliated with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) raided the office.”
Hammoud said all ENKS headquarters in Rojava have been closed and all its political activities have been banned.
“The PKK has launched a massive campaign against the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDP-S) and ENKS,” Sa’id Omer, a KDP-S leading member told BasNews.
Syrian army and allied forces established full control over a strategic hill northeast of Palmyra in Homs countryside.
Hezbollah’s Military Media Center told al-Manar on Wednesday that the allied forces took control of al-Mustadirah Hill northeast of Palmyra.
ISIL terrorists fled al-Mustadirah to neighboring areas after inflicting heavy losses, the source said, adding that the allied forces’ next target is a neighboring oil field near al-Mustadirah.
Earlier on Monday, the allied forces took control of al-Sawame’ in Palmyra’s east. The video below shows Syrian army soldiers along with allied forces in al-Sawame’ area. Video at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[AnNahar] Two suicide kabooms hit Damascus Wednesday including an attack at a central courthouse that killed at least 32 people, as Syria's war entered its seventh year with the regime now claiming the upper hand.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts, the second wave of deadly attacks in the capital in less than a week after twin bombings killed 74 on Saturday.
But they came with the rebels fighting Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's regime increasingly divided and dispirited after a series of battlefield setbacks.
Negotiations to end the conflict have meanwhile made little progress, with rebels this week declining to attend negotiations in Kazakhstan.
Wednesday's first attack saw a jacket wallah rush inside the building and blow himself up when police tried to prevent him from entering the courthouse in the centre of Damascus, state media reported.
A police source told AFP that 32 people were killed and 100 maimed.
The second blast hit a restaurant in the western Rabweh neighborhood, wounding 25 people, the source said.
A man receiving treatment with a bandage over his eye said the attacker was wearing a military jacket.
"He had his hands up and screamed 'God is greatest' and then the blast happened," he told state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
AFP correspondents in Damascus said the streets emptied after the two blasts, with several roads also blocked by security forces.
- Rebels under pressure -
Damascus was already reeling from Saturday's bombings, which mainly killed Iraqi pilgrims in the city to visit Shiite shrines.
That attack was claimed by former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... Front, part of a rebel alliance that controls large parts of the northwestern Idlib province.
Rebel forces suffered a series of reversals during the sixth year of the war, including being forced from their onetime stronghold of east Aleppo in December.
The loss was an especially difficult blow to rebels who had imagined marching on Damascus in the early days of the civil war.
A key turning point came in September 2015 when Russia began a military intervention in support of Assad's government, which has since regained much of the ground it lost.
Under pressure from air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition, IS has also retreated to bastions like its de facto Syrian capital Raqa.
- 'Savage horror' -
The conflict has killed more than 320,000 people, with over the half the country's population displaced either within Syria or becoming refugees.
The war has also ravaged the country's infrastructure and set the economy back decades.
"When we began to demonstrate, I never thought it would come to this. We thought it would end in two, three months, a year at most," Abdallah al-Hussein, a 32-year-old footballer from the town of Saraqeb in Idlib province, told AFP. "Whether this war is ended with weapons or peacefully doesn't matter. People want to live in peace."
In recent months the opposition's backers have dialed back their support, with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... now working with former rival Russia on peace talks and U.S. 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... 's administration showing little interest in the conflict or negotiations to end it
Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker they have seized off the coast of Somalia and the crew is being held captive, the European Union anti-piracy operation in the region announced late Tuesday. An EU Naval Force statement said the operation had finally made contact with the ship’s master, who confirmed that armed men were aboard the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13.
Monday’s hijacking was the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel off Somalia since 2012. It came as a surprise to the global shipping industry as patrols by the navies of NATO countries, as well as China, India and Iran, had suppressed Somali pirate hijackings for several years.
However, the United Nations warned in October that the situation was fragile and that Somali pirates “possess the intent and capability to resume attacks.” One expert said some in the region had let down their guard as the situation calmed. NATO ended its anti-piracy mission off Somalia in December.
A Somali pirate who said he was in touch with the armed men aboard the tanker said the amount of ransom to demand had not yet been decided.
Bile Hussein told The Associated Press that the armed men have locked most of the crew in one room and cut off communication lines. “Their main concern now is a possible rescue attempt, so that’s why all communications were cut off in the afternoon,” he said.
The Aris 13, manned by eight Sri Lankan sailors, was carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, when it was approached by men in two skiffs, said John Steed, the director of Oceans Beyond Piracy. The EU statement said the ship’s master issued a mayday alert.
An official in Somalia’s semiautonomous state of Puntland said over two dozen men boarded the ship off the country’s northern coast, an area known to be used by weapons smugglers and members of the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab.
The ship was anchored Tuesday off the town of Alula, said Salad Nur, a local elder. “The ship is on the coast now and more armed men boarded the ship,” he told the AP by phone.
The EU Naval Force said it had passed the information from its contact with the ship’s master to the oil tanker’s owners and an investigation was underway.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement it was in touch with shipping agents and officials abroad for more information to help ensure the crew’s “safety and welfare.”
A U.N. shipping database shows the Aris 13 is owned by Armi Shipping SA, whose address is listed in care of Aurora Ship Management FZE, a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Calls and emails to Aurora went unanswered.
The incident involving the Aris 13 represents the first commercial pirate attack off Somalia since 2012, Steed of Oceans Beyond Piracy said.
“The pirates never went away, they were just doing other forms of crime and if any of the measures reduce (which they have, or ships take risks) the pirates are poised to exploit the weakness,” he said in an email.
Somali pirates usually hijack ships and crew for ransom. They don’t normally kill hostages unless they come under attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
[DailyCaller] David Cay Johnston -- taking part in a panel discussion on "The Last Word" Tuesday evening -- accused first lady Melania Trump of doing "sneaky porn."
Johnston, host Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow were poring over the two pages Maddow made public earlier that evening, when O’Donnell noted Trump "has wages and salary income, which is unusual for someone in his case." I presume President Trump served on company boards, which almost always provide attendance payments, even if only nominal.
He is probably also drawing a salary from his company, even though he owns it. It's a way to limit liability, and I believe salaries are taxed differently than profits.
"It could be hers," Johnston offered. "His wife was a model."
"Right," O’Donnell responded. "She’s on here, but she was never at that league."
"She did do very sneaky porn," Oooooo! My very favorite genre!
Johnston continued before Maddow interrupted him.
#5
Seems to me they set themselves up for a lawsuit here, in addition to the charges for illegally having the tax returns. Hard not to show malice when you committed a felony.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/16/2017 7:33
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I just realized another way (or maybe it's just the times), Trump is different from Old Hickory.
#7
Wait. You mean you can get on television and pretend to educate others about "news" regarding a tax return without....you know...being familiar...with...an actual...tax return?????
#8
when (Lawrence) O’Donnell noted Trump "has wages and salary income, which is unusual for someone in his case."
No, it's not - corporate officers do this on a routine basis. I'd be surprised to find someone who didn't do this. Makes you wonder how fucking stupid O'Donnell is (I already accounted for the fact he grew up on Dorchester).
#9
Good God what has happened to this country?
Posted by Crusader 2017-03-16 10:17
Progressivism.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/16/2017 10:39
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Maddow's news alert was so urgent it took her 20 minutes of build up to get to it. So tired of all the speculation now of Melania.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/16/2017 11:09
Comments ||
Top||
#11
No, it's not - corporate officers do this on a routine basis.
Would you be so kind as to expand on that, Raj? The little I know comes from a brother-in-law with a sole proprietership in the building trades -- he takes a salary, while plowing mich of the profits back into the company . Mr. Wife is solidly middle management.
#12
@#11: It's pretty safe to assume that the Trump formerly known as "Mr." was the Chairman of The Board (That's the position of the real power.) of his closely-held corporation. As such, he undoubtedly received compensation of both hard ($, shares of stock) and soft (transportation, meals/entertainment, etc. - all legal if business-related) varieties.
"Hard" compensation is reported by the person receiving it as income and the providing entity as an "expense.". "Soft" compensation is reported only by the providing entity, this as an "expense."
Successful business leadership of a "serious" nature allows the CEO, Chairman of The Board, etc. membership to an interesting "club" in which their participation is, if of benefit to other entities, rewarded for their expertise provided. For example, I have an associate who receives approximately $10,000/year for being a board member of a bank. Four meetings a year!
My experience is that Libs and like-rotting entities seem more inclined to reward genetic "success".
#13
For example, I have an associate who receives approximately $10,000/year for being a board member of a bank. Four meetings a year!
If you're a 'high end' depositor (USD in seven or eight digits) 0.09% APY interest rates really are not enough to foster brand loyalty. If you're a poor man with a $12,500 nest egg, nobody gives a fok. I'm sure you understand.
#15
Also - if your business is an S corporation (that's when a corporation elects to be treated as such by the IRS, picking up their proportionate share of income / loss on their personal tax returns, not subject to the dreaded self-employment tax), the IRS requires those owners to take 'reasonable compensation ' in the form of taxable wages. Basically, the IRS wants some of that income to be subject to payroll taxes. Even the guys in Goodfellas had to kick some money upstairs to Uncle Paulie.
#17
"This White House! So naughty, so carnal."
Lisps Lawrence. "So bawdy." O'Donnell,
Who rolled with the Westies
(we're told he had testes),
Now gasps at a glimpse of a model.
#18
A steward (retired) of Neponset
Sells pancit all day from his quonset.
Perchance it has smelt, but
Sez he who had dealt it,
"Not rancid! Well... maybe at onset."
[DW] German police have said a package containing explosives was delivered to Germany's Finance Ministry. Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office has seized and destroyed the package. No injuries have been reported.
Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) confirmed that it had been filled with a mixture of low-grade explosives, similar to those found in fire crackers. Police also reported that the mixture is often used in pyrotechnics and could have caused serious injuries, had the package been opened.
Not enough information to determine if this is a true War in Terror situation or Black Bloc anarchists, Turkish Grey Wolves avenging Erdogan's honour, communists, neo-Nazis, or yoots having fun.
I'll take 'yoots having fun' for $600.
The Metro UK article you posted at 8:06 a.m. EDT about the letter bomb sent to the IMF in Paris names the little miscreants:
The incident, just six weeks before a presidential election, comes as a militant Greek group Conspiracy of Fire Cells claimed responsibility for a parcel bomb mailed to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Wednesday.
Greece’s interior ministry said authorities in both Greece and Germany were working together on the case.
A Greek police source said the package had a Greek stamp. The “sender” of the parcel was given as a deputy leader of the opposition New Democracy party — along with his real address.
#2
Could be, Skidmark. Wikipedia has an article on the lads. They appeared in 2008 bombing upscale car dealerships and banks, claiming to be a third kind of anarchist -- anarcho-individualism, which is somehow different than social anarchism and insurrectionary anarchism. The article reports nothing on them after 2011.
[Ynet] Four teenage jacket wallahs killed two people and injured 16 others in a residential area in the northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... n city of Maiduguri, a disaster agency front man said on Wednesday.
The girls knocked on the door of a house and then detonated their devices, a representative of the state-run emergency service in Borno State said.
The focus on individual homes is a new tactic.
The blasts in the Muna Garage area, on the edge of the city worst hit by jihadist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... 's eight year insurgency, occurred around 1:15 a.m (0015 GMT), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) front man Abdulkadir Ibrahim said.
"Four female teenage suicide bombers and two other men died," he said.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the blasts occurred in the Usmanti area on the outskirts of Maiduguri. Usmanti is near a sprawling camp for people who have been driven from the remote countryside by Boko Haram violence and, increasingly, the need for food.
[Breitbart] McCain said, "If there is objection, you are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin. You’re achieving the objectives of trying to dismember this small country that has already been the subject of [an] attempted coup. I have no idea why anyone would object to this, except that I will say, if they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin, and I do not say that lightly."
McCain then asked for unanimous consent to advance the bill, which Paul objected to. McCain then stated, "I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification, or rather -- or any rationale for the action that he has just taken. That is really remarkable, that a senator, blocking a treaty, that is supported by the overwhelming number, perhaps 98, at least, of his colleagues, would come to the floor, and object, and walk away, and walk away. The only conclusion you can draw, when he walks away, is he has no argument to be made. He has no justification, for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin." I believe Mr. McCain's cheese is beginning to slip.
#3
The older he gets the more he resembles Jimmy Carter.
I'm going with Robert Byrd. "Venerated elder statesman" whose pronouncements, no matter how bizarre, must never be questioned. When he dies, he will have what some wag here called a "taxidermical procedure" and be wheeled around on a cart in the Senate as if nothing has changed.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2017 8:00
Comments ||
Top||
#4
The older he gets the more he resembles Jimmy Carter
#8
If the new one is like McStain or Flake, its' not much to look forward to. If it's Kristin Synema, we all might as well wish for Maverick to be immortal...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2017 10:36
Comments ||
Top||
#9
McCain is working for Pelosi because they seem to share the same goal of embarrassing, nitpicking, and holding back the Republican party at every opportunity.
[TexasObserver] The government offered $2,900 for 1.2 acres near the Rio Grande. If Flores chooses not to accept the offer, the land could be seized through eminent domain.
The week before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Yvette Salinas received a letter she had been dreading for years: legal notice that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to build a border wall on her family’s land near Los Ebanos. The 21-page document, entitled a "Declaration of Taking," is addressed to her ailing mother, Maria Flores, who owns the property with her siblings. The letter offers Flores $2,900 for 1.2 acres near the Rio Grande. If she chooses not to accept the offer, the land could be seized through eminent domain. "It’s scary when you read it," Salinas says. "You feel like you have to sign."
The 16-acre property has been in the family for so long that none of them can remember the year it was acquired. Salinas only knows they’ve had it for five generations. Her uncle runs a few head of cattle on the property, which lies not far from Los Ebanos’ most famous attraction, a hand-drawn ferry that shuttles cars and their passengers across the river to Mexico.
This is not the first time the federal government has wanted to seize the land for a border wall. In the wake of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, the Bush administration put up 110 miles of border fencing, much of it on private land in Texas. In 2008, Salinas’ family received a condemnation notice offering them the same low, low price of $2,900. Others in Los Ebanos were mailed similar notices.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The landowners should be compensated the going rate.
[Hot Air] Everyone is on the lookout for new trends ever since President Trump came to town. This is particularly true of those who are opposed to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and prefer the term "undocumented immigrant" to illegal alien. It’s precisely that group which seems to be the most upset over a new pattern they are noticing in the world of law enforcement. It seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been "lurking" around courthouses and arresting suspected illegal immigrants when they show up there with their attorneys. (Los Angeles Times)
[I]n the past few weeks, attorneys and prosecutors in California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado have all reported teams of ICE agents -- some in uniform, some not -- sweeping into courtrooms or lurking outside court complexes, waiting to arrest immigrants who are in the country illegally.
ICE officials have defended the tactic, saying they make arrests in courthouses only when all other options have been exhausted. But activists, attorneys and prosecutors fear ICE’s increased presence in courthouses could deter other immigrants without legal status from appearing in court to testify as witnesses or answer warrants, which ultimately could endanger prosecutions.
Pardon me if I immediately respond by playing a slow, mournful tune on the world’s smallest violin after hearing that. Despite whatever previous practices were in place, those are simply agency guidelines. There is absolutely nothing illegal about having an ICE agent show up at a courthouse where they know or suspect that an illegal alien will be and take them into custody if no better opportunity presents itself. Particularly in the case of "clients" who are at the courthouse because they are facing charges, the agents probably wouldn’t have to be hanging around there if local law enforcement was actually doing their job and cooperating with them. That’s the point being made by Virginia Kice, an ICE agency spokeswoman.
Security officials on Wednesday apprehended 26 suspects including 11 Afghan nationals in joint search operations in various cities, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) stated in a press release.
Punjab Rangers, police and intelligence officials conducted search operations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi as well as different cities of Punjab, including Dera Ghazi Khan, Lahore, Sialkot, Attock, Hassanabdal, Narowal, Shakargarh and Rajanpur.
Weapons, ammunition, improvised explosive devices as well as material required to build suicide jackets such as circuits were also confiscated during the operation.
The development is part of Operation Raddul Fasaad, which translates roughly to 'elimination of discord'.
Read more: Progress on NAP: 1,865 terrorists killed, over 5,000 arrested, says report
The Pakistan Army launched the operation in February 2017 following a spate of terror attacks that claimed more than 100 lives in Pakistan.
The military action is aimed at indiscriminately eliminating the "residual/latent threat of terrorism", consolidating the gains made in other military operations, and further ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders.
Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Civil Armed Forces (CAF) and other security and law enforcing agencies (LEAs) will be part of the operation, which is intended to be a continuation of National Action Plan (NAP).
According to a recent progress report on NAP, shared by Minister of State for Interior Balighur with the Senate, so far some 1,865 suspected terrorists have killed and over 5,000 arrested.
The Afghan security forces have seized a large cache of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and other types of military equipment from a school in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Nangarhar province.
The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security (NDS), said the cache was located inside a school in the 2nd police district of Jalalabad city.
According to a statement by NDS, the cache was discovered and seized during a special operation conducted by the operatives of the intelligence.
According to NDS, the cache included seven RPG-7 rocket launchers, 4 Dshk heavy machine gun, two Ak-47 assault rifles, sixteen communication devices, $110,000 cash, four large sets of communication devices, thousands of rounds of ammunition.
The Afghan security forces also confiscated three video cameras, and several other types of military kits from the cache.
NDS said at least two suspects have been arrested in connection to the storage of the weapons, ammunition, and explosives.
Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces but the anti-government armed militant groups have recently increased to their insurgency activities in this province, including the militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.
At least seventeen militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have been killed in a series of airstrikes in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
The provincial police commandment in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out late on Tuesday night in Achin district.
The statement further added at least four airstrikes were carried out targeting the militants in the vicinity of Pekh and Mamand Dara areas.
According to the police commandment, several weapons, ammunition, and explosives belonging to the militants were also destroyed.
The local residents and security forces did not suffer any casualties during the airstrikes, the police commandment added.
Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces in eastern Afghanistan but the anti-government armed militant groups have recently increased their insurgency activities in some parts of the province during the recent years.
The latest coordinated attack by ISIS loyalists came as the Afghan forces are busy conducting counter-terrorism operations in the restive districts of Nangarhar under the Shaheen-25 operations launched several weeks ago.
The operations are being conducted with the support of the US forces based in Afghanistan who are providing close-air support under a broader role granted by the Obama administration earlier last year to target the terrorist groups in the country.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces arrested on Wednesday ten Islamic State members in western Mosul, including the extremist group’s so-called oil and finance ministers.
BasNews quoted Col. Thamer Jaber, from the 9th division, saying Iraqi troops captured two more villages in western Mosul after intense fighting with IS fighters. He said the forces were backed by an aerial cover from the U.S.-led international military coalition.
Battles, according to the officer, left 11 militants dead, including four suicide bombers. He added that ten others were also arrested, including IS “oil minister”, Hossam Gala-Eddin, and finance minister, Ghazi al-Tikriti, but did not mention their exact nationalities.
Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles. Security commanders recently said they became in control of 30 percent of western Mosul since another offensive launched in February to retake the region.
Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the west by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport. Commanders said Tuesday they became in control over 90 percent of the Old City, a much-wanted target believed decisive for putting government troops closer to final victory.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said hours earlier that the battle for Mosul was entering its final stages.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Sixty percent of western Mosul has become under Iraqi government troops’ control, a spokesperson said Wednesday as troops push deeper in the region against Islamic State militants.
Sabah al-Nuaman, a spokesperson of the Counter-Terrorism Forces, said 60 percent of western Mosul has become under security forces’ control. “Operations are continuing in the eastern axis (of operations) and are not affected by inclement weather,” Nuaman said. “The Counter-Terrorism Service is preparing to advance in the western axis,” he added.
The police service said three days ago that security troops were controlling a third of western Mosul.
Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles, and launched a new offensive in mid February to retake the west.
Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the west by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport. Commanders said Tuesday they became in control over 90 percent of the Old City, a much-wanted target believed decisive in putting government troops closer to final victory.
Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition generals had predicted the battle to end within six months, but Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said Tuesday the operations were entering their final stages.
Iraqi forces capture Old Bridge in Mosul Google Map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s Federal Police command said Wednesday that government forces had become in control over a strategic bridge in western Mosul as battles rage on to expel Islamic State militants from that region.
Federal Police chief Shaker Jawdat was quoted saying that the 2nd and 3rd divisions, backed by Rapid Response teams, took over Mosul’s Old Bridge (aka Iron Bridge), which links central Mosul’s Old City with the eastern side, passing above the Tigris River.
Jawdat added that forces continued incursions inside Bab al-Jadid and Bab al-Bid, both districts inside the Old City which police said were recaptured on Tuesday.
The bridge, a vital target in the combat operations for western Mosul, is one of the five bridges connecting both sides of the city. The bridges had been partially damaged by airstrikes to isolate the liberated eastern Mosul from the IS-held west. The Iraqi forces had installed a floating bridge upon starting the offensive on western Mosul last month to allow supplies and backup from the east. If recaptured, the Iron Bridge will be the third to be retaken by Iraqi forces.
“Our troops are making a steady advance towards the Grand Mosque and we are now less than 800 meters from the mosque,” a federal police spokesman said, quoted by Reuters.
Earlier on Wednesday, the army’s Counter-Terrorism Force said 60 percent of western Mosul became under government troops control.
3 ISIS Top Turbans smoked in central Mosul Google Map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Airstrikes by the Iraqi army jets killed three senior Islamic State leaders in central Mosul on Wednesday, Iraq’s military intelligence service said as government troops achieve more victories in on the ground at that region.
A statement by the service said the strike by Iraqi fighter jets killed the trio in Mosul al-Jadida, a district retaken by the forces hours earlier near the Old City.
Those included Mohamed Fathy al-Jubouri, a so-designated “military official” for the group in western Mosul, his aide, Ahmed Nawwaf al-Jubouri and Abu Anas al-Jubouri, a suicide squads official, according to the statement.
Iraqi government troops have made further accomplishments in central Mosul’s Old City, most recently taking over the third of five bridges linking both sides of the city, besides other neighborhood in the Old City.
A spokesperson for the Counter-Terrorism Service said earlier on Wednesday that government forces became in control of 60 percent of the western side.
Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles.
Since a new offensive launched in February to retake the western section, Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport.
Iraqi force capture Badush region in Mosul Google Map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government troops and allied paramilitary groups retook Wednesday a major region in western Mosul from Islamic State militants, adding to earlier victories made in the region over the past few days.
The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell quoted the Joint Operations Command saying that the army’s 9th division, backed by paramilitary groups, completely recaptured the region of Badush, northwest of Mosul.
The statement said the development put government forces and allied groups in total control over the western bank of the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul.
The victory in Badush comes hours after consecutive accomplishments in central Mosul, with Iraqi forces announcing taking over 90 percent of the Old City and 60 percent of the western region.
Iraqi forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting, and since starting a new offensive in the west last month, they have recaptured several areas around Badush, including the town’s infamous prison where IS executed hundreds of inmates in 2014.
Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition generals had predicted the battle for Mosul to conclude in six months, but Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi said Tuesday operations were entering their last stages.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#4
All weapons were purchased legally by suspects or their straw buyers in Virginia.
No. The guns were purchased illegally. That's why they got busted and the guns themselves are now considered illegal contraband. Now, the guns were sold legally. And prior to that sale the guns were legal products. But you see it's the actions and intent of the criminals that determines legality not the process or products. It's really not that difficult of a concept to grasp. But, of course, when the events are stated correctly it really doesn't advance their narrative now does it.
#5
If you buy a car in another state, but intend to drive it in your state, it usually involves getting a state tag within so many days, plus paying state taxes on it. Otherwise, you have an illegal vehicle. Not much different. BTW cars kill more people than guns.
#7
There's an obvious solution: New York needs to put up TSA style border stations and search everybody who comes in for guns, everyday. They're your laws, you enforce them.
That'll fix multiple problems.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/16/2017 17:53
Comments ||
Top||
#4
its legal so far according to the courts
Far too much of that kind of crap has been going on for far too long. Way past time to reign in the over-reach / nonfeasance of our courts. Start with impeaching the federal judges blocking legitimate enforcement of immigration by the executive.
[Vegas Review-Journal] Three people were shot, one fatally, after what Las Vegas police are calling a robbery-home invasion in the northwest valley late Monday night.
One man was killed and another was wounded after binding a couple with duct tape in their home on the 8000 block of Hesperides Avenue about 10:30 p.m., Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Dan McGrath said.
Police received calls of gunshots from neighbors and a call from the homeowner. When officers arrived, they formed a team and found a man and a woman inside the home near West Elkhorn and North Cimarron roads, McGrath said. Inside, police also found a man’s body lying in a rear entryway to the backyard.
McGrath said it appeared the homeowner escaped from being bound by the duct tape.
"I’m not sure how he was able to break free, but he was able to retrieve a firearm and shoot the suspect multiple times," McGrath said
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/16/2017 15:26
Comments ||
Top||
#3
With a little practice (like one rep) escaping that particular restraint is easy especially if hands are in the front. Its all in the set up. Good job dumping the turd for Act II.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
03/16/2017 22:53
Comments ||
Top||
The US Senate has confirmed former Senator Dan Coats as the Director of National Intelligence, Sputnik reported. The Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of the ex-senator of Indiana. Senators approved the nomination of former US Senator Coats in a 85-12 vote.
Coats used to serve on the Senate’s Intelligence Committee. Coats previously served as the US Ambassador to Germany under George W. Bush. Coats is believed to have arisen from the team of Dan Quayle, US Vice President during the term of President George H. W. Bush. Dan Coats has links to the elite of the Republican party and the Fellowship, a conservative and Christian lobby group in Congress.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A totally useless position. A convenient insulator for the Klingons, with no budget or manpower decision making authority.
Someone please correct me if the job description and authority levels have changed.
#2
It was a long time ago when I went into the intel bizniz when I went into the Army, but I seem to remember that the CIA director filled the DNI function -- HUMINT went under DIA and SIGINT under NSA, and CIA synthesized the two streams (and acted upon them). At least back in those days you knew who to fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2017 2:24
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Exactly correct Fred. I don't see how the DNI could possibly be staffed to participate in the mechanics of such a coordinating effort.
#5
I bet it has to do with the proliferation of "intelligence" agencies.
You've got the FBI, NSA, CIA, DIA (one for each service?), IRS, ICE, BATFE and probably every other of the alphabet soup agencies have something. After all, this is a perfect way to grow your power base.
[AnNahar] Another policeman has been killed during an upsurge of violence in a Shiite-dominated district of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , official media said on Wednesday.
Gunfire broke out at about 7:30 pm (1630 GMT) Tuesday when police tried to stop a suspicious car near the central hospital in Qatif, on the Gulf coast, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Someone in the car started shooting, mortally wounding one of the officers, it said.
His colleagues stopped the suspects' car but they escaped "while shooting randomly" and then stole the car of a doctor to make their getaway, the ministry added.
Police found Molotov cocktails in the suspects' abandoned vehicle, which also had been stolen.
The dead policeman is the second Qatif officer rubbed out in just over a week.
Another was bumped off on March 7 as he tried to leave a Qatif cop shoppe in his personal car.
Two days later a "terrorism" suspect was rubbed out and a policeman maimed during a firefight in the Qatif area.
Last Saturday police said they came under fire while looking for suspects in the Shiite town of Awamiya.
They "responded as necessary," leading to the death of a teenager who was wanted, they said.
At least 10 coppers have now been rubbed out since 2014 in the Qatif area, where cop shoppes are guarded by unusually heavy security with concrete walls or protective barriers.
Most of Saudi Arabia's Shiites live in the oil-rich east, where they have long complained of marginalization in the Sunni-majority kingdom.
There has been periodic unrest since Shiite protests began in 2011 and developed into a call for equality.
[Breitbart] As President Donald Trump plans a slew of policies that could dismantle key parts of Barack Obama’s presidential legacy, the former president seems to be returning to his roots as a Saul Alinsky-style radical community organizer.
I was not aware there was a 'legacy' worth saving.
Save it? First they'd have to find it...
This time Obama and his associates’ objective is to stop Trump’s domestic and foreign policy agendas on virtually all fronts ‐ immigration reform, border security, the roll back of the controversial Obamacare system and more. According to some accounts, Obama and his associates may be seeking no less than Trump’s impeachment.
The strategies for disruption seem to include everything from nonprofit front-group activism and the filing of legal motions to support for protest movements targeting Trump and top administration officials.
This as Trump works to secure America’s porous borders, fix the faltering economy, replace Obama’s largely failed healthcare law, combat the scourge of radical Islamic terrorism, contend with the threat of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and address the issue of illegal immigration that was put on steroids during Obama’s two terms in office.
The latest sign of Obama’s fingerprints on Trump disruption plots comes from reports on Monday that former Obama administration staffers have formed a group to closely monitor the Trump administration.
[SanDiegoTribune] The scenario is apocalyptic: The United States plunges into darkness after its electrical grid goes down— not just for a few hours or even a few days, but a vulnerable power system could take 18 months to recover, so long a period of time that millions would die.
The reason? An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack come from a terrorist group or rogue state using a nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere.
It sounds like something out of the most dystopian of Hollywood disaster movies.
But news that North Korea recently launched four missiles that traveled 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan has heightened concerns among those who have warned that an EMP attack that could essentially vaporize the U.S. energy infrastructure.
“I think this is the principal, the most important and dangerous, threat to the United States,”said James Woolsey, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993 to 1995.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have burned to death nine civilians, including children, for attempting to escape the group’s strongholds southwest of the province.
Alsumaria News quoted a security source saying the extremist group burned to death nine civilians from the IS-held town of Hawija over charges of “abandoning the land of the Caliphate’, a common charge poised against people fleeing the group’s areas of control.
“Daesh (IS) arrested the civilians at a road between al-Riyadh and Hamreen Mountains,” said the source. “They burned them before of other civilians on their way to al-Alam,” said the source, referring to a region in neighboring Salahuddin province.
Since Islamic State took over large parts of Iraq in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”, it held a handful of areas in southwestern Kirkuk, where civilians have been subjected to extreme religious governance, brutal tortures and executions. IS’s reign forced thousands of civilians to flee to central Kirkuk.
Islamic State militants have reportedly tortured and enslaved civilians at areas under their control in Iraq for violating their religious rules, and executed many for either acting as informants for security services or attempting to escape “the land of the Caliphate” as the common charge reads. Many of the brutal executions were filmed and posted on IS’s social media platforms.
There has not been yet an official campaign to liberate Kirkuk, but it is expected that the government will move to clear Islamic State pockets across Iraq after finishing with its campaign to expel the group from neighboring Mosul, the group’s largest bastion in Iraq.
(BasNews/IraqiNews.com) Kurdistan Region’s Directorate of Yezidi Abductee Affairs has revealed that eight Kurdish Yezidis were freed from Islamic State (IS) captivity on Tuesday and brought to safety in Kurdistan Region.
Hussein Qa’idi, head of the directorate, confirmed to BasNews that the rescued Yezidis are all from Sinjar and they were abducted by the extremists back in August 2014 when the city was overrun by IS.
Three of them are children and five are women, the official said, noting that Kurdish security forces have transferred them to Duhok province of Kurdistan Region where they reunited with their families after more than two years.
Qa’idi thanked Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for sparing no efforts in supporting their campaign to rescue every Yezidi abductee, saying that nearly 2,900 Kurdish Yezidis have so far been freed from the jihadists’ captivity; but yet more than 3,500 others remain at the hand of IS.
He also criticized the central government of Iraq for failing to provide any help to rescue the Yezidi abductees.
Thousands of Yazidi Kurds fled Sanjar, a Mosul region on the borders with Syria, to nearby mountain areas following its fall to Islamic State militants in August 2014. The extremist group massacred, enslaved and tortured thousands of that ethno-religious minority.
The Kurdish-speaking community came to the spotlight when Islamic State militants, taking over large parts of Iraq, victimized its members, committing massacres and subjecting them to forced conversions, sexual slavery and other reported atrocities.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
We noted the basic premise of this story last fall; now we have the additional issue of non-disclosure.
[FOX] A top FBI official who came under scrutiny last year over his wife’s campaign contributions from a Hillary Clinton ally did not list those 2015 donations or his wife’s salary in financial disclosure forms, according to records reviewed by Fox News.
I do declare! Isn't that a crime?
The records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe left the box blank for wife Dr. Jill McCabe's salary, as a doctor with Commonwealth Emergency Physicians. And there is no documentation of the hundreds of thousands of campaign funds she received in her unsuccessful 2015 Virginia state Senate race.
As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Clinton confidant and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged McCabe’s wife to run for statewide office shortly after news reports were published that Hillary Clinton used a private email server and address for all her government business while serving as secretary of State.
For the reporting period of October through November 2015, McCabe's campaign filings show she received $467,500 from Common Good VA, a political action committee controlled by McAuliffe, as well as an additional $292,500 from a second Democratic PAC.
Asked why the deputy director did not list his wife's salary or the campaign contributions on the "Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report" (OGE Form 278e) for 2015, an FBI spokesman said the forms were certified as "in compliance with applicable laws and regulations." The spokesman added Office of Government Ethics regulations do not stipulate that a spouse's salary or contributions received by a spouse's political campaign must be declared.
#2
McCabe is a political hack, he needs to go. So we will see if Trump is going to start at the top with draining the swamp, or allow the elite to continue.
The biometric data of nearly 3 million Syrian refugees has been registered, the Turkish migration authority said Wednesday, Anadolu reported.
The Directorate General of Migration Management tweeted that 2,957,454 Syrians living in Turkey had been registered, giving them the right to work in Turkey.
Last month, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said nearly 3.5 million refugees were currently living in the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
South Korea has begun an environmental impact assessment of a local golf course ahead of the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system there, the military said Thursday, speeding up the deployment amid growing threats from North Korea.
The defense ministry picked a firm in December to conduct the assessment of the site in Seongju in the southeast, which will host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. Late last month, the company began looking into the location to see if THAAD will affect the environment, farming and the health of nearby residents, a ministry official told Yonhap News Agency.
"As North Korea rapidly improves its nuclear and missile capabilities, Seoul and Washington have stepped up efforts to complete the THAAD installation as quickly as possible," he said.
On Feb. 28, the defense ministry and Lotte Group signed a land swap deal, paving the way for an earlier-than-expected deployment of a THAAD battery in South Korea. In November, the U.S. Forces Korea expected to finish the deployment between June and August. Lotte agreed to hand over its golf course worth 89 billion won (US$79 million) in Seongju in exchange for state-owned military property east of Seoul.
The process to deploy the THAAD system began last week. Two missile launchers and other equipment arrived at U.S. Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of Seoul.
"The radar system for THAAD and other remaining elements will be delivered to South Korea soon or later (within this month) and undergo an operational test before deployment," the official said, dismissing reports that the radar system will arrive on Thursday.
The deployment could be completed within one or two months, and it can be operational as early as April, military officials said. The personnel needed to deploy the THAAD elements in Seongju and carry out a test run are expected to come from THAAD units in Guam and Fort Bliss, Texas.
A THAAD battery consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors (eight per launcher), a fire control and communications unit, and an AN/TPY-2 radar. THAAD is designed to intercept short and mid-range missiles, such as Scud and Rodong, which have a range of up to 3,000 kilometers at altitudes of 40-150 kilometers.
Seoul and Washington have said the system is purely defensive and poses no threat to other countries in the region. But China has opposed it, arguing the system's powerful radars could spy on its flights and missile launches.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What's the environmental impact of incoming?
Like if you can't stop the shit NKor will shoot?
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A police source revealed that a member of Sahwa militia (Sunni Awakening Movement) was killed, while another one was wounded in an armed attack, north of Baghdad, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.
The source said, “Today, unidentified gunmen fired indiscriminately on a checkpoint belonging to Sahwa militia in al-Raoud area, north of Baghdad, killing one members and wounding another.”
“Security forces arrived in the area of incident, while ambulances evacuated the wounded to a nearby hospital and the body to the forensic medicine department,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
In a related context, anonymous gunmen launched an armed attack on al- Za’franiya area, south of the capital, Baghdad, killing a civilian.
[AnNahar] Two Turkish soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a roadside kaboom in the southeast blamed on Kurdish turbans from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), local media reported.
The attack took place when security forces were scanning mines on a highway between Mardin and Diyarbakir provinces, the private Dogan news agency reported.
The explosives had been placed by PKK turbans who blew them up when a vehicle loaded with soldiers passed by, Dogan said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
A top commander of the Haqqani terrorist network was killed in an airstrike conducted in southeastern Paktika province of Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said “Yesterday evening, a top commander of the Haqqani terrorist network along with nine others killed and two others wounded in a targeted airstrike of the Afghan Air Force.”
The air raid took place in the Dara-e-Shinki village, Zirok district of eastern Paktika province, MoI added.
According to the Ministry, during the air raid, two vehicles and some amount of light and heavy rounds of ammunition were also destroyed.
Haqqani network was formed in the late 1970s by Jalaluddin Haqqani. The group is allied with al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban and cooperates with other terrorist organizations in the region.
The US Department of State designated the HQN as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on September 7, 2012.
This come as local officials in Paktika said at least twenty nine insurgents of the Taliban group including two senior leaders of the group were killed in a US drone strike in the same district on Monday.
TRIPOLI: Forces loyal to Libya’s UN-backed unity government seized the headquarters of a rival militia on Wednesday in a third day of intense fighting for control of Tripoli.
The capital has seen exchanges of rocket and artillery fire between unity government forces and a militia loyal to former Prime Minister Khalifa Ghweil.
Since taking power from Ghweil’s administration in March 2016, the Government of National Accord (GNA) has secured the backing of powerful militias in the capital, but some districts remain outside its control.
Ghweil refuses to recognize the GNA’s authority.
Government forces launched an assault on his headquarters in the Guest Palace, a complex of luxury villas in the city center, and overran it after heavy fighting.
“It’s over. Ghweil’s forces have pulled out and GNA forces have taken control of the area,” a witness told AFP.
A security source confirmed the militia’s withdrawal, but had no immediate word on any casualties.
It was the third straight day of fighting between government forces and the militia, who are mainly drawn from Ghweil’s hometown, third city Misrata.
Gunfire and explosions were heard from multiple parts of the capital.
A rocket hit the Al-Khadhra Hospital without causing any casualties, a medic said.
Gunmen stormed the headquarters of Al-Nabaa television, a privately owned channel known for its conservative leanings, witnesses said.
The channel remained off the air on Wednesday. The fighting brought life in the capital to a standstill, with schools and shops closed.
UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler on Tuesday tweeted an appeal for an “immediate cease-fire,” saying the fighting put civilians at “grave risk.”
Clashes erupted in the neighborhoods of Hay Al-Andalus and Gargaresh on Monday evening, prompting the government to deploy tanks.
Tripoli’s GNA-allied police said security forces in Tripoli were battling “outlaw groups that are destabilizing security and inciting chaos.”
“It was our duty to eradicate them and fight them to stabilize the capital,” the police added.
Heavy fighting has also rocked the east of Libya where forces loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar announced their recapture of two key oil ports on Tuesday.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[DefenseOne] Marcel Lettre served at the Pentagon under the last four secretaries of defense from 2009 to January 2017, most recently as undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
Libyan National Army bomb disposal experts defused a car bomb in Brega tonight. It is unclear where or how the black saloon was discovered but pictures on social media show soldiers standing beside two large shells apparently taken from the vehicle.
There were also reports this evening of clashes to the east of Sirte between LNA units and the Misratan 166 Brigade which is in charge of security in the town.
Meanwhile the Bunyan Marsous operations room announced that Sirte had been put under an overnight curfew until further notice. The ban on all civilian movement between 8pm and 7am was being put in place said BM because of remaining IS fighters in the town. Until now it had been thought that all the terrorists had been driven out toward Bani Walid where some 90 of them perished in US air strikes in February.
Meanwhile the Benghazi Defence Brigades insisted today that though they had been forced from Ras Lanuf and Sidra they were still in the vicinity of the Oil Crescent. However the LNA said that its aircraft had been striking that BDB “and its allies” in Jufra and that troops were moving south towards them.
The siege of the 12 Apartments complex in Ganfouda continues. The BRSC has posted that one of its commanders Jalal Makhzum had been killed in the fighting there.
Today saw a visit to the Oil Crescent by the head of the eastern National Oil Corporation established by the interim government of Abdullah Al-Thinni. Alwasat reported that Naji Al-Maghrabi had toured oil installations but did not say where. As with the rival central banks in Tripoli and Beida, the rival eastern and western NOCs had been working together. But there are fears that after the BDB assault on the Ras Lanuf and Sidra export terminals, the east may not be prepared to restore control of the Oil Crescent to Tripoli NOC, as it did when Hafter ousted Ibrahim Jadhran’s renegade Petroleum Facilities Guard last September.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces discovered a mass grave containing remains of the Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah area, in Anbar Province, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, social media activists informed that security forces found the grave, which contains remains of about 500 terrorists of the Islamic State group.
The activists further explained that the majority of these terrorists are holding Arab and foreign nationalities.
Earlier this week, Maj. Gen. Qassem al-Mohammadi said that Iraqi security forces will turn to Islamic State strongholds in western Anbar, including Anah, Rawa and Qaim, after expelling the extremist group from western Mosul.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police forces announced on Wednesday seizing three explosive belts southwest of Kirkuk.
Chief of Kirkuk Police, Colonel Sarhad Kader said in a press statement, “Joint forces from Asayish (Kurdish security forces) and Peshmerga conducted a security operation in al-Raml Village in Baiji vicinity (25 km southwest of Kirkuk).”
“The operation resulted in seizing three explosive belts,” Kader added. “The operation was conducted based on accurate intelligence information.”
Security forces discover several caches of weapons and explosives belonging to the Islamic State and other armed groups in Kirkuk Province.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
At least eight Daesh militants and two Taliban insurgents were killed on Tuesday by Afghan air strikes, the Ministry of Interior statement said.
The eight Daesh militants were targeted by Afghan air forces in Jawargar village of Achin district of Nangarhar province.
Two other armed Taliban insurgents were targeted in Kunduz province on Tuesday. The air strike was conducted in Yatimak village of Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province.
During the strikes the insurgent’s explosives-rigged vehicle and other light and heavy ammunition was destroyed.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) A security source in Salahuddin Province revealed that the toll of the car bomb explosion that hit Tikrit rose to 50 casualties, while pointed out that security forces imposed a curfew in the area, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.
The source said that the final toll of the car bomb explosion that hit al-Atba area in central Tikrit rose to seven dead and 43 wounded.
Security forces also imposed a curfew in the area after the attack, the source added on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, a source in Salahuddin Province informed that 13 person were either killed or wounded in a booby-trapped vehicle explosion that hit central the city of Tikrit.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
The Arab League Secretary General Dr. Ahmed Aboul Ghait called for an urgent Arab action to aid Somalia and for mobilizing financial and relief assistance required to address the grave humanitarian consequences resulting from the drought plaguing the country.
In a statement today, Aboul Ghait called the Arab States to continue solidarity with Somalia and to provide the necessary support through the United Nations (UN) system, directly or through coordination with the Arab League to help meet the urgent needs of more than six million Somali citizen, estimated by the UN at USD 825 million to cover the next six months.
The Secretary-General also called on foreign ministers of a number of Arab states to continue providing material and technical support, through charity and official institutions to the federal government of Somalia to address the serious consequences of this crisis.
He explained that this action comes in the context of the effort carried out by the Arab League to mobilize Arab, Islamic and international support for the Relief of the Somali people, and to contribute to meeting their emergency needs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[DailyMail] - At a hearing on Russian interference in the presidential election today Lindsey Graham said the FBI responded to his letter about Trump spying
It informed his office that its director would answer questions about wiretapping charges - but not in public
Republican senator and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse asked FBI about a criminal investigation into Trump on March 2; followed up in a March 8 letter
Graham and Whitehouse gave FBI head James Comey until today to provide proof of a warrant for the alleged surveillance or say one doesn't exist
This morning Graham threatened a subpoena if he didn't get answers
Said Tuesday the FBI was 'about to screw up big time' by jerking him around Doesn't sound like a "Nope!" to me.
#3
At the briefing they will receive a response that has been through so many lawyers that any semblance of the truth will have been so covered up, buried, hidden, etc that all they will get to see is a Top Secret document so heavily deducted that the only word left un-redacted will be the word "unwittingly"... and even that will be classified...
The Donald Trump administration may go ahead with imposing secondary sanctions on Chinese companies and build up U.S. military power to increase pressure on the Asian rival in a bid to rein in an increasingly wayward North Korea, a South Korean think tank predicted Thursday.
Forecasting the Trump administration's North Korea policy direction, Asan Institute for Policy Studies' researcher Go Myong-hyun said in a report that the U.S. policy on North Korea will be formulated under the administration's broader diplomacy focus on "America First" and defense power buildup.
The Trump administration will basically inherit the previous government's North Korea policy concentrating on missile defense and economic sanctions, but may newly add the element of pressuring China, which will enhance the effectiveness of the U.S.' North Korea policy, the report said.
We've been advocating this for a while: The North Koreans are the lapdogs of the Chinese. China has to curb their dog.
Go cited "secondary boycott" as well as nuclear build-up and the U.S. missile defense system as means of pressuring China, which the Trump administration may use in order to get Beijing to use its influence to stop North Korea's nuclear ambitions and provocations.
"The U.S. nuclear and military buildup has the potential of frustrating China's nuclear deterrence capability, thus it may pose tremendous pressure on China," the researcher said.
"For a while in the future, the U.S. policy toward North Korea will be led by the Department of Defense, not the Department of State, putting military pressure to hold China in check rather than diplomatic means," he noted.
"For its part, South Korea should also continue its pressure on China under a solid South Korea-U.S. defense alliance, increasing strategic dialogue with China over what benefits or losses a unified Korean Peninsula may bring to China," the researcher said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[WAPO] The Justice Department announced Wednesday the indictments of two Russian spies and two criminal hackers in connection with the heist of 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014, marking the first U.S. criminal cyber charges ever against Russian government officials.
The indictments target two members of the Russian intelligence agency FSB, and two hackers hired by the Russians.
The charges include hacking, wire fraud, trade secret theft and economic espionage, according to officials. The indictments are part of the largest hacking case brought by the United States.
The charges are unrelated to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But the move reflects the U.S. government’s increasing desire to hold foreign governments accountable for malicious acts in cyberspace.
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.
[DW] Dutch PM Rutte has claimed victory in elections in the Netherlands that saw his party beat out far-right challenger Wilders. Some see the Dutch poll as a litmus test for populists ahead of French and German elections.
[Telegraph] Where do you go if you recently handed over the reins to one of the most stressful jobs in the world, have memoirs worth $60 million (£49 million) to write, and have a new-found love of kitesurfing? 
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration will end federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
[AlAhram] 
[Independent] The CIA can now kill potential terror suspects with drone strikes after being granted new powers by President Donald Trump, according to a new report.
[IsraelTimes] Projectile believed launched by Salafist group landed in an empty field late Wednesday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker they have seized off the coast of Somalia and the crew is being held captive, the European Union anti-piracy operation in the region announced late Tuesday. An EU Naval Force statement said the operation had finally made contact with the ship’s master, who confirmed that armed men were aboard the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13.
[Breitbart] McCain said, "If there is objection, you are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin. You’re achieving the objectives of trying to dismember this small country that has already been the subject of [an] attempted coup. I have no idea why anyone would object to this, except that I will say, if they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin, and I do not say that lightly."
The older he gets the more he resembles 
[TexasObserver] The government offered $2,900 for 1.2 acres near the Rio Grande. If Flores chooses not to accept the offer, the land could be seized through eminent domain.
[Hot Air] Everyone is on the lookout for new trends ever since President Trump came to town. This is particularly true of those who are opposed to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and prefer the term "undocumented immigrant" to illegal alien. It’s precisely that group which seems to be the most upset over a new pattern they are noticing in the world of law enforcement. It seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been "lurking" around courthouses and arresting suspected illegal immigrants when they show up there with their attorneys. (Los Angeles Times)
[Breitbart] As President Donald Trump plans a slew of policies that could dismantle key parts of Barack Obama’s presidential legacy, the former president seems to be returning to his roots as a Saul Alinsky-style radical community organizer.
South Korea has begun an environmental impact assessment of a local golf course ahead of the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system there, the military said Thursday, speeding up the deployment amid growing threats from North Korea.
[WAPO] The Justice Department announced Wednesday the indictments of two Russian spies and two criminal hackers in connection with the heist of 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014, marking the first U.S. criminal cyber charges ever against Russian government officials.
