h/t Instapundit
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Monday that President Trump is learning amid falling poll numbers that "Washington always wins" against those who don't play by the rules.
"What Trump is learning here is, what we’ve said before, Washington always wins," argued Scarborough on "Morning Joe."
"You don't play by Washington's rules. The courts are going to grab you. The intel community is grabbing the other leg. The House is going to grab you by the arm. The Senate will grab you by the other arm. And he doesn't seem to realize the more he flails, the more he lies, the more he struggles, the deeper he gets in political quicksand."
If Putin is the world's puppet master he's not doing very well. Russia's economy has been in crisis since 2014, with no end in sight. The Kremlin has been in the doldrums for two reasons: the continued decline in oil prices and economic sanctions imposed on Moscow for its incursions into Ukraine.
Trends have worsened rather than gotten better. Initial hopes the Trump administration would cut Russia some slack were dashed. "Enormous amounts of money have flowed in and out of Russia over the past several months as oil prices and U.S. policies turned from favorable to seemingly unfavorable".
...If Putin robbed the bank where's the money? The problem with the Russian hacking stories now roiling Washington is demonstrating how any of it worked to the Kremlin's advantage. A proper conspiracy theory involving a foreign power in the last election should at least consider China, not just Russia, as a suspect. The Chinese at least would have benefited from cheap oil. Yet even here there are problems.
...The golden rule in detecting conspiracies lies in observing what suspects did rather than focusing on what they are alleged to have said. Lobbying and influence peddling in Washington is a multi-billion dollar business. From the policy record there is no reason to think that Russia is the only, or even the major, source of corruption in the capital. It's not hard to believe there's mischief afoot in DC. The more interesting question is whether the Narrative is on the trail of the actual culprit or following a red herring.
#2
If the Russians wanted to interfere with the election, there's lots of things they could have revealed re: the Obama and Clinton administrations. Like, among other things, the Iran deal...
They can literally prove the dem party's hog thieves because they've been helping them throw them in the back of the truck after hitting them in the head.
BLUF: [Daily Caller] Westerners have the best countries in the world. The Rest of the world wants to come to The West. But Westerners themselves are too submissive and browbeaten to appreciate that their lovely countries are the way they are due to Western civilization’s human seed capital. At their inception, the core, founding populations in these countries possessed the innate abilities and philosophical sensibilities to flourish mightily. Now they’re being taught--on pain of punishment--that populations are interchangeable.
That’s likely what Rep. King was cautioning America about on Jan Mickelson’s Iowa radio station. It was certainly what this writer was warning about, on the same radio station, to the same broadcaster, in 2011, while discussing "Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa." Then as now, Mr. Mickelson and his guest were working to expose "the misdirected pursuit of a multicultural soup," as he put it.
#1
TheRepublican congressman quickly reframed the comments. It was not our race he was alluding to, but "our stock, our country, our culture, our civilization." Those sound like proxies for race. Nice try, congressman.
Contrary to what AL Sharpton, David Duke, or the author of this piece say Congressman King's comments are not specifically about race.
#2
I never understood the honourable Congressman's comments to refer to race, whether white or otherwise, but to all Americans. The racism accusation is straightforward throwing things against the wall to see what sticks.
#2
If someone's figured out how to make a bomb out of a laptop, then what difference does having it explode in the baggage compartment vs. the cabin make? Or have they quietly deployed those cool 'container things' in the baggage compartment that corral/confine explosive force and prevent the downing of the aircraft? Saw 'em on TV at least 5 years ago...
#3
If someone's figured out how to make a bomb out of a laptop, then what difference does having it explode in the baggage compartment vs. the cabin make?
Quite a bit of difference. The threat doesn't necessarily have to be a bomb, either.
#6
Your posting may have been subject to MOD pruning, BP.
Electronic devices have batteries, WT.
Most often they are 'shielded' by their casing such that the standard scoping devices will not discern multiple compartments within the battery shell. Simple enough to insert a short term power source into a much larger shell leaving room for a binary aerosol nerve agent or biological. The device boots and looks operational upon inspection.
Other hideaways are the airgap in polymer touchscreen displays or bubble membrane keyboards, and semtex molded 'chicklet' keyboards. The external 110->12v power supplies can also be formed from det cord with a brick of C4 substituted for the transformer.
#7
Thanks, Skid. So, what effect does storing such a device in the baggage compartment vs. in the cabin have? Is it perhaps related to baggage compartment being unpressurized or 'sealed off' from the rest of the plane? I wonder if airlines have somehow 'reinforced' the baggage compartments given the evolving threat environment (kinda like what they did to the cockpit doors after 9/11)? Thanks in advance for your patience with my uninformed questions/suppositions.
#8
Decompression - right there with ya WT3879. We've had Shoe Bomber, and Underoos Bomber - seems legit.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/21/2017 14:33
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#9
If someone's figured out how to make a bomb out of a laptop,
Ever hear of an arduino or raspberry pi - very small pack-of-cards or smaller sized microcontroller / computer. I have an arduino 'nano' programmable microcontroller the size of an IC. These are built to hook up to things like temprature / altitude senors and can be stuff in an existing working pocket radio or old radio-shack clock.
#10
So, what effect does storing such a device in the baggage compartment vs. in the cabin have?
As you alluded, the baggage area is not pressurized. The cabin area is, and the resultant depressurization from an explosion would have more of an immediate detrimental (and likely a cascading) effect on the aircraft. Now factor in the possibility of two or more of these devices, distributed throughout the aircraft...
The cabin is also essentially a restricted-environment system; susceptible to aerosols. I'd surmise that an aerosol threat would be more likely to be biological in origin, the idea being to spread the contamination outside of the initial target population.
The baggage compartment in flight is also not conducive to aerosol dispersion. Also, considering the flights affected are from overseas, and likely foreign-flag carriers may reduce the effect of a biological or chemical release from the baggage compartment after arrival.
Also left out all this is the possibility of an electronic device that would interfere with avionics and/or other aircraft systems.
My conjecture on the actual reason for the ban. Less comjecture on the effects.
#11
Nice, Pappy.
'To aid loading and offloading' bags get packed into containers which are designed for fire containment. The hold also generally has a fire suppression system and by nature or design is oxygen depleted. The overhead bins do not/are not though they can have heat sensors for flight deck alarms.
#14
Batteries in laptops generally have 3 or 5 cells (individual batteries). Replace one cell with whatever and the laptop still works.
For a while, some airports required you to open a laptop to demonstrate it did have batteries in it.
I have thought for quite a while, that laptops on planes were a major risk. But the number of people travelling with them would make a total ban very inconvenient for many people, which I suspect is the reason for this partial ban.
BTW, Australian airports check maybe a third of passengers for explosive residues.
#15
Many laptops also have slide-out optical disks which would be trivially easy to replace with chunk of explosive, yet the laptop would still boot & run otherwise.
#16
If I recall correctly, most pressurized aircraft have the baggage compartment pressurized. The hull of modern jets and pressurized turboprops have a round, or oblong cross section that is efficient as a pressure vessel. The baggage compartment can be air conditioned or heated separately from the passenger area. Because of shipping perishables, live animals or other altitude sensitive things, you need pressurization and you will need heat at altitude to prevent freezing.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/21/2017 19:41
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#17
So basically, a few weeks ago we confirmed some actionable intel from AQAP. Interesting timing, that.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/21/2017 21:26
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#18
Yep and AQAP are the ones with that badass bombmaker
#19
The airports touched by the ban are Queen Alia International in Amman, Jordan; Cairo International in Egypt; Ataturk in Istanbul, Turkey; King Abdulaziz International in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; King Khalid International in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait International; Mohammed V International in Casablanca, Morocco; Hamad International in Doha, Qatar; and the Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports in the United Arab Emirates.
No US carriers make direct flights from these airports, so they are unaffected by the ban, which will hit Royal Jordanian, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways.
[CNBC] At a House Intelligence Committee hearing, NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers and FBI Director James Comey answer questions on the leaking of classified information, and the...
Strange, very strange. No mention of the Sedition Act of 1918. No mention of non-disclosure. No mention of US Gov't labeling the NYT a non-credible source of news or source of disinformation. No mention at all.
It's a good thing lying to a reporter isn't against the law; everyone in Washington would be stood against a wall and shot. Including the reporters...
[NYT] SEOUL, South Korea -- It was a dog-eared manuscript, 743 pages bound in string. But for Do Hee-youn, an activist campaigning for human rights in North Korea, it was nothing less than stunning.
In 2013, Mr. Do got hold of what he believed was the first manuscript by a living dissident writer in North Korea that had been smuggled out. Written in meticulous longhand on the coarse brown manuscript paper used in North Korea, the book -- a collection of seven short stories -- was a fierce indictment of life in the totalitarian North. The author wrote of living "like a machine that talked, a yoked human."
Thanks to Mr. Do’s efforts, the book, "The Accusation," written under the pseudonym Bandi ("Firefly" in Korean), has found audiences around the world. It has been translated into 18 languages and published in 20 countries. Translated by Deborah Smith into English and published by Grove Press, "The Accusation: Forbidden Stories From Inside North Korea" hit the United States market this month.
"This is the debut of ’North Korea’s Solzhenitsyn,’" said Kim Kwang-jin, a defector and researcher at the government-funded Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, the South Korean capital, comparing Bandi to the Russian novelist and Nobel laureate whose writing helped raise global awareness of the gulag forced labor camps of the old Soviet Union. The Guardian wrote, "In its scope and courage, ’The Accusation’ is an act of great love."
#1
Sadly, the effective audience may not recognize 'a book'. I remember a read, and reread of Gulag. Then I had no more time. Active readers now have a 30sec or less attention span. 'Sticky Eye' ads and video clips target 13sec. A 4 line email or a full 140 char tweet exceeds their capacity for missives.
[RT] FBI and NSA directors are testifying before the House Select Committee on Intelligence concerning allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and President Donald Trump’s claims his campaign was spied on.
20 March 2017
19:19 GMT
The FBI investigation itself is creating a cloud over the sitting administration, Nunes tells Comey.
Comey says he can't answer if the FBI has any evidence of any wrongdoing.
"I can tell you that we don't have any evidence," he says, urging Comey to hurry with his probe and ending the hearing.
19:13 GMT
Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is asking Comey (both were prosecutors once) about hearsay and newspaper articles as proof.
"The system we respect would laugh you out of court" if one showed up with a newspaper article as evidence, Gowdy says. "How do you cross-examine an anonymous source? How do you cross-examine hearsay?"
Skipping down to...what "people shouldn't do"...or think, or something.
19:03 GMT
"Tell us why we should care about Russia's use of Americans, helping Russians destabilize our democracy?" Heck asks.
"I truly believe we are a shining city on a hill," Comey answers, but cautions that people shouldn't jump to conclusions. "Now we're going to close our mouths and do our work... because the answers matter." Emphasis added.
#1
A few observations after watching the House Intelligence Committee hearing:
1.We haven’t heard much about the Clinton server, the Clinton foundation or what was found on Weiner’s computer lately.
2.No one has been prosecuted for anything during the past 8 years—it’s certainly not because there wasn’t criminality and corruption.
3.Comey is not a boyscout; he’s got some strange history.
4.Comey invoked the cloak of secrecy far too much. This would imply an on-going investigation, protecting state secrets, or jumping to conspiracy notions; cover-up and protecting those high up from prosecution. Folks, we just cannot have that much stuff that needs to be kept secret from the American people.
5. There seems to be little truth-telling in DC.
6.These hearings seem to be a kind of masturabatory activity that substitutes for getting anything useful done; except Gowdy, Nunes and a few others did a good job.
7. The American people are kept in the dark about what's going on in DC; the MSM is useless.
8.Swamp-draining is nearly impossible in DC.
I would add that nothing has been said about the Obama administration's abject failure to do anything about cyber security. They are so sanctimonious about those bad, bad Russians doing all that hacking but strangely silent about their failure to prevent it.
Also, nothing was said about the DNC's abject failure to implement security measures on their email server. If it was the Russians who really did hack it you could make a case that they did us all a favor by demonstrating the gross incompetence of these people who aspire to run the country. If they can't manage an email server, how can they manage the country?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/21/2017 12:04
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#4
Oh and the leaks!
The only thing we know for certain out this whole freaking mess is that FBI leaks like a sieve and Comey won't even say whether or not he is investigating the leaks. This guy has a serious credibility problem.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/21/2017 12:15
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#5
FBI/NSA: We did no wrong, Trump bad!
Congress/Media: Okey dokey, good enough for me.
How does a society hold spies to account for illegal spying when they are the ones who find the evidence of illegal spying?
[Breitbart] California Gov. Jerry Brown asked President Donald Trump on Sunday for federal emergency assistance for the fourth time in just two months since the new administration took office, putting the nascent "CalExit" movement in a difficult position.
While advocates of California secession -- both on the left and operating from abroad -- have hoped to make the case that the Golden State can stand on its own, Brown’s repeated requests for help underline the fact that the world’s sixth-biggest economy is still dependent on the rest of the country.
The latest request, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, asks for money for flood relief, including for repairing the damaged spillways of the Oroville Dam, which nearly failed last month, resulting in the temporary evacuation of 200,000 residents downstream of the dam.
#3
They don't want their money - they want yours...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/21/2017 8:00
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#4
While advocates of California secession -- both on the left and operating from abroad -- have hoped to make the case that the Golden State can stand on its own
Doesn't seem so, does it? The problem is that lefties make bad leadership choices and think the piggy bank is unlimited.
#7
CALEXIT is like Hollywood celebs threatening to move to Canada (never Mexico): an unserious temper tantrum with nothing real behind it.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/21/2017 9:12
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#8
POTUS is busy 1)convincing businesses to stay in the US, 2)create new jobs, 3)cutting deficits, and 4)withholding Federal dollars from sanctuary cities.
Since you are opposed to 1, 2, 3, and 4 appears your request gets an F.
[McClatchy] Washington - Federal investigators are examining whether far-right news sites played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories -- some fictional -- that favored Donald Trump’s presidential bid, two people familiar with the inquiry say.
Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as "bots," to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said.
The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bot attacks are part of an FBI-led investigation into a multifaceted Russian operation to influence last year’s elections.
Investigators examining the bot attacks are exploring whether the far-right news operations took any actions to assist Russia’s operatives. Their participation, however, wasn’t necessary for the bots to amplify their news through Twitter and Facebook.
The investigation of the bot-engineered traffic, which appears to be in its early stages, is being driven by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, whose inquiries rarely result in criminal charges and whose main task has been to reconstruct the nature of the Kremlin’s cyber attack and determine ways to prevent another.
#3
blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories
I guess I missed it. Anybody else catch it?
But all the lefties don't need to see it to believe it - they just know it's true!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/21/2017 7:42
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#4
91% of media coverage of Trump was negative yet he still won. That shows just how bad a candidate Hillary was.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/21/2017 11:30
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#5
Are they investigating the blitz of misleading stories about Hillary pushed by the mindless robots in the press? The admitted rigging of the Democrat primaries? The clear election fraud in Detroit?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/21/2017 12:10
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#6
Sounds like projection to me. Anybody remember the pathetic trolls who kept coming to Rantburg trying to convince us all how bad Trump is?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/21/2017 12:12
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#7
Who was paying those trolls?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/21/2017 12:19
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#9
91% of media coverage of Trump was negative yet he still won. That shows just how bad a candidate Hillary was.
It shows me how irrelevant the media is.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/21/2017 13:50
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#10
The McClatchy article by AP writer Gerald Herbert reads like he came up with the conclusion first and then wrote the story to support the conclusion.
The men and women who live and work in these border areas have come under attack again from drug cartels who have been blamed for thousands of murders in Mexico.
According to Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples:
"It’s a war, make no mistake about it. And it’s happening on American soil. Farmers and ranchers are being run off their own property by armed terrorists showing up and telling them they have to leave their land."
#4
As a general rule, the last group to double down on the violence and brutality wins. At least until Clint Eastwood, the US Marines, or a Texas Ranger shows up.
#5
The cartels are well armed, but they have a bunch of wannabes toting the arms and they rely on a pump and dump/spray and pray to take out their target. The ranchers actually have to hit predators/prey and can reach out from distance and kill.
If they see the cartel, the pendejos die. If the cartel swarms a house in the middle of the night it will be bad for that rancher family.
[Washington Standard] You see what happens when you start trading liberty for alleged security. Under George W. Bush, a full on unconstitutional federalization of airport security and subsequent violations of the Fourth Amendment that take place every single day in this country were passed following the 9/11 attacks. Now, the news is a buzz about Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Sobarkah’s wiretapping of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, but Project Dragnet records are now providing evidence that Donald Trump and his family were being illegally spied on by the National Security Agency (NSA) under President George W. Bush.
According to the Project Dragnet database, Trump was listed for electronic surveillance for the following companies, locations and times: Caution: Single-source reporting. Reliability cannot be confirmed.
#2
I recall Feinstein getting apoplectic about being spied upon by the CIA. Domestic spying seems to happen more often than one would think from what's being said now.
#4
That means that if FISA requests were requested on all 325 million people in the U.S. that only 105,457 would be rejected. Why, that would be like giving all the people in Dearborn, MI a pass.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Fox News Channel has pulled legal analyst Andrew Napolitano from the air after disavowing his on-air claim that British intelligence officials had helped former President Barack Obama spy on Donald Trump.
A person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a personnel matter said Napolitano has been benched and won't be appearing on the air in the near future. Fox had no immediate comment Monday.
Napolitano's report last week on "Fox & Friends," saying he had three intelligence sources who said Obama went "outside the chain of command" to watch Trump, provoked an international incident. Britain dismissed the report as "nonsense" after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer quoted it in a briefing, part of the administration's continued defense of Trump's unproven contention that Obama had wiretapped him at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.
#4
#2 Anyone who tells the truth must be yanked.
Exactly Herb. Must be that truth is not valued in DC. The hearings are Kabuki theater. Why do I always get this feeling that when someone won't give a straight answer or that when they invoke the cloak of security to not testify, I think they are lying or complicit?
#5
It wouldn't be the first time a news analyst/commentator has made unsubstantiated claims. So why did he get sacked? There's more than a good chance he was told by the news division not to say anything until they could verify the report but he chose to ignore them.
#6
Napolitano has been benched and won't be appearing on the air in the near future.
It sounds more like he was given a time out than that he was sacked, DepotGuy. But perhaps this is how they ease him off the payroll without upsetting his fans.
#7
It's all stageplay theatre for the masses, JohnQC.
That's why they each have their scripts. You will often see a camera cut to an empty face 'listening' to a question, that is being read.
#8
Perhaps it was true, and the value of the "*" process for internal screening of each other's citizens is considered so vital to national security that it's exposure is viewed as a catastrophic setback to the WOT. I suspect The judge was told to be silent and because of his integrity refused. Hence his benching.
#9
There was this paper from the late 90s published in Oz that explained that part of the game. It came right after the US spying on Soviet Sats spying on the US so that it wasn't direct spying on the US population.
[Ynet] A British court has disclosed that an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... -linked hard boy has pleaded guilty to five offenses after being found with incriminating information stored in a cuff link.
Samata Ullah had a USB-equipped cufflink with a Linux operating system loaded onto it that was used to store hard boy data, including a blog.
He pleaded guilty earlier this month at the Old Bailey courthouse to five offenses including possession of an article for terrorist purposes. The court withheld the information until Monday for legal reasons.
The 34-year-old from Wales was jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in September and admitted ties to the so-called Islamic State group. He was found to have provided instructional videos on how to protect sensitive data and remain anonymous online through encryption programs.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2017
00:35 ||
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#1
Samata Ullah had a USB-equipped cufflink with a Linux operating system loaded onto it that was used to store hard boy data, including a blog.
I'm a bit of a neophyte when it comes to computers but is it possible to load everything into a cufflink? It also strains credulity to picture members of ISIS wearing cufflinks.
#2
There are USB memory cards that are small enough to be disguised in some way as a cuff link. There are some that have more than enough space on them to have a complete Linux operating system and a ton of data.
I have a few Raspberry Pi's and BeagleBone micro computers slightly bigger than a matchbox that use these cards for just that.
#3
You can put a lot of data on a 8GB flash drive, including a lightweight Linux full operating system (like Puppy or Xubuntu), and still leave room for a WordPress 'blog'
That being said, a quick search shows that 'USB Cufflinks' are pretty easy to come by and maybe even come in desirable Jihadist styles/colors from elsewhere.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/21/2017 8:27
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[AnNahar] The man rubbed out at Gay Paree's Orly airport after attacking a soldier was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time, a judicial source said Sunday.
Investigators are still trying to understand what motivated Saturday's assault by 39-year-old Ziyed Ben Belgacem, which led to a major security scare and the temporary closure of the capital's second-busiest airport.
"Toxicology tests carried out on Sunday showed an alcohol level of 0.93 grams per liter in his blood, and the presence of cannabis and cocaine," the source said.
Such things are permitted to those setting out on jihad. The 9/11 highjackers got drunk at strip clubs before the big day, as I recall.
Ben Belgacem's father had insisted earlier Sunday that his son was "not a terrorist" and that his actions were caused by drink and drugs.
The attacker, who had also fired at police in a northern Gay Paree suburb earlier that morning, was rubbed out by two other soldiers after a scuffle.
Investigators were examining his telephone.
Prediction: his phone contains the Telegram app, and he has been holding long Telegram chats with someone in Raqqa.
The attack at Orly comes with La Belle France still on high alert following a wave of jihadist attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives in two years.
The violence has made security a key issue in La Belle France's two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7.
The deplorables have an impact, another fallout of Brexit, Trump, and Geert Wilders.
- Not on terror watchlist -
Ben Belgacem's brother and cousin were released Sunday after they, like the attacker's father, were held for questioning. All three had approached police themselves on Saturday after the attack.
After spending Friday night in a bar with his cousin, Ben Belgacem was pulled over by police for speeding in the gritty northern Gay Paree suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse, where he lived, just before 7:00 am. He drew a gun and fired, slightly injuring one officer.
Ben Belgacem later appeared at the bar where he had been the previous night, firing more shots and stealing another car before continuing on to the airport.
Gay Paree prosecutor Francois Molins said Ben Belgacem appeared to have become caught up in a "sort of headlong flight that became more and more destructive."
Dozens of flights to and from Orly were canceled during an hours-long shutdown after the incident, but by Sunday afternoon air traffic had returned to normal, a spokeswoman for the Gay Paree airports authority said.
At the time of his death, Ben Belgacem was carrying a petrol can in his backpack, as well as 750 euros ($805) in cash, a copy of the Koran, a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.
The Russian Army will train the Syrian Kurdish defence forces in Afrin, the YPG announced on Monday.
“The presence of the Russian army units in the Janderis district of the Afrin Canton has taken place as a result of an agreement between our forces and the Russian Army,” People’s Protection Units (YPG) spokesperson Redur Xelil said on Monday.
“The agreement was based on the framework of cooperation in the fight against terrorism and on the military training of our fighters by the Russian army. We have direct relations with Russia,” the YPG said.
“This step is a positive and good step in the fight against terrorism in Syria. After our forces proved themselves against terrorism, many forces want to help our units and arrange a deal with us,” the YPG concluded.
The improvement in relations between the YPG and the Russians comes despite of the normalization of ties between Russia and Turkey in June 2016, and a visit by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Moscow in the beginning of March.
Turkey rejects any role by the Kurdish YPG forces in northern Syria, and considers the YPG as an affiliation of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)–designated by Turkey as a terrorist organization.
Relations between Turkey and Russia worsened after Turkey shot down a Russian plane in November 2015. Since then the Russians supported the Kurds in Afrin/Efrin, while the US-led coalition supports the YPG in the Cezire (Hassakah) and Kobani cantons.
However, in June 2015, Erdogan apologized to Putin for downing the Russian jet, and Moscow also supported the Ankara-backed Euphrates Shield operation in Syria launched in August 2016 with even air support.
However, there were several signs that Russia did not drop its support for the Syrian Kurds, when Russia keep insisting they do not see the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization, and also expressed the need for the Syrian Kurds to participate in the Geneva and Astana talks. This despite the fact that Turkey was against any form of participation by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) –YPG’s political leadership– in the Syrian peace talks, afraid this would give more legitimacy to the PYD.
In the beginning of March 2017, a Russian aid convoy arrived in Manbij to deter Turkey from attacking the city. Moreover, the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached a deal with Russia to hand over a limited number of villages to the Syrian government in the West of Manbij to deter Turkish aggression and plans to attack Manbij.
Russian analysts suggest that Moscow wants to balance the Turks and the Kurds in Syria, and that it does not want to give up its support for the Syrian Kurds.
[Breitbart] Rep. Trey Gowdy, questioning James Comey during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Monday, appeared to name former President Barack Obama and six of his administration’s top staffers as potential sources of leaks about former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s alleged collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 election.
It should be noted that Gowdy did not give evidence for any of the names he raised possibly being the source of the leaks.
The South Carolina Republican first asked the FBI director if former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper "knew the name of the U.S. citizen that appeared in The New York Times and Washington Post?... Would he have access to an unmasked name?"
Gowdy asked similar questions about former CIA Director James Brennan, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice former White House advisor Ben Rhodes, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
Finally, Gowdy asked Comey if he "briefed President Obama on any calls involving Michael Flynn."
"I’m not going to go get into either that case or any conversations I had with the president," Comey answered.
#3
The FBI should be pursuing those who leaked the information and other classified bits to the press instead of chasing their tail with this nonsensical Russian probe...me thinks the deep state doesn't want a probe of the leaks but would rather the FBI and other propaganda sources spin their wheels on this smoke and mirrors thing with the Russian involvement
#4
How does Comey have the gall to stay in the FBI after he has disgraced himself before the country and the FBI agents working for him? How can President Trump get rid of him, given how the system is set up? Comey has a 10 year term, so he will theoretically be in there until 2023. He was good buddies with the Clintons, so what do you expect?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/21/2017 20:12
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Leb’s main Druze leader, Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... , on Sunday publicly confirmed his son Taymour as his political heir, extending the tradition of dynastic politics that plays a big part in the country’s sectarian government.
Jumblat, the leading politician of the minority Druze community, took off his Paleostinian koufieh scarf and placed it on the shoulders of his son at a televised rally in the town of Moukhtara in the Chouf mountains.
"Walk forward with your head held high, and carry the legacy of your grandfather," Jumblat told his son at the event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the liquidation of Walid Jumblat’s father, Kamal Jumblat.
Speaking to Rooters, Jumblat said the scarf symbolized the issues he wanted his son to fight for and defend: Paleostine, "Arab, progressive Leb" and reconciliation with Christians, whom the Druze fought in the 1975-90 civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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It's a story about a 17-pound rooster.
The minute-long video that somehow made its way onto Twitter was shared by 35,000 users as of Monday evening, and left thousands of people with a long list of questions: Is it a child in a chicken costume? Is it some kind of hybrid poultry that we didn’t know about?
Finally, after hours of unanswered questions, we got our answer. “The chicken in that video is a Heritage Breed Brahma Chicken,” The Livestock Conservancy confirmed in a Facebook post Monday afternoon.
Often referred to as the “King of All Poultry,” Brahmas are large chickens with feathers on shanks and toes that come in three color varieties — light, dark and yellowish-beige. They’ve been known to reach incredible weights of 13 to 14 pounds for hens and 17 to 19 pounds for cocks. That's a bit more than a capon, which is a castrated rooster, and about the same size as a domestic turkey. I'm guessing the Heritage Breed Brahma tastes like alligator.
[Ynet] Egyptian and Paleostinian leaders are holding talks in Cairo in what Egyptian media reports are branding a "reconciliation" meeting.
Relations between Egypt and President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ' administration have been tense over a range of issues, including Cairo's contacts with factions in the Gazoo Strip that did not involve Abbas' Paleostinian Authority.
Abbas and Gazoo's rulers, the Death Eater group Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, are at sharp odds.
Relations also soured when Egypt in December withdrew a draft resolution in the UN. Security Council against Israeli settlements. The draft was later resubmitted by other countries and adopted by the council.
Osama Qawasmeh, front man for Abbas' mainstream Fatah faction, said on Monday that relations with Cairo have been "a little bit cold" recently, but the time was right to "restore this very important and strategic relationship."
[RUDAW.NET] A Kurdish Newroz festival in Jordan wrapped up with an award given to a granddaughter of Saddam Hussein who hailed equality among Kurds and Arabs.
"We are all equal," said Banan Hussein Kamil, daughter of Raghad Saddam Hussein. "There are no differences between us, whether you be a Kurd, Shiite or Sunni. I have two dreams: first, my career, second, I want Iraq to be united and go back to what it was like before," she told Rudaw.
Kamil, a designer living in Dubai, was awarded the best young designer.
"The most important thing for me is to do something which I enjoy doing. I built this career with love," she said.
A number of Kurdish, Arabic, and international fashion models showed of Kurdish and other clothing at the Jordanian-Kurdish Qandil organization’s fourth Newroz festival at al-Ahliyya University in Amman.
"The festival was run very nicely and successfully. Our most important objective was to hold Kurdishness high and show our culture to people here," Suhad Talabani, head of Qandil organization, told Rudaw.
The famous Jordanian pop star Diana Karazon, whose mother is from Diyarbakir, along with Kurdistan’s Miss Beauty, were among the judge-panelists.
"I am very happy to be here today. I have come with my mother to take part in this sacred day which is the feast of Newroz," Karazon said.
Renowned Iraqi singer Hatem al-Iraqi was also present at the event, entertaining audiences with his music.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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#1
I want Iraq to be united and go back to what it was like before," she told Rudaw.
might wanna clarify what era/circumstances she's referring to.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/21/2017 10:22
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[TMZ]. The thief who swiped a Secret Service agent’s laptop targeted the agent in question and knew exactly what he was after ... law enforcement sources tell TMZ.
Our sources say the thief -- whom they say is a man -- was caught on surveillance video pulling up to the agent's driveway in an Uber at around 3 AM Thursday.
The video shows the man make a beeline for the agent's car, removing a backpack with the computer inside and then walking off. As we reported, the hard drive contained Trump Tower floor plans and evacuation protocols, but the agency insists there was no classified info inside. What kind of professional gumshoe leaves confidential info in their (unlocked?) unattended car?
The thief also made off with a passport and several Secret Service lapel pins.
It's unclear what the thief was looking for if all the content was non-sensitive.
We're told the video is grainy so it's hard to make out the thief's features, but it's definitely a lead. I'd be looking closely at the phone and computer records of the Agent. But that's just me.
The agent's bank accounts and credit history should also be examined.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
03/21/2017
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#4
Doesn't Uber require a smart phone and credit card? Plus Uber drives often record their customers. Lastly the Uber driver would be a witness. Posted by Airandee
Yes, there could in fact be a trail. I suspect a generous cash transaction however.
More importantly, it would appear Trump Towers is under surveillance of one type or another. Perhaps less time should be spent there.
#8
Setting up a Dead Drop in your own driveway is an interesting twist.
Usually preferred would be a bench or lampost in lovely Ft. Greene Park, but leaving the 'bundle' in your driveway might deflect from you as simply being stupid and not actually subversive.
Leaving one's vehicle unlocked at 3AM (in Brooklyn mind you, not Greenleaf Kansas), and not simply staging a 'smash and grab' to retrieve the item(s), does indicate the latter in my mind.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/21/2017 10:00
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Setting up a Dead Drop in your own driveway is an interesting twist.
Genius found in the illogical? Well I mean, James Comey is still the Director of the FBI.
A 'Genius' might have fleshed it out a bit more to make it believable, though. The 'unlocked vehicle' would NOT be SOP for any area resident. The video supposedly doesn't show the guy using a key or anything to enter the car, either.
The idea that a 'thief' simply trolled residential areas, riding in an Uber no less, looking for unlocked vehicles with laptops/passports/lapel pins (with very powerful night vision double plus ultra x-ray binoculars, no doubt) is beyond absurd.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/21/2017 10:28
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#11
As I posted yesterday, I don't worry about SS agents who say they won't take a bullet for Trump, but about ones who're more discrete.
Riyadh – Saudi Border Guards recently thwarted several attempts to plant land mines and smuggle weapons and more than half ton of weed at the southern border, according to the Saudi Ministry of Interior.
Thirty smugglers were arrested, including 19 Ethiopians, seven Yemenis, three Saudis and one person of an unknown nationality, said the spokesperson. The ministry reported that 1,265 infiltrators — including 847 Yemenis, 309 Ethiopians and 16 Somalis, among others — were also arrested.
In an exchange of gunfire with smugglers, three were killed and two injured. Eight military land mines, 23 weaponry pieces, and 32,160 rounds of live ammunition were seized. An estimated 607 kilograms of weed were also captured by authorities.
The Interior Ministry said there is a security threat to the Saudi-Yemeni border. Threats include terrorist attempts to attack border posts, plant land mines and smuggle explosives, weapons and drugs, in addition to attempts to threaten the lives of security and military men.
A US drone strike killed Qari Yaseen, the alleged militant wanted for several high profile attacks across Pakistan, local media reported on Monday.
Yaseen, with a bounty of Rs2 million and wanted for attacks on the Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, ISI’s Lahore office, Marriot Hotel, Data Darbar and the Sri Lankan cricket team, was killed in the drone strike.
Three of the alleged militant’s accomplices were also killed in the US drone strike which was reportedly carried out in Barmal district of Paktika province in Afghanistan.
Yaseen was allegedly affiliated with several militant outfits and had received training from Jundallah and Al Qaeda. He was also wanted for attacks on Shuja Khanzada and former president Pervez Musharraf.
The alleged militant, who belonged to Lodhran district of Punjab, was said to be an expert in manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and bombs.
[DAWN] Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on Sunday launched a scathing personal attack against German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom... , accusing her of using "Nazi measures" in an intensifying dispute between Ankara and Berlin.
Tensions flared after German authorities refused to allow some Turkish ministers to campaign for a ’yes’ vote in the April 16 referendum on expanding Erdogan’s powers, and he responded by saying Berlin was behaving like Nazi Germany.
"When we call them Nazis they (Europe) get uncomfortable. They rally together in solidarity. Especially Merkel," Erdogan said in a televised speech.
"But you are right now employing Nazi measures," Erdogan told Merkel using the informal ’you’ in Turkish.
"Against who? My Turkish brother citizens in Germany and brother ministers" who went to the country to hold campaign rallies for a ’yes’ vote in next month’s referendum.
Authorities in Germany have blocked some Turkish ministers from holding rallies, infuriating Ankara.
Erdogan said the crisis in relations with Europe over the last days "showed that a new page had been opened in the ongoing fight against our country".
Accusing Europe of backing outlawed terror groups, he warned: "The masked ball is over!" without specifying further.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... had earlier expressed fury that German authorities had on Saturday allowed a pro-Kurdish demonstration in Frankfurt to go ahead where many participants carried insignia of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Germany meanwhile is livid over the jailing ahead of a trial on terror charges of dual Turkish-German national Deniz Yucel, the Turkey correspondent of the German newspaper Die Welt.
Erdogan described Yucel, whose arrest has caused global concern, as a "terror agent" and "supposed journalist" and accused Germany of hosting him for one month at its Istanbul consulate before he went to police for questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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#1
Does it make me a bad person to be LOL at this?
[AA.TR] The U.S. on Monday boycotted a UN Human Rights Council session on Paleostine and other Arab occupied territories, claiming it was biased against Israel.
"The United States will vote against every resolution put forth under this agenda item and is encouraging other countries to do the same," U.S. State Department Acting Spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
Toner said it did not "suit the interests of the Council to single out one country in an unbalanced manner".
The United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... last Wednesday accused Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on the Paleostinian people -- the first time a UN agency had leveled such an allegation.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... Toner’s statement accused the body of "long-standing bias against Israel".
"No other nation has an entire agenda item dedicated to it at the Council. The continued existence of this agenda item is among the largest threats to the credibility of the Council," Toner added.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the area in 1980, claiming it -- along with West Jerusalem -- as the "unified" capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.
International law views the West Bank as "occupied territory" -- including East Jerusalem -- and considers all Jewish settlement-building on the land to be illegal.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security killed a suicide bomber before carrying out an attack in northern Baghdad, according to Baghdad security authorities.
The Interior Ministry’s Baghdad Operations division said an attacker vested with an explosive belt and riding a motorbike was killed as security forces ambushed them in al-Zour region, north of the capital.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) says violence in the country left nearly 392 dead and 613 injured, excluding security members, during February. Baghdad was the second most affected province with 120 deaths and 300 injuries, according to the organization’s monthly casualty count. It excludes death toll among security members after Iraqi authorities had asked to get such information exclusively from security commands.
Islamic State militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions and attacks that hit the capital in the past months, leaving casualties among civilians and security troops.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Bomb blasts in northern and western Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded five others on Monday, according to police sources.
A bomb placed on the side of a road near a popular market in Shatt al-Taji, north of the capital, exploded on Monday, killing one civilian and wounded four others, Alsumaria News quoted police sources saying.
Another explosion rocked al-Forat district, at the west of Baghdad, when a bomb fitted beneath a civilian’s vehicle exploded, killing the driver and wounding another who was in his company.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Islamic State militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions and attacks that hit the capital in the past months, leaving casualties among civilians and security troops.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) says violence in the country left nearly 392 dead and 613 injured, excluding security members, during February. Baghdad was the second most affected province with 120 deaths and 300 injuries, according to the organization’s monthly casualty count. It excludes death toll among security members after Iraqi authorities had asked to get such information exclusively from security commands.
[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Monday ordered the reopening of the Pak-Afghan border with immediate effect, a month after it was closed following the deadly Sehwan blast said to have been carried out by cross-border terrorists, DawnNews reported.
More than 80 people, including women and kiddies, were killed and hundreds of devotees injured in the blast at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan, Sindh.
The province's inspector general of police, A.D. Khowaja, had claimed that the suspected jacket wallah "appeared to be an Afghan national."
All border crossing with Afghanistan were sealed soon after the attack.
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[AA.TR] Jordan’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest judicial body, has upheld an earlier decision by the Amman Court of Appeals not to hand over a Jordanian citizen wanted by the U.S.
A dual Paleostinian-Jordanian citizen, Ahlam al-Tamimi was convicted by an Israeli court in 2001 of involvement in an attack in Jerusalem -- carried out by Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",’ armed wing -- that killed two U.S. nationals and several Israelis.
The Court of Cassation's decision, which is final and cannot be appealed, came during a Monday court session, Jordan’s official Petra News Agency reported.
According to a local judicial source quoted by Petra, Jordan and the U.S. signed an extradition treaty in 1995 but it was never ratified by Jordan’s parliament.
The treaty is therefore "unenforceable", said the source, who the news agency refrained from identifying.
"Extradition requests sent by foreign countries to the relevant authorities in Jordan cannot be accepted unless they are based on an enforceable [extradition] treaty or agreement," the source was quoted as saying.
The U.S. Justice Department recently requested al-Tamimi’s extradition to the U.S. after the FBI put her at the top of its list of wanted "terrorists".
Al-Tamimi spent ten years in an Israeli prison after being slapped with a 16-year sentence for her role in the attack, in which 15 people were killed -- including the two U.S. citizens -- and more than 100 injured.
In 2011, the Israeli authorities handed al-Tamimi over to the Jordanian authorities as part of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.
A Paleostinian who also carries Jordanian citizenship, al-Tamimi, was born in the Jordanian city of Zarqaa in 1980.
Hamas, for its part, welcomed Monday’s court decision, saying it confirmed "the Jordanian judiciary’s appreciation for the issue of [Paleostinian] prisoners".
"We appreciate Jordan's commendable position," Hamas front man Hazem Qasim told Anadolu Agency.
"We call upon the free people of the world to remember the Paleostinian prisoners still languishing in Israeli jails," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Chuckle, chuckle. Court of Cassation I initially read this as castration. My mistake but appropriate here.
[AA.TR] Authorities found eight packages with explosives Monday that were intended for European recipients, a police spokeswoman confirmed.
The packages were identical to two sent last week to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble and to IMF offices in Gay Paree.
A local terrorist organization, Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, grabbed credit for the packages last week.
The eight found Monday were confiscated by authorities who located them at the Greek Post Office's distribution center in Kryoneri, Athens, police said.
Police have not yet announced who the recipients were but only that the packages were to be sent to European countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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[AA.TR] At least 20 Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels were reportedly killed in a failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! to attack government positions in Yemen’s northern Saada province near Saudi border, according to the Yemeni army.
Houthi forces of Evil on Sunday attempted to sneak into army positions in Souq al-Buqaa area in northern Saada, the army said in a statement cited by the pro-army September 26 website.
The statement cited a military source saying 20 Houthi rebels were killed when government forces aborted the attack.
"The militias sustained heavy losses," the source said.
There was no comment from the Shia Houthi group on the claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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#1
The Houthi rebels are supported by Iran. During the last Obama administration, a lucrative deal was penned with Iran. Do you suppose any of the Iran boodle found its way to the Houthis? Maybe cutting off arms to the Houthis was not part of the deal.
In 2003, the Houthi's slogan "God is great, death to the US, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam became the group's trademark." The usual unhinged diatribe and rantings.
The road from Jufra to Sebha has been blocked as the Libyan National Army (LNA) mounts an assault on the Tamenhint airbase held by the Misratan Third Force. Reports that the LNA were also advancing on Sebha were denied by the town’s mayor.
The Libyan air force carried out a series of air strikes in advance of the assault which is being led by General Mohamed Ben Nail. LNA sources have told this newspaper that armed forces commander-in-chief Khalifa Hafter has now deployed the 12th, 181th, 116th, 121th Brigades for the advance.
The mayor of Sebha, Hamed Rafeh, told the Libya Herald that his town had so far been unaffected by the attack, more than 30 kms north in Tamenhint.
Nonetheless, he said he would be happy to see the Third Force pull out, so long as the LNA present themselves as a fully-functioning, disciplined force capable of protecting Sebha’s population.
Unfortunately however a Turkish citizen was abducted today outside the PVC factory where he worked. According to Alwasat, the kidnappers demanded LD 20,000 which appears to have been paid very quickly, perhaps to quickly.
The gang then refused to release the man, who has not been named, and have instead demanded a new ransom of LD 200,000.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/21/2017
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A key Taliban group member who was involved in planting Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on roadsides has been jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by the Afghan cops.
The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), said the detained murderous Moslem has been identified as Sultan Mohammad who was covertly operating in the lovely provincial capital.
NDS further added that the murderous Moslem was arrested by the Special Forces of the Afghan intelligence from the vicinity of Kala Kot area.
According to NDS, the security forces also confiscated an Ak-47 rifle, 20 landmines, and several rounds of ammunition.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] An Arclight airstrike was carried out on a hideout of a prominent Taliban leader in eastern Laghman ...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a reputation for great wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government in a statement said the Arclight airstrike was carried out earlier today in the vicinity of Gul Aram located in Alingar district.
The statement further added that the forces of Evil have suffered casualties during the Arclight airstrike but the exact number has not been ascertained so far.
The Arclight airstrike was carried out by the Afghan Air Force, the statement said, adding that the Taliban leader whose hideout was hit has been identified as Nikmal.
According to the local officials, is a prominent Taliban leader who has involved in numerous terrorist related activities during the recent years.
Laghman has been among the relatively calm provinces since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 but the anti-government armed murderous Moslem groups have increased their insurgency in some parts of the province during the recent years.
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[ARA News] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday seized control of a train station in southeastern Raqqa city, military sources reported.
The progress followed heavy clashes between the US-backed SDF troops and Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants.
Dozens of ISIS militants were killed or injured in the clashes on Monday, according to officials.
The station, located in the Qasta al-Sukun district, was used by ISIS as a military base.
“Liberating the train station was another victory for our forces against this radical group,” SDF officer Habun Osman told ARA News.
Also on Monday, the SDF alliance drove ISIS out of the Jarqa town–20km east of Raqqa.
In early March, the SDF troops seized control of a main road that was used by Islamic State’s jihadists as a supply line between the cities of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa–the group’s de facto capital in Syria.
This comes as part of the third phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation, aimed at liberating Eastern Raqqa from ISIS jihadists, launched by the SDF on 4 February.
During the first phase of Euphrates Wrath, which began on November 6, 2016, the SDF liberated roughly 560 km² in Northern Raqqa.
On 10 December, the SDF launched the second phase of the Euphrates Wrath, during which it captured over 2500 km² in Western Raqqa.
The campaign is ultimately aimed at isolating the ISIS radical group in its de facto capital.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[RUDAW.NET] The Kurdish flag has been officially raised by the provincial government alongside the Iraqi one in the province of Kirkuk.
"Today, the Kurdish flag will be raised alongside the Iraqi flag," Kirkuk governor Najmaldin Karim said on Monday during a Newroz event.
"Kurdistan’s flag is not only the flag of the Kurds. It is the flag of all the social makeup of Kirkuk. We tell those who want to instigate chaos: this flag is that of the Arabs and Turkmen, as well as the Kurds. It is the flag of Kurdistan which is a place for everyone."
"Kirkuk has always proved to be united against ISIS and all other terrorists," Karim added.
The flag was raised at Kirkuk’s castle. This is the first time the Kurdish flag has been raised at the castle by a government official.
Karim announced last week that Kurdish language would be used together with Arabic in all official provincial communication and the Kurdish flag would be flown at provincial government institutions, as permitted in the Iraqi constitution.
According to Article 4 of the Iraqi constitution, "Each region or governorate may adopt any other local language as an additional official language if the majority of its population so decides in a general referendum."
The Iraqi prime minister’s office is of the opinion that Kirkuk does not have the authority to raise the Kurdish flag.
"The constitution has clearly stipulated the powers of provincial governments and those of the federal government in Baghdad. The powers of governorates which belong to no region are also specified. Kirkuk is one of these governorates," Saad Adisi, spokesperson for the prime minister’s office, told Rudaw.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Hope it gave Yippy the shivers
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/21/2017 10:21
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The noose around ISIS is tightening in its urban strongholds of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and Raqqa, and reports have emerged that the group’s leadership has relocated to Syria’s eastern desert region from the Deir ez-Zur area to across the border with Iraq, along on the Euphrates River.
"As ISIS is being squeezed out of Mosul and isolated from Raqqa they are centered largely along the Euphrates River valley, ranging from Raqqa all the way down through Deir ez-Zor, Mayadin, Abu Kamal, and then over into al-Qa'im in Iraq," the press office of the US-led global anti-ISIS coalition told Rudaw English by email. "That is probably their largest concentration of forces."
"We also believe there is a pocket of ISIS fighters there that may grow as they realize they cannot safely re-enter Raqqa and have no ability to get into Mosul in large numbers without encountering Iraqi security forces screening them."
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have also noted movement of ISIS leadership out of Raqqa. On March 10, the spokesperson for the SDF’s campaign to liberate Raqqa, Cihan Shekh Ahmed, stated that they had information the leadership of ISIS had left the city.
Her comments came a couple of days after the SDF cut the main route between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zur, located about 125 kilometres down the Euphrates River, as part of their campaign to oust the bad boy group from its de facto capital.
The assault on the urban centre of Raqqa is expected to be launched within a couple of weeks, in early April.
"Regarding the decision to liberate Raqqa and storm it, the matter is decided and at the start of the month of April the military operation will begin," Sipan Hemo, commander in the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), told Rooters last week. The YPG is one of the groups fighting ISIS under the SDF banner in northern Syria.
The SDF is coordinating with the Deir ez-Zur Military Council in its current campaign to isolate Raqqa. The local military council will progress on the city from the east, the SDF stated in February, announcing their partnership.
"By this means we will not only give the people of Raqqa the news of liberation, but also the people of Deir ez-Zur."
ISIS is not in full control of Deir ez-Zur city. The Syrian army controls portions, including an airbase in the south of the city, and the two clash regularly.
On Saturday, the Syrian army advanced against ISIS in the south of Deir ez-Zur, taking control over two positions, state-run SANA reported. The army also fought off an ISIS attack on the southwest of the city, according to the same news agency.
Saturday’s festivities come after ISIS reportedly launched a "broad offensive" against the Syrian army earlier in the week in the vicinity of the city’s airbase and areas south of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
SANA reported that ISIS’ attack on the airbase had been successfully fought off.
The province of Deir ez-Zur is strategically important as it is home to Syria’s largest oil deposits, which have been major sources of income for ISIS. The region has "the most fertile oil and gas fields" left under ISIS control that the group is able to exploit, the coalition’s press office stated.
The coalition has carried out regular Arclight airstrikes in the Deir ez-Zur area, mainly targeting ISIS oil infrastructure and equipment.
The city of Deir ez-Zur had a pre-war population of 211,000, mainly Arab with small Kurdish, Armenian, and Assyrian populations.
The desert around the city contains many mass graves of Armenians killed during the 1915 genocide. It was designated "the destination point and final killing centre of the Armenian deportees," the Armenian National Institute states on its website. "Those who survived the death marches were brought to the desert of Der Zor and murdered in this area."
A memorial was built to the victims, opening in 1990 inside the Armenian Holy Martyrs Church in Deir ez-Zur. On September 21, 2014, Armenian Independence Day, ISIS holy warriors blew up the church, the news outlet Armenia Now reported at the time.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Federal Police command said Monday its troops resumed advances towards a strategic mosque in western Mosul as operations continue to clear the region from Islamic State militants.
The command said its forces proceeded towards Al-Hadbaa (leaning) Minaret at the Grand Nuri al-Kabir Mosque, where Islamic State’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered a famous sermon in 2014 proclaiming the establishment of an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq.
The statement said forces had killed 36 Islamic State members and destroyed 13 booby-trapped vehicles.
Inclement weather over the past few days had added to the difficulties facing Iraqi troops eyeing the Old City, a strategic target where the mosque is located. The area’s narrow alleyways and the density of the civilian population therein had prompted Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition troops to rely solely on precision air and artillery strikes without advancing on the ground.
Iraqi government troops recaptured eastern Mosul in January and are working to retake the western side of the city, making a remarkable progress by recapturing major government facilities, the city’s airport and a major military base.
Operations in Mosul have displaced more than 200.000 civilians since October, according to Iraqi government and United Nations counts. Google Map at the link 3 ISIS members shot to death in western Mosul
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Unknown individuals attacked a vehicle driven by Islamic State militants in western Mosul and killed all on board, an Iraqi security official said Monday.
Anadolu Agency quoted Cap. Abdul-Karim al-Lami, from the Interior Ministry’s intelligence unit, saying the attackers shot at the militants’ pickup truck in al-Najjar area, killing all on board and setting fire to the vehicle before fleeing away.
According to Lami, Islamic State members, boarding more than 12 vehicles, arrived to the scene of the attack, cordoning the area off and carrying the corpses away. He added that the militants searched civilians’ homes and arrested 32 young men, taking them to an unknown destination.
Iraqi government troops launched a major offensive in February to retake western Mosul from Islamic State militants. The troops recaptured the eastern side of IS’s largest stronghold in Iraq in January.
Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said in statements on Monday that his forces, fighting militants in western Mosul’s densely-populated and-structured Old City, was relying on drones as well as “internal revolutionary detachments” to “hunt Daesh(Islamic State) militants and destroy its defenses without causing harm to civilians or public and private property.”
Since operations launched in October 2016 to retake Mosul, occasional news reports spoke about attacks and assassinations of IS members by unknown assailants at areas under the extremist group’s control, arousing doubts about whether some indignant civilians started to voluntarily take arms against militants.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Airstrikes by Iraqi fighter jets and offensives by infatry divisions killed 67 Islamic State militants west of Mosul on Monday, according to the Ministry of Defense.
Airstrikes targeted IS locations in Al-Mazraa, Tal al-Banat and Toula Bash in Tal Afar and Sinjar, according to the ministry. The strike killed 47 militants and also destroyed five booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the group.
Infantry divisions also killed 20 IS members in Tal Afar, according the ministry.
Iraqi government troops launched a major offensive in February to retake western Mosul from Islamic State militants. The troops recaptured the eastern side of IS’s largest stronghold in Iraq in January.
Earlier on Monday, the Iraqi Air Force said in a statement it killed 2200 Islamic State fighters since operations launched to retake western Mosul.
Iraqi government forces have made remarkable victories over IS in western Mosul, retaking major government facilities, Mosul’s Airport and a major military camp. They are currently setting eyes on recapturing the Old City, which hosts the Grand Nuri Mosque where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate in Iraq.
Iraqi security commanders have claimed retaking a half of the western side of the city. Google Map at the link 5 ISIS suspects detained in Mosul
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A police officer revealed on Monday, that security forces arrested five civilians, on charges of supporting the Islamic State group, while started to issue permits for people who like to leave the city of Mosul.
Captain Amir Wathiq said in a press statement that police forces arrested five civilians, on charges of supporting to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, in the liberated areas in central Mosul.
Furthermore, security forces issued permits for people who like to want to leave the city of Mosul, toward Baghdad or Kurdistan Region, Wathiq added.
Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul, in addition to capturing the last stronghold of the Islamic State in the city.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) An officer in the elite Counter-Terrorism forces announced on Monday, that security forces stormed into al-Najifi Street, in central Mosul.
Major Ali Mohsen said in a press statement that troops of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) stormed into al-Najifi Street, in central Mosul.
Violent battles are currently taking place between security forces and members of the Islamic State terrorist group in the street, Mohsen added.
Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul, in addition to capturing the last stronghold of the Islamic State in the city.
[ARA News] Militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Monday captured nine Iraqi security officers west of Mosul city, in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh Governorate.
“After fierce clashes in Western Mosul, Daesh terrorists took nine police officers, including a colonel, as captives,” the Iraqi Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
The officers were reportedly captured by ISIS after running out of ammunition during the clashes.
“The operation took place in the Bab al-Jadid neighbourhood in western Mosul, where ISIS was able to prevent the Iraqi forces from advancing into its final stronghold in the key city,” head of Nineveh media centre Raafat al-Zarari told ARA News.
In the meantime, more than 180,000 Iraqi civilians have escaped Western Mosul over the past few days amidst escalating violence in the area.
#1
So Napolitano relays info he heard from someone who says he heard (what exactly?) it from people who are supposed to be in a position to know?
Oh dear
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/21/2017 0:19
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#2
It's a bit more coherent than that, European Conservative.
Under intel sharing agreements, GCHQ has direct access to the *content* of communications between US citizens and foreigners. That access does not require a US FISA court warrant.
The allegation is that GCHQ personnel flowed the contents of communications by Trump campaign personnel and perhaps Trump himself back to US investigators.
The connecting dots might be the op info report created by a former GCHQ insider, and to which the FISA court application in October apparently referred. It is highly unusual for a FISA warrant application to be based on a commercially procured report created as campaign opposition material. But if in fact that report was seeded by GCHQ leaks, its use was more understandable.
And of course the publicly quoted portions of that report turned out to be inaccurate on demonstrable facts, such as whether Trump advisors travelled to certain countries and met with certain people.
(Reuters) Intense clashes took place in Damascus early on Monday as the army counter-attacked rebels who had advanced in the northeast of the Syrian capital on Sunday, a war monitor said.
A Syrian military source said on Monday that the army had recaptured all the positions it had lost on Sunday.
A Reuters witness said that warplanes were active above Damascus early in the day and that some streets in government-held areas near the fighting had been closed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor that collects information from a network of sources across Syria, said heavy fighting continued around the Jobar and al-Qaboun districts in the northeast of the city.
Rebels had attacked in Jobar to relieve military pressure after their recent loss of ground in nearby Qaboun and Barza, a commander from the Failaq al-Rahman group which is fighting there said on Sunday.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his army, along with allied Russian, Iranian and Shi’ite militia forces, have put rebels on the back foot with a steady succession of military victories over the past 18 months, including around Damascus.
Rebels still hold a large, heavily populated enclave in the Eastern Ghouta district of farms and towns to the east of the capital, as well as some Damascus districts in the south, east and northeast of the city.
The most recent fighting has focused on the areas around Qaboun and Barza, which the army has isolated from the rest of the main rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta and the eastern districts of Damascus
BEIRUT: Syrian warplanes hammered opposition-held neighborhoods of Damascus on Monday after regime forces pushed back a surprise assault that saw opposition try to fight their way into the city center.
The opposition, led by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh Al-Sham Front, launched an attack early Sunday on regime positions in east Damascus, initially scoring key gains.
But forces loyal to President Bashar Assad drove them back by nightfall and began a fierce bombing campaign on Monday morning.
“There have been intense air strikes since dawn on opposition-held positions in Jobar from which the offensive was launched,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The government and allied forces have retaken the initiative and are striking the groups that launched yesterday’s assault,” he added.
Abdel Rahman said it was unclear whether regime forces or their Russian allies were carrying out Monday’s raids on Jobar.
Control of Jobar — which has been a battleground for more than two years — is divided between the opposition and the regime.
On Sunday, opposition fighters seized several buildings in Jobar before advancing into the neighboring Abbasid Square area — the first time in two years that the opposition had advanced so close to the capital’s center.
The clashes left dead at least 26 regime forces and 21 opposition and jihadists, Abdel Rahman said, but he did not have an immediate toll for Monday morning’s air strikes.
Sniper fire and air strikes were heard across the city on Sunday as civilians cowered inside their homes and schools announced they would close because of the violence.
But by Monday, the front line had been pushed back, and AFP correspondents said activity in the typically bustling Abbasid Square was returning to normal levels.
Airplanes could still be heard circling above but many of the roads that had been sealed off by army troops the previous day were reopened.
According to the Observatory, regime forces managed to recapture most of the territory overrun by the opposition in their assault.
Opposition forces still controlled several key points in an industrial zone lying between Jobar and the besieged northeastern district of Qabun to the north, according to the Britain-based monitor.
State news agency SANA said Syrian regime troops were targeting opposition bases around Jobar on Monday.
“The military operations north of Jobar targeted the areas from which the terrorists set out, and a large number of them were killed,” it said.
The Islamist Faylaq Al-Rahman opposition group and the Fateh Al-Sham Front — known as Al-Nusra Front before it renounced its ties to Al-Qaeda — have a presence in Jobar.
Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against Assad’s rule but has morphed over the years into a complex civil war.
More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more have been displaced by the conflict.
Syrian army restored on Monday control over all points infiltrated by terrorists a day earlier the in the outskirts of Jobar neighborhood, east of Damascus city.
Military source said that army units launched a counterattack on Nusra Front terrorists in which it secured the factories region north of Jobar, Hezbollah’s Military Media Center reported.
The operation was decisive and accurate in which army units targeted the points which the terrorists infiltrated the area through, the source added, hailing the swiftness of the offensive as well as the cooperation between the military units.
Meanwhile, the source confirmed that the army crushed all of the infiltrating terrorists, including commanders and foreigners.
The source also said that the army units took control of Abbasiyeen area, north of Jobar as well as the power plant, textile industry and the surrounding buildings.
Source: Hezbollah Military Media Center
Posted by: badanov ||
03/21/2017
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] During two recent occasions, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah spoke of two creations: the theory of a "divine miracle" in Syria and the advice of "developmental miracle" to resist rivals!
One of these was televised as Nasrallah delivered his address during a ceremony held on Saturday to commemorate the birth anniversary of Fatima Zahraa. The other occasion was not televised but its content was published by Lebanese media outlets. During this latter occasion, which was held on Friday evening, Nasrallah met with members of the education department in Hezbollah.
During this meeting, which aims to frame young men’s thinking, teach them partisanship and mobilize them, Nasrallah described the scene of his party, the country that supports it, Iran, and their ally Bashir al-Assad as a scene that reflects a "divine miracle."
It seems Nasrallah is fond of godly terms. His party’s name is Hezbollah ‐ the Party of God. He describes his festivities with Israel as "divine victory." As for the "crime" which he, Iran, Assad, ISIS, al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front and even Kurdish militias in support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party committed, he describes it as a "divine miracle."
Exaggerating infallibility
Such an approach reflects exaggerating infallibility as godly terms are used to describe human behavior, which are close to a "demonic miracle," to say the least. This is more so considering their catastrophic results on civil peace and their role in nurturing the sectarian and tense atmosphere in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
During the ceremony, Nasrallah spoke about the funds which Arab countries spent and said this money could have saved the Syrian people from the crimes, which in fact he and his sponsor Iran and their friend Assad, committed. He spoke about hundreds of billions and then lamented and said: "This money could have saved Somalia and Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... of famine, built houses for Paleostinians in Gazoo, provided job opportunities and ended illiteracy."
He speaks as if Hezbollah is a developmental organization that protects peace and the environment, works to stop global warming and encourages clean and vegetarian diets when in fact it’s a terrorist group with activities across countries.
The icon of Khomeini’s mobilization in the Arab world, Nasrallah, stated that the "axis of the resistance will not be defeated but will win in Syria, Iraq and Yemen." Congratulations! But does this promise that his group will win in Yemen include shelling the Kofal military camp during Friday prayers using two Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... "resistance" missiles and killing 34 and injuring 100 others?
I gave this example because this happened around the same time as his recent televised address and his "religious" educational gathering with Hezbollah’s youth. There are many other shameful examples to his party’s practices.
Truth, however, is opposite to Nasrallah’s illusions. The Khomeini republic’s current situation is not at its best considering the recent American awakening the recent manifestations of which include designating the Saraya al-Ashtar organization as a terrorist organization.
Oh man, fear God.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
IMI been looking for a name for their new bunker-busting bomb.
And they're both theater critics -- it all makes sense now!
Insert Ace Ventura gif here.
[NYMag] No Sympathy for the Hillbilly:
Democrats need to stop trying to feel everyone’s pain, and hold on to their own anger.
[Hurriyet]. Three suspects allegedly linked to the slain perpetrator of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack on a Christmas market in Berlin last year have been apprehended at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, Turkey’s Interior Ministry announced on March 20.
Police caught Lebanese-origin German citizen suspects, identified as Mohammad Ali Khan, Youssef Darwiche and Bilal Yosef Mahmoud, at Istanbul’s main airport upon intelligence that they would try to go to Europe, the ministry stated.
A truck plowed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital on Dec. 19, 2016, killing 12 people and wounding 49 others.
The jihadist group had claimed responsibility for the truck rampage one day later.
The suspects’ apprehension comes one week after police in the western province of İzmir caught an ISIL militant who allegedly ordered the attack.
The Jordanian-origin German man, identified only by the initials W.D., had arrived in Turkey via illegal means to cross into Greece after the attack. He was suspected of giving the order of the attack to Tunisian-origin ISIL militant Anis Amir, who was killed in Milano and subsequently arrested.
According to examinations of Amir’s phone, some suspected names were in Turkey.
On March 11, a Syrian-origin ISIL suspect, identified only by the initials M.A.K., was also believed to be in İzmir and was caught in a raid on the hotel where he was staying.
M.A.K. said he arrived in İzmir to cross into Greece and was reportedly planning to stage attacks in Europe.
He was also arrested pending trial by a Turkish court on March 20.
Previously, two other suspects had been apprehended in Istanbul after police established their connections with Amir and they were later arrested.
Separately, the ministry announced on March 20 that some 24 militants were “neutralized” during security operations over the past week, with 13 of them were killed and the other 11 surrendered to security forces.
The ministry said in a statement that it conducted 230 operations against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, detaining a total of 999 suspects in one week on charges of aiding and abetting the organization.
It also added that some 70 ISIL suspects were detained in the operations.
Another 28 Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) suspects and 28 others linked to leftist terror organizations were also detained, it stated.
In the southeastern and eastern provinces of Batman, Bingöl, Ağrı, Diyarbakır, Şırnak and Tunceli, 21 shelters and caves used by PKK militants were also destroyed, according to the statement.
Security forces also seized 65 different models of weapons - 34 of them heavy and long-barrel firearms - 15 grenades and 19 improvised explosive devices.
In addition, two PKK militants were killed on March 20 during a security operation in the Lice district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, according to the Diyarbakır governor.
“With two more terrorists killed this morning, the number of terrorists killed as risen to eight,” Governor Hüseyin Aksoy told journalists.
On March 19, two soldiers, who were seriously wounded during the ongoing operations, succumbed to their injuries while six PKK militants were also killed.
Gendarmerie Captain Fuat Oğuzcan and Gendarmerie Specialized Corporal Zinnur Ezim were later sent to their hometowns on March 20 to be laid to rest.
Security forces have been conducting broad operations against the PKK in the Lice, Kulp, and Hani districts since March 5.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles ||
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MOSUL: Daesh militants are forcing young men in western Mosul to fight for them in defense of the remaining pockets of their former stronghold against an Iraqi government assault, fleeing residents and Iraqi officers said on Monday.
The forced recruitment is a sign that the hard-line terrorists are growing more desperate as the battle for what was once the de facto capital of their self-proclaimed caliphate enters its sixth month.
Elite Federal Police and Rapid Response units on Monday resumed their cautious advance on Al-Nuri Mosque in western Mosul’s Old City. But thousands of people took advantage of the fog and rain in the early morning to flee Daesh-controlled areas and reach the safety of government lines.
The militants were using residents as human shields, hiding in houses and forcing young men to fight, several refugees said.
Ali, a former government worker, said he had hidden his sons in a basement when Daesh fighters came looking for recruits.
“It feels like the siege is ending. All they are doing now is defending,” he told Reuters. “I hid my sons in the basement and told them if you want my sons you will have to kill me.”
Yassin, a butcher who also escaped from the west side, said Daesh held less ground than before.
“They would come to my butcher shop looking for people so people stayed away. People even stopped going to the mosque because sometimes they would come to take people from there to join the fighting,” he said.
Residents who had left said Iraqi, Syrian and other foreign militants remaining in the area tried to make them stay.
“A French militant beat me and threatened me to force me to stay,” said one woman who gave her name as Um Tahseen.
A Federal Police intelligence officer, Capt. Ali Al-Kinani, said the militants wanted to fill up their ranks as they had suffered heavy casualties.
Some fighters were wearing civilian clothes under their uniforms and would switch outfits to mix in with fleeing civilians, he said.
“We arrested dozens who said that they were forced by Daesh to carry arms or take a bullet in the head if they refused,” Al-Kinani said.
“Many families that fled the fight asked our troops to help their sons. Some young men hiding inside their houses are still waiting for our forces to secure their neighborhoods and rescue them.”
Meanwhile, Daesh captured an Iraqi police colonel and eight other officers in western Mosul after they ran out of ammunition Monday morning, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. The officers were caught around 3 a.m. in Bab Jadid district in Mosul. It was unclear where the officers were, the official said.
Separately, world donors pledged more than $75 million Monday to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven destruction carried out by Daesh militants.
French President Francois Hollande, speaking at a donors’ conference in the Louvre Museum in Paris, said the goal for the heritage fund is $100 million and urged other countries around the world to contribute.
France is pledging $30 million for the fund and Saudi Arabia is committing $20 million, according to the French Culture Ministry. The UAE has promised $15 million, Kuwait $5 million, Luxembourg $3 million, Morocco $1.5 million and philanthropist Thomas Kaplan pledged $1 million.
Switzerland pledged further money in administrative and legal support and will host the fund in Geneva. Italy said it would provide military personnel and conservation experts.
Daesh militants have stolen or destroyed a host of cultural artifacts, including the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, the Mosul museum in Iraq and the 13th century B.C. Assyrian capital of Nimrud, which is also in Iraq.
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
6 months! Lasting longer than reconquest of Stalingrad! And Daesh ain't the Wehrmacht!But then again the 'good guys' aren't led by Zhukov & Chuikov. What gives?
[DAWN] PAKISTAN High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit has made a sensible and timely observation: important as the terrorism issue is to bilateral ties, there are other matters of equal importance that deserve to be focused on and therefore dialogue needs to be revived at the earliest.
The high commissioner’s remarks came on a day that the BJP shocked India with its nomination of a controversial, hard-line Hindu priest to the post of chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state. The reaffirmation of a message of constructive dialogue on Pakistain’s part at a time when India may be lurching further to the political right is necessary; the stakes are simply too high for India and Pakistain to drift into a new era of turbulent relations.
The high commissioner’s remarks, then, are a welcome reminder that right- thinking individuals in both countries are continuing to dwell on the need for dialogue and not jettisoning the shared experience of the past seven decades, which has proved that while dialogue is difficult to initiate and even harder to sustain, it is the only realistic option.
Consider the so-called low-hanging fruit that Mr Basit referred to: Sir Creek and Siachen. Sir Creek in particular was once regarded as an agreement within reach -- a border and maritime dispute that can be resolved by technical teams, if the political will to do so exists.
Similarly, the mindless stand-off in Siachen, more than three decades old and a growing environmental concern, could be resolved in a manner that satisfies both the military and politicianships in both countries. But the freezing of dialogue has stalled all progress, in disputes small and large. And in the case of Siachen, there is a sense that the intransigence of the Indian military and its growing influence in the national security and foreign policy domains have effectively cancelled the low-hanging-fruit status of the Siachen dispute. Unhappily, the absence of dialogue is allowing other factors to intervene and make historical and already complicated disputes even more complex.
The revival of political will to engage in dialogue is the obvious starting point.
Having established his party as the dominant political force in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an opportunity to pivot and return to the path of dialogue with Pakistain. Mr Modi also now has the benefit of greater experience -- the unexpected return to dialogue and the unveiling of the so-called comprehensive dialogue process with additional baskets in late 2015 was a commendable effort, but was not adequately militancy-proofed. The subsequent Pathankot attack caused a rupture where more experienced and committed dialogue partners may have found a way to sustain the process.
Almost a year and a half later, with Pakistain having taken a few steps against India-centric murderous Moslem groups and large-scale counterterrorism operations under way across the country, the dialogue process can be restarted in a more conducive environment.
Posted by: Fred ||
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An example of what you consider to be humor when you start to believe your own bullsh*t...
Via Gerard Van der Leun
Apparently I got taken in by some satire. My bad.
I don’t mean to sound conceited, No, no, certainly not!
but my obvious mental acuity Thanks for explaining that, Herr Adjunct...
makes me an easy target for some autocratic tyrant’s curb-stomping goon squad. The tyrant Obama is gone
What I’m saying is if a ruthless dictator were to strong-arm his way into the White House and decree that intellectuals be exterminated lest they pose a threat to the ruling fascist regime, I would, like, totally be murdered. I mean look at me! I’m an adjunct professor at Florida State University! Your understanding of the role of a Constitutionally elected American president is staggering. And it's clear why FSU is better known for its football and synchronized swimming teams... Professor of what? Does it involve math? Sure, technically I’m a part-time lecturer and not a professor, but seeing as how no one in my family gets that, a roving gang of far-right street thugs won’t request my full job title and last pay stub before bashing in my skull with a mini-bat. The only "roving gang of far-right street thugs" in America are those hired by democrats in the 2016 general election to break up political rallies, or criminal gangs. You seem to have either forgotten that, or ignored it. The thugs in American political life in the last eight years have come from the left. The only brutality shown has been from the left whenever they have tried to pin it on the right.
So what if my brother-in-law the auto mechanic can afford to take his family on vacation and doesn’t have to subsist on day-old bread for the summer? I bet a fascist will never try to crush his windpipe. Your brother in law produces for the economy and enjoys the fruits of his labors as he should. Besides, he is likely a tough hombre who is armed.
When you think about it, I might be the only one intellectual enough at FSU to pose a real threat to an autocratic administration. I’m certainly the most murderable person on this campus. Way more murderable than my goody two-shoed colleague, Jennifer. So, you're an iconoclast in your own mind. No one gives a f*ck.
In a sense, I can understand why they would want to kill me. Boring people are killed all the time, at least in the minds of others... Not for their politix, but because they're stultifying.
The fascists likely would have a dossier of my many pointed comments on The Atlantic’s website, or they would dig up a receipt from my recent $32 contribution to the ACLU as evidence that I am a cerebral force of powerful dissent and must be neutralized. Or maybe they’d murder me just because of my sharp-looking, clear-framed eyewear. Until this moment, I never realized what it meant to read something and to become dumber for the experience. What comes before hubris? It’s easy to imagine how the fascists would come for me. Jackbooted stormtroopers would descend upon the university, scanning the student body for the best and brightest FSU has to offer, only to find yours truly as worthy of their ire. Nah, I think you're safe from the brownshirts and snowflakes. Unless you quote Foucault incorrectly...
They’d probably look right past Jennifer even though she was recently asked by the university to come on full-time. Instead they’d track me down in my office of the main campus in a basement of the engineering building annex. The Department of Deconstructionist Engineering?
Or if it’s a Monday, Tuesday, or Friday evening, the on-campus Starbucks where I sometimes hold office hours. Then they’d pluck me out of the crowd and pound my smart face and brain into ground chuck before hauling me away to a black site prison. You should be beaten for the abject vapidity of this missive.
The fascist’s would choose ME! I mean, wow! Wouldn’t it be truly something? Something would be a persecution complex that is common to all leftists. Is it just me, or is he not huddling in the closet of his basement office being really, really scared Horst Wessel is looking for him?
I mean, scary. Yeah, of course — it would be a scary vision of the possible future of America. Not even close to the American future. Only if the progressives win do the adjuncts go to prison...
All I’m saying is, if fascists wanted to kill us intellectuals, I don’t think Jennifer would have to worry. She doesn’t even wear glasses!
Anyway, getting back to that horrifying vision — the fascists would probably scream something like, “You look like you should hold a tenure-track position. Come with us!” Or, “If only the FSU employment search committee could see you now!” Maybe they would say it loud enough for everyone to hear. Who knows? This individual teaches other adults. And writes articles that are supposed to be humorous, but instead exposes how utterly immoral the writer really is. He's reminding me more of Eichmann and the banality of evil...
Then I’d be dragged through the quad as onlookers, possibly including Little Miss Full-Time Faculty, stood powerless to do anything other than silently agree that I am their intellectual superior. Get help, or start drinking. Heavily. Ever think there was a reason why Jennifer was promoted instead of you, pal? Perhaps she both speaks and writes in complete sentences?
I wonder if I’m smart enough to be buried alive in an unmarked grave? I wonder if your peers are wishing it had already been done...
Maybe they’d even tie a rope to my feet and drag my corpse through the street as a warning to agitators! Everyone would see it, even my brother-in-law. “That guy must have been way smart to get all this! I guess he wasn’t a loser, after all.” he’d say. Alternately, perhaps he'd be free to start arranging dates for his sister, your widow...
It’d be awful, of course. Being murdered, I mean. That part would be awful. But man oh man, what a ride it’d be! If this isn't satire it should be.
#1
It's McSweeney's - sort of an intellectual version of The Onion crossed with wreckage washed up from The Atlantic magazine. Which is not to say there aren't people who think like this, Gawd help us all.
[IsraelTimes] Amaq news agency reports Israeli planes hit jihadist group near Rafah on Thursday.
Israeli jets bombed Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... targets in the Sinai Peninsula Thursday, killing several people, including two children, the jihadist group’s official news outlet claimed Saturday.
Good! Keep it up, Moishe!
The Amaq news agency report said that Israeli planes struck the targets in the northern Sinai, near the cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid.
There was no independent confirmation of the report.
The reported Arclight airstrike came the same day Israeli Air Force jets struck two Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", installations in the north of Gazoo in response to rocket fire from the territory at Israeli communities. In that incident a rocket 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.
Two rockets were launched from the Strip Saturday morning. One rocket went kaboom! near the city of Ashkelon, north of Gazoo, causing no casualties or damage. The second apparently fell inside Paleostinian territory.
The Israel Defense Forces responded with tank fire and air strikes at several Hamas targets in the Strip. There were no reports of casualties.
Hamas, the terror group that rules Gazoo, has largely refrained from firing rockets into Israel since it fought a devastating war with Israel in 2014. Launches have often been ascribed to radical Salafist groups associated with the Islamic State.
Still, Israel has routinely responded by striking Hamas targets, with the military saying it holds Hamas responsible for any attacks emanating from the territory it controls.
#1
Hey, it's not like ISIS didn't put a target on their backs with their brutality. There was no independent confirmation of the report bombings. Write off to ISIS propaganda--if Israel did do it, good on Israel.
[Wash Times] President Trump was not backing down Monday from his claim that the Obama administration "wiretapped" Trump Tower during the campaigning, despite the FBI director testifying that there was no evidence, said the White House.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said there were more congressional hearings to come and that all the information about government surveillance of the Trump campaign had not yet been revealed. He also said the president continued to have confidence in FBI Director James Comey.
Still, Mr. Spicer stressed that the hearing earlier Monday, where Mr. Comey testified before the House Intelligence Committee was "one in a series of hearings."
"I think there are a lot of areas that need to be covered," said Mr. Spicer. Mr. Trump has been criticized for leveling the charge on Twitter two weeks ago that President Obama ordered the "wiretapping."
#5
He was monitored, maybe not by the FBI or CIA or NSA but someone in the Obama administration monitored Trumps organization electronically.
Clinton knew too much about Trump's goings on and that is not by accident. Someone in the Obama administration was feeding her classified information.
This dick dance the FBI and the rest of the intel community is performing is obviously contrived. I would broaden the questioning to say "electronic surveillance" and see what happens...and don't let them use the plausible deniability phrase of "to the best of my knowledge"
And then put everyone of the media that publicized confidential information on Trump, etc., in jail, until they sing.
#6
I concur SPOD. I suspect the Secret Service tipped Trump off, he's pretty confident something was going on. The Secret Service could have demonstrated a counter-surveillance 'bug monitor.' They could have observed or detained someone employing a parabolic reflector. Just a couple of guesses.
[Breitbart] Monday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh maintained a House Intelligence Committee hearing that featured testimony from FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Michael Rogers was meant to send a message to President Donald Trump and his administration.
Limbaugh argued that although there were some good questions from Republicans members during the hearing, it was meant to be a warning shot at Trump -- allow Washington Republicans to run the town or face possible impeachment.
Partial transcript as follows (courtesy of RushLimbaugh.com):
These hearings today, what happened last week and the week before that, what happened during the transition period... What all of this is can be explained simply by saying, "Look at how terrified they are in the Washington-New York establishment, of Donald Trump and draining the swamp." The Never Trumpers on both sides of the aisle. There are conservative Never Trumpers today celebrating over the fact that Comey made it official that there’s an investigation of Trump and colluding with the Russians.
These people know that there isn’t any evidence of this, but that doesn’t matter. What everybody in Washington supports is the smearing, the slander, and the libel of Donald Trump. And these hearings today? The FBI director, James Comey, is trying to save the jobs of a lot of people. He’s trying to save the careers of a whole lot of people -- his included -- in, I think, an inappropriate way. And the Republicans in this committee? Look folks, I’ve been waiting. I’ve been patiently waiting. I’ve been trying to hold it, keep the powder dry. But the Republicans on this committee...
I know it’s early, and they’re gonna go on all day. But so far, outside of Trey Gowdy and a question from Peter King and Devin Nunes the chairman, there just hasn’t been much. For example, "Are you still investigating the Clinton Foundation, Director Comey?" "I can’t say." By the way, Comey said he got special permission to reveal this investigation. Who gave him that special permission? He said he went to the Department of Justice. Who’s over there? Who runs that? That it would be Jeff Sessions.
The Trump administration itself granted permission for Comey to announce this today. (interruption) Well, no. My point there is that there’s no attempted cover-up of anything going on there. The Trump administration could very well have said, Jeff Sessions could have said, "Comey, look, it’s just like you said last summer about Hillary: We don’t detail ongoing investigations." But he today was given permission to do just that, and he’s running with it. And the whole point of this today -- and, by the way, it doesn’t mean I’m not gonna go through this and give you what the real news of these hearings is today and what the backdrop of all this is.
Because there’s a really salient factor that’s driving this from the Democrat side that is never going to be reported or commented on, which I’m going to touch on myself today. But, as I say, the purpose of this is to further the narrative that Trump is illegitimate, that he should not be president, that his election was the result of tampering by the Russians. So the objective is that Trump either stops this reform business he’s got, stops this drain-the-swamp stuff, and starts letting the Washington Republicans run the town again, or they’re gonna impeach him.
That’s the message being sent today: "You either straighten up and fly right or you’re gone."
"We’re coming for you," is the message of these hearings today.
#2
Limbaugh argued that although there were some good questions from Republicans members during the hearing, it was meant to be a warning shot at Trump -- allow Washington Republicans to run the town or face possible impeachment.
Impeachment was never discussed in Washington during Obama's tenure. A Trump impeachment is not likely to happen--unless enough Republicans get on board with Democrats.
#3
Well, the Pubs do have enough votes by themselves to start an impeachment in the House (only if they want to see all hell break loose in flyover- land). Of course, the Donks would jump on board.
#5
Impeachment is in the interests of all Democrats and a significant number of Republicans: Trump's efforts to 'drain the swamp' seem credible and are a serious risk to the DC uniparty, who will grab any usable means of getting rid of him. Impeachment would be on the table, and I would not be surprised at 'suicide.'
#10
Trump is fighting the establishment dems, establishment pubs, the bureaucracy, the courts. They will game the system to protect their interests. The problem is that all these denizens of the swamp are on national suicide on the installment plan.
We do not have a swamp to drain. We have a malignant tumor to remove. How are we going to do that with what we have in power? President Trump is a patriot that is trying to prevent these so called elite from destroying the country. All they can think of is to keep the game going and the money and perks coming in. That is what tumors do.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/21/2017 19:50
Comments ||
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Texas is once again making life difficult for OPEC.
The Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico has emerged as the new poster boy of the U.S. shale oil revolution. Land prices in the Permian have skyrocketed, drilling activity has tripled since last year and production there is poised to soar despite cheap oil prices.
Some are even predicting this hotbed of shale activity could eventually surpass the colossal Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest oilfield.
The Permian's rise on the global stage couldn't come at a worse time for OPEC, which just last November cobbled together a delicate deal to deal with the oil glut by cutting production...
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/21/2017
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#2
"There's no doubt we've got too much oil. We're trying to figure out how to balance through that," Thummel said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/21/2017 7:36
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#3
Destroy OPEC? Many deserve destruction and some are on their way. OPEC members are: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, SA, UAE, and Venezuela. They have tried to screw the rest of the world for a long time.
Several grenade blasts were heard in Mogadishu on Monday evening,
...not clear how that differs from any other evening in Mogadishu...
targeting some military base in the northern of the capital.
Witnesses said the explosions happened near the defense ministry compound, which now house to hundreds of Somali and AMISOM forces. A heavy gunfire was heard following the blasts near the army barracks in Deynile district, and no casualty figures was reporter up until now.
Security force units had sealed off the area, and launched a manhunt for the suspects behind the grenade attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2017
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Footage has emerged of the moment a man was rubbed out on Saturday by French police after seizing a soldier’s gun at Gay Paree Orly airport in La Belle France.
The recording, which was made available on Monday, shows 39-year-old Ziyed Ben Belgacem approaching a French soldier from behind and the consequent struggle over the weapon.
The busy Orly airport south of Gay Paree was evacuated and security forces swept the area for bombs to make sure the dead man was not wearing an boom belt, but nothing had been found.
Around 3,000 passengers were evacuated from the airport at the time of the attack, the second busiest in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Dramatic video - nothing like what I imagined from the news reports...lots in the video to comment on:
- citizens just walking by and not assisting the soldier in trouble.
- the attack from behind on what appeared to be the tail end charlie.
- what appeared to be a successful conclusion though.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian government forces on Monday regained control of parts of Damascus that were attacked and captured by rebels and bully boyz the previous day, with the two-day fighting leaving dozens dead on both sides, the military and an activist group said.
The sudden rebel seizure of territory in the Syrian capital - and the manner in which the attack that took place overnight and into Sunday, with rebels sneaking into the city through underground tunnels and using boom-mobiles - reflected the turbans’ most serious infiltration into Damascus in years.
The Levant Liberation Committee, a coalition of several hard boy groups led by al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, and the independent Failaq al-Rahman faction spearheaded the blitz that caught the Syrian military off guard.
Insurgent groups have repeatedly over the past years tried to break the defenses of Damascus, Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... ’s seat of power. Sunday’s incursion, however, was the most serious since 2012, when rebels captured several Damascus neighborhoods before being crushed by government forces.
The rebel gains, though short-lived, came against the backdrop of months of steady losses at the hands of government forces across the country.
Sunday’s fighting centered on a government-held intersection of two besieged opposition enclaves, the Jobar and Qaboun neighborhoods. The ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... rebel faction said opposition fighters had "liberated" the area.
Syrian TV on Monday quoted an unnamed military official as saying the army "regained control of all the points that terrorists" had infiltrated on Sunday. It also quoted Russia’s ambassador to Damascus Alexander Kinshchak as saying one of the embassy’s buildings was hit with a shell during the festivities.
The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said the Syrian air force carried out more than 25 Arclight airstrikes on Jobar and nearby areas.
Leb’s al-Manar TV run by the hard boy Hezbollah group, which is fighting along Assad’s forces, reported that members of the elite Elite Republican Guards took part in a counteroffensive against turbans.
The TV reported live from Jobar around noontime Monday as cracks of gunfire and kabooms could be heard in the background of the footage.
The activist Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in all, 26 soldiers and pro-government gunnies were killed as well as 21 rebels. The Observatory said fighting was still underway Monday.
The government has been trying to pressure the rebels to surrender the pockets they hold in Damascus, following victories in the northern city of Aleppo, the central city of Homs and other Damascus suburbs.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017
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Top|| File under: al-Nusra
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.
[Breitbart] California Gov. Jerry Brown asked President Donald Trump on Sunday for federal emergency assistance for the fourth time in just two months since the new administration took office, putting the nascent "CalExit" movement in a difficult position.
The men and women who live and work in these border areas have come under attack again from drug cartels who have been blamed for thousands of murders in Mexico.
[Washington Standard] You see what happens when you start trading liberty for alleged security. Under George W. Bush, a full on unconstitutional federalization of airport security and subsequent violations of the Fourth Amendment that take place every single day in this country were passed following the 9/11 attacks. Now, the news is a buzz about Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Sobarkah’s wiretapping of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, but Project Dragnet records are now providing evidence that Donald Trump and his family were being illegally spied on by the National Security Agency (NSA) under President George W. Bush.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Fox News Channel has pulled legal analyst Andrew Napolitano from the air after disavowing his on-air claim that British intelligence officials had helped former President Barack Obama spy on Donald Trump.
[Ynet] A British court has disclosed that an 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 
[DAWN] Turkish President 
[AA.TR] At least 20 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] During two recent occasions, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah spoke of two creations: the theory of a "divine miracle" in Syria and the advice of "developmental miracle" to resist rivals!
Sure, technically I’m a part-time lecturer and not a professor, but seeing as how no one in my family gets that, a roving gang of far-right street thugs won’t request my full job title and last pay stub before bashing in my skull with a mini-bat.
It’s easy to imagine how the fascists would come for me. Jackbooted stormtroopers would descend upon the university, scanning the student body for the best and brightest FSU has to offer, only to find yours truly as worthy of their ire. 
Texas is once again making life difficult for OPEC.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
