The declassified information was compiled from open-source materials ranging from videos to on-the-ground accounts, geospatial intelligence, U.S. signals intelligence, and physiological samples from attack victims.
The attack came from Su-22 fixed-wing aircraft out of the Shayrat airfield hit in subsequent U.S. strikes, the report says; the planes were in the Khan Shaykhun area for 20 minutes before the first report of a chemical attack came in, and left soon after. The administration also has "information that suggest that personnel historically associated with the chemical weapons program were at Shayrat airfield in late March preparing for this attack," and these people were there again on the day of the attack.
The U.S. has confirmed the agent used in the attack was sarin, from testing on the victims and from symptom reports as well as "leakage around the actual weapon that we think the sarin came from." Emergency personnel suffered exposure symptoms from coming into contact with contaminated victims.
A hospital treating attack victims was struck by conventional weapons about six hours after the chemical attack.
On hoax theories, the White House official said the "absolute massive data we have in all the different vehicles -- we've gotten it from open-source videos, to victim accounts, to imagery, to signals intelligence, is just too massive for really any -- any intelligence organization to fabricate in that short a period of time; we just think that's not a feasible explanation." Intel agencies have confirmed that videos distributed of the attack were filmed at the time and in the locations claimed.
Havre resident Scott Dion felt he was getting screwed on his taxes.
So on Nov. 30, 2016, when he sent a property tax check into the Hill County Treasurer, he included a note on the memo line. It wasn't the first time he'd done this.
"I probably wrote something on the majority of my checks, and she's cashed them," Dion said, referring to Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown.
This time, he wrote "sexual favors" on the memo line. The check was otherwise normal -- a $745.77 payment made out to the county office.
But when the county didn't cash that check for months, Dion got a lawyer involved.
His lawyer, Jamie Young, sent a letter to the Hill County Treasurer on Feb. 23, saying that leaving the check uncashed violated the First Amendment as well as Montana law.
Young cited a state law that requires banks or financial institutions to report deposited public funds and another that requires county treasurers to log the payments. He wrote that not cashing Dion's check amounts to official misconduct and the treasurer should be prosecuted.
Young sent a follow-up letter to Hill County Attorney Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson on March 6.
"There is no exception under the law permitting Ms. Brown to refuse to perform her duties because she is offended by Mr. Dion's personal memo," Young wrote.
Brown, the county treasurer, said on Monday that she didn't know where Dion's check was at, though it was last with the county attorney.
Cole-Hodgkinson, the county attorney, wouldn't comment on Dion's situation specifically, though she said there is no current civil or criminal case related to the check scuffle.
She said that, in general, the treasurer can't cash a check if it isn't clear "what you want the funds applied to." Couldn't tell which county worker who buying the $exual favors the check applied to?
Dion said that aside from the memo, the rest of the check was normal, signed and made out to the county.
Montana Department of Revenue spokeswoman Christie Magill said that the state conducts assessments, but the tax collection is largely left to county treasurers.
Dion said that the property tax check hasn't yet been cashed. He plans to go through his bank records and pull previous checks with memos that have been cashed.
"The memo has nothing to do with them at all," he said. "Nothing."
Dion, who said he is a registered traveling nurse, added that for his first tax payment of 2016, he wrote "bulls--t" into the memo line. Dion said the county cashed that check.
#7
Good lord, *that* is a Supreme Court Justice speaking in that video?
Were she not already in a job-for-life position, is there another job that she would be convincing enough to hire? She *really* needs to consider retiring.
Senate Jester Minority Head Clown Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is trying to divert attention from Dem failures warning that President Trump needs to release his personal tax returns if he hopes to achieve comprehensive tax reform in the coming months.
"It's going to make tax reform much harder" if Trump doesn't release his returns, Schumer told reporters Tuesday. Anytime the president proposes something on tax reform, "the average American is going to say, 'Oh, he's not doing that because it's good for me, he's doing it because it's good for him.' So for his own good, he ought to make them public. And the big mystery is why he hasn't." Because it's good for him?
"I think he just has an obligation to come clean. When you clean up the swamp, it's not keeping things secret and applies to yourself," Schumer added. Like 0bean came clean on the courses he took and GPA he got at the college he went to, right?
Trump paid $38 million in federal income tax in 2005 on more than $150 million, for an effective rate of 25 percent, and reported a $105 million write-down, according to a copy of his federal tax return revealed last month.
The revelation provides the most recent glimpse at Trump's income. Last fall, the New York Times reported that Trump reported a massive $916 million loss in 1995, which enabled him to avoid paying income taxes for decades. Remind me which year that tax return was filed in, would you please?
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump's tax returns were a frequent subject of conversation, and opponents in both parties called on him to release them. Ultimately, Trump was the first presidential candidate in decades to win without making his tax returns public. Oh my. Perhaps the Donks could buy a clue here?
There is no legal obligation for a president to release his tax returns, and like any other citizen, they can opt to keep them private. But presidents dating back to the 1970s have released at least partial tax information in a show of transparency for voters.
Schumer said that part of the reason Democrats are eager to see Trump's returns is to determine whether Trump or his family's business empire have any conflicts of interest with the federal government or foreign powers.
"When China just released those 38 approvals for him a month ago, a natural question to ask is are they doing that because they're trying to win policy points related to American workers and the American people? No one knows the answer," he said. Except for HC Schumer, of course.
Schumer made his comments in a conference call with reporters held officially to criticize Trump's refusal so far to declare China a currency manipulator. The White House is days away from deciding whether to follow through on Trump's campaign pledge to declare China as such -- a move that could lead to new U.S. tariffs if China doesn't change its practices.
In a tweet Tuesday morning, Trump said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping "that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!"
I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2017
Asked to respond, Schumer agreed that China's currency manipulation and the current troubles in North Korea are linked "but in the opposite way of the president."
#1
These guys never let go of a meme. Two that come to mind are (1) The Russians rigged the election, and (2) Trump didn't release his tax returns. What's that definition of insanity again? What idjuts.
Cases of the parasite that can worm their way inside a human's head have risen significantly in Hawaii
HEALTH officials have issued an urgent warning about brain-invading worms capable of sneaking inside human skulls. It's through liberal ear canals.
Medics in Hawaii have been warning people not to touch snails or slugs with their bare hands as the beasts carry a parasite called rat lungworm.
In 200 years, there have only been two reports of rat lungworm infections on the island.
But in the past three months, six more cases have cropped up in close succession.
The parasite has also popped up in California, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida.
And now there are concerns that the rise in worm population ‐ which experts claim could be caused by climate change ‐ could spread globally.
Rat lungworm is a parasite which begins its life as an infection in rat’s blood, brains and lungs.
Rats defecate the worm’s larvae, which is then spread to snails, slugs and seafood.
Humans may eat one of the infected hosts and within weeks their brain could be invaded.
Once it lodges in the brain it can cause meningitis and symptoms including pain, swelling and tremors.
It is often fatal. Treatment involves removal of the brain. For liberals, the prognosis is good, with a 100% chance of recovery and return to their normal life.
Tricia Mynar, a resident of Maui and a preschool worker, told Honolulu Civil Beat: "The parasites are in the lining of my brain, moving around."
"Tremors are the hardest part," she said. "They affect me so badly that sometimes I can’t hear my own speech."
A report in the Maui News revealed how residents are terrified of catching the worm.
Kawika Kaina said that the culprit breed of slug had lived near their homes for years, but they figured the slugs were like any other snail.
It was only on receipt of a flyer from the Department for Health that he realised how serious the problem had become.
"It really did hit close to home. Just recently a lot of folks in Hana [Hawaii] have become more aware of it and a lot more people are finding it in their yard," he said.
Burning, smashing or even burying the worms have so far not successfully deterred rats from ingesting them and restarting the cycle.
And experts fear that deforestation and climate change could spread the disease further afield.
Brits will be spotting more slugs than ever, thanks to a breeding craze sparked by the warm weather.
#6
Cone snail toxin? Have never heard of that but your comment motivated me to look it up.
Conus geographus (a species of cone snail), is also known colloquially as the "cigarette snail", a gallows humor exaggeration implying that, when stung by this creature, the victim will have only enough time to smoke a cigarette before dying.
There are about 30 recorded instances of people being killed by cone snails — the mollusks are aggressive if provoked and can penetrate wetsuits with their sharp poison-loaded harpoons, which look like transparent needles. Human victims seem to suffer little pain, because the venom contains an analgesic component.
h/t Gates of Vienna
The former Ukip leader suggested Western leaders were "losing sight" by targeting the Syrian government instead of "Islamic terror" which poses a greater danger to the UK.
President Assad was slammed after he allegedly launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians, killing at least 72 people in northern Syria.
US President Donald Trump launched his own attack in retaliation, destroying a government airbase, which is said to be involved in the alleged attack, with 59 Tomahawk missiles.
However, speaking on Fox News, Mr Farage warned against targeting Assad and said the real danger to the West is terrorism.
He said: "Are we not losing sight of something else ‐ often in history, it is the case that my enemy’s enemy is my friend?
"However bad a man Assad is, he is actually fighting ISIS every single day.
"I believe that the biggest threat we face in the West is from Islamic terrorism ‐ and we really must not lose sight of that."
#1
p.s. Anybody has info on "Swedish Doctors For Human Rights"? Sound ultra left, but they agree with me that the chemical weapons strike was pure Pallywood.
#2
I'm still voting fake, too. Weird thing about it, as Scott Adams has pointed out, even if it was fake, there are some benefits (real and perceived) to whacking the airbase:
1) Trump is no longer Putin's bitch
2) Unlike Obama's red lines, Trump actually does stuff
3) It gets Pudgy's attention in NKor
4) It makes the Chinese interested in dealing with NKor in order to get a trade deal
Lottsa wins, but it still doesn't mean going into Syria is a good idea. We don't want to fight the Russians and there isn't anyone to replace Assad that won't be worse or trigger a bigger massacre/civil war. As the article says, terrorism is the problem.
#3
there isn't anyone to replace Assad that won't be worse or trigger a bigger massacre/civil war
Dude, isn't that the point, induce havoc in the region and allow the collapse? Is Syria really anything more than Turkey's southern border, a banker for Saddam's chem and bullion or a provider for the Lebs?
#5
I agree that ISIS should be the target. If Russia can get the chemicals away from Assad we should leave the guy alone and concentrate on ISIS. Then when they are smashed we should fall back to bases in the Kurdish area and let the region fight as they alway do, as they always will.
#7
You guys are crazy. This was not a fake sarin attack. This was the real deal, done by the Syrian Air Force.
The Islamic state is a temporary thing well designed to concentrate, discredit, and kill Islamo-fascists. Like Illinois-Nazis everyone hates them. And they will go away soon enough.
The Syrian government on the other hand will be around for almost ever. So, taking a moment to school them on not using chemical weapons is always a good opportunity.
[Mirror] Vladimir Putin joins forces with the demoncrats and
has sensationally claimed that the US is preparing airstrikes on the Syrian capital - and will pin the blame on Bashar-al Assad's forces.
The Russian leader made the astonishing claim - that the US is planning to FAKE chemicals weapons attacks - during a joint press conference with the Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
Putin insisted Russia would tolerate Western criticism of its role in Syria but hoped that attitudes would eventually soften.
But his claims that Russia has information strikes are being planned by the US on the southern Damascus region - the aim of which is to blame the resulting devastation on the subsequently discredited Syrian government - will not go down well in the White House.
When asked whether he expected more US missile strikes on Syria, Putin said: "We have information that a similar provocation is being prepared ... in other parts of Syria including in the southern Damascus suburbs where they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities of using (chemical weapons)."
He did not offer any proof for that claim however. Never stopped his useful idiots from spouting shit
Meanwhile it's emerged America's top diplomat is set to warn Russia to abandon its support for Syria's President Bashar Assad - insisting there is no future for his regime following the latest chemical weapons attack his own people.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is to hold talks in Moscow after a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Italy called on Russia to promote a "real and genuine" political process in Syria and to use its influence to end the country's bloody six-year civil war.
Following the gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there was now an opportunity for Russia's Vladimir Putin to "reset" relations with the West and to join the US-led coalition against Islamic State. And this time it won't include the idiotic "reset" button.
#3
I wonder if the Russians hacked Trump as well as Clinton?
Probably don't need to. NSA wiretaps Trump. Passes staff to Democrats. Russians hack Democrats.
That I meant is: I'm pretty sure the chemical attack was pure Pallywood - there is some support for my view (notice there are no swarms of international doctors flooding the purported attack site). But Russians know for sure. And, if a fake incident can cause USA intervention, then more fake incidents...
Sarin confirmed as the nerve agent used via testing on victims as well as symptoms. Secondary responders also suffered exposure symptoms.
Su-22s from Shayrat airfield dropped the sarin on Khan Shaykhun; conventional weapons were dropped about six hours later on hospital treating sarin victims - "no comment" from officials on if Russia did latter.
No ISIS or other terrorists in area have sarin (just mustard gas) - attack was "not a terrorist holding of sarin or a terrorist use of sarin"
WH official on if Russia, present at airfield, knew of sarin attack: "We don't have information on that per se... still looking into that." Adding: "We do think that it is a question worth asking" Russians how they were with Syrian forces at airfield "and did not have knowledge" of the attack in planning/prep stages.
"Leakage inconsistent" with Russians saying sarin came from opposition stocks on ground - "we don't see a building with that chemical residue"
On Syria hoax conspiracy theories: Body of evidence "too massive" for anyone to fabricate. Official added that videos released of attack did correspond with that date, time, location.
#7
It's the kind of claim you'd expect from a former mid-level member (and now leader) of the organization that pulled off Operation Infektion, blaming the CIA for creating the AIDS virus. If there's one thing you can rely on, it's lies from the Russian officialdom. What's amusing is that they not only pulled off the inside job of the Moscow apartment bombings to get a pretext to invade Chechnya a second time, they managed to convince a good chunk of the world that 9/11 was an inside job. If they channeled their talent for disinformation into more productive activities, they might eventually become something other than the petrostate of the north. Too bad that's not on the agenda.
[Breibart] Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, has undergone successful sex reassignment surgery, according to a book of memoirs set to be released later this month.
According to excerpts published by Radar Online, the 67-year-old Jenner went under the knife for a "final surgery" in January of this year, just over two years after coming out as transgender in a blockbuster interview with Diane Sawyer in 2015.
"The surgery was a success, and I feel not only wonderful but liberated," Jenner reportedly writes in Secrets of My Life, a book of memoirs due out April 25.
#3
When he reaches the stage of being sorry he went in this direction, he will be a lot sorrier than he would have been before he took such drastic action.
#9
There was a time when such behavior would have lead to the diagnosis of insanity.
Nowadays those on the left wish to pretend that this is perfectly normal behavior.
To me this is one of those "marker" issues. If one can't be trusted to shoot straight on clear cut yes/no issues (was the subject born demonstrably male?) and instead prefers to pretend that the issue is "more complicated than that", then they certainly can't be trusted for their opinions/beliefs on anything else.
#14
You are not missing anything. He, personally, has fallen into some sort of twilight. And that makes me sad, but I will not let this taint of the present change in any way my view of the glory of the past.
[Breitbart] Miami (AFP) ‐ US health authorities on Monday studied the remains of a dead bat discovered inside a prepackaged salad mix sold in Florida for possible traces of the deadly rabies virus.
The Orlando, Florida-based Fresh Express announced a "precautionary recall of a limited number of cases" of their prepackaged Organic Marketside Spring Mix, which had been distributed to Walmart stores across the southwestern United States.
The company issued the recall on Saturday when it learned "that extraneous animal matter was allegedly found" in a salad container.
"Out of an abundance of caution, all salads manufactured in the same production run are being recalled," Fresh Express said, failing to describe the offending "animal matter."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) said it was working with the Florida health department and the US Food and Drug Administration "to support an investigation of a dead bat" found in the packaged salad sold at "a grocery store in Florida."
#1
Trump should start making colorful but crazy proclamations the way the North Korea Press does.
* Calling US actions reckless is an act of war and we will rain endless fire down upon Baby Kim!!!
* We understand Baby Kim is friendless and sad but his threats have earned him the hell of the upside down sinners!
* Etc.
[RT] Over a dozen people have been injured in the Grande-Synthe migrant camp following violent clashes between migrants and a subsequent blaze which reportedly reduced the facility to a “heap of ashes.”
The massive fire erupted at the camp outside the French city of Dunkirk at around 11:00 pm following clashes between the Kurdish and Afghan migrants. According to reports, the violence erupted over alleged accommodation discrimination. The Afghan refugees who came to Dunkirk after the dismantling of the Calais “Jungle” at the end of October 2016 were apparently unhappy about being housed in collective kitchens while the Kurds slept in chalets.
Scuffles between residents of the makeshift refugee camp began in the early evening and quickly escalated into a violent brawl in which knives came into play. As tensions soared, at least six people were rushed to a nearby Dunkirk hospital, most with stab wounds.
One of the migrants suffered “cardiorespiratory arrest” after apparently being run over by a car on the A16 motorway, as clashes continued outside the camp, Le Figaro noted.
Local police were dispatched to the campsite to intervene in the Kurdish- Afghani clashes which involved up to 150 refugees. According to reports, police fired over 20 volleys of tear gas grenades in an attempt to restore order both in and outside the Grande-Synthe shelter, Le Parisien noted.
The cause of the fire which broke out in the camp that is home to some 1,500 migrants is yet to be determined. Firefighters said at least ten people had been injured in the blaze, which involved about twenty wooden chalets that can accommodate up to four people, AFP reported.
“There is nothing left but a heap of ashes,” Michel Lalande, prefect of France’s Nord region, told reporters at the scene as firefighters continued to battle the flames. “It will be impossible to put the huts back where they were before.”
The migrants who lost their 'homes' were evacuated into emergency accommodation, the prefect said, adding that the city of Grande Synthe had already vacated two gymnasiums. By early Tuesday, at least 165 people had been relocated.
Last month, the French government said that it planned to dismantle the Grande-Synthe refugee camp built by the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity “as soon as possible” after camp residents had repeatedly clashed with police.
Up to 10,000 camp residents were dispersed across France after the Calais Jungle was cleared in October 2016. Many of those who were not granted asylum, deported or sent to overburdened reception centers have now resorted to sleeping rough across northern France as migrants continue arriving with hopes to reach the UK.
Writing in the Washington Post, neo-conservatives Reuel Gerecht and Ray Takeyh wrongheadedly propose to send U.S. ground troops to fight Iran and its proxies in Iran and Syria:
It is way past time for Washington to stoke the volcano under Tehran and to challenge the regime on the limes of its Shiite empire. This will be costly and will entail the use of more American troops in both Syria and Iraq. But if we don’t do this, we will not see an end to the sectarian warfare that nurtures jihadists. We will be counting down the clock on the nuclear accord, waiting for advanced centrifuges to come on line. As with the Soviet Union vs. Ronald Reagan, to confront American resolution, the mullahs will have to pour money into their foreign ventures or suffer humiliating retreat.
They're nuts. The last thing the US should do is commit ground forces.
It isn't Iran that we would be fighting: It's an international mercenary army that already includes thousands of fighters recruited from the three million Hazara Afghans now seeking refuge in Iran, from the persecuted Pakistani Shi'ites who comprise a fifth of that country's huge population, and elsewhere.
...The manpower pool from which these fighters are drawn is virtually bottomless. The war has already displaced half of Syria's 22 million people, and Iran plans to replace Sunnis with Shi'ite immigrants in order to change the demographic balance. The Sunni side of the conflict has become globalized with fighters from the Russian Caucasus, China's Xinjiang Province, as well as Southeast Asia.
The U.S. State Department last year estimated that 40,000 foreign fighters from 100 countries were in Syria; Russia cited a figure of 30,000. Whatever the number is today, it would not be difficult to add a zero to it.
Russia and China, as I explained in the cited Asia Times essay, blame the U.S. for opening the Pandora's Box of Sunni radicalism by destroying the Iraqi State and supporting majority (that is, Shi'ite) rule in Iraq. Sadly, they are broadly correct to believe so. Thanks to the advice of Gerecht and his co-thinkers at the Weekly Standard and Commentary, the Bush administration pushed Iraq's and Syria's Sunnis into the hands of non-state actors like al-Qaeda and ISIS.
A seventh of Russia's population is Muslim, and 90% of them are Sunnis. China has a restive Muslim population among the Uyghurs in its far West, and all of them are Sunnis. Moscow and Beijing therefore support Shi'ite terrorists as a counterweight to Sunni jihadists. A Eurasian Muslim civil war is unfolding as a result. Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum thinks America should let Sunnis and Shi'ites exhaust each other. If it were just Syria, that would make sense, but the Syrian conflict is the nodal point for a much larger and more dangerous conflagration. If the 300 million Muslims of Southeast Asia were to become involved, the consequences would be horrific.
...Gerecht and Tayekh want the U.S. to back the anti-regime forces whom Obama left twisting in the wind during the 2009 demonstrations against Iran's rigged elections. That is the right thing to do. The Trump administration should create a special task force for regime change in Iran and recruit PJ Media's Michael Ledeen to run it. Iran is vulnerable to subversion. With 40% youth unemployment and extreme levels of social pathology (the rate of venereal disease infection is twenty times that of the U.S.), Iranians are miserable under the theocratic regime.
But I don't know if that will work: Iran gets all its money from oil, and the mullahs have the oil, the money, and all the guns. If we can't overthrow the Iranian regime, we will have two choices.
The first is to bomb Iran -- destroy nuclear facilities and Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps bases. That risks war with Russia and China. It is an option, but a dangerous one, and not anyone's first choice. We could have done this before Iran became a Russian-Chinese ally.
The second is to cut a deal with Russia and China: We muzzle the Sunni jihadists whom we (or our allies like Saudi Arabia) supported, and Russia and China cut Iran off at the knees. I sketched out such a deal in August 2016. It won't happen easily, or any time soon, because Russia and China are not sufficiently afraid of us to want to come to the table. Russia would demand other concessions (e.g., recognition of its acquisition of territory by force in Ukraine). As the use of poison gas despite past Russian assurances makes clear, one can't trust the Russians unless, of course, they really are scared of us.
So it all comes down to Grand Strategy: Russia and China must be frightened of America's prowess, especially in military technology. A Reagan-style effort to established unquestioned U.S. supremacy in military technology is the Big Stick we require. Tomahawk missiles are not a Big Stick. They speak loudly. Trump was magnificently right to send the signal to Moscow and Beijing, especially (as Secretary Tillerson said) in the light of Russia's duplicity or incompetence in the matter of Syrian poison gas. Now we need to get to work.
#2
The Trump administration should create a special task force for regime change in Iran and recruit PJ Media's Michael Ledeen to run it. Iran is vulnerable to subversion.
'Regime Change'... yea, that's the ticket. Worked well in Cuba, Vietnam, Somalia, Libya, The DRC, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nicaragua, etc.
#4
The second is to cut a deal with Russia and China: We muzzle the Sunni jihadists whom we (or our allies like Saudi Arabia) supported, and Russia and China cut Iran off at the knees.
Neo-conservatives as in students in the McCain-Graham School of Warmongering? If these idiots want a war so badly they should feel free to go over there and get their own butts blown off. But leave the American military and taxpayers out of it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/11/2017 13:25
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum thinks America should let Sunnis and Shi'ites exhaust each other.
#8
...and when is the word 'neo-conservative' and its derivatives gonna go out of style? That word has annoyed the ever living shit out of me since I first saw it.
#10
We don't need ground troops in Syria to topple Assad. Air support will do it. We're not doing it because we don't want to topple him. The strongest rebel forces in Syria are jihadists of various flavors. We don't need them in power.
#11
Neo-conservatives as in students in the McCain-Graham School of Warmongering? If these idiots want a war so badly they should feel free to go over there and get their own butts blown off. But leave the American military and taxpayers out of it.
The chickenhawk argument is BS. We pay and equip soldiers to fight our wars for us, whatever we decide are appropriate. They don't get to choose any more than Chicago cops get to decide whether they want to out on foot patrol, or firefighters get to decide if they want to fight a given fire. If they're not happy with their assignments, they can quit once their contracts are up - it's not like someone forced them to sign on the dotted line. Soldiers are instruments, not drafters, of policy.
#12
Chickenhawk is not the word I'd use. How about frivolous? We send our troops into these little wars for reasons that have nothing to do with our national security. Our guys get killed and wounded. It cost taxpayers a fortune. The results are disastrous.
We want a strong military so we can be secure, not so we can meddle in the affairs of piss ant countries like Syria.
You call Iraq a success? Afghanistan? Libya?
Syria will be no better. Exactly what is to be gained there? Stay the fuck out of it. If you really want a war, how about going after the real threat which is Iran?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/11/2017 16:32
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Success in the middle east means a semi-brutal occupation/colonization lasting decades. The voters in the West will no longer tolerate that kind of stuff. So knowing that, the government should plan accordingly.
#14
I'd like Trump's bandwidth to be refocused on national renewal.
I'm more than fine with action that advances and safeguards national interest -- and I know enough to loathe the Assads -- but I'm not seeing the concrete benefit to us here.
It's not as if we have limitless resources to spend on "wars of choice".
And if we collapse under the weight of debt and the Deep State, what good are we to anyone, anyway?
South Korean media are reporting that an additional 150,000 Chinese soldiers have been sent to China's border with North Korea. Google translates the page thus:
As the United States announced its independent North Korean behavior and moved the United States Navy's nuclear-powered Calvinus (CVN-70) carrier class to Singapore, the Chinese army has deployed about 150,000 troops in two groups, "The report said. It is because of the prospect of taking "military options", such as preemptive attacks on North Korea, just as the United States has launched an air raid on Syria. ...
There is an observation that medical and back-up support units will be dispatched to "train for North Korean refugees," the newspaper added
What this means is that when President Trump sent 60 cruise missiles against Syria's Sharyat airfield, the Chinese very soon took seriously the possibility that an attack could be made against North Korea's atomic-weapons program unless Kim Jong Un, the North's dictator, backs down peacefully.
The additional troops are almost certainly to prevent floods of North Korean refugees from crossing into China if the is a military strike against the DPRK's nuclear program. China has long had to contend with thousands of refugees annually refugees from the DPRK. Many are killed or die making the attempt. China has a mixed record at best of turning over successful escapees to North Korea. Amnesty International reported in 2012,
#4
I don't understand the refugee shibboleth. If there's one thing China has no shortage of, it's housing. And if there's one thing it has a shortage of, it's labor, with salaries up 20x since economic liberalization 40 years ago. The troops aren't there to stem the flood of refugees - they're to discourage a potential invasion by SK (and US troops) in response to the collapse of NK's government after US air attacks, or even to invade NK itself. Note that there's plenty of Chinese troops on NK's border already, mainly to face off against Russian troops in the vicinity and to have a presence adjacent to Russian territory that was once part of the Manchurian realm. The additional troops aren't a border control force - they're a strike force.
#6
Zerohedge pointed out a strange opinion piece that they claim was posted today at english.chinamil.com.cn/ and later vanished from the internet. Clicking on the supposed original source URL gives a "Page Not Found" message in Mandarin. I don't know if this is real or fake, but it's interesting.
BEIJING, April 7 (ChinaMil) -- Global Times mentioned the bottom line of China on DPRK nuclear issue in an article titled Commentary: The United States Must Not Choose a Wrong Direction to Break the DPRK Nuclear Deadlock on Wednesday, triggering wide speculation.
According to the article, China very much hopes that the DPRK nuclear issue can be solved as soon as possible. But no matter what happens, China has a bottom line that it will protect at all costs, that is, the security and stability of northeast China.
....
First, “DPRK's nuclear activities must not cause any pollution to northeast China.”
Is this sentence designed for the United States? Maybe, but it is designed for the DPRK more. We all know that the DPRK's sixth nuclear test is imminent, and various parties, especially China, are generally worried about this.
It is very insidious for the DPRK to select Punggye-ri, located in Kilju County of North Hamgyong Province in DPRK, as the site for the nuclear test. The place is the farthest point from Pyongyang within the DPRK territory, but near the border of China and DPRK.
Residents in northeast China suffered every time DPRK launched a nuclear test. The news may remain fresh to us: buildings showed cracks, and students in classes were evacuated to the playgrounds.
With the increase in nuclear equivalents, the threat to the Chinese people nearby also surges. In particular, if by any chance nuclear leakage or pollution incidents happen, the damage to northeast China environment will be catastrophic and irreversible.
This is the bottom line of China, which means China will never allow such situation to happen. If the bottom line is touched, China will employ all means available including the military means to strike back.
By that time, it is not an issue of discussion whether China acquiesces in the US’ blows, but the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will launch attacks to DPRK nuclear facilities on its own.
It turns out lone wolf Khalid Masood was very connected indeed.
[PJMedia] The Sunday Times has revealed that last month's Westminster terror killer, who murdered five and injured another forty-nine more victims, was a bigwig at a known murderous Moslem hub, the Luton Islamic Centre.
The Sunday Times reports that their killer, Khalid Masood, has been identified as the public contact point for the Luton Islamic Centre -- a hotspot for extremism in the UK associated with several prior terror plots.
Summarizing the rest of the article, which is well worth reading:
Mr. Masood's boss at the language school was Farasat Latif, who assured all the reporters who asked him that Masood was completely apolitical. But it turns out Mr. Latif was also a trustee of the Luton Islamic Center, and this was not the first time he airbrushed the strong connection between a jihadi and the Luton Islamic Center. In December 2010 he had claimed the leadership of the mosque confronted one of their preachers for extremism -- a certain Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, whose car bomb blew up prematurely while he was driving through the Stockholm shopping district, killing only himself for the glory of the Isalmic State of Iraq. Nor did Mr. Latif mention that the two jihadis had been friends when they both lived in Luton.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Syrian government forces, backed by Russian Arclight airstrikes, have launched a counter-attack on jihadi groups positioned in al-Manshiyah district in the southern province of Daraa.
Led by al-Qaeda-affiliate in Syria, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the bandidosgunnies managed to take over several checkpoints and buildings for the Syrian Army in a massive offensive, using several VBIRDs to break into the Army’s defensives.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... the government troops initiated, today, a counter-attack to restore the lost points inside the al-Manishiyah District.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[REUTERS] An investigation by Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) board laid blame for the company's unauthorized accounts scandal on a high-pressure sales culture and a retail executive obsessed with stamping out negative views about her division.
The report, carried out by board Chairman Stephen Sanger and three other independent directors and released to media on Monday, said former retail division head Carrie Tolstedt ignored the systemic nature of abusive sales practices and accused her of impeding the board's efforts to address an issue that festered for years.
Lawyers for Tolstedt rejected the report's findings on Monday. She had declined to be interviewed for the investigation.
"We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt. A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion," Enu Mainigi, Williams & Connolly LLP, attorneys for Tolstedt, said in a statement.
Sanger, a board member since 2003, faces pressure to root out the problems amid calls by advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services for investors to oust him and other directors in place when the scandal broke. Glass Lewis meanwhile has recommended votes against six board members at the bank's April 25 annual meeting.
In an interview with Rooters, Sanger said the bank was not scapegoating anyone.
"I’m not surprised that some of the people involved see it differently but we stand by the findings of this investigation," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In an interview with Rooters, Sanger said the bank was not scapegoating anyone.
And then their lips fell off. In a Japanese firm, the senior exec would publicly resign and issue an apology (which is less messy than the old fashion seppuku). Post this under the 'Hillary Blame Everyone Else' File.
#2
Holding a female executive accountable is politically incorrect and Sanger has become the latest scapegoat. The politics/economics of personal destruction already --->.
[CNN] This was an eventful week for two government institutions, the Supreme Court and Senate. More than a year after Justice Antonin Scalia's death, the high court will on Monday finally return to a full complement of nine justices. But the confirmation of the newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, happened only after the Senate decided, on a party-line vote, to exercise the "nuclear option" and remove filibusters for Supreme Court nominations.
These developments sound like a really big deal, but they were easily predictable given our toxic political climate and won't actually change the operation of either institution. But here are five takeaways for our post-nuclear-option world.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
These developments sound like a really big deal, but they were easily predictable given our toxic political climate
#8
You may be right, but I think they will rue the day. Trump is really likely to get two more appointments. And he could nominate anyone now. Like Glenn Reynolds, or Paul L. Caron, or Hillsdale College Associate Dean of Men, Jeffery “Chief” Rogers, or Ann Coulter. There is nothing they can do.
[Libya Herald] The Libyan National Army’s success in defeating holy warriors in Benghazi has significantly reduced the dangers from terrorism and enabled Libya to reunite and solve its problems, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said today.
The prince, who is deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces, was speaking during a visit to Abu Dhabi by Field Marshal Khalifa.
Expressing his appreciation for the role played by the LNA in fighting terrorism, which he called was a "disease" affecting the entire region, he spoke of the "co-ordination" between his country and Libya in fighting terrorist organizations. He added that the UAE would continue its efforts to unite Libyans and support their efforts to combat such extremism.
The crown prince and Hafter, who is expected to remain in the UAE for several days, also discussed ways of strengthening and developing relations between the two countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[SHABELLENEWS] The EU naval force in Somalia is investigating reports of possible hijack of a fat merchantman over the weekend in the Gulf of Aden amid resurgence of piracy off the coast of Somalia.
"EU Naval Force is working with counter-piracy partners to investigate reports of a possible piracy incident involving a cargo vessel on Saturday in the Gulf of the Aden," it said in a statement on Sunday. "Further information will be provided by the EU Naval Force once facts about the incident are confirmed."
A merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil was briefly hijacked by Somali pirates on Saturday evening but later abandoned on Sunday before naval forces freed the vessel, reports said.
The latest incident came after the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... warned that recent attacks on fat merchantmen off the coast of Somalia highlight the continued threat of piracy.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) called on ships to follow advice of navies and that of the International Maritime Organization while planning passage through the region.
"After three attacks, following a lull of five years, it is clear that Somali pirates are resurgent and intent on continuing attacks on commercial shipping," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said in a statement on April 4.
"I urge the international community to be vigilant, to work in close partnership and to hold the Somali pirates accountable," he added.
In March, Somali pirates attacked two vessels and a cargo ship. While the crews of the two vessels were later released, the cargo ship’s crew are still held hostage, reports said.
According to UNODC, large parts of the Somali coast remain beyond the reach of law enforcement authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) carried out a strategic assault in the western part of Deir Ezzor on Monday, targeting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ’s (ISIS) headquarters near the 137th Brigade’s base.
Backed by Arclight airstrikes, the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Brigade destroyed the terrorist group’s HQ and main gathering point in western Deir Ezzor, leaving many Islamic State forces of Evil dead in the process of Monday’s assault.
According to the 137th Brigade, their forces killed 14 Islamic State faceless myrmidons and maimed several others, while also destroying several armored vehicles that were mounted with 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[WASHINGTONPOST] Colorado appeals court judge Neil M. Gorsuch took his oaths to be the Supreme Court’s 113th justice Monday morning, first in a private ceremony at the court and later at a Rose Garden ceremony with the man who nominated him, President Trump.
At the first, private event in a grand room inside the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administered the oath that all federal employees take. All eight justices and most of their spouses were on hand, as well as Maureen Scalia and Eugene Scalia, the widow and son of the justice Gorsuch is replacing, Antonin Scalia.
Gorsuch’s wife, Louise, held a family Bible, and his daughters Emma and Belinda looked on.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Had this been DJT's only achievement in office, electing him would have been entirely worth it.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Ulema Council of Afghanistan angrily reacted at the remarks of a prominent Pak religious holy man and politician Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman who had claimed that the peace in Afghanistan would not be achievable as long as the foreign forces have presence in the country.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... front man for the Afghanistan Ulema Council, Mohammad Qasim Halimi, told RFE/RL that the remarks of Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman consisted full of enmity and hatred.
He insisted that the remarks by Maulana Fazal follows despite the majority of the foreign forces have left the country.
Halimi further added that the ongoing war in Afghanistan is against the Afghan nation and not against the foreign forces.
According to Halimi, Maulana Fazal has a history in supporting the Taliban against the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Fazal is a pro-Taliban Pak political leader who had endorsed the Taliban extremism in Afghanistan, calling it a legitimate war against the foreign forces.
The remarks by Fazal-ur-Rehman earlier in 2015 followed after a meeting with President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. who visited Pakistain on a two-day state visit shortly after taking office as the new President of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least nineteen snuffies affiliated with the offshoot of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in Afghanistan were killed during the operations of the Afghan commandos of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan army said the snuffies were killed in the past 24 hours in Achin and Kot districts.
A statement by the by 201st Silab Corps said the operations were conducted with the support of the air power and one of the ISIS snuffies was tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! at death's door after sustaining severe injuries.
The statement further added that a vehicle belonging to the terrorist group and several weapons, ammunition, and explosives were destroyed during the operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A jacket wallah was the only one killed in a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) attack in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The Provincial government media office in a statement said an kaboom took place in the vicinity of Marko Bazaar in Ghani Khel district earlier today.
The statement further added that kaboom resulted into the death of the suicide bomber only and no other casualties were inflicted.
The suicide bomber who was riding a Suzuki Alto type vehicle packed with explosives was looking to target the counter-narcotics campaign team.
The kaboom took place near the compound of the campaign team, the statement said, adding that only a vehicle belonging to the campaign was destroyed in the attack.
This comes as deadly boom-mobileing plot was foiled by the Afghan cops in this province yesterday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Iraq News] A security source in Nineveh Province, on Monday, revealed that the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group launched an attack, using chlorine gas, on west of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , killing four civilians and injuring six others.
Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Abdel Aziz al-Numani said that three rockets were launched, at afternoon today, on al-Hadba area, east of Mosul, killing four civilians and wounding six others, including women and kiddies, with burns and suffocation.
The initial reports revealed that the casualties suffered suffocation and burns caused by the toxic chlorine gas, Numani added.
He also pointed out that the engineering teams of the army’s 16th brigade are examining the remains of the rockets to determine the nature of the attack.
Numani also declared that the Islamic State is responsible for the terrorist attack, which was launched from Hawi al-Kanesa area, in western Mosul.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Iraq News] The War Media Cell has declared killing several 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.... leaders and destroying two havens of the group, west of Anbar province.
In a statement on Monday, the cell said, "several Arclight airstrikes were carried out in Qaim district. One of these strikes destroyed one of the havens, where IS forces of Evil hold meetings inside."
"Another strike targeted another haven," it said adding that "several members who were inside the two havens were killed."
Anbar’s western towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaem have been under Islamic State control since the group’s emergence in 2014. Thousands of civilians are said to be held as potential human shields, according to local officials.
Fighter jets from Iraqi and the allied U.S.-led coalition have occasionally pounded the turban group’s locations in the province. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again.
It is believed that the Iraqi government will not aim at western Anbar before its forces are done with retaking djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Islamic State’s biggest bastion in Iraq where security forces have been battling the group since mid October.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Iraq News] A total of nine Kurdish Yezidis, including four women and five children, were freed from the grip of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) bully boyz on Sunday, an official said.
"They will arrive in Duhok [province of Kurdistan Region] on Monday to be reunited with their families," Head of the office for Yezidi Abductee Affairs, Hussein Qa’idi, confirmed to BasNews.
The official meanwhile criticized the Iraqi government for failing on a plan to locate and rescue the Yezidi abductees from IS captivity in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , explained that Yezidi captives hide in houses between the clashing sides in Mosul and they step out as soon as IS faceless myrmidons are pushed back.
"The Iraqi army has not practically rescued one Yezidi abductee," he pointed out.
Qa’idi reiterated that a large number of Yezidis were believed to be held in Mosul, but the city is about to be completely recaptured from IS with very few abductees rescued so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least two people working with the Anti-Corruption Judicial Center were rubbed out by an unknown gunman in capital Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... According to the security officials, the incident took place earlier today after the gunman targeted the two employees in the vicinity of Qamar area of Kabul city.
The officials speaking on the condition of anonymity further added that the two employees were rubbed out as they were going to their work place.
The Kabul police commandment confirmed the incident and said investigations are underway regarding the attack.
No group or individual has so far grabbed credit behind the incident.
This comes as the Anti-Corruption Judicial Center has stepped up efforts to try those involved in major corruption cases in the country.
In the latest moves by the organization, several high ranking former government officials, including some ex-officials of the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing were sentenced to jail over the embezzlement of funds involving millions of dollars.
A number of the security bigshots working with the government previously were also locked away Please don't kill me! over corruption, bribery, and the embezzlement of the funds.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Can't have anybody interfering with our corruption.
[Libya Observer] Three fighters from the Third Force were killed in a Dignity Operation Arclight airstrike on Taminhint Airport in Sabha on Monday, sources said.
Both the Media Office of Third Force and Boshra News Agency said the Arclight airstrike was carried out on Taminhint Airport leaving three fighters dead and seven others maimed, but the Spokesperson of Defense Ministry of UN-installed government Mohammed al-Gosri said the three soldiers were killed in an Arclight airstrike in Samnu town, some 60 km northeast of Sabha.
The Third Force captured Samnu town early on Monday following festivities against Dignity Operation bandidosmurderous Moslems led by Mohammed Ben Nayal and reopened the road that links al- Jufra with Sabha.
"Ben Nayal bandidosmurderous Moslems were forced to flee to the mountains," al-Gosri said.
Military sources said the Third Force is preparing a military attack on Brak Shati town to free it from Dignity Operation hard boys.
Spokesperson Mohammed al-Ghasri announced Saturday al-Amal al-Mooad (Awaited Hope) Military Operation to root out Dignity Operation forces from south Libya.
Ben Nayal-led Dignity Operation bandidosmurderous Moslems are positioned in Brak Shati airbase, some 60 km north of Sabha.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[DAWN] In a rare move, a Field General Court Martial (FGCM) on Monday handed Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav the death sentence after trial for involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Jadhav was jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! on March 3, 2016, through a counter-intelligence operation in Balochistan's Mashkel area for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistain, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistain Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the military's media wing said.
The accused had been provided with a defending officer as per legal provisions.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... jihadists have killed eight loggers near the northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... n city of Maiduguri, vigilantes and residents told AFP.
The Islamist gunnies on Saturday stopped nine loggers in a pickup truck near Kayamla Village, 10 kilometres from the city, murdering eight while one managed to escape.
BURNED BODIES
"The gunnies stopped the van and rounded up the men. They slaughtered eight of them and burnt their bodies," vigilante Babakura Kolo told AFP.
The man who managed to escape informed residents of nearby Molai Village who later recovered the bodies of the slain men for burial, he added.
Kolo's account was backed up by Mohammed Abubakar, whose neighbour was among the victims.
"We buried my neighbour late on Saturday. He was among the eight killed by Boko Haram on their way to fetch firewood in the bush," Abubakar told AFP.
"They cut his throat and burnt his body", he said
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
[Libya Herald] The House of Representatives (HoR) has again called on the UN to lift its arms embargo on Libya so that the Libyan National Army can prevent terrorist attacks being carried out in the country similar to those in Egypt today. The international community was failing Libya by continuing its arms prohibition the HoR insisted. .
The statement accompanied an HoR message condeming today’s terror attacks on two churches in Egypt.
The suicide kabooms on two Coptic churches in Alexandria and Tanta in which at least 44 people were killed have been claimed by the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS).
For its part, the Presidency Council deplored what it called a "heinous crime", describing the faceless myrmidons as "savage monsters" who "know nothing but destruction and devastation". Such people did not distinguish between religions and people it added.
Via social media, UN envoy Martin Kobler stated he was "shocked and dismayed" by the attacks and said his thoughts were with those affected. British Ambassador Peter Millett retweeted the condemnation issued by his counterpart in Egypt.
From Beida, the interim government’s foreign ministry said that "these innocent souls, who today ascended to the kingdom of heaven in the performance of their religious rites, were killed by a terrorist act contrary to values, morality and religion".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Iraq News] al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia announced, on Monday, detonating ten vehicles carrying equipment, belonging to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , in Tal Afar, west of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... The media office of al-Hashd al-Shaabi said in a statement that force from al-Hashd al-Shaabi’s 4th brigade shelled, today, al-Hamra village in Tal Afar.
The shelling resulted in the burning of 10 vehicles carrying equipment belonging to the Islamic State and killing the gunnies who were inside the vehicles, the statement added.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi forces are still besieging Tal Afar District in Nineveh Province that is expected to be fully liberated soon.
Noteworthy, security forces, backed by al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia, continue the military operations to liberate the remaining areas of the western side of Mosul.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Libya Herald] The Benghazi Defence Brigade has announced that it has pulled out of Jufra airbase near Hun and handed it over the general chief of staff of the Libyan army (the army supporting the Presidency Council). It says it has gone to another location, but has not disclosed there this it.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... reinforcements are reportedly being sent to both sides in the standoff at Tamenhint airbase, near Sebha, which Misrata’s Third Force which continues to hold despite a siege by the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Hafter.
The Presidency Council’s minister of Defence, al-Madi al-Barghathi yesterday ordered forces to move south to fight both the LNA and what it says are remnants of the so-called 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.... in the area.
The new operation, according to Barghathi’s front man Mohammed al-Ghasri, is called al-Amal al-Muad ("The Promise of Hope").
Large reinforcements are also reported heading from Cyrenaica to the Tamenhint area.
According to a resident at the nearby Tamanhint village, however, at the moment the situation remains unchanged at the base. Occasional small arms fire could be heard from around it today, he said, but otherwise the situation has remained relatively quiet. He did report, though, that a small unit of the Misrata’s Third Force unit at the base had moved out and headed to Jufra saying they did not want to be involved in fighting with the surrounding LNA forces led by General Mohammed Ben Nayel.
This has not been confirmed, however.
On Wednesday, LNA aircraft and Ben Nayel’s forces launched a coordinated attack on the base, but it petered out after a short while.
Local officials have repeatedly called on the two sides to continue negotiations and avoid fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Iraq News] A police officer announced, on Monday, that elite leaders of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group have fled Tal Afar District, while the group executed seven of its local leaders for fleeing battles, west of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Captain Jassim Mohammed said in a press statement that dozens of the Islamic State’s leaders fled Tal Afar District toward al-Ba’aj District, west of Mosul.
The Islamic State group also executed seven of its local leaders, for trying to leave combat lines in al-Zangli area, west of Mosul, Jassim added.
Many members of the Islamic State group started to flee different areas of the city of Mosul, due to the fierce battles launched by Iraqi security forces to recapture the city, after the announcement of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to start an offensive, in 19 February 2017, to retake the western side of Mosul.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[FOXNEWS] Rice’s comments about the 2013 agreement to purge the Assad regime’s chemical weapons quickly were called into question, along with the claims of other Obama officials.
The Washington Post noted, "the B.O. regime had a tendency to oversell what was accomplished, perhaps because Obama received so much criticism for not following through on an attack if Syria crossed what Obama had called ’a red line.’"
"The reality is that there were continued chemical-weapons attacks by Syria -- and that U.S. and international officials had good evidence that Syria had not been completely forthcoming in its declaration and possibly retained sarin and VX nerve agent," the Post wrote.
Citing Rice’s exact words, the fact-check column ruled: "She did not explain that Syria’s declaration was believed to be incomplete and thus was not fully verified -- and that the Syrian government still attacked citizens with chemical weapons not covered by the 2013 agreement. That tipped her wordsmithing toward a Four."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
There ought to be a super special award for people who repeatedly bend the truth and try to spoon feed the hogwash thru the MSM to the public; 5 Pinocchios?
#6
Its sad when you see a bunch of media whores regretting being whores when caught whoring.
In a normal world all of them would be fired; thus dissuading whorishness. But in modern media whoring is fine as long as the customer is worthy and super liberal.
[NAIJ] A soldier has shot dead a Boko Haram bomber who attempted to infiltrate University of Maiduguri through the works department on Sunday, April 9.
The bomber was killed trying to infiltrate University of Maiduguri through the works department. The Punch reports that the bomber entered the University through the back gate with the aim of penetrating the school before being gunned down dead by a vigilant soldier.
NAIJ.com learnt that public relations officer of the school, Mr Tanko Ahmed, also confirmed the botched attack on the institution. The spokesperson said the incident occurred around 11pm on Sunday night, April 9. He said the works department where the incident occurred has been cordoned off by security agents to render the area safe.
In another version of accounts, Sahara reporters said the foiled attack on the institution was carried out by two male bombers who were stopped by dogs from wreaking havoc on the academic community.
"The bombers blew themselves up as soon as they sighted the dogs barking at them as they could no longer help the situation.
"They came in through the back door and were prepared to denote the bombs before they were sighted by the dogs which prevented them from unleashing mayhem on the university community," a staff of the university, Abubakar Mohammed said.
NAIJ.com recalls that this will be the second a bomber will be attacking University of Maiduguri after the first attack in January that claimed the life of a professor of veterinary medicine and four others.
In another incident, some gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamist, on Saturday, April 8, opened fire at private and commercial vehicles along the Maiduguri-Damboa road. It was reported that the vehicles that were attacked were those going to southern part of Borno state from Maiduguri, the capital. According to Daily Trust, shortly before taking off, some gunmen suddenly appeared and shot sporadically, killing scores and injuring many.
An official says twojacket wallah'> exploding trollop female suicide bombers went kaboom! near the fence surrounding the University of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.
Ibrahim Abdulkadir, front man for the National Emergency Management Agency, said there were no casualties other than the attackers in the pre-dawn hours of Monday.
The suicide bombers reportedly were not permitted entry by security personnel deployed around the university.
Still, whoever the explodees were before they became an expanding pink mist, they harmed no one but themselves and now are enjoying the dubious pleasures of a welcoming Hell. So there's that.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
[AlAhram] Nigeria's military on Monday released 593 people after clearing them of having ties with the Islamist krazed killer group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , a front man said.
The chief of army staff directed that those tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! be "released unconditionally if found not to have anything to do with insurgency or Boko Haram", said Brigadier General Abdulraman Kuliya. He added that the 593 who were freed comprised elderly people, men, women and kiddies.
The military has arrested thousands in its fight against an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... . The insurgency, now in its eighth year, has killed over 20,000 people and forced over two million from their homes.
[Ynet] Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", security forces announced that they had tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a suspect in the liquidation of Mazen Fukha, a senior member of the military wing who was shot in the head near his home in Gazoo last month. The details of the suspect have not yet been submitted.
It was also reported that the investigation into the liquidation had come to an end, and its conclusions were conveyed to the Hamas leader in Gazoo, Yahya Sinwar.
[REUTERS] Niger security forces killed 57 members of Islamist bad boy group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... who attacked a village in the southeastern Diffa region overnight, the defense ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Fifteen soldiers and two civilians were maimed during the attack by heavily gunnies in Gueskerou village, which is around 30 km (22 miles) northeast of Diffa town, it said.
"Among the enemy there were 57 bandidosholy warriors killed, a Toyota pick-up recovered along with a 60 mm mortar, two RPG 7s (rocket propelled grenade launchers), five machine guns, 20 AK-47s and a lot of ammunition," the statement said. The report could not be independently confirmed.
Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in Nigeria. A regional force that includes troops from Niger has retaken much of its territory in the last two years.
In recent years its attacks have spilled into neighboring Niger, Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Chad.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
[Ynet] Egyptian security forces killed seven suspected 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.... murderous Moslems in a shootout on Monday as they were meeting to plan attacks on minority Christians, the Interior Ministry said.
The incident in the southern city of Assiut occurred a day after Egypt's cabinet approved a three-month state of emergency in the wake of Islamic State attacks on two Christian Coptic churches that killed at least 44 people.
The seven murderous Moslems were killed after they opened fire on security forces who approached them as they were meeting to plot further attacks on Christians, the ministry said in a statement. Assiut has a significant Christian population.
Ammunition, weapons, a cycle of violence and Islamic State books and publications were found at the scene, the statement said.
#1
Enabling a perfect targeting opportunity!
Use the gatekeepers to sieve 'bad' arabs entering.
When the festivities are over all of the returnees massed in the 'show your identity papers' queue get blasted.
[AlAhram] Clashes and air strikes in southwest 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... have killed more than 40 soldiers, rebels and civilians over the past 24 hours, officials and medics said on Monday.
Warplanes from the Saudi-led Arab coalition have pounded Huthi rebel positions east of the Red Sea port of Mokha and other areas of Taez province since Sunday, a military official said.
Clashes raged after the air raids in the Jabal al-Nar area east of Mokha and north of the city on the road to Hodeida, Yemen's main Red Sea port, the official said.
At least 17 rebels were killed in the air strikes and fighting, medical sources in rebel-held Hodeida said.
The coalition-backed government says Hodeida is its next target in a months-long offensive aimed at pushing the Iran-backed faceless myrmidons away from the country's lengthy Red Sea coastline.
Another 11 rebels were killed in air strikes on Kamran island and a base in Hodeida itself, the medical sources said.
Ten soldiers were also killed and 15 were maimed in the confrontations, said medical sources in Aden, the temporary base of the government as Sanaa remains under rebel control.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory, Igor and Oleg were discussing what the quickest way might be to deal with the monster... three non-combatants were killed and two others were maimed Monday in a bombing that targeted the convoy of General Ali Muqbel Saleh, commander of the 33rd Armoured Brigade, in Daleh city, a security official said.
[Libya Observer] Mayor Ahmed Araibi has resigned after 7 months in office, Benghazi Municipality reported on Sunday.
Brig. Araibi announced his resignation in a video post on the municipality’s official Facebook page. He said rumours were spread to obstruct his job while tricksters had exerted efforts to replace him.
"I won’t allow anyone to say I glued to my chair for personal interests that may have negative impact on Benghazi," he said in the resignation announcement.
He indicated that he would return to his previous job as deputy chief of Libyan Intelligence Agency.
Brig. Ahmed Araibi was appointed by the military governor of east Libya Abdelraziq al-Nathori as the mayor of Benghazi in August 2016.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
He said rumours were spread to obstruct his job while tricksters had exerted efforts to replace him.
[IsraelTimes] Raid comes hours after IS affiliate fires rocket into Negev; Israel on alert amid warnings of terror attacks from peninsula.
A dronezap in Egypt’s southern Sinai region killed one person on Monday, according to reports in Arabic-language media.
The strike was on a home in the town of Rafah, which borders the Gazoo Strip, al-Jazeera reported. The network attributed the strike to Israel, but there was no confirmation of this.
The Egyptian military was reported to have carried out a number of air strikes in the terror-ridden peninsula on Monday.
The reported strike came hours after a rocket attack from Sinai was fired into southern Israel earlier on Monday, an attack claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... affiliate in Sinai..
On its official Twitter account, the terror group said "the fighters of the Islamic State have bombed a Jewish settlement in southern Paleostine with a Grad rocket."
Just after 11:30 a.m. on Monday morning, the incoming missile alarm known as a "Code Red" sounded in the Negev’s Eshkol region, near Israel’s westernmost edge, at the border with Egypt and the Gazoo Strip.
After a search of the area, police found the rocket in the community of Yuval, near the Egyptian border, in a greenhouse where tomatoes were being grown. The greenhouse was lightly damaged by the rocket.
The attack came hours after Israel shut down the Taba Crossing into the Sinai Peninsula, citing information about an imminent terror attack in the area.
On Monday morning, in a highly unusual move, the Transportation Ministry shut down the Taba Crossing into the Sinai Peninsula. It is expected to reopen next Tuesday, April 18, with the end of the Passover holiday, but that decision will only be made following a security assessment, the ministry said in a statement.
Israelis currently in the Sinai Peninsula will still be able to return from Egypt and are, in fact, encouraged to do so immediately, the ministry said.
Thousands of Israelis had been expected to cross into the Sinai Peninsula for the Passover holiday.
The decision to forbid that move came a day after two lethal attacks on Egyptian churches by the terrorist group’s so-called Sinai Province.
The closure was ordered by Transportation and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz, after consultation with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and other security officials, according to the ministry’s statement.
This was one of the few times the Taba Crossing was shut down since its opening in 1982, following the Israeli-Egyptian peace deal. The crossing was shut down in 2014, following a terror attack on the Egyptian side of the border. It was also closed in 2011 when Israel also assessed there was a high risk of terror attacks.
[NBCNEWS] The CEO of United Airlines apologized to customers on Monday following an incident on an overbooked flight where video appeared to show an elderly man being dragged from his seat and through the aisle of a plane.
Several videos posted on social media appeared to show three law enforcement officers pull a screaming man from his seat on the plane and then drag him by the arms down the aisle as shocked passengers look on. A witness told NBC News the ordeal began after the airline said the flight was overbooked and asked four customers to leave the plane and take a flight the following day.
"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United," CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."
"We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation," he added in the statement.
The reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... Police Department said in a statement Monday afternoon that around 6 p.m. on Sunday, a 69-year-old passenger "became irate" after he was asked to leave the plane.
"The passenger in question began yelling to voice his displeasure at which point Aviation Police were summoned," police said in the statement.
Police said the officers attempted to carry the man off the flight "when he fell."
"His head subsequently struck an armrest causing injuries to his face," police said, adding that the man was taken to a hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries. An investigation into the incident was still ongoing.
Multiple attempts to reach the Department of Aviation for comment were not immediately returned.
Tyler Bridges, who posted video of the incident on Twitter, told NBC News he and his wife were on the United plane at O'Hare International Airport from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday when a flight attendant said the flight was overbooked and four people would have to leave to make room for airline employees.
Bridges said the flight attendant offered an $800 voucher for anyone who would volunteer to get off the flight and leave the following day at 3 p.m.
"Nobody moved, nobody got up," he said.
When no one volunteered, Bridges said, a gate agent told them the airline had used an algorithm to randomly select four people to get off the plane.
First, a young couple is asked to leave and, "they're not happy, but they get off. No problem," Bridges said.
Then the unidentified man in the video was asked to leave, Bridges said.
"He says he's a doctor and has to be in Louisville in the morning to see patients," he said. "He says he can't be delayed a day."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The total arrogance of this industry highlighted once again. They've treated people like cattle for decades. Perhaps this incident will finally bring about some change.
#4
The overbooking is whose fault? The Airlines CAUSED the problem. And then the airline arbitrarily drags a CUSTOMER off the flight by force and injures him in the process?
THE AIRLINE IS AT FAULT.
STUPID way to do business.
Don't book a flight on that airline. Just don't do business with them in future... take another airline. Remember them. Spend your money somewhere else. See how stupid they stay.
But WAIT there's more! Even before airline passenger boarding, there is NOTHING any more disgusting than being herded by Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, attitude ridden, Federal Job Corps TSA chimps. NOTHING !
#10
As long as they're jamming them into the sardine cans, they could care less about it. Just remember you and I bailed them all out after the grounding on 9/11. Just another form of entitlement.
The old CAB rules on the books had the requirement that if you have one of the old fashion paper tickets (not your modern print out), the airline had to get you on the next available flight to your destination regardless of carrier.
#12
Three issues:
1. Yes, any airline can remove a paying customer if they deem it appropriate. Read the fine print on your ticket. It is my understanding that 40,000 paying customers were undramatically "bumped" last year.
2. The Gendarme may be at fault for physically injuring the person said to be a Doctor, but there may be some blame to go around here. Btw, would my Doctor act in a manner like the one deplaned? If so, I'd be thinking about changing Doctors.
3. The PD Supervisor via UAL personnel may not have accurately conveyed the situation to the cop on site. If the copper only knew "disruptive person on an airplane," well, that may have needlessly got some adrenaline going.
But, as I told the Missus last night while she glared at me through jaundiced eye "What is, is, and United will weather the storm."
#13
But, as I told the Missus last night while she glared at me through jaundiced eye "What is, is, and United will weather the storm."
...and the inevitable legal action and monetary awards to the removed passenger will be picked up by future UAL customers. Never mind the inconvenience suffered by the passengers permitted to stay aboard the flight.
#14
What moron let the to be bumped passengers board? Don't you have to be assigned a seat? They don't have an algorithm to keep two people from being assigned the same seat? Me think there is more to this.
#16
There is more. They did the normal overbooked weeding at the gate, and boarded the remainder. All good so far.
THEN UA found they had to move four of their own (UA) personnel, and decided to offer the typical monetary reward for volunteers. No volunteers; too low a bid on UA's part. Then it became a "fuck em, drag their asses off" thing. Three went grudgingly, one didn't want to volun-selected. The rest of the story we've heard. The ethnic chinese Dr. (I don't know if he was a real doctor) appeared to be in shock when he re-boarded, bloodied, muttering about them trying to kill them. No info on that. So what is unsaid is they got a fifth person to volun-select? If the doc re-boarded, a seat had to be open. (Then they had to un-board to clean up the blood? What?) I am made of questions here.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/11/2017 9:43
Comments ||
Top||
#17
^^^^UAL troll
Posted by: chris ||
04/11/2017 9:43
Comments ||
Top||
#18
It's simple. Overbook, fine 10K per. Not cost effective to do anymore. You think your K streets reps in Congress will back that? I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you.
#19
I think Harcourt is right. When the airline crew tells you to leave the plane you must do so. It does not matter if their reason is justified. I suspect United acted legally but stupidly - it wouldn't be the first time.
That said, I can easily understand the doctor - and everybody else - not wanting to be stuck in Chicago...
#20
I'm ashamed of Rantburg for supporting this lawbreaker.
I'm ashamed that anyone thinks its ok to boot a paying customer that has already been seated merely because an EMPLOYEE wishes to take that seat at the last minute. Fuck UA for being so foolish.
#24
A public relations disaster that could have been averted. Corporate stupidity. It will cost UA a bundle in lost ridership. Despite that airlines can legally remove a passenger from the plane, I've got a feeling there is a legion of attorneys salivating to take on this case.
#26
For some reason United Stock went up yesterday?
Weird thought came to me. What if the feds found out a terrorist had boarded, this would be a nice way to remove them without freaking out all the other passengers.
#27
United Airlines sux so bad I don't understand how they're still in business.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/11/2017 13:30
Comments ||
Top||
#28
I am not seeing UAL stock going up. It started at 70.15, dipped to 68.36 maybe around 11 AM, turned up to nearly match its open 69.54, seems to be trending down now. Market seems to be signaling a loss of ~2.5% of its cap, so $550M out of $22.08B. Expensive seat change.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/11/2017 13:45
Comments ||
Top||
#30
Perhaps down today but Fortune was reporting the stock soaring yesterday despite the incident. CNBC also reported that but their links now go to a report about the stocks falling as PR catches up.
#31
I'm actually afraid to fly commercial but I try to at least once a year to catch up on my drinking and praying.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/11/2017 16:11
Comments ||
Top||
#32
United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said Tuesday that all 70 seats on United Express Flight 3411 were filled, but the plane was not overbooked as the airline previously reported. Instead, United and regional affiliate Republic Airlines, which operated the flight, selected four passengers to be removed to accommodate crew members needed in Louisville the next day.
#33
Explain to me any other business that sells something they don't have without getting charged with fraud? You pay for a ticket (usually with small print that says non-refundable) a contract is made. If you miss the flight or blow it off, the seat is already paid for whether filled or not. The practice of overbooking is an old scheme made 'legal' by airline lobbyists and Congresscritters who look the other way to the practice that would not be tolerated in nearly every other business.
Both right, both wrong. IIUC, United and airport security are two different entities?
$800 voucher to overnight in Chicago, no way. Not even cash. Probably only bag I'd have is my carry-on, gotta get out of O'Hare (I have been there a couple times), pay for a taxi, hotel room, dinner, taxi back to O'Hare with enough time to get to terminal, check-in (hopefully I am on the passenger list), go through security, hopefully enough time to tredge a food line, get some airport priced meal, get to gate, board. So maybe three or four hundred left of the voucher for all that extra work and now messed up schedule. How much would I have earned the day I was supposed to be at work?
What kind of voucher, $800 off my next flight from a company that just booted me from a seat I had reserved and made plans around that reservation? Come'on.
No volunteers for that? Shocking. $1000 cash and I get a first class seat.
None of this stuff really changes my opinion on anything, and unruly passengers are on my top 5 things I hate....but the memes going around are killing me.
#35
If you have a full price ticket, you can get on any flight if there is room, regardless of whether you have a reservation. I have done it numerous times. And you can book a seat and simply not show up without consequence.
No shows have always been a problem for airlines, and they routinely overbook based on the estimated number of no shows.
#36
But this flight was *not* overbooked. United needed to get 4 crewmembers to Louisville for the next morning so they kicked 4 paying customers off - including this doctor.
Why couldn't they have placed their crew on a different flight with a different airline?
#38
Like pinging a sub you catch prying.
How bu hao! Some Chinese guy crying.
A Peking duck, winging?
A jing ju star, singing
When suddenly spotlighted flying?
[QuartzMedia] ... An insurgency
Another lesson from the Middle East that might apply to North Korea is the need for counter-insurgency capabilities. Kelly notes that the North has hundreds of thousands of special troops "who really believe in the ideology" and Kim Jong-un as a "divine person." Such soldiers could fall back into the mountains, regroup, and stage attacks for years on a South Korean force that has no or little training in dealing with insurgencies.
Fear of this possibility stems largely from the US experience in Iraq with Saddam Hussein loyalists, or "dead-enders," who continued staging deadly attacks well after their leader’s downfall. But as with everything in North Korea, it’s hard to know at this point how much of a threat this might be.
#1
Cut off the head (Pyongyang) and destroy the LOC's (road, rail, air, sea lines of communication) headed south. The South Koreans will hunt down the stragglers. Keep an eye on the Chinese. We know all too well what they did last time. They do not fancy a unified, democratic Korea at their border. Again, go for he head.
#4
Such soldiers could fall back into the mountains, regroup, and stage attacks for years on a South Korean force that has no or little training in dealing with insurgencies.
...They could, absolutely. But the ROKs ain't us. They'll go into the hills and kill anything that moves. I watched a ROK gun battery near Kunsan AB blow one of their own fishing boats out of the water without warning because it strayed into the wrong area - putting down a Nork rebellion the only way that really works will make perfect sense to them.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/11/2017 4:54
Comments ||
Top||
#6
The South Korean Military will not hesitate to blow the bridges over the Yalu, and air drop toe poppers all over that area. They have no love of the Chinese.
#8
Military - hell just send hundreds of Kias and Hyundais loaded with food and clothing for them to loot. Follow the trail back to their lairs. Do you want to starve or live in the land of plenty?
#9
Nork soldiers could fall back into the mountains and fight for years except for supply issues. North Korea, especially in the winter, has to be one of the most inhospitable places on earth to survive no less fight. Agreements would have to be in place for China to stay out it.
#12
#1 Cut off the head (Pyongyang) and destroy the LOC's (road, rail, air, sea glines of communication) headed south. The NK Army has everything prepositioned forward within 20-50 miles of the FEBA. They already mitigated this LOC interdiction risk. However, our LOCs and the South's are vulnerable to the NK Spetsnatz capability. This would not be a short war...let the South Koreans, Japanese and Chinese worry this one. If the Chicoms think the Japanese will go nuclear, then they will mitigate the Norks.
#14
Maybe the best option is a Chinese sponsored coup that emplaces a saner government in place. NK can begin to come out of the dark, the PRC gets its buffer state and a war is avoided. As Winston said jaw, jaw, jaw is better than war
#16
#1 Cut off the head (Pyongyang) and destroy the LOC's (road, rail, air, sea glines of communication) headed south.The NK Army has everything prepositioned forward within 20-50 miles of the FEBA. They already mitigated this LOC interdiction risk.
LOC's, airfields, bridges should be severed in any event. No sense making life easy for the follow-on's. Prepositioned stocks are extremely vulnerable, monitored as High Value Targets (HVT), etc. 'Besoeker on war.'
#17
I have read that many of the NK artillery caves were built from the inside-out. They are already sealed. Plans are to excavate the last foot or so of dirt blocking the openings & then open fire. How caves such as these can be detected ahead of time is beyond me.
Most predictions of wars to come, when compared to how they actually turn out, prove inaccurate. In 2003, before the invasion of Iraq started, I read some very optimistic forecasts on this very site. Nothing that predicted what actually happened.
My prediction for the next Korean war is simply: a whole lot of casualties and destruction.
#22
The deal should be to draw a line where the Sorks take responsibility for 90% of the Nork population, China takes responsibility for the northern Pacific Korean ports, and America withdraws all troops from the peninsula.
After a nasty short war, everybody wins, except fat boy Kim.
[DAWN] Wikileaks has given weight to a claim that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had compromised telecommunication networks in Pakistan. In a tweet, the whistleblower website referenced a new set of decrypted data leaked by notorious hacker group ShadowBrokers, which had leaked a huge tranche of alleged spy tools used by NSA for intercepting communications around the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A professor who specializes in religious studies at University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Los Angeles says President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... and Vice President Mike Pence represent "troubling trends in American Christianity."
Professor Carla Pestana of UCLA published "Arrogant Christians In The White House" over the weekend for The Huffington Post, which warns of a future America shaped by the "fundamentalist Christian" views of Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump’s "self-indulgence."
"Pence adheres to biblical literalism. Put simply, this view asserts that the Bible is a transparent document, one that prescribes specific behavioral guidelines," Ms. Pestana wrote Saturday. "Its arrogance lies in the hubris of those who believe that only their chosen answers are correct. Its potential to harm others comes when adherents gain political power and force their mandates on nonbelievers. One of the many dangers emanating out of the Trump White House is the power of Pence to impose not his religion but the behaviors his religion dictates onto the rest of us."
The professor, who currently teaches History of Religion in U.S., then analyzed Mr. Trump’s faith as something akin to the "prosperity theology" adopted by some Christians.
"Trump’s religion, although very different, is similarly alarming," she wrote. "Unsurprisingly Trump accepts a religious viewpoint that tells him he is uniquely awesome. Whatever he has -- however he acquired it -- God wants him to enjoy to the fullest. Although traditional Christian social practice mandates that believers exercise humility, charity and other virtues that put others before self, Trump’s faith rejects all curbs on self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
One of the many dangers emanating out of the Trump White House is the power of Pence to impose not his religion but the behaviors his religion dictates onto the rest of us.” And yet Pence strengthened the POTUS ticket and he was elected governor of Indiana in 2013. Must be the arrogance of the Cornbelt and Rustbelt or the arrogance of the last guy in office who paved the way.
#8
Nothing about the Socialist tenets of - Coveting thy neighbors wealth, bearing false witness, or stealing from one's neighbor (using politicians to do it for you is still stealing)? And you want to lecture others about Christianity?
John 10:10 - "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." Christ
Put simply, this view asserts that the Bible is a transparent document, one that prescribes specific behavioral guidelines,
Behavioral guidelines also known as law and order.
currently teaches History of Religion in U.S
Yep, and Obama taught Constitutional Law, too. Just because you teach it, doesn't mean you adhere to it, and worse, spend your life trying to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?
#11
Yep, and Obama taught Constitutional Law, too.
"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!"
#14
What does Pestañas mean in Spanish?
Pestana Name Meaning. Portuguese and Spanish (Pestaña): from Portuguese pestana, Spanish pestaña 'eyelash', also in the Middle Ages 'eyebrow', hence a nickname for someone who had long eyelashes or bushy eyebrows.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/11/2017 13:49
Comments ||
Top||
#17
As a California taxpayer I can tell you that stories are extremely disturbing. Our state government spends money on birdbrains like this who couldn't get a job anywhere else and then they have to raise our gas tax so they can fix the pot holes in the freeway.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/11/2017 16:41
Comments ||
Top||
#18
This ding-dong escaped la campana
As handmaid to Queen Arianna.
The beetle-browed beadle
Embroiders. Her needle?
A mushy Havana banana.
[DW] Nearly 1.2 million people have applied for asylum in Germany in the last two years. As the country struggles to integrate the newcomers, it faces another daunting task: of tackling crimes committed by refugees.
Last weekend, an asylum seeker from Uzbekistan drove a truck into a department store in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, killing several people and injuring many others. A week ago in Bonn, the former capital of Western Germany, an asylum seeker from Ghana raped a 26-year-old woman who was camping with her boyfriend.
The incidents, along with the mass sexual assaults in Cologne
Continued on Page 49
#1
Well, they belong to a religion that tells them that everybody outside it is either a domestic (dhimmi) or wild animal. And the wild animals of Germany are not dangerous. What'd you expect?
#2
Even if you accept the "sociology babble" in the article you are left with the following fact:
Single muslim men between 14 and 30 are much more likely to engage in rape and other crime than other people. In fact, you could cut down on the refugee crime problem by only letting married couples with children into Germany.
Another thing the countries of Europe should do is keep the families together. Right now single nuclear families are being sent to 3-5 countries.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/11/2017 14:08
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Well when you have cousins marrying cousins for almost 900 years you get the effects of inbreeding. Mental retardation. They are mostly dumb and under the thumb of anybody who claims he is a Mullah. So you let in retards who are uneducated and can't be taught. Good luck with that.
#5
During the medieval period they had an anti-pope. Anyone can claim to be a Mullah, perhaps we should start financing a bunch of Mullahs to spread the word that one must live within a days walk of Mecca or Medina to ensure a trip to heaven.
[IsraelTimes] Army also confiscates machinery from workshop believed to have been used for making firearms.
IDF soldiers on Monday took down a stone memorial site for a Paleostinian teenager who was killed while stabbing an Israeli border guard in Hebron in 2015, the army said. The military said the memorial in the West Bank city was taken down as part of its campaign against "incitement" in Paleostinian society. It was not immediately clear when the memorial stone was put up.
"Some inciting materials were also seized during the operation," the army added without elaborating.
Also in Hebron, the army raided a workshop early Monday morning that it said was being used to illegally manufacture guns. The army seized seven pieces of machinery from the workshop, but did not find any weapons or gun parts inside, a military spokesperson said.
Common drill presses and lathes can be used to make what are known as Carlo-style submachine guns -- crude, inaccurate but deadly weapons that have been used in a number of terror attacks in the past two years.
Since 2016, the IDF has cracked down on the illegal weapons trade in the West Bank, raiding dozens of workshops and uncovering hundreds of guns.
Also Monday, police found a Carlo-style submachine gun in the home of a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. The man was jugged Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! and was expected to appear before a judge later in the day on Monday, police said.
In Bethlehem, police arrested a group of five Paleostinians between the ages of 17 and 24 who are suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at the Rachel’s Tomb holy site in Bethlehem, a police spokesperson said.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, the IDF arrested three Paleostinians suspected of taking part in so-called "popular terrorism" -- a catch-all term typically meaning rock throwing and violent demonstrations against security forces. One suspect was arrested in Sanur, near Jenin; another was picked up in Nilin, near Ramallah; and the last was detained in the Qalandiya refugee camp, the army said.
[Libya Observer] Six years after the revolution that drove former dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... from power, Libya remains deeply divided. Now, Russia is fueling another military strongman who threatens to make the situation far worse for Western powers and Libyans in what would be a major blow to the democratic hopes that sparked the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. How the international community responds ― especially on the heels of a U.S. strike against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... ’s government ― could be critical for the future of Libya and the surrounding region.
The toppling of Qadaffy, not unlike the civil war that followed Syria’s own uprising, has left a dangerous power vacuum in the embattled nation. In the western sections of the country, the U.N.-sponsored Government of National Accord, or GNA, has been unable to assume office due to the refusal or inability of the House of Representatives, or HoR, to offer its required endorsement, rendering the country effectively without a legitimate government. Elsewhere, competing warlords continue to shift sides and prolong the suffering of the average Libyan due to deteriorating security, power and water shortages and lack of liquidity at banks. And there are reports that the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... is regrouping here as well, paving the way for what some say could be a "powder keg" situation.
Amidst this chaos, Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... , a U.S. citizen and ex-Libyan military officer who once served and later turned on Qadaffy, has emerged as a key influencer in the country. If he plays his cards right, Haftar may have the fate of a nation in his hands.
Back in 2011, in the midst of the revolution, Haftar was often described as "the CIA’s man in Libya" and had vocal support from a variety of international leaders. To close observers of the populist revolution that deposed Qadaffy, Haftar began to engage a campaign of deliberate sabotage of the democratic processes fairly early on in post-revolution politics.
As early as 2014, he called for the overthrow of the Libyan General National Congress and for the arrest of all the elected officials. And in a tactic used worldwide to delegitimize political opposition, he labeled his internal opponents "terrorists," and even launched a military assault on the Libyan parliament building in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... in an attempt to topple the elected government there.
Gradually, Haftar was cut loose by Western allies and turned to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which have provided him with a potent drone capability. But his continued refusal to even talk to the GNA, including his refusal to meet at a highly publicized meeting in Cairo recently, may have convinced the Egyptians and others to recalculate ― and this week’s meeting between the Egyptian and American presidents may complicate that divide.
Running out of options, Haftar has now turned to the Russians for help fighting off Islamists preventing him from solidifying control. Recent reports indicate that Russia, which benefitted from having an authoritarian leader like Qadaffy in Libya, may be providing Haftar with military assistance in the form of both arms and surveillance equipment. And there are already reports of Russian forces massing near or in Libya, with Russian denials and state media accusing the West of exaggerating the Russian influence.
Is Libya The Next Syria?
Russian support for Haftar does not bode well for Libya or the larger international community, with some suggesting the situation could even parallel in part that of Syria. While Assad and Haftar are not interchangeable, the concern is that the Russians will replicate the model they have used in Syria in Libya as well, with Haftar assuming an Assad-like role in the form of an authoritarian claiming to weed out the terrorists. The Syria model includes Russian bases on the footsteps of Western Europe, massive bombings and a dictatorship heavily supported by Russian leadership. Having already been run by a dictator for years, the installation of another one is the last thing many Libyans would want, especially with the presence of Islamist groups and armed factions creating further violent instability in the country. But they may be on the verge of just that.
Haftar is already putting the Russian aid to good use. In early March, he suffered a humiliating defeat and was pushed out of Libya’s largest oil export facilities. But with the support of Moscow, Haftar has been able to recapture most of the ground he recently lost, raising the prospect that he could emerge in an even better position.
Given his history with the West and previous opposition, an emboldened Haftar is likely to show even more intransigence towards the U.N.-sponsored Libyan political agreements. If he was an obstacle to reconciliation governments before, a stronger Haftar could render them moot or, worse, play rival governments as pawns to maintain a continued power vacuum.
With political progress stuck in the sand and a continually deteriorating standard of living in the country, Haftar is poised to position himself as a strongman who can offer stability and security in the face of terrorism ― an appealing prospect for Western oil companies eager to resume one-stop shopping for oil exploration and production, as well as desperate Libyans who simply want to stop the fighting and economic uncertainty. And it’s also an idea U.S. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... may latch onto as well if he sees it as useful to stemming the rise of ISIS in Libya after potential fails in Raqqa and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... But the reality is, the stronger Haftar gets, the more likely it becomes that Libya will linger in its current state of chaos. As the war has gone on, the country has amassed a formidable force of hardcore revolutionaries who will fight Haftar forces to the absolute end. These armed battalions and militia forces under diverse commands and names are experienced and dogmatic in their opposition to Haftar. Many already worry about and feel provoked by Haftar’s fondness with Russia, particularly since Haftar and his forces took Benghazi in a 2014 operation known as Operation Dignity.
The operation, supposedly aimed at eliminating terror groups in the country, also allegedly displaced large numbers of civilians and earned Haftar many enemies in the country. And while the opposition may make things more difficult for Haftar domestically, his positioning against many of the factions in the war-torn country, some with alleged Islamist tendencies, may serve him well in gaining international support. That is, if the global community sees Haftar as the counterbalance to Islamists, which thus far Russia and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... appear to be at loggerheads on.
The American actions in Syria this week meanwhile have created an interesting dynamic for Hafar, who once saw U.S. President Donald Trump ― a fellow strongman seemingly willing to work with Moscow to fight terror ― as having goals that aligned well with his. With the strike against Assad, and a finger pointed at Russia, his backing is not so certain. So far Trump has yet to give a clear indication of where he stands on Libya. If he signals new allegiance with Russia in Libya, it could dramatically embolden and strengthen Haftar. But if Trump chooses to heed the European Union’s warnings and continue to engage in the Middle East based on his Syria policy shift, Haftar will have likely lost a needed supporter.
Libya’s Next Dictator?
But even with Putin as his ally, Hafar’s rise is not guaranteed.
The biggest unknown factor is whether the Benghazi Defense Brigade, or BDB, succeeds in recapturing Benghazi from Haftar’s forces after losing ground during his anti-Islamist Operation Dignity. As of now, it seems that this outcome will be determined by whether Libyan forces in the west will decide to participate even in this late stage of the conflict.
The relatively well-organized military resources in the west, especially in and around Misrata, could be decisive in ending Haftar’s role if they engage. Absent extensive air support of other outside intervention, they are in a position to trap and doom Haftar and his forces.
Defeating Haftar would have profound implications for the ongoing war in Libya and outside its borders. The largest impact could be that the U.N.-supported GNA government may finally move forward. Or, even better, with Haftar out of the political process, new leadership and a new political map could take shape. An ousted Haftar would also be a major win for his former champions in the West who continue to insist that the U.N.-sponsored agreement is the only way forward for Libya ― assuming the U.S., through Trump, continues to stand behind the U.N. approach.
But a loss for Haftar would also be a loss for those who most recently stood with him, namely Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and, of course, Russia and leave the question of who emerges as the next leader of Libya once again up in the air, something likely on the minds of those wondering who would end up in charge in Syria if Assad is toppled.
With so much hanging on what happens with Haftar in and around Benghazi, it’s also impossible to ignore the reality that a second Libyan revolutionary eruption may be imminent. With intense festivities in Tripoli becoming a regular occurrence, shifting alliances, an increasingly unpredictable U.S. and an emboldened Russia do not bode well for a future democracy.
Those who have long sought freedom and democracy in Libya have an increasingly shrinking window of opportunity to set the country on a bright path. To maximize it, they must consolidate their forces, devise a comprehensive strategy and move with determination and speed to put down the man who has been nothing but an impediment to this country. Ultimately though, that outcome will be largely determined by what others do. Without foreign support, Haftar is nothing more than a paper tiger. With it, he may turn out to be something else altogether.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#4
On the subject of Libya, does anybody have any verification of story in Drudge's link? migrants as slaves The only buyers mentioned are prisons.
Posted by: James ||
04/11/2017 10:52
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Those who have long sought freedom and democracy in Libya have an increasingly shrinking window of opportunity to set the country on a bright path. To maximize it, they must consolidate their forces, devise a comprehensive strategy and move with determination and speed to put down the man who has been nothing but an impediment to this country.
Good grief - we're talking 'Arabs'. And Berbers, who aren't far behind.
[Iraq News] An Iraqi army commander has said his forces completed "two thirds" of its mission against 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.... turbans in western djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... by Monday as troops invaded more districts to clear the region from the myrmidons.
Abdul-Ghani al-Assadi, commander of the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Forces, said his forces completed "two thirds" of missions assigned to them as part of the Mosul liberation campaign. He said in statements that his forces took over 28 districts out of 38 on their targets list.
Earlier on Monday, the special operations command at the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Forces said they invaded al-Sekak district. Its senior commander, Maan al-Saadi, was quoted by Almirbad news website saying troops were positioning at the heart of the district, engaging in intense fights with IS myrmidons.
Iranian channel al-Alam’s website said the ICTF became closer to the nearby al-Abar district.
Iraqi government forces, backed by paramilitary troops and a U.S.-led coalition, recaptured eastern Mosul from IS in January after three months of fighting, and launched another offensive mid February to retake the western region.
Troops have been struggling to fully retake central Mosul’s Old City, a densely-populated and structured area which military generals view as vital for victory over IS in that region. They specifically eye the area’s Grand Nuri Mosque where IS supreme leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... proclaimed the group’s takeover of Iraq in 2014.
Maj. Gen. Najm al-Jubouri, head of the Joint Operations Command’s Mosul operations, said in statements last week that his troops became in control over 90 percent of the "western axis", and continue to advance in central Mosul.
Several foreign big shots from the group have been killed in Arclight airstrikes and ground offensives in western Mosul over the past week.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Iraq News] A group of gunnies on Sunday shot up the convoy of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Governor Nofal Hammadi al-Sultan in eastern Mosul, but the official survived the liquidation attempt.
Iraqi Army Colonel Ahmad al-Jubouri told Anadolu Agency that the attack was foiled after his bodyguards engaged the assailants.
No casualties were reported and there has been no claim of responsibility as well.
Eastern Mosul is the area where the Iraqi forces earlier in January announced it as fully liberated from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ; however, the murderous Moslem group continues challenging the stability in these areas by conducting assaults either on the armed forces or on the civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian government has reportedly entered into negotiations with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in a southern suburb of Damascus to concluded an evacuation deal.
According to reports, representatives from the Syrian Army and the Lebanese Hezbollah have made their way ‐ last Saturday ‐ into the Nusra-controlled parts of Yarmouk Refugee Camp in the southern outskirts of the capital to arrange an agreement whereby Islamic turbans will be safely transported to the northwestern province of Idlib, in return to handing over the districts they control to the Syrian authorities.
The same reports disclosed that ISIS has offered HTS turbans to fully lift the siege imposed on the latter’s neighborhoods of the Camp, in addition to provide all supplies needed if the HTS refrains from surrendering their territories to the Syrian government and its allied Paleostinian factions.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham ‐formerly known as 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 ‐ has been engaged in fierce fighting with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... turbans in the afflicted Paleostinian Refugee camp. the festivities killed dozens from both sides and further exacerbated the already-deteriorated situation in the Camp.
Thousands of turbans in and around Damascus have been evacuated to Idlib as per agreements with the Syrian government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[ALMASDARNEWS] Dozens of civilian caught attempting to flee the ISIS-held city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in northern Iraq were killed by the terror group before their bodies were hanged on the city’s electricity poles in a clear message to warn others.
Eyewitnesses reported that some of the mutilated bodies remained there for days before given a proper burial.
More than 300,000 civilians have fled Mosul since the Iraqi Army and Popular Mobilization Forces began a wide-scale offensive to liberate the ISIS-controlled city.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) jacket wallahs that targeted the St. George Church in the Egyptian city of Tanta on Sunday had fought in Syria prior to committing yesterday’s terrorist attack.
The first suicide bomber, Abu Ishaq al-Masri, was an Egyptian national that traveled to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in late 2013 to fight alongside ISIS in northern Syria; he would later return to the Sinai Peninsula in 2014, Egyptian Ministry of Defense reported on Monday.
The second suicide bomber, Abu al-Bara’a al-Masri, was also an Egyptian national that traveled to Syria, via Leb, to jihad alongside one of the krazed killer groups fighting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies; he would return to Egypt in 2014, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Messages on his phone included ’concrete instructions’ for building bomb.
A 16-year-old Syrian refugee was convicted in Germany Monday of planning a kaboom on behalf of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group and sentenced to two years’ juvenile detention.
The regional court in the western city of Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... said in a statement that the defendant was found guilty of plotting "a serious act of violence threatening state security."
The teenager, who was not identified by the court, was incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... at an asylum shelter in Cologne in September and went on trial in February.
Police had said the suspect’s mobile phone showed he had been in touch with an IS contact abroad and expressed willingness to carry out a bombing.
Investigators found online chat messages on the phone that included "concrete instructions" for building an bomb.
However the court found that the plot was thwarted at a "very early stage." "At no time was the public specifically in danger," it said.
The teenager and his family were among the nearly 900,000 migrants colonists and refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015, a record influx that has fueled security concerns.
The suspect was brought to police attention after residents and employees at the refugee shelter where he was staying voiced concerns that he had been radicalized, as did a local mosque.
The court found that the "particular loneliness" of his housing situation at the shelter meant that he spent most of his time on his mobile phone, making him easy prey for jihadist propaganda online.
In its ruling Monday, the court accepted the prosecution's claim that the teen received bomb-making instructions from a person in Israel with ties to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[DAWN] IN a country with a more assured sense of identity and its place in the world, Malala Yousafzai ...a Pashtun blogger and advocate for girls' education from Mingora, in Swat. She is esteemed as an ambassador of international good will, even though she can't go home lest some fellow in a turban shoots her in the head again... ’s latest accolade would have been cause for an outpouring of national pride. After all, being appointed a UN Messenger of Peace, the highest honour that can be bestowed by the UN secretary general, is no mean feat -- even for a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the youngest ever laureate to boot. This time around too, Malala, now 19, is the youngest ever messenger of peace, and the first Pak designated as such. To appreciate the enormity of this achievement, consider some of the distinguished high-achievers currently on the list: among them, astronaut Scott Kelly, anthropologist Jane Goodall and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Why then the deafening silence from the government and the churlish lack of acknowledgement from most of Malala’s fellow citizens -- who do not hesitate to play up the Pak connections, however nebulous, of people with far less consequential achievements?
Therein lies a clue to our society’s contrariness and the confoundedly perverse lens through which it views the world, indeed to the self-fulfilling prophecy of its perpetual victimhood. For Malala was an advocate for education long before she was shot in the head by a TTP bully boy in October 2012 when she was 14; she had even won a certain degree of international recognition for her courageous activism. But the attack, which required her to be flown to the UK for treatment, elevated her global profile exponentially. It was then, inexplicably, that perceptions about her in her country began to shift. The more praise she garnered from world leaders -- which increasingly became the case given that her brush with death did nothing to deter her from tirelessly campaigning for universal education -- the more reviled she became at home. Though but a child, she was labelled a ’Western agent’, a ’traitor’, ’anti-Islam’ etc. The malevolence directed at her since then has been such that Malala who should have been the pride of Pakistain, is forced to live in self-exile, the threat to her life in her country very real and ever-present. Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, there was another kaboom... her Malala Fund continues doing laudable work for girls’ education in several African and Middle Eastern countries. And also in Pakistain, whose people sadly do not have the clear-headedness to see this remarkable young woman for what she is: an eloquent force for good in an increasingly violent world.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Or a pathetic excuse for people who refuse to recognize reality?
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf inserted several hidden references in X-men comic
Included references to passages of the Koran and Muslim protests from Jakarta
Marvel has said it will take disciplinary action against the artist Ardian Syaf
Syaf defended himself saying: 'I don't hate Jews or Christians, I worked with them for 10 years. A lot of good friends too. For all that happened I apologize'
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I worked with them for 10 years. A lot of good friends too.
OMG, could he have used a more cliched racist cliche?
Will all the BLM and SJW crybullies now jump all over this Muzzie artist and Marvel?
BTW isn't drawing human figures forbidden in Islam?
#5
From a comment in Sir Richard Burton's Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah the pre-Islam witchcraft involved using pictures of creatures and people in casting spells. He had to cut up his sketches and hide them in folded/rolled-up form in his bandages and other kit.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Hezbollah’s Media Relations released a statement on Sunday that offered condolences to the Egyptian people and to the families of the Coptic Christians killed in the Tanta terrorist attack.
"This continuous and escalating killings carried out by criminal gangs in the name of religion is one of the greatest catastrophes our Ummah (nation) has been witnessing," the statement read.
The Lebanese organization accused major powers and regional countries for aiding terrorist groups specifically disrupting the peace between the heterogeneous religious entities in the Middle East.
Hezbollah stressed that targeting Christians in their place of worship is a savage act that deviates away from the teachings in the Koran.
"This crime is part of a large scheme to displace Christians from the Sinai Peninsula and other areas across Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Leb, paving the way for sectarian and ethnic federalization in favor of the Zionist entity," Hezbollah warned.
Hezbollah concluded by reaffirming its support for the Egyptian people and peace inside the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#2
Following on from my comment on another topic, Hezbollah get that there is no mileage in antagonizing the West or Western friendly states like Egypt.
When you are fighting an enemy, don't go out of your way to find a new enemy.
[AL] Lawyers for Gov. Robert Bentley spent much of the day negotiating with prosecutors, and sources said the governor will step down this afternoon. Bentley's accused of having had an extramarital affair. He's an R.
The governor was scheduled to meet with his staff before any announcement is made.
Prosecutors with the Alabama Attorney General's office filed documents in Montgomery County Circuit Court, but the clerk would not immediately release them.
It is believed Bentley will plead guilty to lesser charges and resign to avoid stiffer penalties.
Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey is likely to be sworn in as governor tonight.
Bentley has been under fire for the better part of the year but pressure over the last several days has mounted to untenable heights.
The Alabama Ethics Commission last week found reason to believe he committed four crimes, all of them felonies.
If he agrees to a deal it is thought he will have to plead to at least a misdemeanor.
Leaders of his party, along with the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House, have demanded he resign.
Yasamie August, the governor's spokeswoman, said:
"The Governor is not personally involved in any negotiations."
It is possible that Bentley, who has changed his mind often during his term, could change his mind.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/11/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He has resigned.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/11/2017 7:19
Comments ||
Top||
#2
This is the guy who said he couldn't vote for Trump because of something Trump said in private years ago.
Alabama should be hailed as the only state to have the moral authority to force out the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Speaker of the House, and the Governor in a year, each for abusing the authority of his office.
America is a better place when corrupt politicians get the boot. Look at your state politicians, and I bet all y'all wish you lived in a state as ethical as Alabama.
#9
America is a better place when corrupt politicians get the boot. Look at your state politicians, and I bet all y'all wish you lived in a state as ethical as Alabama. Posted by rammer
Removal from office and a prison sentence are pretty much mandatory in Illinois.
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.
Havre resident Scott Dion felt he was getting screwed on his taxes.
Senate 
Cases of the parasite that can worm their way inside a human's head have risen significantly in Hawaii
[Mirror] Vladimir Putin
[Breitbart] Miami (AFP) ‐ US health authorities on Monday studied the remains of a dead bat discovered inside a prepackaged salad mix sold in Florida for possible traces of the deadly rabies virus.
[REUTERS] An investigation by Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) board laid blame for the company's unauthorized accounts scandal on a high-pressure sales culture and a retail executive obsessed with stamping out negative views about her division.
[CNN] This was an eventful week for two government institutions, the Supreme Court and Senate. More than a year after Justice Antonin Scalia's death, the high court will on Monday finally return to a full complement of nine justices. But the confirmation of the newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, happened only after the Senate decided, on a party-line vote, to exercise the "nuclear option" and remove filibusters for Supreme Court nominations.
Somali pirates
[WASHINGTONPOST] Colorado appeals court judge Neil M. Gorsuch took his oaths to be the Supreme Court’s 113th justice Monday morning, first in a private ceremony at the court and later at a Rose Garden ceremony with the man who nominated him, President Trump.
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least nineteen 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least two people working with the Anti-Corruption Judicial Center were 
[Iraq News] al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia announced, on Monday, detonating ten vehicles carrying equipment, belonging to the 
[REUTERS] Niger security forces killed 57 members of Islamist
[IsraelTimes] Raid comes hours after IS affiliate fires rocket into Negev; Israel on alert amid warnings of terror attacks from peninsula.
[NBCNEWS] The CEO of United Airlines apologized to customers on Monday following an incident on an overbooked flight where video appeared to show an elderly man being dragged from his seat and through the aisle of a plane.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A professor who specializes in religious studies at University of 
[DW] Nearly 1.2 million people have applied for asylum in Germany in the last two years. As the country struggles to integrate the newcomers, it faces another daunting task: of tackling crimes committed by refugees.
[IsraelTimes] Army also confiscates machinery from workshop believed to have been used for making firearms.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[IsraelTimes] Messages on his phone included ’concrete instructions’ for building 
[DAWN] IN a country with a more assured sense of identity and its place in the world, 
[AL] Lawyers for Gov. Robert Bentley spent much of the day negotiating with prosecutors, and sources said the governor will step down this afternoon.
