"NO"
ISIS widow Sally Jones desperately wants to return home to the UK ‐ but can't because leaders of the terror group won't let her go, according to a new report.
After marrying her ISIS hubby Junaid Hussain, Jones became a top terror recruiter in Raqqa, Syria, and was implicated in two plots to kill innocent Americans.
As a couple, they were dubbed "Mr. and Mrs. Terror." But since Hussain was killed by a US drone in 2015, Jones has been hiding out in hopes of one day returning home to Kent, England. "NO"
"She was crying and wants to get back to Britain but ISIS is preventing her because she is now a military wife," another military wife, identified only as Aisha, told SkyNews. "She told me she [wishes] to go to her country." "FOAD"
"She lost her husband in a battle last year. She has one boy," Aisha added, referring to Jones' 12-year-old son, a child fighter who is believed to carry out executions. Such a great family
Before Jones became a terrorist, whose nom de guerre is Umma Hussain al Britani, she was a guitarist in an all-girl punk rock band called Krunch.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2017
15:57 ||
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#1
Got this feeling the Brits don't want her (aka Mrs. Terror).
[USA Today] Since my son is about to start basic training with the U.S. Marine Corps, I have been thinking lately about honor, courage and commitment -- the core values of the Marines. Citizen soldiers have fought for freedom and democracy since April 1775, when the local Massachusetts militias first confronted the most feared army of its day at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Few could have imagined that a rag-tag army of irregulars and citizen soldiers could bring the British Empire to its knees and win independence for this fledgling democracy. Even more astonishing is the fact that 242 years later, the Republic has not only survived, but it has become the greatest and most powerful nation on earth.
Like several generations of his forefathers who have served their country before him, my son will soon raise his right hand along with many other patriotic young men and women, and solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. They will come from all backgrounds, races, colors and creeds, but the one thing they have in common is a devotion to their country and a willingness to fight and -- if necessary -- die for it.
Unfortunately, the spirit of public service and self-sacrifice appears to be waning. Few of my son’s classmates seem to be attracted to government service, such as the Peace Corp or VISTA, and almost none are signing up for military service.
I am saddened, but not surprised. How can we expect our younger generation to follow the call of honor, duty and dedication to the common good when they can plainly see that our country’s elected leaders are driven more by craven self-interest and egotism?
Our young men and women must be deeply concerned about the direction in which our country is going. Is it still worth fighting and dying for? They must have some doubts.
The gulf between the very rich and the rest of us in America has widened over the past several decades. More and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet, and as they see the American dream rapidly fading, they are increasingly turning in despair and desperation to alcohol and opiates. No longer is a good education and hard work a sure ticket to participation in the American dream. The only guarantee now is that you will be paying off your student loans for the rest of your working life.
#1
With the libs controlling the education system and God and the Pledge kicked out of the schools no wonder. Many don't know civics nor the proud history of America as it isn't being taught. I pray that Trump is able to turn this around. God bless our military for their honor, courage and commitment to our country.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/04/2017 14:19
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#3
Eight years of President Obama's loathing and misuse of the military has had an effect. President Trump has only been in office a few months, and the traditional media have been ignoring his successes as hard as they can the entire time. But as the stories come out despite them, the attitude will change.
I just read yesterday that the first of the post-Millennial generation was able to vote last Novemer, and they went for Trump. The article described the rising generation as considerably more conservative than their elders, habitually church-going, frugal, patriotic...and accustomed to the idea of being at war. They are also just reaching the age when they can volunteer, and won't have been warned away from the career by their elders who served, as so many of those at the tail end of the Millennials have been, these past eight years.
#4
Eight years of President Obama's loathing and misuse of the military has had an effect.
Only good for photo opportunity. To understand the Left, they perceive the military as nothing more than mercenaries. Which is why they don't understand that the military will NOT follow them to the man in a coup or a suppression of the country. There would be some but I expect any such act would sunder the institution rather quickly.
It's rather old by now like me, but a study during my time showed there were lots of competing reasons for enlisting. No one was overwhelming. However, when it came to the first reenlistment and on, patriotism jumped up the list. It's part of the spirit of the tribe, which ever one you picked.
HT The Muqata on FB
Israeli Border Guard Police officers prevented a deadly terrorist attack mid-afternoon Tuesday after spotting six suspicious-looking occupants in a vehicle coming up to the Mazmoria checkpoint on the outskirts of southern Jerusalem, leading to Gush Etzion.
The front and rear license plates on the car did not match. Moreover, the driver had no identification card at all – neither a green Palestinian Authority ID, nor an Israeli blue teudat zehut car either – and refused to answer any questions when asked. In fact, not one of the six occupants of the vehicle had any identification with them.
At that point, personnel at the checkpoint proceeded to carry out a full-scale, thorough search of the vehicle. The soldiers uncovered a number of firebombs (Molotov cocktails) – two of them already prepared for operation – two shock (stun) grenades hidden within the car, and a bag with five sharp knives, making it clear that a major terrorist operation was underway.
The would-be terrorists, all Arab residents of the Palestinian Authority, were all taken into custody and transferred to security personnel for interrogation
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2017
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claims figures of 930 Km range and 2500 Km altitude... aren't these numbers swapped?
The article keeps speaking of altitudes in the few thousand Km, which seems odd, and I wondered if it's constantly confusing range and altitude figures.
According to Wikipedia ("Flight phases"), a typical ICBM would reach an apogee of 1200 Km (which is 12 times over the Karman line, and still seems pretty high to me).
Numbers are correct - missiles are sometimes launched on lofted trajectory in order not to openly announce their range for diplomatic reasons
In this case (Hwasong-14) estimated max range puts in into ICBM category
#3
Flying it almost straight up proves pretty much nothing but that the fuel doesn't explode or flame out in thin air. 5000 Km navigation is something entirely else.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/04/2017 11:39
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#4
Maybe Kimmie has forgotten who exactly is President now?
Here's a hint, Kimmie - it ain't Bambi.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/04/2017 13:27
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#5
It also proves it can survive the harshest expected reentry conditions.
"North Korea appeared to use a Chinese truck originally sold for hauling timber to transport and erect a ballistic missile that was successfully launched on Tuesday, highlighting the challenge of enforcing sanctions to curb its weapons program.
North Korea state television showed a large truck painted in military camouflage carrying the missile. It was identical to one a U.N. sanctions panel has said was "most likely" converted from a Chinese timber truck.
Since 2006, U.N. sanctions have banned the shipment of military hardware to North Korea. But control of equipment and vehicles that have "dual-use" military and civilian applications has been far less stringent.
The vehicle was imported from China and declared for civilian use by the North Korean foreign ministry, according to a 2013 report by the U.N. panel. Tuesday's launch was the first time the truck had been seen in a military field operation in pictures published in state media.
China, North Korea's largest trading partner and its sole major ally, is under increasing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said Chinese efforts to rein in North Korea's weapons programs have failed.
The truck had been previously on display at military parades in 2012 and in 2013 carrying what experts said appeared to be developmental models or mock-ups of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles."
...
[Townhall] For most Americans, Independence Day means firecrackers and cookouts. The Declaration of Independence--whose proclamation, on July 4, 1776, we celebrate--doesn't feature. Contemporary Americans are less likely to read it now that it’s easily available on the Internet, than when it relied on horseback riders for its distribution.
It is fair to say that the Declaration of Independence has been mocked out of meaning.
Back in 1776, gallopers carried the Declaration through the country. Printer John Dunlap had worked "through the night" to set the full text on "a handsome folio sheet," recounts historian David Hackett Fischer in Liberty And Freedom. And the president of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, urged that the "people be universally informed." (They were!)
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration, called it "an expression of the American Mind." An examination of Jefferson's constitutional thought makes plain that he would no longer consider the collective mentality of contemporary Americans and their leaders (Rep. Ron Paul excepted) "American" in any meaningful way. For the Jeffersonian mind was that of an avowed Whig--an American Whig whose roots were in the English, Whig political philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Come to think of it, Jefferson would not recognize England as the home of the Whigs in whose writings colonial Americans were steeped--John Locke, Algernon Sidney, Paul Rapin, Thomas Gordon and others.
The essence of this "pattern of ideas and attitudes," almost completely lost today, explains David N. Mayer in The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson, was a view of government as an inherent threat to liberty and the necessity for eternal vigilance.
#2
It is fair to say that the Declaration of Independence has been mocked out of meaning.
Maybe, but I think there are many patriots within the country who value the principles of the Founders. The founders and signers of the Declaration of Independence showed much courage. There was great risk in doing what they did. "In doing so, they knew the signers were inviting a declaration of war by England. They knew that, they would be deemed traitors, they would be possibly forfeiting all their possessions and maybe their lives to the crown. In signing the document, they were putting bounties on their own heads.
How many would be willing to forfeit everything today if push came to shove. Today, the threats appear to be more from within than from without.
[National Review] Europeans are realizing that their immigration policy is unsustainable.
The migration crisis that has been central to the European political drama since 2014 is rapidly changing. You can see signs of change everywhere, from subtle intensifications of bureaucratic language to an increasing frankness about what the migration crisis has done to Europe’s nations and societies.
It also shows up in the numbers. The overall rate of migration into Europe is starting to decline, but the number of migrants who are dying in their attempt is going up. But you can see it most of all in the willingness of European leaders to tell the truth.
Just in the past ten days, you can see a shift. European Council president Donald Tusk admitted that most of the people coming in have no right to do so: "In most of the cases, and that is actually the case on the central Mediterranean route, we’re talking clearly and manifestly about economic migrants." He added, "They get to Europe illegally, they do not have any documents which would allow them to enter the European soil."
In other words, these primarily aren’t refugees fleeing war, they’re economic migrants, who are coming in to countries along the southern Mediterranean that already suffer massive unemployment. The reality is sinking in within the member states as well. Aydan Ozoguz,
... who has a very Turkish name...
the German commissioner for immigration, refugees, and integration, admitted this week that three-quarters of the refugees Germany took in recently will still be unemployed in five years.
[FOX] The Canadian government will apologize and give millions to a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15, an official said Tuesday.
An official familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that Omar Khadr
...full name Omar Ahmed Sayid Khadr, he is a scion of a family so radical that the Pakistanis arrested his father in 1995 for terrorism...
will receive $8 million. The deal was negotiated with Khadr’s lawyers and the Canadian government last month.
Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops
...in 2002...
following a firefight at a suspected Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of U.S. Special Forces medic, U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr, who was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer,
...among other warlike actions in accordance with his training...
was taken to Guantanamo and ultimately charged with war crimes by a military commission.
The Canadian-born Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentences to eight years plus the time he had already spent in custody.
Actually, the GITMO military tribunal prosecutor asked for 25 years. The jury sentenced him to 40. President Obama's Pentagon Chief War Crimes Prosecutor, Navy Capt. John F. Murphy, clearly had his marching orders to settle the plea deal before the jury began deliberations, though it was not announced until after they had left the room, according to our archives.
He returned to Canada two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress.
The Canadian Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that Canadian intelligence obtained evidence from Khadr under "oppressive circumstances," such as sleep deprivation, during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay in 2003, and then shared that evidence with U.S officials.
But the apology and payout was made as Pretty Boy Trudeau dances around the prime minister's office, not on Stephen Harper's watch.
#2
Is this one of the Gitmo detainees who Obama released? Was he then sent to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence under Trudeau? Trudeau and Obama are birds of the same feather--terrible. Will Speer's widow and the other soldier who was blinded in the same attack get the $8 million that Khadr receives since they sued for $20 million for harm and injuries?
#1
We have the good fortune to live in the greatest country in the world. Happy Fourth of July, the Day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia proclaiming the independence and sovereignty of the thirteen colonies from the kingdom of Great Britain.
What would you call it? "Happy Fireworks Day"? "Happy grilled hamburger and hotdog day"? Happy let's be a liberal and "Ignore the meaning of Independence Day"?
Oh wait, since you're not an American, I guess you would call it "Happy death to America Day"?
#10
Iggy, I don't know the 'Burgers personally, but I've lurked here quite a bit, for quite a while. Trust me, they're on this. You're heckling Cagney playing Cohan singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" for saying "born on the 4th of July" instead of "born on Independence Day." Happy whichever, though!
[Aljazeera] US-backed forces in Syria have breached the wall surrounding the Old City of Raqqa as they try to retake the city from the ISIL, the US Central Command said.
"Coalition forces supported the SDF advance into the most heavily fortified portion of Raqqa by opening two small gaps in the Rafiqah Wall that surrounds the Old City," Centcom said in a statement on Monday night, referring to the Syrian Democratic Forces.
US-backed fighters pierced Raqqa from the south for the first time on Sunday, crossing the Euphrates River to enter a new part of the Syrian city, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have spent months closing in on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) group's stronghold and entered the city's east and west for the first time last month.
In the fighting at the wall, US Central Command said the Kurdish-led SDF fighters faced heavy resistance from ISIL fighters, who used the wall as a combat position and planted mines and improvised explosive devices against advancing US-backed soldiers.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
07/04/2017
06:10 ||
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[Daily Caller] Duke University admitted Sunday that it used manipulated and completely fabricated data about respiratory illnesses to obtains grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, among other agencies.
Internal investigators at the school believe that former lab technician Erin Potts-Kant falsified or fabricated data for medical research reports, attorneys for Duke said in response to a federal whistleblower lawsuit against the school. Potts-Kant told investigators that she faked data that wound up being "included in various publications and grant applications."
Former analyst Joseph Thomas alleged in a recent lawsuit that the university ignored warning signs about Potts-Kant’s work and tried to cover up the fraud, but the university denies there were warning signs. The lawsuit contends that all the work Potts-Kant did in her eight years at Duke was fabricated, and that the bogus data was done through grants worth $112.8 million to Duke and $120.9 million to other universities in North Carolina.
#2
...As a wise man once said, "Follow the money."
$233,700,000 of our tax dollars would NEVER have been spent unless the labs and the assistants and the Eminent Scientists(TM) kept coming up with the big, splashy, terrifying, we're-all-gonna-die results. And by the same token, the EPA cannot keep its status, influence and most importantly, power, unless it keeps handing out money looking for problems to solve...which, coincidentally, never seem to get solved.
And g(r)omguru speaks wisdom as always - it's always the lab assistant. Which, of course, is bullshiat. The scientists in charge know full well what is going on - you cannot get results that consistent and so precisely 'in the zone' that quickly without some kind of fudging. In a perfect world, someone in DC would immediately ban Duke and Other Universities from any Federal research grants for a few years or so. That would get attention.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/04/2017 6:08
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#3
Well, the EPA and Obumble wanted a certain result so they government could leverage more power away from the people and the lab delivered what the government paid for.
#3
Things you may or may not know about the 4th:
1. Only two people actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson, secretary of Congress. Most of the other signers did so on August 2nd.
2. There were disagreements about when to actually celebrate our nation’s independence. John Adams advocated for a celebration on July 2nd, which was the day Congress actually voted for independence.
3. Three U.S. presidents died on the Fourth of July. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe. Ironically, Adams and Jefferson both died on the holiday in 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the independent United States.
4. In 1778, George Washington chose to celebrate the holiday with his soldiers by ordering a double ration of rum.
5. Break out the grill, you wont be the only one! Americans eat around 155 million hot dogs on the fourth every single year. We also spend $92 million on chips, $167.5 million on watermelon, and $341.4 million on beer.
The Horn News. https://thehornnews.com/5-little-known-fourth-july-facts-will-leave-shocked/
Seems like booze was and is an important part of celebrations of the 4th.
[PJ] WASHINGTON ‐ Former White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett argued that the legislative process for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was "open and honest" and "all very transparent" compared to the GOP’s healthcare bill.
Jarrett slammed the Trump administration for not effectively "marketing" Obamacare to get more Americans to sign up for coverage.
"I mean, we had hundreds of meetings. We made hundreds of amendments. It was all very transparent. We invited the Republicans in for an open press session to answer all of their questions. It was a collaborative effort. The intent was to make it bipartisan and the intent was to be open and honest with the American people. Our scoring was put out for everybody to see because we wanted people to understand, before a decision was made, what was at stake and what we were trying to accomplish," Jarrett said during a Democrats Live event on Wednesday evening.
"Right now, everyone was scurrying around this week to read a very long and complicated bill, and the question you have to say was, ’if they’re proud of it, why were they hiding it behind closed doors?’ And my real hot-button was why were 13 men in a room deciding about healthcare that impacts my life? You have 21 women in the Senate. They couldn’t have picked one of those women to be there?" she added.
Jarrett criticized the Republican effort to roll back the Obamacare requirement that all health insurance plans cover maternity care.
"If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful."
~ Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, Net worth 82.5B USD.
#4
When a large business is failing you see them closing 'non productive' stores (See - Sears et al). How many counties are now without Obamacare exchanges? Reality is something beyond the comprehension of the Left (See - Venezuela)
#6
Pardon me while I try to stop this nose bleed that reading her drivel gave me.
Can you freaking believe the gall of this woman, with all of the behind closed door stuff that has come out about how they deliberately lied to Congress, the American people, and to each other to pass a "health care reform" bill that is essentially a major payoff to the health insurance industry and so full of contradictory clauses that it has essentially petrified the health care industry and caused health care costs to freaking SOAR to astronomical new levels.
SO the CBO says that the new bill will cause 22 million to lose coverage. Okay Obamaboys, how many are going to lose coverage THIS DAMN YEAR as insurance companies continue to abandon exchanges.
The original bill was foisted off on us as a way to cover 32 million people who did not have health coverage, never mind that almost half of those did so because they were affluent or were very young and didn't seem to want it. The net result, which no one in the media will say, is that MORE people are without coverage NOW than before Obumblecare was passed. Millions lost coverage under sweetheart deal exemptions, millions more abandoned coverage because the mandatory coverages made it too expensive, and millions more lost what coverage they had before Obumblecare because their companies couldn't afford it.
#7
"Our scoring was put out for everybody to see because we wanted people to understand, before a decision was made, what was at stake and what we were trying to accomplish"
Jonathan Gruber was curiously unavailable for comment, as was Ben Rhodes.
#9
Hey, Obamacare sells itself. If Trump cannot get a deal through congress, then congress, the whole lot of them, can hang the Obamatross from their necks, just like the Ancient Mariner. And do some kind of penance.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/04/2017 13:52
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#10
She's right. They were "all very transparent". The law wasn't and they were known liars
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2017 13:58
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#11
I'm not interested in one goddamn thing any member of the Obama administration has to say unless its under oath while being questioned by a Federal prosecutor.
[Victory Girls] Celebrate Fourth of July, this year, as the Founding Fathers intended it to be celebrated. As you celebrate the day, remember Staff Sergeant Patrick Hamburger who died with 37 other military personnel aboard Extortion 17. Now I know you are thinking, "Hello, we just did Memorial Day." Stay with me on this train of thought for just a minute and you will see why it makes so much sense.
Our Founding Fathers (Sorry to be sexist but, there it is.) were extraordinary ordinary men. Men who were called on to stand up and stand out. We have been blessed that every succeeding generation has found us a few of these extraordinary ordinary men.
#1
Thank you Besoeker for this post. It is the extraordinary such as SSG Hamburger as well as the ordinary men and women of this country who make it great. Thanks to them.
#2
I had to look this up. I don't recall this from back then, thanks mostly to our MSM wonderful coverages.
Extortion 17
On 6 August 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook military helicopter, Call Sign "Extortion 17," was shot down while transporting a quick reaction force attempting to reinforce an engaged unit of Army Rangers in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan.[6][7] The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board—25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, and one Afghan interpreter—as well as a U.S. military working dog.[8][9][10][11] It is considered the worst loss of American lives in a single incident in the Afghanistan campaign, surpassing Operation Red Wings in 2005.
[Bloomberg] American factories powered up in June at the fastest pace in nearly three years, with robust advances in production, orders and employment that indicate a firming in the economy, data from the Institute for Supply Management showed Monday.
Faster growth in orders and production in the final month of the quarter indicates solid demand that, together with rising exports, shows manufacturing is on solid footing. The ISM’s pulse of employment in the industry also indicates the government’s measure of factory payrolls, released as part of the Labor Department’s jobs report on Friday, will rebound in June after declining a month earlier.
The expansion was broad based, with 15 of 18 industries surveyed by the purchasing managers’ group posting growth in June. They included machinery, transportation equipment, computer and electronic products, and petroleum and coal products. The three reporting contractions were apparel, textile mills and primary metals.
[AmGreatness] Trump’s strongest supporters are sometimes the most anxious critics of his tweeting--not because his is a failing presidency bordering on caricature, but because it is adroitly unwinding the Obama transformation. But why, then, the need to go after failed media has-beens without an audience?
Of course, tweeting commentary and news over the heads of a corrupt Washington media pack is innovative and wise--and to some degree got Trump where he is today by reinventing communications with the public. But burning time ridiculing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s failed "Celebrity Apprentice" gambit or, more recently, the psychodramas and daily inanities of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski seems a misspent investment of energy.
Yet that said, there are lots of uncertainties about consequences of the latest round of Trump’s seemingly counterproductive tweets, right on the eve of the most important legislative challenges, health care and tax reform, of his young presidency--and at a time when he is regaining momentum, successfully engaging world leaders and issuing executive orders that are overturning the prior eight years of "fundamental transformation" of the country.
Continued on Page 49
[Ynet] Nine years ago, Teklit Michael fled Eritrea to avoid military conscription, survived a perilous journey across the Sinai peninsula entered Israel illegally
and sought asylum in Israel.
The 29-year-old Eritrean community organizer now works as a cook at a restaurant in south Tel Aviv--alone, without family and in legal limbo, awaiting a response to his asylum request.
Since May, Michael's life has faced another challenge with new tax rules that force his employer to put part of his salary in a fund he can access only if he leaves Israel.
He believes the aim of the new legislation, which applies only to African migrants who entered the country illegally and asylum seekers, is clear. mistranslation: it should be African migrants who entered the country illegally and seek asylum
#1
Migrant and failed community organizer flees from one of the oldest civilizations on the planet to one of the newest. Obviously military conscription and taxes were not the primary causes of his relocation. There must be more.
In honour of America's Independence Day, what some are now calling Brexit 1.0, a little something Fred wrote June 29, 2002.
Here I sat, no, not broken-hearted, but reading something awful about the shootout in Waziristan, when the phone rang. It was The Little Woman. "Honey," she said -- she always calls me Honey, 'cuz I'm so sweet -- "could you go to the store and get some hot dogs and chicken legs for dinner this evening?"
We have company this weekend, The Little Woman's Cousin David and his family, from Mississippi and Ohio. We're going to fire up the grill and do dawgs and chicken feet, so it'd be to our advantage to have some of each on hand. So I put on my yellow hat and got in The Little Blue Car and drove away. I noted on the way to the store that there were a lot of people sitting along side of the street in their beach chairs, but the store wasn't crowded and I soon had my yessir, yessir, three bags full, and headed for home.
I made it as far as the stop sign. 4th of July week is coming up, and it's the week -- yes, the entire week -- of the Riviera Beach Carnival, sponsored by the helpful fellows of Volunteer Company 13. And we start off the carnival in the traditional manner, with a real by-God American Firemen's Parade.
If you're a lover of firemen's parades, you know what I'm talking about. If you've never been to one, let me try to describe it. There is no purpose to a firemen's parade except to have a parade. It's not even, despite the 4th of July coming up, despite the flags on display, an especially patriotic event. Many places have theirs in August, or even in September. Usually a politician or two makes an appearance, but even that's not really necessary. What's essential is firetrucks: pumpers, ladder trucks, utility trucks, boats on their trailers, tankers, you name it. Fire companies from miles around send their trucks, polished and spiffy, to appear in The Big Parade. Manning them are the volunteer firemen, the guys who put in hours of training for the privilege of riding the trucks to fires and emergencies.
You can't have a parade with only trucks and ambulances and police cars, even though the visiting firemen blow their sirens and wave to people as they go by. So firemen's parades have a few marching bands from the local schools. And there are pom-pom girls. I love pom-pom girls. They range in age from pre-school to, I would guess, the upper reaches of junior high. There is no purpose to a pom-pom girl other than to look pleasant. They may have actual pom-poms or they may carry batons, but they serve no more useful purpose than a vase of flowers. I always want to hug them.
I say that firemen's parades aren't patriotic, but I mean that only in the national sense. They're an expression of a community's pride in itself. The hulking vehicles are our vehicles, paid for with a combination of tax dollars, bingo games, bake sales and teen dances. The guys manning them are our guys, guys and girls who live and work in the community and devote the time to doing the training, keeping up the trucks, and rushing to fires and emergencies. The marching bands are our kids, and the pom-pom girls our daughters. So we put them on display so we can admire ourselves. The trucks go by, lights flashing and sirens sounding. The bands march and play, often in tune. The pom-pom girls march, sometimes in step. Dogs bark, sing along with the sirens, and sometimes run alongside the trucks. Hat sellers and trinket salesmen will be happy to sell you things you don't need, but that you want because you don't want to forget that you went to the Big Parade. After the parade, the visiting firemen will drink beer out of plastic cups, swap stories, and flirt with the local girls.
There aren't any pom-pom girls in Waziristan. They might not even have any firetrucks. If they're really lucky, someday they might.
#1
I have this saved in my favorites. Periodically I reread it, because this, to me, is the underlying spirit of Amreica. We figure out what we need, and we arrange to get it done without waiting for the govrenment to do it for us -- and then we enjoy our achievement. Once we'd established our society on this basis, then the philosophers could explain why the divorce was necessary in the Declaration, and codify in the Constitution how we'd already organized ourselves to do things.
[AnNahar] Islamist gunnies led by one of the world's most wanted Lions of Islam still hold about 1,500 buildings in a southern Philippine city after weeks of ferocious fighting that has left hundreds dead, officials said Monday.
The Philippine military has struggled to expel scores of gunnies who rampaged across Marawi city on May 23 flying the black flag 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, despite day and night artillery and air strikes that have reduced swathes of the downtown area to rubble.
President Rodrigo Duterte last month vowed to "crush" the krazed killers, but several deadlines have already been missed to end a conflict that has left scores dead and forced some 400,000 people from their homes.
The gunnies are led by Isnilon Hapilon, one of the world's most desperados, who is believed to be still alive and holed up in a mosque, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told a news conference in Manila.
In the most detailed assessment yet, he conceded there was no saying when soldiers would be able to retake all 1,500 houses and buildings still held or booby-trapped by the krazed killers.
"Since it is urban fighting a lot of our troops there are not prepared. One can say they are learning as they fight in this built-up area," he said, adding that soldiers are battling street-to-street retaking up to a hundred buildings a day.
The military in Marawi suggested a slower rate, with soldiers recapturing 40 buildings on Saturday and 57 on Sunday.
"The clearing operation is difficult because of the presence of IEDs (improvised bombs), booby traps left behind by the terrorists," said the military front man for the campaign, Lieutenant-Colonel Jo-ar Herrera.
Eighty-two soldiers and police and 39 civilians have died in the weeks-long conflict, he said.
Around a hundred gunnies are still entrenched in the city and the army has said they have used a water route to bring in ammunition and evacuate maimed fighters, helping them withstand the military offensive for weeks. Some 300 gunnies are thought to have been killed so far.
Lorenzana said military commanders wanted a swift end to the operation, "but the enemy is also very wily and resourceful".
Duterte imposed martial law over the southern Philippines soon after the fighting started, saying he needed strong powers to snuff out an IS plot to carve out territory after battlefield losses in Iraq and Syria.
A botched government attempt to arrest Hapilon at a Marawi hideout touched off the fighting in May.
He is supported by Marawi-based gunnies led by the Maute brothers, whose group has pledged allegiance to IS, as well as several imported muscle, Lorenzana said.
#1
Supersonic overflights during night time hours. Play recordings of gunfire during all hours. Drive tanks and bulldozers down the streets. Visible overflights by RC drones. Hours of recordings of insulting the prophet and commentary about how he likes little girls and the like. Occasional raids at random locations.
They won't be able to sleep. It won't be long before they start making mistakes and dying in droves.
Just a plain vanilla political assassination plot.
[AnNahar] A man has been charged with plotting to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron at La Belle France's Bastille Day military parade which the French leader is set to attend with 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... , a judicial source said Monday.
The 23-year-old is a suspected far-right bully boy who told Sherlocks he wanted to kill Macron at the July 14 national day parade in Gay Paree, a source close to the investigation said.
He said he also wanted to attack "Moslems, Jews, blacks, homosexuals," the source added.
The 23 year old said he also wanted to attack "Muslims, Jews, blacks, homosexuals."
Police tossed in the calaboose Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! the man at his home on Wednesday in the northwest Gay Paree suburb of Argenteuil after being alerted by users of an internet chatroom where the suspect allegedly said he wanted to buy a firearm.
Three kitchen knives were found in his vehicle and analysis of his computer found that he had conducted internet searches as part of his plot, the source said.
Macron, La Belle France's youngest president at 39, invited Trump as his guest of honor for the July 14 parade which commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 -- the start of the French Revolution and a turning point in world history.
The two men have radically different political views and interests, but Macron appears intent on trying to build a relationship with the U.S. president and has warned against efforts to isolate him at a meeting of G20 nations this weekend.
The July 14 liquidation plot recalls the plot of "The Day of the Jackal", a book by spy writer Frederick Forsyth in which a hitman attempts to kill former French president Charles de Gaulle, the target of numerous real-life plots.
- Terror on Champs-Elysees -
Macron has frequently greeted crowds and discussed with protesters, but La Belle France remains in a state of emergency after a string of attacks since 2015.
The July 14 parade takes place on the Champs-Elysees, which has been the site of two recent attacks targeting police.
Late last month a man drove a car laden with weapons and gas canisters into a police van on the world-famous avenue.
In April, a known bully boyrubbed out a policeman on the Champs-Elysees just days before the first round of the presidential election.
The man arrested outside Gay Paree last week was charged on Saturday with plotting to commit a terrorist act, the judicial source said.
He had already been convicted in 2016 for condoning terrorism and sentenced to three years in prison, of which 18 months were suspended. He had applauded neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in 2011 in Norway.
[LawNewz] Comedian and actress Kathy Griffin has reportedly been interviewed by the U.S. Secret Service for more than an hour. The investigation is connected to a recent photograph which showed her holding the bloody head of Donald Trump.
Griffin’s attorney contends that the actress was just exercising her constitutional rights.
"She basically exercised her First Amendment rights to tell a joke," Dmitry Gorin, a criminal defense attorney representing Griffin said. "When you look at everything in the media, all the times entertainers make videos or express themselves in other ways, you’ve never seen an entertainer, let alone a comedian, be subject to a criminal investigation."
As we previously reported, don’t expect her to be arrested for the crude photo.
This revelation lead Obama ethics Czar Norm Eisen to tweet out this follow up question.
There is an exception for free speech that incites violence, but a judge would probably consider Griffin’s photo "crude political hyperbole." With that said, the investigation is still ongoing. "Fresh as a Flower in Just one Hour or maybe a little more."
#1
"She basically exercised her First Amendment rights to tell a joke,"
So let me get this straight. Kathy Griffin can "joke" about beheading Trump because she has the right to do so. The left is OK with this and thinks the right is ridiculous.
Trump, on the other hand, retweets a video of him body slamming "CNN" and the left deems him to be nuts and floats trial balloons about having him deposed because of this.
Nothing of course. The left belongs in *nothing*...other than a lust for power. They would (and will) sell out every single thing they pretend to stand for (other than abortion) so long as in doing so they imagine they are gaining more power.
They are the party that quite literally stands for *nothing*...only that THEY should be the ones pulling the strings.
#13
When you're in an interview room for 60 mins, and you and your lawyer spend 45 mins arguing about rights etc, they didn't question you for a hour. They questioned you for 15 mins.
The Secret Service has long (since Roosevelt) had 'enhanced' rules for questioning and interviews in the case of perceived threats to the President. For instance, No Knock warrants are quite usual in this context.
(Just as an aside, shouldn't someone with that complexion stay out of the sun? I mean, vampires and all...)
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07/04/2017 13:00
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This creature is the kind that is needy of validation and the sense of support, only then does she feel brave to act as if she has courage...the power of the act of interrogation is as much in the anxiety and anticipation of the interviewee as in the actual questioning, for this one, the projections about what might be, ruination, arrest, secrets discovered, would have been significant.
[IsraelTimes] Procession participants raise Paleostinian flags and block road to Old City, are dispersed by security forces.
Around 30 Paleostinians were said maimed and a police officer was lightly hurt during a funeral procession from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur toward the Old City on Sunday.
The funeral was for a 24-year-old East Jerusalem man who drowned in the Sea of Galilee on Friday and whose body was found by police naval search teams on Sunday morning.
Halfway through the funeral, protesters raised the Paleostinian flag, blocked the road to the Old City and threw stones at officers.
One officer was hit in the face and was treated by a medic at the scene, police said.
A police statement on Twitter said, "By order of the Jerusalem District police chief, a procession and funeral in East Jerusalem was dispersed when participants acted against public order."
The statement continued: "A number of suspects blocked the road and threw stones at police. An officer was hit in the face by a stone and is being cared for on site. The rioters were dispersed using riot-dispersal methods."
Paleostinian media reported some 30 funeral-goers were hurt, but there were no immediate details on the severity of their wounds.
Police said they have launched an investigation, and would identify those suspected of planning the protest.
Nine people were killed and dozens kidnapped after an attack in southeastern Niger by suspected members of Boko Haram, local authorities said Monday.
The attack happened Sunday night, between 2100-2200 GMT. “About 30 to 40 women and children were taken by the assailants,” local mayor Abari El Hadj Daouda told AFP, adding that Nigerien authorities were headed to the area to investigate.
The attack took place in Kabalewa, a village near the southeastern Niger city of Diffa, which is close to Nigeria — the second such attack in the village in a week.
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 kidnapped 37 women and slit the throats of nine other people at a village in southeastern Niger, the regional governor said Tuesday.
The attack happened on Sunday at the village of Ngalewa, near the border with Nigeria, the governor of Diffa region, Laouali Mahamane Dan Dano, told state TV.
"Boko Haram elements... slit the throats of nine people... they took women, 37 women, and departed with them," he said.
"The defence and security forces are already in pursuit, and we hope that in the coming days these women will be found and freed," he said.
The governor, who went to Ngalewa on Monday, said the village had been singled out because it was known for its resistance to the jihadists.
The assailants came by foot for greater stealth, he said.
The village lies a few kilometers (miles) north of the town of Kabalewa, where there was a suicide kaboom last Wednesday.
The attack on Sunday coincided with a visit to Niger's western neighbour Mali by French President Emmanuel Macron, aimed at boosting multinational efforts to fight jihadism in countries south of the Sahara.
The so-called G5 Sahel nations -- Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- plan to set up a regional force.
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[TIMESOFISRAEL] One of the most wanted Paleostinian terrorists, believed by Israeli intelligence to have planned the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in the summer of 2014, has moved to Leb after being expelled last month from Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is hosting Saleh al-Arouri in its Dahieh stronghold in southern Beirut, Channel 2 news reported Monday.
Citing unnamed Paleostinian sources, the television station said that Arouri and two other senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, figures have relocated to the Hezbollah-dominated neighborhood in the Lebanese capital, an area heavily protected with checkpoints on every access road.
On June 5, Paleostinian sources confirmed that Qatar -- which is embroiled in a boycott by Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and four other Arab states -- had asked several top Hamas officials to leave for Leb, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Malaysia.
A few days later, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman charged that Arouri had resettled in Leb, where he has been planning, along with two other activists, terror attacks against Israel.
During a meeting with visiting American UN Ambassador Nikki Haley ...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... , Liberman alleged that Arouri has also been attempting "to boost the relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah," the Shiite Lebanese militia, "under an Iranian umbrella, and with the assistance of the Revolutionary Guards and [its leader] Qassem Soleimani," according to a Hebrew-language statement from the Defense Ministry.
Leb is a "sovereign country" that maintains high-level bilateral ties with the United States, Liberman said, urging Washington to pressure Leb into expelling the three Hamas activists.
In its report Monday, Channel 2 said that Arouri may have chosen Beirut because the list of countries willing to host him are now limited and he fears Israel may try to exact Dire Revenge for the murder of the teenagers.
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At least 43 Taliban insurgents were killed in airstrikes and ground forces operations in Nawa district of southern Helmand province on Sunday night, the provincial governor’s office confirmed in a statement on Monday.
In addition, 27 other insurgents were wounded. The airstrikes and ground force operations were launched in three areas of Nawa with the support of foreign troops airstrikes in the district, according to the statement.
“Haji Ahmad, Faizi and Haqbeen, three Taliban commanders were also among the dead,” it said adding that “Zhar Sahed and Aynak area of Nawa has been cleared of Taliban.”
video at link - posted recently on youtube but filmed in 2015
these recruits are either simply not trying or they are more poorly coordinated than anything I've ever seen - notwithstanding this, some Afghan units do function well but a lot of units - well maybe they have guys like this
Posted by: lord garth ||
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Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/04/2017 13:42
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#4
This video goes a long way toward explaining the following: SAS in a fight. The good thing is that ISIS is not even quarter as well trained as the Afghan Border Police.
[AlAhram] A Giza criminal court sentenced on Monday 55 individuals to 15 years in prison and acquitted 31 others in the storming of Atfeeh cop shoppe in August 2013 following the dispersal of two major sit-ins supporting ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
The court also sentenced 31 people to five years in prison in the case.
The defendants were found guilty of using violence, rioting, possessing weapons and attacking public and private property.
The sentences can be appealed.
Following the dispersal of the sit-ins by police, rioters stormed cop shoppes and burned a number of churches.
Hundreds of people have been convicted in similar cases since 2013.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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Mosul (IraqiNews.com) More than 70 bodies, likely to be killed while attempting to flee the Islamic State’s grip, were found in the northwest of Mosul’s Old City, an informed medical source said.
Ambulance and forensic medicine doctors recovered 74 bodies that were on streets in al-Zanjili district, northwest of Mosul, the source told Shafaq News on Monday.
The bodies, according to the source, were decayed. Most of the victims were women and children who were killed by IS militants while trying to flee the region, which was previously controlled by the militants.
Posted by: badanov ||
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Raqqa (Syria News) The Syrian Democratic Forces managed, on Monday, to enter two new neighborhoods in the city of Raqqa, after violent battles with the Islamic State group.
Qasioun News reported that the Syrian Democratic Forces managed to enter the neighborhoods of Hashim Abdel Malek and al-Yarmouk, in the city of Raqqa, after defeating members of the Islamic State group who attacked the locations of the SDF in both the eastern and western sides of the city.
The security forces also announced killing and wounding several members of the Islamic State, in addition to seizing large quantities of weapons and ammunition, while five members of the Syrian Democratic Forces were killed during the clashes.
It is noteworthy that the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the international coalition air force, managed to recapture several neighborhoods in the city of Raqqa, including the recently retaken Qadisiyah neighborhood in the western side of the city.
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[Reuters] North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, ahead of a summit between U.S. and Chinese leaders who are set to discuss Pyongyang's increasingly defiant arms program.
The missile flew about 60 km (40 miles) from its launch site at Sinpo, a port city on North Korea's east coast, the South Korean Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Sinpo is home to a North Korean submarine base.
The launch comes just a day before the start of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where talks about adding pressure on the North to drop its arms development will take center stage.
"The launch took place possibly in consideration of the U.S. -China summit, while at the same time it was to check its missile capability," a South Korean official told Reuters about the military's initial assessment of the launch.
The missile was fired at a high angle and reached an altitude of 189 km (117 miles), the official said.
U.S. officials said on Wednesday that the missile appeared to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud missile which only traveled a fraction of its range.
YEMEN: Two suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed in a drone strike while traveling on a motorbike in southern Yemen late on Saturday, residents said.
The men died on the outskirts of Al-Wadei town in Abyan province, said residents who identified one of them as a local leader for the militant group called Ibrahim Al-Adani.
There was no immediate statement from the militants or from US forces who have repeatedly launched drone and air strikes on Yemen’s Al-Qaeda branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
US officials say they are trying to wear down the group’s ability to coordinate attacks abroad.
Another suspected US drone strike killed two men believed to be Al-Qaeda militants in southern Yemen late on Friday, residents and local sources said.
In June, a drone strike killed two suspected Al-Qaeda militants traveling in a vehicle in Al-Naqba area of Shabwa province.
AQAP operates in several provinces in south and eastern Yemen, including in Abyan, Shabwa and Al-Bayda.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[AlAhram] The daughter and son-in-law of Islamist holy man Youssef El-Qaradawi ...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program Shariah and Life on Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving Islam a bad name.... were jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! by Egyptian police and detained for 15 days on Sunday pending investigations on charges of planning terrorist attacks that target security forces.
Ola El-Qaradawi and her husband Hossam Khalaf, a leading member of the Islamist Wasat Party, are also being investigated for joining a banned group, a reference to the Moslem Brüderbund which was designated by Egypt as a terrorist group in 2013.
Cairo has been demanding that Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... hand over Youssef El-Qaradawi, 90, who is considered the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood and is wanted in Egypt in connection with various criminal cases related to terrorism and inciting against the government.
Some members of the Wasat Party, which was formed by members who split from the Brotherhood in 1996, are in jail on terror-related charges.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State suicide bombers were killed as they attacked the Sunni tribal forces, east of Ramadi, Anbar province.
Speaking to Mawazin News, Ghassan al-Eithawi, spokesperson of Al-Hashd Al-Ashaeri (Tribal Mobilization Forces), said “three attackers wearing suicide belts attempted attacking the troops deployed in Jazeerat al-Bu’ebeid region, east of Ramadi.”
“Troops killed one of them, while the two others blew themselves up,” Eithawi said adding that “several security agents were slightly wounded.”
Iraqi troops were able to return life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them. However, Anbar’s western cities of Annah, Qaim and Rawa are still held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. 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.
A senior Iraqi officer was quoted last month as saying that a military operation was launched to drive IS militants out of the western regions in Anbar province.
Fighter jets from the Iraqi army and the international coalition have also regularly pounded IS locations in the province.
An Iraqi provincial official says a jacket wallah, disguised in a woman's all-covering robe, struck inside a camp for displaced people in the western province of Anbar, killing at least 14.
Councilman Taha Abdul-Ghani says the attack took place at dusk on Sunday as authorities were accommodating families that had fled 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.... -held town of Qaim.
Abdul-Ghani says that a police colonel was among the dead. The officer became suspicious about the person in the long robe and walked up to the attacker, embracing him -- presumably to reduce the number of casualties -- as he detonated his explosives.
The kaboom also maimed at least 20 people.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[FOXNEWS] As Arclight airstrikes ramp up against terrorist groups around the globe, the U.S. military says it conducted a dronezap Sunday in Somalia against Al Qaeda’s third largest affiliate, al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... In late March, President Trump allowed the Pentagon to begin offensive Arclight airstrikes in Somalia. The strike this weekend was the second under this new authority.
One of the reasons the U.S. military asked for more power to launch Arclight airstrikes is the US-backed African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops will begin leaving Somalia next year as al-Shabaab expands inside the country. A new famine has also spread in Somalia affecting up to six million people.
Earlier this year, a small group of U.S. forces deployed to Somalia for the first time since they pulled out in 1994.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] Two suspected rebels were killed and a civilian was critically maimed in a shootout with government forces in India-held Kashmire on Monday, police said, as tensions in the disputed territory ran high.
A police officer was also critically maimed in a separate incident in the disputed Himalayan region, which has seen a spike in violence in recent months.
The two gunnies died in a firefight with soldiers and special police counterinsurgency forces who had cordoned off a neighbourhood in the south of the region early Monday.
Hundreds of villagers poured out onto the streets to try to help the trapped rebels escape, many throwing stones and shouting slogans against Indian rule.
One was injured when government forces fired into the crowd.
"Two gunnies were killed in the encounter. According to our input one more is still fighting," director general of police S. P. Vaid told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AnNahar] Israeli authorities have reportedly issued a warning to Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... over the alleged development of what they said were "rocket manufacturing installations in Leb mainly situated in Hizbullah strongholds," Israeli media reports said on Monday.
Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned "Hizbullah over the development of Iranian rocket manufacturing installations inside Leb," the reports said.
It added that the Israeli security services are "seriously" studying the possibility of "destroying the Iranian weapons factory."
Hizbullah and Israel have fought many battles including a devastating 34-day war in 2006 that killed 1,200 people in Leb, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
Border skirmishes have broken out occasionally since then, and Hizbullah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... said in his latest statement that any future confrontation would be "very costly for Israel".
Tensions were rising this week along the frontier, with Israel accusing Hizbullah of expanding observation posts to conduct reconnaissance missions across the border.
Taliban insurgents on Monday continued with their attacks around Kunduz and blocked the Baghlan-Kunduz highway in Omerkhel area of Aliabad district of northern Kunduz province, security sources said.
According to these sources, reinforcements have not yet been deployed to the area and that the Taliban are still present along the highway.
In the meantime, a member or the Kunduz Provincial Council Safiullah Amiri said the Taliban has overrun a few check posts in Taloka area of Kunduz city and security forces have also suffered casualties.
“Heavy clashes are still ongoing in Kunduz,” Amiri said.
Another security source said that an air force chopper made an emergency landing in Bala Hesar area of Kunduz city. No injuries were reported.
“The chopper was on its way to Taloka area to help the security forces,” Amiri said adding that “no crew members were hurt in the incident”.
However, he did not provide further details.
The Taliban launched a coordinated attack on Sunday on key areas on the outskirts of Kunduz city.
[AA.TR] Greek coastal guard boats Monday allegedly opened fire on a Turkish commercial ship at international waters in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Rhodes, according to Turkish Interior Ministry sources.
The sources, who gave information on the condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said two Turkish coastal guard boats and a Turkish assault boat were sent to the area, where the incident happened.
The ship named "ACT" was brought to Turkish waters by coastal guards, the sources said, adding that statements of the ship's crew will be recorded.
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So difficult to find unusual amusements for an important dinner party, my dears. Such guests are so easily bored by anything approaching the commonplace.
[Haaretz] One morning in April 2007 journalist Sacha Batthyany was approached by an elderly colleague at the Swiss daily where they both worked at the time.
The colleague waved a newspaper clipping in front of him. It was an investigative report entitled, “The Hostess from Hell,” published by a German daily.
Glancing at the headline, Batthyany didn’t understand why he was being shown this article, but then he looked at the picture of the hostess and recognized it immediately. It was Margit, his father’s aunt —someone to whom the family demonstrated the utmost respect and also around whom they tended to tread carefully.
So he started to read the piece. In March 1945, it said, just before the end of World War II, Margit held a large party in the town of Rechnitz on the Austrian-Hungarian border to fete her Nazi friends. She, the daughter and heiress of European baron and tycoon Heinrich Thyssen, and her friends drank and danced the night away.
At the height of the evening, just for fun, 12 of the guests boarded trucks or walked to a nearby field, where 180 Jewish slave laborers who had been building fortifications were assembled. They had already been forced to dig a large pit, strip, and get down on their knees. The guests took turns shooting them to death before returning to the party. The organizer of this operation was Margit’s lover Hans Joachim Oldenberg. Margit’s husband, Count Ivan Batthyany, Sacha’s grandfather’s brother, was also at the party.
It was the first time that Batthyany, then 34, had heard about this incident. He was shocked. “Let’s set aside that it was my aunt,” said Batthyany, who visited Israel last week as a guest of the Jerusalem Book Fair. “It’s just an incredible, brutal story of this night. I mean, I know there are hundreds and thousands of other [violent stories] from the war — I don’t want to compare, but if you read what happened that night it is just unbelievable.” Full story at the link
#7
archived in entirety (kosher here, I hope; if not, please delete)
Thank you, Chunky Hapsburg1214. That now gives our readers three options: pay for a subscription to Ha'aretz, proud to be the New York Times of Israel; register for six free articles, which should last the next year or so; go to your link. And so Ha'aretz gets more exposure than it would otherwise.
[The Hill] President Trump on Thursday nominated former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, (R-Tx), to be America's next ambassador to NATO, according to Fox News reports.
The White House made the announcement Thursday evening, which was first reported on Twitter by Fox News's John Roberts and Mike Emanuel.
[The Hill] President Trump on Monday offered to help a critically ill British child who has become a flashpoint in the United Kingdom debate over whether the government should have a say in individual matters pertaining to life and death.
Trump tweeted his support for Charlie Gard, a 10-month-old infant on life support due to complications from a mitochondrial disease. The controversy around Gard has engulfed the Vatican, which infuriated some on the right by not immediately siding entirely with the parents, who want to seek experimental medication in the U.S. or bring their child home to die.
"If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so," Trump tweeted.
[IsraelTimes] Yinon Reuveni, 22, found guilty of setting fire to Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes; suspected accomplice found not guilty.
The Nazareth District Court on Monday convicted 22-year-old Yinon Reuveni for a 2015 arson attack by Jewish Death Eaters that heavily damaged a church in northern Israel where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
During the hearing, Judge George Azulay acquitted 21-year-old Yehuda Asraf, who was accused of assisting Reuveni in setting fire to the church building.
In their 2015 indictment, the Shin Bet said that Reuveni, currently a resident of the southern town of Ofakim, had been banished from the West Bank on several occasions and is a suspect in a series of hate crimes, including the February 2015 arson attack at Jerusalem’s Dormition Abbey.
Asraf, the Shin Bet said, had been living on an illegal outpost and is active in hard boy Jewish circles.
Two rooms of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in Tabgha on the Sea of Galilee were vandalized and badly damaged in the fire two years ago.
The arson attack, at the site where many Christians believe Jesus fed 5,000 in the miracle of the five loaves and two fish, completely destroyed a building in the compound. The church itself was not damaged.
Hebrew graffiti was found on another building within the complex, reading: "Idols will be cast out or destroyed."
The complex reopened to pilgrims in February this year following eight months of renovation work at a cost of around $1 million dollars, of which the State of Israel contributed almost $400,000.
President Reuven Rivlin and his wife attended an interfaith meeting to mark the reopening along with Christian dignitaries, including Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Ambassador of Germany Dr. Clemens von Goetze, Sheikh Muafak Tarīf, and Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, as well as Jordan Valley Local Council leader Idan Greenbaum and donors in the Roman Catholic church.
Itamar Ben Gvir, the attorney who represented Reuveni and Asraf, told The Times of Israel after the ruling that he planned to challenge the decision.
"The judgment ignored most of the claims that we made during the trial," Ben Gvir said. "The judge did not give fair treatment to the defense that we presented."
A third suspect, Moshe Orbach, was charged with writing and distributing a document detailing the "necessity" of attacking non-Jewish property and people as well as laying out practical advice on how to do so. He is still awaiting trial.
The attack on the church sparked widespread condemnation and concern from Christians globally, with the site visited by some 5,000 people daily, while also drawing renewed attention to religiously linked hate crimes in Israel.
It is not the first time that Reuveni's extremist transgressions have landed him on the wrong side of the law. In 2016, he was charged for committing violent acts against Paleostinians.
According to the conviction statement regarding the fire, Reuveni established contact with other unknown individuals prior to his assault on the church due to hostile views he harbored against Christianity in an attempt to damage the holy sites of the religion.
[ITV] A teenager who plotted to bomb an Elton John concert on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has been jailed for life.
Haroon Syed tried to acquire weapons online, including a bomb vest and a machine gun.
The 19-year-old identified the Hyde Park event as a possible target and was caught by the British Security Service who posed as a fellow extremist who could help him source the weapons .
Key evidence was gathered from Syed's communications with the fake contact Abu Yusuf via mobile phone and social media.
The Old Bailey heard the trigger for his radicalisation was the arrest of his older brother for plotting a so-called Islamic State-inspired Poppy Day attack.
The teenager from Hounslow, west London, had admitted preparation of terrorist acts between April and September last year.
Mitigating, Mark Summers QC said it was a "crude, ill-thought-out" plan made at the behest of others.
The court heard Syed had fallen under the influence of members of the banned group Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), which is linked to jailed preacher Anjem Choudary.
Despite the risk around the time of his brother's arrest, Syed, slipped through the net of the Prevent anti-radicalisation team although his passport was seized in 2015.
Home Office approved de-radicalisation expert and Bradford imam Alyas Karmani told the court there should have been earlier intervention in his case.
Mr Summers added that Syed now publicly rejected his past beliefs and condemned the recent bomb attack at the Ariana Grande pop concert in Manchester.
But Judge Michael Topolski QC said the risk Syed posed warranted a discretionary life sentence and ordered him to serve a minimum of 16 and a half years.
Judge Michael Topolski QC said Syed "remained intent" on carrying out an act of mass murder.
"You were not lured, you were not enticed, you were not entrapped.
"You became, and in my judgement as shown by your online activities away from your contact with Abu Yusuf, deeply committed to the ideology of a brutal and barbaric organisation that sought to hijack and corrupt an ancient and venerable religion for its own purposes and you wanted to be part of it," he added.
#1
"...sought to hijack and corrupt an ancient and venerable religion..."
When are authorities going to stop providing cover for that abominable ideology? They don't seek to "hijack" Islam--they seek to *enforce* it. The *literal* reading of their holy texts instructs them to do these things.
[TheJapanNews] Amid North Korea’s repeated missile launches, evacuation drills conducted with the participation of local residents and based on the scenario that a missile strike is imminent are being held in many places across the nation.
Such drills have already been conducted in nine prefectures, and there are more scheduled to be carried out in at least 11 prefectures.
This month, the nation’s first drill in which people will evacuate to an underground mall is scheduled to occur in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture.
People who might face such an emergency are required to evacuate in a different way than in the event of an earthquake.
Since the start of this year, North Korea has fired ballistic missiles that left and reentered the atmosphere nine times.
In March, North Korean missiles fell into sea near Japan, including inside the exclusive economic zone off the Oga Peninsula, Akita Prefecture. In the wake of the launches, the Akita prefectural government conducted an evacuation drill that month.
In April, the central government asked other prefectural governments to carry out evacuation drills.
Since then, local governments facing the Sea of Japan and in the Kyushu and other regions that are close to North Korea have conducted evacuation drills one after another.
If the possibility of a missile falling onto the nation arises, the central government will notify the public via the J-Alert early warning system. Via J-Alert, residents at risk will be notified by the community wireless systems of local governments or via emergency warning emails.
The central government has called on people to evacuate into well-built buildings or underground spaces when outdoors so that they will be able to protect themselves from blasts and debris.
But how should people act if there are no well-built buildings or underground spaces nearby?
Consult with the Israelis, who built small bomb shelters every few hundred meters throughout the area covered by Hamas rockets, so that no one was more than 10-15 seconds from safety when the sirens went off.
In a drill on June 12 in Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture, people doing farming work evacuated into clay pipes and the tunnels of agricultural water canals.
In a drill conducted June 9 in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, residents in farming fields and other places took shelter under a raised road intersection.
A Niigata prefectural government official in charge said, "It is important to make judgments depending on each situation."
On the other hand, some local governments in regions facing the Pacific Ocean have said there is a perception gap, because their sense of urgency is weaker than in regions facing the Sea of Japan.
The Osaka prefectural government said it will be necessary to take into account tourists and foreigners if it holds an evacuation drill.
A drill is planned to be held in an urban area near Takaoka Station in Toyama Prefecture on July 14. Announcements inside the station building will tell people to evacuate, and station clerks and police officers will guide people to an underground mall of about 4,100 square meters in front of the station.
Takaoka Station has JR lines and is a starting point for tram and bus routes. The central government aims to use the drill as a reference point for other drills held by other local governments.
A Cabinet Secretariat official in charge of crisis management said, "We want people to know they should evacuate from buildings to outdoor spaces in an earthquake, but that they should evacuate to underground malls, buildings or concealed places if a missile approaches."
So many fault lines, so many potential wars that have nothing to do with Israel.
[AnNahar] Iran's president has assailed a major dam project by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... involving the Euphrates and the Tigris River, demanding a halt in the construction.
Hassan Rouhani says the dams would be "dangerous" for the entire Middle East.
His remarks came during a conference on sandstorms hosted by Tehran on Monday and marked the Iranian president's first public criticism of the dam project, seen as controversial in the Mideast.
He did not name Turkey but said that multiple dams planned on the two major rivers that flow into Syria and Iraq will have "destructive consequences" and affect many, including Iran and "should be stopped."
Iran and Turkey support opposing sides in Syria's civil war.
Rouhani added that "it is not possible to remain indifferent" toward the issue of the dams.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/04/2017
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[ARA News] Syrian rebel fighters of the Descendants of Saladin Brigade, which was part of the Turkey-backed Euphrates Shield operation and also receives support from the US, will not participate in Turkey-led attacks on the Kurdish city of Afrin.
Mahmoud Khallo, a commander of the Saladin brigade, told ARA News that his group will not participate in military operations against Afrin (also known as Efrîn). The reason the group refuses to participate is unclear, since in the past the group said it’s ready to attack the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The Descendants of Saladin Brigade includes Kurdish fighters loyal to the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition.
“They [the YPG] are against the Kurds. These groups are trying to ignite a sectarian war between Arabs and Kurds and this won’t happen because we won’t allow it. If the YPG does not retreat from Tal Rafat and the Mennagh air base, we will fight them in the area between Jarabulus and Azaz,” Mahmoud Abu Hamza, a Grandsons of Salahadin commander based in Turkey, told Middle East Eye in March.
However, now the group says it’s not interested in attacking Afrin or Til Rifaat in Aleppo province.
During the last few days, sporadic clashes took place between the YPG and the Turkish troops near Afrin. Reportedly, there are 20,000 FSA forces backed by Turkey preparing to launch an attack on areas held by the Kurdish YPG in Afrin and Til Rifaat.
The senior Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Murat Karayilan said any attack on Afrin would not be done without the knowledge and consent of Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime.
He said Turkey is trying to bargain a deal in order to open up a way to occupy parts of Syria.
The Saladin Brigade is the only Kurdish faction which is part of the Euphrates Shield operation, and is positioned in al-Bab area, particularly in the Qabasin town where many Kurds live.
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[Free Beacon] Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said Monday that during his travels in Syria, rebel fighters there cheered any mention of President Donald Trump's name.
Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Ignatius prefaced his comments by warning that he would say something "sympathetic to Trump." It was only the second airing of the show since Trump touched off a firestorm with his tweets mocking Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
"As I traveled across Syria meeting with Syrian fighters who were trying to take down the regime of Bashar al-Assad, every time the name President Trump was mentioned, there were cheers from the audience," he said in a clip flagged by Legal Insurrection.
One Syrian Kurdish commander, Ignatius said, colorfully remarked Trump had the equivalent of what would be called "cajones" in Spanish. Ignatius said Trump's looser approach allowed commanders on the ground to more expeditiously carry out operations.
"More seriously, the big attacks that have taken place around Raqqa, one in particular, a surprise landing by helicopter, I was told, by the top U.S. commanders, would not have taken place if it hadn't been for President Trump's decision to delegate military authorities down to the level of command," Ignatius said. "Under Obama, that would have taken a couple weeks of White House meetings, and they still wouldn't have made up their mind."
[Al Jazeera] Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... has delivered its response to a list of 13 demands from Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and three other Arab countries that cut have ties with it and imposed a land, air and sea embargo amid a major diplomatic crisis.
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's foreign minister, was received by Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah on Monday to hand over a letter from Qatar's emir, according to state-run Kuwait News Agency.
Kuwait is mediating in the dispute. The content of the letter has not been released.
Qatar's response will be the focus of a gathering in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Wednesday of foreign ministers from the four blockading countries: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Al Jazeera's Saad al-Saeedi, reporting from Kuwait City, said there was "a sense of relief, tinged with caution" in Kuwait.
"Qatar's response to the demands was handed to the emir, followed by an extensive meeting between the Qatari foreign minister and his Kuwaiti counterpart for more than one and half hours. After that, the Qatari foreign minister headed to the emir of Kuwait's residence to attend another meeting over lunch before his departure," he said.
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[DAWN] At least 12 people, including a minor girl, were killed when two rival groups attacked each other with rocket launchers and automatic weapons in Shikarpur on Monday.
The incident occurred in Katcha area of Shikarpur district's Khanpur town over an ongoing dispute early on Monday. The clashes took place between Saad Khanani Jatoi and Badani Jatoi groups, ending in a dozen casualties and wounding many others including women and children.
The area presented the view of a battlefield as both parties freely used automatic weapons and rocket launchers while police failed to even enter the area.
The enmity between the two groups supposedly began when two persons belonging to Saad Khanani Jatoi's group were killed in a police shootout and afflicted clan accused the Badani Jatoi group of sharing information with the police.
At least 25 people have been killed over the years in the deadly clashes between the groups.
Only two bodies were brought to the nearby hospital for postmortem while the other bodies still remained at the place of the incident as the warring tribesmen restricted police officials from entering the area.
According to sources, police tried to enter the area but armed tribesmen attacked an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) vehicle with a rocket launcher, forcing the police to remain out of the area.
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[Al Jazeera] United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed a French legal expert and former judge on Monday to head the UN investigative body that will help document and prosecute the most serious violations of international law in Syria, including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
UN front man Stephane Dujarric announced the appointment of Catherine Marchi-Uhel who has been serving as the ombudsperson for the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against 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 the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS) group and al-Qaeda.
She was previously a judge in La Belle France and an international judge with the UN mission in Kosovo and at the Cambodia court prosecuting leaders of the Khmer Rouge. She also served as senior legal officer at the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and worked in legal positions at the French foreign ministry.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
French legal expert and former judge ... Catherine Marchi-Uhel
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- A case of "dine and dash" in Virginia Beach led to Virginia Beach Police to call in air support.
A police helicopter isn't normally used for catching someone who leaves a restaurant without paying their bill, but this case in different.
After the man left Fish Bones on 12th Street and Atlantic Avenue without paying his bill Sunday night, he jumped into a nearby lake in an effort to get away.
The police aircraft eventually tracked the man down an arrested him.
No word yet on what charges the suspect is facing.
[Iran Press TV] More than a dozen civilians have been killed when Saudi military aircraft carried out separate Arclight airstrikes against various areas across 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... as the Saudi regime presses ahead with an atrocious military campaign against its crisis-hit southern neighbor.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said fifteen people bit the dust on Monday when Saudi fighter jets bombarded a residential building in the Yakhtal area of the Red Sea port city of Mokha, situated 346 kilometers south of the capital, Sana’a, Arabic-language al-Masirah satellite television network reported.
The sources noted that the fatalities included seven children and eight women.
Earlier in the day, Saudi warplanes had carried out seven aerial assaults against a mechanized infantry camp in the Harf Sufyan district of Yemen's northwestern province of ’Amran. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the extent of damaged inflicted though.
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#1
Must have been too many fluffy bunnies and kittens to count! Any baby milk factories get whacked?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
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[AlAhram] La Belle France, Germany and the EU's migration chief have pledged more money for Libya's coasties and increased efforts to help Italia cope with a surge of migrant arrivals from Africa.
The French Interior Ministry said in a statement Monday that it also will work on a "code of conduct" for aid groups working in the Mediterranean.
The EU migration commissioner and German, French and Italian interior ministers held a crisis meeting Sunday night after Italia pleaded for European help.
Some 10,000 migrants colonists were rescued from the sea in recent days.
The officials promised additional money and training for the Libyan coasties and to find ways to reinforce Libya's largely lawless southern border, which smugglers exploit to shuttle African migrants colonists to Europe.
Syrian army forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday that they have temporarily halted combat operations in the south of the country ahead of Russian-sponsored ceasefire talks with rebel groups in Kazakhstan.
A statement by the military said hostilities would stop in the provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Sweida, state news agency SANA reported.
“In order to support the peace process and national reconciliation, a cessation of hostilities … will last until midnight on July 6,” the statement said.
The unilateral freeze was not expected to include fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor tracking developments in Syria’s war via a wide network of sources on the ground, confirmed to the AFP news agency that fighting “almost completely stopped” across the mentioned areas.
The news came after a large Syrian rebel faction in the south said it would not attend a new round of talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, because the government was not abiding by previous ceasefire agreements.
A spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of Free Syrian Army rebel groups, cast doubt on whether the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies would halt attacks on the front lines in Deraa and in Quneitra province.
“The Free Syrian Army are very distrustful of the regime’s intentions in abiding by the ceasefire. It will be like the previous one,” Major Issam al-Rayes told the Reuters news agency.
Delegates are expected to begin meeting with a UN mediator and other diplomats on July 4.
The two sides have held four previous rounds of talks in Kazakhstan since January in parallel to UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva. Neither process has made much progress.
A ceasefire declared in May, which is built around so-called “de-escalation zones”, has been repeatedly violated.
Syria’s war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011.
Agencies
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#1
A spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of Free Syrian Army rebel groups, cast doubt on whether the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies would halt attacks on the front lines in Deraa and in Quneitra province.
Well, D'Oh! The Assad Regime wants to win, understand now? Comedy Gold, it is.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and three others were injured on Monday when a bomb blast rocked an area in southern Baghdad, a security official was quoted saying.
Baghdad police major Khaled al-Shamri told Petra news agency that an explosive device planted near a fish market in Yousseffiya exploded, killing one civilian and wounding three others.
Violence and armed conflicts left more than 700 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of June, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths. Baghdad came second in terms of casualties, with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
Baghdad has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake IS-occupied areas in 2016. While most of of the explosions attacks went without a claim of responsibility, Islamic State has claimed several incidents.
The Iraqi government, currently focused on ousting the group from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, is expected to aim at other IS holdouts afterwards.
Some security observers believe that even after IS’s main havens across Iraqi provinces are conquered, the group may still constitute a security threat through sleeper cells and lone wolf attacks. They believe attacks outside Mosul are designed to make up for the group’s losses there.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi army soldier was killed while another one was wounded Monday when armed attackers shot at their patrol in western Baghdad, according to a security source.
Almaalomah website quoted the source saying that the unknown assailants shot at the patrol when it was passing through Arab Nuri, west of the capital.
Violence and armed conflicts left more than 700 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of June, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths. Baghdad came second in terms of casualties, with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
Baghdad has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake IS-occupied areas in 2016. While most of of the explosions attacks went without a claim of responsibility, Islamic State has claimed several incidents.
The Iraqi government, currently focused on ousting the group from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, is expected to aim at other IS holdouts afterwards.
Some security observers believe that even after IS’s main havens across Iraqi provinces are conquered, the group may still constitute a security threat through sleeper cells and lone wolf attacks. They believe attacks outside Mosul are designed to make up for the group’s losses there.
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Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces on Monday took over more areas in western Mosul’s Old City as operations become a few days away from eliminating Islamic State militants from the region.
Federal Police chief Shaker Jawdat said in a statement that the forces recaptured Bab al-Sarai area, and raised Iraqi flags above its buildings. He said also troops took over Zul-Tawabeq garage, Khozam Mosque and a “transportation area” in the Old City. Troops were proceeding towards Khaled ibn al-Waleed and Nujaifi areas in the same district, he added.
Also in the Old City, two female suicide bombers from the Islamic State, who were hiding among a group of fleeing civilians, blew themselves up in Iraqi troops, killing one soldier and wounding several others, according to the Associated Press. Anadolu Agency, on its part, said a Tunisian woman blew herself up while hiding among civilians, killing four and wounding nine, including two Counter-Terrorism Service members.
Some generals were quoted saying there were less than 200 fighters in the city, adding that the forces reached the western bank of the Tigris River.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces brought down more Islamic State defense lines and killed scores of militants while advancing through the last few meters held by the group in western Mosul, military media said.
The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said government troops broke down “the strongest” Islamic State defenses in Khatouniya and Ras al-Khour areas in the Old City. It said those defense lines were run by foreign militants.
Forces killed 67 multinational militants and destroyed large stacks of ammunition in Shahwani. More than 72 explosive devices planted in the way of advancing forces were also removed, said the statement.
Commanders say that, currently, there are are no more than 300 militants cornered at areas overseeing the western bank of the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul. Senior commanders were quoted saying that government troops were nearly 200 meters away from the river’s bank.
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Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Four Islamic State militants were killed as fighter jets shelled a vehicle booby-trapping workshop, southwest of Kirkuk, a local source said.
“Army jets shelled on Monday an IS location in al-Safra village, 45 KM southwest of Kirkuk, leaving four militants, including a prominent leader, killed” the source told AlSumaria News.
“The targeted location was used to booby-trap vehicles and manufacture of bombs,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.
Kirkuk has a mixed population of Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs. The southern and western regions in the province have been under IS control since June 2014.
IS holds pivotal regions that link between each of Diyala, Salahuddin and Kirkuk, posing threats to the liberated regions.
Dozens of residents from Hawija and the regions in its vicinity escape to Kirkuk province on a daily basis. Despite the risky routes to the freed regions, the civilians prefer death to staying under IS control.
Hawija (IraqiNews.com) An airstrike has left ten Islamic State militants killed in Hawija town, west of Kirkuk, the War Media Cell reported.
A statement on Monday said that army fighter jets “launched airstrikes in Hawija, destroying a vehicle booby-trapping workshop in addition to huge amounts of explosives that were inside a store.”
“The shelling left ten militants killed and others injured,” the statement added.
Hawija, located 55 KM west of Kirkuk, has been held by IS since mid-2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. The group executed dozens of civilians and security members there, forcing thousands to flee homes.
In May, news reports quoted sources as saying that the extremist group opened alternative headquarters for its so-called “Nineveh State, “Dijlah State”, “Salahuddin State” and “Diyala State” in Hawija.
IS still holds three towns in western Anbar close to the borders with Syria, in addition to a few areas in Salahuddin, Diyala and Kirkuk. The Iraqi government is expected to aim at those strongholds once the Mosul battle is concluded.
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[DailyCaller] Three Playboy models are still stuck in Mexico after wrongfully being detained by Mexican authorities who believed the three girls were "working" without a visa at a party for Playboy Music Fest on June 30.
Although the three Playboy bunnies have been released from their holding cell, they were forced to remain in Mexico over Independence Day weekend where they are still waiting to meet with immigration officials to get their passports back, according to Fox News.
American model Lauryn Elaine Booking statement: "Like, isn't Mexico a suburb of California or something?"
, French model Marie Brethenoux Booking statement: "We surrender."
and Turkish model Elif Celik Booking statement: "Oh crap. I hope the jails here are a serious upgrade from those at home."
were taken into custody on Thursday because Mexican authorities believed they were "’working’ without a visa." The girls were in Merida, Mexico specifically for the event, but weren’t working and weren’t paid to attend, Elaine told Fox News in an email.
#1
Golly. Hard to believe that Mexico would treat our citizens there on lawful business worse than they expect us to treat their citizens here for unlawful reasons.
#3
Although the three Playboy bunnies have been released from their holding cell, they were forced to remain in Mexico over Independence Day weekend where they are still waiting to meet with immigration officials to get their passports back
#4
My favorite story of the old days of a liberty weekend in TJ was a young group of Americans being stopped by the police at an intersection and being told they failed to stop for the stop sign. When told that the fine was $50 the driver noted that the was no sign anywhere. The officer responded that it used to be there but was being repainted. Cash onsite was preferable to the "delays waiting at court". All cordial and with a hint of humor. I was later told by a senior police official that in those days police officers gave most of their salaries to their commanders and enforcement was a commission business.
#5
#4 - True. As a teen growing up on San Diego, we would go south for partying. One never kept all their cash in the wallet so that you could give the cop: "It's all I got"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2017 12:51
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[All Africa] President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... , 93, has reportedly engaged the Minister of War Veterans Tshinga Dube over the succession issue, telling him that he had not named his successor "as that was the prerogative of the Congress".
Dube recently urged Mugabe to name or groom his successor in-order to put a stop to the continued factional fights in his ruling Zanu-PF party.
Two distinct camps have emerged in Zim-bob-we's revolutionary party in recent years, as factions seek to outwit each other in the race to succeed the 93 year-old leader. Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is allegedly leading a faction that is angling to succeed Mugabe calling itself "Team Lacoste", while another grouping made up of young Turks, commonly known as Generation 40 and backing First Lady Grace Mugabe to succeed her ageing husband, wants to torpedo Mnangagwa's presidential ambitions.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2017
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#1
Everything Smith said would happen has come to pass.
[Ynet] Kurdish bully boyz killed a soldier, village guard and three workers in attacks in three separate provinces in southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Monday, officials said.
Militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed one Ottoman Turkish soldier when they detonated a hidden bomb in the Cukurca district of Hakkari province, officials from the Hakkari governor's office said.
The bully boyz detonated another bomb in the Caldiran district of Van province, wounding two village guards, officials said. They said one of the maimed guards had died in the hospital following the attack.
Separately, PKK bully boyz attacked workers carrying out roadside work on a road for a military base in the Uludere district of the southeastern province of Sirnak, killing two workers and wounding another five, security sources said.
The bully boyz carried out another attack on a worksite in Sirnak, killing one worker, the local governor's office said in a statement. It said three PKK bully boyz had been killed in a subsequent operation in the region.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/04/2017
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[Gates of Vienna] The German anti-Islamization activist Tatjana Festerling has appeared in this space a number of times in the past, first when she spoke at PEGIDA rallies, and then later when she launched Fortress Europe.
The following interview with Ms. Festerling was recorded in Poland. Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation (both Polish and German), and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
[American Thinker] A study by City.com reveals that the crime rate in Phoenix dropped dramatically after the city dropped its sanctuary city policies.
There are many reason why crime rates decline over a certain period of time. But the study suggests a provacative link between fewer criminal illegal aliens roaming the streets and a falling crime rate.
#1
Push them into the remaining sanctuary cities. One at a time, those sanctuaries will give up, further concentrating illegals in those that refuse to give up. Repeat as necessary until only southern California remains, then push it off into the Pacific ocean.
#3
Fewer illegals? More likely the Coyotes relocated their bases to safer territory and with them leaving the Mob-related crime statistics naturally dropped.
#6
The first phase reduced the number of illegals in Arizona overall. The flow of gangs from Mexico, who came in for specific 'jobs' and then mostly left, remained the same. The dropping of sanctuary city status in Phoenix in 2008 was the second phase.
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.
[Aljazeera] US-backed forces in Syria have breached the wall surrounding the Old City of Raqqa as they try to retake the city from the ISIL, the US Central Command said.
[Daily Caller] Duke University admitted Sunday that it used manipulated and completely fabricated data about respiratory illnesses to obtains grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, among other agencies.
[Victory Girls] Celebrate Fourth of July, this year, as the Founding Fathers intended it to be celebrated. As you celebrate the day, remember Staff Sergeant Patrick Hamburger who died with 37 other military personnel aboard Extortion 17. Now I know you are thinking, "Hello, we just did Memorial Day." Stay with me on this train of thought for just a minute and you will see why it makes so much sense.
[Bloomberg] American factories powered up in June at the fastest pace in nearly three years, with robust advances in production, orders and employment that indicate a firming in the economy, data from the Institute for Supply Management showed Monday.
[AnNahar] Islamist 
North Korea
the personification of Somali state failure....jpg)
[DAWN] Two suspected rebels were killed and a civilian was critically 
[DAWN] At least 12 people, including a minor girl, were killed when two rival groups attacked each other with rocket launchers and automatic weapons in Shikarpur on Monday.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- A case of "dine and dash" in Virginia Beach led to Virginia Beach Police to call in air support.
