A range of strategic pacts envisaging investments worth $4.3 billion were agreed between Indian and Israeli companies on Thursday as part of Narendra Modi’s historic three-day visit to Israel.
Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel in the last 70 years.
Posted by: John frum ||
07/07/2017
16:24 ||
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered an additional $ 1 million to be cut off from the funds donated by Israel to the United Nations following UNESCO's decision to declare the Cave of the Patriarchs and Hebron a Palestinian World Heritage Site.
The money that will be cut will be transferred for the establishment of the Museum for the Heritage of the Jewish People in Kiryat Arba and Hebron and other projects related to Jewish heritage in Hebron.
They have a number of German nuclear subs to pay for, USN, Ret., and preventing the Palestinians from murdering them all on the streets does not come cheap.
PM Netanyahu is enjoying President Trump's existence.
Although the title sounds firm, the article is clueless and squishy, with an occasional fact sprinkled in to hopefully lend credibility to the rest by association. Perhaps this would be better put under "Opinion"? :-)
[Yahoo] Little is known about exactly what President Donald Trump will discuss with Russian leader Vladimir Putin when the two meet for the first time on Friday. But one thing is certain to come up: the ongoing war in Syria.
Trump is set to ask Putin to loosen his support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and ask Russia to ensure "no faction in Syria illegitimately retakes or occupies areas liberated from ISIS," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday.
That means that the Syrian autocrat would not be able to reoccupy the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group’s stronghold in the city of Raqqa without some sort of agreement between all parties.
Tillerson has said Syria’s future is one without Assad in power. A condition of an agreement could be that Assad steps down. But the ask comes at what Tillerson said is "an all-time low point" in U.S.-Russia relations since the end of the Cold War.
The issue is one of the few things Trump officially has on his agenda during his meeting with Putin in formal talks at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. It’s their first meeting, and there’s pressure on both sides to get the upper hand. It’s not clear what Trump will offer Putin in return for his help.
"The question will come in the Russian mind: How hard does the American side push that question? How much skin in the game do the Americans have?" said Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and foreign service diplomat in Moscow.
Pifer, who is now a senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, D.C., said, "The Russians are pretty much all-in in terms of backing Assad. Whereas, on the American side, there’s been a bit of hesitation in terms of how much we want to commit."
Trump recently rejected his military advisers’ plan to defeat ISIS because it was too similar to President Barack Obama’s. Obama wanted to limit America’s involvement in Syria’s civil war. Russia is providing large amounts of assistance to Assad’s Army and holds the reins over whether Assad steps down. After nearly six months at the White House, Trump hasn’t come up with a plan yet.
"I’ve said for a long time that Trump will not have a Syria policy, he will have a Russia policy," said Pifer’s colleague, Steven Heydemann, a senior nonresident fellow at Brookings’ Center for Middle East Policy, Thursday.
Heydemann’s comments followed Tillerson’s statement Wednesday that he wants the U.S. and Russia to run joint operations in Syria to increase cooperation between the two nations.
"The United States and Russia have already achieved progress in establishing de-confliction zones in Syria that have prevented mutual collateral damage," Tillerson said, adding that he wants to work with Russia to create no-fly zones, put ceasefire observers on the ground, and coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid.
"If our two countries work together to establish stability on the ground, it will lay a foundation for progress on the settlement of Syria's political future," he said, nudging Russia toward more collaboration despite Putin’s deep support for Assad.
Tillerson also urged Russia to "focus" on the objective of defeating ISIS alongside the U.S. "In order to complete the mission," he said, "the international community, and especially Russia, must remove obstacles to the defeat of ISIS and help provide stability that prevents ISIS from rising anew from the ashes of their failed and fraudulent caliphate."
Pifer said he hopes Trump and Putin "take a look at the range of issues, but follow the approach that Tillerson laid out." "You need to make some progress in building some trust, address some smaller issues," before the relationship can improve, he added.
Posted by: gorb ||
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[NewYorker] Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is being dispatched to Pyongyang in what the White House is calling a high-stakes mission to reverse North Korea’s years of progress in math and science.
DeVos, who is expected to arrive in Pyongyang later this week, plans to throw a monkey wrench in North Korea’s swiftly advancing nuclear program by replacing its current system of training scientists with a dizzying array of vouchers, sources said.
According to the White House, it is hoped that, after a few weeks in North Korea, DeVos will succeed in returning that nation’s nuclear program to pre-1970 levels.
At a press briefing announcing the mission, the White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, called DeVos "our nation’s best bet to stop North Korea."
"If anyone can get North Korea’s missiles to start blowing up on the launchpad again, it’s Betsy," Sanders said.
As they tut tut about, perhaps they should review a standardized test from 1970 to Generation Smartie making change from a $50 bill for a $16.38 charge and count the money back.
Pre-70's, like the Mercury program? I guess they had their mac-books to figure that all out.
How about the 1940's, any math going on there, or is that back in the paleo whole number era?
Probably all for the best. Imagine what would have happened if the Romans knew about math. Crazy.
Just stepping back here, this is a top-tier publication, and this is what they come up with? Aren't they supposed to be the Diego Velazquez of whit and humor? I mean, by all means, have a night on the town with the boys drinking Manhattans, but don't toss on a towel and tell me it is The Surrender of Breda.
#6
OK, it's funny as a one-liner. But not enough for all that horse-kicking.
But if it were true, Betsy would be giving the little Nork kids vouchers to attend school in Seoul which would annoy Pudge for the same reason school vouchers annoy the Democrats - because it frees an enslaved people from totalitarian control.
[Finance.Yahoo] After North Korea's decades-old missile program on Tuesday finally bore out a nuclear-capable weapon able to reach the US, President Donald Trump vowed to confront the country "very strongly."
Addressing an audience in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday, Trump said the US was considering "severe things" to retaliate against a nation he said was "behaving in a very, very dangerous manner."
But there's almost nothing that can be done to stop North Korea now. Whiny fatalistic ba$tards. No wonder it's so hard to deal with the Norks with your kind in the way all the time.
Shortly before North Korea's watershed launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Trump was briefed on a new range of military options for dealing with the country. As Business Insider has reported on extensively, military options for facing North Korea are extremely dangerous at best and unimaginably catastrophic at worst.
Because they involve WAR, which is dangerous for children and other living things. But that is precisely the point, since non-dangerous actions have not effected the desired change.
When Trump got hold of the new military options for North Korea, he again declined to act. Because we have a little time left and we have more to gain by staging our military than to lose while the Norks stage theirs.
But according to Yun Sun, a senior associate at the Stimson Center, Trump never had any good options for dealing with North Korea, and he has even worse options now.
"The ICBM test removed the false hope that we might be able to stop North Korean nuclear provocations with either sanctions or the use of military provocations," Sun said. So, unlike Sid, you choose death. Great.
North Korea has vastly accelerated the pace of its missile testing under Trump's presidency, but it had been preparing these tests for years, dating back to the Clinton administration. By the time Trump took office, North Koreans were just a few months from achieving their goal of a working ICBM.
According to Sun, nothing was going to stop them at this late stage.
In years past, North Korea had floated the idea of suspending its missile program in exchange for the US halting military drills with South Korea, but the US refused every time on the grounds that the regularly planned, completely legal drills did not at all compare with Kim Jong Un's nuclear threats and illegal development.
Now, faced with the possibility that North Korea has an unstoppable nuclear bomb, why would the US lay down its arms?
"The one thing we wanted to prevent North Korea from having, they already have it," Sun said. "What is the reasoning for us to suspend our military exercises at this point?"
The US and the international community can agree on sanctions for North Korea, which China may water down, but diplomatic talks are now strained, and the US's hand is undeniably weaker. Short on imagination, are we?
"How," Sun asked, "can we reward ICBM tests with engagement?"
#2
Nothing to do? Sheeeit. Last test landed in Japan's EEOC, I believe. Howsabout station a couple Aegis ballistic missile defense ships and give them a real-world test?
[Politico] National security officials across the federal government say they are seeing new restrictions on who can access sensitive information, fueling fears in the intelligence and security community that the Trump administration has stepped up a stealthy operation to smoke out leakers.
Officials at various national security agencies also say they are becoming more concerned that the administration is carefully tracking what they’re doing and who they’re talking to -- then plotting to use them as a scapegoat or accuse them of leaks.
One U.S. official voiced concern over even talking to their superiors about a benign call from a reporter. The agency this official works for had started limiting staff’s access to information, they said, and it would make it far easier to figure out who was talking to people in the media.
There was suspicion, the official said, that the agency was even tracking what they printed, to keep tabs on what information they were accessing.
"I’m just trying to keep my head down," another U.S. intelligence official recently told POLITICO.
A half dozen officials across the national security community described to POLITICO a series of subtle and no-so-subtle changes that have led to an increasingly tense and paranoid working environment rooted in the White House’s obsession with leaks.
President Donald Trump has regularly vented about his intense frustration with anonymously sourced stories, and has specifically targeted federal government entities, including intelligence agencies like the CIA and FBI and the State Department.
#5
If they talked to politico, they are ready suspect. Cross walking phone call records with access and leaked data will out those too dumb in tradecraft or too lazy to at least buy a burner.
Nice to see some tangible actions to remind the community this isn't a game.
#8
Oughtn't they be concerned the stealthy operation began as soon as President Trump's people were in place in a few of the agencies, and only now has become palpable? That lady who'd sold out to China wasn't arrested yesterday, after all.
[Breitbart Texas] The Microsoft Corporation is expected to lay-off up to 3,000 employees as the tech conglomerate continues to request and hire more foreign help.
In a new report following rumors of mass lay-offs at Microsoft, company executives confirmed that potentially 3,000 jobs from the sales department would be cut. Executives said employees working outside the U.S. would be the most impacted by the lay-offs, but did also confirm that about 25 percent of the lay-offs would impact employees working stateside.
A Microsoft spokesperson spun the mass lay-offs as simply "changes" to "better serve our customers and partners."
"Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated," the Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC. "Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others."
Currently, Microsoft has more employees working outside the U.S., roughly 121,000, than those domestic, about 71,000.
Further down in the article, there is a link to another that suggests they also have a system with machine guns purchased from the US.
Aerodynamics and physics dictate that you can't quite strap an assault rifle onto a DJI Phantom and expect it to fly and hit a target. Florida company Duke Robotics has apparently devised a way to keep a drone steady while compensating for a gun's recoil. "Though a system of flexibly connected pates, the TIKAD distributes the backward momentum in a way that keeps the vehicle stationary in the air," Defense One writes. "A ten-pound robot gimbal allows six degrees of movement freedom and the ability to rapidly re-target the weapon and camera."
Supposedly the system can keep a UAV steady whether it has a grenade launcher for a payload, or a pistol -- so long as the weapon is under 22 pounds. The Israeli military reportedly has already bought a number of the TIKADs. Duke describes it as such: "The TIKAD allows us to utilize completely new capabilities against terrorist groups and reduce the number of deployed ground troops, and therefore, the number of casualties." The remote drones would keep soldiers off the front lines and thus, safer, and you can bet that police departments will be interested in these UAVs as well. Almost a year ago to the day, law enforcement officials in Dallas used an armed bomb-drone to kill a gunman following hours of attempted negotiations.
North Dakota recently passed a bill that allows for weaponized drones so long as they aren't "lethal," for instance. Then there's The Skunk by Desert Wolf that can fire 4,000 paintballs from a quartet of barrels mounted underneath, at a rate of 80 rounds-per-second. Now we have the ability to fire live ammunition from our unmanned aircraft. Yup, this is the future we live in. How about one that just drops aerosolized skunk spray?
Maybe it occurred to you, but it never really occurred to me, until now, that suppressors should be treated as firearm accessories -- not as firearms and certainly not as NFA items. The Silencers Helping Us Save Hearing Act, S.1505, would do just that.
Introduced by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) last week the SHUSH Act would eliminate ALL the federal regulations covering the possession, purchase, transfer, etc. of suppressors! That would be huge! That would be even better than the Hearing Protection Act (HPA)!
"Suppressors can make shooting safer for the millions of hunters and sportsmen that exercise their constitutional right to use firearms every year," Sen. Lee said in a press release.
#1
Under the Obama admin., ATF RULE 41F suppressors were deregulated in 2016 (That was a surprise to me). Some states did not go along with this such as California, Illinois, NY, the usual suspects. The SHUSH legislation appears to further deregulate legislatively suppressors. This would be a good thing and save hearing. The NRA has had a number of articles recently in Rifleman re suppressors.
#2
I have never shot a gun with a "silencer"/suppressor on it. However, I have read that while they do reduce the bang they are hardly silent like shown on TV and movies.
#4
Suppressors are currently an NFA item (national firearms act). This means they are regulated like machine guns. The nut of it is that you can still buy these items so long as they are legal in your state, but you need to fill out a bunch of federal paperwork, pay a $200 tax and wait for many, many months for approval.
This is all very silly. In many countries suppressors are *required* when hunting. They don't make the gun quiet - movies are lying to you -- but they do reduce the noise to a level which is safe on your hearing without wearing ear protection.
#6
Ive got one for a 22lr. It took 9 months to get the stamp. It reduces decibels by over 30. Most haering protection is good for mid twenties. Imagine shooting a bolt action 22 with hearing protection...its quieter. Dont scare the pets or piss off the wife. Its all good.
#7
I've used them in the past, in a different life.
There's a local gun store/ shooting range (blatant plug -The Arms Room) where you can rent (1) full auto SMG's and (2) suppressors, and combinations thereof. They have a fully auto H&K MP5 with the integral suppressed barrel; rent's for $120/hr (last i saw). The catch is you have to buy the ammo from them. And it does burn through some ammo!
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/07/2017 19:49
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#8
I'd be happy to pay them for the ammo.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/07/2017 21:33
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On a technical note, 30dB is huge. The scale is logarithmic and 3dB is half. So 30dB is 2^10 less energy in the sound emitted by the weapon.
#10
I believe the tax of $200 for each stamp is a lot more than the suppressors cost. And it's cool listening to the .223 rounds traveling from the barrel of the rifle going down range.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to eat alive the Islamist militants behind the abduction and beheadings of two Vietnamese sailors in a furious reaction to the killings.
The remains of the two hostages, who were kidnapped along with four other crew members of a Vietnamese cargo ship in November last year, were recovered off the southern region of Mindanao by Philippine troops on Wednesday.
The military blamed the killings on the notorious kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf group with a stronghold in the area, and which is known to behead its hostages unless ransom payments are made.
"I will eat your liver if you want me to. Give me salt and vinegar and I will eat it in front of you," Duterte said in a speech before local officials late Wednesday.
"I eat everything. I am not picky. I eat even what cannot be swallowed."
Holding up a mobile phone with a photo of the slain Vietnamese sailors, Duterte angrily cursed the militants.
"Will we allow ourselves to be enslaved by these people? Son of a whore."
Duterte, 72, ordered a military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf and other militants in the southern Philippines last year.
Abu Sayyaf, originally a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, has splintered into factions, with some continuing to engage in banditry and kidnappings.
One faction has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, and joined militants battling security forces since late May in Marawi, the largely Catholic nation's most important Islamic city.
The militants continue to occupy parts of the southern city despite a US-backed military offensive there that has claimed more than 460 lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people.
Duterte often uses extreme language, particularly when talking about Islamist militants.
Last year, the leader said he would eat Abu Sayyaf militants alive in a bloodthirsty vow of revenge following a bombing in Davao, his southern home city that claimed 15 lives.
Duterte said Vietnam had raised concern about a series of high-seas kidnappings blamed on the Abu Sayyaf when he visited Hanoi last year.
On Wednesday, Vietnam's foreign ministry condemned the killing of the two sailors as it called for heavy punishment.
One of the six crewmen was rescued last month and three remain in captivity according to the Philippine military.
It says Abu Sayyaf militants are holding a total of 22 hostages, including eight other Vietnamese.
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#1
"I will eat your liver if you want me to. Give me salt and vinegar and I will eat it in front of you. I eat everything. I am not picky. I eat even what cannot be swallowed."
It's CNBC, so, of course, they HAD to find something negative to add: "However, wage growth was muted, with average hourly earnings up 2.5 percent on an annualized basis."
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"More". Sure. I see what you did there. Which rebel commander is going to sacrifice some civilians around him for a show that may or may not get picked up by the West. Who may or may not react. And which civilians are going to volunteer themselves and their children?
[Yahoo] Russia has claimed that Syrian militants are planning chemical attacks to prompt U.S. military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
"According to currently available information, Syrian terrorist groups are planning a demonstration provocation with the use of toxic, chemical substances in order to serve as basis for U.S. strikes against Syrian government forces’ positions," Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said on Thursday. These chemicals have to be launched from somewhere. How about you let us station some observers where we want?
"The acts will most likely be carried out in a populated area, inaccessible for government forces, such as the opposition enclave in Eastern Ghouta, where chemical weapons were delivered earlier," Zakharova said in her daily press briefing, according to state news agency Itar-Tass. And station some observers there, too.
She accused rebel militant groups Jaish al-Islam and Filak ar-Rahman of possessing the equipment needed to carry out the attack. Zakharova did not say if the U.S. was privy to such a plot. And allowing us to stage some quick-reaction forces with equipment in some strategic places so we can take a look at the victims and run some blood tests and chemical analyses.
Zakharova’s claims come a week after the Pentagon announced it has observed what appear to be preparations for a new chemical attack at a Syrian government airfield. U.S. Envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley said afterwards that not only will Assad be punished for any such attack but his main allies Russia and Iran would also be considered responsible.
Zakharova’s words mirrored Russia’s response to a chemical attack against civilians in April that was blamed on Assad. Russia remained a staunch supporter of the regime, claiming anti-government fighters carried out the attack.
The U.S. responded by striking the regime airfield thought to have facilitated the attack. Following the strike, Russia has consistently aimed to stoke skepticism that Assad would ever order chemical attacks. In April Russian President Vladimir Putin himself reiterated this and attempted to neuter allegations of future complicity by the regime in such attacks, accusing rebels of preparing more "provocations."
#1
gorb: And which civilians are going to volunteer themselves and their children?
While my default hypothesis will be : Yes, Assad did it. The ME is riddled with groups that will happily slaughter some other group's civilians if it seems to be advantageous. Not a matter of survival, just convenient...
[Reuters] France's foreign intelligence service is bolstering recruitment to counter Islamist militants and cyber criminals, but it is looking for computer wizards and linguists not would-be James Bonds.
Top of the vacancy list at France's DGSE, the equivalent of America's CIA or Britain's MI6, are posts for young information technology gurus and linguists who master the finer points of Russian, Chinese or Farsi, widely used in Iran and Afghanistan.
While publicity is not usually a priority of the foreign spy service (the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, or DGSE), its head of administration said recruitment pressures are changing things.
"All kinds of telecoms and IT profiles interest us, from crypto-mathematicians to super geeks," Charles Moreau, head of DGSE administration, told Reuters during an interview at the agency's northeastern Paris headquarters - nicknamed "La Piscine" (The Pool).
The DGSE hiring target is 500-600 recruits a year to bring its numbers up to 7,100 by 2019, but the skills required are not those of amphibious frogmen or secret agents of the kind incarnated by the fictional British character James Bond.
Today the foreign spy service is recruiting in an increasingly open and competitive marketplace where it has to vie with big industrial groups, start-ups and other top-end recruiters to attract high-fliers, says Moreau, whose remit covers oversight of hiring.
[Yahoo] Iraqi commanders say female Islamic State militants are firing on their forces and using children as human shields as the extremist group defends its last sliver of Mosul's Old City.
The militants' use of human shields has repeatedly slowed Iraqi advances throughout the nearly nine-month offensive to retake the country's second largest city, and the commanders' frustration was on display as they watched surveillance footage from the front lines.
"The women are fighting with their children right beside them," Lt. Gen. Sami al-Aridi said as he was briefed by an officer holding a tablet computer showing drone imagery. "It's making us hesitant to use airstrikes, to advance. If it weren't for this we could be finished in just a few hours."
Another officer in the command post suggested using Iraqi artillery, which would not require approval from the U.S.-led coalition. "They're all Daesh, just kill them all," the commander said, referring to the IS group by its Arabic acronym.
"There are civilians there, but they are Daesh families," said another officer. Neither would agree to speak on the record, in line with military regulations. In this case, kill them all and let God sort them out.
"For a child, even if his father is a criminal, what has he done?" al-Aridi said. "At the same time, my men are still taking casualties. We had 14 wounded today already." Would you like this child to babysit yours in another ten years?
Women have also carried out suicide bombings against Iraqi forces. Three female suicide bombers hiding among fleeing civilians killed at least three soldiers over the past week.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi congratulated his forces on their "big victory" in Mosul on Tuesday, as they appeared to be on the verge of driving the militants from their last stronghold, but the grinding, house-by-house fighting continues.
It's unclear how many civilians remain in the militants' last enclave, which is less than one square kilometer (mile), but the U.N. says some 2,000 to 3,500 people have been fleeing on a daily basis.
The battle to retake Mosul has already forced 870,000 people from their homes, according to the U.N.
IS militants captured the entire city in a matter of days in the summer of 2014, when they swept across northern and central Iraq. Iraqi forces, with the help of a U.S.-led coalition, have since retaken most of that territory, and view Mosul as a decisive battle.
Posted by: gorb ||
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[Finance.Yahoo] On Thursday, the European Union and Japan announced an agreement on a new trade deal. Did it involve the two economies surrendering their sovereignty to OWG folks a "higher power"?
Coming just one day before the start of the G-20 meeting in Germany, this deal is also seen as something of a rebuke to the antagonistic trade talk President Donald Trump made a cornerstone of his campaign and which has featured prominently in the early days of his presidency.
On Wednesday, for example, Trump tweeted that the United States has "made some of the worst Trade Deals in world history. [Why] should we continue these deals with countries that do not help us?"
Continued on Page 49
[Breitbart Israel] TEL AVIV ‐ Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to never cease paying terrorists their monthly salaries ‐ even if it costs him his job, according to an announcement on his party’s Facebook page Sunday.
"’Even if I will have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary (rawatib) of a Martyr (Shahid) or a prisoner, as I am the president of the entire Palestinian people, including the prisoners, the Martyrs, the injured, the expelled and the uprooted," a Palestinian Media Watch translation of Abbas’ quote on Fatah’s Facebook page said.
According to its 2016 budget, the PA currently pays 26,800 families of "Martyrs" a total of NIS 660 million ($183 million) per year and 6,500 terrorist prisoners receive PA salaries amounting to NIS 486 million ($135 million) per year.
The independent Arab news agency Wattan reported that senior Fatah official Jamal Muhaisen reiterated Abbas’ pledge to never suspend the terrorists’ stipends, and added that it wasn’t an issue of money but preserving the "historical narrative" of the Palestinian people in which terrorist martyrs who lose their lives while attacking Israelis are heroes.
So China has deemed us to be "trespassing". Fine. I say we build an artificial reef in an inconvenient location somewhere nearby and stock it with weapons and hardware and stake a similar claim. See who cracks first.
Two U.S bombers have flown over the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Air Force said on Friday, asserting the right to treat the region as international territory despite China's claim to virtually all of the waterway.
The flight by the B-1B Lancer bombers from Guam on Thursday came as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare for a meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Germany.
The two leaders were expected to discuss what China can do to rein in North Korea's missile and nuclear weapon programs.
North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday that some experts believe has the range to reach Alaska and Hawaii and perhaps the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
While Trump has been seeking China's help to press North Korea, the U.S. military has, nevertheless, been asserting its "freedom of navigation" rights in the South China Sea, at the risk of angering China.
Asked about the flight by the two U.S. bombers, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said there was no problem with freedom of navigation or overflight for the East and South China Seas.
"But China resolutely opposes individual countries using the banner of freedom of navigation and overflight to flaunt military force and harm China's sovereignty and security," he said.
China's Defence Ministry, in a short statement sent to Reuters, said China always maintained its vigilance and "effectively monitors relevant countries' military activities next to China".
"The Chinese military will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability," it added, without elaborating.
The United States has criticized China's build-up of military facilities on South China Sea reefs and tiny islands it has constructed, concerned that they could be used to extend its strategic reach.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims in the sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year.
The two Lancers that made the flight had earlier trained with Japanese jet fighters in the neighboring East China Sea, the first time the two forces had conducted joint night-time drills.
Two U.S. Lancers flew from Guam over the South China Sea last month, while a U.S. warship carried out a maneuvering drill within 12 nautical miles of one of China's artificial islands in the waterway in late May.
Since May, hackers have been penetrating the computer networks of companies that operate nuclear power stations and other energy facilities, as well as manufacturing plants in the United States and other countries. I'm not going to blame the scorpion, although I'd prosecute them where I could. Instead, I'll blame the frog for being stupid. No other approach will work.
Among the companies targeted was the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, which runs a nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kan., according to security consultants and an urgent joint report issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week.
The joint report was obtained by The New York Times and confirmed by security specialists who have been responding to the attacks. It carried an urgent amber warning, the second-highest rating for the sensitivity of the threat.
The report did not indicate whether the cyberattacks were an attempt at espionage -- such as stealing industrial secrets -- or part of a plan to cause destruction. There is no indication that hackers were able to jump from their victims’ computers into the control systems of the facilities, nor is it clear how many facilities were breached.
Wolf Creek officials said that while they could not comment on cyberattacks or security issues, no "operations systems" had been affected and that their corporate network and the internet were separate from the network that runs the plant.
In a joint statement with the F.B.I., a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said, "There is no indication of a threat to public safety, as any potential impact appears to be limited to administrative and business networks."
The hackers appeared determined to map out computer networks for future attacks, the report concluded. But investigators have not been able to analyze the malicious "payload" of the hackers’ code, which would offer more detail into what they were after.
John Keeley, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which works with all 99 electric utilities that operate nuclear plants in the United States, said nuclear facilities are required to report cyberattacks that relate to their "safety, security and operations." None have reported that the security of their operations was affected by the latest attacks, Mr. Keeley said.
In most cases, the attacks targeted people -- industrial control engineers who have direct access to systems that, if damaged, could lead to an explosion, fire or a spill of dangerous material, according to two people familiar with the attacks who could not be named because of confidentiality agreements.
The origins of the hackers are not known. But the report indicated that an "advanced persistent threat" actor was responsible, which is the language security specialists often use to describe hackers backed by governments.
The two people familiar with the investigation say that, while it is still in its early stages, the hackers’ techniques mimicked those of the organization known to cybersecurity specialists as "Energetic Bear," the Russian hacking group that researchers have tied to attacks on the energy sector since at least 2012.
Hackers wrote highly targeted email messages containing fake résumés for control engineering jobs and sent them to the senior industrial control engineers who maintain broad access to critical industrial control systems, the government report said.
The fake résumés were Microsoft Word documents that were laced with malicious code. Once the recipients clicked on those documents, attackers could steal their credentials and proceed to other machines on a network.
In some cases, the hackers also compromised legitimate websites that they knew their victims frequented -- something security specialists call a watering hole attack. And in others, they deployed what are known as man-in-the-middle attacks in which they redirected their victims’ internet traffic through their own machines.
Energy, nuclear and critical manufacturing organizations have frequently been targets for sophisticated cyberattacks. The Department of Homeland Security has called cyberattacks on critical infrastructure "one of the most serious national security challenges we must confront."
On May 11, during the attacks, President Trump signed an executive order to strengthen the cybersecurity defenses of federal networks and critical infrastructure. The order required government agencies to work with public companies to mitigate risks and help defend critical infrastructure organizations "at greatest risk of attacks that could reasonably result in catastrophic regional or national effects on public health or safety, economic security, or national security."
The order specifically addressed the threats from "electricity disruptions and prolonged power outages resulting from cybersecurity incidents."
Jon Wellinghoff, the former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said in an interview last week that while the security of United States’ critical infrastructure systems had improved in recent years, they were still vulnerable to advanced hacking attacks, particularly those that use tools stolen from the National Security Agency.
"We never anticipated that our critical infrastructure control systems would be facing advanced levels of malware," Mr. Wellinghoff said.
In 2008, an attack called Stuxnet that was designed by the United States and Israel to hit Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility, demonstrated how computer attacks could disrupt and destroy physical infrastructure.
The government hackers infiltrated the systems that controlled Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and spun them wildly out of control, or stopped them from spinning entirely, destroying a fifth of Iran’s centrifuges.
In retrospect, Mr. Wellinghoff said that attack should have foreshadowed the threats the United States would face on its own infrastructure.
Critical infrastructure is increasingly controlled by Scada, or supervisory control and data acquisition systems. They are used by manufacturers, nuclear plant operators and pipeline operators to monitor variables like pressure and flow rates through pipelines. The software also allows operators to monitor and diagnose unexpected problems.
But like any software, Scada systems are susceptible to hacking and computer viruses. And for years, security specialists have warned that hackers could use remote access to these systems to cause physical destruction.
#2
I get a little suspicious when "FBI, DHS and Crowdstrike" appear in the same article about hacking. Now, if CIA appeared in the same article, I'd really get suspicious.
[American Thinker] In a novel way to blame Trump, Pennsylvania senator Patrick Toomey, a Republican, explained why the Senate Republicans are having difficulty repealing Obamacare. Toomey said:
Look, I didn't expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn't, so we didn't expect to be in this situation.
According to Toomey, the Senate Republicans did not expect Trump to win, therefore they did not prepare before the election how to repeal Obamacare. This means that Toomey and his fellow Republicans were not honest when they promised to repeal Obamacare during the Obama administration. The House and Senate voted to repeal Obamacare, but it was an empty gesture with Obama as president ready to veto it. Worse, it was an empty gesture because the Toomey Republicans were not serious. Simply stated, they promised to repeal but did not prepare to repeal because they did not believe that Trump would win.
This is an incredible admission. Why have the Toomey Republicans been unable since the November election that Trump won, to their surprise, to unite to repeal Obamacare? What have these Republicans been doing since the November election?
#6
Well, the one thing the Pubs have been the best at is shooting themselves in the foot while the foot was in their mouth and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
#7
They've had decades of Democrats talking about Healthcare and don't even have an alternate plan? Here is a plan:
(1) Repeal Obamacare
(2) Remove any barriers to getting insurance from other states
(3) Anyone with pre-existing conditions that cannot get healthcare can get Medicare no matter what their age.
(4) Fix it so Hospitals can shift non-emergency patients (mostly illegals) out of the emergency room and into urgent care without legal liability and allow patients without insurance to pay in cash.
(5) Streamline the bureaucracy of Medicare and audit and prosecute abuses.
Moved to Page 4
[American Thinker] A news story at Breitbart.com, "Airport in Minneapolis Fails 95 Percent of Security Tests," talks about a recent security test of the TSA there and the pathetic performance of the operation. While I cannot dispute the data and conclusions, the false assumption is that the purpose of the TSA is to provide transportation security. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Certainly, if the screeners confiscate a loaded gun or jumbo-sized toothpaste tube, it's not a bad thing. But that's not the high-level purpose of the TSA.
Did you know that in 2016, the TSA screened 738,318,264 passengers, according to their year in review article? That is over twice the population of the U.S. From what figures I can find, it appears they have screened about nine billion passengers since 9/11. Those are just passengers flying in the U.S. Other countries have similar jumbo toothpaste investigative operations with even more hundreds of millions of screenings annually.
I propose that the true purpose of the TSA is to train the population of the U.S. to submit to invasive, embarrassing, and demeaning searches in exchange for the perception of increased security. It's not as though we are actually getting increased security, judging from the article ‐ just the perception thereof.
Acquaintances of mine who travel frequently just shrug off the pat-downs. "What can you do? We're safer for it." That's the desired response: resigned submission.
Through blackmail...uh, agreements with other governments, the TSA extends these "security" requirements to every airport launching flights into the U.S., and those requirements affect every passenger, not just those traveling to the U.S.
And since only the world's upper crust travels by air, we can conclude that those billions experience not just one security screening per year, but several. I know I have. And with every contact, the air traveler shrugs less and less, until he doesn't even remember being fondled.
You know the TSA drill. You have lived it: having some prison guard-looking person rub that blue glove all over your person. But I want you to think beyond that. It's obviously not about security.
What could it be about? What are they training us to endure, for the sake of security?
From the beginning, TSA has never had the slightest intention - philosophically, professionally or otherwise - of doing what actually needs to be done to insure actual security for US air passengers. If we did it the way the Israelis do it, there would be at least some realistic possibility of catching the bad guys. But we won't, because in order to do so, we have to profile, and our politicians would rather see a hundred 9/11s instead of doing what needs to be done, no matter how unpleasant.
So the theater will continue, until the next time.
And I guarantee that afterwards, we will see video of the bombers or hijackers walking serenely through the checkpoints, while some toddler or grandmother is patted down.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/07/2017 5:32
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#2
"Do something"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/07/2017 6:35
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#3
There is also the goal to grow the bureaucracy and increase the power and prestige of the managers. Then there are all of the opportunities for graft.
Oh, btw, don't forget the unions. All of this is in line with the "resigned submission" goal.
#4
I propose that the true purpose of the TSA is to train the population of the U.S. to submit to invasive, embarrassing, and demeaning searches in exchange for the perception of increased security.
What is the end goal of the surveillance society? Is it total submission and compliance? Are we headed for some existence such as depicted on the TV fictional program "Person of Interest?"
We were warned by Benjamin Franklin long ago: Those who would give up Essential Liberty
to purchase a little Temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/07/2017 10:04
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#8
TSA isn't just the pat down thugs.
The huge tracking infrastructure also serves as a reporting tool for bags and passenger seat mile monitoring of the airlines.
#19
TSA at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta could be a case study in government welfare and fraud. It creeps me out to think that $ .01 cent of my money funds these endolent creatures.
[LA Times] Fox Business Network host Charles Payne has been suspended while 21st Century Fox investigates sexual harassment allegations made against him, the company confirmed Thursday night.
Payne’s suspension was announced by Fox Business Network following his program "Making Money," and shortly after the Los Angeles Times first reported the investigation.
"We take issues of this nature extremely seriously and have a zero-tolerance policy for any professional misconduct," a Fox Business Network representative said in a statement. "This matter is being thoroughly investigated and we are taking all of the appropriate steps to reach a resolution in a timely manner."
Payne, who hosts "Making Money" on the network and appears on various other programs, has acknowledged what he described as a three-year "romantic relationship" with a married female political analyst who frequently appeared on Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel from 2013 to 2016. Payne admitted to the extramarital affair in a statement to the National Enquirer published Wednesday that included an apology to his wife, children and friends.
That relationship is now being reviewed after the woman contacted Fox’s law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison last month to report her allegations of sexual misconduct. The woman, who worked for CNN last year, had a representative tell the firm she believed she was eventually blackballed from the network after she ended the affair in 2015 and tried to report Payne to top executives at Fox News, according to two sources familiar with her complaint.
#5
The woman, who worked for CNN last year, had a representative tell the firm she believed she was eventually blackballed from the network after she ended the affair in 2015 and tried to report Payne to top executives at Fox News, according to two sources familiar with her complaint.
What did she think was going to happen? The counter accusation is that she she had a nepotistic advantage during the time of their relationship in being brought onto the network, greatly enhancing her personal brand.
This is the danger of having affairs with people we work with.
[Business Insider] The AK-12 assault rifle has passed military field tests and meets all of the Russian armed forces' design and operational standards, gunmaker Kalashnikov Concern says, according to Jane's 360.
The AK-12's success in military trials sets it up to become the standard weapon for soldiers in Russia's Ratnik -- or Warrior -- future weapon system.
Work on the AK-12 began in 2011 with the AK-200 as a base model. Kalashnikov Concern presented prototypes in early 2012, and the first generation of the weapon was also successful in military tests.
However, according to Jane's, the Russian military requested design alterations and wanted the new weapon to be cheaper to make. The company then produced the second-generation version of the weapon, using a 5.45 mm round with the AK-400 as its base model. The second-generation model also addressed issues regarding full-automatic fire.
The 5.45 mm AK-12 is being developed with the 7.62 mm AK-15 -- both of which are to be teamed with the 5.45 mm RPK-16 light support weapon. The Russian military has also been testing A545 and A762 assault rifles -- 5.45 mm and 7.62 mm, respectively -- made by Kovrov Mechanical Works
[Breitbart] Actor and immigration activist George Clooney will move to Los Angeles with his wife Amal and newborn twins Ella and Alexander due to security concerns at his England estate, according to a report.
Life & Style magazine reported last week that the 56-year-old Oscar-winner will move his newly-expanded family to his mansion in Studio City, California, after deeming his 17th century mansion in Sonning, England to be not sufficiently safe for them.
"As soon as Amal found out she was pregnant, he hired former Secret Service agents to assess all his properties and make recommendations for improvement," an unnamed Clooney "insider" told the magazine. "His mansion in Studio City [Calif.] was deemed the most secure, and it’s within minutes of an LAPD station."
The head of the US Office of Government Ethics, who clashed with President Donald Trump and his administration, said on Thursday he would resign before his five-year term ends in January.
In a letter to Trump dated on Thursday and posted on his Twitter account, Walter Shaub said he would step down effective July 19.
A US judge on Thursday rejected the state of Hawaii's bid to exempt grandparents from President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban, but he said the state could directly ask the US Supreme Court to clarify its ruling.
US District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu had been asked to interpret a ruling from the US Supreme Court that revived parts of Trump's March 6 executive order banning people from six Muslim-majority countries for 90 days.
The highest court let the ban go forward with a limited scope, saying it could not apply to anyone with a credible "bona fide relationship" with a US person or entity.
#1
I don't know what the arabic, polynesian, japanese or chinese word for "abuela" is. More importantly, I don't care...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/07/2017 6:38
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#2
Is this so-called US District Judge a part of the left's Resist Movement?
1. SCOTUS decided this in the 1950 Knauff case.
2. It is completely within Trump's plenary rights as POTUS to control the flow of aliens/immigrants into our country for whatever reason. It is “inherent in the executive power to control the foreign affairs of the nation.”
3. It is not intended that the courts co-opt this plenary power of the executive branch.
[IsraelTimes] Sadiq Khan has urged Amber Rudd to outlaw the terror group’s political and military wing, becoming the most high-profile figure to do so in recent weeks.
Figures from across the political spectrum have called for a change in the law to proscribe the political wing, just as the military wing already is. Hezbollah ‐ whose own leaders acknowledge the two wings are one in the same thing ‐ is banned in full by the US, Canada and the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... The loophole in the law was exposed during the latest parade when organisers pinned disclaimers to the rifle-laden flags stressing specific support for the political wing.
[Ynet] A Saudi security officer was killed and six others injured on Thursday morning by an bomb which targeted their patrol in eastern 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... , said a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
The attack occurred in al-Awamiya, located in the oil-producing Eastern Province, a flashpoint between the Sunni Moslem government and minority Shi'ites complaining of discrimination.
[Ynet] The Syrian army said on Thursday it had extended a unilateral suspension of combat operations in southern Syria through the end of Saturday, but rebels said the ceasefire had already been violated by strikes on areas under their control.
The army had announced last Monday a ceasefire it said took effect from midday (0900 GMT) the previous day until Thursday and was being done to support "reconciliation efforts".
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian assailant carried no weapon, to be questioned on motive, according to Sherlocks
A Border Police officer was lightly hurt Thursday after he was attacked by a Paleostinian man near Damascus Gate outside Jerusalem’s Old City, police said.
Officers asked the man to identify himself, but he refused.
According to a police statement, the unarmed man then attacked one of the officers.
He was quickly subdued and tossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! . The suspect had no weapon on his person, and was not hurt in the altercation.
The officer was treated by a medic at the scene and taken to the hospital for unspecified additional medical care.
There was no immediate word on the assailant’s motive. The police statement said he will be questioned "to clarify the reasons" for his behavior.
The Damascus Gate area is a flashpoint site for Paleostinian terror attacks.
[IsraelTimes] The European Parliament has advised the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... to freeze accession talks with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... amid growing concerns over the country’s human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... and democracy. Turkey rejects Thursday’s move, calling it an attempt to "sabotage" relations with the EU.
The legislature voted 477-64 with 97 abstentions to approve a non-binding report recommending the suspension of the negotiations in the wake Turkey’s referendum in April that approved constitutional amendments to give the president sweeping new powers.
The parliament called on the EU’s 28 states to formally suspend the talks "without delay" if the constitutional reforms are implemented without change in Turkey.
Ottoman Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says what matters is the opinion of EU leaders and that there was no change in Turkey’s aim for EU membership.
"The EU should determine its vision for its future and decide whether or not it will walk with Turkey," he says.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/07/2017
02:53 ||
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#1
That's the root problem with the EU. Once the bureaucracy decides it wants to do something, no one has the power to stop it.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/07/2017 19:57
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[DW] The "Welcome to Hell" protest was over shortly after it began, following a day of suspense in Hamburg. Many people had stayed at home or left the city. But, as Jenny Witt reports, almost everyone had expected trouble.
Thursday's big demonstration against the summit, titled "Welcome To Hell," was the first serious test for the police. Flyers from the organizers instructed people to "be noisy, angry and combative." The police knew that this would be the first proper gathering of the "Black Block" - the extreme anarchist end of the anti-capitalist movement.
Seventy-six officers were maimed in the subsequent festivities, five of whom had to be taken to hospital.
Police officers have saturated the district around the Messehallen convention center for days now. Streets are blocked off. Hundreds of police vans from all over Germany line the pavements. Water cannon have been stationed around the city all week. The central part of Hamburg has been transformed into a fortress, despite statements by the city government that this was not supposed to happen.
Finallyr, the organizers started the march. Several hundred demonstrators in black, many of whom wore hoods and had covered their faces, led the way. They moved about 400 meters (1300 feet) down the road, toward a footbridge that passes overhead.
That's where the demonstration ended. A row of water cannon became visible in the distance, with their blue lights flashing. The police were stopping the march, just as many had expected.
"They were never going to let the demo get anywhere near the city center," said another protester on the footbridge above the water cannon.
[AnNahar] The first 16 Syrian refugees to be resettled in La Belle France under a "humanitarian corridor" scheme organized with Christian groups arrived in Gay Paree late Wednesday.
"For the first time in seven years I feel safe," said one of the group, a 59-year-old who gave his name as Nasser, as he stepped off the plane from Leb at Charles de Gaulle airport to applause from families and activists who had come to welcome them.
"In seven years I have never felt peace like today," said Nasser, who is originally from Homs and had been a refugee in Leb since 2013.
He is due to resettle in the southwestern French city of Pau with his wife, their son and their daughter, who is wheelchair-bound.
A total of 500 refugees are due to be resettled across La Belle France by 2018 under a deal signed between the French state and five Christian organizations in March.
The Christian groups will finance the hosting of the refugees, with the state granting them visas and refugee status.
Isabelle Yard, a 57-year-old teacher, said she was "extremely moved" to be greeting Iraqi couple Raphi, Racha and their 15-year-old daughter Perla to take them home to her village, Combas, in southern La Belle France.
She added she was "a little worried" too, hoping that the family "will not be disappointed" as the village, home to 600 people, is rather isolated.
A group of 50 residents has mobilized to welcome the family and has been preparing for months, she said.
"Some give money, others give time. A couple have made their house available," Yard said.
Francois Clavairoly, head of the French Protestant federation, said the hosts had pledged to feed and house the refugees but also help to integrate them "legally and culturally."
La Belle France is the second country in Europe to institute a "humanitarian corridor" scheme of this kind, after Italia.
Hildegard Sch., 85, and husband Siegfried, 87, were killed in Linz last week
Woman's throat was cut while husband was beaten with stick covered in screws
Tunisian suspect, 54, who had been living in Austria since 1989, 'is clearly a radicalised Muslim', interior minister said
It comes after country shelved plans to set up a hard border with Italy to head-off a potential influx of migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/07/2017
02:53 ||
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#1
Committing national suicide on the installment plan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/07/2017 10:06
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#2
the victims were friendly w the tunisian and had given him financial assistance
that busts a few leftist narrative points
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/07/2017 14:08
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#3
Anyone of middle age who has lived for three decades -- more than half his life -- in the host country has no excuse for becoming radicalized, if only because how it will be extended to others like him.
[AlAhram] Ottoman Turkish police have detained 12 people, including the local director of Amnesia Amnesty International and other human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... activists, on an island near Istanbul, media said on Thursday, in a move Amnesty branded a "grotesque abuse of power".
The detentions came less than a month after a court ordered the arrest of the chairman of Amnesty's The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... branch, Taner Kilic, on charges of "membership of a terrorist organization" in a crackdown following an attempted military coup in July 2016. Kilic remains in jail pending trial.
Amnesty Turkey Director Idil Eser and the others were taken to a cop shoppe on Wednesday evening after meeting at a hotel on Buyukada, an island just south of Istanbul, Hurriyet newspaper said. It was not clear why they were being held.
Amnesty called for the group's release, saying it was "profoundly disturbed and outraged" at the detentions during a digital security and information management workshop.
Among those detained with Eser were seven human rights defenders, two foreign trainers ‐ a German and a Swedish national ‐ as well as the hotel owner, Amnesty's statement said.
Since the failed putsch, Turkey has incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! more than 50,000 people pending trial and suspended or dismissed some 150,000, including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links with terrorist groups.
The purge has also led to the closure of some 130 media outlets and jailing of 150 journalists and has worried Turkey's Western allies and rights groups, who say President Tayyip Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent.
More than 240 people were killed in last year's coup attempt, and the government has said the security measures are necessary because of the gravity of the threats facing Turkey.
Amnesty Turkey's chairman was detained in early June with 22 other lawyers over alleged links to the network of Moslemholy manFethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , whom Ankara blames for the failed coup.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/07/2017
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[AlAhram] Belgian prosecutors said Thursday they were looking for further suspects in an emerging terror investigation and that they feared a possible attack.
"We are still looking for several terrorism suspects," Eric van der Sypt, the front man for the federal prosecutors' office, told VTM television, adding, "We fear they may feel cornered. We therefore fear there could be the same reaction as on March 22 (2016)."
Van der Sypt was referring to twin attacks by jacket wallahs in Brussels on March 22 2016, killing 32 people, that occurred after police came across a weapons cache.
On Wednesday, police charged two brothers of a convicted jihadist with belonging to a "terrorist group," suspected of planning an attack with a large stash of weapons including Kalashnikov rifles.
The pair, named as Akim and Khalid Saouti, were among four people detained in the Brussels suburb of Anderlecht, two of whom were later released.
A fifth man was tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! across the border in northern La Belle France, near the city of Lille.
A source close to the probe said the two men in jug are brothers of Said Saouti, a member of the Kamikaze Bikers club
...a Salafist motorcycle gang inspired by ISIS, several of whose members were arrested in the final days of 2015 for planning a Paris-style mass attack on Brussels' Grand Place and the nearby police station..
who was placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! for six years in 2016 for recruiting people to jihadist organizations and supporting 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.... (IS) group on social media.
Police had searched four houses and two garages overnight in the Anderlecht district of Brussels. In one garage they found three Kalashnikovs, ammunition, other firearms and four detonators, the prosecutors said.
Police also found a blue police beacon, a security agency uniform, two police uniforms and a civil protection service uniform, suggesting that the group may have been planning an attack disguised as security forces.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/07/2017
01:17 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Salafist platform Hefajat-e-Islam ...a madrassa-based false nose and mustache of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, formed in 2010 to protest against secular education. In 2011 demonstrated violentyly against women's rights and in 2013 held large rallies demanding capital punishment of Shahbag Square protesters and banning women working outside the home... Bangladesh condemned and expressed grave concerns over the cow vigilantism in India.
The Qawmi madrasa-based organization claimed the cow vigilantes were actively colluding with the state.
The Islamist platform also urged the international community to play a more effective role in protecting the Moslem community in India.
Junayed Babunagari, secretary general of Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh also urged the government of Bangladesh to convey its concerns to India to cease the "ongoing repression on the Moslem people."
The accusations and concerns were delivered via a blurb on Thursday.
The Hefazat leader referred to one of BJP’s election slogans "Vote for Modi, give life to the cow," while highlighting the fact that India is among the two largest beef-exporting countries in the world, the other being Brazil.
"India meets 25% of the global beef demand and earns $4bn from it. Regrettably, the Indian government is trying to control the people’s diet," complained Babunagari.
"Moslems are sadly becoming victims of cow vigilantism in India. Indian politicians believing in ’Hindutva’ are inciting violence against Moslems," Babunagari lamented.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:40 ||
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[DAWN] Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Thursday reiterated that the Haqqani Network operates from Afghanistan, not Pakistan.
His statement came a day after US Senator John McCain said that the US should change its ‘behaviour’ towards Pakistan if the latter "does not stop supporting the terrorist network".
During his weekly briefing, the FO spokesperson claimed that the Taliban and other terrorist outfits have been eliminated from Pakistan and that those surviving are functioning from Afghanistan. He also pointed out that most Haqqani leaders had been killed in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:33 ||
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[DAWN] European and Japanese scientists Thursday unveiled the BepiColombo spacecraft ahead of its seven-year journey to Mercury, to explore one of the Solar System's most enigmatic planets.
Set for launch in 2018, BepiColombo will be the European Space Agency's (ESA) first mission to the closest rock to the Sun.
The craft has an unusual design, comprising a “stacked aircraft” carrying two orbiters — one European, the other Japanese — which will separate on arrival to go into different, but complementary orbits around Mercury.
BepiColombo aims to “follow up on many of the intriguing results of NASA's Messenger mission, probing deeper into Mercury's mysteries than ever before,” the ESA said.
The joint project with the Japanese agency JAXA, which has cost more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.48 billion), involves some 33 companies from 12 EU nations, as well as firms from the US and Japan.
It has been delayed several times, but the mission chiefs are now confident that it is on track to launch in October next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:32 ||
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[DAWN] US Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. As an ordinary citizen he greased the infamous hookers peeing on the Obamabed in Moscow dossier in an attempt to smear President Trump... ’s warning that if Pakistain does not stop supporting the Haqqani network, the United States should change its ’behaviour’ towards the Pak nation reflects the changing mood in Washington towards a country once considered a close ally.
Senator McCain, who was in Islamabad recently before flying over to Kabul, said he had conveyed this message to Pakistain’s civilian and military leaders as well.
"We have made it very clear that we expect they [Pakistain] will cooperate with us, particularly against the Haqqani network and against terrorist organizations," he said at a news briefing on Tuesday in Kabul.
"If they don’t change their behaviour, maybe we should change our behaviour towards Pakistain as a nation."
According to some Pak sources, the terse statement came even though during a briefing by top military officials Mr McCain and his team were repeatedly informed that Pakistain had severed its links with members of the Haqqani network. They added that if any bully boyz were found inside Pakistain they would be jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! and prosecuted.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:29 ||
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday hoped that he and his family would come out clear of the Panamagate scandal and said, “There is nothing to fear as our hands are clean.”
Talking to the journalists accompanying him on his two-day visit to Tajikistan, the prime minister asked “What are the allegations against me? Have I looted the national exchequer? Have I done some corruption or got kickbacks?”
He said accountability was being held of a person who made this country a nuclear power. He regretted that his family business matters were being exploited for political gains.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:28 ||
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[WASHINGTONTIMES] Sixty-four Republican politicians sent a letter Friday asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reaffirm the constitutional prohibition against religious tests for public office.
Led by Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the memo is a response to questions raised by Sen. Bernie Sanders ...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords... , Vermont Independent, at a hearing last month to confirm one of President Trump’s nominees to the Office of Management and Budget.
"While there is continuous debate about the scope and meaning of the religion clauses in the First Amendment," the letter reads, "the text of Article VI has been clear: no religious test shall ever (emphasis added) be required as a qualification to any public office or public trust under the United States."
"Yet, questions were asked during a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing about an executive branch nominee’s adherence to the Christian faith," the letter continues, "suggesting that such beliefs disqualified the nominee from service."
At the hearing, Mr. Sanders took issue with an article written in 2016 by Russell Vought, a devout Christian who was nominated by Mr. Trump to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.
In a blog for The Resurgent, Mr. Vought wrote that Moslems "do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, his Son, and they stand condemned."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:26 ||
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perhaps Senator Sanders should ask his wife and himself about their religious tenets. As in: "Thou shalt not steal or covet thy neighbors' goods"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/07/2017 9:08
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[BREITBART] On the Fourth of July of all days, “Never Trump” New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said President Donald Trump’s supporters are “idiots” who need to “admire” elites.
The Times’ and MSNBC’s insufferably smug and out-of-touch useful idiot said Warren Buffett has a wonderful line: “First come the innovators, then come the imitators, and then come the idiots.”
“I think the conservative movement has traced a similar trajectory,” he said on MSNBC, adding that “the party of Donald Trump” is associated with “exclusion, fear, and bigotry.”
Stephens whined that conservatives “demonize” and do not “admire” elites who are “educated” and care about things like “culture” and the “cultivation of the human soul.”
He's a perfect fit for the New York Times.
Stephens was recently mocked as an elitist poseur when he actually wrote a column about permanently signing off Twitter only to reveal that his assistant would be monitoring his Twitter feed. “Never Trumpers” like Stephens write for their fellow media elitists (their core base), so of course Stephens is not really signing off since he would risk giving up some of the spotlight that is put on him whenever he bashes Trump and his supporters.
“This is the column in which I formally forswear Twitter for good. I’ll keep my Twitter handle, and hopefully my followers, but an editorial assistant will manage the account from now on,” he wrote without any sense of self-awareness. “I’ll intercede only to say nice things about the writing I admire, the people I like and the music I love.”
On MSNBC, Stephens also whined that George Will, who was on the wrong side of the Reagan Revolution and is now an MSNBC contributor, is no longer viewed as the “godfather” of conservative punditry. Stephens then continued to embrace policies his former employer, the Wall Street Journal, blindly supported like unfettered “free trade” and open borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:25 ||
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Thank you, God for the incompetence of our enemies.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/07/2017 0:46
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“the party of Donald Trump” is associated with “exclusion, fear, and bigotry.”
Every single person who voted for Obama and Clinton voted for someone who publicly stated that Christians, gun owners, and people who believe in limited government, free enterprise, and intact national borders are untermensch.
Who is really the bigot, Mr. Stephens?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/07/2017 5:22
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#4
“the party of Donald Trump” is associated with “exclusion, fear, and bigotry.”
What party - the Republicans hate him more than Democrats do?
[FREEBEACON] Democratic lawmakers voted 71-42 to override Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a $5 billion tax hike on Thursday.
Illinois has been in a budgetary showdown to address a $6.2 billion deficit, as well as nearly $15 billion in unpaid bills and hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded retirement benefits for state workers.
Rauner had pushed lawmakers to close the deficit by reforming workers compensation and consolidating local governments, while also capping local property taxes. Democrats, who control the state Senate and House of Representatives, along with 16 Republican state representatives, rejected those measures and instead approved hiking income taxes from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent and corporate taxes from 5.25 percent to 7 percent on Sunday night. Rauner vetoed the bill on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:22 ||
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As foretold.....
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/07/2017 9:41
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The generational indentured servitude of the citizens of IL. You voted for it, now take it good and hard.
[FREEBEACON] Anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour said that resisting President Donald Trump is a "form of jihad" at the Islamic Society of North America's 54th annual convention on Saturday.
Sarsour, who has vocally expressed sympathy towards terrorists, was the keynote speaker at a community service recognition luncheon during the convention.
"I hope that when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad," Sarsour said of Trump's administration.
"We are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or on the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America. Where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reining in the White House," Sarsour said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:21 ||
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Tie her to the Donks for 2018.
Watch the wheels on the bus go round and *thump!* round
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/07/2017 8:58
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She is normalizing the term Jihad so that it can't be used as a negative against her friends in the middle east.
[NYPOST] Mayor de Blasio on Thursday skipped an NYPD swearing-in ceremony made somber by this week’s assassination of a cop — then hours later revealed he was busy preparing to jet off on a surprise trip to join leftist protesters at the G-20 summit in Germany.
Hizzoner’s overseas jaunt was kept under wraps until just 90 minutes before he took off from Newark Airport. A last-minute announcement said he “will attend several events surrounding the G-20 Summit, including Saturday’s Hamburg Zeigt Haltung rally.”
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:20 ||
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[BREITBART] President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s first photo-call in Poland after his arrival in Air Force One was with President Andrzej Duda and saw him sat beside an oil painting of a prominent figure in Polish history and folklore -- the 17th-century king who kicked Islam out of Central Europe and is remembered as "the Hammer of the Turks".
Warsaw’s Royal Palace, where the meeting took place -- lavishly reconstructed after it was dynamited by Nazi German troops during the Second World War -- benefits from a surfeit of grand rooms and hundreds of works of art.
From oils of kings and statesmen by artists such as Rembrandt to impressive murals and sculpture, the Polish authorities had a great deal of choice for where to host the symbolic first meeting of President Trump’s first European visit.
It may be seen as a remarkable coincidence, therefore, that of all the rooms and of all the paintings, they chose to sit President Trump besides a portrait of one of Poland’s best-known warrior kings. King Jan (John) III Sobieski is today remembered and celebrated in Poland, and elsewhere in Central Europe, for his pivotal role at the Battle of Vienna in September 1683.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:18 ||
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The thing is Poland has always been to close to Russia and the jihads in the Balkans. The assholes are way too close. It has been, "It's Monday night Abdul, why don't unplug from the goats, get on our horses, and ride for an hour into Poland.
#5
Not just at Vienna, he led a number of ass kickings so that when they showed up in relief of Vienna after one of those impossible marches where the army shows up where no army should appear, the Ottomans thoroughly wet themselves.
Jan Sobieski: The King who Saved Europe
by Miltiades Varvounis
[THEFEDERALIST] Last week, more Americans tuned in to watch re-runs of “Yogi Bear,” “Full House,” and “Friends” on Nick At Nite than to watch Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon’s shows on CNN.
According to cable ratings from the week of June 26-July 2, CNN’s viewership of its primetime shows was ranked significantly lower than its competitors like Fox News and MSNBC, which place first and second respectively. Clocking in at No. 10 on the list, CNN fell behind HGTV, Nick At Nite, History Channel, and ESPN — the sports network that’s been hemorrhaging viewers for months.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:14 ||
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How many stories about Baraq's jeans can you watch?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/07/2017 9:15
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Who the hell wants to watch Anderson Cooper?
Posted by: John frum ||
07/07/2017 16:08
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CNN can't dox half the internet. Streisand Effect effected.
A question CNN ought at some point to have asked is why the Streisand Effect has not done the same damage to President Trump, fond as he is of attacking those who attack him.
Some legal sanity prevails
[HawaiiNewsNow] A federal judge has denied an emergency motion filed by the State of Hawaii that would broaden the familial exceptions to President Trump's travel ban.
In a motion filed by the state after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated portions of the ban on June 26, Attorney General Doug Chin argued that the Trump administration wrongly excluded grandparents and other relatives from the list of family members who can obtain visas to travel to the United States. Buuuut we neeeed more terrorists!
Under the ban, people from the six Muslim-majority nations that are impacted by the ban who sought new visas need to have either a 'close relationship' with a family member – parent, spouse, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling – or an entity such as a business within the United States.
Last week, attorneys for the federal government said that the 'close' family relationships allowed under the President Trump's travel ban were based on definitions outlined by immigration law.
The state's emergency motion – denied on Thursday by Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu – sought to make sure that the ban couldn't be enforced against other family members, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles. Legal speak for, "Supreme Court has spoken, so eat a dick"
In his ruling, Watson reasoned that since the portion of the ban Hawaii was seeking to clarify was authored by the Supreme Court, the state's lawyers should seek clarification directly from them.
"This Court will not upset the Supreme Court's careful balancing and "equitable judgment" ... nor would this district court presume to substitute its own understanding of the stay for that of the originating Court's "exercise of discretion and judgment," said Watson.
Attorney General Chin says the court's ruling was procedural and shouldn't be considered a decision in either party's favor. You lose idiots, but I'll be political about it
"He declined to address the specific merits of our request to clarify the scope of the injunction of the travel and refugee bans," Chin said in a statement. "While we understand Judge Watson's direction to address our request to the United States Supreme Court, we must evaluate that against the normal course of order as it relates to appeals and the clarification of injunctions.
"Whatever course it takes, we will get this resolved," he added. Yeah... don't hold your breath. The Supreme Court was pretty fucking specific.
And I would prefer to have this resolved with all of these morons being ejected out the back of a C-130 at 10,000 feet over the Atlantic (or Pacific, I'm flexible), keeping your hellspawn out of our country will do.
[DAWN] An assistant director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was arrested Thursday on the charge that he sexually harassed an Afghan national at the Islamabad airport.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered and the agency also suspended the official. The developments came after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar took notice of the incident and ordered a detailed probe into it.
According to the FIR, the complainant accused the official of sexually harassing her at the airport when she, along with her sister, arrived there from Afghanistan.
She alleged that they were taken by FIA officials to a secluded room at the airport where they were made to wait for five hours. Later, the officials removed the victim's sister from the room on the pretext of stamping her visa. Subsequently, the accused entered the room and attempted to assault the complainant.
The complainant said she managed to flee the scene after raising an alarm.
She added that other airport officials at the scene had laughed at her plight instead of coming to her aid.
The complainant said that she and her sister had been detained for not having the phone number of the hotel where they were supposed to stay in.
Police officials said they had arrested the accused after examining the CCTV footage of the airport and confirming the victim's account.
The arrested official will be produced before a magistrate on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:07 ||
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#1
So you're saying the ISB FIA got FIR from CCTV?
Yogi Bear: Boo Boo, you've tried to stop my brilliant ideas with common sense a thousand times. Has it ever worked?
Boo Boo: No.
Yogi Bear: Then... let's go-go-go!
[Ynet] Paleostinians from the West Bank, Gazoo Strip and east Jerusalem are polled on hot button issues such as violence with Israel, PA and Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, leadership and the split between Paleostinian governance.
The majority of the Paleostinian public is opposed to actions being made by the Paleostinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and by Hamas in the Gazoo Strip, fearing they could lead to further separation between the two territories, according to a new survey conducted among the Paleostinian population.
The survey was conducted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research of Dr. Khalil Shikaki and interviewed Paleostinians from the Gazoo Strip, West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Among one of the most important issues facing Paleostinian society today is the matter of electrical power. According to the survey, 84% of respondents oppose the PA's decision to stop paying Israel for the electricity it supplies to the Gazoo Strip. Additionally, 88% of Paleostinians expressed opposition to PA salary cuts to Hamas government officials in the Gazoo Strip.
40% of Paleostinians believe these two moves by the PA are meant to put Gazoo under economic strain in the hope that it well lead to an uprising against Hamas. Furthermore, respondents indicated that the punitive measures will not lead to reconciliation between the two governing entities.
In regards to Hamas, 50% of respondents indicated that if Hamas comes to a power sharing agreement with Mohammed Dahlan in the Gazoo Strip, a total separation between the West Bank and the strip will occur.
Additionally, regarding Hamas elections, 43% believe that the election of Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... and Yahya Sinwar will lead to an escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas, while 31% of respondents think that their election will reduce the chances of intra-Paleostinian reconciliation. 25% believe the election will strengthen the chances of ending the split.
It is worth noting that the vast majority of Paleostinian society does not believe the split will end in the near future.
The survey shows a significant decrease in support for an armed intifada. Three months ago, support stood at 51%, while today, only 39% support violence. Interestingly, more than half of the respondents said they support nonviolent resistance.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... even after US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's visit to the region, half of respondents believe that relations between Israel and the PA will continue to deteriorate, while a third believe that relations will remain the same.
In terms of general issues in Paleostinian society, 91% of respondents believe payments to the families of hard boyz should not be stopped, which could lead to tension with the PA, which is under intense US and Israeli pressure to halt the practice.
[Ynet] In overnight operations, IDF seals off firearms workshop after confiscating 2 lathes in al-Ram used to manufacture improvised weapons often used in terror attacks; in separate operation, combat engineers prepare for demolition of the home of one of the terrorist involved in the murder of Hadas Malka last month.
The IDF, the Shin Bet, the Border Police and the Israel Police carried out a joint operation overnight Wednesday during which they discovered weapons-manufacturing equipment in the Paleostinian village of al-Ram northeast of Jerusalem.
Following the discovery, the security forces sealed off two of the illegal workshops while two lathes were confiscated along with numerous other weapons. Another lathe was located in a village in situated in the Etzion Regional Division.
In a separate overnight operation, the IDF carried out a mapping of the home belonging to a terrorist from the village of Deir Abu Mash'al ahead of its demolition for his role in a recent combined terror attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem during which MSG. Hadas Malka was killed.
In the attack, three snuffies armed with semi-automatic weapons and knives struck in two different parts of Jerusalem's Old City, killing the 23-year-old border policewoman.
#4
The Israeli policy of punishing the perpetrators and by taking down their homes, is vitiated by the Palestinian government paying those families for the rest of their lives.
A more effective policy would be to leave the perp homes alone but tear down the homes of their neighbors.
This had the following benefits.
It would encourage neighbors of perps to report on them to avoid this
It would provoke resentment against perps by neighbors.
The Palestinian authority could cease supporting perps. They will have to start supporting neighbors of perps instead to avoid the anger of their community.
The neighbors would start to become angry at the perps and their families.
Actually, it might be sufficient to announce the policy and perhaps apply it once or twice to see if it discouraged attacks, something that present policy is not that efficient at doing, because of public sympathy for those whose homes are destroyed, and the inability of the Palestinian government to oppose that sympathy.
The old Turkish way to handle violence, which was very effective, was to punish and humiliate the village head when violence occurred. This caused such heads to act to discourage violence.
Punishing the perp and his/her family has the undesirable effect of creating sympathy for same which distracts from the perps crimes and which is therefore creating sympathy and support for terrorists.
Better by far to create sympathy for their neighbors or their village head, which will make the perp the cause of damage to the village rather than a victim.
Perhaps a policy of punishing the head of village, as done in the distant past would be most rational.
Posted by: Daniel ||
07/07/2017 13:38
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is vitiated by the Palestinian government paying those families for the rest of their lives.
...using money from donors, not taxes on the Palestinian population. Also, various EU countries pay for the immediate rebuilding of properties torn down by those mean Israelis.
[DAWN] Terming CIA contractor Raymond Davis’s book, The Contractor, a pack of lies, former interior minister Rehman Malik has claimed that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had paid Davis to write the book in order to malign Pakistan’s army and democratic institutions.
Mr Malik, who was interior minister in 2011 when Davis was acquitted of shooting two people in Lahore, issued a detailed statement on Thursday regarding so far undisclosed developments that had unfolded in the aftermath of Davis’s arrest.
Mr Malik claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government and the military establishment had decided not to release Davis till he was acquitted by a court of law. “A high-level meeting had decided that neither would Davis be deported nor would he be granted diplomatic immunity, and that we would wait for the decision of the court in the matter and no action would be taken through any executive order,” he said, adding that the name of Davis had been placed on the Exit Control List immediately.
He said that later in a meeting at the President House, the then Inter-Services Intelligence director general, Gen Shuja Pasha, had told the political leadership that the Americans wanted to exercise the right of Diyat (blood money) under Islamic law. “The matter was dealt with the cooperation of the Punjab government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior,” he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:05 ||
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[DAWN] America's diplomats are struggling to figure out what mission the Trump administration expects them to carry out, and they see the importance of their jobs waning as President Donald Trump seeks drastic cuts to the budgets of the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The results of a survey commissioned by the State Department found a high level of confusion and demoralisation among the ranks of career diplomats and civil servants, who expressed concerns about their futures as well as the trajectory of American foreign policy. The survey results were released to State Department and USAID employees Wednesday in a 110-page report that was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A copy of the report was obtained by The Associated Press shortly after it was distributed to employees.
The survey, conducted by a private consulting firm, was ordered in late April by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO. Tillerson was brought into Trump's administration in part due to his experience running a massive organisation, and given a mission to reorganise the State Department.
Tillerson has largely accepted the administration's plans to slash diplomatic and development funding, although he faces intense bipartisan opposition in Congress, which will likely reverse at least some of his proposed 31 per cent cut in funding. Such funds account for a little more than 1pc of the federal budget.
In addition to grave unease about the future, many of the 35,000 employees who responded to the survey complained about management culture, working conditions, uncertain performance goals and technological shortcomings that pre-date the Trump administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
00:00 ||
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#1
America's diplomats are struggling to figure out what mission the Trump administration expects them to carry out,
#3
In addition to grave unease about the future, many of the 35,000 employees who responded to the survey complained about management culture, working conditions, uncertain performance goals and technological shortcomings that pre-date the Trump administration.
Same gummit employee 'bitching and moaning' to be found in any bloated gov't agency no doubt.
#4
I have a front row seat to these ninnies clutching their pearls. Here's the deal: SecState is doing a 360 review of the DOS and examining ways to increase efficiencies and cut cost. There is a DOS-wide hiring freeze and that will continue until the re-org is finalized and implemented hopefully by end of 2017. The complainers are life long bureau/demo-crats who are worried the gravy train (aka welfare w/dignity) is coming to an end. The ONLY personnel cuts mentioned was a 3% (2,300 pax) reduction through attrition and early pension buyouts. You know what your job is - I certainly do. It doesn't change when a new President is elected. Get over it and get back to work.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
07/07/2017 5:37
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I love it! Drain the swamp!
These State Department jerks, many for the first time in their lives, are feeling the pain of rightsizing. The same pain they gleefully inflicted on the rest of us with their destructive globalist schemes. It warms the cockles of my heart to know they're torn up about it.
#8
You know what your job is - I certainly do. It doesn't change when a new President is elected. Get over it and get back to work.
But six months ago they were organizing PRIDE celebrations, supporting the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and "assisting democracy efforts" in local elections, none of which seem wanted now, though they are so much more interesting than stamping passports and seriously investigating visa applicants for jihadi and other connections.
Maybe they were just uppity poodles...
[FoxNews] AUBURN, Maine ‐ A professional runner from Kenya who was out training on a nature trail in the woods near his home in Maine says he encountered two charging black bears but was able to outrun them during a frantic sprint to a nearby vacant house for cover.
Moninda Marube said when he saw the bears early Wednesday his instincts kicked in and he did what he does best: run.
He told the Sun Journal that the bears were 20 yards (18 meters) away from him and a vacant house was 20 yards away in the opposite direction. So he made a run for the house, with the bears closing to within 10 yards (9 meters) by the time he found safety on the house's screened porch.
The bears stopped, not realizing they could've easily crashed through the flimsy porch screens, Marube said. They sniffed around for a while before wandering away.
Wardens advise people who encounter black bears to make themselves appear big, make noise and back away slowly. But they recommend people stand their ground if a black bear charges and say if the bear attacks, then fight back.
But Marube said that's easier said than done.
He said he knew that black bears can climb trees, so he couldn't climb to safety. He said he considered jumping in a nearby lake, but he can't swim.
He said he initially engaged in a stare-down with the bears but the bears charged the moment he turned his back on them.
#1
A ranger once told me that grizzlies can't climb trees. So a human who climbs the tree to escape a grizzly then learns that a grizzly will simply knock it over.
#2
Only have to be faster than the slowest in the group.
Oh crap, I'm the only one in the group!
Wardens advise people who encounter black bears to make themselves appear big, make noise and back away slowly. But they recommend people stand their ground if a black bear charges and say if the bear attacks, then fight back.
Alrighty then Jet Li, make like Missouri and show me the one versus two.
At least fourteen people including women and children were wounded in Taliban mortar attack in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
According to the local government officials, the incident took place earlier today in the vicinity of Ghani Khel district.
The provincial government media office in a statement confirmed the incident and said at least fourteen people were wounded after a mortar round landed in Shergar market.
The statement further added that the incident took place around 7:30 am local time and women and children are among those wounded.
The health condition of at least six of those wounded in the attack has been reported critical, the provincial government added.
The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as at least three civilians were killed, three were wounded, and three more were taken as hostages in an attack by the militants on a mosque in Chaparhar district.
The latest violence mainly claiming the lives of the civilians comes as the anti-government armed militants, specifically the Taliban group are blamed for the majority of the civilian casualties.
A group of insurgents launched an attack on a mosque in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan on Wednesday, leaving at least six people dead or wounded.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces said the incident took place in the vicinity of Chaparhar district.
A statement by the 201st Silab Corps said several militants attacked a mosque in Haji Abad village, leaving three people dead and three more wounded.
The statement further added that the militants also took three people as hostages and has taken them to an unknown location.
In the meantime, the 201st Silab Corps said at least two civilians were shifted to the hospital by the personnel of the Silab corps after they sustained injuries in a roadside mine explosion in Achin district.
The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
The Taliban insurgents frequently use IEDs as the weapon of their choice to target the security forces and government officials but in majority of such incidents the ordinary civilians are targeted.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UANAMA) released its latest civilian casualties report late in April, covering a period of three months since the start of 2017.
According to the report, the Anti-Government Elements caused 62 per cent of civilian casualties – 1,353 civilian casualties (447 dead and 906 injured), reflecting a five per cent increase compared to the same period in 2016.
The UN mission also added it recorded a 12 per cent increase in civilian casualties caused by pressure-plate improvised explosive devices – 218 civilian casualties (86 dead and 132 injured).
A commander of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Islam group has been killed in the airstrikes conducted in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
The provincial police commandment said a total of five militants were killed in the airstrikes conducted on Wednesday evening and late night of the same day.
According to a statement by Nangarhar police, at least four foreign insurgents including the Lashkar-e-Islam commander identified as Shah Nawaz were among those killed.
The statement further added that the first airstrike was carried out around the evening time in Spin Zhari area of Nazian district, leaving the Lashkar-e-Islam commander Shah Nawaz dead.
The second airstrike was carried out late on Wednesday night in the vicinity of Mia Baba area of Haska Mina district, leaving four ISIS militants dead, including three foreign insurgents.
The local security officials are saying that the local residents in the two districts and the security personnel did not suffer any casualties during the operations.
Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces in eastern Afghanistan but the anti-government armed militant groups have recently increased their insurgency activities in some parts of the province during the recent years.
This comes as an anti-ISIS operation is underway in Nangarhar to eliminate the presence of ISIS affiliates in this province.
The US forces based in Afghanistan are also providing support to the Afghan forces during the operations, mainly involving airstrikes.
[Dhaka Tribune] Since last year’s terror attack on an upscale cafe in Dhaka, the law enforcement agencies of Bangladesh has been able to take down a major part of the local militant network, but the radical ideology that drives these militants still lives on, said Deputy Inspector General Monirul Islam, chief of the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
Speaking at a discussion on the aftermath of the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, Dhaka, on Thursday, he said police had identified a number of reasons why radical Islamist ideology has spread to such a great extent in the country.
“Marginalised, low-income people are an easy target of militant recruiters as they have no respectable space in society. But many others join the militant groups because they get a monthly allowance for hijrat [travelling from one’s home country to other countries with militant bases for training] with their families,” the CTTC chief said.
“But it is not just the impoverished people. Young people from rich families are falling into this trap as well as they have lost connection to their roots; they do not know their own country, its culture and traditions,” he explained. “They may also be enamoured by the idea of heroism.”
The discussion, titled “The lesson we learnt from the incident of Holey Artisan,” was organised by the Bangla Tribune on Thursday afternoon.
Monirul further said ideology the drives Middle East based terror group Islamic State (IS) is fuelled by the Shia-Sunni conflict in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2017
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[Al Jazeera] Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa has called the Moslem Brüderbund movement a "terrorist" group, amid an ongoing Gulf diplomatic crisis in which four countries severed diplomatic ties with 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... Last month Bahrain, 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... , the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar - accusing it of supporting the Moslem Brüderbund and harbouring "terrorism" in the region. Qatar has strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! the charges.
The foreign ministers of the four states convened in Cairo on Wednesday after receiving Doha’s response to the list of demands earlier this week.
Speaking at the news conference after the meeting, Khalid bin Ahmed said that the Moslem Brüderbund movement "shed the blood" of Egyptian people and had "conspired against our states".
"We consider the Moslem Brüderbund a terrorist group and anyone who shows sympathy with them will be tried on this basis," Khalid bin Ahmed said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated device at Ariana Grande concert
He killed 22 people, including seven children in May
Police revealed today that they do not believe the 22-year-old acted alone
Investigator says Abedi wasn't part of 'large network', but more arrests likely
A total of 21 people have been arrested, of which twelve were released without charge.
This article starring:
Salman Abedi
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
and, it seems he probably used a student loan and various other welfare funds to buy the bomb components
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/07/2017 0:22
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Gee, seems like a lot of people knew. Thankfully the moderates didn't let him get away with it, eh?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/07/2017 6:44
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'The searches that we conducted on average took eight days to complete. The digital exhibits we've seized contain over three million files and 15 terabytes. We have now nearly 16,000 hours of CCTV and we anticipate it will take many months to work through this.
'We have taken 755 statements and there are 3,200 people who form part of the investigation.
The authorities seem to be turning over many stones during the investigation a posteriori. Now if they could've done some of this a priori.
Of course he didn't do this alone. He traveled to Libya. He picked up some sophisticated bomb-making knowledge somewhere (probably Libya).
#4
Of course he didn't do this alone. He traveled to Libya.
Dad and all Dad's friends belonged to an Al Qaeda-linked group in the old days -- that's why Britain gave them asylum decades ago. Sonnyboy didn't need to find a cell, everybody from the olde country was already part of it, active or not.
And to whom did those other addresses where bombs were stashed belong?
Rocketing down the Road to Perdition
[LegalInsurrection] The Illinois House voted to override Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of the income tax hike and budget bill. This is the first budget Illinois has passed in two years.
The House voted 71-42, which is the bare minimum House Speaker Mike Madigan needed, after a security incident delayed the vote for two hours.
The House passed the tax hike and budget bill on Sunday with 72 votes, including 15 Republicans. A few flip flopped, according to The Chicago Tribune:
On Thursday, there were some slight changes. One lawmaker who previously voted for the income tax hike on Sunday, Republican Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer of Downstate Jacksonville, voted against the override. Democratic Rep. Sue Scherer of Decatur had voted against the tax hike on Sunday but voted in favor of the override Thursday. In addition, Rep. Robert Pritchard of Hinckely voted for the tax hike Sunday but was absent Thursday.
The Republicans lacked five representatives with excused absences. One of those voted yes for the bill on Sunday.
Rauner lashed out at the bill on Wednesday as he went around Springfield to try to change the minds of those who voted for the bill. From ABC7: Complete story at the link
There has been a clash near Sirte between Bunyan Marsous (BM) units and forces loyal to the Libyan National Army (LNA)
The BM operations room said that the encounter yesterday at Qasr Abu Hadi, south of Sirte, had happened when its men were tracking suspected IS terrorists. The BM force had been attacked by “tens of vehicles” in three columns.
An LNA source has said that there was a reconnaissance in force in the area made up of four tanks and 40 vehicles.
The BM claimed that the LNA force consisted of irregular units led by Qaddafi-era officers from the Qadhadfa and Magharba tribes.
Neither side mentioned any casualties nor the extent of the gunfire that was exchanged. The BM reported that the LNA force was still at Qasr Abu Hadi. It did not say what had happened to the IS suspects. It had first put out a statement saying their men had been attacked by the IS fighters which it later changed to explain they had in fact come under fire from the LNA .
The BM operations room said today that it was urging the Presidency Council (PC) to investigate how the LNA came to be operating in the same area where IS were active.
Abu Hadi, where Muammar Qaddafi claimed to have been born, is 2km east of Gardabya, which serves as the the region’s main airport.
The incident comes only a week after LNA’s Saiqa Special Forces Commander Wanis Bukhamada praised the role of BM in ousting IS from Sirte last December. He said the LNA would welcome any regular forces that helped in the fight against terrorism.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi troops killed, Thursday, 45 Islamic State militants and arrested five others, north of Salahuddin province, Petra News Agency reported.
“Iraqi army troops thwarted an attack by IS militants against a security site in Shirqat town,” Col. Ali al-Shemari told Petra. “Troops responded killing 45 fighters and arresting five others.”
On Wednesday, Ali al-Dawdah, mayor of Shirqat, was quoted as saying that four IS militants, two tribal fighters and a civilian were killed as government and tribal forces repelled an attack by the group militants, who sneaked into the western side of the town to other villages in the province.
The province has seen an escalation in IS attacks against security troops.
Despite recapturing large areas of there since the group emerged in 2014, observers believe the group could still pose a security threat.
The eastern coast of Shirqat, which lies on the west bank of the Tigris river in Salahuddin province, is still under the IS control, while the western coast was liberated last year. It’s believed that the group has been launching there setting off from Hawija, its stronghold in neighboring Kirkuk.
Pivotal regions that link between each of Diyala, Salahuddin and Kirkuk, are still held by IS posing threats to the liberated regions.
Posted by: badanov ||
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No. And after reading this article, not for the reason you imagine, either. The last thing a fish discovers is water.
[Poynter.org] The internet went nuts Wednesday when President Trump tweeted an unfinished, unpunctuated thought with a mysteriously misspelled word -- "Despite the constant negative press covfefe" -- leaving the world bewildered over his meaning.
Trump’s Twitter feed and official White House statements are notorious for such typos -- misspelling "attaker," asking "How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones," promoting "lasting peach" in the Middle East -- glaring errors that raise broader questions about the reliability of his message and underscore the importance of an extra set of eyes on anyone’s prose. Attaking speling and grammer is the last refuge of these scoundrels. Continued on Page 49
#5
Journalists are supposed to report the news fairly and accurately, not to make stuff up to cause people to do things they normally wouldn't.
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” – William Randolph Hearst, January 25, 1898
Don't confuse a brief infection of 'integrity' for the normal and much longer pathology of 'journalism'. It's always been this way. They originated as political broadsheets. It was when it was discovered they could actually make money as an advertizing instrument as well, that some of the partisan fever subsided. Now that advertizing is down, the fever is back up.
Z Man
Here’s an anecdote to consider. In my most recent travels, I was told by friends about a woman we know. She is about to leave her husband, who we also know. The two of them are in their mid-to-late-40’s and their children are teenagers. The man is just a normie, who was happy to live his live as a conventional man. His wife, in contrast, had sampled the narcotic of feminism in college. In marriage, she went from being a college feminist to being a petite bourgeoisie feminist, living in a comfortable suburb.
The women who never move past college feminism tend toward a strange hypocrisy in married life. They adopt the lifestyle of June Cleaver, but rant and rave about women’s issue to anyone unfortunate enough to be within earshot. During elections, for example, they are sure that some candidate is plotting to stuff their uterus with Bibles and sew their legs shut. They also over-indulge in the artsy lifestyle. The women in question was into local theater and visual arts, aping the modern carny aesthetic.
Continued on Page 49
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted on Thursday 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... denying the "damages" caused by its policies toward Bahrain, 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 other Arab countries is "strange."
Gargash said there were "conspiracies that were woven, tapes that were spread and bloodshed that was spilled that cannot be ignored."
He further described a "black chapter" in conspiring, yet we "hear of alleged wrongdoings" against Qatar.
The minister also dubbed Qatar’s diplomatic messages as "confusing." But he said their line of defense at least in the English language, which is not supporting of the Moslem Brüderbund and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front in Syria is a "positive step," which he hopes to be implemented.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have all boycotted Qatar over its support to terrorism. On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the four countries met in Cairo to discuss the next move against Qatar.
In their joint statement, they said that the next meeting will be held in Manama.
The four countries - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain ‐ also thanked the Emir of Kuwait for his mediation efforts.
Gargash also said in a tweet after the Cairo meeting on Wednesday that the official Qatari response deserved the neglect it received at the conference, stressing that the next steps would increase the isolation of Doha.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
MAYBE you may keep Al Jazeera, but you will not maintain Moslem Brotherhood as an antagonist to your Neighbors.
It is understandable to point out corruption, In some cases a duty.
You are using you massed wealth to de-stabalize your Neighbors and this has been very deadly for more people than you may know.
I will tell you this, you need to find a way to cut away from that bad parachute ride you helped fund because I AM IS coming for them.
You have not complied for what Our Mission in this pressure was meant to bring. The range of consequence was and remains large.
When I say OUR, I mean more of a Plenary definition. Not the US (unless they say so)
But where we are is you have been bullying your Neighbors and have sponsored a politicized Islamic group.
One that has spread various havoc across the Middle East and the Earth in it's entirety.
It is a state sponsored mafia.
Otherwise, this shit should have been eradicated after WWII, NO?
They are the inspiration for the real nazis.
Were and are with the Grand Mufti in Jerusalem proscribing "final solution" bullshit.
So, on this, you better move fast, Quatar.
And mean it.
A number of Kunduz residents and provincial council members on Thursday said the security situation in the province has deteriorated substantially and that military personnel and civilians are being targeted mysteriously by unknown gunmen.
Kunduz provincial council members said dozens of security force members along with civilians have been killed by in Kunduz city in recent months.
“The figures show that at least 19 people have been killed in the (Kunduz) city alone. This is highly concerning. People are killed in areas close to the NDS office and the police headquarters. Police soldiers are also among those killed. This is a shame,” said Amruddin Wali, head of Kunduz provincial council.
“Two people were killed on the Chahardara Road, two in the city center and one in the (greater) city. Also a bodyguard of the (police) chief was killed. These are murders. People are being threatened,” said Khosh Mohammad Nasr Tayar, a member of the council.
Kunduz residents claim that the gunmen flee the scene immediately after shooting someone. “People are really frightened. People are killed inside the city and then they (the killers) escape. A few days ago, a person was killed in the city and the killers escaped in a rickshaw,” said Hamidullah, a resident of Kunduz.
“Two people were killed in Zargariha (Jewelry) street and their weapons were taken. We were shocked,” said Naqibullah, another Kunduz resident.
But according to the police chief, Abdul Hamid Hamidi, security forces are being targeted by the Taliban as the group has changed their war tactics. “We have arrested the perpetrators of the last two or three terrorist incidents where our soldiers were killed. This (targeted shootings) is part of the militants plans,” he said.
[ConservativeDailyPost] The top U.S. commander in South Korea, Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, warned Kim Jong Un’s regime that America and its South Korean ally are prepared for war. The commander made this strong statement a day after Pyongyang conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Additionally, Brooks assured that self-restraint is the only detail that separates armistice and war. Also, he explained that as this Alliance missile live fire shows, American military forces are able to change their choice when so ordered by Alliance national leaders. Naturally, the commander’s assertions revealed that a major clash against North Korea could be about to happen.
Far from showing a weaker stance, South Korea’s top military officer Gen. Lee Sun-Jin, who is also chairman of the Republic of Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured they could make resolute decisions anytime if the Alliance Commanders in Chief order. Regarding his words, Brooks told it would be a terrible mistake for anyone to believe anything to the contrary.
...
#2
Still sitting in the Casey compound within short distance of the DMZ, unable to get the whole contingent out of the 2 front gates and on the single MSR in less than 2 days? One good SCUD barrage and you're rating will be just plain ineffective. BFO
Riyadh – As Houthi rebels refused to hand over the leadership of the political council to the General People’s Congress, which is headed by former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, questions were raised over the escalating dispute between Yemen’s two insurgent groups.
An agreement reached between the Houthis and Saleh supporters in July 2016 stipulated that Houthis and the General People’s Congress should assume the presidency of the so-called political council by rotation.
However, during an extraordinary meeting held in Sanaa on Tuesday, Houthi rebels have agreed to extend the term of the current president and their own representative, Saleh al-Sammad, whose term was supposed to end in December 2016.
In this regard, the insurgents led news agency, Saba, reported that the members of the political council have unanimously agreed, during their extraordinary meeting, to extend the current president’s term for two consecutive terms of four months each.
The members justified their decision by claiming that it reflected “satisfaction with the performance of the current presidency in light of the complexities of the situation.”
Based on the former agreement between the insurgency allies, the current presidency should be handed over to the General People’s Congress and its allies.
Yemeni political writer Hamdan al-Alyi said that these measures represented an intentional concession by Saleh and his allies in order to further implicate the Houthis in the coming days.
In remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Alyi said: “This measure (and the concession) in favor of the Houthis is aimed at involving them more (in the state administration) because Saleh and the General People’s Congress do not want to assume the responsibility of the state administration in such a situation.”
“The Congress and Saleh know very well that if they assume power, the first issue they will have to face is the employees’ salaries – an issue that is difficult to deal with at this stage,” he added.
[FOXNEWS] Ronald Reagan is nodding. If anyone doubted President Trump’s grasp of history, doubt no more. Today, on the site of the Warsaw Uprising, in the heart of democratic Poland, President Trump gave the most powerful speech of his presidency.
In an echo of Reagan’s "tear down this wall" speech given 30 years ago last month, President Trump declared Poland’s defense of freedom and Western values an enduring "symbol of hope." He honored the Polish people, their character and their patriots in a time of shared threats.
Then, he did more. As Reagan challenged the Soviet communist ideology, predicting it would end on the "ash heap of history," Trump extended his Middle East call to unity. He declared "radical Islamic terror" an "oppressive ideology" doomed by its own inherent evil and "violence against innocents."
President Trump traced Poland’s recurring defense of liberty, its own and ours. He reflected on Polish heroes, like Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who fought in the American Revolution, beside George Washington.
He chronicled Poland’s unbowed faith, perseverance, and reverence for liberty that kept them unified as borders were erased and redrawn in successive wars.
He spoke with passion about the Warsaw Uprising, Nazi and Soviet inhumanities, faith in family, and devotion to universal values. He spoke of the quest for truth and giving one’s life for something higher.
Of Polish and American patriots, he said: "We can still hear their voices; they echo down through history."
President Trump focused on what Ronald Reagan did 30 years ago: the human spirit, and how a free and faithful people will never to be broken ‐ by anything.
Poland had showed us all how to stand "in solidarity against oppression," he said, from Jewish resistance in Warsaw to Pope John Paul II’s and Lech Walesa’s fight against the Soviets.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I wonder how much Melania has influenced DJTs thinking on/about Eastern Europe.
I'm not talking about a Rasputin figure, but, she is very intelligent and must have assimilated a fair amount of the prevailing mood in her youth. How much of her general conversation imprinted her husband??
#2
Melania is not President Trump's first Eastern Europe model wife; he went back to the well for Number 3. From Wikipedia:
Ivana Marie Trump (née Zelníčková, Czech pronunciation: [ˈɪvana ˈmarɪjɛ ˈzɛlɲiːt͡ʃkovaː]; February 20, 1949) is a Czech-American businesswoman and former fashion model. She was the first wife of Donald Trump from 1977 until 1991.
Damascus (Syria News) The Syrian regime forces, and their affiliated militias, on Thursday, shelled the outskirts of Jobar neighborhood, in the capital, Damascus, with the toxic chlorine gas, Qasioun News reported.
Medical sources informed that more than eight Syrian rebels have arrived in field hospitals, while suffering suffocation, while pointed out that the suffocation cases are mild.
Furthermore, government forces also shelled the neighborhood, using dozens of ground-to-ground missiles, while engaged in clashes with the Syrian rebels in the outskirts of the neighborhood, but no casualties were reported so far.
It is noteworthy that the regime forces are seeking to isolate Jobar neighborhood from eastern Ghouta area, but all of their attempts failed.
Posted by: badanov ||
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The Syrian Air Force carried out intensive sorties against positions and fortifications of the ISIL terrorists in Badyiat Hmeimieh in the eastern countryside of Homs.
A military source told SANA on Thursday that a number of the ISIL terrorists were killed in the sorties and their equipment was destroyed to the southwest of Hmeimieh area.
Hama
The Syrian Air Force killed a number of ISIL terrorists to north of Jana al-Elbawei in Salamiyeh countryside in Hama province, inflicting heavy losses upon them in personnel and equipment .
Raqqa
The Syrian Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes against positions of the ISIL terrorists in the western countryside of Raqqa , destroying their gatherings to the south of Beir Abu Kobra, al-Fahdi Station and north of al-Zamleh, and killing scores of them.
Deir Ezzor
Over the past few hours, the Syrian Air Force carried intensive airstrikes targeting the ISIL hideouts and movement axes in al-Thardeh, al-Taim and Howeijet Katea areas and in the villages of al-Bghiliyeh and al-Juneineh and in the neighborhoods of al-Howeiqa and al-Hamidiyeh in Deir Ezzor.
A military source told SANA that the army airstrikes left a number of terrorists dead and destroyed their positions and barricades.
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Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Federal Police have gained control on a huge Islamic State military base in Mosul.
In a statement, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, chief of Federal Police, said the troops were able to control a training center known as ‘Abu Massoud camp’ at al-Bouseif village, west of Mosul.
The camp, according to Jawdat, is located 10 meters under the ground on area of 1,500 meters.
Moreover, the troops gained full control on al-Sarjkhana street reaching to Tigris River, the source added.
Special forces of the Federal Police controlled al-Shawaf building in al-Nujeifi region, in the Old City, according to Jawdat. Snipers are deployed on the top of the building to secure the troops in the region.
Fifteen IS militants were killed, he added.
On Wednesday, Jawdat declared death of around sixty Islamic State militants, including snipers, while combing Mosul’s Old City regions.
Four regions including al-Nujeifi, al-Sarai and parts of Lakash and Bab Jadid were still held by IS, Jawdat declared earlier this week. Once liberated, Federal Police will announce accomplishing its goals there.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A Yazidi girl has been freed, while three Islamic State militants, who attempted killing her while trying to flee Mosul’s Old City, were killed, the War Media Cell reported.
In a statement, the Defense Ministry’s WMC said troops “freed a Yazidi girl and killed three IS fighters who tried to kill her while fleeing toward troops in al-Shahwan region.”
Troops, according to the statement, also killed another 17 IS suicide attackers at the same region.
According to the latest estimate by the Directorate of Yazidi Abductees Affairs in Duhok, more than 6,417 Yazidi persons were freed from IS.
Many Yazidis were persecuted and held in Mosul by Islamic State, which considered them devil-worshippers.
A study on the number of Yazidis affected showed that at least 9,900 of Iraq’s Yazidis were killed or kidnapped in just days in an attack by the militants in 2014.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A commander of the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response forces was killed on Thursday during the ongoing battles to retake remaining regions held by Islamic State in Mosul’s Old City.
A brief statement by the Rapid Response said “Cap. Hamid al-Azzawi was killed in the battles at Old City.”
A security source told Shafaq News, “Cap. Hamid Mohamed was killed, while another lieutenant general officer was injured by IS militants near al-Sarjkhana in the Old City.”
Another source said “Federal Police troops resume their advance in the last remaining 200 meters for the troops at the southern axis.”
Fierce clashes, according to the source, are ongoing at the Old City alleys. “The Counter-Terrorism Service troops are 100 meters away from Tigris River at al-Midan region,” the source said adding that IS fighters only have suicide attackers and snipers to depend on.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), said troops killed ten suicide attackers , wearing explosive belts, while advancing through al-Midan region.
[Ynet] Iraqi commanders say female Islamic State militants are firing on their forces and using children as human shields as the extremist group defends its last sliver of Mosul's Old City.
The militants' use of human shields has repeatedly slowed Iraqi advances throughout the nearly nine-month offensive to retake the country's second largest city, and the commanders' frustration was on display as they watched surveillance footage from the front lines.
"The women are fighting with their children right beside them," Lt. Gen. Sami al-Aridi said as he was briefed by an officer holding a tablet computer showing drone imagery. "It's making us hesitant to use airstrikes, to advance. If it weren't for this we could be finished in just a few hours."
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At least seven insurgents were killed in clashes with security forces in northern Faryab province on Wednesday night, local police officials said on Thursday.
In addition, eight insurgents were wounded. The clash started in Qaisar district of the province after a group of insurgents attacked security check posts in the district, according to officials.
“The clashes continued for several hours and a civilian was also killed in the fighting,” officials said. However, officials did not provide more details about the clash. The Taliban have not yet commented on the attack.
[DailyCaller] Emory University professor Carol Anderson used news of Rep. Steve Scalise’s condition being downgraded to "serious" on Thursday night to mock the GOP’s health plan.
MedStar Washington said late Thursday that Scalise, who was shot during a GOP baseball practice three weeks ago, would be readmitted to the intensive care unit "due to new concerns for infection." His condition has been downgraded from "fair" to "serious."
Anderson, who teaches African American Studies at Emory University, used the update as an opportunity to rail against the GOP health care bill.
"Wow! It’s a good thing that he has health insurance and that there aren’t any caps," she wrote in response to the news." carol.anderson@emory.edu No phone numbers or physical addresses, s'il vous plait Well after all, it is Atlanta.
AKA liberal indoctrination camp. Since Corp America is now importing foreign white collar workers, that frees up the University to indoctrinate, not educate.
#9
Oh, please. Ratiocinate, Bigger,
With more than your usual rigor.
"Muh darkness!" Creative!
Grow up or go native...
You're not worth the trouble to trigger.
[DailyCaller] A new study found adjustments made to global surface temperature readings by scientists in recent years "are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data."
"Thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published GAST data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever ‐ despite current claims of record setting warming," according to a study published June 27 by two scientists and a veteran statistician.
The peer-reviewed study tried to validate current surface temperature datasets managed by NASA, NOAA and the UK’s Met Office, all of which make adjustments to raw thermometer readings. Skeptics of man-made global warming have criticized the adjustments.
Climate scientists often apply adjustments to surface temperature thermometers to account for "biases" in the data. The new study doesn’t question the adjustments themselves but notes nearly all of them increase the warming trend.
Basically, "cyclical pattern in the earlier reported data has very nearly been ’adjusted’ out" of temperature readings taken from weather stations, buoys, ships and other sources.
In fact, almost all the surface temperature warming adjustments cool past temperatures and warm more current records, increasing the warming trend, according to the study’s authors.
"Nearly all of the warming they are now showing are in the adjustments," Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo, a study co-author, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. "Each dataset pushed down the 1940s warming and pushed up the current warming."
"You would think that when you make adjustments you’d sometimes get warming and sometimes get cooling. That’s almost never happened," said D’Aleo, who co-authored the study with statistician James Wallace and Cato Institute climate scientist Craig Idso.
Their study found measurements "nearly always exhibited a steeper warming linear trend over its entire history," which was "nearly always accomplished by systematically removing the previously existing cyclical temperature pattern."
"The conclusive findings of this research are that the three [global average surface temperature] data sets are not a valid representation of reality," the study found. "In fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data."
Based on these results, the study’s authors claim the science underpinning the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gases "is invalidated."
#3
Yes, CNN is trying to authenticate a grainy circa 1980s photograph of Trump ordering borscht.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
07/07/2017 9:10
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#4
You would think that all of the monitoring areas would be clear of anything that causes the need for adjusting by this point. That is assuming you wanted data and not simply something you could manipulate.
[Al Jazeera] Russia has blocked a UN Security Council statement calling for "significant measures" in response to North Korea's test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, arguing that the missile was in fact of medium range.
The United States circulated the statement for adoption by the 15-member council after announcing plans for a new sanctions resolution, but Russia raised objections, UN diplomats said.
What Trump can do about North Korea
The draft statement recalled that the council agreed to take "further significant measures" in the event of another nuclear test or missile launch and that the top UN body would "begin to work immediately on such measures".
Russia, though, contested the statement's reference to an intercontinental missile launched by North Korea, diplomats said.
The Russian mission to the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... insisted it had not blocked the statement but rather suggested that the United States "make appropriate amendments to it".
"The Russian delegation could not agree to define the launch as an intercontinental ballistic missile test," the mission said, adding that the Russian defense ministry believed, based on its tracking systems, that the missile was of medium-range.
The United States refused to drop the reference to the intercontinental missile and negotiations on the proposed text ended, diplomats said.
The United States and the United Nations have said the Hwasong-14 launched on Tuesday was of intercontinental range.
The draft statement included a strong condemnation of the launch, setting the stage for a draft resolution on tougher sanctions that the United States said it planned to present in the coming days.
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Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Four Islamic State militants were killed and injured in a bomb blast, southwest of Kirkuk, a security source said.
“Unknown persons attacked on Thursday a vehicle for Islamic State militants in al-Isslaniya village in Hawija town, southwest of Kirkuk,” an anonymous security source told AlSumaria News.
A leader in charge of security affairs and two of his companions were killed, while a fourth was injured by a hand grenade thrown by the unknown elements, the source 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.
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.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/07/2017
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[38north] At 9:00 AM (Pyongyang Time) on Tuesday, July 4, 2017, North Korea conducted what appears to be the first successful test of its Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). While initial reports stated that the launch took place from Panghyon Airbase in North Pyongan Province, subsequent analysis geolocated the launch site in a valley 8 km to the southeast.[1] This valley, and the surrounding area, houses the Panghyon Aircraft Factory--North Korea’s primary aircraft production, repair and research facility established in the mid-1980s.[2] This is the first time that this location has been used for a ballistic missile launch and, much in the same manner as the Iha-ri Driver Training and Test Facility was used for the first Pukguksong-2 test, it demonstrates the North’s increasing ability to launch ballistic missiles from anywhere in the nation.
New activity was first noted at the Panghyon Aircraft Factory during the last week of June 2017. At that time:
A dirt trail in the northeast corner of the facility was expanded into a 900-meter-long dirt road that led to a newly excavated position (approximately 20 meters in diameter) on the south side of a hill. This position would subsequently be used by Kim Jong Un as an observation position for the July 4, Hwasong-14 test launch; and
A second dirt trail, at the southern end of the facility, was also improved and led to a newly graded circular area (approximately 85 meters in diameter) in which a concrete pad measuring 62 meters by 20 meters was poured. It was this pad that was used for the Hwasong-14 test.
The new concrete launch pad is larger than those at the Iha-ri Driver Training and Test Facility (approximately 20 meters in diameter), the Kalma Launch Site (24 meters by 17 meters), the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground (30 meters in diameter) and other locations. It is large enough to handle all transporter-erector-launchers (TELs) or mobile-erector-launchers (MELs) known, or believed, to be in North Korea’s Strategic Force inventory. This may be an indicator that the site could be used for future research, test and development launches.
Commercial satellite imagery from July 5--just 30 hours after the Hwasong-14 launch--shows not only Kim’s observation position but also the launch pad. Although nothing of significance is noted at the observation position, a relatively small (5 meters in diameter) exhaust scar can be seen on the concrete launch pad. It is important to note that, contrary to popular belief, a successful ballistic missile launch--even one as large as an ICBM--does not leave large exhaust scars; they generally leave only small scars regardless of the size of the missile launched. Analysis of the entire Panghyon Aircraft Factory area shows no evidence of any additional missile-related activity.
It is presently unclear why the Panghyon Aircraft Factory location was chosen for the test. Given the facility’s central role in the North’s aviation industry it is likely involved at some level in ballistic missile research and development or production. In any case, the decision to conduct the test from this facility continues to demonstrate the North’s increasing ability to launch ballistic missiles from anywhere in the nation, complicating any future missions to eliminate the North’s missile capabilities in wartime, during a military response to some future provocation, or even in some type of preventive strike attempt against missile facilities. Pix @ link.
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.
[Finance.Yahoo] After North Korea's decades-old missile program on Tuesday finally bore out a nuclear-capable weapon able to reach the US, President Donald Trump vowed to confront the country "very strongly."
[Breitbart Texas] The Microsoft Corporation is expected to lay-off up to 3,000 employees as the tech conglomerate continues to request and hire more foreign help.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to eat alive the Islamist militants behind the abduction and beheadings of two Vietnamese sailors in a furious reaction to the killings.
[Reuters] France's foreign intelligence service is bolstering recruitment to counter Islamist militants and cyber criminals, but it is looking for computer wizards and linguists not would-be James Bonds.
[Yahoo] Iraqi commanders say female Islamic State militants are firing on their forces and using children as human shields as the extremist group defends its last sliver of Mosul's Old City.
Since May, hackers have been penetrating the computer networks of companies that operate nuclear power stations and other energy facilities, as well as manufacturing plants in the United States and other countries.
[Business Insider] The AK-12 assault rifle has passed military field tests and meets all of the Russian armed forces' design and operational standards, gunmaker Kalashnikov Concern says, according to Jane's 360.
[Breitbart] Actor and immigration activist George Clooney will move to Los Angeles with his wife Amal and newborn twins Ella and Alexander due to security concerns at his England estate, according to a report.
John 
[BREITBART] President 
[THEFEDERALIST] Last week, more Americans tuned in to watch re-runs of “Yogi Bear,” “Full House,” and “Friends” on Nick At Nite than to watch Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon’s shows on CNN.
[DAWN] America's diplomats are struggling to figure out what mission the Trump administration expects them to carry out, and they see the importance of their jobs waning as President Donald Trump seeks drastic cuts to the budgets of the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Women and children among 14 wounded in Taliban mortar attack in Nangarhar
A commander of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Islam group has been killed in the airstrikes conducted in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
[DailyMail] 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted on Thursday that 
[DailyCaller] Emory University professor Carol Anderson used news of Rep. Steve Scalise’s condition being downgraded to "serious" on Thursday night to mock the GOP’s health plan.
North Korea
