Republicans in Washington state are calling for "civil disobedience" as they openly encourage Seattle residents to refuse paying a newly passed income tax that critics claim is illegal.
The tax, passed by the Seattle City Council, targets high-income earners as part of what local lawmakers call "a new formula for fairness."
But critics and analysts say it was passed in defiance of state law, and the state GOP has escalated its opposition by urging residents to "forcefully resist."
"This law is unconstitutional, illegal, and against the voter's will expressed nine times at the ballot box and it deserves nothing less than civil disobedience – that is, refusal to comply, file or pay," the Washington State Republican Party said in a written statement.
Much more at link
My solution is a lot simpler: Move out of the city!
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance ||
07/18/2017
14:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Moved to Page 6 [ChicagoTribune] In a city scarred by a deep and troubling history with guns, a supervisor in the scandal-plagued water department used his city email account to negotiate firearms deals and make light of deadly Fourth of July violence in black neighborhoods by offering "Chicago Safari" tours, a new watchdog report revealed Monday.
The latest development in the ongoing investigation, which the Tribune first disclosed in May, emerged as Inspector General Joseph Ferguson detailed how ousted district water superintendent Paul Hansen emailed with individuals over personal purchases or sales of at least four firearms and five cars.
Those emails about firearms started the investigation over his use of a government account for personal business, which is against city rules. And it quickly spread to other emails sent by Hansen, who is white and the son of a former alderman, to other water department bosses, according to City Hall sources.
Newly released racist, sexist emails show scope of scandal at Chicago's water department
In his quarterly report, Ferguson revealed a fresh string of anti-black emails sent to multiple high-ranking water department workers that touted a fake "Chicago Safari" package. It cited the number of shootings during a July Fourth weekend and guaranteed tourists would observe "at least one kill and five crime scenes" and also see "lots of animals in their natural habitat."
Hansen's racially charged emails included messages to fellow workers purported to be in "Ebonics," sometimes called American black English, and a picture describing a swimming pool for a small African-American child who sits in a bucket filled with water while holding a slice of watermelon, the report found.
More at link, really bad!
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance ||
07/18/2017
14:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Subpoena Rice and Fusion GPS or any other witnesses who refuse to testify. If they don't show, throw their asses in the hoosegow. The current administration needs to start rolling up these criminals. I don't know about others, but I for one, am getting fed up with the rampant criminality B.S. left behind from the last administration (aka as the deep state).
BLUF:
(Guardian) The number of people living in poverty, meanwhile, increased from 69 million in 2004 to 112 million in 2010, despite an average economic growth of more than 7%. In the same period, the number of millionaires in Nigeria increased by 44%.
"The overlap between political and economic power in Nigeria is near total," says Page. "Politicians often use businesses to siphon money from state coffers, and many business moguls have grown rich on the back of close relationships with top officials, juicy government contracts, or protectionist policies. Nigeria resembles the United States in this way ‐ but with less transparency and minimal independent scrutiny of what are often conflicts of interest." Emphasis added.
In 2014, a report by the former minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, found the Nigerian government had lost approximately 800bn naira (£1.9bn) to tax wavers and concessions to businesses and corporations between 2011 and 2013. The report concluded these wavers led to no measurable benefit for the Nigerian economy.
[Victory Girls] Everybody’s griping about airlines these days. They can’t seem to catch a break, but then again, complaints about air travel are also way up over last year.
Then, on Saturday, Delta Airlines went and angered Ann Coulter. In fact, she ranted that it was the "worst airline in America."
Did Delta remove Coulter from her flight? No. They moved her to another seat. That set Coulter off because she said she paid for an "extra room seat," probably due to her height.
#1
I have been asked to relinquish my seat on several occasions in order that a family could sit together. I've always complied. If she paid a bit extra for leg room, there could be an issue, but not one requiring this type of response.
Coulter however, is probably correct about Delta being the "worst airline."
#2
A contract is a contract. The small print that constitutes, rules apply to me not to thee, is not a contract as no intent of understandable compliance by both parties is present. It is basically commerce by deception.
#4
the woman who got Coulter's seat reminds me of Mila Kunis, except perhaps with a better figure
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/18/2017 9:30
Comments ||
Top||
#5
I always book seats with extra legroom, and I pay for that. If some family wants my seat, tough luck. Book earlier and pay more.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/18/2017 11:33
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Coulter is bytching about the loss of her seat and many are bytching at her for bytching. Coulter got screwed; this seems to be de rigueur for the airlines these days. If she wants to air this, I don't see a problem. Maybe the airlines will change the way they do things although doubtful--can't fix stupid.
[ABC Fake News] Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Monday addressed Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney, saying it's "probably against the law" to get opposition research for his father's presidential campaign from a foreign country.
But Christie, a friend and adviser to President Donald Trump, also said that it's too early be "jumping to conclusions" and that there's no evidence the campaign obtained such research.
"I think, quite frankly, it's probably against the law in addition to being inappropriate," Christie said. "I think the thing that bothers me the most is that we seem to have a frenzy of people jumping to conclusions."
Christie, a former U.S. attorney, spoke Monday at an unrelated event in his first public appearance since he ended a three-day government shutdown earlier this month. He was widely criticized after an NJ.com photographer snapped photos of him on a state beach closed to the public during the shutdown.
He traveled to Monday's news conference by state helicopter from another stay at Island Beach State Park.
Christie's comments come a day after the Republican president's attorney insisted there was nothing illegal in the meeting that Trump's eldest son attended during last year's presidential campaign.
#1
Really? And exactly what law would that be? This is nonsense. There is no US statute against gathering opposition research. Look at the Fusion GPS dossier - which came from a UK source. Russia and the UK are legally the same: foreign countries.
[American Thinker] The British Home Office have just clarified something which many British people have known for well over a decade: that Islamists and terrorists are being funded by ordinary British Muslims to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.
That means that this isn't about the usual extremist British Islamic organisations which have already been well-documented. This is about people who may well pass for "ordinary" or even "moderate" Muslims.
Many people have also known -- for a long time -- that Islamic charities are often fundraisers for Islamic terror. Indeed the report includes the information that Islamic organisations pose as charities because charity -- though only for fellow Muslims and Islamic causes -- is very big in Muslim communities. Thus, it's all very late in the day for the British Government to decide to work with the Charity Commission on these issues. However, better late than never.
As the Home Office put it, pro-terror money is coming from small, anonymous public donations. According to the British Home Secretary, Amber Rudd:
[American Thinker] Last week we learned that the Danes are working hard to reduce baby production in Africa. No doubt, because sub-Saharan African women are powering a baby boom that will make Africa into the Ground Zero of the Population Problem later in the century. Steve Sailer writes that women in Niger want about nine babies but usually have to make do with seven.
Meanwhile Japanese youngsters are reported to be remarkably uninterested in sex, and, of course, U.S. feminists insist that "Rule No. 1 for female academics is: don’t have a baby."
My own personal experience is that the closer an American identifies with academia the less likely he or she is to have children.
The "educated" have been anti-baby and pushing population control for at least a century. What is going on here?
In part, of course, the push is to discourage other people from having children: eugenics and the "unfit." In part, it is that upper-class women prefer to outsource child-minding.
So Birth Control was invented. And the educated classes decided to make abortion respectable. But it looks like the only people interested in birth control are the We, the educated, the evolved. Ordinary people just go on having babies like they always did, only now a lot more of the babies are surviving. How unfit of them.
I’d like to believe that this anti-baby culture is all part of the left’s foolish dream to create heaven on earth. You may have noticed that people don’t have babies in Heaven; they just live happily ever after.
But I think there is something else at work: monasticism. The scions of the rich and powerful very often don’t have the chops for the powerful life; they go, or are sent, into a monastery. I think that many of our liberal friends want to retreat from the rough and tumble of babies and parenting; they want to retire to a monastery.
Official Narrative tells is that monasticism is a Middle Ages thing, but the more I live the more monasticism I see around me. There’s the woman excited that her 11-year-old kid got into Juilliard. What is Juilliard but a novitiate for the monastic practice of the ancient texts of classical music? Conservatories are there to preserve a cultural tradition, to keep it going in all its purity, in perpetuity.
What is the purpose of a university but as a place where people can withdraw from the rough and tumble of ordinary life to think deep thoughts, instruct the young in the one true religion, hold endless committee meetings, and ease up on the baby production?
This not new, for monasteries are not just a Middle Ages thing. They flourished in the Dark Ages in the time of Charlemagne and the Franks, when a king might dump a troublesome relative in a monastery on one day, but then on another day nominate a relative to be abbot of a wealthy, powerful monastery in his domain. What was that all about?
What about the Buddha? Here was a handsome prince that dumped his wife and kids and took up the contemplative life. Pretty soon there were Buddhist temples that were as big as cities where rich young men from all over could go and meditate.
1. Babies get in the way of hedonism. If you want to be an irreligious hedonist, you therefore cannot have babies.
2. When you design a society where the apparatus of state takes over the functions of the family, nobody has any families any more.
If people wanted to join monasteries, they still could. Since they aren't doing that, the two explanations I suggested make more sense.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/18/2017 5:25
Comments ||
Top||
#3
The "educated" have been anti-baby and pushing population control for at least a century. What is going on here?
Instead they are importing illegal aliens with high-birth rates? It's not so messy/icky and doesn't get in the way of careers. It's a twofer (or threefer); you get cheap labor and expand the Donk voter base.
[American Thinker] If any doubts remained that the Fox News channel is continuing to swerve from its conservative roots, they were erased on July 16, 2017 when Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., a principal architect of Obamacare and a barely hinged spin doctor for the Democrat socialist left, appeared on the channel’s signature weekly program Fox News Sunday in his new role as a paid contributor. During the program, the ever arrogant Emanuel jumped on the Resist Trump bandwagon and suggested that President Trump is worthy of being impeached. Hired last February primarily as a health policy analyst (he is a physician and professor, after all), Emanuel is now providing opinion not only on medical subjects but on political ones, as well.
The turning point was his appearance on the high-profile, politically-charged Fox News Sunday. In addition to the Fox News cable and satellite channel, Fox News Sunday is also broadcast on over 200 Fox network-owned or -affiliate terrestrial broadcast television stations around the country.
An excerpt from the July 16th program’s transcript provided by Fox News is illustrative:
#1
Hired last February primarily as a health policy analyst (he is a physician and professor, after all), Emanuel is now providing opinion not only on medical subjects but on political ones, as well.
#2
It's become quite obvious, Obamacare was intended as a bridge to Single Payer. If the Hildebeest had been elected, we'd be fast-tracking to centrally controlled, state run healthcare.
#3
Emanuel, now a commentator for Fox, penned an article for the Atlantic Monthly titled “Why I Hope to Die at 75”
Both Emanuel and Fox share a suicide wish? Fox rapidly heading away from "fair and balanced" to "fairly unbalanced." Another possible slogan "Better than MSNBC and CNN but not by much."
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration is expected to ratchet up pressure on Iran with a slew of new sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic's illicit ballistic missile program and regional support for terrorism as the landmark Iranian nuclear deal hits its two-year anniversary, according to senior U.S. officials who deemed Iran in violation of the agreement's "spirit."
News of the new sanctions comes on the same day that Iranian military leaders threatened attacks on U.S. forces and bases in the Middle East should America move forward with new sanctions, particularly ones targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC.
The new sanctions are part of a larger White House effort to counter Iran's massive military buildup and rogue militant activities across the Middle East, specifically in Syria, where Iranian-backed forces have launched a series of direct attacks on American forces in recent weeks.
U.S. official dubbed Iran "the most dangerous threat to U.S. interests" and promised a series of new efforts both militarily and policy oriented to combat the Islamic Republic's illicit activities.
[Daily Caller] The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will lay off more than 1,200 employees over the next two months by offering buyouts, documents obtained by E&E News indicate.
E&E News obtained an email from the National Treasury Employees Union to its members at EPA stating EPA plans to buy out 1,227 positions, 655 of which will be from agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. EPA employees could apply for buyouts starting last Thursday and must submit their decisions by July 26. The layoffs will occur over the next two months.
EPA will offer employees up to $25,000 in cash in exchange for them leaving. This is a standard practice for federal employees that allows them to retire early and still qualify for full benefits.
The largest number of buyouts, 183, will come from the Office of Research and Development. EPA will also offer buyouts to 98 employees at the Office of Administration and Resource Management, and make the same offer to 94 workers at the Office of Land and Emergency Management.
EPA will also offer buyouts to eligible employees at regional offices spread through the country. The email indicated EPA is expected to offer more buyouts after the initial 1,200.
Paying EPA employees to leave their jobs isn’t anything new. Under former President Barack Obama, the EPA paid more than $11 million in incentives to compel 436 employees to voluntarily leave their jobs in 2014. This was done to reduce payroll expenses.
#5
Remember during the 'oughts' and the rotations to the ME, the Army finally got authorized up to 530,00 or so. Now its back down to 480,000. How about using that as a slide for cutting the other departments?
[PJMedia] The latest version of the Obamacare repeal and replace bill officially flatlined this evening as the third and fourth GOP senators to oppose the legislation declared their non-support.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had indefinitely delayed the bill that could have come to the floor this week after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had a procedure Friday to remove a blood clot. McCain is expected to be recovering in his home state for at least a week or two.
The Senate bill "contains important reforms to move our country forward," McConnell said on the floor earlier today. "These are the kind of reforms Americans deserve. Not the status quo of Obamacare, not a multi-billion-dollar Band-Aid, not a piling-on of even more Obamacare ‐ but real, patient-centered reforms that can finally move us beyond the pain of Obamacare. The only way we'll get there is with continued hard work, and that's just what we intend to do." I don't deserve this bullshit. Remove the restrictions to the insurance companies and let them fucking compete.
Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced their opposition -- for different reasons, as Paul fumed that the bill didn't really kill Obamacare while Collins felt the Medicare cuts were too brutal -- early in the process.
And while GOP leaders couldn't afford to lose one more member, two senators announced their opposition tonight.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) said changes made to the bill in an effort to make it more palatable didn't cut it.
"We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy. Furthermore, if we leave the federal government in control of everyday healthcare decisions, it is more likely that our healthcare system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase," Moran said in a statement.
"We must now start fresh with an open legislative process to develop innovative solutions that provide greater personal choice, protections for pre-existing conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans," he added.
Moran said his ultimate goal is to repeal and replace Obamacare, but he dinged the closed-door process that produced the Senate bill.
"After conferring with trusted experts regarding the latest version of the Consumer Freedom Amendment, I have decided I cannot support the current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act," Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said. "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle-class families, nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations." And there was enough pork in there to threaten the survival of the feral hog
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared that the latest failure was "proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable."
"Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long term stability to the markets and improves our healthcare system," he said. Your shit was the fail that produced this fail, numbnuts. The first thing congress should do is remove their exceptions. Then maybe something will get done when they see how expensive and shit the original "law" is.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/18/2017 7:25
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Roger Simon has an article out saying that ObamaCare will now survive due to Republican failure, but that's the opposite of what happened. Republicans failed to save it. Now it will either fail on its own, as it was designed to, or Republicans will vote to repeal. Sens Cruz, Lee and Moran are heroes.
#4
Well it's not getting repealed. The esteemed senator's from Maine and Murkowski said they oppose repeal-only. It's going to be a Democratic landslide in 18' when the entire base stays home.
Posted by: Charles ||
07/18/2017 13:17
Comments ||
Top||
#5
If the House is lost in 18, now a much greater probability given the massive disappointment this fractured Congress has been, there will be articles of impeachment passed within the first months. Gridlocked government and a President with little public confidence. Kamela Harris and Princess Fauxcahontas are already tuning up their girl cards....
[DAWN] Fourteen Kuwaiti citizens who were convicted of forming a cell with ties to Tehran have fled by sea to Iran, a Kuwaiti newspaper, al-Seyassah daily, reported Monday.
Citing high-ranking security sources, the newspaper said that 14 men who reportedly belong to the Shia community fled to Iran on speedboats hours after Kuwait's supreme court sentenced them to lengthy jail terms for plotting attacks in the state.
Kuwait's interior ministry was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!" The supreme court last month overturned an acquittal by the appeals court and sentenced 21 defendants to jail, including one for life, for forming a cell with ties to both Iran and Leb's Hezbollah movement as well as for planning attacks in Kuwait.
The defendants who fled were not in jug prior to last month's sentencing because they were freed after their acquittal by the appeals court last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[DAWN] President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday defiantly stepped up his attacks on the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , saying The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... had to go its own way and vowing to bring back the death penalty if parliament passed it.
At the opening ceremony of a memorial dedicated to the roughly 250 people who died in last year’s failed coup, Erdogan accused Brussels of "messing about" with Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the bloc.
The speech in the early hours of Sunday wound up a marathon session of public appearances by Erdogan in both the capital and Istanbul overnight to mark the anniversary of last year’s defeated coup.
"The stance of the European Union is clear to see ... 54 years have passed and they are still messing us about," he said, citing what he said was Brussels’ failure to keep promises on everything from a visa deal to aid for Syrian migrants colonists. "We will sort things out for ourselves. There’s no other option."
Ties with the West were strained when European governments voiced alarm at the scale of the crackdown that followed the coup. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs and more than 50,000 detained on suspicion of links with Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , whom Ankara blames for the attempted putsch.
Erdogan also said he would approve, "without hesitation" the death penalty, if parliament voted to restore it -- a move that would effectively end Turkey’s bid to join the EU.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
"We will sort things out for ourselves. There’s no other option."
[DAWN] TEHRAN: A Chinese American accused of "infiltration" in Iran has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, local media reported on Sunday.
The man was identified as Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old researcher at Princeton University, according to Mizanonline, the official news agency of Iran’s judiciary.
Wang, who was born in Beijing according to the report, was tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent...
on August 8, 2016 while trying to leave the country.
Mizanonline said he was part of "an infiltration project" aimed at gathering "highly confidential articles" for several US and British institutions, including Princeton, the US State Department, Harvard’s Kennedy School and the British Institute for Persian Studies.
"Before his arrest he was able to digitally archive 4,500 pages of the country’s documents, while under covert surveillance," said Mizanonline.
The confidential documents were said to be taken from "research and cultural archives" and "the libraries of some state organizations".
Mizanonline published an excerpt from a British Institute of Persian Studies annual report, in which Wang thanked its librarian for helping him make contact with academics in Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[IsraelTimes] With its ascendancy in Syria, the Islamic Theocratic Republic is seeking to consolidate its position against Israel and the US.
The number of fallen Hezbollah troops is estimated at 1,800 to 2,000. Approximately 6,000 Hezbollah troops have been maimed, all together one-third of its combat troops.
Eleven years have gone by since the outbreak of the Second Leb War, which began with the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. It ended 34 days later with a trumpet blast from Hezbollah, which had lost approximately 700 of its troops.
But those losses were a small thing in light of the deaths of 164 Israelis, which constituted part of "the God-given victory" -- at least according to the enormous billboards that were placed throughout Leb to establish the narrative that many people there, and throughout the Middle East, believed.
Continued on Page 49
At least 13 Taliban insurgents were killed in an attack on security outposts in western Ghor province early Monday, local officials confirmed.
In addition, nine other insurgents were wounded.
The attack was launched at about 1am local time after Taliban insurgents attacked security outposts in Tewora district of the province.
“They faced [a strong] response from security forces and residents of the district who support the security forces,” a spokesman for the provincial police chief, Mohammad Iqbal Nezami, said.
“The clashes ended at about 7am and four policemen and a resident of the district were killed in fighting against insurgents,” Nezami said.
“The insurgents retreated and the situation is under control,” he said.
However, the Taliban have not yet commented.
[AlAhram] Five police conscripts were killed on Monday when an improvised bomb (IED) detonated in North Sinai, a security source told state news agency MENA.
An unspecified number of conscripts were also injured in the kaboom.
Suspected Islamic Lions of Islam launched a series of attacks against Egyptian police in the northern Sinai Peninsula on Monday, killing five of them and wounding another 11, security officials said.
They say the group opened fire on an armored vehicle before setting it ablaze in the city of el-Arish. When reinforcements arrived, they set off a roadside kaboom. The two attacks killed a total of five coppers and maimed another five, the officials said. Another roadside kaboom struck a third armored vehicle near the airport south of the city, wounding six police.
Earlier in the day, Egyptian F-16 fighter jets struck gatherings of suspected jihadists in different areas across northern Sinai, killing 30, officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief news hounds.
[DAWN] Israel reopened an ultra-sensitive holy site on Sunday closed after an attack that killed two policemen, but Muslim worshippers were refusing to enter due to new security measures including metal detectors and cameras.
Crowds chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) as a number of initial visitors entered Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The flashpoint holy site includes the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
Calls to prayer rang out from Al Aqsa, but dozens of Muslim worshippers held midday prayers outside the site in protest at the new security measures.
Around 150 people gathered outside for prayers later in the afternoon. Police said some 200 people entered the compound.
“We reject the changes imposed by the Israeli government,” Sheikh Omar Kiswani, Al Aqsa director, told reporters outside. “We will not enter through these metal detectors.”
Some women wailed and cried while telling people not to enter.
Waheeb Liftawi, 52, prayed inside Al Aqsa at midday without knowing of the calls to remain outside. During prayers later in the afternoon, he prayed outside.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well OK, then. FOAD
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2017 8:29
Comments ||
Top||
#2
essentially the new security measures are the same as the Saudis impose on visitors to Mecca except that the Saudis put an electronic bracelet on all visitors
say, that's not a bad idea -- why not electronic bracelets for all Paleos whenever they enter their sacred compound
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/18/2017 9:37
Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] Afghan cops have driven the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... out of a key district in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province from where they had been threatening the placid provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry Spokesman Daulat Waziri said Monday.
Waziri said that the battle to recapture the district of Naway had been fierce. He added that more than 50 Taliban fighters were killed and five soldiers were maimed.
Government troops also captured a large cache of ammunition and guns.
Naway is located just 16 kilometres from Lashkar Gah, and had been a staging arena for myrmidon attacks on the city.
The Taliban did not immediately comment on reports of the district's fall.
US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops are in Helmand to assist Afghan cops when needed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
The Druze are not pleased with their murder-loving Arab cousins.
[IsraelTimes] Stun grenade and gunshots reported at two houses of worship in Maghar, home to cop killed in Friday attack on Temple Mount
Two mosques were targeted with a stun grenade and gunshots early Monday in the northern town of Maghar, the home of a policeman killed in a Jerusalem terror attack last week.
It was the second time mosques were attacked in the mixed Druze-Moslem town since the deadly shooting and stabbing at an entrance to the Temple Mount compound in the Old City of Jerusalem that claimed the lives of coppers Master Sgt. Haiel Sitawe, 30 and Master Sgt. Kamil Shnaan, 22, on Friday.
Sitawe was from Maghar and was buried there later in the day. The second victim of the attack, Shnaan, was laid to rest in the Druze village of Hurfeish, also in northern Israel.
It’s not known if the mosque attacks were linked. Police say they are investigating all avenues of inquiry.
Sometime after midnight Monday morning a stun grenade was thrown at the northern mosque in Maghar, police said in a statement. There were no injuries or damage caused.
Later, at around 3:30 a.m. shots were fired at the eastern mosque of the town. Again, there were no injuries but one of the windows was damaged.
A police spokesperson told The Times of Israel that it was not known if the incidents were hate crimes and that "all options are being checked."
Israel Police deployed in the area were on the scene of the attacks within minutes, where they gathered evidence and opened an investigation, the statement said.
Police said additional forces were sent to Maghar and deployed openly and undercover "in order to maintain a feeling of security and to prevent a commotion" over the attacks.
On Friday person or persons unknown threw a stun grenade at a mosque in the town hours after the Jerusalem attack.
Maghar is a town with a mixed population of Druze, Moslems and Christians. Police suspected that a Facebook post by a female Moslem resident praising the "deaders" who carried out the terror attack may have led to the incidents.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
[AA.TR] Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... ian rescue teams are searching for 34 soldiers who went missing after a military vessel capsized in the country’s southwest region, local media reported on Monday.
The ship left the coastal city of Limbe on Sunday to provide building and basic foodstuffs to the troops of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) in Bakassi, also in southwest Cameroon near the Nigerian border.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement late Sunday that three soldiers had been rescued out of 37 personnel who were aboard the military vessel and that an investigation of the incident had begun.
''A helicopter was able to spot traces of fuel and thus directed maritime patrols to the likely spot of the capsizing. Three soldiers were rescued but the boat seems to have sunk to the bottom of the waters... Thirty-four personnel have so far been reported missing," said a ministry statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[DAWN] As the Supreme Court resumed hearing the Panamagate case on Monday, the Sharif family submitted its objections to the report prepared by a joint investigation team (JIT) that probed its financial history and claims to have found glaring discrepancies in the family's sources of income and their actual wealth.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... 's lawyer Khawaja Haris, in the objections, dismissed the JIT report as "eyewash" based on "mala fide" intentions.
"The entire investigation was a farce and an eyewash and was undertaken with a predisposed mind to malign and implicate the respondents in some wrongdoing or the other," the objections said.
A copy of the document detailing the objections, obtained by DawnNews, says that the JIT did not share its evidence with the defendants while recording their statements, therefore depriving them of a chance to "explain their position", which it termed a violation of their basic rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] Two workers of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) were killed in a suspected assassination in Orangi Town on Monday evening, according to Superintendent of Police Abid Ali Baloch.
The officer said that the PSP workers were sitting at a corner of a street near Qazafi Chowk behind Sindh Government 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... Hospital when armed pillion riders attacked them and fled.
The men received fatal bullet wounds and were taken to the nearby Qatar hospital where doctors pronounced Abdul Hameed alias Nadeem alias Mulla, 55, as dead on arrival.
Moreover, Rashid Khan, 50, was shifted to a private hospital in North Nazimabad at death's door, where he later succumbed to injuries.
"The victims belonged to the PSP and it appeared to be a assassination'>assassination incident," said SP Baloch.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[DAWN] At least five civilians, including three women, were maimed in Azad Jammu and Kashmire (AJK) in "unprovoked" shelling by Indian troops from across the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday, officials said.
The shelling, which began at about 7am in the Nakyal sector of southern Kotli district, coincided with a weekly hotline contact between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of Pakistain and India in the wake of Sunday’s mortar attack on an army vehicle in Neelum valley.
Officials said there was no let up in Indian aggression along the LoC in Nakyal sector after yesterday's attack.
"There has been indiscriminate mortar shelling since 7am in the morning, targeting almost all villages of Nakyal sector," police official Khurshid Ahmed told Dawn from the area.
"So far, five people have been brought to the Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital Nakyal, with multiple injuries, but I am afraid there might be more injured persons," he said.
The official identified the hospitalised victims as Shaheen Kosar, 38, and Nazakat Ali Babar, 32, of Oli village, Iftikhar Ahmed, 28 of Marg Jair village, Gul Begum, 50, of Balakot village and Safina Kosar, 28, of Kunda village.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[AA.TR] The chief minister of Jammu Kashmire has said dialogue with pro-independence leaders is the only way to resolve the regional dispute.
In an interview with the Indian newspaper, The Hindu, Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said she had not yet given up on the possibility of talks.
"I have not given up. What is the other option for us? Even if we go to war, what will change? I hope some part of the government may be reaching out to them [resistance leadership]," Mufti said.
She said there is a need to open Kashmire to the whole world.
"Why can’t we have, for example, an advisory council between the two Kashmires, who meet once or twice a year and discuss trade, tourism and environmental issues? I know it sounds unrealistic, but I don’t see a better solution."
Mufti also blamed the media for confusing dialogue with appeasement.
"Unfortunately dialogue or engagement is confused with appeasement. As soon as one says the word dialogue, electronic media and others say you are appeasing the separatists [resistance leadership], appeasing the other side. Dialogue is engagement for reconciliation," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi security member was killed on Monday during clashes with remnant Islamic State militants in western Mosul’s Old City, a security source was quoted saying.
Shafaq News quoted the source saying that a soldier was killed and another was wounded during operations targeting the remaining havens in Shahwan neighborhood in the Old City. The source added that Iraqi forces destroyed four underground tunnels dug by the group there.
Iraqi government forces continue to clear western Mosul for residual IS pockets since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over the militant group in Mosul last week, ending an eight-month-old campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops.
Qayyarah (IraqiNews.com) A policeman, two Islamic State militants were killed as Iraqi troops launched a midnight attack against a village in South of Mosul, a security source from Salahuddin province said.
“The Counter-Terrorism Service as well as police and army troops took part in the attack, backed by the U.S jets, which attacked Imam Gharbi village from two sides and achieved progress after clashes with the militants,” the source from Salahuddin Operations Command told Anadolu Agency.
“Fierce clashes occurred between IS militants and the troops, which left a policeman and two IS members killed, while another policeman was injured,” the source added.
The clashes, according to the source, “take place 15 kilometers away from Qayyarah airbase.”
In related news, Lt.Gen.Nidhal Ali al-Shakarji, of Federal Police, said an Iraqi fighter was killed, while three others were wounded in the wake of three attacks launched by IS against the village.
The group, according to Shakarji, launched three attacks using drones over the past 24 hours against the troops.
“The militants launched an attack using a drone late on Sunday against the tribal mobilization forces, leaving a fighter killed and two others wounded. Another drone fired a missile against army soldiers, leaving a soldier injured,” the source added.
“The third attack occurred early on Monday using a drone supplied with two missiles,” the source said adding no losses were reported.
On June 29, IS was able to gain control on the village, located south of Mosul.
Despite declaring the end of battles in Mosul, some clashes still occur at west of the city, according to an Iraqi military source.
Tal Afar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi warplanes killed more than 30 Islamic State militants west of Mosul on Monday as operations turn focus to the remaining pockets in Nineveh province.
A statement by the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said Iraqi fighter jets targeted IS gatherings in Mahalabiya Qadisiya and Qalaa regions in Tal Afar, a major IS stronghold held by the group since 2014.
The strikes destroyed communication facilities and IED workshops belonging to the group, according to the statement.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ARA News] Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) on Monday foiled an attack by Turkey-backed rebel groups in Syria’s northwestern Aleppo province, local sources reported.
The Turkish Army and allied militias of the Ahlal al-Diyar targeted Kurdish positions in Ein Dakneh area in Northern Aleppo.
At least 20 pro-Turkey fighters were reportedly killed in clashes with the YPG.
Factions of there Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) supported the YPG in repelling the Turkey-led offensive.
A Kurdish activist from Afrin in northern Aleppo told ARA News the Turkey-led forces stopped their attack after 20 of them were killed.
“The Turkish army supported them by shelling the area,” he said.
Furthermore, the local ANHA agency reported that one of the pro-Turkey fighters was captured, and dozens were wounded on Monday.
The Turkish shelling targeted the villages of Herbal, Sheikh Issa, Tal Raf’at.
In the meantime, the Turkish-backed rebels said they captured one fighter of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“We should expect more of this,” Aaron Stein, a senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, told ARA News.
“This front line is certain to remain tense. It’s notable that Turkey didn’t participate on the ground, only with artillery — and history tells us that this won’t be enough to allow for these groups to advance,” he said.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[RefugeeSettlementWatch] LOL! No of course they didn’t say it that way, but that is what they mean. Instead, once again, it is about the poor refugees left in the lurch in some third world hell hole because of that meany Donald J. Trump.
This is a broken record alert, but I plan to continue to pound the issue of payment to contractors being tied to the number of refugees admitted, so there is never a reasonable discussion about any slowdown or reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
If they were paying for their Christian ’charity’ out of the pockets of good and kind-hearted parishioners, I would have nothing to say. But, until the USCCB admits to the media that they receive 97% of their annual migration fund budget (about $83 million in 2014) from taxpayers, I will be a broken record on the issue.
It was only six days ago I did a new accounting report for the nine federal refugee contractors*** quasi-government agencies that monopolize all resettlement in the US.
Both the Bishops and the Lutheran contractor are 96-97% funded by US taxpayers!
You will never know that by reading this news. Indeed, Charity Navigator, a service that rates charities to help you decide if you want to give, said this about LIRS (they would have said the same about the USCCB except that outfit doesn’t file a Form 990, that we can find).
This organization is not eligible to be rated by Charity Navigator because, as a service for individual givers, we only rate organizations that depend on support from individual contributors and foundations. Organizations such as this, that get most of their revenue from the government or from program services, are therefore not eligible to be rated.
In this story from Crux (a Catholic publication) we learn that Catholics and Lutherans are #1 and #2 in the number of refugees they drop off in American towns and cities. Continues.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And don't forget this is also supported by the US Chamber of Commerce. Human trafficking, sponsored by the Democratic Party in changing the geopolitical landscape to their favor. Since the deficit has doubled, we really aren't the ones who will be held accountable for the bill these Bishops and Lutherans have handed the tax payer. It is being on the backs of our up and coming children, whose wages will drop as a result of these being imported but the public debt they must shoulder will increase many times over because of the free services the Democrats are mindlessly providing in exchange for their votes.
[FoxNews] A Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice and devoted to "Holy Death" is growing in popularity among drug traffickers and violent criminals, prompting Texas officials and the Catholic Church to warn about honoring the so-called "Saint Death."
Authorities are speaking out about the religion devoted to La Santa Muerte, which translates to “Holy Death” and "Saint Death," that has gained popularity steadily since the late 1980s among Mexican-American Catholics.
“She’s not a saint. There is nothing good that can come out of praying to her,” Sante Fe Archbiship John Wester said in February. “We have a lot of saints who represent the teaching of Jesus Christ. This is an aberration.”
Clad in a black nun’s robe and holding a scythe in one hand, Santa Muerte appeals to people seeking all manner of otherworldly help, from fending off wrongdoing and carrying out vengeance to people seeking protection for their drug shipments against law enforcement.
Devotees often use Catholic prayers and set up shrines in "her" honor.
Only this isn’t the U.S. housing market circa 2007. It’s the U.S. auto industry circa 2017.
A decade after the mortgage debacle, the financial industry has embraced another type of subprime debt: auto loans. And, like last time, the risks are spreading as they’re bundled into securities for investors worldwide.
Subprime car loans have been around for ages, and no one is suggesting they’ll unleash the next crisis. But since the Great Recession, business has exploded. In 2009, $2.5 billion of new subprime auto bonds were sold. In 2016, $26 billion were, topping average pre-crisis levels, according to Wells Fargo & Co.
Few things capture this phenomenon like the partnership between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Banco Santander SA. Since 2013, as U.S. car sales soared, the two have built one of the industry’s most powerful subprime machines.
Details of that relationship, pieced together from court documents, regulatory filings and interviews with industry insiders, lay bare some of the excesses of today’s subprime auto boom. Wall Street has rewarded lax lending standards that let people get loans without anyone verifying incomes or job histories. For instance, Santander recently vetted incomes on fewer than one out of every 10 loans packaged into $1 billion of bonds, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The largest portion were for Chrysler vehicles. More at the link
#1
In 1999 Banco Santander merged with Banco Central Hispano, which had in turn been formed through the 1991 merger of Banco Central and Banco Hispanoamericano. The combined bank, known as Banco Santander Central Hispano, or BSCH, was designed to be a "merger of equals", in which the top executives of the two pre-existing firms would share control of the merged entity. Soon after the merger former BCH executives accused Banco Santander chairman Emilio Botín of trying to push his own agenda and threatened to take legal action. This post-merger disagreement was resolved when BCH executives Jose Amusátegui and Angel Corcóstegui agreed to accept severance payments, retire and pass control to Botín, at an expense to shareholders of €164M.
The large termination payouts generated negative press and Botín was eventually brought to trial on criminal charges of "misappropriation of funds" and "irresponsible management." However, in April 2005 the court cleared him of all charges, the €164M retirement payments made to the two former executives were legal, "made as compensation for the services provided to the bank." Also that year, the anti-corruption division of the Spanish public prosecutor's office cleared Botín of all charges in a separate case, in which he was accused of insider trading.
In 2007 the bank officially changed the official name back to Banco Santander S.A..
(above from Wikipedia.org)
Banco Santander SA has banks in many countries around the world. When fraud is rampant in a country, Banco Santander SA takes large hits, such as the Petrobras and contaminated meat sales both in Brazil.
The fallacy that these Spaniards believe most all Americans are good for a loan is the reason for such loose and fast approval is most likely the reason for the defaults.
The economic landscape in the US is changing drastically and unless Congressmen of all parties get their heads out of their asses soon, things will get more unstable.
Posted by: Black Charlie Snager3683 ||
07/18/2017 3:11
Comments ||
Top||
When the bubble pops, the dust can always be blown off the failed Obumble "Cash for Clunkers" program and sell it as "hope and change" to the rubes. After all they're still buying Global Warming.
#4
I think it's different with student loans because there is no collateral, no car or house that can be repossessed and resold. IIRC, I read an article recently to the effect that if you have outstanding student loan debt they will take it out of your Social Security. One way or another, somebody is going to get the money. Somebody might get the shaft, typically the taxpayers as in the 2008 bailout, but somebody else will get the money. It doesn't just disappear.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/18/2017 18:28
Comments ||
Top||
#5
How does the Subprime Student Loan meltdown grab you?
Personally, I'm looking forward to picking up a cheap Something-Studies major to do chores around the house for next to nothing.
[MSN] Just after musician Kid Rock tweeted out the possibility of Senate run in Michigan, Olympic gold medalist and transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner told a New York radio audience she is eyeing a Senate run in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,.
Jenner told radio host John Catsimatidis that she was mulling whether she could accomplish more as an outsider "working the perimeter of the political scene" or "from the inside."
California Senate incumbent Dianne Feinstein ...Dem Senator-for-Life from Caliphornica. She has been a politician since about the time she was weaned. Feinstein was the author of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and tried it a second time in 2012. Feinstein has chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009. At age 80, Feinstein is the oldest currently serving United States Senator.... , who turned 84 in June, has not said whether she plans to seek re-election in 2018.
Both Rock and Jenner have been 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... supporters and could be expected to run as Republicans.
Jenner, who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, has criticized Trump for ending an Obama-era directive to allow transgender students access to public school bathrooms of their chosen gender. "From one Republican to another, this is a disaster," she said in February.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well I understand its dickless now so can run as a Democrat or a RINO...
#5
Compared to Boxer and Feinstein? I do like using diversity against them. Make them expose themselves for nothing more than the Left and power rather than support the diversity they shove down everybody else's throat. Show us its all a sham.
Brilliant idea. Any plans to couple it with evicting those expanding Dar al Islam in Australia?
[AnNahar] Australia's military will be given greater power to act during terror attacks, the prime minister said Monday, following a review of security forces' responses to a spate of local and international incidents.
Among a raft of changes, police will no longer have to wait until they have exhausted their capacity to call on the army during a terror attack, while special forces will be embedded in law enforcement agencies for better coordination, Malcolm Turnbull said.
Defense officials will also provide specialized training to police forces as part of the measures.
Although police were absolved of blame during a 2014 Sydney cafe siege, in which two hostages and the gunman were killed, an inquest found authorities had underestimated the threat of the hostage taker and recommended a review of several procedures.
"Our enemies are agile and innovative. We have to stay ahead of them," Turnbull told news hounds in Sydney.
"We have to ensure that every resource we have -- legislative, military, police, intelligence, security -- is always at the highest standard and able to be brought to bear to keep Australians safe."
Turnbull recently visited the scene of the June 3 terror attack on London Bridge and Borough market in Britannia.
He noted the speed with which eight people -- including two Australians -- were killed in the van and knife rampage, as well as how quickly emergency services responded.
"It is vitally important that front line police have their skills improved to be able -- and the training to be able -- to deal with these incidents on the spot," he said.
Police will remain the first responders but the changes will allow them to work more closely with the army, he said.
"What I am doing is taking a lot of the red tape and the gum out of the works to enable the cooperation between the police and the ADF (Australian Defense Forces) and particularly the specialists ... so they can work together more seamlessly," he added.
[FoxNews] The significant downturn in the number of illegal border crossers between the U.S. and Mexico is "nothing short of miraculous," National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said on C-SPAN Monday.
"As far as the Trump administration's efforts on immigration, this is something they campaigned heavily on," he said. "At six months, where we are on meeting those promises, we are seeing nothing short of miraculous. If you look at the rhetoric that President Trump has given, it has caused a number of illegal border crossings to go down. We have never seen such a drop that we currently have."
"There's a vibe, there's an energy in the Border Patrol that's never been there before in 20 years that I've been in the patrol," Judd added in a separate Fox News interview.
This month, Customs and Border Protection reported a 53 percent decrease in the number of apprehensions at the southwest border since last year. The number also includes those deemed inadmissible. CBP sees apprehensions as a proxy for how many people are trying to cross the border, and says the drop in apprehensions indicates a drop in attempted illegal crossings.
Judd said the Trump administration commanded in two executive orders for border agents to fully carry out related laws, while the Obama administration kept agents from doing their jobs as was intended.
#1
It's not so hard to protect your sovereignty when you're not following the lead of billionaire wingnut George Soros and his "Open Borders" cockamamie policies. Now, you just have to deal with the cockamamie rulings of radical Federal Circuit Court judges, the Donk Party, immigration attorneys and so-called immigration rights groups.
Rooters, reporting from Beirut, no less. And remarkably free of scare-quotes.
A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the United States on Monday that if it designated the group a terrorist organization and applied new sanctions its action could be perilous for U.S. forces in the region.
U.S. officials said earlier this year that President Donald Trump's administration was considering a proposal that could lead to potentially categorizing the powerful Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. In Mid-June the U.S. Senate voted for new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and other activities not related to the international nuclear agreement reached with the United States and other world powers in 2015. To become law, the legislation must pass the House of Representatives and be signed by Trump.
"Counting the Revolutionary Guards the same as terrorist groups and applying similar sanctions to the Revolutionary Guards is a big risk for America and its bases and forces deployed in the region," said Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Baqeri, according to Sepah News, an official news site of the Guards.
He did not give details on what form of risk he foresaw for U.S. forces and bases.
The Revolutionary Guards are the most powerful security force in Iran, overseeing vast economic holdings worth billions of dollars and wielding huge influence in its political system.
Posted by: Pappy ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[AlAhram] Ten Ottoman Turkishhuman rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... activists who were detained by police while attending a training workshop appeared before court officials in Istanbul on Monday to face possible charges or be released from custody.
The activists, including Amnesia Amnesty International's The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... director Idil Eser, were detained earlier this month at a hotel on Buyukada island off Istanbul and questioned by anti-terrorism police.
Amnesty said the group was being investigated for membership in an armed terrorist organization. Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... has made vague accusations against the 10, saying they were holding a meeting that had the "nature of a continuation" of last year's failed coup attempt.
Amnesty has called for their release and said their case is a test for Turkey's judiciary.
"Turkey will be disgraced in the eyes of world if these human rights defenders are put in prison for defending human rights," Andrew Gardner, Amnesty's Turkey researcher, told a group of news hounds outside the courthouse.
Other than Amnesty, the activists are members of the Women's coalition, the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, the Human Rights' Agenda Association, the Association to Monitor Equal Rights and the Rights Initiative. Their two trainers -- a German and a Swede -- were also detained.
Turkey's parliament on Monday voted to extend the state of emergency, which was due to expire on July 19, by a further three months. Erdogan has said the state of emergency would be regularly extended until tranquility is restored.
Eser is the second top Amnesia Amnesty International official in Turkey to face prosecution. Last month, Amnesty's Turkey chair, Taner Kilic, was nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! for alleged links to Gulen's movement.
"It's no exaggeration to say that Amnesia Amnesty International in Turkey and in fact the whole of the Human Rights movement here in Turkey faces an existential threat," Gardner said.
In a related development, 19 people -- including former soldiers -- went on trial in Istanbul, for raiding the headquarters of Dogan media holding on the night of the failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! in a bid to take over two of its television stations and Hurriyet newspaper.
They face life terms in prison if found guilty of charges of trying to overthrow the state and membership in a terror group.
Also Monday, a group of lawyers gathered at a courthouse in Istanbul to protest the detention of a colleague, Mustafa Yaman, on alleged links to Gulen.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[DAWN] At least two Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations.... (FC) personnel, an officer and his gunman, were martyred in a suicide kaboom in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. 's Hayatabad area on Monday morning, a senior police official said.
SSP (operations) Sajjad Khan told DawnNews that two security personnel, Major Jamal Sheran and his gunman Zahir Shah, were martyred in the kaboom.
SSP Khan said 10-12 kilogrammes of explosives were used by the bomber, who was reportedly riding a Honda CG125 bike.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... in a statement issued later in the day, the Inter-Services Public Relations said, "A cycle of violence-borne jacket wallah hit an FC vehicle on routine patrolling duty in Hayatabad, Peshawar, in which Maj Jamal Sheran embraced shahadat while four soldiers were maimed."
Security officers and volunteers collect evidence at the site of the bombing in Peshawar.-- AP
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[SHABELLENEWS] The government will deal with al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... like they are dealing with police and Kenyans, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said, following the spate of attacks in Lamu county.
Lamu has experienced increased attacks by the Somali turban group over the last month.
On July 5, the holy warriors engaged in a day-long battle with Kenyan security forces in Boni forest.
A day later, the hard boyz kidnapped Public Works PS Mariam El Maawy and five others at Milihoi area on Lamu-Mpeketoni highway at about 3pm. They were driven into Boni Forest.
Uhuru condemned the attack saying the government will not tolerate them.
"If they kill our police and our people, we shall do exactly that. We will deal with them in the same manner. No one has the right to take lives apart from God. We will finish them. The only way to put out fire its by fire," he said on Monday.
The President asked residents of Mpeketoni and other areas considered insecure to move to safer areas to pave way for security forces to deal with the al-Shabaab.
Already, tens of non-locals have been evacuated from Jima, Lamu County after at least six people were massacred by al-Shabaab holy warriors last Friday.
The President told residents there is a need for people to move out of their homes to areas where it will be easy for police to protect them.
"You can go back later when things are okay," he said at a rally in Uhuru Gardens, Mpeketoni.
Uhuru also asked residents to share information with security forces to help in the war on terror.
Coast regional coordinator Nelson Marwa has implicated a section of Lamu politicians to the attacks in the county.
He said the plan is to create a situation of insecurity so that locals flee and fail to vote in the August 8 general election.
The official said it is also clear that only persons and places affiliated to the Jubilee Party were been targeted by the terror attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[SHABELLENEWS] The Police forces of Somalia’s Jubbaland state in southern Somalia have managed to capture a vehicle loaded with assembled explosives and bomb-making materials near Kenyan border.
After a tip-off from local residents, the Police in Dhobleey, located on Somali-Kenyan border seized two men driving the car packed with the IEDs before they crossed into Kenya on Monday.
Heybe Ahmed, the chief of Jubbaland Police in the town, told Radio Shabelle via the phone that they took the two men to a detention centre for inquiry.
Ahmed stated the Al Qaeda-linked Al shabaab group sent the two men to carry out a car kaboom in somewhere in Kenya during the forthcoming vote for the next President.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[IsraelTimes] Rioters block roads, hurl stones, Molotov cocktails at police in Old City, East Jerusalem neighborhoods over new security measures; at least 5 injured
Dozens of Moslems protesters clashed with police outside of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday amid continued tensions over new security measures put in place at the entrance to the Temple Mount after Friday’s terror attack.
During the scuffles near Lions Gate, coppers called to the scene to disperse protesters blocking a road adjacent to the Old City were attacked with rocks and other objects, police said.
The Red Islamic Thingy told the Paleostinian Wafa news agency that five protesters were maimed during the confrontations, including the chairman of the Paleostinian National Initiative party, Mustafa Barghouti.
The Wafa report said that three people were maimed after being beaten by police, one person was injured by a stun grenade and Barghouti was hit in the head with a rubber-coated bullet.
Clashes were also reported in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan and Issawiya. Rioters hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at coppers who responded with riot-dispersal means.
Following Friday’s terror attack, in which three residents of the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm shot to death two coppers at the Temple Mount, Israel closed the compound for the first time in decades, only reopening it to Moslems on Sunday and to non-Moslems on Monday.
As part of the security measures taken in the wake of the shooting to prevent further such attacks, police installed metal detectors at the entrance to the site, which Jerusalem police commissioner Yoram Halevi said were necessary for it to reopen. Friday’s gunnies emerged armed from the compound and opened fire on the coppers stationed outside.
The placement of the metal detectors has been met with outrage by the Moslem religious authority charged with managing the Temple Mount. Moslems have held prayers outside the metal detectors to protest their placement at the gates.
Along with other Islamic groups, the Waqf trust, which administers the site, on Monday called on Moslems "to reject and boycott all the Israeli aggression measures, including changing the historical status quo including imposing the metal detectors."
In its statement, the Waqf called on the faithful not to enter the mosque by passing through the metal detectors, adding, "If the metal detectors continue to be imposed, we call upon the people to pray in front of the gates of the mosque and in the streets of Jerusalem."
On Monday afternoon, light festivities broke out in the Old City, when police ordered a group of Moslem protesters off a road they were trying to block with a prayer session.
Police said a Moslem teenager was locked away You have the right to remain silent... after throwing a bottle at police.
[Al Jazeera] Venezuela's opposition has called for a nationwide strike against President Nicolas Maduro, to protest against his plan to rewrite the constitution, ratcheting up tensions after an unofficial vote rejecting his proposal.
The 24-hour strike call, issued on Monday, was part of what the opposition called a "final offensive" aimed at forcing Maduro out through early elections before his term ends in 2019.
"We are calling all the country to take part in a massive and violence-free protest through a nationwide civic strike for 24 hours," said one leader in the opposition coalition, Freddy Guevara.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
There are many Cubans in Venezuela supporting the Chavistas and stirring up trouble. They want to insure the crude oil keeps flowing to the Cuban refineries. Cuba's economy depends heavily on Venezuelan crude shipments under agreements started by the late President Hugo Chavez and Castro. In return, the island nation has provided Venezuela with Cuban doctors and other services (cough, cough, cough such as exporting the Cuban revolution). Recall that Venezuela, under Chavez, expropriated western oil companies in Venezuela.
[Al Jazeera] At least eight people were killed on Monday when ajacket wallah'> exploding trollop female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria.
The head of the Borno state emergency management agency, Ahmed Satomi, said the blast injured 15 others in the London Ciki area of Maiduguri, which has been at the epicentre of Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... violence since 2009.
"The mosque was being guarded by civilian JTF [joint task force militia] during prayers," he told AFP.
"Unknown to them, the girl was being pursued from another part of town by residents who were suspicious of her movement at the time.
"When she approached the mosque, they demanded that she stop to be searched but she suddenly bolted into the mosque and set off her bombs."
Three other female suicide bombers were located in Maiduguri at about the same time, said Satomi. Two were killed in the Mammanti area as they tried to cross the ditch around the city perimeter while another set off her explosives in the suburb of Simari, he added. Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu said the first two were killed shortly before midnight while the third was intercepted shortly after.
It is the second time in a week that four female suicide bombers have sought to cause carnage in Maiduguri.
Boko Haram meanwhile released a video online showing 10 women who they claimed to have kidnapped last month during an attack on a convoy.
On June 20, the jihadists ambushed a convoy of vehicles under police escort heading towards the town of Damboa on a highway outside Maiduguri. Initially local news reports said that 16 policewomen had been abducted in the ambush. But police officials denied the reports, insisting only a policeman was killed in the attack.
In the five-minute video, 10 women of varying ages sit on the ground in an undisclosed bush location surrounded by lush vegetation.
"On behalf of all of us... I plead with the Nigerian government to intervene so that we are freed the way the Chibok schoolgirls were freed," said one of the hostages, who gave her name as Amina Adam Gombiya. Gombiya said she was a teacher at the Federal College of Freshwater Fisheries in the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad.
Thousands of civilians have been abducted since the insurgency began in 2009. The jihadists use women and young girls as sex slaves and suicide bombers, while men and boys are recruited as fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
[Ynet] The Paleostinian terror organization is asking the North African country permission to establish a permanent bureau in Algiers in an effort to avoid concentrating leaders in one country.
Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, is considering establishing a permanent presence in Algeria, according to Paleostinian sources in a report Monday by Asharq al-Aswat.
The terror organization's big shotship is spread out over several countries across the Middle East and Asia after being forced to leave Doha last month.
According to the report, Hamas is asking the North African country for permission to set up an official bureau in Algiers, along with posting several senior members. Algeria has yet to respond to the request.
Hamas front manSami Abu Zuhri ...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... is reportedly already in Algeria and is expected to be the first senior member to be posted to the country should the organization's request be approved. Zuhri confirmed that he had submitted such an application to Algerian authorities and that they had agreed to examine it.
Currently, Hamas officials are spread out across the Gazoo Strip, Leb, Malaysia and 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... in an attempt to avoid both concentrating everyone in the same state and external political pressures on the host country.
Past attempts at concentrating political power in one state were all met with failure when the organization was forced to move from Syria, Qatar and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... . As such, it was decided that Hamas leader 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... would remain in the Gazoo Strip.
The Syrian army and allies continued their advance in the Badiya, a desert that extends over some 90,000 square kilometers from central Syria to the Iraqi and Jordanian borders, controlling more positions in the east of Palmyra and inflicting heavy losses upon ISIL terrorists.
The Syrian army also had regained control over Daila’a oilfield in Raqqa southern countryside, killing a number of ISIL terrorists.
The Russian warplanes struck ISIL terrorists in the vicinity of Al-Sukhna area in Homs eastern countryside, according to the Russian ministry of defense.
Source: Al-Manar Website
Posted by: badanov ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
Woman killed, sons kidnapped in Diyala They don't know what to do with a woman, but the kidz can haul an AK
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) A woman was killed when Islamic State militants raided her home in northeast of Diyala governorate and kidnapped two of her sons, a local source told Alsumaria News on Monday.
“IS militants raided a house in a village west of Jalawla (70 km northeast of Baquba), killed a woman and kidnapped two of her sons,” the source said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source added that security forces opened an inquiry into the incident, but he did not mention any details about the motivations for the murder.
On Sunday, one civilian was wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in northeast of Diyala Governorate, AlSumaria News reported
IS members have escalated bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians over the past months, coinciding with Iraqi security operations to expel the group from Mosul, their largest bastion in Iraq.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State terror group who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
More than 700 Iraqis were killed and wounded during June as result of violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), which excludes security members’ deaths. Baghdad ranked the second place with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
(IraqiNews.com) Smuggling of Islamic State militants from regions in west of Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces to the Iraqi borders have reached up to US$20,000, a local source from Kirkuk province said.
Speaking to AlSumaria News, the source said “the amount required for smuggling IS foreign members have suddenly surged reaching up to US$20,000 to guarantee the members’ exit from Tal Afar town, west of Mosul, and Hawija town, southwest of Kirkuk province. This came in the wake of losing most of the regions held by the group.”
The source, who preferred anonymity, indicated immigration by the group’s foreign members from Iraq toward neighboring countries. “They cannot leave without smugglers to help.”
On Saturday, Lt.Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah said the fourth phase of liberation will be launched soon to free Tal Afar and other regions to complete the liberation of the whole province.
A source was quoted earlier this month as saying that non-Iraqi IS militants executed the last local leader in Tal Afar and the town is currently run by Arab and foreign members after eliminating all the Iraqi leaders.
Tal Afar is one of the important strongholds still held by IS in Nineveh since August 2014, while Hawija has been held by IS since mid-2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State has punished six of the so-called “Cubs of the Caliphate” leaving a place they were in in charge of securing, southwest of Kirkuk, a local source said.
“IS punished six of the ‘Cubs of the Caliphate’ in a village in Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk, as they were playing football instead of leaving a security point they were charge of securing,” the source told AlSumaria News on Monday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said “everyone was punished with 20 lashes, while one of them was punished with 50 lashes, for being behind the idea of playing.”
The group, according to the source, bans playing football.
Founded by the group, the Cubs of the Caliphate is formed of teenagers to either transfer explosives or commit suicide attacks.
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.
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.
Iraqi authorities announced discovering a new mass grave containing the bodies of victims of the 2014 “Speicher massacre” by the ISIL terrorist group in Iraq’s central city of Tikrit.
Zaid Ali Abbas, head of the Iraqi Health Ministry’s forensics department, announced the step, noting that efforts were still ongoing to identify bodies of the martyrs through DNA tests.
In June 2014, ISIL terrorists — after overrunning much of northern and western of Iraq — reportedly killed more than 2,000 cadets and personnel at Saladin’s Speicher military academy.
In video footage that purportedly shows the massacre, militants can be seen firing on their victims at close range before dumping their bodies into the Tigris River and into mass graves.
Last year, the Iraqi government announced it had unearthed the bodies of more than 1,000 massacre victims in the first series of graves to be found in Tikrit.
Aden, Algeria- Yemeni Human Rights Ministry has said that over 70 Yemeni abductees were killed under brutal torture inside prisons run by the Houthi-Saleh militias.
In a statement, the ministry condemned the prosecution of 36 professors, activists and media professionals in an invalid court, which did not adhere to any legal proceedings.
It said that the prosecution of 36 abductees confirms that the Houthi-Saleh militias continue violating laws, international treaties and conventions.
The second hearing of prosecuting 36 civilians, who were kidnapped from their universities and homes, was held Thursday in Sana’a.
The ministry noted that civilians were unlawfully arrested, detained and subjected to all sorts of torture for two years, and many of them are still detained, forcefully disappeared and subjected to mistreatment.
The ministry called on local and international organizations to promptly move forward and put pressure on the militias to release all abductees and stop all sorts of torture practiced against them.
It described the trials as a farce since the insurgents sentence the detainees to death ten minutes after the beginning of the hearing session in which the judge refuses to document the statements of the abductees or consider their cases.
The Human Rights Ministry called on all international and regional parties to work fast, put pressure on the militias to release the abductees and halt all the heinous practices carried out by them.
On the other hand, the Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi confirmed that the Yemeni government does not seek excluding any party but refuses to use weapons against the state.
During his meeting with his Algerian counterpart Abdul Qadir Musahi on Sunday in Algeria, Mekhlafi stressed that Houthi-Saleh militias have turned against several agreements, including the Gulf Initiative and its long-standing executive mechanism, which guaranteed a safe transition to power in Yemen.
The two parties discussed during their meeting in the headquarters of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs bilateral cooperation issues in the framework of the Yemeni-Algerian joint ministerial committee and the scholarships offered by the Algerian side to Yemen in the academic aspect.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[UK Independent] Iraqi security forces kill Isis prisoners because they believe that if the militants are sent to prison camps they will bribe the authorities in Baghdad to release them. “That is why Iraqi soldiers prefer to shoot them or throw them off high buildings,” says one Iraqi source. A former senior Iraqi official said he could name the exact sum that it would take for an Isis member to buy papers enabling him to move freely around Iraq.
The belief by Iraqi soldiers and militiamen that their own government is too corrupt to keep captured Isis fighters in detention is one reason why the bodies of Isis suspects, shot in the head or body and with their hands tied behind their backs, are found floating in the Tigris river downstream from Mosul. Revenge and hatred provoked by Isis atrocities are motives for extrajudicial killings by death squads, but so is distrust of an Iraqi judicial system, which is notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional.
Paranoia at the end of a very violent war partially explains why so many Iraqis are convinced that dangerous Isis members can always bribe their way to freedom. Dozens of posts on social media from Baghdad allege that suicide bombers who blow themselves up killing many civilians had previously been detained by the security forces and released in return for money. “We die in Baghdad because of corruption,” reads one post, frequently shared with others. One tweet says: “Daesh [Isis] pays the government and kills us in Baghdad.”
Fears may be exaggerated, but are not entirely without substance. Isis may have suffered heavy losses in Mosul, but can still operate. A senior Kurdish official said that “recently, during the funeral of a leader of the Shammar tribe in Rabia, no less than 17 Isis suicide bombers were discovered.
Goodness. That does seem to be a bit overzealous -- not to mention effective on the part of the Kurds...
This shows they can still plan and carry out operations even if they are weaker.” A lesson well learned from watching the nefarious deeds of former GITMO detainees facilitated by a man some call Soetoro.
Posted by: Pappy ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Considering all the evil shit ISIS did... call this Karma lite.
#3
The whole concept of 'law of warfare' is both sides respecting it and practicing it. Anything else is some jerks' fantasy of coulda, woulda, shoulda.
#4
Some people out there seem to think that warfare is some antiseptic little game played with rules like Monopoly or Yahtzee.
It is not. Reality bites and war is an ugly mes.
The media should be kept in tents miles to the rear of the action and only allowed to attend briefings. I don't think any of them have either the stomach or the reality to report a conflict accurately.
Simply put, liberal values placed on a conflict between two groups neither of whom cares what the world thinks.
Raqqa (Syria News) The Syrian Democratic Forces managed to retake al-Yarmouk neighborhood, west of the city of Raqqa completely, after violent clashes with the Islamic State group and mutual shelling.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that, at dawn today, the Syrian Democratic Forces recaptured al-Yarmouk neighborhood, west of Raqqa completely, after battles with the Islamic State, killing 16 IS members.
Meanwhile, US-led international coalition carried out air strikes on the Islamic State’s locations, while the Syrian Democratic Forces managed to recapture wide areas of the city of Raqqa.
Violent clashes are still ongoing in southern Raqqa and inside the borders of Homs Province between the Islamic State militants and pro-Assad forces, the observatory added.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Good. Upsetting as the thought is, once the NSA and CIA are cleaned out it will be different, but so long as they are warring against President Trump we need a service we can trust to tell the truth.
[NationalDefense] After what one senior official called "25 years of inattention," the Defense Department is pushing ahead to make its defensive and offensive electronic warfare capabilities more robust.
"There is an appreciation on the dependency of our electronic warfare capabilities [and] to make sure that the force -- all the platforms -- are survivable. I think that appreciation is very real and very substantial," William Conley, deputy director of electronic warfare in the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics, said during a recent Mitchell Institute speech.
"The foot is fully on the gas pedal" when it comes to catching up on EW capabilities, he said.
Electronic warfare is among the fields that the Pentagon has identified as part of the "third offset" -- a collection of battlefield technologies that the U.S. military must master in order to leap ahead of potential adversaries.
In the wake of a Defense Science Board report on the military’s electronic warfare shortcomings, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work created an electronic warfare executive committee comprising high-level military leaders who meet once per month with the goal of reversing the "inattention."
The July 2015 report, "21st Century Operations in a Complex Electromagnetic Environment," concluded that the United States military was "no longer the overwhelming leader in these technologies." The neglect set in after the end of the Cold War and with the perception that advanced threats had all but disappeared, it said. Continues. Long-ish article, worth the visit, imho.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So it takes a septuagenarian to rub Congress' nose in it hard enough for them to figure it out?
Deir Ezzor (Syria News) The so-called Islamic State explosives official was killed by an air strike in Syria, SANA reported on Monday.
The Syrian News agency said that a Saudi member of the radical Islamic State group, called Abu Ayman al-Gizrawi, who was serving as the explosives official in the terrorist group, was killed in the city of Albukamal, south of Deir Ezzor on borders with Iraq.
Meanwhile, some unofficial news websites claimed that Gizrawi was killed in an air strike that was carried out by the US-led international coalition on the Islamic State’s headquarters in the city.
Earlier this week, Syrian army announced recapturing several villages and oil fields in the countryside of Deir Ezzor and Raqaa, after destroying dozens of the Islamic State’s vehicles and mechanisms.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Al Jazeera] A Jordanian soldier was sentenced on Monday to life in prison after being convicted of killing three US military trainers outside an army base last year.
The military court in Amman found 39-year-old Maarik al-Tawaiha guilty of shooting the trainers as they waited to enter the King Faisal base at al-Jafr in southern Jordan on November 4.
In Jordan, life in prison can mean 20 years, with time off for good behaviour.
Jordan has ruled out terrorism in the November shooting in which the convoy of the US Army Green Berets came under fire at the base entrance.
The prosecution in June accused al-Tawaiha of "voluntary manslaughter" over the deaths of Matthew Lewellen, Kevin McEnroe and James Moriarty.
He was also charged with "insulting the dignity and reputation of the armed forces and violating military orders".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Too, too predictable. But with their worldview, it could not be otherwise.
[AA.TR] The U.S. needs to "immediately" arrest the head of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday.
Terror leader Fetullah Gulen, who martyred many and tried to overthrow democracy in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... last July, resides in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as if nothing happened, Kurtulmus said at a news conference at the Presidential Palace while a Cabinet meeting was being held separately.
Gulen is granting interviews to major global media outlets and, in this way, is trying to motivate the organizational commitment of his supporters, Kurtulmus added.
He said Turkey and the U.S. have a long history of an alliance in NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... , but also strategic alliances in the Mideast and Ottoman Turkish-American relations have an intense history.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
"Numan!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2017 15:29
Comments ||
Top||
Aleppo (Syria News) The Syrian rebels faction, named “Ahl al-Diyar”, on Monday, launched an attack on members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Ayn Dakna Village, north of Aleppo.
Qasioun News reported that the Syrian rebels shelled locations and gatherings of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the villages of Ayn Dakna and al-Baylouna, using heavy artillery and rockets, leaving many casualties.
Earlier, Ahl al-Diyar announced that it did not follow any party or military entity, and its main goal is to recapture villages and towns seized by the Syrian Democratic Forces in early 2016.
It is noteworthy that the rebels in northern Syria formed lately three military blocs, due to the news about the approaching military operation on the area of Afrin, north of Aleppo.
[AA.TR] The National Security Council meeting in Ankara on Monday resolved that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... would never allow a terrorist state to be established on its border.
According to a statement issued after the council’s meeting at the presidential complex in the capital, the meeting highlighted that the PKK/PYD terror group cannot be legalized, even if it was fighting against another terrorist group ISIS.
Ankara views the PYD and its arm the YPG as the Syrian branches of the PKK terror group.
Arms sent by certain allied countries to the PYD (in northern Iraq and Syria) have been delivered to PKK terrorist organization, which vindicates Turkey's rightful objection to the arming of Syrian terror affiliate, the statement said.
Turkey has repeatedly objected to the supply of weapons to terror groups on the pretext of an operation to oust ISIS from Syria's northern city of Raqqah.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... the U.S. considers the PKK/PYD as a "reliable partner" on the ground in Syria and continues to support them in the field.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[DAWN] Has Winnie the Pooh done something to anger China's censors? Some mentions of the lovable but dimwitted bear with a weakness for “hunny” have been blocked on Chinese social networks.
Authorities did not explain the clampdown, but the self-described “bear of very little brain” has been used in the past in a meme comparing him to portly Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Posts bearing the image and the Chinese characters for Winnie the Pooh were still permitted on the Twitter-like Weibo platform Monday.
But comments referencing “Little Bear Winnie” — Pooh's Chinese name — turned up error messages saying the user could not proceed because “this content is illegal.”
Winnie the Pooh stickers have also been removed from WeChat's official “sticker gallery,” but user-generated gifs of the bear are still available on the popular messaging app.
Comparisons between Xi and Pooh first emerged in 2013, after Chinese social media users began circulating a pair of pictures that placed an image of Pooh and his slender tiger friend “Tigger” beside a photograph of Xi walking with then-US President Barack Obama.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Even though not banned in the US, years ago when deportations of illegal Mexicans were higher, Tweety Bird stickers were seen on many vehicles driven by Mexicans as a symbol of illegals always on the run from the big black cat.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/18/2017 7:32
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Beeg, bad dwaggon scayode of liddle stuft bayo.
In the tradition of all Chinese dynasties, the current one is its own worst enemy and the bringer about of its own demise. Currently nameless, this one could be called the Ay Chin Gao.
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.
[ChicagoTribune] In a city scarred by a deep and troubling history with guns, a supervisor in the scandal-plagued water department used his city email account to negotiate firearms deals and make light of deadly Fourth of July violence in black neighborhoods by offering "Chicago Safari" tours, a new watchdog report revealed Monday.
[ABC Fake News] Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Monday addressed Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney, saying it's "probably against the law" to get opposition research for his father's presidential campaign from a foreign country.
[American Thinker] The British Home Office have just clarified something which many British people have known for well over a decade: that Islamists and terrorists are being funded by ordinary British Muslims to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.
[American Thinker] If any doubts remained that the Fox News channel is continuing to swerve from its conservative roots, they were erased on July 16, 2017 when Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., a principal architect of Obamacare and a barely hinged spin doctor for the Democrat socialist left, appeared on the channel’s signature weekly program Fox News Sunday in his new role as a paid contributor. During the program, the ever arrogant Emanuel jumped on the Resist Trump bandwagon and suggested that President Trump is worthy of being impeached. Hired last February primarily as a health policy analyst (he is a physician and professor, after all), Emanuel is now providing opinion not only on medical subjects but on political ones, as well.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration is expected to ratchet up pressure on Iran with a slew of new sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic's illicit ballistic missile program and regional support for terrorism as the landmark Iranian nuclear deal hits its two-year anniversary, according to senior U.S. officials who deemed Iran in violation of the agreement's "spirit."
[Daily Caller] The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will lay off more than 1,200 employees over the next two months by offering buyouts, documents obtained by E&E News indicate.
[PJMedia] The latest version of the Obamacare repeal and replace bill officially flatlined this evening as the third and fourth GOP senators to oppose the legislation declared their non-support.
[RefugeeSettlementWatch] LOL! No of course they didn’t say it that way, but that is what they mean. Instead, once again, it is about the poor refugees left in the lurch in some third world hell hole because of that meany Donald J. Trump.
[FoxNews] A Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice and devoted to "Holy Death" is growing in popularity among drug traffickers and violent criminals, prompting Texas officials and the Catholic Church to warn about honoring the so-called "Saint Death."
[FoxNews] The significant downturn in the number of illegal border crossers between the U.S. and Mexico is "nothing short of miraculous," National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said on C-SPAN Monday.
"Counting the Revolutionary Guards the same as terrorist groups and applying similar sanctions to the Revolutionary Guards is a big risk for America and its bases and forces deployed in the region," said Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Baqeri, according to Sepah News, an official news site of the Guards. 
Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
