h/t instapundit
Vladimir Putin did not hack the election. Barack Obama did.
Donald Trump said earlier this year that the Obama Administration wiretapped his campaign. "Like I’d want to hear more from that fool?" President Obama scoffed.
But CNN reported on Monday, "US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election.... The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump."
The network labeled their story an exclusive. But, in fact, Breitbart, radio host Mark Levin, the realDonaldTrump Twitter account, and numerous other sources reported the wiretapping more than six months ago.
...The all-smoke-no-fire Russia investigation looks increasingly like a smoke screen aimed to put out a very different fire. Rather than an investigation into malfeasance by the Trump campaign, does the Robert Mueller inquiry serve as a clean-up operation to justify Obama administration malfeasance? The bugging of the opposition party’s presidential campaign, at least when done by Republicans, ranks not only as criminal but as the biggest political scandal in American history.
Richard Nixon’s henchmen wore surgical gloves to avoid leaving clues for law enforcement. Barack Obama’s henchmen were law enforcement. This makes Obama worse, not better, than Nixon. At least Nixon’s plumbers possessed the decency to leave their skullduggery to lock pickers and burglars. Obama used law enforcement for opposition research. In Banana Republics, the cops double as the criminals. The unprecedented use of the Justice Department to commit injustice marks a sad moment for the republic. It is Watergate on steroids.
#2
Nothing will come of this. The media does not want this story to continue and the GOP is perfectly fine with this as it happened to Trump; not the GOP.
[Michael Z. Williamson] A simple body count (and in good liberal fashion, I'm going to make you look it up yourself. It's not my job to educate you) shows that Communism is at least five times as bad as its poor cousin, National Socialism.
If we fought a war to utterly exterminate Nazism, and we did, and it was moral and just, we should absolutely be doing the same thing for Communism. We should kill every single one of them for the good of humanity. No one is forced to be a Communist. It's not a race, a gene, an orientation. It is strictly a choice. If you choose to put the body politic so far over the individual that the individual becomes a tool, you deserve to be killed.
I've even had one justify to me that "99% of people won't do the right thing unless they're FORCED to." (Emphasis theirs.)
They were correct, but not the way they meant. Communists won't do the right thing unless you force them, by killing them.
Now, if you just said to yourself, "But Stalin and Mao and Pot and Kim weren't real Communists," and unspoken, you're avoiding mentioning Castro and Chavez, and don't even have a clue who Haitham is, then this is the response:
If your attempts at "real communism" consistently, 100%, decay into "not real Communism" that has killed well over 100 million people in a century, then you need to be killed, too, because you're vector for the virus of Communism. You're either incurably insane or evil, and you need to be dead.
It is the triumph of Western democracy that philosophies are allowed to exist and propagate even if they are ultimate evil. It is the failure of Western democracy that we support this to a fault, of allowing Communists to breathe air needed by human beings.
Then we can get back to killing National Socialists and regular Socialists as well, since their difference is only one of path, not destination.
Michael Z. Williamson is a science fiction and military fiction author. Born in Birkenhead, England, he and his family emigrated to Canada, then the United States in 1978. Williamson frequently utilizes the pen names "Mad Mike" and "Crazy Einar". He is retired from the United States Air Force.
#8
Have you every seen The Gods Must Be Crazy(1980)?
In between all the comedy, there are some moments that intrigued me: the Bushmen (true communists ?) infected by the singular "Evil Thing" soda bottle and the comic opera "communist guerillas" led by a Cuban (?) revolutionary in their pointless terrorism.
It made me consider that Communism, as a system, just doesn't work™ for any group larger than an extended family.
[Daily Caller] President Donald Trump declared at his Alabama rally on Friday night that he would love to see an NFL owner fire anyone who disrespects the U.S. flag and national anthem, declaring, "get that son of a bitch off the field!"
"Luther [Strange] and I, and everyone in this arena tonight, are unified by the same great American values," Trump said at the rally. "We’re proud of our country. We respect our flag."
"Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ’Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired!" Trump exclaimed. "He’s fired!"
The crowd erupted into chants of "USA" at Trump’s proclamation.
#6
No complaints about Pres. Trump calling out the anti-trust-exempt NFL.
But, the playing of the national anthem at professional sporting events in [North] America has no place, particularly within Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League. Yes, there is tradition. But there are some horse-and-buggy relics as well.
OT - Meanwhile, Pres. Trump disinvited Stephen Curry from a White House visit. I LOVE IT.
#8
I actually used to be a big 49ers fan, up until the axed Smith and put in Afronick. Stopped caring about the 49ers then. Given what they've done and accomplished since, I can say it was a great decision. Just like I stopped watching NFL last year.
Hell, I didn't watch the "Incredible OT superbowl" that happened. I don't regret that either. That's how far the NFL has fallen, Watching Joe Montana as a toddler yawning about the latest Brady record. They've squandered the League that took half a century to build in a tenth that time.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/23/2017 18:57
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[Free Beacon] Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday it is possible that President Donald Trump was captured in audio as part of the wiretap of his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
Host Don Lemon interviewed Clapper about the FBI wiretap that was put in place during the Obama administration to listen to Manafort as part of the investigation into ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives.
Trump has claimed that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in New York City when he was president. CNN reported this week that Manafort was wiretapped, though the report did not indicate that Trump himself was under surveillance. CNN said it was unclear whether the Manafort surveillance took place at Trump Tower.
Clapper, who said in March that he had no knowledge of any court orders to wiretap Trump or Trump Tower, stood by his comments on Wednesday, noting he could only refer to them and media reports. He added that he has no knowledge of any secret order from the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to wiretap Manafort.
"Is it possible the president was picked up in a conversation with Paul Manafort?" Lemon then asked.
"It's certainly conceivable," Clapper said.
"Is it likely?" Lemon asked.
"I can't say," Clapper said. "I wouldn't want to go there but I will say it's possible."
#2
Clapper and the Deep State attempting to pick up the turd from the clean end.
I have prepared a DRAFT 'Deep State' media statement (yes, NYT will be excellent) on the topic which can be timed for release within in the next 30-60-90 days:
DRAFT: "As has been reported previously, the Intelligence Community was well aware of the 'incidental collection' involving then candidate Trump. Measures to mask his identity were rigorously undertaken."
#4
But they did not? Oh and now Trump must have been unmasked for Clapper to know. Now he violated the law telling the public. So now we know Manafort was not a simple person talking to the wrong person, he was directly targeted, for an extended period of time. And what about Clapper and Susan Rice and their lies???
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/23/2017 10:36
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#5
And what about Clapper and Susan Rice and their lies???
Good thing we're not holding our breaths waiting for prosecutions.
[Breitbart] President Donald Trump admitted to Alabama voters Friday that he might have made a mistake by endorsing appointed Alabama Senator Luther Strange in the Republican primary.
"We have to be loyal in life," Trump said. "There is something called loyalty, and I might have made a mistake and I’ll be honest, I might have made a mistake."
Trump appeared in Alabama for a campaign rally for Strange, despite polling showing him still lagging behind his primary challenger conservative Judge Roy Moore.
Trump predicted that if Strange lost, his political opponents and the media would cite it as a big loss for Trump, but that he wanted to repay the appointed senator for his loyal support in the Senate.
"Both are good men," Trump said, referring to Strange and Moore.
How about some loyalty to the people who actually voted for you, or the people who worked for you and are now being financially ruined by Mueller's myrmidons?
Trump is making the classic mistake that all Republican officeholders make.
He's treating his enemies better than his friends.
And when you do that, you make a lot more enemies and a lot fewer friends.
[49/29 News] VIAN, Okla. school bus driver accused of picking up a non-student told 40/29 News she was fired today.
Katie Chapman was originally suspended for 10 days for picking up an unauthorized person with students on board.
Chapman told 40/29 she picked up a mother at a bus stop who was waiting for her children. Chapman had been given permission drop students off at bus stops that day, but to take them to their homes because police were searching the area for a suspect who was on the run.
40/29 News obtained a copy of the letter informing Chapman of her termination. It says Chapman did not have permission to allow the woman on board, and told students not to tell anyone about it. It also says the woman brought her dog onto the bus, and rode on the stairs, in violation of safe driving guidelines. The letter also says the woman Chapman let on board had a criminal record and was on probation for drug-related charges.
"When questioned, you insisted that your actions were proper in light of the circumstances and, that if given the opportunity, you would again engage in the same conduct."
"I felt it was the humanitarian thing to do," Chapman said. "I didn't hesitate to give that woman a ride home because I felt she was in danger."
Chapman said on Tuesday, September 12, she was told not to drop off students at the bus stop and to take them home because police were searching the area for a suspect who was on the run. Chapman says she stopped at the bus stop when she saw a mother waiting for her children.
"At that time she was terrified," Chapman said she asked the woman if she wanted a ride.
"I said, stay in the step well and keep the dog on a leash; she didn't budge, she was on the bottom most stair and she was no danger at all."
Chapman was fired late Thursday afternoon. She said she had been a school bus driver for the district for the past 12 years and that she loved her job.
[Townhall] Mercedes-Benz announced Thursday it would be investing $1 billion in a U.S. plant.
The money will help establish electric vehicle production at the company’s Tuscaloosa, Alabama plant and go toward building a battery at a nearby factory. Both will result in the creation of 600 new jobs, the company said.
The luxury division of Germany's Daimler AG said it plans to manufacture electric SUVs under Mercedes' EQ sub-brand at the Alabama plant by the start of the next decade. [...]
Daimler, based in Stuttgart, Germany, is among the global automakers investing in what they hope will be the automotive technology of the future, combining low-emissions electric propulsion with autonomous driving technology and new forms of getting around such as sharing cars ordered through a smartphone app.
At the Mercedes-Benz U.S. International facility in Tuscaloosa, workers assemble the GLS, GLE and GLE Coupe SUVs for the global market as well as the C-Class sedan for North America. The company says it employs 3,700 people and supports another 7,000 jobs at the 1,000-acre (400 hectare) site.
The first EQ production model, the EQC, is expected to go into production in Bremen, Germany in 2019.
The Alabama battery plant will join facilities in Germany and China; construction is to begin next year on the 1 million square-foot (92,900 square-meter) facility, which is planned to start operating at the beginning of the next decade. (AP)
"With the addition of electric SUVs to our future fleet, we will provide discerning drivers with a new, high-quality automotive option," Mercedes executive Markus Schaefer said in a statement.
#1
This is a company on the move. Some of the best diesel motors on the market. This new venture will be very productive I am certain. I don't like the direction we are headed however. They want humans out of the operating decision process. Control of our independent operating decisions. What will they do when human consciousness is wedded with motherboards.
Swiss indict 3 over alleged al-Qaeda propaganda videos
21 September
[Ynet] Federal prosecutors in Switzerland on Thursday announced indictments of the leader of a prominent Swiss Islamic group and two other top members over alleged al-Qaeda propaganda videos posted on YouTube. Contacted by phone in Bangladesh, one of the suspects rejected the case as "politically motivated."
Attorney General Michael Lauber's office alleges the three members of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland violated Swiss laws banning al-Qaeda, Islamic State and associated radical groups. His office and federal police have opened about 60 cases linked to alleged "jihadi-motivated terrorism," mostly involving propaganda.
The indictments target ICCS President Nicolas Blancho, the group's cultural production chief Naim Cherni, who is a German citizen, and spokesman Abdel Azziz Qaasim Illi, said Illi in a phone interview. Blancho and Illi are both Swiss citizens, he said. They all remain free.
Danes charge 2 men with joining radical Islamic groups
21 September
[Ynet] Danish prosecutors say two men, including a Finnish national, have been charged with violating Denmark's terrorist laws by traveling to Syria and Somalia to receive weapons training and join extremist groups. Prosecutor Jan Reckendorff says one of the men joined the Islamic State group in Syria and the other joined the al-Shabab group in Somalia. The men, both aged 24, received weapon training during their trips.
Reckendorff said Wednesday the men, who were not identified, joined the groups in 2013 to 2015. It was not immediately clear whether there is a link between the men, who were both arrested in January and live in western Denmark.
The men face at least four years in jail and the Finn face deportation. No date for a trial was immediately announced.
Denmark arrests man, woman for alleged links to IS
21 September
[Ynet] Danish authorities say two people have been arrested under the country's anti-terror laws for allegedly purchasing and shipping items "to be used in combat" from Denmark to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Domestic intelligence agency official Flemming Dreyer said that the activities of the 28-year-old man and 29-year-old woman—whose names and nationalities were not given—were "intended to support the Islamic State group."
Copenhagen police spokesman Joergen Bergen Skov said that raids were carried out in the suburbs of the Danish capital Thursday, and that the suspects would face a pre-trial detention hearing Friday.
Germany: Syrian refugee jailed over UN observer's abduction
20 September
[AlAhram] A German court has convicted a Syrian refugee of being an accessory to a war crime against humanitarian operations over his participation in the 2013 kidnapping of a United Nations observer. The Stuttgart state court Wednesday sentenced the defendant, who has been identified only as Suliman Al-S. in line with German privacy rules, to 3 ½ years in prison. The court found the defendant backed the kidnapping and offered to serve as a guard, but didn't find conclusive proof that the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's branch in Syria, was behind the kidnapping or that the defendant belonged to it.
Prosecutors haven't identified the observer but the facts released correspond with those of the kidnapping of Canadian lawyer Carl Campeau, who was abducted from a Damascus suburb. He escaped after eight months.
After arriving in Germany in 2014, Al-S has been in police custody since January 2016. He is the first refugee to be charged for war crimes in Syria by a German court, according to the federal public prosecutor
Police arrest Pakistani jihadi suspect in Spain
19 September
[Ynet] Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested a Pakistani man suspected of promoting terrorism and spreading Islamic jihadi propaganda on social media networks. A ministry statement the 25-year-old resident of the northern Catalan city of Lleida was part of a cell partially dismantled with the arrest of three Pakistani brothers in Lleida last year. The ministry said the man detained Tuesday had become more engrossed in radical activities in recent weeks.
German court convicts two Syrian fighters on terror charges
19 September
[DW] Two refugees in Germany have been convicted on terrorism related charges for fighting alongside rebels in Syria. It is the first such process in Bavaria against former Syrian rebels.
Kamel T., 25, was sentenced to four years in prison, while his friend Azad R., 23, was given two years' parole due to his age at the time of the crime. The two were accused of being members of a foreign terrorist organization in Syria, where they fought alongside the Salafist Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... militant group. They also violated the German laws on the use of weapon in foreign war zones.
The charges stem from the two Syrians' role as sentries for Ahrar al-Sham in Aleppo between August 2013 and April 2014. During this time Ahrar al-Sham fought the Syrian military and other rebel factions. Azad R. was wounded in the leg in clashes that left him partially paralyzed. His friend cared for him as the two came through the Balkan migrant route, arriving in Germany in 2015.
Denmark charges 26-year-old man accused of joining Isis
12 September
[TheLocal.dk] A list of names obtained by Danish police has led to six men being accused of joining terror group Islamic State. The information led to the trial of a 26-year-old man at Aarhus City Court, reports the Ritzau news agency.
The man is accused of joining the Islamic State (Isis) terror group on Syria and undergoing training in how to commit acts of terror. According to the charge sheet, the man travelled to Syria to this end around September 1st 2013. He is charged with undergoing militant training and training in the use of weapons and explosives over a two-week period.
The case against man, a 26-year-old foreign citizen who lives in eastern Jutland, is part of a larger case against six suspected terrorists, writes Ritzau. Information from American security services led Danish police to the six men, according to the report.
“The common characteristic in these cases is that American authorities have provided files found at an Islamic State border checkpoint,” deputy state prosecutor Anders Riisager told Ritzau. The files included the names of both Danish citizens and Denmark-based foreign nationals.
The five other men will also appear in court later in the year, with the prosecution seeking prison sentences in excess of four years, according to the report.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/23/2017
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It's been a bit since I did a Europe colonist round up, so I had to break it down into parts lest the whole be too unwieldly: today we have briefs from a variety of sources, separated into Moslem colonists and jihadis; tomorrow it will be briefs from Breitbart and the Daily Mail.
How do Muslims living in France feel about their country?
22 September
[TheLocal.fr] The subject of Muslim integration in France is one of the country's most hotly debated issues. But how do Muslims themselves feel about their home country? A new survey offers some insight.
Muslims living in France feel a stronger attachment to their country than they do in much of Europe, despite experiencing high levels of discrimination. That was one of the key findings of a new survey that looked at Musliims across Europe. The survey also found that first generation Muslims feel more attached to France than their offspring. This generational difference in feeling towards their country is greater in France than anywhere in Europe.
German Bundesrat approves 'burqa ban' for drivers, beefs up road-race sanctions
22 September
[DW] The German parliament's upper house sharpened traffic-related punishments, including a prohibition on face coverings while driving. It's being seen as a ban on burqas and niqabs — and one Muslim organization isn't happy.
Bundestag questions legality of Angela Merkel's refugee policy
22 September
[DW] The legal basis for Angela Merkel's 2015 decision to open borders to a group of refugees hasn't been clarified, the Bundestag has concluded. The report is a minor disturbance in the chancellor's serene re-election bid.
French businessman pledges to pay Austrian face veil fines
21 September
[Ynet] A French businessman said he would pay all fines imposed on women wearing a full-face veil in Austria under a law banning it from Oct. 1, an Austrian broadcaster reported. The reported remarks from Rachid Nekkaz, who already pays fines for women who wear Muslim niqabs and burkas despite bans in France and Belgium, provoked criticism from Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.
The Austrian ban makes public wearing of the Arab-style niqab, which leaves the eyes uncovered, and the Afghan-style burqa, which covers the face with a cloth grid, liable to a fine of 150 euros.
Danish fashion agency hires first hijab-wearing model
21 September
[TheLocal.dk] A Danish modelling agency’s decision to add a model who wears a hijab to its staff has been described as “quite exceptional”. Danish bureau Unique Models is currently the only agency in the country to include a woman who wears a hijab – 21-year-old Amina Adan – in its catalogue of models, reports broadcaster DR.
Fashion expert and television presenter Chris Pedersen told DR that the use of a model wearing a hijab was “exceptional”.
“Globally, there are very, very few models who have worked while wearing a hijab. In the US there is one young woman who has appeared at shows for many of the large fashion houses and in many of the big department stores, but that is an extremely small segment, and this is something that is very much in its infancy,” Pedersen said.
Muslims worried as Austria's party leaders put spotlight on Islam
21 September
[TheLocal.at] As Austrians grow more openly hostile towards Muslims, major political parties are deliberately brandishing Islamophobia in the Catholic majority country ahead of next month's parliamentary election.
Nearly a third of Austrians told a recent survey they would not like to live next to Muslims -- a higher figure than in Germany, France, Switzerland and Britain. National newspapers warn of "spiralling refugee costs", Muslim "rapists" and impending Islamist assaults, in response to a record influx of migrants and jihadist attacks across Europe.
Encroaching on far-right territory, the popular new leader of the conservative People's Party (ÖVP), Sebastian Kurz, wants to slash migrant benefits and shut all Islamic kindergartens, which he says create "parallel societies".
His party was instrumental in prohibiting foreign funding of mosques and pushing through a ban on the Muslim full face veil, due to enter into force in October. That paid off with the ÖVP stealing top spot in opinion polls for the October 15th election. The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) is now battling for second place with the Social Democrats (SPÖ).
Mont Saint-Michel to bring in armed police over terror fears
20 September
[TheLocal.fr] Mont Saint-Michel, one of France's most popular tourist destinations is set to have an armed police presence from December this year in response to the threat of potential terror attacks. The island abbey welcomes three million visitors a year making it France's third most popular attraction, just behind the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles. The decision to introduce a team of five armed police officers was made in the interests of safety, said Yann Galeton, Mont Saint-Michel’s mayor.
Migrants found by German police in back of truck go missing
19 September
[DW] Almost all of the 51 Iraqi refugees found in the back of a truck in the German town of Eisenhüttenstadt on Saturday have gone missing. Officials are waiting to see if the refugees register at another reception center.
The missing Iraqi migrants were most likely picked up in Eisenhüttenstadt and driven away by relatives already living in Germany, said Frank Nürnberger, head of the town's reception facility, speaking with Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
While it remains unclear when exactly the refugees left the facility, unconfirmed reports stated that a number of people got into cars with license plates registered in Bielefeld.
Women refugees face difficult path to integration in Germany
19 September
[DW] Two out of every three refugees in Germany are male. In most cases they are under 30 and traveling alone. If they have a good chance of being granted asylum, they can sign up for an integration course where they can learn German and be introduced to life in their new country. They learn how to apply for jobs and receive advice on getting an education and finding an apartment. Generally, these men are flexible and have a lot of free time.
The situation is quite different for female refugees. The majority have children and many have come to Germany to join family already in the country. Besides war and terrorism, many are fleeing sexual violence, forced marriage and so-called honor killings. The percentage of female refugees in Germany is growing: In 2015, they made up some 30 percent of all asylum applicants. This year, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), they make up almost 40 percent.
Family reunions bring desired baby-making females to Germany. They are not on the path to becoming good Germans, however, which means their children will not be good Germans either.
Safe accommodations, educational opportunities and social engagement are all difficult for these women to find. Germany's federal integration commissioner has announced that support for "refugees deserving special protection" will be one of the government's main focuses – some 5 million euros ($6 million) have been appropriated for the empowerment female refugees in 2017 alone.
France clears hundreds of migrants from wood near Calais
19 September
[TheLocal.fr] French authorities evacuated hundreds of migrants from a wood on the northern coast near Calais on Tuesday over fears it could become a magnet for others hoping to head to Britain. Some 350 men, women and children, most of them Iraqi Kurds, had been living for weeks in squalid conditions in the wood on the edge of the town of Grande-Synthe. Hundreds of police were brought in to dismantle the camp as its residents were packed onto buses, bound for migrant centres in 10 different regions across France.
"At the last count there were 56 children present and around 40 women. I can't let this situation go on anymore," local mayor Damien Careme told AFP on Monday before the operation.
Grand Synthe lies 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the port city of Calais, where authorities dismantled the sprawling "Jungle" camp -- which at its height was home to 10,000 people -- in late 2016. Another nearby camp, at Norrent-Fontes, was cleared of its 85 residents on Monday. They were taken to migrant centres in the region.
Migrants have been encouraged to register asylum applications in France, but many are determined to travel to Britain for family, language or work reasons.
Lampedusa's anti-migration mayor says the island is 'collapsing'
18 September
[TheLocal.it] The Italian island of Lampedusa became a symbol for the country's welcoming culture towards migrants, and an award-winning film showed how islanders and new arrivals lived together in harmony. But over the weekend, the town's mayor, Salvatore Martello, warned that the town is "about to collapse", singling out groups of migrants for criticism.
On Saturday, Martello called for the government to close Lampedusa's hotspot, a centre created to host migrants when they first arrive to the island but which has ended up housing them longer term. In an open letter to Italy's largest news agency, Ansa, Martello said that Lampedusians had been "abandoned".
"Lampedusa is collapsing, police are powerless," the mayor warned, calling for the Interior Ministry to intervene and close the hotspot, which he labelled "useless".
Martello said that he regularly received complaints from tourists and business owners on the island, who told him they "could not manage anymore" due to repeated instances of threats, thefts, and harassment. He said that a group of "180 Tunisians" were to blame for these incidents, and that they were able to "circumvent security controls" despite a heavy presence of security and police officers outside the centre.
Sharp rise in asylum appeals leaves court system struggling to cope
18 September
[TheLocal.de] The opposition has accused the government of overstretching the courts and endangering the integration of refugees, after a rise in appeals on rejected asylum cases. Figures released by the federal government and published by the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) on Monday show that the backlog of asylum appeals waiting to go through the courts has risen dramatically over the course of 2017.
By the end of July, 283,000 appeals against asylum decision were pending, almost double the number than for the end of 2016. Some 146,000 new appeals were lodged in the first five months of this year, almost as many as the 175,000 that were lodged in the whole of 2016.
Meanwhile the court system is working through the appeals at a much slower pace - only 39,000 decisions were made between January and May.
The avalanche in appeals comes as the second stage in the long bureaucratic process refugees have to go through in Germany. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) decided on 480,000 cases from the start of the year, as it finally started to make headway on the piles of cases it had to deal with after the refugee influx of 2015.
Of the close to half a million decisions made by the BAMF this year, 190,000 were rejections. But the courts often overrule the BAMF decisions. Syrians have a particularly good chance of success - four out of every five court appeals end in their favour.
Spike in arrivals of migrants across the Mediterranean to Italy
18 September
[TheLocal.it] Libya's coastguard has rescued over 3,000 migrants aiming to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in the past week, while Italy picked up another 2,000 in recent days, official and reports said on Sunday. Though the numbers attempting the dangerous journey have dropped off significantly in recent months, these new rescues indicate the route is still very much open.
The tally was the highest reported out of Libya for a one-week period since mid-July saw a dramatic fall in the number of migrants trying to reach Europe. Most of the latest rescue operations in Libyan waters were staged off the cities of Zawiya and Sabratha, Libyan navy spokesman General Ayoub Kacem said in a statement.
Italy, the closest and main destination, has recorded 6,500 arrivals since mid-July, barely 15 percent of the figure for the same period in the past three years.
Spain to spend big at borders tightening defences to stop migrants
14 September
[TheLocal.es] Spain’s interior minister has announced plans to spend €12million fortifying border fences at its north African enclaves after a surge in migrant arrivals. Juan Ignacio Zoido unveiled the plans to boost border security at Melilla and Ceuta during a parliamentary commission this week when he revealed that migrant arrivals had soared by 88 percent this year.
Zoido said that this year had seen a rise in co-ordinated attempts to break through the six-metre-high double fences topped with razor-wire that line Europe’s only land borders with Africa. So far this year, some 9,000 migrants – mostly from sub-saharan Africa - had attempted to force their way into the Spanish territory compared to 613 in the same period in 2016, he said.
Hostility towards Muslims on the rise in Switzerland
12 September
[TheLocal.ch] Hostility and discrimination towards Muslim people in Switzerland is on the rise, the Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) said on Monday during a conference at the University of Fribourg.
Austria halts anti-terror wall plans after outcry
8 September
[TheLocal.at] Austria's chancellery on Thursday halted the construction of anti-terror walls outside its office in Vienna after critics slammed the government for failing to provide similar protective measures in main tourist areas.
Works began last month to build five large concrete blocks outside the historic Hofburg palace which houses the offices of the chancellor and the president.
The barriers -- each eight metres long, 80 centimetres high and one metre wide -- were intended to withstand potential ramming attacks by vehicles, used as weapons in terror attacks across Europe over the past year. But the €1.5 millio ($1.8 million) project sparked outrage among political opponents of Chancellor Christian Kern, ahead of a national election on October 15th. Critics including the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) accused Kern, a Social Democrat, of double standards.
Vienna had refused to put up anti-terror structures in key tourist areas after jihadists killed 16 people using vehicles and knives in Spain last month. Officials had dismissed the barriers as "placebo measures".
#1
Babes bawling for buffers? Ignoble.
Ya gotta be socially mobile!
It's boring (for Soros)
When borders aren't porous.
An orb and a robe... and we're global.
Also, thanks for your kind words the other day. I tried replying at the time, but the filter was remorseless. "Tippet" was a stretch, for sure. Wouldn't have known it myself(except by sight) if I hadn't recently shored up my ignorance of modern academic fashion and drifted over into the strictly clerical. I suppose I was aiming at "wispy androgynous vicar," FWIW.
#2
I got the sense of it, Zenobia F, though the tippet I was thinking of was an 18th century female fashion accessory. Such is my ignorance of things ecclesiastical that I had no idea that the Christian version of the Jewish talit is called a tippet as well as a stole, though it makes perfect sense.
[Daily Caller] GOP Rep. Jeb Hensarling wants U.S. residents living in flood plains to move elsewhere to protect themselves and save taxpayer dollars being spent rebuilding flooded houses, Hensarling told CNBC Thursday.
Two hurricanes hit the southern coast of the United States last month, causing widespread flooding in parts of Texas and Florida. The disasters are draining funds from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is already $23 billion in debt.
"We have these repetitive loss properties," Hensarling told CNBC’s Squawk Box. "If all we do is force federal taxpayers to build the same home in the same fashion in the same location and expect a different result, we all know that is the classic definition of insanity."
Hensarling described one Louisiana home that has been flooded more than 40 times, costing taxpayers nearly half a million dollars in repairs.
"At some point, God is telling you to move," Hensarling said.
#2
If you live on the railroad tracks, you better be prepared for the train, and have a house that can stand up to it. Frankly, you have better lives elsewhere than having this happen to you every 20 years.
All of the Gulf of Mexico was carved using Billions of years of storms just like this.
And most of you are squatters on volcanoes anyway. This does not end well.
Adam Smith made the same point about how much to spend on that house. If you can't afford to buy one, move elsewhere where you can. Drop the mortgage interest write off for income tax and watch some markets tumble.
#5
The Old Shawneetown Bank. No one banks here anymore. The town moved away from the Ohio River, to a slighter higher elevation. Divine inspiration or smart banking practices? Who knows?
#6
Some have bought homes in prestigious water feature neighborhoods by lifestyle choice. Others are forced to rent below sea level (BSL) by life situation.
In either case this guy is a dick(as so many of them are) for making light of the horrible choices forced on catastrophe victims.
[Breitbart] Sen. Luther Strange’s (R-AL) swamp pal, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), is set to receive more money each year from Alabama taxpayers from the sweetheart deal in an Alabama retail development arranged by a law firm that is a big donor to Strange’s Senate campaign than he receives from his salary as a United States senator.
Under the terms of that sweetheart deal signed off on by the Mobile City Council and the Mobile County Commission, Corker, as a 13 percent owner of McGowin Park Incentive, LLC, a Delaware Corporation, receives a prorated split of that entity’s hefty sales tax rebate from retail purchases made at stores in McGowin Park retail center in Mobile Alabama. The center is a huge development opened in 2015 of more than 24 stores, including "Dick’s Sporting Goods, Field & Stream, HomeGoods, Ross Dress for Less, Hobby Lobby, Best Buy, Old Navy, Petco, Ashley Furniture HomeStore and Dollar Tree," as one publication noted, strategically located right off heavily traveled I-65.
That rebate is substantial; 28 percent of all city sales tax collected and 30 percent of all county sales tax collected from stores in the center is paid out to McGowin Park Incentive, LLC, in two securities known as City of Mobile Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013 and Mobile County Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013.
Corker received $40,459 in 2015 and $108,682 in income from City of Mobile Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013, and Mobile County Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013, according to financial reports he filed with the United States Senate. He is scheduled to receive $155,500 in income from those warrants in 2017; $168,808 in 2018; $192,000 in 2019; and $192,000 a year for the next 15-and-a-half years.
#1
How else can they become multi-millionaires whilst making less than $200k per year in salary as a U.S. Congressman? And people wonder why Lois Learner is not in jail and IRS Director John Koskinen still has a job.
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Friday evening, the predominately Kurdish ’Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) pushed west of their vulnerable Deir Ezzor salient and seized a couple highly important sites from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... According to multiple fairly credible reports, the SDF managed to impose full control over the al-Bazikh mountain chain and the neighbouring Derro oil field, located some 30 kilometers directly north of Deir Ezzor.
In the next phase of the ongoing ’Al-Jazirah Storm’ offensive, US-backed Kurdish troops hope to reach and overrun a dozen ISIS-held towns and villages on the eastern side of the Euphrates River in Deir Ezzor’s northern countryside.
Across the river, mechanized elements of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) are securing rapid gains of their own and imposed full control villages over Kusubi, al-Bassah and Hammat Shamiyah earlier in the day, thereby bringing them within a few kilometers of the previously impregnable Islamic State stronghold Ma’adan.
In the coming days, the SAA hopes to liberate the last stretch of ISIS territory in neighbouring Raqqa province while Kurdish forces will try to expel ISIS entirely from northern Deir Ezzor.
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[Libya Herald] An entire family was reported to have been killed today when a shell fell on their car in Sabratha’s Dahman district, as fighting between the 48th Brigade and the Anti-ISIS Operations Room continued for a sixth day.
"The family were a long way from the fighting and were thought to be in a safe area," a local official told the Libya Herald, "but one of the groups fired a missile which hit them."
It was not known who was responsible, he said.
Also reportedly killed today was one of the commanders of the 48th Battalion, Bashir al-Gadi. The operations room further claimed to have destroyed a tank and an armoured vehicle belonging to the 48th.
Following the failure yesterday of the truce drawn up by elders from Zintan, Zawia and Sabratha itself, they were joined by others from Zuwara, Rigdaleen, al-Jmail, al-Mutrad, Khoms, Zliten and Misrata. According to the Sabratha municipal council, they called for an immediate ceasefire. There were reports late this evening that a truce had been accepted but stherehas been no confirmation so far. More than 20 people are said to have been maimed since the festivities started as well as five of the fighters killed.
Furthermore, until today, the festivities were limited to the town centre. However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... the 48th Battalion has told residents in the Dahman area, east of the centre, to evacuate their homes. There were also reports of civilians leaving the Alwadi area after shells landed there.
Meeanwhile, there are reports of divisions within the operations room. One of its commanders, a Colonal Mohammed Muhara, is said to have submitted his resignation today saying that he did not want to be involved in the town’s destruction.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] In a brand new propaganda video, the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... celebrates recent natural disasters in the United States as a work of God and divine punishment for actions committed by the US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq.
The controversial footage shows an English-speaking ISIS bully boy cursing President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... and his allies in the Middle East, then proceeded to show drone footage of damage done by a hurricane in Florida and Texas.
In a disturbed twist, ISIS’ official media wing even celebrated the US corpse count and material damage caused by the hurricane as an usual type of terrorism:
A rare addition to the video depicted ISIS praising 9/11 and surprisingly showed footage of US casualties following Nazi attacks during World War II.
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#1
I thought it was because of Global Warming. Oh, wrong ISIS.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) launched an investigation against a mufti over his sexist comments insinuating women who do not wear the headscarf were like "products sold at half price" on Sept. 22.
The investigation came after Mehmet Yazici, the mufti of the Marmara province of Kocaeli’s Gölcuk district, likened women without headscarves to products sold at half price in a post on his Facebook account.
"Display products whose packages are opened are sold at half prices in stores," he wrote.
Yazici, who has been the district’s mufti since 2013, deleted his post immediately after drawing anger from social media users.
His remarks ignited wider tension over social media, with many users accusing the mufti of degrading women who do not wear the headscarf.
Daily Hurriyet columnist Ertugrul Özkök described the man as "insensitive."
"Men or women are not products which can be displayed and sold," he wrote in a column.
The remarks also come after similar derogatory comments toward women who do not wear the headscarf at a symposium in Istanbul on Sept. 4.
Emine Merve Akyuz, a speaker at a symposium held by Akademya Magazine and the Üskudar Municipality, compared women without headscarves to peeled tomatoes.
"Moslem women have to be covered. Nobody wants to buy a peeled tomato. In this sense, veiling also protects women’s essence and shape," she said, also drawing harsh reactions over social media.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The leader of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... declared amnesty for those who have fought against the party in the past.
In his meeting with the tribal elders of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... and Badghis provinces in Herat province, Hekmatyar said "We pardon all those who have fought against Hezb-e-Islami and extend the hand of brotherhood and invite for the tolerance for each other as we do not the previous bitter experiences to be repeated."
Hekmatayr further added that to reach to a compromise and gather under a national axis is the only way to get rid of the ongoing situation.
According to Hekmatyar, all the parties and groups have been invited to gather under a single roof and put an end to the ongoing differences and the ongoing miserable situation.
In the meantime, Hekmatyar claimed that except Hezb-e-Islami all the other parties are operating with the motives to serve a specific ethnic group or a specific region.
He said the number of political parties have increased considerably and there is a need that smaller parties should come under the influential parties.
The leader of Hezb-e-Islami also assured that the current situation would change soon, the violence will end, and peace and stability will return to the country.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian government sent an envoy to meet with a joint Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) and Jordanian regime delegation, Friday, to discuss the potential reopening of the Nassib Crossing in southern Dara’a, a military source told al-Masdar News this afternoon.
According to the source, all parties discussed a possible deal that would see the Nassib Crossing handed over to the government in exchange for the release of more than 100 prisoners related to FSA commanders in Dara’a.
The source added that the Syrian government delegation was comprised of several officials and the mayor of Dara’a city.
The Nassib border-crossing was captured by the Free Syrian Army and Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... (Syrian al-Qaeda group) in early 2015; it has since been used to smuggle weapons and supplies to forces of Evil fighting the government in Dara’a.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United Arab Emirates said on Friday it considers that Iran violates both the "letter and spirit" of the 2015 nuclear deal agreed between the Islamic Theocratic Republic and world powers.
"Two years have passed since Iran’s nuclear agreement with no sign of change in its hostile behavior; it continues to develop its nuclear program and violates the letter and spirit of that agreement," UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan told the UN General Assembly.
"Therefore we support enhanced controls on Iran’s nuclear program and continued assessment of the agreement and its provisions," he said.
UAE Foreign minister affirmed his country’s commitment and sovereign right to the three islands occupied by Iran.
Regarding 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... crisis, Sheikh Abdullah said that the anti-terror states have taken the necessary measures to stop Qatar 's support for terrorism.
UAE foreign minister also praised Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ’s leadership in providing humanitarian support to the Yemeni people.
He condemned the violence and the mass displacement of Rohingya Moslems affirming the UAE’s humanitarian approach in supporting refugees.
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[Dhaka Tribune] To his foes, Ata Ullah is a reckless amateur who has brought untold misery to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya after launching an insurgency in Myanmar.
But to supporters of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, their leader is an intrepid fighter who left a life of luxury in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... to defend the stateless group against overwhelming odds.
Continued on Page 49
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US President Donald H. Trump's speech to the UN General Assembly has re-highlighted Iran's role in sponsoring radical terrorist groups in the Middle East, especially al Qaeda.
Al Arabiya reviewed the latest issue of the "Voice of Jihad" magazine, issued in 1428/2007, revealing more about the alliance of Tehran with the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... , and the provision of logistical support to the fighters of the organization in training, shelter and care.
Continued on Page 49
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[DAWN] DERA MURAD JAMALI: A man bumped off his wife and her alleged friend in the name of honour in the Rabi Canal area of Dera Murad Jamali, police said on Thursday.
Ali Muhammad Lehri allegedly opened fire, killing his wife Noorzadi and Abdul Karim Lehri in Goth Sheran. He fled afterwards. The bodies were handed over to relatives after medico-legal formalities at the District Hospital Dera Murad Jamali.
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[Hurriyet Daily News] Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sept. 22 that Ankara "will not refrain from using its natural rights" regarding the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) independence referendum slated for Sept. 25.
"This referendum is an issue of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s national security. Turkey is determined to use its natural rights originating from international and bilateral conventions and will not hesitate in this," Yildirim told news hounds in Ankara.
He once again reiterated Ankara’s call to KRG President Barzani to cancel the referendum, stating that it will not bring any benefit to the Kurdish people in the region.
Yildirim also described the inclusion of Kirkuk in the vote as a "calamity."
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[IsraelTimes] No casualties as three separate Arclight airstrikes target area known to be a Hezbollah stronghold; Israel, Syria mum on alleged attack.
Israeli warplanes early on Friday morning struck a Hezbollah weapons depot outside Damascus, Arabic-language media outlets reported.
According to reports and a monitoring group, the three separate strikes were carried out near the Damascus International Airport, an area known to be a stronghold of the Iranian-backed terrorist group.
"Israeli warplanes targeted with rocket fire a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah near the airport," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
There were no reports of casualties or damage.
Images of the alleged Israeli strike uploaded to social media showed smoke and a large ball of fire from the area near the airport.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, Syria or Hezbollah on any of the reports.
Video uploaded to social media was said to show the Syrian military firing an anti-aircraft missile in response to the strike.
Israel has for years has been widely believed to have carried out Arclight airstrikes on advanced weapons systems in Syria ‐ including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles ‐ as well as Hezbollah positions, but it rarely confirms such operations on an individual basis.
Earlier this month, Israel allegedly struck a facility in northwestern Syria, where the regime was said to have stockpiled chemical weapons and missiles, killing two people.
Ever notice how the Hizbullies keep getting pounded and not a peep out of the legendary Russian air defense. A person of suspicious bent might think there was some sort of collusion between the Russians and the IDF.
#6
Or perhaps the Israelis have the number on the soviet systems. Or perhaps the Russians are afraid to turn their radar on and become a primary target.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The winner of Miss The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 2017 was decrowned on Sept. 22 just hours after winning the beauty pageant, after a tweet she posted about the July 15, 2016 coup attempt came to light.
"We regret to inform that such a tweet has been posted by Itir Esen. It is not possible for the Miss Turkey Organization to promote such a post, when it aims to introduce Turkey to the world and contribute to its image," the statement said.
Esen has not yet responded but has reportedly removed all photos taken during the pageant from her social media accounts.
Following the decrowning, Asli Sumen, who was the runner-up of this year's Miss Turkey pageant, automatically gained the right to participate in the Miss World pageant, which will be held in China this year.
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#1
Apparently Erdoğan isn't very popular with the babes.
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Friday morning, ISIS deployed a handful of armored technicals in an attack on a government-held road in the western part of Saladin province.
Pictures of the hit-and-run operation were released by Amaq Agency today and showed jihadist belligerents engaging a Humvee and pickup truck along the targeted road, located between Baghdad and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... While the assault did not yield any territorial gains, Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... gunnies did manage to torch an Iraqi Army encampment at the town of al-Dabs.
Despite Islamic State aggression, the supply routes between Iraq’s two largest cities are still open and relatively safe for travelers.
Since losing control of Mosul and Tal Afar earlier this, ISIS has been unable to mount a single actual offensive in the country due to the Iraqi Army’s overwhelming manpower.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... hit-and-run operations remain a daily occurence across desert territory in the embattled provinces of Saladin, Nineveh, Anbar and Kirkuk.
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[NYTimes] Violence broke out at a New York hotel Thursday afternoon when protesters disrupted a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.In the middle of Mr. Erdogan’s speech, delivered in Turkish, a man — one of a handful of protesters — screamed in English: “You’re a terrorist. Get out of my country!” The ballroom at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square instantly erupted, with many attendees chanting Mr. Erdogan’s name to drown out the protesters.
Videos showed the protesters — one of them wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of Michael Israel, an American who was killed in a Turkish airstrike while volunteering with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or Y.P.G. — being punched and slapped by several attendees as security personnel removed them from the room. Security also removed at least one person who had assaulted the protesters.
A police official, who spoke about the investigation on the condition of anonymity, said it appeared the fight had been instigated by competing protesters, not by Mr. Erdogan’s security forces, who have a history of violent run-ins in the United States.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The construction of a concrete barrier along hundreds of kilometers of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s border with Syria is expected to be completed by the end of September, a Ottoman Turkish official told state-run Anadolu Agency on Sept. 22.
A total of 731 kilometers (454 miles) of the border wall has already been finished, the official told the agency.
The remaining 97 km (60 miles) of the wall will be completed by the end of this month, the official added.
As part of Turkey’s measures to increase border security and to combat smuggling and illegal border crossings, Ankara launched the construction project in 2015 to build 828 km (514 miles) of the wall.
Turkey shares a 911 km (566-mile) border with Syria, which has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011.
The border wall project incorporates physical, electronic and advanced technology layers.
The physical layer includes modular concrete walls, patrol routes, manned and unmanned towers and passenger tracks.
Modular walls are being erected along the Ottoman Turkish-Syrian borderline with seven-ton mobile blocks, two meters wide and three meters high. The blocks have also been topped with one-meter-high razor wire.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government’s mission in the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... strongly reacted at the allegations of the Pak Prime Minister regarding the terror sanctuaries in Afghanistan by raising questions regarding the safe havens and places where the al-Qaeda and Taliban ...Arabic for students... founds were killed or died as well as the killing of the former Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
Continued on Page 49
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An official source at the Coalition Command said that rockets fired from Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... on Thursday landed on an elementary school in a mountain village at al-Arda Governorate in the Jazan province.
In the statement the coalition said that the rockets also landed on a housing area which resulted in structural damage but no deaths or injuries have been reported.
The coalition confirmed that the rockets were launched by Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias from the Yemeni territories, stressing that these attacks represent a flagrant violation of the International Humanitarian Law.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Amaq Agency released a string of photos on Thursday depicting its side of events during the battle for Sakr Island, an imperative stretch of land that is anchored around the Euphrates River southeast of Deir Ezzor city.
The images showed tanks, snipers, machine-gun emplacements and regular jihadist foot soldiers defending trenches on the island, over half of which has been liberated by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) over the past week.
Sakr Island is important for two major strategic reasons; first off, it overlooks most residential areas of Deir Ezzor and represents a gateway into the city. If SAA troops were to capture the island, they would have fire control over all ISIS-held suburbs.
Secondly, ISIS forces of Evil in Deir Ezzor city have nearly become cutoff from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... mainland but are still able to haul in supplies across the Euphrates River through Sakr Island. Should the SAA capture the island, ISIS would be unable to bring in reinforcements and supplies, rendering jihadist snuffies doomed in the lovely provincial capital.
This battle, led by Major General Issam Zahreddine himself, is an instrumental part of the third stage of the ongoing ’Big Dawn’ offensive in which government forces ultimately hope to retake the remaining territories that are under Islamic State control across Syria.
New footage depicting the SAA’s side of events on Sakr Island can be found here while an interactive battle map of the region can be found here.
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#1
"Well, Dimitri, just throw everything you've got in there and you can't miss!" - President Merlin Muffley, Dr. Strangelove
We know how that worked out...
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09/23/2017 21:01
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#2
What happened to the caravan transporting chem to iran?
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army is steadily advancing along the Deir Ezzor-Raqqa border, liberating several sites from the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) terror organization.
Led by the Tiger Forces, the Syrian Arab Army began the day by liberating three towns in northwest Deir Ezzor, paving the way for their forces to push north along the Ma’adan Road.
Following the liberation of the three towns, the Syrian Arab Army continued their march towards Ma’adan, seizing control of Ma’adan Atiq, which is a small town at the Deir Ezzor-Raqqa border.
As a result of today’s advance, the Syrian Arab Army is only 6km away from Ma’adan, leaving the remaining ISISfaceless myrmidons with their backs against the wall in this part of the Euphrates River Valley.
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#1
It's not a battle for the stronghold, it's a fight for the WMDs.
[Al Jazeera] Syrians have voted in an election organised by the Kurdish-led authorities of northern Syria, the start of a three-phase process to set up new governing institutions that aim to shore up regional autonomy.
"Today comes as a historical day for us. The people are choosing their way of life, politics, economy," Renas Ahmed, 25, said on Friday. He was among dozens of people casting their vote for the local community representatives being elected.
Voters were picking leaders for some 3,700 "communes" spread across three regions of the north where Kurdish groups have established autonomous rule since 2011, when Syria's civil war erupted.
Friday's poll will be followed in November by votes for local councils polls and culminate in January with the election of an assembly that will act as a parliament for a federal system of government in northern Syria.
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[DAWN] Iran's President Hassan Rouhani vowed on Friday that Iran would boost its missile capabilities despite warnings from Washington that it is ready to ditch a landmark nuclear deal over the issue.
His comments came as Iran displayed a new missile at a military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of its devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
"Whether you like it or not, we are going to strengthen our military capabilities which are necessary for deterrence," Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"We will strengthen not only our missiles but also our air, land and sea forces... When it comes to defending our country, we will ask nobody for their permission."
Iran has said repeatedly that it has no choice but to boost its defences as its regional rivals Israel and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... sign huge arms contracts with Washington and other Western governments.
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[DAWN] Five people, including a prayer leader, were placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! on Friday evening for their suspected involvement in marrying off a five-year-old girl to a 15-year-old boy in Dadu's Taluka Johi area allegedly to settle a gambling debt, police said.
Shahid Ali, the father of the minor girl and a resident of Khandhani village, was amongst those taken into custody after he was suspected of having contracted the marriage between the underage girl and boy in order to settle a Rs40,000 gambling debt, police said
Police said that Shahid had lost the money in a gamble to the 15-year-old child groom, a relative of his. Unable to settle the debt in financial terms, he decided to marry his daughter off to the boy.
After receiving information about the marriage, Senior Superintendent Police Dadu Shabbir Ahmed Sethar ordered a police team to conduct a raid in Shahid's village to arrest those involved.
Following the raid at the child groom's house, Shahid and Maulvi Karim Bux ─ the prayer leader who contracted the marriage ─ were arrested, police said.
Although the boy managed to escape a police raid at his house, he was arrested in a separate raid carried out in a neighbouring village, police said. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... he was later released by police as he was underage. The minor girl was also briefly detained and released for the same reason.
Two other people were also arrested and a case was registered against the accused under sections 3 and 4 of the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2016, Station House Officer TR Khan said.
Further investigations into the matter are underway, police said.
Inayat Ali Jamali, a social activist and head of a children's rights committee, urged the police not to release the groom and demanded that all gambling dens be closed down in the area.
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#1
Had to look this up: 40,000 Pakistani Rupee equals
379.5608 US Dollars, 40,000 Indian Rupee equals 616.57 US Dollars.
[DAWN] With Finance Minister Ishaq Dar facing legal challenges along with the Sharifs, it is becoming increasingly clear that he will have to tackle some difficult questions in the days to come.
Even though he has not spoken publicly in recent days, it is fair to surmise that the action taken by the National Accountability Bureau is seen by him as a politically motivated witch-hunt. That is, after all, how Maryam Nawaz has described the ongoing proceedings, and there is little reason to believe that Mr Dar disagrees with this view.
Whatever may be one’s take on the political developments, one thing has now become certain: Mr Dar needs to step down as finance minister. This is not only because he is now hobbled by legal entanglements. Even more importantly, it is high time Pakistain had a finance minister who is willing and able to acknowledge that the economy is in a downward spiral and that if urgent corrective action is not undertaken, the country will find itself in a crisis very soon.
Mr Dar has prided himself on his track record of restoring growth and the level of the foreign exchange reserves. To some extent, he is correct. But the positive aspects are limited, and Pakistain now needs a finance minister who is more forward-looking, rather than constantly harking back to a rapidly receding moment of respite.
Whatever turnaround in the fortunes of the economy that we have seen in the past four years is now falling apart, rapidly, as the current account deficit continues to climb, reserves decline, and the growth momentum is increasingly revealed to be highly patchy and thinly layered.
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[AnNahar] Spanish police have nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! a Moroccan man suspected of cooperating with a cell behind attacks that killed 16 people in Barcelona and another seaside resort last month, the interior ministry said Friday.
The 24-year-old man, who was detained in the eastern town of Castellon, was close to several members of the group, especially Abdelbaki Es Satty, a Morocca holy man believed to have radicalised the youths that carried out the attacks, it said in a statement.
He is believed to have helped the cell obtain the ingredients they used to make over 100 kilos (220 pounds) of the explosive TATP and provided them with vehicles to transport it.
"Various members of the cell counted on the help of the suspect, who at the very least, provided his personal identification documents which they used to buy hydrogen peroxide, a key ingredient to make TATP," it said.
"In addition, he provided the Lions of Islam with methods of transportation used to move part of the explosives."
TATP has become the explosive of choice for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group as it can easily be made from ingredients such as acetone and oxygenated water that are readily available in high street stores.
Investigators found 15 kilos of the explosive -- dubbed the "mother of Satan" -- in a flat near Brussels after suicide kabooms in the Belgian capital in March 2016.
It was also used in the November 2015 attacks on Gay Paree, and in a bombing that targeted concertgoers in Manchester in May.
In last month's attack, jihadists killed 16 people using vehicles and knives in a two-pronged attack in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils, with the bloodshed claimed by IS.
The main suspects were of Moroccan origin, although most had lived in Spain for several years.
Police rubbed out six of the suspected members of the cell that carried out the attacks and arrested another four.
Two other suspects -- including Es Satty -- died in an kaboom at a house used by the plotters at Alcanar, southwest of Barcelona, on August 16 on the eve of the Barcelona attack.
Police believe the kaboom at the house prompted the surviving members of the cell to bring forward their attack plans, resulting in the vehicle rampages in Barcelona and Cambrils.
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09/23/2017
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[LA Times] A man was fatally wounded in an officer-involved shooting that was captured on video outside a 7-Eleven in Huntington Beach on Friday morning.
An officer contacted the man at 9:30 a.m. outside the store at 6012 Edinger Ave. and an altercation occurred that led to the shooting, said police spokeswoman Angela Bennett.
#1
Not going to go well for the officer. The device pulled from the officers belt and was clearly visible to the officer after it was taken was a slapper.
#2
What is a slapper, Hupeting Sforza8196? I'm afraid I don't understand what I ought to be seeing in the video -- I don't see the man pulling anything off the officer's belt, nor even anything that looks like an altercation. Mine has been a very sheltered life.
#6
Thank you, gentlemen. I was aware of the idea of saps and blackjacks -- one can't read historical fiction, especially murder mysteries, without the terms coming up -- but now I understand.
#7
TW. Re: #2. There is a longer version of this video. The subject is on the ground on his back facing up with the officer kneeling over him trying to gain control. But the subject has his knees in the officer's chest trying to push him away. The subject reaches up to officers belt and easily takes possession of the sap. The officer, fearing the subject will strike him with it pulls his pistol, gets up off of the subject and backs away about 10 feet. The subject gets off the ground and stands which is the moment this shorter video begins.
#8
There have been a number of incidents in the last couple of years that have made me doubt the officer or their actions. This seems like it will be another one.
#10
I am mildly surprised that the cop had a slapper and didn't use it when he had the chance. I assume it is, as typical these days, cops afraid to leave a mark on a suspect, so they end up shooting some guy who really just needed an a**-kicking. But I wasn't there, and the cop went home that day.
Israeli firearms trainer Cherev Gidon has been pushing training on the Ruger Mini 14 lately, as well as the Galil and M4 rifles. Their facilities are located in Pennsylvania, only two hours from New York City. Yes, their marketing is aimed (pun intended) at New York Jews who wish to familiarize themselves with the ownership, use and care of firearms, but Cherev Gidon sells training packages to anyone who applies.
I mention Cherev Gidon every chance I get. I do not receive compensation.
Gidon sells training packages to New Yorkers suffering under the state firearms laws, some of the most stringent in the nation. Among the many restrictions are regulations which ban most types of ARs.
Unlike the AR semiautomatic, the Ruger Mini 14 has none of the characteristics of the AR, and as long as the gun owner doesn't possess a "large capacity magazine", the rifle is legal to own and use in New York state.
I have never fired the Ruger Mini 14, but from what I have heard, it is a fine rifle in its own right. The fella I spoke with about the gun (a welder/coworker) said his father uses it for hunting.
You can see a photo of the Mini 14 in the Gun of the Week link below.
Pistol ammunition prices were mostly steady. Rifle ammunition prices were mostly steady.
Prices for used pistols were higher. Prices for used rifles were mostly higher.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Foundry 35, Silver Bear, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: East Carolina Trading, Own Brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .20 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammomen, Magtech, FNFMJ, Brass Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: AGB Ammo, Own Brand, RNFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .18 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Extreme Reloading, Own Brand, RN, Brass Casing .14 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Fedarm, Own brand, RN, Brass Casing, Reloads .14 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (10 Weeks))
.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Armscor, FMJ, Brass Casing .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Armscor, FMJ, Brass Casing .24 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo Men, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo King, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: True Caliber, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))
.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (1Q, 2017))
.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .80 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Winchester, Brass Casing, SP, .82 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Bud's Gun Shop, Federal, Brass Casing, JSP, 2.35 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds : Wholesale Hunter, Federal, Brass Casing, JSP, 2.36 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017))
#3
Pre-SN 180nnn
Only necessary if you want some improved accuracy when spraying.
Pace yourself between rounds and your knock around carbine will work just fine.
[Hurriyet Daily News] With days left to controversial independence referendum of Iraqi Kurds, the Ottoman Turkish government will seek a mandate from the Parliament to send troops to Iraq and Syria after consecutive security meetings where measures to be taken against the Arbil administration have been decided.
The Ottoman Turkish Parliament is set to hold an extraordinary session on Sept 23 to vote on a mandate that permits the government to deploy troops to its southern neighboring countries, Iraq and Syria, just two days before the scheduled referendum to be held by the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
According to the text of the motion already submitted to the Parliament, the government seeks the mandate on the grounds that efforts to break the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria will endanger The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s national security, in direct reference to KRG’s referendum. It does also recall ongoing fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian offshoot, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Before the parliamentary vote, Turkey convened the National Security Council (MGK) before the Cabinet meeting on Sept 22 immediately after the return of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... from the United States. Along with Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and senior military and civilian officials joined the MGK meeting. Later in the day, President Erdogan chaired the cabinet meeting to register advisory decisions taken at the MGK meet.
As efforts to convince KRG President Massaoud Barzani to call off the referendum failed, Turkey harshened its opposition in recent days and launched a military drill along the Iraqi border. Turkey, Iran and Iraq did also issue a joint declaration and announced their agreement to take counter-measures in coordination against the Arbil’s independence bid.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2017
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#3
Accordingto the National Inventory of Dams database, Guajataca Dam was designed and is owned by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. Lago Guajataca was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers by building a dam across the river Río Guajataca.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Russian military delivered a large shipment of T-62 tanks and BRM-1k vehicles to the Tartous Port in August, a source reported on Friday.
Both the T-62 tank and BRM-1k vehicle are designed to work in areas where there is a high concentration of water; thus, allowing for the operators to complete amphibious landings if needed.
This delivery by the Russians in August coincided with the Syrian Arab Army’s ongoing operations in eastern Syria; especially, in the Euphrates River Valley, where their forces would need to cross the waterway.
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09/23/2017
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[Libya Herald] The Derna Mujahideen Shoura Council has said that five bodies it found in June 2015 after it managed to expel forces of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) were those of Austrian oil services company VAOS employee who were among nine staff kidnapped at the Ghani oilfield by IS in March 2015.
The nine were Ghani camp manager Dalibor Savicic from Serbia but with Austrian nationality, four Filipinos, two Bangladeshis, a Czech and a Ghanaian. The two Bangladeshis were subsequently released by IS and then rescued by Misrata’s 16 Battalion along with the Ghanaian.
According to the mujahideen, the five bodies found in the west of the town were subsequently identified as members of the kidnapped group following the discovery of a laptop computer belonging to the Czech catering manager Pavel Hruza. It apparently contained images of the four Filipinos being executed.
The mujahideen say that the bodies were handed to the Red Islamic Thingy, but it is not known where they are now or if they have been identified. Nor is there any news of the whereabouts of the sixth missing man.
It is also not clear why it has taken so long for the news about the five to surface.
The Austrian government said two days ago that it that it was trying to verify the mujahideen report, but has also said it "fears the worst". Austrian officials, however, have since refused to make any comment about the story.
It has been reported that the bodies were found in marked graves, and that attempts are being made to return them to their families.
At the time it was reported that IS had demanded a ransom of half a million dollars for Savicic. According to the mujahideen a ransom was also demanded for Hruza, but that the Czech authorities refused to negotiate.
During the attack, 11 Libyan guards were also killed.
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09/23/2017
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[RT] A Saudi holy man has been slated for saying that women don’t deserve to drive because they only have a quarter of a brain. Sheikh Saad al-Hijri was also banned from performing his religious duties because of his outrageous comments.
Al-Hijri made his brain-numbing remarks at a lecture aptly titled, "The evils of women driving." Women are banned from driving altogether in the notoriously conservative country, with many incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! for attempting to.
According to the holy man, women only have half a brain to begin with, but, when they attempt to factor shopping into their feeble minds, that halves again and they "end up with only a quarter," as cited by the Jerusalem Post.
A video of al-Hijri’s sexist musings was circulated online, provoking a backlash from many in the kingdom who used the hashtag "Al-Hijri says women have a quarter of a brain" to voice their anger.
"She became pregnant with him, gave birth to him, raised him, spent sleepless nights for him until he grew up and now he calls her a woman with a quarter of a brain. He and his like must be banned from appearing anywhere," wrote one irate user.
"I swear to God those who have a quarter of a brain are you and your likes who handed you platforms to deliver hardline views. It is the woman who raises man and she is the core of success," said another.
Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , an absolutist monarchy which controversially has seats on the UN Human Rights Council and the Women’s Rights Commission, has long been criticized for the treatment of the kingdom's female population.
Not to worry though, in an apparent move to rectify this the government established a ’girl’s council’ consisting solely of men who know better.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2017
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#1
A quarter of a brain? An improvement from the traditional belief, I suppose.
#4
Jordan Peterson had an interesting take on why feminists have found common cause with jackoffs like this. Having driven masculinity out of western culture, they find themselves craving the hyper-masculinity of Islam.
[Al Jazeera] The president of Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan has vowed to go ahead with an independence referendum set for next week despite intense opposition by the Iraqi government and international powers.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) plans to hold the referendum on support for independence on September 25 in three governorates that make up the region, and in some disputed areas, including the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and parts of the northern province of Nineveh.
"Referendum is no longer in our hands or political parties, it is in the hands of people," KRG head Masoud Barzani said on Friday to thousands of cheering supporters who packed the Franso Hariri Stadium in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan.
"The same people who are threatening us have not come to ask why we are holding a referendum," Barzani said, according to a report from Kurdish news portal Rudaw.
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09/23/2017
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate said on Wednesday that Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias in Sanaa kidnapped two prominent journalists who support their ally, ousted President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , as the dispute between them continues to escalate.
"Houthi gunnies kidnapped two journalists on Tuesday noon while they walked out of a restaurant in Sanaa," the syndicate said in a statement which Al Arabiya received a copy of.
The journalists were identified as Kamel Al Khodani, the editorial secretary at almethaq.net which is a news website for the General People's Congress that’s headed by Saleh, and Sami Al Sharjabi, a journalist at almotamar.net, the General People's Congress official website.
Khodani and Sharjabi are members of the General People's Congress and staunch defenders of Saleh and critics of the Houthi militias.
The syndicate condemned their abduction, called for releasing them and held the Houthis completely responsible for their lives.
It also noted that Houthis have been harassing journalists since their leaders made threats against them few days ago and called on the Union of Arab Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists and other relevant organizations to voice solidarity with the Yemeni journalists who are subjected to a systematic war.
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[Hurriyet Daily News] A prominent Syrian opposition activist named Orouba Barakat, 60, and her journalist daughter Halla Barakat were found murdered in their home in Istanbul’s Üskudar district on the night of Sept. 21.
The incident was allegedly discovered when Halla Barakat’s friends came to their home after not being able to reach the 22-year-old. After no one answered the door, they notified the police about the situation, who had the door opened with the help of a locksmith. The police homicide teams then found the dead bodies of the Syrian activist along with her daughter.
After an analysis, the police determined the two women were stabbed to death about two or three days ago, and their throats showed traces of being strangled.
The murder suspects were also determined to have poured detergent over the women’s bodies to prevent odor. The bodies were then taken to the institution of forensic medicine.
Barakat was a well-known figure, especially for her articles on Syrian opposition figures exposed to torture in the country’s prisons. She reportedly first fled to the U.K., then Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and finally to Istanbul after the Civil War broke out in Syria.
The activist was reportedly working as an editor for Orient News, a Syrian media group owned by Syrian businessman, journalist and opposition figure Ghassan Aboud, based in Dubai.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors... a neighborhood resident spoke with news hounds about the murder. "We saw the police at the door [of the Barakats’ home]. They had killed the mother and the daughter by cutting their throats. Since it was night, we do not have much information either. They are said to be Syrians," they said.
"They had poured lime over their bodies and their beds, as far as we have heard. It has been said their corpses were in the home for four days. They were nice people and did not harm anyone," another neighborhood resident was heard saying.
The police launched an investigation into the incident to catch the assailants.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] With the battle for Raqqa entering its 109th day, a small Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... garrison continues to resist the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) whose troops have cleared most of the city centre, and effectively seized over 90% of ISIS’ self-declared capital.
According to a military source close to al-Masdar News, festivities are especially fierce in the Hena, Nahda and Amin districts while YPG-led forces are trying to secure the al-Nayim and Dele crossroads along with the contested Hitin cemetery.
On Friday alone, a total of 17 ISIS holy warriors were neutralized while four machine-gun manned pickup trucks were destroyed. The corpse count included a jacket wallah who tried to reach SDF forwards units by cycle of violence.
On the other hand, the SDF sustained at least 5 casualties.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... Kurdish sappers disabled 70 booby traps and mines while US warplanes intensified their sorties over the ISIS-held northern suburbs.
With most of the elite ISIS fighting force killed in earlier stages of the battle, only a couple hundred jihadist fighters remain battle-ready, many of whom are crippled by skirmishes or Arclight airstrikes.
ISIS commanders are said to have set up a last stand around the al-Amin district which they hope to transform into an impregnable stronghold.
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09/23/2017
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The most unexpected people are enjoying the presence of President Trump in the White House...
[Dhaka Tribune] India denounced Pakistain as "the land of pure terror" and branded it "Terroristan" in an explosive speech at the UN General Assembly, which comes on the back of deadly festivities in the disputed territory of Kashmire.
Earlier, in his speech Pakistain Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi accused India of "war crimes" in the disputed Kashmire region and of "exporting terror" to Pakistain.
India addresses the UN on Saturday and has responded angrily to the speech by Abbasi to the UN general assembly.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have worsened in recent times, mainly over Kashmire.
’Extraordinary’
In his speech Abbasi addressed the issue of the Afghan war, saying Pakistain refused to be a "scapegoat" for the conflict. The US accuses the Pak intelligence services of ties to forces of Evil who operate in Afghanistan, allegations Pakistain rejects.
On Kashmire, the Pak leader accused India of employing "massive and indiscriminate force" against civilians protesting against Delhi’s rule.
"Shotgun pellets have blinded and maimed thousands of Kashmiris, including children. These and other brutalities clearly constitute war crimes and violate the Geneva conventions," he said.
He also asked the UN to appoint a special envoy to oversee the region.
Exercising the right of reply, Eenam Gambhir, India’s first secretary to the UN, said it was "extraordinary that the state which protected the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... and sheltered Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... should have the gumption to play the victim."
"Pakistain is now Terroristan with a flourishing industry producing and exporting global terrorism," the envoy said.
She also accused Pakistain of "avaricious efforts to covet the territories of its neighbours."
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09/23/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least three people were killed and more than 20 maimed when Sudanese troops clashed at a South Darfur refugee camp with displaced people protesting against a visit by President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. , the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... mission said on Friday.
The festivities erupted when troops dispersed protesters after Bashir was visiting the Shatia area, where the government has been accused of ethnic cleansing, in his first trip there since the conflict in Darfur war broke out in 2003.
Bashir travelled to Darfur to show progress before a US decision in October on lifting sanctions in return for Sudan meeting conditions, including resolving conflicts and improving humanitarian efforts on the ground.
At least three displaced people were killed and 26 more maimed when troops cleared protesters at the Kalma camp, the joint UN African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peacekeeping mission, known as UNAMID, said in a statement.
"I call upon everyone involved in this situation to restore calm as soon as possible. A peaceful resolution of differences is the only way forward for the Darfuri people," said UNAMID Joint Special Representative, Jeremiah Mamabolo.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
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.
[Free Beacon] Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday it is possible that President Donald Trump was captured in audio as part of the wiretap of his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
[49/29 News] VIAN, Okla. school bus driver accused of picking up a non-student told 40/29 News she was fired today.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
[DAWN] DERA MURAD JAMALI: A man 
[NYTimes] Violence broke out at a New York hotel Thursday afternoon when protesters disrupted a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.In the middle of Mr. Erdogan’s speech, delivered in Turkish, a man — one of a handful of protesters — screamed in English: “You’re a terrorist. Get out of my country!” The ballroom at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square instantly erupted, with many attendees chanting Mr. Erdogan’s name to drown out the protesters.
[DAWN] Five people, including a prayer leader, were 
[Al Jazeera] Authorities issue flash flood emergency as buses are sent to evacuate tens of thousands of residents from their houses
His dating live is limited now. 
[Al Jazeera] Born in 1928, months after the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood, Akef was one of the group's most prominent members.
[Hurriyet Daily News] A prominent Syrian opposition activist named Orouba Barakat, 60, and her journalist daughter Halla Barakat were found murdered in their home in Istanbul’s Üskudar district on the night of Sept. 21. 
[ALMASDARNEWS] With the battle for Raqqa entering its 109th day, a small 
