[Chicago Tribune] It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. A high-pitched whine, but from what? It seems to undulate, even writhe. Listen closely: There are multiple, distinct tones that sound to some like they're colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard effect.
The Associated Press has obtained a recording of what some U.S. Embassy workers heard in Havana in a series of unnerving incidents later deemed to be deliberate attacks. The recording, released Thursday by the AP, is the first disseminated publicly of the many taken in Cuba of mysterious sounds that led investigators initially to suspect a sonic weapon.
The recordings themselves are not believed to be dangerous to those who listen. Sound experts and physicians say they know of no sound that can cause physical damage when played for short durations at normal levels through standard equipment like a cellphone or computer.
[FOX] The FBI and Justice Department have turned down or ignored every request since March from the House Intelligence Committee seeking information about the controversial anti-Trump dossier, according to a review of congressional records by Fox News.
Records show the committee has made eight such requests, including subpoenas, in that time period.
Congressional investigators have met "a lot of resistance," committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News.
But the GOP lawmaker seemed to indicate public scrutiny and congressional pressure may spur movement on the issue. "These are crucial questions related to Congress’ oversight responsibilities. ... We hope we’ll soon be on the path to getting the information we need," he said.
Asked for comment, the Justice Department’s principal deputy director of public affairs, Ian D. Prior, said: "The materials requested involve extremely sensitive law enforcement information. We have been working with the committee and have had a productive dialogue with an aim towards ensuring it gets what it needs while addressing our concerns."
The FBI and Justice Department are led by Trump appointees Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, respectively. But officials at the departments have refused to provide information about the dossier's sources, who paid for it and whether the FBI used the unverified dossier to obtain surveillance warrants. The document, along with its salacious allegations, emerged earlier this year in the press and was roundly rejected by President Trump and his allies. Investigators on Capitol Hill have been trying to unlock the document’s origins ever since.
Corrupt Democrat Idiot wants more than her 15 minutes
The House overcame a conservative rebellion Thursday to pass a new round of disaster relief, saying the $36.5 billion is needed to replenish funds that are quickly depleting in the wake of hurricanes that have battered Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The overwhelming 353-69 vote came even as President Trump suggested federal emergency workers cannot remain in Puerto Rico "forever" ‐ and Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, accused Mr. Trump of "genocide" for what she said was an antipathy toward her island territory.
"I ask every American that has love, and not hate in their hearts, to stand with Puerto Rico and let this President know we WILL NOT BE LEFT TO DIE," the mayor said in a statement she sent to Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, and asked him to publicize on Capitol Hill. From one attention wh0re to another
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/13/2017
07:13 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will stop payments worth billions of dollars to health insurers to subsidize low-income Americans, the White House said on Thursday, a move health insurers have warned will cause chaos in insurance markets and a spike in premiums.
The move to undermine President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, officially called the Affordable Care Act, drew criticism from Democrats and the threat of a lawsuit from state attorneys general.
Trump has made the payments, guaranteed to insurers under Obamacare to help lower out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income consumers, each month since taking office in January. But he has repeatedly threatened to cut them off and disparaged them as a "bailout" for insurance companies.
#3
Not welfare so much as bribes pre-execution payments to get the insurers into Obama's program. They got the payments whether there were charges or not.
[Desert News] SALT LAKE CITY ‐ The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously Thursday to change the name of Negro Bill Canyon to Grandstaff Canyon in a nod to local support for eliminating the racially offensive moniker.
The canyon, a popular recreation area outside Moab, was named after William Grandstaff, a black cowboy who ran cattle in the area in the 1870s.
Mary McGann, a Grand County Council member who fought for the change, praised the board's decision.
"I am very pleased with what the board decided to do," she said. "It was the right thing."
In 2016, the Bureau of Land Management changed out the Negro Bill Trailhead sign along the Colorado River corridor on state Route 128 north of Moab to signal its official support for a name change.
[Wash Times] The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee has subpoenaed the head of the Washington firm that commissioned the sensational anti-Trump campaign research dossier ‐ adding fresh intensity to the behind-the-scenes scramble among lawmakers to grasp how the infamous document fits into the Russian election meddling investigation.
The subpoena issued for Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson comes as special counsel Robert Mueller’s separate investigation interviewed the former British spy, Christopher Steele, who worked with Mr. Simpson in compiling the dossier of negative intelligence on Mr. Trump.
The CIA and FBI saw the dossier’s allegations as so sensational and sensitive last year that they excluded any mention of it from the intelligence community’s highly publicized accusations back in January about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who filed one of several slander lawsuits because of the dossier, reportedly has said he will not appear before the Senate intelligence committee’s Russia probe. While unconfirmed whether the committee formally requested his testimony, the energy investor with Russia ties did inform the panel he won’t show if they do ask him.
Originally commissioned by Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals and then by a Democratic client, the dossier contains allegations about President Trump’s Moscow contacts. Mr. Steele wrote it in 2016 with support from Mr. Simpson and his firm before it was published by the online news service BuzzFeed just before January’s inauguration.
[Guardian] A prank almost proved fatal when a 28-year-old man got a whole live dover sole stuck in his throat.
The man had just caught the 14cm fish and had put it over his mouth as a joke but it wriggled free and jumped down his windpipe ‐ causing a complete blockage. Paramedics were called and when they arrived at Boscombe pier in Dorset on the night of 5 October they found that the man, who has not been identified, had collapsed and stopped breathing.
Friends were performing CPR, as directed by an emergency medical dispatcher on the line from the 999 control room. Initial assessment by paramedic Matt Harrison was that the patient had a blocked airway and was in cardiac arrest. He and a colleague, Martyn Box, an operations officer, worked on the man and got a pulse back.
"The boys were giving really good CPR on our arrival as instructed by the control room staff," Box said.
"Initially, we didn’t know the true extent of the situation or what the patient was choking on, but as we questioned them further we were told he had a whole fish stuck in his windpipe."
Despite the paramedics artificially ventilating him with a bag and mask his chest remained silent, suggesting there was total airway occlusion and he was not receiving any oxygen. Harrison said re-assessment of the patient inside the ambulance indicated further deterioration of his condition and a decline of cardiac output.
"It was clear that we needed to get the fish out or this patient was not going to survive the short journey to Royal Bournemouth hospital," he said. "I used a laryngoscope to fully extend the mouth and throat and saw what appeared like an altered colour of tissue in his throat.
#3
A wave and a bell. Does the founder
At twilight attend every flounder?
When halibuts ground,
Do their souls, now unbound,
Pass to limbo, or someplace profounder?
[Daily Caller] WASHINGTON ‐ The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Puerto Rico received multiple allegations from residents across the island who say local officials in the territory have withheld needed FEMA supplies.
"People call us and tell us some misappropriation of some goods and supplies by supposedly politicians, not necessarily mayors, but people that work for the mayors in certain towns," FBI Special Agent Carlos Osorio told The Daily Caller Wednesday.
Osorio explained, "They’re supposedly withholding these goods and these supplies and instead of handing them out to people who really need them, [there are claims] that [local officials] are assigning them to their buddies first‐people that have voted for them or people that contributed to their campaigns or what not."
He added, "So what we’re doing is looking into these allegations. That I can tell you is happening. Again, I cannot say that we have any ongoing investigation. We’re just corroborating these allegations."
[Breitbart] NEW YORK ‐ H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s embattled national security adviser, labeled the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks "mass murder attacks," instead of calling them acts of terrorism.
McMaster made the comments during a Tuesday event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) marking the 70th anniversary of the National Security Council (NSC).
He was addressing the expansion of the NSC from about fifty members in the 1960s, when it was run by Henry Kissinger, another CSIS speaker, to its current size of more than 360 employees.
"What has contributed to the growth over time, as well, from 50 or so to 167 is the emphasis on homeland security, especially after the mass murder attacks on our country on September 11, 2001," McMaster stated.
McMaster was referring to about 167 policy workers at the NSC, which he explained employs about 360 people.
"We have made a conscious effort to reduce the size of the staff and to make sure that form follows function. As we devolve responsibilities back to departments and agencies, as we get out of, really, management of tactical issues, then we are able to reduce. So we have reduced significantly the numbers of policy people and overall staff. It was over four hundred or so at its peak. We are down to about 360-something now. That sounds like a lot. Of those 360, it’s really about 160 to 170 policy people.
#4
Substituting McMaster for Flynn was, IMO, mandarinate's most brilliant strike.
Posted by g(r)omgoru
Flynn was an archenemy of the Klingon puppet masters and Deep State long before Donald Trump was thought about as President. McMaster is an alleged protégé of David Petraeus. That should tell you something about his intentions.
As an aside, think for a moment where General Petraeus would be today if not for Paul Broadwell. When things got hot, where did Broadwell go ?
Following the revelations about her relationship with Petraeus, Broadwell had retained the services of former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers[50] with the public relations firm The Glover Park Group. The founders of the group had previously served as officials in the Clinton White House and on the presidential campaign of former Vice President Al Gore.Wiki
#5
Gotta wonder what changed McMaster after his initial career of being counter to the DC people, starting with his masters thesis about VietNam, and his decisive and realist actions as a unit commander.
#6
Gotta wonder what changed McMaster after his initial career of being counter to the DC people, starting with his masters thesis about VietNam, and his decisive and realist actions as a unit commander.
[Townhall] The White House announced the negotiated release of an American woman and her family Thursday, all of whom had been held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network since 2012.
Caitlin Coleman, 32, was traveling with her Canadian husband in Afghanistan when they were kidnapped. She was pregnant at the time and had two more children in captivity.
"Today they are free. This is a positive moment for our country's relationship with Pakistan," President Trump said in a statement. "The Pakistani government's cooperation is a sign that it is honoring America's wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region."
But things took a bizarre twist Thursday afternoon when officials said the woman’s husband, Josh Boyle, was refusing to leave the country.
Boyle was previously married to the sister of Omar Khadr, a Canadian man who spent 10 years at Guantanamo Bay after being captured in 2002 in a firefight at an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan.
The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 in 2002 when he tossed a grenade in a firefight that killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a special forces medic.
One U.S. official told The Associated Press that Boyle was nervous about being in "custody" given his background.
#3
But Boyle is refusing to board an American military plane in Pakistan waiting to take them home, fearing he'll be arrested, a U.S. official said.
Boyle was previously married to the sister of Omar Khadr, a Canadian man who spent 10 years at Guantanamo Bay after being captured in 2002 in a firefight at an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan.The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 in 2002 when he tossed a grenade in a firefight that killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a special forces medic.
So the Boyle (insert Muslim name here) family thought they had immunity to traipse through Afg-Pak. Or was their purpose to offer themselves up for ransom?
I hope the US or Canadian govs didn't pay one cent for these fuqwads (they do have a Muslim name).
#4
Make the Fuqwads buy their own tickets back. The American taxpayers already wasted several hundred thousand dollars sending a military transport for them.
#6
Wait a second, is the the same Khadr that recently recieved $8million in cash from the Canadian government? Because it sounds like Boyle's former brother-in law was THAT Khadr.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/13/2017 9:04
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Then let them stay. But tell them that they're on their own from this point forward.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/13/2017 9:41
Comments ||
Top||
#8
#6 Wait a second, is the the same Khadr that recently recieved $8million in cash from the Canadian government? Because it sounds like Boyle's former brother-in law was THAT Khadr.
Posted by Charles Yep, that Khadr...the same one that killed SFC Speer. This bunch of "tourists" are enemies.
#10
His ex wife isn’t much better than her brother Boyle married Zaynab Khadr in 2009. He was 25, she was 29. It was the third marriage for Zaynab. The first two were arranged: her first husband was sought as a conspirator in a bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan; Osama Bin Laden was one of the guests at her second wedding in Afghanistan.
Posted by: John Frum ||
10/13/2017 13:29
Comments ||
Top||
#11
As with Bergdahl, the back story is important.
#15
At 4pm local time, US officials informed Pakistani intelligence and at 7pm, the family was rescued in Kurram, 165 miles across the border from Kabul where the couple was kidnapped in 2012.
Reports of whether the captors survived are conflicting. Boyle said they were murdered after saying 'kill the hostages'.
The family was hiding in the trunk of the car and were removed. They were placed on a Pakistani military helicopter and were taken to the US embassy in Islamabad.
US officials tell a different story and suggest that the family had been in Pakistan for two years before they were rescued.
The discrepancy is significant - the US has accused Pakistan repeatedly of harboring and enabling terrorist networks.
Residents in Kurram said they had seen drones flying above them for days before the rescue. Pakistani officials say they ambushed the vehicle that was transporting the family and shot out its tires to bring it to a sudden halt.
Unnamed US and Canadian officials however say the family had been in the country for years and that Pakistani officials were aware of their presence there.
'It means Pakistan could have released them far earlier... But due to the tension with the US they felt it was the right moment,' one source said.
A senior Taliban commander also denied the military's account to AFP, saying the militants had released the hostages of their own volition.
[WAPO] It’s a specter that should stalk the nightmares of Republican leaders: a Senate chamber, packed on Christmas Eve, as lawmakers gather to decide the fate of a tax package that will shape the GOP’s political fortunes. The bill remains one vote shy, and then Sen. John McCain walks in, pauses before the desk, and delivers his second thumbs-down dagger of the year.
For that reason, the Arizona Republican, who is fighting a public battle with brain cancer, will be among his party’s most closely watched as the year winds down and the tax debate gears up. Yet over his decades in public life, McCain has traced a zigzagging line on the subject, leaving little clear indication of how he’ll approach a potentially decisive vote. A look at the senator's record on taxes shows that three things seem most important to him: public debate, some help for the middle class, and not exploding the deficit.
The senator's vote matters because with a 52-seat majority, Republicans can't afford more than two defections (Vice President Pence could push the package over the line in the event if a tie).
#3
Envy of people who actually win presidential elections is a terrible thing.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/13/2017 6:18
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Another Arlen Specter. Seeing the lost of standing Arlen got for dumping the party, McCain stays and keeps the chairs and seniority perks in the Trunk Party. Kick him out.
#7
His colleagues in the Senate might become collateral damage. Voters are fed up and disgusted. The resulting climate has already led Corker to retire. This could be 2010 all over again, and McCain will have his share of the blame.
#8
Tax 'reform' changes are typically done in early November in order to insure the IRS, then tax software companies, incorporate those changes into the current year. Why should I bother going to next month's tax seminar when the changes for 2017 haven't even been done?
Could we not just sever the entire power grid for a while, thereby avoiding major damage?
Congress was warned Thursday that North Korea is capable of attacking the U.S. today with a nuclear EMP bomb that could indefinitely shut down the electric power grid and kill 90 percent of "all Americans" within a year.
At a House hearing, experts said that North Korea could easily employ the "doomsday scenario" to turn parts of the U.S. to ashes.
In calling on the Pentagon and President Trump to move quickly to protect the grid, the experts testified that an explosion of a high-altitude nuclear bomb delivered by a missile or satellite "could be to shut down the U.S. electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death within a year of up to 90 percent of all Americans."
Two members of the former congressional EMP commission said the threat to the U.S. has never been higher, in part because of the current high level of saber rattling by both sides and North Korea's surprising display over the past six months of its ability to deliver on its threats.
"With the development of small nuclear arsenals and long-range missiles by new, radical U.S. adversaries, beginning with North Korea, the threat of a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. becomes one of the few ways that such a country could inflict devastating damage to the United States. It is critical, therefore, that the U.S. national leadership address the EMP threat as a critical and existential issue, and give a high priority to assuring the leadership is engaged and the necessary steps are taken to protect the country from EMP," the experts told a House Homeland Security subcommittee.
William R. Graham, chairman of the former EMP commission and its former chief of staff, Peter Vincent Pry, said that the U.S. has ignored the warning signs for years and that North Korea's military moves this year must be seen as a wake-up call.
They said:
•Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea's nuclear arsenal was primitive, some academics claiming it had as few as 6 A-Bombs. Now the intelligence community reportedly estimates North Korea has 60 nuclear weapons.
•Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea's ICBMs were fake, or if real could not strike the U.S. mainland. Now the intelligence community reportedly estimates North Korea's ICBMs can strike Denver and Chicago, and perhaps the entire United States.
•Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea was many years away from an H-Bomb. Now it appears North Korea has H-Bombs comparable to sophisticated U.S. two-stage thermonuclear weapons.
•Just six months ago, most experts claimed North Korean ICBMs could not miniaturize an A-Bomb or design a reentry vehicle for missile delivery. Now the intelligence community reportedly assesses North Korea has miniaturized nuclear weapons, and has developed reentry vehicles for missile delivery, including by ICBMs that can strike the U.S.
•After massive intelligence failures grossly underestimating North Korea's long-range missile capabilities, number of nuclear weapons, warhead miniaturization, and proximity to an H-Bomb, the biggest North Korean threat to the U.S. remains unacknowledged‐nuclear EMP attack.
Their testimony also highlighted the failure of the Pentagon or Congress to extend the life of the EMP Commission and they recommended deeper study into the threat, include from a simple solar flare.
"Our current vulnerability invites attack," they said.
#3
File this with the "World will end in 2020 due to Man Made Global Warming". Shhhhhh.
Note 1. The Russians and Chinese already have the EMP capability.
Note 2. Has 90 percent of the Puerto Rico population died off yet (the mayor of San Juan is not a valid data source).
Note 3. Seems we survived a long time in history without electricity without a major die off.
This is an instance where size does matter: the larger the nuclear explosion, the larger the affected area. While technical reports and papers on EMP from nuclear detonations are mostly classified, there is a paper by D. Hafemeister of California Polytechnic Institute that provides sufficient detail to derive a simple rule of thumb on the relationship between affected distance and nuclear device yield. The paper makes some simplifying assumptions:
- The detonation is spherically symmetric (which may not always be the case);
- The Earth’s magnetic field is not accounted for;
- Prompt gamma rays account for 0.3 percent of the total energy of the explosion and are emitted within the first 10 nanoseconds of detonation;
- About 0.6 percent of the prompt gamma rays produce relativistic electrons that constitute the E1 component of the EMP; and
- The electric field damage threshold is 15,000 volts/meter or higher in the E1 component.
Plugging in the numbers and presuming these assumptions are appropriate, the rule of thumb [My favorite kind of rule, as I only have to archive (2) rules at any given time.] is surprisingly simple: D = Y, where D is the maximum damage distance expressed in kilometers and Y is the yield of the blast in kilotons. So, a 20 KT bomb detonated at optimum height would have a maximum EMP damage distance of 20 km; a 1 MT (1,000 KT) bomb would damage out to 1,000 km. The largest North Korean test to date has been estimated to be about 20 KT."
[AnNahar] Between 300 and 400 Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group jihadists remain in their one-time Syrian bastion of Raqa where a Kurdish-Arab force is fighting to seize full control, its U.S.-led coalition backer said Thursday.
"We are looking at approximately 4,000 civilians who remain in Raqa, and a matter of 3-400 remaining ISIS (IS) fighters," coalition front man U.S. Colonel Ryan S. Dillon told a news conference in Baghdad.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, have taken control of around 90 percent of the city from IS since they broke into it in June.
Officials from Raqa Civil Council -- a provisional administration set up by the SDF -- are trying to negotiate the safe passage of civilians from remaining IS-held areas.
"We have seen a trend of ISIS surrendering over these last months, about four to five per week ... including emirs and leaders," said Dillon, adding that others were captured to blend in with departing civilians.
[AnNahar] Dozens of desperate civilians streamed out of battlefront districts of Syria's Raqa on Thursday after a ferocious resumption in bombardment against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group holdouts in the city.
U.S.-led air strikes have helped the Syrian Democratic Forces oust IS from around 90 percent of the group's one-time bastion, but hundreds of jihadists and civilians are still believed to be holed up near Raqa's city centre.
Early Thursday morning, dozens of people -- mostly women and kiddies -- crossed the front line in Raqa's central al-Badu district and were transported by SDF forces to a row of one-room concrete warehouses on the western edge of the city. Many of the children were without shoes, their tiny feet covered in dirt after they fled their battle-scarred neighbourhoods on foot.
Haggard-looking men of all ages -- most of them suffering wounds to their legs or head -- had been syphoned off into a separate area for questioning.
Several residents told AFP that air strikes and artillery fire had resumed with a vengeance on Wednesday night after several days of relative calm.
"It was quiet for two or three days, and all we could think about was just going outside," said Nisrine, a 20-year-old Raqa resident originally from Aleppo.
She, her one-year-old son, and her neighbour Aya had been trapped inside their apartments in al-Badu for so many days she had lost count.
"But when the bombardment started up again, it was even worse than before," Nisrine said, her black face veil hiding everything but exhausted brown eyes.
- No sleep -
This week, officials from the Raqa Civil Council -- a provisional administration set up by the SDF -- were working to secure the safe passage of civilians from remaining IS-held areas.
SDF field commanders told AFP the front lines had been quiet in recent days apart from sporadic strikes.
The U.S.-led coalition backing the SDF's offensives said it carried out no air raids around Raqa on Monday and six on Tuesday. By comparison, it conducted 24 strikes around Raqa on Wednesday.
"The bombing stopped, there was supposed to be a truce and surrender. But then I don't know what happened and the artillery started again," said Abdullah al-Ali, a dazed Raqa resident in his twenties who escaped Thursday morning.
An older man with wiry salt-and-pepper hair and gauze over one eye said warplanes had largely spared al-Badu from bombing over the past three days.
"But last night, we didn't sleep at all from the air strikes and artillery," he told AFP as he waited to be taken to a mosque in a western suburb of Raqa that had been turned into a reception centre.
Since 2014, Raqa has served as the de facto Syrian capital of IS' self-styled "caliphate."
The SDF has squeezed jihadists into a sliver of territory near Raqa's heart ahead of a final push to fully recapture the city.
But Rojda Felat, who is leading the SDF's assault on Raqa, said the assault has been delayed by the outpouring of civilians in recent days.
"Over the past few days, we've liberated around 1,000 people including around 250 today," she told AFP on Thursday.
"We are preparing to enter the final week (of fighting), but the massive exit of civilians prevented this," she said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
"I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all." Mad Dog Mattis
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) The pro-government paramilitary troops have killed an Islamic State militant who was attempting to target the troops in north of Salahuddin, a security source said.
Speaking to Baghdad Today, the source said “al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) killed an IS suicide attacker in north of Salahuddin. Troops are still looking for others.”
The intelligence of PMFs, according to the source, indicated “several IS suicide attackers beseiged in a tunnel at Makhoul mountains.”
Federal Police announced, late September, liberation of eastern Shirqat, the group’s holdout in north of the province. 225 militants had been killed since the launch of operations in Shirqat.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[AlAhram] Egypt's interior ministry announced on Thursday evening the arrest of a man supsected of the killing of one priest and injuring another in a northeastern suburb of Cairo earlier that day.
According to a statement released by the ministry, security forces tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! Ahmed El-Sonbaty as a suspect in the murder of Coptic Orthodox priest Samaan Shehata and the assault upon another, Beyman Moftan.
The late Shehata served as archpriest at St. Julius Church in El-Fashn, Beni Suef. Injured priest Beymen Moftan administers the El-Malak church in Matay, Minya.
The statement added that the suspect attacked both Shehata and Moftan in El-Salam city, where the suspect used to live, and that authorities were able to locate the weapon he allegedly used to attack both men.
Though no motive has yet been revealed, the interior ministry stated that 40-year-old El-Sonbaty is unemployed and was charged earlier this year for assaulting his father and setting his house on fire.
The prosecution is currently investigating the incident.
Security officials say the attacker struck the priest's head with a cleaver.
Attacks on Egypt's Christians, who account for about 10 percent of the country's 94 million people, have surged in recent months, with a series of suicide kabooms claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group killing more than 100 since December.
If they aren't gonna be there, how you gonna talk to them? [REUTERS] Representatives of Afghanistan, China, Pakistain and the United States will meet in Oman next week to discuss reviving peace talks with Afghan Talibs, an Afghan official and a Pak foreign ministry source said on Wednesday.
But it was not clear if Afghan Taliban ...Arabic for students... representatives would join the talks. Taliban sources said they had not yet received an invitation and plan to skip Monday’s discussions in Muscat, casting doubt on efforts to revive long-stalled negotiations.
The four-nation Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QGC), comprising Afghanistan, China, Pakistain and the United States, has been trying to ease the path to direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, with little success.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[PJMEDIA] NBC late-night host Seth Meyers on Wednesday night burned bridges with any remaining viewers of his who still support President Trump, telling them to go away and flipping them off.
Inspired by Eminem's anti-Trump freestyle rap at the BET Hip Hop Awards on Tuesday night, Meyers told Trump supporters to "get off the fence" and pick a side between the president and his show -- which he noted "constantly mocks and denigrates everything about [Trump]."
"I know it's a tough call," the smarmy host continued. "But the time has come to make a decision."
He then rapped, "My name is Seth and I'm here to say -- if you like Trump, then go away," and flipped the bird to punctuate his message.
Seriously, do these late-night hosts even try to do comedy anymore? These shows are nothing but a more unhinged and less funny version of the anti-Trump hysteria CNN and MSNBC vomit out day after day.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'll bet the MSM is a swamp of abusers just like Hollywood.
Hence the attempt to morally preen as a way of projecting the evil away from their organisations.
#5
He [Myers] then rapped, "My name is Seth and I'm here to say
I wouldn't bet on his staying power. In a system where the top dogs are beginning to fall for abuses, the underlings may find themselves with little support.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Eight persons were wounded on Thursday in a bomb blast in north of Baghdad, a security source said.
“An IED went off near stores in al-Falahat village in Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, leaving eight persons wounded,” the source told Baghdad Today.
Moreover, “unknown gunmen robbed a civilian’s vehicle threatening his with weapons in al-Ebeidi region, east of the capital,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. “They [gunmen] stole it and ran away.”
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One person was killed when an improvised explosive device exploded on Thursday north of Baghdad, according to police sources.
Alsumaria News quoted the source saying that an IED fitted beneath a civilian vehicle in Falahat neighborhood went off, killing the driver immediately.
A monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), which excludes security members deaths, said 196 civilians were killed, while 381 others were wounded due to violence and armed conflicts during the month of September. The fatalities included 10 foreign nationals. Baghdad was the most affected province with 37 deaths and 157 injuries.
In which President Sultan Erdogan I, "the much beloved", continues hollowing out his military.
[Ynet] Ottoman Turkish authorities have issued arrest warrants for 25 soldiers across The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and the breakaway Ottoman Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, security sources said, as part of a widening crackdown following last year's failed military coup.
The soldiers, on active duty and of varying ranks in Turkey's military, are being sought across 13 provinces and Ottoman Turkish northern Cyprus, the sources said.
Prosecutors in the southeastern province of Mardin ordered the arrest of the soldiers over the "secret military structuring" of the network of US-based holy manFethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , the sources said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak says he is ready to resign if investigators prove the guilt of his deputy Ihor Pavlovsky, who is involved in the case of multi-million embezzlement at the Defense Ministry, according to the news portal Novoye Vremia.
"I am ready at any time," he said at a briefing, Novoye Vremia said.
Poltorak claims it will also be his liability if the guilt has been established. As UNIAN reported earlier, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office exposed a corruption scheme used to embezzle public funds worth over UAH 149 million, or US$5.6 million, in fuel procurements by the Defense Ministry.
Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Pavlovsky and Director of the Department for State Procurement and Supplies of Materiel at the Defense Ministry Volodymyr Husevych were detained amid anti-corruption raids on October 11. Two other suspects are an employee of the said Department and a representative of the Defense Ministry's Internal Audit Department.
Commenting on the detention of his deputy, Poltorak said his subordinate has nowhere to flee because Russia has opened three criminal cases against him for his participation in the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas. What is more, he is unlikely to possess money enough to seek asylum in other countries.
Daraa (Syria News) The Syrian rebels carried out a wide offensive, on Thursday, on the Islamic State headquarters, in the western countryside of Daraa, sources told Qasioun News.
The sources informed that the Syrian rebels attacked the headquarters of the Islamic State group in the area of al-Yarmouk Basin, in the western countryside of Daraa, in order to force the terrorist group to break the siege imposed on the Iraqi town of Heet.
Factions of the Syrian rebels bombarded the Islamic State headquarters located in the areas of Jalin, Sahm al-Golan, Adwan, Tal Ashtara, Libyan brigade and Galin camp, in western Daraa, using heavy artillery and rockets.
It is noteworthy that the Islamic State allied Jayesh Khaled Ibn al-Waleed militia managed to retake large areas of land in al-Yarmouk basin, last year, after clashes with the militias belonging to the rebels.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
BEIRUT: Syrian opposition activists say regime troops are pushing deeper into a Daesh stronghold in the country’s east, the town of Mayadeen.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes with militants intensified in the morning hours on Thursday in the town, as government forces advanced into the western and northern neighborhoods of Mayadeen, which lies on the Euphrates River.
The observatory said troops were able to cut off the road linking Mayadeen and the town of Boukamal on the border with Iraq.
“Regime forces, led on the ground by Russian forces, took control of at least four neighborhoods of Mayadeen,” observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The state news agency SANA confirmed that regime forces had re-entered Mayadeen.
Abdel Rahman, whose organization relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said Russian forces are “overseeing military operations, taking part in the fighting and carrying out airstrikes.”
The fresh advance by regime forces come in spite of reinforcements of around 1,000 men Daesh received from Iraq, according to the observatory.
The latest Russian-backed regime push has isolated the terrorists defending Mayadeen, cutting off the main road to their stronghold of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border, and leaving the Euphrates River as their only escape.
Opposition activist Mozahem Al-Salloum said the fighting is fierce and that it will likely take time to rid Mayadeen of Daesh.
Meanwhile, between 300 and 400 Daesh terrorists remain in their one-time Syrian bastion of Raqqa where a Kurdish-Arab force is fighting to seize full control, its US-led coalition backer said Thursday.
“We are looking at approximately 4,000 civilians who remain in Raqqa, and a matter of 3-400 remaining ISIS (Daesh) fighters,” coalition spokesman Col. Ryan S. Dillon told a news conference in Baghdad.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, have taken control of around 90 percent of the city from Daesh since they broke into it in June.
Officials from Raqqa Civil Council — a provisional administration set up by the SDF — are trying to negotiate the safe passage of civilians from remaining Daesh-held areas.
“We have seen a trend of ISIS (Daesh) surrendering over these last months, about four to five per week ... including emirs and leaders,” said Dillon, adding that others were captured trying to blend in with departing civilians.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
The Syrian Army units further advanced in al-Mayadeen city in the course of continued military operations against ISIL terrorists in Deir Ezzor.
SANA reporter said that army units carried out intensive operations against ISIL terrorists’ hideouts in al-Mayadeen city in the southeastern countryside, establishing control over al-Tibeh village that is adjacent to the city and advancing into al-Mayadeen neighborhoods from the western part, particularly al-Baloum neighborhood, the Industrial area and al-Madajin,
The reporter added that fierce clashes erupted between the army units and ISIL terrorists in the direction of Khsham-Hatla east of the Euphrates River and the fronts of al-Orfi and al-Sinaa in Deir Ezzor city, killing or injuring many of the terrorists.
The army’s Air and Artillery forces destroyed fortified positions and vehicles for ISIS in the cities of Mohassan and al-Mayadeen, the villages of Buqrus, al-Jneineh, al-Husseiniyeh, Hatla, Saalou, Zeban, Hawaej Zeban, al-Boleil, al-Salehiya and the neighborhoods of Kanamat, al-Hamidiyeh, al-Sheikh Yaseen, Khasarat and al-Ardi, the reporter said.
Local sources in the southeastern countryside of Deir Ezzor reported that ISIS terrorists executed three people by slaughtering them in al-Intilaq roundabout in al-Bokmal city, a day after a civilian was killed and his body was hung at al-Hissan village’s roundabout in the northwestern countryside.
Media reports mentioned that the Syrian army and allies managed to besiege Qaryatin town in Homs countryside, regaining control over swathes of territories in its vicinity from ISIL terrorists.
Source: Al-Manar Website and SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Ynet] American Civil Liberties Union files lawsuit against state law that prohibits pariticpation in boycotts against Israel; suit claims Kansas teacher was denied teaching contract for refusing to agree to not boycott Israel; teacher in question reportedly boycotting Israeli products because of Israel's treatment of Paleostinians, claiming that Kansas law violates her free speech rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Kansas law prohibiting state contractors from participating in boycotts against Israel.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit Wednesday for a Wichita public school curriculum coach. It says Esther Koontz was denied a state teacher training contract because she wouldn't sign a statement saying she wasn't boycotting Israel.
The lawsuit says Koontz is boycotting Israeli products because of Israel's treatment of Paleostinians, and that the Kansas law violates her free speech rights.
The law took effect in July. The pro-Paleostinian group Paleostine Legal says 21 states have such laws, but the ACLU says this is its first challenge.
In recent years, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, which aims to "end end international support for Israel's oppression of Paleostinians," has picked up steam, with major figures in the academic, political and global economy fields voicing their disapproval of Israeli actions.
One of these is British director Ken Loach, who announced on Monday he will be donating the proceeds from the screenings of his latest film in Israel to the BDS movement.
Loach's film, "I, Daniel Blake," was widely acclaimed and screened in front of audiences at packed theaters in Israel last spring. At the end of the week, the British branch of the boycott group published a statement revealing it had been the recipient of all proceeds from the film's screening in Israel donated by Loach.
"Ken Loach, thank you for the support and generosity, it gives us strength," the organization's members told the British director.
The Kansas attorney general's office did not immediately reply to phone and email messages seeking comment.
[AnNahar] The United Arab Emirates on Thursday announced it had stopped issuing visas to North Korean nationals and downgraded diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, following similar moves by Kuwait and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... The UAE government ended the mission of its non-resident ambassador to North Korea as well as that of Pyongyang's non-resident ambassador to the UAE, the government-run WAM news agency said.
Abu Dhabi will also no longer grant North Korean companies authorization to work in any of the seven emirates, WAM said.
Tensions over North Korea's weapons program have soared in recent months, with Pyongyang launching a flurry of missiles and conducting its sixth and most powerful nuclear test last month.
U.N. sanctions against North Korea were last month expanded to include North Korean guest workers, along with textiles and a cap on oil exports.
South Korea and Japan have pressured Gulf states to stop employing North Korean workers, whose income goes towards remittances that benefit the regime in Pyongyang, according to Asian diplomatic sources.
In September, Kuwait gave the North Korean ambassador one month to leave the country and stopped issuing visas to all North Koreans.
Qatar has also said it would not renew visas for North Korean laborers, with the last work permits set to expire at the end of 2018.
Between 2,000 and 2,500 North Koreans currently work in Kuwait, and another estimated 1,000 in Qatar.
The UAE is home to some 1,300 North Korean workers, according to a South Korean diplomat.
#1
Last week he elevated a sister to the leadership committee. He is either expected to be exterminated or he is catching so much internal resistance he can only trust little sister.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The al-Qaeda linked Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham rebel faction launched a big attack in central Syria, Thursday, targeting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ’s (ISIS) positions inside the Hama Governorate.
HTS began the assault by launching several attacks at the villages of Abu Kahf, Abu al-Ghayr, Hisnawi, and Talihan in the northeastern countryside of Hama.
The al-Qaeda group would ultimately retake control of these villages after killing more than ten Islamic State Death Eaters and destroying two armored vehicles in this Hama pocket.
Since the morning, intense festivities have been reported between these former allies, as HTS looks to expel the Islamic State from this rural region.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[DAILYCALLER] A bombshell report showed that Roger Goodell’s wife Jane Skinner Goodell has been defending him from an anonymous account on Twitter.
The Wall Street Journal broke the story that Skinner had been using an account named @forargument to tweet at people who were critical of her husband.
The report reads in part:
Who is this valiant defender of a man who has so few defenders? It is Roger Goodell’s wife, Jane Skinner Goodell, The Wall Street Journal confirmed after an examination of the account. "It was a REALLY silly thing to do and done out of frustration‐and love." Mrs. Goodell said Thursday afternoon in a written statement. "As a former media member, I’m always bothered when the coverage doesn’t provide a complete and accurate picture of a story. I’m also a wife and a mom. I have always passionately defended the hard-working guy I love‐and I always will. I just may not use Twitter to do so in the future!"
Within an hour after the Journal reached out to Mrs. Goodell and the NFL, the account was made private. Later, it was taken down completely.
This is the last thing that Goodell and the league need right now. The guy is already getting hammered for all the national anthem protests, and now his wife is responding to his haters through a fake account. Not a great look for the most powerful man in all of sports.
She’s married to a highly successful man, has plenty of money and somehow is wasting her time on Twitter. Another example of how social media doesn’t do anything other than create problems.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[NEWSBUSTERS.ORG] CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and MSNBC's Chris My Thigh is Tingling! Matthews ... the late Tip O'Neill's former gopher who has magazines with centerfolds of Barack Obama in his bathroom... both eagerly speculated on the latest long shot liberal hope to get rid of 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... : The 25th Amendment. Building off a mention of it Vanity Fair by Steve Bannon, Blitzer on Thursday asked correspondent Jessica Schneider "Tell our viewers who aren’t familiar with the 25th Amendment, Jessica, precisely what it does."
She related the dreams of Democrats: "It lays out the path for removal of the president in cases of inability. And that’s a term that has never been defined or suggested. So here’s what exactly would need to happen to set the 25th Amendment in motion."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#6
These apparatchiks have been talking impeachment and the 25th amendment before Trump took office. I predict they will end up losing if the pro-Trump Pennsylvania crowd is any indication. This crowd also has a low opinion of Congress and a lower opinion of the MSM.
[AnNahar] Four soldiers and nine rebels were killed in southern 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 Wednesday, army sources said, as festivities flared in the last rebel pocket in mainly government-held Shabwa province.
The deaths came in Bayhan district as troops responded to a rebel offensive, the sources told AFP.
Bayhan is the sole district of Shabwa still held by the rebels, who control neighboring Baida province and most of northern Yemen.
Both provinces have also been targeted by a long-running U.S. drone war against al-Qaeda, which has taken advantage of the conflict between the government and the rebels to consolidate its presence.
Despite the military intervention of a Saudi-led coalition in 2015, the government's authority is still largely confined to the south and areas along the Saudi border.
More than 8,500 civilians have been killed in the conflict since the intervention began, according to World Health Organization figures.
[REUTERS] A new package of U.S. disaster assistance sailed through the House of Representatives on Thursday, despite 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... expressing impatience with having to devote federal resources for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico’s recovery.
The Republican-controlled House voted 353-69 to approve $36.5 billion in emergency relief for Puerto Rico and other areas hit by recent disasters. Senate approval is expected in coming weeks.
Trump and his aides on Thursday suggested that there would be a limit to how much help Puerto Rico could expect from Washington to solve some of its longer-term problems, although Trump is expected to sign the latest emergency package.
The White House on Thursday evening issued a statement saying the Trump administration was "pleased" that the House had approved the relief funds and pledged to work with Congress going forward to provide resources to recover and rebuild.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[WORLDVIEW.STRATFOR] Pakistain's Election Commission banned on Oct. 11 the Milli Moslem League (MML) from registering as an official political party, Hindustan Times reported. The MML is a new political party backed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... ‐ a terrorist group that has been blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. Saeed is under house arrest and has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. The head of the Election Commission told MML attorneys that because the party has ties to Lion of Islam groups, it cannot be registered.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Slamming cultural agency's 'outrageous' anti-Israel decisions, Trump's ambassador says 'all agencies within the UN' are under similar scrutiny.
The State Department announced Thursday that the US is withdrawing from the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), effective December 31, 2018, citing financial considerations, the need for reform and the organization’s “continuing anti-Israel bias.” The Israeli government promptly announced that it would follow suit.
In a statement later Thursday, Ambassador Haley recalled that, “In July, when UNESCO made its latest outrageous and politically based decision, designating the Old City of Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs as part of Palestinian territory, the United States clearly stated that this decision would negatively affect our evaluation of our level of engagement with the organization.” Thursday’s decision to withdraw from UNESCO, she indicated, represented the result of that evaluation.
#2
Its a start. Now pull monetary support from all the so-called "cultural" parts of the un and kick them out of NY. If they want the US to still host the UN, then move it to St Louis. EAST St Loius.
[AnNahar] U.N. Sherlocks will this week travel to an air base in Syria that the United States and its allies say was used to launch the sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhun, diplomats told AFP on Wednesday.
The trip to the Shayrat airfield comes just weeks before the release of a much-awaited report on the Khan Sheikhun attack that the West and a U.N. commission have said was carried out by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's forces.
The team from the joint U.N.-OPCW probe, known as the JIM, left Monday for Damascus and were to go to the Shayrat airfield, said a Security Council diplomat, who asked not to be named.
The United States in April launched a missile attack on Shayrat after concluding that Syrian aircraft, loaded with sarin gas, had departed from that airfield to attack Khan Sheikhun.
At least 87 people, including more than 30 children, died in the gas attack on April 4.
Syria's government has denied any involvement and maintains it no longer possesses chemical weapons after a 2013 agreement under which it pledged to surrender them.
The JIM visit to Shayrat would address criticism from Russia that the panel is biased by refusing to accept Syria's offer to visit the military base.
Western diplomats have expressed skepticism however, suggesting the visit would be used by Damascus to try to bolster its assertion that the sarin gas was released by an accidental air strike on a storage depot.
The joint investigation of the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was set up in 2015 by the Security Council to determine who is behind chemical weapons use in Syria.
The JIM has already determined that Syrian government forces were responsible for chlorine attacks on three villages in 2014 and 2015, and that 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.... jihadists used mustard gas in 2015.
The OPCW earlier this year presented a report confirming sarin gas was used in the attack at Khan Sheikhun, but did not assign blame, leaving that determination to the JIM.
In total, the OPCW is investigating as many as 45 suspected chemical attacks in Syria since mid-2016 including the recently-disclosed use of sarin on an opposition-held village on March 30.
The United States, La Belle France and Britannia are facing a showdown with Russia over the fate of the gas attacks investigation when the JIM's mandate comes up for renewal in the coming weeks.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley ...Trump administration's ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... last week said allowing the JIM to continue its investigations of gas attacks in Syria should be a "top priority" for the Security Council.
#8
While stationed there, I met many fine Turks - and a few real dickwads.
Recent leadership (Dems on our side exporting "social justice" by poisoning our military, immoderate Islamists on theirs) has assisted in souring the well.
That TU seems to be aligning themselves with Iran and Russia is especially disquieting.
In other words, conservatives are who we always were, and the Left is becoming a monster.
[FreeBeacon] A new study from the Pew Research Center shows a growing partisan gap in opinions on major issues, driven in part by Democrats' leftward drift.
Pew found Democrats have moved substantially left on a variety of issues while Republicans' views remain relatively constant. That was true across social and economic issues; Pew claimed that the split between Republicans and Democrats is more pronounced than any divides by race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
"This poll and some other recent ones show that Democrats are pulling more strongly to the left and Republicans are not pulling quite as strongly to the right as a general matter," said Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in American public opinion.
One such leftward shift came in Pew's question about welfare. As to whether or not the government "should do more to help the needy, even if it means going deeper into debt," 71 percent of Democrats respond affirmatively, up 17 points over the past six years.
Republicans' opinions have barely shifted, down slightly from 25 to 24 percent. Additionally, some 76 percent of Democrats say "poor people have hard lives because government benefits don't go far enough"‐the highest proportion of Democrats since Pew started asking the question in 1994.
"The party is being pulled in a more liberal direction, there's no question about that," Bowman said. "I mean Elizabeth Warren's comment a few weeks ago essentially that this isn't Bill Clinton's party, we're not the party of welfare and crime. I think she's reflecting the views of many of the people in her party. And I think a lot of it happened during the Obama years."
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/13/2017 8:45
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Quit calling them liberals or democrats. Call them for what they really are - Socialists.
I'd call them lazy bums who want Uncle Sugar to do everything for them.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/13/2017 10:58
Comments ||
Top||
#7
It is hard to imagine that the Democrats could move any further left without being out-and-out bomb-throwing communists.
Apart from a handful of Antifa types I think most of them are too weak from the vegan diets and too damn lazy to throw any bombs. Carrying cardboard signs and driving beat up old cars with Bernie bumper stickers is about all they're good for.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/13/2017 11:02
Comments ||
Top||
#8
but the Dems are becominghave become the party of stark raving lunatic morons!
At least five Taliban insurgents were killed in clashes with Afghan security forces in northern Jawzjan province on Wednesday night, local officials confirmed on Thursday.
In addition, four other insurgents were wounded.
The clash took place in Faizabad district of the province after the Taliban attacked police check posts. “The clash continued for nearly four hours,” provincial police chief, Gen. Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani said.
“Three security forces were also wounded in the clash,” Jawzjani said.
However, he did not provide more details about the incident.
[AnNahar] An investigation into a jihadist truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market pointed Thursday to a catalog of "gross mistakes" by security services in the lead-up to the deadly attack.
The scathing report found that authorities had missed several opportunities to arrest and deport the driver, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri, long before the attack that claimed 12 lives last December.
The 24-year-old, who had previously been jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in Italia, had been in touch with radical Islamists and sold drugs in Berlin, had managed to escape detection by skipping across German state lines and using different identities.
"Gross mistakes were made that should never have happened," said former prosecutor Bruno Jost in presenting the 72-page report.
Berlin police who had been tipped off that Amri was a potentially violent Islamist had conducted surveillance only on weekdays, taking off weekends and public holidays. And they dropped their observation altogether after the first few weeks.
Berlin police who had been tipped off that Amri was a potentially violent Islamist had conducted surveillance only on weekdays, taking off weekends and public holidays, he said.
And they dropped their observation altogether after the first few weeks, judging Amri to be just a small-time drug pusher.
Although Berlin police could have tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Amri on drugs charges, he slipped through the net largely because of miscommunications with the prosecution service, he said.
And after the attack, police doctored their records to try and cover up their shortcomings, a revelation that is subject to a criminal investigation.
Six months before the carnage in Berlin, Amri had been arrested in the southern city of Friedrichshafen carrying two fake Italian passports.
But he was held for just two days, although authorities could plausibly have "taken him out of circulation for three or four months," during which time he may have been expelled to Tunisia, Jost said.
Instead, Amri went on to stage the December 19 attack, murdering a Polish truck driver before he plowing the vehicle into a crowd, killing 11 more people and wounding almost 100.
Amri, who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, was rubbed out days later by Italian police in Milan.
The cynical will note that the report was not released until after Angela Merkel won the recent election. Had this been known beforehand, no doubt AfD and the Free Democrats would have done better, and perhaps Bavaria's Christian Social Union, the more conservative sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, would have competed nationally -- or at least pushed harder about Frau Merkel's colonists.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
The scathing report found that authorities had missed several opportunities to arrest and deport the driver
[THE HILL] ISIS’s reign of terror is rapidly coming to an end. Within a matter of days, the jihadist menace that shocked the world for years with its pathological sadism will lose its final strongholds within the Syrian city of Raqqa. It has taken 5 months of bloody struggle but the de facto capital of the Islamic State will soon be entirely in the hands of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Across the border in Iraq, the process of rebuilding the devastated city of Mosul is underway after its liberation from the so-called caliphate in July. There are still areas of ISIS control in both Iraq and Syria, but the jihadists have lost over 60 percent of the territory they once held. Their sources of funding are drying up, hostile forces surround them, and ISIS can no longer count on tens of thousands of recruits to flood into Syria to replenish their ranks.
If the Islamic State’s fanatics were running an actual state instead of a glorified death cult, they would be negotiating terms for surrender and laying down their arms already.
The U.S. and its allies have effectively beaten the Islamic State. While the process has been slow and riddled with setbacks and restarts, this is a substantial accomplishment. In 2014, ISIS seized Mosul in a blitzkrieg and was threatening to march on the Kurdish city of Erbil.
On the Syrian front, the world was faced with the lose-lose choice of a collapsing Assad regime and an ascendant ISIS. Now, ISIS’s leadership is on the run, and its fighters are surrendering by the hundreds. Not every militant wants to be among the last suicide bombers for a crumbling caliphate.
To be sure, the anti-ISIS campaign is not over yet, and will continue at a lesser level throughout 2018. On the Iraqi side of the border, there are still pockets of ISIS control such as Hawija to the north of Baghdad, and the region in and around al Qaim on the Iraq-Syria border. In Syria, there are still considerable pieces of territory in the center and east of the country where ISIS retains control. But barring a highly unlikely battlefield reversal, ISIS as a state building enterprise is in its death throes.
For those near the frontlines of Iraq and Syria, there will be little if any time for celebration. A prolonged counterinsurgency operation will be necessary to keep the pressure on remnants of ISIS, and recent history shows that mass casualties attacks will threaten the region long after the black banners of Jihad have been taken down from every town center. And with Kurdish independence looming in Iraq, and a resurgent, Iran and Russia-backed Assad regime in Syria, there are plenty of ways the security situation could rapidly deteriorate apart from ISIS activity.
As for the Islamic State’s next steps, it will likely turn to its affiliates around the globe, from Nigeria to the Philippines, hoping for another Jihadist break out. While the concept of an “Islamic State” built upon conquest and terror has taken a hit with the ongoing elimination of ISIS, it is only a matter of time before Islamic hardliners overthrow a regime and enforce a hyper-militant form of Islamic supremacy again.
The U.S. and its allies must do everything in their power to avert that outcome. As we assess lessons learned from ISIS’s rise to power, with its wreckage of two countries and hundreds of thousands of casualties, we are forced to face up to major mistakes of the past.
The Obama White House’s first foreign policy priorities were an at-all-costs Iran deal, and avoiding unfavorable comparisons to Bush-era interventions. Those domestic political calculations came at the price of many lives lost in Iraq and Syria.
After years of half-measures and failures, President Obama found a pathway to roll back ISIS in the latter half of his second term. It was the Trump administration that seized the opportunity and accelerated the anti-ISIS fight so there would be no more delays. Now, the caliphate’s days are truly numbered.
The civilized world has won this battle against the Islamic State, but it is part of a much larger, multi-generational war. Until radical Islam is eradicated in the Middle East and beyond, all celebrations of victory will be temporary, and all advances against jihad subject to reversal.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Now consider the casualties incurred in destroying ISIS over the last few months and compare them to the casualties and horrors caused by ISIS since Hillary et. al. created them. ISIS didn't have the free time to think up and execute their usual horrors about as soon as they were set back on tbeir heels, and it was all downhill for them from there.
For those who act to protract war for whatever reason: Observe and learn.
[DAILYCALLER] Tennessee Titans player Rishard Matthews tweeted Thursday that he’ll quit the NFL if the league implements a rule forcing players to stand during the anthem.
“No I will be done playing football,” Matthews tweeted and ultimately deleted when asked if he would be willing to face punishment for not standing if a new rule is implemented.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hey, snowflake. You are an EMPLOYEE. You are expected to do what your employer tells you to do - while you are at work. You are free to quit - and that is exactly what you should do, if you are unwilling to meet your employer's expectations. No one is irreplaceable.
You and Kaepernick can maybe get jobs together washing cars, or bagging groceries.
#2
Y'all are smirking & snorting, but I feel for the brother. First job I had working for The Man, they made me wear ugly clothes, told me what to do and even wanted me to show up on time. It was living hell. I don't know what I would have done if they asked me to stand for the Star Spangled Banner.
Actually, I'd probably have done it. It's no worse than anything else they wanted and beats the heck out of making french fries or running wind sprints.
#7
OK, fine. Now would you prefer an application to work at Starbucks or at McDonald's? (Spoiler alert: Your salary may not be what you have been accustomed to.)
Posted by: Tom ||
10/13/2017 6:16
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Already a lot of competition in the Professional Aggrieved League. Join y0ur PALs on their socialists circuit through academia, the media and entrainment plantations.
#13
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
#14
Looked up what college degree he has to fall back on. Yeah, I'm smiling too. Apparently he only learned how to catch passes from caperneck for a couple years.
But, what is up with his twit avatard? Is that a Marine uniform?
[AnNahar] Iraq's prime minister on Thursday denied an attack on the Kurds was imminent, in a bid to defuse tensions that had prompted Kurdish peshmerga fighters to temporarily seal off road links with the rest of the country.
"We are not going to use our army to fight our people or to make war on our Kurdish citizens or others," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.
"Our duty is to preserve the unity of our country, to implement the constitution, and to protect citizens and national forces," he told a meeting of tribal leaders from the western province of Anbar.
The rise in tensions came two weeks after Kurdish voters overwhelmingly backed independence in a non-binding referendum that the central government condemned as illegal.
Iraqi Kurdish forces closed the two main roads connecting Arbil and Dohuk with the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... for several hours, a Kurdish military official said.
"The closure was prompted by fears of a possible attack by Iraqi forces on the disputed areas," held by Kurdish forces but outside the autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country, the official said.
Kurdish authorities said late Wednesday they feared Iraqi government forces and allied paramilitary units were gearing up to launch an assault on the autonomous region.
"We're receiving dangerous messages that the Hashed al-Shaabi (paramilitary forces) and federal police are preparing a major attack from the southwest of Kirkuk and north of Mosul against Kurdistan," the Kurdistan Regional Government's Security Council said.
- 'We are fighting a single enemy' -
Security sources said Thursday that Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service and Rapid Response Force had deployed more forces near peshmerga positions around Rashad, a village some 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk city.
The oil-rich province of the same name, areas of which took part in the referendum, is disputed between the Kurds and Baghdad.
Iraq's Joint Operations Command, which groups all pro-government forces, played down the tensions, expressing confidence that dialogue would resolve the problem.
"Our mission is clear: we are fighting a single enemy, ISIS," Brigadier General Yahiya Rassul said, using an Arabic acronym 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.... group.
"All that interests Iraqis... is to liberate our country and beat the terrorist group," he said. "We do not forget the role played by the peshmerga."
He said Iraqi government forces had previously operated close to peshmerga lines near the northern city of Tal Afar.
Asked if there had been movements of Iraqi forces close to peshmerga positions, Colonel Ryan Dillon, front man for the U.S.-led coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq, said: "We don't see that."
The coalition has worked with both peshmerga and Iraqi pro-government forces in the battle to oust IS from areas of Iraq it seized in mid-2014.
"Our mission is clear -- to defeat ISIS," Dillon said.
"We have done that throughout Iraq. We will support the Iraqis in the same way we have in the last three years to make sure that ISIS is defeated."
- Ties cut -
Central authorities severed ties between the Kurdish autonomous region and the outside world after the referendum by cutting international air links.
Neighboring The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Iran, which fear that Iraqi Kurdish moves towards independence could fuel demands from their own sizable Kurdish communities, have also threatened to close their borders to oil exports.
An Iraqi court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of senior Kurdish officials responsible for organizing the referendum, saying they had done so "in contravention of a ruling by the Iraqi supreme court."
The warrant is likely to prove toothless as Baghdad's security forces do not operate inside Kurdistan, but it could stop the officials leaving the region.
Iraq has also launched a probe into Kurdistan's lucrative oil revenues and pledged to expose "corrupt" officials in the region who might have illegally monopolized the market.
[REUTERS] Two of Somalia’s highest-ranking military officials have resigned, state outlets said on Thursday, in moves that could deal a blow to the war-torn Horn of Africa country’s efforts to fight Islamist krazed killers.
Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
For a decade, the weak U.N.-backed government has also been fighting alongside African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops against Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... , which aims to topple the government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam.
On Thursday, state-owned Radio Muqdisho said the army’s Chief of Defence Forces Ahmed Jimale Gedi had stepped down and Defence Minister Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohammed had submitted his resignation to President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo’s cabinet.
"The Cabinet appointed General Abdiweli Jama Hussein ... after Ahmed Jimale Gedi resigned on Thursday," the radio station said, adding that Mohammed’s bid was also accepted.
Radio Muqdishu did not disclose the reasons behind their decisions. Neither the officials themselves nor government spokespeople were immediately available for comment.
Al Qaeda-allied al-Shabaab was driven out of the capital Mogadishu in 2010, but their deadly attacks remain one of the main obstacles to stability in the chaotic nation, which lies along one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
Somalia’s rebuilding efforts have also been hampered by clan rivalries. Rival regions still sometimes take up arms against each other.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Place your bets, ladies and gents, on how long this agreement will last -- will they make it as far as implementation day (December 1) or melt down before then?
[IsraelTimes] The newly signed agreement in Cairo rests on PA resuming control of Gaza but sticking points remain Hamas recognition of Israel, fate of armed wing
The two major Palestinian factions reached a unity agreement Thursday after Egyptian mediation.
Islamist group Hamas, listed as a terror group by Israel, the US and the EU, and the secular Fatah party have ruled over separate territories since a near civil war in 2007.
Here are key points of the agreement and what remains unaddressed:
The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank, will resume full control of Gaza by December 1 at the latest. The PA was kicked out of Gaza in a violent coup 2007 but last month Hamas agreed to hand over civilian power.
All the major Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, will meet in Cairo on November 21 for discussions about forming a unity government.
The border crossings from Gaza with Israel and Egypt will be handed back to the Palestinian Authority in the coming weeks, with a November 1 deadline, according to the Fatah negotiator Azzam al-Ahmed. The crossing with Egypt may require more time for the handover.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Gaza for the first time in a decade in the coming weeks, according to an official from his party.
The issue of tens of thousands of civil servants employed by Hamas will be solved by February 2018, according to Hamas’s Al-Aqsa television.
Punitive measures taken by the PA against Gaza, including reductions in energy payments for the strip, are expected to be relieved.
Still to be resolved
The future of Hamas’s 25,000-strong military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was not mentioned in any of the public statements or documents.
Israel has said it will reject any agreement in which Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, does not disarm, as has the United States. Israel has also demanded it end all terror activity against Israel,and release the remains of two IDF soldiers killed in the 2014 summer war between Israel and Hamas.
Recognition of Israel was also not mentioned. The Abbas-led Palestine Liberation Organization has recognized Israel, while Hamas has not as it is vowed to its destruction.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist group by the United States and European Union, and Western diplomats say they could not accept any government of which Hamas is a part unless it recognizes Israel.
A senior Paleostinian official told French news agency AFP the agreement is set to include 3,000 Paleostinian Authority coppers deployed in the Gazoo Strip and near its border crossings with Israel and Egypt by November 1.
"This effectively means the Paleostinian Authority would resume both security and civil responsibility (in Gazoo)", the official said.
[IsraelTimes] Lead negotiator Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terror chief who Israel says planned 2014 kidnapping, killing of 3 Israeli teens, explains rationale behind Paleostinian reconciliation.
Reports from Egypt Thursday, quoted by Israel Radio, said Hamas was not prepared to disarm. The Islamist terror group was said to have instead agreed, under the terms of the emerging reconciliation deal, that it would not use its weaponry unless a resort to force was approved by a joint panel. There was no immediate official confirmation of this.
Israel’s Channel 10 reported last week that Israeli officials fear Arouri’s powerful position in Hamas could lead to an upsurge in terror if Fatah-Hamas reconciliation goes ahead, since Fatah could give Hamas greater flexibility and freedom in the West Bank.
Celebrations broke out in the Gazoo Strip after the announcement of the deal on Thursday, with residents waving flags of Egypt, Paleostine, Fatah and Hamas.
#1
Looking at the charts, whites are wildly underrepresented in all categories. Since we know that any difference in outcome is de facto racism, I propose an affirmative action program to help white men and women live up to their full criminal potential. This will require education, youth intervention for those who show no signs of criminality and on-the-job training programs. It will also require a big pile of dollars.
#10
If a third of blacks live in poverty that's about 4 percent of the population. Statistically they mark white poverty at 10 percent. That's about 7.5+ percent of the population. So, in raw numbers that means whites should be twice as numerous in the crime column as blacks if poverty was the only factor.
[NEWSINFO.INQUIRER.NET] Government security forces recovered 24 remains suspected to belong to pro-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.... holy warriors following aerial bombings and ground assaults that lasted until late Tuesday.
The recovery of the bodies, including one that appeared to be a foreigner, from two locations inside the main battle area brought to 64 the number of bodies and skeletal remains recovered this week alone.
Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the 24 bodies were found in two buildings that button men from the Maute group and their allies occupied.
But in a presser in Camp Aguinaldo on Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr., spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said 22 cadavers were recovered, some of whom were suspected to be remains of leaders of the Maute group.
"We are also interested to find out if there are prominent people ... killed. This is the reason why we are asking the PNP (Philippine National Police) to conduct the DNA testing faster to identify [them], because one or two of them might be the leaders of this group," Padilla said.
AFP chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año had announced in September that the Maute brothers‐Abdullah, Madi and Otto‐had been killed in the fighting.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... another brother, Omar, and Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... leader Isnilon Hapilon were believed to still be alive, Año had said.
Galvez said firearms were found near the bodies retrieved recently.
"They are all confirmed members of Maute and Abu Sayyaf [groups]. There were no indications they were civilians or hostages," Galvez told news hounds.
He said they were expecting to find more bodies inside the main battle area as soldiers continued to move toward areas occupied by button men spread out in about 4 hectares in Marawi.
About 800 Maute fighters have been killed since the fighting started here on May 23, military officials said.
At least 159 soldiers and 47 non-combatants were killed as the government engaged holy warriors who laid siege to Marawi.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Maute group (IS)
#1
Recover? Let em rot where they fell
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/13/2017 8:38
Comments ||
Top||
[Ynet] Egypt has extended a state of emergency for another three months, starting Friday, the official gazette said on Thursday.
Egypt first imposed the state of emergency in April after two church bombings killed at least 45 people. It was then extended in July for a further three months.
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.
[FOX] The FBI and Justice Department have turned down or ignored every request since March from the House Intelligence Committee seeking information about the controversial anti-Trump dossier, according to a review of congressional records by Fox News. 
[Guardian] A prank almost proved fatal when a 28-year-old man got a whole live dover sole stuck in his throat.
[Daily Caller] WASHINGTON ‐ The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Puerto Rico received multiple allegations from residents across the island who say local officials in the territory have withheld needed FEMA supplies.
[WAPO] It’s a specter that should stalk the nightmares of Republican leaders: a Senate chamber, packed on Christmas Eve, as lawmakers gather to decide the fate of a tax package that will shape the GOP’s political fortunes. The bill remains one vote shy, and then Sen. John McCain walks in, pauses before the desk, and delivers his second thumbs-down dagger of the year. 
[REUTERS] Representatives of Afghanistan, China, Pakistain and the United States will meet in Oman next week to discuss reviving peace talks with Afghan Talibs, an Afghan official and a Pak foreign ministry source said on Wednesday.
[PJMEDIA] NBC late-night host Seth Meyers on Wednesday night burned bridges with any remaining viewers of his who still support President Trump, telling them to go away and flipping them off.
North Korea
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...Trump administration's ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems...
[THE HILL] ISIS’s reign of terror is rapidly coming to an end. Within a matter of days, the jihadist menace that shocked the world for years with its pathological sadism will lose its final strongholds within the Syrian city of Raqqa. It has taken 5 months of bloody struggle but the de facto capital of the Islamic State will soon be entirely in the hands of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
[DAILYCALLER] Tennessee Titans player Rishard Matthews tweeted Thursday that he’ll quit the NFL if the league implements a rule forcing players to stand during the anthem.
Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
[NEWSINFO.INQUIRER.NET] Government security forces recovered 24 remains suspected to belong to pro-
The impacts on his family will undoubtedly be devastating. 
