[Townhall] Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace where he lambasted Democrats, leaks stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Investigation, and President Trump’s Department of Justice.
Rep. Gowdy slammed his left leaning colleagues in Congress, accusing them of trying to score political points in the Russian investigations, rather than trying to get to the truth. Citing the fact that authorities have confirmed that Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee’s e-mail, Gowdy wondered why Democrats are only focusing on spurious relationships between President Trump’s administration and obscure Russian figures.
"They tried to attack the fundamentals of our democracy and that’s what I’ve spent 2017 focusing on," he said. "That to me is an American issue. I wish the Democrats were a little bit more concerned instead of reading the Moscow phonebook during the witnesses interviews trying to see if Jared Kushner knows a guy named Igor. I wish they’d help," he said Sunday. "That’s been my focus in 2017 is understanding that Russia tried to subvert our democracy, and it’d be great if my Democratic friends helped a little bit."
He continued, "That's the most important thing to me is how unserious the Democrats in the house have been about uncovering all of the facts," he said. "I am interested in who paid for the dossier because that helps you understand motive and intent and whether or not you can rely on the document. I am much more interested in whether or not the Department of Justice and the FBI relied upon that dossier and initiating a counterintelligence investigation or in court findings."
#1
This from the man who SHOULD be our Attorney General.
Anyone notice how the Fusion GPS discussions in the media and elsewhere appear to be moving away from former MI6 agent Christopher Steele and the FBI ?
FBI agents for special counsel Robert Mueller have interviewed former CIA Director James Woolsey regarding allegations that former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn discussed a possibly illegal removal of a Turkish cleric from the U.S.
"Ambassador Woolsey and his wife have been in communication with the FBI regarding the Sept. 19, 2016 meeting Ambassador Woolsey was invited to attend by one of Gen. Flynn's business partners," Woolsey spokesman Jonathan Franks said in a statement. "Ambassador Woolsey and his wife have responded to every request, whether from the FBI, or, more recently, the Office of the Special Counsel."
The FBI has communicated with Woolsey both before and after Mueller’s team took over, according to an NBC News on Friday.
Woolsey revealed in March that Flynn discussed with Turkish officials the possibility of removing Fethullah Gulen from the U.S. The Muslim cleric has been blamed by the Turkish government for helping spur last summer's attempted coup to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government.
Flynn met in New York with Turkish officials last year when he was a lieutenant general and had been advising the Trump campaign. He reportedly said that Gulen could be removed from the country without using the U.S. extradition legal process.
Flynn was removed from his post at the White House earlier this year after it was revealed Flynn misled the administration about his sanctions-related communications with Russians prior to Trump’s inauguration. Emphasis added
#1
Fetullah Gulen was never going to be sent back to Turkey, unless of course as the post-Erdogan, Klingon sanctioned, regime change leader of the country.
Mike Flynn read the tea leaves wrong on that one. Obviously he wasn't 'read on' to the project.
#2
Liberal media (CBS for one, CNN for another) reports Mueller's grand jury indicted someone on Friday with the charges to be unwrapped Monday. Speculation wavers between Manafort and Flynn as the subject of the indictment. Can't help wondering when they'll get around to Hillary.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/29/2017 14:45
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#3
Do I need a /sarc tag for that last sentence?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/29/2017 14:46
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#4
My money is on Deep State arch enemy Mike Flynn.
Nothing will happen to the Hildebeest. To take her down would be to take Soetoro down. Our first Kenyan master cannot and will not be seen as a failure. If it were possible for us to 'fast forward' fifty years, it might be amazing to discover the 'Christ-like' figure he had become.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/29/2017 15:06
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#7
I have great respect and admiration for Jeff Sessions but I still can't help wondering if it wouldn't be better to have Chris Christie as AG. I know Christie has his faults but seems like he would be an aggressive bulldog at DOJ and I'd love to see him bite Hillary's butt.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/29/2017 15:09
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#8
Think if you will, where General David Petraeus might be today had he not met Paula Broadwell. Donald Trump was an outlier. The intended future president was the Hildebeest. She had been selected a number of years previously. These knuckle-dragging military people just get in the way. They must be dealt with.
Maxine Waters (D-CA) has rebranded herself in the Trump Era as a strong public servant standing up to the corrupt, demagogic president. Repeatedly, she has harangued the president during speeches that range from AIDS fundraisers to LGBT Gala award dinners.
Today in Michigan, Waters led a raucous chorus at a women's rally, chanting "Impeach 45! Impeach 45!" But, people would be wise to remember that her career is one of corruption and failure.
Rep. Waters has passed just three bills in her 27 years in Congress. That means on average, Waters produces something noteworthy for constituents every 9 years. One of the bills was renaming a Post Office. Impressive stuff.
In the interim, she is busy making money for her family and allies. Her family has accrued more than a million dollars during her time in the House, according to Red Alert Politics.
Furthermore, the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has given Rep. Waters the most corrupt member of congress four separate times. Waters' shady financial dealings should concern all Americans. Democrats still have produced nothing that shows President Trump should be impeached, but financial kickbacks abound for liberal members of Congress like the "great stateswoman" Waters in a slew of various ways.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2017
12:09 ||
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#1
Her major responsibility is to procure hats for Frederica Wilson
#4
Her family has accrued more than a million dollars during 27 years
is about saving 30,000 per year and a bit of interest
So not very corrupt then TBH, she's just loonatic chaffe to make people look the other way at real big corruption.
#8
Some bums say duh gummint is crummy
And Waters a wigmaker's dummy,
But I say: From Congress,
This model of progress
Shows home doesn't gotta be slummy!
#9
Her children of color are clerking,
Few shirking, and one or two twerking.
Though taxing, the District
Makes Max optimistic:
"Hey, looky here! Head Start is working!"
Agree that the visible million bucks is chickenfeed, but hasn't she been a river to her people? And there's the gruesome high-profile example set for millions of kids... who can put a price on that?
[Townhall] I do not write these words lightly, and there is not an ounce of mockery or, God forbid, hatred in my heart when I say that Caitlyn Jenner is a man wearing a dress. I am simply speaking the plain and obvious truth, as politically incorrect as that truth might be right now. But with transgender issues dominating the news these days, and in light of Tucker Carlson’s epic takedown of Democratic leader Zac Petkanas on national TV last week (specifically, discussing gender-related questions), it appears that now is as good a time as ever to state some things clearly.
So then, to avoid all ambiguity: No, you do not get to choose your gender; no, gender is not determined by the level of your personal enlightenment (as Petkanas alleged); no, your gender does not change simply because you announce that it has changed; and no, it is not good science to allow people to change their sexual identity on their birth certificates. In fact, there is nothing scientific about that at all.
This being said, I do not minimize for a moment the very real struggle of precious little children who struggle deeply with their gender identity, nor do I deny that many children (and adults) report that their lives are more stable and fulfilled when they identify as the opposite of their biological sex.
[WSJ] WASHINGTON‐An influential home builders group will oppose the House Republicans’ forthcoming tax bill, in a blow to the party’s attempt to forge unity among business sectors.
The National Association of Home Builders, which had expressed openness to changes in the mortgage-interest deduction, decided it couldn’t back the GOP bill. The association’s leaders made the decision after top Republicans told them this weekend that they wouldn’t replace deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes with a new tax credit.
Instead, the bill will retain an itemized deduction for property taxes, the House Ways and Means Committee said late Saturday. That is a concession to lawmakers from high-tax states such as New York and New Jersey.
"It’s a bad bill for the housing sector," Jerry Howard, CEO of the builders group, said in an interview on Saturday. "We will not be for it."
House Republicans plan to release their tax bill on Wednesday. The tax legislation is the centerpiece of the GOP’s economic and political agenda, and many details have been closely guarded as lawmakers try to build a coalition to push it through the House before Thanksgiving.
#1
The third possibility, if they choose to make this the hill they die on, is to reduce the deduction or remove it altogether -- the Democrats in the House mostly come from those high tax states.
#3
Why should people in modest income red states subsidize the mortgages of million dollar homes in San Francisco or New York City?
"It’s a bad bill for the housing sector,"
No, its bad for the realty business' ever speculating home prices upward. Ah, poor baby. Those who can adjust by making more affordable housing won't see a slump. Which means those HGTV homes won't be what will constitute the largest selling market.
#4
Instead, the bill will retain an itemized deduction for property taxes, the House Ways and Means Committee said late Saturday. That is a concession to lawmakers from high-tax states such as New York and New Jersey.
Texas doesn't have an income tax, but does have a hefty property tax. So its just not New York or New Jersey.
#5
If there's no mortgage interest deduction, about half of the people who itemize deductions (on Schedule A) will no longer be able to itemize. This is what happens when tax weenies decide they have to 'pay for' tax cuts elsewhere.
#7
Simplification always works best. Interest deduction was an incentive to borrow money and make housing more affordable; however, with all these type of short term solutions that turn into status quo the market prices adjust (both on loans and home prices). The benefit to home buyers is minimal today and the cost to taxpayers not taking the deduction is unfair. Get rid of the deduction and maybe more people will payoff their mortgage.
#8
So the roughly 100% increase in the standard deduction wouldn't offset this? (unless you're into buying starter castles or taking 60-year notes)
Schedule A also covers charitable deductions, state and local taxes paid (also on the block), employment expenses plus a couple more. Didn't pull one up to look.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/29/2017 12:50
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#9
When you are about to go bust you increase income and/or reduce spending. These lizards arent taking a pay cut. So they will take more from the middle class.
#10
The bill also increases the standard deduction for $12K to $24K. So this only hurts people with interest and property tax in excess of $12K. That's the upper middle class, not the middle class.
We over invest in housing because of this federal subsidy. It's one reason housing costs more than it should. The same thing is true of medical costs. The primary cause of high medical costs is the deductibility of health insurance premiums for companies.
Every time the government intervenes in markets to try to "help" someone, it ends up creating distortions that hurt society overall.
The sixteenth amendment should be repealed and the federal government should go back to excise taxes and a sales tax.
Posted by: Heriberto Lover of the Hatfields1923 ||
10/29/2017 14:28
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#11
The thing that infuriates me is all this tax cut talk and not one bit of talk from Congress about decreaasing the size of the federal government. If you do not do that, it will be bankrupt and insolvent and collapse. Congress has all the authority to spend but no fiduciary responsibility. This is a recipe for disaster.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/29/2017 14:34
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#12
I've been watching these home builder for decades now and I have zero sympathy for them. Ask them how they feel about the sub prime mortgages that are still happening even after the 2008 mortgage meltdown. Yeah, you make the mortgages painless at the outset but increasingly painful and the mortgagee gets deeper into it. But with no money down required it's no surprise that home prices skyrocket. Well, you can imagine how the home builders feel about that. They pocket the money and when the house of cards falls the taxpayers get stuck with the bailout. Housing prices fall when all those houses go into foreclosure and it's really funny then to listen to the developers and politicians. who've been screaming for decades about how we need more affordable housing, talk about how we need to get housing prices back up where they were. Two faced sons of bitches. But you know damn well the politicians will give home builders what they want because home builders give the politicians what they want.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/29/2017 14:59
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#13
Avg home price in San Diego County is $590K
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2017 15:16
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#14
This was an anti-capitalist subsidy.
Good for Trump to remove this most rentier of tax-breaks for the elite.
#15
It's not quite true that removing the mortgage interest deduction only helps the upper-upper middle class and wealthy.
People who've had to remortgage modest homes in order to cover healthcare for loved ones could be hit hard with this shift. A combination of higher interest rates / having to pay mortgage payments on a house that could have been paid off earlier, plus seriously onerous medical bills, could easily exceed what a $24k standard deduction would mean for them. Net = negative impact on such families.
It's true that someone will be hit by any changes. But it's not true that this particular proposed change will only hurt mini-mansion owners.
[Sultan Knish] "We cannot allow to fall back into pre-globalization times," German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned.
Merkel was welcoming Obama back to Berlin for the last time. The election had been fought and won nine days earlier. And Obama and Merkel were defending globalism against President-elect Trump.
To Merkel and Obama, returning to pre-globalization times was every bit as mad as going back to the caves. Globalization had become synonymous with civilization. And its prophets, like Thomas Friedman, traced back its rise to the fall of the Berlin Wall in the city where Merkel and Obama were chatting.
...By the time Merkel and Obama were mourning what Trump’s victory and Brexit meant for globalization, Berlin had become a wonderful laboratory for observing the end results of their philosophy. Haunted by the specter of national decline and falling birth rates, Merkel had opened her country’s borders to a million Muslim migrants who had flooded in from the Middle East and from as far away as Afghanistan.
The migrants were supposed to supplement the German workforce. Syrians would build the Mercedes coupes of tomorrow, Pakistanis would put together Siemens ultrasound devices and Somalis would produce Bayer’s pharmaceuticals. There would be no need for Germany to continue exploring the Japanese model of smarter automation to replace a falling population. Globalization would provide.
But the migrants weren’t coming to Germany to work. And they aren’t working. It’s still Germans and Eastern Europeans on the floor at Siemens, Mercedes and Bayer. The "refugees" came for Germany’s generous welfare programs. And they’ve wrecked enough of the country that Merkel wants to pay them to leave.
...Globalization moved jobs and production to countries with the lowest standards of living, the least human rights and the greatest government intervention in their economies. It’s no wonder that China thrived or that America declined in that environment. But at the same time it also moved immigrants with the lowest work ethic to America and Germany to benefit from the welfare programs that were meant to soften the economic impact of globalization on the native population.
A former German soccer player and biologist, Robert Jaspert, has been hired as the new head coach of the Hezbollah-backed Lebanese football team Al-Ahed.
The Rheinische Post reported on Saturday that Jaspert, who worked for Al-Ahed ten years ago, is back this time as the team's top coach. The RP wrote that "Al-Ahed is supported by Hezbollah."
The US, Canada, Israel, the Arab League and the Netherlands classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The EU and Germany designated Hezbollah's so-called military wing a terrorist entity.
It is unclear if direct Hezbollah funds are to pay for Jaspert's salary.
[DW] German courts have sentenced numerous German nationals for joining foreign Islamist Lions of Islam in recent years. Abshir A. and Ozkan C. have been found guilty of joining Somalia's al-Shabaab and Syria's Junud al-Sham.
A court in the German city of Frankfurt on Friday separately found two German nationals guilty of joining foreign Islamist bad boy groups.
The court sentenced the first, Abshir A., to two years and ten months in prison for joining al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... in Somalia, an Islamist terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda. It sentenced the second, Ozkan C., to two years and eight months for being a member of Junud al-Sham in Syria, a Sunni bad boy group.
The Hessian radical
A., who was born in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, but grew up in the German state of Hesse, fought along al-Shabaab Lions of Islam between early 2012 and early 2014.
The 29-year-old completed four months of combat training upon arrival before being transferred to an al-Shabaab base, but was forced to stop fighting due to an unidentified physical affliction. A. denied ever fighting with the bad boy group.
German police incarcerated I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! A. after he arrived at Frankfurt airport with falsified documents in July 2016.
The linguistic firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
C., who was born in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... but also grew up in Germany, joined Junud al-Sham along with his wife in 2013.
While in Syria, he taught Arabic to other German-speaking al-Sham fighters and was given weapons training.
Junud al-Sham had been fighting in Syria's deadly civil war before many of its members left to join the terrorist organization "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.... C. returned to Germany in late 2013, where he promoted radical Islamist organizations before police arrested him in 2016.
Cracking down on imported terror
German courts have sentenced a number of German nationals for joining foreign Islamist groups in recent years.
In 2016, five men were given prison sentences for joining al-Shabaab and three other men prison sentences for joining Death Eater groups in Syria.
[AlAhram] At least nine coppers were killed Saturday in separate attacks by Taliban ...Arabic for students... faceless myrmidons on police checkpoints in eastern Ghazni province, a provincial official said.
Arif Noori, front man for the provincial governor, said two police checkpoints came under attack by Taliban fighters in the early hours, also wounding two police. He said six faceless myrmidons were killed and nine others were maimed in the battle, which lasted almost an hour.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack, according to their front man Zabihullah Mujahid. He said 14 police were killed, including both commanders of the checkpoints.
Afghan forces have struggled to combat a resurgent Taliban since U.S. and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, switching to a counterterrorism and support role.
In another report form eastern Pashtun-infested Logar province, one person was maimed when a military helicopter made an emergency landing as it was taking off and hit a tree, said Salim Saleh, front man for the provincial governor.
The NATO mission in Afghanistan, Resolute Support, confirmed a helicopter incident in Pashtun-infested Logar in a statement. It provided no additional details.
Saleh said the accident took place in Kharwar district while the helicopter was supporting an ongoing operation to eliminate faceless myrmidons from the district.
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban front man, claimed their fighters shot down the helicopter in Karwar district Friday night.At least nine coppers were killed Saturday in separate attacks by Taliban faceless myrmidons on police checkpoints in eastern Ghazni province, a provincial official said.
[Ynet] A Salafist imam was rubbed out by button men early on Saturday in Aden, southern Yemen, witnesses and local officials said, the third killing of a Salafist imam this month.
Sheikh Adel Al Shehri, imam of a mosque in Inmaa district west of Aden, was shot while he was heading to the mosque for morning prayers. No one has grabbed credit for the three killings and no motive has been made clear, but some of the ultra-conservative Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... back secession for southern Yemen, and have been a major component of the breakaway southern army.
A former Aden governor has declared a council that seeks secession for southern Yemen. A referendum on independence would be announced soon, he said.
[Libya Observer] The commander of the so-called Libyan Army Khalifa Haftar is scheduled to arrive in Egypt ‘s Cairo Saturday to discuss possible Egyptian airstrikes on Derna and other cities like Ajdabiya, The New Arab reported Egyptian sources as saying.
The New Arab added that a meeting between Haftar and his accompanying delegation and the Head of the Egyptian committee on Libyan affairs as well as Chief of Staff Ahmad Hijazy will take place Saturday and several issues will be reviewed.
As Egyptian fingers were pointed lately at the claim that the individuals who conducted the last attack in Wahat in Egypt came through the border with Libya, the sources added that cooperation on border security with Haftar’s forces will also be discussed, in addition to the results of Al-Sisi and French President’s talks on the Libyan crisis, the UK-based newspaper added.
It indicated that a relative alteration in Egyptian vision for the solution of Libya’s crisis has surfaced as Cairo will be pushing forth the military solution led by Haftar regardless of the ongoing UN action plan implementation that had already started in Tunisia talks last month.
This push of Egypt sees eye to eye with Haftar‘s efforts to seize Libya including the capital’s control, which belongs until now to the UN-brokered government led by Fayez Al-Sirraj, the newspaper reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
00:30 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The former chief of the military intelligence of Pakistain, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Asad Durrani has claimed that the United States wants military in Afghanistan from Pakistain.
In an interview with the Russia Today, US wants Pakistain to establish and maintain a military presence in Afghanistan but will not pay for the cost of such an expedition.
Durrani went on to claim that there has been no change in the new US policy, apparently guestuirng that Washington was supposed to prioritize peace and stability in the country and region rather than opting military presence.
"Essentially the policy remains the same and that is you have to dig in Afghanistan, stay there, keep the bases, keep the military presence. That is more important than either peace there or settlement there," he added.
He aso ruled out that Pakistain is dependent to America as he was gesturing towards the recent US decisions to reduce military help to Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
00:29 ||
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#1
Well, you conniving bastard, you don't have the money to do because you've spent so much money supporting the Taliban and other groups that have metastasized against you...
You are the personification of evil in the region, your games and schemes are destroying your country and all around it in the name of what?
[Daily Caller] CNN’s reporting on the Trump-Russia dossier has left out at least one crucial fact: the close ties between the network and the opposition research firm at the center of the dossier controversy.
CNN’s reporting on the dossier, led by justice correspondent Evan Perez, has been favorable to the firm, Fusion GPS, and hyped the dossier’s credibility. Left out of Perez’s reporting, which has relied largely on unnamed sources, is his personal closeness to Fusion GPS’ operatives. Fusion has repeatedly been described in Senate testimonies as a smear-for-hire operation that manufactures misleading or false media narratives for its clients.
Glenn Simpson, the Fusion co-founder most often associated with the dossier, is used to working on stories with Perez. As reporters at The Wall Street Journal, Perez and Simpson regularly co-authored stories on national security.
Another Fusion founder, Tom Catan, worked as a reporter for the Journal at the same time as Perez and Simpson. The third Fusion co-founder, Peter Fritsch, worked above Perez and Simpson as the senior national security editor.
Simpson and Fritsch left the WSJ in 2011 to launch Fusion. Perez jumped from the paper to CNN in 2013. Another longtime Journal reporter, Neil King, left the paper to join Fusion in December 2016.
#2
Apparently fake news is a profit center while pushing propaganda for the team you support. Maybe a few months ago the CNN Trump Russian WAR-ROOM team should of just walked down the hall to find their answers.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Islamabad once again revealed its opposition against the sale of modern unmanned aerial vehicles or drones by the United States to India.
A front man for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistain Nafees Zakaria told news hounds on Friday that the balance of power in the region would be disrupted because of the deal.
Zakaria further added that providing sensitive military technology to India was akin to incitement of its ’misadventures’.
"Global powers should be aware of their international responsibilities before making such agreements," he added.
According to Zakaria, the international agreements, regulations and treaties should be considered before providing India any such technology.
According to reports, India is expected to receive the US-made unmanned aerial vehicles from the United States under an agreement reached between 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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The agreement worth around $2 billion was concluded between the leaders of the two countries in the month of June this year.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... the sale and supply of the unmanned aerial vehicles to India will be only possible once the agreement has been approved by the US congress.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
00:27 ||
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#1
But what are we supposed to do with all these ex State department employees?
Oh, different drones. Sorry.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/29/2017 14:35
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[Wash Examiner] The House Intelligence Committee reached a settlement with Fusion GPS on Saturday, giving the panel access to the private intelligence firm's bank records as part of its investigation into the so-called Steele dossier on President Trump.
"The parties have reached an agreement related to the House Intelligence committee's subpoena for Fusion GPS's bank records that will secure the committee's access to the records necessary for its investigation," the committee said in a statement.
Fusion GPS was first retained by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, during the 2016 GOP primary to perform opposition research on Trump.
Marc Elias, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign also hired the firm to look into her general election opponent, a move that eventually produced the dossier after Fusion hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy.
The House panel is working to determine who paid for the research behind the dossier, which contained several salacious allegations against Trump. It was not immediately clear when Fusion GPS's bank records would be turned over to the committee.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2017 9:32
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#2
by the way - "Fusion GPS was first retained by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, during the 2016 GOP primary to perform opposition research on Trump." is misleading.
It was on him and other POTUS candidates
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2017 9:34
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#3
Is this all of the financial records, or just some of the "banking" records?
Whenever a "deal" is struck instead of a subpoena, I suspect immediately that something stink!
#5
Not mentioned is the fact that the records will not be released to the public, because, of course, we have no right to know what the hell they were up to.
#6
Not mentioned is the fact that the records will not be released to the public, because, of course, we have no right to know what the hell they were up to.
Well if full financial disclosure is not made, the inquiring mind could possibly default to funding from some sort of gov't entity or 'deep state' cabal. But there I go again, thinking the very worst of our beltway betters.
Key take away: "House Intelligence Committee strikes deal with Fusion GPS for firm's bank records"
What would prevent a Justice Department subpoena of all documents? Why do we need a "deal".
[DAWN] The deputy governor of Afghanistan’s Kunar province, Qazi Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi, was kidnapped from Peshawar’s Dabgari area on Friday, officials said.
Mr Ahmadi is a leader of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i-Islami which signed a peace deal with the Afghan government in September last year.
The local law enforcement agencies did not know about Mr Ahmadi’s visit until his abduction was reported by his relatives and the Afghan consulate in Peshawar took up the matter with Pakistani authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
00:17 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The United States will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and any nuclear attack by Pyongyang will meet a massive military response, the US defence chief warned.
James Mattis made the comments in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday at a joint presser with his counterpart Song Young-moo, a day after visiting the demilitarised zone that has divided the two Koreas since the 1950-53 war on the peninsula.
"Make no mistake - any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated," Mattis said. "Any use of nuclear weapons will be met with a massive military response.
"I can't imagine a condition under which the United States will accept North Korea as a nuclear power... Our combined effort is to deter that sort of threat or to have military options - many different military options - that would realistically reduce that threat as low as possible. And yes, we do have those options," the defence secretary said.
The North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper accused the US and South Korea on Saturday of "crazily beating the drum of confrontation".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Joint Operations Command in Iraq announced that its forces have found a mass grave which included 50 bodies belonging to members of the army and police in Hawija district.
The joint operations said in a statement that ISIS executed government forces in the village of Bakara in the center of Hawija during terror attacks, launched on areas south-west of Kirkuk.
The statement added that legal procedures will be taken to investigate the cemetery and examine the remains in it.
Earlier in October, army sources said that security forces found two mass graves containing the remains of dozens of members of the army and police who were killed by gunnies in the village of Abu Sakhra, southeast of Hawija.
On Oct. 8, Iraqi forces fully restored the center of al Kadhaa, located south-west of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... from the control of the bad boy organization.
For his part, the police captain of Kirkuk Hamid al-Obaidi told Anatolia that the security forces were commissioned to conduct searches and investigate the mass graves of the army and police in the province of Hawija.
Obaidi has dozens of soldiers whose fate is unknown since 2014.
In the summer of 2014, ISIS controlled large areas in the province of Diyala in the east of the country. Iraqi army forces, supported by the International coalition, carried out large-scale military operations in which they liberated the seized areas.
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10/29/2017
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
Russia, in a little-noticed move, has carried out a barrage of missile tests across its Arctic territories in what’s described as one of the most massive nuclear missile drills in post-Soviet history.
The Independent Barents Observer reports that Russia’s military fired four ballistic missiles, two in each direction, across the Arctic hemisphere on Thursday evening. The exercises are the latest in what Scandinavian analysts say is a noticeable rise in Russian military activity in a region whose economic importance is growing due to global warming.
The Norway-based news website says two missiles were launched from a Pacific Fleet submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk towards the Chizha test range on the Kanin Peninsula in Arkhangelsk. A Northern Fleet submarine, in another test, is said to have launched another ballistic missile from the Barents Sea. This missile reportedly hit a target in the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East.
A Topol ballistic missile was also launched the same day from Plesetsk in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region, reportedly streaking across the Arctic before its dummy warhead hit a target at the Kura test range in northern Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East
Long-range Russian Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, as well as Tu-22M bombers are also said to have tested cruise missiles in Kamchatka in the Far East and in Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledged the tests and said that all were completed successfully.
Russia has accelerated a military buildup in its Arctic region over the last several years. The activity includes the construction of new Arctic bases and the deployment of specialized Arctic military units and equipment, including helicopters, icebreakers and armored vehicles. Moscow is also reportedly developing a new class of nuclear-powered destroyers that can protect its Northern Sea Route.
[AlAhram] Canadian special forces have temporarily suspended military assistance to Iraqi troops due to tensions between the Middle Eastern country's military and Kurdish fighters, the defense ministry said Friday.
Cooperation will resume "once more clarity exists regarding the inter-relationships of Iraqi security forces, and the key priorities and tasks going forward," said Dan Le Bouthillier, a front man for Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan.
Earlier Friday, Iraqi forces paused operations against the Kurds to allow for talks after the two sides -- both armed and trained by the US -- exchanged heavy artillery fire in the latest flare-up of a crisis sparked by a Kurdish independence vote last month.
Canada, which is part of the international coalition fighting 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, said that although its special forces were suspending their mission in training and assisting Iraqi forces in the country's north, its work in other areas continued.
That includes supporting the coalition in tactical aviation, intelligence, targeting, command and control, and at a medical facility.
Canada tripled its special forces contingent in Iraq in February 2016 to 210 troops.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi Kurdistan’s veteran leader Masoud Barzani will not extend his presidential term beyond Nov. 1, a Kurdish government official said on Saturday.
His decision came just weeks after a referendum on Kurdish independence backfired and triggered a crisis for Iraq’s Kurds who had been enjoying a period of unprecedented autonomy.
A plan to divide up the president’s powers was outlined in a letter Barzani sent to the Kurdish parliament on Saturday, the official told Rooters. The plan asks parliament to distribute the president’s powers among the government, parliament and judiciary.
Barzani’s current term was set to expire in four days, the same date that presidential and parliamentary elections were due to be held. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... those elections were delayed indefinitely last week, amidst an escalating regional crisis.
Critics say the Sept. 25 independence referendum, orchestrated and championed by the 71-year-old Barzani, has left a bleak outlook for Iraq’s Kurds.
Less than four weeks after Kurds in the region voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq, the central government launched a military offensive to wrest back the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... which the Kurds regard as both their spiritual homeland, and a key source of revenue for their would-be independent state. It was one of several retaliatory measures taken by Baghdad, which vehemently opposed the referendum.
In a matter of days the Iraqi government has transformed the balance of power in the north of the country, exerting tremendous pressure on Barzani to step aside and wrecking decades-old dreams of Kurdish independence. Iraqi forces have continued to advance on all Kurdish-held territory outside the autonomous region’s borders.
Iraq’s prime minister demanded on Thursday that Kurds declare their independence referendum void, rejecting the Kurdish autonomous region’s offer to suspend its independence push to resolve a crisis through talks.
Earlier this year, Barzani said he did not intend to stand in the November elections. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... prior to the referendum, few expected he would stick to his promise.
Barzani has held the office of the presidency since 2005. The region last held a presidential election in 2009, in which Barzani won. His term of office expired in 2013 and was extended twice.
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ANTANANARIVO: In Madagascar, ceremonies in which families exhume the remains of dead relatives, rewrap them in fresh cloth and dance with the corpses are a sacred ritual.
But an outbreak of plague sweeping the Indian Ocean island nation has prompted warnings that the macabre spectacle, known as the turning of the bones or body turning, presents a serious risk of contamination.
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10/29/2017 9:36
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#3
What dance steps? Waltz? Tango? Foxtrot? If things get out of hand and they wind up in the hoosgaw does it cost them an arm and a leg to make bail? This is on good reason for cremation.
#4
"so they invent things to get cash from lenders," said Ralisiarisoa
Yeah, nothing starts the loan officer to cutting checks like talk about a plague outbreak. (Whatever it takes to get you out of my office...)
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10/29/2017 14:31
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#5
Plague is endemic in Madagascar. Although nobody knows why the outbreak is larger this year.
Pro-Russian media are claiming that an Israeli F-35I was hit and damaged by a Russian-made S-200 surface-to-air missile during an Israeli air strike in Syria earlier this month. Israel says one of its F-35s was damaged—after colliding with a bird.
#3
Because most Soviet missiles of that type are proximity weapons, exploding at a preset distance from the target and using quantities of shrapnel to fatally damage the target, I would add some validity to this. We are using pre-WWII soviet technology as the basis of our stealth program and you would think the Russians would be able to delve into the math and figure out countermeasures.
BTW spraying the sky with countermeasures only makes you that much easier to find.
I gave your link a word to attach to, Albemarle Dingle5877. Next time type a word or phrase, select it, and then click on the link icon and paste in the URL.
Update at 12:25 a.m.: Fixed my fix -- how horribly embarrassing.
#10
The original source is southfront.org, a Russian propaganda site justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They now do the same for the Russian intervention in support of the terrorist Assad family. About as credible as Batboy.
Leaders at the church that George Washington attended decided that a plaque honoring the first president of the United States must be removed.
Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia will take down a memorial marking the pew where Washington sat with his family, saying it is not acceptable to all worshipers.
"The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome," leaders said, a reference to the fact that Washington was a slaveholder.
"Some visitors and guests who worship with us choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques."
"Many in our congregation feel a strong need for the church to stand clearly on the side of 'all are welcome- no exceptions,'" they concluded.
A memorial to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee will also come down.
The decision comes in the wake of renewed controversy over whether statues honoring Civil War figures should be no longer honored. The debate broke out again over the summer after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia killed one and injured others.
President Trump expressed concern that the censoring of Confederate generals would lead to dishonoring Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as well.
#1
these asshats need to read their history and if they actually sacrificed more than George Washington, well good for them but I highly doubt they even come close, they need to de deported really!
#2
The church leaders in this case are being cowards and hypocrites. If Washington and his ilk attended this facility, then the taint and the invisible stain of shame can never be remedied by removing mere plaques. The church itself must be raised to the ground. All evidence of its very existence must be erased. The purity of personkind must be preserved.
#6
These forefathers through a Great Faith in a Higher Good fought against the slavery of tyranny and high taxation of a crown thereby ushering in s movement that lead to the abolishment of slavery around the world and gave us an industrial revolution that lead mankind to great prosperity. THIS is what the evil on the left finds frightening.
No one should have to pass someone else’s ideological purity test to be allowed to speak. University life — along with civic life — dies without the free exchange of ideas.
In the face of intimidation, educators must speak up, not shut down. Ours is a position of unique responsibility: We teach people not what to think, but how to think.
Realizing and accepting this has made me — an eminently replaceable, untenured, gay, mixed-race woman with PTSD — realize that no matter the precariousness of my situation, I have a responsibility to model the appreciation of difference and care of thought I try to foster in my students.
If I, like so many colleagues nationwide, am afraid to say what I think, am I not complicit in the problem?
At Reed and nationwide, we have largely stayed silent, probably hoping that this extremist moment in campus politics eventually peters out. But it is wishful thinking to imagine that the conversation will change on its own. It certainly won’t change if more voices representing more positions aren’t added to it. . . . Nuance and careful reasoning are not the tools of the oppressor.
#15
thank you TW, Reed, at the epicenter of all this foolishness ( Portland OR ) also just happens to be one of the brainiest colleges in the USA, thankfully you posted this!
[IsraelTimes] Border Police officers placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a suspected member of the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror group in the West Bank on Saturday after finding a pistol hidden in his car.
Police said the man, a Nablus resident in his 20s, was arrested during a search of his vehicle at a checkpoint near the Paleostinian town of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem.
The Paleostinian man raised the suspicion of officers after driving by the checkpoint several times, Army Radio reported.
He was taken in for further investigation, police said, where it was discovered that he was a member of Hamas. It was not immediate clear if he was planning to carry out an attack.
[IsraelTimes] Dozens of Paleostinians managed to cross into Israel through the passages, which were built to serve as drainage pipes
The IDF sealed off 10 tunnels under the security barrier in the West Bank near the city of Hebron, after dozens of Paleostinians reportedly managed to illegally cross into Israeli territory through the passages over the past few weeks.
Each of the tunnels, which were built to serve as drain pipes, was about 1.5 meters (five feet) in diameter and about 20 meters (65 feet) in length, allowing for people to easily cross through them, Israel Radio reported on Friday.
Last week, at least 100 Paleostinians who crossed into Israeli territory via the massive drainage pipes carried out a series of agricultural thefts near Moshav Shekaf, in the Lachish region, stealing dozens of tons of tomatoes and grapes, according to the radio report.
Seventy Paleostinians who were suspected of taking part in the theft were eventually tracked down and caught by the IDF and taken in for questioning.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has named a new armed forces chief of staff, the presidency said in a brief statement on Saturday.
He appointed former defense ministry secretary general Mohammed Farid Hegazy to the post, it said, without giving a reason for the change.
His predecessor Mahmoud Hegazy, who had held the post since March 2014, was named a presidential adviser.
Linked to Sisi through the marriage of their respective children, Mahmoud Hegazy recently returned from Washington where military chiefs had gathered to discuss fighting "terrorism".
Mohammed Farid Hegazy’s appointment is a major change in the military establishment.
Sisi came to power after the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, for whom he had served as defense minister.
The country’s armed forces have since faced an Islamist insurgency including by ISIS, with hundreds of coppers and soldiers killed.
The insurgency is concentrated on North Sinai province, although ISIS has also extended its presence to southern Egypt and the Nile Delta, north of the capital.
[IsraelTimes] Military chief, top security official and several generals sacked, in apparent reaction to ambush outside Cairo last week that killed at least 16.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi replaced his armed forces chief of staff, while the Interior Ministry, in charge of police, dismissed the head of national security, a handful of generals, and a dozen big shots responsible for the area where the deadly shootout occurred.
The move was not unexpected after officials publicly evoked potential intelligence failures, lack of coordination, or incompetence as playing a factor in the losses, the latest installment of Egypt’s ongoing war against Islamic holy warriors, including 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.
Last Friday’s attack took place in the al-Wahat al-Bahriya area in Giza province, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) southwest of Cairo ‐ a gateway into Egypt’s vast Western Desert which leads to lawless Libya. Authorities consider the area an infiltration path for smugglers and holy warriors, and have blamed some past attacks on forces of Evil moving through.
The ambush’s brazenness and location raised the specter of the simmering insurgency creeping closer to the capital, which has been largely secure and far from what has long been its main front ‐ a northeastern corner of the Sinai Peninsula.
Security troops have announced major operations in the Western Desert and areas near Cairo in recent days, and foreign companies and embassies have long warned expats against travel to such places, even those as seemingly tame as the Fayoum Oasis.
Just a day ago, security forces killed 13 snuffies in another shootout in the western desert, during a raid on an alleged holy warrior hideout in the New Valley province which shares part of the mostly non-existent border with Libya.
The attack a week ago that seemingly prompted the leadership shakeup appeared to be a carefully planned ambush that trapped many counter terrorism officers as well, with police ranks of those killed reaching up to brigadier-generals.
The troops had been acting on intelligence and moving against a holy warrior hideout backed by armored personnel carriers when they drew fire and rocket-propelled grenades, according to officials who reported the incident anonymously because they weren’t authorized to brief journalists.
They added that the force likely ran out of ammunition and that the snuffies captured several coppers and later killed them.
While the official corpse count announced by the Interior Ministry was 16 at the end of the day, with 15 snuffies killed or maimed, officials who spoke with the News Agency that Dare Not be Named earlier had cited over 50 coppers killed in the attack. That would make it one of the worst on Egyptian police in years, although the differing numbers could not be reconciled.
No one grabbed credit for the attack, although the IS local affiliate is spearheading an insurgency in Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gazoo Strip, and the group has been active recently in neighboring Libya, home to a wide array of holy warriors.
The last time Egypt’s security forces suffered such a heavy loss of life was in July 2015 when IS forces of Evil carried out a series of coordinated attacks, including suicide kabooms, against army and police positions in Sinai, killing at least 50.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the army then said only 17 soldiers were killed along with over 100 holy warriors.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An association made up of mothers of kidnapped prisoners in Yemen’s Ibb governorate have appealed for the quick intervention to save the lives of their children and release those arbitrarily kidnapped and imprisoned 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 and forces loyal to ousted former president Saleh.
On Saturday, the association condemned the continuous kidnapping and prolonged detention of dozens of patients in the coup prisons.
The association stressed that the abductees got infected with chronic and serious diseases, which require releasing them quickly to receive the necessary treatment in hospitals to save their lives.
A statement issued by the mothers’ protest said that the prolonged imprisonment has caused them both physical and psychological harm.
The Yemeni mothers have also appealed to UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... , UN envoy, the conscience of humanity and human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... organizations to intervene quickly to rescue the kidnapped and forcibly disappeared, and to work for their unconditional release.
The statement said that the coup is responsible for the life and safety of all those kidnapped and forcibly disappeared.
The group of mothers have held frequent protests in the areas controlled by the coup for three years since militia takeover and are demand that coup poltters for the release of their children. Thousands of people have been tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! , forcibly disappeared and brutally tortured in Houthi prisons.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, security chief Tawfiq Abu Naim left hospital Saturday after being maimed in a boom-mobileing and pledged that an agreement aimed at ending a decade-long rift with rivals Fatah would remain on track.
The Friday kaboom that moderately maimed Abu Naim was branded by the Hamas interior ministry as "a failed liquidation attempt."
Hamas chief Ismail Haniya signaled Israel was to blame, but no one has grabbed credit.
Abu Naim said in a statement on Saturday that "the objectives of those who committed this despicable act will not be achieved."
"We are determined to leave the split behind and realize the important national unity at all costs," he said.
Abu Naim said a November 1 deadline for Hamas to hand over border crossings to the Paleostinian Authority would be adhered to.
Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... 's Fatah movement signed a reconciliation accord on October 12 with Islamist movement Hamas, which has run the Gazoo Strip for 10 years.
Under the deal, the Fatah-dominated Paleostinian Authority is to resume control of Gazoo -- which Hamas seized in a near civil war with Fatah in 2007 -- by December 1.
The fate of the Hamas security forces after it transfers power to the PA in the territory is one of the most delicate issues facing the reconciliation process.
Abbas wants the handover to be comprehensive and include all security institutions, but the Hamas leader in Gazoo, Yahya Sinwar, has said "no one" can force his group to disarm.
Israel and the United States have meanwhile said that Hamas must disarm as part of any unity government.
They have also said it must recognize Israel.
The Abbas-led Paleostine Liberation Organization has recognized Israel, but Hamas has not.
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.
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#1
The Friday kaboom that moderately maimed Abu Naim was branded by the Hamas interior ministry as "a failed liquidation attempt traditional Paleo Welcome Wagon."
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2017 10:39
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[Ynet] Greek police tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a 29-year-old suspect Saturday in a kaboom last May on one of the country's former prime ministers.
After a search of his apartment in Athens, police found two 9-mm pistols; 300 bullets; a plastic container with a time bomb mechanism; two plastic containers with explosives; eight forged IDs and "large amounts" of detonators, wiring, fireworks and timers.
Lucas Papademos, 70, was maimed in the thigh and torso on May 25 when he opened a letter bomb in his car. He was hospitalized for over a month. Two others were slightly injured.
Police say the suspect, who they have not named, may have also been involved in mailing parcel bombs last March to the German Finance Ministry and the Gay Paree office of the International Monetary Fund, where a small kaboom injured one person.
"The search continues" for other suspects after an anti-terror police unit tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a 29-year-old Greek man in Athens, police said in a statement.
The man was known to police for his myrmidon activities, a police source said.
The attack, which remains unclaimed, had a similar methodology to that used by Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, a far-left group which in March mailed an bomb that injured a secretary at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Gay Paree.
The group had earlier grabbed credit for a letter bomb, also sent from Greece, discovered at the Berlin offices of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
The bombs contained gunpowder typically used in firecrackers, police said.
Eight other letter bombs, including those addressed to European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and then Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, were intercepted in the aftermath of the Athens attack.
In 2011, a dozen members of Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, many of whom were very young, were convicted of "participating in a criminal organization" and are serving long prison sentences.
After years of crisis and austerity cuts, the Greek economy is still struggling, and experts have said that the country's continued crisis favours youth radicalisation.
In 2012, Papademos's government came under criticism after it negotiated a huge write-down of the country's privately held debt, which led to Greek social insurance funds losing millions of euros in the process. He also served as Bank of Greece governor from 1994 to 2002.
#1
After a search of his apartment in Athens, police found two 9-mm pistols; 300 bullets; a plastic container with a time bomb mechanism; two plastic containers with explosives; eight forged IDs and "large amounts" of detonators, wiring, fireworks and timers.
"Hey, man. Those are for personal use!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2017 9:39
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A suicide truck bomb went kaboom! outside a popular hotel in Somalia’s capital on Saturday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 30, and gunfire continued as security forces pursued other attackers inside the building, police said. Two more blasts were heard, one when an attacker detonated a boom jacket.
Speaking to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named by telephone from the scene, Capt. Mohammed Hussein said 30 people, including a government minister, were rescued from the Nasa-Hablod hotel as heavy gunfire continued in the standoff between Lions of Islam and security forces.
Three of the five attackers were killed, Hussein said. The others hurled grenades and cut off the building’s electricity as night fell.
Ali Nur, a police officer, told Rooters 17 people, mostly coppers, had died in the blasts.
"Security forces have entered a small portion of the hotel building ... the exchange of gunfire is hellish," he said.
The police personnel who died had been stationed close to hotel’s gate. The dead also included a former politician, he said.
Fighting continued to rage inside the hotel and police said the corpse count was likely to rise.
Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulances, told Rooters the emergency service had carried 17 people injured from the hotel blast.
A huge cloud of smoke rose over the scene and a Rooters witness saw over a dozen wrecked cars and bloodstains in front of the hotel. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the vicinity.
Al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... , responsible for scores of such attacks in the country’s long civil war, said it carried out Saturday’s bombings.
"We targeted ministers and security officials who were inside the hotel. We are fighting inside," Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations front man, told Rooters.
He said the hotel belonged to Somalia’s internal security minister, Mohammed Abukar Islow.
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[THEDAILYBEAST] Hailey Dawson’s doctors told her a prosthetic hand didn’t make sense given she was a growing girl. But a 3D printed hand is making the impossible possible.
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[All Africa] Just when the ancient Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo)-Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) quarrel was showing some signs of being resolved, a new gang has popped up from nowhere this month to launch several armed and deadly attacks in the north. These are believed to be the first Islamist attacks in Mozambique and have caused shock and bewilderment in the country and the region.
According to the Shabelle Media Network in Mogadishu, a group of about 30 men attacked three cop shoppes in the small town of Mocímboa da Praia in the northern-most province of Cabo Delgado, about 30 km from the Tanzania border, early on 5 October.
'There was a prompt response from the police; two AK-47 rifles were seized,' said Inacio Dina, spokesperson of the General Command of the Mozambican police at a presser in Maputo. He said two coppers were rubbed out, and two gang members were captured. According to other reports, 16 people died, including a community leader.
The same group, it seems, struck early on 21 October, clashing with government forces in the fishing village of Maluku, some 30 km from Mocímboa da Praia. 'These attacks prompted the villagers to flee and the village is currently deserted,' a security industry source said.
Further festivities were reported by independent sources during the night of 22 October at a village called Columbe, about 16 km south of an installation of Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation which is exploring for oil and natural gas there. The company is evacuating its personnel, the sources say.
What motivated the local al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... to suddenly launch these attacks, is hazy
Locals called these raiders 'al-Shabaab'. Whether they call themselves this too, or whether it's because of their headgear and what they reportedly told locals after occupying Mocímboa da Praia - that they rejected state health and education and refused to pay taxes - is not yet clear.
There was understandably speculation at first that they were linked to the Somali jihadist group of the same name. But Dina cast doubt on this interpretation from the start, as he said they spoke in local languages including Swahili and Portuguese. There now seems to be consensus that they are local Moslems. Eric Morier-Genoud, the Mozambican-born political scientist from Queens University, Belfast, wrote in The Conversation that this was a group of local Moslems formed in 2014 and calling itself al-Shabaab.
Mozambique has a significant Moslem population ranging in size from somewhere between an official 17.8% of the total population to, unofficially, 30%, according to some Moslem community members themselves. It's mostly concentrated along the northern coast.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Shocking! I blame years of colonial oppression.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A third woman has come forward and accused Islamist thinker Tariq Ramadan of allegedly sexually harassing her some years ago.
Yasmina, not her real name, spoke to French daily newspaper Le Gay Pareeien and said the Swiss-Moslem professor threatened her with rape in 2012. The woman has previously opened up about her story with local French media in 2013.
"At first he gave me religious advice through his website, and then asked me for my picture so that he would know who he was talking to. He found me beautiful, and since that day, things became pornographic between us," she told Le Gay Pareeien.
"Two years later he called me to a hotel in the suburbs and then threatened me that he had compromising things on me," she added.
A second complaint was filed on Friday in La Belle France against the Ramadan for rape and sexual assault, following accusations of raping Salafist-turned secular liberal activist Henda Ayari.
Ayari’s lawyer Eric Morain added that he has received other testimonials from women who are thinking of filing a complaint against the intellectual for harassment or sexual assault.
Ramadan is the grandson of the founder of the Moslem Brüderbund Hassan al-Banna and currently a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
Following Ayari’s decision to step forward, journalist Caroline Fourest, who has reported extensively about Ramadan’s controversial career, on Friday wrote in the Marianne weekly that supporters of Ramadan are calling the accusations the result of a “international Zionist plot” to tarnish his reputation.
Ramadan, who in 2009 was fired from Rotterdam’s Erasmus University for taking money from the Iranian regime and who has been refused entry to France and the United States over his ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups, has often aired conspiracy theories about Israel and Jews.
In a column titled “The Double Life of Tariq Ramadan,” Fourest wrote that she first heard in 2009 of sex crimes by Ramadan, whom many critics have accused of encouraging violence and alleged misogyny when speaking to Muslims, and then denouncing it when speaking to non-Muslims. She could not publish the accounts because none of the victims would step forward, she wrote.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Jaish al-’Izza attacked the Christian city of Mhardeh, Saturday, killing two civilians and wounding three others.
HTS and Jaish al-’Izza fired several missiles at Mhardeh, despite no previous attacks this weekend by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and National Defense Forces (NDF).
In response to the jihadist attacks, the Russian Air Force launched several Arclight airstrikes over the town of Lataminah, targeting the defenses of Jaish al-’Izza and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
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Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[Dhaka Tribune] Bangladesh is planning to introduce voluntary sterilisation in its overcrowded Rohingya camps, where nearly a million refugees are fighting for space, after efforts to encourage birth control failed.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in August triggered an exodus, straining resources in the impoverished country.
The latest arrivals have joined hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled in earlier waves from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the stateless Moslem minority has endured decades of persecution.
Most live in desperate conditions with limited access to food, sanitation or health facilities and local officials fear a lack of family planning could stretch resources even further.
Pintu Kanti Bhattacharjee, who heads the family planning service in the district of Cox’s Bazar where the camps are based, said there was little awareness of birth control among the Rohingya.
"The whole community has been deliberately left behind," he told AFP, citing a lack of education in Myanmar, where the Rohingya are viewed as illegal immigrants colonists and denied access to many services.
Bhattacharjee said large families were the norm in the camps, where some parents had up to 19 children and many Rohingya men have more than one wife.
District family planning authorities have launched a drive to provide contraception, but say they have so far managed to distribute just 549 packets of condoms among the refugees, who are reluctant to use them.
They have asked the government to approve a plan to launch vasectomies for Rohingya men and tubectomies for women, Bhattacharjee told AFP.
But they are likely to face an uphill struggle.
Many of the refugees told AFP they believed a large family would help them survive in the camps, where access to food and water remains a daily battle and children are often sent out to fetch and carry supplies.
Others had been told contraception was against the tenets of Islam.
Farhana Sultana, a family planning volunteer who works with Rohingya refugees in the camps, said many of the women she spoke to believed birth control was a sin.
"In Rakhine they did not go to family planning clinics, fearing the Myanmar authorities would give medicine that harms them or their children," Sultana said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, has said it is determined to continue with the Paleostinian reconciliation process at any cost, and confirmed that it is confident of its ability to resolve all outstanding issues of disagreements in light of the presence of new leaders of the movement who were not part of the division, as well as the role of Egypt in the convergence of views.
Hossam Badran, the official handling the issue of reconciliation within Hamas, told al-Hayat newspaper that: "Even if unilaterally, Hamas is determined to end the division."
Badran told the newspaper that Hamas is ready to provide all the necessary tools for the success of the reconciliation. New leaders who were not part of the division are currently working on this file.
The statements of the Hamas leaders all confirmed their desire to move forward in the reconciliation.
Despite the declarations and assurances of the continuation of the reconciliation, the implementation of this initiative on the ground is still facing many difficulties; two government bodies in Gazoo have been rejected by their presidents and were deprived of their posts.
Reports also predict that obstacles to the reconciliation deal may cause the initiative to take a lot of time than previously expected.
The file of security and staff in this sector, which account to 17 thousand, is one of the many challenges facing this reconciliation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
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Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2017 10:26
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#2
The more I read about this the more it sounds like Blackhawk Down 2.0. We have too many of these marginally qualified politicians wearing eagles and stars making decisions about men's lives that have no experience or expertise to make those decisions.
[IsraelTimes] Trump ordered the release on Thursday of 2,800 classified records but held back other 'sensitive' documents under pressure from the CIA and FBI
Cuban and Russian spies, false leads, strippers, bizarre CIA murder plots and a furious FBI director.
Newly released secret records are full of intriguing details surrounding the liquidation of president John F. Kennedy.
Continued on Page 49
[DAWN] The additional district and sessions court in Rahim Yar Khan sentenced a man to life imprisonment on the charges of committing blasphemy, Dawn reported on Saturday.
The court also ordered the convict to submit Rs1 million fine.
In his verdict, Additional District and Sessions Judge Khursheed Ahmed Anjum ruled that the convict had committed blasphemy on the social media.
A spokesperson for the District Police Officer (DPO), Umar Saleem, told Dawn that a complaint was registered against Bhati in July last year for reportedly posting blasphemous content on social media.
Earlier this month, a district and sessions court sentenced three men to death in Sheikhupura on charges of committing blasphemy.
The court had also fined them Rs200,000 each, but if they are unable to pay the fine, they would have to undergo six months of rigorous punishment.
In his verdict, Additional District and Sessions Judge Mian Javed Akram ruled that the three members of the Ahmadi community of Bhoaywal village had committed blasphemy by displaying a poster and banners at their place of worship in a manner that was offending.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
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[All Africa] People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Tendai Biti has warned that President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... 's government will soon reintroduce the Zim-bob-wean dollar as the bloated government struggles with its finances.
Government abandoned the Zim-bob-we dollar in 2009 after the currency had been rendered worthless by hyperinflation. The crisis peaked in 2007 when the country experienced the second-highest recorded inflation rate in history.
Biti, who served as a Finance minister during the Government of National Unity, said Zim-bob-weans should brace for another hyperinflationary environment as Mugabe puts the money printers into high gear.
"Our biggest fear is that Zanu PF's appetite for expenditure is insatiable," said Biti during his second State of the Economy Address (SEA) on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2017
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#1
Zanu PF's appetite for expenditure is insatiable,
#3
I understand that they're going to print the new Zim dollar on toilet paper so people will be forced to accept it. It may even set up foreign trade opportunities with Venezuela.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/29/2017 14:34
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[AlAhram] Egypt's armed forces foiled an attempt by 43 individuals of various nationaltiies to illegally migrate, the military front man said in a statement Friday.
Army front man Tamer El-Refai said the navy intercepted a fishing boat trying to leave Egyptian territorial waters. Some 280,000 narcotic pills were also seized.
In recent years, thousands of refugees and migrants colonists have attempted to cross the Mediterranean. Hundreds have been jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in Egypt for attempting to migrate illegally.
Cairo has focused on the migration issue in recent years, working with European nations to tackle the problem.
Following the sinking of migrant boat in September 2016, with hundreds dead, a law was passed criminalising unauthorised migration and human trafficking.
[AlAhram] Egypt's army said Saturday it tossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! three bully boyz in Central Sinai.
In an official statement, front man Tamer El-Refai said the armed forces also confiscated a huge amount of kaboom used for improvised bombs (IEDs).
Four cycle of violences belonging to terrorist elements were also seized.
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... over 50 alleged members 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) Death Eater group on Saturday, some of whom were suspected of planning an attack on Turkey's national holiday on Sunday, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Most of the arrests were made in the capital Ankara, where 49 suspects were picked up a day before celebrations across the country for the 94th anniversary of Republic Day.
Another four people were arrested in Istanbul's commercial district, suspected of preparing an attack in the name of IS, the Anadolu agency reported.
A homemade bomb was found in their car, according to the Dogan news agency which reported that one of the suspects was injured during the arrests.
Anadolu reported that Ottoman Turkish authorities issued warrants for 55 suspected foreign IS members but did not provide further details.
Turkey has been hit by several bloody attacks blamed on IS bully boyz over the past two years, including a New Year attack this year on an elite Istanbul nightclub by an IS gunman, during which 39 people were killed.
There has been a lull in attacks since, but tensions remain high and Ottoman Turkish police launch raids almost daily against suspected IS cells across the country.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/29/2017
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#1
For down loading pork stuffing recipes for Thanksgiving no doubt!
[Haaretz] Publication of commander's name and picture looks like a signal his life may end soon. But can Israel really stop Iran from becoming a regional superpower?
What the Israeli army calls the "war between the wars" has undergone a radical change in recent months. The idea of the war between the wars was developed late last decade and involved the need to operate, even far beyond Israel’s borders, to contain enemy terrorist and guerrilla organizations in the hope that such steps would postpone the next war ‐ or at least weaken these groups when war did break out.
These operations usually were conducted with a "small signature": late-night bombings and ‐ at least according to foreign sources ‐ mysterious deaths that no one claimed the credit for. Former air force chief Amir Eshel told Haaretz in August that in recent years, Israel has operated almost 100 times to prevent the arming of enemy groups.
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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.
[Townhall] I do not write these words lightly, and there is not an ounce of mockery or, God forbid, hatred in my heart when I say that Caitlyn Jenner is a man wearing a dress. I am simply speaking the plain and obvious truth, as politically incorrect as that truth might be right now. But with transgender issues dominating the news these days, and in light of Tucker Carlson’s epic takedown of Democratic leader Zac Petkanas on national TV last week (specifically, discussing gender-related questions), it appears that now is as good a time as ever to state some things clearly.
[WSJ] WASHINGTON‐An influential home builders group will oppose the House Republicans’ forthcoming tax bill, in a blow to the party’s attempt to forge unity among business sectors.
Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
Cracking down on imported terror
No, you are not imagining things. The 'Deep State' uses media outlets quite aggressively.
North Korea![]("https://eurorus4en.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/arctic-territory-borders.gif")
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An association made up of mothers of kidnapped prisoners in Yemen’s Ibb governorate have appealed for the quick intervention to save the lives of their children and release those arbitrarily 
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
[Dhaka Tribune] Police have 
