[Jpost] While the White House confirms that since the "Jerusalem Declaration" there has been a complete disconnect between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration, it turns out that the previous administration actually maintains contact with PA officials. Ma'ariv reported that former US Secretary of State John Kerry met in London with a close associate of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Hussein Agha, for a long and open conversation about a variety of topics. Agha apparently reported details of the conversation to senior PA officials in Ramallah. A senior PA official confirmed to Ma'ariv that the meeting took place.
During the conversation, according to the report, Kerry asked Agha to convey a message to Abbas and ask him to "hold on and be strong." Tell him, he told Agha, "that he should stay strong in his spirit and play for time, that he will not break and will not yield to President Trump's demands." According to Kerry, Trump will not remain in office for a long time. It was reported that within a year there was a good chance that Trump would not be in the White House. Sanctuary foreign policy?
#7
#3 Sounds like Kerry needs to see the inside of a prison cell stall for a long time for treason and sedition. With infrequent brushing and fresh hay
Posted by DarthVader
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2018 20:21
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[TechCrunch] While the U.S. is just gearing up to the idea of CRISPRing its first humans, China seems to be benefiting from the "move fast and break things" ‐ or cut them with the CRISPR scissors ‐ motto.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, China has already gene-edited 86 people using CRISPR-Cas9 since 2015. Unhindered by rules and regulations like the ones we have in America to prevent science experiments gone wrong, Hangzhou doctor Wu Shixiu has been using the technique on cancer patients.
In fact, it only took a half hour one afternoon, according to the Journal, for hospital administrators to sign off on Dr. Wu’s plans.
It’s not clear if these experiments worked ‐ though some preliminary reports suggest some of the various trials have had some success. However, this is not the first time China’s used CRISPR on humans ‐ often with disastrous results. Chinese scientists tried unsuccessfully to genetically modify human embryos using CRISPR in 2016 but found at least two-thirds to have genetic mutations, and only a fraction of the 28 surviving embryos (out of 86 total tested) contained the replacement genetic material.
At least nine other CRISPR trials have been conducted on humans in China, according to listings in the U.S. National Library of Medicine database. The Journal found at least two other trials had been conducted on humans in China using the technique since 2015.
While some worry this gives China the edge in pioneering CRISPR medical techniques, others urge caution and patience with such a new technology. Both the U.S. and Europe, where the technique was first jointly discovered by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, have implemented conservative regulatory measures and have yet to start human trials.
"It is hard to know what the ideal is between moving quickly and making sure patients are safe," Dr. Carl June, the lead scientist for the CRISPR research team at the University of Pennsylvania, where the first human trials are slated to take place once researchers there can get through several regulatory hurdles, told the Journal.
#4
So, that was OK? No. However, It’s not clear if these experiments worked seems not quite up to contemporary medical ethics (unless its Planned Parenthood).
#5
It’s not clear if these experiments worked ‐ though some preliminary reports suggest some of the various trials have had some success.
In other words, the cancers were not cured, but some of the patients were not killed or harmed by the procedure. While having no love whatsoever for the FDA as it currently functions, I stand with Procopius2k on this.
[Huffpoo] Joel Taylor, the star of Discovery Channel’s "Storm Chasers," has died at age 38, according to friends and associates.
"I am shocked and absolutely devastated by the loss of my incredible, caring friend," "Storm Chasers" co-star Reed Timmer wrote on Twitter.
The Team Western OK Chaser Facebook page in Taylor’s native Oklahoma mourned his passing, calling him an "inspiration."
"He didn’t chase for the glory he chased because he had a true passion for storms," the passage said. "In the last few years he’d load up with his dad and go chase and not even take a camera."
[Verge] We usually think of surveillance cameras as digital eyes, watching over us or watching out for us, depending on your view. But really, they’re more like portholes: useful only when someone is looking through them. Sometimes that means a human watching live footage, usually from multiple video feeds. Most surveillance cameras are passive, however. They’re there as a deterrence, or to provide evidence if something goes wrong. Your car got stolen? Check the CCTV.
But this is changing ‐ and fast. Artificial intelligence is giving surveillance cameras digital brains to match their eyes, letting them analyze live video with no humans necessary. This could be good news for public safety, helping police and first responders more easily spot crimes and accidents and have a range of scientific and industrial applications. But it also raises serious questions about the future of privacy and poses novel risks to social justice.
What happens when governments can track huge numbers of people using CCTV? When police can digitally tail you around a city just by uploading your mugshot into a database? Or when a biased algorithm is running on the cameras in your local mall, pinging the cops because it doesn’t like the look of a particular group of teens?
[BBC] Attackers have detonated explosives before storming the offices of the Save the Children charity in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.
At least two people have been killed and 12 injured, officials say. It is believed about 50 staff were in the building at the time.
At least three gunmen are involved in the attack, reports say, with fighting continuing on the upper floor.
The Islamic State group has said it is behind the attack.
What's the latest?
The attack started at about 09:10 local time (04:40 GMT) on Wednesday when a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle explosive at the entrance to the Save the Children compound, Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, told the BBC.
An eyewitness who was inside the compound at the time told AFP news agency that he saw a gunman hitting the main gate with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).
Unconfirmed reports say at least two attackers have also been killed.
Afghan commandos have joined police to try to end the attack.
Local reporter Bilal Sarwary said the army had told him that 45 people have been rescued from the basement, but there is still fighting on the upper floors.
Who is responsible?
The Islamic State group said in a message on its news outlet Amaq that three attackers and an explosives-laden car had targeted "British, Swedish and Afghan institutions in Jalalabad".
The city has been a stronghold for IS, whose fighters have been active there since 2015.
The Taliban had earlier denied carrying out the attack.
Lots of photos and video at link
At 3:40 p.m. ET, the Daily Mail has more photos and a brief video here.
Posted by: 3dc ||
01/24/2018
06:56 ||
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#1
Someone got very tired of all the guilt commercials on TV. Coming soon: carpet bombing the Humane Socity.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/24/2018 8:26
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#2
Coming soon: carpet bombing the Humane Socity.
Just the HSUS, ed. They co-opted the Humane Society name and are just fundraisers for Greenpeace, Sea Shepherds, Earth First! and other terrorist organizations.
[The Verge] A man at an electronics store in China decided to give a smartphone battery his own litmus test by biting it. The battery ruptured and caused a small explosion. The spectacle, captured by the store’s CCTV security cameras, was uploaded to Miaopai, a Chinese video sharing platform similar to the now-defunct Vine. It has since garnered 4.69 million views.
[The Federalist] In an interview with Fox News’s Martha MacCallum on Monday night, Reps. Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe revealed new details about the text messages between two FBI agents who were kicked off the ongoing investigation into Donald Trump for bias likely to affect their handling of the case.
The FBI provided members of Congress with nearly 400 pages of these text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two FBI agents removed, after months on the job, from the ongoing Russia probe. That is investigating whether Trump and his campaign associates colluded with Russian officials to sway the 2016 election. Officials discovered anti-Trump messages between the two.
Strzok and Page, who were allegedly having an affair with each other, left or were removed from the Robert Mueller probe in the summer of 2017. Printouts of text messages between these two from August 2015 to December 2016 were given to members of Congress Friday evening, according to a letter by Sen. Ron Johnson. Text messages between the two from December 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017 were reportedly lost due to a technical glitch on the FBI’s part.
"The loss of records from this period is concerning because it is apparent from other records that Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page communicated frequently about the investigation," Johnson wrote.
#1
50,000 emails between Strzok and Page went missing? Do emails ever really disappear? Are the the FBI emails and texts collected by NSA? What about by the service provider?
If Strzok-Page wrote 50,000 emails over a 5 month period, that is roughly 333 per day. For crying-out-loud, when did they have time to "fool aound?"
#5
Don't you just love how it is only the people and departments that lose stuff to technical glitches and only during the time they are being investigated for?
[American Thinker] Bradley Manning, who goes by "Chelsea" because he thinks he is a woman, could end up as the unlikeliest hero in history for Republicans. The soldier-traitor-"transgender" activist recently announced a bid for Senate in the deep blue state of Maryland, securing a place on the ballot in the Democratic primary. Manning is challenging incumbent Senator Ben Cardin, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wonder of wonders, Manning could end up handing a safe Senate seat for Democrats to the GOP, balancing out the loss in Alabama for the Grand Old Party.
#1
I don't count on it. Cardin's been there forever, a member in good standing of the Old Boy network.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018 10:27
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#2
The corrupt establishment wing of the Democrat party versus the activist wing of the Democrat party. A new front in the Democrat Civil war that should be entertaining.
[American Thinker] J. Edgar Hoover must be turning in his grave at what is happening to his venerable FBI. Then again, given Hoover's own proclivities to abuse his powers as the director of that agency, perhaps the predicament in which the bureau finds itself is a natural stage of evolution on an arc of governmental hubris.
It's increasingly clear that the FBI is taking on water at an accelerating rate as new revelations come, fast and furious, in the political scandals engulfing Washington. This week, for example, we see two adolescent-minded senior FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, involved in virtually all aspects of the Hillary Clinton email server investigation and the Donald Trump "Russian collusion" (or is it "obstruction of justice" now?) investigation, acting like hormone-fueled high school lovers, discussing a "secret society" of Trump-haters one day after President Trump's remarkable election. We learned of this only because two patriotic congressmen, representatives Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe, former federal prosecutors both, revealed this stunning exchange to Fox News. Was the "secret society" a tongue-in-cheek reference? Given the mind-boggling behavior of the top echelons at the FBI and DOJ these days, one can't be too sure.
The keel of the USS Federal Bureau of Investigation is starting to rise out of the water, like the RMS Titanic about 30 minutes after striking the iceberg. One can almost hear the bodies of top law enforcement bureaucrats crashing against each other, like so much china on a dying vessel sinking under the waves, as the embattled organization faces exposure after exposure of truly outrageous and un-American, if not illegal, conduct.
This sad state of affairs represents the depressing collapse of a pillar of American culture for many of us who grew up revering it and the "G‑men" who populated it. It did a wonderful job of cultivating that aura through the media and entertainment industries, often providing technical assistance to the producers of movies like The Silence of the Lambs.
For those of us over 40, who can forget watching the tough, suave FBI agent Lewis Erskine played by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in the eponymous television show, The FBI? He was the epitome of cool and integrity.
This crafty self-promotion in popular culture has occurred over many decades, spawning countless such television series, movies, and books exalting the bureau. My youngest, college-aged daughter is a devotee of Criminal Minds, yet another slick Hollywood rendering of hip, brilliant FBI agents solving complex serial murders through cunning and derring-do ‐ all in the space of an hour, with commercial breaks, of course.
#1
...The bottom line:. the Bureau is compromised, in the worst possible sense of the word. Worse yet, their senior leadership may well have actually gone renegade.
Hyperbole? Not after the mounting revelations of the last few weeks.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/24/2018 8:29
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[NY Post] During the financial crisis, the federal government bailed out banks it declared "too big to fail." Fearing their bankruptcy might trigger economic Armageddon, the feds propped them up with taxpayer cash.
Something similar is happening now at the FBI, with the Washington wagons circling the agency to protect it from charges of corruption. This time, the appropriate tag line is "too big to believe."
Yet each day brings credible reports suggesting there is a massive scandal involving the top ranks of America’s premier law enforcement agency. The reports, which feature talk among agents of a "secret society" and suddenly missing text messages, point to the existence both of a cabal dedicated to defeating Donald Trump in 2016 and of a plan to let Hillary Clinton skate free in the classified email probe.
If either one is true ‐ and I believe both probably are ‐ it would mean FBI leaders betrayed the nation by abusing their powers in a bid to pick the president. Emphasis added.
#5
OPM let those appointees burrow down for a reason.
Obama had it figured that with Trump out of the way and Clinton tainted, after impeachment, one of the dem sycophants would offer up a motion to have Zero reinstalled as president.
#6
DOJ should send in the US Marshals to FBI 7th floor and confiscate everything nailed down or otherwise.
It doesn't take a genius to file charges of obvious obstruction of justice. Wray include. But that would require a living brain. Something I'm afraid Season's lost 12 months ago.
#7
No one particularly liked Hillary. They didn't like her when she was first lady and they didn't like her as SOS. She is rude, mean-spirited and foul-mouthed. You don't want to cross her.
Given the above, why did so many people in the higher-ups of the FBI, as well as others, hook their wagon to her star? Was it all about money and power?
#8
Their crime labs been faking evidence for 20 years - including in capital cases. They been letting Jihadis run free. They hassle, and even kill, law abiding citizens. They can put you in jail for "lying" to FBI. And you wonder why they feel they can get away with anything?
#10
JohnQC, nobody liked Hillary but many did like Obama and as soon as he started accepting emails from her private server without making a fuss he became enrolled in the scandal which is what ensured Hillary would walk.
Starts with, "I’m hearing from a source that Lisa Page was involved in approving Peter Strzok’s warrant requests to the FISC and possibly elsewhere. Can you confirm or deny if this was the case? And please tell me what her job title and function are in your office. Thanks."
Ends with, "I’ll decline to comment further."
Posted by: C. Elmomoger7737 ||
01/24/2018 18:35
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#15
Ends with, "I’ll decline to comment further."
Posted by C. Elmomoger
[Guardian] In a dimly lit room at McConnell air force base in south central Kansas, analysts from a national guard intelligence reconnaissance surveillance group watch live drone surveillance video coming from war zones in the Middle East.
During combat, the analysts become part of a "kill chain" ‐ analyzing live drone video, then communicating what they see ‐ in instant-message chat with jet fighter pilots, operators of armed Predator and Reaper drones, and ground troops.
They carry out drone warfare while sitting thousands of miles from battlefields. They don’t fly the drones and don’t fire the missiles. They video-stalk enemy combatants, and tell warfighters what they see. The work, they say, helps kill terrorists, including from Isis.
The group does this work in the middle of America, at an air base surrounded by flat cow pastures and soybean fields. The 184th Intelligence Wing of the Kansas air national guard, started this work about 2002. Until last year, most people in Kansas knew nothing about their role in drone warfare.
[World Military News] The German government is facing calls to halt arms exports to Turkey after reports emerged that German-made Leopard tanks were being used in an offensive against the Kurdish YPG.
Some German politicians have requested that any moves to approve a tank upgrade deal be halted. Turkish-led forces began an assault in Syria’s north-west on Saturday.
The row comes just weeks after the two countries’ foreign ministers vowed to improve bilateral relations. Relations between the two Nato members have soured dramatically in recent years.
Reports on Friday suggested Berlin was moving to approve a request from Turkey for German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall to retrofit Leopard 2 models to better protect them from explosives.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
01/24/2018
00:48 ||
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[USA Today] WASHINGTON ‐ The Supreme Court is racing Congress to decide the future of the Dreamers.
The justices agreed Tuesday to decide quickly whether to hear the Trump administration's appeal of a federal district court's order to restart the DACA program without waiting for an appeals court ruling.
By setting up a fast track for both sides to submit court papers, the high court likely will consider the Justice Department's request at its Feb. 16 conference. If it decides to take the case, it could hear arguments in the spring.
That would set up a simultaneous decision-making process on the fate of some 690,000 young adults brought to the United States illegally by their parents under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program established by President Barack Obama in 2012.
President Trump announced in September that the program would end March 5 unless renewed by Congress. Since then, Democrats and Republicans have squabbled over the so-called Dreamers' fate along with other immigration and border security issues ‐ most notably Trump's demand to build a wall along the Mexican border.
[PJ] An FBI informant has apparently informed Congress that a secret society at the FBI was holding secret meetings off-site after the election of Donald Trump.
On Special Report with Bret Baier Tuesday evening, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) called it "corruption of the highest levels of the FBI."
"That secret society ‐ we have an informant that's talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off-site," Johnson said. "There is so much smoke here."
This comes after text messages between FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page, his paramour, revealed that a "secret society" of officials within the FBI met the day after the election of Donald J. Trump to plot against the president-elect.
"A secret society?" Baier asked. "Secret meetings off-site of the Justice Department? And you have an informant saying that?"
#1
Da Skullz, sitting in a bar within earshot, talking all their subversion.
A popular place mind you. I was in that bar myself.
Who knows what the other House Members know but I tell you this, there place was a "safe space" except they were not.
OPSEC day was yesterday
And you did no such thing in your subversive activities.
This ball of yarn is going to fall from a tall building in the end and many people are in it.
I cast a net, and cooperate with me fastly.
You have no Chewie in the garbage compactor to stop the walls from closing in.
#2
I believe after observing and reading this unfolding scandal that Trump's counterintelligence people are better than the CIA's or the FBI's.
I think the FBI suddenly realized this and that is why they went after Flynn. Flynn by the way, knew all about the Zerobama machinations with the FISA, the phony baloney investigation of Hillary's emails (thank you Carlos Danger), and all about Uranium One and how it all goes in a straight line (if you follow the dots as Joe has) all the way back to Obama. Obama, the single most corrupt, evil, and thoroughly turned POTUS in history. It is a mystery to me WHY a man with no pedigree, no experience, and no history, hell no one knows where he came from, who he really is, or why his entire life story is a fabrication or shrouded in court orders and mystery. So Zero was the Manchurian Candidate as we all suspected. If they is foreign government collusion, it is in the election of the least qualified POTUS in history, who made some of the most monumentally damaging foreign policy and military decisions, fomented racial division and violence, tried to disarm the American public, and weaponized the Executive branch with SWAT teams, armored cars, snipers (explain to me why BLM had snipers???), how did he get elected and how did he beat the best politician in the party, Bill Clinton? If there is collusion, it had to be something to do with getting Obama elected. I personally do not know anyone that voted for him. Even all of my black neighbors, none of them voted for him.
Trump KNEW the dossier was hogwash and he KNEW its origins. So his team, along with the Republicans loyal to him in Congress started these investigations knowing that the longer the Dims continued to play the dossier collusion card, they were setting themselves up. And Flynn and Rogers (who is starting to look like the man who saved the Republic) turned Trump on to the text messages and email and even the offsite meetings. It doesn't take a fool to realize something was amiss in the FBI after the McCabe meltdown with key staff in which he essentially admitted they had tried to rig the election and couldn't understand why they lost.
#4
Sock Puppet of Doom, I live in California and I know a lot of people that voted for Obama. They might have faked votes to try to pull Hillary over the line but Obama won California fairly easily.
#6
Obama looked good in a suit and he sounded good reading a teleprompter. It didn't matter what he said because the media would not report it accurately and because he was running against McCain. We had two Manchurian candidates, the young black man against the decrepit old white man. Of course people voted for him. It was a no win situation.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/24/2018 14:04
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#8
And Flynn and Rogers (who is starting to look like the man who saved the Republic) turned Trump on to the text messages and email and even the offsite meetings. SPOD
Flynn had long been on the outs with the Klingon nation. Rogers, Kieth Alexander (whom we seldom hear from), and Mike Flynn are essentially cut from the same cloth.
[AnNahar] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... 's campaign to oust Kurdish militia from their enclave of Afrin in northern Syria could be expanded to include the town of Manbij and even areas east of the Euphrates River, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.
Turkey on Saturday launched operation "Olive Branch" aimed at rooting out the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara sees as a terror group, from its Afrin enclave in northern Syria.
But analysts say a crucial question will be whether Turkey limits the campaign to the Afrin region or extends it to the YPG held-town of Manbij or other areas to the east.
Afrin is an enclave of YPG control, cut off from the longer strip of northern Syria that the group controls to the east, extending to the Iraqi border and which has a U.S. military presence.
"This operation is targeting Afrin region but the threats are also coming from Manbij," Cavusoglu told La Belle France 24 television in an interview during a visit to Gay Paree, accusing the YPG of firing on Turkey from the area.
"We, as Turkey, have to eliminate (threats) where ever there are threats.
"For now Afrin is the target but in the future we might also start an operation in Manbij and also in the eastern part of the Euphrates," he said.
Asked if this might trouble the United States, he replied: "I don't have to agree with anyone else. Our obligation is to eliminate any threat targeting Turkey."
The campaign has caused ripples of concern among Turkey's NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... allies, especially the United States which is still working closely with the YPG to defeat 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) jihadists in Syria.
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... is expected to express American unease over a Ottoman Turkish cross-border offensive into Syria, in a call scheduled with counterpart Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... , U.S. officials said Tuesday.
"This current operation is targeting Afrin region. But in the future, if the threat continues to come from other regions, we might also eliminate terrorist groups in other parts as well," Cavusoglu added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2018
00:23 ||
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#1
Young YPG fighters are making videos of themselves standing in areas Turkey has claimed to have taken. They said that they have repelled attacks and have retaken areas that were originally in Turkish control after the initial invasion.
#6
Those folks that you just gave the tank to
Are likely to kowtow and thank you
Until they meet these
Whom you sold RPGs
And they're back in the "things that go bang" queue.
[Townhall] "I know that inside the FBI there is a revolt," Joseph diGenova tells The American Spectator. "There is a revolt against the director. The people inside the bureau believe the director is a dirty cop. They believe that he threw the [Hillary Clinton email] case. They do not know what he was promised in return. But the people inside the bureau who were involved in the case and who knew about the case are talking to former FBI people expressing their disgust at the conduct of the director."
The loss of faith in the bureau chief stems in part from a dishonest rendering of the decision not to indict Mrs. Clinton as unanimous rather than unilateral and in part from the bureau’s decision to destroy evidence in the case and grant blanket immunity to Clinton underlings for no possible prosecutorial purpose.
"There is a consensus among the employees that the director has lost all credibility and that he cannot lead the bureau," diGenova explains. "They are comparing him to L. Patrick Gray, the disgraced former FBI director who threw Watergate papers into the Potomac River. The resistance to the director has made the agency incapable of action. It has been described to me as a depression within the agency unlike anything that anyone has ever seen within the bureau. The director’s public explanation for the unorthodox investigation are viewed by people in the bureau as sophomoric and embarrassing.
#3
I still don't know why McCabe has not been fired.
I also don't know why DoJ fell for the Comey ploy and appointed a special prosecutor, oops there I go with the naivety, DoJ has key staff up to their eyeballs in this thing and of course they would appoint a prosecutor. If you dig long enough and deep enough, the appointment of Mueller was a setup and prearranged. Perchance that was the "insurance policy?"
[AnNahar] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... launched air strikes in northern Iraq on Kurdish bully boyz planning an attack, the army said on Tuesday, just days after Ankara began an offensive against a Kurdish militia in Syria.
The strikes took place on Monday in the Zap region of northern Iraq, not far from Turkey's southeastern border, the Ottoman Turkish military said in a statement.
The army said it was targeting members of the "separatist terrorist organization" -- Turkey's official term for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The bully boyz were planning an attack on border security posts and bases, the military said, adding that the strikes destroyed weapons emplacements and shelters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2018
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#1
Erdogan offer any proof or just being an NAZI killer?
[IsraelTimes] Security forces on Tuesday foiled an attempted stabbing at a West Bank junction, when they opened fire on two Palestinians who attacked them, police said.
The would-be assailants approached border guards at the Tapuah Junction, police said in a statement.
Officers opened fire and “neutralized” the attackers, police said.
A spokesman for the Samaria Regional Council said the two, both 16-years-old, from the West Bank city of Jenin, suffered leg injuries and were evacuated to a hospital.
There were no injuries to security forces.
“A short time ago, a border police officer at an observation point at the Tapuah junction spotted two Palestinian suspects approaching one of the bus stations at the junction,” a Border Police statement said. “The officer at the lookout point updated the forces stationed at the bus station accordingly. The soldiers asked the suspects to halt but when they refused to do so, the soldiers fired in the air.
“At that point, one of the suspects drew a knife and rushed at he soldiers,” the statement continued. “The forces responded with fire at the legs of the assailants, neutralizing them both. Both received first aid at the scene and were evacuated to a hospital for further treatment.”
The Tapuah Junction has been a site of frequent stabbing attacks in recent years.
[IsraelTimes] Brother of Ahmad Nassar Jarrar, who is wanted for killing Raziel Shevach, picked up in overnight raid, Paleostinian media say.
The brother of one of the gunnies suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting attack earlier this month was tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! early Tuesday morning by Israeli security forces, according to Paleostinian media.
The Paleostinian Ma’an news outlet reported that Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Jenin arrested Suhaib Nassar Jarrar, brother of suspected terror cell leader Ahmad Nassar Jarrar, who is believed to have evaded Israeli arrest raid last week.
The official Paleostinian Authority Safa news outlet reported that Wissam Assam Jarrar, a relative of Ahmad, was also arrested in Jenin.
Israeli security officials would not confirm the arrests, as there is a gag order in place preventing publication of details related to the case.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the IDF announced that eight Paleostinian suspects were arrested between Monday night and Tuesday morning in raids throughout the West Bank.
On January 9, shortly before 8 p.m., 35-year-old father of six Rabbi Raziel Shevach was driving his car on the highway near his home in the Havat Gilad outpost when shots were fired at him from a passing vehicle. Shevach, a volunteer medic, was shot in the neck, but managed to call his wife and tell her to call an ambulance. Civilian and military medics rushed to the scene and tried to stop the bleeding as they took Shevach to Kfar Saba’s Meir Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He's dead, Jim! after life-saving efforts failed.
Israeli security services launched a manhunt after the perpetrators, leading them to a house in Jenin where the suspects were believed to be hiding last Thursday.
In an operation led by the Israel Police’s counterterrorism unit, security forces used a technique known as "pressure cooker," in which troops use a number of high-intensity weapons and tools to disorient the suspects inside a house before knocking down a wall and entering the structure in full force.
A firefight broke out during the arrest raid. One suspect was killed and another was taken into custody. Two coppers were maimed, one of them seriously.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Ahmad Jarrar apparently succeeded in fleeing the scene. Israeli forces have been in pursuit of him ever since, with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman saying on Friday that he is "living on borrowed time."
[NATION.PK] Bangladesh security forces have detained a Rohingya leader during a sweep in a refugee camp, police said on Tuesday, as tension grows over plans to repatriate the displaced Moslems to Myanmar.
The Rohingya representative, Mohibullah, was held in Cox's Bazar district as local authorities broke up a protest on Monday against the controversial repatriation deal signed by Bangladesh and Myanmar.
He was handed over to Bangladesh 's elite security force and then local police who are still holding him for questioning, Cox's Bazar police chief Abul Khair told AFP on Tuesday.
Two other Rohingya men were also detained for their role in the protests, another officer added.
Mohibullah, who goes by one name, has mobilised Rohingya in recent weeks to protest against returning the persecuted Moslems to Myanmar.
Bangladesh had been due to start the huge process of repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Tuesday, after agreeing a two-year timescale with Myanmar.
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01/24/2018
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Throughout the Cold War, Pakistain has been an instrumental US ally in south and central Asia. And the close relationship has continued in the years after. Pakistain has been key to the US efforts in Afghanistan since 2001, as the only reliable staging post in a region squeezed between Iran and China.
In the service of this alliance, the US has supported Pakistain through thick and thin, through military dictatorships, through developing their own nuclear arsenal and through successive scandals involving Pakistain’s notorious ISI intelligence agency, and their dubious activities.
But in recent months, the ISI’s indiscretions and the tacit support they seem to have received from the military and politicianship of the country appear to have led the US to threaten to more or less cut ties with Pakistain. The transgressions which are motivating this move are Pakistain’s support for terrorist groups, and its duplicitous game of friend or foe it alternatively plays with the US and the Taliban
Continued on Page 49
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The Baath Party was officially dissolved by the Americans Saddam was overthrown in 2003. This made sense as the Baath party basically represented the interests of the Sunni Arab minority (about 20 percent of the population) in Iraq. Even though the Baath party was gone, the Sunni Arabs were still there. Moreover, the Sunni Arabs had the highest education levels in Iraq (and always have) as well as the most management experience in running the country and industrial enterprises. This caused problems right away since the Shia Arab majority lacked those skills and management experience. There were calls for keeping more Baath Party Sunni Arabs in positions of power.
When Japan and Germany were occupied after World War II, you could ignore, in most cases, that key government officials were members of the former ruling party. This was because such party membership was required of senior officials, whether they believed in the party or not. But in Iraq, these senior officials belong to a religious and tribal minority that depended on those key jobs to defend their comfortable lifestyles. These Sunni Arabs may not have believed in Baath philosophy, but they surely believed in Sunni Arab domination. This created a tricky problem as not only were the Sunni Arab technocrats qualified to get the country operating again, but they are also hated by most of the population and likely to start conspiring to put the Sunni Arabs back in charge as they did in the 1950s. This would eventually mean another Saddam Hussein (a Sunni Arab strongman running a dictatorship for the benefit of the benefit of the Sunni Arab minority.) The Sunni Arabs still had weapons, organization, local leaders and a lot of attitude.
Continued on Page 49
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[AA.TR] Gen. Sami Anan, a former army chief-of-staff and would-be presidential candidate, has been detained by the Egyptian authorities for questioning, according to his official front man.
"Sami Anan the presidential candidate has been placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! and yesterday 30 persons of his campaign [were also detained] by the al-Sissi regime," campaign front man Mahmoud Refaat tweeted in English.
Refaat went on to hold the regime of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi "entirely responsible" for the safety of the detained individuals.
Earlier Tuesday, the army had accused Anan of committing a handful of "irregularities" after the latter announced his intention to contest upcoming polls.
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01/24/2018
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan Ulemas General Council called the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group brutal enemies of the country after the deadly attack on Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.
The Ulemas General Council issued a statement in reaction to the brutal attack saying the Council strongly condemns the attack that led to the killing of innocent people, including several innocent Afghan nationals.
The statement further added that the attack has no justification, neither in terms human and Islamic principles.
The Council also warned the anti-government armed bad boy groups that the enemies of the country will never achieve their goals through acts of savagery.
The Talibs group grabbed credit behind the attack.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the ministry said their preliminary findings show that the attack was plotted by the Haqqani terrorist network which has safe havens outside Afghanistan.
No further details were given in this regard but the Afghan officials have long been insisting that the terror network has safe havens and their leadership councils are based in the key cities of Pakistain.
The Ministry of Interior said eighteen people were killed in the attack including fourteen foreigners and four Afghan nationals.
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01/24/2018
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#1
Now I see them doing what they are supposed to.
[NATION.PK] Police commandos have been deputed at all sensitive union councils of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... during the ongoing six-day anti-polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... campaign, said Inspector General of Police (IGP - Sindh) AD Khawaja here on Monday.
Sharing details of the security cover being provided to the 9,000 polio teams engaged in the exercise, he said no compromise will be made with regard to their security.
"In fact police department as a stakeholder will do its optimum to facilitate the workers," said the IGP - Sindh.
In reply to a query, he said plain clothed cops have also been deputed at each of the sensitive UC along with commandos and area coppers.
"Security on basis of inner and outer cordon has been further ensured at more than 30 UCs identified as sensitive in the quiet provincial capital," said the police chief in response to another query. "There are standing orders that cover being provided to the polio workers must be strengthened and streamlined with adequate provision for intelligence sharing and sharp vigilance," he added.
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01/24/2018
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#1
Demining or polio vaccination; which is more dangerous?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/24/2018 6:49
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[Chicago Sun Times] WASHINGTON ‐ In the history of the nation, only 10 members of Congress have given birth while in office and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., is one of them.
Soon Duckworth will be in a class by herself.
Duckworth told me she is expecting her second child, another girl, in late April, a few weeks after she turns 50. The birth will make Duckworth the nation’s first senator to have a baby while serving in the chamber.
Sen. Dick Durbin D-Ill., said in a statement, "I am proud to have her as my Illinois colleague and prouder still that she will make history by being the first U.S. Senator to have a baby while in office. I couldn’t be happier for her."
The other congressional births have all come while the female lawmakers were serving in the House.
[Libya Herald] The Libyan National Army (LNA) has carried out Arclight airstrikes on Sudanese and Chadian rebels in the south east of Libya, near to Rabiana.
Spokesman Ahmed Mismari said it was part of the new Operation Desert Fury that seeks to curb the influence of militias and criminals operating in the region. Reports say a convoy of 15 vehicles was hit with the LNA saying it caused "heavy losses". One Benghazi source said Egyptian planes were involved too.
While the target yesterday was fighters that form part of the Sudanese and Chadian opposition, the LNA said they were seeking to end widespread robbery and human trafficking too.
It comes only three days after the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement killed six LNA soldiers and kidnapped another near to the Jaghboub oasis.
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01/24/2018
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[HERALD.CO.ZW] A 38-year-old police officer who was being accused of insulting chief police spokeswoman Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba by labelling her an "idiot," is now a free man after a Harare magistrate cleared him of any wrongdoing. "Yup. She's an idiot. Case dismissed."
Through his lawyer Mr Arshiel Mugiya of Mugiya and Macharaga legal practitioners, Assistant Inspector James Mabasa successfully applied for discharge at the close of the State’s case. "Hey! Waydaminnit, yer honor!"
The police disciplinary hearing committee also withdrew charges against him after plea, following Mr Mugiya’s objection that the evidence they intended to rely on was not admissible in any court, saying the messages were not authenticated by the service provider of WhatsApp. "Whaddya want, Dum-dum?"
Magistrate Ms Josephine Sande accepted Mabasa’s argument that the State failed to prove a prima facie case against him and ruled that he was entitled to an acquittal. Ms Sande added that there was no evidence indicating that the message pointed at Snr Asst Comm Charamba. "He called me an idjit and I work for the government! That has to be illegal!"
She also concurred with Mr Mugiya’s submission that the manner in which the police confiscated Mabasa’s cellphone was illegal and that there was intrusion to his right to privacy because the message was sent on a private platform. "It's only against the law if you use government email. Any moron knows that!"
Mabasa, who is based at Police General Headquarters (PGHQ), was accused of making the remarks on a WhatsApp platform sometime in May last year. The message read: "The police used to hold meetings with magistrates and other law enforcement stakeholders to map a way forward, reducing lawlessness, but now it’s the other way round, the public have meetings with lawyers on ways to disregard police. The public relations office is headed by an idiot, who doesn’t know that she has to encourage the public to be compliant to the police." "Wotta maroon!"
In her testimony during trial, Snr Asst Comm Charamba maintained that the offensive message was directed at her as the head of Press and Public Relations department.
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01/24/2018
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[AA.TR] At least 260 PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and ISISforces of Evil have been neutralized since the beginning of Operation Olive Branch in Syria, Ottoman Turkish General Staff said Tuesday.
In a statement, the military said The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... carried out this operation under international law and Article 51 of the UN Charter and respecting Syrian territorial integrity.
It added the operation targets forces of Evil and their shelters, positions, arms and equipment. Precautions were being taken to prevent civilians and innocents from being harmed in the operation.
It also said the number of martyred soldiers increased to three after a soldier was martyred during festivities with forces of Evil in the operation. It added one soldier was also injured in the clash.
Turkey on Saturday launched Operation Olive Branch to clear PYD/PKK and ISISforces of Evil from Afrin, northwestern Syria.
According to the military, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Ottoman Turkish borders and the region as well as protect Syrians from terrorist oppression and cruelty.
The operation is being carried out under the framework of Turkey's rights based on international law, UN Security Council resolutions, its self-defense rights under the UN charter, and respect for Syria's territorial integrity, it said.
The military has also said it is putting "utmost importance" on not harming any civilians.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said 43 Ankara-backed rebels and 38 Kurdish fighters had been killed in the fighting so far. It has also said 28 civilians have been killed on the Syrian side but this is vehemently rejected by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey which says it is only targeting krazed killers.
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01/24/2018
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[Libya Herald] Videos showing the torture of migrant’s apparently in Libya have gone viral, drawing widespread condemnation. The victims were forced to call their family and ask for ransom money by the militias.
One video shows a man naked and in extreme pain as he is burnt with hot, liquidised silicon. His name is Sadiq Abakar Ahmed from Kutum in the Sudanese province of Darfur.
Taha Suliman Hussain, a friend of Ahmed, can also be seen in the footage.
The second video consists of ten migrants colonists lined up shirtless on the ground and being lashed repeatedly on their backs. The masked captor asks one man if he has transferred money to which the migrant cries out that that his family will. A sum of 120,000 Sudanese pounds is asked for, the equivalent of around 17,000 US Dollars.
It is impossible to verify where the incident took place and even if it actually happened in Libya. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... one of the torturers appears to speak with a Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... tan accent.
Groups from from Sudan and Chad are known to be highly active in the migrant and drug smuggling trade. Mercenaries have also bulked up almost every warring Libya faction over the last few years.
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#1
But don't you dare call Libya a sh*thole. After all Obama/Clinton made Libya the great nation that it is.
[HERALD.CO.ZW] Former international football star George Weah has been sworn in as president of Liberia, the first peaceful democratic transfer of power in the West African country in more than seven decades.
Weah won 61.5 percent of the votes in December’s election run-off, beating outgoing vice president Joseph Boakai who garnered 38.5 percent of the ballot. Voter turnout was 55.8 percent, or just over 1.2 million people, according to the election commission. The former world footballer of the year succeeded Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female president.
Weah entered politics after retiring from football in 2002 and ran for the presidency in 2005 losing to Johnson Sirleaf. The last peaceful transfer of power between two democratically elected presidents took place in Liberia in 1944, when president Edwin Barclay was replaced by William Tubman.
The swearing in ceremony at a stadium near the Liberian capital, Monrovia was attended by more than a dozen African and foreign dignitaries, including heads of state from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Mali, Ivory Coast and Guinea.
Many Liberians regard the 51-year-old as a hero for his incredible rags-to-riches tale. He was born in a slum in Monrovia, but found fame in international football. Weah has promised to eradicate corruption in the country of four million people and bolster the weak economy.
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01/24/2018
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[RT] Levitating humans could be in our future, thanks to a scientific breakthrough in acoustic tractor beam technology, which can now lift larger objects than ever before.
Engineers from the University of Bristol have demonstrated that it’s possible to stably levitate objects using the world’s most powerful acoustic tractor beams. Their findings were published in the Physical Review Letters on Monday.
Acoustic tractor beams use soundwaves to hold particles in the air. It was previously believed they could only be used to levitate very small objects which were about the same size as a wavelength of sound, but the research demonstrates the potential for far larger objects to be levitated.
“Acoustic researchers had been frustrated by the size limit for years, so its satisfying to find a way to overcome it,”said the study’s lead author, Dr Asier Marzo of Bristol’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “I think it opens the door to many new applications.”
The technique creates a tornado-like effect with acoustic vortices, which researchers said are like, "tornadoes of sound, made of a twister-like structure with loud sound surrounding a silent core."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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#1
"Now we just need to overcome the 'all test subjects go deaf' problem."
[NATION.PK] Awoman lodged a complaint with City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi and appealed to him to get her young sister freed from the clutches of an alleged ’sex racket’ operating within the limits of Police Station Airport, informed sources on Tuesday.
The applicant revealed that she had also been made a sex slave by members of the racket. The CPO ordered Station House Officer Airport to carry out raid at the house where the girl was allegedly detained, the sources added.
According to the sources, Iram Sabir, 18, a resident of Lahore, appeared before the CPO in an open court and lodged a complaint, stating that she and her younger sister Taiba Sabir had been brought to Chaklala Scheme III, Rawalpindi from Lahore by a woman , Shehla Bibi, for jobs.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... the women forced them into prostitution, she alleged . "Shehla’s husband Sher Khan and son Asif Sher were also accomplices in the crime," she added.
She said that she fled from the house of Shehla but her sister Taiba was still detained there and was being forced into prostitution. Iram appealed to the CPO to recover her sister from illegal custody of the alleged ’sex racket’.
The CPO Israr Abbasi directed the SHO Airport Ahsan Kiyani to recover the detained girl. The SHO constituted special team to conduct raid on the house.
"We are carrying out a raid to arrest members of alleged sex racket to recover the girl," said SHO while talking to The Nation. He said that police would soon arrest the accused and put them behind the bars.
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[RUDAW.NET] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... has confirmed its "solidarity" with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in the war against terrorism, deputy head of the defence alliance stated in a speech in Istanbul on Tuesday.
"In this neighbourhood, NATO recognizes that you face a number of difficult security challenges. Among all NATO Allies, Turkey is the most exposed to instability and turmoil stemming from the Middle East. Your country has suffered a series of brutal terrorist attacks. I want you to know that NATO stands in solidarity with Turkey in the fight against terrorism," Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller said in an address at Turkey’s National Defence University.
Gottemoeller’s visit comes after Ottoman Turkish leaders slammed the alliance for not taking action in support of Turkey facing "border aggression."
"Hey NATO! You are duty-bound to take a stand with your partners in the event of any border aggression," Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... said after reports emerged that the United States was planning to create a 30,000-strong border force with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to secure Rojava borders.
The United States subsequently walked back from the reports they were forming a new force, stating they were just continuing their existing training of local forces.
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#1
The Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union collapsed. The rationale for NATO died. If the First World countries of the world are not motivated to protect their own interests, its not the back of the American taxpayer to subsidize them.
#4
Except for MAYBE a handfull of staff, NATO (or, at least US support for/of it) should have shut its doors 25 years ago. It's even more dysfunctional now.
#5
It is time for the US to walk away from NATO. Trump should work on a military alliance among the Anglosphere nations (and a separate one with East Asian nations).
[NATION.PK] A holy man who allegedly beat his eight-year-old pupil to death at a seminary in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... ’s Bin Qasim Town area on Sunday was pardoned by the victim’s family on Monday, Station House Officer Dhani Bux Marri said. Despite the pardoning, police nonetheless proceeded to register a first information report (FIR) against the accused on behalf of the state under Section 322 of the Pakistain Penal Code.
Mohammed Hussain had allegedly been subjected to corporal punishment by Qari Najmuddin in the past, after which he had run away from the seminary. His parents , however, brought him back to the seminary on Friday. When the student tried to flee again, Qari Najmuddin got hold of him and allegedly beat him to death with a blunt weapon.
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01/24/2018
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[AlAhram] Egypt's interior ministry said Tuesday that six bad boyz were potted in a shootout with police during a raid on a bad boy hideout in North Sinai.
Security forces tracked a group of forces of Evil who plotted to increase attacks against security forces as the country celebrates national police day on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement.
Police forces then raided the terrorists' hideout, which had been used as a base for staging attacks in the North Sinai capital of Arish, the ministry added.
Six bad boyz were potted as security forces exchanged fire with bad boys.
[AlAhram] Egypt’s army said it killed two dangerous turbans in North Sinai ahead of their plot to carry out a terror attack against the forces, a statement by the Egyptian armed forces read on Tuesday.
In an official statement, armed forces front man Tamer El-Refaie said the second field army, in coordination with air forces, killed the turbans and tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... two others.
The army also destroyed a number of hideouts used by the terrorists, as well as a 4x4 vehicle laden with explosives and six improvised bombs (IEDs).
Another car carrying kabooms was also seized by the authorities.
"The second field army continues its efforts to eliminate criminal and holy warrior elements in North Sinai," the statement concluded.
[CNS] We almost lost our country last fall. America was unwittingly on the precipice of becoming a nation whose government was willing to go to illegal and devious lengths to maintain the status quo.
I believe that the information that will be forthcoming in the next few weeks will be both astonishing and frightening to the American public, information that was never meant to see the light of day, much less the scrutiny of the American people.
I believe there will be irrefutable evidence of collusion among the upper echelons of the Democratic Party, actually denying any candidate except Hillary Clinton a chance to be their presidential candidate.
I believe there will be evidence of the same people and their Democrat puppets in Congress to foist a false dossier, undocumented, totally unsubstantiated and paid for by the Democrats, on the American public aided by their serfs in the media that would falsely tie Donald Trump, his associates and members of his inner circle with the Russian government.
I believe there will be proof of the weaponizing of federal agencies and personnel and collusion between the Obama justice department and the FBI.
#1
Mrs. JohnQC and I drove to Rutledge last summer to see a free Charley Daniel's concert. A great concert by a great American.
Charley is right about nearly losing our country. At one time I thought the dangers to the U.S. were from enenmies outside the U.S., not from enemies within. How wrong I was. The country was nearly stolen by a bunch of unbelievably corrupt and evil, greedy scoundrels.
#4
Since the 1992 election I've felt that the Clintons and their ilk were more like the Borgia popes than democrats. I thought that the danger was past in 2000 but I was wrong for several reasons: 1) The Bushes turned out to be cousins in the wink wink sense 2) Obama was their protege who was to maintain the line 3) Hillary is the bitter dowager who always felt she didn't get her due.
Maybe the Czars are a better match but the evil inherent in that whole collection of pustules is truly vomit inducing.
#7
Gave my father a copy of whatever tap contained Devil Went Down to Georgia. My father wasn't a music fan but he played that song (and only that song) until the tape was worn out. Not a fan of country but I do like that song.
[StrategyPage] Russia admits to a missing link in its air defense systems. This was made clear at the end of 2017 when the Russian controlled Hmeimim (or “Khmeimim”) airbase in northwest Syria came under regular attack by 82mm mortars.
Russian weapons experts quickly concluded that the weapon used was probably a Russian 2B9 Vasilek (Cornflower) automatic 82mm gun-mortar. The evidence was the shell fragments from 3.24 (7.2 pound) 82mm shells and the fact that the shells were fired quickly. The 2B9 can use a four round clip that fires four 82mm shells in about two seconds. The Russian analysts realized that the only weapon that could have done that was the 2B9 but because Russia had never sold 2B9s to Syria the Russians accused Turkey of allowing Turkish smugglers to get such a large weapon across the border and into rebel hands.
Turkish intelligence quickly eliminated that by pointing videos posted on YouTube in 2014 showing Syrian Islamic terrorist rebels using what was clearly a 2B9. This is not a small weapon and weighs 632 kg (1,400 pounds), is mounted on two wheels and looks like towed artillery, which it is, except it uses the same ammo as the 82mm mortar and can be fired using those four round clips or by dropping the 82mm mortar shell down the barrel as most mortars operate.
The 2B9 has been manufactured in Russia since 1970 and by the 1980s China was manufacturing a clone called the W99. The Turks pointed out that Syrian rebels had, since 2014, boasted of capturing 2B9s from the Syrian army. How the Syrian army got them is an issue best not pursued by the Russians because 2B9s were in use by the Syrian army before 2011 and it is believed they were obtained from arms dealers or were Chinese W99s (you have to examine a W99 closely to be sure it is not a 2B9).
After all that came to light the Russians no longer blamed the Turks or wanted to discuss the 2B9 but did lament in the media that they do not have a weapon to stop 82mm shells while the Israelis, Americans and even the Germans do.
[RUDAW.NET] Twenty-one villages that are home to Yezidis in the Afrin area are at "serious risk" because of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... ’s military operation in the region, Yezidi advocacy organization Yazda warned in a blurb Tuesday.
The group said they will hold Turkey and Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... militias responsible "if any persecution of cleansing act takes place against our people."
Yazda noted that the Yezidi minority has already suffered over the past decade, with its population dropping from 90,000 in 2011 to fewer than 15,000 today after persecution and forced displacement.
Yazda called on the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , United States, and Russia to protect the Yezidi villages.
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[RUDAW.NET] Some 145-150 ISIS Lions of Islam were killed in a "precision strike" on a headquarters of the group in eastern Syria, the coalition announced Tuesday evening.
The strike hit an ISIS headquarters and command and control centre near As Shafah, in the Euphrates River valley, about 20 kilometres from the Syria-Iraq border.
The "heavy concentration of ISIS fighters... appear to have been massing for movement," the coalition stated in their published announcement.
"The strikes underscore our assertion that the fight to liberate Syria is far from over," said Maj. Gen. James Jarrard, commanding general of the coalition’s special operations task force.
Coalition allies the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) assisted in "target observation prior to the strikes," the statement confirmed.
"Our SDF partners are still making daily progress and sacrifices, and together we are still finding, targeting and killing ISIS holy warriors intent on keeping their myrmidon hold on the region. We cannot take our focus off our mission, and we must not lose our momentum in taking these holy warriors off the battlefield and preventing them from resurfacing somewhere else," said Jarrard.
Earlier in the day, US Defence Secretary James Mattis criticized The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s military offensive against Kurdish forces of the SDF in Afrin as a distraction from the war on terror.
"The violence in Afrin disrupts what was a relatively stable area of Syria. It distracts from international efforts to ensure the defeat of ISIS, and this could be exploited by ISIS and al-Qaeda," he said, urging everyone to remain focused on the war against ISIS.
Turkey maintains that its military operation in northwest Syria is against Kurdish forces with ties to the PKK, a named terror organization.
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[Iraq News] 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.... senior members were locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in an operation launched in south of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , an intelligence source from Nineveh Police said on Tuesday.
"During a campaign launched by Nineveh Police intelligence in al-Eraij village in Qayyarah town, troops arrested Tareq abu Islam, chief of Islamic State’s Hisbah (vigilantism) in Nineveh, who is accused of ordering murder of hundreds of civilians, in accordance with the Death Eater group’s edicts, while occupying the post in the Old City," Cap. Alaa al-Bayati told BasNews.
"Security troops managed also to arrest Ayman Waad al-Jarjari, who was in charge of the group’s so-called Bayt-ul Mal," Bayati added.
"Based on accurate intelligence information, troops arrested the wanted persons while hiding in one of the old houses along with a family. They were taken to Nineveh Police department for investigations," he added.
Earlier today, the Defense Ministry said Iraqi army forces are launching a clearing operation against IS hard boyz based on intelligence information with support from the United States-led international coalition in "Jozor al-Makhlat" (islands) in Nineveh.
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[Iraq News] An 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.... krazed killer and two suicide kaboomers were killed as Iraqi troops repulsed an attack in Baghdad, a command announced on Tuesday.
"Troops of the Baghdad Operations Command managed, today, to kill two suicide attackers wearing suicide belts and an IS member, who was with them, in al-Dhabitiya region, north of the capital," Maj. Gen. Jalil al-Rubei’y, the commander, told AlSumaria News.
The krazed killers, according to Rubei’y, were intending to carry out operations in Baghdad. Their weapons were seized.
Earlier today, a civilian was killed, while four others were maimed as a bomb went kaboom! near a market in al-Yusufiya region, south of Baghdad. Moreover, a roadside kaboomwent kaboom! while an army patrol was passing at al-Tarmiyah district in northern Baghdad, leaving a soldier dead and two others maimed.
On Saturday, the command announced killing a jacket wallah in an agricultural region, north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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[CNS] Commenting on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating President Trump for alleged "collusion" with Russia, Judicial Watch said that, as FBI director under President Obama, Mueller purged the Bureau of all anti-terrorism training material that was deemed "offensive" to Muslims. This was done, said Judicial Watch, "after secret meetings between Islamic organizations and the FBI chief."
Judicial Watch obtained the documents on Mueller and the Muslim groups after filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI in July 2012. Mueller had met with the Muslims groups on Feb. 8, 2012, after which the curricula purge took place, said Judicial Watch.
"As FBI director, Mueller bent over backwards to please radical Islamist groups and caved into their demands," said Judicial Watch. "The agency eliminated the valuable anti-terrorism training material and curricula after Mueller met with various Islamist organizations, including those with documented ties too terrorism."
#4
FBI Director Bin Hussen Robert Mueller. The pages which were removed fell into at least one of four categories -- "poor taste," using Arab or Muslim "stereotypes," information missing "precision," and "factual errors."
Being honest about Islamic jihad offend his koranic master Obama? Duh.
#5
Mueller got the Brennan-ValJar nod. It's obviously paid long-term employment dividends and his mentorship of James Comey will likely become legendary.
[RADIOSHABELLE] At least five Somali government soldiers are reported to have been killed and several others maimed in a landmine blast near Mogadishu on Tuesday.
According to witnesses, the kaboom which has resulted from a roadside kaboom has destroyed a convoy ferrying Somali troops at Taredishe area, about 13Km west of the capital.
Al-Shabaab ... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia... has claimed credit for the attack and said it killed the commissioner of Elbur district and his security guards after their vehicle was hit by a remote-controlled IED.
Radio Shabelle, however, could not independently verify the claim of al-Shabaab over the death of the DC. The Somali military did not respond to calls for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Chairman of the Pakistain Ulema Council Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi has harshly criticized the Afghanistan's Caped President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. and the members of the Afghan Ulemas Council as relations remain strained between the two neighboring countries over the circumstances surrounding the fight against the terror.
According to the local media report, Mr. Ashrafi has criticized the Afghanistan's Caped President for his stance against Pakistain and for hurling allegations regarding the safe havens of the terror groups.
Ashraf has reportedly said that the Afghanistan's Caped President should take actions against the Afghan Uelmas for their failure to issue proper Fatwas in accordance with the situation of the country.
He also slammed the Afghan Ulemas for their stance against Pakistain and has accused them of issuing Jihad (Holy War) Fatwa against Pakistain.
This comes as the Afghanistan's Caped President had earlier reacted at the Fatwa issued by the Pak Ulemas in which they had called armed insurgency and suicide kabooms as illegitimate inside Pakistain.
President Ghani said last week that the principles of Islam applies around the globe and all Islamic nations which was supposed to cover Afghanistan as well and cannot be limited to a specific geography.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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[HERALD.CO.ZW] GOVERNMENT yesterday directed ministers, their deputies, permanent secretaries, senior principal directors, board chairpersons and board members of State enterprises and parastatals, and chief executive officers of State enterprises to declare their assets by not later than February 28.
This is in line with the fundamental tenets of good corporate governance. Also expected to declare their assets are chairpersons and members of Constitutional commissions (both executive and independent) and chief executive officers of local authorities. The mentioned officials are expected to submit a written declaration of their assets by the said date.
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda said in a statement yesterday that the declaration of assets documents should contain the following information ‐ details of all immovable property owned by the public servant or those in which he or she has an interest and any item of movable property exceeding US$100 000 in value owned or leased by the individual concerned or in which he or she has any other interest.
The officials should also reveal any business in which they have an interest and or in which they play a part in running. The nature of the interest in the property or business concerned must be clearly stated, said Dr Sibanda.
"The Declaration of Assets documents should be submitted under sealed envelope to the undersigned by no later than 28th February, 2018," he said.
"Heads of ministries are hereby directed to coordinate the collection, and submission of all declarations in respect of designated grades within their ministries, as well as in public entities and Constitutional bodies under their purview.
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01/24/2018
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[TheJamestownFoundation] The Nigerian military faces a classic counter-insurgency dilemma akin to what U.S. and Afghan forces face in Afghanistan — the insurgents have high maneuverability in the countryside; are able to resource themselves or retreat across the border into neighboring countries; and the population is either indifferent or has been cowed into submission. ISWAP
(Islamic State in the West Africa Province)
militants mostly target civilians and supposed government collaborators, and in many cases have better knowledge of the cultural, linguistic and physical terrain than their military opponents.
Behind the scenes of the ground battles in northeastern Nigeria, ISWAP, Boko Haram and Ansaru are also engaged in a battle for supremacy of the jihadist movement and narrative in Nigeria. These three factions have been at odds since two key events in February 2015 and August 2016. First, in February 2015, a shura was held where Ansaru opted to remain separate from ISWAP, while the other insurgents, including some defectors from Ansaru, joined the group (jihadology.net, February 10, 2015). Then, in August 2016, ISWAP itself split, with Shekau being deposed from the leadership by Islamic State (IS). He returned to lead Boko Haram, while Abu Musab al-Barnawi became leader of ISWAP (jihadology.net, August 3, 2016).
Ansaru is now mostly operationally dormant, while ISWAP and Boko Haram sometimes clash in overlapping territories. Militants and civilians generally both prefer ISWAP under al-Barnawi. Boko Haram leader Shekau is known to attack pretty much anyone who resists joining his caliphate, which functions as his fiefdom around Sambisa Forest. That has included his own top commanders if he perceives they are disloyal, whether or not there is evidence to prove that disloyalty (vanguardngr.com, January 28).
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Abu Musab al-Barnawi
Ansaru
Boko Haram
ISWAP
Khairul Huda
Sahara Reporters
Shekau
Posted by: 3dc ||
01/24/2018
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[NATION.PK] United States once against pressurized Pakistain to 'do more' against Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... and 'war against terrorism.'
While talking to media on Monday, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders called on Pakistain to immediately arrest or expel leadership of Pakistain .
"We call on Pakistain to prevent Taliban from using its soil to support US operation," she said.
The statement came day after deadly attack on Kabul attack by Taliban killing around 30 civilians including foreigners.
Pakistain has already condemned the attack and expressed it sorrow over loss of so many lives in the attack.
Furthermore, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr. Faisal rejected the knee-jerk reaction of Afghan government stating Pakistain rejects allegation being put by some Afghan circles for attack on intercontinental hotel.
Washington has been increasing pressure on Pakistain to 'do more' especially after tweet of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... in which he stated that Pakistain has dealt US only with 'deceit and lies' and $ 33 billion aid has proved futile.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#3
Seems like a good idea, except solar system installers are now laying off workers because the demand is expected to go down, now that Han panels won't be so cheap. Law of unintended consequences in play - still a good idea to reduce dependency on Han goods. And don't get me started on the Army buying Han security cameras.....
#4
And don't get me started on the Army buying Han security cameras.....
Grrr. Maybe we should make our own stuff now and then. Then again, the NSA/CIA would insert themselves into creating the standard to make it hackable. Sigh.
[FreeBeacon] The CIA believes its capacity to block international shipments into North Korea is inadequate amid U.S. efforts to choke off revenue to Pyongyang's military programs, the agency's director Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
"We're not quite where we need to be," Pompeo said at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. We need lots more money and people.
"Our mission is not complete, but we have officers all around the world working diligently to make sure that we do everything we can to support the U.S. pressure campaign and to tighten sanctions in such a way that we have the opportunity to prevail and to achieve the president's mission, which is denuclearization of the peninsula."
Pompeo's remarks came four days after the Wall Street Journal revealed that U.S. intelligence officials had gathered evidence of at least six Chinese ships entering ports in North Korea and transporting illicit cargo to Russia and Vietnam in violation of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang.
The Trump administration in September submitted a proposal to the United Nations Security Council requesting authorization for the U.S. Navy and Air Force to interdict and inspect North Korean ships in international waters. The resolution was rejected, but the UN in December imposed sanctions on North Korea aimed at cutting off fuel and oil supplies, which served as a key source of revenue for Kim Jong Un's nuclear and missile defense programs.
Pompeo said a fundamental risk of North Korea developing its missile and nuclear capabilities is proliferation to rogue states such as Iran.
He judged that North Korea's weapons programs will be used for coercion purposes in addition to self-defense and said Kim's next "logical step" would be the development of an arsenal of weapons with the capacity to fire multiple missiles simultaneously.
"We do believe that Kim Jong Un, given these toolsets, would use them for things beyond regime protection and that is to put pressure on what is his ultimate goal, which is reunification of the peninsula under his authority," Pompeo said. "We don't think it's the case that he's simply going to use this tool set for self-preservation."
#1
"Our mission is not complete, but we have officers all around the world working diligently to make sure that we do everything we can to support the U.S. pressure campaign and to tighten sanctions in such a way that we have the opportunity to prevail and to achieve the president's mission, which is denuclearization of the peninsula."
Interesting, but wait just a moment please. Economic and trade sanctions; isn't what Director Pompeo referring to the job of the State Department ?
By the way, exactly how does the CIA "tighten sanctions?" Huge sums of US Dollars? Comfort girls? Big Mac's ?
What are the folks at Foggy Bottom being paid to do ?
#2
Is there a shortage of attack subs and/or torpedos?
Posted by: C. Elmomoger7737 ||
01/24/2018 9:48
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#3
Much like the Neutron bomb that was to kill people but not destroy buildings, I seem to remember a development program for an EMP mine which would simply disable a ship's control systems without damaging the hull thus leaving it adrift and open to high seas salvage. I think the program was suspended when someone realized we used more tech than they did.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A senior al-Qaeda leader has called on Moslems "everywhere" to rise up and kill Jews and Americans in response to US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
In a video released Monday, Khalid Batarfi said Trump’s decision was "a declaration of a new Jewish-Crusader war" and every Moslem had a duty to "liberate" the holy city, the SITE Intelligence monitoring group reported.
"No Moslem has the right to cede Jerusalem no matter what happens," said Batarfi, a top commander with the group’s powerful Yemen-based branch. "Only a traitor would give it up or hand it over."
"Let them (Moslems) rise and attack the Jews and the Americans everywhere," he said, in the 18-minute video entitled "Our Duty Towards Our Jerusalem".
Breaking with decades of US policy, Trump on December 6 said his administration would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.
On Monday, US Vice President Mike Pence pledged to move the embassy by the end of 2019, in a speech to Israel’s parliament that saw Arab politicians expelled after they shouted in protest.
Jerusalem is the third holiest city for Moslems, and the first holy city for Jews.
The US decision to recognize Jerusalem triggered protests across the Moslem world, and was also criticized by several US allies.
In the video, Batarfi dismissed US allies’ protests as not genuine and "nothing but dust thrown in the eyes".
"The greatest responsibility lies upon the Moslems in America and the Western countries in the world," he said.
"The Moslems inside the occupied land must kill every Jew, by running him over, or stabbing him, or by using against him any weapon, or by burning their homes."
Batarfi is a senior figure with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... (AQAP), described by the US as the worldwide jihadist network’s most dangerous branch.
The group has kidnapped foreigners and grabbed credit for the deadly 2015 attack in Gay Paree on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... , targeted for its cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The United States has intensified its air attacks on AQAP since Trump took office in January.
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01/24/2018
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[NATION.PK] After hectic efforts of 14 days by the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... government and civil as well as military agencies, the rapist-cum-killer of seven-year-old Kasur girl, Zainab , has been identified and taken into custody.
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced this successful operation before media persons in the presence of Haji Muhammad Ameen, father of Zainab , Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, police, administrative/intelligence officials and the Punjab Forensic Science Agency and Laboratory DG here yesterday.
Imran, the rapist-cum-killer of Zainab , is a serial killer as a dozen of Kasur girls below the age of eight have been raped and killed by him since June 2015. Through the investigation held both on scientific and human level, he has been found the killer of seven of them.
Feeling the pain and cruelty of the pathetic incident of Zainab’s murder, the chief minister expressed his desire that Imran should be hanged publicly so that no one in future could dare to repeat such a heinous crime.
He affirmed the case of Imran would be tried in the Special Anti-Terrorism Court, urging the Lahore High Court chief justice to hold its proceedings on day-to-day basis to take the matter to logical conclusion at the earliest. He assured the court of the Punjab government’s fullest help. He opined the court, while deciding the case under the law, might order public hanging of 24-year-old Imran, ’the beast’. He also hinted at amending the law for the public hanging of the convicts of such gruesome offences as a lesson to others.
The chief minister revealed the KP government had also approached the Punjab government for forensic lab help to trace out the culprit of five-year-old Asma of Mardan who was also raped and murdered some 10 days ago, the CM offered full cooperation to them in this regard. He also offered forensic lab help to the Sindh government in Naqeeb killing case. He said such incidents were painful for every Pak, so no one should do politics on them.
Shehbaz said: "We are highly thankful to Almighty Allah Who made our untiring and hectic efforts successful. He appreciated the JIT, Punjab police, Forensic Lab, ISI, MI, IB, administration, politicianship, the media and prayers of the whole nation that resulted in the arrest of Imran. He also thanked the army chief for extending every help in this regard.
The CM termed the officers who shared efforts to track down the killer shining stars of the nation. Shehbaz remarked he had never seen such commitment, dedication and concerted efforts to trace such a difficult crime. He also announced to take action against the police personnel who neglected their duties at the earlier stage after Zainab had gone missing on January 4.
Before addressing media persons, the chief minister also held a meeting with the father of Zainab .
It may be mentioned that the body of Zainab was recovered on January 9, after five days of her going missing, from a heap of garbage around 300 yards from her residence. The incident sparked a strong public reaction which jolted not only the police department but also the Punjab government. Taking notice of the incident, the Supreme Court on Sunday gave 72 hours to the police to trace the culprit.
Imran lived just nine houses from the residence of Zainab in the same street. His DNA samples were twice obtained, on January 14 and January 20, and their laboratory results showed the same matching with that of seven little girls, including Zainab . DNA tests of a total of 1,150 suspects of the area were carried out and Imran was one of them. A polygraphic test of Imran also came positive to establish his link with the rape-cum-murderer of Zainab and six other innocent girls.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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[USNEWS] Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he would stand for re-election in the next presidential election if the ruling Socialist Party asked him too. "I'm ready to be a candidate," he told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
if Socialist Party Wants
"...and there's a nice, convenient wall outside waiting for any Party member who doesn't."
[AnNahar] Visitors to an upmarket Kabul hotel attacked by Taliban ...Arabic for students... button men have described glaring security breaches before the assailants went on a bloody rampage targeting guests, in a city constantly under threat.
Bags were not checked, scanners did not work and body searches were non-existent, according to witnesses, as the private company providing security to the state-owned Intercontinental Hotel comes under the spotlight.
Continued on Page 49
[NATION.PK] After a clash between activists of the Pashtun Education Development Movement (PEDM) and Islami Jamaat Talaba outside the university hostels, the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... University administration on Tuesday struck off 37 students from the rolls.
Higher Education Minister Raza Ali Gilani said that cases under terrorism act would be registered against the hooligans.
Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zakriya Zakir chaired a meeting of all heads of departments at Al Raazi Hall here on Tuesday. Deans of various faculties and a large number of heads of departments participated in the meeting. The teachers expressed the resolve to adopt zero-tolerance policy against vandalism and vowed that nobody would be allowed to take law into hands. The meeting decided to take action against the culprits involved in the incidents across the board. The meeting decided to prepare a centralised database system so that any culprit who is found involved in any incident of violence could be identified with accurate information. The meeting decided to admit students on Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... ’s reserved quota through nominations from the government of Balochistan. The meeting also decided to improve attendance system through biometric devices and implement biometric system in letter and spirit at hostels. The meeting also discussed to begin e-lane system at the entry points of the university. In a press statement, the university front man said that as many as 37 students had been suspended who were initially found involved in the incident and disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against them.
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01/24/2018
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[ConservativeTreehouse] James Rybicki [Hi, Jim] was former FBI Director James Comey’s chief-of-staff and retained that position under current FBI Director Christopher Wray (more on that later).
Rybicki was the key figure in circulating and coordinating the "Clinton Exoneration Statement" read by Director Comey. For Clinton endeavor Rybicki was the hub collecting and dispatching communication as the ’talking points’ were constructed, edited, refined and ultimately finalized.
Additionally, Rybicki was the communication hub surrounding the Clinton-Lynch ’Tarmac Meeting’ discussion points that led to public statements therein by the FBI and ultimately Loretta Lynch’s public statements about distancing herself from the investigation.
Also, James Rybicki was listed as one of the key witnesses requested by Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes as outlined in the letter of agreement between Nunes and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. James Rybicki was/is being questioned by Nunes et al.
So today, James Rybicki quits.
WASHINGTON DC ‐ FBI Director Chris Wray announced Tuesday that his chief of staff, James Rybicki, is leaving the bureau.
Rybicki, who served in the same position under former FBI Director James Comey, had come under scrutiny from Republicans in recent months about his role in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Rybicki was not fired. His departure, they said, has "been in the works for awhile."
"Jim Rybicki notified me last month that he will be leaving the FBI to accept an opportunity in the corporate sector," Wray said in a statement. "While this is an exciting move for the whole Rybicki family, Jim will be dearly missed by the FBI family ‐ and by me personally."
Wray added: "His many years of dedication to the bureau and DOJ, his level-headed judgement and earnest professionalism, and his steady good cheer have been an asset to us all and have contributed greatly to the safety and security of our nation."
[NATION.PK] An ordinary-looking person has been found involved in an extraordinary evil ‐ rape and murder of at least seven children, as young as five-year-old, reported by police in Kasur district of the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... during the last couple of years.
Resident of Road Kot, Imran Ali, 24, also a neighbour of Zainab, is said to be a carpenter by profession. He joined protesters after discovery of the body of the latest victim early this month. He was also seen among relatives of the victims as media persons rushed to the violence-hit district. The police could not reach the serial killer unless the DNA profiling proved him guilty in at least seven similar cases.
Imran had left school when he was in class-III. Many local residents on Tuesday were in a state of shock as they came to know that the serial killer police were hunting for was in fact Imran Ali.
The father of this serial killer had died a couple of months ago, according to the initial investigations. Police said the killer’s father Muhammad Arshad had been suffering from mental illness.
The suspect used to participate in religious gatherings. He was living with his two brothers and four sisters. At least five relatives of the suspect including his two brothers Farhan and Fahad were also tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! by police last week.
The house of the killer is located just 120 metres away from the victim’s residence. Hence, he was familiar with the child. He raped and killed at least seven children within a radius of two kilometres during the last two years but the police failed to trace him.
The police in Kasur district reported at least 11 cases of child rape and murder since 2015. The latest killing led the police to find out that the criminal they were hunting for was a "serial killer ." Before this, police never investigated this element despite a series of child murder cases reported in the same locality.
During the Zainab murder case probe, the police established on the basis of DNA reports of the victims that a single person was involved in at least seven rape and murder cases. Several forensic experts were sent to Kasur for DNA sampling of local population soon after authorities discovered that the rapist on the loose, in fact, is a "serial killer".
The joint investigation team comprising police Sherlocks and intelligence operatives arrested the suspect after two weeks-long investigations. The police interrogated a few thousand people and collected DNA tests of at least 1150 residents of the locality.
"Imran was arrested as a result of DNA profiling. Also, during his polygraph tests, the suspect confessed to his crime before an investigation team," said a police officer, who was familiar with the development.
The first DNA test was conducted on January 14 and the second DNA test was carried out by forensic experts on January 20. "The DNA matching was 100 percent. In his (video-recording) statement, the suspect confessed to raping and killing six other children," the officer explained.
Earlier, police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested the main suspect behind at least seven child rape and murder cases reported in Kasur district in recent years. The first case of child rape and murder had surfaced in June 2015.
Zainab Amin was kidnapped on Jan 4 this year when she was going to her aunt’s house nearby for Koran lessons. She was found murdered after being raped on a heap of garbage in the same locality on Jan 9.
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01/24/2018
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[AnNahar] Three French women who joined 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 before being captured by Iraqi forces could be facing the death penalty as they await trial in Baghdad, sources close to their cases told AFP.
The women were detained after Iraqi fighters ousted the jihadists from djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... last July, one source said, confirming a report on RMC radio.
One 28-year-old woman left in 2015 for the group's "caliphate" stretching over parts of Syria and Iraq along with her husband, who has reportedly been killed.
She is being detained with her daughter, who was born after their arrival.
"We don't know what exactly she is accused of, what her detention conditions are like and whether she is being allowed the means to defend herself," said the woman's lawyer, Martin Pradel.
He said he had received "no response" from La Belle France's foreign ministry on the case, for which the Red Thingy has been his only source of information.
A second woman, a 27-year-old named as Melina, also left for the region in 2015, and is being held with her baby. Her three older children have been returned to La Belle France.
"We expect La Belle France, if Melina is sentenced to death, to mobilize with the same intensity it has for other French citizens sentenced to death, in particular Serge Atlaoui," said her lawyers, William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth. French diplomats have waged an intense campaign to free Atlaoui, who is being held in Indonesia and facing the death penalty on drug trafficking charges.
That was just drugs. These people voluntarily joined the most evil enterprise currently on Planet Earth.
But government officials have said French fighters placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! in Syria and Iraq should be tried there if they can be guaranteed a fair trial.
Or something that looks kinda sorta fair if one squints very, very hard.
Defense minister Florence Parly said Sunday that "we can't be naive" regarding French citizens who left to join IS.
"When they are caught by local authorities, as far as possible they should be tried by these local authorities," she told La Belle France 3 television.
- Children detained -
On Sunday, an Iraqi court condemned a German woman to death by hanging after finding her guilty of belonging to IS, the first such sentence in a case involving a European woman.
In December, an Iraqi-Swedish man was hanged along with 37 others accused of being IS or al-Qaeda members, despite efforts by Sweden to have the prisoner serve a life sentence instead.
Iraqi authorities have not disclosed how many jihadists are being held prisoner since the counter-offensive that dislodged IS fighters from the country's urban centers last year.
Around 40 French citizens, both men and women, are currently in detention camps or prisons in Syria and Iraq, including about 20 children, a source close to the matter has said.
On Monday, Parly reiterated that she had "no qualms" regarding the fate of French jihadists, despite requests by some of them to be repatriated.
"These jihadists have never had any qualms about what they're doing, and I don't see why we should have any for them," she said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2018
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[NATION.PK] The founder of a murderous Moslem group blacklisted by the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... for terrorism said on Tuesday he had filed a court petition to halt government plans to seize control of his charities.
Hafiz Saeed...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
is the founder 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... (LeT), or Army of the Pure, blamed by the United States, India for four days of shootings and bombings in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.
LeT, Saeed and charities that he controls are all included on terrorism blacklists by the UN Security Council and the United States. He denies any role in the Mumbai attacks and says he and his charities have no links to murderous Moslems.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Monday his government will push ahead with a plan to take control of charities linked to Saeed.
Pakistain’s government placed Saeed under house arrest a year ago, but he was released in November after a court ruled there was no evidence to hold him.
Under pressure from the United States, United Nations and international institutions to crack down on terrorist financing, Pakistain drew up secret plans in December for a "takeover" of charities linked to Saeed.
The United States calls Saeed’s charities -- Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) -- "terrorist fronts" for LeT, which Saeed co-founded in 1987.
Pakistain’s plans to seize the assets were drawn up ahead of a UN Security Council team visiting Islamabad this month to review the country’s progress against blacklisted groups.
"We have filed a writ petition in the high court regarding these news which are going on in the media about the government’s measures (against us) or the United Nations delegation arriving here," Saeed said in a presser in the eastern city of Lahore where his charities are based.
He said any government moves against him would be carrying out the will of the United States and India.
Saeed’s freedom in Pakistain, where he holds public rallies, has been a thorn in Islamabad’s relations with India and the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The corpse count from a boom-mobile blast has risen to 33 people and maimed 71 others near a mosque in the Libyan city of Benghazi on Tuesday night, security officials told Al Arabiya.
The explosives-rigged vehicle blew up in front of a mosque in the central neighborhood of al-Sleimani, a security source said.
Sources have also confirmed to Al Arabiya that Libya's counter-espionage director at Libyan Intelligence, Brigadier Mahdi Falah is among the dead in the blast.
Spokesman of Central Security in Benghazi Tarek al-Kharraz earlier told Al Arabiya that the bombing left more than 40 maimed.
"Aid is still ongoing, while the criminal investigation teams and other security services are investigating the incident to reach the culprits," Kharraz told Al Arabiya.
He confirmed that the bombings were targeting civilians in the densely populated Sleimani area.
Libya has been rocked by chaos since a 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Muamar Ghadafi, with two rival authorities and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.
Military strongman Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... in July announced the "total liberation" of Benghazi, three years after his forces launched a military operation to seize the city from jihadists who had made it a stronghold following the revolution.
But festivities and attacks in the city have continued, including against diplomatic facilities and security forces.
Haftar supports a parliament based in the far east of Libya, while a rival United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... -backed unity government in the western capital Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... has struggled to assert its authority nationwide.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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[NATION.PK] Followers of Sargodha-based spiritual leader Pir Hameedudin Silavi will start the protest movement against the PML-N government from Sunday (January 28.)
Protests will initially be launched in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... , Sargodha and Jhang, a leader attached with Pir Sialvi’s Khatme Nabuwwat Movement told The Nation on Monday.
Four districts (Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Jhang and Sargodha) were chosen due to a good number of followers of Pir Sialvi in these areas. The protest in placid provincial capital will be symbolic where a sit-in will be organised in front of Data Darbar, he said, elaborating the protest strategy of the spiritual leader.
Pir Sialvi is spearheading a campaign against the government after the latter attempted to tone down the law relating to finality of prophethood, and demanding resignation of Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Law Minister Rana Sanaullah. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... he changed his main demand (Rana Sanaullah’s resignation) at Saturday’s protest at Bhati Gate in Lahore and asked the government to enforce Islamic laws in the country in seven days. In case his demand is not met, he threatened to launch a countrywide campaign against the government.
In the first phase, Sialvi’s aide said, protests will be organised in four districts, but the campaign will gradually be expanded to other cities.
Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Faisalabad-based head of Sunni Ittehad Council ...an Islamist(aren't they all in Pakistain?) political party which claims to represent the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam. Member parties of the Sunni Ittehad Council includes the Aalmi Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat of Pir Afzal Qadri (of Gujrat) and Jamiat Ulema e Pakistan - Sawad e Azam of Sayyid Mahfooz Shah Sahib Mashadi... ‐ a conglomerate of Brelvi organizations ‐JUP-Noorani President Sahibzada Abual Khair Zubair, Pakistain Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and assassinations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... head Sarwat Ijaz Qadri and Tehrik Labbaik head Dr Ashraf Asif Jalai are part of Pir Sialvi’s movement. A couple of PML-N MNAs and MPAs are also backing the movement, as they had recently resigned in protest against his party’s "attempt to change law on finality of prophethood".
Pir Sialvi organised protests in Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Lahore on December 10 and 25 and January 20, respectively, to press for acceptance of his demands.
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01/24/2018
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[National Review] From the first, these columns have argued that the whitewash of the Hillary Clinton‐emails caper was President Barack Obama’s call ‐ not the FBI’s, and not the Justice Department’s. (See, e.g., here, here, and here.) The divinity of our first Kenyan master shall not be questioned.
The decision was inevitable. Obama, using a pseudonymous email account, had repeatedly communicated with Secretary Clinton over her private, non-secure email account. These emails must have involved some classified information, given the nature of consultations between presidents and secretaries of state, the broad outlines of Obama’s own executive order defining classified intelligence (see EO 13526, section 1.4), and the fact that the Obama administration adamantly refused to disclose the Clinton‐Obama emails.
If classified information was mishandled, it was necessarily mishandled on both ends of these email exchanges. If Clinton had been charged, Obama’s culpable involvement would have been patent. In any prosecution of Clinton, the Clinton‐Obama emails would have been in the spotlight. For the prosecution, they would be more proof of willful (or, if you prefer, grossly negligent) mishandling of intelligence. More significantly, for Clinton’s defense, they would show that Obama was complicit in Clinton’s conduct yet faced no criminal charges.
That is why such an indictment of Hillary Clinton was never going to happen. The latest jaw-dropping disclosures of text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his paramour, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, illustrate this point. For the moment, I want to put aside the latest controversy ‐ the FBI’s failure to retain five months of text messages between Strzok and Page, those chattiest of star-crossed lovers.
Yes, this "glitch" closes our window on a critical time in the Trump-Russia investigation: mid December 2016 through mid May 2017. That is when the bureau and Justice Department were reportedly conducting and renewing (in 90-day intervals) court-approved FISA surveillance that may well have focused on the newly sworn-in president of the United States. (Remember: The bureau’s then-director, James Comey, testified at a March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing that the investigation was probing possible coordination with Trump’s campaign and Kremlin interference in the election.)
Skipping down to the bottom line:
All cleaned up: no indictment, meaning no prosecution, meaning no disclosure of Clinton–Obama emails. It all worked like a charm . . . except the part where Mrs. Clinton wins the presidency and the problem is never spoken of again.
[AnNahar] Dozens of refugees held for years in Australia's remote Pacific detention camps departed for resettlement in the United States on Tuesday, asylum-seeker advocates said.
The Sydney-based Refugee Action Coalition said 40 men flew out from Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby under a deal struck by Australia with former US president Barack Obama If you like your coverage you can keep it... but bitterly criticised by his successor 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... "It was a bitter-sweet moment for the refugees -- who on the one hand, are happy to be gaining the freedom that Australia denied them more than four years ago; but on the other, they remain extremely concerned for those that are being left behind," the advocacy group said in a statement.
The refugees, from camps on Manus Island, flew to Manila from where they will fly on to the US in different groups in the coming weeks before being resettled across the country, it said.
The group released photos showing the refugees lining up before dawn to get on buses for the airport, then waiting at the gate to board their flight to Manila.
Another 18 men were due to leave Port Moresby in the coming weeks, it said.
Australian and US immigration authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the refugees' movements.
Canberra sends asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat to detention camps in Manus and the Pacific island of Nauru under a tough policy designed to choke off the flow of refugees to the country.
More than 1,000 still remain in limbo in the remote locations.
Canberra has strongly rejected calls to move the refugees to Australia and instead has tried to resettle them in third countries, including the United States.
But until now only about 50 refugees have been sent to the US, under an agreement President Trump attacked after taking office as a "dumb deal".
The Refugee Action Coalition said a further 130 people on Nauru have been accepted by the US and are expected to depart next month.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has offered to take 150 refugees from Manus or Nauru, but Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he will only consider the offer once the US agreement had been fulfilled.
[Iraq News] An 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.... leader and two of his lover companions in an Arclight airstrike, northeast of Baqubah, an official from Diyala province said on Tuesday.
Speaking to AlSumaria News, Sadeq al-Husseini, head of the security committee of Diyala provincial council, said, "an airstrike targeted a rest house near Hamreen lake, leaving a big shot killed and two companions killed. The rest house, located underground, was destroyed."
"Shelling the rest house was based on intelligence information that accurately located it," Husseini said. "Aerial bombardment helped in 2017 in killing more than fifty IS members, including prominent leaders, especially in al-Zour basin, al-Waqf and Neft Khana," Husseini added.
According to security sources, air force carried out several airstrikes that targeted Islamic State pockets in Diyala over the past few months.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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#1
keep saying; it's got to be making them nuts trying to figure out how our guys knew.
Is there a mole?
Is there a signature they give off they don't know about (commo?)?
How can they operate while trying even harder to hide?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/24/2018 6:44
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#2
Mods - Please file under "Diyala Dead Guys Digest"
#3
:-) This will show up in a search for Diyala, Tiny Sputer8745, even if not given the Dead Guys Digest heading. We use that when collecting more than one article for the geography — it’s easier to see what is happening by grouping articles when a sub-country region gets busy.
#5
It’s a pleasure seeing Fred’s work developing those images appreciated, my dear, so no apology necessary. (I love them, too!) This just highlights that I’m not at all subtle, and need humorous remarks made clear with a LOL or ;-).
#6
Appreciated in their absence, even: the perennial "needs x graphic," or, re the (pre-arrest) Kasur Kid-Killer stories, "Mephistopheles pic deemed inadequate? Yeah, probably."
[MadWorldNews] On Monday, the Senate voted 81-18 to break a Democratic filibuster on a stalled government spending bill, clearing the way for Congress to approve the stopgap measure and end the three-day government shutdown. It was a rough day for Democrats, who essentially caved on DACA after insisting, just a few days prior, on legislation that would protect illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. This was the first blow, but not the last, as "Shutdown Schumer" soon found the big "surprise" hidden in the bill the Senate passed on Monday.
Not only did the Democrats cave on DACA on Monday, but they inadvertently passed even more tax cuts, which were included in the Senate bill which ended the government shutdown, according to a New York Times report headlined, "There’s a Surprise in the Government Funding Bill: More Tax Cuts."
After hemming and hawing over the tax cuts President Trump implemented last month ahead of the Christmas holiday, Democrats were furious to find out that the president and the GOP had snuck even more tax breaks for Americans into the Senate bill they passed on Monday.
Congress is apparently not done cutting taxes, even after passing a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul last year.
The deal struck by Democrats and Republicans on Monday to end a brief government shutdown contains $31 billion in tax cuts, including a temporary delay in implementing three health care-related taxes.
Those delays, which enjoy varying degrees of bipartisan support, are not offset by any spending cuts or tax increases, and thus will add to a federal budget deficit that is already projected to increase rapidly as last year’s mammoth new tax law takes effect.
The Congressional Budget Office said this month that the federal budget deficit reached $228 billion in the first three months of the current fiscal year, $18 billion more than the deficit in the first quarter of fiscal 2017, despite strong economic growth. And that was before the tax cuts kicked in. [Source: The New York Times]
To add insult to injury, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was forced to eat his words after telling reporters over the weekend that President Donald Trump did not live up to his reputation as a world-class deal maker. As it turns out, Trump completely outdueled Schumer and his Democratic cronies on this one.
During the hours leading up to the government shutdown, President Donald Trump invited Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to the White House to negotiate the outline of a deal, which both sides believed was in reach. After several more conversations during the day, the deal fell apart and the Senate failed to pass a measure to keep the government funded.
"During the meeting, in exchange for strong [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] protections, I reluctantly put the border wall on the table for the discussion," Schumer said from the Senate floor. "Even that was not enough to entice the president to finish the deal." [Source: ABC News]
Perhaps if Chuck Schumer had been less preoccupied with trashing Trump and more concerned with actually knowing the legislation he was about to vote on, he would not have made such an embarrassing mistake.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
01/24/2018
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#1
While the Dims have been so distracted by their impossible mission to de-thrown Trump, Trump played their game and kept them occupied and with tit for tat responses, while under the table he was destroying their tax laws and regulations without them even noticing.
#4
"find out what was in it", I don't think they care anymore. Resist this; resist that, means to do nothing. He had no idea but another showed him the error. He got played by a master.
#5
"find out what was in it", I don't think they care anymore. Resist this; resist that, means to do nothing. He had no idea but another showed him the error. He got played by a master.
Looking down his nose across those spectacles was little help. He's just a tired old communist ideologue.
#10
Those delays, which enjoy varying degrees of bipartisan support, are not offset by any spending cuts or tax increases, and thus will add to a federal budget deficit that is already projected to increase rapidly as last year’s mammoth new tax law takes effect.
Funny how no one in the media was interested in this subject until recently, isn't it?
#12
"Barack Obama -- Under President Obama, the national debt grew the most dollar-wise. He added $7.917 trillion, a 68 percent increase, in seven years." U.S. Debt by President: By Dollar and Percent
Posted by: C. Elmomoger7737 ||
01/24/2018 18:06
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[AnNahar] The Intelligence Branch of the Internal Security Forces on Tuesday received from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... via Beirut's airport a man wanted over the Sidon bombing that maimed a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", official on January 14.
The National News Agency identified the suspect as Mohammed Youssef al-Hajjar. According to al-Hayat newspaper, the man hails from the Iqlim al-Kharroub town of Shehim and was a Beirut resident.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... has him bumped off, too. had personally contacted the Ottoman Turkish leadership, urging it to facilitate the handing over of Hajjar, who fled to Turkey after the attack.
Hajjar has been described as one of the bombing's criminal masterminds.
The other suspect, Mohammed Baytiyeh, reportedly fled to The Netherlands and contacts are underway between Beirut and Amsterdam to verify his presence in the European country.
The Intelligence Branch had quickly identified the potential suspects in the wake of the attack.
Hamas' Leb branch had named the maimed official as Mohammed Hamdan.
"The blast maimed his leg, destroyed his car and damaged the building. Preliminary evidence points to Zionist (involvement) behind this crime," Hamas said in a statement.
Or not, as it turns out. As was pointed out at the time, had Israel been involved the target would have been killed.
A military source told AFP that a BMW "detonated, wounding Hamas official Mohammed Hamdan," and the Lebanese Army said a "500-gram bomb" had been placed in his vehicle.
An AFP journalist in Sidon saw the burnt-out vehicle, a silver BMW, in a parking lot of an apartment building where Hamdan lived.
Hamdan did not appear to have a public or political role in Hamas, but a Paleostinian security source told AFP that he was a member of the organization's security apparatus.
"Hamdan is an official in Hamas' security service. His work is linked to internal Paleostinian affairs," the source said. "Because of the nature of his work, the fingers are pointed to the Israeli enemy."
Hamas has fought three wars with Israel in the past decade and is based in Gazoo, but it operates branches elsewhere in the Middle East including Leb.
[Libya Herald] The Rada Special Deterrence Force announced that it has nabbed Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! 61 people and released another six, following the attack on the Mitiga airport compound that shook Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... last week.
Spokesman Ahmen Ben Salem had previously told the Libya Herald "it was impossible to count" how many were arrested, such was the high number. Rada said the attack from militias mainly from Tajura was an attempt to break out some of their comrades held at Mitiga’s jail.
Demonstrations in Tajura have been held urging the release of those detained by Rada. The criticism is that many have been arrested based purely on suspicion and no charges have been made against them.
Today, the 33rd Brigade, a militia that led the Mitiga assault and was until last week recognised by the Presidency Council’s (PC) defence ministry, said it would stand up for the oppressed and the displaced.
In a nod to allegations it is close to Islamists, the 33 Brigade applauded controversial former Grand Mufti Sadqi al-Ghariani and bandidosLions of Islam recently ousted from Benghazi, while threatening Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Hafter.
It also criticised the ’’frigate PC’’ (which had arrived in Tripoli onboard a frigate) delegation that recently visited Mitiga, saying it showed blatant solidarity with the "so-called deterrence force" (Rada).
The Brigade, led by a man called Bashir Khalfallah, more commonly known by his nicknamed al-Bugra or ’the cow,’ said they would ignore decisions made by the PC, an apparent reference to the government decision to ’disband’ their group.
At least 20 people died and dozens more were maimed as the 33 Brigade launched an attack on Mitiga and its environs. The airport was closed and has only recently reopened in the last two days.
There were rumours that a ceasefire had been agreed after Rada and the 33 Brigade appeared to be readying themselves for another round of festivities, before quickly backing off. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... Rada has insisted it would never strike a deal with "outlaws".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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[AnNahar] Ottoman Turkish security forces on Tuesday detained dozens more people across the country on accusations of disseminating propaganda for "terror" groups, in a major clampdown as Ankara presses its new offensive inside Syria.
Forty-two people were detained in locations ranging from Izmir on the Aegean to Van in the east over their postings on social media.
Twenty-four people were tossed into the calaboose in other cities on Monday.
The detentions come as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... pressed ahead with its military incursion in northern Syria against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.
Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... called for national unity over the operation and warned those responding to calls for protests would pay a "heavy price".
Twenty-three suspects were detained in the Aegean province of Izmir, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. Six of the suspects had been planning a protest in a park, the agency said.
The Izmir provincial chairman of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was reportedly also detained.
Eleven people were taken into custody in the eastern cities of Van and Igdir while others were placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in the southern city of Mersin and Mus in the east.
The six detained in Van are accused of making propaganda and sharing information that is "not true" about the Syria operation, dubbed "Olive Branch".
After the arrests on Monday, rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) hit out at Ankara's "intolerance of criticism", in a statement.
Emma Sinclair-Webb, HRW's Turkey researcher, said prosecutors were misusing articles of the law to "silence" journalists, government critics and activists.
"Turkey's silencing of voices who speak out against war is in violation of its own laws and obligations under international human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... law," she said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... controversy rumbled over the vandalising by protesters of the offices of a newspaper in the Ottoman Turkish Cypriot breakaway statelet -- recognised only by Ankara -- that had called the operation an "occupation". Hundreds had demonstrated outside the offices of the daily Afrika newspaper in Nicosia on Monday, apparently responding to a call by Erdogan who had criticised the paper.
"Intimidating journalists is unacceptable. The European Parliament will always defend media freedom, the cornerstone of democracy," wrote the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani on Twitter, as he condemned the attacks on the newspaper.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2018
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The smart money says he will turn out to be Muslim, very probably an asylum seeker, and a known wolf — a petty criminal with mental health or drug/alcohol problems.
[Express] A MAN has been shot after reportedly brandishing a knife at an on-duty policeman in the Belgian city of Ghent, officials have revealed just days after the nation reduced their terror threat level for the first time in two years.
Police shoot knifeman at Gent train station
Officials are yet to confirm the motive of the incident.
The incident took place outside the Gent-st-Pietrea station to the south of the City's centre.
The area is currently on police lockdown – however train services are believed to still be in operation.
Regional officials have confirmed investigations are ongoing.
Spokeswoman for the regional Prosecutor An Schoonjans said: "A shooting incident happened at the station of Gent-Sint-Pieters.
"The railway police have fired at a man with a knife.
"The man was taken to the hospital and injured and is in danger.
"We investigate the exact circumstances of the facts."
A student who witnessed the incident said: “The man first entered the station loudly”.
"Then he pulled a knife and held it in the air.
“When the police ordered the man to lay down his knife, he refused.”
The man reportedly also entered a shop across the road before the incident – where he also brandished the weapon.
The shopkeeper said he “looked desperate” during the exchange.
Belgian police shot an Afghan migrant at Ghent station Tuesday night after the man approached officers, threatening to attack them, and ignored orders to drop a knife.
Two shots were fired by the officers after the man failed to respond to orders to drop the knife, one of which struck the would-be assailant, causing him to drop his weapon. The 28-year-old man, who was described as being of Afghan origin and as wearing "a white turban" was handcuffed and taken to hospital, and was at death's door, although that has now improved.
Belgian Phlegmish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports nothing is known about the man, his identity, or motivation ‐ however, Belgian police have said they do not believe the "undocumented" Afghan was moved by a terror motive to take a knife to attack police at the station.
The paper also reported although there was no certainty over who the man was, he did not appear to be known for previous crimes and "there are no signs of radicalisation."
Het Belang van Limburg reports that rumours the man quoted verses of the Koran during the attack had not been confirmed by police.
#5
The man was taken to the hospital and injured and is in danger.
Range time is in order
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2018 21:14
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#6
From An Nahar, not worth doing an entire article for tomorrow:
"There are no signs of radicalism or terrorism but there are a lot of signs the man has psychiatric problems," Ghent prosecutor's spokeswoman An Schoonjans said.
The Afghan, a resident of the northeastern tourist city of Ghent...
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least three forces of Evil affiliated with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in Arclight airstrikes in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan military said Tuesday that the airstrikes were carried out in the vicinity of Achin district.
Accordig to the Silab corps, at least one Lion of Islam was also maimed when their hideouts were hit in the airstrikes in Mamand Dara area of Achin.
The local residents and security personnel engaged in the anti-IS operations did not suffer any casualties, the Silab Corps added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2018
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[FreeBeacon] A public interest election group is threatening to sue a Texas County over its refusal to release records dealing with noncitizens on their voter rolls, the second Texas County threatened with such a lawsuit this month.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a group that litigates to protect election integrity, sent a final notice to Harris County in Texas warning that they could face a federal lawsuit if they continued to deny the group inspection of their records related to registrants who were removed from the rolls after it was discovered that they were noncitizens.
Harris County voter registration officials previously testified that "thousands" of noncitizens were discovered every year on their rolls and were handed over to the District Attorney for prosecution. The city of Houston, the largest city in the state, and one of the most populous cities in America, is located in Harris County.
PILF requested to review the Harris County records on Dec. 1, 2017, but was denied access on Jan. 11. The county had focused its denial on the Texas Public Information Act despite PILF attempting to gain access to the information using the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
Section 8 of the National Voters Registration Act allows individuals to request inspection or copies of "records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters," notes PILF.
"It is our hope that the County will work quickly to provide for inspection the all of the records previously requested," PILF's final notice reads. "If not, according to federal law, a lawsuit under the NVRA may be filed within 90 days after the failure to permit inspection or failure to provide the documents."
The county attorney, who received PILF's final notice, did not return a request for comment by press time.
"Noncitizens are registering to vote in Houston‐officials have been speaking in public about it for years," said Logan Churchwell, the communications director for PILF. "How many are getting offered registration by third party field operations? How many at the driver's license office? How many aren't being reported to law enforcement after voting? We'll take this all the way to court to find out. Stop hiding, open the books."
PILF also sent a final notice to Bexar County in Texas in early January warning that the county could face a lawsuit for concealing identical records of noncitizens on voter rolls.
Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, denied PILF access to their records following a request from the group in mid-December. Attorneys from the county also told PILF they would also be denied access to the records if they were to show up at the county offices.
#1
During the first Obama election for president, Harris County NAACP members were walking Obama voters to the front of the line, making other voters wait to vote. When a call was made to Harris County election office by True the Vote who saw this, the election office told True the Vote to stand down.
During the same day NAACP were getting calls about what they were doing at the poles and immediately took the list of officers names and all contact information off of their website.
They were reported to the state attorney generals office but nothing was done.
#2
Solution is simple, if they cannot prove all the voters are bona fide US citizens, then the entire district votes is nullified and will not be counted in any elections. AND an investigation will be carried out.
[Iraq News] An Iraqi paramilitary group denounced on Tuesday a reported order by Lebanese authorities to arrest and deny entry for its top commander after he was seen at Leb’s borders with Israel.
Naeem al-Aboudi, a spokesperson of Asaeb Ahl al-Haq, a component of the Popular Mobilization Forces, said in press statements, quoted by NRT, that a reported Lebanese judicial order to deny entry for the group’s secretary-general, Qais al-Khazaali, is "politicized".
"Kahzaali is accused of having entered Leb illegally. That is untrue, because he made an official visit to Leb through Rafik al-Hariri Airport," Aboudi argued.
A video purporting to show Khazaali, along with members from Lebanese militia Hezbollah, had caused an uproar in Leb December as he appeared in a military suit touring the borders with Israel.
"If he was wearing a military suit, that is not banned by Lebanese law. We have hired a lawyer in Leb to reverse the order," Aboudi said.
Many viewed the video as a response from Hezbollah to the Lebanese government’s declared neutrality to regional polarization, especially towards Iran.
Hezbollah and the Iraqi PMF, both comprising fighters from the Shia Islam sect, are widely understood to enjoy strong military support from Iran.
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[RT] A dozen camels have been disqualified from an annual beauty contest in Saudi Arabia after their trainers used Botox to enhance their appearance.
The contest is part of a month-long festival, located on the outskirts of Riyadh, and is designed to celebrate the camel, which is considered a “symbol of Saudi Arabia,” Fawzan al-Madi, chief judge of the contest, told Reuters.
“We used to preserve it out of necessity, now we preserve it as a pastime," he added.
The camels take part in a series of races and show competitions in the hope of bagging a portion of the combined prize fund of 213 million riyals ($57 million).
In the beauty portion of the contest, judges rate the size of the animal’s lips, cheeks, head and knees while crowds of men watch from the bleachers. Any form of camel modification is strictly prohibited, however with such a substantial prize up for grabs, some contestants have resorted to extreme measures to come out on top. Including, but not limited to, the use of Botox.
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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.
[The Verge] A man at an electronics store in China decided to give a smartphone battery his own litmus test by biting it. The battery ruptured and caused a small explosion. The spectacle, captured by the store’s CCTV security cameras, was uploaded to Miaopai, a Chinese video sharing platform similar to the now-defunct Vine. It has since garnered 4.69 million views.
[The Federalist] In an interview with Fox News’s Martha MacCallum on Monday night, Reps. Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe revealed new details about the text messages between two FBI agents who were kicked off the ongoing investigation into Donald Trump for bias likely to affect their handling of the case.
[American Thinker] Bradley Manning, who goes by "Chelsea" because he thinks he is a woman, could end up as the unlikeliest hero in history for Republicans. The soldier-traitor-"transgender" activist recently announced a bid for Senate in the deep blue state of Maryland, securing a place on the ballot in the Democratic primary. Manning is challenging incumbent Senator Ben Cardin, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wonder of wonders, Manning could end up handing a safe Senate seat for Democrats to the GOP, balancing out the loss in Alabama for the Grand Old Party.
[American Thinker] J. Edgar Hoover must be turning in his grave at what is happening to his venerable FBI. Then again, given Hoover's own proclivities to abuse his powers as the director of that agency, perhaps the predicament in which the bureau finds itself is a natural stage of evolution on an arc of governmental hubris.
[NY Post] During the financial crisis, the federal government bailed out banks it declared "too big to fail." Fearing their bankruptcy might trigger economic Armageddon, the feds propped them up with taxpayer cash.
[Guardian] In a dimly lit room at McConnell air force base in south central Kansas, analysts from a national guard intelligence reconnaissance surveillance group watch live drone surveillance video coming from war zones in the Middle East.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[Townhall] "I know that inside the FBI there is a revolt," Joseph diGenova tells The American Spectator. "There is a revolt against the director. The people inside the bureau believe the director is a dirty cop. They believe that he threw the [Hillary Clinton email] case. They do not know what he was promised in return. But the people inside the bureau who were involved in the case and who knew about the case are talking to former FBI people expressing their disgust at the conduct of the director."
[StrategyPage] Arab Socialism Takes A Baath
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
[HERALD.CO.ZW] A 38-year-old police officer who was being accused of insulting chief police spokeswoman Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba by labelling her an "idiot," is now a free man after a Harare magistrate cleared him of any wrongdoing.
[Libya Herald] Videos showing the torture of migrant’s apparently in Libya have gone viral, drawing widespread condemnation. The victims were forced to call their family and ask for ransom money by the militias.
[StrategyPage] Russia admits to a missing link in its air defense systems. This was made clear at the end of 2017 when the Russian controlled Hmeimim (or “Khmeimim”) airbase in northwest Syria came under regular attack by 82mm mortars. 
[CNS] Commenting on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating President Trump for alleged "collusion" with Russia, Judicial Watch said that, as FBI director under President Obama, Mueller purged the Bureau of all anti-terrorism training material that was deemed "offensive" to Muslims. This was done, said Judicial Watch, "after secret meetings between Islamic organizations and the FBI chief." 
an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia...
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
[TheJamestownFoundation] The Nigerian military faces a classic counter-insurgency dilemma akin to what U.S. and Afghan forces face in Afghanistan — the insurgents have high maneuverability in the countryside; are able to resource themselves or retreat across the border into neighboring countries; and the population is either indifferent or has been cowed into submission. ISWAP 
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[NATION.PK] After hectic efforts of 14 days by the
[USNEWS] Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he would stand for re-election in the next presidential election if the ruling Socialist Party asked him too. "I'm ready to be a candidate," he told reporters.
...the 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
[NATION.PK] Followers of Sargodha-based spiritual leader Pir Hameedudin Silavi will start the protest movement against the PML-N government from Sunday (January 28.)
[MadWorldNews] On Monday, the Senate voted 81-18 to break a Democratic filibuster on a stalled government spending bill, clearing the way for Congress to approve the stopgap measure and end the three-day government shutdown. It was a rough day for Democrats, who essentially caved on DACA after insisting, just a few days prior, on legislation that would protect illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. This was the first blow, but not the last, as "Shutdown Schumer" soon found the big "surprise" hidden in the bill the Senate passed on Monday.
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if 
[RT] A dozen camels have been disqualified from an annual beauty contest in Saudi Arabia after their trainers used Botox to enhance their appearance.
