Thermal images of North Korea's main nuclear site show Pyongyang may have reprocessed more plutonium than previously thought that can be used to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.
The analysis by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project, was based on satellite images of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June, amid rising international concerns over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
The think tank said images of the uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon could also indicate operation of centrifuges that could be used to increase North Korea’s stock of enriched uranium, its other source of bomb fuel.
There were signs too of at least short-term activity at North Korea’s Experimental Light Water Reactor that could be cause for concern, 38 North said.
Reuters received a copy of the report before its scheduled release after quittin' time when nobody cares because it's the weekend later on Friday.
The images of the radiochemical laboratory showed there had been at least two reprocessing cycles not previously known aimed at producing "an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Korea’s nuclear weapons stockpile," something that would worry U.S. officials who see Pyongyang as one of the world's top security threats.
It was unclear if the thermal activity detected at the uranium plant was the result of centrifuge operations or maintenance.
It said the thermal patterns at the plant's isotope/tritium production facility suggested it was not operational and was therefore not producing tritium, an essential isotope used in boosted yield and hydrogen weapons.
North Korea manufactures atomic bombs using uranium and plutonium and has tested five nuclear bombs. Officials and experts say it could test a sixth at any time, despite U.S.-led international efforts to curb its program.
Pyongyang said its penultimate test in January 2016 was of a hydrogen bomb, something experts have treated with skepticism.
North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and last week tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts said could hit all of Alaska and parts of the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Experts at 38 North estimated in April that North Korea could have as many as 20 nuclear bombs and could produce one more each month.
A report by U.S.-based nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker published by 38 North last September estimated North Korea had stockpiles of 32 to 54 kg (70 to 119 pounds) of plutonium, enough for six to eight bombs.
#1
A report by U.S.-based nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker published by 38 North last September estimated North Korea had stockpiles of 32 to 54 kg (70 to 119 pounds) of plutonium, enough for six to eight bombs.
The scary thing is that Nukes and Alcoholism of a young ruthless tyrant = horrific consequences. Lets hope his right hand people give him a sobriety test before following through with a launch order.
Posted by: Titus Borgia7239 ||
07/14/2017 16:58
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Gone are the good ol' days when Wall Street paid huge sums to giants like Hillary. They would gather what muscular pearls of wisdom they could find that would fall from her lips and try their best to understand and implement her ideas. Sigh.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon expressed frustration at the U.S. federal government during the company's earnings conference call Friday.
"It's almost embarrassing being an American citizen ... and listening to the stupid s--- we have to deal with in this country," Dimon said in response to an analyst question.
"Since the Great Recession, which is now 8 years old, we've been growing at 1.5 to 2 percent in spite of stupidity and political gridlock, because the American business sector is powerful and strong," he said. 'What I'm saying is that it would be much stronger growth if there were more intelligent decisions and less gridlock."
JPMorgan Chase reported earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates Friday. However, the bank lowered its forecast for lending revenue.
Shares erased earlier gains to fall more than 1 percent in premarket trade.
#1
...we've been growing at 1.5 to 2 percent in spite of Barack Obama stupidity and political gridlock
At the beginning of his second term, I was thinking one thing - 'We're about to find out how resilient the United States is.' So far, the lasting damage seems to be confined to $10 trillion he added to the Federal debt and the vicious ignorant lefty hordes of the SJW / Black Lives Matter crowds.
#3
One thing this last election has proven, is that the political "elites" on both sides of the isle and on both sides of the Atlantic are a bunch of fucking clowns.
Yes... that judge
[WSJ]. A Hawaii judge late Thursday ordered a nationwide loosening of President Donald Trump's temporary ban on U.S. entry for some travelers from six Muslim-majority countries, ruling the administration's strict approach contradicted a recent Supreme Court ruling. No, asshole. You don't get to rule by fiat from Hawaii and over rule the highest court in the land and apply your idiocy to the entire nation. Trump should just tell him to piss off and ignore it.
The decision is a fresh legal blow for the president just two weeks after a Supreme Court ruling allowed the administration to implement its travel ban against refugees and foreign nationals from six countries who have no connection to the U.S. Legal my ass
The justices said Mr. Trump’s administration couldn’t enforce the ban against people with bona fide relationships to people or organizations in the U.S. Days after, the Trump administration adopted a narrow view of what relationships counted for an exemption from the ban.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, which is defending the ban, had no immediate comment on the court order.
Administration officials said visa applicants and refugees with U.S.-based spouses, children, parents and siblings would be allowed in. But those with only lesser ties--such as grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and cousins--would be subject to the ban. Considering how they like to marry within the family that pretty much includes the whole nation
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii took issue with that interpretation. He issued an order late Thursday, which applies nationwide, that says people with broader family ties are also exempt from the ban.
"The Government's definition of close familial relationship is not only not compelled by the Supreme Court's June 26 decision, but contradicts it," the judge wrote. You are violating years of judicial tradition and federal laws, fucktard. The law is worth nothing if you aren't willing to follow it. And when the law breaks down, society breaks down. Don't be surprised if after things start falling apart some goblins show up on your doorstep to kill you and your family.
#3
This matters less than it might -- applications are reportedly down significantly as people look for a more certain outcome elsewhere. The discussion alone changes the calculation.
Interestingly, the same dynamic apparently is at work with illegals. I've read that border crossings have fallen dramatically, while illegals long resident here are self-deporting rather than waiting to be caught. And I recently read that next year they will have systems in place to track those who came legally but overstayed, so they will be deported, too...
Persons who are not prohibited by the exec order are subject to administrative review and this can weed out a lot
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/14/2017 12:19
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#8
Slow it down to a trickle. Blame bureacracy
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2017 12:59
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#9
I like how you think, Frank. These things take time.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/14/2017 13:19
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#10
Sounds like this judge needs a refresher in the importance of the rule of law. Perhaps someone will find the time to assist him with that, whether scheduled or unscheduled.
#11
It is long past time for a Congressman to file articles of impeachment against this black-robed bozo. There are several other similar bozos who deserve to be thrown out of office.
#12
Dark Helmet: I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.
Lone Star: So what does that make us? Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing.
Dark Robe: Visa holders.
---Spaceballs(1987)
#14
Since this judge made himself 'Judge of all travel' perhaps we need route *all* cases to be reviews in his courtroom, by himself personally, - in person. (and without security....)
There's a pic of this guy in his civvies. Not what you would expect from a lion. :-) The Iraqi discovered the location of IS positions and key machine gun teams - explains Mirror Defence Editor CHRIS HUGHES, who is in Mosul with photographer ROWAN GRIFFITHS
A soldier on a perilous mission to gather crucial intelligence deep behind Islamic State lines during the ferocious battle of Mosul shot dead six enemy fighters.
The fearless special forces hero Mohammed Qasim, dubbed the Lion of Mosul, disguised himself as one of the fanatics and conned them into believing he was one of them.
The Iraqi discovered the location of ISIS positions and key sniper and machine gun teams.
Last night senior Iraqi officers applauded the 25-year-old’s actions.
General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi said: "We are all very proud of what this soldier did. He is a very brave man. He makes us all hold our heads up high."
As fighting continued to rage in the ruins of Mosul’s Old City in the last days of the battle in northern Iraq, Mohammed blended in with the IS troops by swapping his M4 rifle for an AK-47 and wearing a scruffy smock and scarf.
He and a comrade then sneaked behind enemy lines.
After noting down the vital positions and pinpointing where IS were holding ammunition, Mohammed quickly shot dead six of the fanatics.
Then he and his colleague picked their way back to their own lines and briefed commanders on what they had learnt.
Soon after that the Iraqi special forces ground troops were able to smash IS with mortar bombs and air strikes before launching a full-on infantry attack.
It is believed Mohammed’s mission, which took several hours last Thursday, may have saved the lives of scores of comrades and civilians.
His actions led him to being promoted in the field to the rank of lieutenant. Mohammed, originally from Basra, in southern Iraq, was fighting with the Iraqi special forces Golden Division, trained by the SAS in recent years.
A source said: "What this man did was incredibly brave.
"If he was captured he would have been tortured very slowly and held up as a trophy by Islamic State fighters. He didn’t even think twice when the idea came up and he made himself a volunteer immediately.
"Golden Division commanders knew their men were being pinned down by accurate IS fire and couldn’t work out exactly where it was coming from.
"So they approved a plan for an undercover operation, probably the most audacious of the entire operation, and Mohammed said he would do it, without a thought for his own safety."
It is believed Mohammed’s comrades in the Iraqi Army avoided shooting at him after being briefed on what route he would take through no man’s land.
The battle of Mosul lasted almost nine months and involved around 130,000 troops from Iraq, Kurdish forces and Shia militia.
They were battling thousands of IS fighters from across the Middle East who had spent three years digging in and preparing defences.
Yesterday in Mosul Old City, Iraqi security forces were still searching for wounded IS fighters among the rubble of the destroyed town.
Most experts believe IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.
There are reports of infighting between IS units in the few footholds the network still has in Iraq.
In Hawija, in the province of Kirkuk 110 miles south of Mosul, IS commander Abu Haitham al-Obaidi has reportedly declared himself the "new Caliph".
Jabbar al-Maamouri, a senior commander in the Iraqi state-sponsored militia group, the Popular Mobilization Forces, said Obaidi was preparing for a "decisive" confrontation with his opponents in IS.
Maamouri added: "Hawija is bracing for bloody infighting among IS members, the most violent since the group took over Hawija in June 2014."
On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over IS in Mosul.
He said the recapture of the city was an end of the self-styled caliphate declared by Baghdadi in 2014.
The Mosul campaign has resulted in thousands of deaths and displaced nearly 900,000 people.
Amnesty International has described the battle for Mosul as a "civilian catastrophe", with more than 5,800 non-combatants killed in the western part of the city.
Chiefs at Amnesty say both sides breached international law.
IS were accused of summary killings and using civilians as human shields, while Iraqi forces and the coalition are said to have failed to protect civilians.
But a senior British commander hit back. Major Gen Rupert Jones, the deputy commander of the international anti-IS coalition, said: "At no stage did they have the courtesy to engage the coalition to ask what our targeting process is.
"So to me it is a deeply discredited report and does a great disservice to Amnesty International, but more importantly a great disservice to the Iraqi security forces and to the government of Iraq.
"Firstly, the Iraqi security forces have put the safety of civilians as the absolute centrepiece of the liberation of the city over the last nine months ‐ that is beyond question.
"Does that mean there have been no violations? No, of course there have, but whenever those are presented to the government of Iraq, they are taken very, very seriously.
"I would say it is the most sophisticated targeting and strike process in history."
There is growing anger about the huge losses among the coalition of Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi troops, Iraqi police and Shia militia, thought to run into the "many thousands".
Today it emerged the Iraqi parliament will interrogate Lt Gen Shaker Jawdat, the commander of the Federal Police, over claims he is guilty of "delinquency" during the battle.
The parliament’s security committee chairman Hakem al-Zamili said: "Losses sustained by the Federal Police are the gravest compared to other security troops, which is evidence to his frail military command in battles."
#2
Well done. I hope he was prepared to shoot himself if things went wrong.
I note the troops had been briefed on his return route. They told us at Benning that the most dangerous part of a patrol is returning to your own lines. To prevent the enemy from ambushing you, you return to a part of your lines which is different from your departure point, which means somebody else has to be read in and that's where things sometimes get lost.
Very well done. I hope his name in Iraq is the equivalent of "Smith". Wouldn't want to be his family just now.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/14/2017 10:08
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[HUFFPOO] An Airbnb host in Amsterdam accused of pushing a guest down a flight of stairs for missing her checkout time faces attempted murder charges.
Video of the confrontation went viral after the guest’s friend, Zanele Muholi, a popular South African artist and activist, posted it to Instagram on Saturday.
The video shows the host, a white male, telling Sibahle Steve Nkumbi, a South African filmmaker and student in Bern, Switzerland, to get out of his rental property.
The host then pushes Nkumbi, sending her head-first down a long staircase. She lands at the bottom, face-down and motionless.
"He threw their belongings out ... for a few mins late checkout," Muholi, who was also staying in the Airbnb rental, wrote on Instagram. Muholi, who said Nkumbi was sent to the hospital, claimed the confrontation stemmed from "racism and can’t be justified."
#5
Murder my a$$. Looks like he was trying to push her out the door without considering the consequences of her being a moron and she resisted. Next time they both have something to think about.
First, no don't think she took a dive, the staircase has a turn with funny steps. That looked classic putting a foot down on a step which isn't there. Besides, if I took a dive it would be the tumbleweed, certainly not the Shia Labeuf career path. I would not rule out totally high (we are well to do art-teests in Amsterdam on summer vacay) + high stress situation = dizzy or even fainting. It is mentioned she fainted upon impact...most people flail like a wind puppet in a tornado when falling.
They were not a few minutes late for checkout, unless 90 is a only few. Arrogance, or a half-truth. Artists I knew, it would be both.
Am I correct that Air B&B has a rating system? What if the room is trashed and stinks of weed and the next check-in is 30 minutes out?
Do Air B&B property owners get a say on who stays there, a profile of the renter? If so, if the guy hates Africans, why would he initially accept the contract? If the conversation went as told, owner knew something of the renters.
Like SteveS, there is likely more to this story. I tend by default to take the side of the property owner, as they are the side who initiates the contract by deciding that their property may be available for rent. As they are risking their property for the opportunity of profit. So when a property owner rejects a renter, the only part of the equation which has changed is, who is the renter, and what have they done? Failure to pay, excessive damage, renting past accepted date.
Both are wrong. Knocking people off balance on a stair case and gravity gets a say. The renters initiated the conflict by violating the rental agreement. Not by a few minutes, or thirty, but by an hour and a half. Note how he is throwing articles of clothing and not suitcases or backpacks - Tells me they are not even close to ready. Imagine the review, probably by someone of influence's kids. "Traveled 16 hours and arrived at The Flying Dutchman's B&B. Restroom was a wreck, no towels, still trash in the canisters, bed sheets smelled used, and everything smelled of weed." Close shop, he's done...not that he isn't now, but he knew for certain going into this, I'd suspect. This is not a hotel where an alternative room can be offered, and an unused rental property costs money - summertime, popular destination, done right renters are lined up like planes landing.
[LA Times] In October, Innocent Mbarushimana was caught stealing a few bananas in the village of Kabeza in western Rwanda. Two months before that, an improverished farmer named Jean Kanyesoko was caught red-handed stealing someone’s sugarcane.
They and dozens of others were shot dead or beaten to death in the last year by Rwandan security forces, including soldiers, police and members of a military auxiliary force, Human Rights Watch reported Thursday.
Among those summarily executed were suspects accused of taking cows, motorcycles or lightbulbs. Smugglers who sneaked across the nearby border with the Democratic Republic of Congo met the same fate, as did fishermen in Lake Kivu who used illegal nets.
Two Israeli police officers were killed in a shooting Friday in Jerusalem's Old City, just outside one of the world's most important religious sites.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said three armed assailants, whom he identified as terrorists, targeted police units in the area. One tried to stab a police officer, he said.
All three attackers were shot and killed and the area has been closed off, according to Rosenfeld. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals.
"I can confirm that the two police officers who were previously in critical condition have died of their wounds in hospital," Rosenfeld said.
Israeli police released images of what they said were the weapons used by the assailants, including a knife, a pistol and a homemade automatic firearm.
The incident took place a little after 7 a.m. local time by the Lions' Gate in the Old City walls, next to what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary and Jews call the Temple Mount. The area is home to the Western Wall -- which was part of the walls around the Second Jewish Temple and is one of the holiest place for Jews to pray -- and the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
There is currently a heavy police presence and the area remains closed for security assessments, Rosenfeld said.
This means Muslims will not be able hold Friday prayers there, as the Al-Aqsa mosque compound is within the closed area. Worshipers at the Western Wall will likely not be affected, as it's further away from the incident.
Fridays in Jerusalem are often a time of heightened security, as it's the holy day of the week for Muslims and Shabbat for Jews begins at sundown
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2017
07:15 ||
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[14 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
both Israeli police who were killed were Druze
all three Paleos who were killed were citizens of Israel and muslim
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/14/2017 12:12
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#2
Doesn't this kind of shoot in the foot that "No weapons" thing they have going as an excuse to keep Isreali soldiers from inspecting?
Posted by: Charles ||
07/14/2017 18:47
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[Hot Air] The Board of Trustees of Evergreen State College met on campus Wednesday and held a listening session for anyone who wanted to come before them and offer their perspective. Speakers were clearly divided between those who supported President George Bridges and those who felt the campus was out of control. Speaking from the latter perspective was a current Evergreen student named MacKenzie.
"If you offer any sort of alternative viewpoint, which I do have, and you’re kind of the enemy," MacKenzie said. She continued, "I don’t agree with the behavior that has been shown on the campus and unlike what Anne Fischel [a previous speaker] has said, I think it’s important to focus on the way this was handled."
"This behavior has actually been encouraged and because of this I feel like people are becoming more violent and the campus is becoming more of an unsafe place," she said. "I have been to several meetings to speak. I’ve been told several times that I’m not allowed to speak because I’m white," she said.
"This school seems to focus so much on race that it is actually becoming more racist in a different sort of way. And because I say that--because I choose not to focus on race I have actually been labeled a racist and a white supremacist. If anyone took the time to actually know me, it’s not true at all."
#5
Commander John J. Adams: But like you, the Krell forgot one deadly danger - their own subconscious hate and lust for destruction.
Dr. Edward Morbius: The beast. The mindless primitive! Even the Krell must have evolved from that beginning.
Commander John J. Adams: And so those mindless beasts of the subconscious had access to a machine that could never be shut down. The secret devil of every soul on the planet all set free at once to loot and maim. And take revenge, Morbius, and kill!
Dr. Edward Morbius: My poor Krell. After a million years of shining sanity, they could hardly have understood what power was destroying them.
[pause]
Dr. Edward Morbius: Yes, young man, all very convincing, but for one obvious fallacy. The last Krell died 2,000 centuries ago. But today, as we all know, there is still at large on this planet a living monster.
Commander John J. Adams: Your mind refuses to face the conclusion.
[American Thinker] Call it "the Seinfeld meeting," because the conversation between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer was a meeting with a nobody about nothing, from which nothing resulted. Yet in the Democratic and media (sorry for the redundancy) alternate universe, it is more worthy of attention than North Korea, ISIS, or jobs and the economy.
In a bit of irony, the lawyer with which Donald Trump Jr. was allegedly colluding, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was allowed to be in this country by the Obama administration and its attorney general, Loretta Lynch. Natalia may have overstayed her visa and at the time of the meeting may have been, dare we say it, an illegal alien. Extreme veting, anyone? As reported by Fox News Politics:
The Obama administration granted the Russian attorney who met with Donald Trump Jr. last June a special type of "parole" to be in the United States after she initially was denied a visa, Fox News has confirmed ‐ though it remains unclear whether she had permission to be in the country when she attended the Trump Tower session. ...
Well before the June 9, 2016, meeting, she was denied a visa to enter the U.S. in 2015, according to court filings first reported by the Daily Beast. She was granted a "parole" to be in the country from October 2015 through early January 2016. However, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York told Fox News on Thursday that their office did not extend that status.
"She was not granted a second parole by our office," office spokesman James Margolin told Fox News in an email. "Her case-related immigration parole ended early in 2016, and it was not renewed by us."...
"She shouldn’t have been in the country," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday. "I think the lady Russian lawyer that was there in that meeting, I’ve written to [The State Department and Department of Homeland Security] to find out what she was doing in the country when presumably either her visa or parole expired."
Maybe the Obama administration and the Hillary Clinton campaign were colluding with the Russians to let her in and let her stay to try to st up Team Trump? Why was she allowed in the country? Why was she allowed to overstay her welcome or "parole"/ Media curiosity about the meeting apparently has its limits.
Some, such as Mark Steyn, have approached the meeting with the trivial pursuit it deserves:
#1
The Trump Jr. debacle has accomplished one miracle: it has restored credibility to the media. Six months of media claims of Trump-Russia communication were constantly met with 'Fake News' replies, but are now proven to have an element of truth.
[American Thinker] Christopher Wray, President Donald Trump's FBI director nominee, seems a perfectly nice man. But nothing he has said during confirmation hearings on July 12 distinguishes him as someone who would reform Barack Hussein Obama's Islamophilic FBI.
President Trump ran on a quixotic set of ideas about aggressively stopping Islamic terror. Like a fly in amber, the standard operating procedures (SOP) governing the Obama Federal Bureau of Investigations guarantee to preserve the same systemic, intractable failures that unleashed mass murderer Omar Mateen and Syed Farook and bride Tashfeen Malik to maim and murder dozens of Americans.
From Wray's comments to the Senate Judiciary Committee, we know how he'll bravely break with President Trump. He's partial to his predecessor, James Comey. To wit, Wray said he sided with Comey in rejecting a domestic surveillance program in 2004, "not because he knew the substance of the dispute," but because of his affection for Comey.
Given his unalloyed loyalty, Wray'll be unlikely to remove from FBI training manuals the fiction about jihad being a peaceful pillar of the Islamic faith.
To get a sense of how the outfit being glorified by the Senate panel operates, consider this: you hire a private firm to protect you, only to discover that, as part of your protection plan, your protectors undergo sensitivity training to desensitize them to potential perpetrators and evildoers, thus giving the latter easy access to you and yours. This "strategy" would endanger your life. The company executing this harebrained scheme, moreover, would be in violation of its contractual obligation to keep you safe. If you came to harm, you'd sue.
But first, fire the fools before they get you killed.
#2
That's our crazy Comey. And the new guy, Christopher Wray, loves him just the way he is.
Another swamp creature for whom Wray has "enormous respect" is former FBI director Robert Mueller.
[The Hill] President Trump is seeking to radically remodel the State Department in an unprecedented way, according to former officials from administrations of both political parties.
His administration’s efforts, which include a proposed budget cut of nearly 30 percent, a hiring freeze and a potential reshuffling of offices within State, have left scores of positions unfilled, demoralizing the staff that remain.
Past GOP presidents have also sought to cut State down to size, and even current employees have acknowledged bureaucratic problems at Foggy Bottom.
But some former officials describe Trump's efforts as something unseen before -- a war of sorts on the State Department that if carried out would leave it hobbling.
"My suspicion is that within the White House, particularly amongst the nationalist faction ... that this seems to actually be a concerted effort to diminish the role of the State Department in U.S. foreign policy and hamper its abilities to pursue policies that would be considered overly globalist," said Stewart Patrick, who served on the policy planning staff at the State Department under the George W. Bush administration.
Hopeful prognosis at the closing para follows:
"I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better," said Berschinski, the former Obama official, said. "I think we are going to continue to see an exodus of top talent at the department."
#3
Not to be confused with the State Department war on Bush, 2001-2008.
My suspicion is that within the White House, particularly amongst the nationalist faction
Hell, our sons, nephews, or cousins are not going to die for your globalist agenda. They're not Mercs. They serve their country, not you.
Foggy Bottom lunchroom. Pairs of smartly dressed gentlemen sitting together, wearing matching bow ties. At least one with his ankles crossed under his chair.
#7
If 90% of the State Department went away - would anyone miss it? 20% of the State Department folks downrange are OK, the rest are marking time while punching a ticket. 95% of the CONUS State Department is worthless. Prune it back judiciously please.
#10
Can someone from the State Department tell the American Russian and Canadian public how someone can carryout economic warfare on all 3 countries at the same time like with housing and get away with it and nobody knows a God Damn fucking thing including all leadership getting played like a bunch of novice fucking idiots?
[Free Beacon] The U.S. government has denied financial support to the family of a federal agent who was severely wounded in a 2011 ambush by a Mexican drug cartel but at the same time has subsidized housing expenses for the family of a hit-squad member who assisted in the shootout that left another officer dead.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent who survived the attack, Victor Avila, said the Department of Homeland Security refused to fund hotel, travel, and per diem expenses for his wife and two children during the two-week trial of two men accused in his attempted murder, which began in Washington, D.C., this week. DHS told Avila it did not have a "funding mechanism" to pay for the expenses.
[Daily Caller] During World War II the coal miners’ union went on strike; in 1950 Korean War President Harry Truman reached outside the Constitution and nationalized steel companies because of their union problems. During the Vietnam War, the San Diego Machinist Union local went on strike.
When, then, union leaders stood up and loudly complained about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it was my pleasure to throw boing hot rhetoric on the complaining unions and their sycophantic Democratic office holders; hypocrites all. The whine campaign of union leaders and Democrats against an agreement that portended drops in consumer prices for all Americans was sickening and sheer hypocrisy.
A perfect example of political hypocrisy and perfidy has recently come to light in the exposure that Democratic Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly is the former General Counsel and major stockholder in his family’s business in Indiana. A business with a factory in Mexico.
Since Donnelly’s election to the U.S. Senate and in recent months Donnelly’s family company -- Stewart Superior Corp. and its subsidiaries have shipped tons of raw materials to its Mexican factory where Mexican men and women assemble raw materials for finishing in a California plant. This is done duty free in both directions and uses Mexican labor that is paid far less than their Indiana counterparts. This is a wise use of resources and the company should utilize it as much as possible. That is a good and profitable use of resources that enables the company to make profits. That is free enterprise.
There is nothing wrong with the trans-border movement of goods to and from Mexico for assembly or finishing. Only less-than-intelligent union leaders and the Democrat politicians they own lock-stock and barrel complain about this very profitable business model.
Donnelly accused United Technologies (UT) and its Indiana subsidiary -- air conditioner and furnace maker Carrier -- of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when it announced plans to move some Indiana factory jobs to Mexico. Candidate Donald Trump made the Carrier plan an integral part of his campaign and threatened giant defense contractor UT with a stiff tariff on any air conditioners made by Carrier in Mexico imported into the U.S.
Despite his political tantrum against Carrier’s moving to Mexico, Donnelly collected 2016 dividends ($15,001 to $50,000) from Stewart Superior which were profits from its Mexican factory; Stewart Superior’s web site says that the company’s Mexican factory "brings economical, cost competitive manufacturing and product development to our valued customers."
Foreign funding provides "significant" income for some Islamist extremist groups in Britain, the Government has admitted, but it has refused to name those responsible.
The Opposition accused the Government of suppressing a report into the scale and origin of extremist funding because it is widely suspected to implicate Saudi Arabia. Saudis are, IMO, 1000 more dangerous than Iran
#1
Funny that the UK gov't seems to have a problem with this particular revenue stream when they give out welfare cash of every stripe to (suspected) terrorists and their families.
[IsraelTimes] Gazoo’s power distribution company says supplies to the territory’s 2 million residents have dropped to unprecedented lows, with blackouts lasting for more than 24 hours.
While the Paleostinian enclave needs at least 400 megawatts of power a day, only 70 are available since Gazoo’s power plant shut down late Wednesday.
Diesel fuel from neighboring Egypt had kept the station running at half capacity since June 21, but deliveries were interrupted after a deadly attack on Egyptian soldiers last week near the border.
Israel, the main provider of power to Gazoo, has cut shipments at the request of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... . The Paleostinian leader is trying to put pressure on Gazoo’s Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rulers.
#2
I think that the article meant 400 megawatt-hours per day. Units in the article were wrong. That translates to an average load of 16.7 megawatts. That seems more reasonable.
But the point still stands. Don't pay for electricity, no electricity for yuuuuu!!!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/14/2017 10:24
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#3
400 MW output per hour would be require a pretty significant mid-sized power station, or 280 fairly large wing turbines taking roughly 23 acres each. As the strip is just over 90,000 acres, they could put up 3,900 wind turbines and solve the middle east's energy crisis.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
The reality of the existing Gaza power station in this article can be found here.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/14/2017 13:46
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In which Al Ahram analyzes the new situation, concluding that something definitely will happen.
[AlAhram] On previous occasions rapprochement between Cairo and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, have typically occurred in the framework of bilateral arrangements which fall apart almost as soon as they are agreed because of Hamas’ failure to meet its obligations (generally related to security issues such as requests to hand over individuals implicated in the support of terrorist organizations accused of carrying out attacks in Egypt).
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... on this current occasion, the Paleostinian Authority is absent from the latest moves, and what is more, Mohammed Dahlan has assumed a major role in possible new arrangements, raising the question of how the PA views the latest developments.
Continued on Page 49
[AlAhram] A series of military victories over myrmidon Islamic groups along Libya's Mediterranean coastline has forced hundreds of myrmidons, including 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.... fighters, to seek refuge in the vast deserts of the North African nation.
The desert is already home to militias from neighboring countries, cross-border criminal gangs and mercenaries.
Libya's lawless, desolate center and south provides a sanctuary for gunnies to reorganize, recruit, train and potentially plot for a comeback. That is especially important at a time when the Islamic State group lost not only its urban holdings in Libya but is crumbling in Iraq and Syria.
In Libya's remote stretches near the borders with Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Algeria, Niger and Tunisia, multiple gangs already operate freely.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/14/2017
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[AlAhram] A member of the myrmidon group Hasm involved in the killing of several coppers last May was killed in a shootout with Egyptian police in a Cairo neighborhood, a statement by the interior ministry said on Wednesday.
The Hasm member and runaway Ahmed Mohammed Omar Sweilem was killed as police conducted a raid in Cairo’s El-Marg neighborhood.
Sweilem was involved in several terrorist operations, most notably the killing of three coppers and the wounding of six others in Nasr City last May, according to the statement.
The ministry added that Sweilem was also involved in the killing of two coppers in January and September of 2016.
Wednesday’s statement comes one day after the ministry said that police potted a leading member of Hasm in a shootout in Fayoum.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/14/2017
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[All Africa] Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum, Ayodele Fayose has condemned Nigeria's acting president Yemi Osinbajo's claims on President Muhammadu Buhari's health status and threatened to release 11 current pictures of the president if the acting president, failed to tell Nigerians the truth about the ailing leader's health status.
Fayose's threat came a few hours after Osinbajo told journalists that Buhari was recuperating and would return soon.
Outraged at Osinbajo's claim, Fayose swiftly called a presser at his Abuja private residence and expressed disappointment about the acting president's version of the story.
He insisted that Buhari was critically sick and that the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had continued to hide the true health status of the president.
"If they go further and try to continue to deceive Nigerians, I will release about 11 damaging pictures anytime from now on the president's health," he declared.
Asked to show proof of his allegation, Fayose said: "I'm not going to prove that to Nigerians. It is him (Osinbajo) who said he saw the president that needs to prove to Nigerians. I have made the allegations and I have said it expressly that we are in the age of technology.
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[Ynet] One of the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",'s religious leaders on the Temple Mount was indicted Thursday for holding a position in a terror organization.
According to the indictment, Nehad Zaier, 39, from east Jerusalem, ran a Whatsapp group as part of his job to document visits of Jewish civilians and MKs to the Temple Mount.
Using this group, he distributed videos documenting festivities between Moslem worshipers and Israeli security forces at the holy site, as well as send out updates on the arrest of Hamas members.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi pro-government fighters killed three Islamic State militants in preemptive strikes south of Salahuddin Province, their media service said Thursday.
The Popular Mobilization Units said they killed three militants from the group during preemptive strikes that targeted a rest house belonging to IS in Ishaqi region.
Two militants were shot by the forces while the third blew himself up, according to the PMU’s media.
Salahuddin borders with Diyala have seen an increasing activity by IS members over the past months coinciding with operations by U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops in Mosul, Islamic State’s largest stronghold which was declared free last Monday. IS has stepped up attacks against civilians and security forces at that region.
Having done with its eight-month campaign in Mosul, Iraq’s government will head towards liberating other IS strongholds across Iraq, including in Salahuddin.
Islamic State has lost thousands of its foreign and local, senior and junior members, throughout the Iraqi military campaign.
Violence and armed conflicts left more than 700 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of June, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[AA.TR] Eighteen ISIS suspects, including Syrian and Iraqi nationals, were apprehended in southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , the governorship said on Thursday.
Ottoman Turkish police captured 18 suspects, including eight Syrian nationals and one Iraqi, who were allegedly planning to launch an attack on July 15, the day of commemorations for the defeat of last year's coup attempt, in an operation in the province of Gaziantep, the statement issued by the governorship read.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[FoxNews] Global warming activist and former veep Al Gore likened the battle over climate change to humanity's greatest struggles -- like the fights against slavery, apartheid and nuclear proliferation -- during a speech Thursday in Australia, according to a newly reported transcript.
In a July 13 speech to the EcoCity World Summit in Melbourne, the former vice president argued combating global warming was "in the tradition of all the great moral causes that have improved the circumstances of humanity throughout our history," according to the website Climate Depot.
"The abolition of slavery, woman's suffrage and women's rights, the civil rights movement and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the movement to stop the toxic phase of nuclear arms race and more recently the gay rights movement," Gore said. More at link.
Al Gore became a billionaire because of climate change and carbon trading. He is just trying to protect his income stream.
It's winter in Australia at the moment. Did it snow while he was there?
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance ||
07/14/2017
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#1
I see it more like Jihad, or the fight for racial purity.
#2
Is he saying we'll have to arm up and fight to end the evil of Climate Change charlatans? Or that we need to publicly shame them and boycott until the charlatans give in?
#6
#3
Thankew. I did it my own self. Now if I can just keep the syntax in my head instead of having to look up the last time I used it I'll be using it regularly.
Since somebody's coming down with hysterics every day, a week or two's repetition should fix it my old dog's mind.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017 15:47
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Good luck Fred. I can't even remember my name some days.
[Al Jazeera] Masked gunnies burst into a children's party in central Mexico and killed 11 people, authorities and witnesses said on Thursday, in the violence-plagued country's latest mass murder.
Police found the gory scene when they responded to an emergency call received just after midnight in the city of Tizayuca, in the central state of Hidalgo, the state security service said in a statement.
Neighbours said four gunnies burst into a large white tent where a family was hosting a children's party outside their home and rubbed out seven men and four women.
Four children were found unharmed, public security front man David Pichardo told AFP news agency.
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Four children were killed in northern Baghlan province early Wednesday while playing with an unexploded mortar bomb, Baghlan police said in a statement on Thursday. Now it's an exploded bomb.
The incident happened at about 6:10pm local time in Burka district of the province when children found the explosive device, read the statement. "Hey, look! It's an unexploded bomb!"
"Oboy! Somethin' to play with!"
“The children found the mortar and were playing with it. When they hit it with stones the mortar exploded and killed all four children,” it said. "Bet ya can't hit it with this rock!"
"Betcha I can!"
[KABOOM!]
The statement said that the incident happened in an area which is under insurgent control. Oh, well. That explains it.
#1
The Russian 82mm mortar, in widespread use, as I understand it, offers a mine shell, which on impact arms itself but doesn't explode, until someone steps on it.
Jeddah- The local administration of the legitimate government in Yemen has monitored the involvement of the Houthi rebels in selling free medicines provided by Saudi Arabia and the UAE for cholera patients in the areas under their control, mainly in Sana’a.
It called on all international organizations concerned with monitoring the humanitarian situation in Yemen to work on monitoring the performance of the Houthi rebels and to ensure that they do not trade with the conditions of people living in areas under their control.
Yemen’s Minister of Local Administration Abdel-Raqib Fath strongly condemned the trading in the medicines of the cholera epidemic, selling them in the black market in Hodeidah, Hajja, Ibb and Dhamar provinces and depriving patients from obtaining them.
The Yemeni Minister called on the Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA) in the World Health Organization, the UNICEF and other international agencies to monitor the performance of armed Houthi militias in areas under their control and their acts of selling free-of-charge treatments to cholera patients.
Fath, who is also the head of the Higher Relief Committee, said that the liberated areas have been under strict supervision through a certain mechanism followed by the Ministry of Health and its offices at the levels of the governorates and districts in order to ensure the delivery of the free cholera drugs to infected patients.
Fath called on international organizations to work on following up on the sale of free medicines, issue clear statements condemning the violation of the rights of patients by militias, and denounce the involvement in the sale of medicines provided for free.
He confirmed that these drugs were sent by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud along with some other countries that donated them for the Yemeni people.
These treatments are for free, any practices outside this framework should be condemned and international organizations should confront them and condemn anyone who commits this inhumane act, Fath stressed.
At least two Taliban fighters were killed and three others wounded after ambushing a convoy of four fuel tankers in Chashma-e-Sheer area in the north of Pul-e-Khumri city in northern Baghlan province on Thursday morning, local officials confirmed.
According to the drivers of the tankers, a group of Taliban fighters fired rockets at them. Two tankers were hit – both of which burnt out.
The insurgents then tried to seize the other two tankers but before they could, security forces arrived at the scene.
“It was around 5am or 6am today (Thursday) when the Taliban attacked the oil tankers and wanted to take two of them when we arrived at the scene.
They (Taliban) burnt two tankers. We recovered two other tankers after a clash with the militants. Two Taliban militants were killed and three others were wounded in the fight,” said Major Nasir Ahmad, executive officer of the sixth battalion of Shaheen 209 Corps.
The drivers, who own the tankers, said the incident happened on the Baghlan highway.
“When we arrived here, the Taliban were on the road and they fired a rocket at my tanker. I threw myself out of the cab and the tanker was burnt,” said Amanullah, one of the tanker owners.
“Taliban attacked my friend’s tanker first and then mine with rockets. I lost everything as my tanker was burnt. I just bought the tanker for $35,000 USD,” said Nek Mohammad, another tanker owner.
Health officials in Baghlan said two people had been wounded in the incident.
“Two wounded were brought to our hospital from Chashma-e-Sheer. One of them was a child and another was an army soldier. Both of them sustained minor injuries and were discharged after treatment,” said Shayad Rouhani, head of Pul-e-Khumri Hospital.
Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed they had inflicted casualties to government forces.
[AnNahar] Two bombers blew themselves up in northeastern Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... killing 14 people and injuring 30 people in an attack likely staged by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... jihadists, security sources said Thursday.
The bombings, which took place on Wednesday evening in Waza near the Nigerian border, targeted a busy area in the market town, the sources said.
The bombers struck an area with "restaurants, telephone cabins and kiosks", a local official said.
"The town has been sealed off. Nobody can enter and nobody can leave," the source said, adding that some of the maimed were in "quite serious" condition.
Though Boko Haram was born in Nigeria, 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.... -affiliated group has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, prompting the formation of a regional force to fight back.
Cameroon's Far North region, which borders Nigeria, has seen a resurgence in attacks blamed on Boko Haram after months of relative calm.
Some 200,000 Cameroonians from the Far North region have fled their homes in fear of the violence.
[IsraelTimes] USB drive and memory card taken from offices of Al Quds radio station in Hebron
The Israeli army on Thursday morning raided the offices of the Paleostinian news station Al Quds located in the West Bank city of Hebron.
...Hamas Central in the West Bank...
The IDF said the operation was carried out after the station was suspected of having "inciting materials."
"As part of the ongoing efforts against incitement in the Judea and Samaria region, forces confiscated a USB drive and a memory card suspected to contain inciting materials from a radio station in Hebron," an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.
Videos on social media showed the aftermath of the raid.
The Al Quds station is seen as sympathetic to the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror group, which controls the Gazoo Strip.
Over the past few years, IDF raids have targeted several Paleostinian media outlets in the Hebron region suspected of incitement.
The Israeli military stepped up its operations against Paleostinian media accused of incitement follow the beginning of the "lone-wolf intifada," an ongoing, though waning, terror wave that began in October 2015.
The Syrian Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes against positions and gatherings of the ISIL terrorists in Deir Ezzor.
SANA’ reporter in Deir Ezzor said that the Syrian Air Force conducted concentrated bombardments, destroying a command center belonging to the ISIL terrorists in Marat village in the eastern countryside of the province.
The reporter added that the air force intensively bombarded dens and gatherings of the ISIL terrorists in al-Tharda area, the surroundings of the Regiment 137, the Khasarat neighborhood and in the villages of al-Husseiniya, al-Bughailiyia and Khsham, inflicting heavy losses upon them in the personnel and equipment.
At the southern axis of Deir Ezzor, army units clashed with ISIL-affiliated terrorist groups, killing a number of terrorists and injuring others.
Over the past few hours, army units, baked by the army air force, destroyed vehicles, ammunition depot and two positions of the so-called “military administration” of the ISIL at the crossing of al-Halabyia in al-Husseiniya, and in the village of al-Bu Omar, the surroundings of the Airport, al-Maqaber “cemeteries” area and in al-Jubailiyia.
Source: SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
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A fire, which occurred at the ammunition depot in the Turkish province of Kilis near the border with Syria on Thursday, left at least 10 servicemen injured, local media reported.
Explosions triggered by the fire initially prevented firefighters from extinguishing the flames, the Daily Sabah newspaper reported.
Ambulances, search and rescue teams are on the site. The reason behind the fire is being investigated.
Russia and Turkey along with Iran are guarantors of the Syrian ceasefire regime that came into force in late December. The guarantors also play an active role in the Astana peace process seeking to reach the national reconciliation in Syria.
Source: Sputnik
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[Al Jazeera] Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians have been told by church leaders to cancel all events and activities outside churches in July because of a security threat, church and security sources said on Thursday.
The warning followed an attack in May by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS) group on Copts travelling to a monastery in central Egypt that killed 29 people. A month earlier, 44 people were killed in kabooms at a cathedral and another church on Palm Sunday.
Sources said the warning was given to individual church leaders by a representative of the Coptic Orthodox Pope. Copts on trips or youth camps had been told to cut short their activities and return home early.
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Four people wounded as an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on Thursday in northern the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a security source told AlSumaria News.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that an IED was planted on the side of a road near a popular market in Shatt al-Taji, north of Baghdad, leaving four people injured.
“A security force surrounded the explosion scene and the four people were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment,” he added.
Baghdad has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake IS-occupied areas in 2016.
Early today, an IED blast in southwest of Baghdad, left one dead and another wounded, AlSumaria reported.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
More than 700 Iraqis were killed and wounded during the month of June as result of violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) which excludes security members deaths. Baghdad ranked the second place with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on Thursday in southwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, leaving one dead and another wounded, a source from the police said according to Alsumaria News.
“A man died and his wife injured in al-Nahrawan area, southeast of Baghdad, when they rode a bicycle but with an IED fitted beneath it” the source said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source added that a security force arrived to the explosion scene and moved the body of the dead man to the forensic medicine department and his wife to a nearby hospital.
Violence and armed conflicts left more than 700 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of June, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths. Baghdad came second in terms of casualties, with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
Baghdad has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake IS-occupied areas in 2016. While most of of the explosions attacks went without a claim of responsibility, Islamic State has claimed several incidents, and is believed to be behind all of the attacks.
After the war is hell, too, though with considerably less shooting.
[AnNahar] Near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... 's war-ravaged historic heart, Maher al-Nejmawi watches a worker repainting his long-abandoned stall. Residents of Iraq's second city are trying to put their lives back together after months of fighting.
"Here, a boom-mobilewent kaboom!. Over there, a rocket hit the building," says Nejmawi, a 29-year-old car battery and tyre salesman dressed in a brown robe.
Continued on Page 49
[AnNahar] Damascus has not informed Lebanese authorities in advance of any of its recent Arclight airstrikes on Arsal's outskirts and the Lebanese army is not coordinating with the Syrian army in this regard, according to high-ranking security sources.
"The military command in Leb is unenthusiastic and unwilling to launch an operation in the outskirts amid the current circumstances, although it hopes it will be able to put an end to the presence of bully boyz and holy warriors in the border region as soon as possible through its preemptive operations that were intensified recently and through the continuous artillery shelling of their gatherings," the sources told Asharq al-Awsat daily in remarks published Thursday.
As for the ultimatum that 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 issued for the myrmidon groups in the area, the sources noted that "the Army Command will be obliged to follow up on any battle launched by Hizbullah through preventing the escape of bandidossnuffies to the town of Arsal or to other areas inside Leb."
The army will also have to "prevent the exit of any bully boyz from the encampments that are spread across the town," the sources added.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Two Haqqani terrorist network members were locked away Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! before they manage to carry out attacks in southeastern Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province of Afghanistan.
The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), said the two members of the terrorist network were arrested during an operation in Orgun district.
A statement by NDS said the forces of Evil were looking to carry out attacks based on the instructions of the network in Orgun district before they were arrested by the intelligence operatives.
Identified as Nader Khan and Rahmatullah, the Haqqani network members confessed that they had recently visited Paktika after receiving instructions from the Haqqani network commanders from the other side of the Durand Line to carry out attacks, NDS added.
The anti-government armed Death Eater groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as the Afghan intelligence operatives foiled a plot by the Haqqani terrorist network to carry out a coordinated attack in Gardez city, the lovely provincial capital of southeastern Paktia province.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) in a statement said Wednesday that a group of eight holy warriors were arrested in connection to the attack plot.
The statement further added that the suspects were arrested during an operation of the intelligence operatives in the vicinity of Gardez city.
The detained forces of Evil have confessed that they were deployed to Gardez city by the Haqqani network commanders, Ghazi and Jahad, who they claim are based on the other side of the Durand Line.
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[AA.TR] Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... n President Adama Barrow has announced Thursday the launching of a commission of inquiry into the assets of the former president Yahya Jammeh, barely two months after his assets were frozen.
"This commission is mandated to look into the management of some public enterprises as well as assets and financial transactions of the former president Yahya Jammeh and some of his associates," Barrow said.
"Giving the sensitive nature of this task at hand and the high expectation of the public, I encourage all commission members to deliver efficiently and effectively with a high sense of discipline and honesty," he added.
Jammeh ruled Gambia for 22 years and was accused of committing atrocities and also stealing millions from state coffers.
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[AA.TR] At least 44 people, including suspects in two deadly PKK terrorist attacks in Istanbul last year, were tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! Thursday by a joint operation of security forces and Ottoman Turkish intelligence, according to Istanbul’s governor.
The arrests were carried out during an operation by teams from the Istanbul Police’s counter-terrorism unit and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in five provinces, including Istanbul, Vasip Sahin told news hounds on Thursday.
Sahin also said the operations were conducted following intelligence that the turbans were preparing for a "sensational" attack in Istanbul.
"One of these 44 suspects was the organizer of the Besiktas stadium attack who explored the area and then jumped out of the bomb-laden car at the last moment," he said, referring to a December 2016 attack after a football match at Vodafone Stadium which killed 46 people and injured 243.
"The other is the organizer of the kaboom in Vezneciler targeting the riot police service bus," a June attack that killed 11, including seven coppers, and maimed 36 people, he added.
[AA.TR] At least four people were killed and another seven injured Thursday in a car kaboom in Syria’s northern city, a pro-opposition Syrian civil defense official said.
The incident took place when a boom-mobile went off near a school in Azaz city, Haytham Jaber, the Syrian civil defense official, told Anadolu Agency.
The corpse count is feared to rise as some of the injured persons are at death's door.
Vehicles near the site of the incident caught fire, while nearby buildings were also damaged as a result of the blast.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The loyalists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group and Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... turbans suffered heavy casualties during the Arclight airstrikes and ground operations in eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... of Afghanistan.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces in a statement said at least fifteen Taliban turbans were killed, two of them were maimed, and their heavy machine gun was destroyed during the operations of the ground forces in Asmar and Shigal districts on Tuesday.
The statement further added that in separate operations involving Arclight airstrikes, at least nine bandidosturbans affiliated with the Islamic State terror group were killed.
The Arclight airstrikes were carried out in the vicinity of Watapur district of Kunar, the Silab Corps added.
In the meantime, the provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said a total of eleven ISIS bandidosturbans were killed in the Arclight airstrikes.
According to Hemat, an Arab national and two Paks were among those killed in the Arclight airstrikes.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Several turbans 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 including Paks and citizens of Uzbekistan were killed during the operations 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.
According to the local government officials, the turbans were killed in Pacher Agam and Chaparhar districts during the operations since Tuesday.
The provincial government media office in a statement said Wednesday that six turbans including three Paks and two Uzbekistanis were killed in Mar Khanai area of Pacher Agam district.
The statement further added that a local leader of the terror group identified as Esmatulalh was also among those killed.
In a separate statement released earlier today, the provincial government said at least 19 turbans of the terror group were killed during the separate operations in Pacher Agam and Chaparhar districts.
According to the provincial government, the operations were conducted with the support of the air forces and artillery unit of the Afghan army.
A member of the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group identified as Moslem Agha was also jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! during another operation conducted in Khogyani district, the provincial government added.
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[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian commander has dismissed the Pentagon chief's call for regime change in the Islamic Theocratic Republic as a "ridiculous dream", saying Iran would respond to US officials' nonsensical talks.
James Mattis on Monday described Iran "the most destabilizing influence in the Middle East", saying a regime change would be necessary before the US and Iran could have substantially positive relations.
On Thursday, Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said the Islamic Theocratic Republic was not perturbed by the remarks.
"The ridiculous dreams of the Americans about the overthrow of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran is nothing more than disturbed delusions and we are not worried that they have preoccupied themselves in such a way," he said.
"We will respond to the nonsensical talks of the American authorities in the theaters of action," Jazayeri added without elaboration.
Addressing a high school journalism student in Mercer Island, a Seattle suburb, Mattis claimed that Iran was not really a democratic country and acted more like a "revolutionary movement" than a functional state.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017
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[Iran Press TV] More than 73 percent of American Democrats would give up drinking alcohol for the rest of their life if 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... would be impeached, a new survey has found. Might I suggest 73 percent of Dems get a goddamned life?
The poll which was published by a drug and alcohol rehabilitation group
...if they're in a rehab group, 100% of them intend to give up alcohol anyway...
on Thursday also found that 17 percent of Republicans are willing to renounce drinking alcohol if Trump got impeached.
But nearly 31 percent of Republicans said they would give up drinking if it meant the media stopped writing negative things about their president.
On Wednesday, Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman formally introduced an article of impeachment against Trump, accusing the president of obstructing justice during a federal investigation of Russia’s role in 2016 election.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Are these the same ones who swore to move to Canada if he won?
[Libya Herald] A Tunisian described by the Libyan National Army (LNA) as an Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... terrorist leader has been found hiding in a building in Sidi Akribesh as troops combed the last Benghazi district that was held by holy warriors.
Abu al-Mundhir al-Tunisi, notable for a large tiger tattoo on his left shoulder, was reportedly captured without a fight.
Though the final concentration of murderous Moslems in a handful of buildings in this area of Sabri was overrun four days ago it is thought that other diehards have so far managed to elude searchers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017
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[ChicagoTribune]. Peter W. Smith, GOP operative who sought Clinton's emails from Russian hackers, committed suicide, records show
In late June 2017, the Wall Street Journal published a story about a longtime Republican political operative from the Chicago area. His name was Peter Smith and the story focused on Smith’s possible connections to the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. Here’s how it unfolded. (Jonathon Berlin / Tribune)
A Republican donor and operative from Chicago's North Shore who said he had tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself in a Minnesota hotel room days after talking to The Wall Street Journal about his efforts, public records show.
#6
Like to get a look at that life insurance policy. Sometimes you can get a term plan for, say, twenty years. If he got one at age 61, it would "expire" at 81. Some of them have a provision for continuing it at extremely high rates which it is expected nobody will pay. But if your health is really, really bad, somebody can usually scrape up a quarterly premium.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/14/2017 10:15
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#7
Did he fire one bullet in the suicide or did he empty the magazine to be sure?
Follow the links.
[Stump.MaryPat.org]. SELL THE BUDGET YOU VETOED, GOV
Let’s start off with a laugh, for once.
Treasurer Frerichs urges Gov. Rauner to champion budget, tax hikes he vetoed
Before I get to the piece itself, that headline is a work of art.
Okay, the meat of the piece:
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs wants Gov. Bruce Rauner to champion a budget Rauner says doesn’t address Illinois’ decades of fiscal problems.
After Democrats and some Republicans voted to override Rauner’s veto of the state’s largest annual budget to date and a 32 percent income tax increase, Treasurer Michael Frerichs said Rauner needs to embrace the change.
Among other things, Frerichs urged Rauner to talk to bond ratings agencies in New York and borrow $6 billion for some of the backlog of unpaid bills.
Frerichs said these steps will help the state avoid junk bond status.
“I believe that the governor is a very successful investor and as such he understands the danger of junk bond status,” Frerichs said.
Yes, he sure does.
And I bet the governor knows just fine that the budget doesn’t fix a damn thing. Read it all
#1
Oklahoma is in far better shape, but the "leadership" there was equally spineless. Both sides "compromised" in a bullshit way that locked in tax increases on cigarettes and car sales and other such slight-of-hand RATHER than CUTTING SPENDING ("entitlements").
I don't even smoke, so that one won't him me in the pocket-book, but the ludicracy of IGNORING spending when the budget is a very real issue is just mind-boggling.
Illinois and California are in the passing lane. OK is in the right lane, but heading down the same road. And they both are suffering from out-migration, a characteristic of OK demographics from time immemorial.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi troops personnel were killed, while others were wounded in a suicide attack that targeted security headquarters in Anbar province, security sources said.
Shafaq News quoted a police source as saying that two suicide attackers blew themselves up at the entrance of a joint headquarters of Iraqi army and the Sunni tribal mobilization forces in al-Karma region, 13 KM east of Fallujah.
The attack, according to the source, left two army personnel and 15 tribal fighters killed, while two army personnel and seven others wounded.
Media channels quoted army general Col. Ahmed al-Dulaimi as saying that the attackers were wearing police uniform. One of them was killed, while the other blew himself up, which left a soldier and tribal mobilization forces personnel killed and others wounded.
“Joint troops of police and army transferred the victims to forensic doctors and the wounded to hospital for treatment,” Dulaimi.
Earlier this week, three IS militants and a policeman were killed in a suicide attack in the city of Hit in Anbar.
Iraqi troops were able to return life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them. However, Anbar’s western cities of Annah, Qaim and Rawa are still held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
More than 700 Iraqis were killed and wounded during the month of June as result of violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) which excludes security members deaths. Baghdad ranked the second place with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
[Ynet] The Syrian army has carried out an Arclight airstrike killing more than 20 Lions of Islam in a village east of Rafah in the northern Sinai Peninsula, according to a Sky News report.
The report claims that the Egyptian air force hit a vehicle carrying terror activists as they were trying to escape and four of its occupants were killed.
Once again President Trump is doing normal presidential stuff. Watch the Left and NeverTrumpers be shocked when he again does not start a world war or worse.
[FREEBEACON] The Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges against 412 people in the largest combined health care fraud bust in the department's history.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price announced the bust in a presser Thursday morning.
Facing charges are 412 people across 41 federal districts, who the DOJ alleges have extracted $1.3 billion in false billings through a variety of unconnected schemes. The defendants include 115 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals. HHS has also initiated suspension proceedings against 295 providers, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.
The busts also constitute the largest opioid-related fraud charging in U.S. history--120 of the defendants, including doctors, face charges for their role in prescribing and distributing opioids and other narcotics.
"Too many trusted medical professionals like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients," Sessions said. "Amazingly, some have made their practices into multimillion dollar criminal enterprises. They seem oblivious to the disastrous consequences of their greed. Their actions not only enrich themselves often at the expense of taxpayers but also feed addictions and cause addictions to start. The consequences are real: emergency rooms, jail cells, futures lost, and graveyards."
The fraud schemes targeted by the Department of Justice were focused on Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE, the latter of which provides health insurance for veterans and their families. They often involved medically unnecessary drugs, frequently not even distributed to those for whom they were prescribed. In many cases, co-conspirators were paid cash kickbacks for supplying information so that providers could bill Medicare for unprovided services.
The busts resulted from the enforcement actions of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint initiative of the Department of Justice and HHS. Since it was created in 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged over 3,500 defendants collectively responsible for over $12.5 billion in fraud.
Health care fraud is a persistent problem for the federal health insurance systems. The state of Florida alone has paid $70.3 million in Medicaid payments to providers facing fraud allegations since 2011.
"Health care fraud is not only a criminal act that costs billions of taxpayer dollars--it is an affront to all Americans who rely on our national health care programs for access to critical health care services and a violation of trust," Price said. "The United States is home to the world's best medical professionals, but their ability to provide affordable, high-quality care to their patients is jeopardized every time a criminal commits health care fraud."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017
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#1
I wonder if the 'felony accomplice' multiplier applies to grand larceny? If patients died when these stolen monies might have provided them treatment, is that murder?
#1
George Washington, at the Siege of Boston, in a January 1776 letter to John Hancock: "I have often thought how much happier I should have been, if, instead of accepting of a command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my shoulder and entered the ranks, or, if I could have justified the measure to posterity and my own conscience, had retired to the back country, and lived in a wigwam."
#2
Very great iwartime leader. Completely different circumstances for each war. But if you can identify the situation, you can adapt and win.
Churchill/Britain was on the front line with the call of Europe. But there was the US, Canada, Australia, Russia coming to the rescue. Once assembled, the Axis of evil was matched.
Washington was vastly outnumbered with no hope for rescue for the first few years and also was attacked by American loyalists throughout the colony. If cornered, Washington's small army would have been annihilated. So they had to learn how to escape each battle that they lost, until the British were worn down. And when they escaped they had the wilderness to run to.
Sam Houston against the far superior Santa Anna went through the same thing until. These were truly unique military leaders who knew how to take a small army and defeat a major opposing army.
Posted by: Thor Oppressor of the Faith1381 ||
07/14/2017 1:43
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#3
So they had to learn how to escape each battle that they lost, until the British were worn down.
#6
Washington had to do guerrilla tactics until the knockout blow could be landed (and yes, French ships, artillery and men were needed for that). He realized he didn't have to win. He just couldn't lose.
Green in the south, however, perfected this strategy. He said his army resembled a crab. It could scurry quickly in any direction as long as it was away.
He was the man responsible for wearing out Cornwallis' army and forcing them to retire to Yorktown where the fatal blow could be landed.
#7
I'm sure Winston had his second thoughts, too, whether or not they were recorded for posterity. Both leaders were thinking of posterity and their own conscience throughout.
#8
I just finished volume 4 of Churchill's The Second World War. Quite the strategist. And logistician. He was planning for the invasion of Europe in 1941. I am looking forward to what he has to say about Monty slogging his way up the east side of Sicily. Probably in the next day or two.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/14/2017 19:18
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[DAWN] The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Police on Thursday announced to have tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! five men -- allegedly workers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) -- over charges of killing 20 people including five coppers.
Addressing a presser, CTD Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Munir Ahmed Sheikh said the police arrested the suspects from Korangi area after an "encounter".
The held suspects were identified as Muhammad Rizwan, a serving policeman, Muhammad Kamran alias Munna, Muhammad Kamran alias Maulana, Faheem Lodhi and Adnan Sheikh.
According to the SSP, Rizwan was recruited on recommendation of the "MQM setup."
Sheikh alleged that Rizwan had remained involved in murders of the coppers before and after his recruitment.
"They carried out assassination'>assassinations of workers of MQM, MQM-H and Awami National Party founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism.... and coppers on directions of the party’s South Africa set up," the SSP claimed.
He pointed out that during the initial investigation, the held suspects "confessed" to killing their colleagues in the party "on directions of the South Africa setup, as the victims were considered harmful for the party."
According to the SSP, the men had also planned to kill more workers of the MQM for similar reasons.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017
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[IsraelTimes] Ali Avci’s movie about a military coup that shows the president at gunpoint is released a year after failed overthrow attempt.
Ottoman Turkish police on Thursday detained a prominent film director who has made a controversial movie showing President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... under gunpoint in a bloody coup d’etat, state media reported on Thursday.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said Ali Avci was detained on suspicion of links to the group blamed by Ankara for the -- real life -- failed coup that sought to oust Erdogan last year.
Avci’s new film "Uyanis" (Awakening) is not in theaters yet but its trailer has already stirred up controversy on the first anniversary of the July 15 attempted putsch Ankara says was criminal masterminded by US-based Moslem preacher Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... Police also detained another man, identified as Fetullah Karabiber, who was found in Avci’s house and was already wanted by authorities, it said.
Uyanis’s trailer features the killing of Erdogan’s family -- including his wife Emine and his son Bilal -- in their house in the Kisikli district of Istanbul while Erdogan is shown under gunpoint.
Avci was also a producer of the film "Reis" (the Chief), a biopic about Erdogan’s early political life, which hit screens ahead of a key April referendum to boost Erdogan’s powers. It was the first ever feature film about Erdogan and received immense media attention at home and abroad ahead of its release. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... it garnered dreadful reviews and made only paltry box office takings. Ottoman Turkish media reported that Erdogan did not watch that film.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/14/2017
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#1
Arresting filmmakers.... It's not just Obama
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2017 14:54
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[DAWN] A woman on Wednesday secured pre-arrest bail in a case pertaining to death of a domestic worker, while police awaited the postmortem report of the dear departed for further investigation.
The suspect, Ms Fauzia, was booked on charges of torturing to death a 16-year-old boy, Akhtar Ali, who worked at her house as domestic help.
The suspect, through her counsel, moved the court for pre-arrest bail that was granted with a direction to deposit Rs50,000 as surety bond.
The court adjourned the hearing till July 20, seeking complete record of the case.
Akbari Gate police registered a murder case against Ms Fauzia, who is daughter of PML-N MPA Ms Shah Jehan, on the complaint of victim’s father Muhammad Aslam.
The complainant said that his son and daughter had been working at the MPA’s house for the last four years. He said the suspect used to beat his children even over minor mistakes and some four days ago badly tortured his son over delay in some chore.
He said his son suffered critical injuries which led to his death at the MPA’s house.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... has taken notice of the incident and sought a report from Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Amin Wains.
He ordered action against those involved in the boy’s killing without any discrimination and directed the authorities to provide best available health facilities to the sister of the dear departed.
The police, after conducting the postmortem examination, handed over the body to father of the dear departed, who took it to his native Makhanwala village in Okara district for burial.
The police also allowed victim’s sister Atiya to go with her father after carrying out her medical examination.
City Division Superintendent of Police (SP) Investigation Syed Karrar Husain said they were waiting for a detailed postmortem report to know the exact cause of the death.
He said the suspect got a pre-arrest bail from the court and they would include her in the investigation.
He said they also conducted medical examination of Atiya and were awaiting its report. He, however, said though marks of injuries were found on the girl’ body, those were not fresh.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017
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[All Africa] No fewer than 66 former Niger Delta snuffies have been offered scholarships to study sports management fundamentals at the Johan Cruyff Institute in Barcelona.
The Chief Executive Officer, To-be Connected Nigeria, Alhaji Faruk Yabo, dropped the hint in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State during a media chat held by Sia-One Sports Academy.
He said, beneficiaries would combine their studies with training sessions, while in camps as well as have three hours lectures daily adding that, participants would also be awarded certificates after the four months programme.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017
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#1
WTF? How long before they disappear?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2017 14:29
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[AA.TR] Three people in Kenya were killed Thursday when Somali-based al-Shabaab ... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia... forces of Evil kidnapped a Kenyan government official, who was shot, and five others.
The forces of Evil attacked and kidnapped Public Works Permanent Secretary Mariam el-Maawy while she was on her way back to the southeastern town of Lamu after attending a stakeholders meeting on a government project.
The Kenyan military was quick to respond pursuing the forces of Evil into Lamu’s Boni forest, where they managed to rescue the government official who was immediately airlifted to Mpeketoni Hospital in Lamu county, security officials told local media
Confirming the deaths to Kenya’s Daily Nation a police brass hat who wished not to be named due to restrictions to speaking to the media said the forces of Evil took control of the official’s vehicle before speeding off.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2017
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Long story - RTWT
[SanDiegoReader] It is a big ocean. Until you've been far into it, it's really hard to appreciate how big it is. Bringing a ship back from Japan to Hawaii, I once went ten days without seeing another ship, either by eye or radar. That's a long time to be utterly alone in the world, especially if you're moving in a straight line and at good speed. On the other hand, I think you'd be surprised at how crowded the ocean can get in certain places.
Suddenly, the officer of the deck realized that he was screwed. Maybe he sped up, thinking that speed could save his life.
The easiest example that I can think of to illustrate this point is the Strait of Malacca, which divides the island of Sumatra from Malaysia. Not only is Singapore at the southern end ‐ one of the great maritime ports of the world ‐ but it is not unfair to say that all the shipping moving between Asia and Africa and the Middle East and Europe travels through this increasingly narrow, 600-mile passage, either to or from Pacific countries.
Every year, 100,000 ships go through it. It is infested with pirates and criss-crossed by thousands of fishing boats every day. If you look at it on a chart, it may seem wide, but the passable channel for big ships is only a couple of miles wide, and again, clogged with fishing boats. It's not fun to navigate, but it is thrilling.
Tokyo Bay or "Tokyo Wan" is like that. Yes, the area off the coast of Japan where the USS Fitzgerald collision took place on June 17 is more wide open than the Wan itself, but just like the approaches to Norfolk, Boston, or Los Angeles, dozens of ships are approaching at any time, all heading for a very narrow entrance channel, all on tight schedules. Think of it as a funnel necking down to the shipping channel that goes into the port. Outside the shipping channel, which has strict rules, the mouth of the funnel is the Wild West for ships coming and going. It can be challenging during the day, but at night it can be frightening.
Posted by: Frank G ||
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#1
When they don't change their pace or pay attention to warning lights, pedestrians in the crosswalk get hit by ambulances.
#2
It is infested with pirates and criss-crossed by thousands of fishing boats every day.
I used to have an office overlooking the Singapore Strait. The big ships keep to their channel and spacing, and it's up to the small boats to avoid them. Plenty of smaller boats. Not too many pirates though.
One or both ships weren't where they were supposed to be.
#4
If the problem truly is bad they should set up sea traffic controllers (like air traffic controllers) to monitor and give commands to ships to avoid collisions in these congested areas.
I suspect the problem is exaggerated in the article though as we actually don't hear about collisions all that often despite the crowded conditions so I suspect something else was in play. Perhaps a discussion about missing strawberries or something.
#5
There are specific rules of the road designed to prevent collisions at sea. The have been in place in their present form since I was on active duty in 1972. They're not perfect, but cover a wide variety of situations - open water, restricted waters, sailboats vs. power vessels, ships broken down in a channel, what to do if the other ship isn't following the rules. Etc.
In almost every collision, a board of inquiry is called to determine fault.
In the US Navy, no matter what the board determines, the CO's career is effectively over. If the board finds that the CO is at fault, even indirectly, it is definitely over.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/14/2017 11:07
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#6
The Captain was immediately removed to controlled medical confinement for his injuries. Now he's been relieved, for treatment(Detox?).
#10
The Fitzgerald, an Arleigh Burke–class destroyer, even when going at flank speed can stop dead in the water inside of her own length, 505 feet
*Wow*, the sounds the propellers and engine plant must make when they go from Ahead/FULL to Reverse/Emergency must be amazing, as in passive Sonar can hear you in the next ocean amazing. Also there is Yard time in your near future...
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State elements were killed during their attempt to cross the Tigris River from the Old City of Mosul, Nineveh police said.
“Police forces managed to kill a Saudi and Chechen IS elements while they were attempting to cross the Tigris River to the eastern side of the city,” Wathiq al-Hamadani, Nineveh Police chief, told Bas News.
“The forces also killed the IS booby-trapping official, Amer Saleh Ibrahim, in the Nineveh Plains area while he was crossing the river,” he added.
Al-Hamadani noted that the security forces are deployed around the banks of the Tigris River to kill the remnants of the group who are still hiding in Mosul’s Old City and other areas.
Security forces had arrested several IS members hiding among migrating civilians in both the eastern and western sides of Mosul. Western officials warned that IS will try to launch attacks after losing their last stronghold in Mosul last Monday.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, declared on Monday victory in the city of Mosul over IS, ending an eight-month campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces.
The victory in Mosul ended an eight-month campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A police officer and three soldiers were killed while handling Islamic State suicide bombers in a liberated western Mosul district, an informed security source said.
“Five IS militants, wearing suicide belts, sneaked into al-Tanak district, south of Mosul, and hide in three houses,” Cap. Ammar Ali al-Seraji, of the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response forces’ intelligence department, told Anadolu agency on Thursday.
“As security troops besieged the houses, where the militants were hiding, clashes began. One of the attackers was able to blow himself up, causing death of a lieutenant general officer and three other soldiers.” Seraji added. Troops were then able to kill the four other attackers.
Situation at Tanak, according to Seraji, is under control. The district has been retaken from IS more than two months ago.
On Monday, Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi declared victory over IS in Mosul, which marked the end of the group’s self-styled “caliphate” established in 2014.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
More than 700 Iraqis were killed and wounded during the month of June as result of violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) which excludes security members deaths.
Tal Afar (IraqiNews.com) A famous British sniper fighting for the Islamic State was killed by anonymous attackers west of Mosul, a local source was quotes saying.
Alsumaria News quoted the source saying that Abu Moussa al-Muhajer was killed, while an Australian companion was wounded when unknown ugnmen shot at them on the outskirts of Tal Afar, one of the group’s largest remaining havens in Iraq.
The pair was running a security patrol on a highway in the town, according to the source.
“Abu Moussa al-Muhajer gained his fame from his sharp remote sniping skills, which earned him the ‘sniper of the caliphate’ title,” the source said.
He added that there were between 20 and 30 British nationals fighting for the Islamic State in Tal Afar, some of whom fill senior ranks within the group.
IS held Tal Afar since 2014, when it took over Mosul and declared it the capital of its self-styled “caliphate”. Operations by pro-government paramilitary troops have so far isolated the enclave from the Syrian borders and from Mosul. It is a main target for the next Iraqi government operations against IS.
Tal Afar has seen occasional, mysterious killings of IS militants, with reports recurrently telling of serious divisions within the group’s members there.
On Wednesday, Hakem al-Zamili, chairman of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said Iraqi forces killed 28000 out of 30.000 foreign Islamic State fighters since mid 2013. His comments came two days after Iraq’s political and military leadership announced victory over IS in Mosul.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State elements were killed during their attempt to cross the Tigris River from the Old City of Mosul, Nineveh police said.
“Police forces managed to kill a Saudi and Chechen IS elements while they were attempting to cross the Tigris River to the eastern side of the city,” Wathiq al-Hamadani, Nineveh Police chief, told Bas News.
“The forces also killed the IS booby-trapping official, Amer Saleh Ibrahim, in the Nineveh Plains area while he was crossing the river,” he added.
Al-Hamadani noted that the security forces are deployed around the banks of the Tigris River to kill the remnants of the group who are still hiding in Mosul’s Old City and other areas.
Security forces had arrested several IS members hiding among migrating civilians in both the eastern and western sides of Mosul. Western officials warned that IS will try to launch attacks after losing their last stronghold in Mosul last Monday.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, declared on Monday victory in the city of Mosul over IS, ending an eight-month campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces.
The victory in Mosul ended an eight-month campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/14/2017
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Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) An Islamic State militant has killed three of his companions after he took drugs in east of Salahuddin province, a local source said Thursday.
AlSumaria News quoted the source as saying that “IS member killed three of his companions in the vicinity of Mutaibija, in east of Salahuddin after taking drugs, called pink pills.”
“The accident is the second of its kind this month,” the source, who preferred anonymity, said. “The pink pills are widely spread among IS fighters. The pills can make the militants fearless, thus they are highly used ahead of any armed attack.”
Occasional attacks have been witnessed in Mutaibija by Islamic State against government and paramilitary troops deployments since Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and PMUs, launched a major offensive to retake areas occupied by IS since 2014,
News reports earlier this month mentioned that IS emir in Makhoul was killed along with his brother, while three other militants were wounded as an armed militant shot them after taking the pills, which turn them to drug-crazed killing machines.
Last Friday, a local source told AlSumaria News that the group detained in Hawija, southwest Kirkuk, one of its prominent doctors, who promotes for the pink pills.
IS holds pivotal regions that link between each of Diyala, Salahuddin and Kirkuk, posing threats to the liberated regions.
[ARA News]. Militants of the Jaish Khaled, a Syrian armed group loyal to the Islamic State (ISIS), has executed a Syrian man on charges of apostasy, local sources reported on Thursday.
The radical group arrested the man in the Sahm town, in Syria’s southern Daraa province.
“He was executed by firing squad in front of dozens of people in Sahm on Thursday,” a local media activist told ARA News.
Pro-ISIS activists shared images on social media showing the execution.
The Jaish Khaled group had pledged allegiance to ISIS last year.
The group is in control of several towns and villages in the countryside of Daraa province.
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[AnNahar] U.S. military advisors are operating inside the city of Raqa, 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's last major bastion in Syria, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
The troops, many of them special operations forces, are working in an "advise, assist and accompany" role to support local fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces as they battle IS, said Colonel Ryan Dillon, a military front man.
The troops are not in a direct combat role but are calling in air strikes and are working closer to the fight than did U.S. forces supporting the Iraqi military in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... "They are much more exposed to enemy contact than those in Iraq," Dillon said.
He said the numbers of U.S. forces in Raqa were "not hundreds."
The operation to capture Raqa began in November and on June 6 the SDF entered the city.
With help from the U.S.-led coalition, the SDF this month breached an ancient wall by Raqa's Old City, where diehard jihadists are making a last stand.
Dillon said the coalition had seen IS increasingly using commercial drones that have been rigged with explosives. The jihadists employed a similar tactic in Mosul.
"Over the course over the last week or two, it has increased as we've continued to push in closer inside of Raqa city center," he said.
The U.S. military is secretive about exactly how big its footprint is in Syria, but has previously said about 500 special operations fighters are there to train and assist the SDF, an Arab-Kurdish alliance.
Additionally, Marines are operating an artillery battery to help in the Raqa offensive.
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[IsraelTimes] Sources say Ramallah government quietly suspended payments to families of 277 prisoners and ex-prisoners at the beginning of June
International pressure on the Paleostinian Authority to halt payments to the families of Paleostinians held in Israeli jails, including those convicted of deadly terror attacks, could trigger a political crisis, rights groups say.
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
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[Al Jazeera] The man accused of killing a woman and injuring 22 others by using his car to cut a three-block swath through the crowded sidewalks of New York's Times Square denied all charges related to the May attack, prosecutors said.
Richard Rojas, 26, pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to second degree murder, second degree attempted murder and first and second degree assault, prosecutors said.
Dressed in a beige jail uniform, Rojas mostly looked down at the defence table during his arraignment on Thursday in the May 18 melee.
Rojas, a Navy veteran, drove his Honda sedan down Seventh Avenue and made a u-turn, mowing down pedestrians on sidewalks before crashing, prosecutors said.
Alyssa Elsman, an 18-year-old woman visiting from Michigan, was killed, while 22 other pedestrians suffered various injuries, some serious.
Photographers snapped pictures of a wild-eyed Rojas after he climbed from the wrecked car and ran through the street waving his arms.
He later told police he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogen PCP.
According to prosecutors, Rojas said he wanted to "kill them all".
Rojas has several prior criminal cases. He pleaded guilty shortly before the crash to harassment in the Bronx after he was accused of pulling a knife on a notary in his home. He also had two previous drunken driving cases.
While serving in the Navy in 2013, he spent two months in a military jail, though records do not disclose the reason.
This was at the time reported to be an egregious case of attempted suicide by cop by a gentleman whose brief stint in the Navy did not cure the various problems he had before he enlisted. Why on earth he would claim to be innocent now is beyond my understanding.
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[PRESSHERALD] A Democratic state politician from South Portland faced sharp criticism Wednesday after suggesting in a Facebook rant that he would harm President Trump.
Maine Republicans were furious over the post by Rep. Scott M. Hamann and called on House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, to take action against him. Some, including Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage, said Hamann should resign.
He has removed the post from his Facebook page, but the Maine Republican Party made a copy before he did so. In the closing sentence, Hamann writes, "Trump is a half term president, at most, especially if I ever get within 10 feet of that (vulgar term)."
Hamann, who is serving his third term in the Legislature, also lashed out at Trump’s supporters and made reference to the president’s controversial statements about women and Republican U.S. Sen. John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. As an ordinary citizen he greased the infamous hookers peeing on the Obamabed in Moscow dossier in an attempt to smear President Trump... , a prisoner of war survivor who was held in Vietnam.
"He’s an admitted rapist," Hamann wrote of the president. "Would you be okay with leaving him alone in a room with your wife?"
Demi Kouzounas, chairwoman of the Maine Republican Party, issued a statement calling Hamann "unhinged and dangerous."
"Words cannot even begin to describe the level of revulsion I feel after reading Rep. Scott Hamann’s recent tirade that has come to light," Kouzounas said in a prepared statement. "Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this tirade is an implied death threat against our president."
In a prepared statement Wednesday, Hamann said he regretted the post.
"I regret my impulsive decision to post something aggressively sarcastic and inappropriate in a Facebook exchange with a childhood friend," Hamann said. "While the tone of the post was born out of frustration with the vile language currently surrounding politics, I should not have responded with the same language. This is not language I typically use, it does not reflect my personal values, and while misguided, it was intended to make a visceral point about the devolving political discourse in America."
Gideon’s spokeswoman, Mary-Erin Casale, said Gideon was on vacation and unavailable for comment Wednesday.
"The Maine Democratic Party does not condone this kind of discourse ‐ period," Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett said in a prepared statement. "Rep. Hamann’s comments were unacceptable and do not represent our values as a party. He has rightly apologized for them and removed the post."
Dave Watson, the resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service field office in Portland, said his agency had been made aware of Hamann’s comments. Watson said his office also was receiving phone calls from the general public about the post.
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#1
Dave Watson, the resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service field office in Portland, saidfrom his Lazy-Boy his agency had been made aware of Hamann’s comments.
[Ynet] A Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, court in the Gazoo Strip sentenced two Paleostinians accused of espionage on behalf of Israel on Thursday to death.
The Hamas Interior Ministry said that two Paleostinians, aged 32 and 53, were sentenced to death for "spying for the occupation" and a third sentenced to forced labor in perpetuity.
Lebanese army units raided the eastern border town of Arsal on Thursday and managed to arrest two suspects over terror links, sources told Al-Manar.
The first suspect is arms trafficker who observes the Lebanese army movements and has contacts with terrorists, security sources told Al-Manar.
The second suspect is an ISIL operative who took part in several battles against the Lebanese army, according to the sources.
Thursday raid comes just two days after the Lebanese army intelligence killed the mastermind of Ras Baalbek terrorist blasts along with otther two terrorists in a game-changing operation in Arsal.
Source: Al-Manar
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[Iran Press TV] The front man for pro-government Popular Mobilization Units, commonly by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, says the volunteer fighters will join army soldiers in counter-terrorism operations to liberate the last remaining areas in Iraq still controlled by the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... ISIS terrorists.
Ahmed al-Assadi stated on Thursday that his fellow fighters "will be a main partner in liberating Hawijah and all other krazed killer-controlled regions."
The town of Hawijah, located 45 kilometers west of the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... has been under the control of ISISmurderous Moslems since June 2014, when the turbans’ leader Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... declared his self-styled "caliphate."
Assadi’s remarks came only three days after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory over ISISbandidosholy warriors in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.
In the run-up to Mosul liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units had made sweeping gains against ISIS since launching the Mosul operation on October 17, 2016.
The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.
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[Iran Press TV] Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... has for the first time explicitly rejected a report from a corruption investigation that raised questions about the source of his family's wealth.
Sharif in a statement after meeting his cabinet in the Pak capital Islamabad on Thursday described the probe as "slander."
"The JIT report about our family businesses are the sum of hypotheses, accusations and slander," the statement read, adding, "Accusations amounting to billions are being made here but no wrongdoing has been proven."
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up by the Supreme Court to investigate corruption claims that surfaced following the Panama Papers leak, spent two months probing the Sharif family’s wealth and gave its finding to the court on Monday.
The JIT team comprised members of civilian and powerful military bodies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence ...the Pak military intelligence agency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir... agency (ISI).
The court will now decide how to proceed with the report and whether to call for a trial. There were also calls for Sharif to be disqualified.
The 254-page report alleges Sharif’s businesses alone are not enough to explain the family’s wealth, which includes flats in an upscale London borough.
Sharif has always denied any wrongdoing over his family allegedly using offshore companies to buy luxury flats in a posh London neighborhood, and said his family wealth was acquired legally.
Sharif, 67, has been defiant in his condemnation of the report that alleges his family's income from business was not large enough to explain its wealth.
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[AA.TR] Court documents filed in Canada on Thursday show that Omar Baby Face Khadr is fighting to have his assets remain under his control.
The Canadian-born Khadr recently collected CAN$10.5 million from the Canadian government for wrongful imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay.
Khadr’s court filing is in response to one filed earlier in the week by the widow of Sgt. Chris Speer and injured soldier Sgt. Layne Morris, who want Khadr’s assets frozen as they try to collect the $10.5 million.
An American court earlier awarded Tabitha Speer and Morris US$134 million in a wrongful death and injury suit against Khadr.
Khadr was 15 when he allegedly threw a grenade in Afghanistan that killed Sgt. Speer and blinded Morris in one eye.
Speer and Morris filed an injunction in a Canadian court last month in a bid to freeze Khadr’s assets so they could not be frittered away or hidden.
Khadr’s lawyer, Nate Whitling, said in the court filing there is "scant evidence" Khadr would hide or spend the money.
"The scant evidence offered in support of this pleading consists of double and triple hearsay statements drawn from the media and Wikipedia," Whitling wrote in the filing, Canadian media reported. "The hearsay now relied upon by the applicants is so vague and unreliable as to be of zero probative (evidential) value."
The Speer-Morris filing also requests that Khadr be made to provide an accounting of his assets. Khadr has not talked about the money because of a confidentiality requirement invoked in a clause in the settlement agreement with the Canadian government.
Speer and Morris also argued in the injunction that Khadr might give money to members of his family "who appear to be unrepentant supporters of violent holy warriors."
Whitling rejected that claim in his filing.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
Get the $10.5M from Khadr, and after designating the Canadian Court and government as a terrorist financier - seize the remaining $123.5M from Canadian assets in the US and complete the award.
Damascus (Syria News) Syrian rebels managed, on Thursday, to destroy a military headquarters belonging to the Syrian regime, in the Syrian Badiya, in the countryside of Damascus.
Qasioun News reported that the rebels destroyed the leadership and communications headquarters of the Syrian regime, located between Umm Remm and Kharbet Sees in the Syrian Badiya, after security forces from Martyr Ahmed Abdo Battalion and Jaish Usud al-Sharqiyah shelled the area using heavy artillery.
Large number of the Syrian government forces were either killed or wounded in the attack, while five military vehicles were destroyed completely, Qasioun News added.
Meanwhile, Russian warplanes carried out air strikes on the vicinity of Be’r al-Mahroutha, Sareyat Jalighm and Khebrat Fakka in the Syrian Badiyah, but no casualties were reported.
It is noteworthy, Syrian rebels managed in the last few days to retake several areas from the regime forces, backed by foreign militias, in the Syrian Badiyah.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi pro-government paramilitary forces destroyed an Islamic State convoy near the borders with Syria, the forces’ media service said Thursday.
Popular Mobilization Forces said through its media that troops destroyed a convoy of vehicles driven by Islamic State militants in al-Dahhaj village.
Mobilization leaders said in June their forces took control over the borderline with Syria, effectively trapping IS members inside Iraq, most notably at the town of Tal Afar, a major stronghold for the group which still awaits liberation. Clashing reports have been recurrent as for some mobilization groups passing beyond the Syrian borders to back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military against IS.
On Wednesday, mobilization troops, backed by army fighter jets, managed to repulse a violent attack by the IS on Hatra, southwest of Mosul, killing 17 militants” a security source told Shafaq News.“The militants used bicycle bombs driven by suicide bombers,” the source added.
Anadoly news agency quoted Col. Ahmed al-Jabouri, of Nineveh Operations Command, saying that 13 militants were killed in an attack against Jurn village, south of Mosul.
Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, regained control of Mosul last Monday, ending an eight-month campaign to bring down the heartland of the group’s self-styled “caliphate”.
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[Ynet] Report in Foreign Policy magazine claims agreement contains clauses to allay Israeli and Jordanian concerns of Iranian-backed forces, including Hezbollah, approaching their joint northern border.
The recent ceasefire agreement for southwestern Syria signed by the US and Russia which came into effect on Sunday also forbids foreign militias supported by Iran from operating in strategic areas in Syria adjacent to the Israeli border with Jordan, according to a report in the Foreign Policy magazine.
The agreement addresses, the report claims, Israeli and Jordanian demands that the Hezbollah terrorist organization and Iranian proxies and pro-Iranian militias be forbidden from approaching the border on the Golan Heights.
Former American diplomats however believe that enforcing such a restriction would carry extreme difficulties.
"The question is, who is going to enforce that? Is Russia going to take on the responsibility for telling Iran what to do?" Gerald Feierstein, a former US diplomat said to the Foreign Policy magazine. "Iranians are much closer to Assad’s position on the way forward in Syria than the Russians are."
Others however, are slightly more optimistic of the plan’s success. Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, for example, pointed to southwestern Syria’s relative calm--and the White House's influence among US-trained factions fighting Assad’s regime--as proof that it was a natural ground for US and Russian cooperation.
"I think it’s worth a try," Tabler told the magazine. "If we’re going to test something, this is a good place to test it."
Fred Hof, a former State Department special advisor, says stipulations in the agreement were inserted purely to allay Israeli concerns. These included, for example, demands to ensure that southern Syria would be off limits for fighters of ’non-Syrian origin,’ which would include Iranian troops and their proxies, along with forces linked with ISIS and other terror groups.
"This could be designed mainly to reassure the Israelis that these elements would not be operating in proximity to the Golan Heights," said Hof.
[AA.TR] At least 18 people were killed and 30 others injured in rain-related incidents in different parts of the country since Tuesday, taking the corpse count to 61 in past two weeks, an official said. Boy, it's a good thing this doesn't happen every year!
Since Tuesday, the highest number of casualties was reported in southwestern province of 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... , where seven people were killed, said Bilal Ahmed, front man for disaster management authority in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province.
Six people were killed in northeastern 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.... province, while five in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Bilal told Anadolu Agency.
Around 30 people including women and kiddies have also been injured in different parts of the country, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] Three suspected bad boyz were potted in an "encounter" with police and security forces in Quetta's Essa Nagri area on Friday night, DawnNews reported.
Police officials said that armed holy warriors opened fire on a police patrolling party in the area. In response, the coppers engaged the suspected terrorists, whereas, a heavy contingent of police and other law enforcement agencies immediately reached the spot.
After the encounter, the three suspected holy warriors were found killed, said police officials. Their bodies were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta.
The encounter was reported hours after four coppers were rubbed out by person or persons unknown in Quetta's Killi Deba area.
The gunnies opened indiscriminate fire at the police mobile while it was patrolling the area, Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdul Razzak Cheema had said.
Superintendent of Police Quaidabad Mubarak Shah was among the four martyred police personnel in what police said was an act of assassination'>assassination.
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Hawija (IraqiNews.com) ِA top chemical weapons expert with the Islamic State was found dead in southwestern Kirkuk, a local source was quoted saying Thursday.
Alsumaria News quoted the source saying that Abul-Baraa al-Iraqi, Islamic State’s top chemical weapons expert, was found mysteriously dead from an apparent murder inside his house in al-Askari district in Hawija town, southwest of the province.
Abul-Baraa holds a certificate in chemistry and was a former worker at the Iraqi army’s military industries agency until 2003, the source said. He joined al-Qaeda and later operated under Abu Mosab al-Zarqawi, deceased commander of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Abul-Baraa was a vital contributor to IS’s chemical arsenal. “He disappeared years ago as Baghdadi (IS’s supreme leader) transferred him to the Syrian city of Raqqa, IS’s central base there. “Nobody knows how he showed up in Hawija,” according to the source.
“Information from Hawija tell that the group kept mum on news of his death, and secretly laid him to burial next to other foreign IS fighters at the south of the town,” the source stated.
Hawija is still awaiting security offensives to drive IS members out.
Since Iraqi troops launched a campaign in October to retake Mosul, IS’s largest stronghold, the group lost thousands of its senior leaders in combat, while many were also reportedly killed by mysterious assailants amid growing speculations about division within the extremist group.
Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition leaderships had counted several instances where IS used improvised chemical weapons in their battles.
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[Al Jazeera] A police officer who stole a helicopter and fired on two Venezuelan government buildings appeared in public for the first time on Thursday night, defying a nationwide manhunt by showing up at a protest in the capital.
Except in videos posted on the internet, Oscar Perez hadn't been seen since he shocked the nation on June 27 by using a stolen helicopter to fire grenades and gunshots at the supreme court and interior ministry buildings. The government called it a "terrorist attack".
Perez spoke briefly to journalists at a Thursday night vigil to honour the more than 90 people killed during three months of demonstrations against Venezuela's government.
He urged Venezuelans to vote en masse on Sunday in a symbolic referendum being organised by the opposition to oppose President Nicolas Maduro's plans to rewrite the constitution. Perez said the vote should mark the start of a sustained street campaign to force the embattled socialist leader from office.
"It's the zero hour," Perez said as several masked youths looked on from behind. "The true way to pay respects to those who've died is for this dictatorship to fall."
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#1
For some reason I picture a muscle bound middle aged white guy with a thick Austrian accent as this Oscar Perez guy.
[IsraelTimes] New desalination project is part of wider plan to run water through pipeline from Red Sea down to Dead Sea; US envoy Greenblatt hopes it’s a ’harbinger of things to come’
Israel and the Paleostinian Authority on Thursday announced an agreement that will provide millions of cubic meters of drinking water to the Paleostinians from a desalination process.
While the Paleostinians made plain that the deal, brokered by US President Donald Trump
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[Libya Observer] Far-right activists affiliated to the Pan-European Identitarian Movement ‐ a vast network of nationalist, far-right, nativist and populist movements, from La Belle France, Italia, Austria and German had set sail on board a 40-meter-long ship called the C-Star towards the Libyan coast.
The operation organizers say that they have specific political dimensions aimed at pressing the Europeans to stop the flow of migrants colonists from Libya to the European land.
An amount of $ 91,000 has been raised in an online fundraiser campaign launched in mid-May as confirmed by the conductors.
The bully boy organization launched the operation under the slogan "Defend Europe" aiming to conclude a European binding agreement to send back all migrants colonists to Libya by force.
The ship has embarked from the African port of Djibouti on July 6 where it was leased, and is to be joined by a number of activists from Catania and Sicily before arriving in the Libyan waters on Sunday.
On the other hand, the French Justice Ministry said that it had received a complaint against the organizers of the operation on the grounds of possible disruption of relief work and racial incitement.
Currently, Brussels is making efforts to persuade Italia to retreat the threat of abandoning its obligations to receive immigrants colonists.
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As their symbol the Identitarian movement uses a yellow lambda sign, a symbol that was painted on the shields of the Spartan army and is supposed to commemorate the Battle of Thermopylae.
To avoid legal troubles, Generation Identitaire specified on its website it would “help” any migrant in distress it encountered before returning them to the African coastline. Failing to assist a person in danger is a civil and criminal liability in France, punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $100,000.
The drive was quite successful (“Defend Europe” raised around €65,000 in contributions, €15,000 more than its initial target), though the campaign did not go over well with the French public.
#6
...Failing to assist a person in danger is a civil and criminal liability in France, punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $100,000.
I would bet dollars to donuts that its NEVER been enforced in France's no-go zones.
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.