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Over 200 TLP activists booked under sedition, other charges in Rawalpindi
Today's Headlines
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 6: Politix
6 19:04 Silentbrick []
8 18:17 DooDahMan [1]
2 17:10 rjschwarz [2]
-Land of the Free
Northern California sheriff's star rises with relief roles
[AP] CHICO, Calif. (AP) ‐ Those who had fled a deadly Northern California wildfire were looking for answers at an evacuation center when Sheriff Kory Honea walked in. They jumped to their feet, clapped and cheered.

The Butte County sheriff came to watch a recent briefing by a state official, but as the public face of the force fighting the flames and bringing relief to those who lost everything, he’s a star attraction.

"He’s become larger than life," said Paradise Councilman Michael Zuccolillo, who stayed behind to help Honea evacuate the town of 27,000 as flames roared in Nov. 8. "He’s enormously popular."

Internet memes describing Honea as a hero are sweeping social media, including one saying his "calendar skips April 1 because nobody fools Honea." Residents of the predominantly rural and Republican-leaning region post hundreds of comments of support on the sheriff department’s Facebook page. National and international media outlets clamor for interviews.

The 48-year-old was already a well-liked and high-profile figure among many of the 220,000 residents of Butte County, a wooded region in the Sierra Nevada foothills that’s a destination for hunters and fishermen about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

That’s because the wildfire is the second major disaster in less than two years in which he’s had a major role. In February 2017, a spillway at the nation’s tallest dam threatened to collapse and send a torrent of water flooding into downstream communities.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/28/2018 03:37 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
The Afghan Commandos are taking a beating
[TheFreqMedia] When American SF units insert into a direct combat role, they bring more than air strikes,…they bring responsive logistic and medical evacuation support which inserts a degree of organization into the battlefield rhythm. When the Americans are absent from the fight, valuable units like Afghan Commando companies are inserted into situations where they are outnumbered, out-gunned, and unsupported. Part of the rationale behind the train-and-assist effort in Afghanistan was to prevent self-inflicted debacles like those mentioned above. NATO leadership has repeatedly said the training effort will take time and include many setbacks but it does not appear that time is on our side.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the Afghanistan Commandos have performed so well that the Taliban created their own version called the Sara Khitta — which is Pashto for Red Group or Danger Group. They are allegedly armed with captured American weapons, armored HMMWVs, night vision devices, and American tactical radios. The effectiveness of Sara Khitta units is questionable, Taliban photographs of these special warriors reveal a conspicuous lack of American weapons, radios or night vision gear. But facts don’t count; the perception of the Afghans is the only metric that matters. Their perception is the Sara Khitta is an elite force that does not require American supervision to fight well. Meanwhile the Afghan Commandos are getting their butts kicked when they deploy without Americans to provide fire support and adult supervision.
Posted by: newc || 11/28/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  saw the title and thought it was a snark on the article above about maybe czech and us troops beat an insider assassin to death.
Posted by: Spike Anginemble1227 || 11/28/2018 9:06 Comments || Top||

#2  The crux of the matter is here: When the Americans are absent from the fight, valuable units like Afghan Commando companies are inserted into situations where they are outnumbered, out-gunned, and unsupported.
So why does this keep happening?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/28/2018 16:48 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Update: Why Hezbollah Is in Argentina
[Clarion Project] Threat analyses of Middle Eastern terror organizations in Latin American countries are now focusing on why Hezbollah is in Argentina.

On November 15, 2018, two Argentine citizens were arrested in Buenos Aires for their suspected connections to Hezbollah. They were discovered in possession of weapons ‐ including a rifle, shotgun and a number of handguns ‐ as well as "credentials in Arabic and an image of the Hezbollah flag" along with evidence of travel abroad.

Just this summer, Argentina’s government initiated a first strike against a Hezbollah fundraising network in the Triple Frontier (the junction between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil), where one of Hezbollah’s cash cow operations engages in drug trafficking and money laundering.

In 2002, the Bush administration identified the Triple Frontier as a hotbed for terrorism finance activities that included Hezbollah. Counter-terrorism experts have identified the Triple Frontier as the most important Hezbollah base outside of Lebanon.

A key question surrounding this story centers around the question of why we’re seeing Hezbollah-specific activity in Argentina. Part of the answer includes the fact that Argentina hosts a large Lebanese expat community. Hezbollah’s staunch anti-Israel views are culturally welcomed in Argentina, which has its own complex history. Argentina became an anti-Semitic conclave after World War II, when many high ranking Nazis fled Europe and found safe haven in Argentina.

Notes from an acquaintance related to this previously posted Hez-Argentina article:

The Hezbollah, sponsored by Iran, is one of the most evil terrorist organizations in existence today. Obama,Clapper and Brennan said they were friendly sorta like you can keep your same dr in Obama care. I followed them closely from a few years after I departed Beirut, Lebanon in 1983 until 2013 when a three star former commander of Korea said it was illegal to follow them. So I left the intelligence community because it was a lie perpetrated by Obama. Note that Obama gave Iran almost a billion and a half dollars. Oliver North speculated that about one third of that large sum went to Hez. A significant uptick in terrorist attacks did occur against Israel, the US western militaries within 6-8 months after Iran had received the funds. Google Hezbollah and learn about the organization. We have them in the US. This article mentions they are probably in at least three other countries in South America. If you goggle it, you will discern that Hez is in every country in South America and in 95 per cent of Africa. They have been spreading through out the Caribbean in the last eight years. They are targeting Israel first and the US second.

As an afterthought Hez and Iran enabled Chavez to win the election in Venezuela in the late 90s. Then, the Hez began at least two flights a week from Beirut, Lebanon to Venezuela. The passengers, mostly un identified, were granted citizen status in Venezuela. Sadly, most of the passengers disappeared into the Caribbean and Fl. Several years after these flights commenced mosques began to proliferate in Fl and the Caribbean.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/28/2018 04:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


MSNBC: Some Members Of Caravan Want To Go Home After Being Denied Entry To U.S.
[Hot Air] Very strange. We’ve been told repeatedly that these are asylum candidates, people who had to flee their homes because their lives were at stake.

And yet, according to the left-wing cable network, dozens of them have opted to return to Central America upon realizing that they wouldn’t be admittedly quickly to the United States as part of some sort of work program they’d heard about.

What if, to borrow Geraldo Rivera’s Orwellian phrase, the refugees in this case are actually just "economic refugees"? I.e. illegal immigrants, looking for nothing more than better-paying jobs and eager to game U.S. asylum laws to gain entry, after which they’ll be released while they await their asylum hearing and then never be heard from again. Tony Lee of Breitbart notes that some caravan members haven’t been shy about confessing their motives.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/28/2018 03:12 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Very strange. We’ve been told repeatedly that these are asylum candidates, people who had to flee their homes because their lives were at stake.

Returning to their homes and almost certain death rice and beans. I blame Trump.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/28/2018 4:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Hope they tell all their friends back home how that mean old Donald Trump wouldn't give them asylum.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/28/2018 10:44 Comments || Top||

#3  It's a long way. Do they think that the people who helped get them to the border will help them go home?
Posted by: Iblis || 11/28/2018 11:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Who knew that being Political Pawns would be so... difficult?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/28/2018 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I did not know that pawns can go backwards.
Snark O'The Day
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/28/2018 16:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Political pawns dumped when no longer useful. Who could have seen that coming?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/28/2018 17:09 Comments || Top||

#7  #5 - Heh
Posted by: Frank G || 11/28/2018 17:59 Comments || Top||

#8  #5I did not know that pawns can go backwards.
Posted by: Alaska Paul

Do we have the Snark of the Day yet?
Posted by: magpie || 11/28/2018 18:35 Comments || Top||

#9  I vote for AP’s comment #5 as Snark of the Day!
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 11/28/2018 22:04 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
How Russian military intelligence organizes coups
[NewsRep] Bellingcat has uncovered the identity of a second Russia military intelligence officer involved in a failed 2016 coup d’état attempt in Montenegro. According to the British-based group, Vladimir Nikolaevich Moiseev is the second GRU officer (the first Russian military intelligence officer, Eduard Shishmakov, had been uncovered in the wake of the 2016 events). Both men are being hunted by Interpol and European law enforcement for allegedly organising the coup.
Russia, Regime Changes, Journalism, Ham radio...? Does TMEI offer distance learning ?
The botched coup was an attempt to stop Montenegro from joining NATO (it occurred one year before the crucial vote). It was scheduled for the day of the parliamentary elections. Besides the two GRU officers, the coup involved the Montenegrin pro-Russian opposition and numerous Serbs. And it’s just one more attempt by the Russian government to influence foreign political processes. The Kremlin’s attitude signals a complete disregard for democratic processes and, more importantly, an aggressive strategy toward its opponents. Moscow prefers to negotiate only with an upper hand. The invasion and illegal annexation of Crimea is a paragon of this strategy. The Russian military first occupied the province and then held elections to decide whether its citizens wished to join Russia.

According to Bellingcat, Moiseev is a Lieutenant Colonel with the GRU, the foreign military intelligence agency of the Russian military. Born in 1980, Moiseev finished his national service with the Russian army and then enrolled at Tyumen Military Engineering Institute, a program that specialises in military engineering programs, ranging from naval construction to signal encryption. Sometime after his graduation, he was recruited by the GRU. He subsequently joined a GRU Spetsnaz special operations unit and fought in the Ossetia-Georgian conflict and the Russia-Georgia War. Assuming the cover of a photojournalist, he then toured Europe for four years (2012-2016) before his involvement in Montenegro.
I'll take 'photo journalism and signals encryption' for $500. Alex.

Emphasis added

About the author:

STAVROS ATLAMAZOGLOU - Having completed his national service in the Greek army, serving with the 575th Marines Battalion and Army HQ, Stavros is pursuing his passion for history, international affairs, and words at the Johns Hopkins University. You will usually find him on the top of a mountain admiring the view and wondering how he got there.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/28/2018 04:01 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He subsequently joined a GRU Spetsnaz special operations unit and fought in the Ossetia-Georgian conflict and the Russia-Georgia War. Assuming the cover of a photojournalist, he then toured Europe for four years (2012-2016) before his involvement in Montenegro.

Related at Balkan Insight
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/28/2018 4:15 Comments || Top||

#2  And on it goes:

Salisbury Poisoning Suspects Linked to Alleged Montenegro Coup
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/28/2018 4:40 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 || 11/28/2018 13:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
The Abbottabad Archive and the Silence of the Chattering Classes
[Ricochet] Earlier this week, Mary Habeck — a military historian whom I first met some twenty-three years ago when she was an assistant professor and I, a visiting professor at Yale — came to Hillsdale to give a talk for our local Alexander Hamilton Society. Over lunch, she told me something that I did not know — which set my mind a-wandering. Just over a year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency posted online nearly all of the materials collected from Osama Bin Laden’s lair by the Navy Seals who effected his demise.

This is no small trove. There are tens of thousands of pages of material, and items in the collection spell out in detail Al Q’aeda’s dealings with the governments of Pakistan and Iran — among others.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/28/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  The chattering classes can't read Arabic & aren't interested in finding anyone to read this stuff to them.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/28/2018 3:51 Comments || Top||

#2  I raised the same questions about the trove of material found in Bosnia and that attended the trial in Chicago of Enaam Arnout. The trial occurred about two decades ago, and Arnout was a close associate of OBLaden and was present at the founding of Al Qaida in August 1988. I thought sure that some academic would find the trove fascinating and produce a book on the early AQ. No such luck.
Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889 || 11/28/2018 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 || 11/28/2018 13:50 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Why is murder by Iran, but not Saudi Arabia, permissible?
[Jpost] ....Nevertheless, the B.O. regime had no qualms about courting the mullahs, using the 2015 atomic accord and its $100-billion bail-out as an instrument to upend decades of U.S. foreign policy by shunning traditional Sunni allies in favor of Shiite Tehran. This was hailed, mind you, by the American media as the exploit of a visionary who was ushering in peace in our time.

Contrast this with the West's reaction‐save for United States 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...
‐to the grisly murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Most European powers immediately sanctioned the 18 people tossed in the slammer
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
in connection with the killing‐even as these same states refuse to blacklist 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...
's "military wing"‐while Germany and, ironically, Denmark suspended future arm sales to the kingdom.

Congressional Democrats, who near-unanimously backed Obama's embrace of Iran, are pushing for the same recourse with some even calling for the complete severing of ties to the House of Saud.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again...
the American media has essentially become a mouthpiece for Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
‐the world's foremost jailer of journalists‐by parroting his leaks despite the obvious attempt to leverage the crisis in order to weaken Riyadh, which, by happenstance, views The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
as a foe due to its support for the Moslem Brüderbund and close relations with Iran and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/28/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Can you say ValJar, kids? I knew ya could..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/28/2018 13:34 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
26[untagged]
5Houthis
4Sublime Porte
4Govt of Iran
3Islamic State
2Govt of Pakistan
2Hezbollah
2al-Nusra
2Govt of Iran Proxies
2Taliban
1Thai Insurgency
1Abu Sayyaf (ISIS)
1al-Qaeda
1Arab Spring
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Hamas
1Maute group (IS)
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2018-11-28
  Over 200 TLP activists booked under sedition, other charges in Rawalpindi
Tue 2018-11-27
  Somali Muslim Arrested for Attempting to Mow Down Jews With Car in Front of L.A. Synagogue
Mon 2018-11-26
  ISIS-K spokesman killed in Afghan Special Forces operation in Nangarhar
Sun 2018-11-25
  Federal officials close border into Mexico amid migrant protests
Sat 2018-11-24
  U.S. Airstrikes Kill 50 Al-Shabaab Jihadis in Somalia
Fri 2018-11-23
  Terror attack on Chinese Consulate in Karachi foiled; 2 policemen martyred
Thu 2018-11-22
  PA court sentences Palestinians to 15 years hard labor for selling land to Jews
Wed 2018-11-21
  US military says strikes killed over 30 suspected militants in Somalia
Tue 2018-11-20
  Daesh suffers devastating defeat as Syrian Army liberates entire Al-Safa region
Mon 2018-11-19
  Key Taliban commanders among 7 detained by Afghan Commandos in Takhar
Sun 2018-11-18
  43 civilians killed by anti-ISIS coalition strikes in east Syria
Sat 2018-11-17
  Taliban kill 30 policemen in Farah province
Fri 2018-11-16
  Saudi Arabia will BEHEAD Khashoggi killers
Thu 2018-11-15
  Maute brothers' teen cousin surrenders in Mindanao
Wed 2018-11-14
  Ceasefire Goes Into Effect In South Following Unprecedented Rocket Barrage

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