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Today: 70 articles and 235 comments as of 16:03.
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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Second ‘son of Hamas’ leaves terror group, exposing corruption, Turkish spy ring
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Acquitted US Navy Sailor Gallagher Gets Celebratory Tattoo
[Breitbart] Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher celebrated his acquittal Tuesday by having a picture of his wife’s eyes tattooed on his arm.

Photos of the tattoo were posted to the "Free Eddie Gallagher" Facebook page on Wednesday night. "So this happened," the caption under the photos showing the stages of the tattoo’s development says.

The tattoo depicts the eyes of Gallagher’s wife, Andrea, framed in the folds of an American flag. Reports state that she campaigned relentlessly for her husband’s acquittal after he was accused by junior SEALS in 2017 of stabbing a wounded ISIS fighter and shooting at civilians during a deployment in Mosul, Iraq.

President Trump on Wednesday tweeted his congratulations to the Gallagher family after the acquittal was announced.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/05/2019 05:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Goodness knows Chief Gallagher has earnt whatever legal celebration he wants. But also:

Gallagher will now have his rank reduced to an E6 paygrade and was sentenced to pay $2,697 monthly for the next four months. Gallagher also plans to retire in three weeks as he will reach the 20 year anniversary of his service, Fox News reported.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 7:01 Comments || Top||

#2  I predict a book in the near future, revealing how the SEALS have been sissified via social engineering.
Posted by: Kojo Snore9943 || 07/05/2019 7:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I think conservative minded 'experts' should be persuaded by those of us 'with means', to lobby and induce the DoD and Veteran Affairs to recognize an ailment called 'Mosul Fever', so that future Gallaghers can avail of the leeway.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/05/2019 7:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Anybody got a link to why he's being reduced in rank and having his pay tagged? You just can't do that administratively. Even a GO level Article 15 can be refused and a courts martial taken instead.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/05/2019 7:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Ref #4:. My guess, reduction and pay forfieture resulted from foto with him and dead enemy combatants.....on which he was convicted.

Absin, just a guess.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/05/2019 8:44 Comments || Top||

#6  that's what local media reported
Posted by: Frank G || 07/05/2019 8:52 Comments || Top||

#7  P2K,

He was courtmartialled - the 'abuse of corpse' charge was one of several that also included that unfortunate 'killed-a-mortal-enemy-of-our-nation-and-way-of-life-in-an-unapproved-manner' thing.

Myself, I was VERY surprised that the USN didn't make him (or at least try to) go back to jail for the four months anyways. You have got to believe that there are some seriously pi$$ed off Admirals out there today, and I was fully expecting them to get the last measure of revenge on Chief Gallagher.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 07/05/2019 8:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Unfortunately, I doubt we've seen the last of this fellow.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/05/2019 9:00 Comments || Top||

#9  ^Omorong?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/05/2019 9:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Mike, he had already spent 9 months in the brig and so it was considered "time served".
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/05/2019 9:39 Comments || Top||

#11  #8. ...You have got to believe that there are some seriously pi$$ed off Admirals out there today, and I was fully expecting them to get the last measure of revenge on Chief Gallagher. --Mike Kozlowski

Petty revenge by the Beltway Bandit Top Brass™ (i.e. high ranking officers bureaucrats in the Pentagon) that are still mad at SOCOM cutting into their influence peddling?
Posted by: magpie || 07/05/2019 11:13 Comments || Top||

#12  ...a nice little letter from the Commander-in-Chief in their personnel jacket about lacking confidence in their judgement might hasten retirement papers. Pour encourager les autres. They always have the lucrative 'consulting' jobs out there.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/05/2019 11:25 Comments || Top||

#13  Just like any good sailor would do to mark a significant event in his life...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 07/05/2019 11:40 Comments || Top||

#14  Petty revenge by the Beltway Bandit Top Brass

President Trump had already promised to pardon the chief after ordering him to be released from the brig, so it might well be that the rank reduction and fine will be made to go away.

Whether there will be requests for resignations preceding long-planned retirements to spend time with various families now that the court martial has completed its work is a different question. That’s what happened with the Mueller team...
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 13:15 Comments || Top||

#15  since a go fund me is started for everything why not start one too make up the difference in paythey want too takke away from this man.
Posted by: chris || 07/05/2019 13:22 Comments || Top||


Africa North
UN says Libyan guards reportedly shot at migrants fleeing air strikes
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
said on Thursday it had information that Libyan guards shot at refugees and migrants colonists trying to flee from air strikes that killed at least 53 people, including six children, in a migrant detention center.

A report from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said there were two air strikes late on Tuesday, one hitting an unoccupied garage and one hitting a hangar containing around 120 refugees and migrants colonists.

"There are reports that following the first impact, some refugees and migrants colonists were fired upon by guards as they tried to escape," the OCHA report said.

Bodies were still being recovered from the rubble, the report said, suggesting the corpse count could rise.

There are still about 500 people at the detention center at Tajoura, east of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, with four Nigerians set for release to the Nigerian embassy on Thursday and a plan for 31 women and kiddies to be sent to the UN refugee agency’s departures facility in Tripoli.

There was no comment from Libyan officials on the OCHA report.

Interior Minister Fathi Ali Bashagha said the Tripoli government was considering closing all detention centers for migrants colonists and releasing the inmates. Thousands are held alone in centers in Tripoli, the capital.

Libya is one of the main departure points for African migrants colonists fleeing poverty and war to reach Italia by boat, but many are intercepted at sea and brought back by the Libyan coasties, with the approval of the Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an Union.

The 53 dead was the highest publicly reported toll from an air strike or shelling since the Libyan National Army launched a ground and aerial offensive three months ago to take Tripoli, the base of Libya’s UN-recognized government in the northwest of the country.

"The number of civilian casualties caused by the conflict has almost doubled as the result of this single attack," the OCHA report said, a day after UN officials said the air strikes may have constituted a war crime.

The United Nations has repeatedly said Libya is not a safe place for rescued migrants colonists to be sent back to and has called for refugees and migrants colonists to be released and given safe shelter.

It has declined to directly criticize Italia for shutting its doors but said European states must help to resolve the conflict in Libya in order to stop people taking perilous sea journeys.

The center is close to a military base and an air strike on nearby Libyan government forces on May 7 injured two people in the center. Despite the risks, Libyan authorities had continued to transfer migrants colonists and refugees into the center, according to the UN report.

Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian special services are reported to have brought to Kyiv from behind the enemy lines (!) one of #MH17 suspects
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Self-proclaimed ‘commander of Islamic State Australia’ said 'we are terrorists': court docs
Follow up to this story from two days ago.
[SydneyMorningHerald] A 20-year-old man charged with planning a terror attack in the Sydney CBD proclaimed himself the "General Commander of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Australia" and created a stronghold in the Blue Mountains from which to conduct "guerilla-style" attacks, court documents allege.
He’s an ambitious little obscenity, to be sure.
"We are terrorists," Greenacre man Isaak el Matari allegedly told other "persons of interest" in the six months before his arrest on Tuesday.

Mr el Matari also sent money offshore to import firearms, firearm parts and TNT (explosives) into Australia, the court documents allege, and operated a contingent of IS fighters for an alleged terrorist attack.
These are not inexpensive hobbies. Where does a 20 year old lay his hands on so much lettuce?
He also allegedly amassed "American army clothes" for the Blue Mountains stronghold and bought a ticket to Islamabad via China from a Flight Centre branch in Penrith.

From there, police allege, he planned to sneak across the border into Afghanistan's Khorasan province described as an "ISIS enclave".

He "answered the call of war", the documents continue, and was "talking about sacrificing himself for the IS cause".

The 20-year-old remained in the cells during a brief mention of his case at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday morning.

Isaac el Matari’s matter was mentioned before magistrate Peter Feather, 48 hours after his dramatic arrest. He did not appear in court, with criminal lawyer Alistair Sinclair appearing on behalf of Mr el Matari’s solicitor Robert Stary.

Mr el Matari is charged with knowingly being a member of IS, doing an act in preparation for a terror attack and making plans contrary to so-called foreign fighter legislation.

Police said he planned to orchestrate terror attacks on central Sydney locations including churches, courts and cop shoppes, allegedly reaching out to contacts overseas for weapons.

Mr el Matari underwent a government deradicalisation program when he was returned from Leb last year.
That worked well...
Since then, police have continued to monitor his activities both in person and online.

Investigators allege they came across online threats to commit a terror attack, including on social media and encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Mr el Matari was arrested on Tuesday morning by officers from the Joint Counter Terrorism Taskforce at his Greenacre home.

At the same time, Sherlocks arrested alleged IS member Radwan Dakkak
...he would be the previously unnamed 23 year old, up for 20 years in the pen when convicted...
and alleged Centrelink defrauder Ahmed Tebya
...ditto aged 30...
as they raided homes in Canada Bay, Green Valley, Toongabbie and Chester Hill.
Hopefully the coppers picked up all the cell phones, laptops, and Alexas to be found for further analysis.

Police say that they don’t expect to make any further arrests.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Europe
German IS trial: Mother of tortured girl questioned in Munich
[DW] Nora T. is believed to have witnessed the agonizing death of her 5-year-old Yazidi daughter while they were both kept as slaves by a couple affiliated with "Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
" in Iraq in 2015.

German national Jennifer W. is on trial in Munich for the war crime of allowing the girl to die of thirst while she was chained up in 45-degree heat as a punishment for wetting the bed. Prosecutors have said that while Jennifer W.'s husband chained the girl, she did nothing to prevent the girl's death.

According to the Yazidi human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
group Yazda, it is the first trial worldwide based on charges involving crimes of IS members against the Yazidi minority.

The 47-year-old Nora T. is a key witness in the trial against 28-year-old Jennifer W., who is believed to have been involved with IS from September 2014 to 2016. In court, she wore a black jacket, white blouse, and black-rimmed glasses. She did not look at Nora T. or show any emotion, according to DW correspondent Matthias von Hein.

NORA T. UNSURE ABOUT HER DAUGHTER
Jennifer W. and her Iraqi husband, Taha A., an IS fighter, allegedly bought the Yazidi girl and her mother as household slaves in 2014. Jennifer W. allegedly served in an "anti-vice squad" for IS that patrolled parks in Fallujah and djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and forced women to adhere to IS' strict rules and regulations.
No innocent housewife was she.
Taha A. was arrested in Greece in May, shortly after Jennifer W.'s trial had started.

Nora T., who was dressed in black and wore a headscarf, looked distraught when she entered the courtroom, according to von Hein.

The 47-year-old cannot read and only attended school for four years. She spoke Kurmanji, a Kurdish dialect, which the interpreter seemed to be struggling with at times. Nora T. appeared to be unsure when asked questions about her daughter, at one point saying she could not remember when she was born.

When asked about her daughter's name, she said the daughter was called Rania, which was the name given to the girl by IS. On further questioning, she said the name was Rullah. When the judge asked if she had said "Reda," she said yes.

Judge Reinhold Baier took his time during questioning. He asked her about the traumatic events that had changed her life and the IS genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq. Nora T. was kidnapped in 2014 while trying to flee the advancing IS fighters, together with her three children. They were later separated in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Nora T. confirmed that she has two sons and a daughter, but added that she was not sure about her sons' whereabouts.
This article starring:
Jennifer W.
Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


The Grand Turk
Syrian businesses attacked in Istanbul as views harden against refugees
It’s time to go home.
[Rudaw] Violence broke out in a Syrian-populated area of Istanbul on June 29 after a Syrian boy was accused of verbally assaulting a Ottoman Turkish girl, local media reports. The incident highlights festering inter-communal tensions in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
, which hosts millions of Syrian refugees.

A group of Ottoman Turkish youths reportedly damaged several Arab businesses in the Syrian neighbourhood on Saturday night before police dispersed the crowd, arresting 18.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Erdogan says US refusal to deliver F-35 jets would be 'robbery'
[Rudaw] President His Enormity, 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. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
said it would be "robbery" for the United States to deny The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
the F-35 fighter jets it has bought, according to comments published on Thursday.

Turkey-US ties are under serious strain over Ankara's purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence system, which is due for delivery in the coming days.

In response, Washington has threatened to cancel Turkey's order of 116 F-35 fighter jets and kick it off the training and production programme, as well as wider economic sanctions.

"If you seek a customer, and a customer comes forward and makes payments like clockwork, how can you not give that customer their goods? This would be robbery," Erdogan was quoted as saying by Hurriyet daily.

He said Turkey had already paid $1.4 billion, while its defence industry has ploughed significant sums into the warplanes' production.

The acting US defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, wrote a letter to Ankara last month, warning that Ottoman Turkish pilots would be expelled from the US if the S-400 deal was not cancelled by July 31.

But after meeting his US counterpart Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan on Saturday, Erdogan said he had been assured there would be no sanctions.
"We lied"
Trump blamed the previous adminstration of Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
for failing to finalise a deal for Turkey to buy the American Patriot system instead of the S-400.

Turkey has previously said Russia offered a better deal including joint production.

In his latest comments, Erdogan said Trump's attitude was "praiseworthy".
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  The trouble with nano-violins is they're so easy to misplace......
Posted by: Clineque Forkbeard3092 || 07/05/2019 7:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Erdrogan really thinks he is a big boy on the world stage doesn't he
Posted by: chris || 07/05/2019 9:02 Comments || Top||

#3  He said Turkey had already paid $1.4 billion

That was only the 'setup and processing fee', Recep.

Maybe the check didn't clear.

Either way, non-refundable.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/05/2019 13:02 Comments || Top||

#4  come an get it bitch
Posted by: chris || 07/05/2019 13:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Erdrogan really thinks he is a big boy on the world stage

But if Allah truly loved him, as he so fondly believes must be the case, his neo-Ottoman sultanate would be quietly conquering the world even as we type.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 13:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Who's idea was this in the first place? It had to be germinating before Bath House Barry came along. I'm sure it wasn't Boosh's idea, it's way over his pointed head. Im'a guess DoS, the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin came up with this great idea.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/05/2019 14:55 Comments || Top||

#7  I see what you're asking but who initially thought it was a good idea too bring a muslim country into Nato? These have 2atoo be the most back stabbing pieces of shit on earth.
Posted by: chris || 07/05/2019 19:00 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Five more polio cases found in KP
[DAWN] Amid propaganda against the polio

...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
vaccine and refusal by parents to inoculate their children against the virus, five more polio cases in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were confirmed on Wednesday.

Not a single child out of the five victims had been vaccinated against the crippling disease during immunisation campaigns.

With the latest addition, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, including the newly merged tribal districts, shares 31 of the total 37 cases reported across the country so far this year, while Sindh and 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....

have reported three cases each.

In a sharp contrast, last year 12 cases were reported from across the country and only eight in 2017.

According to a notification of the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, three of the five children with polio virus hailed from Bannu district and two others from Torghar district.

In Bannu, wild polio virus was detected in stool samples of a two-month-old boy of Sardikhel union council, eight-month-old boy of Lewan UC and 27-month-old boy of Nasirkhel UC.

In Torghar, a 16-month-old boy and a four-year girl were tested positive for the deadly virus.

KP Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator retired captain Kamran Ahmed Afridi expressed grave concern over the persistent virus circulation in the province and the resultant increase in number of polio victims.

He claimed that the efforts put in by the KP government to eradicate polio from the region would not bear fruit unless parents understood that their decision to refuse polio vaccine not only demonstrated their indifference to children’s health but was also an expression of disregard to the national cause.

Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Shahbaz sees a ‘Hitler-like fascist’ in Imran
[DAWN] Prime Minister Imran Khan
... aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
has all the characteristics of Germany’s fascist
...anybody who's not a leftist...
ruler Adolf Hitler
...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days as a politician somebody doesn't like...
as he deprived the PML-N arrested MNA Rana Sanaullah of basic human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
in the Camp Jail in Lahore, says PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif
...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab...
"Prime Minister Imran Khan is a fascist and he has all the characteristics of Hitler. He destroyed the country’s economy, no businessman is ready to invest and flight of capital is being witnessed," Mr Sharif told the news hounds after meeting with the wife of Mr Sanaullah at his residence to show solidarity with the arrested party colleague here on Wednesday.

"Imran Niazi and his regime" were denying Rana Sanaullah medicines, appropriate food and even water, he alleged. "The desperate premier is stooping too low in vengeance and for political victimisation."

The Opposition Leader in the Nationally Assembly said Mr Sanaullah was a heart patient and his medication and health care was crucial.

He appealed to national institutions to make sure that medicines and proper food were made available to Mr Sanaullah.

"Sanaullah is not just a PML-N leader but a member of the most august institution of democracy," he said.

"Failed Khan boasts and sermonises on implementation of the rule of law like that of the state of Madina, but needs to be reminded that in the state of Madina suspects were never denied their rights. But Niazi ordered denial of [even] lifesaving medicines to Sanaullah," he said, and added if anything happened to Rana Sanaullah, `Imran Niazi’ would be held responsible.

Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1 
"Prime Minister Imran Khan is a fascist and he has all the characteristics of Hitler. He destroyed the country’s economy, no businessman is ready to invest and flight of capital is being witnessed," Mr Sharif told the news hounds...

Actually, the economy of Pakistan has been growing at a bit above the average world rate. Of course this is partly because the existing base is so low (about the 150th highest GDP). If Pakistan would demilitarize and reduce the funding of the Interservice Intel (ISI) it would help the economy a lot and if it would cease subsidizing the Madrassa infrastructure it would also help. Pakistan has benefited from contract manufacturing and will continue to do so unless they really mess up.
Posted by: lord garth || 07/05/2019 6:05 Comments || Top||

#2  It's usually the progress oriented, rational and disciplinarian leaders that are called 'Hitlers' nowadays. If you're called fascist or nazi or populist by someone like Shahbaz Sharif , chances are you're doing something right.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/05/2019 6:55 Comments || Top||

#3  It's usually the progress oriented, rational and disciplinarian leaders that are called 'Hitlers' nowadays.

Yes, but dear Imran Khan isn’t one of those. He’s a pretty (ok, was once pretty) former sports idol who spent lots of money becoming a political failure. That he is now prime minister over there only proves that Pakistan really is an intrusion into our universe of Bizarro World.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 13:51 Comments || Top||

#4  I meant it doesn't get any better than him over there. Oxford educated, suave and a celebrity who also managed to befriend the taliban and the generals.

The last decent PM they had was Madam Bhutto, who they killed.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/05/2019 14:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Pakistan, as a state itself shouldn't exist. It has no right to. It's just four provinces and some foreign territory that have been forcefully occupied by zealots and the contract to run it given to profiteers.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/05/2019 14:43 Comments || Top||


Polio eradication: Our culture is the biggest impediment
[DAWN] On, Oct 15, 2018, after eight long years, I walked out of the Pakistain Polio Programme and took up a political office. I had been appointed the prime minister’s focal person on polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
eradication.

The question ‐ why do we continue to have so many un-vaccinated children (referred to as 'missed children') despite successive years of ambitious vaccination campaigns across the country ‐ had challenged me since my days in the eradication programme.
It's Allan's will
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Neh, the fact that you think of your habits as culture is the biggest impediment.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/05/2019 8:37 Comments || Top||


'ArrestAntiPakjournalists' tops Twitter trends in Pakistan
[DAWN] A hashtag calling for the arrest of journalists briefly became the top Twitter trend in Pakistain on Thursday, deepening concern over a shrinking space for dissent in the country.

The hashtag #ArrestAntiPakjournalists had dropped to second place by evening, but not before it had been used or forwarded more than 28,000 times.

Many users accompanied it with a composite photograph of prominent journalists and TV anchors, some of whom regularly criticise the ruling Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) of Prime Minister Imran Khan
... aka The Great Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer...
and the powerful military establishment.

"These are the people who are responsible for chaos, anarchy, manipulation. They are the real enemy of the states," said one tweet.

"Hang them all #ArrestAntiPakJournalists," said another.

Criticism of the country's powerful security establishment has long been seen as a red line for the media, with journalists and bloggers complaining of intimidation tactics including kidnappings, beatings, and even killings if they cross that line.

Last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a report that the military has "quietly, but effectively, set restrictions on reporting", although it denies doing so.

Shahzad Ahmed, of digital rights group Bytes for All, said the hashtag appeared to have been "planted" by pro-PTI accounts and was not "genuine public opinion".

"There are organised groups who start such trends... which is a very dangerous phenomenon in our country, regarding freedom of expression and personal freedom," he told AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Iraqi PM Takes a Gamble with Move on Iran-Backed Militias
Militia factions armed with tanks and heavy weapons are present in almost every Iraqi province, in many cases deeply embedded in local governance and rivaling state institutions. Together, they are believed to number more than 140,000 fighters.
[AnNahar] The Iraqi government's move this week to place Iranian-backed militias under the command of the armed forces is a political gamble by a prime minister increasingly caught in the middle of a dangerous rivalry between Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and the U.S, the two main power brokers in Iraq.

Facing pressure from the U.S. to curb the militias, the move allows Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to demonstrate a tough stance ahead of a planned visit to Washington, expected to take place in the coming weeks. It is unlikely, though, that he would be able to rein in the powerful Iran-supported militias, and he risks coming off as a weak and ineffective leader if he doesn't.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


How Iraqi-Iranian militias’ arms trafficking networks bypass US sanctions
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The recent US sanctions on the Iraqi-based South Wealth Resources Company (SWRC) have shined a light on how Iranian-backed militias are continuing to receive arms legally despite sanctions. The SWRC, which was sanctioned for smuggling arms worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraqi militias linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), is just one of many Iraq-based companies circumventing US sanctions using legal cover.

IRGC-linked armed militias across the region have defied US sanctions by using a financial network consisting of hundreds of companies that claim to work in general trade, exchange, money transfer, agriculture, industry, and construction. According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan policy institute, there are at least 667 companies that are influenced by the IRGC, either through equity shares or positions on the board of directors.

HOW DO THESE COMPANIES OPERATE?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies

#1  Its a foolish man (company, state, national entity) that bets against the U.S. Treasury.
Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889 || 07/05/2019 10:02 Comments || Top||


Destroyed by ISIS, 'Lion of Mosul' now showcased as 3D print
It turns out erasing the past is a lot harder when it’s been crowd sourced.
[Rudaw] A 3D-printed version of the Lion of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
statue was showcased by London’s Imperial War Museum, on Wednesday, in collaboration with Google.

The statue, a colossal Assyrian guardian lion from about 860 BCE, was destroyed by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) while it was on display at the Mosul Museum in 2015, along with much of the museum’s contents.

The reconstruction of works destroyed by ISIS forces of Evil has been a point of arts and heritage focus for some years now. Beginning in 2015, a campaign called ’Project Mosul’, cyber-archaeologists and volunteers took to 3D imaging to re-create works of art that would otherwise be lost.

The destruction of ancient artifacts, some millennia-old, would often be depicted in ISIS propaganda videos as part of an offensive on ’idolatry’.

Other artifacts were looted by the group and sold on the black market as a source of income to fund their atrocities. Many of these antiquities have yet to be recovered.

The display of printed versions of artifacts is significant because "it's showing how technology and how the public can contribute to recovering cultural heritage when it's destroyed. And this is part of what the exhibition talks about," says Tamsin Silvey, Cultural Programme Curator at Historic England.

The exhibition, entitled ’What Remains,’ opens on Friday, 5 July and runs for a six-month period.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Children, women held in 'degrading' Iraqi detention facilities: HRW
[Rudaw] Iraq is holding thousands of people at Nineveh’s overloaded internment facilities in conditions so ’degrading’ that they amount to ’ill-treatment’ - including children held on juvenile terrorism charges, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
How can we be sure they aren’t referring to the facilities Barack Obama’s administration set up at the Mexican border?
"Conditions at the Nineveh pretrial detention facilities are unfit to hold detainees for extended periods of time and do not meet basic international standards. Holding detainees in such conditions amount to ill-treatment," HRW reported.

The province of Nineveh is home to three detention facilities ‐ Tal Kayf, Faisaliya and Tasfirat ‐ that have the capacity to accommodate 2,500 inmates at best, but are currently housing nearly 4,500 detainees, according to the report by the rights group.

Photos of juvenile and women cells published by HRW show severe overcrowding in these facilities where inmates are not provided enough space to ’lie down’ or ’sit comfortably.’

Prison conditions in Nineveh are so bad that even "Lawyers do not have access to the prison to visit their clients ‐ among other reasons, because there is no space for meetings."

Allegations of abuse in Iraqi detention are far from new. HRW published a 52-page report in March 2018 estimating Iraqi and Kurdish authorities were holding 1,500 children suspected of ties with ISIS. The report alleged that children suspected of ties with the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) had been denied access to relatives and legal representation, and tortured to elicit confessions of ISIS membership "regardless of their actual level of involvement with the group," HRW children’s rights advocacy director Jo Becker said.

Advocacy groups have accused the Iraqi government of keeping suspects in overcrowded cells with no access to lawyers. Cells built to hold around 20 detainees are often packed with 50, a source working in the jails told Agence La Belle France-Presse (AFP) in May, and prisoners are often caught smuggling phones or passing on information during family visits, especially to their wives.

In its latest report, HRW urges the Iraqi government to "ensure that detention before trial is the exception, not the rule, and only applied on an individual basis where it is necessary."

"The authorities should ensure that there is a clear legal basis for detentions, that all detainees have access to legal counsel, including during interrogation, and that detainees are moved to facilities accessible to government inspectors, independent monitors, relatives, and lawyers, with regular and unimpeded access.

Judges should order the release of detainees if there is no clear legal basis for holding them or if the government cannot fix the inhuman or degrading conditions in which they are held," the report added.

Iraq's government has declined to provide figures on detention centres or prisoners, including how many are facing terrorism-related charges, although some studies estimate 20,000 are being held for purported ISIS links.

Some facilities have shut down in recent years, including the Abu Ghraib complex that became infamous for prisoner abuse during the US-led occupation.

Others were rocked by riots and prison breaks that allowed detainees accused of "terrorism" to escape.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
80% of Palestinians believe Arabs have abandoned them, poll shows
[Jpost] A vast majority of Paleostinians believes that the participation of Arab countries such as Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, Egypt, and Jordan in last week’s US-led "Prosperity to Peace" economic workshop in Bahrain signifies an Arab abandonment of the Paleostinians, according to a public opinion poll published on Thursday.
Nahhh they're just tired of your shit, like the rest of civilization and God
While 80% of Paleostinian respondents supported the Paleostinian Authority’s call for boycotting the Bahrain workshop, a similar percentage viewed the participation of Arab countries as an abandonment of the Paleostinian cause.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:11 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  What ? Only 1200 paleostinians left ?! God hasten the day.

Iran supports them. Iran will fight the Israelis down to the last Paleostinian if need be.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/05/2019 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Iran is mostly non arab.

but really many, maybe most ordinary Persians detest arabs.
Posted by: lord garth || 07/05/2019 5:17 Comments || Top||

#3  They aren't the only ones that detest Arabs.
Posted by: Kojo Snore9943 || 07/05/2019 7:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Many of the Arab countries have found that hosting Palestinians is like stuffing scorpions down your pants. The Kuwaitis had lots of jobs for them -- until the Palestinians formed a fifth column for Saddam's invasion, then they expelled every Palestinian. I believe the Iraqis did the same after Saddam's removal.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/05/2019 8:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Mohammedans play the same rayciss game as light skinned blacks against dark skinned. And add 2700+ minor variations in sect to the mix and you have a royal mess.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/05/2019 9:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Actually the Arabs abandoned them in 1948 if you go back and study some history of the founding of Israel
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 07/05/2019 9:37 Comments || Top||

#7  except that before 1948, both the Jews and non Jews of what is now Israel were considered Palestinians

e.g., the Palestine Symphony Orchestra of the 1930s
Posted by: lord garth || 07/05/2019 10:58 Comments || Top||

#8  The Arabs are facing a regional threat from Iran. Israel is also an identified enemy of the Iranians. Which party offers more to the security of the Arabs against the Iranians, Palestine or Israel? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/05/2019 11:30 Comments || Top||

#9  the trash of the middle east. that's saying alot
Posted by: chris || 07/05/2019 19:05 Comments || Top||


Second ‘son of Hamas’ leaves terror group, exposing corruption, Turkish spy ring
Life gets ever more interesting.
[IsraelTimes] Suheib Yusef, son of Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, co-founder and brother of ’Green Prince’ who secretly worked for Shin Bet, opens up to Israeli TV after also fleeing group; urges his father to resign.

It isn’t every day that a Hamas member turns his back on the terror organization, flies to Southeast Asia and decides to expose the corruption and inner workings of its operations in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
in an interview with an Israeli TV journalist.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/05/2019 00:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  show this guy at the next AIPAC meeting

show it at the Republican convention

show it on Fox News

Posted by: lord garth || 07/05/2019 1:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran says ‘active resistance’ is an antidote to Trump’s warnings
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
said on Thursday that "active resistance" was an antidote to US President Donald Trump
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election...
’s warning over Tehran’s commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, state TV reported.

"By exiting the nuclear deal, Trump has maimed the path of diplomacy ... the best antidote to all threats is active resistance," said front man of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Keyvan Khosravi.

"Iran is determined to go ahead with its plan to further scale back its nuclear commitments under the deal."

Earlier on Thursday, state news agency IRNA reported that Iran’s intelligence minister said Tehran and Washington could hold talks only if the United States ended its sanctions and Iran’s top authority allowed the talks between the arch foes.

Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Iran summons British ambassador in Tehran over "illegal seizure" of Iranian oil tanker
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 07/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
8Islamic State
5Taliban
4Govt of Pakistan
3Moslem Colonists
3Commies
2Govt of Iran
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1Houthis
1Palestinian Authority
1Sublime Porte
1Baloch Liberation Army
1al-Nusra
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1Haqqani Network
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2019-07-05
  Second ‘son of Hamas’ leaves terror group, exposing corruption, Turkish spy ring
Thu 2019-07-04
  Wishing all Rantburgers a happy and safe Independence Day!
Wed 2019-07-03
  Airstrike hits migrant detention center in Libya, 40 killed
Tue 2019-07-02
  Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher found not guilty on murder and attempted murder charges
Mon 2019-07-01
  Seven Sudanese protesters killed, 181 wounded in Sunday demonstrations
Sun 2019-06-30
  Journalist Assaulted By Antifa/Portland - Face, Neck, Ear Injuries
Sat 2019-06-29
  Three Soldiers Killed in Philippines' Restive South, ISIS claims attack
Fri 2019-06-28
  57 Taliban militants including 10 Pakistanis killed in Ghazni clashes, airstrikes
Thu 2019-06-27
  Suicide bomber in Tunisia kills at least one, state TV reports
Wed 2019-06-26
  Saudi Special Forces capture emir of ISIS in Yemen
Tue 2019-06-25
  Ethiopia security forces kill alleged coup leader
Mon 2019-06-24
  Trump calls on China, and the world, to protect their own ships from Iran
Sun 2019-06-23
  Army chief shot dead in coup attempt in Ethiopia
Sat 2019-06-22
  Libyan army forces enter Tripoli Airport, seize major positions from Haftar's forces
Fri 2019-06-21
  Niger Says 18 IS Fighters Killed in Joint Operation with U.S.

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