[UPI] Two juveniles have been charged with starting the historic wildfires that killed more than a dozen people in Tennessee this month, authorities said Wednesday. Investigators said the teenagers were jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! and charged with aggravated arson. Neither their names, ages or genders were disclosed, though.
The fires were Tennessee's worst in decades and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes and other structures. At least 14 people died and 150 were hurt as the result of the fires in Sevier County, the center of which is the resort town of Gatlinburg.
It wasn't clear whether the teens might face additional charges, such as murder or manslaughter, although prosecutors could try them both as adults.
"Everything is on the table," prosecutor James Dunn said.
Dunn added that the juveniles are residents of Tennessee, but not Sevier County.
Tennessee officials do not reveal criminal records of juveniles unless it involves serious charges, like murder or rape. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... if the case is sent to criminal court, the records will become public.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2016 00:00 ||
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Heavy fighting between pro-Islamic State (IS) militants and Somalia’s Puntland state forces for the control of the port town of Qandala has displaced 25, 700 people since late October, a UN body said Wednesday.
ISIS wouldn't mind a port town -- makes resupply from their backers easier...
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said a majority of the displaced were women, children and the elderly, adding that most of the displaced had moved to surrounding villages, while others have sought refuge in Bossaso, 75 kilometers from Qandala.
Meanwhile, a Punland state official said their forces took control of the northern Somali town from the militants earlier on Wednesday.
“Humanitarian partners and local authorities are concerned that the situation will deteriorate further if the displacement becomes protracted,” the OCHA said in its report.
Puntland forces on December 3 launched the operation to retake the northern Somali town, which was taken by the pro-IS group on October 26. Local residents reported fighting between the two sides near the town in the past days.
The OCHA said some 3,000 people had been newly displaced since December 3. It also said all humanitarian activities in the area had been suspended. However, Puntland authorities have called on residents displaced from the town to return to their homes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2016 00:00 ||
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After Tuesday’s euphoric victory celebrations, those Bunyan Marsous fighters who are not heading home, at least for some leave, have settled down to sorting through the wreckage of the former IS terrorist stronghold of Sirte.
There are different figures for the number of bodies, including women and children, found among former terrorist positions. The Red Crescent said that it had identified 230 corpses that were clearly those of terrorist fighters. It has also discovered 36 other bodies. Some of these were in an advanced state of decay, suggesting that they had been dead for some time.
However the BM operations room has said that 483 bodies had been recovered. The discrepancy may be explained in part because engineers are still combing buildings for mines and booby traps. These men might have found more dead in areas which are still closed off to the Red Crescent teams.
It has become clear that in the final hours of the eight month battle, individual BM fighters were still prepared to run the proven danger of female suicide bombers by bringing civilians to safety, sometimes running in view of the enemy, carrying terrified children and babies. One picture shows a man holding up his hands to his comrades begging them not to fire as he leads a black-garbed woman out of the rubble. The woman’s face is uncovered, showing that she is gaunt and distraught. Some 100 women and children are reported to have been discovered in the final three days of fighting.
It remains unclear how many IS men were captured alive. Numbers range between seven and twenty. There was a report on Wednesday that a wounded terrorist blew himself up as he was approached. None of the BM men who had found him was injured.
Presidency Council chairman Faeiz Serraj called a meeting of BM commanders yesterday where he congratulated them on their victory.
Attention now turns to Sirte’s population, once 90,000 strong, and their return to their shattered town. Large areas have suffered substantial damage and the Ghiza district where the terrorists made their final stand is utterly destroyed.
UNSMIL and the international community have been pressing the PC for an immediate start on rebuilding both Sirte and those districts of Benghazi also devastated in anti-terrorist fighting. Given its current lack of funds even for state salaries, this may be difficult for the Serraj government to do. Besides, one de-miner heading to the area commented earlier this week that the town and its surrounding area could take many months to be clear of unexploded ordinance.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/09/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
Britain will help Gulf states "push back" against aggressive regional actions by Iran, Prime Minister Theresa May told the Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain on Wednesday in a televised address.
"We must... continue to confront state actors whose influence fuels instability in the region," May told Gulf leaders at the summit. "So I want to assure you that I am clear-eyed about the threat that Iran poses to the Gulf and to the wider Middle East."
She added: "We must... work together to push back against Iran's aggressive regional actions."
May said she wanted a "strategic partnership" to help boost security in Gulf countries, including defence investment and military training in Bahrain and Jordan.
The prime minister also spoke about discussions to improve trade ties with Gulf countries as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.
"I want these talks to pave the way for an ambitious trade arrangement" after Brexit, she said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Europe's border agency Frontex on Wednesday announced the launch of a rapid response unit to be deployed to the EU rim to cope with migration emergencies.
The "rapid reaction pool" will comprise 1,500 guards, including finger-scanning and nationality screening experts, Frontex said in an online statement.
The Warsaw-based EU agency described the new move as "a significant milestone in the development of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency", which was only created in October.
"Today we have gained a powerful tool that will allow Frontex to assist member states and together deal with emergencies at EU's external borders much more quickly and efficiently," said Frontex executive director Fabrice Leggeri.
The new officers will be provided by EU member states and Schengen associated countries.
"In a crisis situation, they will be put at the immediate disposal of Frontex, which can deploy them within five working days," the agency added.
Those officers will boost the existing 1,200 Frontex personnel deployed on the EU's external borders helping member states register and identify migrants colonists.
Member states have also agreed to make available technical equipment including vehicles, vessels and aircraft.
Germany currently provides the most officers to Frontex with 225, while La Belle France (170), Italia (125), Spain (111) and Poland (100) are also heavily involved.
#2
...The only problem with this is that the EU has a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong history of creating "special" units/forces/groups/mobs of random bureaucrats that either A)never seem to actually GET formed, B)get funded, or C) get used. Let us know how it works out, 'kay?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/09/2016 5:51 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yep, Mike.
When minutes count the EU is only days away. This sounds like a CF from the start.
Any definition about what would constitute a crisis?
Because tossing an anvil to a drowning man is a really clever way to save him.
[AlAhram] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's executive said on Thursday that member states should be allowed to send some asylum-seekers back to Greece from mid-March, in a step Brussels hopes will help restore the bloc's migration policies, which collapsed under a mass influx last year.
Under EU rules, the first country of entry is responsible for handling an asylum claim, but that system broke down last year in Greece, the main gateway to Europe for more than a million refugees and migrants colonists.
Unable to cope, Greece let many of them pass through on their own to Germany and other wealthy EU states in defiance of the bloc's rules. That led countries along the route gradually to close their borders, stranding many in Greece, which struggled to offer them proper shelter.
The European Commission on Thursday said Greece has improved in hosting and registering arriving asylum-seekers.
It recommended that EU states be allowed to send back to Greece asylum-seekers who enter the bloc that way and make it deeper into Europe from mid-March onwards. The recommendation does not apply to those who have already made that journey.
"This will provide further disincentives against irregular entry and secondary movements, and is an important step for the return to a normally functioning ... system," the Commission's deputy head, Frans Timmermans.
The bloc's asylum policy and its zone of internal free travel both collapsed last year as an uncontrolled flow of migrants colonists and refugees triggered bitter disputes between EU states on how to handle them.
These disputes remain unresolved and more than 62,000 people are still in Greece, even though an EU agreement with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in March reduced the arrivals to a trickle.
The failure is in large part due to reluctance by EU states to take in people from Greece and Italia to help process their asylum requests and ease the burden on the two frontline states.
So far, fewer than 8,200 people have been moved from these two Mediterranean countries to other EU states under a plan that was supposed to cover 160,000 people and which expires next September. The Commission called on EU states to step up.
"Our aim is to relocate all those in Italia and Greece who are eligible for relocation within the next year," said the bloc's migration chief, Dimitris Avramopoulos.
Brussels put additional conditions on returning people beyond March, saying Greece should give individual assurances of fair treatment for any returnees and that unaccompanied children not be sent back at all.
Obligatory quotas on refugees are now the focus of a tug of war between EU states seeking to reform their troubled common asylum rules.
The Commission said arrivals from Turkey to Greece stood at an average of 92 people a day since March, compared to thousands that were making at times making it in a single day before the deal with Ankara. It said 1,187 people have been deported from Greece to Turkey since March 2016.
Under the deal with Turkey, which looks fragile now due to a breakdown in ties following Ankara's crackdown in the wake of a botched military coup in July, Brussels also said it had spent 677 million euros of the 3 billion promised to help Syrian refugees living on Turkish soil.
[ABC7NY] President-elect Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... is taking on a somber task Thursday that became all too familiar to his predecessor - supporting survivors after an outbreak of violence, this time families and victims from last week's attack at Ohio State University.
Trump is flying to Columbus, Ohio, to meet with several people who were slashed by Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan. Artan, 18, first rammed a campus crowd with his car before hopping out with a knife and stabbing students before being fatally shot by police.
It could be a politically potent moment for Trump, who made a hard-line immigration stance the center of his campaign. Following the attack, Trump tweeted that Artan, a legal Somali immigrant, should not have been in the country. And last week, in nearby Cincinnati, Trump said lax immigration policies enacted by "stupid politicians" led to the "violent atrocity" at Ohio State.
"We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism out of our country. People are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they are, what they're thinking. And we're going to stop that dead cold flat," Trump told that Ohio crowd. "You just take a good look at what just happened in your state."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Did 'his predecessor' - the current POTUS - go visit the victims? Or is he too embarrassed?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/09/2016 10:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism out of our country. People are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they are, what they're thinking. And we're going to stop that dead cold flat," Trump told that Ohio crowd.
Please, please make this happen. We have the capability, but the State Department has their own agenda. We need a prosecutor as SecState to take a strong hand with our own "enemy within" that organization.
[Rooters] In the early days of the assault on Islamic State in Mosul, Iran successfully pressed Iraq to change its battle plan and seal off the city, an intervention which has since shaped the tortuous course of the conflict, sources briefed on the plan say.
The original campaign strategy called for Iraqi forces to close in around Mosul in a horseshoe formation, blocking three fronts but leaving open the fourth - to the west of the city leading to Islamic State territory in neighboring Syria. That model, used to recapture several Iraqi cities from the ultra-hardline militants in the last two years, would have left fighters and civilians a clear route of escape and could have made the Mosul battle quicker and simpler. But Tehran, anxious that retreating fighters would sweep back into Syria just as Iran's ally President Bashar al-Assad was gaining the upper hand in his country's five-year civil war, wanted Islamic State crushed and eliminated in Mosul.
The sources say Iran lobbied for Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization fighters to be sent to the western front to seal off the link between Mosul and Raqqa, the two main cities of Islamic State's self-declared cross-border caliphate. That link is now broken. For the first time in Iraq's two-and-half-year, Western-backed drive to defeat Islamic State, several thousand militants have little choice but to fight to the death, and 1 million remaining Mosul citizens have no escape from the front lines creeping ever closer to the city center.
Iraqi army commanders have repeatedly said that the presence of civilians on the battlefield has complicated and slowed their seven-week-old operation, restricting air strikes and the use of heavy weapons in populated areas. Planning documents drawn up by humanitarian organizations before the campaign show they prepared camps in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria for around 90,000 refugees expected to head west out of Mosul.
"Iran didn't agree and insisted that no safe corridor be allowed to Syria," said a humanitarian worker. "They wanted the whole region west of Mosul to be a kill box."
Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi analyst on Islamist militants who was briefed on the battle plan in advance, also said it initially envisaged leaving one flank open. Hashid spokesman Karim al-Nuri denied that Tehran was behind the decision to deploy the Shi'ite fighters west of Mosul.
Nevertheless, securing territory west of Mosul by the Iranian-backed militias has other benefits for Iran's allies, by giving the Shi'ite fighters a launchpad into neighboring Syria to support Assad.
Iran was not the only country pressing for the escape to be closed west of Mosul. Russia, another powerful Assad ally, also wanted to block any possible movement of militants into Syria, said Hashemi. The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. One of Assad's biggest enemies, France, was also concerned that hundreds of fighters linked to attacks in Paris and Brussels might escape. The French have contributed ground and air support to the Mosul campaign.
Once the Iraqi Shi'ite militia advance west of Mosul had begun, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told his followers there could be no retreat from the city where he first proclaimed his caliphate in July, 2014. Since then his fighters have launched hundreds of suicide car bombs, mortar barrages and sniper attacks against the advancing forces, using a network of tunnels under residential areas and using civilians as human shields, Iraqi soldiers say.
A senior U.S. officer in international coalition which is supporting the campaign said that waging war amidst civilians would always be tough, but the Baghdad government was best placed to decide on strategy.
"They've got 15 years of war (experience)... I can't think of anyone more calibrated to make that decision and as a result that why as a coalition we supported the government of Iraq's decision," Brigadier General Scott Efflandt, deputy commanding general in the coalition, told Reuters. "The opening and closing of that corridor, hypothetically, realistically, did not fundamentally change the plans of the battle. It changes how we prosecute the fight, but that does not necessarily make it easier or harder."
But the Kurdish official was less sanguine, saying the battle for Mosul was now "more difficult" and could descend into a long drawn out siege similar to those seen in Syria.
It could "turn Mosul into Aleppo," he said.
Posted by: Pappy ||
12/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#2
Disagree. Once Mosul was attacked on three sides there was not "left... civilians a clear route of escape" to the west. Civilians were already trapped inside the city because the last open road -- past Tall Afar airport -- was never really open to civilians seeking to escape Mosul. The recent capture of Tall Afar airport closed the so-called "horseshoe", and in doing so closed the last avenue of escape for ISIS. Civilians must find their own escape to the east and south.
#3
The recent capture of Tall Afar airport closed the so-called "horseshoe", and in doing so closed the last avenue of escape for ISIS.
Concur with your statement, although note that ISIS counter-attacked north of Tel Afar last week and re-opened a route to the west. A route covered by our air assets - I imagine we allowed this to happen for strategic reasons.
#DontBeStupid. But if you simply must be stupid, for the love of all that's holy don't get caught.
[IsraelTimes] Army forced to admit graphic touted as ’declassified,’ shown to foreign diplomats as real intelligence, was an ’illustration’.
A map of southern Leb released this week by the Israeli military that ostensibly showed Hezbollah positions, infrastructure and armaments along a section of the Israeli border was a fabrication, the army admitted Thursday.
The map, tweeted by the army Tuesday, appeared to feature over 200 towns and villages, which the IDF said the organization had turned into its operations bases, along with over 10,000 potential targets for Israeli strikes in the event of a new war with the terror group.
"This is a war crime," the army asserted in its tweet.
A caption on the photo claimed that it had been "declassified," in what was construed as an IDF attempt to build a case for future military action, and a warning to the terror group itself, demonstrating Israel’s superior intelligence-gathering capabilities.
But on Thursday, based on an analysis by Twitter user JudgeDan48, it emerged that the map had in fact been prepared by the IDF spokesperson’s desk. The ostensible demarcations of Hezbollah positions were in fact patterns of dots, positioned on the map of southern Leb.
An IDF spokesperson admitted the graphic was an "illustration" that had been misrepresented as a piece of declassified intelligence.
"The illustration reflects how Hezbollah has positioned its terrorist infrastructure within the civilian arena," the spokesperson told The Times of Israel.
According to a Channel 2 report Tuesday, the illustrative map has been shown to practically every foreign diplomat visiting Israel, to demonstrate that while Hezbollah may be heavily embroiled in the Syrian civil war, it continues to arm for conflict with Israel, while embedding itself ever deeper in the civilian population near the border.
Hezbollah has accused Israel of attacking its installations with Arclight airstrikes twice in the last two weeks. While Israel hasn’t confirmed its involvement, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday that the military has been working to keep chemical weapons out of Hezbollah’s hands.
[IsraelTimes] Military official says number is ’conservative estimate,’ notes group has shown ’resilience.
At least 50,000 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.... snuffies have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official said Thursday.
"I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy," the official said.
The official, who spoke to Pentagon news hounds on condition of anonymity, said the number was a "conservative estimate," it’s a bit more than what others have stated before. US leaders have expressed reluctance to disclose specific numbers, and note that IS has been able to replace fighters rapidly, particularly early on.
"I give them credit for being so resilient," the official said according to Fox News.
In August, Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland said about 45,000 combatants have been taken off the battlefields.
The official said coalition Arclight airstrikes could be more aggressive in places like djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , where Iraqi troops are battling to retake the city, but civilian casualties are a risk.
Since the launch of Operation Inherent Resolve began on August 2014, more than 125,000 sorties in Iraq and Syria have been carried out by the US-led coalition, the Pentagon said last month.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Just imagine how many terrorists could be killed if we were actually trying?
#2
But the Obama team didn't injure any mothers, children, fluffy bunnies, or baby ducks like that bad, bad Bush.
On the other hand, they're supposed to be like the Hydra, right? Cut off one head and two more spring up? So how many bad guys have been created in the same time period?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/09/2016 7:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The hydra was allowed back into countries it departed from to recruit, train and equip more of its kind. It was also invited in by virtue signaling politicians. It will travel like the plague.
#5
Has it not been said... "this will be a very long struggle?" If you are victorious and destroy all of the terrorists, what crisis will there be, what motivation will future generations have to fund the complex ?
A strong, victorious military is not your friend. Besides, those funds are needed elsewhere. Selective culling and strong media support (numbers game) will ensure product and 'crisis' sustainment.
#6
If we only killed the right 100 terror financiers, wherever they may be, it would go further than killing the thousands of shovel and trigger terries.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The new officers will be provided by EU member states and Schengen associated countries.
[ABC7NY] President-elect 
Has it not been said... "this will be a very long struggle?" If you are victorious and destroy all of the terrorists, what crisis will there be, what motivation will future generations have to fund the complex ?
