Newly declassified documents from the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 have revealed the late al-Qaeda leader's remarkable English-language library, including books by Noam Chomsky, Bob Woodward and even 9/11 conspiracy theorist David Ray Griffin.
Yet the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which released the files on Wednesday, has not released all the material found in the compound. In fact, there's a rather notorious stash that the U.S. government apparently doesn't want you to see: a cache of pronography.
"We have no plans to release that at this point in time," Brian Hale, a spokesman for the DNI, told the Telegraph's Raf Sanchez. "Due to the nature of the content the decision was made not to release it." The Guardian was also told that the pronographic material would not be released.
Reports that pronographic material was found in the compound were first published by the news agency Reuters on May 13, 2011, just weeks after a U.S. military raid on the site left the al-Qaeda leader dead. Unnamed officials told Reuters that the pronography was modern and the collection extensive. Officials said it was unclear how it came to be in the hideout, which had no Internet connection.
Reuters also reported that the officials were unsure about the precise location where the material was found or who might have been viewing it. U.S. officials have said that 22 people had been living in the compound, including a number of adult males. U.S. officials later confirmed that they had discovered pronography in the compound.
Although it has never been clear whether bin Laden had been viewing the pronography, the reports of adult videos in his compound prompted a flurry of mockery from the likes of the New York Post and Jon Stewart's "Daily Show," with some suggesting that the reports had been leaked to make bin Laden look hypocritical. (He had criticized the United States' culture as sexualized in a 2002 "letter to America").
Some experts pointed out that finding pronography on jihadists' computers had become common by 2011, however, and CNN later reported on a separate case in which al-Qaeda had encoded pronographic movie files with secret documents. IMHO, they don't want to release it because:
1) They believe it will make people go look for it and make it harder to separate the digital wheat from the chaff when trying to find people who possess it.
2) More likely, given the sexually-repressed nature of the jihadist sub-moron, there was lots of way-underage stuff there. It doesn't make sense that Al Qaeda would have their minions caught with something that would automatically send them to jail, suggesting that UBL (Rot in Hell) just enjoyed that kind of thing.
#1
2) More likely, given the sexually-repressed nature of the jihadist sub-moron, there was lots of way-underage stuff there. It doesn't make sense that Al Qaeda would have their minions caught with something that would automatically send them to jail, suggesting that UBL (Rot in Hell) just enjoyed that kind of thing.
The man grew up in a Muslim household in Saudi Arabia. The rules are different.
[MYFOXNY] Well, of course he did. His flight was overbooked. What else could he do?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
You know I really feel this way sometimes, but then I remember, I'm naked under my clothes, and the feeling goes away. While I'm on the subject, do you want to see some pictures ? No really, I've got some. OK yeah, I know I don't want to scare the good readers of Rantburg away, so I'll just post a pic of me at the beach, you'll understand, n'est-ce pas ? Just think of me at your nearest airport...
[FOXNEWS] Two protesters in Burundi were rubbed out Thursday, said the Red Thingy, as pitched battles in the capital escalated between police and demonstrators opposed to President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!... the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... said dialogue among the government, opposition parties and religious organizations resumed Thursday, facilitated by the U.N. envoy to Burundi, Said Djinnit.
A protester from the capital's Ngagara neighborhood was rubbed out and another was killed in the Musaga district, Red Thingyfront man Alexis Manirakiza said. Thirteen people were maimed in festivities, he said. Protesters have disregarded several orders by Nkurunziza banning the demonstrations.
Thursday's deaths raise the number of people killed to at least 20, said the Red Thingy. The protests began nearly four weeks ago after the announcement of Nkurunziza's candidacy. At least 431 have been maimed.
Police fired tear gas and live bullets, mostly in the air, at protesters in Musaga Thursday. The protesters threw back a hail of stones.
Residents stayed up all night on the roads fearing that police would attack them in their houses, said Pierre Chanel Ndayizeye, who was among the protesters. They tried to prevent police from moving into Musaga with barricades of cut-down telephone poles and trees, he said.
Businesses shut down in the central business district of Bujumbura, the capital, when nearly 100 protesters maneuvered around police cordons and held demonstrations, the second time protesters managed to infiltrate the heart of city since the protests began.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2015 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
The suspected start of a new summer offensive, said by Russian backed rebels to begin on Victory Day, May 9th, has come and gone with new indications that Ukrainian forces are preparing for a new offensive.
Propaganda by both sides has been increasing in intensity with the Ukrainian side being accused of bringing up closer to the contact line heavy artillery banned by the February 15th Ceasefire, and rebels being accused by violating the ceasefire numerous times.
The exchange of heavy gunfire since the end of the Debaltsevo defensive in late February has been concentrated in three regions in Donetsk and Lugansk, where forces concentrations for both sides have been the heaviest. Those regions include western Donetsk city, Shirokino and northern Lugansk.
Only two weeks ago Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko made a public vow to retake the Donetsk airport, a position his forces abandoned early in February, where rebel forces fought off numerous Ukrainian counterattacks.
Since then, rebels claim that Ukrainian artillery have been pounded their positions at Spartak, the airport itself and in the far western reaches of Donetsk city. Throughout this time the rebel claimed that despite their forces being hit by artillery, they have not responded by fire.
Ukrainian military analyst Dmitri Tymchuk said in a report published last May 20th that rebel forces have shelled Ukrainian positions at Avdievka, Opytnoye and at Vodyanoye. Advievka has long been a stronghold in the approaches to western Donetsk city, while Opytnoye has been a known location for Ukrainian artillery.
Tymchuk said that rebels have been using 82mm and 120mm mortar fire. He also said that rebels have been firing on Ukrainian positions using automatic grenade launchers and heavy machine guns at Pesky, Butovka mine and the Petrovsky district of Donetsk.
Tymchuk said that rebel forces in western Donetsk city have been reinforced with 44 tanks, 68 light armor vehicles, as well as 28 self-propelled guns, including eight 2S19 152mm "MSTA-S" self-propelled guns.
Rebels claim that Ukrainian artillery have been hitting targets near Gorlovka, specifically at Shumy and the Leninskoye from Dzherzinsk in the west, and from Kodema and Kurdyumovka in the north.
Shirokino
Despite a few attempts at a local ceasefire by rebel commanders, fighting and artillery exchanges continued in Shirokino, which is directly east of the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol.
According to rebel media, Ukrainian forces, namely the Azov Regiment have been hitting targets in Shirokino with artillery. According to a news item posted on reserve FSB Colonel Igor Strelkov's official website, an attack in the vicinity of Shirokino was fought off by rebel forces.
Tymchuk said the rebel 82mm mortars have been fired on Ukrainian positions. He also said that rebel forces in the region were recently reinforced with about 250 effectives, which he characterized as "mercenaries, which arrived from Russian and from rebel territory in the north."
Donetsk defense ministry spokesman Lt. Colonel Eduard Basurin said a few days ago that a number heavy rocket artillery forces, specifically BM-27 Urugan 220mm rocket artillery launchers were spotted by rebel special forces recon groups in Melitopol moving en convoy east towards the Mariupol defensive zone. In fact Col. Basurin has claimed over the past few days that Ukrainian forces have been amassing large artillery parks, which rebel commanders suspect could be used in future Ukrainian offensive operations.
Northern Lugansk
Last May 17th Ukrainian forces in Schastye captured two Russian GRU Spetsnaz soldiers, and eliminated an undisclosed number of others. Conflict on social media sites arose immediately after the detention of the two men as to whether they were Russian GRU Spetsnaz, or whether they were special forces in the employ of Lugansk. Documents posted online suggest the two were deployed by the Russian Federation, which is nothing unusual. Rebel officials have routinely requested the use of Russian special forces, colloquially known as "green men" to arrest or eliminate troublesome commanders, but also routine are Russian special forces working for rebel commanders.
One of the weapons seized in the aftermath was a short range VSS Vintorez 9x39mm sniper carbine used by Russian special and police forces. The weapon shown by the Ukrainians did not have a sniper scope, which would lend credence to the rebels' contention that the two men captured were not there at the behest of the Russian Federation ministry of defense.
The two soldiers captured were identified as Captain Eugene Vladimirovich Erofeev and Sergeant Alexander Alatolievich Alexandrov, who is identified as a contract soldier for the Russian Federation. Ukrainians have captured troops they claim are Russian troops deployed by the Russian federation, and have claimed that those soldiers are often stripped of Russian Federation military identification documents, lest their capture or death disclose something the Russians have long and repeatedly denied.
Tymchuk said that rebels continue to fire on Ukrainian forces in Schastye and Stanitsa Luganska using 122mm towed and 2S1 122mm self propelled artillery vehicles. The town of Stanitsa Luganska has been an issue since last winter as rebel fores pressed attacks in order to secure a bridgehead. Tymchuk said that those attacks are attempting to flank Ukrainian forces in and around Stanytsia Luganska, but have been stopped.
The Lugansk rebel government in its official news website released an interview with the commander of the 7th Territorial Defense Battalion, identified as Denis Moskalenko. His forces, deployed at the riverine town of Slavyanoserbsk, face Ukrainian forces including the Aidar Battalion and the Golden Gate police battalion.
Slavyanoserbsk has been in rebel hands since last winter, and apparently according to the story, is a static position for the rebels because, according to Moskalenko, Ukrainian forces are dug in, and are not preparing for offensive operations.
Last winter, it became apparent to rebel commanders that while the Ukrainians withdrew their heavy weapons including tanks, many of those forces are in positions that will enable their rapid reemployment.
A video report in the area suggests that Ukrainian forces are routinely firing on rebel positions using artillery and small arms fire. The government report said that Ukrainian forces routinely hit rebel troops using 82mm and 120mm mortars and tank guns.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
#3
The race card has long been a pain...
A Saxon was taxing a Dane:
"Who made yo' ass Thane?
Yo' bitch reign's on the wane!
You prejudice, know what I'm sayin'?
May 21 China on Thursday expressed "serious concern" over the blowing up of a Chinese fishing vessel seized by Indonesia six years ago, the first such incident under President Joko Widodo.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the country had pressed Indonesia for more details about the destruction of the Chinese boat, which was among 41 vessels blown up by Indonesia on Wednesday suspected of illegal fishing. Other countries with boats destroyed include Thailand and Vietnam.
Since taking office last October, Widodo's administration has blown up dozens of foreign vessels as part of his get-tough campaign against illegal fishing.
[ALMANAR.LB] German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... said Thursday a return of Russia to the Group of Seven major industrialized democracies was "unimaginable".
But she also sought to allay Moscow's fears about European influence in its Soviet-era satellite states, saying the so-called Eastern Partnership project was "not an instrument" of EU enlargement policy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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[WSJ] "Solidarity [n.] The belief that yelling loudly and raising a clenched fist is the same as actually doing something. q.v. Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Birthday Boar Hog"
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Next: Instructions on how to be quietly eaten by the bear.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/22/2015 12:35 Comments ||
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[DAWN] A middle-aged man was found afflicted with the deadly Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as the brain-eating amoeba, at a private hospital in the city on Wednesday, taking the tally of naegleria cases to four in Sindh this year, sources and local health authorities said.
Sources in a large private hospital said the man in his early forties and hailing from Thatta was admitted to the hospital a day earlier in a precarious condition.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#4
'Ware brain-eating bugs in the Sindh
Borne into your ear on the wind!
They'll make you a "student"
Who bonks things he shouldn't
And dreams of Korans being binned!
[DAWN] Foreign Office Spokesperson Qazi M. Khalilullah on Thursday said that the United States has conveyed no concern to Pakistain over local IT company Axact's alleged fake degrees scam.
Answering questions in a news briefing about allegations levelled by a New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report against Axact, Khalilullah maintained that no foreign country, including the US, has raised any concern over the issue.
He said Pak agencies were investigating the accusations against Axact upon directions of the Interior Ministry.
"Investigations are underway and we have to wait for their completion," the front man said. The checks haven't cleared yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Is that where youknowwho got his Harvard Law Degree?
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.
[FOXNEWS] Two protesters in Burundi were 
[MIAMIHERALD] 
