Discussions about the shape and size of the negotiating table and the number of dishes to be served at breakfast, lunch, dinner, elevenses, tea, and the evening snack will commense in due course.
[KhaamaPress] The Talibs group has announced a delegation of peace negotiators comprising of 14 Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... representatives for peace talks with the United States.
Taliban in a statement said Tuesday that the new delegation has been formed by deputy political chief of Taliban Mullah Baradar Aakhund and on instructions of Taliban leader Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada.
The statement further added that the delegation is led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai ...Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, Head of the Taliban political office in Doha. He was a member of Rassoul Sayyaf's group in the war against the Soviets.... while Mawlavi Zia Ur Rehman Madani, Mawlavi Abdul Salam Hanafi, Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar, Mullah Abdul Latif Mansoor, Mullah Abdul Manan Omari, Mawlavi Amir Khan Mutaqi, Mullah Mohammad Fazil Masloom, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa, Mawlavi Mati Ul Haq, Mullah Mohammad Anas Haqqani, Mullah Noorullah Noori, Mawlavi Mohammad Nabi Omari, and Mulalh Abdul Haq Wasiq are the members of the delegation.
In reaction to the inclusion of the name of Annas Haqqani as the member of the delegation, the Afghan Intelligence said no decision has been taken so far regarding the release of Annas Haqqani.
Teh statement further added that Anas Haqqani is still serving in the jail and the government is obliged to take decisions in the light of the enforced laws of the country regarding those who have committed crimes against the Afghan people.
[Aljazeera] Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the Australian government would reopen its controversial offshore detention centre on Christmas Island, stepping up the conservative administration's hardline policies towards asylum seekers and refugees in an immediate response to a historic defeat over the issue in parliament.
Morrison on Wednesday approved the reopening of the remote facility - closed only months ago - claiming the law passed would increase the number of people seeking asylum and protection in Australia by sea.
The legislation allows refugees and asylum seekers held in existing offshore camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island to travel to Australia for medical treatment on the diagnosis of two doctors.
It was the first time in 80 years that an Australian government had lost a vote on its own legislation in the lower house. The bill passed the upper house on Wednesday morning.
Morrison accused the opposition Australian Labor Party of a bid to "weaken and compromise our borders" and said he was adopting "100 percent" a series of security service recommendations on measures to prevent the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers by sea.
[IsraelTimes] Government says anti-Jewish attacks ’spreading like poison’ after 74% surge in 2018, tries to link incidents to yellow vest protests.
But the rise in anti-Semitic acts in La Belle France predates the "yellow vest" movement and there was no evidence on Tuesday tying the latest incidents to the movement.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner revealed Monday that the number of anti-Jewish offences reported to the police surged 74 percent last year, to 541 from 311 in 2017.
In a statement Tuesday, Castaner said 183 involved assaults and at least one murder, while 358 were anti-Semitic threats or insults.
"Anti-Semitism is spreading like poison," Castaner said while visiting a memorial site outside Gay Paree for a young Jewish man who was tortured to death in 2006.
A tree planted at the site where 23-year-old Ilan Halimi’s body was found had been chopped down, and a second tree was partly sawed through.
Also in recent days, the word "Juden" (German for Jew) was scrawled on the window of a bagel bakery in Gay Paree, and swastikas were drawn on Gay Paree postal boxes decorated with a portrait of former government minister and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil.
‘JEWISH PIG’
Last weekend, an anti-discrimination advocate revealed a graffiti saying "Macron Jews’ Bitch," in English, on a garage door in the center of Gay Paree, and the phrase "Jewish pig" scrawled on a wall in the city’s northern 18th district.
President Emmanuel Macron was also targeted in graffiti discovered Monday at the headquarters of French daily Le Monde, using anti-Semitic tropes to refer to his former job as a Rothschild investment banker.
Junior foreign minister Sebastien Lecornu also pointed the finger at "yellow vest" protesters for the latest offences.
"Conspiracy theorists are very present among their ranks," he said, before referring to a survey released on Monday.
The Ifop poll said nearly half of "yellow vests" believed in a worldwide "Zionist plot," as well as the "Great Replacement" theory, which posits that immigration is being organized deliberately "to replace Europe’s native populations."
Interesting conflation of a false thing with a true one. I wonder how the responses break out for each...
La Belle France is home to the largest Jewish population in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and the community has been targeted by jihadists in recent years.
[IsrqelTimes] Book by Nordhoff Publishers also omits ill treatment of Jews at hands of Arab rulers throughout history.
A Dutch publisher that previously created school textbooks accusing Israelis of ethnic cleansing has released a new volume omitting Jerusalem’s significance to Jews.
The omission occurred in a textbook about social issues titled "Plein M" by Nordhoff Publishers for preparatory middle-level applied education level schools, including public schools. It states Jerusalem is holy to Moslems and Christians, but does not mention its holiness to Jews.
It also states that Jews and Christians were "mostly treated well" by Arabs throughout history. It does not mention capital taxes and many pogroms perpetrated against Jews in Arab countries before and during the flight of at least 800,000 Jews from those countries in the 20th century. Today, there are fewer than 7,000 Jews living in Arab countries.
Likoed Nederland, a pro-Israel group, called the book a form of "historical falsification" in a statement Sunday, adding it "reads like Paleostinian propaganda."
Nordhoff did not reply to JTA’s request for reaction.
In 2015, the same publisher defended a history book that states that David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, declared statehood after "Jewish militias carried out murders in Arab villages, and hundreds of thousands of Paleostinians fled and settled in refugee camp across the border." That book does not mention Arab atrocities during the same conflict.
The Dutch education ministry has a relatively liberal policy as to which textbooks may be used as teaching materials, placing such choices at the discretion of schools and, at times, individual teachers.
A judicial official told The Associated Press that Paris prosecutors have opened four investigations following incidents in the French capital last weekend. The official was not authorized to be publicly named because the investigations are ongoing.
#1
It also states that Jews and Christians were "mostly treated well" by Arabs throughout history. HA!
For all intents and purposes the Netherlands is gone. It's inhabited by invading 7th century barbarians and a self hating native population bent on cultural suicide. Seeya.
#3
There are still the Afrikaners
20 years ago I used to work for a tech company based in Joburg SA, I have never met a such a brilliant, hard drinking bunch in my life. It saddens me they're in the process of losing their country now as well.
[Rudaw] German authorities searched and shut down operations of two Kurdish publishing businesses on Tuesday, alleging the companies were financially supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
"As the PKK is still active despite being banned in Germany, it is necessary to rein in the PKK and uphold our legal system," Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement, Deutsche Welle reported.
Mezopotamien Publishing and MIR Multimedia have been active in Germany for years. Mezopotamien Publishing has published many works by PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan. MIR Multimedia has released music of dozens of artists, mainly Kurds from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... , including popular musicians Ahmet Kaya and Sivan Perwer.
The Interior Ministry said the businesses were sending their profits exclusively to the PKK.
This is not the first search of the institutions. They were raided in March 2018 when books, albums, and recordings were confiscated, according to the pro-PKK Firat News Agency (ANF).
The co-chair of NAV-DEM, a Kurdish organization with ties to the PKK and active in Germany, condemned the authorities’ decision to close the businesses.
"The Ottoman Turkish state is trying for decades to erase Ottoman Turkish identity and culture... With its ban, the German government has now decided to continue these inhuman politics on German ground," said Tahir Kocer, News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
The PKK is considered a terror organization by Turkey, EU countries, and the USA for its decades-long fight against the Ottoman Turkish state.
According to the ministry’s figures, there are about 14,500 PKK supporters in Germany. In 2008, Germany banned Roj TV for alleged links to the PKK.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/13/2019 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[RedState] It’s been a bad week for the newest anti-Semitic members of Congress.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was forced to apologize for blatantly anti-Semitic tropes she tweeted Sunday night. The apology came after House Democratic leaders condemned her comments Monday in a rare public rebuke of a Congresswoman by members of her own party.
Also on Monday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) close associations with anti-Semites were once again revealed when it was discovered she wrote a column in 2006 for "the official communications organ of the Nation of Islam."
In response to the discovery, a spokesman for the freshman Michigan Congresswoman told Business Insider’s Joe Perticone that the piece "was not an endorsement of Farrakhan or anyone for that matter. The Congresswoman has not had any direct contact with Farrakhan and condemns his anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ views."
Not having "any direct contact with Farrakhan" does not and should not absolve Tlaib ‐ nor Omar, for that matter ‐ of their well-known hostility towards Jewish people.
In seeming exasperation over the last two days of events, Tlaib took to the Twitter machine last night and pulled out the "Woman of Color" card:
Rashida Tlaib
✔
@RashidaTlaib
The hardest part of serving in Congress as a WOC & as a "first" is how people hear you differently. No matter how much we take on the hate & stay true to who we are through our experiences, our voices are shushed and reduced. We aren't perfect, but neither is this institution.
35.4K
3:20 AM - Feb 12, 2019
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9,540 people are talking about this
Not to be outdone, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) jumped on Twitter in defense of Omar, pretending that Omar’s apology was sincere (it wasn’t) and retweeting this spectacularly ignorant tweet:
Ady Barkan🔥🌹
✔
@AdyBarkan
· Feb 11, 2019
Replying to @AdyBarkan
AIPAC is a central pillar of the occupation. Without Congressional support, the Likud/anti-Palestine/pro-occupation project would be radically undermined. AIPAC is the anchor of that support, and its money and Sheldon Adelson’s money are indispensable to the work.
Ady Barkan🔥🌹
✔
@AdyBarkan
We have a growing anti-semitism problem in America. @IlhanMN is not part of it. @lindasrsour is not part of it. They are allies of mine and of Jews across this country who are fighting for peace, racial justice, immigrants’ rights, and the defeat of fascism.
AOC, another "woke" Democratic member of Congress who is helping mainstream anti-Semitism within the party, also likes to pretend criticism of her’s and her "squad’s" absurd policy proposals boils down to the fact that they’re "brown women" or something.
This has nothing, zero, nada to do with the fact that any of them are women of color and everything to do with the fact that they are ‐ to put it charitably ‐ openly hostile to Jewish interests. Anyone who doesn’t believe that should read about retired Democratic Rep. Jim Moran, a white guy from Virginia who was frequently criticized for his anti-Israel views.
None of these women are being "shushed." What’s happening to them is what happens to any other politician, male or female, no matter their color, when their hatred for a group of people is exposed.
They all need to put on their big girl panties and deal with the criticism like grown women instead erupting into fits of the vapors and falling onto the fainting couch. Time to grow up, ladies. And guess which color that is?
Posted by: Jan ||
02/13/2019 10:38 Comments ||
Top||
#7
It is Democrats in MN who have been trying to get Representative Omar to shush her blatant anti semitic comments and use bland jargon instead to disguise it. That hasn't worked.
Nobody, to my knowledge, has been successful getting Representative Talib to use bland jargon yet as she seems fatally potty mouth.
This anti semite one day, faux moderate the next seems likely to go on for months.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/13/2019 11:26 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Ref #7:. "When the enemy is in error, dot stop him (or her)."
#9
Her3-fer victimhood is the wind neath her wings
Posted by: Regular joe ||
02/13/2019 11:56 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Filed under "Not this shit again!"
Somewhat OT:
Foreign names in weird unpronounceable languages tend to be hard to transliterate into English. I'm wondering about the similarity of 'Tlaib', as in Rep. Rashida Tlaib(D-MI), to some form of 'Taliban'
Just curious, not trying to draw any connections. To my uneducated eye (or is it ear?), Taleb ( like Nassim Taleb - Black Swan, Antifragile guy) has a similar root.
#15
two muslim monkeys in our congress. What has this country become?
Posted by: Jim Cramer6666666 ||
02/13/2019 19:30 Comments ||
Top||
#16
She represents a bunch of Muslims in her district. It is important to listen to her, because were she she to go, her district will just elect someone else just like her when she is gone.
So, do not oppose her, please instead oppose her opinions. Perhaps we can persuade her constituents to moderate their views.
[USA Today] WASHINGTON ‐ Federal prosecutors revealed charges on Wednesday that a former Air Force intelligence officer had revealed defense secrets and the identity of at least one U.S. intelligence officer to the Iranian government.
Monica E. Witt was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday, which also charged four Iranian nationals who prosecutors alleged were involved in cyber operations against her former U.S. military colleagues. Witt is charged with espionage, conspiracy and other crimes.
Federal authorities said that Witt defected to Iran in 2013, and allegedly provided the government with sensitive defense information and the identity of at least one U.S. intelligence officer. Before boarding her flight to Tehran, prosecutors said, she typed an email to an associate saying: "I'm signing off and heading out! Coming home." She closed with a smile emoji.
Assistant Attorney General John Demers, chief of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said Witt's alleged activities violated "her solemn oath to protect and defend our country, and the bounds of human decency."
"This case underscores the dangers to our intelligence professionals and the lengths our adversaries will go to identify them, expose them, target them, and, in a few rare cases, ultimately turn them against the nation they swore to protect," Demers said.
Before traveling to Iran in 2012, federal authorities said Witt was warned that she was at risk of potential recruitment by Iranian intelligence officials, but she elected to continue with her travel plans.
#1
A hero! like Winner, Manning and Snowden. Where would we be without them?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/13/2019 14:35 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What could be the motive??? The Department of Justice announced early Wednesday that it had indicted Monica Elfriede Witt, also known as Fatemah Zahra, a former active duty U.S. Air Force Intelligence Specialist and Special Agent, for attempting to pass classified American information to Iran.
[KhaamaPress] The NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... Defense Ministers will review the alliance’s operations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and at sea during the defense ministerial which will be held on 13th and 14th of February.
A NATO official said "The Ministerial will begin with a session focused on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Allies will have an opportunity to exchange views and provide guidance on the implications of Russia’s breach of the INF Treaty. All Allies agree that Russia’s violation of the treaty erodes the foundation of arms control and undermines Allied security. Allies will then discuss efforts to strengthen the Alliance’s defence and deterrence."
The official further added that "The focus will be on NATO’s readiness initiative, which requires Allies to have 30 land battalions, 30 air squadrons and 30 combat vessels ready to use within 30 days. Ministers will also discuss efforts to address security challenges from the South. SACEUR and SACT will provide updates on these subjects, including work to adapt the NATO command structure."
The official also added that the ministers will review NATO operations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and at sea on 14th of February.
"The Ministerial will end with a session with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and Finland and Sweden for talks on European defence initiatives and NATO-EU cooperation" the official said adding that "With respect to Afghanistan, the NATO Defence Ministers will review the current situation and exchange views on how best to continue supporting the further development and sustainment of the Afghan cops and current efforts to move forward an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process."
[IsraelTimes] Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan makes an unannounced visit to the Iraqi capital for talks on the sensitive issue of a continued US troop presence after Washington withdraws from neighboring Syria.
Shanahan is keen to reassure Iraqi leaders after 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... angered many by saying he wanted to maintain some troops at the al-Asad airbase, northwest of Baghdad, to keep an eye on Iran.
The acting defense secretary, who flew in from Afghanistan on his foreign tour since taking office last month, is due to hold talks with Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and top military advisers, as well as Lieutenant General Paul LaCamera, the commander of anti-IS coalition forces.
"Our main partnership and military activity in Iraq is the de-ISIS (IS) mission," a Pentagon brasshat told journalists traveling with Shanahan, keeping the focus on the fight against 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.... jihadists.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/13/2019 00:00 ||
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[11128 views]
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#1
"The boss sent me over here to see if I can find out if we're actually, you know, doing anything here."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/13/2019 7:24 Comments ||
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[IsrelTimes] PA accused Washington of launching ’financial siege’ on West Bank amid breakdown in relations.
The United States has denied accusations it is pressuring banks to stop dealing with the Paleostinian Authority, whose relations with Washington have been plummeting.
Several Paleostinian officials have accused the US of trying to force banks not to deal with transactions linked to the Paleostinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the West Bank.
"The United States has not requested that foreign donors restrict assistance to the Paleostinians, nor has it requested that financial institutions cease transfers to Paleostinian Authority (PA) bank accounts," a US official told AFP late Monday.
"We are aware of media reports suggesting this has occurred. Those reports are incorrect," he said.
PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki has said on local radio that the US was using "all means to press Arab countries to stop financial support for our people."
[IsraelTimes] Hebrew-language signs, likely posted by Hezbollah, refer to recent criticism heard in Israel about Ground Forces’ preparedness for war.
They were placed along the security fence where IDF troops regularly patrol and where construction of a new concrete border wall was underway.
Tensions along the Lebanese border have increased in recent months, first as Israel began the construction of a new border wall and then rising further in December, as the IDF launched an effort to find and destroy attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah into Israel from southern Leb.
Last week, a convoy of dozens of cycle of violence-riding supporters of the Iran-backed Hezbollah drove past the border during a visit to the area by United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... ambassadors.
The IDF at the time said the bikers, waving the terror group’s flags, were "making a mockery" of the UN resolution that ended the 2006 Second Leb War, which required all gangs besides the Lebanese military to remain north of the country’s Litani River. Israel has long said that Hezbollah flouts this resolution by maintaining a military presence along the border, including caches of weapons.
[IsraelTimes] A 24/7 security operation center at Ben Gurion international airport handles cybersecurity threats, mostly by bots.
The Airports Authority set up a cybersecurity division four years ago, and, after that, a security operation center (SOC) at the country’s main airport, Ben Gurion international airport, which handles cybersecurity threats 24/7/365, he said.
The SOC makes Ben Gurion Airport possibly one of the only major international airports in the world that has such a center on its premises, he added. The authority is in charge of the airports and the border crossings, he emphasized, but not of securing the airlines themselves, which remains their own responsibility.
[IsraelTimes] Saudi King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians.... says the kingdom is committed to an independent Paleostinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, ahead of a US-led conference on Middle East peace and security.
The monarch was speaking during a meeting with visiting Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... in Riyadh.
King Salman says his country "permanently stands by Paleostine and its people’s right to an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital," according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
The pledge comes as the United States is expected to offer hints of its proposals for peace between Israel and the Paleostinians at a conference in Poland.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a secret proposal from 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... to broker an Israeli-Paleostinian peace deal at the end of the 2014 Gazoo war, according to a Channel 13 news report.
Israeli and Saudi sources familiar with the proposal told the TV station the plan was an "upgraded version of the Arab peace initiative."
At a closed door meeting in September 2014, Saudi officials proposed to resume negotiations with Paleostinians, and Riyadh would lead efforts to rehabilitate the Gazoo Strip.
According to the report, the Saudi king’s special envoy, Bandar bin Sultan, and another top official met with Netanyahu in an unnamed third country, and proposed the two countries jointly announce the peace initiative at the UN general assembly later that month.
Netanyahu initially agreed, and presented the Saudi officials with a list of Israeli demands. The Saudis agreed to most of the Israeli document, but told Netanyahu’s negotiators they "also needed to show flexibility" on some of the points.
Sources close to the prime minister said Netanyahu refused, and the talks broke down.
Betcha the Saudis wanted flexibility on East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capitol, dear Reader.
Sources in Saudi Arabia told Channel 13 that Riyadh "went further than they have ever gone," in the negotiations with Israel, and blamed Netanyahu for the initiative’s failure.
[AlMasdar] A large group of former rebels from the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) has joined the ranks of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) after settling their cases with their local reconciliation committees.
According to a new report from the Daraa Governorate, more than 300 men from the Daraa Governorate town of Inkhil have joined the Syrian Arab Army’s ranks and begun their service.
As shown in the short video below from a pro-government Facebook channel, the former rebels from Inkhil have begun their service and moved towards a Syrian Arab Army base in an undisclosed part of the country.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/13/2019 02:34 ||
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[11125 views]
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[Rudaw] HASAKAH Syria ‐ A Canadian jihadist detained in Syria told AFP on Sunday he has been "hung out to dry" by the ISIS group like other imported muscle and appealed to his government for help.
Seriously?? You left to form the cadre of the invincible army that would conquer the world for Allah. Surely you understood that would eventually include Canada... and that the Canadians would take it personally. As a result, they simply do not care what happens to you, your wife, or your children.
Mohammad Ali, 28, was captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) some nine months ago while trying to flee north into The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... with his Canadian wife and two children.
#3
CC the pic: the giveaway is the flashy headscarf.
Read a deal a while back, wish I could find it, that the ISJV had problems with the 'westerner' recruits. Besides being genetically inferior, they lacked real world skills, city soft if you will. They would be allocated remedial positions such as cooks, laundry, suicide car drivers, and 'advance scout/skirmishers'.
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.