Rep. Dan Meuser is demanding answers from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson after flights of migrants arrived in Scranton
'Pennsylvanians deserve to know about these decisions affecting their community, and I expect immediate answers,' Meuser wrote in his letter
Meuser said at least 130 migrants were sent to Scranton, while another former Pennsylvania lawmaker claimed there were 180
Lawmakers say they were not informed before the flights arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania – the town where Biden was born and lived until he was 10
#3
You know, the State Police could just hold the planes on the tarmac til they are refueled and flown back where they came from, but they're all at Applebees...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/29/2021 14:24 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Somalia's neighbors and Western countries have expressed alarm over an intensifying row between the country's president and prime minister as heavily armed factions patrolled parts of the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, raising fears that the political crisis could erupt into violence.Soldiers loyal to the prime minister took up positions near the presidential palace a day after President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed, better known as Farmajo, announced the suspension of Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble, who accused him of an "attempted coup".
Relations between the pair have long been frosty, but the latest developments have sparked concerns for Somalia's stability as the country struggles to hold long-delayed elections and fight a jihadist insurgency.
On Tuesday, pro-Roble troops paraded the streets, fuelling fear among Mogadishu residents weary of armed confrontations.
"They are not far away from the main security checkpoints of the presidential palace, they are armed with heavy machine guns and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," Saido Mumin, a resident, told AFP.
Another local, Abdukadir Ahmed, said that although the situation appeared to be calm, he was "really worried" about the potential for violence.
International observers have urged both sides to resolve the escalating dispute while some Somali traditional elders and politicians have also sought to calm tempers.
"Some politicians and elders (have) started going between the two sides to de-escalate the situation, but these efforts are yet to... bring about a formal resolution", a source in the office of the president told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A coalition of opposition presidential candidates on Tuesday urged Farmajo to vacate his office immediately and called for "an urgent investigation and legal charges against Farmajo and anyone who helped him in staging the coup".
"This failed coup was an attempt to destroy the constitutional agencies of the country", the coalition said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2021 00:00 ||
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#2
Hey, I know! Let's take sides in a conflict that doesn't involve us! Then, let's bomb the other side and cause a catastrophe! We can make the situation much, much worse by intervening, so let's do it!
Plus all those bombs and fighter hours aren't free. It will make a mint for the military-industrial complex! It's win-win!
#3
Black-hawk Down was a vivid insight into this dumpster fire of a "country". Stay out, for heavens sake, there is nothing there worth one dime of American treasure or one paper-cut of American blood!!!!
Libyan Presidential candidate, Suleiman al-Bayoudi called on the Libyan people to take "revolutionary action and restore the country from the rule of the traitorous minority."Al-Bayoudi claimed that the Libyan Parliament "fired a bullet of mercy" at the rest of Libya, referring to the postponement of the Presidential elections, which were supposed to be held on 24 December.
"The media outlets of traitors and agents will start to convince you (the citizens) that your absence to go to the polls was for the sake of Libya," he added.
Al-Bayoudi said that "agents of foreign embassies had defeated the will of the people," and that UN advisor Stephanie Williams would "impose her deal on the Libyans."
"The time has come for revolutionary action and to restore Libya from international tutelage and the rule of the traitorous and hired minority," he said.
The postponement of the elections, which were seen as the only way out of the current crisis has polarised public opinion.
Observers warned that delaying the elections could drag the country into war again, given the presence of armed militias controlling the majority of the country.
Some snuffies promote the theory of "demolition and reconstruction" as the best solution to the nation’s problem, while the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... and the international community are seeking to solve the Libyan crisis politically and "resort to ballot boxes, not ammunition boxes."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2021 00:00 ||
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The United Nations special envoy for #Yemen has strongly condemned #SaudiArabia’s military escalation against various targets across the impoverished country, including the capital Sana’a.https://t.co/4hljco9Nun
[Breitbart] Three Islamic federations have agreed to sign the French government’s proposed "Charter of Principles of Islam of La Belle France" after resisting signing the document for at least a year.
The Ottoman Turkish federations of the Coordination Committee of Ottoman TurkishMoslems of La Belle France (CCMTF), Millî Görus, and the Faith and Practice movement released a joint statement this week saying they would sign the document, which aims to get the groups to renounce political Islam and end foreign interference in French Moslem life.
The groups agreed to sign the charter after French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced earlier in the month that the French Council of Moslem Worship (CFCM) was "dead" following a breakdown of dialogue between the CFCM and the French government, BFMTV reports.
"Today the CFCM, that is to say, the representation of consular Islam — Moroccans, Algerians — is dead. The CFCM, for the public authorities, for the French Republic, no longer exists, is no longer the interlocutor of the Republic," Darmanin said.
Last November the CFCM had been given two weeks by the government of President Emmanuel Macron to agree to sign the values charter, with the French president telling the groups, "There will be those who sign and those who will not sign. We’ll learn from it. Either you are with the Republic or you are not with the Republic."
While several groups eventually agreed to sign the charter, the CCMTF, Millî Görus and Faith and Practice all stated in February that they would reject signing and outlined their own proposed amendments and issues with the document, such as rejecting terms like "Islam of La Belle France."
"The different religious conceptions that would arise from it would then be considered as different religions. Thus, the concept of ’Islam of La Belle France’, inducing a distinction from Islam at the national level, would not be a valid denomination," the three groups said at the time.
The groups had also questioned the term "political Islam" saying, "Some definitions have been put forward, but they are extremely problematic, sometimes criminalising religious practices that are part of the common foundation of Islam and which are guaranteed by the Constitution."
The values charter is part of President Macron’s long term goals to reform Islam in La Belle France, something President Macron has spoken about since at least 2018 when he vowed to reform major Islamic bodies as well as the training of imams in La Belle France.
Following the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty last year by a Chechen refugee, the French government has moved to crack down on radical mosques, closing several mosques over the last year and investigating dozens of others.
[IsraelTimes] Talks are their second in recent months; Gantz says they spoke of fighting terror, while Abbas adviser says they discussed creating a ’horizon’ for peace.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz hosted Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase.... at his home in Rosh Ha’ayin on Tuesday night. It marked the first time the Paleostinian leader held talks with a senior Israeli official in Israel since 2010.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Customers of Chinese e-commerce sites get text messages saying deliveries to halt in January, reportedly because PA postal service will only deliver packages with ’Paleostine’ label.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group may stop delivering goods ordered through its AliExpress service to Palestinian cities in the West Bank, according to an Israeli television report.
Channel 12 news reported Monday that Palestinians who ordered products through AliExpress and other online retailers in China have received text messages saying shipments to areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority will cease in January.
“Dear customer… starting from January 1, 2022, parcels from Israel will not be able to be delivered to Palestine,” the text messages read, according to a screenshot.
Haredi author accused of sexual abuse found dead in apparent suicide
Citing unnamed sources involved in the matter, the network said the change was due to the policy of the Palestine Post — the PA’s postal service — to have customers write “Palestine” as the destination country rather than Israel. Many Palestinians are reportedly unaware of the policy and thus write Israel.
The sources also claimed the Palestine Post was refusing to process packages that had Israel listed as the destination.
The report said Chinese sites decided to completely halt deliveries to Palestinian towns because the confusion was not worthwhile in light of the relatively low number of orders from there.
“This is an announcement intended for residents of the Palestinian Authority and is connected to arrangements for package deliveries between online commerce companies abroad and the Palestinian Authority,” the Israel Postal Company said.
Despite the announcement by AliExpress, the report said talks between unidentified parties were being held in a bid to resolve the matter.
[IsraelTimes] Latakia fires doused hours after alleged Israeli attack; in visit to air force base, Gantz urges countries in region to stop letting Tehran stream weapons through their territory
Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned Iran ...The nation is 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... on Tuesday that Israel will not allow it to spread "game-changing" weaponry to its proxies in the region, hours after the Israeli military reportedly struck arms shipped from Iran in Syria’s Latakia port.
"I call on all countries of the region to stop Iran’s harm to their illusory sovereignty and to their citizens. Israel will not allow Iran to stream game-changing weapons to its proxies and to threaten our citizens," he said.
Israel has not officially acknowledged conducting the strike earlier this morning. Syria says the attack was carried out by Israeli warplanes over the Mediterranean. The bombardment caused massive secondary explosions at the port, possibly as the Israeli missiles detonated munitions. Fires at the scene lasted for long hours.
Gantz made the comments during a visit to the Ramat David Airbase, which is home to a number of F-16 fighter jet squadrons. He said the air force and other armed branches were "completing a year of significant operational activity."
"This year too we have acted against threats on various fronts, all of them fueled by Iran, which is the greatest enemy to my nation and to the residents of the Middle East," Gantz said.
The defense minister called on Syria to stop Iran from operating within its borders, saying the IDF would continue to act as needed to thwart Tehran’s activities.
Firefighters eventually contained a blaze that raged for hours in Syria’s port, officials said.
Syrian officials and state media said the attack caused more damage and the earth-shattering kaboom could be heard miles away. Syrian air defenses were activated when the missiles started to fall on the terminal at around 3:20 am, state media reported.
A military official said Israeli missiles were fired from the sea, west of Latakia, hitting the terminal and igniting fires that caused major damage. The unidentified official quoted by the official state news agency SANA said firefighters battled the flames after the attack.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the missile attack, according to SANA.
Syria’s state-run al-Ikhbariyah TV ran footage showing flames and smoke rising from the terminal. It later aired images of broken glass and other damage at residential buildings and cars parked in the area near the port. It said a nearby hospital was also impacted.
Maj. Mohannad Jafaar, head of the Latakia fire department, said 12 fire trucks worked for hours to contain the fire. He said the containers that were hit held spare auto parts and oil, but there were no casualties. Footage from the area showed large black plumes of smoke over the port as various fires burned around the terminal.
It was the second alleged Israeli strike in Latakia this month.
Port manager Amjad Suleiman told al-Ikhbariyah the damage was much larger than that caused by the December 7 attack and required a major effort to move intact containers away from the flames.
At the time of the December 7 attack, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said the Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... hit arms shipments destined for Iran-backed fighters.
While the IDF declined to comment then as well, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi later boasted of success in disrupting weapons shipments to Israel’s enemies in the region in a year-end statement issued by the military on Tuesday.
"The increase in the scope of operations over the past year has led to a significant disruption of the movement of weapons into the various arenas by our enemies," he said. The statement did not elaborate.
In its year-end assessment, the Israeli military confirmed carrying out strikes on dozens of targets in Syria in what it called "the campaign between the wars." Three targets also were struck in Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years. It produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. That's three statements. Only the first is subjective.... , it said. It gave no further details.
It also reported about 100 operations by the Israeli Navy, including dozens of "special operations." It did not elaborate, but the navy operates in both the Mediterranean and Red seas. Some past strikes have targeted the main airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Pictures released by SANA showed firefighters training hoses on stacks of blazing containers that lit up the night sky.
The news agency said the containers were carrying “engine oil and spare parts for cars and other vehicles.”
But Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says the cargo was “arms and munitions,” which had detonated in “powerful explosions that were felt across the city of Latakia and its suburbs.”
Syria’s state-run al-Ikhbariyah TV ran footage showing flames and smoke rising from the terminal. It reported damage to nearby residential buildings, a hospital, shops and some tourist sites near the port.
[IsraelTimes] Russia is signaling its unhappiness over a strike attributed to Israel on Syria’s Latakia port overnight.
While steering clear of confirming Israel carried out the strike, Moscow says that such attacks are "very worrying" for Syria after a decade of brutal conflict.
"We don’t think that any situations of this kind contribute to the stability of the Middle East or the situation in Syria," says Russia’s deputy representative at the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... , Dmitry Polyanskiy.
"We never conceal that we do not approve of such behavior," he told news hounds, adding that Russia would address concerns bilaterally with Israel.
The strike hit a container yard thought to house Iranian weapons shipments, in a part of Syria where Russia maintains its main naval base in the region.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, though its not known if Syria and Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... were among the topics discussed.
The call came immediately after Lavrov spoke to Syrian foreign minister Faysal Mekdad.
[An Nahar] What softened an expected "explosive" presidential speech is a meeting that took place late Sunday between Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... chief Jebran Bassil and Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... coordination official Wafiq Safa, sources said.Informed sources told the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal, in remarks published Tuesday, that the meeting, that lasted till Monday morning, made President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... ’s criticism less harsh.
Aoun was reportedly going to "call things by their name," but ended up criticizing Hizbullah and Amal without naming them.
Aoun in his televised speech Monday used vague suggestions instead of naming the Shiite duo, "so as not to anger Hizbullah, his main ally in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections," the sources said.
The sources went on to say that the Bayada talks "revived the (2006) Mar Mikhael understanding" between the FPM and Hizbullah.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!... Bassil’s scheduled presser on January 2 will "take a different direction," the sources said. "It will be very convenient for Hizbullah."
FPM MP Mario Aoun denied a link between the president’s words and the Safa-Bassil meeting. He said that "he heard from the President exactly what he had expected."
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... the politician added that the meeting might have an impact on Bassil’s position regarding his disagreements with Hizbullah.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2021 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
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[An Nahar] Prime Minister Najib Miqati said Tuesday that he has signed a decree calling for parliamentary elections to be held in May and has referred it to President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... ."I believe that the President will sign it too," Miqati added, at a presser.
The Prime Minister said that the elections can rectify the political path, stressing that "we shouldn't waste this opportunity."
"We are responsible for holding the elections on time," he stated.
On another note, Miqati refused to endorse "any settlement at the expense of institutions." He said he won't "bargain Cabinet meetings' resumption for any settlement that is unacceptable for the Lebanese, the families of the port victims and the world."
"I'm the one seeking the resumption of Cabinet sessions the most," Miqati said, adding that he wouldn't hesitate to resign, if his resignation is the solution.
The only solution, according to the Prime Minister, is "to hold on to an independent judiciary and to international legitimacy," instead of sectarianism.
Concerning the Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...a strong argument in favor of European colonialism, even French colonialism... -Gulf crisis, Miqati said that Lebanon should strengthen its relations with the Gulf and "we should not interfere in matters that do not concern us."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2021 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
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[An Nahar] Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... , who was expecting a harsher attack from President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... , had asked his officials not to hit back, Amal sources said.The sources told al-Akhbar newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that Berri "prohibited" all officials in his movement from "starting arguments" with the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... , in response to Aoun’s speech.
"That’s unless Aoun criticized him in person," the sources went on to say. In this case, Berri would respond himself, according to the sources.
"The speech came up less than expected, and different from what has been promoted," Amal sources stated.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!... the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal said that the Shiite duo’s circles refrained from commenting on Aoun’s speech, considering that "it is not convenient to respond" because Aoun neither named nor specially targeted the Shiite duo. "Aoun rather critized a corrupt system, in general."
The duo’s circles also said that the defense strategy and the administrative and financial decentralization that Aoun talked about "do not bother us at all," adding that they will be "the first to participate in these meetings if they happen."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2021 00:00 ||
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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 nation is noted for 
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
Najib Miqati
...a strong argument in favor of European colonialism, even French colonialism...
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
