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French authorities arrest ‘Godfather of Belgian Jihad’ for sending fighters to Syria
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Home Front: Politix
The Conspiracy Theory That Says Trump Is a Genius--NYTs
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/06/2018 13:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11148 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When a good liberal like Roseanne Barr has a winning television show showing familY members with opposing politics getting along, she must be destroyed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Personally he just reveal how stupid the MSM really is.

Is revealing the opposition is dumb the work of genius? Probably.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Know thy enemy by what she or he writes in the NYTs.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/06/2018 15:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Given he's in the Stupid Party, it's all sort of relative isn't it?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2018 16:18 Comments || Top||


Government
Arrest warrant issued for Brazil ex-President Lula da Silva
[AL JAZEERA]Brazil's former president has until Friday 20:00 GMT to turn himself in to start serving a 12-year sentence.

A Brazilian judge has issued an arrest warrant for Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva, giving the once wildly popular ex-president until 5pm local time (20:00 GMT) on Friday to turn himself in.

Federal Judge Sergio Moro issued the warrant on Thursday evening, less than a day after the country's Supreme Court denied a request for habeas corpus from Lula da Silva who appealed a January court ruling that saw him sentenced to 12 years in prison on corruption charges.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/06/2018 12:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11144 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...Wasn't this the dude who Blamed Us For Everything(TM) the other day? Amazing how quickly Karma catches up with you.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/06/2018 17:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ex-top CIA official: Brennan is doing Putin's 'bidding' by speculating about Trump blackmail
[Michael Isikoff at Yahoo] A former top CIA official who served as the agency’s station chief in Moscow is sharply criticizing his former boss, John Brennan, accusing him of doing Vladimir Putin’s "bidding" through his harsh attacks on President Trump.

In an interview on the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery," CIA veteran Daniel Hoffman charged that Brennan’s public comments and tweets in recent weeks have played into Putin’s hands, helping the Russian leader stoke political divisions within the country and thereby undermine U.S. national security.

"I don’t think we’ve ever seen something like this," said Hoffman about Brennan’s public comments about the president. "Gosh, I can’t remember ever seeing an instance of this in our history where a retired director of the CIA went as far as he did."

In an interview on the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery," CIA veteran Daniel Hoffman charged that Brennan’s public comments and tweets in recent weeks have played into Putin’s hands, helping the Russian leader stoke political divisions within the country and thereby undermine U.S. national security.

"I don’t think we’ve ever seen something like this," said Hoffman about Brennan’s public comments about the president. "Gosh, I can’t remember ever seeing an instance of this in our history where a retired director of the CIA went as far as he did."

Hoffman was reacting to a series of tweets and public statements the former CIA director has made in recent weeks after signing a contract to be a commentator for NBC News.

In one tweet on March 17, Brennan reacted to Trump’s apparent gloating about the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (the president called it a "a great day for Democracy") by writing about the president: "When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history."

Then, in a March 21 appearance on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," Brennan said of Trump: "I think he is afraid of the president of Russia. One could speculate as to why. The Russians may have something on him personally that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult."

Brennan declined to comment for this story. But shortly after his "Morning Joe" comments, he emphasized to the New York Times that he had no hard evidence that the Russians had blackmail material on Trump, notwithstanding the contents of a still-uncorroborated dossier prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele making similar allegations. "I do not know if the Russians have something on Donald Trump that they could use as blackmail," he told the Times.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 12:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I don’t think we’ve ever seen something like this," said Hoffman about Brennan’s public comments about the president. "Gosh, I can’t remember ever seeing an instance of this in our history where a retired director of the CIA went as far as he did."

It's not just the onerous, Deep State puppet master Brennan, it's Clapper, Hayden, and a number of other former directors and senior intelligence community wonks.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 12:27 Comments || Top||

#2  I love the irony of Brennan inadvertently working as Putin's stooge. And by 'Brennan', I mean all those bastages.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/06/2018 12:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Well yeah. They're fueling separatism and anti-togetherness. They don't give a shit if they hurt America as long as they get to take shots at Trump.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 04/06/2018 15:43 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan seeks bailout from China and Saudis, rather than the IMF
[Atimes] Officials have sought financial help from Beijing and Riyadh instead of the International Monetary Fund to manage the country's grim economic position.
Pakistan plans to seek financial assistance from China and Saudi Arabia to get out of the grave financial crisis it faces to bridge the country’s external account deficit ahead of budgetary proposals for the 2018-19 fiscal year.

A well-placed source in the Ministry of Finance told Asia Times that instead of approaching the International Monetary Funds (IMF) for a bailout, officials have proposed that the government ask wealthy friends such as China and Saudi Arabia to help Pakistan overcome its dire economic situation.

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Miftah Ismail confirmed last week that the government contacted friendly countries for assistance to get the economy back on track at a time when preparations are already underway for budget proposals for the next fiscal year.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/06/2018 12:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Talks over Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) FAIL.
[EgyptToday]A round of discussions over the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan in Khartoum has failed, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the press on Friday.

Shoukry headed a delegation to Khartoum on Wednesday to attend the ninth meeting to continue talks to ease Egypt’s concerns over the controversial dam.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister said no agreement was reached after 18 hours of talks; he added that officials touched on all the outstanding issues that led to such controversy.

The meetings were resumed after a four-month hiatus due to a disagreement over technical issues related to the dam’s impact on the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan.

Shoukry also described the talks as “transparent, but did not lead to actual results.” However, he added that the government will seek to resolve this issue within 30 days.

Construction of the $4 billion dam started in April 2011, triggering tension with Egypt, which has voiced concerns over the dam negatively affecting its water share of the Nile river, a sacred symbol of the Egyptian civilization.

It was expected to be inaugurated in 2017, however, only 60 percent of the dam has been built so farm according to Ethiopian press reports.

The dam is believed to affect Egypt’s agriculture, and will contradict its 87 percent of the Nile’s flow, according to treaties that date back to 1929.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/06/2018 11:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11145 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unless an agreement is reached, a 'surprise' strike on the dam to restore historic water flows is probably already being planned...
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 04/06/2018 21:27 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Watch live: Protesters hold mass tire burning on Gaza border
Live video feed from the border and some photos can be seen at the link. Report as of 14:22 Israel time, which I think is 8:22 a.m. EDT. The Jerusalem Post is liveblogging events with more photos and videos here.
[Ynet] Despite relatively paltry turnout compared to last Friday's inaugural protest, Paleostinian protesters near Gazoo border begin burning tires in earnest after conclusion of Friday prayers; Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, bigwig Mahmoud a-Zahar visits protesters, declares, 'If Israel struck deep within the strip, Hamas will retaliate by striking deep at the heart of settlements'; IS accuses Hamas of sending activists to border but failing to intervene when Israel fired on them.

Precisely a week after last Friday's Land Day protests and mass riots, Hamas's Great March of Return campaign reaches its second apex Friday with tires beginning to be burned in what has been dubbed the "Friday of the Tires" with Paleostinians burning tires in five points of conflagration along the Gazoo Strip border since morning. At the conclusion of Friday's prayers, the number of tires protesters burned increased and thick smoke covered most of the protest's centers.

The number of protesters, however, was initially small. Watch the live feed from the Gazoo border below.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 10:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Gaza's wall of smoke
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 12:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Where is GreenPeace?
Posted by: 3dc || 04/06/2018 13:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Is this a fund raiser?

I'm sure California and Al Gore could work out a carbon credit exchange for them...
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/06/2018 14:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Can they burn the mosques as well?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:42 Comments || Top||

#5  I hear FIRE-Stones are the preferred Gaza burners.
Posted by: Airandee || 04/06/2018 20:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Bunch of polluters. Zero money for Gaza. Not one cent. Never again. They and their tire fires are toxic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/06/2018 20:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Dem Sen Kamala Harris Jokes About Killing Trump, Pence, Sessions
[Breitbart] Thursday on "The Ellen Show," Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) joked about killing President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, or Attorney General Jeff Sessions if they were in an elevator together.

During a rapid fire question "vetting," host Ellen DeGeneres asked, "If you had to be stuck on an elevator with either President Trump, Mike Pence, or Jeff Sessions, who would it be?"

Harris quipped, "Does one of us have to come out alive?"
Degenerate does the 'set up', Harris the slam-dunk.
DeGeneres put down her cards to clap as Harris laughed.

Will anyone bother to file a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee? Of course not. That would be.... well, you know.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 07:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11148 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hahahaha. Oh, wait. Will this come back to bite me when I run for Prez in 2020?
Posted by: SteveS || 04/06/2018 8:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Still working on her liberal street creds I see...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/06/2018 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  How many convicts have shouted "I didn't mean it!" while being dragged the last mile?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 8:21 Comments || Top||

#4  If rule of law still existed this Botch would be sitting in small room getting interrogated by the Secret Service for about 14 hours. Possibly even charged and tried.
Posted by: Wheater Stalin8214 || 04/06/2018 12:42 Comments || Top||

#5  If she was a Republican you would hear this trumpeted 24/7 until she resigned.

Keep it up bitch. It will come around and bite you.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/06/2018 13:48 Comments || Top||

#6  She represents the fascist state of Kalifornia. California is the home of the Governator; now we have the Kaliforniacator?
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/06/2018 15:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Why Does The Left Get A Pass On Anti-Semitism?
[The Federalist] This week, an assemblywoman from Brooklyn ‐ the New York City borough with approximately 2.7 million people, not some far-flung hamlet in flyover country ‐ went on an near-hour-long rant in which she accused Jews of conspiring to gentrify her district and steal her home. In the midst of this outburst, Diane Richardson reportedly referred to one of her rivals as the "the Jewish senator from southern Brooklyn."

This incident comes not long after a DC Council member named Trayon White Sr., a Democrat who represents the Eighth Ward of the capital of the free world in the twenty-first century, posted a video offering some of his thoughts on how "the Rothschilds" were controlling the climate to squeeze money out of the oppressed.

Both of these people have been treated as raving lunatics, which they might very well be. But a person could easily imagine the fate of any elected official in a large city had he or she aimed similar conspiracies at African-American neighbors. We would almost assuredly be plunged into a national conversation about the shameful bigotry that plagues our cities.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 07:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11140 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A purely rhetorical question.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  What don't they get a pass on?
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/06/2018 11:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Rex Mundi is right — they get a pass on Jooo-hatred, and the soft bigotry of low expectations expressed in racism, misogyny, and too many programs for the poor and handicapped.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 14:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Exactly. Why does the Left get a pass on everything?
Posted by: Clem || 04/06/2018 15:04 Comments || Top||


Britain
Khan's London: Lead Surgeon Says Hospital Like Afghan War Zone, Two More Killed Overnight
[Breitbart Londonistan] Hospitals in Mayor Sadiq Khan’s London resemble those in a war zone, a senior surgeon working to save victims of the capital’s surging violent crime wave has said.

The shock comments made Thursday morning come after two more men were killed overnight, a couple of days after another night of violence saw a boy, 16, stabbed to death and a 17-year-old girl shot in a "drive by".

Wednesday night’s killings, both in Hackney, East London, brought the death toll from suspected murder in the capital to 50 so far this year, pulling away from New York City, which London overtook at the weekend.

Dr. Mark Griffiths, the lead surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust in East London, said that knife and gun wounds had moved from a "niche" part of his job to a daily chunk of his workload, and a growing number of victims were "children".
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 07:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11144 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One can't possibly build an Islamic utopia with all of these white people and elderly pensioners milling about. Social change can be traumatic. Yes necessary, but traumatic. They'll eventually all move off, you'll see.

[sarc off]
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 7:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Like Chicago and Baltimore the real culprits can't be adjudged. It's so racist.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2018 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Wow. You bring in people from war zones, and your city begins to resemble a war zone. Whodathunkit?
(Some people might see a cause and effect process here, but that's badthink.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/06/2018 8:36 Comments || Top||

#4  You bring in people from war zones, and your city begins to resemble a war zone. Whodathunkit?
AFAICT, the world has been at war since 1914. Several generations have now spent their entire lives living with the consequences. It was bad enough before the no-borders advocates starting mixing up the "children of violence."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/06/2018 15:51 Comments || Top||

#5  At what point do the people of Britain defy their government and take matters into their own hands?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/06/2018 18:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Masters of the Universe Town Hall: Schweizer Explains ‘You Don't Know What Information You're Not Getting' in the News
Excerpt:
[Breitbart] “When you first look at Google on the surface, it’s a great company. They give you this incredible search capability, this access to information basically for free, in the sense that you’re not paying a fee for it, but what you always have to keep in mind, the old saying, ‘The extent for which they can do something for you, they can do something to you,’ and then the question becomes is what are Google’s goals and ends?” claimed Schweizer. “We know they’re a business, we know these guys have become fabulously wealthy, that is certainly part of their goal. There’s a business, they want to make money, but there’s always been lurking this sort of Utopian sense of social mission. However you want to define it, that Google has.”

"We’ve had glimpses of it, but we don’t have a full picture," he continued, adding, "There’s no question they’re manipulating us. The question is why. Some of it, of course, is to monetize, but the other part of it resembles this sort of social mission, this desire to steer us into directions that we may not want to go. To get us to embrace certain ideas or our children to embrace certain ideas and values that they think are important, and the manner in which they do that is precisely what we’ve been discussing."
A true knowledge and awareness 'deep dive.' You don't know what you don't know. Who knew ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 06:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11131 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I know it sounds ridiculous, but you don't suppose there could be some sort of link between knowledge and power.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 7:21 Comments || Top||

#2  When there's no charge for using a product? You're the monetized product
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2018 7:36 Comments || Top||

#3  So. You've been sold. There's a word for that...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 8:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Google and company are just picking up where the MSM left off once the internet removed them from their role as gatekeepers of info.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/06/2018 12:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Cause the death spiral in Caracas is covered nightly, right? Ssshhhh....don't mention socialism. How's that one payer health plan working in the land of abundant oil?

Journalism, covering a story, with a pillow till it dies.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2018 12:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Companies like bureaucrats should serve not lead.

The internet has a habit of routing around censorship. I no longer read MSM drivel for instance.
I often use Brave and DDG for browser and search.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:39 Comments || Top||


Economy
Why we need social housing in the US
[Guardian] The debate about how to resolve our nation’s housing crisis is stuck in a frustrating rut. One side of the divide, calling themselves yimbys (Yes in my back yard), say we should allow private developers to build more housing units. On the other side of the divide are anti-gentrification campaigners who maintain that unleashed private developers will construct luxury housing that pushes up neighborhood rents and displaces local residents.

What makes this debate so intractable is that both sides have a point. The only way to fit more people into an area is to build more housing units. This is just how physical reality works. At the same time, we have seen neighborhoods across the country change rapidly after an initial stage of new developments or amenities made living in the surrounding housing units more attractive to affluent renters. Adding luxury housing units can bring down the rents of an overall region while simultaneously raising them in a specific neighborhood, causing displacement.

There is a solution to this impasse though. In a paper released by People’s Policy Project (3P) on Thursday, my colleagues Peter Gowan and Ryan Cooper propose that municipal governments across the country build millions of units of social housing. An influx of publicly owned, efficiently built apartments would add to the housing supply while minimizing the displacement risks caused by luxury developments.

Under the 3P proposal, municipalities would finance the construction of new housing through municipal bond markets, loans from the federal government, and federal grants that mirror those already provided under the low-income housing tax credit program. The buildings themselves would be erected by construction companies through the same process that cities use to build libraries and other public facilities. Once constructed, the management of the new housing units could be done either through a public authority or by contracting with a property management company.

Expanding the housing supply through this social housing approach has many benefits over private, market-led development.

About the author - Matt Bruenig is currently the president of People's Policy Project (3P). Bruenig previously worked as a lawyer at the National Labor Relations Board and as a policy analyst at the Demos Think Tank. His prior work primarily focused on inequality, poverty, and welfare systems.
Yes, the author is probably a communist.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 06:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11149 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why we need social housing in the US

Because it has worked so well in the past? East German, Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis public housing models are the most equitable? Firearm sales need a boost? The clustering of the unemployed actually helps them gain employment? 'Identity politics' is the key to the future ?

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 6:34 Comments || Top||

#2  publicly owned, efficiently built apartments

Turn the oxymoron dial to 11 +.

2 words: Cabrini Green
Posted by: AlanC || 04/06/2018 8:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Army of the poor. Still an army. There's an amendment that covers that....
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 8:23 Comments || Top||

#4  2 words: Cabrini Green

I'll raise you to three: Grove Parc Plaza (link) - Operated by the Habitat Company who's CEO was Valory Jarret. Even the Boston Globe found it a stunning failure.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/06/2018 8:48 Comments || Top||

#5  California has some kind of law that says they must have so many units of affordable housing for so many population or something like that, but there is a carbon-credit style loophole that allows rich communities to pay another community to house their poor for them. My city, Carlsbad has earned extra money by building such housing on behalf of La Jolla (really wealthy) and Rancho Santa Fe (also really wealthy).

It's a great idea for the budget of Carlsbad, but I went to a crime mapping website one day and found all of the crimes in Carlsbad seem to cluster around the housing complex near my home. Mostly domestic type stuff but a number of car break-ins.

I imagine if the housing was free it would be even worse.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/06/2018 10:12 Comments || Top||

#6  val jar slumlord extraordinaire, claws in many, many places and BACKS in shitcago. I guess you could call the iranian, the shitown hustler "HO"
Posted by: ranture || 04/06/2018 10:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Carlsbad. I used to go there. After work we always went to Del Mar where the officers lived. Nice area.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/06/2018 11:11 Comments || Top||

#8  You can bet your bottom dollar that whenever somebody starts talking about affordable housing they are working some sort of a scam.

They've been talking about it here in San Diego County for as long as I can remember and that's a long, long time. They've been building as fast as they can all that time and the cost of housing continues to skyrocket. A house around the corner from me just went on the market for over a million dollars. In 1994 that same house sold for a little over $200,000. That is in spite of a building boom that has transformed vast rural areas into suburban sprawl with corresponding over crowding and degradation of the quality of life for people who already live here.

The developers get rich on the backs of illegal alien labor and they bribe local pols. Everything they say is a lie.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/06/2018 11:31 Comments || Top||

#9  I actually visited this place with a number of senior Nixon Admin HUD officials. Colossal mistake as a policy matter.

https://amp.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/22/pruitt-igoe-high-rise-urban-america-history-cities
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 04/06/2018 11:46 Comments || Top||

#10  I agree - just build it in New Mexico or some such.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 12:19 Comments || Top||

#11  See 'Teletubbie'.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 12:23 Comments || Top||

#12  @Abu Uluque

All that's gone up is the cost of land(cost of land/average wages), a negative for the economy...

And in part because the central bank works for the benefit of the establishment. Just like they do with subsidized migration.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:25 Comments || Top||

#13  Still lots of cheap vacant land in the Dakotas. Small towns there are evaporating as the young leave for greener pasture$. Dirt is cheap, except in the popular areas.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/06/2018 15:59 Comments || Top||

#14  I imagine if the housing was free it would be even worse

Look at the crime maps in the neighborhoods around Section 8 housing (either clustered or individual). Usually pretty depressing.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/06/2018 16:19 Comments || Top||

#15  Those who have not studied history are doomed to repeat it.
Posted by: KBK || 04/06/2018 17:53 Comments || Top||

#16  Cluster the super-poor together and you can create a Democrat enclave in an otherwise red city.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/06/2018 18:35 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
FB sent a doctor on a secret mission to ask hospitals to share patient data (opens to video)
[CNBC] Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment.

The proposal never went past the planning phases and has been put on pause after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal raised public concerns over how Facebook and others collect and use detailed information about Facebook users.

"This work has not progressed past the planning phase, and we have not received, shared, or analyzed anyone's data," a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.

But as recently as last month, the company was talking to several health organizations, including Stanford Medical School and American College of Cardiology, about signing the data-sharing agreement.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 02:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Courtesy of the Mark 'We are the new CIA' Zukerberg, CEO of Facebook of course.
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 04/06/2018 2:19 Comments || Top||

#2  The DNA Trials proposal never went past the planning phases and has been put on pause after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal raised public concerns.....

Representatives from the NSA data center at Camp Williams and Ancestry.com in Lehi, Utah declined to be interviewed.

The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a national trade association representing wholesale distributors of opioids had no comment as well.

[sarc off]

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 2:25 Comments || Top||

#3  "Facebook reportedly intended to compare the data, which included prescription information and illnesses, with its own data that it collected from users, in order to flag users that may need hospital care."
Posted by: 3dc || 04/06/2018 5:43 Comments || Top||

#4  that may need hospital care."


Or should be reported to the NICS for SWAT raids.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/06/2018 7:49 Comments || Top||

#5  There are federal laws against doing this without the patient's consent, but then, as far as FB and the rest of the Silicon Billionaire Scum are concerned, it doesn't matter.

I wonder what would happen if I posted this to my facebook page? The one I haven't gone to in many months?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/06/2018 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Those laws do not apply if the data is 'anonymized'. That is any patient identification is removed (or scrambled). I guess there are some pretty rigid requirements as to how that is done and you have to be 'certified'.

Take that masses of data and apply analytics and you can come up with some corralations. For example that a large number of pregnancy tests insurance claims were being rejected because the patients were.... male.

Of course you have to ask yourself - What does Facebook know about healthcare? The answer is not much. And you have to wonder how 'open-ended' their use is.

Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/06/2018 11:04 Comments || Top||

#7  What does Facebook know about healthcare?

FB knows enough to determine a pregger insurance claimant is susceptible to prenatal vitamin marketing, and later 'huggies' then stupid little headbows and formula.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 12:14 Comments || Top||

#8  What does Facebook know about healthcare?

Facebook doesn't have to know anything about healthcare. Big Pharma and Obamacare will provide all the necessary key words and phrases.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 12:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Frightening!
Posted by: borgboy || 04/06/2018 14:20 Comments || Top||

#10  If they are trying to marry up FB behavior with individual health records, there HAS to be a violation of confidentiality of the health record.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/06/2018 14:51 Comments || Top||

#11  Conspiracy by FB to violate HIPAA laws?
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/06/2018 18:10 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Largest Batch of US Deportees Arrive in Cambodia
[AnNahar] Forty-three Cambodians deported by the United States arrived in Phnom Penh on Thursday, the largest batch yet under a controversial deal that enables America to expel legal residents with criminal records.

More than 600 US-based Cambodian convicts have been forcibly returned to the Southeast Asian country since 2002.

Many were war refugees who were raised in the states and now arrive as strangers in their homeland, severed from relatives in the US and unable to speak the local language.

Cambodia said last year it wanted to rewrite the agreement, which it criticised as a "double punishment" for deportees who are shipped back after serving sentences in US jails.

In protest of the arrangement, Cambodia delayed processing paperwork for returnees for several months.

But it began cooperating again after the US retaliated by levying visa sanctions against senior foreign ministry officials in September.

The new arrivals landed at Phnom Penh's airport on Thursday morning and were whisked away in police vans to an immigration department, a senior immigration official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"They arrived at 7:45 am this morning," he said.

Later on most were taken to an NGO that helps provide housing and job support for deportees, known colloquially as "Khmericans", in Phnom Penh.

The group, which is the largest to arrive in one batch in 15 years, were flown in from the US in shackles, said Bill Herod, an American who works with the Khmer Vulnerability Aid Organisation (KVAO).

"It's been an unbelievably difficult experience (for the group)," he told AFP, slamming the repatriation policy as "unjust and unfair".

"These people don't have any real connection to Cambodia. Their parents are from Cambodia but they are Americans socially, they eat American food, they listen to American music."

Most of the Khmericans were newborns and toddlers when their families fled the Khmer Rouge, which killed or starved to death nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population in the late 1970s.

It wasn't until 1996, years after they arrived as refugees in America, that the US passed laws mandating the deportation of greencard-holders convicted of felonies.

Some are swooped up years after they have been released from prison and returned to normal life.

Over the past year US authorities have ramped up immigration raids under 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...
, whose administration has taken a hardline stance on expelling criminals and undocumented migrants colonists.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 01:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Big Surprise! Somebody does not want their criminals back.

And someone please tell the author that millions of illegal and legal immigrants arrive as strangers to America every year; evan unaccompanied children.
Posted by: Airandee || 04/06/2018 3:32 Comments || Top||

#2  No sympathy for the Americans harmed by their crimes. Typical.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 04/06/2018 15:41 Comments || Top||


Africa North
French, Malian troops kill 30 insurgents in Mali gun battle
[AlAhram] French and Malian troops killed about 30 Islamist murderous Moslems during a gunbattle in a region near the border with Niger, where 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....
(IS) gunnies are known to be active, the French army said on Thursday.

West Africa's arid Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
has seen a rise in violence by murderous Moslem groups, some with links to al Qaeda and IS, that is drawing an increasingly aggressive response from countries including La Belle France and the United States.

It was a Mali-based al Qaeda affiliate, Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Moslemin (JNIM), that grabbed credit for a March 2 assault on the French Embassy and army headquarters in Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
's capital that killed eight people.

Colonel Patrik Steiger said soldiers from La Belle France's Barkhane force and Malian troops were on a reconnaissance mission 90 km (56 miles) south of Menaka on Sunday when they encountered several dozen Islamist fighters, some on cycle of violences.

A number of Malian soldiers died in the ensuing gunbattle, Steiger said, without giving more details. No French troops were hurt.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 01:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State in the Greater Sahara

#1  [Long Wars] French forces confirm joint operation against Islamic State-loyal militants

Earlier today the French military confirmed its forces took part in a large-scale joint operation on April 1 against Islamic State-loyal militants in northern Mali, close to the border with Niger.

According to RFI, a French military spokesman said that “French commandos and Malian forces began a ‘reconnaissance and control operation’ in the Akabar region” on March 28, “working in liaison with the Nigerien army and a local self-defense group.” The combined forces came into contact with militants from the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) on April 1. The following gunfight left at least 30 jihadists dead, according to the French spokesman.

The incident was first reported by the Tuareg alliance of the Imghad and Allies Self Defense Movement (GATIA) and the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), both encompassing the aforementioned “local self-defense group.” In its statement, the alliance confirmed two separate clashes with ISGS militants and that at least 20 jihadists were killed.

This is not the first time French special forces have conducted a joint operation with the Tuareg groups against ISGS militants. On Feb. 22, the groups first clashed with the jihadists in a renewed offensive. RFI later reported that French troops coordinated with the Tuaregs in the battle.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 2:05 Comments || Top||

#2  The French have quietly taken on the responsibility to fight jihadis in several of their former colonies. How effective they are, I have no idea, because all I see is occasional reports like these.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 14:03 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey: Deputy PM touts success of MIT's Gulen dragnet
[DW] Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag says Turkey's National Intelligence Organization has nabbed about 80 citizens in covert operations in 18 countries. He accused the people captured of links to the 2016 coup attempt.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told Haberturk television that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has captured 80 citizens accused of following the US-based Islamic holy man Fethullah Gülen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
in operations in 18 countries.

The figure of 80 disclosed by Bozdag on Thursday runs much higher than previously assumed and indicates that the MIT has ordered people taken in the past without publishing the information. He did not divulge the operational details or say which countries.

Ottoman Turkish officials have chased members of the Gulen movement domestically and abroad ever since accusing the holy man of criminal masterminding the 2016 attempt to overthrow President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
. His government has jugged
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
about 38,000 people accused of links to Gulen and fired 110,000 public servants since the coup attempt, which resulted in more than 250 deaths.

Erdogan's government has also vowed to wipe out Gulen's influence abroad, where it has built up a network of schools. Authorities in Ankara have pressured counterparts to close Gulenist schools and extradite staff members with Ottoman Turkish citizenship, branding them as terrorists.

March's deportations from Kosovo, which drew sharp criticism from human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
groups, were carried out so quietly that even brass hats ‐ including Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj ‐ did not know about them until after the fact. Haradinaj fired the country's interior minister and intelligence chief for their deception but, for the extradited men, five teachers and a doctor who worked in schools and a clinic supported by Gulen's movement, the damage had already been done.

No illegal abductions
Ibrahim Kalin, President Erdogan's press secretary, denies that the government has ordered illegal abductions. He insists, for example, that authorities had worked out an arrangement with their counterparts in Kosovo to extradite the six men secretly and without process.

"We have never engaged in any illegal act in our struggle against (Gulen's movement)," Kalin said. "The event in Kosovo took place ... within the framework of an agreement on the return of criminals."

Without disclosing details, Bozdag trumpeted the events in Kosovo as an example of the MIT's success. He also pledged that "intelligence service operations similar to that in Kosovo will continue." Turkey remains under a state of emergency, which Bozdag expects officials to extend.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 01:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


-Land of the Free
Senator Mark Warner: On Second Thought, Maybe We Need A Gun Ban
[Hot Air] Virginia Senator (and former Governor) Mark Warner used to be a thorn in the side of some members of the Democratic Party because of his "moderate" position on guns. In progressive circles, that pretty much means anyone who doesn’t favor repealing the Second Amendment, but Warner was opposed to any form of gun bans. Now that Florida school shooting has lit up the political playing field, however, Warner is finally starting to get weak in the knees. Last week he had the question put to him and conceded that he might be in favor of an "assault weapons" ban.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 01:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11144 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excellent! The Dems should make the 'Gun Ban' the pillar of their 2018 and 2020 campaigns.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 1:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Second Amendment is a white privilege thing. Created by free thinking whites. aka Deplorables for the we are the world socialistos.
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 04/06/2018 2:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Now that Florida school shooting has lit up the political playing field, however, Warner is finally starting to get weak in the knees.

Well, that was kinda the point, wasn't it?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/06/2018 11:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Other Lefties will be fuming that he tipped his hand on this. We are meant to believe the lie that no one wants to take away our guns.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/06/2018 16:11 Comments || Top||



Home Front: Culture Wars
Genetics Is Undercutting the Case for Racial Quotas
[Townhall] "I am worried," writes Harvard geneticist David Reich in The New York Times, "that well-meaning people who deny the possibility of substantial biological differences among human populations are digging themselves into an indefensible position, one that will not survive the onslaught of science."

Reich was responding to anticipated resistance to his forthcoming book, "Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past." The "well-meaning people" Reich references are those who argue that race is a "social construct," that there are no significant genetic differences among people of different racial ancestry. Maybe there are differences in appearance and other physical traits, these people say, but there definitely aren't any in intelligence.

Such people responded with rage and fury to the publication in 1994 of Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's book, "The Bell Curve." That book, solidly based on the then available psychological research, explored differences among races in intelligence as measured by rigorous IQ tests.

Herrnstein and Murray's conclusion was that those differences are the result of both nature and nurture -- genes and environment -- in as yet unknown proportions. They predicted that research like Reich's would provide a clearer understanding of just how much is genetic.

Skipping down to the bottom line:

The justification for quotas is the assumption that in a fair society, we would find the same racial mix in every school, every occupation and every neighborhood. Any significant deviation from statistical equality, in this view, can be evidence of persistent racial discrimination.

This notion suffuses the behavior of leaders in colleges and universities, in large corporations, in government at all levels. Many such leaders regard enforcing quotas as a moral duty, even if they place people in positions for which they're unprepared. For these "well-meaning people," David Reich has a (probably unintentional) warning: Science is undermining the rationale for the work you're doing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 01:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11150 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any significant deviation from statistical equality, in this view, can be evidence of persistent racial discrimination. This notion suffuses the behavior of leaders in colleges and universities, in large corporations, in government at all levels.

Who knew ?

[sarc off]
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 1:26 Comments || Top||

#2  ...one that will not survive the onslaught of science.

Didn't get the memo? The Party of Science(tm) now considers it all a social construct when it suits them.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2018 8:35 Comments || Top||

#3  So many of these "social constructs" are being recognized as a problem. Maybe "society" needs to be downgraded to a necessary evil.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 8:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Race isn't the issue, culture is the issue.

There is nothing in the genetics stopping a man from working hard to support his family, keeping that family together, and making sure the kids study their buts off. This is an ancient formula that a number of cultures adopted thousands of years ago to great success. Some cultures embrace it while others actively push against such a thing as selling out.

Emulating success usually leads to success, emulating failure usually leads to failure.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/06/2018 12:32 Comments || Top||

#5  There is nothing in the genetics stopping a man from working hard to support his family, keeping that family together, and making sure the kids study their buts off.

Japanese culture is perhaps a pretty good example.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 12:35 Comments || Top||

#6  ..but the Japanese government doesn't subsidize single female head of household (and the Japanese are pretty plain racist particularly among accepting new arrivals - to which they say "So what?" as shown in their future demographics).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2018 17:53 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Humans produce new brain cells throughout their lives, say researchers
[Guardian] Humans continue to produce new neurons in a part of their brain involved in learning, memory and emotion throughout adulthood, scientists have revealed, countering previous theories that production stopped after adolescence. The findings could help in developing treatments for neurological conditions such as dementia.

Many new neurons are produced in the hippocampus in babies, but it has been a matter of hot debate whether this continues into adulthood ‐ and if so, whether this rate drops with age as seen in mice and nonhuman primates.

Although some research had found new neurons in the hippocampus of older humans, a recent study scotched the idea, claiming that new neurons in the hippocampus were at undetectable levels by our late teens.

Now another group of scientists have published research that pushes back, revealing the new neurons are produced in this brain region in human adults and does not drop off with age. The findings, they say, could help in the hunt for ways to treat conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s to psychiatric problems.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 01:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11146 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ....new neurons are produced in this brain region in human adults and does not drop off with age.

They simply take longer naps.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  One a.m. and already a Snark of the Day.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/06/2018 1:49 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Fascinating interactive map reveals just how much migration has increased across the world in the last three decades
[DailyMail]
  • Experts from the Pew Research Center in Washington DC used UN figures to depict the movement of people

  • The figures in their interactive feature refer to the total number of migrants living around the world from 1990

  • The map reveals that migration into the US has increased from 23,250,000 in 1990 to 49,780,000 in 2017

  • In the UK this number was 3,650,000 in 1990 but has since risen to 8,840,000 in 2017, figures show
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 01:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11145 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My dad was an allergist-immunologist. People used to ask him where to move to to ameliorate their symptoms. He told them all "You can't move away from your genes."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  ameliorate
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 12:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes 'ameliorate.' Take one with meals and call me in the morning.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 12:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Funny how the timeline coincides with the end of the cold war.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/06/2018 12:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Funny how the timeline coincides with the end of the cold war.

And armed guards at border crossings.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 14:03 Comments || Top||

#6  "You can't move away from your genes."

Mr. Wife has pretty severe allergies — he started getting asthma attacks at the age of two. He got some relief after moving from his childhood home in Buffalo, NY to Cincinnati, Ohio after university, but with time his immune system started overreacting to the flora here. Thank goodness the treatments have improved since he was a child — the only time he was symptom-free was the year he mostly spent in Egypt.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 14:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Hot dry places will have less mold...
I skip things with yeast in/made from yeast and milk.

It cured my asthma and eczema
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:08 Comments || Top||

#8  I skip things with yeast in/made from yeast and milk.

Allergic to BEER?
You poor bastard!
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 16:45 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Teletubbies star, 53, froze to death in the street 'where he was sleeping rough' after sinking into alcoholism
[DailyMail] Teletubbies star Simon Barnes died aged just 53 after descending into alcoholism, an inquest heard yesterday.

The actor, who played Tinky Winky from 1998 to 2001, died of hypothermia and had a high level of alcohol in his blood, tests revealed.

His body was found in January in a side street near the waterfront in Liverpool where he was understood to have been living rough.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 00:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...been living rough.

A contemporary term of reference formerly known as vagrancy. Prior to the term vagrant, more commonly referred to simply as being a bum.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 2:32 Comments || Top||

#2  John Wayne in The Green Berets: "That's a pretty rough way to learn about punji sticks..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:48 Comments || Top||

#3  One down, three to go.
Posted by: gorb || 04/06/2018 6:40 Comments || Top||

#4  He'd gone Lala.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:34 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Update: Nunes demands DoJ hand over unredacted letter
[Breitbart] House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is demanding that the Justice Department hand over an unredacted version of the document it used to launch the Trump-Russia probe in July 2016.

In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday, Nunes directed them to give the document, known as an electronic communication or EC, and other requested documents by next Wednesday.

He also threatened legal action: "Be advised that failure to comply in a satisfactory manner will result in the Committee pursuing all appropriate legal remedies, including seeking civil enforcement of the August 24 subpoenas in federal district court."

Nunes, in seeking to find out exactly what sparked the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign and the extent the infamous Clinton-funded dossier played a role, has sought the EC from the FBI since last August.

He subpoenaed for the EC on August 24, 2017. He said the committee was given a heavily redacted form. On February 27, 2018, Nunes requested Wray’s assistance in obtaining the EC. On March 14, 2018, the committee was given access to a still heavily redacted version.

Nunes said he called Wray the next day to tell him it was unsatisfactory. On March 23, 2018, the FBI’s Assistant Director for Legislative Affairs Gregory Brower informed the committee the FBI was refusing to redact the document, based on its supposed sensitivity.

Nunes rejected that argument in his letter, published by Fox News.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 00:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11131 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cut the FBI's funding for thumbing their nose, obstruction, and collusion. Name it the "Wray/Rosenstein Cut"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2018 7:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I would not be surprised to learn that the FBI and DoJ were acting on instructions directly from Soetoro, but I've been wrong before.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 7:25 Comments || Top||

#3  they wouldn't be so crass. ValJar would do it for him
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2018 7:37 Comments || Top||

#4  I'll take ValJar, Brennan, and Soetoro for $600. Alex.

What is a conference call ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 7:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Lorretta Lynch is probably there too.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:46 Comments || Top||


Europe
The man who thinks Europe has been invaded
[BBC] Viktor Orban presents himself as the defender of Hungary and Europe against Muslim migrants.

He hopes to win a third consecutive term as a prime minister who puts national sovereignty before everything else. But critics attack him as a racist and an authoritarian.

What will it mean for Europe if he wins again?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 00:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  HOPE maybe?
Posted by: ranture || 04/06/2018 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Excellent, LOL! ^^^^^^^^
Posted by: Clem || 04/06/2018 16:30 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Trump threatens further $100bn in tariffs against China
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 00:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under: Commies


The Grand Turk
Record Number of Afghans Reaching Turkey Without Papers
[ToloNews] Nearly 20,000 undocumented Afghan migrants colonists have arrived in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
in the past week three months, an unprecedented number according to the latest figures from the Ottoman Turkish General Directorate of Security, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.

The report said that a total of 17,847 undocumented Afghan migrants colonists have been captured by security forces from the beginning of 2018 until March 29.

The same period has seen 9,426 Syrian migrants colonists, 5,311 Pak migrants colonists and 4,270 Iraqi migrants colonists.

Nearly 500 undocumented Afghan migrants colonists try to enter Turkey per day, which has prompted security forces to examine the case in detail, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

As part of the investigation, the Directorate of Anti-Human Trafficking has been established in the eastern province of Erzurum, a hotspot used by migrants colonists to go to Istanbul.

According to the Hurriyet Daily News, Afghan migrants colonists come to Turkey via Iran, through the eastern provinces of Van, Igdir, Agri and Hakkari.

Security forces have discovered human traffickers prefer to bring the migrants colonists across the borders in groups and charge them around $500 USD for each border crossing.

Human traffickers bring them, sometimes along with migrants colonists from other nationalities, such as Paks, to the mountainous areas of Turkey's eastern border.

Those groups, including women, men and children, walk kilometers to reach Erzurum in order to go to Istanbul. To help them travel to Istanbul, human traffickers in Erzurum transport the migrants colonists in vehicles, such as minibuses or trucks.

According to the findings of the security forces, Afghans mainly reside in so-called "safe houses" in the Kocamustafapasa area of Istanbul, whose monthly rent is around $300 USD, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Many of these migrants colonists are involved in prostitution or encouraged to partake in illegal activities, such as theft or begging. After saving up money in Istanbul, many attempt to go to Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
via Greece or Bulgaria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11140 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Good. Turkey deserves them.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 8:55 Comments || Top||

#2  They'll end in Germany, MM
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 12:08 Comments || Top||

#3  "I got lost at the poorly-defined border"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2018 15:05 Comments || Top||

#4  "afghans"
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:33 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan government warns Pakistan after Kunar airstrike
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan government reacted to the Pakistani military’s airstrike in Kunar province and warned Islamabad that the continuation of such provocative acts would seriously harm the relations of the countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan in a statement said the Pakistani fighter planes dropped four bombs in Shahidan Saro area of Dangam district late on Wednesday.

The statement further added that the airstrike has caused massive property damages to the residents of the area.

The Foreign Ministry of Afghanistan called the attack a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan.

The statement by the Foreign Ministry further added that the Islamic Republic Afghanistan warns that the continuation of such steps, which are against the international principles and principles of good neighbors, will have dire consequences on bilateral relations of the two countries.

The local officials in eastern Kunar province confirmed earlier today that the Pakistani planes have conducted an airstrike along the Durand Line in Dangam district of Kunar.

Deputy provincial governor Gul Mohammad Bidar confirmed the airstrike and said a high peak was targeted in the airstrike but no one was hurt in the raid.

Bidar further added that the latest violation by the Pakistani air forces has taken place amid ongoing artillery shelling.

He also added that the provincial government has prepared a report regarding the artillery shelling and airstrike and has been sent to the central government.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Munitions cache of heavy weapons discovered in Kabul city
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan cops have confiscated a cache containing ammunition for heavy weapons during an operation in Kabul city.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials said the cache was discovered during an operation in the vicinity of the 13th police district of the city.

The officials further added that the Afghan forces confiscated three rounds of 822mm mortar, two artillery rounds, six rounds of heavy anti-aircraft gun munitions, and seven other type of mortar rounds from the cache.

According to CID officials, the holy warriors were looking to use the munitions to carry out terrorist related activities in the city.

This comes as the anti-government gangs are attempting to carry out attacks in the key provinces and cities of the country during the recent months.

At least six Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were maimed in an kaboom in Kabul city today, the defense authorities confirmed.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Defense (MoD), the incident took place at around 7:30 am local time in Millie Bus Road located in the 16th police district of the city.

The statement further added that two magnetic bombs planted in a electricity pylon went off as the Afghan armed forces were crossing the area.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under:


ISIS leader Abu Ali’s four militants killed in Nangarhar operations
[KhaamaPress] At least four forces of Evil affiliated with the 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....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed during the operations in eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province.

According to the local officials, the forces of Evil were killed during an Arclight airstrike conducted in support of the Afghan forces during the ground operations.

The provincial government media office in a statement said the operations were conducted in the vicinity of Haska Mina district.

The statement further added that four ISIS forces of Evil were killed after they came under airstrike in Payin area of the district at around 11 am local time on Tuesday.

According to the provincial government, the forces of Evil killed during the operation belonged to a ISIS group led by Abu Ali.

Several weapons and some ammunition belonging to the terror group were also destroyed during the airstrike, the provincial government added.

The anti-government armed myrmidon and terrorist groups including ISIS group have not commented regarding the report so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Explosives hurled at IDF troops guarding Jewish worshipers in Nablus
[IsraelTimes] No injuries in incident; 1,000 pray overnight at Joseph's Tomb in Paleostinian West Bank city

A Paleostinian hurled explosives at Israeli soldiers protecting a crowd of Jewish worshipers in the West Bank city of Nablus overnight Wednesday-Thursday, causing no injuries or damage, the army said.

A thousand Jewish worshipers flocked in the early hours of Thursday to Joseph’s Tomb, believed to be the burial site of the biblical figure, for Passover prayers under military escort.

In a statement, the military said that before the worshipers entered the site, observations indicated "suspicious activity" in addition to the explosives that were hurled. Soldiers incarcerated
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
three suspects and found weapons, including rifle magazines, bullets and a knife on a nearby roof.

After the festive prayer was over, Paleostinian residents began a "violent riot" at the exit from the city, the army said, adding that troops employed riot control methods to disperse the crowd. Two Paleostinians were said to have been injured.

Pilgrimages by Israeli or foreign civilians to the Joseph’s Tomb holy site are frequent catalysts for violence. In the past, Nablus residents have attacked the groups visiting the site with rocks, Molotov cocktails and rifle fire.

As a result, those interested in visiting the site require a military escort.

Knife-wielding Palestinian arrested at Cave of the Patriarchs

[Ynet] A Paleostinian arriving to one of the entrances of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron
...Hamas Central in the West Bank...
was tossed in the slammer
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
by security forces when a knife was found on his person. The suspect was taken in for questioning.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assad regime places tanks, artillery in buffer zone with Israel
[IsraelTimes] Israel expected to complain to UN over Syrian army deployment in demilitarized area ahead of regime's planned assault on rebels, in violation of decades-old agreement

The Bashir al-Assad regime is preparing an offensive to retake southern Syria and the Syrian Golan Heights from rebel groups and has reportedly placed tanks and heavy artillery inside the demilitarized buffer zone on the country’s border with Israel.

The step violates the Agreement on Disengagement signed in 1974 between Israel and Syria, which concluded the Yom Kippur War. Israel is expected to complain to the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
peacemaking force known as UNDOF, the Haaretz daily reported Thursday.

The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force has patrolled the buffer zone between Syria and Israel since 1974, a year after the war ended. For nearly four decades, UNDOF helped enforce a stable truce between the two countries, but the Syrian civil war has now spilled into the area, according to the report.

Since most UN staff have been moved out of Syria due to the bloody war and are now watching at a safe distance from Israel, it is unclear if the international body can force the Assad regime to halt its military presence in the buffer zone.

The six-year conflict has seen not only some intense fighting in the buffer zone but the abduction of peacekeepers by al-Qaeda-linked anti-Syrian government bully boys, and other attacks that prompted several countries to withdraw their soldiers.

Israel has tried to stay out of the civil war in Syria and refrained from taking sides, but has responded to spillover fire on numerous occasions and warned the Assad regime against attack.

The Haaretz report said there is almost no Iranian presence near the Israel-Syria border. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has established a Golan regional command center, with a hundred of its operatives located in south Syria and a thousand other local residents being paid regular salaries by the organization, it said.

Israel was said to recognize an interest by Hezbollah in the border and initial attempts to establish military infrastructure there.

Last year, the UN Security Council strongly condemned fighting in the buffer zone and urged the Syrian government and opposition groups to withdraw from the area.

The resolution backed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ findings that ongoing military activities in the area of separation have the potential to escalate tensions and jeopardize the ceasefire between Israel and Syria, and pose risks to civilians and UN personnel on the ground.

The resolution condemned the use of heavy weapons, including tanks, by both the Syrian armed forces and gangs in the area of separation.

According to the UN peacekeeping department, the UNDOF mission has 959 personnel including 828 military.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11152 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Militant accused of demolishing Timbuktu’s shrines faces crimes court
[DAWN] A Malian holy warrior appeared for the first time before an international war crimes judge on Wednesday, accused of demolishing Timbuktu’s fabled shrines, as well as rape, torture and sex slavery.

Speaking in Arabic, Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohammed Ag Mahmoud confirmed his identity and date of birth at a brief hearing at the International Criminal Court, and said he had been informed of the charges against him and his rights.

Hassan was captured over the weekend by Malian authorities and swiftly transferred to the Netherlands late Saturday.

Prosecutors allege the 40-year-old "committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Timbuktu, Mali, between April 2012 and January 2013." A member of the Ansar Dine
...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012...
holy warrior group, Hassan was the "de facto chief of the Islamic police" in Timbuktu, the ICC said.

The gangs which swept across the remote northern Mali region in 2012 seizing control of the UNESCO-protected site "imposed their vision of religion, through terror, on a local population who didn’t adhere to it," alleges Hassan’s arrest warrant, unveiled at the weekend by the court.

Hassan had about 40 Islamic police under his control and "played a leading role in committing crimes, as well as religious and sexist persecution".

"All infractions" of the strict Islamic laws were "punished by whippings, torture during detention and the destruction of sites devoted to religious practises," the warrant says, adding that Hassan himself took part in the lashings.

He also allegedly "participated in the policy of forced marriages which victimised the female inhabitants of Timbuktu and led to repeated rapes and the sexual enslavement of women and girls," the court added.

Dubbed "The City of 333 saints", Timbuktu’s holy shrines were built in the 15th and 16th centuries when it was revered as a centre of Islamic learning and a spiritual hub.

Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11161 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Mali/Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen


Home Front: Culture Wars
William Jacobson on Kevin Williamson
I liked Williamson's work until he took the Blue Pill
[LegalInsurrection] I didn’t want to write about Kevin Williamson. I even emailed Kemberlee and Mary earlier this evening and told them I “don’t feel like writing about Kevin Williamson.”

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you must not be on Twitter. Consider yourself lucky. Twitter is a pus pocket.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: badanov || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I like to think of myself as a free-range capitalist, spend your money however you want (hopefully you made it honestly.) But, every time I look at the crap-ola that comes out of the political media, from the NYT to Infowars, and very time I look at athletes' salaries and what people spend following the doings of the Kardashians and so forth, I think to myself "I don't want to hear a f*cking thing about teachers who have to buy their own pencils and paper until this garbage stops."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:18 Comments || Top||

#2  If you are so concerned about the direction of American society that the election of Trump has given you a permanent migraine, put your G*dd*mn pencil down and get out there and fix it. Stop bitching about it in print. Fer Chr*sts*akes...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:25 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Three people wounded in bomb blast, north of Baghdad
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Three people were maimed as a kaboom took place, north of Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying on Thursday.

"A bomb went off in Tarmiyah district, north of Baghdad, wounding three people, who were passing when the kaboom occurred," the source told Baghdad Today website.

"Security services rushed to the accident scene, while ambulances transferred the maimed to hospital for treatment," the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11140 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
By blaming 1979 for Saudi Arabia’s problems, MBS is peddling revisionist history
[DAWN] IN an interview with the news programme 60 Minutes, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said of 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...
before 1979, "We were living a very normal life like the rest of the Gulf countries. Women were driving cars, there were movie theatres in Saudi Arabia, women worked everywhere. We were normal people developing like any other country in the world until the events of 1979."

I was a teenager in the 1970s and grew up in Medina, Saudi Arabia. My memories of those years before the twin disasters of 1979 ‐ the siege of the Grand Mosque of Makkah and the Iranian Revolution ‐ are quite different from the narrative that the 32-year-old crown prince (known as MBS for short) advances to Western audiences. Women weren’t driving cars. I didn’t see a woman drive until I visited my sister and brother-in-law in Tempe, Arizona, in 1976.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  He pretty much has to peddle revisionist history because if he said the truth about Islam they'd never reform and he'd lose any support in the West.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/06/2018 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I've I simple rule to determine when Muslims are lying. Unless they say things like "I wanna kill you", always.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 12:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
President Trump Proposes Additional $100 Billion in Chinese Trade Tariffs…
[ConservativeTreehouse] As CTH has continued to remind, on the issue of confronting China’s trade practices, President Trump will not back down:

WHITE HOUSE ‐ Following a thorough investigation under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) determined that China has repeatedly engaged in practices to unfairly obtain Americas intellectual property. The practices detailed in the USTRs investigation have caused concern around the world. Chinas illicit trade practices ignored for years by Washington have destroyed thousands of American factories and millions of American jobs. On April 3, 2018, the USTR announced approximately $50 billion in proposed tariffs on imports from China as an initial means to obtain the elimination of policies and practices identified in the investigation.

Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers. In light of Chinas unfair retaliation, I have instructed the USTRto consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate under section 301 and, if so, to identify the products upon which to impose such tariffs. I have also instructed the Secretary of Agriculture, with the support of other members of my Cabinet, to use his broad authority to implement a plan to protect our farmers and agricultural interests.



Notwithstanding these actions, the United States is still prepared to have discussions in further support of our commitment to achieving free, fair, and reciprocal trade and to protect the technology and intellectual property of American companies and American people. Trade barriers must be taken down to enhance economic growth in America and around the world. I am committed to enabling American companies and workers to compete on a level playing field around the world, and I will never allow unfair trade practices to undermine American interests. (read more)

President Trump will not back down from his position; the U.S. holds all of the leverage and the issue must be addressed. President Trump has waiting three decades for this moment. This President and his team are entirely prepared for this.

We are finally confronting the geopolitical Red Dragon, China!
My mutual fund investments have gone off-the-scale bi-polar. For some reason, however, I am more fascinated than panicked.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Commies


India-Pakistan
FIA arrests 'fake pir' in Haripur for assaulting, blackmailing women
[DAWN] The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) cyber crime wing on Thursday nabbed
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
a man posing as a pir (faith healer) for allegedly sexually abusing women and then blackmailing them.

A resident of Haripur, the man is accused of harassing women who approached him for solutions to their problems, the FIA said. He would then use the videos and pictures of the women to blackmail them.

Numerous videos have been found in the accused's possession, the agency said. He was remanded into FIA's physical custody for seven days by a local court after a case was registered against him.

Cases of fake faith healers using their perceived position in society to abuse, blackmail and harass women and men are not uncommon in Pakistain.

Last month, a 'faith healer' was arrested from Gujranwala for subjecting two minor girls to sexual assault.

Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Islamist war in northwest Syria about to reach new level of violence as Nusra, Turkish-backed rebels muster big reinforcements
[ALMASDARNEWS] The ongoing infighting between al-Qaeda affiliate Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham
(better known by its former name, al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front) and Jabhat Tahrir Souriya (backed by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
) across northwest Syria is about to reach a whole new level of violence.

In the last 24 hours, opposition sources have noted that both forces allied with Jabhat Tahrir Souriya based in Afrin and Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham reinforcements are rushing towards key contested areas in western Aleppo province ‐ the strategic hilltop town of Dart Izza’ chief among them.

Specifically, reports say that Jabhat Tahrir Souriya has been reinforced at Dart Izza’ by main units of the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
’s 9th Division. At the same time Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham, with its reinforcements, may be about to launch major offensive to recapture the town which was once one of its most important strongholds.

This latest developments comes after about seven weeks of infighting during which time both Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham and Jabhat Tahrir Souriya have already inflicted serious losses on one another ‐ hundreds of fighters have been killed and dozens of armed vehicles (tanks and armored infantry carriers among them) destroyed.
Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


ISIS could be readying for very powerful offensive to recapture Abu Kamal in southeast Syria
[ALMASDARNEWS] Signs are emerging that 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....
forces in southeast Syria may be readying to conduct a properly planned-out, highly-determined offensive against the Syrian Army and its allies to seize back the strategic city of Abu Kamal.

So far ISIS attacks on Abu Kamal have been sporadic and piece-meal like, however in the apparent chaos of such seemingly worthless assaults, there exists the possibility that the terrorist group is observing the strength and flexibly of government defenses.

At this point, Islamic State fighters have attempted to advance on the city from every conceivable direction and are now also greatly stepping up their stand-off attacks against Syrian Army positions around it using artillery and anti-tank missiles (with deadly accuracy too ‐ watch following video here).

Looking at how ISIS recaptured Palmyra in December 2016, it can be seen that the terrorist group launched ceaseless attacks against the Syrian Army to the city’s north and east for months only to eventually discover a weak point in government lines (as well as wear down pro-government forces in general) and then hit it with major assault.

Whilst ISIS is not as powerful now as it was in 2016, the jihadist faction’s ability to conduct blitz offensives that seemingly materialize out of thin air should never be underestimated.
Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Arabia
Saudi-Israel thaw?
[DAWN] IN terms of Middle East politics, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince of 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...
as of 2016....

has recently made some statements that ‐ if indicative of Riyadh’s future policy ‐ could have a significant impact on the region.

On Monday, comments published in American magazine The Atlantic quoted the prince as accepting Israel’s right to exist, alongside a Paleostinian state, while last month, speaking to The Washington Post, he appeared to admit that the Saudis were responsible for the spread of Wahhabi ideology across the Moslem world as part of the Cold War. Considering Saudi Arabia’s place in the Moslem and Arab worlds, these words coming from the man who actually runs the show in Riyadh must not be taken lightly.

Concerning the spread of Wahhabism/ Salafism as a religio-political ideology, it is good that the prince has accepted this fact. In the Post interview, he said that the Saudis had promoted mosques and madressahs across the globe as a pushback to communism, and that Riyadh’s Western allies were on board.

This is no doubt true, as we experienced firsthand the use of religion to reverse the red tide in Afghanistan.

However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
the prince indicated in the same interview that this policy of exporting a narrow brand of faith was being reviewed, which should be welcomed.

Coming to the recognition of Israel, it should be remembered that the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 ‐ spearheaded by the Saudis ‐ had already called for normalisation of ties with Israel if it went back to the 1967 borders and recognised the Paleostinian right of return, among other things. Mohammed bin Salman’s statement, however, is most likely inspired by his extreme dislike of Iran ‐ something he shares with Tel Aviv.

Interestingly, 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....
was swift to call for support to the Paleostinians in a phone call to 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...
after his son’s remarks were published. While once any Arab state making peace with Israel was considered a pariah ‐ eg Sadat’s Egypt ‐ today’s sad reality is that Arab governments are willing to put the Paleostinian issue on the back burner to establish ties with Israel.

On the domestic front, the crown prince may be blazing new trails by ensuring greater freedoms for women and a more relaxed social order. However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
true reform can only take root if political freedoms and free expression are also encouraged. This is something the Saudi leadership must ponder over. Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Yellow Wolf clutched at his chest and fell from his horse...
there is great need for caution on the external front.

The ruinous war in Yemen, which the crown prince has led, is an unmitigated human catastrophe.

Moreover, the growing warm ties with Israel and the harsh rhetoric towards Iran ‐ the prince has placed Tehran as part of a "triangle of evil" and compared Iran’s supreme leader to Hitler ‐ could spell the beginning of a new conflict in the region. If growth and stability are what he desires, then a new conflagration must be avoided.

Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11131 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  Taquia - a leopard doesn't change it's spots.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Israel should go on the date - and show MbS some Krav Maga moves at last call...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Mohammad himself would retreat and regroup when his numbers were small. He would appeal to the kaffir and placate them. The main thing was Islam must be around to rule in the end.
Posted by: jpal || 04/06/2018 9:53 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
IED Explosion Kills 3, Wounds 9 At Busy Junction In Mogadishu
[RADIOSHABELLE] At least three people were confirmed dead and 9 others maimed in an kaboom in Somalia capital, Mogadishu on Wednesday night, a security official said.

Confirming the incident, Abdulaziz Ali Ibrahim, the front man of Somalia’s ministry of security said the blast has resulted from a remote-controlled landmine at San’a junction.

"The kaboom was caused by an bomb planted in a business area along the roadside which killed 3 civilians and injured 9 others," said Ibrahim.

He has accused Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
of being behind the attack, adding that Somali security forces are investigating the incident, which was the latest in such bombings in the capital.

Al-Shabaab, a bully boy group allied with Al Qaeda has been pushed out of Mogadishu 2011, but, the snuffies are still capable of carrying out attacks and killings in the seaside city.

Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Britain
Home Secretary Amber Rudd under fire for blaming SOCIAL MEDIA for rising gang violence behind London's wave of murders while the number of police officers have been cut

  • London violence: Five more hurt in attacks around city


  • Britain's feral gangs 'now bigger danger than terrorism': Criminals' online boasts of shootings and stabbings inspire next generation of gangsters
  • Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Is she crazy? Everyone knows "rising gang violence" is caused by EASTERN EUROPEANS!
    Posted by: Blossom Barnsmell2368 || 04/06/2018 0:15 Comments || Top||

    #2  Close down the "schools" that graduate people like Amber and the problem will evaporate.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:33 Comments || Top||

    #3  She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, an independent school in Gloucestershire,[15] and from 1979 to 1981 at Queen's College, London,[16] an independent day school for girls in London, followed by Edinburgh University where she read History.

    Think any good schools left, MM?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 5:37 Comments || Top||

    #4  The schools I went to sucked, but It was still possible to pick up this and that on one's own back then...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:51 Comments || Top||

    #5  The key word is "then", MM. And I should know, I'm a school teacher (part time) these days.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 12:11 Comments || Top||

    #6  Well she couldn't blame her uniparty policy of subsidized migration could she?

    #NooneCalledSmith
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:37 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: WoT
    Erdogan Supporters Sentenced Over Washington Attacks
    [DailyCaller] Two Turkish-American supporters of Turkey's president were sentenced to prison on Thursday for their roles in attacking peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C., in 2017.

    Eyup Yildirim and Sinan Narin were sentenced by a superior court judge to 12 months and one day in jail and three years of supervised release on charges of assault with significant bodily injury over the May 16, 2017, attacks.

    Both received credit for time served in jail. They were arrested last June and pleaded guilty to charges in December.

    Yildirim and Narin were caught on video taking part in a brutal melee against a small group of protesters outside of the Turkish ambassador's residence at Washington's Dupont Circle.

    The onslaught occurred as a group of supporters of Turkey's authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were arguing with about two dozen Kurdish, Armenian and Yazidi protesters stationed across the street from the ambassador's residence.

    Video footage shows the Erdogan supporters, including Yildirim and Narin, blitzed the protesters, punching and kicking many of them.

    Video footage shows the Erdogan supporters, including Yildirim and Narin, blitzed the protesters, punching and kicking many of them.

    Some members of Erdogan's security detail were spotted taking part in the assault. Yildirim, who owns a construction company in New Jersey, was spotting brutally kicking a female protester while she was curled up on the ground. Narin, a Virginia resident, was also seen assaulting the woman, identified as Lucy Usoyan.

    Yildirim and Narin were two of 19 people charged in the attacks. Two Canadian-Turkish men who showed up to the protests were also charged. Fifteen members of Erdogan's security detail were also charged. The Justice Department quietly dropped charges in 11 of those cases in February. The move was made just before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to Turkey as part of a visit aimed at smoothing relations between Ankara and Washington, the Wall Street Journal reported.
    Posted by: KBK || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


    Southeast Asia
    Police investigator gunned down in southern Thailand
    [Bangkok Post] A police deputy chief investigator was gunned down while tending to his fighting cocks in Narathiwat province on Wednesday morning. Police called to the scene found Wutthisak Poolsawat lying dead under a tree behind his mother-in-law's house in Sungai Padi.

    Wutthisak was deputy investigator at the police station in tambon Sakor. He left the police residence compound every morning on his motorcycle and went to Mrs Faheeya’s house, where he raised and trained fighting cocks.

    On Wednesday morning, he went there as usual. He parked his bike out front and went to the rooster coops behind the house. Three gunmen wearing black clothes had entered the yard through a neighboring garden, shot him and then fled.

    Police spokesman Charoon Chaikitporn said the slain officer had no conflict with anyone. He blamed insurgents wanting to cause unrest.
    Posted by: ryuge || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11145 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Russia told Turkey that all YPG forces have left Tal Rifaat
    [ALMASDARNEWS] Russia allegedly told the Ottoman Turkish regime that the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) have left the strategic town of Tal Rifa’at in northern Aleppo, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin stated on Thursday, as reported by the Daily Sabah.

    Kalin further added that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
    ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
    is currently trying to verify the validity of this claim through their local sources in Aleppo.

    Meanwhile,
    ...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy...
    Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told the Haberturk news channel on Thursday that Operation Olive Branch will continue, adding that Tal Rifa’at will likely see a military operation.

    The Syrian and Russian forces are currently posted inside of Tal Rifa’at, which poses a problem for the Ottoman Turkish military in northern Aleppo.
    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


    Arabia
    Missile fired by Houthis on Jazan intercepted, says Saudi Arabia
    [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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...
    ’s air defenses destroyed on Wednesday evening a missile fired by the Houthi
    ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
    militia from Yemeni territory towards the southwestern province of Jazan.

    Col. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson of the Arab coalition fighting to support legitimacy in Yemen, said that the coalition worked to facilitate the entry of aid from all Yemeni ports, and also targeted on Wednesday factories manufacturing booby traps for militias in Hodeidah.

    Maliki welcomed the international condemnation of the Houthis who were trying to target navigation, as well as the number of incidents of ballistic missile fire.

    He said the Houthi militias had fired 107 rockets and more than 66,000 extruders, but the air defense system had proved effective in countering the militia rockets. "We have the initiative on land, air and sea, and we are working to secure navigation in the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the waters of the Red Sea," he added.
    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


    Home Front: Culture Wars
    Texas councilwoman charged after yelling at girls wearing Trump 'MAGA' shirt
    [NYDailyNews] A Texas councilwoman accused of shouting obscenities at a group of teen girls because of a Trump shirt was charged with disorderly conduct Wednesday.

    West University Place Councilwoman Kellye Burke approached a group of girls waiting in line to buy cookies at a shop Saturday and started screaming at them, KPRC-TV reported. She reportedly shouted, "’Grab ’em by the p---y girls!’"

    One of the girls was wearing a "Make American Great Again" shirt. A father of one of the teens told the station they tried to ignore Burke but she kept yelling at them.

    "At that point the girls were getting kind of scared, and then the woman starts going, ’MAGA! MAGA! MAGA!’ while shaking her fist," the father told KPRC.

    Burke apologized for her comments.

    "We accepted her apology," the father told the station. "I would be just as angry if any parent said this to my child but as an elected official I’ll let her voters handle this matter."

    West University Place Mayor Susan Sample said in a statement that she’s glad Burke took "responsibility for her own actions and has reached out to the affected families to apologize for her remarks."

    "My position as Mayor, however, does not afford me any official authority with respect to matters such as this," Sample said. "Neither the city council nor the Mayor has any authority to remove fellow councilmembers."
    Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Please be advised, West University Place, Texas is 'gentrified' downtown Houston.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 0:17 Comments || Top||

    #2  It's too bad she was in a liberal haven. She tried that down near where I live and at the very least she'd of been surrounded and yelled down. Or if she's lucky, a broken jaw.

    Stupid freaking Nazi.
    Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/06/2018 0:45 Comments || Top||

    #3  Make Great America Again means fewer undocumented democrat voting cows.
    Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 04/06/2018 2:23 Comments || Top||

    #4  Upvote for comment # 2!
    Posted by: Blackbeard Bumble5724 || 04/06/2018 5:47 Comments || Top||

    #5  Had Councilwoman Burke just been to the pistol range? Had her father warned local law enforcement regarding her outbursts ?
    Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 7:27 Comments || Top||

    #6  C'mon, you guys. The poor lady just needs to have her meds adjusted.
    Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/06/2018 10:57 Comments || Top||

    #7  I have zero patience or mercy for anyone attacking a child, especially mine. (I do not count the ferals as children, who might be attacked when committing crimes) Those children had done nothing to her and if she's too stupid to avoid attacking kids, she should not be in government. I know democrats worship human sacrifice but there's just no excuse.
    Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/06/2018 11:28 Comments || Top||

    #8  The fascist left keeps doing this and it will end with one of them getting a brick to the face.
    Posted by: DarthVader || 04/06/2018 11:53 Comments || Top||

    #9  C'mon, you guys. The poor lady just needs to have her meds adjusted.

    Or a different job - I hear there are vacancies in Juarez.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 12:20 Comments || Top||

    #10  Pretty reprehensible behavior for an adult woman. But if you feel you own the moral high ground, anything is justified, right? Let's face it, if you were a member of Moms Demand Action and saw Hitler standing in line to buy cookies, wouldn't you go over and yell at him?

    And yes, a short, sharp punch to the nose is a perfectly reasonable reply to such incivility.
    Posted by: SteveS || 04/06/2018 12:51 Comments || Top||

    #11  saw Hitler

    Hitler is their hero. He hates jews, just like them. He doesn't like the colored peoples, just like them. Everyone is inferior to him, just like them. And they want to disarm their enemies and ship them to death camps, just like them. She'd probably just rush over and offer him a Lewinski right there she'd be so happy to see their ultimate hero.
    Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/06/2018 14:32 Comments || Top||

    #12  This is how the far left treat children? By acting like a child? What sane adult would do that to a kid? She has completely lost her dignity as an adult and will now get further humiliated publicly for being an ass.
    Posted by: 49 Pan || 04/06/2018 15:13 Comments || Top||

    #13  Is there a non-fascist left?

    It seems to be a pre-requisite.
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:26 Comments || Top||


    Iraq
    Four Islamic State members killed in operation on borders between Iraq, Syria
    Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Four 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....
    members were killed as security troops were combing the region on borders between Syria and west of Anbar, a security source from Anbar Operations Command said on Thursday.

    Speaking to BasNews, the source said, "security services carried out a wide-scale military operation in al-Jazeera region in Qaim town, on borders between Iraq and Syria. Islamic State remnants were chased. Four turbans were killed, while two rest houses were destroyed."

    Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said, "troops launched a campaign to inspect and secure the desert regions within Qaim on the borders."

    The Iraqi-Syrian borders extend between Rutba town from al-Waleed exit border reaching to Qaim town then to djinn-infested Mosul
    ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
    , the source clarified.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11137 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


    Bangladesh
    PM Hasina for real teaching of Islam in Bangladesh
    [Dhaka Tribune] Describing Islam as a religion of peace, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday emphasized the need for real teaching of Islam in the country.

    “We want Bangladesh to be built with a non-communal spirit. The people of all faiths will practise their own religious rituals properly. This is the principle of Islam,” she said.

    She made the remarks while inaugurating construction works on nine model mosques and Islamic cultural centres in different places of the country through a videoconference from her official residence, Ganabhaban, in Dhaka.

    The nine mosques and centres are being constructed under a project titled “Establishment of a total of 560 Model Mosques and Islamic Cultural Centres in each District and Upazila.”

    Sheikh Hasina said her government has taken this initiative so that people can get the real teaching of Islam and exercise Islamic culture properly.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11132 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  "All religions are equal! But I only mention pisslam." Whutasurprise...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:46 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: WoT
    Twitter says it has suspended over a million accounts for 'promotion of terrorism'
    [DAWN] Twitter said on Thursday it has suspended over one million accounts for "promotion of terrorism" since 2015, claiming its efforts have begun to make the platform "an undesirable place" to call for violence.

    In its latest transparency report, Twitter said it suspended 274,460 accounts between July and December 2017 "for violations related to the promotion of terrorism."

    The figure is down 8.4 percent from the previous reporting period and is the second consecutive decline, a Twitter statement said.

    "We continue to see the positive, significant impact of years of hard work making our site an undesirable place for those seeking to promote terrorism, resulting in this type of activity increasingly shifting away from Twitter," said the statement from the messaging platform's public policy team.

    Twitter has faced pressure from governments around the world to crack down on jihadists and others calling for violent attacks, while at the same time maintaining an open platform for free speech.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11149 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Said with that Stewaht Vahney accent: Sh*ttah...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 9:10 Comments || Top||

    #2  Aside from self identifying as a Republican, conservative or 2nd Amendment supporter what are their criteria.
    Posted by: AlanC || 04/06/2018 14:09 Comments || Top||

    #3  AlanC,

    White
    Veteran
    Male
    Employed
    Does not work in Silicon Valley
    Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/06/2018 14:53 Comments || Top||

    #4  Don’t forget pro-Israel and anti-illegal and Moslem colonist immigration, Christian....
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 16:22 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Mother of four gunned down by brother over in suspected 'honour killing'
    [DAWN] A mother of four was allegedly bumped off by her brother on Thursday in Mehmood Panhwar village near near Shikarpur, Sindh, in what police said they were treating as an 'honour killing'.

    Muhammad Hajan Gadani, the SHO of the local cop shoppe, told news hounds that a divorcee, identified as Sheharbano, was rubbed out with a shotgun by her brother, Abdullah Panhwar, who was assisted by unknown men.

    Gadani further stated that the victim had been divorced around eight or 10 years ago by her husband, who had accused her and a relative of 'karo-kari
    ...the Pak practice of murdering women on suspicion of having had 'illicit relations' with other than a close relative...
    '. However,
    the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
    the matter had been settled soon after the incident and the victim had taken up residence with her brother, Abdullah.

    However,
    the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
    the brother on Thursday murdered his sister due to "criticism of her character" by members of a rival group from the Panhwar clan, the SHO said.

    Police had handed over the body of the dear departed to her relatives after conducting a postmortem examination at the Taluka Hospital, Lakhi Ghulam Shah.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under:


    Iraq
    Diyala Dead Dudes Documented: turbans murder busload, army kills turban hideouts
    Thanks for the suggestion, Mercutio.
    Islamic State targets vehicle, kills civilians on board, north of Diyala

    Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State has attacked a bus carrying civilians in Diyala province and killed people on board, a security source was quoted saying on Thursday.

    Speaking to Baghdad Today website, the source said, “Islamic State killed several citizens after targeting their vehicle on Jalawla-Khanqeen road, north of Diyala.”

    “Security services managed to transfer the victims to forensic medicine department in Khanqeen town,” the source added.

    No further details about number of the victims were provided.

    Iraqi troops destroy three Islamic State hideouts in Diyala

    Diyala (Iraqinews.com) – As part of ongoing security efforts to completely eliminate terrorism across Iraq, Iraqi troops destroyed on Thursday three hotbeds of the Islamic State (IS) group in Diyala governorate.

    In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Alghad Press, Diyala police said, “A joint police force carried out a security campaign in three villages in northeastern Diyala to hunt for Islamic State militants and destroy their shelters.”

    “The troops managed to destroy three terrorist hideouts during the operation,” the statement read.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11132 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

    #1  Personally, I was hoping for "Dumbasses".... but thanx, TW
    Posted by: Mercutio || 04/06/2018 8:45 Comments || Top||

    #2  I know, my dear, but I reserve strong language for special events and people.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 10:02 Comments || Top||

    #3  Wonder if Gorgon Stare was active?
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:33 Comments || Top||


    Africa Horn
    Somali Parliament Speaker Urged Again To Resign Amid Political Stand-Off
    [RADIOSHABELLE] A Members of Somalia’s Lower House chamber of Parliament called for the resignation of the Speaker Mohammed Osman Jawari as the deadlock over the motion against him widens.

    Speaking in an interview with Radio Shabelle, politician Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail who is among the MPs tabled the impeachment motion blamed Jawari for violating the constitution and parliamentary procedures.

    The parliament is split into two camps, one allegedly allied to the office of the PM and the other camp defending the long-serving Speaker who is currently in trouble as he faces motion.

    The call comes in the wake of worsening political rift in Mogadishu after more than 100 politicians have signed out a motion of no confidence against Jawari last month.

    The standoff has affected the normal seatings of the lower House and led the President of the country Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo to intervene and mediate the rival sides.

    The Senate suspended its mediation efforts and dissolved recently a 7-member committee tasked with the resolving of the political crisis and division in the parliament.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:


    Iraq
    Remains of tens of security personnel found in mass grave, south of Mosul
    djinn-infested Mosul
    ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
    (IraqiNews.com) Human remains of tens of security personnel victims were found in a mass grave, south of Mosul, a security source from Nineveh police said on Thursday.

    "Security forces confiscated remains of 56 security personnel, who were executed by 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....
    members, during their control on Mosul," Cap. Moataz Azhar told BasNews.

    "Troops found the mass grave in al-Bou Seif village, south of Mosul," Azhar added. "The victims were transferred to forensic medicine department to identify them and notify their relatives."
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


    Southeast Asia
    Philippines’ Duterte cites genocide in Myanmar, says will take refugees
    [Dhaka Tribune] Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday genocide was taking place in Myanmar and he was willing to accept Rohingya refugees fleeing from it, though Europe
    ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
    should help too.

    The United Nations
    ...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
    and rights groups say some 700,000 people, most of them Rohingya, have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August last year when Rohingya rebels attacks on the security forces sparked a military crackdown.

    The United Nations and several Western countries have said the Myanmar action constitutes ethnic cleansing but Myanmar rejects that. It says its security forces have been conducting legitimate operations against "terrorists."

    Duterte, in a wide-ranging speech to farmers and agriculture officials at the presidential palace, touched on various issues including his recent decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court over its decision to open a preliminary investigation into his bloody war on drugs.

    Drawing the ire of officials in Myanmar, Duterte then expressed sympathy for the Rohingya and offered to help.

    "I really pity the people there," Duterte said. "I’m willing to accept refugees. Rohingyas, yes. I will help but we should split them with Europe."
    He also mentioned the inability of the international community to resolve problems in Myanmar.

    "They can’t even solve the Rohingya. That’s what genocide is, if I may say so," Duterte said.
    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11146 views] Top|| File under: Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army

    #1  Settle them in Muslim majority Basilan and ignore them if when they start fighting the locals?
    Posted by: magpie || 04/06/2018 2:56 Comments || Top||

    #2  That's what the PI needs. More Muslims. Idiot
    Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2018 7:19 Comments || Top||

    #3  Rarely has history proven that the act of importing a predatory species to control a local invasive species will be successful.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 12:08 Comments || Top||

    #4  There is an old Imperial Policy: move troublesome tribe from Province A to Province B while displacing the locals up into the barren hills. The 'New Guys' end up having to become loyal supporters or the locals will come down out of the hills and massacre them. Does tend to leave a totally Balkanized mess where verybody hates everybody -- like Afghanistan (or Pakistan) except it was done on purpose.
    Posted by: magpie || 04/06/2018 16:20 Comments || Top||


    Arabia
    Yemen loyalist army retrieves strategic sites in Bayda
    [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Yemeni army retrieved on Thursday new strategic locations in the Redman district north of al-Bayda province.

    According to a military source, the army forces were able to liberate a number of strategic locations in the area of Qanya north of the al-Bayda, including al-Faliq mountain, Ramdah plateau and Al Wae’el and Kharfan mountains overlooking the area of Qanya, as well as Al Yasbel area and a number of sites and hills.

    He added that "the liberation of these sites coincided with intensive air raids by the coalition forces, targeting the locations and tracing the movements of the militias, resulting in significant human and material losses in their ranks, including the destruction of a weapons’ depot in She’ab Al Ma’ez in Bani Wahab, Sawadiyah Directorate.

    An air strike by coalition fighters targeted positions of the Houthi
    ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
    militia in Jabal Mas'udah, in al-Bayda, resulting in the death of the Houthi leader Abu al-Hassan al-Saadawi and a number of militia members, according to field sources.

    At the same time, the army artillery intensively bombarded the positions of the militias in Jabal Mas'udah and Jabal al-Aar causing deaths and injuries within the militias and the destruction of their machinery.

    The Yemeni army confirmed that the confrontations continue on the Qanya front in Radman Directorate, amid steady and continuous progress of the army forces, with direct support from the coalition aircraft.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11159 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


    India-Pakistan
    Domestic worker accuses Islamabad police official of rape
    [DAWN] Islamabad police on Thursday jugged
    Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
    a policeman deployed in the capital over charges of raping a female domestic worker.

    On the woman's complaint, police registered a first information report (FIR) under section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) and arrested the nominated suspect ‐ a constable stationed at Police Lines Headquarters.

    The woman stated in her complaint that she was waiting at a bus stop on Wednesday evening when she was approached by a young man travelling in a car. The man inquired about her profession and offered to accompany her to his relative's house for some domestic work, to which the woman agreed.

    Upon reaching the house, located on the third floor of a building, the woman said she was pulled into the house by another man who was already present there.

    The accused, who later turned out to be a policeman, then started assaulting her and subjected her to rape, the woman alleged.

    The woman, in a video footage recorded by news hounds, is seen alleging that the accused policeman was under the influence of drugs when he assaulted her.

    According to the woman, the accused did not pay heed to her pleas to let her go. Eventually, she was able to escape the scene and run to a flat downstairs to seek help.

    The accused policeman was arrested early on Thursday, while the woman was allowed to go home after a medical examination. The awaited report of the medical exam will ascertain if rape took place.

    Since the beginning of 2018, there has been a marked upsurge in the reporting of sexual abuse cases across Pakistain. The brutal rape and murder of Zainab Ansari in Kasur earlier this year in particular shocked the entire country, with #JusticeforZainab becoming the rallying cry in a nationwide drive to end violence against women and kiddies.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under:


    LHC bars govt from 'harassing' Hafiz Saeed over welfare activities
    [DAWN] The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday ordered government authorities to not "harass" banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa
    ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
    's (JuD) Chief Hafiz Saeed
    ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
    and allow him to continue his social welfare activities until April 23, the date of the next hearing.

    Justice Ameenud Din Khan, who heard the petition filed by A.K. Dogar on Saeed's behalf, also directed the authorities to submit their responses on the JuD leader's petition by April 23.

    Saeed alleged in his petition that the government was interfering in his party's welfare projects because it had bowed down to pressure from India and the United States.

    The petition argues that barring an organization or party from indulging in charity work goes against the Constitution.

    Dogar, who was representing Saeed today, urged that since the case was of a "sensitive nature", the court should form a full bench. Justice Khan responded that the decision to constitute a full bench will be made in the next hearing.

    Saeed had filed a nearly identical petition through Dogar before the same judge last month. Justice Khan had directed the federal and provincial governments to submit their responses by April 27.

    However,
    it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
    due to the similar nature of both petitions, the court decided to club the cases.

    After hearing Saeed's arguments in today's hearing, Justice Khan issued notices to the federal and provincial governments again, directing them to file their replies. The hearing was subsequently adjourned until April 23.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


    Europe
    French authorities arrest ‘Godfather of Belgian Jihad’ for sending fighters to Syria
    [ALMASDARNEWS] The French authorities nabbed
    Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
    an infamous holy man on March 27th for allegedly funneling jihadists into Syria, La Figaro reported on April 4th.

    The holy man, Bassam Ayachi, a 72 year old French-Syrian citizen, was arrested on charges of aiding a terrorist group during his time in Syria.

    Ayachi initially traveled to Syria alongside his son, ’Abdel-Rahman,
    ...who appears in our archives as Abdelrahman Ayachi...
    in 2013; they would later join Liwaa Suqour al-Sham (var. Hawks of the Levant Brigade) in Idlib.

    ’Abdel-Rahman was later killed while fighting with Liwaa Suqour al-Sham against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in Idlib.

    According to the UAE’s The National publication, "he (Ayachi) has been named ’The Godfather of Belgian Jihad’ for his time founding the Belgium Islamic Centre in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek ‐ a heartland of extremism in western Europe. It rose to international prominence after it emerged that several of the jihadists involved in the Gay Paree attacks of 2015 had been radicalised there. He served as the centre’s imam for two decades, during which time he is believed to have facilitated the travel of dozens of radicalised Belgian recruits to Syria and Afghanistan."

    The National would add that Ayachi was named in some 40 criminal cases in Belgium; however, he was never convicted of any crime.

    This article starring:
    Bassam Ayachi
    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


    Bangladesh
    Foiled August 15 attack: Main financier arrested
    [Dhaka Tribune] A female New JMB member suspected of sponsoring the failed attack on VIPs paying homage to Bangabandhu on National Mourning Day in 2017 was enjugged
    Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
    on Wednesday evening.

    Humayra, alias Nabila, was captured from the Siddheshwari area of Dhaka, said Mohibul Islam Khan, deputy commissioner of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

    "Humayra was in-charge of a sister wing of the myrmidon cabal," he said.

    On 15 August 2017, a suspected jacket wallah later identified as Saiful went kaboom! during an anti-militancy operation at Hotel Olio International in Panthapath, right in front of the Dhaka Tribune office.

    Saiful was planning to attack National Mourning Day events at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32 in the capital.

    DC Mohibul said Humayra’s husband, Tanvir Yasir Karim, was a co-conspirator of the attack.

    Tanvir was arrested in this connection on November 19 last year from the Gulshan area of the capital.

    After this, according to a CTTC official, Humayra had been keeping tabs with Akram Hossain Khan Niloy, one of the top myrmidon leaders in the banned group.

    Humayra completed a bachelor degree in Business Administration from North South University before acquiring a Masters in Business Administration from a university in Malaysia.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11151 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)


    Europe
    Rape-accused Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan ‘paid woman for silence’ in 2015
    [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, detained in La Belle France over rape allegations, paid a woman to stay silent about their relationship in 2015, the Belgian judiciary said.

    Ramadan, 55, paid the Belgian-Moroccan woman 27,000 euros ($33,000) to stop posting details about their affair online, Luc Hennart, president of the Court of First Instance in Brussels, confirmed to AFP Wednesday.

    The Oxford professor was detained by a French court in February over charges that he raped two Moslem women in La Belle France.

    A third woman has since made further allegations of rape. Ramadan denies all the charges.

    Hennart said a public judgment was made in Brussels in May 2015 between the professor and the woman, Majda Bernoussi, after she posted online about his "psychological grip" on her.

    She did not accuse him of rape or sexual assault.

    The agreement "provides that Majda Bernoussi deletes her online posts and stops publishing new ones, for a sum of money given by Tariq Ramadan," Hennart said.

    Bernoussi also agreed to no longer send "offensive or threatening messages" to the professor and his family, according to French news website Mediapart.

    Ramadan’s two accusers in La Belle France went to the police in late October, both alleging that he had raped them in French hotel rooms.

    A professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford, Ramadan has been on leave since November after the allegations emerged.

    One of European Islam’s best-known figures, he has dismissed the accusations against him as a smear campaign by his enemies and his lawyers argue there are inconsistencies in the women’s accounts.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11132 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

    #1  He's being persecuted. Stormy going after Trump is for the sake of the Republic....
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:53 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Soldier, two ‘militants’ killed in operation in Kech district
    [DAWN] A security man lost his life and two holy warriors were killed in an encounter triggered by a search operation in the Pinsin Kaur area of Kech district on Wednesday.

    According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), personnel of the Frontier Corps
    ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations....
    were carrying out the search operation in the Pinsin Kaur area when the suspected holy warriors opened fire on them.

    The FC personnel returned fire and a heavy exchange of fire continued for over two hours, leaving one member of the security force and two holy warriors dead.

    "One FC Balochistan...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
    soldier embraced Shahadat in the shootout," the ISPR statement said, adding that a cache of arms and ammunition was found in the hideouts of the bully boys.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under: TTP


    Home Front: WoT
    Explosive device detonates in California Sam's Club; suspect in custody after brief chase
    [KABC] A 49-year-old man was taken into custody after a small explosive device was detonated Thursday afternoon inside a Sam's Club in Ontario, the Ontario Police Department said.

    According to a police spokesperson, the incident was initially reported at 2:08 p.m. as a structure fire after the caller heard a "popping sound" on aisle 4 of the warehouse store in the 900 block of Milliken Avenue.

    Authorities later confirmed that a device was detonated, but there were no injuries or significant damage. Evacuated employees stood in the taped-off parking lot as the investigation got underway.

    "It wasn't like an earth-shaking big explosion," said witness Norman Svikss. "It was like a low sound, like 'boom.' And there's no smoke, nothing. Then the employees start running around and then they slowly said, 'Hey, we have to evacuate the building,' because it's fire or something."

    About three miles southeast of the scene, the driver of a white compact car was pulled over after a short pursuit and apprehended in connection with the incident, police said, adding that early reports of a barricade situation were unfounded.

    The suspect was identified as Hugo Gonzalez, a Fontana resident who authorities believe acted alone.

    Police bomb squad personnel searched the vehicle that was stopped in a traffic lane near the intersection of Airport Drive and Etiwanda Avenue. Two plates with different license numbers were seen on the ground near the vehicle.

    Police initially said a second explosive device was found inside the vehicle, but later retracted that statement and clarified that bomb-making materials were discovered.

    Meanwhile, police were also searching an apartment in the 16500 block of Arrow Boulevard in Fontana that investigators believe is associated with Gonzalez.

    The motive for the incident was unknown.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under:


    Home Front: Politix
    HILARIOUS: Guess Who Created Andrew McCabe's GoFundMe Drive
    [RedState] Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Director of the FBI who was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions little more than a day before he was set to retire and receive his pension, was recently the recipient of the bountiful generosity of good Samaritans who donated to his legal defense fund via a GoFundMe account set up by "friends." (The account ceased taking donations on April 2, transferring that task to a "more formal legal defense fund".)

    It’s a tall order making McCabe, a wealthy Washington attorney, appear a destitute victim in need of financial help; but that, indeed, is what these "friends" managed to accomplish, raising over a half million dollars for poor old Andy.

    So who were these grand pals that helped McCabe cover the potential costs of lying to Congress?

    None other than a K Street PR and consulting firm with ties to the Obama administration called The Bromwich Group.

    Melissa Schwartz serves as McCabe’s current spokesperson and is the current chief operating officer of the firm, which was started by Michael R. Bromwich, former director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under President Barack Obama (and Inspector General for the Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton, for what it’s worth).
    Continues...
    Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Dirty cops love dirty money.
    Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 04/06/2018 2:22 Comments || Top||

    #2  Fine. Convict McCabe's ass, send him to prison, expropriate the GoFundMe $ and audit anyone who complains.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:40 Comments || Top||

    #3  Hmm... reminds me of something.

    Washington Com-Post:
    Acts of Faith
    After GoFundMe shuts down Christian bakery crowdfunding, it bans ‘discriminatory’ campaigns
    .
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/06/2018 9:41 Comments || Top||

    #4  I'm pretty sure stuff like this is why Bitcoin was invented.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/06/2018 9:42 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Both ‘guarantors’, govt seek 48 hours to enforce Faizabad agreement, claims TLP
    [DAWN] Both the "guarantors" and the government have sought 48 more hours to implement the agreement reached by the Tehrik Labbaik Pakistain (TLP) and the authorities in Islamabad for ending Faizabad sit-in (in November last year), claims a front man for the religious outfit.

    Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Pir Zubair of the TLP said Faizabad dharna was terminated after "assurances by the government, backed by some institution".

    The agreement, including certain steps to be taken on the government’s part, was never implemented sincerely, he regretted.

    "This prompted the Tehrik to take to the streets and plan protest throughout the country," the Pir said.

    The planned sit-ins throughout the country had been put on hold because of the offer made by the "guarantor and the government."

    "We will be sitting here (in front of the tomb of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh Ali Hajveri) for two more days and waiting for the implementation of the (agreed upon) steps," he said.

    The contentious Faizabad agreement caused some controversy for carrying signatures of an army general as a mediator, which now the TLP is trying to refer to. The protest was eventually called off when the government accepted most of the major demands of Mr Rizvi under an army-brokered 11-point agreement, which contained provisions like release of workers nabbed
    Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
    during the last sit-in and withdrawal of cases against them, arrest of those who changed the text of an oath pertaining to finality of the Prophethood and making of Raja Zafarul Haq report public.

    According to sources in the Punjab
    1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
    2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
    3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

    government, a team of officials held a meeting with the TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi and discussed his demands.

    Later, as claimed by the TLP front man, the government conceded one of the demands -- allow the mosques installation of four loudspeakers for prayers call (azan) and Arabic sermon on Fridays in all four directions.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under:


    Home Front: Culture Wars
    NeverTrumper Kevin Williamson Shitcanned By Shithole Rag
    [NYTimes] NeverTrumpers might benefit from boning up on their Aesop.

    The Bat, Birds, and The Beasts
    Posted by: charger || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  A certain parable involving frogs and scorpions comes forcefully to mind.
    Posted by: Nguard || 04/06/2018 1:00 Comments || Top||

    #2  Nevertrumper's are sh*tbags who figured opposing Trump would bring on their salad days. I hope Williamson gets to experiencce homelessness firsthand.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:31 Comments || Top||

    #3  Yah, I heard over at Ace's the Twits were abuzz with "Learn to Code" and "Rent a Uhaul..."
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/06/2018 9:44 Comments || Top||

    #4  “Learn to Code”?? What is that supposed to mean?
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 10:06 Comments || Top||

    #5  means learn how to be a data guru through writing computer code. Hottest job description on the planet and we don't have enough good ones. Example languages are Python, R, or any languages that deal with AI, machine learning etc.
    Posted by: Warthog || 04/06/2018 11:08 Comments || Top||

    #6  It means "Go try to join a sucky industry that practices massive age discrimination and fires everyone over 50 even if they do have experience, much less if they don't."

    We have Borat Obama on tape saying he wanted to destroy all those industries and now cork sucking iceholes like Williamson and Sasse want to pretend it was part of a natural free-market process and the rest of us need to learn to adapt.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/06/2018 11:22 Comments || Top||

    #7  Only if you plan on working in Shiticon Valley. There are jobs for tech expertise outside that exist. I found employment in Idaho at age 61. As we witness the implosion of Google, Facebook et. al, the 90-Day wonders in charge are currently experiencing maturity pains that only a significant work history can solve. No substitution for experience and attitude.
    Posted by: Warthog || 04/06/2018 14:14 Comments || Top||

    #8  > A lot of people there were really optimistic that the solution to technological unemployment was to teach unemployed West Virginia truck drivers to code so they could participate in the AI revolution. I used to think this was a weird straw man occasionally trotted out by Freddie deBoer, but all these top economists were *super enthusiastic* about old white guys whose mill has fallen on hard times founding the next generation of nimble tech startups.

    http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/06/notes-from-the-asilomar-conference-on-beneficial-ai/
    Posted by: Herb McCoy || 04/06/2018 15:39 Comments || Top||

    #9  Silicon Valley seems to have a hard-on for deciding that since they think certain jobs suck that you would be better off without them.

    They also seem to be hot for the idea of making all vehicles self-driving and unemploying truck drivers.

    Since losing my business and starting with my current employer as a shipping/receiving guy I have spent a great deal of time dealing with truckers. In this little backwater part of SW Louisiana, about 3/4 of the oilfield truck drivers seem to be black, and I think about that every time I see something about their latest self-driving-vehicle wet dreams.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/06/2018 16:26 Comments || Top||

    #10  Once again the left shuts down the debate when it goes against liberal dogma. Censorship at its worst.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 04/06/2018 17:57 Comments || Top||

    #11  hey Warthog, when I was looking into AI 30+ years ago the languages were OPS5 and Lisp. Neither of those could still be around could they?


    Ye olde bit banger.
    Posted by: AlanC || 04/06/2018 19:15 Comments || Top||


    Arabia
    Saudi Supertanker Attacked in Southern Red Sea; Tanker Reported Safe After ‘Explosion’
    Hat tip: gCaptain. Houthis getting frisky.
    A fully laden supertanker came under attack Tuesday in the Southern Red Sea while underway in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, the European Union’s Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR) and other maritime officials in the region have confirmed.

    Details of the attack are still unclear, but the incident is likely to be related to the on-going conflict in Yemen, the EU NAVFOR said.

    In an advisory, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said that a merchant vessel reported an explosion on April 3 at approximately 0915UTC in position 1429.3N 04211.2E in the Southern Red Sea. The cause of the explosion is unknown, the UKMTO advisory said.

    Yellow pin shows the approximate location of the attack in the Southern Red Sea. Source: UKMTO

    The oil tanker has been identified as the Saudi Arabian-flagged MT Abqaiq, a 300,000 dwt Very Large Crude Carrier, which capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude. The tanker is owned by Saudi shipping group Bahri.

    Saudi media reported yesterday that the Saudi-led coalition said the oil tanker was in international waters when it came under “Houthi-Iranian attack” at around 1330 local time. A coalition warship conducted a “swift intervention” that repelled the attack.

    The type of weapon used is not clear.

    “As a result of that attack, the tanker was subjected to a slight but ineffective hit and it resumed its naval course northwards, escorted by a coalition warship,” Reuters reported the statement as saying.

    EU NAVFOR confirmed Wednesday that the vessel continued underway and that the crew are safe and unharmed.

    “In this case, [Combined Maritime Forces] and EU NAVFOR assess that the incident is likely to be related to the ongoing conflict in Yemen; however, no further activity with relation to the incident has been reported. EU NAVFOR confirms that the vessel continued underway and that the crew are safe and unharmed,” EU NAVFOR said.

    Ships in the area have been warned to remain extremely vigilant and report any suspicious activity to MSCHOA and / or UKMTO.

    The website TankerTrackers.com has been tracking the Abqaiq and is posting updates to Twitter.

    The Abqaiq is now believed to be continuing to Ain El-Sukhna, Egypt, where it is likely to discharge cargo at the SUMED transit pipeline, TankerTrackers reported.

    “The United States is very concerned about the Houthis’ latest attempt to escalate the war in Yemen, this time by attacking a commercial vessel while it transited one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, the Bab al-Mandab, in international waters,” the White House said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
    There are a lot of good informative graphics in the article. Check them out. The Saudi tanker has the best paint job I have ever seen on a ship. Glossy aircraft quality.
    Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Israeli Fire Kills Palestinian At Gaza Border, With More Protests Ahead
    [Jpost] Israel warned protesters not to approach frontier fence; nineteen Paleostinians have been killed in violence over past week.

    Israeli fire killed a Paleostinian at the Gazoo border on Thursday and another died of wounds suffered several days ago, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Health Ministry officials said, bringing the number of Paleostinian dead in a week of frontier protests and violence to 19.

    The Israeli military said one of its aircraft targeted an armed holy warrior near the security fence along the Gazoo Strip.

    A 33-year-old man, hit by Israeli fire a few days ago near one of the tent cities, died on Thursday, the health officials said.

    Many of the demonstrators who turned out for the start of the protest campaign returned to their homes and jobs over the week. But organizers expect large crowds again on Friday, the Moslem sabbath.

    Hamas announced on Thursday it would pay $3,000 to the family of anyone killed in the protests, $500 to Paleostinians critically maimed and $200 to those who sustain more minor injuries.

    Israeli leaders have said payments by Paleostinian authorities to the families of Lions of Islam killed or imprisoned by Israel encourages attacks on Israelis.
    The Times of Israel adds:
    The Israeli army on Thursday released video footage showing the moments before its aircraft bombed an armed Paleostinian man approaching the Gazoo security fence.

    The grainy footage shows the man, identified by Paleostinians as 23-year-old Mujahid al-Khudari, creeping toward the fence holding what appears to be an assault rifle.

    The Israel Defense Forces said al-Khudari was also armed with hand grenades and a boom jacket, though these were not visible in the night-vision footage.

    According to the army, he was hit with a pinpoint Arclight airstrike shortly after the footage was taken, as he got close to the border.

    The airstrike occurred in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, in the northern Gazoo Strip.

    The Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,-run health ministry in Gazoo later pronounced the al-Khudari dead in Gazoo’s Shifa hospital.

    According to the army, al-Khudari was sent by the armed wing of the Hamas terror group, which ruled the Gazoo Strip.

    COGAT reveals Hamas threats against bus company owners

    [Ynet] Recordings unveiled by COGAT shows Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", strong-arm tactics against bus company owners forced to ferry protesters to fence riots; measures include threats, arrests and sending Hamas drivers to commandeer buses; 'Hamas using terrorism against its own people,' COGAT Mordechai says.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11137 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


    Home Front: Politix
    Zuckerberg: ‘Three-Year Project' to ‘Fix' Elections, Fake News, Misinformation – Just in Time for 2020
    [Breitbart] In his call with members of the press yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook was "probably a year into a massive three-year push" to fix alleged issues surrounding "fake news," "misinformation," and election interference on the platform.

    Zuckerberg’s timeline implies that Facebook’s goal is to have fundamentally altered their platform by the time of the 2020 presidential elections, and that work on the project started at approximately the same time as the presidential victory of Donald Trump.



    That’s also when the panic over "fake news" and "misinformation" started, led by the left-wing and corporate media and embraced by Democratic lawmakers. The resultant changes to Facebook have seen conservative media and the official Facebook account of Donald Trump suffer severe hits to their engagement and traffic.

    "In 2016 we were behind where we wanted to be," said Zuckerberg. "We had a more traditional view of the security threat. We expected Russia and other countries to try and do phishing and traditional kinds of security exploits, but not necessarily the kind of misinformation campaign that they did. We were behind ‐ that was a really big miss. And now we want to make sure that we’re not behind again."
    Continues...
    Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11149 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  We were discovered behind ‐ that was a really big miss. And now we want to make sure that we’re not discovered behind again."

    It was all just one big misunderstanding.

    Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2018 2:02 Comments || Top||

    #2  Mark 'We will save the world from the Deplorables! - Globalist Marco Polo' ZukerBerg
    Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 04/06/2018 2:21 Comments || Top||

    #3  Three years. How fast did MySpace go down?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 5:42 Comments || Top||

    #4  2012 down the Memory Hole?
    Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2018 7:04 Comments || Top||

    #5  Easy fix: Have you been on farcebook in the last 120 days? No vote for you...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2018 8:34 Comments || Top||

    #6  Where is that "Lean In" chick? Or is this too big of a problem for SJW corporate policy to handle...
    Best turn it over to the Tech Bro's before the investors revolt.
    Sheryl, be a Dear and get the coffee pots going, it's going to be a long night.
    Posted by: Capsu78 || 04/06/2018 10:25 Comments || Top||

    #7  The fix is they will make you vote how they want. If you don't, you lose the right to vote or are declared insane.

    Worked in the Soviet Union.
    Posted by: DarthVader || 04/06/2018 12:19 Comments || Top||

    #8  Who needs Russians when you have Faceberg?
    Posted by: newc || 04/06/2018 15:07 Comments || Top||

    #9  Sounds like a naked attempt to share the FB data with the democratic party brand of the uni-party

    Good luck, it'll mean even more Trump.
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2018 15:28 Comments || Top||

    #10  It is amazing that Trump won in 2016. About every deep state hand was turned against him in the rigging of the election to favor HRC.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 04/06/2018 16:05 Comments || Top||


    Britain
    Police force severs all ties with its own male voice choir because it does not promote gender equality
    [DailyMail]
    • Derbyshire Constabulary Male Choir has raised thousands for charity since 1956

    • But Chief Constable now is cutting ties from group to support gender equality

    • Choir attracted controversy when it claimed it couldn't accept female singers
    Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Note to self: Catch this week's Radio Derb.
    Posted by: Groluns Schwarzeneggar6376 || 04/06/2018 0:17 Comments || Top||

    #2  Barber shop quartet cant be a beauty shop quartet at the same time you fake cops, comprende? Now, try to get back to solving Londonistans rising crime crisis.
    Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 04/06/2018 2:31 Comments || Top||


    Arabia
    UN intensifies inspection of aid ships to Yemen
    [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United Nations
    ...a formerly good idea gone bad...
    is beefing up its inspections of ships bringing humanitarian aid to Yemen
    ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
    to ensure that no military items are being smuggled and to speed up delivery of desperately-needed relief supplies, UN and Saudi officials say.

    The move comes as the armed Houthi
    ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
    movement controlling much of northern Yemen steps up attacks on the kingdom, hitting a Saudi oil tanker on Tuesday.

    The Arab coalition said overnight that Riyadh's air defense had intercepted a missile aimed at Jazan city.

    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...
    accuses Iran of supplying missiles to the Houthis, who have taken over the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other parts of the country. Tehran and the Houthis deny the allegation.

    Under an arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council, monitors from the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) are based in ports in Djibouti, Dubai, Jeddah and Salalah to observe screening of cargo destined for Yemen.

    "We met with the UNVIM director and his team in Riyadh and we agreed on improved and enhanced capability," Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed S. al-Jabir told news hounds in Geneva on Wednesday.

    He said UNVIM would increase its inspectors to 10 from four and its monitors to 16 from six and would also improve its technology to inspect ships.

    The team supporting Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, confirmed to Rooters on Thursday the steps taken to increase the number of monitors and inspectors and the use of scanning equipment.

    A major UN conference on Yemen was held this week, drawing pledges of more than $2 billion toward a $3 billion UN humanitarian appeal.

    Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have contributed $930 million.

    "We are cooperating with the UNVIM and other UN organizations to facilitate and to increase the number of ships that arrive at Hodeidah port," Jabir said, referring to Yemen's main port for humanitarian and commercial goods, under Houthi control.

    UNVIM only checks commercial and aid ships going to northern ports under Houthi control - Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Isa - and not to Aden, which is under government control.

    Yemen, the Arabian peninsula's poorest country, is reeling from the world's worst humanitarian crisis where 22 million people need vital assistance.

    When the Houthis fired missiles at Riyadh last November, the Western-backed coalition shut Yemen's airports and ports.

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11147 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


    Southeast Asia
    MILF welcomes presence of US forces in Mindanao
    [Arab News]The leader of a Muslim insurgent group said it welcomes the continued presence of US forces in Mindanao to help the Philippine government in its campaign against violent extremist groups.

    Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chairman Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim acknowledged the help being extended by the Americans to communities in the region. He said, "As long as they don’t do anything that creates a problem for our people, we don’t mind them."

    Asked if he is aware of the activities of US forces in Mindanao, he said they are monitoring ISIS and engaged in humanitarian and civic assistance projects. US forces are “quite visible” in the island provinces of Mindanao and “we don’t oppose” their presence, but they cannot intervene in government policy, Ebrahim said.

    On Sept. 1, 2017, US Defense Secretary James Mattis designated Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines (OPE-P) an Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) “to support the Philippine government and military in their efforts to isolate, degrade and defeat” affiliates of ISIS and other terrorist groups in the country.

    Philippine defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong said US military activities in the country under OPE-P involve advising and providing technical assistance to the Philippine miliatary. He said, "There are no boots on the ground."

    Ebrahim said while there is no accurate number of foreign terrorists or ISIS-inspired militants coming to Mindanao, Indonesian, Malaysian “and even Middle Eastern-looking” militants joined the five-month siege of Marawi. There are confirmed reports of the continued entry of Malaysians and Indonesians, and an Arab-looking militant who was found to be using a Canadian passport, he added.

    “Usually these elements mix with the Abu Sayyaf in island provinces, and some are blending in with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,” Ebrahim said. “We’re closely motoring them because we really don’t agree with their activities.”

    Those being recruited by ISIS-inspired groups are not part of the MILF, whose leadership remains in control of its members, he added. Those recruits are easily convinced “by certain elements who capitalize on their frustration with the peace process with the government,” he said.

    The MILF is the only armed Islamic organization in the region whose objective is political, Ebrahim said. He said, "That’s why I think we vary from other Islamic organizations. We were never declared a terrorist organization. Islam is only a way of trying to unite our people and to practice our own faith in the proper manner. That’s what makes the MILF different from other Islamic or revolutionary groups."
    Posted by: ryuge || 04/06/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front

    #1  A cougar response (sorry Ship, but it's the best I can do).
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/06/2018 4:39 Comments || Top||

    #2  somewhat of a mature response g(r)om.
    Posted by: Warthog || 04/06/2018 11:02 Comments || Top||

    #3  And the US Forces were disappointed that the MILFs weren't the kind of MILF's they were expecting....
    Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/06/2018 11:06 Comments || Top||

    #4  "Me love you long time"
    Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2018 12:59 Comments || Top||



    Who's in the News
    35[untagged]
    6Islamic State
    4Houthis
    3Sublime Porte
    2Govt of Saudi Arabia
    2Moslem Colonists
    2Commies
    2Hamas
    2Govt of Pakistan
    1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
    1Lashkar e-Taiba
    1Moro Islamic Liberation Front
    1Muslim Brotherhood
    1Thai Insurgency
    1al-Shabaab (AQ)
    1TTP
    1Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
    1Govt of Syria
    1al-Qaeda in Mali/Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen
    1al-Nusra
    1Islamic State in the Greater Sahara

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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.
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    Two weeks of WOT
    Fri 2018-04-06
      French authorities arrest ‘Godfather of Belgian Jihad’ for sending fighters to Syria
    Thu 2018-04-05
      Somalia: Troops Loyal To Embattled Speaker Seize Parliament Building
    Wed 2018-04-04
      Four members of Christian family shot dead in Quetta
    Tue 2018-04-03
      Iraq sentences seven Turkish females to death, life over joining Islamic State
    Mon 2018-04-02
      Sayyaf commander captured in Sulu
    Sun 2018-04-01
      Horror On Streets Of Germany: State Of Emergency Declared As 80 Men Brawl With Machetes
    Sat 2018-03-31
      Mohammed bin Salman: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ is an incubator for terrorists
    Fri 2018-03-30
      Hamas to Swarm Israel's Border, Sparking Fear of New ‘Passover War'
    Thu 2018-03-29
      ISIS launches massive offensive in Deir Ezzor
    Wed 2018-03-28
      China announces NKOR agrees to de-nuclearize
    Tue 2018-03-27
      Five Killed by Boko Haram in Niger Attack
    Mon 2018-03-26
      10 injured in grenade attack at D.I. Khan cultural festival
    Sun 2018-03-25
      Malaysia arrests seven men with Islamic State links over attacks plot
    Sat 2018-03-24
      Ruth Bader Ginsburg rules that hot dogs are sandwiches
    Fri 2018-03-23
      France supermarket hostage-taking: At least two killed by Trebes known wolf gunman claiming allegiance to ISIS

    Better than the average link...



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