[WSJ] A House subpoena, another missed deadline. What is the department hiding?
The feud that has simmered for months between Congress and the Justice Department erupted this week into a cage match. That’s because the House is homing in on the goods.
Until this week, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and fellow institutionalists at the department had fought Congress’s demands for information with the tools of banal bureaucracy‐resist, delay, ignore, negotiate. But Mr. Rosenstein took things to a new level on Tuesday, accusing House Republicans of "threats," extortion and wanting to "rummage" through department documents. A Wednesday New York Times story then dropped a new slur, claiming "Mr. Rosenstein and top FBI officials have come to suspect that some lawmakers were using their oversight authority to gain intelligence about [Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s ] investigation so that it could be shared with the White House."
Mr. Rosenstein isn’t worried about rummaging. That’s a diversion from the department’s opposite concern: that it is being asked to comply with very specific‐potentially very revealing‐demands. Two House sources confirm for me that the Justice Department was recently delivered first a classified House Intelligence Committee letter and then a subpoena (which arrived Monday) demanding documents related to a new line of inquiry about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Trump investigation. The deadline for complying with the subpoena was Thursday afternoon, and the Justice Department flouted it. As the White House is undoubtedly monitoring any new congressional demands for information, it is likely that President Trump’s tweet Wednesday ripping the department for not turning over documents was in part a reference to this latest demand.
Republicans also demand the FBI drop any objections to declassifying a section of the recently issued House Intelligence Committee report that deals with a briefing former FBI Director James Comey provided about former national security adviser Mike Flynn. House Republicans say Mr. Comey told them his own agents did not believe Mr. Flynn lied to them. On his book tour, Mr. Comey has said that isn’t true. Someone isn’t being honest. Is the FBI more interested in protecting the reputations of two former directors (the other being Mr. Mueller, who dragged Mr. Flynn into court on lying grounds) than in telling the public the truth?
It’s hard to have any faith in the necessity of the more than 300 redactions in the House Intel report, most of which the Republican committee members insist are bogus and should be removed. On every occasion that Justice or the FBI has claimed material must be withheld for the sake of national security or continuing investigations, it has later come out that the only thing at stake were those institutions’ reputations. Think the Comey memos, which showed the former director had little basis for claiming obstruction. Or Sen. Chuck Grassley’s criminal referral of dossier author Christopher Steele, the FBI’s so-called reliable source, whom we now know it had to fire for talking to the press and possibly lying.
The Justice Department is laying all this at the feet of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which technically oversees redactions. But ODNI consults with the agency that "owns" the material, and the FBI is clearly doing the blocking. Again, many pieces of the House Intel report that are being hidden happen to relate to FBI conduct during the 2016 election.
The increasingly poisonous interaction between Congress and the Justice Department also stems from a growing list of questions Republicans have about leading Justice Department officials’ roles in the events Congress seeks to investigate. Mr. Rosenstein’s name was on at least one of the applications for a warrant on Carter Page to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Dana Boente’s name is on another, and he’s now serving as the FBI’s general counsel.
We can’t know the precise motivations behind the Justice Department’s and FBI’s refusal to make key information public. But whether it is out of real concern over declassification or a desire to protect the institutions from embarrassment, the current leadership is about 20 steps behind this narrative. Mr. Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe ‐they have already shattered the FBI’s reputation and public trust. There is nothing to be gained from pretending this is business as usual, or attempting to stem continued fallout by hiding further details.
This week’s events‐including more flat-out subpoena defiance‐put a luminous spotlight on Speaker Paul Ryan. The credibility of the House’s oversight authority is at stake. Mr. Ryan’s committee chairmen have done remarkable work exposing FBI behavior, and they deserve backup. The quickest way to get Justice and FBI to comply with these legitimate requests is for Mr. Ryan to state strongly and publicly that he has zero qualms about proceeding down the road of contempt or impeachment if House demands are not met. This is the people’s government, not the Justice Department’s.
[FOX via Huffpoo] Fox News host Neil Cavuto had some harsh words for Donald Trump on Thursday: Mr. President, you stink.
The host listed some of Trump’s worst lies and misstatements, including claiming there was widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election and the recent revelation that he repaid his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for $130,000 in hush money given to porn star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, after he’d repeatedly denied knowing about the situation.
"How can you drain the swamp if you’re the one that keeps muddying the water?" Cavuto asked. "You didn’t know about that $130,000 payment to a porn star until you did."
Cavuto, one of the few hosts on Fox News who calls out the president, said Trump cannot criticize the press for reporting "fake news" when he repeatedly makes false statements without correction.
"Your base probably might not care," Cavuto added. "But you should. I guess you’re too busy draining the swamp to ever stop and smell the stink you’re creating. That’s your doing. That’s your stink. Mr. President, that’s your swamp."
#11
Move on, Please.
He is touted as a "host" but he is the epitome of the "not host". He has "guests" who he interrupts and talks over. I tuned in because I want to hear what your guest says, not what you say.
#1
Poor Loki delivered a horse
(a course which I cannot endorse)
That could run for nine nights
On eight legs, with no lights,
Down to Hel, and back (hey, he was Norse!).
[FOX] A federal judge on Friday harshly rebuked Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team during a hearing for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ‐ suggesting they lied about the scope of the investigation, are seeking "unfettered power" and are more interested in bringing down the president.
"You don't really care about Mr. Manafort," U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III told Mueller’s team. "You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever."
Further, Ellis demanded to see the unredacted "scope memo," a document outlining the scope of the special counsel’s Russia probe that congressional Republicans have also sought.
The hearing, where Manafort’s team fought to dismiss an 18-count indictment on tax and bank fraud-related charges, took a confrontational turn as it was revealed that at least some of the information in the investigation derived from an earlier Justice Department probe ‐ in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Manafort’s attorneys argue the special counsel does not have the power to indict him on the charges they have brought ‐ and seemed to find a sympathetic ear with Ellis.
The Reagan-appointed judge asked Mueller’s team where they got the authority to indict Manafort on alleged crimes dating as far back as 2005.
#2
Further, Ellis demanded to see the unredacted "scope memo," a document outlining the scope of the special counsel’s Russia probe that congressional Republicans have also sought.
How she can say this without laughing is beyond my comprehension...
[Grabie News (?)] - CAMEROTA: "The breaking news that we just had moments ago were the new job numbers, the lowest in anybody’s memory, 3.9 percent unemployment rate. It’s been 15 months of Donald Trump’s presidency. Do you give him credit for that?"
JARRETT: "Look, I think we have to look at it over a longer horizon than that. If you think about what the economy was like when President Obama took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Under his watch the unemployment rate dropped in half and it’s encouraging to see that we’re continuing to make progress. We want to see wages go up and I think that’s an important focus and I was glad to see you talk about that too. So for the workers out there who are back to work today, I think it’s very encouraging."
#1
"This wouldn't look so great if President Obama hadn't set an economic pace that established the floor for growth"
Say what?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2018 13:11
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#2
So, by choking and encumbering the economy for 8 years, Obama made it possible for a businessman to revive the said economy by releasing it from the chains of bureaucratic enslavement.
[The Goldwater] The Office of the Inspector General via Michael Horowitz has a highly anticipated series of reports stemming from his investigation into the cover-up of crimes committed by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, the Obama Administration, and numerous other entities which is soon to drop and rattle the foundation of Washington, DC.
There are common misconceptions from people who are genuinely frustrated with the delays from the Department of Justice and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in bringing about charges for obvious criminals such as former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; in assuming that there is inaction occurring within the DOJ.
No, that's incorrect. Yes, it's taking a long time. In most people's eyes, it's too long, but I assure you, the end result will be worth the wait. Those critiquing Sessions now have no idea what's in store in the near future.
You need to look no further than the vocal proponents of what Jeff Sessions, the DOJ, and the OIG are doing to understand the legitimacy of his plan.
First, consider that Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) is the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and that he's NEVER offered criticisms directed at the Attorney General.
During the AG’s entire reign at the DOJ, he's been able to avoid allowing a single leak to the media, which is an astounding accomplishment all to itself.
In April, The Goldwater covered Devin Nunes announcing that "no official intelligence was used" in the Robert Mueller led-witch hunt against President Trump.
#3
But will it become public before it is too late to have any effect?
Let's just surmise that the Blue Wave actually happens and the Democrats win the HoR this November. If that happens I expect that they will begin impeachment proceedings by January and effectively take over the DoJ and stop the OIG somehow.
[The Goldwater] The endless cycle of corruption surrounding the Democratic Party has prolonged justice for those involved - in a widespread conspiracy of espionage, blackmail, arms-dealing, treason, drug-trafficking, and potentially supporting terrorism - all connect the likes of Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Hezbollah, Iran, and Imran Awan - leading back to Uranium One.
Most Americans don't understand the full details of the crimes which have occurred in the United States of America's federal government and all across the nation.
As the world has witnessed, under the Obama Regime there were numerous violations of federal law that occurred inside the United States of America's government, through treasonous actors, and corrupt politicians, as well as terrorists; it all goes back to the Uranium One case.
The takedown, however, will begin with of the leading players in the criminal enterprise, Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and Imran Awan.
Wasserman-Schultz has yet to be brought forth on charges for her assistance to known-terrorist Imran Awan, although Awan is now in federal custody and has since faced indictments.
Many members of Congress have vented their frustrations in what's perceived to have been a lack of investigation into the crimes of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, with most recently Representative Ron DeSantis (R-FL) venting his frustrations demanding federal agencies to investigate the Florida Democrat. Lengthy article continues.
#1
As the world has witnessed, under the Obama Regime there were numerous violations of federal law that occurred inside the United States of America's government Evidently the only ones to have not "witnessed" these "numerous violations" are those responsible for bringing justice.
DW-S has been rather quiet lately, hasn't she? And evidently she is still an upright member of the House (D-FL).
[American Conservative] On July 25, Pakistani-American IT specialist Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport for bank fraud while he was allegedly fleeing to Pakistan. The reports predictably produced some press coverage before the story died. Yet the speed at which the news vanished has prompted some observers to suggest that there might actually be something more to the disappearance than the operation of the normal media-reporting cycle. A number of conservative websites, including Breitbart, have been sounding the alarm over a possible cover-up that just might even be linked to what we are now calling Russiagate.
To be sure, the tale is a strange one with plenty of unsavory links. Thirty-seven-year-old Awan, as well as his wife and two brothers Abid and Jamal, worked as IT administrators for nearly 30 congressmen, all Democrats, including former Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. They did not have security clearances and it is not even certain that they were in any way checked out before being hired. At one point, they brought into the House as a colleague one Rao Abbas, someone to whom they owed money and who might have had no qualifications at all to work IT. Abbas wound up working in the office of Rep. Patrick Murphy, who was at the time a member of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as for Rep. Theo Deutch. He was paid $250,000.
The process of granting security clearances to Congressional staff is not exactly transparent, but it is not unlike clearances for other government agencies.
Skipping down to the closing para and potential motives.
Finally, there are the lingering concerns about the unfortunately well-established Russiagate narrative. Did the Russians really hack into the DNC, or was it some kind of inside job carried out by someone actually working for Debbie Wasserman-Schultz for reasons that have yet to be determined, possibly to include espionage? There are many questions—and so far, few answers. Emphasis added.
#1
Dems waived Background Checks on Awan and Company, many of which had an extensive criminal history. Now you know why Wasserman Schultz didn't want FBI Forensic experts to examine her computers.
[FOX] A gang of thieves broke into a Ram truck factory parking lot early Thursday morning and stole around 10 pickups that were fresh off of the assembly line.
Police believe the crooks arrived at the Warren Truck Assembly plant at around 4 a.m. in another stolen truck found nearby, cut through a security fence and each jumped in a Ram 1500.
A guard said one of the trucks smashed through a security gate and was followed by a convoy as they all took off in the same direction.
Police say there is security footage of the crime and that they are looking for more along the roads leading away from the facility.
[Time] Like many British septuagenarians, David Charles Graves lived alone. The 75-year-old, known by everyone as Charlie, had no close friends or family; it’s perhaps why he became such a fixture at his local pub, the Ivy House in Nunhead, south east London. Ivy House regulars became as familiar with the sight of Charlie sipping a pint of Becks lager at the bar as they did with the pub’s quirky stage and furniture restored from the 1930s.
Charlie’s attachment to his local pub will resonate with many Britons. As far back as Roman times, when roadside inns offered comfort to travelers, pubs have occupied a unique place at the heart of British society. In Shakespeare’s time, there was roughly one pub for every 200 people and they feature in several of his plays‐ in Henry IV, for instance, Prince Hal, Falstaff and others constantly wander in and out of the Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap, east London. George Orwell’s famous 1946 ’Moon Under Water’ essay, describing the 10 key points of his ideal pub, notes that alongside draught stout, open fires, cheap meals, a garden and no radio, "the barmaids know most of their customers by name, and take a personal interest in everyone."
Today, pubs still play a part in alleviating social isolation, particularly among elderly Britons like Charlie. Research by the University of Oxford shows that these watering holes can improve people’s engagement with their community and social network size, ultimately affecting how satisfied they feel in life.
[Breitbart] The U.S. economy added 164,000 jobs in April and unemployment ticked down to 3.9 percent, the lowest since before the bursting of the tech bubble at the end of the last century.
Economists had forecast nonfarm payrolls to grow by 192,000 and unemployment to tick down from 4.1 percent to 4.0 percent, according to Thomson Reuters. The unemployment rate had been stuck at 4.1 percent for sixth months.
April’s employment report showed that hiring has snapped back from a particularly weak March when the economy added just 135,000 jobs, according to the revised figure released Friday. Initially, March was reported to have added just 103,000 jobs. March’s weakness was likely due to harsh weather and payback from a particularly strong hiring month in February, which added 324,000 jobs after Friday’s revisions.
The upward revision of March’s numbers may help explain why April’s numbers fell short of expectations. The 30,000 or so jobs that weren’t created in April were actually created earlier in the year.
Posted by: Elminese Scourge of the Mongol Horde2583 ||
05/04/2018 9:54
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#2
Genius! Sheer Genius! A cunning marketing strategy worthy of Wile E. Coyote.
Offend a core customer base to flatter people that would never shop at your plebeian, lower class store -- but host the A-List Cocktail Parties your management wants to attend.
#3
Note: Dick's has also hired three Lib DC Gun Control lobbyists. They want to Virtue Signal while also pushing gun control laws stopping Cabela's and Bass Pro shops from picking up that customer demand. True cronyism
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2018 13:02
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[Daily Caller] The latest addition to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of prosecutors contributed to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, according to federal campaign records.
Uzo Asonye, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is joining Mueller’s stable of prosecutors to work as local counsel on the case against Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman who has been indicted on money laundering and bank fraud charges.
Asonye worked at the firm O’Melveny & Myers before joining the U.S. attorney’s office in 2010. Asonye donated $900 to Clinton’s presidential campaign from January to April 2008, according to Federal Election Commission records. He has not donated to any other national political campaigns since then.
I AM SON-IN LAW OF KENYAN ROYAL OIL MINISTER. IN CONFIDENCE I AM BE WILLING TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF US $5 MILLION TO THE HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNT...
[Oregonian] A horse is suing his former Washington County owner for $100,000 in damages in a rare case in which an animal is listed as a plaintiff in legal action against its guardian.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund in Portland has filed suit against former owner Gwendolyn Vercher, 51, of Cornelius on behalf of the horse.
Justice, an 8-year-old American Quarter Horse, is seeking damages for negligence that left him 300 pounds underweight and afflicted with lice, a skin infection and damaged genitals from severe frostbite, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court. He will require special medical care for the rest of his life, the suit said.
Justice, formerly known as Shadow when he lived with Vercher, was removed from the Cornelius property in March 2017 and now lives at a horse rescue in Troutdale.
Sarah Hanneken, one of the attorneys representing the horse in the case, said state case law has shown animals have legally protected rights. She said Justice should be allowed to recover the costs of damages for pain and suffering, just as a human victim would.
"The Oregon legislature clearly established an anti-cruelty statute for the safety and protection of animals," she said. "Victims of crimes can sue their abusers and animals are sentient beings that are recognized as victims under Oregon law. So with that premise, we've come to the conclusion that animals can sue their abusers and we're confident of our stance in this case."
h/t Gates of Vienna
A Vatican conference has wrapped up featuring controversial pop-star Katy Perry speaking on transcendental meditation, disgraced Lettergate monsignor Dario Viganò delivering a talk on "Fake News," and a "meditating eye" charm bangle given as a gift to select participants. I'm surprised no USA university had invited Stormy Daniels to talk about female empowerment through (just a sec, let me look up the terms)
Spot on. This pope is a disaster. No more liberals no more Jesuits as Pope.
My Prayer: Lord, we have been tested, please take this Bishop of Rome to his reward per St. John Chrysostom, and give us another Saint John Paul II The Great, or even a Benedict XVI that we so badly need.
h/t Gates of Vienna
While violent crime in the UK continues to soar and grooming gangs roam the streets, a man in Scotland was imprisoned and charged for the crime of possessing a potato peeler in public.
No, this isn’t the Onion.
"A man ended up behind bars after being found in a Dunfermline street with an offensive weapon, a potato peeler," reports the Dunfermline Press.
The man, who has "significant learning difficulties," subsequently appeared in court and was charged with "possession of an object that which had a blade or was sharply pointed."
39-year-old Scott Walker will return to court on May 16th for sentencing. Of course, this has nothing to do with the USA campaign to bun "Assault Weapons", does it?
#2
If he was Irish, wouldn't a potato peeler be like Sikh's knife?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/04/2018 7:19
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It's not just the 2d Amendment, but also the 6th that the crown insured American rights and liberties by their capricious behaviors towards its former subjects. The right to jury trial would get any such application thrown out in court.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2018 9:45
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#6
"Is that a 'tater in yer pocket or you just happy to see me?"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/04/2018 10:03
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#7
My wife left a wine corkscrew in the suitcase from an earlier trip. I used the suitcase and didn't think to check the suitcase. TSA was p!ssy about it and confiscated the corkscrew. I suppose I could have made a fuss but I probably would have ended up getting arrested and missed my flight.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Thanks to a little-known change made in April by the Trump administration to the exemptions provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of Americans will have the opportunity to escape having to pay the ObamaCare penalty imposed on those who are not enrolled in a "qualifying" health insurance plan.
In December 2017, the Republican-led Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and in the legislation, they included a provision effectively eliminating the ObamaCare penalty. However, the fine won’t be eliminated until 2019, which means those Americans who currently aren’t enrolled in a health insurance plan will be forced to pay the penalty when they file their 2018 taxes in 2019.
Under the ACA, Americans not enrolled in a qualifying health insurance plan, as defined by the federal government, must pay a penalty of $695 per adult or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is higher.
IRS tax data show more than 6.6 million filers were required to pay the ObamaCare penalty in 2015, the most recent year for which data are available. Those penalized paid a total of more than $3 billion for not being enrolled in a health insurance plan. Lower-income and working-class Americans were hit particularly hard by the fine; the adjusted gross income of 36 percent of the 6.6 million people required to pay the penalty was only $10,000 to $25,000.
In April, and without much fanfare, the Trump administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new guidance expanding the "hardship exemptions" already allowed by the Affordable Care Act to include several new circumstances not previously permitted under the Obama administration.
Perhaps the most important and far-reaching new exemption will permit those who live in a "country, borough, or parish" in which there is only a single health insurer to avoid having to pay the ObamaCare fine. Those living in counties without any health insurance options on an exchange will also be exempt. This is particularly important because CMS reports there is only one health insurer offering coverage in 51 percent of all counties in the United States. This exemption alone could save millions of filers from having to pay the fine.
CMS’ new exemptions will also allow people to escape the penalty if they live in regions in which there are no "affordable" ObamaCare health insurance plans that don’t cover abortions, but only if abortion is "contrary to one’s beliefs, and the absence of any affordable plan without such coverage causes a hardship in obtaining health insurance."
Other "personal circumstances" may also exempt a person from the ObamaCare fine, including "if a person needs specialty care by a specialist physician but the affordable plans offered through" the government insurance exchange "do not provide access to such specialty care."
Hardship exemptions aren’t automatically granted. To apply, people must fill out an application and mail it to their health insurance marketplace. Other exemptions already in existence include filing for bankruptcy, the death of a family member, homelessness, foreclosure, natural disasters, and other difficulties that make purchasing insurance difficult, if not impossible.
By expanding exemptions to the individual mandate penalty, the Trump administration is once again proving its commitment to finding ways to help people suffering under ObamaCare’s burdensome and costly policies. Health insurance offered through ObamaCare exchanges are in many cases no longer affordable, even when health insurance subsidies help to bring the cost of insurance premiums down.
This is especially true for lower-income and working-class families that can only afford to pay for Bronze Plans ‐ the cheapest ObamaCare insurance plans. Nationally, families enrolled in Bronze Plans must endure a maximum out-of-pocket cost of $13,905, far more than what most people can afford to pay. But, but, but what about Stormy Daniels, and collision, and all these rude twits?
#1
IRS tax data show more than 6.6 million filers were required to pay the ObamaCare penalty in 2015, the most recent year for which data are available.
I filed two returns in 2015 that should have been assessed with this penalty; I'm still waiting for the bill(s) from the IRS. Congress removed enforcement for this penalty for 2016, and I'm not sure if that legislation applies to later years.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The operatives of the Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), have foiled deadly attacks plotted by the anti-government armed murderous Moslems to target Kabul city.
According to a statement by NDS, a group of at least seven murderous Moslems were tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... in connection to the attack plots.
The statement further added that the murderous Moslems were tasked to target the Ghazi Amanullah Khan hosptial as well as another health facility belonging to a security institution.
The NDS also added that the detained individuals have confessed that they were trained in Ashab-ul-Jinnah, Hashemiya, Ashab-ul-Safa, Mansoori Lashkar, and Omari Lashkar religious seminaries.
They have also added that the seminaries or religious Madrasas are located in Chaman area of Pakistain.
According to the detained individuals, the Madrasas are run by a key Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... commander'>Taliban Überstürmbannführer Mawlavi Ahmad Kandahari and that they were sent from the same area for the attacks in Kabul city.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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James Webb Space Telescope way over budget and delivery time is now "Shedding nuts, washers and bolts!"
“It’s not terrible news, but it’s not good news, either,” a NASA official said of a new issue found recently during testing of the James Webb Space Telescope. https://t.co/pcIvLTTfgT
The JWST has a history of major cost overruns and delays which have resulted from outside factors such as delays in deciding on a launch vehicle and adding extra funding for contingencies. By 2006, $1 billion had been spent on developing JWST, with the budget at about $4.5 billion at that time. A 2006 article in the journal Nature noted a study in 1984 by the Space Science Board, which estimated that a next generation infrared observatory would cost $4 billion (about $7 billion in 2006 dollars).[49] Because the runaway budget diverted funding from other research, the science journal Nature described the James Webb as "the telescope that ate astronomy" in 2010.[88] In June 2011, it was reported that the Webb telescope would cost at least four times more than originally proposed, and launch at least seven years late. Initial budget estimates were that the observatory would cost $1.6 billion and launch in 2011.[89]
The telescope was originally estimated to cost $1.6bn but the cost estimate grew throughout the early development reaching about $5bn by the time the mission was formally confirmed for construction start in 2008. In summer 2010, the mission passed its Critical Design Review with excellent grades on all technical matters, but schedule and cost slips at that time prompted Maryland US Senator Barbara Mikulski to call for an independent review of the project. The Independent Comprehensive Review Panel (ICRP) chaired by J. Casani (JPL) found that the earliest possible launch date was in late 2015 at an extra cost of $1.5bn (for a total of $6.5bn). They also pointed out that this would have required extra funding in FY2011 and FY2012 and that any later launch date would lead to a higher total cost.[90]
On 6 July 2011, the United States House of Representatives' appropriations committee on Commerce, Justice, and Science moved to cancel the James Webb project by proposing an FY2012 budget that removed $1.9bn from NASA's overall budget, of which roughly one quarter was for JWST.[91][92][93][94] $3 billion had been spent and 75% of its hardware was in production.[95] This budget proposal was approved by subcommittee vote the following day. The committee charged that the project was "billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management".[91] However, in November 2011, Congress reversed plans to cancel the JWST and instead capped additional funding to complete the project at $8 billion.[96] Termination of the JWST project as proposed by the House appropriation committee also would have imperiled funding to other missions, such as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope.[97]
The American Astronomical Society issued a statement in support of JWST in 2011,[98] as did Maryland US Senator Barbara Mikulski.[99] A number of editorials supporting JWST appeared in the international press during 2011 as well.[91][100][101]
Some scientists have expressed concerns about growing costs and schedule delays for the Webb telescope, which competes for scant astronomy budgets and thus threatens funding for other space science programs.[102][85] A review of NASA budget records and status reports noted that the JWST is plagued by many of the same problems that have affected other major NASA projects. Repairs and additional testing included underestimates of the telescope's cost that failed to budget for expected technical glitches, missed budget projections, and evaluation of components to estimate extreme launch conditions, thus extending the schedule and increasing costs further.[85][89][103]
One of the reasons why the cost grew so much is that it is difficult to forecast the cost of development, and in general budget predictability improved when initial development milestones were achieved.[85] By the mid-2010s, the U.S. contribution was still expected to cost $8.8 billion.[85] With the U.S. and international funding combined, the overall cost not including extended operations is projected to be over $10 billion when completed.[104] On 27 March 2018, NASA officials announced that JWST's launch would be pushed back to May 2020 or later, and admitted that the project's costs might exceed the $8.8 billion price tag.[87] In the March 27 press release announcing the latest delay, NASA said that it will release a revised cost estimate after a new launch window is determined in cooperation with the ESA.[3] If this cost estimate exceeds the $8 billion cap Congress put in place in 2011, as is considered likely, NASA will have to have the mission re-authorized by the legislature.[105][106]
#4
NASA's Aging Workforce by HALEY BYRD More than half of NASA’s workforce is 50 years old and over, marking a seven percent increase over the past five years, GAO said in its tenth annual report. 56 percent of NASA employees fall into that category.
...hmmm? Too old and 'set in their ways' to take risks like Commercial Space?
The spacecraft element’s first test simulated the mechanical shock caused by the separation of the spacecraft’s payload adapter after launch. The second test subjected the spacecraft to the extreme sound and resultant vibration of the launch environment. These shock separation and acoustics tests are routine for all spacecraft.
Detailed inspections of the hardware after the acoustic test showed that fastening hardware that hold the sunshield membrane covers in place had come loose.
“NASA is reviewing options for repair and the next steps in spacecraft element launch environment testing,” said Greg Robinson, Webb’s program director. “The team is reviewing the test data and hardware configuration and is actively working towards corrective action in the near future. We expect to get back to the environmental test flow shortly and continue to move safely and methodically toward mission success.”
[National Review] South Carolina’s Senate on Wednesday night voted to ban nearly all abortions.
In the midst of debate on a bill that would ban the rare "dismemberment" method of abortion, the Senate voted 28‐10 to pass an amendment allowing the procedure only in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother could die or be seriously harmed as a result of the pregnancy. It is estimated that the amendment would ban around 97 percent of South Carolina’s 5,700 abortions per year.
Though the amended bill is still one vote short of passage and expected to be filibustered by Democratic state senators, their Republican colleagues hope it will pass and spark a court challenge, leading to a possible reversal of the landmark 1973 abortion case Roe vs. Wade.
"It’s designed to give the court an opportunity to revisit Roe v. Wade," said Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey.
Democratic state senator Brad Hutto called the ban on virtually all abortions "clearly unconstitutional from my point of view," but suggested Republicans passed the stricter amendment to get debate on the bill over with and let the courts deal with it.
"It’s an attempt to get it to the courts so we don’t have to keep debating it over and over and over," said Hutto, but added he is sure the courts will strike it down.
[AAWSAT] Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Thursday there would be "no room for impunity" for ETA's crimes even though the Basque separatist group has said it would fully disband.
"ETA can announce its disappearance but its crimes do not disappear nor do the efforts to pursue and punish them," Rajoy said in a televised speech in the northern city of Logrono.
"ETA has completely dissolved all its structures and ended its political initiative," said a letter dated April 16 and published by the Spanish online newspaper El Diario on Wednesday.
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[AlAhram] Syrian rebels began pulling out of an enclave they have surrendered in south Damascus on Thursday, but a few fighters in another besieged area near Homs shelled government areas after their groups agreed to quit.
The enclaves in south Damascus and near Homs are the only two besieged areas still held by rebels, though they still control large tracts of northwest and southwest Syria, lying along its international borders, which are not surrounded by the army.
Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... has focused on dislodging rebels from their remaining besieged pockets since driving them from eastern Ghouta last month after a fierce offensive.
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed footage of buses arriving at Beit Sahm, driving through narrow streets surrounded by soldiers and with concrete buildings above showing scars of war.
It later reported that the first batch of buses had departed, carrying fighters and their families from the area.
Some 5,000 fighters and their family members are expected to leave Beit Sahm, Babila and Yalda neighbourhoods for the opposition areas in northern Syria, it reported, following an earlier group which left the enclave on Monday.
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 holding another part of the same enclave are still fighting after weeks of intense bombardment in the area of al-Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk Paleostinian refugee camp.
On Wednesday, turbans in the biggest of the remaining besieged areas, located between the cities of Hama and Homs around the towns of Rastan, Talbiseh and Houla, also agreed to surrender.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... a small number of them rejected the deal and shelled government areas late on Wednesday and early on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor and two local sources said.
[AAWSAT] 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... is on track to cut its budget deficit to seven percent of gross domestic product this year, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said on Wednesday.
He pointed out the effectiveness of the country's fiscal and economic reform program over the past two years.
Jadaan inaugurated Wednesday the activities of two-day Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference 2018, which is held in Riyadh.
"The world is witnessing promising progress due to positive expectations for growth rates in developed and emerging markets, Jadaan said, speaking at the conference.
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[AAWSAT] Bahraini concerned authorities have questioned 37 coppers after complaints from prisoners and detainees for maltreatment and excessive violence against them.
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU), a monitoring body that investigates complaints by prisoners and detainees in security facilities, disclosed legal violations in the case of citizens sentenced to death.
This prompted the Bahraini Attorney General to request the Minister of Justice to revoke the death sentence and reopen the case file and trial.
The SIU dealt with 43 complaints during the first four months of 2018, involving torture, maltreatment and excessive violence attributed to servicemen affiliated with the public security.
Judge and SIU member Mohammed Youssef al-Zebari said that the panel had launched inquiries to investigate all the complaints.
Zebari said that the unit heard 50 complainants and 113 witnesses during the same period, questioned 37 accused servicemen from the public security and referred 10 complainants to medical examiner.
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[AnNahar] One person was killed and another injured in a shooting in Amsterdam, a major tourist hub, Dutch police said Thursday.
"There was a shooting on Wednesday evening in the Krootstraat street in the southeast of Amsterdam. There were two casualties," they said in statement said.
One of the victims died, the other was injured and taken to hospital for treatment, it added.
There was no apparent terror link to Wednesday's incident.
Amsterdam has been the scene of an escalating gang war between criminal groups involved in drug trafficking.
We know the various jihadi groups including Al Qaeda in North Africa, the Taliban, and Hizb’allah are involved in drug trafficking. And we know that Muslim colonists form gangs and engage in all sorts of misbehaviours in Europe. What odds, dear Reader, that at least some of the Amsterdam gang members are Moslem colonists and/or jihadis?
Several people have been killed in a string of violent incidents since the fights began in 2012.
"A suspect has been tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! and fingerprints were taken at the scene of the crime," Thursday's police statement said.
A shooting in downtown Amsterdam in January left a 17-year-old boy dead and two other people injured.
In March 2016, the decapitated head of a man was found at the entrance to a hookah bar known to police as being a hangout for city criminals, the day after his body had been found in a burnt-out car.
[PRESSTV] Months after being ravaged by a deadly cholera outbreak that killed thousands of people, 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... is now faced with the risk of a second wave of the disease as a new rainy season approaches.
The war-torn country, which has lost much of its infrastructure due to ruthless Arclight airstrikes by 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... over the past three years, is still reeling from one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the killer disease, scientists warned on Thursday.
Since 2016, roughly a year after the attack began, one million suspected cases of cholera have been reported in Yemen while more than 2,000 people have been killed by it.
"We expect to see a surge of cases during the rainy season," Anton Camacho, lead author of a study on the epidemic published in The Lancet Global Health journal, told Rooters.
"If something is going to happen it will happen now so everyone should be aware and respond quickly. The risk is high," he added.
The rainy season is expected to begin from mid-April and last until the end of August.
The first four weeks of last year’s rainy season saw the daily number of cholera cases increase 100-fold, accelerating the spread of the disease across the poverty-stricken country.
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NBC Exclusive: Feds set up wiretap on Trump lawyer's phones weeks before FBI raid.
Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI in New York declined comment.
After the raid, members of Trump's legal team advised the president not to speak to Cohen, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
Two sources close to Trump's newest attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, say he learned that days after the raid the president had made a call to Cohen, and told Trump never to call again out of concern the call was being recorded by prosecutors.
Giuliani told Fox News Wednesday night that Trump repaid Cohen the $130,000 he used to keep the adult film star, Stormy Daniels, from going public with allegations about her affair with Trump.
Giuliani is also described as having warned Trump that Cohen is likely to flip on him, something Trump pushed back on, telling Giuliani that he has known Cohen for years and expects him to be loyal, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the conversations.
Giuliani and a lawyer for Cohen, Steve Ryan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House referred NBC News to outside counsel.
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[DAWN] 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... confirmed on Thursday the arrival of a prisoner who was sent back to the Kingdom from the Guantanamo Bay detention center to serve out the remainder of his 13-year sentence.
Ahmed Mohammed al-Darbi is the first detainee to leave the US base in Cuba since 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... took office. The Pentagon first announced the transfer in a brief statement on Wednesday.
Saudi state security says al-Darbi arrived just before midnight on Wednesday and that his relatives had been notified.
After serving the remainder of his sentence, about nine years, al-Darbi will spend time in a Saudi rehabilitation center for convicted holy warriors that aims to help them assimilate back into society through frequent visits with relatives, religious counseling with moderate holy mans, art therapy and even cash assistance to help them once out.
There have been around 140 detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia. His transfer brings the number of men still held at Guantanamo to 40.
The agreement to repatriate al-Darbi was made under President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... , whose administration had hoped to eventually close the detention center. Trump reversed that policy and has vowed to continue using the center.
Al-Darbi pleaded guilty before a military commission at the US base in Cuba in 2014 to charges stemming from an al-Qaeda attack on a French oil tanker. His plea deal included extensive testimony against others held at Guantanamo.
His charges included conspiracy, attacking civilian objects, terrorism and aiding the enemy for helping to arrange the 2002 al-Qaeda attack on the French tanker MV Limburg. The attack, which killed a Bulgarian crew member, happened after al-Darbi was already in US custody and was cooperating with authorities, according to court documents.
Al-Darbi, 43, was captured at an airport in Azerbaijan in June 2002 and taken to the US base in Bagram, Afghanistan. He has testified to being kept in solitary confinement, strung up from a door in shackles, deprived of sleep and subjected to other forms of abuse as part of his early interrogation.
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[IsraelTimes] Knife found in suspect's possession; in separate incident, group of young men reportedly drag away portion of a secondary security fence near Khan Younis
Israeli troops on Thursday shot a Paleostinian man, injuring him, as he attempted to damage the security fence around the northern Gazoo Strip, in the latest incident along the tense border, the army said.
The soldiers nabbed Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! the suspect and provided him with medical treatment, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
"A wire-cutter and knife were found in the suspect’s possession," the army said.
He was taken to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center by helicopter at death's door, with a gunshot wound to the knee, according to a hospital spokesperson.
"He is being treated now in the trauma center," she said.
In addition to this incident in northern Gazoo, a group of Paleostinian youths on Thursday morning dragged away a portion of a secondary barrier set up by the IDF in the buffer zone between southern Gazoo and the border with Israel, the Paleostinian Ma’an news reported.
According to the outlet, the young men brought the barbed wire back to their town ‐ Khusa’a, east of Khan Younis ‐ apparently as some kind of trophy.
An army spokesperson said she was "unaware" of the incident.
In a bid to keep Gazooks away from the main security fence, the IDF set up a number of secondary barriers, in the form of coils of barbed wire, in the buffer zone between the Strip and the Israeli border.
On Thursday morning, the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Gazoo health ministry reported that another Paleostinian, 19-year-old Anas Shawqi Abu-Aser, had died of wounds sustained during last week’s riot.
This brought the casualty count in the border festivities to 45 Paleostinian dead and over 1,500 injured by live fire since March 30, according to the Hamas health ministry.
These protests were originally described by their Paleostinian organizers as nonviolent, but Hamas later took charge of them. Rioters have burned tires, hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at Israeli troops, and repeatedly attempted to sabotage the security fence.
Israeli troops have used both less-lethal weapons and live fire to drive back protesters, prompting international ‐ and, to a lesser extent, domestic ‐ accusations of excessive force.
The Israeli military maintains that its use of live rounds is within the boundaries of Israeli and international law.
Thus far this is the only source for the story also reported by the Daily Mail and Breitbart. And given the excitability of the Egyptian Press, at this point it seems to me it should be characterized as a hopeful rumour rather than fact, though according to the Breitbart article there have been discussions.
[EgyptIndependent] In wake of wide 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... n cultural and social global openness, for the first time in the country’s history it has signed a cooperative agreement with the Vatican to build churches for Christian citizens to advocate the important role of religions and cultures in renouncing violence, extremism, terrorism and achieving security and stability in the world.
The agreement was signed by the Secretary General of the Moslem World League Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdel Karim al-Issa and the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue in the Vatican and the French cardinal of the Catholic Church Jean-Louis Tauran to achieve mutual goals between both sides.
The agreement also states that a coordinating joint committee will be established comprising two representatives for both sides to organize future meetings. The committee is expected to be held once every two years and its meetings will be alternated between Rome and a city chosen by the Islamic World League, according to the Saudi Arabian press.
The historic visit also included a meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Tauran said that he supports equal treatment to all citizens regardless their religion, including those who do not profess any religion; he also called on setting common basis in building worship places, according to "L’osservatore romano", the Italian newspaper published by the Vatican.
In an interview with the Vatican News newspaper after the visit, Tauran said he was pleased by what he described as ’the beginning of the rapprochement’. "It is a sign that the Saudi authorities are now ready to give a new image to the country," he added.
Earlier in March, Bin Salman met with Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark during his visit to Egypt; Tawadros strongly praised Bin Salman, saying he represents an open and modern image of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
"The visit of the Saudi Crown Prince was a great pleasure, and I was very impressed by his personality and smile, and his knowledge and understanding of history and current events," the Pope said during an interview on MBC TV satellite channel.
Update from the Daily Mail at 8:45 pm EDT:
There was no immediate confirmation from the Vatican. MailOnline has approached Vatican and Saudi authorities for comment but they have not yet responded.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
if true this would be big
several haditha prohibit the caliph from building a church anywhere
and others prohibit any the 'people of the book' from the arabian peninsula
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/04/2018 12:49
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[All Africa] King Mswati the absolute monarch of impoverished Swaziland wore a watch worth US$1.6 million and a suit beaded with diamonds to his 50th birthday party.
Days earlier he had received delivery of his second private jet. This one, an A340-300 Airbus, reportedly cost as much as US$30 million after VIP upgrades.
These are examples of the King's lavish lifestyle. He has fleets of top-of-the-range BMW and Mercedes cars and he and his family travel the world in luxury.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... seven in ten of his 1.1 million subjects live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day.
Media in Swaziland, where political parties are banned, are heavily censored and do not report on the excesses of the King and his Royal family. Therefore, it is difficult to determine their full extent, but it has been possible to piece together some of the details.
In 2012 he acquired his first private jet, estimated to cost US$17 million. He refused to say who had paid for it, leading to speculation that the money came from public funds.
Often, the King abandons his private jet but still travels abroad in luxury. In May 2012 he went to London to attend a lunch to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The trip was estimated to cost US$794,500. He took with him his first wife Inkhosikati LaMbikiza. She wore to the lunch shoes trimmed with jewels that cost £995 (US$1,559). It would take seven-out-of-ten Swazis at least three years to earn the price of the shoes.
The previous year he was in London with a party of 50 people for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middlelton, staying at a US$1,000 per night hotel on a trip that was estimated to cost US$700,000 for the hire of a private jet to take the King and his party from Swaziland to the UK.
The extravagant spending came just as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) criticised Swaziland for diverting money that should have been used on education and health to other spending. As a result of this spending the IMF withdrew its team that was advising the government on economic recovery from Swaziland.
In 2012 Inkhosikati LaMotsa, the second of the King's wives, stayed at a Johannesburg hotel on a personal trip at a cost of US$60,000 a month.
The King has at least 13 wives and they regularly travel the world on lavish shopping trips. Details are kept from the Swazi people, but it is estimated that the trips take place several times a year.
In 2016 at least three of his wives went shopping in Orlando, Florida, with an entourage of more than 100, reportedly spending about US$1 million. The cost of this holiday was equivalent to the drought relief that the United States was then providing to the drought-stricken Kingdom.
Reports of the trip prompted Lisa Peterson, the then US ambassador to Swaziland, to warn the Kingdom might not receive further food aid from her country because of the Swazi King's 'lavish spending' on holidays.
News24 in South Africa reported Peterson saying the US had limited funds for drought relief. She said, 'When we hear of the lavish spending by the Swazi royal family - especially while a third of their citizens need food aid - it becomes difficult to encourage our government to make more emergency aid available. You can't expect international donors to give more money to the citizens of Swaziland than their own leaders give them.'
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[IsraelTimes] Images of Fordo show full parking lot, open gates to 'uranium enrichment tunnels,' but no indication of illicit activity.
An Israeli satellite imaging company on Thursday released images showing what it described as "unusual" movement around the Iranian Fordo nuclear facility, a one-time uranium enrichment plant buried deep underground that was converted to a research center as part of the 2015 nuclear deal.
The photographs, which show large numbers of vehicles at the entrance to the facility and other signs of increased activity there, do not in themselves indicate any violation of the nuclear accord, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
Continued on Page 49
#3
Saddam's nuclear facility at Osirak. Note the berm. Very high, and difficult to climb (lots of huffing and puffing to reach the top)....unless you were a very fit Maori SAS NCO. Berm was ringed by Russian made Triple-A batteries. Didn't stop the IS Air Force from taking it out however. See 'Operation Opera.'
[AAWSAT] The Bosnian authorities have refused to extradite a person suspected of involvement in the liquidation of Tunisian national Mohammed Zaouari, a member of the Paleostinian Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, Movement.
Zaouari, a 49-year-old engineer and Tunisian citizen, was murdered at the wheel of his car outside his house in Tunisia’s second city, Sfax, in December 2016.
Tunisia’s Prosecution Spokesman Sofiene al-Sliti said on Wednesday that one of the two Bosnian suspects was enjugged You have the right to remain silent... in Croatia, adding that the two people who carried out the liquidation were identified -- both were of Bosnian nationality.
Oh? Not Israelis, and therefore not Mossad, then. Just as Seeking Cure For Ignorance predicted.
Al-Sliti noted that the Tunisian judiciary has sent international letters rogatory to seven countries in coordination with the Interpol, namely The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... , Egypt, Cuba, Croatia, Leb, Bosnia and Sweden.
In remarks to Asharq al-Awsat, al-Sliti said that one of the perpetrators of the liquidation was arrested on March 13, but the Bosnian state refused to extradite the main suspect, to the Tunisian authorities, and justified its refusal by the fact that its laws prevent the extradition of its nationals to other countries.
Zaouari was rubbed out on December 15, 2016 in front of his home in the city of Sfax. Security investigations conducted by the Ministry of the Interior revealed that two persons were involved in the liquidation. Hamas’ Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades revealed that Zaouari was one of its members and a key component in its weapons development, especially in the area of unmanned drones.
The brigade accused the Israeli Mossad service of being behind the liquidation.
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[AAWSAT] The Kuwaiti government easily passed Wednesday one of three obstacles during a marathon session to discuss three interrogation requests.
While Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak survived the questioning, both the government and the speaker of the National Assembly seemed satisfied with the outcome of the vote of confidence for Oil and Electricity Minister Bakheet al-Rashidi and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hind al-Sabeeh on May 10.
Following a 24-hour marathon session, which witnessed the discussion of three government-directed interrogations, 10 politicians filed a no-confidence motion against Rashidi and Sabeeh.
Speaker of the National Assembly Marzouq al-Ghanim said that the two ministers would not resign during next week’s session.
Ghanim told news hounds the first no-confidence request was submitted by MPs Abdul Wahab al-Babtain and Omar al-Tabtabaei against Rashidi.
A no-confidence motion has been filed against the minister and the voting on the motion will take place during Thursday’s session on May 10, Ghanim added.
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[AAWSAT] Melina Boughedir, a French citizen, who was put on trial in Baghdad on terrorism charges, denied believing in the ideology of ISIS, Agence La Belle France Presse reported Wednesday.
The 27-year-old mother of four faces the death penalty over her alleged membership of ISIS.
Arrested in the summer of 2017 in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Boughedir was sentenced last February to seven months in prison for "illegal" entry into the country and was set to be deported back to La Belle France.
But upon re-examining her file, an Iraqi court found that Boughedir knew her husband planned on joining ISIS in Iraq and that she "knowingly" followed him, AFP quoted a judicial source as saying.
On the first day of her new trial Wednesday, the judge asked Boughedir if she knew where her husband was.
"One day he went to get water and he disappeared, I don't know anything about it," she said.
When asked if she believed in ISIS's ideology, she said: "Not at all. This is the case for many foreign women married to ISIS men."
The judge showed Boughedir a series of photos, in one of which she appeared, asking whether she recognized various people.
"For someone who claims to have been forced to come to Iraq because your husband was threatening to take your children, you look very relaxed," the judge said, referring to the picture.
"I was at home and the picture was taken by my husband," Boughedir said.
The next hearing is set for June 3 at the request of Boughedir's new attorney, an Iraqi chosen by the family.
Last month, an Iraqi court sentenced another French woman, Djamila Boutoutaou, to life in prison for belonging to ISIS despite her pleas that she had been duped by her husband.
Since the beginning of the year, Baghdad courts have sentenced more than 280 foreign Lions of Islam to death or to life in prison, according to a judicial source.
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[Ynet] Following wave of arrests of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, members in Ramallah, security services discover thousands of euros intended to stage terror activities were funnelled to head of Hamas-affiliated student group at Bir Zeit University; money was transferred by terrorist released as part of Shalit deal.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), has carried out a wave of arrests tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... of Hamas members in the Ramallah area who are suspected of having received tens of thousands of euros, which were hidden throughout the West Bank and were designated for Hamas activities, it was cleared for publication Thursday.
Continued on Page 49
[AAWSAT] Tourists in Australia's Lake Macquarie are ignoring warnings and feeding carrots to kangaroos who are aggressive at the sight of sugary snack, a tour operator said.
The issue has reached the point where national news is warning tourists of the dangers of feeding kangaroos.
Each week thousands of people come to see the kangaroos near a psychiatric hospital, enticed by travel blogs promising "adorable wild kangaroos" that are "tame enough to get close to and take photos with," Rooters reported.
Tourists approach kangaroos with carrots in their hands and while trying to take photos, they get attacked.
A photo posted by a tour operator on social media showed a kangaroo leaping up to kick a tourist with its powerful legs. Other photos showed a woman with a scratched face.
"Kangaroos can occasionally be aggressive no matter what the circumstances are, but 90 percent of the time it's the people who are trying to feed them who are attacked," Shane Lewis, who operates a tourist shuttle service to the park, told Rooters.
Lewis said he showed photos of injuries to tourists as a reminder of the damage a wild animal can do.
A kangaroo's natural diet is mostly grass, so the sugar in carrots can make it hard to effectively absorb nutrients and lead to a "slow and painful death", she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Just remember kids, roos may be cute but they are white tailed deers with possum brains!
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Four civilians were maimed in a blast caused by a bomb from the remnants of war against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in west of Anbar, a security source from the province said on Thursday.
"A bomb from the remnants of war against Islamic State went off as some civilians were passing by al-Majmaa region, in central Rawa town, west of Anbar, leaving four civilians profoundly maimed," the source told BasNews. "They were transferred to hospital for treatment."
Security troops, according to the source, who preferred anonymity, "headed to the accident spot and combed the area fearing other blasts that could target more civilians."
The source added that "war remnants are still in some regions of Anbar due to the difficulty of locating them at the residential areas and main streets as well as desert and agricultural areas."
A total of 68 Iraqis were killed and another 122 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in April, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[AA.TR] Ottoman Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 70 soldiers allegedly linked to FETO, the group behind last year's defeated coup, judicial sources said on Thursday.
Prosecutors in the central Anatolian province of Konya issued the warrants for 70 Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces members, including on-duty soldiers, accused of links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). Konya police ordered the launch of operations in 34 provinces.
The search for the suspects is underway, said the sources, who requested anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Ottoman Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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#1
Keep it up. The politically faithful (yet militarily incompetent) commissars will lead the Ottoman Turkish military to their destruction
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2018 8:48
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Police troops have locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! 20 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.... bandidosbandidos bad boys as they were planning to carry out terrorist operations during the parliamentary elections in Nineveh, a security source said on Thursday.
"Information from the intelligence helped in arresting 20 turbans who were planning to carry out terrorist operations during elections in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... city and its vicinity," the police source told Alghad Press.
The troops, according to the source, "managed to arrest the turbans in several regions in al-Shuhadaa al-Thaniya district in Mosul."
Moreover, the Nineveh Police Command announced arresting an IS member in an operation in west of Mosul.
Maj. Gen. Hamad Namis al-Jabouri, the commander, said troops arrested "IS member, known as Khaled al-Loweizi, in the market of Sumar district in west of Mosul."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/04/2018
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[PRESSTV] Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Islamic Theocratic Republic reserves the right to respond should the US, as a party to the 2015 nuclear deal, withdraw from the agreement.
In a video message posted on YouTube on Thursday, Zarif compared Tehran's full commitment to its side of the bargain to Washington's breach of the deal, which is officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
On 11 occasions, he said, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that Iran has implemented all it obligations under the JCPOA, but "the US has consistently violated the agreement especially by bullying others from doing business with Iran."
Zarif also slammed the European countries' appeasement to US 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... as a deadline looms for Washington to announce whether it will continue suspending anti-Iran sanctions that were lifted under the nuclear accord.
"In the last year or so, we've been told that President Trump is unhappy with the deal and it now appears that the response from some Europeans has been to offer the United States more concessions from our pocket," he said.
"This appeasement entails promises of a new deal that would include matters we all decided to exclude at the outset of our negotiations, including Iran's defensive capabilities and regional influence. But please understand on both issues, it is Iran, not the West, that has serious grievances and much to demand," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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#1
So the Ayatollah has a problem?
Nothing a good steaming bowl of Kohlbasa and Lingueni can't cure.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi court has sentenced eight female gunnies to life over belonging to 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.... In a statement issued on Thursday, Abdul Satar Bayraqdar, spokesperson for the High Judicial Council, said, "the Central Criminal Court decreed sentencing eight foreign female gunnies from different countries, including The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Syria, to life."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/04/2018
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[PRESSTV] A recent report says the US has expanded its role in Riyadh’s bloody war on 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... well beyond mere arms sales and logistical support by secretly deploying a team of elite commandos to the Yemeni border to help the Saudi military in battles against 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 ... Ansarullah movement.
Citing US and European officials, The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported Thursday that about a dozen commandos with the US Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets, had been deployed in December 2017 to 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 southern border regions.
The secretive mission, according to the report, is aimed at helping Saudi forces locate Yemeni missile launch sites and destroy the missile supplies of the Houthi movement, Yemen’s de facto military power, which has been defending the country, along with allied forces, against the Saudi aggression.
The New York Times, however, said there was no indication that the commandos had crossed into Yemen.
The report cited a half-dozen officials from the US as well as European and Arab countries as saying on condition of anonymity that the American commandos were "training" Saudi ground troops to secure their border in the face of counter-attacks from Yemen.
The American special forces are using spy aircraft that can collect electronic signals to track the weapons in Yemen and their launch sites, the officials added.
The Saudi troops are also closely cooperating with US intelligence experts in the southern Saudi city of Najran a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province and a favored target of Houthirocket forces.... , which has been target of several Yemeni retaliatory attacks, the report added.
The deployment took place weeks after a ballistic missile fired from Yemen hit close to the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The kingdom claimed it had intercepted the missile, but footage and photos later shared of the strike cast serious doubt on that claim.
Yemeni forces regularly fire ballistic missiles at positions inside Saudi Arabia in retaliation for Riyadh’s attacks against their country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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[PRESSTV] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says US military buildup in the eastern side of the Euphrates River threatens Syria's unity as it is actually aimed at partitioning the country.
Lavrov said the US claims that it is seeking to rid Syria of terrorists, but in fact it is actively settling on the Eastern Euphrates in a bid to disintegrate Syria.
"This approach is also encouraged by a number of US allies,’’ he said in an interview with Italia’s Panorama magazine published on Thursday.
The top Russian diplomat also said that the suspected chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb town of Douma on April 7 was a "new dirty provocation made by those who do not want peace in Syria."
One week after the incident, the US, Britannia and La Belle France launched a coordinated missile attack against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs with the purported goal of paralyzing the Syrian government’s capability to produce chemicals.
Syria has rejected the accusations of possessing chemicals. It surrendered its chemical stockpile in 2013 to a mission led by the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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[theconservativetreehouse] NOW IT ALL COMES TOGETHER…
Michael Caputo appears on Fox News for a general discussion of his third experience being grilled by Hillary Clinton’s Legal Team within the Clinton-Mueller Special Counsel.
However, one of the interesting bits of information is where Mr. Caputo notes the Clinton-Mueller team have the personal emails, phone call logs, communications and even text messages of every targeted member of the investigation. This little factoid is jaw-droppingly important because highlights the underlying reason why Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein needed to grant a July 2017 extension of the Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant (initiated against Carter Page); that was actually being utilized by the FBI to conduct political surveillance of these same Trump officials.
Without the July 2017 FISA extension, Robert Mueller would have not have predicate investigative authority to reach into the accounts of his targets and extract their personal communication. Mueller would have needed to go to court for a search warrant; he is conducting a criminal investigation; he would have needed probable cause. However, by applying the 2016 extended FISA Title-1 warrant, the Clinton-Mueller special counsel use the previous legal authority to extract all the information they wanted to review.
Things are making much more sense now.
Posted by: 3dc ||
05/04/2018
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#1
"Mr. Mueller, remember that you are under oath, now, At what point did you understand that the FISA Application was erroneous and the surveillance was violating the Defendants constitutional rights?"
Further developments on this story from two days ago.
[AlAhram] Ten more people have died from wounds sustained during Tuesday's attack on a church in Central African Republic, the Red Thingy said on Thursday, bringing the toll to 26.
Unidentified armed assailants attacked the Notre Dame de Fatima church in the capital Bangui with grenades and guns during morning mass, initially killing at least 15 and critically wounding scores of others.
The number of dead is expected to rise further, said Antoine Mbao Bogo, president of the Central African Republican Red Thingy.
"We have counted 99 seriously maimed, some of whom are being treated. And some are dying because the there was nothing to be done, despite the work of the doctors," he said.
The attack adds to a list of recent deadly festivities in Central African Republic where state control is breaking down and inter-faith violence that has long blighted the country threatens to flare again.
Mainly MoslemSeleka ...a 'mainly' Moslem rebel force in the Central African Republic that overthrew the govt, imposed a regime of rapine and looting on the country's non-Moslem population, and was then tossed by France. They still exist, getting funding and weapons from somewhere or other, licking their wounds, complaining about the oppression of Moslems, and occasionally raping and looting someone... rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, sparking retaliation killings by "anti-balaka" gangs, drawn largely from Christian communities.
Tuesday's church attack occurred on the edge of the mainly Moslem PK5 neighbourhood where 21 people were killed last month when UN peacekeepers and local security forces clashed with criminal gangs.
[PRESSTV] If war criminals like Henry Kissinger and Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... could get the Nobel Peace Prize, then 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... could also be awarded it, says an American political analyst and activist.
Myles Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks while commenting to Press TV on Thursday, after President Trump's closest Republican allies in Congress nominated him for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, giving him credit for pressuring North Korea into accepting a possible denuclearization.
Led by Indiana Representative Luke Messer, 18 of Trump’s most ardent supporters in the House of Representatives wrote a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Wednesday, recommending the Republican head of state for his work to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.
"It’s not that unusual that his cadre of Republican sycophants would nominate President Trump for a Nobel Prize. To them, Trump is delivering on the undeliverable. Whether he has earned it or not is not relevant. Since Trump is trying to reverse everything that Obama attempted to do, it’s no surprise that they feel if Obama should have received the Nobel, why not the Donald?" Hoenig asked.
"And why not? Look at the Nobel committee’s history. First, they did give it to a war mongering president before he was even a war monger, President Obama. Yet even before his first bombs dropped on innocent villagers or droned individuals, he was already silent about the massive war crimes being committed by Israel during the Siege of Gazoo when he was only President-elect. His argument for his silence was that foreign policy should be left to the sitting president, George Bush. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... he was quick to condemn and verbalize his outrage over the Mumbai massacre during this same time," he stated.
"The Nobel committee sure has had second thoughts now that Obama’s term is over and he had extended Bush’s wars and added a few of his own. You would think they would think twice about making such a blunder," the analyst noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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#2
Remind me again , "What exactly did Obama DO to get the Nobel Prize?' Perhaps I missed it. Was it his speech in Cairo, perhaps? No?
Was it his smile in Paris? His Vacations in Hawaii? His Golf scores?
His deep bows to The Emperor of Japan and Saudi Arabia, then ?
No? Hmmm.
( I've GOT it ) His wonderful Obamacare program and his compassion for the sick people everywhere, and their high insurance premiums ? That must be it.
The fact that he was black and the smartest man in the room? That He was the Messiah and shot a thrill up everybody's leg ? Well, at least a mild thrill.anyway. NBC vowed that it was more like an electric shock from their little toe all the way to an ecstatic whack in the gonads... or was that TIME magazine?
Besides he DESERVED it because he was Black ( well, half black anyway.
#7
The thing about the Obama prize was how blatant it was. Typically they'd have waited and then overblown some action as deserving but they didn't want to wait to virtue signal. He got the award before he had a chance to do anything. Nobel is worthless after that.
#8
Yasser Arafat (Palestinian terrorist) got the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Obummer got it before he did anything (Come to think of it, did he ever do anything?).
[NY Times] President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to prepare options for drawing down American troops in South Korea, just weeks before he holds a landmark meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, according to several people briefed on the deliberations.
Reduced troop levels are not intended to be a bargaining chip in Mr. Trump’s talks with Mr. Kim about his weapons program, these officials said. But they acknowledged that a peace treaty between the two Koreas could diminish the need for the 23,500 soldiers currently stationed on the peninsula.
[Ynet] US 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... has not asked the Pentagon for options to reduce US forces based in South Korea, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a statement on Friday.
His comment comes after the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , citing several people briefed on the deliberations, reported on Thursday that the president was seeking options to curb the number of American troops stationed in South Korea.
#3
Yes, we all know there was no formal peace treaty. Nonetheless the Korean Conflict ended in 1953 and for the past 25 years there has been no credible threat of invasion from the North. The formal peace treaty will be signed soon and with it will go the entire reason for US troops to be in Korea in the first place. We'll need a big victory parade to welcome them when they get home.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/04/2018 9:44
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[NY Times] ...according to several people briefed on the deliberations.
Given all the other plans the Pentagon has on file (invasion of Canada, anyone?), this is a reasonable preparation against a possible future need. Or someone could be gaslighting the New York Times, which richly deserves it.
#6
Mr. Bolton says the New York Times’ sources got it wrong. And how lovely to be able to use the Darth Bolton image again, left over as it is from his time as our ambassador to the UN.
[DailyBeast] President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on Thursday he doubted the veracity of a bombshell NBC News report from earlier in the day that federal authorities wiretapped the president’s longtime counsel, Michael Cohen.
"Us lawyers have talked about it, we don’t believe it’s true," Giuliani told The Daily Beast. "We think it’s going to turn out to be untrue because it would be totally illegal. You can’t wiretap a lawyer, you certainly can’t wiretap his client who’s not involved in the investigation. No one has suggested that Trump was involved in that investigation. So they’re going to wiretap the lawyer, his client, and his client the president of the United States? I don’t think so, not if they want to stay out of jail. Disclosing a wiretap is a federal felony. I never took ’em home when I was a U.S. attorney."
Giuliani said that he found out about the wiretap news from NBC News’ report, which cited "two people with knowledge of the legal proceedings," and not from Cohen himself. He believed someone in the Justice Department was behind the leak.
"Nobody else would know about it," Giuliani said. "Cohen didn’t know about it, so it has to be the FBI, the independent counsel, or the Justice Department."
"Anybody who says that I’m exaggerating when I say that this is an out-of-control investigation and they’re acting like storm troopers‐‐give me a break, baby! They prove it every day."
Feds Are Treating Michael Cohen Like a Mob Lawyer
Michael Cohen’s Mystery Client Is Sean Hannity
"That sort of thing happens all the time if you’re doing mob wiretaps," he said. "That would be the classic type of scenario, when they’re calling their lawyer or their fixer or whatever. But there’s not an absolute prohibition on wiretapping a lawyer."
"Right now, the odds are against it," he said. "Look at all of the bad faith we’re seeing here. And whether this wiretap story is true or not true, it’s bad faith to leak it. We should find out about this with a notification from the Justice Department, they’re wiretapping the President of the United States, they’re wiretapping a man talking to his lawyer and then they want us to cooperate? We’re not suckers."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/04/2018
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#2
"We think it’s going to turn out to be untrue because it would be totally illegal."
Rudy, there's been a great deal of criminality by the Deep State cabal already. Unfortunately, much of it has gone unprosecuted. Meanwhile, Mueller goes after ginned-up, phony process minutia. Very frustrating.
#3
"We think it’s going to turn out to be untrue because it would be totally illegal."
NBC was quick to correct their reporting (who told them about 'Pen Registers?). Too quick, in my mind, based on their previous news 'coverage' of other issues.
Rudy may be setting the scene for something here, too. Shaping the message as it were, so when wiretapping of the sort is actually verified (which JQC alludes to), no one can question the legalities.
Well, some will of course.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/04/2018 9:04
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#4
I do remember that, when this story first broke, there was reporting of 'information' gathered that could be incriminating.
Seems beyond the info a mere pen register could gather.
But, as Giuliani says, that would be 'totally illegal'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/04/2018 13:47
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#5
It probably was true, just not supposed to be admitted.
[PRESSTV] Militants have agreed to disarm and hand the territory under their control near Syria’s third largest city of Homs back to the Damascus government under a new evacuation deal.
The two sides reached the deal on Wednesday thanks to mediation by Russia, Rooters reported. In line with the deal, the faceless myrmidons would also be surrendering their heavy weaponry.
The locations which are subject to the agreement include the towns of Houla, Rastan, and Talbiseh and the villages around them.
The enclave is situated on a main highway linking the cities of Homs and Hama. As part of the agreement, the highway will reopen in three days.
The latest deal, like previous ones, gives the faceless myrmidons two options: either accept the state rule and stay in the area or leave along with their families for other myrmidon-held areas, which are yet to be freed.
Rooters cited a myrmidon source as saying that those refusing to lay down arms would be taken to a myrmidon stronghold in the north of the country near the Ottoman Turkish border, adding that their evacuation is expected to begin on Saturday.
According the Syria’s official SANA new agency, the faceless myrmidons have also agreed to provide maps of the minefields in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AAWSAT] A Death Eater commander, held in Baghdad, confessed on Wednesday having been in direct contact with ISIS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... He added that he met Baghdadi in the summer of 2017 for the last time.
Iraq’s judiciary announced that the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, or CCCI, has upheld confessions given by the detained ISIS official, whose name was not disclosed.
He was first incarcerated Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... and then handed over to Iraq following extensive Iraqi intelligence efforts.
Judge Abdul Sattar al-Birqdar, in an official statement, said the CCCI has issued the documented confessions of the detained suspect, in which he admits affiliation with ISIS and meeting with Baghdadi.
Baghdadi disappeared after ISIS’ defeat in its main Syria and Iraq strongholds. Many reports claimed his death, but none were confirmed.
"The arrest was made by virtue of joint efforts of Iraqi intelligence service and the Ottoman Turkish security services," Birqdar declared.
"The suspect confirmed that the last meeting between them (Baghdadi and the suspect) was in July last year," Birqdar said.
He added that the detainee was a member of the general committee overseeing ISIS affairs after dividing the organization into five "caliphates" in Iraq, the Levant, Africa, Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and the Gulf.
The suspect also grabbed credit for a terrorist attack which targeted Iraq’s Al Tarmia town, located north of Baghdad, in the hopes of shaking up national security prior to elections scheduled for next week.
Strategic and military experts told Asharq al-Awsat that what happened in Al Tarmia is a clear breach of security.
"There is an imbalance, whether in the nature of investigating intelligence efforts or the speed of response by the security services," said Dr. Moataz Mohieddin. "There are still sleeper cells in these areas."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A civilian was killed by button men in armed attack in Baghdad, a security source said on Thursday.
Speaking to Alghad Press, the source said, "unidentified button men opened fire against a civilian near his house in al-Hubaibya region, east of Baghdad."
The attack, according to the source, "left the civilian immediately killed."
[Wikipedia] A fatwa by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, against the acquisition, development and use of nuclear weapons[1] dates back to the mid-1990s,[2] though its first public announcement is reported to have occurred on October 2003, which was followed by an official statement at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna two years later on August 2005.... As of Wednesday, the page on this still had not been revised to show that the fatwa, if it existed, was 'inoperative'
As of Wednesday, nobody had asked Obama if he still believed the fatwa
Posted by: lord garth ||
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About the predicted $300/barrel petroleum price...
[AlAhram] Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni announced in a statement on Thursday a new oil discovery at the A-2X exploration prospect, located in the South West Meleiha license in the Egyptian Western Desert.
The well is the first drilled by Eni to explore the deep geological sequences of the Faghur Basin, the company said.
"The exploratory well, named SWM A-2X, has been drilled to a total depth of 5,090 meters and encountered 18 meters of light oil in the Paleozoic sandstones of Dessouky Formation of Carboniferous age," Eni said in a statement.
"Based on Competent Authority’s approval, the production is expected to be linked to already existing nearby infrastructures and then shipped to El-Hamra Terminal through existing pipelines," the statement added.
Egypt's Minister of Oil Tarek El-Mullah said that the exploration using the latest technologies in the Western Desert area has shown very promising results, according to Ahram Arabic website.
El-Mullah added that there will continue to be intensified exploration in the area, especially with the already existing infrastructure that would allow the production of high quality crude oil.
Last week, Eni announced in a statement the start of production at the Zohr gas field's second production unit (T-1), which will increase the production capacity by 400 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD).
The step comes four months after gas production started at Zohr, the largest offshore gas field in the Mediterranean.
Zohr now has a capacity of 800 MMSCFD, or 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, the company said.
Eni is Egypt's leading LNG producer, producing around 250,000 BOE per day.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Six policemen were killed and wounded in an attack, northwest of Diyala, carried out by Islamic State members, who claimed responsibility of it later, BasNews reported on Thursday.
Gunmen attacked a checking point in Wadi al-Awsag region, in the vicinity of Jalawla town, northeast of Baquba on Wednesday, local sources said.
Security sources, according to the sources, managed to repel the attack following clashes that lasted for two hours. Four policemen were killed, while two others were wounded.
The militant group then claimed responsibility for the attack. Few days ago, the group threatened to target the balloting stations during the parliamentary elections, slated for the 12th of May.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Several Taliban ...Arabic for students... local leaders and snuffies were killed during separate operatiosn and festivities in northeastern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North said at least 14 snuffies were killed and 25 others sustained injuries during the operations in Mangal village in Tashkan district.
The source further added that 15 snuffies were killed and 7 others were maimed during a separate operation in Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... district.
According to the Shaheen Corps, key Taliban group leaders identified as Abdul Bari, Mawlavi Ataullah, and Mawlavi Hedayatullah were among those killed.
In the meantime, at least four snuffies were killed and two others including a commander of the group identified as Mullah Salam were maimed during a clash in Shuhada district, the Shaheen Corps added.
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[DAWN] The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday denied rumours that the sudden decision to move Dr Shakeel Afridi, who was imprisoned for his alleged links to a banned Lion of Islam group, from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. to Adiala jail was part of a possible deal with the United States government.
Addressing a weekly briefing, FO front man Dr Muhammad Faisal insisted that government authorities were not planning to swap Afridi for Aafia Siddiqui ...American-educated Pak cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. In September 2010, she was sentenced to 86 years in jug after a three-ring trial. Siddiqui, using the alias Fahrem or Feriel Shahin, was one of six alleged al-Qaeda members who bought $19 million worth of blood diamonds in Liberia immediately prior to 9-11-01. Since her incarceration Paks have taken her to their heart and periodically erupt into demonstrations, while the government tries to find somebody to swap for her... ‐ who is currently serving a sentence in a US jail for trying to kill US agents and military officers in Afghanistan ‐ or former Pak ambassador Hussain Haqqani who resides in the US and is the prime suspect in the Memogate scandal that surfaced in 2011.
Dr Faisal turned down questions about media reports claiming that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had tried to stage a jailbreak in Peshawar in order to rescue Afridi, saying he had no information about the matter since it concerned the interior ministry.
Afridi, a former senior surgeon believed to be in his mid-50s, was jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! eight years ago after it emerged that he had passed on intelligence about former Al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now beyond all cares and woe... to the CIA.
He was accused of helping the CIA track down the Al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... . However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... he was never tried on those charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2018
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#1
Seems like the Pak stance on the good doctor is a clear declaration that they were protecting OBL. So why is ISI headquarters still standing?
[AAWSAT] Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul Malak al-Mekhlafi said that Iran’s interference in 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... "represents an additional disaster to the Yemeni people’s sufferings," stressing that the Persian State would not be part of a solution to the crisis in the country.
In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday, following talks with Egyptian officials, Mekhlafi underlined the Yemeni government’s commitment to the three approved references, which include the handover of arms, the release of detainees and the formation of a transitional government on the basis of the Gulf Initiative.
The Yemeni minister, who visited Cairo on Sunday, met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry to discuss the need for the militias to hand over their weapons and means to promote coordination to stop the Iranian interference in Yemen.
Asked about the outcome of his meetings, Mekhlafi said: "We agreed on the importance of implementing the three references to the political solution, which include removing the militias’ arms, stopping the Iranian intervention, releasing the detainees and supporting the UN envoy in his next round of talks."
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[Time via Hot Air] Both Democrats and Republicans have taken turns criticizing the FBI over the past two years, but of late the former have been criticizing the latter for attacking the law-enforcement agency’s leadership and performance. Democrats complain that the GOP wants to weaken the FBI as part of their efforts to defend Donald Trump and are sacrificing the credibility of the organization. Rep. Jim Himes preached to a CNN congregation last month that those "besmirching" the integrity of James Comey would "rot in Hell."
Don’t repent too quickly, Time Magazine’s Eric Lichtblau reports today. Politics aside, the FBI finds itself in a serious crisis of credibility, and not just on the news shows. Juries have begun discounting testimony from FBI agents, and James Comey may be one of the problems, Hell notwithstanding:
#3
Time mag is just now acknowedging that the FBI leadership was tainted? I wonder when they will catch on to HRC being a criminal psychopath? When did they find about Ted Bundy and Charles Manson?
#4
This is nothing more than the establishment media trying to recover what little credibility they have left as the facts of what really happened at the FBI, DOJ, etc, during the 2016 election (and beyond) start to see the light of day.
...thus guaranteeing utter chaos in the West Bank the day in the near future when he dies of old age’s ills.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian leader does not address uproar over comments, but parliamentary body accuses Israel and US of trying to distract attention
The Paleostine Liberation Organization reelected the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... as its leader, the group said early Friday, giving the Paleostinian Authority president fresh backing amid an international uproar over remarks deemed anti-Semitic.
The decision to keep Abbas as the head of the PLO’s Executive Committee came at the end of a four-day meeting by the Paleostinian National Council in Ramallah, the first such summit in decades. Abbas has led the PLO since the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004.
Talk has ramped up recently over a possible replacement for the 82-year-old statesman. A move by the National Council Thursday to grant the 115-member Central Council authority to assume the political body’s powers is expected to help clear the way to appointing a successor to Abbas and resolve the decade-long rift with the rival Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", party ruling Gazoo.
A statement by the council at the close of the meeting early Friday also condemned the US for plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem, rejected a peace plan being formulated by the Trump administration, and called for the Executive Committee to rescind the PLO’s recognition of Israel.
Abbas has come under fire for a Monday speech at the start of the meeting in which he appeared to blame Jews for the Holocaust, saying it was the Jews’ "social function," including money lending that caused animosity toward them in Europe. He also portrayed the creation of Israel as a European colonial project, saying "history tells us there is no basis for the Jewish homeland."
The comments have been derided as anti-Semitic and have led to renewed calls for Abbas to back away from the Paleostinian leadership.
On Wednesday, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat ...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state... , a top Abbas apparatchik, claimed Abbas’s words had been distorted, condemning accusations against him.
Abbas did not address the furor during a short speech at the closing session, according to a transcript from the official Paleostinian news agency WAFA released early Friday.
In a closing statement from the National Council, the Paleostinian National Assembly accused Israeli and American officials of orchestrating a campaign to accuse Abbas of anti-Semitism as a diversionary tactic.
Abbas touched on a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during what he called a "history lesson," as he sought to prove the 3,000-year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is false.
He said his narrative was backed by points made by Jewish writers and historians, the first being a theory often criticized as anti-Semitic that Ashkenazi Jews are not the descendants of the ancient Israelites.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas’ remarks were "the pinnacle of ignorance" and that the Paleostinian leader was "again reciting the most disgraceful anti-Semitic slogans."
The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial said in a statement that Abbas’ speech was "replete with antisemitic tropes and distortions of historical facts" and accused the Paleostinian president of "blatantly falsifying history to the point of accusing the Jewish victims as being responsible for their own murder."
The UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East grinding of the peace processor, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a statement that "leaders have an obligation to confront anti-Semitism everywhere and always, not perpetuate the conspiracy theories that fuel it."
"Denying the historic and religious connection of the Jewish people to the land and their holy sites in Jerusalem stands in contrast to reality," he said.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman on Tuesday censured Abbas, referring him by his nom de guerre and saying he had "reached a new low."
[PRESSTV] Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria have staged another protest rally to condemn charges leveled against jailed cleric Sheik Ibrahim al-Zakzaky. The top Shia cleric is accused of criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbance.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A new wave of A-29 Super Tucanos arrived in support of the 81st Fighter Squadron’s training mission, April 24 and 26, it has been reported.
According to a report by the US Military, the A-29s will aid in the continuation of the Afghan light air support training mission, which ultimately provides Afghan pilots with the capabilities of finding, tracking, and attacking targets either on their own or in support of ground forces.
"The A-29 program has been an integral part of the U.S. government’s overall ’Building Partnership Capacity’ efforts around the world and immediately supports the development of an indigenous air force in Afghanistan," said Brig. Gen. Christopher Craige, formally acting commanding general at Train, Advise, Assist Command-Air (TAAC-Air).
"This rapidly developed program for Afghanistan is unique for the A-29 development because this is the first time USAF pilots and maintainers have been trained as instructors to conduct training for Afghan students in the United States."
Designed to operate in high temperatures and in extremely rugged terrain, the A-29 is a highly maneuverable fourth-generation weapons system capable of delivering precision guided munitions. The aircraft is being used by the Afghan air force (AFF) for close-air attack, air interdiction, escort and armed reconnaissance.
An AFF A-29 pilot, quoted in the report, said "The AAF plays a major role in this," said one Afghan A-29 pilot.
"We are helping the grinding of the peace processor. When an A-29 is overhead, it gives motivation to the ground troops, and the enemy realizes they can be struck anywhere and will feel the pressure to come to the peace table. This is how we will bring peace and stability to Afghanistan."
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[AAWSAT] Sudan’s president has ordered the closure of 13 Sudanese overseas missions and job cuts at the foreign ministry due to an economic crisis in his country, state media reported Thursday.
"President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. issued a decree ordering the closing of 13 Sudanese diplomatic missions," the official SUNA news agency reported early Thursday, quoting the decree.
It did not name which missions were to be shuttered.
The president also ordered seven other missions to reduce their diplomatic staff to just one person, and a broader 20 percent cut to administrative staff at all missions, SUNA reported.
"The decisions have been taken in order to cut costs given the economic situation in the country," the decree said, according to SUNA.
The president's order in addition included the dismissal of the entirety of the administrative staff at the foreign ministry, with diplomats taking over their duties, the agency reported.
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#1
Trumo? Pompeo? You all paying attention? Not the worst idea you could have.
[PRESSTV] Algeria has summoned Morocco’s ambassador over allegations that its embassy in Rabat was involved in alleged Iranian support for a West Saharan separatist movement.
"Morocco’s ambassador has been received today by the Secretary General at the foreign ministry who rejected the unfounded remarks," ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
A day earlier, Morocco cut its diplomatic ties with Tehran, claiming that the Iranian Embassy ...You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy!... in Rabat would lend support to the Western Sahara Polisario separatist myrmidons.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975, and since then the territory has been the subject of a dispute between Rabat and the Polisario Front.
The movement, which aims to end Morocco’s presence in the Saharan region, recently said they sought to set up a "capital" in the region, prompting Rabat to caution it would respond with force.
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[Huffpoo] Federal investigators in New York City have conducted surveillance on the phone lines of President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, NBC News first reported Thursday.
It’s unclear how long ago the wiretapping was authorized, according to NBC News, but sources told the outlet that Cohen was "wiretapped in the weeks leading up to the search warrant that occurred several weeks ago," referring to federal authorities raiding his home, hotel room and office in April. ABC News later confirmed that federal investigators had tapped Cohen’s phones ahead of the raid.
Cohen has been embroiled in a legal battle stemming from a $130,000 "hush money" payment he made to silence Stormy Daniels, the porn star who allegedly had an affair with Trump.
According to NBC, one of the phone calls intercepted was "between the White House and one of the phone lines associated with Michael Cohen."
Trump’s new lawyer overseeing matters in the Russia investigation, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, could not confirm the report, but was "furious" about it, according to The Washington Post’s Robert Costa.
Giuliani told The Daily Beast on Thursday that he and the other lawyers on Trump’s legal team don’t believe Cohen was wiretapped.
"We think it’s going to turn out to be untrue because it would be totally illegal," Giuliani said. "You can’t wiretap a lawyer, you certainly can’t wiretap his client who’s not involved in the investigation. No one has suggested that Trump was involved in that investigation. So they’re going to wiretap the lawyer, his client, and his client, the president of the United States? I don’t think so, not if they want to stay out of jail. Emphasis added.
#2
A misrepresentation by the state controlled media, either through stupidity or a willful act of subterfuge.
Label everything a "wiretap" (term used in Tweet and statements by Trump following the Trump Tower campaign incident), and everything labeled "wiretap" is discredited.
Tom R says:
May 4, 2018 at 1:25 am
The Trump administration freely turned over 1.4 million pages of documents from the campaign to Mueller several months ago. Those are the documents Caputo was almost certainly referring to. How would Mueller be able to successfully spy on Trump using the original Carter Page FISA warrant while Trump is the sitting President of the United States? That would require the assistance of the NSA and we already know ADM Rogers is the one who likely informed Trump that Obama was spying on him back in November 2016.
Reply
#3
Corrections issued: NBC, ABC Correct Story That Cohen's Phone Was Wiretapped
NBC and ABC News both issued corrections Thursday evening after reporting earlier in the day that President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen had his phone wiretapped by federal investigators. The networks clarified that Cohen had not been wiretapped.
#4
I wouldn't be surprised in the future, it is discovered that there really was a wiretap. Such behavior would be consistent with previous abuse of power.
#6
It probably was a pen register serving as the fig leaf for the illegal wire tap.
They wouldn't have to actually use anything gained from the wiretap in any sort of legal proceeding. They would "just" learn all the possible hooks on which to hang their made up stories that could be used in proceedings.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Two 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.... Death Eaters were killed as the pro-government paramilitary troops repulsed an attack in Salahuddin province, SNG website reported on Thursday.
"Troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) managed, today, to foil an attack by Islamic State members near Biji town, north of Salahuddin," a security source said.
PMFs, according to the source, "managed to kill two IS members while repulsing the attack."
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[IsraelTimes] German authorities say they have incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! a 25-year-old Syrian man on suspicion of being a member of 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.... Death Eater group.
Federal prosecutors say Faisal A.H., whose full name was withheld on privacy grounds, was detained yestersay in the southwestern city of Tuebingen.
Prosecutors say the man is suspected of joining a militia in 2013 that fought against the Syrian government. Later that year the militia merged with the Islamic State group.
Prosecutors said A.H. was initially considered to be a government collaborator by IS, but after undergoing religious "re-education" and swearing allegiance to the group he was made to spy on people in the town of Tabqa and help clear homes seized by IS.
He allegedly left Syria for Germany at the end of 2014.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[American Conservative] On July 25, Pakistani-American IT specialist Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport for bank fraud while he was allegedly fleeing to Pakistan. The reports predictably produced some press coverage before the story died. Yet the speed at which the news vanished has prompted some observers to suggest that there might actually be something more to the disappearance than the operation of the normal media-reporting cycle. A number of conservative websites, including Breitbart, have been sounding the alarm over a possible cover-up that just might even be linked to what we are now calling Russiagate.
[Oregonian] A horse is suing his former Washington County owner for $100,000 in damages in a rare case in which an animal is listed as a plaintiff in legal action against its guardian.
James Webb Space Telescope way over budget and delivery time is now "Shedding nuts, washers and bolts!"
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...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...
The agreement was signed by the Secretary General of the 
[AAWSAT] Tourists in Australia's Lake Macquarie are ignoring warnings and feeding carrots to kangaroos who are aggressive at the sight of sugary snack, a tour operator said.
[AA.TR] 
North Korea
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
Aafia Siddiqui
[Time via Hot Air] Both Democrats and Republicans have taken turns criticizing the FBI over the past two years, but of late the former have been criticizing the latter for attacking the law-enforcement agency’s leadership and performance. Democrats complain that the GOP wants to weaken the FBI as part of their efforts to defend Donald Trump and are sacrificing the credibility of the organization. Rep. Jim Himes preached to a CNN congregation last month that those "besmirching" the integrity of James Comey would "rot in Hell."
[Huffpoo] Federal investigators in New York City have conducted surveillance on the phone lines of President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, NBC News first reported Thursday.
