[McClatchyDC] Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., has introduced formal articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, accusing him of obstruction of justice.
Sherman, who first drafted the articles in June, formally introduced H.R. 438 on the House floor on Wednesday.
Other Democrats have expressed concern about Sherman’s effort to impeach Trump over possible ties to Russia, and the resolution had only one cosponsor, Rep. Al Green, D-Tex. A successful vote for impeachment would require a majority in the House, where Republicans have 46 more seats than Democrats.
The articles accuse Trump of violating "his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of president of the United States." Trump "has prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice during a federal investigation," Sherman’s resolution says.
Both chambers of Congress as well as a special prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice are investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
The president has denied any known efforts on behalf of his campaign to work with Russia to defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in last November's election. But the investigations and accusations of wrongdoing have dogged his six-month-old administration, with recent revelations about a meeting taken by his eldest son last June further preventing the White House from successfully putting the story to rest.
Donald Trump Jr. met last year with a Russian lawyer, an encounter set up by an acquaintance who claimed Natalia Veselnitskaya could provide the Trump campaign with damaging information about Clinton. After The New York Times over the weekend reported the meeting, Trump Jr. on Tuesday released a copy of his email exchange with the acquaintance, Rob Goldstone, a music promoter.
In the emails, Goldstone tells Trump Jr. the information is "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. responded, "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."
Trump has defended his son as "a quality person" and Trump Jr. said he did nothing wrong in taking the meeting, which he said ultimately yielded no useful information.
The articles of impeachment introduced Wednesday accuse Trump of knowingly trying to shut down the FBI investigation of his campaign activities and firing former director James Comey as part of that effort.
"In all of this, Donald John Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States," the articles read. "Wherefore, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office." Keep digging your graves guys.
h/t Instapundit
The mainstream media may be looking for evidence of Russian collusion in all the wrong places. So far, despite its epic search, the media has uncovered no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
There is evidence, though, that Russia has colluded with U.S. environmental groups. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, tells James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal:
If you connect the dots, it is clear that Russia is funding U.S. environmental groups in an effort to suppress our domestic oil and gas industry, specifically hydraulic fracking. They have established an elaborate scheme that funnels money through shell companies in Bermuda. This scheme may violate federal law and certainly distorts the U.S. energy market. The American people deserve to know the truth and I am confident Secretary Mnuchin will investigate the allegations.
In 2012, the US Army revoked the security clearance of a soldier arrested on terrorism charges over the weekend because he had shown support for the Islamic State group. But Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang was allowed to stay in the service after having his clearance reinstated in 2013.
Retired Army judge and prosecutor Col. Gregory A. Gross said Tuesday he is perplexed that the Army allowed Kang to remain active even after his comments about the Islamic State. But Gross said the Army may have decided Kang was just mouthing off and was not a threat.
The case highlights the challenges investigators face with protecting the public from a potentially dangerous actor on one hand and gathering sufficient evidence to enable prosecution on the other.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
07/12/2017
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#1
Another known wolf who investigators would rather sacrifice others for in order to 'maybe' track to other perps.
Do we need a law that holds such investigators as accomplices if the wolf does strike?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday he wanted to be shown at least one fact proving Moscow's meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
"I don't know anything about this fact. It's amazing that serious people are making a mountain out of a molehill," Lavrov told a news conference during a visit to Belgium. His comments were broadcast live by Russian state Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Lavrov was reacting to reports that US President Donald Trump's eldest son was blamed for meeting a Russian lawyer that emails show might have had damaging information about Hillary Clinton last year.
#1
I watched the Senate confirmation hearings for Christopher Wray today. A Democrat Senator (it was either Chris Coons or Al Franken) was asking Wray about the Russian scandal. He stuttered and stammered around and couldn't really say what the scandal was but he seemed certain there was one.
#2
He [Coons or Franken] stuttered and stammered around and couldn't really say what the scandal was but he seemed certain there was one. Christopher Wray did a good job.
The Dems can't point to any wrongdoing; there are just innuendos, slurs, and ill-defined accusations of impropriety--when asked what Trump or his team did, they can't come up with anything.
The Beltway Party and the elites chose the candidate and it was Hillary. Trump comes along, runs and wins and the left all go bonkers and are still going bonkers six months later. Trump was the one the Dems wanted most to run against because they figured he was the most beatable as an outsider. The fix was in and it didn't work out. The spoiled babies didn't get their trophy for just showing up.
#9
Good. Given this, it's a good thing Hamas wasted their funds on useless tunnnels rather than something that could have harmed Israel when next they attempt to break out. Best of all would have been to spend the money rebuilding destroyed housing stock, a proper sewage treatment plant, and jump starting the local economy, but that is the behavior of a good government rather than a jihadi organization bent on conquest.
#10
Best of all would have been to spend the money rebuilding destroyed housing stock, a proper sewage treatment plant, and jump starting the local economy, but that is the behavior of a good government rather than a jihadi organization bent on conquest.
Infidel! Where's the fun Islam in that?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2017 20:28
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#11
Way back in the day, flamethrowers did rather well against tunnels on certain Pacific islands. Nowadays, you could even make a flamethrower robot so you could stand back and watch.
#1
Pay attention to the small print on the screen. The one next to 'done on a closed circuit by professional drivers'. The one that says 'CGI presentation, not necessarily the exact style and model available at dealerships'. Otherwise, lawyer bait.
[American Thinker] It needed to be said, and Investor's Business Daily has stepped up and said it well, now that we have reason to believe that a majority of the memos prepared by James Comey on his conversations with the president contained classified information. An IBD editorial extends the logic of the situation to the ultimate conclusion that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, must recuse himself from investigations of President Trump. The writing is excellent, so I urge you to read the whole thing, but here are some key excerpts:
No wonder former FBI Director James Comey refused to press charges last summer against Hillary Clinton for her egregious security breaches: It turns out, he may have been guilty of the same thing. ...
Not surprisingly, perhaps, Trump on Monday morning tweeted out an angry response: "James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!"
He may be onto something there. ...
What Comey did is against FBI rules, and it's a violation of federal secrecy laws, on a par with the violation that Hillary Clinton committed when she decided to run the Secretary of State's office from a private, home-brew email server that was clearly illegal.
The agreement signed by all FBI employees says that "all information acquired by me in connection with my official duties with the FBI and all official material to which I have access remain the property of the United States of America." ...
Hillary signed a similar agreement at the State Department. Yet, she routinely put classified information onto public servers, where it could be grabbed by unscrupulous actors, such as the Chinese and the Russians. ...
Comey's later actions suggest, if anything, he learned from Hillary's chutzpah. You can flout U.S. law, and as long as you have friends and political clout, get away with it ‐ even use your illegality as a bludgeon against your political foes.Comey got Hillary off the hook last year from what appeared to be a slam-dunk prosecution. And please remember, no one thought at the time that Trump had any chance at all of beating Hillary.
Now, we find out Comey played a double game with the public and the newly elected president. A case of a deep-state operative, Comey, trying to sabotage Washington-outsider Trump? Or just someone with a fast-and-loose idea about following the law?
#2
The whole govt is corrupt. Checks and balances are out the window. Congressional investigations are just Kabuki Theater. Courts are political. Look what President Trump is up against from Republicans. Where will you go for justice? The people are forgotten.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2017 9:21
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#3
Yes, AP, draining the swamp is gonna be a big, tough job and it might even be impossible. Let's hope not.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/12/2017 11:15
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#4
Draining the swamp might just be burn down DC with everyone in it at this point.
#5
In a world before it got tainted by corruption, the FBI would be answerable to the AG and the Office of Professional Responsibility within the DOJ. Congress would provide oversight. FBI investigations would be reviewed by the Judicial System during court proceedings. During recent admins., the Executive Branch has tried to do an end-around of these oversight and review systems. We have seen the executive branch perform unmasking unilaterally, spying on members of Congress, and other shenanigans. We have seen corruptible AGs. We have seen the weaponization of government agencies such as the IRS, Bureau of Land Management, the press (e.g. James Rosen) as well as other agencies used against law-abiding citizens. The Patriot Act has acted to deprive law-abiding citizens of fundamental Constitutional rights. Draining the swamp and a re-set are not going to be easy. I'm not sure where the country and its citizens go from here. Pitchforks and tar and feathers--2nd Amendment solutions? ;-)
#6
We have seen the executive branch perform unmasking unilaterally, spying on members of Congress, and other shenanigans. We have seen corruptible AGs. We have seen the weaponization of government agencies such as the IRS, Bureau of Land Management, the press (e.g. James Rosen) as well as other agencies used against law-abiding citizens.
...the weaponization of government agencies such as the IRS, Bureau of Land Management, as well as other agencies used against law-abiding citizens and the press (e.g. James Rosen). FIFM
#7
So the Non-disclosure Agreements (NdA) (IC Form 4414) people with access to classified are supposed to sign are not worth the paper they are printed on, right?
[American Thinker] Nelson DeMille’s bestselling novel. Nightfall, opens on July 17, 1996, with a steamy encounter on a Long Island beach. The man and women involved decide to videotape their coupling. In the process, they inadvertently capture the destruction of TWA Flight 800. The novel centers around that video.
Through his many contacts with the NYPD/Joint Terrorism Task Force DeMille learned there was a real video out there. To the best of my knowledge, the FBI confiscated the original from the MSNBC studios in the early morning hours of July 18, 1996.
Although I have communicated with scores of people who saw the video when it briefly aired, I have only spoken to one who knows exactly what he saw. His name is Thomas Young. Here is his story: Could this be why the Clintons appear to be virtually untouchable ?
#2
The two prevailing theories of the 1982 KC-135 crash in Illinois were electrical in nature; 'over heated fuel pump' and 'spark from communications gear onto leaked fuel fumes in fuselage.'
I have always wondered if the suspected electrical cause of the KC-135 in 1982 crash formed the basis of the 1996 TWA-800 crash (fuel tank) finding, or if their similarities were simply a coincidence.
[Free Beacon] Beijing's spy networks in the United States include up to 25,000 Chinese intelligence officers and more than 15,000 recruited agents who have stepped up offensive spying activities since 2012, according to a Chinese dissident with close ties to Beijing's military and intelligence establishment.
Guo Wengui, a billionaire businessman who broke with the regime several months ago, said in an interview that he has close ties to the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the civilian intelligence service, and the military spy service of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
"I know the Chinese spy system very, very well," Guo said, speaking through an interpreter, in his first American interview. "I have information about very minute details about how it operates."
Guo said he learned about Chinese spy activities from Ma Jian, a former MSS vice minister, and Ji Shengde, former PLA military intelligence chief.
Ma was director of MSS's No. 8 Bureau, in charge of counterintelligence against foreign targets--including diplomats, businessmen, and reporters--until he was swept up in a Beijing power struggle in December 2015. He was expelled from the Communist Party and imprisoned in January.
Guo said Ma was imprisoned because he had uncovered details of corruption by China's highest-ranking anti-corruption official, Wang Qishan.
Ma said in a video made public by the Chinese government several weeks ago that he worked with Guo in assisting Chinese national security.
#4
and the ones who just pass along anything they think helps the mother country, because they are sure the 21st century ends with the ascent of the Middle Kingdom again, and stealing from the West is just a way to make it happen faster...
[Free Beacon] The United States Army's training for how to handle transgender issues instructs troops not to gossip about male soldiers who identify as female.
The hour-long mandatory training is being issued in response to the Obama administration's directive to integrate transgender soldiers into the military. Last week, Secretary of Defense James Mattis delayed the Obama policy by six months.
The Army is still moving forward with its transgender training, which is conducted in the morning in place of physical training, the Federalist reported.
The guidelines reveal that soldiers only need to get a diagnosis from a medical doctor and change their gender in a database before showering with the opposite sex.
The Army's tips for an "inclusive environment" include no gossip.
#2
"The guidelines reveal that soldiers only need to get a diagnosis from a medical doctor and change their gender in a database before showering with the opposite sex."
Well CPL Klinger...the bad news is your request for a Section 8 discharge has been denied. But the good news is your request to shower with the nurses has been approved.
#3
If I were an evil person [and about 50 years younger] I would simply declare that I felt like I'm a woman, and then check the women in the female locker room.if they dared to complain, I would just call them a bunch of transphobes.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/12/2017 11:02
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#4
Isn't this one of those Obama directives that Trump can reverse with the stroke of a pen?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/12/2017 11:28
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#5
Things get really complicated and convoluted after "don't ask, don't tell". All to satisfy the whines of so few and the egos of so many, of latter none will place their lives in the line of danger they expect of others.
[MAIL] People cover their noses at the stench of death in the Crystal Church of God in Owode Onirin, just outside Lagos, where bloody clothes, drums, bibles and hymn books still litter the bare floor.
Three days earlier, four worshippers were killed as they prayed, in the latest murders blamed on a shadowy gang dubbed the Badoo, believed to have killed 30 people since June last year.
So-called "cult killings" -- gang violence often fuelled by drugs and belief in black magic -- are not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, which is nearly evenly split between a Muslim north and Christian south.
Crime often spikes during times of economic hardship.
But the murders by the Badoo are making headlines because of their increasing frequency and the manner in which victims are dispatched.
"They must have scaled the fence and hypnotised the victims before carrying out their deadly act," Israel Ojobaro, an engineer who lives on the church premises, told AFP.
[BBC] An Oregon woman has received three years' probation for licking and groping a fellow passenger on a flight last year, local media report.
Heidi McKinney, 27, smuggled alcohol on board the Alaska Airlines flight and touched a woman, 19, sitting next to her on the breast and genitals.
She pleaded guilty in March to assault with the intent to commit a felony.
She was sentenced to eight months of home detention plus the three years of probation, reports Oregon Live. Had 'Heidi' been 'Harry'.... then what would the sentence have been ?
#1
I used to fly a lot for business. My flights were always uneventful--thank goodness. Never got groped or saw anyone getting groped. Never, saw anyone go jihad or go just plain crazy. Never saw anyone drunk and unruly. IMO, the media is way too focused on the bizarre, unusual, one-off events.
[PJ] The House Appropriations Committee unveiled legislation Tuesday to fund Homeland Security and begin building President Donald Trump's wall on the southern border. Mexico will not be footing the bill as promised, however.
Via NBC Washington:
The move by the House Appropriations Committee again puts the Trump administration and its allies on Capitol Hill on a collision course with Democrats who oppose the wall and succeeded in blocking a request by Trump to deliver the money when passing an omnibus spending measure earlier this spring.
Democrats objected to the funding and significant opposition surfaced among Republicans as well, many of whom have problems with the wall. The administration and congressional Republicans took a pass on forcing the issue in May but vowed to fight for the wall this summer and fall.
During last year's campaign, Trump bragged that Mexico would pay for the wall but he's never come up with a serious plan to deliver on his boast. Instead, the $1.6 billion down payment for the wall will be added to the government's almost $20 trillion debt.
The wall money is embedded in a $44 billion homeland security funding bill released on Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee. A House Appropriations subcommittee is slated to give the measure a preliminary OK on Wednesday. GOP leaders hope to pass the measure before adjourning for the August break.
[PJ] WASHINGTON ‐ Gen. James L. Jones, Jr., national security advisor to President Obama, said he was "very proud" when President Clinton balanced the federal budget by cutting defense spending and warned about the U.S. debt-to-wealth ratio.
"I was a fairly senior military officer, and a large part of that budget-balancing act came at the expense of the Defense Department ‐ but as an American, I was very proud of that," Jones said at the Global Forum 2017 in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday. "I was very proud of the fact that we had a government that balanced the budget, but it hasn’t happened since then."
Jones said one of the "real threats" to the U.S. economy is the "debt-to-wealth ratio" that "nobody" seems to be discussing publicly.
"That worries me a great deal because I think it affects everything we do," said Jones. "I think trade and business is absolutely essential to our security, but if you don’t come to the party with your house in order you can’t achieve these lofty aspirations no matter who are you. And on that score, I think the United States still has a big problem."
[AlAhram] A trial opened in Tunisia on Tuesday over the 2015 attack on the Bardo museum that killed 21 foreign tourists and a police officer, court officials said.
Two gunniesshot up the National Bardo Museum in an operation claimed by 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.... group.
Some 21 detained suspects, including two women, attended Tuesday morning's unannounced hearing, defence lawyer Samir Ben Amor said.
Three others, who were not under arrest, were not present, he said.
About 30 people are also on trial in absentia, defence lawyer Rafik Ghak said.
The suspects were not named.
Since its revolution in 2011, Tunisia has faced a series of jihadist attacks that have claimed the lives of more than 100 soldiers and police along with 20 civilians and 59 foreign tourists, according to an official tally.
A month after the Bardo attack, 38 foreign holidaymakers including 30 Britons were killed in a gun and grenade attack on a beach resort near the city of Sousse.
That November, a suicide kaboom in the capital killed 12 members of the presidential guard.
IS claimed all three attacks.
French lawyers for the victims of the Bardo attack and their families have said an investigation had left "several dark areas".
One of them, Philippe de Veulle, has said he will boycott the trial, saying it would not offer "independent justice".
Some 26 people went on trial in May over the Sousse attack, including six security personnel accused of failing to assist people in danger.
More than 5,000 Tunisians have travelled abroad to join jihadist groups, mainly in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/12/2017
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[DAWN] Terrorists killed six Hindu pilgrims and maimed 14 others Monday in India-held Kashmire, police told AFP, after their bus came under attack.
India's Central Reserve Police Force, which provides security for the two-month long annual pilgrimage, said gunnies first opened fire on a security checkpoint but no injuries were reported.
"Militants further attacked the pilgrims' bus at Batingu (six civilians killed and 14 injured) and escaped towards Arwani," the CRPF said in a statement.
The police force added the pilgrims were from the western Indian state of Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... A New Delhi based security official, speaking anonymously, told AFP that security personnel were exploring "all the angles including suspected Islamists".
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims trek over mountain trails to reach Amarnath caves, around 3,900 metres above sea level, in Indian Kashmire every year.
The devotees worship the natural ice formation at the caves as a symbol of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
"Pained beyond words on the dastardly attack on the peaceful Amarnath Yatris (pilgrims) in Jammu and Kashmire," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2017
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The Syrian Army clashed with ISIL terrorists on the southern and western axes of Deir Ezzor city and the surroundings of the Military Airport, where many of the terrorists were either killed or injured and their weapons destroyed.
SANA’s reporter said that the Syrian Air Force carried out intensive airstrikes on the hideouts and movements of ISIL terrorists in the areas of al-Huseinia, al-Bogheilia, the Panorama, Hattla, Marat, and Mazloum, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists in personnel and weaponry.
In the meantime, several mortar shells fired by the terrorists landed in the neighborhoods of al-Joura, al-Qosour, and Harabesh, causing huge material damage, but no casualties were reported.
Moreover, local sources confirmed that a number of ISIL leaders fled Deir Ezzor, including the deputy “Emir of Hisba” in al-Ashara area Hamed al-Nouri aka “Abu Hamza al-Qaraani,” in addition to the terrorists Bashar al-Maddah, Ibrahim al-Bandar, Mohammad al-Qassouba, Abdulhadi al-Halloum, and two Kazakh terrorists.
The sources said that a group of locals attacked the so-called “al-Hisba Headquarters” in al-Hajin town in the eastern countryside, killing a terrorist and injuring two.
Source: SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
07/12/2017
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ADEN: The Yemeni army has made gains in the Haam mountain area in Matoon, north of Jouf governorate, after battles with Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh’s militias.
Sources told 26september.net, run by the Yemeni Defense Ministry, that Yemeni forces made advances with the help of air support from the Saudi-led Arab coalition.
The Yemeni army took control of a number of areas following fierce battles, and is still making advances in Haam. Troops attacked rebels in Al-Warsh and Al-Hayaal areas of Matoon in the early hours of Monday. The source said the militias took a severe blow with their men leaving behind a number of their dead.
Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi emphasized the importance of uniting the ranks, and increasing cooperation and coordination with members of the Arab coalition to face challenges in Yemen and the region.
[Hot Air] The Post Office lost $5.6B dollars in fiscal year 2016. (To be fair, they actually showed a small profit, but the federal government forced them to pony up $5.8B to fund future retiree pension costs. That’s a story for another day, however.) But they might have made up a bit of that cash if they weren’t paying overtime costs to cover workers in battleground states who took unpaid leave to go campaign for Hillary Clinton. If that sounds like the sort of thing which would never happen where you work, well... you’re probably right. But once again we need to look no further than the involvement of the union which represents your letter carriers. (Government Executive) Supervisors must approve gov't overtime. Should be pretty easy to find the responsible party(s).
#1
I thought the USPS moved towards privatization under George H.W. Bush and was operated like a private business. Are the taxpayers on the hook for these OT costs or not? If the PO operated at a loss because of bad policies and management, the OT costs would have to be made up somehow (probably by the taxpayers). If operating costs increased, eventually, these costs would have to be passed on to users via higher costs for mail services and postage--thus the taxpayers would foot the bill.
#2
Semi-private. Whether you like it or not, the Constitution calls for the operation of the post office by Congress.
Section 8 - The Text
The Congress shall have Power...
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Just another reason to abolish Civil Service and go back to patronage. One, its there already in practice. Two, then you can hold your Congresscritters directly responsible for stuff like this.
#3
Rather than abolish Civil Service, abolish government employee unions.
Yes I realize they there isn't a snowball's chance in he'll of that ever happening. The unions RUN the government. They would shut it down at the first sign of any threat to their power.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/12/2017 8:59
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#4
The day of the First Class letter is dead and gone. The USPS exists today to deliver junk mail. A sideline is packages.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
07/12/2017 9:36
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#5
Oh, I'm sure the various tax collection and complicity bodies have a different view.
[Telegraph] Japanese woman who is nicknamed "The Black Widow of Kyoto" told a court she would laugh in the face of a death sentence after she admitted fatally poisoning her husband to inherit his money one month after they married.
Chisako Kakehi, aged 70, said she used a cyanide compound to kill her fourth and most recent husband in December 2013. She is also accused of murdering two previous husbands and attempting to murder a boyfriend.
"I have no intention of hiding the guilt," Ms Kakehi told the court in the city of Kyoto, after admitting the murder of 75-year-old Isao Kakehi.
"I will laugh it off and die if I am sentenced to death tomorrow."
Reports in Japan say as many as ten men that she was either in a relationship with, or associated with, are known to have died.
[Free Beacon] The chairman of the House National Security Subcommittee is calling on the Department of Justice to launch a formal investigation into former FBI Director James Comey's alleged leak of classified information, according to an exclusive interview with the Washington Free Beacon in which the lawmaker also called on the Trump administration to purge all former Obama administration holdovers from government.
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and chair of its National Security subcommittee, is urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch a full scale investigation into Comey's handling of a series of potentially classified memos that were leaked to the press earlier this year.
Comey admitted in testimony before Congress that he leaked these memos in order to spur an investigation into the Trump administration's alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Reports alleging these memos contained classified information has riled congressional Republicans and spurred new calls for an investigation into Comey.
DeSantis also called on the Trump administration to purge all former Obama administration officials still working in the government, claiming that the holdovers and their allies outside the White House are responsible for an unprecedented series of national security leaks aimed at damaging the Trump administration's national security apparatus.
#1
Ben Rhodes—the former National Security Council official responsible for creating an in-house "echo chamber" meant to mislead reporters and the public about the landmark nuclear deal with Iran—as a primary source of these leaks
They're talking about leaks? It seems like the bigger issue is the Iran deal--selling out our country in a treasonous deal.
[AnNahar] Rebel groups shot down a Syrian government warplane on Tuesday near a ceasefire zone in the country's south, the factions and a monitoring group said.
Two rebel groups that operate in southeast Syria, the Lions of the East Army and the Ahmad al-Abdo Forces, issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying they had downed the aircraft.
"The plane was shot down and crashed in regime-controlled territory. We have no information on the pilot," said Fares al-Munjed, communications head for the Ahmad al-Abdo Forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor confirmed that the rebel groups had hit the plane near a village on the administrative border between the provinces of Rural Damascus and Sweida.
Sweida province is part of a new ceasefire deal negotiated by the United States, Russia, and Jordan that went into effect on Sunday.
The deal has brought relative quiet to most of the provinces covered -- Daraa, Quneitra and Sweida -- though outbreaks of violence have been reported.
In Sweida, government forces launched an attack on Monday on the Ahmad al-Abdo Forces and the Lions of the East Army.
Fighting continued into Tuesday over a series of hilltops and villages in the province, the Observatory and rebels said.
Two shells also landed in Daraa city, but no casualties were reported, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Riyadh – Houthi and Saleh militias violated human rights 971 times during June where they killed 180 civilians, injured 205 and assaulted 28 others, according to Yemeni Alliance to Monitor Human Rights Violations.
Rassd News Network added that the violations, including 236 abductions, 33 forcible missing, eight tortures, ten children military recruitment, out of them five in Zamar province, three in Amran and two in al-Hodaida.
According to the report, as many as 217 incidents were committed against private properties in 15 provinces, including 148 buildings, most of them in Taiz.
Human rights activist and human rights officer of the Monitoring and Documentation Unit of the Yemeni Coalition to monitor violations Riad al-Dba’i stated that Houthis recruited children in their camps and checkpoints whether to provide services or help in non-military matters. He also added that children are assigned to inspecting cars and people which put them in danger of being bombed.
The activist explained that recruiting children can send several psychological messages. It can implicate that the children are heroes for participating, and thus they become accustomed to killing and thus violence becomes a natural part of their daily life. In addition, it also sends social messages that the kid is a criminal who is capable of killing an adult.
Dba’i called upon Houthis to honor their agreements and release all recruited children, close training centers and take responsibility of their actions.
[DAWN] In a section titled "Ownership of Avenfield Apartments", the final report submitted by the Panamagate joint investigation team (JIT) on 10 July, points out major discrepancies in documents submitted and statements made by members of the Sharif family and forensic evidence that was collected as part of the JIT’s efforts.
The damning report states that Maryam Safdar, Hussain Nawaz, Capt Muhammad Safdar and Hasan Nawaz tried to mislead and manipulate the Supreme Court of Pakistain through a series of fake documents submitted or signed by the defendants.
During Supreme Court proceedings, it was claimed by the defendants that bearer shares of both Nescoll Limited and Nielson Enterprises Limited were transferred from former Qatar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Jamaat-e-Islami has raised an allegation that the government is once again employing the strategy of mass arrest to cover up its failure to contain the spread of chikunguniya, a mosquito-borne viral infection.
Issuing a press statement on Tuesday, Jamaat’s Nayeb-e-Ameer Mujibur Rahman alleged: “The government is continuously arresting activists and leaders of Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir to cover up its failure to control chikunguniya and floods in the country.”
He also alleged that law enforcers in the last two days have arrested the party’s seven activists and leaders including Jalal Uddin, a Jamaat leader in Rajhshahi.
Mujibur demanded release of the “arrested.”
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2017
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#1
makes no sense
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2017 6:54
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#2
Chikunguniya is truly a horrible, horrible disease! It cause the infected person to think they're a chicken! Extraction is made difficult by the local people needs for the eggs.
Sorry, I tried to pronounce chikungunya and got this chicken image in my mind. I tried, I really tried, but I just couldn't resist.
Houthi tribesmen gotta eat, too
Riyadh – The leadership of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen confirmed its keenness on the humanitarian aid carried out by UN organizations in Yemen, in accordance with the principles specified by international law.
In a statement issued on Monday, the leadership warned that the Houthi militants have intentionally hindered the arrival of relief supplies to the country.
“We are working to facilitate the work of all humanitarian and relief organizations to ensure that aid reaches the Yemeni people. We are taking quick and effective measures in this regard, including prompt action on humanitarian organizations’ requests in accordance with international laws,” the leadership said.
It underlined “the dangers of the practices carried out by the Houthi militias and the forces of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who are intentionally disabling the access to relief supplies to areas under their control, stealing some of them and targeting the ports through which they arrive through.”
It called on the international community to put pressure on the insurgents to achieve security and stability in the region through following international regulations, especially UN Security Council Resolution 2216.
The Coalition stressed its keenness to support and help Yemeni people through the “Restoring Hope” operation. It depends on the relief and humanitarian programs carried out by the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid in Yemen in the areas where there are Yemeni refugees.
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center had launched in Yemen’s Aden on Monday a project to distribute shelter aid to the west coast and Hadramout. The two-month project, which will distribute tents, blankets and rugs, will benefit 3,000 families in different areas in Yemen.
The Director of the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid in Aden said that this project aims to alleviate the suffering of displaced Yemenis.
#1
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in Africa for decades, possibly a century. How else can rebel regime changes insurgencies and revolutionary movements continue.
TRIPOLI: Clashes between forces loyal to Libya’s unity government and rival fighters east of Tripoli have left four people dead including at least two civilians, the health ministry said.
Another 21 people were wounded in the fighting on Sunday and Monday in Garabulli about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of the capital, the ministry said overnight on Facebook.
Two foreign workers, whose nationalities were unclear, were among those killed, it said.
Clashes broke out on Sunday evening between forces loyal to the Government of National Accord and fighters aligned with former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil who refuses to recognize the UN-backed government in Tripoli, witnesses said.
The violence was continuing at dawn on Tuesday, they said.
Pro-GNA forces backed by dozens of tanks and pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns deployed east of the capital heading for Garabulli on the weekend, the witnesses said.
On Friday the GNA warned groups it described as “outlaws” against attempting to advance on Tripoli, adding that it had instructed security forces to prevent an assault on the capital.
Libya has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 toppling of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with various militias and administrations vying for control of the oil-rich country.
A rival authority based in the country’s east has refused to recognize the GNA since it started working in Tripoli in March last year.
[Al Jazeera] A free-speech group on Tuesday sued 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... for blocking Twitter users from his @realDonaldTrump account, arguing the practice violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
The lawsuit, brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in New York and joined by seven individual Twitter users, claims Trump blocked a number of accounts whose owners replied to his tweets with comments that criticised, mocked or disagreed with the president.
Trump's blocking of the accounts amounted to an unconstitutional effort to suppress dissent, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York.
Because Trump frequently turns to Twitter to make policy statements, his account qualifies as a public forum from which the government cannot exclude people on the basis of their views, according to the lawsuit.
Twitter users are unable to see or respond to tweets from accounts that block them.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month White House front man Sean Spicer said Trump's tweets were considered "official statements by the president of the United States".
The suit names Spicer and Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media, as defendants in addition to Trump. It asks for the blocking to be deemed unconstitutional and seeks an injunction to require the president to unblock users.
Federal agencies and courts treat Trump's tweets as official statements, and The National Archives and Records Administration has advised the White House that the tweets must be preserved under the Presidential Records Act, the lawsuit said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I hope these losers have to pay solid four figure sums for court costs on a clearly frivolous suit.
#2
Twitter is the organization who set up the rules for blocking Twitter users. Trump just used the system. If I defriended or blocked someone on Facebook, would I get sued for doing so? Another frivolous lawsuit junking up the courts.
#6
Because some liberals realize Trump has been making the rest of the liberals look like clowns using Twitter so they are hoping to take away his weapon.
[The Hill] The United Kingdom wants to buy $1.04 billion worth of the U.S.-made Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, according to the Defense Department.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Monday notified Congress that the State Department had approved the possible foreign military sale of 2,747 of the vehicles, manufactured by Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corp.
"This proposed sale supports the foreign policy and national security policies of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally which has been, and continues to be, an important partner on critical foreign policy and defense issues," the announcement states.
The tactical vehicle is set to replace a portion of the Army and Marine Corps’ Humvee fleets as it has better protection from underbody blasts, can carry more and is easier to drive.
The Pentagon in August 2015 awarded Oshkosh a $6.7 billion contract to build the first 17,000 vehicles for the two services. Oshkosh won the contract over Lockheed Martin and Humvee-maker AM General.
[Al Jazeera] Amnesia Amnesty International has said it had identified a pattern of attacks by Iraqi forces and the US-led military coalition backing them that violated international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.
It also said that fighters from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS) group flagrantly violated that same law by deliberately putting civilians in harm's way to shield its fighters and impede the advance of Iraqi and coalition forces.
In a report published a day after Iraqi forces declared victory in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... watchdog called for a thorough investigation into whether war crimes were committed in the battle for the city.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory in Mosul on Monday, three years after the ISIS group seized the city.
With air support from the US-led coalition, Iraqi forces launched the battle for Mosul in October, retaking the eastern part of the city in January and starting the operation for its western part the next month.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Just like penalties on both teams playing in an NFL game. They cancel each other out.
#8
...it doesn't. The whole purpose of agreements is a contract, binding on both parties. When party A violates the agreement, party B is under no compulsion to adhere to it either.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A famous local commander of the Taliban group in eastern Laghman province was killed along with several other militants during the clashes in this province earlier this morning that also left several other militants and civilians wounded.
According to the local government officials, the incident took place in the vicinity of Alisheng district at around 1 am local time after several Taliban insurgents launched a coordinated attack on the security posts in Islamabad and Karanjawi areas.
The provincial government media office in a statement also confirmed the clash and said at least five Taliban insurgents including a famous commander of the group identified as Azam Gul were killed and 6 others were wounded.
The statement further added that Gul was one of the prominent leaders of the Taliban who had major role in terrorist related activities in Alisheng district since a long time.
At least two policemen also lost their lives during the clashes and five others were wounded, the statement said, adding that the wounded policemen are currently receiving treatment in the hospital.
The provincial government also added that seven civilians also sustained injuries during the clashes between the Taliban and security personnel.
According to the local officials, another Taliban commander identified as Abdul Hanif was killed and two others were wounded during a separate clash in Alisheng district on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2017
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[AnNahar] Lebanese national S.M.F. has been incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! for belonging to the terrorist 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.... group and promoting its ideology on the internet, General Security said on Tuesday.
"During interrogation, he confessed to the charges and admitted that he had attended religious lectures outside Leb at the hands of a holy man belonging to the IS group," a General Security statement said.
"He then downloaded the Boom Beach warfare internet game and used its chat rooms to talk to supporters of the terrorist IS group," the statement added.
Also through Boom Beach, S.M.F. communicated with "a terrorist who was arrested by General Security on charges of plotting acts of sabotage in downtown Beirut."
"Following interrogation, he was referred to the relevant judicial authorities and efforts are underway to arrest the rest of the culprits," General Security added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[IsraelTimes] 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... says it will grant girls in public schools access to physical education, a decision that comes after years of calls by women across the kingdom demanding greater rights and access to sports.
The Education Ministry says it will introduce the physical education classes "gradually" and "in accordance with (Islamic) Shariah regulations."
At least one Saudi activist took to Twitter questioning whether this implied that girls will be required to seek the permission of their male guardians, such as a father, before they can play sports. It was also unclear if the classes would be extracurricular or mandatory.
The decision to allow girls to play sports in public schools is significant in Saudi Arabia because women taking part in exercise is still seen as a taboo. Some of the kingdom’s ultraconservatives shun the concept of women’s exercise as "immodest" and say it blurs gender lines.
[AlAhram] The German air force on Tuesday resumed refuelling operations from an air base in Jordan in support of U.S.-led air strikes 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.... group after moving its Airbus MRTT tanker out of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Incirlik air base, a military front man said.
Germany began pulling its troops out of the Ottoman Turkish base on Sunday after a long-running row with Ankara over its decision to block German politicians from visiting German soldiers stationed there.
Turkey is at odds with Germany over a number of issues , ranging from criticism of the post-coup clampdown by Ankara to limiting Ottoman Turkish political campaigning in Germany.
Germany insisted that politicians be given the right to visit its soldiers, since parliament, not the government, has oversight of the country's armed forces.
"The tanker has now flown its first mission out of Jordan," the front man told Rooters after officials briefed politicians.
Six German Tornado fighter jets that are flying surveillance missions as part of the fight against Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, will continue operating out of the Ottoman Turkish air base until the end of July, officials have said.
Germany plans to bring the aircraft back to Germany then for maintenance and other operations until preparations for their operation have been completed at the new Jordanian base.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[AlAhram] Egypt has detained 464 migrants colonists of different nationalities attempting to leave the country over the past two weeks, an army statement said on Monday.
Egypt's army front man Tamer El-Refai said that the migrants colonists were detained by army and navy forces between 24 June and 8 July.
During the same period, the army also thwarted attempts to smuggle 5,291 kg in narcotics as well as pharmaceuticals, tobacco, and cattle.
Over the past few years, thousands of refugees and migrants colonists have attempted to cross the Mediterranean for Europe through Egypt’s northern coast, with hundreds detained by Egyptian authorities while attempting the journey.
In late 2016, Cairo introduced a law stiffening penalties against human traffickers. The move came after a migrant boat sank in September 2016 off the Mediterranean coast, killing hundreds.
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has spoken on multiple occasions about Egypt's ongoing efforts to curb irregular migration from its shores to Europe ‐ a key concern for European countries facing a growing migrant crisis.
#2
Not worth posting separately, Pappy, but An Nahar reported yesterday that a UN official claimed Gaza may already be unlivable. So clearly there is necessary work the locals aren't doing, for which the migrants would be perfect.
There will be no one left to tell them how badly they've been hacked.
[Ynet] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... says authorities have issued detention warrants for 105 information technology experts suspected of aiding last year's failed coup.
The warrants were issued Tuesday as Turkey kicks off a week of events commemorating the July 15 anniversary of the thwarted coup and remembering about 250 people who were killed.
Anadolu Agency says 52 of the suspects, who include ex-employees of Turkey's scientific research council and of the telecommunications authority, have been detained so far. They are accused of providing technical support to coup plotters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
If everyone Erdogan says was in the coup was supporting it, it would have succeeded.
[NYPOST] Sarah Mama Grizzly Palin ... the babe libs love to hate ... 's defamation lawsuit against The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... should be tossed because the paper made 'an honest mistake' when it said she incited a 2011 shooting that severely maimed Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six people, a lawyer for the Gray Lady said on Friday.
'There was an honest mistake in posting the editorial,' lawyer David Schultz told Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff.
Last week, Palin sued the Times over a June 14th editorial that stated there was a 'direct' link between one of Palin's PAC ads and the shooting by Jared Lee Loughner. But there's no evidence he ever saw the ad, which placed Gifford's district in stylized crosshairs. The Times issued a correction.
On Friday, Palin's lawyers argued that the Times knew the story was false. 'It was literally acknowledged the same day in another story in their paper,' said Kenneth Turkel.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"we're not crooked, we're stupid" That's an excuse which works once, tops. But to keep telling us they're stupid risks us believing them.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/12/2017 0:06
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#2
Oh, they knew full well it was fake news. It just made them feel good to spew hate like this. Who cares if it's fake? It satisfied the writer's emotional needs.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
07/12/2017 0:44
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#17
Programs! Gitcher programs. Can't tell the lying assholes without a program.
Personally, they're a bag of cats to me since they are all running the same playbook. Notice next time when some meme pops up - "Trump is dark", for example. Suddenly it's everywhere. Not just the story but the exact same phrase. Anyone remember JournoList? A pox on all their houses.
#18
Speaking of fake news, it is reported that at AF, the water distillation equipment has broken down, and that there is a severe shortage of drinking water---pass it on.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2017 14:47
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#19
I see what you did there, Paul.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/12/2017 15:32
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#20
Using "NY Slimes" and "honest" in the same sentence?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Riiight.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/12/2017 15:45
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#21
Good one, AP!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/12/2017 15:50
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[NYPOST] Hundreds of cops once again turned their backs on Mayor de Blasio at a police funeral.
Scores of officers who assembled outside the World Changers Church in The Bronx for assassinated police officer Miosotis Familia on Tuesday protested the mayor by showing the building their backs as speakers broadcast Hizzoner’s eulogy from inside. The move was reminiscent of the funeral for slain officer Wenjian Liu in 2015, who was also executed by a cop-hating madman.
The officers chatted with one another or swiped through their phones during the mayoral snub.
The protest comes after de Blasio skipped town to participate in G-20 Summut protests in Germany on Thursday -- the day after Familia, a 12-year department veteran and mother of three, was killed by maniac gunman Alexander Bonds.
"Mr. Mayor, you didn’t have to travel to Germany for a protest -- all you had to do is speak in front of the men and women of the NYPD," Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins said.
Police promptly turned around when it was announced the police commissioner was next to speak -- but not all resumed paying attention.
A de Blasio front man downplayed the police snub at his boss.
"A couple dozen people showed up to partake in a bogus controversy ginned up by the media and those looking to politicize Detective Familia’s death. That’s unfortunate," rep Austin Finan wrote in an email to The Post.
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#1
The protest comes after de Blasio skipped town to participate in G-20 Summut protests in Germany
"over 160 police were injured in clashes with protestors" in Hamburg, Germany
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government has strongly reacted at the remarks of Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... , the foreign affairs adviser of the Pak Prime Minister, accusing President Ghani of supporting the Taliban ...Arabic for students... .
A presidential palace front man Najibullah Azad told RFE/RL that such remarks are only reflecting the concerns and panic among the Pak officials.
He said such remarks are being made as a large operation is expected to be launched along and on both sides of Durand Line which will be monitored by the United States and China to eliminate the terrorist from the region.
This comes as local media outlets in Pakistain earlier reported that last week’s meeting of the NSC which was the third meeting in the past three months, was organized as the 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... administration is busy finalizing its policy on Afghanistan and there are fears that the new policy will include more pressures on Pakistain, specifically to target the safe havens of the Afghan bully boy groups, including the notorious Haqqani terrorist network.
The Afghan officials have long been insisting that the leadership councils of the Taliban group and the notorious Haqqani terrorist network are based in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), 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. , Quetta, and other parts of Pakistain from where they plan and coordinate attacks in Afghanistan.
This comes as the US Department of Defense in its report said last month that "Afghan oriented bully boy groups, including the Taliban and Haqqani Network, retain freedom of action inside Pak territory and benefit from support from elements of the Pak Government."
The report further added "Although Pak military operations have disrupted some bully boy sanctuaries, certain Lion of Islam groups--such as the Taliban and the Haqqani Network--were able to relocate and continue to operate in and from Pakistain. The United States continues to convey to Pakistain at all levels the importance of taking action against all terrorist and Lion of Islam groups."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] A teenage servant was reportedly tortured to death on Tuesday, allegedly by his landlady, in Akbari gate area of Lahore, DawnNews quoted police officials as saying.
Police officials said that the landlady reportedly tortured 17-year-old Akhtar to death, whereas, the sister of the victim was also beaten up by the suspect.
"Both the siblings used to work at the residence of Fauzia, who is said to be the daughter of a political personality," said SP City Adil Memon.
The parents of the victim have been informed about the tragedy and the sister of the victim, Atiya, has been taken into custody from the residence, he said.
The body has been shifted to a hospital for postmortem examination, whereas, further action would be taken upon the arrival of the victim's father from Nankana Sahib, Memon added.
SP Memon further said that apparently, the suspect landlady hit the boy with a stick which proved fatal while the family of the landlady claimed that the 17-year-old had consumed something poisonous.
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[DAWN] A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered by the security forces in Kohat on Tuesday, the military's media wing claimed.
According to an Inter-Services Public Relations' press release, armed forces conducted an intelligence-based operation and recovered the weapons while they were being transported from Darra Adam Khel to Wana.
"Weapons were discretely hidden inside the truck's lower body," the press release read.
ISPR said that two men were also apprehended in the operation. The recovered cache of weapons includes 614 pistols, 115 automatic weapons, 7,000 rounds of various calibre and 579 pistol magazines.
The details of the weapons recovered, according to the ISPR press release, are as following:
More than 300 30 bore pistols, six 30 bore Mousers, 197 black Zigana pistols, 16 Zigana camouflage pistols, 30 black Beretta pistols, four golden Pietro Beretta pistols, 20 Smith & Wesson pistols, 10 Walther pistols, 26 Mikarov pistols, one A5.56mm rifle, 106 SMGs, two kalakov shotguns, and six light machine guns.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] Sporadic festivities are continuing in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , even after Iraq declared a "total victory" over the bully boyIslamic 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) group in the city. They used to be called Werewolves.
At least one Arclight airstrike hit the Old City, the scene of fierce final battles with IS, sending a plume of smoke into the air on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, the pilot and the copilot had both hit the silk.
Jack! Cynthia exclaimed. Do you know how to drive one of these things?
Jack wiped some of the blood from his knuckles.
No, he said. Do you?... Amnesia Amnesty International released a report saying that the conflict in Mosul has created a "civilian catastrophe," with the snuffies carrying out forced displacement, summary killings and the use of human shields.
It called for a commission to investigate crimes against civilians by all sides in the battle to liberate the Iraqi city from jihadists.
"The horrors that the people of Mosul have witnessed and the disregard for human life by all parties to this conflict must not go unpunished," said Lynn Maalouf, director of Middle East research at Amnesia Amnesty International.
The cost of victory has been enormous: much of Mosul in ruins, thousands dead and wounded and nearly half the city's population forced from their homes.
In Mosul's Old City, where buildings lie in ruins and burned-out cars and other debris choke the streets, security forces were still searching for remaining IS fighters.
"What we are doing today is just combing the area and clearing it of sleeper cells," Staff Lieutenant General Sami al-Aridhi, a senior commander in Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), said Tuesday.
"There are groups that are hiding in shelters," but they surrender or are killed, Aridhi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
BFD. We're still having sporadic clashes in Chicago and Baltimore and they've been pacified since the French and Indian War.
[AA.TR] Seven people were killed during ethnic border festivities in central Kenya’s Meru county that began on Sunday, local media quoting Kenya Red Thingy and police said on Tuesday.
The festivities between the Meru tribe and their neighbors, the Borana from Isiolo County, also left over 700 people displaced.
Local media said bandidos suspected to be from the Borana community had razed six villages, leaving the stranded people to camp at the Kathithine Primary School where Red Thingy volunteers were taking care of them.
Attackers also reportedly stole cycle of violences and livestock, Red Thingy regional manager Gitonga Mugambi said, adding the theft of livestock and murder of two youth ferrying milk along the Mau-Garbayulla road, which connects the two communities, might have caused the ethnic festivities to break out.
The border region has a history of persistent cattle rustling. In 2015, three county officials were placed in durance vile I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for inciting ethnic violence that claimed the lives of 11 people.
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[AA.TR] The legality of a Belgian ban on full-face Islamic veils was upheld on Tuesday by the European Court of Human Rights.
Three applicants -- two Belgian citizens and a Moroccan resident of Belgium -- had complained in two separate cases that the law violated their religious freedom and individual human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... According to the top European court ruling, the controversial 2011 law, which bans clothing that fully or partially covers the face, is legally grounded and does not violate the right to respect for private and family life or freedom of religion, nor does it disproportionately discriminate against the Moslem community.
The court argued that the restriction seeks to guarantee social cohesion and the "protection of the rights and freedoms of others" and is "necessary in a democratic society."
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Anbar (IraqiNews.com) A local official in Anbar warned on Tuesday that the Islamic State militants could sneak easily into the city of Hit, northwest of Ramadi, noting that the number of police troops available was not enough to protect it.
In remarks to Alsumaria News,the president of the council of Hit, Mohammed al-Mohammadi, said that Hit, 70 km west of Ramadi, is surrounded by desert from the eastern, western and southern sides, noting that the IS elements can ‘sneak into the city easily’.
“The number of police personnel is 50 officers only, which is not enough to protect the city, compared to 1,000 officers before ISIS took control of the area,” he added.
Al-Mohammadi asked Anbar police chief, Hadi Zreig, to increase the number of police personnel in Hit in order to protect the city from any threat by the terror group.
Hit witness chronic security breaches such as suicide attacks against civilians and security forces.
The government, winning Mosul back, plans to aim at other IS havens across Iraq, including Anbar’s western areas close to the borders with Syria.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) A Soldier was killed and three others wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in western Ramadi, Anbar Governorate, a security source told Alsumaria News on Tuesday.
“An IED planted on the side of a highway west of the city of Ramadi exploded today afternoon, killing one soldier and wounding three others,” the source said.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that a security force cordoned off the blast’s scene and transferred the injured to a nearby hospital.
The Islamic State currently has a grip on the cities of Annah, Rawa and Al-Qa’im in western Anbar Governorate since mid-2014. Security forces continue preparations to liberate these cities, Alsumaria reported.
On Monday, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, declared victory in the city of Mosul over IS, ending an eight-month campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces. The victory in Mosul means that the Iraqi government will carry on with further offensives to retake other IS holdouts across Iraq, including those in Anbar near the Syrian borders.
Paramilitary groups backing the government forces, Popular Mobilization Forces, said last month they had taken control over the border line between Anbar and Syria.
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[DailyCaller] Officials at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus in Columbia appear to have decided to rid themselves of Janna Basler, the taxpayer-funded administrator who joined a mob of Black Lives Matter protesters in November 2015 and shoved a lone student photographer as he attempted to capture images for a local newspaper.
Mizzou officials are currently implementing a round of massive budget cuts and approximately 400 layoffs in the face of a projected 7.4 percent plunge in student enrollment and a $14.7 million state funding cut.
Basler’s name, photo and contact information no longer appear among the staff members in the student life section of the public school’s website.
A cached version of the same webpage from late June 2017 shows Basler -- Dr. Janna Basler -- listed first and foremost among Mizzou’s student life staffers. Basler had been the assistant director for Greek life at the time of the protests. (After getting suspended for over a month for her actions in 2015, she managed an impressive promotion to senior associate director for Greek life.)
On Thursday, Mizzou’s top brass announced a merger of its department of students of affairs and its division of operations as part of a larger plan to cope with new budget realities.
The New York Times points out that freshman enrollment at the Columbia campus is down more than 35% overall, 42% among blacks, but that current students have not transferred out in significant numbers, leading the administration to hope this is really only a marketing issue.
[Al Jazeera] Zambia's parliament has approved a 90-day state of emergency decreed by President Edgar Lungu in a move critics say is an effort to tighten his grip on power.
Opposition lawmakers boycotted the vote on Tuesday, leaving only the 85 members of the president's majority party to pass the measure.
Lungu invoked the emergency powers last week, alleging that opposition parties were behind a string of arson attacks intended "to create terror and panic," including one that burned down the main market in the capital Lusaka.
Nobody was killed or injured in the blaze.
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[AnNahar] The consequences of the failed July 15 coup in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... increased Ankara's international isolation, exposing shortcomings in the government's sometimes overambitious foreign policy, analysts say.
Wardak police chief Naqibullah Amini said on Tuesday that Mawlawi Abdul Rahman a Taliban commander for Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province was killed in a clash with police on Monday.
Four of his fellow fighters were also killed in the clash and three others were wounded, Amini said.
The clash took place on Monday afternoon in Jalrez district. One policeman was killed and two others were wounded, Amini added.
According to Amini, Rahman was involved in the killing of 24 policemen in 2015 in Jalrez district.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has confirmed that authorities executed four convicts responsible for numerous terror attacks in Qatif.
A statement from the Saudi Interior Ministry named the convicts as Amjad Naji al-Moebid, Zaher Abdulrahim al-Basri, Yousif Ali Almushaikhis and Mahdi Mohammed Hassan Sayegh.
Al-Basri and the other three convicts were charged and found guilty for several terror attacks since 2011, including shooting at their guardians, using weapons and explosive devices that targeted the Tarut police station and several security patrol units in the restive Eastern Province area.
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[NYPOST] The Republican leader says the Senate will delay the start of the August recess until the third week of the month.
In a statement Tuesday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the delay is necessary to complete work on legislation and deal with Trump administration nominees. McConnell complained about the lack of cooperation from Democrats on the nominations.
The Senate had been scheduled to begin its five-week recess on July 31. The delay would push it to the week of Aug. 14.
McConnell said that once the Senate "completes its work on health care reform," it would deal with the defense policy bill and nominations.
It’s possible the Senate could recess earlier.
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#1
When you do not do your job nobody in congress should get paid, including staffers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
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[IsraelTimes] The Paleostinian Authority is reportedly continuing its policy of pressuring Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, through cuts to its financial support for Gazoo, this time by planned cuts to welfare subsidies for poor families in the Strip.
According to the Haaretz daily, citing a source "close to [Paleostinian Authority President] the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ," some 80,000 Gazoo families receive several thousand shekels each month in welfare stipends from the PA. About 60,000 are "linked to Hamas," the source is quoted as saying. "Their financial situation is relatively good and they don’t need the stipend, while the remaining families have additional sources of income."
The cuts to the "Hamas-linked" families are likely to be permanent, the source indicates, while those for non-Hamas recipients are temporary.
[IsraelTimes] A Qatari envoy said the energy-rich nation will continue development projects in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, despite a rift with its Gulf neighbors stemming in part from its ties with the group. Mohammed El-Amadi spoke as he signed a new agreement with a Palestinian contractor to build eight residential buildings.
Qatar has been the largest single donor to Gaza over the past five years, disbursing about a half billion dollars for housing, reconstruction, infrastructure development, and health projects.
Saudi Arabia and its allies have pressed Qatar to end its support to the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood movement, the historical parent of Hamas.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
[AnNahar] Two terror suspects were killed and three others were tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! in an army raid Tuesday in the northeastern border town of Arsal, the military said.
"In light of security information and as part of the preemptive army plan that led to raiding Arsal encampments on June 30, an Intelligence Directorate force raided a terrorist group at dawn in the town of Arsal," an army statement said.
The group was "plotting terrorist attacks," the army added.
A clash ensued when the suspects tried to resist the raiding force, which resulted in the death of "Syrian murderous Moslems Yasser al-Ghawi and Atef al-Jaroudi and the arrest of three others," the statement said.
"Seven bombs that were ready for detonation, an explosive vest and 50 kilograms of bomb-making material were seized, in addition to a quantity of hand grenades and detonators," the army added.
It also noted that al-Ghawi was "the criminal mastermind of the bombing that targeted Ras Baalbek on May 22."
On June 30, the army arrested scores of Syrians during raids in refugee encampments in and around Arsal. Twenty of them remain in jug on terror charges.
Five jacket wallahs blew themselves up and other hard boyz hurled grenades during the raids, which resulted in the death of a Syrian child and the wounding of seven soldiers, according to the army.
[ICE Website] RICHLAND, Wash. ‐ A multiagency law enforcement operation in Washington’s tri-cities area targeting individuals intending to sexually exploit children resulted in the arrest of 26 suspects, including five individuals with access to children at risk of being abused.
The operation, which took place July 5-10, was the result of a probe by the Washington State Patrol’s (WSP) Missing and Exploited Children Task Force (MECTF) including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
"The number of predators interested in sexual contact with minors is overwhelming and made clear by these targeted operations," said Brad Bench, special agent in charge of HSI Seattle. "Interagency cooperation is paramount in combatting this crime. We work tirelessly with our partners to protect our youth from these perpetrators."
Undercover agents communicated online with individuals interested in sexually abusing children through various websites. The agents received hundreds of responses from would be perpetrators who agreed to meet with undercover detectives posing as children in order to engage in sexual activity.
"Children are becoming increasingly vulnerable to sexual predators due to the growth of the internet," says WSP Chief John R. Batiste." Thanks to the hard work by our law enforcement and prosecutor partners we are able to make Washington communities safer for our families."
Additional follow-up investigations are currently underway to identify child victims and arrange the appropriate assistance for any abuse they may have been exposed to. Crimes investigated range from attempted rape of a child to communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
[AlAhram] Up to 50,000 civilians remain trapped in the Syrian jihadist stronghold of Raqa, the UN said Tuesday, warning that supplies of water and other essentials were fast running out.
US-backed forces have been closing in on the last redoubt in Syria 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.... group after penetrating its Old City last week, but an estimated 2,500 jihadists are still defending the centre.
...a nice round number...
"The UN estimates that between 30,000 and 50,000 people remain trapped in Raqa city," UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) front man Andrej Mahecic said in Geneva, down from some 100,000 people at the end of June.
Mahecic stressed it was hard to be sure about the numbers given the lack of access to Raqa for UN agencies.
But he said: "Availability of food, water, medicine, electricity and other essentials has been dwindling, with the situation rapidly deteriorating.
"It is imperative that trapped civilians are able to secure safe passage out -- to reach safety, shelter and protection."
With help from a US-led coalition, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters called the Syrian Democratic Forces is waging a fierce assault to oust IS from the city.
Raqa has been without steady running water for several weeks after damage to pipelines by heavy bombardment, including suspected strikes by the US-led coalition. Civilians dehydrated by the blistering summer heat have been venturing out to the Euphrates river and makeshift wells around the city, risking their lives as the fighting intensifies. Activists say they have documented symptoms of water-borne diseases among those who are drinking the river water, including fever and loss of consciousness that it is feared could indicate cholera.
The UNHCR front man said the agency had managed to complete a first series of humanitarian convoys by road from the province around Raqa to Qamishli in Syria's northeast. The road had been shut by fighting for nearly two years, forcing UN agencies to use costly airlifts to reach some of the 430,000 people displaced by fighting around Raqa. Four convoys, totalling 22 trucks, have over the past fortnight transported tents, blankets, jerry cans and other essentials to refugees who have reached Qamishli from Raqa, Mahecic said.
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#1
The UN noticed a problem? Let them send in the blue helmets.
[SHABELLENEWS] Police have circulated photographs of six men they say are wanted over terror and radicalization claims.
This was after investigations by security agencies revealed several Kenyan nationals fighting alongside al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... in Somalia are involved in enticing youths within the country to travel to Somalia to join the terror group.
The public has been urged to share any information that may lead to the arrest of Abdullahi Jarso Kotola, Hassan Jarso Kotola, Hassan Abdalla Mushi, James Kimanthi Masai, Hamisi Swaleh Abdalla and Rama Mbwana Mbega.
Abdullahi Jarso Kotola aka Seyfdeen from Marsabit is a member in the military wing of al-Shabaab (Jaish Ayman) where he holds a key position.
"He is believed to have participated in the Mpeketoni attacks of June, 2014 which led to the killing of many innocent civilians. He is the brother to Hassan Jarso Kotola. The brothers who hail from Marsabit are both believed to be keen members of the terror group are wanted for several deadly attacks in the country," said part of a police report.
Before leaving for Somalia to join the terror group, Abdullahi was a preacher at Daru Salaam Masjid along Nyayo road within Shauriyako area of Marsabit. While there, he used the opportunity to preach to the youth encouraging them to join al-Shabaab.
His access to the youth who went to pray at the mosque meant he could interact with them and he therefore recruited them in the process.
Also mentioned by the security agencies is Hassan Abdalla Mushi aka Hassan Kuku. He is from Kibirigwi, East Kirinyaga.
Hassan previously worked at Avenue Rescue Services and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as a driver/first aid practitioner and converted to Islam before he left for Somali.
James Kimanthi Masai aka Rafat who hails from Mutomo, Kitui is also mentioned among the individuals who crossed over to join al-Shabaab.
Also on the list is Hamisi Abdalla Swaleh who is wanted for a number of terror attacks and abductions in North Eastern Province.
Rama Mbwana Mbega aka Junia comes from South Coast but was recruited into al-Shabaab while in Mombasa. He returned to Kenya in 2012 and is suspected to have been part of numerous attacks.
Rama went back to Somalia in early 2014 and is still in communication with his fellow Jihadists in Kenya to recruit more youths from the Coast and the North Eastern. He is suspected to be holed in Boni forest and operating from Jilib.
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Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The Islamic State executed on Tuesday three fighters belonging to al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) in the Imam Gharbi village in al-Qayara neighborhood, southern Mosul, a local source told Shafaaq News.
Elements of the IS sneaked into the Imam Gharbi village during the past few days through Shirqat, Salahuddin, and managed to cross the Tigris river.
Security forces continue to surround the area in preparation for restoring it from the terror group.
“The IS’ elements stormed a number of houses in the Imam Gharbi village and arrested a number of civilians on charges of cooperation and communication with government agencies,” the source said, noting that three fighters of al-Hashd al-Shaabi were executed in front of their families.
On Sunday, a security source said that IS still controls 60% of the Imam Gharbi village, which was liberated several months ago.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared Monday the end of Islamic State’s dominance over Mosul, celebrating an end of the group’s three-year rule in Iraq’s second largest city and the group’s formerly-proclaimed capital.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi has been actively engaged in the government’s campaign against IS that ran since mid October, and contributed to the campaign by regaining control over IS holdouts near he Syrian borders.
[ARA News] The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday secured dozens of civilians after clashes with Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants in the Old City of Raqqa, in northeastern Syria.
“More than 100 civilians were freed by SDF fighters from the Raqqa Old City today,” SDF officer Habun Osman told ARA News.
“ISIS terrorists have been using these civilians as human shields to impede our progress in Raqqa,” the Kurdish officer said.
In the meantime, clashes intensified between the Syrian Democratic Forces and ISIS militants in Raqqa city.
“At least nine ISIS jihadists were killed in Tuesday’s clashes near the Old City,” Osman told ARA News.
Military sources reported that the SDF is currently trying to open safe passages for civilians stranded in ISIS-held parts of Raqqa, in a bid to minimise civilian casualties in the ongoing battle.
Doctor Nasr Haji Mansour, a senior SDF advisor, told ARA News in an exclusive interview that ISIS had been expelled from 25% of Raqqa. His statement corresponds with those recently given by Coalition commanders.
“More than 25% of Raqqa city has been liberated from ISIS,” Dr Mansour confirmed. “It looks like [the Raqqa operation] will go on a little bit longer; maybe another month if surprises don’t happen.”
This comes after the SDF launched a major operation to liberate the city of Raqqa from ISIS radicals.
Raqqa has been known as a de facto capital for the ISIS self-proclaimed Caliphate since the summer of 2014.
On June 6, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced the official start of the battle for Raqqa city.
Isolating ISIS Capital
The Kurdish-Arab-Christian alliance of SDF has been isolating Raqqa since November 2016, when the US-backed alliance launched the so-called Euphrates Wrath Operation.
On 13 April, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched the fourth phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation against Islamic State’s extremists to clear out the northern countryside of Raqqa.
During the first phase of Euphrates Wrath, which began on November 6, 2016, the SDF liberated roughly 560 km² in Northern Raqqa.
On 10 December, 2016, the SDF launched the second phase of the Euphrates Wrath, during which it captured over 2500 km² in Western Raqqa.
On 4 February, 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched the third phase of the Euphrates Wrath Operation, and liberated dozens of villages in Eastern Raqqa from ISIS jihadists.
The campaign is ultimately aimed at liberating the city of Raqqa from ISIS extremists.
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[IsraelTimes] 15 Paleostinians enjugged for rock throwing, riots; soldiers escort 1,000 Jewish worshipers to Joshua’s Tomb in northern West Bank
IDF soldiers on Tuesday raided the West Bank hometown of a Paleostinian man who the day before carried out a car-ramming attack in which a soldier was maimed, the army said.
On Monday afternoon, a resident of the Paleostinian village of Teqoa outside Bethlehem attempted to drive his car into a group of soldiers, lightly injuring one of them, as they manned a roadblock in the area. After crashing his car into the guard rail, the assailant then tried to stab the soldiers before he was rubbed out by the troops, according to the IDF.
The assailant was named in Paleostinian media as Muhammad Ibrahim Jibril, 24. According to the Paleostinian Ma’an news site, Israeli officials agreed to turn over the body for burial Tuesday in exchange for "quiet" in the town.
Early Tuesday morning, IDF troops, as well as Border Police officers and members of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, entered the village of Teqoa.
"The troops carried out searches in the home of the terrorist and in the homes of his family, and seized inciting material," the army said in a statement.
The military did not elaborate on the type of materials found, but a picture on Facebook posted by the village’s official page showed a poster ripped off a wall.
Between Monday night and Tuesday, the IDF placed in durance vile Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! 15 Paleostinians in cities and towns across the West Bank who were suspected of rock throwing, taking part in riots and other forms of so-called "popular terrorism," the military said.
The army also escorted approximately 1,000 worshipers to the Joshua’s Tomb holy site in the northern West Bank village of Kifl Hares.
Paleostinian residents threw large stones at the escorting Israeli soldiers, before the troops drove them back with stun grenades, the army said.
[IsraelTimes] Israel Police officers stop a bus in the Arab Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm and find 26 Palestinians from the West Bank who are in Israel illegally.
A 27th man on the bus, also a West Bank Palestinian, had an entry permit.
The entire group is placed under arrest and taken for questioning. Within a few hours, 16 are released back to the West Bank, while police seek extended remands for the rest.
[BattleCreekEnquirer] A battle is brewing at Western Michigan University this summer between a group of hungry goats and a labor union.
The 400-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has filed a grievance contending that the work the goats are doing in a wooded lot is taking away jobs from laid-off union workers.
"AFSCME takes protecting the jobs of its members very seriously and we have an agreed-upon collective bargaining agreement with Western Michigan," said Union President Dennis Moore. "We expect the contract to be followed, and in circumstances where we feel it's needed, we file a grievance."
The grievance alleges that the university did not notify the union that it was planning to use goat crews on campus, according to a chief steward report supplied to the Battle Creek Enquirer.
University spokeswoman Cheryl Roland said a small goat crew has been on campus this summer, but not to cut grass.
"For the second summer in a row, we've brought in a goat crew to clear undergrowth in a woodlot, much of it poison ivy and other vegetation that is a problem for humans to remove," Roland said. "Not wanting to use chemicals, either, we chose the goat solution to stay environmentally friendly.
"The area is rife with poison ivy and other invasive species, and our analysis showed the goats to be a sustainable and cost-effective way of removing them," she added.
The goats were formally introduced to the campus and local community on June 2 in parking lot 51 of the Sindecuse Health Center.
Garrett Fickle and his wife, Gina, the owners of Munchers on Hooves in Coldwater, rent out their four-footed "lawn mowers" to homeowners, commercial property owners and other clients.
WMU used a 10-goat crew for one week last summer as part of a pilot project, which Roland called a success.
The 20-goat crew is expected to clear about 15 acres on the southwest side of Goldsworth pond before students return for the fall semester.
The goats are ahead of schedule, said Nicholas Gooch, a university horticulturist and the project leader.
"It's definitely not what we hoped would come out of this project," Gooch said Thursday. "It kind of takes the air out of your sails a little bit."
If I am reading this correctly, the goats are doing work people, that is to say union members, won't do, after which the land can be sown with grass that will need mowing or in some other way be improved by unionized gardeners.
#1
Multiple choice. This is:
a) a sign that AFSCME is way past its expiration date
b) yet another example of how in the 21st century it is no longer possible to distinguish between parody and actual news
#3
A few years ago the equivalent union in Philadelphia stopped a Boy Scout project of building/maintaining a trail in a park because it would take away work from the union.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed. Since ISIS admitted he was dead yesterday he's probably Moulderin' in the Grave.
Russia’s defense ministry said it may have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of ISIS commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials have been skeptical. Just another footnote in history...
Reuters could not independently verify Baghdadi’s death. Who was Ivan the Terrible's successor? Quick now, without Googling it... I would have guessed Boris Godunov, and would have been wrong
Baghdadi’s death, which has been frequently reported since he declared a caliphate from a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, is one of the biggest blows yet to the radical group, which is trying to defend shrinking territory in Syria and Iraq.
"Top tier commanders from IS who are present in Deir Ezzor province have confirmed the death of His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... , emir of the Islamic State group, to the Observatory," the monitoring group's director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. "We learned of it today but we do not know when he died or how."
Deir Ezzor, in eastern Syria, remains largely under IS control even as the group is losing territory elsewhere in the country and in neighboring Iraq.
Abdel Rahman said Baghdadi "was present in eastern parts of Deir Ezzor province" in recent months, but it was unclear if he died in the area or elsewhere.
There was no official confirmation or denial of the news on social media platforms used by IS.
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WARNING! CNN reporting!
[SHABELLENEWS] In the vital transport corridors of the troubled Gulf of Aden, an old but dangerous adversary has returned to the seas -- pirates.
[SHABELLENEWS] Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... said its forces have enjugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! 14 al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... turbans including two women in an operation conducted near Garowe town, the administrative capital.
Police Commissioner for Nugal region Abdirashid Mohamud told news hounds the suspects were arrested following intelligence information the forces received from members of the public.
"We conducted very successful operation near Garowe town where we captured 14 al-Shabaab turbans, two of them are women and one foreigner. They were going to Almadow hills to join terrorist turbans there," Mohamud said.
He did not identify the nationality of the foreigner but the Somalia-based turbans are known to have been fighting along with foreign nationals.
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[Al Jazeera] US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praises Qatar's commitment to help track down and disable sources of terror funding. Of course, much depends on your definition of "terrorism."
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#1
What I read is 'seizure of assets and forfeiture of funds'.
[ALGEMEINER] An award-winning journalist who broke the story of the group of Jewish women ejected from an LGBTQ march in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... last month has been reassigned to non-journalistic duties at the paper which ran the original report, the Windy City Times.
Gretchen Rachel Hammond -- whose June 24 story caused a national storm after she detailed how three women flying Jewish Pride flags embossed with the Star of David were instructed to leave the gathering by organizers from the Dyke March Collective -- confirmed to The Algemeiner on Monday that while she was still employed by the paper, she was not presently engaged in its reporting and writing operations.
"At this time, I have not been fired from Windy City Times, but I have been transferred to working full time for the sales department," Hammond explained in an emailed statement. "The reasoning is an internal matter and I have been instructed not to comment about it even to close friends. Given my present situation, I must comply with this instruction."
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#1
Reporter removed from reporting duties? How intolerant. If somehow this reporter linked this story to Trump and Russian collusion, Hammond would still be reporting and lauded.
#6
You know, I - similarly to several generations of Israeli school children - used to snicker over certain biblical passages describing David/Jonathan relations. That is, one could make a case that David does belong in LGBT parade.
[AA.TR] A former U.S. ambassador to Turkey has said Washington could do more to rein in networks linked to Fetullah Gulen “which at best are opaque and at worst was behind the [July 15, 2016] coup”.
James Jeffrey, who was also a former deputy national security advisor under the George W. Bush administration, was speaking at a conference hosted by the SETA think tank in Washington D.C. on Monday.
The senior diplomat also described as “embarrassing” the continued presence of Gulen on U.S. soil.
Gulen is wanted by the Turkish authorities on a range of charges stemming from the July coup attempt last year which cost 250 lives.
The Turkish government said the coup plot was carried out by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) led by U.S.-based Gulen.
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#1
Jeffrey's "gone native"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2017 6:53
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#2
Apparently work for a " former deputy national security advisor" is inexplicably scarce in D.C. now.
ISTANBUL: Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in two areas of southeast Turkey overnight, killing 11 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters, the army said on Tuesday.
One air operation was conducted near the Syrian border, in the Dargecit district of Mardin province, where warplanes destroyed two gun positions and killed eight militants believed to be preparing for an attack, the army said in a statement.
It said three other PKK members were killed and a cave destroyed in air strikes in the countryside of Hakkari province, which borders Iraq and Iran.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
A cease-fire between the Turkish state and the militants broke down in July 2015 and the southeast subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the insurgency began.
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[AA.TR] The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday stayed a government notification banning the sale of cattle for slaughter at markets across the country.
The apex court said that the ban affected thousands of livelihoods associated with the cattle industry.
The suspension of the ban comes as relief for India's minority Muslim community and Dalits, considered untouchable, who are engaged in animal slaughter.
A law passed this May, by the Indian government led by right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, banned the sale of cows and buffaloes in animal markets for slaughter.
Farmers could only bring cattle to a market after submitting a written declaration that it would not be sold for slaughter.
The government informed the apex court that it will take three months to review the law.
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[Newsweek] The U.S. has deployed its much-coveted air defense system for the first time in Lithuania as the Baltic country and its neighbors continue to window shop for anti-aircraft missiles to deter any military incursion from Russia, Lithuania’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The Patriot system will be part of a 500-strong drill, kicking off Tuesday in Lithuania. The country's forces will be joined be troops from the United Kingdom, the United States, Latvia, and Poland. The military kit will only stay in Lithuania until July 22.
All five of the NATO allies participating will contribute to the 30 air defense systems in the Tobruq Legacy 2017 exercise. The event’s purpose is to test the air component command structure of the alliance that also involves elements stationed in Romania and the Czech Republic.
#2
Trump should tell Russia and China that North Korea is going to help prove US missile shields work, when that happens they will sell them everywhere. Perhaps the two should crush North Korea before that happens.
[AlAhram] Egypt’s Ministry of Interior said on Tuesday that police potted a leading member of the hard boy group Hasm during a shootout in Fayoum governorate.
The ministry said that the National Security Agency received information that a meeting of the group’s members was set to be held in Fayoum’s Snores village to plan terrorist attacks.
The slain leader was responsible for recruiting young members and sending them to training camps affiliated with the group, the ministry added.
Hasm has grabbed credit for a number of attacks against Egyptian security personnel in recent months, mostly targeting police checkpoints.
Egyptian security forces have tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... and killed dozens of suspected Hasm members in the past few months.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/12/2017
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
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.
[McClatchyDC] Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., has introduced formal articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, accusing him of obstruction of justice.
[IsraelHayom]
[American Thinker] Nelson DeMille’s bestselling novel. Nightfall, opens on July 17, 1996, with a steamy encounter on a Long Island beach. The man and women involved decide to videotape their coupling. In the process, they inadvertently capture the destruction of TWA Flight 800. The novel centers around that video.
[Free Beacon] The United States Army's training for how to handle transgender issues instructs troops not to gossip about male soldiers who identify as female.
[DAWN] Terrorists killed six Hindu pilgrims and 
[Hot Air] The Post Office lost $5.6B dollars in fiscal year 2016. (To be fair, they actually showed a small profit, but the federal government forced them to pony up $5.8B to fund future retiree pension costs. That’s a story for another day, however.) But they might have made up a bit of that cash if they weren’t paying overtime costs to cover workers in battleground states who took unpaid leave to go campaign for Hillary Clinton. If that sounds like the sort of thing which would never happen where you work, well... you’re probably right. But once again we need to look no further than the involvement of the union which represents your letter carriers. (Government Executive)
[Free Beacon] The chairman of the House National Security Subcommittee is calling on the Department of Justice to launch a formal investigation into former FBI Director James Comey's alleged leak of classified information, according to an exclusive interview with the Washington Free Beacon in which the lawmaker also called on the Trump administration to purge all former Obama administration holdovers from government.
[AnNahar] Rebel groups shot down a Syrian government warplane on Tuesday near a ceasefire zone in the country's south, the factions and a monitoring group said.
[DAWN] In a section titled "Ownership of Avenfield Apartments", the final report submitted by the Panamagate joint investigation team (JIT) on 10 July, points out major discrepancies in documents submitted and statements made by members of the Sharif family and forensic evidence that was collected as part of the JIT’s efforts.
[Dhaka Tribune] Jamaat-e-Islami has raised an allegation that the government is once again employing the strategy of mass arrest to cover up its failure to contain the spread of chikunguniya, a mosquito-borne viral infection.
[Al Jazeera] A free-speech group on Tuesday sued US President 
Sarah 
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
[DAWN] A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered by the security forces in Kohat on Tuesday, the military's media wing claimed.
[AA.TR] The legality of a Belgian ban on full-face Islamic veils was upheld on Tuesday by the European Court of Human Rights.
[DailyCaller] Officials at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus in Columbia appear to have decided to rid themselves of Janna Basler, the taxpayer-funded administrator who joined a mob of Black Lives Matter protesters in November 2015 and shoved a lone student photographer as he attempted to capture images for a local newspaper.
Wardak police chief Naqibullah Amini said on Tuesday that Mawlawi Abdul Rahman a Taliban commander for Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province was killed in a clash with police on Monday.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has confirmed that authorities executed four convicts responsible for numerous terror attacks in Qatif.
[ICE Website] RICHLAND, Wash. ‐ A multiagency law enforcement operation in Washington’s tri-cities area targeting individuals intending to sexually exploit children resulted in the arrest of 26 suspects, including five individuals with access to children at risk of being abused.
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
[AA.TR] A former U.S. ambassador to Turkey has said Washington could do more to rein in networks linked to Fetullah Gulen “which at best are opaque and at worst was behind the [July 15, 2016] coup”.
[AA.TR] The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday stayed a government notification banning the sale of cattle for slaughter at markets across the country.
