[Breitbart] John Franklin Stephens, a man with Down syndrome, told the United Nations that a world without people like him would be "a poorer world, a colder world, a less happy world."
In a moving speech before the 37th session of the Human Rights Council last week, Mr. Stephens told his audience that the most important thing that can be done to improve the lives of people with Down syndrome is to remember their status as human beings, equal in dignity to everyone else.
"I am a man," Stephens said. "See me as a human being, not a birth defect, not a syndrome. I don’t need to be eradicated. I don’t need to be cured. I need to be loved, valued, educated and, sometimes, helped."
Mr. Stephens was invited to speak at the U.N. days before the celebration of World Down Syndrome Day 2018, to be held on March 21.
Ironically, his address came the day after an Ohio judge sided with the abortion industry and blocked a law that banned selective abortions targeting babies diagnosed with Down syndrome.
From a few days ago; he's really getting into the fire & brimstone stuff. Or he's completely off his rocker.
Melting highways. Birds falling dead from the sky. Rain bombs. Flying rivers. Drought. Zero Day. Dogs and cats sleeping together!
Former US Vice President Al Gore didn’t mince words as he presented his vision of the future if humanity fails to act on climate change. Plagues of locusts!
Armed with his trademark PowerPoint graphics and statistics, Mr Gore used the closing plenary address on the final day of the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai on Sunday to bring attention to the "climate crisis," which he said was the "great challenge" of our modern times. The dead rising!
"Our future is at risk," said Mr Gore. "We have to change." A Republican Congress!
#6
I'm waiting for the old guy with the beard and the staff to part the seas that have risen and flooded the entire world...wait...didn't Noah do that? Errr...Moses?
The stuff Al Gore is talking about is the kind of stuff Moses used to persuade the Pharaoh. In a normal world you would call that "Biblical" but I don't think Al's constituency would appreciate him using that term.
#7
There was a trendy word for "storm" the weathertainment crowd was pushing a couple years ago, I can't remember it now. At the rate they are going, we are going to have "named raindrops" soon.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2018 15:39
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#8
He's still warning the world about ManBearPig...
[Breitbart] Earlier today, we reported on a former staffer for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign who admitted that the campaign had harvested mass amounts of Facebook data for targeted campaigning. In a 2013 interview, California congresswoman Maxine Waters revealed that Barack Obama possessed a "kind of database that no-one has ever seen before," with "information about everything, on every individual."
Waters confirmed that the database was linked to Organizing For America (now Organizing for Action), the 501(c)4 "community organizing" network that was built on the back of Obama’s presidential campaigns.
As we reported earlier today, Obama’s 2012 media analytics director, Carol Davidsen, who oversaw the campaign’s data operations said they were able to “suck out the whole social graph” from Facebook during the 2012 campaign, allowing them to access the friend networks of every American user.
“[Facebook] came to [our] office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side” admitted Davidsen.
In a series of tweets, Davidsen that Facebook was “surprised” that the Obama campaign was able to “suck out the entire social graph” (the “social graph” is an individual’s network of friends on Facebook), but did nothing to stop them once they found out.
[Daily Caller] Great Mills High School in Maryland has been placed on lockdown after a shooting Tuesday morning, police confirmed.
Maryland State Police and ATF special agents announced they are responding to the incident, Fox News reported. The school is located in St. Mary’s County.
BREAKING: A school shooting has been reported at Great Mills High School in Maryland. The school is on lockdown, sheriff’s office is on the scene. pic.twitter.com/yGIeLh1wAp
‐ MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 20, 2018
BREAKING: Special Agents from @ATFBaltimore Hyattsville I and II Field Offices are en route to a shooting reported at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County, Md. pic.twitter.com/V1GzaIpKJN
#1
3 wounded including shooter, SRO engaged them immediately but not before he wounded his main target (Female) and another student. The 3rd student is in stable, the other two in critical.
Apparently the SRO wasn't trained by Broward County since he didn't run outside to 'guard' the parking lot.
[Dallas Morning News] Sen. Ted Cruz is under fire for his connections with a voter targeting firm that used data taken from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge. But Facebook admits to being in the tank with Obama, but that's not news to the Dallas Morning News. Cruz continued work with Cambridge Analytica for six months after allegations surfaced in December 2015 that the firm was using Facebook data it had received illicitly. Recent revelations show the data harvesting was far more extensive than previously suspected, and possibly among the biggest privacy breaches in history.
"It was a grossly unethical experiment because you are playing with the psychology of an entire country... in the context of the democratic process," whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a data scientist who worked for Cambridge Analytica, told The Guardian. Wazzat, Christopher? A psychology experiment?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/20/2018
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#1
An interesting illustration of how we cannot escape the consequences of other people's choices. I have nothing to do with farcebook, but it affects my life nonetheless. Though I despise the phrase and the concept, I'm a stakeholder.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2018 10:45
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#2
Yawn.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/20/2018 11:33
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Media says, "No! Don't look over there (FB helps Obumbles willingly)! Looky here! This is the REAL (tm) news! Repubs are bad, bad people!"
[Telegraph] The son of the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi is to run as a candidate in the country’s presidential elections this year, according to local media reports.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was once the heir apparent to his father’s regime but is now wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity during his father's brutal efforts to put down the 2011 rebellion against his rule.
His candidacy was announced by officials in the Libyan Popular Front party during a news conference in Tunis on Monday.
Khaled Guel told al-Araby al-Jadeed, a pan-Arab newspaper, that Libya needed to get past recent divisions.
"The humanitarian situation is deteriorating and the path forward is unclear. Therefore many Libyans now believe that the only way to save the country is through Saif al-Islam," he said.
Saif al-Islam had been held by a militia in the town of Zintan for six years after his father was driven from power by rebels.
In 2015 he was also sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Tripoli.
However, he was released in June last year, apparently after being granted amnesty by one of the country’s two competing governments.
#1
I wonder if this is going to spread to other communities in the Golden State? (Los Alamitos has also opted out of legalizing marijuana). The vote was something like 4-1 for opting out.
#2
How many shooters come from homes without fathers? Not just the 'white' shooters who get all the 24/7 coverage (man bites dog), but those in places like Chicago (dog bites man). However to face that brings into question over 50 years of narrative of Big Brother substituting for in home fathers and its construction of an bureaucratic empire.
#3
As the Beest recently reported, men are really to blame for everything. If women would simply stop listening to them, the utopian dream would soon be realized.
[PJMedia] A Romanian man is in a unique predicament: as far as the Romanian government is concerned, Constantin Reliu is dead. This was news to Constantin Reliu. "He says he's not dead. He will be soon."
According to the Associated Press, Reliu spent the last 20 years working as a cook in Turkey. While away, Reliu's wife had him declared legally dead. Reliu first left for Turkey in 1992; in 1995, he returned to Romania to learn that his wife had been unfaithful to him. In 1999, he decided to return to Turkey permanently. "Yer wife says yer dead."
"Oh yea? What does she know. If I'm dead, how come I'm talking to you?"
"Ya got me there, bub."
Unfortunately for him, the Turkish government booted him out of the country for having expired papers earlier this year. That's when things got bizarre.
"Upon landing at Bucharest airport," the AP reports, "he was informed by border officials that he had been officially declared dead and underwent six hours of questioning and tests." "I got better."
Finally, border officials decided it was him and allowed him to enter his home country. The courts, however, have been less understanding: "If we say yer dead, yer dead! Now scram!"
But authorities in Barlad were less convinced. He spent weeks trying to persuade them to issue him papers so that he officially "existed," he said. When that failed, he asked them to overturn the ruling on his death certificate, issued in 2016, which also ended in failure Thursday on procedural grounds.
It seems the problem was that his request was "too late." "It's too late to claim yer alive, because yer dead. This here death certificate says so."
"I am a living ghost," Reliu told the AP in a phone interview.
"I am officially dead, although I'm alive," he argued. "I have no income and because I am listed as dead, I can't do anything." At least he doesn't have to pay taxes.
The AP said they were unable to find Reliu's wife to learn her side of the story.
Of course, considering it's Romania, you'd think they'd at least be comfortable with the idea of a dead man not being as dead as he seems. They do have some history with legends along those lines.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/20/2018
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#1
Maybe he can show his voter registration from Chicago?
[Guardian] The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken into police custody to be questioned over allegations that he received millions of euros in illegal election campaign funding from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, who was France’s rightwing president from 2007 to 2012, was being questioned early on Tuesday morning at a police station in Nanterre, north-west Paris, as part of an inquiry into whether Gaddafi and others in Libya illegally financed his winning election campaign in 2007.
The investigation is potentially France’s most explosive political financing scandal in decades. Sarkozy has repeatedly denied the allegations, dismissing the claims as "grotesque".
It is the first time Sarkozy has been questioned by police over the allegations. A French inquiry into alleged illegal campaign funding from Libya was opened in 2013. The inquiry did not name anyone as a suspect, and has centred on claims of corruption, influence trafficking, forgery, abuse of public funds and money laundering.
[The Hill] The CEO of the British data firm Cambridge Analytica was filmed saying that his firm used bribes and sex workers to trap politicians in compromising situations, an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News in London reported Monday.
Channel 4 reports that over a four-month undercover investigation, it discovered that Cambridge Analytica has secretly worked to influence more than 200 elections all over the world, sometimes using sub-contractors or a web of secretive front companies.
Alexander Nix, the company's chief executive, in one exchange talks about sending "some girls around to the candidate's house" in order to dig up dirt on political opponents.
He also talks of putting information "into the bloodstream of the internet" and watching to grow.
Nix did not appear to know he was being filmed when he made the statements at what Channel 4 said were a series of hotel meetings. The news organization said its reporter posed as the representative of a client hoping to get candidates elected in Sri Lanka.
#1
Cambridge Analytica has secretly worked to influence more than 200 elections all over the world, sometimes using sub-contractors or a web of secretive front companies.
That really is an amazing coincidence. Think what could be achieved if they simply harnessed the power of Facebook?
More about Cambridge Analytica at Google. More about Google at.....
Moved to P.3: Non-WoT because Russia is only WoT when Muslims are involved.
More valid questions from Buchanan, particularly that of motive.
[Townhall] Britain has yet to identify the assassin who tried to murder the double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England.
But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson knows who ordered the hit.
"We think it overwhelmingly likely that it was (Russian President Vladimir Putin's) decision to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the U.K."
"Unforgivable," says Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov of the charge, which also defies "common sense." On Sunday, Putin echoed Peskov: "It is just sheer nonsense, complete rubbish, to think that anyone in Russia could do anything like that in the run-up to the presidential election and the World Cup. ... It's simply unthinkable."
Putin repeated Russia's offer to assist in the investigation.
But Johnson is not backing down; he is doubling down.
"We gave the Russians every opportunity to come up with an alternative hypothesis ... and they haven't," said Johnson. "We actually have evidence ... that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination but has also been creating and stockpiling Novichok," the poison used in Salisbury.
Why Russia is the prime suspect is understandable. Novichok was created by Russia's military decades ago, and Skripal, a former Russian intel officer, betrayed Russian spies to MI6.
But what is missing here is the Kremlin's motive for the crime.
#1
Novichok was created by Russia's military decades ago and, IIRC, there was a period of time after the USSR imploded where security & supervision at the old Soviet weapons of mass destruction labs was quite poor. The USA & the UK, both having been taking utterly by surprise at the disintegration of a powerful and heavily armed enemy, had to scramble to provide on-site supervision of the most dangerous stuff. For all we know, Christopher Steele was involved in these projects. He was based in Moscow for a time.
#2
Yes, that would be the same Chirstopher Steele whom we've not seen or heard from in many months now. Probably safe to assume his safe house is NOT in Salisbury.
There are also indications that it [Novichok] could have been smuggled out of the former Soviet Union as far back as 1993.
In September of 1993 as The Irish Times Moscow correspondent I obtained a list of chemical and biological weapons, including Novichok, that were being produced by Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union. I brought these documents to the recognised expert at the time Dr Thomas Stock of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Dr Stock’s reaction was that Russia immediately needed western financial help to stop Novichok and other chemical and biological agents being exported illegally by criminal elements. Western help arrived eventually but was it too late. The countries of the former Soviet Union, with the exception of the Baltic nations, were in chaos at the time.
There was money to be made in those days when inflation had reached 2,500 per cent in a single year. Those who became extremely rich by selling natural resources, military equipment or anything they could get their hands on became known as the Russian oligarchs, but not all the oligarchs were Russian. The main production plant for Novichok was in Uzbekistan.
#4
Yeah, they didn't get their war with Russia and they are super pissed off. Now, supposedly Putin commits a really egregious crime in public for...why exactly? They're really in love with false flag incidents. Remember the WMD memo that got us into war with Iraq? Gulf of Tonkin incident?
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03/20/2018 5:09
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#5
We now have evidence that Colonel Skripal's BMW was a mobile, Level-4 Novichok manufacturing lab and that an accidental spill has resulted in this unpleasantness.
#6
After following all the counter Trump shenanigans after he was elected, I am strongly dis-inclined to believe anything coming from any agency of any government.
#9
Russia developed Novichok but how difficult is it to manufacture it? If it can be analyzed and identified, it can probably be manufactured by others than Russia? Or if it is still manufactured by Russia, how difficult would it be to smuggle it out of Russia?
#12
Apparently Vlad has little use for the wealthy Russian oligarchs who relocate to the UK either. Perhaps he would refer they remain in Russia and utilize domestic banking services.
I ran into an old colleague in D.C. a while back. He had lived in Ireland since his retirement from the US Army in the early 1990's. In our ensuing discussion, I was amazed at how one's views of U.S. politics and life in the U.S. in general, can change when one moves abroad.
#15
I was expecting something else. I had a client for a few years, pretty normal guy, not into politics that I could tell. Suddenly he gets the urge to move to LA and get into acting. Five years later he's a major lefty. We don't talk anymore.
#16
Former Russian spy defects to the UK and subsequently gets bumped off in a manner that other Russian spies considering defection are sure to notice. Sounds like Смерть шпионам to me.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/20/2018 11:16
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#17
California echo chamber effects are very hard to resist over time. It’s an immersion in the fantasy soak of successful socialism, you just have to suspend belief in reality.....
#19
(1) Putin did it -- because Putin, (2) Old personal vendetta, (3) Russian mafia hit -- "its just business", (4) Coercion to Skripal's associate(s) -- 'be good or ELSE!', (5) other(?) -- "I dunno, do you?', (6) some, one, or all of the above,
#20
Yeah, they didn't get their war with Russia and they are super pissed off.
Liberals don't want war with Russia. They just want to virtue signal. Notice how Obama deliberately avoided shipping arms to Ukraine.
Conservatives don't want it either. No one's suggesting that we should invade Russia. However, clashes with the Russians in third countries isn't unprecedented. It happened over the skies of Korea as well as Vietnam.
Fact is that the Russians are our adversaries, and Russia is going through a period similar to what the Germans did after WWI. While we are fortunate that the Russian economy is nothing like the German one during the interwar years, the Russians do have nukes, and an unfortunate tendency to talk up those nukes to achieve their territorial goals, including preventing material aid to countries they've invaded. The question is whether we supply Russia's designated victims, or stand back and wait for Russia to cross NATO's boundaries before taking an active role to end its territorial expansion.
#21
Why did Vlad snuff Skripal in the U.K.--particularly in a way with such a distinctive signature? Vlad could have snuffed him while he was in Russia in a more innocuous way, say to look like an accident or a botched robbery or a drug overdose.
It was reported at wiki that we (U.S.) helped or oversaw the dismantling of the Russian Novichok production facilities.
What #6 said. Be skeptical of everything said until proven otherwise.
#22
Parliament just approved a £40+ million budget increase for their Porton Down facility. That's a buttload of laboratory test tubes and petri dishes. No reason given.
[BSK] My take on Austin Bombings: the fourth bomb is a smokescreen. The changing of trigger, delivery and victims is meant to suggest a) more than one bomber b) a wider purpose and victimology to confuse investigators.
Bomb makers tend to perfect a particular type of bomb. Largely because it takes time to develop one that works effectively and doesn't blow up the maker. Too many styles mean the potential for a fatal error. As it is, many bomb makers end up missing fingers no matter how good they are.
According to the latest reports, the 4th bomb itself had similar materials and set up with the exception of the trip wire. The trip wire trying to indicate more than one bomb maker tries to suggest multiples of people involved. Where it may be more likely 1 (bomb maker) or possibly 2 (logistics/delivery/driver).
With the very close relationship of the first 3 bomb victims and the completely unrelated, unknown fourth victims, the bomber(s) made a mistake. Instead of obfuscating the purpose, relationship or motive for the earlier victims, it serves to focus attention on the first victims. Most importantly, the first victim.
In this type of event, with closely related victims in a serial bombing, it reflects certain aspects of serial killers. Meaning that the first victim is the most meaningful and closest to the killer.
The motive is unclear. People have speculated as to whether it is racial or related to the first victim's activism. That the killer went out of the way to target family members as well seems more personal. They also attended the same church.
What is completely amazing is that the last bomb was triggered by a trip wire across the road. Which would take time and effort. In the open.
Importantly, the police say they are reviewing video from local home owners' security cameras. That is something the bomber may have miscalculated. His other targets lived in busy, Urban areas, lower income, unlikely to have video. He may have gotten lax in his surveillance or simply been too focused on finding an unrelated location.
Another factor is that it appears to take the bomb maker a week to make a bomb. 10 to make 2. Delivered the packages before work hours on the weekday (early morning) and late Sunday. This is his free time. Which means he has a job. He may also live with someone who is unsuspecting and who he wants to avoid drawing attention by simply leaving earlier for work or going to run an errand (Sunday).
Obviously must have access to property where loud explosions would go unremarked or even unheard. Somewhere outside of the city limits. The bombing locations frame the I 35 corridor. This creates easy and multiple ingresses and egresses from the bomb sites. There are other surrounding major roadways and state highways that he can circle back to the major artery, avoiding road blocks.
The first bombs appear to be mercury switches that trigger on movement. They appear to be hand delivered and left on people's porches or steps. Police initially asked for assistance from the Postal Inspector and various delivery companies. No reports of anyone seeing who left the packages. No indication of type of vehicle.
The police may be withholding this information or it may be that it was very early in the morning and no one noticed. In the early hours, the delivery could be someone driving up to the house, delivering and getting back in the car to drive away.
The one that must bogle is the setting up of a trip wire on the 4th bomb that no one noticed happening.
#2
With all the dirt cheap and extremely small multipurpose computers on a tiny board for sale everywhere, it would be an interesting project to create an IED using a proximity detector (not a trip wire, but something using PIR or ultrasound) to set off a parcel bomb, just left sitting on the road instead of a porch.
#3
Ref #2. Yes, as is done in AFG or Iraq, it's done with a cell phone and a simple call. One caller can set off multiple charges remotely, as target(s) appear.
#4
Cell phones may not be necessary. PIR &/or US as part of a small computer, could be set up to self detonate when a person gets close enough, similar to front door lights that come one when someone is on the front step - but these won't trigger for a dog or cat.
#5
ANOTHER BOMB went off at a FedEx facility the north side of San Antonio, TX. Package was addressed to Austin. One worker injured. This happened 0030 Tuesday morning.
#6
Cops demand access to all your data. Say they need it to fight this sort of thing, but when it happens, they are helpless. Doesn't like like a very good deal to me.
Me either since the track record for prevention sucks, e.g. 911, Boston bombing, Cruz shooting and others. What's the saying: "When you trade freedom for security, you end up with neither."
#8
An Austin Goodwill store had something like an incendiary device go off this Tuesday evening. An injured employee was treated & released. Police say this is a different kind of device from the others.
[ARABNEWS] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... ’s relations with Arab countries have reached a record low. Relations may of course deteriorate between countries from time to time when their national interests collide, but in the case of Turkey and Arab countries, there was no threat to the interests of either side.
In Egypt, Turkey stood against Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s military takeover, which was understandable because Turkey has suffered a lot from military interventions. The mistake was in Turkey’s insistence in not recognizing the new leadership even after it had established its authority in the country. Turkey had to take into account that Egypt is the unchallenged leader of the Arab world. When the region faces its worst crises, these two countries can take action to alleviate the effects and contribute to their solution.
Continued on Page 49
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[ARABNEWS] Ottoman Turkish forces will continue to press their offensive against Kurdish YPG forces along the length of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... ’s border with Syria and ‐ worryingly for the region’s Kurds ‐ if necessary into northern Iraq, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, threatening wider conflict in Syria’s civil war.
A day after Ottoman Turkish troops swept into Afrin, the main town in a pocket of Kurdish-controlled territory in northwest Syria, Erdogan said Turkey would also target a region stretching nearly 400 km (250 miles) east to the northern Syrian town of Qamishli.
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[AlAhram] Egyptian Armed Forces front man Tamer El-Refaie has said in a statement that 36 takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... s were killed and 345 were tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by army and police forces during the last five days of the counterterrorism Operation Sinai 2018, which started on 9 February in Sinai and other parts of the country.
The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to holy warrior Sunni Moslems who accuse other Moslems and followers of other religions of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.
"One officer and three soldiers were killed during operations, while another three officers, a non-commissioned officer and five soldiers were maimed," the front man said.
The statement added that six takfiris were killed during a shootout with police forces in the North Sinai capital of El-Arish.
Air forces destroyed 12 targets used as shelter by gunnies and as well as a booby-trapped vehicle whose driver attempted attack a security checkpoint west of El-Arish.
The army has also located and destroyed 17 vehicles, 67 cycle of violences, and 93 IEDs, in addition to confiscating large amounts of TNT, plastic explosives, ammunition and firearms.
The operation targets "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations" in northern and central Sinai, as well as parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert, the army said at the start of the operation.
The front man said that counterterrorism forces from the army, along with police forces and border guards, are continuing combing operations in pursuit of any gunnies or criminal elements.
The border guards, in cooperation with forces tasked with securing the Suez Canal waterway, are continuing their mission to protect navigation and tighten security measures at the crossings leading into the Sinai Peninsula.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Over the last several days, the Syrian Air Force has increased the number of attacks it generally carries out across rebel-held areas of Daraa province.
Whilst no secret, and with video evidence to support accusations that such strikes are taking place, opposition sources have made a particularly big deal of the bombings by government airpower.
In particular, Syrian warplanes have been targeting rebel positions and movements in and around the myrmidon-controlled town of Busra al-Hariri (shown in both videos below), right on the frontier with Syrian Army lines.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Civilian sources told Syrian state media Monday that three US helicopters had evacuated suspected ISIS (ISIS) commanders from northeast Syria.
Speaking to SANA, the sources said that the military helicopters had landed in an area between the villages of al-Jissi and Kalu, 2 km south of the Tal Hamis township in the Qamishli District of al-Hasakah Governate.
From there, servicemen accompanied four persons from a house believed to contain ISIS* leaders of Iraqi nationality to the helicopters, which then evacuated them from the area to an unknown destination.
Damascus, Tehran and the Russian military have repeatedly charged the US military of sketchy dealings with the terrorist group.
In late February, Syrian media reported that US helicopters had transported ISIS commanders and their family members to Sabah al-Khair, about 20 km south of al-Hasakah, where US forces have been accused of establishing a terrorist training base.
Earlier this month, a senior Iranian commander provided the Iranian foreign ministry with what he said was proof of US collusion with the terrorists.
Late last year, the Russian Defense Ministry accused the US-led coalition of interacting with ISIS’s remnants in Syria, and of using the al-Hasakah refugee camp as a myrmidon-training area for the formation of a so-called ’New Syrian Army’ consisting of hundreds of Islamist myrmidons, to continue the fight against the Syrian government.
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#1
sounds like projection to me.
Posted by: Daniel ||
03/20/2018 3:57
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Video footage has been released by opposition sources showing the deployment of a large Ottoman Turkish Army convoy ‐ escorted by rebel forces ‐ to the Jabal (Mount) Anak area near Anadan town, just north of Aleppo city in Syria.
According to reports, the convoy was over one hundred vehicles in size ‐ consisting of self-deploying bridging equipment, armored personnel carriers, armored cars, lorries, fuel trucks and excavators.
Also in tow with the military column was about about a company of Ottoman Turkish troops; these servicemen will most likely act as the security forces which maintain watch over the frontline areas opposing Syrian Army lines.
The deployment of additional Ottoman Turkish forces to the Anadan region is part of an ongoing de-escalation scheme brokered between Moscow and Ankara that is aimed at ending all offensive action by both the Syrian Army and armed rebel groups throughout the country’s northwest
Clerly, so long as Putin and Erdogan agree, the opinion of Assad doesn’t matter in the least.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... ’s role in all of this is to establish ’observation points’ with its own military to monitor the ceasefire.
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#1
anadan is about 8 miles NNW of Aleppo
furthest south Turkish troops have gone
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/20/2018 2:15
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#2
The Turkish Lira is getting weaker as erdogan's operation goes on.
#4
#2 - A good way to see this graphically in on x-rates.com. Select EURO as the numerator and Turk Lira as the denominator, select Graph, and extend it out to 1-year. I've also found this useful to track the effect of the Russian sanctions, post Ukraine.
#5
Remember how the Uncle Sam opened up a can of Raid on the Russian unit near Manbij without any statements from Trump, meaning he had delegated responsibility for force protection to the local commander? Gotta wonder if the Turks will overstep and get something similar inflicted upon themselves. Except the Turks will lose a lot more than a few hundred guys, given the amount of hardware and personnel they've massed.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Secretary-General of the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... , Antonio Guterres, demanded this past weekend that Hezbollah completely withdraw from Syria, adding that they should stop meddling in foreign affairs. When I was a little kid we had a zinc bucket. I used to amuse my childish self by hollering into it.
"The presence of unauthorized weapons in the hands of Hezbollah remains of serious concern and warrants condemnation," Guterres stated in a report distributed to the 15 Security Council members ahead of a debate set for Tuesday.
The Secretary-General specifically mentioned Hezbollah’s participation in the Syrian War in his report, which seems to be a hot topic for discussion this coming Tuesday.
Guterres’ latest demand comes just days after the United States lashed out against Iran for their current role in the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2018
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#1
"Well that's it, then, boyos!
Pack it in. We're Baalbek Bound™"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2018 15:39
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#2
"You're supposed to fight evil zionist entity, not fellow Muslims!" sorta thing?
[DAILYCALLER] Black Lives Matter, the New Black Panther Party, and Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network are organizing a protest in defense of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
Farrakhan is a notorious racist and anti-Semite with close ties to Democratic politicians and activists
The black activist groups are lobbying against a GOP resolution formally condemning Farrakhan for his anti-Semitism
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[ARABNEWS] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... on Monday blamed the Islamist Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, group for the March 13 kaboom on the convoy of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gazoo, saying it was a "despicable and sinful act."
Hamdallah and Paleostinian security chief Majid Faraj were uninjured when a roadside kaboomwent kaboom! as they entered the Gazoo Strip on their way to a ceremony in the enclave that is dominated by the Hamas faction and is a rival of Abbas’s Fatah faction.
"We give congratulate the two big brothers (Hamdallah and Faraj) that they are safe after the sinful and despicable attack that was carried out against them by the Hamas movement in the Gazoo Strip," Abbas said in a speech in Ramallah.
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[AFRICANEWS] Æthiopians who fled the town of Moyale in the wake of a botched military operation that killed nine citizens will be repatriated soon, the country’s police chief confirmed last Friday.
At the time of Assefa Abyou’s presser, over 9,600 asylum seekers had fled the border town of Moyale into Kenya according to Kenyan media reports.
The federal police chief according to the state-affiliated FBC said government was "undertaking various activities to bring them back home."
Government admitted that a military operation carried out on false information had led to an attack that killed civilians and maimed about a dozen others.
A military team ostensibly dispatched to intercept a banned gang ‐ the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) members ended up acting on wrong intelligence leading to the incident. Activists, however, held that it was a deliberate government effort to sow insecurity.
The Command Post administering the February 16 State of Emergency (SOE) early last week dispatched a team to Moyale to ascertain the facts on the ground, that team has yet to give updates on its task.
According to Abyou, the Command Post with the support of the public had intercepted about 20,000 ammunitions stressing that they were taking measures to protect public safety especially in the light of anti-peace elements seeking to sow chaos using social media.
Without giving figures, he also said more than half of persons detained by the Command Post had so far been released.
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[AFRICANEWS] Zim-bob-we’s first presidential and parliamentary elections since the end of former strongman Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... ’s long rule will take place in July, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Saturday.
The polls will be the first major test of the new leader, who took power in November after a de facto military coup forced the 94-year-old Mugabe to resign.
They will also be the first without Mugabe’s name on the ballot since independence from Britannia in 1980.
"As a nation, party and government, we are looking forward to very peaceful, transparent and harmonised elections in July this year," Mnangagwa told news hounds after a meeting with South Africans President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday night.
Mnangagwa, 75, said the elections would be free of the violence that gripped previous polls and which was one of the reasons for strained relations between Zim-bob-we and the West.
"I have already invited all political parties in Zim-bob-we to a roundtable where we all commit ourselves to non-violence," he added.
Mnanaggwa will have to announce a date in an official notice. He has said he would invite Western observers, who had been banned under Mugabe’s rule.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Even though the Islamist groups in East Ghouta pocket are desperately fighting off, the government forces keep on grabbing more territories in the heavily-contested enclave.
The battle-hardened Tiger Forces have reportedly stormed the town of Hazah located to the northwest of the recently-liberated Kafr Batna and entered the eastern neighborhoods amid heavy festivities with Faylaq al-Rahman murderous Moslems.
The hardly-attained advance was made as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group (an al-Qaeda affiliate and a close ally to Faylaq) attempted to curb the Army troops by detonating a VBIED along the road linking Kafr Batna to Hazah.
No casualties reported due to the suicide kaboom.
In besieged Harasta suburb, a group of HTS Lions of Islam attacked the Syrian Army points with the objective to make their way into the remaining rebel-held towns of East Ghouta (where their main ally is positioned i.e. Faylaq al-Rahman).
The assault ‐ definitely thwarted by the Syrian Army units ‐ was launched after Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... group (the largest in Harasta) approved an evacuation deal to the country’s north as per an agreement with the Russian side.
In neighboring Douma, heavy festivities broke out in the northern outskirts of al-Riyhan town where the Army troops managed to score a slight advance and recapture some new farms.
This was reported in conjunction with heavy Arclight airstrikes and artillery shelling that targeted Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... in and around its heartland of Douma.
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03/20/2018
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[WarNewsUpdates] Turkish authorities have detained four men they claim are part of a criminal gang in possession of large quantities of a radioactive nuclear element they had hoped to sell on the black market for over $70 million.
According to the German news agency DPA, the four men were found to be holding just over 3 pounds of the synthetic nuclear element Californium, which is most commonly used to kickstart nuclear reactors and in mining.
The Turkish press reported that the identity of the buyer of the nuclear material remains unclear. Neither the Turkish security services, nor the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) have stated the origin of the highly radioactive material, which is now being safeguarded.
Turkish police captured 1kg 441 gram Californium-252 that worths more than 70 million dollar in Ankara, a very expensive radioactive element used in #nuclear fusion. pic.twitter.com/Rquf1yLdlP
— Cemal (@Acemal71) March 19, 2018
He's talking 1.441 kg of Ca-252. Wikipedia says 2.73 kg of Ca-252 could be a critical mass.
#5
Rare stuff, created only by a few specific government nuclear reactors, and in tiny amounts. Nobody ever has near-critical masses of the stuff just laying around to be stolen for black market sale. It decays to nothing in a few years.
#6
Two sites in the world are responsible for the production of this metallic, radioactive element. One is the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The other is the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, located in Dimitrovgrad, Russia, which produces 0.025 grams of the material each year.
#7
It's not Californium. Californium is a very strong neutron emitter. The ammount of shielding necessary for this is pretty high. One microgram (0.000001 grams) of californium-252 produces 170,000,000 neutrons per minute. It was first made at Berkeley in 1950.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/20/2018 12:07
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#8
Americium might be a more likely material. It is widely used in home smoke detectors as an alpha particle generator. I couldn't find details on the mass of Am produced per year, but it would have to be fairly large to support the manufacture of so many smoke detectors, even though a very small amount of Am is used per detector.
[TAKIMAG] A hundred years ago, the sun never set on the British Empire. These days, England’s rulers are blowing out the candles and telling the citizens to enjoy the darkness.
Last week brought news of yet another sexual grooming scandal of underage girls perpetrated mostly by Moslems with roots in the Middle East upon poor and lower-class indigenous British girls. This follows similar scandals in the towns of Rotherham, Rochdale, Derby, Oxford, Bristol, Banbury, Aylesbury, and Keighley.
Last week brought news of yet another sexual grooming scandal of underage girls perpetrated mostly by Moslems with roots in the Middle East upon poor and lower-class indigenous British girls. This follows similar scandals in the towns of Rotherham, Rochdale, Derby, Oxford, Bristol, Banbury, Aylesbury, and Keighley.
This time the scandal involves the West Midlands town of Telford. An 18-month investigation by The Mirror led news hounds to describe the situation as Britannia’s "worst ever" child grooming scandal:
Up to 1,000 children could have suffered in Britannia’s worst known abuse scandal - where sex gangs targeted girls as young as 11.
The rape hell of vulnerable maiden of tender yearss in one town - Telford - went on for a shocking 40 years....
As many as 1,000 children could have suffered at the merciless hands of perverts and torturers in Telford since the 1980s.
Girls as young as 11 have been lured from their families to be drugged, beaten and raped in an epidemic that, say victims, is still ongoing.
THREE people were murdered and two others died in tragedies linked to the scandal.
Among the three murders is that of 16-year-old Lucy Lowe, who died along with her mother and sister after a 26-year-old taxi driver named Azhar Ali Mehmood set their house ablaze. Lucy had given birth to Mehmood’s child when she was only 14.
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03/20/2018
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#1
Telford is the first to be non-labour party rotten borough.
[KCNAWATCH.CO] The imperialists are perpetrating open interference in the internal affairs of other countries and aggression on them under the deceptive slogans "peace" and "ensuring security" in a bid to achieve their hegemonic purpose. What? No Juche?
The world progressives and countries aspiring after independence have to see through the hegemonic moves of the imperialists veiled with falsehood and deception and counter them with vigilance. How about a bit of Songun Army First Policy?
The "peace" much touted by the imperialists precisely means the slogan for aggression for expanding the sphere of domination. No Sea of Fire?
They are finding their way out of ruin in escalating the invasion of other countries and the meddling in their internal affairs. Who writes this piffle?
The poor dears have been malnourished for an awfully long time. They’re doing the best they can.
It is proven by the present reality that sovereignty of countries and nations is violated and there are ceaseless wars and disputes in different countries due to the aggression and interference by the imperialist and hegemonic forces. Have him executed by antiaircraft guns and flamethrowers!
The moves to maintain and expand the sphere of domination by the U.S.-led imperialists are doomed to fail as they are outdated and reactionary ones going against the trend of the times toward independence. Not worthy to grace the pages of Rodong Sinmun!
The arbitrary practices and blusters of the imperialists rampant in the international arena are nothing but the last-ditch efforts of the doomed reactionaries of history. Barely froths at the mouth. I'd give it a C minus.
No challenge of the imperialists can ever stop mankind from building an independent world.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Syrian president Bashir al-Assad has sent an official congratulation to Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... for his reelection as President of the Russian Federation on Sunday, as reported by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
In the official cable from Damascus, President al-Assad said that "having this exceptional trust from the Russian people is a natural result of your distinguished patriotic performance and of serving the Russian Federation’s interests with the utmost competence and faithfulness."
Lotsa heads of state congratulated Putin on his overwhelming victory, some of which was real, including Bibi Netanyahu. It’s a ritual.
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03/20/2018
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#1
Yeah - it was close there for a while.
Russian democracy snark of the day.
[ARABNEWS] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... labelled the US ambassador to Israel David Friedman a "son of a dog" on Monday during a scathing attack on 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... ’s policies.
"The US ambassador in Tel Aviv is a settler and a son of a dog," Abbas said in comments to Paleostinian leaders in Ramallah.
Relations between Abbas’s government and President Trump’s US administration have broken down since the White House recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December.
The Paleostinians also see the disputed city as the capital of their future state.
Friedman, who was Trump’s personal lawyer before being appointed last year, is a longstanding supporter of settlement building in the occupied West Bank, considered illegal under international law.
On Monday, Friedman referred to an attack in the West Bank as "in the north," raising questions over whether he views it as part of Israeli territory, and accused Abbas’s Paleostinian Authority (PA) of failing to condemn it.
"Such brutality and no condemnation from the PA!" he tweeted, referring to a Friday car ramming that killed two soldiers and a Sunday stabbing in Jerusalem that left an Israeli dead, both carried out by Paleostinians.
Israel has militarily occupied the West Bank since 1967 but Abbas’s government has limited autonomy in parts of it.
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03/20/2018
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#1
"Relations between Abbas’s government and President Trump’s US administration have broken down"
[ARABNEWS] Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Monday stayed the bail order of former Prime Minister the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... , which was granted to her by the High Court earlier this month until May 8.
A lower court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment on Feb. 8 for misappropriating funds for the Zia Orphanage Trust.
She appealed to the High Court, which granted her four-month interim bail because of her age and health.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the graft case against her in 2008. On March 15, the ACC and the attorney general’s office filed two leave-to-appeal petitions before the appellate division of the Supreme Court, demanding a stay on the bail order granted by the High Court.
A four-member bench of the appellate division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, stayed the bail order.
As such, Zia will have to stay in jail until May 8, and on the same day the Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the appeal against the bail order.
"It is an undesirable decision given by the highest court of the country. We are very much upset with this unprecedented order," said her lawyer Joinul Abedin.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least nineteen Death Eaters were killed during the operations conducted by the Afghan and US forces in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan.
According to the local officials, the operations were conducted in Marjah and Nahr-e-Saraj disricts of Helmand in the past 24 hours.
The provincial government media office in a statement said the Afghan Air Force carried out Arclight airstrikes on Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... hideouts in Marjah district, leaving at least four dead.
The statement further added that a PKM machine gun, a rocket launcher, and four Ak-47 assault rifles were also confiscated during the operations.
In the meantime, the US military carried out airstrikes on Taliban hideouts in Sangin, Marjah, and Nahr-e-Saraj districts, the statement said.
According to the provincial government, at least fifteen Death Eaters were killed and another bad boy was maimed during the airstrikes.
The anti-government armed bad boy and terrorist groups including Taliban murderous Moslems have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as counter-terrorism operations are underway in various provinces of the country as the anti-government armed bad boy groups are attempting to expand their insurgency activities in some of the key provinces including Helmand in the South.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The first batch of ultraconservative turbans in al-Qaeda-controlled Harasta suburb is expected to leave to Syria’s north by tomorrow, multiple sources reported.
Those turbans belong to Haraket Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... which is a coalition of several Islamist and Salafist groups that merged into one single movement.
According to reports, a deal has been reached between Ahrar al-Sham leadership in Idlib and the Russian side to allow Harasta rebels a safe access to the jihadi-controlled northern province.
Tens of thousands of civilians continue to exit the rebel-held towns of East Ghouta as the government troops gain more ground the Death Eater enclave.
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03/20/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Huge number of ISIS jihadists have engaged in an onslaught against the Syrian troops positioned in a desert area near the frontiers with Iraq.
The attack, which mainly targeted the Syrian Army and pro-government fighters in the T2 Pumping Station, have been repelled with the attackers enduring heavy losses.
Raw footage was posted online showing fighters of the pro-Syrian Army al-Baqir Brigade clashing with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... holy warriors in a battlefield located to the south of the T2 station.
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[DAWN] The Supreme Court on Monday observed that at this point it would be incorrect to say that there is no evidence of money laundering against Shoaib Sheikh ‐ the CEO of controversial 'IT company' Axact.
The observation was made by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa while hearing Sheikh's appeal regarding the rejection of his bail by Sindh High Court.
On February 26, the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) had tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! Sheikh after the SHC rejected his bail request and accepted the agency's appeal against his earlier acquittal in a money laundering case.
During the hearing, Sheikh's lawyer insisted that his client and the company were not involved in any money laundering.
"All of the money my client brought into the country was through legal channels," the counsel said.
"The problem is not with the money that was brought into the country, it is with the money that was taken out of the country," Justice Khosa said while asking the counsel to explain why Sheikh wrote 116 cheques worth Rs170 million.
"The cheques were written between 2014 and 2015 for various vendors, including a courier company," the lawyer said while adding that Sheikh was arrested by the authorities in 2015.
" At this point, how can we say that there was no money laundering," Justice Khosa said.
Unable to satisfy the court on the matter, Sheikh withdrew his appeal against the SHC order as well as a fresh application for bail which he had entered in the apex court.
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[DAWN] The Supreme Court said on Monday that absconding police officer Rao Anwar "still" has a chance to surrender himself and become part of the investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who was heading a three-member bench hearing a suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... case on Mehsud’s murder in the apex court's Islamabad registry, said the court will also determine who has been facilitating Anwar in remaining off the radar.
"The controllers of Rao Anwar will have to answer before the Supreme Court," the CJP warned, adding that Anwar will be "safe" if he appears before the court but will not get protection anywhere else.
Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Standing Buffalo drew a bead on his old enemy and squeezed the trigger... State Bank of Pakistain Governor Tariq Bajwa informed the bench that Anwar possessed two banks accounts, both of which have been frozen. "Anwar receives his salary in the same accounts but will be unable to withdraw it," Bajwa informed the bench.
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[DAWN] Police submitted the final charge sheet in the murder case of 18-year-old Zafir Zubairi, who was bumped off in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Do Darya area last year, to a judicial magistrate on Monday.
Prime accused Khawar Burney, his guard Abdul Rehman, his three underage brothers ‐ Haider Hussain Burney, Hasan Hussain Burney and Hasnain Hussain Burney ‐ as well as several absconding accomplices have been booked for the murder of Zubairi.
Zubairi was on his way to breakfast with friends near Seaview on Dec 3 when he hit motorcyclist Dr Abdul Raheem, who had been racing his cycle of violence on Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue.
After Zubairi and his friend fled the site of the accident, Raheem's entourage which was travelling in a Vigo chased and opened indiscriminate fire on their car.
Police with the help of eyewitnesses had identified Khawar as the prime suspect in the case and said that he, along with the other suspects, had bumped off the teenager and injured his friend.
Police, in the charge sheet presented in court today, framed charges of murder, intent to kill, carrying of unlicensed weapons and damaging of public property against all the suspects in the case.
In a previous hearing of the case, Hammad, the man whose cycle of violence Dr Raheem was riding at the time of the accident, bravely ran away from court after the judicial magistrate cancelled his interim bail. The police have been unable to arrest the suspect since then.
At the moment, three of the five key suspects in the case are in police custody while two others ‐ including Hammad ‐ are absconding from court.
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[DAWN] Sabir Mayar, a suspect who was declared a proclaimed offender by an anti-terrorism court in the Mashal Khan murder case, surrendered before Mardan police on Monday.
Mayar presented himself before the police today after absconding for nearly 11 months, District Police Officer (DPO) Mian Saeed told DawnNewsTV.
A joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe Mashal's murder had said in its report that Mayar, who was the president of the Pakhtun Students Federation (PSF), had allegedly planned Mashal's murder over blasphemy allegations in connivance with others.
According to DPO Saeed, police had conducted many raids to arrest Mayar, but remained unsuccessful in its attempts. The accused has now been taken into police custody.
With Mayar's surrender, 60 of the 61 suspects nominated in the case have been locked away Please don't kill me! including Arif Khan, a primary suspect and Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) tehsil councillor who was arrested earlier this month.
Only one nominated suspect, Asad Katlang ‐ a university employee ‐ remains to be arrested in the murder case. DPO Saeed said the absconding suspect will be apprehended soon.
Mashal, a student of mass communication at Mardan's Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU), was lynched by a mob of students, university staff and outsiders on April 13 last year after he was wrongly alleged to have committed blasphemy.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] In his talks with National Security Adviser retired Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua in Kabul on Saturday, Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. called for a clean break from the past and said the parties involved should think of ending the war in Afghanistan, instead of winning it, said a statement issued by the adviser’s office on Sunday.
The Afghan president said he had pinned great hopes on Pakistain. "We have made a sincere and serious offer of peace [to the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... ] and together we have to make the best of it by moving beyond the past.
"Let’s not remain prisoners of the past and let’s secure our future with the aim not to win the war, but to end it, for which Pakistain should help [Afghanistan]," the statement quoted Mr Ghani as saying.
According to the statement, he also expressed strong support for connectivity with the Central Asian Republics to reap the benefits of ideal geostrategic location of Afghanistan and Pakistain. "Without each other, we are not complete," he remarked.
The Afghan president called for a roadmap to be prepared for a comprehensive engagement with Pakistain in order to carry the relationship forward. He also invited Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to Kabul for talks.
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#1
But Afghanistan has always been at war - with someone or the other.
[DAWN] Pakistain is apparently pushing for the rehabilitation of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... leadership in a future setup in Afghanistan, as both Washington and Kabul increase efforts to end the Afghan insurgency.
"There’s a precedence for this in the rehabilitation of Gulbadin Hekmatyar," says Pakistain’s Ambassador Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhary, pointing out that the former rebel leader was not only accommodated in the political setup in Kabul but his name was also expunged from a UN list of recognised holy warriors to create space for him. "A similar arrangement can also be made with the Taliban," he said.
Ambassador Chaudhary’s comments, in a talk to the Women’s Foreign Policy Group at the embassy in Washington this week, come amid enhanced activities to find a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict.
"We know a lot is going on right now ... this offer ... is being considered [by the Taliban]. We haven’t seen a public response [to the dialogue offer] which is interesting," he said.
Ambassador Chaudhary referred to a statement by US Defence Secretary James Mattis while explaining why he felt chances for reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban were greater now.
Mr Chaudhary said he was aware of the efforts being made in Washington, Islamabad and Kabul to nurture these initial steps towards Taliban-Kabul reconciliation. "Chances for peace are brighter now than before. There are positive signs from all sides," he said. "We welcome these efforts."
The ambassador said Pakistain had always stressed the need for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan because it believed that no military solution would work.
"Enough bloodshed. Almost 10,000 people are getting killed every year. It must stop now," said the ambassador while explaining why Pakistain wanted the grinding of the peace processor to succeed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2018
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#1
See? Failure of imagination. Ted Bundy could have been a consultant to #MeToo if he hadn't been electrocuted...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2018 0:12
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Any rehabilitation of Muslim "extremists" must involve reincarnation.
[IJR] A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data — more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do — because they were supportive of the campaign.
In a Sunday tweet thread, Carol Davidson, former director of integration and media analytics for Obama for America, said the 2012 campaign led Facebook to “suck out the whole social graph” and target potential voters. They would then use that data to do things like append their email lists.
When Facebook found out what they were doing, they were “surprised,” she said. But she also claimed they didn’t stop them once they found out:
“They came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side,” Davidson tweeted.
#4
Obama sucked data out of FB for his election and it was O.K. When Cambridge Analtical does something similar for Trump, all of a sudden FB gets religion and gets butt-hurt.
[DAWN] An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Multan Home of the Multan Sultans...
on Monday sentenced a man to death on four counts while also handing him a life imprisonment sentence after finding him guilty of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl.
The court also ordered the convict to submit Rs2 million as fine and provide Rs0.5 million as compensation for the bereaved family, DawnNewsTV reported.
A month ago, the convict, Ali Haider, had strangulated the minor girl to death after raping her in Lodhran district.
Haider was awarded death sentence on the very first day of hearing as the court finished trial proceedings in less than a month.
The convict was charge-sheeted earlier in the day after which witnesses recorded their statement following which court announced its verdict.
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Five people were maimed in two kabooms that took place in south of Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying on Monday.
"A bomb, placed on the side of the road in al-Sayyid Abdullah region in al-Mahmoudiya district, south of Baghdad, went off leaving three civilians maimed," the source told Baghdad Today website.
Moreover, the source added that "a kaboom occurred in Hour Rajab region in al-Doura district, south of Baghdad, leaving two people injured."
Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Paramilitary troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi are reluctant to withdraw from Anbar province following the declaration of victory over Islamic State (IS) militants across Iraq last year, a security source was quoted as saying Monday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told al-Quds al-Arabi that the pro-government troops, also known as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMFs), were “planned to leave Anbar after eliminating all IS cells in the province last November, but they did not.”
He pointed out that the presence of those troops in Anbar is no longer necessary as there are enough army and police forces, who can face any possible threat by IS militants in the liberated areas.
Despite the crushing defeat of Islamic State in December, the PMFs reject to leave liberated areas under the pretext that there are still explosive bombs and booby-trapped houses there.
Popular Mobilization Forces, an alliance of volunteer Shia paramilitary forces, actively backed the Iraqi government’s military campaign against IS since 2014, when they were formed upon a top Shia clergy edict to counter the militant group.
PMFs won official recognition as a national force late 2016, becoming under the command of the prime minister, who defended the troops against domestic and foreign accusations of committing human rights violations.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) The Joint Operations Command has announced arresting two Islamic State members in an airstrike in Anbar province.
In a statement, Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool, spokesperson for the command, said, “an airstrike was carried out in the desert in Anbar by the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, depending on information from the Iraqi intelligence services.”
“The operation was backed by the Iraqi fighter jets. Two IS members were arrested,” he added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) – Two senior Islamic State (IS) leaders were arrested Monday in Mosul city as Iraqi troops continue to hunt for dormant IS cells across the country, a military official was quoted as saying.
Colonel Haseeb Maarouf from the Nineveh Operations Command told Basnews that the army’s 20th brigade arrested the Islamic State’s so-called finance minister in a military operation in northern Mosul.
“Another IS leader, who was in charge of planting bombs in the eastern and northern axes of Mosul, got nabbed in the clampdown as well,” Maarouf said, adding that the two were taken to the command’s headquarters for interrogation.
Maarouf further highlighted that a large cache of explosive materials and weapons were seized in the military operation.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The military intelligence department has announced arresting an Islamic State terrorist cell in south of Mosul.
In a statement on Monday, the department said military troops “depended on accurate intelligence information to arrest members of a terrorist cell in al-Qayyarah, south of Mosul.”
The cell, according to the statement, “was planning to carry out several operations during the coming period of time.”
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[DAWN] Chief Justice of Pakistain Saqib Nisar has taken suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice of alleged embezzlement in over $5 billion financial assistance extended by the international community for rehabilitation of the survivors of the devastating earthquake of 2005.
The apex court has fixed March 26 for taking up an application moved by Sheraz Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi, a social activist from Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... , who has accused politicians and officials of embezzling the quake funds.
The SC has directed the respondents, including the attorney general, KP advocate general, director general Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra) Islamabad and the applicant Mr Qureshi, to ensure their presence in the court on the date fixed for the hearing.
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[DAWN] A report released by National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) on Monday stated that 509 members of Hazara community were killed and 627 injured in various incidents of terrorism in Quetta during the last five years.
The NCHR report titled "Understanding the Agonies of Ethnic Hazaraz" lists the incidents of attacks on Hazara ...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets... community from January 2012 to Dec 2017, based on the data shared by the Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... home department.
Narrating heartbreaking details about the plight of Hazara community, NCHR official Fazeela Alyani said, "All these precious lives were lost only in Quetta city."
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the regional head of Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) places the figure much higher than what was being quoted by NCHR.
"More than 200 Hazaras were killed only in two suicide kabooms in this period," Bostan Ali Kishmand said.
Targeted killings, suicide attacks, and kabooms have inflicted harm to daily life, education, and business activities of ethnic Hazara community members in Quetta, read the NCHR report.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Jazeera] Russia has hit back with strong rhetoric as the UK continues to blame the country for the use of a nerve agent on British soil following the alleged poisoning of a former double agent.
Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian intelligence officer, was found in a collapsed state along with his 33-year-old daughter on a public bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury, England, last month.
They remain at death's door.
The UK maintains that Russia is responsible and, in a joint statement last week, the leaders of the US, Germany and La Belle France backed Britannia's claim.
Russia maintains there is no proof.
"Sooner or later these unsubstantiated allegations will have to be answered for: either backed up with the appropriate evidence or apologised for," Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, said in a statement on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Imagine. They could demand obutthole's birth certificate too...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2018 0:41
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#2
Pains me to agree with Peskov but; BMW door handles, BMW ventilation system, daughter's suitcase, others contaminated (possibly 100 or more) and at what locations, exact symptoms, precisely what BIO agent used, liquid, powder, aerosol. No discussion (open press) regarding the potential for a third party (non-Russian) actor.
Lots of guesswork going on. More facts should be available by now.
#4
Yes, the 'care' factor replaced by the classic Russian denial.
Jumping to 'blame the Russian' within minutes bothers me a little as well. 'Family members' (in this case, country of origin) are generally the first to be suspected in a any murder, but where is the hard evidence ?
Colonel Skripal obviously had an MI6 handler. Any reporting from him or her? What travels or visitations had Skripal made leading up to the attack (days or hours). Recent Skripal phone or mail, email contacts. Was Skripal provided no counter surveillance or physical security assistance, cams, monitoring devices? Seems odd that he would have a family member visiting from Russian and there would be no host-nation interest.
Why did we have to wait to learn...from a Russian, of the proximity of the attack to Porton Down (6 kms)? All of these rather obvious details are known. Where are they ?
#5
All of these rather obvious details are known. Where are they ? Probably where the details of the Las Vegas mass shootings are being held & revised.
The former Russian double agent poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury met his former handler from MI6 every month in a local restaurant.
Sergei Skripal was said to have spoken to the former intelligence officer in English and Russian and they also discussed his business in Poland. It raises the question of whether Mr Skripal, who was jailed for passing Russian secrets to MI6 but later given refuge in the UK in a spy swap, was involved in active intelligence work.
Just Googling around, other sources state Skripal's handler used a nym "Pablo Miller". This handler went to work with Christopher Steele's company after "leaving" MI6. Steele has not been seen for a while now. UK Telegraph has declined to publish Pablo Miller's nym, but you can find it with Google-fu. FWIW.
#9
Donald Trump was a staunch supporter of Brexit. Christopher Steele is/was an even stronger supporter of the status quo, or non-Brixit. I suppose we could make of that whatever we wish.
Recent news indicates PM Theresa May has essentially said the UK's relationship with Brussels and the EU will continue 'as is' until 2022. The UK 'Deep State' has spoken, the forgotten man be damned.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) A security personnel was killed, while two others were wounded in an ambush launched by Islamic State members, northwest of Kirkuk, a security source from the province said on Monday.
Speaking to Alghad Press, the source said, “IS members set up an ambush to trap Tribal Mobilization Forces near a checkpoint in al-Dibis town, northwest of Kirkuk.”
“Troops were engaged in clashes with the militants, leaving a personnel killed and two others injured. Confrontations are ongoing,” the source said.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Five people were killed and injured as Islamic State members attacked a village, west of Kirkuk, a security source from the province said on Monday.
“IS members set up an ambush near al-Heleiwat village in al-Zab town, west of Kirkuk, killing two villagers and wounding three others,” the source told Alghad Press.
“As the people heard the shooting, they headed to the accident place. They managed to transfer the victims and the injured to Kirkuk Public Hospital,” he added. “The militants, who set up the ambush, ran away.”
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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More on this story from yesterday. No, the miscreant is not named Mohammed in any of its many variants, but one of his fellows is.
[Ynet] Romain Franck, a driver in the French consulate in east Jerusalem, joined an arms smuggling network, helping them transport weapons from Gazoo to the West Bank in return for thousands of shekels; he used his diplomatic vehicle to avoid physical search at the border crossing.
Romain Franck, a French national, and five others were indicted Monday afternoon for smuggling weapons from Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", in the Gazoo Strip to the West Bank.
Franck, 24, a driver in the French Consulate in east Jerusalem, used his diplomatic vehicle to avoid security checks at the Erez border crossing.
Continued on Page 49
[NYPost] A Democratic congressman from Long Island implied that Americans should grab weapons and oppose President Trump by force, if the commander-in-chief doesn’t follow the Constitution.
Rep. Tom Suozzi made the remark to constituents at a town hall last week, saying that folks opposed to Trump might resort to the "Second Amendment."
"It’s really a matter of putting public pressure on the president," Suozzi said in a newly released video of the March 12 talk in Huntington. "This is where the Second Amendment comes in quite frankly, because you know, what if the president was to ignore the courts? What would you do? What would we do?"
A listener then blurts out, "What’s the second amendment?"
The left-leaning Democrat says "The second amendment is the right to bear arms."
The spectators laughed ‐ some nervously. Republicans were not amused. File under hypocrisy. Trump suggested something similar during his campaign and there was a "yuge" indignant, self-righteous outcry in protest by the left.
#1
Like any good rule, it should work both ways. In reality, the soy children are not very firearm proficient.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2018 0:23
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Interesting that a Dem actually understands the real reason for the Second Amendment - though it applies to the whole government, not just the President.
#6
Interesting that a Dem actually understands the real reason for the Second Amendment - though it applies to the whole government, not just the President.
Oh, they understand it alright. That's why they want to get rid of it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/20/2018 11:36
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That's a fine constituent you got there, CongressPerson.
A teacher told me the following anecdote: Years ago (that was my experience back in the Stone Age) the High School football coach taught Social Studies and Civics. Now they are the Math teacher because you don't step on any parent's political toes (Controversy be bad for job security) in Geometry class. Besides nobody teaches Civics these days...
[AlAhram] Iraq agreed to pay the salaries of the Kurdistan region's civil servants and security forces, a front man for the government said on Monday.
"The federal finance ministry transferred a cash sum of 317 billion Iraqi dinars ($267 million) to the regional finance ministry," Saad al-Hadithi told Rooters.
[Al Jazeera] Kurdish fighters in the northwestern Syrian region of Afrin have vowed to continue fighting The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's forces and Turkey-backed rebel groups, by shifting from direct confrontation to guerrilla tactics.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe headed for second base. He almost made it. Then Sheila slapped him.... the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) rebels and Ottoman Turkish forces, who gained complete control of the city of Afrin on Sunday, continued their activities to secure the city, with troops searching for landmines and other bombs in the area.
"Our forces are present all over Afrin's geography. These forces will strike the positions of the Ottoman Turkish enemy and its mercenaries at every opportunity," Othman Sheikh Issa, a representative of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), said in a televised statement on Sunday evening.
"Our forces all over Afrin will become a constant nightmare for them," he added.
"Many of the bandidosgunnies had turned tail and run away already," President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... said in a speech in western Turkey on Sunday after he announced that Afrin's city centre was captured at 8:30am local time (05:00 GMT) on the same day.
He said 3,603 "bandidosgunnies had been neutralised" in Afrin since the launch of the cross-border operation on January 20.
[Al Jazeera] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... 's disaster management agency has distributed more than 30 tonnes of humanitarian aid throughout Afrin since Ankara launched military operations in the northwestern Syrian region on January 20.
According to a statement sent by the AFAD Authority to Al Jazeera on Monday, the agency plans to set up camps to house 170,000 people around Syria's Idlib province, as well as Ottoman Turkish military and allied rebel-controlled areas to the east.
The camps will assist civilian movement towards these areas, AFAD said.
Ottoman Turkish forces and the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) fighters started the military operation into Afrin in late January to remove a US-backed Kurdish militia - known as the People's Protection Units (YPG) - near its border. Ankara describes the gang as "terrorists".
FSA fighters, backed by Turkey's special forces and heavy weapons, captured the centre of Afrin on Sunday after the YPG, which controlled the city, pulled out.
[ARABNEWS] Syria's foreign ministry on Monday slammed The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's takeover of Afrin, demanding it "immediately" pull its forces from the northwestern city.
Ankara and allied rebel groups captured the city from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) on Sunday, after a two-month offensive on the broader Afrin region.
The foreign ministry in Damascus sent two letters on Monday to the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... , protesting the capture as "illegitimate".
"Syria condemns the Ottoman Turkish occupation of Afrin and the crimes it is committing there, and demands the invading forces immediately withdraw from the Syrian territory they occupied," the ministry said in its letters, according to state news agency SANA.
"Turkey's behavior and attacks do not only threaten citizens and the unity of Syria's land and people -- they also prolong the war on Syria," it added.
Damascus has repeatedly criticised Turkey for its military operations on Syrian soil, accusing it of supporting "terrorist" groups.
This may be the explosion Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 posted about yesteday in a comment attached to this article, wherein he reported 35 bad guys blown up.
[AlAhram] A bomb blast in a four-storey building in the town of Afrin in northwest Syria killed seven civilians and four Free Syrian Army members overnight, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Monday.
The explosion hit after the Syrian rebels swept into the town with Turkish forces on Sunday, declaring full control after an eight-week campaign to drive out Kurdish YPG forces.
Anadolu said the bomb, which it described as planted by terrorists, exploded as the Syrian fighters conducted a search. It ripped out a hole four metres (4.37 yards) deep and badly damaged other buildings and vehicles, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[OregonGuyThinks] Recently, Deputy Assistant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was fired from his post. There are a lot of good theories about his dismissal, there are a lot of bad theories about his dismissal, but there is one theory--the one that I have--that removes all questions about Trump and Trump Collusion With the Russians from contention for the Best Reason Ever Andrew McCabe was fired.
[ARABNEWS] Moslems in Britannia, or anyone who might appear to be Moslem, will be marking April 3 in their diaries with trepidation. Various lowlifes have added a new date to the calendar: "Punish a Moslem Day."
Last week brought news of yet another sexual grooming scandal of underage girls perpetrated mostly by Moslems with roots in the Middle East upon poor and lower-class indigenous British girls. This follows similar scandals in the towns of Rotherham, Rochdale, Derby, Oxford, Bristol, Banbury, Aylesbury, and Keighley.
Letters announcing this charming exhibition of naked anti-Moslem hatred have been circulated, posted through letterboxes, including to five British Moslem MPs, one of them a Cabinet minister. The letters proclaim that "they have hurt you, they have made your loved ones suffer. They have caused you pain and heartache. What are you going to do about it?" The letter promises rewards for certain actions. Verbally abusing a Moslem gets you 10 points. Pulling a hijab off a Moslem woman earns you 25. Throwing acid in the face of a Moslem gets you 50 (acid attacks have been on the increase in the UK). Beating up a Moslem gets you a 100, though torturing one gets you 250. You have to butcher a Moslem for 500 points ‐ the word murder is not used as no doubt the author does not consider it a crime. Burning or bombing a mosque gets you 1,000. Who knows what these points get you, perhaps an entry in the neo-Nazi hall of fame.
The police, including counter-terrorism officers, are taking the letters very seriously, as they should. They were sent to people in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Yorkshire. Some of the letters were posted from Sheffield.
British Moslems generally put on a brave face, many proclaiming they will not be cowed into staying at home on April 3 by these bully boys. Others acknowledge they will be keeping their children safely at home.
The key issue is whether this is the work of some unhinged bully boy largely acting alone or, more dangerously, an organized group effort across the country with the resources to carry out such crimes and create mass panic.
It has put Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... squarely back on the political agenda. For once there is a broad cross-party consensus. Prime Minister Theresa May said: "I am sure that the whole House (of Commons) will join me in condemning this unacceptable and abhorrent behaviour, which has no place in our society."
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#1
IMO, the Brits would be better of having a "Punish a Quisling Day" - starting with their travesty of PM on the very top, and going all the way down.
#2
Letters announcing this charming exhibition of naked anti-Muslim hatred have been circulated, posted through letterboxes, including to five British Muslim MPs, one of them a Cabinet minister.
Call me cynical, but I'd bet on a false-flag operation.
[Al Jazeera] Before 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... , there were the brothers Ford.
In many ways, Doug and the late Rob Ford, the travesty twins of Canadian politics, presaged Trump's pestilential presidency albeit on a much less consequential, but still instructive scale.
It's instructive because the success and stubborn popularity of the brothers Ford are a frank rebuttal to anyone, anywhere, who envisions Canada, and more particularly, Canadians, as enlightened antidotes to Trump's seething malevolence.
Indeed, the brothers Ford are proof that with the right help, at the right time, and given the right circumstances, lots of gullible people, propelled, in part, by fear, avarice and ignorance, are susceptible to the appeal of calculating charlatans who exploit that fear, avarice and ignorance for their parochial, largely libertarian, aims.
It was true in 2010 when Rob Ford became mayor of Canada's largest and most cosmopolitan city and it will be true again if, in a few months, Doug Ford becomes premier of Canada's most influential and, arguably, most cosmopolitan province.
Trump and the Fords are infected by the same sinister contagion and employ the same cynical modus operandi disguised as "populism" to infect as many others as possible - whatever the cost to the common good or decency.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I thought Sax Rohmer was dead...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2018 0:20
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Canada has the Trudeau virus. They need a little of the Trump antidote.
[DAWN] An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Islamabad on Monday ordered the arrests of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan's (TLP) Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Pir Afzal Qadri and other absconding suspects in a case pertaining to the Faizabad sit-in held last year.
The ATC ordered their arrests after they failed to appear before the court despite being issued multiple summons.
The ATC had previously issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Rizvi and other holy mans after they did not respond to various summons.
The police were separately ordered to submit their final challan ... list of charges ... in the next hearing of the case, which has been scheduled for April 4.
The Faizabad sit-in, organised by politico-religious parties in November 2017, had disrupted life in the twin cities for at least 20 days.
ISI report rejected
Earlier today, the Supreme Court (SC) had rejected Inter-Services Intelligence ...the Pak military intelligence agency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir... 's (ISI) report on the Faizabad sit-in, calling it "unsatisfactory".
"This report is deeply unsettling: it has been prepared by one of the premier agencies of the country, yet a journalist could have given more details [about the protests] than this report," Justice Qazi Faez Isa said after reviewing the document.
Justice Isa is part of a two-member SC bench, along with Justice Musheer Alam, which has been hearing a suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... case regarding the use of abusive language during the sit-in and the difficulties caused to residents of the capital by the roadblocks placed by the agitators.
In today's hearing, Justice Isa said that the ISI ‐ just like the judiciary ‐ was "answerable to taxpayers".
The court asked the deputy attorney general, who submitted the report, if he was satisfied with it, to which the latter replied in the affirmative.
The bench then pointed out that the report did not even specify the source of Rizvi's income.
When Justice Isa inquired further about Rizvi's occupation, he was told that the TLP chief was a "religious lecturer".
The explanation was offered by Col Falak Naz, who was representing the Defence Ministry in the hearing.
When Justice Isa inquired further about Rizvi's occupation, he was told that the TLP chief was a "religious lecturer".
The explanation was offered by Col Falak Naz, who was representing the Defence Ministry in the hearing.
"Is 'religious lecturer' a profession?" Justice Isa asked, before turning to Rizvi's tax status and bank account.
Col Naz responded that Rizvi lived on donations.
"Then mention that he is being financially supported by others!" the judge exclaimed.
The court also pointed out that the report did not answer the specific questions previously raised by the court before ordering the ISI to submit a new report within two weeks.
The court also ordered the attorney general to be present for the next hearing.
Islamabad protests
Daily life in Islamabad was disrupted for 20 days in November 2017 by protesters belonging to religious parties, including TLY, the Tehrik-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwwat, and the Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and assassinations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... Pakistain (ST).
The agitators believed that during the passage of the Elections Act 2017, the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat oath was deliberately modified as part of some conspiracy. The amendment to the oath had been explained as a 'holy manal error' by the government and subsequently rectified through an Act of Parliament.
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[DAWN] A court in Bangladesh sentenced seven holy warriors to death on Sunday after finding them guilty of killing a shrine worker in 2015, court officials said.
Bangladesh is facing what appears to be a growing threat of murderous Moslem violence and has seen a string of incidents in recent years.
Shrine caretaker, Rahamat Ali, 60, was hacked to death in November 2015 in the northern district of Rangpur. Six others accused of the attack were acquitted by the court.
The convicted men were members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s, which remains obscure and probably defunct today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually exploded. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt. group, public prosecutor Rathish Chandra Bhowmik told news hounds.
Police believe the same group, which has pledged allegiance to the murderous MoslemIslamic 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, was responsible for the most recent serious attack, when button men stormed a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka in July 2016, killing 22 people, most of them foreigners.
IS and Al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh in the past years.
Authorities have consistently ruled out the presence of such groups, blaming domestic holy warriors instead. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... security experts say the scale and sophistication of the restaurant attack suggested links to a wider network.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2018
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
[DAWN] Prince Mohammed has implemented some reforms on women's rights, loosening clothing restrictions, pushing for greater participation in the workforce, and, significantly, lifting a ban on women driving.
But guardianship laws, which require women to seek the permission of male relatives for a host of activities, remain in place.
"We have Death Eaters who forbid mixing between the two sexes and are unable to differentiate between a man and a woman alone together and their being together in a work place. Many of those ideas contradict the way of life during the time of the Prophet (PTUI!)," he said.
"We are all human beings and there is no difference."
Roots of Saudi extremism
The prince acknowledged Saudi society was dominated by particularly harsh strain of conservative Islam, which he traces back to 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the seizure by Death Eaters of the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
"We were victims, especially my generation that suffered from this a great deal," he said.
"This is not the real Saudi Arabia. I would ask your viewers to use their smart phones to find out. And they can google Saudi Arabia in the 70s and 60s, and they will see the real Saudi Arabia easily in the pictures.
"We were living a very normal life like the rest of the Gulf countries.
"Women were driving cars. There were movie theaters in Saudi Arabia. Women worked everywhere. We were just normal people developing like any other country in the world until the events of 1979."
the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now beyond all cares and woe... 's motive
Admitting that Osama bin Laden had tainted Saudi Arabia's image in the West, Prince Mohammed claimed that was what the former Al Qaeda chief had aimed to do.
"Osama bin Laden recruited 15 Saudis in the 9/11 attacks with a clear objective," he said. "According to the CIA documents and Congressional investigations, Osama bin Laden wanted to create a schism between the Middle East and the West, between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America."
The purge
He defended at length his anti-corruption purge which saw many of the Kingdom's princes and tycoons detained for several weeks inside Riyadh's luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel that is widely seen as an attempt to cement his grip on power.
"What we did in Saudi Arabia was extremely necessary and legal," he said.
He said he was able to recover more than "$100 billion" of ill-gotten wealth from the detainees, but added: "The idea is not to get money, but to punish the corrupt and send a clear signal that whoever engages in corrupt deals will face the law."
A New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report published last week claimed that prominent Saudis held in the purge were subjected to coercion and physical abuse, describing fear and uncertainty even after their release.
Subsequently, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Saudi Arabia to "immediately investigate the claims that authorities physically mistreated or coerced prominent people detained in November 2017 and hold those responsible to account".
His personal wealth
The prince has been accused of hypocrisy over his opulent lifestyle at a time his government is preaching greater austerity of its citizens and has imposed new taxes.
He was recently revealed as the owner of a French chateau described as the world's most expensive home, according to a report in The New York Times.
But he insisted his wealth was a private matter. "As far as my private expenses, I'm a rich person and not a poor person. I'm not Gandhi or Mandela."
He added: "But what I do as a person is to spend part of my personal income on charity. I spend at least 51 per cent on people and 49 on myself."
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Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#1
so wives can beat their husbands so long as the stick isn't bigger than their thumb? Women can have 4 husbands?
Ebil (Iraqinews.com) ‐ Ottoman Turkish troops, backed by air coverage, have been deployed in northern Iraq amid violent festivities with fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Arabs Today news website reported Monday.
"The forces are now stationed in the sub-district of Sidakan, northeast of the Kurdistan Region’s capital, and have already set up fixed barracks in the border triangle between Iraq, Syria and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... ," Krmanj Izzat, the mayor of Soran city, said.
Izzat expected Ottoman Turkish troops not to leave their positions in Iraq soon.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Sidakan Mayor Ihsan Chalabi pointed out that the Ottoman Turkish troops penetrated deep into his district "by 15 kilometers and established some 12 barracks in the area."
He noted that heavy weapons and jet fighters were used in the festivities between the Ottoman Turkish troops and PKK fighters.
Turkey’s move in Iraq is part of Ankara’s efforts to fight PKK members in northern Iraq and it comes one day after Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... announced wresting control of the Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Afrin after two months of heavy fighting.
More than 1,500 Kurdish fighters have been killed in a two-month assault by Ottoman Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, Al Arabiya quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying.
Most of them were killed air strikes and artillery fire. Also, over 400 pro-Ankara rebels had been killed since January 20, the observatory said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
Doesn't anybody in our government feel any need to do the right thing and knee-cap the little bastard?
[Right Scoop] Mark Levin opened his show tonight on the hot topic of the McCabe firing, explaining why it happened and why both Comey and McCabe are dirty cops.
#1
I understand the DOJ OIG report may not be out until May now. The OIG has not been forthcoming in supplying their source documents with Congress; only about 3000 out of over a million documents have been shared.
It would seem that anything that Comey or McCabe touched in the way of investigations would be in danger of being thrown out--or restarted and conducted in an honest/legal way.
[DAWN] FURTHER attempts to curtail the public operations of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... , this time by the KP government, ought to be welcomed.
In the run-up to the FATF measures against Pakistain and after the furore it caused in the country, it was always apparent that true progress in a state takeover or shutting down of the operations of all banned holy warrior groups and their affiliated networks would depend on sustained, national action across the various tiers of the state.
Earlier this month, the Secretary of Interior Arshad Mirza said before a Senate standing committee that the process of taking over the assets of the JuD and its sister organization the Falah-e-Insaniyat ...the current false nose and mustache of Jamaat ud-Dawa, which was the false nose and mustache of Lashkar e-Taiba... Foundation had yet to be completed. It is hoped then that the KP government has moved in coordination with the interior ministry and security agencies to put the country further in compliance with its legal and international obligations.
The era of obfuscation and delay must well and truly be left behind.
A problem that is apparent with the currently evolving approach against holy warrior and myrmidon networks, however, is that it is event-driven. An event such as the FATF redesignation causes a shock to the system which then tries to address the specific, narrow reasons for the particular shock. Surely, such an approach can deliver only limited results.
The political and military leaderships as well as the provincial governments routinely insist that without a coordinated, sustained campaign ‐ a nationwide counter-militancy and counter-extremism programme that breathes fresh life into the moribund National Action Plan ‐ the long fight against terrorism will be difficult to win. But then, none of the entities tasked with winning the fight against militancy and extremism appear serious about coordinating their actions in a long-term, sustained manner.
The latest actions in KP could presage a change, but that remains to be seen.
Perhaps a way of injecting fresh energy into the counterterrorism and counter-extremism campaigns nationwide would be to strip away the aura of secrecy surrounding state actions. While from an intelligence and operational perspective, some details of a crackdown cannot realistically be shared with the public, there is unnecessary secrecy surrounding state actions against banned groups, which adds to the confusion and can sow doubts.
It is as if the state hopes it can dismantle vast networks that have penetrated deep into Pak society across the country without drawing too much attention to what, if done right and fully, would amount to one of the most far-reaching social reversals in decades.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Al Jazeera] At first glance, she could be easily mistaken for any other conventional politician running for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Leb.
In the poster that launched her campaign, Manal Kortam followed the playbook of political imagery to a T; dressed in a sharp dark blazer and flashing a wide, confident smile, Kortam stands, arms crossed, with a Lebanese flag in the background. The text reads: "Manal Kortam. Paleostinian seat. Third district."
The problem is, however, there is no Paleostinian seat in Leb's parliament, a point Kortam hopes her mock campaign will highlight.
A country of roughly six million people, Leb has hosted a sizeable population of Paleostinians for decades, who now number an estimated 175,000, according to a recent government poll. Legally categorisedas refugees, Paleostinians, even those who were born in Leb, are neither eligible to vote nor to hold public office.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Nobody wants you
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2018 14:14
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[DAWN] The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has suspended admissions for MPhil and PhD distance learning programmes administered by 13 universities over the latter's failure to meet various quality standards set by the commission.
The HEC's decision will impact nearly 4,000 students.
"Further admissions in any of the distance education programmes being offered by universities are stopped immediately till finalisation of recommendation[s] by the committee," read a missive sent to the varsities by HEC Quality Assurance Division Consultant Muhammad Ismail.
After conducting physical visits and reviewing documents, a committee of HEC experts concluded that the 13 universities lacked adequate faculty to run the MPhil and PhD programmes, the statement read.
"In some cases, [the] universities have not even got [sic] approval of their own statutory bodies," read the statement. It also accused some varsities of violating rules and taking advantage of "weak HEC policies about distance learning".
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[OREGONLIVE] Portland protest leader Micah Rhodes gave up his legal fight Tuesday by pleading guilty to a second round of sexual abuse charges against him, this time for having sexual contact multiple times with a 17-year-old boy.
The victim couldn’t consent to the contact because he was a minor. Rhodes -- then 20 or 21 -- was more than three years older than the teenager at the time of the 2014 or 2015 encounters. He met the boy on a gay dating app.
Oregon law says it’s a crime for an adult to have sexual contact with a minor if there’s three or more years in age difference between the two.
Age of consent laws vary from state to state, with most states allowing 16- or 17- year-olds to have sexual contact with adults. Oregon is one of about a dozen states that sets the age of consent at 18. Washington state sets the age at 16.
Rhodes, now 24, was a leader of the protest group Portland’s Resistance, which rose to prominence after 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... won the presidential election in November 2016 and the group helped organize day after day of marches and rallies.
But Rhodes had long been a part of Portland’s activist scene before that and a familiar face at Portland City Council meetings. Among his notable achievements was helping stage a camp-out in front of then-Mayor Charlie Hales’ home in 2016.
Rhodes pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual abuse in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Missing out on the opportunity to be lead by such people. Just tragic...
/sarc
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2018 0:18
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[ARABNEWS] Afghan officials say bombs attached to cycle of violences have killed four people in separate attacks.
One struck outside a sports stadium in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province, killing three on Monday. Akramuddin, a provincial police official, says the kaboom occurred as former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... was holding a rally at the stadium in Jalalabad, the province’ capital.
Akramuddin, who like many Afghans uses only one name, says the blast took place as the rally ended. Ten people were maimed.
Hekmatyar, previously a declared terrorist by the United States, signed a peace deal with President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. in 2017 and was removed from the list.
The second cycle of violence bomb went kaboom! in western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province. Spokesman Jelani Farhad says one person was killed and seven were maimed.
[Al Jazeera] In the early hours of Saturday, as farmers watered their crops in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , a unit of the Afghan security and intelligence forces carried out a deadly raid.
At least seven farmers were killed in the assault on two villages in the province's Chaparhar district.
"We heard helicopters coming our way where we had been watering our crops from midnight. We heard them at around 4am. The helicopter fired exactly two times," said Mohammed Razaq, a farmer who was present at the time of the raid in Mano, one of the two villages attacked.
"I lost two of my cousins in the attack," he told Al Jazeera.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Two top leaders 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.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in a joint operation of the Afghan Special Forces and the US military in North of Afghanistan.
The NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... Special Operations Component Command in a report said, recent Afghan Special Security Forces offensive operations enabled by U.S. Arclight airstrikes eliminated 15 ISIS-K fighters in Jowzjan and Sar-e Pul provinces, Afghanistan, Mar. 16, 2018.
The report further adds that a U.S. airstrike killed ISIS-K Khitaba (platoon-sized) commanders Omair and Abu Samaya as they met in Sar-e Pul. Omair and Samaya replaced Khitab Aka, ISIS-K’s lead controller of imported muscle, captured in Jowzjan, Jan. 28. Unable to take root in Afghanistan, ISIS-K relies on external support of fighters and equipment for survival in northern Afghanistan.
Later that night, ASSF conducted a raid on the ISIS-K headquarters in Jowzjan, eliminating 13 terrorists. The ASSF conducted the raid in an area ISIS-K believed to be a safe haven for the reception of their imported muscle and weapons.
"The capability and capacity of the ASSF will ensure Afghanistan cannot again be used as a safe haven from which trans-regional murderous Moslems can threaten the U.S. and international partners," said Gen. John Nicholson, NATO Resolute Support commander.
Over the last two months, ASSF and U.S. targeting of ISIS-K resulted in the removal of more than more than 140 ISIS-K fighters, according to the report.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Breitbart] Earlier today, we reported on a former staffer for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign who admitted that the campaign had harvested mass amounts of Facebook data for targeted campaigning. In a 2013 interview, California congresswoman Maxine Waters revealed that Barack Obama possessed a "kind of database that no-one has ever seen before," with "information about everything, on every individual."
Cruz continued work with Cambridge Analytica for six months after allegations surfaced in December 2015 that the firm was using Facebook data it had received illicitly. Recent revelations show the data harvesting was far more extensive than previously suspected, and possibly among the biggest privacy breaches in history.
[ARABNEWS] 
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
[ALMASDARNEWS] Civilian sources told Syrian state media Monday that three US helicopters had evacuated suspected 
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Secretary-General of the 
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
[KCNAWATCH.CO] The imperialists are perpetrating open interference in the internal affairs of other countries and aggression on them under the deceptive slogans "peace" and "ensuring security" in a bid to achieve their hegemonic purpose.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least nineteen 
[DAWN] The Supreme Court on Monday observed that at this point it would be incorrect to say that there is no evidence of money laundering against Shoaib Sheikh ‐ the CEO of controversial 'IT company' Axact.
[DAWN] Sabir Mayar, a suspect who was declared a proclaimed offender by an anti-terrorism court in the Mashal Khan murder case, surrendered before Mardan police on Monday.
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
[DAWN] Pakistain is apparently pushing for the rehabilitation of the 
[IJR] A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data — more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do — because they were supportive of the campaign.
Home of the Multan Sultans...
[DAWN] Chief Justice of Pakistain Saqib Nisar has taken 
Mehmood 
[Al Jazeera] Russia has hit back with strong rhetoric as the UK continues to blame the country for the use of a nerve agent on British soil following the alleged poisoning of a former double agent.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[OregonGuyThinks] Recently, Deputy Assistant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was fired from his post. There are a lot of good theories about his dismissal, there are a lot of bad theories about his dismissal, but there is one theory--the one that I have--that removes all questions about Trump and Trump Collusion With the Russians from contention for the Best Reason Ever Andrew McCabe was fired.
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
[Al Jazeera] Before 
ordered their arrests after they failed to appear before the court despite being issued multiple summons.
[DAWN] A court in Bangladesh sentenced seven 
[DAWN] Prince Mohammed has implemented some reforms on women's rights, loosening clothing restrictions, pushing for greater participation in the workforce, and, significantly, lifting a ban on women driving.
[DAWN] FURTHER attempts to curtail the public operations of the 
[OREGONLIVE] Portland protest leader Micah Rhodes gave up his legal fight Tuesday by pleading guilty to a second round of sexual abuse charges against him, this time for having sexual contact multiple times with a 17-year-old boy.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Two top leaders of the 
