BLUF: [LA Times] Last summer, when Chagoury planned a trip to Los Angeles, he applied at the U.S. embassy in Paris for a visitor’s visa and was refused, according to interviews and government documents. Based on the FBI report and other allegations from intelligence and law enforcement sources, the State Department denied the application. It cited terrorism-related grounds, a broad category that can apply to anyone believed to have assisted a terrorist group in any way, including providing money.
Chagoury has denied ties to Hezbollah. Two years ago, he helped pay for a conference in Washington on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East; some attendees supported Hezbollah, but the director of the group that organized the conference said that didn't mean Chagoury or other conference organizers were among them. "Hezbollah is part of the political reality of the country," Andrew Doran told the National Review.
Corallo did not answer questions about the visa denial, but said Chagoury "has been a friend and supporter of America all his life" and that "any allegation that Mr. Chagoury is involved in any way with providing material support to any terrorist organization, of any stripe, is false, outrageous and defamatory." He said Chagoury has no business interests in Lebanon.
The visa decision process is opaque and provides little recourse for those who are denied entry. Typically, the person is told of the grounds for refusal, but not the details. The secretary of State can grant a waiver, but that is often difficult when the evidence used to block entry is terrorism-related.
For the last three decades, Corallo said, Chagoury spent at least a few months each year in Beverly Hills, where he owns an 18,000-square-foot estate, once the home of actor Danny Thomas, with commanding views of West Los Angeles and the ocean.
A year ago, after his visa application was denied, Chagoury’s mansion was put on the market, with an asking price of $135 million. It’s still for sale.
BINDURA, Zimbabwe ‐ Dozens of angry young men jumped off a truck in front of Agrippah Mutambara's gate, shouting obscenities and threatening to seize his 530-acre farm in the name of Zimbabwe's president. They tried to scale the fence, scattering only when he raised and cocked his gun.
Zimbabwe made international headlines when it started seizing white-owned farms in 2000. But Mr. Mutambara is not a white farmer. Far from it, he is a hero of this country's war of liberation who served as Zimbabwe's ambassador to three nations over two decades.
But when he defected from President Robert Mugabe's party to join the opposition a few months ago, he immediately put his farm at risk.
"When it was happening to the whites, we thought we were redressing colonial wrongs," said Mr. Mutambara, 64, who got his farm after it had been seized from a white farmer. "But now we realize it's also coming back to us. It's also haunting us."
Zimbabwe is suffering one of its worst economic crises in years. Banks have run out of cash. The government is struggling to pay its workers. Public protests, including one in July that shut down the capital and a united show of force by the nation's biggest opposition figures on Friday, have rattled Mr. Mugabe's government.
"No one is safe," said Temba Mliswa, 44, who was the chairman of the party's chapter in Mashonaland West Province before his expulsion from the party in 2014.
Mr. Mliswa got a 2,000-acre farm belonging to a white Zimbabwean in 2005. When he took possession, Mr. Mliswa said, police officers beat the white farmer and his workers.
But last year, Mr. Mliswa said, hundreds of youths sent by the party invaded the farm again, destroying property and beating his workers. They eventually left, but one of Mr. Mugabe's ministers recently held a rally in which he threatened to take Mr. Mliswa's farm unless he stopped criticizing the president's party.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2016
10:55 ||
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crap - meant for Pg 3
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2016 11:00
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The whole bunch of these clowns are definitely crap, Frank.
"When it was happening to the whites, we thought we were redressing colonial wrongs," said Mr. Mutambara, 64, who got his farm after it had been seized from a white farmer. "But now we realize it's also coming back to us. It's also haunting us."
What goes around comes around, you racist idiot.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/28/2016 11:58
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"When it was happening to the whites, we thought we were redressing colonial wrongs"
No, you were simply a useful idiot queuing up for the 'free stuff.' New useful idiots have now arrived. Onder die bus vir u.
[ABC] A series of newly released State Department emails obtained by ABC News offers fresh insight on direct contact between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton's inner circle while she was Secretary of State. Chinese President Hu Jintao at right in foto. Political upstart and fawning Clinton family prodigy at left.
The emails -‐ released as part of a public records lawsuit by conservative group Citizens United and shared exclusively with ABC -- reveal what the group claims is new evidence Foundation allies received special treatment. [Read the emails here.]
In one December 2010 email chain with Clinton's closest aide Huma Abedin, then-top Clinton Foundation official Doug Band offers names for a State Department lunch with Chinese President Hu Jintao scheduled for January 2011.
Bill Clinton Defends Clinton Foundation: 'We're Trying to Do Good Things'
Bill Clinton Sought State Department OK For Paid Speeches Related to North Korea, Congo, New E-mails Show On the list were three executives from organizations that have donated millions to the Clinton Foundation: Bob McCann, the then-president of wealth management at UBS; Dr. Judith Rodin, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation; and Hikmet Ersek, the CEO of Western Union.
According to the Foundation website, the UBS Wealth Management
#1
Elderly fellow in the center of luncheon photo:
Kissinger Associates, Inc., founded in 1982, is a New York City-based international consulting firm, founded and run by Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft. The firm assists its clients in identifying strategic partners and investment opportunities, advising clients on government relations throughout the world. Known for its secrecy, its specific activities are not public knowledge.
The firm was founded in 1982 by Henry Kissinger. In 1999 Mack McLarty joined Kissinger to open Kissinger McLarty Associates, the firm's office on Eighteenth and Pennsylvania streets in Washington, D.C. McLarty was White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton. Kissinger McLarty is a corporate member of the Council of the Americas, the New York-based business organization established by David Rockefeller in 1965. As of January 2008, the two firms have separated and McLarty Associates, headed by Mack McLarty, is an independent firm based in Washington. Kissinger Associates is located in River House on Park Avenue at Fifty-first Street, in a building also occupied by Peter Peterson's Blackstone Group. It was established in July, 1982 after loans had been secured from Goldman Sachs and a consortium of three other banks. These loans were repaid in two years; by 1987 annual revenues had reached $5 million.
#5
Brent Scowcroft and Henry Kissenger in business together providing consulting services to the Beltway? No wonder Scowcroft endorsed Hillary; he wants the "cash cow" to continue giving. Trump says he's going to shake up the cozy Beltway cliques (not sure he can actually pull that off). that buy and sell influence.
[Guardian] Heather Bresch, the CEO at the center of EpiPen's 471% price hike, sold 100,200 of her shares earlier this month and earned more than $5m from the sale.
The transaction took place on 9 August, the same day Mylan ‐ the drugmaker that manufactures EpiPen released its most recent earnings report. Mylan spokeswoman Nina Devlin told the Guardian that the sale was "part of a 10b5 plan".
Typically, executives and directors of public companies who want to sell their stock establish a written 10b5 plan to do so. Most of 10b5 plans include a waiting period spanning days or weeks to avoid any suspicion of trading based on material non-public information. Simply put, 10b5 plans are used to avoid being suspected of insider trading.
[Telegraph] 8/25: Labour left humiliated after G4S turns down last ditch plea to provide conference security despite boycott because of their work in Israel
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
08/28/2016
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#1
Wow!, now that's a turn of a phrase "Well-hoisted on their own petard". I'll have to work that in with my general conversation with people. Well-hoisted on their own commode, himmm. Sounds like a Hilly story. She gives bombs to her cohorts but they have to press the button to activate.
#2
Sources close to the company warned that the short notice it was given and previous incidents at the event, including staff being spat at and verbally abused, made it impossible for G4S to accept the offer. --from the article
Basic common courtesy does not seem to be any part of the modern Leftist's makeup.
[HAWAIINEWSNOW] Two stranded mariners are safe Friday after crews spotted their “SOS” in the sand on uninhabited island in Micronesia. Ooh! Ooh! We seen dis movie!
A U.S. Navy aircraft crew spotted the couple on the beach, and relayed their location to the Coast Guard in Guam. The two, who had limited supplies and no emergency equipment, were picked up and transferred to a patrol boat. Dis guy, he signs on as crew on dis beautiful rich babe's yacht. She's real snooty, and dey don't get along at all. She tells him he's fired as of da time dey get to deir next stop...
The Coast Guard got a report about the couple's 18-foot vessel going missing on Aug. 19. So den, see, dere's dis big storm, an' da boat goes down, wid all hands but dem, see, da guy rescues her, an' he calls her a dummy an' stuff when she's gonna let go an' drown. An' once da music got real loud an' she let go an' he swims out to get her an' grabs her by da shirt an' swims back to da board dey're holdin' on to wid her shirt collar in his teeth, an' most of her shirt rips off an' you can see her underwear an' stuff, an' den he fights off a shark, an' da board dey're holdin' on to washes up on da beach in da morning...
The two departed Weno Island on Aug. 17, and were expected to arrive at their destination to Tamatam Island the next day. He builds dem a hut outta palm leafs an' stuff, an' he makes a fish trap wid her brassiere an' she's half nekkid, an' his shirt got ripped off in da fight wid da shark an' you an see his muscles an' stuff, an' dey get attacked by a crocodile an' he kills it wid his bare hands an' dey roast it an' eat it...
Over seven days, the Coast Guard and other agencies searched nearly 17,000 square miles for the two. An' da babe falls in love wid him, an' dey get it on on da beach, to dis really gooey music wid da waves washin' over dem...
On Wednesday, a ship noticed flashing lights emitting from the uninhabited Chuuk State island where the two were later found. The U.S. Navy was alerted and patrolled the island when they spotted the survivors -- and their message -- on the beach. So den dey head off to find a preacher, an' da guy turns out to really be some rich guy's only kid an' he's got his own yacht at da island, an' it's twice as big as hers, an' dey sail off into da sunset on deir honeymoon. De End. More gooey music. About a half hour of credits on da screen.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2016
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18-foot vessel is kinda small for the open ocean.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2016 16:03
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The imagery of yer words, Fred, is seared. Seared. I tell yeh, on me memory!!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/28/2016 17:42
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Wait, wasn't this the episode where some astronauts were going to pass over, so the castaways decided to make an SOS out of burning logs that could be seen from space? But due to Gilligan's clumsiness, the logs instead spelled out SOL. One of the astronauts was named Sol, so he thought it was a greeting to him.
When we saw that episode my mama laughed, because she knew what SOL meant.
Nineveh – Media official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul, Saeed Mamouzini, informed that the five Kurdish men from Rojava held captive by ISIS were shot dead by five ISIS child soldiers. The execution was filmed and the video was released by ISIS for the world to see.
In the video, total of 15 captives were executed in three separate scenes. Five were shot by the child soldiers and the remaining 10 were killed by adult members of the terror outfit. The identities of rest of the ten men are not yet known.
It may be mentioned here that the children appear to be of five different nationalities- British, Kurdish, Tunisian, Egyptian, and Uzbekistani. The Kurdish captives were reportedly killed in retaliation for recent Kurdish advances in Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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On August 9, political prisoner Mohammad Abdollahi and five others were hanged in the West Azarbaijan capital of Urmia — the latest in a series of executions taking place on Ward 10 of Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj near Tehran. On August 2, it was reported that at least 10 alleged Salafists had been executed at the prison.
On August 3, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry implicitly confirmed the news through a statement that listed the prisoners’ crimes and terrorist acts, though it stopped short of naming the people executed. According to the statements, the prisoners were members of the militant Salafist group Tawhid and Jihad.
Some of those who faced execution at Ward 10 had been in the middle of their appeals process. According the Islamic Republic’s own laws, carrying out a sentence before an appeals court verdict is reached is illegal.
Executions have been taking place in other Iranian cities too. Three people were executed in Gilan’s provincial capital Rasht, one for murder and two for carrying 15 kilos of drugs. Four people were executed in Taybad in the northwestern province of Razavi Khorasan and in Salmas and Khoy in West Azarbaijan, three in Saghez in Iranian Kurdistan and two in Qazvin.
Although alarming, the high numbers of executions are not without precedent. Iran routinely comes second to China in rankings for the total number of people executed, though not when it comes to per capita figures. For example, from December 20, 2010 to January 19, 2011, more than 97 people were executed in Iran.
Mohsen, an inmate at Ward 4, said that at Rajaei Shahr, the smell of death is everywhere. “After we heard the footsteps of soldiers marching up it took them about half an hour to come back,” he said. “I was watching through the peephole. They had taped over their mouths so they could not shout ‘God is great!’ Sometimes when they take the inmates from solitary confinement to hang, the prisoners start shouting that. Guards did not want other prisoners to hear them.”
For the remaining prisoners at Rajaei Shahr, the next day was difficult to endure. The soldiers had terrified them. They had entered the ward fully equipped with helmets, batons, Tasers and masks, making a lot of noise. For the inmates, the silence in the adjoining wards was as deep as the sound of soldiers’ boots was loud. “They were not there only for executions,” Mohsen said. “They wanted to intimidate us too. It was a show of force to make us believe that they could crush us any moment that they wished.”
I asked Mohsen about how ordinary prisoners had reacted to the executions. “My cellmates and I talked about it,” he told me. “They say that ISIS is losing the war in Iraq and Syria and the Islamic Republic is afraid that Iran might turn into a safe corridor for ISIS members. So they are sending a forceful message to ISIS with these executions.”
But, he added, “everybody here is silent and sad — especially Baha’i prisoners who are more sensitive to executions.”
Posted by: Pappy ||
08/28/2016
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[Inquirer] Maoist New People's Army guerrillas in Mindanao separately freed on Friday three of their seven captives, and pledged to release four more remaining captives.
Policeman Richard Yu walked to his freedom in a remote village after 52 days as a prisoner. He was seized in July for his alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade, but was later cleared by the militants.
"I was never worried when they took me because I knew I was not involved in illegal drugs," said a teary-eyed Yu, whose release comes as negotiators wrapped up peace talks in Oslo.
Yu said while the rebels did not harm him, he was in handcuffs most of the time, even when sleeping.
Also freed on Friday were Arnold Ongachen, the chief of police of Gov. Generoso, Davao Oriental; and policeman Michael Grande.
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines said the other captives were also set to be freed on Saturday.
France has deported two Moroccan nationals seen as a serious security threat after they became radicalized as extremist militants, the interior ministry said in a statement late on Friday.
“Given the serious threat posed by their continuous stay on French soil, the interior ministry has decided to expel them immediately,” the statement said without giving any further details about the individuals.
It said six expulsions had already been carried out under similar circumstances in August, taking the total to 15 since the start of the year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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Taliban insurgents overran a district in eastern Afghanistan, killing and wounding dozens of police and soldiers and threatening strategically important road routes to Pakistan, officials said on Saturday.
Abdul Rahman Solamal, governor of Jani Khel district, in the eastern province of Paktia said that after heavy overnight fighting, security forces had pulled out of the district, which sits at an intersection linking eight districts and which connects Paktia with neighboring Khost province and Pakistan.
Some 36 of the 407 districts in the country were under insurgent control or influence, while another 104 were deemed at risk.
“Our district was surrounded by Taliban for almost five days,” he told Reuters. “Hundreds of them attacked our check posts overnight.
“If we do not retake it soon then Taliban can easily move from one province to another and can undermine security in at least three provinces,” he said.
The attack comes amid heavy fighting in other parts of Afghanistan, notably in the southern province of Helmand, where US military advisers have been deployed to bolster the defenses, and around the northern city of Kunduz, which fell briefly to the insurgents last year.
More than 20 soldiers and police were killed and another 20 wounded in the fighting overnight, while some 200 Taliban insurgents were killed, Solamal said. There was no immediate means of verifying the claims of Taliban casualties.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement dozens of Afghan soldiers and police had been killed in Jani Khel and large amounts of equipment had been captured, including armored vehicles, light and heavy weapons and ammunition.
According to US estimates reported in July by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a Congressional oversight body, Afghan forces control or influence just under 66 percent of the national territory, down from just over 70 percent at the start of the year.
The reduction was partly due to security forces pulling back from exposed areas and concentrating their strength, but after a lull following the death of former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in May the Taliban have stepped up their summer offensive.
Some 36 of the 407 districts in the country were under insurgent control or influence, while another 104 were deemed “at risk,” SIGAR said.
Of course, none of those districts are in areas where General Dostum is in control...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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Alexander has led numerous protests in the Dallas area, picketing outside the home of a University of Oklahoma fraternity member who helped lead a racist chant, demanding justice after a Grapevine officer shot an unarmed man and protesting killings of black men by police.
He was a principal organizer of the protest march in downtown Dallas on July 7 that was just ending when a lone gunman ambushed police officers, killing five.
Much of his activism has been through the Next Generation Action Network, a group he founded which seeks criminal justice reform. But Alexander, 27, has had several run-ins with the law. He has in the past been accused of causing a 2-year-old child severe bodily injury, forging a check, leading police on a high-speed chase and stealing a car.
"It's not like I'm the first person who has been a leader who has had a troubled past," Alexander told The News last year. "It's not where you come from. It's where you're going."
On Friday, District Judge Gracie Lewis decided that Alexander should spend the next two years in prison for not adhering to the terms of probation she set for him in 2011, after he pleaded guilty to a charge of serious bodily injury to a child. In his signed confession for the case, he admitted to shaking a 2-year-old boy in July 2009 and striking him with an object, court records say.
Lewis gave him deferred adjudication probation, and stipulated in his probation terms that he commit no offense, not carry a firearm and report regularly to a supervisory officer, among other things. He was also ordered to take anger management and parenting classes.
Initially, his probation should have ended last month.
But he violated his probation terms multiple times, court records show. In December, he was arrested on allegations that he didn't pay his court-ordered fines, complete his anger management classes or finish community service.
Which leads to a reasonable question: what took the justice system so long?
On Aug. 8, police escorted him out of a protest at City Hall and arrested him on traffic warrants out of Dallas Police Department.
Alexander's attorney, Kim Cole, said Friday that she is disappointed that the judge chose to send him to prison. Cole has accused law enforcement officials of deliberately going after Alexander.
The LEOs generally do go after people who repeatedly violate probation. In fact, you could say that it's their job...
"However, this movement is more than just Dominique Alexander and it will continue and it will be stronger," Cole said.
Others who have been active in the local movement for policing reform said Alexander wasn't the sole leader of their movement.
"There are a lot of good young activists in Next Generation," said John Fullinwider, a co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality.
"So he deserves credit for mobilizing them. But there is no one leader of the movement against police brutality in Dallas. The movement does not rise or fall with the personal ups and downs of any activist."
#4
"It's not like I'm the first person who has been a leader who has had a troubled past," Alexander told The News last year. "It's not where you come from. It's where you're going."
[DAWN] QUETTA: Security forces have tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... six suspected hard boys, one of them believed to be a leader of the hard boyIslamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group, during a combing operation in the Nushki area of 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... on Friday night.
"Some of the arrested bully boyz belong to Al Qaeda," a security official said. "Literature and videos of the IS and Al Qaeda, kaboom, laptops and wireless sets have been seized from them."
Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that on a tip-off about the presence of hard boys, security forces along with personnel of intelligence agencies raided a compound near the Afghan border and made the arrests.
The IS leader was recruiting people by persuading them to join jihad, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2016
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Turkish warplanes struck civilian homes and positions held by a group allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance in a village south of Jarablus on Saturday, the group said in a statement.
The Jarablus Military Council, part of the Kurdish-backed SDF, said the attack on the village of al-Amarna caused civilian casualties and called it “a dangerous escalation that threatens the fate of the region.”
There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.
A Reuters witness saw unidentified warplanes flying over the border region into Syria from Turkey early on Saturday morning, followed by the sound of explosions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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[DAWN] The Supreme Court on Saturday returned a petition moved amid much fanfare by the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... demanding an inquiry into the Panama Papers leaks with the registrar office terming it ’frivolous’.
"This petition prima facie appears to be a frivolous petition within the contemplation of Order XVII Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980," said an order issued by the registrar office.
The registrar under the Supreme Court Rules 1980, Order XVII, is empowered to refuse to receive a petition on the grounds that it has not been filed in accordance with the rules or is frivolous or contains scandalous matter.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2016
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Stabs in the back don’t get much nastier than this.
For the past year, Western leaders have feted the Kurds of Northern Iraq, praising them as one of the few forces gutsy enough to face down the death cult of Isil.
Now, those leaders turn a blind eye, or even worse give an active nod, to attacks on Northern Iraqi Kurds by the Turkish air force.
Heroes one minute; fair game for massacre the next. In the long list of Western betrayals of former allies overseas, this one feels especially grotesque.
Last Friday, following months of negotiation with Washington, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... launched its first-ever air strikes against Isil in Syria.
A few hours later it started dropping bombs in Northern Iraq -- not on Isil, but on the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, with which Turkey has been locked in bitter conflict since 1984.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2016
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#1
Kurds got screwed --- can we have surprise meter?
#2
not the west generally, its the USA with Joe Biden as the key anti Kurd voice
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/28/2016 7:59
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Not screwed yet.
Wait until Obama/Kerry declare their resistance to Turkish advance as an attack on a US ally, and all embedded intel is turned over to Erdy.
North Korea on Saturday threatened to aim fire at the lighting equipment used by "provocative" American and South Korean troops at a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.
The North's Korean People's Army accused U.S. and South Korean soldiers of "deliberate provocations" by aiming their lights at North Korean guard posts at Panmunjom since Friday evening.
The KPA said in a statement that the soldiers' actions have seriously threatened the safety of North Korean troops and disrupted their normal monitoring activities. It said the activities have further raised the anger of North Korean soldiers at a time when the Korean Peninsula has reached the "brink of war" due to last Monday's start of annual joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korea that Pyongyang says are an invasion rehearsal.
"Floodlight directed at the KPA side at random is taken as an intolerable means of provocation and it will be the target of merciless pinpoint shots," the KPA's chief security officers at Panmunjom said in the statement, carried by the North's state media.
"The true aim sought by the provocateurs through their recent act is to seriously get on the nerves of the KPA soldiers, lead them to take due countermeasures and label them as provocation," it said.
South Korea's Defense Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The statement by North Korea's military came hours after the United Nations Security Council issued a statement strongly condemning four North Korean ballistic missile launches in July and August.
Hillary Clinton cemented her union support Friday, picking up a major endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters unanimously voted to endorse Clinton in a blow to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has campaigned for the union vote.
The Teamsters were slow to endorse Clinton, even as many other unions rallied around her. She has already received endorsements from groups including the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, and more recently, the AFL-CIO.
But when the Teamsters declined to make an endorsement last fall, reports emerged that the group was trying to set up a meeting with Trump.
Trump has continued to lobby for the support of the Teamsters and other unions.
In addition, Hoffa appeared at a pension rally with Bernie Sanders last year, stoking speculation that the Teamsters were considering endorsing him over Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries.
And reports last year said the Teamsters were interested in backing Vice President Biden if he entered the race. He eventually decided not to run.
The Teamsters’ support of the Keystone XL pipeline could be a wedge between the group and Clinton. The union has said the pipeline would create high-paying union jobs. Clinton came out against the controversial oil pipeline last fall.
The Teamsters are also opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that has drawn criticism from Clinton, Sanders and Trump. Trump has stoked speculation that Clinton secretly supports the trade deal and would enact it as president, which she has denied.
#5
Unfortunately Blossom, you Union will be certain to donate part of your dues to support her, and pay for phone banks, door to door soliciting, and general bullying of its membership to support a criminal...
#7
You get that $15 an hour federal minimum wage and it means hefty increases for all the union wages as well. That must be hard to resist. Just pay no mind to the inflation and unemployment that will result.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2016 15:31
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#8
HillaryClinton cemented her union support . As in over shoes? Heh.
The commander of the Iranian Basij forces, Major General Mohammad Reza Nagdi, has been accused of fabricating claims that his country’s intelligence officers have arrested two British diplomats and another Frenchman, on charges of “spying on Iranian military centers for the benefit of ISIS,” according to Iranian Fars news agency.
I think this is a daily accusation. Perhaps twice a day. I think he and the KCNA guys share text to make it easier...
But a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry has denied the claims. Adding that the visit to “the areas have been officially authorized and coordinated by the ministry.”
He said: “These people’s car has been stopped by the concerned in the province authorities, but after verification of their documents, they continued their way.”
But later Nagdi insisted in comments quoted by “Tasnim” news agency that “the arrests took place in Kurdistan, west Iran, after they have been caught taking pictures of sensitive military centers to the benefit of ISIS”.
Meanwhile, Fars news agency quoted Russian media outlets as claiming that the recent visit by the French and British diplomats to Kermanshah province in Western Iran was aimed at gathering intelligence on the country’s airbase in Hamadan from which the anti-terrorism flights of the Russian fighter jets in Syria have been carried out for the last few days.
It added that Russia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed last Tuesday that it had deployed Tu-22M3 bombers and Su-34 strike fighters in Iran and these have already carried out airstrikes against terrorists in Syria.
That makes a certain bit of sense, but why send diplomats when one could have a satellite or U-2 do the imaging?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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#1
Wouldn't you just love to have a job as a British or a French Diplomat driving in a hot dated old car along a dusty road to Kermanshah to look at old Sukhoi 34 and TU-Vodka bombers out on a dusty runway in a set-up tour with you as the goat and then being arrested by the same people who issued you the permit and the packed Lunch?
And back at the Embassy the Ambassador of your respective country would be patting his lips with a Linen napkin and eating figs and spitting out the seeds. Wait until you have overnight accommodation with the Basji and they give you a "formal"rectal exam before releasing you and seeing that you are flown out of the country while another "diplomat" is flown in. More where that came from...
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is cleaning Jarablus of mines and explosives planted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants before their withdrawal from the northern Syrian town, Anadolu Agency reported.
FSA sources told the agency that about 20 explosives were detonated on Aug. 26, with the operations continuing. Soldiers are examining evacuated houses and removing mines and explosives planted at the border with Turkey.
The FSA has gained full control of Jarablus district, part of Aleppo province in northern Syria, following “Operation Euphrates Shield” launched by the Turkish Armed Forces and an international anti-ISIL coalition.
The operation began early Aug. 24 when artillery and airstrikes were followed by Turkish tanks crossing the border to target ISIL in support of FSA fighters.
Jarablus is located one kilometer from the Turkish-Syrian border.
An Anadolu Agency reporter in Jarablus reports that life is returning to normal days after “Euphrates Shield” started, with many workplaces re-opening and children playing on the streets.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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[DAWN] Police in India-held Kashmire have jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a top separatist leader, his aide said Saturday, as the region's chief minister met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defended a 50-day lockdown on the region.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chief holy man and head of All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, a political coalition opposed to the Indian rule of Kashmire, was arrested near Srinagar on Friday, his aide, Tariq Buch told AFP.
"He was first detained by police while trying to leave home to lead a peaceful demonstration. We came to know later he was taken away to Cheshma Shahi (a high security zone in Srinagar)," Buch said.
It came as the number of civilians killed since protests erupted in Kashmire last month after the shooting of a popular separatist leader hit 68 Saturday, while a police constable was also rubbed out.
Held-Kashmire Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti justified the continuation of the sweeping curfew that has seen schools, shops and most banks shut, after meeting the prime minister in New Delhi on Saturday.
"The basic purpose of the curfew was to save the lives of youngsters... If we don't impose a curfew what do we do?" Mufti told news hounds.
She also said the government was willing to hold talks with anyone who wanted a peaceful resolution to the Kashmire problem through dialogue, but pointed the finger at Pakistain.
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08/28/2016
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... has nominated 20 members of parliament -- 16 of them from his own Pakistain Moslem League-N -- as special envoys who will lobby for the Kashmire cause in important world capitals.
The special envoys have been nominated to "highlight Indian brutalities in India-Occupied Kashmire and to lobby for the Kashmire cause," said an announcement issued by Prime Minister Office here on Saturday.
Interestingly, out of the 17 MPs nominated from the ruling party and coalition, seven belong to southern Punjab, indicating that the underprivileged region has been given preference during the selection process.
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08/28/2016
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#1
If, as the article notes, Pakistan's southern Punjab is an "underprivileged region", it has got to be one of the world's absolute Hell-holes.
[DAWN] TIMERGARA: Two persons were killed when rivals clashed at Darra Dobira area of Khall here on Friday, residents and police said.
They said families of Mabood and Nawab had a dispute over a pathway. Heads of both the families exchanged harsh words after which Nawab reportedly opened fire on his rival Mabood, killing him on the spot. In retaliation, son of the dear departed also rubbed out Nawab.
Local police rushed to the scene and shifted the bodies to DHQ hospital Timergara. The Khall police started the paperwork but haven't done much else and started investigation.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start on his third quart... a shopkeeper identified as Bashir Ahmad, 32, was electrocuted when he was repairing his shop’s power regulator at Ziarat Talash Bazaar.
Eyewitnesses said the shopkeeper was trying to remove a fault in the regulator during power outage but was electrocuted when power supply was restored suddenly.
He was taken to DHQ hospital wherein he was proclaimed dead.
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[RUDAW.NET] An 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.... leader was killed in Arclight airstrikes by the US-led coalition in the ISIS-occupied city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in northern Iraq, sources told Rudaw on Saturday.
Abu Yahya Alwaizi, described as a ranking ISIS leader who also had fought in the Syrian city of Aleppo, was killed in the city’s al-Shurah district, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... .
Coalition Arclight airstrikes on Mosul come ahead of an anticipated offensive to liberate the city, which has been ISIS’s stronghold in Iraq since its capture by the hard boyz in June 2014.
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A mine planted by Boko Haram terrorist group exploded under a Chadian military vehicle and killed four servicemen on board, media reported on Saturday, citing a source in the country's security service, Sputnik International reported.
"An army car hit a mine planted by Boko Haram at Kaiga Kindji, near the border of Chad and Niger. There were four dead and a dozen wounded," the source told the Vanguard media outlet.
According to the media, the bombing was the last in a series of attacks on Chadian soldiers perpetrated by Boko Haram group.
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[RUDAW.NET] Turkish bombardments and military intervention in Jarablus over the last few days have created many reactions from the military councils of Jarablus and Manbij and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG).
"The Turkish bombardments are threatening the fate of the region and this will turn the area to new conflict amid threats from the factions affiliated with the Turkish occupation," the Jarablus Military Council said in a statement on Friday.
It added: "We, the military council of Jarablus and its surrounding, emphasize that such acts won’t discourage us from our goal to protect our people against any enemy. We emphasize that our main target is ISIS (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.... ) and the fight against terrorism. But we won’t relent from defending ourselves and the people. The Turkish army and factions affiliated with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... are responsible for consequences that follow such hostile actions which try to obstruct efforts to fight terrorism and we ask for a stop to targeting our forces that are fighting ISIS."
Turkey began a military campaign last week to clean up Jarablus, across its border in Syria, of ISIS.
The Jarablus council warned Turkish troops against any provocative actions and called on the international community to intervene to stop Turkey’s intervention
"We warn Turkish troops against such provocative and irresponsible actions," it said. "We can defend ourselves and we ask the international community and global coalition forces to intervene to stop such actions, which will have negative consequences on the situation in northern Aleppo and the war on terror."
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08/28/2016
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[DAWN] Many security experts assume that murderous Moslems target non-combatants to divert the attention of security institutions from conventional security targets. Then, an attack on civilians increases the impact of terrorism and puts states on the defensive due to public pressure. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... if we look at the patterns of attacks, murderous Moslems continuously target specific non-combatant individuals and groups. With little variations in different regions, murderous Moslems mainly target sectarian and religious minorities, intellectuals and sociopolitical elites and other groups that hold divergent views from those held by them.
Terrorists consider these segments their enemies. But in most cases, security institutions prioritise securing state infrastructure and power elites. Militants take the same amount of time in planning and executing their operations to hit both ’soft’ and ’hard’ targets. The state and its security institutions may have an excuse that they lack human resources, logistics, and even capabilities, but murderous Moslems exploit these same weaknesses.
Continued on Page 49
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Erbil – Head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani announced that the region is ready to solve all its problems with Baghdad through dialogue, indicating that a military a meeting will be held between the two sides seeking a better coordination and cooperation.
Discovered that they still need each other, eh?
The presidency of the provincial government in a statement, said, “President of the Kurdistan Regional Government Nechirvan Barzani received the Republican Senator from Texas John Comey. The duo discussed about the situation of displaced people and the war against terrorism and the process of liberalization of Mosul.”
“Kurdistan region is ready to receive the displaced people, but the possibilities are limited. America and the international community should help Kurdistan,” the statement added quoting Barzani. Her further expressed his gratitude towards the coalition countries, especially United States, for their support to Kurdistan since the attacks began.
“Kurdistan is ready to resolve all its problems with Baghdad through dialogue. A military level meeting will be held between the two sides in order to coordinate and cooperate better,” Barzani further said, the statement added.
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#1
Republican Senator from Texas John Comey
Cornyn? What's he up to there?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2016 9:34
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#2
Congressional junket, most likely. Though there is the possibility that he was invited to meet by the Kurds. A remote possibility was a request from Foggy Bottom or the regime to talk with the KRG.
Two US fighter pilots have told of a high-stakes encounter over northern Syria, when they stealthily shadowed a pair of Syrian regime jets and were prepared to shoot them down.
The US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq last week scrambled fighters to intercept Syrian jets targeting Kurdish forces working with US advisers near the northeastern city of Hasaka.
On August 19, a pair of US F-22s raced toward two Syrian Su-24 fighters that had flown into the region. The Americans’ mission was to determine if the Syrian planes were going to target coalition ground forces and -- if necessary -- shoot them down.
“I followed him around for all three of his loops,” one of the US pilots, an Air Force major, told USA Today in a story Friday. “He didn’t appear to have any idea I was there.”
The pilots said they got to within 2,000 feet (600 meters) of the Syrian jets. F-22s are stealth fighters and pilots are trained to avoid being seen. The pilot of the second US jet, a captain, said he tried to hail the Syrians on a common radio frequency but got no response.
In the coalition flight control center in Qatar, Major General Jay Silveria told USA Today he was ready to tell the pilots to fire on the Syrian planes if they threatened coalition forces.
“I wouldn’t have hesitated,” Silveria said. “All I needed at that point to shoot them down was a report from the ground that they were being attacked ... We were in a perfect position to execute that with some pretty advanced weaponry.”
In the end, the Syrian jets left and appeared not to have been armed.
Officials told USA Today it was not clear the Syrian jets even knew they had been trailed.
So let's tell them via the newspapers...
A shoot-down would have marked a serious escalation in Syria’s bloody conflict.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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[DAWN] Police have ordered some low-end hotels in the Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou not to allow guests from five Moslem-majority countries to stay, though China’s foreign ministry said it had never heard of the policy.
Three hotels with rooms costing about $23 a night said they had received police notices as early as March, telling them to turn away people from Pakistain, Syria, Iraq, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Afghanistan.
"I’m not clear about the reason. We just can’t take them," one hotel worker said by telephone.
’Pakistain among countries on the list’
The notice appears only to apply to cheaper hotels at the bottom of the price scale.
All of the five countries have been beset by terrorist attacks in the past few years, or in the case of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have been in states of war.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post said on Friday the rule appeared to be a security measure coinciding with a development forum being held in Guangzhou this week, and also ahead of next week’s G20 summit in Hangzhou, though the two cities are more than 1,000km apart.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2016
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#1
They're going nuts with the G20 preparations. Tons of cops on the street, even in cities hundreds of miles away. Extra searches. Foreigners are usually prohibited from the cheapest Chinese hotels, though it is not a law. They'll just lie and say they were full.
[DAWN] KARACHI: Five more Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... offices were razed while a total of 196 ’sector and unit’ offices in the city were sealed in a renewed crackdown on the party after the arrest of three suspected hitmen belonging to the "MQM London secretariat" and as many women activists on Friday for allegedly attacking media houses. Nawaz emulates Erdogan.
A source told Dawn that the record of MQM’s Khurshid Begum Memorial Secretariat in Azizabad -- which was sealed with party’s Nine-Zero headquarters on Monday night -- was also being looked into to find out whether the complex was constructed legally or it was also an encroachment on an amenity plot.
The MQM raised its voice against the demolition of its offices, but it ruled out any protest against the government action, explaining that it would follow a legal path. Also, the party announced on Friday that it would challenge the ’snatching of its mandate’ 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 West district elections.
Equipped with heavy machinery, local administration backed by a heavy contingent of law enforcement agencies demolished the MQM offices mainly in Karachi’s East district. Varooom! Varoom! Clank, clank clank.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Suspected Kurdish militants fired rockets at the airport in Turkey's main southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Saturday, sending passengers and staff scrambling for shelter, Dogan news agency said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Four rockets were fired at a police checkpoint outside the VIP lounge, and passengers and staff were taken inside the terminal building for safety, the private news agency said. The attack happened not long before midnight (2100 GMT) on Saturday.
Broadcaster NTV said the rockets landed on wasteland nearby. There were no casualties and no disruption to flights, Diyarbakir governor Huseyin Aksoy told the news channel.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Diyarbakir is the main city in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast, where Kurdish militants have waged a three-decade insurgency. The attack comes days after Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria aimed at driving back ISIS and preventing territorial gains by Kurdish fighters.
Rebels supported by Turkey fought Kurdish-backed forces in northern Syria on Saturday, and Ankara said it had launched air strikes against both Kurdish militia fighters and Islamic State.
Turkey fears Kurdish militia fighters will fill the void as ISIS is pushed back. It wants to stop Kurdish forces gaining control of a continuous stretch of Syrian territory on its frontier, which it fears could deepen the insurgency by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants on its own soil.
Diyarbakir airport largely handles domestic flights and is served by carriers including Turkish Airlines.
The PKK, which first took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, is considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. A ceasefire collapsed just over a year ago, and violence has since surged.
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Salahuddin – A well placed source in Salahuddin province informed that two ISIS members were killed after the security sources repulsed their attack near Baiji in northern Tikrit.
Sharing further details with Iraqi News the source informed, “This morning, joint security forces repulsed an ISIS attack, carried out targeting the Thermal Energy Complex in eastern Baiji district. In the attack, two ISIS members were killed by the security forces.”
The source added, “The joint security forces also destroyed an ISIS booby-trapped vehicle in the attack.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[RUDAW.NET] About one quarter of the city of Qayyara was destroyed in the battle to liberate the city, a local official told Rudaw on Friday.
"25% of Qayyara was destroyed during the festivities," with 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.... (ISIS), Salih al-Jabouri, head of Qayyara’s local government, told Rudaw, adding, "Peshmerga forces supported Iraqi army divisions in the operation to retake Qayyara."
Iraqi security forces entered the centre of Qayyara city on Tuesday and announced its complete liberation on Thursday.
"There was coordination between Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army in liberating Qayyara. This coordination has existed since 2003, until now. The Peshmerga forces are on the frontlines in Qayyara and play a big role in supporting the Iraqi army," said al-Jabouri.
He added that there remain some villages left to be liberated in the area surrounding Qayyara, and he expects that will happen in the next few days.
"The Iraqi security forces took control of the center of Qayyara on Thursday and liberated about 24 villages. ISIS has asked the residents to leave the villages surrounding Qayyara in the fear that they will be retaken in the next few days," al-Jabouri said.
He pointed out that the liberation of Qayyara will make the liberation of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... a lot easier.
"The Qayyara sub-district is one of the biggest in Nineveh province, and ISIS considered it a stronghold. But now, after losing Qayyara, ISIS has collapsed and is in a tragic situation. Now, moving forward towards Mosul has become quite easy."
Before the liberation of Qayyara, ISIS set fire to oil wells and marshes in the area, putting the health of residents at risk.
"For two months, ISIS has been burning the oil wells and marshes in Qayyara, and still the smoke is there. This affected the citizens, especially the sick people, elderly people, and children. But this will not affect the military operation in the area," al-Jabouri explained.
The Iraqi forces, with the support of the global coalition, retook Qayyara from ISIS on Thursday. They retook Qayara airbase, located 75 kilometers south of Mosul, last month.
Posted by: Fred ||
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As Professor Reynolds would say, "faster please"...
Nineveh – The Iraqi military media cell announced that 12 ISIS militants were killed in international coalition airstrikes to the south of Mosul city.
The cell, in a statement received by Iraqi News, said, “International coalition aircraft carried out an airstrike on Friday evening, which destroyed a cache of ISIS weapons and also killed 12 ISIS members of the outfit. Attack was carried out in Sadia village.”
“Meanwhile, in the explosion of car carrying explosive devices, over 10 ISIS men were killed in Makouk village located on the road linking Qayyarah with Makhmour,” the statement further added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Kurdish and Turkish forces have reportedly clashed in several locations in northern Syria and Rojava and there are reports of civilian casualties from Turkish shelling and Arclight airstrikes.
The Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) reported on Twitter Saturday morning that civilians had been killed and injured in Turkish Arclight airstrikes and shelling south of Jarablus.
The Jarablus Military Council, formed by the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confirmed the Arclight airstrikes in a statement, calling it "a dangerous escalation that threatens the fate of the region."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that YPG and Turkish forces had clashed both in Afrin, the western-most canton of the Kurdish Rojava in northern Syria, and north of Hasakah, close to Syria’s border with Iraq.
The Observatory on Saturday morning said there was "an exchange of gunfire between YPG and the Turkish forces" in the countryside north of Hasakah, in the triangle of land between the Turkish and Iraqi borders. It is unclear if Turkish forces were on Syrian territory or had fired across the border.
On Friday, the Observatory reported that Turkish forces used heavy machinegun fire in the Afrin countryside, an area under control of the YPG.
They did not report any casualties in either incident.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... crossed into Syria on Wednesday as part of an offensive with the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... to rout 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.... (ISIS) gunnies from the town of Jarablus and eliminate "terrorists" on its border, referring to both ISIS and the YPG. Turkish border towns have been repeatedly shelled by ISIS in northern Syria.
Both Syria and Iran consider the move a violation of Syrian illusory sovereignty and have asked Turkey to respect international principles and laws.
Colonel Ahmad Osman, a commander of the Sultan Murad, one of the Syrian rebel groups who participated in the Jarablus operation, told Rooters on Friday that their forces were moving west from Jarablus toward Marea, about 70 kilometres away.
"Liberating these villages between Jarablus and Marea requires weeks and perhaps months, according to the nature of the battles," Osman said.
He added that they did not want to fight the Kurdish forces but would do so if necessary.
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#1
Leave Incirlik and leave a dead-man switch on the bombs.
Anyone concerned by a perceived warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran can rest somewhat assured as of this week: The two countries' interactions, particularly on the high seas, most definitely remain hostile.
Recent days have witnessed repeated incidents in which boats belonging to the navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps harassed and – according to the U.S. Navy – acted outright dangerously in close proximity to American ships in the Persian Gulf.
It remains unclear specifically what Iran hoped to achieve with the encounters. But regardless of what prompted the provocations, the outcome the Iranians sought was all but certain.
"They knew they were going to provoke a response, they just went as far as they could," says Anthony Cordesman, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The clear message is, 'We're here. We are a significant threat. We can demonstrate to everyone in the Gulf that we are capable of doing this and willing to do it.'"
Iran could be airing continued grievances or sending a larger message to its adversaries on any one of a series of issues. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, for example, believes the U.S. has not followed through on commitments to the deal it struck with Tehran over its nuclear program. The U.S. continues a military build-up of sorts through massive arms deals with its traditional partners in the Middle East, which also happen to be Iran's sworn enemies.
Tehran also might feel empowered by its strengthened relationship with Moscow, as shown through Russia's temporarily deploying warplanes to an airbase in Iran for operations in Syria.
The U.N. General Assembly begins in New York a few weeks, where Iran will likely continue its traditional arguments for greater influence in world affairs. And, more generally, Iran is expected to continue its years-long campaign to prove it can, and should, serve as the principal power in its neighborhood.
Whatever the reason behind this latest activity, it arguably achieved its goal.
"You do not necessarily need to turn this into a publicity issue because you don't have to. Is there any place that didn't get the news?" Cordesman says.
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[SABC] Former President FW De Klerk says his new Centre for Unity in Diversity will encourage white South Africans to comprehend the hurt caused to black people by apartheid. He was speaking at the launch of the centre in Johannesburg. You'll be impressed, boss. Per your instructions, no tentage or wire in Phase-One.
The launch was attended by human rights lawyer George Bizos and former human rights Commissioner, Rhoda Kadalie.
De Klerk says the centre will go a long way in fostering race relations and reconciliation.
De Klerk says he fears that if South Africans are not careful, race relations in the country could deteriorate to worrying levels.
He says, in as much as white South Africans feel marginalised by government's empowerment policies like Black Economic Empowerment and Affirmative Action and that their languages and culture are under threat, they need help in building a prosperous South Africa.
The FW De Klerk Foundation, in conjunction with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, launched the Centre for Unity in Diversity to promote constitutional rights of all South Africans.
He says the centre will enable whites to understand the pain that apartheid caused to their black counterparts and help them to live peacefully as countrymen and women.
"It should encourage white South Africans to understand the depth of the hurt that was caused to non-whites by the politics of the past. The expression of views that might interpreted as patronising should be avoided at all times and white South Africans should make it clear through words and deeds that they are dedicated to building a better united South Africa. This centre needs to work on white South Africans to change, in many instances, their attitudes and to become sensitive towards the needs and the fears and the anger of Black South Africans but also of coloreds and indian South Africans." More at the link, if you have the stomach. Hat tip to Mike Smith's blog.
"You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."
-- Inigo Montoya, "The Princess Bride"
An Indian cargo ship loaded with vehicles and food supplies destined for Yemen sank on Saturday off the coast of Oman but without loss of life, media reports said. Omani fishermen and police rescued all 11 crew on board, Oman’s ONA state news agency reported.
The vessel’s cargo was loaded in the UAE emirate of Sharjah, but the ship sank in the Arabian Sea 15 nautical miles off AS-Suwayh because of a “technical fault”, it said.
The Times of Oman said the ship was carrying 69 vehicles, food, tires and engine oils and had been bound for the port of Mukalla in southeast Yemen.
UAE daily Gulf News said the ship sank because of overloading.
Or maybe it was the Saudi Special Boat Service...
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Or maybe it was the Saudi Special Boat Service...
Considering Yemen is also an arms-conduit to Sudan and points North, it could have been the 'SBS' of many countries.
[USUNCUT] Mylan Pharmaceuticals — the company behind the price gouging of the EpiPen — is experiencing serious karmic retribution in the stock market.
In just five days, Mylan’s stock has tanked by 12.4 percent as outrage over its astronomical price increases of the life-saving EpiPen has reached a boiling point. Mylan’s stock price went from a high of $49.20 per share on August 19 to $43.11 on August 24, according to MarketWatch
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2016
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#1
closed 8-25 at ~43
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/28/2016 8:25
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#2
Government Bailout in 5, 4, 3, 2......
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/28/2016 10:53
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Mylan has a patent on the delivery system, and herein lies the rub (or Market Value enhancement, depending upon your viewpoint.).
Think MS Operating Systems, McDonald's "Secret Sauce," paint formulations, etc.
The price of EpiPen will take a temporary hit until their Marketing Department *spit* can come up with something to oil the waters.
A generic is on the way, and Epi is required to maximize their return (Shareholder Value) until (and after) that day.
#4
The FDA just rejected the Teva Pharmaceuticals generic equivalent. There's been a recall on another generic device on the market (correctly so -- there was a non-zero chance that when actuated the device would deliver no drug). I don't think Mylan is shaking in their shoes, though Heather Bresch may want to go up a half-size on her stilettos for a while...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016 13:57
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Iraq's government would consider selling crude through Iran should talks with the autonomous Kurdish region on an oil revenue-sharing agreement fail, a senior oil ministry official in Baghdad told Reuters.
Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) plans to hold talks with the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), possibly next week, about Iraqi oil exported through Turkey, Deputy Oil Minister Fayadh al-Nema said in an interview on Friday evening.
"If the negotiations come to a close" without an agreement "we will start to find a way in order to sell our oil because we need money, either to Iran or other countries", he said by telephone.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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A former Guantanamo prisoner now held by Venezuela’s intelligence agency has gone on hunger strike, his lawyer said Saturday.
That's easier to do in Venezuela these days...
Jihad Diyab, who was relocated from Guantanamo to Uruguay nearly two years ago, was detained after traveling to Caracas in July in an apparent attempt to see family, his California-based lawyer Jon Eisenberg told AFP.
A Syrian bad boy stuck in Venezuela has a California lawyer?
In an email, Eisenberg said he was concerned about Diyab, a 45-year-old Syrian national, after failing to establish contact with him.
"We still have not had any communication with the Venezuelan authorities," Eisenberg said. "I feared from the beginning that (the hunger strike) could take place, so I’m not surprised."
From the 2015 photo, he looks like he could lose a stone or so...
Held in Guantanamo for 12 years without charge, Diyab was released from the US military prison in southern Cuba to Uruguay in 2014 along with five fellow former detainees.
So what's he doing in Venezuela?
On August 6, Diyab’s lawyer had asked the Venezuelan government for permission to speak with his client by telephone to organize his defense.
A US-based human rights activist confirmed Diyab’s hunger strike.
Three independent sources, who asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely about the case, said the Syrian man began his protest after "learning that the foreign ministries of Venezuela and Uruguay negotiated his deportation to Uruguay," Andres Conteris said by telephone.
Diyab is also refusing to take liquids, according to Conteris, of the group Witness Against Torture. He hopes to be sent to Turkey or another third country to reunite with his family.
His family, handlers, superiors, arms men and teammates being "refugees" there...
The Venezuelan authorities have not yet commented on the case.
Conteris traveled to Venezuela earlier this month to set up a meeting, but returned to the United States without success.
Eisenberg represents Diyab in a lawsuit filed against the US authorities for force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike in Guantanamo.
Don't worry, I don't think the Venezuelans are big on that so you'll be spared...
Diyab was captured in 2002 near the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2016
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Top|| File under:
#1
Held in Guantanamo for 12 years without charge...
Except for his aid and comfort to war criminals in the commission of crimes against humanity.
Diyab was captured in 2002 near the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Odd place to find an "innocent" Syrian. I'm sure he knew it was a war zone.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/28/2016 0:13
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#2
Never understood the hunger strike thing. Why would anyone give a poot?
[Bangkok Post] A local leader was shot dead in full view of many villagers at a tea shop in Pattani province on Saturday morning. The shooting occurred at the shop in Yaring district.
Abdulloh Seedeh, kamnan of tambon Takae, was drinking tea with some other local residents when he was attacked by a group of four men aboard a pickup truck, witnesses said. The men stopped their vehicle in front of the shop and some of them sprayed bullets from M16 rifles at Abdulloh, forcing other villagers to flee.
Abulloh recieved serious gunshot wounds and died at the spot, while others escaped unhurt.
[RUDAW.NET] A source close to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) reported Saturday evening that Turkish troops have been advancing toward the city of Kobani.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said that the Turkish forces, using bulldozers, have been digging trenches near Kobani’s Mursheed Pnary gate.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... crossed into Syria on Wednesday as part of an offensive with the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) to rout 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.... (ISIS) Death Eaters from the town of Jarablus and eliminate "terrorists" on its border, referring to both ISIS and the YPG. Turkish border towns have been repeatedly shelled by ISIS in northern Syria.
Earlier Saturday, the YPG announced that Turkish planes had bombarded its forces, while on the ground they had clashed with FSA forces backed by Turkey and with the Syrian Democratic forces (SDF).
The YPG said in a tweet earlier Saturday that civilians had been killed and maimed in the Turkish Arclight airstrikes and shelling south of Jarablus.
In Derik and around Manbij, festivities took place between YPG and Turkish forces on Saturday. The YPG said that Turkish bombing of areas in Syrian Kurdistan, or Rojava, was ongoing.
On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Turkish forces used heavy machinegun fire in the Afrin countryside, an area under the control of YPG.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2016
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And I continue to exercise my 'First Amendment Rights' by refusing to attend or watch NFL games, or purchase anything endorsed by the NFL. There, I said it. Kaepernick's White House golfapalooza and dinner invitation - in the overnight mail? Just asking.
#2
well, according to Sundance, there's a little bit more going on with this clown
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
08/28/2016 2:09
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#3
People who do not study real history can never appreciate their circumstances today. We're a nation of men, not angels. However, doing better than 99 percent of those who came before us, yet decry the imperfections of our human nature. If you adjudge us as failed, we can so adjudge you.
#5
...On the one hand, this lad - who makes something like $20M USD/year, no small amount of it from the wallets of the Oppressed - has an absolute right to his opinions and his actions. Unpleasant and offensive as we may find them, those are the facts.
On the other hand, one cannot help but consider the possibility that he's doing this in one of the two or three NFL markets where such an action and its motivations might actually gain some traction and shield him - at least partially - from the consequences of his inability to meet the goals required of him by his employers. (I know he was injured, and some of his problems may be out of his control)
Somehow, however, I suspect that the 49ers - owned by the deBartolo family, not known for their social sympathy or willingness to financially sacrifice - will find a way to gently separate him from the team.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/28/2016 9:51
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#16
So any time the 48ers visit any other team in the NFL all the fans of all the teams they visit should stay home and nobody watch when 49er games are are on TV. I think that way the DeBartolos would get the message real quick.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2016 15:18
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#17
48ers? Well, I guess they just slipped a little.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2016 15:19
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#18
The fans should have walked out of the game after the nations a than finished. Send a message to the networks and 49er management.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/28/2016 17:32
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#19
"Every day I go to work, people in uniform chase me and try to hit me!"
#22
Colon needs a history lesson - 360,000 white Union soldiers gave their LIVES to end slavery. Smug fools like Kaepernick aren't really protesting for the "oppressed" though are they?
[NationalPost] Last Sunday marked the three-year anniversary of the most egregious use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century: the sarin gas massacre in Ghouta, Syria, where President Bashar Assad caused the death by asphyxiation of 1,300 men, women and children. No particular fuss was made over the milestone, and it’s not hard to understand why.
Any public reflection of the Ghouta massacre or of the many lies Obama has told about his response to the event would have been redundant this week, thanks to new evidence that supports the proposition that from the beginning, all that mattered to the U.S. president as far as Syria was concerned was his foreign-policy vanity project: détente with the Iranian ayatollahs. And now, nearly half a million Syrians have been obliged to die for what has turned out to be a caveat-riddled, vaguely enforceable nuclear deal the White House struck with Assad’s backers in Khomeinist Iran.
As far back as Iran’s aborted Green Revolution in 2009, Obama’s supplications to the country’s ruling theocracy have amounted to diplomatic shivs in the backs of its youthful democratic insurrectionists, mash notes written directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the scuttling of programs documenting the regime’s human-rights outrages. As laid bare in The Iran Wars, the just-published book by Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent Jay Solomon, all the rationalizations the White House has been palming off ever since Ghouta have been falsehoods and cheap alibis.
Obama’s chemical red-line reversal had nothing to do with clever triangulation, war weariness, nation-building at home, the absence of “good guys” in the Syrian revolutionary opposition or the devilish complexity of the struggle. It was because Iran’s negotiators threatened to call off the nuclear talks if he used the unanimous Senate resolution he’d been given to punish Assad for Ghouta, senior American and Iranian officials told Solomon. At the time, Obama’s emissaries were meeting Iranian negotiators secretly in Oman. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “would not accept a continued engagement with the U.S. if their closest ally was being hit,” Solomon reports.
Once facing the most youthful, pro-American, pro-democracy uprisings of all the Arab Spring convulsions, Assad is now more firmly entrenched than at any time since the early days of 2011. His Baathist regime and its Shabiha death squads now enjoy bottomless bank loans and military aid from Beijing, seasoned Iranian Quds Force commanders to direct the strategies of battle, Iranian-sponsored mercenaries from as far away as Central Asia and bloodthirsty Shia militiamen from Hezbollah. And for nearly a year now, Russia’s direct and generous assistance.
It’s hard to fault the rebels for the company they’re now keeping. Obama has refused to equip, or to arm, any rebel groups fighting Assad or his forces. And while the Russian bombardment of Aleppo was ascending in a grisly crescendo these past few weeks, the U.S. president was fine-tuning an offer to Putin: the coordination of U.S. and Russian military and intelligence agencies, coordinated air attacks, a joint command and control headquarters and an accelerated bombing campaign to target Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a gruesome crowd that broke ties with al-Qaida only last month.
It’s true that there are few “good guys” left in the Syrian opposition. Five years ago, the population of Syria was about 22 million. The number of Syrians the UN counted as refugees in February was 4.8 million and of the people remaining within Syria’s borders 13.5 million require humanitarian assistance. More than half of them have had to flee their homes. Most of the “good guys” are dead.
There are heroes still in Syria, though, and none are more heroic than the non-violent, non-sectarian Syrian Civil Defence brigades. They’re the White Helmets activists who have pulled 60,000 people from the rubble of Syria’s cities since 2011. More than 130 organizations around the world have nominated the White Helmets for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, and it would be a great thing if they won it.
It would be even better if this year the Nobel committee took back the peace prize it awarded Obama in 2009 for doing absolutely nothing. He didn’t deserve it then. He certainly doesn’t deserve it now.
#2
ValJar. Her hand is in every part of the administrations policies. When the history of this administration is revealed, her corrupting power to point Barry at things preset for him to embrace and talk about endlessly will show just how shallow, self absorbed and clueless he was. She should be indicted for being a foreign agent of influence for Iran.
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.
BINDURA, Zimbabwe ‐ Dozens of angry young men jumped off a truck in front of Agrippah Mutambara's gate, shouting obscenities and threatening to seize his 530-acre farm in the name of Zimbabwe's president. They tried to scale the fence, scattering only when he raised and cocked his gun.
Bill introduces Melinda. 
[Inquirer] Maoist New People's Army guerrillas in Mindanao separately freed on Friday three of their seven captives, and pledged to release four more remaining captives.
Turkish warplanes struck civilian homes and positions held by a group allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance in a village south of Jarablus on Saturday, the group said in a statement.
A mine planted by Boko Haram terrorist group exploded under a Chadian military vehicle and killed four servicemen on board, media reported on Saturday, citing a source in the country's security service, Sputnik International reported.
Two US fighter pilots have told of a high-stakes encounter over northern Syria, when they stealthily shadowed a pair of Syrian regime jets and were prepared to shoot them down.
[DAWN] KARACHI: Five more 
[SABC] 
A former Guantanamo prisoner now held by Venezuela’s intelligence agency has gone on hunger strike, his lawyer said Saturday.
[Bangkok Post] A local leader was shot dead in full view of many villagers at a tea shop in Pattani province on Saturday morning. The shooting occurred at the shop in Yaring district.
