Backgrounder: North Korea - PDF
We at the Jamestown Foundation are pleased to introduce this backgrounder on North Korea. Drawing
on an array of sources including Korean-language media, satellite imagery analysis and NGO
databases, we have compiled what we believe are a number of core facts about the country: its political
system, military, economy, agricultural system, demographics and geography. Our goal is not to comprehensively
cover North Korea, but rather to highlight important facts in a way that allows both
experienced analysts and those less familiar with the country to quickly find information essential for
decision making or analytic judgments. In particular, we focus on what is described in analytic communities
as "normative factors"‐baselines for analysis like geography, times for planting and harvest,
politically important dates‐or other characteristics that shape behavior, and regulate how a state
behaves. Such factors are frequently overlooked in discussions of state behavior. In the case of North
Korea, where there is a tendency to ascribe behavior not to a rational nation-state but to the actions
of an unstable dictator, attention to such factors is even more important, as they provide a baseline
for judging if actions, be they rocket launches, military parades or harsh rhetoric are in fact noteworthy.
Glen E. Howard
President of Jamestown
Peter Wood
Editor-in-Chief,
China Brief
[LI] The North African country of Tunisia is turning into a "springboard" for illegal immigrants trying to get to Europe, according to the German newspaper Die Welt. The Muslim-majority country, destabilized in the wake of the "Arab Spring", was becoming a serious security threat to Europe since the Tunisian government was encouraging its Islamized or otherwise troublesome young men to emigrate to Europe.
Italy, with islands just 70 miles off the coast of Tunisia, is the preferred destination for Tunisians and North African migrants trying to get to Europe. Last year, more than 160,000 migrants landed on Italy’s southernmost Island of Lampedusa alone. In May 2017, German media reports cited leaked government documents claiming that as many as 6.6 million people were waiting in North African countries ‐ such as Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco ‐ to cross into Europe.
In the 1990s, many Tunisians fought in Jihadist campaign overseas. The vacuum created by the fall of the country’s long-time dictator Ben Ali in 2011 has been filled by various Islamic terrorist outfits, including Al Qaeda and Islamic State. German newspaper Die Welt reported the developing situation in Tunisia:
[Breibart] Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) told Breitbart News that Republicans will only succeed in the midterm elections if "they get behind the Trump agenda."
The congressman said that the Freedom Caucus remains committed to passing a dynamic tax reform package for middle-class families as well as repealing and replacing Obamacare. Meadows also cheered the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed repeal of Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
#2
Besoeker, so true. It seems the swamp, both side, just want to keep fleecing the middle class and not make any real changes.
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10/11/2017 16:16
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#3
Ending the so-called 'War on Coal' is having a very positive impact on today's market. Trump may have to pull these traitorous 'K-Street' bastids kicking and screaming across the finish line.
Most people would be grateful to experience any one of the occupations listed above‐French Foreign Legionnaire, wartime spy, US Marine, or Hollywood heartthrob‐but because Pierre (Peter) Julien Ortiz was not "most people," he chose to immerse himself in all four.
Bill Gertz has the story. With Stephen Green commentary.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein warned Monday that strong encryption built into handheld devices is preventing law enforcement agencies from protecting Americans from criminals and terrorists.
Rosenstein said "warrant-proof" encryption used on smart phones and other devices has blocked courts from gaining access to evidence and intelligence needed to protect citizens. He called the problem "one of our greatest challenges."
"Warrant-proof encryption defeats the constitutional balance by elevating privacy above public safety," Rosenstein said in a speech to the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
"Encrypted communications that cannot be intercepted and locked devices that cannot be opened are law-free zones that permit criminals and terrorists to operate without detection by police and without accountability by judges and juries," he added.
The deputy attorney general called for "responsible encryption" that allows data to be accessed under court order.
Let's pull the veil aside, shall we?
"Responsible encryption" means that Uncle Sam holds a skeleton key to all your personal data. In other words, your information is only as secure as, say, our latest war plans for North Korea -- which are now reportedly in the hands of North Korean hackers.
Even the NS-freaking-A isn't immune:
The NSA is one of the world's most notoriously secretive and powerful government agencies, guarding its powerful hacking tools and massive caches of collected data under layers of security clearances and world-class technical protections. But it turns out that three times in three years, that expensive security has been undone by one of its own contract employees simply carrying those secrets out the door.
In 2013, an NSA contractor named Edward Snowden walked out of the agency's building in Oahu, Hawaii, carrying a USB drive full of thousands of top-secret documents. Last year, a 53-year-old Booz Allen contractor for the NSA named Hal Martin was arrested last year for taking 50 terabytes out of the agency over a period as long two decades. And Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2015, a third contract employee of the NSA in as many years took home a trove of classified materials that included both software code and other information that the agency uses in its offensive hacking operations, as well as details of how it protects US systems from hacker adversaries.
That classified data, which wasn't authorized to be removed from the perimeter of the facility where that contractor worked, was then stolen from the contractor's home computer by Russian spies, who exploited the unnamed employee's installation of antivirus software from Kaspersky, a Russian company.
Read that last line again: Our own National Security Agency was using Russian antivirus software.
Washington wants a backdoor key to everything -- where my kids go to school and what time I pick them up, the digitized receipts I keep as records of certain purchases, my entire photo library -- when they can't even protect their own data. Forget for the moment whatever sinister ends might get cooked up by the same people who weaponized the IRS, and imagine the most personal data of 320 million Americans sitting pretty in a Russian data farm. Because you know that's exactly what will happen.
#2
"Encrypted communications 5th Amendment Protections that cannot be intercepted and locked devices that cannot be opened are law-free zones that permit criminals and terrorists to operate without detection by police and without accountability by judges and juries," he added.
FIFY. As more and more things are forced onto the Cloud where lies a citizen's expectation of privacy?
#3
Further, when will government officials demand that all cellphones be loaded with government Apps that turn them into listening devices? If this hasn't happened already...?
#4
Further, when will government officials demand that all cellphones be loaded with government Apps that turn them into listening devices? If this hasn't happened already...?
If it electronic and you speak into, please assume it can be monitored as well as recorded.
#8
I know a purple heart, Vietnam Vet, 101st Airborne eho created his own encryption for his IT Consulting business customers. It is what I call Encryption aemed with an AK47 Not only does it encrypt, it reaches out and destroys the operating system trying to hack the encryption. The only lethal encryption in the world.
[Townhall] "To us, Che was a symbol of boldness, intelligence, internationalism, self-sacrifice, solidarity and, as he said, "at the risk of appearing ridiculous," love. Che rejected personal gain and privilege for the leaders in a struggle for a fair and just society; he lived as he asked others to live."
#1
Anyone who doesn't understand that wearing a Che t-shirt is the same as wearing a Hitler or Stalin or Mao t-shirt is sufficiently insane that they shouldn't be allowed to vote.
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10/11/2017 6:46
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#2
He was a cowardly psychopath, Bill. Just like you and the wife
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2017 6:46
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Snubbing the outgoing American ambassador and arresting local members of embassy staff because he is mad at President Trump? How... clever.
[AnNahar] President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on Tuesday vowed that Ottoman Turkish officials would boycott the U.S. ambassador to Ankara, stepping up one of the worst rows in decades between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... allies.
Continued on Page 49
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[Ynet] French authorities have detained two people in the investigation into an attempted Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group attack on a high-speed train thwarted by three American passengers in 2015.
As Fred described them at the time, "...a Zoomie, a Doggy, and some guy they knew." You can read about those long-ago excitements here and the following days, dear Reader.
A judicial official said Tuesday that the two were detained Monday on orders of the counterterrorism judge leading the probe. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... because the investigation is ongoing, would not provide further information.
French media reports said the two suspects are believed to have a link to detained attacker Ayoub El Khazzani, who was overpowered by Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,n passengers on the train from Amsterdam to Gay Paree. El Khazzani's lawyer says he acted on orders from the leader of the IS cell that later targeted Gay Paree in deadly attacks.
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I watched this game on one of the Spanish channels. As soon as I saw Alvin Jones beat our formerly world class goaltender, Tim Howard, on a forty-four yard shot, I knew we were in trouble. It's the first time we're missing the World Cup since 1986.
[ESPNFC] COUVA, Trinidad -- With World Cup qualification seemingly in their grasp, the Americans lost 2-1 to Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday night. Coupled with Honduras' 3-2 victory over Mexico and Panama's 2-1 victory over Costa Rica, the U.S. finished fifth in CONCACAF's Hexagonal round, out of the running to qualify for Russia 2018.
Here are three thoughts on a humiliating night in Trinidad.
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10/11/2017 14:10
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#9
who cares?
soccer is the duck-billed platypus of the sports world; thier field, er pitch is a cross between real football and basketball, the teams, though highly sponsored cannot buy enough uniforms for everybody, so they make the odd guy out ( probably last selection in a pick up game) has to bring his own clothes and they really stand out. then to further humiliate him makes him stand in a 3 sided jail cell with Pillsbury Dough boy gloves on (looking like a cast-off from a Disney cartoon). then they play for 90 minutes, no offside calls for negative yardage or bench clering brawls. just referees running around handing out cards: "got any 6's?" no? here's a yellow card.
then at the end they add on whatever time they deem necessary to give the favored team time to win. not unlike democrats stuffing the ballot boxes.
and the final score is a tie sometimes, so everybody gets a participant award.
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10/11/2017 18:11
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#12
Isn't soccer a girl's game? US women's team did well in the Olympics. Bend it Like Beckham is about girl's soccer. They don't have real fights, just dramatic flailing on the ground pretending injuries to get a yellow card. Silly stuff most boys give up in middle school.
[FreeBeacon] Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Nicholas Rasmussen and Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales announced rewards on Tuesday for the capture and conviction of two Hezbollah leaders.
The Lebanon-based Islamist organization has operatives engaging in terror activities around the world and has received aid from Iran.
"This past weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the United States designating Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization," Sales said. "With backing from its patron, the Iranian regime, Hezbollah remains one of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations. It continues to commit terrorist attacks and to continue to engage in other destabilizing activities across the globe."
Sales highlighted the arrests of two individuals in the United States, one in New York and the other in Michigan.
Sales also announced the offering of rewards for the arrests and convictions of two Hezbollah officials, Talal Hamiyah and Fu’ad Shukr. Up to $7 million is being offered for Hamiyah and up to $5 million is being offered for Shukr through the Rewards for Justice Program.
Hamiyah has been a part of attacks around the world, including against Americans and Israelis. Hamiyah is the leader of Hezbollah's international terrorist unit.
Shukr too has a long history of attacks against Americans, including playing a role in the Beirut Barracks Bombing which killed 241 American service members, mostly Marines. Shukr is a senior military commander inside of Lebanon and a member of Hezbollah's Jihad Council.
"While I'm not here today to speak publicly about any specific or credible or imminent threat to the homeland, we in the intelligence community do in fact see continued activity on behalf of Hezbollah here inside the homeland," Rasmussen said. "And as you would expect, as the American people would expect, we are watching very closely for additional signs of that activity here in the homeland."
Rasmussen said Hezbollah is determined to make its abilities to operate in the United States a priority for the organization. Additionally, Rasmussen said Hezbollah is working to procure more weapons to use in terror-supported operations in Syria and Yemen.
In which the New York Times presents today's panic, but really it's an easily treated Third World problem.
Madagascar has been struck by a fast-spreading outbreak of plague, creating panic and prompting the World Health Organization to send 1.2 million doses of antibiotics to the island nation.
Since August, the country has reported over 200 infections and 33 deaths.
The outbreak is beginning to resemble the early stages of the West African Ebola crisis in 2014: a lethal disease normally confined to sparsely populated rural areas has reached crowded cities and is spreading in a highly transmissible form.
Schools, universities and other public buildings have closed so they can be sprayed to kill fleas, which may carry the infection. The government has forbidden large public gatherings, including sporting events and concerts.
Fears that the outbreak could spread to other countries are rising.
Madagascar typically has about 400 cases of plague each year between September and April, but they are usually focused in the nation’s central highlands and spread by fleas living on rats in rice-growing areas. This outbreak is unusually worrying because most new cases are in cities and are pneumonic plague, the form transmitted by coughing.
The W.H.O. calculated that the antibiotics it has shipped, and another 244,000 doses on the way, will be enough to treat 5,000 patients and protect another 100,000 people who might have been exposed.
The W.H.O. has released $1.5 million from its emergency fund and has appealed for $5.5 million more from donors.
#5
The outbreak is beginning to resemble the early stages of the West African Ebola crisis in 2014: a lethal disease normally confined to sparsely populated rural areas has reached crowded cities and is spreading in a highly transmissible form.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One tribal fighter was killed and three other comrades were injured on Tuesday when an explosive device went off south of Baghdad.
A security source told Alghad Press that an explosive device exploded at Hur Ragab, south of the capital, killing one member of al-Sahwa group and wounding three others who were inside their vehicle.
Sahwa are Sunni militias formed after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 to combat al-Qaeda militants.
Faryab officials said on Tuesday that heavy clashes between security forces and Taliban insurgents have been ongoing in Pashtonkot district of the province since Monday night.
The Afghan National Army (ANA) media officer for the north, Nasratullah Jamshidi, said the clash started on Monday night in Sar Hawoz village of Pashtonkot when the Taliban attacked a local police check post.
Two local police soldiers were wounded in the clash, Jamshidi said.
Meanwhile, a source told TOLOnews that a police check post fell to the Taliban in the district but Jamshidi rejected this claim.
In a statement released by the ANA in the north, four Taliban insurgents were also killed in an Afghan airstrike in Bilchiragh district of Faryab province.
Two other Taliban insurgents surrendered to the security forces in Qaisar district of Faryab province. According to the statement, these insurgents also handed over their weapons.
Hit (IraqiNews.com) Eight members of the same family were killed and wounded on Tuesday when Islamic State members targeted homes belonging to paramilitary fighters in Anbar.
A security source told Baghdad Today that two Islamic State members hurled grenades at the homes of two brothers and members of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Saridiya and Kassara, west of the city of Hit.
Two of the household were killed, while six others were wounded, including children, said the source. Security forces killed the attackers before they could blow themselves up, and launched a search for other suspected participants in the attack, the source added.
Anbar’s wester areas have been held by IS since 2014, when the group proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq. Iraqi forces are preparing to invade the group’s last two holdouts there, Rawa and Qaim.
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MOSCOW: A Sukhoi military jet crashed while trying to take off from Russia’s Hmeimim base in Syria on Tuesday, killing the crew, Russian news agencies quoted a military spokesman as saying.
“The Su-24 plane rolled off the runway and broke up while accelerating for takeoff... The plane’s crew did not have time to eject and died,” the spokesman said.
He did not clarify how many people died, but the Su-24 usually has a crew of two.
“According to a report from the scene of the accident, the reason could be a technical failure,” he added.
Russia has staged air strikes in Syria in support of the regime of President Bashar Assad since 2015.
On Tuesday, the defense ministry said Russian planes are currently carrying out 150 strikes per day in eastern Syria against Daesh terrorists.
The latest casualties put the toll of Russian servicemen officially reported killed in Syria at 37.
Last month a Russian general was killed near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where Russian special forces are participating in the regime’s ground offensive.
#5
“Today California took a major step toward treating HIV as a public health issue, instead of treating people living with HIV as criminals,” Sen. Scott Wiener, D.-
Soda tax, criminalizing pronoun use, and now decriminalizing infecting partners with HIV? What is it about politicians named Wiener?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2017 10:38
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#7
Moonbeam is termed out after this one
He has a way of coming back though, doesn't he? And then there's Newsome, Viaragosa, Garcetti and a whole other cast of donkey clowns who all want to take Moonbeam's place and could be even worse.
[DAWN] At least four suspected turbans and an Indian army soldier were killed in three separate gun-battles in India-held Kashmire, officials said on Tuesday.
Indian Police claimed that the suspects were killed overnight as fighting broke out after Indian government forces cordoned off the forested village of Kellar in southern Kashmire.
Thousands on Tuesday participated in funerals for the three Lion of Islams, chanting slogans including "We want freedom" and "Go India, go back."
The villagers also rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud eulogising turbans and hailing Pakistain.
Earlier on Monday, Indian police said troops killed a top Lion of Islam commander in the northwestern Handwara area. A police statement described the slain Lion of Islam as chief of operations of the Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... (JeM).
It said he was the criminal mastermind of several attacks by the group recently, including last week's strike by turbans after they stormed a paramilitary camp near Srinagar's airport. One paramilitary officer and three turbans were killed in that fighting.
The Indian army said a soldier was killed after turbans fired at a patrol party in the Budgam area on Monday.
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[Al Jazeera] Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)
HTS is Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... 's successor and comprises some of the more powerful gangs operating in Idlib province.
After 2015, agreements between regime and opposition forces led to the forced displacement of fighters and many civilians from conflict zones, pushing them into Idlib. The situation has created intense competition and infighting, along with a dizzying number of alliances and counter-alliances among the various gangs.
HTS emerged out of this competition as one of the stronger groups in Idlib. In early October, a Ottoman Turkish-led military campaign began against HTS in Idlib in order to establish a de-escalation zone. The campaign involved Ottoman Turkish aerial bombardment to support Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) advances against HTS.
This has been a common pattern in recent years in Syria: A ground force relies on external intervention to support its territorial advances. American support allowed the SDF to advance on ISIS; Russian support was provided to regime-aligned forces in recapturing Homs, Hama, Aleppo and other areas; and now Ottoman Turkish support is being provided to the FSA.
It is unlikely that HTS will survive in its current form in the aftermath of the campaign, but as in previous years, it will likely splinter and reappear in various forms.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) The Free Syrian Army is the army that never was one.
Since the outset of the conflict, the FSA has been a conglomeration of armed brigades fighting under a loose umbrella in which central coordination and military planning never existed. FSA brigades have shifted alliances to other armed opposition groups, as well as re-defecting to the Syrian army.
There is thus virtually no ideological, political or military coherence, but the FSA persists as a loose organizational mechanism for gangs.
In 2016, the FSA was mobilised against SDF forces to prevent the contiguity of Kurdish territory along The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's southern border in Operation Euphrates Shield. Then, as now, the FSA was supported by the Ottoman Turkish military through logistics, aerial support and intelligence.
Without this military support, the FSA is simply incapable of overtaking groups such as HTS or the SDF.
The Unified National Army (UNA) The Unified National Army was created in mid-2017 with the aim of bringing together gangs of various ideological and political backgrounds. Many of these groups are dispersed throughout Syrian territory in areas where there is still active fighting, such as the south, Ghouta and northern areas around Aleppo and Idlib.
The UNA is the latest in a long line of attempts to unify the Syrian armed opposition and it is unlikely that its fate will be any different from the others.
The main group within the UNA is 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... , one of the few Islamist brigades to have persisted under this banner throughout the long course of the conflict. Brigades associated with the UNA have clashed regularly with the SDF, ISIS and HTS over territory, and have mostly been in military retreat since the Russian intervention.
While some of the southern factions retain control over some territory, their increasing abandonment by Jordanian authorities has limited their capacity and access to resources. Thus, despite having the appearance of a national character with brigades from all over the country pledging support for the project, the UNA has not solved the problems of coordination and material resources that have plagued previous attempts at unifying Syria's gangs.
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The Syrian army and allies managed to regain control over all the hills and positions near the Syrian-Jordanian border, killing scores of terrorists.
SANA news agency reported that the entire southeastern countryside of Damascus (8000 square kilometers) would have been liberated from the militant groups.
Source: Al-Manar Website
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[DAWN] Bangladesh police on Monday night arrested the top leaders of the country's largest Islamist party, an official said, as the government appeared to have launched a crackdown on the main opposition parties.
Nine people were arrested after a raid on a house in Dhaka's northern neighbourhood of Uttara, including the top leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Maqbul Ahmed, deputy leader Shafiqur Rahman and former member of parliament Golam Parwar.
“We learnt from a secret source they were holding a meeting at a secret place at a house in Uttara Sector Number Six. We have found some papers from that place,” Dhaka Police deputy commissioner Shaikh Nazmul Alam told AFP, adding they were investigating the documents.
He did not say what the Jamaat leaders were arrested for, but that “most of them were fugitive”.
Prothom Alo, the country's largest newspaper, said the leaders were arrested on charges of sabotage.
The arrests came as the government appeared to have launched a crackdown on the opposition parties after it came under heavy flak for its handling of the Rohingya crisis which has seen a massive influx of refugees fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar.
Earlier in the day, a court in the country's east issued an arrest warrant against main opposition leader Khaleda Zia after she failed to appear at a hearing over charges related to a 2015 fire-bombing of a bus that killed eight people.
Zia has been visiting her exiled son in London for the last two months and is expected to return home later this month.
The country's chief justice, who is widely seen as a major critic of the government, has also gone on a month-long leave, amid concerns that he was forcibly sent to vacation and might not return to duty.
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[AlAhram] Ottoman Turkish police launched an operation on Tuesday to arrest 70 soldiers accused of links to the U.S.-based Islamic preacher alleged to have orchestrated last year's attempted coup, the private Dogan news agency reported.
Operations targeting supporters of holy manFethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... are continuing on a daily basis some 15 months after the failed putsch. Gulen has denied involvement. In the last week alone, around 800 people were held over alleged ties to him.
Among those targeted in the police raids, focused in the central Ottoman Turkish city of Konya but launched simultaneously across seven provinces, were two colonels, seven captains and 36 lieutenants, Dogan said.
Sixty-two of the suspects were in the air force, some of them pilots, it added. Police were conducting searches of their homes and places of work.
More than 50,000 people have been tossed in the calaboose Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! pending trial over links to Gulen, while 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors since the July 15 coup attempt, in which 250 people were killed.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[DAWN] Two university employees were killed and two coppers and a driver injured on Tuesday morning when unknown button men fired on a vehicle close to Diani, a popular coastal tourist resort in Kenya.
The car was transporting officers and staff members from Diani to the Technical University of Mombasa's nearby Kwale campus when button men opened fire on Tuesday morning.
"The officers were escorting university staff members when they were ambushed by the button men who killed two and maimed three including two officers," said regional police chief Larry Kieng.
Kieng said the two university workers died at the scene while the maimed have been taken to the hospital. After the attack, a silver sedan car was left riddled with bullet holes and abandoned on the side of a narrow dirt road about two kilometres from the university.
No students were reported injured in the attack.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The leader of Hezb-e-Islami 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... has said efforts are underway by certain circles who are attempting to spark ethnic violence among different groups in the country.
Hekmatyar made the remarks during a meeting with the elders of Nomad people of the country but did not elaborate further in this regard.
According to Hekmatyar, the circles who are attempting to spark violence among different ethnic groups are attempting to achieve their goals based on the instructions of the outsiders.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... he said the Afghan people should remain vigilant and united, insisting that Afghanistan is home to all ethnic groups of the country.
The leader of Hezb-e-Islami did not specifically name any individual or group attempting to spread ethnic violence in the country.
Hekmatyar gave a similar speech during a meeting with tribal elders of Kohi Sahi district on Sunday.
He said certain circles who are trying to maintain the war in Afghanistan and are working for the interests of the outsiders.
He did not provide further information in this regard but said such circles have robbed and looted the government and work based on the instructions of the outsiders.
The leader of Hezb-e-Islami also warned that war and violence will continue in the country if necessary steps are not taken to bring the situation under the control, specifically pointing towards the issues of migration and grabbing and the formation of a national government.
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Top|| File under: Hizb-i-Islami-Hekmatyar
[Al Jazeera] Liberians have voted to elect a new president and politicians in an election that will see the country's first transfer of power from one democratically elected leader to another in more than 70 years.
Provincial results were expected within 48 hours, but the electoral body has until October 25 to issue its final confirmation of the results and to announce a runoff if necessary for the presidency.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the continent's first female president, is leaving power after serving 12 years in office - the maximum allowed under the West African country's constitution.
Polls closed at 6pm local time (18:00 GMT) on Tuesday. Twenty candidates, including the current vice president, former world footballer of the year and a model, are running for the country's top seat - with 2.2 million voters registered in the small country of 4.6 million people.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Peshmerga forces tossed in the calaboose I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! on Monday hunderds of ISIS Lions of Islam after liberating al-Hawija district, center of the Kirkuk province of Iraq.
The Asayish director said that the detainees were hiding among the displaced and admitted that they were Lions of Islam or had worked with ISIS.
The Lions of Islam were all residents of the area. Their families were sent to the camps.
He pointed out that the number of displaced has reached about seven thousand.
According Peshmerga forces, the Lions of Islam hid between families in order to flee to the camps housing those displaced.
Last week, Iraqi forces had announced the full restoration of Hawija - the last strongholds of ISIS in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2017
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... armed militias fired a ground-to-ground missile targeted at a school in the the village of al-Jaradiyah in the Jazan region of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... No injuries of casualties have been reported so far.
An official source at the Command of Coalition Forces supporting the restoration of legitimacy in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... confirmed that the missile caused damage to the school and its yard as well as to some properties of citizens.
The source also confirmed that Houthi militias "do not hesitate to target schools and civilian facilities, which is a clear violation of the international humanitarian law".
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10/11/2017
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A video of psychiatric consultant Tarek al-Habib advising women during a television show "to use men to produce children" and noting that men should "use women for pleasure" recently went viral and sparked outrage among social media users.
Speaking to al-Arabiya.net, Habib explained that the video was taken out of context as he was speaking to a 37-year-old woman who was still single and upset about it, so in order to make her feel better, he advised her to lower her expectations and "marry to produce children before it’s too late."
It’s worth noting that the video is in fact two years old but was only recently shared online. Many social media users were outraged by the content but some defended Habib saying it was his personal opinion or a "lapse."
Habib also said that he still adheres to his advice to women who have not married yet and who would like to have children.
"Even a man’s marriage to a woman for pleasure is okay. These are needs which one can achieve with the help of the other. By making marriage complicated, we are hindering it and paving the way for men and women to commit prohibited acts," Habib said.
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10/11/2017
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This is what you get when you spend your money on beans and bullets, but nothing on media
Jeddah – A number of areas under the control of the Yemeni insurgents, especially in the capital Sana’a and the province of Tihama, have witnessed a significant increase in cases of violations of the rights of civilians, amounting to approximately 120 cases per month, including killings, torture and armed robbery of properties and closing of Quran memorization institutes in some cities.
Civil rights organizations called for the speedy intervention of international bodies to stop these violations, which have increased with the progress of the National Army on a number of fronts near Sana’a, demanding the need to put pressure on the militias to stop recruiting children and abducting them from their homes.
According to the Yemeni Minister of Human Rights, 20,000 children from different cities were taken by the militias to the front lines.
Human rights activist in the province of Tihama Abdul Hafiz al-Hattami said that Houthi-Saleh militias have escalated the pace of violations against citizens and their private and public rights to intimidate them and prevent a possible revolution against them in a clear absence of many international organizations in this regard.
“The Yemeni citizen has become exposed to killing and torturing in the prisons of the insurgents; many teachers have not been released recently from prison and were subject to torture and murder in many cases. The most recent case was the killing of a family consisting of a mother and son, whose father works in the education sector,” Hattami added.
He pointed out that according to human rights reports, Dhamar city recorded in September 120 cases of violations of public and private properties, including recruiting children and forcing them to fight in the war without taking their parents’ permission and returning their corps.
Ibb city also recorded around 100 violations in September, represented in abducting, killing, stealing, raiding houses, attacking public sector employees and recruiting children by force, according to Hattami.
Hattami added that Hodeidah province, for its part, recorded 50 violations, including the killing of children, torturing, oppressing, stealing revenues of Hodeidah port and the costumes that amounted to nine billion in one month, imposing additional fees on the citizens and looting humanitarian aids.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Eight years ago, a Saudi man filed a lawsuit against a resident who "stepped on an ant on purpose."
According to the plaintiff, his actions were "not an exemplary of Islam’s teachings."
The man said that "an ant is one of one God’s living creatures and has a right [to live]." He demanded that "Islamic law rules" are enforced on defendant.
Judge Mohammed al-Fayez accepted the case.
Speaking to the plaintiff, Fayez said: "Your claim was accepted and as the ant’s attorney, it is clear to me that when you filed the case, you did not provide a legitimate attorney contract from the parents of the ant that was killed by the defendant.
"As such, the case cannot proceed unless the concerned individual is present or has a legitimate attorney."
The judge then continued to ask the plaintiff to bring a legitimate attorney contract from the ant’s parents. Once he does, the court will then "ask the defendant to come to court."
The man was shocked by the judge’s reply and had no response but to leave the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2017
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#1
As a good Muslim, the plaintiff should pay for the ant's attorney in the absence of its relatives. The ant must be given a voice!
#5
The man said that "an ant is one of one God’s living creatures and has a right [to live]." He demanded that "Islamic law rules" are enforced on defendant.
"Now a Jooooo? I'm cool with that" he added
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2017 8:36
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#6
The fool forgot that all happens because Allah has so willed it. He seeks to forbid Allah His will through His chosen agent --- BLASPHEMER!!
[DAWN] KASUR: Ganda Singhwala police on Monday started the paperwork but haven't done much else against three men for allegedly raping a boy in Hussain Khanwala village.
The village had attracted worldwide attention in 2015 when hundreds of young boys were alleged to have been sexually abused.
According to police, three suspects, under the influence, kidnapped a 14-year-old boy of the same village and allegedly abused him sexually on Sunday night. The suspects disappeared, while the boy was shifted to DHQ hospital.
Police started the paperwork but haven't done much else under sections 377 and 367-A of the PPC. According to Station House Officer Muhammad Waheed Arif, police were conducting raids to arrest the suspects. They were also waiting for a medical report of the boy to ascertain whether it was rape or an attempt.
One of the suspects was among those alleged to have been abused in 2015, and had withdrawn his case later.
Earlier this year, 10 minors, including three girls, had been killed after rape in Kasur and its adjoining villages with no arrests so far.
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10/11/2017
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[DAWN] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will hear the bail plea later this week of an American citizen of Pak origin awaiting extradition to the United States for allegedly planning an attack on New York in connivance with the bad 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, the suspect's lawyer said on Tuesday.
Talha Haroon was jugged You have the right to remain silent... in November 2016. The 19-year-old is one of three suspected IS sympathisers who allegedly plotted to cause bloodshed in New York before US agents reportedly thwarted the plot, US authorities said.
Haroon's defence lawyer Idrees Ashraf said IHC Chief Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi on Tuesday asked for a response from the interior ministry in Haroon's plea and set the next hearing for Friday.
Ashraf said his client's father Haroon Rashid previously obtained a stay of his son's extradition from the same court. Rashid earlier claimed his son was innocent and would be in danger if sent to the US.
Earlier, US federal law enforcement officials said they disrupted the plot which targeted New York City locations, including concert venues, subway stations and Times Square.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[NYPOST] Drug-enforcement agents nabbed a tractor-trailer loaded with 21 kilos of heroin laced with fentanyl
Nasty.
as it drove through The Bronx, authorities said Tuesday.
The truck with Maine license plates was being driven by Luciano Osobampo-Armenta, 33, on Oct. 8 around 8:50 p.m. on Bruckner Boulevard, they said.
Investigators with the DEA Strike Force stopped the trailer as part of an investigation and found 6 kilos of the drugs in the cab of the truck and 15 kilos in the trailer.
The drug was wrapped in vacuum-sealed plastic-wrapped brick-shaped packages.
According to the criminal complaint, the driver was the sole occupant of the truck.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2017
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#1
That's just Mr. Osobampo-Armenta's, his cartel employer's and China's (fentanyl) way of showing their love for America.
#5
Definitely a war story. We got all kinds of ways to fight wars. The Chinese even fight this kind of war a bit differently. In China Mr. Osobampo-Armenta would end up on his knees with his hands tied behind his back and a pistol at the back of his head. Maybe that's why they don't have quite the drug problem we do are not losing it the way we are.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/11/2017 10:42
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#6
Maybe that's why they don't have quite the drug problem we do are not losing it the way we are.
Of course not. They export the components to other countries, and profit off them.
#7
Poss Mexican driver and a Canada border/seacoast state registered vehicle. 43 lbs is not a shipment it’s a hobby, because the driver had transport access. He may have had a NY route and was near his terminus.
[THEGATEWAYPUNDIT] Project Veritas has released a video of the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... video gatekeeper Nicholas Dudich, who was caught on hidden-camera boasting of his lack of journalistic ethics. Dudich, who serves as Audience Strategy Editor, displays a lack of integrity throughout the video, manages videos which go "on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram" for the Times.
While talking about being objective at the Times, Dudich replies candidly, "No I’m not, that’s why I’m here."
Dudich considers himself an important player at the New York Times, telling the Project Veritas Journalist "my voice is on... my imprint is on every video we do."
Dudich goes on to explain what he might do to target President Trump:
"I’d target his businesses, his dumb fuck of a son, Donald Jr., and Eric...
"Target that. Get people to boycott going to his hotels. Boycott... So a lot of the Trump brands, if you can ruin the Trump brand and you put pressure on his business and you start investigating his business and you start shutting it down, or they’re hacking or other things. He cares about his business more than he cares about being President. He would resign. Or he’d lash out and do something incredibly illegal, which he would have to."
Before working at the Times, Dudich worked on the political campaigns of both Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... and Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... In 2016, he was recruited to work for the Clinton campaign:
"So I have that background, so when Clinton in 2016... they needed a volunteer strategist to do video... well, they needed someone to help them do video, and how to make it heartfelt, for Clinton."
O’Keefe released NYT Part 1 Tuesday morning.
...which suggests a Part 2 will soon follow and, knowing Mr. O'Keefe, Parts 3,4, and 5 thereafter. The NYT is sooooo screwed.
The video:
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2017
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#1
Dudich has no room to talk about dumb f$cks, arrogant arsehole that he is.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2017 10:44
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#3
Just the fact that NYT needs an "audience strategy editor" indicates they've strayed way in the heck off the path of objective journalism. They wouldn't need a guy like Dudovich with such a bizarre job title if they were the least bit interested in simply telling the truth.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos is perhaps too clever to get caught on video by O'Keefe but note he has one thing in common with Dudovich: Their credibility and journalistic integrity has been tainted by their associations with the Clintons.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/11/2017 11:06
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#4
Gotta be present on social media, donchaknow.
The New York Times has responded to the video, and Mr. O'Keefe has responded to them in a brief video that can be seen here. He promises more to come, as Mr.Breitbart trained him to do.
[NYPOST] A woman was raped, whipped and beheaded before a cheering mob in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... ‐ as punishment for dishing up "forbidden fish" to a group of rebels who then drank her blood.
The atrocity in the main square of Luebo, in the province of Kasaï-Occidental, occurred on April 8 and captured in stomach-churning video that only emerged this week, La Belle France 24 reported.
The naked woman is seen being dragged in front of a crowd by members of an gang claiming allegiance to the Kamuina Nsapu rebel movement.
"They said she gave them beans that contained pieces of a small, local fish," a Luebo resident told La Belle France 24 about the eatery owner.
"Convinced that she had broken their protection charms, the council of rebels sentenced both the woman and the son of her husband’s second wife to commit incest in public," the resident said.
In the footage, rebel leader Kalamba Kambangoma holds the victim by her hair and explains in the local Tshiluba language that "she must die" for committing high treason.
He then turns her over to another woman, who is wearing a pink T-shirt and a red bandanna that marks members of the rebel movement.
The woman in pink then takes the victim over to a platform, where she and the young man are forced to have sex in front of the crowd while being whipped for several minutes.
The depraved thugs then executed the woman and the young man by hacking them to death with machetes. Some of the rebels drank their blood, according to witnesses interviewed by La Belle France 24.
One resident sent the news outlet a photograph showing several rebels posing with the severed head of the man, who was about 20 years old.
The victims’ mutilated corpses were left out in the open for two days before finally being buried on the spot. After the village was liberated, the Red Thingy helped move the bodies to a cemetery.
The group seized the town of 40,000 on March 31 and maintained a reign of terror for several weeks before they were kicked out by the Congolese army on April 19.
Many people reacted in horror to the video.
"The first time, I had so many tears and so much anger that I couldn’t watch the full video," Louise Ngandu told La Belle France 24. "In the entire crowd, not a single person opposed the act. No one said, ’No!’"
Posted by: Fred ||
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This is why the Arab world does not long have nice things.
[AnNahar] Authorities in Jordan on Tuesday estimated at more than $10 billion the cost of hosting thousands of refugees displaced from neighboring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011.
The U.N. says that some 650,000 Syrian refugees are currently being housed in Jordan, but the government puts the figure far higher at around 1.3 million people.
In a statement released on social media, the foreign ministry said "more than $10.3 billion" (8.7 billion euros) had been spent on putting up the refugees.
That figure covered additional expenses in sectors including health, education and employment, and also extra money spent on public services and subsidized food, it said.
Jordan, which shares a 370 kilometer (230 mile) border with Syria, estimates that almost $1.7 billion will be needed to cover the refugees this year.
The kingdom -- which has called for the international community to do more on the crisis -- has recently come under fire from Human Rights Watch for allegedly "summarily deporting" Syrian refugees.
The group said that on average some 400 refugees were being removed each month at the start of 2017 in a move that could be aimed at preventing the violence in Syria spilling over onto Jordanian territory after several armed attacks.
Authorities insisted that any return of refugees to Syria was voluntary and that they only headed to areas in the country that are considered safe.
The U.N. refugee agency says 93 percent of the Syrian refugees in Jordan live below the poverty line. Around 180,000 of them are housed in two sprawling camps in the desert.
Fighting in Syria has claimed more than 330,000 lives since a brutal crackdown by the army on protesters in 2011 spiraled into all-out conflict.
The U.N. estimates that more than five million Syrians have been driven from the country by fighting, with the majority settling in neighboring The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Leb and Jordan.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/11/2017 11:28
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#3
The Saudis and the rest of the Gulf "countries" have been donating money to their penurious brother Sunni states, but they have considerably less to give at the moment for some reason. It'll be better when oil prices go back up to the $100 range, Abu Uluque.
Hama (Syria News) Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) managed to recapture several villages from the Islamic State militants, in the eastern countryside of Hama, sources told Qasioun News on Tuesday.
The sources informed that the HTS militia was able to recapture several villages from the Islamic State militants, after clashes between the two sides, in the eastern countryside of Hama, in northern Syria.
Furthermore, the HTS advanced toward Sammakia, Tufaha, Andarin and Buwaid areas, while the Islamic State group started toward Athraya – Sheikh Hilal highway and Shakosya, Rahjan and Sarha villages, in the eastern countryside of Hama, during an offensive carried out by the HTS militias to recapture the area.
It is noteworthy that the Islamic State managed to cross Uqayribat District, in eastern Hama, towards the HTS-held Rahjan area, based on an agreement with the Syrian regime forces.
[AnNahar] The two had been considering different potential targets such as police or prison guards, a source said on condition of anonymity.
Both were behind bars for non-terror offenses and are suspected of being radicalized while serving their sentences. They were charged Friday with being part of a terrorist conspiracy.
The Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... ian, 28, who was due to be released Tuesday, confirmed to Sherlocks that he was planning on carrying out an attack, a source said.
The Frenchie, 22, was due to be released next week.
Terror Sherlocks moved to arrest them after a 44-year-old man from the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, who was in contact with the pair, indicated he was "planning on heading to the mainland to offer them logistical support."
Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said Tuesday that La Belle France urgently needed to stop prisoners from being radicalized behind bars.
"What was revealed yesterday is testament to the urgency of the situation," she told Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... 1 radio.
In August, a radicalized prisoner attacked two guards at the Osny prison north of the capital in what was seen as La Belle France's first jihadist assault within a jail.
The prisoner, who was behind bars for attempting to travel to jihadist-held territory in Syria, told Sherlocks he "wanted to kill a prison guard" in the name of IS.
La Belle France has suffered a string of jihadist attacks over the past two years that have left more than 240 people dead.
Some of those responsible were involved in Islamist networks in jail, including Cherif Kouachi, one of the button men who attacked satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... in January 2015, and his friend Amedy Coulibaly who killed four at a Jewish supermarket two days later.
Fresnes is one of three French prisons under special watch for radicalization, where prisoners are assessed for signs of extremism before their arrival.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/11/2017
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#2
I read the entire article twice looking for the surprise that was promised by the headline. However, I don't think anything about these Donk criminals would surprise me except an indictment of all of them.
Slowly exploding. That's OK. I can be patient. But I am expecting a big bang from this one.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/11/2017 10:47
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#4
The political net result of this 'bizarre scandal is that one must reasonably assume that every bit of information that was stored within Congressional IT infrastructure during the years of Awan's employment is now in the hands of Pakistani, Chinese and probably North Korean intelligence services.
Awan himself as well as his political enablers are just a side story at this point.
#5
"bit of information that was stored within Congressional IT infrastructure during the years of Awan's employment is now in the hands of Pakistani, Chinese and probably North Korean intelligence services"
So they know our congress if full of dip$hits. That's probably why Kim is starting to fear Trump might be serious. No one in Congress is gonna stop him.
#6
.....one must reasonably assume that every bit of information that was stored within Congressional IT infrastructure during the years of Awan's employment is now in the hands of Pakistani, Chinese and probably North Korean intelligence services.
Any competent damage assessment would assume likewise.
[IsraelTimes] Fox News cites Germany intelligence assessments that claim Tehran used front companies to bypass international restrictions.
Iran made dozens of attempts to illicitly obtain missile and nuclear technology, even after it was bound by the nuclear deal with world powers, according to recent intelligence assessments by German regional states, Fox News reported Tuesday.
Intelligence reports from September and October from three of the 16 constituent states that make up Germany found that Iran tried 32 times to obtain related technologies.
The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia found that Iran made "32 procurement attempts... that definitely or with high likelihood were undertaken for the benefit of proliferation programs."
Iran engages in "spreading atomic, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction," the report said, and noted that Iran used front companies in the United Arab Emirates, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and China to get around international restrictions on its nuclear and missile research.
The review covered 2016 and said most of the attempts were for missile technologies. It did not say whether the attempts were successful.
US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... is scheduled Thursday to make an announcement on whether the US believes Iran is in compliance with the landmark nuclear deal that aimed to stop Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability.
The Iran deal, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was signed with six global powers in 2015 and came into effect in January 2016. Iran also faces restrictions limiting its ballistic missile program, though it has continued carrying out tests.
In an earlier report on 2015, the German intelligence agency found that Iran made 141 attempts to procure similar technologies.
Another report from the German state of Hessen said that Iran, Pakistain, North Korea and Sudan use "guest academics" for activities connected with nuclear and weapons programs.
"An example for this type of activity occurred in the sector of electronic technology in connection with the implementation of the enrichment of uranium," the report said.
The third report from state of Saxony-Anhalt, said Iran is continuing "unabated" in its missile program and could threaten Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and beyond.
In a response to Fox News about the findings, German officials said they were nonetheless satisfied that Iran is complying with the JCPOA.
"We have no indication of Iran violating its JCPOA commitments," said the officials, who were not identified by Fox News. "Quite on the contrary, the recent 2016 Report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution states that there is no evidence of Iran violating the JCPOA."
"Having said that, we remain worried by Iran’s missile program. The aforementioned report, as well as reports from regional intelligence authorities, shows that Germany is highly vigilant in this regard and will continue to do so. However, a woman is only as old as she admits... this issue is outside the scope of the JCPOA and needs to be dealt with separately."
Over the past few weeks, Trump has indicated that he would not be recertifying the Iran deal ‐ a process required by a provision in a 2015 US law according to which he informs Congress every three months if the Islamic Theocratic Republic is adhering to the terms of the agreement in exchange for broad international relief from oil, trade and financial sanctions.
#6
#3 they'll be the Guinea pigs for the millennials who can expect no pensions as the magic money tree will have withered and died by their time. See what works best for a model of sustainment. Moving back to large family units with the elders looking after the new brood while the rest work has historical basis. Of course being indentured for life to get a degree in some studies program is unlikely to provide a viable income stream for that sort of generational structure.
#8
About half the states are in the same boat and you can expect to see this happen to them if they can't fix things in a decade or so. After that... maybe even Uncle Sam.
Most western governments are so in debt and their populations are collapsing. I don't see much hope for them.
#9
Financial health of other States. Pensions and unfunded liabilities continue to be a financial challenge for states underwater. Perhaps having State Legislatures meet only one day or week per year would help (sarc). Draining the Washington swamp would also help.
#10
I believe I noted this sometime last year. Many of the major construction companies quit doing work directly for the state in early 2016 since they weren't getting paid.
Road builders were told by Illinois DOT to 'stop work' July 1st this year. There are still maintenance contracts being issued, but no major upgrades in that sector.
The only companies still doing anything close to major projects seem to be the 'connected' ones.
#11
Perhaps having State Legislatures meet only one day or week per year would help (sarc).
I don't think you need the sarc tag there. It might not ever happen but it's a great idea.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/11/2017 11:11
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#12
re: #10. Major projects are usually funded by FHWA with grants administered thru the State DOT, so there shouldn't be a non-payment to a contractor unless the DOT is squirreling away the Fed $ unlawfully to cover State costs. Now on State-funded projects...all bets are off
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2017 12:13
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#13
#7 I blame unreasonably low taxes, runaway industry and manufacturing. Something must be done.
Posted by: Besoeker 2017-10-11 09:47
#14
unless the DOT is squirreling away the Fed $ unlawfully to cover State costs
You are absolutely correct about how the FHWA funds are supposed to be administered, Frank. Unfortunately this is Illinois. The squirreling seems to be at play (you know, for 'Administrative Fee' costs and whatnot), so folks aren't being paid in what constitutes a timely manner.
[Ynet] Egypt bulldozes at least 140 homes along its border with Gazoo to expand buffer zone, in a combined effort with Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", to prevent weapons and ISIS and other gunnies from crossing over.
Egypt’s military has bulldozed at least 140 homes and more than 200 acres along the Gazoo Strip border, expanding a buffer zone in an effort to cut off the flow of weapons and myrmidons.
The governor of Northern Sinai province, Maj. Gen. Abdel-Fatah Harhour, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named late Monday that the military began a new phase in clearing the zone, which is 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) wide and 10 kilometers (6 miles) long.
Egypt has struggled to combat 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.... -led insurgency in the northern Sinai since 2014, and has built the buffer zone to prevent the gunnies from using a vast tunnel network under the border that was created to evade a decade-old Israeli and Egyptian blockade on the territory.
Paleostinian-based terror group turned political party Hamas has also worked to secure the border in recent months as it tries to improve ties with Cairo. Hamas has cracked down on more extreme rivals, including supporters of the Islamic State group.
Harhour said the government has promised to compensate those who lost their homes and farms. "We have created committees to list those who should receive such compensation," he said.
He said the residents at first received checks worth 3,000 Egyptian pounds (nearly $170) each to pay for "alternative accommodation."
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... a tribal leader, Sheikh Issa Karafin, said some evacuees haven’t received the money yet.
"The checks were uncovered," said Kharafin who left Rafah last year to relocate to the Suez Canal city of Ismailia over threats from Islamic State myrmidons.
He said the military came in August and asked people to collect their belongings to leave the area as soon as possible. Kharafin said he has helped over two dozen of the evicted families find places to live in Ismailia over the past two weeks.
One resident said he and his family live in a desert area, "in huts with no electricity or water." He spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from authorities.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias are rapidly recruiting new staff and officials at Sanaa University and appointing academic leaders loyal to it, while terminating dozens of academics, employees and assistants as part of its plan to take full control over the educational institutions in Yemen.
The union of faculty members and their assistants at Sanaa University revealed that the University Council decided to terminate a large number of faculty members arbitrarily and have strongly denounced these procedures and demanded they be made void.
In its statement on Tuesday, the union called on all members of Sanaa University to confront these actions firmly and to stand against any dismissal or appointment procedures that violate laws, regulations and academic and administrative standards.
RELATED: Houthi event held in Sanaa University sparks uproar
The union affirmed its adherence to its legal right to take all necessary measures to defend the rights of all its members.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2017
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#1
Ah. The headline led me to think we were talking about Putin-style termination.
Posted by: Fester Scourge of the Bunions3692 ||
10/11/2017 12:57
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[DAWN] Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, is "being prepared" to undergo her first chemotherapy session in the United Kingdom, her daughter announced on Twitter on Tuesday. Maryam Nawaz tweeted a picture of Kulsoom in the hospital, with Nawaz by her side, and thanked her followers for their "valuable prayers".
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Deir Ezzor (Syria News) The Russian Ministry of Defense announced, on Tuesday, that its warplanes are carrying out 150 air strikes, on daily basis, on the Islamic State-held areas in Mayadin City, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashinkov, said in a statement that the ministry has observed attempts to move the Islamic State militants, including foreign fighters, from Iraq to Syria.
The air strikes are part of a military operation conducted by the Syrian regime forces, backed by the Russian Air Forces, to recapture the city of Mayadin and al-Omar oil field, located in eastern Deir Ezzor.
The Russian warplanes destroyed the funding resources of the Islamic State group, and now aiming at foiling the radical group attempts to extract oil from their-held areas, in the Syrian territory, Konashinkov added.
In addition, the ministry also accused the US-led coalition of lessening the number of its air strikes on the Islamic State headquarters in Iraq, after the Syrian army launched an offensive to liberate the city of Deir Ezzor in Syria.
It is noteworthy that the Islamic State militants are suffering due to the heavy strikes of the army troops and Syrian Democratic Forces, which are conducted on several areas, in the countryside of Deir Ezzor.
The Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed an ISIL command center in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province and killed some 34 terrorists who entered the country from Iraq’s western regions, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Russian aircraft carried out 182 airstrikes against the positions of ISIL terrorists in Syria in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. A total of 70 ISIL terrorists, who were later identified as nationals of CIS states and Algeria, were eliminated, according to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov.
The airstrikes were carried out after reconnaissance drones had discovered a large stronghold of ISIL terrorists on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river near the city of Mayadeen. The terrorists had an artillery and tank projectiles depot, as well as a ramified network of underground tunnels there.
“A ISIL command post and three groups of terrorists who arrived in the area from the territory of Iraq as a reinforcement were destroyed. The elimination of 34 militants, the destruction of 5 SUVs with large-caliber weapons, as well as 2 vehicles with ammunition has been confirmed,” Russian Konashenkov stated, commenting on one of the airstrikes near the village of Hatla in the province.
The spokesman went on by saying that a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 jet hit the same area 40 minutes later when ISIL militants arrived at the scene to evacuate wounded terrorists. As the result of that strike, 20 more militants were eliminated.
Source: Sputnik
Posted by: badanov ||
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Shirqat (IraqiNews.com) Fifteen Islamic State members and volunteer civilian fighters were killed Tuesday during a security operation in the eastern side of Shirqat, Salahuddin province.
A security source told Baghdad Today that volunteer tribal fighters were on a chase of Islamic State members in Tal al-Hawa region. While the volunteers managed to kill eight militants, a remaining number of them pretended death, and blew themselves using explosive belts when approached by the fighters, leaving seven dead.
Shirqat civilians had formed combat groups to assist security forces combing the town for IS vestiges.
Iraq’s military command announced the recapture of Shirqat late September.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/11/2017
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban ...Arabic for students... holy warriors and their local leaders suffered heavy casualties during the operations in southern Zabul province of Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the operations were conducted in Shahjoi and Mizan districts of the province.
A statement by MoD said at least 23 Talibs were killed and 28 others were maimed during the operations.
The statement further added that the deputy shadow district chief of the group for Mizan Hayatullah Mujahid, Taliban’s shadow military chief for Mizan Sediq Agha, and three of their commanders were among those killed.
At least three vehicles, eight cycle of violences, and some weapons together with the ammunition and explosives were also destroyed.
According to MoD, the gunnies suffered the casualties in the past 24 hours during the counter-terrorism operations conducted in various provinces.
The ministry further added that a total of seventy gunnies were killed during the operations and fifty two others were maimed.
The anti-government armed bully boy groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
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[TheLocal.fr] Swiss police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a Tunisian couple including the brother of the assailant who fatally stabbed two young women in the French city of Marseille this month.
The pair, both asylum seekers, were locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... on Sunday in Chiasso, near the Italian border.
"The man is the brother of the presumed perpetrator of the attack in Marseille," a statement from Swiss federal police said, referring to Ahmed Hanachi, the 29-year-old who killed two women in the French coastal city on October 1st.
The man currently in Swiss custody is "known to foreign police services for his links to jihadist terrorist movements," the statement added.
"His role in the Marseille attack, if he had one, is not yet clear."
Federal police spokeswoman Cathy Maret separately told AFP that, in accordance with Swiss law, the detained husband and wife are due to be repatriated to Tunisia.
But that process will take several weeks at minimum and could be altered if another jurisdiction requests the couple's extradition.
Maret earlier said that police had information indicating the couple "could represent a threat to Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... 's domestic security"
They were arrested at the migrant registration centre in Chiasso in Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino region, Maret added.
A French security source close to the investigation into the Marseille attack identified the man in Swiss custody as Anouar Hanachi.
The source said the arrests were requested by Tunisian authorities.
Swiss police would not confirm the identities of either the man or woman.
The news comes as one of Hanachi's other brothers, Anis, was arrested Saturday night in Italia, after French authorities issued an international arrest warrant.
Another one of his brothers and a sister were detained in Tunisia late last week and had been questioned by anti-terror Sherlocks there. They have since been released.
Tunisian security sources have said they suspect both Ahmed and Anour Hanachi of being "extremists".
Their father Noureddine has told AFP that he doubted his sons in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... had been radicalized, adding that he had not heard from either for two months.
The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group has grabbed credit for Hanachi's attack, but French Sherlocks have not yet found evidence linking him to the jihadist organization.
#2
"By Allah," we'll holler, "asylum!"
Whilst hollowing all of their xylem.
Not "termite" or "shipworm;"
Some more serendip term
Like "refugee child" will beguile 'em.
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.
[LI] The North African country of Tunisia is turning into a "springboard" for illegal immigrants trying to get to Europe, according to the German newspaper Die Welt. The Muslim-majority country, destabilized in the wake of the "Arab Spring", was becoming a serious security threat to Europe since the Tunisian government was encouraging its Islamized or otherwise troublesome young men to emigrate to Europe.
[AnNahar] President 
[Ynet] French authorities have detained two people in the investigation into an attempted 
[FreeBeacon] Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Nicholas Rasmussen and Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales announced rewards on Tuesday for the capture and conviction of two Hezbollah leaders.
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[DAWN] At least four suspected 
[DAWN] Bangladesh police on Monday night arrested the top leaders of the country's largest Islamist party, an official said, as the government appeared to have launched a crackdown on the main opposition parties.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Peshmerga forces 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Eight years ago, a Saudi man filed a lawsuit against a resident who "stepped on an ant on purpose."
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary 
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
North Korea
No worries, it's a seasonal thing. 
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
