[Jpost] The British woman who was allegedly raped by Israeli youth in Cyprus, and then said she lied about the crime, took the stand on Tuesday in the town of Paralimni and told the judge she was, indeed, raped and only agreed to walk back her allegations after police officers pressured her to do so, Haaretz reported.
"I was afraid for my life," she told the judge. She is currently on trial for perjury. Greeks ARE civilized
The woman told the court the police officer she spoke with explained to her they have a video that proves the sexual acts between her and the Israelis were not against her will. She was not allowed to view the video and the officer did not agree to tell her how the police came into possession of it.
Israeli media reported that one of the Israelis showed police videos he took on his phone and asked them: "Does this look like rape to you?" IMO, making this type of video should be mandatory training for American college students
Twelve Israelis were arrested by Cyprus police in July because of the woman's original complaint. They were later released and allowed to return home when news broke out that the alleged rape victim withdrew the charges.
The Israelis maintained all sexual relations with the 19-year-old woman were done with consent and that they are not rapists.
Urgent! Reliable soyrces report US forces near Kobane have had to redeploy to combat Turkish backed FSA groups. They are being directly targeted. Their security and saftey is in danger! pic.twitter.com/J7gjV2odY8
#1
We should send some A-10s from the NATO Incirlik AFB to take out the FSB scum then land them back at Incirlik. If the Sultan of Swat doesn't like it - Tough shit!
[WFLX] An improvised explosive device blew up in an elementary school playground in Helena on Tuesday just before classes began, authorities said, causing no injuries but leaving investigators to puzzle over what was behind the explosion in Montana’s quiet capital city.
Update from the article at 5:55 p.m. EDT:
Montana authorities said a device they initially thought to be the remnants of a homemade bomb in an elementary school playground didn’t explode — and it wasn’t even a bomb.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said Tuesday that further investigation found the plastic bottle wrapped in black tape was full of washers, nuts and bolts, along with a non-flammable unidentified liquid. There was no detonator attached to the bottle.
Dutton said a homeless person carried the bottle from a nearby construction site and left it in Helena’s Rossiter Elementary School playground.
Page1: WoT Operations and Home Front: WoT were the right initial classifications, given the original information. But now that we know it wasn’t a bomb, I’m very happy to be able to move this to P.3: Non-WoT, Short Attention Span Theater.
#1
You fund the subjects that result in high paying jobs (return on investment for taxpayers). That gets rid of 90% of the idle hands on both the student and faculty side. The rest can go to trade school to learn a useful skill.
#5
An Arizona resident has to pay to go to ASU, yet illegals and dreamers get to go for free... Please bring common sense to AZ... When the Alum society calls and askes for funding I direct them to Mexico..
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/15/2019 14:55
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#6
Who wants to fund a course in 'African Studies' for a gal who won't even go to Africa later ?
On October 7, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a partial withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria. Soon after, Turkish forces began moving south across the border to strike Kurdish forces which had been until extremely recently under American protection. Two days later the partial American withdrawal was upgraded to a full evacuation of all forces.
Wailing and gnashing of teeth across the American political spectrum quickly erupted, with many condemning the tactical and political aspects of the president’s decision. I’m of mixed minds:
On the one hand, the Kurds ‐ whether in Syria or Iraq ‐ have been America’s only reliable regional allies since America’s first major confrontation with Iraq back in the early 1990s. When we have asked, they have answered. Every single time. In many cases U.S. forces didn’t even do the heavy lifting, but instead relegated themselves to providing intelligence and materiel support. Without the Kurds’ assistance the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would have been far nastier affair, post-Saddam Iraq would have been far less stable, the defanging of ISIS and the destruction of the ISIS caliphate would not have happened. In Syria in specific, the Kurds habitually provided at least five times the forces the Americans did.
On the other hand, the United States was always going to leave Syria. If the Americans were unwilling to commit 100,000 troops to the overthrow of Syria’s Assad government and its subsequent forcible reconstruction, then there was little reason to become involved in a decades-long, grinding multi-sided civil war.
The primary reason American forces remain in Syria at this point is to limit Iranian penetration. That battle was lost six years ago when then-President Obama allowed the Syrian government to cross Obama’s own red line on the use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians. Obama made it crystal clear that any U.S. military action would be small scale, focused on Special Operations Forces, and largely dedicated to backing up the Syrian Kurds. Whether under Obama or Trump, an American withdrawal has always been inevitable. It’s just taken seven years of Syrian-Russian-Iranian victories on the battlefield and the large-scale dismemberment of the ISIS Caliphate to make it imminent.
Aside from the Iranian vector, American national and strategic interests in Syria are utterly nonexistent. Syria ‐ even backed up by Iran ‐ is a military pigmy that Israel could easily shatter. If Jerusalem really wanted to, it could roll into Damascus in a long weekend. (Sticking around, of course, would be a barrel of shiv-wielding monkeys.) American interests in Lebanon are less than American interests in Syria. Jordan has been a de facto Israeli client state for years. And that is quite literally all she wrote.
The far more important fact ‐ comfortable or uncomfortable depending upon your view ‐ is that the evolving American view of Syria is really little more than a microcosm of an evolving American view of the Middle East writ large. American troop deployments throughout the region have been plunging for a decade and are now down to about one-tenth of their peak. America now has more troops in Afghanistan than the rest of the region combined, and that deployment is well on its way to a complete phase out. CENTCOM HQ in Qatar will almost certainly be closed soon (you don’t need a forward command center if there’s nothing to command). The Iraq advisory force is leaving. Kuwait, once the launchpad for multiple wars, has been reduced to lilypad status. The Turks are certain to eject U.S. forces from the Incirlik base within a year.
Within two years the total regional deployment figure will be in the low-to-mid single digits of thousands, at most one-fifth of what is there today.
#1
[The US] ...didn’t even do the heavy lifting, but instead relegated themselves to providing intelligence and materiel support.
Without intel and materiel the Kurds otherwise didn't have, there would be no "lifting" at all, heavy or otherwise.
On the other hand, the United States was always going to leave Syria. If the Americans were unwilling to commit 100,000 troops to the overthrow of Syria’s Assad government and its subsequent forcible reconstruction, then there was little reason to become involved in a decades-long, grinding multi-sided civil war.
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 11:18
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#2
"forcible reconstruction" only seems to work on non-tribal civilisations.
#4
Middle East was semi-peaceful when the Europeans controlled the place.
Middle East was semi-peaceful when the Ottomans controlled the place.
Europe isn't up for the task, but I'm willing to give the Ottomans another chance. Let them start with Syria and see how it goes.
#9
"MBS is not a friend, nor is Saudi Arabia an ally. America used to have to put up with this sort of activity from the Saudis during the Cold War because without Saudi oil, the global trading system would have collapsed and taken the American alliance network with it. Courtesy of America’s shale revolution, those days are over."
Man, Zeihan is just hitting these out of the park.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 13:52
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#10
I'm willing to give the Ottomans another chance.
Erdogan is Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey. His ultimate goal is a worldwide caliphate with himself as caliph. In typical MB style, he is willing to use the soft jihad of the law to move in a step-wise progression that doesn’t scare the frogs out of the heating pot. For the past few years we’ve watched him driving secularists and Gulenists out of public life at home and taking over all the Gulenist private schools around the world, whose excellent curriculum looks to Turkey as the center and definer of Islam. According to Russia Today, Turkey is building a second military base in Qatar, in addition to which this chronically nearly bankrupt country has bases or military personnel
...in Azerbaijan, Northern Cyprus, northern Iraq, Somalia and northern Syria.
And Turkey has been on a mosque building spree around the world — including a $100 million behemoth on 60 acres in Maryland — funded by the Diyanet, the government office of Muslim religious affairs, with an annual budget around 2 billion Euros the biggest item in the Turkish budget, plus another 100 million or so Euros in zakat extracted from current congregations “donated” to the project.
In the old days ribats were caravanserais on the Muslim trade routes, also serving the quietly invading force as fortresses and weapons depots. What odds these modern, donated Turkish mosques are not planned to serve a similar duty by the man who proudly said, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers,” and has told Turkish immigrants in Germany that "assimilation is a crime against humanity."
[Jpost] The first TROPHY active defense systems to shield American Army Abrams tanks from a variety of anti-armor threats has been delivered on time, announced Israeli defense giant RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems.
“The deliveries are the culmination of a multi-year qualification process,” read a statement released by the company on Tuesday, adding that a “joint team of government and industry from both the U.S. and Israel worked together to adapt and integrate Trophy for both Army and Marine Corps Abrams variants.”
Last year the US Army awarded a contract worth close to $200 million for Israel’s TROPHY active defense system to shield its Abrams tanks “in support of immediate operational requirements.”
The delivery marks the first of several that will outfit four brigades of tanks.
RAFAEL CEO and President, Maj.-Gen. (Ret.) Yoav Har-Even said the delivery of the system “marks a major milestone in U.S.-Israel cooperation. There is no greater pride and satisfaction than the knowledge that the technology developed by RAFAEL and ELTA over many years of investment, trials, and combat performance, will play an instrumental part in safeguarding American lives, just like it has saved Israeli lives and revolutionized the way our armored forces perform their missions. RAFAEL and Leonardo DRS are proud to deliver the first Trophy systems to US warfighters on time. We were tasked to meet challenging production timelines, an integration process and the most challenging test scenarios.”
Designed to detect and neutralize incoming projectiles, the Trophy system has four radar antennas and fire-control radars to track incoming threats such as anti-tank-guided-missiles (ATGMs), and rocket propelled grenades. Once a projectile is detected the Trophy system fires a shotgun-type blast to neutralize the threat.
Under the terms of the contract the systems, countermeasures and maintenance kits will be supplied by the American defense contractor Leonardo DRS, Inc., which partnered with Rafael to manufacture them.
The systems will be manufactured both in the United States and Israel.
The Trophy Active Protection System (APS), developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is the only fully operational and combat-proven APS in the world and according to Rafael the company has provided some 1,000 systems to all major Israeli ground combat platforms.
According to a 2016 US Army training handbook on foreign weapon systems “the anti-tank guided missile is the singular greatest threat to tanks today” with a variety of platforms to launch them continuing to increase.
The Trophy has been installed on Israel’s Merkava tanks since 2009, it has also been installed on the IDF’s Namer heavy infantry fighting vehicle and the IDF’s new armoured personnel carrier, the Eitan.
The Trophy System received its “baptism by fire” on March 1rst 2011 when it neutralized an RPG antitank rocket which had been fired from a short range toward an IDF Merkava Mark-IV tank close to the border with the Gaza Strip.
The system has since proved its efficacy in several operations, especially during Operation Protective Edge where IDF tanks were able to operate in the Gaza Strip without suffering any losses.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian military police are patrolling the contact line between Syrian and Turkish forces in northern Syria, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defense ministry as saying on Tuesday.
Syrian government forces allied with Russia are in full control of the northern Syrian town of Manbij and Russian soldiers are coordinating with Turkey’s army in Manbij region, the Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying.
[NYP] From vaginal steaming to labiaplasty, some women are willing to go to extremes to attain the "perfect" vagina.
And just when you think you’ve heard it all, another bizarre DIY method emerges.
Some women now are apparently using toothpaste in an attempt to try and tighten their vaginas.
Unsurprisingly, doctors are warning them it’s a really bad idea and could do some nasty damage.
Vanessa Mackay, consultant gynecologist and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said: "It is a myth that toothpaste will tighten the vagina.
"Putting toothpaste into the vagina, or on the vulva, would not only be uncomfortable but it could also cause serious damage and disrupt the natural flora of the vagina leading to the potential for infections like bacterial vaginosis and thrush."
#3
From complaints I analyzed back in my toothpaste research days, it seems thirty years ago equally silly women were unhappy with the result of using it as a “personal lubricant”.
[BBC] Harley-Davidson has halted production of its first electric motorbike after finding a glitch in its charging system.
The company began shipping the £28,995 105-horsepower LiveWire bikes to dealers in the US last month.
It says existing bikes are safe but must be charged at dealerships, which will take an hour, rather than using the lower-voltage outlets in homes. Yeah, that's gonna be a sales point
Harley-Davidson told Reuters it had discovered a "non-standard condition".
Once fully charged, the bike can travel 146 miles at low-speed.
Just the reason people buy the things: to go slowly across the neighbourhood.
#7
Electric motorcycles have speakers and downloadable sounds that owners can play while imagining the destination nearing them faster than it actually is
#8
OK so you can fake the engine sounds, but somehow I don't think a leaking pile of electrons will have the same cachet as the tradiional HD territoy marking from 30 weight.......
Back in the 60's I had a battery operated thig that bolted to my Murray that made real engine sounds; and it was also good for 30 minutes or so.
#10
They will figure it out. But what they really need to get a handle on is the price point. $30K++ is way too steep for this bike. I would like to have one, might be fun.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/15/2019 15:05
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#11
Yes but is Ok to have bikers kill without a sound?
Posted by: Bugs Prince of the Danes7415 ||
10/15/2019 15:43
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#12
I suppose another green-legislation is in order. A law mandating the verbal announcement of silent bikes coming through.
[VOX] A wave of would-be returnees could rekindle terrorism on the continent.
With the surprise withdrawal of US forces in Syria and the subsequent ‐ and immediate ‐ commencement of Turkish military operations against Syrian Kurdish forces, chaos has ensued. Kurdish forces are claiming that hundreds of ISIS prisoners have escaped at the Ain Issa detention facility while fighting raged nearby, while two officials told the New York Times that the US military had failed to secure 60 or so high-value detainees before its forces departed.
President Donald Trump, however, has assured Americans that his new approach would not prove a threat to the US homeland, saying, "They’re going to be escaping to Europe."
Europeans, to be sure, will not find this reassuring. Given the thousands of Europeans who went to fight for the Islamic State and the problems Europe has had with jihadist terrorism in general, they should be alarmed by the US abandonment of the Syrian Kurds and the possible escape of large numbers of ISIS prisoners. The good news is that the potential threat illustrates the counterterrorism progress made in the years since 9/11, but the end of the US role in Syria is clearly bad news.
Europe has a painful record when it comes to jihadist terrorism, suffering repeated mass casualty attacks in the post-9/11 era, including an ISIS-orchestrated set of strikes in Paris in 2015 that killed 130 people. European states, however, have made strides on this front, bolstering intelligence collection and sharing, toughening up their laws, and otherwise improving counterterrorism measures. The latest crisis in Syria highlights the need for Europe to continue its aggressive counterterrorism policies, improve how it handles terrorists in jail, and develop a more coherent set of policies to handle suspected terrorist detainees.
#3
Author: Daniel Byman is a professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. This essay draws on his new book....
Typical of our fake "journalism" that, instead of doing real reporting-- like Thomas Wictor @ThomasWic@social.quodverum.com, who has actually been observing this war in situ, on the ground, and who knows what the hell hes talking about-- they ask an academic to speculate and build an entire 5,000+ word article about a hypothetical event that he attributes to Trump but has zero evidence for.
So instead of clear reporting and fact-based analysis we get more "I can't verify this but remember: OrangeMan Bad"
Clowns.
Stop calling what these outlets do "journalism." Nothing of the sort.
#5
It's only a nightmare for Europe because they don't have sense enough to secure their borders.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2019 11:06
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#6
If Europeans are so concerned, let them deploy their own troops in Syria.
If they don't, we can only conclude the whole thing is a tempest in a teapot.
Although I am deeply enjoying the rank hypocrisy of the far left outraged that peace is breaking out and endorsing the military-industrial complex that they so long vehemently opposed.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 12:30
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#7
If only there was a modern industrialized nation with skin in the game near to that region that could do something....
#8
Given the thousands of Europeans who went to fight for the Islamic State and the problems Europe has had with jihadist terrorism in general, they should be alarmed
Yes, it's all good fun playing both ends against the middle until the lone wolves start coming home. As the saying goes, "Ya get what ya play for..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 13:36
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#9
Europe just pulled their troops out, over 1,000, leaving the 50 US troops without any support. The news wont tell you they had an ODB and a couple A teams and that's all there...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/15/2019 15:07
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#10
ODB = Operations Detachment Bravo, operations and planning cell. Can have one or more Operational Detachments (ODA's) attached. Usually led or commanded by a Major.
[BBC] Five French women have been sentenced to between five and 30 years in jail for trying to detonate a car bomb near Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris in 2016.
The case is said to be the first to involve a group of women attempting to stage an Islamist attack in France.
They failed to ignite half a dozen gas canisters placed in the vehicle.
Inès Madani,
...Ines Madani is the very connected ISIS recruiter and baby mastermind of its first all-girl jihadi cell, along with Ornella Gilligman, Sarah Hervouet, and Amel Sakaou, who fortunately were considerably less competent than they intended. She and dear Ornella were seduced by the Telegram charms of the prolific ISIS recruiter Rachid Kassim, or possibly by another ISIS jihadi, Oumar Diaw a.k.a. Abou Barrou...
Ornella Gilligmann, Sarah Hervouët, Amel Sakaou and Samia Chalel, now aged between 22 and 42, are all converts to Islam.
Madani, who posed as a male Islamist militant to recruit women for the Islamic State (IS) group, was given 30 years, while Gilligmann, a married mother of three, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Hervouët and Sakaou were given 20 years each, while Chalel received five years for helping Madani hide after the failed attack.
#9
Oh he did ? Sorty sorry then. Not my fault though, blame the literature teachurr in school. I never did get to the end. Flunked the english paper. The lady had this habit of pausing the bloody story to tell people about moral parallels in the real world. Imagine that !
#10
Dron, you fool ! The man's a respected educationist !
The highest respect for teachers though. I wouldn't be where I am, if not for them. Great teachers I've had. I've known the best teachers of all. My wife is a teacher. And she ... oh, she teaches me.
[Townhall] In Louisiana's Saturday election, Republicans had a lot to cheer about. Among statewide office-holders, the incumbent GOP Lieutenant Governor (68 percent), Attorney General (66 percent), Treasurer (60 percent, and Agricultural Commissioner (58 percent) were all re-elected without the need for a run-off, under the state's 'jungle primary'-style system. It also appears that the solid Republican majorities in both state legislative chambers will remain intact -- with the GOP expanding its Senate advantage into super-majority territory by picking up a pair of Democratic seats:
#1
But absolutely no conclusions regarding national elections can be drawn from this... (cough...)
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 12:34
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#2
I expect all 2020 elections will hinge on whether the economy has collapsed by then. We are in a nasty bubble that has to burst sometime soon, and Trump is furiously pumping that bubble to shift it out a few extra months. If he doesn't make it Warren will win in a landslide along with House and Senate control and we will see a return of FDR...
#4
This is bubble theory is the only way half-way sane liberals think they can beat Trump. They cling to it dearly even though the bubble bursting hurts the country as a whole.
[Jpost] Syrian army units loyal to Bashir al-Assad entered the Kurdish town of Tall Tamr near the Ottoman Turkish border on Saturday.
The abrupt US withdrawal from the eight-year Syrian war, and the potential return of the Syrian army to the Kurdish-controlled northeast, are major victories for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... and his allies Russia and Iran.
Continued on Page 49
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BERLIN (AP) ‐ Germany’s security services said Tuesday they’re seeking greater powers to fight the kind of far-right extremism behind last week’s synagogue attack, including requiring internet companies to report illegal hate speech to police.
A 27-year-old German man previously unknown to police confessed to carrying out the attack in the eastern city of Halle in which two people were killed Wednesday.
The suspected gunman, identified by prosecutors only as Stephan B. due to privacy rules, allegedly built the firearms he used with the help of online instructions, posted an anti-Semitic screed before the attack and later broadcast the shooting live on a popular gaming site.
In response to the attack and previous incidents, German officials have called for more officers to be devoted to tackling far-right extremism and a greater focus on online platforms they say are increasingly being used as a means of spreading far-right radicalism and linking up with like-minded people in a way already seen with Islamist extremism.
[Babylon Bee] SACRAMENTO, CA‐California is being heralded as a progressive utopia after eliminating electricity entirely.
Working by candelight at his desk, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law that bans electricity, propelling the state into a progressive futuristic paradise. Newsom said he got the idea while experiencing the latest round of rolling blackouts in the state. He decided to make the blackouts the law of the land.
"Other, backward states still use carbon-heavy electricity, gas for heating and cooking, and wasteful air conditioning," he said proudly as people applauded around him. "But not on my watch. California has progressed beyond these archaic concepts."
The law also bans vehicles, forcing pedestrians to use innovative new horseless carriages.
Next on the legislative docket? The elimination of water-wasting toilets, to be replaced by just going on the sidewalk. A pilot program in San Francisco has been very successful, according to the homeless population there.
#1
Haha. If the Left had any brains at all, they'd take it as a lessons learned opportunity on what to do, although a lot of political domains in Florida and the Gulf Coast have had experience with the non-manmade consequences. Imagine this happening during the civil war they are so hard in seeking. Whatcha going to do when this becomes common in your big blue counties?
#2
As they move closer to mother nature new living accommodations are on the horizon. Caves of one size or another. Overcoming the issues of spiders, snakes and the most grievous issue for women, no toilet seats. Ah yes, for men a hunting we will go. High ho the Derry o away I must go.
#6
Yes, we'll all be eating nuts and berries. We might try hunting but are we gonna eat the meat raw or can we make a fire by rubbing two sticks together for cooking? Won't the smoke emit carbon? Maybe we'll all have to go vegan.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2019 10:54
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#7
I'm afraid Mrs. Uluque will be very unhappy without ice cream.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2019 11:15
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[American Thinker] House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, stands at the center of the impeachment of the president scam.
And as word gets out about his real game and how he got it ‐ through a spying operation aimed at the White House that he directed, he's starting to get weirdly wobbly.
Two instances just from the weekend are starting to stand out.
First, in stark contrast to the big hullabaloo he made about hearing from the so-called "whistleblower" in Congress ahead of the planned Trump execution, Schiff suddenly doesn't think the whistleblower is so very, very necessary to testify at his hearings at all:
"We don't need the whistleblower who wasn't on the call to tell us what took place during the call," he claimed.
#3
Events are not going as planned. His directorship is looking rather doubtful. Perhaps he should contact former Congressman Mike Rogers for assistance.
#4
"... two backtracks in a very short space of time. It sounds as though Schiff is in retreat as the walls close in, hoping, just hoping everyone forgives him for his lying, which lit the fuse to the impeachment debacle, and then pays no attention to his missing witness, who, again, got the impeachment ball rolling."
Gee, sounds almost exactly like the playbook for Pissfest At The Metropole.
Or the playbook for accusing Kavanaugh of rape, er, gang rape, 'n' passive-prick-popping or whatever.
One can imagine a script - actually, Schifferbrains the aspiring West Hollywood Screenwriter probably already has a high concept pitch prepared on his laptop - a modern version of Hogan's Heroes with
- Schifferbrains in the Col. Klink role
- Nadler as Sgt Schultz
- Brennan as General Burkhalter ...
#9
When i visited Hamburg in the 90s I was surprised to find they loved Hogans Heroes. Schultz was a Bavarian stereotype that they thought hysterical. I suspect the show was filled with that sort of thing that US audience didn't really get.
[Washington Examiner] House Democrats confident that their push for impeachment is a political slam-dunk might want to figure out how they can reconcile two contradictory facts.
On the one hand, they say that there is a clear case for impeachment that every voter can understand. On the other, Rep. Adam Schiff, who is leading the charge, is doing everything possible to keep the details surrounding the impeachment charge secret.
If impeachment is a sure thing, why hasn’t there been a vote on it yet?
If it’s so easy to understand, why is Schiff hiding key information about it from the public?
Asked Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation about holding closed-door hearings with witnesses in the impeachment pursuit, Schiff all but admitted that the whole truth about the Democrats’ case isn’t really important.
"We want to make sure that we meet the needs of the investigation," he said, "and not give the president or his legal minions the opportunity to tailor their testimony and in some cases fabricate testimony to suit their interests."
In other words, Schiff doesn’t believe that Trump deserves the chance to confront his accusers ‐ to respond to the full content of every secret hearing hosted by Schiff. Instead, Schiff believes the White House should only be allowed to respond to the selective bits that he and his Democrat colleagues decide to leak to the media.
Isn’t that exactly what you would do if you were confident that you had an unimpeachable case for impeachment?
#7
When has this clown Schiff ever told the truth? He is a disgrace to his district and to the House (and there is some pretty stiff competition there.)
#10
Ed Buck was arrested Tuesday and charged with operating a drug house, with prosecutors calling him a violent sexual predator who preys on men struggling with addiction and homelessness. LATimes 9/18/19
Big donor for Dem Party. There was a pic of Buck with Schiff sometime back. Have read that The Standard Hotel in Schiff's district was the center for much weird goings-on. If true, I'd say Schiff might be a little desperate to keep a lid on everything.
#11
Or the people pulling Schiff's strings are a little desperate and threatening him with publicising all the little fun things that go on in hollywood.
#13
It's really not so much an impeachment as it is a slow tar and feather job that Pelosi hopes will keep going until November 2020 while distracting people from the real scandals of the illegal FISA warrants, Hillary's email server, Comey's leaks, Biden lining his boy's pockets, etc. The risk, of course, is that it will backfire.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2019 10:34
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#14
#13 It's really not so much an impeachment as it is a slow tar and feather job that Pelosi hopes will keep going until November 2020
Bingo. Hence the BS weasel word "impeachment inquiry."
Like the Mueller "investigation" -- of what crime? -- the goals are 1) vagueness, 2) opacity, and 3) no end date for the process so it can be dragged out forever
#15
Lawfare. He wants to manufacture a conviction on a process violation and what he doesn't want is justice. After the Libby conviction for (quote) "lying" to the FBI (unquote) my faith in the justice system has eroded daily.
#16
Ref #15: my faith in the justice system has eroded daily.
When I see; Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Mueller, Stryzak, the Ohr's, Page, Clinton.... behind bars, "my faith" will be somewhat restored. Until then....my tank remains on Empty !
#19
So the strategic play goes like this. They get all this testimony in private. They say there is enough to impeach, yet they do nothing, sort of like a Glen Beck show - make promises but never deliver hard goods. Then when the election campaign starts they take testimony out of context and leak it to the press. Trump is under a non stop barrage of "Confessional Testimony" that he can not even get the context in which it was said and the Dems run 24-7 until its stale and then release another tidbit of half truth or outright lie. This can work, America will be tired of the crap, or pissed off, and Trump will be in the defense the entire election cycle.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/15/2019 14:53
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#20
Manufactures a series of process violation "perjuries a la Libby" indictments that of Trumps aides, associates and random people that spell his name correctly. Said Indictments to be drizzled out week by week until Election.
[Townhall] Government watchdog group Judicial Watch last week filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the State Department. The group believes prominent conservative journalists, public figures and those with ties to President Donald Trump were being monitored by the State Department in Ukraine under the direction of ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was appointed to her post by President Barack Obama.
"Judicial Watch has obtained information indicating Yovanovitch may have violated laws and government regulations by ordering subordinates to target certain U.S. persons using State Department resources," the watchdog group said in a press release. "Yovanovitch reportedly ordered monitoring keyed to the following search terms: Biden, Giuliani, Soros and Yovanovitch."
Specifically, Judicial Watch believes the following people were being monitored:
Jack Posobiec, One America News Network Host
Donald Trump Jr., son of President Donald Trump
Laura Ingraham, Fox News Host
Sean Hannity, Fox News Host
Michael McFaul, President Obama’s Ambassador to Russia
Dan Bongino, Fox News Contributor
Ryan Saavedra, Reporter at the Daily Wire
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's Personal Attorney
Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Former Strategist for President Trump and host of Salem's "America First" Radio Program
John Solomon, Executive Vice President at The Hill
Lou Dobbs, Fox Business Host
Pamela Geller, Political Commentator
Sara Carter, Investigative Reporter and Fox News Contributor
The FOIA includes any documents relating to the "monitoring of any U.S.-based journalist, reporter, or media commentator by any employee or office of the Department of state between January 1, 2019 and the president."
Although the watchdog group is waiting for the State Department to return paperwork outlining this specific issue, those on the list aren't surprised at the possibility.
#1
Although the watchdog group is waiting for the State Department to return paperwork outlining this specific issue, those on the list aren't surprised at the possibility.
Nor should anyone else.
Yovanovitch studied at the Puskin Institute did she? Also had an interesting string of FSU (Former Soviet Union) satellite assignments. You decide.
#3
Curious that Soros was one of the terms she was interested in. He's not running for any office...
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/15/2019 7:33
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were being monitored by the State Department in Ukraine under the direction of ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was appointed to her post by President Barack Obama.
And in other news, the sun rises in the east at Ursinum poohs is likely to be found in the woods.
[Breitbart] Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi reframes the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry ‐ and its latest development in the arrest of two associates of Rudy Giuliani ‐ as a "permanent coup" against President Trump playing out more slowly than coups he has experienced firsthand in other nations.
Taibbi’s article comes after he criticized corporate media’s framing of the Deep Stater as a non-partisan "whistleblower," despite being a registered Democrat who worked with former Vice President Joe Biden in the White House.
From Taibbi’s newsletter:
The men who are the proxies for Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in this story are asserting that "official channels" have been corrupted. The forces backing impeachment, meanwhile, are telling us those same defendants are obstructing a lawful impeachment inquiry.
My discomfort in the last few years, first with Russiagate and now with Ukrainegate and impeachment, stems from the belief that the people pushing hardest for Trump’s early removal are more dangerous than Trump. Many Americans don’t see this because they’re not used to waking up in a country where you’re not sure who the president will be by nightfall. They don’t understand that this predicament is worse than having a bad president.
The Trump presidency is the first to reveal a full-blown schism between the intelligence community and the White House. Senior figures in the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies made an open break from their would-be boss before Trump’s inauguration, commencing a public war of leaks that has not stopped.
I don’t believe most Americans have thought through what a successful campaign to oust Donald Trump would look like. Most casual news consumers can only think of it in terms of Mike Pence becoming president. The real problem would be the precedent of a de facto intelligence community veto over elections, using the lunatic spookworld brand of politics that has dominated the last three years of anti-Trump agitation.
CIA/FBI-backed impeachment could also be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Donald Trump thinks he’s going to be jailed upon leaving office, he’ll sooner or later figure out that his only real move is to start acting like the "dictator" MSNBC and CNN keep insisting he is. Why give up the White House and wait to be arrested, when he still has theoretical authority to send Special Forces troops rappelling through the windows of every last Russiagate/Ukrainegate leaker? That would be the endgame in a third world country, and it’s where we’re headed, unless someone calls off this craziness. Welcome to the Permanent Power Struggle.
#4
No need to impeach. Just help him crater the economy and Warren (or...) wins. Though I suspect he's doing plenty to crater the economy without help - pumping bubbles which have to be close to popping.
[Reason] Politicians who declare housing a human right rarely include in that a right to actually build housing.
Take New York Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (D–Lower Manhattan) who just co-wrote an op-ed arguing that every New Yorker should be guaranteed a home—while also suing to stop the construction of an affordable housing complex in her district.
In a Wednesday piece for the New York Daily News, Niou and activist Feliz Guzman argue that the Saturday murder of four homeless people in New York City could have been prevented by more government spending on housing and social services.
"If they had been housed, four of our neighbors would very likely still be with us today," they write. "We must choose to guarantee every New Yorker the right to a safe and affordable home to prevent a tragedy like this one from ever happening again." Niou and Guzman call out both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio for falling short of their own promises to build affordable housing:
#2
New residents moved into our area. This was back in the early seventies. They wanted low income housing built in our area. They had raw human sewage dumped on their yard. They didn't last long, thank goodness. When they had worked their damages I bet they moved to a new area to spread their charm. They never built the low income housing. Zoning issue back then. Now who knows.
#1
The speech and accompanying notes set out an overview of more than 20 bills, including the legislation that is required to implement a Brexit deal if Mr Johnson is able to reach agreement with the EU this week.
"My Government's priority has always been to secure the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union on 31 October," the Queen said.
A knife-wielding Afghan man is suspected of killing one person and badly wounding another in a series of attacks in Austria on Monday, police said.
Police in Upper Austria province said the man, 33, wounded a staff member at a refugee centre in Wullowitz, near the border with the Czech Republic, before fleeing the scene by bicycle. He then stabbed to death a nearby resident and took his car, police said.
For those who don't know, TSO (Turkish Supported Opposition) is the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army. They are the ones that have been beheading prisoners and killing civilians (including a female Kurdish politicians) across northeast Syria since the Turkish invasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2019
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#1
Yeah, scorched earth tactics, blame the foreigner for it all. Typical Middle East behavior. SO glad we're getting out of there. Can't wait to see Russia stuck in the quagmire instead.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 5:06
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The flaw in your logic, Herb is pigs love and do well in the muck.
[NewsMax] By official accounts, the pig contagion wreaking havoc across Eastern Asia has virtually skipped over North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... , with a single outbreak reported there in May. But wayward feral pigs have stoked concern that Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... ’s reclusive state is hiding an African swine fever disaster.
Continued on Page 49
[NYPost] Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... has pitched his tent at New York’s glitzy Peninsula Hotel this week, where he will be dining (but not wining) American Moslem leaders on the sidelines of UN meetings.
During his 2017 New York visit, Erdogan met with then-freshman U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar
Continued on Page 49
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#1
Because, to hear the left tell it, Yippie's a "moderate," and an "ally..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 14:17
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[BALTIMORESUN] Two people were shot Sunday, one fatally, bringing the total number of people struck by gunfire this weekend to 17, Baltimore police say.
Officers on patrol Sunday heard gunshots around 9:50 p.m. coming from the 500 block of Tunbridge Road. There they found a 40-year-old man with gunshot wounds to his body. The victim was taken to an area hospital where he died.
Officers were called around 11:50 p.m. to the 1900 block of W. Mulberry St. where they found a 22-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his back. The man was taken to an area hospital for treatment.
The weekend’s shootings ‐ 15 of which took place Saturday ‐ constitute one of Baltimore’s most violent on record. Of Saturday’s shootings, three were fatal.
When it comes to tracking record-setting crime incidents, Baltimore police’s public data is recorded in such a way that makes it difficult to pinpoint the city’s most violent days.
But according to police data posted on Open Baltimore, which contains crime statistics dating back to 2012, the grisly record for most people shot in one day was previously 12 people.
In 2016, at least 19 people were hurt by gunfire in one weekend. And in 2009, before police published crime statistics online, 18 people were struck in multiple shootings spanning a Sunday night into Monday morning.
#9
There was a Drudge article this am about a "huge cigar-shaped object flying over Baltimore." Understandable how aliens might mistake Baltimore for an outhouse.
[DAILYSABAH] Ten people were arrested over their suspected links to the ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... terrorist group during a counter terror operation in the southern Ottoman Turkish province of Konya on Sunday.
The Syrian and Iraqi nationals were allegedly preparing attacks in Konya and other provinces in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... . One of the suspects was a woman, according to Anadolu Agency.
More than 300 people have bit the dust in attacks claimed by ISIS in Turkey, where the terrorist organization has targeted civilians in suicide bomb, rocket and gun attacks. Ottoman Turkish security forces have been involved in a long-running campaign to rid Turkey of ISISfaceless myrmidons that also took them to Syria.
According to official figures, at least 2,000 people have been arrested and 7,000 others deported in operations against ISIS in Turkey in the past few years, while around 70,000 people have been denied entry to Turkey over their suspected links to the terrorist group.
[MilitaryTimes] US officials and national security experts warned thousands of ISIS prisoners could escape as a result of a Turkish incursion into northern Syria.
Five days into Turkish military operations, those realities are coming to life as reports stream in that hundreds of ISIS prisoners held up in Syrian Democratic Forces’ makeshift prisons and refugee camps are taking advantage of the chaos and breaking free.
President Donald Trump’s latest decision Sunday to withdraw the remaining U.S. forces out of northern Syria is only adding fuel to the fire.
The New York Times reported that U.S. forces could not transfer about five dozen high-value ISIS detainees before the Pentagon’s decision to move U.S. forces out of the zone of Turkish military operations.
Posted by: Whavimp Grath4899 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Monday that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... ’s military operation in northern Syria was "not exactly" compatible with Syria’s territorial integrity.
Ushakov, speaking in Riyadh during an official visit to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... by President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... , was commenting on Turkey’s military operation which it launched last week.
Asked by news hounds if what was happening was consistent with Syria’s territorial integrity, something that Russia has repeatedly said it wants respected, Ushakov said: "Not exactly."
He added that Russia planned to "do something" without specifying what that might be.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia... a US official said on Monday that all US troops in northern Syria have been ordered to leave the country in the face of Turkey’s attacks on Kurds in the region.
[DAILYSABAH] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... 's Chief of Staff Yasar Guler and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Valery Gerasimov discussed Monday the latest developments in Syria amid the ongoing Operation Peace Spring.
Guler and Gerasimov spoke on the security situation in Syria and recent developments, a Ottoman Turkish General Staff statement said.
Ottoman Turkish Defense Minister Hukusi Akar later on Monday said he also held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
The ministers had "constructive" phone talk on coordinating and developing activities in Syria.
Speaking with news hounds in the Ottoman Turkish capital Ankara, Akar said he and Sergey had exchanged information on Syria and their agenda there.
"We discussed what needs to be done [in Syria] to coordinate activities and develop them appropriately," Akar said.
Akar did not mention to the news hounds Turkey's current anti-terror operation in northern Syria, but Turkey and Russia have a long history of working together for peace in Syria through the Astana process.
Later on Monday Akar also held a phone call with his French counterpart Florence Parly.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting snuffies affiliated with ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... and the PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), on October 9 at 4 p.m.
[FOXNEWS] Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., an ardent supporter of President Trump, got the boot on Monday when he tried to sit in on the testimony of a former top National Security Council expert on Russia who was appearing on Capitol Hill as part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president.
Gaetz, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, attempted to attend the testimony of Fiona Hill, a former deputy assistant to the president, but was told that because he was not a member of the House Intelligence Committee that he had to leave. The House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees are conducting the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
A frustrated Gaetz aired his disappointment to news hounds after being told he was not allowed to sit in on the hearing, venting his anger over what he says are "selective leaks" by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff ...Showboating U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... 's campaign colluded with Russia." Todd followed up by asking if he had seen direct evidence of collusion and Schiff responded that there was "evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation... , D-Calif., and questioning why he was not allowed to be present during Hill’s testimony. Gaetz added that the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., was involved in the impeachment inquiry.
"It’s not like I’m on agriculture," Gaetz said. "What are the Democrats so afraid of?"
#2
Schiff is running a Star Chamber in secret. Shouldn't something so important as impeachment be open to the rest of the House and to the people of the United States? What are the Dems hiding and why?
#6
Classic cover for action. Whilst they're shi* disturbing and plying the media with the latest fake outrage, they're off constructing their next evil plot.
[MSN] Mr. Trump’s error, some aides concede in off-the-record conversations, was entering the Oct. 6 call underprepared,
...and whose job is it to make sure he is prepared? It seems to me these particular off-the-record aides do not have the right attitude for their current station in life...
and then failing to spell out for Mr. Erdogan the potential consequences ‐ from economic sanctions to a dimunition of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... ’s alliance with the United States and its standing in NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... . He has since threatened both, retroactively. But it is not clear Mr. Erdogan believes either is a real risk.The drama is nowhere near over. Out of necessity, the Kurds switched sides on Sunday, turning their backs on Washington and signing up with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... of Syria, a man the United States has called a war criminal for gassing his own people.
That would be President Obama, as I recall, who got us into this mess...
At the Pentagon, officials struggled with the right response if Ottoman Turkish forces ‐ NATO allies ‐ again opened fire on any of the 1,000 or so Americans now preparing to retreat from their positions inside Syria. Those troops are trapped for now, since Turkey has cut off the roads; removing them may require an airlift.
If the Turks can shoot as us, why can’t we give them a matching brushback?
And over the weekend, State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials.
“Quietly”.
Those weapons, one bigwig said, were now essentially Erdogan’s hostages. To fly them out of Incirlik would be to mark the de facto end of the Ottoman Turkish-American alliance. To keep them there, though, is to perpetuate a nuclear vulnerability that should have been eliminated years ago.
First eliminate the vulnerability. Afterward the alliance can be renegotiated.
"I think this is a first ‐ a country with U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in it literally firing artillery at US forces," Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies wrote last week.
For his part, Mr. Erdogan claims nuclear ambitions of his own: Only a month ago, speaking to supporters, he said, he said he "cannot accept" rules that keep Turkey from possessing nuclear weapons of its own.
With what spare billion dollars? You go ahead with your temper tantrum while the grown ups put things to rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
This is really rich.
As if Zero was "well prepared" on anything in the Middle East or SW Asia or N Africa, or managed any crisis at all in those regions with anything approaching competence...
#6
From grom's link, a detailed explanation by Thomas Wictor that makes much sense and that cuts through all the noise and nonsense emitted by our pseudo-"journalists":
Thomas Wictor @ThomasWic@social.quodverum.com
So the Kurds and Assad are going to work it out.
The US can cripple the Turkish economy.
Finally the EU is on our side when it comes to Turkey.
The Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation--Islamist rebels--was totally destroyed by "al-Qaeda" in January of this year, so northwest Syria was cleared of jihadists.
This is the final battlefield of the Syrian Civil War.
Trump is ending the war without causing the same disaster that we caused in Iraq. ...
Remember: Trump is using economic leverage on all our enemies. Therefore we don't have to go to war.
Assad was a puppet of the Iranian mullahs, and now he's a figurehead. His army has not engaged in actual combat since late 2016.
Syria is full of GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] commandos posing as SAA and rebels. After the Turks are defeated, there will be kabuki that allows Assad to go to Russia in retirement.
This is the endgame for Syria. ...
Iran, the Houthis, and Hezbollah are still threats, but regime change in Iran has to begin with the Iranian people.
It can't be imposed from the outside. So Trump didn't "abandon" anyone. He simply said nobody is entitled to American lives.
So the Kurds stopped cutting bait and began fishing.
Thomas Wictor @ThomasWic@social.quodverum.com
@wziminer
There was a period in which Iranians, Hezbollah, the Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigades, Iraqi militia, the Shi'ite Foreign Legion, and Russian mercenaries were doing all the fighting.
They were slaughtered.
The Russians were the last to stop, after we wiped out an entire Mobile Detachment Combat Group of 600 men on February 7, 2018.
Assad's Syrian Arab Army was reconstituted, but they're essentially actors.
The Gulf Cooperation Council does the fighting now.
#11
It's looking more and more like Trump made a good call and did not err. Everyone else was against his call. At last we got a leader and not some DS potted plant in the WH.
#14
I think Trump made the best call he could in this. There are never any "good" calls when it comes to this area of the world. Letting them kill each other instead of us is the best for our side.
#15
Granted no one knows where Assad will end up, and neither should we particularly care.
The main goal is to end the war and restore some stability while keeping Iran down and Turkey out. We have no other discernible interest in this war of all against all.
So the only point that really matters is whether Wictor, above, is correct that this is the endgame which will result in those key goals.
If someone has better evidence than his, let him bring it forth so we can see it and evaluate it.
None of our incompetent pseudo-journalists have done so.
Our intel community, when it's not searching for duct tape and rubber bands for its latest Wyle E. Coyote / ACME Palace CoupTM attempt, has been well-nigh useless in that region.
#16
The Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation--Islamist rebels--was totally destroyed by "al-Qaeda" in January of this year, so northwest Syria was cleared of jihadists.
Al Qaeda ARE jihadists. NW Syria is where all the fighting was taking place. The NFL, SNA, FSA are all the same organization (Turkey's mercenaries, were America's money grabbing mercenaries). AQ kicked their ass, but for a destroyed force, they are grabbing a lot of territory from the Kurds.
This is the final battlefield of the Syrian Civil War.
AQ (al Nusra, TaS) and ISIS and other militias have yet to be defeated in NW Syria (Idlib, Aleppo governates). Probably around 20K+ fanatics embedding in 3 million civilians. The Syrian Army is not up to the job. So the stalemate.
Syria is full of GCC commandos posing as SAA and rebels.
The GCC wants Assad gone. They (w/ Turkey and the US under Obama) are the ones who have been arming and funding the "rebels".
After the Turks are defeated
You and whose Army? Certainly not the US army. Expect another standoff and proxy fighting.
Assad to go to Russia in retirement
Interesting. But that opens the Alawites to massacre. Not so brilliant a plan now.
Iran, the Houthis, and Hezbollah are still threats
Certainly not to the Syrians gov, which is what we are talking about. The regional threat has been diminished by US sanctions against Iran. They don't have the money to pay for mercenries and weapons as when the Iranians were flush with Barack's Billions. Israelis bomb when the Iranians stick their necks out.
So the Kurds stopped cutting bait and began fishing.
The Kurds are making the best of a desperate situation and submitting to the Syrians and Russians when Trump abandoned them to Turkish invasion and resettlement (ethnic cleansing). before, the Kurds could rebuff the Syrian control and negotiate for autonomy. That's gone.
There was a period in which Iranians ... They were slaughtered.
No. They won. It was the rebels who were slaughtered (often by other factions). The Syrian controlled areas have gone from less 20% to 60%. 30% was, until a few days ago, SDF controlled. Soon to be 90% Syrian gov control. What little exists under rebel control is really under Al Qaeda or Turkish proxy control. Both supplied by Turkey.
The Russians ... wiped out
The Russian contribution is air power. That never diminished. A few hundred Russian ground mercenaries didn't affect the course of the war. They were there primarily to seize economic assets for bosses to milk. They had a bad day when they tried to seize and oil field already occupied by the SDF and Americans.
Assad's Syrian Arab Army was reconstituted, but they're essentially actors.
Can agree on the fighting side. But they are now pouring into Kurd held areas. Think the Turks will take them on? I don't.
The Gulf Cooperation Council does the fighting now.
What's the author smoking? GCC Team A on Syrian side. GCC Team B on rebel side. GCC Team C on Kurd side. GCC Team D on Turk side. DOGPILE!
#17
I think Trump made the best call he could in this.
I don't. The situation a few days ago was advantageous to America. A thousand troops to keep the Turks and Syrians out and a few dollars to pay the SDF to keep the peace and hunt down ISIS remnants until a negotiated peace with the Syrians could be agreed to. That, and American credibility, is gone.
#18
You know who's word would be final for me on this whole sordid issue ? The American troops that were pulled out.
Nobody so far has given a shit for the grunt's opinion. I mean we're worried for his life, but don't care what he'd rather stake it on - Kurds or Afghans. He doesn't get a vote. Leaders and bloodthirsties can order him to and fro. He doesn't get to choose his allies or a say in the fucked-ness of a plan.
The clueless civ elected State's apathy and disregard for their soldiers' own views is the same anywhere I suppose.
That being said, I am willing to believe that Trump's economic sanctions and reducing Turkey to a desperate beggar might improve the lot of many disaffected.
#19
Someone who I've been waiting to hear weigh in is Andrew Bacevich. He has been critical of all US involvement in Iraq and the extended activities in Afghanistan.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 12:05
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#20
You know who's word would be final for me on this whole sordid issue ? The American troops that were pulled out.
#21
Thanks, Whavimp.
I'm not sure I understand how the previous situation was so advantageous. This statement in particular seems an example of, to coin a phrase, "wishful thinking":
A thousand troops to keep the Turks and Syrians out and a few dollars to pay the SDF to keep the peace and hunt down ISIS remnants until a negotiated peace with the Syrians could be agreed to.
You mean like that successfully negotiated peace with the Taliban that has brought stability to Afghanistan?
I raise this because - at least according to what I can find re our strategy - the goal is to "the U.S. partnership with the SDF was a model to follow in the future, like the partnership with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban." (Paraphrase of statements in April 2019 by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy. More: Mulraoy "[said he] expected the U.S. to be in Syria for the long haul with a very capable partner in the Syrian Democratic Forces. ..."
I have no doubt that your/DoD's logic is sound: the Kurds are excellent fighters who merit some measure of support.
The problem I, and probably most Americans who've watched our Mideast / Afghan follies for the last several decades, have us your assertion that PEACE will result from this support.
There is no peace in Afghanistan. That "model" -- if Mulroy is being fairly paraphrased by Wiki - is an antitype. Perhaps you know better, but based on not hope but EXPERIENCE, that more likely that our involvement in Syria will continue for many more years.
Enough. No more Afghan-style endless wars.
At some point we need to cut. There's never a good time to cut. But sooner or later, cut we must.
Anyway, that's my $0.02. I appreciate your detailed and overall sensible response.
- L
#22
Someone who I've been waiting to hear weigh in is Andrew Bacevich.
I am only reaching here, but I think he would say, we must empower forces that engender a pro-western sentiment while negating and trivializing islamist regression in the middle-east. That stable and disciplined states, even if oppressive were good for keeping the people there contained and 'out of trouble'.
Of course I'm only inferring on bases of what he's said so far.
#23
A thousand troops to keep the Turks and Syrians out and a few dollars to pay the SDF to keep the peace and hunt down ISIS remnants until a negotiated peace with the Syrians could be agreed to.
This is not in the least little bit in the interest of the American people.
And if it's not in the interest of the American people then why are we doing it?/strong>
It's nice to see some sanity restored to our out-of-control foreign policy. Someone's finally making moves that benefit us.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 12:46
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#24
Lex, although you're essentially dealing with the same animal, no two follies are alike.
Mulroy easily equates the Afghan Ice Cream to the Syrian trouble, but they are not the same. One began with an excessive zeal to teach democracy and bureaucratic aggrandizement to a bunch of fools. The other was a closet islamist president trying to help out his salafist buddies against alawites.
The former regressed into a nation building and heroin free-for-all for spooks with no oversight, the latter into a post-ISIS tinderbox. In both, only one thing was similar. You were dealing with muslims, and Americans unfortunately have still not understood the muslim animal. The problem is islam itself, and if islamism can be sheared away from the psyche of these people under a communist regime, good.
A stable, anti-islamist Kurdistan could actually prove a good petri-dish for an experiment into the gradual de-islamization of the raghead.
But it's true, sooner or later, cut you must. The presidency has enough trouble at home. I guess that is the unseen crux of the issue. Once power is consolidated and the US morale is flying high, the balance of power shall of course need to be weighed again. Enemies of the US shall not just retire in the mean time. They will keep coming, until rendered sans steam. Regional allies alone can get that done.
#25
A stable, anti-islamist Kurdistan could actually prove a good petri-dish for an experiment into the gradual de-islamization of the raghead
But I thought we already achieved that--in northern Iraq? Why is it necessary to extend existing (Iraqi) Kurdistan to Syria?
Our Syrian adventure has brought us into the middle of a messy fight between a very different Kurdish faction-- the PKK and Turkey.-- to what end?
Isn't one successful, autonomous, stable, pro-US Kurdish enclave enough?
It's as if, having defeated German fascism we decided to send troops to intervene in the Northern Irish troubles in 1970, with nothing more than a vague notion that one side to what would be a 30 year war was "evil" and the other good.
Does this kind of endless tagging along to advance the interests of a small nation make any sense?
#26
You're right. It's this damn PKK that messes up the whole thing. Well, I hope the Russians are up to it then. I don't expect much from them though.
#27
Nothing goes boys. Ah done told you - it's the carrying capacity of the habitat. If population exceeds the carrying capacity, there will be fighting.
#28
Once power is consolidated and the US morale is flying high, the balance of power shall of course need to be weighed again. Enemies of the US shall not just retire in the mean time. They will keep coming, until rendered sans steam.
It's just so maddening how nobody questions his premises. "America must keep intervening in the Middle East and this will solve all our problems." No. No, this is entirely mistaken and is as false as stating the Sun revolves around the Earth.
We create problems by meddling. The more meddling, the more problems. We greenlighted the overthrow of the Shah that led to the Mullahs in Iran. We created the Taliban by meddling in Afghanistan. We created Al-Qaeda by occupying Saudi Arabia to defend against Iraq. We greenlighted Saddam's occupation of Kuwait. (Yes this happened.) You ever get the idea that the common factor in all these problems is US meddling?
If not, start thinking about it. It needs to become a major part of the strategic debate.
Sometimes the only winning move is not to play.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 14:14
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#29
I'm sick of our piecemeal, both hands tied to our feet interventions anyway. If the US needs to fix Syria, then let's fix it. Go in, destroy the place down the ground so that if we decide to rebuild it, nobody there will dare even think of fighting the US. If we're not going to do that, it's not worth blood and treasure. Syria's been our enemy, we should have just leveled the place and left.
#30
Sometimes the only winning move is not to play.
Hardly the advice you carry to a knife fight with a pashtun, but anyway.
The specifics of how you got here are not relevant to the ones who shall continue to undermine your interests from without and within. As pan-islamism exceeds the considerable leeway given it by European states and the UN, you will see the very real enemy closing in. I am willing to hope in Trump's approach of financially crippling the enemy, making them anathema to trade or deal with in the world until they each element of theirs is rendered powerless, disenfranchised and rots in his own hell. But what was meddling in those times you speak of, has now become necessary aegis in many regions.
I believe a State has failed when it fails to protect its citizens from attacks perpetrated by outside influences. The infrastructure, the economic interests and the sense of justice of elevate thinkers is all for nought when a man arrives from Syria or Iraq, to build a bomb in NY or DC, killing even one citizen.
Is the profligate exceptionalism of past US administrations to blame for said sasquatch and his intentions, his training, his mission ? Verily so. I'm not denying that the hegemony-madness from Truman on down has resulted in mostly snafus that are still wasting taxpayer money. But it's like the African slaves, you meddled. That won't change. No need to be apologetic for it now, but you must control the aftermath that is visited on your current and future generations. I agree about the meddling.
You played with fire when you armed the jihadi bioweapon against the commies. You can kick the graves of the sods who did it, but the march of jihad won't be stopped by 'Uhh we realize it was just such a loss, sorry we won't play anymore'.
It's not chess. It's riding the tiger. Sooner or later you're going to have to get off and shoot it. And if the condition today is a gestalt of clusterfucks involving middle eastern power whores, it's only because the endeavour has been handled with kid gloves so far. Also, besides the US, no country has invested so deeply I won't mention Israel to you anymore, and it's also true that the WOT is a fight for their national security in a way. in the WOT, which is shameful and stupid of us all I know.
#31
Hardly the advice you carry to a knife fight with a pashtun, but anyway.
More blinkered thinking. It's Zen, this new way. The secret is to not have a knife fight with a pashtun at all.
The infrastructure, the economic interests and the sense of justice of elevate thinkers is all for nought when a man arrives from Syria or Iraq, to build a bomb in NY or DC, killing even one citizen.
Lacking any grievance, he would not do so.
You've really got to think outside the box here. It's obvious a whole ton of people cannot think anything other than "we must militarily defeat them" when that's not only the wrong answer, it's answering the wrong question. You've really got to go back to the beginning and completely rethink things.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 15:58
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#32
Perhaps a parable would help:
Master Foo once said to a visiting programmer: “There is more Unix-nature in one line of shell script than there is in ten thousand lines of C.”
The programmer, who was very proud of his mastery of C, said: “How can this be? C is the language in which the very kernel of Unix is implemented!”
Master Foo replied: “That is so. Nevertheless, there is more Unix-nature in one line of shell script than there is in ten thousand lines of C.”
The programmer grew distressed. “But through the C language we experience the enlightenment of the Patriarch Ritchie! We become as one with the operating system and the machine, reaping matchless performance!”
Master Foo replied: “All that you say is true. But there is still more Unix-nature in one line of shell script than there is in ten thousand lines of C.”
The programmer scoffed at Master Foo and rose to depart. But Master Foo nodded to his student Nubi, who wrote a line of shell script on a nearby whiteboard, and said: “Master programmer, consider this pipeline. Implemented in pure C, would it not span ten thousand lines?”
The programmer muttered through his beard, contemplating what Nubi had written. Finally he agreed that it was so.
“And how many hours would you require to implement and debug that C program?” asked Nubi.
“Many,” admitted the visiting programmer. “But only a fool would spend the time to do that when so many more worthy tasks await him.”
“And who better understands the Unix-nature?” Master Foo asked. “Is it he who writes the ten thousand lines, or he who, perceiving the emptiness of the task, gains merit by not coding?”
Upon hearing this, the programmer was enlightened.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 16:00
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#33
They ARE right - anyone can be provoked enough to murder.
This vale of tears in which humans struggle for power is not an OS or other highly engineered closed system capable of being directed with lines of code. It's messy and interrelated in a thousand ways, with every action or inaction having multiple unintended consequences - always.
I'm with you about the need for restraint in Syria but your grand theory of international relations - stay out, everywhere - doesn't offer a good alternative. There has never been a foreign policy golden age. Every leader f---s up, sooner or later, in ways big and small.
The right attitude is to admit our ignorance, recognize there's no simple loan that will tell ya what to do, and set ourselves the goal of learning and evolving and adapting.
(Not directed at you personally, but it also helps not to cast aspersions on people's motives. We're on the same side here and want more or less the same thing: security for our nation.)
#37
I'm generally on the side of staying out in Syria. There is nobody there (including the Kurds, who are moderates only the sub-standard standards of the region) worth fighting to protect. Israel would be, should they actually need it, but they don't need anybody's protection (except maybe help from us managing idiots in the EU and the theocracy in Iran on a larger scale). The idea that a stable, developed nation will ever emerge in the region looks increasingly like a foolish notion. Turkey came closer than anybody else ever has in the Islamic world, and they've essentially blown it now.
"culled" I like that
(Army Times) A series of four airstrikes in recent weeks against Libya’s Islamic State franchise killed roughly one-third of the militant group’s personnel, giving much needed breathing room as the country’s two main factions wrangle for control in Tripoli.
The strikes killed an estimated 43 ISIS fighters, with roughly 100 still remaining, according to a senior U.S. defense official, who spoke with reporters on the condition of anonymity.
"We assess that was a pretty significant degradation of their capabilities and, again, they struggle to reconstitute because of the nature of the operatives who were killed in this strike and the fact that they have already been struggling with manpower," the official said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We certainly don’t assess that they’re expanding," the official added.
Posted by: Whavimp Grath4899 ||
10/15/2019
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[DAILYSABAH] EU countries have silently continued to watch the ongoing migrant tragedy at their shores a migrant rescue ship that rescued 176 migrants colonists in the Mediterranean over the weekend, appealed for help to disembark them at any EU port. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the crew of a ship said yesterday it had so far received no response from any EU countries to their requests.
Due to the lack of a common response to migration inflows from northern Africa via the Mediterranean, migrants colonists have been facing the same unwelcoming approach from EU countries. So far, every standoff about migrants colonists rescued from the Mediterranean takes weeks to resolve, revealing the limits of EU tolerance and its inherent deficiencies in promptly resolving dire situations. Instead, they get caught up in intra-EU struggles on what to do with migrants colonists saved at sea, while effectively dashing their Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an dreams.
Ocean Viking, operated by the nongovernmental organizations SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders, picked up the migrants colonists from inflatable boats in two operations off the coast of Libya. Among the rescued are 33 minors and four pregnant women, according to reports. "No site in Libya can currently be considered safe" for migrants colonists, SOS Mediterranee said in a statement.
It was the fourth time that SOS Mediterranee had asked for access to an EU port since August, shortly after relaunching rescue operations following a seven-month hiatus it blamed on obstruction by European nations. In August, a Spanish NGO vessel Proactiva Open Arms was stuck off Italian island of Lampedusa for days seeking permission to dock from the Italian government.
[IsraelTimes] Source says one of those being held is Salafist imam who preached at mosque where assailant Mickael Harpon prayed.
French police on Monday detained five people linked to a radicalized employee at the Gay Paree police headquarters who killed four colleagues in a knife attack earlier this month, sources said.
Police staged raids at three locations in the northern suburbs of Gay Paree, judicial sources and those close to the investigation said, confirming a report by the broadcaster RTL.
Mickael Harpon, a 45-year-old computer expert, stabbed to death four colleagues at the police headquarters on October 3 before being shot and killed.
It later emerged he had converted to Islam about 10 years ago and had started adopting increasingly radical beliefs.
One of the people detained Monday was a holy man who preached at a mosque Harpon attended in Gonesse, who is on La Belle France’s "Fiche S" list of potential security risks, one source told AFP.
On Friday, the mayor of Gonesse announced that the Moslem association which employed the imam, who followed the hard-line Salafist branch of Islam, had dismissed him.
Investigators have found that Harpon, who had access to classified data within the Gay Paree police’s intelligence division, had been in close contact with the imam in the months before his knife rampage.
The killings have raised serious questions about how police failed to notice various signs of Harpon’s radicalization in recent years, despite La Belle France being on high alert over a wave of deadly jihadist attacks.
Investigators also found that Harpon had a USB key holding propaganda videos of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group as well as details on dozens of officers, raising fears he intended to pass them to other radicalized Islamists.
But although the IS group mentioned the attack in a weekly propaganda statement last week, it has not grabbed credit for the attack.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The EU on Monday extended sanctions against four Russian intelligence agents linked to a nerve agent attack in Britannia, as part of an attempt to crack down on chemical weapons.
Foreign ministers from the 28 EU states voted to prolong by 12 months the chemical weapons sanctions regime which currently targets nine individuals including the four Russians and five Syrian officials.
The Russians, who are subject to EU travel bans and asset freezes, are the head and deputy head of the Kremlin’s military intelligence outfit, the GRU, and the two men accused of carrying out the attack using a Soviet-era nerve agent called Novichok.
"The Council today extended restrictive measures by the EU addressing the use and proliferation of chemical weapons until 16 October 2020," the Council of the EU said in a statement.
"This decision contributes to the EU’s efforts to counter the proliferation and use of chemical weapons which poses a serious threat to international security."
The EU has accused the Russians of orchestrating the "possession, transport and use" of the nerve agent used in Salisbury, England, in March last year, in a failed attempt ...Curses! Foiled again!... to assassinate defector Sergei Skripal.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n forces have taken over control of 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... ’s southern port of Aden as part of efforts to end a power struggle between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and southern separatists, four sources familiar with the matter said.
Last week the UAE, Riyadh’s main partner in the Arab Coalition battling Yemen’s Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...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 legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. 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 They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... militia, started withdrawing troops from Aden, seemingly to pave the way for a deal to end the local standoff.
The separatists are part of the Arab Coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, which was ousted from the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 by the Iran-backed Houthis.
In August, the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), which seeks self-rule in the south, turned on Hadi’s government and seized its interim base of Aden, sparking wider festivities that opened a new front in the war.
Saudi Arabia has in the past week deployed more forces to replace Emirati troops at Aden airport and military bases in the city, two Yemeni officials told Rooters.
An official handover to a Saudi Arabian commander took place last week under which he would oversee security in the city and its suburbs, two other sources familiar with the matter said.
Saudi Arabia has been hosting indirect talks for a month between Hadi’s government and separatist leaders. Sources had said the two sides were close to agreeing a Saudi Arabian proposal to give the STC seats in the cabinet and place separatist forces under government command.
Hadi’s government has asked the UAE to stop arming and training separatist forces while the UAE has said Hadi’s government is ineffective and distrusts the forces with whom he is allied.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian regime troops entered the key Syrian city of Manbij, state news agency SANA said on Monday, after Damascus deployed troops to the country’s north to contain a days-long Ottoman Turkish offensive.
A local official in Manbij, controlled by a military council linked to the Kurdish administration, confirmed that troops had "entered (Manbij) and deployed on frontlines."
The Syrian army had dispatched a limited number of troops around Manbij last year at the request of Kurdish forces to protect the area from a feared Ottoman Turkish assault.
But the latest deployment is the most significant by Damascus since it withdrew from the city in Aleppo province in 2012.
It comes as part of a recent deal clinched between the Kurds and Damascus that has seen regime troops deploy in several Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria’s north on Monday to protect the region from Ankara’s assault.
Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... has said he expected Kurdish forces to withdraw from the strategic city, located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the Ottoman Turkish border.
"When Manbij is evacuated, we will not go in there as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... . Our Arab brothers, who are the real owners, the tribes... will return there. Our approach is to ensure their return and security there," he said on Monday.
[DAILYSABAH] Ottoman Turkish and Syrian National Army (SNA) forces on Monday began the next phase of Operation Peace Spring to clear Manbij of terrorists.
The SNA announced the start of the operation after receiving the green light from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... . Ottoman Turkish tanks and SNA troops began moving toward Manbij. Clashes could be heard in the area.
Ottoman Turkish forces' next aim in Operation Peace Spring is to clear Ayn al-Arab and Manbij, east of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, which were cleared of terrorists. Ottoman Turkish troops began preparing last night for the offensive against Manbij.
[DAWN] Thousands of angry protesters erupted into the streets of Barcelona on Monday after Spain's Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders to between nine and 13 years in jail for sedition over the failed 2017 independence bid.
As the news broke, demonstrators turned out en masse, blocking streets in Barcelona and elsewhere as police braced for what activists said would be a mass response of civil disobedience.
The long-awaited ruling capped weeks of rising tension, and puts the Catalan question at the heart of the political debate less than a month before Spain heads into its fourth general election in as many years.
Ahead of the ruling, Barcelona had woken up to a heavy police presence, with forces noticeably visible around the regional high court, the main Sants train station and El Prat, Spain's second busiest airport.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2019
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#2
This has nothing to do with the EU, only with Spanish laws. The separatists were warned time and again by the Spanish Supreme Court not to do what they did. Now they have to pay the price.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2019 6:12
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Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/15/2019 6:43
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#5
So how's the Spanish Supreme Court's standing on importing more 'terrorists'? Strange, those who support the destruction of sovereignty of borders in the name of 'humanity' have no problems keeping the issue of sovereignty when it deals with locals.
[DAILYSABAH] Seval Yaprak, a wanted senior member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), has been captured in northwestern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... Yaprak was on the country's most wanted list and was in charge of the terrorist group's "armed propaganda unit," according to a statement released Monday by authorities.
Acting upon intelligence that she would "carry out a sensational attack," Istanbul police launched an investigation and concentrated efforts on her possible hideouts.
Upon receiving an anonymous tip that a woman resembling the wanted terrorist and wearing a headscarf was spotted heading to the border city of Edirne in northwestern Turkey, police launched an operation.
The car she was traveling in with another suspect was stopped at a gas station in Kirklareli near Edirne. Police detained Yaprak and the other unidentified suspect while "digital and written propaganda material" for the DHKP-C found in their possession.
The terrorist group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union, is responsible for a number of attacks in Turkey, including the liquidation of business tycoon Özdemir Sabanci in 1996 and an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara in 2013.
The group has become less active in the country in recent years but remains a major security threat.
The DHKP-C, which operated under the name "Dev Sol" until 1994, grabbed credit for a series of high-profile murders, including the liquidation of nationalist politician Gun Sazak and former Prime Minister Nihat Erim in 1980.
The group also killed several Ottoman Turkish intelligence officers.
In 1994, the DHKP-C was founded after Dev Sol splintered. The group's terror activities remained relatively minor compared to the PKK, another terrorist organization targeting Turkey.
Lex’s submission goes straight to a tweet that links to the video in question (Knob Creek Machine Gun Night Shoot)— click on the headline above, then enjoy the article with videos — both a side by side comparison and the full ABC news report. Then enjoy the below on the subject, courtesy of Herb McCoy, which adds editorializing:
I'm so happy the internet exists so this type of shit gets called out. Just imagine how many news stories were fake and nobody knew before we were able to speak back.
And listen to the reporter's tone. He's really trying to portray it as Trump committing an unthinkable act of evil that should outrage all of us.
ABC News apologized after the network aired a video that it claimed to be Turkey's military bombing Kurdish civilians in Syria. The video is reportedly from Knob Creek Gun Range in West Point, Kentucky, and according to Fox News, is identical to a video entitled “Knob Creek night shoot 2017.”
The clip aired during Sunday's “ABC World News Tonight,” hosted by Tom Llamas.
"CORRECTION: We’ve taken down video that aired on “World News Tonight" Sunday and “Good Morning America” this morning that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy. ABC News regrets the error," ABC World News and Good Morning America tweeted on Monday.
#1
We don't have journalists any more.
They're ideologically-minded purveyors of memes.
Children playing a game of Telephone that combines elements of Smear the Queer and Pin the Tail on (anyone but the) Donkey
#4
You'd think the large audience might be a clue.
Speaking of clue(lessness), these 27 year olds who know nothing are so inculcated by Hollywood fakery that they can't tell the difference between gasoline explosions and the real thing.
[Dhaka Tribune] The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s, which remains obscure and probably defunct today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually exploded. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt. (JMB), a banned hard boy outfit, was trying to spread its tentacles across India and a list of 125 suspects have been shared with different states, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) Chief YC Modi said on Monday, several Indian outlets report.
Addressing a meeting of chiefs of the country’s Anti Terrorism Squads (ATS), Modi said the JMB has spread its activities in states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala in the guise of Bangladeshi immigrants colonists.
"The NIA has shared with states concerned a list of 125 suspected activists who have close links with the JMB leadership," he said.
Inspector General of the NIA Alok Mittal said from 2014 to 2018, the JMB has set up 20-22 hideouts in Bangalore and tried to spread its bases in South India.
"The JMB even conducted a trial of rocket launchers in the Krishnagiri hills along the Karnataka border," he said.
Mittal said the JMB was keen to attack Buddhists temples to take Dire Revenge for the plight of Rohingiya Moslems in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features.
If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Chief Monirul Islam told Dhaka Tribune: "For the last couple of years, we have been coordinating with various agencies [Indian] regarding hard boy activities."
"These official or unofficial discussions have been going on after Khagragarh blast in October 2, 2014," he added.
"However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... they did not discuss anything in connection to the NIA list of 125 suspected activists, who have close links with the JMB leadership," CTTC chief said.
"JMB considers themselves to be an international organization now, and claims to be operate under the name of ’so-called’ Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, India."
[DAILYSABAH] People's Protection Units (YPG) continued their cross-border attacks on towns in southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... on Monday, launching 25 mortars and rockets at the Ceylanpinar district of Sanliurfa province.
The mortars hit some houses and empty areas, but did not result in causalities.
One of the projectiles caused a fire on the roof of a house, but firefighters were able to extinguish it without harm to anyone.
Municipal authorities continued to warn locals against possible attacks, as the sound of ongoing festivities across the border could be heard in the district.
Clashes between the YPG turbans and Ottoman Turkish forces continue across the border in Ras al-Ayn within the scope of Operation Peace Spring, launched on Wednesday.
YPG turbans have fired hundreds of mortars into Ottoman Turkish border towns in Sanliurfa and Mardin provinces since the start of the operation.
President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... said Monday that more than 700 mortars have been launched into the country by the YPG, killing 18 civilians and wounding nearly 200 others.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has arrested an opposition figure allegedly "directed by La Belle France’s intelligence service" and is holding him in jug in the Islamic republic, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday.
Ruhollah Zam, who allegedly ran "counter-revolutionary" Telegram channel Amadnews, has been detained in a "sophisticated and professional operation" by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) intelligence organization, the IRGC said in a statement.
"Despite being under the guidance of the French intelligence service and under the protection of the US and Zionist (Israeli) intelligence services ... he (Zam) was trapped by the Revolutionary Guards intelligence service," the statement said.
The statement did not say when or where he was arrested.
Amadnews was suspended by the messaging app Telegram last year after Iran accused it of carrying calls for violence during street protests in the country. But the channel soon re-appeared under a new name.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...... on Monday urged his Ottoman Turkish counterpart His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... to "stop the invasion" of Syria, Vice President Mike Pence said.
Trump pressed the Ottoman Turkish leader in a telephone call to "stop the invasion, to enact an immediate ceasefire and to begin negotiations with Kurdish forces in Syria," Pence told news hounds, adding that he would be traveling urgently to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... at the president’s request.
"He’s directed me to lead a delegation. I will be leaving as quickly as possible to travel into the region to pursue a ceasefire and negotiated settlement," Pence said.
"The United States of America did not give a green light for Turkey to invade Syria," Pence said to news hounds in front of the White House.
Pence said Trump had been firm with Erdogan on the phone.
"The United States of America simply is not going to tolerate Turkey’s invasion in Syria any further. We are calling on Turkey to stand down, end the violence and come to the negotiating table," Pence told news hounds.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who joined Pence, said the Treasury Department was taking economic action against Ottoman Turkish ministries and senior Ottoman Turkish government officials in response to the country’s military operations in Syria.
A Daesh terrorist group commander was arrested during a clearance operation carried out by GCPSU in Bati Kot district of Nangarhar. The commander was identified as Ibrahim and he was involved in many terrorist attacks and destructive activities.
[AnNahar] Egypt has detained two prominent activists who played key roles in the 2011 revolution, activists and a rights group said, the latest in a wave of arrests in recent weeks.
Blogger and journalist Esraa Abdel Fattah, 41, was detained on Saturday evening, a fellow activist said.
Mohammed Salah wrote on his Facebook page that shortly after meeting Abdel Fattah "two cars full of plainclothes coppers took her in one car and me in another."
He added: "They left me after an hour on the highway after they blindfolded and beat me."
Abdel Fattah is best known for co-founding the 6th of April movement in 2008. So, MB tool?
Possibly. Or just a pro-democracy Arab Springer when Hosni Mubarak was running things.
The youth movement was instrumental in mobilizing millions of Egyptians in the uprising that toppled long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in 2011.
Abdel Fattah's whereabouts is currently unknown, according to local watchdog group, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedom.
Abdallah Said, another political activist and official with the opposition Bread and Freedom party, was also detained from his home early Sunday, according to a note posted by his party on social media.
Other officials from the leftist party have also been rounded up in recent weeks.
Authorities have not commented to AFP about the recent arrests.
In the last three weeks, authorities have detained about 3,000 people, including well-known academics, activists and lawyers, according to rights groups.
Activists say the crackdown is one of the worst since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi took power in 2014.
While some detainees have been released, no high-profile figures have been freed, according to a list maintained by rights monitors.
The sweeping arrests came after rare protests in September called for the removal of Sisi, in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.
The small-scale protests followed online calls by an Egyptian businessman living in Spain, who accused the president and military of rampant corruption.
Egypt passed a restrictive anti-protest law in 2013 after Sisi led the military ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. A renewable state of emergency also remains in force.
Last week, parliamentary speaker Ali Abdel Aal said: "There is not a single political prisoner in Egyptian jails".
And in parliament, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli praised how authorities handled the protests saying, "we haven't heard of any breaches".
Update at 10:10 a.m. Ah hah! It just needed to be searched as April 6 movement, et voila:
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The US Treasury slapped punitive sanctions on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ’s defense minister and two other ministers on Monday in response to Ankara’s military assault on northern Syria.
Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, and Energy Minister Fatih Donmez were placed on the Treasury’s sanctions blacklist, freezing their US assets and banning US or US-related transactions with them.
The Defense and Energy ministries were also hit with sanctions, the Treasury said.
"The United States is holding the Ottoman Turkish Government accountable for escalating violence by Ottoman Turkish forces, endangering innocent civilians, and destabilizing the region," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... released his executive order, on Monday, authorizing the imposition of sanctions "against current and former officials of the Government of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and any persons contributing to Turkey’s destabilizing actions in northeast Syria," according to a White House statement.
He added that steel tariffs will be increased back up to 50 percent,
Ouch!
the level prior to reduction in May. "The United States will also immediately stop negotiations, being led by the Department of Commerce, with respect to a $100 billion trade deal with Turkey," said the president.
Oh dear. Double ouch.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also announced Monday new sanctions against two ministries and three senior Ottoman Turkish Government officials in response to Turkey’s military operations in Syria.
"We are prepared to impose additional sanctions on Government of Turkey officials and entities, as necessary," the statement reads.
According to OFAC announcement, persons that engage in certain transactions with persons designated today may themselves be exposed to designation, and "any foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitates any significant financial transactions for or on behalf of the persons designated today could be subject to U.S. correspondent or payable through account sanctions."
"The United States will aggressively use economic sanctions to target those who enable, facilitate, and finance these heinous acts in Syria," Trump continued. "I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey’s economy if Ottoman Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path."
He said that the executive order will enable the United States to impose powerful additional sanctions "on those who may be involved in serious human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... abuses, obstructing a ceasefire, preventing displaced persons from returning home, forcibly repatriating refugees, or threatening the peace, security, or stability in Syria." According to the statement, the order will authorize a broad range of consequences, including financial sanctions, the blocking of property, and barring entry into the United States.
The really really scary thing is that CNN thinks they are right. They really do.
Here we see Zucker literally telling his "reporters" what to say every single morning, while calling that fair and unbiased news. That is not news, that is unethically forcing his personal opinions to be dishonestly presented as if they were news. He is utterly corrupt, and he is an arrogant, self righteous, self important, pathological liar. It is truly pathetic that everybody knows this is going on, and nobody is stopping it. I mean, even Zucker has a boss, and probably a boss's boss.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019
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#1
We need to stop calling these people "journalists," stop referring to them as members of the media or the press.
They're engaged in a kind of Children's Crusade that combines elements of play - think playground or kids' birthday-party games - with a downmarket, clownishly incompetent form of political lobbying.
#6
But even their propaganda efforts are incompetent. Pravda and Izvestia would never have allowed one half of the country to spot the truth behind their lies.
These characters, especially the suits at these companies, can't be good at propaganda because they're simply too damned GREEDY to do it right.
Their greed leads them to chase ratings, which means they have to keep finding the latest "bombshell" scoop, which leads them to manufacture outlandish lie after still more ridiculous lie, which eventually blows up in their face...
#12
I don't think you can elevate politics above the profit motive. Every one of these outfits is run by suits like Zucker whose top priority is ratings, advertising rates, or subscriber counts.
They're all part of publicly-traded behemoths and they all watch the indicators of profitability like a hawk-- because they have to.
Before Trump, they were, each of them, facing economic ruin. Newsweek was sold for a dollar. One dollah! For YOU, special frien', jus' one dollah!!
Their goal is to put on a show for their fans, a la SNL, or maybe one of those evangelical/Tammy Faye shows complete with tears and smiles and tales of virtue vanquishing evil.
Like Facebook, like Twitter, the goal is to get people addicted to this freak show by combining elements of outrage, entertainment and above all, group therapy for those afflicted by OrangeMan who struggle to find a path through our darkness ("So dark! Such dark times!").
Propagandists are both more effective and more subtle than these circus masters.
#1
I checked, because I had no idea who charger is talking about. For those as ignorant about professional sports as I, it’s LeBron James. His jersey says basketball, so that’s probably definitive.
#3
This post is written in such shorthand and jargon that I really do not know what it's about.
Poster: everyone doesn't follow the same milieu as you, please explain things when talking to outsiders. An outsider is anyone that's not in your tiny group.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 5:08
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#4
The best way to educate the NBA's SJW's about life in communist China is to send a few of these SJW's as our representatives to China to go through a Chinese or a N Korean re-education camp.
Then these SJW representatives can come back after a few years of going though these Chinese communist re-education camps and compare them to how the left is indoctrinating all of our school children in American public schools.
Then let these NBA SJW's explain to the American people what the difference is in the indoctrination they received while they were coursing through the Chinese re-education camps to what public school children are exposed to by the left if there is any difference.
Which SJW's from the NBA or from the NFL would you like to nominate to be our US representatives in these re-education camps.
I nominate the QB from SF who did not want to stand in honor of those who gave their lives to keep our country free.
The QB who no NFL team wants to take because he has become so toxic.
With the new QB in SF the 49ers are now 5 and 0.
Of course this SJW QB is profiting from a lucrative Nike endorsement promoting anti-American shoes made by slave laborers in China.
I hope this hypocrisy was made clear.
Between LeBron and Kerr you’ve got some pretty well-known social justice sports guys whose social justice begins in America but ends at Communist China’s doorstep. Or put another way — willing to give Americans a hard time but not any Chinese.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2019 7:47
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#7
An outsider is anyone that's not in your tiny group.
Bron Bron is notorious, an industry leader; an $8 Billion dollar industry in USA tickets and tv deals alone is no tiny thing, never mind its growing popularity in Europe and China, then add on merchandising and we are talking real money.
You may not follow and I may not care, but it is interesting how far into the tank these goldfish are.
#8
One rule for everybody? Who ever heard of such unjust nonsense?
/sarc - prompt critical
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 11:05
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#9
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 12:41
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#10
I have to wonder how many urban kids that look up to Lebron are behind his position. I'd say it's probably pretty high which make me sad. He's an influencer and the influencers in our country seem to hate that country, the results from this kind of thing are never good.
#12
Modest proposal: view pro athletes like the dumb, absurdly well-paid entertainers they are and tell them to shut the f--- up and sing play.
No virtue signaling / BLM BS, no posturing about domestic politics, and no expectation that they will have anything meaningful to say, one way or the other, about Chinese or any other politics.
Just play ball. Entertain us. When you're done, hit the showers, dress, leave by the back entrance and go home.
#14
Drug using high school dropout who made it big time playing ball and without the charade of college route.
More fantastic than space aliens disguised as popular cartoon characters in an interplanetary basketball match of doom.
His tale is a cautionary one, billed as heroic. The heroes are the people who convinced an unmotivated dullard that to have any chance at all playing ball for a living, he must at least have the appearances of finishing high school.
He was the face of the NBA's transition from sports as entertainment to entertainment as sports, or as I call it the soccerization of American sports, and as such received the bigger than life advertising and promotion such as with pro-wrestling.
What I found irksome is that he was constantly being billed as a hero, but is so obviously a heel. Always somebody else's fault, every time he was fouled it was bigger than shit, and oh boy if a white boy fouled him it was farkwad flagrant white man beating a brother with a stick silly.
Which leads us to here, where his is being a heel, and it is so obvious, yet being advertised as a hero. "Everyone calm down, myself and the NBA just had a very tough week and we need a warm bath and candles moment. Maybe what was said could have waited until after we returned from our Chinese promotion and product inspection tee boo hoo."
That isn't a champ, that's a chump. That's a chump in a suit more expensive than my education, stylin' in a way I wouldn't put on my dog as a Halloween joke.
I'm glad his income and business ventures will make sure his grandkids live the walled neighborhood life even if they do nothing. 'Merica cuz no other nation would his life had taken place like it has. Maybe he needs to take a trip to Africa, or the local shoe factory, and see how the communists treat the people outside of 6 star hotels and armed escorts.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Turkish military offensive in Syria has displaced at least 160,000 civilians, the UN secretary general said on Monday in a statement urging an “immediate de-escalation.” That's why we have a UN -- to keep track of these things.
Secretary-General António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... "is gravely concerned over the military developments in northeast Syria," the statement said.
It said Guterres was urging "all parties to resolve their concerns through peaceful means," adding that "civilians not taking part in hostilities must be protected at all times."
Guterres also expressed "serious concern" that the Ottoman Turkish onslaught could lead to the "unintended release of individuals" associated with ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... Some of the Kurdish forces guarding ISIS prisoners or their families have been pulled away to fight the Turks, raising fears that many ISIS forces of Evil might be able to escape.
Guterres also demanded "sustained, unimpeded and safe humanitarian access to civilians in need" to allow the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... and its humanitarian partners to carry out aid work.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that the Ottoman Turkish military offensive in Syria has displaced more than 250,000 civilians. That's why we have a Syrian Observatory for Human Rights -- to keep track of that sort of thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2019
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#1
Oh the United Nations has expressed concerns. Will they send in their rapey blue helmets or merely write a sternly written letter in Spanish and Swahili?
#2
Well, with UNRWA winding down (at least in terms of US financial participation) you'd think the UN bigs would be happy to see a potential new gig on the horizon...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 12:43
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union on Monday condemned The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... ’s operation in northeastern Syria as a direct threat to the security and stability of the region.
"The EU condemns Turkey’s military action which seriously undermines the stability and the security of the whole region," the bloc said in a joint statement at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
"Member states commit to strong national positions regarding their arms export policy to Turkey," added EU foreign ministers.
The Ottoman Turkish operation increases the suffering of Syrian civilians and hinders the delivery of aid, the statement added, saying that the offensive decreases the chance of a successful political settlement to the war in Syria.
The European Council, the grouping of the EU’s 28 governments, said in a statement that Turkey’s military action in northern Syria had "dramatic consequences" and noted that some EU countries had halted arms exports.
The organization also agreed a sanctions framework over Turkey’s drilling for oil and gas in waters off Cyprus, action it condemns.
On Monday NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg similarly criticized Turkey's military operation, saying that it risked further escalation in the region. Turkey is a NATO member.
As Ottoman Turkish forces continued their assault on positions held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria, Syrian government forces have deployed to the towns of Ain Issa and Tabqa in northern Syria, state media and the Syrian Observatory reported on Monday.
Three girls found dead under the rubble of their house which was destroyed in an air raid by warlord Khalifa Haftar’s air force militia in Furnaj neighborhood of #Tripoli today pic.twitter.com/n9Kwkrlv9g
[DAWN] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government here on Sunday warned JUI-F of taking action against its baton-wielding workers parading in uniform.
Addressing a presser, Provincial Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai took exception to JUIF’s gathering in bucolic provincial capital where volunteers of Ansarul Islam, the security wing of party, were doing rehearsal for Islamabad sit-in.
He said that such parades were in violation of National Action Plan, which had been signed by all the political parties.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2019
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[Spiegel] At the insistence of the Chancellery, Berlin waives a ban on Chinese mobile phone technology. Coalition politicians criticize the decision.
Berlin, Düsseldorf. Representatives of the federal government had been debating for months, now the decision has been made: The Chinese network supplier Huawei is allowed to supply components for the entire German 5G network. According to the Handelsblatt, this is the result of the current draft on the security requirements for the telecommunications networks of the Federal Network Agency.
The resolution is to be published in the next few days. An initially discussed clause that would block Huawei's access to the market is not included in the paper.
#8
I can understand the consternation here but the Germans might be forgiven for asking us if it is unwise to use Chinese computers.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2019 11:27
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#9
I just don't know what to think here. A bunch of thoughts:
* Some "allies".
* Germany despises buying American so much they're willing to buy Huawei just to give us a big "fuck you".
* The US intelligence community wants their backdoored equipment installed in Europe so as to keep an eye on things. Seeing them lose can only be a good thing.
* Europe is so anti-innovation that they can't make their own 5G equipment.
* It's time to disband NATO. Europeans obviously don't think that foreign threats are serious, so why are we even there? Why are we financially ruining ourselves to protect against phantom threats?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/15/2019 14:54
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#10
The making 5g thing is purely down to cost not tech.
#11
Ericsson (based in Sweden, so nominally European) makes 5G gear. In collaboration with Huawei. In India. And, yeah, it's about the economics of it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/15/2019 17:57
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#12
Dummkopf.
Also raised in an unorthodox communist family and fed an anti-Western, totalitarian and theocratic ideology.
Last week Commissioner Julian King warned that buying 5G "is not like buying a car, but joining a club".
#Tunisia: a man armed with a knife fatally injured a French national on Monday in Zarzouna, #Bizerte after previously wounding a uniformed serviceman in the face. The foreigner was hit several times in the face, neck and chest and died of his wounds, says medical source. #TAP_En
LIVE — President Erdoğan: It looks like Turkey's operation won't have any problems in Syria's Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) as Russia also showed a positive approachhttps://t.co/jj69UNBCL3pic.twitter.com/bHgP5I4x3o
A name attached to the likely NSC blabbermouth
After President Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it was reported to then-senior National Security Council (NSC) leadership that an NSC staffer had relayed information about the call to individuals outside the NSC -- and characterized the president's conversation as "outrageous," sources familiar with the matter told Fox News.
The development comes as Fiona Hill, a former special assistant to the president who worked on European and Russian affairs, is set to give a deposition next week. Fox News has reached out to Hill for over a week with questions about whether she helped prep for the July 25 call or received any readout of the call.
Hill departed the White House in July, after working under ex-National Security Advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton.
#3
One thing this poop parade has shown me is how two people can look at the same thing, (transcript, in this case) and one sees black and the other white.
Absolutely everything is confirmation of my suspicions beliefs.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/15/2019 7:51
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#5
After President Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it was reported to then-senior National Security Council (NSC) leadership that an NSC staffer had relayed information about the call to individuals outside the NSC -- and characterized the president's conversation as "outrageous," sources familiar with the matter told Fox News.
So this NSC staffer released classified information and that's O.K.?
#6
So this NSC staffer released classified information and that's O.K.?
No, it's not OK. Somebody needs to go to jail.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/15/2019 10:45
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#7
Its going to be like this until the elections, fraudulent news meant to slander a president. They report as if we did not read the transcripts...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/15/2019 15:08
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#8
IMHO, the Dems are going to pay a huge price in the voting booth. I wouldn't be surprised if the Pubs picked up seats in the House--maybe enough to flip the House. Clinton survived imeachment and the Pubs lost seats. I don't see an impeachment case against Trump but the Dems will probably continue their 3 year harassment. The case against Clinton was far stronger. Perhaps there will be something in the DOJ IG report. Haven't seen much from Wray, Durham, Barr, or Horowitz so far. We still have two or three systems of justice, one for us, one for Pubs, and exoneration for Dems and fellow travelers.
[DAWN] Police booked former MNA Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... local leader Dr Nisar Jutt, along with seven others in a cross-version case on charges of killing his rival and a relative.
In her complaint, Ms Sidra of Chak 66-JB, Jhang Road, said her brother Abdul Rehman had political rivalry with Dr Jutt since the last elections. She alleged that Jutt would also hurl life threats at her brother
She stated that the former MNA, along with his accomplices, attacked his brother near Moti Sain shrine at Chak 65-JB when he was on his way to Sheikhupura.
She said that in the attack, Rehman sustained serious injuries and later died while being shifted to hospital.
Taking action on the application, the police booked Dr Nisar Jutt, his alleged accomplices Ayub, Tayyab, Abbas Ali and four other unidentified suspects with no arrest so far.
According to local sources, on Friday night Rehman and some supporters of Dr Jutt exchanged fire near Moti Sain shrine.
In the crossfire, one Mehboob of Jutt group was killed on the spot, while Ayub and Rehman of the rival group later shuffled off the mortal coil.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2019
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[CharlotteObserver] The premise almost sounds like something out of a fictional thriller: FBI agents suspect that a terrorist cell is nestled in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, and wind up racing against the clock to unravel a web of criminal activity.
Except it feels like something even stranger than fiction. Who would believe that bully boyz would pick a genteel Southern city to set up an American base of operations for carrying out sinister plots on behalf of one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world?
In fact, when this really happened in Charlotte two decades ago, Robert Clifford faced the same skepticism.
Continued on Page 49
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.
This day was always going to happen.
[NYP] From vaginal steaming to labiaplasty, some women are willing to go to extremes to attain the "perfect" vagina.
[VOX] A wave of would-be returnees could rekindle terrorism on the continent.
[BBC] Five French women have been sentenced to between five and 30 years in jail for trying to detonate a car bomb near Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris in 2016.
[Townhall] In Louisiana's Saturday election, Republicans had a lot to cheer about. Among statewide office-holders, the incumbent GOP Lieutenant Governor (68 percent), Attorney General (66 percent), Treasurer (60 percent, and Agricultural Commissioner (58 percent) were all re-elected without the need for a run-off, under the state's 'jungle primary'-style system. It also appears that the solid Republican majorities in both state legislative chambers will remain intact -- with the GOP expanding its Senate advantage into super-majority territory by picking up a pair of Democratic seats:
[Babylon Bee] SACRAMENTO, CA‐California is being heralded as a progressive utopia after eliminating electricity entirely.
[Washington Examiner] House Democrats confident that their push for impeachment is a political slam-dunk might want to figure out how they can reconcile two contradictory facts.
Ref #15: my faith in the justice system has eroded daily.
[Breitbart] Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi reframes the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry ‐ and its latest development in the arrest of two associates of Rudy Giuliani ‐ as a "permanent coup" against President Trump playing out more slowly than coups he has experienced firsthand in other nations.
[Reason] Politicians who declare housing a human right rarely include in that a right to actually build housing.
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
[BALTIMORESUN] Two people were shot Sunday, one fatally, bringing the total number of people struck by gunfire this weekend to 17, Baltimore police say.
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
...Showboating U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that 
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
