[The Hill] Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) on Wednesday reportedly called clothing worn by some lawmakers and their aides on Capitol Hill an "invitation" during a discussion on sexual harassment.
"I saw a member yesterday with her cleavage so deep it was down to the floor," Kaptur said during a House Democratic Caucus meeting to talk about sexual harassment issues, Politico reported, citing sources in the room.
"And what I’ve seen ... it's really an invitation."
The Ohio Democrat reportedly said she has been "appalled" by some of the things staffers have worn.
"Maybe I’ll get booed for saying this, but many companies and the military [have] a dress code," she said.
"I have been appalled at some of the dress of ... members and staff. Men have to wear ties and suits."
Kaptur said in a later statement to Politico that it is never a victim's fault for being harassed.
"When I was first elected to Congress my office and I became a refuge for female staffers who had been mistreated by their bosses. Some of them in tears many days. It is something I carry with me to this day and something I brought up during our Caucus meeting," she said.
"Under no circumstances is it the victim's fault if they are harassed in any way. I shared the stories from my time here in the context of the ’Me Too’ legislation and how we can elevate the decorum and the dress code to protect women from what is a pervasive problem here and in society at large."
h/t Instapundit
A wealthy ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed a bounty on the heads of two former U.S. military and intelligence officials as part of what U.S. officials told the Washington Free Beacon is an effort by the Turkish government to threaten and intimidate Americans who they believe are working to undermine Erdogan.
A bounty of three million Turkish lira, or nearly $800,000, was placed on the heads of former Pentagon official Michael Rubin and former top CIA official Graham Fuller for what Erdogan's allies claim is their role in a 2016 failed coup that nearly toppled Erdogan's ruling government. I guess times have changed - used to be something like this could've been a cause for war
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
12/13/2017
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#1
bounty as in dead or alive? You got some 'splainin' to do, Tayyip....
[FOX] The man who says he acted as a "go-between" last year to inform Sen. John McCain about the controversial "dossier" containing salacious allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump is speaking out, revealing how the ex-British spy who researched the document helped coordinate its release to the FBI, the media and Capitol Hill.
"My mission was essentially to be a go-between and a messenger, to tell the senator and assistants that such a dossier existed," Sir Andrew Wood told Fox News in an exclusive interview with senior executive producer Pamela K. Browne.
Fox News spoke to Wood at the 2017 Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada. As Britain’s ambassador to Moscow from 1995-2000, Wood witnessed the end of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the rise of Vladimir Putin.
Just after the U.S. presidential election in November 2016, Arizona GOP Sen. McCain spoke at the same security conference. Wood says he was instructed ‐ by former British spy Christopher Steele ‐ to reach out to the senior Republican, whom Wood called "a good man," about the unverified document.
#4
McCain took the bait;
and now we have Collusiongate.
Thanks John. Your pettiness is exceeded only by your, well, I cant't think of anything just yet -
I doubt your grand-kids will be attending any dedication ceremonies at Statuary Hall.
[The Hill] Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be on the hot seat Wednesday over alleged political bias in the Justice Department ‐ and in a twist, he’ll be hearing it from both sides of the aisle.
Rosenstein is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee’s oversight panel at a time when both Republicans and Democrats are insisting that the personal leanings of FBI personnel have unfairly tilted the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email server and the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has said he is "troubled" by the staff assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, citing a senior intelligence agent, Peter Strzok, who was reassigned from Mueller’s team for sending allegedly anti-Trump texts.
Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), is demanding that the Justice Department turn over documents that he says could reveal "politically-motivated misconduct" at the bureau designed to damage Clinton in the election ‐ including alleged leaks to media organizations.
Rosenstein is the senior Justice Department official in charge of the Russia probe due to Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself. After taking over the investigation, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel.
Goodlatte and other Republicans are calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate the handling of the FBI’s decisionmaking in the Clinton probe ‐ and Rosenstein will likely face pressure on that point on Wednesday.
Republicans have long argued that Clinton received kid-glove treatment from the Obama Justice Department, and now are using reports of the reassigned intelligence agent to argue that the investigation into Russia’s election meddling is a politically motivated "witch hunt" against President Trump.
BLUF:
[Denver Post 7 Dec 2017 update] When the FBI began investigating whether Clinton improperly used a private server to send classified emails, it interviewed Platte River’s employees, who were also subpoenaed by the congressional committee. At that point, Platte’s response said they were cooperating with the FBI.
But the committee’s work was not done. In Thursday’s letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology, said Suazo failed to produce documents, made false statements and obstructed the committee’s investigation. The committee wants the case to go before a grand jury.
"Instead of cooperation, the Committee was met with obstruction and refusal to comply with subpoenas and requests for transcribed interviews. These actions, taken together, as well as Mr. Suazo’s false statements to the Committee, made through counsel, support the pattern of obstruction. If left unaddressed, Mr. Suazo’s conduct in ignoring lawful congressional subpoenas, misleading the Committee through false statements, and bald refusal to respond to reasonable requests could gravely impair Congress’s ability to exercise its core constitutional authorities of oversight and legislation," reads the letter, signed by Smith.
#3
I hate to say this but from his inaction as A/G or indicates that he has been compromised in the past. I would imagine that every congressperson has something in the closet waiting to be exposed.
Kind of like reading Joseph Conrad’s novel, Lord Jim.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/13/2017 10:13
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[Jpost] A US District Court judge ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday to turn over any potential evidence that could be material for when he sentences President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during his interview in Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia.
Flynn has agreed to cooperate with Mueller's investigation. Moscow has denied interfering in the election and Trump has denied any collusion.
US District Judge Emmet Sullivan told the government in a filing to turn over any exculpatory evidence, known as "Brady" material, that could potentially help Flynn's defense or information that is "material either to the defendant's guilt or punishment."
The order by the judge is considered routine, and the government by law is required to turn over such information to the defense if it exists.
A sentencing date has not been set, but a status report ahead of sentencing is due by Feb 1. My bet is that they have considerably less than nothing
#1
As others have noted, the Giglio offense by not disclosing Mueller's team's bias will weigh in
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2017 6:54
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#2
I doubt we'll ever seen any evidence. He's already plead guilty. Evidence would tip their FISA court hand and potentially reveal the Dossier's (fruit of the poisonous tree) use. Trump was right, Trump Towers was being monitored, either by the U.S. or via a partnering agreement with the Brits.
[DailyCaller] A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has recused herself from a second case involving Trump dossier firm Fusion GPS.
Tanya S. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, recused herself on Monday from a case involving a dispute over subpoenas issued for Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the dossier.
Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian tech executive accused in the dossier of hacking Democrats’ computer systems, has sought to subpoena Fusion GPS records and to depose its employees to find out more about the research firm’s work on the dossier.
Gubarev is suing BuzzFeed for defamation for publishing the dossier earlier this year. He denies the allegations laid out in the document, which was written by former British spy Christopher Steele.
Chutkan recused herself last month from another case involving Fusion GPS. The firm had filed suit against its bank, TD Bank, to keep it from complying with a subpoena issued by the House Intelligence Committee, which sought Fusion’s bank records.
Chutkan presided over that case from Oct. 20 to Nov. 9. It was reassigned to Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee. Since taking over the case, Leon has indicated that he plans to allow more transparency into the court proceedings involving the battle over Fusion’s bank records. He has ordered several documents be unsealed and made public.
Chutkan has presided over the case involving the lawsuit against BuzzFeed since Aug. 31. Her replacement is Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee who assumed office in October.
The reasons for Chutkan’s recusals remain a mystery.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. District Court confirmed that Chutkan recused herself from the case but declined to provide an explanation, citing policy against discussing recusal decisions.
Chutkan’s past legal work could have something to do with the decision.
Prior to her appointment to the federal bench, Chutkan was a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner (BSF), an international white shoe law firm founded by David Boies.
At the firm, Chutkan represented Theranos, a medical technology company. Fusion GPS also appears to have worked for Theranos and BSF.
Chutkan represented Theranos in a 2013 malpractice lawsuit. She left BSF for the federal bench the next year.
It is unclear when Fusion GPS began working on behalf of Theranos. But The Washington Post reported on Monday that Fusion GPS co-founder Peter Fritsch intervened on behalf of the company during a 2015 investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
Fritsch, a former reporter at The Journal, reportedly asked Journal reporter John Carreyrou to soften coverage of Theranos and its inaccurate blood-testing devices.
[BBC] A video showing a man hacking another man to death and setting him alight spread across India's social networks a week ago, sparking shock and outrage. BBC Hindi's Dilnawaz Pasha visited Rajasmand, the town where the crime occurred, to find out what motivated it.
"We have nothing to say. Everybody has seen what has happened," says one man, pale-faced and teary-eyed.
He doesn't want to be named. He is still reeling from the fact his relative, Shambu Lal, has been arrested as the alleged attacker in the gruesome video.
The three-minute clip shows a man screaming and crying for help as he is repeatedly struck with a pick axe, until he dies. The attacker then sets the body on fire, saying it was a "warning" to Muslims, India's largest religious minority.
Soon after I entered Rajasmand in the western state of Rajasthan, I realised that everyone there knew about the video. I was told that even children had watched it.
The attacker made someone film the crime on a phone and then posted the video on Facebook. The police later identified him as Shambu Lal, a Hindu marble trader who is also a Dalit (formerly known as untouchable).
The victim was Mohammad Afrajul, a Muslim migrant labourer who had been living in Rajasthan for more than a decade.
The video, which was aired on some television channels and shared across social media - has stunned India. The crime itself is distressingly familiar - there have been numerous instances in the past few years of Muslims being brutally and publicly killed.
Mr Lal confessed to the murder in a note, a photo of which he also posted on Facebook. His accompanying message, and other videos shared by him, suggest the attack was motivated by religion.
In the video, Mr Lal warns Muslims, saying: "This is what will happen to you if you do 'love jihad' in our country."
The term "love jihad" has been popularised by radical Hindu fringe groups, who accuse Muslim men of participating in a conspiracy to turn Hindu women from their religion by seducing them.
In a second video, Mr Lal is seen justifying the attack to "protect the honour of Hindus against Muslims".
Many of those who know Mr Lal spoke on condition of anonymity and described him as a man who was "soft-spoken" and "concerned" for others.
But some also said they had been worried about him in the weeks leading up to the crime.
Mr Lal's business had been struggling and he had been spending a lot of time watching videos on his phone - videos on Facebook or WhatsApp that, they believe, may have motivated his actions.
WhatsApp, through which videos can travel fast and wide, has been often used to spread rumours and whip up hysteria in India. Earlier this year, messages on WhatsApp led to mobs in eastern India beating seven people to death in two separate incidents after mistaking them for child traffickers.
Most of India's fake news spreads via WhatsApp and mobile phone messages because phones are the first point of exposure to the internet for a majority of Indians.
When I spoke with a group of young Dalit men who knew Mr Lal, it became apparent that spurious news clips and videos about alleged cases of "love-jihad" were being widely circulated among younger Hindu men.
One of them pulled out his phone to show me a local news story he had received on WhatsApp, which claimed that a Hindu girl had been kidnapped and raped by Muslim men. The story he showed me has not been verified or reported by any of India's established media organisations.
"What Shambu has done is absolutely right," he says. "This is what needs to be done to stop love jihad."
Another young man agreed: "When we see such news, it fills us with rage. Why are Muslims taking our girls? Why are they raping them and forcing them to convert to Islam? Tell me, who will accept this?"
This group of men has created a WhatsApp group where they praise Mr Lal, and also share photos of him stamped with Hindu right-wing slogans. A photo of his, for instance, was accompanied with the message, "love jihadis, be alert, Shambu has risen."
#1
The crime itself is distressingly familiar - there have been numerous instances in the past few years of Muslims being brutally and publicly killed.
So, if I'm tired of reading everyday about Muslims brutally killing people, and want to see the opposite, I've to look at Indian newspapers?
#5
I don’t know about India, but it is a common — and commonly documented — story in Egypt. Although sometimes the girls fell in love with the boys, no kidnap wih rape required.
[Gateway Pundit] Nellie Ohr, the wife of demoted Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, who worked at Fusion GPS last year when the firm was working for the Clinton presidential campaign compiling the controversial anti-Trump Russian dossier, is listed as working for the CIA’s Open Source Works department in a 2010 DOJ report.
The report lists Nellie and Bruce Ohr as expert participants along with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson. Bruce Ohr met secretly with Simpson last year, as well as dossier author Christopher Steele, according to a Fox News report last week.
Fox News’ James Rosen broke the exclusive news on Monday that Nellie Ohr worked for Fusion GPS while her husband held the surreptitious meeting with Fusion GPS last year.
A senior Justice Department official demoted last week for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump "dossier" had even closer ties to Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the incendiary document, than have been disclosed, Fox News has confirmed: The official’s wife worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election.
Contacted by Fox News, investigators for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of the demoted official, Bruce G. Ohr, worked for the opposition research firm last year. The precise nature of Mrs. Ohr’s duties ‐ including whether she worked on the dossier ‐ remains unclear but a review of her published works available online reveals Mrs. Ohr has written extensively on Russia-related subjects. HPSCI staff confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016."
The Fox News report also notes Nellie Ohr "was described as a Russia expert at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank, when she worked there, briefly, a decade ago. The Center’s website said her project focused on the experiences of Russian farmers during Stalin’s collectivization program and following the invasion of Russia by Nazi forces in 1941. She has also reviewed a number of books about twentieth century Russia, including Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia (2000), by Gerald Easter, a political scientist at Boston College, and Bertrand M. Patenaude’s The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921 (2002)."
A June 2010 report posted by the DOJ entitled, "Expert Working Group Report on InternationalOrganized Crime", lists Nellie Ohr as a participant representing "Open Source Works" Bruce Ohr is listed, right above his wife, as "Chief, Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice" Glenn Simpson is listed as, "Senior Fellow International Assessment and Strategy Center". (The Daily Caller reported the think tank apparently cut ties with Simpson earlier this year.)
#1
Skid posted the initial Gateway link yesterday. Gateway ran it again this morning. Running it here again today. The facts that James Rosen and others are uncovering here will likely form the basis of follow-on revelations. To say it's all very difficult to follow is an understatement.
Nel Ohr is a Russian expert and writer. She undoubtedly has many Russian contacts. It will be interesting to see if there is a Natalia Veselnitskaya (beltway insider) connection. The Christopher Steele connection should also be very interesting.
Lastly, perhaps someone should ask 'if Fusion GPS is just a 'front' for another three letter agency?'
#6
They have a Russian connection and collusion with the phony dossier. They should be hanging Democrats for the phony dossier which is essentially a "October Surprise" by the Dems, courtesy the Russians.
[Daily Caller] Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon was widely mocked in political circles following Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore’s humiliating loss in the deep-red state of Alabama.
Bannon was one of Moore’s earliest supporters and campaigned in Alabama for the scandal-plagued candidate. In the primary run-off, Bannon backed Moore over President Trump’s preferred candidate, Republican Sen. Luther Strange.
"Luther Strange would have won in a landslide... Just too much crazy in nerve racking times," influential news kingpin Matt Drudge wrote on Twitter following Moore’s loss. "There IS a limit!"
"This is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running," Steve Law, president of the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, said in a statement. "Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the President of the United States into his fiasco," Law said.
Democratic strategist Paul Begala mockingly thanked Bannon for making Democratic candidate Doug Jones’ victory possible.
"Special thanks to the genius strategist who did so much to make this happen: Steve Bannon," Begala gloated.
#3
No 'presumption of innocence.' Aggressive sex scandaling works! Add a little hate sauce from abortion advocates and the entitlement crowd and voilà, victory salad.
#4
The Republican Party is a liberal institution under the leadership of McCain, McConnell, and Ryan, all moderate liberals. Conservatives are not represented by any party.
#7
Seated until 2018. Conservatives will take the election and seat back at that time, expecially if they can rally behind a single candidate early on. Mo Brooks is already there from the last election.
[Politico] NEW YORK‐David Petraeus had a rule when he was in command in Afghanistan and Iraq: "Be first with the truth."
Recalling that was Petraeus’ cautious way of answering a question about whether President Donald Trump is right to say that America is winning the war against the Islamic State. Later, the retired four-star general and former CIA director told me in an interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast, "There are other presidents who have also made some declarations that they undoubtedly wished that they hadn’t made."
But that’s about as critical as Petraeus is willing to be of Trump, a president who could hardly be more different than the warrior-intellectual whose pronouncements on the progress of America’s wars were once treated like thunder from Mt. Olympus. Today, he doesn’t quite hold the same grip on the public esteem, but he was strikingly bullish on a president who’s been compared to a "wrecking ball" liable to start World War III‐and that’s just the criticism from Republicans.
Like a soldier walking through a minefield, Petraeus stepped gingerly through his answers. Though he repeated that he’s ruled out ever running for office, Petraeus confirmed he has spoken with the Trump administration about being secretary of state and national security adviser and says he’d still be interested about going in, "but it would have to be a specific set of circumstances or be, frankly, certain conditions." He wouldn’t say what those were, but noted they were part of the conversation he had with Trump a year ago when Rex Tillerson was offered Foggy Bottom instead.
[WSJ] If Republicans succeed in limiting the state-and-local tax deduction, one hope is that this could finally inspire a come-to-Jesus moment in prodigal high-tax states. Democrats in Illinois ought to be especially chastened by new IRS data showing an acceleration of out-migration.
The Prairie State lost a record $4.75 billion in adjusted gross income to other states in the 2015 tax year, according to recently IRS data released. That’s up from $3.4 billion in the prior year. Many of the migrants were retirees who often flock to balmier climes. But millennials accounted for more than a third of the net outflow in tax returns.
While Florida with zero income tax was the top destination for Illinois expatriates, the Illinois Policy Institute notes that Illinois lost income and people on net to all of its neighbors‐Wisconsin (6,000 people based on claimed exemptions), Indiana (8,200), Iowa (1,900), Missouri (2,000) and Kentucky (1,100). What’s the matter with Illinois?
Too much for us to distill in one editorial, but suffice to say that exorbitant property and business taxes have retarded economic growth. Illinois’s corporate tax rate is 9.5%, and pass-through business owners pay 6.45%. Though Illinois’s flat 4.95% income tax rate is relatively low compared to its neighbors, Democrats have found other ways to clobber their citizens.
Property taxes in Cook County and Chicago’s "collar" counties are the highest in the country outside of California and the Northeast. The average homeowner who moves from Lake County, Illinois, across the border to Kenosha County, Wisconsin would receive an annual $3,200 annual property tax cut. Taxes may increase as Democrats scrounge for cash to pay for pensions. Fitch Ratings reported this week that Illinois’s unfunded pension liabilities equalled 22.8% of residents’ personal income last year, compared to a median of 3.1% across all states and 1% in Florida.
This helps explain why Illinois’s economy has been stagnant, growing a meager 0.9% on an inflation-adjusted annual basis since 2012‐the slowest in the Great Lakes and half as fast as the U.S. overall. This year nearly 100,000 individuals have left the Illinois labor force. The University of Illinois Flash Economic Index, which measures corporate earnings and investment as well as personal income, hit a five-year low in October. (See nearby for the recent labor force trend in Illinois and Wisconsin.)
Illinois taxpayers have seen the warnings on the wall, which became even more stark after the Democratic legislature this summer overrode GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s tax hike veto. Democrats in Springfield and Chicago think they can defeat Mr. Rauner next year and raise taxes again, but they may succeed mainly in driving more people out of state.
#2
Heh - looks like Trump's not the only President who 'rewards our friends and punishes our enemies', is he? Now the shoe's on the other foot and will be jammed up their asses on or about April 15th, 2019.
There is one drawback to this state emigration thing - Democrats will continue to vote like they did back in their original state. Look at how they ruined my home state of New Hampshire over thirty years.
#4
>The average homeowner who moves from Lake County, Illinois, across the border to Kenosha County, Wisconsin would receive an annual $3,200 annual property tax cut.
But this is represented in the relatively costs for purchasing a house in either area.
#6
When they move, either they need to leave their big-government politics behind, or expect to be treated as disease-carrying locusts who would carry the plague of progressivism and liberalism to a new home.
#7
I don't know where you are, Cheaderhead, but Madison has seen a crime spike.
Posted by: james ||
12/13/2017 16:44
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#8
In the aforementioned county. We've seen crime añd gang activity going up for some time. A lot of the problems started when Little Richie was trying to clean up Chicago during their Olympic bid. This is also when things in Milwaukee really started to go south.
On the plus side we are seeing businesses move north of the line.
[DAWN] Two persons were killed and five, including one woman, injured in an incident of firing in the Baghdadi area in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... on Tuesday evening, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Adeel Hussain Chandio informed Dawn.
Local builder Rozie Khan Niazi's son, Raees Niazi, was at a hotel in Kalri when two gunnies, Mubeen and Fazal Dad, opened fire on him after his refusal to pay them bhatta (protection money), SSP Chandio said.
Four passersby also suffered gunshot wounds. The injured have been shifted to Civil Hospital, police said.
As Raees succumbed to his wounds, an outraged mob overwhelmed and killed Fazal Dad and injured Mubeen, the police officer added.
SSP Chandio stated that the attackers were from the Raja Pathan gang. Fazal's brother, Mustufa, had been killed last year in a police encounter. Deputy Inspector General Azad Khan said Raees had played a role in Mustufa's killing.
Inspector General Sindh A.D. Khowaja and Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal have taken notice of the incident. Directives have been issued for the timely arrest of all involved in the incident.
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Salahuddin (Iraqinews.com) A team from the Human Rights office of the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) paid on Tuesday a visit to Tuz Khurmatu city in Salahuddin province to investigate reports of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... violations.
The team is due to investigate reports of punitive destruction of property of residents who have been displaced by the festivities in the area in October and reports of intimidation to prevent the safe return of the displaced to their homes, UNAMI said in a statement, quoted by Baghdad Today on Tuesday.
"This visit has been prompted by repeated reports about indiscriminate targeting of civilians, forced evictions and destruction of property prior to but notably after 16 October 2017," the statement read.
At least 150 houses belonging to Turkmen and Kurds were reportedly set ablaze and there were other reports of acts of violence, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Ján Kubiš said in a briefing to the UN Security Council meeting in New York on November 22.
Moreover, the United Nations expressed concern about the festivities in the town which have inflicted casualties, and triggered a new wave of displacements primarily from the Kurdish community.
Last week, a UNAMI team visited several areas in the town and met with a number of officials. UNAMI officials also met in Erbil with a number of representatives of Tuz Khurmatu displaced residents and listened to their accounts about the circumstances surrounding the alleged attacks.
UNAMI also expressed its concern about the recent repeated indiscriminate mortar attacks, which have inflicted losses, including civilian casualties from among the Turkmen community in the town.
It called for an immediate end to acts that threaten the security and the safety of Kurdish and Turkmen communities and their civilian residents and called upon the Iraqi government to take all necessary measures to end violence and violations of human rights in Tuz Khurmatu.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Several Islamic State militants hiding inside a tunnel are being besieged by security troops , west of Anbar, a security source said on Monday.
“Several IS members were found hiding inside a tunnel in al-Badiya island, near Hit city,” the source told AlSumaria News. “Those militants previously killed a soldier as he knew about their hideout.”
Earlier on the day, seven IS members were reportedly killed as joint troops of army’s seventh division and tribes carried out an operation in the desert, north of Baghdadi town, west of Anbar.
Hit (IraqiNews.com) Five people were arrested in Iraq’s Anbar province on Tuesday for drinking alcoholics in public, a local security source was quoted saying.
Alsumaria News quoted the source saying that a police force at the city of Hit (70 km west of Ramadi) arrested five for taking alcoholics in public.
“Some of those detained admitted to alcoholics dealing,” said the source.
Attacks against alcoholics stores have been rampant at Iraq’s religiously conservative regions over the past years.
Iraq’s parliament banned the import selling and manufacturing of alcoholics in October 2016, to the dismay of several personal freedoms activists.
An earlier law in 2001 had conditioned that alcoholics sellers be non-Muslims, Iraqi nationals and not less than 21 of age.
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq is holding up to 50 Saudi members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! during the latest battles between security forces and the Death Eater group.
London-based The New Arab quoted, Mansour al-Baiji, a parliament member close to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi saying that more than 50 Saudis belonging to IS were arrested. He said "the issue of those detainees is purely judicial and is not open to any negotiations because they are involved in crimes against Iraqis".
Another official from the Interior Ministry told the newspaper that the number of foreign faceless myrmidons arrested during battles in the north and west has risen to more than 400 from Arab, European and Asian nationalities. He added that Saudi detainees come on top, numbering 51.
Detainees include Moroccans, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians, Chechens, Tajikistanis, Turks and Paks.
The official told the paper that those had entered Iraq through the Syrian borders. He, too, reiterated that Iraq will handle them judicially instead of extraditing them.
Justice ministry sources told the newspaper that non-Iraqi faceless myrmidons are incarcerated in special wards, with their home countries informed of their arrests.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
I remember reading earlier this year about online support for IS. Saudis led the pack. Disturbingly the USA was second to fourth depending on the date observed.
[IsraelTimes] Human rights group Amnesia Amnesty International says that Iran’s courts had "run roughshod over the rule of law" by confirming the death sentence of an academic accused of espionage during nuclear talks with world powers.
Lawyers for Ahmadreza Djalali, an emergency medicine specialist resident in Sweden, were informed Saturday that the Supreme Court had upheld his sentence "without granting them an opportunity to file their defence submissions," Amnesty said in a statement.
Djalali was a visiting professor at Belgium’s Vrije University when he was tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! during a trip to Iran in April 2016.
He was accused of passing information to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service during the negotiations that led to Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.
[TheHill] Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Monday went after President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, biking to the French capital's city hall to discuss the issue with the mayor.
Photos and videos posted online show Schwarzenegger waving and grinning as he rides on a green bike, wearing a green tie.
The action star spoke at an event focused on climate change that was hosted by R20, a nonprofit he co-founded.
"It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump backed out of the Paris agreement, because the private sector didn’t drop out, the public sector didn’t drop out, the universities didn’t drop out, the scientists didn’t drop out, the engineers didn’t drop out.... No one else dropped out," Schwarzenegger said, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Which is as it should be. President Trump’s point is that it is not the job of the federal government to waste taxpayer money on such things. Everyone else is free to waste their money as they — and in the case of sub-federal government entities, as their voters’ elected representatives — please.
Trump in June announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, calling the agreement "unfair at the highest level." The decision placed the U.S. at odds with the rest of the world ‐ every other country on Earth has signed onto the deal.
Yes, however in science it isn’t the consensus that wins, but the one individual who is more right than everyone else.
Schwarzenegger has emerged as a prominent voice on the subject of climate change Penance for boinking the housekeeper?
In 2011 he founded R-20, an international organization with backing from the United Nations that works to fund green infrastructure efforts. Mr. Schwarzenneger may be contacted HERE.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
12/13/2017
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi military has denied coordination with Syria over controlling troops between the two countries.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said "there is no coordination between Iraq and Syria. However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... the meeting between the commander of Jazirah Operations with the commander of Syrian Democratic Forces on the borders was for coordination."
Can we now start rounding up Trump's political enemies, putting them in work camps and systematically starving everyone that isn't in the official party elite?
No?
Then maybe we can just execute Rodman with a AAA gun?
No?
Well shit... guess we have our answer if they are the same.
[AnNahar] Russia's security service on Tuesday said it was on alert for the possible return of jihadists from Syria ahead of the World Cup and the presidential election in 2018.
The FSB's warning came after the Russian military last week declared Syria "liberated" from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, and after a visit on Monday by President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... to Russia's airbase in the war-ravaged country.
Russia first intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2015, staging air strikes in support of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... which targeted both IS and other jihadists as well as rebels fighting government troops.
As many as 40,000 fighters travelled from all over the world, including Russia, to join IS in Russia after the 2014 declaration of its self-styled "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq.
In 2015, Russian security services estimated that 2,900 Russian citizens had joined IS, as well as "several thousands" from Central Asia.
Now that IS' "caliphate" has all but collapsed, its "leaders and fighters are looking for ways to continue their terrorist activities in the territory of other countries, including Russia", FSB director Alexander Bortnikov was quoted by Russian agencies as saying.
"The return of former members of illegal gangs from the Middle East to Russia poses a real danger" as they can form sleeper cells and recruit new members, he added.
- Attacks thwarted -
Bortnikov said the security services had ensured the Confederations Cup ran smoothly this year.
They will draw on this experience to ensure they prevent attacks on venues in 13 cities hosting the World Cup from June 14 to July 15 next year.
"Our priority is to secure locations where crowds will gather, as well as energy infrastructure sites ... and sports venues that will host the 2018 football World Cup, to ensure they are not targets for terror attacks," Bortnikov said.
The FSB has thwarted attacks, including a suicide kaboom, that an IS cell from southern Russia was planning for the upcoming New Year holidays and early next year, a statement carried by Russian news agencies said.
Another assault was being planned for the presidential campaign, it added.
Security forces in a raid locked away You have the right to remain silent... three people and seized explosives and automatic weapons, it said.
Russia will hold a presidential election in March 2018, with the campaign officially expected to start later this month, following an announcement by Putin that he will stand for a fourth time.
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[DailyMail] Astronomers are set to scan an 'alien' comet for signs of extraterrestrial technology. Hormidos!!
The cigar-shaped asteroid, named 'Oumuamua by its discoverers, sailed past Earth last month and is the first interstellar object seen in the solar system.
A team of alien-hunting scientists, led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, will scan the comet this week before it sails beyond the reach of Earth's telescopes. Didn't like what they saw?
They say they are looking for radio signals, claiming the mysterious visitor could be an alien spaceship.
Astronomers have begun scanning an 'alien' comet for signs of extraterrestrial technology. Researchers say they are looking for radio signals, claiming the mysterious visitor could be an alien spaceship.
A cigar-shaped comet named 'Oumuamua sailed past Earth last month and is the first interstellar object seen in the solar system.
It was first spotted by a telescope in Hawaii on 18 October, and was observed 34 separate times in the following week.
Travelling at 44 kilometres per second (27 miles per second), the comet is headed away from the Earth and Sun on its way out of the solar system.
The comet is up to one-quarter mile (400 meters) long and highly-elongated - perhaps 10 times as long as it is wide.
That aspect ratio is greater than that of any asteroid or comet observed in our solar system to date.
But the comet's slightly red hue ‐ specifically pale pink ‐ and varying brightness are remarkably similar to objects in our own solar system.
The alien-hunting project will use the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia for its investigation, with the campaign set to begin at 3:00pm ET (8:00pm GMT) on Wednesday.
The telescopes sensitive equipment would would take less than a minute to pick up something as faint as the radio waves from a smartphone, according to the Atlantic.
Milner, the business mogul behind Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million (£75m) search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, received an email about the object last week from one of his chief scientists.
'The more I study this object, the more unusual it appears, making me wonder whether it might be an artificially made probe which was sent by an alien civilisation,' Professor Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard's astronomy department and one of Milner's advisers on Breakthrough Listen, wrote in the email.
Professor Loeb said the space rock's peculiar elongated shape is odd for a common space rock but ideal for a ship flying between star systems.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
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#1
Good, private sector.
Our tax funded, gov audited, lifer admins managed crack NEO monitoring team didn’t notice until it passed.
#2
I suspect that if this is an interstellar alien spacecraft or probe, from a civilization advanced enough to produce it, then they would probably be somewhat beyond 'radio' for communications.
Quantum Entangled Particle or Superluminal communication concepts (both theoretical and both having constraints, based on what we know), or something else entirely, might be utilized.
Still, keep listening.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/13/2017 7:40
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#10
Even at speeds exceeding the speed of light, the object, if intelligent in origin, is several million years old and most likely the civilization of origin has moved on or expired.
Space is vast and the distances are almost beyond comprehension. If a civilization were scanning our planet, they would be seeing dinosaurs not cities.
#15
If I were an Alien, My space ship would not look like a rock; it would be the cover feature for the forthcoming issue of
'Better Homes and Hangars.'
#16
If it is as old as I think it is, the erosion from space dust would change it from a sparkling example of home world technology into a corroded eroded thing such as we have here.
As for exceeding the speed of light? Heck I don't know, I just know that once you get to about 0.9C things get very weird and beyond that it is all theoretical...go read Einstein he might illuminate you.
I was just saying the nearest likely suspects for intelligent life are so far away this thing if intelligent in origin is extremely old (see dinosaurs).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/13/2017 18:11
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#25
With all the stupid sitcoms and broadcasts and news we spew out in to space every day we better hope no spacefaring race finds us and decides the've had enough of our crap...
#27
I would not be surprised if extrasolar objects pass through the solar system fairly frequ3ntly, our not seeing them is a function of not looking in the right place and most times they are passing a lot farther out. But if this object is artificial it sure is an instellar slowpoke
#28
Long ago I read of plans for hollowing out an asteroid to make an interstellar spacecraft. The idea would be the rock itself could provide a lot of protection from space debris and radiation.
[KCENtv] F.B.I. agents arrived late Monday night at the Houston home of an 18-year-old locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! on terrorism charges.
The Sherlocks knocked on the family's door around 8:30 p.m. Monday, went inside and stayed about an hour.
"The boys are sharp, both of them are, he's the most laid back one," said Edward Hood, their next-door neighbor.
Hood saw no signs of the troubled teen described in federal court documents.
"When they were able to go to college, they were 14 or something like that, they were too young to go, they had to wait a year or so before they could get in," Hood said.
Friday, F.B.I. agents arrested Kaan Sercan Damlarkaya. Court documents say the man, who was born in Houston, lives with his parents and older brother. He's accused of distributing explosive-making instructions and trying to provide material to ISIS.
No one answered the door at his family's address on Nova Drive off Briar Forest.
"Kind of surprised," said Johnathan Scott, another neighbor.
Scott met the family after Harvey.
"When I came back the neighborhood was still flooded and I kinda rafted over and they was hanging out and I had a conversation with them," Scott said.
Nothing he says stood out, but to federal Sherlocks a lot did. They say it goes back to at least 2014 and said Damalarkaya explained that it was his "dream" to be a martyr and have the biggest kaboom.
"It's kind of shocking to hear a teenage boy would want to harm other people like that, but it's a sign of the times," Scott said.
According to court documents, Damlarkaya allegedly shared intentions to travel overseas to fight for ISIS or to commit an attack in the United States if he were unable to travel. Documents also state Damlarkaya asked if he could provide a farewell video to be broadcast if he died after following through with an attack.
According to the criminal complaint, Damlarkaya gave instructions on how to build an AK-47 or AR-15 assault rifle from readily available parts to avoid detection from officials.
Documents state Damlarkaya gave a formula to alleged ISIS supporters for the explosive, Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), and instructions on how to use it in a pressure cooker device that contained shrapnel. He also talking about using a machete or Samurai sword as an alternative and claimed to carry a knife in case he was stopped by authorities, according to the complaint. Damlarkaya also said he slept with a machete under his pillow in case his house was ever raided, according to court documents.
In November, according to court documents, Damlarkaya said, "if I buy a gun or supplies for a bomb, they (presumably law enforcement) will heat up pressure (j)ust like a few months ago when I was trying an operation but they found out."
The criminal complaint also alleges Damlarkaya claims he tried to get to Syria on two other occasions but failed.
Damlarkaya faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
But can he build a clock?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2017 6:30
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[AnNahar] U.S. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... on Tuesday signed a massive defense policy bill that he said would help America bolster its military might and modernize the services.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) calls for nearly $700 billion of military spending for the coming fiscal year, but Congress has yet to fully fund it.
"With the signing of this defense bill, we accelerate the process of fully restoring America's military might," Trump said at a White House signing ceremony, where he was flanked by Pentagon top brass including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
"This legislation will enhance our readiness ... and modernize our forces, and help provide our servicemembers with the tools that they need to fight and to win."
While the NDAA passed Congress with bipartisan support, politicians have not agreed on how to fund the mammoth spending package, which amounts to more than that of the world's next seven militaries combined.
The rock on which good intentions founder.
Trump called on Democrats in Congress to get in line with Republicans and back a "clean funding bill."
"We must work across party lines to give our heroic troops the equipment, resources, and support that they have earned a thousand times over," Trump said.
The president also took aim at Obama-era budget caps known as sequestration, which Republicans in Congress love to hate.
"Congress must finish the job by eliminating the defense sequester and passing a clean appropriations bill," Trump said. "I think it's going to happen. We need our military. It's got to be perfecto."
Trump campaigned on the pledge of increasing military spending and has said America needs more ships, submarines, troops and missiles.
He said the NDAA would give troops their biggest pay increase in eight years.
[Al Jazeera] Russian and Syrian fighter jets have launched attacks in southern Aleppo province and the Damascus countryside, causing civilian casualties in both locations.
Rebel groups, for their part, made gains south of Damascus and in the eastern Idlib province, activists said on Tuesday.
An Al Jazeera correspondent said hundreds of families were displaced from villages and towns in the southern Aleppo countryside because of heavy bombing by Syrian and Russian fighter jets.
The attacks resulted in civilian casualties and extensive damage to homes and property, the correspondent said.
The developments came amid attacks by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's military and allied fighters on rebel sites in Burj Sabna, a village in Aleppo's southern countryside.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[IsraelTimes] An armed Paleostinian man was shot and seriously maimed after he attempted to stab Israeli soldiers near the West Bank Jewish city of Ariel on Tuesday, the army said.
The IDF said no soldiers were maimed in the incident, which took place near the Arab village of Salfit, to the south of Ariel.
According to Hadashot news, a group of Paleostinians began rioting near an army post outside the Jewish settlement, throwing rocks at soldiers. In response, soldiers chased after one of the rioters, catching up with him at the edge of Salfit. There he drew a knife on them, prompting them to open fire, according to the TV report.
According to the report, the Paleostinian would-be stabber was hit in the head and seriously maimed. He was taken to the hospital for treatment.
The army is investigating the incident.
Th attempted terror attack came hours after the IDF tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! a 17-year-old Paleostinian armed with a knife outside Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs.
[IsraelTimes] Border Police officers on Tuesday locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! a Paleostinian teenager who tried to enter the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron with a knife.
At a security checkpoint at the entrance to the holy site, a box cutter was discovered hidden on the teenager’s person, according to police.
The 17-year-old Hebron resident was detained and taken in for questioning.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip fired a rocket at southern Israel Tuesday night, setting off alert sirens in Israeli communities north of the coastal enclave, the army said.
There were no immediate reports of impact, as Israeli security forces searched the area for the projectile.
The incoming rocket alert sirens sounded in the Hof Ashkelon area, north of the Strip, specifically in the communities of Netiv Ha’asara and Yad Mordechai.
The attack came hours after Paleostinian Lions of Islam in the Strip launched a rocket at Israel that fell short of its target and landed inside Gazoo, the army said.
The past week has seen a significant increase in the number of rockets fired at Israel, amid general unrest in the area.
Islamic Jihad has far to go to offset the destruction of their tunnel, though getting only half their rockets over the wire isn’t doing a great deal in that direction, poor dears.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian sources in the Gazoo Strip tell an Israeli news outlet the Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terrorist organization is responsible for the recent rockets launched over the border at Israel, and not Salafist groups.
The sources tell Hadashot news that murderous Moslem factions in the Gazoo Strip are trying to thwart the implementation of a reconciliation deal between Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, and Fatah, by firing rockets at Israel.
According to the sources, General Qassem Soleimani , the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations wing, spoke to senior Hamas officials, urging them to launch rockets toward Israel.
"You have a blank check when it comes to our support for military arms," Soleimani reportedly tells Hamas.
djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... (IraqiNews.com) Two Iraqi coppers were maimed when an bomb went off in northwestern Mosul on Tuesday, according to a security source.
Shafaw News quoted a source saying that two Federal Police agents were maimed when an IED blast targeted their vehicle in Zummar, northwest of Mosul.
He explained that the blast took place as troops were pulling out from some areas they took over in October during a standoff with Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces.
#9
#8 p.s. I've another bet: Al Franken is not going to resign.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-12-13 06:29
g(r)om,
The version a lot of folks were hearing was that if Moore had won last night, Franken was going to un-resign and say that if the voters of Alabama could elect him, then he deserved the chance to take his case to the voters too. Fox is saying as of two hours ago that MN Governor Dayton is going to announce Franken's replacement this morning, so we'll see.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/13/2017 6:39
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#10
Makes one wonder how the Democrat ballot stuffing was accomplished.
#11
More likely that a good number of typical 'R' folks stayed home, Seeking.
The Dems rallied their forces rather well, especially the young ones.
Remember, this is just a one-year 'special' term for Jones (unless the Al pubs do something stupid again).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/13/2017 7:49
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#12
I believe the accusations were a partisan attack and they went all out to put Alabama in the position of supporting a possible creepy pedophile. I suspect the Dems will pull the tactic again and again until the people are so numb with this nonsense that it no longer resonates (the way cries of racism no longer resonate).
#14
Moore would be wise to kick the dust from his boots, take it to the barn and continue to work quietly behind the scenes. The numbers illustrate Bamians do not want, nor do they deserve such a man.
#18
GOP already has a non-swamp candidate ready for 2018. Mo Brooks. Start the campaign now, and cripple the liberal so he cannot do much harm in office. As sad as it is to say this, one hope is that McCain will hurry up and become too incapacitated to work, so we can get a real conservative appointed in there instead of a squish. that would solidify things, because if it weren't for the traitorous actions of McCain and his pet from SC, the majority would be far more solid.
[IsraelTimes] Russia’s top domestic security agency says it has detained three suspected members of a sleeper cell of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group who have been preparing suicide kabooms in Moscow.
The Federal Security Service ... the successor to the KGB... , or FSB, says that the suspects were plotting a series of suicide kabooms in the Russian capital during the New Year’s holidays and the presidential election campaign.
The FSB says the suspects, who came from ex-Soviet nations in Central Asia, were manufacturing self-made bombs. A search in their rented apartment outside Moscow earlier today uncovered explosives along with assault rifles and hand grenades.
FSB director Alexander Bortnikov says another IS cell was uncovered in the southern Stavropol region.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
Not odd at all why the Russians don't want any of the "refugees" into their country, compared to the European and Obamaesk interests.
[PRESSTV] Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have rubbed out 19 Saudi troops and pro-Saudi forces of Evil loyal to resigned Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Najran.
An unnamed military source told Yemen’s official news agency SABA that Yemeni forces shot and killed five Saudi troops in the al-Asha and al-Shorfa areas of the region, located 969 kilometers south of the capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday.
Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters launched two rockets against Saudi army outposts in the Rajla, al-Sadid and Lesser al-Makhrouq areas of the same Saudi region. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Later, Yemeni soldiers and their allies fired a barrage of artillery rounds at the al-Karas military base, leaving scores of Saudi soldiers dead and injured.
Separately, several Saudi soldiers bit the dust or sustained injuries when Yemeni forces targeted a gathering of Saudi troopers in al-Sharqan military base.
Additionally, five Saudi-sponsored forces of Evil were fatally shot in different districts of Yemen's southwestern province of Ta'izz.
Yemeni soldiers and their allies also struck the position of Hadi loyalists east of Kahboub region in the same Yemeni province, killing two of them.
In Yemen's central province of Ma'rib, army forces and fighters from Popular Committees launched a number of artillery rounds in the Wadi al-Ziq area of Sirwah district, killing and wounding a number of them.
Yemeni snipers also shot and killed seven Saudi mercenaries in different parts of Ma’rib province.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AnNahar] In a rehabilitation centre in northern Syria, young men huddle over an innocuous game of chess and some cigarettes -- activities they once brutally suppressed as Islamic State group jihadists. Based in the rebel-held town of Marea, the Syrian Centre for Countering Extremist Ideology is home to around 100 one-time IS fighters from Syria, the Middle East and even Europe.
"I used to dream of establishing an Islamic state... but now, we take courses that clear up what's wrong with what we once believed," 23-year-old Mohammad Haj Ahmad says.
Ahmad hails from Raqa, the northern city that served as the de facto capital of a now-collapsed jihadist "caliphate" sprawling across Syria and Iraq. He joined IS in 2014 and took part in one of its most gruesome battles at Tabqa airport near Raqa, where jihadists executed more than 200 army troops.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
Why isn't every one of these people dead or in real jails? Easy prediction - this will come back to bite them in the ass, hard.
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) Six people were injured in a bomb blast in Baghdad on Tuesday, a security source told Alsumaria News.
“An explosive charge went off near a café at Jisr Diyala area in southeastern Baghdad, injuring six people,” the source, who asked to remain unnamed, said.
“A security force carried the injured to a nearby hospital for treatment,” he added.
Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) Security forces tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! on Tuesday wives of three Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... leaders, including the terrorist group’s wali (governor) in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , a security official said.
"The three wives were arrested at a security checkpoint in Tal Afar district west of Mosul, while trying to move to another area using fake IDs," Captain Ahmed al-Obeidi from Nineveh police told the semi-official al-Sabah newspaper on Tuesday.
"They were remanded into custody for interrogation on crimes committed by their husbands," Obeidi said, adding that prosecutors will ask the three women about where their husbands could be hiding.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[AnNahar] Greece will speed up the relocation of thousands of migrants colonists from its overcrowded islands to the mainland before the onset of winter after reaching a deal with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , a key ally in helping to tackle Europe's migration crisis, government sources said Monday.
Athens persuaded Ankara last week to accept migrant returns, including Syrian refugees, from the mainland and not just from the Aegean islands as previously agreed under a 2016 EU-Turkey pact, a government source told AFP.
The new agreement -- reached during a strained two-day visit by Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... -- aims to reduce the more than 15,000 people packed into refugee camps on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros, another source said.
The camps are filled to triple their capacity, forcing many migrants colonists to sleep in tents and creating tensions with locals.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Monday evening presided a meeting "on the migration crisis and refugees" with his ministers for migration policy and justice as well as deputy foreign, defense and interior ministers, his office said.
Over a million people, mainly fleeing the civil war in Syria, crossed to Greece from Turkey in 2015 with the onset of the bloc's worst migration crisis since World War II.
Last March, Ankara had pledged to take back illegal migrants colonists landing on Greek islands in exchange for sweeteners including financial aid and eased EU visa rules for Ottoman Turkish citizens.
The deal, criticized by rights groups, sharply reduced the number of migrants colonists trying to cross the Aegean Sea.
- Matter of life and death - However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the pace of migrant returns to Turkey fell dramatically after a state crackdown on civil servants that followed an attempted coup against Erdogan last year.
Until now, Greece has only been relocating populations deemed "vulnerable" -- non-accompanied minors, single parents and victims of torture -- to the mainland, exempt under the EU-Turkey pact.
The other illegal migrants colonists are being kept on the islands until their deportation to Turkey, for fears that too many will try to travel north to wealthier EU nations.
Athens hopes that its deal with Ankara will help speed up the transfer of these people to Turkey via the mainland.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... Greece has already intensified its relocation of vulnerable persons to the mainland, transferring more than 1,000 in recent days.
In total over 3,500 people were moved between October and November, the migration ministry said.
According to Oxfam, 5,000 people are to be transferred from the islands in December, before temperatures drop.
Aid groups have repeatedly warned that transferring refugees to heated accommodation before winter is a matter of life and death.
Three refugees died last year in their tents on Lesbos from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning caused by makeshift stoves.
"This is a very positive step that will save lives," said Nicola Bay, the head of Oxfam in Greece. "Winter is just around the corner and thousands of refugees and migrants colonists are still sharing unheated tents exposed to the bitter cold."
[FIRS ...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies... TPOST] Amid global calls to restore peace and stability in Myanmar's northern Rakhine, the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... 's (LeT) charitable wing, the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), has reached out to the Moslem population in the troubled state and has reportedly distributed millions in cash.
According to a report in The Indian Express, propaganda material released online by the organization claimed that FIF volunteers had distributed "millions in cash money and blankets among more than 300 besieged Rohingya Moslems".
Shahid Mahmood, FIF’s head of foreign operations said in an online statement that the FIF intended to "start its relief activities in all areas of Burma where Moslems are besieged".
The claim was backed by Bangladesh-based intelligence officials, who told The Indian Express that "the group had been operating in refugee camps near the town of Cox’s Bazaar, with the help of local Islamist groups".
Rohingya leaders based in Dubai and Pakistain are now enlisting the support of Lashkar-e-Taiba affiliate Jamaat-ud Dawah (JuD) towards the cause of the Rohingya settlers in Pakistain and other countries including India, according to latest intelligence reports, The Times of India said.
The report states that Firdous Sheikh, the Dubai-based president of Rohingya Federation of Arakan, had visited Pakistain last month and had attended seminars in support of Rohingya Moslems.
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The reach of Sultan Erdogan Recep Tayyip I, the much beloved, is long, and his hatred for his former BFF is without bounds.
[ToloNews] Students from an Afghan-Turk school in Kabul claim that security forces raided the school and entered girls’ hostel on Tuesday evening.
The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... operatives detained four teachers today (Tuesday) morning, who were on their way to an Afghan-Turk high school. We were informed that they were kidnapped. We thought the country’s enemies may have kidnapped them, but later we found out that the officers of the National Directorate Security have detained them," said Yusuf Pashtun, member of the Afghan-Turk students’ parents association.
"How they (security forces) entered a civilian compound and the girls’ hostel while they did not have any order from the court? This is illegal," Sediqullah Tawhidi, another member of the association, said.
Hours after the incident, the Afghan-Turk High School, without pointing out to the security forces’ raid on the school, in a statement said four teachers of the school, including three Ottoman Turkish and one Afghan nationals, are missing.
The statement said the teachers were on their way to Afghan-Turk High School in Shah-e-Do Shamshira area, in the center of Kabul City, and then they were disappeared.
The raid comes after months of deliberations over closure of several Afghan-Turk schools that Ankara believes are run by pro-Gulen institutions.
A former Afghan security official who wished not to be named said he believed the teachers might be extradited to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... even though the two countries have no extradition agreement.
The incident came hours after Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. left for Istanbul, Turkey, to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit.
Following an unsuccessful cope last year, the Ottoman Turkish government asked Kabul to handover the leadership of Afghan-Turk schools to government of Turkey.
Ottoman Turkish government claims that these schools are led by Fethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , who the Ottoman Turkish government says was behind the military cope.
Officials of Afghan-Turk schools and students’ families however have rejected these claims.
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[PRESSTV] At least four people have been killed and several others injured in an kaboom at a camp for people displaced by militancy in northeastern Nigeria.
The blast took place at about 12:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) on Monday in the border town of Pulka, the Gwoza area of Borno state. The troubled town is located about 110 kilometers (70 miles) southeast by road from the state capital Maiduguri.
A Spanish team from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym as the MSF, which is providing healthcare in the region, said the blast killed three people and injured seven, one of whom subsequently died after being admitted for treatment.
"All our staff are safe. The team is monitoring the security situation to assess any further steps," Ivan Munoz, an MSF front man, said.
A Nigerian military source confirmed the deadly incident and put the corpse count at five.
It was initially thought that the blast was caused by a bomber. But a military source in the town said later that the examination of the blast scene indicated it may have been caused by a mortar shell.
"We are still examining the fragments (of the mortar shell) to determine where it came from and who is responsible," he said, adding, "It is not clear if it was a stray projectile or deliberate attack."
The Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorist group has carried out attacks before against internally displaced people (IDP) across the region.
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[Al Jazeera] Russia has suspended its diplomatic presence in Yemen, and all its staff have left the country due to the situation in the capital Sanaa, according to official Russian sources.
Russia's RIA news agency quoted Maria Zakharova, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson, as making the announcement on Tuesday.
The Russian ambassador to Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and some diplomatic staff will be working temporarily out of Riyadh in neighbouring 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... , Russia's Interfax news agency reported citing the foreign ministry.
The Russian withdrawal comes as a Saudi-led military coalition continues a blockade of Yemen, which began in October after it shut down the country's borders in response to a missile fired by rebels that struck near the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in neighbouring Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to push back the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels, who are said to be backed by Iran, and restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The blockade was designed to cut off the alleged supply of weapons to Houthi rebels from Iran but has exacerbated what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Aid organizations in Yemen faced further difficulties when renewed violence broke out in Sanaa after the killing of former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , the former president, on December 4.
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#3
p.s. In some species of fish genders can be switched with a right environmental trigger. Now, how do we turn (adult) gender confused into clownfish?
#4
Now in the coral reef fish world there are a lot of species that change from female to male. In wrasses I believe the real showy forms are called "terminal males". Now in clown fish females are the terminal state. So you see Nemo's father in the real world would become the female in the host anemone and Nemo being the juvenal would become the male. Of course scarlet cleaner shrimp take switch hitting to the extreme. The female after nolting becomes male and the male after moltimg becomes female.
All told us mammals have pretty boring sex lives.
#9
Thoughts and feelings that are stubbornly adhered to in contravention of physical reality are called DELUSIONS, Doctor. He is no more a girl than he is a pit-bull or an Apache Helicopter. It is harmful to indulge these delusions lest they develop into full-blown mental illnesses.
[AnNahar] The first group of Russian troops deployed to Syria returned home on Tuesday, the army said, beginning a partial withdrawal announced by President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... "The battalion of military police from the southern military district (of Russia) deployed to the Syrian Arab Republic has been flown by two military planes to Makhachkala (the capital of Dagestan ...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca... ) airport," the Russian army said in a statement.
State television broadcasted images of soldiers marching out of the aircraft onto a sunny runway in the small republic in Russia's North Caucasus.
The crews of Tu-22M3 bombers also returned to a military airport in North Ossetia before flying out to their permanent bases, the army said.
On a visit to Syria on Monday, Putin ordered the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the war-torn country, saying their task had been largely completed.
It was the third announcement of a partial withdrawal since troops were deployed in 2015. Putin did not clarify how many soldiers will be returning home this time.
Putin, who announced last week he would seek a fourth term in a poll in March, was welcomed at Russia's Hmeimim airbase by Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... on his unannounced stopover.
Russia first intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2015, staging air strikes in support of its ally Damascus targeting both the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and other jihadists as well as rebels fighting government troops.
The size of the Russian deployment in Syria is not known but independent Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer has told AFP that up to 10,000 troops and private contractors could have taken part in the conflict.
Putin said both Russia's airbase Hmeimim and naval facility in Tartus would continue to function.
[DailyCaller] The co-founder of Trump dossier firm Fusion GPS confirmed in court filings on Tuesday that he met last year with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and hired Ohr’s wife to help with the opposition research firm’s investigation of Donald Trump.
Glenn Simpson said in a declaration filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. that he met "at [Ohr’s] request" weeks after the presidential election. Simpson stated that Ohr, who recently held the position of deputy assistant attorney general, sought the meeting "to discuss our findings regarding Russia and the election."
Simpson also disclosed that Fusion GPS hired Ohr’s wife, Nellie, to serve as a subcontractor on Trump-related work.
Trump defenders have seized on the Ohr’s relationship with Fusion GPS. Trump attorney Jay Sekulow cited the revelations to call for a second special counsel.
In his declaration, Simpson referred to Nellie Ohr as "a former government official expert in Russian matters" who Fusion GPS hired "to help our company with its research and analysis of Mr. Trump."
It is not clear what government position Simpson was referring to in the declaration. But a 2010 Justice Department report shows that Ohr worked at that time as a researcher for Open Source Works, the CIA’s in-house open source research shop.
The Ohrs and Simpson were part of a Justice Department working group put together in 2010 to investigate organized crime.
In addition to his meeting with Simpson, Bruce Ohr also met last year with dossier author Christopher Steele. Fox News reported last week that Ohr’s meetings with Steele occurred before the election.
Ohr still works at the Justice Department, but he was stripped of one of his positions last Wednesday after Fox News inquired about his meetings with Simpson and Steele. He remains as director of Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Nellie Ohr’s work for Fusion GPS ‐ which Simpson referred to as "confidential" ‐ was revealed Monday night. Fox News reported that she worked for the oppo firm during the presidential campaign. It was unclear until Simpson’s disclosure whether she worked directly on Trump-related matters.
Simpson says in his court filing that he acknowledged during his Nov. 14 interview with the House Intelligence Committee that he met with Bruce Ohr. Fusion’s attorneys pointed to the apparent leak of his testimony to argue in favor of a temporary restraining order to block the release of the firm’s bank records.
The committee and Fusion have been locked in a battle since October over the bank documents.
Republicans on the House panel have issued a subpoena for the records in hopes of identifying some of Fusion’s clients and contractors. Fusion’s lawyers have argued that the subpoena violates Fusion’s confidentiality and First Amendment rights.
The issuance of the subpoena has already had some results. Perkins Coie, the law firm that represented the Clinton campaign and DNC, came forward in October to disclose that it hired Fusion for the project that produced the dossier.
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website funded by anti-Trump Republican Paul Singer, revealed that it had hired Fusion GPS in Oct. 2015 to investigate Trump. The Free Beacon insists that the research Fusion gathered for the site was not included in the dossier.
Simpson suggested in his court filing that the House panel learned the identity of Fusion’s bank through staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was interviewed by that panel on Aug. 22. In his declaration he said that he was asked about Fusion’s bank by name and confirmed it.
Fusion was caught off guard by a subpoena issued to the bank ‐ TD Bank ‐ by Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence panel.
Posted by: Frank G ||
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Akayed Ullah, 27, has been hit with state and federal charges in connection to Monday's bombing of the New York City subway
In court documents filed Tuesday, federal prosecutors revealed that Ullah posted on Facebook just before the attack
'Trump you failed to protect your nation,' Ullah allegedly wrote
Ullah also reportedly showed his distaste for his adopted country by writing on his Bangladesh passport 'O, America, die in your rage,' the complaint says
He told investigators that he carried out the attack for ISIS, Palestinians
The Bangladeshi immigrant faces federal charges including bombing a public place, using a weapon of mass destruction and material support for a foreign terrorist organization
He is also charged on the state level with criminal possession of a weapon, supporting an act of terrorism and making a terroristic threat
Meanwhile, Ullah's wife, who lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is reportedly being interviewed by authorities there
A cousin says Ullah married Jannatul Ferdous Jui, 25, in an arranged marriage two years ago and they have a six-month-old baby boy
Ullah recently visited his wife for six weeks in September and October
Ullah started watching ISIS propaganda online in 2014
He started buying ingredients for his bomb about three weeks ago, and assembled it in his Brooklyn apartment last week.
The full criminal complaint from the Joint Terrorism Task Force can be read at the link.
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#1
Bnagladesh where the Rohingya are invading from.
Salahuddin (Iraqinews.com) About 22 people were killed and injured in a mortar attack on Tuz Khurmatu city east of Salahuddin province, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.
“Five mortar shells were fired from a Kurdish-controlled mountainous area towards Tuz Khurmatu city, leaving two people dead and 20 others injured,” MP Jassem Mohammed Jaafar told Alsumaria News.
“One of the mortar shells fell on a secondary school in the city,” he said, adding that the attack caused damage to several buildings.
Jaafar expected demonstrators to take to streets later in the day to call on Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to protect them from the Kurdish attacks.
Salahuddin/Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi troops and tribal fighters killed three Islamic State members in a raid and foiled another attack by the militants in Salahuddin province on Tuesday.
The Iraqi military intelligence directorate said in a statement, quoted by Shafaq News, said intelligence services in Salahuddin, backed by Popular Mobilization Forces and Tribal Mobilization chased four IS members in an island at the center of the Tigris River.
Forces engaged with the militants at the town of Shirqat, killing three, while the fourth blew himself up.
In a separate incident, Alsumaria News quoted Abdul-Khaleq al-Ezzawi, a member of Diyala province council, saying that a joint security force foiled a sneaking attempt by IS members inside Al-Bou Essia village, on the borders between Diyala and Salahuddin.
He said the force chased the militants, some of whom escaped to Mutaibiha region, a former IS militancy hotbed.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces are planning an offensive against mainly Kurdish separatist groups in Salahuddin province’s restive region of Tuz Khurmatu.
PMF media quoted on Tuesday Abu Reda al-Najjar, commander of the “northern axis” of the force’s operations, saying an operation is imminent to “clear the mountains overlooking Turkmen villages in Tuz Khurmatu”.
“Turkmen villages in the precinct occasionally witness attacks, most recently an attack with eight mortar shells this morning, which left a civilian dead and others wounded,” Najjar said.
According to the commander, the operation is particularly targeting the “White Flags”, a nascent entity composed of a number of separatist groups, most notably the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), a militia fighting for Iranian Kurds’ independence. “Security authorities possess precise information about those groups,” he explained.
“Our forces have started to bombard separatists’ locations with rocket launchers, making direct hits as a first step before the launch of operations to the areas from which they target civilians,” Najjar stated.
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#1
Bringing back the Shia/Sunni religious violence and payback that gave rise to rebellion. Yeah, that worked really well the last time. Just split Iraq up now and be done with it.
[VOANews] TOKYO ‐ A U.S. soldier who deserted to North Korea more than half a century ago, but who was eventually allowed to leave the secretive state, has died in Japan aged 77.
One of the Cold War's strangest dramas began in 1965 when Charles Robert Jenkins, then a 24-year-old army sergeant nicknamed "Scooter" from tiny Rich Square in North Carolina, disappeared one January night while on patrol near the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.
At an emotional court martial in Japan in 2004, Jenkins - who had never gone to high school - said he deserted to avoid hazardous duty in South Korea and escape combat in Vietnam.
"It was Christmas time, it was also cold and dark. I started to drink alcohol. I never had drunk so much alcohol," he said in a thick Southern accent, choking back sobs.
He drank 10 beers, took his men on patrol and told them to wait while he checked the road below. He then walked towards North Korea, holding a rifle with a white t-shirt tied around it. He said he had planned to go to Russia and turn himself in, and had not expected North Korea to keep him.
While in North Korea, where he taught English to soldiers and portrayed an evil U.S. spy in a propaganda film, Jenkins met and married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese woman 20 years his junior who had been kidnapped by North Korea to help train spies.
Fear for his safety and the family he built with Soga made it impossible to refuse any demands made on him, Jenkins said.
"You don't say no to North Korea. You say one thing bad about Kim Il-sung and then you dig your own hole, because you're gone," Jenkins told his court martial, referring to the founder of the secretive state.
Soga was allowed to return to Japan in 2002 and Jenkins followed with their two North Korean-born daughters in 2004.
After serving a token 30-day sentence for desertion, Jenkins moved with his family to Sado, Soga's rural hometown, late in 2004. He subsequently worked in a gift shop and wrote a book about his experiences in North Korea.
A Sado town official confirmed his death, but could give no further details. I resisted the temptation to append something snarky. His afterlife burden should be enough.
#2
Trying to avoid the Viet Nam war, he spent over half a century in Hell, during which time he no doubt repented heartily his youthful idiocy — the more so, once he had the safety of a wife and daughters to consider.
And in Japan, the life of those who are not pure Japanese is generally challenging. Those poor girls.
[Al Jazeera] At least two Paleostinians have died in an kaboom in Gazoo, which Paleostinian group Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... now says was caused by the men mishandling explosives.
Local news media identified the two people killed on Tuesday as members of al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad.
The News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency quoted Islamic Jihad as saying that the kaboom was an accident.
Earlier in the day, the Paleostinian health ministry and local news media blamed the deaths on an Israeli air raid.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... a spokesperson for the Israeli army denied the reports, telling Al Jazeera it did not carry out any attack in the besieged Gazoo Strip on Tuesday.
The Israeli blockade of the occupied Gazoo Strip, in its current form, has been in place since June 2007.
Men indentified
The Paleostinian news agency WAFA said the two Paleostinian youths were killed on a cycle of violence near the town of Beit Lahya in the northern Gazoo Strip.
Let this be a lesson to you: carrying bombs on motorized vehicles over bad roads is dangerous only to the carriers, and a waste of clearly good bombs. Next time walk the things to their destination.
The men were killed instantly while dozens of passers-by were also injured by the kaboom, WAFA said.
In a statement cited by AFP news agency later on Tuesday that made no mention of an Israeli attack, Islamic Jihad identified the dead men as Hussein Ghazi Nasrallah, 25, and Mustafa al-Sultan, 29, and said they were part of the group's engineering unit.
Not actually youths, then. But as dumb as if they were.
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[KhaamaPress] An kaboomdestroyed the residence of a local Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... leader in eastern Laghman ...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a reputionagreat wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
province of Afghanistan leaving at least four people dead or maimed.
The provincial government media office in a statement said the incident took place early on Monday in the Badpakh district.
The statement further added that a number of Lions of Islam were busy preparing Improvised Explosive Devices when the incident took place.
The deputy shadow district chief of the group Abduul Samad was killed along with a IED maker Pacha Khan in the kaboom, the provincial government said.
According to the statement, at least two others including the son of Abdul Samad were maimed in the kaboom.
The anti-government armed Death Eater groups including the Taliban Lions of Islam have not commented regarding the report so far.
[IsraelTimes] Firm tied to 'Putin's chef' allegedly part of Moscow's attempt to hide extent of its involvement in Syrian civil war
The St. Petersburg-based website Fontanka reported that about 3,000 Russians under contract to the Wagner group have fought in Syria since 2015, months before Russia’s two-year military campaign helped to turn the tide of the civil war in favor of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , a longtime Moscow ally.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... is planning to link together its border, visa and fingerprint databases to plug information gaps and better combat terrorism and international crime.
The European Commission is proposing to upgrade the 28-nation bloc’s information systems so that border officers or the Europol police agency can have fast access to more reliable data.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos says the plan aims "to close gaps and remove blind spots in our information systems."
It would allow visa, police, customs or justice authorities to use one search portal with access to all various databases they currently have permission to use.
The European Commission says the move wouldn’t compromise data protection safeguards while making it easier to cross-check information or catch criminals using multiple or fake identities.
[DAWN] Two soldiers were martyred when armed gunnies opened fire on their vehicle in North Wazoo on Tuesday, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Second Lieutenant Abdul Moeed and Sepoy Basharat, both 21, were martyred in the incident, the Pakistain Army's media wing said.
Lt Moeed, a resident of Burewala, Vehari, had recently passed out from the Pakistain Military Academy. Sepoy Basharat, a resident of Danyor village, Gilgit, had been serving in the military for three years, the ISPR statement read.
"Freedom is not free, it costs sons of the soil. Freedom that we enjoy today is owed to so many such brave hearts. Salute to our deaders," Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Jawed Bajwa was quoted as saying in a tweet by ISPR.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Hill] Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) on Wednesday reportedly called clothing worn by some lawmakers and their aides on Capitol Hill an "invitation" during a discussion on sexual harassment.
[FOX] The man who says he acted as a "go-between" last year to inform Sen. John McCain about the controversial "dossier" containing salacious allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump is speaking out, revealing how the ex-British spy who researched the document helped coordinate its release to the FBI, the media and Capitol Hill.
[The Hill] Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be on the hot seat Wednesday over alleged political bias in the Justice Department ‐ and in a twist, he’ll be hearing it from both sides of the aisle.
[Politico] NEW YORK‐David Petraeus had a rule when he was in command in Afghanistan and Iraq: "Be first with the truth."
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[PRESSTV] Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have 
Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) Security forces 
... 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...
...the 
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[DailyCaller] The co-founder of Trump dossier firm Fusion GPS confirmed in court filings on Tuesday that he met last year with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and hired Ohr’s wife to help with the opposition research firm’s investigation of Donald Trump.
The issuance of the subpoena has already had some results. Perkins Coie, the law firm that represented the Clinton campaign and DNC, came forward in October to disclose that it hired Fusion for the project that produced the dossier.
[Al Jazeera] At least two Paleostinians have died in an 
...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Wazoo
