[ATimes]The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics offered a diplomatic breathing space with regard to tensions on the Korean peninsula. Asia Times' Northeast Asia correspondent assesses what might happen next.
5. How dangerous is the Trump administration?
Trump himself appears more politically flexible than his predecessors in the White House. He could order military action – or he could sit down and build a personal relationship with Kim. Neither Bush nor Obama went to either extreme. So the risk outlook is higher – but so is the chance of a solution.
9. What is the timeline?
Winter Olympics end on February 25
Winter Paralympics start on March 9
Winter Paralympics end on March 18
Assuming there is no diplomatic breakthrough, allied military drills will begin any time between March 18 and early April.
14. Should the world be concerned?
Yes. Capital markets have proven remarkably resilient against North Korean provocations, but even a limited or surgical US strike on North Korea could give a massive jolt to regional and global markets.
17. How high is Korea risk at present?
Significant. Currently, most analysts see the probability of a unilateral US strike as low – sub-20%. Even so, last year’s peninsular tensions were arguably higher than at any times since the height of the Asian Cold War in 1968 – the year North Korea launched commando attacks on the South and seized a US spy ship, and the Tet Offensive got underway in South Vietnam.
[FOX] Several Palm Beach County, Fla., police officers are guarding the home of the former school resource deputy who stayed outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as last week's massacre unfolded, Fox's WSVN-TV reported.
Deputy Scot Peterson, of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, was armed and stationed on the school’s campus when a suspect identified by authorities as Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, leaving 17 people dead and others wounded.
Peterson resigned Thursday after video surveillance showed he never entered the school, even though he "clearly" knew there was a shooting taking place, officials said. The revelation prompted widespread outrage.
#3
How many of us have the courage to do what we expect him to have done? Assault one (or more) killers with semi-auto rifles without cover or backup, armed with a pistol. I would not want to be him, then or now.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was a case where the county put the guy in there just to 'show'
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/23/2018 12:56
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#9
These guys nearly always retreat and kill themselves when they hit resistance. If he started taking fire back, even if inaccurate fire, he probably would have run sooner and possibly shot himself. Even if he didn't, his focus would have been on the deputy and not killing students.
But this highlights the reason I have long held the belief that I cannot rely on the police to protect me or my family. They are not required to by law and have no duty to do it. Courts have ruled on that repeatedly. It's why for more than 10 years I've carried a gun, practiced, gotten training, and why I look at every place I go with an eye toward escape, cover, and the thought of "If there's trouble, how do I get my family out?"
And if that requires me to provide cover fire and be a decoy, so be it. I've accepted that it may be the price I pay to keep my family safe. I can live with that.
#10
Between this guy and the guy that killed his wife a few years ago, if I was named Scott Peterson I'd be filing the paperwork for a name change before the weekend.
#11
How many of us have the courage to do what we expect him to have done? Assault one (or more) killers with semi-auto rifles without cover or backup, armed with a pistol. I would not want to be him, then or now.
I've been involved in violence before. I don't enjoy it, don't seek it out, and don't glorify it. But the point of being a man is you get up in the morning, get behind the mule, and you damn well plow. He had a job to do, he had the training, and he had a firearm. So he's a coward with blood on his hands, not an object of sympathy.
What I stumbled upon was a Broward County law enforcement system in a state of conflict. The Broward County School Board and District Superintendent, entered into a political agreement with Broward County Law enforcement officials to stop arresting students for crimes.
5. The motive was simple. The school system administrators wanted to "improve their statistics" and gain state and federal grant money for improvements therein.
see
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/966854507744374784.html
#17
“...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48).
[MAIL] A German figure skater has caused an uproar on social media after she performed to the score of the film Schindler's List.
Nicole Schott chose the beloved 1993 Holocaust film's theme song, titled Theme from Schindler's List, for her long program on Thursday night at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
The film became a trending topic on Twitter as users accused the 21-year-old of insensitivity and tastelessness over her music choice.
While some Twitter users commented that no one should be skating to the somber movies' music at all, many pointed out that a German skater, particularly, should have considered the choice more carefully.
Heh. Two peoples, divided by their common language.
I'm also going to go with Why???, because it's not clear to me that skating to a movie theme is a big deal. Unless we have reached some cultural low point X where for any damn X you can think of, someone is outraged about it. In which case, the correct response is "Bite me!"
CBS Local ‐ A church in Pennsylvania has thrown itself into the nationwide debate on gun laws by announcing they will be hosting a blessing ceremony for couples with an AR-15 assault rifle. Second and third services will be held as necessary. Be advised, parking is limited.
The controversial event is set to take place just two weeks after 17 people were killed in a Florida high school by a gunman using the same weapon.
The World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, an offshoot of the Unification Church, is inviting couples to bring their semi-automatic rifles to the church on Feb. 28 to "show their willingness to defend their families, communities and nation."
"All of the weapons in the ceremony will be checked to make sure they are unloaded, with a zip tie so that no bullets can be inserted," Sanctuary Church president Richard Panzer said in an email obtained by The Times-Tribune. The church leader added that local police were welcome to attend the ceremony to make sure the event is safe. Muzzles must remain pointed heavenly.
According to the church’s website, the ceremony will focus on the "rod of iron" and each couples’ pledge to defend their home and the coming nation of Cheon Il Guk ‐ the biblical kingdom of God referred to in Scripture. full story
Note: AR means Armalite Rifle. Armalite is the company who first sold this model. A true assault weapon is belt fed, meaning that the trigger is pulled and more than one bullet fires in succession without the need to pull the trigger again. With an AR-15, the trigger is pulled once and only one bullet comes out.
[American Thinker] This is too funny. Justin Trudeau, the eye-candy, two-brain-cell wonder of a Canadian prime minister, is on an eight day visit to India with his family. So Justin, being the good little virtue-signaling leftist he is, decided it would be a good idea to impress his hosts by dressing in over-the-top traditional Indian garb. Well, he certainly did make an impression. As the Daily Mail reports:
Justin Trudeau has been ridiculed on social media by Indians for his 'tacky' and over the top outfit choices while on his first visit to their nation as Prime Minister.
While many praised his clothing during the first two days of his trip, patience was wearing thin by the time he attended a Bollywood gala on Tuesday night, before the tide turned against him on Wednesday.
Ministers, authors, journalists and ordinary Indians lined up to mock him on Wednesday, saying his wardrobe was 'fake and annoying'.
“Fake and annoying”? Well, at least Justin — a man who said he wants to raise “feminist” sons and recommends that “personkind” be used instead of “mankind” — gave his hosts an accurate impression.
The Mail also related, “Leading the criticism was Omar Abdullah, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who tweeted on Wednesday saying Trudeau's preening was 'all just a bit much.'”
#6
Fresh news from the front of feelogeny
Compels me to deprecate "progeny."
Please say -- do you mind? --
"Perneutrogenykind,"
Lest your positive bias discomfit me.
#9
This concept of "kind's" unacceptable.
It builds bonds between the susceptible.
Your personal penny
Offends Miniplenty.
Please place in mnemonic receptacle.
Anyone know offhand (please don't drop a finger otherwise!) a better way of punctuating '"kind's"'?
[American Thinker] The lovely and courageous Dana Loesch was absolutely correct when she commented that the left loves mass shootings ‐ not the tragedy aspect, but the ratings gold, of which they leap to take advantage.
Before the bodies are removed from the site, the left begins politicizing the event. The massacre in Florida was no exception. This time, the media really upped their game. They contacted the students who survived and encouraged them to appear on their "news" programs, which are not news, but calculated propaganda. If the student or the parents do not support the leftist version of gun control, they are given a script to stick by or disinvited. The ridiculous program staged on CNN and hosted by Jake Tapper was the most egregious example yet. Adults and teens were most likely directed to behave like animals in a zoo, screaming and jeering at Marco Rubio and Dana Loesch as if they had personally shot up that school. That they actually found that many people who agreed to behave so horribly is a tragedy in itself.
Ours is no longer a civil society. Every adult and teen in that room should be ashamed of himself. It was an appalling display of spewing venom for political purposes. The dead kids were reduced to fodder for Jake Tapper's personal crusade against the Second Amendment. This monstrous example of planned media deception most likely won the NRA thousands of new members.
Ms. Loesch, a representative of the NRA, was also correct to point out that the left media who are so obsessed with using the Florida catastrophe for their own ends never pay a moment of attention to the thousands of grieving mothers of the dead in Chicago. Not one bit. When someone points to this fact, he is generally called a racist. It is racist to point out that more people are killed in Chicago every weekend than died at that Florida high school. Go figure.
The purveyors of progressivism are having a really bad year. They were certain their concocted Trump-Russia hoax would ensure a Clinton victory, but that is backfiring. Their hatred of the president has made them all neurologically dysfunctional. Watching the White House press corps torment Sarah Sanders or Raj Shah with tiresome, repetitive questions day after day after day is excruciating. All they care about are the things Americans outside that room do not care about: Rob Porter's past crimes against his wives; the Mueller investigation, which the rest of us see is clearly an orchestrated witch hunt; their obsession with disarming law-abiding citizens, which in no way will stop murderous criminals from committing their evil deeds; any women Trump may have brushed up against at any time in his life; etc.
No kidding. Fortunately, the Left is impervious to the fact the other side is no longer turning the other cheek. They'll just double down, making the bloody civil war inevitable.
#4
It is racist to point out that more people are killed in Chicago every weekend than died at that Florida high school. Go figure. In addition far more Americans die of opoid abuse every day (ca. 180). Nearly everything involved in their deaths was/is illegal.
[Breitbart] A Mexican federal judge ordered the release of one of the top regional leaders of the Gulf Cartel less than three days after his arrest in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. The judge ruled that errors in the case file made his arrest unlawful in nature.
The magistrate judge at the Altiplano federal prison in the State of Mexico ruled that the highly publicized arrest of Jose Alfredo "El Contador" was an illegal action by the Mexican Navy and ordered his release, Mexico’s Milenio reported.
Mexican federal law enforcement officials revealed to Breitbart Texas that there were some chain of custody issues with the case file and the evidence presented. According to Milenio, authorities claimed to have arrested Cardenas in the street but his wife presented video evidence purporting to show that he was at home at the time.
#1
Ah, he got the phone call from his wife and kids, wherever they are.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/23/2018 8:35
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Plata o plomo....silver or lead. Simple message by phone or under the windshield at home. Corruption and the pretense of the rule of law. A Mexican tradition now coming to a city near you...
Remember, diversity is our strength!
[Townhall] NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch on Thursday offered a blistering critique of "the legacy media" while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Washington.
One of the Second Amendment’s most high-profile supporters took the stage in Oxon Hill, Maryland, less than 24 hours after a CNN town hall debate in Florida. Mrs. Loesch told attendees at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center that producers "love" the ratings generated by "crying white mothers" after shootings.
"I’m going to say something that some people are going to say is controversial," she said, the Daily Caller reported. "So I’ll say it really slowly, so all the people on the platform in the back can hear me loud and clear. Many in the legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it. Now, I’m not saying you love the tragedy, but I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you and many in the legacy media in the back."
"Notice I said ’crying white mothers,’ because there are thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend ‐ and you don’t see town halls for them, do you?" she continued. "Where’s the CNN town hall for Chicago?"
The Windy City recorded 3,457 shooting victims and 650 murders in 2017.
"They cheered the confiscation of firearms," Mrs. Loesch said of those who attended CNN’s event on the Parkland shooting massacre. "It was over 5,000 people. I had to have a security detail to get out. There were people rushing the stage and screaming ’burn her!’"
[Townhall] After days of bitter hurt, anger, deep savage argument, and plenty of non-thinking social media trolls blurting whatever comes to mind through their thumbs, it’s time we as Americans begin a genuine discussion about how to stop the next school shooting from occurring.
It’s important that we do this even though gun deaths are by no means the most dangerous form of death in America today.
In 2017, with 300,000,000-plus guns in the hands of Americans, there were 15,549 gun deaths. This ranks less than half the number of automobile deaths even though there are fewer cars in existence than guns. In 2017, there were 253,000,000 cars in existence and 41,000 auto deaths.
Nonetheless, the rhetoric is so loud and the anger so tightly wound that a way forward needs to begin. Genuinely good people on both sides of this issue disagree. Pro-gun people believe that owning a gun is one step of many in helping to keep their families safe and their government from becoming too tyrannical. Anti-gun people believe that the mere existence of a gun is a danger to all. But note that both sets of people desire safety in general.
With very little expertise, but with a robust research ability, my staff and I began looking at this issue this week from the perspective of what could be done that would be tangible, but also acceptable to both sides of the discussion. Here’s seven simple steps that can and should be implemented overnight across the country and in similar fashion school shootings would be eliminated. This list is not exhaustive but is a starting point where good-willed people can come together to make a significant difference now.
Condensed list follows:
1. Metal Detectors In Every School:
2. Enforce Everything:
3. Perform Active Shooter Drills:
4. Reinforce Doors, Windows, Buses, Locks:
5. Recruit Retired Military & Law Enforcement:
6. Arm All Appropriate Personnel:
7. Publicize Consequence:
Israel has already put some of these steps into practice and the nation has seen almost zero school attacks since adopting them.
None of these steps infringe upon law-abiding people’s Second Amendment rights. All of these steps attempt to stop and engage mentally ill or deliberately belligerent attackers. This list would make an immediate impact on every school that adopts them.
No common sense American can deny their effectiveness.
Our kids are worth it!
#1
Makes sense. If you have soft targets that are getting hit way too often you might want to harden them. It's unfortunate that students have to attend schools that look like prisons but until folks at the FBI return to their jobs of protecting citizens the locals will have to implement their own solutions.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/23/2018 11:35
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#2
Do banks have signs saying, "Gun-Free Zone"? Dowe have armed guards protecting our money? Why not our children?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/23/2018 11:57
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[Mercer at Townhall] The United Nations, naturally, disapproved.
Pope Francis, more enigmatically, protested, too, when President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel. By 2019’s end, the Trump administration plans to open the American Embassy in Jerusalem.
There's a reason Muslims living in Israel proper‐1.5 million of them‐don't migrate to the adjacent Palestinian Authority. They're better off in Israel. Should Jerusalem, East and West, be recognized formally as the capital of Israel only, under Jewish control alone; Christianity's holiest sites will be better off. Judaism's holy sites will be safer. And so will Islam's.
Jerusalem is no settlement to be haggled over; it's the capital of the Jewish State. King David conquered it 1000 years Before Christ. The city's "Muslim Period" began only in the year 638 of the Common Era.
"Yerushalaim," and not Al Quds, is the name of the city that was sacred to Jews for nearly two thousand years before Muhammad.
Indeed, not once is Jerusalem mentioned in the Quran. And while Muhammad was said to have departed to the heavens from the Al Aksa Mosque, there was no mosque in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque were built upon the Jewish Temple Mount. Muslim theologians subsequently justified this usurpation by superimposing their own chronology‐and relatively recent fondness for Jerusalem‐upon the existing, ancient sanctity of the place to Jews.
Essentially, this amounts to historical identity theft.
h/t Instapundit
[PJMedia] There is something broken in the brain of humans. All humans, going back as far as we can tell. Call it being built on the frame of a great ape, or call it, if you’re inclined that way religiously, the result of the Fall. Or as a friend of mine puts it, "the Fall was worse than we thought."
This particular flaw in reasoning is that children know best.
In the course of my degree, I read countless Medieval ballads in which the children at the breast spoke up and identified the true king. This kind of thought persuaded kings and church that the Children’s Crusade would have a peculiar power.
Our entire culture went mad-crazy for the young people in the sixties, something that also ties into the Romantics' idea that the savage, untutored, and unsophisticated was naturally better.
...Child, you don’t rise that high. You’re a poor concussed creature who’s been lied to so much in his life that he doesn’t even know that where there’s smoke there is fire and that no, a bunch of high school students aren’t organizing buses and arranging for demonstrations all over the country.
But more importantly, you don’t realize that you’re pursuing goals that you’re not sure about, and which you simply were told to pursue because the left thinks that if words come out of children’s mouths that magically makes them right.
You’re neither the first one nor, frankly, the last kid to want something stupid, or to think they have the solution for the world.
...Someday you’ll understand all that. At least you’ll understand that, if you ever break free of the indoctrination rammed down your throat by power-hungry people who use you to exploit the flaw in the human mind that tells us that children are always right.
And someday you’ll understand that those who dance in the blood of children and convince the survivors to push for measures that wouldn’t prevent this ‐ but would give those despicable opportunists more power ‐ are not your friends.
Till then, this is a dangerous world, and the adults are talking. Children should stay indoors, and learn how the world works. Wouldn't hurt either if they learn some Algebra & Geometry
#1
The difference is, this is the selfie generation. A camera pointed their way is like crack, they simply can't resist. If the media was selling the message that their mothers are hookers and their daddies are pimps, the kids would check their hair and facial piercings, smile and say "Yeah!"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/23/2018 8:39
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#2
Children should stay indoors, and learn how the world works. Poor kids, they are not going to learn that in school, nor from their parents. Maybe they could try a little independent reading. Many books that would benefit them are now available online.
#3
the flaw in the human mind that tells us that children are always right
There are many other flaws, relevant to this issue, than the one this author wrote up.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Syrian government forces fired several artillery shells towards the Ottoman Turkish troops responsible for attacking the humanitarian convoy in Afrin tonight.
Golly.
According to a military source in Aleppo, the pro-government National Defense Forces (NDF), in coordination with the Kurdish YPG, fired the artillery shells at the Ottoman Turkish troops; however, the source could not confirm if this attack scored any direct hits on the latter.
A symbolic demonstration of the manly fierceness of their Arab mustaches rather than actual fighting, then. Definitely golly.
The Ottoman Turkish attack on the humanitarian aid convoy in Afrin tonight, marked the second time in the last 72 hours that the forces loyal to Ankara have targeted the Ziyarah Crossing.
The situation remains very tense in Afrin, with both sides on high alert after this violent exchange tonight.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces fired several missiles towards a humanitarian convoy that was entering the Afrin region.
According to a military source, the humanitarian convoy was entering the Afrin region through the Ziyarah Crossing, when it was struck by the Ottoman Turkish Army’s grad missiles.
The source added that several trucks were badly damaged and many aid workers were maimed as a result of this attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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[Ynet] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has left hospital after routine checks in the United States and is fine, a senior Paleostinian official told Rooters on Thursday.
He told Rooters that Abbas had left the hospital in the US city of Baltimore and would be returning home to Ramallah in the West Bank on Friday.
[DAWN] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday moved the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. High Court (PHC) against the Mashal Khan verdict, challenging the acquittal of 26 people in the case.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Haripur had announced its verdict in the lynching case on February 7, handing one person two death sentences, five persons multiple terms of life imprisonment, and 25 others jail sentences, and acquitting 26 others for want of sufficient evidence.
Mashal Khan, 23, a student of Mass Communications at Mardan's Abdul Wali Khan University, was beaten and shot to death by an angry mob on April 13, 2017, after he was accused of blasphemy.
Of the total 61 suspected of involvement in the lynching ─ the majority of them were students and university employees and a tehsil councillor belonging to the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) ─ charged in the first information report, 57 had been locked away Please don't kill me! within a few days of the incident. A 58th suspect who was arrested in Jan 2018 has yet to be charged.
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[AnNahar] Russia has tested over 200 new types of arms in Syria during its campaign in support of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , a senior politician said Thursday, as Moscow was accused of taking part in air strikes against rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.
"As we helped the brotherly Syrian people, we tested over 200 new types of weapons," said Vladimir Shamanov, a former commander of Russia's airborne troops who now serves as head of the Russian Duma's defense committee.
"It's not an accident that today they are coming to us from many directions to purchase our weapons, including countries that are not our allies," he said.
"Today our military-industrial complex made our army look in a way we can be proud of," he said.
Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government in the protracted multi-front war, has been accused of indiscriminate bombing throughout the conflict causing massive casualties.
The latest criticism focuses on the air strikes against the enclave of Eastern Ghouta, where more than 350 civilians have been killed in five days, but the Kremlin denied involvement in the regime-led assault.
Shamanov's remarks also come amid reports that Russia has deployed its Su-57 stealth fighter prototype in Syria, where two such planes were reportedly spotted Wednesday.
Photos of the fifth generation jet, allegedly over Syria, were re-posted by various state media Thursday.
A source in the defense ministry confirmed to RBK news agency that the two planes were sent to the Hmeimim base "for a test in real conditions."
Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the reported deployment of Su-57.
[Ynet] The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia commander in Aleppo said the group's fighters had gone to nearby Afrin region to help repel a Ottoman Turkish assault and as a result the Syrian government had regained control over Kurdish-held districts in Aleppo.
"We in Aleppo have gone to the Afrin canton. As a result the eastern districts of Aleppo city fell under the control of the Syrian regime," said Furat Khalil, YPG commander in Aleppo, in a message to Rooters.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The United States-led coalition has said it had killed 841 civilians in its operations against 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.... bandidosbully boyz in Iraq and Syria, its combined command said on Thursday.
The Combined Joint Task Force of the coalition said in a statement it assessed, during January, 116 credible reports of civilian casualties resulting from coalition operations. " To date, based on information available, CJTF-OIR assesses at least 841 civilians have been unintentionally killed by Coalition strikes since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve".
According to the statement, " The Coalition and our partners have liberated over 98% of the area formerly controlled by ISIS (Arabic acronym for Islamic State), and have liberated 7.7 million Iraqis and Syrians once held under brutal ISIS rule". It added that, despite the proclaimed achievement, "much work still needs to be done to ensure the lasting defeat of the terrorist, criminal organization".
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/23/2018
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[DAWN] Justice officials asked a court on Wednesday to formally designate the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army, as terrorist groups in a move that could further damage chances of a resumption of stalled peace talks.
In a petition before a Manila regional court, the Department of Justice cited deadly attacks and violence committed by the Death Eaters, including bloody internal purges of suspected military spies, in seeking the proscription of the groups behind one of Asia's longest-raging communist insurgency.
President Rodrigo Duterte resumed peace talks with the guerrillas after he rose to power in 2016. He granted concessions by appointing three left-wing activists to his Cabinet, but the cordial relations rapidly deteriorated when he protested continuing rebel assaults on troops and coppers.
Last year, he cancelled Norwegian-brokered talks with the guerrillas and signed an order declaring the rebel groups as terrorist organizations in a prelude to his government's formal move on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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According to this, they’ve been busy. Including pushing back the adventurous Turkish navy, which apparently would like Egypt’s Mediterranean gas field for itself.
[AlAhram] As the counter-terrorist Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 (COS 2018) continues to unfold, communiqués released by the military front man indicate the operation is picking up in pace and intensity. No official timeframe has been given for the operation and experts acknowledge that it is difficult to predict how long it could take.
The first 10 days of action in the field have had considerable results, according to the military front man’s communiqués. The Air Force has struck 158 mobile and fixed targets and artillery forces struck 234 targets on days nine and 10. Sixty-seven bad boyz were potted in direct festivities during raids on their lairs, including three individuals on security agencies’ most wanted lists.
Video footage published by the military front man on social networking sites shows how direct confrontations are carried out in residential areas that have been cleared of civilian inhabitants.
Continued on Page 49
[DAWN] Former police encounter specialist ex-inspector Abid Boxer’s case took a new turn on Wednesday as Lahore police moved a request to the United Arab Emirates authorities through the Interpol seeking custody of the fugitive.
The city police authorities acted in response to the UAE’s request forwarded to the Pakistan government through the Interpol on Feb 12 to exchange the extradition documents to initiate handover process of Abid Hussain, alias Abid Boxer.
A senior police officer confirmed to Dawn that the department had moved the case to extradite the ex-policeman to initiate a trial against him in the cases lodged with various police stations of the provincial capital.
He said the request was forwarded by the Lahore capital city police officer to the inspector general of Punjab police to send the same to the home department.
The case would route from the interior ministry to the FIA and then Interpol, before reaching the UAE government.
He said the city police had already issued red warrants for the accused, providing record to the Interpol of the cases lodged against Abid Boxer.
He had fled Pakistan in 2008 after the police lodged cases against him under murder, attempted murder, fraud and forgery charges.
The murder case that made Abid to flee Pakistan was lodged against him at Qila Gujjar Singh police station after the death of a retired army brigadier, Naseem Ashraf.
Ashraf’s wife had lodged the case accusing Abid Boxer of killing her husband. She alleged that Abid wanted to grab a cinema owned by the retired brigadier in 2008.
Later, the complainant also died under mysterious circumstances and it was being suspected that she too was killed at the behest of Abid Boxer. "Youse got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Da witnesses are all dead!"
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[Khaama Press] At least twelve Taliban ...Arabic for students... turbans were killed in an Arclight airstrike conducted by the US forces in souther Uruzgan province of Afghanistan.
According to the local security officials, the airstrike was carried out late on Wednesday night in the outskirts of Tarinkot city, the picturesque provincial capital of Uruzgan.
A security source involved in the operations said a local Taliban Überstürmbannführer identified as Mullah Basir was also among those killed.
The source further added that two Taliban turbans were also maimed in the airstrike.
The anti-government armed holy warrior groups including the Taliban turbans have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as a local leader of the Taliban group was killed in a similar airstrike conducted by the US forces in Tarinkot city last Wednesday.
[AA.TR] 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... threatened to remove federal immigration and customs agents from Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Thursday over the state's refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts.
"Frankly, if I wanted to pull our people from California, you would have a crime mess like you've never seen in California. All I'd have to do is to say 'ICE and Border Patrol, let California alone," Trump said during a meeting on school safety, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"It's a disgrace, the sanctuary city situation, the protection of these horrible criminals... that if we ever pulled our ICE out, if we ever said 'hey, let California alone, let them figure it out for themselves,' in two months they'd be begging for us to come back, they would be begging. And you know what? I'm thinking about doing it," he added.
California has refused to cooperate with Trump's immigration crackdown, making it the largest locality to do so.
It is unclear whether Trump's diatribe is rooted in reality or if he is just exaggerating. California is a major border state, abutting Mexico and much of the U.S. West Coast, casting doubt on the feasibility of Trump following through on his threat.
Later Thursday, the White House said "sanctuary cities", or localities that do not cooperate with federal law enforcement efforts, are a public safety threat that encourage further illegal immigration.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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#2
Move them to Arizona and Nevada to patrol the California border instead. If California wants illegals that bad, make them keep them all in their state.
#7
Instead of abandoning those people in CA who would prefer not to live in a $h1thole, I would prefer jugging the asses who break the law of the land by encouraging illegal immigration.
#8
Enforce the law, especially in California. Abandoning the Americans here is unconscionable. I cannot believe that the reaction of my government to seditious behavior by public officials is tacit acceptance. Enforce the law and charge those who undermine it through malfeasance in office. Start with the state Capitol and governor.
#12
Okay. So start rounding up local officials and LEO who will not enforce the Law.
If they are not up to the task then the FEDS cannot be there. One way or another, something must give with that idiot Governor assclown.
#14
Brown is on his way out - again. It's the Newsoms, Villaraigosas, Becerras, Gonzalezes, Garcettis all trying to out-left and out-pander. At this point, Chung seems to be the best possible alternative. We're fucked
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2018 21:47
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Foreign Ministry has announced extraditing four women and 27 children, who belonged to 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.... , to Russia, AlSumaria News reported.
In remarks to media channels, the ministry spokesperson, Ahmed Mahjoub, said, "Iraq has extradited to Russia 27 children and four women who were tricked into joining Islamic State."
They were handed over after being interrogated, Mahjoub said, adding "they were proven to have not participated in terrorist operations against civilians or security troops."
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... he said, "they will stand trial in Russia for entering Iraq illegally."
Russian media previously reported that authorities managed to return back a Russian child, whose parents joined terrorist groups, including IS, in Syria and Iraq.
Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesperson of the media office of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was quoted on Wednesday by al-Hurra TV channel as saying that Iraq will coordinate with the countries of detainees who had been proved innocent of crimes, including murders and bombings, in Iraq, to hand them over.
Hundreds of foreign wives and children of IS members, who were captured as security forces gradually seized back territories held by the bully boy group since 2014, are held by Iraqi authorities.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/23/2018
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[AA.TR] Venezuela’s opposition coalition said Wednesday it won’t take part in the presidential elections called by the National Election Council (CNE) for April 22, in which Nicolas Maduro is seeking a second term.
In a statement, the Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD) argued that the date chosen for the polls does not offer them any guarantees, calling the elections a "premature" event "lacking proper conditions".
They said the elections "are only a show put on by the government in order to pretend to have the legitimacy that it lacks in the midst of Venezuelans’ suffering".
They proposed that the elections be carried out during the second semester of this year, asking for the date to be decided by a "balanced National Election Council".
The opposition asked that independent international observation missions monitor the process for choosing a new election date and that the right to vote for Venezuelans abroad be guaranteed.
The MUD also asked the government of Nicolas Maduro for equal access to public and private media as well as for the ineligibility of certain opposition parties and leaders to be revoked.
CNE President Tibisay Lucena announced during a presser on Feb. 7 that April 22, was chosen as the date for the presidential elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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#1
Won't matter when it happens til Maduro is hanging from a streetlight
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2018 7:06
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[Jpost] Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing, the sole pedestrian passageway between Egypt and the Gazoo Strip, earlier than planned late Wednesday evening, the Paleostinian Embassy in Cairo said, according to the official Paleostinian Authority news site Wafa.
On Monday, Egypt announced Rafah would be open from early Wednesday morning until Saturday for Paleostinians to enter and exit the Gazoo Strip.
The Paleostinian Embassy in the Egyptian capital did not say why the crossing was closed early.
Since the ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, Cairo has seldom opened Rafah. The crossing was open for 42 days in 2016 and for 36 days in 2017, according to Gisha ‐ the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, an Israeli NGO that tracks human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... issues related to Gazoo.
Some 30,000 Gazooks including students, business people and ill persons are on a waiting list to travel from Gazoo to Egypt through Rafah.
Paleostinian officials have said Egypt frequently keeps the crossing closed because of the unstable security situation in the Sinai Peninsula.
[AlAhram] Nigeria's 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... Islamist Death Eaters have killed five civilians and two soldiers in fresh attacks in Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Chad, local sources said Thursday.
"A group of Boko Haram fighters made an incursion during (Tuesday) night in Assigashia," a source close to administrative authorities in the northern Cameroon border area said, asking not be named.
"The attackers killed five people and maimed five more."
The raid was confirmed along with the casualty toll by an official in the Cameroon security services.
Assigashia is a border town which gives direct access to Nigeria and has seen many Boko Haram incursions in the past.
The Nigerian Islamist Death Eaters are blamed for killing another civilian in the town in January.
In Chad, meanwhile, two Chadian soldiers, including a captain, were killed in a Boko Haram ambush on Wednesday, a senior military official said Thursday.
The attack took place in the west of the country in the Lake Chad region near the Nigerian frontier as the troops were returning from a border patrol.
"The Boko Haram attackers disappeared into the islands" on the lake, the source said.
[DAWN] The United States urged the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... on Tuesday to speak with the Afghan government first if they want to hold peace talks with Washington.
"We have seen the Taliban statement. We will know the Taliban are serious about peaceful dialogue when they are willing to speak with the elected government of Afghanistan and end their brutal campaign of violence," a State Department spokesperson told Dawn.
In an unexpected statement earlier this week, the Taliban reached out to the American people asking them to pressure 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... and "war-mongering" congressmen to end the near 17-year-old "occupation."
The Afghan government, however, rejected the Taliban overture for peace insisting that the Death Eater group needs to show its sincerity to peace by ceasing its attacks first.
The Taliban, who have influence over nearly half the country, launched a series of deadly attacks in Kabul in last month that killed and maimed hundreds.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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#1
"and end their brutal campaign of violence,"
Now, if they didn't do that violence, they would be Islamic Apostates
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2018 20:16
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[ALMASDARNEWS] For the second day in a row, the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Jabhat Tahrir Souriya clashed inside the western countryside of the Aleppo Governorate. Jabhat Tahrir Souriya (Syrian Liberation Front) was created three or four days ago by the merger of Ahrar al-Sham and Nour al-Din al-Zenki.
According to pro-opposition activists, the rebel alliance between Harakat Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... and Harakat Nouriddeen al-Zink, dubbed Jabhat Tahrir Souriya, launched an attack on Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s positions in Kafr Naha.
This attack resulted in a series of fierce festivities between the jihadist forces, but no change in the ground situation.
The two jihadist forces also clashed near the town of Dart ’Izza, with Jabhat Tahrir Souriya also leading this attack against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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[AnNahar] A 70-year-old man has been placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! accused of "politically motivated" attempted murder days after attacking three asylum seekers with a knife, German police said on Thursday.
The bloody attack took place outside a church in the western city of Heilbronn last Saturday, leaving a 17-year-old Afghan badly maimed and an Iraqi and Syrian man, 25 and 19, injured.
The suspect, a German-Russian dual national who was drunk at the time of the attack, was overpowered with the help of passersby until police arrived and detained him.
He was initially charged with assault and released but on Wednesday prosecutors raised the charge to "politically motivated" attempted murder and issued a formal arrest warrant.
Mustn’t touch the protected class, donchaknow.
The man was rearrested on Wednesday after police had further questioned the victims, witnesses and the suspect, police said in a statement.
The suspect told police he was angered by Germany's asylum policy that brought more than a million refugees and migrants colonists to the country in recent years, police said.
#1
"What gonna do to me... I'm 70...put me in prison and my access to healthcare improves and I probably get fed better, and no rent. Throw the book at me!"
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/23/2018 8:31
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#2
Can't think of a better cause to be safely locked away for.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Five civilians were maimed in two kabooms that took place in north and southwest of Baghdad, security sources said on Thursday.
Speaking to Alghad Press, a source said, "a bomb went kaboom! near a market in al-Mushahada region in Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, leaving three civilians maimed."
Security troops, according to the source, "arrived to the accident spot and transferred the maimed to hospital for treatment."
In related news, another source said two people were maimed in another kaboom in southwest of the capital.
"A bomb went off near stores at Shuhadaa al-Bayaa region in west of Baghdad, leaving two civilians maimed," the source said. Ambulances rushed to the kaboom spot and transferred the maimed to hospital.
[haama Press] At least three militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in a US drone strike in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East said the latest drone strike was carried out in the vicinity of Deh Bala district.
According to the Silab Corps, at least one ISIS militant was also wounded in the airstrike that was carried out on a ISIS hideout in Langari area.
The anti-government armed militant and terrorist groups including the ISIS insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.
Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces in the East but the terrorist and anti-government armed militant groups have started their operations in some of its remote districts during the recent years.
However, the counter-terrorism operations by the Afghan national defense and security forces as well as airstrikes on ISIS hideouts and other terror groups are underway in this province.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/23/2018
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[Khaama Press] At least five workers of the Afghan Intelligence Agency, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), were killed in snuffies attack in northern Parwan province of Afghanistan.
According to the local government officials, the incident took place on Wednesday in the vicinity of Bagram district.
The district administrative chief of Bagram Abdul Shukoor Qudoosi confirmed the incident and said the dear departed individuals all belonged to the NDS directorate of Kapisa.
He said the intelligence director of Kapisa and four other staff of the provincial intelligence directorate of Kapisa were among those killed.
The anti-government armed bully boy groups including the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... hard boyz have not commented regarding the report so far.
Parwan is among the relatively volatile provinces in northern Afghanistan where the Taliban hard boyz are actively operating in some of its remote districts and often carry out insurgency activities.
Roadside bombings, suicide kabooms, murders, and other forms of terrorist attacks are often reported from the restive districts of Parwan.
However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... the counter-terrorism operations are underway against the anti-government armed bully boy and terrorist groups in a number of the northern provinces including Parwan province to suppress the anti-government armed elements.
[DAWN] The PML-N's top brass on Thursday decided to get MNA Kulsoom Nawaz elected as the next party chief, a source privy to the development told DawnNews.
Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... held a meeting at Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... House for consultations on the new leader of the party a day after he was removed as PML-N head following a Supreme Court judgement that also nullified all official party decisions taken by Sharif since his disqualification in July last year.
The participants of the meeting agreed to get Sharif's wife Kulsoom ‐ who is undergoing treatment for cancer in London ‐ elected as the party's new president, the source told DawnNews.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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[DAWN] Residents of Syria’s eastern Ghouta district said they were waiting their "turn to die" on Wednesday, amid one of the most intense bombardments of the war by pro-government forces on the besieged, rebel-held enclave near Damascus.
At least 38 people died on Wednesday. At least 310 people have been killed in the district since Sunday night and more than 1,550 injured, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
The eastern Ghouta, a densely populated agricultural district on the Damascus outskirts, is the last major area near the capital still under rebel control. Home to 400,000 people, it has been besieged by government forces for years.
A massive escalation in bombardment, including rocket fire, shelling, air strikes and helicopter-dropped barrel bombs, since Sunday has become one of the deadliest of the Syrian civil war, now entering its eighth year.
The Syrian government and its ally Russia, which has backed Assad with air power since 2015, say they do not target civilians and point to rebel mortar fire on Damascus.
[AA.TR] The Doha-based International Union of Moslem Scholars (IUMS) on Thursday condemned the ongoing bombardment of Syria’s Eastern Ghouta district, a besieged suburb of Damascus, calling it a "massacre".
At least 250 civilians were reportedly killed there within the last three days.
"We call on the Arab and Islam countries and international community to take imminent actions to stop mass killings and save the innocent civilians in eastern Ghouta," according to a statement issued by the IUMS.
The IUMS condemned the "massacre of Assad Regime backed by Russia with weapons against which the [Syrian] people cannot counter."
Since Tuesday, regime forces have stepped up attacks on Eastern Ghouta using barrel bombs, artillery fire and other types of weapons, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent based in the area.
Over a three-day period, the regime has reportedly carried out 260 separate attacks in Eastern Ghouta, killing more than 250 civilian residents of the district.
At peace talks held in the Kazakh capital Astana in May of last year, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Russia and Iran designated Eastern Ghouta as a "de-escalation zone" in which acts of aggression would be expressly prohibited.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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[Ynet] Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i Ambassador says some $800 million in assistance to Gazoo since Protective Edge is 'keeping peace for both nations,' adding 'If we are helping Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, do you think the Israelis would allow us to go inside Gazoo and come out? It's impossible. They know we are not helping Hamas.'
Since coming under an embargo last year by its US-allied Gulf Arab neighbors, Qatar has made its aid to the Gazoo Strip‐and the coordination with Israel needed for disbursement‐a focus of its diplomatic contacts with the Trump administration.
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... , the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar in June for allegedly supporting terror groups such as Hamas, meddling in their internal affairs and backing regional foe Iran's agenda.
Qatar denies all the accusations, and pushed back with outreach to the United States‐including several leaders of its pro-Israel Jewish community.
Responding to Israeli and US requests, Qatar ceased hosting Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas deputy leader, al-Emadi said. He added that "every single penny" of Qatari money given to Gazoo was monitored to ensure it is spent on humanitarian needs.
Al-Emadi said he has visited Israel 20 times since 2014. The trips were previously kept under wraps, but the envoy has been increasingly visible in recent months.
[Free Beacon] Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, who garnered public attention as Sen. Bob Menendez's (D., N.J.) co-defendant on separate corruption charges, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for Medicare fraud. Obviously UniParty protection has not been fully extended to individual healthcare providers.
Melgen was convicted last April of defrauding Medicare of $73 million, and on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra handed down his sentence, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Melgen will also have to pay $42.6 million in restitution to Medicare.
Melgen became the highest-paid Medicare doctor in the country by having patients undergo unnecessary operations, which some compared to torture. The 67 crimes Melgen was convicted of included health care fraud, falsifying records, and submitting false claims.
The wealthy physician gave patients eye injections and retinal laser blasts that were not necessary. He also billed Medicare for a variety of illegitimate operations, including treatment on the fake eyes of one-eyed patients.
Separately, federal prosecutors tried Melgen along with Menendez for corruption last year, which resulted in a mistrial in November owing to the hung jury. The prosecution’s case used the private flights, European vacations, and other gifts Menendez received from Melgen as evidence of bribery, arguing that Menendez interceded on Melgen’s behalf with Medicare officials.
Menendez was such a frequent user of Melgen's jet that the pilot, according to testimony, kept Menendez's favorite brand of water, Evian, on the plane.
Menendez’s defense argued that the senator was simply good friends with Melgen and the gifts and flights he received were part of their years-long friendship. The pair first met because after Melgen was appointed to a state board in Florida, he became politically active and hosted Democratic fundraisers in his home.
Prosecutors took steps to retry the two men after the mistrial, but in January, they decided to drop the charges.
Menendez declared himself vindicated after the mistrial and after the Department of Justice's decision not to continue with charges. But his pal Senator Menendez beat the rap. Amazing isn't it? Absolutely amazing.
[Business Insider] On Feb. 21, the newly created Bronco Combat System (BCS) USA announced the launch of the Bronco II, a two-crew C4ISR and precision strike aircraft, based on the South Africa's first indigenous turboprop aircraft designed AHRLAC (Advanced High-performance Reconnaissance and Surveillance Aircraft), developed by a joint venture between the Paramount Group and Aerosud.
The name of the new light aircraft was inspired by the OV-10 Bronco, the U.S. aircraft developed in the 1960s as a special aircraft for counter-insurgency (COIN) combat and used today by the U.S. Special Operations Command to hunt ISIS militants in Iraq.
According to the BCS press release, the Bronco II is "capable of carrying a wide range of weapons, sensors and systems in extended airborne mission operations. It is a unique platform that is built for purpose; uses a pusher propeller and has an open system architecture allowing for the rapid incorporation of current and emerging systems, setting a new standard for mission flexibility and adaptability.
#2
The old Bronco's sounded like an Everglades airboat. Amid the pop pop pop you'd hear 'grrrrr' (the OV10) then 'whooosh' (the smoke rocket). The a rumble and a roar (the fast movers arriving). And the LOUD noises would start...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/23/2018 8:42
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#3
Yeah...nowhere in the article is the word "Armored". So yeah, it might be able to linger and be accurate etc.....but it's an eggshell. No thanks, rather have the A-10
[SpaceNews] The Army experiment is being watched by the small satellite industry as a bellwether of where the military might be headed with this technology.
How valuable is it for troops in the field to have their own dedicated source of satellite imagery and other space-based intelligence? That is a question officials hope to answer in upcoming military exercises where commanders will have an opportunity to test the Army’s newly deployed Kestrel Eye microsatellite.
The Kestrel Eye Block IIM was sent into orbit in October from the International Space Station. “It is now operational,” said Dan Harkins, marketing manager at Adcole Maryland Aerospace, the satellite manufacturer.
“We expect some images in the next few weeks,” Harkins said.
Kestrel Eye is a $2 million project led by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Alabama. The Defense Department’s Space Test Program sponsored the satellite launch and deployment.
SMDC spokesman Cecil Longino told SpaceNews that the 80kg satellite continues to undergo “on-orbit verification, validation and testing in preparation for late spring operational demonstrations with U.S. Pacific Command.”
After a test period, SMDC “will continue to look for opportunities to demonstrate Kestrel Eye during Army exercises and potentially in support of crisis or contingency operations throughout the life of the spacecraft,” Longino said.
The experiment is being watched by companies in the small satellite industry as a bellwether of where the military might be headed with this technology. Kestrel Eye is small but larger than the average tiny cubesat, designed to provide near real time imaging.
Soldiers could access 1.5-meter resolution satellite imagery within minutes.
Kestrel Eye was launched Aug. 14 as a payload aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of an International Space Station cargo resupply mission. It is orbiting 310 miles above Earth and is expected to operate for about two years.
#1
I wanted two back then but now I will settle for about 5000 rubix cube satellites. Small enough to deflect off of a space craft and constant available GPS. It is on my UFER list.
[Stars and Stripes] A new Army unit created specifically to advise and assist conventional foreign military forces has begun deploying to Afghanistan.
The 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade — whose members will be dispersed at outposts throughout the country and be closer to the front lines of the war than most U.S. troops have been in years — is a key component of the Trump administration’s strategy for ending a stalemate with the Taliban.
Instead of advising high-ranking Afghan commanders, as is done now, the new brigade will work with battalion-level personnel. U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have often cited this as a vital, missing component of their advising efforts.
[Motherboard.vice] About 60 years ago, at the height of the Cold War, the US designed a network of top-secret mobile nuclear launch sites buried in the Greenland ice sheet to prepare for possible war with the Soviet Union. At Camp Century, which was part of Project Iceworm, soldiers lived in the ice, which enclosed the base so it wouldn’t be completely buried in snow.
Camp Century was shut down in 1967, and the site was abandoned as Project Iceworm wound down. Back then, military planners assumed the hazardous stuff buried at Camp Century—including diesel fuel, PCBs, and some radioactive coolant—would stay locked up in the Greenland ice sheet, essentially forever. But now Greenland is warming. Dangerous contaminants threaten to re-emerge from the ice, potentially putting people in Greenland and maybe as far away as Arctic Canada (400 km offshore) at risk.
Or not, if a Maunder Minimum-driven Little Ice Age occurs... or even just cooling, like a Dalton Minimum.
[TheLongWarJournal] The Afghan Taliban issued a “Letter of the Islamic Emirate to the American people” on Feb. 14, which was reported as an appeal for negotiations between the Taliban and the United States. Instead, the Taliban demanded that the US and the West withdraw from Afghanistan so the Taliban can establish its government.
The lengthy “letter” is reproduced in full, below. Throughout the letter, the Taliban said the only acceptable outcome is for the US to quit so it can return to power. The following two paragraphs neatly summarized the Taliban’s position. First, the Taliban referred to itself: “we” and the “the Islamic Emirate” were used interchangeably. Then note how the Taliban considered itself, not the Afghan government, as the “representative of its people” [emphasis ours]:
After the Taliban established that only it can represent the Afghan people, it lays out its terms for “peace.” And that is US withdrawal and a return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan:
#2
Despite the posturing (by Kissinger et alii) and the Nobel "Peace" Prize that is basically what Vo Nguyen Giap wanted and got in Vietnam... So their negotiating stance has recent historical precedent.
#3
Despite the posturing (by Kissinger et alii) and the Nobel "Peace" Prize that is basically what Vo Nguyen Giap wanted and got in Vietnam... So their negotiating stance has recent historical precedent.
So what follows, a secession of bombing, a democratic cut-off of all funding, followed by a pull out ?
#4
The caravan passed. All was silent,
Afghanistan no longer violent.
"May your she-camels starve
As we Taliban carve
Up our peaceful Mohammedan island!"
#6
very difficult people. They don't give up easily. Lady Sale, one of the very few British survivors of the First Afghan War, wrote this about the Afghan noble Jan Fishan Khan, who sided with the British:
"He had one wife with him in Cabul [i.e. Kabul] when the insurrection broke out, and urged her to fly to Paghman [his family estate outside the capital] for safety; the old chief told me, her reply was worth a lakh (150,000) of rupees,
'I will not leave you ; if you fall, we die together; and if you are victorious, we will rejoice together!'"
There was not a release of battle field events by the SDF as they were overwhelmed with numerous reports of major human rights atrocities coming in regarding NATO member Turkish Military and their Al Qaeda allies, three of which are listed. I leave it up to the moderators to filter out any items that may be too graphic for publishing:
1) A major convoy of unarmed, civilian activists heading to Afrin to show solidarity with the people of Afrin was struck by Turkish artillery and air strikes. Early reports indicate many fatalities and wounded.
2) A large group of unarmed young women in a village were rounded up and summarily executed. The video does seem to show one victim in military kakis but the rest the young women appear to show only civilian clothing, most likely young mothers who lived throughout the village. (Video of the casualties)
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 ||
02/23/2018
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#1
Turkish forces, war crimes. What else did you expect? I hope the Russians bomb the shit out of the Turks and their proxies. Make them pay the price. Because the US is too gutless to step in and stand up to Erdogan in any meaningful way.
Sanction Turkey now - and throw them out of NATO. Withdraw all forces and support - crater the runways on the way out.
#4
If the strategy is to kill civilians and all the women, then the operation is intended as a raid/spoiling attack, not an attempt to capture and hold territory.
If so, then the real Syrian/Iranian forces aren't going to oppose the Turks since they would take losses fighting a force that will soon be leaving. It seems likely that this incursion into Syria will result in the Turkish forces' withdrawal in a few weeks, as soon as they execute or drive out all the fertile women in the Afrin area.
[DailyWire] The media is making quite a big deal out of the gun owners who are getting rid of their guns in an effort to promote gun control. Well, I am a gun owner, too. I will happily join these people in disarming myself, just as soon as conditions warrant it.
To be more specific, I will get rid of my gun the moment my gun becomes self-aware and develops the ability to go off by itself and shoot people on its own initiative.
I will get rid of my gun as soon as I begin to feel the insatiable urge to become a mass shooter.
I will get rid of my gun if I ever lose half my brain cells and no longer possess the basic competency to store and handle it safely.
I will get rid of my gun if someone can pull out a Bible and show me the verse that makes it a sin merely to own a weapon, or to use it for self-defense.
I will get rid of my gun if my gun ever becomes possessed by the Devil, or if I ever become possessed by the Devil.
I will get rid of my gun the very moment that all evil is vanquished from human society, and wickedness is purged from the hearts of men, and there is no longer any danger in the world and the whole of mankind can live in utter peace and harmony. When Christ returns in His glory I will certainly lay down my arms. I do not plan on bringing my gun to Heaven.
But we aren't yet in Heaven. And that is why I have a gun. And that is why I won't get rid of it.
Indeed, we are in a place so unlike Heaven, and so heavily populated with evil people, that it would be irresponsible and reckless not to own a gun. What sort of protector can I be for my family if I have not equipped myself with the tools necessary to protect them? I agree with the anti-gun people when they point out that the world is filled with bad and dangerous people. That is exactly why I own a gun. This is what the anti-gun people don't seem to grasp: the very reason they want to ban guns is the very reason why we should not.
#3
Even if the idiots dis-armed the whole Country, you would still need armed guards at Schools.
Not that they, the FBI, or Sheriff department made any difference here.
Total systems failure and these assholes want to dis-arm US?
[Proceedings] The U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is in the fleet restoring the number of carriers to the mandated number of 11. The aircraft carrier force has been below the minimum of 11 required by law since December 2012 when the Enterprise (CVN-65) was decommissioned. But there is a long test program required by the Department of Defense that prevents the Gerald R. Ford from deploying until 2022.
Have they gotten the electromagnetic catapult to work reliably enough for operations tempo?
This year’s National Defense Authorization Act permits the Secretary of Defense to waive the requirement for shock testing the Gerald R. Ford . Eliminating the shock test can move its deployment up by a year or more. But leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee urge the Secretary to shock test the new carrier.
A shock test is a series of underwater detonations of a specified charge that are put closer and closer to the ship.
In 1987, the Congress passed the Live Fire Test Law that requires all weapons systems to be subjected to a live-fire test. The Navy proposed to substitute shock tests for live-fire tests because people have to man a ship for proper operation while aircraft, tanks, trucks and armored personnel vehicles can be unmanned when live- fire tested. Further, to obtain realistic shock performance data, Navy developed the means to test critical ship components at "heavy shock levels" on unmanned barges that can damage the components without harming people. Congress accepted this logic and allowed shock tests to replace live-fire testing of ships.
For surface ships that operated since the Live Fire Act became law, the table below shows the classes built, what ship of the class was shocked, and when.
#4
Yeah, they can deploy it to the Korean Peninsula, where they can us the catapult railgun to bombard the Norks with F-18's.
Load up all the old Navy planes from storage at Luke and squirt away.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/23/2018 8:47
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#5
newc, a shitload rubber bands?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/23/2018 10:36
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#6
Difficult to get more precise than that Deacon.
#8
"newc, a shitload rubber bands?"
Kind of. The steam catapult did not jerk the planes as hard to make stress fractures in them. The lifecycle has to be built around the EMALS launching system.
[SmallWarsJournal and Voice of America] Afghanistan Unveils Plans for Controversial Militia Force
Afghanistan’s ministry of defense has announced the creation of a new militia force comprising about 36,000 men to defend areas that military-led operations have cleared of Taliban insurgents.
The move comes despite long-running accusations of rights abuses against the existing Afghan Local Police, which consists of local militias trained and paid by the U.S. military.
Defense Ministry spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, said in a brief statement the new force will consist of 7,500 officers of the Afghan National Army, or ANA, and 28,500 other personnel. The recruitments will be made from Afghan government-controlled areas where they ultimately will be deployed after undergoing military training to keep insurgents from staging a comeback.
He emphasized that the new Afghan militia force being raised will work under the direct command and control of the defense ministry. Waziri did not say when the recruiting process will begin.
Patricia Gossman, senior Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, has swiftly criticized the announcement, saying accountability of forces operating outside the normal ANA structure has been a persistent problem.
“What remains unclear is whether these recruits would come from existing militia forces, and if so, how the [Afghan] ministry would ensure that they would be held accountable,” noted Gossman told VOA.
The New York-based watchdog has been closely monitoring and documenting past allegations of rights violations against Afghan militias.
#2
For the US administration, American assets in the region are like hotels on the Monopoly board, to be protected individually and piecemeal. No unified strategy ranks their relative importance or gauges whether they might be sacrificed for a larger goal
[NYTimes] Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri was indicted on a felony invasion of privacy charge on Thursday by grand jurors in St. Louis.
Mr. Greitens, a first-term Republican, photographed a nude or partially nude person without the person’s knowledge or consent in 2015 Switched party in 2015 from the Dems. Doubt the MSM will talk much of that historical bit.
according to charging documents released by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. The indictment said Mr. Greitens then transmitted the photo in a way that allowed it to be seen on a computer, which prosecutors said made the crime a felony rather than a misdemeanor.
The indictment comes weeks after Mr. Greitens acknowledged having an extramarital affair in 2015, before he took office, but denied claims that he blackmailed a woman or took a nude photo of her without permission. Mr. Greitens has resisted calls to resign, insisting that he had done nothing illegal and had recently toured the state touting his tax cut plans.
A spokesman for Mr. Greitens, Parker Briden, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment on the indictment. City officials said that the governor was booked into the city jail on Thursday, and was released on his own recognizance. Mr. Greitens is permitted to travel throughout the United States as a provision of his release, court records show. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 16.
Kimberly M. Gardner, the St. Louis prosecutor, said the statute of limitations for charges to be filed would have expired next month. Continues.
[SpaceNews] A discussion of China at the latest National Space Council meeting took a more nuanced view of the country than is typical in such conversations, seeing the rising space power as a competitor and adversary but also a potential partner.
A panel discussion on national security space at the Council’s Feb. 21 meeting at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center focused primarily on the growing capabilities of, and the growing threat posed by, China’s space efforts, including the development of counterspace capabilities that could disrupt American space systems in the event of a conflict.
“Russia and China are each developing counterspace capabilities to use during a potential future conflict with the United States to reduce U.S. and allied advantage and effectiveness, eroding our information advantage,” said Susan Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence.
She singled out China’s “impressive rise — and it is impressive — as a space power,” citing a more than ten-fold increase in number of operational satellites since 2000 and development of advanced technologies, such as tests of quantum satellite communications.
He noted China’s space program was largely run by the military, including much of its industry. “China’s space industrial complex is not so much a revolving door as a broad atrium for Chinese aerospace engineers and managers amidst all these state-owned enterprises, and the result is far closer to a single integrated space enterprise, with relatively few demarcations between the military and the civilian,” he said.
That also applies to the growing number of private space ventures in China that, at first glance, appear to be separate from that larger military-controlled industry. “Given the interest in melding civilian and military capacity, as well as past evidence of behavior in the telecom sector, it is vital to recognize that these private firms, at the end of the day, respond with alacrity to central government directives,” he said.
However, Jeff Manber, chief executive of NanoRacks, saw opportunity working with such companies and others in China. The company flew an experiment from a Chinese university to the International Space Station last year, the first Chinese payload to go to the station.
“As the president has said, we want to revamp and reconsider our relations with China, and I can see no better opportunity than to do it here, where we’re not involved today but we’re clearly leaders of the free world,” Manber said.
The National Space Council offered no indication of where it stood on potentially increasing cooperation with China. After Manber’s comments to the Council, its chairman, Vice President Mike Pence, offered only a two-word comment: “Well said.”
#1
The company flew an experiment [studying the effects of the space radiation environment on DNA and the changes in mutation rate] from a Chinese university to the International Space Station last year, the first Chinese payload to go to the station.
and so as soon as the instrument package was connected to the lab power and communication buss, the ISS infostructure and communications were compromised.
[Jamestown] Since last September, more than three million Russians have been evacuated from thousands of schools, businesses, cultural facilities and government offices in cities and towns across Russia in response to anonymous bomb threats—not one of which has proven to be true but all of which have required prompt action lest lives be lost. The government-controlled media have provided only the sparsest coverage of what Russians now call “telephone terrorism,” but the problem continues to this day and is now so large that the Russian security services have launched special efforts to end it, so far without any signs of success. Moreover, the Russian parliament has now voted to impose a ten-year jail term on anyone convicted of making such false threats, although to date no one has been (For background, see Window on Eurasia, September 12, 2017; Window on Eurasia, January 2, 2018; on the efforts of the special forces and the Duma decision, see Kasparov, December 20, 2017; and on some of the most recent cases, see Politsovet, February 20).
What makes telephone terrorism so frightening is that anyone with a telephone, either inside Russia or abroad, can make such a threat and force official action. Unlike most terrorist actions, no individual or group has claimed responsibility. In places where such bomb threats have been the most frequent, such as Yekaterinburg and cities in the Russian Far East, they have produced a general, if so far relatively low intensity, fear among the population. Many are taking the evacuations in stride, but the constant repetition of evacuations, even of government buildings such as the Russian Duma itself, has left people feeling uneasy.
In the last several weeks, concerns about telephone terrorism have been joined by fears about the appearance of a tactic some Western countries have had experience with: the receipt by various offices and individuals of ordinary mail containing an unidentified white powder that many fear may contain anthrax or other dangerous bacteria. In the United States, the receipt of such letters has forced officials to hospitalize recipients and engage in radical decontamination efforts even, though in most cases the white powder has proven to be harmless. Now this plague has come to Russia, although so far it, unlike telephone terrorism, has been confined to the diplomatic representations in Moscow.
On February 14, Interfax reported that envelopes with an unknown white substance had been delivered by mail to “at a minimum” three embassies in the Russian capital (Interfax, February 14). They were subsequently identified as those of the Netherlands, Canada and Bulgaria. According to the Russian news service, judging by the handwriting on the envelopes, the letters were all sent by a single individual. After testing, the white substance enclosed within them proved to be a harmless insecticide.
[Spectator] Nellie Ohr: Woman in the Middle. It might be easier to refer to her as....'the dealer.'
Gotta hand it to Special Counsel Robert Mueller: He knows how to set off a stick of dynamite. I refer, of course, to his office’s recent indictment of thirteen Russians in Russia, which we are now to chase after, yelling “Pearl Harbor!” on the Left and “No collusion!” on the Right, forgetting all about the coalescing revelations of corruption and conspiracy and, yes, Russian influence, to elect Hillary Clinton in 2016, and, failing that, to destroy the Trump presidency.
The key is still in the “dossier” spying scandal.
Nellie Ohr is the “dossier” spying scandal’s woman in the middle.
To one side of Ohr, there is the Fusion GPS team, including fellow contractor Christopher Steele. To the other, there is husband Bruce Ohr, who, until his “dossier”-related demotion, was No. 4 man at the Department of Justice, and a key contact there for Steele.
As central as Nellie Ohr’s placement is, her role in the creation of the “dossier” remains undefined. For example, the House Intelligence Committee memo on related matters vaguely tells us that Nellie Ohr was “employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump”; the memo adds that Bruce Ohr “later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research.” Senator Lindsey Graham more sensationally told Fox News that Nellie Ohr “did the research for Mr. Steele,” but details remain scarce.
Still, relevant facts have emerged. These include Nellie Ohr’s study in the USSR in 1989; her fluency in Russian and Ph.D. in Russian history in 1990; a 2010 CIA affiliation, which practically makes her former MI6 agent Steele’s “opposite number”; and the extremely curious detail, harkening back to earlier eras of spycraft, that on May 23, 2016, around the time she came on board Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr applied for a ham radio operator’s license.
Notably, the “dossier” men in her life have tried to shield Ohr from public scrutiny, even at professional risk. Her husband, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reports, failed to disclose his wife’s employment with Fusion GPS and seek the appropriate conflict-of-interest waiver, which may have been an important factor in his demotion from associate deputy attorney general late last year.
Under Senate and House questioning, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson consistently failed to disclose Nellie Ohr’s existence as one of his firm’s paid Russian experts, let alone that he hired her for the red-hot DNC/Clinton campaign Trump-Russia project.
Even Christopher Steele may have tried to keep Nellie Ohr “under cover.” Steele, put forth as the “dossier” author ever since its January 2017 publication in BuzzFeed, does not appear to have let on to his many media and political contacts that he had “dossier”-assistance from at least two fellow Fusion GPS Russian experts, Nellie Ohr and Edward Baumgartner. Baumgartner, interestingly, was a Russian history major at Vassar in the 1990s when Nellie Ohr taught Russian history there.
Thus, Nellie Ohr’s exact activities inside one of the great Russian-American disinformation campaigns of all time remain opaque. What most observers don’t realize, though, is that we already have a window onto her thinking through her strongly-etched, ideological view of Soviet history.
This is in contrast to what we know of Steele, aside from his widely reported anti-Trump animus. We may read that Steele was widely known as a “confirmed socialist” while president of the Cambridge Union debating society in 1986; we may see, thirty blank years later, that he chose to break the sensational outlines of his relationship with the FBI and role in its investigation of the Trump campaign in Mother Jones, a media outlet named for a famous American socialist; but Nellie Ohr has a paper trail. Emphasis added.
#1
"Stalin would have been OK with better messaging"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2018 6:07
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Thus, Nellie Ohr’s exact activities inside one of the great Russian-American disinformation campaigns of all time remain opaque. What most observers don’t realize, though, is that we already have a window onto her thinking through her strongly-etched, ideological view of Soviet history.
Gaining the trust and cooperation of select target nation personnel through (paid interviews) the writing and publishing of pro-Stalinist/pro-Putin propaganda is an effective recruitment technique. Nothing "opaque" about it.
She was obviously working for one or more intelligence agencies. You may decide which ones.
#6
My guess, and only a guess.... is she was part of a long-standing penetration and recruitment campaign that conveniently morphed into a 'cover for action' for political scandal and misdeeds (Trump Russian collusion).
Sources and methods cannot be revealed you know.... sources and methods.
I still await the news of a fatal lorry-Rover crash in the North of Scotland.
#7
yes Tail Gunner Joe was right. We are and have been up to our eyeballs in communist operatives in the media, entertainment, law enforcement, CIA, NSA, you name it.
we came pretty close to it when they elected Zero, I am convinced he was the Manchurian Candidate groomed for years by communists to unwind our country. And he had a lot of help from people every where. How else could he get away with sealing his transcripts and birth records, how else could an unknown, back bench State senator get elected to the Senate and then with little or no record, run for President and get elected. With drug abuse, criminal associations, and millions in campaign contributions from foreign entities???
Nellie Ohr is the tip of the iceberg.
At some levels, the Trump Collusion thing may be the biggest SQUIRREL in history to divert attention from the massive takeover of our government by foreign operatives.
#8
.....how else could an unknown, back bench State senator get elected to the Senate and then with little or no record, run for President and get elected. With drug abuse, criminal associations, and millions in campaign contributions from foreign entities???
I believe you've asked a question we already have the answer to. The Hildebeest was clearly the planned follow-on. I'd love to see Brennan, Soetoro, and Clinton 'on the box' in front of Israeli polygraphers.
So Zero and Shillary, the odious, loathsome, well connected sadistic sociopath, were the end result of a long running operation dating back to the Soviet Union?
#13
I don't know SPOD, but a man named Bill Harvey from the FBI was detailed to the CIA in 1951 to run Operation Gold (named Stopwatch by the Poms). These foks have been listening to one another, spying, and telling bullshi* stories for a very long time. Writer Rufina Pukhova was Kim Philby's fourth wife. Nellie and her could have been great friends.
Operation Gold (also known as Operation Stopwatch by the British) was a joint operation conducted by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British MI6 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1950s to tap into landline communication of the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone. This was a much more complex variation of the earlier Operation Silver project in Vienna. Soviet authorities were informed about Operation Gold from the very beginning by their mole George Blake and "discovered" the tunnel in 1956.
Details of the project are still classified—especially by the British—and whatever authoritative information can be found is scant. This is primarily because the then-Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Allen Dulles ordered "as little as possible" be "reduced to writing" when the project was authorized.
[Daily Caller] New York’s attorney general oversaw and facilitated secret surveillance on pro-life counselors outside an abortion clinic as well as the creation of a fake identity in an attempt to win an ongoing case, according to a witness’s testimony. Wonder how he figured he'd ever get away with that ?
Testimony in People v. Griepp et al ‐ New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman against pro-life advocates counseling women outside of Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica-Queens, N.Y. ‐ illustrated Schneiderman used a witness to spy on pro-lifers via creating a fake Facebook account to access their information.
The witness testified she had used someone else’s photo, listed her occupation as a bank teller, created a fake residency ‐ even posting about the weather there to gain credibility ‐ and went under the guise of "Shelly Walker." The witness also allegedly accessed hundreds of pro-life activists’ personal information around the country ‐ she gave the data to Schneiderman’s office, according to The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC).
"I’m appalled at the Attorney General’s lack of respect for the First Amendment and his offices’ encouragement and use of fraudulent means to obtain information so that he can persecute peaceful pro-life citizens who have become the voice of the voiceless," TMLC president Richard Thompson said. "He [Schneiderman] has forsaken his responsibilities as an independent law-enforcement officer and is now acting as an agent of the abortion industry," Thompson added.
#8
Higher office is inevitable following the precedent set by the 'most honourable' Alcee Hastings...
Ain't it great to have a (D) following your name? (/s)
[DAWN] 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... announced plans on Thursday to spend billions on building new venues and flying in Western acts, in a total overhaul of its entertainment sector that would have been unthinkable not long ago.
Long known for its ultra-conservative mores, the kingdom has embarked on a wide-ranging programme of social and economic reforms driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016.... At a glitzy presser in Riyadh, General Entertainment Authority (GEA) chief Ahmad bin Aqeel al-Khatib told news hounds the kingdom is set to invest $64 billion in its entertainment sector over the coming decade.
"We are already building the infrastructure," Khatib said, adding that ground had been broken for an opera house.
Khatib said hundreds of new companies have sprung up over the past year, registering for licences to take advantage of the budding sector.
"God willing, you will see a real change by 2020," the entertainment chief said, adding that more than 5,000 events were planned for the coming year.
The funding for new infrastructure and entertainment offerings will come from both the government and the private sector, he said.
Behind Khatib, a screen teased the names of international acts like Maroon 5, Andrea Bocelli and Cirque du Soleil.
Neither a breakdown of how the money would be spent nor a schedule for the cultural programme were provided.
But it follows a series of events in recent months including concerts, a Comic-Con festival and a mixed-gender national day celebration that saw people dancing in the streets to thumping electronic music for the first time.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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#1
It is part of the King's 2030 plan. He is trying to pull the nation toward the West. His vision will certainly divide the nation and cause strife. He knows he will have to embrace western business as the oil stops flowing or his nation will dry up into another extreme third world. I wish him the best.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/23/2018 8:54
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#2
Wouldn't it be easier to install cable & get the basic package?
[NYPost] A Junior ROTC student jumped into action when he heard the gunfire – ushering classmates into a classroom where he used Kevlar sheets to help protect them from the mass killer, according to a report.
Colton Haab, 17, ushered up to 70 people into a JROTC classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, as the bullets from an AR-15 flew.
“We took those sheets, and we put them in front of everybody so they weren’t seen, because they were behind a solid object and the Kevlar would slow the bullet down,” Haab told CNN on Thursday.
“I didn’t think it was going to stop it, but it would definitely slow it down to make it from a catastrophic to a lifesaving thing,” the quick-thinking youngster added.
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps students use the Kevlar sheets as a backdrop during marksmanship practice. The material is used to make bullet-proof vests.
Luckily, the Kevlar was not needed because the deranged gunman didn’t enter the JROTC room – but Haab said he and a pal had a plan just in case.
“I was a little scared. I was more worried about getting home safe, making sure everybody got home safe,” he told CNN.
“God forbid, if he did come into the classroom. I didn’t want that to happen, but if it did, I would try to stop him with another friend of mine that was with us.”
He added: “We grabbed two pieces of two-by-four, a fire extinguisher and a chair,” Haab said. “We were going to try to stop him with whatever we had,” according to Reuters.
Haab said he saw heroic football coach and security guard Aaron Feis running toward the gunman to help shield the students before he, too, was fatally shot.
“That’s Coach Feis. He wants to make sure everybody is safe before himself,” Haab told CNN.
“He’s definitely in a better place now. I’m glad that he didn’t suffer that much. It’s sad because it’s not going to be the same without him at school anymore.”
And from Anguper Hupomosing9418, as mentioned below:
The armed officer on duty at the Florida school where a shooter killed 17 people never went inside to engage the gunman and has been placed under investigation, officials announced Thursday.
The school resource officer at the high school took up a position viewing the western entrance of the building that was under attack for more than four minutes, but “he never went in,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a Thursday news conference. The shooting lasted about six minutes.
The officer, Scot Peterson, was suspended without pay and placed under investigation, then chose to resign, Israel said. When asked what Peterson should have done, Israel said the deputy should have “went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”
#2
#1 gun free zone, beligerant visited by Starsky and Hutch 30+ times, reported the impending attack to the FBI, cop on campus cowered when it went down, and this is all the NRAs fault?
#4
Anguper Hupomosing9418’s article is worth reading in full, as it has additional details including a possible initiative in the state legislature. Though that may get lost in posturing, as generally happens.
I’ve stacked it here so as not to dilute the discussion.
[Ynet] Large delegation of Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, officials, including leader Ismail Haniyeh, in the Egyptian capital to discuss reconciliation with Fatah, humanitarian crisis in the strip, and possible prisoner exchange deal with Israel; visit is unusually long.
A large delegation of senior Hamas officials from Gazoo and abroad, including leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... , has been in Cairo for the past two weeks for talks with top Egyptian intelligence officials and for internal discussions.
An initial delegation, led by Haniyeh, left Gazoo in early February without prior notice and has since been joined by additional members of the organization's leadership for an unusually long visit.
Haniyeh was joined by Khalil al-Hayya, Rohi Mushtaha and Fathi Hamad. Several days ago, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Izzat al-Rishiq and Mohammed Nasser also arrived in Cairo.
Hamas claimed the visit was meant to discuss ways to ease the suffering of Gazoo residents amidst the humanitarian crisis in the strip, but it appears this is not the main or only reason for the trip.
Reports from different sources indicated Marwan Issa, the deputy Hamas military leader, joined the talks in Cairo along with other bigwigs in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade.
Sources in the Gazoo Strip told Ynet that the arrival of the delegation from Hamas's military wing had to do with talks over a possible prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel, but there has been no significant development on the matter so far.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... it is believed the main reason for the Hamas delegation's extended stay in Cairo has to do mostly with the crisis in the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, after having reached a stalemate yet again. It is unlikely any progress will be achieved, due to the deep disagreements and the fact each side remains entrenched in its positions.
The Hamas delegation has been discussing several alternatives for the current situation, in which the Paleostinian Authority has some level of civilian control in the strip, but not enough to manage daily lives.
One such option is to establish a "national rescue government" in the Gazoo Strip only, which will in effect remove the national unity government from the strip and run it instead. This new government would be no different to the administrative committee that operated like a government before the signing of the reconciliation agreement four months ago.
This option could lead Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... to increase his sanctions on the Gazoo Strip in an effort to further pressure Hamas and egg the local population to rebel against the terror group.
Another possibility being discussed is establishing an administrative body for the strip with Abbas's rival, former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan. This possibility was raised even before the reconciliation, and some say it pushed Abbas to sign the reconciliation agreement to prevent his sworn enemy from taking over the Gazoo Strip.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) 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.... ’s deputy supreme leader has been killed in an Arclight airstrike launched by Iraqi troops, the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV channel reported on Thursday.
So it might even be true.
Abu Abdul Rahman al-Tamimi al-Eteibi al-Jizrawi, the deputy of His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... , was killed in an Iraqi airstrike, the channel quoted an intelligence source as saying without giving details about the circumstances of killing him.
Jizrawi, according to the channel, was killed depending on information collected by the Iraqi intelligence.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon... the Iraqi Media News Agency quoted Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on terrorist groups affairs, as saying that Jizrawi was killed in a joint operation by the Iraqi intelligence and the U.S.-led Coalition as they launched an airstrike in al-Hijin region, east of Syria, on January 20.
"The airstrike is considered the fourth for the Iraqi intelligence in less than six months. The death of Abu Saleh Hifa (Iyad al-Ebeidi), Baghdadi’s deputy, was confirmed after Abu Ali al-Anbari then the death of Abu Yahia al-Iraqi (Iyad al-Jumeili), Baghdadi’s deputy, after Abu Saleh Hifa," Hashimi added.
The third strike, according to Hashimi, "resulted in arresting Abu Zeid al-Iraqi (Ismail Elwan al-Eithawi)."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/23/2018
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Militants stormed the government Girls Science Secondary School in Dapchi
Some were later recovered and officials said some 50 girls are unaccounted for
But parents compiled a list of 101 missing and presented it to the governor
An earlier version of this article, now disappeared, reported:
Up to 76 girls among the 111 feared kidnapped in the latest 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... school raid have been rescued by Nigerian military, but fears remain for those still missing.
The bodies of two others were also recovered in the operation while a number of girls are still missing after the attack on the village of Dapchi in the northeastern state of Yobe, a local official said.
Militants stormed the Government Girls Science Secondary School on Monday evening. But a number of the girls were found in a broken down vehicle which the faceless myrmidons apparently abandoned in panic while they were being chased, a military source revealed.
Abdullahi Bego, front man for Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam, said late on Wednesday that 'The rescued girls are now in the custody of the Nigerian Army.'
Bego's statement was the first confirmation the girls were kidnapped. Initially, the students were reported to have fled with their teachers at the sound of gunfire.
Bego did not specify the circumstances in which the girls were rescued nor how many were recovered, and said more details would be released in due course.
A student who escaped Monday's attack said some of her classmates had jumped over a perimeter wall at the sound of gunfire, and got into vehicles parked nearby.
It was thought the vehicles were then taken by the Islamist krazed killers.
A senior military source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, told AFP the girls from Dapchi were 'found... on the border between Yobe and Borno'.
'The girls were abandoned with their vehicle. It had broken down and the faceless myrmidons panicked because they were under siege by pursuing soldiers,' he added.
'The fear is that some of the other girls may have been taken along by the faceless myrmidons because the girls were not in a single vehicle. Only those in the broken down vehicle were lucky.'
[DAWN] UNICEF’S latest report, identifying Pakistain as the riskiest place for newborns, is a heartbreaking indictment of this country’s indifference to our most defenceless citizens. One in 22 Pak babies will not survive her first month ‐ ie 46 out of every 1,000 will perish before even having had a chance at life. There are many tragic, senseless ways to die in this country ‐ and a long litany of dismal health trends ‐ but this one fact alone is a shock to the system. There is no cold comfort to be had here; no amount of boasting about economic development or military prowess that can sweep this ignominy under the rug. For, as the report highlights, although newborn survival is closely linked to a country’s income level, wealth inequality and wide variations in access to and quality of healthcare are also significant contributing factors. This explains why Pakistain, with a much higher per capita income than the Central African Republic and Afghanistan, has a newborn mortality rate comparable with the runners-up. Nor is it a coincidence that the 10 worst countries for newborns are conflict-ridden, and have weak institutions and a poor record of gender parity.
The report, released in conjunction with the launch of Unicef’s Every Child Alive campaign, outlines a road map for turning this tide. Given that over 80pc of deaths among newborns result from conditions and illnesses that are preventable or treatable, the first, most obvious step is to guarantee quality health facilities and skilled workers within reach of every woman and child. Access is not enough; although the proportion of Pak mothers who gave birth in a health facility or with a skilled attendant more than doubled between 2001-2013, the newborn mortality rate fell by less than a quarter. This is largely due to a healthcare industry with minimal oversight and poor quality of care, as well as a dysfunctional drug regulatory authority and shortages of lifesaving medicines. Commitment to providing functional, equipped and staffed health services must be prioritised, but it cannot end there ‐we must be accountable to women. Consider the frequency of reports of mothers seeking treatment only to be forced to give birth just outside a hospital. As the primary stakeholders in this venture, women must be empowered to exercise their rights and demand quality care, offered with respect. We are responsible for ensuring this, and the life of every child born on our soil.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian man tried to attack an IDF soldier with a metal table during a riot in the West Bank city of Jericho on Thursday morning, but was shot at and forced to the ground by Israeli troops, who were then filmed striking him repeatedly and apparently fatally wounding him during the arrest, the army said. The army said the assailant also tried to grab a soldier’s gun as he was being detained.
Relatives of the man ‐ Yassin al-Saradeeh, 33 ‐ and a Paleostinian NGO claimed he died from being beaten by the troops.
The army said it was investigating what happened and collected testimony from the soldiers involved. An autopsy was also performed, though the results were not immediately available.
A military spokesperson acknowledged the video and said the soldiers were in the city for "routine activities" when the festivities broke out.
Security camera footage from the scene showed a Paleostinian man throwing rocks at a soldier, who was taking cover behind a wall. Someone, presumably the same Paleostinian man, can then be seen running toward the soldier with what appears to be a small table.
As the suspect ran at him, the soldier stepped out from behind the wall and shot at the man, who fell to the ground, though it was not immediately clear if al-Saradeeh had been hit by the gunfire.
In the video, other soldiers could then be seen punching and kicking the man, who struggled with them, before dragging him out of frame.
"[The troops] fought with the terrorist at close range and succeeded in stopping him," the army said.
An army spokesperson said al-Saradeeh tried to steal a soldier’s gun, pointing to a moment in the footage ‐ around the 28-second mark ‐ in which the Paleostinian man can be seen lunging at one of the soldiers.
"That’s also what the soldiers are saying in their debriefing," the spokesperson said.
The army said a knife was later found in the Paleostinian man’s possession.
His brother also appeared on Paleostinian television and said that al-Saradeeh had been incarcerated by Israel during the Second Intifada for terrorist activities.
The Paleostinian Prisoners’ Club NGO also said that al-Saradeeh had inhaled a substantial amount of tear gas during the festivities.
His family said the IDF notified them of their son’s death on Thursday morning.
Residents of Jericho held a general strike in the city in response to al-Saradeeh’s death.
Which did not result in his resurrection, but did prevent any business being transacted. Children will go to bed hungry tonight as a result.
In raids across the West Bank, Israeli security forces incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! 11 Paleostinian suspects believed to have taken part in violent demonstrations and rock throwing attacks, the army said.
In addition, troops found and confiscated an M-16 assault rifle and two locally produced Carlo-style submachine guns in the Paleostinian town of Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, as part of a joint IDF-Israel Police operation.
A pistol that had been hidden in a house in the northern West Bank town of Nur a-Shams, near Tulkarem, was also confiscated, the army said.
#1
The guy throws rocks at Soldiers, who are armed. Nt a good idea. Then he rushes them swing a metal table. He gets shot. Excuse me, but what precisely did he expect? The in the heat of the engagement everyone is surprised that the Soldiers come out and sincerely proceed to stomp him around th head and buttocks.
Its a mystery to me why the brother and the Paleo neighbors are extremely surprised at the result. Do they thing it was entirely unjustified? Something "unfair" has been done to the deceased? Its all a big "surprise"?
Let's see you do it again and see if you get a different result the second time.
Throwing rocks at armed soldiers and then swinging on them with a metal table. Uh Huh, a sure fire winner what could go wrong? Next time the Palestinians should just strip naked and pour mayonnaise on their heads.
[AnNahar] An elderly British couple have been kidnapped in South Africa, police said Thursday, amid reports they were kidnapped by bully boyz suspected to have links to 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.
The British foreign office confirmed that a pair of Britons had been kidnapped and warned of a heightened risk of attacks by "terrorists" in South Africa.
The couple were kidnapped in KwaZulu-Natal province last week and have not yet been found, South African police told AFP, adding that two arrests had been made.
Local media said the couple, who live in Cape Town, were kidnapped while holidaying near the town of Vryheid.
Their disappearance was linked to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, reports said. Police declined to comment on any such link.
But they said the two suspects, Sayfydeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 38, and Fatima Patel, 27, faced a charge of kidnapping as well as offenses that fall under an anti-terrorism act.
Patel was previously tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... in 2016 during raid that led to the arrests of twin brothers accused of plotting attacks on the U.S. embassy in Pretoria and Jewish institutions.
In London, the British Foreign Office updated a travel advisory, saying "snuffies are likely to try to carry out attacks in South Africa."
"The main threat is from bully boyz linked to ISIS (formerly referred to as ISIS). In February 2018, two South African-British nationals were kidnapped," it said.
ISIS, ISIS and ISIS are alternative names for the IS group.
The advisory said that some South Africans who had visited Syria, Iraq and Libya were "likely to pose a security threat on their return."
"There's also a threat from individuals who may have been inspired by terrorist groups, including ISIS," it added.
The U.S. and Britannia warned in 2016 of the possibility of attacks by jihadist bully boyz in South Africa's major cities.
The country has so far been spared the jihadist attacks that have struck several other countries on the continent. Moslems account for just 1.5 percent of South Africa's 54 million people.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/23/2018
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[IsraelTimes] Paleostinians chant 'America is the head of the snake' as delegation of New York City Council members and civil society groups drive by
In the second incident of its kind in recent weeks, a US delegation visiting the West Bank had to be rescued by Paleostinian Authority coppers after being attacked with eggs by Paleostinian protesters.
The delegation included New York City Council members and civil society groups that were in Ramallah to meet with Paleostinian Center for Policy and Research Survey (PCPRS), a local polling company.
"America is the head of the snake" and "Americans are not welcome in Paleostine," the protesters chanted as they tried to force their way into the offices of the center. Others chanted: "Jerusalem is the capital of Paleostine," and carried placards denouncing both the US and Israel.
As the delegation members were being whisked out, some of the protesters threw eggs at them. No one was hurt.
PA anti-riot coppers, some of them wearing masks covering their faces, escorted the US guests to a police van that took them to a secure location.
Most of the protesters belonged a group called "The Committee for the Resistance against the Wall and Settlements."
Sounds like something someone just made up.
Others described themselves as "anti-normalization" activists.
Jamal Juma’ah, one of the leaders of the protest, said that he and his friends wanted to send a message to the Americans that they are "unwelcome in Paleostine."
Juma’ah accused the US administration of "publicly endorsing the Zionist project" because of Trump’s Jerusalem decision.
"There’s no place for Americans in Paleostine," he said. "This is the message of Paleostinian youths and their popular committees to the Americans."
Ooohh, popular committees. Scary.
He also warned PCPRS and other Paleostinian institutions against hosting Americans.
"Any organization that works with or hosts Americans will be acting in violation of the decisions of the Paleostinian leadership," Juma’ah said, referring to recent decisions by the PA to boycott US officials, including US Vice President Mike Pence.
A senior PA police officer in Ramallah said, "While we respect people’s right to protest, it’s our duty to protect anyone who is in our areas."
Last month, Paleostinians attacked a US delegation visiting the Chamber of Commerce in Bethlehem, forcing its members to flee the city. No one was hurt in that incident either. The US delegation had arrived in Bethlehem to meet with Paleostinian businessmen as part of the cooperation between the Chamber of Commerce and the US Consulate in Jerusalem.
#1
Eggs ? Eggs? For a bunch of New Yawkers there to lend their support to the Palestinian Cause against the Embassy mving to Jerusalem and against too many Jewish settlements ( that seems to work just fine )..
Suggestion : try scooping out your Privy next time and forget the eggs. Lather up the New Yawkers with that. Use a bat to to apply it effectively and generously. Give them multiple coatings. Nothing is too good for a New Yawker Delegation.
[DAWN] Canadian officials on Thursday admitted that a Sikh Death Eater convicted of attempting to murder an Indian minister had been invited to dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in New Delhi, in the latest controversy to dog the premier's week-long visit to India.
A statement confirming Jaspal Atwal's invitation to Thursday's official event had been cancelled comes less than a day after Trudeau sought to quash perceptions his administration was soft on Sikhs seeking an independent state.
The Canadian embassy told AFP it "has rescinded Mr. Atwal's invitation".
Atwal was convicted for a botched liquidation attempt on an Indian minister in Canada in 1986, and was sentenced to 20 years by a Canadian court.
He reportedly attended an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, where he was photographed alongside Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire, according to Canada's public broadcaster CBC.
The embassy would not comment on whether Atwal was part of Trudeau's official delegation, although reports in Canada said Trudeau's office had denied this.
"We do not comment on matters relating to the PM's security," it said.
Atwal was a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, an organization outlawed in India and Canada, among other places, that seeks an independent Sikh state of Khalistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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[DAWN] China says it is "highly concerned" about a reported ship-to-ship transfer on the high seas that could violate the sanctions imposed on North Korea by the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... (UN).
Foreign ministry front man Geng Shuang said on Thursday that Beijing is investigating the incident reported by Japan earlier this week.
Geng said China would "seriously deal" with any Chinese individuals or enterprises found to be involved.
Photos of the transfer released by Japan show a North Korean-flagged tanker alongside a smaller ship that appears to be Chinese, with what appear to be hoses running between them.
Japan has reported three such incidents in the past month.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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#1
OK, pull the other one
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2018 20:41
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[DAWN] Mike Pence and North Korean officials had planned to meet secretly during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, but Pyongyang scrapped the talks after the US vice president denounced abuses from the "murderous regime", US officials said.
Pence did not interact with the North Koreans even though he was seated in the same box as them at the opening ceremony of the Games on Feb 9 ‐ nor did he shake hands with the North’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam during an earlier leaders’ reception.
The North Koreans, who had sent Kim Yong Nam and leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... ’s sister Kim Yo Jong to the Games, backed out of the planned meeting after Pence announced Washington would soon unveil its "toughest and most aggressive sanctions" against Pyongyang.
During his Asian tour, he also denounced the North’s nuclear drive and sought to shore up ties with regional allies ‐ and long-time North Korean foes ‐ Japan and South Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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#1
Our next President
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2018 20:40
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[DAWN] A 50-year-old man was killed while two others were maimed in a landmine kaboom in a village of Azad Jammu and Kashmire (AJK) on Wednesday, according to an official.
Chaudhry Guftar Hussain, deputy commissioner of the southernmost Bhimber district, told Dawn that the incident occurred along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Lawana Khaitar village of tehsil Barnala, where the victims were collecting firewood.
Muhammad Inayat, who was believed to have triggered the landmine, died while Muhammad Hafeez, 25, and Muhammad Tariq, 40, were maimed, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2018
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[Ynet] A US air strike against al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... bandidosmurderous Moslems in Somalia killed four members of the al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency group, the US military said in a statement on Thursday.
The strike, which took place on Wednesday near the town of Jamaame, was coordinated with the Somalia's government and the US Africa Command said it did not assess that any civilians had been killed in the strike.
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.