Hi there, !
Today Wed 03/22/2017 Tue 03/21/2017 Mon 03/20/2017 Sun 03/19/2017 Sat 03/18/2017 Fri 03/17/2017 Thu 03/16/2017 Archives
Rantburg
531697 articles and 1855971 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 53 articles and 121 comments as of 13:31.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Four wanted Maute militants nabbed in Lanao
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
8 21:46 Besoeker [] 
2 16:24 JohnQC [1] 
5 14:12 SteveS [] 
1 17:47 Blossom Unains5562 [] 
5 16:15 Skidmark [] 
0 [] 
1 08:18 AlanC [] 
8 22:36 Blossom Hupager6063 [] 
3 15:37 trailing wife [] 
3 17:02 Canuckistan sniper [1] 
0 [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
3 18:40 phil_b [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
2 01:40 Frank G []
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
2 16:05 Skidmark []
3 16:08 Skidmark []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
2 10:49 Frank G []
0 []
0 []
2 16:58 Frank G []
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 01:26 Frank G [1]
0 [1]
2 11:47 Bobby []
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
2 14:31 Pappy []
9 13:43 gorb []
0 []
3 23:57 Slusosh Wittlesbach3911 []
0 []
8 16:56 Canuckistan sniper []
1 19:09 chris []
Page 4: Opinion
9 17:33 Flater Hupavique4604 [2]
2 16:17 Skidmark []
8 19:25 AlmostAnonymous5839 []
4 16:15 Frank G []
Page 6: Politix
2 17:49 Dale []
5 09:15 Frank G []
14 18:39 Don Vito Munster4479 []
1 12:10 Sock Puppet of Doom []
-Lurid Crime Tales-
A Washington, D.C. cell network has been hacked
[Hot Air] The Free Beacon has another scoop today with a report about a Washington, D.C. cell network that has apparently been compromised in a way that would allow someone to monitor the location of phones or clone them:
A large spike in suspicious activity on a major U.S. cellular carrier has raised red flags in the Department of Homeland Security and prompted concerns that cellphones in the region are being tracked. Such activity could allow pernicious actors to clone devices and other mobile equipment used by civilians and government insiders, according to information obtained by the Free Beacon...

Cell phone information gathered by the program shows major anomalies in the D.C.-area indicating that a third-party is tracking en-masse a large number of cellphones. Such a tactic could be used to clone phones, introduce malware to facilitate spying, and track government phones being used by officials in the area.

"The attack was first seen in D.C. but was later seen on other sensors across the USA," according to one source familiar with the situation. "A sensor located close to the White House and another over near the Pentagon have been part of those that have seen this tracking."

The story goes on to say the attack on the network is ongoing. The identity of the group behind the attack is unknown but the Free Beacon notes the scale of the attack could indicate a foreign nation is involved. Buzzfeed has a follow-up report identifying the network in question as T-Mobile and offering a bit more detail on the type of attack:
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2017 05:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Counter Surveillance sensors or 'bug detectors' would surely be part to the Secret Service kit bag. Perhaps POTUS' (wire tap) concern stemmed from an alert from his security personnel about potential monitoring at the WH or Trump Towers. Just a thought.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2017 5:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Or a genuine FBI investigation into a social network coordinating seditious behavior by government and former government employees who are trying to undermine and thwart the Trump administration.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 03/19/2017 10:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Or a genuine FBI investigation into a social network coordinating seditious behavior by government and former government employees who are trying to undermine and thwart the Trump administration.

Unlikely that DHS would report on an ongoing FBI investigation. It is unlikely that DHS would report it period; wouldn't that tip the perps off that the government is on to them? Aren't all cell calls recorded by the NSA? If you wanted to investigate just get a FISA warrant and cull the history.
Posted by: Ebbitle Untervehr2931 || 03/19/2017 11:52 Comments || Top||

#4  There were stories of fake cell phone ‘towers’ for years now. Apparently competition isn't appreciated.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/19/2017 14:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Automatic weapons from a FBI trunk, then Trump Tower floorplans on a Secret Service laptop, now a national network of sleepers is awakening?

I don't think it's a full moon.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2017 16:15 Comments || Top||


Nice local story on illegals in high school
For a given value of nice.... Here illegally, enrolled in junior high at eighteen, lots of DNA and they admitted to the deed? Find 'em guilty and castrate 'em -- and not chemically, either.
Posted by: Airandee || 03/19/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  one of the most left friendly counties in Maryland

a few weeks ago there was a public meeting to consider whether the city of Rockville should be a sanctuary city - lots of virtue signaling, lots of 'think of the children', etc.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Rockville-Sanctuary-City-Hearing-Overflows-With-Residents_Washington-DC-415532283.html
Posted by: lord garth || 03/19/2017 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Nothing they ever do is "for the Children".

All their plans suck ass.
Posted by: newc || 03/19/2017 0:43 Comments || Top||

#3  to consider whether the city of Rockville should be a sanctuary city

Wasn't there an announcement that sanctuary cities would lose federal funding? That kind of thing of thing strongly focusses the attention among the thoughtful...
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2017 15:37 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Save the Coral Reefs!
Reducing pollution and curbing overfishing won't prevent the severe bleaching that is killing coral at catastrophic rates, according to a study of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. In the end, researchers say, the only way to save the world's coral from heat-induced bleaching is with a war on global warming.
I was in the Bahamas last year and a lot of those islands looked like old coral reefs - when the ocean was 150' deeper.
Across the world, scores of brilliantly colored coral reefs once teeming with life have in recent years become desolate, white graveyards. Their deaths due to coral bleaching have grown more frequent as ocean temperatures rise, mainly due to increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
So remind me again - what caused the global warming 56 and 58 million years ago?
Preserving coral reefs is crucial, given we depend on them for everything from food to medical research to protection from damaging coastal storms. Scientists and policymakers have thus been scrambling to find ways to prevent bleaching. Last year, for example, Hawaiian officials proposed several measures they hoped would fight bleaching on the state's reefs, such as limiting fishing, establishing new marine protected areas and controlling polluted runoff from land.
Shirley, there must be other tax-funded ways to control nature?
Ultimately, the study concluded, saving reefs from the ravages of bleaching requires urgent action to reduce global warming.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/19/2017 11:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's actually quite easy to rebuild bleached coral reefs -- marine biologists have been doing it off Belize for over a decade, and no doubt elsewhere as well. Link
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2017 15:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Kill Vibrio Sp.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2017 15:59 Comments || Top||

#3  But TW, as they say, where's the graft in that?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/19/2017 16:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Stop ocean dumping of NYC garbage.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2017 16:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Across the world, scores of brilliantly colored coral reefs once teeming with life have in recent years become desolate, white graveyards

"GAH! White privilege even kills coral reefs! When will it stopppp :-( "
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2017 16:19 Comments || Top||

#6  #5 Across the world, scores of brilliantly colored coral reefs once teeming with life have in recent years become desolate, white graveyards

Fishing with explosives tends to do that.

Agricultural runoff is the main problem with the Great Barrier Reef. The Ningaloo Reef (the longest continous coral reef in the world) on my side of Australia has no bleaching, as there is no agriculture on the adjacent land. A lot of feral sheep and goats though.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/19/2017 18:47 Comments || Top||

#7  As I understand it "coral" is naturally white, and is incapable of making (or extracting) its own food. The color comes from external organisms that "colonize" it, and which can make their own food - mostly by photosynthesis. The coral is parasitic, and draws nutrients from the colonizing organisms. But - the organisms pose some hazard to the coral, if they "get out of control". If the environment gets TOO friendly to the organisms, they flourish to the point where the coral "loses control" - and the coral the EXPELS the organisms to protect itself, This expulsion does not kill the coral - nor do local environmental conditions - but without resident organisms, the coral slowly starves to death.

So - coral likes depleted conditions, which are just barely bountiful enough for resident organisms to barely survive - in weakened state - so that the coral can exploit them. When local conditions IMPROVE sufficiently to make the organisms strong and comfortable, they overpower the coral, and the coral is forced to kick them out This does not "bleach" the coral - it just results in the coral returning to its natural color, sans "external" inhabitants.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 03/19/2017 20:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Thanks for that Ranger.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2017 21:46 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Federal judge green-lights lawsuit against San Jose for failing to protect Trump supporters outside rally
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2017 10:07 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good. Nail 'em to a wall.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2017 15:48 Comments || Top||

#2  There is a need to go after Soros who funds so much of this chaos and bullshit.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/19/2017 16:24 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Mutinous SNA forces seize major roads in Buloburte
No wonder the locals are fleeing to paradises such as Yemen and Minneapolis...
Mutinous Somali forces demanding salary have captured major streets in Buloburte located in Hiiraan region of central Somalia on Saturday, according to the residents. The Somali military commanders in the town said the newly trained forces were angered after the Somali federal government has failed to pay their regular payments for months.
Skimmed just a little bit too much off the top...
This is the second time that the federal government soldiers staged mutiny since the election of Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo as the president of Somalia last February.

Separately, a government soldier was reported to have shot dead a driver of rickshaw in Beledweyne city, the provincial capital of Hiiraan following a dispute over illegal money.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/19/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They never seem to learn that you can't skim off the top till the pool is filled without someone noticing.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/19/2017 8:18 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
3 Ukrainian soldiers die in fighting in Donetsk


A total of three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another seven were wounded in ongoing fighting in southeastern Ukraine, according to Russian language news accounts.

For most of the past week, fighting between the Russian backed rebels of Donetsk and Lugansk, and Ukrainians have subsided somewhat, but in the last 48 hours artillery attacks for both sides have increased.

According to a news account in lb.ua, quoting the Ukrainian ministry of defense, three Ukrainian soldiers were killed Friday along with four wounded.

The fighting is confined to three specific areas, in southern Donetsk, near Donetsk city and in northwestern Donetsk.

The lb.ua report said that rebel forces fired on Ukrainian positions a total of 112 times in a 24 hour period.

Rebel 82mm, 120mm mortars and 122mm artillery struck Ukrainian positions at Lebedinskoye, Shirokino, Gnutovo and Vodyanovo.

Rebel mortars and artillery, including heavy 152mm artillery struck Ukrainian positions at Marinka and Krasnogorovka.

In Avdievka, near Donetsk city, rebel mortars were reported hitting targets there and in old Avdievka, nearer to the line of contact near Gorlovka.

On Saturday, rebel 82mm and 120mm mortars fired on Ukrainian positions at Avdievka and Peski. Near the Sea of Azov, rebel 120mm mortar fire hit Vodyanovo and 122mm artillery struck Ukrainian positions at Gnutovo.

Rebel media claimed overnight Friday to Saturday that Ukrainian forces fired on rebel positions a total of 307 times using medium and heavy artillery. Among the locations struck by Ukrainian artillery near Mariupol was Novoazovskiy. Ukrainian artillery also struck rebel positions at Yelenovka, near the Donetsk airport, and western districts of Donetsk city, as well as at Zaitsevo, Gorlovka and Yasinovataya.

According to a summary in novorosinform.org, Ukrainian artillery hit the Petrovsky district of Donetsk city, Spartak, Avidevka, Gorlovka and Zaitsevo. In the south, Ukrainian artillery hit Kominternovo and Zaichenko.

Both sides are claiming they struck each others' positions in Yasinovataya, with the Ukrainians claiming that observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation witnessed the artillery strikes. According to rebel media, one civilian was wounded in the artillery attacks.

Rebel media also claimed to have monitored radio traffic that reported eight Ukrainian soldiers were killed in an ammunition handling accident in Opytnoye, where four self propelled 122mm artillery vehicles were parked. Two of the SP vehicles were destroyed in the incident.
Posted by: badanov || 03/19/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Great White North
Canada's border authorities detain a record number of Mexicans after authorities relaxed visa requirements
[DailyMail] Canada's border authorities detained more Mexicans in the first 67 days of 2017 than they did annually in any of the three previous years. The spike comes immediately after Canada's federal government lifted its visa requirement for Mexican citizens in December. Canadian border officials can detain foreign nationals if it is believed they pose a danger to the public, if their identity is unclear or if they are deemed unlikely to appear for removal or for a proceeding.

The number of Mexicans turned back at the airport has risen, too - to 313 in January, more than any January since 2012 and more than the annual totals for 2012, 2013 and 2014.

With the visa requirement lifted, all that Mexicans need to come to Canada is an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA), obtainable online in a matter of minutes. But they cannot work without a work permit, and the eTA does not guarantee entry. Canada issued 72,450 travel authorizations to Mexican citizens between Dec. 1, 2016, and March 10, 2017 - a significant increase compared with a similar period when visas were required.

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Minister Ahmed Hussen has said his department is monitoring the situation.

'It would be premature to draw conclusions or to speculate on future policy at this point,' Hussen's spokeswoman, Camielle Edwards, wrote in an email Friday evening.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  C`est ne pas possible! Trudeau welcomed the tired, the poor, the rejected and perhaps the occasional felon. But Canadian customs was the most gestapo like of any border I ever crossed. Talk is cheap especially if your French.
Posted by: Alpha2c || 03/19/2017 1:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Canadian border officials can detain foreign nationals if it is believed they pose a danger to the public....

Wait until Hawaii Federal Judge Derrick Watson hears about this !
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2017 6:25 Comments || Top||

#3  If you enjoy humour, watch, as I have done, a Mexican Air Force non-com attempt to perform a pre-flight check on a Hercules transport at night in -40 degree temps at Winnipeg airport.

In the depths of winter the traffic is strictly southbound.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 03/19/2017 17:02 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Thai police nab 27 Rohingyas en route to Malaysia
[Bernama] Thai authorities detained 27 ethnic Rohingyas in Tak Bai district in Narathiwat early today for trying to enter Malaysia. Local immigration chief Noppadol Rakchart said those detained - 22 men, three women and two children - were arrested in a truck at 1:30am local time.

Noppadol said, "The lorry driver disclosed that he drove the Rohingyas from Ban Mod, Thung Krut in Bangkok to Narathiwat, before handing them over to a syndicate which will smuggle them to Malaysia."
Posted by: ryuge || 03/19/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Philly Cinco de Mayo celebration canceled over immigration crackdown fears
Cinco D Mayo is a Gringo party to drink Margaritas and Tequila. Mexicans, not so much. It's not "Mexican Independence day"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2017 09:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The message got out: Don't go to Cinco De Mayo," it's a trap.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/19/2017 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll celebrate any day the French get their ass kicked.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2017 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Everyone is offended by the actions of ICE.

Not everyone.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/19/2017 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, not most folks, DG.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 03/19/2017 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  A running joke in Houston was "What day is Cinco de Mayo on?" Since it wasn't a real holiday, the actual celebration got pushed towards the weekend.

As mentioned, margaritas, tequila and the French getting their butts kicked. What's not to like?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/19/2017 14:12 Comments || Top||


CEO's trying to eliminate the hiring of "snowflakes" (video)
[DennisMichaelLynch.com] On "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning, featured guest and CEO of Silent Partner Marketing, Kyle Reyes detailed a new method in choosing applicants for his company. He calls it the "snowflake survey."

In his interview, Reyes explained that he wants the right people with the right attitude to work for him.

This includes people who are dedicated employees, people who are not predisposed to entitlement, and people who are willing to "work for everything that they have."

To acquire such "outside the box" thinkers and workers, Reyes has designed a survey within his company’s work application to essentially weed out people who are too sensitive, or are intoxicated with ultra-liberal ideologies that do not fit his company’s intended culture and goal, which is "getting the job done, and getting it done correctly."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2017 07:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There are reasons interviewers ask for transcripts, and it isn't limited to grades.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 03/19/2017 17:47 Comments || Top||


Government
30 Countries Are Refusing To Take Back Illegal Immigrants Convicted Of Serious Crimes
[Daily Caller] Approximately 30 countries are refusing to accept the deportations of illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes in the U.S., according to Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.

While these countries are refusing to accept the deportations of these criminals, the U.S. government is still issuing visas and student visas to citizens of those countries, according to the Texan congressman. There is already a law on the books which allows the U.S. to hold visas from a country that is not taking back its criminals, but according to Cuellar, the U.S. is not enforcing it.

"We’re not enforcing it, which is amazing. So now my intent is to go back to our committee on appropriations and affect their funding until they do that," Cuellar told Sharyl Attkisson, host of Full Measure, in an interview.

Cuellar, a Democratic member of the House Committee on Appropriations, told Attkisson that the Supreme Court has ruled that illegal immigrants arrested for criminal activity can only be held for a certain period of time before they must be released.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Airdrop them on their capitals with pillowcases for parachutes.

"As God is my witness, I thought these turkeys could fly"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2017 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  100% tarrifs on their exports should do the trick.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/19/2017 5:26 Comments || Top||

#3  If you believe in coincidences, I reckon this could be one:

Trump Was Right: Castro Did Send Criminals to U.S. A history lesson about the Mariel boatlift.

If you ever worry about the quality of news on the Internet, consider a recent story at BuzzFeed from reporter Adrian Carrasquillo. The writer notes indignantly that Donald Trump's infamous campaign comments about Mexican immigrants were not unprecedented: Speaking on a radio talk show, in 2011, Trump had anticipated his claim that "Mexico was sending criminals and rapists" to the United States (in Carrasquillo's words) by "appear[ing] to suggest Fidel Castro had hatched a similar gambit."

Here is what Trump said in 2011:
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2017 6:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Compromise: send them halfway across the ocean.

If their home countries object to them being executed, they can take them back.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/19/2017 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Store them in that country's embassy. If they won't send them home, they can keep them in their embassy here. If they still refuse, don't allow anyone in or out, including any deliveries of food etc. Turn off water, power and sewer as well. I'm done being 'nice' to the world. We need to ask ourselves, "What would the Romans do?"
Posted by: Silentbrick || 03/19/2017 9:27 Comments || Top||

#6  You had better stop acting like idiot democrats and more like Nation States.
Posted by: newc || 03/19/2017 12:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Drop them off in a dinghy with oars, food and a radio 13 miles from the shore of their country of origin.
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2017 13:52 Comments || Top||

#8  Interesting that the actual list of 30 countries by name isn't included in the article
Posted by: Blossom Hupager6063 || 03/19/2017 22:36 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
29[untagged]
4Islamic State
4Moslem Colonists
3Taliban
2Sublime Porte
2Houthis
2Govt of Syria
1Jemaah Islamiyah
1Hizb-ut-Tahrir
1Hamas
1Tablighi Jamaat
1Maute group (IS)
1Hezbollah
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2017-03-19
  Four wanted Maute militants nabbed in Lanao
Sat 2017-03-18
  Man shot dead at Paris Orly airport this morning after taking soldier's gun: official
Fri 2017-03-17
  Four Killed as Bangladesh Police Storm Islamist Hideout
Thu 2017-03-16
  Kommander Abdullah, 10 others die in airstrike in Paktika
Wed 2017-03-15
  Dozens killed in suicide bombing at Damascus "Palace of Justice" courthouse
Tue 2017-03-14
  Suspected ISIS gas attack hits Iraqi forces in west Mosul
Mon 2017-03-13
  Kenyan police nab 6 terror suspects in coastal town
Sun 2017-03-12
  Double suicide attack kills 40 in Damascus
Sat 2017-03-11
  Syrian force a ‘few weeks’ from Raqqa, U.S. Marines deployed
Fri 2017-03-10
   Ax attacker at Düsseldorf main train station arrested
Thu 2017-03-09
  Baghdadi abandons Mosul fight to field commanders
Wed 2017-03-08
  IS gunmen dressed as medics kill 30 at Kabul military hospital
Tue 2017-03-07
  Mufti Hannan jailbreak attempt fails
Mon 2017-03-06
  New wave of US air raids on Qaeda in Yemen
Sun 2017-03-05
  Jordan hangs 15 death row prisoners at dawn in further break from moratorium on executions

Better than the average link...



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.
54.83.176.101
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (27)    WoT Background (7)    Opinion (4)    (0)    Politix (4)