[FoxNews] Every day, scientists at the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab have their hands on one of the deadliest drugs in America.
"This here is a kilo of fentanyl," says DPS Forensic Scientist Jennifer Hatch as she handles the package wearing gloves.
Hatch gave Fox News a tour of the DPS Houston lab, explaining that nearly every street drug she analyzes is laced with the synthetic opioid.
"We are more surprised when they do come back legitimate, than when they don’t," says Hatch.
Last year, fentanyl was the number one cause of death among Americans 18 to 45 years-old, according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most of the time the drug is pressed into pill form. Though, authorities also confiscate kilos of fentanyl smuggled in from the border. Those large shipments also end up at the lab.
DPS says the kilo of fentanyl could produce up to 500,000 lethal doses. Which has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of people.
Before the drug ends up at the lab, law enforcement has to find it. Which is not an easy task. Investigators say the Mexican Cartels hide it in everything from tires to water pumps. One of the people leading the charge to find the drug is Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez.
"Every state is a border state because of what is taking place right now," says Lt. Olivarez.
The Lieutenant is one of many leading the charge in Texas to stop the pounds of what he calls poison being shipped into the U.S. from China and Mexico.
"The drug cartels are using the chemicals to mass produce fake pills," says Lt. Olivarez.
Fox took a close look at the cannot tell the difference between the prescription pills and the counterfeit pills that are laced with fentanyl. Even scientists must use high-tech instruments to analyze the components to know for sure.
"These are all fake Xanax tablets, and they look excellent," says Hatch.
DPS says the cartel makes big money off the synthetic opioid, but Americans pay the ultimate price.
"It is killing hundreds of Americans daily," says Lt. Olivarez.
Follow up to this story from two days ago, concentrating on the sheriff this time, not the criminals.
[FoxNews] Suspected drug traffickers Jose Zendejas, 25, and Benito Madrigal, 19, were arrested Friday and released days later.
Tulare County Court Commissioner Mikki Verissimo of California signed an order to release two suspected drug traffickers recently arrested with 150,000 fentanyl pills in their possession, Fox News confirmed Tuesday.
Officials arrested Jose Zendejas, 25, and Benito Madrigal, 19, during a traffic stop on Friday and transported them to the Tulare County Pre-Trial Facility on charges of possession, transportation and selling of illegal drugs, but they were released over the weekend.
The Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward's office said in a statement to Fox News Digital that it was "not involved with or agree with the decision to release these individuals."
"The time in which they were released was after their arrest and prior to police reports being submitted to our office. Through a risk assessment by the county probation department, they were released by a judicial officer," Ward's office said. Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux is outraged by the release. His interview with Fox News can be heard at the link.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/30/2022 00:00 ||
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Jose Zendejas, 25, and 19-year-old Benito Madrigal were discovered with 150 packages that each contained 1,000 fentanyl pills during a traffic stop in Tulare County, California on Friday, authorities said. (Tulare County Sheriff's Office)
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/30/2022 1:45 Comments ||
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[ToloNews] Following the arrival of other former government officials and political figures, Habibullah Ahmadzai, the former president's adviser, and Hasibullah Kalimzai, the Senate's second deputy, as well as a cancer specialist named Abdul Wardak all returned today.
"Afghanistan is our homeland and we cannot live without it. Our dignity is in this homeland. those friends who are abroad believe that they should return to the country," said Habibullah Ahmadzai, adviser to the former president.
"In my opinion, those who have committed crimes shouldn't be forgiven and should be held accountable, including us," said Habibullah Kalimzai, former 2nd deputy leader of the Senate.
"I was in the profession of teaching physicians. I specialize in cancer operations. Now that I have come to the country, I’ll see what I can do," said Abdullah Wardak, physician.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had a cup of coffee. Even instant would do... officials of the "Commission for the Return and Communications with Former Afghan Officials and Political Figures" said that a number of other former government figures will return to the country in the near future.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has its own norms and processes in the area of governance, and anyone returning to the country in accordance with those procedures may engage in political activity," said Mawlawi Zaker, head of the Secretariat of the Commission.
According to data from the "Commission for the Return and Communications with Former Afghan Officials and Political Figures," more than 150 political figures have already returned to the country.
[KhaamaPress] The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s front man Zabihullah Mujahid has announced that the grand assembly of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... is set to take place tomorrow, Thursday, in Kabul at the Loya Jirga hall.
The assembly, reportedly, will bring together 3,000 tribal elders, influential figures, and Ulema to Kabul from all over the country.
The Taliban leadership convenes the assembly of Islamic holy mans at the Ulema’s repeated request, a senior Taliban official, Zabihullah Mujahid previously stated on his Twitter account without mentioning a specific date.
Many organizations and groups, including Human Rights Watch, the National Resistance® Front, and political analysts, are concerned about the Taliban’s Grand Assembly’s participants.
Heather Barr, the co-director of Human Rights Watch’s division for women’s rights, no other groupss will be allowed to speak during the Taliban Jirga, and participants from all groups, including will not be there. She emphasized that a decision-making body excluding women will not be legitimate.
The National Resistance® Front’s Council of Ulema, released a statement on Tuesday claiming that the participants of the gathering will be the Taliban loyalists and will not speak for the Afghan people.
Anas Haqqani, the Interior Minister of the Taliban government, said this previously on two separate occasions, that the issue of the reopening of the girls’ schools will be discussed by a gathering of the holy mans.
There are no indications, however, of what the upcoming assembly of the holy mans will discuss.
Hanafi said that the gathering will be attended by clerics, influential figures, political figures and national businesspeople.
“They will discuss Afghan issues: national unity, nationwide security and stabilization and other issues. Once they sit together, the results will be shared,” he said.
Hanafi said a range of topics such as the Islamic system, independence, national unity, and economic and social issues will be discussed at the gathering.
He said that there are no obstacles for participation of young people, but he did not mention if any women would be participating in the gathering.
This comes as Jamiat-e-Islami
...not The Islamic Society founded in Lahore in 1941 that opposed the independence of Bangladesh and is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, but the primarily Tajik party whose militant arm used to be the Northern Alliance and in the current generation is called the National Resistance Front (NRF)....
in a statement downplayed the gathering as symbolic and said that holding the gathering will not bring any benefit for countering the current crisis.
[KhaamaPress] Taliban’s religious scholar and tribal elders grand gathering, which is to be held tomorrow at the Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul, will convene without the participation of women, said the deputy prime minister of the Taliban, Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, on Wednesday.
Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, the deputy prime minister of the Taliban, in an interview with the state run National Television, stated that the meeting will be attended by over 3,000 religious scholars, tribal elders, intellectuals, influential figures and national traders on Thursday.
When prompted whether women could attend the Taliban’s grand gathering, deputy minister Hanafi responded that male delegates would speak on their behalf.
“The women are our mothers, sisters, we greatly respect them, when their sons are in the gathering it signifies that they are also involved, in a way, in the gathering,” he said.
The senior Taliban official responded that the assembly was called at the Ulema’s request and that the Taliban organized it so that they could discuss a variety of topics, including but not limited to the Islamic regime, national unity, and the improvement of economic and social affairs, to the question regarding the gathering’s agenda.
The top Taliban official expressed hope as he said that the group expects a positive outcome from the gathering and that more of these events would be arranged in the future.
According to civil society groups, if women are not present, the gathering will not be legitimate.
However, it still remains unclear what issues would be discussed at the gathering and whether the issue of reopening girls’ schools and women rights are included in the agenda.
[KhaamaPress] Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, has dispatched emergency relief planes to deliver life-saving humanitarian aid to Kabul in order to assist hundreds of thousands of people in the areas of Afghanistan devastated by last week’s catastrophic earthquake.
UAE State news agency WAM said on Wednesday that a cargo flight from Dubai to Kabul took out on Tuesday carrying 24.5 metric tonnes of essential medicines, medical supplies, and cholera kits that were provided by the WHO.
A senior UAE health official, Giuseppe Saba was quoted by Alarabiya News agency that “The [International Humanitarian City] IHC [in Dubai], under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is accelerating the rapid response of the international humanitarian community as it rallies to come to the aid of those impacted by the disaster.”
As a result of the earthquake, the landlocked country in Southern Asia, Afghanistan, needs immediate humanitarian assistance. There are also concerns about the possibility of a cholera breakout in addition to the already severe humanitarian situation in the southeast earthquake-stricken region of Afghanistan.
More than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands were left homeless by the high magnitude earthquake that struck on Wednesday.
The consignment comes at a time when another 30 tonnes of humanitarian assistance, including essential food supplies, were supplied by the UAE last week.
[KhaamaPress] According to the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s announcement on Tuesday, the United States would provide Afghanistan immediate assistance amounting $55 million in response to the devastating earthquake that struck last week in a remote part of the country’s southeast.
The high magnitude earthquake that hit the region close to the Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan on June 22 left at least 1,000 people dead, over 3,000 more wounded, and 10,000 homes in ruins.
According to a statement from Blinken, the new US aid will be used to provide cooking equipment, water water containers, blankets, clothing, and other items, including hygienic supplies to stop an outbreak of waterborne diseases, to those affected by the calamity.
In a tweet, secretary Blinken stated on Tuesday, 28th June, “The U.S. will provide additional humanitarian assistance of nearly $55 million to Afghans affected by the June 22 earthquake. Our support to the Afghan people in working with USAID and partners is vital during this difficult time.”
He stated that the earthquake “intensified the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Afghan people have long endured.”
After the UN issued an emergency plea for $110 million to support more than 360,000 Afghans devastated by last week’s earthquake in the provinces of Paktika and Khost, the US announcement came merely hours later.
In addition to causing deaths and injuries, the earthquake also destroyed homes, hospitals, schools, and water networks, leaving thousands of people vulnerable to more suffering, according to the UN statement.
[KhaamaPress] The United Nations announced on Tuesday that it had started an emergency appeal for $110 million to aid hundreds of thousands of people in parts of Afghanistan devastated by last week’s catastrophic earthquake.
Homes were destroyed and landslides were started when a high magnitude earthquake hit villages in the mountainous Paktika and Khost provinces on June 22. The earthquake caused at least 1,150 fatalities and hundreds of injuries. Over 10,000 homes were destroyed, leaving the people homeless.
The UN agency for humanitarian affairs announced that UNOCHA and its partners have issued an appeal for $110 million to support 362,000 people urgently over the course of the following three months in the worst-affected regions of Paktika and Khost provinces.
The Central Emergency Response Fund has released $10 million to support the earthquake response as of last Friday, or June 25th, according to Martin Griffiths, the Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The UN statement notes that the earthquake not only resulted in fatalities and injuries, but it also devastated homes, hospitals, schools, and water networks, leaving thousands of people susceptible to additional suffering.
The UN appeal for additional aid comes at a time when another aftershock, shook the earthquake-stricken, and impoverished villages of southeastern Khost and Paktika provinces.
[KhaamaPress] In a clash between "armed miscreants" from Afghanistan and Iranian border guards yesterday afternoon, an Iranian border guard was killed on the Afghan-Iranian border, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.
The clash that resulted in the death of an Iranian soldier, according to the Iranian news agency, was sparked by a number of armed miscreants who launched an attack on the Afghan-Iranian border on June 28th.
Although the Iranian source does not specifically mention the Taliban ...Arabic for students... forces when it refers to "armed miscreants," local Nimroz provincial sources claim that the Taliban entered the Iranian territory, after two Afghan boys were killed and injured by Iranian border guards, and clashed with them for an hour.
One of the Iranian border guards, Mohammad Sayadi, is alleged to have died in an armed encounter in the Hirmand county border region of the Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran.
According to reports, the Iranian border guard who died in the armed confrontation is survived by his wife and daughter.
The conflict has not received any comments from Taliban officials yet.
The Taliban forces have often triggered armed festivities with the neighboring countries since seizing control of Afghanistan in mid-August of last year, particularly at the borders with Tajikistan, Iran, and Pakistain.
While our little Kurdish Iranian jihadi is enduring his two weeks isolation in jail, more is revealed.
[Rudaw] Kurds in Norway condemned Saturday’s fatal shooting in Oslo’s nightlife district that killed two people and left more than 20 dead in what Norwegian security services labeled as an "Islamist terror act."
In the morning hours of Saturday on Oslo’s Rosenkrantz Street, a man wearing a yellow t-shirt opened fire near the popular LGBT+ bar London Pub in the Norwegian capital, killing two and injuring dozens others.
The shooter was arrested shortly after and identified as 43-year-old Zaniar Matapour, a Norwegian citizen originally from Iran’s western Kurdish Region, also referred to as Rojhelat.
Born in the city of Sina, Matapour and his family migrated to Pakistain in the late 1980s where they sought asylum through a United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) program that sent them to Norway.
"Zaniar’s [Matapour] family is known in Sina for being virtuous and unproblematic. He and his siblings studied in Norway and have graduated from engineering and medical universities. Zaniar’s father was like-minded with one of the parties in Rojhelat [western Iran], but did not actively join the organizations," a Kurdish resident in Oslo, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Rudaw earlier this week.
Soon after Matapour was arrested, the police stated that the attack had a "radical Islamic" background with a history of mental illness.
The incident angered Kurds in Norway.
"As a human being, I condemn it, and as Kurd, I condemn it as well," said Hoshang Younisi, a Norwegian resident from western Iran.
"What can make things easier for Kurds ... is an organization which is separated from all personal opinions and announces a shared national and humanitarian stance towards those who have violated the liberties of others at times like this," he added.
Masoud Nasiri, the spokesperson of the Kurdish diaspora center in Norway, stated that Kurds in Norway in general "oppose" the attack, adding that they have attempted to demonstrate to the Norwegian community that Kurds have long struggled against terror and tyranny and fought for democratic values.
There are an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Kurds in Norway, most fleeing their homes because of war or political instability.
The suspect has a criminal record with Oslo’s security and has been previously arrested for cases of narcotics and violence, and once tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! for a period of nearly three months.
"According to the investigations, the suspect will be convicted. But it is still not confirmed whether this case will be treated in accordance with terror law or another law," said Sayran Ahmad, a criminal lawyer in Norway.
London Pub, a highly coveted spot in the Norwegian capital where acquiring reservations is extremely challenging, has been a hub of Oslo’s LGBT+ community since the late 1970s. A mural in the pub’s basement reads: "The main headquarters of gay men since 1979."
Nothing like looking like a target to a certain kind of colonist...
"We will open up the pub again as to say that hatred and grudge cannot stop us," said the proprietor of the pub, who preferred to be simply referred to as Owner of London.
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... said on Wednesday it will renew demand from Sweden and Finland to extradite over 30 Ottoman Turkish nationals who are wanted for alleged terror links but live in both Nordic countries which on Tuesday made compromises to Ankara in return of its support to for their NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... membership.
Continued on Page 49
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06/30/2022 02:48 ||
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#1
Did the Nordics get to add and extra 10 free draft picks to the return package as well?
We know it’s Iran’s sockpuppets, but perhaps the Kurds have a specific name.
[Rudaw] The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has "complete information" on the party behind the recent rocket attacks on the Region’s key gas field in Sulaimani province, deputy prime minister said on Wednesday.
Three rockets struck the Khor Mor gas field in Sulaimani’s Chamchamal district in a matter of four days, the latest being on Saturday. The KRG Prime Minister has said he is "deeply troubled" by the strikes and the US has called for an investigation into the attacks.
The KRG held its weekly meeting on Wednesday, discussing a range of topics, including the attacks on the gas block. According to a statement from the government, Deputy PM Qubad Talabani told the cabinet members that the perpetrators have been identified.
"We have full information about the perpetrators of attacks on Khor Mor gas field and a detailed investigation has been carried out to take measures against them," Talabani was quoted in the KRG statement as saying. "The attacks have targeted the expansion project in Khor Mor field rather than the part which produces gas."
The UAE-based Dana Gas, which runs the gas field, said in a statement on Monday that it has temporarily suspended the work on the expansion of Khor Mor gas station following the attacks.
The KM 250 project is the first stage of a two-train expansion project at the field that aims to boost total production capacity to over 1 billion cubic feet per day by 2024. Work at the plant resumed in April of last year after it was halted due to the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic.
Khor Mor field produces 452 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, according to Dana Gas.
No group has grabbed credit for the three rocket attacks.
It’s not his fault the poor man has missed the new Zeitgeist — he was, after all, taken on as a special project by Iran’s Mullahcracy. He would never have got through his courses otherwise.
[Rudaw] Prominent Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry... on Tuesday harshly criticized Iraqi President Barham Salih for withholding from signing the legislation criminalizing ties with Israel in a move that is seen as a blow to Salih’s second-term candidacy.
In a harsh tone, Sadr in a tweet said it is "very, very shameful that the so-called President of the Republic of Iraq (Barham) ... refuses to sign the law" criminalizing relations with Israel.
Sadr added that it would be "shameful" for Iraqis to have a president who supports normalizing ties with Israel and is "unpatriotic and affiliated with the west or east."
A spokesperson for Salih said in a statement later in the day that the President had approved the law as it was sent by the parliament "without having any notes" and ordered its publication on the Official Gazette.
The statement added that Salih has "always" supported the Paleostinian cause.
The Iraqi parliament on May 26 passed a bill criminalizing ties with Israel, marking the act as a crime punishable by death. The bill requires almost all officials, including those in Kurdistan Region, government institutions, and media to refrain from establishing relations with Israel.
Sadr at the time called on the Iraqi people to take to the streets in celebration of what he called a "great achievement."
The law must be signed by the president, according to the Iraqi constitution. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... if he fails to do so then it would nonetheless take effect within 15 days.
The passage of the bill put Salih in a puzzle that came amid severe political tensions that have engulfed Iraq. The current president is running for a second term for the post.
"I absolve myself of his crime in front of God and the Iraqi people," Sadr added saying he "regrets" Salih’s previous and subsequent candidacy for the presidency post.
The normalization of ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords is a US-led joint Middle East peace initiative. Four countries - the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Bahrain, and Morocco - have announced normalization agreements with Israel, with America's support.
A conference in September advocating for Iraq to join the agreement was met with widespread condemnation and criticism from the public and officials.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/30/2022 02:42 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Dozens of safe rooms being built adjacent to Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ... border in Shlomi; bids for construction begin in several other towns, with plans to eventually place them in 21 locations
The Defense Ministry on Tuesday announced that it had begun reinforcement work on dozens of homes in Israeli communities close to the Lebanese border — those that are most likely to be hit by rocket fire in a future conflict with the Hezbollah terror group.
The effort, dubbed Shield of the North, officially began in October, when the ministry’s Engineering and Construction Division, along with the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command, started installing new bomb shelters in homes in the community of Kfar Yuval, northeast of Kiryat Shmona.
In the coming months, dozens of bomb shelters will be built in homes in the northern town of Shlomi, which were constructed in the 1970s without reinforced rooms, the ministry said.
Separately, the ministry published a tender for the construction of 110 bomb shelters in Misgav Am, and is set to publish similar tenders for the towns of Margaliot and Manara in the coming weeks.
The ministry said it was in the "architectural planning phase" of bomb shelters in 12 other locales, totaling some 1,000 homes.
Ultimately, the ministry intends to carry out its Shield of the North reinforcement plan in the 21 communities closest to the northern border. (Shield of the North is not to be confused with the IDF’s Operation Northern Shield, in which the military uncovered a number of attack tunnels dug into Israeli territory by Hezbollah.)
The reinforcement plan came after years of promises to improve the shelters in northern communities, which were regularly found to be lacking, despite the high probability that these areas would be hit by barrages from Hezbollah.
A 2020 state comptroller report found that nearly 30 percent of Israeli citizens do not have access to functioning bomb shelters near their homes, including over a quarter of a million people who live near the borders with the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip and Lebanon.
The Defense Ministry has been conducting a similar effort to reinforce kindergartens in Israeli communities close to the border with Gaza.
According to some national security experts, Israel relies too heavily upon its offensive and active defense capabilities, like the Iron Dome and other missile defense systems, to quickly neutralize threats, instead of building up its physical fortifications and preparing to more safely absorb attacks.
Last month, the Home Front Command practiced a simulation in which Israeli cities could be bombarded with 1,500 rockets a day with 80 sites being heavily damaged and some 300 casualties during a several-day flare-up with Hezbollah.
The terror group has long been the IDF’s most significant adversary, with an estimated arsenal of nearly 150,000 rockets and missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel.
[IsraelTimes] Request said to be part of move toward regional cooperation against Iranian threats, with Israel part of an alliance that includes countries it has no official ties with
Israel intends to ask US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. The guy who lost Afghanistan, aka Biden's Bungle... to approve the delivery of an Israeli laser-powered air defense system to Arab countries aligned against Iran, including Saudi Arabia
Continued on Page 49
Some people are born stupid. Others work really, really hard to develop it.
[IsraelTimes] Benjamin Briere’s attorney says Iranian authorities are holding him ’hostage’; he was arrested after taking pictures in a national park with a recreational drone.
An Iranian appeals court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence against a Frenchie convicted on spying charges, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Benjamin Briere was arrested in May 2020 after taking pictures in a national park with a recreational drone. His lawyers and family have accused Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... of holding him as a "hostage."
The lawyer, Philippe Valent, said Briere’s case was being "instrumentalized" by the Iranian authorities.
"It’s shocking and dramatic," he told AFP, adding that the verdict coincided with the resumption of negotiations between Tehran and Western powers on Iran’s nuclear program.
"This trial is a masquerade — the submerged part of a huge issue that is beyond us," Briere’s sister, Blandine, told AFP.
The appeals court explained its decision by accusing Briere of being "an agent in the service of an enemy state" in its verdict, which was translated by Briere’s Iranian lawyer, Valent said.
Briere, 36, who was convicted in January for spying and propaganda against Iran’s Islamic system, had appealed the sentence.
His lawyer said he had not even been given access to the full indictment against him.
The verdict against Briere comes as Iran and world powers are seeking to reach an agreement at talks in Vienna on reviving the 2015 deal over the Iranian nuclear program.
Chief negotiators from the United States and Iran were due to start indirect talks in 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... on Tuesday, to try to remove obstacles stalling attempts to revive a landmark nuclear deal.
Nationals of all three European powers involved in the talks on the Iranian nuclear program — Britannia, La Belle France and Germany — are among the foreigners being held in Iran.
"We ask the French, American and British authorities to make the liberation of hostages a pre-condition for the resumption of negotiations," Valent said.
During his original trial, Briere’s sister Blandine told AFP her brother was a "political hostage" subjected to a "parody of justice."
"It is a political trial, and it is useful to Iran, which is sending a message to the French government," she said.
The French foreign ministry at the time described the verdict as "unacceptable", saying Briere was a "tourist."
Three other Frenchies are also being held in Iran.
Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah was tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! for five years in May 2020 on a national security charge.
Two other Frenchies were arrested in May, accused by Iran of having entered the country with the aim of destabilizing.
Gay Paree has denounced that claim as groundless.
Iran insists all the foreigners held are tried in line with domestic law but has repeatedly expressed its readiness to carry out prisoner swaps.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/30/2022 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Highest corpse count estimate for conflict does not include tens of thousands of soldiers also dead.
The first 10 years of Syria’s conflict, which started in 2011, killed more than 300,000 civilians, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... said Tuesday — the highest official estimate to date of conflict-related civilian deaths in the country.
The conflict began with anti-government protests that broke out in March 2011 in different parts of Syria, demanding democratic reforms following Arab Spring protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , Libya, and Bahrain that removed some Arab leaders who had been in power for decades.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... it quickly turned into a full-blown civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed large parts of the country.
Tuesday’s report published by the UN Human Rights Office followed what it said were rigorous assessment and statistical analysis of the available data on civilian casualties. According to the report, 306,887 civilians are estimated to have been killed in Syria between March 1, 2011, and March 31, 2021, because of the conflict.
The figures released by the UN do not include soldiers and hard boyz killed in the conflict; their numbers are believed to be in the tens of thousands. The numbers also do not include people who were killed and buried by their families without notifying authorities.
"These are the people killed as a direct result of war operations. This does not include the many, many more civilians who died due to the loss of access to healthcare, to food, to clean water and other essential human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... ," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
The report, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, cited 143,350 civilian deaths individually documented by various sources with detailed information, including at least their full name, date, and location of death.
Also, statistical estimation techniques were used to connect the dots where there were missing elements of information. Using these techniques, a further 163,537 civilian deaths were estimated to have occurred.
"The conflict-related casualty figures in this report are not simply a set of abstract numbers, but represent individual human beings," Bachelet said. She added that the work of civil society organizations and the UN in monitoring and documenting conflict-related deaths is key in helping families and communities establish the truth, seek accountability, and pursue effective remedies.
The estimate of 306,887 means that on average, every single day, for the past 10 years, 83 civilians suffered violent mostly peaceful deaths due to the conflict, the report said. It was based on eight sources of information — including the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, the Center for Statistics and Research-Syria, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and the Violations Documentation Center.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/30/2022 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...Arabic for 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ...
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
