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Russian Air Force launches more than 40 airstrikes over southwest Syria
Today's Headlines
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
1 18:31 DooDahMan [4]
9 22:43 49 Pan [9]
7 12:28 Thrump Snuper3768 [8]
5 23:48 JohnQC [11]
Page 6: Politix
3 11:54 rjschwarz [6]
3 14:45 Thing From Snowy Mountain [8]
3 20:23 charger [7]
Afghanistan
Pakistan closes Chaman, Kharlachi crossings with Afghanistan over elections
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Pakistain has closed two crossing points along the Durand Line with Afghanistan in a bid to help improve the security for the elections which will kick off on Wednesday.

The Embassy of Pakistain in Kabul in a statement said that the Chaman and Kharlachi crossing points have been closed due to the elections.

The statement further added that Chaman and Kharlachi crossings will remain closed for two days but the Torkham gate will remain open during the elections.

The officials in Pakistain have said that the decision to close the crossing points along the Durand Line has been taken to ensure security during the elections.

This comes as the country witnessed violence during the election campaigns that claimed the lives of scores of people.

The Pak Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
group and the ISIS loyalists claimed responsibilities for the recent string of attacks in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
provinces of Pakistain.

Millions of people are expected to vote for the candidates who are competing for 272 seats in the Provincial Assembly.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Too many AFIs voting?
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/25/2018 19:19 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram Faction Chief Reappears after Health Questions
[AnNahar] 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...
factional leader Abubakar Shekau
... the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down ...
has re-emerged in a new video after a long absence that fueled speculation about his health and ability to lead the Islamist bad boys.

In a 36-minute message, seen by AFP on Tuesday, Shekau wore a white robe and skull cap, and held an assault rifle as he sat in front of a military camouflage canvas.

He appeared unwell but made no direct mention of his health or reports from last month that he had high blood pressure, failing eyesight and diabetes-related complications.

The jihadist leader used to appear frequently on camera but was last seen in a 14-minute video message on February 6, in which he grabbed credit for attacks in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
He is widely believed to be aged in his late 40s. The U.S. justice department lists 1965, 1969 and 1975 as possible years of his birth

He said the latest message was recorded on July 12 at the request of his supporters "as a kind of Eid greetings... to show that their brethren are well, in view of all sorts of things infidels are saying (about us) which we have ignored."

The end of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan was celebrated in Nigeria on June 15. It was not possible to obtain independent verification of the claimed date, and there was no explanation about the apparent delay in recording or publishing the message.

In May 2017, Shekau looked frail and appeared to have difficulty reading from a prepared speech, which he held close to his face in an apparent indication of vision problems.

Two well-placed sources told AFP last month that Shekau's health was failing and he was "too weak to be in charge" of the jihadists.

His lieutenants were said to be in talks about the situation.

Boko Haram, whose insurgency has left at least 20,000 dead since 2009, split in mid-2016 over ideological differences about the targeting of civilians in the conflict.

One faction, headed by Abu-Mus'ab al-Barnawi, whose father Mohammed Yusuf founded Boko Haram, won the support of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

The Barnawi faction has been blamed for a spate of attacks in recent days against the military northeast Nigeria.

Eight people were killed in a suicide kaboom at a mosque in Borno state on Monday, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of the Shekau faction.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2018 07:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


Europe
We'll pay if you take in migrants, Brussels tells EU governments
[AlAhram] The European Commission offered on Tuesday to shoulder the cost of taking in migrants colonists from boats in the Mediterranean, seeking to entice more governments to shoulder the burden after Italia's new government closed the country's ports to rescue vessels.

Under the proposal, the Union's common budget would pay out 6,000 euros ($7,000) for each migrant taken in, as well as funding the cost of hundreds of expert personnel to help process mostly African migrants colonists seeking asylum in Europe.

Italia's rightist interior minister, Matteo Salvini, swiftly denounced the offer as far too little.

"We aren't asking for charity handouts. Every asylum seeker costs the Italian taxpayer between 40,000 and 50,000 euros. Brussels, they can keep their charity for themselves," Salvini told news hounds. "We don't want money. We want dignity."

The Commission's plan, which is aimed at EU governments that set up so-called controlled centres on their soil, follows a June leaders' summit that claimed success in reaching a hard-fought agreement to control immigration but left many details undecided.

Irregular migration has fallen steeply since 2015, when more than a million people entered the EU, but polls show it is still a top concern for many of the EU's 500 million citizens.

The governments of Italia and Germany are under heavy pressure at home to ensure fewer migrants colonists come into their territory from across the Mediterranean, while eastern European leaders are bitterly opposed to taking them in.

Italia has shut its ports to humanitarian rescue ships, saying it is bearing an unfair burden of asylum seekers.

By publishing its proposals, a Commission spokeswoman said it was seeking "a truly shared regional responsibility in responding to complex migration challenges", although governments have yet to come forward to host new centres.

EU envoys are expected to discuss the proposal on Wednesday. Spain, La Belle France and Malta may see the greatest benefit given that they have been taking in some arrivals from boats that Italia's far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini has rejected.

Both Italia and Malta turned one boat with 60 migrants colonists on board away earlier this month, forcing it to dock eventually in Barcelona, in a recent example of European divisions on the issue.

The Commission proposed a pilot phase to be launched as quickly as possible and said a "controlled centre" taking in migrants colonists could count on hundreds of personnel ranging from interpreters to asylum experts, all paid for by the EU.

The set-up would allow for quick screening of arriving migrants colonists, sending back those who do not qualify for asylum, the Commission said. It would also prevent migrants colonists from skirting registration rules and heading straight to the most sought-after destinations, including Germany and Sweden.

In parallel, the Commission presented a proposal for "regional disembarkation platforms" that would likely be located outside of the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
to process migrants colonists rescued at sea. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
the plans remain vague and do not mention any potential host countries.

EU diplomats say they could be set up in North Africa.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2018 02:17 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Italy owes the other peoples of Europe to defend their border against these parasitic invaders.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/25/2018 4:23 Comments || Top||

#2  cost of hundreds of expert personnel

Any questions about "Where's the graft in that?"

Take your money and buy a hunk of Mali, Libya, Algeria or so forth and have the migrants build themselves a city. They could use Timbuktu as a model.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/25/2018 7:35 Comments || Top||

#3  "We'll pay. With your money"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2018 7:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Take them in and we will give you back a little of your own money.

What a deal!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/25/2018 7:59 Comments || Top||

#5  As AlanC says, Recolonize some failed Islamic state in North Africa and institute proper government. Use that place as a dumping ground for troublesome Muslims in Europe. Use the UN as a figleaf for the whole thing.

I'll cost less than losing your nations entirely.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/25/2018 11:57 Comments || Top||

#6  We saw Libya turn down a residential refugee plan last week.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/25/2018 17:02 Comments || Top||

#7  The European Commission offered on Tuesday to shoulder the cost of taking in migrants colonists invaders from boats in the Mediterranean...FIFY

The offer was only good last Tuesday; sorry that offer has now expired.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/25/2018 18:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Hahaha...a refugee rebate!
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/25/2018 19:18 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Spike in illegal entries to the U.S. over the northern border is blamed on new rules allowing Mexicans to enter Canada without a visa
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/25/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
General Mattis Backs up Pres. Trump's Fiery Tirade on Iran
[DAILY CALLER] Secretary of Defense James Mattis backed up President Donald Trump’s fiery message about Iran at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, California, on Tuesday.

"[Iran] cannot continue to show irresponsibility as some revolutionary organization that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption across the region," Mattis said, reported The Hill.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2018 00:14 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mullahs, Don't make me sic Mattis on you--you really don't want that.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/25/2018 18:50 Comments || Top||

#2  He has a plan to kill them all.
Posted by: Lumpy Turkeyneck8453 || 07/25/2018 20:30 Comments || Top||


Lawyers for convicted Boston Marathon bomber say they will address THIRTY legal reasons why his death penalty should be chucked out
[DailyMail]
  • Lawyers for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said they plan to address 30 reasons for why his death sentence should be thrown out

  • The team filed the motion last week in US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

  • Lawyers have asked that the deadline for the brief filing be pushed to November

  • The attorneys' argument for sparing Tsarnaev's life is due next month before the appeals court
He's on death row. His lawyer will throw everything against the wall in the hope that something might stick.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/25/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll bet his victims and their families would throw tsarnaev at the wall.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/25/2018 5:13 Comments || Top||

#2  His processing should not take any longer than Timothy McVeigh's.

[Oh, that was different. He killed our (government) people, not the peasants.]
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2018 9:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Because thirty of his victims were gonna die anyway?

It's like they think numbers will sway the judge.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/25/2018 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Perhaps the lawyers should share in the fate of their clients.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 07/25/2018 16:39 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
ECP orders 3 Allahu Akbar Tehreek candidates to submit CNIC, passport copies
[DAWN] The Election Commission of Pakistain (ECP) on Tuesday ordered three election candidates from the Allahu Akbar Tehrik (AAT) to submit copies of their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) and passports after it emerged that their names are included in the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
' terror watchlist, DawnNews TV reported.

A three-member ECP bench, headed by Abdul Ghaffar Soomro ‐ the ECP member from Sindh ‐ heard the case. Mohammad Ashraf, who is running from the NA-149 constituency in Sahiwal; Zafar Iqbal, who is contesting from the PP-113 constituency in Faisalabad
...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after...
; and Ehsan Ranjha from the PP-67 constituency in Mandi Bahauddin, appeared before the ECP today.

No representative from the interior ministry appeared before the bench.

The counsel for AAT candidates argued that it was "unfair" to summon them one day before elections.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba

#1  Of course they never considered just arresting them...
Posted by: 3dc || 07/25/2018 5:19 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN envoy demands Trump resume funding to UNRWA
Demands? How utterly adorable.
[IsraelNationalNews] The UN special envoy to the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov on Tuesday urged U.S. President Donald Trump to resume funding he had cut to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency which assists "Palestinian refugees".

Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East and quoted by Haaretz, Mladenov said that "UNRWA’s financial crisis remains a very serious concern. At present, UNRWA needs some $217 million to sustain its work in 2018. I urge the swift mobilization of support to enable the continuity of assistance and a maintenance of stability on the ground in the region."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2018 02:16 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ooops,
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2018 2:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Easily fixed. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2018 2:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Domo arigato
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2018 2:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Dear UN: fuck off. Never, ever speak to us like that again.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 07/25/2018 3:28 Comments || Top||

#5  He having to stay in 4 star hotels?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/25/2018 4:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Herb, you forgot the horse he rode in on...

Of course, my favorite is still the old Army response:

"Pound sand"
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 07/25/2018 15:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Leave the horse out of it. It's not the horse's fault.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 07/25/2018 15:40 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
UN picks American to lead investigation into Gaza protest killings
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2018 13:40 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Scott Ritter?
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2018 14:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Thread over in one - well played!
Posted by: Raj || 07/25/2018 15:01 Comments || Top||

#3  The American, Syracuse University law professor David Crane, looks interesting. See his Wikipedia page here. His team members are from Bangladesh and Kenya, according to the article.

Now to see if Israel will cooperate.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2018 20:39 Comments || Top||


Israel envoy to UN: Hamas running missile factories in south Lebanon
[IsraelTimes] Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Danny Danon accuses the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terrorist group of operating Iran-backed missile factories in southern Leb.

"In recent months, Hamas has expanded its cooperation with Hezbollah and increased its activity in Leb," Danon tells the UN Security Council. "It is now part of an international operation that runs from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, through Leb and Syria, and ends in Iran. With Iran’s support, Hamas is now operating missile factories and training camps in southern Leb. Hamas is becoming a regional and international threat. "

"Too many people in this building have forgotten what Hamas truly is: A murderous terrorist organization that terrorizes Israel and holds Gazooks hostage," adds Danon. "And as Hamas is a growing international problem, the time has come for the Security Council to recognize that Hamas is no different from al-Qaeda or ISIS. The Security Council must recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization."
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2018 00:27 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Science & Technology
YouTube is still failing to take down jihadi propaganda
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/25/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But YouTube is censoring patriots who say what they don't like.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/25/2018 18:47 Comments || Top||

#2  But YouTube GOOGLE is censoring patriots who say what they don't like.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/25/2018 19:25 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
8Islamic State
4Govt of Syria
3Taliban
3Commies
3Hamas
1Govt of Iraq
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Moslem Colonists
1Sublime Porte
1Govt of Pakistan

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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.
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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
Wed 2018-07-25
  Russian Air Force launches more than 40 airstrikes over southwest Syria
Tue 2018-07-24
  2 Syrian missiles with half-ton warheads trigger Israel's anti-missile system
Mon 2018-07-23
  Several dead in Kabul suicide blast as exiled VP Dostum returns
Sun 2018-07-22
  Iraq protests death toll reaches 11 amid ongoing popular unrest
Sat 2018-07-21
  Rebels handover more towns to ISIS in southwest Syria
Fri 2018-07-20
  Senegal convicts 13 suspected Boko Haram fighters
Thu 2018-07-19
  26 persons killed in regime offensive on Daraa and Qunaitra
Wed 2018-07-18
  15 Afghan Taliban killed in attack by suspected IS rivals
Tue 2018-07-17
  Israeli army drills for Gaza incursion, in apparent warning to Hamas
Mon 2018-07-16
  Boko Haram overruns Nigerian military base
Sun 2018-07-15
  Palestinian killed in mysterious Gaza blast identified as head of rocket unit
Sat 2018-07-14
  Nawaz Sharif, daughter arrested upon arrival in Lahore
Fri 2018-07-13
  Afghan forces have reportedly suffered heavy casualties in Kunduz attack
Thu 2018-07-12
  Germany arrests Iran ‘spy’ on bomb plot charges
Wed 2018-07-11
  Gazan kites burn 150 acres in Israel’s south


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