#1
I like the code word classified version better. I miss those now that I am debriefed for the final time and out of the biz short of a compelling contract or vital issue in which I can serve the county as a "highly experienced" person with my specific skill set, a few parts of which are becoming outdated. I'm far closer to a nursing home than ops these days.
#2
The ops may be moving closer to you than you think. The NSA isn't quite there yet on tapping into the brain while its taping into everything else. We may yet have need of Mentats.
#1
Internet is already killing itself. Cybercriminals, trolls, DDOS, bad security, trolling and hate filled incivility (c.f. The vile crap said about Palin, e.g.). NSA just took advantage.
#2
They killed what is left of the integrity of the United States of America. And the Narcistic Stalking Agency knuckle dragging leftists don't even give a damn. All out protection of their political power, domestically and internationally, is their mission, screw the rest of the world.
#3
The hardcore U.S. left wing radicals cares nothing of the US Constitution. The bony assed Kenyan is their leader in the leftist Hope and Change Marxist revolution.
[An Nahar] Algeria's ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term, who will probably die in office of old age... has been flown to Gay Paree for a "routine check-up" at the same military hospital where he was treated last year for a mini-stroke, his office said Tuesday.
"Bouteflika has been at the Val-de-Grace hospital since Monday for a routine medical check-up," his office said in a statement quoted by Algerian media, adding that his general condition was improving "surely" and "steadily."
The statement was at pains to emphasize that the visit gave no new cause for concern about the 76-year-old president, who has ruled Algeria since 1999 and whose health has been a constant source of speculation in Algeria in recent years.
The check-up will last from Monday to Friday, the president's office said, adding that no "emergency procedure has dictated this planned trip."
Algeria's head of state was rushed to the Val-de-Grace hospital in April last year and subsequently moved to the Invalides National Institution, where he spent 80 days receiving treatment for what his doctors described as a mini-stroke.
A frail-looking Bouteflika returned to Algiers in a wheelchair in July, and has not been seen or heard in public since, fueling speculation about his ability to rule, or contest a planned presidential election in April.
The ruling National Liberation Front has nevertheless nominated him as its official candidate to stand for what would be his fourth term.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] At least 200 South Sudanese civilians have drowned in a ferry accident while fleeing fresh fighting between government forces and rebels, the army said Tuesday.
Army front man Philip Aguer said the disaster occurred when the overloaded boat, packed with women and kiddies escaping the northern oil city of Malakal, capsized in the White Nile river.
"The reports we have are of between 200 to 300 people, including women and kiddies. The boat was overloaded," he told AFP. "They all drowned. They were fleeing the fighting that broke out again in Malakal."
Aguer said the tragedy happened on Tuesday, although local media reported it occurred overnight Sunday.
The disaster is one of the worst single incidents to have been reported from the war-torn country, which has been wracked by conflict for a month following a clash between rival army units loyal to either President Salva Kiir or his former vice president Riek Machar.
According to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... , some 400,000 civilians have fled their homes over the past month, many of them escaping a wave of ethnic violence. Up to 10,000 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting, aid sources and analysts say.
The army front man meanwhile reported that battles were raging in several areas of the country, signalling that the government's recapture of Bentiu, another key oil city in the north, had failed to deal a knock-out blow to the rebels.
Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... was reported in Malakal, state capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state, as rebel forces staged a fresh attack to seize the town, which has already changed hands twice since the conflict began.
"There is fighting anew in and around Malakal," United Nations aid chief for South Sudan Toby Lanzer said, adding that the U.N. peacekeeping base had been swamped with almost double the number of people seeking shelter, rising from 10,000 to 19,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Four soldiers were killed during an attack on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country said Tuesday.
The Mai Mai Sheka, one of dozens of gangs operating in the strife-torn eastern DR Congo, attacked the village of Pinga in North Kivu province in Monday night, according to the U.N. mission known as MONUSCO.
Government troops "retaliated and chased the gang from the village after a 30-minute shootout," read a statement.
"According to the latest MONUSCO figures, four government soldiers were killed and three civilians injured during the confrontation."
Army front man Olivier Hamuli confirmed the toll and told Agence La Belle France Presse that two of the attackers had been killed and two soldiers were maimed.
UN peacekeepers retook the village of Pinga, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from lovely provincial capital Goma, from the Mai Mai Sheka in November before handing control over to government troops.
In December MONUSCO's intervention force, whose mission is to neutralize all the gangs active in the troubled country, boosted its presence in the zone with the aim of taking back land seized by various militia.
Government troops struck a rare and striking military success when, backed by the U.N. brigade, they defeated the powerful M23 rebel group in November.
"This latest incident proves that there cannot be any cohabitation nor negotiations with gangs. MONUSCO will use all its might to consolidate the recent military gains," said mission chief Martin Kobler.
Meanwhile the election commission announced that nationwide local elections will be held by the end of the year.
"Get ready for city and local elections," the head of the election commission, Father Apollinaire Malu-Malu, said over U.N. radio.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Around a million poverty-stricken Zim-bob-weans face hunger after the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) announced Tuesday it was cutting food rations due to a cash crunch.
"We'd been hoping to have scaled up our seasonal relief operations... in the coming months with distributions of food and, in some areas, cash," Tomson Phiri, WFP front man in Zim-bob-we, said as the country enters the peak of the so-called hunger season.
But "we've had to cut rations for one million of our beneficiaries in recent months and there are likely to be deeper cuts as from next month," Phiri said in a statement.
At least 2.2 million people -- a quarter of Zim-bob-we's rural population -- will need food aid until the next harvest in May, according to estimates by aid agencies and government departments.
Food prices have doubled since last year, forcing many more into hardship, according to the WFP.
The U.N. food agency needs $80 million to feed hungry Zim-bob-weans in the next six months.
So far it has just $20 million and is working at raising the remaining $60 million, WFP regional front man David Orr told Agence La Belle France Presse in Johannesburg.
"Our operational funding for the next six months is about $80 million and so far we are only a quarter funded," said Orr.
Some of the hardest hit areas are in the west, central and southern regions of the country, Phiri said.
WFP is "very concerned about the food security situation in rural areas right now," he added.
Last week, the cash-strapped government of President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... said it would import 150,000 tonnes of the staple corn from neighboring countries to avert food shortages.
Food production has dwindled in Zim-bob-we in recent years with the government blaming low yields on erratic weather patterns.
But critics say the shortages were caused by Mugabe's land reforms seizing land from white farmers for redistribution to landless blacks in what he said was "a correction of historical imbalances."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Around a million poverty-stricken Zim-bob-weans face hunger after the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) announced Tuesday it was cutting food rations due to a cash crunch the cost of sending their fleet of white Toyota Land Cruisers to the shop for detailing and their 15,000 mile scheduled service. Cleaning that leather upholstery ain't cheap, y'know?.
Fixed!
Posted by: RIcky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
01/15/2014 2:44 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] Saudi authorities beheaded Tuesday two Paks for drug smuggling in the ultra-conservative kingdom's first executions of the year, the interior ministry said.
Abrar Hussein Nizar Hussein was executed in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after being convicted of trying to smuggle in heroin hidden in his stomach, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
Zahid Khan Barakat was beheaded in Qatif, in Eastern Province, over a similar charge, a separate statement said.
Last year, 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... executed 78 people, according to an AFP count.
In 2012, Saudi Arabia carried out 76 executions, according to a tally based on official figures. Rights group Amnesia Amnesty International put 2012's figure at 79.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich nation's strict version of Islamic sharia law.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Narcos
#1
Recidivism rate is kinda low
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2014 10:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Two Paks that dont love the Saudis LOL
Posted by: Paul D ||
01/15/2014 11:44 Comments ||
Top||
[GOOGLE] CUATRO CAMINOS -- Deadly festivities erupted on Tuesday when Mexican soldiers attempted to disarm civilian vigilantes who refuse to abandon an armed struggle against a narco mob.
The Michoacan state prosecutor's office confirmed that one person was rubbed out but militias said four people died in confrontations in a western region known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Country.
The violence came after the federal government decided to take control of security in Michoacan state, telling civilians to lay down their arms or apply for police jobs after a nearly year-long battle with the Knights Templar cartel.
Unrest in the agricultural state has become the biggest security challenge for President Enrique Pena Nieto's 13-month-old administration, undermining his pledge to reduce drug violence.
Vigilante front man Estanislao Beltran told AFP a military convoy arrived in the community of Cuatro Caminos on Tuesday to seize weapons, one day after the militia routed gangsters from the area.
Residents blocked the road in protest to demand that the soldiers return the guns to the militia, he said.
"During this struggle a soldier fired and killed two vigilantes on the spot," Beltran said.
Two other people, including an 11-year-old girl, were also hit and died on their way to a hospital, he said, adding that he witnessed the shooting.
"We will never give up our weapons," Beltran insisted.
Juana Perez was in tears in front of her son's coffin hours after she said a "stray bullet" killed 25-year-old Rodrigo Benitez, who was unarmed when he went out to show support to the vigilantes.
"We had gathered just to ask for peace and security. The army has to be careful," she told AFP.
The National Human Rights Commission said it would investigate the four deaths.
In the town of Buenavista, around 100 gunnies blocked some 50 soldiers for about four hours before letting them leave on condition they stay away for at least three days.
Civilians first took up arms in February 2013 to oust the Templars from the region, saying local police were either colluding with gangs or unable to deal with the violence and extortion rackets.
Since then, officials have alleged that at least some civilian militias were backed by a cartel, with critics noting that they used unlawful assault rifles that gangs usually own.
Analysts, however, say the government has been happy to allow the vigilantes to police the state until now, a risky tactic that could have replicated Colombia's experience with ultra-violent paramilitary militias.
The military deployment was ordered Monday after the vigilantes seized more towns in recent days and surrounded the Templar stronghold of Apatzingan, raising fears of urban warfare in the main city of Tierra Caliente.
"We can't combat illegality with illegality," Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told Televisa television.
The purpose of the deployment, he said, "is simply to restore legal order in a place that did not have it."
Vigilante leaders said they would disobey the government's order to disarm as long as authorities fail to arrest Templar capos.
The movement's most prominent leader, Jose Manuel Mireles, had appeared in a video late Monday saying he supported the disarmament.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Narcos
#1
An omen for American cities under siege sometime in the future? Naw, we have the 2nd Amendment for now despite constant leftists picking at it.
[An Nahar] Israeli police pulled over the convoy of Paleostinian premier Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday for "reckless driving" in a move the Ramallah government blasted as harassment, saying he was deliberately targeted.
"An Israeli military vehicle accompanied by police and settlers stopped Rami Hamdallah's convoy today between Ramallah and Nablus," government front man Ihab Bseiso told news hounds in Ramallah, saying the convoy was held up for about an hour.
Hamdallah was informed that he personally could leave but that his seven bodyguards must stay behind, but he refused until all of them were free to go, Bseiso said.
"It is not true that they stopped him for speeding," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"It was a deliberate move by the army and the police. And we're not talking about an impromptu checkpoint that was set up by the army in that area."
Israel police spokeswoman Luba Samri confirmed the convoy had been pulled over but denied that Hamdallah had been prevented from leaving, saying he had refused to move on until receiving an apology.
"Police and army officers stopped a convoy driving recklessly and endangering other road users," Samri said in a statement.
The soldier who pulled the convoy over "was assaulted" and coppers who arrived as backup were "verbally abused" by Hamdallah's bodyguards, she said.
She said Hamdallah had quarreled with the security forces for some time, refusing to leave until they apologized for stopping him.
The statement made no mention of any settlers involved in the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
[DAWN] Except for the Americas, religious conflict within countries rose around the world in 2012 to the highest level in six years, according to a study out Tuesday.
One third of 198 countries reviewed saw high or very high levels of internal religious strife, such as sectarian violence, terrorism or bullying in 2012, compared to 29 per cent in 2011 and 20 percent in 2010.
The biggest rise came in the Middle East and North Africa, two regions that are still feeling the effects of the Arab Spring of 2010-2011, said the Pew Research Center.
As an example, it cites an increase in attacks on Coptic churches and Christian-owned businesses in Egypt. It said China has also witnessed a big rise in religious conflict.
The number of countries whose governments have imposed restrictions, such as bans on practicing a religion or converting from one to another, has remained more or less the same, however.
Three out of ten countries have high or very high levels of restrictions, the study said.
Among the 25 most heavily populated countries, Egypt, Indonesia, Russia, Pakistain and Myanmar suffered the most religious conflict.
Christians and Moslems, who make up more than half of the world's population, have been stigmatized in the largest number of countries. Moslems and Jews have suffered the greatest level of hostility in six years, the report said.
Harassment against women and religious connotations of the way they dress has also risen in nearly a third of countries to 32 per cent, compared to 25 per cent in 2011 and seven per cent in 2007.
Religious violence declined in the Ivory Coast, Serbia, Æthiopia, Cyprus and Romania.
The 198 countries studied account for more than 99.5 per cent of the world's population, said the Pew center.
It did not include North Korea, whose government "is among the most repressive in the world, including toward religion."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We keep getting told (by gleeful, drooling lefties) that America is not a Judeo-Christian based nation, and polls show that to be more and more true. All the same, your are more likely to be treated in a Christian manner in America than almost anywhere else. Good lessons stay learned.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/15/2014 9:12 Comments ||
Top||
H/T Weasel Zippers We're seeing more and more stories like this, folks. When the SHTF and our self-appointed "betters" decide to take off the mask and go full totalitarian, the cops will be gleefully carrying out their orders.
John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm. He'd rather he didn't feel the need, "but things aren't like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I'm constantly going to the bank. I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I'm standing on. But I'm not looking for any trouble."
Filippidis keeps his gun -- a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic, barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case -- in one of two places, always: in the right-hand pocket of his jeans, or in the safe at home. "There are kids in the house," Filippidis says, "and I don't think they'd ever bother with it, but I don't want to take any chances." He's not looking for any trouble, after all.
Trouble, in fact, was the last thing on his mind a few weeks back as the Filippidises packed for Christmas and a family wedding in Woodridge, N.J., so he left the pistol locked in the safe.
So there the Filippidises were on New Year's Eve eve, southbound on Interstate 95 -- John; wife Kally (his Gulf High sweetheart); the 17-year-old twins Nasia and Yianni; and 13-year-old Gina in their 2012 Ford Expedition -- just barely out of the Fort McHenry Tunnel into Maryland, blissfully unarmed and minding their own business when they noticed they were being bird-dogged by an unmarked patrol car. It flanked them a while, then pulled ahead of them, then fell in behind them.
"Ten minutes he's behind us," John says. "We weren't speeding. In fact, lots of other cars were whizzing past."
"You know you have a police car behind you, you don't speed, right?" Kally adds.
Says John, "We keep wondering, is he going to do something?"
Finally the patrol car's emergency lights come on, and it's almost a relief. Whatever was going on, they'd be able to get it over with now. The officer -- from the Transportation Authority Police, as it turns out, Maryland's version of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority -- strolls up, does the license and registration bit, and returns to his car. According to Kally and John (but not MTAP, which, pending investigation, could not comment), what happened next went like this:
Ten minutes later he's back, and he wants John out of the Expedition. Retreating to the space between the SUV and the unmarked car, the officer orders John to hook his thumbs behind his back and spread his feet. "You own a gun," the officer says. "Where is it?"
"At home in my safe," John answers.
"Don't move," says the officer.
Now he's at the passenger's window. "Your husband owns a gun," he says. "Where is it?" First Kally says, "I don't know." Retelling it later she says, "And that's all I should have said." Instead, attempting to be helpful, she added, "Maybe in the glove [box]. Maybe in the console. I'm scared of it. I don't want to have anything to do with it. I might shoot right through my foot."
The officer came back to John. "You're a liar. You're lying to me. Your family says you have it. Where is the gun? Tell me where it is and we can resolve this right now." I really, really hated the 1960s -'70s hippie scum and their faux-Bolshevik rhetoric about "fascist, imperialist pigs." I have absolutely NO problem thinking of this cop as a "pig," however.
Of course, John couldn't show him what didn't exist, but Kally's failure to corroborate John's account, the officer would tell them later, was the probable cause that allowed him to summon backup -- three marked cars joined the lineup along the I-95 shoulder -- and empty the Expedition of riders, luggage, Christmas gifts, laundry bags; to pat down Kally and Yianni; to explore the engine compartment and probe inside door panels; and to separate and isolate the Filippidises in the back seats of the patrol cars.
Ninety minutes later, or maybe it was two hours -- "It felt like forever," Kally says -- no weapon found and their possessions repacked, the episode ended ... with the officer writing out a warning. "All that time, he's humiliating me in front of my family, making me feel like a criminal," John says. "I've never been to prison, never declared bankruptcy, I pay my taxes, support my 20 employees' families; I've never been in any kind of trouble."
Face red, eyes shining, John pounds his knees. "And he wants to put me in jail. He wants to put me in jail. For no reason. He wants to take my wife and children away and put me in jail. In America, how does such a thing happen? ... And after all that, he didn't even write me a ticket."
Now, despite having fielded apologies from the officer's captain as well as from a Maryland Transportation Authority Police internal affairs captain, John is wondering if he shouldn't just cancel his CCW license. ...when what he should be doing is lawyering up and going after the pig's salary, house, accumulated pension, kids' college fund, wife's 401-K...
For a guy who's not looking for trouble, that's not an unreasonable conclusion. And it would please fans of gun control by any means. But let's hope John Filippidis, American family man, taxpayer and good guy, doesn't cave, because it would be a sad statement about the brittleness of our guarantees -- some would call them sacred -- under the Constitution.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
01/15/2014 16:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sue that wanna-be Cop, for harassment, Barney Fife is alive and harassing citizens, stop him.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2014 17:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Edging towards a Securitate and away from being Police.
#5
#3 Question: how did the police know that he had a gun? He's barely into Maryland and a cop car starts to bird-dog him? How did they know?
Posted by: Steve White 2014-01-15 20:03
...exactly. Databases are not created or maintained on a "whim."
Florida guy gets queried and "interviewed" in Maryland? Register your weapon, get on a database. Database is then shared between (within?) agencies.
...States enacting carry laws, while requiring registration, are not doing "Gun Rights" people any favors...
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
01/15/2014 20:34 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Question: how did the police know that he had a gun? He's barely into Maryland and a cop car starts to bird-dog him? How did they know?
An out-of-state plate marks you as prey. A guess at the rest: Simple query across two databases - you look up the plate to get name & address, with that you check home state handgun registration. Easy enough to automate.
#9
All should take great care driving in Maryland. A friend from NYC had a simple speeding ticket inflated into a nightmarish list of fabricated charges.Be warned.
#11
Wow, Officer 'Roidrage got rehired in a hurry.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/15/2014 22:42 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Registering your guns is a mistake. As you can see, it paints a target on your back by leftists in the government. Gun registration is a violation of the US Constitution and as long as people refuse to support the Constitution, violations by the leftists will run amuck.
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.
[An Nahar] Algeria's ailing President Abdelaziz 
Eet die bloody baobob bark ja fok'n savages ! 
North Korea
