The Arab League Secretary General Dr. Ahmed Aboul Ghait called for an urgent Arab action to aid Somalia and for mobilizing financial and relief assistance required to address the grave humanitarian consequences resulting from the drought plaguing the country.
In a statement today, Aboul Ghait called the Arab States to continue solidarity with Somalia and to provide the necessary support through the United Nations (UN) system, directly or through coordination with the Arab League to help meet the urgent needs of more than six million Somali citizen, estimated by the UN at USD 825 million to cover the next six months.
The Secretary-General also called on foreign ministers of a number of Arab states to continue providing material and technical support, through charity and official institutions to the federal government of Somalia to address the serious consequences of this crisis.
He explained that this action comes in the context of the effort carried out by the Arab League to mobilize Arab, Islamic and international support for the Relief of the Somali people, and to contribute to meeting their emergency needs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017 00:00 ||
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South Korea has begun an environmental impact assessment of a local golf course ahead of the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system there, the military said Thursday, speeding up the deployment amid growing threats from North Korea.
The defense ministry picked a firm in December to conduct the assessment of the site in Seongju in the southeast, which will host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. Late last month, the company began looking into the location to see if THAAD will affect the environment, farming and the health of nearby residents, a ministry official told Yonhap News Agency.
"As North Korea rapidly improves its nuclear and missile capabilities, Seoul and Washington have stepped up efforts to complete the THAAD installation as quickly as possible," he said.
On Feb. 28, the defense ministry and Lotte Group signed a land swap deal, paving the way for an earlier-than-expected deployment of a THAAD battery in South Korea. In November, the U.S. Forces Korea expected to finish the deployment between June and August. Lotte agreed to hand over its golf course worth 89 billion won (US$79 million) in Seongju in exchange for state-owned military property east of Seoul.
The process to deploy the THAAD system began last week. Two missile launchers and other equipment arrived at U.S. Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of Seoul.
"The radar system for THAAD and other remaining elements will be delivered to South Korea soon or later (within this month) and undergo an operational test before deployment," the official said, dismissing reports that the radar system will arrive on Thursday.
The deployment could be completed within one or two months, and it can be operational as early as April, military officials said. The personnel needed to deploy the THAAD elements in Seongju and carry out a test run are expected to come from THAAD units in Guam and Fort Bliss, Texas.
A THAAD battery consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors (eight per launcher), a fire control and communications unit, and an AN/TPY-2 radar. THAAD is designed to intercept short and mid-range missiles, such as Scud and Rodong, which have a range of up to 3,000 kilometers at altitudes of 40-150 kilometers.
Seoul and Washington have said the system is purely defensive and poses no threat to other countries in the region. But China has opposed it, arguing the system's powerful radars could spy on its flights and missile launches.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
What's the environmental impact of incoming?
Like if you can't stop the shit NKor will shoot?
[DW] Dutch PM Rutte has claimed victory in elections in the Netherlands that saw his party beat out far-right challenger Wilders. Some see the Dutch poll as a litmus test for populists ahead of French and German elections.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte's center-right VVD party has fended off populist leader Geert Wilders in parliamentary elections that have garnered international attention.
With over 90 percent of the vote counted Thursday morning, Rutte has clearly won the largest share of seats. The VVD are predicted to gain 33 seats, followed by Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) in second with 20 seats. The Christian Democrats (CDA) and the D66 emerged in a two-way tie for third with 19 seats each. The Green-Left significantly boosted their representation by winning 14 seats. The social democratic Labor Party (PvdA) suffered a massive loss of seats, leaving them with only nine.
Various other smaller parties also captured single-digit seat counts.
Six main parties will enter parliament: the ruling VVD, Wilder's PVV, the centrist D66, Green-Left, the Socialist Party and the PvdA.
There's a cute little bar graph at the link showing the vote distribution and changes since last time, done in colours designed to frustrate the partially colour blind. It seems to me that though Mr. Wilders did not do as well as hoped, he did pretty well for having essentially stopped campaigning a few weeks ago on security concerns. His one-member party is well positioned to play the loyal opposition.
Opposition he'll be, too, since all the other major parties have said that they won't allow Wilders into any coalition government. Usually the second place party is part of a governing Euro coalition government, but Wilders apparently is ucky.
#1
Wilders sees the existential danger to his nation. He is dedicated to saving her. The Dutch will go for the status quo for now. It will take more hits from the hordes of invaders for them to change their minds, unless they decide to roll over.
Lessons also for the US. Trump is facing much the same thing with the dems and their fellow travelers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/16/2017 13:38 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] Zoltán Kovács, official spokesman for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has responded to accusations of wrongdoing by "ivory tower" editors at The New York Times by saying that they "just don’t get" the European migrant crisis.
If they 'got it' their entire world view would collapse. It's not that they don't get it, they can't allow themselves to get it...
The newspaper’s editorial board claimed that Prime Minister Orbán was "playing the European Union for a patsy" on 13 March, urging the bloc’s central authorities to take action against his government.
"It’s easy to be charmed by the human rights nonsense when you’re penning editorials from an office in Midtown Manhattan," replied Kovács on an official government blog post. "But we’re running a government responsible for the safety and security of our citizens ‐ as well as the citizens of Europe ‐ on the front lines of this crisis, and we see this struggle differently."
#3
They won't till they're forces to house 'migrants' in their own domicile. They can do a vetting process, but we get to use the same one for any others.
#4
They won't get it. Even on their knees with the sword severing their neck they won't get it. It will always be someone else's fault who wasn't as enlightened and evolved.
Do hark, in darkest Cambridge,
From the Kennedy School to the Yard,
And be awed by the wicked odd English
Of Harvardians talking for God!
while I'm going random...
You wanted 'em, Gotham -- you got 'em.
("G*ddammit, Mayor Hillary Rodham!")
Then ("Fly, fly, my pretties!")
It's Chelsea... and kiddies
("What, Charlotte should start at the bottom?")
The biometric data of nearly 3 million Syrian refugees has been registered, the Turkish migration authority said Wednesday, Anadolu reported.
The Directorate General of Migration Management tweeted that 2,957,454 Syrians living in Turkey had been registered, giving them the right to work in Turkey.
Last month, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said nearly 3.5 million refugees were currently living in the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Jewish community centers in three states were hit with bomb threats between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, with at least two coming via email. All were deemed to be non-credible.
JCCs in St. Louis, Atlanta, and Boulder, Colorado received the threats, according to local news reports. The threats in St. Louis and Boulder came via email; Atlanta’s JCC would not comment on the nature of the threat. All three JCCs had received bomb threats this year.
The scares are the latest of nearly 150 bomb threats to hit JCCs, Jewish day schools and other Jewish institutions since the beginning of the year. The threats have mostly come in waves, via phone and email. Many of the institutions have been threatened more than once.
Also Tuesday, the website for the metropolitan bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... area’s Walk for Israel was hacked and peppered with hate-filled and anti-Semitic expressions.
[IsraelTimes] The investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica produces an interactive map that chronicles over 300 anti-Semitic crimes across the United States from the past few months.
The graphic, which is published Wednesday, is a companion to an article ProPublica ran last week, “In an Angry and Fearful Nation, an Outbreak of Anti-Semitism,” which found evidence of over 330 incidents of anti-Semitism between last November and early February.
Both are part of ProPublica’s “Documenting Hate” series, which the company launched last year to “gather evidence of hate crimes and episodes of bigotry from a divided America.”
The interactive map links each pin to local news reports from across the country, allowing users to access the original news stories for each instance of anti-Semitism. About 160 of the incidents involve vandalism, such as spray-painted swastikas and other defacement of public spaces.
The US Senate has confirmed former Senator Dan Coats as the Director of National Intelligence, Sputnik reported. The Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of the ex-senator of Indiana. Senators approved the nomination of former US Senator Coats in a 85-12 vote.
Coats used to serve on the Senate’s Intelligence Committee. Coats previously served as the US Ambassador to Germany under George W. Bush. Coats is believed to have arisen from the team of Dan Quayle, US Vice President during the term of President George H. W. Bush. Dan Coats has links to the elite of the Republican party and the Fellowship, a conservative and Christian lobby group in Congress.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
A totally useless position. A convenient insulator for the Klingons, with no budget or manpower decision making authority.
Someone please correct me if the job description and authority levels have changed.
#2
It was a long time ago when I went into the intel bizniz when I went into the Army, but I seem to remember that the CIA director filled the DNI function -- HUMINT went under DIA and SIGINT under NSA, and CIA synthesized the two streams (and acted upon them). At least back in those days you knew who to fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2017 2:24 Comments ||
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#3
Exactly correct Fred. I don't see how the DNI could possibly be staffed to participate in the mechanics of such a coordinating effort.
#5
I bet it has to do with the proliferation of "intelligence" agencies.
You've got the FBI, NSA, CIA, DIA (one for each service?), IRS, ICE, BATFE and probably every other of the alphabet soup agencies have something. After all, this is a perfect way to grow your power base.
[IsraelTimes] Envoy Nikki Haley ...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... says Washington outraged by publication; Sec-Gen Guterres distances self from it; Israel slams it as ’despicable.
Guterres distanced himself from the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) but US Ambassador Nikki Haley said it should be scrapped altogether.
"The United States is outraged by the report," said Haley in a statement. "The United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... secretariat was right to distance itself from this report, but it must go further and withdraw the report altogether."
Based in Beirut, ESCWA is comprised of 18 Arab countries, according to its website, which lists the state of Paleostine as a full member, and works to strengthen cooperation and promote development.
"That such anti-Israel propaganda would come from a body whose membership nearly universally does not recognize Israel is unsurprising," said Haley.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon earlier slammed the commission for releasing the report which accuses Israel of establishing "an apartheid regime that oppresses and dominates the Paleostinian people as a whole."
The report was compiled by Richard Falk, a Princeton professor emeritus with a long track record of vehemently anti-Israel rhetoric who previously was the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Paleostine, and by Virginia Tilley, an American political scientist who authored the book "The One-State Solution" in 2005.
Haley described Falk as "a man who has repeatedly made biased and deeply offensive comments about Israel and espoused ridiculous conspiracy theories."
[Independent] The CIA can now kill potential terror suspects with drone strikes after being granted new powers by President Donald Trump, according to a new report.
The new authority ‐ said to have been granted shortly after Mr Trump’s inauguration ‐ takes drone strikes out of the sole control of the military, sparking fears about accountability. The 'Military' never had 'sole control.'
Under the drone policy of the Obama administration, the CIA could find a suspect, but the armed forces would carry out the actual strike. CIA 'found suspects?' Unless something has changed drastically, elements of DoD or Other Gov't Agencies generally 'found' targets.
#1
Under the drone policy of the Obama administration, the CIA could find a suspect, but the armed forces would carry out the actual strike.
Flag thrown. Important fact omitted: ...."carry out the actual strike" once approved by the CIA, just as in the past.
This article attempts to link POTUS to the ongoing CIA action. I believe the term is 'ownership' in the modern parlance. Additional factual evidence required.
#4
its legal so far according to the courts
Far too much of that kind of crap has been going on for far too long. Way past time to reign in the over-reach / nonfeasance of our courts. Start with impeaching the federal judges blocking legitimate enforcement of immigration by the executive.
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.
South Korea has begun an environmental impact assessment of a local golf course ahead of the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system there, the military said Thursday, speeding up the deployment amid growing threats from North Korea.
[DW] Dutch PM Rutte has claimed victory in elections in the Netherlands that saw his party beat out far-right challenger Wilders. Some see the Dutch poll as a litmus test for populists ahead of French and German elections.
[Independent] The CIA can now kill potential terror suspects with drone strikes after being granted new powers by President Donald Trump, according to a new report.
