On June 1, 2007, Staff Sgt. Atkins was conducting route security in the town of Abu Sarnak. He and his soldiers stopped a pair of suspected insurgents and Atkins was soon engaged in hand-to-hand combat with one who was reaching for his explosive vest.
“Atkins then grabbed the suicide bomber from behind with a bear hug and slammed him onto the ground, away from his soldiers,” according to the Army News Service. “As he pinned the insurgent to the ground, the bomb detonated.
“Atkins was mortally wounded in the blast. With complete disregard for his own safety, he had used his body as a shield to protect his three fellow soldiers from injury. They were only feet away.”
The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest award for valor, and has only been awarded to 3,504 men and one woman since it was created during the Civil War. More than half since World War II have been awarded posthumously because the recipient made the ultimate sacrifice while acting to save others. The Iraq War is the only conflict in which none of its Medal of Honor recipients – Atkins is the fifth -- survived the act of valor for which they were honored.
#2
They said we were soft, that we would not fight, that we could not win. We are not a warlike nation. We do not go to war for gain or for territory; we go to war for principles, and we produce young men like these. I think I told every one of them that I would rather have that medal, the Congressional Medal of Honor, than to be President of the United States.
-Harry S Truman
[RT] Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recalled its ambassador from Pakistain in the aftermath of comments from Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... which suggested that Kabul should establish an interim government.
On Monday, Khan told news hounds that free and transparent elections need to be held in Afghanistan and an interim government must be installed in order resolve the impasse in the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, The Express Tribune reports. He claimed that the current government was impeding the grinding of the peace processor by insisting on direct talks with Taliban ...Arabic for students... leaders.
The comments have not been well received in Kabul, which has recalled its ambassador from Islamabad and also summoned the Pak ambassador to explain the assertions.
In a strongly worded statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its "grave objection" to Khan’s "reckless" remarks. It labeled the Khan’s words an "obvious example of Pakistain’s interventional policy and disrespect to the national illusory sovereignty and determination of the people of Afghanistan."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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It’s beginning to look like heading north to the gold-strewn streets of Europe is not a wise choice.
[DW] An increasing number of refugees are being tortured and raped in Libya, a new study has found. The perpetrators, motivated by greed, sadism and the desire for power, include local European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... partners.
It is a cycle of captivity and exploitation, violence and abuse from which there seems to be no escape. That's according to the latest study on refugees in Libya by the international nongovernmental organization Women's Refugee Commission. The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are around 670,000 migrants colonists in the North African country. It is believed that between 5,000 to 6,000 people are being held in camps there.
Employees of the Women's Refugee Commission interviewed survivors in Italia and, among other sources, spoke with rescue ships crews. "On their journey through the desert, many refugees are kidnapped by human traffickers and gangs or taken to official prisons," Sarah Chynoweth, the study's author, told DW. She explained that violence, including sexual torture, is common in these camps: "It is filmed in order to put pressure on families to send money for their relatives' release. Those who cannot pay are resold or murdered."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
[RT] Algeria’s army chief has called for long-term leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... to be declared unfit to rule. The statement comes after weeks of massive protests against the extension of the president’s fourth term.
"We must find a way out of this crisis immediately, within the constitutional framework," Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah said in a televised speech.
Upper house chairman Abdelkader Bensalah will reportedly be caretaker president for 45 days.
Salah referred to Article 102 of the Algerian constitution which provides for the appointment of the parliament chairman as interim head of state, and organization of a snap election in the event that the president’s health prevents him from properly executing his duties.
Since suffering a severe stroke in 2013, President Bouteflika only moves around in a wheelchair, barely speaks and avoids public appearances.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Thousands of people rallied in central Sana’a on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the onset of the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Protesters held pictures of those killed in the conflict. One of the demonstrators said: "This year will be the year of victory and the year of legendary steadfastness."
The Saudi-led war in 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. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... was launched in 2015 as an attempt to crush the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... movement in the region and reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and left the country’s economy in tatters. According to recent UN reports, almost 80 percent of the Yemeni population ‐ some 24 million people ‐ are in need of assistance and protection, with millions facing the plight of starvation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] A Ottoman Turkish employee of the US Consulate in Istanbul appeared in court Tuesday charged with espionage and attempting to overthrow the Ottoman Turkish government in a case that further frayed ties between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... allies.
The trial against Metin Topuz, a translator and assistant for the Drug Enforcement Agency at the consulate, opened in Istanbul nearly a year and a half after his arrest in October 2017. He has been held in pre-trial detention since then.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Levies and Khasadar personnel in several tribal districts boycotted duty during the anti-polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... campaign on Monday.
They vowed to continue the boycott till acceptance of their demands. The Levies and Khasadar personnel in the merged districts anonymously announced to boycott security duty during the anti-polio drive. The decision was made in a meeting of core committee of both the forces in all merged district. The Khasadar and Levies personnel have presented 22-point charter of demands to government.
The boycott forced the health department to postpone the scheduled three-day campaign against polio in several areas of Bajaur tribal district.
Sources said that bigwigs of local administration and health department earlier did not take the decision regarding boycott by personnel of both the forces seriously and termed pressure tactics for acceptance of their demands.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem : “The resistance will use its right to self defence in order to defend its people from the attacks of the enemy “#Israel#Gaza
[lgbtqnation] Brunei will soon allow for stoning to be used as punishment for sodomy...."The decision to implement the (penal code) is not for fun but is to obey Allah's command as written in the Quran," Sultan and Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah said in 2014 when the changes started to go into effect, adding that the changes to the penal code as a "great achievement."...
Several updates to the penal code that were approved in 2013 will go into effect on April 3, according to a notice published on the government’s website. "I am extremely concerned by this move," said Matthew Woolfe of the human rights organization The Brunei Project told Gay Star News. "Some of the laws that we are about to see implemented are horrendous and unjustifiable."
Currently ten countries punish homosexuality and have the potential to use the death penalty. Several of them, including Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Mauritania, specify that stoning can be used as a punishment. of special interest here is that a gay rights org put out a call out without using the jargon of intersectionality
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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at least Amnesty Intl and Human Rights Watch seem to be condemning the Brunei policy (although no UN related interest that I can find nor anything from the many US based human and civil rights orgs)
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 14:17 Comments ||
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#7
Watch the UN hypocrites unite to condemn a few raghead pansies being stoned, while these islamist nations have continually treated women the same way for hundreds of years without much intervention from anybody.
[Rudaw] The US-led international coalition pummeled 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.... (ISIS) assets and facilities in the two weeks leading up to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declaring the end of the group's so-called territorial caliphate.
The US-led operation "conducted 250 strikes consisting of 398 engagements against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq," according to a statement it released to media on Tuesday.
That figure includes strikes in both Syria and Iraq from March 10-23. The final ISIS bastion was in al-Baghouz, Syria, and the group tried to use tunnels and other methods to try to cross the mostly non-existent border into Iraq.
The joint military operation "detected 72 strikes from other actors that crossed the Euphrates River Valley" without providing details. Iraqi forces and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) counterterrorism units were involved in the operation in cooperation with the SDF.
"In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 193 strikes consisting of 338 engagements," the statement added.
The coalition in Syria conducted strikes against "346 ISIS tactical units" and "destroyed 104 vehicles." Additionally, supply routes, fighting positions, 31 vehicle-borne improvised bombs (VBIEDs), among other ISIS targets were struck.
In comparison the US-led joint operation said it conducted 99 strikes and 139 engagements from February 24-March 9.
Engagements can include strike windows which last hours, days or weeks. The report also does not include ongoing engagements which haven't closed.
"[A]ll strikes [were] conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing, or remotely piloted aircraft, rocket propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery," revealed the statement.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force detailed in separate statement that it struck "terrorist positions" on March 12, destroyed two ISIS buildings on March 17, and killed two ISIS fighters and struck four other ISIS positions on March 18.
In 2014, ISIS controlled nearly one-third of Syria and much of northwestern and central Iraq, including djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... . It threatened to take over the Kurdistan Regional capital of Erbil and Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
"CJTFOIR and its GoI and ISF partners have liberated 4.5M civilians and 55,670 SQ KM of land," tweeted the US military on Tuesday.
The SDF declared the "total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100 percent territorial defeat of ISIS" on Saturday.
While pundits debate the future of ISIS and what it means for Iraqis and Syrians, the SDF and coalition role in Syria also remains in question.
Following the defeat of ISIS, the US-led joint operation stated ISIS was "seeking to re-establish themselves to conduct a deadly resurgence."
"The Coalition remains steadfast in its assistance to the Iraqi Security Forces as they interdict the ISIS network," UK Maj. Gen. Ghika, Deputy Commander ‐ Strategy and Information, CJTF-OIR, said in a statement released on Monday.
"The Iraqis and the Coalition will ensure the forces of Evil learn that nowhere in Iraq is safe for them."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] The United States placed financial sanctions on more than two dozen Ottoman Turkish, Emirati, and Iranian nationals and businesses for transferring "over a billion dollars and euros" to Iranian defense institutions, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"Central to this network and sanctioned today pursuant to our counterterrorism authority is Iran's IRGC-controlled Ansar Bank and its currency exchange arm, Ansar Exchange, both of which used layers of intermediary entities to exchange devalued Iranian rial ultimately for dollars and euros to line the pockets of the IRGC and MODAFL [Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics]," read a statement from the US treasury department.
The US claims Iran is using intermediaries to try to bypass trade, energy, and weapons sanctions. The action forbids individuals and businesses from having financial interactions with the sanctioned entities.
"Today’s action exposes an extensive sanctions evasion network established by the Iranian regime, which it increasingly relies on as the United States’ maximum pressure campaign severely constricts the regime’s sources of revenue," the statement added.
A diagram of the layout can be seen at the link.
Since leaving the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA) last year, the administration of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has continuously levelled sanctions against the Iranian government.
"We are targeting a vast network of front companies and individuals located in Iran, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... , and the UAE to disrupt a scheme the Iranian regime has used to illicitly move more than a billion dollars in funds," said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin
Washington again claimed the regime in Iran "funds terrorism and other destabilizing activities across the region."
Mnuchin described Ansar Bank and Ansar exchange as under control of the IRGC.
A wide array of regional front companies is used by Ansar, according to Washington.
"In just the last year-and-a-half, four front companies: UAE-based Sakan General Trading, Lebra Moon General Trading, and Naria General Trading, as well as Iran-based Hital Exchange, all designated today ‐ provided the equivalent of approximately $800 million in funds to Ansar Exchange.," the statement detailed.
There was no mention of Iraqi institutions being involved in the scheme. Earlier this month, Washington granted Baghdad another three-month waiver on the sanctions.
Baghdad repeatedly says it wants to abide by the US sanctions, but doing so is practically impossible as they share such a large border, close relations, and Iran is war-ravaged Iraq's largest trade partner.
On March 21, Iran's supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called "the economy is the country's urgent problem."
The Iranian people are feeling the brunt of the building sanctions. Since the US government withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, has been on a steep curve losing more than 60 per cent of its value.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
All those millions for bribes to the Clinton crime Foundation were for naught.
Washington (IraqiNews.com) ‐ U.S. envoy for Syria Jim Jeffrey has said that the whereabouts of 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.... leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... are unknown.
Speaking to a briefing at the State Department, Jeffrey said the U.S.-led coalition fight against Islamic State in Syria is not over, despite the terrorist group’s loss of its last territorial stronghold in the Arab country over the weekend.
"This is not the end of the fight against ISIS (an acronym for the Islamic State terror group). That will go on, but it will be a different kind of fight," The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... quoted Jeffrey as telling news hounds.
"ISIS has lost much of its capability to project terrorist power and to have a recruiting base in an area that it controls. So it’s a very, very important development," he added.
He said most of the prisoners captured by the U.S.-based Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were Iraqis and Syrians. Those, he said, would be returned to their communities for "deradicalization", reintegration, and in some cases, punishment.
He dismissed reports that the U.S.-coalition was considering an international tribunal to try the prisoners. "We’re not looking at that right now," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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you misspelled "Farce" [ALMASDARNEWS] The F-5 itself may be an aging design, but for the purposes of regional air defense and training (or in Syria offense) it may be good enough.
If Iran has managed to integrate newer avionics and radar systems, the F-5 knock-off could be a threat to be wary of. And Iran begins to produce the fighter in numbers, their aerospace manufacturing base will only improve.
Iran has touted its allegedly homegrown ’Kowsar’ jet fighter, finally unveiled to the public on Tuesday, as a new contender in the arena of air-to-air combat. But the new aircraft was immediately met with wave of criticism from defense industry observers who saw the aircraft as a mere copy of the venerable F-5 which, although a sturdy airframe still in use by the United States military, is considered an antiquated product of the age of slide rules and hand drawings.
After all, boasting about a broadsword in the age of the machine gun is simply an invitation for ridicule.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... behind the veil of Iran’s geopolitical misdirection and copyright ignorance sits a prime example of the industry that Tehran has managed to foster despite decades of sanctions ‐ and a vision of a homegrown aviation industry to come.
This is not the first time Iran has shown off a new weapon for propaganda purposes. The roundly-mocked Qahar stealth fighter model presented as the real deal in 2013 was an embarrassing unforced error by the Iranian military-industrial complex, one originally presented to show the Iranian people that their government could defend them against the best in the world, even if it really can’t.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
So.. curious.. did they changes the parts to metric ones for metric tools ?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
That's going about it all wrong. The message should be, "Do business with whoever you want. Just don't be surprised if that doesn't turn out so well..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 16:34 Comments ||
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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.
Bouteflika
...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. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
[ALMASDARNEWS] The F-5 itself may be an aging design, but for the purposes of regional air defense and training (or in Syria offense) it may be good enough.
