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Elon Musk and the U.S. military plan to build a reusable 7,500mph cargo rocket
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Afghanistan
Allies to Leave Afghanistan when ‘Conditions on Ground’ Permits: NATO
[KhaamaPress] NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
asserted Thursday its members would consult and decide "together" on when to leave Afghanistan, according to sources, after the United States President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
announced to bring its troops home by Christmas.

While it remained unclear whether the announcement was an official heads-up on troops withdrawal, Trump has occasionally been tweeting on the timeline for ending America’s longest war.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg exclaimed the alliance’s longstanding position that it will end its mission in Afghanistan only when "conditions on the ground" permit.

"We decided to go into Afghanistan together, we will make decisions on future adjustments together, and when the time is right, we will leave together," said Stoltenberg at a news conference after talks with North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, as La Belle France 24 quoted.

"We will make decisions based on the conditions on the ground, because we think it is extremely important to continue to be committed to the future of Afghanistan, because it is in our interest to preserve the long term security of Afghanistan," he added.

Foreign troops withdrawal from Afghanistan is based on an agreement between the US and Taliban
...Arabic for students...
, which paved the way for intra-Afghan negotiations to be held, determining a political settlement in Afghanistan.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/10/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We don't pay attention to Trump. The war will never end!"
Posted by: Muggsy Hapsburg5230 || 10/10/2020 4:25 Comments || Top||

#2  They depend on the ever present (and expensive!) global USAF logistics arm. When it leaves they will leave.
Posted by: magpie || 10/10/2020 12:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Still time on the CIA contract to sell some poppy seeds. They also need another year or so to extract some more rare earth metals. Then they should be ready to leave.
Posted by: Clem || 10/10/2020 13:05 Comments || Top||


Africa North
French aid worker freed by captors returns home from Mali
[AlAhram] French aid worker Sophie Petronin was reunited with her family on home soil Friday, a day after being freed by Death Eaters in Mali who kidnapped the 75-year-old on Christmas eve nearly four years ago.

President Emmanuel Macron and other officials greeted Petronin, La Belle France's last known citizen to be held hostage anywhere in the world, as she stepped off a plane at the Villacoublay airbase south of Gay Paree shortly after midday.

Petronin was released by her captors along with a prominent Malian politician, Soumaila Cisse, and two Italian hostages, who were also on their way home Friday, according to an airport source in Mali's capital Bamako.

Italian priest Pier Luigi Maccalli, who was kidnapped in neighbouring Niger in 2018, and Nicola Chiacchio, who went missing last year while on a solo bicycle trip, were also freed.

Mali's government has been struggling against a brutal jihadist insurgency that emerged in the north in 2012, which has since spread to central Mali as well as to Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
and Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict and hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and kidnappings are common.

Mali's former colonial power La Belle France has 5,100 soldiers deployed across the Sahel as part of its anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane.

Speaking to news hounds, Petronin thanked the Malian and French governments for their help.

"For Mali, I will pray and implore the blessing and the mercy of Allah, because I am a Moslem," she said.

"You say Sophie, but it's Mariam, you have before you," she added.

Petronin appeared in good spirits despite concerns about her health after a 2018 hostage video showed her looking emaciated.

- DIFFICULT TALKS -
One of the hostage negotiators, who requested anonymity, told AFP the talks remained difficult to the end.

The intermediary said releasing prisoners had been unavoidable. "Yes, bandidos Death Eaters were released," he said. "We had to obtain the release."

The office of Mali's prime minister said the four hostages had been held by the Group to Support Islam and Moslems.

The alliance comprises jihadist groups aligned to al-Qaeda, and has grabbed credit for some of the biggest attacks in the Sahel.

The prisoner release came with an interim government due to govern Mali for 18 months before staging elections after a military junta overthrew president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August.

The kidnapping of former opposition leader Cisse was one of the factors that fuelled popular protests leading to Keita's ouster over his perceived inability to crush the Islamist insurgency.

Several hostages remain detained by bad boy groups in the Sahel.
Nicola Chiacchio and Pier Luigi Maccalli's liberation was announced by the Malian government on Thursday.

Maccalli, a priest who had been living in Niger for 11 years, was kidnapped from his home in 2018 in the southwest of the country near the border with Burkina Faso. He appeared in a hostage video in March this year in the company of fellow Italian Chiacchio.

Italian media reports said Chiacchio was a young tourist who disappeared in northern Mali in February last year when he was cycling around the volatile region.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/10/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Draws in Fighters from Lebanon
[AnNahar] For the past two weeks, Raffi Ghazarian has been glued to the TV at home and at work watching news about the fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. If it goes on, the 50-year-old Lebanese of Armenian descent says he's ready to leave everything and volunteer to defend his ancestral land.

Some from Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
's large ethnic Armenian population have already travelled to join the fight, according to members of the community, although they say the numbers are small.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/10/2020 01:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Just so it doesn't draw in the US. Let the rest of 'em fight...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/10/2020 8:32 Comments || Top||

#2  It should be easy to recruit from Lebanon now, what with the country going to hell at an ever-faster trajectory after the numerous and mysterious explosions in Beirut. It's sad how the media can't bring themselves to report on any real news because of their "Trump!" chant.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 10/10/2020 14:13 Comments || Top||


Cyber
US seizes Iranian government domains masked as legitimate news outlets
[ZDNet] The web of domains was utilized to spread propaganda and disinformation.

US law enforcement has seized 92 domains used to spread propaganda and fake news by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Wednesday that the IRGC has used the domains to "unlawfully engage in a global disinformation campaign."

Four of the domains were used to create news outlets that appeared legitimate but the flow of 'news' articles and contents hosted by the websites were controlled by the IRGC.

In particular, US audiences were targeted with Iranian propaganda "to influence United States domestic and foreign policy in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)," the DoJ claims.

Google tipped off US law enforcement to the global campaign, and then with the help of the tech giant, Twitter, Facebook, and the FBI, 92 domains were confiscated on October 7.

Under the US International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and active sanctions that prevent the unauthorized export of goods and services between Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and the US, a warrant was issued for the seizure of the illegal domains.

US prosecutors say the fake news outlets were closed under legislation outlined by FARA, which requires foreign entities to transparently disclose the source of information and people when content attempts to "influence US public opinion, policy, and law."

The news websites targeted the US -- newsstand7.com, usjournal.net, usjournal.us, and twtoday.net -- have now been seized and display an FBI notice.

The other 88 domains targeted audiences in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. These domains, too, masqueraded as news outlets and media organizations.

The IRGC has been branded as a foreign terrorist organization by the US government.

The state-sponsored hacking group has been previously connected to cyberattacks against US aerospace, industrial, and business entities, as well as universities, in information theft and cyberespionage campaigns. In 2018, Iran was cited as a "growing threat" in the cybersecurity landscape by Accenture.

Posted by: trailing wife || 10/10/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Remember THIS?

7 Days Before Obama Gives Away Internet & National Security
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/10/2020 13:03 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
China Ties to US Riots Exposed by Trevor Loudon
[ET] Most of the riots that racked the United States within the last few months were organized by two socialist organizations which have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said Trevor Loudon, author, and filmmaker, who has been researching radical and terrorist groups and their covert influence on mainstream politics for more than 30 years.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) based out of Minneapolis, an openly pro-CCP organization, and Bay Area-based Liberation Road, with very close ties to the Chinese consulate there and the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), are behind the recent riots, Loudon said in a recent interview on Epoch Times’ Crossroads program.

Liberation Road is "basically a Chinese directed movement," Loudon said. It is a socialist organization, drawing from Marxist ideology, "with a clear focus on building the resistance to Trump," its website said.

Liberation Road whose people "burnt Ferguson, Missouri to the ground in 2014," split from FRSO several years ago over the issue of whether to work with the Democratic Party "and it is the parent body of Black Lives Matter [BLM]," Loudon said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2020 10:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Finally, somebody asked cui bono?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2020 12:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Would sure be nice if we had a large and well-funded investigative agency to keep tabs on and infiltrate and break up seditious threats like this...

maybe a, I dunno... federal agency or, um, bureau of investigation?
Posted by: Fester Lover of the Weak9094 || 10/10/2020 12:46 Comments || Top||

#3  An author and a filmmaker, not local/state/federal authorities and their billions of dollars in their collective budget. My lord this place is phoooked up.
Posted by: Clem || 10/10/2020 12:52 Comments || Top||

#4  are there tariffs on the stuff from china?
Posted by: Jiling Gravitch9209 || 10/10/2020 12:59 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Widow of Filipino Militant Now Undergoing Deradicalization in Indonesia
2020-09-30
[BenarNews] An Indonesian woman whose husband was a leader of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
’s 2017 takeover of Marawi city in the southern Philippines was deported to Indonesia about two weeks ago and is undergoing deradicalization, security and counterterrorism sources told BenarNews.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/10/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


-PC Follies
'BLM button = no tip': Washington state AG FIRES chief investigator after he refused to leave a tip for a waitress with a BLM pin and got into an argument with her colleagues
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/10/2020 08:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

#1  "Cancel culture" at work? The Washington State AG's is a Dem. His bio reads like he is a progressive activist.

Ferguson and Inslee sued Trump over Executive Order 13769 which barred terrorists from ME countries coming into the country. Politically, it was referred to as the Muslim Ban by the left. The legal challenge, was based on religious discriminated. IIRC, Trump ultimately prevailed in SCOTUS.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2020 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Next time your server has a BLM pin just tell them you changed your mind and leave. Eventually the owner will figure out the reason his business is failing.
Posted by: Airandee || 10/10/2020 9:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Tats, black clothing, body piercing jewelry in nose-lips-tongue, ear lobe expanders, pink hair.... Sorry, no friendly smiles from me. I may leave at any moment and never return. 'No tip' is a given. There, I said it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2020 9:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Here's a tip: Grow a brain.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/10/2020 10:08 Comments || Top||

#5  OK, the former homicide detective was 'standofish'. How very odd. Then there's incontrovertible evidence of the note on a receipt. Been quite a few of those in recent years, certainly never a forgery or anything, I mean the waitress said and everything. Hell, they all have hearts of gold, at least when they're not looting the walk-in.

I think the man has a legal case whether he wrote it or not. There remains a thing called due process which has been egregiously violated. Take the AG to federal court and get the pension upgrade.
Posted by: Cesare || 10/10/2020 10:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Ask any honest server who has a tendency to tip, and who doesn't, and there is some real irony here.

Getting emotional and violent isn't exactly breaking any stereotypes either.

*Q: is tipping a thing in the UK?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/10/2020 10:29 Comments || Top||

#7  I never let people who touch my food in places I can’t see serve me if I think there is a sharp political disagreement. Duh!
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 10/10/2020 11:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Next time your server has a BLM pin just tell them you changed your mind and leave. Eventually the owner will figure out the reason his business is failing.

A number of times I've simply asked to see the manager then requested an alternative server. Sometimes changing tables works. At one, the floor manager didn't come to the table but did catch up with us at the door as we were leaving. He comped us that dinner.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/10/2020 12:59 Comments || Top||

#9  I think I'll stick to takeout for the next few weeks...
Posted by: Raj || 10/10/2020 14:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Flag the place as racist on Yelp!
Posted by: charger || 10/10/2020 15:16 Comments || Top||

#11  Is Yelp still a thing?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 10/10/2020 18:43 Comments || Top||

#12  South Park hit it hard "You're not Yelping".

Cancel Culture has turned it into a bludgeon.

"As a non-binary trans-queer curious Muppet Martian of color, I thought I would be welcomed by Christian Bakers. I was mocked by the "Bakers" that they used Holy Water in their recipes and that my cake would catch fire in the oven. I found Rosary Beads in the cake, and am filing a Hate Crime!"
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/10/2020 21:21 Comments || Top||

#13  Or even less obvious, they would flood the reviews with low ratings so when casual viewer would scroll the list of bakers, their score would be incredibly low. Doubling the pain would be to increase accordingly the rank of a rival, politically acceptable local rival.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/10/2020 21:23 Comments || Top||


Michigan sheriff says plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer might have been LEGAL citizen's arrest, calls twins charged over it 'nice people' he shared stage with at anti-lockdown rally
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf made the remarks in an interview on Thursday

  • He defended Michael and William Null as innocent until proven guilty

  • The Null brothers were among 13 charged in plot to kidnap Michigan governor

  • Leaf speculated it might have been a legal plan to make a citizen's arrest

  • The sheriff appeared alongside William Null at anti-lockdown rally in May

  • Michigan's attorney general blasted Leaf's remarks as 'dangerous'

  • Leaf later clarified he was not supporting the alleged crimes, but rather the law
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/10/2020 08:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



#3  On January 8, 2020, The Detroit News had an opinion piece which stated:

"You are forgiven if you thought the Democratic governor was running for reelection this past November. Her endless posturing last year certainly made it seem like she was.
And if you thought last year was bad, this year will surely be worse."


Whitmer is getting a lot of press out this.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2020 9:26 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
40[untagged]
4Antifa/BLM
4Commies
3Sublime Porte
2Human Trafficking
2Taliban
2Abu Sayyaf (ISIS)
2Islamic State
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Iran
1Hamas
1Muslim Brotherhood

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2020-10-10
  Elon Musk and the U.S. military plan to build a reusable 7,500mph cargo rocket
Fri 2020-10-09
  US hits Iran’s entire financial sector with sanctions
Thu 2020-10-08
  International mediation meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict set for Geneva
Wed 2020-10-07
  BLM rioters in Los Angeles are breaking into buildings & smashing the glass
Tue 2020-10-06
  Baku demands apology from France after Macron claims Syrian jihadists deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh
Mon 2020-10-05
  DC Antifa ‘Ringleader’ Jason Charter Arrested Again at WalkAway Rally
Sun 2020-10-04
  8 charged in French cryptocurrency scheme to finance jihadis
Sat 2020-10-03
  Iraqi Air Force bombed ISIS terrorist hideouts on the border between Diyala and Salah al-Din
Fri 2020-10-02
  Trump confirms he and Melania test Positive for Covid-Virus
Thu 2020-10-01
  France arrests 29 in anti-terror Syria financing sting
Wed 2020-09-30
  First debate shambles, Chris Wallace loses bigly
Tue 2020-09-29
  US moves its embassy from Baghdad to Erbil
Mon 2020-09-28
  U.S. Plans 'Full Withdrawal' From Iraqi Embassy
Sun 2020-09-27
  Azerbaijan launched a missile and aerial attack against Artsakh and Stepanakert Armenia
Sat 2020-09-26
  BLM protester in Los Angeles who shut down the road with a large mob got hit by a truck

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