[MAIL] The president of Poland appealed to President Donald Trump's well known affection for slapping his name on buildings as he pitched a permanent U.S. military base in his country that he said would be named 'Fort Trump.'
The president raised his eyebrow at the idea but didn't rule it out.
Trump then hailed Poland's offer to pay $2 billion toward U.S. costs, even as he blasted other unnamed 'immensely wealthy' countries the U.S. effectively pays to defend.
Trump says that he's considering the idea and that Poland has offered more than $2 billion to the U.S. to pay for such an effort.
#2
It's hard for me to follow polish politics, but, from what I have seen they are anti-Russian, anti-immigration and more pro-US than the western NATO countries. But I could be wrong.
Pulling a base or two out of Germany and moving to Poland might send a message. But the Germans don't seem to think Germany is worth defending.
#4
Some reasonable accommodation can surely be made by the Poles. Perhaps a promise not to shoot down any Malaysia Airliners or Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft ?
#5
Maybe this fort could be built near the Katyn Forest?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/19/2018 8:32 Comments ||
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#6
Why isn't the rest of Europe paying us handsomely for protection?
Why do we defend them for free? It is tremendously expensive and all they do is shit all over us for it. We're militarist monsters because we have an army, and they're humanitarian superpowers because they don't.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
09/19/2018 8:51 Comments ||
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#7
Maybe this fort could be built near the Katyn Forest?
#8
In reality Poland has Russians right at its border in Kaliningrad. Russia has also been looking to seize the Suwalki corridor so it has a nice land bridge to Belarus as Kaliningrad is isolated at the moment.
US troops are currently deployed in the Suwalki area, but are woefully under strength to stop a Russian invasion and are only there as a tripwire force and for advisement. Stars and Stripes had a great article on it yesterday.
Would it make the Russians more paranoid? Yeah (what doesn't?)
Would it make Putie's land grab harder? Hell yeah.
#9
US should work with Poland and Hungary and any of teh other East Europe nations that are showing signs of sanity and build a neutral defense pact. Something solid that doesn't depend entirely on the US so that it can survive a few Democrat administrations. A pact that is defense oriented and unthreatening to Russia. Make a big Switzerland between Russia and Germany. We could even encourage the new state to purchase *some* Russian equipment to keep Putin happy.
We should have done so after the cold war but better late than never.
Could Putin get any more sulky
If Donald rode into Suwalki
As a four-armed hussar
And announced that the tsar
Should address him as 'God-Emperor Kalki?'"
The Kalki Purana (Sanskrit: कल्कि पुराण Kalki purāṇa) is a prophetic work in Sanskrit that details the life and times of Kalki, the tenth and final of the Dashavatara (the ten Avatars) of the Hindu deity Lord Vishnu. The narrative is set in near the end of the Kali Yuga or Dark Age, as revealed b
[KhaamaPress] The Chief Executive of Jamaat Islami
...Jamayat-E-Islami, sometimes shortened to Jamiat, is a Muslim political party in Afghanistan, the Afghan branch of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami that since its founding in 1941 has spread tentacles throughout the Indian subcontinent region and as far as Britain. The majority of the party, the oldest Muslim political party in Afghanistan, are ethnic Tajiks of northern and western Afghanistan. During the Soviet-Afghan War and the following Afghan Civil War against the communist government, Jamiat-e Islami was one of the most powerful of the mujahideen groups...
and key member of the Grand National Coalition Ata Mohammad Noor
...governor of Balkh province since 2004 and warlord in the Mujahideen since 1979, he used to be known as The Teacher...
has warned of ’unprecedented wave’ of public uprisings over the arrest of sit-in protesters in western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province of Afghanistan.
Noor issued a statement earlier on Monday claiming that a number o the sit-in protesters belonging to the Grand National Coalition have been illegally locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! by the security forces in Herat province.
In an apparent gesture towards public uprisings, Noor said the government would face an ’unprecedented wave’ from the people if their colleagues are not immediately released.
This comes as the Grand National Coalition, consisting of political parties, has closed the offices of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in three provinces, including western Herat province.
The supporters of the coalition have said the step was taken after the government and the election commission failed to positively respond to their demands.
They have also warned that the election offices in other provinces will also be closed if the government and election commission did not respond positively to their demands.
The Grand National Coalition demands the registration of the voters using biometrics system while monitoring of the elections process is also among the key demands of the political parties.
[AlAhram] Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed in Cairo on Tuesday the latest developments in Paleostine as well the Paleostinian reconciliation process with Azzam El-Ahmed, the leading Fatah party member and head of its delegation in the national reconciliation talks.
In a statement following the meeting, the foreign ministry said El-Ahmed discussed with Shoukry the latest developments that are affecting the future of the grinding of the peace processor, which include the Jerusalem situation and the UNRWA crisis.
Shoukry renewed Egypt's commitment to support all of the legal and historical rights of the Paleostinian people, including the establishment of an independent Paleostinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
El-Ahmed also expressed his appreciation for Egypt's continuous efforts to support the Paleostinian cause and finding ways to deal with the recent challenges, stressing at the same time on the importance of the Jerusalem and Paleostinian refugee issues.
Shoukry also discussed with El-Ahmed the efforts of Fatah party and the Paleostinian authority to end the rift while the Paleostinian official praised Egypt's role in the reconciliation.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Algeria’s defense ministry on Tuesday announced its air force chief has been sacked, amid a broad shake-up of the country’s military hierarchy.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Ahmed Gaid Salah was to chair a ceremony on Tuesday at which major-general Hamid Boumaiza would assume the role of air force chief, the ministry said.
The event would see Boumaiza "replace major-general Abdelkader Lounes who has been retired," it said in a statement.
The announcement comes a day after Lounes’ dismissal was reported by Ennahar TV.
The private channel also reported the sacking of the commander of ground forces, the powerful general Ahcene Tafer, which has not been confirmed by the defense ministry.
Further unconfirmed dismissals came at the start of September, when according to Ennahar the air force chief of staff and the head of the air defense force were fired.
The recent shake-up comes weeks after President 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.... initiated an overhaul of Algeria’s military.
The commander of the national gendarmerie was sacked at the start of July, along with the heads of three out of six military districts.
That followed the president’s firing in late June of Abdelghani Hamel, the powerful director general of Algeria’s police force.
There have also been unconfirmed media reports of the replacement of the head of the central management of army security and the army’s inspector general.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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... ’s cabinet of ministers held a session on Tuesday chaired by King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians.... in which they called for joint efforts in countering Iranian’s terror activities in the region.
At the session, the cabinet recalled the recent resolutions passed during the 150th ordinary session of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... 's Council and discussed follow-up points on the crisis with Iran and ways to address its interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries.
"The Cabinet stressed that terrorism being practiced by Iran through its blatant interference in Arab affairs and its support for terrorist militias is one of the most appalling manifestations of terrorism, which needs unification and cooperation to confront and deter its tools, reiterating that the Kingdom has made efforts to combat terrorism and has not hesitated to provide all kinds of support with cooperation of the international community to eradicate this plague," a statement on Saudi Press Agency (SPA) read.
At the outset of the session, King Salman briefed the cabinet on the results of his meetings with President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... and Æthiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali after they signed the Jeddah Peace Agreement between their countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Hans-Georg Maassen downplays far-right attacks; said his agency had no reliable evidence that foreigners were ’hunted’ down in the streets ‐ a term Merkel used
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency lost his job Tuesday after his remarks downplaying anti-migrant violence became a battleground between Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems .. and her conservative critics.
The ouster of Hans-Georg Maassen is the latest political aftershock resulting from the influx of more than a million refugees into Germany since 2015, which has boosted right-wing populism in Germany and beyond.
Critics have long questioned whether Maassen, who took charge of the BfV spy agency in 2012, was still suitable for the post over his handling of the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack and his contacts with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Maassen’s decision to openly contradict Merkel in an interview with the mass-circulation daily Bild this month appears to have sealed his fate.
Responding to violent right-wing protests following the killing of a German man, allegedly by migrants colonists, in the eastern city of Chemnitz, Maassen said his agency had no reliable evidence that foreigners were "hunted" down in the streets ‐ a term Merkel had used.
He added that "according to my cautious evaluation, there are good reasons for thinking that it is deliberate misinformation, possibly in order to distract the public from the murder in Chemnitz."
Maassen provided no evidence to back up his assertion, but his comments were seized upon by the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which called him "a very good top civil servant who had the courage to criticize Merkel’s completely failed asylum policy" and now faces a "witch hunt."
Merkel’s coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats, accused Maassen of downplaying apparent anti-migrant violence and called for him to be fired .
For a senior civil servant to publicly wade into such a politically sensitive issue would normally have meant swift career death, but Maassen’s direct boss ‐ Interior Minister Horst Seehofer ‐ initially backed the spy chief.
Seehofer has regularly sparred with his conservative ally Merkel on migration since 2015, when he was one of the most prominent critics of her decision to keep open Germany’s borders as hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers trekked across the Balkans.
In a short statement following three-way talks Tuesday between Merkel, Seehofer and the head of the Social Democrats, the government said Maassen will be moved to a new job within the Interior Ministry and will be replaced at the spy agency.
Maassen may be out of the firing line for now, but the 55-year-old will likely remain influential behind the scenes within Germany’s security apparatus. The government statement noted that Seehofer "values his expertise in questions of public safety" and observers say the new job comes with a hefty pay rise.
Angela Merkel's government on Tuesday removed domestic spy chief Hans-Georg Maassen from office, transferring him to a different post to defuse an explosive row over immigration and the far right that once more rocked the German chancellor's fragile coalition.
"Mr Maassen will become state secretary in the interior ministry," Merkel and the leaders of her coalition parties announced in a statement after crisis talks.
The face-saving compromise lets Merkel's fourth-term government live to see another day, after her Social Democratic coalition partners had insisted on Maassen's departure as head of the BfV intelligence service, against the wishes of Interior Minister Horst Seehofer from her Bavarian CSU sister party.
In his senior new role, essentially a promotion, Maassen will not be responsible for supervising the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the party leaders stressed in their statement.
Maassen has rejected accusations that he has supported AfD lawmakers with early access to unpublished data and advice on how to avoid surveillance by his office.
The conflict over Maassen's fate once more highlighted the deep chasms within Merkel's coalition.
On one level, both major parties, the CDU and SPD, are distrustful partners stuck in a political marriage of convenience after the AfD, a one-time fringe party, poached millions of their voters in last year's elections.
But the rift is deepest between Merkel and Seehofer, whose own political future hangs in the balance as his CSU braces for potentially massive losses to the AfD in Bavarian state elections next month.
Seehofer recently labeled the migration issue "the mother of all problems" in German politics -- a comment read by many as a veiled reference to Merkel's nickname "Mutti", or Mummy.
An Nahar backgrounder on Hans-Georg Maassen can be seen here.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/19/2018 7:57 Comments ||
Top||
#4
What I want to know is what the leader of the free world is doing about the situation in Yemen. Merkel has been way too quiet about it and it's long past time that she led an international coalition to put an end to the violence there.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
09/19/2018 8:52 Comments ||
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#5
Ousted? He fell UP the ladder.
He was ousted from his position.
If a hard leftist succeeds him this is battlespace preparation for a ban of the AfD.
Maassen said his agency had no reliable evidence that foreigners were "hunted" down in the streets ‐ a term Merkel had used.
He added that "according to my cautious evaluation, there are good reasons for thinking that it is deliberate misinformation, possibly in order to distract the public from the murder in Chemnitz."
Maasen's assessment is shared by Saxony's state PM, Chemnitz' local mainstream newspaper and the local prosecutor.
Maassen provided no evidence to back up his assertion,
The video in question was published by an Antifa outlet under a misleading title. It doesn't show the alleged 'manhunt.'
Two years for someone how attempted to let a group of children burn in a Synagogue. And then no deportation because Israel could possibly harm him. Sweden is such a generous country.
[Telegraph] A court in Sweden ruled that a Palestinian man found guilty of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue cannot be deported to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, prompting a sharp rebuke from Israel.
The Court of Appeal for Western Sweden ruled that Feras Alnadim's "fundamental human rights" would be threatened because he would be at risk of reprisals. And what country have said they will execute him?
The court cited Israel’s "potential interest in the case" and "the insecure situation at the border and in the territory".
Alnadim, 22, was sentenced to two years in prison in June, as one of three men, two Palestinian and one Syrian, found guilty of firebombing a synagogue in Gothenburg on December 9.
Some 20 Jewish teenagers were celebrating together in the building when the firebomb was thrown, but no one was injured. The three men were identified from security camera footage and arrested shortly afterwards.
In its judgement, the appeal court said that as the attack had taken place only a few days after Donald Trump, the US president, announced the US embassy’s move to Jerusalem, saying it was clearly "intended as a revenge attack against Israel". This justified everything! I can't believe he even had to go to prison!
Swedes are too nice.
When you are nice to nice people, you get a nice society and everyone wins. Swedes are nice people and assume everyone else is nice so have let in lots of refugees. Unfortunately not all of them are nice.
When you are nice to nasty people, they see it as weakness and are nastier.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
09/19/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Two years???
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/19/2018 8:15 Comments ||
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#2
Well, its not like they stormed and trashed Washington, DC during the inaugural. BTW how much time did those miscreants get? /rhet question
Just colonizing boys being boys, European Conservative. After all, no real harm was done, and that Trump person had riled everyone up by moving the American embassy to Jerusalem as if Israel were a proper country.
[IsraelTimes] In call, Netanyahu expresses sorrow for deaths, hails security coordination; Putin says Israel attack breached Syrian illusory sovereignty, but blames ’tragic circumstances’ for plane loss
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... amid rising tensions between the two countries after a Russian spy plane was shot down by Syria during an Israeli Arclight airstrike.
Continued on Page 49
[BBC] After ten years of legal battles, Israel's Supreme Court has authorised the destruction of Khan al-Ahmar.
Supporters of Israel’s settlement of the occupied territories applaud what they say is Israel’s right to build on its own land.
But many, including the United Nations and the European Parliament, have been highly critical, saying the move jeopardises any chance of a two-state solution being found in the region.
Jeremy Bowen sent this report on the plight of those living there.
You can watch his interview with Israeli cabinet minister Naftali Bennett here.
Good to know Russia Today is keeping track of such things ...
[AlMasdar] USS ‘Harry S. Truman’ is crossing the Atlantic after leaving the US east coast following last week’s drills. The movement of the carrier, used during the Middle East mission in April, comes in the wake of US threats to Damascus.
Data provided by the US Naval Institute (USNI) on Monday showed the ship in the Atlantic roughly over 1,000km west of Ireland’s southern coast.
The previous position of the ship reported by the USNI the week before was not far from the US east coast. The aircraft carrier group with 6,500 sailors left its base in Norfolk and took part in “sustainment operations and carrier qualifications in the Atlantic” just over a week ago.
The warship’s Atlantic exercise comes after the White House warned earlier this month that it would respond “swiftly and appropriately” if the Syrian government used chemical weapons in its fight to secure Idlib.
That warning echoed an earlier vow by US National Security Advisor John Bolton that the US would “respond very strongly” if Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons “again.”
That comment came after the US and its allies accused Syria of being behind an alleged chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma in April. The US, UK, and France launched joint missile strikes on Syrian targets in response. Russia, however, insists the alleged attack was staged by the rebel-linked White Helmets.
The journey of USS ‘Harry S. Truman’ comes after a trip to the Middle East in April, shortly after the US first pointed the finger at Damascus for the alleged chemical attack in Douma.
The US Navy touts the USS ‘Harry S. Truman’ as the “finest aircraft carrier in the fleet,” stating that it has a wide range of mission capabilities, including maritime security operations, crisis response and counter-terrorism operations.
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.
[AlAhram] Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed in Cairo on Tuesday the latest developments in Paleostine as well the Paleostinian reconciliation process with Azzam El-Ahmed, the leading Fatah party member and head of its delegation in the national reconciliation talks.
Bouteflika
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians....
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as 
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
