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Today: 68 articles and 178 comments as of 11:06.
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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Taliban open to 10-day ceasefire with US troops in Afghanistan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 6: Politix
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Africa Horn
Sudan’s appoints new intelligence chief
[Sudan Tribune] The Sudanese government accepted, on Thursday, the resignation of the director of the General Intelligence Service (GIS) and appointed the head of the Military Intelligence on his post.

Sudan’s chief spy Abu Bakr Damplab offered his resignation on Wednesday after coming under fire following a bloody mutiny by the military wing of his agency on Tuesday.

Sovereign Council Spokesman Mohammed al-Faki announced that the collegial presidency in a meeting on Thursday accepted Damplab’s resignation.

"After consultations with all the concerned parties, Lt-Gen Jamal Abdel-Majeed Qasim Alsayed, head of the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency, has been appointed Director of the General Intelligence Service."

For his part, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok confirmed on his Facebook and Twitter accounts the appointment stressing that the decision was taken jointly by the Council of Ministers and the Sovereign Council.

"In search of stability for Sudan, and after discussions with Lt. Gen Burhan, I am glad to announce our joint decision to accept the resignation of Gen Abu-Bakr Dambalab from his post as Director Gen of the General Intelligence Services & to appoint Gen Jamal Abdelmajeed instead," he wrote to underscore the "successful partnership" between the civil-military tandem in Sudan.

Al-Burhan on Wednesday had announced Damplab’s resignation.

The former GIS chief had been severely criticized by Mohammed Hamdan Daglo who had accused Damplab of negligence in his dealings with the disarmament, and demobilization process of the disbanded Operations Department.

The newly appointed GIS director had been removed from the army by the ousted President Omer al-Bashir. At the time he was a major general and served as deputy chief of the military intelligence.

However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
Alsayed reintegrated the army, after the regime change and was appointed by al-Burhan at the head of the military intelligence on 29 October 2019.

In an unprecedented move, the GIS released a statement Thursday, to express "its deep regret at the events that occurred on Tuesday.

It further sought to explain the circumstances of the mutiny saying it had started in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan before to reach Khartoum.

Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Africa North
The Kremlin: #Hafter accepts Putin's invitation to visit #Moscow to continue the dialogue on #Libya.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  dosvdanya.
Posted by: Mercutio || 01/18/2020 7:29 Comments || Top||


Fayez Al-Sarraj, may decline going to Berlin and only send a delegation from the #GNA
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Egypt's top prosecutor orders release of two Turkish citizens, three Egyptians in Anadolu case
[AlAhram] Egypt's Prosecutor General has ordered on Thursday the release of two Ottoman Turkish citizens arrested a day earlier during a raid by security forces on an office where The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
’s state-run news agency
...and if you can't trust the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
Anadolu was illegally running its operation in Cairo.

According to a statement by prosecutor general, the two Ottoman Turkish citizens were released so as to be handed over to the Ottoman Turkish embassy in Cairo.

The prosecutor general has also ordered the release on bail of three other Egyptians.

The three Egyptian were released on bails of EGP 10,000.

The prosecution had interrogated the aforementioned, against the background of its investigations into the case of the Ottoman Turkish news agency, said the statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Egypt's interior ministry said the agency was working under the cover of a company named Seta that had been established by the terrorist Brotherhood group with the support of Turkey.

"The Egyptian national security sector had observed one of Turkey's electronic Media committees that took an apartment in Cairo as a hideout for its opposing activity," the ministry said.

"It was preparing false and fabricated reports on the political, economy, security, and human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
conditions in Egypt and send it back the agency's headquarters in Turkey," the ministry statement noted.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Africa Subsaharan
Iran's Quds Force aimed to launch terror groups in Africa, UN hears
[Jpost] A report by the UN's Panel on the Central African Republic details how the Quds Force allegedly met with the country's former president to offer him backing in return for amassing a terror group.

Iran's Quds Force attempted to set up terror cells in Central Africa to strike Western, Israeli and Saudi targets, UN news hounds have heard.

On April 19, a television report was broadcast on an international news channel carrying footage of Ismael Djidah, an ex-Séléka member, who had been arrested in Chad. "We want to create an army to fight against Westerners in Africa," he was filmed as saying.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


Arabia
#Riyadh pays $500 million to cover cost of US troops’ presence in #SaudiArabia
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  I'll wait for Herb's comment.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:37 Comments || Top||

#2  It's Saturday.
Erb doesn't get paid to work weekends.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2020 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Half a billion here. Half a billion there. Pretty soon you're talking real money.
Posted by: Jiggs Unuth9408 || 01/18/2020 13:39 Comments || Top||

#4  OrangeMan *did* say something about getting other countries to pay their fair share...
Posted by: SteveS || 01/18/2020 13:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Erb doesn't get paid to work weekends.

Okay, but how hard would it be to automate checking for mentions of his name and autoposting the pyramid in response thereto? It's like he doesn't even care! Shoot, I could just about do it and I can't even code.
Posted by: Chairong Chorong3362 || 01/18/2020 19:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Okay, but how hard would it be to automate checking for mentions of his name...

Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/18/2020 19:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Did someone mention the pyramid ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/18/2020 21:12 Comments || Top||

#8 
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2020 22:27 Comments || Top||


Britain
Thanks to #British for its widely-respected step to add entire #Hezbollah movement to its list of terrorist groups
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
The Times of Israel adds:
Israel and US welcome move and call on other nations to blacklist the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group; step follows British government decision last March.

Britannia’s finance ministry on Friday said it had added Leb’s entire Hezbollah movement to its list of terrorist groups subject to asset freezing.

The ministry previously only targeted the Shiite organization’s military wing but has now listed the whole group after the government designated it a terrorist organization last March.

The change requires any individual or institution in Britannia with accounts or financial services connected to Hezbollah to suspend them or face prosecution.

The group had "publicly denied a distinction between its military and political wings," the Treasury said in a notice posted on its website.

"The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism and was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the UK in March 2019," it added.

Its capture of two Israeli soldiers in 2006 sparked a 34-day war in which 1,200 people were killed.

The group is seen as a key component of Shiite-majority Iran’s strategy for regional influence.

Britannia’s move comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, after the US killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in an air strike earlier this month. Tehran retaliated by firing a volley of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraqi military bases.

Britannia currently proscribes 75 international terrorist organizations under terrorism legislation passed in 2000.
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  And CAIR?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2020 9:48 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
US and Mexico agree on plan to combat drug, arms trade
[Jpost] US and Mexico agree on plan to combat drug, arms trade
Mexico and the United States have agreed on a plan to combat illicit trafficking of arms, drugs and money, the Mexican government said on Thursday, following meetings between U.S. Attorney General William Barr and top Mexican officials.

The two neighboring countries also agreed to cooperate on measures to reduce drug consumption and combat addiction, the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement.

"A number of advances on the issue of arms trafficking were discussed with the aim of analyzing how to implement operations with non-intrusive technologies in key points of the border to stop movement of arms and ammunition into our country," it said.

In November, U.S. President Donald Trump
...the Nailer of NAFTA...
threatened to designate Mexican narco mobs as terrorist groups after a series of security lapses, including the murder of nine women and kiddies of U.S.-Mexican origin in northern Mexico.

The threat prompted a speedy request for talks by Mexico, and Barr made an initial visit to the country last month.

Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy was furiously chewing her cud and thinking...
Mexico has been preparing a package of judicial reforms that could allow wire taps to be used as evidence in court, as well as measures to limit legal challenges to avoid extradition delays for criminal suspects.

Such reforms could facilitate cooperation on security between Mexico and the United States, which under Trump has pressed Lopez Obrador to tighten border security in order to stem the flow of migrants colonists north from Central America.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  Not to be confused with the Obama's ("scandal free") Administration's gun running operations to the cartels? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2020 3:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Call Rodrigo Duterte for advice.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Brilliant, a plan with the cartel front men on how to stop the cartel. Honest LE officials just laugh after such events and see the theatrical nature of American government now.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/18/2020 12:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Honest LE officials just laugh after such events and see the theatrical nature of American government now.

That's the Shitshow, Jake
Posted by: Lex || 01/18/2020 12:26 Comments || Top||


Europe
French ‘far-right’ leader lays out plan to run for president
[IsraelTimes] French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announces her intention to stand in La Belle France’s 2022 presidential elections.

"My decision is made," Le Pen says as she presents her New Year’s wishes.

Le Pen says she is proposing a "grand alternative to put the country back on its feet" and create "national unity."

Le Pen reached the runoff in the 2017 election but lost badly to Emmanuel Macron, who is now in the midst of one of the most difficult periods of his presidency.

In addition to the grassroots yellow vest movement that’s seeking social and economic justice, Macron is facing a strike over reforms to the country’s pension system that has run for 43 days.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


US threatens tariffs on Europeans unless Iran nuke deal scrapped
[IsraelTimes] Tehran says Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an governments sacrificing agreement to avoid trade reprisals from ’bully’ Trump, after Washington says it will levy fees on car imports.


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 a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
accused European governments Thursday of sacrificing a troubled 2015 nuclear deal to avoid trade reprisals from US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
, who has spent nearly two years trying to scupper the agreement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Trump was again behaving like a "high school bully" and the decision by Britannia, La Belle France and Germany to heed his pressure to lodge a complaint over Iranian compliance deprived them of any right to claim the moral high ground.

The three governments "sold out remnants of #JCPOA (the nuclear deal) to avoid new Trump tariffs," Zarif charged.

"It won’t work my friends. You only whet his appetite. Remember your high school bully?"

Germany’s defense minister on Thursday confirmed a Washington Post report that the United States had threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on imports of European cars if EU governments continued to back the nuclear deal.

"This expression or threat, as you will, does exist," Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told a news conference during a visit to London.

Zarif said Europe’s unwillingness to antagonize the United States made a mockery of its stated determination to rescue the nuclear deal.

"If you want to sell your integrity, go ahead," Zarif tweeted. "But DO NOT assume high moral/legal ground."

The European states triggered a dispute mechanism established under the deal, which allows a party to claim significant non-compliance by another party before a joint commission, with appeals possible to an advisory board and ultimately to the UN Security Council.

Since Washington pulled out of the agreement and reimposed crippling unilateral sanctions in 2018, EU governments have sought to find a way to allow European businesses to continue trading with Iran without incurring huge US penalties.

As its economy has gone into reverse, an increasingly frustrated Iran has hit back with the step-by-step suspension of its own commitments under the deal.

The three European governments said they lodged their complaint in response to the latest step by Tehran suspending the limit on the number of centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium.

Speaking in India on Wednesday, Zarif already questioned how the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
could allow itself to be "bullied" by Washington when it was the world’s largest economy.

He warned the three EU governments party to the deal that their complaint could backfire, charging that they themselves were in violation because they had fallen in line with the US sanctions.

"They are not buying oil from us, all of their companies have withdrawn from Iran. So Europe is in violation," he said.

Zarif held talks in New Delhi on Thursday with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.

An EU statement said the two had "a frank dialogue" in which Borrell "underlined the continued interest of the European Union to preserve the agreement."
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Actions have consequences, EUSSR!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Tariff them anyway. They restrict our imports and make a mint doing it.

We provide their defense for free, and for what? Supposedly that gives us leverage. But I never see said leverage. Why else did Trump have to use threats? They should have gone along with it because of the ruinously expensive defense we provide for them.

Cut 'em loose. No more free shit. Ingrates.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 01/18/2020 5:10 Comments || Top||

#3  your-rope-you-pions. Just saying.
Posted by: Beau || 01/18/2020 6:48 Comments || Top||

#4  A boon to the US auto industry.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2020 9:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Forget it. JC-POS is DOA.
Posted by: Lex || 01/18/2020 12:46 Comments || Top||

#6  eurines
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2020 16:27 Comments || Top||


Repatriation of ISIS family receiving treatment in Erbil sparks political outcry in Norway
[Rudaw] The repatriation of an 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....
(ISIS) linked woman and her two children currently in Erbil has prompted political uproar in Norway.

Norway’s right-wing Progress Party (FRP) has threatened to leave the coalition government if plans to repatriate the family go ahead.

The 29-year-old Norwegian of Pak origin and her children departed from Erbil on a 5:10 pm Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna, a Kurdish security official told Rudaw at the city's international airport.

The family was being looked after by Norwegian officials after arriving in the Kurdistan Region on Tuesday. Officials at Erbil's Swedish Specialist Hospital told Rudaw that the woman's son, said to be critically ill, was receiving treatment at the hospital, which has previously cared for other children leaving Syria.

The repatriation is said to be on humanitarian grounds.

"We fear the child is sick," Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide is said to have told news hounds.
"He's got 'The Islam'"
Child welfare services are reportedly "ready to handle the children" upon their arrival in Norway.

The woman, who has not been named, travelled to Syria from the Norwegian capital in 2012 with her now-deceased husband, before giving birth to a son and daughter, aged five and three respectively. She has already been charged with "membership of a terrorist organization" by Norwegian police.

News of the repatriation has prompted minority coalition parties to rebel against the government.

Norway’s ruling Conservative Party has led the country in a coalition with the FRP, Christian Democratic Party (KRF) and Liberal Party since 2013.

The controversy has not only "upset the KRF, but a lot of Norwegians," said Finance Minister and KRF leader Siv Jensen on Thursday morning.

The party is said to be preparing a list of demands, due today, to be met by the government to avoid political chaos.

Others have focused on the immediate needs of the children, who grew up in the caliphate.

"Those children have been in a very demanding situation, a situation no children should be in. Like all children in Norway,they are entitled to the necessary health care, care and protection," Norway’s Minister of Children and Family Ingolf Ropstad told VG.

Norway previously brought home five orphans stranded in northern Syria last June.

Bringing home the women and kiddies linked to ISIS has polarized dozens of countries across the globe, particularly in Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
.Following the fall of Baghouz, the caliphate's last bastion in eastern Syria, women have pleaded with their governments to return home, calls which have largely gone unanswered as states grapple with security and legal issues surrounding their return.

Correction: Norway's Progress Party, not the Christian Democratic Party, has threatened to leave the government.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Perfect symbol of everything that's upside-down about the Global Grifter mentality: a hostile stranger's children are more important, have greater claim on our sympathies, than our own children.

Mrs. Jellyby lives on, and signals her virtue endlessly.
Posted by: Lex || 01/18/2020 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  No worries. Omar will marry her, then import to Minneapolis.
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/18/2020 0:39 Comments || Top||

#3  From the country that coined the word Quisling.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2020 11:13 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
DHS Approves $100K Grant Of Taxpayers' Money To CAIR
[DailyWire] In October, the Trump administration handed out $100,000 of taxpayer dollars to the islamic terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Middle East Forum has found.

To fund CAIR, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first awarded monies to the Washington, D.C. government, which then selected CAIR and a number of other extremist organizations as suitable sub-recipients. The federal government would likely have been aware, however, that CAIR was a grantee ‐ according to government documentation, it seems sub-grantees must be approved by DHS before funds are distributed.

Additional new federal grants of taxpayer money handed out to Islamist organizations include over $57,000 to the Muslim American Society (MAS), and $100,000 to Dar al-Hijrah, a hardline Virginia mosque once home to former al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, and long known key terror hub by law enforcement agencies.

Surprisingly, under the Trump administration, grants to extremist organizations have actually increased. As we noted last year, "between 2017 and 2018, the amount of taxpayers money given to organizations either influenced or controlled by Islamist activists more than tripled from $4 million to $13.5 million.
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/18/2020 01:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Department of Homeland Insecurity?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:30 Comments || Top||

#2  More money is more rope.
Posted by: Beau || 01/18/2020 6:41 Comments || Top||

#3  what was that line in the Constitution about giving aid and comfort to the country's enemies?
Posted by: Mercutio || 01/18/2020 7:37 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey to start Mediterranean gas exploration ‘soon’
A reconstituted sultanate’s gotta do what a reconstituted sultanate’s gotta do — ya can’t sultan without a serious income stream, and it doesn’t matter where you steal it.
[IsraelTimes] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
will start exploring for gas in the eastern Mediterranean this year, President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
vows, after signing a maritime deal with Libya.

"We will start search and drilling activities as soon as possible in 2020 after issuing licences for the areas," Erdogan says during a two-hour speech in the capital.

Ankara angered neighboring countries in the Mediterranean with an agreement signed with the Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
government in November, which claimed extensive areas of the sea for Turkey.

Greece says the deal fails to take into account the island of Crete, while Turkey has already upset Cyprus by sending ships to search for oil and gas off the divided island.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Time to slap Turkey down, hard?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:35 Comments || Top||

#2  past time. The time was years ago when Yip-yip proclaimed that 'Democracy was a bus you got off of when you reached your stop.'
Posted by: Mercutio || 01/18/2020 7:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Slips on Turban of Al

Turkey is getting into the Libya affair to siphon off its irregulars from Syria, while at the same time establishing a naval military corridor from Turkey to Libya via Israeli/Cypriot gas finds.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/18/2020 10:37 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Jewish Democrats push to reverse Trump migration ban on Muslim countries
[JP] - Two moderate Jewish Democrats spearheaded a call on the leadership of the US House of Representatives to bring a bill forward that would nullify President Donald Trump’s restrictions on immigration from a number of Muslim majority countries.
Whatsa matter - Wakandans don't kill enough American Jews?
It’s just posturing — the Republican-controlled Senate will never let such a bill get so far as discussion in committee.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 03:27 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)
Posted by: b || 01/18/2020 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  self-gassing
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 01/18/2020 9:29 Comments || Top||

#3  He didn't ban all Muslim countries. Only those with a record of close association with terrorists. It's amazing how Trump has exposed terrorist sympathizers in our midst.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2020 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  ..but, but you can't blame everyone for the actions of a few. See - unending blame of 'whites' for slavery that ended 150 years ago.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2020 11:17 Comments || Top||

#5  ^LOL
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 11:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Sadly, these Jews are serious. I guess they've never heard of "never again." I also think that they think they'll get into some higher level of heaven this way.
Posted by: gorb || 01/18/2020 11:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Unless they're Sadducees, gorb.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/18/2020 11:56 Comments || Top||

#8  "Abigail Spanberger (D-VA)."

**Spit** >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 01/18/2020 13:44 Comments || Top||

#9  You mean the same whites who ENDED slavery here, #4 P2k?
Posted by: Barbara || 01/18/2020 13:47 Comments || Top||

#10  What is it with leftist Jews that keep aligning themselves with those that want to kill them?!?!?
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/18/2020 14:35 Comments || Top||

#11  Ask 0bumhole. He seems to understand.
Posted by: gorb || 01/18/2020 17:17 Comments || Top||

#12  #10 Stockholm Syndrome.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 01/18/2020 17:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Maybe Grom... you would think eventually after generations they would get the hint.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/18/2020 19:45 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Pentagon receives late notice of US injuries in Iranian strike
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Defense Secretary Mark Esper was only made aware of possible brain trauma suffered by US troops during a Jan. 8 Iranian ballistic missile attack on al-Asad air base in Iraq a full 24 hours after injured service members were evacuated, the Pentagon’s top front man said today.
You mean, once the doctors had examined their patients and made a diagnosis? Dreadful, simply dreadful.
Esper was informed of the possible injuries when vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Hyten, interrupted a meeting to inform him, chief Pentagon front man Jonathan Hoffman said. The 11 US troops, eight of whom were evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and the rest to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, are expected to return to Iraq after follow-on screening.
Golly. It sounds like they were not badly injured — worse than a John F. Kerry Purple Heart splinter, but not enough for them to be invalided out.
"He was informed that the [US Central Command] commander had sent up a report that there had been 11 individuals that had been transported from al-Asad air base to receive additional treatment and screening based on exhibiting concussion-like symptoms and the possibility of TBI," Hoffman said, using an acronym to describe traumatic brain injuries.

The Defense Department’s top front man also shot back at claims that the Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
administration was trying to de-emphasize possible American injuries in the wake of the attack. "This idea that there was an effort to de-emphasize injuries for some sort of amorphous political agenda doesn’t hold water to what the administration has said on the record," he said.

The Pentagon is required to be informed of injuries to US troops that threaten life, limb or eyesight, which Hoffman said explained the delay in Central Command chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie notifying Esper.

Hoffman said the extent of the symptoms were not immediately known outside the units at the base, though the Washington Post first reported news of brain trauma screenings earlier this week. Defense One reported on Thursday night that 11 US troops had left the base, though the service members did so under their own power and were not medically evacuated, officials said today.

The majority of troops exhibiting symptoms of traumatic brain injuries left Iraq on Tuesday, while one service member left the base Jan. 10 after it was hit with 10 Iranian ballistic missiles.

In some ways, the Defense Department is still learning to diagnose and treat traumatic brain injuries, a signature injury to US troops during the 17-year war on terror, as faceless myrmidons and al-Qaeda-linked groups in Iraq and Afghanistan learned to utilize improvised bombs that can emit trauma-inducing blast waves.
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Yeah, sitting in a EMI can in a blast zone will make your eyes cross, like a head punch.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2020 9:47 Comments || Top||

#2  DOD is very sensitive about possible TBI injuries. If you were even possibly injured you will be screened for evidence of injury. Every deployer undergoes a form of neuropsych eval prior to deployment so they can be assessed for changes in that test. It's likely that this is the reason for the subsequent 'late' evacuation after a local interview indicates possible TBI.
Posted by: George Grumble1826 || 01/18/2020 15:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Facts, GG1826? But OrangeManBad!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/18/2020 17:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Some of those injuries do not manifest themselves straight away. Better to error on the side of caution.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/18/2020 21:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Activist: The #protests that Muqtada al-Sadr has called for aims for ending the public revolution in #Iraq and keeping the government of Abd Al-Mahdi
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


#Protesters in #TahrirSquare call on the #UnitedNations to protect them
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Good luck widdat.
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  good luck with that shit
Posted by: Chris || 01/18/2020 18:28 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Threat of escalation of violence along the Gaza border
[Ynet] Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
factions have decided to increase cross border violence following delays in negotiations on the long-term understanding between Israel Egypt and the ruling Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede, terror group according to reports in a Hamas affiliated media outlet in the Gaza Strip.
"Pay attention to meeeeeeeee!"
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 01:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Not until the weather improves.
Posted by: gorb || 01/18/2020 14:13 Comments || Top||


Finnish MP detained after attempting to breach Gaza border fence
Unerzogene Bint. Arrogant European with no manners — would she do something like this at Russia’s border, or at North Korea’s? On Page 2: WoT Background/Politics because the Israelis let her go after only ten hours.
[IsraelTimes] A Finnish parliament member was arrested by police on Monday after she and other Finnish activists attempted to breach the border fence with the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip.

Israeli sources tell the Haaretz newspaper Anna Kontula attempted to sabotage the fence. "We expect guests in Israel, and particularly public representatives, to honor Israeli law," the Foreign Ministry says.

The Helsinki Times reports that Kontula was held for some 10 hours before being released.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tired of eurotrash.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:33 Comments || Top||


Hundreds of Jordanians demonstrate in downtown Amman, calling on the government to cancel an agreement in which Israel began pumping natural gas to the kingdom this year
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
"We don't need no damn gas!"
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We want to freeze in the dark - Allan wills it!"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Hundreds! My My
Posted by: Sonny Black || 01/18/2020 7:21 Comments || Top||

#3  "No! No! We gas juice, not other way around!"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2020 11:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
‘Trump Effect' Takes Over Iran As Regime Starts Covering Country With American And Israeli Flags
h/t Instapundit
[The Lid] - Probably the most overlooked aspect of the "flags on the sidewalk" phenomenon in Iran is that, as the regime paints those flags everywhere, hoping Iranians will step on them, it is basically symbolizing its ‐ the regime’s ‐ effective "occupation" by its obsession with the Great Satan and the Little Satan.
Trump lives rent-free not just in Dem's brains?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 05:21 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  If Trump told you he could get Iran to paint American flags all over the country, you would have laughed at him as being deranged.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/18/2020 11:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh. One of those "hold my beer!" Moments. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 01/18/2020 11:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Clearly they are worried by the symbolic respect for the US and Israel displayed by a populace that has been required to chant Death to those same countries for over 40 years.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/18/2020 12:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Agreed, #2 gorb. :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 01/18/2020 13:43 Comments || Top||


Senior Hezbollah official warns that Lebanon could fall into chaos and ‘complete collapse’ unless a new government is formed
Why should today be different than any other day?
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  What do you call what you have now?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:34 Comments || Top||

#2  How would we be able to tell?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 01/18/2020 11:06 Comments || Top||


Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami says the country's Armed Forces are ready to give a strong response to any act of adventurism
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  "Send more Ukrainian liners"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:38 Comments || Top||


#Iran ready for negotiations with #SaudiArabia, #PersianGulf states: FM Zarif
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


#Iranian chess referee who has been accused of violating her country's Islamic dress code said that she does not want to return home from #Russia out of fear for her safety
Aaaahhhhh, the hair rays!!! I can’t stop myself .... Must. Shoot. My. Gun.
No wait — that only affects men. Sorry.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


#Khamenei in his rare Friday prayers sermon again interferes openly in the #Iraqi domestic affairs, and urges the expulsion of the #US troops from #Iraq
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Rouhani says Iran enriching more uranium than before nuclear deal
[IsraelTimes] Islamic Theocratic Republic president says his government working to prevent confrontation or war; dialogue with world powers difficult but ’possible’

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani
...Iran's moderate president, which he is, relative to his predecessor, which doesn't mean he's anything but a puppet of the nearest holy man...
said Thursday the country is now enriching more uranium than it was before a 2015 deal with world powers that was supposed to scale back its nuclear activities, and in particular enrichment.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Sure. Kind of explains where all that extra uranium came from, right?
Posted by: gorb || 01/18/2020 3:57 Comments || Top||


‘Days of God’: A look at Iran’s mounting crises
[IIsraelTimes] Islamic Theocratic Republic reeling from US killing Soleimani to shooting down a Ukrainian airliner, while dealing with sanctions, protests and an economic meltdown.

Iran’s supreme leader says his nation is living through "days of God."
"What's that Lassie? Timmy's The Hidden Imam's in the well?"
The Islamic Theocratic Republic has been reeling from one crisis to another, from the assassination by the United States of its top general to the Revolutionary Guard’s accidental shootdown of a passenger plane carrying scores of young people, most of them Iranians. US sanctions have crippled its economy as tensions with America have soared.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Iran’s supreme leader says his nation is living through "days of God."

Curious phrase. So that means, what-- Iran was godless before this?

I.e. before Abu Orange unleashed His Terrible Swift Sword on your boy? How did Le Grand Satan morph into Le Grand Orange-Dieu?
Posted by: Lex || 01/18/2020 12:32 Comments || Top||

#2  12th Imam in 3...2...1...
Posted by: jpal || 01/18/2020 17:24 Comments || Top||

#3  You were warned duely right here on The Burg.

So now you know GOD HATES YOU.
Posted by: newc || 01/18/2020 19:33 Comments || Top||


Syria truce fails as Idlib civilians killed daily: UN
[AlAhram] United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
chief Michelle Bachelet called on Friday for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria's opposition-held Idlib province, saying the latest ceasefire attempt had yet again failed to protect civilians.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, which for years has backed Syrian rebels fighting to oust Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
, agreed a truce with Russia that was supposed to have taken hold in the bastion of 3 million people in the northwest earlier this month.

But witnesses and Death Eater sources said pro-Assad Russian and Syrian jets have been hitting the province in a renewed assault. Moscow denied bombing civilians.

"It is deeply distressing that civilians are still being killed on a daily basis in missile strikes from both the air and ground," Bachelet said in a statement.

"This agreement ‐ as with others in the past year ‐ has yet again failed to protect civilians."

Her office received reports that air strikes resumed on Jan. 15, she said. Armed groups had also carried out deadly ground-based attacks.

"People are still being killed, many people, on both sides of the divide," U.N. human rights front man Jeremy Laurence told a news briefing.

Since hostilities intensified in the so-called "de-escalation zone" in Idlib on April 29, U.N. monitors have verified incidents in which 1,506 civilians, including 293 women and 433 children, were killed, he said.

Around 350,000 Syrians, mostly women and kiddies, have fled Idlib since early December, and sought shelter in border areas near Turkey, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  It's an Islamic truce, UN.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/18/2020 3:44 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Bureaucracy and brutality: New evidence exposes Islamic State hierarchy
[IsraelTimes] Trove of documents compiled by a US-based Syrian rights group could be used in international prosecutions of jihadists.

Documents compiled by a US-based Syrian rights group reveal how 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....
jihadists used one of their most powerful bureaucratic bodies to regulate daily life and impose and execute penalties.

The new evidence could be used in international prosecutions.

The Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center said Thursday that the evidence ‐ documents produced by IS itself ‐ could help identify individuals responsible for atrocities during the jihadists’ four-year reign of terror and lead to criminal prosecutions.

The 24-page report, called "Judge, Jury and Executioner," is based on dozens of documents obtained by SJAC from inside Syria and collected by a local activist from abandoned IS offices in Raqqa province, where the gunnies also had their self-declared capital in a city that carries the same name.

Dozens of documents showed that the Bureau of Justice and Grievances had a much more expansive role than the terror group had publicly revealed. While IS portrayed it as a body that investigated complaints against its own members and held them accountable, the report showed that it had a more integral role in sentencing and executing penalties, issuing arrest warrants and death and marriage certificates, and regulating daily life, including use of technology, in the territories controlled by IS.

Mohammad al-Abdallah, SJAC executive director, said the report explains the internal dynamics among the different branches of IS and how decisions were made ‐ an important tool for prosecutors investigating the holy warrior group that can help establish chain of command.

Such an internal picture could help prosecutors move beyond pursuing strictly terrorism-related charges by establishing responsibility for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, al-Abdallah said.

The report also focused on the non-combatant side of IS ‐ prosecutors and judges ‐ who were key in planning and ordering crimes, not just executing them, al-Abdallah said.

The SJAC has already compiled at least nine names of IS judges and prosecutors based on the documents already reviewed.

Even though the real identity of those named may need more than the documents to establish, such as photos, witness testimonies and prison records, al-Abdallah said his center’s project is only starting. Thousands more documents and videos are available to al-Abdallah’s center and his team of researchers plan to go through them all.

"We will start matching videos to documents basically and mapping out identities," al-Abdallah said.

Thousands of IS jihadists are languishing in prisons in Syria and Iraq, including hundreds of Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
ans. Their fate has been a major dilemma for their home countries as well as Syria and Iraq, who are keeping them in crowded detention facilities. The issue has triggered a debate in many European countries, many of which have declined to repatriate their nationals citing security concerns.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
23[untagged]
9Govt of Iran
4Arab Spring
3Govt of Iran Proxies
3Hamas
3Govt of Iraq
3Hezbollah
3Islamic State
2Taliban
2Govt of Saudi Arabia
2al-Nusra
2Moslem Colonists
1Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan
1al-Shabaab (AQ)
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Commies
1Govt of Sudan
1Govt of Syria
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Narcos
1Sublime Porte

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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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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
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Besoeker
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2020-01-18
  Taliban open to 10-day ceasefire with US troops in Afghanistan
Fri 2020-01-17
  Iraqi police arrest ISIS religious official in eastern Mosul
Thu 2020-01-16
  Five killed as Sudan crushes revolt by security agents
Wed 2020-01-15
  Pelosi Names Impeachment Managers
Tue 2020-01-14
  Project Veritas #Expose2020 Part 1: Bernie Sanders Field Organizer Suggests Gulags to Help ‘Nazified’ Trump Voters
Mon 2020-01-13
  Corey Booker Throws In The Towel
Sun 2020-01-12
  Detention of UK's ambassador to Tehran (released an hour later)
Sat 2020-01-11
  Iran fesses up, admits they shot down airliner
Fri 2020-01-10
  Iran invites American investigators to take part in the probe into PS752 plane incident that killed 176 people on board
Thu 2020-01-09
  U.S. Officials Confirm Iran Shot Down Ukrainian Airliner
Wed 2020-01-08
  Iran informs the United Nations and #UNSC that they ''do not seek war and warn of any military adventures"
Tue 2020-01-07
  Iraq Under Missile Attack From Iran
Mon 2020-01-06
  3 Americans Dead, 6 Aircraft Destroyed Or Damaged, Including A Rare Spy Plane, In #Kenya Attack
Sun 2020-01-05
  Iran Puts $80M Bounty on Trump's Head for Soleimani Hit
Sat 2020-01-04
  6 More Iran-Backed Leaders Zapped, incl. Shibl al-Zaidi, commander of Kataib Imam Ali

Better than the average link...



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