Czechs open back up for businesses as virus recedes
[IsraelTimes] The Czech Republic has entered another phase of relaxing restrictive measures adopted to contain the coronavirus pandemic, opening stores with up to 2,500 square meters (26,900 square feet) of space. At the same time, the zoo and botanical parks, fitness centers and driving schools are back to business. Public gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed, up from two.
The government rules on social distancing and mandatory face masks remain in place.
In a boost for the economy, the three Czech plants of Skoda Auto that belong to Germany’s carmaker Volkswagen renewed production on Monday. The company employs some 34,000 people.
One person died of COVID-19 on Sunday for a total of 221, while 73 patients with the disease needed intensive care in hospitals, the second lowest number since April 1.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2020 00:00 ||
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#15
Last three weeks the line outside Sam's Club here formed up before the doors opened and extended from the door all the way back to the loading dock. Today no line, some stuff still in short supply or limit 1 or 2 per customer visit. Improvement nonetheless.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/28/2020 11:42 Comments ||
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#18
No lines at Von's in Santee this AM. Checkers also had no lines. Salads were the only thing in short supply - stocker said the delivery would be in later today
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2020 12:04 Comments ||
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#19
I lucked out at Walmart on Sunday. An employee was guarding/distributing packs of toilet paper. Still a hot commodity, but maybe, just maybe, the end in the madness is near.
#20
Local grocery chain (Tom Thumb) this morning, during senior hours. Fair to good stock of everything, except sanitizing stuff. Several off-brands of TP and a modest supply of Charmin.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2020 12:30 Comments ||
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#21
RE: #7. I just happened to check the IHME model this morning. US has had 70% of its projected deaths. NY 90%. Texas 40%, (but it is opening a little).
Figures don't lie, but politicians abuse them.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2020 12:35 Comments ||
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#22
Mexico Deports Nearly All Of Its Illegal Migrants Amid Coronavirus Fears, Government Reveals
That needs to be presented to every federal judge with the clear comment - Are the Mexicans racist for doing that? If not, then quit obstructing the enforcement of our own laws.
[NBC] President Donald Trump has pushed his military and national security advisers in recent days to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan amid concerns about a major coronavirus outbreak in the war-torn country, according to two current and one former senior U.S. officials.
Trump complains almost daily that U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan and are now vulnerable to the pandemic, the officials said.
His renewed push to withdraw all of them has been spurred by the convergence of his concern that coronavirus poses a force protection issue for thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and his impatience with the halting progress of his peace deal with the Taliban, the officials said.
#6
Lincoln fired a lot of generals. Too many egos involved. Like Vietnam, they can't face the fact that the pols don't want to pay the political capital to do what it takes to win. Eliminate the enemy's base of operation. In the case of Vietnam it was the North. In the case of Afghanistan it is Pakistan. Pull out. New uniforms all around.
[ToloNews] Quoting two current and one former senior US official,
...completely unnamed, anonymous “officials” who do and did something somewhere in the vast organizations that are the American executive, legislative, and judicial branches just happen to confess all to a passing NBC “journalist”. So we should totally trust this report, dear Reader...
NBC News reports that US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... has pushed his military and national security advisers in recent days to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan amid concerns about a major coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... outbreak in the country.
Typically, administration officials or policy decision-makers speak of a gradual, responsible and conditional withdrawal from Afghanistan — a country hit by decades of war and violence.
But according to NBC News quoting officials, Trump complains almost daily that US troops are still in Afghanistan and are now vulnerable to the pandemic.
He promised to get them out back in 2016. DoD officials have been dragging their feet on the matter since the day he was sworn in.
The officials are quoted as saying that Trump’s renewed push to withdraw all troops is due to the combination of his concern that the coronavirus poses a force protection issue for thousands of US troops in Afghanistan, and his impatience with the delayed progress of his peace deal with the Taliban ...Arabic for students... According to NBC News, the officials said Trump’s military advisers have made the case to him that if the US pulls troops out of Afghanistan because of the coronavirus, by that standard the Pentagon would also have to withdraw from places like Italia, which has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.
"There is concern from a variety of places that we could leave Afghanistan," one senior US official as quoted by NBC News, pointing to concerns voiced by US allies, members of Congress and US military officials.
According to Resolute Support, four coalition service members have tested positive for COVID-19.
"The service members were newly-arrived in the country and were in a precautionary screening facility when they became symptomatic, were moved to isolation, and were tested," the mission said in a statement on March 24.
One senior administration official and a defense official said that while the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan because of the coronavirus has been under discussion, a more likely outcome would be to consolidate American forces at bases in one or two parts of the country, the NBC reported.
US officials worry the virus could become rampant in Afghanistan, given its lack of health care and testing and its shared border with Iran, which has been hit hard by the pandemic.
The remarks come as the US has already started reducing the number of its troops in Afghanistan after a peace agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... on February 29.
[ToloNews] More than 500 civilians, including more than 150 children, were killed due to the fighting in Afghanistan during the first quarter of 2020, said a new UNAMA report released on Monday.
The report said there was a total of 1,293 civilian casualties (533 killed and 760 injured) in Afghanistan during the first three months of the year, indicating the heavy toll the conflict continues to inflict on the civilian population.
The report tracks a disturbing increase in violence during March, following the Afghan-Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... agreement at the end of February, which many hoped would lead to reduced violence, especially amid the spread of COVID-19.
UNAMA attributed "39 percent" to the Taliban, "13 percent to ISIS," and the remainder to undetermined anti-government Death Eater groups.
"I call on all parties to seize the opportunity offered by the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire to focus collective efforts on fighting a common enemy, the COVID-19 pandemic," said Deborah Lyons, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA. "To safeguard the lives of countless civilians in Afghanistan and to give the nation hope of a better future, it is imperative that violence is stopped with the establishment of a ceasefire and for peace negotiations to commence."
UNAMA said it is "particularly concerned" about the escalation in violence during March and increasing civilian casualties.
"This trend is all the more striking as it followed a 22 to 28 February ’reduction in violence’ period between Pro-Government Forces and the Taliban, as well as the 29 February agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban," it said.
"Anti-Government Elements (AGEs) continued to be responsible for the majority of civilian casualties — 55 per cent — during the first quarter, causing 710 civilian casualties (282 killed and 428 injured)," the report said.
UNAMA attributed "39 percent" to the Taliban, "13 percent to ISIS," and the remainder to undetermined anti-government Death Eater groups.
According to the report, the number of civilian deaths attributed to anti-government groups--particularly the Taliban — increased by "22 percent" in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019, mainly due to an "increase in assassinations and summary executions."
Pretty circle graph of the various casualty groups can be seen at this point in the article at the link.
"Pro-government Forces (PGFs) were responsible for 32 percent of all civilian casualties during the first quarter of 2020, causing 412 civilian casualties (198 killed and 214 injured). Of concern, pro-government forces were responsible for more child casualties than anti-government groups during the first three months of the year and over twice as many child deaths, mainly due to Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and indirect fire during ground engagements," said UNAMA report.
UNAMA attributed "21 percent" of overall civilian casualties to Afghan national security forces, "eight percent" to international military forces, and the remainder to pro-government gangs.
Although UNAMA documented a reduction in civilian casualties caused by the Afghan national security forces for the first quarter of 2020, the report said that there are concerns about the "uptick in civilian casualties in March as a result of their operations, mainly from ground engagements, particularly the use of indirect fire, and airstrikes."
The last civilian casualty incident of the quarter attributed to international military forces came out on February 17, before the ’reduction in violence’ period.
"Children and women continue to be disproportionately impacted by the violence," said the report," specifying that "from January 1 to March 31, 2020, UNAMA documented 417 child casualties (152 killed and 265 injured) and 168 women casualties (60 killed and 108 injured)."
"Despite increasing levels of violence and civilian casualties in March, the overall number of civilian casualties in the first quarter of 2020 represents a 29 percent decrease in comparison to the first quarter of 2019 and the lowest figure for a first quarter since 2012," said the report.
[Sudan Tribune] The disbanded National Congress Party (NCP) is seeking to sow discord between the military and civilians components of the transitional authority, said the heard of Sudan’s Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Al-Burhan further asserted arrangements are underway to arrest those who are involved in counter-revolutionary activities.
"The dissolved NCP and the former regime are the only ones affected by the revolution. So, they are the first to obstruct its goals and seek to sow sedition among the components of the revolution," he said in a talk show on the official Sudan TV on Saturday evening.
"We say that the armed forces will not deviate from the oath they took to protect the Sudanese people’s revolution," he added.
He added that every time there is a rapprochement between the armed forces and the political "forces of the revolution", rumours emerge about a coup d’etat to destabilize security and stability.
The supporters of the former regime managed to organise three demonstrations in Khartoum during April. Their slogans were about bread and fuel shortage, or to denounce Hamdok’s government and call on al-Burhan to take power.
These protests took place after a long period of disinformation campaigns and fake news spread on social media.
The President of the Sovereignty Council affirmed that the coming period will witness the arrest of the runaways who are working to undermine the revolution.
In a bid to explain the delay in the arrests of those Islamists, he said the security services do not have the right to arrest them under the new laws, pointing the arrest orders should now be issued by a huge after the investigation.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... he revealed that a meeting was held recently with the participation of the Attorney General to discuss ways to speed up the investigations to before to arrest them and bring them to a "fair trial", as he said.
During the talk show, al-Burhan said that he and his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo Hemetti were surprised by the rumours about a conflict between the two men. He said they intentionally appeared together to dispel such rumours.
He also stressed that he is in constant contact and continuous consultation with the Prime Minister, noting that such a working relationship "unifies our visions" on the national issues.
"We are partners and we must adhere to this partnership, as it is the guarantee of crossing this difficult stage".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2020 00:00 ||
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[Sudan Tribune] 34 military commanders and politicians from the Jebel Marra area of Darfur joined the Sudan Liberation Movement - Transitional Council (SLM-TC) led by Hadi Idris Yahya who is also the chairman of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF)
This SLM-TC is currently taking part with the other SRF groups in the South Sudan-brokered peace talks to end the war in Darfur and other areas.
In a statement released on Sunday Salah Adam (Rasas) announced his merger with the SLM-TC adding that they decided, he and other commanders and politicians, to participate with their comrades of arms in the revolutionary struggle.
"We took this decision because we believe fully in what the Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council did and has been doing for the unity of the revolutionary action factions in one front," stressed the statement.
Rasas was promoted by Abdel Wahid al-Nur to the rank of SLM general commissioner in February 2011 but he rejoined Abul Gasim Imam in 2013 after blaming al-Nur for the lack of vision and absence of institutions.
Discussions between SLM-TC leadership and Rasas took more than a year, sources close to the merger told Sudan Tribune.
The SLM-TC’s leader Monday welcomed the merger of Rasas and his comrades saying they represent a "significant addition to the Movement".
He said that the group led by Salah Rasas includes important field commanders in Southern Jebel Marra some of them were part of Imam group and others from the SLM-AW.
Idris expected that more commanders will join their movement in the near future.
"The merger of Rasas and his group would positively contribute to pushing the grinding of the peace processor forward," he stressed.
The statements included the names of the commanders and politicians who joined the SLM-TC.
Several holdout rebel factions remain active in the Greater Jebel Marra area. The SLM of Abdel Wahid an-Nur, (SLM-AW), SLM-TC, SLM-Rasas who defected from Imam a signatory of a peace agreement in January 2017 and SLM- Salih Borsa.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2020 00:00 ||
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[San Diego UT] Nicolás Maduro has named a powerful ally sanctioned by the U.S. as a drug kingpin along with a cousin of the late Hugo Chavez to revamp Venezuela's oil industry amid massive gasoline shortages.
Tareck El Aissami
...such a traditional Venezuelan name. Dear Tarry is Hezbollah’s man in Venezuela’s government as well as their connection to FARC ...
was appointed oil minister Monday and Asdrubal Chavez tapped to head of state-run oil giant PDVSA. The appointments were published in the official gazette. The government has yet to comment.
Both positions were occupied until now by Gen. Manuel Quevedo, who during his 28-month tenure watched as oil production in the country sitting atop the world's largest petroleum reserves collapsed by 65%.
Such efficiency must be admired, despite a distinct lack of effectiveness.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently added El Aissami to its list of 10 most-wanted fugitives. He was sanctioned in 2017 as allegedly being a major drug trafficker and then was indicted two years later on allegations of violating those sanctions.
#6
Ref #4 Never personally wrenched rods, but I sure have held that brake handle a time or ten. Thanks for the visual, too. Good memories of wild men and wild times.
[RFE/RL] Vali Karimov, a taxi driver from the southern Tajik district of Muminobod, thought his son was living a respectable life in Germany with a wife he met there and the two children they've had together.
According to the German authorities, all of the suspects arrived in Germany as asylum seekers. North Rhine Westphalia Interior Minister Herbet Reul said German police "have had the suspects in [their] sights for a long time."
That all changed on April 16 when Tajik Sherlocks knocked on their door to ask about his 24-year-old son, Sunatulloh Karimov. That's when the family learned that Sunatulloh was one of five Tajiks arrested in Germany for allegedly plotting 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.... (IS) terrorist attacks.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/28/2020 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
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#1
What's Tajik for:
"He dindu nuffin! He wuz turnin' his life around! Had an album 'bout to drop!"
[Rudaw] The United States has granted Iraq another sanctions waiver to import energy from Iran, despite ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran.
An official inside the US State Department said on Sunday the US has granted Iraq another 30-day waiver to import Iranian electricity, Rooters reports.
"The Secretary [of State Mike Pompeo] granted this brief extension of the waiver to allow time for the formation of a credible government," an unnamed State Department official told the wire agency.
The new waiver is scheduled to expire on May 26.
The last waiver was granted on March 27 and was due to expire on Monday.
This is the eighth and shortest waiver Iraq has been granted since the US reimposed sanctions on 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 JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in November 2018 after Washington withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, in May 2018.
The purpose of the waivers is to give Iraq time to gradually reduce its reliance on Iranian energy imports.
Iraq has suffered chronic power shortages since the 1990s, made worse by decades of war, sanctions, and terrorist attacks, leading to daily blackouts.
To make up for the shortage of domestic power production, Iraq has been importing Iranian electricity and gas to fire its power stations, much to the ire of Washington.
US patience seems to be running out.
The month-long waiver, compared to the 90- and 120-day waivers of the past, is a clear sign of renewed pressure from Washington.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/28/2020 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] An Israeli court has ordered the Paleostinian Authority to pay nearly $150 million in damages to the families of people killed in terror attacks.
The decision comes following a lawsuit brought by Shurat Hadin, an Israeli legal advocacy group, on behalf of relatives of victims from a number of attacks, mostly carried out during the second Paleostinian uprising in the early 2000s. A previous court ruling from last year found the Paleostinian Authority to be liable for those attacks, along with other actors.
In its decision Friday, the Jerusalem court ruled that the funds would come from tax money that Israel collects on behalf of the Paleostinians. Shurat Hadin had asked that more than $2 billion be paid in compensation.
The court gave Israel until next month to request that the order be annulled. Israel might consider appealing if it fears the freezing of the funds could destabilize the cash-strapped Paleostinian government.
"We continue to fight even 20 years later and we will not rest until we achieve justice for terror victims," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the head of Shurat Hadin.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the Paleostinian official who coordinates the Paleostinian Authority’s communication with Israel, called the decision "piracy and and theft of Paleostinian money."
Under interim peace deals, Israel collects customs duties and other taxes on behalf of the Western-backed Paleostinian Authority, and transfers the funds to the Paleostinians each month. These transfers cover a sizable chunk of the Paleostinian government’s budget.
Israel has in the past frozen the transfers to penalize the Paleostinians for certain policies or actions.
[IsraelTimes] State Department says Washington ready to approve ’illusory sovereignty and the application of Israeli law’ in some areas, but calls for Israel to negotiate further with Paleostinians.
Not that anyone including the Palestinians and Jordanians think negotiating will make any difference whatsoever, but rituals must be observed even as the message is sent.
Lots of following tweets and video. NEEDS TRANSLATION BY ARABIC SPEAKERS and ANALYSIS BY US INTEL.
Saudi intel ex-chief speaks candidly about how informants are recruited & about the Safari Club formed by Paris with Arab regimes & Iran to counter communism & support the post-Nixon tied-down US spy agencies. He spoke about it before, but this is local TV pic.twitter.com/Exnb7gMfLl
Posted by: 3dc ||
04/28/2020 04:54 ||
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#1
Excerpt from Wiki. Contains the usual suspects. With the passing of Jeffrey Epstein, the Little Saint James Island chapter and source recruitment office has recently closed.
The Safari Club takes its name (reportedly de Marenches' idea)[7] after the resort in Kenya where the group first met in 1976. The club was operated by Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi—also a friend of Adham's.
The original charter establishes that an operations centre would be built by 1 September 1976 in Cairo.[8] The group made its headquarters there, and its organization included a secretariat, a planning wing, and an operations wing. Meetings were also held in Saudi Arabia and in Egypt. The group made large purchases of real estate and secure communications equipment.
The creation of the Safari Club coincided with the consolidation of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). The BCCI served to launder money, particularly for Saudi Arabia and the United States—whose CIA director in 1976, George H. W. Bush, had a personal account.
BCCI also served as an intelligence gathering mechanism by virtue of its extensive contacts with underground organizations worldwide.
#3
Prince Turki who headed Saudi Intelligence from 1977-2001, gave a speech in 2001 to Georgetown University, and stated the following:
“In 1976, after the Watergate matters took place here, your intelligence community was literally tied up by Congress. It could not do anything. It could not send spies, it could not write reports, and it could not pay money, In order to compensate for that, a group of countries got together in hope of fighting communism and established what was called the Safari Club. The Safari Club included France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Iran…so, the Kingdom, with these countries, helped in some way, I believe, to keep the world safe when the United States was not able to do that. That, I think, is a secret that many of you don’t know.”
#4
b ~ Interesting quote. BTW, whatever became of our old friend and the former head of the Magic Kingdom's General Intelligence Director (GID) Bandar bin Sultan ?
#5
Removed as head of Intelligence Service
On 15 April 2014 Bandar was removed from his position "at his own request" according to the announcement in the Saudi state media.[61][62] He remained as Secretary General of the National Security Council until it was abolished in January 2015.
r considers himself an American Hamiltonian conservative.[3] Before the 2000 U.S. presidential election was decided, he invited George H. W. Bush to go pheasant shooting on his English estate in a "Desert Storm reunion".[3] After the September 11 attacks in 2001, in an interview in the New York Times, he stated, "Bin Laden used to come to us when America through the CIA and Saudi Arabia, were helping our brother mujahideen in Afghanistan, to get rid of the communist secularist Soviet Union forces. Osama bin Laden came and said 'Thank you. Thank you for bringing the Americans to help us.' At that time, I thought he couldn’t lead eight ducks across the street."[63]
h/t Hot Air
As if Iran wasn’t having enough problems during the pandemic already. They were among the slowest to respond to the novel coronavirus outbreak and they continued to allow regular flights to and from China until only recently. The percapita death toll in their nation was among the highest in the world and most average citizens couldn’t expect much help or relief from their corrupt government. And now, to top it all off, a rumor has been going around that drinking methanol (commonly known as methyl alcohol or wood alcohol) can stave off the virus or even cure COVID-19. The result? More than 700 people have died from methyl alcohol poisoning, and those are only the numbers that the government is willing to admit to.
#1
According to the world o meter data, it doesn't look all that bad. As reported. I suppose it hasn't got into the rural areas at all yet. DO they have subways in Tehran?
Why yes, they do! The Tehran Metro carries more than 3 million passengers a day
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2020 12:26 Comments ||
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#2
a rumor has been going around that drinking methanol (commonly known as methyl alcohol or wood alcohol) can stave off the virus or even cure COVID-19.
Didn't the old man in the Andromeda Strain survive because he habitually drank methanol?
#3
In the book, the old man, Peter Jackson, survived because his blood was too acidic for the disease. It was because of the Sterno but also the aspirin that he took in large quantity.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/28/2020 18:31 Comments ||
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#4
Michael Chricton was WAY too ahead for his time. Sad loss
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2020 18:44 Comments ||
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#5
I thought all alcohol was haram in Islam. To the point that some Muslim healthcare workers in the UK wouldn't use alcohol based hand sanitizer.
How is this even a thing?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/28/2020 21:00 Comments ||
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Lebanese International Affairs Expert Abdo Al-Laqis: COVID-19 Was Made by the U.S. and Deliberately Sent to China; It Is Designed to Kill off People over 65, Because They Are Unproductive pic.twitter.com/lIMR9pcTpe
[JustTheNews] Acting Director of National Intelligence is shrinking down his bureaucracy, and sending resources to other spy agencies.
No need to hire new people when borrowed staff can be sent back where they came from. And if some of them should be miffed and choose to retire instead, that’s the equivalent of two people downsized, one in each organization.
When Ambassador Ric Grenell took over as America’s acting intelligence czar earlier this year, he inherited a Director of National Intelligence Office that had ballooned in both size and mission.
Created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to ensure better communication and coordination between the 17 main intelligence agencies, ODNI had swelled by this year to 1,800 employees — many with senior salaries — and a similar number of contractors.
And the mission of coordination had crept to include analysis and many other tasks normally reserved for the likes of the CIA, DIA, and FBI. In essence, ODNI started competing to perform the same jobs as other agencies it was supposed to supervise.
Grenell saw a bureaucracy with much duplication and cost. He wasn’t alone. Multiple reviews of the agency’s structure over the last 24 months had flagged the need for reforming and shrinking ODNI, but no one pitched the shovel into the dirt to get change started. Grenell did.
With little fanfare, the acting DNI and ambassador to Germany has undertaken a major shakeup of ODNI, shrinking down its size and sending many employees back to spy agencies on the front lines. He’s trying to finish the job before President Trump’s nominee, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), is confirmed.
The heads of the recipient agencies are welcoming the change, including Ellen McCarthy, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, whose INR office inside the State Department is getting additional resources.
"INR is one of the smallest members of the intelligence community, but it has long had an outsized impact in terms of its contributions to the analysis that informs policymakers," McCarthy said. "In fact, taking into account the relative size of intelligence agencies, INR contributes more per analyst to the President's Daily Brief than any other IC member, and our work provides a unique perspective for policymakers.
"But INR is under-resourced, and it desperately needs more people and budget," she added. "ADNI Ric Grenell has recognized this, and I applaud his efforts to reform ODNI to move more personnel to frontline agencies like INR that are doing the hard work of intelligence."
CIA is another agency set to get resources returned to it after years of chafing as ODNI duplicated some of its responsibilities and borrowed some of its officers.
"ODNI was not intended to collect and analyze intelligence, its function was to coordinate these activities among intelligence agencies," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the reorganization.
"You don't need thousands of people to do that," the official said. "ODNI absolutely needs to reassess how it is working with an eye towards shifting officers back to agencies like CIA and FBI."
#2
"ODNI was not intended to collect and analyze intelligence, its function was to coordinate these activities among intelligence agencies," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the reorganization.
The crisis in Wuhan, China serves as an excellent example of inter-agency coordination. The mystery behind the candidate Donald Trump monitoring and the solo visit to Trump Towers by the DIRNSA (Directer NSA), yet another example.
The FBI and Intelligence Community railroading of General Mike Flynn, possibly another.
#3
The shake-up should make it more difficult to develop centralized and coordinated coups against a Presidency such as occurred under Clapper. Grenell, seems to be doing a good job of draining the swamp. We need more fire-eaters and swamp drainers.
#5
/\ Unless you control FUNDING and PERSONNEL all you hold is found facing a urinal. Sorry, it was a powerless, notional entity doomed from the very beginning.
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.
[NBC] President Donald Trump has pushed his military and national security advisers in recent days to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan amid concerns about a major coronavirus outbreak in the war-torn country, according to two current and one former senior U.S. officials.
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...
[San Diego UT] Nicolás Maduro has named a powerful ally sanctioned by the U.S. as a drug kingpin along with a cousin of the late Hugo Chavez to revamp Venezuela's oil industry amid massive gasoline shortages.
Ref #2: It's a good thing he has a fall back job what with things quiet in the oil patch for the foreseeable anyway
...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 
...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 
IsraelTimes] An Israeli court has ordered the Paleostinian Authority to pay nearly $150 million in damages to the families of people killed in terror attacks.
