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German government bans Hezbollah — Interior Ministry
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
2 18:34 magpie [15] 
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14 13:58 Lex [15] 
3 10:14 Woozle Slising1666 [10] 
3 17:28 Old Patriot [9] 
5 10:40 swksvolFF [10] 
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2 12:52 trailing wife [3] 
2 19:20 Skidmark [11] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
3 21:23 Dron66046 [10]
7 12:48 Besoeker [7]
2 13:17 trailing wife [8]
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2 17:58 Skidmark [11]
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4 22:43 trailing wife [13]
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2 17:54 Lex [3]
1 07:53 b [2]
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2 23:32 trailing wife [8]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
6 19:55 ruprecht [6]
1 18:57 Thing From Snowy Mountain [4]
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12 11:53 warthogswife [11]
15 18:38 Woodrow [10]
11 14:39 Abu Uluque [4]
11 18:09 Skidmark [2]
14 18:42 Woodrow [1]
20 23:30 Lex [10]
3 16:51 trailing wife [2]
31 17:50 swksvolFF [2]
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8 17:40 Frank G [4]
1 07:17 AlanC [12]
14 13:30 M. Murcek [9]
7 22:08 swksvolFF [4]
7 23:29 trailing wife [5]
6 11:00 magpie [5]
5 15:55 swksvolFF [5]
4 11:14 M. Murcek [4]
Page 4: Opinion
1 20:07 SteveS [1]
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4 16:31 swksvolFF [2]
11 15:30 JohnQC [1]
4 12:37 KBK [6]
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18 15:52 M. Murcek [4]
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3 13:24 M. Murcek [3]
21 17:39 Thaith Elmeresing6163 [6]
17 14:00 Lex [6]
Page 6: Politix
4 17:43 Lex [1]
1 07:43 M. Murcek [1]
9 22:28 Lex [8]
12 15:53 JohnQC [10]
30 18:07 M. Murcek [7]
7 15:33 Bobby [8]
1 08:19 b [7]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Lawyer Admits To Paying Over $250,000 In Bribes To ICE, FBI Agents
[DAILYCALLER] A Los Angeles County-based lawyer agreed to plead guilty to shelling out over $250,000 in bribes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FBI agents over several years in return for special favors.

Edgar Sargsyan, a 39-year-old attorney with law offices in Beverly Hills, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, has agreed to plead guilty to five felony offenses, according to an ICE blurb. The guilty pleas regard his involvement in a credit card bust-out scheme and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes he gave to federal agents.

The attorney admitted to paying thousands of dollars from 2015 to 2017
...that is to say, on President Obama’s watch...
to a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative unit of ICE, and to an FBI agent. Sargsyan doled out at least $45,000 in cash and at least $32,000 in checks to the HSI agent for assistance with immigration matters.

Such favors included the HSI agent searching law enforcement databases to illegally obtain information that he then passed over to Sargsyan. The HSI agent also tampered with a Department of Homeland Security database to make it more likely that a foreign client of Sargsyan’s would be allowed into the United States, and the agent procured a document with an HSI letterhead in a failed attempt
...Curses! Foiled again!...
to allow one of Sargsyan’s relatives from Armenia into the country.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. This won’t do at all, on either side of the exchange.

Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Our wonderful FBI at work.
Posted by: b || 04/30/2020 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Didn't see anything about the bribe-takers being charged....
Posted by: Mercutio || 04/30/2020 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah what about the friggen federal agents!
Posted by: Woozle Slising1666 || 04/30/2020 10:14 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Virginia Imam Shaker Elsayed: COVID-19 Is a Divine Wake-Up Call - a Punishment for Usury, Abortion, and Homosexuality
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  And anything else I don't like.
Posted by: gorb || 04/30/2020 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Shaker is kind of all over the place here. Still, as a former Southern Baptist I give his sermon a solid 7 out of 10 on the hellfire meter.
Posted by: Secret Master || 04/30/2020 1:30 Comments || Top||

#3  a Punishment for Usury, Abortion, and Homosexuality

... so oral sex is halal?
Posted by: Lex || 04/30/2020 1:36 Comments || Top||

#4  ...and so are the goats!
Posted by: Raj || 04/30/2020 2:56 Comments || Top||

#5  What does the SPLC have to say about this?

I assume that Gov. Blackface is okay with it?

Posted by: AlanC || 04/30/2020 7:03 Comments || Top||

#6  ...and Hollyweird and the Legacy Infotainment Enterprises.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/30/2020 7:28 Comments || Top||

#7  #5, 6 - they'll pay as much attention to this as Tara Reade's accusation
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2020 7:47 Comments || Top||

#8  So true
Posted by: Regular joe || 04/30/2020 9:10 Comments || Top||

#9  this fellow has been chief of a Falls Church VA mosque for over a decade and has a long history of 'interesting' statements

basically he says he is against terrorism but has never been too clear on whether that includes, say, Hamas or similar orgs

he also has said over the years that recruiting terrorists, advocating specific acts of terror, religious training of terrorists is free speech
Posted by: lord garth || 04/30/2020 10:28 Comments || Top||

#10  EFF HIM AND ALL OTHER PRACTICING MUSLIMS.
islam is not a religion of peace.
Posted by: Zebulon Hatfield1153 || 04/30/2020 11:46 Comments || Top||

#11  has a long history of 'interesting' statements

I just ran an archive search on him based in your statement, lord garth, the three most recent results of which are now added at the bottom of the article.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2020 12:18 Comments || Top||

#12  And then I ran a search on his mosque, the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, which is connected to various Muslim Brotherhood organizations and Al Qaeda, according to the related February 26, 2013 article listed above, which reports:

Cairo-born Elsayed is a citizen of the United States. The mosque’s name, al-Hijrah, refers to the Islamic strategy of using migrants to gradually expand Islam into new territories.

Before and after the Sept. 11 atrocity, the mosque employed Anwar al-Awlaki as an imam.

Awlaki was a U.S. citizen, born to immigrant parents in New Mexico. He fled the country in 2004 but was successfully killed in a 2011 drone-attack. While overseas, he was tied to several jihadi attacks, including the November 2009 murder of 13 Americans at Fort Hood by a Muslim soldier in the United States Army.

The Arlington mosque is also closely linked to Brotherhood-founded organizations in the United States, including the Muslim American Society.


So yes, interesting.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2020 12:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Lick the shrine.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/30/2020 12:56 Comments || Top||

#14  ^ Church of Licker Day Saints
Posted by: Lex || 04/30/2020 13:58 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Libya's Haftar Announces Ramadan Truce
[AnNahar] Libya strongman Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
said Wednesday his forces would cease hostilities for the Moslem holy month of Ramadan following international calls for a truce in the war-torn country.

"The commander general announces the halting of military operations from his side," a front man for Haftar, who controls swathes of eastern and southern Libya, said from the eastern city of Benghazi.

Haftar's rival, the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) had yet to respond, and an AFP correspondent reported hearing explosions in the centre of the capital 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...
after the announcement.

The call for a truce during Ramadan, which began in Libya on April 24, came in response to "appeals from friendly nations," the Haftar front man said.

He warned violations by the GNA would be met with an "immediate and harsh response."

Last week, the UN, EU and several countries called for both sides to lay down their arms during the holy month.

The announcement comes after pro-Haftar forces suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks, with GNA forces ousting them from two key coastal cities west of Tripoli.

Backed by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
, GNA troops are now encircling Haftar's main rear base at Tarhunah, 60 kilometres (39 miles) southeast of the capital.

Since launching an offensive to seize Tripoli last April, several cease-fires between Haftar's forces and the GNA have fallen through, with both sides accusing the other of violations.

Haftar's opponents accuse him of wanting to establish a new military dictatorship in the country.

On Monday he claimed he had "a popular mandate" to govern, declaring a key 2015 political deal over and vowing to press his assault to seize Tripoli.

The oil-rich North African nation has been gripped by chaos since the ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Qadaffy in 2011.
That was President Obama’s trademark “Responsibility to Protect”, for which he did whatever the ladies on his team in concert with key European governments wanted.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2020 02:15 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  So, does that bind the faithful to him?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/30/2020 18:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Machiavelli 101? After showing the "Iron Fist" the Wise Prince tries to make an ostentatious show of benevolence?
Posted by: magpie || 04/30/2020 18:34 Comments || Top||


Turkey calls for urgent international response to Haftar's coup in Libya
Oh no! Did Allah cause the thwarting of the will of Sultan Recep Tayip Erdogan I (the much beloved), showing him who actually is the boss?
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  They did that before, the results were meh. Sometimes an irritating petty dictator is something best left alone. Or do you want to establish 'regime change of pain-in-the-a$$' self appointed rulers as a precedent? Asking for a friend.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/30/2020 7:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Erdogan, the Muslim Brother, is angry because the Libyan brothers, even with the assistance of Syrian mercenaries paid by Libya, are having their arse handed to them.
Posted by: b || 04/30/2020 7:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Translated from the Turkish: "Halp. I've stepped on my D**K!"
Posted by: Mercutio || 04/30/2020 9:28 Comments || Top||

#4  We dig blue on blue. Never interrupt your enemies when they are killing each other.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/30/2020 10:26 Comments || Top||

#5  During ramadan?
Tsk, tsk.

Erdy has been trying to get Hillary! NATO Europe to get involved with Team GNA for a while now. Macron told Erdy to piss off a couple months ago, the same time Erdy was like, "oops, got some refugees about to storm Greece."

Russia, Team LNA, deployed that cruise missile sub the other day, the one called ISIS Killer. Well, Turkey seems to be picking up the free agents from ISIS and sending them to Team GNA, complete with weird gold transfers and account freezing.

Sub deployment is at least a show of force; any takers on a Turkish freighter mysteriously sinking off the coast of Tripoli?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/30/2020 10:40 Comments || Top||


Tunisia's Ghannouchi sez the situation in #Libya was controlled by international and regional agendas
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Salah Badi said that members of the House of Representatives (HOR) in Tobruk will be arrested if they return back to Tripoli
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  19 November, 2018 (AFP)
The United States blacklisted on Monday a militia leader in Libya’s Misrata city. The US State Department said Salah Badi was being sanctioned because he worked to undermine Libya's government and stability since 2014. The UN Security Council last week placed global restrictions on doing business with him.
Posted by: b || 04/30/2020 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Good find, b.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2020 12:52 Comments || Top||


Arabia
UAE doing too little to stem terrorist financing, says watchdog
[Jpost] If the UAE fails to improve, it may find itself alongside states such as Syria, Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
and Pakistain, which the FATF deems to have "strategic deficiencies."


The United Arab Emirates is not doing enough to prevent money laundering despite recent progress, and causing concerns about its ability to combat financing of terrorism, the global dirty money monitoring group said on Thursday.

The U.S.-allied Gulf state, which includes the region's financial and commercial center Dubai, will now be put under a year-long observation by the Gay Paree-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Oil prices are hovering around negative territory, guys, so you’re no longer protected from the consequences of breaking the rules. Bless President Trump for freeing up the frackers,
The intergovernmental body said in a report that major or fundamental improvements are required in 10 of 11 areas evaluated for preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

The report, which took 14 months to compile and involved a visit to the UAE in July, gave a 'low' rating for investigation and prosecution of money laundering and a 'moderate' rating for preventive measures and financial sanctions related to countering the financing of terrorism.

If the UAE fails to improve, it may find itself alongside states such as Syria, Yemen and Pakistain, which the FATF deems to have "strategic deficiencies."

The UAE has tightened financial regulations in recent years to try to overcome a perception among some foreign investors that it is a hot spot for illicit money.

It passed a new anti-money laundering and terror financing law in 2018
...golly — after that Trump guy was elected. Just remember: laws are easy, it’s consistent enforcement that matters...
and has also worked with the United States to apply sanctions to Islamist bully boy groups.

FATF said the UAE had an "emerging understanding" of its risks related to money laundering and terrorism financing, and a "high level of commitment" to better understand and mitigate them.

The watchdog said authorities must close loopholes in the property and precious metal sectors that can be exploited by professional money launderers. They should also strengthen the use of financial intelligence in money laundering cases and in the recovery of proceeds of crime, it said.

It also urged the UAE actively to pursue international money laundering networks and improve formal cross-border cooperation.

The report also said there was a "noticeable absence" of consistent investigations and prosecutions for money laundering cases related to high-risk crimes and sectors deemed high-risk, such as money transfer.

Between 2013 and 2019, the UAE prosecuted 92 people and convicted 75 for terrorism financing activities, FATF said, while there were 50 prosecutions and 33 convictions in money laundering cases between 2013 and 2018.

Among those, Dubai had only 17 money laundering prosecutions over five years.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2020 01:30 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
A rift emerges among pro-Iranian militias in Iraq
[Jpost] Different units are increasingly divided between those who want to play a role in Iran’s regional strategy and those who want to be a more local Iraqi force.

Iraq’s politics may be getting even more divided after the acting Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, sought to affirm his office’s control over key Iraqi paramilitary groups. The powerful Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Units have been maneuvering to dominate Iraq since the ISIS war, but they are increasingly divided between those who want to play a role in Iran’s regional strategy and those who want to be a more local Iraqi force.

A letter from the Prime Minister’s office emerged last week in which four brigades of the PMU, some 15,000 men, could be moved from the control of the PMU to the Prime Minister’s office. This would effectively remove them from control by key pro-Iranian influence such as a man named Abu Fadak, who replaced Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis after the US killed MUhandis and IRGC Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani in January.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies

#1  Perhaps the Iraqi's should think outside the box and offer the Prime Minister role to Mad Dog Mathis... and this time he will bring his arty.
Posted by: Flolush Hatfield4881 || 04/30/2020 9:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Ergo, the bad boys returning home.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/30/2020 19:20 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanese Cleric Muhammad Abu Al-Qat' Naqshbandi: Coronavirus is a Soldier of Allah
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Gulf will remain Persian forever: Rouhani
[ALMASDARNEWS] Iranian 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 that his country had succeeded in ensuring the security of the Gulf waters, stressing that "it will remain Persian forever, not the Gulf of Washington or New York."

Rouhani’s comments came in what is known in Tehran as the "Persian Gulf Day"

In this context, Abu al-Fadl Shukarji, a front man for the Iranian armed forces, told state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
that "the United States will receive a stronger blow than before if it attacks the Iranian waters and the interests of our people in the Gulf waters," considering that Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian boats "comes within the framework of psychological warfare and his endeavor to gain privileges in the presidential election."

Shukarji asserted that the American forces in the Gulf polluted the waters and exposed them to fishermen and merchant ships, and they are entitled to cross from international waters when they do not harm others.

Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Now that we don't have to care if oil makes it thru that trench, who cares?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/30/2020 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  I think he means the Gulf of Rumsfeld.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/30/2020 10:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd like to think of it as the "Gulf of BUFF", but that's just my unholy desire to see murder and mayhem on behalf of the Infidel.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/30/2020 17:28 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
43[untagged]
5Sublime Porte
5Arab Spring
2Hezbollah
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Iran Proxies
2Islamic State
1Haqqani Network
1Commies
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Moslem Colonists
1Muslim Brotherhood
1al-Nusra
1Taliban
1Govt of Pakistan

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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
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2020-04-30
  German government bans Hezbollah — Interior Ministry
Wed 2020-04-29
  El Salvador's President Takes On The Country's Gangs Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Tue 2020-04-28
  Haftar declares himself a ruler of Libya
Mon 2020-04-27
  Pakistan to keep Mosques open during Ramadan
Sun 2020-04-26
  GNA Refuses Operation IRINI Because It Will Disrupt Arms Supplies From Turkey
Sat 2020-04-25
  North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un again rumored to be dead
Fri 2020-04-24
  Poland Detains Lebanese Man Suspected of 'Planning Attacks'
Thu 2020-04-23
  Afrin: Kurdish population more than halved since 2018 offensive
Wed 2020-04-22
  Trump says he's ordered Navy to destroy
Iranian boats should they harass U.S. ships
Tue 2020-04-21
  North Korea's Kim Jong Un in grave danger
after surgery, or so they ay
Mon 2020-04-20
  U.S. crude falls below $15 a barrel, down more than 20%
Sun 2020-04-19
  44 suspected Boko Haram jihadis found dead in Chad prison
Sat 2020-04-18
  Almost $5 billion of Iran government money for imports is missing
Fri 2020-04-17
  CCP reports coup attempt in China!
Thu 2020-04-16
  Iranian Attack Boats Harass U.S. Navy, Coast Guard Vessels in Persian Gulf


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