[NYPOST] The gunman rubbed out by cops after opening fire on the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Sunday had a long rap sheet that included an attempted murder bust, according to records and sources.
Luis Vasquez, 52, was arrested on the Upper West Side for attempted murder in 1990, and on an assault charge there a year earlier, sources said Monday.
Vasquez, of the Bronx, was also hit with a drug sale charge in 1989, as well as a marijuana charge in the Bronx in 2012 and a turnstile-jumping offense in 2007.
It was not immediately clear how the cases were adjudicated, and some of the arrests have been sealed, according to the sources.
On Sunday, the caught-on-video shooting at St. John the Divine happened around 3:45 p.m., at the end of a Christmas carol performance outside the historic cathedral.
Vasquez opened fire from the top of the church steps, sending people scrambling for shelter — and shouting "Kill me" and "Shoot me" when cops got to the scene.
He clutched a pistol in each hand.
Two on-duty officers — Detective Jason Harper, a 22-year veteran of the force, and Police Officer Daurys Gutierrez, a nine-year veteran — can be seen in the video taking cover behind a garbage can and can be heard yelling for Vasquez to drop his weapons.
When Vasquez refuses, the officers open fire, striking him in the head.
In normal people this would have led to instant death, but when he got to the emergency room they were startled to discover his skull was full of porridge instead of the usual brain.
He'll still vote Democrat
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[ToloNews] TOLOnews has seen the drafts of demands exchanged between peace negotiators in Doha for the agenda of the talks.
The documents show that the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Afghanistan’s team has added ceasefire, the preservation of national illusory sovereignty, the freedom of the media and the prohibition of activity by imported muscle in Afghanistan as issues to be added to the agenda of the talks.
Other demands of the republic's team include cutting-off the interference of foreigners, ensuring victims’ rights, national reconciliation, a move to de-militarize villages, de-militarize the people and society, ensure the freedom of the media, attain economic self-reliance, prevent the processing and smuggling of drugs.
Also listed was the protection of borders, urgent development and humanitarian relief, mechanisms of implementing the agreements of the negotiations, the political roadmap, the return of refugees, gaining international guarantees, and empowering of national institutions.
"The world has not voted for just any kind of peace. Their vote was for a peace with dignity and for a permanent peace in which the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Afghanistan is saved with all its values and achievements," Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar said at the parliament on Monday.
The Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... ’s demands for the agenda include an Islamic government structure, establishment of an Islamic council, and ensuring women’s rights and the rights of all citizens based on Islamic principles.
Other demands of the Taliban are about the type of the government, the leadership, the military and security sector, the constitution, foreign policy, adopting policies based on developed international norms considering Islamic principles and national values, ensuring the independence of Afghanistan, ensuring unity and Islamic solidarity in Afghanistan, staying committed to national interests, ensuring national values, education and basic human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... , ensuring compensation for widows and orphans, ensuring all legitimate and principled rights.
"The pause in the negotiations is not in favor of the nation," former Taliban member Sayed Akbar Agha said. "I think that in these talks, the Taliban will set priorities for a future government."
Both sides of the negotiations have exchanged their lists of demands and now have 23 days to discuss it internally with their respective leaders.
US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad says that "tragically, the war continues" in Afghanistan and that "the need for a political settlement, reduction in violence, and a ceasefire remain urgent."
"Given how much is at stake, it is imperative that there is no delays in resumption of talks and they must resume on Jan 5 as agreed," Khalilzad said.
[Al Ahram] Æthiopia sent civil servants in Tigray back to work on Monday and ordered gun owners to disarm as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government sought to show normality in the still-isolated northern region after weeks of war.
Some power and telephone links were also restored in regional capital Mekelle after a virtual communications blackout since federal troops’ Nov. 4 offensive. But there were reports of massive fuel and food price hikes, plus water shortages.
Tigray is still off-limits to journalists without a permit.
Abiy has declared victory over the former local ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The powerful TPLF dominated federal government for nearly three decades before he took office in 2018 - and they had feuded since then.
Thousands of people are believed killed and nearly a million fled their homes during air-strikes and ground battles in Tigray that exposed bitter ethnic divisions around the vast nation.
The government seized Mekelle, home to 500,000 people, on Nov. 28, and released a video last week entitled "Normalcy in the eyes of the residents" featuring interviews with Tigrayans.
The government said mobile voice services in Mekelle and six other towns had been restored, and that electricity was also back in the regional capital. However, women are made to be loved, not understood... of 18 calls Rooters made to Mekelle on Monday, only three connected.
The civil aviation authority said it reopened airspace in Tigray region at 2 pm (11 am GMT) on Monday.
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“Information received by Iran International Monday [December 14] from reliable sources indicate that the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee is going to recommend “proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” (As a terror group) https://t.co/m7MrvDa52v
[IsraelTimes] The United States imposes sanctions on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ’s military procurement agency after the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ally defiantly bought Russia’s S-400 air defense system.
"Today’s action sends a clear signal that the United States will fully implement [US law] and will not tolerate significant transactions with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says in a statement.
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[Rudaw] Around the corner from Iraq's holiest shrines, a years-long struggle over allegiances and resources is coming to a head —threatening a dangerous schism within a powerful state-sponsored security force.
The growing fissure pits the vast Iran-aligned wing of the Hashd al-Shaabi network against four factions linked to the shrines of Iraq's twin holy cities, Karbala and Najaf.
Those factions, dubbed "the Shrine Hashd" and comprising around 20,000 active fighters, held their first strategic planning meeting earlier this month.
Continued on Page 49
[Ynet] Israel tests its air defense systems against a host of threats from land and sea as a message to Iran; systems utilize elements that will facilitate future use of laser-based defense systems.
[Jpost] Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede, also vowed to confront normalization agreements between the Arab countries and Israel, dubbing them a "national sin that only serve the Zionist enterprise in the region."
Hamas was founded in 1987, shortly after the beginning of the First Intifada. Its charter, published in 1988, calls for the "liberation of Paleostine" and replacing Israel with an Islamic state. You can't even run that Gaza shithole you occupy without bailouts from other Arabs. F*ck off ticks
Hamas pledged to confront "all attempts to liquidate the Paleostinian cause, first and foremost the Deal of the Century," a reference to 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... ’s plan for Middle East peace.
Hamas also vowed to confront normalization agreements between the Arab countries and Israel, dubbing them a "national sin that only serves the Zionist enterprise in the region."
Musa Abu Marzouk, member of the "Hamas Political Bureau," said that his group was working to "develop the infrastructure of the Paleostinian resistance in its various forms." Hamas is also working to extend its "resistance" to the West Bank to confront Israeli and US "conspiracies," Abu Marzouk said.
He added that Hamas was facing "challenges" from the US and Israel, claiming that they are "working in cooperation with regional powers to besiege and demonize Hamas and dry up its financial resources."
Another Hamas official, Ali Barakeh, said that Hamas was seeking to build an Arab-Islamic coalition "to confront American and Zionist projects that are hostile to the Paleostinian cause."
Barakeh said that Hamas’s top priority was to "confirm that the Paleostinian issue is a national and Islamic issue, and not only a political issue." He added that no Arab or Moslem leader has the right to "give up one inch of the land of Paleostine." He too revealed that Hamas was working to "strengthen the capabilities of the resistance in all its forms."
[Jpost] The placing of a Hanukkiah on the roof of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron in celebration of Hanukkah has been denouced as a "war crime" by the Paleostinian Authority, according to a report by Paleostinian Media Watch (PMW).
The site is holy to both Jews and Moslems; according to Jewish tradition it is the place where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, other than Rachel, are buried, while it is known to Moslems as the Ibrahimi Mosque. It was converted into a mosque around 637 CE during the occupation of Hebron by Moslem Caliph Umar, and is now used by both Moslem and Jewish worshippers.
"The occupation state [i.e. Israel]... is exploiting every opportunity, and particularly the so-called ’Jewish holidays,’ to commit crimes and plans that desecrate our Islamic holy sites in Hebron," Mahmoud al-Habbash, PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase.... ' advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations said in a statement, according to PMW, citing a report in WAFA, the PA's official news agency.
According to the report, al-Habbash described the placing of the menorah at the site a "war crime," and a blatant attack perpetrated by Israel against Islamic holy sites and mosques.
WAFA reported that: "He emphasized that the Ibrahimi Mosque is a pure Islamic heritage, to which those who are not Moslem have no right," according to a translation by PMW, before calling on Paleostinians to visit the Ibrahimi Mosque and carry out Ribat - conflict over land deemed Islamic - in order to emphasize the Paleostinian and Islamic nature of the site.
The PA's Supreme Fatwa Council has also condemned the placing of the Menorah. A report in the official PA daily newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadida reported that the Council had called the action: "a blatant violation, a true provocation of the Moslems’ sensibilities, and an additional aggressive attempt to erase the Islamic history in service of the goal to Judaize the Ibrahimi Mosque and create a fake Jewish character for it," according to a translation by PMW.
In 2017, 21-member World Heritage Committee recognized on Friday a significant Jewish religious site — the Cave of the Patriarchs — as part of the State of Paleostine. This caused outrage among Israeli officials at the time, who highlighted that much of the importance of the cave was derived from its importance as the burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs.
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... ’s caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, has declined to be questioned by the judge who charged him and three former ministers with negligence over the Beirut port blast, an official source said on Monday.
Judge Fadi Sawan has met pushback from influential parties including Shi’ite Hezbollah and Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri, underlining the political hurdles facing the investigation.
Lebanese are still waiting for answers four months since one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts on record. A stockpile of ammonium nitrate, stored unsafely for years, detonated in August, killing 200 people, injuring thousands and devastating entire districts.
Some politicians accused Sawan of being selective and overstepping his powers by charging ministers. Others, including the head of the Beirut Bar Association, said the move showed courage.
The outgoing premier "has said everything he has to say about this file, full stop," according to his office. Diab, who has testified as a witness, quit after the disaster but continues to serve in a caretaker role.
He and President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... were warned in July that the nitrate could destroy the capital if it went kaboom!, according to documents seen by Rooters. Aoun has said he had no direct authority over the port.
Sawan requested an appointment from Diab’s office but was told he would not agree to be questioned, the official source at the prime minister’s office said.
Sawan could not immediately be reached for comment.
The caretaker interior minister, Mohammed Fahmi, said he would not enforce any arrest warrants for Diab or the other officials if they refused to be questioned. "And let them pursue me if they wish," Lebanese newspaper al-Joumhouria quoted him as saying.
After meeting with Diab on Friday, Hariri pledged not to let anyone "violate the post of prime minister" - a seat reserved for a Sunni Moslem in the sectarian power-sharing system.
The ex-ministers charged by Sawan are members of parties allied to Hezbollah, which said the charges smacked of "political targeting". Two are from Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... ’s Shi’ite Amal party, which also accused the judge on Monday of breaching the constitution.
Lebanon’s senior Christian holy man, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, said on Sunday he hoped reactions to Sawan’s move would not obstruct the probe or cause "a national division on a sectarian basis".
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12/15/2020 00:08 ||
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[IsraelTimes] 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... will not accept any US preconditions to a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, and issues including Iran’s missile program and regional affairs are "non-negotiable," 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... says in a speech.
He also says he will not allow any delay to the end of sanctions on Iran. He may be referring to the so-called sunset clauses of the deal, which limit Iran’s use of certain advanced centrifuges until 2025 and the cap on its uranium stockpile until 2030.
Iran has breached both aspects of the deal since the US pulled out of the accord.
"Some people want to delay the process but we will not consent to it whether it be for one hour," he says.
"Iran has repeatedly made it clear that it will also abide by its full commitments if all of the participants to the agreement live up to their full commitments."
US President-elect Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...Candidate for president in 2020. You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier... has said he plans to reenter the deal when he enters office. He has not set the issue of limits to Iran’s ballistic missile program and regional intervention as a precondition to this, but has said he will seek dialog on the matter.
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[IsraelTimes] The United States for the first time accuses 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... of direct involvement in the "probable death" of former FBI agent Bob Levinson, who vanished 13 years ago, and imposes sanctions on two intelligence agents.
Releasing the finding a month before President-elect Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...Candidate for president in 2020. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass.... takes office, Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s administration urges his successor to prioritize the release of at least three Americans in Iranian custody as his team expects to resume diplomacy with the US adversary.
"The government of Iran pledged to provide assistance in bringing Bob Levinson home, but it has never followed through," FBI Director Christopher Wray says in a statement.
"The truth is that Iranian intelligence officers — with the approval of senior Iranian officials — were involved in Bob’s abduction and detention."
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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.
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.
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
...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 
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...Candidate for president in 2020. 
...Candidate for president in 2020. 
