[MAIL] A new bulletin from the FBI has revealed that the Saudi government 'almost certainly' helped its citizens escape prosecution for serious crimes they were charged with in the US, and American officials looked the other way for years.
The secret effort was carried out to spare the Persian Gulf kingdom embarrassment, while US officials looked the other way for years, and will likely continue without their intervention, the FBI said in the bulletin released Friday.
The revelation comes after President Donald Trump signed into law a requirement backed by Representative Ron Wyden of Oregon that the FBI disclose what it knows about the Saudi government's suspected role in helping its citizens avoid prosecution in the US.
'(Saudi) officials are unlikely to alter this practice in the near term unless the US Government (USG) directly addresses this issue with (Saudi Arabia) and ties US cooperation on (Saudi) priorities to ceasing this activity,' according to the FBI, reports The Oregonian.
The details are contained in an intelligence bulletin dated August 29, which was released with Friday's bulletin, the news outlet reports.
Details on how the Saudis were getting their nationals out of the US were not included in the report. The scope and frequency of how often Saudi citizens were escaping justice also was not released.
However, it is the first time a federal law enforcement agency acknowledged the secret practice, which isn't so uncommon with wealthy nations seeking to quash alleged misdeeds by its nationals abroad.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
01/18/2020 05:55 ||
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#1
So FBI places itself outside the designation "American officials?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 6:09 Comments ||
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The ties between the Bush family and the Saudi royals are revealed in a hard-hitting new book by Craig Unger, a key source for Michael Moore's film 'Fahrenheit 9/11'.
#5
The revelation comes after President Donald Trump signed into law a requirement backed by Representative Ron Wyden of Oregon that the FBI disclose what it knows about the Saudi government's suspected role in helping its citizens avoid prosecution in the US.
Until recently the Saudis controlled the oil spigot that kept the world heated, the lights on, and traffic moving, so we had to let them slide. Now we don’t depend on them, so we can show them our middle fingers.
Hug a fracker and thank President Trump. And remember with amusement young JUSTICE, because of whose arrogance Saudi Arabia's IP range was blocked here at Rantburg.
[The Firearm Blog] A new year brings about the first of January’s Underground Arms Watch installment ‐ a look into criminally made and modified firearms seized by police and security services worldwide.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
At the very depths of WWII British POW flight officers managed to make a Sten gun in spite of having little experience of small arms. Unfortunately ammunition was a separate issue.
Health officials confirmed four new cases today, taking the total to 48
Imperial College London researchers say the true toll is likely to be much higher
They estimated there have been 1,700 cases of the coronavirus, and up to 4,000
This was based on the fact three cases have been recorded outside of China
The new coronavirus, which is yet to be named, causes cold-like symptoms including a runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat and a fever
Good news:
GERMAN RESEARCHERS DEVELOP FIRST TEST FOR NEW VIRUS IN CHINA
Scientists scrambling to contain the outbreak of the mystery virus have developed the first diagnostic test for doctors.
Virologists in Germany claim the test will allow laboratories to diagnose the 'novel' coronavirus in a 'very short period of time'.
World Health Organization chiefs will share details of the test with countries around the world, amid fears cases may crop up in other nations.
Laboratories can order a molecule from the team AT Berlin's Charite hospital to compare patient samples with that of an infected adult.
Following its online publication by the WHO, the test protocol will now serve as a guideline for laboratories.
Dr Christian Drosten, a virologist at the institute, said: 'We have just started receiving orders and are now starting to post the molecule.'
So far, doctors have only been able to perform a general virus test and then had to sequence and interpret the genome, which takes time.
[Dhaka Tribune] Barguna 2 MP Shawkat Hasanur Rahman Rimon and 12 others were charged with contempt of court for vandalizing a temple and grabbing land in Charduari area of Pathorghata upazila.
Priyanka Mitra, a lawyer, filed the lawsuit with a Barguna court on Wednesday, the plaintiff's lawyer Advocate Arif Hossain confirmed to Dhaka Tribune.
The others accused are, Md Rakib Munshi, Md Monir Hossain, Shahin Munshi, Zahir, Zakir Biswas, Md Atiqur Rahman Labu, Md Maful, Md Alauddin Khan, Miraz, Mostafa, Raja and deputy assistant engineer of Water Development Board of Pathorghata upazila.
On Sunday, MP Shawkat and his accomplices carried out an attack on the Radha Gobinda Temple in Charduari area, to tear it down disregarding a status quo issued by a local court in connection to a lawsuit, said the case statement.
"I had to file the contempt of court petition against MP Shawkat and his men after they disregarded a direct court order and teared a photocopy of the status quo order when I presented it before them," said Priyanka Mitra, the plaintiff.
MP Shawkat, however, rejected the allegations brought up against him and said the plaintiff was hatching a conspiracy agaisnt him.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2020 00:00 ||
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[THEBAGHDADPOST] Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk on Friday issued his resignation following a leaked audio recording of him reportedly criticizing President Volodymyr Zelensky's understanding of the economy, Xinhua reported.
Volofymyr Zalensky was by profession a Jewish comedian and television writer-producer-actor before being elected president of the country, which understandably could lead to certain assumptions. But before all that that he got a degree in law from the economics institute where his father taught what I think we would call computer engineering, while his mother is some other kind of engineer. One can imagine the dinner table conversations he heard growing up.
"I took office to implement the president's program. I see him as a model of transparency and decency. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... to remove any doubts in our respect for and trust in the president, I have written a resignation letter and submitted it to the president with the right to hand it to the Parliament," Honcharuk wrote Friday morning on his official Facebook page.
The presidential office confirmed on Facebook that Zelensky had received the resignation and would consider it.
On Wednesday evening an audiotape was uploaded to social media in which a voice sounding like Honcharuk was reportedly heard discussing the national budget with some other government ministers and bigwigs from the national bank.
According to local media, Honcharuk was reportedly heard saying that Zelensky has a very "primitive" understanding of economics.
If Honcharuk's resignation is approved, all cabinet members will have to leave their posts, according to Ukrainian law.
Honcharuk, 35, took the position of the prime minister of Ukraine on Aug. 29, 2019, following Zelensky's nomination.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy allows PM Oleksiy Honcharuk to keep his job after the leak of an embarrassing audio recording prompted the prime minister to submit his resignation.https://t.co/eB2ruAK5Sg
[AlAhram] China's population crept past 1.4 billion last year for the first time, even as the birthrate continues to fall.
The National Bureau of Statistics said Friday the population on the Chinese mainland reached 1.40005 billion at the end of 2019, with another overall gain of 4.67 million people.
That marked the third consecutive year when overall number of births dropped.
China's working age population, those between 16 and 59 years old, also declined by 890,000 from 2018 to 896.4 million, while the number of people aged 60 or older grew by 4.39 million, making up 18.1% of the total population.
China abandoned its long-standing one-child policy in 2016 in hopes of reversing what some have called a coming demographic tsunami in which China will grow old before reaching its development targets. But the policy allowing urban couples to have a second child has shown little success amid a dearth of incentives and rising costs for housing, food, health care and education. They can stop trying to control population now. Birth control will keep the population dropping.
#3
It's long been known that as societies become more affluent, people go from having lots of kids to having few or none. The Chinese 1 child policy accelerated that trend.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2020 8:05 Comments ||
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#4
/\ The modern societies are increasingly urbanized so there is also the change from the rural agricultural to the city trades economy causing a reappraisal to the merits of having a large family. Just saying "Prosperity Did It!" seems premature...
I’m not sure what this means, but it looks interesting.
[Rudaw] Iraqis were the most prolific foreign buyers of homes in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... in 2019, according to a Ottoman Turkish statistical authority, helping to buoy the country’s struggling housing market.
Despite an overall drop in Turkey's housing sales, a total of 45,500 residential units were sold to foreigners in 2019 - a 14.7 percent increase on the previous year.
Iraqi citizens bought the most homes of any foreign nationals, purchasing 7,596 units. They were followed in number by Iranians, Russians, and Saudis, Daily Sabah reported on Wednesday, citing the Ottoman Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). Most of the sales were made in Istanbul, the cultural capital of Turkey.
In December 2019 alone, Iraqis bought 900 Ottoman Turkish residential units in Turkey, while ongoing deadly protests at home against rampant poverty, unemployment and corruption, among other grievances were taking place.
Nazmi Durbakayim, head of the Istanbul Constructors Association, said he expects 2020 to be a lucrative year for a Ottoman Turkish real estate sector recovering from decline.
"The index of confidence in the construction sector, which declined from 94% to 68% in 2019, seems on the rise again," he said.
Ahmet Erkurtogu, deputy head of the Ottoman Turkish Construction Contractors' Association in Istanbul's Anatolian side, said housing sales in the country were recovering well.
"Housing sales have topped the 100,000 mark in recent months, and exceeded the 200,000 mark last December for the first time."
"We can sell around 1.2-1.3 million housing units in 2020 again, we aim to sell 60,000 units to foreigners in 2020," he underlined.
Buyers from Arab countries have been among the top purchasers of Ottoman Turkish real estate in recent years.
Arab buyers owned 11.2 million square meters of land in Turkey in February 2019, Birgun news outlet reported the environment and urban affairs minister Murat Kurum as saying in December.
Turkey and Iraq conduct a significant amount of wider trade. Trade volume between Ankara and Baghdad has hovered between $10-12 billion in the last few years; senior Ottoman Turkish officials have demanded that amount be doubled. Most of the trade was conducted via the Kurdistan Region’s Ibrahim Khalil crossing border.
#1
Real estate prices are down in Turkey thanks to Erdogan, and seem like a good place for Iraqi officials to send some of the money they've collected from the US over the last (almost) 20 years?
[Rudaw] A contentious public salary reform bill was approved by the Kurdistan Region’s parliament on Thursday. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) insists the bill will result in fairness and for public service employees.
Eighty nine of a 111 MP total legislature voted yes to the bill. "We congratulate ourselves and the people of Kurdistan," parliament speaker Rewaz Fayaq said upon its passing.
The bill had the support of the three largest parties in the legislature, namely Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Gorran (Change) Movement.
Titled Reform of Pensions, Salaries, Allowances, Grants and other Benefits, the bill underwent two days of heated parliament debate of Sunday and Monday.
Its main aims include the elimination of ghost employees and the claiming of more than one civil service salary, a reduction of pensions of MPs and other high ranking officials, and standardized retirement regulations. Another of its main targets is to eliminate illegally retired individuals, who have never served in security institutions or in government but get a retirement salary for being part of party patronage networks, from the payroll.
"We ensure all salary takers that not even one dinar in the rights and entitlements of theirs will be deducted. Rather, those who have taken salaries they have not been entitled to in past years will be eliminated from the list of salaries," Amanj Raheem, secretary of the Council of Ministers said in a pre-vote presser on Thursday.
"We have decided that there will be reform, and there is no going back from that," KRG spokesperson Jutiar Adil said in the joint presser.
Omed Sabah, chief of staff of the Council of Ministers told the press the government has 60 days to implement the law.
"In parallel to implementing the first step of the law, steps to digitize the banking system and activating personal accounts of employees will start," Sabah added.
Based on a KRG agreement with parliament, a financial oversight authority and an integrity commission will work on the law alongside the government. Every three months, the government has to prepare a parliamentary report on progress of the law.
While lauded by the KDP, PUK, and Gorran - who also form the KRG cabinet ‐ the bill was criticized by opposition parties. New Generation left the parliament hall, while the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and Islamic Group (Komal) abstained from voting.
Abdulstar Majeed, head of Komal’s parliamentary bloc said in a subsequent presser that they abstained from voting because parliament refused to discuss the KRG’s failure to pay civil sector salaries during the financial crisis in past years and its refusal to set a minimum pension level for retirees.
"What took place in the parliament hall was cutting money from others for the pockets of high-ranking officials at the expense of the pocket of poor people," a New Generation MP said after leaving the parliament hall.
The MP claimed that each parliament member, ministers, and other high-ranking officials will have a minimum retirement pension of 4,100,000 IQD (roughly $3,443).
"We suggested for the lowest salary for poor people [’s retirement] be minimum 500,000 ($419), but they were unwilling to instill this section [in the bill]," added the MP.
Despite criticism, the Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister lauded the bill’s passing, calling it "central" to his cabinet’s reform agenda.
"This Bill is central to the government’s plans to increase public trust, streamline public expenditure, and ensure a fair system for our valued public servants and brave Peshmerga forces," PM Masrour Barzani said on Twitter on Thursday.
"The final version provides important guarantees for all public sector employees concerning their salaries, pensions and allowances, reinforcing the principle that those who are entitled to public benefits are rewarded and protected appropriately," added the PM.
"The Reform Bill demonstrates the KRG's commitment to root out corruption. It is also an important milestone on the journey towards making our civil service more modern, transparent and professional, so it delivers better services and benefits to all Kurdistanis."
The bill will officially made law when it is signed by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani.
Glass and marble shopping malls, seaside apartment complexes... now an amusement park? Those Israelis are incredibly precise in their Gaza bombing runs. No wonder the Gazans love being the enemy of Israel. Imagine what would have happened to all those carefully smuggled materials if they’d been facing Russians or Syrians.
[IsraelTimes] ’The Train of Return to Jerusalem’ brings visitors across a valley to a partial mock-up of Old City, including a small building representing the Dome of Rock.
An amusement park in the southern 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 recently unveiled a train ride that seeks to simulate a journey from the isolated coastal enclave to Jerusalem’s Old City, home to a number of Islamic holy sites. Also! A shooting range for virtual Jooos. Moving target practice
The ride, which spans 550 meters and features two elevated tracks, is the newest attraction at the Asdaa City theme park in Khan Younis. It was built on land that formerly belonged to the Ganei Tal settlement, which was evacuated after Israel decided to withdraw from Gaza in 2005.
It took more than two years to construct and was named "The Train of Return to Jerusalem," according to Wael al-Khalili, the chairman of Asdaa’s board of directors.
The cost of a ticket to ride on the train line is NIS 5 ($1.45).
Besides Jerusalem, Asdaa also features several other mock-ups including one of Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs, which Jews and Moslems revere as the burial site of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs. While Jews refer to the site as the Tomb of Patriarchs, Moslems call it the Ibrahimi Mosque.
It also includes a lodging and pool area called the Tiberias Resort ‐ a reference to the city of Tiberias next to the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.
Khalili described Asdaa as an amusement park that brings together tourism and Paleostinian nationalism.
"Its projects are used for tourism and relaxation as well as instilling national concepts and values through representations of Paleostinian history and memory on its property," he told Kahlout.
Asdaa was established after Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, took over Gaza.
Khalili contended that Asdaa had to overcome the obstacles related to Israel’s restrictions on the movement of goods to construct the train project, which he said compelled the theme park to turn to “alternatives” to build it.
He did not clarify what the he meant specifically by “alternatives.”
The driver, a murderous dwarf:
"South Station! Now, shoot at Rowe's Wharf!
We'll change here at State
To the Horse Car of Hate,
Then veer left to Filene's for a scarf."
"Allahu akhbar!" "Ululululululu!"
"Indeed, ladies. And it's your lucky day, cuz they just got a new shipment of those lovely checkered numbers..."
"Oooh, those are my favorites!"
"Mine, too!"
"And also mine, mashallah!"
"...and because you're my pals, my cousin there will let ya have 'em wholesale."
"Hey, wait a second. 'Filene' sounds kinda Jewish..."
"Perish the thought, madam. On my nephew's grave, aside from the money men and most of management, it's a strictly Islamic establishment! C'mon, would a guy with a chin like this lie to you? Anyways, any malcontents are welcome to continue on on foot down the so-called Freedom Trail to the Constitution and all that stuff. This concludes our tour. Don't forget to tip!"
h/t Instapundit
[Red State] - ...The Trump administration announced today that they were ending the Obama era rules on school lunches that forced districts that received federal money to make sure to have more veggies and fruits. The federal fiats were somewhat controversial at the time being people wondered aloud why did Washington really need to tell us what to do with everything.
The super-duper ironic things is the Trump Agriculture Dept announced this on Michelle Obamas 56th birthday who just happened to be the really big advocate of getting these rules in place.
#3
Her lunch rules were good ideas but:
1) not the business of the Federal government, and
2) pointless, since the stuff mostly gets thrown out.
I made it through my teenage school years eating ice cream sandwiches and peanuts from the vending machines - which have been taken out.
h/t Instapundit
[PJ] - In a key victory for the rule of law, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit filed by children against the U.S. government, By actual children?
claiming that the federal government had violated the children's rights by failing to act against climate change. The lawsuit asked the court to unilaterally force the government to adopt broad climate policies, circumventing Congress and the executive branch entirely.
"The plaintiffs claim that the government has violated their constitutional rights, including a claimed right under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to a 'climate system capable of sustaining human life.' The central issue before us is whether, even assuming such a broad constitutional right exists, an Article III court can provide the plaintiffs the redress they seek‐an order requiring the government to develop a plan to 'phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down excess atmospheric CO2,'" Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote in the opinion on the case Juliana v. United States (2020).
"Reluctantly, we conclude that such relief is beyond our constitutional power. Rather, the plaintiffs’ impressive case for redress must be presented to the political branches of government," Hurwitz wrote.
[Mil.com] There's a fine tradition of military personnel and veterans being hard-chargers, but few go as hard as Dr. Jonny Kim.
Kim, 35, just finished training for NASA's Artemis program that will see him, 11 other Americans and two Canadians in orbit around the Earth. They will also be eligible for missions to the moon and perhaps even Mars in the future.
Kim will be the first Korean-American to join a NASA mission in space. He has also served as a U.S. Navy SEAL and a Harvard-trained physician. It all started with his enlistment in the Navy, where he started his career as a seaman recruit after graduating from high school in 2002.
He was the child of poor South Korean immigrants who arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, where he was born. It's from this upbringing Kim learned the one thing he would now want to tell his younger self:
#1
He was the child of poor South Korean immigrants who arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, where he was born.
That's why Asians have to reclassified as white, so their success can be attributed to 'privilege' rather than the usual excuses given to other communities why they don't succeed.
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.
[MAIL] A new bulletin from the FBI has revealed that the Saudi government 'almost certainly' helped its citizens escape prosecution for serious crimes they were charged with in the US, and American officials looked the other way for years. 
[Dhaka Tribune] Barguna 2 MP Shawkat Hasanur Rahman Rimon and 12 others were charged with contempt of court for vandalizing a temple and grabbing land in Charduari area of Pathorghata upazila.
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
[Rudaw] A contentious public salary reform bill was approved by the Kurdistan Region’s parliament on Thursday. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) insists the bill will result in fairness and for public service employees.
