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Al Qaeda trying to regain primacy as Islamic State loses ground: NATO
Today's Headlines
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: The Cold War
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 17:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ha ha ha!!
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/05/2018 17:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Old, but very good. Especially because that was before most of the Soviet Union’s Jews released to the West —some staying in Germany, some moving to Israel, and some continuing on to America.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 19:22 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
France ready to deploy navy in scallop dispute with Britain
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 16:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The French navy has a long and rich history of being blown out of the water by the British navy.
Posted by: Lampedusa Unemp9285 || 09/05/2018 18:24 Comments || Top||

#2  in scallop dispute
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 18:37 Comments || Top||

#3  The Charles de Gaulle is not too busy I think. And the distance should be fine.
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/05/2018 20:20 Comments || Top||

#4  #1 - Fortunately, not off Chesapeake Bay.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 20:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Absurd - neither has a navy worthy of the name
Posted by: Blossom Hupager6063 || 09/05/2018 22:03 Comments || Top||

#6  What's a French word that rhymes with 'bivalve'? I'm asking for a friend.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/05/2018 22:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Family-friendly, old clam, wot!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 09/05/2018 23:58 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Netanyahu to shut down Israeli Embassy in Paraguay
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the foreign minister, ordered the closure of Israel's embassy in Paraguay on Wednesday hours after the Latin American nation said it had decided to return its embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 15:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
NYT Blames Roger Federer's US Open Loss On Global Warming
You can't make this shit up...
[Watts Up With That] - Roger Federer Is Tough to Beat. Global Warming Might Have Pulled an Upset.

By Kendra Pierre-Louis

Roger Federer, one of the world’s greatest tennis players, may have become an unwitting spokesman for the effects of climate change on Monday at the U.S. Open.

Federer, who is ranked No. 2, seemed to struggle all night in the heat and humidity at Arthur Ashe Stadium, losing in a fourth-round upset to John Millman, an Australian ranked 55th.

"It was hot," Federer said. It "was just one of those nights where I guess I felt I couldn’t get air; there was no circulation at all."

This was the first time Federer, who won the U.S. Open five consecutive times from 2004 to 2008, lost to a player outside the top 50 at the tournament.

...

While daytime temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) have been a persistent problem at this U.S. Open, forcing officials to offer players heat breaks and suspend junior matches, conditions Monday night were not much cooler. Temperatures hovered in the mid-80s, with the humidity for much of the match above 70 percent.
Posted by: Raj || 09/05/2018 11:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well he couldn't take the heat, that's for sure.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 13:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Well crap isn't he about 40 years old? Surprised he can even move, nevermind competing at top level.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/05/2018 16:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Fortunately John Millman was immune to the effects of global warming.
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 17:22 Comments || Top||

#4  So now "lack of air circulation" is a definition of global warming?
Posted by: warthogswife || 09/05/2018 18:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Moonbat Pressley Ousts Capuano In MA-7 Congressional Primary
As the Democrat Party drifts ever leftward...
[Daily Beast] - Another major upset of a Democratic congressman took place in Massachusetts on Tuesday night. And it wasn't even close.

Ayanna Pressley, the 44-year-old Boston City Councilor, triumphed over 20-year incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) by a double-digit margin. It was the primary season’s second stunning ousting of a long-term lawmaker by a female progressive challenger and another indicator that the liberal base is hungering for something new in their representation.

Massachusetts’ 7th District, the only majority-minority district in the liberal state, once sent President John F. Kennedy to Congress and was viewed prior to Tuesday’s contest as the kind of area that was ripe for a shakeup. Coupled with Pressley’s compelling candidacy, a late primary the day after Labor Day, and district lines that were redrawn in 2011, Capuano was clearly vulnerable.
Posted by: Raj || 09/05/2018 11:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe, just maybe, the old timers need to form a 'Liberal Party' and let the new Soviets have the old Peoples' Democratic Party.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 11:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Today's CommieDems are nothing like my family, oldtimeydems all. The family members are confused as to what they hear, but still hear the dog whistles, and still sit up when commanded. I can't stand it. None are on welfare, none are on food stamps, all have decent blue collar jobs, yet not a one of them thinks beyond what they are told. Typical Massachusetts dems.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/05/2018 11:57 Comments || Top||

#3  All you good little Trotskyites, meet Mr. Stalin.
Posted by: Tom || 09/05/2018 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, it's a race on the left and the right to purge the establishment looting classes from their ranks.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 16:05 Comments || Top||


Europe
Prime Minister Of Saxony: The Merkel Admin Lied In Chemnitz There Was No Mob, No Manhunt, No Pogrom
The link is to an article in German.

In a speech before Saxony's state parliament PM Kretschmer said verbatim: "Es gab keinen Mob, keine Hetzjagd und keine Pogrome."/"There was no mob, no manhunt and there were no pogroms."

This means that he's explicitly accusing the MSM and the Merkel administration of lying. Some MSM had retracted the reports about pogroms, mobs and manhunt days ago but the Merkel admin is steadfastly standing by the story (without providing any evidence.)

So either the German Federal Executive under Merkel is a brazen liar or the Saxon State Executive is a brazen liar.

Saxony is governed by the same coalition as Germany and PM Kretschmer is a member of Merkel's party.

In a normal Western democracy this could only end with the resignation of one party, but Germany isn't normal at all.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 09/05/2018 09:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  the Merkel admin is steadfastly standing by the story

Desperately seeking another Reichstag fire.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 11:26 Comments || Top||


Britain
Salisbury poisonings: Two Russian suspects named over Novichok nerve agent attack on ex-spy and daughter
[Mirror] There is sufficient evidence to charge two Russians over the Salisbury poisoning of a former spy and his daughter, police and the CPS have said.

The suspects have been named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - although cops believe it is likely they were travelling under aliases.

Today, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service said there is enough evidence to charge the pair with offences including conspiracy to murder.

Other crimes they could also be charged with include attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and use and possession of Novichok.

A European arrest warrant has been issued for them - as police have released their pictures for the first time along with evidence recovered by officers.

Prime Minister Theresa May told the commons today that the two suspects are officers Russia's military intelligence agency.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 08:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The suspects have been named as Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale - although cops believe it is likely they were travelling under aliases.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/05/2018 9:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
'Well done, Colin' John Brennan praises Kaepernick for anthem protests, Nike campaign
[Wash Times] Former CIA Director John Brennan tweeted his ringing endorsement for Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protests Monday:

Colin Kaepernick drew our collective attention to the problem of continued racial injustice in America. He did so not to disrespect our flag but to give meaning to the words of the preamble of our Constitution‐"in order to form a more perfect union." Well done, Colin, well done. https://t.co/4ALyUxLjM5
‐ John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) September 4, 2018
"Colin Kaepernick drew our collective attention to the problem of continued racial injustice in America. He did so not to disrespect our flag but to give meaning to the words of the preamble of our Constitution‐"in order to form a more perfect union." Well done, Colin, well done’" Brennan tweeted.

Kaepernick is back in the news today as Nike has announced he’ll be the face of their latest "Just do it" campaign praising his protests as a noble "sacrifice."

Brennan has been under scrutiny recently for a series of controversial tweets and comments criticizing President Trump after the president removed Brennan’s security clearance.

Trump made the anthem protests a major issue last year and Brennan’s comments can easily be interpreted as another attempt to poke the president on an issue near and dear to his heart.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 08:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Brennan's views on Kaepernick parallel those of recently made by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Two peas in a pod.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 8:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Not a great surprise for Brennan. The surprise is Nike. Why do they want to shoot themselves in the feet just because Kaepernick insists on shooting himself in both feet? IMO the people out here do not view this as a "noble sacrifice." A noble sacrifice in some guy in the military, away from his family, sitting in the boonies in Afghanistan.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2018 11:46 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 12:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Why do they want to shoot themselves in the feet

Nike is as big-ass multi-national with the usual complement of bean-counters and marketeers. Maybe they've all gone insane, but more likely, they see some advantage to this play. Seems crazy on the surface which suggests there is something we're not seeing.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/05/2018 12:40 Comments || Top||

#5  There's nothing more edgy and anti-establishment than an endorsement of your sneaker ad by a former CIA Director.
Posted by: regular joe || 09/05/2018 14:22 Comments || Top||

#6  There's nothing more edgy and anti-establishment than an endorsement of your sneaker ad by a former CIA Director. Posted by regular joe

'Interesting times we're living in'... as someone once said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 14:28 Comments || Top||

#7  advantage to this play

How about this: a roomful of TDS-positive weasels decides to drop off a buoy or two before tacking right? To help themselves sleep at night, and to have something to point at to mollify left-leaning customers? TDS-positive weasels are still weasels.
Posted by: Cheanter Smiter of the Munchkins3275 || 09/05/2018 15:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Remove all tarriffs on Chinese made sneekers.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 09/05/2018 17:06 Comments || Top||

#9  I believe they decided that their future lay with the under 35’s so the don’t care if the gave the finger to everyone else
Posted by: Tzsenator || 09/05/2018 17:10 Comments || Top||

#10  Would you expect other from a traitor?
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 17:28 Comments || Top||

#11  It’s exactly what I’d expect, glad they “self identified”
Posted by: Tzsenator || 09/05/2018 17:38 Comments || Top||

#12  that pinko commie turd.
Posted by: newc || 09/05/2018 19:07 Comments || Top||

#13  Say what it is, Brennan is praising one of the demonrats slaves for being useful.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 09/05/2018 19:59 Comments || Top||

#14  #5 - is my Snark O' The Day nominee.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2018 21:11 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian Forces Flood Into The Med Ahead Of Syrian Offensive
Russian Forces Flood Into The Med Ahead Of Syrian Offensive, Here's Everything (Almost) You Need To Know.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, these assets include, but are not limited to:

The Slava-class guided missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov, which can carry up to 16 P-1000 Vulkan supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles and 64 long-range surface-to-air missiles across eight individual S-300F systems.

Udaloy-class destroyer Severomorsk, with the Metel missile system, which can carry up to eight anti-submarine or anti-ship missiles, as well as 64 short-to-medium range 3K95 surface-to-air missiles.
At least three Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates, each of which can carry up to eight Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles.

At least two Kilo-class submarines, which can also fire Kalibrs.
Tu-160 White Swan supersonic strategic bombers, also known as Blackjacks, which can carry Kh-101 air-launched land attack cruise missiles.

Tu-142MK Bear and Il-38 May maritime patrol aircraft, which can carry various anti-submarine weapons.
Russian Naval Aviation Su-30SM and Su-33 fighter jets, which could provide combat air patrols to defend the task force against any notional aerial attack or carry anti-ship cruise missiles to carry out their own maritime strikes.

Note that this list does not include any of Russia's forces presently deployed in Syria proper, which include additional combat aircraft and helicopters, air defense systems, artillery, and other assets. It is not clear if any of those units will participate in the exercises in the Mediterranean.
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/05/2018 06:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  In my day, when SHTF in the region, Russian doctrine was to hightail it to a friendly port(s) until the USN was done with the real work.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 09/05/2018 12:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't forget your tugboats you dang Ruskis!
Posted by: Penguin_of_the_Desert || 09/05/2018 20:30 Comments || Top||

#3  A lot of ground to air stuff there.
How good will it be against the Americans?
'cause the bad guys are going to be hit.
Posted by: jvalentour || 09/05/2018 20:37 Comments || Top||

#4  This bodes ill. Shit can/will happen. Wish I was there.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/05/2018 22:58 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Scottish Gin Society rapped over Facebook adverts
[BBC] A gin appreciation society has been left with a sour taste in its mouth after falling foul of advertising regulators.

Complaints over 10 "light-hearted" Facebook posts by the Scottish Gin Society (SGS) have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

It ruled the ads encouraged excessive drinking and implied alcohol could lead to sexual success, among other things. SGS claimed the posts were memes and therefore were not in ASA's remit.

It added it was "the most po-faced, fun-free, nanny-state judgement imaginable". The posts have since been removed.

The ASA had been alerted to a number of Facebook entries, seen around the turn of the year, by Aberdeenshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership.

The authority ruled three of them encouraged excessive drinking.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 05:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uncandy is dandy.
Good comrades are handy.
Though liquor is quicker,
A baster is chaster,
But gin promotes victory.
That's not contradictory,
So order another
And long live Big Brother!
Posted by: Burma-Shave || 09/05/2018 13:05 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 14:38 Comments || Top||


Economy
Nike Stock Plunges After Tapping Kaepernick as 'Just Do It' Campaign Poster Boy
[Reuters via PJ Media] Nike saw its shares plunge more than 2 percent in early trading Tuesday, following news that the company was making former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick a face of its "Just Do It" ad campaign.

Nike (NKE.N) stock dropped 2.7 percent today, amid calls on social media for a boycott of the sportswear giant, according to Reuters.

Upon hearing the news, scores of Nike customers took to Twitter to express their disgust, some even taking the extreme step of burning their Nike sneakers.

Related: Hot Air - It’s A Real Shame Kaepernick Isn’t On An NFL Roster, Says … Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 04:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


#2  The -6 billion dollar man.

Boycott Nike and your chances of being murdered for shoes in urban America go way down. If it saves just one thousand lives.
Posted by: Sonny Dribble1184 || 09/05/2018 6:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Bloomberg has big article today claiming it's a great idea of Nikes.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/05/2018 6:34 Comments || Top||

#4  SJWEA EA on Women in Battlefield V: Haters Can Either "Accept it or Don't Buy the Game"

Result: Sales down 85%
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 8:11 Comments || Top||

#5  http://www.youtube.com/embed/jpt6Bvr2L-s?rel=0&controls=0&
Just watch a real hero....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 09/05/2018 8:31 Comments || Top||

#6  THAT is how you honor a fallen comrade.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 10:52 Comments || Top||

#7  #4 BP, interesting point about Women Soldiers Targets in a FPS...

That's what they are to the Player. Does one get the same game enjoyment sniping at women soldiers? Possibly a certain fraction of the gamers would find a certain distaste at shooting unaware women ... or children. Why not explore the Ick Factor!, EA, by having underaged children in the target groups?

There is a Vietnam-Era FPS that I find myself unable to play. My older brother manned the forward MG on a riverboat in Vietnam and I get a visceral distaste shooting at targets like that in the game. He survived his year unlike many of the electronic phantoms I massacred...
Posted by: magpie || 09/05/2018 11:59 Comments || Top||

#8  stock dropped 2.7 percent today

It makes any buybacks that much less expensive, I guess.
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 17:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Magpie,
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/26716/gaming-nine-circles-hell
Your comment reminds me of The Seventh Circle.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/05/2018 18:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Volokh: Why the American Establishment Has Lost Credibility
h/t Instapundit
[Reason] The 2016 Republican primaries were one big "f you" to the establishment. We all know that Trump won the nomination, but it's easy to forget that the second-place candidate, Ted Cruz, was also anathema to the establishment. Indeed, one reason Trump won the nomination was because most of the Republican establishment refused to rally around Cruz; he was considered by some worse than Trump, and other were sufficiently hostile to Cruz they thought it was better to lose (as they expected) with Trump than potentially win with Cruz.

Of course, Trump went on to win the presidency, even though virtually the entire establishment--and here I mean prominent, powerful or influential individuals from mainstream liberal Democrats to neoconservatives, from the "usual suspects" to conservative Wall Street Journal columnists, lined up against him.

Ever since, the establishment has been aghast, and rightly so. Someone with Trump's temperament, history of lies, casual prejudiced statements, and so on, should never have gotten near the presidency. Yet, despite the establishment's warnings of disaster, enough voters were willing to vote for him to make him president.
He implements right policies, though - which, IMO, a lot more important than prissy decorum standards: especially considering the caliber of the opposition
One could blame the result of the election on Hillary's unpopularity, and yet very few of Trump's voters have since abandoned him.
It's the economy stupid - people prefer to work for a living to being welfare recipients
A major reason, I think, is that the establishment that once served as a gatekeeper against the likes of Trump has lost its credibility among large portions of the population, and their attacks on Trump are simply discounted or ignored.

...consider how the establishment would react if George W. Bush were seated two seats down from David Duke at Willie Nelson's funeral, with Duke given a place of honor. Now consider that Bill Clinton sat two seats away from an equally odious hatemonger, Louis Farrakhan, at Aretha Franklin's funeral.

...What about the fact that Trump shows little interest in truth, and his supporters are too quick to dismiss expert and scientific opinion, that they try to bend the truth to their political agenda?
Nobody who believes in AGW is a scientist no matter how exalted their academic position is. In fact, IMO, the most astonishing thing about science is that - despite the fact that the system is geared to advancing ass kissing rote memorisers, we still get (occasionally) good papers written and published
...a psychology professor at Brown (and you can't get more establishment than the Ivy League) published a peer-reviewed article suggesting that at least some teens who claim transgender identity do so as a matter of social contagion rather than because they were "born that way." After complaints from transgender activists, Brown apologized for issuing a press release touting the study, and the journal that published the study announced it would review it further.

...Finally, there is the matter of John McCain's passing. Deaths of famous individuals are often occasions for charitable assessments of someone's legacy. In McCain's case, however, the praise heaped on him made him out to be someone so far from the actual John McCain that he was virtually unrecognizable. Someone who always treated his political opponents with respect? Not really, but a useful way to implicitly attack Trump. More important, the politically aware recall that McCain was a hero when he took on George W. Bush in 2000, and again when he became an implicit member of the "Resistance" to Trump until his death. But in 2008, when he ran against the establishment's favorite, Barack Obama, the establishment turned on him with a vengeance. Sort of seems like the esteem in which they hold a prominent individual has less to do with his character, and more to do with whether he is serving a useful political purpose at the moment. So attacks on Trump's character, however well-founded, are considered in that light.

I should emphasize that I agree that Trump has at times promoted bigotry, is a congenital liar, and engages in demeaning and belittling behavior toward his political opponents. Indeed, I think these things are obvious. But much of the country isn't listening when the traditional gatekeepers point this out, and that is, at least in part, the gatekeepers' own fault.
Some of us are, a tad, unhappy with Trump because he's too forgiving toward the venomous bureaucracy and the out and out crazy democratic party https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/the-democrats-are-crazy.php?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=sw&utm_campaign=sw
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 04:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Because they're the globlist establishment who currently rent-seek in America.

There is no American in the current establishment.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 8:12 Comments || Top||

#2  I should emphasize that I agree that Trump has at times promoted bigotry, is a congenital liar, and engages in demeaning and belittling behavior toward his political opponents.

Just like Obean for 8 years (and he refuses to leave the stage even now).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 11:28 Comments || Top||


Economy
Companies Say Trump Is Hurting Business by Limiting Legal Immigration
Rent-seeking be hard! I had to clean the loo all by myself.
[NYT] The Trump administration is using the country’s vast and nearly opaque immigration bureaucracy to constrict the flow of foreign workers into the United States by throwing up new roadblocks to limit legal arrivals.

The government is denying more work visas, asking applicants to provide additional information and delaying approvals more frequently than just a year earlier. Hospitals, hotels, technology companies and other businesses say they are now struggling to fill jobs with the foreign workers they need.

With foreign hires missing, the employees who remain are being forced to pick cotton up the slack. Seasonal industries like hotels and landscaping are having to turn down customers or provide fewer services. Corporate executives worry about the long-term impact of losing talented engineers and programmers to countries like Canada that are laying out the welcome mat for skilled foreigners.
cotton
At Northwell Health’s pathology lab on Long Island, a new doctor’s cubicle stands empty, her computer and microscope untouched. Other residents started on July 1, but she is stuck in India’s Punjab State, held up by unexplained delays in her visa.

"There have been delays in processing that we have not felt before," said Dr. Andrew C. Yacht, chief academic officer at Northwell, which includes Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan and North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y.
Continues:

Related: Mercer - Business Is Already Mounting Pressure To Import Cheap Labor.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 04:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  List of 1,320 monuments to the scourge of 'cheap labor' found here.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 5:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Yea, well, that's too bad - how about reforming US system of higher education?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 5:16 Comments || Top||

#3  You've had since the 80's to grow your own. Instead you found it more profitable to bribe Congresscritters to join in the game of discouraging American workers from seeking skills that just lead to job replacement by foreigners. See - Disney.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 7:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Trump should limit migration to those above the average wage.

There should be a sponsor who pays their tax if they become unemployed or disappear.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 8:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Poor, poor, pitiful Microsoft. Maybe they should move to India. Gates could buy himself a palatial estate in exciting, exotic Bombay.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/05/2018 11:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Make them accountable just like importing foreign brides.

The immigration law of 1996 outlines specific financial requirements for U.S. citizens who marry non-US citizens who will apply for a green card. The U.S. citizen will need to fill out a Form I-864 Affidavit of Support, which proves the ability to support the immigrant at a level above the U.S. Poverty Guidelines. In fact, the citizen will need to promise the U.S. government to support the non-U.S. spouse for approximately ten years.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 11:33 Comments || Top||

#7  >ability to support the immigrant at a level above the U.S. Poverty Guideline

Should be well above that level.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 16:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Companies Say Trump Is Hurting Business by Limiting Legal Immigration

And helping them by increasing the consumer base. I don't hear anything about this half of the equation.
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 17:32 Comments || Top||


Government
Americans have presented you with a Convention of States handbook, America! (PDF)
[Convention of States Handbook] The public widely believes our nation is headed in the wrong direction. They believe that future prospects are troubling, not only for this generation but for generations to come.

The public is correct.

What is not widely known is that the Constitution itself provides a real, effective solution.

Mark Levin’s bestselling book, The Liberty Amendments, has opened the eyes of millions ofAmericansto the possibility ofstopping the federal abuses of power through a Convention of States.

Although we began the COS Project independently, our plan is a near-perfect match with Levin’s ideas. The plan we propose does not commit us to any particular amendments.

That will be up to thestates when they convene. But it does commit us to a particular subject—proposed amendments must be designed to limit the power of the federal government.
Posted by: newc || 09/05/2018 02:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just remember the Convention's amendments must still pass the muster of 3/4 of the state legislatures.

One will quickly pass that requirement, the one that bars any federal entity from mandating any expenditure of state raised tax money.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 7:13 Comments || Top||

#2  The COS is one way specified in the Constitution to amend our constitution. This has been on a slow track for some years now probably due to the 3/4ths of the States requirement and the expenditure need.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2018 11:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Convention of States is Non-Profit based out of Austin, Texas.

When you hear Levin apostatizing Convention of States, he is a reading a commercial provided from the non-profit.

We have an open border with third world dieseases, press #1 for English, and the designed plan to brown to America, and the cockservatives/GOPe/UniParty, CoC and John Donohue, the Kochs' and the rest of the roaches did not care - they do not deserve a Convention of the States and are not to be trusted.
Posted by: mossomo || 09/05/2018 18:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Police seize NIS 18,000 in financing from Jerusalem Hamas activist
[IsraelTimes] Officials say the money was provided by the terror organization for unspecified purposes

Police seized thousands of shekels from an East Jerusalem Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, activist on Sunday, which they said was funding from the terror group.

Following an undercover intelligence operation, police and the Shin Bet security service raided the home and discovered NIS 18,000 ($5,000) in cash, cops announced Tuesday.

"The operation was the result of covert activity and targeted intelligence gathering by the Israeli Police and security forces which found that the activist, who lives in East Jerusalem, receives the funding from Hamas," police said.

Officials said that the operation was a continuation of efforts to prevent support for terrorist organizations and the families of terrorists.

They did not say what they believed the funds had been intended for.

In the past year police said they had confiscated a total of NIS 300,000 ($82,000) of Hamas funds from seven families. They did not say whether all the families in question lived in East Jerusalem.

Police said they would not allow the terror group to provide financing or any other kind of support to activists, terror operatives, or their families.

"The involvement of Jerusalem residents in any activity financed by Hamas is a serious crime and is an attempt by the terror group to gain a foothold within Jerusalem," police said.

Security forces and politicians have sought to end payments from the Paleostinian Authority and from Paleostinian terror groups to families of terrorists, which they say encourage further attacks.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 01:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Fire breaks out in Gaza border region due to incendiary balloons
[Ynet] A fire broke out on Tuesday in Kibbutz Kerem Shalom due to incendiary balloons launched into Israel from the strip.

The fire is now under control.
Does the wind in Paleostine only blow in one direction? What's the Hebrew word for "intifada"?
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 01:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


International-UN-NGOs
UK, Spain also to boost its funding of Palestinian refugee agency
[IsralTimes] The British government announced Tuesday it would increase its contribution to the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
agency that provides services to Paleostinian refugees, days after the US announced it was cutting all funding to the organization.

The UK will give an additional £7 million ($9 million) to UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees (UNRWA), bringing its total contribution for the current year to £45.5 million ($58.5 million).

Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian...
Spain also announced it was doubling it’s $1 million in funding to $2 million this year.

The Trump administration announced Friday it was cutting nearly $300 million in planned funding for UNRWA, and that it would no longer fund the agency after decades of support. Instead, it said it would seek other channels by which to aid the Paleostinians.

The US had supplied nearly 30 percent of the total UNRWA budget, which provides health care, education, and social services to Paleostinians in the West Bank, Gazoo Strip, Jordan, Syria, and Leb.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 01:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Britain is deep state central.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 3:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Proving our money was never needed in the first place.

Man, just think of all the other places we can cut.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 09/05/2018 6:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Agree, Herb.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/05/2018 23:03 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
10 Palestinians suspects arrested
[Ynet] The security forces tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
on Wednesday 10 wanted Paleostinians suspected of involvement in terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria.

The suspects were taken in for questioning.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 01:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


German minister: Mistakes made in Chemnitz suspects’ cases
[IsraelTimes] Poor communication between authorities caused asylum-seekers not to be deported before they slayed man in Chemnitz, sparking widespread protests

Mistakes were made
Passive voice translates as "The Gods were being whimsical and we are all at their mercy. See Homer, The Trojan War, verses 1 through the end.

Active voice would have been: "Karl-Heinz, Fritz, Helmut und Dietrich were talking about going fishing and lost control of things. They have been demoted and reassigned to German Research Station Number One in Anarctica, schweeping up penguin poop!" See? There's some kinda difference between the two, ain't there?

in the cases of two asylum-seekers accused in the slaying of a German man which sparked large-scale far-right protests, Germany’s top security official said Tuesday.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Tuesday that poor communication between Germany’s migration office and other authorities meant the deadline was missed to return Iraqi Yousif A. to Bulgaria, the country responsible for his case under European rules that say migrants colonists must apply for asylum in the country where they first enter the EU.

Seehofer said there were also cooperation issues between authorities in the case of Syrian Alaa S.

He said changes he has instituted in how Germany deals with migrants colonists, including new centers being set up in border areas to process people quickly, should help stop similar failings in the future.

"Such delays and mistakes need to be prevented," he said in a statement.

The men, whose last names weren’t disclosed, are being held on manslaughter charges in the August 26 fatal stabbing of 35-year-old Daniel Hillig, which sparked anti-migrant protests in the city of Chemnitz that shocked many in Germany and beyond. On Tuesday Saxony state authorities said they are seeking a third suspect in the killing, identified only as an asylum-seeker from Iraq.

Seehofer’s comments came after he met Monday with the head of Germany’s migration office.

In another issue that came up, Seehofer said Yousif A. presented an Iraqi passport, citizenship documents, and a national identity card to authorities on November 7, 2017. Those were determined to be fakes, but not until June 15, 2018.

He said that was due to a shortfall in highly specialized document experts available at the migration office ‐ an issue Seehofer said had already been identified and is being rectified.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 01:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Without the protests this murder would have been local news only.

The public would never have found out about the fact that literally nothing is known about these individuals.

Nothing, that is, beyond their allegations substantiated by forgery.

Malice, not incompetence!
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 09/05/2018 2:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Basically, no process is being followed, no checks are being made, and no evictions are being made.

Every effort is being made to keep as many gimmigrants in Germany.

Since a potential migrant has to earn above average wage to be break even (before taking into account migrants greater cultural acclimation to violence and crime), this can only be an attack on the German people.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 3:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Basically, no process is being followed, no checks are being made, and no evictions are being made.

That's my impression. For the malicious elements in politics it's "known unknowns." For the non-malicious dunces like e.g. Seehofer it's "unknown unknowns."

When the unknowns turn into knowns for the dunces they apologize.
The malicious ones are utterly unapologetic.

this can only be an attack on the German people.

And Europe and the West in general. (Bataclan, Turku, Amsterdam, Paris police station attack)
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 09/05/2018 10:01 Comments || Top||

#4  There seems to be an acceptance in Europe that a certain level of terroristic violence is unpreventable, and therefore must be endured. I remember back in the 1980s, when Mr. Wife did not tell me until later about the Communists throwing bombs into Paris cafés one summer, and whoever it was that blew up the main post office in Athens shortly after he left, and came alongside the overfull island ferry with machine guns, raking the decks from stern to stem. I started paying close attention to the international news because I needd to know when and where to worry about him when he was away.

Now the terroristic threats come from those poor unfortunates who fled difficult circumstances in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, but from a certain perspective the overall threat level hasn’t much changed, so why fuss?
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  The (Soviet/East Germany sponsored) terror campaigns affected very few people directly.

Europe wasn't being flooded with millions of fanatical communists at the time.

Chemnitz or even the Berlin rape case aren't terrorism in the narrow sense.

These are acts committed by people who subjectively perceive themselves as conquerors who are lording over the defeated civilian populace.

The civilian populace of course disagrees with this view.

Again, Chemnitz wasn't terrorism. It was a rather ordinary murder of a German man committed by refugees.

Had there been no protests there's no way this would have made national or international news.

The public would never have learned that the suspected attackers should have been deported years ago or that literally nothing is known about their identity.

Only the protests made the difference.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 09/05/2018 11:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Slightly off topic: I stand corrected by European Conservative regarding the maximum penalty for the Kandel murderer.

I had read that the medical expert report had stated that the Afghan's most likely age was 20.

I had then incorrectly assumed that he was being tried as a 20 y/o.

The report however gave his minimal age as 17.5 which is the age the court recognized.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 09/05/2018 12:07 Comments || Top||

#7  EH

I forgot to add that receiving a sentence of 10 years means that you might actually serve less than 7 years.

People in Kandel are NOT happy
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/05/2018 20:14 Comments || Top||


Several Gazans said wounded by IDF during riot near Erez crossing
[IsraelTimes] Military says protesters at pedestrian terminal into Israel hurled rocks and damaged infrastructure, prompting response from troops

Several Paleostinians were maimed by Israeli fire Tuesday as they protested near the territory’s main personnel crossing with Israel, Gazoo’s Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,-run Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military said Paleostinians hurled rocks at the crossing in the Strip’s north and damaged infrastructure, prompting troops to respond with tear gas and live fire.

Such protests are rare at Erez, the only terminal for travel into Israel or the West Bank from Gazoo.

The violent protest broke several days of calm, which came after understandings were reportedly reached between Israel and Hamas.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 01:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Always fun to scan the Front Page.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/05/2018 11:38 Comments || Top||

#2  It got to be real painful for awhile. I've got bad neuropathy in my hands, but it seems to have peaked, as long as I take my meds. I can't control the mouse as well as I could, and I can't touch type anymore (can't feel my fingers). I did the bloid daily, with a little help from my friends, for ten or eleven years. It may be sporadic from now on out, but I'll be trying.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 11:51 Comments || Top||

#3  thank you, Fred
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2018 14:17 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian Airstrikes on Syria's Idlib Resume
[AnNahar] The U.N. urged Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
Tuesday to help avert a "bloodbath" in Idlib, as renewed Russian Arclight airstrikes on the Syria's last major rebel stronghold killed least nine civilians, according to a monitor.

Rebel-backer Turkey has held several rounds of talks with regime ally Russia aimed at averting an major assault on Idlib, but Moscow on Tuesday dubbed the province a "pocket of terrorism" as Syrian troops massed near the region.

A full-fledged assault would be devastating for the nearly three million people living in the northwestern province, many of them rebels and civilians who were bussed out of other areas as they came back under regime control.

The U.N.'s Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
and his Ottoman Turkish counterpart Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
to urgently speak on the phone even before they are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Friday.

De Mistura pointed to press reports indicating that Syria has set a September 10 deadline for finding a solution before it begins an all-out offensive on the province.

His appeal came after Russian warplanes resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.

The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the raids, while 10 people were maimed.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month, and Russia has stepped up its rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Putin's front man Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

It accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponized drones and insists jihadists in the province must be eliminated.

- 'Appeal for sanity' -
De Mistura said there were an estimated 10,000 fighters with U.N.-recognized terrorist organizations currently in Idlib.

But he stressed that there are some 2.9 million civilians in the province, including around one million children, who "are not terrorists".
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Iraq
4 Million Iraqis Return Home after War on IS
[AnNahar] Nearly four million Iraqis displaced by the war on the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group have returned to their homes, the U.N. migration agency said in a report released Tuesday.

When IS swept across Iraq in 2014, eventually seizing around one third of the country, it forced six million Iraqis to flee for safety, said the International Organization for Migration.

The IOM said the six million who were displaced represented around 15 percent of Iraq's total population.

"For the first time in nearly four years, the number of displaced Iraqis has fallen to below two million," the agency said. "Nearly four million have returned home."

According to the IOM, the displaced who have returned home cited several reasons for their decision, including "the improved security situation (and) availability of housing."

Others said they were encouraged to return by community leaders, friends and relatives, or simply had the financial means to do so.

But those who are still displaced -- 1,931,868 people -- complain of lack of means and job opportunities, as well as insecurity and of damaged homes and infrastructure, said the IOM.

It said most of those who had gone back were displaced from the northern province of Nineveh -- home to Iraq's second city djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and an IS bastion for three years before it was driven out in 2017.

Displaced Iraqis have also gone back in large numbers to the Sunni province of Anbar bordering Syria and scene of the last major battle against IS.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared "victory" in December in the fight against IS.

But sleeper cells still operate in the country from sparsely populated areas, including desert regions near the border with Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  All thanks to bold action years ago by 0bumhole, I'm sure. Just like the current economy. Or are we supposed to say it was Bush's fault? I'm confused.
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 13:55 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Libyan rival factions agree on ceasefire, fire at American embassy
[AlAhram] A ceasefire has been reached between armed factions fighting over the Libyan capital for more than a week, the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
said on Tuesday, but it was unclear how it would be implemented.

Dozens of people have been killed in fighting engulfing 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...
as rival gangs vie for power and money in the chaos persisting in the oil producer since the toppling of Muammar Qadaffy
...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest...
in 2011.

"A ceasefire agreement was reached + signed today to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property," the U.N. mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Twitter.

The Tripoli Matiga airport - closed since Friday - would also be reopened under the deal, the United Nations said, showing pictures of the meeting hosted by U.N. Special Envoy Ghassan Salame but giving no immediate details.

It was not clear how the ceasefire would be implemented as militias have ignored previous calls to lay down arms by the U.N.-backed government which is largely powerless.

There is no police or army or functioning state to enforce peace in a country ruled by gangs who defy authority and form flexible alliances.

"Today does not aim to fix all the Libyan capital's security problems; it seeks to agree on a broader framework on the way to start addressing the issues," UNSMIL quoted Salame as saying.

In a sign of the chaos, hundreds of African migrants colonists beat feet from a detention centre in Tripoli as the fighting between rival groups raged nearby, an aid official said.

A video posted on social media on Tuesday purportedly showed hundreds of Africans, some carrying plastic bags, walking in a long line away from the detention centre. It is located on the road to the former Tripoli International Airport, which was destroyed in a battle between rival militias in 2014.

Libya is a major departure point in North Africa for migrants colonists crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, mainly from other parts of Africa.

The aid official, who works for an international organization, said as many as 1,800 migrants colonists might have escaped the facility on Tuesday. It was unclear where they had gone.

If confirmed, this would mean that almost a quarter of Libya's placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
migrants colonists, mostly Africans, are on the run. Most had been placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
after the Libyan coastguard intercepted their makeshift boats bound for Italia.

Tripoli is formally controlled by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord, but gangs working with it act with autonomy. Eastern Libya is controlled by a rival administration.

Last Thursday U.N. agencies and authorities relocated hundreds of migrants colonists from government-run detention centres in southern Tripoli to safer locations.

In a further sign of chaos, some 400 prisoners also escaped on Sunday from a jail in southern Tripoli, forcing open the doors as the guards retreated.

More than 1,800 families have been displaced from their homes since the start of the fighting, a report by the Tripoli-based ministry for displaced people said.

Libya: fire breaks out in U.S. embassy in Tripoli amid violence

[IraqiNews] Fire has broken out inside the United States embassy in 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...
, Libyan media reported Tuesday as violence continues among gangs linked with the internationally-recognized government.

Al-Marsad, an online Libyan news portal, said the fire behind the embassy’s wall has gone out of control.

The embassy is located on the " (Tripoli) airport road", where much of the violence has occurred over the past week.

No official statement has yet been made by the embassy confirming the incident.

Festivities have claimed the lives of at least 40 people.

Libya, since the killing of former leader Muammar al-Qhadafi in the 2011 uprising, has been divided between the internationally-recognized government in the west and the elected, army-backed parliament in the east.

Clashes raged Monday in Tripoli as UN called for talks

[DAWN] Clashes raged on Monday on the outskirts of Libya’s 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...
trapping residents indoors and hampering rescue efforts, as the UN called for talks after more than a week of deadly violence.

Fighting since Aug 27 between rival militias in the southern suburbs has killed at least 47 people and maimed 129 others, most of them civilians, according to an updated toll put out by the health ministry Sunday night.

Following a failed ceasefire on Friday, the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) invited the "various Libyan parties" to Tuesday talks for an "urgent dialogue on the current security situation in Tripoli".

UNSMIL did not give further information on the guest list, but analysts said the chaos of changing alliances on the ground made it difficult to predict who would be at the table. "The situation is too fluid and the alliances are still volatile and changing," said Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert at the University of Gay Paree 8.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  but it was unclear how it would be implemented.


The only difference between unclear and nuclear is U.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 9:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he won't run for re-election next year
[Chicago Tribune] In a stunning decision, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday morning that he will no longer seek a third term in office, signaling the end to what has been a tumultuous ‐ and at times transformative ‐ eight years in office.
Emmanuel is a Democrat's Democrat. A former Obama fixer, he has a black belt in Incompetence. I suspect his successor will be even worse.
With First Lady Amy Rule by his side, an emotional Emanuel said the time simply had come to write a new chapter in their lives together.

"I’ve decided not to seek re-election," Emanuel said. "This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime."

Emanuel’s decision marks a dramatic political reversal, as for the better part of the last year he had said he would run for a third term. The mayor, long a prolific fundraiser, had already reeled in more than $10 million toward a bid for a third term.

Read Emanuel's prepared remarks announcing he will not seek re-election »

Over the holiday weekend, though, whispers began emerge that Emanuel might not embark on a third campaign. The mayor’s closest aides privately dismissed the talk as "bull" and "BS." Emanuel even told some close friends who called to inquire that the rumors weren’t true. A top aide close to the mayor said he didn’t make the final decision until Monday.

Emanuel weighed the decision as the murder trial of reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
police officer Jason Van Dyke is scheduled to begin this week, a high-profile case that is sure to bring about fresh scrutiny of his handling of the Laquan McDonald police shooting, in which Van Dyke shot the teen 16 times in October 2014 as he walked down a Southwest Side street holding a small folding knife.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rahm has 10 million reasons not to seek reelection.
Posted by: Sonny Dribble1184 || 09/05/2018 5:15 Comments || Top||

#2  ..as he walked down a Southwest Side street holding a small folding knife.

Try getting that through TSA.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 7:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Bye, Tiny Dancer. Don't let the door hit you in the tutu
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2018 7:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Emmanuel is a Democrat's Democrat. A former Obama fixer, he has a black belt in Incompetence. I suspect his successor will be even worse.

I understand Obama is looking for work.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 8:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I understand Obama is looking for work.

Eh?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 9:14 Comments || Top||


#7  raising speculation he will launch a bid for 2020 Democratic nomination

Wouldn’t that be fun! “Vote for the ballet dancer. It’s important!”
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 10:50 Comments || Top||

#8  [There is]speculation he will launch a bid for 2020 Democratic nomination. Who would vote for him? Or is this one of those rigged "elections" where no one does but the candidate ends up in office?
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2018 10:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Was / is this guy a ballet dancer, or am I missing the joke somewhere?
Posted by: Raj || 09/05/2018 11:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Raj, I took it to mean that one would be better off voting for the ballet dancer rather than the mayor. But I don't know. T.W. will have to shed light on that one.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2018 11:20 Comments || Top||

#11  "Rahm was encouraged by his mother to take ballet lessons, and is a graduate of the Evanston School of Ballet,[19] as well as a student of The Joel Hall Dance Center, where his children later took lessons.[20] He won a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet,[21] but turned it down to attend Sarah Lawrence College, a liberal arts school with a strong dance program.[22] This background, as well as the mayor's short stature, has led critics of the Mayor to nickname him "tiny dancer". "
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2018 11:27 Comments || Top||

#12  No relation to Elton John's tiny dancer.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 12:05 Comments || Top||

#13  Rahm has 10 million reasons not to seek reelection.

I didn't realize that many had been shot in Chicago.
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 17:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Ghazni Residents Worried About Their Safety
[ToloNews] Ghazni residents have voiced their concern over the security situation in the city after communication lines were reportedly cut and festivities took place between bully boyz and security forces in some parts of the city on Monday night.

Residents said telecommunication companies have been threatened by the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
and forced to cut services to the city except for a few hours each morning.

Footage obtained by TOLOnews on Tuesday shows an increased presence of security forces on the streets of Ghazni following Monday night’s clash.

On Tuesday, Ghazni police had clearly stepped up efforts to stop and search people and vehicles in the city.

"People are concerned about a repeat of a Death Eater attack on Ghazni. There are rumors that telecommunication companies have been threatened by the Taliban to stop their services," said Nematullah, a resident of Ghazni.

"Ghazni security is a worry for residents. We witness fires and festivities at night. It has made people hopeless. They (residents) are trying to leave Ghazni," said Abdullah, another resident.

Some shopkeepers who have their businesses close to government buildings claimed that security forces have meanwhile prevented them from opening their shops due to security threats.

Referring to last month’s siege of the city, one shopkeeper, Rahimullah, said: "They fought, people’s shops were burnt, destroyed."

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
one member of Ghazni Provincial Council, Khaliqdad Akbari, said he had been in the city on Monday night during the clash, but left for Kabul on Tuesday.

After arriving in the capital he said the road to Kabul, which is only about 180km from Ghazni, was a "death highway".

"Government officials, government forces, politicians, none of them can travel through the death highway. Everyone gets stuck wherever they are (fighting)," Akbari said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy...
other Ghazni residents said telecom services are active only for three hours each day - from 7am to 10am.

"Telecommunication companies are not working. People are faced with problems. Security is a concern for us," said Hayatullah Muzafari, a resident of Ghazni.

Another resident, Ewaz Ali, said: "We are disconnected from our friends. Telecommunication companies have been threatened by enemies of this land."

Taliban has not commented on this so far, however, Ghazni Police Headquarters stated on its Face Book page that limited telecom services in Ghazni was due to technical problems.

Sources from telecom companies however said some of the companies have disconnected their services due to Taliban threats.

This comes after Ghazni City was held under siege by the Taliban for four days last month. The Taliban siege resulted in almost $200 million in losses to the private sector, according to government statistics.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


India-Pakistan
Hizb chief says Indian agencies are victimising his family
[DAWN] MUZAFFARABAD: A top Kashmiri holy warrior leader has said that Indian agencies are constantly victimising his family members in India-held Kashmire to force him abandon his pro-freedom activities but added that they will not succeed.

Issued on Monday, the statement of Syed Salahuddin
...the aging, morbidly obese chief of Hizbul Mujaheddin and the titular head of the United Jihad Council in idyllic Kashmire. Originally owned body and theoretical soul by Jamaat-e-Islami he and his organization are currently controlled by Pakistain's ISI. Salahuddin's hobbies include crocheting doilies shaped like the Taj Mahal, combing his enormous beard, and eating....
, supreme leader of Hizbul Mujahideen
...Party of Holy Warriors, founded by Muhammad Ahsan Dar in September 1989. One of the Pak sock puppets waging jihad in Indian Kashmir. It was originally organized as the armed wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. In 1990, Dar declared Hizbul as the sword arm of Jamaat. Hizbul murdered many of the pro-independence intelligentsia in Kashmir. After the organization was taken over by Syed Salahuddin Dar and several other ex-Hizb leaders were assassinated between 2001 and 2003...
, Kashmire’s largest and mainly indigenous holy warrior outfit, came in the wake of arrest of his son Syed Shakil Ahmad by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) during a night raid at his residence in Rambagh area of Srinagar, last Thursday in a funding case.

Ahmad, who works as a lab technician in a health facility in Srinagar, was shifted to India’s infamous Tihar jail in New Delhi.

In October last year, the NIA had incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
Ahmad’s elder sibling Syed Shahid Yousuf, an employee of the agriculture department, in the same case, who has also been languishing in Tihar jail ever since.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hizbul Mujaheddin


Terror Networks
Al Qaeda trying to regain primacy as Islamic State loses ground: NATO
[AlAhram] Al Qaeda is trying to regain its primacy over international militancy as Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
loses ground, a senior NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
official said on Tuesday, seeing a potentially increased risk to the West from the groups' rivalry.

But Arndt von Loringhoven, the alliance's assistant secretary general for intelligence and security, said Islamic State retained some personnel strength despite its combat losses, including fresh recruits among women and kiddies.

"ISIS-ISIS weakening has provided al Qaeda with an opportunity to attempt to regain its former status," Von Loringhoven told a security conference hosted by Israel's IDC Herzliya college, using a term for Islamic State.

"While ISIS-ISIS has occupied the world's attention for the last four-five year, al Qaeda has been quietly rebuilding its global networks and capabilities," he said, citing activity in Kashmire, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

"Rather like ISIS-ISIS, al Qaeda's strategic aim is to regain leadership of like-minded Death Eaters and holy warriors. The competition for legitimacy, affiliates and recruits among the two major global holy warrior groups potentially increases the terrorism threat to NATO and our partners."

Al Qaeda carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, prompting U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. forces killed al Qaeda's leader, the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones...
, in a Pak hideout in 2011. Soon after, Islamic State, which is guided by a similarly holy warrior form of Sunni Islam, arose.

Islamic State's fiefdoms in Syria and Iraq have been largely dismantled in recent years by offensives launched by Damascus and Baghdad with the backing of various foreign coalitions.

Von Loringhoven said NATO estimated that Islamic State's peak strength of around 39,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq had been halved to between 18,000 and 20,000, most of them dispersed around the two countries and "gone underground".

"A very worrisome trend is the group's concerted effort to use propaganda to radicalise women and minors, who have emerged as a new target for recruitment relatively recently," he said.

"This trend may have led to increased involvement of women and minors in the planning and execution of a number of attacks, including in NATO countries," he said.

Citing the arrest in June of a Tunisian man suspected of planning a ricin attack Germany, von Loringhoven said Death Eaters could increasingly try to turn to homemade chemical or biological arms or attacks using commercially available drones.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Agents Tried to Flip Russian Oligarchs. The Fallout Spread to Trump.
[NYT via Breitbart] Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and dossier author Christopher Steele worked together on a secret FBI plot that apparently involved helping a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, with U.S. visas in exchange for potential dirt on Donald Trump in the lead-up to the election, according to a recent New York Times report.

The Times reported:
Between 2014 and 2016, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department unsuccessfully tried to turn Mr. Deripaska into an informant. They signaled that they might provide help with his trouble in getting visas for the United States or even explore other steps to address his legal problems. In exchange, they were hoping for information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to current and former officials and associates of Mr. Deripaska.

The report revealed for the first time the existence of the alleged plot, which was described as a "broader, clandestine American effort to gauge the possibility of gaining cooperation from roughly a half-dozen of Russia’s richest men."

Trump critics argued the report showed that Ohr and Steele ‐ who communicated more than 60 times during the 2016 campaign ‐ had a valid reason to speak that was not related to the Trump dossier:

Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I just wonder who ended flipping whom?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 3:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Snakes slithering for the exits. NYT provides.
Posted by: Sonny Dribble1184 || 09/05/2018 5:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Brennan's Analysis Corp. and the US State Department Passport Office.

Excerpt with emphasis added:

John O. Brennan, Obama’s top terrorism and intelligence adviser is the owner of The Analysis Corp., the firm that was cited in March 2008 for penetrating the files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John McCain in the State Department’s passport office.

At the time of the breach, Brennan was working as an unpaid adviser to the Obama campaign. After the breach was revealed by the Washington Times Brennan stated:

“This individual’s actions were taken without the knowledge or direction of anyone at The Analysis Corp. and are wholly inconsistent with our professional and ethical standards,” Brennan’s company said in a statement sent to reporters after the passport breach was made public. (link)

The Washington Times Reported – Passport application data includes such details as date and place of birth, e-mail address, mailing address, Social Security number, former names and travel plans. Mr. Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961 to a Kenyan father and American mother. He lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, from age six to 10.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 5:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Bullcrap.
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/05/2018 6:58 Comments || Top||

#5  So the FBI worked with Russians to sway the election...

It was Projection.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/05/2018 8:15 Comments || Top||

#6  "Look. We know you didn't say this and continue to deny Trump did this. Now just sign the f'n papers, or no Visa!"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2018 8:48 Comments || Top||

#7  The New York Times reported this?

Be still, my heart!
Posted by: Bobby || 09/05/2018 11:25 Comments || Top||

#8  They are so screwed.

I heard a leak that Mike Flynn said the FISA abusing was going on since early 2015. Huge if true, because Trump was not the candidate at the time, and it implicates that the spygate-coup operation was not orginally started just to spy on Trump - but on all GOP candidates.



Posted by: mossomo || 09/05/2018 19:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Want to save the GOP, Republicans? Vote for every Democrat on this year’s ballot.
[WASHINGTONPOST] By Tom Nichols
Naval War College and Harvard Extension School professor
Didn't the Hatch Act apply to people with government jobs (like teaching at the fergawdsake Naval War College, for example) getting involved in partisan politix?
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WaPo. Advice. For the GOP. Riiiiiight....
Posted by: magpie || 09/05/2018 2:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Haven't voted D since Ben Nighthorse Campbell flipped to R.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/05/2018 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like a rewrite of Bowtie George Will's column from last month - won't be reading this one, either.
Posted by: Raj || 09/05/2018 11:02 Comments || Top||

#4  WAPO, a Deepstate propaganda organ.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2018 11:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Every vote for any GOP candidate will be a signal from the rank and file that elected Republican officials should remain supine while Trump takes a hatchet to the American political system.

I'm good with that.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/05/2018 11:37 Comments || Top||

#6  "Every vote for any GOP candidate will be a signal from the rank and file that elected Republican officials should remain supine while Trump takes a hatchet to the American political system our power and status".
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2018 11:42 Comments || Top||

#7  You know Prof. Tom, I don't think the deplorables actually want to save GOP as it is today.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 16:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Drastic surgery is required to save the patient. Voting Dem is not the answer (unless you are asking a very stupid question). But we'll need to remove a great deal of sepsis from the rotting Republican party to make it well again.
Posted by: Iblis || 09/05/2018 21:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Maybe voting from the rooftop
Posted by: Blossom Hupager6063 || 09/05/2018 22:00 Comments || Top||


Europe
Europe demand for more talks does not help Iran nuclear deal, cleric says
[AlAhram] Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
is not helping preserve the agreement on Iran's nuclear programme by asking for additional negotiations on issues like missiles, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a powerful anti-Western holy man, said Tuesday, according to the Islamic Theocratic Republic News Agency.

Jannati is the head of the Assembly of Experts, an influential body that can select and dismiss the supreme leader, the highest authority in Iran.

Last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tehran should be ready to negotiate on its future nuclear plans, its ballistic missile arsenal and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran's foreign ministry rejected the idea.

President 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...
pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May and is re-imposing sanctions on Tehran. The other parties to the accord - China, Russia, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany- are trying to find ways to save the agreement.

"Europe has announced that they won’t leave the deal," Jannati said, according to IRNA. "In practice, by bringing up a discussion of missiles and other issues they are not following an appropriate path."

Last month, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
decided to provide 18 million euros ($21 million) in aid to Iran to offset the impact of U.S. sanctions, part of efforts to salvage the deal.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Afghanistan
Afghan forces and Taliban militants suffer heavy casualties in Paktia clashes
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan security and Talibs suffered heavy casualties during the festivities in two districts of Paktia province in Southeast of Afghanistan.

The provincial government media office in a statement said at least 28 Talibs were killed during the festivities with the security forces in Zurmat and Jani Khel districts.

The statement further added that 9 holy warriors were also tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
and several others sustained injuries during the festivities.

According to the governor’s office, at least 7 of the holy warriors were killed during an operation of the Afghan forces in Zurmat district on Monday and a stockpile of weapons, munitions, and explosives were destroyed.

A clash also took place between the Afghan forces and the Talibs on Monday night in the vicinity of Jani Khel district, leaving at least 21 holy warriors dead, the statement said.

The provincial government in its statement also added that four security personnel belonging to the National Police, Public Order police, and Afghan National Army bit the dust and six others sustained injuries.
Tolo News adds:
At least 21 armed Taliban insurgents were killed on Monday night in a clash between Afghan forces and Taliban insurgents, Paktia governor’s office said Tuesday.

According to officials, the clash broke out on Monday night at around midnight in Janikhel district when Taliban insurgents attacked security check posts in the district. The clash reportedly ended on Tuesday morning at about 8am local time.

Dozens of insurgents were wounded in the clash, officials added.

During the attack four security forces were killed and six others were wounded.

However a security source from Paktia said that 16 security force members were killed in the clash with the Taliban and 12 others were wounded.

The governor’s office rejected Taliban’s claims that the district had fallen to the militant group.

Taliban said in a statement on Tuesday that their fighters captured the district and killed a number of security forces.

The office said that during the Taliban’s clash the militants suffered heavy casualties and repelled the attack.

Meanwhile, Taj Mohammad Mangal, a Paktia provincial council member, told TOLOnews that a local police check post collapsed to the Taliban in Kotkai area of Janikhel district of Pakita province but did not give information on causalities.

Janikhel borders Pakistan and some parts of the district have for a while been insecure.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Fizzle-bomber: US embassy in Cairo asks citizens to 'exercise caution' after arrest of suspected extremist
[AlAhram] The US Embassy in Cairo briefly asked Americans to stay away from its premises on Tuesday after a suspected turban was tossed in the calaboose
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
near its premises.

"We are aware of a reported incident on Simon Bolivar Street in Cairo," read the statement, asking citizens to avoid the area and monitor local media for updates.

A security source told Ahram Online that a 24-year-old man, Abdullah Abdel Samie, was arrested in the vicinity of Simon Bolivar Square, near the embassy, after a backpack he was carrying caught fire.

There was a bottle filled with inflammable material inside the backpack, the source added.

According to initial investigation, Abdel Samie holds "some turban thoughts" which had promted him "to carry out hostile acts."

The incident did not lead to any injuries or damage in the area.

In a tweet sent at approximately 2pm, the embassy, which is located next to Simon Bolivar Street in Garden City, said citizens should not come to the embassy "at this time."

"We are aware of reports that public transportation near the area has been disrupted due to the incident," it added.

In a tweet sent around an hour later, the embassy said that the police "have finished their investigations at the scene of the incident" and that the embassy "is resuming normal business."

The embassy also asked that US citizens to exercise caution, suggesting they sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) for security updates.

PJMedia has video of the pantsing of the arrested miscreant (taken in broad daylight in the middle of the street in front of a small crowd, many taking videos on their cellphones) and of the dramatic fizzle in his backpack as he strode boldly toward the embassy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:



India-Pakistan
PTI's Babar Awan resigns from advisory position over alleged involvement in Nandipur scam
[DAWN] Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan resigned from his post on Tuesday in wake of the corruption reference filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly causing delays in the Nandipur Power Project.

According to the reference filed in the Accountability Court, the bureau holds Babar Awan ‐ who was the federal law minister in the PPP government ‐ responsible for delaying the power project while in office.

PPP's Raja Pervez Ashraf, who was the federal minister for water and power at the time, has also been named in the NAB reference.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mueller will accept Trump's written answers to some Russia probe questions: New York Times
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller will accept written answers from President Donald Trump on whether his campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Citing a letter from Mueller’s office to Trump’s lawyers, the Times said Mueller did not ask for written responses to questions on whether Trump obstructed the investigation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Basra protests continue: 6 protesters shot dead, 3 maimed, ops commader requested replaced


Six Iraqi protesters killed in clashes with security forces in Basra

BASRA (IraqiNews.com) – Six Iraqi protesters were killed while 60 others were injured Tuesday in clashes with security forces in Iraq’s southern oil hub Basra.

According to BasNews website, the clashes erupted after protesters stormed the Basra government building and set it alight, prompting security forces to open fire at them, leaving two protesters dead and at least 60 injured.

In turn, Iraqi authorities imposed a curfew in the southern province to contain clashes between the two sides.

The demonstration comes a day after an Iraqi protester was killed in confrontations with security forces yesterday.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered a probe to be opened into the murder of the Iraqi protester.

“Our directives to security forces are clear. Do not fire live bullets at protesters,” Abadi told a weekly press conference.

Oil-rich Basra is one of the southern Iraqi cities that have recently witnessed mass protests over the dire state of the nation’s economy. The demonstrators are rallying against poor public services and corruption.

The demonstrations started last July in Basra province, but they later extended to other cities, including Amara, Nasiriya, Karbala and the Shiite holy city of Najaf. There were also protests in parts of the capital, Baghdad.

Basra Provincial Council Head orders gov’t bldg evacuated

[IraqiNews] Head of the Basra Provincial Council Walid al-Kitan ordered evacuating the government building in Basra from staffers “for security reasons.”

“The evacuation process came as a precautionary measure after a protester was killed yesterday while taking part in a rally in Basra,” a security source said.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Basra provincial headquarters Monday to protest against corruption, poor public services and unemployment.

Protesters hurled stones, set fire to tires and tried to storm the building, prompting security forces to open fire at them, leaving a protester dead.

Three protesters wounded, as security troops disperse demonstrations in Basra

Basra (IraqiNews.com) Three protesters were wounded on Tuesday as Iraqi security troops attempted dispersing demonstrations near Basra provincial building, BasNews reported.

According to sources from inside the city, security troops opened fire against protesters near the provincial building, as they were urging investigations on the killing of Yasser Mekki, a demonstrator, who was killed on Monday after being tortured by governmental forces.

Earlier today, sources was quoted saying that head of the Basra Provincial Council Walid al-Kitan ordered the government building in Basra to be evacuated from staffers for security reasons.

At least ten protesters suffered asphyxia due to tear gas highly used by the troops.

On Tuesday, protesters by Basra residents were renewed near the building. They also took part in the funeral of Mekki.

Troops used live ammunition on Monday to disperse the mass protests staged in Basra. Roads were blocked by tyres set on fire.

Late on Monday, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights immediate investigation on the murder of Mekki.

Several provinces in central and southern Iraq has been witnessing mass protests for more than two months to voice demands of better services including drinking water and electricity as well as countering corruption.

Observers believe protests and sit-ins will expand due to ongoing assaults by security forces against peaceful protesters and to voice demands of better services, especially in light of negligence by the government toward protesters demands and the security crackdown.

Basra governor requests operations commander be replaced

[IraqiNews] Basra governor Asaad al-Eidani requested Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to replace Basra Operations Commander Jamil al-Shammari as security forces were blamed for several deaths among protesters in the past period
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


India-Pakistan
Faisalabad communal violence: Ahmadi, Muslim communities sign accord for peace
[DAWN] FAISALABAD: The Ahmadi and Moslem communities of Ghaseetpura signed a written agreement, promising to avoid giving a religious colour to personal and individual disputes and present any issue in future to the local committee.

Agreement was signed by Mian Nazir, Abdul Jabbar, Prof Abdul Hameed, Rana Idrees, Muhammad Sarwar and Muhammad Hanif, representing the Jamat Ahle Sunnat and Shafi, Allah Rakha, Rana Manzoor, Bashrat Ahmed, Arshad and Ghulam Murtaza of the Jamaat Ahmadiyya on Aug 28, following a clash which left 19 people from both sides, including 13 Moslems and six Ahmadis, injured.

On Aug 23, both the sides clashed and resorted to firing against each other from the worship place of Ahmadi and adjacent houses. The Ahmadi worship place (Baitul Zikr) was also ransacked and some of its belongings damaged.

According to the six-point accord, any personal and individual disputes would not be given religious colour. Any dispute or any other issue would be brought to the notice of the local committee. Both the sides would not deliver provocative speeches or make announcements (against each other) in mosques or the worship places. The Ahmadi community would bear the repair expenses of its worship place damaged in the clash and no objection would be raised to the repair work. Both the communities would exercise their religious rights according to the law and constitution of Pakistain. An ex parte decision will be made in case of violation of the agreement.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Nangarhar nastiness: 8 turban recruiters tied up, recruits sent home, 11 Talibs turn backs on jihad


8 suspects arrested over suspicious transfer of 381 young men to Nangarhar

[KhaamaPress] At least eight people have been arrested over the suspicious transfer of 381 young men to eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

The provincial government media office in a statement said the young men were being transferred to eastern Nangarhar province under the guise of providing work for the collection of pine nuts.

The statement further added that the suspects and the young men were arrested during an operation in Khogyani district of Nangarhar.

The governor’s office also added that a delegation consisting of deputy provincial intelligence chief, police chief, officials from the provincial and district administrative government has been formed to investigate the incident.

The detained suspects are in the custody for further questioning while the young men have been sent back to their relative provinces, the statement added.

It is yet not clear for what purposes the young men were transferred to Nangarhar.

However, the Taliban group and ISIS Khurasan loyalists often hire young men in their ranks to conduct terrorist related and insurgency activities.

Both the Taliban and ISIS loyalists are active in some remote districts of Nangarhar as counter-terrorism operations are underway to eliminate the terrorist groups from the province.

11 Taliban militants join peace process in Nangarhar
They ain’t gonna study war no more... at least until spring.
[KhaamaPress] A group of 11 Taliban militants have joined peace process in eastern Nangarhar province and handed over eleven various types of weapons to the local authorities.

Provincial governor’s spokesman Ataullah Khogyani said the militants were previously operating under the command of Jalat Khan in Surkh Rod and Khogyani districts.

Khogyani further added that the militants joined peace process due to the ongoing efforts of the National Directorate of Security and handed over 11 weapons to the authorities after joining peace today.

The Taliban militants who joined peace process said they decided to renounce violence after reaching to a conclusion that the victims of the ongoing conflict are only Afghan people.

They also vowed to live peaceful lives after this and contribute in the reconstruction of the country similar as the other Afghans.

In the meantime, a member of the provincial council Dr. Nasir Kamwal, the director of the provincial youths department Matifullah Ahmadzai, and deputy director of the youths national unity community Abdul Rahman expressed satisfaction that 11 Taliban militants have reconciled with the government and called on the other militants to participate in peace talks.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Lurid Crime Tales-
NYPD request 15 ambulances in THREE MINUTES for 'intoxicated and unconscious' party-goers at Brooklyn's annual Caribbean Festival that began with an early morning shooting
  • [Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] New York Police Department called at least 15 ambulances to the neighborhood for people who were intoxicated or had fallen unconscious on Labor Day

  • Tens of thousands of revelers gathered on the streets of Brooklyn for the J'Ouvert Festival early Monday

  • Annual festival, which means daybreak in French is a celebration of Caribbean culture rooted in emancipation

  • Revelers donned devil horns, body paint and even oil at the event which kicked off at 6am this morning

  • Some people dressed in rags and donned helmets with giant horns while others covered themselves in black paint, grease or motor oil in traditional 'ole mas' costumes

  • The event, which has been marred by violence and even death in recent years, had a rough start today when revelers report seeing fights, gunshots and one man was shot in the back
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder what the survival rates were?
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  ..but they want to ban fraternities.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 7:04 Comments || Top||

#3  If people don't get falling down sloppy drunk, then it wasn't really a party.
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/05/2018 7:17 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 8:09 Comments || Top||

#5  OMG Skid, I laughed so hard I fell down! :-)
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 17:26 Comments || Top||

#6  They requested 15 ambulances but I am curious on how many actually showed up.
Posted by: Airandee || 09/05/2018 19:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
DOJ Blows Whistle on MUELLER; Illegally Threatened Flynn with New Indictment & Prison for Helping GOP Candidates
[TruePundit] Justice Department officials are blowing the whistle on U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Now we know why Mueller has continually delayed Mike Flynn’s sentencing: To silence the retired General and keep the influential Conservative out of politics and the crucial midterm elections.

In May, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Flynn canceled a campaign appearance in Montana for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Troy Downing. Flynn cited an unspecified "family emergency," as the reason for scrapping the appearance.



But that family ’emergency,’ according to well-placed sources in the Justice Department, was sparked by Mueller and his team’s illegal threats to indict Flynn ‐ a second time ‐ for obstruction of justice. What was Flynn’s supposed crime? Endorsing and campaigning for GOP candidates politically aligned with Trump. Flynn had just endorsed Congressional hopeful Omar Navarro in California and he planned to remain active in the run up to the 2018 midterms before Mueller illegally threatened the retired Army general, official said.

"Mueller threatened Flynn with new charges and prison time," one Justice Department source said. "He claimed Flynn was trying to elect Trump-like candidates to secure himself a (trump presidential) pardon.

The tactics don’t sit very well with many (prosecutors) at Justice."
Continues.
Posted by: Anomolous Sources || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So what the F are they going to do about it?

Nothing...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/05/2018 1:05 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Possibly true, but unlikely at best that a single DOJ official is doing this.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/05/2018 4:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe true. But Mueller reports to Rosenstein who reports to Sessions who reports to Trump. Rosenstein seems to be damaged goods in that his signature was on the last FISA warrant application. The application was largely based on a fake dossier and made-up B.S. paid for by Hillary and the DNC. This was known by Rosenstein. It looks the warrant applications were rubber-stamped by the court. It looks like the Mueller special counsel has strayed way off course unless that course is trying to take down Trump.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2018 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Somebody please explain why threatening anyone to get something else is not extortion?

I know the cops do it all the time on the teevee. Or is that 'play for pay'?
Posted by: Bobby || 09/05/2018 11:34 Comments || Top||

#5  John Q it was never about Russian collusion. It was always about taking down Trump by any means possible.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/05/2018 13:15 Comments || Top||

#6  After the mid-terms, if we hold the house and senate, some people need to be flayed alive.
Posted by: Count Galeazzo Omusons6541 || 09/05/2018 14:47 Comments || Top||

#7  @#6

Cross your fingers. Here are data points to consider for future justice served.

Dec 2017: EO 12818: National Emergency was declared

Mar 2018: EO 12473: Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial was declared in March 2018 (but post dated to Jan 1, 2019)

Meanwhile $500M in upgrades were done to Gitmo this year. Including the installation of psychiatric facilities and padded cells.

Hold your hope.
Posted by: mossomo || 09/05/2018 19:16 Comments || Top||

#8  This'll hit the 'burg tomorrow, but JEEBUS!: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

Wheels within wheels within wheels within.....

Or, maybe, BS.
Posted by: Anomolous Sources || 09/05/2018 19:23 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Villager killed in AJK due to cross-LoC firing by Indian troops
[DAWN] A man lost his life due to "unprovoked Indian firing" on civil population in Kotkoterra Sector near the line of control on Tuesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

According to the ISPR, Abdul Rauf was herding animals in the afternoon when he was "targeted by Indian troops".

Last month, the Directors Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of Pakistain and India had made a hotline contact and expressed "general satisfaction" over the situation along the LoC and Working Boundary since their last communication on May 29 for reinvigorating the ceasefire agreement.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Kurdish party to await Iraqi court verdict before seeking alliances
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Kurdistan’s leading political party will await an Iraqi court verdict determining the bloc that won a parliament majority alliance before deciding which to join.

Shawan Taha, a leading member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, was quoted saying in a press statement on Tuesday that the KDP will await for a ruling by the Iraqi Federal Court before taking a decision out of their negotiations with various Iraqi political groups.

"Political blocs have not answered the unified Kurdish lit regarding the constitutional demands for normalization of ties with Baghdad and the method of state administration through the next government," said Taha, as quoted by Baghdad News.

Iraq held the first session for its 329-seat parliament on Monday, having held judicially-challenged polls in May. Political alliances led by incumbent premier Haider al-Abadi and Vice President Nuri al-Maliki have exchanged announcements that each had secured the largest parliament bloc able to form the next government, but it is understandable that Kurdish representatives, who had won 47 seats, will be decisive for declaring the biggest bloc.

Representatives from the KDP and its ruling partner, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, have recently ratcheted up talks with political groups willing to win Kurds in their bloc.

Relations between Erbil and Baghdad had shaken due to the referendum Kurdistan held last year, in which a majority voted for the semi-autonomous region’s secession from Iraq. But both government later headed towards dialogue to resolve controversial issues, including illusory sovereignty over disputed territories
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel says struck Iranian targets in Syria 200 times in last two years
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, in a rare summary of its campaign.

According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus’s partners in Syria’s civil war.

Israeli officials have rarely detailed specific operations. On Tuesday, an Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment after Syria said it shot down rockets fired by Israeli planes at military targets near the city of Hama.

But Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz used a speech to give a more general summary of Syria missions, prompted by a military briefing given to local media earlier in the day.

"Only just now it was published - in the name of military sources, so I can quote it too - that in the last two years Israel has taken military action more than 200 times within Syria itself," Katz told a conference hosted by the IDC Herzliya college.
The Times of Israel adds:
In Syria, Israel has for years been concerned that Iran was using opportunities presented by the Syrian civil war to entrench itself militarily in the country in order to further threaten the Jewish state — alongside the threat already posed by Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.

Israel has vowed to prevent such a military presence, but officially remains mum on most of the military’s efforts to do so.

However, acknowledged that the air force had conducted strikes against 202 targets in Syria, using some 800 bombs and missiles to do so.

The 202 targets hit in the Israeli airstrikes since 2017 were mostly shipments of advanced weaponry, as well as military bases and infrastructure, which the IDF officials said drove Iranian forces to abandon some posts.

Israel does not acknowledge individual strikes in Syria, though Syrian officials, eyewitnesses and others regularly report on Israeli bombings on facilities in the country connected to the regime’s coalition. On Tuesday, Israel was accused of carrying out fresh strikes in the Hama area, two days after reports of an IDF attack on a base near Damascus.

The officers in the briefing did not elaborate on the nature of the strikes or how many of these had been previously acknowledged by Israel, specifically in its Operation House of Cards, an effort to destroy Iranian weapons sites earlier this year.

The IDF also noted its significant assistance in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group in the Middle East.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraqi farmer killed in bomb attack in Baqubah
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) ‐ A farmer was killed on Tuesday in a kaboom at an agricultural land in Baqubah, Diyala, a security source was quoted as saying.

"An explosive charge went off near a garden in Abu Karma village, in northeastern Baqubah, leaving a farmer dead," Iraqi website Alghad Press quoted the source as saying.

The source added that the body was moved to the forensic medicine department.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Air Defense attempts to confront Israeli missiles, explosion reported in Baniyas
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Israeli Air Force fired several missiles at the Wadi al-’Ayoun area of the Masyaf District, today, hitting a number of sites.

According to a military source in nearby Mhardeh, at least five missiles struck the Wadi al-’Ayoun area, causing a number of powerful kabooms that could be heard throughout Hama, eastern Latakia, and eastern Tartous.

The source said that the Syrian Air Defense attempted to foil the attack; however, the Israeli missiles managed to reach their intended targets.

Furthermore, a powerful kaboom was reported from the large coastal city of Baniyas in the Tartous Governorate.
The Times of Israel adds:
Israel carried out airstrikes against Iranian military targets in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Tartus on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding 23, a monitoring group said.

Syrian state media confirmed the Israeli attack and said one person was killed and four injured. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three Syrian soldiers were killed and 23 people injured — 14 Syrian and nine Iranians.

The Observatory said the strike targeted Iranian assets between the town of Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyun.

Last Thursday, satellite photos published by an Israeli intelligence firm purported to show the establishment of an Iranian surface-to-surface missile factory in the area of Wadi al-Uyun.

The photos, which were shared by ImageSat International, were said to show a facility resembling Iran’s Parchin facility, which has been linked to the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Masyaf is also home to a Syrian scientific research center which Israel is alleged to have struck several times in recent years.

Western officials have long associated the Scientific Studies and Research Center near Masyaf, known as CERS, with the manufacture of chemical arms.
And from Ynet:
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abderahman said the attack had also targeted around the coastal city of Baniyas for the first time, with two rockets hitting around one kilometre from an oil refinery.

SANA said the planes had come at a low altitude from west of neighbouring Lebanon's coastal capital Beirut.

Al-Mayadeen news said Israeli fighter planes released countermeasures against anti-aircraft fire "and withdrew towards the sea at the same time as the sounds of explosions were heard in Hama countryside."
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Syrian Air Defense attempts to confront Israeli missiles. However, the cowardly Jew missiles (propelled by hair rays energy) avoided the confrontation by zigzagging around the brave Syrian defenses (made in Russia) and hit defenseless warehouses containing baby milk formula and teddy bears - resulting in a huge secondary explosions.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 17:15 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Headset puts viewers in Lancaster cockpit for 1943 raid on Berlin with voice of real-life BBC reporter who joined epic mission
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Overall, of the 6,000 Lancasters which were made available for service in the war, 3,400 were lost.

About 55,000 out of the 125,000 aircrew who served in Bomber Command were killed, while 10,000 became prisoners of war.

Hard odds.
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/05/2018 6:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Would be unauthentic, unless they include hours of boredom before and after the brief interlude of utter panic.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 7:07 Comments || Top||

#3  And you have to watch it standing in a walk-in freezer for 5 hours.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/05/2018 16:36 Comments || Top||

#4  ...while wearing at least a dust mask.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/05/2018 20:29 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hundreds of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Return Home
[AnNahar] Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned to their homeland early on Tuesday, the latest group to return to Syria from its western neighbor, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said hundreds of Syrian families left this morning in buses from the northern city of 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...
, the southern town of Nabatieh, from the Hasbaya towns of Shebaa and al-Arqoub and from the area of Bourj Hammoud.

The refugees have assured that Leb’s General Security -helping refugees return home in coordination with Syria- "have facilitated their return," and affirmed their "eagerness to return back to their homeland."

Leb is home to some 1 million Syrian refugees, a large number for a country of 4.5 million people.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Afghanistan
6 policemen killed in militant attacks targeting checkpoints in Afghanistan
[DAWN] At least six coppers were killed by gunnies in two separate attacks on checkpoints in Afghanistan's northwestern Badghis and eastern Paktia provinces, provincial officials said.

Jamshid Shahabi, provincial governor's front man in Badghis, said two coppers were killed and four others maimed in Tuesday's attack near Qala-e-Now, the scenic provincial capital.

Shahabi said 11 gunnies were killed and 16 others maimed in the shootout with police.

Three police vehicles were also burned by the Lion of Islams, but police said they were able to regain control of the area.

No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, but Taliban
...Arabic for students...
gunnies are active in the province and often launch attacks against security forces.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Iraq
Bomb attack targets house owned by family of Islamic State militant in Anbar
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – Two civilians were maimed Tuesday as a kaboom targeted a house owned by a family of an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
krazed killer in Ramadi, a security source was quoted as saying.
“We don’t want none o’your kind round these parts no more. Git!”
“Armed men riding a cycle of violence hurled a grenade at a house of a family of an Islamic State militant at al-Bakir district in Hit, 70 km west of Ramadi,” the source told BasNews website.

“Two people were severely maimed in the bomb attack,” the source pointed out that, “A security force rushed to the blast site and launched a security campaign in search of the perpetrators of the attack,” he added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  “A security force rushed to the blast site and launched a security campaign in search of the perpetrators of the attack,” he added

"After an exhaustive four minute search. They were unable to find the miscreants"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2018 10:14 Comments || Top||


Europe
Europe's news agencies blast Google, Facebook for 'plundering' content
[DAWN] Europe's biggest news agencies accused Google and Facebook of "plundering" news for free on Tuesday in a joint statement that called on the internet giants to share more of their revenues with the media.

In a column signed by the chief executive officers of around 20 agencies including La Belle France's Agence La Belle France-Presse, Britannia's Press Association and Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur they called on the European Parliament to update copyright law in the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
(EU) to help address a "grotesque imbalance".

"The internet giants' plundering of the news media's content and of their advertising revenue poses a threat both to consumers and to democracy," the column said.

European Parliament politicians are to set to debate a new copyright law this month that would force the internet giants to pay more for creative content used on their platforms such as news, music or movies.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Jalaluddin Haqqani’s death not to affect the activities of the network: Nabil
[KhaamaPress] The former Afghan Intelligence Chief Rahmatullah Nabil says the death of the Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani
...founder and still late titular head of the Haqqani Network. Jalaluddin is old and tough and very crafty, one of the few Pashtun warlords who was worth spit...
will not affect the activities of the network.

In an online statement posted in his Twitter account, Nabil said some of the other leaders of the terror network, including Sirajuddin Haqqani
...son of Pashtun warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, still titular head of the Haqqani Network....
, Khalil Haqqani, Hamza Haqqani, Yahya Haqqani, Aziz, and some others have been fully trained as the brutal successor of Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Nabil also claimed that Jalaluddin Haqqani has died long ago and disclosure of his death likely has direct links with the scheduled visit of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The Taliban
...Arabic for students...
group issued a statement earlier today confirming that the founder of the network has died due to the illness he was suffering from during the recent years.
Jalaluddin was approximately 182 years old, give or take a couple dozen.
Haqqani network was formed in the late 1970s by Jalaluddin Haqqani. The group is allied with al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban and cooperates with other terrorist organizations in the region.

The network is accused of staging numerous cross-border attacks from their base in North Wazoo, including the 19-hour siege at the US Embassy in Kabul in September 2011.

It is considered the most lethal krazed killer group targeting the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
-led coalition security forces and Afghan personnel in Afghanistan.

The US Department of State designated the HQN as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on September 7, 2012.
An Nahar adds:
Jalaluddin, thought to be in his 70s or 80s, had been bedridden for years and had already passed the leadership to his son Sirajuddin, who is also the Taliban's deputy leader.

Unverified reports have placed him in Pakistan in recent years.

There had been rumours of his death before, in 2008 and 2015, though this was the first time the Taliban have issued a statement on it.

The Haqqanis, suspected of links to Pakistan's shadowy military establishment, were described by US Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.

Jalaluddin's son Sirajuddin was running the network "with major ISI involvement", a foreign diplomat in Kabul told AFP, referring to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.

Designated a terrorist group by the US, the Haqqanis are known for their heavy use of suicide bombers, indiscriminately killing Afghan civilians and security forces.

They were blamed for the devastating truck bomb in the heart of Kabul in May 2017 that killed around 150 people -- though Sirajuddin later denied involvement in a rare audio message.

The network has also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Westerners for ransom.

In Kabul, the group is widely believed to have been behind many of the recent attacks on the capital that were claimed by the local wing of the Islamic State group.

Some analysts believe it works with IS -- which at the same time is involved in a bloody turf war with the Taliban -- to avoid blame and political blowback.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Haqqani Network


India-Pakistan
'Samples of liquor were swapped in the hospital room,' remarks CJP
[DAWN] Chief Justice of Pakistain (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday, without naming Sharjeel Inam Memon, said that the liquor samples recovered from the PPP leader's hospital room had been tampered with.

"The samples of liquor were changed in the hospital's room," the chief justice remarked during a hearing.

The CJP, who during a surprise visit to Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
's Ziauddin Hospital last week found three bottles of 'liquor' in the ex-minister's room, remarked on the incident during hearings of two separate unrelated cases in the Supreme Court today.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Been there.
Tipping back Little Jacks with the nurses.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  They say this like it's a bad thing.
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/05/2018 7:15 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian TV launches Putin show as his ratings fall
[DAWN] Russian Kremlin-controlled television has launched a new weekly show dedicated to President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
in an apparent attempt to stem a major fall in his approval ratings. The first episode, which aired on Sunday on the Rossiya 1 channel, showed the long-serving leader picking mushrooms in Siberia and in meetings with miners and schoolchildren.

The president already dominates state news bulletins but Rossiya 1’s hour-long show Moscow. Kremlin. Putin provides a new format to showcase his activities.

The previously unannounced show comes as Putin faces a record fall in his approval ratings as a result of a deeply unpopular pension reform that saw thousands of Russians take to the streets in protest.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe he can get an endorsement gig with Nike. They don't seem to be too particular.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 7:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Flashback to Monty Python and "The Atilla The Hun Show" starring Atilla and his wife Connie...
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/05/2018 7:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe he could title the show "The Useful Fool Apprentice"?
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 17:14 Comments || Top||

#4  The Putin Show
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 17:20 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Kurdish forces capture key ISIS commander
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) captured a key figure from the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) during a recent security operation.

According to the official media wing of the YPG, their anti-terror unit (YAT) captured the Islamic State commander, Adil Musa Abduljezar (AKA "Abu Kerem"), while sweeping through an undisclosed area near the Ottoman Turkish border.

Below is the full statement from the YPG’s media office:

"On 11 August 2018, one of the key ISIS figures named Abu Kerem, who’s real name is Adil Musa Abdouljezar (and recently had been using name Abu Basil al-Ghezawi) and who was in charge of intelligence activities in cities such an as al-Bab, Hama, Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa, Mayadin, Tabqa and Daraa, has been captured in a special operation carried out by our forces.

Adil Musa Abdouljezar also provided a lot of important information about ISIS and how it has been strengthened and bolstered by the Ottoman Turkish state.

Adil Musa Abdouljezar was captured alive in an operation that was successfully carried out by our Anti-Terror Units (YAT)."
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Whether they just got lucky, or not....the ISIS has to think the Kurds knew he of the many names was where he was. They'll be handicapped for a time trying to figure it out and change procedures.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 09/05/2018 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 09/05/2018 7:02 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Facebook definition of terrorism helps states mute dissent: UN
[DAWN] A UN human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
expert urged Face­book on Monday to narrow its "sweeping" definition of terrorism to stop governm­e­nts arbitrarily blocking legi­timate opposition groups and dissenting voices.

Fionnuala N. Aolin wrote to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg saying Facebook wrongly treats all non-state groups that use violence in pursuit of any goals as terrorist entities.

"The use of such a sweeping definition is particularly worrying in light of a number of governments seeking to stigmatise diverse forms of dissent and opposition [whether peaceful or violent] as terrorism," wrote N Aolin, UN special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism.

Facebook’s policy did not take account of rebel gangs that comply with international humanitarian law, the letter said. She did not give examples, but governments facing armed opposition, such as in Syria, frequently label all their op­­ponents as terrorists, even if other countries do not agree. A Facebook spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment.

N Aolin commended "the important role Facebook plays in offsetting terrorist activity online", but said it must not unduly interfere in the human rights of its users, and should ensure there is a way to challenge wrong decisions.

Overly broad and imprecise definitions of terrorism may lead to "discriminatory implementation, over-censoring and arbitrary denial of access to and use of Facebook’s services", wrote N Aolin, a UN Human Rights Council independent expert.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
On Americans Who Yearn for the Mud
[AMERICANDIGEST.ORG] ...This obliteration of the soul and the abuse of the flesh is one of the central tenets in many of our post-modern, secular lifestyle religions. For them, the "signo" of "In hoc signo vinces" is the full body tattoo project, an earlobe plug, and the multiple facial piercings with a coke nail as an accessory.

Most people try some of these things for a time in their youth but grow out of it as age and experience get the upper hand. Others grow out of it via deep psychoanalysis and a few trips to the prison and/or the monasteries of our moment, the rehab clinic. Others are simply killed by it, their lives bracketed by dates that are far too close together.

Many, however, never kick this yearning for the mud and were once pointed out as "perverts" but now as only "differently minded."
Many, however, never kick this yearning for the mud and were once pointed out as "perverts" but now as only "differently minded." Seeking the safety of numbers they gravitate towards those urban sinkholes of the soul they laud as "enclaves of Alternative Lifestyles."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Saudi Arabia declares online satire punishable offence
[DAWN] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
will punish online satire that "disrupts public order" with up to five years in prison, the public prosecutor said Tuesday, as the kingdom cracks down on dissent.

"Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disrupts public order, religious values and public morals through social media ... will be considered a cybercrime punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of three million riyals ($800,000)," the public prosecution tweeted late Monday.

The kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016....
has drawn harsh criticism from rights groups over the targeting of human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
activists and political dissidents across the spectrum since his appointment in June 2017.

Saudi Arabia's legislation on cybercrime has sparked concern among international rights groups in the past. Dozens of Saudi citizens have been convicted on charges linked to dissent under a previous sweeping law, particularly linked to posts on Twitter.

In September 2017, authorities issued a public call for citizens to report on the social media activities of their fellow citizens, under a broad definition of "terrorist" crimes.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia


India-Pakistan
PTI's Dr Arif Alvi elected 13th President of Pakistan
[DAWN] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
's (PTI) Dr Arifur Rehman Alvi has been elected the 13th President of Pakistain, according to results provided by the Election Commission of Pakistain.

Alvi, who is now set to succeed the outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain, edged out PML-N backed chief of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Fazlur Rehman and senior PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan in the presidential race by garnering more votes than both his rivals combined.

The ECP, in a blurb, said that a total of 1,110 voters participated in the presidential polls held simultaneously at the Parliament House and the four provincial assembles today. Of the total votes cast, 27 votes were declared invalid.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Pak govt to IMF by month-end ‘very likely’, says Citi
[DAWN] With projected external financing requirements of $31 billion in FY19, Pakistain is "very likely to seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme", says Johanna Chua, Citigroup’s Head of Emerging Markets Asia Economics & Strategy Bank in a report released on Monday. The report says an approach is likely by end September.

"The sheer size of Pakistain’s external financing gap and an experienced list of technocrats advising the government on economic issues will likely lead to the same conclusion" she says, going on to warn that "not going to the IMF is a far more economically and politically painful/riskier option than otherwise."

The report says the IMF "and other major stakeholders" should be supportive, adding that the Fund appears to be "very ready to engage the government" and that the US "sees a stable Pakistain economy in its best interest geopolitically" while the Chinese and the Saudis "do not want to be the ’lenders of last resort", a reference to speculation that a bilateral bailout might be on the cards.
It’s not a loan when the “borrower” sees no reason to pay it back.
However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
this time around, the support may come with strings attached, the report says. Pakistain has already had 21 fund agreements with the IMF; it is likely that the agency would push for a "more effective program than in the past."
In other words, “It’s time to seriously tighten your belts, and possibly stop channeling tax recepts into your private bank accounts”
This could include a range of reforms such as central bank independence, exchange rate flexibility and aggressive push to privatize public sector enterprises (PSEs) the report says.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Iraqi court sentences four Islamic State members to life
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi judiciary has sentenced four Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
members, who used to work for the krazed killer group in Nineveh and Diyala provinces, to life.

A statement by Abdul Sattar al-Bayraqdar, the spokesperson for the High Judicial Council, said"the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad reviewed cases of suspects who accused of joining Islamic State. They were sentenced to life after being proved to have committed crimes."

One of the convicts, according to the statement, "was distributing CDs, that contained videos of operations carried out by the bully boyz in Baaj region in Nineveh. He also used to distribute newspapers and magazines that publish news of the group."

The other convicts "offered logistic support to the group in Nineveh and Diyala," the statement added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
Schoolteacher dies in Mastung bomb attack
[DAWN] A schoolteacher was killed and his young son injured in an kaboom in Mastung, police said on Monday.

The teacher, who was identified as Abdul Rauf, was on his way to a graveyard for offering Fateha on the grave of his brother along with his son late on Sunday night when a bomb placed on the roadside went kaboom! in Khandwa area.

Sources said that the bomb exploded by remote control.

"The schoolteacher went titzup receiving fatal wounds while his son got injured in the blast," a police officer said.

Police and personnel of Frontier Corps
...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations....
rushed to the site and shifted the body and the injured to the district hospital in Mastung.

Police said Rauf’s brother was bumped off last week.

Police said the incident appeared to be an outcome of old enmity.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Five Islamic State members killed, 12 suspects arrested in Kirkuk
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Five Islamic State members were killed, while 12 suspects were arrested in a wide-scale operation in several villages in Kirkuk.

A statement by Kirkuk Operations Command said, “Federal Police troops in the province carried out an operation in regions and villages of Tal Shu’air, Codilla, Eteira, Suleiman Bakhshan, Qulli Bek, Dakuk and al-Khaldiya.”

Troops, according to the statement, “managed to kill five militants and left the sixth wounded in a village during confrontations.”

Moreover, three rest houses and a tunnel of 15 meters long were destroyed, the command added.

“12 suspects were also arrested,” the statement said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Baghdad bomb & bullet bulletin: 4 maimed in 2 kabooms in 2 days


Three people injured in bomb blast in Baghdad: Source

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Three people were wounded in a bomb blast in Baghdad, a security source said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Almaalomah website, the source said “a bomb, placed inside a bus carrying commuters, went off near al-Nahda parking lot in Baghdad.”

The blast, according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous, “left two women and a man wounded. They were taken to nearest hospital for treatment.”

Four people wounded Monday in bomb attack near street markets in Baghdad

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Four people were injured Monday in a bomb attack near street markets in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.

Speaking to Alghad Press website, the source said that “a bomb exploded near busy street markets in the Ur district, north of Baghdad, leaving four people wounded, including two women.”

“The injured were moved to a nearby hospital for treatment, and a probe was opened into the attack,” the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
'We will not bow to extremists': Govt hits back after vicious campaign targets Atif Mian
[DAWN] The Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
government on Tuesday defended a leading international academic appointed by Prime Minister Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
to the Economic Advisory Council (EAC), saying that Pakistain "belongs to minorities as much as it belongs to the majority".

The statement came from the Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhary amidst a vicious online campaign targeting the academic for his Ahmadiyya faith.


The appointment of Dr Atif R. Mian of Princeton University (Department of Member Economics and Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy) to the 18-member EAC set up to advise the government on economic policy was opposed by some individuals and groups, including Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain (TLP), who objected to his Ahmadi faith.
The appointment of Dr Atif R. Mian of Princeton University (Department of Member Economics and Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy) to the 18-member EAC set up to advise the government on economic policy was opposed by some individuals and groups, including Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain (TLP), who objected to his Ahmadi faith.

A social media smear campaign erupted against the economist's appointment, with many calling for his removal.

A large number of detractors, however, showed support for Mian, saying that one's religion should not factor into their professional qualifications or employment.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Afghanistan
Taliban Block Cellphone Services in Helmand’s Lashkargah
[ToloNews] Residents in Lashkargah city, the center of southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province, on Tuesday said that telecommunication services have been disconnected in the city for the past ten days.

Cellphone services were cut after the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
issued threats against private telecommunication companies in the volatile region - once a key Taliban stronghold in the south.

The only cellphone company operating at the moment in the province is the government-run Salaam network.

The Helmand governor has said that the issue will not be settled until telecom companies reach an agreement with the Taliban.

"The ban on telecommunication services has posed harm only to the people; only the people are the victims of the terrorist actions. We are planning to boost the capacity of the government telecommunication services so that the people can benefit," said provincial governor Yasin Khan.

The Taliban has confirmed that they had issued warnings to telecom companies.

"The government is also silent, the Taliban terminate all telecommunication services only through one order, but I don’t know why government does not have power to issue an order against them, our government should take the problem of the general public into consideration," said a resident of Lashkargah Sediqullah.

The provincial directorate of telecommunications also said they have plans to extend government-owned telecom services in the province.

The head of Helmand Provincial Council, Attaullah Afghan, on Saturday said most parts of Helmand are under the control of the Taliban adding that telecommunication companies have suspended services in fear of having their towers and other facilities destroyed by the myrmidons.

"Telecommunication networks are under Taliban control not under government’s control. The telecom antennas which are located in the center of Lashkargah City, in Bost Road or in the Cinema circle (in Lashkargah City) were disconnected on the orders of the Taliban and not on the orders of government," Afghan said.

Ghazni meanwhile is also largely without communication links, after having had it services disconnected on Monday.

Resident say cellphone services are only allowed to open their lines between 7am and 10am.

Residents also claim that services were suspended after Taliban threatened telecom companies.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Britain
Direct Links Between Jihadists in Afghanistan and Terror Cells in UK
[Breitbart London] British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has revealed direct links between terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan and cells in both Britain and "the whole of continental Europe".

The Tory MP revealed the threat in an interview with Sky News from Afghanistan’s northern city of Mazeer-i-Shareef.

"What we see is a real threat posed by these groups to the UK and we’ve got to be acting as we are to ensure that we do not see future Manchester-style attacks," Williamson told Sky’s correspondent.

"We consistently see terrorist groups operating here in Afghanistan, [and] evidence of their links back not just to the United Kingdom but to the whole of continental Europe."
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Somebody tell General Miller.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/05/2018 10:50 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Houthi forces fire several missiles at Saudi Aramco Oil Company
[ALMASDARNEWS] Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
forces announced that they fired several missiles towards the Saudi Aramco Oil Company site in the Jizan province.

According to the official media wing of the Houthi forces, their rocket battalion fired at least four Badr-1 missiles towards the Saudi Aramco Oil Company site.

The Houthi forces did not specify whether or not their missiles struck their intended target.

Furthermore, Saudi Ministry of Defense has yet to comment on this latest attack.

This latest attack by the Houthi forces marks the second time in the last 24 hours that they have targeted this site in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
’s Jizan region.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Saudi-led coalition intercepts two missiles fired towards Jizan
[AlAhram] The Saudi-led coalition fighting in 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. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
said on Tuesday it had destroyed two ballistic missiles fired at the southern Saudi city of Jizan by the Iranian-aligned Houthis.

The Houthis said separately in a tweet by their al-Masirah TV that they fired four missiles at a Saudi Aramco refinery and petrochemical facilities in Jizan Economic City.

A coalition statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA said there were no casualties.

The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control Yemen's capital Sanaa, have fired dozens of missiles into the kingdom in recent months, part of a three-year-old conflict widely seen as a proxy battle between regional rivals Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
and Iran.

Most of the missiles have been intercepted by the Saudi military.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Trump wanted to ‘f***ing kill’ Assad after alleged 2017 chemical weapons attack
[ALMASDARNEWS] A new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward claiming to offer insight into a tumultuous Trump White House revealed the tense atmosphere during the lead-up to the US missile strikes against Syria in April 2017.

According to Woodward, following the alleged chemical attack at Khan Shaykhun on April 4, 2017, which Syrian and Russian officials slammed as a false flag attack aimed at discrediting the Syrian government, President Trump was so furious that he wanted to assassinate Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
In a telephone call with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Trump allegedly said the following, according to Woodward: "Let’s f***ing kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the f***ing lot of them."

Telling the president that he would deal with it, Mattis hung up the phone and instead allegedly told an aide: "We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured."

Three days later, following internal consultations, but before the alleged chemical attack could be properly investigated, the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea at the Shayrat air base, in what Washington claimed was a direct response to the Khan Shaykhun "attack."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the US aggression a violation of international law, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei describing it as a strategic mistake.

The US strike, which killed several Syrian troops and civilians, and destroyed several planes, failed to reach its objectives of crippling the Syrian Air Force, with aircraft taking off from the base’s runways just hours after the attack to strike terrorist targets.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Bird cage lining, if pages removed and laid overlapping.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2018 4:43 Comments || Top||

#2  ROGER L. SIMON: Bob Woodward's Latest Novel
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2018 5:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah, Hitler Diaries Part Deux
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/05/2018 7:01 Comments || Top||

#4  The left is desperate. They are dragging out the Nixonian hatchet duo. Both Woodward and Bernstein have come out with books. Some mentioned in the books have said that what was written is B.S. Basically, hit pieces.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2018 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Some mentioned in the books have said that what was written is B.S. Basically, hit pieces.

Not that I'm suggesting they are partisan hacks, but it makes you wonder about their previous acts of 'journalism'.

Besides, like that guy said, "in the future, everyone will want to kill Assad for 15 minutes". I bet Putin has thought about it.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/05/2018 12:48 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm sure all these anonymous sources would prefer Hillary.
Posted by: gorb || 09/05/2018 13:57 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
34[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
5Taliban
4Govt of Syria
4Islamic State
3Govt of Iraq
3Hamas
2Houthis
2Moslem Colonists
1al-Nusra
1al-Qaeda
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Haqqani Network
1Hizbul Mujaheddin
1Govt of Iran

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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2018-09-05
  Al Qaeda trying to regain primacy as Islamic State loses ground: NATO
Tue 2018-09-04
  Jalaluddin Haqqani joins the Choir Eternal
Mon 2018-09-03
  Islamists militants in northeast Nigeria kill up to 30 48 soldiers: Sources
Sun 2018-09-02
  Yemen’s army imposes full control over Saada’s Al-Zaher directorate
Sat 2018-09-01
  Dutch police shoot suspect after he stabs two people at an Amsterdam train station
Fri 2018-08-31
  ISIS leader Yasir Khurasani killed with 5 comrades in Nangarhar drone strike
Thu 2018-08-30
  Egyptian forces kill 20 militants in Sinai operation: Army
Wed 2018-08-29
  Syrian Army foils ISIL breakout attempt in east Sweida
Tue 2018-08-28
  Idlib: Nusra arrest 20 ISIS turbans, Gov’t closes key crossing
Mon 2018-08-27
  Elite Army units moving to Idlib for major assault
Sun 2018-08-26
  John McCain dies at 81
Sat 2018-08-25
  Syrian Army launches powerful assault in northern Hama
Fri 2018-08-24
  Arab coalition thwarts Houthi boat bomb targeting commercial ships off Yemen
Thu 2018-08-23
  Syrian Army cuts all supply lines to ISIL’s last stronghold in southern Syria
Wed 2018-08-22
  ‘IS militants’ launch attacks in Chechnya; five killed

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