Reader’s Links, February 26, 2018

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

145 Replies to “Reader’s Links, February 26, 2018”

  1. THE SILENCE OF SUSAN RICE
    By letter to Susan Rice dated February 8, 2018, Senators Grassley and Graham posed 12 numbered questions. I posted the Graham/Grassley letter in “Rice papers the file.” By letter dated February 23, 2018, white collar criminal defense lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler has now responded to the Grassley/Graham letter on Rice’s behalf. I posted Ruemmler’s letter nearby this morning in “Susan Rice responds, sort of,” and am embedding it again at the bottom.

    Let’s take an inventory of Rice’s response to the questions: answered, partially answered, answered narrowly, or not answered. I have italicized my accounting below, subject to further thought and analysis:

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/02/the-silence-of-susan-rice.php

  2. President Donald Trump said Friday that he would review policies that keep troops from carrying personal weapons onto military bases.

    “If we can’t have our military holding guns, it’s pretty bad,” Trump said in a wide-ranging speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Maryland, “and I’m going to look at that whole policy on military bases.”

    “So we want to protect our military. We want to make our military stronger and better than it’s ever been,” Trump continued in the speech, in which he also renewed his call for allowing trained teachers and military retirees to carry concealed weapons in schools.

    https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/02/23/trump-pushes-allow-troops-carry-personal-weapons-bases.html

      • The story is suppose to be based on an incident on a troop transport during WWII, as they got near to Britian the Germans attacks and some chaplains we up on deck to help the wounded. One noticed that all of the crew on one machine gun was down and took over the gun, a passing sailor ask him for a prayer. He is suppose to have said, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammo I think I got a piece of the last one.”

    • So much for, “Woman’s Rights”.

      Would any understanding women sternly object if I vomited right now?

      A gun is a perfect “force multiplier” that enables law-abiding women to obtain far-more equitable outcomes in situations of violence.

  3. Andrew Pollack, the father of Meadow Pollack who was killed during the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting, ripped into the media for its fixation on gun control rather than discussing policies that specifically address school safety.

    “It’s not going to be fixed because I just heard what you said, what you are focusing on, polarizing this event, the murder of these kids. You’re talking about gun control,” Pollack told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

    “You’re just talking about gun control, which is going to just give you more ratings,” he continued. “Today it’s not about guns, it’s about the safety in our schools. And that’s what you ask Gov. Scott about and I got to listen to that at my house.”

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/high-school-shooting-victims-father-tears-into-media-for-focusing-on-gun-control/article/2649985

  4. Oakland, Calif., Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) warned city residents Saturday night of pending immigration raids in the Bay Area.

    Schaaf cited information from “multiple credible sources” that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) planned to conduct a sweep in California’s Bay Area, possibly as soon as the next day.

    “We want residents to prepare, not panic. We understand ICE has used activity rumors in the past as a tactic to create fear; our intent is for our community to go about their daily lives without fear, but resiliency and awareness,” Schaaf said in a press release.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/375522-oakland-mayor-warns-of-bay-area-ice-sweeps

  5. the hill –State Dept. launches $40M offensive against foreign propaganda

    The State Department is launching a $40 million initiative to crack down on foreign propaganda and disinformation amid WIDESPREAD CONCERNS about future Russian efforts to interfere in elections.

    The department announced Monday that it signed a deal with the Pentagon to transfer $40 million from the Defense Department’s coffers to bolster the Global Engagement Center, an office set up at State during the Obama years to expose and counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.

    The new influx of funds will bolster the center’s operations in the current fiscal year.

    “This funding is critical to ensuring that we continue an aggressive response to malign influence and disinformation and that we can leverage deeper partnerships with our allies, Silicon Valley, and other partners in this fight,” Steve Goldstein, the department’s undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, said in a statement.

    “It is not merely a defensive posture that we should take, we also need to be on the offensive.”

    The announcement comes less than two weeks after special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians for allegedly participating in an elaborate scheme to meddle in the 2016 presidential election by creating false U.S. personas and spreading divisive content on social media platforms.

    There are widespread concerns in Washington that Russia will look to repeat its 2016 behavior in future elections. Earlier this month, top U.S. intelligence officials said they expect Moscow to interfere in the 2018 midterms, citing evidence of Russia already using “information warfare.”

    Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved the request for Pentagon funds for the program last year under pressure from lawmakers in Congress to strengthen the center’s efforts to counter propaganda from Moscow and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS).

    The funds were officially transferred recently after the State Department signed a memorandum of agreement with the Pentagon.

    The new money will be used, in part, to supply grants to civil society groups, media providers, academic institutions, private companies and other organizations that are working on projects to counter disinformation.

    The department said it plans to award an initial $5 million in grants from the so-called Information Access Fund. The fund will receive $1 million in initial seed money from the State Department’s public diplomacy coffers in order to get off the ground quickly, the department said.

    The U.S. intelligence community has publicly accused Russia of using cyberattacks and disinformation to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to sow discord, damage former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help elect now-President Trump.

    The revelation has gripped Washington for more than a year, as Mueller presses forward with his investigation into Russian interference and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

    The Global Engagement Center was set up in April 2016 to counter terrorist and foreign government propaganda, before there was public knowledge of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the election.

    http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/375589-state-dept-launches-40m-offensive-against-foreign-propaganda

    ==============================================

    State-Defense Cooperation on Global Engagement Center Programs and Creation of the Information Access Fund to Counter State-Sponsored Disinformation

    The Department of State is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Department of Defense. We have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to transfer $40 million from the Department of Defense to the Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) in Fiscal Year 2018 for initiatives to counter propaganda and disinformation from foreign nations.

    One of those initiatives is the creation of an Information Access Fund to support public and private partners working to expose and counter propaganda and disinformation from foreign nations. Under the Information Access Fund, civil society groups, media content providers, nongovernmental organizations, federally funded research and development centers, private companies, and academic institutions will be eligible to compete for grants from the GEC to advance their important work to counter propaganda and disinformation.

    Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein said the transfer of funds announced today reiterates the United States’ commitment to the fight.

    “This funding is critical to ensuring that we continue an aggressive response to malign influence and disinformation and that we can leverage deeper partnerships with our allies, Silicon Valley, and other partners in this fight,” said Under Secretary Goldstein. “It is not merely a defensive posture that we should take, we also need to be on the offensive.”

    The Department of State plans to award an initial $5 million in grants from the Information Access Fund. In consultation with Congress, this funding will include $1 million in initial seed money from the Department of State’s public diplomacy account in order to kick-start the initiative quickly. The Fund will be a key part of the GEC’s partnerships with local civil society organizations, NGOs, media providers, and content creators to counter propaganda and disinformation. The Fund will also drive the use of innovative messaging and data science techniques.

    Separately, the GEC will initiate a series of pilot projects developed with the Department of Defense that are designed to counter propaganda and disinformation. Those projects will be supported by Department of Defense funding.

    The Department of State will soon begin reviewing applications for funding from the Information Access Fund. For more information, please follow this link, please email the GEC at GE*****@st***.gov.

    https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/02/278851.htm

  6. Democrats were better off trying to shut down the government.
    The minority report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) gets bogged down on minor matters that undermine its credibility on the major issues addressed.

    The memo, for instance, paints Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official demoted after reports that he met with dossier compiler Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, as a “well respected” public servant done a “grave disservice” by Republicans. The memo finds the majority report guilty of “demonizing” the “career professionals” Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the FBI agent and FBI lawyer caught trashing Trump and conspiring to go easy on questioning Hillary Clinton in their text messages. The minority report characterizes their political chatter as bipartisan in its skewering of public officials but offers no evidence to support this claim.

    In the cases of Ohr, Strzok, and Page, not only did Republicans find fault with their conduct but their bosses within the bureaucracy did, too. Ohr, whose wife worked on anti-Trump matters for Fusion GPS, received several demotions at Justice, Strzok lost his position with the special counsel’s office, and Page lost her spot with Mueller’s investigation as well. In each instance, their behavior left evidence of bias against the president.

    These seem like poor cases for Democrats to plant their flag. Doing so illustrates the overall strategy of the memo. It seeks to challenge Republicans not on this point or that point but on all points, no matter how weak or strong.

    https://spectator.org/hpsci-minority-report-backfires/

  7. Note: Trudeau just appointed Omar Khadr’s lawyer as a judge in Federal Court

    I don’t know John Norris, I haven’t met him at all so I can’t tell you what kind of man he is or what kind of lawyer.

    But we should know a little about Norris because Justin Trudeau and his Justice Minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, have appointed John Norris to the Federal Court.

    What I can tell you about John Norris is that he has defended a number of terrorists and accused terrorists. In fact he seems to seek that out. A look at his website shows he acted as Omar Khadr’s lawyer in one lawsuit against the Canadian government and acted as an intervener in two other cases effectively supporting Khadr’s position.

    He acted for Suresh Sriskandarajah, a man that pled guilty to terrorism charges for helping the Tamil Tigers. Norris acted for Raed Jaser, one of the men convicted in the Via Rail plot to blow up passenger trains above the Niagara Gorge. Other notable clients include Mahmoud Jaballah, Adil Charkoui, members of the Toronto 18 and more.

    http://brianlilley.com/this-is-the-kind-of-judge-justin-trudeau-wants-on-the-court/

  8. Washington, D.C — The president of the United States has decided to put an end to school shootings by attacking the root of the problem: schools. He is going to ban all schools so there won’t be any school shootings.

    “We have a total disaster. Kids are dying in these shootings. It’s time to stop talking and doing something, and I’m gonna do something, believe me.”, said Trump in a press conference. He kept going: “If there are no schools, there will be no school shootings. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it.”

    https://www.8shit.net/donald-trump-ends-school-shootings-banning-schools/

  9. “Violent Islamists should be treated like paedophiles and have their children taken away from them, Britain’s top counter terrorist officer said last night.”

    “In a keynote speech, Mr Rowley also warned against underestimating the threat of the Far Right as he revealed four plots were foiled last year.”
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5437215/Extremists-children-taken-away.html

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-43205278/four-far-right-attacks-foiled-last-year-says-counter-terror-chief

    Islam, Communism, and Gender-ID
    These fe-men, parents-of-one
    Replacing man-woman fidelity
    Each speaking for The Woman.

    Muslims possessing houris
    Socialists superior to men
    Sexuals reinventing Herstories
    Three changes, forced to succumb.

    And now they can’t find their whole
    Femaled with rages of pride
    And the police arrest every soul
    Who speak of the father inside.

  10. New video shows massive airstrike on ISIS compound in East of Afghanistan

    A new video released by the US military in Afghanistan shows massive airstrike on a compound of the ISIS terrorist group in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

    The latest airstrikes were reportedly carried out last week in the vicinity of the restive Achin district amid ongoing air campaign against the terror groups.

    There are no reports regarding the casualties inflicted on ISIS terrorists in the particular raid but the US military says “An airstrike destroys an ISIS-K fighting position during Afghan Commando offensive operations in Mohmand Valley, Nangarhar province. Over the winter, Commandos pushed ISIS-K seven kilometers from Afghan civilian centers positions in Mohmand Valley.”

    This comes as the Afghan and US forces have launched a series of new airstrikes against the terror groups across the country during the recent weeks.

    Over the past 96 hours, U.S. forces conducted air operations to strike Taliban training facilities in Badakhshan province, preventing the planning and rehearsal of terrorist acts near the border with China and Tajikistan by such organizations as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and others, according to a report by NATO-led Resolute Support Mission.

    The strikes also destroyed stolen Afghan National Army vehicles that were in the process of being converted to vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.

    The report further adds that during these strikes, a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress dropped 24 precision guided munitions on Taliban fighting positions, setting a record of the most guided munitions ever dropped from a B-52. The aircraft has played a leading role in Air Force operations for decades, and was recently reconfigured with a conventional rotary launcher to increase its reach and lethality.

    https://www.khaama.com/new-video-shows-massive-airstrike-on-isis-compound-in-east-of-afghanistan-04476

      • I understand they have shifted a lot of the opium production to Africa and there have been some rumors about some moving to South America in the Cocaine producing region.

      • I’ll be impressed when the opium poppies are destroyed.

        The simple solution is to just buy the opium from them. Turn around and dispense into American hospice care facilities. This would deny the Mafia a primary source and choke off a huge portion of heroin production.

        It would certainly cost less than our military presence and wouldn’t be so disruptive to the Afghani economy. Plus, curtailing heroin production would have a positive impact on America’s legal system (i.e., reduced number of addicts being jailed), health care system (i.e., fewer overdoses, less transmission of HIV/AIDS, reduction in needle-related diseases, etc.), and issues of crime related to heroin use (i.e., theft, muggings, etc.).

  11. Danish government wants double punishments for crimes in underprivileged areas (thelocal, Feb 26, 2018)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20180226/danish-government-wants-double-punishments-for-crimes-in-underprivileged-areas

    “Vandalism, theft and threatening behaviour will be punished more severely in areas defined as ‘special punishment zones’, according to a new plan to be set out by the Danish government.

    Double punishments for certain types of offence committed in underprivileged areas defined as ‘ghettos’ will form part of a programme of measures aimed at the marginalised zones, Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen told newspaper Berlingske.

    They exact types of crime to be subjected to the harsher punishments is yet to be confirmed, but will be defined as part of the parliamentary process to establish the new measures, according to the report.

    The government will not decide which areas are to be subject to ‘double punishment’ for the crimes in question.

    This will be left under the jurisdiction of police chiefs locally, Berlingske reports.

    But Poulsen told the newspaper that forms of criminality that contributed to ‘parallel societies’ would be targeted by the measure.

    “Vandalism, theft or threats could be the reason [for stricter punishments]. That means the hammer will fall extra hard in those areas,” he said.

    Parliamentary ally the Danish People’s Party said it would not comment on the report before seeing the proposal in its entirety.

    But opposition Social Democrat spokesperson Trine Bramsen told Berlingske that her party considered the measure of targeting specified areas with harsher punishments “sensible”.

    A concerted effort to reduce crime and social inequality in Denmark’s underprivileged areas was announced by Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in his traditional New Year’s speech.

    But the measure could represent a gamble with rule of law in the Scandinavian country, said Birgitte Arent Eiriksson, legal advisor with thinktank Justitia.

    “Where there is rule of law, it is very, very important that everyone is equal before the law. But I find it difficult to see how that could be the case with this proposal,” she said.”

  12. Berlin police chief forced out after years of scandal (DW, Feb 26, 2018)
    http://www.dw.com/en/berlin-police-chief-forced-out-after-years-of-scandal/a-42748091

    “Since Klaus Kandt took the job in 2012, there have been accusations of negligence and cover-ups. Kandt maintains that there were only minor mishaps and that the Berlin police are role models around the world.

    Berlin Chief of Police Klaus Kandt and his deputy were forced to step down on Monday following months of hefty criticism. Kandt and his office have repeatedly come under fire for scandals ranging from abuses at the police academy to mishandling the investigation into the 2016 attack on a Christmas market in the city.

    The 57-year-old chief had been in the post since 2012. According to a statement from Berlin’s Interior Senator Andreas Geisel, Kandt lacked the requisite trust from the government to continue leading the Berlin police department’s 22,000 personnel.

    Both Kandt and his deputy, Margarete Koppers, have multiple charges pending against them for the state of the department’s shooting ranges — they have been accused of knowing the dilapidated facilities posed a health risk and doing nothing about it. Koppers is being transferred into a different role…”

  13. The Shocking History Of Sexual Misconduct Within James Comey’s FBI

    The Department of Justice’s inspector general sanctioned at least 14 FBI agents and officials for a range of improper sexual acts since 2014, and most of the misconduct occurred during former FBI Director James Comey’s term, The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined.

    The public got a glimpse into the bureau’s sexual mischief when it was disclosed high-profile FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok were cheating on their spouses. Special counsel Robert Mueller dumped Page from his investigation on Russian collusion and later removed Strzok after he learned of their relationship.

    But it turns out sexual misconduct within the bureau went much further than cheating spouses.

    According to the Justice Department inspector general’s enforcement summaries, which TheDCNF reviewed, FBI agents and officials engaged in a variety of improper sexual relationships and harassment throughout the bureau. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz published at least 14 instances of improper sexual conduct. The latest incident was reported only last week.

    The acts entail inappropriate romantic relationships with a subordinate, outright sexual harassment, favoritism or promotion based on demands for sex, and retaliation against women who rebuffed male employee’s advances.

    The enforcement summaries show the IG filed not a single sexual misconduct charge against bureau employees from January 2009 until November 2013. But after that date sexual misconduct charges accelerated, virtually all of them under Comey’s term. The former director joined the FBI in September 2014 and left on May 2017 when President Trump fired him.

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/25/fbi-sexual-misconduct-comey/

  14. How “Identity Politics” Is Designed To Destroy Us
    The Left’s resurrection of the totalitarian faith.
    February 26, 2018
    David Horowitz

    In January 2018 when negotiations over the fate of 800,000 “DACA” recipients broke down, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blamed the impasse on the alleged racism of President Trump and his senior advisers. “Last night the president put forth a plan,” Pelosi told the US Conference of Mayors; “let me just say what I said last night, that plan is a campaign to make America white again.”[1] This was not only an obvious lie, but a spectacularly brazen one, since Trump’s announced plan would provide a path to citizenship not only for the DACA illegals, who are non-white, but for a million additional illegals, mainly from Latin America, who are also mainly non-white.

    Trump’s general immigration plan seeks to move to a merit based system, which would give priority to immigrants who can contribute needed skills to the country and would have a reasonable chance of success when they got here. Giving priority to English speakers, one aspect of this reform, would enhance the ability of new arrivals to assimilate and succeed. To oppose such a plan one would have believe that non-white immigrants don’t have skills or don’t speak English. The latter insinuation was actually made by CNN’s anti-Trump reporter Jim Acosta, who suggested that Trump wanted only immigrants from white majority countries “England and Australia” In fact, English is the official language in over 57 countries, including such non-white countries as Zimbabwe, Uganda and Botswana, as well as Caribbean nations like Jamaica and Guyana.

    Pelosi’s malicious accusation was even more disconnected from reality, since Trump has never proposed excluding or expelling populations based on race, which would be the only way to “make America white again” (whatever that might actually mean). Yet this denial of the obvious facts in order to gin up a racial indictment of what otherwise would be seen as patriotic policies has become the ever present theme of Democrat attacks on Trump’s presidency. These attacks began with his first statement on immigration during the opening presidential primary debate. At that time, speaking specifically of people crossing the border illegally, Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with [them]. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”[2]

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269425/how-identity-politics-designed-destroy-us-david-horowitz

  15. The Democrats’ Deeply Dishonest Memo
    The report was released as Congressman Devin Nunes said a secret surveillance court’s days may be numbered.
    February 26, 2018
    Matthew Vadum

    The Democrats’ deeply dishonest rebuttal to the congressional report on the Obama administration’s abuses of surveillance authority came out on the weekend as the House intel chief seemed to threaten to abolish the secret court that granted the abusive requests.

    There is “clear evidence” that Democrats are trying to cover up their involvement in a massive plot to undermine the electoral process and that they colluded with parts of the government, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said mid-afternoon Saturday from the main stage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington, D.C.

    “We’re not going to have the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] much longer if the [Justice Department] and FBI continue to obfuscate like that.”

    The comment from Nunes came as the New York Times acknowledged deep down in an article that President Trump “is correct that nothing produced publicly by [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller to date has claimed any wrongdoing by the president nor any illegal collaboration with the Russians seeking to influence the 2016 election.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269430/%E2%80%8B-democrats-deeply-dishonest-memo-matthew-vadum

    • Minority report: Democrats release rebuttal to GOP memo

      Democrats conclude there was intelligence beyond the anti-Trump dossier to justify surveillance of campaign aide Carter Page;

      chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports.

  16. Muslim Terrorists Topped Mass Shootings in 2 Out of 3 Years
    Muslims are less than 1% of the United States population, but 33% of major mass shootings.
    February 26, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    Turn on CNN and you get the impression that mass shootings are mainly carried out by mentally unstable teenagers with assault rifles in high schools. But the data points to a very different picture.

    In the last 5 years, five major mass shootings were carried out using AR-15 or similar rifles.

    The perpetrators of the Parkland school massacre, the Las Vegas massacre and the Texas First Baptist Church massacre were Americans. Muslim terrorists however were responsible for the mass shootings at the Pulse nightclub and in San Bernardino. While the Vegas shooter was responsible for the deadliest attack last year, the deadliest attacks of 2015 and 2016 were both carried out by Muslim terrorists.

    Two of the last three years were dominated by mass shootings carried out by Muslim terrorists.

    In the last decade, there were only 10 major mass shootings where the death toll went into the double digits. Three of those were carried out by Muslim terrorists. That’s all the more remarkable since Muslims make up less than 1% of the United States population, but account for 33% of major mass shootings. Proportional to their representation in the population, Muslims are responsible for far more mass shootings than Americans.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269382/muslim-terrorists-topped-mass-shootings-2-out-3-daniel-greenfield

    • Muslims are less than 1% of the United States population, but 33% of major mass shootings.

      Please let that sink in and then tell me why Muslim immigration is still happening. We would do better to accept some nations’ prison populations than allowing this Islamic menace to settle within our borders.

      Remember, these are just gun stats. Add in the car attacks, knife assaults, and so forth and that 1% becomes even more of a threat.

  17. Obama’s Shadow Looms Over US Lebanon Policy
    While Treasury and Justice Departments break free of the Swamp.
    February 26, 2018
    Ari Lieberman

    Early this week, Lebanon’s top army commander, Joseph Aoun, threatened to “confront any Israeli aggression, whatever that costs.” Aoun was referring to Lebanon’s contrived maritime and land border disputes with Israel. Aoun further noted that the Lebanese Armed Forces “would not spare any method” in challenging Israel. With those words, Aoun signed the LAF’s death warrant. The dispute, which was provoked by Hezbollah and Iran, centers on a triangular area of sea of around 330 square miles that falls squarely within Israel’s maritime borders. Hezbollah also opposes the construction of a land barrier that Israel is building on its side of the border to prevent infiltration.

    Aoun’s bellicose tone echoes that of Hezbollah, which has been offering similar rhetoric in recent weeks with increasing shrill and frequency. Hezbollah, which operates as Iran’s mercenary army, has in recent years slowly subsumed Lebanese state institutions, including Lebanon’s army, like a cancerous, flesh-eating malignancy.

    In 2008, the Lebanese government tried to reassert control by assuming some measure of authority over Beirut International Airport and by preventing Hezbollah from constructing its own separate telecommunication infrastructure. Hezbollah thwarted these efforts in May 2008 when its forces seized key strategic sites and government media institutions. The clashes, though sharp and violent, were brief but underscored the point that in Lebanon, it is Iran through its proxy Hezbollah that pulls the strings. The impotent Lebanese Army, itself a fractured mosaic of Shia, Sunni, Christians and Druse, stood by helplessly and did not interfere.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269426/obamas-shadow-looms-over-us-lebanon-policy-ari-lieberman

    • All so depressing.
      Aoun is another puppet of Iran.
      There is no independent Lebanon. It’s just wishful thinking, grasping at a mirage of sectarian comity. That only sort of worked as long as the Levant was a Wester colony.

      It’s embarrassing. These people don’t have a clue about how the Middle East works.

      Rex Tillerson babbles in Beirut while Middle East war looms

      http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/255731/rex-tillerson-babbles-in-beirut-while-middle-east-war-looms

      • Not just the Middle East, India and China are moving towards a major confrontation. Then we have the white genocide in Africa and the left wing governments collapsing in South America. The odds are when one region explodes the rest will follow.

        • The odds are when one region explodes the rest will follow.

          The new “Domino Effect”, eh?

        • If you throw every variable into a linear equation, you’ve got a quadratic irrational – stochastic, useless.

          It amounts to throwing your hands up in the air and giving up to giant forces that are unknowable. Tease the giant forces apart, focus on dynamics that are accessible. Or as close to it as possible.

          Focus on the _map_, the globe is just a kaleidoscope.
          Learn as much as you can about each crucial intersection. It’s work, but there’s no shortcut.

          • Dear yucki,

            Since you are a cartophile, here are two new suggestions:

            The Pentagon’s New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century (2004) by Thomas P.M. Barnett

            This book was one of the earliest half-way-sensible models for what a post-9-11 strategic world would look like.

            The next candidate is deeply disturbing, as it covers the vandalistic career of Gilbert Bland Jr.

            The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey.

            Bland would surreptitiously slice maps out of ancient books and then sell them in the rare documents market.

            Fortunately, along the way, Miles Harvey’s acquired wealth of knowledge about map history is dispensed freely to make the book altogether interesting.

            Bland deserved nothing less than swift execution.

  18. Deadly Threat from Iran
    Former IRGC commander threatens to nuke Israel – and why he’s for real.
    February 26, 2018
    Kenneth R. Timmerman
    26

    Maj. General Mohsen Rezai founded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the early days of the revolution, upon the personal orders of Ayatollah Khomeini.

    While he relinquished control of the IRGC in 1997, he remains one of the regime’s most influential leaders. A “principalist,” who is considered a revolutionary purist, Rezai has occasionally shown a more pragmatic bent.

    He regularly boasts of the Iranian regime’s military power, and issues threats to all who would challenge the regime that seem to get dismissed in the Western media.

    Last week, when he vowed to “level Tel Aviv to the ground,” was no exception.

    He was speaking in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned at the Munich Security Conference last week that Israel would “act against Iran itself” if Iran continued to invade Israeli air space, as they did when they sent a drone into Israel from an air base in Syria.

    And yet, outside of the Israeli media, only the Daily Mail paid much attention to Rezai’s threats.

    But make no mistake about it: General Rezai understands the cold calculus of nuclear deterrence, and he was not making an idle threat.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269419/deadly-threat-iran-kenneth-r-timmerman

  19. Far-right terror threat ‘growing’, police chief warns after FOUR plots were foiled in 2017 (express, Feb 26, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/924454/Terror-far-right-extremists-Darren-Osborne-Thomas-Mair-Jo-Cox

    “BRITAIN faces a “growing and significant” threat from organised far-right terrorists after four plots by political extremists were foiled last year, the UK’s most senior counter-terrorism officer has revealed.

    Mark Rowley, London’s Assistant Commissioner, claimed the threat of hard-right ideologues had grown dramatically over the last two years, evolving from low-key protests and hate crimes to more dramatic planned incidents.

    Mr Rowley said: ”The right-wing terrorist threat is more significant and more challenging than perhaps public debate gives it credit for.”

    The counter-terror chief, who is due to step down next month, went on to warn hard-right terrorists in waiting could be looking to join with likeminded groups across the globe.

    He added: ”It’s a significant part of the terrorist threat. Right-wing terrorism wasn’t previously organised here.

    “There are many Western countries that have extreme right-wing challenges and in quite a number of those the groups we are worried about here are making connections with them and networking.”

    His warning comes in the wake of the the sentencing of Finsbury Park terrorist Darren Osborne, who was jailed for life earlier this month after killing one and injuring nine in a targeted attack on London’s Muslim community.

    Osborne was the second attack in recent years after the murder of Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox, who was gunned down and stabbed to death in the street by Nazi-obsessed murderer Thomas Mair after he exclaimed “Britain First, death to traitors.”

    Mr Rowley said: ”For the best part of 18 months in the UK we have a homegrown, white supremacist, neo-Nazi terrorist organisation that is pursuing all the ambitions of any other terrorist organisation committed to violence.

    “That should be a matter of great concern for all of us.”

    His warnings also follow a spree of jihadi attacks on the nation last year – including ISIS inspired strikes on Westminster Bridge, Manchester Arena and London Bridge…”

  20. Snow in Rome causes Italian soldiers to be deployed to capital’s streets as arctic blast sweeps across Europe
    Rome’s Mediterranean climate and proximity to the sea usually results in mild winters, but freak weather is causing widespread school closures and travel disruption

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/snow-rome-italy-europe-weather-soldiers-military-cold-temperature-a8229066.html

    Question: weren’t we told in the 1990’s that by 2015, there would be no snow in European winters?

  21. Delicious interview: the CBC talking head tries over and over to get her Indian reporter interviwee to say something, anything, positive about Trudeau’s visit to India and is brutally rebuffed each and every time.

    Get the popcorn for this one!