US military nude photo sharing scandal widens beyond marines
Getty Images
US servicemen from all parts of the military have been sharing nude photos of their female colleagues online, it has emerged.
Reports last week uncovered widespread photo sharing by current and former marines on Facebook, triggering a navy investigation.
But the BBC has seen a message board where servicemen from other branches have shared hundreds of photos.
The Pentagon said such behaviour was "inconsistent" with its values.
Male service members use a message board on anonymous image hosting website Anon-IB to share nude images of their female counterparts.
They often first post clothed photos of female personnel taken from their social media pages, and ask if any members have nude photos, which they call "wins". Others then post photos.
Those posting sometimes provide names and other details of women, including where they are stationed. Lewd comments accompany many posts.
The behaviour previously reported was confined to marines on Facebook.
A Facebook group called Marines United with 30,000 members was recently closed down after the scandal erupted.
The marines top commander described the revelations as an "embarrassment".
"When I hear allegations of marines denigrating their fellow marines, I don't think such behaviour is that of true warriors or war fighters," Gen Robert Neller said earlier this week.
But the message board on Anon-IB remains publicly accessible, and indicates that such practices extend throughout the military.
"Just heard [name redacted] and her bf [name redacted] broke up," a comment on 19 December from an anonymous user on a post that appears to involve personnel at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska reads.
"Maybe he would post some."
Another post from a different anonymous user on 12 September reads: "Any wright patt wins? I'll start off with some". The post refers to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
The user then posts self-taken images of a woman in a bikini, and then topless. There are many more explicit images on the message board.
The US Department of Defense said in a statement that it had issued "policy guidance" to prevent and deal with "sexual harassment and hazing".
It is developing a new "comprehensive workplace harassment prevention and response policy", spokesperson Myles Caggins told the BBC.
"The alleged behaviour is inconsistent with our values."
Although the Marines United Facebook group has now closed, there are at least half a dozen similar groups or sites, marine officials told CBS News.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is due to hold a hearing on the issue next week.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has launched an investigation and has asked whistleblowers to come forward with information.
On Wednesday, two women who said they were victims spoke out publicly alongside their lawyer, urging others to come forward.
"I can tell you that this exact behaviour leads to the normalisation of sexual harassment and even sexual violence," said Erika Butner, 23, who served in the marines for four years until last June.
Marines United's activity was first uncovered by The War Horse, a non-profit news organisation run by marine veteran Thomas Brennan.
Some of the photos are believed to have been taken surreptitiously. Other images are thought to have been consensual, but posted without permission.
Let it all hang out.
ReplyDeleteAdd in ever possible sexual freak known to mankind, the most diverse assholes, swinging dicks and every possible manipulation of the female vagina and lets's see what can really happen.
It is only our $650 billion military mission that is at stake. I don't foresee and issue that can't be resolved with an uplift in cultural awareness and six or seven billion dollars in group refocus training.
There is no going back to the dark ages such as in the sixties, when any moron, not in a coma, in any capacity could predict the outcome of our strength in the sexual diversity experiment.
ReplyDeleteThe Senate Armed Services Committee is due to hold a hearing on the issue next week.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has launched an investigation and has asked whistleblowers to come forward with information.
Listen up: " Not that kind of blower".
DeleteListen up: Revise and resubmit, Not that kind of whistle.
Delete
ReplyDeleteOn Wednesday, two women who said they were victims spoke out publicly alongside their lawyer, urging others to come forward.
What about ISIS?
ReplyDeleteI am sure the military must have a "No Shit Sherlock" ribbon. Please put in san order to give this woman one:
ReplyDelete"I can tell you that this exact behaviour leads to the normalisation of sexual harassment and even sexual violence," said Erika Butner, 23, who served in the marines for four years until last June.
The US Department of Defense said in a statement that it had issued "policy guidance" to prevent and deal with "sexual harassment and hazing".
ReplyDeleteThe Pentagon said such behaviour was "inconsistent" with its values.
ReplyDeleteThe Pentagon: It's values.
ReplyDeleteThat ought to make for some good reading.
ReplyDeleteEver wake up and realize you landed on the wrong planet?
ReplyDeleteListen up, Squirk.
ReplyDeleteLet's say you're in dire straits, and your life hangs in the balance, and the only way out of said straits is to put yourself in the hopefully helpful hands of another.
(we accept for the moment the current zeitgeist that holds one's life in this world is an ultimately important matter)
Now then, only two people are available to help you out -
1)Barack Obama
2) Malik Obama, who is said to be Barack's half brother though he actually is not.
Who you gonna pick, Squirk ?
My hunch is you'll be picking Malik, as everyone can see at a glance that he is the more truthful, and brave, and compassionate of the two.
Now then, further, if these two were to present you with conflicting birth certificates regarding Barack, whose certificate would you believe, especially given the fact that Barack's station in society wholly depends on his offering be taken as true ?
I expect you to try and think deeply about this question.
I also expect to be disappointed.
Delete.
DeleteI'd pick Obama.
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Har har
DeleteYou might also want to ask yourself, and consider, why Barack's college admission application is sealed - along with his transcripts and grades too.
As far as I know no one has been given an opportunity to closely inspect O'bozo's 'birth certificate' to this day.
DeleteWe should be referring to that tall asshole as Barack Davis.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete.
DeleteYou dumb shit. You didn't even ask which Obama.
:o)
Go away, Bob.
You sound almost as silly as Allen when while defending torture started off his comment with, 'Suppose I am Jack Bauer...'
You people crack me up.
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The Israelis, and the Kurds too, seem to have successfully integrated....up to a point....women in their military services.
ReplyDeleteThey do though give due consideration to differing abilities and fitting these to military tasks....
And among the Kurds the women seem to serve in their own female units....don't know about the Israelis....
*Side note* - I read just the other day that the Israelis were beginning to put women in tanks....
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ReplyDeleteWhen ask about the four states joining in a lawsuit against Trump's new Immigration Ban, Sean Spicer, the press secretary and main president whisperer said,
"I think we feel very comfortable that the executive order that was crafted is consistent with - we're going to go forward on this - but I think by all means, I don't- we feel very confident with how that was crafted and the input that was given," Spicer said Thursday.
The face of the Trump administration.
.
Jordan Fabian contributed.
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DeleteJordan is my man in the WH press pool. He is from whackthemole.com.
Fool.
DeleteMaking light of an attempt Judicial coup....
Who can enter the USA is entirely up to the President...as past practice and an honest reading of the Constitution and the related Legislation clearly show.
The only exception being American citizens.
Bay away, you hound dog.
Fucking Democrats really have me pissed off these days....
DeleteJim Webb being an exception.
Your slacking Deuce. I can't believe you haven't led with the oh so important news of the TRUE Obama birth certificate.
ReplyDeleteI guess you are waiting for your glorious leader to tweet about it first.
DeleteSwine Dog Smirk is back, brain dead as usual.
Deletetee hee hee
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DeleteBraindead.
Or so says the man who also says 'tee hee hee'.
.
Only as a mockery of Smirk, Squirk.
DeleteTee hee hee
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DeleteSure, Bob. Whatever you say (turning back while laughing so as to not offend.)
.
Let me help you out. I don't know where Obama was born. I examined the pdf document of the Hawaiian birth certificate and it was altered. It has been a while since I looked at it, but if memory is correct, it was not that clever an alteration.
DeleteI would be interested in the chain of custody on the new document.
I said very early that Obama's US roots were shallow at best. They may be nonexistent.
At this time, I am glad he is gone. I am more pleased his designated replacement lost and has a head with a new bobbed hair and dye job instead of being the head of state. It was one of her most transparent moves since the pant suits designed to hide the pampers.
Life is good.
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ReplyDeleteThe Healthcare Debate
As viewed by the GOP in Congress...
'The poor don't want healthcare...'
'You can't have universal healthcare. A certain percentage of people can't have healthcare otherwise you don't have a market and can't generate competition.'
'Why should men have to pay for prenatal care?'
And so it goes.
.
'The poor don't want healthcare...'
DeleteAnd just what Republican said this, Quirk ?
Or was it your asshole doing the talking ?
This actually is a good question:
Delete'Why should men have to pay for prenatal care?'
Why should women be insured against prostate cancer ?
It's as foolish as insuring Ash against brain damage....
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DeleteYou moron. Christ, who can actually take you seriously in any discussion on insurance. You haven't a clue as to what its main function is, the friggin pooling of risk.
Damn, Bob, you scare me sometimes.
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DeleteWhy insure Ash against brain damage when he obviously hasn't a brain ?
Answer me that, O Mr. Risk Pool.
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Delete(Previous post modified...)
My previous post may have been poorly written for which I apologize.
The main function of insurance is to pool risks.
Here’s how insurance expert and columnist Nancy Metcalf answered a similar question from a Consumer Reports reader that year:
Health insurance, like all insurance, works by pooling risks. The healthy subsidize the sick, who could be somebody else this year and you next year. Those risks include any kind of health care a person might need from birth to death—prenatal care through hospice. No individual is likely to need all of it, but we will all need some of it eventually.
So, as a middle-aged childless man you resent having to pay for maternity care or kids’ dental care. Shouldn’t turnabout be fair play? Shouldn’t pregnant women and kids be able to say, “Fine, but in that case why should we have to pay for your Viagra, or prostate cancer tests, or the heart attack and high blood pressure you are many times more likely to suffer from than we are?”
Once you start down that road, it’s hard to know where to stop. If you slice and dice risks, eventually you don’t have a risk pool at all, and the whole idea of insurance falls apart . . .
Before the new health law took effect, insurers can and did exclude maternity coverage from individual plans. In fact, in half of states you can’t purchase maternity coverage on the individual market for any price. In most of the rest, you can buy a maternity rider on your policy. In many cases it costs more than the main policy itself, and you can’t use it for at least a year after you buy it, and it often has a separate deductible of up to $5,000.
Why so expensive? Because the only people who buy it are, naturally, people planning to have a baby. Insurers know this and price accordingly...
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Sweden: Migrants Behead Woman, Murder Husband, Then Laugh About It
ReplyDeleteBy Pamela Geller - on March 9, 2017
SWEDEN JIHAD
Is it any wonder Iraq is safer than Sweden?
All that outrage when President Trump spoke candidly about the chaos in Sweden, but none of that same outrage directed at the invaders and destroyers.
The police arrived as they were straddling and stabbing a second person, police shot at him but missed. Unfortunately, the second victim was killed.
No outrage for that. But speak of it and the left-wing lapdogs will lop your head off (figuratively)....
http://pamelageller.com/2017/03/migrants-behead-woman-murder-husband.html/
Dusseldorf axe attacker arrested, from “former Yugoslavia,” cops say mental illness, no terror motive
DeleteMARCH 9, 2017 7:35 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER 61 COMMENTS
“Former Yugoslavia”? Yugoslavia ceased to exist in 1992. That was 25 years ago. Why is that still a point of reference? Why don’t they say he is from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire? Can’t the police be a bit more specific? Is this axe attacker a Catholic from Croatia? Orthodox from Serbia? Or…a Muslim from Bosnia or Kosovo? Why are authorities being so coy, just as they were in the case of the Heidelberg vehicle/knife attack, in which they identified the attacker as a “German national” without releasing his name or addressing the question of his religion? This doesn’t allay suspicions, it only increases them. And given the fact that terror motives have been dismissed in so very many other cases, including the Fort Hood jihad massacre, unless and until we receive more information the authorities’ assertion that this was not terror cannot prudently be taken at face value. What’s more, obvious jihad attacks have often been dismissed as acts by people with “mental health problems.”....
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/03/dusseldorf-axe-attacker-arrested-from-former-yugoslavia-cops-say-no-terror-motive
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DeleteVigilantes Hunt Migrants in Bulgaria
Masked Vigilantes in Military Gear Hunt Migrants
NEAR MALKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria — Figures in camouflage and ski masks gather at a fishing lodge. Many are armed with long knives, bayonets and hatchets.
The 35 men and women are on the hunt in Strandzha Massif, a forested mountain range on Bulgaria's border with Turkey. Migrants trying to cross into Europe are their prey.
Patches on their irregular uniforms — a coat of arms bearing a snarling wolf's head framed by Cyrillic text — proclaim them to be members of the Bulgarian National Movement Shipka, abbreviated in Bulgarian as "BNO Shipka."
Members of the paramilitary organization form into ranks as their leader, Vladimir Rusev, speaks. A former colonel who says he fought in Chechnya as a volunteer alongside Russians, Rusev declares his support for a man they admire: President Donald Trump...
You better dig out your pitchfork, sharpen your ax and answer the call Farmer Bob. The Muslims are coming.
.
You libel me.
DeleteI'm devastated, and considering a lawsuit against you.
One hundred bucks will make it all go away....
What I want is to keep them out of the country, not hunt them down with axes and pitchforks.
Hell, I don't even have a pitchfork.
A fact which shall certainly be prominently mentioned in the libel suit.
Fox News confirmed shortly ago that the Dusseldorf 'hatchet man' was originally from Kosovo.
Delete.
DeleteThat's new news.
Earlier speculation was that he was from Idaho.
.
Tee hee hee
DeletePeople around here were certain he was from the outer suburbs of Detroit, Michigan.
he he he he
Is it too early to attribute all this to The Donald ? -
ReplyDeleteJob growth strong in February; Wages rebound... Developing...
152,528,000: Record Number of Employed...
Construction largest gain in 10 years....DRUDGE
GREAT AGAIN: +235,000....DRUDGE HEADLINE
Well, if the numbers were going the other way the left would be blaming The Donald...
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ReplyDeleteThe ME has been called the crucible of conflict and the graveyard of civilizations.
In another context, the same can be said of healthcare and political parties.
I believe healthcare will be the key factor in Trump's ultimate failure.
Other factors:
- the slow start: 2000 appointments still open including No 2s at SOS, DOD, and Treasury
- tax reform: geared towards the rich
- priorities: guns over butter
- massive cuts in agencies: State and EPA have major cuts coming along with entire programs
- cuts to regulations: sounds great until you see the result. WiO probably remembers it wasn't that long ago that Lake Erie was declared dead, that the Cuyahoga River caught on fire, and that fish coming out of the Great Lakes often looked like something out of Alien. Progress on issues like these and against invasive species like the Asian Carp will be put on hold.
- infrastructure: don't count on it.
All of these issues affect the people that put Trump in power.
.
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DeleteAnd don't forget...
- no cuts in entitlements
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ReplyDeleteGOP health-care bill would drop addiction treatment mandate covering 1.3 million Americans
Interesting given everything we've read lately about the growing opioid crisis in this country.
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It's time you write the health care bill.
DeleteEspecially when we consider your deep knowledge of insurance pools.
DeleteAnd pool halls.
Delete.
DeleteI wouldn't even attempt it. But that's irrelevant. I didn't make the promises Clinton, Obama, and Trump have made to the American people. It destroyed the first two and now it's Trump's turn in the barrel.
Trump promised the people he would
1. Get rid of Obamacare
2. Replace it with a better plan
3. Guaranteed no one would lose their healthcare
4. Guaranteed it would cut healthcare costs
The first can't be done entirely by using the reconciliation process. The second is in the eye of the beholder and I suspect the people might have a different view on the meaning of 'better' than the GOP leadership. On the third, Ryan is trying to convince the people that 'access for all' equates to 'universal coverage'. Good luck with that one.
Number 4 is the real beaut. The plan as far as I have seen does zip to cut the rise in healthcare costs. Now, it does keep the so-called 'death panels' as a means of cutting costs by restricting services but that was already in Obamacare.
Obamacare created a new entitlement. Trumpcare is designed to remove that entitlement. It will remove the Medicaid expansion, it will push responsibility for the program back to the states to administer. Sounds good in theory but we have seen how this works out in practice. The Feds mandate the states to handle it but refuse to return the money needed for the states to implement. So the GOP may be right in saying they have cut costs at the federal level, but overall healthcare costs will continue to climb and the losers will be the states and the people in those states. Trump and the GOP will be the ones blamed for it. Removing entitlements is hard.
I love the fact that while campaigning Trump said he already had a healthcare plan that was great, the best. The first thing he said when he took office was 'you wouldn't believe how complex it (healthcare) is'.
Kinda like GWB.
It's Hard
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ReplyDeletePeople worry about immigration. States worry falling fertility rates.
Things can get worse (well, perhaps, not entirely).
Sex Robots are Coming
By 2050, robot sex will be more common than human-human sex, according to a new report
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DeleteBy Goot ! that's what you need, a robotic sex companion !!
Chin Chin, That Gal Sal, Felicity, Dada Le Boeuf and a dozen others rolled into one.
Maybe you'd be satisfied for once, and we'd no longer have to listen to you ramble on about what seems at times your only topic...
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ReplyDeleteI felt that had Flynn not lied to Pence he probably could have held on and kept his NSA job.
Evidently not.
Flynn just retroactively filed under FARA indicating he was working as a foreign agent for Turkey at the time Trump appointed him NSA.
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Last night, seven people including two police officers were injured when a man wielding an axe went on the rampage at a train station in Dusseldorf.
ReplyDeleteThe suspected culprit, identified as Fatmir H, from Kosovo, has been arrested and German anti-terror police confirmed they are not hunting anyone else.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4301216/Man-attacked-machete-Dusseldorf.html#ixzz4awRw5VPE
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
If he is from Kosovo, he is a 95% chance of being a Muslim. His name is reported to be Fatmir H.
About 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million inhabitants are ethnic Albanians. Of the Albanians, about 3 percent are Catholic, and all the rest are at least nominal Muslims.
ReplyDeleteBill and Hillary Clinton's favorite country in Europe.
ReplyDeleten the tiny and very poor village of Fushara in northern Albania, the girls are disappearing.
Frane Bicaku's teenage daughter, Valentina, vanished from their home more than a year ago. She hasn't been heard from since.
Gjin Lleshi lost two daughters: one was 15 and the other 17. He says they were taken by men who promised to marry them. Instead, the girls wound up as teenage prostitutes on the streets of Italy, smuggled there by the Albanian mafia.
It happens almost every day, in just about every village and town in Albania.
"They are kidnapped mostly," says Lydia Bici of the International Catholic Migration Commission. "The minors are mostly kidnapped from discos or bars or the streets [and] even from the schools."
In some villages, families have stopped sending their teenage girls to school, fearing they could be kidnapped and taken to a world they can hardly imagine.
"A majority, it seems like, of the women who are trafficked are under 18 years old," says Sophie Mosko of Save the Children. "They're demanded younger and younger in the sex trade because there's less fear of AIDS."
There are now about 30,000 Albanian prostitutes walking the streets of Europe. In a country of only about 3 million people, that is almost 1 percent of the Albanian population. It is believed that most of these prostitutes were trafficked into Europe as children.
The Albanians are doing the same thing with young women in the U.S.
DeleteThere is no bigger scab ass country in Europe than tiny Kosovo, "liberated" by the USAF and the Clintons:
ReplyDeleteKosovo since the 1990s Kosovo War had become a significant center of organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and organ theft besides ongoing ethnic conflict between Kosovar Albanians and Kosovan Serbs. The large Kosovar diaspora which had built up in Western Europe during the 1990s combined with the political instability created ideal conditions for Kosovo to become "Europe's crime hub"; well into the 2000s, Kosovo remained associated with both ethnic conflict and organized crime
We really lost a gem electing the horrible Trump, missing out on Her Grace Hillary of Kosovo, bobbing and weaving under merciless fire from the deadly Catholic Serbs.
ReplyDeleteKindly, please, do not use the 'bobbing' when discussing Her Arsehole.
DeleteIt makes me feel bad.
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ReplyDeleteYou guys just don't get it.
They are all dicks.
Hillary is irrelevant at this point. She is not in a position to do more harm. Worry about the guy you got not the one you didn't.
Obama is irrelevant.
Bush is irrelevant.
The only relevant president we have at the moment is Donald Trump.
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You should worry about the Christians in the Mid-East.
DeleteThey are undergoing a sometimes fast, sometimes slow genocide.
Check out who lives in Bethlehem these days. Just as one small example.
We should be fast tracking these true refugees....who will never cause us harm....instead of worrying about your beloved murderous muzzies, Quirk.
yeah, you guys!
Delete.
DeleteCheck out who lives in Bethlehem these days. Just as one small example.
Moron, I explained the phenomenon to you more than once citing sources ranging from Wiki to the Times of Israel an Ynet but you won't listen.
You have built your own wall and a veritable reality free zone protecting Bob-world from any inconvenient truths.
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The Dusseldorf hatchet whacker was just another muzz playing his stupid part gotten from his stupid 'culture'.
ReplyDeleteCall him crazy if you wish, because that is what they are at bottom.
You don't bring peace on earth by whacking folks with a hatchet.
To call Islam a religion is a misuse of language.
It's a male dominance cult.
Is the Pope about to throw in the towel on celibate Priests ?
ReplyDeleteCNN: Pope signals he’s open to married Catholic men becoming priests
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/10/europe/pope-married-men-priests/index.html
Better late than never.
The Church turned to celebate Priests long ago when the married Priests of the day were dying before their wives and kids, leaving the Church holding an unwanted financial responsibility.
Getting rid of this sort of nonsense would do a lot to improve The Catholic Image among non Catholics around the world.
I'm beginning to have my doots about Mad Dog -
ReplyDeleteWHY IS GENERAL MATTIS NOMINATING THE ‘MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD’S STOOGE’?
A familiar face from the Obama disaster in Egypt.
March 10, 2017 Raymond Ibrahim
Reprinted from PJ Media.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’ pick for undersecretary of defense for policy, Anne Patterson, is problematic.
Politico briefly explains why:
If nominated and confirmed, Patterson would hold the fourth most powerful position at the Pentagon -- and would effectively be the top civilian in the Defense Department, since both Mattis and his deputy, Robert Work, were military officers.
As ambassador to Egypt between 2011 and 2013, Patterson worked closely with former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and his Islamist government. She came under fire for cultivating too close a relationship with the regime and for discouraging protests against it -- and White House officials are voicing concerns about those decisions now.
This is putting it mildly. Back during the months leading to the June 30, 2013 revolution, Patterson -- the “Brotherhood’s Stooge” as she was called by all, from news analysts to the Egyptian street -- was arguably one of the most hated individuals by the millions of Egyptians who took to the streets against Morsi and the Brotherhood.
Not only did her face regularly appear next to Obama’s in placards; it sometimes appeared alone, indicating just how closely she was seen as supporting the Brotherhood. It should be noted that these were not isolated sightings, as shown by the number of different placards and signs:....great pics....
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266066/why-general-mattis-nominating-muslim-brotherhoods-raymond-ibrahim
who woulda thunk?
ReplyDelete"Top commander signals larger, longer U.S. presence in Syria
Lolita C. Baldor
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press
Published Thursday, Mar. 09, 2017 5:47PM EST
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East signalled Thursday that there will be a larger and longer American military presence in Syria to accelerate the fight against the Islamic State group and quell friction within the complicated mix of warring factions there.
Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, told senators Thursday that he will need more conventional U.S. forces to insure stability once the fight to defeat Islamic State militants in their self-declared capital of Raqqa is over. The U.S. military, he said, can’t just leave once the fight is over because the Syrians will need help keeping IS out and ensuring the peaceful transition to local control.
Votel’s testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee comes as a couple hundred Marines moved into Syria in recent days to bring in large artillery guns for the Raqqa fight, and another couple hundred Army Rangers went into northern Syria to tamp down skirmishes between Turkish and Syrian forces near the border.
“I think as we move towards the latter part of these operations into more of the stability and other aspects of the operations, we will see more conventional forces requirements,” Votel said. Until recently, the U.S. military presence in Syria was made up of special operations forces advising and assisting the U.S.-backed Syrian troops.
It will be critical, Votel said, to get humanitarian aid, basic working services and good local leaders in place in Raqqa so that businesses can return and the city can move on.
He also told senators that the U.S. is looking for options to ease the tensions with Turkey over the plan to use U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds in the fight to oust Islamic State fighters from Raqqa. But he offered no details on what those options could be.
..."
as someone around here is wont to say "drip drip drip..."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/top-commander-signals-larger-longer-us-presence-in-syria/article34259465/
DeleteIt's all the fault of Barack Davis for taking the troops out way too soon, Smirk.
Delete"Military commanders frustrated by what they considered micromanagement under the previous administration have argued for greater freedom to make daily decisions on how best to fight the enemy In separate comments, Votel also reaffirmed that more American forces are needed in Afghanistan, a point the top U.S. commander in that country made to Congress several weeks ago. Votel agreed that the fight against the Taliban is in a stalemate, and said “it will involve additional forces” to ensure the U.S. can better advise and assist the Afghan forces.
DeleteU.S. Gen. John Nicholson, the top American commander in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month that he needs a few thousand more troops to help end the stalemate there. And Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said in recent weeks that he will make decisions soon on whether to recommend an increase in the U.S. force."
DRIP DRIP DRIP
oh, look, a little b00bie turd.
DeleteWhat is General Smirk's plan for dealing with/not dealing with ISIS ?
DeleteStop it, Smirkie..
DeleteNever talk back to your elders, your betters and your intellectual superiors.
That would be, on all counts, me, Smirkie.
In fact, it includes everyone here.
It disturbs the better nature of things.
Shut up.
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DeleteAnd I believe everyone here is your elder, Ash, with the possible exception of Doug S.
Now, there's Sam. Not sure if he is older than you, but I've always thought of him as kind of an aging metrosexual with an old soul and wisdom beyond his years.
Face it, Ash, you will always considered the young one here.
Any new 'young one' that shows up here is quickly driven away by the old farts.
This is a Millennial free zone.
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My God Bill Clinton sounded like death warmed over today.
ReplyDeletePreachy too, the old sinner.
DeleteIt's time for Bill to kick the bucket.
We shouldn't learn from history, even recent history.
ReplyDelete- Quirk
We need a ministry of truth.
Delete-Doug
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DeleteYou shouldn't dwell upon recent history.
You have bigger problems in the here and now.
- Quirk
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Sean Spicer had a good presser today.
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable.
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DeleteWas he reading off a teleprompter?
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No, but the reporters were.
DeleteCould Mysterious Cosmic Light Flashes Be Powering Alien Spacecraft?
ReplyDeleteBy Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | March 9, 2017 04:32pm ET
Bizarre flashes of cosmic light may actually be generated by advanced alien civilizations, as a way to accelerate interstellar spacecraft to tremendous speeds, a new study suggests.
Astronomers have catalogued just 20 or so of these brief, superbright flashes, which are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), since the first one was detected in 2007. FRBs seem to be coming from galaxies billions of light-years away, but what's causing them remains a mystery.
"Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence," study co-author Avi Loeb, a theorist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement Thursday (March 9). "An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking." [5 Bold Claims of Alien Life]
One potential artificial origin, according to the new study, might be a gigantic radio transmitter built by intelligent aliens. So Loeb and lead author Manasvi Lingam, of Harvard University, investigated the feasibility of this possible explanation.
Artist's illustration of a light sail powered by a radio beam (red) generated on the surface of a planet. The leakage from such beams as they sweep across the sky would appear as superbright light flashes known as fast radio bursts, according to a new study.
Artist's illustration of a light sail powered by a radio beam (red) generated on the surface of a planet. The leakage from such beams as they sweep across the sky would appear as superbright light flashes known as fast radio bursts, according to a new study.
Credit: M. Weiss/CfA
The duo calculated that a solar-powered transmitter could indeed beam FRB-like signals across the cosmos — but it would require a sunlight-collecting area twice the size of Earth to generate the necessary power.
And the huge amounts of energy involved wouldn't necessarily melt the structure, as long as it was water-cooled. So, Lingam and Loeb determined, such a gigantic transmitter is technologically feasible (though beyond humanity's current capabilities).
Why would aliens build such a structure? The most plausible explanation, according to the study team, is to blast interstellar spacecraft to incredible speeds. These craft would be equipped with light sails, which harness the momentum imparted by photons, much as regular ships' sails harness the wind. (Humanity has demonstrated light sails in space, and the technology is the backbone of Breakthrough Starshot, a project that aims to send tiny robotic probes to nearby star systems.)
DeleteIndeed, a transmitter capable of generating FRB-like signals could drive an interstellar spacecraft weighing 1 million tons or so, Lingam and Loeb calculated.
"That's big enough to carry living passengers across interstellar or even intergalactic distances," Lingam said in the same statement.
Humanity would catch only fleeting glimpses of the "leakage" from these powerful beams (which would be trained on the spacecraft's sail at all times), because the light source would be moving constantly with respect to Earth, the researchers pointed out.
The duo took things a bit further. Assuming that ET is responsible for most FRBs, and taking into account the estimated number of potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way (about 10 billion), Lingam and Loeb calculated an upper limit for the number of advanced alien civilizations in a galaxy like our own: 10,000.
Lingam and Loeb acknowledge the speculative nature of the study. They aren't claiming that FRBs are indeed caused byaliens; rather, they're saying that this hypothesis is worthy of consideration.
"Science isn't a matter of belief; it's a matter of evidence," Loeb said. "Deciding what’s likely ahead of time limits the possibilities. It's worth putting ideas out there and letting the data be the judge."
The new study has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. You can read it for free on the online preprint site arXiv.org.
http://www.space.com/35996-fast-radio-bursts-powering-alien-spacecraft.html
Gentlemen, the world is a strange place.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSo strange it makes Quirk and Ash seem almost normal.
DeleteI wonder if there are as many dicks out there as there are here.
DeleteQuirk might know.
DeleteQuirk, are there as many dicks out there as there are here ?
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DeleteThe Magic 8 Ball says, "Very possible."
Though they seem to be more concentrated here.
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DeleteThese guys should probably have their eyes checked.
Floaters can be indicative of torn retinas which can be result in those little flash of light that we sometimes see.
I am not saying eye issues are the cause of those visible flashes of light, rather I'm saying 'this hypothesis is worthy of consideration' and more down to earth than suggesting alien FRB's are the cause.
[Question: Is space.com the outfit that bought out the now defunct Weird Tales?]
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DeleteThey aren't claiming that FRBs are indeed caused byaliens; rather, they're saying that this hypothesis is worthy of consideration.
Kind of like Trump's claim that there were 3 - 5 million illegal votes cast for Hillary in the last election.
Wonder how Pence is doing on that commission he was supposed to form.
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DeleteOr, Trump's claim asserted in an interview with Time during the campaign that 42% of the work force was unemployed.
“I saw a chart the other day, our real unemployment – because you have ninety million people that aren’t working,” he said. “Ninety-three million to be exact. If you start adding it up, our real unemployment rate is 42 percent.”
Trump may have seen a chart but he likely misread it.
Still, 'it is a hypothesis (in Trump-world) worthy of investigation.'
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I think Trump wants to force Old Retired folk and Kids into the work force. Somebodies got to go down there to the South West and build the damn wall otherwise he'll have to hire Mexicans to do it.
DeleteWhat nonsense.
DeleteYou are living up to your reputation, I'll say that.
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DeleteStrictly my opinion, but...
- I suspect Trump never had a clue he would ever end up as president. Not sure the surprise was pleasant.
- His prior business practices tell you everything you need to know about the man.
- IMO, he is an empty suit, a con man, who gets by mainly on bluster and coercion.
- He came to D.C. saying he would drain the swamp but had no idea how to do it.
- He knows nothing about issues such as Healthcare so he ends up caving to those who at least project that they know something about it. The flashing objects he has used all his life are now being flashed in front of his eyes by others.
- In Trump world, all he knows are the rich and powerful. He is part of them and it will be there interests that will be served in the end.
- It's easy for a populist to make promises but much harder for him to fulfill them and that's even when he actually wants to. The people who believe in him and his promises will be the ones hurt first and most.
- It's obvious Trump is not organized, everything he does seems ad hoc and reactive.
- His tweets and his pressers are designed to show how much he is accomplishing. It's the curtain drawn to hide the 'wizard' behind.
- Trump is thin-skinned and narcissistic. It's likely much of the next four years will be consumed by tweets about Schwarzenneger's ratings and claims 'that may not be true but about which the hypothesis is worthy of consideration.'
- From the Tao of Quirk
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DeleteAnd that's if we are lucky.
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Trump recently said "Who knew Healthcare could be so complicated?"
DeleteQuirk wrote:
"- In Trump world, all he knows are the rich and powerful. He is part of them and it will be there interests that will be served in the end."
I think Trump always craved knowing the rich and powerful - you could see him sucking up to Obama on their first meet after his election. I'm not convinced he was actually pals with many of the rich and powerful. Trump appears infatuated with the Military folk. He also seems to be doing as they advise - more war.
These guys should probably have their eyes checked.
ReplyDeleteWhy ?
The light flashes were captured by a space telescope or some other high tech device.
You need to have your noggin checked.
There's a new noggin checking device on the market now too, so you're in luck.
DeleteMade by the Chi-coms, it is available at Wal-Mart.
When you are there just ask any clerk for 'noggin checking device made by Chi-coms'.
DeleteThey will fix you right up.
If you can remember to ask.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteGentlemen, the world is a strange place.
Especially, in the Twilight Zone known as Bob-world.
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There was guy on the radio just after those Muslims got shot up in Quebec a little while ago. He was talking about how you have all these old rural folk (pure laine quebecer's) who pretty well only speak French watching and listening to the debate down in Montreal about banning religious symbols like Hajib's and Burka's and getting all concerned about the HUUUUGE problem of Muslims in Quebec. Sound's like our very own Bob.
DeleteQuirk, I, unlike you, have the good sense to use a space telescope of some kind rather than weak human eyeballs when looking for flashes of light from ET.
DeleteAsh, you prove, yet once again, that you are a bent nail that screams out for straightening by a very heavy hammer.
And do you two, Ash and Quirk, realize you are beginning to comment in tandem, like woman living together and beginning to coordinate their periods ?
You are both pussys.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteWhere the Skeletons are Buried (to be buried)
Trump to build two cemeteries
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DeleteEd Russo of Trump National Golf stated last year the organization obtained approval for a cemetery for Donald Trump and his family members. Mr. Trump has decided at this time that he does not prefer to be buried in Bedminster...[probably a wise choice, at least, until his term as president is up]
...but that doesn’t necessarily mean that his family members won’t be buried there.
Some have considered the last as a thinly veiled threat to Don Jr. and Eric and a mild encouragement for them to keep up the value of Trump's investments in his absence.
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I figured The Donald would have himself quick froze so he could come back later.
Delete
ReplyDeleteReport: George Soros gave $246M to women's protest groups
Billionaire George Soros gave $246 million to groups behind Wednesday's "Day Without a Woman" protest, according to a report by a conservative think tank.
Wednesday is "International Women's Day," and schools in at least four states canceled classes so teachers and staff members could participate in "Day Without a Woman" demonstrations.
While movement organizers say the demonstration is meant to spotlight gender inequality, critics say it is intended to protest President Donald Trump. The strike was created by the same organizers of the historic Women’s March on Washington in January, which drew hundreds of thousands in protest of the president.
A report released Wednesday claims that Soros -- whose net worth is $25.2 billion and who champions liberal causes -- gave millions to groups behind the demonstration.
Of the march's 544 partners, 100 groups received funding from Soros that totaled $246 million, according to the conservative Media Research Center. Such groups included Planned Parenthood, the Center for American Progress and People for the American Way (PFAW), the report claims.
"Those donations represent just a fragment of Soros’ massive global influence," the Media Research Center said on its website. "His Open Society Foundations have given away more than $13 billion to push his globalist, anti-American views."
George didn't get a whole hell of a lot for that investment.
DeleteMost of America laughed at 'em.
As for me, I enjoyed a 'Day Without Women'.
They own most of the USA, have more votes, more girls in college than boys, always whine, always get the kids and alimony in the divorce proceedings, and I'm sick to death of most of 'em.
Dada Le Boeuf, now there's a REAL woman.
DeleteSandra Smith, she of the lusciously wicked sidelong pickerel smile, is even better.
DeleteSlumming -
ReplyDeleteTrump invites Palestinian president Abbas to White House....DRUDGE
President Donald Trump was not aware that his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was being paid to lobby for Turkish interests in the months before the US election, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Thursday.
ReplyDelete"I don't believe that was known," Spicer said when asked whether Trump knew about Flynn's work before he appointed Flynn to his Cabinet.
Nervous from the service?
Delete.
DeleteAs he was crowing about today's good economic numbers, Sean Spicer was reminded about Trump's comments on these 'phony' numbers during the campaign.
According to Spicer, "I talked to the President prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly: 'They may have been phony in past, but it's very real now.'"
Well, there you have it.
:o)
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Coho Return To The Lostine
ReplyDeleteFRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017, 10:44 A.M.
Nez Perce reintroduce coho salmon to Grande Ronde River Basin
Coho smolts are released into the Lostine River of Oregon in a restoration effort led by the Nez Perce Tribe. (Rick Itami)
UPDATED with Associated Press stories at end.
FISHING -- Coho salmon took a big leap toward restoration in the Grande Ronde River basin on Thursday as the Nez Perce Tribe, coordinating with Oregon Fish and Wildlife, released 500,000 coho smolts into the Lostine River.
A ceremony was held to honor the salmon in the northeastern Oregon waters where Chief Joseph hunted and fished as a youth.
The release of fish from a hatchery tanker occurred on the Woody Wolf Ranch east of Wallowa, Oregon, about 600 river miles from the Pacific Ocean, where the fish are programmed swim and mature.
Becky Johnson, director of the tribe's Department of Fisheries Resource Management production division, said coho once thrived in the basin but have been pretty much gone since at least 1986.
"Her division's focus is putting fish in the rivers to rebuild natural spawning runs and to restore harvest opportunities," reports Rick Itami, an angler who was invited to the release and ceremony.
"This new endeavor is co-managed by the Nez Perce Tribe and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife," he said. "The project follows the Tribe's successful reintroduction of coho salmon to the Clearwater River Basin."
In 2014, fish counters tallied 18,098 adult coho passing over Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River as they proceeded upstream into Idaho and Oregon.
That reintroduced run led to the first specific coho fishing season to be set in the history of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. The catch-and-keep coho sportfishing season provided sport fishermen with adult coho ranging from 8 to nearly 12 pounds.
"The coho reintroduction into the Clearwater River Basin provided valuable lessons that hopefully will improve the chances for success in the Grande Ronde River Basin," Itami said. "Johnson says they learned to only use eggs and sperm from adults that returned all the way to the hatcheries and traps to ensure that the offspring would have the hardiness of the strongest fish."
The coho smolts released Thursday are a Lower Columbia strain from the Cascade Hatchery on Tanner Creek, he said, noting, "This is the same hatchery from which coho smolts came from for the initial releases into the Clearwater River Basin."
The goal is to have 600 naturally produced adult coho return to the Lostine River, said Bruce Eddy, ODFW Eastern Region manager.
Depending on various factors, a sportfishing season could be considered in about 10 years, Eddy said.
Art Droncheau, a tribal elder who worked for the Nez Perce Department of Fisheries for 17 years, said he hopes to see coho runs in the Grande Ronde River Basin reach historic levels, which numbered around 20,000 fish in the 19th century.
"He emphasized the cultural and religious significance of the return of the Coho salmon to the Nez Perce Tribe and said that water is the most important factor in the circle of life for the salmon," Itami reports.
Here's an Associated Press story about the event filed after this initial post:...
By GILLIAN FLACCUS/Associated Press
DeleteLOSTINE, Ore. (AP) – These speckled, rose-tinted fish haven’t been spotted in this bubbling river in remote northeastern Oregon for more than 30 years – until now.
But this week, the waters of the Lostine River suddenly came alive as hundreds of the 4- and 5-inch-long juvenile coho salmon shot from a long white hose attached to a water tanker truck and into the frigid current. The fish jumped and splashed and some, momentarily shell-shocked, hid along the bank as onlookers crowded in for photos.
“All of us are speaking from the heart and our gladness for these fish coming back into this river, bringing something that has vanished, but has come back,” Nez Perce tribal elder Charles Axtell said. “We take care of each other and that’s what we are doing – taking care of this fish. We are the circle of life.”
The cohos’ baptism in this far-flung river marks the end of one journey and the beginning of another – an attempt to restore a lost species to a tribe and to a region.
The fish, raised by state wildlife officials in a hatchery outside Portland, were trucked 300 miles inland in nine water tanker trucks equipped with highly sensitive oxygen and temperature sensors and a bubbling system that mimics a river’s current. Now in the Lostine River, they must turn around and swim 600 miles to the Pacific Ocean over the next month and then swim home after a year and a half in the Pacific Ocean feeding and growing.
Biologists expect to see the adult fish returning to this remote corner of the state next fall.
Coho salmon once numbered 20,000 here each year and were part of a rich tribal tradition for the Nez Perce. The tribe was driven from this part of Oregon by the U.S. government more than a century ago, but its members consider the species critical to their history and have fought for years to bring back the reddish, hook-nosed fish.
Numbers of coho declined throughout the 20th century due to pollution, human impacts on their habitat, overfishing and the construction of hydroelectric dams that impeded their progress upstream.
The Nez Perce successfully reintroduced coho salmon into the Clearwater River in Idaho in the mid-1990s. The program was so successful that Idaho permitted non-tribal fishing of coho during one season a few years ago, said Michael Bisbee Jr., coho project leader for the Nez Perce. The tribe hopes to repeat the Idaho project’s success in Oregon.
“If we could get at least 800 total adults back from this release in a couple years here, that would be outstanding,” Bisbee said Thursday, as he awaited the salmons’ arrival. “I’m super excited. The tribe’s been working on getting coho back here into Oregon for a long time and we’re minutes away from making history.”
As the fish waited in the truck under a steady rain, tribal leader Axtell welcomed them with a blessing and a traditional traveling song.
He then rang a bell three times, turned in a circle and watched with emotion as state wildlife workers poured the young fish into the current....
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2017/mar/10/nez-perce-reintroduce-coho-salmon-grande-ronde-basin/
Excellent
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DeleteNumbers of coho declined throughout the 20th century due to pollution, human impacts on their habitat, overfishing and the construction of hydroelectric dams that impeded their progress upstream.
Enjoy while you can. It took 30 years to get them back from the prior pollution . Hopefully, they will be there to fish in 10 years as Trump cuts regulations across the board along with wildlife initiatives. If there's a problem, join the club. All of the great lakes states are worried about the massive cuts in the Great lakes Initiative.
Michigan has been cleaning up after pipeline operators for years.
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It was the Columbia and Snake Rivers dams that did in the coho.
DeleteWhen they were built it was like turning off a light switch.
Fish and Game, etc etc have been working ever since to try and improve things without taking out the dams. Some of it is starting to help, somewhat.
But it's the dams that are the real culprit.
Bob Your Answer Man is in favor of taking out the lower Snake River dams and building 4 nuclear power stations in their place to make up for the lost power, which is a must.
Still thinking about the ones on the upper Columbia.
Oddly enough, popular initiative, student groups, the Greens, fishermen etc almost succeeded in getting enough support to remove the 4 lower Snake River dams something over a decade ago.
Came close. Army Corps of Engineers was even drawing up plans.
The fight continues.....
All this cheap electricity we got around here is a wonderful thing.
DeleteYou go down to Las Vegas and turn on your home air conditioner (an absolute must down there) and you will FEEL your banking account draining away....
And by the way, even the Nez Perce Indians love the electricity. They don't want to go back to living by the light of the moon at night, and cooking over an open fire.
DeleteAnd, they love their 4x4 pickup trucks too, just like us !!
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Delete... just like us !!
:o)
You are clueless.
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The week ends with the US Media, Democratic Party leaders and Deep State leakers in the intelligence agencies in a quandary over how to continue blaming Russia for hacking the election, blowing out Hillary and electing Trump, all thanks to Wikileaks.
ReplyDeleteMore is brewing. Will advise.
The Sunni Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has boasted that key U.S. Middle East ally Saudi Arabia is the top provider of terrorists for the jihadist group in Iraq, reports Fox News, citing Iraqi military sources.
ReplyDeleteSunni Saudi Arabia shares an estimated 500-mile-long border with war-ravaged Iraq.
Nevertheless, Fox News reports that the Saudi jihadists crossed into Iraq over the border the country shares with both Turkey and Syria.
The news outlet learned from unnamed Iraqi intelligence sources that jihadist from the Saudi kingdom comprise nearly one-third (up to 30 percent) of all ISIS terrorists in Iraq, adding that “Saudis comprise the largest single contingent of ISIS fighters, with Russian Chechens making up the second-largest contingent.”
Speaking to the news outlet on condition of anonymity, a high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer said, “The Saudi presence in ISIS is very large. What we have left are mainly Iraqis and Saudis.”
“The Saudis make up a large number of suicide bombers, as they already have the ground work of radicalization installed in their minds from radical sheikhs in Saudi [Arabia]. And we’ve caught important ISIS commanders,” he added.
Fox News points out that it has seen various ISIS-linked photographs and documents showing identification and credit cards of Saudi terrorists.
Maxine Waters thinks President Trump should be impeached over golden showers
ReplyDeleteThursday, March 9, 2017
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters believes that the infamous golden shower claims regarding Donald Trump that were published by BuzzFeed as part of an unverified Russian dossier are true and should lead to the president’s impeachment. She made the declaration during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC.
“I think it should be taken a look at,” Waters said. “I think they should really read it, understand it, analyze it and determine what’s fact and what may not be fact… We already know that the part about the coverage that they have on him with sex actions is supposed to be true. They’ve said it that is absolutely true.”
“I am saying the investigations must be done,” Waters responded. “I do think that impeachment will be necessary.”
Waters it an outspoken critic of President Trump: the California lawmaker previously called POTUS “not normal” when explaining why she skipped out on his recent address to Congress. “He does not deserve to be honored,” she told MSNBC at the time.
http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/the-wrap/article/Maxine-Waters-Thinks-President-Trump-Should-Be-10990060.php
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DeleteMuckrakers like this are how you know urine power, PEEOTUS.
#trumpLEAKS#goldenshower
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