| Rockets were launched at the US Embassy in Baghdad for the second night in a row Posted: 05 Jan 2020 02:08 PM PST  US entities have been increasingly under fire in recent weeks and the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani stoked fiery responses from Iraq and Iran.
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| Slain Hubby Claimed Doomsday Mom Threatened to Kill Him Posted: 04 Jan 2020 03:48 PM PST  Lori Vallow, the mother of two Idaho children who have vanished, allegedly threatened to kill her estranged husband five months before he was murdered, according to divorce documents.Charles Vallow said in the papers that Lori was obsessed with doomsday and near-death scenarios and told him in January that she was a "translated being who cannot taste death sent by god to lead the 144,000 into the Millennium."By July, Charles Vallow was dead—allegedly shot by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, who himself died of unknown causes on Dec. 12. A few months later, Lori married Chad Daybell, a doomsday writer whose own wife had died weeks earlier.The newlyweds left Idaho, police said, after investigators began inquiring about the whereabouts of Lori's minor children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and adopted 7-year-old Joshua "J.J." Vallow.Doomsday Writer's Friend Says He Prophesied Wife's Mysterious DeathThe children have not been seen since October and Rexburg, Idaho, police said last week they are believed to be in serious danger. Daybell and Vallow are not cooperating with police and the FBI.According to local news outlets that obtained the divorce papers, Charles Vallow filed a divorce petition last February seeking sole custody of J.J. and painting a disturbing portrait of Lori, referred to as "mother" in the documents."Mother believes that she is receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the Book of Revelations," the petition read.Lori allegedly told Charles that if he got in the way "of her mission she would murder him" and that she "had an angel there to help her dispose of the body."Charles' sister, Kay Woodcock, says she talked to her brother throughout this time and described him as "fearful.""He was sleeping with one eye open," Woodcock told NBC affiliate 12 News. "People I've spoken with said she would just be doing something and say, 'Well, Charles just has to go.'"Idaho Cops Blast Doomsday Parents of Missing KidsCharles obtained an order of protection and unsuccessfully tried to get authorities to put a 72-hour mental health hold on Lori—who had allegedly cleaned $35,000 out of their bank account.Charles' older son helped him move from Chandler, Arizona, to Texas. In July, he went back to Arizona to pick up J.J. and things turned ugly. Cox allegedly shot him dead in what police deemed a case of self-defense.The older son told Fox 10 that his dad would never have gotten violent."I knew my dad was the most passive person. He hated arguing with people. He'd never been in a fight, he was not an aggressive person in any way. I don't believe it at all," he told the TV station.The deaths of both Cox and Charles Vallow are under investigation—along with the death of Chad Daybell's first wife, Tammy.After she was found dead at their Idaho home in July, he declined an autopsy and the cause of death was listed as natural. Then he married Lori, whom he apparently met through a doomsday site called Preparing a People.Cops in Missing Siblings Case Search Doomsday Writer's HomeAfter J.J. and Tylee were reported missing by extended family, authorities exhumed Tammy's body. The results of the autopsy have not yet been made public, but police said Friday that they had developed probable cause to search the Daybell home for evidence related to her death and the disappearance of the kids."I'm terrified for JJ. I'm terrified for Tylee," Charles' older son told Fox 10. "I'm terrified for everyone surrounding them and their safety. I'm terrified for my family's safety."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Japan says Ghosn's escape inexcusable, orders investigation Posted: 04 Jan 2020 08:24 PM PST  Japan's justice minister on Sunday called the flight of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn as he awaited trial on financial misconduct charges inexcusable and vowed to beef up immigration checks. Justice Minister Masako Mori said she had ordered an investigation after Ghosn issued a statement a few days ago saying he was in Lebanon.
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| Note To Iran: Want to Start World War III? Sink a U.S. Navy Carrier Posted: 04 Jan 2020 08:00 PM PST  Tehran: Don't do it.
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| Maduro accused of parliamentary ‘coup’ after replacing Guaidó as president of assembly Posted: 05 Jan 2020 04:04 PM PST  Troops blocked presidential rival from entering the parliament building in Venezuela's capital, CaracasVenezuela's opposition has accused president Nicolás Maduro of masterminding an illegal parliamentary "coup" after an apparent bid to decapitate the challenge from his presidential rival Juan Guaidó by replacing him as head of the country's opposition-controlled parliament.Guaidó shot to international prominence last January after he was elected president of Venezuela's national assembly and used that position to declare himself the country's legitimate interim leader.On Sunday Guaidó had hoped to extend his leadership of the anti-Maduro movement by being re-elected as the assembly's president for another year.But there were scenes of chaos and confusion as security forces and riot troops blocked opposition lawmakers and journalists from entering the parliament building in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.> The moment Juan Guaidó tries to jump a fence to get inside the parliament as the PSUV's 'opposition' candidate Luis Parra is illegally sworn in as president of the National Assembly pic.twitter.com/4p6lgO3qBf> > — Germania Rodriguez Poleo (@iamGermania) January 5, 2020Dramatic video footage showed Guaidó attempting to climb over a fence into the assembly's grounds but being repelled by members of Maduro's Bolivarian National Guard.After a lengthy stand-off, Luis Parra – nominally an opposition politician who many suspect has been co-opted by Maduro – declared himself the assembly's new president with support from pro-Maduro members, while many Guaidó backers remained outside.The move sparked outrage among Guaidó supporters in and outside Venezuela. At an improvised session in the headquarters of a local newspaper, pro-Guaidó lawmakers re-elected him as national assembly president, meaning that it – like Venezuela – now had two rival leaders."Today, once again, we have defeated the dictatorship," Guaidó told supporters. "We have resoundingly defeated the dictatorship's intentions."The United States criticised the Maduro regime's move, saying it would not recognize what it called a desperate and phoney "farce" that went "completely against the will of the people", adding: "Democracy cannot be intimidated."A European Union spokesperson said the day's events were unacceptable and represented "a new step in the deterioration of the Venezuelan crisis". "As a consequence, the EU continues to recognise Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of the national assembly," the EU added.The foreign minister of Brazil's far-right government, Ernesto Araújo, accused Maduro of attempting to forcefully prevent Guaidó's re-election, tweeting: "Brazil will not recognize any outcome of this violence and this affront to democracy."But there was also criticism from Argentina's new left-wing government. "Forcibly preventing the functioning of the national assembly means condemning oneself to international isolation," tweeted its new foreign minister, Felipe Solá.The move appeared designed to further weaken Guaidó, who recently vowed 2020 would be Venezuela's "year of freedom" despite the growing impression that his campaign against Maduro is faltering.More than 50 governments including the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil recognized Guaidó as Venezuela's president, based on his leadership of the assembly and suspicions Maduro had stolen the 2018 presidential election.Despite that backing, mass street protests, and at least two attempts to spark military uprisings against Maduro, Guaidó has failed to topple Hugo Chávez's authoritarian heir, who still enjoys support from China and Russia.In a recent interview with El País, Guaidó denied his movement had failed and compared himself to a jogger entering "the final lap" of the quest for political change.In a televised speech on Sunday afternoon, Maduro recognized Parra's leadership and attacked Guaidó as a "puppet of North American imperialism".But Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at the Chatham House thinktank, said Maduro's "brutal and ham-fisted" move could backfire by "re-legitimizing" Guaidó as a "democratic martyr".Guaidó's international supporters would remain loyal, even if he did not retain his position at the head of the national assembly. "They won't abandon him," Sabatini predicted.
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| French police shoot and wound knifeman shouting 'Allahu akbar' in Metz Posted: 05 Jan 2020 09:25 AM PST ![French police shoot and wound knifeman shouting 'Allahu akbar' in Metz]( "French police shoot and wound knifeman shouting 'Allahu akbar' in Metz") French police on Sunday shot and wounded a man who had rushed toward a group of policemen with a knife shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) in the eastern city of Metz, local officials said. The incident at Metz came just two days after a man went on a knife rampage in the suburb of Villejuif just outside Paris on Jan. 3, killing one person and wounding two. The Metz local public prosecutor's office said it was in contact with the French anti-terrorism prosecutor's department over the incident, while French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner added he was monitoring the situation closely.
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| Dozens brutally attacked at Delhi university after opposing 'anti-Muslim' citizenship law Posted: 05 Jan 2020 12:12 PM PST  Around 200 masked men from a right-wing Hindu nationalist group stormed a university in Delhi tonight, attacking terrified students and their professors with wooden sticks and stones. The student body at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has vocally opposed a new 'anti-Muslim' citizenship law ever since it was introduced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on December 11. The exact number of the injured is unknown but students said around 20 people were seriously injured and a further 50 nursing minor wounds. Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said 15 students from JNU had been admitted with severe head injuries inflicted by the sticks and sharp weapons. Two students, including the President of the Student Union, are said to be in serious condition. Up to 800 students are said to remain within the university campus, either barricading themselves within their rooms or hiding out in the open in bushes and trees. The mob is believed to belong to a right-wing Hindu nationalist group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) which is affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Police have been accused of not only turning a blind-eye by failing to stop the ABVP attackers but also beating students on campus themselves. "There is something deeply sickening about a government that allows and encourages such violence to be inflicted on their own children," tweeted Priyanka Gandhi, the leader of the Congress opposition party. The JNU students were holding a peace march at 6pm when the mob entered their campus, according to those who escaped. Protests have erupted across India since the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act Credit: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters Allegedly, professors from the university and members of the student union attempted to remonstrate with the mob and appeal for calm but were badly beaten. The ABVP members then roamed around the JNU campus attacking students at will. "We are totally helpless and terrified," one PhD student who had barricaded himself in his room in Sabarmati halls told the Telegraph. "A lot of female students were targeted and they have been beaten very badly," said another in Jhelum halls. A second year student described the campus as 'apocalyptic' and said masked men had run around beating female students and throwing rocks at them. The ABVP is believed to be angry that JNU students had held protests to object to the Citizenship Amendment Act which will offer offer citizenship to followers of six religions – including Christians, Sikhs and Hindus – from neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, but not Muslims. A group of female students who managed to escape while the attack was underway said the mob remained at large and they feared further attacks would take place. Protests have erupted across India since the introduction of the legislation with activists arguing it is the latest in a string of actions taken by the Modi Government against Muslims. At least 26 people have died in nationwide demonstrations while thousands more have been detained.
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| Israeli army to resume women tank crew trials Posted: 05 Jan 2020 08:51 AM PST  The Israeli army announced Sunday it would resume a pilot programme to train all-female tank crews, countering recent reports it had decided to shelve the plan. Following discussions, Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi decided "to progress to the next level in the process of examining the integration of female tank crew members in border defence missions," an army statement read. The pilot programme began in 2017 by training 10 women crew members and two tank commanders, who were returned to their original units after the trial.
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| 'Scale of the disaster is enormous': Bush fires, politics intensify as Australia burns Posted: 05 Jan 2020 01:59 PM PST  Scott Morrison, prime minister of Australia, unveiled a two-year plan Sunday aimed at recovering from the historic blazes that have been ravaging the nation.
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| US cities are ramping up security following the Trump-ordered airstrike that killed a top Iranian commander Posted: 04 Jan 2020 09:02 AM PST  The killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani sparked concerns over the safety of residents and visitors of US cities and anti-war protests.
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| Mount Holyoke Art Professor Tried to Gouge Out Eyes of Woman She Loved: Cops Posted: 05 Jan 2020 09:24 AM PST  Rie Hachiyanagi, a 48-year-old art professor and performance artist, was arraigned on Friday for an alleged attack on Christmas Eve morning on a female professor in her 60s she had fallen in love with but who apparently did not share the sentiment.The Mount Holyoke College prof, who has worked at the prestigious college since 2004, is accused of using a decorative rock, a fire poker and garden shears to try to kill an unnamed faculty member who used trickery to stop the attack, by telling Hachiyanagi she returned her amorous feelings, according to court documents. The victim suffered "multiple broken bones in the nose and eye area and numerous lacerations and puncture wounds on the head and face," according to a police report by State Trooper Geraldine L. Bresnahan presented at the court hearing. Investigators say Hachiyanagi called 911 after midnight Dec. 24 to report that the other professor was "lying in a pool of blood and barely breathing" inside the victim's home in Leverett, Mass. Hachiyanagi explained to officers that her own blood-drenched clothing was from helping–not hurting–the victim, who, in front of investigators, confirmed the story. But when the victim was in the ambulance en route to the hospital, she said that Prof. Hachiyanagi was actually the attacker, and police immediately took her into custody, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.The victim then explained to investigators that Hachiyanagi showed up at her home uninvited late Dec. 23 to "talk about her feelings," telling the victim that "she loved her for many years" and assumed that she was aware of her feelings. When the victim explained that the feelings were not mutual, Hachiyanagi allegedly started attacking her with what she could reach: decorative rocks, a fireplace poker, and gardening shears. The victim then tried to calm Hachiyanagi by telling her that she had reconsidered, and that indeed she did feel something. Convinced that there was hope for what she thought was unrequited love, Hachiyanagi reportedly stopped the attack and the two women hatched a plan to tell police that someone else had carried out the brutal beating, according to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office.Hachiyanagi then told police that she had a history of concussions and memory loss and thus did not remember anything after 6 p.m. the night of Dec. 23. Police say they found the victim's keys, glasses and a mobile phone in her possession when they arrested her. Hachiyanagi now faces charges of armed assault with attempt to murder a person over the age of 60, three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, mayhem, and armed assault in a dwelling. She denies wrongdoing. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran general steps out of shadows to lead proxies Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:12 AM PST  A new Iranian general has stepped out of the shadows to lead the country's expeditionary Quds Force, becoming responsible for Tehran's proxies as the Islamic Republic threatens the United States with "harsh revenge" for killing its previous head, Qassem Soleimani.
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| What Iran and the Movie Top Gun Have in Common: They Both Use F-14 Tomcats Posted: 05 Jan 2020 12:49 AM PST  Yes, sold to Iran.
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| Russian government to 'use the advantages' of climate change Posted: 05 Jan 2020 01:07 PM PST  Russia is planning to "use the advantages" of warmer temperatures brought about by climate change, according to a document published by the government at the weekend. The report notes increased opportunities for navigation and trade as ice melts in the Arctic, an area where Russia has also boosted its military presence in recent years. The two-year, "first stage" plan lists other advantages including decreased spending on heating over the winter and the possibility of new areas available for farming. But the 30-point paper also focuses on the risks of climate change and the dangers it poses to public health, animal environments and the Russian permafrost. "The consequences of (climate change) are having a significant and increasing impact on the economic and social development of the country, its conditions for life and people's health," according to the document signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Russia is warming on average 2.5 times quicker than the rest of the planet, the report said, adding that the country's industry, transport and agriculture would have to adapt to these changes. The government said it would plan for crisis scenarios including evacuations in the case of natural disasters, and make sure climate change was taught in schools. The publication comes after Moscow experienced its warmest December on record, with authorities dumping artificial snow in Red Square ahead of New Year celebrations. Normally the capital spends millions of pounds a year and employs tens of thousands of people to keep roads and pavements free of snow. President Vladimir Putin has questioned the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activity, saying at a recent press conference that "nobody knows the origins of global climate change". But he said that rising temperatures could have "very serious" consequences from Russia. Moscow has formally adopted the Paris climate accord and criticised the US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the deal
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| Japan orders tighter immigration procedures after Ghosn flees country Posted: 04 Jan 2020 08:16 PM PST  Japan on Sunday said it would tighten immigration measures after former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn fled the country while on bail, its first official response to an astonishing escape that has transformed the executive into an international fugitive. Authorities have remained quiet after Ghosn revealed on Tuesday that he had fled to his childhood home of Lebanon to escape a "rigged" justice system in Japan. All government offices and most businesses in Japan have been shut for the new year holidays.
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| Red skies are blanketing southeast Australia as hundreds of fires ravage the country Posted: 05 Jan 2020 12:12 PM PST  Australia's devastating fires have reached an unprecedented peak in the first few days of January, according to officials.
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| Qassem Soleimani Is Dead: What You Need To Know And What Happens Next Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:20 AM PST  Soleimani and Muhandis were targets of opportunity, and Trump took the decision to strike at them. It would be foolish, however, to ignore there will be an aftermath and many second and third-order effects.
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| Kentucky attorney general asks FBI to investigate Bevin's pardons Posted: 04 Jan 2020 07:14 PM PST  The investigation will focus on the pardon of Patrick Baker, who was convicted of reckless homicide. Baker's family raised more than $20,000 for the Bevin campaign.
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| US government agency website crashes amid panic over military draft Posted: 04 Jan 2020 01:29 PM PST  Selective Service System said on Twitter its website was receiving high traffic volume 'due to the spread of misinformation' * Fonda and Ellsberg protest against escalating conflict with IranIn the aftermath of the US drone strike that killed the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad, the phrase "World War III" began trending on social media.More startlingly, a US government agency which registers young men for a potential military draft saw its website crash."Due to the spread of misinformation," the Selective Service System (SSS) tweeted on Friday, "our website is experiencing high traffic volumes at this time … We appreciate your patience."It added that it was "conducting business as usual" and emphasised that a return to the draft is not imminent: "In the event that a national emergency necessitates a draft, Congress and the president would need to pass official legislation."On Saturday, as Twitter panic subsided, the SSS website was up and running, if slowly.The US first drafted soldiers during the civil war in the 1860s, prompting deadly, racist riots. A hundred years later, opposition to conscription fuelled protests against the Vietnam war. There has been no draft since 1973."I think it's fair to say that the draft has never been wildly popular," Jennifer Mittelstadt, a history professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told the New York Times.Experts including Mittelstadt, however, have said reinstating the draft might in fact help build a more inclusive society.Should the US and Iran go to war, America's fighting will be done by its volunteer military, about 1.3 million strong and dominated in the enlisted ranks by recruits from working-class and minority groups.Writing for the Guardian in 2014, the long-serving New York Democratic congressman Charles Rangel said: "The same familiar faces have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. A more inclusive military draft … would compel everyone in the nation to stop and rethink about who we send to wars, how we fight – and why we fight them at all."All American men aged 18 to 25 are required by law to register with the SSS. Many do so when applying for a driver's license or applying for student loans. Those who do not register cannot receive federal financial aid or work for the federal government.The agency says it has registered 91% of eligible men. Despite playing an increasing role in the US military and filling combat roles, women are not required to register.A return to the draft may remain unlikely, but the SSS says it is prepared to "rapidly provide personnel in a fair and equitable manner while managing an alternative service program for conscientious objectors".According to the agency's website: "Current plans are frequently tested, evaluated, and revised as necessary."If implemented, they will guide the Selective Service System in making a smooth transition from current reduced readiness levels to full conscription within six months."
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| Libya violence: 28 people killed in attack on military school in Tripoli Posted: 04 Jan 2020 11:19 PM PST  At least 28 people were killed in an attack on a military academy in the Libyan capital on Saturday, the government said. Tripoli, which is under the control of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), is facing an offensive by military commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) that began in April. There has been an increase in airstrikes and shelling around Tripoli in recent weeks, with fears that fighting could escalate further after Turkey's parliament voted to allow a troop deployment in support of the GNA. Forces allied with the GNA described Saturday's attack on the military camp at Al-Hadhba as "an aerial bombing" launched by their eastern rivals. An LNA spokesman denied involvement. Hamid bin Omar, GNA's Health Minister, told Reuters that the number of dead and wounded was still rising. A spokesman for Tripoli's ambulance service said that some body parts could not be immediately counted by forensic experts. Earlier, the ambulance service appealed for a temporary ceasefire to allow its members to retrieve the bodies of five civilians killed on As Sidra Road, an area south of central Tripoli, and evacuate families living in there. Emergency teams withdrew after coming under fire while trying to access the area on Saturday, it added. An increase in airstrikes and shelling in and around Tripoli has caused the deaths of at least 11 civilians since early December and shut down health facilities and schools, the UN mission in Libya said on Friday. Rockets and shelling also shut down Tripoli's only functioning airport on Friday.
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| Australia begins damage assessment amid temporary respite from bushfires Posted: 04 Jan 2020 03:06 PM PST  Australian authorities began assessing the damage on Sunday from heatwave-spurred bushfires that swept through two states a day earlier, as cooler conditions provided a temporary respite from blazes that have scarred the country's east coast for weeks. "It certainly is a welcome reprieve, it is psychological relief if nothing else," New South Wales (NSW) state Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said in an afternoon briefing on the situation. Tens of thousands of homes in both NSW and Victoria states were without power on Sunday as a large-scale military and police effort continued to provide supplies and evacuate thousands of people who have been trapped for days in coastal towns by the fires.
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| Netanyahu calls Israel 'nuclear power' in apparent stumble Posted: 05 Jan 2020 07:24 AM PST  In an apparent verbal stumble on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Israel as a "nuclear power" before correcting himself.
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| Will Qassem Soleimani’s Death Activate Sleeper Cells in America? Posted: 05 Jan 2020 01:55 AM PST  For more than a decade, Hezbollah and therefore Iran have maintained "sleeper agents" in America who await only a coded signal to commit mass murder and wreak maximum chaos."There would be certain scenarios that would require action or conduct by those who belonged to the cell," one of three sleeper agents arrested by the FBI since 2017 is quoted saying in court papers. The sleeper agent, Ali Kourani, told the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force that he would have expected to be activated if Iran and the United States went to war. "The unit is Iranian controlled," Kourani said.Other precipitating events would include major U.S. military action against Hezbollah or its Iranian overseers."In those scenarios the sleeper cell would also be triggered into action," Kourani said.That would certainly seem to include an airstrike killing Iran's most prominent military figure, General Qassem Soleimani. In the aftermath of that startling action, a senior U.S. intelligence official said that if the Iranians remain rational they will refrain from mounting an attack on the American homeland for fear of sparking a war they cannot possibly win. He noted in the next breath that emotions are no doubt running high in Tehran."If you remove the rational thinking…" he said.The official figured that Kourani and a second sleeper agent named Samer El Debek had almost certainly been replaced after they were arrested on the same day in different cities in 2017. The third, Alexei Saab, who was arrested in July of 2019, had already been in place for years but was unaware of the other two."There could be sleeper cells all over the place," the official said.And they are presumably under orders, just as Kourani was in the Bronx, El Debek was in Dearborn, Michigan, and Saab was in Morristown, New Jersey. The three were instructed to be as innocuous as the spam email they would receive carrying a one-word coded command from Hezbollah and its ally or front, the Islamic Jihad Organization or IJO."These sleepers were tasked to maintain ostensibly normal lives," the FBI says in court papers. "But could be activated and tasked with conducting IJO operations."Kourani was sentenced last month to 40 years in prison for providing material support to a terrorist organization. "As a sophisticated, well-trained IJO operative positioned under deep cover in the United States, the defendant was part of an emerging threat posed by the IJO in the Americas region, about which little was known publicly before the FBI arrested the defendant and El Debek on the same day in 2017," prosecutors said in the sentencing memorandum, referring to Hezbollah's Islamic Jihad Organization.Another section of the memorandum has taken on particular significance in the aftermath of the Soleimani hit: "The IJO's operations in the United States are a part of Iran's proxy network, and Iran has backed this threat by funding Hizballah in annual amounts ranging between $200 million and $800 million per year... Iran's support of Hizballah results in the 'more severe' risks attendant to 'state sponsored terrorism,' as described at the trial, which in this context leads to increased focus on targeting nodes of critical infrastructure in attacks intended to cripple cities."The memorandum notes that the targets Kourani surveilled included two federal facilities with child-care centers."He has expressed no remorse to date, and argues repeatedly that he 'harmed no one,'" prosecutors note. "It is safe to say that the parents of small children who spend their days at targets surveilled by the defendant on behalf of the IJO disagree."El Debek, who has pleaded guilty and appears to be cooperating, is said in court papers to have admitted conducting surveillance at numerous possible targets. That included one outside the U.S., the Panama Canal."El Debek said Hizballah asked him to identify areas of weakness and construction at the Canal, and provide information about Canal security and how close someone could get to a ship," the FBI says. "In doing so, he stated, he took a lot of photographs of the Canal, which he later provided to the IJO."But there were also numerous targets in New York, including a federal building that has a "large daycare facility" with "exterior . . . playgrounds." The FBI notes that at one point, "The defendant, updated his Facebook status with a post in Arabic, which translated reads: 'Do not make peace or share food with those who killed your people. Irrigate the land with blood and quench the thirst of your forefathers until their bones [their remains] talk with you.'"Saab pleaded not guilty after his arrest this summer, but is said in court papers to have told the FBI about his intelligence gathering efforts at numerous possible targets, these in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and other cities. "Saab focused on structural weaknesses of the locations he surveilled to determine how a future attack could cause the most destruction-i.e., he sought to learn how to maximize damage if the IJO later bombed a location," court papers say. "Among other information, SAAB focused on the materials used to construct a particular target, how close in proximity one could get to a target, and site weaknesses or 'soft spots' that the IJO could exploit if it attacked a location in the future."The papers add, "Saab understood that the information he provided to the IJO would be used to calculate the size of a bomb needed to target a particular structure and the ideal location in which to place explosive devices to maximize damage. For example, SAAB provided information on how to target bridges to best allow the IJO to 'disable' them and to prevent them from being used. To that end, SAAB looked for weak points in the bridge's structure and the photographs he took would focus on structural details such as the main joints, the towers, and the cables."The papers further report that in 2004, Saab was summoned to Lebanon and taken to a safe house to meet with a handler."There, [the handler] told Saab to prepare a detailed guide to New York City. Over the course of the following two days, Saab wrote an approximately seven to 10 page report (the "Report') on New York City. The first page of the Report was a hand-drawn map with specific locations annotated by number. The second page of the Report had a legend, which indicated how the numbers corresponded to locations. The rest of the Report had a detailed summary of each location."Among the locations in the Report were: "Federal, state, and local government buildings, including 26 Federal Plaza...United Nations headquarters...The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island...Rockefeller Center...Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange..Times Square...The Empire State Building..Herald Square and Macy's in Midtown...Local airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport...Local tunnels and bridges, including the Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Brooklyn Bridge, George Washington Bridge, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, and Goethals Bridge."The papers further note, "Saab included in the Report such details as directions to the local airports, the number of terminals at the local airports, and which terminals were for international or domestic travel."The FBI adds that Saab's training in explosives ranged from a "viable victim-actuated device, designed to detonate when the briefcase was lifted off the surface by a potential victim" to "a viable improvised mortar device, meaning it is command initiated and able to detonate on a time delay." Some on-the-job assassination training in Lebanon began when an instructor told him to steal a particular Mercedes.The Hezbollah Sleeper Agent Busted for Black Ops in America"Saab was given a key that appeared to be a universal key capable of accessing multiple cars, and then proceeded to steal the Mercedes."The instructor drove off in the Mercedes and later returned to pick up Saab. The instructor told Saab to reach under the passenger seat. "Saab removed a plastic bag containing a silver firearm with an attached silencer. Saab and [the instructor] then drove approximately 10 minutes to a field outside of Beirut. A small white van was parked in the field...[The instructor] then instructed Saab to walk up to the passenger's side of the Van and shoot the person inside 'twice in the belly' and 'once in the head'...Saab pointed his firearm at the van's driver. The Driver cried out twice, in sum and substance, that it 'wasn't him' and raised his hands in front of his face. Saab then pulled the trigger twice, but the gun did not fire. [The instructor] waved Saab to get back into the Mercedes, and they fled the scene. Saab later came to believe that the Driver was a suspected Israeli spy."Saab was also trained in the best way to take photos of targets back in America without raising suspicion. "For photographs, Saab learned to position an unrelated subject as the focus point of the picture, with the true object of surveillance in the background," court papers say. "Saab would also often pose people in front of the intended objects of his surveillance, to provide perspective and shield his true purpose from law enforcement."Saab is scheduled to go on trial in Manhattan federal court in February 2021. El Debek is expected to be among the witnesses against him. El Debek will likely testify about his own Hezbollah assignments, which included flying to Bangkok under an extreme cover."The handler told El Debek to say he was looking for sex in Thailand," the court papers say. Debek did hire a sex worker, but he used her solely to go ahead of him into a house so he could see if it was under surveillance. He then retrieved a stash of ammonium nitrate, a prime ingredient for explosives that another operative had abandoned. The stuff was in first-aid ice packs produced by a company in Guangzhou, China, that Kourani had once been dispatched to visit. El Debek will also likely testify about his own explosives training, which included manufacturing a bomb similar to the device one of his cousins used to kill seven aboard an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2012.That was one of several attacks the IJO staged in retaliation for the killing of its leader and founder, Imad Mughniyeh, in a February 2008 joint American and Israeli operation in Syria. An earlier attack on Mughniyeh had been called off by the Americans because he was with Soleimani.Now that we have gone ahead and also killed Soleimani, the question is whether IJO will activate the sleeper agents it almost certainly still has out there in the homeland."They didn't get out of the targeting business," the senior intelligence official told The Daily Beast. IJO already has that New York Guide Book, complete with an annotated hand drawn map identifying what Saab says it termed the "hot spots" to hit.Trump Told Mar-a-Lago Pals to Expect 'Big' Iran Action 'Soon'Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Russia's Largest Nuclear Bomb Was Too Big (And Failed) Posted: 05 Jan 2020 12:06 AM PST  This is why you don't skip steps when it comes to nukes.
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| Boeing 737 Max investigation after several plane crashes revealed additional concerns with wiring and engines Posted: 05 Jan 2020 01:51 PM PST  Software played a role in two deadly crashes that grounded the Boeing 737 Max, but the investigation also unearthed concerns with wiring and engines.
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| Solidarity march against anti-Semitism, acts of hate Posted: 05 Jan 2020 11:20 AM PST  Throngs of demonstrators joined by elected officials walked solemnly across the Brooklyn Bridge in a solidarity march Sunday against anti-Semitism and all acts of hate. The "No Hate, No Fear" march was organized by New York's Jewish community in the wake of recent anti-Semitic attacks, including a knife attack at a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City that left five people wounded and a fatal shootout at a kosher grocery in Jersey City, New Jersey. "It is wonderful that we are doing this and sad that we still have to do it," said Claudia Stoller, 31, of Manhattan.
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| Trump's lawless thuggery is corrupting justice in America Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  Intimidating whistleblowers, politicizing law enforcement, protecting rogue military officers and criminal sheriffs – the pattern is depressingly clear As the Senate moves to an impeachment trial and America slouches into this election year, the rule of law is center stage.Yet Donald Trump is substituting lawless thuggery for impartial justice.The biggest immediate news is the president's killing of Qassem Suleimani. The act brings America to the brink of an illegal war with Iran without any congressional approval, in direct violation of Congress's war-making authority under the constitution.But other presidents have disregarded Congress's war-making power, too. What makes Trump unique is the overall pattern. Almost wherever you look, he has shown utter disdain for law. Consider Trump's outing of the person who blew the whistle on his phone call to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy – tweeting just after Christmas a link to a Washington Examiner article headlined with the presumed whistleblower's name, then retweeting a supporter who named the presumed whistleblower.Even before outing the whistleblower, Trump had whipped his followers into a lather by calling the whistleblower a "spy", guilty of "treason".The outing not only imperils the whistleblower's safety. It violates the purpose of the Whistleblower Act, which is to protect people who alert authorities that government officials are violating the law.It's on this deeper level that Trump's lawlessness is most corrosive. From now on, anyone aware of illegality on the part of a government official, including a president, will think twice before sounding the alarm.Trump's intrusion into the navy's prosecution of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher on war crimes has the same corrosive effect.Trump not only stopped the navy from possibly giving Gallagher a less-than-honorable discharge. Trump also upended the military code of justice, designed for the military to handle legal violations in its ranks, including war crimes.Gallagher's Navy Seal accusers were themselves whistleblowers who broke the Seal's code of silence in order to stop a rogue chief. Now they face recrimination from within the ranks. From now on, any soldier who witnesses a superior officer committing possible war crimes will be more reluctant to report them.Similarly, Trump's ongoing intrusions into the justice department (DoJ) and the FBI aren't just efforts to derail investigations of his wrongdoing. They're attacks on the system of impartial justice itself.Trump's attorney general, William Barr, is supposed to be responsible to the American people. Instead he's become Trump's advocate. Barr even advised the White House not to turn over the whistleblower complaint to Congress.After misleading the public on the contents of Robert Mueller's report, Barr bowed to Trump's demand that the department look into the origin of the FBI investigation that had led to the Mueller report.And now, after the DoJ's own inspector general has found that the FBI had plenty of evidence to start its Russia inquiry – more than 100 contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russian agents during the 2016 campaign – Barr refuses to be bound by the findings, and has appointed a prosecutor to launch yet another inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation.The deeper systemic corrosion: from now on, attorneys general won't be presumed to be administering impartial justice, and the findings of special counsels and inspectors general will have less finality and legitimacy.Barr is part of Trump's private goon squad, along with Rudy Giuliani, chief enabler Mick Mulvaney and Trump's resident white supremacist, Stephen Miller.Giuliani is using the authority of the presidency to mount a rogue foreign policy designed to keep Trump in power. It's double lawlessness: Giuliani is bending the law and he's accountable to no one.Miller, meanwhile, is waging Trump's ongoing war against people legally seeking asylum in the United States – featuring family separations, caged children and inhumane detention.Miller even got Trump to pardon Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who was ordered by a federal judge to stop detaining people solely on suspicion of their immigration status. Arpaio disregarded the order, which is why he was convicted of criminal contempt of court.From now on, rogue sheriffs will be less constrained.You see the pattern: whistleblowers intimidated, the justice department politicized, findings of special counsels and inspectors general distorted or ignored, foreign policy made by a private citizen unaccountable to anybody, rogue military officers and rogue sheriffs pardoned.Each instance is disturbing on its own. Viewed as a whole, Trump's lawlessness is systematically corrupting justice in the US.Impartial justice is the keystone of a democracy. Even if the Senate fails to remove Trump for impeachable offenses, American voters must do so next November.
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| Ross Perot's Forgotten Mission During the Vietnam War Posted: 05 Jan 2020 05:45 AM PST  50 years ago Ross Perot set out on a mission to Vietnam at the height of the war. What this episode reveals about him and American then.
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| Oklahoma Suspects Murdered Teen as ‘Payback’ for STD: Cops Posted: 05 Jan 2020 02:22 PM PST  Oklahoma prosecutors charged two people on Friday for the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old girl in what is reportedly a case of 'payback' over a sexually transmitted disease. Andrew Hall, 30, and Cheyenne Blalock, 17, were charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Kirstan Patterson, 17, according to court documents. Patterson's mother and stepfather reported the teenager missing on New Year's Day and her body was found hours later near the Spring Creek boat dock on the Neosho River in Mayes County, with a gunshot wound to the head, deputies said. The Mayes County Sheriff's Office arrested Hall and Blalock later that day and they are being held on a $1 million bond. Their next court appearances are set for Jan. 9. How This Cop's Dream About a Murder Reopened a Cold Case"Blalock said that Andrew Hall, her boyfriend, had talked about killing Kirstan before because of a transmission of a sexually transmitted disease and wanted to 'payback,'" a Mayes County Sheriff's Office detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit. Interviews with both Hall and Blalock revealed that Hall had discussed several ways of killing Patterson, according to investigators. Sheriff Mike Reed said the two suspects and the victim all lived in Chouteau and previously knew each other. Blalock and Patterson reportedly attended the same school in the Oklahoma town.Authorities said that Blalock hid under a blanket in the back of Hall's car on New Year's Day when he picked up Patterson and drove to the Spring Creek Recreation Area. Hall allegedly told detectives that Blalock had knives on her and thought she "was only going to physically assault" Patterson, according to the affidavit, and that he complied with her demands because he feared that she would hurt him.Deputies said that both Hall and Blalock claim the other procured a rifle from Hall's truck and shot Patterson in the head. Blalock told detectives that she did not see the shooting but heard two shots, and subsequently touched Patterson's body to confirm she was dead. "Blalock said Hall poured bleach on the body in some effort to destroy evidence, and then Hall moved the body into the water," the affidavit reads. Both suspects reportedly told investigators that Hall hid the rifle under his bed at his Chouteau residence. Mayes County Sheriff's Office Maj. Rod Howell said Blalock and Hall have pointed the blame at one another for the homicide. "Our heart goes out to the family," said Howell. "I've met with them, visited with them in depth, and I just can't understand what they're going through." "I've got kids, and I just couldn't even fathom," he added.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Rumbling Alaska volcano sends ash plume 5 miles into the air Posted: 04 Jan 2020 07:49 AM PST  One of Alaska's most active volcanoes, a towering ice-covered cone in the Aleutian Islands, shot a cloud of ash more than 5 miles (8 km) high on Friday, triggering a warning to aviators and putting on a show that was captured in satellite imagery. The ash burst from Shishaldin Volcano, about 670 miles (1,080 km) southwest of Anchorage, was part of an on-and-off, mostly low-level series of eruptions that began in July with a stream of lava from the crater at the peak of the 9,373-foot-tall (2,869-meter) mountain. The ash plume was spotted by a pilot and was visible in satellite images captured from space.
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| Missiles fired after Iranian general Qassim Soleimani's body paraded through Baghdad Posted: 05 Jan 2020 03:07 AM PST  Donald Trump says killing of Soleimani was to 'stop a war' with Iran What next? The possible targets for Iran's 'crushing revenge' US president ate meatloaf and ice cream as Soleimani was neutralised Revealed: David Miliband called off SAS strike on Soleimani in 2007 Con Coughlin: This shows Iran that it cannot act with impunity A volley of missiles appeared to target the US's embassy and one of its bases in Iraq on Saturday night, sparking fears an Iran-backed militia had begun taking revenge for the killing of its commander and Iran's top general. A Katusya rocket struck inside the Green Zone close to the American mission in Baghdad, followed minutes later by a two rockets 40 miles away on al-Balad airbase, which houses US Air Force trainers. Three Iraqi military personnel were reported to have been injured in the second assault. Katib Hizbollah militia, which operates under the PMF, issued a call last night for Iraqi security forces to "move away from American bases by a distance of no less than 1km," starting from Sunday evening, suggesting the attacks would continue. While such attacks, which have in the past been claimed by the Population Mobilisation Forces (PMF), on US installations in Iraq are not unusual, the timing and targets appeared to suggest a coordinated response. Mourners surround a car carrying the coffin of Iranian military commander Qassim Soleimani Credit: SABAH ARAR/AFP via Getty Images Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi who effectively led the PMF - an umbrella of militias in Iraq dominated by groups aligned with Iran - was killed on Friday alongside Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's powerful Quds force. The group had vowed revenge, as has Iran, which will likely be plotting a much more significant attack on American interests in the region. Mourners yesterday chanted "Death to America" as they escorted the pair's coffin through the streets of Iraq, while a red flag symbolising a call for revenge was raised in Iran's holiest city. Graffiti by protesters outside the US embassy Credit: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Image The tens of thousands-strong crowd, dressed mostly in black and military fatigues, carried the banners of the PMF that are fiercely loyal to Soleimani. The tens of thousands-strong crowd, dressed mostly in black and military fatigues, carried the banners of Iran-backed militias that are fiercely loyal to Soleimani. The battlefield Many more stayed off the streets, expressing fear that the killing by the US of the head of the powerful Quds Force would spark a new deadly confrontation in the region and Iraq would become the staging ground. Iranian state television aired images of a ceremony honouring Soleimani at Jamkarān mosque in the city of Qom, where the red flag was hoisted above the minarets. Red flags in Shia Islam tradition symbolises blood spilled unjustly and serves as a call to avenge a person who is killed. Soleimani was killed in Baghdad on Friday morning by a US airstrike Credit: Ahmad Al Mukhtar/REUTERS On the flag were the Arabic words "ya Latharat al-Hossein," meaning "Revenge for Hussein", in reference to Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. According to experts, who said they believed it was the first time the flag had been raised above the mosque, it will not be lowered until the assassination of the 62-year-old general is avenged. Iraq's caretaker prime minister, Abel Abdul Mahdi, who has good relations with both Tehran and Washington, moved through the crowds in Baghdad as he paid his respects, though he did not give an address. Watch: First Time In The History of Iran, Red Flag hoisted Over The Holy Dome Of Jamkarān Mosque,Iran. This is one of the most significant Mosque of Iran Red Flag: A Symbol Of Severe Battle/War To Come. pic.twitter.com/bZlO38U76U— Wars on the Brink (@WarsontheBrink) January 4, 2020 The funeral procession is expected to last several days as Soleimani's coffin is led through Shia holy cities in both countries, to Tehran for a public farewell, and then to his home province of Kerman for burial on Tuesday. In neighbouring Iran, billboards appeared on major streets showing Soleimani and carrying the warning from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that "harsh revenge" awaits the US. Flags flew at half-staff around the country and its embassies across the globe, concerts and sports events were cancelled. Iran and the West | Comment and analysis Illustrating Soleimani's regional reach, Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, including the territory's Hamas rulers, opened a mourning site for celebrated commander and dozens gathered to burn American and Israeli flags. Iranian state TV showed Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president, meeting Soleimani's daughters to offer his condolences. "Who will take the revenge of my father?" one asked. He is heard to reply to the sobbing young woman in a black hijab: "Rest assured that his revenge will be taken. Everyone will take revenge." Mr Rouhani, who is often described as a moderate in the government, added. "There will be a thunderbolt reponse (...) The Americans will see the effects of this criminal act, not only today but for years to come." An Iranian commander suggested that dozens of American facilities and military assets in the Middle East were at risk, along with Israel, a key US ally. "Thirty-five vital American positions in the region are within the reach of the Islamic Republic, and Tel Aviv," the commander, Brig. Gen. Gholamali Abuhamzeh, was quoted as saying. "The Strait of Hormuz is a vital thoroughfare for the West, and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf." Kataib Hizbollah Iraqi militia gather ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis Credit: REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani Some Iraqis, conversely, celebrated in Baghdad's streets. Soleimani was accused of orchestrating violent crackdowns on peaceful pro-democracy protests there in recent months, in which hundreds have been killed. Demonstrators have been out on the streets for weeks protesting against perceived government corruption and growing unemployment, as well as Iran's interference in the country's affairs. It was reported yesterday that Soleimani met with Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) commanders in Baghdad in October and told them to step up attacks on the US in Iraq. According to Reuters, he had formed a secret new group and sent them a batch of weapons. "While Soleimani is hated by many, including many Iraqi Shias, there are Shia who feel like they're under an existential threat and are mourning the killing of soleimani who was seen as the fighter against ISIS," one activist said. Qassim Soleimani drone strike | Read more "And it has to do with some Shias feeling like they need to stick with those who will protect them against being wiped out." Shokoufeh, a 21-year-old student in the central city of Shiraz, neither mourned nor celebrated. She said she feared what was coming next. She and some others hoped Washington and Tehran would use diplomacy to ease the worst crisis in relations since Iranian hardline students stormed the US embassy shortly after the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. "I don't back his cause. It brought us misery and confrontation and isolation," she said. "I just want peace with America and our neighbours." 9:23AM Britain warns nationals against travel to Iraq and Iran Britain has warned its nationals to avoid all travel to Iraq, outside the Kurdistan region, and to avoid all but essential travel to Iran following the death of Qassem Soleimani. "Given heightened tensions in the region, the Foreign Office now advise people not to travel to Iraq, with the exception of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and to consider carefully whether it's essential to travel to Iran," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement. "We will keep this under review." Foreign and Commonwealth office advice on travel to Iraq 9:02AM Thousands in Baghdad mourn Iranian general killed by US Thousands of mourners marched Saturday in a funeral procession through Baghdad for Iran's top general and Iraqi militant leaders chanting "Death to America." Iraq's prime minister attended the mourning procession Saturday for Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, killed in a US strike the previous day. Adel Abdel Mahdi joined Muhandis associate Hadi al-Ameri, Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim and other pro-Iran figures in a large crowd accompanying the coffins. The mourners, mostly men in black military fatigues, carried Iraqi flags and the flags of Iran-backed militias that are fiercely loyal to Soleimani. The procession began at the Imam Kadhim shrine in Baghdad, one of the most revered sites in Shiite Islam. Mourners marched in the streets alongside militia vehicles in a solemn procession. The mourners, many of them in tears, chanted: "No, No, America," and "Death to America, death to Israel." Mohammed Fadl, a mourner dressed in black, said the funeral is an expression of loyalty to the slain leaders. "It is a painful strike, but it will not shake us," he said. Two helicopters hovered over the procession, which was attended by Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and leaders of Iran-backed militias. The gates to Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses government offices and foreign embassies, including the U.S. Embassy, were closed. 6:00AM US denies role in Taji attack The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State has said that it did not conduct any airstrikes near Taji ,north of Baghdad. "FACT: the coalition @cjtfoir did not conduct airstrikes near Camp Taji (north of Baghdad) in recent days," a spokesman said on Twitter. FACT: The Coalition @CJTFOIR did NOT conduct airstrikes near Camp Taji (north of Baghdad) in recent days.— OIR Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III (@OIRSpox) January 4, 2020 Earlier on Saturday, Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces said the airstrikes had killed six people and critically wounded three. Iraqi state television blamed the US. 4:56AM How the world reacted The world reacted with shock to Trump's order Credit: NEW YORK POST; LE MONDE The world responded to the killing of Qassim Soleimani with a mixture of shock, applause and incredulity. The Washington Examiner called the killing a "great moment for the United States that should be celebrated by all Americans". The Kremlin said the attack "grossly violates international law and should be condemned". The New York Post lead its front page with the headline "Blown Away". Read more: How the world reacted to Soleimani's killing 4:47AM Reports: Strike was attack on Imam Ali Brigades Pentagon officials have told Newsweek that Saturday's attack was on the Imam Ali Brigades, an Iraqi Shia militia with ties to Iran. It said there was a "high probability" that the strike resulted in the death of the brigades leader and confirmed that it was a US operation. 2:49AM Anti-US threats flood social media Thousands of messages threatening retribution for the killing of Qassim Soleimani have flooded social media in a "coordinated" propaganda campaign. More than 21,000 Instagram posts used the hashtag hardrevenge on Friday, along with almost 7,000 unique Twitter accounts. The accounts shared repetitive images of coffins draped in American flags, heroic depictions of Soleimani and photos of US military officials, such as Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with bullseye targets digitally imposed on their faces and the words "coming soon". Instagram was flooded with pictures of American flags on caskets with the words "prepare the coffins". This image of caskets on Instagram was accompanied with a warning to America to "prepare the coffins" Credit: INSTAGRAM Read more: 'Co-ordinated' anti-US propaganda floods Twitter 1:22AM Sanders tables bill to stop war with Iran Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate, has tweeted that he will put a bill before Congress "to stop Donald Trump from illegally taking us to war against Iran." "It's working-class kids who will have to fight and die in a disastrous new Middle East conflict—not the children of billionaires," Sanders said. I am introducing a bill with Rep. Khanna to stop Donald Trump from illegally taking us to war against Iran. It's working-class kids who will have to fight and die in a disastrous new Middle East conflict—not the children of billionaires. https://t.co/H6ZHjijCnj— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 4, 2020 1:07AM Iran ambassador: war has entered a new stage The United States' killing of Iran's most prominent military commander, Qassem Soleimani, is virtual to starting a war and "the response for a military action is a military action," Iran's UN ambassador has said. Majid Takht Ravanchi told CNN that by "assassinating" Soleimani, the US had entered a new stage after starting an "economic war" by imposing tough sanctions on Iran in 2018. "So that was ... a new chapter which is tantamount to opening a war against Iran," Ravanchi said. Mr Ravanchi, echoing Iranian leaders, said there would be harsh revenge. "The response for a military action is a military action," he said. Earlier on Friday, the ambassador told the UN Security Council and that Iran reserves the right to self-defence under international law. In a letter, Mr Ravanchi said the killing of Soleimani "is an obvious example of State terrorism and, as a criminal act, constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental principles of international law, including, in particular ... the Charter of the United Nations." Read more: How might Iran respond? Possible targets for 'revenge' 12:52AM Trump ate ice cream and meatloaf at Mar-a-Lago as Soleimani died Trump addressed the media about the attack from Florida yesterday Credit: TOM BRENNER/REUTERS Donald Trump was enjoying a meal of meatloaf and ice cream at his Mar-a-Lago resort when he learnt that Gen Qassim Soleimani had been killed in Baghdad. Shortly after the president finished his dessert, he used his phone to tweet a photograph of the American flag. Mr Trump's risky gamble to launch a decapitation strike against Iran's second most powerful man had gone like clockwork. Read more: How the attack unfolded 12:28AM Breaking: Iran will respond, says its UN ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran's UN ambassador, has told CNN that the US attack on Soleimani was "tantamount to opening a war against Iran". "The response for a military action is a military action," he said. "The response for a military action is a military action," Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, tells @ErinBurnett. "By whom? By... when? Where? That is for the future to witness." pic.twitter.com/XR6mCrLbys— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) January 4, 2020 12:01AM Watch: The US attack on Soleimani 11:59PM Airstrikes kill five - Iraqi army source An Iraqi official says an airstrike has hit two cars carrying Iran-backed militia north of Baghdad, one day after US attack on Qassem Soleimani. The official said five members of the militia were killed. He said the identity of those killed was not immediately known. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters. Reports of an airstrike targeted a vehicle carrying important Iraqi (Hashd al-Shaabi) figures near Taji northern Baghdad.Iraqpic.twitter.com/zjOD0zmt7k— Baxtiyar Goran (@BaxtiyarGoran) January 3, 2020
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| Are we ready for an America without civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis? Posted: 05 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  Can we use the civil rights icon as a reminder to learn from and preserve the legacies of older Americans? Will they trust us enough to allow it?
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| US sends veteran firefighters to battle Australia wildfires Posted: 04 Jan 2020 03:34 PM PST  A crew of 20 veteran firefighters based in California will head to Australia on Monday to help battle the country's out-of-control wildfires that have killed at least 23 people and scorched millions of acres. The crew of federal firefighters based in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles will depart on Monday, said Carrie Bilbao, a spokeswoman with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which is mobilizing U.S. resources in response to Australia's requests for international firefighting aide.
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| Stop saying Biden is the 'most electable'. Trump will run rings round him Posted: 04 Jan 2020 02:30 AM PST  Did we learn nothing from 2016? Trump is savagely effective at destroying establishment politicians – and Biden would loseSupporters of Joe Biden are unlikely to be persuaded by most of the common criticisms. They know he can be rambling and unintelligible. They know his record is unimpressive and that he doesn't really have "policy proposals". None of this matters, though, because to them he has the most important quality of all: he can beat Donald Trump. Nothing you can say about the former vice-president's record, platform or mental state matters next to the argument that he is the best hope Democrats have of getting Trump out of office.There's just one problem: it's a myth. It is a myth just as it was a myth that Hillary Clinton was a good candidate against Trump. Biden is not, in fact, the pragmatic choice. He would not beat Trump. He would lose. And we must say this over and over again. Forget his flubs. Forget his finger-nibbling. Biden would be crushed by Trump. If you want Trump out of office, don't support Biden.Last time round, Clinton supporters lived in a strange kind of denial. Anyone could see she had unique vulnerabilities Trump could exploit. She was a Wall Street candidate, and he was running to "drain the swamp". She was under investigation by the FBI, and his pitch was that Washington was corrupt. She had supported the catastrophic Iraq war, and he portrayed himself as an outsider opponent of those wars. Trump could "run to her left" and make criticisms she would be unable to respond to, because they were accurate. Clinton's attempts to attack Trump as an out-of-touch, reckless billionaire sex criminal would fail, because Trump would point out that she herself was out of touch, bought by billionaires and had an unrepentant alleged sex criminal as her husband and chief campaign surrogate.Joe Biden will face many of the same problems. He has been in Washington since the age of 30, representing Delaware, the "capital of corporate America". He is infamous for his connections to the credit card industry, and he has lied about his degree of support for the Iraq war. Even Matthew Yglesias of Vox calls Biden the "Hillary Clinton of 2020" for his corporate ties and war support. It is worth remembering what being the "Hillary Clinton" of anything means in an election against Trump.Consider the Ukraine scandal, which is far worse for Biden electorally than usually acknowledged. Democrats have made this the centerpiece of their impeachment case against Trump, setting aside Trump's most consequential crimes in order to focus on the charge that Trump tried to force the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. For Democrats, the scandal is clear-cut: Trump was abusing the power of his office to "damage a political rival". And they believe that the American people will agree, and will be disturbed by Trump's unethical behavior. They insist there was "no evidence" that Joe Biden did anything wrong, and that Trump and his associates have been unfairly trying to smear Biden.Democrats who think this way are walking into a buzzsaw. Let us recall: Hunter Biden was paid up to $50,000 a month by a Ukrainian oil company. Officially, the chief Ukrainian prosecutor had an open investigation into that company. Joe Biden bragged about pressuring Ukraine to fire that prosecutor, which they did. Hunter Biden says he told his father about his position in Ukraine, and Joe Biden did not ask him to step down. Joe Biden contradicts his son's story, saying they never discussed Hunter Biden's "work" in Ukraine. One of them is not telling the truth.> If there are Joe Biden supporters in your life, you need to have serious conversations with themDefenders of the Bidens like to point out that the prosecutor was fired for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Hunter Biden. In fact, there was widespread pressure to fire the prosecutor because he wasn't doing enough on corruption investigations, and there was a consensus among experts that this was the case. Biden's actions had absolutely nothing to do with his son and it is ridiculous to suggest that they did.All this is true. But the important question is: does it sound good? And the answer is: no. It sounds terrible.One reason Democrats are bad at politics is that they concern themselves too much with facts and not enough with impressions. With Clinton's "emails scandal", they tried to show Clinton had not technically violated the law, but having Barack Obama's FBI actively investigating Clinton for possible criminal wrongdoing looked terrible regardless of the facts.Left-leaning journalists and pundits love to "fact-check" Trump, as if proving that he has lied is in itself persuasive. But 2016 should have showed us how powerless "debunking" is next to "optics". If you have a Democratic candidate who looks really corrupt, it doesn't matter if they're not. People don't trust the press and they don't trust politicians.Imagine Biden running against Trump. Trump will run ads like this, over and over. Good luck responding. Remember that time you have to spend defending yourself against Trump's accusations is time not spent talking about issues that affect people's lives. And Biden has already shown little interest in drawing people's attention to the areas where Democrats should run strong against Trump, such as healthcare, taxation, working conditions and the climate crisis.His slogan is "no malarkey", but since Biden himself is a longtime spewer of malarkey, Trump will successfully paint Biden as a hypocrite. Biden's central case is that he is "not Trump", that he will return the country to virtuousness and decency. But if Biden doesn't actually look virtuous and decent – because he isn't – the argument that he has made for himself collapses completely.Biden does have some strengths against Trump that Clinton did not. We mock his his rambling and tendency for "gaffes", but these do mean he never sounds like a "scripted politician". Clinton was criticized as robotic and focus-grouped. Biden is anything but focus-grouped; whatever pops into his head comes out his mouth.At the same time, compared to Trump, Biden has: * No money * No voter enthusiasm * No organization * No agenda * No real argument for himselfAsk yourself: how likely is such a candidate to win? Is such a person really the one you want to run against Trump? Look at the enthusiasm Trump gets at his rallies. It is real. Trump has fans, and they're highly motivated. How motivated are Biden's "fans"? Is Biden going to fill stadiums? Are people going to crisscross the country knocking on doors for him? Say what you want about Clinton, but there were some truly committed Clinton fans, and she had a powerful base of support. By comparison, Biden looks weak, and Trump is savagely effective at preying on and destroying establishment politicians.Complicated factchecks that attempt to explain the nuances of the Ukrainian criminal prosecution system will not help Biden. People's already limited enthusiasm for Biden will further wane, and Trump will point to his "strong economy" and "job creation" as evidence Obama and Biden were weak failures. Biden will look tired and irrelevant, and possibly forget why he is even running in the first place. Trump will be re-elected comfortably.If there are Biden supporters in your life, you need to have serious conversations with them. Do not dwell on things that do not matter to them, like Biden's record on bussing, or his latest nonsensical comment. Instead, keep the focus on the main argument that is sustaining his campaign: the idea that he is the best candidate to beat Trump. He isn't. His electability is a myth, and when we look honestly at the facts we can see that Biden is actually a dangerously poor candidate to run. * Nathan Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs and a Guardian US columnist. He is the author of the new book Why You Should Be a Socialist (St Martin's Publishing Group)
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| Restaurant employee says she was told to leave because of hijab Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:18 AM PST  A fast-food restaurant in Texas is apologizing after an employee was asked to leave because she was wearing a hijab.
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| Cambodia building collapse kills 36 people, injures 23 others Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:38 PM PST  Thirty-six people were killed and 23 more injured when a tourist guesthouse under construction in Cambodia collapsed, trapping workers under rubble, officials said on Sunday. Officials said rescue operations ended two days after the seven-storey concrete building collapsed on Friday in the coastal town of Kep, about 160 km (100 miles) southwest of the capital Phnom Penh. The 36 dead included six children and 14 women, officials said in a statement that did not detail why children were at the construction site.
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| Britain will not lament death of Soleimani: PM Johnson Posted: 05 Jan 2020 10:50 AM PST  Britain will not lament the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday, though he warned that reprisals would lead to greater violence. The United States killed top military leader Soleimani outside Baghdad airport in a drone strike on Friday. In his first intervention on the escalation of tensions in the Middle East, Johnson said he had spoken Sunday with US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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| Inside the Mysterious Death of a Prosecutor Investigating an Alleged Iran Terror Attack That Killed 85 Jews Posted: 05 Jan 2020 02:03 AM PST  Despairing portraits of injustice—writ both small and large—don't come much bleaker than Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy, Netflix's six-part docuseries about a terror attack in Argentina, the theories and investigations that followed, and the unbelievably shady death of the man accusing the country's president of colluding with foreign powers to let the perpetrators go free. Even on a streaming platform known for its pessimistic true-crime works concerning the unknowability of truth, Justin Webster's documentary is a gut-punch of a non-fiction exposé, recounting a tangled tale with few clear answers and considerably less hope.The story of scandals piled on top of crimes piled on top of more scandals, all of it leading to endless questions and unending misery, Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy (available now) is, first and foremost, about the July 18, 1994, bombing of the Jewish cultural center AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) in Buenos Aires that left 85 dead and more than 200 injured. AMIA was the worst terror attack in Latin American history, and it fell to Jewish-Argentinian native Alberto Nisman to prosecute the case. In that trial, Nisman and his colleagues seemed to successfully argue that the heinous atrocity was carried out via a truck bomb that was procured by known criminal Carlos Telleldín, and that the suicide driver was a member of Hezbollah. Their contention that Telleldín had been in league with a cabal of crooked cops, however, fell apart thanks to mid-trial revelations, resulting in few credible culprits.How Two Online Sleuths Helped Track Down a Hollywood-Obsessed Internet KillerHow the Truth Disappears: Chinese Censorship and My Film 'One Child Nation'Nonetheless, the ambitious and morally righteous Nisman was asked to continue investigating AMIA. With the aid of Antonio "Jamie" Stiuso—the No. 2 intelligence agent in the country at the time—he came to believe that those responsible for the tragedy were the powers-that-be in Iran, who had employed their Hezbollah proxies to do the deed in a manner similar to the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center (among others). In the ensuing decade, Nisman mounted a highly public legal campaign against Iran as well as Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner, who—along with her chancellor Héctor Timerman, and others in her cabinet—he claimed had conspired with Iran to let the suspected terrorists behind the attack go free. So convinced was Nisman that Kirchner had tried to rescind Interpol's "Red Notice" arrest warrants for the wrongdoers, all in order to solidify business dealings with Iran, that he filed a formal complaint in 2015 charging the president with treason.And then, on Jan. 18, 2015, a day before he was set to appear before Congress to present evidence in support of that charge, Nisman was found dead in his apartment, the victim of a single gunshot wound to the head.Suspicious timing, no? Anyone with a semi-functioning frontal lobe immediately suspected foul play. And the fact that Nisman had voiced plenty of concern about his personal safety, but shown no signs of suicidal depression (he was a separated father of two who was devoted to his daughters, and living a single life amidst a bevy of models), only amplified such hunches. The problem was, the forensic evidence was, and remains, inconclusive; for all the testimony presented by experts, replete with CGI recreations and gunpowder residue and blood-spatter analysis, there's simply no way to definitively know whether Nisman did the deed himself, or if a third-party shooter was responsible. Even a late eye-opener about ketamine in Nisman's system (possibly related to his earlier Wikipedia searches about psychedelia?) can't fully convince one that he was offed by a nefarious agent.Then again, nothing in Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy is 100 percent persuasive. The links between Iran and the AMIA bombing come across as frustratingly insubstantial. The same goes for Argentinian intelligence agencies' own potential role in the crime. There are tons of wiretap conversations featuring a shadowy inside-man known as Allan Bogado, who was supplying Iran with intel on Nisman and Kirchner. Yet despite director Webster getting Bogado on camera to talk about his conduct, it's never clear whether he was a traitor, a double-agent, or a fraud. There are also calls between Stiuso and fellow intelligence cohorts in the hours leading up to the discovery of Nisman's body that, according to prosecutor Viviana Fein, point to pre-release knowledge about his death—but their purpose is never ascertained. That Nisman was flush with an eye-opening amount of cash (far more than his income would have provided) is merely another in a string of questionable details sans decent explanation.In other words, good luck parsing almost any element of Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy, which is drowning in dates and developments from the past quarter-century of Argentinian politics. Webster employs timelines, dramatic recreations, crime-scene footage, new and old interviews, and obnoxious TV broadcasts (which function as their own damning critique of a media world gone mad) to try to streamline his knotty material while simultaneously shaping it in a dramatic thriller-mystery mold. The effort, alas, is only partially successful. No matter the six-hour-plus runtime, there's sometimes too much information to lucidly process, especially given that the director eschews a straightforward chronology, jumping backwards and forwards in time to shine a light on various investigative avenues. A working knowledge of recent Argentinian history will help viewers navigate these turbulent waters. Still, a simpler, less adventurous narrative structure would have made this twisty-turn affair quite a bit easier to digest.Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy eventually suggests that Nisman may have been the victim of a conspiracy himself, orchestrated by Stiuso, a 30-year intelligence operative whose cagey interviews are marked by Cheshire Cat grins and shrugged-shoulder expressions that imply he knows infinitely more than he's letting on. Stiuso's ability to cling to his powerful position through multiple regimes (some dictatorial, some democratic) is a testament to his cunning ability to manipulate and exploit. Ultimately, this formidable and mysterious spy seems to be the true mastermind of this sprawling saga—and a figure who proves that outsiders (such as Nisman) wade into treacherous espionage waters at their own great peril.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| These Horrors Awaited The U.S. Army At Nordhausen Concentration Camp Posted: 05 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST  On March 30, 1945, the U.S. 3rd Armored Division made a startling discovery at the Nordhausen Concentration Camp the same day its commander was killed near Paderborn, Germany.
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| Germans who live near wind turbines should be paid compensation, says government minister Posted: 05 Jan 2020 01:13 PM PST  Germans who live near wind turbines could be paid compensation by the government under a proposal to boost supplies of renewable energy. Matthias Miersch of Germany's Social Democrat party (SPD) said his scheme would encourage Germans to move near the controversial wind farms as well as rewarding those who already do. The payments would either be made to community organisations and municipalities, or directly to home-owners. Mr Miersch told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung "those who accept windmills in their neighbourhood make the expansion of renewable energy possible and should be rewarded". The proposal has not met with widespread approval, however, with Uwe Brandl of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities saying the payments were effectively "hush money". "If we start paying people to keep quiet, it'll start with windmills and then go on with roads and other infrastructure," Mr Brandl said. Wind farm growth has slowed in Germany, with 2020 having the fewest planned new turbines for 20 years, potentially undermining the country's efforts to achieve its renewable energy goals set under the Paris Agreement. Germany plans to draw 65 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. While Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats - the larger part of Germany's governing coalition – did not respond on Sunday, the Greens have welcomed the plan. The scheme does not indicate the amount of compensation or potential cost to the taxpayer. Despite widespread support for renewable energy across Germany, residents living near wind farms have frequently complained about noise and visual pollution. Conservationists have also criticised wind farms for posing a deadly threat to birds, bats and insects. While the scale of the project is novel, the idea of compensating those who live near wind farms in Germany is not new. The northern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2016 required that companies building wind farms needed to offer 20 percent of their shares to residents and municipalities within five kilometres of the proposed farms. Similarly, local authorities in the eastern state of Brandenburg receive a payment of €10,000 (£8,500) per wind turbine per annum.
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