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Shortly after the United Nations placed harsh new sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang launched a series of short-range missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

The missiles were fired from the North Korean Wonsan naval base located on the eastern side of the peninsula at about 10:00 a.m. local time (01:30 GMT) on Thursday, Moon Sang-gyun, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said, as quoted by the South Korean Yonhap news agency.

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According to the Moon Sang-gyun, the exact number of missiles, as well as their type, have not been determined yet. The spokesperson added that all of the missiles fell into the sea.

Foreign Ministers vote during a UN Security Council meeting on Syria at the United Nations in New York on December 18, 2015

UNSC Adopts Resolution Expanding Sanctions Against North Korea

The sanctions, implemented by the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, came in response to Pyongyang's nuclear bomb test in January, as well as its satellite launch last month.

These are the toughest sanctions placed on Pyongyang in the last 20 years. The United States also placed sanctions on a dozen individuals in response to North Korea's nuclear test.

"The international community, speaking with one voice, has sent Pyongyang a simple message: North Korea must abandon these dangerous programs and choose a better path for its people," US President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Iran Imagines There’s No Israel

Iran's nuclear chief says Israel, with its powerful air force, actually isn't a threat to the Tehran terror state because Israel isn't really a state. It isn't the first time those wishing to annihilate the Jews have first imagined them gone. (AP)

3/01/2016 5:52 PM EST

Middle East: As Israel fears increased Iranian power in Syria, Iran contends that the Jewish state doesn’t really exist, and is therefore no threat. It’s the visualization of the wish that Israel would disappear.

Euphemism was a clever weapon the Nazis used in making plans for their “Final Solution” — that term itself being a euphemism for their genocide of the Jews.

In the minutes of the 1942 Wannsee Conference near Berlin, for instance, which prepared for the mass deportations that were the prelude to slaughter, we find reference to “the evacuation of the Jews to the East, provided that the Fuhrer gives the appropriate approval in advance,” followed by details of how various arms of the Third Reich would conduct the operations.

The usual meaning of “evacuation” is to escape danger; the Nazis used the term to refer to the opposite: entering the jaws of death. And it rings the same note to hear the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, contend on Monday, “We essentially do not see (Israel) as a state, therefore it’s not a threat to Iran.”

The Jewish state, of course, with its powerful air force, can inflict massive damage on Iran’s nuclear facilities — although once Tehran spends a good chunk of the $150 billion in cash unfrozen by President Obama’s nuclear deal last year, things will be complicated; Iran is buyingadvanced fighters and antiaircraft rocketry from Russia that will challenge both Israeli and U.S. bombers and cruise missiles.

This is a high-ranking Iranian fantasizing that there is no Israel, just as Hitler and his henchmen fantasized of a reich — a world — with no Jews. And once one conjures such an image in one’s mind, once the Israelis are invisible, the mind can focus on working toward eradicating them. Like “evacuation” seven decades ago, the notion of Israel as a non-state — and Jews as non-persons — is a euphemistic mental exercise.

Israel certainly views Iran as a threat to itself. The latest sign of this was Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s comments on Monday that he is “very concerned by the strengthening of Iran in Syria, which will lead to a strengthening of the Shiite axis, in a negative manner.” More power for Tehran there could “encourage Iran to continue to activate a terrorism front against us from the Golan Heights,” Ya’alon warned.

“Iran will also continue to invest the money it will receive from sanctions relief in the development and acquisition of new weapons systems, and the building and fortification of terrorist proxies in the Middle East, Europe and America to spread terrorism around the world,” the Israeli defense chief added. Iranian “attempts to transfer weapons to the Gaza Strip through various means” are seen by the Israelis all the time, according to Ya’alon.

So for a state that Iran’s nuclear chief claims doesn’t exist, his government’s terrorist network is waging quite a proxy war against it.

Indeed, while the Iran nuclear deal is going to see the revolutionary Islamofascist regime compete directly against its more pro-Western rivals in the region, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with signs of Islamic nations even launching a nuclear arms race, Tehran’s ultimate goal is to make Israel go away.

The world’s foremost terrorist state is not alone among Islamic countries in steadfastly refusing to recognize the Jewish homeland’s nationhood, but in all those cases the underlying desire is what Iran has had the candor to admit often: wiping Israel off the map, and pushing the Israelis into the sea. Or, as the Nazis did, worse.

(investors.com)

The US just captured a significant ISIS operative, and it is now facing a big dilemma

By Allan Smith20 hours ago

(Ahmed Saad/Reuters)
Iraqi security forces traveling to Mosul to fight against militants of the Islamic State on February 21.

An American Special Ops unit recently captured a significant ISIS fighter in Iraq, but its plans for the operative after his imminent interrogation don't appear very solid.

The militant — the first captured by the Army's elite Delta Force since its deployment in December — is being interrogated by the US at a temporary detention center near Erbil in northern Iraq, The New York Times reported.

But US officials didn't seem clear about what they planned to do with the detainee — and the presumed wave of detainees to come, if all goes to plan — after his interrogation, which could take weeks or months.

The Defense Department said there were no plans to hold any detainees for an indefinite amount of time — there is little appetite among administration officials for a new American facility to hold Islamic State detainees, à la the disgraced Abu Ghraib prison that held suspected members of Al Qaeda in Iraq from 2004 to 2006.

No ISIS operatives will be sent to Guantanamo Bay, either, in light of Obama's recent proposal to Congress that the controversial military prison be closed for good.

The US might do what it did with Umm Sayyaf, the wife of ISIS' "oil emir" Abu Sayyaf. Umm Sayyaf was detained for three months by US officials after American commandos killed her husband in a May raid. She was then transferred to Iraqi Kurds in August.

(Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)
Iraqi Minister of Tourism Adel Shirshab and US ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones seen near recovered artifacts during a ceremony at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad on July 15. The Iraqi relics were captured by US special forces in an operation in May against an Islamic State commander known as Abu Sayyaf.

The Kurds, however, haven't filed any charges against Umm Sayyaf for her alleged role in the death of American aid worker Kayla Muller, or for the abuse of Yazidi women by her husband she reportedly helped facilitate. The worry among administration officials now, The Daily Beast reported, is that if they hand over the newest ISIS detainee to the Kurds, they won't bring him to justice.

"We discussed the idea of [Sayyaf's] surrender and extradition to the US with senior-level [Iraqi] officials, but ultimately that option was not available as Iraq has a constitutional prohibition on surrendering Iraqi citizens to foreign authorities," the official said.

It's not clear whether the ISIS fighter captured earlier this week is an Iraqi citizen. But if US officials remain steadfast in transferring him over to the Iraqis, as they did with Sayyaf, it's uncertain what will happen to him in their custody.

Turkey: 1,845 cases opened for insulting President Erdogan

By SUZAN FRASER18 hours ago

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016 file photo, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a meeting of local administrators at his palace in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey's justice minister said Monday Feb. 29, 2016, as many as 1,845 cases have been opened against people accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to office in 2014. Erdogan has been accused of aggressively using a previously seldom-used law that bars insults to the president, as a way to muffle dissent. (Yasin Bulbul/Presidential Press Service, Pool via AP, File)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — As many as 1,845 cases have been opened against people accused of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to office in 2014, a top official said, while a prominent journalist on Wednesday described his recent release from prison as a defeat for the president.

Erdogan has been accused of aggressively using a previously seldom-used law that bars insults to the president as a way to muffle dissent. Those who have gone on trial include celebrities, journalists and even schoolchildren.

Critics say Erdogan, who has been accused of increasing authoritarianism, even considers strong criticism as insults.

Responding to questions in parliament late Tuesday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said his ministry has allowed 1,845 cases on charges of insulting Erdogan to go ahead.

He defended the prosecutions, saying: "I am unable to read the insults leveled at our president. I start to blush."

Erdogan last year also filed a complaint against the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor-in-chief Can Dundar and the paper's Ankara representative Erdem Gul for their reports on alleged arms smuggling to Syria, which led to their arrests and subsequent charges of spying and aiding a terror organization. They go on trial March 25.

The two, however, were released from prison last week pending the outcome of the trial after Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that their rights had been violated. Erdogan severely criticized the court's ruling, saying he did not respect it and would not abide by it.

At a news conference in Istanbul, Dundar said the court's ruling amounted to a defeat for Erdogan who "is trying to turn it into a state crisis."

In May, Cumhuriyet published what it said were images of Turkish trucks carrying ammunition to Syrian militants. The images reportedly date back to January 2014, when local authorities searched Syria-bound trucks, touching off a standoff with Turkish intelligence officials. The paper said the images proved that Turkey was smuggling arms to rebels.

The government initially denied the trucks were carrying arms, maintaining that the cargo consisted of humanitarian aid. Some officials later suggested the trucks were carrying arms or ammunition to Turkmen groups in Syria.

This version has been corrected to reflect that the justice minister spoke on Tuesday, not Monday.

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/3/2016 11:16:44 AM
	Iran Imagines There’s No Israel Iran's nuclear chief says Israel, with its powerful air force, actually isn't a threat to the Tehran terror state because Israel isn't really a state. It isn't the first time those wishing to annihilate the Jews have first imagined them gone. (AP) 3/01/2016 5:52 PM EST Middle East: As Israel fears increased Iranian power in Syria, Iran contends that the Jewish state doesn’t really exist, and is therefore no threat. It’s the visualization of the wish that Israel would disappear. Euphemism was a clever weapon the Nazis used in making plans for their “Final Solution” — that term itself being a euphemism for their genocide of the Jews. In the minutes of the 1942 Wannsee Conference near Berlin, for instance, which prepared for the mass deportations that were the prelude to slaughter, we find reference to “the evacuation of the Jews to the East, provided that the Fuhrer gives the appropriate approval in advance,” followed by details of how various arms of the Third Reich would conduct the operations. The usual meaning of “evacuation” is to escape danger; the Nazis used the term to refer to the opposite: entering the jaws of death. And it rings the same note to hear the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, contend on Monday, “We essentially do not see (Israel) as a state, therefore it’s not a threat to Iran.” The Jewish state, of course, with its powerful air force, can inflict massive damage on Iran’s nuclear facilities — although once Tehran spends a good chunk of the $150 billion in cash unfrozen by President Obama’s nuclear deal last year, things will be complicated; Iran is buyingadvanced fighters and antiaircraft rocketry from Russia that will challenge both Israeli and U.S. bombers and cruise missiles. This is a high-ranking Iranian fantasizing that there is no Israel, just as Hitler and his henchmen fantasized of a reich — a world — with no Jews. And once one conjures such an image in one’s mind, once the Israelis are invisible, the mind can focus on working toward eradicating them. Like “evacuation” seven decades ago, the notion of Israel as a non-state — and Jews as non-persons — is a euphemistic mental exercise. Israel certainly views Iran as a threat to itself. The latest sign of this was Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s comments on Monday that he is “very concerned by the strengthening of Iran in Syria, which will lead to a strengthening of the Shiite axis, in a negative manner.” More power for Tehran there could “encourage Iran to continue to activate a terrorism front against us from the Golan Heights,” Ya’alon warned. “Iran will also continue to invest the money it will receive from sanctions relief in the development and acquisition of new weapons systems, and the building and fortification of terrorist proxies in the Middle East, Europe and America to spread terrorism around the world,” the Israeli defense chief added. Iranian “attempts to transfer weapons to the Gaza Strip through various means” are seen by the Israelis all the time, according to Ya’alon. So for a state that Iran’s nuclear chief claims doesn’t exist, his government’s terrorist network is waging quite a proxy war against it. Indeed, while the Iran nuclear deal is going to see the revolutionary Islamofascist regime compete directly against its more pro-Western rivals in the region, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with signs of Islamic nations even launching a nuclear arms race, Tehran’s ultimate goal is to make Israel go away. The world’s foremost terrorist state is not alone among Islamic countries in steadfastly refusing to recognize the Jewish homeland’s nationhood, but in all those cases the underlying desire is what Iran has had the candor to admit often: wiping Israel off the map, and pushing the Israelis into the sea. Or, as the Nazis did, worse. (investors.com)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/3/2016 1:54:47 PM
	AP March 2, 2016, 8:09 AM Starving militants surrender to Nigeria's military Children displaced as a result of Boko Haram attacks in the northeast region of Nigeria, cheer at a camp for internally displaced persons in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, Jan. 13, 2015. CREDIT: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters MAIDUGURI, Nigeria -- Dozens of emaciated-looking Boko Haram members begging for food have surrendered in northeast Nigeria, the military and a civilian self-defense fighter said Wednesday. Seventy-six people including children and women gave themselves up to soldiers last Saturday in Gwoza, about 60 miles southeast of Maiduguri, according to a senior officer. All are being detained at military headquarters in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and currently the command center of the war against the Islamic extremists, according to the officer. He insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists. The detainees said many more fighters want to surrender, a self-defense civilian fighter who helped escort them to Maiduguri told The Associated Press. Food shortages could indicate that Nigeria's military is succeeding in choking supply routes of the Islamic extremists who have taken their fight across Nigeria's borders. Some 20,000 people have died in the 6-year-old uprising. Boko Haram was declared the deadliest of all terror groups in 2014, surpassing the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to which it declared allegiance last year. Nigeria's military reported that dozens of Boko Haram fighters were surrendering in September and October last year. It promised those who give themselves up voluntarily that they will be rehabilitated through a de-radicalization program. In the 10 months since he took office promising to halt the insurgency, President Muhammadu Buhari has replaced the leadership of the military, moved the headquarters for the fight from the distant capital, Abuja, to the heart of the northeastern insurgency and resupplied soldiers. As the military has driven the insurgents from the towns and villages where they had set up an Islamic caliphate, Boko Haram has returned to hit-and-run tactics and suicide bombings. © 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/3/2016 2:09:37 PM
	The US just captured a significant ISIS operative, and it is now facing a big dilemma By Allan Smith20 hours ago (Ahmed Saad/Reuters) Iraqi security forces traveling to Mosul to fight against militants of the Islamic State on February 21. An American Special Ops unit recently captured a significant ISIS fighter in Iraq, but its plans for the operative after his imminent interrogation don't appear very solid. The militant — the first captured by the Army's elite Delta Force since its deployment in December — is being interrogated by the US at a temporary detention center near Erbil in northern Iraq, The New York Times reported. But US officials didn't seem clear about what they planned to do with the detainee — and the presumed wave of detainees to come, if all goes to plan — after his interrogation, which could take weeks or months. The Defense Department said there were no plans to hold any detainees for an indefinite amount of time — there is little appetite among administration officials for a new American facility to hold Islamic State detainees, à la the disgraced Abu Ghraib prison that held suspected members of Al Qaeda in Iraq from 2004 to 2006. No ISIS operatives will be sent to Guantanamo Bay, either, in light of Obama's recent proposal to Congress that the controversial military prison be closed for good. The US might do what it did with Umm Sayyaf, the wife of ISIS' "oil emir" Abu Sayyaf. Umm Sayyaf was detained for three months by US officials after American commandos killed her husband in a May raid. She was then transferred to Iraqi Kurds in August. (Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters) Iraqi Minister of Tourism Adel Shirshab and US ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones seen near recovered artifacts during a ceremony at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad on July 15. The Iraqi relics were captured by US special forces in an operation in May against an Islamic State commander known as Abu Sayyaf. The Kurds, however, haven't filed any charges against Umm Sayyaf for her alleged role in the death of American aid worker Kayla Muller, or for the abuse of Yazidi women by her husband she reportedly helped facilitate. The worry among administration officials now, The Daily Beast reported, is that if they hand over the newest ISIS detainee to the Kurds, they won't bring him to justice. "We discussed the idea of [Sayyaf's] surrender and extradition to the US with senior-level [Iraqi] officials, but ultimately that option was not available as Iraq has a constitutional prohibition on surrendering Iraqi citizens to foreign authorities," the official said. It's not clear whether the ISIS fighter captured earlier this week is an Iraqi citizen. But if US officials remain steadfast in transferring him over to the Iraqis, as they did with Sayyaf, it's uncertain what will happen to him in their custody.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/3/2016 2:19:21 PM
	Turkey: 1,845 cases opened for insulting President Erdogan By SUZAN FRASER18 hours ago FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016 file photo, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a meeting of local administrators at his palace in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey's justice minister said Monday Feb. 29, 2016, as many as 1,845 cases have been opened against people accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to office in 2014. Erdogan has been accused of aggressively using a previously seldom-used law that bars insults to the president, as a way to muffle dissent. (Yasin Bulbul/Presidential Press Service, Pool via AP, File) ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — As many as 1,845 cases have been opened against people accused of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to office in 2014, a top official said, while a prominent journalist on Wednesday described his recent release from prison as a defeat for the president. Related Stories Nearly 2,000 legal cases opened for insulting Turkey's Erdogan Reuters Freed Turkish editor vows to put state's 'crimes' on trial AFP Turkey's Erdogan says does not respect court ruling on journalists Reuters Turkey's Erdogan lambasts court ruling to free journalists AFP Turkish journalist calls his release from jail a 'defeat' for Erdogan Reuters Erdogan has been accused of aggressively using a previously seldom-used law that bars insults to the president as a way to muffle dissent. Those who have gone on trial include celebrities, journalists and even schoolchildren. Critics say Erdogan, who has been accused of increasing authoritarianism, even considers strong criticism as insults. Responding to questions in parliament late Tuesday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said his ministry has allowed 1,845 cases on charges of insulting Erdogan to go ahead. He defended the prosecutions, saying: "I am unable to read the insults leveled at our president. I start to blush." Erdogan last year also filed a complaint against the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor-in-chief Can Dundar and the paper's Ankara representative Erdem Gul for their reports on alleged arms smuggling to Syria, which led to their arrests and subsequent charges of spying and aiding a terror organization. They go on trial March 25. The two, however, were released from prison last week pending the outcome of the trial after Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that their rights had been violated. Erdogan severely criticized the court's ruling, saying he did not respect it and would not abide by it. At a news conference in Istanbul, Dundar said the court's ruling amounted to a defeat for Erdogan who "is trying to turn it into a state crisis." In May, Cumhuriyet published what it said were images of Turkish trucks carrying ammunition to Syrian militants. The images reportedly date back to January 2014, when local authorities searched Syria-bound trucks, touching off a standoff with Turkish intelligence officials. The paper said the images proved that Turkey was smuggling arms to rebels. The government initially denied the trucks were carrying arms, maintaining that the cargo consisted of humanitarian aid. Some officials later suggested the trucks were carrying arms or ammunition to Turkmen groups in Syria. __ This version has been corrected to reflect that the justice minister spoke on Tuesday, not Monday.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

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Shortly after the United Nations placed harsh new sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang launched a series of short-range missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

Iran Imagines There’s No Israel

The US just captured a significant ISIS operative, and it is now facing a big dilemma

Turkey: 1,845 cases opened for insulting President Erdogan

Like us on Facebook!

Menu

Forums

Shortly after the United Nations placed harsh new sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang launched a series of short-range missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

Iran Imagines There’s No Israel

The US just captured a significant ISIS operative, and it is now facing a big dilemma

Turkey: 1,845 cases opened for insulting President Erdogan

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