4409-ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? | View Thread

The Trump administration announced Monday that it will terminate the provisional residency permits of about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country since at least 2001, leaving them to face deportation.

The administration said it will give the Salvadorans until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the United States or find a way to obtain a green card, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. After earthquakes hit the country in 2001, Salvadorans were granted what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, and their permits have been renewed on an 18-month basis since then.

Monday’s announcement is the latest step by the administration to cut the number of foreigners living in the United States — by squeezing the flow of legal immigration and intensifying efforts to expel those who arrived illegally.

The efforts span nearly every facet of the American immigration system. Arrests by immigration enforcement agents have increased 40 percent. Trump has slashed the number of refugees accepted by the United States to the lowest level since 1980. And last week his administration sent lawmakers an $18 billion blueprint for the first phase of a Mexico border wall.

The 200,000 Salvadorans are among the nearly 1 million immigrants whose lives in the United States have been upended and set to a deadline under President Trump. The largest group, nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, are set to begin losing their temporary work permits in March at the rate of nearly 1,000 per day.

Democrats and immigrant rights groups denounced the Trump administration’s TPS decision, which they characterized as another attack on the United States’ tradition of humanitarianism toward immigrants and refugees. On Monday, however, DHS officials resisted suggestions that the decision by Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was part of a broader anti-immigrant agenda. They described it in narrower legal terms, as a recognition that conditions in El Salvador have improved enough since the earthquakes to no longer warrant the TPS designation.

“Based on careful consideration of available information, including recommendations received as part of an inter-agency consultation process, the Secretary determined that the original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist,” the DHS statement read.

The statement noted that the U.S. government has deported more than 39,000 Salvadorans in the past two years, demonstrating, it said, “that the temporary inability of El Salvador to adequately return their nationals after the earthquake has been addressed.”

Nielsen recently met with El Salvador’s foreign minister and spoke with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, according to the DHS.

[How Trump is building a border wall no one can see]

In total, DHS officials said, 262,500 Salvadorans have been granted TPS permits, but recent estimates indicate that closer to 200,000 people with that status reside in the United States.

Immigrant advocates, Salvadoran government officials and others had implored Nielsen to extend the TPS designation, citing the country’s gang violence and the potentially destabilizing effect of so many people being sent home. El Salvador’s homicide rate — 108 per 100,000 people in 2015 — was the world’s highest for a country not at war, the most recent U.N. data shows.

Others urged Nielsen to consider the approximately 190,000 U.S.-born children of Salvadoran TPS recipients. Their parents must now decide whether to break up their families, take their children back to El Salvador or stay in the United States and risk deportation.

Senior DHS officials told reporters Monday that Salvadoran parents would have to make that choice. “We are not going to get involved in an individual family’s decision,” said the official, whom the agency did not allow to be quoted by name.

The potential economic impact on American companies and businesses was not a factor either, officials said. The mayors of Houston, Los Angeles and other cities with large numbers of Salvadorans had urged Nielsen to taken into account the wider contributions of TPS recipients, a third of whom are U.S. homeowners, according to recent surveys.

“Only Congress can legislate a permanent solution addressing the lack of an enduring lawful immigration status of those currently protected by TPS who have lived and worked in the United States for many years,” Monday’s DHS statement read. “The 18-month delayed termination will allow Congress time to craft a potential legislative solution.”

[‘I consider this my country’: Salvadorans in U.S. devastated by TPS decision]

Trump administration officials have repeatedly said they considered the TPS program an example of American immigration policy gone awry, noting that when Congress created the designation in 1990, its purpose was to provide “temporary” protection from deportation following a natural disaster, armed conflict or other calamity.

In November, the DHS ended TPS for 60,000 Haitians who arrived after a 2010 earthquake and for 2,500 Nicaraguan migrants protected after Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

A six-month extension was recently granted to 57,000 Hondurans, a decision made before Nielsen’s arrival, by then-acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke. That move frustrated White House officials who wanted Duke to end the program.

Lawmakers from both parties who represent cities and states with large immigrant populations blasted the DHS decision. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called it a “cynical move” whose purpose is to “score political points with the extreme right-wing Republican base.”

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) urged the Trump administration to reconsider, warning that it would be “devastating” to send Salvadorans home “after they have created a humble living for themselves and their families.”

The TPS decision came as Congress deliberates DACA’s fate. Some lawmakers see the looming Jan. 18 deadline for a must-pass government spending bill as leverage to forge a DACA solution.

Trump is demanding significant concessions. He wants to beef up border security and scale back legal immigration channels in exchange for supporting permanent legal residency, and possibly citizenship, for DACA recipients.

The president is scheduled to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House on Tuesday to continue the talks.

There were new signs Monday that TPS could end up as a bargaining chip in the DACA negotiations. A person familiar with the talks said Congress could step in to help the Salvadorans, Haitians and other groups whose TPS permits are now set to expire in 2019.

Democrats and Republicans have been privately discussing the possibility of curbing the diversity visa lottery program — which grants about 55,000 green cards each year to people from nations with low immigration rates to the United States — in exchange for sparing TPS recipients from deportation. Trump has insisted that any DACA deal must get rid of the lottery.

[Salvadorans fear TPS decision will be a huge economic blow to their country]

One aide on Capitol Hill familiar with the negotiations said Democrats would prefer a narrow deal to legalize DACA recipients. But this person added that if Trump insists on seeking significant border security upgrades and cuts to legal immigration, then Democrats will insist on extending TPS.

Some Republicans fear that if a DACA deal falls through, it could harm the party in immigrant-heavy voting districts during a midterm election year. Meanwhile, immigration hawks are urging Trump to motivate his base by holding a harder line, as he did throughout the 2016 campaign. The president’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, has been opposed to continuing DACA, and he is said also to have championed ending the TPS program.

“The fix has been in for these TPS decisions, regardless of the facts on the ground in these countries,” said Kevin Appleby of the New York-based Center for Migration Studies.

“The decision on El Salvador is particularly damaging,” he said. “It not only will uproot families and children who have lived here for years; it also will further destabilize an already violent country.”

The DHS said in its announcement that it conducted extensive outreach to Salvadorans living in the United States, including “community forums on TPS, panel discussions with Salvadoran community organizers, stakeholder teleconferences, regular meetings with TPS beneficiaries, news releases to the Salvadoran community, meetings with Salvadoran government officials, meetings at local churches, and listening sessions.”

Jaime Contreras, vice president of Local 32BJ, the largest property-service local in the Service Employees International Union, called Monday’s decision “shameful.” In the Washington area, he said, TPS recipients clean Reagan National Airport, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and “every major landmark you can think of.”

“They have families here. A lot of these people own homes,” said Contreras, whose union represents about 160,000 commercial office cleaners, security officers and others nationwide. “It’s time for Congress to do the right thing.”

Ed O’Keefe and Maria Sacchetti contributed to this report.

(The Washington Post)

Pentagon Panicked: Clinton ‘Loss’ Exposed As Four Star General Recounts Deadly Incompetence

Posted by Martin Walsh | Jan 8, 2018 | National Security

Bill Clinton lost the U.S. nuclear codes.

While the liberal media peddles falsehoods that President Donald Trump is mentally unfit for office, a new report shows that former President Bill Clinton’s shady habits put our nation at risk.

With North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un threatening to launch nuclear warheads at the U.S. — to which Trump has vowed to defend America and its allies at all costs — it is vital to control the United States’ 6,800 nuclear warheads.

In a new book from by Gen. Hugh Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for three years while Clinton was in office, Clinton reportedly lost the nuclear launch codes required to authorize a nuclear strike, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to an attack.

The book, titled, “Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior,” Shelton wrote that Clinton left the U.S. ill-prepared to defend itself against a nuclear attack.

“How the hell could we have lost the nuclear codes and not known it?” the four-star general wrote.

Gen. Hugh Shelton was livid that Clinton lost the nuclear codes and kept it quiet for so long.

Pentagon officials first became suspicious when they visited the White House to ensure the codes were safe and make sure they were verified. At the White House, a staffer told the Pentagon official that Clinton “has them personally,” but when the staffer returned empty handed and said the president was “in an urgent meeting and could not be disturbed.”

When the Pentagon returned one month later, the staff peddled the same line of excuses.

“Sorry, President Clinton is in a meeting but he takes the codes very seriously and has them on his person – all is great with the codes,” White House staffer told officials.

Pentagon officials only learned that Clinton had lost the codes months later when they returned to replace the codes, which takes place a few times a year to prevent hacking or unauthorized access to the codes.

Shelton was furious, writing: “This is a big deal – a gargantuan deal – and we dodged a silver bullet. You may look at it and say ‘Well nothing happened’ and that’s true – but it could have.”

Clinton’s negligence put the U.S. at risk of being attacked.

Clinton’s insane negligence, which won’t surprise anyone given he was impeached for having sexual relations with intern Monica Lewinsky, put the U.S. at risk of being attacked by nuclear warheads from hostile actors.

This is despicable violation of the president’s basic duty to protect the nation from the gravest threat we have ever known, yet the liberal media argues Trump tweeting and defending himself proves he ismentally unfit for office.

With the media conjuring up conspiracy theories about Trump’s mental fitness, at least the current president respects and adheres to protecting our nuclear supremacy to ensure that we are prepared for all threats.

U.S. BLASTS BEIJING FOR “PROVOCATIVE MILITARIZATION” OF DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA

ON 1/9/18 AT 6:21 AM

The U.S. has vowed to continue so-called freedom-of-navigation patrols in the South China Sea as it accuses Beijing of “provocative militarization” of disputed islands.

Brian Hook, a senior Asia policy adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, told reporters in a phone conference on Tuesday that Washington will oppose all unilateral actions taken by China in the South China Sea while issues of sovereignty remain unresolved, the South China Morning Post reported.

“China’s provocative militarization of the South China Sea is one area where China is contesting international law. They are pushing around smaller states in ways that put a strain on the global system,” Hook said. “We are going to back up freedom-of-navigation operations and let them know we will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.”

Construction is shown on Fiery Cross Reef, in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea, in this June 16, 2017, satellite image released by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to Reuters on June 29, 2017. On Tuesday, Brian Hook, a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, accused Beijing of breaking international law by pushing around smaller states as it militarizes the South China Sea. REUTERS

China has continued to build on the disputed waters despite backlash and protests from surrounding c ountries and the U.S.

Last December, satellite images obtained by the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative showed that China had already built a high-frequency radar at Fiery Cross Reef and ammunition storage tunnels on the Subi Reefs.

“We strongly believe China’s rise cannot come at the expense of the values and rule-based order. That order is the foundation of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and also around the world,” Hook said. “When China’s behavior is out of step with these values and these rules, we will stand up and defend the rule of law.”

Last year, China claimed that it had “irrefutable” sovereignty over the disputed islands, despite Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei, also having claims to the area.

“We oppose these kinds of unilateral actions,” Hook said. “We encourage the authorities in Beijing and Taipei to engage in constructive dialogue on issues related to civil aviation.”

The U.S. has long criticized China’s build-up of military facilities in the disputed seas and believes that the construction is limiting navigation on international waters.

Beijing has repeatedly warned the U.S. to refrain from getting involved in the disputes and said the freedom of navigation patrols are an infringement on China’s sovereignty.

“We urge the United States to respect the facts, speak and act cautiously to avoid harming the peace and stability of the South China Sea,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a news briefing last January.

“Our actions in the South China Sea are reasonable and fair. No matter what changes happen in other countries, what they say or what they want to do, China’s resolve to protect its sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea will not change,” she added.

(newsweek)

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 1/9/2018 4:37:21 PM
	Russian Military Bases Attacked by Wave of Syrian Rebel Drones January 9, 2018 at 6:57 am Written by Jason Ditz (ANTIWAR.COM) — Following up on last night’s surprise attempt to attack the Russian airbase at Hmeimim by a drone belonging to a Syrian Islamist faction, a whole flurry of additional armed drones have made attempted runs at Russian military bases along the Syrian coast on Monday. The drones came from about 30 miles away, guided by GPS units, and made runs against both Hmeimim, and the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean. None managed to successful reach their targets. According to a statement from the Russians, seven were shot down with anti-aircraft missiles, while the other six crashed and otherwise landed outside of the bases without doing any damage at all. Hmeimim base was successfully attacked by rebels last week with artillery strikes, damaging several Russian planes. The drones so far haven’t done anything, but underscore the rebels’ willingness to keep trying to strike such targets. By Jason Ditz / Republished with permission / ANTIWAR.COM
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+2

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 1/9/2018 5:10:06 PM
	200,000 Salvadorans may be forced to leave the U.S. as Trump ends immigration protection Protesters gathered in front of the White House on Jan. 8 to defend Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans living in the U.S.(@nostredamnz/ Instagram) Protesters gathered in front of the White House on Jan. 8 to defend Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans living in the U.S.(@nostredamnz/ Instagram) By Nick Miroff and David Nakamura January 8 at 7:03 PM The Trump administration announced Monday that it will terminate the provisional residency permits of about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country since at least 2001, leaving them to face deportation. The administration said it will give the Salvadorans until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the United States or find a way to obtain a green card, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. After earthquakes hit the country in 2001, Salvadorans were granted what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, and their permits have been renewed on an 18-month basis since then. Monday’s announcement is the latest step by the administration to cut the number of foreigners living in the United States — by squeezing the flow of legal immigration and intensifying efforts to expel those who arrived illegally. The efforts span nearly every facet of the American immigration system. Arrests by immigration enforcement agents have increased 40 percent. Trump has slashed the number of refugees accepted by the United States to the lowest level since 1980. And last week his administration sent lawmakers an $18 billion blueprint for the first phase of a Mexico border wall. The 200,000 Salvadorans are among the nearly 1 million immigrants whose lives in the United States have been upended and set to a deadline under President Trump. The largest group, nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, are set to begin losing their temporary work permits in March at the rate of nearly 1,000 per day. Democrats and immigrant rights groups denounced the Trump administration’s TPS decision, which they characterized as another attack on the United States’ tradition of humanitarianism toward immigrants and refugees. On Monday, however, DHS officials resisted suggestions that the decision by Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was part of a broader anti-immigrant agenda. They described it in narrower legal terms, as a recognition that conditions in El Salvador have improved enough since the earthquakes to no longer warrant the TPS designation. “Based on careful consideration of available information, including recommendations received as part of an inter-agency consultation process, the Secretary determined that the original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist,” the DHS statement read. The statement noted that the U.S. government has deported more than 39,000 Salvadorans in the past two years, demonstrating, it said, “that the temporary inability of El Salvador to adequately return their nationals after the earthquake has been addressed.” Nielsen recently met with El Salvador’s foreign minister and spoke with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, according to the DHS. [How Trump is building a border wall no one can see] In total, DHS officials said, 262,500 Salvadorans have been granted TPS permits, but recent estimates indicate that closer to 200,000 people with that status reside in the United States. Immigrant advocates, Salvadoran government officials and others had implored Nielsen to extend the TPS designation, citing the country’s gang violence and the potentially destabilizing effect of so many people being sent home. El Salvador’s homicide rate — 108 per 100,000 people in 2015 — was the world’s highest for a country not at war, the most recent U.N. data shows. Others urged Nielsen to consider the approximately 190,000 U.S.-born children of Salvadoran TPS recipients. Their parents must now decide whether to break up their families, take their children back to El Salvador or stay in the United States and risk deportation. Senior DHS officials told reporters Monday that Salvadoran parents would have to make that choice. “We are not going to get involved in an individual family’s decision,” said the official, whom the agency did not allow to be quoted by name. The potential economic impact on American companies and businesses was not a factor either, officials said. The mayors of Houston, Los Angeles and other cities with large numbers of Salvadorans had urged Nielsen to taken into account the wider contributions of TPS recipients, a third of whom are U.S. homeowners, according to recent surveys. “Only Congress can legislate a permanent solution addressing the lack of an enduring lawful immigration status of those currently protected by TPS who have lived and worked in the United States for many years,” Monday’s DHS statement read. “The 18-month delayed termination will allow Congress time to craft a potential legislative solution.” [‘I consider this my country’: Salvadorans in U.S. devastated by TPS decision] Trump administration officials have repeatedly said they considered the TPS program an example of American immigration policy gone awry, noting that when Congress created the designation in 1990, its purpose was to provide “temporary” protection from deportation following a natural disaster, armed conflict or other calamity. In November, the DHS ended TPS for 60,000 Haitians who arrived after a 2010 earthquake and for 2,500 Nicaraguan migrants protected after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. A six-month extension was recently granted to 57,000 Hondurans, a decision made before Nielsen’s arrival, by then-acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke. That move frustrated White House officials who wanted Duke to end the program. Lawmakers from both parties who represent cities and states with large immigrant populations blasted the DHS decision. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called it a “cynical move” whose purpose is to “score political points with the extreme right-wing Republican base.” On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) urged the Trump administration to reconsider, warning that it would be “devastating” to send Salvadorans home “after they have created a humble living for themselves and their families.” The TPS decision came as Congress deliberates DACA’s fate. Some lawmakers see the looming Jan. 18 deadline for a must-pass government spending bill as leverage to forge a DACA solution. Trump is demanding significant concessions. He wants to beef up border security and scale back legal immigration channels in exchange for supporting permanent legal residency, and possibly citizenship, for DACA recipients. The president is scheduled to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House on Tuesday to continue the talks. There were new signs Monday that TPS could end up as a bargaining chip in the DACA negotiations. A person familiar with the talks said Congress could step in to help the Salvadorans, Haitians and other groups whose TPS permits are now set to expire in 2019. Democrats and Republicans have been privately discussing the possibility of curbing the diversity visa lottery program — which grants about 55,000 green cards each year to people from nations with low immigration rates to the United States — in exchange for sparing TPS recipients from deportation. Trump has insisted that any DACA deal must get rid of the lottery. [Salvadorans fear TPS decision will be a huge economic blow to their country] One aide on Capitol Hill familiar with the negotiations said Democrats would prefer a narrow deal to legalize DACA recipients. But this person added that if Trump insists on seeking significant border security upgrades and cuts to legal immigration, then Democrats will insist on extending TPS. Some Republicans fear that if a DACA deal falls through, it could harm the party in immigrant-heavy voting districts during a midterm election year. Meanwhile, immigration hawks are urging Trump to motivate his base by holding a harder line, as he did throughout the 2016 campaign. The president’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, has been opposed to continuing DACA, and he is said also to have championed ending the TPS program. “The fix has been in for these TPS decisions, regardless of the facts on the ground in these countries,” said Kevin Appleby of the New York-based Center for Migration Studies. “The decision on El Salvador is particularly damaging,” he said. “It not only will uproot families and children who have lived here for years; it also will further destabilize an already violent country.” The DHS said in its announcement that it conducted extensive outreach to Salvadorans living in the United States, including “community forums on TPS, panel discussions with Salvadoran community organizers, stakeholder teleconferences, regular meetings with TPS beneficiaries, news releases to the Salvadoran community, meetings with Salvadoran government officials, meetings at local churches, and listening sessions.” Jaime Contreras, vice president of Local 32BJ, the largest property-service local in the Service Employees International Union, called Monday’s decision “shameful.” In the Washington area, he said, TPS recipients clean Reagan National Airport, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and “every major landmark you can think of.” “They have families here. A lot of these people own homes,” said Contreras, whose union represents about 160,000 commercial office cleaners, security officers and others nationwide. “It’s time for Congress to do the right thing.” Ed O’Keefe and Maria Sacchetti contributed to this report. (The Washington Post)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+2

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 1/10/2018 9:19:22 AM
	Pentagon Panicked: Clinton ‘Loss’ Exposed As Four Star General Recounts Deadly Incompetence Posted by Martin Walsh \| Jan 8, 2018 \| National Security Bill Clinton lost the U.S. nuclear codes. While the liberal media peddles falsehoods that President Donald Trump is mentally unfit for office, a new report shows that former President Bill Clinton’s shady habits put our nation at risk. With North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un threatening to launch nuclear warheads at the U.S. — to which Trump has vowed to defend America and its allies at all costs — it is vital to control the United States’ 6,800 nuclear warheads. In a new book from by Gen. Hugh Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for three years while Clinton was in office, Clinton reportedly lost the nuclear launch codes required to authorize a nuclear strike, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to an attack. The book, titled, “Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior,” Shelton wrote that Clinton left the U.S. ill-prepared to defend itself against a nuclear attack. “How the hell could we have lost the nuclear codes and not known it?” the four-star general wrote. Gen. Hugh Shelton was livid that Clinton lost the nuclear codes and kept it quiet for so long. Pentagon officials first became suspicious when they visited the White House to ensure the codes were safe and make sure they were verified. At the White House, a staffer told the Pentagon official that Clinton “has them personally,” but when the staffer returned empty handed and said the president was “in an urgent meeting and could not be disturbed.” When the Pentagon returned one month later, the staff peddled the same line of excuses. “Sorry, President Clinton is in a meeting but he takes the codes very seriously and has them on his person – all is great with the codes,” White House staffer told officials. Pentagon officials only learned that Clinton had lost the codes months later when they returned to replace the codes, which takes place a few times a year to prevent hacking or unauthorized access to the codes. Shelton was furious, writing: “This is a big deal – a gargantuan deal – and we dodged a silver bullet. You may look at it and say ‘Well nothing happened’ and that’s true – but it could have.” Clinton’s negligence put the U.S. at risk of being attacked. Clinton’s insane negligence, which won’t surprise anyone given he was impeached for having sexual relations with intern Monica Lewinsky, put the U.S. at risk of being attacked by nuclear warheads from hostile actors. This is despicable violation of the president’s basic duty to protect the nation from the gravest threat we have ever known, yet the liberal media argues Trump tweeting and defending himself proves he ismentally unfit for office. With the media conjuring up conspiracy theories about Trump’s mental fitness, at least the current president respects and adheres to protecting our nuclear supremacy to ensure that we are prepared for all threats. Source: Conservative Institute
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+2

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 1/10/2018 9:40:39 AM
	U.S. BLASTS BEIJING FOR “PROVOCATIVE MILITARIZATION” OF DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA BY CHRISTINA ZHAO ON 1/9/18 AT 6:21 AM The U.S. has vowed to continue so-called freedom-of-navigation patrols in the South China Sea as it accuses Beijing of “provocative militarization” of disputed islands. Brian Hook, a senior Asia policy adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, told reporters in a phone conference on Tuesday that Washington will oppose all unilateral actions taken by China in the South China Sea while issues of sovereignty remain unresolved, the South China Morning Post reported. “China’s provocative militarization of the South China Sea is one area where China is contesting international law. They are pushing around smaller states in ways that put a strain on the global system,” Hook said. “We are going to back up freedom-of-navigation operations and let them know we will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.” Construction is shown on Fiery Cross Reef, in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea, in this June 16, 2017, satellite image released by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to Reuters on June 29, 2017. On Tuesday, Brian Hook, a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, accused Beijing of breaking international law by pushing around smaller states as it militarizes the South China Sea. REUTERS China has continued to build on the disputed waters despite backlash and protests from surrounding c ountries and the U.S. Last December, satellite images obtained by the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative showed that China had already built a high-frequency radar at Fiery Cross Reef and ammunition storage tunnels on the Subi Reefs. “We strongly believe China’s rise cannot come at the expense of the values and rule-based order. That order is the foundation of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and also around the world,” Hook said. “When China’s behavior is out of step with these values and these rules, we will stand up and defend the rule of law.” Last year, China claimed that it had “irrefutable” sovereignty over the disputed islands, despite Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei, also having claims to the area. “We oppose these kinds of unilateral actions,” Hook said. “We encourage the authorities in Beijing and Taipei to engage in constructive dialogue on issues related to civil aviation.” The U.S. has long criticized China’s build-up of military facilities in the disputed seas and believes that the construction is limiting navigation on international waters. Beijing has repeatedly warned the U.S. to refrain from getting involved in the disputes and said the freedom of navigation patrols are an infringement on China’s sovereignty. “We urge the United States to respect the facts, speak and act cautiously to avoid harming the peace and stability of the South China Sea,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a news briefing last January. “Our actions in the South China Sea are reasonable and fair. No matter what changes happen in other countries, what they say or what they want to do, China’s resolve to protect its sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea will not change,” she added. (newsweek)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+2

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 1/10/2018 10:24:41 AM
	Deaths by airstrikes up at least 82% in 2017 RT Tue, 09 Jan 2018 15:37 UTC © Alaa Al-Marjani / Reuters Western Mosul, Iraq More than 15,000 civilians were killed by explosive weapons in 2017, a 42 percent increase on last year, while deaths by airstrikes increased by 82 percent, a new study by Action on Armed Violence has found. The research shows that, while the official stats on the numbers of people who died are high, they're still modest in comparison to the "true figures." "The US has a habit of assuming all fighting-aged men are, in fact, fighters...This is the hammer that the US uses to establish the truth in war," the organization's Executive Director Iain Overton told RT. Much of the increase is due to the battles to retake Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) strongholds in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria. The Syrian conflict and the Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen also accounted for a large proportion of civilian deaths. The survey, found 8,932 civilians were killed by air-launched explosives in the first 11 months of 2017, compared to 4,902 during the same period in 2016. "At least 60 countries around the world saw explosive weapons being used last year," Action on Armed Violence's Executive Director Iain Overton told RT. "We have always acknowledged that our data would likely represent a lower figure of total civilians killed or injured than might actually be the case," Overton said. "This is particularly true when there is a single fatality or wounding, and particularly in under-reporting of those injured by a bomb blast." "When the fog of war descends casualty figures often fall short - both because they become highly politicized and because accurate reporting is often a casualty of war itself," he added. In the case of President Donald Trump's "Mother of All Bombs" dropped in Afghanistan in March, officials claimed 92 IS fighters had been killed. "When an enormous conventional bomb, the likes of which the world has never seen, is dropped, the blast will effectively wipe out evidence of whether someone was a fighter or a civilian." Overton said. "The world's media has seen a radical decline in foreign correspondents and paid staffers in recent years," Overton explains. "In addition, there are some no-go zones for many journalists as they could be kidnapped or executed. These two fundamental realities challenge on-the-ground reporting more than ever." Action on Armed Violence monitored English language wire reports of incidents to gather its data. These numbers are higher than those provided by government officials, but more modest than those compiled by other monitoring groups, including Airwars. The UK-based group monitors deaths in Iraq and Syria. It found that civilian deaths caused by US-led operations against IS was between 11,000-18,000. "In total, 1,751 people were killed or injured in explosive violence in Yemen in the first 11 months of 2017," Overton told RT. "This is, however, likely to be a shortfall of the true figures owing to the issues of accurate reporting being scarce on the ground there." (sott.net)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+2

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Pentagon Panicked: Clinton ‘Loss’ Exposed As Four Star General Recounts Deadly Incompetence

U.S. BLASTS BEIJING FOR “PROVOCATIVE MILITARIZATION” OF DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA

Deaths by airstrikes up at least 82% in 2017

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