China Outmaneuvers U.S. in Pakistan and Afghanistan

In June 2017, nearly two dozen Chinese, protected by a Pakistani security detail conducted surveys and took soil samples in areas west of the Pakistani port of Gwadar near the Iranian border, suggesting the possibility of a major new construction project, according to on-the-ground sources.

In late September 2017, a delegation of Chinese, Pakistanis and Iranians, including military and intelligence personnel, met in Iran near the border with Pakistan, again close to the port city of Gwadar. It was reported that the meeting dealt with security issues in the region, in particular, between the important Iranian port of Chabahar and Gwadar.

Again, in mid-October 2017, there was another secret meeting between the Pakistanis and the Iranians on the border near Gwadar.

At the beginning of November 2017, in the first such trip in twenty years, Pakistani Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa went to Iran for a three-day official visit. During his time in Tehran, he met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in an effort to expand “military and defence cooperation with Tehran, besides promoting historical and economic relations and cooperation in other areas.”

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, stated, “Leaders of both sides agreed to stay engaged for enhanced bilateral cooperation while jointly working to assist in bringing positive developments in other issues concerning the region.”

The ISPR added that the discussions included “Afghan situation, growing threat of ISIS in the region and Pak-Iran border security.”

In recent years, there have been numerous incidents along the Iran-Pakistan border in Balochistan province including; attacks on Iran reportedly by Saudi-funded anti-Shia Islamic extremist groups, retaliatory Iranian mortar attacks on Pakistani villages and Iranian drone incursions into Pakistan, one of which was shot down by a Pakistani jet.

Subsequent to the visit by the Pakistani Army Chief to Iran, however, a gathering of anti-Iranian jihadis northwest of Panjgur, were ordered to disperse by Pakistani authorities, described by villagers near map coordinates 27.179106, 63.659733.

In a more public display of Iranian-Pakistani reconciliation, during the December 3, 2017 inauguration of the Iranian port of Chabahar, the Pakistani minister for ports and shipping was standing next to the Iranian President during the ceremony. According to official sources, Pakistan “has given firm assurances to Iran that Islamabad would not become part of an initiative that targets the Islamic Republic” and Iran “has pledged that it would not allow any regional country including India to undermine Pakistan’s interests,” thus representing a “turnaround” in Pakistan’s participation in the Saudi-led counterterrorism coalition aimed at Iran.

An Iranian diplomat added, “that military and intelligence cooperation have deepened greatly in the past few months as officials from the security establishments on either side of the border speak to each other more often,” confirming the on-the-ground reports of secret meetings between Iran and Pakistan earlier in 2017.

Even only a near-term Chinese-brokered accommodation between Iran and Pakistan could represent an earthquake-like shift in the South Asian strategic environment.

That development occurs nearly in parallel with the first China-Pakistan-Afghanistan trilateral meeting in late December 2017, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi invited the Afghans to join the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and pledged to step up “efforts to forge peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

In the wake of recent confirmation that China will build a new naval base near Gwadar, Pakistan, the United States appears on the verge of being strategically out-maneuvered and may encounter serious geopolitical setbacks in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, not to mention the possibility of being nudged out of Afghanistan with little to show for all the blood and treasure expended.

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Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired US Army Reserve colonel, an IT command and control subject matter expert, trained in Arabic and Kurdish, and a veteran of Afghanistan, northern Iraq and a humanitarian mission to West Africa. He receives email at [email protected].

Bundy Case Dismissed in Staggering Blow to Federal Government

By WND. In a blistering rebuke to the federal government, a judge dismissed all charges against rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and militia member Ryan Payne stemming from an armed standoff with federal agents in 2014.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro issued a scathing analysis of the government’s conduct, terming it “outrageous.”

“There has been flagrant misconduct, substantial prejudice and no lesser remedy is sufficient,” she said.

The charges were dismissed “with prejudice,” which means the federal government will not be able to retry the men.

The same judge declared a mistrial in the case late last month, citing prosecutorial misconduct. (Read more from “Bundy Case Dismissed in Staggering Blow to Federal Government” HERE)

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Cliven Bundy Emerges Defiant After Nevada Case Against Him and His Sons Tossed

By Ken Ritter. The Nevada rancher accused of leading an armed standoff that stopped federal agents from rounding up his cattle in 2014 walked out of a courthouse in Las Vegas a free and defiant man Monday, declaring that his fight against U.S. authority is not over.

Cliven Bundy emerged to supporters’ cheers, while environmental and conservation advocates worried that the dismissal of his charges would bolster “violent and racist anti-government” followers who aim to erode established parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands controlled by U.S. officials.

“We’re not done with this,” the 71-year-old Bundy declared in his first minutes of freedom since his arrest in February 2016. (Read more from “Cliven Bundy Emerges Defiant After Nevada Case Against Him and His Sons Tossed” HERE)

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Homosexual Sex Still Illegal in India, but Nation’s Supreme Court Now Reconsidering

In India, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But on Monday, the country’s highest court announced it will re-examine the ban . . .

Following a petition filed by five Indians who said they are living in constant fear of being prosecuted, the Supreme Court said a larger group of judges would reconsider the constitutional validity of the law . . .

But in 2013, India’s Supreme Court overturned the ruling and re-criminalized same-sex relationships.

This time, some justices are arguing that the law contradicts Article 21 of the Indian constitution, which says: “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”

After a … ruling in September, many justices in the country recognized that Article 21 guaranteed a right to privacy, including sexual orientation. (Read more from “Homosexual Sex Still Illegal in India, but Nation’s Supreme Court Now Reconsidering” HERE)

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Mandalay Bay Admits Staff Visited Paddock’s Room 10 TIMES Before Shooting — Noticed Nothing

Three months after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, yet another crucial change in the narrative has occurred as MGM Resorts International is now claiming that the hotel staff at Mandalay Bay had at least 10 interactions with suspect Stephen Paddock in the days before the shooting.

At least two of those interactions occurred on Oct. 1, the day that Paddock is alleged to have killed 58 people and injured more than 500 by launching a shooting spree out of his hotel room window on the 32nd floor. A spokesperson for MGM told The Las Vegas Review-Journal that the interactions on that fatal day consisted of a room service delivery and a visit from housekeeping:

Mandalay Bay staff, room service and housekeeping had contact with Paddock or entered his suite more than 10 times over the course of his stay, including the three days leading up to October 1. There were numerous interactions with Stephen Paddock every day at the resort, including a room service delivery and a call with housekeeping on October 1, all of which were normal in nature.

Following the shooting, reports claimed that Paddock’s arsenal consisted of 47 guns—23 of which were found in his hotel room—along with more than 50 pounds of exploding targets and 1,600 rounds of ammunition.

While the hotel’s surveillance footage from the days leading up to the shooting has yet to be released, one of the most pressing questions surrounding the massacre is how Paddock was able to transport all of the weapons and supplies to his hotel room without raising any red flags.

During an interview with Fox News Sunday one week after the shooting, chief executive of Wynn Resorts, Steve Wynn, suggested that Paddock may have escaped public attention by taking the service elevator, a perk typically given to “high rollers.”

“You’d never stop a man like this (Paddock) from coming in the building,” Wynn said. “However, nobody in this company’s history, no public person, has ever walked in the service elevator unless they were accompanied by security. Uh, that wouldn’t happen.”

At the time, Wynn was also critical of Mandalay Bay for failing to make contact with Paddock for two or three days, with the assumption being that he put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door of his room during his stay.

“The scenario that we are aware of would have indicated that he didn’t let anyone in the room for two or three days. That would have triggered a whole bunch of alarms here,” Wynn said.

The latest change in the timeline is significant because it implies that hotel staff were in Paddock’s room at least twice on the day of the shooting, and did not notice anything out of the ordinary about his luggage or his behavior.

While Wynn claimed that the scenario he was aware of involved Paddock using a “Do Not Disturb” sign for up to three days, the spokesperson for MGM claimed that if Paddock had done this, it would have required the hotel staff to conduct a welfare check.

“All MGM Resorts properties follow a health and welfare check operating procedure that stipulates a welfare check be performed after two consecutive days where a do-not-disturb sign has been displayed on the door and the guest has not interacted in-person or by phone with housekeeping or other hotel staff over the same period,” the spokesperson said.

Craig Eiland, an attorney for a number of victims from the shooting, noted that MGM Grand claims to have a “corporate watch center” that trains its employees to report any suspicious activity. So if a guest arrived at Mandalay Bay Hotel with two dozen rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition stored in 10 bags, why didn’t the employees who helped him, or the cleaning service who visited his room regularly, report suspicious activity? And if they did, why wasn’t it addressed?

I do think that after 30 days, we ought to be having more information than we have right now. For example, we know bits and pieces. We know that he arrived with 10 bags. We know that two bellmen helped him carry those bags up. Then we find out that those 10 bags had guns in them and 5,000 rounds of ammunition. We know that MGM claims to have an ‘If you see something, say something’ policy—and you’re telling us that nobody saw those guns over a 5-day period? No maid, no housekeeping, no food service ever saw any of the guns? Nobody saw him using power drills in the hallway? Nobody saw him setting up security cameras? These are all things that need to be answered.

However, the statement from MGM Resorts International concluded that despite having at least 10 interactions with Paddock in the days leading up to the shooting, the hotel staff believed that “there was no need to conduct a welfare check.”

As The Free Thought Project has reported, the narrative of the shooting has changed multiple times. From the facts surrounding whether an officer discharged his weapon upon entering Paddock’s room, to the presence of police and security guards when the shooting began, the official story has been riddled with inconsistencies. (For more from the author of “Mandalay Bay Admits Staff Visited Paddock’s Room 10 TIMES Before Shooting — Noticed Nothing” please click HERE)

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After Golden Globes Speech, James Woods Shares 3 Photos From Oprah’s Past

After Oprah Winfrey’s highly publicized speech at the Golden Globes sparked speculation of a presidential run, actor James Woods tweeted three pictures of her with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Winfrey, who starred in The Weinstein Company film “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” in 2013, is shown hanging on his shoulder in one picture posted by Woods.

In another, she appears to be showering affection on Weinstein.

Finally, in a third photo, Winfrey offers what looks to be a reassuring hand to Rita Ora, as Weinstein reaches over to touch the young singer.

As reported by The Western Journal, British actress Kadian Noble said that Weinstein used Winfrey and actress Naomi Campbell to fool her into believing he would further her acting career.

Noble had met Weinstein in 2014 at a British Academy Film Awards after-party.

There, Weinstein allegedly introduced Noble to Winfrey and Campbell, before telling Noble that he had an interest in her acting ability.

Noble claimed to have been impressed by Weinstein after she witnessed Winfrey “swinging off his arm.”

The actress recounted that instead of helping her career he only wanted to have sex with her.

Woods also took NBC to task for tweeting a picture of Winfrey from the Golden Globes with the caption, “Nothing but respect for OUR future president,” The Daily Wire reported.

NBC later took the tweet down explaining a “third party agency” posted the picture for the NBC Entertainment Network, and it was in reference to a joke host Seth Meyers told in his opening monologue.

Woods quipped in response, “But assure our followers we will still work behind the scenes to enable the #DNC agenda as always.”

CNN reported Monday that Winfrey is “actively thinking” about running for president in 2020.

One unnamed source said the conversations about a run for office goes back several months, but Winfrey has not made a decision.

Winfrey’s longtime partner, Stedman Graham, who attended the Golden Globes with her on Sunday, told the Los Angeles Times afterwards that a presidential bid is “up to the people.”

“She would absolutely do it,” he added.

Earlier in the evening, Meyers fed into the speculation with a joke at the Globes.

“Oprah,” Meyers said, looking out at her in the audience, “in 2011, I told some jokes about our current president at the White House Correspondents Dinner — jokes about how he was unqualified to be president — and some have said that night convinced him to run. So if that’s true, I just want to say: Oprah, you will never be president! You do not have what it takes!”

Asked about a potential Winfrey run, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said President Trump would “welcome all comers,” according to The Washington Times.

Gidley stated, “We welcome the challenge, whether it be Oprah Winfrey or anybody else.” (For more from the author of “After Golden Globes Speech, James Woods Shares 3 Photos From Oprah’s Past Oprah’s Past” please click HERE)

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Equality-Preaching Scientologist Elisabeth Moss Called Hypocrite After Golden Globes Speech

Twitter users raged over actress Elisabeth Moss’ speech at the Golden Globes and called her a hypocrite for urging gender equality as a Scientologist.

Moss, who won the Golden Globe award for best actress for her role in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” paraphrased a quote from Margaret Atwood’s book of the same name during her acceptance speech, praising women “who were brave enough to speak out against intolerance and injustice,” according to Fox News.

Twitter users had none of it, however, and published a barrage of posts calling Moss out as a hypocrite in light of her support for and membership in the Church of Scientology, which actively protects members accused of sexual assault or harassment.

“We no longer live in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. We no longer live in the gaps between the stories. We are the story in print, and we are writing the story ourselves,” Moss said, paraphrasing Atwood’s writing.

The Church of Scientology most recently garnered criticism for allegedly protecting actor Danny Masterson, star of “That 70s Show” and “The Ranch,” from several allegations of sexual assault.

Moss normally does not speak about her involvement in the Church of Scientology or about its practices, but recently defended the Church in response to a fan’s question on Instagram, denying that it silences members from seeking outside help like law enforcement and media.

“Question though, does it make you think twice about Scientology? Gilead (the fictional country in the show) and Scientology both believe that all outside sources (aka news) are wrong and evil … it’s just very interesting,” the fan asked, according to Page Six.

“That’s actually not true at all about Scientology. Religious freedom and tolerance and understanding the truth and equal rights for every race, religion and creed are extremely important to me. The most important things to me probably. And so Gilead and ‘THT’ hit me on a very personal level,” Moss responded.

Chris Shelton, a former member of the Church of Scientology and of Sea Org — a legally nonexistent fraternal order of the most dedicated Scientologists — told Fox News that Moss’ portrayal of the Church as tolerant is patently false and that coverups for members accused of sexual assault are par for the course.

“The church works to protect the church first,” Shelton told Fox. “(The Church of Scientology) considers anyone outside the church to be a ‘wog,’ which is a defamatory word describing non-members … It creates an ‘us versus them’ mentality (and tells) members that ‘wogs’ at law enforcement won’t protect them.”

Actress Leah Remini, also a former Scientologist, has also stirred rampant criticism against the religion with her Emmy Award-winning docu-series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” which documents the church’s abusive practices and its harassment of former members. (For more from the author of “Equality-Preaching Scientologist Elisabeth Moss Called Hypocrite After Golden Globes Speech” please click HERE)

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Donald Trump to Senate: “Kiss My A**”; Renominates Court Picks Rated ‘Not Qualified’ to Serve

President Donald Trump on Monday resubmitted 21 judicial nominees to the Senate whose nominations expired in 2017 ― including two rated “not qualified” to be federal judges by the American Bar Association.

Charles Goodwin and Holly Teeter are among those in the president’s renominations. The ABA concluded in December that Goodwin, Trump’s nominee to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, is unqualified to fulfill the demands of a federal judge given his “work habits.” The ABA concluded in November that Teeter, Trump’s nominee to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, is not qualified based on her lack of trial court experience.

Judicial nominees rarely earn such an abysmal rating from the ABA, which has reviewed more than 1,700 federal judicial nominees since 1989. None of President Barack Obama’s nominees were rated “not qualified” during his eight years in office. Eight of President George W. Bush’s earned the rating during his two terms. In Trump’s case, four have earned the rating in his first year. Senate Republicans actually confirmed one of them, for some reason. The other one bowed out in embarrassment.

Part of Trump’s problem is that he’s flying through judicial nominations without much vetting, and he’s not submitting potential court picks to the ABA before he announces their nominations. Most presidents wait for the ABA rating to come out before announcing a nominee, in part to save face in case one of their nominees gets a bad rating. Obama had a handful of potential court picks who got a “not qualified” rating, but then they were never formally nominated.

Progressive advocacy groups are urging Senate GOP leaders to stop being a rubber stamp for Trump’s questionable court picks, despite being in the same party as him. (Read more from “Donald Trump Renominates Court Picks Rated ‘Not Qualified’ to Serve” HERE)

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Police Chief Arrested in Child Sex Sting

A Pennsylvania police chief arrested in a child sex sting operation identified himself as a “kutecop4you” in an online ad and allegedly said “everyone has to have a first time” when the phony school girl he was corresponding with told him she was only 14.

“You will just have to get me naked tomorrow,” the chief, Michael William Diebold, who runs the three-man Leechburg Police Department, wrote, according to a criminal complaint obtained Monday by NBC News. “I’m not teasing.” . . .

Now Diebold, who became a local celebrity and the object of great sympathy last year after losing his lower left arm in a fireworks accident, is charged with unlawful contact with a minor and other offenses and was being held on $500,000 bond at the Westmoreland County Prison in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

“This case is particularly heinous because the perpetrator is a public official, sworn to serve and protect the community,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “We have a zero tolerance policy for the sexual abuse of children and my office will prosecute any offender to the fullest extent of the law, no matter who they are.”

Investigators zeroed-in on Diebold on Sept. 15 after he allegedly posted an ad spelling out in no uncertain terms what kind of sex he was looking for — and clearly identified himself as a cop. (Read more from “Police Chief Arrested in Child Sex Sting” HERE)

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FBI Agents’ Text Messages Spur Congressional Probe Into Possible News Leaks

Republican-led House and Senate committees are investigating whether leaders of the Russia counterintelligence investigation had contacts with the news media that resulted in improper leaks, prompted in part by text messages amongst senior FBI officials mentioning specific reporters, news organizations and articles.

In one exchange, FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page engaged in a series of texts shortly before Election Day 2016 suggesting they knew in advance about an article in The Wall Street Journal and would need to feign stumbling onto the story so it could be shared with colleagues.

The text messages, which were reviewed by The Hill, show the two FBI agents discussed how they might make it appear they innocently discovered the article, such as through Google News alerts.

“I can get it like I do every other article that hits any Google News alerts, seriously,” Strzok wrote, adding he didn’t want his team hearing about the article “from someone else.”

Strzok played a key role in the early Russia election meddling probe before he was removed last summer by special counsel Robert Mueller for exchanging text messages critical of President Trump, then still a candidate, with Page. (Read more from “FBI Agents’ Text Messages Spur Congressional Probe Into Possible News Leaks” HERE)

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HIV-Positive School Sports Coach Admits Sexually Abusing 42 Students

By Lucy Pasha-Robinson. A HIV-positive former sports coach has been charged with sexually abusing 42 children, prosecutors said.

Carlos Deangelo Bell, from Maryland, pled guilty to 27 counts, including sexual abuse of a minor, child pornography charges and attempted transmission of HIV, state attorney for Charles County Tony Covington said.

Bell allegedly carried out the offences between May 2015 to June 2017, and victims were aged between 11 and 17-years-old, the court heard.

Of the 42 victims, officials said just 28 have been identified. Police said he sexually assaulted the students without using protection, according to Fox5, but investigators were not aware of any victim having tested positive for HIV.

“You really can’t imagine what had to be gone through when investigating this case,” said Mr Covington, CNN reported, referring to the hours of video that “nobody ever wants to see.” (Read more from “HIV-Positive School Sports Coach Admits Sexually Abusing 42 Students” HERE)

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High School Basketball Coach Arrested Over Claims She Slept With Underage Student

By Clark Mindock. A high school basketball coach has been arrested after she allegedly had a sexual relationship with an underage student.

Police reportedly arrested 26-year-old Ann Kuroki Friday night, after a short investigation that began Wednesday.

The authorities launched that investigation after they received a tip that Ms Kuroki had a physical relationship with a male student at the Gooding, Idaho, high school

Ms Kuroki is now the subject of an internal investigation being conducted by the Gooding School District, which terminated her contract Thursday morning, according to reports.

She had previously worked for the district as a so-called “at will” employee, even though police in the town referred to her as a teacher there. (Read more from “High School Basketball Coach Arrested Over Claims She Slept With Underage Student” HERE)

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