ISIS Calling Again for Assassinations, Ambushes

/0 Comments/in , /by

Islamic State is far from defeated in Iraq and Syria, actively sending out messages to its extremists to revert to the terrorist group’s tactics of assassinations, bombs and ambushes.

The Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors jihadi chatter, reports that the orders have gone out in online publications and social media for a new way of fighting after the loss of the territory that protected the caliphate.

Other analysts are saying that, while the Iraqi government declared full liberation of all territories last month, Islamic remains adaptable and deadly.

“The end of the physical caliphate does not equal an end of the war or an end to their strategic goals,” retired Army Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, who led troops in Iraq, told The Washington Times.

Islamic State is the remnant of a semiconventional army of over 40,000 terrorists who rose up in Syria and invaded Iraq in 2014. But the organization still claims hundreds of fiercely committed fighters and thousands of loyalists in those two countries. (Read more from “ISIS Calling Again for Assassinations, Ambushes” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Study Reveals How Migrants Really Feel About Non-Muslims

/0 Comments/in , /by

Muslim migrants in Austria tend to express “Medieval” attitudes toward Jews, homosexuals, women and non-Muslims, according to an academic survey.

The study by Ednan Aslan, professor of Islamic Religious Education at the University of Vienna, interviewed a sample of 288 of the approximately 4,000 predominantly Afghan asylum seekers in state care in the southeastern Austrian city of Graz, according to the Austrian daily Kurier, Breitbart reported.

The survey found that some 54.5 percent believe Jewish people don’t care about anyone but themselves, and 44.2 percent think Judaism is actively harmful to the world.

Aslan observed: “For certain refugees anti-Semitism is a matter of course, which has given the refugee movement a new dimension.”

Strikingly, nearly 50 percent said Islam played a bigger role in their lives in Austria than it did in their native countries. (Read more from “Study Reveals How Migrants Really Feel About Non-Muslims” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump Considering Big Punishment for China

/0 Comments/in , /by

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is considering a “fine” against China as part of his administration’s probe into China’s alleged theft of intellectual property.

The comments, made in an interview with Reuters, appear to signal an increased willingness to take retaliatory trade action against China.

The U.S. launched a formal investigation this summer into allegations that China facilitates the theft of U.S. technology and intellectual property, in some cases forcing U.S. companies into delivering technology into Chinese hands as a cost of doing business. Under U.S. trade law, the administration can impose retalitory tarrifs and other trade sanctions against China if it concludes China is engaged in wrongdoing. Earlier reports from the U.S. government found China to be the worst infringer of intellectual property rights in the world.

Gary Cohn, the president’s chief economic adviser, told Reuters that the U.S. Trade Representative, who is directing the investigation, would be making a report and recommendations to the White House soon. (Read more from “Trump Considering Big Punishment for China” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

A Study Just Revealed the Truth About ‘Worst-Case’ Global Warming Scenarios

/0 Comments/in , /by

Earth’s surface will almost certainly not warm up four or five degrees Celsius by 2100, according to a study released Wednesday which, if correct, voids worst-case UN climate change predictions.

A revised calculation of how greenhouse gases drive up the planet’s temperature reduces the range of possible end-of-century outcomes by more than half, researchers said in the report, published in the journal Nature . . .

How effectively the world slashes CO2 and methane emissions, improves energy efficiency, and develops technologies to remove CO2 from the air will determine whether climate change remains manageable or unleashes a maelstrom of human misery.

But uncertainty about how hot things will get also stems from the inability of scientists to nail down a very simple question: By how much will Earth’s average surface temperature go up if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is doubled?

That “known unknown” is called equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS), and for the last 25 years the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the ultimate authority on climate science — has settled on a range of 1.5 C to 4.5 C (2.7 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit). (Read more from “A Study Just Revealed the Truth About ‘Worst-Case’ Global Warming Scenarios” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Pope Apologizes for Pedophile Priests

/0 Comments/in , /by

On Tuesday, the first day of a week-long Latin-America trip, Pope Francis asked “for forgiveness” for the “irreparable damage” done to children who were raped and molested by Catholic priests in Chile.

The pontiff met with a small group of abuse survivors at a “strictly private” gathering at the Vatican’s Apostolic Nunciature embassy in the capital, Santiago, the Vatican said.

Francis listened to their stories, “prayed with them and wept with them,” spokesman Greg Burke told reporters.

Earlier in the day, the pontiff made his first public remarks about abuse in a speech at La Moneda presidential palace.

Addressing Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, lawmakers, judges and other authorities, the pope said he felt “bound to express my pain and shame” that some of Chile’s clergy had sexually abused children who were in their care. (Read more from “Pope Apologizes for Pedophile Priests” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

New Scandal in Obama’s War Against Netanyahu

/0 Comments/in , /by

. . .Last October, WND CEO Joseph Farah pointed out the Obama administration sent money in 2015 to a non-profit U.S. group that sought to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a coalition government to remain as prime minister.

Now there’s new information, according to the American Center for Law and Justice, that the Obama administration’s intervention was even worse.

ACLJ said that in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it “uncovered a startling revelation.”

“Yasser Mahmoud Abbas, son of Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the terrorist-allied Palestinian Authority, was also a senior leader and advisor to OneVoice – and, as demonstrated by the contents of the documents themselves, the Obama administration knew this,” ACLJ said in a report Wednesday.

“In short, the Obama State Department gave U.S. taxpayer dollars to a terrorist-affiliated organization (the PA recently united with the terrorist group Hamas) to unseat the democratically elected leader of the only free democracy in the Middle East and a vital U.S. ally.” (Read more from “New Scandal in Obama’s War Against Netanyahu” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Even the Eyelashes Freeze: Russia Sees Minus 88.6 Degrees

/0 Comments/in , /by

Even thermometers can’t keep up with the plunging temperatures in Russia’s remote Yakutia region, which hit minus 67 degrees Celsius (minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas Tuesday.

In Yakutia — a region of 1 million people about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) east of Moscow — students routinely go to school even in minus 40 degrees. But school was canceled Tuesday throughout the region and police ordered parents to keep their children inside.

In the village of Oymyakon, one of the coldest inhabited places on earth, state-owned Russian television showed the mercury falling to the bottom of a thermometer that was only set up to measure down to minus 50 degrees. In 2013, Oymyakon recorded an all-time low of minus 71 degrees Celsius (minus 98 Fahrenheit). (Read more from “Even the Eyelashes Freeze: Russia Sees Minus 88.6 Degrees” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump Chief of Staff: Mexico Won’t Be Paying for Border

/0 Comments/in , /by

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Democratic congressmen Wednesday there will be no wall stretching the complete length of the 2,100-mile U.S.-Mexico border and that some of President Trump’s campaign promises on immigration were “uninformed,” according to a Washington Post report Wednesday.

Kelly also reportedly indicated that the Mexican government will not fund the planned 700 miles of wall, which is expected to cost $20 billion.

The chief of staff is said to have made the comments in a meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif.

The Post said its report is based on notes from two congressmen who were in the room during the meeting and confirmed by two other lawmakers and a senior aide who were also present.

Kelly requested the meeting after being asked to do so by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., according to the paper, which noted that Pelosi “has been in frequent contact with Kelly over the last several months and told him that the group is critical to reaching a deal” on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. (Read more from “Trump Chief of Staff: Mexico Won’t Be Paying for Border” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The US Military Is Preparing for War Against North Korea

/0 Comments/in , /by

The United States military is preparing for a still-unlikely war with North Korea.

That’s the takeaway from two big stories that broke over the long weekend. On Sunday, the New York Times reported that US troops are actively holding training exercises specifically geared toward a possible war with North Korea. And the Associated Press reported on Monday that the US has now started sending ships and bombers toward the Korean Peninsula, beefing up its military presence in the region.

But that’s not all. It looks like Japan has started thinking about ways to evacuate thousands of its citizens from South Korea if war with North Korea does break out . . .

According to the Associated Press, the US has started moving planes, ships, and troops closer to North Korea. Three B-2 bombers are now positioned in Guam, a US territory with military bases only 2,200 miles away from country. That’s significant: The B-2 is the Air Force’s most advanced bomber — and it can carry nuclear weapons. The Air Force also sent six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Guam.

On top of that, the USS Carl Vinson is on its way toward the western Pacific Ocean. The Navy says it’s for a regularly scheduled deployment, but North Korea may still find the move threatening. That’s because an aircraft carrier can, well, carry aircraft. Think of them as floating airports that the US can place near almost any country it wants. The US can put multiple attack planes on it, moving them much closer to their potential targets in North Korea should war break out. (Read more from “The US Military Is Preparing for War Against North Korea” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Former CIA Officer – Charged with Unlawful Possession of Secrets – Is Suspected of Much Worse Crime

/0 Comments/in , /by

A former CIA officer who was charged Tuesday with unlawful possession of secrets is suspected of a much worse crime: betraying U.S. informants in China, sources familiar with the case told NBC News.

The former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, was arrested Monday after flying into New York on a Cathay Pacific flight from his home in Hong King, federal authorities announced.

Lee, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was charged with a single count of unlawfully possessing national defense information, based on a 2012 search that found him to be in possession of two notebooks containing the true names of CIA assets and covert facilities, which are some of the agency’s most closely guarded secrets.

But sources familiar with the case say he is suspected of funneling information to China that caused the deaths or imprisonment of approximately 20 American agents, in one of the worst intelligence breaches in decades.

The New York Times reported last year that the Chinese government systematically dismantled CIA spying operations in the country starting in 2010, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources over two years and crippling intelligence gathering there for years afterward. (Read more from “Former CIA Officer – Charged with Unlawful Possession of Secrets – Is Suspected of Much Worse Crime” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.