‘Badass Librarians’ Foil al Qaeda, Save Ancient Manuscripts
Such a cool story
Category: Middle East,
Iran seizes another foreign oil tanker
Seven sailors were detained.
No details about the crew’s nationalities or who owns the ship were given. The ship was reportedly seized near Farsi Island, a small, barren enclave in the Persian Gulf.
It is the second ship in less than a month seized by Iran for allegedly smuggling oil.
Iran seizes another foreign oil tanker
hmmmm
Trump transition adviser convicted on foreign-agent charges
A federal jury on Tuesday convicted Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Michael Flynn, on a pair of foreign-agent felony charges stemming from work the two men did for Turkish interests during the final months of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016.
…A belated courtroom victory for special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated the $600,000 lobbying and public relations contract at the heart of the case and then handed the matter off to other federal prosecutors after Flynn’s guilty plea to a false-statement charge in 2017.
…“Today’s verdict should stand as a deterrent to any malign foreign influence that undermines the integrity of our political processes,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said. “Through misrepresentations in his FARA filing, Mr. Rafiekian attempted to deceive the public and influence key leaders on behalf of Turkey. The Department of Justice treats these crimes with the gravity that they deserve.”
The Iranian-American businessman, who was Flynn’s main partner in his short-lived consulting firm, also served as an adviser to the Trump transition team on national security issues.
…It’s unclear how prosecutors’ decision not to call Flynn will affect his ultimate sentence.
Other disclosures at the Rafiekian trial could also impact Flynn’s sentencing, including a startling but cryptic statement that prosecutors issued just before the trial, indicating that the U.S. government has various kinds of undisclosed, classified evidence that the Turkish government reached out to Flynn through Alptekin “because of Michael Flynn’s relationship with an ongoing presidential campaign.”
…It seems possible the judge sentencing Flynn will view the verdicts as confirming that Flynn was effectively on the payroll of the Turkish government while working on Trump’s presidential bid.
Trump transition adviser convicted on foreign-agent charges – POLITICO
hmmm
Saudi women can now travel without consent – but this progress is fragile
Women can be granted passports and travel abroad without the consent of their male guardians. They can also register a birth, marriage or divorce. But they still cannot marry, or leave prison or a domestic violence shelter without the consent of their male guardians.
[Saudi Arabia’s “guardianship” system] stipulates that women are not legal persons, and consequently, they have to be represented by male relatives to work, marry, study, travel, and seek medical care.
hmmmm
Divers Uncover Ancient Temple Submerged Within The ‘Egyptian Atlantis’
In their most recent underwater expedition, Egyptian and European experts have found significant remains of a large temple under the sea, as well as several ships laden with treasure such as coins and jewellery.
Archaeologists led by Franck Goddio, who was also in charge of the very first underwater exploration of Heracleion, think they have found the stone columns from the city’s main temple (called Amun Garp), as well as the remains of a smaller Greek temple.
…Heracleion (also known as Thonis) is thought to have been built during the 8th century BCE on the banks of the Nile river, and is so named because the hero Hercules himself once visited it – or so the legend goes.
…Exactly how it ended up underwater remains a mystery to historians, but the best guess is that rising sea levels, seismic activity, and crumbling foundations caused the entire city to slide into the Mediterranean, at least 1,000 years ago.
…As for the other finds besides the temples, the divers report coming across bronze coins from the reign of King Ptolemy II (283 to 246 BCE), plus pottery, jewellery, and storage utensils found in the remains of several ships.
The archaeologists also dug up coins from the Byzantine era, which means it’s likely that the city was inhabited from at least the fourth century BCE.
Divers Uncover Ancient Temple Submerged Within The ‘Egyptian Atlantis’
cool!
Nadia Murad: ISIS killed my family. Trump asks ‘Where are they now?’
Nadia Murad, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and refugee of the Yazidi region of Iraq, this week personally asked President Donald Trump to step in to help her community — in an appeal that was emotional, almost desperate at moments.
…Murad, who is in her mid-20s, survived sex slavery and torture from ISIS. She went on to be an advocate to end sexual violence in war and armed conflicts, which is how she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
…”Today you can solve our problem. Now there is no ISIS but we cannot go back because Kurdish government and the Iraqi government, they are fighting each other (over) who will control my area,” Murad explained. “And we cannot go back if we cannot protect our dignity, our families.”
“But ISIS is gone,” Trump replied.
…”All this happened to me. They killed my mom, my six brothers. They left behind them,” Murad said.
“Where are they now?” Trump asked.
“They killed them,” Murad quickly replied. “They are in the mass grave in Sinjar, and I’m still fighting just to live in safe[ty.]
Nadia Murad: ISIS killed my family. Trump asks ‘Where are they now?’
Monstrously ignorant asshat.
Kushner’s Palestinian peace plan resembles real estate brochure
The plan is premised on three tenets: “Unleashing economic potential, empowering the Palestinian people, and enhancing Palestinian governance.” It’s replete with buzzwords, charts, and tables. It promises investments in private enterprise, education, health care, and government in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. It features images of happy Palestinians, with minimal mention of Israel and no discussion of the state of Palestine.
…It contains no political solution to the problem Kushner was tasked with solving. It doesn’t address the famously difficult questions that have doomed other peace proposals, like the status of the city of Jerusalem or Palestinians’ right of return. There’s no talk of what might be done with Israeli settlements in occupied territories, nor any discussion of borders at all.
…Like any business proposal, it is meant to intrigue potential investors and get them dreaming big before getting bogged down by pesky facts on the ground.
Kushner’s Palestinian peace plan resembles real estate brochure — Quartz
hmmm
Iran: Trump’s White House ‘afflicted by mental retardation’
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has said the White House is “afflicted by mental retardation.”
…An exasperated Mr Rouhani said: “You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks?”
…Foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the American government was “destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security.”
hmmm
Iran will get the blame, but the Gulf of Oman truth is likely a lot murkier
Inevitably, similarities have been drawn between Thursday’s attacks and events a month ago, when four ships were targeted near the Emirati port of Furajah. For that, officials in Washington and beyond pointed the finger at Iran.
But Thursday’s incident is significantly more blatant. Yet the same officials will doubtless blame Tehran again. If and when that happens, we should remember US national security advisor John Bolton promised to present evidence to the UN Security Council backing up those previous claims, but has yet to do so.
…There are few easy facts here, as there are few easy culprits. But the sense of uncertainty stokes rather than dampens the fears of mismanagement and conflict.
Iran will get the blame, but the Gulf of Oman truth is likely a lot murkier – CNN
hmmm
Japanese Tanker Owner Says U.S. Is Wrong About Gulf Attack
Yutaka Katada, the owner of one of the stricken fuel tankers crippled in explosions in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, says the U.S. is wrong about the way the attack was carried out.
…“It seems there was a high chance they were attacked by a flying object. The impact was well above the water. I don’t think it was a torpedo.”
Japanese Tanker Owner Says U.S. Is Wrong About Gulf Attack
hmmmm
TBT: Israel demolishes Palestinian schools, citing lack of permits
The brand-new building, paid for by the European Union, was constructed just three weeks ago. Now, little more than the concrete floor and an outhouse remain.
…Now [the student have] been left with only a tent to shelter from the searing heat of the August sun — and no tables to sit and study at.
…According to the NRC, three educational facilities for Palestinian children in the West Bank have been demolished or damaged by Israeli authorities in the past two weeks.
…A kindergarten for the Bedouin community of Jabal Al Baba was torn down, and a primary school in Abu Nuwar had its solar panels — the only source of power at the school — dismantled and taken away, the NRC says.
…The European Union says about 100 structures — homes, shelters, water networks, as well as schools — in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, for which the EU or EU member states have provided funding, have been demolished or seized over the past year.
…”What threat do these schools pose to the Israeli authorities? What are they planning to achieve by denying thousands of children their fundamental right to education?”
Israel demolishes Palestinian schools, citing lack of permits – CNN
sigh…
No longer comfortable with legacy pro-Israel groups, many Jewish Americans are looking elsewhere
“American Jews are still 70, 80 percent Democratic,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of J Street, a progressive pro-Israel organization that lobbies for a peaceful two-state solution. “A lot of it has to do with Netanyahu throwing his lot in with the Republican Party, Evangelical Christians, that side of the global political universe. But most American Jews are opposed to that, and support liberal democracy, and tolerance, and inclusion. And so there is more and more discomfort with a majority of American Jews.”
hmmm
Vox goes off on Ari Fleischer for pushing a false narrative about what lead up to the Second Gulf War
There were numerous occasions when Bush and his advisers made statements that intelligence agencies knew to be false, both about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and about Iraq President Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent links to al-Qaeda.
…The CIA had informed policymakers it had “no specific information on the types or quantities of weapons agent or stockpiles at Baghdad’s disposal.” The “massive stockpile” was just literally made up.
…In August 2002, Cheney declared, “Simply stated, there’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.” But as Corn notes, at that time there was “no confirmed intelligence at this point establishing that Saddam had revived a major WMD operation.”
……“Dozens of interviews with current and former intelligence officials and policymakers in the United States, Britain, France and Italy show that the Bush administration disregarded key information available at the time showing that the Iraq-Niger claim was highly questionable.”
…While some noble dissenters, like the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and technical nuclear weapons experts at the Department of Energy, pushed back on the prevailing view in the intelligence community, the community as a whole clearly failed and vastly overestimated the likelihood that biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons programs existed.
…The atmosphere of impending war, the commission continues, “contributed to the too-ready willingness to accept dubious information as supporting the conventional wisdom and to an unwillingness even to consider the possibility that the conventional wisdom was wrong.”
…To engage in world politics is to weigh in on matters of life and death. Policymakers will get things wrong and they will cause people to lose their lives. But engagement in world politics does not necessitate lying to the American people and the world at large.
Ari Fleischer is wrong: Bush did lie, and people did die – Vox
hmmmm
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