ΤΟΥΡΚΟΙ ΕΛΑΤΕ!.. Η… ΡΩΜΗ ΕΠΕΣΕ ΠΙΑ!.. ΔΕΝ ΕΧΟΥΜΕ ΣΤΡ-ΚΗ ΗΓΕΣΙΑ! ΠΕΘΑΝΕ!.. ΑΡΘΡΟ 22 ΕΔΩ!..

1.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has released his Annual Report for 2018

Annual Report for 2018

The Report tells the story of NATO in 2018 – one of a modern Alliance, responding to today’s security threats, adapting to new challenges and investing in the future. It outlines NATO’s activities and achievements in 2018, including:

The Brussels Summit where we took over a hundred new decisions to strengthen our deterrence and defence posture, and ensure we are ready and able to protect all Allies.

Trident Juncture 2018, NATO’s largest exercise in a generation, with more than 50,000 personnel coming from all 29 Allied countries, as well as from Finland and Sweden.

The launch of a new training mission in Iraq to help the country prevent the resurgence of ISIS and other terrorist groups.

The disaster response exercise in Serbia, Srbija 2018, involving around 2,000 personnel from almost 40 countries.

The move of over 4,000 staff into the new, modern and ‘green’ headquarters.

This year’s edition of the Annual Report looks back at the past 12 months, and also includes a series of special sections to mark NATO’s 70th anniversary.  These sections take a historical view of some of the Alliance’s achievements since its creation in 1949, including the arms control initiatives of the 1980s and 1990s, the collective response to the 9/11 attacks on the United States, and the ‘Open Door’ policy, which has brought former adversaries into the Alliance.

The “Annual Report” includes the details of estimated 2018 national defence expenditures for all 29 NATO Allies.

The full Report is now available online.

 

2.

Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2011-2018)

NATO collects defence expenditure data from Allies on a regular basis and presents aggregates and subsets of this information. Each Ally’s Ministry of Defence reportscurrent and estimated future defence expenditure according to an agreed definition of defence expenditure. The amounts represent payments by a national government actually made, or to be made, during the course of the fiscal year to meet the needs of its armed forces, those of Allies or of the Alliance. In the figures and tables that follow, NATO also uses up-to-date economic and demographic information available from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission (DG-ECFIN), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In view of differences between both these sources and national GDP forecasts, and also the definition of NATO defence expenditure and national definitions, the figures shown in this report may diverge considerably from those which are quoted by media, published by national authorities or given in national budgets. Equipment expenditure includes expenditure on major equipment as well as on research and development devoted to major equipment. Personnel expenditure includes pensions paid to retirees.

The cut-off date for information used in this report was 12 February 2019. Figures for 2018 are estimates.

 

3.

[ rfe/rl banner ]

Russia ‘Primary Threat’ To Euro-Atlantic Security, Says U.S. General

By RFE/RL March 13, 2019

The commander of NATO forces in Europe, U.S. General Curtis Scaparrotti, has said that Russia continues to be the “primary threat” to Euro-Atlantic security and voiced concern about Moscow’s military modernization program.

Speaking on March 13 at a hearing in the House of Representatives, Scaparrotti also said Russia seeks to undermine any steps toward Euro-Atlantic integration in the Balkans using disinformation and backing extremist forces throughout the region.

“Russia has continued its reemergence as strategic competitor and remains the primary threat to a stable Euro-Atlantic security environment,” Scaparrotti told the House Committee on Armed Services.

“While the United States maintains global military superiority over Russia, evolving Russian capabilities threaten or erode our competitive military advantage, challenge our ability to operate uncontested in all domains, and diminish our ability to deter Russian aggression.”

Scaparrotti also said that, in the face of Moscow’s drive to upgrade its armed forces, U.S. military dominance could only be maintained if America keeps investing in defense.

“I am very concerned about their [military] modernization program. It’s real and it’s a good modernization program that [Russian President Vladimir Putin] has been able to keep on track by-and-large. And so while today — as I noted in my opening [remarks] — we have a dominant force, in the years ahead we won’t unless we continue to invest as well,” he said.

Balkan Inroads

The U.S. general voiced concern about Russia making inroads in the Balkans, a region where the United States has “invested heavily and is critical to the security of Europe.”

“Generally speaking, their efforts are to undermine any movement toward integration with the Euro-Atlantic [structures] — EU, NATO, etc. That’s their general objective in every case throughout the Balkans,” Scaparrotti told the committee.

“Primarily they do this through disinformation, they do it through funding and support for fringe parties — they don’t necessarily determine whichever side it might be on as long as it’s undermining the present government in any forward movement within those governments. We see that and, as I said, that has stepped up in the past six or eight months within the Balkans.”

The NATO commander voiced concern about Russia’s potential attempts to undermine North Macedonia’s efforts to join the alliance.

The Balkan country last year signed a landmark agreement with neighboring Greece that changed its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia, ending a 27-year naming dispute. The agreement has opened North Macedonia’s path to likely NATO and EU membership, which Greece had previously blocked.

“I would also say that Montenegro’s accession to NATO — now the 29th member — and North Macedonia, who would potentially be the 30th [member], I believe is exactly what Russia did not want to see. I think they’ll continue to try and address this with North Macedonia just as they tried to interfere in Montenegro’s accession [to NATO].”

Authorities in Montenegro, which joined the alliance in June, have accused two Russian officers with the GRU military intelligence of organizing a failed coup plot to prevent the small Balkan nation from joining NATO.

Moscow, which opposed Montenegro’s bid to join the military alliance, has denied the allegations.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-primary- threat-euro-atlantic-security-scaparrotti- general/29819782.html

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

4.

U.S. Department of Defense

March 13, 2019
News
By David Vergun
Defense.gov

China a Rising Threat to National Security, Say DOD Leaders

WASHINGTON — China is building up its military in ways that threaten U.S. and allied interests in the Western Pacific and in the South China Sea in particular, the deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment said today.

For example, its DF21 and DF26 missiles are capable of targeting ships in the area and land targets, including Guam, a major resupply location for U.S. forces, Alan R. Shaffer said.

Shaffer spoke at the McAleese and Associates-sponsored Defense Programs Conference here, along with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller and Undersecretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy.

China is also building advanced, fifth-generation fighter aircraft and have expanded their navy to around 300 ships, including an aircraft carrier, Shaffer said.

Battle for Digital Supremacy

Much of China’s military and industrial technology was developed through intellectual property theft, he said, noting that there’s a strong resemblance of their J-20 fighter’s canopy and landing gear to the F-35 Lightning II.

The U.S. is in a fierce battle with China for digital supremacy, he said, referring to artificial intelligence, machine learning and quantitative computing.

AI has to do with powerful systems that can rapidly crunch a large amount of data, search for patterns, abnormalities and targets, and learn on its own through machine learning algorithms that are programmed into the software.

The power of AI, Shaffer said, is that it quickly delivers warfighting options to commanders that are easily understood. Winning in combat is no longer about “the size of the biceps, it’s about the speed of decision-making,” he said.

For example, an AI-enabled platform could also allow a commander to find and terminate targets faster, Shaffer said.

One area of concern with developing AI in this country is that there are companies who don’t want to work with the Defense Department and would rather sell to China. “That’s a problem,” he said.

China is going forward with a plan to dominate the world in AI in the 2025 to 2030 time frame, Shaffer noted. “They have the people and resources to do that.”

5G Network Warning

China wants to control the world’s 5G network, Shaffer said. A 5G network would allow a rapid transmission of huge amounts of communications data.

The problem with using Chinese 5G equipment is that the Chinese could use it to collect data and feed it to their intelligence apparatus, he said. Most Americans probably are unaware of that threat, Shaffer said, and yet it is a national security risk for the U.S and its allies and partners.

Other areas the U.S. and China are in competition is in the space and cyber domains, he said.

Dealing With Threats

McCarthy noted other threats from China, such as hypersonics and unmanned aerial systems.

The Army eliminated or reduced many programs that did not focus on these threats, resulting in six modernization priorities: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicles, a future vertical-lift aircraft, protecting the network, air and missile defense and soldier lethality.

It also changed the way it trains. Three years ago, he said, “if you visited Fort Irwin, you’d think you were in a village in Afghanistan.”

Fort Irwin, California, is the location of the National Training Center, the Army’s premier training site that can host brigade-sized units. Mock villages were built there to resemble those found in Iraq and Afghanistan, the focus of counterinsurgency warfare over the preceding years. But today, McCarthy said, NTC rotations include maneuver force-on-force training, which simulate what it would be like to fight a peer competitor such as China or Russia, he said.

Going Back to the Future

Neller said that over the past 18 years, Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan have not had to deal with an enemy with aircraft, a maneuver force and cyber and space capability.

Over that time, he said, deployed Marines were well fed, didn’t worry that their heat or electromagnetic signal would enable them to be targeted and had little worry of being targeted by long-range precision fires.

That would change in a peer fight against the Chinese or Russians, Neller said.

As such, the Marine Corps, like the Army, has changed the way it trains in its premier training site at 29 Palms, California, he said.

Region of Strategic Importance

Richardson noted that fully a third of the world’s trade passes through the South China Sea, an area where there are numerous islands contested by nations in the region. China has occupied a number of those islands and built military installations on them.

The Navy is there to ensure trade keeps flowing through the area unimpeded, he said. It’s not just important for the U.S. economy, it’s important for the world economy.

5.

MARCH 13, 2019
PM addresses revelation of secret Hezbollah unit which planned attacks in Israel. ‘What we uncovered today is just the tip of the iceberg.’

6.

OPEN BORDERS ARE DANGEROUS TO OUR (PUBLIC) HEALTH

Ellis Island was a quarantine station.

In recent years there have been outbreaks of dangerous communicable diseases that had either been eradicated in the United States or were uncommon in the United States altogether such as diseases commonly found in the tropics or in other parts of the world.

Within the past few months the mainstream media has reported on how a number of dangerous communicable diseases. such as the measles, have infected many people, particularly children in the United States.  The focus of the reports has been on children who because of religious beliefs or fears about the perceived nexus between vaccinations and autism have not been vaccinated to protect them against measles and other such communicable diseases.

For example, on March 7, 2019 the New York Times reported, “Measles Outbreak: 1 Student Got 21 Others Sick.”

These reports blithely ignore the nexus between illegal immigration and outbreaks of these debilitating and deadly diseases.

In the Orwellian world all too many journalists and politicians inhabit today, aliens who evade the vital inspections process at ports of entry and enter the United States without inspections are simply referred to as “Undocumented Immigrants.”  I have addressed this linguistic “sleight of tongue” in many of my articles so I won’t delve into the dishonesty this represents.  It suffices to say that aliens who enter the United States without inspection evade a serious vetting process to make certain that criminals and terrorists not gain access to the United States to protect national security and public safety.

The vetting process is also supposed to make certain that aliens with dangerous communicable diseases are prevented from entering the United States to protect public health.

This is yet another vetting process that aliens who enter without inspection are not subjected to.

The United States Public Health Service (USPH) explains its mission at U.S. Ports of Entry on its website under the heading, Protecting America’s Health At U.S. Ports of Entry

Here is how USPH explains its mission:

Detect, respond, and protect 24/7 Strategically placed at 20 U.S. ports of entry, CDC protects America from public health threats, both foreign and domestic. Highly skilled CDC staff work 24/7 to detect, respond to, and prevent the spread of contagious diseases.

With our partners, CDC responds to sick travelers who arrive in the United States at major airports, seaports, or land border crossings. We alert travelers about disease outbreaks and steps they can take to protect themselves.

We restrict the importation of animals and products that may carry disease. We are always on call—during the workday, on weekends, and in the middle of the night. We’re on the frontlines, protecting you and your community.

Disease is just a flight away

When sick passengers are on a flight, the airline lets CDC know. We evaluate whether they might be contagious to others on the plane. Some diseases can spread quickly through a community, so CDC works with state and local health departments to evaluate and respond. When necessary, CDC can prevent a sick person from traveling and exposing others to disease. It’s all about making sure 1 sick traveler doesn’t become 100 sick people in your community.

At the beginning of my career with the former INS I served as an Immigration Inspector at John F. Kennedy International Airport and worked closely with USPH.

This calls to mind an article I wrote in July of last year, The Left’s Immigration Con Game in which I debunked the lies about Ellis Island which when it was completed more than one hundred years ago included the largest hospital complex in the United States at that time.

Here is an excerpt from the my earlier article:

An extraordinary film, Forgotten Ellis Island, is a must-see documentary that tells the true story about Ellis Island, and the story is not particularly pretty or romantic.

To begin with, Ellis Island was not a natural island but was constructed on rocks and debris removed during the construction of the massive New York City subway system.

By situating this federal facility on this artificial island, no aliens could come ashore and abscond the way that today aliens exploit the lunacy known as “catch & release” — a policy that incidentally does not only occur along the borders of the United States but, similarly plagues the integrity of the immigration system from within the interior of the United States.

The only way for aliens to get from Ellis Island to New York City, and hence the U.S. mainland, was by a government-operated ferry.

According to the documentary, Ellis Island included a massive hospital complex that consisted of 22 buildings.

One hundred years ago, Public Health officials worked with immigration inspectors to process the arriving immigrants.  Back then, the most significant concerns with admission decisions centered on health-related issues.

In my piece I noted that there were two concerns about the health of arriving immigrants.  Obviously the greatest concern was that relatively minor infections could lead to the deadly epidemics because there were no antibiotics back then.

The second concern was to make certain that arriving immigration were of sound mind and body so that they would be able to be gainfully employed and support themselves.

Those concerns can be found in a section of the current Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

8 U.S. Code § 1182 (Inadmissible Aliens).

This extremely important section of law that was enacted to protect America and Americans begins with the following:

(a) Classes of aliens ineligible for visas or admissionExcept as otherwise provided in this chapter, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:

(1) Health-related grounds

(A) In general Any alien

(i) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) to have a communicable disease of public health significance; [1]

(ii) except as provided in subparagraph (C), who seeks admission as an immigrant, or who seeks adjustment of status to the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, and who has failed to present documentation of having received vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases, which shall include at least the following diseases: mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, pertussis, influenza type B and hepatitis B, and any other vaccinations against vaccine-preventable diseases recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices,

(iii) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Attorney General)—

(I) to have a physical or mental disorder and behavior associated with the disorder that may pose, or has posed, a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others, or

(II) to have had a physical or mental disorder and a history of behavior associated with the disorder, which behavior has posed a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others and which behavior is likely to recur or to lead to other harmful behavior, or

(iv) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) to be a drug abuser or addict,

is inadmissible.

Nevertheless, for the members of Congress who refuse to fund the construction of an effective barrier on the U.S./Mexican border and now seek to block President Trump’s declaration of an emergency, none of this matters.

For them, dead bodies are mere speed bumps along the road to their political objectives.

7.

IRAN WARNS ISRAEL OF ‘FIRM RESPONSE’ IF IT ACTS AGAINST OIL

“The Iranian armed forces have certainly the capabilities to protect the country’s shipping lines in the best way against any possible threat,” Defense Minister Amir Hatami said.

BY REUTERS
 MARCH 13, 2019 08:53

 

2 minute read.
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Iranian Minister of Defense Amir Hatami makes a speech on November 27, 2018

Iranian Minister of Defense Amir Hatami makes a speech on November 27, 2018. (photo credit: FATEMEH BAHRAMI/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA AFP)

LONDON – Iran will respond firmly to any Israeli naval action against its oil shipments, Iran’s defense minister said on Wednesday, in comments that came a week after Israel’s prime minister said its navy could act against Iranian oil “smuggling” to evade US sanctions.

US President Donald Trump last year quit a nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed some sanctions, aiming to cut Tehran’s oil exports to zero. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told naval officers last week that Iran was still resorting to clandestine measures to ship fuel.

Iran’s Minister of Defense Amir Hatami was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA that Tehran had the military capabilities to confront any Israeli intervention, and said the international community would also not accept such action.

Hatami said such confrontation would be considered as “piracy” and warned that “if it happens, we will firmly respond.”

“The Iranian armed forces have certainly the capabilities to protect the country’s shipping lines in the best way against any possible threat,” Hatami said.

According to maritime experts, Iran has used a variety of measures to evade sanctions, including changing the names of ships or flag registries, switching off location transponders on ships and conducting ship-to-ship transfers offshore and away from large trade hubs.

Iran’s navy has extended its reach in recent years, dispatching vessels to the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. They intervened on Friday to repel pirates who attacked an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander also said on Wednesday that enemies will regret any confrontation with the Islamic Republic.

“We never welcome any war, but we are ready to respond to any invasion. We hope the aggressors do not need to understand this point by trying it and paying a high price,” Major General Gholamali Rashid was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

The Israeli navy, whose largest vessels are missile corvettes and a small submarine fleet, is mostly active in the Mediterranean and Red seas.

Iran has one of the world’s biggest tanker fleets in the world.

In November, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook called Iranian vessels a “floating liability”, saying the US sanctions would bar them from international insurance markets, making them a risk for ports and canals which allow them access.

Iranian officials have threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route in the Gulf, if the United States attempts to stop the Islamic Republic’s oil exports.

8.

DAVID HOROWITZ EXPOSES THE LEFT’S DARK AGENDA

Freedom Center founder documents the assault on America’s Christian roots.

This article was originally posted at American Thinker

To order David Horowitz’s new book, “Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America,” CLICK HERE.

David Horowitz has always been a writer whose work I’ve appreciated since his compelling political biography, Radical Son, which related the author’s break from his communist upbringing after Black Panther associates murdered his bookkeeper friend Betty Van Patter.  But brevity and crisp linkage of multiple intellectual threads were never characteristic of Horowitz’s brilliant, often voluminous, exposés of leftist thought and practice.  By contrast, Dark Agenda is a concise, chilling book brimming with evidence that links numerous cultural depredations to one overriding theme:  The left’s attack on Christian America’s founding in the name of “cultural Marxism.”

“Christian America” is the novel component in Horowitz’s analysis, a term that acknowledges the historical fact that America, at its founding, was 98 percent Protestant.  Protestantism, in turn, was intimately linked to the doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers” and to the more broadly Christian idea that all people are created by God.  In view of these beliefs and the fact that Protestant groups were living side by side, it followed that in America there would be no institutional or governmental mediator between the individual and God.  It also meant that each individual’s rights were endowed solely by their Creator and that freedom of conscience and speech would be hallmarks of the new republic.

“Cultural Marxism,” by contrast, represents the application of its “oppressor versus oppressed” vision of society to various victim groups:  blacks, “people of color,” women, native Americans, homosexuals, transsexuals, and any other group claiming victimhood.  For Marxists what stands between these oppressed groups and a world in which “social justice” and equality is fully realized are the oppressors, those who supposedly establish the laws and mores that keep them in power.  Thus, failure or success isn’t the result of individual choices but the inevitable outcome of a system designed to unfairly help one group (white, Christian, males) and harm the others.  Accordingly, what matters politically is destroying the patriarchal Christian system itself with its emphasis on individual moral and economic choices and replacing it with a group-focused system that, in my own words, oppresses the oppressors.  Put quite simply, “Christian doctrines were foundational to the American Republic, which the left despises.”

After reading the last two paragraphs, one might think Dark Agenda is highly philosophical and abstract.  This impression couldn’t be further from the truth, as these core ideas are given clear expression and development via an array of examples, many of which are doubtless unknown to even the most politically-astute readers.  Who knew, for example, that the $621 million U.S. Capitol Visitor Center that opened in 2008 “is less a monument to the nation’s founding and institutions than it is to the antireligious left’s vision for America.  When it opened, all references to God and faith had been carefully, deliberately edited out of its photos and historical displays.”  For example, the national motto was said to be “E Pluribus Unum” when, in fact, it is “In God We Trust.”  Among other historical travesties, a large “image of the Constitution was photoshopped to remove the worlds ‘in the Year of our Lord’ above the signatures of the signers.” Similarly, the “table on which President Lincoln placed his Bible during his second inauguration is on display — just the table, not the Bible.”

These examples are picayune compared to the spiteful governmental coercion that’s been employed to force The Little Sisters of the Poor, among others, to violate their consciences thanks to Obamacare abortion provisions.  The Supreme Court has been the giant secular lever employed by leftists to fundamentally transform “Christian America” into a state hostile even to a school-girl who joined hands with classmates to give thanks for her food. These politically-motivated  “lawyers,” as Horowitz contemptuously labels the high court, began their anti-Christian, anti-Constitutional mission with the expulsion of prayer from public schools in 1962 (Engel v. Vitale).  That assault on the free exercise of religion now extends beyond commencement ceremonies and football fields to a bakery that was  embroiled in legal battles for years for refusing to provide a celebratory cake for a gay ceremony billed as a wedding — a “crime” made possible by Court rulings against the Defense of Marriage Act and in favor of redefining marriage.

The case of Roe v. Wade (1972), which awakened religious conservatives to the fundamental attack on Christian America, is cogently dissected in Dark Agenda, both from a constitutional perspective as well as through the eyes of Norma McCorvey, the anonymous “Jane Roe” who was intentionally deceived and reduced to a legal prop to secure the Supreme Court’s “right to privacy” abortion ruling.  (As Horowitz notes, in Marxist thought it’s the grand arc of history and oppressed groups that matter, not mere individuals.)  That ruling officially brought about the cultural civil war that for the anti-Christian left involves not simply a virulent hatred of President Trump but also hatred directed toward his supporters who are regularly vilified as Nazis, sexists, racists, homophobes, and “deplorables” who are rightly denied freedom of speech and conscience.  Trump’s Oval Office predecessor did his best to stoke these emotions as Horowitz’s litany of anti-Christian comments and actions by President Obama illustrate — from avoiding religious references during a traditional Thanksgiving ceremony to pursuit of a foreign policy that led to the annihilation of the ancient Christian community in Syria.

Among the sidebars accompanying Horowitz’s central narrative are insights into the abusive and mendacious character of atheist Madelyn Murray.  For example, in 1960 Murray “set out with her two sons . . . intending to renounce her American citizenship and defect to the Soviet Union.” Her repeated attempts at emigration were rebuffed by the Soviets who were probably aware of her emotional instability and violent outbursts.  Murray’s revolutionary predecessor, Margaret Sanger, was also a communist sympathizer and racist.  A 1930 article in TheNew Yorker about Ms. Sanger noted that her monthly newspaper, Woman Rebel, “mixed its birth-control propaganda with a good deal of red-flag-waving, and perorations of the ‘Workers of the World, Arise!’ variety.” The author also observed that she “composed an editorial declaring: ‘Even if dynamite were to serve no other purpose than to call forth the spirit of revolutionary solidarity and loyalty, it would prove its great value.'”

Horowitz ends Dark Agenda with this chilling paragraph reminiscent of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “A nation divided by such fundamental ideas — individual freedom on one side and group identity on the other — cannot long endure, any more than could a nation that was half slave and half free.  The urgency that drew the religious right into politics fifty years ago is now an urgency of the nation itself.”  Even individuals well aware of the cultural Civil War that now rages in America would do well do arm themselves with the insights in this book — insights that both explain the ideological roots of the conflict and document a host of grievous wounds that “Christian America” has already suffered.  Horowitz, an honest agnostic, is doing his best to prevent those wounds from becoming mortal.

Richard Kirk is a freelance writer living in Southern California whose book Moral Illiteracy: “Who’s to Say?” is available on Kindle.

Photo from U.S. Capitol from Wikimedia Commons

9.

NETANYAHU: MAY BE DOWN – BUT CERTAINLY NOT OUT

A glimpse at the Israeli PM’s legal challenges and election prospects.

The major media outlets both in Israel and the U.S. have already made the determination that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to go down and should resign. That comes following intense pressure put on Israel’s Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit to issue an indictment less than 100 days before the general elections scheduled for April 9, 2019. Mandelblit issued a recommendation to summon PM Netanyahu for a pre-indictment hearing due to alleged corruption.

Days before Mandelblit was to announce his intention to file corruption charges against PM Netanyahu, Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, a lifelong liberal democrat, wrote an open letter to Mandelblit warning that if he (Mandelblit) were to proceed with the charges, he would “endanger democracy and freedom of the press” in Israel. Dershowitz pointed out that “Voters, not the police or the courts, should decide Netanyahu’s future.”

In his open letter to Mandelblit, Dershowitz argued:

“According to press reports, you are about to charge the Prime Minister with charges related to his relationship with the media. In my view, any such charges would, as I pointed out in the attached article, endanger democracy and freedom of the press… Such charges would open the Pandora’s box out of which would flow a parade of horribles: every government official – legislators , judges, prosecutors, police officers, administrators – who sought positive coverage with the media, and did anything that helped the media, would have to be investigated.”

Dershowitz went on to say:

“In the case of the Yediot Ahronot matter, more than 40 Knesset and cabinet members voted in favor of the newspaper, while PM Netanyahu effectively killed the bill and went into elections. Many of these Knesset members then received positive coverage in Yediot Ahronot. Yet they were not investigated. Only the PM (Netanyahu), who killed the bill, is being persecuted. This disparity illustrates the enormous discretion prosecutors have in selectively prosecuting alleged violators of this open-ended prosecutorial tool…Any such charge would give law enforcement far too much power to dictate to the media and to the officials they cover how they relate to each other. In a democracy, criticism of the relationship between media and government should be left to voters, not prosecutors. I urge you to consider the dangerous implications for democracy and the freedom of the press if you go forward with these charges against the PM.”

In the Yediot Ahronot case, Netanyahu was alleged to have worked out a deal with the paper’s publisher, Arnon Mozes, for favorable coverage in exchange for a bill that would weaken the pro-Netanyahu newspaper, Israel Hayom. In another case, the police had alleged that Netanyahu and his family received cigars, champagne, and jewelry from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan. In exchange, Netanyahu has allegedly pushed for the so-called Milchan Law, which would exempt returned Israelis (from abroad) from paying taxes for 10 years. There is also the Bezeq case. The police “suspect” that PM Netanyahu took bribes and acted in a conflict of interest in intervening in a regulatory decision that favored Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Bezeq, Israel’s major telecommunications company. Netanyahu vowed to refute all the allegations, which he described as “blood libel.” He dismissed the police recommendations as having “no legal status.” In his emotional speech Netanyahu said that “the Left knows that it cannot win in the ballot box, therefore it put tremendous pressure on the attorney general who is only human.” Netanyahu promised, “This house of cards will collapse.”

On March 4, 2019, Netanyahu launched the Likud election campaign by first shaking hands with his chief rival within the Likud, Gideon Saar, in a show of unity within the party. Addressing the nation, Netanyahu said that (translated from Hebrew) “our strength comes from our people, and from you, the best team in Israel. You’re not some team made up by an advertising firm, you’re an experienced and capable team, democratically elected by tens of thousands of dues paying party members.”

He pointed out that an annual report published recently (March 3, 2019) in the U.S., rating the strongest nations in the world, placed Israel as the 8th strongest nation in the world. The report highlighted Israel’s global influence. This is a direct result of the policies we’re leading. It is a direct result of the international connections I have cultivated consistently over the years.

Netanyahu confronted the Center-Left bloc, led by Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz of the new Blue and White (Kahol-Lavan) Party, in particular. “The left”, Netanyahu said, “has recommended a path of surrender, concessions, and weakness. We, on the other hand, chose a path of national pride, strength, and honor. The results are for all to see except for the media. In Warsaw (last month) I was together with six Arab foreign ministers, all in the open, not hidden from the world.” Netanyahu added: “when I meet with my friend, President Trump or my friend President Putin, or any other world leaders in Beijing or Tokyo or Chad, I am filled with pride as the representative of the citizens of Israel. We need to continue this successful way.”

The Israeli media has certainly pandered to the new Blue and White party led by the former chief-of staff, Gen. Benny Gantz. Known as the party of the Generals (the leadership includes former chief-of-staffs Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi), it has been careful in its pronouncements, hoping to win some votes from the majority of Israeli voters who are leaning right-of-center.

Notwithstanding the backwind Kahol-Lavan is receiving from the media, the most recent poll by Israel Hayom and i24 NEWS-TV through Maagar Mohot polling service, Kahol-Lavan leads the Likud by 9 mandates (seats) with 38mandates to the Likud 29. However, the Right bloc is far larger, and would garner 62 mandates. According to the poll, the Right Unity Parties will get 9 mandates, the New Right 8, Torah Judaism 6, and Shas (the Sephardic Orthodox party) 6, Moshe Kahlon’s (current Finance Minister) Kulanu party will get 4 for a total of 62 mandates in the Knesset 120 seats. The Center-Left with Kahol-Lavan’s 38 mandates, Labor 7, and Meretz 6, brings that bloc a total of 51 seats. Should it include the 7 mandates of the Arab Ta’al party of Ahmed Tibi as a voting bloc, it would still not have enough votes to form a governing coalition. In this case, under the best possible scenario, Kahlon’s Kulanu party would join the Kahol-Lavan coalition, thus giving it 55 seats, not enough to form a stable coalition government, since the Arab party is likely to bolt on key decisions. In recent days, Gantz has made overtures to the orthodox parties, knowing full well that without them he won’t be able to form a stable governing coalition.

Asked in the same poll, who is more suitable to serve as prime minister – Netanyahu or Gantz, 43% of respondents said Netanyahu, 36% said Gantz. Netanyahu may be down, be he certainly is not out.

10.

THE CALIPHATE IS OVER, BUT ISIS ISN’T

Watch for more jihad in the U.S.

AFP reported Friday that the jihadists straggling out of the last stronghold of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria remain defiant, still vowing to murder Americans. In fact, this has been their longstanding plan, as revealed in a guide to destroying the United States that the jihad group published in its heyday, back in 2015.

The AFP report quoted one woman leaving the tiny remaining ISIS domain declaring, “The caliphate will not end, because it has been ingrained in the hearts and brains of the newborns and the little ones.” Another exclaimed: “We have left, but there will be new conquests in the future….We will seek vengeance, there will be blood up to your knees.”

The Islamic State has aspired to that for a long time. In 2015, it published How to Survive in the West, a detailed manual for subterfuge and subversion, and ultimately, for jihad bloodshed, in the United States and Europe. The ominous epigraph:

Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah (God), so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah ?

So rejoice in your transaction which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great success.

(Quran 9: 111)

How to Survive in the West began with a fanciful note of self-pity, claiming that Muslims were being unfairly targeted in the West:

A real war is heating up in the heart of Europe. Many Muslims are putting alot of effort into showing the world that we are peaceful citizens, we’re spending thousands of Euros to do Da’wah (invitation to Islam) campaigns to show how good we are in society, but we’re miserably failing. The leaders of disbelief repeatedly lie in the media and say that we Muslims are all terrorists, while we denied it and wanted to be peaceful citizens. But they have cornered us and forced us into becoming radicalised, and that will be the cause of their defeat and be the cause for the conquest of Rome.

Islam and Muhammad were being insulted, and it was time for Muslims to fight back:

As Muslims, we need to be prepared for what is coming our way. Media propaganda is the first step to justify what will happen later. So if Muslims are portrayed as evil terrorists, then the mass killing which happens to us afterwards will not be a big deal, infact [sic] it will be a sigh of relief for the fooled masses of people.

So what are Muslims supposed to do? Are we supposed to petition to a deaf ‘free press’ because our Prophet is being insulted day and night? Are we supposed to sit back until the police raids our homes for having the Quran and surah al-Tawbah [chapter nine of the Qur’an, which enjoins jihad warfare against Jews and Christians] on our shelves?

We as free Muslims cannot sit back and get locked up for something which is not a crime in the sight of Allah. In the Ummah (Nation) of Prophet Muhammad (saws), we have been taught to physically fight to defend ourselves and our religion, no matter where we are in the world.

How to Survive in the West then teaches Muslims “how to live a double-life, how to keep your Secret life private, how to survive in a threatening land, how you can Arm and strengthen the Muslims when the time for Jihad comes to your country, and neighborhood.”

A great deal of subterfuge would be needed:  “If you are a convert to Islam, you should try to hide your Islam as much as possible.…If you are a born Muslim: then don’t make it too obvious you have become a practicing Muslim….if you are a practising Muslim, and you have a beard already, then don’t remove it if it will bring unwanted attention to yourself. I.e. your family, friends and colleagues will get more suspicious why you removed it, forcing them to spy on you more.”

This was all part of an effort at “making yourself look more friendly and open minded to the Western public. For example: Muslims who call themselves by a Western nickname gain more acceptances by their non Muslim colleagues. This can be an advantage because it reduces their suspicion of you as they consider you more open minded and less ‘extreme’ (religious.)”

To get money, the jihadi-in-waiting should steal from non-Muslims: “Do not feel guilty if you take back a small amount of what they have stolen from us. Easy money Ideas: If you are an expert in credit card fraud, paypal/ebay scams, Phishing, hacking, or you know the secrets of a big company, then take advantage of your skills. If you can claim extra benefits from a government, then do so. If you can avoid paying taxes, then do so.”

How to Survive in the West details how jihadis should carefully use the Internet, how they should communicate with each other, how they should keep in shape, and even how they should undertake weapons training using “Toy guns (Nerf guns), or Pellet guns or Paintball guns for target practice.” It also includes bomb-making instructions and tips on how to make sure one is not under surveillance. It goes into the Charlie Hebdo jihad massacre again, explaining how its perpetrators got their weapons and carried out their attack – making it clear that the author of How to Survive in the West, and the Islamic State in general, intends to train new cadres of jihadis to carry out an increasing number of jihad massacres in the United States and Europe.

Could any ISIS adherents be following this plan in the United States today? To think that would be “Islamophobic,” right?

11.

DEFENDER OF ANTI-SEMITES

A glimpse into the mind of Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

U.S. congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington State has been a staunch defender of fellow Democrats Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, notwithstanding the very obvious anti-Semitism that both women routinely articulate. In a recent tweet aimed at conservative critics of the pair, Jayapal said: “The increasingly personal attacks on @RashidaTlaib & @IlhanMN are absolutely inappropriate & very unprofessional. As first two Muslim American women elected to Congress, they bring critical lived experience to the chamber. Respect, please.”

The Indian-born Jayapal, who became a U.S. citizen nineteen years ago, has a long history of detecting Muslim victimization wherever she looks. After the 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, for instance, she founded an organization called Hate Free Zone, whose mission was to “address the backlash, hate crimes, and discrimination against immigrant communities of color, primarily Muslims, Arab Americans, East Africans, and South Asians” in the post-9/11 era. Jayapal spent the next 11 years as the head of that group. Her efforts to battle America’s allegedly pervasive Islamophobia were eventually rewarded by President Obama, who in 2013 presented her with a “White House Champion of Change” award.

In an August 9, 2015 editorial lamenting the “centuries of racism” that have plagued America, Jayapal lamented:

“As a country, we still have not recognized or acknowledged what we have wrought and continue to inflict on black people. The bigger results are how black kids as young as two are being disciplined differently in their daycares and pre-k classes. That black people are routinely denied jobs that white people get with the same set of experiences and skills. That black people … continue to die at the hands of police, in domestic violence, on the streets. That black mothers must tell their children as young as seven or eight that they have to be careful about what pants or hoodies they wear or to not assert their rights if stopped. That this country supports an institutionalized form of racism called the criminal justice system that makes profit … on jailing black and brown people.”

She also suggested that as recompense for historical wrongs, the U.S. government should pay “reparations for slavery” to black people.

From 2014-16, Jayapal served as a Democratic member of the Washington State Senate. In 2016 she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and promptly joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the most extreme socialist wing of the Democratic Party. She also endorsed yet another longtime anti-Semite, Rep. Keith Ellison, for the post of DNC Chairman.

Particularly outspoken on immigration-related matters, Jayapal in January 2018 published an op-ed in The Nation magazine defending the notion that new immigrants should be permitted to come to the U.S. because of their familial ties to immigrants already here, rather than because of whatever skills or merit they may possess. “Republican attempts to recharacterize this valuable system of family-based immigration as ‘chain migration’ are not just false,” she said. “They are rekindling a racist ideology that was present at the beginning of our immigration system.”

In January 2019, Jayapal stated that President Donald Trump’s “ultimate goal is … to make America pure in the sense of not having immigrants, not having folks of color here and shutting down every form of legal immigration.…”  Trump’s policies, she said, were “deeply offensive” to the “soul” and “psyche” of “people of color” who “are seeking asylum [and] who can no longer can get in, even though it’s legal to seek asylum, and not just at a legal port of entry.”

On her official website, Jayapal has pledged to use her position as a legislator to “stand up to the climate change deniers in Congress” by “pushing to reduce carbon emissions,” “invest[ing] in alternative energies like solar and wind power,” and put[ting] an end to toxic fracking and deep water drilling.” She also supports fellow Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s so-called Green New Deal, environmental legislation designed to rapidly eliminate all fossil-fuel use from the U.S. economy, create a basic income program and a federal “living-wage” jobs guarantee, implement a government-run health care system, and replace free-market capitalism with a socialist economic framework.

Rounding out her leftist bona fides, Jayapal vows to fight to help “re-enfranchise the more than two million ex-felons who are African-Americans and [have] paid their debt to society”; “stop the systematic efforts to disenfranchise minority voters by requiring Ids” at polling places; and “fight for raising the federal minimum wage so that the disproportionate number of workers of color in low-wage jobs can be paid fairly for their work.” Moreover, Jayapal is a founding co-chair of the Medicare For All Congressional Caucus, which advocates for the implementation of a government-run health care system.

 12. 

U.S. Department of Defense

March 12, 2019
News
By David Vergun
Defense.gov

$718.3 Billion Defense Budget Request Focuses on Threats

WASHINGTON — At $718.3 billion, the fiscal year 2020 defense budget request announced at the Pentagon today by defense officials is an increase from last year’s $685 billion approved budget.

This year’s request focuses on addressing peer threats emanating from Russia and China, which are modernizing their forces at an unprecedented rate, according to David L. Norquist, who is performing the duties of deputy defense secretary.

The budget reflects the priorities of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, he continued. Priorities are in the following four areas: investment in the emerging space and cyberspace domains; modernizing capabilities in the air, land and maritime domains; acceleration in technology such as artificial intelligence, hypersonics, autonomy and directed energy; and, sustains the force and builds on readiness gains.

Norquist, Elaine McCusker, DOD’s deputy comptroller, and Army Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Ierardi, director, Force Structure, Resources and Assessment, Joint Staff, conducted a Pentagon news conference today, concerning the 2020 Defense Budget.

Military Pay Raise

McCusker said the budget takes care of service members. “Our force is our most valuable asset.”

It calls for a 3.1 percent military pay increase – the largest in a decade, Norquist noted. The pay increase is for the forecast 2,140,300 members of the active, guard and reserve total force, which is also an end-strength increase of about 8,000 from this fiscal year.

Besides the pay raise, McCusker said the budget reflects efforts to modernize the health care system and care for families with such things as child care and schools.

She noted that DOD is on track to save about $6 billion this fiscal year due to reform efforts in information technology, providing more efficient health care services, smarter customer purchases of goods and services and divestment of programs no longer consistent with the NDS.

Budget Breakdowns

The $718.3 billion budget includes $66.7 billion for overseas contingency operations and $9.2 billion for emergency operations, which includes hurricane recovery and security for the Southwest border.

The breakdown of the $718.3 billion by appropriation type is: $292.7 billion for operations and maintenance, or 41 percent of the budget; $155.8 billion for military personnel (22 percent); $143.1 billion for procurement (20 percent); $104.3 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation (15 percent); and $22.5 billion for military construction, family housing and other (3 percent).

The breakdown of the $718.3 billion by military department is: $205.6 billion for the Navy, or 29 percent of the budget; $204.8 billion for the Air Force (29 percent); $191.4 billion for the Army (27 percent); and $116.6 billion for defensewide activities (16 percent).

The total national defense budget request is $750 billion. Besides the $718.3 billion for DOD, the remainder goes to the Energy Department and other agencies.

Past approved defense budgets were $606 billion for FY 2017, $670.6 billion for FY 2018 and $685 billion for this fiscal year.

Space Domain

This year’s budget request sets aside $14.1 billion for the space domain, including $72.4 million to resource the new Space Force headquarters, $1.1 billion to mitigate risk to satellite communications jamming, $1.8 billion to increase GPS follow-on satellites and operational control systems, $1.6 billion to improve space-based missile warning capabilities and $1.7 billion for space launch capabilities.

Cyber Domain

If the request is approved, cyber would receive $9.6 billion, of which $3.7 billion would be for offensive and defensive cyberspace operations; $5.4 billion for cybersecurity to reduce risk to DOD networks, systems and information; and $61.9 million to modernize DOD’s multicloud environment.

Air Domain

The request allocates $57.7 billion for the air domain. Notable purchases include $13.9 billion for 110 fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft – including 78 F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft, $2.3 billion for 12 KC-46 tankers, $651 million for 389 advanced medium range air-to-air missiles, and $582 million for 430 extended range joint air-to-surface missiles.

Maritime Domain

The request sets aside $34.7 billion for maritime operations, including funding for two new Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear aircraft carriers. Other line items include $447 million for two large unmanned surface vehicles, $209 million for 48 long range anti-ship missiles, $707 million for 90 maritime strike tactical Tomahawk missiles, $10.2 billion for three Virginia-class submarines, $5.8 billion for three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and $1.3 billion for one multimission guided missile frigate.

Land Domain

The request for funds directed at the land domain totals $14.6 billion, to include $1.6 billion for 4,090 joint light tactical vehicles and $395 million for 56 amphibious combat vehicles. Investments will also go to the purchase of multirole anti-armor weapon systems, binocular night vision devices, squad common optics and squad thermal systems.

Multidomain

The request allocates $13.6 billion to missile-defeat and defense systems, to include $1.7 billion for ground-based missile defenses, $753.8 million for 37 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems, $1.7 billion for 3 missiles and 36 installations of Aegis ballistic missile defense systems, $174 million for space-based missile warning and defense demonstrations and ground control enhancements to address hypersonic threats, $331 million to develop boost-phase and advanced technology missile defense systems – to include directed energy and air-launched kinetic interceptors, and $844 million for systems that can destroy adversary ground-based missiles before they launch.

Nuclear Enterprise

The request for funds directed at modernization of the nuclear force totals $14 billion and includes $712 million for long-range standoff weaponry, $3 billion for the B-21 Bomber, $570 million for ground-based strategic deterrent, $2.2 billion for the Columbia-class submarine, and $2.5 billion for enhanced nuclear command, control and communications capabilities.

Special Operations Forces

The $3.4 billion earmarked for special operations forces in the fiscal year 2020 request includes $27.2 million for directed energy weapons, $342.8 million for AC-130J Ghostrider/MC-130J Commando II aircraft, $45.3 million for CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and $105.7 million for additional surface and subsurface maritime craft systems.

13.

Abbas appoints new Prime Minister, ‘gov’t should enhance culture of peace’
Hamas: “We won’t recognize new Fatah-led gov’t.”

14.ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΑΔΕΙΑ ΤΟΥ Κου ΧΙΟΥ

«Kαρέ της κόκας» με εντολή Αλέξη-Μπέτυς. Εάν τα πρότυπα των νέων εθνοσωτήρων, είναι Π.Κόκκαλης-Δ. Ματσούκα, μαζί με τον Αφγανό Μουχαμέντι και τον ποντικομούστακο χαφιέ Παπαδημούλη, πάμε πάσο. «Με πήρε τηλέφωνο, ήταν για κέρασμα, κατέβηκα κάτω από το σπίτι μου και την ήπιαμε μαζί!». Μνημόνια μέχρι να παγώσει και το τελευταίο καζάνι!..

1.indd
ΚΑΤΙ ΣΑΣ ΕΙΧΑΜΕ ΓΡΑΨΕΙ ΧΘΕΣ,ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ Κο Π. ΚΟΚΚΑΛΗ! ΤΟ ΘΥΜΑΣΤΕ;
ΤΙ ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΩΡΑ ΠΙΟ ΠΑΝΩ Ο Κος ΧΙΟΣ;
15.

Pentagon’dan Google’a Çin sitemi

ABD Savunma Bakan Vekili Patrick Shanahan: – “(Google’ın Çin ile iş yapıp Pentagon ile yapmaması) Ticari işlerin askeri işlerle iç içe girmesi önemli burada. Ekonomilerinin 5 trilyon doları devletin sahip olduğu şirketlerin elinde. Dolayısıyla teknoloji sivil alanda geliştiriliyor ve askeri alana aktarılıyor. Aralarında doğrudan bir ilişki var. Sadece transfer de yok, aynı zamanda ABD teknolojilerinin sistematik bir şekilde çalınması söz konusu“- ABD Genelkurmay Başkanı Orgeneral Joseph Dunford: – “Google’ın Çin’de yaptığı işler dolaylı olarak Çin ordusuna yarıyor“.

14 Mart 2019 Perşembe

Pentagon'dan Google'a Çin sitemi

WASHINGTON (AA) – ABD Savunma Bakan Vekili Patrick Shanahan ve ABD Genelkurmay Başkanı Orgeneral Joseph Dunford, Google şirketinin ABD Savunma Bakanlığı (Pentagon) ile iş yapmak istemediğini ancak Çin hükümeti ve ordusuna dolaylı olarak katkı sağlayan projelerde yer aldığını belirterek, şirketi eleştirdi.

Shanahan, ABD Genelkurmay Başkanı Orgeneral Joseph Dunford ve Savunma Bakanlığı Müsteşarı David Norquis ile Senato Silahlı Hizmetler Komitesinde, 2020 mali yılı savunma bütçesine ilişkin soruları yanıtladı.

İnternet devi Google’ın Çin ile iş yapmasını eleştiren Shanahan, firmanın ABD savunma projelerinden çekildiğini ve Pentagon ile çalışma konusunda isteksiz olduğunu kaydetti.

Google’ın Çin’in özel sektöründe yaptığı işlerin Çin hükümeti ve ordusuna katkı sağladığını belirten Shanahan, “Ticari işlerin askeri işlerle içe içe girmesi önemli burada. Ekonomilerinin 5 trilyon doları devletin sahip olduğu şirketlerin elinde. Dolayısıyla teknoloji sivil alanda geliştiriliyor ve askeri alana aktarılıyor. Aralarında doğrudan bir ilişki var. Sadece transfer de yok aynı zamanda ABD teknolojilerinin sistematik bir şekilde çalınması söz konusu ki bu da ortaya çıkan teknolojilerin daha hızlı geliştirilmesine neden oluyor.” diye konuştu.

– Google’a bir tepki de Dunford’dan

Diğer taraftan Orgeneral Dunford da Google’ın Çin ile çalışıp Pentagon ile çalışmak istememesine tepki gösterdi.

Dunford, “Google’ın Çin’de yaptığı işler dolaylı olarak Çin ordusuna yarıyor ve bu konuda çok açık oldum. Endüstri ortaklarımıza, ‘Bakın biz iyi adamlarız, temsil ettiğimiz değerler ve sistem sizin büyümenize imkan sağlayacak ve bugüne kadar sağlamıştır’ diye açıklıyorum.” ifadelerini kullandı.

ABD’li şirketlerin dolaylı olarak Çin ordusuna yaradığını bilerek Çin’de iş yapmalarını kaygı ile izlediklerini belirten Orgeneral Dunford, “Açıkçası dolaylı demek tam nitelemeyi karşılamayabilir. Çin ordusuna daha doğrudan katkı sağlıyor.” değerlendirmesinde bulundu.

Google, çalışanlarından gördüğü baskı ile Pentagon’la yaptığı projelerin bir kısmının ölümcül sonuçları olduğu gerekçesiyle bu projelerin bazılarından çekilmek zorunda kalmıştı.

-Shanahan’a Boeing 737 Max sorusu

ABD Başkanı Donald Trump‘ın Meksika sınırına örülecek duvar için Pentagon bütçesinde fon ayrılması konusunun ağırlıkla ele alındığı oturumda Shanahan’a Boeing 737 Max uçaklarına ilişkin sorular da yöneltildi .

Bir senatörün, bu uçaklara ilişkin Beyaz Saray veya Ulaştırma Bakanlığı ile görüşüp görüşmediğine ilişkin bir soruya Shanahan “Hayır, 737 Max’larla ilgili kimse ile konuşmadım.” yanıtını verdi.

Bu konuda herhangi bir brifing de almadığını belirten Shanahan, Etiyopya’da düşen Boeing 737 Max uçağındaki arızaya yönelik bir soruşturma başlatılması fikrine ise olumlu baktığını dile getirdi.

Eski Boeing çalışanı Shanahan’ın, ABD’nin Boeing 737 Max uçaklarının uçuşlarının yasaklanması konusunda gecikmesinde etkisi olmuş olabileceği iddia ediliyordu.

16.

Çavuşoğlu ve Stoltenberg Türkiye’yi anlatan minyatür panoların açılışını yaptı

Dışişleri Bakanı Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, NATO Genel Sekreteri Jens Stoltenberg ile Türkiye’nin NATO Daimi Temsilciliğinde Türkiye’yi anlatan çini minyatür panoların açılışını yaptı.

14 Mart 2019 Perşembe

Dışişleri Bakanı Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, NATO Genel Sekreteri Jens Stoltenberg ile Türkiye’nin NATO Daimi Temsilciliğinde Türkiye’yi anlatan çini minyatür panoların açılışını yaptı.

Belçika’da düzenlenen Suriye konulu 3’üncü Brüksel Konferansı’na katılmak amacı ile başkent Brüksel’de bulunan Dışişleri Bakanı Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, NATO Genel Sekreteri Jens Stoltenberg ile bir araya geldi. Çavuşoğlu ve Stoltenberg Türkiye’nin NATO Daimi Temsilciliği’nde Türkiye’nin dört bir yanını anlatan çini minyatür panoların açılışını yaptı.

17. 

Netanyahu’nun oğlundan Türk milletine ve Erdoğan’a alçak sözler!

İsrail Başbakanı Binyamin Netanyahu’nun oğlu Yair Netanyahu, Türk milletini ve Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’ı hedef alan skandal bir açıklama yaptı.

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14.03.2019 
İsrail Başbakanı Binyamin Netanyahu’nun “İsrail sadece Yahudilerin ulus devletidir” sözleri kriz çıkarmış, Cumhurbaşkanlığından yapılan açıklamada Netanyahu’nun bu sözleri kınanmıştı. Netanyahu, bu kınamaya cevap olarak sosyal medya hesabından yaptığı açıklamada, Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘a hedef alan skandal ifadeler kullanmış ve “Erdoğan, on binlerce siyasi muhalifi cezaevine atan, Kürtlere soykırım uygulayan ve Kuzey Kıbrıs’ı işgal eden bir diktatör ve bana, İsrail devletine, İsrail ordusuna demokrasi ve savaş etiği hakkında öğütler veriyor. Şaka gibi. O sadece bizden tüm dinlere ve insan haklarına saygıyı öğrenebilir”demişti.

Erdoğan ise bu sözlere, “Ey Netanyahu sen kendine gel kendine. Sen zalimsin. Kutsal mabedimizi, postallarıyla senin askerin, polisin buralara giriyor. Tahrik etme. Biz hiçbir Museviye zulmetmedik. Bunların hesabını uluslararası camiada soracağız” diye karşılık vermişti.

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OĞLUNDAN SKANDAL SÖZLER

İsrail Başbakanı Binyamin Netanyahu‘nun oğlu Yair Netanyahu, sosyal medya hesabı Twitter’dan Türk milletine ve Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’a ağır hakaretler etti.

Babasının attığı tweeti alıntılayarak, Türk milletini ve Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan’ı hedef alan Yair Netanyahu şu ifadeleri kullandı: “Ona, İstanbul’un adının Konstantinopol olduğunu ve Türk işgalinden önceki bin yıl boyunca Bizans İmparatorluğu’nun ve Ortodoksların başkenti olduğunu hatırlatırım. Türkler, Yunanlara, Süryanilere ve Ermenilere soykırım yaptı. Onlar etnik olarak bütün hristiyanları küçük Asya’dan (Anadolu) temizlediler.”

KAYNAK: HABER7 / DIŞ HABERLER SERVİSİ
18. 

Bakan Akar’dan flaş F-35 açıklaması! Tarih verdi…

Milli Savunma Bakan Akar: “Birtakım açıklamalar olmasına rağmen F-35 şu anda normal işliyor görünüyor. Pilotlarımız, bakım personelimiz ABD’de eğitim almayı sürdürüyor.” dedi

14.03.2019

Bakan Akar F-35 süreci hakkında şu açıklamaları yaptı:
“Birtakım açıklamalar olmasına rağmen F-35 şu anda normal işliyor görünüyor. Pilotlarımız, bakım personelimiz ABD’de eğitim almayı sürdürüyor. Kasım’da uçakların Malatya’ya gelmesini bekliyoruz. Bununla ilgili Malatya’daki altyapı hazırlıklarımız tamamlandı.”
19. 

Bomba iddia: Mitroglou ve Real Madrid

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Real Madrid’de teknik direktörlük görevine getirilen Zinedine Zidane’ın gelecek sezon kurmayı hedeflediği kadroya dair ilginç tahminler yapılıyor. Öyle ki, Fransız So Foot dergisi, sosyal medya hesabından Zidane’ın kurmayı hedeflediği 11’e dair bir paylaşımda bulunurken, forvet pozisyonunda Galatasaraylı Kostas Mitroglou’na yer verdi.

Real Madrid‘de teknik direktörlük görevine getirilen Zinedine Zidane’ın gelecek sezon kurmayı hedeflediği kadroya dair ilginç tahminler yapılıyor. Öyle ki, Fransız So Foot dergisi, sosyal medya hesabından Zidane’ın kurmayı hedeflediği 11’e dair bir paylaşımda bulunurken, forvet pozisyonunda Galatasaraylı Kostas Mitroglou‘na yer verdi.

Zinedine Zidane’nın gelmesiyle gelecek sezon ki transfer hamleleri merakla beklenen Real Madrid, ilk transferini Eder Militao’yu kadrosuna katarak gerçekleştirdi.

Fransız dergisi So Foot, Zidane’nın gelecek sezona dair oluşturmak istediği kadroya yönelik bir paylaşımda bulunurken, De Gea, Pogba, Kante, Eriksen, Hazard ve Neymar gibi isimlerin yanında Galatasaraylı Mitroglou da forvet pozisyonunda yer alması dikkat çekti.

Sosyal medya kullanıcıları Yunan forvetin isminin Real Madrid kadrosunda bulunmasını şaşkınlıkla karşılandı.

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20.

S-400 alımına neden karşılar?

Rusya’dan alımı kesinleşen S-400 hava savunma sistemi konusunda ABD’den gelen itirazlar tehdit üslubuyla devam ediyor. Son olarak Pentagon Sözcüsü, Türkiye’nin Rusya’dan S-400 hava savunma sistemleri almasının iki ülkenin askeri ilişkileri açısından ağır sonuçları olacağı tehdidini savurdu.

Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan, S-400 meselesinde başından beri ABD’nin ne hukuka ne de müttefiklik ilişkisine uyan yaklaşımı karşısında; Şimdi biz Ruslarla anlaştık, ortak üretime gireceğiz. Belki S-400’den sonra S-500’e gireceğiz. Bize S-400’de dayatma yapanlar, niçin Yunanistan’a yapmıyor S-300 için? Niçin Bulgaristan’a yapmıyor S-300 için? Niçin Slovakya’ya yapmıyor S-300 için? Bunlar da aynı zamanda NATO ülkesi, yapın, onlara da niye yapmıyorsunuz?” sorularını soruyor. Bu sorulara ikna edici cevap vermek yerine, tehdit dilinin kullanılıyor olması meselenin, bağımlılıktan sıyrılmış bir Türkiye kimliğinin verdiği rahatsızlıkla ilgili olduğu açıkça anlaşılıyor.

Türkiye S-400 hava sistemini tercih etmesinin nedenlerini bir kez daha net olarak hatırlatmak gerekir. Her şeyden önce Türkiye savunma sanayiinde üreten ülke durumuna gelmiştir. Bu durum geçmişin silah pazarı kimliğinin aşılmasıdır. Bilhassa Soğuk Savaş dönemine özgü savunma sanayii ürünleri üzerinden siyasi ve stratejik bağımlılık büyük ölçüde geri de kalmıştır. Bu noktada S-400 tercihinde teknoloji transferi ve ortak üretim hedefi en önemli etkendir.

Bir diğer neden, S-400 sisteminin teknolojik üstünlüğüdür. Buna ilave olarak, ücret avantajı da bir başka tercih nedenidir. Bu sistemin NATO kapsamında sorun olmayacağının kanıtı da Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan’ın altını çizdiği gibi diğer bazı NATO ülkelerinde aynı sistemin bir alt versiyonunun (S-300) varlığıdır.

Türkiye’nin S-400’leri tercih etmesi; ne ABD karşıtlığının, ne de Rusya yandaşlığının sonucudur. Bu tercih; Türkiye’nin bağımsız davranabilmesinin, çıkarlarını her şeyin üstünde tutabilmesinin, geleceğine sahip çıkma iradesini güçlü kılabilmesinin ve Türkiye’yi Türkiye’den yönetebilme kararlılığını ayakta tutabilmesinin bir sonucudur.

Bu konuda CHP yöneticilerinin tavrı irdelenmelidir. S-400 konusunda bugüne kadar konuşan gerek Genel Başkan Kılıçdaroğlu, gerekse Genel Başkan Yardımcısı Ünal Çeviköz, S-400 alım kararını yanlış bulduklarını ifade etmişlerdir. Şimdi gelinen noktada, Türkiye’nin son derece önemli gündemi olan bu konuda, Türkiye’nin çıkarları ve haklılığı tüm açıklığıyla ortada iken buna karşı olmalarının nedenlerini açıklamalarına ihtiyaç vardır. Zira bu ihtiyaç; Kılıçdaroğlu’nun, “YPG bize mi saldıracak skandal açıklamasıyla çok daha büyük önem kazanmıştır.

21.

Αποχώρησε από την Βενεζουέλα όλο το αμερικανικό διπλωματικό προσωπικό

Όλοι οι Αμερικανοί διπλωμάτες που είχαν παραμείνει στην Βενεζουέλα έφυγαν από την χώρα σήμερα, δήλωσε ο υπουργός Εξωτερικών των ΗΠΑ Μάικ Πομπέο.

«Οι Αμερικανοί διπλωμάτες θα συνεχίσουν την αποστολή τους από άλλες τοποθεσίες, από όπου θα συνεχίσουν να βοηθούν στη διαχείριση της ροής της ανθρωπιστικής βοήθειας προς τον λαό και να στηρίζουν τους δημοκρατικούς πρωταγωνιστές που γενναία αντιστέκονται στην τυραννία», είπε ο Πομπέο με ανακοίνωσή του.

Το Στέιτ Ντιπάρτμεντ είχε ήδη ανακοινώσει αυτή την εβδομάδα ότι θα αποσύρει το διπλωματικό προσωπικό που παρέμενε στην λατινοαμερικανική χώρα, εν μέσω της σοβαρότερης πολιτικής και οικονομικής κρίσης που αντιμετωπίζει η Βενεζουέλα, στην σύγχρονη ιστορία της.

22.   

ΦΤΟΥ ΣΑΣ ΞΕΦΤΙΛΕΣ, ΚΟΜΜΟΥΝΙΣΤΟ-ΠΡΟΣΚΥΝΗΜΕΝΟΙ ΚΡΥΦΟ-ΧΟΥΝΤΙΚΟΙ!

ΞΗΛΩΣΤΕ ΤΑ ΔΟΤΑ ΑΣΤΕΡΙΑ ΣΑΣ ΡΕ ΣΤΡ-ΚΑ ΚΟΛΟΧΑΝΕΙΑ!

ΝΤΡΟΠΗ ΣΑΣ ΕΥΝΟΥΧΟ-ΛΑΚΕΔΕΣ!

2019-03-14 21:37:27

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Επειδή παραβίασε τους κανόνες ασφαλείας ρίψης με αλεξίπτωτο, θέτοντας σε κίνδυνο τη ζωή του, αλλά και τη ζωή των συναδέλφων του!

Με άμεση αποβολή από την Σχολή Αλεξιπτωτιστών Ασπροπύργου τιμώρησε το ΓΕΣ τον στρατιώτη Εμμανουήλ Μπούχλη, ο οποίος εμφανίζεται να τραβά βίντεο τον εαυτό του, τραγουδώντας το «Μακεδονία Ξακουστή», την ίδια στιγμή που πραγματοποιούσε άλμα με αλεξίπτωτο από στρατιωτικό ελικόπτερο σε περιοχή του κάμπου της Λάρισας.

Παράλληλα, το ΓΕΣ έχει διατάξει και τη διενέργεια Ένορκης Διοικητικής Εξέτασης, προκειμένου να διαπιστωθεί σε ποιο βαθμό ο συγκεκριμένος στρατιώτης παρέβη τους κανόνες ασφαλείας ρίψης με αλεξίπτωτο, αλλά και εάν τηρήθηκαν τα προβλεπόμενα ως προς την προετοιμασία των στρατιωτών κατά τη συμμετοχή τους στη σχετική δραστηριότητα από την πλευρά της διοίκησης.

Ο συγκεκριμένος στρατιώτης, με καταγωγή από το χωριό Ασκύφου κοντά στη Χώρα Σφακίων, απείχε ελάχιστα από το να ολοκληρώσει την σχετική εκπαίδευση και να λάβει την πουλάδα του αλεξιπτωτιστή, δεδομένου ότι επρόκειτο για το 5ο συνολικά άλμα του, ενώ ταυτόχρονα είχε ήδη βγει και η μετάθεση του για την 1η ΜΑΛ Χανίων. Το εν λόγω βίντεο, το οποίο ο Εμμανουήλ Μπούχλης ανάρτησε αρχικά στη σελίδα του στο Facebook, κάνει ήδη τον γύρο του Διαδικτύου, συγκεντρώνοντας σχεδόν 500.000 προβολές μέσα σε μόλις λίγες ώρες, βοηθώντας έτσι ώστε να γίνει για μία ακόμη φορά viral το «Μακεδονία Ξακουστή».

Η ευρεία δημοσιότητα που έλαβε το βίντεο είχε ως αποτέλεσμα να προκαλέσει εκνευρισμό στο υπουργείου Εθνικής Άμυνας, το οποίο έπειτα από την υπογραφή της Συμφωνίας των Πρεσπών εμφανίζεται να αντιδρά αρνητικά, όταν, μεμονωμένα ή συντονισμένα, μέλη του προσωπικού των Ενόπλων Δυνάμεων επιχειρούν να τραγουδήσουν το συγκεκριμένο εμβατήριο. Παρά το γεγονός ότι υψηλόβαθμες στρατιωτικές πηγές διαβεβαιώνουν ότι δεν υπάρχει καμία απολύτως διαταγή, γραπτή ή προφορική, που να απαγορεύει το «Μακεδονία ξακουστή» στις Ένοπλες Δυνάμεις, εντούτοις δεν έχει κοπάσει εντελώς ο θόρυβος που έχει ξεσπάσει αναφορικά με το ενδεχόμενο να κοπή από τις στρατιωτικές παρελάσεις το «Μακεδονία Ξακουστή» κατόπιν άνωθεν κυβερνητικής εντολής.

Από την άλλη πλευρά, ωστόσο, κύκλοι του ΓΕΣ τονίζουν ότι η αποβολή του στρατιώτη Εμμανουήλ Μπούχλη από τη Σχολή Αλεξιπτωτιστών Ασπροπύργου δεν έχει να κάνει με το γεγονός ότι τραγουδάει το γνωστό εμβατήριο, αλλά συνδέεται με την απερισκεψία του στρατιώτη, ο οποίος εμφανίζεται να μην τηρεί τους κανόνες ασφαλείας, θέτοντας σε κίνδυνο τη ζωή του, αλλά και τη ζωή των συναδέλφων του.

«Το να πραγματοποιείς άλμα με αλεξίπτωτο και ταυτόχρονα να τραβάς βίντεο με το κινητό σου είναι σαν να οδηγείς μηχανή με 180 χιλιόμετρα την ώρα, να κρατάς το τιμόνι με το ένα χέρι και ταυτόχρονα με το άλλο να μιλάς στο τηλέφωνό σου. Ο στρατιώτης, αν και νεοσύλεκτος, εμφανίζεται να αψηφά τους κανόνες ασφαλείας αφού κρατά τον ιμάντα με το ένα χέρι, δεν έχει την προσοχή του στραμμένη στη ζώνη ρίψης και στους γύρω του, ενώ ταυτόχρονα θέτει σε κίνδυνο τη ζωή των συναδέλφων του που τον περίμεναν εντός της ζώνης ρίψης, δεδομένου ότι θα μπορούσε να του φύγει το κινητό από το χέρι και πέφτοντας να χτυπήσει κάποιον από τους τελευταίους» αναφέρουν χαρακτηριστικά οι ίδιοι κύκλοι.

Παράλληλα, επισημάνουν ότι ο συγκεκριμένος στρατιώτης, μην δίνοντας όλη του την προσοχή στο άλμα, κινδύνευσε να τραυματιστεί σοβαρά και ίδιος, καθώς προσγειώθηκε όρθιος στο έδαφος, μην τηρώντας τις σχετικές οδηγίες προσγείωσής με αλεξίπτωτο που είχε λάβει νωρίτερα από τους εκπαιδευτές του.

Σε ό,τι αφορά την ανάρτησή του στο Facebook, o στρατιώτης συνοδεύει το συγκεκριμένο βίντεο και με ένα μικρό κείμενο, στο πλαίσιο του οποίου περιγράφει τα συναισθήματά του για το ξεπούλημα, όπως αναφέρει, της Μακεδονίας, στέλνοντας και το ανάλογο μήνυμα:

«Βρίσκομαι σε μακεδονικά εδάφη και έτσι όπως φεύγω από το ελικόπτερο στο κενό άρχιζα να αγναντεύω από κει ψηλά την Ελλάδα μας, την Μακεδονία μας… Στα πρώτα κιόλας δευτερόλεπτα που αγναντεύω την Ελλάδα μας με έπιασε μια συγκίνηση και μια θλίψη για την πληγωμένη μας Ελλάδα, την πουλημένη μας Ελλάδα καθώς πρόγονοι μας άφησαν το αίμα τους σε αυτά τα εδάφη για την ελευθερία την δικιά μας σήμερα… Έτσι λοιπόν αναφώνησα ένα τραγούδι για την Μακεδονία μας σε αυτούς που την πούλησαν χωρίς την θέληση μας… Για μας τους Έλληνες όμως η Μακεδονία είναι μια και είναι ελληνική… Έτσι λοιπόν αυτό το βίντεο θα ήθελα να φτάσει σε αυτούς που πούλησαν την Μακεδονία ώστε να καταλάβουν ότι Έλληνες δεν πουλιούνται ούτε αγοράζονται και όταν θα έρθει ύστατη στιγμή όλοι Έλληνες θα υπερασπιστούν την πατρίδα τους… Στο δια ταύτα εσείς που τα πουλήσατε όλα να ξέρετε ότι μόνο στα χαρτιά έχετε πουλήσει την Ελλάδα και τους Έλληνες… Αντιθέτως ,την ψυχή μας και τον ηρωισμό μας δεν πρόκειται να τον πουλήσετε ποτέ και όσο ζούμε θα υπερασπίζουμε την πατρίδα… Ένα μήνυμα από τον Καταδρομέα/Αλεξιπτωτιστή Μπούχλη Εμμανουήλ…» καταλήγει στην ανάρτησή του ο στρατιώτης.

(ΠΗΓΗ: protothema.gr – Γιώργος Διονυσόπουλος)

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