Libyan Army Retakes Benghazi From Islamic Militants

Night Watch / Townhall Columnist

  

North Korea-South Korea: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday repeated its call for the South Korean government to prevent activists from using large balloons to float anti-DPRK leaflets across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.

 

North Korea warned that north-south relations will be pushed to "an uncontrollable catastrophe," if the Seoul government does not stop the practice.

 

"Leaflet scattering is a very dangerous act which may not only drive the north-south relations into catastrophe but spark off even a war," the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a information bulletin.

Civic groups in South Korea reportedly will launch another campaign of dropping leaflets carrying with anti-DPRK propaganda this Saturday. Pyongyang said it will be watching with vigilance what takes place in South Korea.

Comment: This has been a curious month in several respects. The most obvious dangers were the two shooting incidents along the Demilitarized Zone. The incident on the 10^thwas a balloon burst from North Korean gunfire. Both sides declined to escalate. The most analgesic was the promise of more high level talks, which appeared to set conditions for effective crisis management.

Nevertheless, shooting across the DMZ does not promote stability. Every incident is a test of South Korean vigilance, readiness and reaction time.

Libya: On 23 October Libyan army troops returned to Benghazi, the first time in two months. The city has been under the control of Islamist militias.

"The advance was a significant boost to the troops, though fighting was still raging in Benghazi and the army had a long battle ahead," said Meloud al-Zewi, spokesman for Libya's special forces.

Al-Zewi said Libyan troops first took the district where Benghazi's airport is located and spread out from there to take control of other districts.

Comment: The offensive reportedly began on 15 October, after a long period of inaction. Earlier this month the government of Prime Minister al Thinni decided to cooperate with the forces of retired General Hifter in trying to break the hold of the Islamist militias on Benghazi. Libyan army special forces were among the units that sided with and supported Hifter.

Al-Thinni claims the Libyan army is also ready to begin an offensive in the west to rid Tripoli of the Islamist militias who control the capital.

Nigeria-Boko Haram: A group of Boko Haram fighters kidnapped at least 60 girls from Garta on Saturday, according to a Catholic Bishop from Garta. They slit the throats of four men, burned houses and hunted house-to-house for girls and women..

Comment: The latest abductions occurred in a village near that from which Boko Haram abducted more than 200 girls in April. The talk of a ceasefire and the return of the girls appears to be a Nigerian government stunt to divert political pressure.

End of NightWatch
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Bombshell: Valerie Jarrett Helped Manage Fallout Over Eric Holder's Changing Fast and Furious Testimony to Congress

Katie Pavlich / Townhall Tipsheet

For years the White House has argued it had nothing to do with Operation Fast and Furious while it was active and certainly wasn't involved the fallout and cover-up that followed after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010 by Mexican bandits carrying guns from the lethal program.

Now years later, a Vaughn Index describing Fast and Furious documents being held from the American people and Congress under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege shows White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett played a key role in Attorney General Eric Holder's changing testimony to Congress.

More from Judicial Watch:

Practically lost in the 1,000-plus pages of records is an index that shows Jarrett was brought in to manage the fact that Holder lied to Congress after the story about the disastrous gun-running operation broke in the media.

The files received by JW include three electronic mails between Holder and Jarrett and one from former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke to Jarrett. The e-mails with Holder are all from October 4, 2011, a significant date because, on the evening of October 3rd, Sharyl Attkisson (then at CBS news) released documents showing that Holder had been sent a briefing paper on Operation Fast and Furious on June 5, 2010. The paper was from the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, Michael Walther.

This directly contradicted Holder’s May 3, 2011 testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, during which he stated that he, “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” The October 4, 2011 date may also be significant because it came shortly after the August 30, 2011 resignation of U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke and reassignment of acting ATF director Kenneth Melson to the position of “senior forensics advisor” at DOJ.

The description of one of the e-mails, written from Jarrett to Holder, reads, “re: personnel issues.” Another, also from Jarrett, reads, “outlining and discussing preferred course of action for future responses in light of recent development in congressional investigation.” 

Unfortunately, the index is vague and that’s all the information we have about them. Nevertheless, given the timing and subject of these e-mails, it seems clear that Jarrett quickly became a key player in the Fast and Furious cover-up in the immediate aftermath of the revelation that Holder had lied to Congress.

Despite evidence showing Attorney General Eric Holder lied about when he became aware of Operation Fast and Furious and about the extent of his involvement with the initiation of the program, he has maintained that the testimony he gave under oath to Congress was "truthful and accurate." As a reminder of the timeline of Holder's inconsistent testimony:

In a late Friday afternoon dump, Attorney General Eric Holder has sent a letter to the House Overight Committee addressing Operation Fast and Furious and the allegations that he lied to Congress on May 3 when he said he had only known about Fast and Furious for "a couple of weeks." Memos released this week show Holder was briefed and sent direct memos on the program at least five times in July and August 2010, nearly a year before Holder admitted under oath.

In the letter Holder sent to Congress, which is mentioned above, he said the following:

"Much has been made in that past few days about my congressional testimony earlier this year regarding Fast and Furious. My testimony was truthful and accurate and I have been consistent on this point throughout. I have no recollection of knowing about Fast and Furious or hearing its name prior to the public controversy about it. Prior to early 2011, I certainly never knew about the tactics employed in the operation and it is my understanding that the former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona and the former Acting Director and Deputy Director of ATF have told Congress that they, themselves were unaware of the tactics employed."

Jarrett is President Obama's closest advisor at the White House. 

Facebook Page of NYC Ax-Wielding Muslim Who Attacked NYPD

Pamela Geller / Atlas Geller

UPDATE: Robert Spencer has translated the Arabic on the jihadi’s Facebook page: “The Arabic at the top of his Facebook page is from the Qur’an: it is the first few verses of the Fatihah, the Qur’an’s first chapter and the most common prayer in Islam. ‘In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, the compassionate, the merciful, master of the day of judgment.’”
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The Facebook page of Zale Thompson, the Muslim who attacked police today with an ax, is sparse but all Islam. Arabic writing, what appears to be a Quran, and his profile pic above speak to his obsession. The Islamic State has urged Muslims in the US and Europe to attack law enforcement...

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Memo from US Consulate refers to Jerusalem jihad terror attack that murdered baby girl as “traffic incident”

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

A traffic incident in Jerusalem. Another traffic incident in Canada just a few days ago. Odd coincidence: both drivers were devout Muslims who killed Infidels “in the name of Allah” (as the Canadian bad driver put it). Meanwhile, also in Canada, a mentally ill man shoots up the Parliament building and murders a soldier.

And in New York City, a man wielding a hatchet injures several police officers. Another odd coincidence: both the Canadian mentally ill man and the New York hatchet-wielder were also devout Muslims. The father of the former waged jihad in Libya, and the latter called for armed revolt in the U.S. But you must put all of these odd coincidences out of your mind right now. We know that none of this can have anything to do with Islam, and that greasy Islamophobes are the only ones who think otherwise.

“Memo from US Consulate refers to Jerusalem terror attack as ‘traffic incident,'” by Itamar Eichner, Ynet News, October 24, 2014 (thanks to Hamish):

Hours after a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into a crowd waiting at a light rail station in Jerusalem, the US consulate in the city issued a memo referring to the attack as a “traffic incident”.

A three-month-old baby was killed and seven other people were wounded when Abdel Rahman a-Shaludi drove his car across incoming traffic to strike the people waiting at the station. The baby girl, Chaya Zissel Braun, had American citizenship.

The memo was sent to employees of the American consulate, which is based in East Jerusalem. It asks staff to report “any emergency.”

The family of the driver, who had been jailed in the past for various security related offenses, claim that the attack was an accident. They have set up a mourning tent for al-Shaludi, who was killed by police gunfire when he tried to flee the scene.

Consulate officials said the statement had not intended to downplay the severity of the incident, and that its authors wanted to focus the employees’ attention and give warning of the protests.

Sure. And to signal to the “Palestinian” jihadis and the world that the U.S. government is still in the same deep denial about the jihad threat that led it to label the Fort Hood jihad massacre as “workplace violence” and to downplay or deny the Islamic aspect of every other jihad attack and plot.

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