Random Politics & Religion #10

My agenda is understanding.

Censors in China are working overtime to scrub the Internet and social media of any mention of a slip-up made by Chinese President Xi Jinping made during a speech in Hangzhou before the Group of 20 Nations leaders’ summit.

In a speech Saturday to the Business 20 (B20) summit, which advises the G-20 leaders on policy decisions, Xi talked about the global economy and quoted an ancient Chinese phrase: "Make the tariff light and the road smooth, promote trade and ease agricultural policy."

But because the last character in the phrase for agriculture is very similar to the one for clothes, he ended up saying “taking one’s clothes off” instead of "ease agricultural policy."

The phrase was quickly censored on China’s Weibo microblog website, after many comments on the slip-up began to surface. Searches for this term return no results, suggesting it has been removed. Such content is also censored on the Chinese mobile messaging app WeChat.

A Twitter user said, "Xi mistakenly read 'easing agricultural policy' as 'taking off clothing' means that he did not read the texts beforehand, nor does he care about the content."

Another joked that "'Taking off clothing' promotes communication. ... To run business, you must take off clothes first."

A commenter on an overseas Chinese blog says the incident reminds him of the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes." "The reality is that the child shouting that the king is naked is silenced," he writes on his blog.

Badiucao, a Chinese cartoonist, drew a cartoon picture depicting a naked Xi in a neon adult toy signboard with the caption "promoting trade and taking off clothing."(*)

Politicians often misspeak, both in China and around the world. But this gaffe is reopening discussion of Xi’s education credentials, long a sensitive but widely discussed topic.

Xi left school when he was a middle school student during China’s Cultural Revolution to work in the countryside of western Shaanxi province. In 1976, Xi, like many of his peers at the time who missed out on nearly a decade of education, was recommended to Tsinghua University. There was no national college entrance exam during the Cultural Revolution.

From 1998 to 2002, Xi studied Marxist theory and ideology education in Tsinghua and obtained a doctorate degree in law. Some critics have questioned Xi’s academic capability, suggesting his thesis may have been plagiarized or written by others. Xi has never commented on the controversy.

Paris (CNN)The sophisticated ISIS network that plots foreign strikes had planned for the carnage in the November 2015 Paris attacks to be far worse, to occur in other European countries as well and, investigators believe, had planned to follow them up with strikes in several locations, CNN has learned.
CNN has obtained thousands of pages of documents and photos from internal European investigations and gathered information from sources close to the Paris investigation that together provide new details about the highly organized terror group intent on attacking overseas targets.

These documents reveal new information about two captured operatives who investigators believe intended to attack France. They also point, chillingly, to the existence of another suspected terrorist -- never before named publicly -- who authorities claim is linked to the Paris terror cell and was on the loose in Europe for months after that attack. That man, identified by authorities as Abid Tabaouni, was only arrested in July.



And the documents shed new light on the highly organized branch of ISIS devoted to plotting attacks inside Europe where, even now, sources told CNN, operatives await instructions from senior handlers in Syria.
"ISIS is increasing its international attack planning," said Paul Cruickshank, a CNN terrorism analyst who contributed to CNN's investigation and editor of CTC Sentinel, a publication issued by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. "It's increasingly sophisticated in the way it does this. It's set up an intricate, logistical support system for these terrorists ... to launch these terrorist attacks."
A CNN team spent months going through 90,000 pages of documents, most of them in French, that included a trove of interrogations, investigative findings and data pulled from cell phones offering insight into the external operations wing of ISIS known as the Amn al-Kharji.

• a fuller portrait of the suspected terrorists' extensive use of social media platforms such as Viber, Telegram and WhatsApp, many encrypted for secure communication. One app let them pick their own phone number, allowing them to disguise who was calling them and from where.

• how ISIS handlers protect their missions by: giving operatives only as much information and money as they need to reach the next phase; contacting them on each leg of their journey; and insisting on pseudonyms, even within teams.

• how the suspected terrorists constantly exchanged logistical advice with others in their network, including whether or not to use real names at border crossings and how to sneak across those borders illegally. One tip was to hide in train restrooms.

A senior European counter-terrorism official who spoke to CNN said that according to investigations into the network that carried out the Paris attacks, they were a slimmed-down version of an even more ambitious plan to hit Europe.
After interrogating suspects and gathering intelligence, European investigators now believe that ISIS initially planned for the operatives it sent last year to also attack the Netherlands, as well as other targets in France including shopping areas and possibly a supermarket in Paris, the official said.
In addition, recently obtained intelligence indicates that ISIS has stepped up efforts to infiltrate operatives into the UK to launch attacks there, an official told CNN.
The senior European counter-terrorism official told CNN that security services were "uncovering more and more ISIS operatives" on continental European soil. ISIS operatives dispatched back to Europe have taken advantage of encryption, especially the Telegram messenger app, to communicate securely, the official told CNN, frustrating European security services.
"Encrypted messaging groups have the potential to revolutionize terror plot planning by allowing entire cells to coordinate in real time without compromising themselves," said CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.
Europe's security agencies have had important successes, though. One major breakthrough was the capture of two men who authorities believe intended to travel to France alongside the two suicide bombers who eventually blew themselves up outside a Paris stadium.

Those two suspected ISIS operatives are identified in the documents as Algerian-born Adel Haddadi and his Pakistani travel partner, Muhammad Usman.

Documents that detail their capture and extensive interrogations, particularly with Haddadi, show how ISIS supported the attackers throughout their journey from Syria through Europe -- and how future attacks might be organized. The following account of their journey to Europe is based on those documents, which include evidence gathered by investigators, and their conclusions.
Haddadi and Usman, who was identified by investigators as a suspected bombmaker for the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, set out from the capital of the self-declared ISIS caliphate in Raqqa, Syria, six weeks before the Paris attacks.
They were part of a team, investigators concluded. The two others, Ahmad al-Mohammad and Mohamad al-Mahmod, would later blow themselves up outside the national stadium in Paris. The team crossed the border from Syria into Turkey in early October and headed for the Turkish coast.

The four men didn't seem to know each other's real names, or what their final mission would be. All Haddadi knew, he later told interrogators, was that they were being sent to France to do "something for the good of God."
The documents show that their journey was directed by a shadowy ISIS leader in Syria, known only as Abu Ahmad. Operating like a puppet-master from afar, Abu Ahmad handled their logistics: connecting them with smugglers and cars for transport, providing pre-programmed cell phones and getting them fake Syrian passports.
He wired them money as they moved, using intermediaries who couldn't be traced, and communicated using encrypted apps.
"Abu Ahmad ... is key in sending those individuals, at least the foreigners, into the Paris attacks," said Jean-Charles Brisard, president and chairman of the French Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, who reviewed the documents for CNN.
"He is the one who recruited them, who funds them, who trained them," said Brisard. "He was always in contact with them."
Throughout their journey, Abu Ahmad gave the men only enough money and information to get to the next stop, rarely if ever telling them what would happen next, the documents show.

The documents reveal fresh details about their journey and the way they posed as Syrian refugees, blending in with thousands fleeing the war-torn country.
They made the treacherous crossing from Izmir, Turkey, into Greece in a boat filled with dozens of refugees. But they were then intercepted by the Greek Navy.
The two who would go on to strike the Paris stadium passed through Greece and started moving across Europe toward their target in France. Greek officials declined to explain how the two got through.
But Greek authorities discovered Haddadi and Usman's fake Syrian passports. The pair were arrested, their money was taken, and they were held for nearly a month.
Sources told CNN that investigators believe that delay was significant; as a result, they would not have a chance to become part of the Paris attacks.
The Greeks released Haddadi and Usman in late October. They immediately contacted their ISIS handler, Abu Ahmad, who arranged for someone to wire them 2,000 euros. Flush with cash, the pair continued along the refugee route.
It was likely a quiet journey.
The documents show that Usman spoke only Urdu, while Haddadi spoke mostly Arabic. And as they travelled north, Usman was preoccupied with a strikingly un-Islamic hobby -- using his phone to peruse almost two dozen X-rated sites, including "sexxx lahur" and "Pakistani Lahore college girls ... ImakeSex."
Both men's phones have given European officials rich investigative veins to mine, revealing dozens of contacts across Europe and the Middle East.
One of the people Haddadi reached out to for help was a technician at one of the most important nuclear research centers in Europe. That man was placed under immediate observation by French authorities, the documents show.
Data pulled from the phones also revealed how the operatives functioned both with extreme care and sometimes, seemingly, by the seat of their pants. In one exchange, Haddadi asks a contact for advice about what to do at a border crossing and whether a friend should use his real name. The friend is so worried about this, Haddadi gripes that he's "driving me crazy."



Other online conversations, notably with Abu Ahmad, are clearly in code. One message investigators pulled from Haddadi's phone shows the ISIS handler counseling patience, though the exact meaning of his message isn't clear. "Yes, but not yet," it reads, "the drugs are not good."
On November 14, the day after the Paris attacks, Haddadi and Usman arrived in Salzburg, Austria, applied for asylum and settled into one of the city's refugee centers, where they waited for weeks.

They were waiting with a purpose, according to the documents.
European investigators concluded that Haddadi and Usman were part of the same terror cell as the Paris bombers and, having failed to participate in that bloody day, were planning another strike.
Investigators found that in the days before their arrest, Haddadi and Usman were researching trains to Paris and making a flurry of phone calls overseas, including to contacts in Belgium and France.
The documents also reveal that investigators believe that Haddadi and Usman were waiting for a third man to join them -- Abid Tabaouni.

Tabaouni's name and his alleged role have never before been made public.
As investigators grilled Haddadi and pored through data they collected from cell phones, they asked European police to issue a continent-wide warrant for Tabaouni's arrest.
Like Usman and Haddadi, Tabaouni traveled from Syria along the refugee route, arriving in Salzburg on December 10. He headed to the refugee center where Haddadi and Usman were staying.
The documents outline what happened next: The very day that Tabaouni arrived, Austrian security officials thundered into the center, arresting Haddadi, Usman and a few others suspected of being connected to the Paris attackers.
Tabaouni was nowhere to be seen. But investigators found his cell phone charging right beside Haddadi's bed.

The documents show that Tabaouni had programmed into his phone a number linked to the terror cell of the ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. He had also saved a photo of ISIS fighters standing before their black-and-white flag.

Haddadi denied knowing Tabaouni, but investigators found Tabaouni had saved Haddadi's phone number in his contacts. The phone also contained a photo taken just 30 minutes before security officials stormed the refugee center. It shows Tabaouni sitting on a bed in between where Haddadi and Usman slept.
The investigators lay out in the documents their belief that Tabaouni was coming to join Haddadi and Usman and that the three men were working on ISIS operations and planning possible attacks.
CNN sources and analysts agree about Tabaouni's likely role.
"We can assume that Tabaouni was also part of the same plot," said Brisard, the French terror expert. "And (that he) was instructed to carry out an attack."
From the moment he slipped away in December, Tabaouni was a wanted man, according to several CNN sources.

The Belgian prosecutor's office told CNN that Tabaouni, who is Moroccan, was only arrested in Brussels in July and will soon be extradited to Austria. He was taken into custody as soon as he was located, according to a senior European terrorism official.
Haddadi and Usman were extradited to France, where they face terrorism charges, according to senior European counterterrorism sources, who also say they will be trying to tie Tabaouni to Haddadi and Usman and the Paris attackers.
While he was on the loose, Tabaouni was openly using a Facebook account that is identified in the documents by its unique ID number and was publicly posting updates from Belgium, where he was arrested. None of his postings indicate any apparent terrorist leanings or affiliations.
Investigators are now analyzing more than 1,600 pages of data from Tabaouni's phone in hopes of learning more about his movements and contacts.
Several sources told CNN there are probably more sleeper cells and ISIS operatives coming into Europe using the same crowded, chaotic refugee route exploited by Haddadi, Usman and Tabaouni.
"We've seen that in the recent weeks, several of them, individuals who carry out individual attacks, inspired attacks, were coming back from Syria using the same route," Brisard said.
"In addition to that, several jihadists have been arrested all around in France ... in Belgium and Germany using the same route, for the same purpose," Brisard said.
The treasure trove of information that investigators gained from the interrogations and the data extracted from the phones may help authorities better identify future plotters. Even after the arrests in Austria, Haddadi's phone was still active.
On December 15, five days after the refugee center raid, the documents show that the team's ISIS handler, Abu Ahmad, reached out to his operatives. He messaged Haddadi, perhaps wondering about their silence.
"How are you," he wrote. "What has become of you?"
There was no reply.

President Barack Obama will no longer meet with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the White House announced Monday, after Duterte's expletive-filled rant directed at the commander-in-chief raised eyebrows worldwide.

“President Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines this afternoon,” National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

Duterte had warned Obama not to ask him about the more than 2,000 extrajudicial killings reported in his country Monday, threatening: “Son of a ***, I will swear at you in that forum.”

Earlier Monday in China, Obama said he had instructed his aides to *** whether the planned meeting with Duterte, scheduled for Tuesday at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, would still be productive.

"Clearly, he's a colorful guy," Obama said, prior to the cancellation.

The President will instead meet with President Park of the Republic of Korea this afternoon.

No similarity between the Islam in Iran and the bigoted extremism of the wahabite clerics and the retoric of the saudi masters of terror.

A LONG piece from New York Magazine.

The Sandy Hook Hoax

Lenny Pozner used to believe in conspiracy theories. Until his son’s death became one.

Our conspiracy theory fans should read it.

Unless you "opt in" on the account page

I have no idea how to do that.

Washington (CNN)US nuclear security facilities are dangerously decrepit and putting national security goals at risk, according to nuclear officials who are asking Congress to back the administration's push to modernize the system.
Nuclear officials described critical utility, safety and support systems that are failing at an increasing and unpredictable rate, as well as their efforts to patch the system together until the necessary funding can be found to reinvigorate the system.

"Safe, reliable and modern infrastructure at the National Nuclear Security Administration's national laboratories and production plants is absolutely essential to the accomplishment of our vital national security missions," NNSA Administrator Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz told the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Wednesday, according to his prepared remarks.
Committee members called Klotz and other officials to discuss the growing backlog of work needed at the country's nuclear facilities, which include iconic places such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory. At the end of fiscal year 2015, the total cost of deferred maintenance across all NNSA property stood at $3.7 billion, Klotz said.

There is "no obstacle that poses a bigger risk to the long-term success" of the nuclear mission than this aging infrastructure, said Klotz, who stressed that nuclear deterrence is essential not only to US national security, but to the security of US allies as well.
The physical state of the US nuclear complex is in such bad shape because many key facilities were built during World War II and intended to operate for as little as one decade, according to Morgan Smith, president and CEO of Consolidated Nuclear Security.
Today, more than half of NNSA's approximately 6,000 real property assets are over 40 years old, and nearly 30% date back to the Manhattan Project era, Klotz said.
"Many facilities and their supporting infrastructure have exceeded or far exceeded their expected life," Smith told the committee, according to prepared remarks, "and major systems within the facilities are beginning to fail."

Klotz outlined steps his administration has taken to control the maintenance backlog, including better documenting need maintenance, disposing of unneeded facilities and introducing a new budget structure. But he and others stressed that they need more resources.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has pushed to stop the growth of deferred maintenance across the nuclear security enterprise, Smith told lawmakers, "but significant investment is required to appreciably reduce that backlog and sustain safe operations for the extended life of these vital mission facilities."
In December, Moniz wrote to the Office of Management and Budget to say that their proposed nuclear budget for fiscal years 2018 to 2021 "doesn't reflect the funding that we estimate is necessary." He asked for an additional $5.2 billion for that time period, saying that the OMB proposal "ignores or underfunds" nuclear needs.

"Events elsewhere in the world reaffirm the seriousness of the threat environment in which we live," Moniz wrote, "and underscore the need for a credible nuclear security program portfolio."
Smith's Consolidated Nuclear Security manages and operates the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas.

Y-12, originally established in the 1940s as part of three Manhattan Project sites where the nuclear bomb was first developed, is now the country's primary storehouse of highly enriched uranium and the place where highly enriched uranium components are manufactured, dismantled and tracked.

The Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, the only plant in the nation where nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled, was built in the1950s.
Smith shared descriptions of some Y-12 buildings in his written testimony that mentioned leaking roofs, "large patches of rust and corrosion on interior walls," and other examples of "neglect and deterioration."

The aging systems can also affect production and safety, Smith said. He gave, as one example, a production shutdown at Y-12 because of unplanned outages to humidity control equipment.
"The primary concern with knowingly deferring maintenance is that a major, unforeseen failure could occur," Smith said.
Gen. Robin Rand, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, said he was "acutely aware" of the risks posed by the crumbling infrastructure and thought about it when considering missions.
"There will come a point when I can't do it with existing capabilities," Rand said. "We need to modernize."
Adm. Cecil Haney, the commander of United States Strategic Command, pointed out that Russia has been modernizing their nuclear capabilities and alluded to comments by Russian officials indicating they believe the use of some nuclear weapons is acceptable.
The modernization, along with the "provocative nature of statements that have been made by Russian leaders and the display of their capabilities such as long-range strategic air flights in other areas in the world ... when you add them all together, it is not in a good place," Haney said.

Obama cancels meeting with Philippine president following obscene warning
Politico

So the other day all news here were about how Trump is now ahead in the popular vote, but Clinton is still winning in the states...whatever that means? States are more important than the general number of the population or something?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)

tl,dr: States get a number of votes equal to the number of Senators+Representatives they have (always two senators, reps are determined by population). Whoever wins the popular vote in a state gets all of those votes. So it's not really all that far fetched for someone to win the popular vote by winning BIG in a couple of high-population states but losing narrowly everywhere else.

I've said tons of times before, but since you insist I'll repeat myself on the topic!

Our governments pretend that they're fighting for the greater good against this or that dictator because poor people are suffering. Yet we sell weapons to Saudi(very liberal country) which are used to bomb the ***out of Yemen.

This hypocrisy irritates me so much. Ideally they'd stop blowing the arabic *** altogether, but at the very least I'd appreciate if we just said "look, we're fighting for a piece of dat oil and regional control" instead of pretending to give two *** about the children.

I see your KJU and raise you Erdogan now burning books.