Friday, January 22, 2016

Colombia has heralded the capture of the "last great capo" of Medellin mafia the "Oficina de Envigado," but such labels no longer match the reality of an evolved criminal network that remains a crucial part of the Colombian underworld...

Weekly InSight | 22 January 2016

News Analysis

The 'Last Capo' of Medellin and Evolution of the 'Oficina'


Colombia has heralded the capture of the "last great capo" of Medellin mafia the "Oficina de Envigado," but such labels no longer match the reality of an evolved criminal network that remains a crucial part of the Colombian underworld.
 
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Libya's Chaos: Threat to the West...

Gatestone Institute
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Libya's Chaos: Threat to the West

by Mohamed Chtatou  •  January 22, 2016 at 5:00 am

  • ISIS badly needs Libya for its operations in North Africa: to spread its paramilitary brigades, to organize its terrorist networks and, most importantly, to prepare its political pawns, after the chaos, to take over power.

  • "Over the last four years, Libya has become a key node in the expansion of Islamic radicalism across North Africa... and into Europe. If events in Libya continue on their current path, they will likely haunt the United States and its Western allies for a decade or more." -- Ethan Chorin, Foreign Policy.

  • ISIS taking control of North Africa, the soft underbelly of Europe, would amount to it getting ready to recapture, by terror and force, al-Andalusfrom the Catholic Christians of Spain.

The Skhirat Agreement (left), with its good intentions, is not enough to save Libya from Islamist militias such as Fajr Libya (right).

In 2011 when Libya's former ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, was murdered by the mob of militiamen, many people believed it was the beginning of a new, free, democratic country. Libya, however, did not become free or democratic. Instead, it became fractured, violent, tribal and divided. Rather than starting a new life, Libya was sliding slowly toward some sort of hell.

Over the years, as violence became a daily casual occurrence, Libya almost became synonymous in the news with disorder, and on its way to becoming yet another failed stated, like Somalia.

In spite of that, hope emerged anew with the attempt of the United Nations to negotiate a national agreement through UNMSIL (United Nations Support Mission in Libya).

In its Resolution 2144 (March 14, 2014), article 6, the UN Security Council tasked the UNMSIL to support Libyan government efforts to:

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Thursday, January 21, 2016

Judicial Watch: Obama Family’s October Weekend Fundraising Getaway to San Diego Cost Taxpayers $2,001,468.90 in Travel Expenses Alone

Judicial Watch: Obama Family’s October Weekend Fundraising Getaway to San Diego Cost Taxpayers $2,001,468.90 in Travel Expenses Alone: Known Travel Expenses Now Approaching $10 Million A Year (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that the October 2015 Columbus Day getaway enjoyed by President Barack Obama and his family cost taxpayers $969,783.90 in flight expenses alone.  The documents regarding the...

On January 1, 2016, these new taxes became law. ... Thank you Obamacare and all the donkeys that passed it!

HAPPY MLK DAY

 2016 Tax Note

On January 1, 2016, these new taxes became law.

Medicare tax went from 1.45% to 2.35% 

TOP Income tax bracket went from 35% to 39.6% 

Top Income payroll tax went from 37.4% to 52.2% 

Capital Gains tax went from 15% to 28% 

Dividend tax went from 15% to 39.6% 

Estate tax went from 0% to 55% 

A 3.5% Real Estate transaction tax was added. For real estate sales above $ 250,000 
 
Remember these facts:


These taxes were all passed solely with Democrat votes.

Not a single Republican voted for these new taxes.
 
These taxes were all passed in the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. 

 


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Carter seeks counter-ISIS help in Europe; Deadly days in Pakistan and Syria; What’s working, what’s not in U.S. diplomacy; McCain relents on SecArmy pick; and a bit more...

The D Brief
January 19, 2016   
 
 

Ash Carter heads to Europe, seeking help in Paris, Davos. The U.S. defense secretary will meet counter-ISIS allies in France, then join Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Bono at Switzerland's swanky — and controversial — World Economic Forum. His purpose: to take stock of the fight, describe the U.S. plan, and devise ways to get more help from more countries, reports Defense One's Kevin Baron, who is traveling with Carter. "There's a feeling that there's momentum on the ground…and we want to build commensurate momentum diplomatically," a senior U.S. official told reporters Friday. Read Baron's dispatch, here, and watch this week for more dispatches from Carter's European swing.

The meeting in France will build on a bilateral counterterrorism relationship that deepened after the Paris attacks in November, reports the Washington Post: "U.S. and French officials in Washington formed what they call the Lafayette Group: A joint team that reviews how the two countries share intelligence, and how that effort can be improved...The team, which has met twice so far, gives the French a way to make Carter aware of problems quickly, said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss policy issues." Read that, here.

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After this weekend's historic prisoner swap with Iran, the next big hurdle for the Obama administration's final stretch in office—finding some resolution to the conflict in Syria—is almost certainly a bridge too far, writes the Wall Street Journal. Why? Unsurprisingly, "Political pressure at home and concerns from U.S. allies in the region."

Indeed, UN officials fear the Jan. 25 date for restarting Syrian peace talks may be pushed to the right. That's because the 17 nations backing the agreement "have yet to decide which of the many opposition groups fighting in Syria will have representatives at the negotiating table,"reports Voice of America.

And here's the BBC with a brief backgrounder on the new sanctions the White House imposed on Iran over its ballistic missile program immediately after the nuclear deal took effect this weekend.

So who were the Iranians the U.S. released in exchange for the five Americans held? "One was an aerospace expert convicted of helping Iran launch its first satellite into space. Another was a maritime engineer found guilty of providing navigation technology to the Iranians. And three men had ties to a company accused of illegally exporting millions of dollars in American technology with military applications to Iran," writes the New York Times.

For what it's worth: "In remarks at the White House on Sunday, Mr. Obama stressed that the seven men had not been charged with terrorism or other violent crimes, and he called their release a 'one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play.'" More on that delicate but hardly futile diplomatic front, here.

 

Gunmen reportedly kidnapped three Iraq-born U.S. contractors from an apartment awfully close to a Baghdad brothel this weekend, the Washington Post reports. "The three Americans appear to have been seized by Shiite militiamen in the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, the police colonel said. The area from which they were taken is controlled by Shiite militias, including Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, he said."

According to the Iraqi colonel, "the group had been invited to the home of their Iraqi interpreter. But a resident of the apartment building where the Americans were reportedly seized said they were taken from a second-story apartment that he described as a well-known brothel. The police major general also said the apartment was a brothel. The resident said the apartment is subject to frequent raids by Asaib Ahl al-Haq, although typically the men found inside are simply told to leave. He said that he witnessed part of the raid but that it happened late at night and was over quickly. The Baghdad Operations Command described the apartment as 'suspicious' in its statement." Read the rest, here.

Close to 19,000 Iraqis were killed between Jan. 2014 and Oct. 2015, the UN says in a new report. "The numbers are mind-boggling," CNN notes. "In the 21-month period: At least 18,802 civilians were killed, about half of them in Baghdad alone; another 36,245 were wounded; about 3.2 million people were internally displaced, including a million school-aged children."

And in Syria, three days of fighting between the Islamic State and Syrian army troops have left nearly 200 dead in the country's east, "near the city of Deir al-Zor after attacking the towns of Ayyash and Begayliya," Reuters reports. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also claims ISIS captured 400 civilians during a Saturday assault in Ayyash. More on all that, here.

"Defeating ISIS will take decades," writes WaPo's David Ignatius in this warning about the "ugly truth" of the U.S. and the West's struggle against the group. His rather disturbing bottom line: "The next president is going to inherit an expanding war against a global terrorist adversary. The debate about how best to fight this enemy hasn't even begun." More here.

 
 
 
 
D  From Defense One

U.S. touts diplomacy, hits Iran with new sanctions. Despite the high-profile diplomatic moves, the president said 'profound differences' continue to separate Washington and Tehran, The Atlantic reports, here.

The U.S. thinks China may have stolen military robot designs. U.S. officials have ordered an investigation into whether China might be gaining an unfair competitive advantage in the robotics race. NextGovhere.

Obama is about to launch a new nuclear arms race. Despite his anti-nuclear words, the president is about to cave to the nuclear arms priesthood. there's a better way, argue Gordon Adams and Richard Sokolsky, here.

Al-Qaeda is still exploiting weak governments in West Africa. The group has targeted Algeria, Niger, Mali and now Burkina Faso—killing people and carrying out kidnappings for ransom, all to stop what they perceive as the corrupt influence of the West. Quartzhere.

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of the The D Brief, by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston.Get your friends off on the right foot in 2016 by telling them to subscribe here:http://get.defenseone.com/d-brief/. Want to see something different this year? Got news? Let us know: the-d-brief@defenseone.com.

 
 

In Pakistan, the Taliban claim one of their suicide bombers was behind this morning's attack at a crowded police checkpoint outside Peshawar that killed nearly a dozen and wounded 21 others, the Associated Press reports.

And over across the border in Afghanistan, Kabul's air force just received their first four of 20 incoming A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, IHS Janes reported Sunday.

The specs: "The A-29 features two internally mounted .50 cal machine guns (one in each wing), and has five hardpoints under the wing and a fuselage that can carry up to 1,500 kg of additional weapons. These can include .50 cal or 20 mm gun pods, rocket pods, short-range air-air missiles of the AIM-9X class, and conventional or smart freefall bombs. The aircraft's inboard stations, as well as its ventral one, are also 'wet'-configured for underwing fuel tanks."

The schedule for the remaining 15 A-29s: "four more aircraft will be delivered by the 2016 fighting season, another four by the 2017 fighting season; and the remaining eight by the end of 2018." More here.

U.S. Central Command laid out a timeline of what happened last Tuesday before 10 U.S. sailors were taken into Iranian custody near Farsi Island in the Arabian Gulf.

Answered: what some of the contributing factors were. Those included "poor navigation, failed communications equipment and a stalled engine," writes the Wall Street Journal's Gordon Lubold.

Not answered: "why the sailors were detained after what appears to have been a legal transiting of Iran's territorial waters," writes Lubold.

Oh by the way: Iran seized SIM cards from two of the sailor's sat phones, the L.A. Times adds.

After three months of delay, Sen. John McCain is finally cool with Obama's pick for new Army Secretary, Eric Fanning, reports the Huffington Post. McCain had held up the post on fears Fanning's interim appointment as acting secretary violated federal law—a gripe that compelled Fanning to step down from the acting job to prepare for his confirmation hearing. "Fanning will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which McCain chairs, on Thursday. If confirmed by the full Senate, he will make history as the first openly gay person to fill the post." More here.

And speaking of Washington, there are numerous "key cybersecurity recommendations still pending for [the] nation's capital," writes Chris Castelli for Inside Cybersecurity. "These recommendations aren't rocket science," said one security analyst. "They are the nuts and bolts of a basic cybersecurity program which any large organization should embrace. Corporate CEOs and heads of federal departments have been fired for doing far less."

Lastly today—will the former CIA director once referred to as "P4" be knocked down a star? The Daily Beast reports that retired Gen. David Petreaus could be the face of the Pentagon's effort to clamp down on misbehaving generals.

Why now? Defense Secretary "Carter is said to be concerned that because he has recommended other generals be reduced in rank for actions not becoming an officer, he'll be seen as inconsistent if he doesn't do the same for Petraeus. The decision is as much about timing and politics as it is Petraeus's own transgressions."

A word on precedent: "The U.S. military has, on several occasions, demoted generals, increasingly for improper personal contact and not for poor battlefield decisions. But rarely does it demote four-star generals, in part because there are so few of them." Read the rest, here.

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Expert Q: Mapping a New Strategy for Boots on the Ground

What has modern ground warfare looked like, and where is it headed? How has the ground force strategy changed? What's the biggest challenges for troops moving forward?

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Guerrero: 2000 attendees at the funeral of school director who died in captivity ...

Borderland Beat

Link to Borderland Beat

Guerrero: 2000 attendees at the funeral of school director who died in captivity

Posted: 18 Jan 2016 10:36 PM PST

Lucio R. for Borderland Beat

"No more kidnappings of teachers!! ", shouted Gabriel Perez Mendoza 18 years old, the nephew of a Guerrero principal who died while in captivity. Perez Mendoza broke down in the middle of his emotional speech at his uncle’s funeral.

More than 2000 people attended the funeral on Sunday  for abducted school principal (called directors in Mexico) Joaquin Real Toldeo the principal of  Secundaria Técnica 114 in  Santana del Águila, Guerrero.

Gunman burst into the school last Monday and violently abducted 5 educators including Real Toledo.

Residents and families pooled together and paid the ransom demand, not knowing Real Toledo was dead, reportedly from an asthma attack sometime during his first day of captivity. 

Although his body was badly decomposed when discovered on Saturday, the 4 surviving teachers gave their testimony.  

They report that on the first day of captivity, Real Toledo complained of difficulty breathing, the teachers told their captors that the principal was in trouble and very ill.  “They didn’t care, and watched him die”, said the teachers in their testimony.  The 4 teachers said he died from an asthma attack.


On Friday, Xavier Olea, Guerrero attorney general said that, according to the testimonies of those released, they testified the director became ill from asthma and died.  The attorney general added, that it is not certain if the death was brought on by the long distances of walking the captives were forced to do.  At first reports indicated he had been murdered, but later reports from reliable publications such as Reforma, and Animal Political, said the testimony of the 4 surviving teacher  stated he died from asthma.

The teachers were found in late on Friday after the morning discovery of 21 men from the neighboring town of Arcelia, who had been abducted on their way to a wedding in a convoy of cars. They were released alive.

Authorities say that those responsible are a newly formed group of kidnappers, formed by a former member of a cartel operating in Guerrero.



On January 12, five narco mantas were displayed throughout Acapulco. The banners addressed to various police agencies and groups, stated that the Beltran Leyva group was not responsible for the extortions and kidnappings, however they did say they would be clearing out the people that are culpable. The mantas were signed “Beltran Leyva”. 




21 kidnapped from Arcelia

Televisa host Yolanda Andrade, facilitated Chapo/Kate introduction

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 05:53 AM PST

Lucio with material from Reforma, Thank you Daily Reader

An old case of disappearances and ties of Yolanda Andrade’s  family, with the Cártel de Sinaloa, has been reactivated by the government subsequent to the capture Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Andrade, the actress and TV host of "MoJo" and "Netas Divinas" on the Televisa partner Unicable, is originally from Culiacán,  is being investigated by  authorities,  for her involvement in the Kate del Castillo and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman case. She is suspected of being the link bringing the Capo and Castillo together.


An old case of disappearances and  ties of Yolanda Andrade’s  family, with the Cártel de Sinaloa, has been reactivated by the government subsequent to the capture Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Reforma is reporting that intelligence revealed that Andrade,  Castillo's  close friend,  was not only the nexus of Chapo and Castillo, but it was Castillo who made the overture, requesting Andrade’s assistance in arranging a connection.  Not only would Andrade become the link, but she would have an advisory role in the proposed film to be produced by Castillo’s production company with Chapo about his life.  The interest of the government is not centered on the film or the interview that transpired, but questions about the financial backing for the film, and possible financing with illicit money.

These new reports may have been part of the intelligence Mexico’s attorney general spoke about when she referred to Chapo’s network of producers, film makers and actors, and not solely Castillo and actor Sean Penn. 

There are two issues federal authorities are investigating that involve Andrade.

One involves a party at her home in Culiacán, Sinaloa, when she was 25 years old, where 3 young attendees disappeared.

The other issue is suspicions that her father, Rolando Andrade, had financial ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. 

According to federal documents that Reforma accessed, in June 1996 Abraham Hernández, Jorge Cabada and Juan Hernández Argüelles, vanished from the home of Andrade’s party, a home with legal ownership of Rolando Andrade, located on El Dorado Blvd,  in the capital city of Sinaloa.


Christian Alvarez,  had been the  boyfriend Helga, the youngest Andrade daughter.

The couple had an argument. Someone went to Rommel Andrade, the elder brother,  and said “Christian, is threatening to hit Helga!”.

Rommel now enraged, approached Christian and landed some blows. The ​​Hernandez’ and Alvarez, were cousins and  the Hernandez’ tried to separate Rommel and Christian. Rommel came out and threatened “You will pay  bastards, no one touches or messes with my family!”
After the threat , the boys left the party and dropped off another cousin at his house, where they spent about 45 minutes. They then proceeded to their homes.

But on their way, according to witnesses, they were arrested by officers of the Municipal Police, at about 4 am.  

And never seen again.

The investigation was initiated by local authorities, the same municipal agency who “arrested” the young men.  However, following strong protests from relatives, the investigation was then conducted by the Federal PGR.

After months of investigation, investigators learned the 3 young men were picked up, then immediately handed over to the Andrade family security, by municipal police.

Authorities said  several people gave testimony, about the alleged involvement of agents of the Municipal Police and bodyguards of the entrepreneur Rolando Andrade. 

The investigation resulted in additional evidence. That led to  five arrest warrants against alleged suspects, which only three were executed. 

However all injunctions collapsed by a ruling of  “lack of evidence”. 

The court did not grant warrants against those who witnesses said were behind the abductions and probable murders. 

Rommel Andrade and his father,  the late Rolando Andrade

The families put up a valiant, and dangerous, proactive fight,  to have the case solved, and a massive search for their children.

Days passed, then months and nothing, now there are more than 19 years later, the three young men  have not been located,  no one brought to justice, and the case has turned to ice, until  a few days ago.


The young men  remain on Sinaloa’s missing list, unresolved, and bodies were never found.

The three arresting police officers  also disappeared.

The mothers of the disappeared, blamed the brother Yolanda Andrade, Rommel Andrade Almada for the disappearances.  Every year on the anniversary of the day their children disappeared, the mothers go to the home where the party was held.  They leave flowers and poster board messages.


Rommel has since married and moved to the United States.

'El Chapo’ attorney says Sean Penn Lied, and is demanding Penn testify in court.

“Where’s the proof?  Where’s the audio?” Juan Pablo Badillo, of El Chapo’s legal team asks. He says Senn Penn lied in his interview text article.  Especially noting the part where Chapo boasts about drug trafficking, and he being responsible for trafficking more drugs than anyone else in the world.

For sure it was a statement that was difficult to comprehend, as to why Chapo would utter such a claim, especially to a person he just met and on record.

Badillo insists Penn lied, "It is a lie, absurd speculation from Mr Penn," Badillo, told Reuters in an interview, "Its a lie, absurd speculation from Mr Penn," Juan Pablo Badillo, one of a team of Guzman lawyers, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

"In a way, yes, it does complicate things, Mr Penn should be called to testify to respond about the stupidities he has said," Badillo added.

He said that based on years of working Guzman, he was certain he would not make such a self-incriminating statement. "He could not have made these claims".

Penn stated in his interview that he was not allowed to video or audio tape the meeting.  Penn claims Chapo easily bragged about his operation, "I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats." Supposedly said by El Chapo to Penn.

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