Enforcing Sharia in Raqqa: The Islamic State (Part 3) - YouTube: "Enforcing Sharia in Raqqa: The Islamic State (Part 3)
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Thursday, December 29, 2016
Meet Abu Azrael, ‘Iraq’s Rambo’, the most reknown fighter in Iraq - YouTube
Meet Abu Azrael, ‘Iraq’s Rambo’, the most reknown fighter in Iraq - YouTube: "Meet Abu Azrael, ‘Iraq’s Rambo’, the most reknown fighter in Iraq
FRANCE 24 English
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Iraq resumes Mosul operation after a two-week lull dec 29 16
Iraq resumes Mosul operation after a two-week lull dec 29 16
Iraqi forces launch the "second phase" of the battle to retake eastern Mosul from ISIL.
Iraqi troops backed by US-led air strikes have pushed deeper into eastern Mosul after a two-week lull in the operation to retake the city held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
Staff Lieutenant-General Abdulghani al-Assadi, a senior officer in Iraq's counterterrorism service, said the second phase of the operation, now in its third month, began on Thursday.
He told the AFP news agency that forces began advancing towards the Quds neighbourhood.
"Now our forces clashed with the enemy and there is resistance," al-Assadi said, adding that forces on the northern and southern fronts were also advancing.
Special elite forces also pushed into the Karama neighbourhood, while army troops and federal police advanced into nearby Intisar, Salam and Sumor neighbourhoods, the AP news agency reported.
Smoke rose across the city as explosions and machine-gun fire echoed through the streets.
The counterterrorism forces, also known as the Golden Brigade, captured about half of the Quds neighbourhood by early afternoon.
Stiff resistance by ISIL fighters, together with civilians trapped inside their houses and bad weather have slowed advances in the offensive to recapture Iraq's second largest city, the armed group's last urban bastion in the country.
A statement by the US-led coalition said Thursday's offensive opened two new fronts in eastern Mosul, increasing pressure on ISIL's "dwindling ability to generate forces, move fighters or resupply".
It said that, at the request of the Iraqi government, coalition warplanes had "re-struck" two bridges over the Tigris River in Mosul on Tuesday, and a day earlier "disabled" the last bridge crossing in the city.
"The strikes were conducted to reduce enemy freedom of movement, and to further disrupt ISIL's ability to reinforce, resupply, or use vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in East Mosul," said the statement.
Another coalition statement said an air strike on Thursday that targeted a van used by ISIL fighters in Mosul was later determined to have been located at a hospital's parking lot, "resulting in possible civilian casualties".
The coalition, it added, "takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and this incident will be fully investigated and the findings released in a timely and transparent manner."
It was not immediately known how many, if any, were hurt by the air strike.
Biggest operation
It is the biggest Iraqi military operation since the 2003 US-led invasion.
ISIL overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces, backed by US-led air strikes, have since regained much of the territory they lost to the group.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had pledged that Mosul would be recaptured by year's end. That goal that is now out of reach, as operations in western Mosul have yet to begin.
Abadi said earlier this week that three months were needed to eliminate ISIL in Iraq.
However, Lieutenant-General Stephen Townsend, the general commanding coalition forces in Iraq, predicted that it would take two years to clear ISIL from Mosul and Raqqa, and then to burn out the remnants of the group.
Las Vegas residents are outraged that free parking is disappearing on the Strip la times 122916
Las Vegas residents are outraged that free parking is disappearing on the Strip la times 122916
Greg Griffin said it’s happened “a million times.” He’s probably exaggerating a tad, given he’s been driving a cab for only a few decades.
“Well, it happens a lot,” he said.
Here’s how it usually goes down: Griffin will pull up to the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and a fare will roll the luggage to the cab. He’ll load it up, and the fare hops in. “Where to?” he’ll ask. “The airport,” the fare will say. As soon as Griffin hears that, he assumes the fare is a local.
It’s about a $12 cab ride, and it takes minutes to get to McCarran International Airport from the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Compared with the $10-a-day parking rate in the economy lot at the airport — or the $16-a-day rate for long-term parking — keeping your car at the casino and taking a cab is a bargain. Surveillance footage confirmed MGM officials’ suspicions that residents were leaving their cars there while they went on trips.
But that’s over now.
On Thursday, MGM Resorts International will begin charging residents to pay for parking — something visitors have been doing since summer, when 11 of its hotel and casino properties led the way to begin the slow but steady elimination of free parking on the Strip.
Caesars Entertainment announced in November it would begin charging for parking at several of its Strip properties — though, for the foreseeable future, parking will remain free for locals, who can scan their Nevada driver’s licenses at the gate. The Cosmopolitan followed suit and is joining the pay-for-parking crowd in 2017.
The new year will mark the end of an era for locals who have navigated the Strip without even thinking about dropping money to pay for parking. When MGM bucked this time-honored tradition, Las Vegas residents reacted the way one might when dealt a 12 against the blackjack dealer’s face card: anger, despair and possibly the five stages of grief.
“It really sucks,” Andy Herrera said. “That was one of the advantages of being from here, being able to go to the Strip and park for free. Now the casinos are treating us just like everyone else.”
The 37-year-old has lived in Las Vegas since 2001 and has always enjoyed the access to free parking at the casinos. Well, not enjoyed exactly. More like, never even gave it much thought. It was just there.
He’d go to the Mirage — owned by MGM — for a nice dinner. Or the Bellagio from time to time. When family and friends came to visit, he never had to factor in paid parking when shuttling them to the Strip to do the tourist thing.
“Maybe we’ll have to start charging them to take them to the Strip now,” Angela Herrera said, sitting with Andy at Red Rock Casino and Resort’s sports bookwatching an NFL game. Free parking here, Herrera noted, as he sipped on a beer.
When MGM first announced the pay-to-park plan, Steve Sebelius, a longtime Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist, wrote that the move had been received like the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
“If the Declaration of Independence were being written today in Las Vegas, ‘free Strip parking’ would be enumerated with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as inalienable rights,” he wrote. “Even the mob didn’t dream of charging people for parking on the Strip.”
MGM spokesman Gordon Absher (“The sacrificial lamb or the goat staked to the post in ‘Jurassic Park,’ ” Sebelius quipped) anticipated a strong reaction from those who see free Strip parking as their birthright. He said all employees were prepped before the announcement.
“The level of backlash exceeded our expectations,” Absher said.
On social media, the criticism was fierce — with one poster angrily wondering whether they’d soon start charging to use restrooms. An online petition was launched almost immediately after MGM’s announcement and has more than 2,300 signatures.
Caesars Entertainment found itself getting hit with the backlash on Facebook when it tried to post a blog item celebrating five employees with 50 years at the casino — a happy feature that was greeted instead with an angry stream of comments about the pay-for-parking issue. It repeatedly had to explain that parking would remain free for locals on the Facebook posts.
Jennifer Forkish, Caesars Entertainment’s vice president of communications, reemphasized the point when asked about locals paying for parking in the wake of MGM’s shift beginning Thursday.
“We value the Nevada residents who choose to come to our properties, especially when Las Vegas provides them with so many options to choose from,” she said. “That’s why our self-parking program will continue to allow local residents, with proof of identification, access to free self-parking at all our Las Vegas properties for the foreseeable future.”
Some have suggested boycotting the casinos that are charging for parking. Vendors who provide services to customers at the hotels say the parking costs will cut into their bottom line.
“I am a freelance hair and makeup artist, and I frequent MGM properties multiple times per week.. And it is simply way to costly to pay 20-30 each time I’m there... Not to mention if I have to raise prices to my clients to accommodate this extra cost... I don’t find it fair for either one of us to have to pay,” Chantal Perry wrote on the petition’s page.
But Absher said that the parking wasn’t free for the hotel to provide, and that the cost of upgrading and maintaining the garages and structures made the move necessary. He also said that the parking structures had long-been “misused.”
“You wouldn’t believe the number of cars that had been parked for weeks,” he said. “People were storing vehicles there, taking taxis to the airport from there or parking and then walking to their job.”
MGM Resorts spends $30 million annually on parking structure maintenance for 37,000 spots. The upgrades at some of the properties have included the rows of red and green lights that let motorists know if an aisle has open spots. That cuts down on constant circling and congestion inside the lots.
Some of the structures also needed upgrades because of their age — though he said their property at Circus Circus would continue to have free parking because they were limited in the improvements that could be made at the site, which opened in 1968.
“If we couldn’t make the upgrades, we didn’t feel as though we could charge,” Absher said.
He also said the decision to begin charging prompted the corporation to hire a firm to run its parking facilities — shifting about 400 valets and parking employees from the MGM payroll to Chicago-based firm SP Plus Corp. Since that change, the parking attendants have been guiding people through the garages as they get used to the pay kiosks set up throughout. Up until Thursday, locals were able to simply scan their driver’s license to park for free.
What MGM did by introducing the parking fees — $10 for self-parking for four to 24 hours and $18 for valet for the same time period — was attack a “sacred cow” for locals, according to Anthony Lucas, a professor of hotel administration at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He said it set in motion a “slippery slope where it’s only a matter of time before everyone pays everywhere.”
Lucas, who worked in the hotel and casino industry before teaching at UNLV, said casinos on the Strip have developed a diversified entertainment portfolio of fine dining, high-end shows, clubs and conventions to go along with gambling. That’s a different business model from when the Strip was born.
Lucas said the “genius” of giving away free drinks, cheap food and even free or discounted rooms to gamblers was knowing the house advantage at the slots and tables would allow them to make fat profits. It was a business model embraced for decades until the city began to market itself as a destination for fine dining, shows with high-profile stars, A-level DJs at dance clubs and upgraded rooms where people could come and not drop a dime in a slot machine.
“Las Vegas is great at reinventing itself. In fact, they are unbelievable at reinventing themselves for sure,” Lucas said. “Maybe the best in the world at it.”
But reinvention means change, and residents aren’t won over yet.
Which may explain why some of the casinos that haven’t joined the pay-for-parking push are looking at their decision as a possible edge. For now, at least.
The Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore and Treasure Island remain holdouts with free self-parking for all.
Michelle Knoll, spokeswoman for Treasure Island, said the hotel had no plans to begin charging for self-parking for locals or visitors despite the sea of casinos that are.
“They don’t call us Treasure Island for nothing,” Knoll said.
Obama slaps Russia with sanctions for meddling in the U.S. election President Obama and Vladimir Putin President Obama has retaliated with new sanctions against Russia for what intellgience officials have concluded was meddling in the U.S. election. (Associated Press) Christi Parsons, Brian Bennett In the most sweeping retaliation against Russia in decades, President Obama slapped the country with new penalties Thursday for meddling in the U.S. presidential election, kicking out dozens of suspected spies and imposing banking restrictions on five people and four organizations the administration says were involved. “All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” Obama said in a statement. “Such activities have consequences.” ADVERTISING The penalties were aimed at punishing officials in the government of President Vladimir Putin, among them agents linked to email hacks of top Hillary Clinton campaign officials and the Democratic National Committee. They included sanctions of two of Russia’s intelligence agencies and three companies the U.S. said provided support. Additionally, 35 Russian officials in the U.S. were ordered to leave within three days and access was cut off starting Friday to two Russian government-owned compounds, one in New York and one in Maryland. Paid Post WHAT'S THIS? Carr Side Steps A Message from Auto Parts Warehouse Carr Side Steps for $79.71. See More 'How much and what damage?' Senators call for a special committee to investigate Russian hacking 'How much and what damage?' Senators call for a special committee to investigate Russian hacking The hackers leaked emails revealing campaign-related correspondence of senior Clinton advisor John Podesta and other Democratic operatives, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded. Clinton has blamed Putin himself and told supporters that he went after her because of a “personal beef” against her. President-elect Donald Trump has dismissed the idea that Putin was involved or that the leaks affected the outcome of the election. Obama has all but blamed Putin personally, telling reporters before Christmas that very little happens in the Russian government without Putin’s knowledge. The interference in the American election calls for retaliation, administration officials say. Obama has said that he would make some of the penalties known publicly, but that his administration will launch other retribution that they won’t discuss. Thursday’s announcement came while Obama is vacation with his family in his childhood home of Hawaii. The retaliation is certain to exacerbate tensions with Russia during the transition from the Obama presidency to the Trump presidency. Trump has suggested that he plans to let the matter rest. “We ought to get on with our lives,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. Trump has rejected conclusions from the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that the Russian government was behind the hacks of computer systems and emails belonging to Democratic Party officials. The Obama administration should produce more evidence about the hacking, Sean Spicer, Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, told reporters earlier Thursday. “If the United States has clear proof of anyone interfering with our elections, we should make that known,” Spicer said. “Right now we need to see further facts,” he said. Spicer suggested accusations about Russia’s influence on the presidential election are politically motivated to undercut Trump’s mandate.
Obama slaps Russia with sanctions for meddling in the U.S. election la times 122916
Christi Parsons, Brian Bennett
In the most sweeping retaliation against Russia in decades, President Obama slapped the country with new penalties Thursday for meddling in the U.S. presidential election, kicking out dozens of suspected spies and imposing banking restrictions on five people and four organizations the administration says were involved.
“All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” Obama said in a statement. “Such activities have consequences.”
The penalties were aimed at punishing officials in the government of President Vladimir Putin, among them agents linked to email hacks of top Hillary Clinton campaign officials and the Democratic National Committee.
They included sanctions of two of Russia’s intelligence agencies and three companies the U.S. said provided support. Additionally, 35 Russian officials in the U.S. were ordered to leave within three days and access was cut off starting Friday to two Russian government-owned compounds, one in New York and one in Maryland.
The hackers leaked emails revealing campaign-related correspondence of senior Clinton advisor John Podesta and other Democratic operatives, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded.
Clinton has blamed Putin himself and told supporters that he went after her because of a “personal beef” against her. President-elect Donald Trump has dismissed the idea that Putin was involved or that the leaks affected the outcome of the election.
Obama has all but blamed Putin personally, telling reporters before Christmas that very little happens in the Russian government without Putin’s knowledge.
The interference in the American election calls for retaliation, administration officials say. Obama has said that he would make some of the penalties known publicly, but that his administration will launch other retribution that they won’t discuss.
Thursday’s announcement came while Obama is vacation with his family in his childhood home of Hawaii.
The retaliation is certain to exacerbate tensions with Russia during the transition from the Obama presidency to the Trump presidency. Trump has suggested that he plans to let the matter rest.
“We ought to get on with our lives,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
Trump has rejected conclusions from the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that the Russian government was behind the hacks of computer systems and emails belonging to Democratic Party officials.
The Obama administration should produce more evidence about the hacking, Sean Spicer, Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, told reporters earlier Thursday.
“If the United States has clear proof of anyone interfering with our elections, we should make that known,” Spicer said. “Right now we need to see further facts,” he said.
Spicer suggested accusations about Russia’s influence on the presidential election are politically motivated to undercut Trump’s mandate.
“You have a lot of folks on the left who continue to undermine the legitimacy of his win and the nature of how big that win was, and that is unfortunate,” Spicer said.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
A lieutenant and detective say they're being punished for reporting perjury and false statements at the San Diego Police Department la times
A lieutenant and detective say they're being punished for reporting perjury and false statements at the San Diego Police Department la times
Jeff McDonald
Allegations of perjury and making false statements by San Diego police officers have emerged in separate lawsuits filed by a lieutenant and a detective who claim they’ve been retaliated against for speaking out about misconduct.
One of the lawsuits includes sworn testimony from two department employees that is diametrically opposed. The discrepancies generated an internal investigation that appears to be ongoing.
The other complaint sparked a pair of subpoenas for additional records sought by the plaintiffs’ lawyer. The city attorney’s office wants to quash the subpoenas, and a hearing on that is scheduled next month.
Attorney Dan Gilleon filed both cases against the city and numerous police officials.
“Without a doubt, the San Diego Police Department does not tolerate officers who cross the thin blue line,” Gilleon said. “They absolutely punish anyone who has the courage and ethics to speak out against wrongdoing, and even criminal acts.”
Police officials would not discuss the allegations, but a spokesman issued a statement saying the department has strict rules against perjury or other legal violations.
“The San Diego Police Department does not tolerate employee misconduct at any level,” Lt. Scott Wahl wrote. “We have a mandatory reporting policy, requiring immediate action should any member become aware of misconduct.”
A spokesman for City Atty. Mara Elliott issued a statement defending the city’s attempt to withhold records sought by one of the plaintiffs.
“It is appropriate for the court to quash the subpoenas because they seek information that has no relevance to the claims in the case,” the statement said.
The older of the two retaliation lawsuits was filed by Det. Dana Hoover in 2014.
Hoover claimed she was harassed and transferred from her job in the homicide unit after she wrote an email to her supervisors outlining a series of issues within the department.
One of the most serious allegations involved what she called “false statements” another detective made as a witness during a murder trial almost three years ago.
According to Hoover, Det. Steve McDonald did not testify truthfully when he told the jury that the defendant had been picked out of a lineup.
McDonald “testified that the witness identified the suspect at the conclusion of the interview,” Hoover wrote in the email to her bosses. “That was not true. The witness did not identify the suspect, at all.”
Hoover was referring to a criminal case against Aron Franklin, a suspected gang member accused of shooting a 20-year-old man in Lincoln Park in January 2014.
Handwritten lineup notes included in the court record state: “It’s none of them. Number five is the only one that looks almost like the subject, but no. No one is the suspect.”
According to Hoover’s email to three police officials and a top city prosecutor, the defense attorney noted the discrepancy under cross-examination, but Franklin was convicted anyway.
The district attorney’s office, which was served with one of the subpoenas San Diego city lawyers are trying to quash, said there is no reason to reopen the case against Franklin in light of Hoover’s allegations.
“People v. Franklin was appealed, and the conviction was affirmed on appeal,” spokesman Steve Walker said in an email.
The lineup testimony was not cited as grounds for the appeal, according to the appellate court ruling handed down last year.
Franklin’s lawyers had challenged his conviction on a count of receiving stolen property and a gang-enhancement finding. Judges rejected both arguments.
Walker said the D.A.’s office could not comment on the motion by Hoover’s lawyers to subpoena additional records because of the pending lawsuit.
The second apparent case of perjury is more recent. It came up in a November deposition taken as part of an unrelated retaliation lawsuit filed by police Lt. Natalie Stone last year.
Stone sued the city, Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman and Assistant Chief Sarah Creighton after reporting bullying by her supervisor at the training division, Capt. Brian Ahearn.
The suit claims that Stone was demoted and denied promotions after filing the complaint, which accused Ahearn of abusive behavior and creating a hostile work environment.
Among other actions, Ahearn was prone to “loud outbursts, yelling, pounding his hands and fists on the desk and flailing hand gestures,” the complaint said.
As part of the litigation, Ahearn and Officer Kenneth Kries filed sworn declarations that address an incident between the two men at the training academy in July 2015.
Kries said under oath that Ahearn used both hands to push him in the chest. “I was shocked and embarrassed” by the encounter, but unharmed, he wrote under penalty of perjury.
Ahearn said under oath that the two men were merely demonstrating a control tactic known as the Orcutt Police Nunchaku.
“Kries took a hold of both of my arms to demonstrate,” he wrote under penalty of perjury. “Kries and I demonstrated grabbing techniques on each other. Kries leaned into me, and we ended the physical contact with pats on the back as a player and coach would do.”
Ahearn wrote that he was subsequently contacted by a lieutenant, who informed him that “Kries had reported that I had pushed him.”
“Given the allegations, I advised [the lieutenant] that he needed to brief Asst. Chief Creighton,” he wrote.
In a deposition last month, Creighton acknowledged that as an acting chief, she was concerned that an officer or one of her police captains had lied under oath.
“I wanted a completely independent investigation,” she said.
When asked what she was going to do to find out who perjured themselves, the city attorney intervened in the deposition and instructed Creighton not to respond.
The National Assn. for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement works to improve police practices across the country. President Brian Corr said it is important that police and sheriff’s departments adopt and maintain clear policies that protect whistleblowers from retaliation.
“Any situation where there is real or perceived retaliation against whistleblowers can be very corrosive to relationships between police departments and the communities they serve, as we saw in the LAPD Rampart scandal,” Corr said.
He also said it is important for law enforcement agencies to create citizen review boards that are given the authority and disciplinary information they need to exercise independent oversight.
The San Diego Police Department has seen a wave of misconduct cases in recent years. The City Council agreed to pay at least $14 million in recent years to settle various lawsuits filed by victims.
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