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US Building New Base in Oil Rich Area in Deir ez-Zor, Syria

American soldier looking out of an armored vehicle
© AP Photo/ APTV
This Saturday, April 29, 2017 still taken from video, shows an American soldier looking out of an armored vehicle in the northern village of Darbasiyah, Syria
The US is reportedly continuing its military buildup in Syria. Local online news portal the Euphrates Post has published video evidence showing what appear to be two US Coalition Blackhawk helicopters consolidating the US presence in an oil-rich area in Deir ez-Zor province.

According to the resource, a new US Coalition base is being built in the area east of the city of Mejadin, near al-Omar, Syria's largest oil field.


Comment: See also: Trump requests $4bln from Saudi King to destabilize Syria


Attention

Madrid sentences rapper to over 3 years for lyrics 'glorifying terrorism'

Josep Miguel Arenas jailed spain terrorism

The rapper, known as Valtonyc, claimed the songs should be allowed under freedom of expression laws.
A rapper has been jailed for writing songs that prosecutors said glorified terrorism and insulted the Spanish crown.

Josep Miquel Arenas, 24, from Mallorca, penned lyrics that called for political assassinations in the style of Basque separatist group ETA and said one regional politician 'deserved an atom bomb'.

The singer, known as Valtonyc, appealed against an earlier conviction on the grounds of freedom of expression and artistic freedoms.

Comment: WaPo adds:
Advocates of free speech warn that overzealous prosecutors and conservative judges are dialing back the clock in Spain, which began its experiment with democracy only after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

Disappointed at hearing the high court had upheld a prison sentence for Arenas, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, tweeted that these are "sad and dark times when you have to fight for something so obvious as #rappingisnotacrime."

Civil libertarians here say Spain is repurposing laws meant to stop incitement to terrorism to cover what should be protected political speech - including lyrics by rap artists, who often assume tough-guy poses and playact as marginalized, angry characters in their songs.

"These punishments, without a doubt, have a self-censoring effect," said Yolanda Quintana, secretary general for the Platform for the Defense of Freedom of Information in Madrid.



Handcuffs

Radioactive substance worth $70mn seized in Ankara, 4 arrested

Handcuffs
© Thomas Samson / AFP
Four people were arrested in Ankara after they were found to have a nuclear substance in their car, local media reported. They were aiming to sell the substance for more than $70 million, according to NTV news channel.

READ MORE: Mysterious enriched uranium particle detected in skies over Alaska

Around 1.4 kilograms of the synthetic radioactive substance californium was found in the car during the raid, according to NTV and the state-run Anadolu Agency.

Cross

Warnings from a survivor of Communism's war on religion

Nicolae Ceausescu Romanian Communist Party
© Keystone Pictures USA/Zuma Press/Newscom
Nicolae Ceausescu, chairman of the Romanian Communist Party.
"I should be dead. Buried in an unmarked grave in Romania. Obviously, I am not. God had other plans." So declares a lady who grew up under Communism.

Her name is Virginia Prodan. I had not heard of her until she reached out to me through Facebook---to commend me for a recent column I had written about how Communism, despite its deadly track record, seems to be gaining some support among the young and naïve of the West.

I have come to learn her story, to read her book, and to interview her on the radio. She has an important message for our time, when religious freedom is at risk.

She described the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu thus: "I called that land a land of lies and a 'Prisonland' because we were not allowed to criticize or even to ask questions about the government or his regime."

Megaphone

Brigitte Bardot speaks out against Islamic influence in France and destructive membership in EU

Brigitte Bardot
© Eric Feferberg / AFP
French actress Brigitte Bardot has spoken out against the state of her country, saying that Islamists are "practically everywhere" and that France should not resemble Algeria.

Speaking to the French weekly Valeurs Actuelles, Bardot said that France is not what it once was. "I have been brought up in honor, patriotism, love and respect for my country, and when I see what it has become, I feel desperate," she said.

The 83-year-old also said that it is "unacceptable" to see burqas become commonplace in France, and Islamists are "practically everywhere."

Arrow Down

Another ball dropped: New report shows no follow up to recommendations of forced psych admission for Parkland shooter

Nikolas Cruz
© Amy Beth Bennett / Global Look Press
Nikolas Cruz is escorted into the courtroom for his arraignment at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Calls for Florida teen Nikolas Cruz to be put in a mental hospital were ignored more than a year before he gunned down 17 former classmates and teachers. The new report adds to the string of official failings before the massacre.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and the Broward County sheriff's office both recommended Cruz should be involuntarily committed for a mental evaluation, while his mother, Lynda, also requested an intervention, according to documents seen by the Associated Press and reported on Sunday.

Such drastic measures could have potentially prevented or made it more difficult for Cruz to buy the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that he used in his Valentine's Day rampage through the school that he was expelled from.

Comment: For more on Cruz and the issue of 'mental illness' in relation to school shootings see Joe Quinn's SOTT Focus: Florida School Shooting: A Culture of Narcissistic Entitlement and Resentment


Horse

Cleanup crew called to Maryland farm after dozens of horses found dead

horses in field
© Susan Parker
Horses eat hay at the farm where more than two dozen dead horses were found March 16, 2018.
With a brisk wind blowing under gray skies, Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis stood in front of a farm on Cherry Walk Road trying to describe what he had just seen behind the house.

"The siding - aluminum siding - was eaten off the house, and fiberglass insulation had been pulled out," Lewis said, visibly shaken, on Saturday. "Those horses were so hungry, they had broken the glass sliding doors on the back of the house, trying to get in and find something to eat. There's mud and broken glass all around the back of the house."

More than two dozen dead horses in varying degrees of decay had been discovered at the farm and reported to the sheriff's office Friday morning, which is when an investigation at the property began. The land, consisting of three parcels totaling more than 80 acres situated between Quantico Creek and Cherry Walk Road, is owned by Clayton P. and Barbara L. Pilchard, according to Maryland property records.

Attention

Restaurant patrons rescue 12 y.o. autistic girl from an unprovoked attack by a drunken cop

Texas BBQ
A Texas deputy has been fired and charged with multiple crimes after a nightmarish scene unfolded at a barbecue restaurant earlier this month. Restaurant patrons reacted first with shock and then with violence as deputy Jack Danford - unprovoked - attacked an innocent 12-year-old girl with autism as she reached down to pet a puppy.

According to court documents, Danford was in the restaurant the evening of March 3 and was bragging that he'd been drinking all day.

"It was about 7:30," said Russell Cope, the victim's stepdad. Cope was at the restaurant to deliver firewood that night and had brought along his girlfriend and her 12-year-old daughter Megan.

Cope explained that he had also brought along their puppy and when Megan bent down to pet the little dog, that's when Danford, who was sitting at a nearby table outside, snapped.

"I seen him on top of her, he was hammer fisting her, it was like UFC style," Cope said.

Passport

IRS discovers 1.2 million cases of identity theft by illegal aliens

US IRS, internal revenue service
Can't say it referred any cases for prosecution

The Internal Revenue Service in 2011 through 2016 documented more than 1.3 million cases of identity theft perpetrated by illegal aliens whom the IRS had given Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN), which are only given to people who are ineligible to work in the United States or receive Social Security Numbers, according to information published by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

However, in response to inquiries from CNSNews.com, the IRS could not say if it had referred even one of these cases for criminal prosecution.

TIGTA, which is the inspector general responsible for overseeing the IRS, discovered another approximately 1.2 million cases in 2017 in which an illegal alien working in the United States had filed a tax return reporting wages that had been earned using a Social Security Number that belonged to someone else or was fabricated.

Yet the IRS also could not say whether it referred any of these cases for criminal prosecution.

Bell

Civilians cheer as Syria liberates 70% of Eastern Ghouta from terrorists

Ghouta liberation
© Twitter
Liberation of Eastern Ghouta from Islamist extremist occupation, by Syrian Arab Army and allies.
The Syrian Arab Army has retaken70% of the areas controlled by terrorist groups in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Countryside, the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces said.

The army units are securing the exit of thousands of civilians from Eastern Ghouta who were taken by the terrorist organizations as human shields to carry out their criminal acts against them and the safe citizens in the neighborhoods of Damascus.


Comment: Emotional reunion: Syrian soldier liberates his own mother from East Ghouta terrorists (VIDEO)