Society's Child

Afghanistan: US 'contractor' reportedly taken hostage by Taliban

Sputnik
Thu, 06 Feb 2020 19:00 UTC

Comment: 'Contractor' is just a euphemism for soldier... the Pentagon is so sensitive about public reaction to troops coming home in body-bags from interminable unwinnable wars that they've 'outsourced' US troops' pay to mercenary companies, but they're still US soldiers on a US mission, whatever exactly that is...

A multi-department effort to recover an American contractor has been launched after it was alleged that a Taliban-aligned group kidnapped the US citizen late last month.

Mark R. Frerichs, a 57-year-old government contractor from Lombard Illinois, was captured on January 31 in Afghanistan's southeastern city of Khost by militants linked to the Taliban, according to Newsweek, citing US officials.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the officials revealed that Frerichs, who is also a former diver of the US Navy, had regularly traveled to Afghanistan since 2012. While few details were offered about the 57-year-old's alleged capture, the sources did confirm that a joint effort to locate and rescue him had been launched by the US Department of State, the Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As for the group responsible, Washington currently believes the American was kidnapped by members of the Haqqani network, which is affiliated with the Taliban, Newsweek reported. Two Western hostages, Kevin King of the US and Australian national Tim Weeks, were previously exchanged for three senior commanders of the Taliban-aligned group back in November 2019. The two individuals had been in captivity for three years before an agreement was reached.

However, no group has publicly taken responsibility for Frerichs' alleged kidnapping.

Comment: WGN9, 6/2/2020 Lombard, Illinois man taken hostage

Family members in the western suburbs turned down WGN's request for interviews. However, Frerichs father, Art Frerichs, spoke to the Daily Herald and said he has faith that the president and the FBI will find his son.

DePaul University security and terrorism expert, Tom Mockaitis, says Friday Frerichs was operating in a dangerous area. The 57-year-old was reportedly kidnapped in the Afghanistan city of Khost which sits on the border of a mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mockaitis' interview is included in the video:

FOX 32, 6/2/2020: Mark Frerichs' father's comments

American forces have launched a ground-and-intelligence-gathering mission over the past few days to try to locate Mark. The search in part has been hindered by severe winter weather, which has prevented overhead drone surveillance and made it difficult to navigate the terrain.

According to Mark's LinkedIn page, he's a civil engineer and managing director of a company called International Logistical Support, who, over the last 10 years, has worked in several military conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa. Mark also served as a deep diver in the U.S. Navy, according to Newsweek.

Palestine blames West Bank turmoil on the US 'Deal of the Century - a 'plan for annexation and apartheid'

RT
Fri, 07 Feb 2020 15:09 UTC

A senior Palestinian official blamed US President Donald Trump's Middle East plan for the recent turmoil, after the US leader's son-in-law said local leaders were inciting violence.

"Those who introduce plans for annexation and apartheid and the legalization of occupation and settlements are the ones who bear full responsibility for deepening the cycle of violence and extremism," Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a statement.

His remarks came a day after Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and mastermind behind the so-called 'deal of the century', accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of urging his supporters to carry out violence. "He calls for days of rage in response and he said that even before he saw the plan," Kushner told reporters in New York after meeting with UN Security Council members.

Thursday was marked by several violent incidents. Three Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank. In the early morning, 12 Israeli soldiers were injured in a ramming attack in Jerusalem. Later on the same day, an attacker approached a group of Israeli police, abruptly pulling a gun on them and opening fire, injuring one of them.

Comment: See also:

T-Mobile warned about product liability within weeks of unleashing 5G and giving away free phones

BN Frank
Activist Post
Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC

Thanks to 5G Crisis for publishing T-Mobile's recent warning:

In its annual Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10-K filing, T-Mobile writes, "Our business could be adversely affected by findings of product liability for health or safety risks from wireless devices and transmission equipment, as well as by changes to regulations or radio frequency emission standards." You can read the full citation listed above on page 18 of this document.

Telecom companies - including T-Mobile - have been warning about liability dating back to at least 2014:

More than a dozen killed in fireworks explosion at religious festival in northern India

RT
Sat, 08 Feb 2020 14:10 UTC

A religious festival in India's northern state of Punjab has ended in tragedy as a trolley carrying fireworks was set ablaze and exploded, killing over a dozen people.

The blast rocked a "nagar kirtan" Sikh religious procession near Pahu village in the Tarn Taran district on Saturday.

Fireworks were an essential part of the festivities, but at some point the sparks landed on a trolley, which carried a large load of pyrotechnics, causing it to explode.

Blacklist Valley: How Big Tech reshapes politics by censoring conservative ideas

Peter Hasson
Washington Examiner
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 23:30 UTC

For better or worse, social media is the new public square. Of adults, 68% use Facebook, 73% use YouTube, and a quarter use Twitter. The numbers are much higher for adults under 50. Two-thirds of adults and roughly 4 in 5 under 50 use social media to consume news. Three-quarters of Facebook users are on the site every day, and Twitter users have a disproportionate influence on the media because so many journalists are on the service.

The size and scale of social media companies exploded primarily because they presented themselves as open platforms — blank slates. Google, Facebook, and Twitter all characterized their products as engines for social improvement. "We think of Twitter as the global town hall," said former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. "We are the free speech wing of the free speech party."

Costolo was Twitter's chief executive from 2010 until 2015 and the immediate predecessor of current CEO Jack Dorsey. Twitter's general manager in the United Kingdom, Andy Yang, likewise described Twitter as the "free speech wing of the free speech party" in March 2012. Google became a multibillion-dollar company by offering a portal for free, unrestricted information to anyone with access to the internet; famously, its original motto was "Don't be evil." An internal Facebook memo circulated in June 2016 stated that at Facebook, "we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good."

'Deal of the century' is more than just apartheid

Nada Elia
Mondoweiss
Thu, 06 Feb 2020 11:56 UTC

© UPI/Debbie Hill
A Palestinian stands on his property overlooking the Israeli settlement Har Homa, West Bank, February 18, 2011.

A week into the official unveiling of the Trump Administration's "Deal of the Century," there is no lack of analysis of how this "vision for peace to prosperity" legitimizes Israel's numerous crimes, while fulfilling the country's aspirations for acceptance into the region. And as we denounce this vision, it must be emphasized that it does not propose much that is novel, as much as it merely sets up an official, contractual framework for transgressions that are already "facts on the ground."

The annexation of Jerusalem and declaring it the capital of Israel, the denial of the Palestinian refugees' Right of Return, Israel's control of all Palestinian borders, including the Gaza Strip's maritime borders, the annexation of West Bank settlements, Palestinian demilitarization, the setting up of regional alliances, and putting an end to BDS, are not a bold "vision" as much as a long-standing reality, which Trump wants Palestinians to officially agree to. (Or else what? Gaza is already unlivable, BDS criminalized, protestors in the Great March of Return are shot on sight, while refugees in the global diaspora are denied return). In other words, the plan does not propose apartheid, it seeks to formalize it.

Comment: See also:

And check out SOTT radio's:

If conversion therapy is bad, why is sex reassignment good?

Joseph Backholm
Breakpoint
Tue, 04 Feb 2020 07:06 UTC

One trick of LGBT activists is changing the meaning of words.

We see this in the way LGBT activists celebrate sex reassignment as gender affirmation but condemn conversion therapy as sex reassignment.

Let's imagine there is a 6 year-old boy named Johnny and Johnny experiences gender dysphoria. He says he wants to be a girl. The science shows that in at least 80% of the cases, gender dysphoria eventually goes away on it's own. So if Johnny and his parents do nothing, the odds are that by the time Johnny goes through puberty, his gender dysphoria will go away.

However, if a therapist or doctor were to help Johnny get over his gender dysphoria and counsel him in a way that helped him identify as a boy this would be described as "conversion therapy."

In several states, it's illegal.

Comment: See also:

Jordan Peterson goes to Russia for emergency treatment after 4 weeks in ICU

Sputnik
Sat, 08 Feb 2020 06:53 UTC

The Canadian professor's health sparked concerns just months ago, when he had to check into rehab to take himself off an anti-anxiety drug that caused adverse effects and made him suicidal.

Jordan Peterson has made a "desperate" decision to seek drug detox treatment in Russia after several failed attempts at North American hospitals.

His daughter Mikhaila said in a video from Russia that Peterson had been prescribed a low dose of benzodiazepine "a few years ago" to treat anxiety caused by a severe autoimmune response to food (in an earlier video, she identified it as clonazepam, a type of medication of the benzodiazepine class). Jordan had also adopted Mikhaila's all-beef diet, which he said fixed some of his health problems.

However, his anxiety apparently grew stronger after his wife of 30 years, Tammy, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the dose of the drug was increased last April. That lead to the professor suffering from "both a physical dependency and a paradoxical (opposite to the intended effect) reaction to the medication," Mikhaila recounted.

Comment: Here's the video update:

Twitterati report widespread outage & share conspiracies

RT
Fri, 07 Feb 2020 22:27 UTC

Was it #Vindman or #PetesBillionaires?

With rumors swirling around the White House's dismissal of #Resistance hero Lt.Col. Alexander Vindman and the deep-pocketed figures behind Democratic frontrunner Pete Buttigieg, Twitter has mysteriously gone AWOL for some.

Over 11,000 users reported Twitter outages on Friday evening, according to DownDetector - just as conversations about #Resistance poster-boy and Ukrainian-American impeachment witness Vindman had shifted from "will he be fired?" to "OMG he's being escorted from the White House!"

Shock after alcohol flows from kitchen taps in Kerala, India

BBC
Thu, 06 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC

Residents of an apartment building in southern India were left in shock after a mix of beer, brandy and rum started gushing out of their taps.

The smelly, brown liquid began flowing from kitchen taps in the block of flats, in Kerala, on Monday morning.

Bemused residents then contacted the authorities for help, and discovered their water well had been contaminated by officials - albeit accidentally.

Billionaires certainly have no right to remove our supposed democracy and bring through 'resets' through the back door. Neither do our politicians...

Kevin Smith

Unfortunately this can't be done in Australia, as AHPRA will pull anyone's liscence to practice if they "say anything bad" about vaccines. This is...

Ruth

I believe this is intentional. To create a feeling of dispair, depression, and approaching end times. Provoke the sheeple to make the next step in...

codis

.. .. Let's go pfhizer!! [Link]

Jibrish

Let's go pfhizer!! [Link]

Jibrish

Society's Child

Afghanistan: US 'contractor' reportedly taken hostage by Taliban

Palestine blames West Bank turmoil on the US 'Deal of the Century - a 'plan for annexation and apartheid'

T-Mobile warned about product liability within weeks of unleashing 5G and giving away free phones

More than a dozen killed in fireworks explosion at religious festival in northern India

Blacklist Valley: How Big Tech reshapes politics by censoring conservative ideas

'Deal of the century' is more than just apartheid

If conversion therapy is bad, why is sex reassignment good?

Jordan Peterson goes to Russia for emergency treatment after 4 weeks in ICU

Twitterati report widespread outage & share conspiracies

Shock after alcohol flows from kitchen taps in Kerala, India

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