PrairiePundit

 Time: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian armed forces, launched ballistic missiles at what it described as the “headquarters of spies” in Erbil, northern Iraq on Monday night. Ten missiles fell near the U.S. Consulate, Iraqi sources said . “In response to the recent evil acts of the Zionist regime in martyring IRGC and resistance commanders, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, with its nobility and intelligence, targeted and destroyed one of the main headquarters of Israel’s spying agency Mossad in Iraq’s Kurdistan region by firing ballistic missiles,” the group said in a statement reported by Iran’s state news agency. “This Mossad headquarters,” the statement continued, referencing Israel’s intelligence agency, “has been working for espionage operations and a center for terror attacks planning in the region, especially against our beloved country.” Iraqi officials denied the building was related to Mossad. No U.S. facilities were impacted, U.S. offic...

NY Times: Panic in Pakistani City After 900 Children Test Positive for H.I.V. Health workers say the reuse of syringes drove the outbreak in the city of Ratodero. This is an appalling failure on the part of health workers and the people who supervise them.  Diabetics in this country are more careful.

Washington Times: The U.S. announced this week that it has deported Sharafat Ali Khan, a man convicted of running a major smuggling network for illegal immigrants from terrorist havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Khan orchestrated the smuggling of more than 100 illegal immigrants from those regions. They would fly to Brazil, where he was based, then make their way up the spine of South America and Mexico to the U.S., using a network of people Khan worked with along the way, authorities said. Some of the people smuggled “had suspected ties to terrorist organizations,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in announcing the deportation. One of the men Khan helped reach the U.S. had been flagged on the terrorist no-fly list, with family ties to the Taliban, and had been implicated in a plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. or Canada, The Washington Times reported. Khan, 33, was sent back to his home country of Pakistan, where authorities took custody of him without inci...

The Times: Militants try to storm Chinese consulate in Pakistan Militant gunmen attempted to storm the Chinese consulate in Karachi this morning, sparking a furious battle with police and threatening a new wave of terrorist attacks targeting Beijing’s growing presence in Pakistan. The terrorists hurled grenades at a checkpoint outside the consulate, which lies in an affluent neighbourhood of Pakistan’s biggest city. Security forces held off the attack after a gun battle, which left two policemen and the three militants dead. ... It is not clear whether China's crackdown on Islam had anything to do with the radical Islamists attack.  At their heart, radical Islamists are religious bigots who are intolerant of those who reject Islam.  Pakistan is infested with several different strains of radical Islam.

Washington Free Beacon: A bipartisan group of senators is urging the Trump administration to block the International Monetary Fund from bailing out several underdeveloped nations victimized by predatory Chinese loans made through the Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure development plan. "We write to express our concern over bailout requests to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by countries who have accepted predatory Chinese infrastructure financing," the 16 senators stated in a letter sent last week to the secretaries of Treasury and State. China's Belt and Road Initiative is a global infrastructure funding plan that Beijing is using to expand its power and influence around the world. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Djibouti have accepted billions of dollars in loans from China that the governments there are unable to repay. China is using the debt to control the policies of the countries, the senators said. ... It looks like these countries did this to themse...

Times: The US secretary of state has warned Pakistan that any funds provided under a possible $12 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund should not be used to repay Chinese loans. Mike Pompeo said there was “no rationale” for an IMF package that would be used to shift funds onto Chinese lenders. Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister-elect after a general election last week, is said to be considering asking for the assistance to try and stabilise the country’s economy. Speaking only hours he had urged Asian nations to look towards the US for commercial ventures rather than Beijing, Mr Pompeo suggested that any IMF deal for Pakistan would be carefully scrutinised by the US, which is the largest contributor to the fund’s coffers, and has the largest voting rights within the organisation. “Make no mistake. We will be watching what the IMF does,” Mr Pompeo said in a television interview. “There’s no rationale for IMF tax dollars, and associated with that American dollars t...

Daily Caller: The father of Imran Awan — an IT aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz who investigators concluded made “unauthorized access” to House servers — transferred a USB drive to a Pakistani senator and former head of a Pakistani intelligence agency, the father’s ex-business partner, Rashid Minhas, alleged. Minhas told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Imran Awan’s father, Haji Ashraf Awan, was giving data to Pakistani official Rehman Malik, and that Imran bragged he had the power to “change the U.S. president.” Asked for how he knew this, he said that on one occasion in 2008 when a “USB [was] given to Rehman Malik by Imran’s father, my brother Abdul Razzaq was with his father.” “After Imran’s father deliver (sic) USB to Rehman Malik, four Pakistani [government intelligence] agents were with his father 24-hour on duty to protect him,” he said. Minhas did not say what was on the USB. TheDCNF traveled to Pakistan for this story and interviewed numerous residents who ...

Eli Lake: There isn't much that Turkey's president can do these days to further debase his reputation in the West. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has crushed peaceful protests at home and abroad , closed newspapers , threatened American soldiers , and collectively scapegoated Kurds . But over the weekend, Erdogan managed to go even lower. At a rally at Kahramanmaras , the Turkish leader brought a trembling 6-year-old girl on stage dressed in military garb and told her she would be honored if she died as a martyr. He sounded like a terrorist. We expect this kind of child abuse from the fanatics in Hamas or Hezbollah. Erdogan though is the leader of an important NATO ally. Turkey is beginning to resemble Pakistan, a perpetually failing state whose military leadership has tolerated and advanced a vision of political Islam deeply hostile to U.S. and Western interests. To be sure, Turkey is not quite there yet. There is still a majority of Turks who want to eventually join the European...

BBC: When Russia's most notorious hackers hired servers from a UK-registered company, they left a trove of clues behind, the BBC has discovered. The hackers used the computers to attack the German parliament, hijack traffic meant for a Nigerian government website and target Apple devices. The company, Crookservers, had claimed to be based in Oldham for a time. It says it acted swiftly to eject the hacking team - dubbed Fancy Bear - as soon as it learned of the problem. Technical and financial records from Crookservers seen by the BBC suggest Fancy Bear had access to significant funds and made use of online financial services, some of which were later closed in anti-money laundering operations. Fancy Bear - also known as APT28, Sofacy, Iron Twilight and Pawn Storm - has been linked to Russian intelligence. The group played a key role in 2016's attack on the US's Democratic National Committee (DNC), according to security experts. Indeed an internet protocol (IP) address th...

BBC: Pakistan's military says it has launched a major operation against so-called Islamic State (IS) in the north-western region along the Afghan border. A spokesman said militants had gained ground inside Afghanistan and had to be stopped from extending their influence. He said the "Khyber 4" operation, backed by the air force, would focus on the mountainous Rajgal Valley area in Khyber Agency. Pakistan has previously denied the presence of IS on its territory. However, the growth of the group - often referred to as Daesh - in neighbouring Afghanistan has alarmed Islamabad and the group has claimed several attacks in Pakistan over the past two years. "This operation was necessary because Daesh is getting established there and we have to stop the influence spreading into Pakistani territory through the Rajgal Valley," military spokesman Lt Gen Asif Ghafoor said. IS in the region is mostly made up of former members of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and Gen Gh...

Washington Post: Some experts see echoes of Russia in North Korea’s missile advances Weapons experts noted striking similarities between North Korea’s new intercontinental weapon’s propulsion system and a 1960s-era Soviet system. And although North Korea is known to have obtained other Soviet missile designs in the past, the new revelations suggest the possibility of a transfer of weapons secrets that has gone undetected until now. Others see similarities to those used by Pakistan, Iran, and China.  I suspect that they have been scrounging ideas from all of them.  The nose cone on the latest missile is very much like one designed by China and used by Pakistan.

Daily Caller: A criminal suspect in an investigation into a major security breach on the House of Representatives computer network has abruptly left the country and gone to Pakistan, where her family has significant assets and VIP-level protection, a relative and others told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. Hina Alvi, her husband Imran Awan, and his brothers Abid and Jamal were highly paid shared IT administrators working for multiple House Democrats until their access to congressional IT systems was terminated Feb. 2 as a result of the investigation. Capitol Police confirmed the investigation is ongoing, but no arrests have been reported in the case. The Awans are “accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network,” according to Politico. Many of the Democrats who employed the Awans are members of the House Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee o...

Washington Times: Federal authorities wrangled a guilty plea Wednesday from a Brazilian man who ran one of the Western Hemisphere’s more flagrant alien smuggling operations, sneaking dozens of illegal immigrants from terrorism-connected countries into the U.S. from 2014 to 2016. Sharafat Ali Khan specialized in smuggling illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh over to the West, where they would be staged in Brazil before being sent north to try to penetrate the U.S. One of the men Khan helped smuggle into the country was an Afghan who authorities said was involved in a plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. or Canada and had family ties to members of the Taliban. Khan appeared in federal court in Washington on Wednesday and agreed to plead guilty to a smuggling conspiracy charge. He will be sentenced this summer and could get up to 46 months in prison, though a lower sentence is likely. Khan also agreed to accept deportation after he serves his time — though...

Daily Star: Angela Merkel says Europe must take MORE refugees and Islam 'isn't source of terror' GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has launched a staunch defense of her refugee policy. Meanwhile; Daily Wire:  Saudi Arabia has deported a staggering 40,000 Pakistani migrant workers in the span of just four months, citing terrorism concerns. The Saudi Gazette reported last week that “a number of Pakistanis were held in the crimes of drug trafficking, thefts, forgery and physical assault.” Authorities feared that some of the migrant workers were linked with ISIS, or as the Saudis call the terror group, Daesh. Other migrants were deported due to expired residency and work permits. “Against this backdrop, Abdullah Al-Sadoun, chairman of the security committee of the Shoura Council, called for thoroughly scrutinizing the Pakistanis before they are recruited for work in the Kingdom,” added the Gazette. “He asked for more closer coordination with the concerned authorities...

Telegraph: CPS 'afraid to tackle honour crimes for fear of causing unrest in Asian communities' So are they just going to let them kill their children who don't accept the warped culture of Islam as practiced by the Pakistanis?  This is the same mistake the Brits made in not going after the sexual "grooming" of white girls by the thousands by the same community they did not want to cause unrest in.  What is wrong with these people?  There is no need to accept the cultural depravity that is practiced by Pakistani Muslims.

CNN: At least 14 people were killed in two attacks in northern Pakistan Friday, according to authorities. In the city of Mardan, at least 13 people were killed and another 53 were injured in an attack at the city's district courts, District Police Officer Faisal Shehzad, district police officer said. The attacker threw a hand grenade at the gate to the courts then blew blew himself up after security prevented him from getting inside, Senior Police Superintendent Shafiullah Khan said. Four of those killed were lawyers, according to Amir Hussain, the president of the Mardan Bar Association In the neighboring city of Peshawar, one bystander was killed and three members of Pakistani security forces were injured earlier in the day in an attack on a Christian neighborhood, according to the Pakistan's military. Pakistani police previously told CNN that four bystanders were killed and five were injured. Four suicide bombers, who were also equipped with arms and ammunition...

NBC News: ISIS fighters exporting their deadly ideology have forced rivals Iran and Pakistan into a tentative terror-fighting partnership. The national security czars of both Iran and Pakistan met in Tehran on July 24 to discuss "the need to fight against the common threat posed by … ISIS" and announced they would come together to police their 600-mile border. The shared regional threat was underscored Tuesday when dozens were killed in a suicide bombing at a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. ISIS was one of two groups to issue competing claims of responsibility. Since surging into the international spotlight by capturing swathes of Syria and Iraq in the summer of 2014, ISIS has sprouted several regional branches outside of their initial heartland. One branch — dubbed the province of Khorasan — has killed hundreds in Afghanistan, including a July 23 attack in Kabul that killed 81 and injured 237. The Pentagon said Friday that a U.S. drone stri...

Guardian: Dozens of people have been killed and injured in a suicide bomb attack in the grounds of a government-run hospital in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta. The blast happened shortly after the body of Bilal Kasi, a prominent lawyer who was killed in a shooting earlier in the day, was brought to the hospital. It was unclear if the two events were connected. Nearly 100 lawyers and other people had gathered at the hospital, and witnesses described horrifying scenes of bodies being scattered about and the wounded screaming out and crying for help. The death toll had risen to 63 by 4.05pm (11.05am GMT), according to hospital director Abdul Rehman, who also said 92 wounded people were being treated. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which struck at the gates of the building housing the emergency ward. Earlier, police mistakenly said the bomb struck the hospital’s main gate. Riaz Ahmed, a 74-year-old lawyer, had gone to the hospital with a...

Washington Post: Pakistani model killed after offending conservatives Qandeel Baloch recently stirred controversy by posting pictures of herself with a Muslim cleric. Her parents told police that one of her six brothers strangled her in her sleep. These people are the opposite of conservative.  It is weird that the same media that does not blink when leftist like Democrats accuse conservative Republicans of being "extremists" but is willing to call family murder "conservative" in Pakistan.  It reflects rank media bias.

Salon: FBI criminal investigation emails: Clinton approved CIA drone assassinations with her cellphone, report says WSJ: FBI is investigating Hillary's classified emails on State Dept. approval of CIA drone killings in Pakistan ... The emails that are at the heart of the FBI’s criminal investigation are 2011 and 2012 messages between U.S. diplomats in Pakistan and their State Department superiors in D.C., in which the officials approved drone strikes. Clinton’s aides forwarded some of these emails to her personal email account, on a private server in her home in suburban New York. ... There is also the fact that there were email messages between Clinton and Obama to and from her unsecured server.  This puts the President on notice of her mishandling of classified material and makes it difficult for him to claim that she did nothing wrong.