Friday Post

Sit by the lake with a tall, cool glass of truth...


A report on the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17 will be released in October and will likely list the cause of the crash as being struck by a missile:

At Gilze-Rijen airbase outside Amsterdam, the Dutch Safety Board is in the final stages of reconstructing parts of MH17 from wreckage recovered in Ukraine.

Their report, due in October, will likely identify the type of missile and the launch site, and perhaps who controlled that turf in the ongoing border war between Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels.

A draft copy is already circulating to aviation safety organizations like the International Civil Aviation Organization.

From the article, it seems like the Dutch are reluctant to blame the Russians who became prime suspects after intercepted calls implicated them. And like Korean Airlines flight 007, it is less likely that the Russians will be punished for killing two hundred and ninety-eight people.

Related: footage minutes after the downing of MH 17.

Lifting sanctions from a mad theocratic state that arrests and tortures dissidents, kills Canadian citizens, has not stopped enriching uranium, will not submit to snap inspections and is getting welfare from Obama is a pretty stupid thing to do:

While its allies struck a nuclear deal with Iran, Canada decided to skip the parade. The United States, the European Union, the United Nations will all lift an array of economic sanctions under the agreement, but Canada, at least for now, has no plans to follow suit. ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson, in a statement issued Tuesday, expressed appreciation for the “efforts” of the so-called P5-plus-one group that struck the deal with Iran – the U.S., Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany. But Canada, Mr. Nicholson said, “will continue to judge Iran by its actions not its words.” Ottawa will examine the deal more before changing any policy, he said.

 

(Sidebar: is there a need to give military aid to Saudi Arabia if this deal with Iran will usher in a new era of peace?)

But I guess anti-Israel wags know what they are talking about.

Related: Bill Clinton made a similar deal with North Korea and look how that turned out:

“This is a good deal for the United States,” said President Clinton. “North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program. South Korea and our other allies will be better protected. The entire world will be safer as we slow the spread of nuclear weapons.”

Oops.

Another South Korean is being held captive in North Korea:

An American univerisity student being held in North Korea has said he has been "treated in the most humanitarian way" since entering the country illegally.

Won Moon Joo, a South Korean who holds permanent residency in the United States, was arrested in April when he crossed the Amnok River, also called the Yalu River, from the Chinese border town of Dandong.

On Tuesday, the business studies student at New York University was allowed to speak to reporters in Pyongyang but gave no explanation for entering the country.

"I would like to tell my family I'm healthy, I hope to be home soon and to tell them not to worry too much," he said.

"I've eaten three meals a day, exercised daily, given books to read to pass the time. I've been quite healthy and I've been taken care of very well with good people."

Mr Joo also publicly admitted that he has broken North Korean laws.

"I fully acknowledge that I broke the law by illegally entering the DPRK and I sincerely apologise, but I hope to be treated generously by the DPRK government," he said.

Well, now that he has been forced to apologise, what will South Korea or the US give North Korea to free him?

Also:

The U.N. has requested Beijing for an explanation of its decision to repatriate 29 North Korean defectors last August, and of their current status in North Korea. [….]

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry is particularly concerned about the status of human-trafficking victims and illegal immigrants in China, and the persecution or torture, as well as the long detentions that await returnees in North Korea, South Korean outlet No Cut News reported.

North Korean women also are vulnerable to forced abortions and sexual assault after repatriation, according to the U.N.

The forced abortions on repatriated women have been performed because Chinese men have impregnated the women, according to the Brookings Institution.

In a follow-up to China’s report, the U.N. said it had received information a 1-year-old child was one of the 29 North Koreans repatriated in August 2014.

 

The UN is part of the problem, so there's that.

(Kamsahamnida)

Kathleen Wynne is a big fat liar:

Premier Kathleen Wynne says Prime Minister Stephen Harper is playing politics by refusing to co-operate with Ontario's new pension plan, and warns voters will question his motives in the upcoming election campaign.

I'm sorry. She's not fat.

Her proposed pension plan is just another example of her failure as a leader and a human being to lead the province she was elected to run.

Aboriginal children are taken into care more than other children and no one cares to state the real reasons why:

Canada's premiers are raising concerns about the high number of aboriginal children in care as they urge the federal government to help them address the issue.