Nigeria – At least 118 people have been killed and dozens wounded in two bomb blasts that caused buildings to collapse in a crowded market area of the Nigerian city of Jos, authorities say.

The massive car bombs on Tuesday, just a few minutes apart, were the latest in a deadly wave of bombings across Nigeria over the past few weeks, raising fears that the extremist group Boko Haram has become powerful enough to expand its terrorist operations far outside its traditional strongholds and into new regions of the country. (link)

Remember, this falls on the heels of over 300 killed last week, and 200 killed and/or wounded in a bombing the week just prior to that.

JOS, Nigeria — Two car bombs exploded at a bustling bus terminal and market in Nigeria’s central city of Jos on Tuesday, and police said at least 46 were killed and dozens were wounded.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the twin car bombs, but they bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group.

The second blast came half an hour after the first, killing some of the rescue workers who had rushed to the scene that was obscured by billows of black smoke.

Dozens of bodies and body parts were covered in grain that had been loaded in the second car bomb, witnesses said. A Terminus Market official said he helped remove 50 casualties, most of them dead. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to give information to reporters. (more…)

Via NY Daily News – It was an Oscar-worthy performance.

The South African “Blade Runner” clasped his ears and burst into tears Tuesday after his lawyer began describing how “some fragments of the bullet” he fired were removed from his girlfriend’s skull. It was the first display of waterworks from Oscar Pistorius since his murder trial started and he practically doubled over in the dock when he started bawling.

The tears ended almost as quickly they started when a relative handed Pistorius a tissue.

[…] Before the brief torrent of tears, defense attorney Barry Roux tore into witness Michelle Burger’s claim that she heard doomed model Reeva Steenkamp scream after the fatal shots were fired. (more…)

The Weekly Standard has some excellent analysis of a VERY insightful interview given by President Obama to  Jeff Goldberg of Bloomberg Media. 

The Full Obama foreign policy interview is HERE.  (A must read for those who tackle understanding of what motivates the current administration at the core.)  

Weekly Standard – On the eve of the Netanyahu visit to Washington, President Obama gave a lengthy interview to Jeffrey Goldberg that shows a chief executive who has learned next to nothing about the world in his five years in office.

First, kudos to Goldberg: he pressed Obama repeatedly, challenging vague formulations and seeking clarity. Goldberg pushed Obama hard, especially on Iran and Syria.

Obama isn’t good off the cuff, especially when challenged; he is far better with a prepared speech. And what emerged is an awful portrait of the president and his conception of the world.

Take Syria. Here’s what Obama said: (more…)

I have not followed all the nuances around this event.  However, when saw the floor plan for the first time, and contrast it against the story he was telling, his version of events just doesn’t pass the sniff test.    What are your thoughts?

(Reuters) – The first witness at Oscar Pistorius’ murder trial told the court on Monday she heard “bloodcurdling screams” from a woman followed by shots, a dramatic opening to a case that could see one of global sport’s most admired role models jailed for life.

Taking the stand after the Paralympic and Olympic star pleaded not guilty to murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day last year, neighbor Michelle Burger testified that she was woken in the middle of the night by a woman shouting for help.

“I was still sitting in the bed and I heard her screams,” Burger, who lives 177 meters (194 yards) from Pistorius’ home in an adjacent housing complex, told the Pretoria High Court.

“She screamed terribly and she yelled for help. Then I also heard a man screaming for help. Three times he yelled for help,” she said, speaking in Afrikaans through an interpreter. (more…)

Most people know al-Qaeda (as a terror entity) has evolved over the past 10+ years.   Recently the Obama administration has doggedly tried to parse and obfuscate around a principle that CORE al-Qaeda has been destroyed.

This claim is essential to framing any success around the Obama administration’s foreign policy and defense effort.     However, the claim is false and the success simply does not exist.

al-Qaeda is NOT on the run.

As a network of affiliated enterprises, with the same ideological goal, it has grown in influence specifically as a direct result of their own evolutionary intentions.

CORE al-Qaeda, or a centralized body from which all decision making stemmed, was never their intent.   al-Qaeda intended for terrorism to be “cellular” or operationally self-sustaining and widespread.    Bin Laden specifically intended the network to be a group of ideologically aligned but unaffiliated franchises all working on a common approach. (more…)

Ketchup Boy thinking:   ‘D’oh,..  I’m not gonna end up with this Sudan thing hung around my neck the way Hilary ended up with Libya; yeah, it makes a difference’…. 
(South Sudan) Nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel were evacuated Friday from South Sudan aboard two KC-130 aircraft assigned to a Marine crisis response team positioned in nearby Uganda.
The State Department said it ordered a reduction in staffing at the embassy in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, citing the deteriorating security situation there.
“We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety and security of our diplomatic personnel,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement. “As a result of this drawdown, the U.S. Embassy in Juba will not be able to provide consular services to U.S. citizens in South Sudan.” (more…)

Rotten week to be advance deployed……  Grrrrr….  and some leftist idiots say our fine MAGTF guys are paid too much – or afforded more regard than they deserve.  {spit}   Keep them all in your prayers.

WASHINGTON DC – About 150 Marines arrived in Djibouti on Monday to be ready to quickly protect U.S. interests amid the growing South Sudan violence.
U.S. Africa Command said the Marines were deployed from Morón Air Base in Spain to the U.S. base in Djibouti, Camp Lemonnier, so they could better guard against potential threats to U.S. personnel and facilities in South Sudan. (more…)

One of the interesting aspects of the Treehouse is the international readership and how they contribute to our understanding of events. A recent link from a South African reader was sent to us outlining accuracy within a particular regional article was. So here it is:

[…] In South Africa, the signing man told the world, you don’t actually have to know what you are doing in order to get a job. You don’t have to have any ability whatsoever, as long as it looks, to most, as though you can go through the motions — whether you are a teacher, a police officer, a bureaucrat, a government official or (as some have suggested) a state president.
There are those who see through you and complain, but they are ignored. Ours is not a culture of accountability. So one gig leads to the next. You’ve done it before so you get to do it again, because everyone in a position of power agrees that the emperor’s new threads are stylish.
You stand there and tell us that the appearance of something becomes more important than the substance of it. Your obvious inability to do your job does not prevent you from getting ahead, until you reach the most prominent stage in the world, and then pretending suddenly isn’t enough. Too many people noticed — too many people who couldn’t just be dismissed because of their politics or race, which is how criticism is normally dealt with. (more…)

Yes Alice, they are still having funerals on the traveling tour.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Another snag hit South Africa’s long goodbye to anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on Saturday when his longtime ally Desmond Tutu said he had not been accredited as a clergyman at the funeral by the government so would not attend.

[…]  Tutu has preached at the funerals of most major anti-apartheid figures, including Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Walter Sisulu and others.  (read more)

Thamsanqa Jantjie, the fake sign language interpreter from the Mandela Funeral is reportedly -according to his own admissions- being treated for schizophrenia.
However an alarming investigative media report released today from South Africa also reveals he has faced serious criminal charges before including:  rape (1994), theft (1995), house-breaking (1997), malicious damage to property (1998), murder, attempted murder and kidnapping (2003) charges.

The case and court files around the Murder and kidnapping charges have mysteriously disappeared.    It appears that most of the other charges were dropped from prosecution around the defense that Mr. Thamsanqa Jantjie was mentally unfit to stand trial.
He was convicted of the theft charge and sentenced to three years in prison, however it is undetermined if he actually spent any time incarcerated.   On the rape charge he was acquitted – reason undetermined. (more…)