Tag: Saudi Arabia

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Facebook knocks down massive spammer network

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The social network says it had been “combating” the operation for six months.

Facebook famously boasts it has 1.86 billion users who visit the social network every month. It looks like that number shrank on Friday.

The company, which previously announced it’s cracking down on fake accounts, said it’s disrupted a major spam operation being run out of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

“The apparent intent of the campaign was to deceptively gain new friend connections by liking and interacting primarily with popular publisher Pages on our platform, after which point they would send spam,” Shabnam Shaik, a Facebook technical program manager wrote in a blog post.

“We found that most of this activity was generated not through traditional mass account creation methods, but by more sophisticated means that try to mask the fact that the accounts are part of the same coordinated operation,” Shaik wrote. “By disrupting the campaign now, we expect that we will prevent this network of spammers from reaching its end goal of sending inauthentic material to large numbers of people.”

The number of authentic users matters for Facebook because the company charges marketers and advertisers to reach the most eyeballs. Facebook didn’t reveal the number of accounts affected by this crackdown.

https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-knocks-down-spam-network-fake-accounts/

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Kelly: A motel in South Hackensack may finally solve a 9/11 mystery

9/11 wtc

Great Work by Mike Kelly

Mike Kelly , Record Columnist, @MikeKellyColumnPublished 6:08 a.m. ET March 24, 2017 | Updated 3:23 p.m. ET March 24, 2017

The cramped, first-floor motel room on the noisy stretch of Route 46 in South Hackensack isn’t much to look at now. Just a double bed, a picture window, a dresser, a tiny bathroom. But in the coming months, this unlikely spot — Room 506 at the Congress Inn — may play a key role in helping to answer one of the most explosive questions that linger from the 9/11 attacks.

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photo by ArtChick

Just before that fateful day more than 15 years ago, two Saudi Arabian men who were part of the 9/11 hijacking team rented Room 506. They forked over $19 a night, then waited. Investigators say the two suicide-killers — Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi — kept to themselves, offering no hints of the murderous scheme they were about to undertake.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/mike-kelly/2017/03/24/kelly-motel-south-hackensack-may-finally-solve-911-mystery/99544400/

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Hillary Clinton’s #1 aide Huma Abedin: Undeniable ties to terrorists & 9/11 funders

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Hillary’s #1 aide Huma Abedin: Undeniable ties to terrorists & 9/11 funders

Credit: Video, script, animation & voice created by Leaked Uploads.

Amazing that nowhere in the Hillary scandal  articles is the background of Huma Abedin mentioned. If Trump had a KKK’er as his top aide, confidant and body glove, you’d hear of it 24/7. So why is the history of Huma’s and her complete family’s outright membership and involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood being kept a secret from the American voters by the MSM?

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Obama vetoes 9/11 bill

9/11 wtc

President Obama vetoes bipartisan bill that would let families of 9/11 victims sue the government of Saudi Arabia, setting up a showdown with Congress where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aim to override the president’s decision.

 

By Jordan Fabian – 09/23/16 04:26 PM EDT

President Obama on Friday vetoed legislation that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S courts, setting up a high-stakes showdown with Congress.

Obama’s move opens up the possibility that lawmakers could override his veto for the first time with a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Republican and Democratic leaders have said they are committed to holding an override vote, and the bill’s drafters say they have the support to force the bill to become law.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) unanimously passed through both chambers by voice vote.

But the timing of the president’s veto is designed to erode congressional support for the bill and put off a politically damaging override vote until after the November elections.

Obama waited until the very end of the 10-day period he had to issue a veto, hoping to buy time to lobby members of Congress against the measure.

White House officials also hope congressional leaders will leave Washington to hit the campaign trail before trying for an override, kicking a vote to the lame-duck session after the election.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/296862-obama-vetoes-9-11-bill

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US oil reserves surpass those of Saudi Arabia and Russia

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Rystad Energy estimates US has 264bn barrels of recoverable oil

YESTERDAY

by: Anjli Raval, Oil and Gas Correspondent

The US holds more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and Russia, the first time it has surpassed those held by the world’s biggest exporting nations, according to a new study.

Rystad Energy estimates recoverable oil in the US from existing fields, discoveries and yet undiscovered areas amounts to 264bn barrels. The figure surpasses Saudi Arabia’s 212bn and Russia’s 256bn in reserves.

The analysis of 60,000 fields worldwide, conducted over a three-year period by the Oslo-based group, shows total global oil reserves at 2.1tn barrels. This is 70 times the current production rate of about 30bn barrels of crude oil a year, Rystad Energy said on Monday.

https://next.ft.com/content/7525f1dc-41d6-11e6-9b66-0712b3873ae1

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Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill

Lawrence of Arabia

By MARK MAZZETTIAPRIL 15, 2016

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-warns-ofeconomic-fallout-if-congress-passes-9-11-bill.html?_r=0

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Saudi Arabia severs diplomatic ties with Iran

Lawrence of Arabia

January 03, 2016, 04:11 pm
By Bradford Richardson

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Sunday said Riyadh is severing diplomatic ties with Iran amid tensions between the regional rivals.

Adel al-Jubeir said in a news conference that the Iranian diplomatic mission has been given 48 hours to leave Saudi Arabia, according to multiple reports.

The announcement comes after Iranians stormed a Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday in retaliation for the execution of a prominent Shi’ite Muslim cleric.

Most of the 47 prisoners executed on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, a Sunni kingdom, were al Qaeda affiliates accused of taking part in terrorist attacks over the last decade.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/264622-saudi-arabia-severs-ties-with-iran

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Israel and Saudi Arabia present united front over Iran deal

Switzerland Iran Nuclear Talks

Iran’s enemies unsettled by its deal with the West, but Bashar al-Assad of Syria says it is ‘a great victory’

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor and Robert Tait, Jerusalem

8:53PM BST 14 Jul 2015

The nuclear deal with Iran caused fury in Israel and consternation around the region at the likely increase in influence and resources of a newly enriched Iran.

Most telling was the loudest expression of support. “I am happy that the Islamic Republic of Iran has achieved a great victory by reaching an agreement,” President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said in a message to his Iranian opposite number, Hassan Rouhani.

Israel and the Sunni Arab world have set aside old grievances to stand together against the West’s engagement with Iran.

The more strident denunciations came from Israel, which regards Iran as a direct threat. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, said the country would not be bound by what he called a “stunning historic mistake”.

“Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran,” he said in a televised address hoursafter the conclusion of the accord. “Iran continues to seek our destruction and we will defend ourselves.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/11739349/Israel-and-Saudi-Arabia-present-united-front-over-Iran-deal.html

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Icahn: Oil will go lower, Saudi Arabia blindsiding the world

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Icahn: Oil will go lower, Saudi Arabia blindsiding the world

Everett Rosenfeld | @Ev_Rosenfeld

The price of oil will go lower as supply and demand remain unbalanced, activist investor Carl Icahn said Thursday.

Icahn, who spoke with CNBC’s “Fast Money: Halftime Report,” said that Saudi Arabia’s decision not to cut oil production blindsided the global market, and that he expects the commodity’s price will keep sliding.

“I think [oil’s price] will continue to go down unless there is some outside event,” Icahn said.

https://www.cnbc.com/id/102360095

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U.S. Seen as Biggest Oil Producer After Overtaking Saudi Arabia

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U.S. Seen as Biggest Oil Producer After Overtaking Saudi Arabia

By Grant Smith  Jul 4, 2014 11:56 AM ET

The U.S. will remain the world’s biggest oil producer this year after overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia as extraction of energy from shale rock spurs the nation’s economic recovery, Bank of America Corp. said.

U.S. production of crude oil, along with liquids separated from natural gas, surpassed all other countries this year with daily output exceeding 11 million barrels in the first quarter, the bank said in a report today. The country became the world’s largest natural gas producer in 2010. The International Energy Agency said in June that the U.S. was the biggest producer of oil and natural gas liquids.

“The U.S. increase in supply is a very meaningful chunk of oil,” Francisco Blanch, the bank’s head of commodities research, said by phone from New York. “The shale boom is playing a key role in the U.S. recovery. If the U.S. didn’t have this energy supply, prices at the pump would be completely unaffordable.”

Oil extraction is soaring at shale formations in Texas and North Dakota as companies split rocks using high-pressure liquid, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The surge in supply combined with restrictions on exporting crude is curbing the price of West Texas Intermediate, America’s oil benchmark. The U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, still imported an average of 7.5 million barrels a day of crude in April, according to the Department of Energy’s statistical arm.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-04/u-s-seen-as-biggest-oil-producer-after-overtaking-saudi.html