[Iraq News] With their waxed mustaches, precision-clipped beards and dapper clothes, members of the Mr. Erbil gentleman’s club look like the smarter residents of Brooklyn or Shoreditch.
But rather than the hipster neighborhoods of New York or London, this is Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region ‐ just 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the grim battle to drive Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters from their last bastion in the country.
Although an oasis of calm in a country torn apart by war since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, Erbil has been unable to provide its young people with the opportunities they crave, say the men who set up their club last year to change that.
"When we started we were in a bad situation, economic crisis and then an expected war against ISIS (Islamic State)," said Goran Pshtiwan, 26, wearing a three-piece suit and custom-made moccasins decorated with the club’s logo ‐ without socks, naturally.
"There was no business activity so we started with the idea to gather and make something different and unique and change the look of the people and the way that they are thinking."
As well as regular meetings where they dress in different styles, from smart casual to black tie and traditional Ottoman-time attire, the club aims to support local tailors and craftsmen who help make their outfits.
Accessorised with purple-trimmed handkerchiefs, pocket watch chains and selfie-sticks, the men, in their 20s and 30s, hold photoshoots at local beauty spots, posting the results on Instagram where they have more than 60,000 followers.
The buzz has surprised co-founder Omer Nihad, a 28-year-old former stock trader, who said Star Trek actor George Takei, who has more than 2 million Twitter followers, had mentioned the club.
A recent video they shot received 5 million views, he said.
While a boy’s only club, Mr. Erbil uses its internet platform to promote women who are working to improve rights and opportunities for girls.
The group has about 40 members and is receiving so many requests that the founders are considering toughening the admission requirements which already set demanding standards for fashion taste.
Nihad said the club aimed to launch its own clothing brand, set up a shop and collaborate with fashion houses. And he would love to see Mr. Erbil featured in a high fashion magazine.
"Of course, we don’t want to be on the front page," he said. "It is okay if we were in the middle!"
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02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Seven people detained in a Houthi-held part of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... for using recycled boxes originating in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... to distribute aid have been released, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Thursday.
"We are greatly relieved by the release of our staff members and the driver," said Mutasim Hamdan, the organization’s Yemen country director.
"They are in good condition, and we are pleased that they are now reunited with their families," Hamdan said in a statement.
Houthis in the Red Sea coastal district of Hudaydah detained six staff and a contracted driver - all Yemeni citizens - earlier this week.
Local sources told AFP the employees were accused of having accepted and distributed aid from the Arab coalition, which has been supporting the legitimate government headed by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, an independent aid group based in Oslo, said it did not receive funding from Saudi Arabia for its relief operations in Yemen.
It had, however, been using recycled boxes to distribute hygiene kits in Yemen.
The group said when staff had opened the boxes to distribute the aid, the inside read "The campaign of the King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for emergency response," a reference to the Saudi king.
The boxes were dated January 2015 and had originally been used for food, according to the NRC.
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02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Former NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... Allied Land Command leader General John W Nicholson expressed growing concerns regarding al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) activities in Bangladesh.
In a February 22 interview with Combating Terrorism Center’s (CTC) magazine Sentinel, the Commander of Resolute Support and US Forces-Afghanistan said: "With our growing relationship with India, we are concerned about the instability in Bangladesh, and we have seen a lot of AQIS interference in Bangladesh."
Since al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra... ’s announcement in September 2014 regarding the formation of AQIS to move the group’s activities into India, Pakistain and Bangladesh, the governments of Bangladesh and the US refused to admit their presence.
On June 30 last year, however, the US government issued a statement blacklisting AQIS as a "foreign terrorist organization" and its leader, Indian-born Asim Umar ...chief of al-Qaeda's Sharia Committee for Pakistain, named head of al-Qaeda in India. His video appearances are frequently accompanied by clips of al Qaeda's senior propagandist in Pakistan, Ahmad Farooq. Umar the author of The Army of Anti-Christ: Blackwater, Documentation of the Dreadful Terrorist Activities of America's Blackwater in Islamic Countries... , a "specially designated global terrorist."
AQIS involvement in Bangladesh surfaced through Dawahilallah, a forum of AQIS or local al-Qaeda representatives Ansar al-Islam.
In October last year, forum members instigated attacks on the Hindus of Nasirnagar when the local Moslem hardliners attacked the area, protesting an allegedly blasphemous Facebook post by a Hindu youth.
Subsequently, in December 15, al-Qaeda published a public statement urging the Moslem youths of Bangladesh to join the fight to avenge the persecution against the Rohingyas.
Speaking of a US Forces raid in Shorabak district of Kandahar in October 2015, Nicholson claimed they had found congratulatory notes going back and forth between AQIS and al-Qaeda about some of their activities in Bangladesh.
Though he did not specify the exact contents of the notes, it is highly possible it was in reference to the holy warrior activities carried out in Bangladesh in the October-December period last year.
"Of course, al-Qaeda is very focused right now on the survival of their big shotship, but they are connected to these guys as well. They all share the same agenda and the same focus," cautioned Nicholson.
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02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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A Dutch secret service agent who was part of the team responsible for protecting Geert Wilders, the frontrunner in next month's election, has been suspended on suspicion of leaking details to a criminal organization, the secret service said on Wednesday. Wilders, who campaigns on an anti-Islam platform that includes closing mosques and banning immigration from Muslim countries that has led to the protection, condemned the alleged breach, saying he cannot function without adequate security.
Dutch newspapers De Telegraaf and NRC Handelsblad and the country's national broadcaster NOS identified the suspect as an experienced officer in his mid-30s, using his first name and last initial.
Secret Service chief Erik Akerboom said he could not confirm the man's identity but confirmed media reports he has a "Moroccan background".
So he wasn't exactly "Dutch"...
Akerboom told Business News Radio that "as far as we know" Wilders' safety had not been jeopardized.
They were still hoping, of course...
The agent who was suspended was one of a team tasked with prescreening locations where Wilders is scheduled to make public appearances. He was not a member of Wilders' physical protection team, Akerboom said.
"My heavens" Wilders tweeted. "If I cannot blindly trust the service that's supposed to protect me, then I cannot function."
Prime Minister Mark Rutte met Wilders, his chief opponent in the vote, to discuss the suspension.
Did Rutte warn him of the danger or warn him to shut his mouth and go away?
The ANP News agency reported that Rutte declined comment after emerging from the meeting with Wilders and Justice Minister Stef Blok.
"I can say nothing about these kinds of conversations," Rutte said, repeating his standard response to questions on security measures.
Other Dutch politicians reacted with concern, including Wilders' most vocal critic, Alexander Pechtold of the centrist D66 Party.
"These are very alarming initial reports, and they must be terrible for Wilders to hear," he said in a tweet. "We must not be naive. More clarification quickly, please."
Sounds like the still-unnamed security officer was the spy within the Wilders campaign who would know the schedule, know the appearances, and know when the hit was coming.
My only surprise in all of this is that Wilders is still alive — with his party leading in the polls, I honestly figured someone was going to take a shot at him. And, of course, who would shoot him down — the jihadis or the establishment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2017 10:57 ||
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#1
There's more information. Whoever assigned this individual to Wilders' security detail is either criminally incompetent or intended to have Wilders
killed:
h/t Instapundit
Governments across Europe have accidentally paid taxpayer-funded welfare benefits such as unemployment funds, disability pensions and housing allowances to Islamic State militants who have used the money to wage war in Iraq and Syria, authorities and terrorism experts say.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
02/24/2017 05:22 ||
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#1
No 'accident' in urban America. Perhaps it's no 'accident' there either.
[IsraelTimes] ’Paleostinians Abroad’ gathering, backed by Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", and Moslem Brüderbund, aims to unite Paleostinian diaspora for ’return’.
Despite the recent thawing of ties between Israel and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Istanbul is set to play host this weekend to a well-attended conference whose speakers and organizers are either affiliated with Hamas or once held senior posts in the Paleostinian terror group.
The Conference for Paleostinians Abroad is named for the group organizing the event. It has faced vociferous criticism from the Fatah-controlled Paleostinian Authority and Paleostine Liberation Organization, who accuse the organizers of undermining the PLO’s position as the sole legitimate representative of the Paleostinian people.
Hamas’s military wing is one of the bodies publicizing the event, slated for Saturday and Sunday, which is also hosting among its speakers members of the Moslem Brüderbund.
One of the leaders of the organizing group is Issam Moustafa Youssef, who the US Treasury Department has said was the head of Hamas’s political bureau at least until mid-2008.
Yusef, originally from Nablus in the northern West Bank, is currently a leader in the Interpal group, named a terror group by the US in 2003.
The event’s website presents a map of Israel with arrows pointing at the country and the caption "Our national plan -- the path of our return."
Other speakers include Majed a-Zir, who has been described in Egyptian media as "the regional director of Hamas in Europe." He is officially a member of the "Paleostinian Return Centre" in London, which Israel, at least, considers an illegal group.
Also on the list of speakers are media personalities such as Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... -based al-Jazeera anchor Jamal Rayyan and columnist Bashir Nafi, as well as Zaher Birawi, Rowan a-Damen, Ziad Aloul and others.
Hamas has held similar events not just in Turkey, but throughout Africa and Latin America. It uses the Moslem Brüderbund organizational infrastructures in those countries to organize the events, connect to activists, raise funds and engage in public relations worldwide.
#1
So, is Turkey doing anything dear, civilized Europeans are not doing? Not that I believe, that Israel can have normal relations with Turkey. But, then, I do not believe Israel can have normal relations with Europeans --- at least not as long as the current butch of homicidal degenerates are in charge.
[IsraelTimes] The Jewish community center in New Orleans was evacuated on Thursday after receiving a bomb threat, the latest JCC to be targeted, capping a week of similar scares at other US Jewish institutions.
A phone call threatening a kaboom was made to the JCC at 9:15 a.m., Katie Steiner of WWL-TV in New Orleans reported in a Twitter post. People were allowed back into the building about two hours after they were evacuated.
JCC staffers told another WWL news hound, Lyons Yellin, who was working out at the facility, that the bomb threat was a recording.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu tweeted Thursday that "anti-Semitism will not be tolerated" in the city and said the FBI was investigating.
Heh. Possibly of interest to non-Orleanians, the infrastructure in the foreground of that photo belongs to the St. Charles streetcar, the uptown parade route passing a km down to the left. Great walks thereabouts: Latter Library, pretty little Jewish cemetery, Langenstein's. Various po-boy shops and whatnot over toward the river. Back across St. Charles, more cemeteries... bunch of gentrified bullshit... Borsodi's. Sigh.
[DAWN] KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has constituted three different teams to catch the murderous Moslems, their controllers and those involved in carrying out reconnaissance for carrying out suicide kaboom at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.
Sources said that the perpetrators of last Thursday’s blast that claimed the lives of over 88 people in Sehwan were traced from the call data records and the footage of CCTV cameras installed at the shrine.
Mr Shah formed the three committees at a high-level meeting he chaired late on Tuesday night. Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Inspector General of Police A.D. Khowaja, Principal Secretary to CM Naveed Kamran Baloch, Counter-Terrorism Department chief Sanaullah Abbasi, Brig Nadir Hussain of Rangers, Home Secretary Qazi Shahid Parvaiz and other bigwigs were also present.
One of the three teams was sent to Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... for arresting some people belonging to the banned Hizbut Tahrir ...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate... who had been identified as "controllers" of the man who went kaboom! in the Qalandar’s shrine.
The second team was dispatched to Wadh and Jhal Magsi in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... to trace some suspects who were in telephonic contact with those carrying out the attack.
The third team, of which the Rangers were also a part, was sent to Dadu, Shahdadkot, Jacobabad and Shikarpur for the arrest of those who took part in recce before the blast and had brought the jacket wallah to the shrine for carrying out the attack.
The sources said that the meeting was told that some 10 suspects were tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in Dadu and Sehwan. Of them, six persons had been cleared after initial grilling and the remaining ones were being questioned.
The CM also constituted a high-powered committee led by the Rangers director general and comprising bigwigs of police and other law-enforcement agencies to make security plans, hold regular meetings and share threat alerts.
This committee would have a subcommittee, which would keep the chief minister apprised about day-to-day activities.
He also asked all the agencies to investigate the blast separately and share their findings with each other.
Earlier, the chief minister was briefed about the suspected controllers of the shrine attack who had been identified with the help of CCTV footage.
The chief minister was also informed that the Sherlocks had obtained the record of the calls made from the shrine before and after the blast. The call record gave Sherlocks solid clues to draw their conclusion.
Mr Shah was told that the police and security agencies in other provinces were cooperating with the Sherlocks probing the shrine blast. "If we successfully worked out this case then we would be able to stop such incidents in future," the CM told the meeting.
The CM also issued directives for ensuring the security of "soft targets". He was informed that the police and other agencies deployed their people in plainclothes at important places, where CCTV coverage was also being improved.
He was also informed about the details of the operation launched in different districts of the province and the number of arrests made so far.
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02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Thursday said the recent spate of terrorist incidents cannot deter the nation’s resolve against the elimination of terrorism from the country, Radio Pakistain reported. We can see that with every explosion.,
Talking to media in Ankara, he claimed "the operation against the terrorism has broken the backbone of the terrorists".
"The war against terrorism will continue till the elimination of the last terrorist," he said.
Nawaz said the decision to call Rangers in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... and initiation of operation Radd-ul-Fasaad were taken at Prime Minister House, "which shows government's determination to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from Pak soil".
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02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] As Death Eaters re-launched a campaign of terror against the nation this week, Pakistain too expedited its efforts to combat them and is quietly acquiring equipment and weapons required for combating militancy.
The US media reported at least three such deals this week, which involve helicopters and military vehicles that would enhance the military’s capability to pursue hard boyz in difficult terrains.
Earlier this week, Pakistain concluded a deal with an Italian aerospace and defence firm, Leonardo S.p.A. for purchasing an unspecified number of AW139 helicopters.
"The AW139 is the perfect fit to Pakistain’s operational environment, delivering outstanding capabilities with hot and high performance unmatched by any other existing helicopter type in the same class," said the firm while announcing the deal.
Despite uncertainty about bilateral relations under a new US administration, Pakistain is also purchasing weapons from the United States. Last year, the US Congress stopped the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistain but the move did not affect the weapons needed to combat terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] The deputy chief of the Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... resistance movement Ziyad Nakhala stressed that Tehran conference which was concluded on Wednesday confronted the plot aimed at marginalizing the Paleostinian cause.
Nakhala added that the participation of the various Paleostinian resistance movements in the conference frustrated the Zionist bets on disintegrating the axis of resistance.
He also hailed Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei speech during the opening session of the conference, adding that it stressed Iran’s stable attitude which supports the resistance in Paleostine.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[SCMP] An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for the highest-profile opponent of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, but she dodged police and sought refuge in the Senate.
The planned arrest of Senator Leila de Lima outraged her supporters and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activists, who said the government had manufactured drug trafficking charges to silence her criticism of Duterte and intimidate others.
The 57-year-old lawyer, who has spent nearly a decade trying to link Duterte to death squads that have allegedly killed thousands of people, could be incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! for life if she is found guilty of drug trafficking.
"I have no plans of fleeing and I have no plans to go in hiding. I will face all these charges," a tearful De Lima told news hounds at the Senate in the early evening after a Manila court issued the arrest warrant.
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02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[Reuters] Thailand's military has reached a breakthrough agreement with a Muslim separatist group to create a safety zone in the southern provinces. The army has been negotiating with Mara Pattani, a longstanding umbrella group that claims to speak for the rebels.
Major General Sithi Trakulwong, "Both sides have agreed to the creation of a safety zone in one of the three southern provinces to show their good faith. This is the most progress we've made in over two years of negotiations."
Sithi said the agreement would be finalized next week in Malaysia, once senior government officials arrive to conclude the talks.
Talks between the Thai government and the rebels began in 2013 under then Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but stalled after the military coup in 2014.
Some analysts say the government is negotiating with a group comprised mostly of exiled fighters that is not influential on the ground. The rebel group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), which has been left out of negotiations, is now the main actor in the southernmost provinces, they say.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Syria Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad told al-Manar TV channel that no one can impose on the Syrians their political destiny, noting that they can independently ink their own constitution.
Al-Mekdad stressed that Russia supports the Syrians’ freedom and independence and does not interfere in their internal concerns, highlighting that the Zionist entity is responsible for the entire crisis in Syria.
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02/24/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
He's right too: if Israel didn't exists we'd have the current Muzzi war of all against all decades ago. But don't worry, Faisal, peace is coming --- it's all a matter of adjusting your population to sustainable levels.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Iraq News] With their waxed mustaches, precision-clipped beards and dapper clothes, members of the Mr. Erbil gentleman’s club look like the smarter residents of Brooklyn or Shoreditch.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Seven people detained in a Houthi-held part of 
Zawahiri
A Dutch secret service agent who was part of the team responsible for protecting Geert Wilders, the frontrunner in next month's election, has been suspended on suspicion of leaking details to a criminal organization, the secret service said on Wednesday. Wilders, who campaigns on an anti-Islam platform that includes closing mosques and banning immigration from Muslim countries that has led to the protection, condemned the alleged breach, saying he cannot function without adequate security.
[DAWN] KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has constituted three different teams to catch the
[DAWN] As 
[Reuters] Thailand's military has reached a breakthrough agreement with a Muslim separatist group to create a safety zone in the southern provinces. The army has been negotiating with Mara Pattani, a longstanding umbrella group that claims to speak for the rebels. 
