In which the New York Times and their little Deep State friends try to set President Trump's Afghan policy for him.
[KhaamaPress] The Administration of President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has reportedly ordered its top diplomat to seek direct talks with the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group in Afghanistan in a bid to help kick start Afghan negotiations.
Sources privy of the development in U.S. and Afghanistan have told The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... that the Trump administration is considering a strategy shift to help the launch of a broader, formal negotiations to end the long war.
No date has been set for the likely talks between the US and the Taliban group with the US State Department and the Taliban yet to formally comment regarding the latest developments.
The officials have said the United States is willing to hold direct talks with the Taliban group in a bid to break the stalemate in Afghanistan.
According to the Times, the shift to prioritize initial American talks with the Taliban over what has proved a futile "Afghan-led, Afghan-owned" process stems from a realization by both Afghan and American officials that President Trump's new Afghanistan strategy is not making a fundamental difference in rolling back Taliban gains.
According to reports, the recent visits by the State Secretary Mike Pompeo and the top US diplomat Alice Wells to Afghanistan and Pakistain were aimed at laying the groundwork for the direct talks between Washington and Taliban.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A number of tribal elders of Saada said that they hoped for the end of their "Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... nightmare" while stressing that their province is not represented by the militias, but solely through its own people.
Their statement on Monday came during a presser held by the Spokesman of Coalition Forces Colonel Turki al-Maliki at the Armed Forces Club in Riyadh.
Maliki said that the Saada tribal leaders called on their government and the coalition to continue their efforts in liberating their province.
For his part, Sheikh Abdulkhaliq Bishr said that despite the passage of more than a decade and a half of the conflict with the Iranian militias, the people of Saada province are still presenting all kinds of sacrifices, pointing out that Saada is resisting to maintain its Arabism and rejecting the Iranian interference.
Sheikh Bishr also paid tribute to the heroes of the Yemeni National Army and the supporting forces of the Coalition Forces for their sacrifices, urging the legitimate elected government represented by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi as well as the Coalition supporting the legitimacy to continue the battle to liberate Saada province in particular and 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... in general.
Maliki said that Gen. Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Abdulaziz, Commander of the Joint Forces, had met with the Sheikhs of Saada to discuss many issues of interest to the people of Saada province and to set up a mechanism for communication with the Joint Forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... and his US counterpart Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... have committed to improving relations between the United States and Russia, with Putin saying there was no longer any reason for tensions between the superpowers.
The two leaders met in the Finnish capital Helsinki on Monday to talk about "everything from trade to military to missiles to China".
"There are no objective reasons for difficulties [between Russia and the US]. The Cold War is a thing of the past, the situation in the world has drastically changed," said Putin.
Earlier, Trump blamed his own country's past "foolishness and stupidity" for the two powers' hostile relations.
At a presser following the summit, Trump praised their "direct, open and deeply productive dialogue" and emphasised the need for continued diplomacy over confrontation.
"A productive dialogue is not only good for the United States and good for Russia, but it is good for the world," he said.
"Our relationship has never been worse than it is now, however that changed as of about four hours ago... To refuse to engage would not accomplish anything."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The father of Naqeebullah Mehsud ‐ a Wazoo native killed in a staged encounter in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... earlier this year ‐ on Monday moved an application requesting that the case concerning his son's murder be transferred to another court as he has lost confidence in the ability of Special Judge Anti-Terrorism Court-II Khalida Yaseen to conduct a fair trial.
Naqeeb's father Mohammad Khan and his lawyers boycotted today's court proceedings and instead submitted an application complaining that the ATC judge had unduly favoured the prime accused ‐ the powerfurl former SSP Malir, Rao Anwar.
The application stated that the judge repeatedly failed to take action against the undue favours granted to Anwar, who was the only accused in the case brought to court with full protocol and without handcuffs and a prisoner's uniform.
The application also states that the judge failed to act against the investigating officer in the case when he failed to submit his reports in the case on time.
The complainant's lawyer alleged that some of the witnesses in the case had also been threatened into retracting their statements, but the judge did not take any action over it.
"We are also very disappointed as it seems that there appears to be collusion between the prosecution and defence because despite our transfer application and despite opposition of his fellow prosecutors, one of the prosecutors proceeded with the bail application," the lawyer later said in a statement issued to the media.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, the spittle had reached unprecedented levels... Anwar advised the complainant to focus on the case and maintained that no evidence is available against him and the other accused.
Anwar had earlier been found by two separate joint investigation teams (JITs) to have been involved in the staged 'encounter' that led to the murder of Naqeeb and three others. One JIT had been formed by the inspector general (IG) of Sindh, and the other by the Supreme Court.
Nonetheless, Anwar's bail application was accepted last week and the court, in its written order, ruled that he had not been presentt at the scene of the crime.
The judge had written in the order that there was no doubt as per the enquiry report Naqeeb had been killed in a fake encounter. It had also conceded that Naqeebullah, alias Naseebullah, was a 'liberal man' and did not have any 'extremist tendency'.
Naqeeb's father had also earlier objected to Anwar's detention at his home in Malir, which which was declared a sub-jail reportedly due to security issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Members of the Senate on Monday lashed out at state authorities over their alleged failure to protect candidates and the public ahead of the July 25 elections, while taking aim at policies they said have "allowed" holy warrior ideologies to permeate society.
After the discussions concluded, the upper house prorogued its regular proceedings in view of the Mastung terrorist attack, in which over 145 people were killed.
In a scathing speech, ex-chairman Senate and incumbent PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said the duty to protect citizens was the state's while pointing out that the caretaker set-up was the existing state.
He also regretted that while the country's economy and visa policy had been discussed in the last three meetings of the National Security Committee, the subject of law and order was never made part of the conversation.
"The interim prime minister and military leadership must have been aware of the National Counter Terrorism Authority's (Nacta) report that stated that leaders of all political parties face security threats," he noted while wondering why the provinces were merely sent letters regarding the security situation.
He also criticised the absence of the caretaker interior minister from the session, and wondered whether the law minister would instead answer the house's questions regarding the Mastung attack.
"Will the interior minister again say that those who were attacked were not on the list of those facing security threats?" he wondered.
Rabbani also complained that while orders to arrest political workers were "being implemented swiftly", there was silence on the Mastung incident.
Referring to the participation of alleged members of banned outfits in the forthcoming elections, Rabbani said a new phenomenon was emerging on the model of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Pakistain and Iran on Monday pledged to further deepen their military cooperation.
This was the upshot of Iranian Chief of General Staff Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri’s visit to Pakistain.
The top Iranian commander’s three-day trip is being attached great importance because bilateral military exchanges between Pakistain and Iran have been very rare due to their mutual mistrust that kept them divided till recently.
Gen Bagheri visited caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Hussain Haroon at the foreign ministry and then went to the General Headquarters (GHQ) for a meeting with army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa.
The public affairs division of Pakistain military said Gen Bajwa underscored the need for intensification of military-to-military cooperation and noted that such cooperation would have a "positive impact on peace and security in the region".
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07/17/2018 00:00 ||
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[Jpost] Left-wing NGOs deemed to be acting against the IDF and delegitimizing Israel will now be prevented from accessing schools and their students, after the Knesset approved the so-called 'Breaking the Silence law' early Tuesday morning.
The law, proposed by MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Bayit Yehudi), states that organizations delegitimizing the State of Israel, acting against IDF soldiers and the objectives of the Israeli education system, will not be permitted to enter school premises or meet with students.
The law targets Breaking the Silence, an organization made up of former IDF soldiers who report about their negative experiences serving over the Green Line.
"Organizations that undermine Israel and besmirch IDF soldiers will no longer be able to reach Israeli students," Education Minister Naftali Bennett said. "Breaking the Silence long ago crossed the red lines beyond legitimate discourse when they started libeling Israel in the international arena. As long as they operate against Israel and the IDF abroad, I won't let them in the education system." Personally, I'd outlaw any organizations funded by EU
[Al Jazeera] Dozens of relatives of slain Paleostinians held a rally calling on Israel to return the bodies of their loved ones.
Monday's protest in Ramallah took place before an Israeli Supreme Court session on Tuesday regarding the cases of 10 Paleostinians killed by Israeli forces since 2015 whose bodies have not been returned.
Under the slogan "we want our children back", the mothers, fathers and relatives marched from Al Manara Square in downtown Ramallah holding up signs of their slain sons, chanting "freedom to our deaders".
"It is our right to get their bodies back and bury them. It is our right to know what happened to our boys," Azhar Abu Srour, an organiser of the rally, told Al Jazeera.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
It is our right to know what happened to our boys," Azhar Abu Srour
They played stupid games, won stupid prizes
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/17/2018 7:26 Comments ||
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#2
It is our right to know what happened to our boys
We turned them into girls and sold the girls to ISIS
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.
...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...
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
Wazoo
