[IsraelTimes] Egypt's state news agency says prosecutors have asked for the death sentence for ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and other Moslem Brüderbund leaders on trial on espionage charges.
Prosecutor Emad el-Sharawy said in closing remarks Wednesday that Morsi and his aides leaked state security documents to foreign intelligence agencies, namely Iran, while in office for one year. The military removed Morsi from office in July 2013 following mass protests against him accusing him and the Brotherhood of monopolizing power.
El-Sharawy said the defendants, who include Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 34 others, cooperated with murderous Moslem groups, including Gazoo's Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, to destabilize Egypt.
Morsi told the court he refused its jurisdiction. He asked to defend himself in upcoming sessions. The case resumes on Nov. 26 for closing defense remarks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The state of emergency imposed in northeastern Nigeria to crush Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamists has ended, the lower house of parliament said Thursday, announcing that it had rejected a government request to extend the special powers.
The development came on a day that saw police fire tear gas inside the parliament building, apparently targeting the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who defected to the opposition last month.
President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... on Tuesday asked politicians in the lower house and Senate to approve an extension of the 18-month emergency rule in three northeastern states: Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
He said the move was needed to sustain the pressure against Boko Haram.
But opposition politicians in both chambers have described the emergency rule policy as a failure, with Boko Haram making massive gains since May last year.
"Emergency rule is over as far as we are concerned," said House of Representatives front man Zakaria Mohammed.
He said the president needs approval from both houses of parliament to secure an extension and that members of the lower house resolved that the extension was not merited.
A vote was not taken and the decision came in a closed-door session, as Senate president David Mark ordered the closure of the parliament because of the disturbances inside the complex.
"We have asked the president to rely on Section 8 of the Armed Forces Act which empowers him to deploy the military to trouble spots in the country," Mohammed added.
"If we have adopted a particular style and it's not yielding the desired results, âwe should be able to change course," he told AFP.
Experts have questioned the usefulness of Jonathan's emergency decree, and the additional powers given to the military to carry out the 18-month offensive have never been spelt out.
The military was operating in all three affected states before the May 2013 declaration, which many saw as an attempt by Jonathan to underscore the severity of the Boko Haram conflict.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 02:29 ||
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[AnNahar] Growing violence by Islamist forces of Evil has forced more than 1.5 million Nigerians to flee their homes and is deepening an already dire humanitarian situation in Nigeria, the U.N. warned Wednesday.
"Nigeria is without question of enormous concern," said Robert Piper, who coordinates the U.N.'s humanitarian work in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
He said the violence wreaked by the Islamist Death Eaters of Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... was "generating more and more suffering, it is generating more and more displacement."
Nigeria has in the past six months alone seen the number of people displaced inside the country soar from 600,000 to around 1.5 million, he said, quoting Nigerian government estimates.
In addition, some 100,000 Nigerians have fled across the borders to Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Niger, Piper told news hounds in Geneva.
That Nigerians see Niger, the world's poorest country, as a sanctuary "gives you a sense of what they must be fleeing from," Piper said.
More than 13,000 people have been killed since the insurgency began in 2009 and Boko Haram is now said to be in control of more than two dozen towns in its quest for a hardline Islamic state.
According to Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, 3.3 million people have been directly or indirectly impacted by the conflict in the northeast of the country.
"Our worry is that it will continue to spiral out of control with devastating consequences both for Nigeria itself and for the region," Piper said, adding that "the scale of the challenges there are truly very, very worrying indeed."
The fact that Nigeria produces half of west Africa's food makes the situation there all the more alarming, he said.
Taking a broader look, Piper said the entire Sahel region, which counts nine countries -- Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , Cameroon, Chad, Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... , Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... -- has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people scrambling to put food on the table.
Just since the beginning of the year, the number of people considered food insecure has jumped from 20 to 25 million.
Across the region, 6.4 million children are acutely malnourished, Piper said, with around 600,000 children dying of causes linked to malnutrition each year.
The U.N. has appealed for $1.9 billion (1.5 billion euros) towards humanitarian aid to the Sahel in 2014, but has received just $1.1 billion of that.
The U.N. also said it had received just $12.3 million, or 13 percent, of the $93.4 million requested for humanitarian aid in Nigeria.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 01:29 ||
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The UN human rights committee passed a resolution on Wednesday calling on the Security Council to refer high-ranking North Korean officials to the International Criminal Court. The decision is expected to increase international pressure on Pyongyang to address its dire human rights situation.
The non-binding recommendation, which was proposed by 60 countries including the EU, was passed 111 in favor and 19 against with 55 abstentions and is expected to be passed by the UN General Assembly next month.
The next step is the Security Council, which will consider whether to refer North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un and other officials to the ICC and subject them to UN-led sanctions. But since the North's long-time allies China and Russia have a veto in the Security Council, the process will probably stop there.
Still, the latest resolution is the most forceful criticism yet of North Korea's human rights abuses. South Korean Ambassador to the UN Oh Joon hailed it as "historic" since it has created the legal basis to single out those in the North responsible for human rights abuses.
Choe Myong-nam, a North Korean official in charge of UN affairs and human rights, denounced the resolution as being "full of groundless criticisms" and added the usual warning of "serious consequences" if it is passed.
"Lies! All lies!"
Choe added the move leaves North Korea no choice but to continue with its nuclear weapons program.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
OK. Go ahead. Make a national suicide machine.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2014 15:38 Comments ||
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North Korea on Thursday threatened another nuclear test in protest against an impending UN resolution recommending referral of the reclusive state to the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses.
North Korea has unleashed a stream of threats after the UN human rights committee passed the draft resolution.
You can always tell what bothers a commie, a thug or a liberal by the way they complain...
In a statement Thursday, a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said the North rejects the "forceful passing" of the draft resolution by the UN committee, adding this makes the North "unable to refrain any longer from conducting a new nuclear test."
"Our war deterrent will be strengthened infinitely in the face of the United States' plot for armed interference and invasion," the spokesman added.
Analysis of satellite pictures suggests that the North has already put a nuclear reactor in Yongbyon back into operation to produce the requisite plutonium.
On Nov. 4, "steam was seen rising from a large cooling tower at auxiliary buildings just southeast of the plutonium separation building," the Johns Hopkins University blog 38 North said Wednesday. "Throughout the summer and into fall 2014 there was little activity at this facility."
Defense Minister Han Min-koo told the National Assembly Defense Committee here, "We believe that the North is always preparing to conduct a new nuclear test. But we don't know whether it's possible in the near future."
The North is evidently upset that the resolution calls for the referral of senior North Korean officials to the ICC, a government official here said. "Nobody can rule out the possibility of the North launching provocations of any type."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il warned, "If the North aggravates the situation with nuclear threats, it will be violating a UN Security Council resolution. We must warn North Korea that it will face a firm response from the international community."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
On Nov. 4, "steam was seen rising from a large cooling tower at auxiliary buildings just southeast of the plutonium separation building,"
New water heater finally came in - Rheem 100 gallon...
* WORLD NEWS > [Business Insider] CHINA HAS JUST BUILT A US$350,0MILYUHN BRIDGE THAT ENDED IN A DIRT FIELD IN NORTH KOREA.
'Tis Absolutely Positively Categorically Undeniably ... ...@etc. L-O-U-S-Y FOR SINO-NOKOR Trade, BUT GREAT OR OUTSTANDING FOR ANTI-NOKOR INVADING PLA ARMOR + GROUND FORCES???
[AnNahar A Dutch teenager who allegedly traveled to Syria to marry an 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.... fighter but was later rescued by her mother will appear in court Friday on terror charges, Dutch prosecutors said.
The 19-year-old known only as "Aicha" arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday with her mother Monique, said Annemarie Kemp, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office.
"Upon her arrival, Aicha was detained at once on suspicion of crimes threatening state security," Kemp told AFP, adding she will appear before a judge on Friday for a brief first appearance.
Dutch newspaper reports this week said Aicha traveled to Syria nine months ago to marry a Dutch-Turkish jihadist fighter she saw on television and contacted via the Internet.
The man, a former soldier in the Dutch army, is one of a group of Dutch jihadists who have traveled to Syria where he is training fighters for the IS group.
Aicha allegedly asked her mother to help her after her marriage to the jihadist failed and she ended up with a Tunisian fighter, the Dutch tabloid daily Algemeen Dagblad said.
Monique told Dutch television a few months ago how her daughter, known as Sterlina before converting and changing her name to Aicha, turned from a bubbly teen into a serious radicalized Islamist.
Last week a niqab-wearing Monique is said to have crossed the border into Syria and traveled to the IS stronghold city of Raqa, the Algemeen Dagblad said.
There she met up with Aicha before slipping across the border into Turkey with her daughter, the paper said, adding that details of the rescue operation were "very sketchy".
"It is unknown how Monique managed to travel inside an area under the IS group's control," it said.
Aicha's lawyer Francoise Landerloo could not be reached for comment.
An official at Landerloo's office told AFP that Dutch prosecutors had slapped several restrictions on the lawyers including being able to talk about the case.
Some 130 Dutch jihadists have left to fight in Syria, with 30 already having returned and 14 others killed in the fighting, according to the latest statistics from the Dutch intelligence services.
It is feared that returning jihadists, having been exposed to extreme violence, could be returning to Europe with orders to carry out terror attacks here.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 02:29 ||
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[AnNahar] Turkish politicians approved Thursday sending troops on a year-long mission with EU forces in the Central African Republic and Mali as Turkey continues efforts to bolster its presence in the region.
The motion passed easily with support from the ruling party and the main opposition, although the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) voted against it, the private Dogan news agency reported.
The parliament gave the army a mandate of one year for the deployments.
Defending the motion in parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said passing it was a requirement of Turkey's participation in the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy.
The EU has a military training mission in Mali (EUTM) and a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (EUFOR).
Turkey is seeking to boost its economic and political presence in Africa and the vote came as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... heads to Equatorial Guinea to take part in a Turkey-Africa partnership summit.
Turkey is a key NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... member with the strategic goal of joining the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... in the future.
#1
For the time being, alleged "Neo-Ottoman" TURKEY has to look mostly outside of the ME for its "Manifest Destiny", where it can achieve the same at minimal to no MilPol/Geopol confrontations or wars wid other Nations.
That being said, looks like ANKARA wants to copy Vlad = Russia, ala securing the Crimea ... ...
* MANILA TIMES > TURKEY TO BRIDGE DARDANELLES IN NEW MEGA PROJECTS.
SAVING ISTANBUL FOREVAR! FROM THOSE WILY DASTARDLY TROJAN + OTTTOMAN-HATING GREEKS - EAST EURO MUSLIMS???
The United States has transferred five Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Europe as part of efforts to empty and close the controversial jail at the U.S. military base in Cuba, officials said Thursday.
Three Yemeni prisoners were sent to Georgia, while a fourth Yemeni and a Tunisian were transferred to Slovakia, Pentagon front man Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins said.
"...Have we made mistakes over a series of many years? cough, cough..George Bush..cough..cough
Yeah, I think we have. I think anybody would agree to that. But that's not the issue. That's not the responsibility I have now or the president has or John Kerry. Our responsibilities now are to find ways that we can make it better, find strategies and policies that work within a world of uncontrollables."
#1
This lack of a general fund of widely disseminated military information is perilous to the maintenance of civilian power in government. The civilian mind, presumably concerned with the maintenance of peace and the shaping of policies by the limits of efficient military defense, can derive no instruction from acrimonious disputes between militarists, limitless in their demands, and pacifists, lost in utopian visions. Where the civilians fail to comprehend and guide military policy, the true military men, distinguished from the militarists, are also imperiled. For these the executioners of civilian will, dedicated to the preparation of defense and war with the utmost regard for efficiency, are dependent upon the former.
Again, and again, the military men have seen themselves hurled into war by ambitions, passions, and blunders of civilian governments, almost wholly uninformed as to the limits of their military potentials and almost recklessly indifferent to the military requirements of the wars they let loose. Aware that they may again be thrown by civilians into an unforeseen conflict, perhaps with a foe they have not envisaged, these realistic military men find themselves unable to do anything save demand all the men, guns, and supplies they can possibly wring from the civilians, in the hope that they may be prepared or half prepared for whatever may befall them. In so doing they inevitably find themselves associated with militaristic military men who demand all they can get merely for the sake of having it without reference to ends.
Vagts, Alfred, History of Militarism, rev. 1959, Free Press, NY, pp 33-34.
#3
No, g(r)om, we already have female rangers. The article yesterday was about training cadre, 'watchers'. You can fail Ranger School, any time, for any reason, or for no reason. They watch you, and will walk up to someone and say "go home". The final test is about 40 hours long, continuous, and is sort of a cross between a scavenger hunt and a death march (that's the best I can describe it). Fatigue is the big enemy, can you make good decisions when you can't think straight. The answer is no, but how long can you hold out.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/21/2014 7:32 Comments ||
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#4
Female Rangers already Ed? I was not aware of that.
#5
Anyway, about Hagel's statement:
"No Sh*t, Sherlock"
You can only make so many withdrawals from your account, and there's a lot of training not going on because people are deployed every friggin where.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/21/2014 7:36 Comments ||
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#9
Pretty sure the Regiment is still a boy's club. It is where I'm at and thanks to them I sleep safe every night while they are at work. Work I think all of them - to a MAN - enjoy.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
11/21/2014 9:44 Comments ||
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#10
and they RIF'ing their junior officers as they are coming back from the sand boxes
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [News On Japan] US PANEL: [Growing, Increasingly Tech-Sophisticated] CHINA MILITARY THREAT [ + Nuclear] COULD AFFECT JAPAN.
Nippon security + readiness, + ultimately current US superiority.
* CHINA DAILY > OPINION: TICKING TIME BOMB BETWEEN CHINA + US IN ASIA-PACIFIC.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > RECENT LR RUSSIAN TU-95 "BEAR" BOMBER FLIGHTS TO GUAM [November 14TH, 2014] CALLS INTO QUESTION SECURITY OF US-CONTROLLED, GUAM-BASED/CENTERED "SECOND-ISLAND CHAIN".
* SAME > CANAL WARS?: BEIJING BELIEVES THAT ONCE THE MOSTLY CHINA-BUILT, CHINA-FINANCED
"NICARAGUAN CANAL" IS COMPLETED, THE US WILL HAVE TO ABANDON PANAMA + CENTRAL, LATIN AMERICAS.
Which is thusly one reason why aong many that Madonna fan from Guam says to DREDGE THE RIO GRANDE = BUILD A CANAL ALONG THE US-MAHICO BORDER, hence solving several strategic problems for the US at one time.
#12
OOOPPPSIES, forgot TOPIX > IS JAPAN THE MISSING LINK IN CHINA'S ASIA-PACIFIC DREAM?
Why yes, yes it is.
Besides TAIWAN, GUAM-WESTPAC + the US State of HAWAII = EASTPAC, China would also like sovereign control or geopol domination of JAPAN iff it can do so.
No matter the rhetoric to the contrary, in China's mind, there can only be one final or ultimate Leader - itself - in Asia or East Asia, let alone any future OWG ASIAN OR EAST ASIAN UNION, ETC. NE ASIA IS CHINA'S "TRUE/REAL" LAKE - IT CAN ACCEPT OR TOLERATE JAPAN AS A VASSAL OR INFERIOR "PARTNER-COOPER STATE", BUT NEVER AS PAR OR THE SUPERIOR.
Besides all other rationales, I have no doubts China will N-E-V-A-R! accept any "post-US/GMD-TMD" Japan as a PAR OWG CO-SUPERPOWER. As long as Japan continues to resist + see itself as Asia's or East Asia's #1, A SINO-JAPAN WAR IS ALL BUT INEVITABLE. CHINA WILL ATTACK + NUKE JAPAN FIRST BEFORE IT ALLOWS JAPAN TO ACQUIRE NUKES + PROMOTE ITSELF AS ASIA'S ONE-N-ONLY EL SUPREMO.
[AnNahar] The husband of a Pak Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy four years ago has written to the president to ask for her to be pardoned and allowed to move to La Belle France.
Asia Bibi has been on death row since November 2010 after she was found guilty of making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed during an argument with a Moslem woman.
A high court in the eastern city of Lahore confirmed the death sentence last month, dashing hopes it might be commuted to a jail term.
"We are convinced that Asia will only be saved from being hanged if the venerable President (Mamnoon) Hussain grants her a pardon. No one should be killed for drinking a glass of water," husband Ashiq Masih wrote in an open letter dated November 17 and published by the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... Gay Paree mayor Anne Hidalgo has said the couple are welcomed in the city, and Masih quoted his wife as saying she sent her "deepest thanks to you Madame Mayor, and to all the kind people of Gay Paree and across the world".
Masih added his wife was not guilty of blasphemy.
The plea for being allowed to move to Gay Paree comes days after the mayor of the city Anne Hidalgo requested President Hussain to grant her a pardon.
Senior opposition leader Bruno Retailleau Wednesday asked French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... to intervene in the case.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in the majority Moslem country, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob violence.
Masih, 50, lives in hiding with two of his five children and has to keep his identity secret as he scrapes together a living as a daily laborer.
He visits his wife once a month, making a five and a half hour journey to her jail in Multan in southern Punjab.
The allegations against Bibi date back to June 2009, when she was laboring in a field and a row broke out with some Moslem women she was working with.
She was asked to fetch water, but the Moslem women objected, saying that as a non-Moslem she was unfit to touch the water bowl.
A few days later the women went to a local holy man and put forward the blasphemy allegations.
Amnesia Amnesty International has raised "serious concerns" about the fairness of her trial and has called for her release.
Pakistain has never executed anyone for blasphemy and has had a de-facto moratorium on civilian executions since 2008.
But anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia on Thursday signed a military cooperation agreement, which will pave the way for exchange of views and information on politico-military issues as well as issues related to strengthening of mutual trust and international security.
Talking to Russian Defence Minister General Sergey Kuzhugetovich Shoygu, who met him here, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan is keen to enhance its multi-dimensional relations with Moscow, including in defence. He said that it is heartening to see that relations between Pakistan and Russian Federation have grown in the past few years. He stressed upon the need to increase bilateral trade between the two countries, which currently stands at $542 million and does not correspond to their trade potential. He invited Russian companies to invest in Pakistan, particularly in the energy sector, and benefit from the business-friendly policies of the government.
Prime Minister Nawaz lauded Russia’s support to Pakistan for full membership of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and said that Islamabad is ready to further enhance cooperation with other countries of the region, through this forum to counter the dual challenges of terrorism and drug trafficking. The defence ministers of Pakistan and Russian Federation held talks in Rawalpindi that focused on strengthening defence cooperation between the two countries.
The two sides signed a military cooperation agreement, which will pave the way for exchange of views and information on politico-military issues as well as issues related to strengthening of mutual trust and international security.
So basically they signed an agreement to talk about getting to an agreement...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Uncle Remus had a story about this sticky situation.
Because the threat of possibly doing something unenforceable will will somehow alter the behqviour of the ultimate results-oriented organization. Idiots.
[AnNahar] The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... said she was weighing bringing war crimes charges against 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.... jihadist fighters, in an interview published Thursday.
Fatou Bensouda told the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that such steps would be possible for forces of Evil whose home countries have signed on to the ICC's treaty.
"There is a lot of evidence that there are imported muscle in the ranks of IS from countries that have signed the court's statute, including Jordan, Tunisia and European countries," she said.
"We could prosecute these suspects for war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Bensouda said she had already received files from the governments of Leb, Tunisia and Jordan and was "reviewing our options".
But she said that war was still raging in the countries where investigations were required and noted that it was increasingly difficult to fly out witnesses to testify.
"More and more, we try to work with documents and not witnesses," she said.
IS has carried out widespread atrocities since seizing control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, executing five Western hostages and hundreds of locals.
The group on Sunday released a grisly new video showing the execution of 18 Syrian prisoners and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig.
Some 3,000 Europeans have joined the jihadists, EU counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove said in September.
The ICC is the world's only independent permanent tribunal to try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was established in 2002 and opened its doors a year later.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 01:06 ||
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[Ynet] The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on two branches of the Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... terrorist group in Libya on Thursday after learning of its connections to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
The Security Council added the branches in the Libyan cities of Benghazi and Derna to the "Black List" of terrorist organizations and will order world nations to freeze assets of the terror groups.
[Ynet] Iraq's prime minister said on Thursday that his country and neighboring Turkey have agreed on closer security and intelligence cooperation in the face of the threat posed by the 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.... group.
"We have a key agreement to exchange information and have full security cooperation," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a news conference after talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu. "The Turkish prime minister also wants us to have military cooperation in the face of terrorism and Daesh and we welcome that," said al-Abadi, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Davutoglu confirmed the two sides' agreement on closer security cooperation.
"I can say that Daesh threatens both Iraq and Turkey, but we will cooperate and do everything we can to stand up to terrorism," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Internal Affairs Ministers Yitzhak Aharonovich approved a recommendation made by a team that suggested easing restrictions on firearms licenses because of the recent attacks and current security situation in Israel.
As part of the easing of restrictions, it was decided that security guards would be allowed to take there firearms home for a period of 90 days. Furthermore, the list of settlements with permission to hold firearms will be expanded and firearms licenses will be given to former members of IDF special units and officers.
[Ynet] Despite Amman's official condemnation of synagogue attack, Jordanian parliament recites prayer to commemorate gunnies behind massacre of five Israelis in Jerusalem.
A day after the massacre of five Israelis at a Jerusalem synagogue, the Jordanian parliament agreed to a request on Wednesday by MP Khaled Hussein al-Atta to read a prayer from the Koran in memory of the two terrorists, Rassan and Uday Abu-Jamal.
Al-Atta first raised the notion to recite a prayer for the two gunnies killed in the Jerusalem attack during the Jordanian parliament's morning session on his Facebook page Wednesday, after which the parliament approved the request.
"This is a natural response to the Zionist occupation against our people in Paleostine," wrote Al-Atta on his Facebook page.
According to the Jordanian newspaper al-Rai, MP Mohammed al-Ktatsh also asked the parliament to issue a statement condemning what he called a "Zionist attack against Jerusalem and its inhabitants after the heroic operation carried out in Jerusalem."
The Jordanian parliament has been known to have shown a lack of sympathy for Israel and its inhabitants and its parliament members tend to speak strongly against Jordan-Israel relations and the peace deal between the two countries.
The prayer memorializing the gunnies came after Jordan's government front man Mohammad Al-Momani official condemned the attack and said, "Jordan condemns an attack on any citizen and condemns all acts of violence and terrorism that hurt civilians, whatever their origin."
Al-Momani noted that the Jordanian government has been following the consequences of the serious situation in Jerusalem and called for restraint and calm, according to reports by the Petra News Agency.
Al-Momani did not directly speak of the terrorist attack in Jerusalem in his statements.
Along with the condemnation, Al-Momani emphasized that Israel must stop all unilateral steps and repeated attacks on the Temple Mount and al-Aqsa mosque ‐ a sentence repeated several times in the statements made by Jordanian officials in the last weeks regarding the rising tensions in Jerusalem.
The rising friction in Jerusalem led to a diplomatic crisis with the Hashemite Kingdom and the tripartite summit between King Abdullah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... that took place last week in Amman in an attempt to control the deteriorating situation.
Jordan was one of the only countries in the Arab and Moslem world to officially condemn the Jerusalem terror attack along with Bahrain.
Along with Jordan, Bahrain was one of the only Arab countries to public condemn the Jerusalem synagogue massacre.
Bahrain's foreign minister wrote on his twitter account: "Those who will pay for the murder of innocent people at a Jewish synagogue and the consequences of the crime is only the Paleostinian people, who will be collectively punished and suffer more injustice and aggression."
Turkey's foreign minister also condemned the attack at the Jerusalem synagogue and said, "We cannot accept attacked against holy places of any religion," but also criticized Israel's conduct at al-Aqsa mosque.
The Paleostinian Authority also condemned the attack on Tuesday a few hours after the massacre took place.
[AnNahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... said on Thursday that "international cooperation" was necessary to crush the 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.... group, which is the target of a U.S.-led campaign.
"The region is going through decisive times" and the most important factor in determining the outcome is whether there is "real and sincere international cooperation" against the jihadists, Assad said.
"Terrorist groups, led by IS, did not emerge from nothing but are the fruit of the mistaken and aggressive police of those who have waged war on Syria," state news agency SANA quoted him as saying.
Assad was speaking to members of his ruling Baath party, just days after U.S. President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... rejected any alliance with the Syrian president against the jihadists.
Obama, who leads an international coalition against IS, which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq, said in Australia on Sunday that Assad, who is facing a nearly four-year armed uprising, "has lost legitimacy with the majority of his people".
"For us to then make common cause with him against ISIL (Islamic State) would only turn more Sunnis in Syria in the direction of supporting ISIL and would weaken our coalition," he said.
#1
Hate to say it but he’s prolly right you know. The obvious muting of the Kick Assad to the Curb chorus signals there’s likely already been some level of intelligence sharing. Sounds like Pencilneck might be fishin for some hot targets in real time. And he does have the proverbial boots on the ground. Unity of Vision bayybee.
[AnNahar] The 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.... (IS) group of jihadists has "impaled itself" on Kobane by pouring fighters into the strategic Syrian town so they can be bombed by the U.S.-led coalition, a senior U.S. envoy said Thursday.
Retired General John Allen, coordinator of the coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria, told Turkey's Milliyet newspaper an estimated 600 IS fighters had already been killed in air strikes and the group would ultimately be defeated in the battle for the town.
"ISIL has in so many ways impaled itself on Kobane," said Allen, using a variant of the name for IS.
He said that IS had sought to make a symbol out of Kobane by defeating the Kurdish forces seeking to retain control of the town.
IS continues to "pour fighters" into Kobane who can then be bombed by coalition war planes, he said, estimating air raids had killed some 600 jihadists and created "real problems" for them.
"Any time you mass to achieve the affect that they are trying to achieve with respect to Kobane, you create targets," he commented.
He said IS's ultimate retreat from Kobane would indicate that it has not been able to achieve its objectives.
"I think, the sense is, if they pull out, this is going to be a real indicator that the 'march to victory' of ISIL has finally hit its high water mark."
He said it was time to reverse the notion that IS was invincible. "And, in truth, what we are learning is that they are very defeatable."
Allen met with senior Turkish officials in Ankara on Wednesday for discussions aimed at countering the threat posed by IS fighters, who have captured large swathes of Iraq and Syria right up to the Turkish border.
Turkey's refusal to play a bigger role in the U.S.-led coalition to defeat jihadists has caused strain in ties between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... allies.
Ankara has called for a comprehensive strategy to remove Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... from power, and the formation of a security zone along its volatile border.
"We absolutely must consider Turkey's national interests and special considerations. It is very clear that Turkey is a frontline state," Allen said.
Allen, who hailed the U.S. relationship with Turkey a "long-term friendship, an old alliance", said he was in talks with Turkey over how to deal with its demands.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 01:06 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
So they've done the Hitler at Stalingrad/RE Lee at Little Round Top thing at Kobane?
Good
Perhaps a good ass whipping of these thugs will take the bloom off the rose and let the air out of the tires of this thing...and perhaps embolden others to start fighting...nothing like a bunch of militias nipping at your heels and flanks in the night to cause problems.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2014 12:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I would have SEAL teams roving around the rear areas playing havoc, then when the IS is about to retreat drop a couple Ranger battalions behind them with the orders of "No bag limit".
#9
I suppose putting a special ops unit or two in rear area of ISIS to play havoc with their supply lines, communications, and sleeping habits is a good idea, we did much the same in Cambodia and we did much the same in Angola, Iraq, and other areas when putting "boots on the ground" was not politically correct.
It is scary work and you get hung out to dry or left to your own devices too often.
I do believe we have some of those guys already on the ground directing the airstrikes.
In an asymmetrical conflict, let the locals do the fighting but lead by example and provide active dynamic mentoring of the junior officers and leaders.
Besides, the local language, dialects, accents, and other subtleties of the environment lend themselves to the locals doing the heavy lifting/clandestine rear area vandalism and malfeasance.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/21/2014 21:23 Comments ||
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[Ynet] An Iranian company on Thursday displayed four brand new US-made helicopters it purchased through third parties, offering them as proof that the country could evade international sanctions over its disputed nuclear program.
The display of the R-44 helicopters came during an air exhibition in Kish Island, in the Persian Gulf.
The four-person helicopters are manufactured by the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,-based Robinson Helicopter Company.
Mahmoud Azin, the head of Iran's Helicopters Company, told the Tasnim news website that the helicopters were purchased at a marked-up price through "dealers" and can be used for both training and police air patrols. His company, which has some 25 helicopters, mainly serves Iranian oil sites.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/21/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Hat tip to the Klingons and State Department for their excellent weapons proliferation and foreign military sales work. Enjoy your well earned annual bonuses.
#3
Oh no! The Iranians are now privy to our top-secret technology of converting fuel to noise, vibration and confusion! /sarc
If I dangled a C-note out to induce someone to obtain for me a Snickers bar that I could not myself purchase, I'm pretty sure it would not take long for me to "packed full of peanuts."
Iran and six world powers are trying to reach a nuclear deal in the Austrian capital Vienna, with just four days left to reach a deal.
Experts say the talks have reached a crucial point as Iran and the P5+1 - the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany - began the final round of talks on Tuesday. The key sticking points are the scale of Iran's uranium enrichment, and the timetable for lifting Western sanctions against the country.
In a new development, the head of the UN nuclear agency IAEA said on Thursday that Iran had yet to explain suspected atomic-bomb research. Yukiya Amano made it clear that the IAEA was far from satisfied, saying it was not in a position to provide "credible assurance" that Iran had no undeclared nuclear material and activities.
Iran denies any intention of seeking atomic weapons, saying its nuclear programme is aimed at generating electricity.
Iran and the P5+1 group reached an interim deal last November to halt the country's nuclear programmes in exchange for an easing of some sanctions. But after failing to narrow down gaps on key issues during six-month negotiations for a comprehensive deal, Iran and the P5+1 agreed in July to extend the nuclear talks for another four months until November 24.
The accord is intended to set limits on Iran's atomic activities in return for an end to international sanctions that have seriously hurt its oil-dependent economy. As one of the conditions, Western officials say Iran must stop blocking the IAEA investigation into allegations that Iran may have worked on designing a nuclear-armed missile, although some experts feel this should not be a deal-breaker.
The US is pushing for agreement on at least the outline of a future accord and, to this end, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, will attend the talks in Vienna on Friday. Jen Psaki, the State Department spokesperson, said Kerry would be going to Vienna from Paris to "check in" on the talks.
[Ynet] Iran dismissed Western suspicions of atomic bomb research as "wrong and fabricated" on Thursday and said it would be ready to prove this by giving the UN nuclear agency access to a site where explosives experiments allegedly had taken place.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the main priority of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been to go to another location, the Parchin military facility southeast of Tehran, and not the western region of Marivan now offered by Iran. Tehran has so far refused access to Parchin.
Iran's envoy made the statement to an IAEA board meeting after the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... said it deeply regretted Iran's failure to address the UN agency's concerns.
Britain expressed doubts on Wednesday that a nuclear deal could be reached with Iran by a looming deadline, as Tehran and six world powers haggled in a final round of talks in Vienna.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond indicated the most to be hoped for was enough progress to justify putting yet more time on the clock beyond Monday's cut-off point.
"I am not optimistic that we can get everything done by Monday," he said on a visit to Latvia. "But I think if we make some significant movement, we may be able to find a way of extending the deadline to allow us to get to the final deal, if we are making good progress in the right direction."
There's the lunch ticket right there...
A US State Department spokesman however insisted that negotiators were still trying to get a deal done in time — something that many experts doubt, particularly as an earlier July deadline was missed.
Two key issues remain: uranium enrichment -- rendering uranium suitable for peaceful uses but also, at high purities, for a weapon -- and the pace at which sanctions on Iran might be lifted.
Iran wants to massively ramp up the number of enrichment centrifuges -- in order, it says, to make fuel for a fleet of future reactors -- while the West wants them dramatically reduced, reportedly by half. The powers say Iran has no major enrichment need at present. Russia is contracted until 2021 to fuel Iran's only power reactor and last week signed a deal to build and fuel several others.
In exchange for any reduction in its activities, Iran wants sanctions lifted. Bur the powers want to stagger any suspension to be sure that Iran won't renege on its commitments.
"They want everything all at once and this is not realistic," one Western diplomat involved in the talks said.
Sounds like a proper Persian attitude in the sook...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2014 00:00 ||
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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.
Goodluck Jonathan
International Criminal Court
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The US is pushing for agreement on at least the outline of a future accord and, to this end, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, will attend the talks in Vienna on Friday. Jen Psaki, the State Department spokesperson, said Kerry would be going to Vienna from Paris to "check in" on the talks.
Britain expressed doubts on Wednesday that a nuclear deal could be reached with Iran by a looming deadline, as Tehran and six world powers haggled in a final round of talks in Vienna.
