The price of oil may have fallen off a cliff recently, but that has not deterred energy giants like Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron from reactivating plans to drill in Somalia.
The big boys do play the long game...
The Horn of Africa country could be the next focus for the energy industry, as the government claims the nation will be producing oil within six years.
London-based Soma Oil and Gas, which is backed by Russian billionaire Alexander Djaparidze, has completed an onshore and offshore seismic survey and it is encouraged by the results. Details are expected to be published by the end of the year.
[AnNahar] A Pak Islamist group designated a terror outfit by the U.N. angrily accused the Indian media Monday of pressuring Twitter into blocking the account of its leader.
Attempts to access the Twitter page of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... , chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD) group alleged to have been behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, resulted in a message saying the account had been suspended.
"The Indian media is propagating against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and the Twitter administration has also been forced by the same Indian media," Asif Khurshid, a JuD front man told Agence La Belle France-Presse.
"Twitter must clarify its position because Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a charity and an Islamic welfare organization," he said.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment by AFP.
Saeed used his account on Twitter, which was active for several years to direct messages of hate toward India and express support for the disputed region of Kashmire's right to self-determination.
JuD is listed as an alias of the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... (LeT) Islamist group by the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... , which has also labeled Saeed an abettor of Al Qaeda and brought sanctions against him, although he has never been convicted of a crime inside Pakistain.
Aside from its alleged role in the Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people, LeT is active against Indian forces in Kashmire and was blamed for an attack on the Indian consul in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... , Afghanistan in May.
It is also a designated a terror outfit by the United States and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Despite being nominally banned by the government of Pakistain, its activists are allowed free movement and staged a major rally in the city of Lahore last weekend.
The party has since made a fresh account with @HafizSaeedJUD1, with its latest Tweet announcing: "This is the new Official Twitter account of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Ameer Jamat ud Dawah -- Official Response on Twitter double standards soon."
[Ynet] Rich countries should agree to take at least 5 percent of all Syrian refugees by the end of 2015, aid agencies said as pressure mounts ahead of a major conference on the crisis.
How about they all go to Mauritania instead...
At least 3.2 million people have fled Syria since the civil conflict erupted in 2011, putting neighbouring countries under colossal strain.
Syrian refugees across the Middle East, some in exile for a fourth winter, face freezing temperatures, hunger and increasing hostility from locals as governments struggle to cope.
Tuesday's conference in Geneva comes amid concern that the biggest host countries, Jordan, Leb and Turkey, have started restricting access to people fleeing the war.
[IraqiNews.com] On Monday, Local source in Kirkuk revealed that, the ISIS organization informed the school administrations of the need for students and the teaching staff to commit to the Afghan uniform and vowed sanctions for the violators, calling the parents to use the ?Islamic currency? southwest of the province.
The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, ?Today, ISIS hard boyz told school administrators and students in Hawija in the south-west of Kirkuk about the need to apply Afghan uniforms of specific colors, which will be circulated by the organization on school administrations later,? adding that, ?The terrorist organization called schools and all departments cadres to apply the uniforms and vowed penalties for the violators.?
The source, who requested anonymity, added, ?ISIS asked the families to provide gold and silver for the tax collectors for the purpose of contributing to the minting of ISIS currency, which will be issued by ISIS for trading.?
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 07:00 ||
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[IraqiNews.com] On Monday, MP Abdul-Rahman al-Luwaizy said, that the Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi appointed Lt. Gen. Riyad Tawfik as the Commander of Nineveh Operations.
Al-Luwaizy informed IraqiNews that, "Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander of the Armed Forces, Haidar al-Abadi has appointed Lt. Gen. Riyad Tawfik as the Commander of Nineveh Operations in addition to his position as the Commander of the Ground Forces," noting that, "Lt. Gen. Tawfik is fully aware of the affairs of the province."
al-Abadi is looking for his Grant...
Noteworthy, Abadi has previously said, that the Iraqi forces and the armed volunteers from rustics control all the way to Nineveh province, and that the operation to liberate al-djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... is not far away.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 07:00 ||
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[IraqiNews.com] On Monday, the Ministry of Human Rights announced that the ISIS organization dismantled a secondary oil refinery in Salahuddin province, and now plans to send it to the Syrian province of Raqqa, explaining that ISIS replaced its prince in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... because of his failure to manage ?the security file.?
The ministry said in a statement obtained by Iraqi News.com that, ?These terrorist gangs managed to dismantle a secondary oil refinery in the province of Salahuddin, steal it and send it to the province of Nineveh,? pointing out that, ?witnesses indicated that the gangs intend to send the refinery parts to the Syrian province of Raqqa.?
On the other hand, the ministry said, ?News were received about the terrorist gangs appointing a new governor for the city of Mosul, named Hassan Saud al-Jubouri; a substitute for Mahmoud Hassan al-Jubouri,? pointing out that, ?This came because of the latter?s failure to manage the security file of ISIS which had been subjected to hundreds of air strikes by the Iraqi air force and the international coalition forces lately.?
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:24 ||
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#1
Probably took it apart with cutting torches and piled up the pieces. Hey, a refinery kit! Now all the Mohammeds have to do is figure out which piece goes where and put it back together. LOL.
Or maybe it was blown to pieces by our forces and they decided to transfer the junk to Syria to save face.
[IraqiNews.com] Witnesses reported that elements of the ISIS organization demanded the people of Kirkuk to donate gold and silver to support in the issuance of its new currency.
Witnesses said that ISIS called the people in Kirkuk villages under its control to donate their holdings, including gold and silver, to contribute in supporting the new currency ISIS plans to release soon.
They pointed out that donations were requested during ISIS visits to the cities and villages and roaming markets, shops, checkpoints and schools.
The witnesses added, "ISIS divided its elements to groups; each group's mission was to get in touch with dignitaries, clergy, and farmers and have them urge people to make donations."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:13 ||
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[Ynet] United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... sanctions monitors have said photographs taken inside Iraq appear to confirm that the head of Iran's elite military Quds Force, one of Iran's most powerful people, has been in the country in violation of a UN travel ban.
Qassem Soleimani, chief of the force which is an overseas arm of the Revolutionary Guards, has been subject to an international travel
ban and asset freeze by the UN Security Council since 2007. An Iranian general said in September that Soleimani was in Iran's western neighbor and was playing a critical role in the fight against Sunni 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.... turbans.
A seven-page report by the UN Panel of Experts on Iran, seen by Rooters on Monday, said Soleimani "has been photographed and videoed on a number of occasions, allegedly in Iraq."
"One photograph reportedly shows him near the city of Amerli in northern Iraq after Iraqi forces re-took the city from ISIL (an acronym often used for Islamic State)," it said. The report included a photo purporting to be of Soleimani in Iraq.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Soleimani has been in Iraq for six freaking months...what's the big deal, he's done everything but host a talk show on radio and go on a rock tour.
#2
"Red Alert! Red Alert! We have a sanctions breach at map square K57. Get the Belgian containment team out there (if they can get a plane ride from somebody). Note no overtime is currently authorized. That is all."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/09/2014 8:18 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] The IDF said Monday that its troops in the Hebron area were put on high alert over the past several days following intelligence assessments indicating that a terror attack may be imminent.
Two Paleostinian men have been missing from their homes since Friday, according to Israel Radio, one of them a cousin of Amer Abu Aysha, one of the two kidnappers and murderers of three Israeli teenagers this June.
The names of the two Paleostinians who?ve disappeared in recent days were not disclosed in the report.
Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, both from Hebron, were part of a Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-affiliated cell that kidnapped Eyal Yifrah, 19, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Gilad Shaar, 16, from a hitchhiking post near Hebron on June 12 and then murdered them.
The attack set off Israel?s Operation Brother?s Keeper which was aimed at finding the yeshiva students and dealing a blow to Hamas?s infrastructure in the West Bank, which Israel accused of being behind the operation. The bodies of the three teens were found on June 30 in shallow grave on a plot of land belonging to the Kawasme clan.
Little birdies in their nests agree. Or, observe the true brotherly feeling between the two tribes of Palestinians:
[IsraelTimes] The Paleostinian Authority on Sunday accused the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Gazoo Health Ministry of having stolen medical equipment and medications that the PA sent during the summer conflict to assist the Strip?s overburdened hospitals, the Paleostinian Ma?an News Agency reported.
In a fierce condemnation of its Gazoo counterpart, a front man for the PA Health Ministry charged that Hamas was preventing volunteers from cleaning up garbage that piled up at Gazoo?s public hospitals following a strike of its janitorial staff who had not been paid for months. He further said that Hamas had created a ?new department? at the Kerem Shalom crossing that taxed all supplies ? including medical aid ? entering the Gazoo Strip, and that since the formation of the Paleostinian unity government, Gazoo ministry officials have been withholding funds.
During the summer conflict, the PA ministry sent large shipments of medical aid, but ?didn?t know where those medicines were distributed and who benefited from them,? PA Health Ministry front man Osama al-Najjar told a Ramallah presser.
?After investigations, we have been informed that influential ministry officials in Gazoo steal these medicines and equipment, and that the medicines do not go to hospitals and the health sector in the Gazoo Strip which badly need them.?
The West Bank medical supply warehouses were ?completely emptied? during the 50-day conflict, he said.
But despite the allegations and apparent shortage, the Ma?an report maintained that the PA continues to send medical equipment to the Gazoo Strip.
The officials responsible for the missing medical equipment ?invented? the janitorial crisis at Gazoo public hospital, the front man said. The cleaning staff launched a general strike last week, after not receiving their salaries for months.
Photos published by Ma?an last week showed overflowing trash cans at the Shifa hospital. Ashraf al-Qidra, the front man for the Gazoo Health Ministry, said that ?dirt and garbage at the reception department of Shifa medical complex haven?t left room for even a single patient.?
While al-Najjar said the janitors had no claim against the ministry since they were employed by private companies, he indicated that the Hamas-run hospitals were facilitating the strike, which he called ?blackmail.?
?Those cleaners have been incited on purpose to withdraw from their workplaces, and so far some influential officials of the Health Ministry have prevented volunteers from removing the piled garbage from Gazoo hospitals, and this is a very serious matter,? he said. ?We are being blackmailed and we won?t yield to this blackmail.?
On top of stealing equipment, the PA front man said Hamas had begun to ?forcibly? tax all shipments entering the coastal enclave at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Hamas has formed ?a new department at the Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing called the general administration of custom tax security,? he said, which ?forcibly collects 2.5 percent custom tax on everything that enters Gazoo, including medicines and medical equipment.?
Al-Najjar also charged Gazoo ministry officials with withholding money intended for the health and finance ministries as part of the Paleostinian unity government agreements.
Since the unity government was formed, Hamas officials ?haven?t sent a single shekel from the ministry?s revenues to the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Finance,? he said.
According to figures provided by the Hamas-run Gazoo Health Ministry, some 2,200 Paleostinians were killed, and 11,000 maimed during the 50-day conflict. Israel maintains that half the dead were terror operatives.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has ordered an investigation into the legal status of 2,800 non-government organizations and associations in the Paleostinian territories, in a professed attempt to boost Paleostinian nation-building efforts internationally.
?We would like to make all state institutions transparent and accountable, because if transparency and accountability prevail, we will have the respectable state we are worthy of,? Abbas told a gathering in Ramallah on Sunday marking international anti-corruption day.
The Paleostinian legislature passed an anti-graft law in 2005, renamed the anti-corruption law in 2010. It stipulated the creation of a governmental anti-corruption commission as well as an anti-corruption court.
At the event in Ramallah, anti-corruption commissioner Rafiq Natshe said he had been appointed by Abbas to investigate 2,800 nonprofits and NGOs registered in the Paleostinian Authority.
?The commission will examine their legal standing and check whether they abide by the law and have the proper licensing, and where their funding comes from. We will inspect their budgets in order to organize them and rectify their state of affairs,? Natshe was quoted as saying by Jerusalem-based daily Al-Quds.
?It makes no sense for a state to fund and open associations with no oversight. That way, you find 30 legal institutions and 30 women?s institutions. We welcome civil society institutions that require organization and order to become more powerful and effective,? he added.
But Azmi Shuaibi, commissioner of Aman, the local chapter of anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, said that since the vast majority of Paleostinian corruption existed in the government sector, targeting NGOs amounted to a government onslaught on Paleostinian civil society.
?This is an opportunistic move by the security establishment to curtail civil society and control public opinion,? Shuaibi told The Times of Israel in a telephone conversation. ?The cases tried in the anti-corruption court reveal that 90 percent of all corruption cases occur in government, either central or local.?
The Paleostinian territories are in a better state than the wider Arab world in terms of corruption, Shuaibi said, thanks to their more developed civil society and higher level of free speech. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... they still lag far behind Western democracies, especially in freedom of information. A freedom of information bill is being held up by a defunct Legislative Council that hasn?t convened in over seven years.
The PA?s anti-corruption institutions aim to tackle government graft as well. Two former ministers, economy minister Hassan Abu Libdeh and agriculture minister Ismail D?eiq, are currently being investigated by the court on charges of embezzlement reaching NIS 45 million ($11.27 million). In 2012, Abbas ordered the commission to launch an investigation into his political rival, former Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan. On Sunday commissioner Natshe said that Dahlan?s case would be brought before the court as well.
But Shuaibi said that the courts are stalling on the cases of the ministers and haven?t moved beyond procedural sittings over the past three years.
?The trials could still take years before a ruling is issued, because the accusations haven?t been discussed yet,? he said, noting that gag orders have been placed on the proceedings. ?They say that the suspects have the right to defend their innocence until proven guilty, but delayed justice is no justice at all.?
[IsraelTimes] Israel’s prime minister responded bitterly Monday to comments by Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... that six million Paleostinian refugees, himself included, were waiting to “return” to Israel and that “we need to find creative solutions because we cannot close the door to those who wish to return.”
A front man for Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of promoting “impossible fantasies” and taking “maximalist positions.” Israel has a population of just over 8 million, more than a fifth of whom are Arabs. Israeli governments have consistently rejected Paleostinian demands for a “right of return” for millions of descendants of former Arab residents of what is today Israel, saying that the demand amounts to a bid to destroy Israel by demographic means and that a Paleostinian state would have to absorb them in the same way that Israel absorbed Jewish refugees who were forced to leave countries across the Middle East and North Africa when Israel was founded.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Israel shared intelligence with Jordan about a Moslem Brüderbund cell on its soil whose operations included smuggling weapons to Paleostinians in the West Bank and raising funds for terror activities.
Jordanian sources told the London-based al-Hayat daily that the information has led to the arrest of 31 people, a majority of them Paleostinian students from the West Bank attending university in the Hashemite Kingdom.
Long section snipped about Jordan's King Abdullah II pontificating that Israel needs to have peace talks (note: not make peace, just talk about it) with the Palestinians lest there be forever violence, and therefore the problem of ISIS, et al -- "a Muslim problem" -- will never be solved.
[IraqiNews.com] A top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. 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 Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... claimed, that Israel and the United States have trained the so-called 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.... ?s fighters in order to undermine Russia?s interests in the Middle East.
In an interview with Iran?s official TV channel, Alexander Prokhanov said, ?Israel?s intelligence ?Mossad? were training ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq,? pointing out that, ?ISIS is a tool at the hands of the United States.?
Prokhanov told PRESS TV, that the United States and Israel are one and the same when it comes to supporting terror organizations in order to undermine Moscow?s interests in the Middle East. He added, ?They tell the Europeans that if we (the Americans) do not intervene, ISIS will cause you harm. In fact, however, Iran and Russia are the main targets.?
[Ynet] Confidential report by UN c'tee overseeing sanctions compliance reveals allegations by Washington that Tehran has increased its efforts to illicitly obtain equipment for the IR-40 research reactor at Arak.
The United States has privately accused Iran of purchasing components for its heavy water reactor in Arak in violation of UN nuclear sanctions, Foreign Policy reported on Monday.
The magazine cites a November 7 report by a panel of eight experts advising a UN Security Council committee overseeing international compliance with sanctions, which details the allegations made by an unnamed state. Diplomatic sources, however, confirmed to the magazine that the state in question was the United States.
According to Foreign Policy, Iranian procurement agents have been "increasing their efforts to illicitly obtain equipment for the IR-40 research reactor at the Arak nuclear complex."
In an interim agreement signed between the Islamic Theocratic Republic and world powers, Iran committed to halt activity in its plutonium research facilities as well as freeze enrichment of high-grade uranium. The plutonium research facility in Arak is under "managed" monitoring by IAEA inspectors, as agreed on in the interim deal.
The magazine published portions of the report, which notes that "one member state highlighted during consultations with the panel a number of developments regarding proliferation-sensitive procurement by Iran."
The American delegation had in recent months observed "an increase in procurement on behalf of the IR-40 Heavy Water Research Reactor at Arak," the report states.
According to Foreign Policy, the US indicated to the experts panel that "foreign businesses and purchasing agents interested in doing business with Iran have been taking advantage of the improved diplomatic atmosphere to broker new deals with Iran."
Both the American and Iranian missions to the UN refused requests for comments made by Foreign Policy.
In an address at the Saban Forum in Washington on Sunday, 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... maintained that the interim nuclear accord with Iran is holding and that fears that the Iranians would cheat have proven to be unfounded thus far. He said new ideas on how to achieve a more durable agreement have been presented and that it was his hope that the late March target for a framework would be met with little need for further negotiation.
"We have no intention of negotiating forever," Kerry said. "Absent measurable progress, who knows how much longer this could go on."
US Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... , who spoke at the Saban Forum on Saturday, said there the chances of completing a nuclear deal with Iran were less than 50-50 but that there was still a chance.
He rejected calls to impose additional sanctions on Iran because "this is not the time to risk a breakdown when we still have a chance for a breakthrough."
The self-imposed deadline for nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the P5 group - US, UK, La Belle France, Russia, China and Germany - expired on November 24 and was extended until July 1, 2015.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Any word on the source of aviation spares used to keep 1960's vintage McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom fighter jets operational ?
[Ynet] Iranian media says aim of visit was to clear way for mission by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, chief Khaled Mashal to mend strained ties between Hamas and Iran.
A delegation of Hamas, which controls the Gazoo Strip, arrived Monday for talks with Iranian officials on repairing ties, local media reported.
Tasnim news agency said the team was led by Hamas political bureau member Mohammed Nasr and included Ossama Hamdan, who is in charge of international relations.
The visit is aimed at clearing the way for a mission by Hamas chief Khaled Mashal, Amir Mousavi, the head of Tehran's Center of Strategic Research, said on the website of Hamas-linked Paleostinian daily Al-Ressalah.
The Syrian conflict has strained ties between Hamas and Iran, with the Paleostinian faction breaking ties with Damascus while Tehran has remained a strong ally of the regime.
Meshaal, in an interview with AFP in August, acknowledged differences over Syria but said their common enmity against Israel was a uniting factor.
Iran is reported to provide equipment for Paleostinian fighters of Hamas and 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... , a smaller murderous Moslem group in Gazoo, to fire missiles at the Jewish state.
The US reportedly told a panel of eight experts advising a UN Security Council Committee on Iran there was overwhelming evidence Tehran was continuing its transfers of weapons to its proxies an allies.
Earlier this year, the Israeli Navy seized an Iranian shipment of rockets, mortars and other arms that was en route to Gazoo via Sudan.
Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, during a visit to Tehran in October, praised Iran for its role during the Gazoo conflict.
The 50-day war between Israel and gunnies in Gazoo that ended on August 26 killed about 2,200 Paleostinians, and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:00 ||
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Misleading! The Iran-Hamas rapprochement actually began with the Tehran conference of December 1990. Following the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1988, and the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranian theocracy reorganized its foreign policy. Iran reached beyond the Shiite community at large and embraced Hamas, a Sunni force that had taken a leading role in the struggle with Israel. The move was made to gain influence over Islamic affairs in general, and over the Palestinian movement, in particular. Hamas then opened an office in Tehran, and it has never been closed.
[Ynet] Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticized widening corruption in the Islamic Theocratic Republic in unusually blunt terms Monday, saying money once "given under the table now is being given on the table."
A clear sign the idealism of the revolution has evaporated.
Iran is in the middle of a plan to decentralize and privatize its economy following its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeatedly has warned officials over possible corruption during implementing the program and high-profile graft cases have shaken the country in recent years.
Speaking at an anti-corruption conference, Rouhani said Iranians "should apply all our power in fighting corruption."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:00 ||
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"we're not getting our cut"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2014 6:56 Comments ||
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#2
That's not a criticism that you would ever hear from the Obamanation. He'd be claiming the reverse.
[Ynet] 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... has halted its bid to broker the release of Lebanese soldiers and coppers captured by Islamist forces of Evil during a raid on a Lebanese border town in August, saying its efforts had failed after one of the captives was killed.
Any bets that they ever would have succeeded?
Militants affiliated with the Nusra Front and the al Qaeda offshoot 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.... took captive more than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces during the August incursion.
The Nusra Front said on Friday it had killed one of them in retaliation for the arrest by Lebanese authorities of women identified as wives of Islamist hard boys.
[IsraelTimes] The Iranian Navy unveiled an overhaul of its warships, torpedoes and combat helicopters on Saturday, according to the state-run Fars News Agency, weeks after nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the West were extended until July next year.
During a ceremony displaying the new equipment in the southern province of Bushehr, Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi praised the Navy?s capability to domestically renovate and modernize old equipment.
?Our capabilities are growing each day and we have managed to promote and improve what we have, thanks to Iranian experts? powerful hands,? Salehi said.
?In the very near future we will witness the building, renovation and innovation of surface and subsurface vessels by the Navy,? he added.
Salehi, who also announced that the Navy was ready to launch a newly optimized submarine in the near future, emphasized that the new naval hardware was not a show of force, rather a sign of ?peace and friendship.?
During the ceremony, Iranian Navy displayed the domestically renovated engines of several Kaman-class missile-launching warships, the first aerial refueling of mine-sweeper RH helicopters and demonstrated a newly synchronized weapons control system of missile-launching warships.
Also on Saturday, Naval Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that Iran would test its new equipment in large-scale naval drills in the Indian Ocean in late December.
Sayyari said that the drills, dubbed ?Velayat 93,? would reach further into international waters than any exercise before, and that foreign and trans-regional military forces will be asked to leave the area during its duration.
Sayyari underscored that the exercises were peaceful and necessary for domestic security.
?The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran?s Navy is capable of establishing security in the regional waters from every dimension,? he said according to Fars news.
The new military innovations were widely publicized following an order by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to increase Iran?s combat capability regardless of the extension in nuclear talks.
With Khamenei?s backing, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has participated in a diplomatic initiative for the past year to resolve a nuclear conflict with the West that has resulted in 12 years of crippling economic sanctions.
Tehran and the P5 world powers (the US, La Belle France, the UK, Russia, China and Germany) missed the November 24 deadline for a deal, but have extended the talks by seven months in hopes of reaching an agreement to curb Tehran?s nuclear program.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
that Photoshop update arrived
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2014 16:14 Comments ||
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[Ynet] The commander of US forces fighting 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.... in Iraq and Syria said Monday the turban group has been thrown on the defensive, unable to generate the kind of quick strikes that captured large chunks of Iraq last summer.
Army Lt. Gen. James Terry told news hounds in Kuwait that US and coalition Arclight airstrikes are taking a toll on IS. He said the fighters are less mobile and are limited in their ability to communicate because of the Arclight airstrikes and other pressure.
Terry said his first priority is to build a bigger coalition of countries to counter IS. He said a conference of coalition partners last week produced plans for non-US members to contribute as many as 1,500 military personnel to help rebuild Iraq's army.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Is this a real general? or one of those political appointee butt kissers that youknowwho shoved up through the ranks to get HIS guys in control?
#6
Speaking of barbarity, tremendous amount of discussion today throughout Middle East social media regarding the newly released CIA report of the CIA's newly disclosed brutal methods of torture.
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.
The price of oil may have fallen off a cliff recently, but that has not deterred energy giants like Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron from reactivating plans to drill in Somalia.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. 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 Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Joe 
Debka
