[AnNahar] Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta promised Wednesday not to force refugees home, backtracking on a three-month deadline issued by his deputy that would have pushed hundreds of thousands back to war zones.
Plan on more Al Shabaab attacks, guys. Good luck.
Kenya had threatened to send refugees home -- including closing the world's largest camp complex in Dadaab, where more than 360,000 Somali refugees live -- following last month's university massacre of 148 people in Garissa by Somalia's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shabaab holy warriors.
"Kenya has been, and will continue, fulfilling its international obligations, but the sense of urgency to repatriate the refugees has been necessitated by the security threats facing Kenyans," a statement from the presidency read.
Kenyatta met U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) chief Antonio Guterres, who said the government had clarified returns would only be voluntary, as set out in an earlier three-way agreement between the U.N., Kenya and Somalia.
"The government of Kenya has already clarified that return will take place within context of the tripartite agreement for voluntary return," Guterres told news hounds.
"The worst thing that might happen would be to send back a large number of people when conditions are not right -- who are then forced to come back, move to another country, or be recruited by bad boy groups," he added.
Kenya is struggling to stop increased cross-border attacks by the Shabaab, even though it has thousands of troops fighting them in southern Somalia as part of an African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force.
Following the Garissa attack, Vice President William Ruto said he hold told UNHCR to relocate refugees or "we shall relocate them ourselves."
The U.N. warned that such a move would have "extreme humanitarian and practical consequences" and would violate international law.
Guterres travels to the Somali capital Mogadishu on Thursday, to discuss efforts "to ensure that Somalia is ready for sustained return of refugees," before traveling onwards to Dadaab on Friday.
Somalia's U.N.-backed government has reclaimed control of most towns in recent years but much of the countryside remains under the sway of Al-Qaeda-aligned Shabaab holy warriors, meaning many refugees feel it is unsafe to return.
The growing influence of radical Islamists in Tripoli since Libya Dawn forces took control of the city has become clearer with changes to curricula in schools.
While Islamic studies have always been a standard part of the curriculum in Libyan schools, social media has been abuzz in the past week over the shift towards teaching more radical views of Islamic beliefs in secondary school religious classes. A worksheet circulating on the internet suggests that students are to be taught the value of jihad as well as about the importance of punishing those who choose not to follow Islam.
Libyan coast guards were today reported to have detained 580 migrants about to board a boat to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The migrants, all said to be from sub-Saharan Africa, were caught west of Tripoli early this morning on the beach between Zawia and Sabratha, according to Al-Nabaa TV. The boat they were about to use was also seized.
Asked by reporters later this morning whether the smugglers involved had also been arrested, a spokesman for the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority, Mohamed Abdussalam, said no, but explained that this was because the smugglers were using a new tactic. Instead of them sailing the boats themselves, he said, they were training one or two of the illegal migrants to do so, thus eliminating the risk of being caught.
With migrants paying around $1,000-a-head for the journey to Europe, smugglers try to get as many on a boat a possible, sometimes with catastrophic results.
At present, with the daily rate for casual labour at LD 80, migrants can earn enough in three months in Tripoli to pay the smugglers to take them to Europe.
(IraqiNews.com) An Algerian press report said that the international police (Interpol) had delivered a list of 1500 ISIS fighters of different nationalities trying to enter Algeria using fake passports.
Algerian newspaper ‘Al-Khabar’ quoted security source as saying that, “Algeria obtains accurate information on the identities of extremists and fighters from 33 countries; all of which are members of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.”
The source added that the extremists have fake passports and the cancellation process is very difficult.
Algeria got a graphic base of more than 40 million travel document owned by the Interpol to help it arrest suspected members of terrorist groups.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Zara Malam's son Mohammed was just five months old when 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... stormed their village in northeastern Nigeria and carried them off to their stronghold in the Sambisa forest.
After several months as a hostage, the boy's head is enlarged from malnutrition and crinkled skin sags from the joints of his tiny, boney body.
Continued on Page 49
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[Ynet] The US Navy has stopped accompanying fat merchantmen through the Strait of Hormuz, a mission it began last week in the wake of Iran's seizure of a cargo ship, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon front man, said the decision was taken after several days of accompanying US and British fat merchantmen without incident. He stressed that US Navy ships in the area would still conduct routine maritime security operations.
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#3
Somebody pointed out to Champ that, in the event of gunfire exchange, a war is pretty much a forgone conclusion.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/07/2015 7:54 Comments ||
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#4
...guess they hadn't finished appointing party approved commanders to the ship level yet. Danger having someone in place who actually might act creating a cascading effect that results in war.
CNN's Will Ripley was granted a rare interview with a member of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's inner circle who says that they have a long range missile capable of striking the U.S.
Counterintuitive, must be a disconnect with the Washington regime. Why would two communist, totalitarian police states go to war with one another ?
Have to scroll down a bit to get to the article, so I transcribed it, excepting a 56-sec vid, below.
It took a few steps, but I found the direct URL through the tag at the bottom of the article in your link. Teamwork works! :-)
In a worrying step showing North Korea's rapidly expanding nuclear strike capabilities, the Communist regime recently held a test of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the first time it has launched a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead from underwater.
According to US defense officials cited by the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday, the test took place on April 22 from an underwater test platform near the coastal city of Sinpo in the southeast of the country, and tested what the US is calling a KN-11 missile.
The test appears to have been successful, and is the third KN-11 test showing the high-priority of the nuclear missile program for North Korea. Previous tests in January and last October were from a sea-based platform not underwater and a land-based platform.
The KN-11 joins the KN-08 mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as being part of a varied North Korean missile arsenal on platforms that would be hard for the US to detect, and consequently allow a strike that would be difficult to shoot down.
Admiral Bill Gortney, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command, admitted last month that North Korea could hit the continental US with a nuclear strike. That admission accompanied the announcement that NORAD is reopening its nuclear-EMP-proof Cheyenne Mountain bunker, apparently amid renewed concerns of an EMP attack by which a nuclear weapon would be detonated over the US, knocking out all of its electronic devices, and thereby rendering it defenseless to secondary nuclear strikes.
The latest launch test also comes after Chinese experts warned the US last month that American estimates are wrong and North Korea actually has 20 nuclear weapons, with that arsenal to double next year thanks to the regime's higher than anticipated advanced enrichment capabilities.
Nuclear strikes the US won't see coming
Admiral Cecil D. Haney, commander of the Strategic Command, confirmed the SLBM launch test in comments to the Senate on March 19, reports the Washington Free Beacon. The program is in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Regarding the UN, it was reported last month that US President Barack Obama hid intel from the UN about North Korea transferring rocket components needed to create a nuclear missile to Iran even during the nuclear talks, to try and prevent the UN from acting on the information with increased sanctions.
Former US Defense Intelligence Agency official Bruce Bechtol, Jr. told the paper that North Korea's SLBM program is meant to give it the ability to strike the US, and to not have the strike be detected in advance.
"With an SLBM they get both," said Bechtol. "The submarine can get the platform to launch the missile within range of the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii. Thus, once operational, this immediately brings key nodes in the United States within range of what would likely be a nuclear armed missile."
He noted that once the KN-11 and mobile KN-08 "systems go operational, it potentially gives North Korea a dual threat for attacking the United States with nuclear or chemical weapons - a threat generated from difficult to detect mobile platforms on both land and sea."
Obama is bringing the US to "tragedy"
A number of American officials responded sharply to the KN-11 test, placing the blame squarely on Obama's shoulders.
"This missile, along with the KN-08, happened on Obama's watch and nothing has been done," one US intelligence official told the Washington Free Beacon.
Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton added his criticism, saying, "by utterly ignoring North Korea's growing missile threats, Obama has allowed the threat of rogue state proliferators to fall out of the center of the national political debate."
"This is a potential tragedy for the country," Bolton warned.
Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas McInerney said that the KN-08 and KN-11 programs constitute "threats to the continental United States and have been developed under the Obama administration's leadership."
"Leading from behind is a failed strategy as evidenced by this very dangerous strategic threat to the continental United States of nuclear attack by a very unstable North Korean government," said McInerney.
The general also spoke about Obama's admission that the nuclear deal being formed with Iran will allow it to obtain a nuclear weapon in under 15 years if it doesn't breach conditions and obtain it sooner, noting that the deal "puts the United States in the most dangerous threat of nuclear attack since the height of the Cold War but from multiple threats - North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran."
Opponents of the nuclear deal being formulated with Iran ahead of a June 30 deadline have warned it follows in the footsteps of the failed deal sealed by then-President Bill Clinton with North Korea in 1994.
Despite the deal, North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006, just over ten years after the agreement.
#1
NOKOR alleged nuclear arsenal was mentioned in CNN Segment this AM, where NOKOR Officio once again confirmed that Pudgy has the ability to threaten or hit the US wid Nukes.
#7
...One thing that worries me is if the Norms launch, and it duds/misses/gets shot down...and The Won decides not to hit 'em back. Gets to be all magnamanious and shiat and refuse to 'start' a nuclear war.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/07/2015 14:19 Comments ||
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(IraqiNews.com) French President Francois Hollande confirmed on Tuesday that about 100 French nationals have been killed in Iraq and Syria, and the security of the Arabian Gulf represents the security of the entire world and that France will not remain silent about the current events in the region.
Hollande said in a speech during the Gulf’s leaders summit held in the Saudi capital Riyadh and followed up by IraqiNews.com, “The threats facing the Gulf region are facing France as well, and we want to be a strong and reliable ally of the Gulf states,” noting that, “100 French militants were killed in Iraq and Syria.”
Hollande added, “The Gulf’s security means the security of the whole world,” stressing at the same time that his country “will not remain a spectator on the ongoing events in the region.”
[AnNahar] Nadir Soofi, one of the gunnies who attacked a Texas venue that featured a contest to draw the Prophet Mohammed, was a charismatic "ladies' man" as a teenager, contemporaries from an elite Pak school told Agence La Belle France Presse Wednesday.
Soofi, 34, and Elton Simpson were rubbed out by police on Sunday as they tried to storm the cartoon drawing event.
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 has grabbed credit, although U.S. officials caution it is too early to draw a firm link.
The International schools are a group of American-style preschool-through-secondary schools in key cities around the world aimed at the expat community and monied locals who want their children taught almost entirely in English. The training is aimed toward the international baccalaureate diploma, which as the name implies is an internationally respected, rigourous program of courses with some exposure to the local language and history.
from 1992 to 1998, where contemporaries said he was funny, popular and charming and showed no inclination towards extremism.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one told AFP Soofi was "quite suave and charismatic" and something of a "ladies' man" as a student. Foreign student, ladies man, had Paki pals, no father figure present, heavy maternal influence, returned to the U.S. with his mum.....I think I've seen this movie.
"Whatever fundo [fundamentalist] indoctrination occurred, [it] happened after he graduated and moved to USA -- here he was simply a cool kid with a bright future," the contemporary told AFP.
Soofi's mother taught art at the school, several of his contemporaries said.
He took part in theatre productions, and another schoolmate said Soofi starred as the lead in "Bye Bye Birdie", a musical inspired by Elvis Presley, transforming him from a sweet, shy boy into "a confident heartthrob".
"He was always good looking, throwing back his long silky hair, but after the play he did, wow -- he was Mr Elvis of school," she told AFP, again speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... She added she was shocked by news of what Soofi had done in Texas.
"I had noticed on Facebook that he had become Islamic but never thought to such extremes," she said.
Soofi's parents divorced while they were in Pakistain, two schoolmates said, and he returned to the United States with his mother.
Soofi reportedly attended the University of Utah and later owned a struggling pizza and chicken wings restaurant. Managing his business reportedly meant he sometimes had to skip prayers at the mosque.
The IS claim marked the first time the Death Eater group, which has captured swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq using brutal methods, alleged to have carried out an attack in the United States.
Pakistain, in particular its restive tribal regions on the Afghan border, has long been a favoured destination for would-be Islamist turbans from abroad seeking training and guidance.
But there is no suggestion so far that Soofi's time in Pakistain had any influence on his radicalization.
Why would anyone think otherwise?
According to Dawn, our antihero turned to radical Islam after repeated failures in America:
“When he was in Islamabad, he had a great life. His mom was an American who taught art at the school, he was in plays, popular with girls,” said one of Soofi's best friends at school.
“His nickname was Goofy” because of his sense of humour, said the man, who declined to be identified to preserve his privacy.
Over the years, Soofi told his old friends he did not fit in [in America] and had many disappointments. He went to dental school, but said he had to drop out because of financial problems, the male friend said. He tried and failed at various ventures including a dry cleaning store, he said. Should have tried community organizing. He clearly met all the prerequisites.
He told friends he had a child with a Bosnian woman but the relationship did not work out.
"He said 'life is really tough here'," the male friend said. "Alienation, an identity crisis, whatever you want to call it, he was kind of alone." Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid. Thanks to the Garland, TX Police Department he met his fate, and is no longer alone.
"I guess the one thing he could identify with was religion."
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05/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#7
Unaided, one daring slow loris
Has vanquished the tyrannosaurus:
The South, sans sharecropping,
Is safe for hip-hopping,
All thanks to the hissing of Morris!
[AnNahar] With Iran emboldened and the United States seen in retreat, President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... faces the vexed task of restoring lost trust and influence when he hosts Gulf leaders at Camp David next week.
It is a meeting that Gulf officials privately describe as "a welcome gesture," "thrown together" and "long overdue."
Continued on Page 49
#4
faces the vexed task of restoring lost trust and influence
Anyone that had trust to lose, in this slimeball, wasn't paying attention.
The US had influence, now we have little. Obama has made the whole world dangerously unstable.
I'm afraid that it is just a matter of when and where the fuse is lit. Assuming that a true conservative wins in 2016, it is possible that will cause the final triggering. As someone makes the calculation that the US will now do something real and they must "use it or lose it".
Reagan's election was the same but Carter's 4 years hadn't left the situation so fraught and we hadn't fallen so far.
#5
It's sort of like the man hates infidels and kaffirs killing Muslims in retaliation, but Shiite on Sunni and vice versa is more tolerable cause it's kept within the Religion of Peace(tm).
#7
If I wasn't so all-fired contemptuous of Zero I could actually believe and endorse the thought that he was purposely, quietly, instigating Shiite on Sunni and vice versa violence.
#8
IMHO: He got lots and lots of money from the Middle East when he was running, from any different groups united only by a common hope that the United States would be cut down to size.
Now, they're going to get that wish, in the worst possible way for them. They're going to find out the hard way just what a piece of work the sort of person who would cut down to size what he claims as his homeland really is. And that without the Pax Americana their future is to be refugees from Far Southwestern Xinjiang.
[AnNahar] Iraq's largest oil refinery is under growing threat from 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.... jihadists, who have advanced inside the perimeter of the facility, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
U.S. warplanes have been carrying out air strikes against the IS group around the Baiji refinery but it was unclear if Iraqi security forces would manage to hold on to the facility north of Baghdad, a Pentagon front man said.
"The enemy has entered the Baiji refinery. They do control parts of it," Colonel Steven Warren
...an upstanding member of the Army of Steves...
told news hounds.
"It's difficult to say how it's going to turn out," said Warren, calling it a "tough fight."
Senior American officers have described securing Baiji town and the nearby refinery as a key step on the way to an eventual offensive to seize back control of the strategic city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in northern Iraq.
"Baiji is an avenue of approach into Mosul so it would be difficult to take Mosul without Baiji, but not impossible," Warren said.
The refinery was not "operational" at the moment and it was unclear if it would provide "any material benefit" if the IS group took control of it, he added.
The refinery lies about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of the capital and once produced some 300,000 barrels of refined products per day, meeting half the country's needs. That output ended when an IS offensive overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last June, cutting the refinery off.
In support of Iraqi forces, U.S.-led coalition aircraft carried out four bombing raids near Baiji between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, destroying five IS fighting positions, six fuel tanks and other targets, according to a statement from the U.S. military. Warren said the air strikes would continue against IS forces even if their fighters were now inside the refinery complex.
"We had to destroy the refinery complex in irser to save it."
The United States and its allies have carried out 3,713 air strikes in Iraq and Syria since August, officials said.
In mid-April, the U.S.-led coalition fighting the IS group said Iraqi security forces had cleared the Baiji refinery of IS group krazed killers.
That was then. This is very definitely now.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Ours are under threat from the EPA. We all have operational complexity.
The Israeli AF Commander Maj Gen Amir Eshel visited the troops and flew at least one mission over Aegean Sea along with his Greek counterpart Lt Gen Christos Vaitsis.
Thanks to the exercise in Greece (not the first attended by the Israeli since the deterioration of their relations with Turkey), the Israeli Air Force has gathered important data about the Russian SAM system and had the opportunity to test and improve evasion tactics during simulated attacks against ground targets protected by S-300 batteries. Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Boom.
[AnNahar] Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday instructed his country's negotiators to steer clear of "humiliation" in nuclear talks with world powers that resume next week in Vienna.
"The negotiators must respect the red lines and tolerate neither pressure nor humiliation, or threats," he said in a speech to teachers carried on his website.
"It is unacceptable for the other side to make threats while negotiations are taking place. What use is negotiation in the shadow of threats?" Khamenei asked.
Negotiations seeking a definitive accord on Iran's nuclear program are to resume on May 12 in the Austrian capital, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and Tehran said Tuesday.
Iran and the P5+1 -- the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany -- want to turn a framework accord reached in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... on April 2 into a full agreement by June 30.
"What has been done so far does not guarantee an agreement, nor its contents, nor even that the negotiations will continue to the end," Khamenei, who has the final word on all policy matters in Iran, said a week after the preliminary deal.
Khamenei wants punitive international sanctions lifted without Iran having to abandon uranium enrichment for its nuclear program.
"Heads we win, tails the idiots lose," he said, smugly.
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05/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] 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... admitted to delivering weapons to Syrian rebels in 2012 despite an embargo, according to a new book coming out in La Belle France this month.
"We began when we were certain they would end up in the right hands. For the lethal weapons it was our services who delivered them," Hollande told author Xavier Panon in an interview in May last year. Hopefully the correct Political Foundations were remunerated. This always helps pave the way.
The book by the journalist specializing in diplomatic and military issues, is entitled "In the corridors of French diplomacy".
Panon wrote that La Belle France delivered canons, machine guns, rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles to the rebels fighting Bashir al-Assad's regime in an uprising that has turned into all-out civil war and drawn in thousands of foreign jihadists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says over 200,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
Either the land must be brought to produce more to support the current polulation via improved farming methods, fertilizers, snd plant varieties, or the population must be reduced to match the land's capacity. It's clear which method was chosen here.
Panon said the weapons delivered in the second half of 2012 were aimed at aiding the rebellion as opposed to having a decisive effect on changing the course of the conflict.
At the time an European embargo on weapons was in place since June 2011. It was lifted in May 2013.
Until now, La Belle France has only admitted to delivering non-lethal weapons to the rebels such as bullet-proof jackets or night-vision goggles.
The book traces a series of diplomatic and military moves by the French government both under Hollande and previous president Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd President of the French Republic. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... One of these was the planned air strikes against the Syrian regime for its use of chemical weapons in August 2013 which Washington backed down from after a diplomatic agreement.
The book names several planned targets of the strikes such as the "intelligence unit of the Syrian army which controls the chemical system."
A political adviser told the author the planned strikes had two objectives, to change the "political order" in Syria and to destabilize Russia, which backs Damascus, to pressure Moscow into changing its approach to the conflict. Sounds like a job for some 'international aid' workers.
[AnNahar] Iran on Wednesday denied it had detained the crew of the Maersk Tigris cargo vessel it seized in a business dispute last week, saying they were benefiting from diplomatic assistance.
The vessel -- chartered by Danish shipping group A.P. Moeller-Maersk and with 24 crew aboard -- was seized by Iranian patrol boats on April 28 in the busy Strait of Hormuz.
The seizure caused concern for the security of shipping lanes in the strategic strait and prompted the United States to send vessels to monitor the situation.
Maersk had urged Iran to release the crew, saying it did not own the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, which was carrying cargo for Maersk under contract, and that crew members were not its employees.
But Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said Wednesday the crew had never been in detention.
"The 24 members of the ship's crew are free. They are benefiting from consular assistance and from our point of view they are not connected with the seizure of the vessel," she said.
"Negotiations are continuing with the private company that has filed the complaint and with the other party, and it is possible that this case will be resolved in one or two days."
Iranian state TV reported that the crew members were from Bulgaria, Myanmar, Romania and Britannia.
Afkham reiterated that the dispute was "a legal case, not a political or military case".
The seizure was in connection with an Iranian court order for Maersk to pay $3.6 million (3.2 million euros) in damages to Iranian firm Pars Oil Products Talayieh over cargo that allegedly was not delivered.
That certainly is one view of events...
Update from Iran PressTV at 7:45 a.m. ET:
[AnNahar] Creating a humanitarian safe zone in Syria would entail a "major combat mission" requiring U.S. troops to fight Islamist jihadists and the Damascus regime, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told politicians on Wednesday.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has long called for a safe area to be set up along the Syrian-Turkish border to protect civilians but President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... 's administration has yet to endorse the idea.
Carter emphasized the challenges involved in establishing a buffer zone, and warned that other regional governments might not be ready to contribute to the effort.
"We would need to fight to create such a space and then fight to keep such a space and that's why it's a difficult thing to contemplate," Carter told members of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.
Carter was asked about the option by Senator Dick Durbin ...Senator-for-Life from Illinois and Democratic Party Whip. In April 2006, Time magazine identified Durbin as one of America's 10 Best Senators, so what's that tell you? He was the first United States Senator to support the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois.... , one of four senators to send a recent letter to Obama calling for setting up a safe area in Syria.
"Though this may not be a genocide by classic legal definition, it is the humanitarian crisis of our time ... with no end in sight," Durbin said.
Carter said such a safe zone would be "contested" 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 and other murderous Moslems on the one hand and the Syrian regime's forces on the other.
The "practicalities" would be "significant," he said.
The U.S. military's top-ranking officer, General Martin Dempsey, said American commanders have drawn up contingency plans for a safe zone in consultation with their Turkish counterparts.
"We've been planning for such a contingency for some time," Dempsey told the same hearing.
He said American forces were capable of carving out a buffer zone in Syria but it was a major political decision and would mean troops stationed elsewhere would not be available for other missions.
"It's practical militarily but it would be a significant policy decision to do so," Dempsey said.
He also said that for "this to be practical and effective, it would have to involve regional partners."
[AnNahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... said Wednesday that setbacks are a normal part of war and do not mean the conflict is lost, in his first comments after several regime defeats.
"Today we are fighting a war, not a battle. War is not one battle, but a series of many battles," he said at a rare public appearance on Syria's Martyrs Day.
"We are not talking about tens or hundreds but thousands of battles and... it is the nature of battles for there to be advances and retreats, victories and losses, ups and downs."
Assad's remarks at an appearance at a Damascus school were his first since a string of regime losses, particularly in northwestern Idlib province.
In the past few weeks, rebel forces including al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front have seized Idlib's lovely provincial capital, the strategic town of Jisr al-Shughur, and a military base in the region.
The losses in the province, along with rebel advances in the south, have worried some in government-held areas and prompted speculation about the strength of the regime's forces.
But Assad urged his supporters to remain confident in the face of setbacks.
He warned against "the spread of a spirit of frustration or despair at a loss here or there".
"In battles... anything can change except for faith in the fighter and the fighter's faith in victory," he said.
"So when there are setbacks, we must do our duty as a society and give the army morale and not wait for it to give us morale."
While Assad did not explicitly acknowledge his army's losses in Idlib, he paid tribute to regime forces that remain holed up in a hospital building in the now-rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughur.
"The army will arrive soon to these heroes trapped in the Jisr al-Shughur hospital," he pledged.
He also had harsh words for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , calling him a "butcher" and comparing him to the Ottoman ruler who ordered the 1916 executions that Martyrs Day commemorates.
I don't know anything about Syria's Martyr's Day, but it's my understanding that the Ottomans considered their Arab subjects to be the rankest of barbarians, absolutely requiring a demonstration decimation every generation or so just to keep the viciousness down to a dull roar. Did I misunderstand?
Syria's government has regularly criticised Turkey and other opposition supporters, accusing them of backing "terrorism".
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The leader of Iraq's Kurds said Wednesday his region's forces had destroyed 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's reputation for invincibility but now need help dealing with a flood of refugees.
After talks with President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... in Washington, Massud Barzani thanked U.S.-led forces for their air support in the battle against the jihadists, but called for more humanitarian aid.
"We are proud of what we have achieved, because we believe we are on the frontline fighting on behalf of the free world this brutal terrorist organization," Barzani said.
"And it was by the hands of the peshmerga forces that they were able to destroy the myth of ISIS being this invincible force, but this has been a costly war."
Barzani said 1,200 Kurdish peshmerga troops have been killed fighting to hold back the IS forces that swept out of their bases in Iraq and Syria last year and seized several cities.
Kurdish forces prevented IS from advancing far from the mainly Arab cities they have seized in Iraq and into the area controlled by Barzani's autonomous Kurdish region.
But they now find themselves dealing with "more than one-and-a-half million refugees and internally displaced people," many from ethnic and religious minority groups that are prey to the Sunni Islamist bully boys.
"We believe that we have a humanitarian as well as a national responsibility," he told guests at Washington think tank the Atlantic Council. "But of course the burden is huge and we cannot afford it alone.
"That's why we call upon the United States and our friends in the international community to come and help the Kurdistan regional authority with these needs."
Barzani said he had met with the leaders of the Christian, Turkmen and Yazidi minorities and had assured them that the Islamic State threat can be defeated.
And he told them: "We do not want any of you to think about leaving the country, going to be asylum-seekers abroad. I assure you that we will be together. Either we will live freely in our country or we will die together."
The Kurdish leader confirmed he regarded his Tuesday meeting with Obama as successful,
...for a given definition of success that is not herein defined...
and that he believes the United States will find a way to better arm his forces, but would not be drawn on specific pledges from the U.S. side.
[AnNahar] U.S. President Barack Obama Because I won... met the head of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region at the White House on Tuesday, courting a vital ally on the frontline of the fight against Islamic Death Eaters. Obama and 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... met Massud Barzani to discuss the campaign to regain Iraqi territory lost to 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.
A U.S.-led coalition has carried out more than 3,000 air strikes over Iraq since September in a bid to dislodge the jihadists.
On the ground, battle lines have been drawn in Anbar province and the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , where Kurdish fighters are likely to play a key role in a looming offensive.
The city, a short distance from the Kurdish capital Arbil, holds special significance for the Islamic State murderous Moslems. It was there that IS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... proclaimed his "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria.
Some 4,000-6,000 Iraqis -- many of whom fled the IS capture of djinn-infested Mosul -- are now being trained in Iraqi Kurdistan for the upcoming battle to retake the city.
Good. Those are skills they'll need once ISIS has been driven out.
In a statement, the White House said Obama "commended the bravery of the Kurdish peshmerga (forces)."
But amid sensitivities over Kurdish self-rule, the White House did not allow the media to witness the meeting and said Obama "dropped by."
Now that, my dears, is a very special level of diplomacy. Still, given the Kurds are known friends of Israel, it could have been considerably worse.
Barzani's last visit to Washington dates back to April 2012.
He's been busy, 'tis said.
The meeting comes only weeks after a landmark visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
The Kurdish leader is on a week-long visit which will also include talks on Wednesday with state department officials.
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The growing influence of radical Islamists in Tripoli since Libya Dawn forces took control of the city has become clearer with changes to curricula in schools.
[AnNahar] Nadir Soofi, one of the 
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one told AFP Soofi was "quite suave and charismatic" and something of a "ladies' man" as a student.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
"We are proud of what we have achieved, because we believe we are on the frontline fighting on behalf of the free world this brutal terrorist organization," Barzani said.
Joe 
