[Al Ahram] Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... may have committed crimes against humanity, a year-long U.N. human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... inquiry said in a report published on Monday describing extrajudicial killings, widespread torture, sexual slavery and enforced labour.
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in a report published on Monday describing extrajudicial killings, widespread torture, sexual slavery and enforced labour
"based on this clear and convincing evidence, we have nominated them for the 2017 Chair of the UN Human Rights Commission™. They have worked hard and are a perfect fit"
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06/10/2015 9:20 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned a Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... (HRW) report on human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... in Egypt, describing it as "politicised" and lacking in "accuracy and objectivity".
HRW released a statement on Monday titled "Egypt: Year of Abuses Under El-Sisi" saying Egypt had witnessed "flagrant abuse of human rights" in the name of restoring stability since Abd El-Fattah El-Sisi assumed presidential office in June 2014.
The rights watchdog called on the US and Europe to "stop overlooking Egyptian government abuses, including a lack of accountability for many killings of protesters by security forces, mass detentions, military trials of civilians, hundreds of death sentences, and the forced eviction of thousands of families in the Sinai Peninsula."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Military top brass from Nigeria and surrounding countries met Tuesday to thrash out plans to take on 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... , as new Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari takes early steps aiming to defeat the bad boys.
Chiefs of defence staff from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and 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 a high-level military official from Benin held talks in Abuja to determine strategies for a new, 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... -backed regional force against the rebels.
The meeting "points to our common resolve to work together to put an end to a menace that has become a regional and indeed a global problem", Nigeria's chief of defence staff Alex Badeh said at the start of talks.
"If there is any time for us to rise in one voice irrespective of our differences, it is now," he added.
The long-awaited Multi-National Joint Task Force, which was due to have been operational in November, has its headquarters in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, under a senior Nigerian officer.
In the meantime, troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon have been fighting Boko Haram holy warriors in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... for several months and have claimed a series of successes.
The Nigerian military announced on Monday evening that the chiefs of defence staff meeting was being held in preparation for talks on Thursday between heads of state and government of all five countries.
Buhari, a former army general, has been Nigeria's president since May 29 and has made ending Boko Haram's six-year insurgency the top priority for his administration.
He immediately announced the transfer of the military command centre from Abuja to the strategic city of Maiduguri, in the northeastern rebel stronghold, and visited Niger and Chad to push for continued cooperation.
On Sunday, he travelled to the G7 summit of leading industrialised nations to garner further support from world powers on the security threat, including intelligence and training.
Buhari's nascent presidency has however seen an increase in suspected Boko Haram attacks, with 11 recorded since he took the oath of office and at least 93 deaths.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... summoned Iran's ambassador on Tuesday after four Saudis died from poisoning in the northeast Iranian city of Mashhad, Saudi foreign ministry front man Osama Naqli said in a statement published on the state news agency.
A group of 33 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite Moslem minority was exposed to poison on Sunday while staying at a Mashhad hotel, state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.
Another Iranian news agency quoted an official as saying the poisoning appeared to be accidental, blaming poor cleaning standards at the hotel.
Four children died, while another 28 were hospitalised after the incident. Iranian authorities said they tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! five members of hotel staff.
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry called on Iran to "swiftly take the necessary investigations required and to discover the circumstances surrounding the event, and allow them to follow up on the medical conditions of the patients, and to provide necessary protection for them."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] A woman in La Belle France has taken legal action against the French government for failing to stop her teenage son from joining the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... groups operating in Syria. Money's money. Betcha they wouldn't want to pay it back if the kid makes it back alive.
A lawyer of the woman, whose identity has not been publicized, said Tuesday that the French security forces acted negligently by failing to stop the woman's 16-year-old son when he left the country for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in 2013 to join the ranks of the Takfiri Lion of Islams.
Samia Maktouf said Turkey was "notorious as the route to enter Syria," adding, "The police have committed a grave error... concerning this unaccompanied minor, who had a one-way ticket to Turkey with no baggage."
The boy, identified only as "B," left the southern French town of Nice on December 27, 2013 without informing his family. The boy took a plane for Turkey before reportedly heading for Syria on land.
The mother of the teen now seeks reparations worth EUR 110,000 (USD 120,000) for herself and her three other children. However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... Maktouf said what matters to the mother the most is putting an end to the departure of French minors to countries where Takfiri Death Eaters are active.
"It's not the money that we are interested in, but we want it known that an error was made. The departure of minors... must stop," the lawyer said.
The French Interior Ministry has rejected claims that the government was responsible for the boy's departure, saying authorities would have had no legal basis to stop him at the airport.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually before 2013 a minor unaccompanied unless accompanied by _both_ parents needed an authorization from the missing parent(s). That was to avoid kidnapping after a divorce.
Unfortunately since 2013 minors are allowed to leave France unaccompanied with merely a passport or ID card.
Since he lef in 2013 it depends on if it was before or after the law was changed.
[Al Ahram] The head of French telecoms group Orange, Stephane Richard, said Monday he was "radically opposed" to any trade boycott of Israel after he sparked a row by saying he would review ties with the country.
"It was never the question for a second that Orange would withdraw from Israel," he told French TV station BFMTV, confirming that he would travel in the coming days to the country following an invite from the Israeli government.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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A telecom boycott against the people who invented the cell phone. How droll!
[Hurriyet Daily News] President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... 's 1,150-room mega-palace and its residents should immediately be evicted, an architects' NGO has said in a statement after the country's critical June 7 general elections.
The Ankara Chamber of Architects said the election results, which resulted in the loss of a parliamentary majority for the Justice and the Development Party (AKP), have proven the illegality of the controversial palace, demanding it be vacated immediately.
"Our nation has shown their refusal with the election results that the palace was illegal at heart, as it was built in violation of the law and the will of [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk on the Ataturk Forest Farm [AOC] and a luxurious, gaudy life is led inside. The most serious decision against the 'illegal palace,' which was twice in illegal status according to judicial decisions, was the election results. The residents of the 'illegal palace' should immediately be evicted," the head of the chamber, Tezcan Karakus Candan, said.
Candan also addressed Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, saying he should keep his word about previous claims against Ankara Mayor Melih Gökcek, accusing the latter of "having sold Ankara to the Gulen Movement plot-by-plot."
"We are following the issue; everyone should keep their word. We promised our nation. We said this cause will not end until those who attempt to choke us by narrowing our living space and stealing our children's future will be accounted for in front of the law and we are doing what is necessary. Thus, Bulent Arinc should keep his word and announce the places sold plot-by-plot, which he said he would announce on June 8," added Candan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Skid, I suspect that Bambi and Moocheele will dither ( why change now) until the most very last minute and then find reasons to come back in, "did I leave the iron plugged in?" or some such.
Or they will ransack the joint (trinkets for the Obumbles presidential outhouse library)
[Hurriyet Daily News] A comprehensive military and defense industry agreement between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and 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... will enable the former to deploy troops in Qatari territories for joint drills and training purposes, in a bid to further intensify the partnership between the two countries. The owners and operators of the Moslem Brüderbund plow the fertile ground that sprouted Erdogan and his AKP.
The details of the agreement signed in December 2014 on cooperation in military training, the defense industry, and deployment of the Turkish Armed Forces in Qatari territory were finally published in the Official Gazette on June 8.
The deal was inked by Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz and Qatari Defense Minister Major General Hamad Bin Ali al-Attiyah in Ankara.
The military deal is seen as another step between Turkey and Qatar, whose regional partnership especially in Syria is becoming more visible through joint actions.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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"The details of the agreement signed in December 2014...." Given recent elections in Turkey, it is unlikely this agreement between the Muslim Brotherhood leaders of Turkey and Qatar will ever amount to anything.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Supreme Election Board (YSK) announced June 9 the temporary results of the June 7 general elections, but the exact number of deputies that will represent the four parties at the parliament remains uncertain, mainly due to ongoing objections in at least four places.
Voter turnout reached 84 percent, according to the official announcement, as 47.5 million out of 56.6 million registered citizens cast their votes. Nearly 1.35 million of the votes, however, were invalid.
In accordance, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) netted more than 18.86 million votes, 40.87 percent of the total, as the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) won 24.96 percent with 11.6 million votes.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) got 7.6 million votes, or 18.29 percent, which was above the 6 million votes or 13.12 percent by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). But the latter has caught the nationalist party in parliament members, which is linked to the quotas of the country's 81 provinces.
Along with objections to the vote count, the votes abroad, a first for Turkey's general election, has also made calculations rather complicated, as this new input was proportionally distributed to all provinces.
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06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on Tuesday accepted the resignation of the cabinet of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after legislative elections, but asked it to stay on until a new government is formed.
Davutoglu had met Erdogan for one hour at his Ankara palace to discuss the future of the government after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its majority in parliament in Sunday's polls.
"Mr President accepted today the resignation of the cabinet that was presented by Mr Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu," Erdogan's office said in a brief statement.
"Mr President, who thanked the cabinet for its services so far, asked the cabinet to remain in charge until a new government is formed."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The U.S. Army's official website was hacked Monday with messages denouncing Washington's training of rebel fighters inside Syria, but no data was stolen, officials said.
As a result of the hacking, the Army decided to temporarily shut down the website, which is designed for the general public with basic information and does not contain classified or personal data, officials said.
"Your commanders admit they are training the people they have sent you to die fighting," said one of the messages.
The so-called "Syrian Electronic Army" took credit for the cyber hack, and posted the messages on its Twitter account. The group has been blamed for previous hacking and denial of service attacks that have condemned rebel forces fighting the Syrian regime.
"Today an element of the Army.mil service provider's content was compromised," army front man Brigadier General Malcolm Frost said in a statement. "After this came to our attention, the Army took appropriate preventive measures to ensure there was no breach of Army data by taking down the website temporarily."
The pro-Syrian regime group has been linked to the hacking of numerous news media sites in recent years, including the Twitter account of Agence La Belle France Presse's photo service. It created confusion in the stock market briefly in 2013 when it put out a fake media tweet falsely claiming the White House was under attack.
Officials said it was possibly the first time a U.S. military website had been penetrated, as previous hacking had targeted Twitter accounts.
The social media accounts of US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, were hacked in January with messages promoting 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. Central Command's Twitter and YouTube accounts were temporarily suspended as a result but no sensitive data was compromised.
U.S. officials had called the assault on the CENTCOM Twitter cyber "vandalism."
The hack on the Army's website came days after a cyber assault may have compromised the personal information of four million U.S. government workers. U.S. officials and politicians said they suspected China was behind the breach.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
[Ynet] US officials will not meet with visiting members of a delegation from Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund, a State Department front man said on Tuesday.
Egypt summoned the US ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Moslem Brüderbund figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter told Rooters on Monday.
"There was never any meeting planned," State Department front man Jeff Rathke said at a news briefing. "We haven't reversed a decision. We've met with them in the past, and our policy remains the same."
The tensions reflect a clash between US diplomats' desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who toppled a Moslem Brüderbund-led government in 2013.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#6
It's pretty simple g(r)om. Just shoot a back azimuth from whatever the regime spokesperson of the day puts out. You'll likely find the truth in that direction.
#7
Just kidding Besoeker. Don't forget, I grew up in Soviet Union---the ability to "read between the lines" was something you'd soak with mother's milk at that time and place.
It added: "Today's ruling will have a chilling effect on Egyptian civil society and, taken with other recent developments, raises serious questions about Egypt's commitment to the democratic transition that so many people demanded when they took to the streets in early 2011."
for activities following Mubarik's ouster and elections leading to Morsi/MB bolster; a 'pro democracy NGO group'.
[Iran Press TV] Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld says his commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, was wrong to push "democracy" on Iraq. It was a case of trying to fit ballet slippers on a horse, but if it had worked it would have put an outpost of rationality in the heart of the world of non-reason, or more accurately anti-reason.
"I'm not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories. The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic," Rumsfeld said in a wide-ranging interview with The Times of London.
Rumsfeld, one of the chief architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said he became "concerned" when he first heard the idea of a democratic Iraq, floated by former president Bush.
The former Pentagon chief also criticized President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... 's approach towards the ISIL terrorist group, controlling large parts of Iraq and Syria.
"The movement for a caliphate, the movement against nation states is central and fundamental, and no one's talking about it," Rumsfeld said, referring to the ISIL's self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Rummy - I like you, so I trust you brought these concerns to his attention at the time, right?
#4
All is well that ends well, Mr Rumsfield. And Arabs ceasing to pretend that they're anything but a bunch of murderous sociopaths is well.
Now, can you figure some way for the Western leftards to show their true colors?
#6
"The movement for a caliphate, the movement against nation states is central and fundamental, and no one's talking about it,"
Nothing new here. Ethno-religous conflict has been going on for millenia. 'The Caliphate' is merely a label on Sunni Arab resistance to Shiite domination.
For years the media peddled the same - they may be Sunni/Shiia/Kurd/etc, but they are first and foremost Iraqi or Syrians or Yemenis.
It thought it was bollocks at the time and so it was.
#7
How about pushing for 'democracy' at home against the oligarchy? Of course you'd have to admit to the latter first which is a big no-no for the oligarchs as it might upset the rubes. Bread and games proles.
#9
Still, there were a lot of Iraqis happy to vote for the first time.
Before they became disillusioned with the process....
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/10/2015 13:25 Comments ||
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#10
Assuming we just installed a MacArthur how would that have been different? If we put up a dictatorship who? How brutal would we allow them to be to keep the lid on the monkey-house? I don't think there is a level of brutality that would work that the US population would be comfortable with in this day and age of agitators and partisans.
Which gets us back to attempting Democracy, dividing it up, or just busting up the place without attempting to occupy, or continuing the status quo. No solutions were very good.
#11
Or...we could have just *won* first, completely, and overwhelmingly.
THEN, and only then, would what would have been left of Iraq had in any interest in participating in a democracy. You can't have lunatic opposition leadership still alive, comfortable, and in charge of vast swatches of the population and expect our notion of "democracy" to have any chance of succeeding there.
We should *won* first...and then taken care of the "hearts and minds" of those that we determined were fit to remain alive.
Half-assed "wars" with no real objective other than breaking things never amount to much once the smoke clears.
[DAWN] The management of Pakistain International Airlines (PIA) on Tuesday terminated services of five crew members on flight PK-788 from London to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... for violating rules and regulations.
A day earlier it had been reported that United Kingdom's customs authority detained five PIA crew members from the same flight -- PK-788 -- on charges of smuggling and money laundering.
At that time a PIA spokesperson had said that UK's border security force had stopped the crew for questioning, adding that they had not been detained. The spokesperson said five crew members were questioned more than others but later returned to Karachi on their flight.
The spokesperson had also dismissed reports of currency and cellphones being recovered from the crew.
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06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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At least the Brits had the good sense to not detain the crew, but let them go home to get busted.
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06/10/2015 7:56 Comments ||
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[DAWN] On a first visit, one only notices the calm which engulfs the sleepy village of Pichnand, located some 90 kilometres from the district capital, in Talagang tehsil. Most of its 24,000 residents earn their livelihood from agriculture and cattle farming.
And walking through the quiet winding streets of the village, it is hard to tell that underneath the calm, simmer religious tensions with extremism on the rise in the Talagang tehsil, 45 kilometres from Chakwal. New blasphemy cases are routinely registered in the area, in most of which a man named Mohammad Saeed is the complainant and an advocate named Tariq Mehmood is the counsel.
The growing number of such cases has left 80 members of the Ahmedi community, who occupy 15 houses in the Pichnand village, in perpetual state of fear. Religious conferences are regularly organised in the village where hate speech is delivered against the marginalised Ahmedi community. These events have also put the village under the spotlight of the local press.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Ahmedis...muslims waiting for the Mahdi, the muslim messiah, like Ahmajinedad was...beaten to death by fellow muslims:
http://observers.france24.com/fr/content/20110208-membres-secte-musulmane-lynches-extremistes-sous-police-ahmadi-ahmadiyya-indonesie
Posted by: Herman Snoque9573 ||
06/10/2015 19:49 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to play a proactive role in promoting peace in the region, adding that it was incumbent on the UN Security Council to ensure early implementation of its commitment as reflected in the resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir. Or they'll stamp their little feet and hold their national breath until they turn blue.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] At least 15,000 volunteers have joined the Shiite militia movement known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units, signing up to fight in Iraq's ongoing war against 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.... , a security official announced on Monday.
Naman Ibrahimi, of the Ziqar province security committee, told local media on Monday that "at least 15,000 volunteers from Ziqar province and the capital city of Nasiriya have joined the Hashd al-Shaabi gunnies and will take up arems against Daesh [ISIS]."
According to Ibrahimi, Iraqi police and military commanders in the Hashd al-Shaabi are currently training the arrivals and there are enough weapons for all the volunteers. He did not specify if the volunteers were to be paid for their service.
Ibrahimi said a special committee has been established in Iraq's southern province of Ziqar to monitor the volunteers.
The Hashd al-Shaabi rose up last year at a call from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite holy man in Iraq, when ISIS fighters overran much of country's western territory.
The militias, some of which have known ties to Iran, took the lead in the liberation of Tikrit earlier this amid subsequent allegations the fighters marginalized Sunni residents of the area.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The Pentagon is drawing up plans to expand the training of Iraqi forces and Sunni tribal fighters in a step that could mean deploying more U.S. troops, officials said Tuesday.
Is this one of the five plans that he didn't look at, or did President Obama, The Smartest Man In The Room, come up with this himself?
The review of possible options comes in the wake of 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 damaging defeat of Iraqi troops in the western city of Ramadi and after President Barack Obama teachable moment... said he was waiting for a Pentagon proposal to beef up training efforts.
"We've determined it is better to train more Iraqi security forces. We are now working through a strategy on how to do that," Pentagon front man Colonel Steven Warren told news hounds.
"Because the forces we've trained are performing better than expected, we feel it's in everyone's interest to train more," he said.
Warren acknowledged that an expanded training effort could require additional American troops deploying to Iraq, beyond the current force of roughly 3,000 advisers and trainers.
The effort could also include direct U.S. training of Sunni volunteers in western Anbar province for the first time, Warren said.
Until now the Baghdad government has overseen training of Sunni tribal fighters and Washington has been frustrated at what it considers the slow pace of the program.
Although the U.S. military was considering broadening its training effort, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government has had difficulties providing enough recruits to be trained and ensuring units show up properly equipped, officials said.
"We'd like to see ... more Sunnis come into the pipeline and be trained," Warren said. "This is what we have urged Abadi to help solve."
After meeting Abadi on Monday in Germany, Obama said the Iraqi side needed to show it could make use of extra help being offered by the United States and other members of the anti-IS coalition.
"All the countries in the international coalition are prepared to do more to train Iraq security forces if they feel that additional work is being taken advantage of," Obama said on the sidelines of the G7 summit. "And one of the things we're still seeing in Iraq is places where we have more training capacity than we have recruits."
U.S. concerns were highlighted by the absence of trainees at al-Asad air base in Anbar province, where several hundred American troops are stationed to help with combat instruction. The Pentagon said Baghdad had pulled out the trainees and redeployed them to help provide security for a religious pilgrimage.
The U.S.-led coalition has trained 8,920 Iraqi troops so far in basic combat skills and 2,601 are going through courses now.
All the training in the world isn't going to help if a soldier doesn't trust the men on either side of him.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
The Pentagon said Baghdad had pulled out the trainees and redeployed them to help provide security for a religious pilgrimage.
[Politico] Reports that ISIS has surrounded Baghdad and is quickly closing in on the Baghdad International Airport (armed with MANPADS, no less) are troubling. Baghdad itself has been rocked by a series of VBIED attacks in the past 24 hours by ISIS, indicating that the battle for Baghdad has begun.
The possible fall of Baghdad could be the most significant development in the War on Terror since 9/11. And yet many among the D.C. foreign policy "smart set" were not long ago mocking such a scenario.
So what happens if such a situation comes to pass? Here are five key implications (by no means limited to these) if Baghdad falls to ISIS:
1) ISIS will not be claiming to the be the Islamic State, they will BE the Islamic State
Symbolism doesn't matter much to your average post-modern Westerner, but it still does in the Islamic world, and the capture of Baghdad will hold enormous value. For 500 years Baghdad was the seat of the Abbasid caliphate, and its fall to ISIS would allow the terrorist group to reclaim that mantle. Such an event will electrify the Middle East and beyond, with many Muslims holding firmly to the belief that the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924 by Ataturk was one of the key contributing factors in the decline of the Muslim world over the past century. No amount of State Department hashtags or tweets, or pronouncements by Sheikh Barack Obama and Imam John Kerry that there is nothing Islamic about the Islamic State, will be able to negate any claims by ISIS to be the revived caliphate.
2) The Great Reconciliation between jihadist groups will begin
Much of the Obama administration's anti-ISIS efforts have been trying to leverage other "vetted moderate" groups in Syria against ISIS, with some "smart set" thinkers even advocating engaging "moderate Al-Qaeda" to that end. We are already seeing jihadist groups gravitating towards ISIS, such as the announcement this week by Pakistani Taliban leaders pledging their allegiance to the Islamic State. Other groups of younger jihadis are breaking away from Al-Qaeda franchises in North Africa and defecting to ISIS. Despite bitter rivalries between ISIS and other jihadist groups in Syria, namely Al-Qaeda's official Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, these other groups will be hard-pressed to deny ISIS' caliphate claims if they do take Baghdad. In that part of the world, nothing succeeds like success.
If Baghdad falls, jihadist groups, some of whom have been openly hostile or remained neutral, will quickly align behind ISIS. And the horrid sound coming out of Washington, D.C., will be of foreign policy paradigms imploding. The last para appears to be playing out as we speak.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Point #3 concerns me, i.e. the 1100 personnel at the U.S. Embassy. Obama doesn't have a good history of having the backs of the military. Benghazi comes to mind.
#4
Thanks for directing our attention to the date. The Kurds have proven that ISIS is not so tough when confronted with tough resistance and I get the feeling Baghdad will be a lot tougher than Ramadi.
[YNETNEWS] Gazoo residents are unhappy with the territory's Islamic krazed killerHamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rulers and by its war with Israel last summer, a new Paleostinian poll released Tuesday shows.
The poll by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that half of Gazoo residents want to emigrate, compared to 25 percent in the West Bank.
The center's director, Khalil Shikaki, said the 50-percent immigration figure in Gazoo is higher than ever before and that among young people it is even higher, about 80 percent.
"There's a very high level of frustration we are seeing in Gazoo more than at any other time in the past year," Shikaki told news hounds by teleconference from the West Bank.
A majority, 63 percent, expressed dissatisfaction with "achievements compared to human and material losses" in the 2014 Gazoo war that killed over 2,200 Paleostinians and 73 people in Israel. Fighting devastated parts of Gazoo and reconstruction has been slow, causing many there to ask if it was worth it.
Of those polled, 63 percent said they support launching rockets at Israel while a blockade is in place. The same number said they favor indirect talks between Hamas and Israel to negotiate a long-term truce in exchange for lifting the blockade.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade on Gazoo after Hamas seized the coastal territory from forces loyal to Western-backed Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... in 2007, arguing it prevents Hamas from getting more weapons.
Hamas has ruled Gazoo with an iron fist since, leaving Abbas governing parts of the West Bank.
Only 30 percent said they can criticize Hamas without fear. In the West Bank, 32 percent said they could freely criticize Abbas.
Despite the numbers, the poll found that if free elections were held today with just Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... competing, Hamas would win in Gazoo and Abbas in the West Bank, both by slim margins.
In Gazoo, 39 percent of those polled said they would vote for Hamas, up from 32 percent a year ago. In the West Bank, support for Hamas has risen to 32 percent from 27 percent three months ago. Fatah weighed in at 36 percent backing, down from 41 percent in March.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Gets a little tiresome having your house blown up, eh?
The deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday said that while Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday said that while the United States "speaks loftily about security and global development, it remains our worst, most vicious enemy." But thanks for the bomb, suckers
#1
Seriously, when a mutt like this speaks openly with utter contempt for us and knows that Champ and JFnK will still do anything to get a worthless piece of paper for their pathetic legacy, you know what a neutered joke they think we are. Sadly, they are right as long as we are lead by grifters like the Obama/Clinton democrats.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Details about the battle of Palmyra in which 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.... (ISIS) controlled the city on 20-May this year are published for the first time on media.
Zaman al-Wasl met A. Solaiman, a military employees who was at his work when the Islamic state controlled Palmyra and stayed for many days afterward.
Solaiman, mentioned that ISIS had warned the regime forces days before attacking the city.
The head of al-Badiya branch of the Military Security met prominent figures of the city of Palmyra and told them about the warning and requested them to defend their city because the regime forces cannot stop the attack on their own.
Shortly after that, the arms' store, the second biggest one in the country, and al-Amiriyah neighborhood in Northern Palmyra were attacked and controlled by ISIS, it needed only few hours to control them.
"Few festivities took place between the regime's and ISIS's forces after controlling the arms store and happened only at night", Solaiman detailed.
On Thursday, the sixth day of the battle, the regime suddenly withdrew all its forces around the city and gathered In al-Badiya branch of the Military security situated in the Western part of the city, and very close the archeological area. Then the Islamic State (ISIS) gave them the final warning to leave their places or they would have been killed with boom-mobiles, in the same time, ISIS left the route to "Wahat Tadmour" leading to desert road between Palmyra and Damascus open.
The former military employee mentioned that fighters of ISIS who attacked the city were not more than 400 one, 50 of them were from Palmyra itself and knew its ways and places.
Solaiman mentioned that Palmyra-origin ISIS's fighters spreaded in the city's neighborhoods since the first morning of the battle with lists of people loyal to regime and wanted to ISIS, they announced that anyone sheltered wanted people or loyal to regime would be killed with who sheltered. He mentioned that ISIS had slaughtered many people, men and women in first days of attack, one of them was the head of nurses in Tadmour Hospital because she had hiden 12 members of regime's forces, beside the head of Baath forces after investigating with him and getting proofs of people that he was very bad and cruel with them and sent many of their relatives to prison.
In regard to the way he managed to leave Palmyra after controlling it by ISIS, he reported that he was requested to stay in his work and his salary would have been doubled to $ 400, but he refused claiming that his family were waiting for him in Damascus. He added that all employees in Water and electricity corporation were asked to stay in their jobs and their salaries would have been double of what they received from the regime.
The former employee mentioned that the very next day of controlling Palmyra, ISIS's members provided the city with fruit and vegetables brought from Riqqa, and the automatic bakery started producing bread for only 40 Syrian pounds for a bag of bread. "But they brought a van full of veils for women"
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Stay, we promise you double the salary until the point you can no longer get out is not a wise deal. Better to just destroy things and deny the invaders the assets.
[Iran Press TV] The United States and its allies seek to sustain the growth of the ISIL terrorist group across the Middle East to create chaos in the region and preserve the prosperity of the US military-industrial complex, says a former American intelligence linguist. I'm a former American intelligence linguist and I wouldn't say that. Just having once translated Chinese or Russian or Xhosa doesn't make you an expert on Middle Eastern terror networks, nor on U.S. or British foreign policy. Once having watched Dragnet doesn't make you a policeman.
"The fact remains that the coalition forces pretty much led by the US and the British empire, England, have really been designed to maintain the growth of ISIS, not to cease its operations," said Scott Rickard, using another acronym for the terror network. At this point, in fact, I'd venture to say that no one's an "expert" on the Islamic State, not even the people within its command structure. It's an organization that grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq as conceived by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who under normal circumstances should have ended his days howling at the moon in Bedlam. The reason AQI was so effective was because its head was a brutal nut. Had he been a routine Evil Genius™ like bin Laden his actions could have been anticipated and countered. But lunatics don't reason like we do, no more than Iran's propaganda machine.
The US military is not using its overwhelming force to destroy ISIL because the group's demise will destroy a major source of revenue for the American military-industrial complex, Rickard told Press TV on Saturday. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense of a sort, if you look at it from just the right angle and squint just right. Otherwise it looks like the kind of gibberish you'd find somewhere between A.N.S.W.E.R. and Hizb ut-Tahrir. ISIL's downfall will end the US military campaign and along with it the "economic prosperity that's coming out of this endless and perpetual war that's really been created and funded and also perpetuated by the West," he added. That's the "endless war" strawman that's been stuffed by the further reaches of the American left since the Vietnam war. Originally pushed by Soviet puppets it now has a life of its own, kind of like Liberation Theology.
Rickard characterized ISIL as a "mercenary force", armed and funded by the very same coalition that has been engaged in the bombing campaign against the group for nearly 10 months. That doesn't make any sense at all. In fact, it's such a stupid concept it's breath-taking. It simply doesn't compute. Fail. Divide by zero error. It suggests we're creating enemies for ourselves so we can sell ourselves bombs to obliterate them in a sort of endless loop of destruction.
The ISIL gunnies have been able to maintain 80 to 90 percent of territory under their control in 4 to 6 thousands of coalition sorties targeting their positions, he said. Surely it would make more sense for us to establish and fund a powerful network of worldwide terrorism pushing Jeffersonian democracy, or even Whiggery than establishing same pushing Islam, which is a repellent culture to those of us who believe in Cause and Effect?
A senior B.O. regime official said Tuesday that the battle to destroy ISIL in Iraq could take at least three to five years. Of course they also said that Yemen was a model of success in the WoT.
State Department front man John Kirby, a retired Navy admiral, appeared on a talk show to clarify President Barack Obama's If you like your coverage you can keep it... comments at the G7 summit the day before, in which he admitted his administration lacked a "complete strategy" against ISIL. I hope they pay him well. It's a tough job, defending the indefensible.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
...Trust me, we didn't need to create ISIS to screw things up over there.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/10/2015 12:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"The reason AQI was so effective was because its head was a brutal nut." That appeals to a lot of brutal nuts from the same religion. Instant army, untrained and brutal and willing to die for their religion.
#6
Pooty Poot and Barry Hussein will go down in history as having set policies that ensure the maximum massacre of the sand monkeys...unintended consequences, maybe, but bloodbath never the lesss.Which fulfill all of the DAESH(ISIS) strategy, which is to wake up the maximum of real psychopaths in the billion and a half mudslimes. They will soon be bombing ALL our supermarkets and baseball and hockey games, they are thus planning total jihad on us...and so by then, we will have one of them creeps hanging from each lamp posts...
Do your worst, Abdullah, we cant wait to get at you...
Posted by: Herman Snoque9573 ||
06/10/2015 20:01 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Iran has told the UN Security Council that Saudi-led air strikes have twice hit close to its embassy in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and warned of "serious consequences" if more such bombings occur.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Gholamali Khoshroo said in a letter released Tuesday that the embassy in Sanaa suffered severe damage during air strikes on May 25 and that this followed a similar attack on April 20.
"I would like to warn that a repetition of similar air strikes close to my country's diplomatic representation in the future can have serious consequences, including for the safety and security of Iranian diplomats in Sanaa," Khoshroo wrote in the letter to the 15-member council.
The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes on Yemen on March 26 to push back an offensive by Iranian-backed Shia Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels who had seized Sanaa and were advancing on the southern city of Aden.
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi was forced to flee into exile in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... during the Houthi advance on Aden.
In his letter, the Iranian ambassador requested that the Security Council urgently address the Saudi-led air campaign, now in its 11th week.
The United Nations will open a round of talks in Geneva on Sunday between Hadi's government, the Houthi rebels and other political parties to end the violence in Yemen and chart a course on a political settlement.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Frissons running up and down a multiplicity of New York Times' spines when this went to press...
[AnNahar] A U.S. commando raid in Syria last month that killed a senior figure from 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 produced a wealth of information about the jihadists' finances and leadership, the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported Tuesday, citing U.S. officials.
Material seized in the May 16 raid against Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... , believed to be the group's top financier, already helped U.S. forces track down and bomb another IS leader in eastern Syria on May 31, unnamed officials told the Times.
U.S. government officials believe an influential lieutenant, Abu Hamid, was killed in that air strike, the Times reported, but the IS group has not yet confirmed his death.
An estimated four to seven terabytes of data was extracted from laptops, cell phones and other items recovered in the operation, the newspaper said. The information included insights into how the group's 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... , seeks to avoid being monitored by U.S.-led coalition forces.
When the IS chief meets regional leaders at his headquarters in Raqqa, each Death Eater has to hand over their mobile phone to a driver to avoid revealing their location to Western spy services, the paper wrote.
"I'll just say from that raid we're learning quite a bit that we did not know before," a senior State Department official told news hounds in a teleconference last week.
U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment on the report.
At least one informer "deep inside" the IS group played a pivotal role in tracking Abu Sayyaf before the raid, a military official told the Times.
U.S. officials believe Abu Sayyaf was involved in kidnapping activities and oversaw oil smuggling and financing for the group.
Material found in the raid showed that about half of the IS group's oil profits is allocated to a "general operating budget" while the remainder is divided between maintaining oil production facilities and paying workers, officials told the Times.
The workers are fully paid employees for the IS group and not conscripted locals as previously believed, officials said.
The U.S. presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the IS group, retired U.S. general John Allen, said in 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... last week that the raid uncovered "substantial information on Daesh (IS) financial operations."
The new information gathered indicated that one figure, Fadel al-Hayali, also known as Abu Mutaz, may wield more power in the IS organization than previously suspected, according to the paper.
U.S. Army Delta commandos detained Sayyaf's wife in the raid but were not able to capture Abu Sayyaf alive as planned.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Why in the hell can't the administration keep a lid on this information so we can keep the bad guys guessing.
Amazing desire to trumpet short term achievements at the expense of long term goals.
I personally would have rubbed out OBL and not announced it for two years so we could take his info and play AQ like a bongo with phony OBL instructions.
#6
Woofing kills or captures, and publicizing information about how much intelligence data is harvested is not only stupid, but detrimental to ongoing and future operations. Case in point; I remember years ago when it was somehow revealed that the U.S. was monitoring UBL's hand-held communications traffic. He immediately changed his TTP and began using messengers or other means of communications.
Of course the UBL coms leak was minor compared to the actual take-down, movies, books, political bloviating and posturing.
When I was a kid, shooting marbles on the playground:
"Yea, pops was at Iwo, [D-Day, or the Bulge], but he never talks about it."
#7
You should read up on the trials and tribulations the 'command' went through deciding whether or not putting the hit on Yamamoto was worth it if it might lead the Japanese to conclude their key military code had been broken. Info on that intel coup didn't 'leak out' till after the war.
#8
I understand they sort of put the pilots that flew the mission into some kind of banishment to keep them from deliberately or inadvertently leaking key info about the Yamamoto shoot down.
#9
Beso, let me add Saipan and Tinian to your list. Didn't get a word out of pop until I got him a little drunk 30 years after the fact. Seabees saw some gnarley shit back then too.
#10
Yes, when I think of what those fellows went through, I don't even want to discuss my own mediocre, lackluster, swivel chair record. Little wonder they didn't want to talk of it. Very humbling. Very humbling indeed.
#11
At least one informer "deep inside" the IS group played a pivotal role in tracking Abu Sayyaf before the raid, a military official told the Times.
It would be interesting if this were disinformation so the ISIS inner circle gets paranoid enough to start rubbing each other out to try to get rid of the snitch.
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.
[Iran Press TV] A woman in 
[Hurriyet Daily News] 
[Iran Press TV] The United States and its allies seek to sustain the growth of the ISIL terrorist group across the Middle East to create chaos in the region and preserve the prosperity of the US military-industrial complex, says a former American intelligence linguist.
ISIL's downfall will end the US military campaign and along with it the "economic prosperity that's coming out of this endless and perpetual war that's really been created and funded and also perpetuated by the West," he added.
