The Indian-supplied Mi-25 gunship helicopters will kick-off operations with the Afghan Air Force within the next two months, it has been reported. The delivery of the Russian-made gunships comes amid crucial need of close air support to the Afghan national security forces who are fighting the Taliban militants on their own during the past one year, since the NATO-led coalition forces concluded their military operation in December last year.
According to the local reports, citing deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan, Hekmat Karzai, the gunship helicopters will soon be flying in the skies of Afghanistan targeting the Taliban. Four Russian-made Mi-25 attack helicopters, with the Indian Air Force, will be delivered within the next two months, sources tell NDTV.
Following his meeting with the Indian officials, Karzai said “We have had the most casualties. We see daily violence in about 20 provinces, so, it is important to have that covered.”
Karzai further added Two and a half years ago, we had about 150,000 coalition forces. To support them, we had over 200,000 military contractors.” He was referring to the coalition drawdown and the vacuum created with the need for helicopter gunships.
He also added “We now have to develop our own capabilities. This is why we are reaching out to our friends and allies.”
The delivery of the gunships to Afghan Air Force is considered as major shift in policy followed from the UPA government’s tenure who were willing not willing to provide Kabul any lethal weapons or equipment. India has been training around 1,000 Afghan army and other security officers and men a year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
and a "F-U" to the ISI
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2015 9:26 Comments ||
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#2
...The sound of heads exploding in Islamabad...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/22/2015 11:23 Comments ||
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New shocking images have emerged which purportedly shows the loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group destroying raised graves.
The ISIS loyalists operating under the brand of ‘Wilayat Khurasan’ which covers swaths of Afghanistan and Pakistan, are apparently commiting the latest fanatic acts in a bid to match the atrocities committed by the terror group in Iraq and Syria.
The group which is reportedly led by the former Pakistani Taliban commander Hafiz Saeed Khan.
This comes as the terror group earlier this year released photographs of its militants destroying Christian graves with sledgehammers and carving out crosses in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
The images were posted on social media, including the Shomoukh Al-Islam jihadi forum, under the title Leveling Graves And Erasing Pagan Symbols. Three pictures also emerged out of a montage from Syria in August this year which purportedly shows graves being smashed along with other images such as the discovery of smuggled cigarettes hidden inside a spare tire.
Only the most ornate gravestones in the graveyard appear to be targeted, with the pictures showing they are destroyed using a sledgehammer. The caption states that the men are “removing the manifestation of polytheism.”
The latest distressing pictures are released shortly after a shocking documentary was released last week which purportedly shows the loyalists of the terror group are expanding their activities in Afghanistan by establishing jihadi schools where children as young as 3-year-old are being trained on how to carry out terrorist activities.
It is estimated that 3,500 militants loyal to the terror group are operating in Afghanistan which includes militants both from Afghanistan and other countries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2015 00:00 ||
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The former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh who was leading a delegation to investigate the fall of Kunduz city said Saturday that over 2,000 documents related to the fall of Kunduz were reviewed besides interviewing several people including government officials and ordinary citizens.
Saleh further added that the main question in their investigation was “Whether Kunduz city fell due to a conspiracy or a failure or whether both factors were involved?”
He said the delegation did not find any evidences regarding the involvement of any conspiracy in the fall of the city.
According to Saleh, the delegation concentrated on three main subjects, including strategic leadership, condition of institutions structure and condition of access to facilities.
Saleh said one of the main strategic errors of the government ahead of fall of the city was ignorance of the fall of other districts of Kunduz province including Dasht-e-Archi and Chahar Dara. He also added that the Taliban militants continued to weaken the Afghan Local Police by taking control of Aqtash and Khanabad district.
According to Saleh, the Taliban militants entered to Kunduz city after weakening the Afghan Local Police and in the meantime starting war in the other parts of the north including Badakhshan, forcing the Afghan National Army troops to disperse.
He said there was a vacuum in the leadership as the Taliban launched coordinated attack on Kunduz city on 28th September and called US air support as the turning point in Kunduz war as the Taliban militants were close to take control of the airport.
Saleh said the delegation has exposed vacuums available in the operational method of the National Security Council led by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in their report, calling it a main factor which led to the fall of Kunduz city. He also added that all the institutions and government officials who are to be blamed for the fall of the city, mainly due to negligence have bee exposed in their report.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Another one of those 'never fail to fail' things?
[AlAhram] Close to 100 migrants tried to storm the border fence from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla Saturday in a scramble that left one man seriously injured, authorities said.
Moroccan security forces managed to stop some of the migrants from reaching the fence that seals off Melilla -- one of only two land borders between Africa and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... -- but around 30 people still reached it and clambered onto the railings, they said.
Two of these managed to get across into the Spanish territory, while one man was maimed when he fell from the metres-high fence near the Barrio Chino crossing, authorities in Melilla added in a statement.
The man was taken to hospital in Melilla with severe head injuries -- along with three others who were slightly hurt as they too fell from the fence.
Other migrants were still clinging onto the railings in high winds, prompting firemen to lay out mattresses and other material at the base of the fence in an attempt to break any fall.
Authorities said the area around Barrio Chino is favoured by migrants and refugees trying to make it into Spain, as the "cluster of homes there allows them to crouch and hide, making it harder for security forces to intercept them."
Melilla and Ceuta, another Spanish enclave nearly 400 kilometres (250 miles) away, have for some years been a flashpoint for African migrants trying to enter Spain, with authorities stepping up security by strengthening border barriers.
So far this year, according to Melilla authorities, there have been a dozen attempts to cross the border fence there, with more than 100 managing to enter the Spanish enclave.
But authorities said this pales in comparison with 2014, when more than 2,000 migrants and refugees managed to enter Melilla.
Two Bangladesh opposition leaders have been executed for war crimes committed during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistain.
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid were hanged in Dhaka's central jail. They were convicted of genocide and rape - charges they denied.
Chowdhury has been an influential politician - he was elected MP six times. Mujahid was a top leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said they were hanged after President Abdul Hamid rejected appeals for clemency by the two men. However, family members have dismissed reports that the men had made any such appeals, which would have also required admissions of guilt.
"My father said he did not seek any mercy," Chowdhury's son, Humam Qauder Chowdhury, told AFP news agency, after meeting his father for the last time hours before his execution. "He has always said he's innocent."
The Supreme Court upheld their sentences earlier this month.
Chowdhury was the most big shot of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party to be sentenced for crimes against humanity. Two years ago, a special war crimes tribunal found him guilty of nine out of 23 charges including genocide, arson and persecuting people on religious and political grounds. The prosecution said that his father's residence in Chittagong was turned into a torture cell during the war.
Mujahid was the secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... . He was sentenced to death in July 2013. He was accused of responsibility for the killings of a number of pro-independence Bangladeshi leaders and intellectuals. The tribunal found him guilty of five charges, including abduction and murder.
Bangladesh's government says the war crimes trials are necessary to bring murderers to justice. But the opposition says they have been used to persecute them and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups have said the tribunal does not meet international standards.
Britain's Labor Party has voted to cut ties with a well-known security firm which has extensive business ties with Israel, media outlets in the United Kingdom reported over the weekend.
The party's national executive committee approved a resolution boycotting G4S, a Crawley-based multinational corporation that employs over 620,000 workers in over 120 countries. An invitation to ISIS?
Anonymous, the loose collective of online activists, said Saturday it has uncovered information about 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 attacks in Gay Paree as well as at locations in the U.S., Indonesia, Italia and Leb, all apparently set for Sunday. OpGay PareeIntel, a group within Anonymous, released a statement saying it had collected information about imminent attacks by the turban group -- aka Daesh [Islamic State], ISIL and ISIS -- in the French capital a little more than a week after a series of coordinated attacks there left 130 dead and hundreds injured.
Anonymous also said the Islamic State group is planning an assault at the WWE Survivor Series event scheduled to take place in the Philips Arena in Atlanta Sunday at 7.30 p.m. EST, as well as attacks at multiple events in Gay Paree.
The collective published the list of potential targets alongside a statement: "The goal is to make sure the whole world, or at least the people going to these events, know that there have been threats and that there is possibility of an attack to happen. Another goal is to make sure Daesh [Islamic State] knows that the world knows and cancels the attacks, which will disorientate them for a while."
UPDATE 4:45 p.m. EST: Anonymous later posted a tweet saying that it did not know where rumors of the planned attacks originated.
So maybe something will happen, or perhaps Anonymous got overexcited.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
welcome to the world of trying to stop islamist fascists from randomly murdering civilians.
you do not know what *chatter* is real
what is blowing off steam
what is *talking sh*t*
and what is discussing the plot of a book that somebody is writing
so it all seems like there are hundreds of attacks
except there arent
and the one person who goes apeshit with a couple of bruvvers and an ak-47 was smart enough not to say it on twitter
so there you go
you cannot fight islamist fascism with spying, it does not work
you have to fight the ideological war
Ban sharia
deport those who support sharia
accept the refugees but force them to sign a legal document rejecting sharia or they are out
provisional visas only - if you commit violent or sex crime, or are caught promoting sharia or participating in sharia courts then you are on the next plane back to your own country
[AnNahar] As the hunt for jihadists widens after last week's Gay Paree attacks, authorities in Greece warn it was virtually impossible to pick out dangerous bandidosbandidos murderous Moslems among arriving migrants, without prior intelligence.
"If they are not already registered in the database, it's nearly impossible," says Dimitris Amountzias, police captain in charge of Moria, Greece's main registration camp on the island of Lesbos.
At the camp, dozens of migrants and refugees queue to give their fingerprints, have a photo taken and be quizzed by agents from European border agency Frontex.
Continued on Page 49
[AlAhram] The number of new migrant arrivals in Sweden has dropped by a third since it reinstated border controls earlier this month, the country's migration agency said Saturday.
"The number of (new) asylum seekers has decreased from 1,500 a day to some 900 since border controls were reintroduced" on November 12, the Swedish Migration Agency said in a statement.
Worsening weather conditions may have also contributed to the decline, it added.
Short-staffed authorities still face a backlog of applications submitted before the controls were reintroduced, the agency said.
The restrictions are likely to be extended to December 11, the interior ministry has said.
Long a preferred destination for people fleeing war and poverty, Sweden like several other EU countries reinstated border controls in a bid to gain control over the unprecedented influx.
Small, but emotional gesture, big potential. Putin is anything but a fool. Mr. 0bama, however, may consider sending the French a photo of him with a puppy in the fashion of an Ortolan.
#3
I would say that not only is Putin more astute but I believe his advisors are top notch and give Ole Vlad some really good advice.
What the Russians are doing right now really plays well in Peoria.
Anyone notice how some of the things Vlad is saying sort of channel ole George after 9/11?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/22/2015 9:14 Comments ||
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#4
Mr. 0bama, however, may consider sending the French a photo of him with a puppy in the fashion of an Ortolan
Maybe Obama could show the puppy properly prepared, medium rare.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/22/2015 11:04 Comments ||
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#5
I had suggested Romney had he won to send Putin a quality horse in show of respect. I would say the same to Trump if I could get his attention. I believe things would be very much different between our two nations. The bust of Churchill returned to the white house as soon as possible also.
Flooding the country with illegals O is hoping for unrest in conjunction with black lives matter dribble to invoke martial law would be his ultimate goal. Like the Clinton's he cares more about his power than this country.
[Hurriyet] A court in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's eastern province of Van has sentenced a politician from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to a prison sentence of six years and three months on the charges of "being a member of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] terrorist organization."
The verdict came late Nov. 20 from Van's Second High Penal Court in a case where six suspects stood trial on charges of "being a member of the PKK terrorist organization and its affiliate KCK [Kurdistan Communities Union]."
Four of the suspects, including the HDP's Van deputy Lezgin Botan and former HDP Van deputy Selami Özyasar, were sentenced to six years and three months while two others were acquitted.
All four suspects were detained back in June 25, 2011 in Van during an operation by anti-terror squads.
The arrests were part of a nationwide dragnet on suspected Kurdish separatists and bandidosbandidos Death Eaters and led to the arrests of bigwigs, journalists and lawyers.
Canada voted, and now they get to enjoy the consequences.
[AlAhram] Canada plans to fly in 900 Syrian refugees a day as of next month, according to media reports, as the defense minister said showing compassion for these people sends a message to 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.... murderous Moslems.
Canadian officials said details of a plan to take in 25,000 Syrian refugees by year's end would be announced Tuesday.
The Canadian media reports come amid fears that IS jihadists could slip into the country posing as refugees, in the wake of last week's attacks in Gay Paree that killed at least 130 people.
Citing a leaked document, local media said the government was planning to fly in 900 Syrian refugees daily from Jordan to Montreal and Toronto, starting December 1. From there, they would be transported to two military bases in Ontario and Quebec, where they would be temporarily housed, according to the reports. They pegged the cost of the ongoing operation at Can$1.2 billion over six years.
The cost and other details will be revealed on Tuesday, Immigration Minister John McCallum told news hounds in Ottawa.
Health Minister Jane Philpott, however, said the leaked information was "outdated and not expected to be accurate."
At a security forum in the Atlantic port city of Halifax, Defense Minister Jarjit Sajjan said by welcoming Syrian refugees, Ottawa was also striking at IS.
"This crisis is not just about a humanitarian project," he said in his opening remarks to military commanders and defense ministers from around the world.
"This also sends a great message to ISIS that you might create this environment for us, but we will not let you take advantage of this," he said, using an alternate acronym for the IS group. "By doing our part for this, we are actually hitting ISIS in a different way as well."
Um, okay, I suppose that's one way of looking at it. ISIS might thank you by helping to get a few of their agents into your country.
Sajjan also sought to allay security concerns raised since the Gay Paree attacks, saying Canada is looking to bring over the most vulnerable and families with skills that could ultimately benefit Canada, and that they pose no threat to national security.
"They're not fleeing poverty; they're fleeing war," he said. "People who are settling are going to be contributing to our economy."
That's the traditional view for immigration into both Canada and the U.S. If it's true, great. But remember, almost three-fourths of the 'refugees' are military-aged young men. Are they fleeing or are they shock-troops?
..or because they're lower on the primate order for enjoying raping, looting and pillaging back home. Got to find newer territory with less competition.
h/t Gates of Vienna
US Vice President Joe Biden called on the US citizens Saturday to not turn away from the Syrian refugees and to "not play right into the terrorists' hands" by dividing the community.
I join this call: whatever you do, don't turn your back to them!
#6
John, which Saudi Arabia won't do BECAUSE OF FEARS OF TERRORISM!
So tell me again, Slow Joe, why we should take them in.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/22/2015 11:01 Comments ||
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#7
AlanC -- those orphans grow up to blow up. No refugees, period. Remember the Tsarnaeves and the Somalis.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/22/2015 11:41 Comments ||
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#8
Rob, 0 would suit me okay but I do think the Christians are probably fine and if we get them at 12 down we should be able to keep them from going that bad.
The US House of Representatives, defying a veto threat by President Barack Obama, overwhelmingly passed Republican-backed legislation on Thursday to suspend Obama's program to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year and then intensify the process of screening them.
The measure, quickly drafted this week following the Islamic State attacks in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people, was approved on a vote of 289-137, with 47 of Obama's 188 fellow Democrats breaking with the White House to support it. It would require that high-level officials - the FBI director, the director of national intelligence and homeland security secretary - verify that each Syrian refugee poses no security risk.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill would pause the program the White House announced in September to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. He said it was important to act quickly "when our national security is at stake."
After the House vote, Obama's attorney general, Loretta Lynch, called such screening both impractical and impossible.
The vote result came despite a last-ditch appeal for Democratic votes from Jeh Johnson, Obama's secretary of homeland security, and Denis McDonough, his chief of staff. It followed a testy exchange at a House hearing between lawmakers and Anne Richard, the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration. Republicans responded with incredulity to her assertion there was only a "very, very small" threat of any of the Syrian refugees being a "terrorist".
Some Republicans have said some refugees could be militants bent on attacking the United States, noting reports that at least one Paris attacker may have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in Greece.
The bill, which would create the strictest-ever US screening of refugees from a war-torn nation, passed with the two-thirds majority the House would need to override a presidential veto. It now goes to the Senate, also controlled by Republicans, where its prospects remained uncertain. If it passes in the Senate, each chamber would have to muster a two-thirds majority to override any Obama veto.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said there was "no way" the House bill would pass in the Senate. Some Democrats touted a different approach, promising legislation in the Senate to tighten a visa waiver program that intelligence experts say can be exploited by Islamic State militants or others planning US attacks.
The White House had said Obama would veto the House bill because it would introduce "unnecessary and impractical requirements" that would hamper efforts to help some of the world's most vulnerable people without providing meaningful additional security for Americans.
[DailyCaller] The map includes 83 -- or nearly 4 percent -- of the 2,106 mosques in the United States as of 2010. Yes, a little dated, but can give some indication.
The map can be zoomed. Once "tight" enough, a dot may be clicked on to see Mosque details.
#2
It seems the Catholic Church is strangly silent.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/22/2015 11:26 Comments ||
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#3
@#2: See THIS and go to the "Operating Revenues..." on statement page 4 (browser page 6). Note the $ received from "Government Contracts and Grants..." (you and me) - an impressive number. The entry also references "note 3" which can be found on statement page 13-14 (browser pages 15-16).
Interesting reading for the curious, and I'm sure a gateway not exclusive to Catholic charities.
[AlAhram] Two men were kept from boarding a flight from Chicago to Philadelphia this week because they were speaking Arabic, one of several incidents reflecting public paranoia since the Paris attacks. Maher Khalil and Anas Ayyad were told by a gate agent at Midway Airport on Thursday that they wouldn't be allowed on the plane because a fellow passenger had overheard them speaking Arabic -- and was afraid to fly with them.
The two friends reportedly of Palestinian origin and in their late 20s, were eventually allowed on the Southwest flight, but only after being questioned by airport security and police, who Khalil told the local NBC television affiliate he had called himself. Once on board, Khalil said some passengers made him open a white box he was carrying -- filled, it turns out, with sweets.
"So I shared my baklava with them," he was quoted as saying.
Southwest Airlines told AFP in a statement the flight "departed a few minutes behind schedule" after airline employees "completed conversations with customers who approached us during the boarding process," without providing more details.
Similar incidents have reportedly taken place on other US domestic flights in the wake of last week's attacks in the French capital that killed 130 people, which were claimed by Islamic State extremists.
The terrorist group, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq, has also threatened attacks in the US, including releasing a propaganda video singling out New York.
On Wednesday, six men identified by fellow passengers as being of Middle Eastern descent were removed from a Southwest flight bound for Houston at Chicago's Midway after they asked to switch seats, causing a commotion, the local ABC affiliate reported.
"Our crews were unable to resolve the situation without delaying the flight so we rebooked the customers on a later flight that same day," Southwest said in a statement.
The following day, a Spirit Airlines flight en route to Minneapolis returned to Fort Lauderdale after a young passenger "heard what she believed to be a conversation during which the subject made a remark about blowing up the plane," according to a police report quoted by the Sun Sentinel newspaper.
Once back on the ground, Yaniv Abotbul, a US citizen born and raised in Israel, was interrogated for five hours, his lawyer Mark Eiglarsh told a news conference. Abotbul was let go, with the police report quoted by the Sun Sentinel saying "intensive interviews revealed no actual threat was made to the flight and the incident appears to be a miscommunication from a juvenile witness".
His lawyer has demanded an apology both from the airline and authorities involved. Spirit Airlines did not respond to requests for comment.
The same carrier was implicated in another incident, in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday. A woman and three men described by fellow passengers as being of Middle Eastern descent were escorted off a plane headed to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after a witness reported suspicious activity to the crew, the Baltimore Sun reported, citing police. In the end, police determined that one of the passengers had simply been watching a news report on a smartphone, according to the newspaper.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the individuals were racially profiled.
"These passengers were inconvenienced and forced to endure humiliating treatment and invasive questioning for no apparent substantial reason other than because their perceived ethnicity caused alarm in a fellow passenger," a spokeswoman told the newspaper.
Precisely. When we lived abroad, the trailing daughters and I spoke in the local language when outside the house, lest the locals be concerned that we were talking about them. This is even more of a concern when one's co-religionists are actively trying to kill large numbers of the locals.
#1
"Islamophobe flyer outfoxes
Two meek Arab boys bearing boxes!"
He'll feel like a heel
But the peril was real
If they'd shared baklava from their sockses.
ISLAMABAD: Lal Masjid ...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been... 's firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... Maulana Abdul Aziz
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Pappy ||
11/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] A Kurdish military official says that a Shiite militia which locked in a deadly clash with the Peshmerga this week south of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... has thousands of new recruits, including nearly 2,000 Kurds.
The Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite militia has recruited and armed nearly 5,000 fighters, including around 1,800 Shiite Kurds, in recent months, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... He said they had been recruited in Khanaqeen, south of Tuz Khurmatu, where the festivities took place
"They have an entire brigade for the Kurdish recruits in Khanaqeen, fully armed and funded," he told Rudaw. "Even the commander of the brigade is a Shiite Kurd."
The town of Khurmatu, approximately 80 kilometers south of Kirkuk, has witnessed two weeks of tensions between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Shiite militia known as Hashd al-Shabi.
Some 21 people were killed or maimed when Peshmarga troops clashed with the Shiite militia in Khurmatu earlier this week.
A disputed city claimed by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, the Iraqi constitution says that Khurmatu's fate should be decided in a referendum, which has been indefinitely postponed since the deadline of 2007.
After an offensive south of Kirkuk city 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 (ISIS) earlier this year, Kurdish and Iraqi-backed Shiite forces entered Khurmatu, jointly patrolling the area.
Last week's festivities were the latest in a series of critical stand-offs between Shiites and Kurds, who both see the city and the wider area as their own.
Kurdish security forces told Rudaw they had detained 35 members of the Hashd, largely in retaliation to the Shiite militia arresting 48 local Kurds. Though most of the detainees on both sides are now free, still dozens remain in jails.
Khurmatu Mayor Shalal Abdu told Rudaw Wednesday he was hopeful of an agreement because there were ongoing negotiations between the two sides.
But Kurdish security forces are not as optimistic and say a lack of trust on both sides is to blame.
[Breitbart] Barack Obama and his administration do not care about Jews.
It doesn't matter whether the Jews are European or Israeli or American. Jews can be conveniently excised from the category "Westerner," Obama has found -- and he's been eagerly putting that newfound knowledge to use.
The latest victim of the Obama administration's egregious Jew-hatred is 18-year-old American citizen Ezra Schwartz. Schwartz, from Sharon, Massachusetts, was visiting Israel; while there, he was delivering care packages to Israeli troops when his car (pictured) got caught in a traffic jam. That's when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire with an automatic weapon before ramming another car with his own. Schwartz was killed.
The Obama State Department has yet to issue a statement specifically on Schwartz's death. Instead, they issued their general statement essentially condemning both sides. "We condemn these terrorist attacks against innocent civilians in the strongest possible terms," said State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez. "As we've made clear, we remain deeply concerned about the situation, and continue to urge all sides to take affirmative steps to restore calm and prevent actions that would further escalate tensions."
The Obama administration's unwillingness to mention Schwartz's citizenship follows hard on the heels of the Obama administration's complete silence on the terrorist murder of dual Israeli-American citizen Richard Lakin, a peace activist from Newton, Massachusetts. He was shot in the head, stabbed in the face, and then stabbed in the head by two Muslims aboard a bus. He died in late October.
[Ynet] Al Khalil radio station raided overnight and shuttered for six months after airing songs encouraging terror attacks against Israel; this is the second Hebron-area station to be shut down in current wave of violence.
[IsraelTimes] Facility will no longer be able to produce weapons-grade plutonium, as part of atomic agreement reached in July
The P5+1 world powers are set to help Iran redesign its Arak heavy-water reactor so that it can no longer produce weapons-grade plutonium.
The redesign is part of the nuclear deal signed with Tehran earlier this year by which Iran agreed to rein in its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The agreement for the redesign was signed separately this month by the foreign ministers of Iran, the US, the UK, La Belle France, Russia, China, Germany, and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, according to Rooters citing Iranian state media.
According to the document, China "will participate in the redesign and the construction of the modernized reactor," while the US "will provide technical support and review of the modernized reactor design," Rooters reported, whereas La Belle France, the UK and Germany will "participate in design review and Russia will provide consultative services."
"The primary design of the Arak reactor will take one year. Then the (P5+1) working group has three months to approve it," the front man for Iran's atomic energy agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, was quoted as telling state broadcaster IRIB.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last month that the work for the redesign could begin only once allegations on past military dimensions of the country's nuclear program had been settled. Iran denies that it sought to build nuclear weapons.
The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to announce its conclusions on the past military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program by December 15, according to Rooters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/22/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
The "redesign" should include filling it with cement
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2015 9:35 Comments ||
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#2
There are times I think that if Obama had his way, he would give the Iranians a few working samples of nuclear weapons. Or maybe he could just bomb Tel Aviv himself.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/22/2015 11:07 Comments ||
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#3
Who knows what's in those super-secret side deals Rambler. I'm fairly certain Obeano wouldn't have a problem with nuking Tel Aviv.
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of Revolutionary Guards fighters storm a replica of wrong Jerusalem site in war games in Qom
Thousands of paramilitary forces from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards on Friday held war games simulating the capture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israeli control, the Iranian media reported.
The reports said the forces stormed and liberated a replica of the mosque. They said that 120 brigades of Basij, the paramilitary unit of the Guards, occupied hypothetical enemy positions during Friday's exercise in the holy city of Qom in central Iran.
The mosque is situated on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the most holy place to Jews as the site of the Biblical temples, and the third-holiest to Muslims. The Paleostinians claim that Israel intends to change the decades-long status quo at the site, where non-Muslims can visit but not pray. Israel has repeatedly and vehemently denied the accusation, and accused Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... of incitement for making such comments.
The symbolic operations were backed up by Guards helicopters, drones and Tucano planes that bombed hypothetical enemy positions before ground troops captured the replica of the mosque set up at the top of a mountain.
In a common mistake, the Guards set up a replica of the gold-topped Dome of the Rock instead of the nearby mosque. Official photos showed one of the troops going to the top of the dome and waving an Iranian flag and a red-colored flag, a symbol of martyrdom.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guards' aerospace division, said his force deployed Shahed-129, or Witness-129, drones during the war games. The drone, unveiled in 2013, has a range of 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles), a 24-hour nonstop flight capability and can carry eight bombs or missiles.
Even so, the exercise appeared to be largely for show. Iranian commanders have not said how they would be able to deploy large numbers of forces against Israel, located 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away, or overcome the powerful and technologically advanced Israel Defense Forces.
Israel and Jordan agreed last month to install cameras on the Mount to monitor activities by Jewish and Muslim visitors to the holy site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, in a bid to calm tensions that have helped drive the recent escalation in Paleostinian attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The 37-acre (15-hectare) compound in Jerusalem's Old City is a frequent flash point and its fate is a core issue at the heart of the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict. It is the holiest site in Judaism, and was the home to the two biblical Jewish Temples. Muslims believe the site -- the third holiest in Islam -- is where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Iran, Israel's archenemy, frequently expresses solidarity with the Paleostinians and holds an annual "al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day" each year on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/22/2015 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
...It's at least technically possible for them to smuggle enough people and weapons in to make a run at the place - but then they'd be much like a dog who finally catches a car: what the hell will they do with it?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/22/2015 12:46 Comments ||
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#2
Well, they did have the red flag of martyrdom ...
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/22/2015 16:42 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Two Bangladesh opposition leaders have been executed for war crimes committed during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistain.
Only three of these contain poison that will kill you. How many will you eat ? 
[AlAhram] The number of new migrant arrivals in Sweden has dropped by a third since it reinstated border controls earlier this month, the country's migration agency said Saturday.
ISLAMABAD: 
[Breitbart] Barack Obama and his administration do not care about Jews.
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of Revolutionary Guards fighters storm a replica of wrong Jerusalem site in war games in Qom
