[Tolo News] The Council of Ministers (CoM) has ordered government organizations to identify and question military and non-military officials who attended the Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... protest last month.
A leaked letter of the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC) reveals that the ministry -- based on the CoM order -- has directed the human resources department to identify officials who attended the demonstration, where thousands of countrymen protested over the beheading of seven Zabul hostages.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the MoIC front man Haroon Hakimi said no such letter had been issued by the ministry.
"No letter has been issued by the ministry in this regard," he said.
The Chief Executive front man Mujiburrahman Rahimi meanwhile said the decision has been taken based on complaints by a number of government organizations.
He said: "An investigation was ordered in this regard. The government officials who take salaries, their job is to do their duty during official hours and serve the people. In future when there is a protest, they [government officials] should be present at their job and not leave their offices."
Civil society activists meanwhile criticized the decision by the CoM.
"Any step which is taken in this regard is illegal. If every citizen faces such a situation and then he or she is questioned for what they did is against the law," said Mujib Khalwatgar, head of Nai -- an independent organization which supports open media in Afghanistan.
"The biggest guarantee is the 36th Article of the Constitution, based on which no one has the right to interrogate or punish someone for participating in a protest. Making the list of such people is against the law and even it is treachery," he added.
Following the brutal beheading of seven Zabul residents by alleged Daesh [Islamic State] members, tens of thousands of people from around the country stood together and erupted into the streets and to social media platforms in protest over the killings last month. One mass protest march was in Kabul where an estimated 20,000 people took part. Such a public demonstration has not been recorded in over 40 years in Afghanistan.
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Haji Zahir Qadir, first deputy of the Lower House of Parliament or Wolesi Jirga who has been accusing the National Security Council (NSC) for supporting 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.... or Daesh [Islamic State] says government could collapse if he presents documents do support his claim.
He had a CD in his hand during Wednesday's session and said that he has conditions to unveil the proof because this is an "international issue".
"Haji Zahir Qadir is concerned, incase evidences are presented, government would collapse and I don't want that," he said.
Qadir added that he would show the evidences to certain people at a certain time because he does not want division of Afghan nation. "I want one nation," he said.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... the National Security Council has rejected Qadir's claim calling it a "conspiracy".
Ministries of defense and interior have also rebuffed the accusations over the government.
After Qadir first brought up the issue, the Minister of Interior Noor-ul-haq Olomi and Afghanistan's Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Qadam Shah Shahim called the comments as "irresponsible".
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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Will there be a big attack from Ansar Bayt al Maqdis shortly thereafter, as usual? It will be harder this time, now that the tunnels are flooded.
[AlAhram] The border will remain open for 48 hours starting Thursday, an Egyptian official at the border told state media
Egyptian authorities will open the Rafah border crossing with Gazoo for two days to allow for the passage of stranded individuals and facilitate humanitarian aid, an Egyptian official at the border told MENA.
The crossing will be opened for Thursday and Friday.
It is not yet clear whether the crossing will be opened on one side or will allow for the passage of traffic in both directions.
The last time the border was opened was in mid October, when authorities partially opened the crossing to allow Paleostinian Muslim pilgrims to return to their homes from 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... Egyptian authorities have, for the most part, kept the Rafah crossing closed since October 2014 following attacks by Islamist holy warriors in North Sinai, which left over 30 security personnel dead.
Egypt has on occasion opened the crossing for three-day periods, on average, allowing those in need of medical care to travel to Egypt and permitting other Paleostinians to travel in either direction.
Cairo has accused the Islamist movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, the de facto ruler of the Israeli-besieged Gazoo Strip, of aiding krazed killer groups in North Sinai. Hamas has repeatedly denied the accusations.
[ARABNEWS] Soldiers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at the head of a Gulf Arab coalition fighting Iran-allied 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 ... forces in Yemen, are preparing for a long, tough ground war from their base in the southern port of Aden.
As thousands of coalition soldiers fight daily battles with the Houthis on the front lines, their comrades in Aden are training Yemeni troops and trying to rebuild a functioning state loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Infighting within the Hadi camp, the martial prowess of the Houthis and a growing Islamist menace have given the UAE armed forces, which have deployed in international operations from Kosovo to Afghanistan, their biggest challenge yet.
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... assembled the coalition in March to carry out air strikes against the Houthis, whose rapid advance through the country had forced Hadi into exile in Riyadh and sparked fears of Iranian influence on the Arabian Peninsula.
Since then, the coalition has ramped up its deployment of ground forces and the UAE, which has contributed the largest and most experienced contingent of ground troops, has taken an increasingly prominent role.
Brig. Nasser Mushabab Al Otaibi, the Emirati officer leading the combined land force, said around 4,000 troops from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Sudan were now in Yemen, in the first major Gulf Arab-led intervention. He declined to say how many were from the UAE.
As well as fighting on the front lines, coalition soldiers are training around 7,000 Yemeni troops, and plan to begin building a police force in Aden to replace the ragtag local militias who currently man the checkpoints.
"They have their own army, they are trying to build police, and they have a government in Aden... it's a country now," Otaibi said in an interview at the UAE's military headquarters in the once-thriving port city.
Nonetheless, progress on the ground has been slow since the coalition took Aden in July. The Houthis and their allies still control most populated areas including the capital Sanaa, and are putting up a tough fight in the important city of Taez, 180km (110 miles) north-west of Aden.
"They are very good snipers. They've been using guns since they were this big," said one soldier of the Houthis, holding his hand out at waist height.
Otaibi said it would take another month or two for the coalition to capture Taez. After that, with a United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... -backed grinding of the peace processor barely out of the starting blocks, more battles will surely lie ahead.
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
A deliberately engineered famine takes a while to work.
[OMANTRIBUNE] Efforts to launch peace talks to end an eight-month-old war 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... are being thwarted in part by President Abd Rabuh Mansour Hadi, who fears a negotiated settlement would drive him from power, diplomats who follow Yemen said.
Hadi, driven out of the capital Sanaa earlier this year by 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 ... fighters that Arab neighbours say are backed by Iran, has returned to lead a government from the southern port of Aden, recaptured in July by troops from a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
Like his opponents, Hadi says he is committed to UN-led talks to end the war in one of the Arab world's poorest countries. But diplomats following the grinding of the peace processor say he is increasingly an obstacle, raising pressure on his Saudi sponsors to withdraw their support or help shunt him aside.
"Hadi has been trying to block any kind of talks because he knows that any settlement will be the end of this political career," said one diplomat who follows Yemen, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... "Hadi has never been popular and it's not in his interest that the war stops before complete victory. Diplomats know that Hadi is not a serious candidate, and a settlement means he's out."
A second diplomat said there was now broad agreement that talks were the way forward because the war had reached a stalemate on the ground. But "a few dissenters" including in Hadi's camp were nonetheless holding out for a military victory.
"And since that is seen as elusive, they are seen to back the conflict because a peaceful solution has nothing to offer for them."
Hadi strongly denies he is being obstructive.
"In fact, it is the opposite. The president has announced the list of participating delegates, and they are supported by an advisory team and they are ready for dialogue at any time the UN announces," said Mukhtar Al Rahbi, an official in Hadi's office.
Since an inconclusive round of talks in Geneva in June, UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has repeatedly sought to smooth the way to talks in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... . Britannia's UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said on Monday talks could begin in early December.
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[Dhaka Tribune] War criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... 's lawyers have urged the Supreme Court to commute his death sentence to life term imprisonment "if he is found guilty" of crimes against humanity.
Prosecution thinks that kind of a submission is equal to confessing guilt, although defence claimed that it was not.
Nizami's counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain made the appeal to the Appellate Division yesterday, after the apex court concluded hearing the arguments of defence on the appeal filed by the 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... chief challenging the death penalty handed down to him by the war crimes tribunal.
During submission, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said his client had been shown involved with some incidents in Pabna, but there had been no eyewitnesses.
Moreover, Nizami had been shown as the chief of al-Badr because he was then the chief of Chhatra Sangha, now known by the name Chhatra Shibir. But the said crimes took place when Nizami was no longer with al-Badr.
The counsel also prayed to the apex court to acquit the death row convict of all the charges saying he was not directly involved in any of the crimes.
Nizami was a student in 1971 and was therefore not capable of showing Pakistain army the way to go to places where the offences took place, Mahbub argued.
"There is no credibility of those depositions and charges," he said.
Even then, if the court, believing those witness accounts, found 72-year-old Nizami guilty, then it should commute his death sentence to life considering his age and good behaviour, the defence counsel said.
Mahbub and SM Shahjahan, assisted by Shishir Manir, comprised defence while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the state.
After the hearing session, Mahbubey told news hounds: "From their [defence's] submission, it appears that for the first time, the lawyers of a convicted Jamaat leader have confessed to [their client's] crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War and appealed for only commuting the death sentence.
"It is a historical fact that people were killed and the Jamaat leader facilitated those. Motiur Rahman Nizami supported that out of conviction," the chief state lawyer said.
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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Satellite photographs from October and early November indicate North Korea is digging a new tunnel for nuclear testing, a US research institute said on Wednesday.
A report on 38 North, a North Korea monitoring website run by Johns Hopkins University’s school of advanced international studies in Washington, said the images showed significant construction since April at Punggye-ri, on North Korea’s east coast, where three previous nuclear tests were conducted. However, there are no signs any testing is imminent, it said.
The commercial images showed excavation of a new tunnel in addition to the three others where North Korea has either conducted nuclear tests or excavated tunnels in the past, the report said.
The report said: “While there are no indications that a nuclear test is imminent, the new tunnel adds to North Korea’s ability to conduct additional detonations at Punggye-ri over the coming years if it chooses to do so.”
On 30 October, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean government source as saying there was active movement of workers and vehicles working on a new tunnel at the site. The source said this indicated an intention to conduct a nuclear test “at some point”, though this did not appear to be imminent.
Pyongyang has vowed to continue to conduct nuclear tests and to launch what it says is a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, something South Korea and its main ally, the US, say would be a disguised long-range missile test.
American and South Korean defence chiefs have expressed “grave concern” over North Korea test plans and urged it to cease all activities related to its nuclear programme immediately.
There, that should do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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North Korean leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un has bought a new armored Mercedes-Benz. A source on Wednesday said the North bought the car from Germany in late October and had it shipped to Pyongyang.
The source said the German carmaker spent several months customizing the car to specifications provided by North Korean security officials.
Nice to see our friends adhering to the sanctions...
UN Security Council resolutions specifically ban the sale of premium cars, jewels, yachts and other high-end goods to North Korea.
The source said North Korea bought the car through a trading company set up in China to evade the ban. It was brought into North Korea in late October disguised as a generally traded product and passed through a customs checkpoint in Dandong.
Boy howdy, no one ever thought the Norks would try to evade the sanctions, did they...
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un probably watched the test-launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine that went awry last Saturday, the National Intelligence Service here speculated Monday.
An NIS officer told members of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, "It's highly likely that Kim was at the scene, given a North Korean broadcasting report that he visited Wonsan last Friday."
The test was conducted in waters in the East Sea near Wonsan. During a similar test in May, a missile soared about 150 m into the sky before dropping into the sea.
Meanwhile, the officer said Jo Yong-won, a Workers Party official, has risen up in the hierarchy recently. Jo (58) accompanied Suet Face Kim Jong-un on his "on-the-spot guidance trips" 37 times this year – second only to Army politburo chief Hwang Pyong-so, who accompanied Kim 74 times.
But Jo only appeared in the North Korean media for the first time in December last year.
"In North Korea, things like how often anyone accompanies Kim mean a great deal, regardless of their official rank," a government official here said. "Little is known about Jo, but Kim is apparently dissatisfied with older brass and seems to have handpicked the relatively young Jo and promoted him."
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
That they got it to clear the launch tube once is something.
[WASHINGTONPOST] The Chinese government recently tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... a handful of hackers it says were connected to the breach of Office of Personnel Management's database earlier this year, a mammoth break-in that exposed the records of more than 22 million current and former federal employees.
The arrests took place shortly before a state visit in late September by President Xi Jinping, and U.S. officials say they appear to have been carried out in an effort to lessen tensions with Washington.
The identities of the suspects -- and whether they have any connection to the Chinese government -- remain unclear.
Hacks of government and corporate data emanating from China have been a constant source of tension between the United States and China. This week, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson are meeting with senior Chinese officials to try to establish guidelines for working together on law enforcement requests to investigate cyberattacks. The OPM hack -- which came in two waves -- was also on the agenda.
If the individuals detained were indeed the hackers, the arrests would mark the first measure of accountability for what has been characterized as one of the most devastating breaches of U.S. government data in history.
But officials said it has been difficult so far to independently confirm whether the people rounded up were actually connected to the OPM breach.
"We don't know that if the arrests the Chinese purported to have made are the guilty parties," said one U.S. official, who like others interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. "There is a history [in China] of people being arrested for things they didn't do or other 'crimes against the state.' "
Since the intrusions were first disclosed in June, U.S. government officials said they have suspected the Chinese government's involvement, in particular the civilian Ministry of State Security.
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Remember Jim, if you're captured, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
[OBSERVERS.FRANCE24] The photo of a man covered in blood, sitting on a tram in Kassel, Germany, has been circulated widely on social media over the past few days. The description accompanying the photo describes the man as a Muslim who was recently attacked by a group of neo-Nazis. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... this is false.
The photo was indeed taken in Kassel, but it actually dates back to February. It was published in the local newspaper HNA. The article explained that, contrary to rumours that were already circulating at the time, the bloodied man was not attacked by neo-Nazis. He had in fact gotten in to a fight with a man who, like him, is Algerian.
Following the Gay Paree terrorist attacks -- and a rise in Islamophobic incidents -- this photo and the fake rumour reappeared on social networks, notably on Facebook and Twitter. This is yet another example of why readers should be careful with images they see circulating online, especially those linked to the terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Gee, we never have this kind of fake attack for propaganda purposes over here for anything do we?
#2
Please let's stay calm and have no backlash against skin-heads.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
12/03/2015 20:49 Comments ||
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#3
Mitternacht. Tube station. Hassle.
Algerians having a rassle.
Sez Muslim bell-ringer
To passing right-winger,
"You're carrying coals to Neu Kassel!"
Scimitary rattling by the Grand Turk...
[ARABNEWS] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday no one has the right to "slander" The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... by accusing it of buying oil from Daesh [Islamic State], and that he would stand down if such allegations were proven to be true.
Erdogan, who was speaking at a university in the 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... i capital, also said he did not want relations with Moscow to worsen further.
Russia accused Erdogan and his family of involvement in illegal oil trading with Daesh [Islamic State] terrorists, ratcheting up the heat in a dispute over Ankara's downing of one of Moscow's warplanes.
The inflammatory allegations -- the latest in a ferocious war of words -- came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed to meet his Turkish counterpart for the first high-level face-to-face talks since the incident last week.
The Defense Ministry accusations against Erdogan are the first implicating the Turkish strongman directly, as the Kremlin refuses to let the pressure drop after slapping economic sanctions on Ankara.
"The main consumer of this oil stolen from its legitimate owners Syria and Iraq is Turkey," Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told journalists at a packed briefing.
"According to available information, the highest level of the politicianship of the country, president Erdogan and his family, are involved in this criminal business."
Antonov pointed the finger at the recent appointment of Erdogan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak as energy minister and alleged that the president's son runs one of the country's main energy companies.
"What a fantastic family business," he said, claiming that "terrorists" in Syria made some $2 billion each year out of the illegal oil trade.
The ministry officials displayed satellite images which they said showed columns of tanker trucks loading with oil at installations controlled by Daesh [Islamic State] in Syria and Iraq, and then crossing the border into Turkey.
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/03/2015 11:44 Comments ||
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#3
I looked at a map of Iraq to see where those oil tanker trucks could possibly be going. Northern Iraq borders Iran, Soddy Arabia, Jordan and...Turkey. Certainly, then, Turkey must be among the suspects. Seems like it would be easy enough with all the satellites and drones at Baraq's and Vlad's disposal to follow some of these trucks and find out for sure. Vlad seems to have satisfied himself that those trucks are indeed going to Turkey. What does Baraq say? Inquiring minds want to know.
#8
I'm pretty sure the Russians are right. Nowhere else for the oil to go except Turkey, and $ amounts aren't enough to determine Turkish state policy. Therefore, those profiting from it are individuals with the right political connections.
[FRANCE24] Russia has proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family are benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from territory held 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.... (IS) group in Syria and Iraq, the country's defence ministry said Wednesday.
The claim was the latest volley fired in a war of words between Moscow and Ankara that erupted last week when a Turkish air force jet shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border, the most serious incident between Russia and a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... state in half a century.
At a briefing in Moscow, defence ministry officials displayed satellite images which they said showed columns of tanker trucks loading oil at installations controlled by the IS group in Syria and Iraq, and then crossing the border into neighbouring The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... The officials did not specify what direct evidence they had of the involvement of Erdogan and his family, an allegation that the Turkish president has vehemently denied.
"Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq. According to information we've received, the senior politicianship of the country -- President Erdogan and his family -- are involved in this criminal business," said Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov.
"Maybe I'm being too blunt, but one can only entrust control over this thieving business to one's closest associates."
Antonov pointed the finger at the recent appointment of Erdogan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak as energy minister and alleged that the president's son runs one of the country's main energy companies.
"In the West, no one has asked questions about the fact that the Turkish president's son heads one of the biggest energy companies, or that his son-in-law has been appointed energy minister. What a marvellous family business!"
"The cynicism of the Turkish leadership knows no limits. Look what they're doing. They went into someone else's country, they are robbing it without compunction," Antonov said.
Erdogan: 'I'll step down if claims are proven'
Erdogan responded by saying no one had the right to "slander" Turkey by accusing it of buying oil from the IS group and vowed to stand down as president if such allegations were proven to be true.
"I won't stay in the seat of president for even one minute if Russia proved its claims. But those who spread this slander shouldn't retain their seats either," Erdogan said in comments broadcast by Turkish television on a visit to 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... "Turkey has not lost its moral values so as to buy oil from a terrorist organization," he added.
On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... said Turkey had made progress in sealing its border with Syria, but the IS group was still exploiting gaps to bring in imported muscle and sell oil.
And courtesy of Skidmark, BBC supplies the 8"x10" coloured glossies with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what the Russian satellite images showed. And a map. See here.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Can there be any doubt that Erdogan, a Muslim Brother, and Obama, a Muslim Brother sympathizer are in cahoots? Obama denies attacks on the IS-held oil infrastructure and trucks. Thus captive oil flows to market through resource-poor Turkey and the Erdogan family benefits. What a deal!
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldana struggled to explain why the deportations of criminal aliens from the U.S. have declined to nearly half the level removed in 2011.
And she had no explanation whatsoever about why she's honoring the "sanctuary cities" nonsense...
“I would like my hands on every criminal alien who’s in the country illegally and to be able to remove them. This is what I have done as a prosecutor and this is what I did as a United States attorney. Neither I nor the women and men who work for ICE would let go of a criminal alien if they had a basis for it a final order of removal and the ability to remove them,” Saldana testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Unless said criminal alien is in a favored group, in which case he's out of jug on a recognizance bond...
The ICE Director was responding to questioning from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), who pressed the agency head on the “dramatic reduction” in criminal removals despite the Obama administration’s claim that their enforcement priorities
“According to the information we’ve obtained in 2011 your agency, ICE, removed 150,000 criminal aliens from the interior,” Sessions said. “In Fiscal Year ’12 it dropped to 135,000, in Fiscal Year ’13 it dropped to 110,000, in Fiscal Year ’14 to 86,000. And in Fiscal Year ’15, this year, we believe the number is only around 63,000.”
Saldana argued that 59 percent of the removals were criminals that were part of the administration’s priorities.
“Those three priorities I mentioned in my opening statement, which are mostly criminals. And, again, sir, once again 59 percent of all of those that were removed were criminal aliens. That is a record-breaking percentage of the people that we removed,” Saldana said.
Sessions responded: “Forgive me if that doesn’t make me feel good because the numbers are dropping dramatically. So, you’re dropping down on other removals and you’re defining upward what you consider to be criminal and you’re saying it makes up a larger percentage of the very much smaller pie. Isn’t that correct?”
“Yes sir,” Saldana responded, but noted that the removals are due to more “effective enforcement” and fewer people attempting to cross the border.
Remember, these are the people who would be participating in the screening of the Syrian war refugees.
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[OMANTRIBUNE] Active online supp-orters of the Syria-based Baghdadi militia movement now include about 300 people identifiable as Americans, said a study by academic experts published on Tuesday.
George Washington University's Programme on Extremism said in the study that the number of other Americans who passively "consume" Baghdadi militia propaganda runs to "several thousand", though they are not necessarily active supporters of the group.
Twitter is the "platform of choice" most widely used by the active core of American supporters of Baghdadi militia, it said.
American militia activists and sympathisers also use other social media, ranging from open forums such as Facebook, Google+ and Tumblr to more secretive messaging apps including Kik, Telegram, surespot and the dark web, the study said.
American online supporters are sufficiently active and noisy to have established themselves as "nodes," or leading voices promoting Baghdadi militia themes, while others serve as "amplifiers," who repost materials from more prominent activists.
The study said US Baghdadi militia activists have helped craft a "unique innovation" in murderous Moslem messaging. This involves creation of "shout out" accounts, which enable activists to "introduce new pro-militia accounts to the community and promote newly created accounts of previously suspended users, allowing them to quickly regain their pre-suspension status."
The study noted that, although American social media accounts linked to militia are regularly suspended, among the activists such suspensions have become a "badge of honour and a means by which an aspirant can bolster his or her legitimacy."
Operators of suspended accounts usually set up and start using a newly created account, using only a variation of the previous user name, "within hours" of most suspensions, it said.
Even though Baghdadi militia's forerunners first emerged after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Baghdadi militia's "message did not exist" before the organization established itself in Syria and became involved in a civil war against the government of President Bashar Al Assad, said Lorenzo Vidino, one of the study's principal authors.
Vidino cited FBI statistics indicating that US authorities are currently pursuing 900 terrorism-related investigations in all 50 US states. His study noted that 71 individuals have been charged by US authorities with militia-related offences since March 2014, with 51 of those arrests occurring in 2015.
Separately, Nicholas Michael Teausant, a Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,n, has pleaded guilty to planning to join Baghdadi militia in Syria, prosecutors said, and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Teausant, 22, from the town of Acampo, on Tuesday pleaded guilty in a federal court in Sacramento to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the US Attorney's Office said.
Teausant is one of a number of people locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in the United States in the last two years for planning to join Baghdadi militia.
"This case, like others in communities across the United States and around the world, is an example of how a young person from any place and any background might make the terrible decision to try and become part of a terrorist organization," US Attorney Benjamin Wagner said.
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12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: Anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday sentenced two criminals to 14 years imprisonment each after they were convicted in case regarding possession of explosives.
Two culprits, Shah Hussain and Aziz Jamal have been given prison time of 14 years each. Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested the persons in April this year. The culprits were accused of possessing explosives for terror attacks. The counter-terrorism personnel had also seized weapons and ammunition from their possession.
The department had been pursuing the case under Terrorism Act 1997. The culprits have been shifted to Peshawar central jail after their sentencing.
Can't even manage a temporary truce while working toward the same existential goal? This is why y'all end up ruled by vicious tyrants.
[Rudaw] Iraqi Shiite groups and militias have said they will fight against a proposed deployment of US Special Forces troops to Iraq to fight ISIS.
Iraqi Shiite hard boyz of Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Badr Organization and Asaib Ahl al-Haq on Tuesday pledged to fight US troops.
"We will fight any American force deployed in Iraq," said Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesperson for Kataib Hezbollah, as quoted by Rooters. He added that the group's primary target will become US troops if they are deployed in Iraq, warning that Kataib Hezbollah has fought Americans in the past and will fight them again.
According to Rooters, the Iran-backed Badr Organization and Asaib Ahl al-Haq have also claimed similar statements against the United States, which has been playing a big role in the battle against ISIS since 2014, when it began providing advisors and trainers to Iraqi forces as well as direct air support.
Up to 3,500 US troops are currently advising and assisting Iraqi forces, including Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
The United States announced Tuesday it would send an "expeditionary" elite group to combat ISIS. US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the force would be larger than the 50 American special operations troops already being deployed in neighboring Syria.
[Rudaw] A senior Peshmerga official told Rudaw on Wednesday that US heavy weapons for Iraq's Kurdish forces had arrived in Kuwait and would be delivered to the Kurds in a month.
"The USA decided to give heavy weapons to the Peshmerga," said Jabar Yawar, chief of staff to the Peshmerga ministry. "The weapons have arrived in Kuwait and in a matter of one month they will be transferred to the Kurdistan region," he said in a television interview.
Assuming the things are not transferred via Baghdad...
Yawar, who is leading a Peshmerga delegation to Italia, said the weapons included "heavy artillery, armored vehicles, Humvee and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected MRAPS."
Pretty pictures of such things at the link.
He also said that the Peshmerga delegation has requested various weapons from Italia.
"In today's meeting with the Italian defense minister, we offered a list of necessary weapons and ammunition to the Italian government," he said. "They showed willingness to provide our necessities."
[WASHINGTONPOST] On the front lines of the battle 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.... , suspicion of the United States runs deep. Iraqi fighters say they have all seen the videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the krazed killers, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion.
Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion -- one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis -- that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.
"It is not in doubt," said Mustafa Saadi, who says his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to Islamic State positions. He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push the holy warriors out of the oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq alongside the Iraqi army.
The Islamic State is "almost finished," he said. "They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2015 00:00 ||
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Give 'em hell, Hanna!
Hanna Bohman has been fighting ISIS in Syria on and off for most of 2015, and she hasn't been impressed.
She said that as fighters, the Islamic State militants have "mostly been a disappointment."
"Their numbers don't seem that big and they're eager to run away," she told INSIDER in an email. "I suspect most of the experienced fighters have been consolidated in Mosul and Raqqa, and that's where the big fights will be."
She said that ISIS has successfully made themselves seem bigger and scarier than they are in reality through social media.
Although the group recently claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks that killed hundreds in Paris, Beirut, Baghdad, and Ankara and over the Sinai Peninsula, its promise of statehood is quickly diminishing, The New York Times reports.
"They're not some giant, holy juggernaut of ultimate damnation for unbelievers," she said. "They're just a bunch of filthy, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging pigs who run away at the first sign of resistance. Really nothing more than a thorn in the side."
A former Canadian model who's also known as Tiger Sun, Bohman, 46, is one of dozens of Westerners who have joined up with Kurdish nationalist groups to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. She was personally inspired to fight after watching an ISIS propaganda video featuring a Canadian who had gone to fight with the jihadists, she told the Daily Mail.
After recovering from a near-fatal motorcycle accident last year, Bohman, who had no prior combat experience, left Vancouver for Iraq in March. She joined up with the YPJ, the female fighting battalion of the People's Protection Unit, a Kurdish nationalist fighting force.
Joining the YPJ was easy, she said, much easier than one would expect traveling from the West into the middle of war would be. Upon arriving in Iraq, she stayed in a safe house for a few days before taking a boat across the Tigris River into northeastern Syria.
She then received very brief training and was assigned to her first unit, though it didn't see much action. Her role consisted mostly of watching over territory, and the only real threat was being the target of a suicide truck, according to Bohman. But once she transferred to a more experienced unit, she began to see fighting almost instantly.
"That's where I was first shot at by a sniper while walking from the outhouse to our quarters," she said. "We were a mobile [unit], so we moved around quite a bit and were part of a large offensive south of Til Temir."
The most intense fighting she experienced was in the next unit she was a part of, albeit for a brief two days in June. Just one hour after joining the brigade, a German who was fighting with the group said they would be going to the front.
"It was a small group of six westerners and I was the only woman... but all of us, including the commander, were itching for a fight, so we went a bit rogue," she said. "We became lost trying to find the front and thought we had accidentally pushed into Daesh country when we started seeing dead people lying on the roads. The drivers were frantically calling for help on their phones and radios, and the tension was the highest I've ever felt as we had no idea where Daesh was."
The group made a "mad retreat" to get their bearings. The following morning, the six were ordered to take the city of Til Abyad, a northern Syrian city near the Turkish border that had been under ISIS's control. Bohman, who posts videos of her endeavors with the YPJ on YouTube, uploaded a video prior to the start of the mission.
She laughed at how absurd it seemed.
"Six of us against what was supposed to be more than 100 Daesh, but nonetheless, we jumped into a tank and off we went," she said.
As they closed in on the battle, her unit met up with 12 Kurds who were already in position near a bridge leading into the city.
The Kurds would have to take that bridge in order to take the city.
"We spent the rest of the day fighting for that bridge, which was also the last time a sniper would take a shot at me, the bullet passing so close over my head I felt it," she said. "We held the bridge over night while reinforcements arrived, and the next day they took the city, which by now had mostly been abandoned by Daesh."
She briefly returned to Canada after the battle, stricken by malnutrition after having lost almost 30 pounds since joining the YPJ. But almost as soon as she returned to Vancouver, she was itching to get back to the fight in Rojava, the name given to what is considered Western Kurdistan. She went back in early September and remains with the YPJ today.
But contrary to popular belief, life in Syria isn't all about fighting, she explained. About "95%" of her time is spent sleeping, eating, cleaning, socializing, or being on guard.
"It's not what people expect," she said. "We're not constantly locked in a life or death battle with bullets and mortars flying back and forth."
Another misconception is that the real fight is against ISIS, she said.
"The real enemy is who Daesh works for," she said, claiming that it's really "Turkey's genocidal [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan... who will eventually turn Turkey into a dictatorship while trying to kill off the Kurds."
Claims that Turkey supported the Islamic State go back more than a year, and it's well-known that the Turkish government views the rise of Kurdish nationalism as a bigger threat to its security than the rise of ISIS.
After the Turkish military shot down a Russian plane last week, Russian leaders claimed that they have proof that Erdogan's own family was involved in smuggling ISIS oil into Turkey. Erdogan said he would resign if that claim was proven true, and insists that his regime is working to diminish the threat of ISIS in the region. US officials said their NATO allies have been "great" in the fight against the Islamic State.
According to Bohman, Westerners who left their countries and bypassed their governments to fight ISIS are what has inspired her most since joining the YPJ.
"There aren't many of us, but we represent a genuine concern for humanity," she said. "We believe in doing the right thing, in stopping evil, and helping the helpless. We are the tip of a sword made up of people from all around the world who will no longer wait for their governments to fail again. We are [bringing] the change we want to see."
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.
[Dhaka Tribune] War criminal 
Satellite photographs from October and early November indicate North Korea is digging a new tunnel for nuclear testing, a US research institute said on Wednesday.
