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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Pakistan Starts ’Last Phase’ of anti-Militants Offensive
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
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5 21:00 Frank G [1] 
1 10:12 Thing From Snowy Mountain [1] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 6: Politix
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Europe
The Return of the Nations
The decision by Austria and 9 Balkan countries to unilaterally draft their own border controls as the EU stands "paralyzed" by the refugee crisis triggered a variety of interesting reactions. Francois CrĂŠpeau, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants regrets that "Europe is creating a scary new ‘normal.'".

Borders are back. Belgium became the latest country to suspend the rules of the Schengen accord following restrictions imposed by Germany, France, Sweden and Norway. Hungary will hold a referendum on whether to impose migrant quotas and rejected criticism by the EU as emanating from the "ivory tower of Brussels".

How the world has changed. When president Obama assumed office in 2008, a borderless Europe -- even a world without nuclear weapons -- was seriously on the agenda. Now even Brussels sees the handwriting on the wall. "Europe's cherished free-travel zone will shut down unless Turkey acts to cut the number of migrants heading north through Greece by March 7, European Union officials said on Thursday."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2016 05:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Champ promised change, but I doubt the world is getting what they hoped for.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/26/2016 7:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Lets distinguish between "the world" and tranzi "elites".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2016 8:03 Comments || Top||

#3  The Left/Tranzi/Marxist illusion of history comes crashing down around them. Adapt or perish.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2016 8:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I vaguely recall a fair amount of commentary about 8 years ago that had some predictions along these lines, refrained 4 years ago, too.

Wonder what happened.

[/sarc]
Posted by: AlanC || 02/26/2016 10:09 Comments || Top||

#5  What happened? WE all let 'The One' down.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/26/2016 14:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Wonder what happened.

As Instapundit is fond of saying "something that can't go on indefinitely, won't."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2016 14:36 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
House chairman: CENTCOM intelligence files, emails deleted amid probe
[Independent Tribune.com] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Personnel at U.S. Central Command have deleted files and emails amid allegations that intelligence assessments were altered to exaggerate progress against Islamic State militants, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.

"We have been made aware that both files and emails have been deleted by personnel at CENTCOM and we expect that the Department of Defense will provide these and all other relevant documents to the committee," Rep. Devin Nunes said at a hearing on worldwide threats facing the United States. Central Command oversees U.S. military activities in the Middle East.

A whistleblower told the committee that material was deleted, according to a committee staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly disclose the information.

Nunes, R-Calif., also said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed the committee on a survey indicating that more than 40 percent of Central Command analysts believe there are problems with the integrity of the intelligence analyses and process.

With turmoil across the Mideast, Nunes wondered aloud if it was appropriate to wait months for the Defense Department's inspector general to complete an investigation into the allegations before efforts are made to rectify the alleged problems.

"To me, it seems like 40 percent of analysts who are concerned at CENTCOM -- that's just something that can't be ignored," Nunes said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Time to clean house.
Posted by: gorb || 02/26/2016 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  It worked for Hilly, why not ...

Oh, that's right; only Donk pols are above the low. Excuse me, above the law.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/26/2016 7:54 Comments || Top||

#3  For the Left there is no law, only power. Watch how quickly they switch back to reciting 'law' as they take their last ride to the Place de la Concorde.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2016 8:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Are the culprits civilian or military? If civilians, career or political appointments?
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/26/2016 8:44 Comments || Top||

#5  politicized military?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/26/2016 10:50 Comments || Top||

#6  ...real bad move. History is replete with warnings that those guys usually end up asking the question - why should you be giving the orders? Giving by that time the general population isn't going to rise up to defend the rich and powerful, the results are pretty much 'uniform'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2016 12:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Are the culprits civilian or military? If civilians, career or political appointments?

Likely a smorgasbord. Uniformed military below the ranks of 05, DA Civilians below the ranks of GS-14, and contractor slime personnel [Mil Retirees] from various primes and subs.

Watayabet someone saved some products and traffic back in 5 drawer somewheres in the SCIF ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2016 13:21 Comments || Top||

#8  CYAWP.

Dave: I have here evidence in the form of notes, letters, and written memoranda, proving that Bob Alexander was involved in each of these illegal acts, and in most cases planned them as well.
- Dave.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2016 13:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Watayabet someone saved some products and traffic back in 5 drawer somewheres in the SCIF ?

If anybody is stupid enough to take you up on that bet I would like a piece of your action. :-)
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/26/2016 15:30 Comments || Top||

#10  P2k, which is why I find it unbelievable that anyone would order this. There are too many God fearing people with tickets for such a scam to hold up.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/26/2016 15:34 Comments || Top||

#11  Interviews are funny:

I saw these two guys...
Well, were they by themselves?
No, there was a crowd. They were in a group.
So you saw this group. Were they carrying weapons?
It was dark. They had some stuff.
Were you by yourself?
No I was with my buddy.
Did he see the group?
Yeah. He went over to get a light.
So after dark your team identified and engaged with an armed group and lit them up?
Uh, yeah.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/26/2016 16:35 Comments || Top||

#12  The dynamic is familiar to many in the community - sea change of political bosses and direction of administration - what they want to know slowly evolves as what is so doesn't fit what they want to be so - more and more they like what some interpretations of the data seems to say - those mid-level careerists (and usually fellow travelers - at least in part) who see that interpretation being rewarded with assignments and promotions begin to tailor their collection requirements and assessments to more easily fit the narrative - and those who disagree feel the slow freeze-out and dead end assignments, and most bail. So soon, there is little institutional memory of the "other truth", but a few hold-outs keep records....voila, here we are. The villains are the political appointees, but the goats will be the careerists who bent to the wind. Rinse and repeat, all the while, the truth and policy that would work sputters or stalls....
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/26/2016 19:00 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran and Hezbollah, hijackers of planes
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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...
is confronting several schemes plotted by Iran. A few days ago, the Manila Times reported that it saw confidential documents confirming that a team of 10 people - including six Yemenis - have left Iran in separate flights via The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
and arrived in several countries in South East Asia in an attempt to execute their plan to blow up and hijack Saudi airplanes.

Kuwait
Iran and its affiliates, primarily the terrorist group Hezbollah, have a history of targeting passenger planes. On April 29, 1986, Kuwait said it had thwarted an attempt by a group of 12 people to hijack a Kuwaiti Airways plane and take it to an unknown location in East Asia.

Iran and its affiliates, primarily the terrorist group Hezbollah, have a history of targeting passenger planes.

Turki Al-Dakhil
The investigation accused Imad Mughniyeh, then-Hezbollah’s leader of security apparatuses. In 1988, he hijacked the Kuwaiti Al-Jaberiya jet and forced it to alter its route toward Mashhad in Iran and then to Larnaca in Cyprus. Kuwaiti passengers Abdullah Khalidi and Khaled Ayoub were rubbed out by Mughniyeh and dumped off the plane.

Back then, Mughniyeh - upon direct orders from Hezbollah leaders - demanded the release of 17 prisoners held by Kuwait for their role in the 1983 bombings that in one day targeted the country’s major power plant, international airport, the American and French embassies, a petrochemical plant and a residential compound. Iran, Hezbollah and hijacked planes are a never-ending story of criminality that knows no limits or mercy
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  So, Turki, what's Mughniyeh up to these days? Have you left out something we need to know?
Posted by: Grunter || 02/26/2016 3:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Was there someone else who used to hijack planes with a Saudi cheering section?
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2016 11:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe there's some guy out in Central Asia somewhere, spending the morning writing stuff for AlArabiya, and the afternoon doing stuff for Al Manar... He writes it all in English, and feeds it through Google Translate three times, to Russian->Farsi->Arabian... maybe his name is Peggy, like the commercial.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/26/2016 12:28 Comments || Top||

#4  The Soddys know a lot about hijacking planes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/26/2016 14:43 Comments || Top||

#5  *cough* Paleos *cough*
Posted by: Frank G || 02/26/2016 21:00 Comments || Top||


Saudi Plots to Burn Lebanon...Who Defeats Israel Can Crush Royal Tyranny
Another incoherent diatribe probably translated from Arabic, where it didn't make any more sense than it does here. Included because articles by Mohammed Salami are to be treasured.
[ALMANAR.LB] by Mohammed Salami
So has victorious Leb to apologize to Al Saud dynasty which has been defeated in all its regional battles.

The horrible political irony lies in the fact that after Saudi has announced the halt of the military aids program to the Lebanese army and security forces, Leb is supposed to send a governmental delegation to pat the Saudi king's head in order to satisfy his tyrannical lust.

The Saudi ambassador to Beirut has announced that Leb has to reconsider its stances in the recent Arab and Islamic summits that did not meet KSA's desire to condemn Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

It is worth to mention that the Lebanese Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil delivered at the summits, the stances which protect the national unity and preserve the country's regional role. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
the Saudis wanted Leb to be a mere servant to their colonial dreams in the region.

In this context, a number of Lebanese political factions mobilized their forces to visit the Saudi embassy in Leb in order to express their blind loyalty to the terrorist Saudi dynasty which formed, funded and sponsored the bad boy groups that carried out the suicide kabooms in several area and targeted the Lebanese army.

Saudi responded by banning its citizens from visiting Leb as its travel alert move was followed by several gulf countries, what pushed the observers to expect milestone developments in this concern.

The Saudi stance took the Arab consensus as a pretext to demand the Lebanese support to their stances despite the fact that the Arabs have not taken any decision unanimously, even over the lost Paleostine.

The Saudis started blackmailing Leb by halting the financial aids to the Lebanese military institutions and threatening of the Lebanese who work in KSA.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  My reaction to the title: Hey, where's the Al Manar label? There's a comment in yellow... Oh, there it is!

If it's al manar, it's probably been translated by google translate from farsi through arabic to english.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/26/2016 10:12 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
41[untagged]
15Islamic State
4Taliban
2Govt of Pakistan
2Govt of Saudi Arabia
2Hezbollah
2Govt of Iran
1Hizb-i-Islami-Hekmatyar
1Ansarullah Bangla Team
1Jaish-e-Mohammad
1PFLP
1Arab Spring
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Boko Haram
1Commies
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2016-02-26
  Pakistan Starts ’Last Phase’ of anti-Militants Offensive
Thu 2016-02-25
  ISIS Fighters Claim Pakistan Funded Them
Wed 2016-02-24
  Iraqi koppers round up 35 in Babylon
Tue 2016-02-23
  US drone strike leaves 3 militants dead along Durand Line
Mon 2016-02-22
  Three Terrorist Attacks Target Sayyeda Zeinab Area in Rural Damascus, Kill 50
Sun 2016-02-21
  46 dead in Homs bomb attack
Sat 2016-02-20
  Saudi halts $3 bn in aid to Lebanon army
Fri 2016-02-19
  Foreigners among 24 terrorists killed in Badakhshan
Thu 2016-02-18
  Freed Gitmo detainee, ex-bin Laden aide returns to former career
Wed 2016-02-17
  44 Daesh militants killed in Nangarhar's Achin District
Tue 2016-02-16
  British Sniper Decapitates ISIS Executioner
Mon 2016-02-15
  Taliban confirm losing 13 fighters in Paktika drone strikes
Sun 2016-02-14
  Boko Haram kills at least 30 people in northeastern Nigeria
Sat 2016-02-13
  Turkish artillery hammers airfield near Aleppo
Fri 2016-02-12
  Syrian rebels launch offensive on pro Syrian troops in Latakia


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