[DAWN] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. played down on Tuesday recent failures to jumpstart peace talks with the Taliban, instead choosing to highlight recent successes against fighters of the hard boyIslamic 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 Afghanistan.
Taliban have made significant gains in recent months, briefly capturing the northern city of Kunduz and threatening to overrun multiple districts in the southwest.
The latest efforts to bring them to the negotiating table faltered when the hard boy group issued a statement refusing to participate.
Mr Ghani, facing rising domestic criticism and eager to ensure continued international aid, has publicly focused on a military campaign in eastern Afghanistan aimed at IS, often referred to as Daesh [Islamic State], which has struggled to replicate its successes in Iraq and Syria.
"Daesh [Islamic State] is on the run," he said at a joint news conference with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, responding to a direct question about the Taliban. "They are running for cover."
"No quarter would be given" to IS fighters, he added. A combination of air strikes by US warplanes and "massive" ground operations by Afghan forces had left IS reeling, he said.
Mr Stoltenberg reiterated that the coalition had no intention of sending combat troops back to fight in Afghanistan, more than a year after the NATO-coalition declared an end to its combat mission.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Mahmoud Saikal raised the issue of cross-border incursions by Pakistain during a debate by United Nations Security Council on Afghanistan.
"We welcome the growing voice of reason within Pakistain calling for a change in the right direction. In light of that, we want an immediate end to regular incursions along the Durand Line, which cannot and will not be tolerated by Afghanistan," Saikal said.
Saikal further added "In the last three months alone, we have documented at least 56 instances of violation to the illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan across the Durand Line, breaching article 2 (4) of the UN Charter and contrary to UN resolution 2131."
He said the continued border violations by Pakistain jeopardizes the relations between the nations which comes at a time when making peace with Pakistain is essential to making peace with the Taliban.
The cross-border violations by Pak military was at its peak before the formation of the government of national unity late in 2014, but the provocative moves reduced by a larger extent last year.
In the latest provocative move by Pak military, the Pak air force helicopters infiltrated inside the Afghan soil in eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... of Afghanistan with the local officials saying the helicopters dropped bombs on certain areas in this province.
The Pak military used to fire scores of artillery shells on daily basis to eastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces as well as other provinces located along the Durand Line.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt will spare no effort to find and punish those who tortured and killed an Italian student in Cairo, the country's president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said an interview published on Wednesday.
Giulio Regeni, 28, a Cambridge University researcher, was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo on Feb. 3. His body was bruised and broken.
"I confirm that we will spare no efforts and continue to work with the Italian authorities to arrest the perpetrators, so that they can be punished according to the law," he told Italia's La Repubblica newspaper.
He called the incident "terrifying and unacceptable" and vowed to intensify cooperation with Italian Sherlocks.
[Hurriyet Daily News] Al-Qaeda’s North African branch said its attack on a beach resort in Ivory Coast on March 13 that killed 18 people was Dire Revenge for a French offensive against Islamist holy warriors in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... and called for its forces to withdraw.
The raid in Grand Bassam claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was the first of its kind in Ivory Coast but the third in the region since November 2015.
It was also a setback for La Belle France, who lost four of its nationals when gunnies opened fire on people eating lunch at restaurants and sunning themselves on the sand.
"We repeat our call to all countries involved in the French invasion of Mali to withdraw," the group said in a statement.
It named the attackers but gave no further details of their identities.
La Belle France is a key player in security in West Africa with about 3,500 troops in the region. It has also joined a campaign 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is based in Iraq and Syria.
Gay Paree is to station a force of armed gendarmes in the capital of Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... to react swiftly in the event of another attack in the region and to provide training, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on March 15.
"The desire to position this [gendarmerie] team in Ouagadougou is to enable us to immediately dispense advice and coordinate other actions in the event of a terrorist crisis," Cazeneuve said.
He was speaking during a visit with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to Ivory Coast that aims to reassure the large French community and boost the investigation into the attack in Grand Bassam.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[TheGuardian] The EU is preparing to scale back the number of Syrian refugees offered resettlement in Europe, as part of a controversial pact being drawn up with Turkey. The bloc’s 28 leaders will hold a summit in Brussels on Thursday, before a meeting the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, on Friday, to hammer out the final details of a plan aimed at stemming the flow of refugees and migrants coming to Europe.
More than 1.1 million refugees and migrants came to Europe in 2015, including around 363,000 Syrians who lodged asylum applications, while 143,634 people have arrived in Greece from Turkey this year so far, according to figures from the UN high commissioner for the successful permanent establishment of perpetual refugees (UNHCR).
The EU has pledged to resettle Syrian refugees currently in Turkey, but figures that emerged on Wednesday suggested only 72,000 places would be available, with uncertainty about the bloc’s commitment beyond this number.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Germany has urged its citizens to leave Turkey due to the threat of new terrorist attacks in this country, said the message from German embassy in Turkey.
Earlier, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office urged the country’s citizens not to travel to Turkey. Moreover, the Federal Foreign Office recommended the country’s citizens, who are currently in Turkey, to avoid crowded places.
Turkish police have recently warned that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group plans to commit a series of terror attacks in the country’s large cities from March 20 to March 30.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is NOT true. There is no statement to leave Turkey nor a warning not to travel to Turkey.
The German Foreign Office warns of travels to the Turkish region bordering Syria and asks to exercise caution in the rest of the country.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/17/2016 19:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The French post the same advice as the Germans. Caution and avoid certain areas.
Urging Germans to leave Turkey would be quite a thing. I bet there are currently more than 100000 Germans vacationing in Turkey and Easter holidays start on Saturday.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/17/2016 21:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
And after the blast, Germany is certainly sensitized.
http://www.zeit.de/index
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Venice Commission, the legal advisory body of the Council of Europe, has recommended changes to the crime of "insulting the president," and "degrading Turkish nation, state and its organs and instutitons, pointing to increase in related cases and penalties tied to the first and the "vague wording" of the latter.
On Article 299, the code on insulting the president, the resolution said "Having regard to the excessive and growing use of this article, the commission considers that, in the Turkish context, the only solution to avoid further violations of the freedom of expression is to completely repeal this Article and to ensure that application of the general provision on insult is consistent with these criteria."
The commision also reccommanded change in Article 301 on degrading the state and the nation. "It is recommended that the provision be redrafted and further amended with the aim of making all the notions used in it clear and specific. Further, the application of this provision should be limited to statements inciting violence and hatred," read a March 15 report by the commission.
The resolution came upon a request from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to "analyze the conformity with European human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... standards of Articles 216, 301 and 314 of the Turkish Penal Code as well as their application in practice," it said.
"The commission underlines that the prosecution of individuals and convictions in particular by lower courts, which have a chilling effect on the freedom of expression, must cease," it said over the three codes.
"No progress has been made and [the code’s] use has recently increased substantially," it said on Article 299, presenting examples from European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... countries.
Insulting the head of state was decriminalized in Hungary in 1994 and the Czech Republic in 1998, the commission said.
"In Germany, although the Penal Code provides for the offence of defamation of the president, in 2000, the Federal Constitutional Court stated that even harsh political criticism, however unjust, does not constitute such an ‘offence 59,’ and the provision is rarely, if ever, used," it said.
In the Netherlands, it remains a crime to intentionally insult the king and certain members of the royal family, but the most recent conviction for the offence was in the 1960s it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
I am really glad I don't live in Europe. At the moment, anyway, I can insult Obama to my heart's content.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/17/2016 9:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Europeans can insult Obama to their hearts' content as well.
[Hurriyet Daily News] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... has reiterated his call to broaden the definition of "terrorists" to include supporters of "terrorism" while also expressing his eagerness to strike the country’s enemies even harder.
"If the state doesn’t strike its [iron] fist in a velvet glove on the heads of terrorists, they will continue hurting us each day. This issue has no relation to human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... , freedom of thought, freedom of press and democracy. Those who use these concepts along with ‘terror’ and ‘terrorist’ should know that they have been making our nation’s conscience bleed," Erdogan said.
In the aftermath of a March 13 suicide kaboom, which killed 37 people and maimed more than 120 people in the third major suicide kaboom to hit Ankara in the past five months, Erdogan said there was a need to form a "national coalition" against all threats aimed at The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Erdogan emphasized that the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which focuses on the Kurdish issue, was not part of his concept of the nation.
"I’m no longer seeing members of the party which acts as a side branch of the terrorist organization [the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party - PKK] as legitimate political actors, no offense," he said March 16, in an apparent reference to the HDP which he and the government frequently accuse of siding with the PKK.
"Here, I repeat once more, we should immediately redefine ‘terror’ and ‘terrorist.’ We should immediately amend the Penal Code according to this new definition. We should provide all kinds of legal and technical opportunities to our security forces, prosecutors and judges to enable them to effectively fight against terror and terrorists," he said.
"We have seen how the so-called intellectuals approached the incidents even in this one, haven’t we? You’ve seen it. You have seen how some rags made some kind of reports. There are headlines like ‘Damn your presidential system.’ We don’t have such a problem," Erdogan said.
Erdogan’s comments, in a speech addressing a group of village and neighborhood chiefs (muhtars) at the presidential palace, came after a bigwig from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) told Rooters earlier in the day that Turkey was working on widening the "terror crime" definition to include those who use the media to support or praise acts of violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
What's with the velvet glove? Sounds kinky. But wouldn't it get all soiled and torn?
"Unleash the bats from the belfry! Serve the pigs in the blankets!"
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... supports Syria's national unity and unilateral moves such as declaring a federation cannot be valid, a foreign ministry official told Rooters, amid expectations that Syrian Kurds will announce a federal system in northern Syria on Wednesday.
The Turkish official said the form of government and administrative structure of Syria will be decided by all sections of the Syrian people with a new constitution.
Idris Nassan, an official from Kobani, one of three autonomous areas set up by Kurdish groups two years ago, said earlier that Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria were expected to declare a federal system on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A British scholar in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... says he is being deported from Istanbul after being found with invitations to Kurdish New Year celebrations.
Chris Stephenson, a computer sciences lecturer at Bilgi University in Istanbul, says he was detained Tuesday at a courthouse where he had gone to support three scholars charged with making terrorism propaganda.
Stephenson told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that security guards found Nawroz invitations in his bag and then police detained him. Stephenson said moments before his departure Wednesday from Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport that there was "no offense, no trial, just an administrative decision to deport me after 25 years of residency in Turkey."
There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials. Britannia’s Foreign Office said it was providing assistance to a Brit who was tossed in the slammer Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... will miss a deadline imposed by Congress to rule on whether the ISIS group’s murders of Christians in Syria and Iraq amount to genocide.
Lawmakers set Thursday as the day on which the State Department would have to confirm whether the US government regards the brutal ISIS persecution of religious minorities as a crime against humanity.
But department front man Mark Toner said Wednesday that Kerry was still gathering evidence before making his determination and would miss the deadline -- an admission sure to trigger anger on Capitol Hill.
"Given the scope and the breadth of the analysis he’s contemplating, he will not have a final decision completed by the Congressionally-mandated deadline tomorrow," Toner said.
"However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... this issue is clearly of the utmost importance to him as well as to Congress, and we expect him to reach a decision very soon."
The ISIS group’s vicious treatment of Christians and other non-Muslim religious minorities such as Yazidis -- including wholesale killing and rape -- is not disputed in Washington.
But the US administration argues that to designate the ISIS campaign as genocide would have practical legal implications and cannot be taken lightly.
This did not satisfy the House of Representatives, which has voted to classify the killings as genocide and demand that the administration do so, too.
"What more does Secretary John Kerry need to see and hear in order to call these atrocities for what they are?" House speaker Paul Ryan ...U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, serving since 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party. He proposed an alternative to President Obama's 2011 budget and made himself the target of both Democrat and Republican verbal pies... said.
"This is genocide, plain and simple. The House has spoken very clearly on this. And we all continue to pray for the persecuted."
Toner insisted that the State Department respects the right of Congress to demand a decision, but argued "we need some additional time, a matter of a few days or a week or so in order to reach what we believe is a more fact-based, evidence-based decision."
Update at 1:20 p.m. ET from The Times of Israel: he slid in under the wire.
US Secretary of State John Kerry determines that the Islamic State group is committing genocide against Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria, as he acted to meet a congressional deadline.
Kerry’s finding does not obligate the United States to take additional action against IS and does not prejudge any prosecution against its members.
A day after the State Department said Kerry would miss the deadline, Kerry says he had completed his review and determined that Christians, Yazidis and Shiite groups are victims of genocide and crimes against humanity by IS militants. The House earlier this week passed a nonbinding resolution by a 393-0 vote condemning IS atrocities as genocide.
“In my judgment Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in territory under its control,” Kerry said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
He outlines a litany of atrocities that he said the militants had committed against people and religious sites, as well as threats. “Daesh is genocidal by self-acclimation, by ideology and by practice.”
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
"...This did not satisfy the House of Representatives, which has voted to classify the killings as genocide and demand that the administration do so, too...."
Actually the vote in the House was unanimous (393-0) which is pretty rare. Al Arabiya seems to have missed the significance of this.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/17/2016 1:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Al Arabiya got it off an AFP Washington news feed; it's likely that it's AyPee-generated.
"WASHINGTON -- If the Marines were called today to respond to an unexpected crisis, they might not be ready, a top Marine general told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
Gen. John Paxton, assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, testified to lawmakers that the Marines could face more casualties in a war and might not be able to deter a potential enemy.
"I worry about the capability and the capacity to win in a major fight somewhere else right now," he said, citing a lack of training and equipment."
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As per the MSM-Net, looks like A-L-L the US Armed Forces are not up to Pre-Obama standard today.
NOT-EVEN-ONE-N-ONE-HALF "ONE-OCEAN WAR" VS "ONE-REGION WAR".
RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN, OTHER? WIN BY DEFAULT; US ALLOWING WOMEN INTO COMBAT???
DOES ANTI-US OWG GLOBALIST "NOT WORSE-THAN LIMITED-TACTICAL-OR-STRATEGIC-NUKE-WAR" COUNT???
The good news for the USDOD is that ...
* WAFF > FRANCE SAYS THEY HAVE ONLY 20 COMBAT READY JETS.
IOW AKA why France + UK, Etal. Euros including Russia needed US = USDOD assistance to back them up in the various anti-AQ, anti-ISIS, + anti-Assad fights across the ME, plus those still to come???
* IIRC DONALD TRUMP > Was quoted as saying that the "US NO LONGER FIGHTS TO WIN, NOR DOES IT KNOW [anymore] HOW TO FIGHT-N-WIN".
OTOH THE USDOD MAY NOT HAVE TO SEND FORCES OVERSEAS AGZ THE HARD BOYZ ANYMORE BECAUSE THE GLOBAL JIHAD INCLUDING NUCLEAR JIHAD WILL BE COMING TO AMERIKA SOON ENUFF.
* WORLD NEWS > [Nashville Tennessean] LAWMAKER: ISIS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO RECRUIT ON [TN = State] [US-wide?] CAMPUSES.
WHY NOT, AS THERE ARE CAMPUSES IN THE US WHERE THE LOCAL FEDS-POLICE ARE TOO BUSY WATCHING MADONNA FANS FROM GUAM THAN THE HARD BOYZ COMING-N-GOING IN THEIR MIDST - MIGHT AS WELL LET THE HARD BOYZ GO FULL MONTY + RECRUIT OPENLY-N-PUBLICLY, FAIRLY-N-LEGALLY???
YOOHOO, AL-QAEDA/NUSRA, HEZBOLLAH, LET, ...@ETAL. I'M A'LOOKIN AT YOU!
D *** NG IT, ITS FOR THE CHILDREN, + CLINTONIAN AMERIKA'S SACRED NATIONAL COMMUNISM, YOU TRAITORS YOU!
The present confusion in the civilian mind and the true military mind respecting the purposes of armies and limits of warfare is attributable to many circumstances. Among them, no doubt, is the character of military history as it has commonly been written. Ordinary citizens are lacking in the raw experience of combat, or deficient in technical knowledge, and inclined to leave the compilation of military records to “experts” in such affairs. Writers on general history have tended to neglect the broader aspects of military issues; confining themselves to accounts of campaigns and battles, handled often in a cursory fashion, they have usually written on the wars of their respective countries in order to glorify their prowess, with little or no reference to the question whether these wars were conducted in the military way of high efficiency or in the militaristic way, which wastes blood and treasure.
Even more often, in recent times, general historians have neglected military affairs and restricted their reflections to what they are pleased to call “the causes and consequences of wars”; or they have even omitted them altogether. This neglect may be ascribed to many sources. The first is, perhaps, a recognition of the brutal fact that the old descriptions of campaigns are actually of so little value civilian and military alike. Another has been the growing emphasis on economic and social fields deemed “normal” and the distaste of economic and social historians for war, which appears so disturbing to the normal course of events. Although Adam Smith included a chapter on the subject of military defense in his Wealth of Nations as a regular part of the subject, modern economists concentrate on capital, wages, interest, rent, and other features of peaceful pursuits, largely forgetting war as a phase of all economy, ancient or modern. When the mention the subject of armies and military defense, these are commonly referred to as institutions and actions which interrupt the regular balance of economic life. And the third source of indifference is the effort of pacifists and peace advocates to exclude wars and military affairs from general histories, with the view to uprooting any military or militaristic tendencies from the public mind, on the curious assumption that by ignoring realties the realties themselves will disappear.
This lack of a general fund of widely disseminated military information is perilous to the maintenance of civilian power in government. The civilian mind, presumably concerned with the maintenance of peace and the shaping of policies by the limits of efficient military defense, can derive no instruction from acrimonious disputes between militarists, limitless in their demands, and pacifists, lost in utopian visions. Where the civilians fail to comprehend and guide military policy, the true military men, distinguished from the militarists, are also imperiled. For these the executioners of civilian will, dedicated to the preparation of defense and war with the utmost regard for efficiency, are dependent upon the former.
Again, and again, the military men have seen themselves hurled into war by ambitions, passions, and blunders of civilian governments, almost wholly uninformed as to the limits of their military potentials and almost recklessly indifferent to the military requirements of the wars they let loose. Aware that they may again be thrown by civilians into an unforeseen conflict, perhaps with a foe they have not envisaged, these realistic military men find themselves unable to do anything save demand all the men, guns, and supplies they can possibly wring from the civilians, in the hope that they may be prepared or half prepared for whatever may befall them. In so doing they inevitably find themselves associated with militaristic military men who demand all they can get merely for the sake of having it without reference to ends.
Vagts, Alfred, History of Militarism, rev. 1959, Free Press, NY, pp 33-34.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Pakistain likely has been dragging its feet on bringing the Afghan Taliban to the negotiation table with Afghan government.
A Pak news agency says that Islamabad is reluctant to host face-to-face meeting between Afghan government and Taliban and therefore it has informed 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.... to remain in direct contacts with Taliban’s 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... office in this regard.
This comes as a decision was made in the fourth Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), formed by peace negotiators from Afghanistan, Pakistain, the United States and China, meeting that the upcoming peace talks between Afghan government and Taliban would take place in Islamabad.
The Express Tribune reports that sources privy to the development said Pakistain is wary of the pressure that comes to it in the event of hosting the talks and the expectation from it to bring all Taliban factions to the negotiating table.
The media outlet citing reports says that bringing the main Taliban groups to table may be a Herculean task as the Taliban seem all set for their Spring Offensive.
The news also comes a day after reports suggested that Taliban have rejected pressure by Pakistain for peace talks with Afghan government.
The agreement to revive stalled peace talks with Taliban was reached during a meeting between President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. and Pak Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on the sideline of the "Heart of Asia" conference in Islamabad.
Although, Kabul had lost trust on Islamabad’s faith in the grinding of the peace processor and therefore was not willing to discuss the matter again but President Ghani said yes for meeting PM Nawaz Sharif after a delegation from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and Quetta convinced him for giving it another try.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Iraqi cabinet has decided not to authorize a protest camp by followers of holy man Moqtada Sadr which had been due to begin Friday in front of the fortified "Green Zone".
Tens of thousands of Sadr supporters have been preparing for a days-long sit-in in central Baghdad aimed at pressuring the government to implement deeper political reform.
"Staging a sit-in is not permitted by law, especially in the current security circumstances, notably the threat by terrorist groups and the potential for this gathering to be targeted," a cabinet statement said Wednesday.
"The security forces are busy with the fight against Daesh [Islamic State] (ISIS) and it is not possible to guarantee the protection of this gathering at all times," it said.
The cabinet stressed that it "supports the demonstrations demanding government reforms" and has protected one-day protests by the Sadr movement in recent weeks.
The Najaf-based Sadr had urged his supporters on March 12 to prepare tents for a protest camp supposed to begin on Friday and last until the expiry 10 days later of an ultimatum he gave the government.
A month ago, the Shiite holy man gave Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi 45 days to present the names of technocrats for a new government.
Sadrists have held a series of massive rallies in central Baghdad, with thousands turning out last week for the latest protest to press their demands.
The presence a week earlier of armed Sadr supporters outside the Green Zone -- where Abadi's office, parliament and the US embassy are located -- sparked intense security concerns.
In the protest that he attended in Baghdad three week ago, Sadr threatened that his supporters could storm the Green Zone if their demands were not met.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Iraqi offensive against ISIS near the town of Hit has driven some 35,000 people from their homes, a US military front man said Wednesday.
Taking care of their needs is "a challenge for the Iraqi government," Colonel Steve Warren acknowledged via video conference from Baghdad.
He said the US-led coalition, along with international relief organizations, was doing what it could to alleviate conditions.
Having retaken the city of Ramadi from ISIS in December, the Iraqi military is now moving into the Euphrates River valley toward Hit, a key hub.
Last week they dropped leaflets over the area warning that elite Iraqi forces were approaching, according to Warren.
He said the aim was to warn residents on how to stay safe, but also to "weaken ISIL morale." ISIL is an alternate acronym for ISIS.
The military front man said Iraqi forces have detained 149 ISIS fighters trying to blend in with the civilians fleeing the area.
"We believe that this enemy is on the defensive," he said.
The US State Department said Monday that more and more ISIS combatants were defecting.
The United States has been fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria since the summer of 2014 at the head of a multi-national coalition.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Qassem Fared Jaber, 31, was involved in two failed attacks during Second Intifada, assisted in other deadly attacks
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,’s military wing on Wednesday said a Paleostinian assailant, recently killed during a car-ramming attack on Israeli soldiers near Hebron, was a former member of a West Bank terror cell.
Qassem Fared Jaber, 31, along with Amir Fouad al-Janadi, 22, both from Hebron, plowed their car into a hitchhiking post on Monday near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, emerged from the vehicle, and opened fire. One soldier was lightly hurt by gunfire.
Troops at the scene shot the attackers and killed them, the IDF confirmed in a statement.
Jaber, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam statement said, once belonged to a West Bank sleeper cell during the Second Intifada.
The cell, named "swift death" or "Eztion," was formed late in 2004 and disbanded by Israeli security forces early in 2006.
Jaber, according to Hamas, took part in four terrorist attacks while in the cell. Two of the attacks failed and in two attacks, in which Israelis were killed, he served in a logistical capacity, the terror group said.
The first attempted attack was a shooting on Israeli soldiers inside the Old City of Jerusalem. The terrorist’s weapon failed to fire and he bravely ran away after Israeli soldiers returned fire. Jaber also took part in an earlier attempted attack near Kiryat Arba while a member of the terror cell. According to Hamas, Jaber drove a group of gunnies near the West Bank settlement. The gunnies targeted a civilian car, but once again, their weapons jammed and they escaped unharmed from the scene.
Jaber later reportedly took on a logistical role in two attacks near his hometown: a drive-by shooting near the village of Jabal al-Sanadis in which an Israeli was killed and another shooting attack near the Israeli settlement Beit Hagai, in which two Israel soldiers were killed.
According to a statement from the Shin Bet internal Israeli security service, Jaber was tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! twice for his work with Hamas, from 2001-2003 and from 2006-2009.
Army front man Peter Lerner, contacted by AFP, said the Hamas claim on Wednesday "doesn’t come as such a huge surprise."
"We do see an attempt by Hamas to take advantage of the violence in the region. We have seen this in several attempts to establish new infrastructure" in the West Bank, Lerner said.
Jaber’s partner in last Monday’s attack, al-Janadi, had no prior criminal record according to the statement. The two had worked together in the same vegetable shop in Hebron.
"Against the advice of its own panel of outside experts, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is forgoing tests meant to ensure that a critical component of the nation’s homeland missile defense system will work as intended.
The tests that are being skipped would evaluate the reliability of small motors designed to help keep rocket interceptors on course as they fly toward incoming warheads."
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
03/17/2016 11:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sounds like your typical IT project. Testing is always the first thing to go to meet the deadline or, occasionally, the budget.
#3
These motors don't have to go through quality tests before they are shipped?
Or is the gubbamint skipping the "test 2/3 of the motors to failure, just to be sure"?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/17/2016 13:17 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The approach, [he] said, conjures the old saying, "Why is there never enough time to do it right—but always enough time to do it over?"
A lot of people are not familiar with that phrase.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/17/2016 13:21 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Read the article. They did all kinds of tests and the things worked. Getting these things in a silo right away is important, because it creates uncertainty in threat planning.
While that is happening, if really needed, these components can be tested in parallel, and if any fail, then produce some new ones and put them in the silo on the QT.
But get pretty likely to work systems in the ground right now.
#8
then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld exempted the missile agency from the Pentagon’s standard procurement rules and testing standards.
There are things we know and things we know we don't know....
"The U.S. Air Force seems to have woken up to the fact that it can’t simply retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jet.
The Air Force has waged a years-long campaign to scrap its A-10 fleet in a bid to save roughly $4 billion in operating costs. Service leaders have argued that the plane’s close air support mission can be performed by existing platforms, including the B-1 bomber and the highly-anticipated F-35 Joint Strike Fighter."
Either the Super Tucano or the old MV-10 Bronco would be a good choice as an inexpensive attack aircraft with long loiter time, as long as you otherwise have complete air supremacy...
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Have they really found a replacement for the M2 50 cal?
Somethings are so fundamental that there is no real economical replacement, just flights of fantasy (or envy or some sort of crony-capitalistic pay off in there).
#2
There is no real replacement for it. The super t and others are a third world attempt. They need to do a full up airframe refit build the A10 J model. And be done with it. The real problem is the Air Force does not want to be bothered with CAS. If they are not at 30000 feet they want no part of it. The army needs its own air support just like the marines. The Air Force can not be trusted.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
03/17/2016 11:21 Comments ||
Top||
#3
49 pan: "The army needs its own air support just like the marines."
What do the Marines use for CAS?
Why can't the Airforce use that?
#4
Marines use an FA-18 variant as well as Cobra gunships. The difference is that the Misguided Children CAS assets have no problem "getting down in the dirt." The idea is to use speed, terrain and practice as advantages in supporting the ground forces.
#7
The problem is that if somebody put a gun to the Air Force's head and FORCED them to build a new attack plane from the ground up, they would start doing their mission creep sh*t. "Ooh - it should be stealthy!" "Ooh - it should be supersonic!!" "Ooh - and VSTOL!!"
By the time they are done, it will just be another F-35.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/17/2016 18:58 Comments ||
Top||
#8
...The problem here is this: first, not one of these birds - with the qualified exception of the T50 - is not survivable on anything resembling a modern battlefield or a battlefield where the people you're attacking have HMGs or MANPADS. Second, not one of them can carry anything resembling a GAU-8 or enough air-to-mud to make a difference. These aren't planes that can replace the Hog - they're planes that somebody desperately wants to use for CAS without having to actually pay for a capable, qualified airframe.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/17/2016 20:05 Comments ||
Top||
#9
MV-10 Bronco? On the modern battlefield they'd be as good as a soup sandwich. Cheaper to operate and to build, sure. Only with the losses, I hope the MV-10 would be reconfigured as a drone.
[NYP] Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised the world by announcing on Monday that most of his troops would leave Syria. Military analysts were flummoxed.
I, for one, had expected all of the forces backing the regime of Bashar al-Assad to catch their collective breath, then resume the offensive.
What happened?
In retrospect, it looks obvious: Putin finally met the Middle East. And unlike President Obama, the Russian czar faced reality.
Allowing that Putin could re-engage in the future, and that his forces accomplished their primary goal of propping up the regime and giving it breathing space, the announcement still came as a cold-water shock to all -- except the Iranians.
Initial Western reactions have stressed the recalcitrance of Assad, who has refused to consider stepping aside. Instead, Assad’s latest pronouncements have been defiant bordering on megalomania. Putin had every reason to be fed up.
#2
And Iran has no interest in playing junior partner to anyone — least of all a traditional Christian enemy.
Putin's not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. He's resentful, cunning and full of raw aggression. So he directs his energies against the West, which brought about the breakup of the Soviet empire rather than than Russia's real enemies, China and Iran, both of which have designs on Russian territory - not to encourage independence movements on Russian soil, but to actually annex Russian territory previously taken at swordpoint from the Chinese and Persian empires.
#5
Putin's not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
Maybe not. But it looks here like he's at least listening to one of the brighter bulbs which is more than we can say for our own SmartestManInTheRoom™.
[AlAhram] Two-thirds of Syria's Christians have left the country, an Aleppo bishop said Wednesday, blaming violence and insecurity spread by krazed killer groups and insisting most Christians still support the Syrian president.
Chaldean Catholic bishop Antoine Audo said there were about 1.5 million Christians in the country before the start of the conflict in March 2011.
"I think now there are maybe 500,000. Two-thirds have left mainly due to the insecurity," he told news hounds in Geneva.
In the embattled northern city of Aleppo, the exodus was even greater, he said, with only around 40,000 of its once 160,000-strong Christian community remaining.
"You cannot imagine the dangers that we face every day," he said.
Wealthy Christians have all left, while "the middle classes have become poor and the poor have become miserable".
But he denied Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... was to blame for the horrors of the Syria conflict, which has cost more than 270,000 lives in five years.
"There is no persecution of Christians" by the government, he said.
Rather, they are being "targeted" by jihadists such as 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 in a bid to "destabilise the Syrian society and transform the war into a confessional war".
Slamming the "propaganda" against Assad, he said he believed 80 percent of Christians in Syria would support him if he stood for reelection, and that overall support would be above 50 percent.
"Even the Sunnis will choose Bashir al-Assad," to ward off the krazed killers, he said.
Assad's fate is the key issue at peace talks in Geneva, with the main opposition insisting he must go before any transitional government can be agreed, but Damascus saying his removal is "a red line" for negotiations.
The bishop said Syria had long served as a model for how Muslim and Christian communities could live side-by-side and said the hatred on display had been "imported".
"I think... this war is not coming from inside Syria... I think all is organised from outside to destroy Syria."
#1
One place the Syrian Christians are NOT going to is the United States. The State Department has rejected more than 95% of refugee applications from Syrian Christians.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/17/2016 13:28 Comments ||
Top||
[ARA News] ERBIL – Amid intensifying airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition on ISIS positions in Syria and Iraq, hundreds of tribal Arabs in Aleppo’s northern areas swore allegiance to the Islamic State’s (ISIS) alleged caliphate and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, local sources reported on Wednesday.
Pro-ISIS media activists have circulated images on the social media, showing people of the Qalqal town, southeastern Manbij, in the northern province of Aleppo, swearing allegiance to the militant group.
Speaking to ARA News in Manbij, media activist Samir Ali said that “hundreds of Arabs in the Qalqal and nearby villages swore allegiance to the hardline group.”
“An ISIS top leader from the group’s Sharia court spoke to the people, urging them to declare allegiance to the Caliph al-Baghdadi, as the region is on the verge of a great battle by the U.S.-led coalition forces and the apostate Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG),” Ali reported.
“All citizens must join the ranks of the Mujahideen (ISIS militants) to stop the advance of these troops, in order to preserve the area and its people,” the source quoted ISIS spokesman as saying.
[ARA News] RUMELAN – The local Kurdish administrations linked to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) are planning to announce a local federal state, during the upcoming Kurdish new years celebrations on 21 March.
On Wednesday, 200 delegates from parties and organizations from Syria held a conference in the oil-rich town of Rumelan in Hasakah province to discuss the establishment of a federal political system in Kurdish areas of Syria, also known as Rojava.
The meeting, titled ‘federal Syria is a guarantee for a common life and brotherhood of nations’, included Kurdish, Arab, Christian and Armenian delegates.
Speaking to ARA News, Idris Nassan, a Kurdish official from the local administration in Kobane, said that federalism is one of the key demands of Kurds in Syria.
“Every step we are making is moving towards it, and it’s now time to declare it, and to have more components join it,” he said. “The SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] and the YPG [People’s Protection Units] could liberate much more of the north of Syria from ISIS, and they are looking to liberate the remaining areas.”
“Federalism will match the diversity of northern Syria, and guarantee democracy and equality for them all,” Nassan emphasized.
Rodi Hesen, a media analyst for the monitoring website Insightkurdistan, told ARA News that announcing a federal system is an important step for Syria. “Syria could not be a centralized state anymore, the ongoing civil war ends the unity of Syria,” he said.
The exclusion of the Kurdish PYD party from the Geneva talks could be one of the main reasons that the Kurds accelerated the process of announcing a federal state in northern Syria.
“Moreover, neither the regime nor opposition have a positive position towards the Kurdish national rights, so it’s better to impose it in a de-facto style,” he stated.
Bashar Ja’afari, Syria’s U.N. ambassador, on Wednesday condemned federalism. “Kurds are an important component of the Syrian people… So betting on creating any kind of divisions among the Syrians will be a total failure,” he said.
However, Hesen thinks that US and Russia might back federalism in Syria. “This system would not face rejection from both Russia and USA,” he told ARA News.
“Recently, Russia and USA have been discussing possibilities of federalism scenario in Syria. I do not think that federalism will be announced formally before the YPG expels ISIS from other predominately Kurdish areas such as Azaz, Jarablus and Al-Bab north of Aleppo province.”
US officials said they will not recognize a semi-autonomous Kurdish region, but will not be against federalism if the Syrians want it.
“We have not and will not recognize any self-rule, semi-autonomous zone. We remain committed to the unity and territorial integrity of Syria,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday.
Syrian Kurds plan to combine the three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syria into a federal system, a step that may raise Turkey’s ire, which fears the establishment of a Kurdish entity in Syria would sparking its own Kurdish population.
Speaking to ARA News in Rumelan, Ahmed Araj, spokesman of the Syrian Democratic Alliance (SDA), said that there is an international effort sponsored by Russia and the U.S. to stop violence in Syria, and start implementing concrete steps for a peaceful solution to preserve the unity of the country.
“The geographic distribution of the military forces in Syria indicates that the country has been actually divided up on the ground. The federal system is the best solution for the future of Syria to guarantee the rights of its social components,” Araj said.
“We, at the SDA [major Arab political bloc in Rojava], adopt the principle of political decentralization. We have approved this in the first conference of Derik when the Syrian Democratic Council was founded; we believe decentralization and the federal system is one of the best formulas for solution in Syria,” he stressed.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United States warned Wednesday that it would not recognize an attempt by Kurdish groups in war-torn Syria to form an autonomous federal region.
Washington has supported and encouraged the Kurdish parties of the area in their fight against a common foe, the ISIS turban group.
But the State Department said Wednesday it would not support the breakup of the country and that any new federal model would have to emerge from peace talks.
"We've been very clear that we won't recognize any self-rule autonomous zones within Syria," front man Mark Toner told news hounds.
"This is something that needs to be discussed and agreed upon by the relevant parties in Geneva and then by the Syrian people themselves."
Representatives of Bashir al-Assad's government and of the opposition ranged against him are negotiating an end to the civil war under UN auspices in Geneva.
But parties representing Syria's Kurdish minority have not been invited to the talks and are instead trying to create a unified region of their own.
Any bid to expand an existing system of self-rule will anger The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , wary of anything that might encourage Kurdish separatism within its own borders.
More than 150 delegates from Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian and other parties met Wednesday in Rmeilan, in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province.
The meeting adjourned in the early evening and will reconvene on Thursday, when a decision on declaring a semi-autonomous northern region will be announced.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Since the Kurds have been our allies in the fight against ISIS, they, in Kerry's mind, have committed the sin of being our allies.
Therefore it is entirely just to exclude them from peace negotiations and oppose their own efforts to organize the areas under their control in Syria.
This is exactly what the British did to the
Jews of Palestine, who served as Commandoes in the British army while no Arab in the entire middle east lifted a finger for the British. So the British convened a group to plan for the future of the area. That group was given the name of the Arab League, and naturally the
Jews were not invited. This did not end well for the British. Kerry's plan won't end well for us.
#3
Our current regime doesn't recognize American regions in the US. Texas, California etc. are considered open, international areas where anyone can go, stay and expect lots of freebies.
#4
Recognize a Syrian Kurdish state and you create half of a revived Kurdistan. The other half is in Turkey and our NATO ally Turkey would be outraged. OTOH, remembering many of their slights over the decade maybe we approach a ..."rats ass" level of interest.
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.
[TheGuardian] The EU is preparing to scale back the number of Syrian refugees offered resettlement in Europe, as part of a controversial pact being drawn up with Turkey. The bloc’s 28 leaders will hold a summit in Brussels on Thursday, before a meeting the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, on Friday, to hammer out the final details of a plan aimed at stemming the flow of refugees and migrants coming to Europe.
"The U.S. Air Force seems to have woken up to the fact that it can’t simply retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jet.
Listen to me Vlad, this is what these bastids are up to. 
[AlAhram] Two-thirds of Syria's Christians have left the country, an Aleppo bishop said Wednesday, blaming violence and insecurity spread by
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
