SANAA, Yemen — Driving around this war-battered capital, you can't help but notice the hate, particularly if you are an American. On giant billboards, scrawled on walls — it's everywhere.
The WaPo writer quietly approves, judging from the tone of this piece.
“America is killing the Yemeni people. They are feeding on our blood,” reads one billboard.
“Boycott American and Israeli products,” reads another.
Perhaps in no other city is anti-Americanism in such full display today.
The capital and much of this Middle Eastern nation are under the control of the Houthis, a northern Shiite rebel group with alleged ties to Iran. They took advantage of the political and security vacuum that emerged from the 2011 revolution here — part of the Arab Spring uprisings — that toppled longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh. By the fall of 2014, the Houthis had swept southward and occupied Sanaa. They forced Saleh's successor, U.S. and Western-backed Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to resign last year. Soon after, the anti-American slogans emerged throughout the city.
On one level, the anger is an extension of the Houthis' credos. Their flag reads: "God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam."
On another level, the slogans are directed at the United States' involvement in Yemen's civil war. Washington is actively backing a Saudi-led coalition that's seeking to restore Hadi to power. The coalition's airstrikes, largely using U.S. and British-made bombs, have killed or wounded thousands of civilians, according to human rights groups and witnesses.
Some of the signs speak to a widespread mistrust of the West and its reasons for engaging in the Midde East. As in other parts of the Arab world, there's suspicion here that Washington has gone to war over the region's oil and other natural resources.
They haven't heard about fracking...
“The American companies enter a country to to steal its wealth and humiliate its people," reads another billboard.
The attitude is another indication of how far Washington's counter-terrorism objectives in Yemen have been eroded in the aftermath of the Arab revolutions. For years, successive U.S. administrations worked with Saleh to fight al-Qaeda's Yemen branch, widely seen by U.S. officials as the most lethal in the terrorist network. Known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP, the group has staged attacks or attempted attacks on American and European soil in the last several years. Restoring the ability to effectively combat AQAP's ambitions is perhaps the key reason the Obama administration is backing the Saudi-led intervention into Yemen's civil war.
It's no surprise that the most creative attacks on the United States can be found on the walls of the now-shuttered Saudi embassy here. Every inch of the outer wall is covered in colorful graffiti.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps in no other city is anti-Americanism in such full display today.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Saturday alleged that all the militants belong to the ruling Awami League and they have to be arrested to restore peace in the country.
Khaleda has to say something to deflect attention. This is the best she could do. She's not particularly bright. It would be a race between her and Hillary...
“We had asked them to arrest militants and we’re in favour of tracking down extremists and we strongly support to rein them in. But all the militants are with Awami League. It’s a party of militants as local and foreign arms, ammunition and explosive are recovered from the possessions of its leaders and activists,” he said.
Speaking at an iftar party, the BNP chief also said the real trial of militants will be held if the extremists within the ruling party are arrested. “It’ll also help restore peace and public security in the country.”
Khaleda alleged that the law enforcers in the name of crackdown on militants arrested nearly 15,000 innocent people, including 3,000 BNP leaders and activists.
Especially BNP leaders and activists...
She demanded the government immediately release the arrested innocent people.
Mentioning that a grand festival of plundering and grabbing is going on across the country, the BNP chief alleged that even the Jatiya Press Club was captured, and pro-BNP journalists are being barred from holding an iftar mahfil there. “As they fear of holding an election there, they grabbed it by force.”
Speaking at the programme, BFUJ and DUJ leaders said they were forced to shift the iftar programme to the Supreme Court Bar auditorium from the Press Club premises in the face of obstruction by the club management.
Khaleda said the ruling party men are now grabbing people’s land, houses, property and plundering bank and other institutions as an illegal and unelected government is in power. She said had the government had minimum sense of dignity it would have resigned and taken steps for holding an election seeing what are written in local and foreign newspapers about it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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EU To Send €62 Billion To Africa In Bid To Halt Migrant Influx
7/2/2016 The European Union (EU) has announced plans to spend 62 billion euros tackling mass immigration from North Africa, with officials admitting that migrant flows have “not decreased in comparison with last year”.
EU Migration To Germany ‘Hits Record High’
7/2/2016 Immigration to Germany from other European Union countries hit a new record of over 685,000 people last year, led by Romanians, Poles and Bulgarians, Die Welt daily said Saturday, citing official figures.
Calls for Christian-Only Asylum Homes After Muslim Violence
7/2/2016 A Vienna based NGO has called for separate asylum homes for Christians who they say are the victims of Muslim intimidation and violence. The call for separate accommodation for Christians in Austria comes from the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination
Denmark Begins Charging Asylum-Seekers for Living Expenses
7/1/2016 Danish authorities have begun applying a law allowing the confiscation of goods from migrants applying for asylum status, seizing almost $12,000 from five Iranians arrested this week at Copenhagen Airport. According to the law, police are authorized to requisition from
Town Bans Sharia-Approved “Burkini” From Pools
7/1/2016 A small town in the region of Lower Austria has announced that it will be banning the Islamic approved swimwear known as the “burkini” from local pools. The Lower Austrian township of Hainfeld has announced that they will be banning the
Sweden Needs To Build A New Stockholm To House Migrant Population
7/1/2016 A significant housing crisis fuelled by mass immigration has left the Swedish government with no choice but to build the equivalent of a whole new capital city in the next five years. A new report from the Swedish National Housing
Migrant Shelter ‘To Issue Panic Alarms’ After Murder Of Worker
6/30/2016 Five months after a young Swedish woman working in a shelter for migrant children was killed by a fake child migrant, the company running the homes is finally rolling out their response – by ensuring that all staff have access to
Turkey EU Minister: ‘We Have Met All Criteria For Visa-Free Travel To Europe’
6/30/2016 Turkey has met the required criteria to secure visa-free travel for its citizens to Europe, but the European Union says it has not yet met stipulations on personal data and terrorism, Turkey’s EU minister said on Thursday.
Hollande Says Brexit Won’t Change Channel Migrant Deal
6/30/2016 French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that Britain’s vote to leave the EU should not affect a deal to stop migrants crossing the Channel, which led to many being stuck at camps in Calais.
George Soros Post-Brexit Backtrack: Merkel’s Open Borders Policy ‘Not Properly Thought Out’
6/29/2016 The billionaire Hungarian-American open borders advocate George Soros has said Angela Merkel provoked the migrant crisis with her open-door policy, which brought “chaos” to the continent. However, the investor and left wing activist also accused the “xenophobic” UK Independence Party
Frontex Chief: 300,000 More Migrants Headed from Africa to Europe
6/29/2016 The director of the agency for the control of the external borders of the European Union (EU) has predicted that as many as 300,000 new migrants will be heading up from sub-Saharan Africa into Europe, most of whom will attempt
Female Genital Mutilation Cases Increase Due to Migrants
6/29/2016 Cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) have increased in Germany, largely due to migrants who practice the tradition. There are said to have been over 35,000 cases recently. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a 5,000 year old practice that is
Islamic Radicalisation Surges In German Jails
6/29/2016 The trial of an Islamic State fighter in Germany has revealed the extent to which Salafists have infiltrated prisons and are radicalising Muslim criminals. “Harry S.” is on trial in Hamburg for being a member of Islamic State and supporting
Posted by: james ||
07/03/2016 17:57 Comments ||
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#4
Let's see. $62 billion. That works out to about $60 billion to the various government leaders, tribal chieftains, community organizers, etc. And the other $2 billion they'll spend foolishly.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/03/2016 19:49 Comments ||
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It's not just the jihadis, at least according to the Turks.
[Hurriyet] "We are conducting a total fight against the PKK," Ala told parliament at a special session on the fight against terrorism in the aftermath of the deadly 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) attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport.
This "total fight" against the PKK includes cutting the group’s main source of financing, he added, stating that 8.8 tons of drugs have recently been captured and destroyed in operations carried out by security forces. Some 43.9 million cannabis roots with a market value of 2.7 billion liras have also been rooted out, he said, adding that "this shows how drug dealing and terrorism have become linked."
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had earlier announced that a field full of some 240,000 cannabis roots was destroyed in its operations in the Lice district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakir on June 22.
Ala also informed that some 18 tons of explosives have been found in similar operations in the region.
"They have tried to declare ‘cantons’ inside The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... after they did the same in Syria. They launched these efforts in 12 different provinces in Turkey. But they now realize that Turkey is not Syria and they have all been cleared from these provinces," he said.
Curfews continue to be implemented in parts of seven provinces amid ongoing operations, Ala also stated.
Turkey's authorities have asked the United States to help capture an alleged mastermind behind the recent suicide bombing attack on the Istanbul Ataturk International Airport in Turkey, Akhmed Chatayev, The Wall Street Journal said Saturday, citing a senior US official.
What exactly are we supposed to do?
Three blasts hit the Ataturk Airport on Tuesday, leaving 44 people dead and 239 injured. Turkish media reported on Friday that two of the three suicide bombers were believed to have Russian passports.
According to the US official, US intelligence services have informed Turkey that Chatayev was behind the triple bombing. However, Turkish authorities have not yet confirmed Chatayev's involvement. Chechen man Chatayev, lived in Georgia where he received country's citizenship before leaving for Syria in 2015.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Yer on yer own. We've been shafted too many times.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/03/2016 0:48 Comments ||
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A Minnesota woman charged with supporting east African militant group al-Shabab is helping the federal government’s case against the ringleaders of a network of women who have sent thousands of dollars overseas to an organization the U.S. says is involved in terrorism.
Amina Mohamud Esse
...whose ancestors likely didn't emigrate from Sweden...
pleaded guilty to the charge in November 2014, according to case records that were unsealed Thursday. Allegedly part of a group of women organized online, prosecutors said Esse had sent roughly $500 overseas to a woman in Kenya, knowing the funds would eventually make their way to al-Shabab.
It adds another layer to the string of cases involving terrorism recruitment and support in Minnesota, home to the largest Somali population outside of the eastern Africa country. More than 20 young men have left the state since 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia, and roughly a dozen people have left in recent years to join militants in Syria.
The U.S. District Court of Minnesota kept the proceedings in Esse’s case private, as local District Attorney Andrew Luger’s office worried that divulging the details of her charges and her cooperation with the federal government could imperil the case against some of the ringleaders of the online group, who were also arrested in 2014.
“Al-Shabaab members and associates would obviously not accept or trust the defendant if they knew she had been charged and was cooperating with the FBI,” a court filing said.
But some of the records were unsealed this week as the trial against Muna Osman Jama and Hinda Osman Dhirane is set to begin in Virginia’s U.S. District Court on July 11. Esse is listed in the government’s scheduled witnesses for the trial against the two women, according to court records.
Ben Petok, a spokesman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, declined to comment. Esse’s attorney did not return a voicemail seeking comment.
Jama and Dhirane were arrested in June 2014 and charged with 20 counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Jama herself allegedly sent more than $3,300 overseas meant to help al-Shabab. Three others overseas were also charged, including their alleged point of contact in Nairobi.
According to the charges, Esse sent $500 overseas between December 2011 and April 2012 — payments that were shepherded by Jama, who was then living in Virginia.
Internet chat logs between Esse and Jama submitted by the federal government ahead of the trial show the pair of women discussing how to recruit more women to contribute money to their cause. In an April 2012 conversation, Esse expressed concern to Jama about being caught.
“Sister, I told you, do not connect me to anyone till we get to know the person well. . . . Do you want me to get arrested?” Esse wrote.
In exchange for her guilty plea and providing information against the other women, Esse was put on probation and banned from traveling outside of Minnesota, according to court records. She was also required to submit for a mental health evaluation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] PA leader said to fear Israel about to take punitive measures that will weaken him, furious about Quartet report that blasted Paleostinian incitement
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... had refused, as of Saturday night, to condemn the current surge in Paleostinian terrorism, including the killing of a 13-year-old Israeli girl on Thursday and a father of 10 on Friday. He is also reportedly refusing to take calls from Israeli and world leaders who are seeking to encourage him to speak out.
As of Saturday night, Abbas had made no official statement in response to the killing of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, who was stabbed to death as she slept in her bedroom at home in Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, on Thursday morning, or the drive-by shooting on Friday afternoon of Rabbi Miki Mark.
A Channel 2 report on Saturday said numerous Israeli and world leaders had contacted Abbas, pleading with him in particular to speak out publicly in the case of Ariel, but to no avail. Abbas, said the report, is even refusing to take some of the calls.
He has also ordered media loyal to him in the Paleostinian Authority to keep the terror cases out of the headlines.
The report said Abbas feels that the PA is growing weaker and losing control, and is concerned that the Israeli cabinet -- which was meeting on Saturday night -- is about to take punitive measures that will weaken him further.
He is also said to be furious with the international Quartet ... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy.... , which on Friday issued a much-anticipated report that predictably castigated Israel for settlement building but also, unexpectedly, issued withering criticism of incitement against Israel and the glorifying of terrorism by the PA.
"Many widely circulated images depict individuals committing terrorist acts with slogans encouraging violence," the report states. Incitement to violence on social media, affecting especially young people, has increased since October 2015 (coinciding with the ongoing wave of Paleostinian terrorism; RA), and is particularly affecting the youth, the Quartet further establishes.
The text notes that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and "other radical factions" are behind the worst examples of incitement. "These groups use media outlets to glorify terrorism and openly call for violence against Jews, including instructing viewers on how to carry out stabbings." But it also blames some "members of Fatah," Abbas’s party, for having "publicly supported attacks and their perpetrators, as well as encouraged violent confrontation." It cites a senior Fatah official who praised hard boyz as "heroes and a crown on the head of every Paleostinian."
The PA has publicly renounced terrorism against civilians and commitment to non-violent resistance, the report notes. "Regrettably, however, Paleostinian leaders have not consistently and clearly condemned specific terrorist attacks. And streets, squares and schools have been named after Paleostinians who have committed acts of terrorism."
The PA’s Saeb Erekat ...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state... on Friday blasted the report’s authors. The document, he said, "does not meet our expectations as a nation living under a foreign colonial military occupation." It "attempts to equalize the responsibilities between a people under occupation and a foreign military occupier," Erekat protested.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman approved on Saturday the publication of a tender to build 42 additional homes in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.
According to Channel 10, the tender was in the works six months ago but was essentially frozen by the government until Friday’s decision, announced a day later.
The announcement came two days after 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in her bedroom on Thursday morning in the settlement, close to the Palestinian town of Hebron. A civilian security guard who responded to the brutal attack was seriously injured by the Palestinian assailant, Muhammad Nasser Tarayrah, 17, from Bani Naim. Tarayrah was shot and killed by other guards.
The new homes were a part of a series of measures announced by the Israeli government in response to the terror attack in Kiryat Arba, including a closure on Bani Naim and cancellation of work permits of the attacker’s relatives.
Another terror attack on Friday near Hebron killed a rabbi, Miki Mark, and seriously injured his wife while they were driving on Route 60. Two of their children were also wounded in the shooting attack.
In response, the IDF stepped up its troop presence in the West Bank, sending two battalions to help secure settlements and the main roads used by Israelis. A closure on Hebron was also imposed.
On Friday, Gaza rocket fire hit a vacant pre-school in Sderot in southern Israel. The structure sustained damage and a number of people were treated for shock.
Netanyahu was to convene his security cabinet Saturday night to discuss a response to the escalation since Thursday.
Politicians and public figures have demanded a tough response to the deadly violence, including the expulsion of terrorists’ families to Gaza or Syria, as suggested by Likud minister Yisrael Katz.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home party, said he would present a far-reaching plan to halt the wave of terror attacks on Saturday.
Suggestions included in his plan, he said, were the imprisonment or expulsion of terrorists’ families; the arrest of all Hamas operatives in the West Bank; the destruction of thousands of illegally built homes in the West Bank; the complete closure of the villages of assailants; resumption of full military activity in West Bank areas that are under the control of the Palestinian Authority; preventing Palestinian vehicles from traveling on Route 60 — the West Bank’s main north-to-south road; and disabling the Internet in the entire Hebron region.
Saturday’s construction announcement comes after a Quartet report Thursday demanded that Israel take urgent steps to halt the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, citing it as one of three “negative trends” that must be quickly reversed to keep the hope of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal alive.
The second part of Russian S-300 systems delivery to Iran is underway, commander of Iran’s Khatam ol-Anbiya Air Defense Base, Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili has told reporters, according to Fars news agency.
The first part of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems delivery to Iran was carried out in April. Esmaili also said the S-300 will be entirely delivered to Iran by March 2017.
The $800-million contract on S-300, signed in 2007 by Iran and Russia, was frozen by Moscow in 2010 due to the UN Security Council sanctions on Tehran, but President Vladimir Putin unfroze the deal in 2015.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Saturday alleged that all the militants belong to the ruling Awami League and they have to be arrested to restore peace in the country.
Quartet
The second part of Russian S-300 systems delivery to Iran is underway, commander of Iran’s Khatam ol-Anbiya Air Defense Base, Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili has told reporters, according to Fars news agency.
