[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United States has said Washington supports an Afghan-led grinding of the peace processor while responding to Taliban’s call for direct talks with US.
"I haven’t seen those comments either, but I would tell you that nothing has changed about our view that what we support is an Afghan-led reconciliation process," State Department spokesperson John Kirby said in response a question regarding Taliban’s statement to hold direct talks with US if their demands are met.
Kirby further added "We believe that’s the right approach. We’ve always believed that that’s the right approach."
"President Ghani, more importantly, also believes in the criticality of that approach, and that’s where our support will go to," he added.
The group offered new demands earlier this month for ending its insurgency in the country, including direct talks with the United States.
The other new conditions include recognition of the political office of the group in 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... and removal of group’s members from the UN blacklist.
"That is why there is need for America and its allies to come to the table for direct talks with the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) for negotiating an end to the occupation," Sohail Shaheen, a Qatar-based front man of the group, quoted by The News said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[YAHOO] Since the million-strong influx of migrants colonists into Germany last year, authorities there have struggled to deport failed asylum seekers from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria when their home countries refuse to take them back.
The issue has been put into sharp focus by the massive manhunt for Anis Amri, the 24-year-old Tunisian who Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom... confirmed on Thursday is the alleged perpetrator of the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that claimed 12 lives.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Its a European problem, not a German one.Look at Anis Amri story.
#3
When entry is blocked give the man flippers and a wet suit and drop him in international waters off his coast where great white are known to cruise.
That'll cut into their willingness to fund jihadis and radical mosques around the world...
[Al Ahram] 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... on Thursday projected a 2017 budget deficit of about $53 billion and a lower than expected shortfall for this year after government cost-cutting in response to lower oil prices.
Expenses next year will reach 890 billion riyals ($237 billion) against revenues of 692 billion riyals ($184 billion), cabinet said in a statement.
It said this year's deficit will be 297 billion riyals ($79 billion), down 8.9 percent from 2016's budget forecast.
Revenues for this year are expected at 528 billion riyals, higher than projections a year ago of 513.75 billion.
Spending is expected to come in at 825 billion riyals for 2016, 1.8 percent lower than foreseen.
The world's biggest oil exporter froze major building projects, cut cabinet ministers' salaries, and imposed a wage freeze on civil servants in the wake of last year's record deficit, which reached $97 billion.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
26 days until President Trump dumps the old dead rotting carcass of a lie that was our "alliance" with those religitarded head-chopping theocratic Islamist religitards
They can FOAD
They can all starve to death i would not give a flying feather. Every man woman and child
Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, who was killed in an assassination by a Turkish policeman in the capital Ankara, was laid to rest in a funeral ceremony held in Moscow on Dec. 22.
Karlov was shot dead with nine bullets fired by riot police officer Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş late on Dec. 19 as he was delivering a speech for a photography exhibition at an arts center in Ankara. The assailant was also shot dead in the incident by police officers at the scene.
An initial ceremony was held at the building of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. President Vladimir Putin, who promised retribution after the 62-year-old was killed, was among the mourners, including relatives and fellow diplomats. In the ceremony, the slain envoy’s body was laid in an open casket in RussianOrthodox tradition.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov laid flowers near Karlov’s body in a ceremony in the marbled lobby of the looming Stalin-era skyscraper in central Moscow. Lavrov said Karlov had been the victim of “a despicable terrorist act.”
Putin, who has said he knew Karlov personally and posthumously awarded him the highest military medal of Hero of Russia, paid his respects, briefly sitting beside the coffin and speaking to Karlov’s wife, Marina Karlova.
Karlov was a Soviet-trained diplomat who worked in North and South Korea during the 1990s and 2000s and was sent to Turkey in 2013.
Proceedings moved to Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral where the head of the RussianOrthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, led a ceremony. The envoy was buried later on Dec. 22 in a cemetery in a northern Moscow suburb with military honors, his coffin draped in the Russian flag.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Seems a few polonium poisonings are about to happen in the near future...
The suspect has been named as 24-year-old Redouane S.
He is accused of being linked to terrorist ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud
He was tasked with locating safe houses for preparing attacks, it is claimed
The suspect was arrested in Lower Saxony state Tuesday
A Moroccan man who German police believe is linked to the ringleader of last year's Gay Paree attacks has been locked away Please don't kill me! The suspect, who authorities have identified simply as Redouane S., was detained Tuesday.
The 24-year-old is accused of being a member of a cell that took orders from Belgian-Moroccan jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud,
...the 28 year old Belgian of Moroccan origin who had his fingers in a lot of ISIS pies...
who led the November 2015 attacks in Gay Paree, before being killed in a police raid.
Redouane S. was tasked with locating safe houses in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Greece between October 2014 and early 2015 that were used as bases 'for the preparation of attacks', the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The suspect was allegedly also aware of Abaaoud's plans and preparations for an attack in the eastern Belgian city of Verviers, before the cell was dismantled in a deadly raid in January 2015.
'Even after his arrival in Germany in May 2015, he was in contact with the group around Abaaoud and was ready for further instructions," prosecutors said.
The accused appeared before a judge on Wednesday, a day after his arrest in Lower Saxony state.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Slovenia's president called for an anti-migrant barbed-wire fence on the border with Croatia to be dismantled, saying it now serves little purpose, in comments published on his official website Thursday.
Is the president of Slovenia the chief executive like we have in the U.S., or is he an elected ceremonial figurehead, like Israel and many other parliamentary democracies have?
"I believe we could remove the wire fence, bearing in mind that no migrant wave, like the one we had last year, is forseeable in the near future," Borut Pahor said.
So long as the fences stay up and are guarded, that is likely true. But take them down, and the colonists will come.
He said that even "if The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... opened its borders for migrants colonists, something that can't be predicted for the near future, we would still have enough time to erect the wire fence and other obstacles on the border."
Slovenia put up the fence along some 200 kilometres (120 miles) of its 670-kilometre frontier with Croatia -- an outer border of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone -- at the beginning of this year.
The stated aim was to prevent an uncontrolled inflow of people along the so-called Balkan route used by migrants colonists on their way from Greece to Germany and elsewhere.
But in the end the influx had already all but stopped by the time the barrier was erected, and critics say that it has also hurt tourism and been harmful to wildlife.
Slovenian authorities have nonetheless been reinforcing and replacing the barrier with a more durable panel fence, arguing that illegal migration has been rising and that a new migrants colonists wave could still come.
Pahor also said, in his comments originally made in a radio interview late Wednesday, that the removal would also represent a "sign of improved confidence (by the Slovenian government) in the newly elected Croatian government."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] The number of Turkish soldiers killed in recent attacks by 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.... bandidosholy warriors near the northern Syrian town of al-Bab has risen to 16, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's defence minister said on Thursday, adding that three other soldiers were seriously maimed.
Speaking at a parliamentary commission in Ankara, Isik said a total of 35 Turkish soldiers have been killed since the start of Turkey-backed rebels' incursion into northern Syria that began on August 24, an operation dubbed 'Euphrates Shield'.
Isik said a total of 1,005 Islamic State bandidosholy warriors have been "neutralised" during the same period. He added that Islamic State has been putting up fierce resistance near al-Bab.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] NOWSHERA: Afghan Ambassador Dr Omar Zakhilwal met Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... , chief of his own faction the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... , on Wednesday and discussed with him the situation in Afghanistan and other important issues.
The diplomat visited the residence of Maulana Sami, who also heads the Defence of Pakistain Council, in Akora Khattak.
During the two-hour meeting, Pak-Afghan relations, restoration of a durable peace to the region and other issues were discussed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... said on Wednesday that the Afghan leadership’s anti-Pakistain diatribe in an ’enemy country’ could jeopardise the friendly relationship between the two neighbouring countries.
He said this during his first visit to the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham where he shook hands with Afghan border guards as a friendly gesture.
No doubt they were thrilled, laughing about it later over their dinners.
"The Afghan leadership should refrain from levelling baseless allegations of abetting terrorism and harbouring Lion of Islam organizations while speaking at our enemy’s soil," he said, referring to 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. .. ’s recent remarks against Pakistain in India.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"Don't call us on reality!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2016 15:36 Comments ||
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Trump isn't even president yet and he's making the world jump to his tune. This is more than Champ ever did.
Egyptian officials scrapped a plan to proceed with a United Nations Security Council vote condemning the construction of Israeli settlements, following pushback from Israeli officials and President-elect Trump.
"Egypt requested the vote's delay to permit them to conduct an additional meeting of the Arab League's foreign ministers to work on the resolution's wording," Haaretz reported, citing Western diplomats. But the vote might be postponed "indefinitely," according to the report.
Israeli settlement construction drew condemnation from the State Department earlier this year, in addition to the rebukes of more customary critics, raising fears in Israel and among congressional Republicans that President Obama might not veto a resolution on the matter in the waning days of his presidency. President-elect Trump stated his opposition to the resolution, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was lobbying Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to drop the resolution.
"The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed," Trump said in a statement. "As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations."
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also called on the Obama administration to veto it.
Trump's statement might have had the greatest influence on the Egyptian decision, beyond Netanyahu's lobbying or other American statements. "Diplomats in Tel Aviv speculating that Sisi didn't cave because of Israel, but rather because he didn't want to piss off incoming president," Economist correspondent Gregg Carlstrom tweeted.
Smart move. Sisi knows a strong horse when he sees it...
Egypt is a temporary member of the UN Security Council, which is dominated by five permanent members — the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France — which have the authority to veto council resolutions. Obama used that authority to block a similar resolution condemning Israeli settlements in 2011, but his administration's increasingly public frustration with the failure of talks between Israel and the Palestinians raised the possibility that he wouldn't veto it this time around.
Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged the appeal of a change in policy when asked about a potential resolution to be authored by French diplomats. "If it's a biased and unfair and a resolution calculated to delegitimize Israel, we'll oppose it," he said at the Haim Saban Forum on December 4. "But it's getting more complicated now because there is a building sense of what I've been saying to you today, which some people can shake their heads, say, well, it's unfair."
Kerry emphasized that the Israeli settlements in disputed territory are not the cause of violence, but he argued that were nonetheless a "barrier" to an ultimate peace that was being tolerated by the Israeli government. "I'll tell you why I know that: because the left in Israel is telling everybody they are a barrier to peace, and the right that supports it openly supports it because they don't want peace," Kerry said.
The right in Israel wants peace: they just don't want to give away their country to get "peace", which in that case would be an euphemism for their necks stretched before the Hamas or ISIS blade. The problem isn't that Kerry fails to recognize this, the problem is that our current Secretary of State is weak and feckless enough that he won't say it publicly.
An absention at the UN would have represented a strong break, nonetheless, from standing U.S. policy and congressional Democrats and Republicans, as Obama's allies made clear Thursday.
An abstention would have been a signal that would have opened the floodgates to more hate and chicanery. It would clearly have de-legitimized Israel to the haters, the BDS types and the Europeans (but I of course repeat myself). Mr. Trump's incoming ambassador to Israel, and his incoming Secretary of State, and his incoming national security team apparently got on this right away and helped the boss make a good decision. I'm very encouraged.
"The draft United Nations resolution directly contradicts the Senate resolution I authored – and passed unanimously last year – condemning Palestinian terrorism and calling on all parties to return to the negotiating table immediately and without preconditions," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "Direct discussions remain the best avenue to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Trump isn't even president yet and he's making the world jump to his tune. This is more than Champ ever did.
That's because Trump has the goal of MAGA and Obozo's goal is diametrically opposed to MAGA.
Everything Obozo has done must be looked at with that in mind. I give thanks every day that he has been as lazy and inept as he has; if he worked smart and hard for his agenda America would be a historical footnote by now.
The Modern Language Association is at it again: at this year's annual MLA meeting in Philadelphia, academic boycotts of Israel are on the agenda...The 24,000 member organization, comprised of faculty in the fields English and other non-classical foreign languages, will be debating (again) whether to boycott their colleagues in Israel, and would extend to the Academy of the Hebrew Language.
The vote on January 7th involves the 297 members of the Delegate Assembly.
There are three resolutions being put before the Delegate Assembly: one in favor of a boycott of all Israeli universities; the second, opposing academic boycotts in general; the third, condemning the suppression of academic freedom at Palestinian universities by the Palestinians themselves (the Palestinian Authority and Hamas)...
Link goes to long write up on history and prospects for this initiative by a grad student posting anomalously because of the power and viciousness of the BDS movement.
I moved this to WoT related: in my opinion the BDS movement is indeed, at its core, a terrorist effort to exterminate the Jews.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Freudian slip on my part. The author used a pseudonym that amused me. So 'anonymously' in addition to 'anomalously'
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/23/2016 8:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Let them vote it in. Then pull accreditation from any school using their standard. Charge everyone voting yes with material support for terrorism. Jail them.
#2
As a Catholic boy descended from many generations of Catholics, I would ask my Jewish bothers and sisters who post here to allow me to say: I stand with Israel.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/23/2016 15:26 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Veil kinda drops when the pressures off don't it?
[Al Jazeera] Rodrigo Duterte called a top UN official an "idiot" and "joker" for urging murder investigations be launched against him after the Philippines' president admitted to "personally" killing criminals while he was mayor of Davao City.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Tuesday said Philippine judicial authorities should probe Duterte's accounts of having carried out killings.
"This guy [Zeid] is ever the joker or crazy," Duterte said during a televised speech on Thursday, and repeatedly called him "stupid".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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Zakho – Armed groups in Iraq affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party have recruited boys and girls in the Yezidi district of Sinjar [Shingal] and other parts of Kurdistan “despite pledges to Geneva Call that they would stop the use of underaged fighters”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
“In two cases the armed groups abducted or seriously abused children who tried to leave their forces. The groups should urgently demobilize children, investigate abuses, pledge to end child recruitment, and appropriately penalize commanders who fail to do so,” the HRW said.
The international watchdog said they documented 29 cases in which Kurdish and Yezidi children were recruited by two armed groups, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG) and the Shingal Resistance Units (YBŞ)–both affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
“The PKK should categorically denounce the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and commanders in affiliated armed groups should know that the recruitment and use of children under age 15 constitute war crimes,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Boys and girls should be with their families and going to school, not used as means to military ends.”
Moreover, the HRW reported that some children were arrested by Iraqi Kurdistan’s security forces and abused, with some of the child soldiers and their families evicted from refugee camps because their children had joined PKK-affiliated groups.
“Kurdistan Regional Government authorities should treat children suspected of involvement with the armed groups primarily as victims of abuse, not as criminals, in accordance with international norms on child soldiers set out in the Paris Principles of 1997. The authorities should not penalize the families of suspected child recruits,” the HRW said.
The HPG pledged to end recruitment of children under article 16 on October 5, 2013, when commanders signed a “Deed of Commitment” with the Geneva Call, an international nongovernmental organization that promotes adherence to the laws of war by armed groups. The HPG’s commanders said they would “make all efforts to ensure that all 16-18 year olds are separated and kept away from combat zones.”
PKK officials did not respond to a letter from Human Rights Watch asking if the HPG has penalized commanders for violating these internal rules, and other questions including the minimum age of recruitment, the international watchdog said.
“The YBŞ should demobilize any children in their ranks, end all recruitment of children under age 18, and punish recruiters,” Human Rights Watch added.
“Kurdish and Yezidi communities in Iraq have suffered unbearable horrors from war, but there is simply no excuse for using children to fight even if they are volunteering to join up,” Coursen-Neff said. “The PKK should take immediate steps to root out all child recruitment, refuse to accept child volunteers, and make amends to the families and children who have suffered.”
Armoured personnel carriers provided by the United States to the Lebanese army have been used by Hezbollah forces in Syria, a senior Israeli military official said on Wednesday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel "recognised these specific APCs... as those given by the US to Lebanon".
Israel shared the information with the United States "a few weeks ago", the official told reporters. He did not specify how many armoured personnel carriers were involved.
Nor did the Obama administration apparently respond...
Hezbollah has been fighting alongside President Bashar Al Assad's forces in Syria's civil war.
The APCs were probably handed by the Lebanese army to Hezbollah as part "of a deal", the Israeli official said, asserting that the militant group had "tightened its grip" over central Lebanese institutions.
"Here's the deal: you give us the vehicles, and in return we don't kill you. Deal?"
"Deal!"
Images shared on social media in recent weeks showed Hezbollah staging a military parade in the Syrian town of Qusayr, which it retook from rebels in 2013 in its first major victory after it intervened in support of Assad's regime. Photographs of tanks, armoured vehicles and anti-aircraft batteries displaying the movement's yellow flag could be seen.
Washington said last month that the United States would be "gravely concerned" if military equipment it supplied to the Lebanese army ended up in Hezbollah's hands.
Not that we'd do anything about it, of course...
Lebanon's armed forces denied that the vehicles in the pictures had belonged to it.
"No, no, certainly not!"
According to the Israeli official, Hezbollah has "about 8,000 people in Syria", estimating that 1,700 of its fighters have been killed there since the war began in 2011.
Watchtowers built by the Lebanese army on the Israeli border were also constructed according to Hezbollah instructions, with the country's military and Iran-backed Shiite militiamen conducting joint patrols, the Israeli official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
From Defense News: July 11, 2015
Over the past eight years Lebanon has received US military aid worth $1 billion, according to David Hale, the US ambassador to Lebanon.
This is one reason why you don't pay ransoms to terrorist governments.
Pentagon officials are downplaying declarations by Iran that it is spending some $1.7 billion provided by the United States on new advanced weapons systems, while also acknowledging that the Islamic Republic continues to build its military arsenal at an increasing rate, according to a Defense Department assessment obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Congress in an unclassified communication last week that the Pentagon does not believe Iran has spent some $1.7 billion awarded by the United States as part of what many described as a “ransom” payment to purchase new military equipment.
However, Dunford said that Iran is boosting its war machine, causing “great concern” among regional allies and other groups, according to information provided to Congress that downplayed the impact of the $1.7 billion payment to Tehran.
The assessment has been met with skepticism by congressional sources and foreign policy insiders who pointed to recent statements by Iranian officials who said that U.S. funds have been allocated to military sources.
“Intelligence assesses that the $1.7 billion transferred to Iran probably was allocated predominately to Iran’s economic sector, in accordance with Tehran’s stated emphasis on economic expansion, modernization, and diversification,” Dunford said in response to multiple questions from lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and 17 other senators.
Lawmakers suspect that Iran has used this cash infusion to boost its military operations in the region, including in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.
However, Dunford maintained this is not the case.
“Iran continues to seek improved missile systems and the replacement of aging military equipment, particularly aircraft and naval vessels,” he wrote. “However, there is a lack of information to suggest Iran is attempting to use the $1.7 billion towards these interests.”
One veteran foreign policy insider who liaises with Congress on the issue told the Free Beacon that the Pentagon is working off of politicized intelligence that aims to downplay Tehran’s military aspirations.
“Literally no one on the Hill takes the Obama administration seriously when they talk about the Iran ransom,” the source said. “Everyone knows the intelligence is politicized to hide the damage done by the president’s diplomacy. There’s a reason every Democrat in Congress voted for locking in Iran sanctions in the Iran Sanctions Act a few weeks ago. American lawmakers have had enough.”
I do hope that President Trump and Secretary Mattis clean house. This nonsense has to go away. We'll never have a politics-free military, but the military has to focus on capabilities and call it out when they see it.
Iranian leaders claimed earlier this year that Iran had ordered the $1.7 billion be invested in the country’s military budget.
When asked about these reports at the time, the State Department declined comment, telling the Free Beacon: “We would refer you to the Iranian government to address questions about its budget.”
The nearly $2 billion, which was delivered to Iran in cash, is a substantial cash infusion to the country’s coffers and was viewed by lawmakers as a primary means for Iran to invest in advanced military technology.
Since the payment was made, Iran has pursued multiple arms deals with Russia and sought to purchase a slew of new commercial jetliners, which the country has historically integrated into its air force.
Dunford admitted in his correspondence to Congress that Iran’s actions—including the buildup of ballistic missiles and other advanced weaponry—continue to cause worry in the Middle East.
“Regional actors have expressed great concern about Iran’s activities and intent, but I have not received new, specific concerns regarding an increasing belligerence or growing military investment on the part of Iran,” Dunford wrote.
When asked by lawmakers if the $1.7 billion payment has caused Dunford to reassess his view of the region, the top military official bristled.
“This specific transfer of money has not forced me to reconsider or change the advice I provide to the president or guidance I deliver to the Combatant Commands,” he wrote.
Dunford said earlier this year that the White House had not consulted with him before sending the $1.7 billion to Iran. Dunford said there is no correlation between increased financial resources and Iran’s increased malign activity in the region, as well as its repeated threats against U.S. assets.
“While Iran seeks to project an image of increasing strength in the region, its malign activities remain within historic norms,” he wrote. “There is a lack of information to suggest any change in the overall level of Iran’s belligerent activities is directly correlated with an increase in available financial resources.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2016 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.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United States has said Washington supports an Afghan-led 
the 
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
...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. ..
