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Today: 53 articles and 124 comments as of 11:18.
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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
U.S. Navy ship fires warning shots at Iranian vessels
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Afghanistan
Taliban reacts at US plan to deploy 300 soldiers in Helmand
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban holy warrior group reacted on US military plan to deploy around 300 soldiers in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province of Afghanistan, claiming that the deployment of additional forces indicate the defeat of the Afghan and US forces in Helmand battle.
"How'd ya come to lose that chunk of meat in the small of your back?"
"Bit myself."

"Yesterday American military commanders announced that 300 extra US troops will be deployed to Helmand in the upcoming spring to help their local puppet forces.

This announcement comes after 100 American SOF troops were also deployed last summer to defend Lashkar Gah but was promptly pulled back to Camp Bastion after they suffered heavy losses," a statement released by Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid reads.

"At the same time the American military brass has kept hundreds of troops active in a key military base named Camp Dwyer in Garmsir district of Helmand province away from the sight of their citizens," the statement said, adding that "This on top of hundreds of more foreign invaders residing at Camp Bastion in Helmand’s Shorab."

"Announcing the deployment of more forces to Helmand on top of presence of the above American troops is solely to lend morale to the defeated troops of the stooge 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....
administration in hopes they hold out until spring," the statement added.

Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Defend Benghazi Brigades urge for mobilization of February revolutionaries to fight Haftar
[Libya Observer] Defend Benghazi Brigades
a military coalition in Benghazi composed of Islamist and jihadist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia, Libya Shield 1, February 17th Martyrs Brigade, Rafallah al-Sahati Brigade, Jaysh al-Mujahidin, Brega Martyrs Brigade. It was formed in June 2014, in response both to the anti-Islamist Operation Dignity led by Khalifa Haftar, and the defeat of Islamist candidates in the 2014 Council of Deputies election....
(DBB) called on all of the February 17 revolutionary fighters to unite themselves and be ready for fighting away any attacks by what they described the forces of war criminal, Khalifa Haftar
... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
, stressing that the revolutionaries must be mobilized to be able to put an end to Haftar’s criminality against the February revolution.

In a statement, the DBB said the claims of fighting terrorism by Haftar are mere lies and have hence been proved to be irrelevant especially that he has coordinated the withdrawal of IS Death Eaters from Benghazi very recently.

"As he did in Derna, Haftar gave a safe corridor for IS Death Eaters out of Benghazi after their role, which is "demonizing Benghazi revolutionaries," had ended so that he can justify for the support of Egyptian and UAE warplanes and the foreign agenda he is executing in the city." The DBB’s statement reads.

"Cyrenaica locals must be aware of the conspiracies plotted against them and the country on the lam, and the encouragement of division among Libyans via the UAE-sponsored media outlets, which only aim at protracting conflicts in Libya." The DBB indicated.

They also said that what falsifies the claims of fighting terrorism by Haftar is his forces’ deliberate bombing of February revolutionaries, who have always fought terrorism, pointing out that the latest Arclight airstrikes on Bunyan Marsous
...(al-Bunyan al-Marsous, Solid Base) An operation carried out by Misratan forces loyal to the Libyan Goverenment of National Accord to dislodge ISIS forces from Sirte. 2,500 turbans were reported killed in the operation, which lasted from May through December.GNA's Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj officially announced the end of military operations on 18 December 2016...
forces is a living example.

"Haftar does such acts while he and his forces look away from the IS myrmidons, who have always been an easy target for the forces and the warplanes whether in Sirte or in Derna. Haftar’s forces never attacked them." The statement adds.

IS Death Eaters withdrew from their positions in Benghazi’s Ganfouda and al-Sabri districts in western Benghazi on Thursday dawn and they headed toward the central region, according to a number of sources.

Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Libya prepares to deport IS women to their origin countries
[Libya Observer] The front man of the Special Deterrent Force (SDF) Ahmed Salim, said they have filed a case at the Attorney General’s Office including the number and names of the women placed in durance vile
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
on charges of terrorism so that they be readied for deportation to their countries of origin.

"Most of the women are from Tunisia and their country has not yet contacted us about their cases." Salim indicated.

He added that expelling those terror-charged women will be done under the supervision of the Attorney General’s Office as per the legal procedures in the country.

According to Hakaekonline ‐ a Tunisian news website ‐ there are about 20 women arrested in Libyan jails.

The SDF has, more than once, arrested Tunisian nationals who have ties with IS in Libya, the last of whom were the Tunisians captured in Sirte.

Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Arabia
Saudi prince readies strategy if clerics oppose reforms
[Dhaka Tribune] The young prince leading 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...
’s drive for economic reform has laid out a three-pronged strategy to avoid a backlash from any religious conservatives opposed to his plan, according to remarks reported by Foreign Affairs magazine on Saturday.

Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 31-year-old overseeing the kingdom’s biggest-ever overhaul of state and society, told visiting researchers last month punitive measures would be considered for any holy mans who incited or resorted to violence over the plan, one of the researchers wrote.

Prince Mohammed said he believed only a small percentage of the kingdom’s holy mans were too dogmatic to be reasoned with, the journal reported, while more than half could be persuaded to support his reforms through engagement and dialogue.

The rest were ambivalent or not in a position to cause problems, he is reported to have said.

There was no immediate comment from the royal court.

Prince Mohammed has couched his "Vision 2030" reform plan to wean the kingdom’s economy off oil in terms referencing Islamic tradition and has kept the focus on the economy, with scant concrete pledges of social change in the highly conservative kingdom.

But in a country that adheres to an austere brand of Wahhabi Sunni Islam, where gender segregation is mandatory and concerts and cinemas are banned, the plan’s seemingly anodyne goals to empower women, promote sports and invest in entertainment are controversial.

Saudi Arabia’s holy mans offer legitimacy and public support to a king who styles himself the guardian of Islam’s holiest sites. They retain control of the justice system but leave most other matters of governance to him, so long as his edicts do not contradict their interpretation of Islamic law.

The government started trying to rein in what it saw as murderous Moslem viewpoints in the clergy after Islamist murderous Moslem attacks inside the kingdom began in 2003, pushing hardline holy mans to renounce al Qaeda and violent tactics and sacking holy mans seen as disseminating radical views.

In the later years of the reign of King Abdullah, King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians....
’s predecessor, some senior holy mans who opposed his cautious social reforms too openly lost their jobs.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  Could just dose the lot of them with enough acid to keep them high for the next 20 years... It's not like anybody could tell the difference...
Posted by: 3dc || 01/09/2017 13:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Might even do a bit of good.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/09/2017 17:47 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey denies claims of harm to civilians in Syria
[AA.TR] The Turkish military has dismissed claims civilians were effected during its ongoing military operation in northern Syria.

"The allegations that civilians were affected during the ongoing Operation Euphrates Shield do not reflect the facts on the ground and are ill-intended," the General Staff said in a statement Sunday that did not specify the source of the allegations.

"To not harm the civilians is one of the basic principles of the Turkish Armed Forces," it added.

The operation began in late August to improve security, support coalition forces, and eliminate the terror threat along The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's border with Syria with the help of opposition fighters backed by Turkish artillery and jets.

Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Home Front: WoT
Hero shields Broward teacher from Fort Lauderdale airport shooter
[Miami Herald] Annika Dean was waiting for her luggage at the Fort Lauderdale airport when she heard gunshots and turned to see a man walking toward her with a gun in his hand.
Mr. Bartosiewicz and wife at the photo to the right.
As a teacher in Broward County schools, Dean had received disaster training, but during the school shooting drills there had always been somewhere to hide. Under a desk, in a utility closet, behind a locked classroom door. But at the airport, with the gunman just 30 feet from her, Dean had nowhere to go.

"There was no way I could have escaped," she said. "I would have been right in his path if I had tried to evacuate through the doors."

Instead, Dean dove to the ground next to a luggage cart and kept her eyes on the carpet, afraid to look up. People all around her had dropped to the floor. Dean stayed still and quiet, but a few passengers shouted obscenities at the shooter. He continued shooting, not speaking.

For the first 30 seconds, Dean prayed fervently that she would survive and that her two children would not be left without a mother. Then a man dropped down and lay on top of Dean, quietly telling her that he would protect her. The shooter walked over to them, the man later told Dean, and began to shoot over them, but Dean kept her eyes down and didn’t realize how close the shooter was.

It was hard to know exactly where the shooter was because he didn’t say a word. "He wasn’t talking, he was very quiet," said Dean. "Other than the gunshots, which were very loud," Dean didn’t hear anything else. "Sometimes he sounded close, sometimes he sounded farther away," she said.

After what Dean said felt like a minute and a half of shooting, the police arrived. By then, the gunman was on the other side of the baggage-claim area, and when it was clear that he had been detained, Dean and the man who had saved her got up from the floor, both unharmed.

"The first thing I said to him was I thanked him and told him that it was terrifying and what he did brought me comfort, that it was just so comforting," she said. "I thanked him throughout the day and told him he was a hero."

The man who saved Dean, identified by the Sun Sentinel as Tony Bartosiewicz, could not be reached for comment. His daughter told the Sun Sentinel that her father was on a cruise and could not be reached. She said he was a retired electrician from Rochester, New York, who was traveling with his wife, Jennifer Cleeton, who was in a different part of the baggage-claim area when the shooting occurred and was also unharmed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the Ostrich Defense
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/09/2017 6:28 Comments || Top||

#2  It's interesting to me that horrific events often bring out the "hero" in some JohnQCitizen--just ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things!
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/09/2017 15:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
AQIS involvement feared in North Nazimabad gun and grenade attacks
[DAWN] While law-enforcement agencies picked up 15 suspects in connection with the Friday grenade and gun attacks in North Nazimabad, a bigwig of the Counter-Terrorism Department on Saturday believed that the attacks were the handiwork of snuffies of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

On Friday, two men riding a cycle of violence first threw a grenade at the North Nazimabad Police Complex that also houses the Taimuria cop shoppe and then fired at personnel of traffic police at the Five Star traffic intersection, killing a rickshaw driver.

Police and paramilitary Rangers launched a joint combing operation in North Nazimabad and took into custody 15 criminals involved in "terrorist activities", said a Rangers spokesperson in a statement on Saturday.

The held suspects were handed over to the police for further legal action, he added.

Officials said they were pursuing all angles to identify the assailants and the possible motive behind the two attacks.

"The modus operandi appears to be of banned jihadi outfits as they had been involved in similar acts of terrorism in the same vicinity of North Nazimabad and other localities," said CTD official Raja Umer Khattab.

He suspected the involvement of banned AQIS in both the incidents.

He believed that the AQIS network in the city had been weakened following the April 2016 arrests of their members who were involved in some improvised bomb (IED) attacks on law-enforcement agencies in the metropolis. Since the Taimuria cop shoppe came under grenade attack, it indicated that the banned krazed killer outfit now lacked IED-making expertise, he added.

Regarding their possible motive, the CTD official said that the snuffies wanted to make their presence felt in the city.

Regarding the assassination'>assassination
of Sub-Inspector Iqbal Mehmood, who was bumped off on Wednesday night on main Rashid Minhas Road, he said that Sherlocks had ruled out the involvement of any banned krazed killer outfits in the killing.

He said that the Sherlocks were looking into the cases on which the slain officer was working and some progress was made in ascertaining the identity and motive of the killers.

Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent


Iraq
Turkey to Withdraw Troops from Iraq’s Bashiqa
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says his administration has reached an agreement with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
over Baghdad’s demand for the withdrawal of Turkish military forces from a camp in the north of Iraq.

Abadi made the announcement on Saturday after he met with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in the capital.

During a joint presser, Yildirim said that the issue of Turkish troops in Bashiqa camp near djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
will be solved with Iraq in a friendly way in line with clearing ISIS terror group. Explaining that the troops were stationed in Bashiqa out of a necessity, Yildirim said that great measures have been covered to clear ISIS from the region.

Yildirim added that two parties have agreed to make the necessary efforts will be made in coordination with Peshmerga and Iraqi troops to clear Sinjar from terrorist elements, referring to PKK presence in the area. "For us, terror is the same no matter where it comes from. Therefore, Sinjar poses a primary threat for Turkey and we thank Dear Prime Minister’s sensitivity to leave this threat aside. We are ready to do necessary cooperation in this issue too," Yildirim said.

Yildirim expressed his gratitude to Abadi for his latest statement that said Iraq won’t allow PKK to use its sovereign territory to damage Turkey.

Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Duringa joint press conference, Yildirim said that the issue of Turkish troops in Bashiqa camp near Mosul will be solved with Iraq in a friendly way in line with clearing ISIS terror group.

"Solved" by going through Mosul itself?
Posted by: Pappy || 01/09/2017 14:20 Comments || Top||


US rejects Maliki remarks that Israel is bigger threat to Mideast than terrorism
[RUDAW.NET] The United States disagreed with Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki’s remarks that Israel is a bigger threat to the Middle East than terrorism and that Iran and Iraq should fight the Zionist enemy side by side.

"We certainly don’t agree with the sentiment that Israel is a terrorist threat," said US State Department front man John Kirby on Friday in response to a question about Maliki’s statement. "I mean, that just flies in the face of fact."

Al-Maliki, the former Iraqi prime minister, made inflammatory statements towards US allies Israel, 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...
and the Kurdistan Region at a presser in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday.

"I tell you of the threat that surpasses terrorism which is the Zionist enemy and we should all stand on one front against this threat and Israeli political, cultural, economic and media plots," al-Maliki had remarked.

Kirby was also asked of US government support for the Iraq and about al-Maliki saying that the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary could be deployed to Syria.

"I would just tell you that we remain proud of the support that we are offering to the Government of Iraq in Baghdad ‐ military support, economic support, some of which we just talked about, certainly the political support to the reforms that the prime minister (Haider al-Abadi) is pursuing," he responded.

Maliki said that Iraq was grateful to Iran for its support in the form of arms and ammunition in the fight against ISIS and Kirby added that it was understandable that Iraq wanted to work with its neighbors to counter ISIS.

"All we require is that those nations who are going to be thus involved, that they do it in a way that supports the legitimate, democratically elected government in Baghdad," Kirby said. "And does so also in a way that doesn’t inflame sectarian tensions."
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  He knows who's buying his dinner.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/09/2017 8:33 Comments || Top||

#2  He certainly didn't stay bought any more than necessary, did he?
Posted by: gorb || 01/09/2017 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  During the Pelosi / Reid years it was clear that the Democrats would sabotage aid for him and his regime. How much was principled aversion to a thug and how much was naked anti-Bush partisanship is open to debate. Iran however courted him and the rest is history.
Posted by: magpie || 01/09/2017 16:51 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Facebook closes over 100 Hamas-linked accounts, angering terror group
[IsraelTimes] Move follows online campaign celebrating infamous bomb maker; Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", asks supporters to find alternate social media site.

Hamas slammed the social media giant Facebook for closing down over a hundred pages belonging or sympathetic to the terror group in control of the Gazoo Strip.

The closures took place on Thursday, in light of a social media campaign by Hamas to celebrate the man who first manufactured bombs for it in the early 1990s, Yahya Ayyash, known as "the engineer." Ayyash was assassinated by Israel 21 years ago on Thursday.

"We condemn the arbitrary measures taken by Facebook management against the pages and accounts supporting the Hamas movement. We affirm that those pages have the right to express their points of view just as anyone else does," wrote Hamas front man Husam Badran in a statement posted on the terror group’s website.

Badran called on "Paleostinian activists and Paleostinian news sites with Facebook pages to search for effective replacements" for Facebook.

Hamas said a total of 90 Facebook pages belonging to Hamas or sites sympathetic to the group were taken down, as well as another 30 personal pages belonging to individuals.

Other Paleostinian news sites on Twitter said over 200 pro-Hamas accounts were closed by Facebook since Thursday,

On Thursday, official Hamas media and sites sympathetic to the group launched a social media campaign commemorating the 21st anniversary of the liquidation of Ayyash with the slogan "Be like Ayyash."
Happy unexpected death to you
Happy unexpected death to you
Have a wonderful slide to He-e-ell
Happy unexpected death to you!
And many moooooooooorrree...
Ayyash was assassinated by Israel in 1996 by a remotely detonated cellphone given to the bomb maker by a close friend who had been in the service of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.

Hamas has long accused Facebook of colluding with Israel against it and suppressing free speech for Paleostinians.

Israel has accused Facebook of facilitating Paleostinian incitement against Israelis, especially following a wave of hundreds of attacks that began in October 2015, which security services said was fueled by online incitement.

In April, Facebook shut down the Facebook page for the spokesperson of Hamas’s military wing the Qassam Brigades, only a day after it was opened.

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
despite the closures of many Hamas-linked Facebook accounts on Thursday, the official page of the Qassam Brigades, considered a terror group by most Western governments, is still online.

Ayyash continues to be lionized not just by Hamas supporters but also by Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
’s Fatah party, which on Thursday also published posts on Facebook and Twitter commemorating the death of "the engineer."

"The pledge of Fatah will remain the pledge of the deaders," read Thursday’s post on Fatah’s official Facebook page commemorating Ayyash.

Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the pilot and the copilot had both hit the silk.

Jack! Cynthia exclaimed. Do you know how to drive one of these things?

Jack wiped some of the blood from his knuckles.

No, he said. Do you?...

on Tuesday, the so-called Facebook bill, which would allow the state to seek court orders to force the social media giant to remove certain content based on police recommendations, passed its first reading in the Knesset.

The bill was proposed by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked in July, two weeks after the two met with Facebook officials in the Knesset.

The government says the bill will only be invoked in cases of suspected incitement, where there is a real possibility that the material in question endangers the public or national security.

According to a front man for Erdan, Facebook recently agreed to remove just 23 out of 74 pages brought to its attention by Israel for spreading alleged Paleostinian incitement. "Their policy of removing [content] is very, very, very strict and the bar is set very high," the front man told The Times of Israel in July.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2017 00:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  I bet 'my space' would still host them

Also, Linkedin.
Posted by: lord garth || 01/09/2017 9:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd also bet it's possible some of these sites were created in-house at Facebook (think sock puppetry) just so they could be shut down with great fanfare.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/09/2017 10:44 Comments || Top||

#3  M. Murcek, that may be the most cynical thing I've read in a long time.

Wish I'd thought of it.

Of course is the truth really cynical?
Posted by: AlanC || 01/09/2017 12:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Hamass could always try to build a website of their own rather than just bomb everything in sight. That would be a nice change.

Nice poem, TW. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 01/09/2017 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  The burning question is if Facebook got Snopes to vet the accounts first.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/09/2017 14:23 Comments || Top||

#6  They must have praised Trump.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/09/2017 14:45 Comments || Top||

#7  could facebook be tried for treason?
Posted by: 746 || 01/09/2017 15:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Good thing Zuckerberg built a wall around his house in Hawaii.
Posted by: Raj || 01/09/2017 17:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Nice poem, TW. :-)

It wasn't exactly his birthday, gorb, but his soul was reborn in another place nonetheless. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2017 20:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leader of Liwa Suqour al-Sham vows to keep fighting SAA, despite ceasefire
[ALMASDARNEWS] Abu Essa Alshikh, the leader of Liwa Suqour al-Sham has said that his forces will continue attacking pro-government forces despite the nationwide ceasefire.

The ceasefire has been holding in most parts of the Country, despite a few attacks, such as the bombing outside of a courthouse in Azaz.
From Wikipedia:

English: Falcons of the Levant Brigade, also known as the Sham Falcons Brigade, is an armed rebel organisation formed by Ahmed Abu Issa early in the Syrian Civil War to fight against the Syrian Government. It was a member of the Islamic Front and a former unit of the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front. They have a history of coordinating with Ahrar al-Sham and the Al-Nusra Front (a group which has re-branded itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham). In March 2015, the Suqour al-Sham Brigade merged with Ahrar ash-Sham, but left Ahrar al-Sham in September 2016. Also in September 2016 they joined the Army of Conquest which Ahrar al-Sham is also a member

Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Rafsanjani dead alright
More from the brief notice yesterday. You may commence ululating...
Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died in hospital on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, the ISNA and Fars news agencies reported.

Rafsanjani, who was 82, was a pivotal figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979. He had been admitted to the Shohadaa Hospital in northern Tehran, one of his relatives, Hossein Marashi, was quoted as saying by the agencies.
Was it AIDS, sushi poisoning or a sucking chest wound?
Rafsanjani served as president twice between 1989 and 1997.

He was badly beaten in the 2005 presidential election by much more hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a conservative backlash. But rather than retreating from public view because of that humiliation, he remained in the limelight, emerging as a supposedly moderate counter-figure to the ultra-hardliners clustered around Ahmadinejad, under whom Iran's relations with the West plummeted.
He was NEVER a "moderate."
In recent years, his influence within state institutions had waned.

In 2013, his candidacy for the presidential election was rejected because of his advanced age. The next year, he delivered crucial support for the eventual winner, Hassan Rouhani, a supposed moderate with whom he has a warm rapport.

He held the chairmanship of Iran's main political arbitration body, the Expediency Council, since 1990, when he was appointed by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Which means he was one of the major, if not the major, political figures in the collective dictatorship. And never a moderate.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri calls ISIS ‘liars’
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
has denounced what he said was a dishonest propaganda campaign by rival group ISIS against his organization, in an audio message released Thursday. In the message found and translated by US-based watchdog the SITE Intelligence Group, the Egyptian myrmidon accuses ISIS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
of slandering his group.

In his message, the 65-year-old Zawahiri complained that al-Baghdadi had alleged that al-Qaeda opposes sectarian attacks on Shiites and was prepared to work with Christian leaders.

"The liars insist upon their falsehood, to the extent that they claimed we do not denounce Shiites," Zawahiri said, according to the translation of the message, which was released by al-Qaeda’s media arm. Zawahiri denied he had said that Christians could be partners in the governance of a future Islamic caliphate, having only said that they could go about their affairs within it.

"What I have said is that they are partners in the land, such as agriculture, trade, and money, and we keep their privacy in it, in accordance with the laws of our Sharia," he said. And he insisted he had not called for Shiite Moslems to be spared, but had suggested focusing attacks on Shiite-led Iraqi forces and not on random atrocities against civilians.

"I had told them several times to stop kabooms in markets, husseiniyats and mosques, and to concentrate on military, security and police forces and Shiite militiamen," he said. A husseiniyat is a Shiite place of worship and the Iraqi security forces, in their battle against ISIS, are backed by Shiite religious militias.

Zawahiri also denied al-Baghdadi’s charge that al-Qaeda had supported ousted former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who attempted to rule through the ballot box. Thursday’s message did not include any footage of Zawahiri speaking.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They're no Islamic enough, Ayman. That makes them apostates, right?
Posted by: Bobby || 01/09/2017 7:45 Comments || Top||


Top western IS member was married to Bangladeshi-born Brit
[Dhaka Tribune] A top terrorist among 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....
's ranks was married to a London-born woman of Bangladeshi origin, according to an exclusive The Atlantic report.

Joya Choudhury Tania, who has since returned to the UK having divorced the right-hand man of the recently killed IS chief strategist Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, married Yahya Abu Hassan when she was 20, before travelling to Syria with him.

Yahya is currently the most senior western member of the group.

Born John Georgelas to upper-middle class American-Greek parents in Texas, Yahya met Tania online in 2003 on a Moslem matrimonial site, according to the Atlantic report. Yahya abandoned his military family in Texas after converting to Islam in 2001.

Tania, born to a Bangladeshi immigrant father who worked as a postmaster, was to all intents and purposes westernised and with no interest in religion, reveals The Atlantic story. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
she became increasingly radicalised while studying for her A-levels in East London.

Though Tania’s parents and four siblings had apparently neglected their religion as they assimilated into British middle-class culture, after meeting Yahya online, which was apparently not uncommon among her peers at college, Tania married him in 2003, later officially exchanging vows in Rochdale, pregnant at the time.

Within a year the couple had surrounded themselves with radical Islamist preachers, such as Jordanian Abu Isa al-Rifai.

After leaving London for Texas while pregnant with their first child, Yahya was sentenced to 34-month in prison for hacking the website of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, though Tania stood by him and awaited his release.

In 2011, Yahya’s parole expired and the couple moved to Egypt with their two sons, with Tania giving birth to a third not long after. It was here that the couple met European Islamists, as Yahya made a name for himself as something of a scholar.

The pair left Egypt after the fall of the Moslem Brüderbund-led government and Yahya took his family to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
Reports suggest Tania was unaware of the destination when her husband said he was taking the family on a trip ‐ which turned out to be to Syria. She is one of around 800 Britons to have joined the radical group in Syria, approximately 100 of whom are thought to be women.

However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
it did not last long and Tania abandoned Yahya not long afterwards in 2013, and, according to The Times, while heavily pregnant with her fourth child with him. After flying back to London, she ultimately returned to Dallas to live close to her mother and father-in-law. She divorced Yahya in 2014.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Why isn't she on trial for treason?
Why aren't the people who made her a koranic literalist on a flight or in jail?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/09/2017 4:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Witness to the BDS loss at the MLA meeting in Phil last weekend
a friend of Prof Jacobson writes
As reported extensively on this site, the Modern Language Association held its annual convention this weekend in Philadelphia.

At the meeting a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions was defeated and a resolution opposing academic boycotts was passed and is now before the general membership. For coverage see here and here.

I am an MLA member, and I was there. Unfortunately, for professional reasons, I am not able to write under my own name...

The atmosphere was tense. The sessions were highly charged and emotional. Speakers compared each other to the Judenrat and the Spanish Inquisition. People were visibly nervous.

For the other 99% of conference attendees, on the other hand, the MLA was business as usual. The bar in the lobby of the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott was constantly packed, the atmosphere was social, festive, and gregarious. In the corridors just outside the rooms where the BDS focused sessions were taking place, you'd be hard pressed to detect that anything other than great fun. It's not clear how many of the estimated 8,000 or so conference attendees even knew, much less cared, about the drama at the Delegate Assembly this weekend.

Inside Grand Ballroom GH, where the Delegate Assembly meeting was held, you could feel the tension, but you also couldn't help but notice how empty the room was.
article goes on and on... if you have ever been involved in academic or professional orgs this may be interesting
Posted by: lord garth || 01/09/2017 08:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Beware a room full of tense English professors...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/09/2017 10:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, now it is past tense!
[bada-rum-bump-bump]
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 01/09/2017 15:31 Comments || Top||

#3  #2 gets my vote for the most underappreciatedly sly comment of the day.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/09/2017 18:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh it was most assuredly appreciated, but I was late waltzing out the door, and I only just got home.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2017 20:27 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2017-01-09
  U.S. Navy ship fires warning shots at Iranian vessels
Sun 2017-01-08
  German Vice Chancellor calls for ban of Salafist mosques
Sat 2017-01-07
  ISIS propaganda king killed
Fri 2017-01-06
  Gunman Opens Fire at Fort Lauderdale Airport; UPDATE 3 5 dead
Thu 2017-01-05
  3 girl suicide bombers gunned down in northeastern Nigeria
Wed 2017-01-04
  Turkey Nabs 2 Foreigners at Istanbul Airport over Nightclub Attack
Tue 2017-01-03
  U.S.-led airstrikes kill 4 Fateh al-Sham commanders in Idlib
Mon 2017-01-02
  Islamic State Claims Istanbul Nightclub Terrorist Attack
Sun 2017-01-01
  Top wanted Boko Haram commander arrested at Borno LG Chairman’s house
Sat 2016-12-31
  BREAKING: 'Many injured' in Istanbul nightclub attack
Fri 2016-12-30
  Drone Strike Kills Local Qaida Chief in Yemen
Thu 2016-12-29
  Jordan sentences 5 Islamic State members to death
Wed 2016-12-28
  Yemeni (Saleh) army commander defects
Tue 2016-12-27
  Top Taliban leader leading Kunduz battle killed in Ghazni ambush
Mon 2016-12-26
  Phoenix cops arrest alleged ‘jihadist’ plotting midnight Mass attack: ‘Get down with this ISIS s-t’

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