[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Some of the prisoners of Hezb-e-Islami will be released next week as the Afghan government is waiting for the return of the party’s leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a front man to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. , told news hounds that the peace deal with Hezb-e-Islami is being implemented.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani chaired the National Security Council meeting late in February and instructed the relevant authorities to take immediate steps in implementation of the peace deal with Hezb-e-Islami.
It was also concluded that all provisions of the agreement, specifically the release of the prisoners must be implemented.
The peace agreement with Hezb-e-Islami was signed late in the month of September last year.
The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Security Council further paved the way for the proper implementation of the peace agreement provisions by remove Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s name from the sanctions list few weeks ago.
The peace deal was signed amid optimisms that the other myrmidon groups will follow Hekmatyar in participating in an Afghan-led grinding of the peace processor.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government reacted at Moscow’s stance regarding the Taliban demands for the full withdrawal of the foreign forces from the country.
Presidential front man Shah Hussain Murtazawi told news hounds that no one has the right to dictate terms or issue instructions regarding the presence of the foreign forces in the country.
He said the issue relates to the Afghan nation and the Afghan government to decide regarding the presence of the foreign forces or the forces belonging to the international allies of Afghanistan.
This comes as the Russian special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir 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.... ov earlier endorsed Talibs group’s call for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan.
"Of course it’s justified" for the Taliban to oppose the foreign military presence," Kabulov said during an interview.
Kabulov further added "Who’s in favor? Name me one neighboring state that supports it."
The latest remarks by Kabulov followed concerns by the American officials regarding the growing attempts by Moscow to strengthen links with the Taliban group.
The American defense secretary James Mattis said Washington is concerned regarding the ties between Moscow and Taliban group.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
if Russia is cozying up to the Taliban in order to thwart ISIS (ISIS could be considered 'foreign troops', it is playing an odd game indeed
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/03/2017 16:29 Comments ||
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[Libya Herald] French ambassador Brigitte Curmi has had talks with Khalifa Hafter on the crisis in Libya. The two met on Wednesday at the field marshal’s Rajmah headquarters, near Benghazi’s Benina airbase. It followed a meeting in Tobruk the previous day with House of Representatives’ president Ageela Saleh.
Ambassador Curmi is reported to have told Hafter that as far as La Belle France is concerned there could be no military solution to the crisis, only a political one. That meant reconciliation.
La Belle France would be willing to help in that process, the Libya Herald has been told.
It is the first time that the two have met, indeed it is thought to be the first time that any French ambassador has met Hafter.
La Belle France has taken the view for the past six months that while it fully supports the Libyan Political Agreement and the Presidency Council, Hafter has a role to play and should be brought into the government’s framework.
French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault spelled this out in a TV interview last October. At the time, Italia was one of the few Western powers also supporting the idea. Since then, others, including the British and Americans, have also come out in support of the plan.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the smoke and fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... it is reported today that the Italian and Dutch ambassadors will meet Ageela Saleh in the next couple of days and possible also Hafter.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Because it says he is obstructing the political process, the EU has renewed sanctions on Nuri Abu Sahmain, the former General National Congress president, along with the House of Representatives’s Ageelah Saleh and the prime minister of the so-called National Salvation Government (NSG) Khalifa Ghwell.
The oddity is that Abu Sahmain, an Amazigh, has played no role in Libyan politics for almost a year and is believed to have left Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... for Zuwara. His most recent pronouncement was in April last year when he attacked the old parliament for dissolving itself and morphing into the State Council.
It is hard therefore to understand how the EU’s continued financial and travel sanctions might influence Sahmain’s behaviour. It was not possible to contact Sahmain for his reaction.
The European Council first imposed sanctions on Sahmain, Saleh and Ghwell last April because they were considered to be blocking the implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement of December 2015.
Saleh remains the president (speaker) of the HoR but Ghwell’s attempt to resuscitate the NSG in Tripoli has thus far met with limited success. Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!... Sahmain is widely no longer considered to be a political player.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] An Egyptian court ruled Sunday that a judicial decision to block the transfer of two Red Sea islands to 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... was invalid, lawyers said, in a blow for opponents of a handover.
The urgent matters court in Cairo invalidated a verdict by Egypt's highest administrative court that went against the islands' transfer.
Saudi Arabia has been a main financial backer of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi since the former army chief toppled his Islamist predecessor in 2013.
The deal to hand over the islands, signed during an April 2016 visit by Saudi 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.... during which Riyadh showered Egypt with aid, provoked accusations that Cairo had "sold" the strategic islands.
Cairo said the two islands -- Tiran and Sanafir -- were Saudi territory to start with, but had been leased to Egypt in the 1950s.
The accord has sparked street protests and a legal battle between the government, which insists along with Sisi that the islands are Saudi, and lawyers opposed to the measure.
The urgent matters court ruled "in favor of disregarding the ruling of the high administrative court," as "the judiciary doesn't have the authority to interfere with matters of illusory sovereignty," said Ashraf Farahat, the lawyer who filed the latest lawsuit.
Khaled Ali, a lawyer who argued in the administrative court that the islands belonged to Egypt, said Sunday's verdict aimed to give the government "judicial cover" as it pushes to hand over the territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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How long do you think it will be until the entire thing falls apart again, dear Reader? One week, perhaps, or as much as three months?
[An Nahar] The Italian government said Sunday that dozens of rival tribes in southern Libya had agreed to cooperate on securing the country's borders in an effort to curb the influx of migrants colonists trying to reach Europe.
Italia's interior ministry said the 60 tribal leaders -- notably the Tuareg of the southwest, the Toubou of the southeast, and the Arab tribe of Awlad Suleiman -- had reached the 12-point deal after 72 hours of secret talks in Rome.
A representative from Libya's U.N.-backed Government of National Accord, which is based in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and controls western Libya, was also present.
"A Libyan border patrol unit will be operational to monitor Libya's southern border of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles)," Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti told Italia's La Stampa newspaper, one of several Italian media outlets reporting on the deal Sunday.
Southern Libya is criss-crossed by smuggling routes for people, drugs and weapons. Since the 2011 uprising that ousted Moamer Qadaffy, a mosaic of tribal and ethnic forces is fighting for control of illicit trade and oil fields in the region.
Tuaregs control the border with southern Algeria, while further east, the Toubou operate along the borders with Chad and Sudan.
Arab tribes in the region have supported the authorities in western Libya, but they also maintain ties with a rival administration that holds sway in the east -- and regularly clash with the Toubou.
Fayez al-Sarraj, chief of the fragile GNA, has struggled to impose the government's authority, despite its backing by many political and military leaders.
The accord, whose details have not yet been released, is the latest in a series of deals European countries have sought to reduce migration from Libya, which has increased sharply in recent months.
The deal aims to combat "an economy based on illicit drugs, which causes hundreds of deaths in the Mediterranean, thousands of desperate people looking for a better life, a populist push (in Europe) and a jihadist threat in the desert," according to the text of the agreement, quoted in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Egypt's army has named a prominent leader of bully boy group Ansar Beit El-Maqdis who it said was killed by the Egyptian armed forces weeks ago.
In an official statement on Sunday, army spokesperson Tamer El-Refai said that the group's leader Salem Salma El-Hamdeen, known as Abu Anas El-Ansari, died following injuries sustained in an Arclight airstrike on 18 March that killed 188 forces of Evil and injured several others.
According to El-Refai, El-Ansari is one of the group's founders and is among its most important leaders in North Sinai, involved in arming and training forces of Evil in the area.
The army statement comes two days after the bully boy group's propaganda magazine El-Nabaa mourned the death of the 40-year-old leader through an obituary.
"El-Ansari has been a key figure of jihad since he became a member of al-Tawhid and al-Jihad in Sinai. Then he was detained for a period of time, then released to return to jihad before his re-arrest," the obituary read.
"He was then among the escapees from Egyptian prisons during the 2011 revolution in Egypt, at which point he was locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by the authorities, and then released to continue jihad," the obituary read.
Al-Tawhid and al-Jihad's branch in Sinai had been dominant among bully boy groups in Sinai in the decade prior to the ousting of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... According to media reports, al-Ansari was among the suspects in the 2005 kabooms targeting tourists in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh that left at least 88 people dead and hundreds injured.
After 2011, al-Ansari was among the founders of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, and in late 2014, the Sinai-based group pledged allegiance to 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.... terrorist group.
Just weeks before the pledge, al-Ansari was chosen as leader by Abu Bakr El-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State group.
This is the first time that the army has provided information about the group's leader to the media.
Most of the attacks against security personnel and installations in North Sinai in recent years have been claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.
The army recently announced it had taken full control of the Mount Halal area, which was considered one of the key centres of terrorist activity in Sinai.
The Times of Israel says only 18 were killed in the airstrike, and names Mr. El-Hamdeen's former jihadi group as Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad.
[Breitbart] Britain’s most dangerous Islamists will be housed in a special unit to stop them converting their fellow inmates. The Times reports work is currently under way at HMP Frankland near Durham, which will have a "prison within a prison" to keep Islamic extremists away from other prisoners.
#8
Not sure why this took so long. Radicals should be treated like a virus so they can't infect anyone else. Isolate them (for their own safety of course).
[An Nahar] Britannia has apologized after an egg was thrown at a Saudi military official during a visit to London, Saudi state media said Sunday.
Do you think they would apologize if someone egged Dick Cheney?
An anti-war activist last week attempted a citizen's arrest of General Ahmed Assiri, front man for the Saudi-led Gulf coalition fighting rebels in Yemen, before another threw an egg that hit Assiri in the back.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the Saudi king and the country's defense minister, to apologize for "the attack on General Ahmed Assiri, counselor to the prince, by protestors," the state-run SPA news agency said.
Assiri told AFP he had been "subject to aggression" by protestors critical of Riyadh's operations in Yemen.
Video posted on Twitter showed anti-war activist Sam Walton approaching Assiri, putting his hand on the general's shoulder and announcing he was placing him under citizen's arrest before being pushed aside by security personnel.
Walton can be heard saying, "I'm placing you under citizen's arrest for war crimes in Yemen."
Civilians in Britannia are permitted to arrest anyone suspected of committing an indictable offense.
Another protestor followed Assiri's security detail to the entrance of a building, where he threw an egg that hit the general in the back. Video showed Assiri turning around and giving the protestor the finger.
Rights groups have harshly criticized 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... over its military action in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have been killed in the two years since Riyadh intervened against Iran-backed Houthis.
Amnesia Amnesty International last month condemned Britannia for transferring arms to Saudi Arabia, saying Yemeni civilians continued to "pay the price".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] China stepped up a campaign against what it calls religious extremism in its far-western region of Xinjiang on Saturday by implementing a range of measures, including prohibiting "abnormal" beards, the wearing of veils in public places and the refusal to watch state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Hundreds of people have died in recent years in Xinjiang, home of the Moslem Uighur people, in unrest blamed by Beijing on Islamist snuffies and separatists, although rights groups say the violence is more a reaction to repressive government policies.
The government strongly denies committing any abuses in Xinjiang and insists the legal, cultural and religious rights of Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, are fully protected.
While China officially guarantees freedom of religion, authorities have issued a series of measures in the past few years to tackle what it sees as a rise in religious extremism.
New legislation, passed by Xinjiang politicians on Wednesday and published on the region’s official news website, widened existing rules and came into effect on Saturday.
Workers in public spaces like stations and airports are required to "dissuade" those who fully cover their bodies, including veiling their faces, from entering, and to report them to the police, the rules state.
Rejecting or refusing radio, television and other public facilities and services, marrying using religious rather than legal procedures and "using the name of Halal to meddle in the secular life of others" has been banned.
"Parents should use good moral conduct to influence their children, educate them to revere science, pursue culture, uphold ethnic unity and refuse and oppose extremism," the rules say.
The document also bans not allowing children to attend regular school, not abiding by family planning policies, deliberately damaging legal documents and "abnormal growing of beards and naming of children to exaggerate religious fervour".
A number of bans on selected "extremist behaviours" had previously been introduced in some places in Xinjiang, including stopping people with headscarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses in at least one city.
The new rules expand the list and apply them to the whole region.
While Uighurs have traditionally followed a more "relaxed type" of religion, the popularity of veils for women in particular has grown in recent years in what experts say is an expression of opposition to Chinese controls.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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The United States is prepared to respond to North Korean nuclear threats on its own if China fails to pressure Pyongyang, President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday.
"Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, We will. That is all I am telling you," he was quoted as telling the newspaper.
"China, curb your dog!"
Trump will host Chinese President Xi Jinping this Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the two leaders are expected to discuss North Korea, China's ambitions in the South China Sea and trade.
"China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't," he was quoted as saying in the paper.
"Strategic patience", the policy of both the Obama and Bush 43 administrations, has not worked. It was worth trying in some ways, though we didn't implement the financial sanctions near as well as we could have. But now that the Norks have nuclear weapons, and two-stage long-distance missiles, and re-entry vehicles, the time for patience is at an end.
Trump's Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland said there is a "real possibility" North Korea could be capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump's first term, the newspaper reported.
Intelligence experts disagree with McFarland's assessment and say North Korea's ability to launch a nuclear missile is at least "years away."
Which "intelligence experts"? McFarland at least goes on record.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Trump: 'Totally' possible for U.S. to address North Korea threat alone
GOOD NEWS: He's right.
BAD NEWS: You do NOT want to know how we'd have to do it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/03/2017 3:41 Comments ||
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#2
blaming China is not entirely justified
South Korea has had as much or more trade with North Korea than China has over the past decade or so
of course, SKor didn't provide weapons to NKor for 50 years so there is that
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/03/2017 6:13 Comments ||
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#3
I'm looking for a trade deal.
Maybe storing nuclear waste.
#5
Adversaries must continue to be seen as strong and ominously threatening. If not, your own funding stream will eventually be reduced. A successful insurance business is dependent upon good advertising.
[PJ Media] Even as the U.S. military takes on a greater role in the warfare in Iraq and Syria, the Trump administration has stopped disclosing significant information about the size and nature of the U.S. commitment, including the number of U.S. troops deployed in either country.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon quietly dispatched 400 Marines to northern Syria to operate artillery in support of Syrian militias that are cooperating in the fight against Islamic State, according to U.S. officials. That was the first use of U.S. Marines in that country since its long civil war began. In Iraq, nearly 300 Army paratroopers were deployed recently to help the Iraqi military in their six-month assault on the city of Mosul, according to U.S. officials.
Neither of those deployments was announced once they had been made, a departure from the practice of the Obama administration, which announced nearly all conventional force deployments. The decision appears to be making good on Trump’s promise as a candidate to insist on more of an “element of surprise” in battle tactics.
#2
"How can we protest properly if you won't reveal military secrets?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/03/2017 4:48 Comments ||
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#3
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are." William Tecumseh Sherman
#6
Stick any whining reporter into point man position, or first man through the door, in building clearing operations. Those that survive might learn to STFU.
[An Nahar] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Israel's enemies not to test its military capabilities at a ceremony inaugurating a joint U.S.-Israeli missile interceptor.
David's Sling, meant to counter medium-range missiles possessed by Leb's Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... , officially became operational at the ceremony, Israel's military said.
It marks the completion of the multi-tier system that includes the Arrow, designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles in the stratosphere with an eye on Iran, and Iron Dome, which defends against short-range rockets from Gazoo.
Together, said Netanyahu, they would "protect Israel, our citizens, our cities."
"Whoever seeks to strike us will be struck, whoever threatens our existence will place his own existence in jeopardy," he said in a speech at the commissioning ceremony, at Hatzor air force base in central Israel.
David's Sling, named for the slingshot with which the Bible says the future King David slew the Philistine giant Goliath, was developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and U.S. company Raytheon.
Israel lists several aerial threats, some on its borders and others, such as Iran, far beyond.
One is Leb's Hizbullah, with which it fought a devastating 2006 war.
The Israeli military believes Hizbullah today has between 100,000 and 120,000 short- and medium-range missiles and rockets, as well as several hundred long-range missiles, with the medium-range missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
Also, last month Israeli warplanes struck several targets in neighboring Syria, drawing retaliatory missile fire, in the most serious incident between the two countries since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Israel used its Arrow interceptor to destroy what was believed to have been a Russian-made SA 5 missile after it entered Israeli airspace and Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to destroy Syria's air defense systems "without the slightest hesitation" if it happened again.
Israel has sought to avoid being dragged into the Syrian conflict, but has carried out strikes there to stop what it says are advanced weapons deliveries to Hizbullah.
Missiles and rockets are also periodically fired at Israel from the adjacent Gazoo Strip, generally by hardline Islamist groups opposed to the Paleostinian territory's Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", rulers.
But Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from Gazoo regardless of who carried it out and routinely strikes Hamas installations in response.
The David’s Sling, also known as the Magic Wand, is designed to shoot down incoming missiles with ranges of 40-300 kilometers (25-190 miles), meaning it could be used against Hamas’s longer-range rockets, but would more likely be deployed against missiles fired by Hezbollah or Syria, such as the Iranian Fateh 110 or its Syrian equivalent, the M600.
The lowest layer of Israel’s multi-tiered missile defense system is the aforementioned Iron Dome, capable of intercepting short-range rockets, small unmanned aerial vehicles and some mortar shells like those that have been fired at Israel from the Gazoo Strip or from southern Leb. And at the top are the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, which are intended to engage long-range ballistic missiles. The Arrow was put in use for the first time on March 17, when it downed an incoming Syrian anti-aircraft missile.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
What Israel really need are 'Hurt' missiles. If any of Israel enemies try to fire missiles at Israel will find themselves in a world of hurt!
[An Nahar] Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday Israel did not seek "adventures" in Gazoo after Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, accused it of assassinating an official, and suggested the group itself could have killed him.
Hamas, which runs the Gazoo Strip, has blamed Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and its "collaborators" for the March 24 killing of Mazen Faqha in the Paleostinian territory.
Israeli officials had previously not commented on the killing.
"We are not looking for adventures," Lieberman said during a visit to the Israeli city of Sderot near the Gazoo border, according to his office.
"We are conducting security policy with responsibility and determination.
"It does not matter what Hamas says, it's important what the Jews do."
He added: "Let Hamas do what it wants and we will do what we need to do. Hamas is known for internal liquidations, for settling accounts. I suggest that they look there for it."
In response, both Hamas and its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, accused Lieberman of seeking to evade responsibility for the killing.
"The Israeli occupier bears all responsibility for the liquidation of Mazen Faqha and the ensuing results," Hamas front man Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.
The killing has raised the possibility of a response from Hamas and a fresh escalation of violence.
On Saturday, Hamas vowed "radical measures" against Paleostinians who "collaborated" with Israel, with interior ministry front man Iyad al-Bozum saying that could mean arrests, trials and even executions.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Israel is ready to launch a military operation in Syria against Leb's Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... and its allies should a real threat to Israel arise there, Israeli Ambassador to Russia Gary Koren has said.
"The Iranian regime has always been keen on supporting Syria and Hizbullah and exploiting them as two tools aimed at threatening and deterring Israel," Koren was quoted as telling a group of Russian news hounds.
"Our territory is being subjected to deliberate or non-deliberate shelling with all types of weapons and our army is retaliating and not standing idly by. However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... should the situation change and Hizbullah or any other Shiite militia or Iran start to amass a second front at the Golan Heights, we will not tolerate that and we will respond as quickly as possible," the envoy added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] In response to new curbs on West Bank construction, Israeli settlement supporters hoped for the best and expected the worst, tempering their initial euphoria at US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s election.
Pro-settlement leaders who advocate Jewish control of the entire West Bank went as far as to cautiously welcome the government’s announcement Thursday that construction would be largely restricted to developed areas of existing Jewish communities in the West Bank. Others hoped the restrictions did not amount to a freeze on settlement building.
"You need to understand that people built up an expectation that there would be a new president, the old era would end, and we’d be able to do whatever we want," Yesha Council foreign envoy Oded Revivi told JTA on Sunday. "All of a sudden, reality doesn’t look like our expectations."
Much of the Israeli right anticipated Trump would give Israel a freer hand in the West Bank than had his predecessor, Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... . But since being elected, Trump has backed off his pledge to move the US Embassy in Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and made moves toward the final status agreement he has said he wants to broker between Israel and the Paleostinians.
Having welcomed Trump’s election in January by announcing: "The era of a Paleostinian state is over," Education Minister Naftali Bennett expressed cautious optimism Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "The arrangement is a fitting one, but the proof will be in the pudding," Bennett said, according to the Walla news website.
They were the first comments by Bennett, the head of the fiercely pro-settlement Jewish Home party, since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday announced the new settlement policy in a meeting of the security cabinet. Netanyahu told his top ministers that the policy was a goodwill gesture to Trump, who last month said settlement expansion "may not be helpful" in achieving peace and asked Netanyahu to "hold back on settlements a little bit."
"This is a very friendly administration and we need to be considerate of the president’s requests," Netanyahu said, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.
The policy Netanyahu laid out was that settlement construction would be limited to previously developed areas of the West Bank. But where security or topography prevented this, new homes would be built as close as possible to the developed areas. Israel would not allow the creation of any new illegal outposts, he said.
Hours earlier, the security cabinet decided to establish the first entirely new settlement in two decades for families evicted last month from Amona, an illegal West Bank outpost. That settlement would not be affected by the policy.
Most of the world considers all Israeli construction in the territories it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War illegal. But Israel disputes this and allows government authorized settlements on land not demonstrably owned by Paleostinians. While Israel stopped establishing new settlements in the early 1990s, it has retroactively approved outposts and let existing settlements expand.
[An Nahar] Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... has warned that failure to approve a new electoral law might lead to a "coup-like situation" in the country.
"Time is not in anyone's favor and it is unacceptable to wait. The government must immediately shoulder its responsibilities towards the law and to exclusively focus its efforts on it," ad-Diyar newspaper quoted Berri as saying in remarks published Sunday.
"It should have discussed it earlier in order not to face pressing deadlines as is the situation today," Berri lamented.
He warned that the government's procrastination or failure to pass the law "might lead to a coup-like situation that topples everything."
"The first mission today should be to discuss and pass the electoral law," Berri urged.
According to reports, intensive contacts will be held after Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. 's return from his foreign trip "in order to put the law on the Cabinet's agenda with the aim of approving it and referring it to parliament."
An informed Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... parliamentary source meanwhile told ad-Diyar that he is optimistic that a new law might be reached within two weeks, noting that "an intensive round of contacts and deliberations will begin next week."
"I believe that we have reached the final phase and I do not rule out that the law could be finalized before mid-April. We need a brief time and we are awaiting the responses of some parties who have asked for some time to consult with their allies, and it seems that things are advancing in a positive manner," the source added.
The country has not organized parliamentary elections since 2009 and the legislature has instead twice extended its own mandate. The last polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2017 00:00 ||
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It's not the multiple millions of palleted currencies Iran got out of President Obama, but it is a start. Islamist states don't run on love and goodwill, donchaknow.
[Ynet] An Iranian-American detained in Iran since last summer has been released on bail of approximately $60,000, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported Sunday.
Robin Reza Shahini was placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! by the Revolutionary Guards while visiting family in the northeastern city of Gorgan last July and subsequently sentenced to 18 years imprisonment on charges of threatening national security, according to HRANA.
Shahini went on a hunger strike for a month recently and his health situation had been deteriorating, the HRANA report said. Two other Iranian-Americans are still being held in the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
Update at 3:30 p.m EDT: Robin Shahini is a 46-year old who had been accepted in a graduate program in homeland security at San Diego State University last year following a history of posting criticisms of the Iranian mullahcracy when he went home to visit his mother, who is reportedly suffering from Alzheimers. The inevitable followed.
This article starring:
Robin Shahini
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/03/2017 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.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
...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. ..
[An Nahar] The Italian government said Sunday that dozens of rival tribes in southern Libya had agreed to cooperate on securing the country's borders in an effort to curb the influx of 
[PJ Media] Even as the U.S. military takes on a greater role in the warfare in Iraq and Syria, the Trump administration has stopped disclosing significant information about the size and nature of the U.S. commitment, including the number of U.S. troops deployed in either country.
