[DAWN] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... allies agreed on Thursday to send more troops to Afghanistan, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that the alliance would also increase its focus on supporting Afghan special operations forces.
Stoltenberg, who was speaking after a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels, also said sanctuaries used by turbans across the border in Pakistain had "to be addressed as part of the solution to the conflict".
'US, allies withdrew from Afghanistan too fast'
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States and its NATO allies likely drew down its big troop presence too quickly from Afghanistan, but he vowed to stick with the war, refusing to put a date on when it might end.
"Looking back on it, it's pretty much a consensus that we may have pulled our troops out too rapidly, reduced the numbers a little too rapidly," Mattis told a news conference following a meeting of NATO defence ministers to discuss Afghanistan.
US forces in Afghanistan are below their peak of more than 100,000 troops in 2011, when Washington was under huge domestic political pressure to draw down the costly operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
2011, when Washington was under huge domestic political pressure to draw down the costly operation, for the election.
[Al Jazeera] UN Security Council has agreed to a major reduction of peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region after US pressure led to a $600m cut in the UN budget for peace operations.
The council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by the UK that will cut the number of troops and police serving in the joint African Union-UN mission known as UNAMID by at least 30 percent.
Under the deal reached by a General Assembly budget committee, the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... will spend $7.3 billion on peacekeeping in the coming year, down from the current $7.87 billion -- roughly a seven percent cut -- according to diplomats familiar with the negotiations.
The United States, the biggest financial contributor to peacekeeping, had sought a nearly $1 billion cut to the bill and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... had also pushed for savings to bring costs down to $7.3 billion.
The United Nations will spend $7.3 billion on peacekeeping in the coming year, down from the current $7.87 billion -- roughly a seven percent cut.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley ...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... claimed victory in a statement, saying "just five months into our time here, we've already been able to cut over half a billion dollars from the UN peacekeeping budget and we're only getting started."
Hardest hit by the cuts will be the UN missions in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , the two costliest operations with budgets that run over $1 billion. The United Nations has shut down its mission in Ivory Coast and is planning to pull its peacekeepers out of Haiti in the coming months.
A Security Council diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said however there will be "cuts across the board" in the 13 peacekeeping missions as a result of US pressure.
Washington pays 28.5 percent of the peacekeeping budget and 22 percent of the UN's core budget of $5.4 billion.
The deal falls short of the request from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who had asked for $7.97 billion for the annual budget which runs from July 1 to June 30 of next year.
The deal is expected to be approved by the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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[AFRICANEWS] A major internet outage has hit Somalia with people in the capital Mogadishu not having access for five straight days as at Wednesday June 28, 2017.
A Voice of America (VOA) journalist, Harun Maruf, said according to sources the cause of the outage was because undersea cables had been cut by a large ship. Among the worse affected are the media, businesses and government offices.
A Somali news portal quoted a senior director of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Ahmed Haji Ali, as confirming the outage which he said started shortly on Monday after suspected commercial ship hit the fibre optic internet cable in the Indian Ocean.
Reports indicate that many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country rely on the affected cable line resulting in internet and fixed voice service providers to go down.
The journalist reported that engineers had been dispatched from Oman to repair the cables but did not state when connection will be restored. It is also said to have affected money transfer transactions especially coming during the end of Ramadan period.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like a good cut to me. One way to stop money transfers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/30/2017 12:17 Comments ||
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[AlAhram] Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... authorities forced nearly 900 refugees back to northern Nigeria against their will this week, violating an agreement between the two countries to shield thousands from Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... violence, the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... said on Thursday.
The Cameroonian government denied force had been used to send refugees home and said repatriation had taken place with the refugees' consent.
About 887 Nigerians, most of them children, were ferried across the border on Tuesday night in trucks provided by the Nigerian military and Cameroonian police, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
"The involuntary return of refugees must be avoided under any circumstances," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement. "Returns to Nigeria put a strain on the few existing services and are not sustainable at this time."
If done forcibly, the move counters an agreement signed by Nigeria, Cameroon and the UNHCR in March stating that Nigerian refugees in Cameroon will not be forced back to a remote region ripped apart by violence and where humanitarian efforts are severely stretched.
"There was no forced repatriation of 887 Nigerian refugees from Banki to Borno State in Nigeria. It happened with their consent," said Cameroon's government front man Issa Tchiroma Bakary. "Cameroon respects the law and its international commitments."
The Nigerian official responsible for humanitarian activities in the Boko Haram-affected northeast was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!" Boko Haram has forced more than two million people to flee during its seven-year campaign to create an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... . More than 85,000 Nigerian refugees reside in Cameroon's Far North region.
Over 11,000 have returned to Nigeria this year as camps in Cameroon struggle to accommodate them. It is unclear how many of these have been forced to leave, but the U.N. has warned against repeated attempts to send refugees home against their will.
+++ Side note... big users beside research are many types of rockets including SpaceX's Falcon's and Atlas +++
[GasWorld] Developments related to the Saudi Arabian-led blockade of Qatar as announced on 5th June have already begun to impact the global helium supply, says Phil Kornbluth, President of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, and editorial advisor to gasworld magazine (US Edition).
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain all united last week to sever diplomatic links, cut off air travel and close land borders with neighbouring Qatar.
It has now been five days since the blockade was announced, with early indications suggesting that it could remain in place for at least a few weeks if not longer; the Saudi-led group of countries are showing no signs of backing down and the US does not seem willing to intervene to resolve the crisis, thus far.
Kornbluth explained that whilst Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and exports is continuing without disruption, its effects are already being heavily felt in the helium supply chain.
RasGas has reportedly shut down both of its helium plants, removing roughly 2,000 containers loads per year ‐ equivalent to 32% of global demand ‐ from world markets.
Kornbluth stated, "The helium business is likely the single business most impacted by the blockade since helium may be the only commodity where Qatar production represents a large share of world supply ‐ and that supply has been totally cut-off by the blockade."
"Some of the helium containers that are within Qatar’s border, both full and empty, may be able to exit Qatar through its Hamad port in the Doha area," he continued. "Since the Hamad port has relatively infrequent sailings to a small number of destinations, this would be a lengthy, difficult and potentially risky process that would require transshipment to get containers to their ultimate destinations."
Jeopardy
It is understood that a number of full containers that had already crossed the Qatari border with Saudi Arabia were not allowed to cross the UAE border and were subsequently turned back to Qatar.
Kornbluth explained that the helium payload in these containers could be in jeopardy if the blockade lasts long enough and if the UAE ultimately refuses to allow these tanks to cross their border.
Production from helium refining facilities tied to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Pipeline & Storage System has already begun to ramp up as a result, but the organisation’s system could only partially replace the lost supply from the Middle Eastern country.
In addition, Kornbluth highlighted that those refining facilities would be limited in their ability to increase production until empty helium containers en route to Qatar could be rerouted to the US.
Major helium suppliers are now putting plans in place to reposition empty containers for filling in the US in order to minimise disruptions. But, given the time it takes to redirect empty containers to the US as well as the BLM’s inability to fully replace Qatar’s supply, Kornbluth said, "It seems inevitable that world helium markets will experience at least a temporary shortage of supply, with formal supply allocations likely if the blockade is not lifted very quickly."
Posted by: 3dc ||
06/30/2017 00:12 ||
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#1
The troubles in Qatar hit almost 1/3 of the world's supply.
#3
Yup. Helium is a by-product of nuclear decay. Every few years the 'helium is a scarce resource that will run out' crowd floats this balloon. (unintentional pun). It is a cost of separation issue, not a 'we are using it all up, it is going to vanish, and we're all gonna die' kind of issue. Helium is undoubtably available in fracking streams (it is a btu-reducing contaminant) but I haven't noticed any frackers making mention of separating it from the main gas stream. Yet.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/30/2017 7:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
At the time of the Hindenburg disaster (1938, and no - I was *not* there) the US had 98% of the world's helium supply and we would not sell to Hitler's Germany, so Germany had to use the much more combustible hydrogen. The rest, as they say, is history.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/30/2017 7:27 Comments ||
Top||
That and Fiber Optics production, cooling for MRI and other radiology equipment, cooling for nuke plants, high-temperature welding, combining with oxygen for the treatment of asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory problems, detecting leaks in the hulls of ships and, of course, the high squeaky voice.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/30/2017 10:05 Comments ||
Top||
#9
So the second most abundant element in the universe is running out?
[DAWN] A top Qatari ...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... human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... group said on Wednesday it will employ Swiss lawyers to seek compensation for those impacted by the decision of Gulf countries to cut ties with the emirate.
Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri, chairman of Qatar’s National Human Rights Commission, said his group would take action against 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... , the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which cut ties with Qatar this month.
"We’ll be coordinating to start legal action with those affected by these sanctions," Marri told a news conference. "The three countries are responsible to compensate those affected," he said, adding many Qataris qualified for compensation."Some cases will be filed in courts in those three countries and in some courts that have international jurisdictions, like in Europe, related to compensation."
Marri refused to say which Swiss firm would be employed, but said a statement would be released in the near future.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Germany’s FM says speech ’would not be appropriate given the current adversarial situation with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey’.
Germany said Thursday it had rejected a request by Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... to address ethnic Turks in Germany next week on the sidelines of a G20 summit.
Berlin-Ankara relations have badly deteriorated amid disputes over The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s mass arrests of alleged state enemies since a failed coup last year and a host of other rights issues.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Berlin had received a request for Erdogan to be able to address members of the three-million-strong Turkish diaspora in the EU country.
"I explained weeks ago to my Turkish colleagues that we don’t think that would be a good idea," Gabriel said during a Russia visit, pointing at stretched police resources around the July 7-8 summit G20 in Hamburg.
"I also said quite frankly that such an appearance would not be appropriate given the current adversarial situation with Turkey," he added, stressing that Erdogan would however be "received with honors" at the summit.
Gabriel said he could "understand" his Social Democratic Party’s chancellor-candidate Martin Schulz, who had said "foreign politicians who abuse our values must not be allowed to give inflammatory speeches in Germany."
"I don’t want Mr Erdogan, who is jailing members of the opposition and journalists in Turkey, to hold large-scale events in Germany," Schulz told the Bild newspaper.
Erdogan last addressed Turkish-Germans in May 2015, in the city of Karlsruhe. The large Turkish diaspora is a legacy of Germany’s massive post-war "guest worker" program of the 1960s and 1970s.
But ties have been especially strained since the July failed coup in Turkey, and tensions have worsened over multiple issues including a referendum campaign to expand Erdogan’s powers.
Turkey imprisoned Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist with Die Welt daily, on terror charges earlier this year.
And this month Germany decided to withdraw its troops who support the fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in Syria from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... partner Turkey’s Incirlik base and move them to Jordan after German politicians were refused the right to visit the base.
Then there is the issue of Turkish spying on Gulenists and Kurds in Germany, and on German officials as well, and unsubtle threats to all three parties if Germany does not comply with Turkish requests demands.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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[RT] A contract with Ankara to deliver cutting-edge Russian anti-aircraft S-400 missile systems has been “agreed upon,” but the consultations on financial aspects of the planned deal are still being discussed.
“The contract is agreed upon, everything is clear, the issue of a loan has not been resolved yet,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide on military-technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, said at the 7th International Maritime Defense Show in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
So IIUC Russia is selling advanced air defense missiles to NATO.
This does not compute. Something is seriously wrong here.
[IsraelTimes] US attorney says the 36-story office tower ’gave the Iranian government a critical foothold in the very heart of Manhattan’.
The US government said it’s ready to seize a Manhattan skyscraper from an Iranian-American charity after a jury found Thursday that the charity’s majority ownership was derived from financial dealings that violated sanctions against Iran.
Acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim said the owners of the office tower near Rockefeller Center "gave the Iranian government a critical foothold in the very heart of Manhattan through which Iran successfully circumvented US economic sanctions."
"For over a decade, hiding in plain sight, this 36-story Manhattan office tower secretly served as a front for the Iranian government and as a gateway for millions of dollars to be funneled to Iran in clear violation of US sanctions laws," Kim said in a statement. "In this trial, 650 Fifth Avenue’s secret was laid bare for all to see, and today’s jury verdict affirms what we have been alleging since 2008."
Oh dear. To lose such a rich cash flow at the same time as the price of oil seems to have found such a low ceiling. And just when the Ayatollahs have so many different wars, both overt and covert, to fund! If one didn't know better, one would think Allah has it in for the only Shiite state.
The verdict in the civil case was sure to be appealed. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier ordered the case to go to trial after US District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled in favor of the United States.
Over the last month, lawyers for the Alavi Foundation argued that the charity was unaware if Iran was secretly benefiting from a partner who owned 40 percent of the building. The Alavi Foundation owns 60 percent.
Kim said the building was worth at least a half billion dollars, though some estimates put its worth closer to a billion dollars.
Kim said the sale of the building, combined with several other properties around the country, would represent the largest terrorism-related civil forfeiture in US history.
The prosecutor said the verdict "allows for substantial recovery for victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism."
The government is seeking to turn over proceeds of a sale to holders of over $5 billion in terrorism-related judgments against the government of Iran, including claims brought by the estates of victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Defense lawyers didn’t immediately comment.
It was unclear what effect the verdict will have on the Alavi Foundation, which supports a Queens school among other charity works.
The verdict seemed to spare a Catharpin, Virginia, property after jurors concluded its funds did not violate sanctions and were not used in money laundering activities. The government said the verdict should allow it to seize properties in Houston; Carmichael, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,; and Rockville, Maryland.
The Fifth Avenue building was erected in the 1970s on property acquired by the not-for-profit corporation. It was valued at $83 million in 1989 and has steadily risen in value.
Government lawyers said Iran has secretly controlled the building for years as millions of dollars in rent payments are funneled to it from a partnership made up of Alavi and a shell company fronting for a secret interest held by the state-owned bank of Iran, Bank Melli.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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[CNN] Blindsiding leaders in both parties, a House committee on Thursday approved a repeal of the war authorization that the US military relies on to fight the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and around the globe.
The House Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote an amendment from Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California that would repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force eight months after the appropriations bill was signed into law.
The amendment is intended is to force Congress to debate and pass a new war authorization for the war against ISIS and al Qaeda. Critics like Lee argue the 2001 war authorization is overly broad and gives the president "the authority to wage war in perpetuity."
This is believed to be the first time a congressional panel has voted to repeal the 2001 AUMF, setting the stage for a rare House floor debate and potential vote on an issue that lawmakers in both parties have been reluctant to take up, still wary of the consequences for Hillary Clinton and others after the 2002 Iraq War vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Thursday announced Rs1 million as compensation for each family of the victims of the recent Parachinar bombing attack, which claimed at least 72 lives.
The prime minister also announced Rs0.5 million for each person injured in the blasts, according to a statement issued from the Prime Minister House. The premier has already issued directions to Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Zafar Iqbal Jhagra in this regard, read the statement.
However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... protesting tribal elders have rejected the offered compensation, saying that they need to be recognised as human beings first. The compensation was announced six days after the bombing.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Terror group says move, demanded by politicians and relatives to up pressure as talks stall, is tantamount to declaration of war.
A war Hamas would at this time lose, so they won't do anything serious about it.
Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", on Thursday said that Israel had stopped allowing Gazook members of the terror group serving time in Israeli prisons to receive visits from family members, in a move intended to ramp up pressure amid negotiations for the return of three Israeli civilians and the bodies of two soldiers being held in the Strip.
Hamas leaders condemned the move as "the beginning of a war against the prisoners."
"We will not allow this decision to stand, whatever the price may be," they said in a statement.
An Israeli prison official refused to confirm the policy change.
Israel is holding some 150 Hamas security prisoners from Gazoo. In the past, families of Paleostinian inmates have been granted permits to cross from the Gazoo Strip into Israel to visit them.
On Tuesday, Channel 1 news reported that Israel and Hamas have been engaged in intensive indirect talks recently over the release of a number of Israeli nationals held captive by the terror group in Gazoo.
In addition to returning the missing soldiers, Israel has been seeking to reach a deal with the rulers of the Gazoo Strip to secure the release of three Israeli men who crossed into the coastal territory of their own accord: Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, as well as Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima, whose presence in Gazoo is unconfirmed.
The talks, which are being mediated by an unnamed third party, have gathered momentum over the past two weeks, following the return of Hamas’s leader in Gazoo, Yahya Sinwar, from a visit to Egypt earlier this month, the report said.
Hamas demands that Israel release all prisoners from the 2011 exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit who were reincarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in 2014 when three Israeli teens were kidnapped in the West Bank (it later emerged that they had been killed almost immediately) before any advancement in negotiations between the parties can take place.
Ooooooohhhh, a nefarious plot! Hold me, George, I feel faint.
[Al Jazeera] An editorial board member of Israel's Haaretz newspaper has said Israel, Egypt and the UAE are planning to install Mohammed Dahlan, the 55-year-old exiled former Fatah official, as Gazoo's leader.
Zvi Barel said in an opinion piece published on Thursday that the plan also aimed to see Dahlan replace the Paleostinian Authority's the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and the Fatah movement - the ruling party in the occupied West Bank - and the Paleostinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
He said it was "too early to assess whether this plan will be fully implemented" as the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement, which rules Gazoo, could reject Dahlan, who used to head the PA's security services in Gazoo.
But if successful, according to Barel, Egypt would ease the siege of Gazoo by opening the Rafah border crossing and the UAE would fund a power station on the Egyptian side of the border.
A "state of Gazoo" could become a reality with Dahlan at its head, something that, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is "the plan's key", he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: PLO
#1
opinion
not news
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/30/2017 0:10 Comments ||
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#2
To Ha'aretz it was an opinion, lord garth -- they're only halfway round the bend. To Al Jazeera it's news.
[JPOST] “Hamas and the PFLP are not terrorist organizations,” Saeb Erekat, secretary- general of the PLO, said on Thursday at the “UN Forum Marking 50 Years of Occupation.”
Erekat made the comment in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post regarding recent Israeli allegations that some of the organizations participating in the event were linked to the two groups.
Earlier during the forum, he called Hamas a “Palestinian political party.”
“We are a people who strive to achieve our independence, and our choice in the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, is to achieve peace peacefully through negotiations,” he added.
Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon released a statement on Wednesday saying that according to intelligence, the group Al-Haq, whose representative was to speak at the event, collaborates with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, known as the PFLP. Earlier this month, the PFLP claimed responsibility for the murder of policewoman Hadas Malka, killed in a June 16 stabbing attack just outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
In addition, the Israeli mission said information it had received showed that the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, another group at the conference, works regularly with Hamas.
Both Hamas and the PFLP have been on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations since 1997. The European Union, too, recognizes them as such.
“They have no shame,” Danon said.
“These are lies and incitement from those who are paying terrorists to kill innocent Israelis. These obsessive attempts to besmirch our good name will not change the fact that the Palestinian leadership refuses to end their support for terror.”
As part of his address to the forum, Erekat also accused Israel’s prime minister of promoting apartheid.
“The Israeli government headed by Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said, “is trying to replace the two-state solution with one state/two systems: apartheid. Ignoring facts does not mean they don’t exist.”
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: PLO
#1
Why is Erekat still alive?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2017 11:21 Comments ||
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#2
I guess the fact that the PLFP trained every lunatic fringe terrorist group from Red Army Faction and Black September to the IRA and the Basques doesn't make them a terrorist group.
[Bangkok Post] The U.S. has agreed to sell four more Black Hawk helicopters to the army, reversing an earlier decision not to sell the aircraft after the 2014 coup. Gen. Chalermchai Sitthisat said Thursday that the sale would proceed under the U.S. Department of Defense's Foreign Military Sales program.
The army already has 12 multirole Black Hawk helicopters and the four new ones would increase the number to 16, completing the fleet that the army wants, he said.
Speculation that Thailand might purchase military equipment from the U.S. was high after Defense Ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantravanich said on Monday the armed forces were being asked to compile information about American-made weapons ahead of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's planned trip to the U.S. next month.
[WASHINGTONPOST] The House on Thursday passed two hard-line immigration bills that would penalize illegal immigrants colonists who commit crimes and local jurisdictions that refuse to work with federal authorities to deport them.
Both bills, Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, passed on largely party-line votes amid heavy promotion from Republicans, starting with President Trump.
"MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!" Trump tweeted as the House debated the bills Thursday, one of five tweets he pushed out to his 35 million followers highlighting the legislation.
Before the vote, Trump urged politicians to pass the bill during remarks at the Department of Energy, calling them "vital to public safety and national security."
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly appeared on Capitol Hill ahead of the vote Thursday with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and other Republican leaders to promote the bills.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2017 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Now if we can only find non Dem Judges that recognize US law.
#2
It's all Kabuki theater. Don't pass bills like this, just impeach about a dozen fed judges and suddenly, the laws will be enforced. It's called - Checks and Balances.
#3
The black robed tyrants of the left will just start issuing orders to block this if it passes.
I'm kinda beyond impeaching them at this point P2K. Dragging them into the street, ripping their robes from them and pelting them with rotten fruit and sewage as they are forced to run out of town is more of what I'm thinking.
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.
[Al Jazeera] UN Security Council has agreed to a major reduction of peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region after US pressure led to a $600m cut in the UN budget for peace operations.
[IsraelTimes] Germany’s FM says speech ’would not be appropriate given the current adversarial situation with 
[IsraelTimes] US attorney says the 36-story office tower ’gave the Iranian government a critical foothold in the very heart of Manhattan’.
[CNN] Blindsiding leaders in both parties, a House committee on Thursday approved a repeal of the war authorization that the US military relies on to fight the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and around the globe.
[IsraelTimes] In rebuke to Security Council, Ambassador Haley cites Tehran’s ’ballistic missile launches’ and ’proven arms smuggling'.
[Al Jazeera] An editorial board member of Israel's Haaretz newspaper has said Israel, Egypt and the UAE are planning to install Mohammed Dahlan, the 55-year-old exiled former Fatah official, as 
Earlier during the forum, he called Hamas a “Palestinian political party.”
