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Teacher found guilty of grooming children to launch terror attacks in London
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Page 6: Politix
11 19:21 Anomalous Sources [1]
Africa Horn
Somali Pirates Set To Return Home From India
[RADIOSHABELLE] At least 80 Somali nationals released from Indian jails are expected to arrive in Mogadishu, the Somali capital on Saturday.

Speaking to VOA Somali Service, Somalia’s Ambassador to Oman, Abdirisak Farah Ali has confirmed the return of the Somali citizens held for years over piracy-related charges.

Ali added that the release of the Somalis came following a prisoner exchange pact signed by Somali Federal Government and India in August, last year.

They were among Somali pirates apprehended by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard in separate anti-piracy operations off Somalia coast.

Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Pirates


Arabia
Houthi rebels using Yemeni prisoners as human shields, rights group claims
[ARABNEWS] Yemeni detainees are being used as human shields at Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
militia prisons, the International Association for Peace and Human Rights (IAPHR) has claimed.

The human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
group outlined two reports on the Houthi coup in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
and its humanitarian impact on Yemeni civilians at a seminar at the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
in Geneva on March 3.

Hamdan Zaid Dammaj, vice president of the IAPHR’s Yemeni Organization for Studies and Research, said there were 1,202 documented incidents of Yemeni detainees being used as human shields at 59 detention centers throughout the country.

Detention centers included schools, residential facilities and sports clubs that had been turned into military barracks by Houthi militia, he said.

Dammaj said the detainees were government supporters, including media activists, politicians from the Reform Party, as well as 130 intellectuals and 181 military personnel.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


The Grand Turk
Asia Times background on Turkey blocking Cyprus gas exploration.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Sultan Erdogan I has to get Islamofascist Turkey’s ducks all in a row before low birth rate demographics catch up with him. Killing off Kurds as he has done recently, which also encourages Kurds to emigrate, no doubt moves that point off a little, but all the arrests of Turks, which also encourages Turks to emigrate, moves it in the other direction.

I wonder if the release of geneologies, showing that many Turks are actually of Armenian descent, is actually intended to create a new class of those assumed to be disloyal so that, like the Gulenists, they can be arrested and stripped of their assets?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2018 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Purity testing?
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/04/2018 18:41 Comments || Top||


Armenia scraps deal with Turkey designed to normalize relations
Everything new is old again.
[Ynet] Armenia on Thursday scrapped a peace agreement it signed with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
in 2009 in what turned out to be a failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
to normalize relations between the two countries, Armenian Yerkir Media TV quoted the president's front man as saying.

"Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan told a national security council meeting that the Armenian-Ottoman Turkish protocols were annulled," Yerkir Media TV quoted Vladimir Hakobyan as saying.

Armenia's Foreign Ministry front man Tigran Balayan wrote on social media that President Sargsyan has declared the Armenia-Turkey protocols "null and void."

Armenia and Turkey signed the landmark peace accord in October 2009 to restore ties and open their shared border after a century of hostility stemming from the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces. The protocols have not been ratified since then.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Fascinating — just as Turkey opens the genealogy archives to reveal millions of those who identify as Turks are actually Armenian...
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2018 10:35 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi Kurdistan says border crossings still under its full control
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Kurdistan Region has said it maintains full control over its border crossings, months after Baghdad demanded the handover of those crossings to federal forces.

Samal Abdul-Rahman, Kurdistan’s general director of customs, told Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat that Kurdistan’s main five border crossings remain under the control of the region’s authorities, noting that Baghdad had not sent its observers to partake in the management of those crossings as agreed.

He revealed that revenues from operations at those crossings still go to the region’s government despite progress made in negotiations for the joint administration of those facilities. He explained that the agreement has not yet gone into action waiting for the broader political deal between Erbil and Baghdad.

Three of the five crossings in Kurdistan fall on the borders with Iran, one with Syria and one with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
Relations between Baghdad and Erbil deteriorated following a referendum the latter held in September, in which a majority voted for independence from Iraq, a move Baghdad deemed illegal.

In response to the poll, the federal government took over territories disputed with Kurdistan, and imposed a flight embargo on the autonomous region and asked to hand over management over its borders with Turkey, Iran and Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq adopts its 2018 budget, slashes allocations for Kurds
[ARABNEWS] Iraq’s parliament on Saturday adopted an $88.5 billion budget for 2018, with Kurdish politicians boycotting the vote to protest against a cut in the amount allocated to their autonomous region.

The reduction comes after a controversial independence reference by the Kurds last year sparked a furious dispute with the central government.

The budget is based on projected oil exports of 3.9 million barrels per day, including 250,000 bpd produced in the Kurdistan autonomous region of northern Iraq, at a price of $46 per barrel.

It also projects $77.5 billion (63 billion euros) in revenues and a deficit of $10.6 billion, and allocates $20.8 billion for investments.

Kurdish politicians boycotted the vote because it reduced Kurdistan’s part of the national budget from 17 percent to 12.6 percent.

Article 9 of the Iraqi constitution stipulates that Kurdistan’s share of the budget must reflect the size of the population of the autonomous region.

But the text of the budget approved by parliament on Saturday states that the autonomous Kurdish government must export 250,000 bpd and hand over the money it earns from the sales to the federal authorities.

"If Kurdistan does not hand over (the money), the finance ministry will take it from its part of the budget," it said.

Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces took control of the northern province of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
home to key oilfields, in June 2014 after federal forces withdrew in the face of an offensive by the ISIS group.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  The Shia seem to really want a huge 3 or more way civil war.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/04/2018 1:09 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fatah Gives Fully Furnished Apartment to Family of Terrorist Who Killed Rabbi
[Breitbart] Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
’ Fatah party gave a fully furnished apartment to the family of the terrorist responsible for the murder of an Israeli rabbi last month, saying it was "fulfilling the national duty towards the families of deaders."

According to a report published earlier this week by the Paleostinian official news agency Wafa, the Fatah movement in the Jenin region gave the apartment to the family of the "martyr" Ahmad Nassar Jarrar, the 22-year-old commander of a Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, cell who murdered father of six Rabbi Raziel Shevach in January in the West Bank.

"Fatah Jenin secretary Nour al-Din Abu al-Rab told Wafa that the donation of the apartment to the Jarrar family was aimed at underlining that the Fatah movement was fulfilling the national duty towards the families of the deaders whose homes were razed by the Israeli occupation," the report, which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), said.

The report noted Fatah secretary Abu al-Rab’s praise of "all those who had contributed to this national task," who, he said, proved "our people is united and consolidated and does not forget its deaders who gave their lives for Paleostine."

"The martyr’s mother, on her part, praised Fatah for providing her family with an apartment after the occupation destroyed their home," the Wafa report said.

On its official Facebook page, Fatah also posted a video showing Jarrar’s mother thanking the party for supporting her family.

MEMRI noted the praise lavished on Jarrar by Fatah, the PA and PA-affiliated media.

On a recent visit to the Tulkarm branch of the National Gathering of Paleostinian Martyrs’ Families with PA security officials, the town’s governor Issam Abu Bakr emphasized "the tremendous sacrifice by our deaders for freedom and independence on the way to establishing an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Bakr further noted the importance of assisting the families of the deaders in "appreciation for their sacrifice."

The PA also slammed an Israeli bill which proposes the deduction of funds paid out to Death Eaters and their families from Paleostinian taxes. The Paleostinian Information Office described the legislation as "terrorism," and added: "The Paleostinian people will not abandon its deaders and prisoners, who sacrificed their lives and their youth in resistance to the occupation."

PA Prisoners Authority chairman Issa Qaraqe said: "We oppose depicting the imprisoned fighters and the deaders as Death Eaters and criminals," and called the bill "a campaign of incitement and hostility against the prisoners and the families of the deaders."
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Cut off all funding to these animals
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2018 6:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I bet the IDF has the address.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/04/2018 12:15 Comments || Top||

#3  time for a "natural gas explosion due to poor construction"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2018 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  In whose house? Abbas'?
Posted by: gorb || 03/04/2018 23:53 Comments || Top||


Egypt warns Hamas against escalation of violence with Israel
[IsraelTimes] Cairo delegation in Gazoo reportedly tells ruling terror group that provoking another round would be akin to 'playing with fire' and that Israel 'may topple' its leadership

An Egyptian intelligence delegation currently in the Gazoo Strip told the Paleostinian enclave’s Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, rulers that, should it seek out an escalation of violence with Israel, it would be "playing with fire," Hebrew media reported on Saturday, citing Paleostinian sources.

According to the sources, the Egyptian delegation warned Hamas that another round of violence would invite a "hard blow" by Israel against the Paleostinian terror group, "so much so that there is even a possibility [Israel would] topple Hamas," Hadashot TV news reported.

"No one from Hamas’s leadership would be immune," the news report quoted the source as saying.

It was not clear if the warning was issued by Israel and the message was delivered through Egypt, or if Cairo itself was cautioning Hamas.

The delegation has been in Gazoo for over a week, according to the report, for talks on Paleostinian reconciliation.

Earlier Saturday, the Walla news site reported that Hamas has rejected requests by the Egyptian delegation to disclose details about the status of IDF soldiers declared killed in action during fighting in the Strip more than three years ago, and whose remains are apparently being held by the terror group.

Hamas also refused to provide the Egyptians with information about other missing Israeli persons believed to be in Gazoo, according to the report.

The Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper reported Saturday that Hamas informed Egypt it would not negotiate the matter unless Israel provided a commitment to implement all the clauses of the 2011 Shalit deal, in which the Jewish state released more than 1,000 convicted terrorists.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Olde Tyme Religion
Indonesia considering changing criminal code toward sharia
[ATimes] Indonesian society would undergo a dramatic and regressive transformation if Parliament goes ahead with proposed amendments to the country’s colonial-era Criminal Code which, among other things, will ban same-sex relations, pre-marital sex, cohabitation among unmarried couples, sex education and even condom distribution.

With consideration of the revised code delayed until the next session of Parliament in April, senior government officials seem confident the legislation will eventually be kicked down the road — as it has been since the first draft amendment was introduced in 1984.

Still, by design or not, the latest version has risen to the top of the legislative agenda at the start of the 2018-2019 election season when political parties are already jostling to attract votes in a country with an 88% Muslim majority and a now seriously tarnished reputation for tolerance.

Most of the 10 political parties have been unwilling to take a public position on the bill, leaving confusion to reign over whether lawmakers making up the parliamentary drafting committee truly reflect the sentiments of their party leaders.

“There has been a fundamental shift to conservatism,” says former attorney-general Marzuki Darusman, who headed the first Indonesian Commission on Human Rights. “There are machinations behind this to appease people allying themselves with conservative elements.”

Erasmus Napitupulu, head of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, is critical of the way the revision to the century-old code perpetuates colonialism, fails to incorporate human rights and protection for vulnerable groups, and continues to embrace a punitive approach to law enforcement.

On a recent visit to Jakarta, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra-ad al Hussein, a Jordanian Muslim, urged Indonesians to “move forwards not backwards” on human rights and resist attempts to introduce new forms of discrimination in law.

“The hateful rhetoric against this (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender – LGBT) community that is being cultivated for seemingly cynical political reasons will only deepen their suffering and create unnecessary divisions,” he said, calling the proposed legal changes a setback in the struggle against spreading hard-line Islamization.

But what surprises many observers is the fact that there has been virtually no public discussion on what impact the proposed changes would have on tourism, one of the country’s biggest foreign exchange earners, as well as the broad economy.

Posted by: 3dc || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russia says US has set up about 20 military bases in Syria
[Ynet] The United States has set up around 20 military bases in Syria on territory controlled by the Kurds, an official from Russia's Security Council said on Thursday, the RIA news agency reported.

The official, Alexander Venediktov, an aide to Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, also said Washington was supplying the Kurds with the most advanced weapons, according to RIA.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iranian official calls on West to scrap nuclear arms before any missile talks
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will not negotiate over its ballistic missiles until the United States and Europe dismantle nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, a top Iranian military official said on Saturday.
He’s so cute!
Separately, Iran confirmed that the Iranian foreign minister had met his former U.S. counterpart John Kerry on the sidelines of a Munich meeting last month.
That was a waste of time — Mr. John F. Kerry (former secretary of state, former senator, former Democratic presidential candidate) will never have power or influence again.
The New Yorker magazine earlier reported that Kerry had urged Tehran not to abandon a 2015 nuclear deal, despite tensions with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

While Iran has accepted curbs on its nuclear work - which it says is for purely peaceful purposes - it has repeatedly refused to discuss its missile program, something the United States and European countries have called for.

"The condition for negotiating Iran’s missiles is the destruction of the nuclear weapons and long-range missiles of the United States and Europe," Iranian Armed Forces spokesman Masoud Jazayeri was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as saying.
“You disarm yourself first, then we’ll talk about what you’ll pay to talk to us about us thinking about disarming.”
Iran says its missile program is defensive, and that it is not related to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers which led to the lifting of sanctions against the country.

European powers and Iran have started talks over Tehran’s role in the Middle East and will meet again this month in Italy as part of efforts to prove to Trump that they are meeting his concerns over the 2015 nuclear deal.

On Friday, the New Yorker reported that during a meeting, which it said was attended by others involved in the nuclear deal," Kerry quietly urged the Iranians not to abandon the deal or violate its terms - whatever the Trump Administration does".

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi, quoted by IRNA, said that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif"has always met on the sidelines of such international summits with attending personalities and elites ... in the framework of preserving Iranian interests".

Zarif had met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference with"John Kerry and Ernest Moniz, foreign and energy ministers of the previous U.S. government, who have a critical attitude towards Trump Administration policies", Qasemi said.
Posted by: 746 || 03/04/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Smoking way too much of that wacky weed - so common over there.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/04/2018 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  "On Friday, the New Yorker reported that during a meeting, which it said was attended by others involved in the nuclear deal," Kerry quietly urged the Iranians not to abandon the deal or violate its terms - whatever the Trump Administration does"."

A. They already have.
B. They are constantly doing so, as a matter of policy.
C. Mr. Secretary, allow me to refer you to 1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799, AKA the Logan Act. You may find it interesting. Now sit down and shut up. Your 'legacy' turned into a pile of crap long ago, and nothing you can do will save it.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/04/2018 13:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Mike, John F'n Kerry clearly violated the Logan Act by negotiating with the North VietNamese, during an active (if undeclared) war. He was not prosecuted then; he knows he won't be prosecuted now.

Of course, no one has ever been prosecuted for violating the Logan Act.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/04/2018 13:46 Comments || Top||

#4  No jail cell big enough for that Easter Island Noggin
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2018 13:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Some statesmen age gracelessly, leaping
And splashing, their enemies weeping,
While other great plodders,
Tails sunk in warm waters,
Dream peacefully, vertically sleeping.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/04/2018 18:08 Comments || Top||

#6  I think we could get rid of a few... right over Iran.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/04/2018 20:18 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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3Govt of Syria
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3Moslem Colonists
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1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Arab Spring
1Houthis
1Palestinian Authority
1Pirates
1al-Nusra
1Taliban
1Govt of Iran
1Commies
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Iraq

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2018-03-04
  Teacher found guilty of grooming children to launch terror attacks in London
Sat 2018-03-03
  Mosul Clearances Continue: 30 turbans tied up or permanently unwound, ISIS chemicals concern, Saddam Hussein mass grave found
Fri 2018-03-02
  Attack underway in Burkina Faso's capital, police say
Thu 2018-03-01
  Nigerian-Cameroonian Troops Eliminate 35 Boko Haram fighters, Recover Large Weapons
Wed 2018-02-28
  US designates 'Daesh-Egypt', other ISIS affiliates as terrorist groups
Tue 2018-02-27
  Drone strike kill 3 militants, injures 3 more in Laghman province
Mon 2018-02-26
  Police arrest widow of Jemaah Islamiyah leader Marwan
Sun 2018-02-25
  UN Security Council unanimously votes in favor of Syria ceasefire resolution
Sat 2018-02-24
  US says Jerusalem embassy to open in May, Palestinians furious
Fri 2018-02-23
  Deputy of Islamic State’s Baghdadi killed in Iraqi airstrike: Intelligence source
Thu 2018-02-22
  Mali Blast Kills Two French Soldiers
Wed 2018-02-21
  SWAT force arrests senior IS, Al-Qaeda commander in central Ramadi
Tue 2018-02-20
  9 abducted civilians found dead in Afghanistan
Mon 2018-02-19
  Syrian Army deploys entire artillery division of howitzers, field guns, mortars and Grad rocket launchers for east Damascus battle
Sun 2018-02-18
  Drone strike kills 2 al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen

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