[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The video of an Iranian soldier beating Afghan nationals has sparked furor as the Afghan officials vow to raise the issue with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels.
The video has gone viral on social media in Afghanistan during the recent days and has even attracted the attention of the government officials.
The social media users have strongly condemned the beating of the Afghan nationals by an Iranian soldier in an unknown location.
The video purportedly shows a group of at least nine men lined up beside a wall, are humiliated and slapped in the face by an Iranian soldier who repeatedly asks the men for what reason they have visited Iran.
Deputy Afghan Foreign Minister Idrees Zaman has also reacted to the video and humiliation and beating of the Afghan men.
"This is shameful and disgusting, to say the least. We are going to raise the issue with Iranian officials. We will not allow Afghans to be treated like this!" he said in a Twitter post.
The Iranian authorities have not commented regarding the video so far.
Thousands of Afghans cross the Iranian border to seek refuge in the country mainly due to the growing violence and lack of work who are often subjected to humiliation, torture, and detention.
Earlier reports also indicated that the Iranian military authorities have on several occasions exploited the Afghan refugees and have deployed thousands of Afghan men to fight in Syria and Iraq.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The United Arab Emirates said talks it is hosting between the United States and the Taliban ...Arabic for students... have yielded "positive" results.
Has the government surrendered yet?
The US-Taliban "reconciliation talks" produced "tangible results that are positive for all parties concerned", the UAE's official WAM news agency said on Wednesday.
A new round of talks would be held in Abu Dhabi "to complete the Afghanistan reconciliation process", it said without providing further details.
The two days of meetings in the Emirati capital are Washington's latest attempt at ending Afghanistan's 17-year conflict, which has cost it nearly $1 trillion since 2011 when it led an invasion to overthrow the Taliban government of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks.
President George W Bush's administration at the time accused the Afghan group of harbouring the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now beyond all cares and woe... , the leader of al-Qaeda, which carried out the attacks.
The Taliban, which has not confirmed meeting Afghan officials, said it had held "preliminary talks" with the US envoy.
US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said he had "productive" meetings in the UAE with Afghan and international partners "to promote intra-Afghan dialogue towards ending the conflict".
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] Yemen’s popular 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 ... Ansarullah movement has condemned Sudan for seeking to retain and even increase its troops in a 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... n-led coalition that has invaded the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.
"The decision by Sudan’s administration to send more forces to 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... indicates the Khartoum government’s opposition to the establishment of peace and security in Yemen," Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen, said on Wednesday, Unews Agency reported on its website.
Ansarullah formed the committee in 2015 to run Yemen’s administrative affairs after the former government resigned and its head, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, fled to Riyadh as he faced increasing popular discontent.
Saudi Arabia led a number of countries, including Sudan, into a war on Yemen shortly after Hadi’s flight to restore the former regime by force.
The Yemeni official said Sudan wanted to send reinforcements to Yemen while "its president, Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. , was being sought internationally on charges of terrorism and committing some crimes and atrocities in his country, and the Sudanese ruling establishment cannot defend him against the charges."
Sudan’s Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Awad Mohammed bin Oaf had on Tuesday told a visiting Saudi military delegation in Khartoum that his country intended to keep up its cooperation with the Riyadh-led coalition and even enhance its contribution.
Thousands have died and Yemen has been pushed to the edge of an all-out famine as a result of the war.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's finance minister said on Wednesday he wasn't concerned about current oil prices impacting spending plans in 2019 as money from an anti-corruption drive will bring in billions of dollars.
Mohammed al-Jadaan told Rooters news agency that cash settlements from an anti-corruption campaign - which generated 50 billion Saudi riyals ($13.3bn) in 2018 - would net "not significantly less" in 2019.
Authorities have said they expect to confiscate $100bn overall from a purge of princes, ministers, and business tycoons ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016.... in November 2017.
Under an ambitious reform plan aimed at ending the top oil exporter's dependence on crude, Riyadh is seeking to balance its budget by 2023.
The government unveiled a $295bn budget on Tuesday, the kingdom's largest, with a seven percent increase in state spending to spur economic growth and a projected deficit of 4.2 percent of GDP.
"We are still targeting 2023, but what I'm saying is we need to realise that it is not set in stone," Jadaan said. "What's the point of having a balanced budget on '23 specifically? It could be 22, it could be 24. We want to be disciplined, we want to be efficient and pro-growth."
Asked about the impact of lower oil prices on spending, Jadaan said: "Until today we are comfortable" and "even in the worst case scenario we are still relatively comfortable" given the kingdom's significant reserves and low debt to GDP ratio.
The interview took place at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where suspects in the corruption sweep were held for up to three months.
Jadaan said seized assets were being managed and valued by a ministry-owned company, Istidama, which is managed by a committee chaired by the commerce minister and has no connection to the sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] A covert US-backed initiative to improve ties between Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Israel is facing setbacks after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016.... and two of his aides were implicated in a journalist's killing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Prince Mohammed, whom the US Senate blamed for Jamal Khashoggi's killing in October, spearheaded the outreach to Israel, a longtime foe, the Journal said in a report on Tuesday.
But the global outcry over Khashoggi's murder in October and fallout within the royal court has diminished the prince's influence and dampened Saudi Arabia's appetite for risky foreign policy endeavours, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
"Things have definitely cooled off right after Khashoggi's murder," a senior Saudi government official told the Journal.
"The last thing the kingdom wants is for this to come out now and cause another backlash."
Saudi Arabia does not officially recognise Israel and King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians.... , who has taken a more active role in government in the aftermath of the Khashoggi crisis, recently described resolving the Israel-Paleostine conflict as the kingdom's "foremost priority" in the region.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Tirana says expulsion was for ’violating their diplomatic status’; unconfirmed TV report claims pair were linked to foiled plan to attack 2016 soccer match against Israel
Albania said it has expelled two Iranian diplomats for alleged illegal activities that threaten the country’s security, reportedly related to a plot to attack an Israeli soccer match.
A front man from the Foreign Ministry told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Wednesday that the two diplomats were expelled for "violating their diplomatic status."
The front man said the move followed talks with other countries, including Israel.
Private Top Channel television said the Iranians are suspected of illegal activities related to a World Cup qualification soccer match between Albania and Israel two years ago.
About 20 people were tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in Albania and Kosovo following that match, which was threatened with an alleged terrorist attack.
Albanian officials would not confirm that report.
The planned attack in November 2016 was said to have been coordinated by two Albanians in Syria fighting with 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.
The World Cup qualifier was originally due to take place in the northern town of Shkodra. The match eventually took place in Elbasan, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the Albanian capital Tirana, under a massive security presence.
It’s unclear what connection Iran, which is traditionally seen as an enemy of the Islamic State, may have had to the attack plot.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.
In May, a Kosovo court sentenced eight Albanians to jail over the foiled attack and fined another. Police found bombs, weapons, electronic equipment, and bad boy religious literature at their homes.
In August 2017, the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria said it had killed a plotter of the thwarted soccer game attack.
...emir of the ethnic Albanian cohort of ISIS in Syria, he and several henchmen shook hands with an American missile with the usual dire results. But before that he kept busy organizing jihad attacks back home and seducing the impressionable to join the ISIS team, whether in the flesh or in spirit...
was killed in a June 7 Arclight airstrike near Mayadin, which is close to Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, coalition front man Colonel Ryan Dillon said at the time.
Albania is also home to more than 2,000 members of the Iranian exile opposition group Mujahedin el-Khalk, which moved from Iraq.
Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian and Moslem country, has been confronted with hundreds of its citizens waging jihad in Syria and Iraq.
It has subsequently strengthened legislation and attempted to root out radical Islamist networks.
Albania has been at loggerheads with Iran since it took in about 3,000 members of the banned Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (People's Mujahedin of Iran), known as MEK.
The Gay Paree-based MEK seeks to overthrow Iran's theocratic government and is widely disliked inside the country, where it is labeled a terrorist organization. The Iranian government blamed the group for stirring up unrest earlier this month.
Formerly listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and the United States, the MEK has also been accused of carrying out covert operations on behalf of Israel and the United States. Iran has been linked to the liquidation of multiple dissidents, mostly Kurds and MEK members, throughout Europe.
This article starring:
Lavdrim Muhaxheri
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[ALMASDARNEWS] A convoy of Turkish military trucks passed by the town of Islahiye on Wednesday, in the vicinity of the Syrian border. The convoy follows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement, made on December 12, that a new operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) east of the Euphrates would be launched within the next “few days.”
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[PRESSTV] The Kremlin says there is no link between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... ’s possible purchase of US Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems and that of the advanced Russian-built S-400 air defense missile system, saying Moscow is in the process of fulfilling the terms of the deal with Ankara.
"These are not connected processes. In this case, we are fulfilling agreements that we have with our Ottoman Turkish colleagues. You know that the contract is being fulfilled. This will be continued," Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Peskov's remarks came a day after the Pentagon announced that the US State Department had approved a possible $3.5 billion sale of Patriot missile systems to its NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... -ally Turkey, after notifying Congress of the certification.
The sale would cover the procurement of 80 Patriot guidance-enhanced missiles and 60 other missiles along with related equipment, including radar sets, engagement control stations and launching stations.
Peskov further said that Russia trusted its Ottoman Turkish partners not to disclose certain data about the S-400 system to its NATO partners.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Why wouldn't they? You can learn a lot more about the the other system by trying to mesh them than you would by just observing them in service.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/20/2018 8:04 Comments ||
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How do we know this isn’t some sort of elaborate photoshopped hoax?
[Al Jazeera] Ottoman Turkish media has again leaked images of the alleged Saudi liquidation squad accused of murdering Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
New photos published on Wednesday appear to show the 15-member "hit team" arriving at the consulate in Istanbul.
The alleged Saudi hit team can be seen arriving in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... hours before the killing, entering the consulate and consular residence, and finally flying out of Turkey soon afterwards.
Istanbul police and Ottoman Turkish intelligence have been poring over some 3,500 hours of video from 147 cameras in 80 areas throughout the city.
Video footage also shows Abdulaziz Mohammed al-Hawsawi, 31, a member of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of 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... as of 2016.... 's security team, Anadolu news agency reported.
Another suspect seen was Saud al-Qahtani, who is believed to have supervised the 15-man hit squad that flew from the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Qahtani, 40, is one of the highest-profile figures implicated in the killing and was reportedly Prince Mohammed's right-hand man. The 40-year-old was removed as a royal court adviser following Khashoggi's liquidation.
Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for The Washington Post, went missing after entering the consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
The Turks only do this to hide their long term torture methods. They use bone saws on limbs at a time.
Erdogan is a big pain in the ass for the rest of the world as he is the only one that wants a Calaphate.
[Al Jazeera] The State Department says it had informed the US Congress of plans to sell a Patriot missile package to Turkey.
The State Department on Wednesday said it had informed the US Congress of plans to sell Turkey a Patriot package that includes 80 Patriot missiles, 60 PAC-3 missile interceptors and related equipment.
"The proposed sale will increase the defensive capabilities of the Turkey military to guard against hostile aggression and shield NATO allies who might train and operate within Turkey's borders," a statement said.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
US approves Patriot missile sale worth $3.5bn to Turkey Russia
[Al Jazeera] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... may launch a new military operation in northern Syria at any moment, President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... said, adding 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... had given a positive response to Turkey's plans.
Erdogan's remarks on Monday came days after he announced Ottoman Turkish forces would launch a new cross-border operation against the US-backed Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to the east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.
The YPG is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara. American troops are also located to the east of the Euphrates River.
Erdogan spoke on the phone with Trump on Friday and they agreed to ensure "more effective coordination" between their countries' military operations in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
My father, when he wanted to motivate us kids, would start counting to three, after which, he promised, dire but undefined things would happen. “One,” he would say, very loudly and distinctly. “Two. Two and a half. Two and three quarters....”
By this time, we would join in the count. “Two and seven eighths. Two and fifteen sixteenths...”
I don’t remember ever getting to three, though surely we must have at some point in my childhood. Still, we all learnt our fractions beautifully, which was probably Daddy’s other objective.
[DAILYCALLER] The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined that an influential Antifa leader uses aliases to spread radical and often violent rhetoric while concealing his actual identity.
Joseph “Jose” Alcoff works with congressional Democrats as part of his day job as a manager with a DC-based advocacy group. But he spreads socialist and communist propaganda when going by the name “Jose Martin.”
Identifying as “Chepe,” Alcoff advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich. He has relished the mainstreaming of Antifa’s militant tactics in the Trump era.
A 2017 book identified Chepe as an organizer behind Smash Racism DC, the Antifa group that mobbed Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s home in November and ran Ted Cruz out of a restaurant in September.
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12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Iraq’s Federal Court has rescinded decrees made by Kirkuk’s acting governor that authorized the appropriation of Kurdish lands. The governor is in further hot water with the integrity commission issuing a warrant for his arrest.
Since October 2017, acting Kirkuk Governor Rakan al-Jabouri has issued 14 separate decrees seizing land owned by Kurds and giving it to Arabs, a move Kurds condemned as a revival of the Baathist-era Arabization policy.
The federal court looked at the matter at the recommendation of Iraqi President Barham Salih and ruled to annul Jabouri’s decisions.
The court ordered that disputes over land ownership in the contested province must be resolved through the process detailed in the constitution under Article 140. Under this provision, the status of Kirkuk ‐ claimed by both governments in Baghdad and Erbil ‐ must be normalized followed by a referendum that allows the people to decide whether their future lies with the central government or the regional authority.
The article should have been implemented by 2007, but successive governments have failed to tackle the contentious issue.
"This is a positive point. The disputed agricultural lands will return to their prior state and not have their contracts renewed," Dilan Ghafour, member of Kirkuk Provincial Council, told Rudaw of the court’s decision.
Some Turkmen parties are also hopeful that they may see lands expropriate from their people also returned if Article 140 is finally implemented.
"We in the Iraqi Turkmen Front aren't against Article 140. We assure Kurdish brothers and the rest of the components that the Front isn't against the implementation of Article 140. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... we have the condition that there be some prior measures, like I said, a population census," Mohammed Samaan, spokesperson for the Iraqi Turkmen Front, told Rudaw.
The Iraqi government is preparing to hold a general census by the end of 2020, its first since 1997.
Arabs in the province are also ready to see the status of Kirkuk settled, as dictated in the constitution.
"In my personal opinion, the implementation of the article and normalization of the situation in Kirkuk is in the interest of all the components of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... not to the disadvantage of one component as opposed to another," Abdulkarim Aazawi, head of the Arab Tribes Board, said.
It is time for parties and leaders to come to an agreement, he added.
Jabouri was named interim governor by the previous administration in Baghdad when the Kurdish governor, Najmaldin Karim, was removed from his post after he supported holding the Kurdistan independence referendum in the province and raised the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi one over official buildings in Kirkuk.
Kirkuk governor facing corruption charges
Iraq’s Commission of Integrity "has issued an arrest warrant for Rakan al-Jabouri due to eight corruption cases, committed after the October 16 events," Kirkuk provincial council member Jiwan Hassan told Rudaw, referring to the federal takeover of the disputed province last fall.
Hassan, who represents Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), said they have not received the warrant yet, "but according to the information we have obtained via phone his dossier includes corruption related to the spending of 46 billion Iraqi dinar ($38.5 million) for compensation of places that were destroyed during the ISIS war and another 71 billion Iraqi dinar ($59.5 million) for Kirkuk projects that Rakan Saeed al-Jabouri claimed he spent after informing Kirkuk provincial council."
"The provincial council is not aware of the spending of any sum of money," she asserted.
Hassan claimed that Jabouri has left Kirkuk, taking a leave of absence and going to Baghdad in order to evade arrest.
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12/20/2018 00:41 ||
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[IsraelTimes] JCPA report details 2018 funds set aside in PA budget for recipients including Paleostinians who have killed Israelis, and their families
The Paleostinian Authority has allocated more than NIS 1.24 billion ($330 million) for payments related to security prisoners and so-called "deaders" in its 2018 budget, according to a new report published by a Jerusalem-based research institute.
The funds include salaries and stipends for convicted faceless myrmidons and their families, though the exact figures for the faceless myrmidons and their families are not publicly known, with Israeli officials, researchers, and Paleostinians split over how many of those eligible for the payments have attacked or killed Israelis.
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#3
On 23 March 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law, which will cut about a third of US foreign aid payments to the PA,until the PA ceases making payment of stipends to terrorists and their surviving families. (Wiki)
That would say we are still giving them 2/3rds of the payments we gave them in the past. I don't see any guarantees the money won't still be used for terrorism. Taylor Act.
[IsraelTimes] World Food Programme agency says assistance to Paleostinians will be reduced due to budgetary woes
The UN’s World Food Programme said Wednesday that it was making cuts in food aid to over 190,000 Paleostinians in the West Bank and Gazoo, citing a funding shortfall. As of January 1, the organization will suspend food assistance to 27,000 people in the West Bank, and reduce it by 20 percent to 165,000 people in the West Bank and Gazoo, the Rooters news agency reported.
"WFP has been forced, unfortunately, to make drastic cuts to the number of people that we support across Paleostine," Stephen Kearney, the program’s coordinator for the West Bank and Gazoo told the news agency.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] PM says Lebanese terror group has just dozens of precision missiles, IDF ’the only army in the world’ fighting Iran’s military.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the Hezbollah terror group closed sites in Leb’s capital Beirut at which precision missiles were allegedly made after he revealed their locations in a speech to the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Speaking at the Globes Business Conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said the exposure of the sites was part of Israeli efforts to prevent the Iran-backed Shiite organization from amassing an arsenal of highly accurate missiles. It is now working to set up new production facilities, he alleged.
"They planned to already have thousands of precision missiles. At best they have just dozens," Netanyahu said.
In a speech in September at the United Nations General Assembly, the prime minister displayed a map pinpointing the location of the Hezbollah sites near Beirut’s airport and accused the terror group of "deliberately using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields."
The Israeli military later released further photos of the facilities and said it is working to counter Hezbollah’s "precision project."
In May, Netanyahu said Israel was "operating against the transfer of deadly weapons from Syria to Leb or their manufacture in Leb."
Israel has acknowledged conducting hundreds of Arclight airstrikes in recent years in Syria, which it says were aimed at both preventing Iran from establishing a permanent military presence in the country and blocking the transfer of advanced munitions to Hezbollah in Leb.
The Israeli Air Force has largely abstained from conducting raids inside Leb itself, though it has indicated that it was prepared to do so.
Addressing the raids in Syria, Netanyahu said Israel is working to eliminate any Iranian threat there now before it grows larger.
"The IDF is the only army in the world fighting the Iranian military and at the moment we have considerable successes," he said.
"We’re striking Iran [militarily] in Syria and of course the US struck them economically," he added, referring to the re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran last month as part of 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 withdrawal from the international accord limiting the Iranian nuclear program.
Netanyahu said he spoke with Trump on Monday about Iran and with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday.
In September, Netanyahu claimed that 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... has positioned three missile sites near Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.
He said the sites include the football stadium of the Hizbullah-affiliated al-Ahed club, another site near the airport and the Ouzai fishermen's harbor.
[IsraelTimes] Israel and US call for international action against Lebanese terror group at Security Council meeting on cross-border digging
Israel accused the Lebanese Army Wednesday of tipping information to the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah and failing to allow UN peacekeepers to help thwart a tunnel-building operation on the country’s southern border.
The accusation came at a UN Security Council meeting that also saw the US demand that the international community condemn the Lebanese terror group over its alleged plans to infiltrate Israel via a series of border tunnels, violating a UN resolution meant to keep the potentially volatile frontier calm.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] al-Aqsa TV, which had its studio destroyed by Israel last month, says it is facing a ’suffocating’ financial crisis
A Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",-affiliated TV station which had its studios destroyed in an Israeli Arclight airstrike last month said Wednesday it would go off air indefinitely over a lack of funds.
Gazoo City-based al-Aqsa TV said in a statement that it was facing a "suffocating" financial crisis, without providing details.
According to the statement, the station will go off air on Thursday at 5 p.m.
On November 12, the station’s main office and studio was bombed by Israel during a short-lived but intense flare-up of violence which saw Hamas and other Gazoo-based turbans fire hundreds of rockets at Israel. Israel had accused the station of being used by the Hamas terror group for military purposes.
The Israeli aircraft first fired a "warning missile" at the multi-story headquarters, which was captured live on air as personnel fled the building, before firing a number of missiles to destroy the building.
Following the airstrikes, the channel briefly went off air, but soon resume broadcasting from another location.
Al-Aqsa TV said the costs of the damages amount to some $4.5 million.
On Wednesday, al-Aqsa station director Wisam Afifa told The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... ’s state-run Anadolu news agency that it was unclear when the channel would be able to resume broadcasts.
"Resuming [our] broadcast depends on the availability funds for the channel," Afifa said.
In a statement on November 12, the IDF said it demolished the al-Aqsa TV headquarters in "response to the terror attack that the Hamas terror group is leading against Israeli citizens."
The army added that the channel was "used by [Hamas] for military activities, including sending messages to terrorist operatives in the West Bank, calls for terror attacks and instructions on how to commit them."
Afifa told Anadolu some 220 people work for the channel.
In a statement on November 12, Hamas denounced the demolition of the channel’s headquarters.
"The occupation’s targeting of the station’s headquarters is barbaric and barefaced aggression," the terror group said in a statement, according to the Hamas-linked Paleostinian Information Center. "It reflects the enemy’s criminal mindset and is an attack on every free voice seeking to expose the enemy’s crimes, terrorism and violations at the expense of Gazoo."
On Wednesday, an email address and phone numbers to make donations were posted on al-Aqsa TV’s website.
Israel also bombed the outlet’s headquarters in December 2008, during the first war to break out in Gazoo in the wake of the 2005 disengagement.
In 2010, the US government designated al-Aqsa TV as a terror group.
The channel’s news hounds have frequently praised violent against Israelis and rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
[PRESSTV] Israeli politicians have initially approved a piece of legislation that gives the go-ahead for the forced displacement of the family members of Paleostinians accused of launching anti-Israel attacks.
The Wednesday approval is expected to enable the forced displacement within the West Bank of the family members of the Paleostinians allegedly attacking Israeli forces.
A statement from the Israeli parliament noted the bill was voted 69-38 in a stormy session, during which Arab politicians were expelled from the chamber for "disrupting procedures".
The bill would enable the Israeli regime to expel family members from one West Bank location to another within seven days of an attack, or attempted attack, by their relative.
It will now be debated and voted upon in the parliament's foreign and defense committee, before returning to the chamber for final readings by politicians.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd like to displace them to China - by direct route.
[AnNahar] After recent reports that alleged tunnels were dug from Leb into the occupied territory of Paleostine, Russia has reportedly told Leb that it is "forbidden" to tamper with the UN Resolution 1701 related to the situation on the border between Leb and Israel, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat daily reported on Monday.
The daily said that the "Russians have sent a message to the Lebanese side saying it’s forbidden to tamper with the resolution related to the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border."
Said remarks come after the recent Russian-Israeli Military Security Committee meeting, during which Tel Aviv provided Moscow with details of the tunnels that were recently discovered across the border, added the daily.
Apart from 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... ’s responsibility for the tunnels, the Russian side has reportedly asked Leb to deal with the issue through three proposals, the daily quoted unnamed sources as saying.
The first is the need to maintain the rules of engagement in the area covered by 1701, and to instruct the Lebanese army to deal with the matter and remove the causes of tension, which constitutes a commitment to the decision issued after the July 2006 war, they said.
They noted that the subject will be on the table of the Security Council within two days, to condemn "the tunnel issue."
United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Security Council Resolution 1701 is a resolution that was intended to resolve the 2006 Israel-Leb conflict.
It was unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council on 11 August 2006
It required all gangs except the official Lebanese military to remain north of the Litani River following the end of the 2006 Second Lebanese War.
[PRESSTV] Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the US has no longer any influence on relations between countries in the region, stressing Washington will no longer be able to dictate its policies to regional states.
"Our neighbors ... have explicitly told the US that the era of dictating policies to others is over and the US cannot decide for the region and relations between regional nations and countries from thousands of kilometers away," Rouhani told news hounds at Mehrabad International Airport on Wednesday before leaving for Ankara for an official two-day visit at the invitation of his Ottoman Turkish counterpart Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... Iran’s president, who is in Ankara to co-chair the 5th The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... -Iran High Level Cooperation Council meeting, also hailed Turkey’s "firm" stance on unilateral US sanctions against the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
He said that Turkey, as friendly key regional player, was of high significance to Iran.
Back on May 8, 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... announced that he would abandon the Iran nuclear deal, reached between Tehran and six world powers ‐ the US, the UK, La Belle France, Russia, China and Germany in 2015. He also announced that he would reinstate the sanctions against Iran that were lifted as part of the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to limit parts of its peaceful nuclear program in exchange for the removal of all nuclear-related sanctions.
In August, Trump ordered all nuclear-related sanctions that were removed under the deal to be reinstated immediately.
Ottoman Turkish officials, including President Erdogan, have criticized the US for re-imposing its unilateral sanctions against Iran, stressing Ankara’s determination to keep economic ties with Tehran.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The United States has started withdrawing its troops from Syria, the White House said on Wednesday, after 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... declared that 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also know as ISIS) group has been defeated in the country.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that "victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign".
"We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign," she added. "The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists' territory, funding, support and many means of infiltrating our borders."
Sanders's comments came after reports surfaced that the US was considering a full troop withdrawal from the country.
A complete, rapid withdrawal, if confirmed, would upend assumptions about a longer-term US military presence in Syria, which US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other senior US officials had advocated to help ensure ISIS cannot re-emerge.
Still, President Donald Trump has previously expressed a strong desire to bring troops home from Syria when possible.
Prior to Sanders's statement on Wednesday, Trump tweeted, "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Press Release today on Syria:
President Trump is honoring his promise on Syria
Five years ago, ISIS was a powerful, destructive force in the Middle East. By late May 2015, the terrorist group would control half of Syria—including all of the country’s border crossings with Iraq.
The American people were rightly worried. Then-candidate Donald J. Trump made them two solemn promises. The first was that America and its allies would defeat ISIS. The second was that our troops would never be put in harm’s way longer than absolutely necessary to protect the American people.
In his first days in office, President Trump changed the rules of engagement, empowering U.S. military commanders on the ground. The results were unmistakable. In August 2017, The Washington Post reported that gains against ISIS had “dramatically” accelerated on his watch: “Nearly a third of territory reclaimed from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014 has been won in the past six months.”
Eight months later, in April 2018, President Trump announced that “over the last year, nearly 100 percent of the territory once controlled by the so-called ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq has been liberated and eliminated.”
Today, the President is honoring his promise. “As other nations step up their contributions, we look forward to the day when we can bring our warriors home,” he said in April. This morning, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced that “we have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign.”
The Global Coalition against ISIS will not end. “The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary.”
Posted by: Neville Dark Lord of the Wee Folk7365 ||
12/20/2018 1:57 Comments ||
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#2
To leave our most effective fighting ally in the Middle East at the mercy of the Turkey or Syria/Iran is a damn crime. Instead of withdrawing the 2,000 troops from Syria, withdraw 10,000 of the 15,000 troops from an unsupportable Afghanistan or most of the 9,000 from babysitting duties in Iraq.
#3
Why do we even need an ally in the Middle East? What are we even doing there? Endless war is all I see. How do we know we've won? What's the victory condition we're working towards?
We don't have one, at least not in public. And that suits the unelected US government just fine. They're making a mint off this.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/20/2018 10:16 Comments ||
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#3 Why do we even need an ally in the Middle East?
You're being sarcastic? Or are you really that obtuse?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/20/2018 11:41 Comments ||
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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.
...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...
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016....
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians....
[IsraelTimes] Tirana says expulsion was for ’violating their diplomatic status’; unconfirmed TV report claims pair were linked to foiled plan to attack 2016 soccer match against Israel
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[IsraelTimes] JCPA report details 2018 funds set aside in PA budget for recipients including Paleostinians who have killed Israelis, and their families
[IsraelTimes] PM says Lebanese terror group has just dozens of precision missiles, IDF ’the only army in the world’ fighting Iran’s military.
