[Radio Free Europe] U.S. peace envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad says that although talks with the Taliban have produced the framework for a peace deal there is still a "long way to go" before a final agreement.
Speaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington on February 8, Khalilzad said he was "hopeful" a peace deal could be finalized before Afghanistan’s presidential elections in July, but warned that there remained "a lot of work" to do.
"We are at the early stages of a protracted process," said Khalilzad, who has met with Taliban negotiators for a series of talks in the Middle East in recent months.
Khalilzad held six days of talks with Taliban negotiators in the Qatari capital, Doha, last month, culminating in the basic framework of a possible peace agreement.
The agreement calls for the Taliban to prevent international terrorist groups from basing themselves in Afghanistan and for the United States to withdraw its forces from the country.
The Taliban has yet to make concessions on two key U.S. demands -- implementing a cease-fire and agreeing to negotiate directly with Afghan government representatives as part of an Afghan-led, intra-Afghan peace process.
[BREITBART] The number of prisoners in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... has soared in the last 30 years with foreigners now accounting for 80 per cent of the prison population, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.
The study shows the rate of incarceration has gone from 72 per 100,000 residents in 1988 to 82 in 2017, Radio Télévision Suisse reports.
During the 30-year period, Switzerland saw its prison population increase from 4,621 to 6,907, a 50 per cent increase overall.
In the first decade from 1988 to 1998, Swiss citizens made up around 31 per cent of the prisoners compared to 28 per cent who were foreigners living in Switzerland and 41 per cent who were foreigners residing overseas. In 1989, Swiss citizens made up as much as 44 per cent of prisoners.
During the next two decades, the number of Swiss citizen prisoners fell to only 20 per cent, with foreigners residing in Switzerland going up to 37 per cent in the second decade and back down to 28 per cent in the third.
Foreign prisoners who live overseas rapidly grew in the third decade to where they now account for over half of the prisoners in the Swiss prison system.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Honestly surprised. Who knew the Swiss allowed so much immigration?
Apparently it wasn't exactly like the brochure described.
Ignominious defeat was not in the plan for the noblest Lions of Islam of all in their version of a peaceful hippy commune.
[Independent] Lucas Glass had not long finished school when he decided to join Isis. In the summer of 2014, shortly after the terror group declared its global caliphate, he left his home city of Dortmund and set off with his wife to start a new life in Syria. He was just 19 years old.
"All I knew about Isis was that they were establishing Islamic law and fighting Bashar al-Assad," he says, cutting a solemn figure under the watchful eye of his captors at a military installation in northern Syria. "I came to practise my religion. I thought I would find what I wanted here, but actually it was very different."
"At the beginning, when they announced their caliphate, thousands of Muslims came to Syria to support it. But now we know the reality of Isis. They will not find any supporters anymore in the Muslim world. All these things Isis did, and all these crimes, made Muslims all over the world hate Isis. So it will never be able to find any supporters anymore," he says. "I only joined for the chicks"
"I got cheated. All of us got cheated. All of these foreigners, thousands of Muslims who came to join Isis got cheated." Cue violins...
Truly. As the article continues:
Glass wanted to fight for the group, against the Syrian government, but an injury meant he was unfit for the frontline. Instead, he was assigned to the police force in Aleppo province.
“The main work was manning checkpoints in the streets. I would stop cars and look out for cigarettes and drugs,” he says. “I never pointed my gun at another human,” he insists.
“They all say the same thing,” a Kurdish intelligence official responsible for handling suspected Isis members tells The Independent. “We don’t believe them.”
Posted by: Dar ||
02/09/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Life is tough, it's tougher when you're stupid.
#2
“They all say the same thing,” a Kurdish intelligence official responsible for handling suspected Isis members tells The Independent. “We don’t believe them.”
Nor does anyone else. Please dispose of this fellow at your earliest.
[AnNahar] The Guantanamo Bay detention center would receive new prisoners for the first time in more than a decade under one option being considered as the U.S. withdraws its forces from Syria and works to resolve the fate of hundreds of captured suspected 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.... fighters, officials say.
U.S.-backed Syrian fighters have custody of nearly 1,000 suspected IS fighters who the State Department said should be sent back to their home countries and prosecuted. The Syrian fighters have warned they may not be able to continue to hold the IS fighters after the withdrawal of American forces from Syria ordered by President Donald Trump
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/09/2019 00:39 ||
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[3 views]
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#1
Why bother, they can be shot under the Geneva convention.
[Arab News] BAGHDAD: Ousting US troops from Iraq despite President Donald Trump’s vow to stay is now the top goal of pro-Iranian Shiite armed groups. And their leaders say there are only two ways ‐ by passing a new law, or by force.
US-Iraq relations have grown tense once again, after a series of ups and downs over the years, from the 1990 Gulf war though crippling sanctions to the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and the fight against Daesh.
But a year after Iraq declared victory over Daesh following a three-year war against the militants in which it was also backed by Iran, the Americans are seen by some as an unwanted "occupying force."
And if they do stay, "every Iraqi will have the legitimate right to confront them by any means," warned Mohammed Mohie, spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq, a force close to Iran that has also fought on the side of President Bashar Assad in Syria.
The powerful leader of the Asaib Ahel Al-Haq armed group, Qais Al-Khazali, echoed the warning.
"If we are ever needed, we are ready," he said.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
02/09/2019 00:56 ||
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#1
how did that work out last time? this time lets make too kill tater
Posted by: chris ||
02/09/2019 12:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
after ISIS captured Mosul and then a few more cities in 2014, Baghdad was vulnerable and if ISIS would have taken it, a million Iraqis would have been slaughtered.
The US came to Iraq's aid.
Next time maybe not
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/09/2019 20:37 Comments ||
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[Rudaw] Iraq will keep buying Iranian electricity for another year, despite pressure from the US to end its energy dependency on Iran.
Iran and Iraq signed a one-year renewal of their electricity contract on Friday, Iran’s IRNA reported. Under the deal, Iran exports 1,200 megawatts of electricity to its neighbour.
The extension of the contract, first inked in 2005 and renewed annually, was signed in Tehran in the presence of Iran’s Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian and Iraq’s Electricity Minister Luay al-Khatteeb.
In December, the United States gave Baghdad another 90 days to wean itself off Iranian energy imports ‐ both electricity and natural gas to fuel Iraq’s domestic power generation plants ‐ before it has to comply with sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal.
Baghdad has said they will not be able to find another energy source within that timeframe and that they want to maintain good relations with all countries, staying out of the dispute between Iran and the US.
The electricity contract was signed after Iran and Iraq reached an agreement for Baghdad to pay back the $2 billion it owes for its energy imports, Iran’s oil minister said this week.
Ardakanian said on Friday that Baghdad has started making payments.
Iraq’s electricity grid is undersupplied and falling apart. Importing energy is a temporary measure until Iraq can be self-sufficient, Khatteeb tweeted earlier this week.
"During the war with ISIS Iraq lost 4,500 MW of energy in addition to the destruction of 18% of the energy transfer and distribution system," he stated.
He estimated that repairs will take two years, assuming there is adequate funding.
Renewable energy is a part of the government’s plan. On January 31, Khatteeb opened a Baghdad plant that will build solar panels ‐ the first of its kind in Iraq to start taking advantage of the huge solar power potential.
Tehran is ready to help Iraq rebuild its power sector. Iran wants to become an energy hub and hopes to reach regional markets through Iraq, according to Ardakanian.
"Iran enjoys extensive capacity and is ready to share it with the neighbours," he said, IRNA reported.
On Wednesday, their central banks signed a deal that will allow Iranian exporters to use Iraqi banks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/09/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] TV report says Kuwaitis toured religious and cultural sites last week, in new sign of warming ties between Israel and Moslem world.
A group of Kuwaiti businessmen visited Israel last week in a trip approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, in another sign of warming ties between Israel and Gulf states, Israeli television reported Thursday.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the group spent a few days in Israel and toured mostly religious, educational and cultural sites, including the Mahmood Mosque in Haifa, the University of Haifa and the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The group arrived in a private capacity in order to learn about Israel from up close, according to the broadcaster, and received special permission to enter the country from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Kuwait maintains a hostile relationship with Israel. Unlike other Gulf states, Israelis are barred from entering Kuwait and foreigners who have an Israeli stamp in their passport may be turned away.
The report did not specify how many were in the group, provide details on their identities or say whether they met with Israeli officials.
The rare visit comes amid a series of recent developments between Israel and Moslem countries that indicate a thaw in ties that have long been frosty, among them the re-establishment of relations with Chad last month.
The visit also comes after a Kuwaiti television host was interviewed by Kan last month and called for a normalization of ties between the countries.
Last month, the Foreign Ministry announced that three Iraqi delegations visited Israel in 2018, prompting demands for a probe by Iraqi politicians.
Baghdad does not recognize Israel, and is technically in a state of war with the country.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the 15 Iraqi visitors were "influential Shiite and Sunni personalities in the country," but did not give names.
The ministry said the Iraqi travelers had visited "Israeli officials and universities," as well as the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
A significant Iraqi Jewish community lives in Israel, and regularly calls for a normalization of ties between Baghdad and the Jewish state.
But the question remains sensitive and Israel’s support for an independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan in late 2017 provoked Iraqi officials’ ire.
Israel was the only country to back the vote, which Baghdad deemed illegal.
Iraq has been in a formal state of war with Israel throughout the modern history of the state, and its forces participated in the 1967 and 1973 wars against Israel. In 1981, Israel’s air force destroyed the nuclear reactor Iraq’s president Saddam Hussein had been building at Osirak. A decade later, in the first Gulf War, Saddam fired over 40 Scud missiles into Israel.
Nonetheless, Channel 12 news asserted, amid overall regional hostility to Israel, the Iraqi populace is "relatively supportive" of the Jewish state, and this was a factor that helped enable the recent visits.
Last May, the Foreign Ministry launched a Facebook page uniquely dedicated to fostering ties with Iraq. Diplomats in Jerusalem said the Arabic-language page would serve as "some sort of digital embassy" to the war-torn country.
[Ynet] A Haifa District Court submitted an indictment against Hussein Hawari, 20, of Baqa al-Gharbiya for contact with a foreign agent, offense of manufacturing weapons, and the offense of possessing weapons. Hawari moved to Nablus in 2012 and returned to live in Israel last year. According to the indictment, in November he gave Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, information about an IDF force operating in the Gazoo Strip, and was charged with improvising bombs in his home after learning how to assemble charges from video clips on the Internet.
[IsraelTimes] Security Council calls for disarmament of non-state actors, says disassociating from external wars a ’priority’ for members of new government.
The UN Security Council called on all Lebanese parties Friday to implement a policy disassociating themselves from any external conflicts "as an important priority," a statement that appears clearly aimed at Hezbollah which has sent fighters to Syria.
The council also reiterated its call for implementation of its resolutions which "require the disarmament of all gangs in Leb so that there will be no weapons or authority in Leb" except those of the state. This is also aimed at Shiite terrorist group.
The council statement issued Friday night welcomed the Jan. 31 announcement of a national unity government in Leb, which broke a nine-month deadlock.
Council members encouraged all politicians to build on the momentum of the new government’s formation "to address the pressing security, economic, social and humanitarian challenges facing the country" and called on the new government to urgently implement reforms, fight corruption and strengthen accountability.
Rival political groups had been locked in disagreement over the make-up of a new government since May, after the country’s first parliamentary elections in nine years. A breakthrough became possible last month after weeks of backroom deals as Leb’s economic woes mounted.
The new government is headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. , the Western-backed Sunni politician who has held the job since 2016. But Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Shiite group, made significant gains at the expense of the largest Sunni party and now controls three government ministries.
The Trump administration expressed concerns about Hezbollah holding three Cabinet posts and called on the new government to ensure that group is not supported by the ministries’ resources.
Hezbollah was formed in 1982 under the guidance of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to combat Israel. It has been Iran’s most successful investment abroad, serving as the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s arm at Israel’s doorstep.
The group dominates the political and military landscape of Leb and possesses tens of thousands of trained fighters as well as an array of sophisticated armaments. Its intervention in Syria on the side of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... also expanded its influence and reach in the region.
At home, Hezbollah remains the unrivaled armed force, also making significant political gains along with allies in the last parliamentary elections. This positioned the group to secure three ministerial posts in the new government, including the powerful Health Ministry, which has one of the country’s largest budgets.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... wants to turn Nusra Front (a terrorist group banned in Russia) into a political force similar to the Hezbollah movement in Leb, a source in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) has told Sputnik.
"Turkey is trying to handle the Nusra matter in Syria’s north, and they [the Turks] want to make this group a political group, like Hezbollah in Leb", the source said.
The Ottoman Turkish government hasn’t yet confirmed the information.
The source in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) has also stated that Turkey wants to involve the Nusra Front terrorist group (banned in Russia) in a new army in the north of Syria, where Ankara wants to set up a safe zone.
"Under the Ottoman Turkish plan, Nusra will be involved in the national army in the north, which Turkey is trying to build now", the source said.
According to the source, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which unites various opposition forces, and the SNC were both "working to enhance the Ottoman Turkish agenda in the north ‐ to create a safe zone 32 kilometres [19.8 miles] deep, taking the territory of 460 square kilometres [178 square miles]".
"There are meetings between the Coalition and Nusra Front to agree upon arrangements for the merger and formation of a new army in the Syrian north", the source stressed.
The source has also commented on the United States’ stance regarding the plan.
"The US said we have no problem with any Ottoman Turkish project in Syria’s north as long it takes our allies’ [the Kurds’] interests into account", the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria prepared on Friday for a push on the last remaining speck of 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's "caliphate" where diehard hard boyz and their families are holed up.
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... predicted that the once-sprawling proto-state's official death could be proclaimed as early as next week but operations have been paused for days on the main front line.
Four years ago, IS controlled territory the size of Britannia and administered millions of people, but the US coalition fighting the group said 99.5 per cent of it has been clawed back in successive offensives.
Its deputy commander, Major General Christopher Ghika, described the size of the last IS pocket as "now less than one percent of the original caliphate."
The coalition has been training and providing air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which launched an offensive on the last pocket of Death Eater territory in September 2018.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Moscow’s deputy foreign minister warns strikes across border ’destabilize the situation even more,’ but notes military hotline is working, according to Russian news agency Sputnik.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/09/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] IRGC chief say hidden factory proves Western powers can’t stop Tehran’s program; move is latest show of military might marking 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
I was under the impression we can suss out such things using satellite imaging technology or looking at fresh dirt deposits or something, like the Israelis did to find Hezb’allah’s tunnels. And then there are the bunker busters — Israel purchased a stockpile of those from President Obama, as I recall...
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday unveiled a new ballistic missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), their official news agency Sepah News reported.
The move was the latest show of military might by the country as it celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.
The surface-to-surface missile ‐ called Dezful ‐ is an upgrade on the older Zolfaghar model that had a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles), aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said.
The new weapon was revealed after Iran on Saturday said it had successfully tested a new cruise missile named Hoveizeh with a range of 1,350 kilometer.
The unveiling ceremony Thursday was carried out by Revolutionary Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari and Hajizadeh at an "underground ballistic missile production facility," the report said.
The semi-official Fars news agency, close to the Guard, described the location as an "underground city."
The facility’s location was not specified and pictures published by Sepah News showed only the two commanders in a room examining the missile.
"Displaying this missile production facility deep underground is an answer to Westerners ... who think they can stop us from reaching our goals through sanctions and threats," Jafari was reported as saying.
"Europeans talk of limiting our defensive capability while they have the audacity (to allow) their offensive power be used to attack innocent people all over the world," he added.
Hajizadeh said the new missile had a "destructive power" twice that of the Zolfaghar version, which Iran used for the first time in October to strike a jihadist base in Syria.
The fertile Judean Lowlands of Israel is home to at least 475 underground complexes and with an estimated number of 973 entrances that lead to a spectacular subterranean network of tunnels, man-made caves and rooms, one can say that it is a genuine Underland. In common with all other areas of the Levant, the Judean Shephelah (meaning “low”, and usually translated as “lowlands”), has been occupied by man since the earliest prehistoric times.
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.
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
[AnNahar] The Guantanamo Bay detention center would receive new prisoners for the first time in more than a decade under one option being considered as the U.S. withdraws its forces from Syria and works to resolve the fate of hundreds of captured suspected 
[Rudaw] Iraq will keep buying Iranian electricity for another year, despite pressure from the US to end its energy dependency on Iran. 
[IsraelTimes] TV report says Kuwaitis toured religious and cultural sites last week, in new sign of warming ties between Israel and 
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
[DAWN] Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria prepared on Friday for a push on the last remaining speck of the 
