I suspect the drop will continue as troops come home from AFG. I have sat in crowded Morale and Welfare [MWR] tents where hearing the phone or SKYPE conversation of young soldiers in the next booth could not be avoided. Without going into sad details, family separation takes a heavy toll. The availability of instant communication definitely has it's downside.
[MAGHAREBIA] Days after kidnapping Tunisian diplomat al-Aroussi Kontassi in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , Libya Death Eaters released a video showing another Tunisian embassy worker pleading for his life.
The sobbing captive seen in the clip on Monday (April 21st), Mohammed Benchikh, has been held since March by an unknown jihadist group calling itself Shabaab al-Tawhid.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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Former Makhachkala Mayor Said Amirov and his nephew Yusup Dzhaparov on Thursday have pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. A long-term member of the ruling United Russia party, Amirov served as mayor of Makhachkala from 1998 until 2013.
On October 28, Amirov was charged with terrorism and illegal arms trafficking. Investigators said that the defendants planned to fire at a plane carrying Amirov's political opponent Sagid Murtazaliyev by a portable air defense system. Earlier, Amirov was also charged with the 2011 murder of investigator Arsen Gadzhibekov in the city of Kaspiysk.
On June 1, 2013, he was arrested and brought to Moscow, where he was taken into custody. Amirov has called the case politically motivated.
Gadzhibekov was gunned down near his home as he was getting out of his car. He had worked on a number of criminal cases, including the 2010 terrorist attack in Kizlyar that killed 10 and injured 270. Investigators believe that Amirov ordered the assassination, which was organized by Magomed Abdulgalimov, assistant city prosecutor of Kizlyar with accomplices, Deputy Mayor of Kaspiysk Yusup Dzhaparov and Kirovsky District police investigator Magomed Akhmedov. The murder was committed by Magomed Kadiyev, the Investigative Committee said earlier.
The latest indications are that sometime in the past several days, the North sealed a tunnel at its mountainous nuclear site at Punggye-ri. That's one of the final preconditions before Pyongyang can carry out another underground test.
Enough to blow the crap out of their country?
A deep groove down the middle and radioactive enough to glow at night.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/26/2014 19:34 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Good luck with that. If they are collocated, and things are not timed exquisitely close, all that will happen is the first flash will screw up all the others. So instead of a roar, you'll get a burp. If that happens, Pudgy will be shooting nuke scientists and engineers at his gun range the next day.
[An Nahar] A review board Friday recommended U.S. officials repatriate a Yemeni man detained at Guantanamo for 12 years, saying the suspected the late Osama bin Laden ... who was laid out deader than a mackerel, right next to the mackerel... bodyguard no longer poses a threat to U.S. security.
Ali Ahmed Mohammed al-Rahizi, 34, was among the first 20 terror suspects brought to Guantanamo, on January 11, 2002. Last month he appeared before the Periodic Review Board, created in 2011 by the B.O. regime as part of its goal to shutter the detention facility.
There are 154 men still held at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including 76 already cleared for release.
In Rahizi's case, the PRB "by consensus, determined continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States," it said in a statement.
In recommending his return to his family home in the relatively stable region of Ta'izz, the board cited the detainee's non-violent behavior at Guantanamo, his "credible" plans for the future and a "commitment not to repeat past mistakes."
The PRB's recommendations were made at a hearing and transmitted by audio to a listening room at the Pentagon.
Rahizi was captured in December 2001 along the Afghanistan-Pakistain border. The PRB cited his low level of involvement with terror network al-Qaeda, "including his lack of ties to at-large krazed killers."
By receiving transfer approval, Rahizi could theoretically be repatriated now. But dozens of Yemenis, who constitute more than half of the prison's detainees, already approved for transfer have languished at Guantanamo amid instability in Yemen.
On January 9 the PRB recommended repatriation of Yemeni Mahmoud al-Mujahid. But it refused to return a second Yemeni under consideration, Abdel Wahab al Malik Rahabi, who like Rahizi had been described as a former bodyguard of bin Laden.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
you don't have to actually put a chip in him before release in Yemen, just put a nice obvious scar at the base of his skull/spine and let it be "known" there's one in there. He'll wish he was still at Gitmo
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2014 11:31 Comments ||
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[NYPOST] A pro-Paleostinian NYU group targeted Jewish classmates with threatening "eviction" notices that were slid under dorm-room doors in the dead of night, students said Thursday.
"If you do not vacate the premise by midnight on 25 April, 2014 we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings. We cannot be held responsible for property or persons remaining inside the premises," read the notices, which were delivered by members of the Students for Justice in Paleostine.
NYU sophomore Hunter Goet, whose room got one of the threatening notices overnight Wednesday, said, "A lot of people felt transgressed upon because they felt threatened by it."
"They felt like their housing was being threatened. It was a massive source of panic."
The activist student group targeted Palladium Hall on East 14th Street because it is widely believed to house the most Jewish residents -- and even has a special elevator that works without pressing buttons on the Sabbath, reported the Times of Israel.
The warnings conclude, "THIS IS NOT A REAL EVICTION NOTICE" -- and the group said they were replicas of notices routinely left at the homes of Paleostinians by the Israeli government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
... people felt transgressed ...
Anyone who could say this in this situation is, by definition, a sheep; a member of a herd NOT of a pack.
#2
The warnings conclude, "THIS IS NOT A REAL EVICTION NOTICE" -- and the group said they were replicas of notices routinely left at the homes of Paleostinians by the Israeli government.
Ima thinkern the response should be rockets launched at Paleo dorm rooms.
#4
The thing that gets me about all of these sorts of things is, they're basically discriminating against those Jews that went ahead and did what the Palestinians wanted them to do: live somewhere other than Israel.
[DAWN] Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Friday confirmed to a private TV channel that the government has received video footage of Ali Haider Gilani in which he said that his kidnappers were not from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP).
Gilani, the son of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, is also alleged to have said that his family is not taking serious steps for his release.
The kidnappers have asked for Rs500 million for Gilani's release instead of the earlier demand of Rs2 billion, said Nisar, adding that the captive can be seen bounded by chains in the video.
This is the first time that any contact was made by him and his captors with the Gilani family since his abduction in from Multan on May 9, 2013 from outside a Pakistain People's Party office.
In the said video, Gilani says that he will be killed if serious steps are not taken for his release.
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... Newsweek quoted a security official in its news report, who said that Gilani questioned his family.
"Why are you people not paying the ransom to the gunnies to get me released from their custody?" Gilani asked in the video.
The official further added that Gilani appeared haggard and was handcuffed.
"He looked very weak and requested his family to pay the money as soon as possible."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... on Friday said that his party would come out on the streets to stage protests for building a 'new Pakistain,' DawnNews reported.
Speaking to party workers during a ceremony held to mark the 18th anniversary of the PTI's foundation, he vowed to stage protests for 'true democracy' in the country on May 11 -- the day Paks observed historic first ever general elections on completion of tenure of a democratically elected government last year.
It should also be mentioned that Allama Tahirul Qadri has also announced a country-wide protest on May 11 next month. Qadri, with thousands of his followers, erupted into the streets in Islamabad in the run up to the historic May 11 polls demanding sweeping changes to the electoral system of the country.
Reiterating his allegation of poll rigging against ruling Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N), the PTI chief demanded the authorities to take the alleged culprits behind fixing "punctures" to task. He said that his party has neither accepted the results of the May 11 polls nor will they accept it in the future.
"People cast their votes to some people while others came out as victorious in the May 11 elections," he alleged.
Criticisizing Geo TV and its senior anchorperson Hamid Mir, who was maimed in an attack in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... last week, the PTI chief said that hurling allegations at Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) was shameful.
He demanded the Pemra to look into what he alleged as 'foreign funding' to certain media houses.
The cricketer-turned-politician said that only a stronger army will ensure a stronger Pakistain, demanding legal proceedings for the alleged culprits of election rigging.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Friday that a one-sided media trial against Pakistain's armed forces and defence establishments should end, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives outside the Parliament House in the federal capital, Nisar said it was the federal government's constitutional and legal responsibility to protect the dignity of the Pakistain Army and other intelligence agencies, adding that there should be no ambiguity or fallacy in that respect.
The interior minister said Jang group would have to retract its steps in the greater national interests of Pakistain, adding that the media trial over senior journalist Hamid Mir's attack would have to end otherwise anti-state elements would take advantage of the situation.
The minister said he was personally trying to ensure that the situation would not be aggravated from either of the sides.
The minister said the ISPR had strongly condemned the attack on Mir and also demanded for an independent commission to probe the incident, adding that a media trial would create further confusion.
He said all forces and segments of society were on the same page over conducting a transparent investigation into the attack on journalist Hamid Mir and to bring his perpetrators to justice.
Nisar said an independent media as well as honourable and dignified armed forces were the needs of Pakistain. He advised both sides to remain patient and to avoid troublemakers.
The interior minister said Mir's family should come forward in case of any doubts over the Sindh police's investigation and the commission set up to probe the attack and that alternate options could be considered.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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Cracks have appeared in the fledgling national reconciliation between moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and the militant Hamas group over whether the unity government to be formed within five weeks will recognise Israel.
A day after Israel suspended the troubled Middle East peace talks in response to the Fatah-Hamas agreement reached on Wednesday, saying it would not deal with a government that is backed by Hamas, elements within Fatah took pains to stress that the new government will recognise Israel and meet two other conditions set by the international community for dealing with Hamas: renouncing violence and honouring previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
It still remains unclear whether for Mr Abbas the agreement with Hamas was designed as a tactic to pressure Israel into meeting his demands to extend peace talks or a more strategic move based on the calculation that, nine years into his term, he needs to hold elections to renew his mandate. Polling has been impossible as long as the Hamas-Fatah rift persists because Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and can thwart it.
The next five weeks will test the durability of the reconciliation agreement. Mr Abbas concluded previous reconciliation deals with Hamas in Cairo in 2011 and Doha in 2012, but the two sides never implemented them, raising the possibility Mr Abbas had no intention of following through on this one either. In any event, judging by Israel's reaction, including economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, he seems to have miscalculated in thinking he could simultaneously deal with both Hamas and Israel. Israeli officials have said the suspension of talks is in effect until it becomes clear whether the new government recognises Israel and meets the international conditions.
A senior Palestinian official was quoted by the Times of Israel website yesterday as saying that Mr Abbas and Fatah ''won't agree to complete the reconciliation process'' unless Hamas agrees that the new government ''accepts the two state solution-Israel and Palestine-along the 1967 lines''. The new government would also ''adhere to the conditions of the Middle East quartet [the EU, UN, Russia and US], recognise Israel, ratify all signed agreements and renounce violence,'' the official said.
According to the office of the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, Mr Abbas himself offered identical assurances about the new government when the two men met on Thursday. However, the view in Hamas, which opted for the reconciliation pact partly to improve its standing after the loss of its key ally with the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, is different. Contradicting what Mr Abbas has been saying, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, Hassan Youssef, ruled out any recognition of Israel by the new government. Asked during an interview with The Independent whether the new government, which will be comprised of technocrats and headed by Mr Abbas, will accept the quartet's conditions, Mr Youssef said: ''This is not its role. Its role is not political. Its goal is to run matters as a transition stage until elections. Its goal is just to supervise the elections, no more.''
''Are the quartet conditions the Quran?'' Mr Youssef continued. ''Are they the New Testament? These conditions must change because they are unjust and what is needed are conditions that respect the circumstances and choices of the Palestinian people. These conditions are unacceptable to us.''
About recognising Israel, the Hamas leader said: ''The [Abbas-led] Palestine Liberation Organisation is the one that negotiates with Israel and recognised Israel. It is not required of every Palestinian party to recognise Israel just as it is not required of every Israeli party to have the same views as other Israeli parties.''
Mr Youssef, who has served a total of 17 years in Israeli prisons and is considered a pragmatist in Hamas, said that the PLO made a mistake by recognising Israel. ''Hamas does not want to give an advance position on this. The PLO gave an advance position and Israel gave it nothing. If Israel recognises all the rights of the Palestinian people and meets all its demands and we can see it on the ground then for every event, there is a response.'' He declined to limit resistance to occupation to non-violent popular protests as Mr Abbas did in his talks with Mr Serry.''We as a Palestinian people whose land is occupied and whose holy places are occupied have the right to defend ourselves. We agree with popular resistance but all options are before the Palestinian people.''
[An Nahar] Israel must stop shooting at Paleostinian civilians in the Gazoo Strip, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said Friday, noting four have been killed near the border fence since the beginning of 2014.
A report by the New York-based watchdog cited U.N. data which also said more than 60 civilians were maimed by Israeli gunfire near the perimeter fence of the Paleostinian enclave ruled by the Islamist Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.
It focused on seven incidents between January 2 and March 1, in which the four were killed and five others maimed, "none of whom posed a threat to the soldiers or others".
HRW noted that "Paleostinians living in the densely inhabited Gazoo Strip use land near the fence with Israel for agriculture, collecting rubble, scrap metal, and other reusable materials, and recreation."
"Month after month, Israeli forces have maimed and killed unarmed Paleostinians who did nothing but cross an invisible, shifting line that Israel has drawn inside Gazoo's perimeter," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a front man for the Israeli army, did not challenge the facts but slammed the report which he said "completely ignored the reality of the state of conflict we have with Gazoo, the perimeter with which is a springboard for terrorism from the Strip".
"The statement ridicules human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... . This week alone we've had numerous attacks emerging from the immediate perimeter of the fence," he said.
"They don't magically arrive there," Lerner said of the perpetrators.
He also referred to "terror tunnels" from Gazoo and projectiles fired at southern Israel.
The military front man said "the 100-meter (yard) limit" from the border fence, which was agreed upon under the terms reached after an eight-day confrontation between Israel and Hamas snuffies in November 2012, was "known and widespread".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[JPOST] On a phone call with US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... Thursday evening, Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... said that a unity government between Fatah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, would renounce violence and recognize the state of Israel.
Abbas insisted that "any government that is formed will be his government and represent his policies," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told news hounds of their phone call.
Psaki repeated, however, that no action had yet been taken to form such a government - that multiple attempts to unify the two parties have been made in the past, to no avail.
Historically, Hamas has refused to adopt either of those principles. The Islamic Resistance Front has codified its intention to destroy Israel in its charter, and is listed by the United States, European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and Israel as a terrorist organization.
For US aid to continue to the Paleostinian Authority, appropriations law from Congress requires "all ministers" in a power-sharing government that includes Hamas declare Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept previous agreements between Israel and the PLO.
Should a unity government form, Abbas' commitment to Kerry would require Hamas leadership publicly denounce their own charter.
"This is a moment of transition, and part of the process," Psaki said of the state of the talks, now suspended by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's cabinet after the Paleostinians announced reconciliation. "We're in a holding pattern where parties need to figure out what's next."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"We're in a holding pattern where parties need to figure out what's next."
It took nearly six years but the O-Team finally agreed on the Obama Foreign Policy Doctrine.
Agus Dwikarna was a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operative who, according to the UN, guided al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri on a trip to Aceh. This alleged Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist from Sulawesi disappeared just days after coming home from the Philippines, where he had been imprisoned since 2002 on charges of possessing illegal explosives.
He returned in early January and spent a few days at his home in Makassar, but his whereabouts since are unknown, Indonesian officials say.
Agus was serving a 17-year sentence when the Philippines deported him to Indonesia. The Philippines convicted him twelve years ago for trying to board a flight to Bangkok from Manila with C-4 plastic explosives and bomb parts in his possession.
Though Agus denied those charges, he had an extensive history of involvement in terrorist activities, according to the UN. In September 2003, the UN's Security Council Committee listed him among people with alleged ties to al-Qaeda and direct involvement with the terror group's most senior leaders.
Until his 2002 arrest in Manila, Agus was "a major figure" of Laskar Jundullah in Makassar, military wing of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council (MMI). He also worked as a regional head of the Indonesian branch of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which funnelled al-Qaeda money into the region and gave its operatives cover as charity workers.
According to reports, apart from running a Sulawesi training camp, Agus escorted two of al-Qaeda's top leaders on a tour of Aceh Province: Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mohammed Atef, head of al-Qaeda's military wing, who has since been killed. According to the UN, the two al-Qaeda leaders visited Aceh in June 2002, but other sources date their trip to June 2000.
[An Nahar] Russia on Friday said it had proof the Syrian government was not behind a new spate of alleged chemical attacks in the country, amid fresh international calls for a probe.
"Accusations against government forces continue to be fabricated about alleged cases of them using chemical substances," said a Russian foreign ministry statement.
"The Russian side has authentic information that such statements are false," it said.
United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Security Council members this week called for a new probe into claims of chlorine gas attacks in Syria, with the government and opposition both accusing the other of chemical attacks in rebel-held provinces.
La Belle France and the United States allege that Assad's forces may have unleashed industrial chemicals on a rebel-held village in central Hama province this month.
Activists have also reported chlorine gas attacks, most recently in the northwestern Idlib province on Monday.
"This, yet another anti-Syrian 'chemical' hysteria, highlights the question of the real goals of its initiators, who are not abandoning attempts to find a reason for intervention in Syria," said the statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[AFP] Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... has called in an interview for Death Eaters to kidnap Westerners, especially Americans, to exchange them for jihadist captives.
In the second part of an interview with Al-Qaeda media arm As-Sahab, which the US-based SITE monitoring service said a jihadist posted on Twitter, Zawahiri was asked what Moslems should do to free bully boy prisoners.
"I advise them to capture Westerners and especially the Americans as much as they can, to exchange them for their captives," he replied.
In the first part of the interview, released on April 19, the Al-Qaeda chief called for unity amid widening divisions with a rival jihadist organization rooted in the Syrian civil war.
Zawahiri succeeded the late the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... as leader of the global terror network in 2011.
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.
Zawahiri
