#1
...Yeah, THAT was only about 15 years overdue. And expect the Usual Suspects to throw a hissy and drag this out another couple years while the birds deteriorate even further.
If SAC were still around we'd have had them in service PDQ.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/26/2018 5:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I look for the contract to be a consolidation prize to Boeing in compensation for big LM numbers.
#3
Kinda pricey at $28.3M each. The support package better last into the next century. UH-60M/S-70 is about $12M each to the Army and 50% more powerful, not to mention more damage resistant. Maybe the Italians are pricing in leather pilots' seats.
[AlAhram] Efforts to rescue Tunisia's ailing economy face the prospect of fresh turmoil after the president declared his alliance with moderate Islamists at an end, deepening divisions in a fragile coalition managing the country's transition from autocracy.
Political analysts say Monday evening's announcement by President Beji Caid Essebsi could make it difficult for the government to enact tough economic reforms sought by international lenders.
"There will be no real risk of toppling the government in parliament, but the problem is that division will deepen, social tension will rise and reforms are threatened under a fragile government coalition," Nizar Makni, a journalist and analyst said.
"Reforms need broad consensus and the lack of compromise may lead to mass protests in the streets, especially that powerful unions rejected all proposed reforms", he added.
Although struggling with high unemployment and inflation, the coalition of moderate Islamists and secular forces has been running what has been hailed as the Arab Spring's only democratic success, avoiding the upheaval seen in Egypt, Libya or Syria.
The Ennahda Islamist party and secular Nidaa Tounes agreed in 2014 on a constitution granting far-reaching political rights, limiting the role of religion and holding free elections, which stands out in a region often run by autocrats.
But Tunisia fell into a political crisis again this year after Essebsi's son, who is the leader of Nidaa Tounes, called for the dismissal of prime minister Youssef Chahed because of his government's failure to revive the economy.
His demand was supported by the powerful UGTT union, which rejected economic reforms proposed by Chahed.
But Ennahda came to Chahed's defence, saying the departure of the prime minister would hit stability at a time when the country needed economic reforms.
In his more than two years in office, Chahed has pushed through austerity measures and structural reforms, such as cutting fuel subsidies that have helped to underpin a $2.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other financial support.
The president raised the stakes on Monday evening.
"The consensus and relationship between me and Ennahha has ended, after they chose to form another relationship with Youssef Chahed," Essebsi, the founder of Nidaa Tounes, said in a televised interview.
Analysts said the president's announcement would probably not lead to the overthrow of the government, which still has the support of at least 110 of a total 217 politicians in parliament.
But Chahed could find it difficult to enact tough reforms in the face of a strong opposition front including the unions, the president and Nidaa Tounes party.
Last week the UGTT labour union called a public sector strike for Oct. 24 to protest at Chahed's privatisation plans.
"The president's comments will deepen the crisis," senior Ennahda official Lotfi Zitoun told Rooters.
"Ennahda seeks stability and a dialogue that includes all partners to get out of the crisis."
By surviving for more than two years, Chahed has become the longest-serving of Tunisia's nine prime ministers since its Arab Spring democratic revolution in 2011.
Chahed has gathered enough support in parliament to stave off a possible vote of no confidence by working with Ennahda and a number of other politicians including 10 Nidaa Tounes rebels.
Since 2011 uprising, nine cabinets have failed to resolve Tunisia's economic problems, which include high inflation and unemployment, and impatience is rising among lenders such as the IMF, which have kept the country afloat.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[North Africa Post] The succession crisis in Algeria continues to spill ink after former French Ambassador Bernard Bajolet claimed that ailing President Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... is artificially maintained alive.
This statement comes as voices with vested interest in the regime are calling for a fifth term for President Bouteflika whose public appearances are a thing of the past.
Bajolet who served as chief French external intelligence agency (DGSE) delivered a scathing criticism of the Algerian regime at an interview with Le Figaro, saying that the Algerian President is artificially maintained alive. "His superb comb-over is still intact, however"
"President Bouteflika, with all the respect I feel for him, is kept alive artificially. And nothing will change in this transition period," he said.
Prominent Algerian politicians and intellectuals expressed outcry as the Algerian regime prepares a fifth term for Bouteflika who is now confined to a wheelchair.
The President who recently underwent medical checkups in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... amid a cholera outbreak in his country is seriously ill and his voice is barely intelligible.
Bouteflika has been frail since suffering a stroke in 2013, which weakened his mobility and forced him to work from his residence in Zeralda, west of Algiers.
Analysts deem that maintaining a sick President whose physical and mental capacities are shrouded in uncertainty is indicative of a power struggle within the country’s regime.
The contending clans within the regime seem not in agreement over Bouteflika’s successor. Therefore, they maintain the ailing 80-year old President as a time buying measure in a sign that bodes ill for the country’s future.
Bouteflika’s health also casts a shadow on the opacity of a regime, where power is generally presumed to reside among groups of military leaders, intelligence officials, businessmen, and politicians collectively known as Le Pouvoir.
Regime opacity and the secrecy shrouding the successor to Bouteflika have also been hampering Algeria from carrying out economic reforms to wean their economy from dependence on hydrocarbons
Uncertainty over Bouteflika’s succession adds to Algeria’s explosive mix: ailing economy, dwindling oil revenues, widespread corruption, fragile social cohesion and lingering terrorist threat, which make the country a powder keg waiting to explode.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
He has been a good King. For what he had to work for.
[AlMasdar] Up to 100 white Helmet members and their families were granted asylum in the UK after mass evacuation from Syria.
According to media reports, the first family has already been resettled in the UK with the rest are expected to arrive early next month.
In July, some 100 members of the controversial rescue organization ‐ along with family members ‐ were evacuated out of southern Syria through Israel to Jordan.
The mass evacuation mission was conceived by Britannia, Germany and Canada, and supported by Israel, Jordan, US and the UN.
The civil defense volunteers, widely known as the White Helmets, are accused of staging fake chemical attacks in northern Syria in order to prompt western countries into bombing positions for the Syrian Army.
[Daily Excelsior] Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said the Government is "ready to talk to everyone" over the Kashmire issue, while asserting that terrorism in the Valley is "Pakistain-sponsored".
After a meeting of the Central Zonal Council here, he told news hounds, "I think the (Kashmire) matter will be resolved. We are ready to talk to everyone. As far as terrorism is concerned, all security agencies are working in coordination."
"Terrorism in Kashmire is Pakistain-sponsored," he said.
The Government on Friday had called off a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistain in New York, barely 24 hours after agreeing to the engagement, citing the brutal killings of three coppers in Jammu and Kashmire and Islamabad releasing postage stamps "glorifying" Kashmiri murderous Moslem Burhan Wani.
About the issues raised in the zonal council meeting, the Home Minister said out of 22 points, 20 have been resolved, adding during the last four years, in 12 meetings, 680 issues were discussed of which 428 were resolved.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] US president denounces ‘globalism,’ presses US trading partners, hails thriving Israel, and urges world leaders to isolate Iran for sowing ‘death and destruction’
The full text of the thing can be read at the link.
Baghdad (IraqiNews) In Iraq, as the government struggles to tighten its control on arms possession following the overthrow of 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.... snuffies and limit it to official troops, weapons are selling online, with dealers offering home deliveries.
According to Iraqi website SNG, arms traders are openly marketing their multi-source merchandise through specialized social network pages.
Contrary to the tradition in pre-2003 Iraq, when arms purchases were conducted through mediators, with the then iron-fisted state usually foiling the transaction, arms are now on higher demand, with technology including more development in the trade that delivery service is now offered.
SNG quoted one dealer, a 27-year-old to which it referred with initials (M. D.), saying that deals are made through specialized facebook pages as well as private online chats. "The price of a certain piece, make it a pistol or an automatic gun, is negotiated through social networks, then delivery is carried out [from dealer to customer].
Another dealer says "transactions are sometimes made through mediators, and the meetup happens at secret spots away from the public...there are secret agreements between dealers and members of political parties to facilitate he trade, tapping into the influence and weight those parties enjoy on the Iraqi streets". He adds that, "in the past period, the trade was highly difficult and risky, but now became simpler, with a delivery service included per request".
Tarek Harb, an Iraqi legal expert, told the website that arms trade is criminalized disregarding the medium, and penalties could mount to death sentence if the purchase was linked to terrorist action. For light unlicensed weapons, penalties range from 3 to 5 years in prison as well as fining.
But Hayan al-Khayyat, another expert, told SNG that the law provides for "imprisonment" for whoever deals in weapons parts or whole weapons smuggling, trade or manufacture without an official license. He says that such a term means that the penalty could range from 5 to 15 years in prison.
[ARABNEWS] The Gazoo Strip’s economy is in "free fall," a report from the World Bank warned Tuesday, calling for urgent action by Israel and the international community to avoid "immediate collapse."
According to the report, Gazoo’s economy contracted by 6 percent in the first quarter of 2018. It said unemployment is now over 50 percent ‐ and over 70 percent among Gazoo’s youth.
The World Bank cited various factors, starting with Israel’s decade-long blockade against the territory’s Lion of IslamHamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, rulers, for the precarious downturn. It also cited budget cuts by the rival Paleostinian Authority and a reduction in international aid to the Paleostinians, particularly from the United States.
"A combination of war, isolation, and internal rivalries has left Gazoo in a crippling economic state and exacerbated the human distress," said Marina Wes, the World Bank’s director for the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"A combination of war, isolation, and internal rivalries has left Gazoo in a crippling economic state and exacerbated the human distress," said Marina Wes, the World Bank’s director for the region.
How about the fact that they're all non-working, unskilled fucking bums?
#3
There used to be a thriving smuggling business that brought in everything from potato chips to brass, glass, marble, and escalator parts for two air conditioned shopping malls. But the Egyptians dug their great ditch and clear cut 1.5km from the border, last I looked, so that business has been severely reduced.
[AlMasdar] A number of leaked photos were posted online, today, showing that the S-300 missile defense system may have been delivered to Syria already.
At least three photos were posted by Uralinform.Ru, today, showing the arrival of the Krasukha 4 electronic suppression of navigation and communication systems last night in Syria.
According to the author of the publication, the Russian military has already delivered the S-300 hardware to Syria via a Russian-made aircraft from the Mozdok Airport.
As shown below, the Krasukha 4 systems are being unloaded at the Hmeymim Military Airport near the Syrian coastal city of Jableh in the Latakia province.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/26/2018 03:30 ||
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[AlMasdar] The U.S. forces will be remaining in Syria to train locals after 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.... (ISIS), U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said on Monday.
"Once we get those patrols going along the line of contact and we take out the rest of the caliphate, our goal would be to set up local security elements that prevent the return of [ISIS] while at the same time diplomatically supporting... the Geneva process," Mattis said on Monday.
Mattis’ comments came just hours after the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that they will be supplying Syria with the S-300 missile defense system.
The Secretary of Defense has also stated on several occasions in the past that the U.S. will remain in Syria after the defeat of the Islamic State.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... Mattis’ reasons for remaining in Syria after the defeat of the Islamic State were to curb the Iranian presence inside the country.
[DoD]The fight continues in the Middle Euphrates River Valley to wrest the last 2 percent of land once controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria from the grasp of the terror group, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said here today.
“That fighting is on-going and as we forecasted, it’s been a tough fight and we are winning,” the secretary told reporters.
The secretary said Syrian leaders have to be well aware of the U.S. position on the regime using chemical weapons. He stressed “there is zero evidence” that any opposition groups possess chemical weapons or the technology to employ those weapons.
The U.S. goal in Syria remains to end the tragedy that would have ended years ago, if Russia and Iran had not intervened, Mattis said. “We want to support the Geneva process -- the U.N.-mandated process. … In that scope what we want to do is make certain that ISIS does not come back and upset everything again.”
COMBATING ISIS
The U.S. and allies are training local security forces inside Syria. The United States is working with Turkey to launch joint patrols in Manbij. “I think we are close on that; it’s complex,” Mattis said. “Once we get those patrols going along the line of contact and we take out the rest of the [ISIS] caliphate, our goal would be to set up local security elements that prevent the return of ISIS while at the same time diplomatically supporting … the Geneva process.”
The secretary said Russia’s vetoes of United Nations resolutions early in the process with Syria, “kept the U.N. marginalized at a time when it might have been able to stop what unfolded. Iran then sent in their proxy forces.”
Iranians are in Syria. Iran is propping up the Assad regime with forces, money, weapons and proxies. “Part of this overarching problem is we have to address Iran,” Mattis said. “Everywhere you go in the Middle East, where there is instability, you find Iran.”
Iran’s has a role to play in the peace process, the secretary said. And that “is to stop fomenting trouble,” he added.
Posted by: 3dc ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Gonna go to Geneva and draw new maps of what was once Syria?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/26/2018 11:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'd go with the Hiroshima Process myself, but I'm feeling a bit Genghis Khan-ish today.
[IsraelTimes] Intelligence ministry: Attackers who killed 25 at military parade in Ahvaz were funded by ’Arab reactionary countries’
Iran on Tuesday identified the perpetrators of a deadly attack on a military parade as "jihadist separatists," announcing a series of arrests and appearing to tie 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 to the bloodshed.
The intelligence ministry published photos of the five men it said carried out the assault Saturday in the southwestern city of Ahvaz that killed 24 people including civilians.
"The five members of a terrorist squad affiliated to jihadist separatist groups supported by Arab reactionary countries were identified," the ministry said in a statement.
"The terrorists’ hideout was found and 22 people involved [in the attack] were tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! ," it said, adding that explosives were seized along with military and communications equipment.
The attack targeted a parade in Khuzestan province commemorating the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The region, which has a large ethnic Arab community, was a major battleground of the conflict and saw ethnic unrest in 2005 and 2011.
Iranian officials initially blamed Arab separatists ‐ who they claimed were behind previous unrest ‐ for the latest attack, saying they were backed by Gulf Arab allies of the United States.
This version was bolstered when a movement called "Ahwaz National Resistance," an Arab separatist group, grabbed credit shortly after the assault.
But the Islamic State group (IS) was also quick to claim responsibility and later published a video of men it said were the attackers.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Monday linked the attackers to Iraq and Syria, where IS once had major strongholds.
"This cowardly act was the work of those very individuals who are rescued by the Americans whenever they are in trouble in Iraq and Syria and who are funded by the Saudis and the [United] Arab Emirates," Khamenei was quoted as saying by his official website.
IS SCREENSHOT
The photographs of the alleged attackers released by the authorities Tuesday showed the bodies of four men named as Ayyad Mansouri, Fouad Mansouri, Ahmad Mansouri, and Javad Saari.
The picture published by the intelligence ministry of an alleged fifth member of the group, Hassan Darvishi, was a screenshot taken from the video put out by IS.
According to local media two of the Mansouris are brothers and the third is their cousin.
Abdullah Ganji, the managing director of the ultra-conservative Javan daily, wrote on Twitter that a third Mansouri brother "was killed in a suicide kaboom in Syria."
There has been no known presence of Iranian Arab separatist groups in Syria.
Ganji also wrote in an article that the nature of the attack in Ahvaz, in which the assailants died, far more resembled IS than the "bombing or hit and run operations" typical of Arab separatist groups.
"To kill until you are killed, without trying to leave the scene is the method of [IS]," he said, pointing to parallels with a high-profile attack in Iran last year.
On June 7, 2017, in Tehran, 17 people were killed and dozens maimed in simultaneous attacks on the parliament and on the tomb of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ‐ the first inside Iran claimed by IS.
Ganji, however, appeared to hedge his analysis and said that if it was still confirmed that the Arab separatists committed the attack then it could mean they are in league with IS.
Iranian authorities have blamed the United States, Israel, 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 United Arab Emirates of being behind the Ahvaz attack, which Tehran has promised to "rigorously punish."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Moscow account accuses Israel of providing misleading information at short notice, claims pilot deliberately flew close to reconnaissance aircraft to draw fire.
Exhaustive timeline with accompanying map can be seen at the link.
[ARABNEWS] 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... used his address at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to launch a searing attack on Iran, saying its leadership sows "chaos, death and destruction."
The US president criticized Iran as a "corrupt dictatorship" that is "plundering the Iranian people to pay for aggression abroad."
Trump told the annual gathering: "They do not respect their neighbors or borders or the sovereign rights of nations."
In response, Trump reiterated the US commitment to a "campaign of economic pressure" to deny Iran funds for its "regional behavior," and that more sanctions will follow after the resumption of oil sanctions on Nov. 5.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[AlMasdar] Russia has reportedly asked Tehran to be provided with access to Noyeh airbase in northwestern Iran to be used as an interim airfield for its fighters while conducting missions in Syria.
According to ANNA News Agency which reported the story, Russian had earlier used the same airbase when its long-range bombers were refueled at Noyeh before resuming its flight to bomb 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.... in eastern Syria.
The Russian and Iranian defense agencies have neither confirmed nor denied the report.
This comes after the Syrian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Russian IL-20 plane while intercepting Israeli F-16s.
As a result, Russia announced that the S-300 anti-aircraft system will be activated in Syria in two weeks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/26/2018 00:00 ||
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#2
"In 2015, an airbase located in the Hamadan area already had high activity of the Russian Federation Air Force, but plans for the constant use of this base were mothballed in 2016, as Iran expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that these plans seeped into the press, and at the end of 2016 it was announced, that the use of this airbase was suspended “for the time being”."
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.
Bouteflika
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell....jpg)
[Daily Excelsior] Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said the Government is "ready to talk to everyone" over the 
Baghdad (IraqiNews) In Iraq, as the government struggles to tighten its control on arms possession following the overthrow of 
[ARABNEWS] The 
