[KhaamaPress] The Australian defense officials have said more than 15,000 SILVERSHIELD systems have been delivered to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces
SILVERSHIELD is the latest evolution in vehicle-mounted systems being developed under the REDWING program, which provides protection against radio controlled improvised bombs, according to the Department of Defense of Australia.
Minister for Defence, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, said last week that this capability would boost the confidence of Australia’s Afghan partners when operating in a high threat environment.
"Over 15,000 SILVERSHIELD systems have now been delivered to Afghanistan for training and initial rollout with deliveries now complete," Minister Pyne said.
"This is an outstanding investment in Australian capability to deliver life-saving, cutting-edge Counter Improvised Explosive Device technology," he said, adding that "The REDWING program demonstrates successful collaboration between Defence and industry, and SILVERSHIELD is proof of Australian industry’s ability to meet the challenge of high volume and time critical manufacturing."
Since 2015, Australian industry and Defence have produced and exported over 200,000 individual and vehicle mounted REDWING systems to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration plans to significantly cut U.S. support for United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa as part of a broader strategy that seeks to better promote American interests on the continent, National Security Adviser John Bolton said Thursday.
Speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Bolton criticized "unproductive, unsuccessful, and unaccountable U.N. peacekeeping missions" that often lead to decades of U.N. occupation rather than conflict resolution.
"We will only back effective and efficient operations, and we will seek to streamline, reconfigure, or terminate missions that are unable to meet their own mandate or facilitate lasting peace," Bolton said. "Our objective is to resolve conflicts, not freeze them in perpetuity."
Bolton, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under the second Bush administration, accused the world body of frequently entering into truces with African governments followed by the deployment of peacekeeping forces without addressing the issues fueling the conflict.
"All too often at the United Nations, establishing the peacekeeping force and deploying it is the end of creative thinking and the mandate [of the mission] is renewed almost automatically," he said. "There needs to be a lot more focus on resolving the underlying conflict, and therefore having success in the peacekeeping mission. Success is not simply continuing the mission ad infinitum."
Bolton cited the U.N. mission in the Western Sahara, which has operated there for nearly three decades. Bolton helped write the mission mandate in 1991 when he served as the assistant secretary for international organizations at the State Department.
He asked in exasperation, "How can you justify that?"
#KSA and the Arab Coalition strongly support the agreement announced in Sweden today. We commend @OSE_Yemen for all of his remarkable efforts. The agreement is a major step towards alleviating the humanitarian crisis and reaching a political solution.
[DAWN] The Urdu and Pashto websites of international news organization Voice of America (VOA) have reportedly been blocked in Pakistain.
Accessing the website shows an alert that reads: "Secure Connection Failed. The connection to www.urduvoa.com was interrupted while the page was loading. The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified."
An official who works for VOA said that the Pashto website had been blocked a few months ago.
"However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the Urdu website became inaccessible last week after the coverage of a presser held by the leader of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), Mohsin Dawar. Initially, we received complaints that the website was not accessible at some places, but later it was completely blocked," the official said.
"Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry was also contacted over the issue and he also confirmed that the websites were blocked."
Ayesha Tanzeem, the VOA bureau chief for Afghanistan and Pakistain, on her Twitter account @atanzeem said: "Pakistain Tightens Coverage of Pashtun Nationalist Movement #PTM, blocks VOA’s Urdu and Deewa websites."
In a news story published on the VOA website’s English edition, it is stated that Pak authorities were scrutinising media coverage of the Pashtun nationalist movement, blocking VOA websites and filing police cases against journalists covering its local rallies.
About a week earlier, it said, Pakistain had ordered internet service providers to block the website of VOA’s Urdu language service. VOA’s Deewa news website, which primarily caters to the Pashto-speaking audience in the region around the Afghan border, had already been blocked for months, the report added.
The VOA report quoted Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry as saying that the sites were blocked for "false and prejudiced reporting".
"The stories they were doing were only projecting a particular narrative without any impartial view. There are many things happening in our country and most are positive," he told the publication.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] An antiterrorism court on Wednesday awarded 21-year imprisonment to two convicts, said to be associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... ’s London faction, in cases pertaining to possessing explosives and illicit weapons.
The convicts ‐ Mohammad Irshad and Mohammad Bilal Lodhi ‐ were found guilty of possessing explosive substances and illegal arms with an intent to target the leaders of the MQM’s Pakistain faction and other political parties on the occasion of the July 25 general elections 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... The judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced the verdict, which was earlier reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.
The judge awarded them a collective sentence of 21-year imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs60,000 each. They would undergo an additional 18-month imprisonment each on default.
According to the prosecution, the Rangers and police had conducted a joint intelligence-based operation in Orangi Town and detained Irshad and Lodhi on July 18.
During the interrogation, the convicts had disclosed that they were planning the liquidation of politicians to sabotage the peace prior to the polls under orders of their party leaders.
It further alleged that the MQM-L’s South Africa network, led by Qamar Islam Teddi, had set up murder teams in June to assassinate rival political candidates, including those who had left the MQM-L, to sabotage holding of peaceful elections.
The prosecution further alleged that both the convicts had admitted to have been provided with financial resources by the MOM’s London secretariat.
It claimed that the convicts were assigned the initial task to kill Mohsin Javed and Arif Hussain Qureshi, who were contesting elections on PS-128 from the platform of the Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz and Pakistain Peoples Party, respectively. Besides, the Pak Sarzameen Party’s office-bearers in Gulbahar Moin and Azhar were also on their list, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] An important development in the murder case of Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... took place on Thursday as the dear departed's personal secretary, Ahmed Shah, was tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by police.
The arrest took place with the assistance of the maulana's relatives, police told DawnNewsTV.
Maulana Sami, an influential religious scholar and former senator, was assassinated by unidentified suspect(s) at his residence in Rawalpindi on November 2.
The maulana's personal secretary had "disappeared mysteriously" funeral his funeral. Despite repeated efforts, police said they had previously been unable to locate him.
The secretary is currently being interrogated regarding the murder.
"Maulana Samiul Haq's secretary can prove to be a very important figure in this case," a police official told DawnNewsTV.
One month into the killing, police had been unable to make any significant progress in the investigation into the murder of the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam-Sami chief.
On December 5, however, an interim charge sheet of the case was submitted by the police to the airport judicial magistrate.
The interim charge sheet contains the statements of the victim’s son and a report on more than 12 individuals, the mobile phone data of the maulana and a police investigation report.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the report does not identify a prime suspect.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2018 00:00 ||
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[PULSE.NG] Indian and Chinese soldiers looked to have hit it off in their first joint exercises since a dangerous standoff last year, with videos released by the Indian military showing them dancing and playing football.
Troops from both sides came eyeball-to-eyeball in the disputed Doklam plateau in the Himalayas in June 2017 when Chinese soldiers started building a road and India sent its forces to halt the process.
The face-off between the nuclear-armed Asian nations, who fought a war in 1962 and in recent decades have been jostling for influence in the Indian Ocean, lasted two months until both sides pulled back.
India and China put their annual joint military drills on ice last year because of the Doklam standoff, but they resumed on Tuesday in southwest China for exercises called "Hand in Hand" and set to last until December 23.
A video released by the Indian army on Twitter shows the soldiers chanting, linking arms and dancing, while a second shows a football match in which both teams "showcased excellent sportsmanship". The winner was not revealed.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have moved to patch up ties between the world's two most populous nations, home to around 40 percent of the planet's people.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2018 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Iraq’s Interior Ministry has ordered the firing of more than 125 Kurdish police officers from Kirkuk who left the city during the events of October last year.
The police chief has sent a directive to its offices, giving them 72 hours to remove 129 Kurdish officers. A total of 146 police are named in the letter, mostly above the rank of lieutenant. Fourteen of them have already been replaced.
The orders follow from a decision made in July of this year.
“A decision has been made to remove from their positions those who went to Erbil and Sulaimani after the events of October 16. They will be removed from the Kirkuk police department,” Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, former head of Kirkuk suburban police, told Rudaw.
“According to the letter, the posts occupied by Kurds will be given to Arabs and Turkmen,” he added.
Federal forces took control of the most of the disputed territories in October last year just weeks after the Kurdistan Region and disputed areas voted for independence in a referendum.
Thousands of Kurds from the disputed areas fled to the Kurdistan Region. Abuses against Kurds by the Iraqi forces have been widely reported. In Kirkuk, the acting administration that replaced the ousted Kurdish governor has revived the Baathist-era Arabization policy.
An official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said disunity among Kurds has left them unable to fend off such actions.
“After the events of October 16, tens of decisions were made against Kurds of this city such as the Arabization of land, expelling Kurdish director-generals and employees. This is because of disunity among the Kurds,” said Jamal Shikur, an executive member of the PUK in Kirkuk.
Elements within the PUK chose to withdraw from Kirkuk, drawing accusations of treason from other parties.
MPs in Baghdad hope that the new Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi will address the problems.
The Council of Ministers, in a meeting on Wednesday, decided to form a committee to investigate decisions taken in Kirkuk since October 16, according to MP Mariwan Qadir.
“A committee has been formed for each of these decisions,” he said, including the sacking of Kurdish police officers.
Most of the officers named in the directive have certificates from military colleges of Qalacholan and Zakho that are officially recognized by the Iraqi government.
By the end of October 2017, Erbil and Baghdad had reached an agreement for more than 200 officers and policemen who were displaced to go back to work, but a couple of weeks later 47 Kurdish police officers were removed from their posts.
Brig. Gen. Khatab Omer, Kurdish director-general of Kirkuk police, was sacked in March.
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12/14/2018 01:15 ||
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[Al Jazeera] 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's (ISIS, also known as ISIS) "deliberate, wanton annihilation" of agricultural land in northern Iraq amounts to a war crime, Amnesia Amnesty International has said.
The rights group, in a report released on Thursday, said the ISIS's "scorched-earth tactics" devastated Iraq's rural communities as it looted livestock, burned orchards, planted land mines, sabotaged water pumps and destroyed farmland.
The report was released a day after Nobel Peace Prize winner and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad visited Iraq's capital, Baghdad, to call for more government support to her native Sinjar region.
ISIS overran Sinjar in 2014, killing Yazidi men, forcefully enlisting boys as soldiers and kidnapping more than 6,000 women and girls as "sex slaves".
The US-backed Iraqi forces gradually drove the fighters from the territory under their control, declaring victory last year after a costly campaign that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and towns.
'COMPENSATE THE DISPLACED' "The conflict against ISIS eviscerated Iraq's agricultural production, now an estimated 40 percent lower than 2014 levels," the Amnesty report said.
"Before ISIS, around two-thirds of Iraq's farmers had access to irrigation - only three years later, this had fallen to 20 percent. Around 75 percent of livestock was lost, spiking to 95 percent in some areas."
Richard Pearshouse, senior crisis adviser at Amnesia Amnesty International, said the consequences of the conflict on Iraq's rural residents are "being largely forgotten".
"The damage to Iraq's countryside is as far-reaching as the urban destruction," he said.
The London-based rights group said ISIS fighters sabotaged wells by filling them with rubble, oil or other materials. The gang also stole or destroyed pumps, cables, generators, transformers and vital electricity lines.
Amnesty called on the Iraqi government to repair rural infrastructure and compensate the displaced. About half of Sinjar's residents have returned, with many others saying they have nothing to go back to.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Can you point me to the parts of the Geneva or Hague Conventions on this? Or do we make it up as we go along?
#2
Amnesty called on the Iraqi government to repair rural infrastructure and compensate the displaced.
No word on South Africa's uncompensated confiscation law for White farmers, though
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2018 8:48 Comments ||
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#3
Totalitarian regimes generally attempt to urban-cluster their subjects. Much easier to control. Large population centers require large central governments. The two work hand-in-hand.
Consequences are such a useful learning tool for those who are teachable.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces a series of punitive steps he has ordered in response to the recent spate of Paleostinian terror attacks.
The first of which is a directive to accelerate the demolition of gunnies homes to be carried out within 48 hours of an attack. It is not immediately clear how such a policy would be legal given the court’s requirements to allow the affected families to appeal the decision.
Netanyahu ordered the army to seal off the town of al-Bireh near Ramallah, revoke the permits of relatives of Paleostinian attackers, and increase administrative detentions of Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, operatives in the West Bank.
The prime minister also announced that he would be legalizing thousands of illegally built Israeli homes beyond the Green Line that were said to have been built "in good faith." The statement did not elaborate on what legal ground Netanyahu is able to make such a decision.
In addition, the statement from the PMO said Netanyahu had directed Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to take steps to enable the construction of 82 new homes in the Ofra settlement near where Sunday’s terror attack took place.
Netanyahu will also promote the establishment of industrial zones in the Beitar Illit and Avnei Hefetz settlements.
"They are thinking of uprooting us from our land, but they will not succeed," says Netanyahu at the conclusion of the statement.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF has announced that it is sending reinforcements to the West Bank following a spike in violence that included a deadly shooting attack near the Givat Assaf outpost and a car-ramming outside Ramallah.
Several reconnaissance units will join the 14 infantry brigades already stationed beyond the Green Line.
[IsraelTimes] Officials in the defense establishment have concluded that a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", cell was responsible for the terror attack outside the illegal Givat Assaf outpost that left two soldiers dead and a soldier and a civilian seriously injured Thusrday morning, Hebrew media reports.
the 29-year-old Paleostinian who was killed on Wednesday night by the IDF near the village of Surda, north of Ramallah, belongs to a clan whose members are famous for carrying out a series of terrorist attacks against Israel in the past four decades.
The IDF says that Saleh belonged to the cell that carried out the shooting attack outside Ofra, which resulted in the nine Israelis maimed. An infant boy was delivered prematurely after his mother was seriously maimed in the attack and died on Wednesday.
Saleh was the most recent member of the prominent Barghouti clan to be involved in terrorist attacks against Israel. The clan has several families that live in the villages of Kobar, Aboud, Bani Zeid and Beit Rima in the Ramallah area. Saleh was from Kobar.
Saleh’s father, Omar, 65, spent more than 25 years in Israeli prison for his role in terrorism. The father was first placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by the IDF in 1978 for killing an Israeli citizen and was sentenced to life in prison. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... Omar, who is known as Abu Asef, was released seven years later in a prison exchange. Since then, he has been repeatedly held in administrative detention for several years. Omar entered Israeli prison as a member of Fatah, but later became a prominent leader of Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,A clan member also named Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the Paleostinian Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel and co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS). Omar was born in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... Saleh’s uncle, Na’el, is the longest-serving Paleostinian inmate in Israeli prison. Born in 1957 in Kobar, Na’el has spent a total of 39 years in Israeli prison for his role in terrorism. Like his brother Omar, he too was arrested for the first time in 1978. Na’el was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange swap, but was rearrested years later.
Another family member, 64-year-old Fakhri Barghouti (a cousin of the brothers Omar and Na’el), was also arrested in 1978 for carrying out a terrorist attack in which an Israeli soldier was killed near Ramallah. He too was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange agreement.
Another clan member, Abdullah Barghouti, 39, was a senior commander of Hamas’s military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, in the West Bank. Once considered as one of Hamas’s chief bomb makers, he is currently serving 67 life term sentences in Israeli prison for his role in a series of suicide kabooms during the Second Intifada. Israel refused to release Abdullah in the 2011 prisoner swap.
One of the clan members, Mustafa Barghouti, from the village of Bani Zeid, is a prominent Paleostinian physician and political activist who serves as Secretary General of the Paleostinian National Initiative, an independent political party. In November 2004, Mustafa, a vocal critic of Israel, was the main challenger of PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... in the Paleostinian presidential election. An outspoken critic of the leadership, he received only 19.8% of the vote.
But the most famous member of the clan is Marwan Barghouti, 59, who is also from the village of Kobar. A senior member of Fatah, he was arrested by the IDF in 2002 after becoming one of the leaders of the Second Intifada. Marwan was tried and convicted on charges of murder, and sentenced to five life sentences.
[Rudaw] Following Ottoman Turkish 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... saying on TV that its military would commence a campaign across its southern border, the US Department of Defense cautioned an incursion into northeast Syria would be "unacceptable."
"Unilateral military action into northeast Syria by any party, particularly as US personnel may be present or in the vicinity, is of grave concern. We would find any such actions unacceptable," Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Defense Department front man, told CNN.
Earlier on Wednesday, Anadolu Agency reported military vehicles loaded with equipment traveling to the The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... -Syria border in the Elbeyli region of Kilis province, on the west side of the Euphrates River.
"We believe this dialogue is the only way to secure the border area in a sustainable manner, and believe that uncoordinated military operations will undermine that shared interest," added Robertson.
Turkey previously has threatened to conduct cross-border operations against the predominately Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG). The force forms the backbone of the US-led international anti-ISIS coalition and has been described by the US military as the most effective force against the Lion of Islams.
The YPG were pulled away from the battlefield twice before ‐ once when the Ottoman Turkish army and their allied Syrian militias invaded Afrin and then again last month when Ottoman Turkish forces fired on Kurdish positions and villages near the border.
The SDF reported notable gains against the last ISIS stronghold east of the Euphrates in the Hajin pocket over the weekend for the first time in about six weeks.
Turkey claims the YPG are the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a political party banned by Turkey and designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington, and Brussels. YPG denies the claims.
To try to assuage Turkey, the coalition conducts joint patrols with Ottoman Turkish forces west of the Euphrates around Manbij. The US military also reportedly began regular patrols along the border with Turkey to ease Ankara's concerns over fighters and arms flowing across the border in early November.
In his speech on Wednesday, Erdogan said their target "definitely" is not US troops.
"It is the members of terror organization operating in the region. I want to emphasize this," Erdogan added.
Coalition forces from the United Kingdom, La Belle France, and the United States have been seen in northern Syria. They work extremely closely with the SDF the facilitate air strikes against ISIS, establish local military councils, and help to clear mines, IEDs, and unwent kaboom! ordinance from liberated areas to allow displaced Syrians to return.
"The campaign against ISIS is not over. Coalition forces are working closely with the Syrian Democratic Forces who are in the midst of offensive operations against ISIS in the Middle Euphrates River Valley," said Robertson from the Pentagon.
Erdogan had claimed that ISIS is no longer a threat in northern Syria during his speech on Wednesday.
"We should not and cannot allow ISIS to breathe at this critical point or we will jeopardize the significant gains we have made alongside our Coalition partners and risk allowing ISIS to resurge," he added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/14/2018 01:04 ||
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#1
Anyone counter to Sultan Edogan is by his definition a terrorist.
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.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration plans to significantly cut U.S. support for United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa as part of a broader strategy that seeks to better promote American interests on the continent, National Security Adviser John Bolton said Thursday.
the 
[PULSE.NG] Indian and Chinese soldiers looked to have hit it off in their first joint exercises since a dangerous standoff last year, with videos released by the Indian military showing them dancing and playing football.
[Al Jazeera] The 
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
... 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...
