[BREITBART] Total gross for 18 anti-American movies that flopped at a stunning 100% rate: $300 million -- or a measly $16 million per.
Total gross for 4 pro-American movies: $400 million, and "American Sniper" is just getting started.
Yes, you read that right: 4 pro-American movies grossed $100 million more than 18 anti-American movies. And that number will probably climb another $150 million to $200 million before "American Sniper" is done.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Remove the tax write off for failed films (part of the Hollyweird welfare system), maybe they'll start talking to the box office rather than their fellow bubble travelers about what kind of movies to make. Take away advertizing write offs and watch how the entertainment industry implodes back to something relative to the overall society.
#2
Saw American Sniper in IMAX yesterday. Well worth the $. Awesome and humbling for the sacrifices our warriors make on the battlefield and at home to protect us
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/20/2015 14:57 Comments ||
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#3
Truth is the anti-war movies generally had low budgets. They were made because some A list celebrity wanted them made and the studio wanted that A list celebrity for another picture. The two are bundled together and bam.
Studios are whores for money and big budget tent-pole moves are where the money is made. The rest are just loss-leaders that allow you to prove your liberal cred on the cocktail circuit.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The government of Turkey has announced to increase the number of its forces in Afghanistan by deploying additional 400 troops next year.
The announcement was made by Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday.
Cavusoglu further added that Turkey will continue to to train and equip Afghan security forces, a mission that will be conducted in both Afghanistan and Turkey.
He also reaffirmed Turkey's commitment to support development projects in Afgahnistan which will mainly focus on infrastructure, agriculture, schools, and hospitals.
Turkey is currently having around 700 troops in Afghanistan who are serving under the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.
Turkey has also taken over the responsibility of Kabul International Airport which is used for both military and civlian purposes.
Cavusoglu said Turkey will spend USD 57.83 million to run Kabul International Airport which has been taken over on a two-year term.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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Oh Great!
Who are they going to be advising? The Taliban???
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/20/2015 0:44 Comments ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The MAFIA Boss Raees Khudaidad was sentenced to death by a primary court in Kabul on Monday, the Afghan Intelligence â National Directorate of Security (NDS) said.
A statement by NDS said another comrade of Raees Khudaidad was jailed for twenty years while three others were jailed for seven years each.
Khudaidad is a notorious MAFIA leader who was involved in major kidnap, murder and robbery cases across the country during the past few years, who was leading networks of criminal gangs in Kabul and other provinces.
He was arrested following a special military operation conducted in the fifth police district of Kabul city that lasted for almost 36 hours last year.
According to NDS, Khudaidad was living in Tajikistan, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates with different identities and was in the most wanted list of Tajikistan and Interpol.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Hundreds of Afghans protested in Jalalabad city, the picturesque provincial capital of eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province against a French satirical magazine which published a caricature of Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!).
The protesters demanded closure of the French embassy in Kabul while chanting "Death to La Belle France" and burning the French flag.
They also called on the government of La Belle France to apologize from the Moslems regarding the desecrating act by the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... magazine for re-publishing Prophet Muhammad's (PTUI!) caricature.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. also strongly condemned the re-publishing of the latest caricature of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) by Charlie Hebdo and called the move as irresponsible.
The latest issue of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo hit newsstands on Wednesday which depicts a drawing of Prophet Muhammad, with a tear rolling down his cheek and a placard that reads "Je Suis Charlie".
The issue was created by the surviving staff with supporters saying the cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo is a defiant expression of free speech following a terrorist attack on the publication's Gay Paree offices that killed 12 people on January 7.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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Requested closure of a diplomatic mission in Afghanistan? Closure would represent a definite feature, not a bug.
#2
Note that they're not refusing to accept danegeld aid courtesy of the French taxpayer.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani also strongly condemned the re-publishing of the latest caricature of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) by Charlie Hebdo and called the move as irresponsible.
Will either Ghani personally or Afghanistan face any consequences for this blatant non-recognition of basic French sovereignty? Of course not!
After 9/11 Bush allowed Afghanistan and others to save face instead of making them cry uncle.
Whatever Bush's rationale was at the time, in hindsight this was a monumental mistake.
The West did not retaliate for the attacks.
The West did not export liberty.
The West imported alien tyranny.
#4
Elmerett and Besoeker. Nonsense. Bush was right. There was no other course since striking at Taliban required cooperation from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia held the West by the balls. So until both constraints had been removed it was necessary to ply friendly. But then we got the Balame America Firstgtyoes, the liberals, the commies in sheep-cothes (BTW, the communists helped the Nazis witrh American Commuist Party supporting isolatiionism and organizaing strikes in factories working for Lend-Lease) and then we got a Muslim in Afriacan-American clothes.
#5
JFM I see where you're coming from, but there was a window, a small window, where we could have simply nuked the passes and Kabul and walked away. The world would have had stinky briches for awhile but would have gotten over it in due course.
We should cut off all of these $hitholes from all benefits of international society. No embassys no business deals no travel in or out for any of the people. The days of Saudi control of all oil are over push it to the wall now.
[ARABNEWS] Prosecutors on Monday charged Bahrain's opposition chief with attempting to overthrow the regime and sent him to trial despite international calls for his release.
Sheikh Ali Salman will stand trial from Jan. 28 on charges of "promoting the overthrow and change of the political regime by force," prosecutor general Nayef Mahmud said in a statement.
Salman, head of Al-Wefaq bloc, has been in jug since Dec. 28 and his detention has sparked near-daily protests.
Salman was also charged with inciting disobedience and inciting hatred against a part of the population in public statements.
The prosecutor said Salman had confessed under questioning to making the statements in speeches in which he allegedly referred to meeting with groups abroad who offered to back an armed uprising.
Shiite-dominated Iran has been accused of interfering in Bahrain since its government ended protests led by Al-Wefaq in 2011 seeking a constitutional monarchy.
Salman was given "all legal guarantees" such as assistance from a team of lawyers and family visits during his questioning, Mahmud said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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[BBC] David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... has defended a letter urging senior Moslems to explain how Islam "can be part of British identity", amid criticism from leaders.
The Moslem Council of Britannia (MCB) criticised some aspects of the letter, including the "implication that extremism takes place at mosques".
Mr Cameron said the letter, written by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, was "reasonable, sensible and moderate"
The letter was sent to 1,000 Moslem leaders after the attacks in Gay Paree.
The prime minister said Mr Pickles was "absolutely right" to write the letter urging leaders to do more to tackle extremism.
"Anyone who reads this letter - and I've read the letter - will see that what he is saying is that British Moslems make a great contribution to our country, that what is happening in terms of myrmidon terror has nothing to do with the true religion of Islam," he said.
"It's being perverted by a minority who have been radicalised."
In the letter, Mr Pickles stressed he was "proud" of the way Moslems in Britannia had responded to the Gay Paree terror attacks but added that there was "more work to do".
He wrote: "You, as faith leaders, are in a unique position in our society. You have a precious opportunity, and an important responsibility, in explaining and demonstrating how faith in Islam can be part of British identity.
"We believe together we have an opportunity to demonstrate the true nature of British Islam today. There is a need to lay out more clearly than ever before what being a British Moslem means today: proud of your faith and proud of your country. We know that acts of extremism are not representative of Islam, but we need to show what is."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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I love this, a slightly condescending letter as an olive branch. Instead of the Imams saying - we are willing to work with the government to combat extremists, but your letter lacked a certain sense ability.
Instead they've turned round and deemed the government to be anti Islamist (which I'm sure has only helped prosper the number of would be extremists) They should be sacked as Imams and can preach elsewhere.
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Alberto Nisman, the 51-year-old prosecutor who had spent a decade investigating Argentina's worst ever terrorist attack, has been found dead. But what is the story of the bombings, and 20 years of investigation? Long but well worth the read.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
see the other article below
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/20/2015 15:07 Comments ||
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[CA.NEWS.YAHOO] Iran sees no sign of a shift within OPEC toward action to support oil prices, its oil minister said, adding its oil industry could ride out a further price slump to $25 a barrel.
The comments are a further sign that despite lobbying by Iran and Venezuela, there is little chance of collective action by the 12-member OPEC to prop up prices - entrenching the reluctance of individual members to curb their own supplies.
In remarks posted on the Iranian oil ministry's website SHANA, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh called for increased cooperation between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
"Iran has no plan (to hold an emergency OPEC meeting) and is currently in consultations with other OPEC member states in a bid to prevent the sharp fall in the oil price, but these consultations have yet to bear fruit," he said.
Oil has plunged by more than half since June 2014 to below $50 a barrel on Monday, pressured by a global glut and OPEC's refusal at its last meeting in November to cut its output.
OPEC decided against a production cut despite misgivings from non-Gulf members such as Iran and Venezuela, after top producer 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... argued the group needed to defend market share against U.S. shale oil and other competing sources.
Since the meeting, lobbying by Iran for a cut and a diplomatic tour by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has failed to soften the stance of the Gulf members, who can live with relatively low oil prices.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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So Putin probably is not happy either with the low prices. That could cause friction between him and some of his ME buddies.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/20/2015 19:11 Comments ||
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Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/20/2015 14:08 Comments ||
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#3
The no-go zones are not the law, they are just about survival. The Mayor can quibble all she wants but this will just bring more attention to the issue than i think she wants.
#8
If Fox was honest they would be talking about all the US no-go zones: every black "inner city" area in every major city in the United States. This is nothing new.
[FRANCE24] The debate in La Belle France over how to refer to murderous Moslems who kill others in the name of Islam is heating up after the country's leading far-right figure took the government to task for shying away from the word "Islamist".
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front (FN) party, has accused the French government of failing to tackle Islamic fundamentalists, in part by its reluctance to call them just that. The controversy over using of the word "Islamist" in tandem with "extremists" or "militants" is not new, but it has moved to the front burner in the wake of La Belle France's recent terrorist attacks ‐ its deadliest in over 50 years.
In an opinion piece for the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , Le Pen specifically targeted Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, but blamed the entire political establishment for allegedly not "looking the enemy in the eye" and for its lack of vigilance.
"It does our Moslem compatriots no favors to fuel suspicions and leave things unspoken. Islamist terrorism is a cancer on Islam, and Moslems themselves must fight it at our side," she wrote in the op-ed published on Sunday.
Le Pen, in typical fashion, then used the platform to rail against Europe's system of open internal borders, and "massive waves of immigration, both legal and clandestine".
Fabius has made no secret of his dislike of the word "Islamic" or "Islamist" when speaking about home-grown or foreign jihadists.
Speaking on Europe 1 radio on January 11, two days after the French-born Kouachi brothers yelled "Allahou Akbar", or God is great in Arabic, as they bumped off 12 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... , Fabius explained:
"I don't want to play the role of censor, but I think the word Islamist ... is not the right one to use. I call them terrorists. Because as soon as you use the word Islam, you are promoting an idea of continuity between a Moslem ‐ who practises his religion, which is a religion of peace ‐ and something which is an interpretation of the Moslem religion."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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Holder's recent trip to Paris is already paying dividends.
[VOA News] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... is launching new anti-terrorism projects with Moslem countries and increasing its intelligence sharing in the aftermath of deadly attacks in La Belle France and violent confrontations in Belgium.
EU foreign ministers met Monday in Brussels with the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... 's secretary general, Nabil Elaraby. Afterwards, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said the EU will be sharing information on suspected bully boyz and possible attacks with many countries throughout the Arab world, Africa and Asia.
"We took a decision within the Foreign Affairs Council to coordinate in a much more active way than it has been the case so far," said Mogherini.
"First of all, with an input to share information, intelligence information, not only within the European Union, but also with other countries around us, starting from the Mediterranean and the Arab world, starting from Turkey, Egypt, [the] Gulf countries, North Africa, but also looking more to Africa and Asia at a certain time," said Mogherini.
The ministers said they would avoid writing new legislation or a prolonged military presence on the streets of Europe.
Following the Gay Paree attack, Belgian security services killed two suspected bully boyz during a shoot-out following an investigation into an alleged plot. Similar raids have taken place in Germany and La Belle France, while a number of EU states have increased police presence on their streets.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders spoke to journalists Monday.
He said information needed to be exchanged inside and outside Europe in order to have proper tracking and to prevent various actions that could occur in Europe.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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So European governments will share surveillance data of European citizens with 'the Mediterranean and the Arab world, starting from Turkey, Egypt, [the] Gulf countries, North Africa, Africa and Asia.'
These are governments that are still openly calling for Sharia in the West.
Why shouldn't Europeans be concerned that this data gather by European police state infrastructure will end up facilitating the work of islamofascistic death squads?
In fact do we know how the Charlie Hedbo crew got the detailed information about the newspaper office's security arrangements?
#2
In fact do we know how the Charlie Hedbo crew got the detailed information about the newspaper office's security arrangements? Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660
A very highly developed programme of surveillance or someone on the inside.
[WashingtonInstitute] While Ankara's decision for or against fighting ISIS will be a political one, the military's lingering resentment toward the AKP, the PKK, and Arabs could be a formidable obstacle to Turkish intervention.
Not to mention their resentment toward the political masters who forced into retirement and jailed so many senior officers in recent years.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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As the season for wheat planting in Iraq wound down early last month, farmers in areas under the control of Sunni militant group Islamic State grew worried.
More than two dozen farmers told Reuters they had not planted the normal amount of seed, because they could not access their land, did not have the proper fertilizers or adequate fuel, or because they had no guarantees that Islamic State would buy their crop as Baghdad normally does.
Farmers, and Iraqi and United Nations' officials, now fear a drastically reduced crop this spring. That could leave hundreds of thousands of Iraqis hungry. But another big loser would be Islamic State, which controls territory that normally produces as much as 40 percent of Iraq's wheat crop.
The breakaway al Qaeda group, which declared an Islamic caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq last summer, has killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. Islamic State militants had hoped to use wheat to show it can govern better than the Arab governments it condemns as infidels. They have published pamphlets with photos of golden fields and fighters distributing food.
A bad crop might not cost the group control of territory, but it would seriously dent its campaign to be seen as an alternative government, and hurt its credibility among some fellow Sunnis.
Iraqi farmers have long complained of Baghdad's neglect and mismanagement of agriculture. International sanctions and the U.S. invasion further hurt the sector. But many farmers say this planting season marks an all-time low.
Across the border in Syria, where Islamic State has controlled the city of Raqqa since May 2013, wheat production last year was down almost 70 percent from the level before the civil war.
Across the border in Syria, where Islamic State has controlled the city of Raqqa since May 2013, wheat production last year was down almost 70 percent from the level before the civil war, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Syrian farmers in Islamic State-held territory say production was hit by the conflict, poor rainfall and fuel shortages. Several told Reuters that Islamic State did not help farmers plant, and did not purchase their harvest as the Syrian government used to. Instead, farmers say they were forced to look for new buyers and often fell prey to avaricious middlemen.
U.N. and Iraqi government officials don't have access to much of Iraq, so cannot provide an accurate forecast of the country's 2015 wheat crop. Farmers will begin harvesting in April and production will also be determined by the weather â so far very favorable according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) â and farmers' access to their fields.
Farming in huge swathes of the rural belt around Baghdad has also shut down because of violence, or because farmers fear the Shi'ite militias which now control the area.
Farming in huge swathes of the rural belt around Baghdad has also shut down because of violence, or because farmers fear the Shi'ite militias which now control the area and are fighting Islamic State.
But the greatest concern is in northern Iraq. Interviews with farmers who remain on their land or have left for Kurdistan, suggest that few in Islamic State-controlled parts of the country's breadbasket region were able to plant as normal.
Recent satellite imagery from NASA and USDA reinforces that. The imagery, publicly available through the Global Agriculture Monitoring Project at the University of Maryland, shows that crops in Islamic State-controlled parts of Nineveh and Salahadeen provinces appear far less healthy than in Kurdish-held territory.
Sunni farmer Abu Amr laments how tough it has become. Abu Amr once hated Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who lost power following elections last April. But his view began to change when he was not paid for last season's harvest. Instead, Islamic State militants stole it from a government silo they had seized.
"When we saw the chaos of IS we wanted Maliki back. Everything is gone, my livestock, my harvest, everything," he said.
Abu Amr has moved to peshmerga-held Kirkuk. Old neighbors have told him by phone that they have planted about a third of his 25 hectares (61 acres) using seeds stored in his house. He sent some cash to buy fertilizer, but not enough.
"We used to blame Maliki for everything. Now we cry and hope for the return of those days," he said. "Before, there was some kind of security, some kind of state. It is incomparable to the current situation."
AIRSTRIKES AND LANDMINES
During its military campaign against Baghdad, Islamic State used wheat as a symbol of its new power. It seized government silos and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wheat from opponents, especially members of the Christian and Yazidi minorities.
Much as it did in Syria, Islamic State has kept Iraqi government employees and silo operators in place to help run its "caliphate". That decision provided an early propaganda victory, when fighters handed out milled flour in sacks stamped with the Islamic State logo in Mosul, the north's largest city.
But U.S.-led airstrikes and pressure from Iraqi forces, allied militias and Iraqi Kurdish fighters known as the Peshmerga have made it hard to defend ground, let alone govern.
Islamic State has not only lost some territory but, preoccupied by its military effort, it has been unable to provide farmers with seeds, fertilizer and fuel at subsidized rates, as the Baghdad government does.
"There was no support," said a Sunni Arab farmer in Sharqat, a town on the Tigris, just east of the road linking the militant-held cities of Tikrit and Mosul.
"Normally we get supplies (for planting) from the government but this year, we got nothing."
Further north, Yazidi farmer Salim Saleem abandoned his fields and olive tree groves when Islamic State fighters overran the fertile Nineveh valley. Now he lives with his family in a rented house in Dohuk, in the relative safety of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. He says airstrikes and Peshmerga forces have not dislodged Islamic State from his hometown of Bashiqa, but have turned the farmland into a battlefield.
Several weeks ago Saleem scaled the Peshmerga-held Zartek mountain near Bashiqa to inspect Yazidi-owned land. "I saw with my own eyes that the land was bare," he said.
In areas recently retaken by Peshmerga forces, there are constant reminders of the dangers that have kept many farmers from planting.
In the Makhmur district southeast of Mosul, a group of Kurdish farmers gathered one mid-December afternoon after heavy rains. In a normal planting season, rain would be a blessing. But most of the men were from areas too close to the frontline to risk returning to their fields.
As they talked, a loud explosion sounded in the distance. The farmers looked up, assuming the noise had been an airstrike. Then one received a phone call saying a landmine had exploded.
Kurdish farmer Mushir Othman Hassan explained how two tractor drivers in the area had recently driven over landmines. One died. The other lost both his legs and an eye.
In his Islamic State-held village of Surnaj el Kobra, about 15 km (9 miles) away, Hassan said he knew some of his Arab neighbors were planting, but said they too were hurt by the fighting.
"They are just planting a subsistence amount for themselves. Daish has not intervened with them," he said, using the derogatory Arabic term for Islamic State. He said his neighbors had told him by phone that fighters "visited them" while they were planting but that Islamic State "doesn't have a big presence because of airstrikes."
Islamic State, he said "are people who take things, they don't give."
His and other accounts of planting in Islamic State-held areas could not be independently verified.
In Gwer district just across the Greater Zab river from Islamic State-held land, local Agriculture Ministry official Moustafa Mohammed said less than half the area normally planted with wheat and barley has been sowed this season. Much of the territory â about 50,000 hectares â was still not secure, he said.
SUNNI DISILLUSIONMENT
Islamic State's attempts to help farmers seem to have backfired.
Several farmers reached by phone in areas controlled by the group said they had rejected subsidized seeds offered to them by the militants.
"We don't want any help from them," said Saidullah Fathi, a farmer from Surnaj al-Kobra, southeast of Mosul.
Others said the seeds came from wheat stolen by the militants and called it "haram", or forbidden.
While Iraqi farmers have long complained of Baghdad's neglect and mismanagement, one Sunni wheat farmer, speaking through a crackling phone line from Sharqat, said life under the militants and government rule was like "the difference between night and day." He receives only a few hours of electricity a day, and needs to buy fertilizer on the black market at exorbitant prices.
Many farmers feel caught in a conflict that could last for years.
"We can't go back home and feel secure on the land. I can't convince my relatives to come back," said farmer Sherzaid Sadradein, a Kurd now living in a house in Arbil. "In our village, only one person (of 19 farmers) is planting, just as a shot in the dark. In the past, during the worst days under Saddam, we were only able to plant 10 percent. Now that 10 percent has been reduced to one percent."
Farmers who have managed to plant worry that Islamic State will not offer them the government price come harvest time. Depending on the quality of the wheat, Baghdad normally pays farmers up to 750,000 Iraqi dinars ($650) per tonne, more than double the price it pays for imported wheat.
Baghdad had decided not to deliver subsidized seeds, fertilizer, or fuel to government-held parts of Nineveh and Salahadeen this year because it fears it would end up helping the militants.
Baraa Mohamed Salih, agriculture adviser to the governor of Salahadeen, the country's top wheat-producing province in recent years, said Baghdad had decided not to deliver subsidized seeds, fertilizer, or fuel to government-held parts of Nineveh and Salahadeen this year because it fears it would end up helping the militants.
The FAO has distributed seeds and fertilizer to needy farmers in the north but is also concerned such moves will play into Islamic State's hands.
"We have avoided areas that will not be secure during growing season," said Alfredo Impiglia, senior emergency coordinator for FAO's Iraq operation.
"We try not to serve Islamic State."
He says it is impossible to measure planting in Islamic State-held areas. "There will be decreased planting for sure," said Impiglia. "How much we cannot say."
An estimated 2.8 million people in Iraq currently need food assistance, said Jane Pearce, head of the World Food Programme's Iraq office.
In a rented house in Arbil packed with members of his extended family, Ali Ibrahim Awadh, a tribesman from the Sunni Jabour group, pondered the fate of his farmland, livestock, fruit and date groves.
His town of Hajaj was the site of early fighting, in part because it is home to many members of the army and police. Hundreds of members of his tribe have fled.
"In the beginning, people liked Islamic State because they had been suffering," said Awadh. "We too wanted change, but not in this destructive way. We see now that they are criminals, gangsters, destroyers."
#1
A little crop insurance is all that's needed, 1917 prices adjusted for inflation is just what the small farmer, the backbone of our nation and the sinews of Amerii, humm,
[ARABNEWS] Senior Iraqi Shiite holy man Moqtada Al-Sadr says the country must rein in the powerful Shiite militias battling 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.... bad boy group and have them coordinate more directly with the country's official armed forces.
Speaking at a presser Monday with Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid Al-Obeidi, Al-Sadr said his followers are now "at the disposal of the army," adding he will work "to supplement militias and other gangs with the army."
A number of militias, including Al-Sadr's "Peace Brigades," answered calls last summer to fight alongside Iraq's beleaguered military, which virtually crumbled in the face of the bad boy onslaught. Many of those Shiite militias answer to different leaders, have been difficult to control and are accused of brutal tactics and discrimination against Sunnis.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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An Iranian general killed in an Israeli air strike in Syria was not its intended target and Israel believed it was attacking only low-ranking guerrillas, a senior security source said on Tuesday.
The remarks by the Israeli source, who declined to be identified because Israel has not officially confirmed it carried out the strike, appeared aimed at containing any escalation with Iran or the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Mohammed Allahdadi was killed with a Hezbollah commander and the son of the group's late military leader, Imad Moughniyeh, in Sunday's attack on a Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian Golan Heights. Nevertheless...
[Ynet] Foreign media says Israel moves missile interceptors to border with Syria, Lebanon and raises alert level in northern posts.
The IDF raised its alert level on the northern front on Monday, in positions along the border with Syrian and Lebanon, as foreign media outlets reported that Iron Dome batteries were being deployed in the north, less than a day after a strike attributed to Israel killed senior Hezbollah officers and Iranian soldiers.
Apart from the deployment of the missile interceptor batteries on the northern front â reported by Sky News in Arabic â there has not been a significant reinforcement of the forces on the border.
Yet, there are concerns in the security establishment that Hezbollah will attempt a retaliatory terror attack against Israeli forces which operate along the border. Thus, the soldiers were ordered to increase their level of alert and preparedness.
A Lebanese newspaper unofficially affiliated with Hezbollah published new details on Monday of a strike attributed to Israel, in which a senior Iranian general and the son of Imad Mughniyeh were killed, among others.
According to the Al-Akhbar report, the Iranian general and Jihad Mughniyeh, as well as other Hezbollah members and Iranian soldiers, were travelling in two vehicles on the northern section of the Quneitra district, some seven kilometers from the border with Israel.
Al-Akhbr reported that after the two SUVs, a Jeep Cherokee and a Kia Sorento, had moved 400 meters away from a UNDOF base â but before they arrived at a headquarters for the Syrian regime's paramilitary militia â an Israeli chopper fired two missiles, hitting its targets.
Somewhere in the variations of this story lies the truth.
A Hezbollah statement on Sunday named the six killed in the attack as Jihad Mughniyeh, 25; Mohammed Issa, 43 (the only one ranked as commander); Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi, 36; Mohammed Ali Hassan Abu Al-Hassan, 30; Razi Ali Dawi, 27; and Ali Hassan Ibrahim, 22.
[ARABNEWS] Paleostinian movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, slammed as "immoral" Monday an EU appeal to keep it on the bloc's terror blacklist, a month after a European court ordered its removal.
"The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's insistence on keeping Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations is an immoral step, and reflects the EU's total bias in favor of the Israeli occupation," Hamas front manSami Abu Zuhri ...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... told AFP.
"It provides it (Israel) with the cover for its crimes against the Paleostinian people," he added.
Foreign ministers from the 28 EU member states decided at a Monday meeting to appeal the decision taken by the General Court of the European Union on December 17, the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
The ruling by the EU's second highest court had said that the blacklisting of Hamas in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgments but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet.
Hamas, which has dominated the Gazoo Strip since 2007, had appealed against its inclusion on the blacklist on several grounds.
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01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Syria has begun destroying its remaining chemical weapons production sites, despite being hampered by bad weather and logistical problems, the world's chemical watchdog said Monday.
"Destruction operations commenced in December," Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) front man Peter Sawczak told Agence La Belle France-Presse in The Hague, without elaborating.
Syria had said previously demolition of the 12 hangars and tunnels would begin in November, but work stalled when the contractor pulled out.
Two other Syrian companies were given the project but the firm tasked with destroying five tunnels had to wait for deliveries of explosives and equipment, Syria told the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... in November, after running months behind schedule.
The OPCW, which is overseeing the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons program, in July gave Damascus 60 days to finish demolishing the sites.
"The destruction has began. They are starting on the tunnels," confirmed a Hague-based source on Monday, asking not to be named.
"There was a bit of a delay on the pouring of cement because of the snow," the source added, saying "they aim to tackle one tunnel each month."
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari has said the destruction process will be completed by June.
Syria finished disabling the production sites by October 2013, however the structures that house them still needed to be destroyed.
A total of 1,300 metric tonnes of chemical weapons have been removed from Syria, with the majority being destroyed aboard the U.S. Navy ship MV Cape Ray.
After an August 2013 sarin attack outside Damascus that much of the international community blamed on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's government, the regime agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal.
The United States threatened military action against Damascus over the attack, but held off following the chemical disarmament agreement.
Damascus and the rebels have accused each other of using chemical weapons, including chlorine, in the nearly four-year war that has killed more than 200,000 people.
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01/20/2015 00:10 ||
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#1
IIRC MSM-NET > despite all that has happened to to his Regime + Syria since 2012, Baby Assad is allegedly still very tent on developing andor acquiring a NucBomb Arsenal for Syria.
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] 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 fighters in Syria, massed close to the Lebanese border, are threatening to launch attacks across it, the Telegraph has witnessed.
The group has been training new recruits and defectors from smaller rebel factions in Qalamoun, a militarily strategically important province in the south-west of Syria that borders Leb.
Several of those smaller rebel groupings, some aligned with the more moderate "Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... ", have capitulated to the jihadists in recent months with many of their fighters joining Isil.
The growth of the group in the area means Sunni Isil fighters in Syria are now at the edge of the Lebanese heartland of its Shia arch enemy Hizbollah, whose men are fighting alongside the regime of Bashir al-Assad.
"The moderate rebel groups on the border have collapsed, and their men have joined Isil," said Ahmed Flity, the deputy mayor of Arsal, a Lebanese border town that has effectively been cut off from the rest of the country by security forces, because of the threat from jihadists in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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AFAIC the real Maha-Rushian Questionne' is whether ISRAEL + IDF are ready for it, andor to fight a multi-front war agz dedicated enemies likely already inside the country or closer than any have evar! been???
AND, WILL MIGHTY "RED-LINE" LUVIN', ANTI-US US OWG GLOBALIST POTUS OBAMA + ALIGNED UNILATERALLY MILITARILY DEFEND ISRAEL IFF THE WORSE-CASE DOES HAPPEN???
Prolly safe to say that iff Israel is indeed attacked by the ISIS/ISIL, so will each + every other pro-US Muslim Govt-Nation in the ME.
[IRISHTIMES] Irans Revolutionary Guards have confirmed that a senior member of their elite forces died in an Israeli attack in Syria in which six fighters of the Lebanese military group Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... are also reported to have been killed.
The Guards issued a statement saying that Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was, as the top Iranian general, visiting the southern Syrian region of Quneitra on Sunday when an Israeli helicopter opened fire, killing the Iranian and an unspecified number of Hizbullah fighters with him.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2015 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
David Cameron
[Ynet] Foreign media says Israel moves missile interceptors to border with Syria, Lebanon and raises alert level in northern posts.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
