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Today: 67 articles and 131 comments as of 11:54.
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Rebels seize Assad's last stronghold in Idlib
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Africa North
Egypt extends opening of crossing with Gaza for third day
[AlAhram] Egyptian authorities have kept the frontier mostly closed since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013, citing security concerns

Egypt extended the opening of its border crossing with the Gazoo Strip for a third day on Thursday to allow stranded Paleostinians to return home, state news agency MENA said.

The terminal, closed since March, was only scheduled to operate for two days from Tuesday.

The Rafah crossing -- the only passage to the Paleostinian territory not controlled by Israel -- is only operating in one direction for outbound traffic.

Over 560 Paleostinians were able to leave Egypt for Gazoo on Tuesday, according to MENA.

Egyptian authorities have kept the frontier mostly closed since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013, citing security concerns in the Sinai Peninsula where troops are battling an Islamist insurgency.

Egypt has tightened its grip on the crossing further since October 2014, following a suicide kaboom in neighbouring Sinai that killed 33 members of the Egyptian security forces.

It has since temporarily reopened the crossing for a few days.

Authorities have listed Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, which rules the Gazoo Strip, as a terrorist organization, accusing it of backing Lion of Islam groups who have stepped up attacks against security forces in the Sinai Peninsula,

Hamas leaders have distanced themselves from violence in Egypt and say they have no armed presence outside Paleostinian areas.

The Egyptian military has also created a wide buffer zone along the border with Gazoo aimed at deterring Lion of Islam infiltration and arms smuggling. But deadly Lion of Islam attacks have continued to take place in the border Peninsula.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Which means attacks in Sinai should start happening today.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/29/2015 13:56 Comments || Top||


643 civilians and military killed and injured in North Sinai: Health ministry
[AlAhram] Health ministry figures reveal the toll in the last year of hard boy attacks in North Sinai, where Egypt's army is fighting a jihadist insurgency

Within the past year, 643 civilians and military have been killed and injured in North Sinai, according to official hospital records, the Ministry of Health announced.

According to an official statement issued Wednesday by Tarek Khater, the undersecretary of the health ministry in North Sinai, the number of those shot and admitted to hospitals -- civilians or security forces -- in the governorate reached 466.

The statement added that 177 -- civilians and security forces combined -- were killed, according to hospital records.

A security source told the state-owned MENA news agency that 70 coppers were killed and 107 others injured in North Sinai in the last six months only.

Egypt's army is currently fighting a campaign against a decade-long hard boy insurgency in North Sinai.

Militants have killed hundreds of police and army personnel in the past year and a half in North Sinai, while the authorities have announced that hundreds of snuffies have been killed in military campaigns in the governorate.

The Islamist group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has grabbed credit for most attacks against security forces in Sinai.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis


Libya on verge of economic collapse, U.N. envoy warns
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET]
What's the dateline on this -- 2012? 1905? 442?
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Kinetic action, eh?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2015 2:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks Smart Powerâ„¢! Obama, Hillary, Rice, Power must feel soooo proud
Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2015 11:28 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Splintered Nigeria needs a shared vision
[MG.CO.ZA] The new president also needs to tackle a flailing economy, impaired public utilities and corruption.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Or, for colonialists to come back.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2015 2:23 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China is reason THAAD needs to be considered: U.S. lawmakers
SEOUL -- The United States wouldn't need to consider the deployment of a state-of-the-art missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula if China were playing a proper role in regional security, senior U.S. lawmakers said Friday.

"If China were doing enough to curb North Korea's misbehavior, then there would be no need for THAAD at all," said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), a ranking member on the House Armed Service Committee's panel on strategic forces.

He was on a trip here as a member of the U.S. congressional delegation headed by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chairman of the subcommittee that oversees Washington's strategic weapons and ballistic missile defense.

Rogers and Cooper acknowledged that the U.S. has little effective and realistic means left to control Pyongyang.

"China is really the player who's got to get more involved in putting pressure on North Korea to behave in a rational fashion," Rogers said.
Yup. China needs to curb their dog.
Their comments apparently reflect widespread perceptions among U.S. officials that China is nonexistent tepid in putting pressure on North Korea despite its political and economic influence.

Beijing is rather strongly opposed to the U.S. push for the permanent deployment of a THAAD unit in South Korea. THAAD is an acronym for Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense.

The two congressmen said Capitol Hill backs the Pentagon's plan but made clear that the final call is up to South Koreans.

"The U.S. government is ready, in my view, to be a partner in that deployment should it be necessary. I have every confidence that the United States Congress is supportive of it," Rogers said. "But the government of South Korea has to make the decision as to when they decide to see that capability deployed, that system deployed in this country."

Certainly, he added, there is a budgetary problem for the U.S., but THAAD is a matter of "basic defense."

Asked whether South Korea should share the financial burden for THAAD, Rogers was guarded, just saying it is an issue to be discussed after South Korea makes a decision.

He described the North's nuclear and missile threats as a "never-ending challenge."
Posted by: Steve White || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More "China" news this AM ...

* MANILA TIMES > US SOWING [threatening] CHAOS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA: CHINA.

* SAME > CHINA MOVES WEAPONS TO RECLAIMED AREAS - REPORT.

* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [GAM News] CHINA WEST PH SEA ACTIVITIES COULD BE PART OF [Local-Regional, Maritime] "GREAT WALL" PLAN - ANALYST.

IIUC, IOW China actually views the "First Island Chain" as an extension of China's coastlines, whereas the "Second Island Chain" [Guam-CNMI, etal] is outside the "Wall" hence a proper arena for China + PLA to engage in MilOps agz "Barbarians/Foreign Devils"???

* TOPIX > [Honolulu Advertiser] CHINA: [SCS]ACTIONS ARE APPROPRIATE FOR "BIG POWER" IN SOUTH CHINA SEA.

China being a good future par "US-style" OWG Co-Superpower in charge of East Asia + 1/2 of the Pacific, unlike the wily meaney fake Globalist USA whom wants to ... ...

* TOPIX > [West Hawaii Today] CHINA MILITARY SET TO EPXAND GLOBAL REACH AS "NATIONAL" INTERESTS GROW.

VERSUS

* TOPIX > [China Daily] WASHINGTON WANTS TO MAINTAIN ITS PRIMACY [#1 status] IN ASIA-PACIFIC.

* MANILA BULLETIN > [US DefSec] CARTER WARNS CHINA US WILL GO WHEREVER GLOBAL LAW [International Law] PERMITS IT.

RELATED TOPIX = SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE: CHINA WARNED [US DefSec Carter] US WILL REMAIN NO. 1 IN ASIA-PACIFIC.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [US DefSec]CARTER: CHINA ISOLATING ITSELF IN PACIFIC, US WILL DO WHATEVER IT NEEDS TO DO TO UPHOLD INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW IN SOUTH CHINA SEA.

* MANILA TIMES > [POTUS Obama Admin] WEST SEA [SCS] CRITICAL TO US SECURITY.

WH PressSec Josh Earnest.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/29/2015 0:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Will Nippon Ambassador "SUPER-C" CAROLINE KENNEDY + Supersauce still be needed vee "ASHTON"???

Beijing's focii may be its economy, but the CPC also knows that its ambition as "post-US" World #1, Leader of poten future OWG "Asian/East Asian Union", + OWG Co-Superpower, ...@etc. will only become harder as Regional rivals e.g. JAPAN, ETC. get Econ + Militarily stronger over time.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/29/2015 1:03 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spain gives green light to arms deliveries for Iraqi military
It's not just the US. This is a team effort.
[Rudaw] Spain, which is part of the US-led coalition arrayed against 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), has given the green light for arms deliveries valued at nearly 100 million euros to the Iraqi military.

The El Pais daily on Thursday reported that the consignments approved by the government comprise munitions and armored vehicles.

The news follows the recent and stunning fall of the city of Ramadi, where Iraqi forces have been accused of simply driving away and letting Islamic State (ISIS) bandidos snuffies take over the capital of the country's largest province.

ISIS has reportedly been fighting with advanced weapons captured from Iraqi forces about a year ago, when the military fled before an ISIS advance, and in subsequent battles.

Spain is delivering 95.8 million euros worth of weapons to the Iraqis, El Pais said, but it was unclear whether this will be in the form of aide or a commercial sale.

Since the ISIS advance in Iraq last June, Spain has sent 300 soldiers to train their Iraqi counterparts. This is the first time it is contributing weapons to fight ISIS, which besides Ramadi also captured the Syrian city of Palmyra about a week ago.

The source quoted by the paper said the Spanish government had approved eight licenses to sell arms to Iraq.

Spain has not exported arms to Iraq over the past several years, but in 2014 it sold equipment worth about 100,000 euros to detect explosives at an oilfield.

Most of Spain's arm exports are to NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
and EU countries.

Last month, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that "jihadi terrorism is a direct threat" to European and other countries.

"Some people don´t understand that jihadi terrorism is a direct threat for the security of our countries and our citizens and constitutes the main threat nowadays," he said at a regional anti-terrorism meeting.

Since the beginning of this year, Spanish authorities have stepped up crackdowns on ISIS cells and on loyalists, announcing many arrests.

Also last month, 11 people were locked away
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
in Barcelona and surrounding cities on suspicions of planning terrorist attacks in the country. They had been scouting out places for potential terrorist attacks, such as the Catalan Parliament, two cop shoppes, a Jewish bookshop and a hotel.

Spain also has broken up a number of ISIS recruiting cells, some especially targeting women. Authorities in Spain say that some 100 Spanish citizens are fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  Spain should better give green light to balls deliveries for Iraqui military. It looks like it seriosuly needs them.
Posted by: JFM || 05/29/2015 8:51 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
US training of Syria rebel fighters expands to Turkey
[Hurriyet Daily News] The US military has started training Syrian opposition fighters in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
to combat 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 (ISIL), an expected expansion of a program that first launched in Jordan weeks ago, a US official told Rooters on May 28.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not offer details on the size of the first group of recruits undergoing training in Turkey or the specific start date.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

President Barack Obama
The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person...
's administration says the program aims only to target ISIL forces, not troops loyal to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
. But critics, including in the US Congress, say that theoretical limitation is unlikely to withstand the realities of Syria's messy civil war.

The war in Syria has killed more than 220,000 people and left a third of the population homeless.

The United States hopes the long-awaited program will train just over 5,000 Syrian fighters a year, giving the US military partners on the ground to combat Islamic State.

So far, the US role in Syria has been largely limited to air strikes, although American special operations forces killed a senior ISIL leader in a raid there this month.

All of the US military training of Syrian opposition fighters is taking place outside of the country. Beyond Jordan and Turkey, 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 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...
have also offered to host training sites.
May
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: WoT
While D.C. Downplays Risk, U.S. Sees Shocking Rise in Terror Arrests This Year
[PJMedia] It's only May, but 2015 has seen 41 U.S. individuals arrested for terror charges, nearly double the combined total for 2013 and 2014. (Also read: Houston Man Charged With Supporting ISIS".)
A useful round up.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO the annual numbers will only keep rising the longer the Bammer or any anti-US US Globalist POTUS successor keeps applying Minimalism to FP.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/29/2015 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Or, maybe, security services finally got green light from their political (pro-Shia) masters?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2015 5:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Does this count the bikers in Waco?
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/29/2015 7:57 Comments || Top||

#4  ..that was strictly a competitive business action.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/29/2015 8:05 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Qadri to come back next month
[DAWN] Pakistain Awami Tehrik Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri
...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him...
said on Wednesday he would return to the country next month to take part in his party's struggle for getting justice in the Model Town incident in which the Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

police allegedly killed 14 workers in June last year.

"I am of the firm belief that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif
...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab...
, former law minister Rana Sanaullah and former principal secretary to the chief minister Dr Tauqeer Shah are directly responsible for the Model Town incident.

We have taken to the street to get justice as the protest has been under way in 40 cities," Dr Qadri told a news conference through a video link here on Wednesday.

"We reject the Joint Investigation Team's report which gave a clean chit to the culprits. All those officials involved in the murder of the PAT workers have been given prized positions. Dr Taqueer was appointed to the WTO and SP Salman allowed to flee the country," he said, adding the government had recruited "turbans and extortionists" in the Punjab police.

He said had the culprits in the Model Town case been punished the Daska incident would not have happened.

Dr Qadri said he wanted to bring to the knowledge of the security agencies that the "Sharifs empire" was paving the way for Daesh (the self-styled 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 Pakistain. "The Sharif empire earlier allowed the Taliban to strengthen and now it had turned a blind eye to the activities of Daesh. It is an attempt to fail Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Senate body urges Afghan govt to hand over Mullah Fazlullah
[DAWN] The Senate Standing Committee on Interior urged the government of Afghanistan on Thursday to hand over Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
-- chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) -- to Pak authorities.

Senator Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
, chairman of the Senate body on interior, said Fazlullah was involved in the killings of thousands of Paks and his arrest was essential to give Lions of Islam a death blow.

The Senate standing committee also directed interior ministry officials to submit details regarding Lions of Islam incarcerated
You have the right to remain silent...
and killed by security forces in the ongoing operations against holy warriors.

"It is important to know details of the Lions of Islam that have been killed and arrested by security forces during operations. The ministry of interior needs to submit names of all such Lions of Islam including their fathers' names and pictures," said Senator Rehman Malik, chairman of the Senate standing committee on interior.

Awami National Party
founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism....
's Senator Shahi Syed said law enforcement agencies had arrested over 40,000 suspects, adding that the nation wanted to know the identification of those in jug.

Hamid Ali Khan, coordinator of the Nation Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), informed committee members that the interior ministry had banned 127 terrorist organizations including 67 outfits that had been outlawed by the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Briefing members on implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), Hamid said the government had set a deadline of December 31, 2015, for the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistain.

"Over 19,000 unregistered Afghans have been arrested by law enforcement agencies and all district administrations were directed to register them on a priority basis," he said.

He said the ministry had cancelled 260,000 arms licenses in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
, 10, 000 in Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

and 3,000 in Sindh.

Hamid said forces had arrested over 49,000 suspects during 46,000 intelligence-based operations while the police had registered cases against 300 suspects involved in terrorism activities across the country.

Members of the committee expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
on the "slow momentum" in the implementation of the 20-point National Action Plan.

The Senate body directed Nacta's national coordinator to take steps for reforms in the curriculum of religious seminaries along with proper registration of such institutions to keep a check on the sources of their funding.

PML-N Senator Chaudhary Tanvir said it was the responsibility of the ministry of foreign affairs to highlight involvement of foreign countries that support terror activities inside Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Top Islamic State figure makes appearance in Ramadi: Residents, expert
[AlAhram] A top 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....
figure has made an appearance in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, residents said, and a security expert identified him as "the blind judge" who ranks second in terms of religious authority within the Death Eater group.

Residents of Ramadi said a blind man with one hand, whose head was shrouded, had delivered a speech in the Anbar quiet provincial capital's main mosque after evening prayer on Wednesday.

They did not know who he was, but recognised him to be a senior figure because he was flanked by a large number of guards and said his accent indicated he was Iraqi.

Iraqi security expert Hisham al-Hashimi, who closely tracks the ultra-hardline Islamic State myrmidons, identified the man as Ali Attiya al-Jubouri, also known as Abu Asim, or "the blind judge of the Islamic State".

"This holy man who appeared in Ramadi yesterday is very famous," Hashimi said. "He is the second highest religious authority after His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
, and the fifth man in the organization of Daesh." Daesh is an Arabic name for Islamic State.

Ramadi was overrun by Islamic State on May 17 in the most significant setback for Iraqi government forces in almost a year.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Pro-Israel critics claim Hamas front group nearing coveted UN status
[FOXNEWS] A pro-Paleostinian group critics describe as a front for Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, is set to win key status from a UN panel stacked with anti-Israel human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
violators, according to a watchdog group.

The UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, a 19-member panel that includes Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, Russia and China, was to vote on granting "observer" status to the Paleostinian Return Centre. The designation would allow the group to acquire official UN badges, full access to UN facilities and to participate in debates in New York, Geneva and Vienna.

"Despite its pose as pro-Paleostinian human rights group, the PRC is one of the few Paleostinian advocacy groups to have been banned by Israel, on account of its deep entanglement with top leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization based in Gazoo and abroad," UN Watch said in a news release.

The UK-based group was established in 1996 and claims its mission is to offer "expert advice to various actors and agencies on the question of Paleostinian Refugees within the context of the Nakba - The catastrophe following the forced displacement of Paleostinians in 1948."

UN Watch claims the group has regularly hosted Paleostinian officials, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
, at its annual conferences and has strong ties to top Hamas officials.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


UN envoys wants IDF on blacklist with Islamic State
[YNETNEWS] Israel pressuring UN chief Ban not to include it in list - which also includes al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Taliban - of organizations or countries that regularly cause harm to children.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These tranzi scumvermin are getting more arrogant every day.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2015 2:49 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Says Foiled U.S. Cyber Attack on Oil Ministry
[AnNahar] Iran said on Tuesday it had foiled a cyber-attack on the Islamic republic's oil ministry, and that those behind the hacking attempt were based in the United States.

The Fars news agency cited Brigadier General Kamal Hadianfar, head of the cyber police, as saying the unit had thwarted "the hackers' attack on the oil ministry."

He said the source of the attempt was in the United States, and that the U.S. authorities had been informed.

"The IP address for these hackers was in America," he said, adding that "an international judicial order" had been sent to the United States, without elaborating.

Hadianfar said the hacking attempt took place over a four-day period at the start of the new Iranian year which began on March 20.

Iran's controversial nuclear program was the target of a 2010 cyber-attack by the Stuxnet virus, in a hack Tehran blamed on both the United States and Israel.

A February report by Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab spoke of a powerful cyber-spying tool that can tap into millions of computers worldwide through secretly installed malware, with many signs pointing to a U.S.-led effort.

Iran has also been accused of developing its own cyber espionage capability.

U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper in February blamed Iran for a cyber attack on Sands Casino in Las Vegas that stole confidential data and shut down many of the casino's operations.

The assault came after the billionaire owner of Sands, Sheldon Adelson, said in 2013 that "Iran should be nuked."

And last December, U.S. cyber-security firm Cylance said Iran-based hackers had been engaged for two years in an operation dubbed "Cleaver."

Cylance researchers said the effort has "conducted a significant global surveillance and infiltration campaign."

They said targets include government networks as well as companies involved in military, oil and gas, energy and utilities, transportation, airlines, airports, hospitals, telecommunications, technology, education, aerospace and other sectors.

The report said the campaign appeared to be retaliation for the Stuxnet virus.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Guess again - Russians or the ChiComs
Posted by: Raj || 05/29/2015 1:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Guess again, Russians own their cyber-security.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2015 2:22 Comments || Top||

#3  It was a US planned attack. The "planning" was the 2002 release of Windows XP, which iran's industrial, petroleum and business sectors still use today, basically leaving their data pants down around their digital ankles.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/29/2015 7:44 Comments || Top||

#4  I like XP.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2015 12:23 Comments || Top||


Iran Warns against 'Excessive Demands' in Nuclear Talks
[ALMANAR.LB] Iran on Thursday warned global powers against making "excessive demands" in talks aimed at sealing a ground-breaking nuclear deal, after La Belle France demanded access to its military installations.

"I would expect my negotiating partners to refrain from making excessive demands," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said during a visit to Athens, adding: "People need to have their foot in reality, not in illusions."

Zarif on Saturday is to meet US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
in Geneva, after weeks of behind-the-scenes complex technical discussions in Vienna seeking to narrow the gaps on what would be an unprecedented deal on curtailing Iran's nuclear program.

Iran and the six global powers leading the talks -- Britannia, China, La Belle France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- laid down a framework to guide the final accord in eight days of marathon late-night talks in Lausanne in early April.

The negotiators are working towards a proposed June 30 deadline for agreement.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  The Mad Mullahs only want one comment from the ret of the world -
Posted by: Bobby || 05/29/2015 7:09 Comments || Top||


UN: Syria forces blamed for 14 attacks on medical facilities
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The U.N. secretary-general says Syrian government forces were behind 14 attacks on medical facilities last month, including seven that employed barrel bombs.

In his monthly report to the Security Council, Ban Ki-Moon said seven medical workers were killed in the April attacks documented by the group Physicians for Human Rights.

The barrel bombs, used in half the attacks, have been sharply criticized by the international community because they lack accuracy and cause indiscriminate damage.

Ban says the overall effect has been devastating for Syrian civilians, with some 12 million people need humanitarian aid.

The conflict is now in its fifth year, and more than 220,000 have been killed.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  I guess, like Paleos, Syrian "rebels" us medical facilities for C&C locations.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/29/2015 5:03 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Head of Syria's al-Qaida branch says no plans to attack the West
And if you can't believe an al-Qaeda emir who can you believe?
[THEGLOBEANDMAIL] Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria has no plans to attack the West but warns that they might retaliate if Arclight airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition continue to target them, the leader of the group said in an interview with an Arab TV station.

The Syrian known as Abu Muhammed al-Golani, who heads the Nusra Front, said the aim of his group is to march to the Syrian capital Damascus and bring down Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
's government. Al-Golani denied that the so-called Khorasan group even exists.

Since September when the U.S. led coalition began targeting 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 in Syria, U.S. Arclight airstrikes have attacked targets associated with the so-called Khorasan group -- which Washington says is a special cell within the Nusra Front that is plotting attacks against Western interests.

Al-Golani said in an interview with the Al-Jazeera
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS...
TV aired Wednesday night that "there is nothing called Khorasan group. We heard this from the Americans only."

He added that if the coalition's Arclight airstrikes continue "then the alternatives are open and it is the right of any human being to defend himself."

Al-Golani said that the directions they have received from al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri are "not to use Syria for attacks against the West and Europe."

"The directions that we are received from Dr. Ayman, may God protect him, are that the Nusra Front aim is to bring down the regime and its allies, I mean Hezbollah," al-Golani, whose face was not shown during the interview, said.

He added that the "directions we have received until now is not to target the west and America." He said al-Qaeda might be doing so but not the Nusra Front.

The Nusra Front, one of Syria's strongest groups, is leading the so-called Fatah Army that consists seven Syria-based factions. The Fatah Army has defeated Assad's forces in northwestern Syria over the past two months capturing wide areas of the northwestern province of Idlib, including the picturesque provincial capital that carries the same name.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  "Because we're too busy fighting for our lives in this free for all here. Right now at least."
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/29/2015 8:03 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
33[untagged]
8Islamic State
6Govt of Pakistan
4Govt of Syria
2Govt of Iraq
2Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Saudi Arabia
2Hamas
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1al-Shabaab
1Narcos
1al-Nusra
1Boko Haram
1Arab Spring

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2015-05-29
  Rebels seize Assad's last stronghold in Idlib
Thu 2015-05-28
  Airstrikes kill at least 80 in deadliest bombings of Yemen war
Wed 2015-05-27
  Shiite militia claims ISIS leader killed near Fallujah
Tue 2015-05-26
  Suicide bomber blows himself up during Rangers operation in Karachi
Mon 2015-05-25
  Syria: IS executes hundreds in Palmyra
Sun 2015-05-24
  Prayer leader explodes in mosque
Sat 2015-05-23
  Kunar Drone Strike Kills Four Taliban
Fri 2015-05-22
  Air strikes kill 15 militants in North Waziristan
Thu 2015-05-21
  Kurds advance against Islamic State in northeastern Syria
Wed 2015-05-20
  IS Attacks Syria Druze Village, Battles for Palmyra
Tue 2015-05-19
  US drone strike in North Waziristan leaves six 'militants' dead
Mon 2015-05-18
  ISIS confirms Ramadi capture
Sun 2015-05-17
  US special forces kill senior IS leader in Syria: Pentagon
Sat 2015-05-16
  Jury sentences Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for marathon attack
Fri 2015-05-15
  Belmokhtar's Jihadist Group in N. Africa Pledges Allegiance to IS

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