[Iran Press TV] The Taliban Lion of Islam group says it wants to be removed from the blacklist of the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... as a condition for rejoining peace talks for an end to the conflict in Afghanistan.
"We conveyed them to first remove us from the blacklist of the United Nations and allow us to freely travel around the world and then we can think about holding peace talks," said an unidentified Taliban member during unofficial talks with activists and former Afghan officials in the 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... i capital of Doha on Saturday.
Taliban has reemerged as a strong Lion of Islam group over the past months as it has managed to capture some key areas in the north and south of Afghanistan. The bandidosholy warriors also carry out attacks in the capital, Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... . That has prompted renewed efforts in the country and by neighbors to revive stalled negotiations between the Lion of Islam group and the Afghan government.
Pakistain mediated the first round of talks in the summer of 2015, but a planned second meeting was cancelled after news broke that Taliban's founder and long-time leader Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... had died two years ago.
Many suspect that Taliban could reappear on the negotiating table as factional infighting and leadership division has deepened in the group since the death of Omar.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a front man for the Taliban, said Saturday that representatives of the group had attended the unofficial talks in Doha to express the views of the group on how the situation in the country should be handled.
"The meeting is providing us an opportunity to express our views about the future of Afghanistan," said Mujahid, without elaborating on the condition set by other senior members about removal of Taliban from the UN blacklist.
Officials from former Afghan administrations who attended the talks said Taliban has yet to make a concrete demand.
"So far they have not proposed any concrete ideas about how to move forward. Hopefully by tomorrow we will know if they want peace and if so what their conditions are," said Anwar Ahady, a former minister of finance.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
You kill a bunch of Taliban leaders and then reply, "Sorry, I didn't catch that. Can you please repeat that?"
What idiots are negotiating with these murders?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/24/2016 1:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What idiots are negotiating with these murders?
#4
IOW, the Taliban becomes a LEGITIMATE POLITICAL ACIVIST GROUP that can run for political office widout fear of orrest or other persecution. ITS EITHER THAT OR the US-ALLIES RISK SEEING THE TALIBAN WHOLLY MERGE WID THE ISIS/ISIL BOYZ TO WAGE GLOBAL JIAHD OUTSDIE OF PAKISTAN OR AFPAK.
Ball is in the Bammer's court as to the Pro-ISIS-vs-Anti-ISIS future of the post-MO AFPAK Talibunnies.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] 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. .. has said the counter-terrorism operations to suppress the loyalists of 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 Syria (ISIS) terrorist group are successfully and effectively being conducted in 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.
The Office of the President in a statement said President Ghani shared the issue during a meeting with the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter during his two-day state visit in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... President Ghani urged the US defense chief to further equip the Afghan Air Force and Afghan National Army (ANA) forces, specifically the 205th Atul Corps in a bid to eliminate the threat of the ISIS loyalists in the country.
He said the menace of terrorism is not only threatening Afghanistan but is a threat to the region and the world and to fight terror will require short term, mid term and long term cooperation.
The remarks by President Ghani comes as there have been growing concerns regarding the growing activities of the loyalists of the terror group as they have been trying to expand foothold in the country.
The U.S. Department of State recently designated the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) as a terrorist organization.
The Khorasan branch dubbed as 'Khorasan province -- Wilayah Khorasan' is the territorial scope of the terror group covering parts of Afghanistan and Pakistain but the loyalists of the terror group is mainly operational in some remote regions of Afghanistan bordering the Durand Line located between Afghanistan and Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
See also HURRIYET NEWS > US GIVES TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN BROAD ORDERS TO STRIKE ISIL IN AFGHANISTAN.
Helping Russia + Stans + China.
VERSUS
* MANILA TIMES > INDIA WARY OF ISIS ATTACKS VIA BANGLADESH.
Wehell, iff recent MSM-Net Artics prove correct, ditto as per ISIS attacks from Indonesia + Kashmir.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > ISLAMIC STATE [ISIS/ISIL/Daesh] COMES TO INDIA: PLANNED TO STRIKE DELHI-NCR MALLS, KUMBH - TIMES OF INDIA.
* WORLD NEWS > [Asia Times] JAKARTA ATTACKS: WILL PART OF SE ASIA BECOME ISIS' SATELLITE CITIES.
Wid CHINA becoming aggressive + beginning to assert its OWG Co-Superpower rights in East Asia, e.g. the South and East China Seas agz US Regional Allies, PERHAPS ITS TIME FOR THE US + USDOD TO SET UP A NEW INDIAN OCEAN COMMAND OR CENTCOM TO DEAL WID TERROR-N-ONLY-TERROR???
Benghazi -- After more than 48 hours, exhausted firefighters hugged each other today after they had extinguished the last of the major blazes in the Ras Lanuf tank farm. Even so, a pipeline and a nearby tank were still on fire.
At times during the inferno, the firemen had acted with almost lunatic bravery. Footage was posted of one man who climbed a ladder put up against a burning oil tank, to turn off a valve that was allowing oil to spray on to a nearby fire. The individual, who was not wearing a helmet nor apparently any of the fire crews’ protective gear, worked at the valve with a large spanner which reduced the emission from the tank to a trickle. Then he finished the task by hammering the valve completely shut with the spanner.
NOC in Tripoli has said that 90 percent of the fires are now out. It has taken over two days for the crews to achieve this following Thursday’s missile and artillery attack on the export terminal by IS forces.
The firefighters’ task was made the more difficult by their initial inability to move through the ground fighting to reach the blaze. The flames were therefore able to take hold on at least three of the storage tanks which in turn ignited two others.
NOC said that the Petroleum Facilities Guard had now secured the entire area. It was sending teams to assess the full extent of the destruction. It is believed that some three million of barrels of crude were in the tank farm when IS attacked.
At the height of the blaze a massive plume of black smoke stretched north-east across the sea to the coastline below Benghazi. Tripoli NOC chief Mustafa Sanalla described the conflagration as an environmental disaster.
[DAWN] TAJIKISTAN: As part of an "anti-radicalisation campaign", police in the Khatlon region reportedly shaved the beards of 13,000 men and shut down 160 shops selling the hijab, reported BBC earlier this week.
According to the report, hundreds of thousands of men have been tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in recent years for adopting mannerisms "alien and inconsistent with Tajik" culture -- maintaining a beard is considered among the gravest of these offences.
The BBC interviewed nine men who said they were tossed into the calaboose in the street and forcibly taken to the police department for an arrest, or to a barber shop to be shaved.
Women are given their own prescriptions: their dress, the government has stated, must be in traditional Tajik colours. Black, the colour most commonly associated with the burqa, is automatically outlawed in these circumstances.
"Even in mourning, Tajik women [should] wear white, not black," President Emomali Rakhmon has warned the Tajiks.
The fear of 'alien values'
President Emomali Rahmon has been ruling the country since 1994 and is soon expected to approve a legislation that will promote secular values, which includes banning Arabic-sounding and "foreign" names officially.
With sections of the Middle East and Asia falling to extremism and militancy, the Central Asian states increasingly fear the spread of radicalisation.
Estimates suggest that between 1,500 and 4,000 Central Asians could have joined different Lion of Islam groups in Syria, as of June 2015.
In response, countries like Tajikistan have launched official campaigns and taken measures that discourage Islamic cultural practices. In September last year, Tajikistan's Supreme Court banned the Islamic Renaissance Party, which is the only registered Islamic political party in the Muslim-majority country, Al Jazeera reported.
President Rakhmon has also warned Tajiks: "Don't worship alien values, don't follow alien culture. Wear clothes of traditional colours and cut, not black."
The fight for secular values
The fight to maintain secular values has affected men, women and kiddies alike. The state has placed a ban on hijabs in all educational institutions, and state institutions follow the same rule.
Parents are discouraged from giving their children Arabic names, and are pressured to opt for more traditional and familiar Tajik names.
According to the BBC report, Tajik police said they shut down 160 shops that sold the hijab, and convinced over 1,500 women to stop wearing the Islamic code of dress.
In the south-west region of Khathlon, police reported that law enforcement agencies have successfully convinced over 1500 women to stop wearing headscarves.
Even though Tajikistan is a 99% Muslim, atheism was encouraged during 70 years of Soviet rule.
'Do not shave'
One man, Djovid Akramov, said he was outside his house with his seven-year-old son when the police intercepted him and rushed him to a station to remove his beard.
"They called me a Salafist, a radical, a public enemy," Djovid told the BBC. "And then two of them held my arms while another one shaved half of my beard."
Shaving off men's beards is not an unprecedented response to battling extremism, since growing a beard is a traditional Islamic practice.
The Taliban have particularly warned men against shaving their beards. In Pakistain, a barber shop in Buner was found with a 'do not shave' warning written across its front window, reportedly by Lion of Islams.
Upper Dir Barbers in the town of Darora were also warned to stop shaving beards, the residents told Dawn in 2008. A threatening leaflet was circulated by a group of the Taliban, after which barbers stopped trimming and shaving beards completely.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
At least a few national governments "get it". Islam is no more a religion than was National Socialism in Germany.
[AlAhram] German police have found that the wave of sexual assaults and robberies on New Year's eve did not only happen in Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... but that similar incidents also took place in 12 of Germany's regional states, local media reported Saturday.
Hundreds of women have reported they were groped and robbed by mainly North African suspects outside Cologne's main train station where crowds had gathered to ring in the New Year.
Similar assaults, however, also took place that night in 12 of Germany's 16 regional states, according to the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the NDR and WDR television stations, citing a report by German judicial police (BKA).
Contacted by AFP the BKA had no immediate comment on the report.
"The phenomenon of sexual violence, in part linked with robberies, is much greater than we previously thought," the newspaper said on its website, adding that the regional states were affected to different degrees.
The most affected state was North Rhine-Westphalia, which includes the city of Cologne, where 1,000 complaints have been filed, followed by Hamburg with 200.
In other states the number of reported incidents was lower: Hesse (31 complaints); Bavaria (27), Baden-Wurtlemberg (25), Bremen (11) and Berlin (6).
One case was reported in Lower-Saxony, Brandeburg, Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.
Like Cologne the target of the assaults were women in almost all cases. According to witnesses, the aggressors were often young men of foreign origin, between 17 and 30 years old.
The assaults in Cologne, which police have blamed on young men from North Africa and other Arab countries, have ignited a fierce debate over Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... 's policy of welcoming refugees to Germany which received one million asylum seekers in 2015.
On Saturday, Aydan Ozoguz, who handles integration issues for the government, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the New Year's assaults had "poisoned" the atmosphere in Germany. "Several hundred criminals do not represent a million refugees," she said.
And the fact that we only have the reports from one night does not represent how many have been involved in such behaviour before or since, Frau Ozoguz.
#2
"Several hundred criminals do not represent a million refugees"
The do represent the Muslim refugees because what they did wasn't illegal according to Islamic law.
Sharia sez that women appearing in public wearing perfume are criminals. Sharia sez that Dhimmis using force against Muslims are criminals, even when acting in self-defense.
The Muslims tried to take what is theirs by right and what was denied them illegally.
This is a clash of cultures, value systems and laws.
Importing Muslims means importing Islam's bloody borders.
[SFCHRONICLE] The Dutch debate on asylum-seekers has come to this: Firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders handing out self-defense sprays to women fearful of what he describes as "Islamic testosterone bombs" in the wake of the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Cologne.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/24/2016 10:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Were are the men at in Germany. It's well past time were some of these migrants should have their heads busted open.
Posted by: chris ||
01/24/2016 10:08 Comments ||
Top||
#4
those were just Baby Ruths floating in the pool.
No - they were confirmed to be 'migrants'.
Not only that but those poor woman and children migrants everyone has been talking about.
Writing of another pool under his jurisdiction in the down of Zwickau, the town employee continued to say a group of “young unaccompanied women and children” used the children’s training pool, as none of the party could swim. He wrote, in classic civil servants language they “contaminated the pool by getting rid of the contents of their intestines. Native people immediately left the pool”.
This is very odd, considering yesterday's report that the U.S. is taking over a Syrian airfield near the Turkish border to use supporting YPG efforts against ISIS there. But perhaps the vice president was just politely not contradicting his host.
[Rudaw] US Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... said Saturday that the Kurdistan Workers´ Party or PKK is a "terrorist group" and there is "no difference" between them and 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.... and al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Biden's remarks came during a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul.
"They are simply terrorist groups and here in Turkey, they threaten and do harm and are of severe consequence to the interest of the people of Turkey and we do recognize that," he said, quoted by the local news agency Anadolu.
The PKK has been fighting in Turkey during three decades for more rights for the Kurdish community, while the Islamic State and al-Nusra are fighting in Syria and Iraq and are affiliated to bad boy Islamic views.
Biden was quoted by the agency saying that he believed that the vast majority of Kurds wanted to live in peace but that the PKK had shown no desire or inclination to do so.
Reiterating that Ankara was a "strategic partner" of the US, Biden said Turkey has been taking "very important" steps to improve security in its border where ISIS is reigning terror.
Biden said Turkey and the United States were coordinating ever more precisely on what is a "shared mission on the extermination of ISIL"(or ISIS).
Biden also was quoted by the newspaper Hurriyet Daily News as saying that the United States and Turkey were prepared for a military solution in Syria against ISIS if a political settlement was not possible.
"We do know it would better if we can reach a political solution but we are prepared..., if that's not possible, to have a military solution to this operation and taking out Daesh [Islamic State]," Biden said, using the Arabic term for ISIS.
Davutoglu also said terrorism did not threaten only one country, rather it threatened all neighbouring countries.
"Whichever ethnicity terrorism is coming from, it is a humanitarian crime. We do not see any difference between PKK, al-Nusra, DHKP-C (the Revolutionary People´s Liberation Party-Front), Daesh [Islamic State]," said Davutoglu.
Davutoglu added both the US and Turkey were sensitive to the fight against all terror organizations.
"Turkey sees three threats in Syria: One is the regime, another is Daesh [Islamic State], and third is the YPG (the armed Kurdish forces of the Democratic Union Party or PYD in northern Syria)," said Davutoglu, adding that the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Units) was part of the terrorist organization PKK.
The PYD is the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US.
Davutoglu also said the PKK presence in Iraq required that Turkey bring the fight to the PKK and Daesh [Islamic State] in the region.
Biden also talked with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , in a meeting was closed to press.
[NATION.PK] Secretary General, Jamaat e Islami, Liaqat Baloch, has said that Pakistan was under attack from the enemy and the master mind of the incidents at Pathankot, Jamrud, Quetta, and the Bacha Khan University was the same.
He was talking to the media after addressing a workers convention at Rawalpindi.
The JI central leader said that the solution of the Kashmir issue was the need of the hour. He said it was in Indian’s own interest to stop terrorist activities and allow the people of the region to live in peace.
He counseled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif not to expect much from New Delhi and instead evolve a national Kashmir policy through consensus that could help restore peace in the region.
Liaqat Baloch said the basic aim of politics and democracy was to serve the masses through a judicious distribution of the natural resources. However, he said, that corruption and plunder of the public money by the ruling elite in the country had pushed the society to the lowest level.
He said that in such a situation, the JI was trying to bring up honest and dedicated leadership through training programs in order to provide true leadership to the masses.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
[NATION.PK] KARACHI: Personnel of an intelligence agency raided the house of Federal Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, at Defence Phase-7 today and tossed in the calaboose Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! his son and two other people.
The minister was reportedly not present at home at the time of the raid.
Besides Bilal Murtaza Jatoi, son of the minister, his two guards were taken in jug by the intelligence agency personnel and were taken to some undisclosed location.
It may be noted that an exchange of hot words had reportedly taken place between the federal minister and a senior officer of the intelligence agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The 'controllers' behind Bacha Khan University attack were revealed before news hounds on Saturday, following a presser held by Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant-General Asim Bajwa.
The director general of the military's media wing shared details of the probe into the January 20 brutal attack on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda which had claimed at least 21 lives.
The press briefing began with a recorded telephone conversation between the 'bandidosgunnies and a news hound' with the snuffies claiming responsibility for the attack.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Wall Street Journal says group using facility for 'high-value' prisoners, brass hats, in belief that flood fears will deter US strikes
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.... is using the massive Tabqa Dam in Syria as a holding center for "high-value" prisoners and to shelter its bigwigs, in the belief that the US will not bomb the site for fear of causing devastating flooding, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The dam is located just 25 miles from Raqqa, IS's center of operations in Syria, and has been in the group's hands since 2013. It is heavily guarded by foreign-born fighters and checkpoints, and access is strictly limited, the newspaper said Friday, quoting anti-Islamic State activists in Syria.
The report quotes Middle East expert Prof. Ariel Ahram of Virginia Tech as saying that a rupture in the dam would result in large swathes of Iraq being flooded and "no electricity for all of eastern Syria." He warned that it would be "an ecological disaster for Iraq and a humanitarian catastrophe for Syria."
According to sources quoted in the report, the US is aware of the IS presence at the dam, and fears for its maintenance and use as a base of operations. Some Middle East analysts and American officials have 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... that the jihadists could blow up the dam should they begin to sense their power slipping.
"Of course you worry," Mideast and water resources specialist Aaron Wolf of Oregon State University tells the Journal. "These aren't the people you want controlling basically the arteries of the region."
This is not the first time that the Islamic State has used dams as safe havens, in the expectation that its enemies will be deterred from attacking it at such facilities, the report says. The group used the djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Dam in Iraq for similar purposes, before it was driven out in 2014 by Iraqi and Kurdish troops backed by the US. It also tried to seize the Haditha Dam in western Iraq, so far unsuccessfully, due to the presence of Iraqi troops and Sunni tribes, also backed by US warplanes.
The Journal says, however, the US recognizes that ousting IS from Tabqa would be a more complex task, due to the lack of ground troops in the area.
A nice little project for the Spetznaz in support of their client, who won't want his people drowned.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Halon ....
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/24/2016 13:34 Comments ||
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#2
Actually it might be a good lesson for all terrorists if the dam burst.
The next dam down the river is Mosul's. It would definitely go with all of lake Assad rushing into it. The combined chain reaction would scour a path from Mosul to the Persian Gulf - right through Anbar province. It would pretty much be the end of the Sunni area of Iraq. ISIS would have no heartland left in Syria or Iraq. Muslims all over the planet would despise the Islamist for the massive loss of Sunni life..
Maybe Putin could be encouraged to do the deed?
The U.S. is prepared to use military force to end a civil war in Syria if a political solution can’t be reached, U.S. GeneralSheriff Vice President Joe Biden said during a visit to Turkey.
A non-military resolution to Syria’s conflict “would be better,” but force could be used for “taking out” Islamic State if necessary, Biden said Saturday following meetings with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.
“We do know that it would be better if we could reach a political solution,” Biden said. “We are prepared if that’s not possible to have a military solution to this operation.”
The U.S. has been carrying out “precision strikes” on Islamic State in the Middle East based on intelligence, and last year President Barack Obama criticized Republicans who urged carpet bombing of the group’s strongholds.
A Biden official traveling with the vice president told reporters the comments represented no change in U.S. policy, according to a press pool report that didn’t name the official.
"Someone get a statement out to the press while the nurse gets him sedated!"
Biden said both the U.S. and Turkey are “determined” to reach a resolution in Syria, and both nations agree that Islamic State, the autonomy-seeking Kurdish group known as PKK and the affiliated al-Nusra Front.
Agree on what? Erdogan has a well-known opinion of the PKK, and a well-recognized tolerance for the ISIS...
The vice president also said he discussed with Turkey’s leaders how the two governments can improve support of local Sunni Arab forces, working to cut off the remaining 60 miles of Turkish border.
Assuming that's what the Turks want, which they don't.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and the United States continued Saturday to disagree about the status of Syrian Kurdish forces who have become a key part of the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Syria. That means the Kurds are gonna take it in the national shortskis.
...on at least both sides of the Syria-Turkey border. Bombing runs in Syria, destroying the cities in order to save them in Turkey. Probably more bombing runs in Iraq, as well.
In statements after two hours of meeting here, Vice President Biden and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu praised the U.S.-Turkish alliance. The partnership is "enduring, it's rooted in history, it's in the hearts of our people," Biden said. "Turkey is a strategic partner."
But while saying ties with the United States were strong, Davutoglu repeatedly referred to the Syrian group -- called the People's Protection Units and known by its Arabic initials as the YPG -- as a terrorist organization on par with the Islamic State and as a component part of Turkey's own Kurdish Death Eaters, who have long used violence to try to carve out their own state inside the Turkish border.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Another red line?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/24/2016 1:43 Comments ||
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Iran plans to launch 16 oil refining projects, worth 33 billion euros, eyeing to surpass Saudi Arabia as the biggest oil refiner in the Middle East, according to an Iranian news agency report. Current, Iran’s oil refining capacity is 1.85 million barrels per day (mbpd).
The country plans to build 12 medium and large crude oil and gas condensate refining units, implement fuel oil output reduction projects at Bandar Abbas and Abadan refineries, revamp Isfahan and Abadan refineries, and boost crude oil and oil products transfer capacity, said the Mehr news agency Jan. 22. Once the projects come on stream, Iran’s oil refining capacity will increase by 1.29 mbpd and reach 3.1 mbpd.
Saudi Arabia’s oil refining capacity has been declining over the past five years from 2.8 mbpd in 2010 to around 2.1 mbpd in 2015.
Another reason for the U.S. to continue working to reduce its dependence on the oil ticks...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Tricky things, those refiners. Prone to sudden, unexplained fires & explosions.
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.
Joe 
[NATION.PK] Secretary General, Jamaat e Islami, Liaqat Baloch, has said that Pakistan was under attack from the enemy and the master mind of the incidents at Pathankot, Jamrud, Quetta, and the Bacha Khan University was the same.
[DAWN] The '
The U.S. is prepared to use military force to end a civil war in Syria if a political solution can’t be reached, U.S. 
Iran plans to launch 16 oil refining projects, worth 33 billion euros, eyeing to surpass Saudi Arabia as the biggest oil refiner in the Middle East, according to an Iranian news agency report. Current, Iran’s oil refining capacity is 1.85 million barrels per day (mbpd).
