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Today: 74 articles and 167 comments as of 12:39.
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Suicide bomb attack kills 28, wounds dozens in Cameroon
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Africa Horn
Somalia election talks collapse again
I know, you're as surprised as I am...
MOGADISHU -- Political talks in Mogadishu have not led to any breakthrough as differences are still looming larger over electoral transition, Garowe Online reports.

Puntland Environment Minister Ali Abdullahi Warsame has confirmed that deliberations ended in failure after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came up with unilateral stance.

Mohamud said, Lower House would have representatives on the basis of 4.5 power sharing formula while Upper House would be evenly distributed to Federal Member States and interim administrations, with additional three seats being allotted for Puntland and Somaliland.

However, the suggestion culminated in disagreement following Galmudug President, Abdikarin Hussein Gulled’s objection to any concessions to be made in favor of Puntland and Somaliland.

International community representatives have told disputing Somali leaders to narrow differences over 48 hours.

Somalia which declared its independence from the rest of the country as a defacto sovereign state in 1991 has not been officially represented in long dragging National Consultative Forum (NCF). Puntland wants that district-based and region-based models be adopted for Lower House and Upper House respectively.

Earlier in January, Somali leaders failed to agreeon a political roadmap ahead of benchmark due date.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kenya sends more KDF troops to Somalia
Kenya has sent more Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers to Somalia in its continuing search, rescue and recovery operation, according to a communication from Chief of Defence Forces General Samson Mwathethe. The troops from various KDF divisions across the country were assembled and sent to the war-torn country to conduct operations in Al Shabaab bases at El Adde and other towns in the Gedo region.

The key mission for the forces is to annihilate Al Shabaab militants and recover or destroy military hardware that Al Shabaab insurgents looted from KDF camps during last week’s attack in El Adde.

“The latest ground troops from the infantry units, whose sole purpose is to fight and win land battles, are on their way to El Adde to reinforce several other soldiers currently engaging the militants in their hideouts near Gedo towns as fighter jets and attack helicopters continue to bombard the militants targets in Gedo and Baay regions,” said Mwathethe.

Military sources privy to the ongoing operation in Gedo region have confirmed that Al Shabaab militants had suffered heavy casualties after KDF F-5 fighter jets and Z-9 gunship attack helicopters from the 50th Air-Cavalry battalion bombed their bases in five towns near El Adde and Gedo town.

The developments come just two days after KDF said they believe they had killed the commander of the El Adde attack in two waves of air strikes conducted last Sunday.

In his press briefing on Thursday, General Mwathethe said hundreds of Al Shabaab militants had also been killed in the air strikes.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  From an article linked by the above article:
Kenyan defense forces (KDF) serving as part of African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have withdrawn from El Addde base, residents confirmed to Radio Shabelle.

KDF pulled out of the base after suspecting the area water wells being poisoned by Al shabaab, the Al Qaeda-linked militants who attacked Kenyan army base El Adde in January 15, 2016.

Meanwhile, Kenya Army spokesperson Colonel David Obonyo told the BBC that the withdrawal of El Adde base was part of normal military movements.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/26/2016 14:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Kenya: Report of death toll false, KDF says
Military spokesman David Obonyo responded to latest claims by Governor Nur Burale of Garbaharey Town in Gedo region who said 200 Kenyan soldiers died in the dawn attack.

“That is propaganda. The figure is way beyond the number expected in a company which has 120 people. There are many soldiers who survived. Some were airlifted to Nairobi while others are in Wajir awaiting deployment,” he said.

Col Obonyo, however, declined to give the death toll or the number of survivors and missing soldiers.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/26/2016 14:45 Comments || Top||


African Union to Send 2,000 Additional Troops to Somalia
With the shocking impressions of the effects of terrorism on their own front porch still freshly in mind, the leaders of the African Union member states yesterday met in Kampala, to discuss the and agree on the future face of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

The meeting in the Ugandan capital, which was rocked by two bomb attacks carried out by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants and leaving more than 70 people dead, led to the decision to send 2,000 additional soldiers to Mogadishu.
All the talk lately about "how much" Somalia has "improved": so, why the need for more troops?
Posted by: Steve White || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Explosives found during Kerdasa raid resemble those used in Haram bombing: Egypt police
"The plot thickens! Watson, fetch my hat and pipe, if you please -- the game's afoot!"
[AlAhram] Egyptian police said on Monday that explosives found during a Sunday raid on an apartment in Giza's Kerdasa were the same type used in a bomb that killed eight coppers and three civilians during another raid in Haram on Thursday.

The interior ministry said the Kerdasa raid was conducted after authorities received a tip that the apartment was being used to store explosives.

Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Aziz, who authorities say was a member of the banned Moslem Brüderbund, was killed during the raid in a shootout with police, who say they were met with gunfire upon their arrival.

"The interior ministry will continue to chase the members of the [Moslem Brüderbund] terrorist movement and dry up the logistic support given to its members...without upsetting stability and security in the country," the ministry said.

On Friday, two holy warrior groups -- the ISIS-affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis and a group called Revolutionary Punishment -- each grabbed credit for the Haram bombing, which took place days before the fifth anniversary of the 25 January revolution.

Authorities have not commented on the identity of those behind the Haram bombing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Officers in Republican Guard Run Network for Smuggling Weapons, Oil
Aden- Informed sources have revealed for Asharq Al-Awsat that there is a joint network for the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi rebels with al-Qaeda, which controls the coast of Hadhramaut province east Yemen. The sources said that the network is engaged in smuggling and trading in arms and explosives and in planting and moving the sleeping cells over a wide area covering a number of provinces.
Wow: you mean the underlings of a double-dealing, back-stabbing, thuggish kleptocrat are somewhat dishonest themselves?
Private sources have indicated that, within the activities of this network is recruiting young people to join organizations affiliated with extremist groups. They also added that recruitments are not limited to young Yemenis only, but also include African citizens,
...the Somali cousins, one assumes...
who head, everyday, to the coasts of Shabwah Governorate.

The sources also said that the network includes senior officers from the Yemeni Republican Guard, formerly led by the son of the ousted president, Brigadier General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, and are associated with extensive contacts with similar officers in a number of southern and eastern provinces.

Furthermore, the sources also indicated that a large part of the military weapons belonging to brigades, which were in Aden, Lahij, Abyan and in other southern provinces, were being smuggled through the network form those provinces to private sites in the desert to be sold for weapon dealers; in addition to the arms reaching the coast via fishing boats.

In a common matter, tribal sources in Shabwah Governorate told Asharq Al-Awsat that the coalition forces have tightened the noose on the smuggling of weapons and oil products that arrive to the Houthi rebels.

Moreover, Apache helicopters flew yesterday at low altitude over Beer Ali Port in Yemen’s Shabwah Governorate and directed verbal warnings to the boats that are trying to land at port. These boats are not licensed by the Arab Coalition to reach the Yemeni coast.
Posted by: badanov || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Beer Ali Port

First thoughts are that is a Beer&Wine shop.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/26/2016 8:20 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Officials say up to 1000 Tajiks have joined Daesh
[RFE/RL] Tajik authorities say up to 1,000 nationals have joined Daesh militants in Syria and Iraq, doubling the figure that officials previously provided.

Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda said that 61 Tajiks had returned from Syria and Iraq, while 148 had been killed in fighting there. Earlier, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said 21 college students were among Tajik nationals who joined Daesh. Rahmon said mosques and other Islamic institutions both at home and abroad play a role in recruiting people to extremist groups.

Rahimzoda also said Tajik Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, who had joined the Daesh last year, has since been seriously wounded twice.
A shame his injuries weren't serious enough the first time.
Third time's the charm...
The minister claimed Daesh was now paying Halimov $100 a month as a "pension."

Halimov, former commander of the Interior Ministry's special forces had confirmed in a video that he joined the militant group.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: WoT
JFK allowed passengers arriving on international flight to exit without going through Customs
Unless heads roll, they're not serious. Did heads roll last time? If someone digs into it, they're probably "still investigating".
Passengers arriving at Kennedy Airport on an international flight were allowed to exit the busy hub without going through Customs -- for at least the second time in recent months, the Daily News has learned.

Bumbling airline and security officials let travelers on American Airlines Flight 1223 from Cancun, Mexico, out of the airport on Monday morning without having their passports or bags checked, sources told The News.

The security lapse mirrored a similar incident involving another American Airlines flight in November.

A 34-year-old man who had been in Cancun to attend three Phish concerts told The News he was able to glide from the plane to the baggage claim area without having to endure the usual maze of Customs and Border Protection security checks.

"It's absolutely absurd," the business adviser said. "To think that anyone could be walking off of that plane and just get right into the city. It could be terrorists, El Chapo's henchmen, anyone."

The jam band fan said he even approached a Transportation Security Administration agent near the exit, but was told he was free to go.

"I told them what happened and asked them what should I do," the passenger said. "They said to me 'That's fine, you're OK. Go ahead.' "
BTW: Please refer to the use of the word "inadvertently" later in the article. I don't think it means what they think it means.
Several other concertgoers who were on the flight were already outside at the curbside cab line when he exited the airport.

Neither the TSA, which screens passengers before they fly, nor the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, responded to a request for comment.

It was unclear how many of the passengers from the flight were able to skip the security checkpoints.
I'll bet somebody knows.
Hours after the plane landed, American Airline officials pleaded with the Manhattan man -- and presumably other passengers -- to return to Kennedy and complete the customs process.

"I apologize for any inconvenience this may be for you; however it is a Customs requirement that every passenger entering the United States must clear Customs," the airline wrote in an email sent to passengers.
Well in that case you can pay for a limousine to come pick me up, my dinner while I wait to be checked, and for the limousine to return me home. And $100/hour for my time.
"You could tell that they knew they screwed up and were desperate to get me to come," the passenger added.

The oversight sparked fears that terrorists could easily slip into the country without having to pass through any checkpoints.

"New York remains the number one target for terrorists and it just made me think of Paris and how easy it would be for them to get in," he said. "It's incompetence like this that could lead to another attack."

A nearly identical incident involving another American Airlines flight from Cancun unfolded in November, just two days after ISIS released a video threatening New York City with a terrorist attack, The News reported.

American Airlines admitted to the latest security snafu in a statement, but declined to say what they were doing about it.

"We take the safety and security of our customers, employees and operation very seriously," the company said. "Some passengers on flight 1223 did not complete immigration and customs process upon arrival when they were inadvertently directed to the domestic terminal."
"Some" ==> "All".
After the November incident, a Customs spokesman told The News that the agency was "aware of and looking into the incident and is working with our counterparts to resolve it."
I wonder how long that would take if they were actually looking into it.
Posted by: gorb || 01/26/2016 01:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uptick in narcotics traffic pending.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2016 3:29 Comments || Top||

#2  They should be held responsible for any crimes committed by travelers from that flight. Thinking about being tried an accomplice if one of these international passengers commits a terrorist act might wake a few TSA agents up.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/26/2016 13:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Terrorists targeting knowledge, critical thinking: US envoy
[Dawn] WASHINGTON: Terrorists are targeting educational institutions because they are against knowledge and critical thinking, says US Special Representative for Muslims, Shaarik H. Zafar.

Mr Zafar, a Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
-born Muslim, is responsible for arranging 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...
's engagement with Muslim communities around the world on issues of mutual interest.

In an interview with Dawn, he addressed the issue of terrorism from the perspective of a person who has been tasked to convince the Muslims that America is not their enemy.

Talking about last week's terrorist attack at a university in Charsadda, he said there was a purpose behind this madness and it was to discourage knowledge and critical thinking.

These elements attack schools where Pakistain is building a new generation of talent. "I don't think that's a coincidence. Knowledge, intellect, critical thinking, these are things gunnies are against," he said.

Mr Zafar believes that there's no single silver bullet for fighting terrorism. Instead, he offered a multi-faceted approach, which includes both military and socio-economic components.

Drying out the financial resources that gunnies use for funding their activities was also important, he said.

Another important measure, he said, would be to prevent Muslims and others living in the West from joining jihadi groups.

"There is this myth of a so-called caliphate, when in reality imported muscle are often cannon fodder. This is a critical component," he said.

"We also need to address the humanitarian crisis: the men, women, and children that are starving and fleeing (from places like Syria)."

Another important part of the strategy to counter terrorism, he said, was to realise that the military option alone would not work. "We're not going to bomb our way out of this situation; it takes preventing radicalisation from happening in the first place," he said. "The last category is the hardest, but frankly the most important: be preventative."
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We're not going to bomb our way out of this situation; it takes preventing radicalisation from happening in the first place"

Reintroduce SOMA.

Posted by: Skidmark || 01/26/2016 8:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Terrorists are targeting educational institutions because they are against knowledge and critical thinking

So Gramsci, with a prayer mat.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/26/2016 8:59 Comments || Top||

#3  More proof that progressives are terrorists. (see also college campuses)
Posted by: AlanC || 01/26/2016 11:20 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq Sunnis call for international protection against Shiite militia
[Rudaw] Iraqi Sunni leaders have called for international protection against violence perpetrated against their community by Shiite militia groups.

Parliamentarians from the Sunni Coalition have submitted a request to the United Nations in which they decry the persecution of the Sunni population by members of the Shiite militia (Hashd al-Shabi) particularly in the provinces of Diyala and Salahaddin.

The MPs have called for pressure to be put on the Iraqi government to end its legal prosecution and court cases against Sunni politicians in Baghdad.

The call highlights among crimes committed against the Sunnis a most recent series of attacks targeting the Sunnis in the town of Muqdadya in Diyala province following a car bomb attack on a group of Shiite militias at a café.

The group of Sunni MPs say in a letter released to the media that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi must be impeached by parliament to answer for the actions of the Shiite militia as the commander in chief of the group.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You had it, but your Shiite government sent it away, with the support of the POTUS. Maybe the Iranians will help.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/26/2016 8:10 Comments || Top||


Czech Republic to supply more rifles, ammunition for Peshmerga
[Rudaw] The Czech Republic is sending thousands more assault rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to the Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces, Czech media reports said.

They quoted Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka saying at a meeting with top Czech officials on Monday that his country will be sending more military aid to the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces to battle 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) group.

Sobotka said "six and a half thousand assault rifles and more than seven million rounds of ammunition to support the Iraqi army and the Kurds in their struggle" against ISIS will be supplied through the United States.

"This is about our support for the Iraqi army and the Kurds in the fight against so-called Islamic state," Sobotka explained.

Jordan will also receive more military support from the Czech Republic, the prime minister said.

"During last year's visit to Jordan, I promised more help in the fight against ISIL (ISIS), now it is time to fulfill the commitment," said Sobotka, who called Jordan a "stable partner" and an Island of "relative calm" in the Middle East.

The Czech Republic has donated large numbers of machine guns, assault rifles, 5,000 hand grenades and 5,000 rounds of ammunition to the Iraqis and Kurds.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  History repeats itself?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/26/2016 2:59 Comments || Top||

#2  The first shipment of two hundred rifles, forty MG-34 machine guns, and bullets, secretly landed during the night of 31 March–1 April at a makeshift airfield at Beit Daras in a chartered American Skymaster cargo plane.

The above from g(r)om's memory hole. Underlining added.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2016 3:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Your [Besoeker] Klingons, or a genuine Rick Blaine?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/26/2016 6:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Probably the latter. But it wouldn't have happened without the tacit approval or deliberate ignorance of the former.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/26/2016 12:59 Comments || Top||


Electronic Weapons: EC-130H Strikes Again
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In yet another dispute with the ground forces the air forces now proposes to retire half the EC-130H fleet in order to provide more money for F-35s and the new heavy bomber.

Proving once again that the F-35 may as well have been designed by our worse enemy.
Posted by: gorb || 01/26/2016 0:39 Comments || Top||

#2  gorb, wanna bet F35's purchased by IAF will do everything the builders said they can, and then some?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/26/2016 3:08 Comments || Top||

#3  In yet another dispute with the ground forces the air forces now proposes to retire half the EC-130H fleet in order to provide more money for F-35s and the new heavy bomber.

USAF budgeteer paybacks for the A-10 dust up.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2016 3:12 Comments || Top||

#4  "In yet another dispute with the ground forces the air forces now proposes to retire half the EC-130H fleet in order to provide more money for F-35s and the new heavy bomber."
If it works, get rid of it.
Posted by: Gerthudion White4991 || 01/26/2016 6:32 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm beginning to think the F-35 is a Russian/Chinese/Iranian axis plant.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/26/2016 17:09 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Zamboanga blast: One year later
[Inquirer] Philippine president Aquino was infuriated: Abu Sayyaf terrorists had detonated a car bomb in the heart of Zamboanga City on Jan. 23, 2015, and had managed to smuggle firearms into the city jail. A ranking Malacañang official said last week, "The President was really pissed off that time," adding that he wanted to go to the city to check the security situation there for himself.

Aquino's whereabouts in Zamboanga City have been questioned in light of renewed calls in the Senate to look into his role in the Special Action Force operation to capture wanted Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, which led to the death of 44 police commandos.

Other sources said that Aquino was to fly to Zamboanga on January 25, the birthday of his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

The ASG planned to spring out of jail Benzar Indama, who is the brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Puruji Indama, and 56 other members. It had been less than two years since the bloody Zamboanga siege, where a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front led by Nur Misuari, tried to take over the city. The 2013 battle claimed the lives of nine civilians, 18 soldiers, five policemen and some 100 MNLF fighters.

The January 23 car bombing killed two people and wounded more than 50. That day, two government agents had been monitoring the movements of at least two suspected Abu Sayyaf militants, and had even followed them into an alley, not knowing that a homemade bomb had been planted inside the car parked in front of a bus terminal.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mega deals in offing as Rouhani visits Europe
[DAWN] Iranian President Hassan Rouhani flew to Italia on Monday at the start of his first official visit to Europe, looking to sign multi-billion dollar contracts to help to modernise Iran's economy after years of crippling financial sanctions.

Heading a 120-strong delegation of Iranian business leaders and ministers, Mr Rouhani will spend two days in Rome before flying to La Belle France.

While diplomacy will figure high on his agenda, trade ties are likely to dominate the headlines, with Iran announcing plans to buy more than 160 European planes, mainly from Airbus, on the eve of President Rouhani's departure.

Officials here said Italian companies were poised to sign deals worth up to $18.4 billion over the next two days, including in the energy and steel sectors.

The deals will give a boost to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who is struggling to revive Italia's underperforming economy.
Posted by: Fred || 01/26/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Russia Denies Report of New Military Base in North Syria
[AnNahar] Russia's defense ministry on Monday denied reports that it is building a new military base in Syria, where it has pursued a bombing campaign for the past four months.

"There are no new airbases or additional aerodromes for Russian warplanes in the Syrian Arab Republic, and no plans to create any," defense ministry front man Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.

Western media outlets have reported that both Moscow and Washington are establishing covert military bases near Syria's border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
The reports followed a claim by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
that up to 200 Russian soldiers were working on a runway at an airbase in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on the Turkish border.

Konashenkov on Monday said only "absolute morons" could seriously discuss alleged Russian activity in Qamishli, saying the reports were an attempt to "cover up the build-up of a large Turkish military force" at the Syrian border.
Britannia-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights alleged that Russia had sent a number of engineers to the border town to strengthen the runway and increase the capacity of the airport there.

But Konashenkov on Monday said only "absolute morons" could seriously discuss alleged Russian activity in Qamishli, saying the reports were an attempt to "cover up the build-up of a large Turkish military force" at the Syrian border.

Reports of Russia's alleged move into Qamishli came as Ankara and Moscow are embroiled in their worst diplomatic crisis in years after Turkey shot down a Russian war plane on November 24.

Russia officially operates a naval facility in the Syrian port city of Tartus, as well as an airbase on the outskirts of the coastal city of Latakia.

Moscow launched a bombing campaign in war-torn Syria at the request of long-time ally Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
on September 30.

The defense ministry said Monday that Russian jets had bombed 484 "terrorist infrastructure" targets in 169 combat sorties between January 22 and January 24.

The latest strikes, according to the Russian military, had helped Syrian armed forces in the Latakia region "liberate more than 92 square kilometers of territory and 28 communities from terrorists" in the past 24 hours.

The Russian defense ministry says its strikes are 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 and other hard boy organizations, but the West has accused Moscow of targeting more moderate groups that oppose the Assad regime.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My first thought was, "What would they say if they were building a base?"

And the second thought was, "What do commercial satellites show?"
Posted by: Bobby || 01/26/2016 13:39 Comments || Top||


The Myth of an Anti-ISIS Grand Coalition
This second report defines American strategic objectives in Iraq and Syria, identify the minimum necessary conditions for ending the conflicts there, and compare U.S. objectives with those of Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia in order to understand actual convergences and divergences. The differences mean that the U.S. cannot rely heavily on international partners to achieve its objectives. Subsequent reports will provide a detailed assessment of the situation on the ground in Syria and present the planning group's evaluation of several courses of action.

The key findings of this second report are:

  • The U.S. must accomplish four strategic objectives in Iraq and Syria to achieve vital national interests and secure its people: 1) destroy enemy groups; 2) end the communal, sectarian civil wars;
    Good luck with that
    3) set conditions to prevent the reconstitution of enemy groups; and 4) extricate Iraq and Syria from regional and global conflicts.
  • Any American strategy must take urgent measures to strengthen Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi and prepare contingency efforts for his fall. The collapse of the Abadi government and return of his predecessor Nuri al Maliki would be disastrous for the fight against ISIS.
    Need the Sunni tribes, check
  • Ongoing international negotiations within the Vienna Framework are bypassing essential requirements for long-term success in Syria. Re-establishing a stable, unitary Syrian state that secures American interests requires the U.S. and its partners to 1) destroy ISIS, Jabhat al Nusra, and foreign Salafi-jihadi groups in Syria; 2) identify and strengthen interlocutors representing the Syrian opposition; 3) facilitate a negotiated settlement between the Syrian regime and opposition; 4) obtain regional acceptance of that settlement; 5) establish peace-enforcement mechanisms; and 6) reconstruct state institutions.
    I.e. the un-Obama strategy.
  • The Salafi-jihadi militant base in Syria poses a threat to the U.S., but the U.S. must not simply attack it because that would put the U.S. at war with many Sunnis who must be incorporated into a future, post-Assad inclusive government.
    Iran?
  • The U.S. must separate reconcilable from irreconcilable elements.
    And now for my next magic trick
    These other Salafi-jihadi groups must meet the following conditions essential for core U.S. security objectives in order to participate: break with Jabhat al Nusra and ISIS; accept the principle of a future pluralistic and unitary Syrian state; reject violent jihad; commit to disarming to a policing and defensive level; and commit to the elimination of the current shari'a court system and the establishment of political institution-based governance.
  • The superficial convergence of Iranian, Russian, Turkish, and Saudi strategic objectives with those of the U.S. on ISIS as a threat masks significant divergences that will undermine U.S. security requirements. Iran
    , Obama
    and Russia both seek to reduce and eliminate U.S. influence in the Middle East and are not pursuing strategies that will ultimately defeat al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria or Iraq. Turkey's support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, some linked to al Qaeda, stem from the ruling party's intent to reestablish itself as an independent, Muslim, regional power. Finally, Saudi Arabia's objectives remain shaped by perceived existential threats from Iran and a growing succession crisis, causing key divergences, especially over support to Salafi-jihadi groups. The U.S. must lead efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria and cannot outsource them to partners.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/26/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Is it just me, or the more USA interferes the worse things become?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/26/2016 3:01 Comments || Top||

#2  No, it's not just you. It's an axiom of both U.S. diplomacy and of stirring cow pies.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2016 3:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Unwaveringly, anything 0bean touches turns to $hit.
Posted by: gorb || 01/26/2016 3:16 Comments || Top||

#4  didn't start with O, gorb
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/26/2016 13:33 Comments || Top||



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