[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Government forces have pushed back fighters 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.... (IS), the terrorist group which is locally known by its Arabic name Daesh [Islamic State], from several areas in Achin District of eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
Three educational institutions, including Deh Sarak High School, have reopened for students in these areas. Saleem Khan Kundozi, the provincial governor who attended the ceremony in Deh Sarak High School praised civilians for assisting the security forces who finally defeated Daesh [Islamic State] in their areas.
During his speech to the residents of Achin District, Kundozi said: "the three schools were used by Daesh [Islamic State] as their stations."
He added that Deh Sarak High School was the place where important members of Daesh [Islamic State] would stay and make decisions for executing prisoners.
Amanullah Khadim, headmaster of Deh Sarak High School said that his school had been closed for eight months and students had escaped since it was no more a school but a station of Daesh [Islamic State].
Sayed Hakim, a community elder said that furniture, office supply and books of the school have been gone and government needs resupply it with everything needed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Wash Times] Rep. Trey Gowdy said Thursday that the congressional probe into the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack made "significant breakthroughs" this month in getting access to key figures involved in writing the talking points that misled the country into erroneously blaming a video.
Mr. Gowdy, chairman of the investigation, said the White House, after long negotiations, made both then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and top White House official Ben Rhodes available for questioning.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi is the first congressional probe to interview Mr. Rhodes, who was involved in crafting the message, and Ms. Rice, who delivered the erroneous talking points to the nation in a round of Sunday political talk show interviews shortly after the attack.
Top defense and intelligence officials said they knew at the time that the attack, on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, was a terrorist assault -- but Ms. Rice instead said it was mob violence incited by an Internet video mocking Islam.
#6
People should have gone to jail long ago for failure to comply with demands for emails and other evidence. Start putting enough people in prison and Hillary would have felt the heat and folks would have started turning things over on demand. Instead they made a monkey-court out of it so they can just claim partisan witch-hunt that has gone on for too long and play the martyr (assuming she doesn't actually go to prison).
#8
The only facts this nation ever needed, Gowdy. These two Navy Seals abandoned by Obama and Hillary for 7 hours held of an Al Qaeda force of 125 to 150 and fought to their last breath to save the lives of many others.
CHERKESSK, Russia -- On a recent morning, armed and uniformed policemen patrolled nearly every block in downtown Cherkessk, the capital of Karachay-Cherkessia, one of six republics in Russia's Northern Caucasus. Every so often, they had to break their stride to get around the garbage that covered the dirt sidewalks, and the water-filled potholes in the broken roads that reflected the sky.
Local police and federal anti-terrorism special units have reenforced their positions all across the region, as ISIS-connected terrorist groups have targeted federal highways, attacked and murdered officials, killed tourists--and claimed credit for all these atrocities.
The Northern Caucasus, with 9.7 million people, could be famous for its spectacular natural beauty, snow-peaked mountains, and health spas built around mineral springs. Instead, it's known for its shaky peace and, recently, as a focus for activity by the so-called Islamic State, which is not only recruiting from the local population, but exacting retribution for what happens on the faraway battlefields of Syria.
For many young men here, ISIS has offered what seems a romantic action-oriented life, however brief, instead of the mire of poverty and unemployment that surrounds them here.
An old woman in house slippers and green socks is sweeping the street outside an old mosque by the city's canal; she asks that "the dirt and poverty" in her city not be photographed. "Such shame," she says.
Last year it seemed that Russian authorities had begun to win the ongoing war on terror. The number of attacks dropped by almost 50 percent, from 525 terrorist attacks in 2014 to 258 in 2015.
But last June, Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, one of the Islamic State's senior leaders, declared the existence of a new Wilayat Qawqaz, or Caucasus governorate, and violence increased again as ISIS ordered suicide bombings and murders.
On Monday, the neighboring republic of Dagestan was shaken by a terrorist attack, the third one in the last six weeks. A suicide bomber drove a car stuffed with explosives into a police checkpoint in Dzhimikent, killing two policemen and injuring more than ten. ISIS took responsibility, Russian news agencies reported, saying the operation was carried out by a group under the command of a man called Abedtin Khamagomedov.
The same group claimed responsibility for the attack on guards and tourists at Naryn-Kala Fortress in Derbent, a UNESCO world heritage site, in late December. The attackers fired from three positions, killing one person and injuring 11 people. Police later discovered 67 bullet casings, Interfax reported.
And it seems that Northern Caucasus is not the only ISIS target in Russia. On Feb. 7 the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported the arrests of ISIS insurgents in Ekaterinburg, near the Ural mountains. The report said that the group's leader came to Russia from Turkey.
The FSB report also said that the ISIS underground group was preparing attacks on metros and shopping centers in Russia's biggest cities: Moscow, St.Petersburg and Ekaterinburg, according to a report by Meduza media.
As the authorities try to keep ahead of the killing, they may well be provoking more.
"One of the major factors causing the increase of violence is the reaction Muslims have to authorities closing down Salafi mosques, and the security services putting pressure on potential ISIS recruiters and helpers," says Gregory Shvedov, the editor-in-chief of Caucasian Knot, a Website specializing in regional news.
Already, armed men are a regular feature of life here. When militiamen with Kalashnikovs in hand walked into a cafe and ordered food, a young man named Aslan shrugged and told me, "Weapons in public places are something we see here, it is nothing special, like unemployment."
Options for the future are limited. A college graduate could not make more than $350 a month, mostly as a salesman. "Most of us try to move to Sochi, Stavropol or Krasnodar, where life is more stable, where the average salary would double to $650," Aslan said.
Others choose to go to Syria to join ISIS. Local law enforcements talks of over 3,000 ISIS members from Northern Caucasus fighting in the Middle East.
In a recent special operation in Karachay-Cherkessia, police killed three young men and arrested six more suspects for pledging allegiance to ISIS on line. "These men made a video tape of their oath to ISIS and sent it to Syria by WhatsApp messenger," Andrei Przhezdomsky from the National Anti-Terrorist Committee told reporters.
Earlier this month, a local court in Cherkessk arrested six young Muslims, who were suspected in preparing series of terrorist attacks in the republic. The Federal Investigative Committee reported that the group had connections with Syria, and that the arrested men were awaiting direct orders to conduct terrorist attacks in the republic.
According to an analysis published by Caucasus Knot, 6,074 people have died from terrorist attacks since 2010.
Ministry of Caucasus officials told The Daily Beast that Moscow dreamed it could turn North Caucasus into a tourist center one day. "We have negotiated with a number of investors from Italy and France, but all the projects are slowed down by the instability," one official said. "The number of people willing to go on vacation to the regions known for terror attacks is decreasing." (One could hardly be surprised.) "And that leaves businessmen investing in tourism face to face with their creditors."
So the spiral of terror and violence continues, and ISIS, under pressure in Syria and Iraq, has its own plans for the future in Wilayat Qawqaz.
#4
Seee also CHINA MILITARY NEWS/CHINA-ARMS.COM > TOP PLA COMMANDER: CHINA WILL NOT INTERVENE IN SYRIA [Middle East] AS LONG ITS INTERESTS [ME + World] ARE NOT ATTACKED.
By that scope, as long as the ISIS/IISL + Al-Nusra, etal. aligned Hard Boyz stay out of Xinjiang, Beijing may dev proactive rapport wid them iff it sees fit.
[DW] Many migrants will have never seen toilet paper before, and even if they have, water-free wiping is widely thought to be an unsanitary way of cleaning oneself. Sit-down flush toilets are a mystery despite the pictogram instructions that have meanwhile been put up.
Co-existence of cultures
A remedy is in the works, however: Sanitary specialists at the Global Fliegenschmidt toilet manufacturers in Coswig in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt have come up with a portable "multicultural toilet."
It's been on the market for just a few days, company head Peter Fliegenschmidt told DW. His company has sold squat toilet units for years, he said, but in the wake of the refugee crisis in Germany, the challenge was to come up with a combined Western-style/squat toilet. He has already received queries from organizations that run refugee shelters.
His firm specializes in portable toilets, which are currently in high demand for use in emergency refugee shelters. "Generally, about 60 percent of our toilets are found on construction sites, and about 30 percent are used at special events like fairs and concerts," he said. Equipping refugee shelters is a new development that's bound to be "temporary," he said, adding that he saw a market for the new portable squat toilet abroad and at construction sites, which often employ foreigners.
Fliegenschmidt's design is actually surprisingly simple. It's a regular Western-style toilet bowl with a sizeable squatting platform to the left and the right.
Different body hygiene standards
Toilet routines differ, and Islamic culture has detailed toilet etiquette.
Islamic countries traditionally use water to wash. The myreligionislam.com website lists 20 rules and practices "to be followed when answering the call of nature." One rule stipulates using fingers to clean oneself, and "if there are still traces," washing them with water. Cleaning the private parts "with stones and similar materials" is regarded as an "acceptable substitute for cleaning them with water."
Other rules forbid talking, singing, smoking or reading the paper while on the toilet. People are also advised to enter the bathroom left foot first, while exiting with the right.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Posted by: Omolutle Spawn of the Gepids4508 ||
02/19/2016 13:31 Comments ||
Top||
An esoteric reference from his stories of hunting in Africa. Hemingway developed peritonitis presumably from a native, tough-guy diet of ill-cooked meat and ingestion of unclean water which exposed him to a number of parasitic micro-organisms.
Reportedly, while in-the-bush he developed a ritual of squat and purge followed by a rinse and tuck of the distended colon.
[BASTROPENTERPRISE] The EU's top migration official says an Austrian plan to cap asylum-seeker numbers unlawful.
Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a letter Thursday that "Austria has a legal obligation to accept any asylum application that is made on its territory or at its border."
The letter to Austria's interior minister, seen by The Associated Press, said imposing a ceiling on asylum-seekers "would be plainly incompatible with Austria's obligations" under EU and international law.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Given the EU violated the compact of its existence (if one refuses then the game was off was changed to having to redo failed referendums till you got the results the ruling class wanted), a little chicky talking 'unlawful'.
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] Hungary's prime minister vented his anger against the influx of migrants on a visit to Russia on Wednesday, saying that it threatens the identity of EU nations and raises terror threats.
Viktor Orban made the comments during a visit to Russia, speaking a day before a European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... summit where the migrant crisis is expected to feature prominently on the agenda.
Orban said after talks with President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... that Hungary disagrees with those in the EU who see the flow of migrants as something good.
"Europe's largest nations now believe it's mostly positive," he said through an interpreter. "Our view is that it's bad."
Without naming Germany or any other EU member, Orban went on to assail those in the EU who see Hungary's desire to protect its ethnic and Christian roots as a "voice from the Dark Ages."
In remarks heralding fierce debates at the EU summit, Orban said that for Hungary "Christian and national values will be as important in the future as they were in the past," adding that his nation believes that "uncontrolled migration will cause more harm than good."
He went on to assail the EU mechanism requiring members to host migrants, saying that "no one can be forced to live with the people whom they don't want to live with."
Asked about his view, Putin said that he wouldn't weigh in on an EU domestic issue, but praised Orban for his stance.
"We sympathize with the stance of the Hungarian leadership, the prime minister of Hungary to defend the European identity, the identity of their country, their people" he said.
Putin added that defeating extremism and rebuilding the fractured Mideast states are essential for stemming the migrant flow.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
DENMARK Minister claims the EU can't handle another year of massive Muslim migration.
Turkey has shut down the Sanliurfa checkpoint on the border with Syria, Turkish IHA news agency reported Feb.18. Previously, humanitarian aid was delivered to Syria’s Kobani city densely populated by Kurds through this checkpoint.
No information was provided about the date of reopening the Sanliurfa checkpoint which has been closed for security reasons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] The Russian ambassador to the UN says The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is assisting Daesh [Islamic State]forces of Evil in recruiting fellow Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... s from the Caucasus and Central Asia to join the foreign-backed militancy in Syria.
Vitaly Churkin made the comments in a February 10 letter sent to the UN Security Council, explaining that Daesh [Islamic State] recruiters have supposedly formed a network in the Turkish city of Antalya for foreign forces of Evil from the former Soviet Union, AFP reported on Thursday.
According to the letter, a Russian national identified as Ruslan Rastyamovich Khaibullov, who lives in Antalya and has Turkish permanent residence, is leading the network.
He further noted that last September, 1,000 Daesh [Islamic State]forces of Evil from Europe and Central Asia entered Syria from Turkey through the border crossing at Gaziantep.
The recruiters in Turkish detention centers are said to connect lawyers with foreigners who agree to join the ranks of Daesh [Islamic State] when they are set free.
Russia has accused the Turkish intelligence of helping to take Daesh [Islamic State]murderous Moslems from Syria to Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... through Turkey via Turkish military air transport, or by sea to Yemen's port of Aden.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) says the country has descended into a bloodbath following a deadly car bomb explosion targeting military vehicles in the capital, Ankara.
“The point we arrived at is that the country has turned into a bloodbath. It is a pity. It is wrong for this country. All of us are in pain. My heart is hurting. It is hurting deeply,” CHP leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, told reporters on Thursday.
He further noted that Turkey is not being governed well under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
At least 28 people lost their lives when a car laden with explosives detonated on Wednesday next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights on Ankara’s Inonu Boulevard. At least 81 others sustained injuries in the act of terror.
Twenty-seven of the deceased were members of the military while the only civilian was a journalist identified as Gulsen Yildiz, who specialized in agriculture.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A decorated Army sergeant who protected an Afghan boy from a child molester could find out any day whether his actions will end his career in the military.
Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, a Green Beret with an 11-year Special Forces career, was stationed in Afghanistan in 2011 when the boy's mother came to him and said she'd been beaten and her son raped by a local police commander. Martland and another soldier summoned the police official and, when the man laughed at them, threw him off the base. Martland and Daniel Quinn were both disciplined for their actions.
Last year, amid military cuts, the Army Human Resources Command recommended Martland be discharged in part based on his disciplinary record, but an official decision by U.S. Army brass is expected by March 1.
"Charles did the right thing in Afghanistan by standing up to a child rapist and corrupt commander, and now it's the Army's turn to do the right thing and reverse the decision to expel him from the service," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., whose office has been assisting Martland. "Permitting Charles to continue serving is in the best interest of the Army and the nation."
Supporters mounted an online petition backing Martland and separately, 93 members of Congress have called for an investigation into the military's silence in the face of rampant sexual abuse of children in Afghanistan.
While Quinn left the military voluntarily, Martland, who graduated in 2006 from Special Forces Qualification Course, has always seen himself as a lifer. After a deployment to Iraq in 2008, he deployed to Afghanistan in January 2010 as part of a 12-man unit. He and his team found themselves fighting large numbers of Taliban militants in the volatile Kunduz Province.
Martland was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor for his actions. According to one evaluation, he also was praised by Gen. David Petraeus, then commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.
The 2011 incident occurred at the remote outpost where Martland was stationed. The 12-year-old boy and his mother showed up at camp, and the boy showed the Green Berets where his hands had been tied. A medic took him to a back room for an examination with an interpreter, who told them the boy had been raped by a man identiffied as Afghani Police commander Abdul Rahman.
Rahman allegedly beat the boy's mother for reporting the crime after learning that they went to the Army outpost. This led Martland and team leader Daniel Quinn to confront Rahman.
According to reports of the incident, Rahman confessed to the crime and laughed it off. This led Martland and Quinn to shove the smug police official to the ground
Rahman reported the incident to another Army unit in a nearby village, which led to Quinn and Martland being pulled from their assignments.
One year ago, the Army conducted a "Qualitative Management Program" review board and called for Martland - among thousands of other soldiers with prior disciplinary issues - to be "involuntary discharged" by Nov. 1, 2015.
Martland appealed the decision and a final ruling on his discharge has been delayed until now. With the deadline rapidly approaching, other legal advocates have come to his aid, and even garnered over 300,000 signatures in a petition calling for the decision to be overturned.
"After acting to protect a child from sexual assault from an Afghan commander, SFC Martland was punished and could be kicked out of the military at any time," said Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice. "What's equally disturbing are reports that the military has allowed Afghanistan forces to sexually abuse young children on U.S. bases."
#1
"After acting to protect a child from sexual assault from an Afghan commander, SFC Martland was punished and could be kicked out of the military at any time," said Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice. "What's equally disturbing are reports that the military has allowed Afghanistan forces to sexually abuse young children on U.S. bases."
I see a lot of house cleaning due in the upper ranks as well.
#2
Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs."
General Sir Charles James Napier to the white courtesy phone please.
"The evidence is overwhelming that the United States had several rescue teams ready to go during the 2012 Benghazi attacks, but someone -- possibly the president himself -- prevented them from acting. So said Emmy Award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson to talk show host Steve Malzberg in an interview on Wednesday."
#1
After reading about the Benghazi fiasco almost non-stop since 2013, I personally have come to the conclusion, the abandonment of Ambassador Stephens and this security detail to Al Qaeda was deliberate and willful
Stephens stumbled into something he should not have and it was a concern he would blab about some CIA program gone wrong that would embarrass our President and our SECSTATE
SO he goes to Benghazi to dig around some more into something and when the bullets started flying, it was viewed as an opportunity to close the door on a program and keep it black.
The long held theory that someone was running guns in Benghazi and the project was abruptly terminated and everyone flown out via charter appears valid. Keeping in mind neither facility was thoroughly investigated or sanitized, let alone re-activated.
Anti-Assad forces backed by the Klingons [which we've seldom heard much about] are continuing to get their arses handed to them in Syria by Russian air strikes.
At the bottom of it all, the Obama administration's continued insistence on 'regime change' in Syria, coupled with the Russian response of 'come here and WWIII will begin, so go bugger off.'
Oh, I have failed to mention the wasted 13 hours of potential in-extremis response time, the very precise placement of 4 or 5 mortar rounds, or the anti-Mohammad video which the Obama regime still clings to as the cause of all the difficulties. It would appear only a few minor details remain untold, or is my logic in error ?
A pox on the gutless purveyors of deceit and cover-up as well as the beltway party facilitators, both past and present, who are aware of the truth, but continue to ignore it.
#3
No one has bothered to investigate the personal history of the Turkish consul active in Benghazi. Or why Stephens spent time with him shortly before his death. Why such a senior Turkish diplomat was active in the Benghazi swamp really demanded an explanation that has never been supplied.
#4
Could it be that the Turks were the cutout the Agency used to supply the rebels with Libyan arms without the appearance of direct intervention by the Obama administration?
#5
Could it be that the Turks were the cutout the Agency used to supply the rebels with Libyan arms without the appearance of direct intervention by the Obama administration?
Posted by NoMoreBS
Entirely plausible, if some sort of clandestine ISIS cross border crude oil shipments were permitted. Oh wait, I've conflated duplicitous diplomatic events and times.... sorry.
[DAWN] Days before the deadly attack on Bacha Khan University Campus in Charsadda, four holy warriors, in groups of twos, quietly crossed the regular border-crossing at Torkham, without any checks or hindrances, security officials have confirmed.
"Had there been a proper system there, at least two of them would have been caught there and then. The whole plot would have been unearthed before they could carry out the attack," a security bigshot said.
Two of the four attackers in the Jan 20 assault on BKU were identified through the biometric system with the National Database and Registration Authority. One was from Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... and the other from Sararogha in South Wazoo. Both had been issued CNICs.
"We would have stopped and asked them a few questions. We would have asked why a Swati boy or a Waziristani boy crossing over from Afghanistan via Torkham. What business had they there?" the official said.
"But the tragedy is that while we continue to impress upon unyielding Afghans for tighter border control and tighter border management, we don't do a fig about border management on our side of the Durand," an exasperated security official said. "Our pleas fall on deaf ears."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] Kanhaiya Kumar, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) president who was tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! on sedition charges last week for organising an event on Afzal Guru, is being imprisoned in the same cell the Kashmiri activist was held in before he was hanged, Times of India reported.
Kumar, who is being kept in cell number three at Tihar jail where Guru was also jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! , is currently under 24-hour suicide watch and is being held in isolation for two weeks.
"One of the cells close to the jail entrance has been vacated and reserved for him. He will be kept under multi-layered security and only Delhi Prison officials or staff will be allowed near his cell. His food will be checked as a precautionary measure," an official said.
A 12-member quick reaction team is to be deployed to his cell for 24-hour watch, and he is being jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! in ward number four, which is near the hospital, in case of an emergency. He will also be checked for suicidal tendencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[DAWN] KARACHI: A statement issued by Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... chief the increasingly enormousAltaf Hussain ..The head of MQM in Pakistain, who has lived in London and hasn't laid eyes on Pakistain since Caesar made corporal. Judging from the size of him,he may be a Hutt... on Wednesday in which he asked people to store food and medicines for 15 days caused panic in the city and invited an immediate reaction from Sindh Rangers.
Mr Hussain said in the statement that the next 15 days were very critical because of an uncertain political situation and chances of natural calamities due to climate change. Hence people should be very careful and store food and medicines to meet any untoward situation, he added.
Later, the MQM coordination committee held a meeting only to endorse its party chief's 'appeal'.
Panic gripped the city as soon as private news channels flashed the MQM coordination committee's statement.
In an attempt to calm down people, the paramilitary force issued a statement that Pakistain Rangers, Sindh, had taken a serious note of an attempt by "some elements" to spread fear and panic in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Hamas has captured an Israeli vehicle for monitoring tunnels under the border with Gaza, a top official from the Islamist group said on Friday.
Ismail Haniya, Hamas's leader in Gaza, said that 10 days ago the group's armed wing "discovered an underground vehicle on which were installed cameras and sensors to monitor tunnels and fighters."
Speaking in a sermon at Muslim prayers in the Shati refugee camp where he lives, Haniya said the find gave the movement an "advantage."
The destruction of tunnels under its border with Gaza was one of Israel's main objectives in a summer 2014 offensive on the territory.
The tunnels can be used to store weapons, while fighters have also used them to conduct raids into Israel.
In recent weeks, Israelis living near the border have reported hearing drilling, raising fears of new tunnels.
Haniya said despite fresh tensions there was "no war against Gaza looming on the horizon".
"The occupation is embarking on defensive manoeuvres and it is proof that (Israel) is not preparing for war."
He said there had been "a lot of progress on the issue of the port of Gaza" in recent talks between Israel and Turkey on mending ties between the two governments.
A senior Turkish official said on Tuesday that Ankara was "close" to an agreement on normalising relations, nearly six years after they were downgraded following a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla headed to Gaza.
Ankara has always posed three conditions for normalisation -- a public apology for the raid, financial compensation for the victims and the lifting of Israel's decade-old Gaza blockade.
Doctors Without Borders said on Thursday that it took the wrenching decision not to formally inform Syria's government or its Russian allies about the location of some medical facilities such as the one hit by a deadly airstrike this week, amid concerns that doing so could open them up to targeting amid recent violence that has killed many civilians. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Because nobody likes you except the Taliban and ISIS. So they made a decision and they can't live it with the consequences. Ah, I get it, they must be progressives...
The charity, also known by its French acronym MSF, says repeated attacks against health facilities during Syria's five-year civil war have led medical staffers to ask the group not to provide the GPS coordinates of some sites. This was the case of the makeshift clinic run by the charity in the Syrian town of Maaret al-Numan, which was hit four times in attacks on Monday, killing at least 25 people.
"Deliberate attacks against civilian infrastructures, including hospitals struggling to provide life-saving assistance are routine," MSF International President Joanne Liu told reporters in Geneva. "Health care in Syria is in the crosshair of bombs and missiles. It has collapsed. Let me be clear: Attacks on civilians and hospitals must stop. The normalization of such attacks is intolerable."
Liu's comments came as the U.N. made new aid deliveries to five besieged towns and said it plans additional deliveries, hopefully to the 4.6 million Syrians living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas, as called for in an agreement by 18 key nations in Munich on Feb. 12. That agreement also called for a cessation of hostilities within a week -- which would mean Thursday -- but there was no sign of a halt to fighting.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants to see movement toward a de-escalation of violence and a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible. Don't forget to wait for the enemy's input before you make a decision.
"What we've seen recently goes against that," he said. "We see very worrying escalation of military developments."
MSF's Liu said the group has no certainty about who was responsible for the strikes, but the "probability" was that Syrian or Russian air power was to blame. She said MSF's policy of not informing Syrian or Russian officials about the location of health facilities has become a "hot topic" inside the organization. And 'hot' just went nuclear, I'll bet.
Also Thursday, the head of a U.N. task force on humanitarian aid for Syria said that 114 "big trucks" delivered life-saving supplies over the past 24 hours for 80,000 people in five besieged areas of the country. Jan Egeland called the deliveries a "first step" by the task force that was set up last week following a meeting of world and regional powers known as the International Syria Support Group. He said the supplies are enough to last about a month.
Egeland said the aim is to reach other main besieged areas, or areas surrounded by government or opposition forces, and "hard-to-reach" places within the next week. He also expressed hopes for progress in air-dropping aid to Deir Ezzor, a city which is currently under siege by the extremist Islamic State group.
The U.N. special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said from Damascus that the International Syria Support Group is "very encouraged by the fact" that the 114 trucks were able to reach 82,000 people in need and appealed for more such action.
"I must say that this was a difficult test for the United Nations to show they could do it, for the government and for the armed opposition," de Mistura was quoted as saying in a statement. "Of course, we should go beyond that, we should go far beyond that in order to be able to reach everyone in Syria who is either besieged or in need of being assisted."
He added that the idea of air drops in areas besieged by the Islamic State group and other factions has become a concrete proposal that the U.N. wants to work on.
In New York, U.N. spokesman Dujarric told reporters Thursday that the World Food Program is considering using a Russian civilian contractor that has been used in the past in South Sudan, and that the contractor would be expected to seek instructions only from the United Nations.
Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said Russian planes have been carrying out humanitarian air drops in Syria "for a long time," and he welcomed the "very important" recognition that this may be the only way to supply aid to some areas.
In Brussels, European Union leaders were expected to call on Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces to halt attacks on moderate opposition groups and immediately end all airstrikes.
A draft statement for their summit starting Thursday, seen by The Associated Press, calls on "Russia and the Syrian regime to stop at once attacking moderate opposition groups" and for "an immediate cessation of aerial bombardments in civilian areas."
MSF said that since the war broke out in 2011, the Syrian government has not granted permission for it to provide medical aid in the country, despite its repeated requests. Because of that, its work has been limited to areas held by opposition forces.
After the latest strikes, MSF operations director Isabelle Defourny said she expects affiliated medical staffers in Syria will now ask that their locations be specified to government officials.
"We gave to the Russian ambassadors in Paris (and) in Geneva coordinates for three hospitals located in very intense conflict zones, but not for all of them, and it was a decision taken together with the medical staff of the health facilities that we support," she said.
"It was a huge discussion inside MSF and mainly with the medical directors of the health facilities that we support inside Syria," Defourny added. "The staff of the hospital (and) the director of the hospital didn't know if they would be better protected if they give the GPS or not."
She said the Maaret al-Numan hospital was widely known and had already been hit by strikes in the past. "Those are not underground or invisible hospitals," she said of the medical sites, alluding to the difficulty of the decision not to formally identify its location. Don't forget to put up your low-recognition flag, and the red cross thingy on the roof.
Even giving GPS coordinates is no guarantee of protection, she said, citing a deadly U.S. airstrike in October that destroyed a MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. That hospital had been identified to both Afghan and U.S. forces fighting an insurgency there. Maybe, but if you give them the coordinates along with the MSM, you'll at least be left with a legal leg to stand on after you get the $hit bombed out of you.
Also Thursday, MSF provided a report documenting war wounded and deaths that draws on information from 70 "makeshift hospitals" and clinics it works with in Syria. While only "a small fraction of the health facilities in Syria," those medical facilities recorded a total of 7,009 people dead and 154,647 people wounded last year.
The U.N. estimates that more than 250,000 people have been killed and at 11 million displaced from their homes during the war.
Russia's envoy to the UN on Friday warned long-term ally President Bashar al-Assad over his vow to retake all of Syria, saying he faced dire consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process.
Nod nod wink wink nudge nudge...
"Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically and now also militarily," Vitaly Churkin told Kommersant daily, referring to an international agreement to cease hostilities sealed in Munich last week.
"Therefore we would like Assad also to respond to this," he said, adding that the Syrian leader's stance "is not in accord with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is making."
At their meeting in Munich, the 17-nation group backing Syria's peace process agreed to work for a ceasefire, the lifting of starvation sieges and the resumption of talks.
In an interview with AFP last week, Assad defiantly pledged to retake the whole of the country, speaking before the plan for a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" in Syria was announced.
Asked to comment to journalists on the unusually outspoken criticism of Assad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday said President Vladimir Putin backed the Syrian peace process but stressed that the ceasefire had not yet been implemented.
"Everyone including President Putin recognises that there is no alternative other than a political resolution," he said.
Nevertheless the ceasefire "is now being worked out, discussed. Wait, let's not run ahead," Peskov said.
In the interview, Churkin, who has served as Russia's ambassador to the United Nations since 2006, stressed that if Syria "follows Russia's leadership in resolving this crisis, then they have a chance to come out of it in a dignified way."
"If they in some way stray from this path -- and this is my personal opinion -- a very difficult situation could arise. Including for themselves," he warned. "If they proceed on the basis that no ceasefire is necessary and they need to fight to a victorious end, then this conflict will last a very long time and that is terrifying to imagine."
Syria is "already on the brink of falling apart," he said.
- 'Too late' for no-fly zone -
Churkin however also suggested that Assad's comments were made for political impact.
"It isn't worth putting too much significance into one statement or another and dramatising them," he said. "We should be guided not by what he says, with all respect for the statements of a person at such a high level, but by what he finally does."
Churkin said he hoped that Damascus realised that the Munich agreement was "a unique chance for Syria after five years of unremitting destruction."
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeated calls for a no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians, Churkin dismissed this as unworkable.
"It's already too late to talk about this. When everyone is flying and bombing, there is no question of no-fly zones," he said.
He said it was "theoretically possible" to imagine such a proposal during the process of implementing the ceasefire agreement but called this "purely theoretical... particularly in the circumstances of our presence in Syria."
Russia launched air strikes in Syria in September last year to support Assad and fight "terrorists", saying it was targeting the Islamic State group and other jihadists.
#3
Pragmatically, I have no doubts Darth Vlad now sees at least part of Syria + Likely also part(s) of Iraq as falling OWG Co-Superpower Russia's sphere of [post-US]influence, AS DOES OWG NAU AMERIKA'S + RUSSIA'S CO-SUPERPOWER SIBLING IRAN.
Baby Assad formally committed Syria to a mutual security treaty wid Iran, but that was long before the present Russian intervention.
CAN ASSAD SERVE TWO MASTERS [or more= KSA? Turkey? China?]???
Lets not fotrget Syria's prior Euro Master FRANCE = KNIGHTS TEMPLAR???
#4
ION BLOOMBERG > KURDS WARN TURKEY OF "BIG WAR" WID [Kurd ally, backer] RUSSIA IFF TROOPS ENTER SYRIA.
Tsarist Russia had historically defeated Turkey or Ottoman Turkey in all of their past major wars - IFF ERDOGAN DESIRES ISLAMIST TURKEY TO BE A OWG CO-SUPERPOWER LIKE IRAN, + EXPAND TURKEY'S SPHERE OF INFLUENCE, HE MUST ASK WILL IT BE WORTH IT!?
and
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS, BIGNEWSNETWORK > SOURCES: PUTIN MAY AUTHORISE USE OF RUSSIAN TACNUKES IFF TURKISH, SAUDI FORCES ENDANGER RUSSIAN TROOPS IN SYRIA INTERVENTION.
Over, above,+ besides Putin's earlier threats to bomb the KSA + Turkey "back to the Stone Age" iff they refuse to cease-n-desist in their support of ISIS terror.
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.
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] Hungary's prime minister vented his anger against the influx of migrants on a visit to Russia on Wednesday, saying that it threatens the identity of EU nations and raises terror threats.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
A decorated Army sergeant who protected an Afghan boy from a child molester could find out any day whether his actions will end his career in the military.
One year ago, the Army conducted a "Qualitative Management Program" review board and called for Martland - among thousands of other soldiers with prior disciplinary issues - to be "involuntary discharged" by Nov. 1, 2015..png)
Wazoo
[DAWN] KARACHI: A statement issued by 
Hamas has captured an Israeli vehicle for monitoring tunnels under the border with Gaza, a top official from the Islamist group said on Friday.
A draft statement for their summit starting Thursday, seen by The Associated Press, calls on "Russia and the Syrian regime to stop at once attacking moderate opposition groups" and for "an immediate cessation of aerial bombardments in civilian areas."
Russia's envoy to the UN on Friday warned long-term ally President Bashar al-Assad over his vow to retake all of Syria, saying he faced dire consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process.
