[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Kingdom of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... has reportedly condemned deadly attacks carried out by the Taliban group in eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... and 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.... which left scores of people dead.
According to the local media reports, citing official sources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi has strongly condemned the deadly attacks in Kunar and Kabul, branding them as terrorist attacks.
"The source reaffirmed the Kingdom’s solidarity with sister nations in the fight against terrorism, which targets the security and stability in all parts of the world without exception," the report said.
At least eleven people were killed and around 40 others were maimed after a jacket wallah targeted a local tribal elder in Asadabad, the scenic provincial capital of Kunar province.
Hours later, a suicide bomber targeted the military personnel close to the Ministry of Defense in capital Kabul, leaving at least 15 dead and 31 others maimed.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said 3 Army Sergeants, 3 servicemembers, 1 civilian worker, 1 civil engineer, serving with the Ministry of Defense were martyred along with 4 civilians in today’s attack.
MoD further added at least 31 people, including 9 army officers, including a woman, 3 army sergeants, 3 soldiers, and 11 civilian workers were maimed in the attack.
The Talibs group grabbed credit behind the attack in capital Kabul.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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Iran has never stopped sending arms to the Houthis in Yemen since they launched their coup nearly 12 years ago
Goodness, has it been that long?
and such support was coupled with training and media campaigns along with direct involvement of Iranian experts in fighting near the Saudi border, according to the Dubai-based Arabic language daily ‘Al Bayan’.
US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed such continuous support in recent statements, when he said in an address in Washington that US naval forces in the Gulf have recently stopped an arms shipment sent by Iran to Yemen, adding: “This is evidence that Iran is continuing arming some groups in the region.”
And yet these are the people the honourable secretary of state's boss chose to make his own treaty with. Fascinating.
Yemeni legitimate authorities have also disclosed that the Houthis have smuggled a large quantity of Iranian weapons through Red Sea islands and that this has prompted the Saudi-dominated coalition to take control of those islands.
“The coalition and national army also foiled many attempts by the Houthis to smuggle weapons through Shabwa via small boats.
“Before they were discovered, some of the weapons were transported by the Houthis to Baidah province through the desert,” ‘Al Bayan’ said in a report from Sanaa.
A few days ago, Yemeni military sources said a number of Houthi leaders, including Iranian experts, were killed by coalition jets in the Northern Saada governorate while this week, an Iranian revolutionary guard was killed by a Houthi militia man at a training camp in Saada.
Two other Iranian experts were killed by coalition jets which targeted their car in Aljouf near the Saudi border on Thursday.
In Saudi Arabia, authorities have released recordings by a Lebanese Hezbollah leader who was training Houthis to attack the Kingdom.
“This shows that Hezbollah is directly involved in Yemen and confirms statements by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi that the September 2014 coup was carried out with Iranian assistance and sponsorship so Yemen will be ruled by the Houthis and forces loyal to deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh.”
The paper said plan, revealed by Hadi, was that the Houthis’ top leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi will be the spiritual leader of Yemen as is the case in Iran while Saleh’s son Ahmed Ali Saleh will be the political leader.
“All these plans sponsored by Iran were sabotaged by the ‘Storm of Decisiveness’.”
The paper quoted sources as saying that Iran has recently stepped up arms smuggling to the Houthis through Hijja province close to Saada.
It said a weapons shipment was seized aboard two vessels, Jihan 1 and Jihan 2, and that the crew men confessed that they were hired and were taken from Yemen to Damascus then to Iran.
“Yemeni government sources affirm that Iran has sent many experts to Yemen to support the Houthis from the early days of the coup.
“Their mission was to train the Houthi fighters, set up ammunition, weapons and explosives factories and organise arms smuggling.
“Despite the naval blockade imposed by the UN Security Council to prevent weapons smuggling to the Houthis, Iran’s attempts to send arms to those militias have never stopped,” the paper said.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Master of the Obtuse Obvious graphic?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/29/2016 8:53 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Here ya go, Frank.
Here's another (almost forgotten)Master of the Obvious -
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/29/2016 13:51 Comments ||
Top||
Up to 70,000 migrants and refugees could soon be stranded in Greece, the leftist-led government has said, as it considers enlisting the help of the army to deal with the emergency.
The notion of sending them back to their countries of origin apparently was never considered as a means of solving the 'stranding' problem...
According to Breitbart, Germany has budgeted 10 mil. euros to send some of their willing migrants home, though not all who take advantage of it will be from the Ummah.
The alarm was sounded as the EU’s top immigration policymaker said the situation was at risk of becoming uncontrollable unless member states “assume their responsibilities”.
Greece’s migration minister, Yannis Mouzalas, said: “In the next month between 50,000-70,000 will come and then I believe [the flows] will stop there.”
Admitting it would “be hard and very difficult”, Mouzalas said it was likely that the Greek armed forces, recently brought in to build “hotspot” screening centres, would be deployed to tackle the crisis.
“Wherever the army is needed it will play a role, just as it does in all western democracies,” he said. “Now we use it to build [camps and centres] and to distribute nutrition; tomorrow we don’t know, we may deploy trucks and use it in several other services.”
The leftists, in power with the small rightwing Independent Greeks party, have so far resisted giving armed forces a more prominent role in handling the influx of people entering Europe across the Aegean from Turkey. In a country that experienced seven years of military dictatorship until 1974, many leftists have expressed consternation.
By Sunday 22,000 people were trapped in Greece with an estimated 6,000 stuck at the Macedonian border after restrictions were tightened – and frontiers effectively sealed to all but Syrians – by Balkan nations along the migrant route.
While Mouzalas insisted the increased numbers would be manageable, the EU’s migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, spoke of an imminent humanitarian crisis if the 28-nation bloc continued to indulge in “unilateral actions”. He said: “There is no point in playing the blame game any more. We simply have to do everything possible to control the situation.”
That would mean shutting down new migration to zero, sifting through the current refugees to send back all the ones who aren't from an active war zone, and staging an intervention in said war zones to create safe havens there. Until you've done that you haven't controlled anything.
Enmeshed in its worst economic depression in modern times, debt-stricken Greece has requested emergency aid from the EU. As part of urgent plans to be put into immediate effect, Mouzalas said impromptu camps would be established and tents erected in local sports grounds.
A further four hotspots will be set up in the northern Greek province of Macedonia. In anticipation of the influx, Athens has asked for tents, blankets, sleeping bags, transport vehicles, ambulances and other supplies.
At an economic forum in Delphi, Berlin’s ambassador to Athens, Peter Schoof, announced: “In Germany we have taken the decision that we have to support Greece.”
Germany’s hardline finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, hinted that Europe’s powerhouse might be willing to cut Greece some slack as it struggles with the dual task of dealing with the refugee crisis and enacting punishing reforms.
With divisions widening before an emergency EU summit to discuss the crisis on 7 March, anger is mounting, with Berlin enraged at the way Balkan nations led by Austria have closed the refugee transit route.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
To paraphrase something I read earlier today: One or two bunnies munching grass in your front yard are cute. 500 not so much.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/29/2016 12:24 Comments ||
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#3
anger is mounting, with Berlin enraged at the way Balkan nations led by Austria have closed the refugee transit route.
Are all these clowns too young to remember the Berlin Airlift? They could evacuate all those refugees from Athens to Templehof in C-47s and C-54s.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/29/2016 12:59 Comments ||
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#4
Bobby, that wouldn't accomplish anything useful for either Germany or Greece; I suggest sending those C-47s & C-54s south out of Athens - maybe to Mitiga International Airport (aka Wheelus AFB).
#5
angeris mounting, with Berlin enraged at the way Balkan nations led by Austria have closed the refugee transit route.
You know there is an affinity between the lot, formerly known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, not counting the very short period since when it was part of Germany proper, due to the actions of another socialist.
The case of the Navy engineer's alleged double life seems as though it was ripped from the pages of a spy novel.
An Iranian-American engineer, naturalized in 1985, gets a job with the Navy and holds a secret clearance. All the while he’s allegedly maintaining a sophisticated web of intermingled identities to shuffle money from foreign bank accounts, hold addresses in at least four states and lie about hisIranian passport. And elements of that scheme evaded detection for 30 years.
James Robert Baker
Good old American name. Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas. Maybe Indiana.
is alleged to have lied to the Navy about his continuing ties to Iran during his entire career, which started in 1985 at the Naval Surface Warfare Center and was suspended last summer when U.S. Marshalls raided his small Springfield, Va., home. He was indicted on fraud charges in early February.
Security experts said they were troubled by authorities' repeated failure to thoroughly investigate Baker, especially after red flags like his return to Iran only days after Navy officials told him to prove that he had turned it in. Facts about what motivated Baker's alleged three-decade ruse remain unclear, but several experts who reviewed the case said it bore hallmarks of espionage.
“When you look at an individual in place for that many years under an assumed identity, it reeks of a foreign counter-intelligence operation,” said Fred Burton, a former State Department counter-terrorism agent and analyst for intelligence firm Stratfor. “It rings almost every alarm bell you’d look for. It’s an almost textbook espionage case.”
Then again, who reads textbooks these days? Perhaps the Navy should create a YouTube video...
Baker's employer, Naval Sea Systems Command, and the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which filed the Feb. 4 indictment, declined to comment on the case. Baker’s attorney, Tom Walsh of Petrovich & Walsh P.L.C., did not return repeated emails and phone messages seeking comment.
Baker's secret clearance gave him access to less sensitive information than that available to Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst with top-secret access convicted for leaking reams of classified information to Wikileaks. But the fact that Baker was in the job for three decades opens the Navy to enormous damage if he was spying, Burton said.
“It’s not just the information he had access to,” Burton said. “It's things he heard on work trips, around the water cooler, at lunch with co-workers: Human intelligence. We know those things aren’t supposed to go on but we all know they do.”
Two facts jump out as classic spy moves, Burton said. The first is Baker’s sophisticated routing of $133,902 from foreign bank accounts to accounts set up under his four separate identities to conceal it. The other is his use of safe deposit boxes and post office boxes in no fewer than four states. Both are classic examples of spy fieldcraft, he said.
$133K for 30 years worth of secret intel? The guy worked cheap...
“Those boxes — located a long way from his place of residence — are places a spy could use for clandestine communications with handlers,” Burton said.
Experts were also in agreement that Baker, also known as Majid Karimi, should never have been granted a security clearance.
One security law expert said it was strange that the Navy reinstated Baker's clearance even after learning that Baker had kept a Iranian passport that he used to travel to Iran.
“I don’t understand how that wasn’t picked up as a red flag,” said Greg Rinckey, a partner with firm Tully Rinckey who works on security clearance cases. “This is exactly what you are concerned about when you are looking at security clearance adjudication: Foreign passports, foreign bank accounts that a foreign government could transfer money into. Why this didn’t happen is very concerning.”
Chris Graham, an attorney at the Federal Practice Group who has worked as an administrative judge at the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals on clearance cases, agreed that the signs were missed.
“Whoever was doing the security clearance investigations was asleep at the switch,” Graham said.
Investigators, he said, have access to databases that with a name and a Social Security number could have busted the fraud years ago. Baker, who had a secret clearance for more than 30 years except for a one-year suspension in 2001 after his Iran trip, would have been investigated at least four times because secret clearances are re-investigated every 10 years.
“Here’s a guy who legally changed his name in 1985,” Graham said. “Seems to me you run his old name to see if it’s still being used. Nobody was doing anything here but a cursory investigation.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
“I don’t understand how that wasn’t picked up as a red flag,” said Greg Rinckey, a partner with firm Tully Rinckey who works on security clearance cases. “This is exactly what you are concerned about when you are looking at security clearance adjudication: Foreign passports, foreign bank accounts that a foreign government could transfer money into. Why this didn’t happen is very concerning.”
Why is happening? Please have a quick look at the Oval Office.
#4
Back in the day, at Chattahoochee High, one of my platoon buddies was turned inside out by the FBI. His crime....? He'd been in a college choir which toured the USSR for a week.
My father, in his turn at the Benning School for Boys, was investigated because the town in which his father "claimed" to have been born didn't exist. Simple, things were tough in upstate NY and the town went out of biz with the records going to the county. Not a bad gig for the FBI guys, what with the draft and Tarawa and the Bulge and all.
Maybe this clown was so obvious everybody figured he couldn't be a spy being this obvious.
Perhaps all the resources went to vetting the Tsarnaev clan.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/29/2016 6:48 Comments ||
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#5
“Whoever was doing the security clearance investigations was asleep at the switch,” Graham said.
...or did they receive a handsome performance award for 'spotting and assessing?"
Been a while now, but I don't seem to recall any mention made of MAJ Nadal Hasan's last security clearance periodic update.
#6
Besoeker:
WRT Hasan: About a year after he cut loose, the
Army announced it was going to investigate nine officers who--perhaps--had been in a position to stop Hasan's greased slide to Ft. Hood. So I suppose there were OER, letters for the file, etc.
A couple of guys who had just demobbed said that won't get you anyplace. Nobody can afford to give a Muslim soldier anything but "perfect", and keep his own career. Now, you'd think we'd like to see moral courage anyway. Problem is, once a Muslim soldier gets something other than "perfect", he's a victim of Islamophobia and his Teflon gets another layer.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/29/2016 8:28 Comments ||
Top||
#7
When they asked me if I had ever belonged to a paramilitary organization, I said "Sure, I was in the Boy Scouts!"
#9
Pappy
I have to hope somewhere I the bowels of the IC a tracking of ValJar has been kept for future reckoning. As sure as God made little green apples she's a traitor.
[DAWN] GUJRANWALA: Anti-Terrorism Court No 2 Judge Bushra Zaman on Saturday granted six-day physical remand of three suspects said to be involved in the Pathankot airbase attack and handed them over to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).
The suspects had been tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... by the CTD from a rented house near Chand Da Qila bypass over suspicion that they were controllers of the attack.
Suspects Khalid Mahmood, Irshadul Haque and Muhammad Shoaib denied charges and were shifted to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location for investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] LAHORE: A man who had delivered a lecture at a premier educational institution, impersonating an army captain, has been taken into custody.
Sajjad Rao went to the Forman Christian College introducing himself as an army captain and ended up delivering a lecture to the students on Feb 17, says a source in a sensitive state organization.
He capped his expedition with a flourish -- by asking for funds for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Fata.
The fraud started to unravel after an officer from the ISPR on a visit to the college was told about the suspicious lecture-cum-fundraising event that had recently taken place.
In an unexpected break, the officer got the telephone number of the man posing as the army officer from the college administration. Investigation revealed the impersonator had two accomplices.
FC College’s student affairs director was not available for comment despite various attempts to reach him. However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... another senior faculty member told Dawn the matter was brought to the knowledge of the college administration by the ISPR.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Terrorism is a threat to both Pakistain and India and their cooperation in fighting the menace is helpful to the region, a State Department front man said on Friday.
In reply to a question at a regular briefing about cooperation between the two countries, especially in dealing with terrorist incidents, front man Mark Toner said that the United States had been very vocal in the past in encouraging cooperation between India and Pakistain.
"Clearly, terrorism is a threat to both countries, and if they can cooperate on these kinds of issues, we see it as helpful to the region," the front man said.
He described the Pakistain-US Strategic Dialogue, which will take place on Monday, as "very important" and said the US administration looked forward to it. The dialogue is about strengthening security and stability in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam (Fazl) chief Fazlur Rehman remained highly critical of Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Assembly’s recent pro-women enactment and termed it a law which is in conflict with the constitution and certain Shariah laws simultaneously.
While talking to journalist in Hyderabad on Saturday, the JUI-F chief described it as an NGO-driven legislation, saying "NGOs follow the west for their pecuniary interests".
Fazl maintained that this law seeks to intrude the privacy of every individual and it would torment Pakistain’s strong family structure which is something lacking in the West.
"Husband and wife are considered partners in the West, but it is not the case in Pakistain," he said and explained that the protection offered under this law is already available in the existing laws.
"Islam gives respect to women in a manner that no other law in the world ensures," said the JUI-F chief, adding that "this law makes a man insecure".
Fazl wondered "it is the same PML-N which didn’t sign pro-women legislation in Musharraf era but now it has gone even many steps further to introduce a controversial law".
What kind of distortion is this and what it wants to make of Pakistain? he asked and said "it is an attempt to make Pakistain a colony again".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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...Netanyahu deplored efforts to explain Arab terrorism as a result of despair and frustration. "The despair and frustration is not from an inability to build," he said, "but rather despair and frustration at an inability to destroy."
Netanyahu said that saying terrorism is a result of despair and frustration absolves the Palestinians of responsibility for their actions, "for their terrorism that has accompanied us for almost 100 years."
This terrorism, he noted, predated the creation of the state, as well as the Six Day War and the settlements. The terrorism, he noted, takes place when there is a peace process, and when there is not.
"absolves the Palestinians of responsibility for their actions, "for their terrorism that has accompanied us for almost 100 years."
Self guilt, all around the Table?
So, will this end this now or make it more prolific fighting points to the racket of terror that is this fake palestine""?
Forgiven for 100 Years? Try 14,00 years, and try 6,000 years, and remember yours is not but a State, but a Kingdom. Do not swine pearl the reality.
[An Nahar] The Paleostinian Authority on Sunday said direct financial assistance by Iran to the families of Paleostinians killed in a five-month wave of violence would be unacceptable.
Tehran announced last week assistance would be offered to families of Paleostinians killed in the wave of violence that erupted in October, but the PA says such aid must follow official channels.
Paleostinian presidency front man Nabil Abu Rudeina, cited by local media, said bypassing the authority in handing out such funds would constitute illegal interference in internal Paleostinian affairs.
Iran should "send this money through official channels to the (PA's) Martyrs and Prisoners Foundation rather than relying on informal and circuitous routes," Abu Rudeina said.
Iran's ambassador to Leb, Mohammad Fathali, said Wednesday that Tehran would offer $7,000 to the families of each Paleostinian killed in what he called the "Jerusalem intifada."
Iran will also give $30,000 to Paleostinian families whose homes have been destroyed by Israel because a member is accused of carrying out an anti-Israeli attack, he told a news conference in Beirut.
The money pledged is in addition to the monthly aid paid since 1987 by an Iranian institution to families of Paleostinians killed, he said.
The wave of violence in Israel and the Paleostinian territories since October has killed 177 Paleostinians as well as 28 Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... n, according to an AFP toll.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
It's the direct (no graft) part what bother them.
No kitteh pics for you
KOBANE – The Islamic State (ISIS) radical group has banned private internet access in the city of Manbij in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, activists reported on Sunday.
The ISIS-affiliated Sharia Court issued a decision to close all private internet cafés across Manbij city. It also banned the residents from using any internet devices at home.
“The ban comes after the group carried out a campaign of arrests targeting media activists in Manbij,” local activist Nassir Taljbini told ARA News on the phone.
“ISIS tries to prevent media workers and rights activists from reporting on its atrocities in Manbij city. That’s the main reason for the new decision,” the source said.
The Sharia Court has vowed that anyone who violates the decision will be “mercilessly” punished.
Activists said that only ISIS-linked internet cafés are allowed to operate in Manbij, as the terror group can monitor online activities of the clients there.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Participants in a fragile ceasefire in Syria need to give peace a chance, U.S. officials said Sunday, following reports of truce violations on its second day.
"Setbacks are inevitable," the senior administration official said. "Even under the best of circumstances, we don’t expect the violence to end immediately. In fact, we are certain that there will continue to be fighting, in part because of organizations like ISIL 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 .. ... ."
The ceasefire deal brokered by Moscow and Washington excludes territory held by the jihadist groups 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.... , also known as ISIL, and the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra. The two groups together control more than half of Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... on Sunday warned Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... that its halt of military aid to Leb would only "weaken the Lebanese state" and that any "economic siege" on Leb would "impoverish all Lebanese."
"The response against Lebanese institutions will weaken the institutions and the State. Suspending the military aid will weaken the State and they (Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... ) will benefit from this," Jumblat cautioned during an interview with Orient News TV, which supports the Syrian opposition.
"An economic siege on Leb would impoverish all Lebanese and will not be useful, unless there are plans to undermine Lebanese stability and the Lebanese entity," Jumblat added.
His remarks come amid an unprecedented rift in the ties with Riyadh that has seen the kingdom halt around $4 billion in aid to Leb's army and security forces and advise its citizens against visiting the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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Allies of Iran's allegedly reformist President Hassan Rouhani have won a landslide victory in Tehran, in the first parliamentary vote since Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers.
The BBC, like all other western papers, think Rouhani is more of a reformer than Ted Cruz...
With 90% of the votes counted, the pro-Rouhani List of Hope is set to take all 30 parliamentary seats in the capital. The leading conservative candidate Gholamali Haddad-Adel is in 31st place.
Millions voted on Friday to elect the 290-seat parliament as well as members of the Assembly of Experts. The 88-member assembly appoints Iran's Supreme Leader and might end up choosing a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei, who is 76 and has suffered ill-health.
Early results gave former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate conservative, and Mr Rouhani the most votes for the assembly, which is composed of mostly doddering elder and senior clerics.
Most of whom would be quite at home with North Korea's geriatric leaders...
This stunning election result will make a difference in Iran's engagement with the wider world.
In what way? More terrorism? A freer hand for Rouhani to fund Hamas and Hezbollah? More snookering of western newspapers?
President Rouhani's hand has been strengthened in parliament to help open his country to greater trade and investment. That will help him, and others in his reformist camp, to deepen the dialogue with the West, which began with negotiations on a landmark nuclear deal.
Yes, more trade, all the while completing their efforts to get nuclear weapons and ICBM delivery systems. A good deal for them...
The parliamentary result in Tehran is significant because lawmakers from the capital usually determine the political direction of the house, analysts say. However, reformists look to have done less well in constituencies outside the capital.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
So, what are they going to reform: Iranian nuclear weapons program or Iranian worldwide terrorism networks?
Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Hossein Zolfaqari said on Sunday that a terrorist plot in border town of Sumar, west Iran was discovered and neutralized, IRNA reported.
Speaking to reporters on the measures adopted to maintain security during nation-wide elections on Friday, the official said, 'A terror team which had infiltrated the Iran-Iraq border and was approaching its destination on foot was spotted and prevented from its targets.'
'There were two agents who were exterminated and their arms were seized,' he added, 'We are working on identifying them which will be announced.'
'It will be determined what was their target, but there is no doubt that they had a terrorist intention,' Zolfaqari said.
The official hailed the efforts of law-enforcing personnel saying that they managed to provide an overwhelming security all over the country during the elections.
He did not confirm that the two terrorist killed on Sunday in the western province of Kermanshah bordering Iraq were connected to the Daesh terrorist group suggesting that the question can be directed to the Minstry of Intelligence.
'Before the elections, there was a terror attempt to the east of the country,' he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Up to 70,000 migrants and refugees could soon be stranded in Greece, the leftist-led government has said, as it considers enlisting the help of the army to deal with the emergency.
[DAWN] Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam (Fazl) chief Fazlur Rehman remained highly critical of
[An Nahar] Participants in a fragile ceasefire in Syria need to give peace a chance, U.S. officials said Sunday, following reports of truce violations on its second day.
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Hossein Zolfaqari said on Sunday that a terrorist plot in border town of Sumar, west Iran was discovered and neutralized, IRNA reported.
