[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The former Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... warned Pakistain over cross-border incursions and called on Pak authorities to prevent deterioration of relations between the two nations with cross-border attacks.
Hailing the Pak nation for supporting Afghans during the Jihad times, the former president said the Afghan nation remains tolerant and patient regarding the cross-border incursions but warned that the Pak authorities should not mistake it for the weakness of the Afghan people.
The reaction by Karzai followed days after the Pak air force violated the Afghan air space and bombed various locations in Dangam district of Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... , located along the Durand Line.
He said such provocative acts will further intensify tensions among the two nations and will have a negative impact on the relations of the neighboring countries.
The violation by the Pak air force followed two days after the Afghan and Pak forces exchanged fire along the Durand Line in Goshta 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.
Thisc omes as a similar incident took place between the Afghan and Pak forces along the Durand Line earlier last year.
Local officials in Kandahar province said the festivities between the two sides broke out last year after Afghan border police forces stopped the Pak troops to create check posts inside the Afghan soil.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A key Al-Shabaab operative was arrested in northeastern Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps on Friday, barely a day after the Kenyan authorities reiterated the need to close the camps due to security fears.
Northeastern Regional Coordinator Mohamud Saleh said the suspect, a Kenyan from Garissa County bordering Somalia, is a senior Al-Shabaab operative who has been involved in arms trafficking. He was arrested by Kenya’s multi-agency security team who had been tracking him for sometimes now, said Saleh.
The government administrator added that he is also suspected of involvement in the planning and execution of terror attacks within the refugees camps.
Saleh said the security agents recovered an AK-47 rifle, 19 rounds of ammunition and two magazines from the suspect’s hideout, adding that the police are pursuing two other accomplices to the suspect who is on the run.
“The arrest of this key Al-Shabaab operative is a major breakthrough in the fight against terrorism in the country,” Saleh told journalists in Garissa town.
The arrest comes a day after Saleh told Africa Union Security Council and UNHCR officials that Kenya can no longer host the Somali refugee inside the country due to security fears, and asked them to come with a plan to repatriate the refugees back to Somalia. Saleh said the refugees have not appreciated Kenya’s gesture, and some of them were aiding Al-Shabaab militants in planning and execution of terror attacks from inside the Dadaab refugee camps.
Dadaab refugee camps currently host some 350,000 people, and majority of them are Somalis who have fled a country embroiled in conflict.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
Some 140 new Moroccans have joined the Islamic State terror group, according to leaked-IS documents disclosed by British Sky News.
Cradle-robbers...
Moroccan local media “Akhbar Al Yaoum” announced in its Friday publication that the documents unveiled by Sky News thanks to an IS-Syrian defector, reveal that some 140 individuals said to be Moroccans have joined IS.
The documents revealed that the terror group’s army is made up of 22,000 Jihadists from more than 55 countries including UK, the United States, Northern Europe, Canada, North Africa and the Middle East. Some 1,200 Moroccans have been reported in IS ranks in conflict zones namely in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
At a recent security forum held in Morocco, experts argued that the number of Moroccans who have pledged allegiance to IS could be estimated at 1,500 while the country currently houses around 500 IS members.
Everybody is checking the list to see if any of their people need arresting. An Nahar adds:
Tens of thousands of documents that were leaked Wednesday containing the names, addresses, phone numbers and family contacts of 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.... forces of Evil included the names of two Lebanese engineers who planned to carry out suicide kabooms, LBCI reported on Friday.
Engineer graduates Abou Khattab al-Tamimi (1988) from the Bekaa area of Bouwerij and Abou Shadi al-Lebnani (1982) from the town of Qaraoun were listed among the names of 122 IS suicide attackers.
Syrian opposition news website Zaman al-Wasl published the documents that included the identities of 122 suicide attackers listed in the documents of the IS under the title Moujahid Documents
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
US Secretary of State John Kerry landed Friday at a sprawling military facility in northeastern Saudi Arabia where the kingdom just finished a three-week-long counter-terrorism drill that included 20 nations and which observers say was a show of force against its foes.
Kerry touched down at the King Khalid Military City near the town of Hafr al-Batin in the desert, south of the Iraqi and Kuwaiti border. He was later in the evening received by King Salman and other top Saudi officals, which was to be followed by a working dinner with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef and Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.
His visit came as the kings of Bahrain and Jordan joined Pakistan’s prime minister, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Qatar’s emir and the Saudi king for a parade and airshow marking the end of the military exercise, dubbed “Northern Thunder.”
The drill focused on how to coordinate combat operations and guerrilla warfare tactics among the Muslim-majority countries that are members of a larger counter-terrorism alliance announced by the kingdom in December.
It also comes amid heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and its regional Shiite rival Iran as they back opposite sides of the wars in Syria and Yemen. On Thursday, state media reported that Saudi Arabia was building a new air base to protect the kingdom’s airspace in Hafr al-Batin.
The drills included troops from Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Jordan, Sudan and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. Other countries that contributed include Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia.
Kerry’s talks are expected to focus on the civil wars in Syria and Yemen, where a Saudi-led campaign has been targeting the country’s Iran-backed Shiite rebels.
From the kingdom, Kerry will head to Paris for talks on Sunday with Europe’s top diplomats about Libya, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine. The meeting is also an opportunity for him to meet with France’s new foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault. They’ll be joined by the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, Italy and the EU foreign policy chief.
Kerry is also expected to discuss the migrant crisis facing Europe.
There have also been increasing European concern about the expansion of ISIS - which holds about a third of Iraq and Syria - in Libya amid the North African country’s political chaos. EU diplomats are discussing possible sanctions against Libyans seen as obstructing the peace process.
Additionally, European officials are upset about President Barack Obama’s criticism of European policy in Libya after the 2011 NATO-led campaign that ousted Muammar Qaddafi.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[AA.TR] Ekrem Dumanli, who edited Zaman daily, is charged with 'insulting and slandering Turkish President Erdogan'
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
Lèse majestÊ is the crime of violating majesty, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state. It has been prohibited by the law of Thailand since 1908.
Per Wikipedia. The various accents may not come through, in which case read that as lese majeste.
[DAWN] United States Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump came under fire from his rivals on Thursday for saying Muslims hate the US at a debate where the gut-punching attacks of earlier forums gave way to a suddenly civil tone with a serious focus on the issues.
Trump, who has voiced skepticism about US military involvement abroad in the past, for the first time said America's effort against the murderous MoslemIslamic 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) might require between 20,000 and 30,000 US troops, a number similar to what some Republican hawks have proposed.
The CNN-hosted debate at the University of Miami was crucial, coming days before votes in Florida and Ohio that will determine whether US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich will be able to continue with their increasingly long-shot candidacies.
#5
Truth hurts. It's not just 'we' Americans, it's 'we' Western Civilization. Been that way since the start of the conquest in 622 through the Siege of Vienna, 1683. The first full fledged foreign war of the United States was with the Muslims of North Africa engaged in piracy and slaving of American citizens. It was the success of the European nations to return the favor via colonization in the 19th Century culminating in the demise of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI, that the lie of the 'Religion of Peace' was generated.
#7
What I took away from his comments about Islam is that "a lot of it" hates us -- which is nothing but true. CAIR is nothing but the Islamic version of Sinn Fein -- monsters in suits.
#9
The problem is Trump didn't differentiate those who help, who go out of their way to aid us. There are evil Christians, there are good Muslims. And we have failed those who HAVE helped us, the Kurds, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, the Sunni Tribes in Al-Anbar. Even the Pakistani doctor who helped us kill Bin Laden.
A vast majority hate us. Not just because they don't know any better(which really, they don't), but because they see our leaders abandon those who are our friends and allies. The exact same way our hate for the Establishment of the Republican Party has been nutured and gained strength, so has the Muslims of our country.
I'm not saying we shouldn't look at them with suspicion, shouldn't hate the way they execute their culture, or be ready should the time come to eliminate the threat. Quite the opposite, I think we'll end up dropping nukes on a Arab nation in the next 2 decades at the rate we're going. But don't throw away your understanding of the big picture, lest when the (radioactive) dust clear we repeat the mistakes.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/12/2016 20:18 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Indictment expected in hacking of dam used for flood control about 20 miles north of New York City
The mills of Justice grinding slowly... Does this kind of thing count as an act of war?
A probe by the Justice Department has determined that Iran was responsible for a 2013 cyber attack on a dam in the suburbs outside of New York City, and an indictment is expected soon, a US official told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named Thursday.
The official, who was briefed on the investigation, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing criminal investigation.
In 2013, hackers accessed the control system at the Bowman Avenue Dam, a small structure in Rye Brook, about 20 miles north of New York City, that’s used for flood control.
The intrusion allowed the hackers to probe the system, prompting a federal investigation.
The official told the AP that Sherlocks have determined Iran was responsible for the cyberattack and that an indictment is expected to be handed down in the case from the US attorney’s office in Manhattan. It wasn’t clear whether the indictment would charge specific people within the Iranian government or publicly name Iran as being behind the attack. A formal announcement was expected to be made as soon as mid-April, the official said.
Officials in Rye said in December that they had been alerted by the US Department of Homeland Security about unauthorized access to the city’s computer system.
At a news briefing Thursday, State Department front man Mark Toner declined to specifically comment on the prospects that Iran would be charged in the cyberattack, but said: "I would say broadly that we obviously take all, seriously all such malicious activity in cyberspace. We’re going to continue to use all the tools at our disposal to deter, detect, counter and mitigate that kind of activity."
A front man for the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/12/2016 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Hey - I got an idea - let's give em 150 billion dollars and the ability to construct nuclear weapons. Who's with me!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/12/2016 15:31 Comments ||
Top||
[Ynet] Paleostinian organizations have filed a $34 billion lawsuit in the US against a host of prominent businessmen, companies and banks in Israel for allegedly aiding the IDF and settlements.
With Paleostinian terrorism continuing to run rampant, Leumi and Hapoalim Banks reported on Wednesday that a lawsuit was filed in the US Federal Court in Washington, DC, against the banks and several Israeli companies, organizations and businessmen. The suit alleges that the defendants support Israeli settlements "in a manner injurious to the Paleostinians and their property rights."
The plaintiffs--activists in Paleostinian organizations who hold American citizenship--allege that the banks carried out financial transfers that included support to communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as support to the IDF, thus benefitting the companies and businessmen.
Among the defendants are Africa Israel, Danya Cebus Construction, HP, Volvo, Motorola, Israel Chemicals, and Ahava.
The cumulative amount claimed against all the defendants is approximately $34 billion, but the lawsuit does not include an explanation of the calculation method or a legal reference.
Bank Leumi wrote in a letter sent Wednesday morning to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that "the lawsuit does not include any explanation whatsoever or formula that serves as the legal or financial basis for the lawsuit's amount, and no explanation for the connection between the plaintiffs and the astronomical amount of this claim."
#1
Standing to sue? I'd punch back twice as hard. Countersue for attorney's fees after running up a yuuuge bill
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/12/2016 10:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
They don't have to have law on their side to 'win' by costing their opponents a lot of defense money & PR. In fact, they don't even have to have law on their side to actually win, just the judge.
[DAWN] Description of the Baloch as "uncivilised" people in the syllabus being taught in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... irked Senators who called on Friday for action against the people responsible.
The issue was raised in the upper house of parliament by Senator Mir Kabir of the National Party who pointed out that the sociology book being taught to the 12th class in Punjab described the Baloch as "uncivilised people engaged in murder and looting".
Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq said the matter was "tantamount to stabbing the nation in the back".
He said a committee should be formed and those responsible for the "blunder" should be summoned before it.
Mushahidullah Khan of the PML-N said the entire syllabus should be reviewed to find out if there were more such distortions in it.
He said that action should be taken against those who were supposed to monitor the contents of the syllabus.
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani said the syllabus had been reviewed with a view to bringing it in line with the Constitution. A report on the matter would be presented in the next session of the house.
He said the syllabus had been prepared under an ordinance promulgated during Gen Zia ul Haq ...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988... ’s days in power.
"The syllabus still teaches children the benefits of dictatorship," he remarked, adding that it told the students that dictatorship had 12 benefits against only eight benefits of democracy.
Mr Rabbani said that only one paragraph had been devoted to the dismemberment of Pakistain but there was no mention of the struggle for democracy in the syllabus. The syllabus claimed that imposition of dictatorship was in the interest of the country and the nation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] The political administration in South Wazoo Agency gave on Friday two days to elders of Sulimankhel tribe to find five employees of Fata Development Authority (FDA) and their four guards who went missing in an area of the agency on Thursday.
According to officials, Assistant Political Agent Saad Qaisrani held a meeting with elders of the tribe and asked them to produce the missing people by Sunday. Otherwise, he warned, action would be taken against the entire tribe under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.
The action would include sealing of properties of the entire tribe and suspension of ‘incentives’. Besides, they would be kept under custody till the release of the missing employees.
The employees went missing on Thursday when they were inspecting development work in Toi Khula, an area close to the agency’s border with Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... No group has grabbed credit for the kidnapping.
In Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , an official statement said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra had taken notice of the matter and directed officials of security agencies and political administration to do everything possible to get the personnel freed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Via Kathryn Lopez at The Corner. Finally the State Department gets a report that documents, in detail, the genocide against Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq. Now all we have to do is to get Jahwn Kerry and Barack Obama to care...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Finally the State Department gets a report that documents, in detail, the genocide against Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq.
"Fire up the paper shredders! Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!"
#2
"Now all we have to do is to get Jahwn Kerry and Barack Obama to care..."
GFL with that one. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/12/2016 19:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
They don't care about Bible Thumpers Christians in this country and their rights under the First Amendment, why be concerned with them overseas? Only the Party Approved(tm) sects of (small c) christianity are tolerated and only when they pull the party line.
[IsraelTimes] Shin Bet security agency records 154 terror attacks in February, lowest monthly total since July
Continuing a downward trend that began in November, the number of terrorist attacks committed in Israel and the West Bank decreased in February by nine percent over the previous month.
Last month, the Shin Bet security agency recorded a total of 154 terror attacks committed in Israel and the West Bank by Paleostinians against Israelis, the agency wrote in its monthly (Hebrew) report for February, which it published this week.
Attacks in February resulted in the deaths of three victims and the wounding of 11 -- a decrease from the slaying of five victims and the wounding of 28 in January.
The figure for February is the lowest monthly total recorded since July, when 103 attacks were observed.
Attacks began increasing in August, when 171 attacks were documented, and rose sharply in September and October, with 223 and 620 attacks recorded in those months respectively.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October called the escalation "a terror wave," whereas many Israeli and Paleostinian media dubbed it "the third intifada."
But the overall number of attacks decreased to 326 attacks in November, 246 attacks in December and 169 attacks in January.
Shin Bet recorded last month one attack that it classified as "Jewish terrorism" -- the hurling of an ax at a Paleostinian-owned vehicle near the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron. No one was injured in that attack.
Of the attacks recorded in February, 75 percent involved the hurling of Molotov cocktails compared to only five stabbing attacks.
In all, 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in a wave of Paleostinian terrorism and violence since October. Some 180 Paleostinians have also been killed, around two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during festivities with troops, according to the Israeli army.
[Ynet] The Egyptian government notes a worrying phenomenon regarding the relations between Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and the terrorist organizations in the Sinai: it turns out that Hamas has become a weapons exporter to Egypt. In the past several months, several types of weapons were found by Egyptian security forces which bear the markings of being manufactured by the Hamas military wing.
Amongst the weapons found were solar water heaters filled with kabooms, which are one of the deadliest weapons ISIS in Sinai uses against the Egyptian military. The solar water heaters are used as IEDs with the ability to take out a tank. A few years ago, Hamas used one of these IEDs and disabled an Israeli tank.
The Egyptian government also claims that ISIS shoots Hamas-made rockets at Egyptian military bases in the peninsula.
Hamas also ships weapons from the Gazoo Strip to elements affiliated with global Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... which is active in Sinai. These are weapons which were smuggled into Gazoo either by the Iranians or from Libya, which then ended up in the hands of the jihadists.
At present, there is a new reason to worry -- the export of weapons made in the Strip in industrial quantaties is a new phenomenon which indicates a new level of institutionalization of the weapons manufacturing process in the Gazoo Strip
Israeli forces have raided the West Bank offices of Palestine Today television and arrest-ed its manager over allegations of inciting violence, Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency said on Friday. The overnight operation targeting the station's Ramallah offices was the latest attempt to silence Palestinian broadcasters Israel believes are fuelling a five-month wave of violence.
The Shin Bet charged that the channel "broadcasts on behalf of the Islamic Jihad" group and said it had closed it in a joint operation with the army."The channel served the Islamic Jihad as a central means to incite the West Bank population, calling for terror attacks against Israel and its citizens. Incitement was broad-cast on the television station as well as the Internet," it said in a state-ment.Israeli forces arrested Palestine Today manager, Farooq Aliat, 34, of Bir Zeit, north of Ramallah, "an Islamic Jihad operative who had been imprisoned in Israel for his activities", it added.
Cameraman Mohammed Amr and technician Shabib Shabib were also arrested, the Palestinian Journalists Union said.An army spokeswoman said tech-nical equipment and transmitters were confiscated from the Ramallah offices, which were ordered shut.The channel, which has offices in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, continued to broadcast to the West Bank via its Lebanese transmitters, it said.Islamic Jihad denounced the Israeli aggression against the nationalist media of the resistance, calling the raid another episode in the long saga of oppression by the occupation.
[IsraelTimes] Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... holds solidarity rally in Strip for Paleostine al-Yawm, says ‘occupation will never silence us’
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad
[AnNahar] Indonesia does not want one of the country's most notorious terrorists, Hambali, returned home should the United States close the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention center, a senior minister said Friday.
Riduan Isamuddin was captured in Thailand in 2003 and spent the next three years being flown between secret prisons until his transfer to Guantanamo, where he has been held without charge ever since.
At the time of his capture Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was believed to be al-Qaeda's top representative in Southeast Asia and operational chief of regional hard boy group Jemaah Islamiyah.
He was accused of criminal masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead, and plotting other attacks on U.S. airliners and foreigners.
Hambali is one of 91 inmates still detained in the military prison, set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks to deal with prisoners deemed "enemy combatants", and denied many U.S. legal rights.
A roadmap to closing Guantanamo unveiled by President B.O. last month prompted speculation in Indonesia that Hambali could be repatriated, but Jakarta has made it clear it does want anything to do with the alleged terror kingpin.
"It's very clear that we do not want to add any more problems in our country," security minister Luhut Panjaitan told news hounds when asked about Hambali.
A sustained crackdown in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, weakened many of the most dangerous Lion of Islam networks responsible for a string of deadly homegrown attacks during the 2000s.
But an attack in Jakarta earlier this year claimed by 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 sparked fears of a resurgence in militancy, and shone the spotlight on the country's weak laws and lax jails where prominent Lions of Islam have been recruiting behind bars.
Panjaitan said an urgent revision of Indonesia's anti-terror laws was needed as authorities were currently powerless to stop would-be bully boyz heading abroad to fight with Lion of Islam groups.
The government has submitted to parliament new draft measures to bolster Indonesia's fight against extremism, including broader powers to detain suspects
"This new terrorism law stipulates the state is authorized to revoke their citizenship if they join imported muscle," he said.
[Inquirer] The Abu Sayyaf has released a new video of the three foreigners and a Filipina woman who were kidnapped from the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte in September last year.
In the video, the Canadian and Norwegian hostages pled for help to their governments. A hooded Abu Sayyaf militant warned that "something terrible" would be done to the four victims if ransom demands were not met by April 8.
The video was posted on a Facebook page called Pamantasan ng Tawheed at Jihad Filibin. In the video, one of the six armed men forces three of the captives to ask for help.
"For my wife, to my family and this is so much bigger than family, to the Canadian Prime Minister and to the Canadian people in the world, please, do as needed to meet their demand within one month or they will kill me, they will execute us," Canadian John Ridsdel said as a man wearing held a bolo on his neck.
Robert Hall, seated next to his Filipina girlfriend Flor, is next. "I am a Canadian citizen being held by the Abu Sayyaf group for ransom, the amount is, I do not know what it is. But the Canadian government has got to get us out of here fast, to do what is necessary to get us out of here soon. We got one month before this happens," he said.
Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad said it was his, "last message to my family, friends and authorities. Follow the negotiation, try to meet their demands within 30 days or we are all dead."
Posted by: ryuge ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
[ARA News] ERBIL – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has noted the importance of involving Kurds in the upcoming intra-Syrian talks that are scheduled for next week.
This comes amid a growing possibility of Russia supporting a Kurdish federal region in Syria.
“In this context, the importance was emphasized of necessity to involve all Syrian sides in these talks – in particular, opposition representatives with pro-Moscow, pro-Cairo and other political platforms, including representatives of Kurdish forces (…),” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Nevertheless, the Kurdish group that Russia backs, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), will not by invited to the Syrian peace talks in Geneva due to a Turkish opposition.
Speaking to ARA News, Timur Akhmetov, an independent Russian analyst on the Middle East, said: “Basically, Russia officially says it is not against any claims of Kurds unless all issues are discussed within ‘national dialogue’ (over which basically Damascus has a final say) and attempts will not end up with state disintegration.”
Akhmetov raised doubts about the potential Russian support to Syrian Kurds.
“Interestingly, Russian approach to solving all problems in the regions is based on support for central governments not on distributing more powers to regions,” he said. “Also, Russia is not ready to antagonize Turkey by providing real support to the Syrian Kurds though it is eager to exploit the Kurdish issue to exert pressure on Ankara.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, said in an exclusive interview with ARA News that it is not clear why Russia backs a federal Syria.
“It is not at all clear why the Russians have thrown out for consideration this idea of a federal Syria. Syria has no history as a federal state,” he said.
“It may be that the Russians have decided that the only way for the Alawite and Druze areas to live safely is to manage their own security and enjoy a measure of self-governance. It might allow them to retain their bases even if in a few years a Sunni-dominated government wanted Russian bases out,” he added.
The Syrian opposition has opposed the plans for federalism, fearing division on the ground.
“The opposition has reacted negatively so far. Part of this is because they suspect this move aims at allowing the Syrian Kurds and perhaps even the Alawi community along the coast to declare independence eventually,” Ford told ARA News.
But even in Iraq, Sunni Arabs back federalism now, the former U.S. diplomat said.
“In Iraq, Sunni Arabs in 2004-2009 were against a federal Iraq, but with the passage of time and the political developments in Baghdad, now in 2016 many Iraqi Sunni Arabs like the idea of decentralization and more self-governance within Iraq.”
However, it is most likely that the most powerful Kurdish actor on the ground, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) will not be invited to Geneva talks. Whereas the Kurdish National Council (KNC), which is part of the Syrian opposition, will attend as part of the Syrian Coalition.
Abdulhakim Bashar, a member of the KNC-parties, was appointed as vice-president of the Syrian Coalition last week. Moreover, Fuad Aliko, another leading member of the KNC, is also expected to attend the Geneva negotiations.
Haytham Manna, co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), which includes the PYD, said Thursday that he will boycott the talks, reported the Russian news agency Sputnik.
“The fact that the Kurds weren’t invited is one of the reasons [for not attending talks],” Manna said.
This comes as thousands of Kurds protested in Derbassiyah, Tel Temir, Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Hasakah in northeastern Syria on Thursday, calling for the including of the PYD and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the Geneva talks.
Again? The smart money says this deal will fall through, just like all the previous ones.
The influential speaker of Lebanon’s parliament signaled on Friday that a deal to elect a president was almost ready, raising hopes that a presidential vacuum which has paralyzed the political system for nearly two years could soon be filled.
Lebanese newspaper An-nahar cited Speaker Nabih Berri saying in an interview that the presidency had “truly ripened” and it was time to “pick it”.
His comments were published after former Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri, who is backed by Saudi Arabia, said he was confident parliament would elect a president on March 23 or at the next session in April, according to LBC TV station.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[FOXNEWS] Iran is preparing to launch a new long-range rocket into outer space as soon as this weekend, U.S. officials told Fox News.
The missile is known as a Simorgh and officials are watching the missile on the launch pad as it is being fueled at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location inside Iran.
Officials told Fox they have not seen this specific type of rocket launched in the past.
Any test of a new ballistic missile would be an apparent violation of a UN resolution forbidding Iran from working on its rocket program.
A Simorgh rocket is designed to carry a satellite into space. Officials are concerned that any space launch uses the same technology needed to launch a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM.
This week, Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles on one day for the first time since 2012, according to defense officials.
UN Security Council Resolution 2231 says Iran is "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."
Thursday, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander said that Iran's ballistic missile program will continue to move forward, despite threats of international sanctions.
The U.S. State Department says the launches this week were not in violation of the nuclear deal, but "inconsistent" with UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which was tied to the nuclear deal when it went into effect.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I imagine they'll pretend whatever they have to in order to tell the rest of us their deal still works.
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.
A key Al-Shabaab operative was arrested in northeastern Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps on Friday, barely a day after the Kenyan authorities reiterated the need to close the camps due to security fears.
US Secretary of State John Kerry landed Friday at a sprawling military facility in northeastern Saudi Arabia where the kingdom just finished a three-week-long counter-terrorism drill that included 20 nations and which observers say was a show of force against its foes.
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988....png)
Wazoo
Israeli forces have raided the West Bank offices of Palestine Today television and arrest-ed its manager over allegations of inciting violence, Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency said on Friday. The overnight operation targeting the station's Ramallah offices was the latest attempt to silence Palestinian broadcasters Israel believes are fuelling a five-month wave of violence.
