It's not about the environment. It's about the tempo
[ToloNews] Defense Minister Masoom Stanikzai has issued an order authorizing Afghan security forces to increase the number of night raids against homes of suspected Taliban insurgents and other militants.
Stanikzai also asked Afghan forces to take firm action against border violations and to defend the nation against threats without hesitation.
The minister's remarks come just days after reports surfaced that Afghanistan's eastern border regions have once again come under rocket attack from outside the country.
The move also comes as Taliban forces continue to pose major challenges to embattled Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in various regions of the country, in their bid to gain territory and strategic towns.
Following the end of the U.S combat mission in Afghanistan, the security situation has sharply deteriorated on the back of intensified attacks by the Taliban against Afghan forces. The sharp increase has shown no signs of abating.
"Presently the question is why are these wars fought in Zabul and Shindand and Badghis where only Afghan civilians are killed. What are the intentions behind these wars? If these wars are aimed at seizing power or fighting for the slavery of others, then it must be kept in mind that the people of Afghanistan are fully aware of these conspiracies," said Stanikzai.
Government's new shift also reflects growing concern among the residents in eastern regions of the country following cross-border firing.
"Sometimes we hear that a certain area was targeted and that a violation was committed in an area, our duty is to defend the country and our borders in line with our available resources and capabilities. For this, you (soldiers) do not need to ask permission while you are on duty, our task is to defend the country anytime and in any circumstance, whenever you see a violation, then retaliate," he added.
Meanwhile, Dawlat Waziri, a defense ministry spokesman said: "A major seminar was held at the ministry of defense and a decision was made to target the opponent wherever they operate from."
But security experts have called for firm action to be taken against the insurgent group.
"Ongoing efforts aren't enough to obliterate the enemy. More inclusive and stronger measures are needed for this purpose including nighttime operations," military expert Baz Mohammad Anwari said.
This comes at a time that the Afghan army continues military operations against militants in 14 provinces. Night raids have however been an effective way to eliminate militants.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A murky security operation on Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan on March 5 brought attention briefly back to an area that for nearly 25 years has rarely seen an entire week pass without some sort of incident taking place, Radio Liberty reports.
The reported firefight between Tajikistan’s security forces and an gang from Afghanistan that left a Tajik border guard and one of the Afghan combatants dead comes as the situation on both sides of the frontier is changing -- and as warmer spring weather heralds the likely start of increased hostilities in areas of northeastern Afghanistan that border Tajikistan.
There is a lot in play at the moment along Tajikistan’s frontier with Afghanistan’s border provinces of Badakhshan, Takhar, and Kunduz.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will launch six key cultural projects in the central Bamyan province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government media office said the projects will be launched in the next Afghan calendar year which includes construction of a cultural center, reconstruction of the historic Gholghola city, strengthening the porches for Buddhas located in the west, awareness regarding Hajigak iron ore exploration and its effects on historic monuments, research on local tradition and public awareness regarding the historic monuments.
According to the local officials, UNESCO’s cultural chief in Afghanistan Mr. Masanori Nagaoka informed regarding the launch of the projects during a meeting with the provincial governor Mr. Tahir Zahir.
Nagaoka welcomed Mr. Zahir’s recommendation to include the destruction date of Bamyan Buddha as a cultural catastrophe day in the world calendar and promised to share his recommendations with UNESCO chief.
This comes as an event was organized to mark the 14th anniversary of Buddhas destruction by the Talibs which was attended by bigwigs, including UNESCO’s cultural chief for Afghanistan Mr. Nagaoka.
The Bamiyan ...a place in Afghanistan that used to have some historically interesting statues of the Buddha carved into a mountainside. Then the holy men showed up and now all they have is some big holes... Buddhas were destroyed after the Talibs group blew up the world’s two largest standing Buddhas -- one of them 165ft high, earlier in 2001.
Among the Afghanistan’s historical remains, Taliban’s biggest targets, literally and figuratively, were the two monumental Buddha statues carved out of the sandstone cliffs in central Afghanistan. The destruction work concluded in almost three weeks period which sparked global objection.
Taliban group tried to destroy the Buddhas by firing artillery rounds towards the Buddhas but later used explosives after they did not achieve any results by firing artillery.
One stood nearly 180 feet tall and the other about 120 feet high and together they had watched over the dusty Bamyan Valley since the sixth century, several centuries before Islam reached the region.
The Buddhas of Bamyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated 230 km (143 miles) northwest of 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.... at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,202 ft). Built in 507 A.D, the larger in 554 CE, the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] General Aminullah Amarkhil, police chief of central Ghazni province says several districts of his province are under severe threat which may fall if central government does not take necessary measures to suppress myrmidons.
Gen. Amarkhil added that security situation in Ghazni province has been tense and that 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.... has been informed about it.
According to the General, eight districts of Ghazni province are on the verge of collapse but there are not enough security forces to avoid that.
The police chief further said that about 240 kilometers of Kabul-Kandahar highway pass through his province which makes it a prime target for bully boys.
Gen. Amarkhil who has not even completed five months in his new position threatened to quit in case reinforcement is not sent there to prevent fall of large areas to the bully boys.
He was appointed as the police chief of Ghazni in October last year as violence was on the raise there.
Gen. Amarkhil is a veteran warrior who has commanded police in several provinces and so far has good achievements.
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03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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Nothing gets past Asharq Al-Awsat
Tunis/Algiers – Dozens of Islamist militants, pertinent to the attack signal that came from the mosque, stormed through the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan to hit army and police posts in street battles that lit the dawn sky with tracer bullets.
Reassuring the residents that they were ISIS, and that they came to save the town near the Libyan border from what they called “tyrant” army; militants used a megaphone to chant “God is Great”. Among them, Most were Tunisians themselves, with local accents, and even some familiar faces, officials and witnesses to Monday’s attack said.
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03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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Cairo- Houthi and pro-Saleh (ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh) were jumbled and in shock after their defeat in Taiz. The Insurgent militias had lost due to a swift unpredicted military action conducted by the National Army and Popular Resistance supported by the Saudi-led Arabian coalition. The battle also determined that the, formerly imposed by insurgents, barricade being broken down and lifted off of Taiz.
Upon Houthis defeat, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi confirmed that current developments are of utmost significance. He pointed out that the National Army forces are approaching Sana’a.
Al-Mekhlafi also described the relationship joining both Houthis and ousted President Saleh to resemble a love affair among serpents, which is bound to end with disaster.
In an Interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, FM al-Mekhlafi said that “Taiz is wining, and the besiegement has been lifted off of its western gates, and it is well on its way to be completely freed.
“The reason behind its liberation being delayed is because of Houthi and pro-Saleh militants being committed towards the clashes carrying on; since they know that the battle of Taiz is an outcome defining one. Seeing that, they sent large numbers of brigades and forces to barricade the zone, however, they failed. As for Sana’a, increased efforts are being spent for its liberation… pro-legitimacy forces are approaching the capital city and battles continue.”
The Yemeni FM revealed that the insurgents’ states of affairs, and their chances of enduring on battlefields, are over. With all that being said, the militias have been forced to attempt on deluding Saudi Arabia and the international community by promoting alleged negotiations.
However, FM al-Mekhlafi said, “We are prepared to resume negotiations which the U.N. special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed sets their date before the end of this month.”
He also exposed the extent of Iranian intervention in Yemen, confirming that evidence condemning its involvement and support to the insurgency shows up on a daily basis. Iran has been granting Houthi and pro-Saleh combatants with both financial and artillery provision.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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... on Sunday said it will deport anyone sympathizing with the Lebanese Death Eater Hezbollah group after the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... declared the movement as "terrorist," Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
An Interior Ministry statement carried by the state news agency SPA said that Saudis and expatriates would be subjected to "severe penalties" under the kingdom's regulations and anti-terrorism laws.
The Arab League on Friday formally branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization, a move that raises concerns of deepening divisions among Arab countries and ramps up the pressure on the Shiite group, which is fighting on the side of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... in Syria.
The Arab League’s decision followed the blacklisting of Hezbollah by Gulf states.
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[ALMANAR.LB] Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah Sheikh Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... said Saturday that 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... is declaring enmity against Hezbollah when it describes the party as "terrorist group," stressing that "Saudi Arabia and its allies are in fact hostile to the luminous and influential achievements of the party and put themselves in the box of Israel."
During a speech he delivered in Bekaa region east of Leb, Sheikh Qassem said that "Saudi Arabia is trying to confirm Hezbollah is terrorist in all forums it is allowed to influence and put pressure, most recently was the meeting of Arab foreign ministers where a number of countries, including Leb, opposed such description."
His eminence noted that "the Saudi problem regarding Hezbollah is that his impressive Resistance in the region, which was able to defeat Israel, to liberate the Lebanese lands, to establish an effetive reluctance and resistance in the region, which in turn affected Israel's project and existence. Thus here Saudi Arabia comes to support Israel."
Another problem Saudi Arabia is suffering with Hezbollah, Sheikh Kassem said, is that he supports the Islamic unity and the national unity, and works to promote stability and security.
"Hezbollah buried the sectarian strife over and over again," he stated, indicating that "Saudi Arabia cannot dominate without planting sedition and sabotaging unity relations among Muslims themselves and between Christians and Muslims."
"The problem of Saudi Arabia with Hezbollah is that he supports the independence of the peoples, while Saudis find Resistance movements a threat to its dictatorship and domination," his eminence added.
"Describing us as "terrorists" increases our confidence and steadfastness, and confirms that we are right," Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah Sheikh Naim Qassem concluded.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At 12 years old, Shaheen Hashmat left her family home in Scotland to escape the threat of forced marriage to a stranger in Pakistain. At 13, she attempted suicide.
Hashmat, who now campaigns against forced marriage and "honor-based" violence, says Britannia urgently needs better mental health services for girls and women escaping these situations.
"There needs to be far more training about the increased risk of suicide and the impact of family estrangement," said Hashmat, who won the True Honor 2016 award on Thursday for her bravery in standing up to honor abuse.
Experts say thousands of girls and women in Britannia are subjected to honor abuse every year as a way of controlling behavior perceived as bringing shame on their family.
Hashmat, now 33, grew up in a strict Pak family, in which every aspect of her life was policed, from the TV she watched to the people she spoke to, even the way she sat.
She was beaten and saw others in her family beaten, too. Her two older sisters were forced into marriage as teenagers after being sent "on holiday" to Pakistain.
As she grew up she started to challenge what was happening around her. "If I had stayed the physical abuse would have increased because I was seen as being out of control and becoming too westernized," she told Thomson Rooters Foundation.
"Forced marriage is a way of disciplining a woman who wants to make her own life choices. I was seen as having an attitude problem so I’m sure I would have been put on a plane, like my sisters were, and made to marry a stranger." Hashmat’s escape was organized by her sisters with the help of police and social services.
Over several weeks she smuggled her few possessions out of a back window at the family home into a waiting car. One day she told her parents she needed to visit a relative for help with her homework. She never returned.
But the shock and difficulty of adjusting to her new life and the estrangement from her family took its toll. One year later she took an overdose and ended up in hospital for a week.
"The suicidal feelings have been a regular experience throughout my life, and that’s a huge part of the reason why I’ve started doing the work I’m doing now," said Hashmat who now lives in London.
She cites a survey that indicates Asian women are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as women from other backgrounds in Britannia, with family violence seen as a key factor.
Hashmat has since written about her experiences in a blog, challenging the taboos around mental health which are particularly strong in Asian communities.
Hashmat’s dream is to set up a mental health service for women who have fled forced marriage and honor abuse.
"Estrangement from the people with whom you have created many of your most important memories -- wonderful as well as awful -- can be overwhelming," she said.
"You are also often leaving behind a whole community and trying to make a new life in a completely new culture. That’s incredibly difficult." The True Honor awards are made by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organization (IKWRO), a British charity that supports victims of honor abuse and forced marriage.
Britannia’s Forced Marriage Unit said this week it had dealt with 1,220 suspected forced marriage cases last year -- a slight fall on 2014. But Hashmat said the figures don’t convey the real extent of the problem and that police need better training.
"If you can’t absolutely rely on the authorities to help you when you may have just one chance to get out, that may well be the difference between life and death," she said.
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03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[Prensa Latina] The National Investigative Committee identified an individual from Dagestan as the being behind an explosion near a mosque in the capital of the Republic of Ingushetia. According to various sources, a car exploded near the Nazir-Kortskoj mosque in Nazran. The bomb left five injured, one of them was the imam. According to the Investigative Committee, the car belonged to a Dagestani man, who resides in Stavropol.
The incident took place on Friday after the traditional Muslim prayers and two days after an attack against journalists and human rights activists. After the violent incidents, the president of Ingushetia called an extraordinary meeting of the operational headquarters and Security Council of the Republic.
The head of the Ingush parliament, Mujarbek Dekazhev, believes that the two incidents are related, referring to a plan of destabilization by terrorist groups.
SEOUL -- North Korea claimed Sunday that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile to the heart of New York City, the latest in a string of brazen threats.
Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un’s regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily drumbeat of boasts and warnings from North Korea underlines its anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions.
“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today, a state-run outlet, reported Sunday.
“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes,” the report said, citing a nuclear scientist named Cho Hyong Il. The website is a strange choice for making such a claim, given that it also carries reports about such topics as rabbit farming and domestically made school backpacks.
North Korea’s newly developed hydrogen bomb “surpasses our imagination,” Cho is quoted as saying.
“The H-bomb developed by the Soviet Union in the past was able to smash windows of buildings 1,000 kms away and the heat was strong enough to cause third-degree burns 100 kms away,” the report continued.
Kim in January ordered North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and claimed that it was a hydrogen bomb, not a simple atomic one. But most experts are skeptical of the claim, saying the seismic waves caused by the blast were similar to those produced by the North’s three previous tests.
Then in February, Kim oversaw the launch of what North Korea said was a rocket that put a satellite into orbit, a move widely considered part of a long-range-ballistic-missile program.
North Korea has made advances in its intercontinental-ballistic-missile program, and though experts generally conclude that the United States’ West Coast could be within reach, there has been no suggestion that the North would be able to hit the East Coast.
Many experts are also skeptical of the “miniaturized warhead” that Kim showed off last week during a visit to a nuclear weapons plant.
But Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, warned against dismissing the claim too soon.
“It does not look like U.S. devices, to be sure, but it is hard to know if aspects of the model are truly implausible or simply that North Korean nuclear weapons look different than their Soviet and American cousins,” Lewis wrote in an analysis for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea. “The size, however, is consistent with my expectations for North Korea.”
As international condemnation of the North’s acts mounted, culminating this month in the United Nations’ toughest sanctions yet against Pyongyang, Kim’s regime has become increasingly belligerent, firing missiles into the Sea of Japan — also known as the East Sea — and issuing a new threat or denunciation almost every day.
The sanctions coincide with annual spring drills between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, which Pyongyang considers a rehearsal for an invasion. The ongoing exercises are viewed as particularly antagonistic because special forces are practicing “decapitation strikes” that target Northern leaders and the destruction of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile sites.
On Friday, North Korea’s state media reported that Kim ordered more nuclear tests, while the North’s Korean People’s Army warned in a statement Saturday that it would counter the drills by “liberat[ing] the whole of South Korea including Seoul . . . with an ultra-precision blitzkrieg strike of the Korean style.”
South Korea’s Defense Ministry urged Pyongyang to stop its threats and provocations.
“If the North continues to make provocations despite the stern warnings made by our military, it is inevitable for us to roll out a strict response that may lead to the destruction of the Pyongyang regime,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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#2
The guy missed his calling. With a face and haircut like that he should be on SNL or Comedy Central. He could make a fortune as a stand up comic in America.
Pragmatically, Pudgy = NOKOR/DPRK can "liberate" SOKOR from itself widout help from China + PLA, as most of NOKOR's military equipment dates are several decades old - as things stand, NOKOR's Armed Forces is more "defensive" capable or oriented, not "offensive.
Second, CHINA = COLD WAR USSR/CPSU = doesn't trust or allow lessor satellite = vassal nations to possess or control nukes that could be used agz China, let alone destroy China. 'TIS WHY PUDGY ISN'T ALLOWED TO TEST ANYTHING BUT SHORT-RANGE OR VERY-SHORT-RANGE, LOW OR VERY-LOW-YIELD STUFF, ETC. Pudge is NOT in control of NOKOR's major programs, CHINA IS.
China is criticizing the USDOD's on-going, so-called "Return to Asia" [base-sharing] because China hasn't been able yet to re-unify wid Taiwan nor get any "Sole" Milbase rights [strategic access]for the PLA from the Nations of the mostly Pro-US, West "First Island Chain".
CHINA WANTS TO CONTROL OR DOMINATE ALL OF THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN", WHICH IT CANNOT DO IFF THE US IS ALLOWED TO BASE COLD WAR OR SIGNIFICANT LEVELS OF MILFORS/MILASSETS ON THE TERRITORIES OF US REGIONAL ALLIES.
Ordinary Americans should expect China to keep pushing the envelope as per the South, East China Seas + Taiwan throughout this the Bammer's last full year as POTUS. As an ANTI-US US OWG-GLOBALIST POTUS, THE BAMMER WILL COVERTLY OR PCORRECTLY-DENIABLY LET CHINA SUCCEED IN ITS EFFORTS TO DOMINATE OR CONTROL THE CHINA SEAS + TAIWAN.
AGAIN, IT BEHOOVES CHINA [+ Russia + Iran, Other?] TO MAKE ITS MOVES WHILE THE PERT, MSM-NET VERIFED "WEAKEST OR WORST US POTUS IN HISTORY OR SINCE JIMMY CARTER" STILL OCCUPIES THE WHITE HOUSE + SITS ATOP AS #1 ON THE US NATIONAL COMAND AUTHORITY, RESPONSIBLE FOR THE US' DIRECT MILITARY RESPONSE TO ANY DOMESTIC ANDOR INTERNATIONAL CRISIS/CRISES, OR IN ALTERNATE FOR THE LACK OF SAME.
AS FOR PUDGE, CHINA-VS-THE-US/POTUS-OBAMA = OWG-CO-SUPERPOWER-VS-OWG-CO-SUPERPOWER, ETC. ALREADY GIVES HIM A GOOD COVER STORY TO TRY TO START A MAJOR US-CHINA WAR IN EAST ASIA-WESTPAC OR NE ASIA IFF IT APPEARS THAT CHINESE TAKEOVER OR ANNEXATION OF NOKOR CAN NO LONGER BE AVOIDED OR PREVENTED.
* GUAM DAILY POST AM > OPINION: NORTH KOREA IS A [NucWeaps] NUCLEAR POWER.
To no one's surprise, or shouldn't be, SOKOR now desires its own Nukes, as will or does Japan.
OWG CO-SUPERPOWER CHINA must either amend or delay its ambitions, OR ELSE WAGE WAR TO DETER OR DEFEAT ITS RIVALS BEFORE THE LATTER GET TOO MILITARILY STRONG = NUCLEARIZED.
Unfortunately, World Political History including Chinese Political History would indic or say that Beijing will likely choose war,+ TO WAGE WAR SOONER THAN LATER.
As loyal reader Deacon Blues titled it in a similar post, "Hellfire and Damnation"...
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia's authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for Portland contained two missiles with explosive warheads on a passenger flight from Lebanon.
Not sure if that's Portland Maine, Portland Oregon, or some other Portland...
Source is Oregon Live, so I'd say it's Oregon.
N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at a Belgrade airport.
Serbian media say documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland. The Serbian state news agency Tanjug reported that the missiles had been packed in wooden coffins and unloaded at the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, where they were inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs.
This type of missile was originally designed to be fired from a helicopter and was named Helicopter Launched, Fire and Forget Missile -- later shortened to Hellfire. The American-made projectiles can be fired from air, sea or ground platforms against multiple targets.
The AGM-114 model is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup Grumman. It weighs about 100 pounds and costs about $110,000 apiece. Most models use laser to home in on their targets, although one version of the AGM-114 relies on radar.
The FBI in Portland said it is looking into the reports.
"We don't have any information on that yet," Jennifer Adams, an FBI spokeswoman, said Sunday afternoon.
"We will say no more!"
N1 reported Sunday that Air Serbia is helping in the investigation. The Serbian flag carrier says "security and safety are the main priorities for Air Serbia."
#6
So, we've given the Lebanese Hellfires for their Cesna Caravans and Super Turcanos (assuming they get delivered one of these days). So I guess the question is, is this common Arabic corruption, or is someone in the Lebanese Air Force playing footsie with a terror group with people in place in the States? Hrm. Portland is apparently host to fairly large Lebanese and Syrian community - not Dearborn or Toledo big, but good-sized.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/14/2016 11:47 Comments ||
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#7
Oh, you conspiracy nuts!
These were just training units, like were shipped to Cuba!
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party was humiliated in key regional elections on Sunday as voters delivered their verdict at the ballot box about her open-door refugee policies.
Rightist populism does seem to be sweeping the EU and America. Wonder why? Could it be that the voters have figured out that the establishment elites hate their countries, hate their people, and don't give a fig what happens to the rest of us so long as they get theirs?
Exit poll results in three out of 16 German states foretell a wipeout in next year's general election as the hard-right capitalized on public disquiet and altered the political landscape forever.
Baden-Wuerttemberg - solidly middle class and home to blue chip companies like Porsche and Daimler - was won by the Green Party after Merkel's CDU lost nearly 11 percent support since the last vote there in 2011. And the Alternative for Germany - AfD anti-immigrant party - garnered 12.5 percent of the votes, propelling a party that her supporters call 'Nazis in pinstripes' into the local parliament.
#10
So, BP, do you think it was an accident that the flow of refugees increased greatly when Putin entered the conflict and started bombing people? Maybe a vast coincidence?
#14
I think he encouraged it, puts other people into a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. I think at least some of the people in the EU are his agents, tasked with starting a civil war one way or another, because once the ball gets rolling and the "middle" gets eaten out of the society it doesn't matter if the invaders win or if (for example) Marie Le Pen wins, for instance the latter thinks it's "right" and "conservative" to get closer, friendlier relations with the current Iranian government.
For example, he didn't "make" Ozero not bomb Assad, but Ozero cooperated with Putin in this endeavour (and is proud of it; I guess now we know what the Flexibility is about).. He even paid for the current Russian/Iranian offensive in Syria, which started right after he sent over the 150 billion or whatever it was to Iran).
As another example, take Ma Merkel. If she weren't a sort-of soviet agent of one sort or another, she'd have prosecuted Schroeder (the German PM who dismantled large parts of their power generation in favor of natural gas, not the cartoon character) when he went straight from a government position dismantling German industry to a seat on the board of Gazprom.
My guess is, Putin's burning through assets within the German government in order to start the civil war while at the same time funding the alt.right "resistance" fighting the other side. Because he thinks he can cut off places like Eastern Europe and well, Israel (whose next generation worth of naval corvettes is currently on order from Germany) from military resupply. Once-in-a-lifetime chance before someone who's less of a crackhead becomes President.
DIYARBAKIR: Turkey on Sunday slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military “cleanup” operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir.
Turkish troops have been waging a major — and controversial — offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since December, imposing strict 24-hour curfews in a number of towns and cities in the southeast.
Ankara has repeatedly imposed curfews for military operations in southeastern urban centers, and on Sunday said restrictions would be slapped on two more towns — Yuksekova, near the Iranian border, and Nusaybin, on the frontier with Syria.
The aim was to “restore order and security” following an increase in “terrorist activity,” local authorities said.
Ankara has vowed to wipe out the PKK, classed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, and said “clean-up” operations in Yuksekova, Nusaybin and Sirnak, a third Kurdish city, are imminent.
As the new restrictions were announced, Turkey eased the curfew in part of Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish majority city, which has been under lockdown since December.
From 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday, residents of part of the city’s historic Sur district were allowed back onto the streets, where some buildings have been badly damaged in the operation, an AFP correspondent said.
Residents forced from the area by the clashes and the curfews returned to inspect their damaged homes, carrying belongings in suitcases and pushcarts.
Other parts of Sur, a UNESCO world heritage site, remain under curfew to allow the authorities to “capture terrorists” and “clear explosives and booby-traps,” according to the local governor.
The police and army launched an operation in the narrow streets of Sur in early December aimed at retaking control of areas seized by armed PKK activists, who dug trenches and put up barricades.
Critics say the clashes have caused major damage and forced nearly 50,000 people in Sur from their homes since the start of December. Up to 70,000 people were living in the area before the violence erupted.
Army high command said this week its operation in Sur had killed 279 members of “the separatist terrorist organization,” the PKK, but gave no toll for security forces. Local media have put the figure in the dozens.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) says dozens of civilians have also been killed.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will do anything to stay in power, including committing political murder, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s main opposition leader has said.
"Turkey is step by step sliding towards an authoritarian regime," Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu told a group of news hounds late on March 12 in the Seferihisar district of Aegean Izmir province.
"The AKP is currently in a position that it may do everything not to leave power, including [committing] political murder," he said, adding, "Because the party knows the cost of dropping out of power."
Kilicdaroglu has been criticizing the AKP, and especially President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , over the diminishing fundamental rights and freedoms in the country and their efforts to shift the country’s current parliamentary system to a presidential one.
"Turkey is on the verge of grave danger. This is a problem not only for the CHP but for everybody," the main opposition leader told news hounds. "I’m deeply concerned with the path the country is headed down, and I can say this here freely because I personally shared my concerns with [Prime Minister Ahmet] Davutoglu. Turkey is being administrated by third class cadres; the merit system in the state has been destroyed. I have serious concerns about who holds the power within state institutions. The Turkish Republic, unfortunately, has turned into an AKP state."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] The Turkish General Staff has announced that a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... Boeing E-3A Sentry Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) aircraft has begun surveillance in Turkish airspace as part of assurance measures for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , while noting that NATO’s mission would be conducted "periodically" in the coming months.
"In line with the Syria crisis and developments taking place in the region and within the content of reassurance measures for Turkey, a NATO AWACS plane has begun conducting [surveillance] duty in Turkish airspace from March 12 to March 15," the General Staff said in a written statement posted on its official website late on March 12.
"These duties are planned to be conducted regularly and within certain periods in the coming months too," the General Staff added.
In December, after tensions flared between Turkey and Russia, the U.S and other NATO allies decided on a package of assurance measures for NATO member Turkey in view of the volatile situation in the region. Alongside an increased AWACS presence, the package also included an increased naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
"We agreed with Turkey on Feb. 11 to intensify [and] to increase surveillance of [the] border between Turkey and Syria. We are in the process of establishing [this] with Turkey in the best possible way," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a joint news conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on March 10.
NATO’s ongoing mission in Turkish airspace is being conducted within the framework of the alliance’s main duty of collective defense and of the principle of indivisible security of the alliance, the Turkish General Staff said. The mission aimed at "displaying NATO’S support to Turkey and the alliance’s unity and solidarity and providing deterrence vis-à-vis potential hostile threats against the alliance’s territorial integrity," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
The cynical me says this is less about 'collective defense' and more about keeping the Turks from dragging NATO into something it wants no part of.
A State Department staffer who oversaw security and technology issues for Hillary Clinton is refusing to answer Senate investigators’ questions about the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server — marking the second time an ex-State employee has declined to talk to lawmakers.
Where there are two there are three. Or more...
John Bentel, a now-retired State employee who managed IT security issues for the top echelon at the department, declined to be interviewed by GOP staff on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.
The chairmen of both committees, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), are now threatening to consider other ways to compel him to discuss the matter.
[DAWN] The Sindh government has identified 53 seminaries having ‘leaning towards militancy’ against which security agencies have been ordered to take ‘appropriate action’, it emerged on Saturday.
Officials of the home department said they had got reports from intelligence sources which found 53 madressahs with ‘leaning towards militancy’ and a majority of them were in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... In a previous report that was compiled last year, the government had identified 49 madressahs ‘having links with terrorist organizations’.
Sources said the government did not name holy warrior groups to which the seminaries had ties with in the latest report after it had received strong reaction from several religious parties and representatives of different madressah boards to its previous report.
The latest report, which has been submitted to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, used the term "leaning towards militancy" unlike the previous report that stated "links with terrorist organizations", the sources said.
While the holy warrior groups had not been named in the updated report, relevant information had been shared with the Sindh police and the Rangers to take ‘appropriate action’ against them, the sources added.
The report, however, did not explain what happened to a similar order that had been given for action against the previously identified 49 madressahs.
According to the latest report, more than half of the seminaries with holy warrior leanings were situated in Karachi, while a dozen others were in Hyderabad. The rest of the seminaries were functioning in Sukkur and Larkana divisions.
The officials reiterated that they were planning to take legal action against the madressahs. A similar claim they had made months ago.
12,000 seminaries in Sindh
As the authorities updated figures related to madressahs in its report, it emerged that their number increased threefold in Sindh during the past one year.
More than 4,000 seminaries had been recorded until April last year, while their number jumped to 9,590 in October and around 12,000 according to the latest report.
In all, 6,711 madressahs had registered themselves with the government, as the rest were still unregistered, the officials said.
The report said more than 600,000 students were enrolled with the seminaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[AFP] Indonesia does not want one of its most notorious terrorists, Hambali, returned home should the United States close Guantanamo Bay detention center, according to a senior minister.
Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was captured in Thailand in 2003 and spent the next three years being flown between secret prisons until his transfer to Gitmo. At the time of his capture Hambali, was thought to be Al-Qaeda's top operative in Southeast Asia and head of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.
He was accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, and plotting other attacks on U.S. airliners and foreigners.
Indonesian security minister Luhut Panjaitan said, "It's very clear that we do not want to add any more problems in our country," when asked about Hambali.
Panjaitan said an urgent revision of Indonesia's anti-terrorism laws is needed as authorities are currently powerless to stop would-be militants heading abroad to fight with extremist groups.
The government has submitted to parliament new draft measures to bolster Indonesia's fight against extremism, including broader powers to detain suspects. Panjaitan said, "This new terrorism law stipulates the state is authorised to revoke their citizenship if they join foreign fighters."
[IsraelTimes] Kerry says Sunday that 600 fighters from 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 had been killed in Syria in the last three weeks.
"In Syria, over the last three weeks alone, Daesh [Islamic State] has lost 3,000 square kilometers (1,160 square miles) and 600 fighters," Kerry says after talks with European allies in Gay Paree, using another name for Islamic State.
That's better than the reverse, I suppose.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2016 01:40 ||
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#1
I'd expect "I was in Vietnam" to know that body counts worth.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russia has evidence that the Turkish army is on Syrian territory, Russian news agency Interfax reported the Kremlin's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Sunday.
The top diplomat also claimed on Sunday Turkey's actions on Turkish-Syrian border were ‘creeping expansion.’
Tensions between Moscow and Ankara have been high since Turkey shot down a Russian military jet on the Syrian-Turkish border in November last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2016 00:00 ||
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#2
Well, there are Kurds on that side of the border and we know what the Turks think and does about Kurds. Who cares if the Kurds are actually fighting ISIS?
The United States and France warned the Syrian regime on Sunday against trying to disrupt the fragile ceasefire as the warring sides prepared for fresh peace talks to end the brutal five-year conflict.
The UN-brokered indirect negotiations are due to start on Monday in Geneva, the latest international push to try to end a war that has killed more than 270,000 people and forced millions from their homes.
After talks with European allies in Paris, US Secretary of State John Kerry hit out at comments by his Syrian counterpart that removing President Bashar Al Assad would cross a "red line" in the negotiations.
At least when the Syrians say something is a 'red line', they mean it...
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault went further, describing Walid Muallem's comments as a "provocation" and a "bad sign" for the attempts to find peace.
Kerry warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran against "testing boundaries" or lessening their compliance with a fragile February 27 truce brokered by Washington and Moscow that has largely held despite each side accusing the other of violations.
Muallem said in Damascus on Saturday: "We will not talk with anyone who wants to discuss the presidency... Bashar Al Assad is a red line."
Kerry said the Syrian minister was "clearly trying to disrupt the process... clearly trying to send a message of deterrence to others.
"But the fact is (Assad's) strongest sponsors Russia and Iran have both adopted... an approach which dictates that there must be a political transition and that we must have a presidential election at some time," he added. Syrian government negotiator Bashar Al Jaafari arrived on Sunday in Geneva, where delegates from the main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), are already preparing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2016 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.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
SEOUL -- North Korea claimed Sunday that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile to the heart of New York City, the latest in a string of brazen threats.
DIYARBAKIR: Turkey on Sunday slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military “cleanup” operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Turkish General Staff has announced that a 
A State Department staffer who oversaw security and technology issues for Hillary Clinton is refusing to answer Senate investigators’ questions about the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server — marking the second time an ex-State employee has declined to talk to lawmakers.
[DAWN] The Sindh government has identified 53 seminaries having ‘leaning towards militancy’ against which security agencies have been ordered to take ‘appropriate action’, it emerged on Saturday.
[AFP] Indonesia does not want one of its most notorious terrorists, Hambali, returned home should the United States close Guantanamo Bay detention center, according to a senior minister.
[IsraelTimes] Kerry says Sunday that 600 fighters from the 
The United States and France warned the Syrian regime on Sunday against trying to disrupt the fragile ceasefire as the warring sides prepared for fresh peace talks to end the brutal five-year conflict.
