The African Union (AU) has extended the mandate of its AMISOM mission in Somalia to May 30, 2017. The decision made public on Wednesday means the 22,000 strong peacekeeping force that was set up to combat Islamist militant group Al-Shabab, will remain in the country for at least another 12 months.
The AU took the decision during the recent 595th meeting of its peace and security council. The body however expressed regret at the decision by the European Union (EU) to cut back its allowance to AMISOM by 20 percent during what it says is a critical phase.
This will require a reduction in pay and benefits to the front-line soldiers of 40%, of course...
The continental body has thus called on the EU to reconsider its decision ahead of the upcoming elections in Somalia.
Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have also been called upon to respect their pledges to deploy air assets for AMISOM operations.
AMISOM and the Somali National Army’s consolidation and expansion operations across Somalia have been lauded although it has been observed that al-Shabab still remains a threat to peace, security and stability.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The US Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned Aguila Saleh, the president of Libya’s internationally recognized parliament in Tobruk, over what US officials say is his blocking of the formation of a UN-backed government of national accord.
Saleh "is responsible for stalling political progress in Libya. Today’s action sends a clear message that the US Government will continue to target those who undermine the peace, security, and stability of Libya," said John E. Smith, Acting OFAC Director.
The Treasury Department’s action means that "all property and interests in property of Issa that are within the jurisdiction of the United States or in the control of US persons are blocked". It added Americans were "generally prohibited" from carrying out transactions with him.
The statement said Saleh had repeatedly blocked votes by Libya’s House of Representatives to support the North African country’s political transition.
Libya has been in turmoil since the Western-backed uprising that overthrew Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... five years ago.
Two competing governments, one in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and the one in Tobruk, backed by armed factions, have struggled for control of the OPEC state since 2014.
A UN-backed unity government, designed to replace the rival administrations, arrived in Tripoli earlier this year and is attempting to assert authority over the whole country.
The Treasury Department move follows a similar taken by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... in April against Saleh.
Along with Saleh, the EU in April sanctioned Nouri Abusahmain, president of Libya’s General National Congress in Tripoli and Khalifa al-Ghwell, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Tripoli government.
The EU said the three played a central role in obstructing the establishment of a unity government in Libya, which has become the main conduit for refugees from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa to leave in boats for Europe.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"He also opposes transgender bathroom facilities"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2016 10:43 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"The US Government will continue to target those who undermine the peace, security, and stability of Libya"
[IsraelTimes] Slain US citizen-turned-jihadist Anwar al-Awlaki was not only a chief propagandist but also a hands-on bomb-making instructor, according to NY court documents
An al-Qaeda operative facing sentencing in a New York court next week said bomb-making instructor Anwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list... had encouraged him to target Israeli and US nationals at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Before his death in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen, the US-born al-Awlaki had emerged as an influential preacher among jihadists living in the West, with his English-language internet sermons calling for jihad, or holy war, against the US.
Al-Awlaki was the first American citizen whose killing by drone strike without trial was approved by US President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... Minh Quang Pham, a Vietnamese-British man who converted to Islam before joining al-Qaeda, said al-Awlaki urged him to use his bombs against Americans and Israelis, according to documents submitted to the court and reported upon by the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... this week.
Pham has pleaded guilty to three terror-related charges. He will be sentenced on Monday.
He told Sherlocks of his meetings with al-Awlaki, who he called the most senior al-Qaeda figure in Yemen.
The Times noted that many critics of Obama’s policy have claimed al-Awlaki was a public figure but not active on the operational level. Pham’s testimony appeared to indicate otherwise.
Pham recalled training sessions with al-Awlaki, where the terrorist instructed him on how to synthesize explosives and how to construct bombs to create the most collateral damage.
When his training was completed, Pham was given $10,000 by al-Awlaki and told to carry out an attack at London’s Heathrow Airport. He specifically told him to target arrivals from the US or Israel, according to the report.
After returning to Britannia, Pham had a change of heart and left the organization, abandoning the attack plans. Al-Awlaki’s influence has also been cited in other attacks, such as the Boston marathon bombings and the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... attacks in Gay Paree in early 2015.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The lawyer representing the Lal Masjid ...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been... surprised the Supreme Court on Thursday when he said he was not concerned with the withdrawal of 20 kanals of land, allotted by the civic body to Maulana Abdul Aziz ...nutball holy man who runs the Lal Masjid in the heart of Pakistain's capital. After instigating a rebellion against the state in 2007, he was caught trying to sneak away dressed in a burka. He rejects democracy as un-Islamic, which it probably is... .
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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As if anyone at the New York Times cares about the opinion of some foreign official not even on the Manhattan cocktail circuit.
Especially some foreign official who isn't even on the official gift registry of the Clinton Foundation...
[DAWN] Pakistain Ambassador to the United States Jalil Abbas Jilani on Thursday rejected assertions made in a New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... editorial published May 12, which implicated Pakistain for the mess in Afghanistan and termed Islamabad a "duplicitous" and "dangerous" partner for the United States and Afghanistan.
In a statement that was a rejoinder to the NYT indictment, Jilani came out hard against the organization, questioning what he called its "partisanship".
He said the situation in Afghanistan was a "collective failure of the international community".
"The May 12 editorial about Pakistain's role in Afghanistan is biased and negates the complex history of this prolonged conflict.
"Allegations of duplicity and double game were extremely painful as Pakistain has suffered the most due to the war in Afghanistan. Pakistain cannot be held responsible for the mess in Afghanistan which is the result of the collective failure of the international community," Jilani said.
Alluding to the losses Pakistain has suffered as a result of the war in Afghanistan, Jilani said hundreds of suicide kabooms and tens of thousands of civilian casualties were a direct result of the US-led war after 9/11.
"Instead of complaining about the heavy cost imposed on us due to sustained external intervention in our neighbourhood, Pakistain has consistently cooperated with the United States and coalition forces in sharing intelligence and decimating the terror outfits operating from the region," he added.
Jilani also said that since 2009, Pak forces have been engaged in incremental operations to clear Pak soil from all the terrorist networks which are concentrated in this area because of "competing interests and mutual rivalries of the big powers".
"It is Pakistain's military which 'fractured the back of Taliban' through indiscriminate counter-terrorism operations."
Instead of putting the entire blame on Pakistain, the Ambassador said it would have been better had the editorial also commented on the protracted Afghan refugee issue and the lack of border management among as underlying reasons for regional instability.
"Omitting such fundamental questions that impede a long-term solution to the Afghan problem smack partisanship on part of the New York Times."
Jilani made clear that Pakistain did not benefit from instability in Afghanistan and always wished them peace and prosperity. "To this end, we are pursuing mutually beneficial economic integration through the policy of a peaceful neighbourhood."
He pointed out the groundbreaking of CASA‐1000 power project on May 11, which he said will bring Pakistain and Afghanistan closer.
The envoy went on to say that Pakistain played a "completely neutral role in the Afghan elections" and has offered all possible assistance to the Ghani government to find a political solution in his country.
Referring to the quadrilateral group holding talks with the Afghan Taliban ‐ which involves the US, China, Pakistain and Afghanistan ‐ Jilani said talks had reiterated that long-term peace in Afghanistan can only be achieved through reconciliation between the various Afghan stakeholders.
"It is imperative that this peace initiative be given a chance to succeed in what the war has failed to achieve in the last fifteen years."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omer Zakhilwal met Chief Of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif on Friday and agreed to resolve the Torkham border issue and resume the routine cross border traffic, military spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said.
Tensions had heightened between Pakistan and Afghanistan as the two countries deployed tanks and armoured personnel carriers along the tense Torkham border, besides sending more troops after their negotiating teams failed to resolve the border fencing dispute, political administration sources had told Dawn newspaper on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] KARACHI: Saad Aziz, who was awarded death sentence by the military court for his involvement in the Safoora Goth bus carnage and murder of prominent human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... activist Sabeen Mahmud and other cases on Thursday, had told Joint Investigation Team (JIT) members that they were ’inspired’ by the sectarian conflict in Yemen, it emerged on Thursday.
Saad told the JIT that before carrying out the massacre of Shia Ismaili community members in their community bus near Safoora Goth, they had watched a video in which Houthi
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Though it is trying to warm up to Cairo, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, also cooperating with jihadists waging insurgency in Sinai, Yoav Mordechai tells Saudi website
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.... fighters have recently arrived in the Gazoo Strip to train with their Hamas counterparts, a senior IDF official said in an Arabic interview published Friday.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai told the Saudi news website Elaph that IS members entered the Gazoo Strip from the Sinai Peninsula through smuggling tunnels maintained and controlled by Hamas.
The fighters entered the Hamas-controlled territory in coordination with Sa’id Abed al-A’al, a resident of the Gazoo Strip city of Rafah connected to Hamas, he said.
Mordechai, the head of the Defense Ministry body responsible for the Israeli border crossings with the Gazoo Strip and Civil Administration in the West Bank, said the military cooperation between the Islamic State and Hamas is unfolding with the full knowledge and consent of Hamas’s leaders.
According to the report, Hamas members have also treated maimed IS bully boyz who entered the Strip from the Sinai Peninsula.
In an effort to help combat the Islamic State in Egypt, the US Embassy in Cairo said Friday that Egypt has received its first shipment of armored vehicles designed to protect soldiers from roadside kabooms.
The embassy said in a statement that the first batch of 762 MRAP (Mine Resistance Ambush Protected) vehicles was delivered Thursday, and is aimed at helping to "combat terrorism and promote stability in the region."
While Hamas "tries to draw closer to Egypt, it’s connecting with the Islamic State and with the Moslem Brüderbund," Mordechai said, referring to the outlawed Islamic party whose president Mohammed Morsi briefly ruled Egypt before being deposed in 2013.
Hamas has apparently tried to distance itself from the Islamic State and Iran with the hope that Cairo would loosen its blockade on the Gazoo Strip. But according to Haaretz, reports pointing to ties between Hamas leaders and terrorist groups operating against Egypt in the Sinai are causing the group embarrassment.
Paleostinian sources quoted by the paper say that while Hamas leaders have adopted a policy of increasing ties with Egypt, there are still bigwigs who are unwilling to break free of Iran and Salafi groups that can also serve as a source of income. Hamas is also under pressure from the Saudi royal family to cut all ties with Iran, 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... ’s enemy.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Ynet] Israeli academic leaders have successfully recruited US university presidents to oppose the American Anthropological Association's proposed boycott of Israel, on which the organization's members are currently voting
[Jpost] One of Austria’s largest companies – the Erste Group – closed a bank account held by BDS Austria. The Jerusalem Post investigative series on the shadowy world of Israel-boycott funding and terrorism finance transactions revealed the Erste Group bank account with BDS Austria in late March.
This is the second instance in which a European BDS bank account was closed due to stepped up measures to stop illicit or unsavory transactions. In February, the Post reported on the closure of the main German BDS bank account. DAB Bank Munich, owned by the massive French bank BNP Paribas, pulled the plug on an account held by the German BDS campaign.
The Erste Group, along with a host of German, French and Austrian banks, has offices in the US. Robust anti-BDS laws in the US are designed to punish companies that enable or participate in Israel-boycott activities.
[Jpost] Legislatures have introduced anti- BDS bills in 20 states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Indiana and Ohio.
#2
If I was President, the BDS movement would be declared a terrorist organization and treated like it. Ie, all members vanish never to be seen again, except as pig shit.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Belgium will extend its F-16 air strikes against ISIS forces of Evil in Iraq into Syria, the government said Friday, as it grapples with the aftermath of deadly ISIS-claimed kabooms in Brussels in March.
"In accordance with UN Resolution 2249, the engagement will be limited to those areas of Syria under the control of ISIS and other terrorist groups," a front man for Prime Minister Charles Michel told AFP after a cabinet meeting.
"The objective will be to destroy these groups’ refuges," the front man said, adding that the strikes would begin on July 1.
Belgium launched its first attacks against ISIS in Iraq in late 2014 as part of the US-led coalition, but decided against strikes in Syria amid public fears over getting dragged into a wider conflict.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the Nov. 13 Gay Paree attacks which left 130 people dead brought home the ISIS threat to the heart of Europe and changed sentiment sharply.
In early March, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said the government was reconsidering its position, as it did not make sense to attack IS in Iraq but not in Syria.
Along with the Netherlands and Denmark, Britannia has also changed tack and launched its first sorties against IS targets in Syria in December.
Michel’s front man did not spell out the reason for the change in policy but it comes as Belgium is still reeling from the ISIS jacket wallah attacks at Brussels airport and on the metro on March 22 which killed 32 people.
The Gay Paree and Brussels attacks have both been linked to the same bad boy cell with links to ISIS in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
"The Belgian Air Force" who knew?
Posted by: Steven ||
05/14/2016 4:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
They live and fly
To deter the likes
Of the Austrian Naaaaaaveeee
Whoever wins determines culpability in war crimes
Members of the UN Security Council expressed anger at all the recent attacks targeting civilians and amenities in Syria including medical facilities, in addition to all indiscriminate attacks. In a press statement released yesterday, members of the council stressed that these measures may be amount to war crimes, and expressed deep concern about the violations of the cessation of hostilities established by Security Council resolution 2268.
Members of the Security Council welcomed recent efforts made by the chairmen of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) who affirmed their commitment to the cessation of hostilities which came into effect on the 27th of February in Syria and using their influence to stop hostilities between parties on the ground. The chairmen also urged parties “to abide by the ceasefire, refrain from disproportionate responses to provocations and exercise restraint”.
Council members also noted that all obligations set out by international humanitarian law must be respected under all circumstances by all parties, and highlighted the need to distinguish between the civilian population and fighters. They also warned against indiscriminate attacks on civilians and amenities.
The members of the Council also called on all parties to immediately implement all terms of the Security Council resolutions concerning Syria, including resolutions 2139, 2165, 2191, 2258 and 2286 which is related to health care in armed conflicts. In addition to this, they emphasised the fact that the Syrian government’s primary responsibility was to protect the people of Syria and added “that parties to armed conflict bear the primary responsibility to take all possible steps to ensure that civilians are protected”.
[ARA News] ALEPPO – Amnesty International said that armed groups attacking the Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo since February have killed at least 83 civilians, and called on Turkey, Gulf states and others to stop the transfer of arms to the Aleppo Conquest operations room–an umbrella for Syrian Islamist rebels.
“Armed groups surrounding the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo city have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks that have struck civilian homes, streets, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians and displaying a shameful disregard for human life,” Amnesty said on Friday.
The organization has gathered strong evidence of serious violations from eyewitnesses, and obtained the names of at least 83 civilians, including 30 children, who were killed by attacks in Sheikh Maqsoud between February and April 2016.
Continued on Page 49
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Doctors, university graduates, retired officers, thieves and criminals, volunteers, seniors over sixty and most of them past forty form the bulk of the “al-Baath Brigades” in Homs.
Christians from the Homs countryside feature prominently in the brigade’s membership, but it is impossible to verify if they are present of their own free will or they were coerced into joining the militia. International organizations document this militia and other militia’s violations for its participants and supervisors to be made accountable and brought to justice.
Given that the alternative is being conquered by ISIS, Al Nusra, or any of the other takfiri groups vying for supremacy with ever-shifting alliances that do not include anyone who believes wrongly...
Until the start of 2016, Homs’ branch of the al-Baath party managed to recruit 4281 persons to form an armed militia in parallel to the regime forces. The militia was formed from local members who are party members and the militia was named “al-Baath Brigade.”
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Russia on Thursday buried its eighth serviceman officially acknowledged to have been killed in its military campaign in Syria, suggesting as many have died in combat since the Kremlin announced a partial pullout as before the March announcement.
Moscow has continued sending military hardware to Syria, according to a Reuters analysis of shipping and aircraft data, and its capability is roughly the same as before it announced the drawdown.
Since mid-March, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the bulk of the contingent in Syria to withdraw, Moscow has acknowledged the loss of four soldiers in combat, the same number as in the previous five months of the campaign.
The latest officially acknowledged casualty of the campaign was a signaler called Anton Yerygin who died on May 7, according to Interfax news agency,
"Yerygin was badly wounded as a result of shelling by militants while he was on assignment accompanying cars of the Russian ceasefire monitoring center," Interfax quoted a spokesman at Russia's Hmeimim air base in Syria as saying late on Wednesday.
Yerygin left for Syria on April 3, two weeks after the declared withdrawal, local website RIA Voronezh reported from his hometown, in central Russia.
"Anton texted or called his mother every day. But then the connection was lost with him," Sofia Zhenova, a colleague of Yerygin's mother, was quoted as saying by the website.
Try an Ouija board...
In late March, Syrian forces with Russian support recaptured the ancient Palmyra from radical Sunni group Islamic State.
The total official death toll among Russia's military is nine, but only eight of those were combat deaths. One serviceman committed suicide at an air base in Syria's Latakia province in October, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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Nearly 120,000 Palestinian third and fourth generation refugees have left Syria as a result of the long-lasting war, the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees said on Thursday.
Before the war, there were 560,000 third and fourth generation Palestinian refugees in Syria, but as the war continued, between 110,000 to 120,000 vamoosed left the country, said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Xinhua reported.
Krahenbuhl said 45,000 Palestinians had left Syria for Lebanon, 15,000 for Jordan, half of the overall number for Europe via Turkey, and the rest for countries in Asia and Latin America.
Regarding the perpetual UNRWA efforts, Krahenbuhl said the situation of the people in the Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus, is always still desperate, noting that the aid efforts to Palestinian refugees in areas near Yarmouk have recently improved.
He noted that the UNRWA has concentrated on giving aid to the neighbourhoods near Yarmouk camp.
The Yarmouk camp is a large district in southern Damascus. It has recently become a stage of intense battles between the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and the Daesh group.
Red-on-red-on-crimson. Pity they can't all lose...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
My old man’s a refugee,
What do you think about that?
He wears a refugee's collar,
He wears a refugee's hat,
He wears a refugee's raincoat,
He wears a refugee's shoes.
And every Saturday evening,
He bitches about the Jews.
And someday, if I can,
I’m gonna be a refugee just like my old man.
[Hot Air] Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is not very happy with the Defense Department.
The South Carolina Republican, who chairs the Select Committee on Benghazi, has hit road blocks at the Pentagon for his quest to interview men and women of the military who were on call the night of September 11, 2012 when four Americans died during a seven hour terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
I interviewed Gowdy on WMAL in Washington, DC Thursday morning, along with my co-host Brian Wilson.
Wilson asked Gowdy to respond to the latest Fox News reports which include anonymous military personnel who say they were told not to intervene that night in Benghazi, even though his unit was ready and prepared to make a difference and, possibly, save American lives.
Gowdy said he was intent on interviewing these witnesses but he has not been able to identify them because the Pentagon is blocking his way. He went on to lambaste the latest exchange of letters with the DOD.
The political appointee Gowdy was referring to was one Stephen Hedger who has recently been appointed as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. Prior to joining Defense, Hedger was a political operative for Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill on Capitol Hill.
Government Executive highlights part of the letter Gowdy describes as "fiction" in his interview:
The head of a riverine squadron at the center of an international incident in January was fired Thursday, the first officer to be publicly disciplined for errors that led to 10 sailors being captured by Iran after getting lost in the Persian Gulf — a debacle that nearly scuttled the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal at the 11th hour.
Cmdr. Eric Rasch, who at the time of the Jan. 12 incident was the executive officer of the Coastal Riverine Squadron 3, was removed from his job by Capt. Gary Leigh, head of Coastal Riverine Group 1, for what a Navy Expeditionary Combat Command release said was “a loss of confidence” in his ability to remain in command.
Cmdr. Gregory Meyer, who was commanding officer at the time of the incident, is currently with Coastal Riverine Group 1, and has been put on “administrative hold,” meaning the Navy will not transfer him out of the unit, while a high-level review of the Navy’s investigation into the incident continues, said two officials familiar with internal deliberations.
The move is the first in what sources expect to be a series of disciplinary measures for what was a high-profile embarrassment for the U.S. Navy. The 10 riverines were captured and their high-speed special mission boats were seized when they drifted into Iranian waters around Farsi Island, a remote Iranian military outpost in the middle of the Persian Gulf. During their 16 hour detention, one of the U.S. sailors appeared to apologize while being videotaped, which became part of the flurry of Iranian propaganda publicized in the wake of the arrests.
The investigation is still under review and is expected to be released by the end of May, said two Navy officials.
Navy officials believe that a navigational error, along with some baffling errors in judgment on the part of the crew, led to their capture. Officials have suggested that the crew may have been taking an unauthorized shortcut through Iranian waters to meet up with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel for refueling.
Rasch has been reassigned temporarily to Riverine Group 1. Capt. Stanfield Chien has assumed command of Riverine Squadron 3 until a replacement is named. There are about 400 sailors in CRS-3.
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 lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The lawyer representing the 
Nearly 120,000 Palestinian 
