[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The supreme leader of the Taliban group Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was frequently using 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... airport to travel to other countries with reports suggesting he travelled abroad through Jinnah International airport for at least 18 times.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... a local news channel in Pakistain has reported that Mullah Mansoor travelled to Dubai 9 times using the airport and once to Bahrain.
Citing the travel history of Mullah Mansoor, the local Geo.tv reported Mullah Mansoor travelled between the three countries from 2006 to 2012.
Muallah Mansoor first landed in Karachi via a private airline flight on the 12th of March 2006 from Dubai and approximately five months later caught a flight with the same airline to Dubai on the 23 August 2006 only to return on the 4th of October the same year, according to his travel history.
He was among the prominent commanders of the group when he was travelling to the other countries and his flights have been reported to be in September of 2007, 3rd of October 2007, 11th January 2008, 23rd November 2008, 5th December 2008, 2nd January 2010, 24th January 2010.
His last travelled has been reported to take place in 2012 when he caught a flight to Dubai on the 26th of January.
The records available show, pictures of Mullah Mansour aka Wali Muhammad taken at the immigration counter, as well as in the airport premises.
Mullah Mansoor was killed in an Arclight airstrike carried out by the US forces in the vicinity of 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... province late on Saturday afternoon.
Slain Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour used a Pakistani passport in a false name to make dozens of foreign trips over a ten-year period, mainly to the United Arab Emirates, officials told AFP Tuesday. The relevation casts further light on the degree of assistance likely given by Islamabad to him and other senior Taliban figures as they orchestrated a deadly insurgency against Afghan and US-led troops.
After years of denial, Pakistan in March openly admitted that it was providing shelter to Afghan Taliban forced to flee their own country after they were toppled from power in 2001.
Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike deep inside Pakistani territory on Saturday along with a driver, was travelling with a passport and ID card bearing the name "Muhammad Wali".
Three investigation officials said Mansour used the passport for extensive travel, mainly between the southern Pakistani city of Karachi and Dubai in the UAE but also to Iran. He travelled 37 times, mostly to Dubai from Karachi, during the last 10 years, a senior investigating official told AFP. The official said Mansour first used the passport to travel to Dubai from Karachi in March 2006.
A second official confirmed the trips, adding: "He also travelled to Dubai from Quetta (in southwest Pakistan) on July 16, 2015."
The official said he last left for Iran on April 25 and returned on the morning of May 21, the day he fell victim to the drone strike.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
While traveling through the Airport in Dubai, the good old Mullah walked by hundreds of US troops in transit. Thanks to the ISI and the government of Pakistan we probably walked right by the King of the Taliban himself unawares. He was probably visiting the five detainees that Obama released...Fazl, Wasiq and company. This pisses me off.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Presidential Palace announced Tuesday that there is no specific timeframe for the conclusion of peace deal with Hezb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... Deputy presidential front man Syed Zafar Hashemi told news hounds that grinding of the peace processor is always complicated and it would be a mistake to confirm a timeframe regarding the peace agreement.
Hashemi further added that small and big changes normally takes place everyday, in every seconds and at the final seconds of grinding of the peace processor.
He said the Afghan government will update the Afghan people once the two sides reach to an agreement.
This comes as the Afghan government signed the draft peace agreement with Hezb-e-Islami last week.
Deputy Chief Executive Mohammad Khan told news hounds last week that the draft agreement has been signed and will become enforceable once the Hezb-e-Islami party signs it.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible... the Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... said Sunday that the Afghan government is close to conclude a peace deal with Hezb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Abdullah further added that negotiatiosn between the High Peace Council and Hezb-e-Islami are underway.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... he insisted that the national interests of the country and the Afghan people are a top priority in all key issues, insisting that there will be no negligence in this regard.
He also emphasized that anyone joining grinding of the peace processor should lay down arms, stop insurgency activities, respect the Afghan constitution and reach to an agreement with the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[Wash Times] A year after a Special Forces soldier was denied the Medal of Honor, the nation’s top award for valor in combat, a congressman has appealed to the new Army secretary to review the case. SFC Plumlee on the right with 'Electric Bayonet' shoulder patch.
Army Secretary Eric Fanning was sworn in as the service’s top civilian leader last week, and almost immediately received a letter from Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R.-Calif.) about Sgt. 1st Class Earl D. Plumlee. The Green Beret soldier was nominated for the Medal of Honor for his role in repelling a brutal ambush in Afghanistan in 2013. He received recommendations for the prestigious award from several of the military’s most powerful officers, but was ultimately denied last year by then-Army Secretary John McHugh. Plumlee instead received the Silver Star, which is two levels below the Medal of Honor in recognizing combat heroism.
The case has been investigated by the Defense Department inspector general’s office and pressed by Hunter, who became a vociferous critic of McHugh in his last year in office. Hunter is looking to resurrect Plumlee’s case now in part by noting that McHugh chose to approve the lower award after learning that Plumlee faced a criminal investigation in the Army for allegedly selling a rifle scope online illegally. That raised questions about whether the service only wants recipients of its top awards who have a sparkling overall record. Plumlee has since been cleared of any charges.
"As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a former Marine Corps officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and having worked many valor cases, I can state that Plumlee’s actions most certainly meet or exceed the criteria for the MoH," Hunter wrote in a May 19 letter to Fanning. "Further, I encourage you to compare his actions to other MoH recipients -- I am confident that you will agree that Plumlee’s actions are significantly underrepresented by the Silver Star award."
Wayne Hall, an Army spokesman, said the service has received Hunter’s letter and "will respond accordingly." He declined to make additional comment. Plumlee could not be reached for comment.
[Daily Caller] The Obama administration is pushing for the United Nations to end a 2011 embargo on arms shipments to Libya in order to save the current regime from falling to the Islamic State, but some experts caution a U.S. arms shipment may end up in the hands of terror groups.
In an effort to prevent the spread of ISIS, which metastasized after the U.S. toppled the Gadhafi regime, the Obama administration is looking to provide weapons and training to the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is a United Nations-endorsed state entity located in western Libya.
The problem, according to U.S. Africa Command chief Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez, is it's unclear which groups the Obama administration should support since assessing their allegiance to the GNA in Libya is incredibly difficult. To make matters worse, U.S. intelligence on the ground is patchy.
For this reason, the Pentagon is hesitant to get involved in launching yet another "train and equip" program until there's more "political unity" around the GNA. That’s what Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said shortly after Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, remarked that small teams might be sent to Libya very soon, since political unity could happen "any day."
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt's head of forensics denied reports that an initial examination of human remains belonging to victims aboard the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the Mediterranean pointed towards an kaboom, state news agency MENA said on Tuesday.
"Everything published about this matter is completely false, and mere assumptions that did not come from the Forensics Authority," MENA quoted Hesham Abdelhamid as saying in a statement.
Hesham Abdel Hameed, head of the justice ministry's forensics department, also denied that the reports were accurate, according to the website of state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper.
It reported Abdel Hameed as saying such comments are hypothetical and could not have been issued by the department or any of its forensics doctors.
"No trace of any explosives has been found so far on debris or body parts," one source told AFP.
"When a plane crashes, an kaboom takes place at some stage or another, reducing the plane to pieces," another source said.
This is "either as a result of mechanical failure or a criminal act, or when the plane hits the sea after falling 11 kilometres, as in this case".
"This does not advance the investigation, unless we find traces of an explosive, which is not the case at this stage," the source added.
Hours earlier, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named quoted a senior Egyptian forensics official who claimed that human remains retrieved from the crash site suggest there was an kaboom on board that may have brought down the aircraft.
AP said the official is part of the Egyptian investigative team and has personally examined the remains at a Cairo morgue. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorized to release the information.
He said all 80 pieces brought to Cairo so far are small and that "there isn’t even a whole body part, like an arm or a head." The official adds that "the logical explanation is that it was an kaboom."
All 66 people on board were killed when the Airbus 320 crashed in the Mediterranean early Thursday while en route from Gay Paree to Cairo.
Investigators are still searching for Airbus A320's two black boxes on the seabed as they seek answers as to why the aircraft came down early on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Emirati teenager who joined ISIS in Syria and fought there has been sentenced to five years in prison, UAE state media reported on Tuesday.
The WAM news agency said a defendant accused of joining ISIS received a five-year sentence Monday, without elaborating.
The Al Etihad daily reported that the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi heard testimony that the teen traveled to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and later Syria at the age of 15. The newspaper said the boy's father reported his son's activities to authorities, who later enjugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! the teen at Dubai International Airport.
The United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven city-states that hosts US military personnel fighting ISIS, hasn't faced the bully boy attacks plaguing other Gulf countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemen’s government delegates to peace talks in Kuwait have demanded that deposed President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... be excluded from any political settlement, and that militias be disbanded before any agreement is reached.
The UN-backed unity government delegates said Saleh and Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... Leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi need to be excluded prior to any political agreements.
They also said militias need to be disbanded before any settlement can be reached.
The delegation has also urged militias to release Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Mahmoud al-Subaihi and other political prisoners.
Subaihi was leading a counter-offensive against the Houthis in Lahij governorate in March last year when he was captured by militia forces along with Faisal Rajab, commander of the pro-Hadi 119th Armored Brigade.
They also called for the immediate release of journalists imprisoned in Houthi militia prisons, who have reportedly been on hunger strike while in jug.
Peace talks in Kuwait ended with no resolutions as yet after the government representatives returned to the negotiating table, with close sources reporting that no topics of major disagreements and controversial topics being discussed during the last meeting.
UN envoy to Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement that a joint meeting was held between the two delegations which have gathered in Kuwait and later he met with them separately.
He urged the two parties "to exert all efforts to achieve a sustainable solution for the sake of easing the suffering of Yemenis."
"Any delay, retreat or boycott will take us backward and slow down the solution Yemenis are waiting for," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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Because most of them really want out of Syria, the system and the religion.
Hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans have been lining up at a local swimming pool in Hamburg, Germany, to be baptized as Christians. In the Netherlands and Denmark, as well, many are converting from Islam to Christianity, and the trend appears to be growing. Indeed, converts are filling up some European churches largely forsaken by their old Christian flocks.
All of which raises a question, not least, for the United States: If American presidential candidate Donald Trump gets elected and bars Muslims from entering the country, as he says he will, would the ban apply to Christians who used to be Muslims? How would one judge the quality of their faith? By where they go to church maybe? Maybe have them carry a smart phone with them wherever they go. That way the government can monitor them.
For the moment, that quandary is a ways off for U.S. Homeland Security, but in Europe even now the phenomenon is fraught with echoes of the past, problems in the present, and omens for the future. Forced conversions of Muslims and Jews during the Spanish Inquisition were a dark page in Europe's history. More than a little suspicion surrounds some of the current conversions, seen by some to be cynical bids to improve the chance of getting asylum. And, looking forward, it's potentially quite dangerous for those who embrace the Gospel to return to homelands where abandoning Islam for another faith can be treated as a capital crime.
Still, many preachers are pleased. The German pastor of the Evangelical-Lutheran church in Berlin calls the conversion phenomenon "a gift from God." In his modest community a staggering 1,200 Muslims, mainly Afghans and Iranians, converted in just three years.
In Hamburg, where German ARD TV showed the Pakistanis and Afghans lining up to be baptized by the pastor of the Persian Church community, more than 600 people reportedly were received into the congregation.
There is no reliable overall figure for converts in northern Europe, but judging by reports from different media outlets, it is safe to assume the number runs into the thousands, maybe even tens of thousands who say they want the Gospel, "the good news," offered by Jesus Christ.
One young Iranian woman convert told the German news magazine Stern, "I've been looking all my life for peace and happiness, but in Islam, I have not found them," Another convert told Stern he had found in Christianity an element--love--that was missing from the faith he was brought up in. "In Islam, we always lived in fear," he said. "Fear God, fear of sin, fear of punishment. But Christ is a God of love."
Not all church communities are equally excited about this new development, however. Some church leaders question the integrity of the new stream of conversions, which may be undertaken under subtle--or not so subtle--pressure.
Pastor Gerhard Scholte of the Reformed Keizersgracht Church, who also heads up the refugee task force of combined Amsterdam churches, says, "conversion to Christianity is not promoted in our church, so we see very little of it." From his point of view, "Everyone is a child of God," whether baptized or not. "Faith should not be conditional," he says.
Indeed, Scholte suggests that conversion on a large scale may verge on abuse. "It is taking advantage of people in weak positions and it's all about the figures," Scholte says, "That is abhorrent to me."
His Reformed Keizersgracht Church in Amsterdam has been working with refugees since the early '80s. "Unless it saves lives, we are not eager to convert. In that case however, we convert anyone who wants to," Scholte adds. In fact, this church has a long tradition saving lives through conversion. "This is what our church did to help Jews in the Second World War," he said.
Many evangelical communities today take a more pro-active posture. They approach their work with missionary zeal and, implicitly if not explicitly, may link aid to conversion.
In the Netherlands and other Northern European countries, such churches are very active giving refugee assistance. They encourage refugees to accept Jesus in their lives and embrace the Gospel of Love. At the same time, they offer free Dutch lessons and may invite refugees for a temporary stay in Dutch Christian homes. In many cases this is the first and the only glimpse refugees get into Dutch society outside the boundaries of a camp.
The Dutch New Life Evangelical community in Alphen aan den Rijn reportedly saw 50 new converts added to its ranks in one year. "They were touched by God's word during the prayer sessions," Pastor Ab Meerbeek told the national newspaper Trouw. Most are from Iran and Afghanistan. They listen to the sermons translated in Farsi on headphones.
Whatever the reasons are for Muslim refugees to embrace Christianity, their conversions may endanger them if asylum is refused and they are sent back to their countries of origin. And contrary to popular belief, conversion to Christianity can actually damage one's chances of asylum in the Netherlands.
"It does not help people, because the Dutch authorities tend to distrust swift conversion," said Scholte. "It can work against you when you are seeking asylum."
In Germany, conversion can work to a refugee's advantage. "Members of our community are almost always granted asylum," Pastor Gottfried Martens of the Berlin Evangelical-Lutheran Church told BZ Berlin. "They can't go back without danger to their lives in their home country as Christians."
This paradoxical fact--converted Christians are more likely to be persecuted than those who stay Muslims, and are thus more eligible for asylum--may explain part of the recent surge in conversions.
But there are many cases in which personal safety already is compromised before refugees arrive in Europe, says Geesje Werkman of Church in Action.
"If an Afghan woman comes to you saying she wants to convert because she was raped and because of that she would be stoned, she can be deeply touched and wanting to convert because of a passage in the Bible that says, 'He who is without sin cast the first stone'" says Werkman.
Werkman says she worries about generalizations. "There is not just one story, there are a multitude of different stories," he tells The Daily Beast. "It really doesn't help if the press writes that the conversions are unreliable, when there are so many different situations, it cannot be reduced to one storyline."
Scholte, for all his skepticism about conversions and those who encourage them, thinks the strongest appeal of churches in Europe is a new idea of freedom. "That is what they sense when they come in touch with Christianity. I do understand," Scholte says. "But if you tell me what church you are from, I will tell you how 'free' that will actually be. There are enormous differences."
#1
Moslem people smugglers have been known to throw Christians overboard as soon as the water gets choppy. Therefore it is not a good idea to announce your Christianity until you reach dry land - in Europe.
As for converting to improve your chances of gaining asylum, that is not likely to work. Thanks to Barak HUSSEIN Obama, the US government is actively discriminating against Christian refugees.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/25/2016 11:57 Comments ||
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#2
"If American presidential candidate Donald Trump gets elected and bars Muslims from entering the country, as he says he will, would the ban apply to Christians who used to be Muslims? How would one judge the quality of their faith?"
That is why we should block people from regions and not by religion. Set up a system where someone sponsers you the way they did after World War 2, if you get a sponser you can come over. If you screw up the sponser is also held accountable for your crimes. Let Church groups and such do the vetting instead of the government.
#3
No doubt many are sincere, and many sincerely want to improve their chances of being accepted... and a few are jihadis looking for kill zones, as has happened elsewhere. It would be wise to have the authorities chack each before accepting them into the bosom of the congregation.
#7
My experience is Libya is that there are a large number of sincerely religious people worshipping God. If the recent events have taught them that Islam is bankrupt and self destructive. The religious seeking will go in a different direction.
How many of these may have been closet Christians in their homeland going through the Moslem motions in fear?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/25/2016 16:20 Comments ||
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#8
"Another convert told Stern he had found in Christianity an element--love--that was missing from the faith he was brought up in."
No shit, Sherlock. I'm not even Christian, and even I know that.
(Yeah, yeah, I know not all "Christians" are loving people, but I've never know a radical moslem who was.)
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/25/2016 16:23 Comments ||
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#9
These apostates are going to be REALLY sorry when Sharia is established as the law of the land in Europe .
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/25/2016 16:32 Comments ||
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#10
Those of us who actually know a thing or two about the Spanish Inquisition are having a dark chuckle at this article. "Conversos" is the medieval spanish term for these people. The baptism for whatever reason will only get them so far.
The price for refusing to submit to the Master Religion is meant to be high.
[Ynet] Cyclists at the Tour de La Belle France will be under the watch of an unprecedented force of 23,000 police, including SWAT-like intervention squads, as the government tries to ensure security amid bad boy threats.
La Belle France has been in a state of emergency since attacks on Gay Paree in November killed 130 people, with soldiers guarding landmarks and religious sites. The emergency measures were extended last week to cover the European soccer championship next month and the Tour de La Belle France, which runs from July 2-24.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve met on Tuesday with Tour director Christian Prudhomme and afterward announced exceptional security measures.
#1
Unprecedented? They have hundreds, maybe a thousand or so cops at each stage every year. Unless they plan to have 23,000 at every stage (21 stages, 2,000+ miles total), a physical impossibility, this seems like a non-news item, or just a dumb one.
#3
Being the devious SOB I am, it seems to me that during the Tour would be the perfect time to do a bank heist or a terrorist attack elsewhere as most of the police force is off faffing about.
[AnNahar] The number of migrants colonists dying while trying to cross the Mediterranean has fallen sharply, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday, voicing hope the lethal trend seen since 2013 may be turning.
This year, 1,370 migrants colonists and refugees have died trying to make the perilous crossings to Europe, on all routes -- a 24-percent drop compared to the 1,792 who had perished by this time last year, the IOM said.
So far in May, the toll stands at a total of 13 Mediterranean deaths, none of them on the eastern route between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Greece, IOM said.
By comparison, across all routes a total of 330 migrants colonists and refugees perished trying to cross in May 2014, and 95 died during this month a year ago.
This marks "a considerable drop," IOM front man Joel Millman told news hounds in Geneva.
He especially hailed the drop to zero deaths along the eastern route, where nearly 400 migrants colonists and refugees perished during the first four months of the year.
That steep decline in deaths between Turkey and Greece is not surprising however, after a controversial EU-Turkey deal struck in March has all but shut down that route.
"We attribute obviously this drop in fatalities reported to the extremely sharp drop in arrivals between Turkey and Greece," Millman acknowledged.
In April, arrivals to Greece plunged nearly 90 percent, falling to 3,360 from 26,971 in March, according to IOM figures.
Under the March deal, Turkey agreed to take back migrants colonists landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives, including billions of euros in aid and visa-free European travel for its citizens.
The agreement is the cornerstone of the EU's plan to curb a crisis that has seen 1.25 million Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and other migrants colonists enter Europe since January 2015.
But Millman said the dramatically lower Mediterranean corpse count this month also appeared to be connected with increased efforts by the Libyan coasties to stop migrants colonists from setting off on dangerous voyages, as well as more rescues at sea.
"In the last 24 hours, more than 2,700 migrants colonists were rescued between Europe and Libya by various vessels at sea," Millman said, adding he was "encouraged by the sharp drop in fatalities."
He voiced hope that "the period of stark lethality that has been going on since 2013 may have run its course."
"Maybe we will see a safer summer than we had anticipated a few weeks ago," he said.
#1
Yes, maybe. And maybe the 6000 ISIS operatives that EU security services think have entered Europe will launch 1000 simultaneous Paris-style attacks across the continent, causing 200,000-odd casualties. We could also have that sort of summer.
#2
No doubt that is keeping those paying attention up at night, Bugs Poodle8604. And of course, the numbers of dead are only those counted; nobody knows how many boats were swamped and sank under the waves with all passengers without being noticed.
Greek police started moving migrants and refugees out of a sprawling tent camp on the sealed northern border with Macedonia on May 24, where thousands have been stranded for months trying to get into Western Europe.
Reuters witnesses saw several busloads of migrants leaving the makeshift camp of Idomeni early on May 24, with about another dozen buses lined up. It appeared to be mainly families who were on the move.
Greek authorities said they planned to move individuals gradually to state-supervised facilities further south in an operation expected to last several days.
“The evacuation is progressing without any problem,” said Giorgos Kyritsis, a government spokesman for the migrant crisis.
A Reuters witness on the Macedonian side of the border said there was a heavy police presence in the area but no problems were reported as people with young children packed up huge bags with their belongings. Media on the Greek side of the border were kept at a distance and a group of people dressed as clowns waved balloon hearts and animals as the buses drove past.
“Those who pack their belongings will leave, because we want this issue over with. Ideally by the end of the week. We haven’t put a strict deadline on it, but more or less that is what we estimate,” Kyritsis told Reuters.
At the latest tally, 8,199 people were camped at Idomeni after a cascade of border shutdowns throughout the Balkans in February barred migrants and refugees from central and northern Europe. More than 12,000 lived in the camp at one point.
The International Rescue Committee’s country director, Panos Navrozidis, said on-site pre-registration had proved a good incentive for refugees to leave Idomeni although the asylum process remained “inadequate and slow.”
Railway tracks between Greece and Macedonia have been blocked by migrants for weeks, forcing trains to switch routes through Bulgaria further to the east. Some goods wagons have been stranded on the tracks for weeks.
In an operation that began shortly after sunrise, Greek police said they had put more than 1,500 people on buses to newly opened camps near Greece's second city Thessalonika, about 80 km (50 miles) to the south. On Monday, Greece's migration spokesman Yiorgos Kyritsis said the operation to clear all 8,400 people living there would take at least 10 days.
Officials have said 6,000 spots are available at reception centers, with most of the migrants to be moved to camps at former industrial facilities near Thessaloniki.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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Bulgaria will increase the line of barbed wire along its border with Turkey, which it set up to stop the flow of migrants entering the country, from 30 to 146 kilometers in two months’ time, the country’s prime minister has said.
The 30-kilometer-long barbed wire fence along Bulgaria’s border with Turkey is not enough to stop migrants from crossing into Bulgaria and will thus be extended to 146 kilometers within the forthcoming two months, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov was quoted by Bulgarian News Agency BTA as saying.
Borissov’s comments came as he was inspecting the border line in a chopper along with the Bulgarian interior and defense ministers, according to Doğan News Agency.
Turkey has around 270 kilometers of border with Bulgaria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Dutch MPs voted on Monday to strip dual nationals of their Dutch citizenship if they join terror groups such as the so-called 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 to fight as jihadists, officials said.
"These jihadists can pose a threat to national security when they return to the Netherlands," the justice ministry said in a statement.
Some western governments want the right to strip terror suspects of their nationality if they are dual nationals, including those born in Europe.
With the exception of the far right movements, which firmly support the bill, the issue has divided political parties and raised a great deal of objection.
Australia's parliament has passed in December, a law to strip dual nationals of their citizenship for terrorism-related offenses.
An estimated 110 Australians are believed to be fighting with the ISIS.
In La Belle France, President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... has dropped, weeks ago, a controversial plans to change the constitution; plans which included a clause allowing convicted bully boyz to be stripped of their French nationality, if they are dual nationals. Solo Frenchies were not included in the proposed bill.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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The State Department admitted 80 Syrian refugees on Tuesday and 225 on Monday, setting a single-day record, as President Obama tries to meet his target of 10,000 approvals this year — renewing fears among security analysts who say the administration is cutting corners to meet a political goal.
Officials insist they are moving faster because of improvements in screening and say they are still running all the traps on applicants. But the spike is stunning, with more people accepted Monday alone than in the entire months of January or February.
“The Obama administration is on full throttle to admit as many people as possible before the time clock runs out on them,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies. “This is the classic scenario when political expediency trumps prudence, and someone slips through who shouldn’t have, and tragedy ensues.”
Powerless to stop the civil war in Syria, Mr. Obama has instead offered the U.S. as a haven for some of those fleeing the conflict. He promised to accept 10,000 refugees from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. As of Tuesday evening, the administration had approved 2,540 — an average of about 10 applications a day.
To meet the 10,000 goal, approvals will have to rise to nearly 60 a day.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency charged with vetting the applications, declined to comment on the surge and referred all questions to the State Department, which gives final approval. Officials there insisted that they can meet Mr. Obama’s goal without sacrificing security.
They also promised that we could keep our doctors, that the IRS wasn't harassing anyone, and that Benghazi was the fault of a dumb-assed videographer...
From February through April, the department deployed extra staff to Jordan, where some 12,000 applicants referred by the U.N. were interviewed. The department is also conducting interviews of Syrians in Lebanon and Iraq and said everything is going according to plan.
“Increases in processing capacity have improved our capacity to meet the 10,000 target for Syrian refugee admissions for this fiscal year. As such, we expect Syrian refugee arrivals to the U.S. to increase steadily throughout the fiscal year,” an agency official said.
The department says refugees undergo the most checks of anyone applying to enter the U.S. and that Syrians are getting as much scrutiny as possible.
Define "as possible"...
But pressure to speed up the process is growing. Last week, Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, fired off a letter that said other countries are approving refugees faster and demanded that the administration catch up.
“Refugees are victims, not perpetrators, of terrorism,” the Democrats wrote.
Yes, he's my idiot Senator...
In January, however, two men who arrived as part of the refugee program were charged with terrorism-related offenses.
Dick doesn't have an opinion about that...
One of them, Iraqi-born Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, was living in Syria when he was admitted as a refugee in 2012. The State Department counts him as part of its Iraqi refugee program, not the Syrian refugee program.
The Obama administration has repeatedly cited the Iraqi program as evidence that it can safely admit refugees from Syria. But security analysts say the U.S., by dint of the long war in Iraq, has access to government databases and a presence on the ground to help verify refugee applicants’ stories.
The U.S. has no such access in Syria, where it considers the regime an enemy and much of the country is occupied by terrorist forces from the Islamic State.
Critics say the Obama administration is too heavily focused on Muslim refugees and has left hundreds of thousands of Christians behind. Statistics show only a dozen Christian refugees from Syria have been accepted so far — a rate of less than one-half of 1 percent.
More than 97 percent are Sunni Muslims.
That's because our current administration hates Christians...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... on Tuesday slammed the US government for carrying out air strike inside Pak territory saying it was "totally illegal, not acceptable and against the illusory sovereignty and integrity of the country", he also accused Washington of "sabotaging the peace talks with Afghan Taliban".
"The US government said Mullah Mansour was targeted because he was against the grinding of the peace processor." Did they forget that when Afghan Taliban and Afghan government met for talks in Murree, it was Mullah Mansour who was leading the group, said Nisar.
Nisar criticised the US government, saying the air strike was "totally illegal, not acceptable and against the illusory sovereignty and integrity of Pakistain". It is also against the UN Charter and the international law, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani has expressed hopes of holding a sovereignty referendum within this year as the territory is “ripe for independence.”
You know Erdogan has to be happy about this...
“God willing, this year a referendum will be held,” Barzani said during an interview with Swiss newspaper Neue Züricher Zeitung, rudaw.net said May 24. Barzani added that “Kurdistan [KRG] is ripe for independence.”
Barzani stressed the rights of individual nations, noting that nations have to be consulted whether they want to live within borders or separate.
“No resolution can be imposed and any new resolution now has to be made through a referendum,” which is a gesture of democracy, Barzani said. “Each nation has its own natural borders, and those borders that have been drawn through the use of force should not be maintained anymore.”
Barzani also talked about the Sykes-Picot agreement, which marked its centennial anniversary last week. The Sykes-Picot agreement between Britain and France of 1916 did not actually draw the boundaries of the region, but it did seek to carve out spheres of influence from the ruins of the crumbling Ottoman Empire during World War I.
“The strong forces drew the borders, but now they are essentially destroyed and the time has come that this current reality has to be admitted and accepted,” Barzani said.
Concerning the issue of a possible unification of the Kurdish population in the region, which live in parts of Iraq’s neighboring countries including Syria, Iran and Turkey, Barzani said a nation of 40 million to 50 million people must have its own state.
“Undoubtedly, we welcome the fact that our 40 million-50 million nation has to have a state of its own, but we must also consider the fact that we are divided into four parts. And each part has its own situation and each should find a solution with its central governments,” he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... called Monday for "safe corridors" to be set up to allow Iraqi civilians to flee a military offensive against ISIS in Fallujah.
Some 50,000 civilians in the city are at "great risk" during a campaign against ISIS fighters by the Iraqi army backed by militias, said UN front man Stephane Dujarric.
"One of the problems is that civilians are under grave danger as they try to flee," he said.
"It is important that they have some safe corridors they could use."
Iraqi forces on Monday launched an offensive to retake Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... which became an ISIS stronghold after its fighters seized the city in January 2014.
The UN front man said some civilians were able to flee and were receiving emergency assistance, shelter and water, but he did not provide figures.
Women and children were taken to a location south of Fallujah and men to central Anbar for security screening, said the front man.
The United Nations is "very concerned" about the fate of civilians and mobilizing its aid partners to assess the situation and send help, he added.
On Sunday, Iraq's Joint Operations Command warned civilians still in the city to leave.
It urged families that could not depart to raise a white flag over their location and stay away from ISIS headquarters and gatherings.
Fallujah and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, are the last two major cities ISIS holds in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Two key opposition-controlled areas near Syria's capital were relatively calm on Tuesday after appeals by Russia for a temporary freeze in fighting there, a monitor and an activist told AFP.
Fierce fighting had been rocking the besieged opposition-held town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, and in Eastern Ghouta, a large rebel bastion east of the capital. But festivities subsided in both by Tuesday morning, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
"It has been quiet in both areas since dawn," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Daraya-based activist Shadi Matar confirmed that the shelling and festivities that had shaken his hometown over the past two weeks had stopped.
"There was fighting around midnight but it stopped around 1:00 am on Tuesday and it's been calm since then," he told AFP.
But he said fellow residents were sceptical that the quiet would hold.
"People don't believe (in these truces) like they did before. Their morale is low and they don't trust anyone," he told AFP.
Late Monday, Russia called for a 72-hour freeze on fighting -- or "regime of silence" -- in Eastern Ghouta and Daraya starting on Tuesday.
Both areas are supposed to be included in a broader ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia that came into place on February 27 but has since faltered.
Daraya was one of the first towns to erupt in anti-regime protests in 2011, and was one of the first areas to be placed under crippling government siege in late 2012.
The US and Russia have both pushed for local truces as a way to bolster the collapsing three-month ceasefire.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2016 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 supreme leader of the Taliban group Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was frequently using 
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
[Wash Times] A year after a Special Forces soldier was denied the Medal of Honor, the nation’s top award for valor in combat, a congressman has appealed to the new Army secretary to review the case.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Dutch MPs voted on Monday to strip dual nationals of their Dutch citizenship if they join terror groups such as the so-called 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET]
The State Department admitted 80 Syrian refugees on Tuesday and 225 on Monday, setting a single-day record, as President Obama tries to meet his target of 10,000 approvals this year — renewing fears among security analysts who say the administration is cutting corners to meet a political goal.
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
