[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United States will deploy at least 800 soldiers from an aviation unit to Afghanistan in a bid to support the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), it has been reported.
According to Washington based Stars and Stripes newspaper, the unit will utilize Blackhawks, Chinooks and Apache helicopters with a primary mission of supporting Afghan military efforts.
The soldiers belong to 1st Combat Aviation Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley.
Lt. Col. Kimeisha McCullum, a division spokeswoman, said soldiers can expect medical evacuation and logistical support missions, but declined to say whether U.S. troops will play a role in close air support or training their Afghan crewmember counterparts.
"The brigade has trained long and hard for this important mission, and the men and women of this great unit are prepared and ready," Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., the commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division, said in a prepared statement about the deployment.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Likely gonna need some force protection, whatta you figure, a reinforced batallion?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The head of the European Commission on Tuesday pledged "Europe’s solidarity and cooperation in the fight against barbarity", in a letter to French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... after a church attack claimed by ISIS.
"More than ever, all over Europe, solidarity and cooperation will be essential in the fight against barbarity and to ensure that our shared values prevail," Jean-Claude Juncker wrote.
"The European Commission is fully mobilized, along with other European institutions, to provide all the support it can to La Belle France in these painful moments," he added.
In a statement, the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also expressed solidarity and offered her "condolences to the families of the victims, to La Belle France and the Catholic Church."
"Targeting a man of faith, of any faith, is always a crime against our common humanity because it means targeting the deeper essence of our lives, believers and non-believers alike," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
If you need help with the paperwork or some strongly worded declarations, the EU has your back, France. They are "fully mobilized". Yeah, baby!"
As for "Targeting a man of faith, of any faith, is always a crime against our common humanity...", what do you do if a man's faith requires him to kill you?
Or asked another way, how much religious freedom do you allow to a religion that is determined to stamp out religious freedom?
#3
how much religious freedom do you allow to a religion that is determined to stamp out religious freedom?
Ah yes the conundrum of moral relativism. How do you tolerate the intolerant? This has been obvious and ridiculous since day 1 but still the preachers preach and force you to comply.
#4
how much religious freedom do you allow to a religion that is determined to stamp out religious freedom?
How do you tolerate the intolerant?
Both good questions.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/28/2016 11:47 Comments ||
Top||
#5
But thanks to the EU it appears we're gonna find out.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/28/2016 11:48 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Koranimals howl with their wardens
(for piggies and monkeys, no pardons!),
All twitching and jerking
As murder they're working
In Mo's Theological Gardens.
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] The bomber who went kaboom! and maimed 15 people in Ansbach fought for Isis before travelling to Germany, the group has claimed.
The group's weekly al-Nabaa online magazine said Mohammad Daleel took three months to prepare the bomb used in the attack.
The magazine, published late Thursday, said the 27-year-old Syrian, who went to Germany as an asylum-seeker, had previously fought for a branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
After the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Daleel formed a cell specialising in attacking Syrian government forces with hand grenades and Molotov cocktails.
[DeutscheWelle] Bavaria's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, on Wednesday said that a suspected accomplice may have contacted the 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up last week, injuring 15 people in the town of Ansbach.
"There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack," Herrmann said in a statement.
The state interior minister noted that the assailant was in an online chat immediately prior to the attack, although it is unclear who he was speaking to or whether it was a member of the "Islamic State" militant group, which claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said he had been in constant contact with a "soldier" of the self-declared Islamic State.
He said authorities discovered an "intensive chat" on the suspect's phone, adding it "appears to end immediately before the attack."
"Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment," he added. Herrmann noted that the bomb likely went off before it was expected to, highlighting the fact that the suspect killed himself and solely injured others.
[Ynet] German authorities say they've placed in durance vile Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a 15-year-old boy whom they suspect of having planned a rampage and also believe was in contact with a teenager who killed nine people in Munich last week.
Prosecutors and police in Ludwigsburg say the boy was arrested Monday night and sent to a psychiatric facility. A witness said he came across an online chat between the suspect and the Munich shooter, who killed himself amid his July 22 attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Turkish authorities were planning a major shake-up of the military to remove elements linked to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen just ahead of the failed coup, a key minister says Wednesday.
Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , suggests parts of the military had wanted to act against the government as they knew they were about to be purged.
Albayrak, who was with Erdogan throughout the night of the botched putsch on July 15, says the president had first been warned about the coup by a civilian and it was only later that the gravity of the situation became clear.
In his first meeting with foreign news hounds since the coup night, Albayrak reveals that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s Supreme Military Council (YAS) had this summer been planning to meet to expel all officers linked to Gulen, who Turkey blames for criminal masterminding the putsch.
"They were going to take really important steps to remove Gulenist officers and generals from the armed forces. We were already working on this."
He says this would have been part of a general purge against pro-Gulen elements that would have also extended to the legal system and other institutions.
"These people (linked to Gulen) were detected and the related lists had been conveyed to the line ministries."
He adds: "After they (the plotters) realized things were going like this, at their last breath, they took their final step (the coup)."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/28/2016 01:16 ||
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[REUTERS] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Wednesday deepened a crackdown on suspected followers of a U.S.-based holy man it blames for a failed coup, dismissing nearly 1,700 military personnel and shutting 131 media outlets, moves that may spark more concern among its Western allies.
So far, tens of thousands of people - including police, judges and teachers - have been suspended or placed under investigation since the July 15-16 coup, which Turkey says was staged by a faction within the military loyal to the Moslemholy man Fethullah Gulen.
Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but whose movement has a wide following in Turkey where it runs a large network of schools, has denied any involvement in the failed putsch.
Western governments and human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... groups, while condemning the abortive coup in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the extent of the crackdown, suggesting President Tayyip Erdogan may be using it to stifle dissent and tighten his grip on power.
Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possibly death on the night of the coup, denies the crackdown has wider aims and says the Gulen movement threatened democracy by attempting to build a "parallel state" within the military, media and civil service.
On Wednesday, the military dishonorably discharged 1,684 of its personnel, a Turkish government official said, citing their role in the failed coup. Of those, 149 were generals and admirals, said the official, who requested anonymity. Data show that would represent roughly 40 percent of all generals and admirals in Turkey's military.
Broadcaster CNN Turk has reported that more than 15,000 people, including around 10,000 soldiers were tossed into the calaboose so far over the coup, citing the interior minister. Of those, more than 8,000 were formally incarcerated Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! pending trial, it said.
In addition, the government said in its official gazette that three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers have been ordered shut down.
These moves, which follow the closure of other media outlets with suspected Gulenist ties as well as the detention of journalists will further stoke concerns among rights groups and Western governments about the scale of Erdogan's post-coup purges.
The United States said on Wednesday it understood Turkey's need to hold perpetrators of the attempted coup to account, but said the detention of more journalists was part of a "troubling trend".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[Free Beacon] The U.S. is examining a massive collection of digital documents and other data captured from Daesh by Syrian rebels fighting to retake the strategic city of Manbij. The intel includes notebooks, laptops, and USB drives amounting to more than four terabytes of digital information.
Military spokesman Chris Garver said that the U.S.-backed fighters, comprised of Kurdish and Arab forces, collected the material as they went throughout villages surrounding Manbij. He said, "It is a lot of material, it is going to take a lot to go through, then start connecting the dots and trying to figure where we can start dismantling ISIS."
The rebels also collected advanced math and science textbooks that had been rewritten to include pro-Daesh word problems.
Daesh has used Manbij as a strategic center to train, indoctrinate, and dispatch foreign fighters. Garver said the U.S. has begun to understand how Daesh processes militants once they migrate to Syria because of information collected around Manbij.
In a speech to soldiers, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that Manbij is one of the final places linking Daesh's self-declared capital of Raqqa to the rest of the world. "And there, we’re already beginning to gain and exploit intelligence that’s helping us map their network of foreign fighters," said Carter.
U.S. special forces last year captured seven terabytes of data in a raid against senior Daesh leader Abu Sayyaf, which unveiled to the U.S. information about the Islamist group's leaders, financing, and security.
Posted by: ryuge ||
07/28/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
The rebels also collected advanced math and science textbooks that had been rewritten to include pro-Daesh word problems.
No longer a serious threat here. Other 'pro-Daesh' venues will have to be explored.
#5
The goal of the raid was never Document Exploitation (DOCEX). The goal was getting the Champ re-elected. But to answer your question, I suspect it all ended up in burn bags. DOCEX be hard.
#7
Yes, but have the determined whether they're more dangerous than air conditioners?
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/28/2016 12:10 Comments ||
Top||
#8
U.S. special forces last year captured seven terabytes of data
Just about the amount of storage on my desktop.
Knowing how much data 7T is, I'm surprised so little has come of it.
[NDTV] Pakistain's "obsession" to match India in military strength and efforts to equalise the field with "crazies" like Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... , would only create hatred which will bite it back, former Pakistain Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani has said.
"My argument as a Pak is why do we even want to be equal (with India in terms of military prowess). Why do not we want to be happier and prosperous and successful," he said.
"What is this obsession about being equal and trying to equalise the field with crazies like Hafiz Saeed because he will only create hatred, which will only bite us back," Mr Haqqani said in Bengaluru last night during an interaction on his book 'India vs Pakistain - Why Can't We Just Be Friends'.
"Pakistain always had this presumption that India has a tremendous conventional military advantage and Indian army will be much more bigger than Pakistain's. So Pakistain needs irregular methods to be able to be equal," he alleged.
Mr Haqqani recalled a private conversation of former Pakistain President General Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... with Pak newspaper editors, wherein he said Lashkar-e-taiba was his reserve core for fighting India and thus establishes the strong nexus between ISI, turbans and Pak establishment.
"He (Musharraf), in a private meeting with Pak newspaper editors, had said 'Well all of you keep telling me or some of you keep telling me that I should shut down Lashkar-e -taiba, but it is actually my reserve core in fighting India,' a fact that establishes a strong nexus between ISI, turbans and Pak establishment," Mr Haqqani said.
The former Pak envoy said it was disturbing to know that a head of a country had thought so as these turbans "would not do good to Pakistain" as the world had seen them attacking Shias, Ahmediyas and Christians in Pakistain, apart from India.
Mr Haqqani said unfortunately Pak strategic thinkers in uniform do not realise this "disturbing line of thinking of patronising turbans and outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... and Lashkar-e-taiba."
Throwing light on the Jihadi movement in Pakistain, the former diplomat said Zia-Ul-Haq was not the first man to spread jihadi awareness as is presumed, but it was much before him.
"There is a presumption that Zia-Ul-Haq was the first man to start jihadi awareness, but I argue that no it was even further back and there was always a desire for irregular warfare," he said.
Asked how to shut down the large armed militias, Mr Haqqani said it was not easy because they are well trained in warfare.
But the establishment can put them out of business if they are denied the resources for their mobility and movement, he said.
"If we make this decision now it will take some 15 years to put their business out," Mr Haqqani added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] The Iraqi government is trying to turn the Shiite militia forces into an official army, but experts and observers believe this will not succeed.
According to a document recently published in Iraqi media, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued Ministerial order No (91) on February 22. "Reorder and restructure the Hashd al-Shaabi and its affiliated forces based on article 78 of the constitution and in the interest of the public," reads the order.
According to the order, the Shiite militia, known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, will officially become part of the Iraqi army and will play a similar role as the current Iraqi counter-terror agency. "The Hashd will become an independent military structure, and part of the Iraqi armed forces, with a direct link to the chief of the armed forces."
"The agency will be comparable to the current counter-terror agency in structure, will consist of command, general staff and combat brigades."
Recruited officials and members of this agency will work according to the applied Iraqi army rules, and should not have any political affiliations or become involved in any political activities, the order also stipulates.
Although the order was issued three months ago, a Shiite militia spokesperson announced just recently that the order is now being implemented.
"The work has started to turn the Hashd into a military institution parallel to the counter-terror agency," said Ahmed al-Asadi, spokesperson of the Hashd al-Shaabi in a statement to the media on Tuesday, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
"The Hashd board will be directly linked to the prime minister, and like the counter-terror agency will be supplied and get training. But the order did not address the structure of the Hashd and the authority of its leader and deputy," he added.
Iraqi national security advisor Falah Fayaz will become head of the Hashd board, and Shiite militia leader Mahdi al-Muhandis will serve as his deputy, according to a source who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat.
The decision to incorporate the Shiite militias into the national forces has raised worries that the move will stoke sectarian tensions.
An Iraqi source told Asharq Al-Awsat that, "The reveal of the document will deepen Iraqi disputes especially with the Hashd leaders and other Iraqi parties, and will lead Iraq towards an unknown fate in the shade of fighting, rivalry and use of those forces for sectarian purposes, as happened in Fallujah."
"There is pressure on Abadi to speed up turning those militias into a new institution parallel to the army," the source added.
Another source told the paper, "The goal of revealing the document is to push the prime minister to implement the order as soon as possible, since it has been issued but not been active. But announcing it now means starting to implement the order on a practical level."
But according to the source there are challenges that must first be overcome.
"There are many obstacles to forming this agency similar to the counter-terror one, as Abadi wants to do, because the requirements for those who want to join the counter-terror agency do not exist among the majority of Shiite militia members, requirements such as the age should be between 18 and 28, they should hold a diploma, should not have committed a crime, was never tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! by coalition forces, and should not be affiliated with any political parties," the source said.
"Also the number of militias is really high. We cannot put all of them into new squads and brigades."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2016 00:00 ||
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[SPUTNIKNEWS] Al-Nusra Front has reportedly signaled its willingness to sever ties with al-Qaeda and change its name. What lies behind the terrorist group's re-branding?
Following negotiations between Russia and the US on partnering in Syria, al-Qaeda's affiliate al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front has announced its decision to break ties with the terrorist organization and change their name, reports say.
The rumor emerged after US analyst Charles Lister tweeted Saturday that al-Nusra Front's Shura Council voted to break ties with al-Qaeda.
Citing a source close to al-Nusra Front in northern Syria, the media outlet noted that the announcement followed the US-Russian negotiations on teaming up in Syria in order to defeat Daesh and the al-Qaeda's branch.
"The US-Russian decision to attack Nusra in the north of Syria had pushed the Front to accelerate the announcement of its separation from Al-Qaeda through the social media, in order to protect itself from any attack… Had the Americans and Russians not announced their decision to hit the organization, the rupture would not have been announced," the source said as quoted by the media outlet.
On the same day the Middle East Eye revealed that al-Nusra Front would change its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, citing sources within the terrorist organization.
Interestingly enough, the sources also added that al-Nusra Front would lose its access to al-Qaeda's funds. However, the claim has been immediately thrown into question by experts.
The media outlet cited Mohamed Okda, an expert who has been involved in negotiating with Syrian rebel groups. Okda pointed to the fact that al-Nusra Front is mostly funded by private Gulf donors. He also stressed that the separation is not ideological but "organizational."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2016 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.
[IsraelTimes] Turkish authorities were planning a major shake-up of the military to remove elements linked to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen just ahead of the failed coup, a key minister says Wednesday.
[REUTERS] 
[Free Beacon] The U.S. is examining a massive collection of digital documents and other data captured from Daesh by Syrian rebels fighting to retake the strategic city of Manbij. The intel includes notebooks, laptops, and USB drives amounting to more than four terabytes of digital information.
Pervez 
