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Today: 67 articles and 204 comments as of 16:49.
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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Taliban Shadow Governor, Military Head Killed in Helmand Drone Strike
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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7 16:49 Vast Right Wing Conspiracy [3]
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Afghanistan
Taliban publicly execute 19-year-old girl in North of Afghanistan
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs have publicly executed a 19-year-old girl in northern Sar-e-Pul province on charges of abandoning her family due to a domestic issue.

According to local officials, the girl, identified as Azada, was first tried in a desert court and was then rubbed out by her brother and Talibs.

Provincial governor’s front man Zabiulllah Amani said the incident took place on Monday in Kohistan
...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns....
at district.

He said the girl had taken shelter in a safe house after she left her home around two months ago but was brought back to home by her brother.

Amani further added that the girl was taken out of the shelter after her brother promised to ensure her safety.
Clearly the safety of her soul required her brother to aid the Taliban in killing her body, and so his vow is kept.
The latest involving public execution of a girl by the Talibs and her family member comes amid growing violence against the women across the country.

Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  But the dems' and medias' dreamboat Khan says the same thing should happen here, that sharia (spit!) takes precedence over our Constitution. Right...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/03/2016 7:14 Comments || Top||

#2  had taken shelter in a safe house

Not so safe, huh?

Haven't heard much about this war on women lately, have we?
Posted by: AlanC || 08/03/2016 7:40 Comments || Top||


Indian woman arrested before joining militants in Afghanistan
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] An Indian woman was jugged
You have the right to remain silent...
before she manage to join the Death Eater groups in Afghanistan where hundreds of foreign murderous Moslems are fighting under different Death Eater groups.

According to the local media reports in India, the 28-year-old woman was arrested from Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi along with her 5-year-old son.

The reports further added that the woman was looking to board a flight to Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
but was identified and arrested before she manage to leave the country.

The woman has been identified as Yasmeen Muhammed but it is yet not clear for which group the woman was looking to work for.

Sources in India have said the Yasmeen was looking to join another Indian man from Kerala who is believed to be fighting for the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in Afghanistan.

The 21-year-old man went missing last month and is believed to have joined the ISIS loyalists in Afghanistan.

This comes as ISIS loyalists are attempting to expand foothold in Afghanistan as they have managed to consolidate operations with the main group in Iraq and Syria.

Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Taliban delegation visited Beijing seeking help to fight aliens in Af-Pak region
[ECONOMICTIMES.INDIATIMES] NEW DELHI: In a significant development that raises China's role in the Af­Pak region, a Taliban delegation visited Beijing last month to seek China's assistance in the pro­Pak murderous Moslem group's fight against foreign troops in the landlocked country.

Chinese support to Taliban will be detrimental to India's security interests particularly in the fight against cross­border terror as Beijing earlier this year vetoed DELHI's move to ban Maulana Masood Azhar
...One of the major players in Pak terrorism. In early 1994, India incarcerated him for his terrorist activities. In 1995, foreign tourists were kidnapped in Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers included the release of Masood Azhar among their demands. One of the hostages managed to escape but the rest were eventually killed. In 1999, he was freed by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 that had been diverted to Kandahar. The hijackers were led by Masood Azhar's brother, Ibrahim Athar. Once he was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pak territory despite the fact that Islamabad had earlier stated that any of the hijackers would be jugged at the border. The Pak government had also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there. Shortly after his release, he made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi, firing up the rubes against America and India...
in UN.

A delegation from the Taliban visited China earlier this month to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, informed officials speaking on the condition of anonymity. The delegation led by Abbas Stanakzai, head of the Taliban's political office in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
, visited Beijing on July 18­22 at the invitation of the Chinese government, official sources said.

"We have good terms with different countries of the world and China is one among them. We informed Chinese officials about the occupation by invading forces and their atrocities against Afghan people. We wanted the Chinese leadership to help us raise these issues on world forums and help us get freedom from occupying forces," reported leading Pak daily Dawn quoting an unnamed Taliban official.

The Chinese foreign ministry has so far refused to comment on the visit even as the Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
government in Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
has taken pot shots at Beijing for hosting the Taliban delegation.

"Afghanistan and China enjoy strong friendly relations. We believe our friends in China will always prefer to maintain state-­to-­state relations and will not provide a platform to those groups that are responsible of the killing of the people of Afghanistan," Foreign Ministry front man Ahmad Shakib Mustaghani said in Kabul.

China has been part of Quadrilateral Coordination Group along with USA and Pakistain on Afghan reconciliation but elimination of Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike upended the Quadrilateral Coordination Group froze the dialogue process. Af­Pak relations have hit a low following spate of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan which the Ghani government has blamed on encouragement from Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  You do of course realize that Big Mo, Galactic Overlord Incarnate, Chief of the Burning Sands wanted everyone to have a sack? Srsly it's written in the Holy K''"!kram.

Get in the sack and don't look back. Allah Akubar and 2 gensu knives!
Posted by: Shipman || 08/03/2016 18:10 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somalia furious at Raila's call for Somaliland independence
[THE-STAR.CO.KE] Somalia has reacted angrily to Cord leader Raila Odinga's remarks that the international community recognises Somaliland as an independent state.

Ambassador Gamal Hassan termed Raila's comment as irresponsible and damaging the country's territorial integrity.

Raila reportedly said at Chatham House, London where he delivered a speech, that he supports the full recognition of the break-away semi-autonomous state.

"I am a strong supporter of the full recognition of Somaliland. I think there is a very strong case," he said said during a question and answer session at the forum.

But Amb Hassan dismissed Raila and said: "That comment was in a bad taste. It questions the territorial integrity of Somalia,"

"Politics of Somalia should be left to Somalis. Politicians should refrain from such issues," Hassan said.

In a different response posted on Twitter, the embassy in Kenya termed the comment by Raila as "damaging".

"Unity, illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia is inviolable," the embassy said.

Somaliland whose capital is Hargeisa is not internationally recognised as an independent state but mainly referred to as semi-autonomous.

It declared independence from the larger Mogadishu-based Somalia in 1991, following the collapse of the government led by Siad Bare.

But it has not been recognised internationally yet.

Raila's comment comes a week after the chair of council of governors, Peter Munya called for "some recognition" of Somaliland.

He spoke after he led a Kenyan delegation to Hargeisa in a bid to convince leaders to remove restrictions on Miraa trade.

"In my deliberations with top government officials, I managed to convince the government to appoint a technical committee to review the duty in exchange of some form of recognition of the Republic of Somaliland by the Kenyan government," Munya, who is also the governor of Meru, said.

Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
Geopolitical Futures: Troubling Signs out of Germany and Saudi Arabia
Deutsche Bank and the Saudi central bank released unnerving statements yesterday.
Posted by: charger || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not so hungry anymore.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/03/2016 18:20 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Erdogan says Gulen a pawn backed by a 'mastermind'
[DAWN] The US-based Moslem holy man Fethullah Gulen blamed by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
for orchestrating a failed coup this month is a pawn backed by a "criminal mastermind", President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, hinting that greater powers were behind the attempted putsch.

Erdogan often refers to a "criminal mastermind" in his speeches, a reference widely seen as an allusion to the West in general and the United States more specifically.

The holy man, Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in the self-imposed exile in the United States for years, has denied any involvement in the failed coup of July 15-16.

Conspiracy theories have flourished in Turkey since the attempted coup, with one pro-government newspaper saying the putsch was financed by the Central Intelligence Agency and directed by a retired US army general using a cell phone in Afghanistan.

The United States has denied any involvement and any prior knowledge of the failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
to overthrow the government.

Erdogan also issued a new presidential decree Sunday that introduced sweeping reforms to Turkey's military in the wake of the failed coup, bringing the Turkish armed forces further under civilian authority.

The decree, the third to have been issued after a three-month state of emergency was declared following the attempted coup, gives the president and prime minister the authority to issue direct orders to the commanders of the army, air force and navy.

It also announces the discharge of 1,389 military personnel, including Erdogan's chief military adviser who had been tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
days after the attempted putsch, the Chief of General Staff's charge d'affaires and the defense minister's chief secretary.

Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Conspiracy theories have flourished in Turkey since the attempted coup, with one pro-government newspaper saying the putsch was financed by the Central Intelligence Agency and directed by a retired US army general using a cell phone in Afghanistan.

Why does all the good stuff come out after Tom has left us ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/03/2016 4:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Could it be?

Posted by: Bobby || 08/03/2016 6:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Mastermind possibilities

1. USA - problem is if he said that he would be under pressure to restrict commercial ties and that would reduce the bribes people pay him

2. Secretary Kerry - problem is he isn't smart enough to be a mastermind

3. Israel - problem is he just signed a commercial agreement there too and he would have to forego some really good bribes

4. Iran - problem is that Gulan is a Sunni

5. Assad - problem is that if he said that he would be under pressure to use his military against Assad and the military is in poor shape thanks to Erdogan himself

6. International Zionists - not bad, how Zionists could manipulate Gulan is difficult to imagine but if you are crazy you could imagine it

7. Catholic Church - same problem as with Zionists

8. Freemason Society - Weird but perhaps if you are crazy enough (same with Scientology, Mormon Church, etc.)

9. Russia - not easily because they just kissed and made up

Posted by: lord garth || 08/03/2016 9:21 Comments || Top||

#4  We just selected Hildabeest and the Donald to be our presidential candidates. There are no masterminds here !
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 08/03/2016 10:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Then that leaves one man - Dick Cheney!
Posted by: Raj || 08/03/2016 11:42 Comments || Top||

#6  9. Russia - not easily because they just kissed and made up

Somewhat off topic, I've got this nagging feeling that Putin is not quite done with Turkey.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/03/2016 12:18 Comments || Top||

#7  SteveS, I think you may be right. Crimea was the cranberry sauce, the stuffing comes next, then the white meat?
Posted by: AlanC || 08/03/2016 12:52 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe Erdogan is on board with [THIS]
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 08/03/2016 13:01 Comments || Top||

#9  James Baker?
Posted by: Shipman || 08/03/2016 13:14 Comments || Top||

#10  The Russians were really upset when Britain forced Russia to accept Turkey's militarization of the Bosphorus in the treaty of whatever.

Unfinished business.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/03/2016 17:47 Comments || Top||


Turkey post-"coup" brief roundup: Wednesday August 3rd
Turkey Issues Arrest Warrants for 100 Staff at Ankara Hospital

[AnNahar] Turkey on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for 100 staff, including doctors, at the main military hospital in Ankara as part of an investigation into last month's failed coup, a Turkish official and reports said.

Police were searching the Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) hospital in the capital, the private NTV television reported. It was not immediately clear if any suspects had been detained.

The official said that staff at the hospital were suspected of helping fast-track Gulen supporters into the military by giving them favourable medical reports. Similar claims have also been made about military schools where officials have said exams were rigged.

Turkish soccer federation fires 94 refs as coup crackdown grows

[IsraelTimes] Turkey’s soccer authorities have fired 94 officials including referees in the wake of the July 15 coup that tried to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the soccer federation said on Tuesday.

“Our federation deemed it necessary to dismiss 94 people, including regional and nationally-ranked referees and assistant referees, regional refereeing committee members and national and regional observers,” the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) said in a statement.

All members of affiliated committees of the TFF resigned at the weekend to allow a “security inspection” to see if any have links to the Gulen movement.

The star striker for Istanbul side Besiktas, Mario Gomez of Germany who was the top scorer in the Super Lig last year, announced he was leaving the club due to the political situation.
SPORTS.YAHOO adds:
Turkey's football federation has sacked 105 staff, including some referees, two days after officials at the organisation quit as part of a probe into last month's failed coup attempt.
I remember seeing the account of when the rebel soccer refs tried to... No. Wait... Rebel soccer refs?
The federation said in a statement on Tuesday that it had severed ties with 94 people including referees, linesmen and national and regional observers while also ending its relationship with 11 other representatives.

Turkey detains dozens over 'Gulen-linked' sex tape scandal

[AlAhram] Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained at least 36 people over a sex tape scandal that felled the leader of the main opposition party in 2010, linking the affair to the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Deniz Baykal, then leader of the secular opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was forced to resign in 2010 after a tape emerged purportedly showing him in a compromising position with another woman said to be an MP in his own party. Similar scandals then affected prominent figures in the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) from 2011. The origin of the tapes has never been clearly explained.

But the state-run Anadolu news agency said at least 89 arrest warrants had been issued over the tapes in the wake of the coup. At least 36 people had been detained so far with efforts continuing to pick up 53 others.

It said that the way the videos were obtained appeared to bear the trace of Gulen's group, which even before the coup was accused in Turkey of eavesdropping on top officials including Erdogan.

Italy, Turkey trade barbs over money-laundering probe into Erdogan's son

[AlAhram] Rome and Ankara traded barbs on Tuesday over an Italian investigation into accusations that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's son Bilal laundered money. Erdogan told RAI television that the probe by prosecutors in the northern city of Bologna, where Bilal had been studying, might affect bilateral links.

"If my son came back to Italy at this moment, he could be arrested," Erdogan said in an interview with the state broadcaster. "This could even cause problems for our relationship with Italy."
Golly. It sounds just like the investigation that led to Sultan Recip I's break up with his former BFF Fethullah Gulen. How very odd.
Bilal, 35, went to Italy in 2015 to finish a doctorate. It was not clear when he left, but a legal source said he had been back in Turkey for some time. He denies wrongdoing.

The money-laundering investigation followed accusations by Murat Hakan Uzan, an exiled member of one of Turkey's richest families and an opponent of the president, a legal source said. Italian press reported prosecutors were looking into sums of money allegedly brought to Italy from Turkey. In July, a Bologna court allowed them to extend their investigation by six months.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Home Front: WoT
U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed
Obama administration insists there was no quid pro quo, but critics charge payment amounted to ransom

Long piece at WSJ. Simply despicable.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  They went full Carter. You never go full Carter.
Posted by: Thravimp Lover of the Antelope7006 || 08/03/2016 0:53 Comments || Top||

#2  What a weak little man.
Posted by: gorb || 08/03/2016 2:14 Comments || Top||

#3  "here, take my lunch money, don't beat me up"
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 08/03/2016 3:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Poster's question in the NEWSMAX reprint - "$400 million is a pretty big expenditure. Was it Congressionally authorized and appropriated (two separate Congressional actions)? Or was this a dollar redirection within a budget line item (Presidential discretion and therefore lawful)? Or was it an unlawful expenditure?"

No, similar to events in Benghazi, this is John Brennan, ValJar and our 'unlimited budget' CIA at work.

A kinder, gentler, more conciliatory Iran needed to be imaged. The Champ had an Iranian nuclear deal that required signing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/03/2016 3:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Traitors. The lot of 'em.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/03/2016 8:03 Comments || Top||

#6  ...Myself, I think the only people this was a surprise to was the nice people who wrote the article. Any random Rantburger would have seen this coming a mile off.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/03/2016 9:08 Comments || Top||

#7  The US almost always pays. It just usually does not get released in the press.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/03/2016 12:17 Comments || Top||

#8  When do bad policy decisions become materiel support to terrorism? This is stunning.
- $400M ransom payment to Iran in cash...plus giving them a path to a nuke.
- Trading then entire Taliban high command for a US traitor (Bowe Bergdahl) and ensuring that Bergdahl will not go on trial for his sins until after Obama leaves office (Feb/Mar 2017 timeframe).
- Giving the Shia-led Iraqi govt. free reign in 2011 to ignite the civil war that gave us ISIS...

The beat goes on.
Posted by: Tennessee || 08/03/2016 12:18 Comments || Top||

#9  When do bad policy decisions become materiel support to terrorism? This is stunning.

Stunning? You should see my collection of lock washers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/03/2016 12:20 Comments || Top||

#10  $400 million in palletized, mixed currencies plus the release of billions more in accounts frozen after 1979. Heckuva payoff for a few kidnapped Americans and a signed agreement (not a treaty) not to make nuclear weapons for a few years. And that agreement might as well have been written in invisible ink, for all the compliance it will get.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/03/2016 12:52 Comments || Top||

#11 
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 08/03/2016 12:56 Comments || Top||

#12  As Designed TW...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/03/2016 13:49 Comments || Top||

#13  Don't worry, the MSM won't make a fuss over this scandal.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/03/2016 17:32 Comments || Top||

#14  It will go unreported..
Lockwashers? really? I choked on my soda!! That was good.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/03/2016 17:53 Comments || Top||

#15  "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." Attributed to FDR.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 08/03/2016 20:31 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas and Fatah battle over arrests ahead of municipal elections
[JPOST]Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has accused the Paleostinian Authority of attempting to undermine its municipal election campaign in the West Bank by arresting and summoning a number of its members on Monday, according to al-Quds al-Arabi.

Abdul Rahman Zeidan, a Hamas representative of the Paleostinian Legislative Council, said that the Paleostinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) are carrying out an arrest campaign in the West Bank that is "shaking Hamas’s confidence in the PA’s, the government’s and Fatah’s seriousness in organizing democratic elections."

Zeidan added that if the PA wants the municipal elections to succeed, it "must create conditions that reassure the citizen regardless of his affiliation that he can freely vote for whoever represents him."

Hamas’s official website said that PASF has placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
eight and summoned seven others from Hamas and other factions.

On Monday evening, Fatah spokesperson Osama Qawasmeh accused Hamas of arresting and summoning its members in the Gazoo Strip, according to the official Paleostinian Authority Wafa news site.

"The summoning and arrest of dozens of our leaders, members, and cadres in Gazoo has not stopped for one moment [since the 2007 coup], but now [these tactics] have increased in a major way in light of the upcoming municipal elections," Qawasmeh said.

He condemned the arrests and summons, saying they reinforce the division between Fatah and Hamas. "These actions are unacceptable and condemnable," he said. "They prove that Hamas is clinging to an anti-democratic strategy, and insisting on destroying every opportunity to achieve national unity and end the black division."

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior Spokesperson Iyad Bazm denied Qawasmeh’s claims on Tuesday morning, calling them "baseless."

"I challenge him to name one name of a Fatah member that has been arrested in recent days on the basis of his organizational and political background or electoral activity," he said.

Hamas knocks Abbas for Christian election quota
When "Vote for the corrupt one if you want to be allowed to live," is not a threat, but a warning.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rips into Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
for a decree creating a quota for Christian representatives in the upcoming municipal elections across the Paleostinian territories.

Abbas issued a presidential decree Monday requiring nine West Bank municipal districts to have a Christian majority in the local council, and that the head of those councils must be Christian. A total of 67 out of the 3,848 seats up for election were guaranteed to Christians.

Hamas, in a statement posted on their website, calls the decree "a violation of the electoral process and an attempt to influence the outcome."

The Paleostinian municipal elections are slated to take place October 8 and will be held in 416 townships and village councils; 25 are located in Gazoo and the other 391 in the West Bank.
Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Haniyeh seeks to pay Hamas ‘military personnel’ with Qatar’s money
[TIMESOFISRAEL] Senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader in Gazoo Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
said Sunday he is working to ensure money sent to the terror group by Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
will be used to pay "military personnel" alongside civilian babus government employees.

The Times of Israel reported recently that Qatar agreed to transfer some 113 Saudi riyal ($31 million) to Hamas in order to pay the salaries of the group’s employees in the Strip. Over the past three years, Hamas employees have generally been receiving a third to half of their salaries.

According to a statement published on Hamas’s website, Haniyeh is in contact with various "government agencies" in Gazoo to support the payment of the group’s "military personnel" with the Qatari money.

In the statement, the Hamas big turban lashed out against "parties" in Gazoo who attempt to distinguish between the military and civilian branches of the organization. Haniyeh demanded that both military and civilians are considered "legitimate" employees who are "appointed by the decision of a legitimate government."

Haniyeh did not indicate which "parties" had called for there to be a difference between the two branches of Hamas, or indeed whether those parties were strictly Paleostinian or international officials present in the Strip.
Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Qatar's ruling family, the al-Thani have been supporting the Muslim Brotherhood for more than thirty years. Since its inception in 1988 it has supported Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood chapter whose charter demands the extirpation of Israel. The ruling family supplied arms to Libyan Islamist rebels thus fanning the flames of war in Libya. It supplied arms to Islamists operting in Syria. So why is the US so interested in maintaining a huge military base in that country? Why is the State Department enthusiastically supporting the creation of so-called "think tanks" by American leftist institutions? And why is Qatar Hillary Clinton's favorite Gulf country (Google and find out).
Posted by: Fleatch Shitch4438 || 08/03/2016 9:47 Comments || Top||

#2  So why is the US so interested in maintaining a huge military base in that country?

How many choices do we have? And the example of Saudi Arabia shows the benefit to the ruling family of having American Janissaries on site, even if they can't be ordered around.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/03/2016 11:25 Comments || Top||

#3  How many choices do we want? In Saudi Arabia there is a NATO base at Tabaq and at least two secret drone bases. In Kuwait we have a huge base. We have military running around Bahrein. There are weird things happening at Oman and on Socotra Island. I agree that our base on Qatar is there to protect the al-Thani from Iran, but why a base which in extent is bigger than the Pentagon parking lot?
Posted by: Fleatch Shitch4438 || 08/03/2016 13:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I assume that parking lot is pretty big, Fleatch Shitch4438. I'll trust you on the rest -- those are not things I knew anything about... except that Kuwait was used for staging for Iraq, as I recall.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/03/2016 21:40 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian hackers break into Telegram accounts
[IsraelTimes] Dozens of Telegram accounts have been compromised by Iranian hackers and millions of Iranian users’ phone numbers have been leaked, Rooters reports.

The breach in security of the encrypted messaging service "jeopardized the communications of activists, journalists and other people in sensitive positions in Iran," the report said.

Cyber experts tell the news outlet that the type of attacks carried out on Telegram users were similar to ones attributed to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


'Al-Qaeda asked for my CV': Meet the man who filmed suicide bombers in Syria
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] How do you portray a group of men who are preparing to become al-Qaeda jacket wallahs without passing judgment on their actions?

It's a question that Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal had to ask himself time and again while filming Dugma: The Button, a new documentary that aims to show the lives of these men ‐ and they are all men ‐ in the cold, harsh light of the camera.

For the film, Refsdal travelled to Syria, where he gained unprecedented access to al-Qaeda rebel group Jabhat 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 .. ...
. Dugma follows four soldiers from the martyr operation list, each waiting to be called up for their turn to "push the button" in the fight against the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
"My aim was to show the other side of the war and our enemy, so to speak," Refsdal tells me. "I’ve been interviewing hard boyz since 1984. If we have the same interests as them, they are freedom fighters... if not, they are generally terrorists. I wanted to show them in a way that we’re used to showing friendly forces, but not editorializing, not judging, just showing their everyday life."
Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Terror Networks
Islamic State Answers Pope Francis: Ours Is a Religious War and We Hate You
[BREITBART] The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
terror group has come out publicly to reject Pope Francis’ claims that the war being waged by Islamic holy warriors is not religious in nature, assuring the pontiff that their sole motivation is religious and sanctioned by Allah in the Qur’an.

The Islamic State terror group has come out publicly to reject Pope Francis’ claims that the war being waged by Islamic holy warriors is not religious in nature, assuring the pontiff that their sole motivation is religious and sanctioned by Allah in the Qur’an.

In the most recent issue of Dabiq, the propaganda magazine of the Islamic State, ISIS criticizes Pope Francis for his naïveté in clinging to the conviction that Moslems want peace and that acts of Islamic terror are economically motivated.

"This is a divinely-warranted war between the Moslem nation and the nations of disbelief," the authors state in an article titled "By the Sword."

The Islamic State directly attacks Francis for claiming that "authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence," saying that by doing this, "Francis continues to hide behind a deceptive veil of ’good will,’ covering his actual intentions of pacifying the Moslem nation."

Pope Francis "has struggled against reality" in his efforts to portray Islam as a religion of peace, the article insists, before going on to urge all Moslems to take up the sword of jihad, the "greatest obligation" of a true Moslem.

Despite the obviously religious nature of their attacks, the article states, "many people in Crusader countries express shock and even disgust that Islamic State leadership ’uses religion to justify violence.’"

"Indeed, waging jihad ‐ spreading the rule of Allah by the sword ‐ is an obligation found in the Koran, the word of our Lord," it reads.

"The blood of the disbelievers is obligatory to spill by default. The command is clear. Kill the disbelievers, as Allah said, ’Then kill the polytheists wherever you find them.’"

The Islamic State also reacted to Pope Francis’s description of recent acts of Islamic terror as "senseless violence," insisting that there is nothing senseless about it.

"The gist of the matter is that there is indeed a rhyme to our terrorism, warfare, ruthlessness, and brutality," they declare, adding that their hatred for the Christian West is absolute and implacable.

The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah [tax for infidels] and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you.

In a recent presser, Pope Francis told journalists that the world is at war. "But it’s a real war, not a religious war," he said.

"It’s a war of interests, a war for money. A war for natural resources and for the dominion of the peoples."

"Every religion wants peace," he said.

Posted by: Fred || 08/03/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Another arrogant, leftist a-brain that insists he knows better than the Muzzies what the Muzzies are doing.

How do these people do it?
Posted by: AlanC || 08/03/2016 7:57 Comments || Top||

#2  If he could just love them a little more, all would be well.
Posted by: gorb || 08/03/2016 12:06 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
32[untagged]
7Islamic State
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3Commies
3Sublime Porte
2Govt of Iran
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1Abu Sayyaf
1al-Nusra
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Boko Haram
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Syria

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Sat 2016-07-30
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Wed 2016-07-27
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Tue 2016-07-26
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