[DAILYCALLER] Late one night in February 2011, a group of U.S. soldiers and civilians on a dusty airfield in Jalalabad, Afghanistan conspired to steal and sell jet fuel to a mysterious Afghan contractor. Little did they know that night that the scheme would evolve into a months-long racket that likely ended up funding the Taliban’s ongoing insurgency.
Army Sergeant Kevin Bilal Abdullah, Spc. Stephanie Charboneau and civilian contractors Jonathan Hightower and Christopher Weaver helped an Afghan contractor smuggle over $1,225,000-worth of JP-8 jet fuel off Forward Operating Base Fenty from February to May 2010.
JP-8 is a standard jet fuel utilized by U.S. Air Force aircraft, meaning the fuel ring’s actions likely jeopardized the Air Force’s ability to fly missions in support of U.S. troops, putting their lives in danger.
"Fuel theft not only robs U.S. taxpayers and damages the reconstruction effort, but military operations can be jeopardized when needed fuel is stolen or otherwise diverted," said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in a report released Wednesday. "Impending operations may force a commander to accept what fuel he can and forgo accountability processes to ensure mission success."
To make matters worse, the illicit sale of fuel on the Afghan black market is considered to be a primary funding stream for the Taliban and other Afghan insurgent groups, according to SIGAR.
The conspiracy was a fairly simple operation, but clandestine in nature. Abdullah oversaw the distribution of fuel in the Nangarhar province, which gave him and his fellow conspirators access to the fuel and the papers required to transport it. Working in conjunction with the Afghan contractor, the the group would fill 3,000 gallon trucks, known locally as “jingle trucks” due to their flare and adornments. Abdullah would then forge the transportation movement requests (TMRs) required to move fuel from the base to various locations in the region and provide them to the Afghan contractor, allowing the drivers of the trucks to leave the base with the fuel with no problem.
While Charboneau, Abdullah, Hightower and Weaver would eventually be caught and charged for their crimes, another group of soldiers on FOB Fenty continued the operation just months later.
Army Sgt. Regionald Dixon, Sgt. 1st Class Marvin Ware and later Spc. Larry Emmons engaged in a similar fuel smuggling operation involving forged TMR documents and an Afghan contractor from December 2011 to February 2012. A mysterious Afghan contractor paid the group $6,000 for each 3,000 gallon truck full of fuel. While investigators have reported the two schemes were separate, it is unclear whether or not both groups were bribed by the same contractor. The second group was eventually caught and prosecuted.
A third fuel smuggling case was recently discovered in 2016. Former Army Spc. Sheldon Morgan pleaded guilty to aiding an Afghan contractor in stealing and smuggling fuel out of FOB Fenty. It is unclear whether Morgan was involved or aware of the other two groups, though the dates of the crimes do coincide.
At the time of Ware’s indictment, SIGAR chief John Sopko noted his office had recovered $1.6 million in illegal proceeds and $20 million in civil penalties related to fuel smuggling cases.
Fuel is considered “liquid gold” in Afghanistan’s notorious black market. The Defense Logistics Agency has supplied more than 2.5 billion gallons of fuel, worth more than $12 billion, to U.S. personnel and the Afghan military as of September 2014.
“Almost all the large fuel theft schemes investigated by SIGAR included U.S. military personnel and, in some cases, contract civilian personnel,” noted SIGAR’s report.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
These NCOs are indeed traitors and criminals that funded the threat. The biggest traitors are our deliberately indifferent leaders that allowed the Taliban and warlords to regularly steal and capture billions of dollars worth of our equipment and skim equal amounts from contracts with Taliban front companies. We paid them for the privilege of fighting them.
#3
Considering the billions worth of USA military equipment that ended in the hands of Taliban and ISIS, you're sure hanging NGOs is where you want to start, Bart?
Kenya will not reverse its decision to close down the Dadaab refugee camp and repatriate refugees, Interior PS Karanja Kibicho has said. Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, hosts about 350,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia.
Kibicho said the camp has been harbouring terrorist, who have attacked various parts of the country, especially the Coast. The PS said every terror attack has had its roots from the camp, hence the decision to close it.
Kibicho spoke on Friday in Mombasa. He said the camp will be closed by November 30. “We have lived with them for about 25 years. It’s time for them to go, because most strikes have been planned from there,” Kibicho said.
So they've been acting like Palestinians...
He said it is the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens and borders from “external vicious force”. Kibicho said some Kenyans, who have been living in the camp and masquerading as refugees, will be investigated.
The PS said the repatriation will be done in a humane manner. “They will be taken to Somali and Kakuma camp. Some nations like the US have expressed interest in hosting some of them,” he said. Last month, the UN refugee agency said more than 24,000 Somali refugees have returned home.
UNHCR country deputy representative Wella Kouyou said this year alone, more than 18,000 refugees have been repatriated. He said the UNHCR will work closely with the Kenya and Somali governments to ensure the refugees repatriation is not only voluntary, but is also done in a dignified manner.
Why does it need to be voluntary? If the situation in a decent part of Somalia is such that they can go home, they go home. The UNHCR can run a camp inside Somalia if they wish...
Kibicho also said all the 10 police stations in Mombasa will be fenced by December to reduce risks of attack. He said the OCSs will forward the budget for erection of perimeter walls at the stations.
“We had a security meeting and one of the issues was the safety of the stations. I can assure you that it will be sorted out by December,” Kibicho said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi on Sunday sacked the governor of the country’s central bank and ordered that the institution be relocated from capital Sanaa to Aden.
In a decree, Hadi appointed his finance minister, Munser al-Quaiti, as new central bank governor, replacing Mohammed Awad bin Hammam, according to Yemen’s official SABA news agency.
He also reshuffled the bank’s board of directors.
The Yemeni leader also ordered that the bank be relocated from Sanaa -- which since late 2014 has been held by the Shia 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 ... militia and its allies -- to the southern port city of Aden, the provisional seat of Hadi’s embattled government.
The move comes amid an ongoing dispute between Hadi’s government and the Shia group over state finances.
The government accuses the Houthis of exhausting Yemen’s foreign reserves, which have plummeted from $4 billion in early 2015 to a current $1.1 billion.
"This is one of the gravest economic decisions to be taken within the past two years," economist Mustafa Nasr told Anadolu Agency.
The decision, he said, "will have major repercussions in the upcoming period".
Nasr pinned the move’s success on the government’s ability -- and that of Yemen’s Arab Gulf allies -- to adequately resolve the country’s ongoing economic crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] A Philippine regional trial court has ordered the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to return to the Bangladesh central bank a recovered portion of the $81m that was stolen from the bank earlier this year, a government lawyer said on Monday.
The court has declared Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the funds, totaling $15m, Ricardo Paras III, chief state counsel of the Philippines’ Department of Justice, said while reading a copy of the court’s ruling to a Rootersnews hound.
Unknown hackers tried to steal nearly $1bn from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in early February, and succeeded in transferring $81m to four accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in Manila.
During a Philippine Senate hearing into the heist which ended in May, a casino junket operator claimed to have received $35m of the stolen funds but only returned $15m. It is not clear what happened to the remainder of the money.
Bangladesh had to file a petition staking its claim to the money before it could be turned over to them.
"(The) court ordered the release of the cash now in the BSP vault in favor of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh," Paras told Rooters.
Bangladesh is also seeking to recover another $2.7m frozen by the Philippines’ casino regulator.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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[RFE/RL] Partial results show that Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov is leading with more than 97 percent of the vote in Sunday's election of the regional chief.
With more than 15% of the ballots counted, Russia's Central Election Commission said on September 19 that the other candidates had secured less than 2% of the vote each. These candidates included Chechnya’s business ombudsman Idris Usmanov, Gairsolt Batayev of the Communist Party, and Sultan Denilkhanov of A Just Russia.
Kadyrov has led Chechnya since March 2007. During the last several months, he has run the region as the acting leader after his term officially expired in April.
[Telegraph] A Cameroonian immigrant has been put on trial in Spain for the murder of six fellow occupants of a flimsy migrant boat because of their Christian religious beliefs.
Survivors of the hellish 2014 crossing from Morocco to the southern shore of Spain described how the accused, the Muslim captain of the inflatable craft identified as Alain N. B., blamed Christian passengers for the onset of a storm and forced six men off the boat to a certain death.
According to some of the 29 survivors from the more than 50 sub-Saharan migrants who boarded the boat near Nador, northern Morocco, the accused “blamed the rough seas which were rocking the boat on the prayers led by a Catholic pastor on board”.
Witnesses told investigators that the captain and his second in command, another Cameroonian man who died in Spain before the trial began, “believed that the weather worsened every time the victims prayed”.
According to testimony, the two Cameroonians used planks of wood they ripped from the rigid structure of the boat to beat the Nigerian pastor.
“They badly wounded him before throwing him overboard”, the public prosecutor wrote before the start of the trial in Almería.
The two men searched passengers for amulets or Christian symbols concealed under their clothing and similarly attacked at least five other migrants, all of whom are assumed to have drowned.
According to the prosecution, Alain N. B. “was aware that the victims could not possibly survive and that they would die, either by drowning, from the cold, or from the physical injuries they had suffered. He was aware of the low temperature, the rough seas and the great distance from the coast and the absence of any nearby boats which could rescue them”.
The prosecutor has asked for six separate terms of 15 years for murder with the aggravating factor of “religious motivation”, amounting to a 90-year sentence.
Only one body which may have belonged to a victim was found washed ashore.
On December 5, 2014, sea-rescue services in Almería found 29 survivors on board the 10-metre-long inflatable craft drifting without a motor. At least 21 people had perished during the crossing which had been hit by high winds and rough seas, including some seven babies whose mothers had been unable to hold onto their bundles.
The survivors, all sub-Saharan Africans, were given psychological assistance with their trauma, but suspicions about the two Cameroonians emerged when some of the migrants appeared afraid to talk about what had happened.
The two Cameroonians were found to be carrying €1,500 in cash, the same sum that witnesses said they had found on their victims before forcing them overboard.
[FT] Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... on Monday admitted she would turn back the clock, if she could, on her refugee policy after her Christian Democrat party suffered a historic defeat in the Berlin regional elections.
As she made a rare public expression of regret over her most contentious policy, the chancellor abandoned the calm self-confidence she has radiated since extending a fateful welcome last summer to thousands of mainly Middle Eastern refugees.
"If I could, I would rewind time by many, many years so that I could better prepare myself and the whole government and all those in positions of responsibility for the situation that caught us unprepared in the late summer of 2015," Ms Merkel said.
The chancellor also distanced herself from her phrase -- "Wir schaffen das -- we can do it" -- which captured Germans’ belief last summer in their capacity to integrate the newly arrived refugees. She said it had become "a simple slogan, almost an empty formula" that underestimated the scale of the integration challenge.
The admission was aimed at winning back voters who have flocked to the rightwing, populist Alternative for Germany party, which has made big inroads this year by criticising Ms Merkel’s open-door approach to refugees. She was also responding to the growing ranks of conservative critics in her ruling CDU/CSU bloc, who have urged her to complement recent moves to tighten refugee policy with a more self-critical tone.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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#3
She was also responding to the growing ranks of conservative critics in her ruling CDU/CSU bloc, who have urged her to complement recent moves to tighten refugee policy with a more self-critical tone.
She won't do it. She should pay a heavy price for her lack of repentance.
[AA.TR] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Monday called on the UN to investigate serious human right violations committed in Syria by the YPG terror organization, the armed branch of the PYD, the terrorist PKK’s Syrian affiliate.
"ISIS constitutes an enormous threat to the region and beyond. Terror is our common enemy, and Turkey’s determination to fight terrorism remains firm. We also would like to draw attention to serious human right violations committed by the YPG, which deserve a more detailed and separate investigation," Turkey's ambassador to the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... office in Geneva, Mehmet Ferden Carikci, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"YPG acts such as trying to change demographics and kidnapping local Kurdish politicians may lead to Syria falling apart," he warned.
Noting that despite relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the Syrian regime has continued to block unimpeded humanitarian access, Carikci said, "The UN Joint Investigation Mechanism recently confirmed that the Syrian regime is responsible for the use of chemical weapons in at least two cases, which is both a war crime and a crime against humanity. The regime has the same mindset as ISIS, which also used chemical weapons."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
Any Republican has a difficult pathway to the presidency. On the electoral map, expanding blue blobs in coastal and big-city America swamp the conservative geographical sea of red. Big-electoral-vote states such as California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey are utterly lost before the campaign even begins. The media have devolved into a weird Ministry of Truth. News seems defined now as what information is necessary to release to arrive at correct views.
In recent elections, centrists, like John McCain and Mitt Romney ‐ once found useful by the media when running against more-conservative Republicans -- were reinvented as caricatures of Potterville scoundrels right out of a Frank Capra movie.
When the media got through with a good man like McCain, he was left an adulterous, confused septuagenarian, unsure of how many mansions he owned, and a likely closeted bigot. Another gentleman like Romney was reduced to a comic-book Ri¢hie Ri¢h, who owned an elevator, never talked to his garbage man, hazed innocents in prep school, and tortured his dog on the roof of his car. If it were a choice between shouting down debate moderator Candy Crowley and shaming her unprofessionalism, or allowing her to hijack the debate, Romney in Ajaxian style ("nobly live, or nobly die") chose the decorous path of dignified abdication.
In contrast, we were to believe Obama’s adolescent faux Greek columns, hokey "lowering the seas and cooling the planet," vero possumus seal on his podium as president-elect, and 57 states were Lincolnesque.
Why would 2016 not end up again in losing nobly? Would once again campaigning under the Marquess of Queensberry rules win Republicans a Munich reprieve?
The Orangeman Cometh
In such a hysterical landscape, it was possible that no traditional Republican in 2016 was likely to win, even against a flawed candidate like Hillary Clinton, who emerged wounded from a bruising primary win over aged socialist Bernie Sanders. More at site.
#4
America seems to have mostly bungled things since the end of the cold war. We really could use a reset. Hopefully Trump will be better than all the fear mongers suggest, hopefully having a businessman who loves his country will be what the US needs right now.
God knows he'll be blasted day and night for four or more years in a way that will make the horrific abuse aimed at W Bush look tame. But if he fixes a few problems and get the economy going nobody will care what the media says.
#5
God knows he'll be blasted day and night for four or more years in a way that will make the horrific abuse aimed at W Bush look tame.
Part of that occurs because *we* don't require them to pay the price for their favoritism. STOP watching channels that offend your sensibility with their reporting. I gave up NBC, CBS, and ABC a few years ago. I watch ONLY college football and the NFL on those channels--and when they attempt to editorialize on those channels during football broadcasts, I send emails of complaint. Fuck them. I don't need those channels any longer. There's plenty of entertainment options out there that aren't (actively) attempting to bring down this country.
Almost 100,000 Somali refugees have been resettled in the United States since 9/11, including 8,619 so far during the current fiscal year. The largest number ‐ some 16 percent of the total over the past 15 years ‐ have been resettled in Minnesota, home to the nation’s biggest Somali-American community.
Of the 97,046 Somali refugees admitted to the U.S. since the fall of 2001, 99.6 percent were Muslim, and 28,836 (29.7 percent) were males between the ages of 14 and 50.
Jason Falconer is the man who shot and killed the 22-year-old Somali maniac who went on a stabbing spree at a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday.
Falconer is the owner of Tactical Advantage, a shooting range and tactical training facility. He was also formerly the police chief of the Albany (MN) Police Department and is still a part-time police officer. Falconer is an NRA instructor and a member of the United States Practical Shooting Association, a competitive pistol shooting association.
The media will not tell you those things. Bob Owens at Bearing Arms writes: "But Falconer has consistently been identified in the mainstream media only as as a 'former police chief' and 'off-duty police officer.'"
You can always count on the media to hush up any stories that follow the "good guy with a gun stops bad guy with a gun" narrative. Especially when the good guy trains other good guys.
#4
THIS hasn't been mentioned on CNN or MSNBC. NYT? Are we certain it is true? I mean, THE guardians of All Things Truthy haven't mentioned this, so this information must be suspect.
/sarc
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/20/2016 12:42 Comments ||
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#5
The cops who gave the NJ bomber a flesh wound need to take lessons from Jason Falconer
Posted by: regular joe ||
09/20/2016 12:53 Comments ||
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The Somali American community in St Cloud, Minnesota, condemned on Sunday the mass stabbing attack at a mall the night before, as the immigrant population confronted longstanding tensions and unconfirmed reports emerged of the suspect’s identity.
The community is afraid that their neighbors will react poorly to tomorrow's terrorist attack...
Police have not yet named the suspect, who wounded nine people on Saturday night at the Crossroads Center mall, and whose attack is being investigated as “potential act of terrorism”. But Ahhmed Adan, a Somali immigrant, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday that police had told him the night before that his son, Dahir Adan, had died the night before.
None of the nine injured people suffered life-threatening injuries, and the only fatality of the attack was the suspect, who was shot dead by an off-duty police officer.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Talk is cheap. You know who the bad seeds are and until you solve the problem in your own community, you will continually be shocked and apologize until the lot of you are expunged/removed.
[DAWN] Taking notice of a "hostile narrative being propagated by India", Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif ..Pak chief of army staff, meaning he pulls the strings on the Nawaz Sharif puppet to make it dance and sing and not do much at all.... during a corps commander’s conference on Monday said the Pakistain Army is "fully prepared to respond to the entire spectrum of direct and indirect threats", according to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement.
Presiding over the conference at General Headquarters, Gen Raheel said the Army was fully cognisant of and closely watching the latest developments in the region and their impact on national security.
The Army chief also expressed satisfaction over the operational preparedness of the Army.
The conference provided an in-depth review of the external and internal security situation and operational preparedness of the armed forces,
"Pakistain’s armed forces together with their resilient nation have surmounted every challenge and will thwart any sinister design against integrity and illusory sovereignty of the country in future as well," the COAS said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Afghanistan condemned a deadly attack on the Indian army base in the Indian-administered Kashmir urging to isolate those sponsoring terrorism in the region.
“Terrorism is a common threat to the entire region and world;thus,requires joint fight to eliminate terrorists and isolate those who sponsor them,” the Afghanistan National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement.
The statement further added that “the people of Afghanistan been long victims of terrorism, so we can feel the pain of those who have lost their loved ones in today’s attack at Uri.”
National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar said “I pray for those Indian Army soldiers who have made the sacrifice and lost their lives. I also pray for those injured in this terrorist attack.”
Atmar further added “I am sohcked about the despicable and cowardly attack at Uri. My deepest condolences to the government and people of India.”
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed punishment for those involved behind a deadly attack on army base in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Strongly condemning the attack on the army base in Kashmir, Modi said “I assure the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished.”
At least 17 Indian soldiers lost their lives in the attack on Indian army brigade headquarters near the de factor border with Pakistan on Sunday, killing 17 soldiers in one of the most deadly attacks in the northern region of Kashmir in a quarter-century-old insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[YNETNEWS] Israel denies Hezbollah claims of an Israeli Air Force strike in Syria; two artillery rounds were shot down by the Iron Dome system on Saturday; the two rounds constitute the 10th instance of mortar and artillery fire emanating from Syria in two weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] The governor of an autonomous Moslem region in the Philippines’ troubled south has called on residents to reject a murderous Moslem group that has pledged allegiance to ISIS and to unite in defending peace and development in the area.
Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Moslem Mindanao (ARMM) gave a speech Monday before thousands of conflict-affected residents in the island province of Basilan ...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts... , where troops overran an Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... camp in Baguindan village of Tipo-Tipo town last month.
"I call on all my brothers and sisters in Islam not to hear them, they are the biggest traitor of Islam who kidnap-for-ransom, behead and bomb innocent people and their activities really wreaked havoc in our peaceful communities," he said.
Alongside heavily armed military personnel and pro-government militiamen, Hataman launched a monthly "People's Day in Basilan" during his visit to mark the restoration of government authority in the re-captured area.
Health and social welfare officials from ARMM joined employees of the provincial government in providing thousands of locals -- mostly evacuees -- with free services such as medical consultation and check-ups, while also distributing hygiene kits and food supplies.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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[FRONTERANEWS] Indonesian security forces captured Muhammad Basri, the suspected leader of the East Indonesia Mujahedeen (MIT), an 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.... -linked turban group, on 14 September.
Operating under the alias Bagong, Basri was caught in a joint operation run by the local police and military in Poso on Sulawesi Island.
Less than two month ago in July, Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, Santoso, then leader of the MIT, was killed in a shootout with troops in a targeted mission. Also known as "Abu Wardah," police and military forces had been conducting an intense manhunt for him for over five years.
Both the capture of Basri and the killing of Santoso were carried out under Operation Tinombala, which has resulted in the deployment of more than 3,500 soldiers and coppers in Poso since January. Indonesia’s newly appointed national police chief, General Tito Karnavian, said security personnel are still searching for Ali Kalora, who is the third in command in the group.
MIT is responsible for a number of deadly attacks on domestic security forces, and is believed to maintain a network of trained gunnies around the Indonesian archipelago. In November 2015, MIT uploaded a nine-minute video online that called for attacks on the Jakarta police headquarters and the presidential palace.
Ali Fauzi Manzi, a deradicalized former turban who was the younger brother of the two architects of the 2002 Bali suicide kaboom, said in July that "certainly the target of the group [MIT] is the police and the military, because of their anti-terror operation [in Poso]."
Recent military successes have helped quell concern in Indonesia that MIT could evolve into a force comparable with the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... turban group in southern Philippines or snuffies in southern Thailand.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... myriad bully boyz cells have cropped up much further afield than Poso, and even beyond the archipelago. Most notably, it is believed that an Indonesian turban by the name of Bahrun Naim is directing attacks in Southeast Asia from IS’s stronghold of Raqqa, Syria. Naim’s network of gunnies is be based in his hometown of Surakarta (also known as Solo), a historic royal capital on the island of Java, which has become a breeding ground for gunnies in recent years. The city of 800,000 is also the hometown of Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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The way I read this: If they had won, they would have been assured that Allan approved of whatever barbaric acts they had committed because . . . they had won. Now they suspect they are losing, which means to them that Allan isn't so happy with their choices. But which choices? It's so hard to tell. All they know is that Allan is unhappy with the balance of their behavior. They don't seem to learn much from history. They just keep making minute-to-minute decisions to satisfy immediate desires, history-be-damned. Maybe their clerics keep reinterpreting things to make their immediate desires different from the same immediate desires from years ago. Maybe this could be used to ultimately revolutionize and pacify the religion?
The practice of writing a prominent official or scholar for advice dates back hundreds of years, if not more. In the 1690s, for example, Londoners sent letters to the Athenian Mercury, a twice weekly newspaper that published the questions about everything from love to sin. Religious figures have also frequently been sought out for correspondence by people seeking absolution or guidance in times of hardship. Such exchanges have long been a window into society's fears and anxieties.
Indeed the same may be true for written correspondence from individuals living in parts of Iraq controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which paints a bleak picture of life for both ISIL members and civilians still living under the its control.
The correspondence, obtained by The Intercept and Al Jazeera, was sent to a religious scholar living in Jordan who has been associated with other groups in the past, but is critical of ISIL. The messages come from people in ISIL-held territory, both members of the group and civilians, who are seeking his religious advice. Wanting such counsel from religious figures is common in the Muslim world, but the recipient of these messages in particularly respected among Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Jordan.
The religious figure is not named here in order to protect his legal status in Jordan. Hmm. Seems AJ has more sense here than some members of the liberal press.
The advice seekers are unrelated: one is an ISIL fighter in Fallujah, and the other is a Sunni Muslim civilian living in Mosul.
The correspondence took place from early June to mid August, and coincided with major events in those cities reported by international media ‐ including the Iraqi government's offensive to retake Fallujah and the increasing pressure on the inhabitants of Mosul in preparation for the operation.
"The battle for Fallujah was a success in that it ended with ISIS driven out and a government established that had representation from the local Sunni community," says Nathaniel Rabkin, managing editor of the political risk publication Inside Iraq Politics.
"Having said that, there was a lot of ugliness associated with the campaign, including damage to infrastructure and allegations of abuses by Shia militia groups."
The messages from these cities offer a glimpse into the effect of military pressure on ISIL fighters in Iraq, as well as the fears of some Sunni Muslims that they would be the target of reprisals when their cities were recaptured by the government.
On June 26, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that Iraqi forces had successfully liberated the city of Fallujah from ISIL. The announcement marked the fourth time that Fallujah had violently changed hands since the American invasion Iraq in 2003. In this case, the city, once known as a centre of Sufi Islam, was retaken only after months of US air raids and besiegement by Iraqi ground troops.
Before heavy fighting in the city began this June, an ISIL fighter reached out to the Jordanian religious scholar for advice, saying that members of ISIL had committed "mistakes" in Fallujah, including acts of murder, and had mistreated the local population.
"There is no time to indulge in details. However, if I survive this ordeal I might get into details. But let's suppose that the mistakes had to do with murder, what should I do? And if it had to do with violations of Islamic law, what should I do so I face God with clean conscience? Would my repentance for these actions be enough for God to forgive me if I am a member of this group?"
During the run-up to the battle, the fighter said that ISIL members debated whether to allow their own family members and other civilians to flee Fallujah. He estimated that the group had only around 800 members prepared to defend Fallujah from the Iraqi Army, whose numbers were known to be far greater.
"We in Fallujah are under siege by the Shia, the [hostile Sunni tribes], and the apostates. We have decided that we should fight to death. Our morale is high, but the city is under siege and no supplies can come in. The enemy - the Iraqi army - is over 30,000 while the Mujahedeen are only 800 and are shrinking as a result of the air strikes. The American air force bombs us even if someone fires a bullet."
After the battle commenced, American air strikes on the city apparently took a significant toll on the ISIL defenders.
"In just one day, American bombings killed 75 fighters, and on another day they killed and injured over 40," the man wrote.
Following the Iraqi army's reclamation of the city in late June, the man lost contact with the religious figure. But he reached out to him again in July, saying that he and other surviving ISIL fighters had fled Fallujah into the surrounding desert:
"The reason I stopped this communication was because our internet service was cut off after the attack on Fallujah. We were fighting for weeks, many people were killed and injured. The battle was won by the Shia. We fled the city towards the desert which was disastrous due to the conditions we faced afterwards. The US bombing took its toll on us, and killed about 200 more of us. We fled into the desert and I am not sure if God was testing us or punishing us. I am now in the Al Bukamal area and the internet service here is not consistent."
He recounted to the religious scholar the suffering that he and other surviving ISIL members had experienced while fleeing Fallujah:
"First, we suffered great fear because of the American bombings, and thus there was no safe place for us and no place to hide. This took its toll on us. Then we suffered disorientation and confusion, we were lost in this huge desert. Making things worse was the fact that our guide was killed by the air strikes. We stayed 10 days in the desert not knowing where we were going as we were chased by the bombers from the air. We suffered terribly as result of extreme thirst. Many of us died of thirst and I myself almost died of it, if it was not for God's mercy. It was the most horrific 10 days that I have ever experienced."
The man told the scholar that many of the other fighters who had managed to flee Fallujah had instructed their families to leave ISIL territory altogether and move to territories controlled by local Sunni tribes, for fear of what would happen if they were captured by Shia militia groups. Meanwhile, in his new location, still under ISIL control, he claims to have witnessed the same abuses that the group had inflicted in Fallujah.
"Some of us reached Mosul, others did not. But the same mistakes that were made in Fallujah are being made here all over again. In that I mean the mistreatment of population, disregard to proper strategies and the spread of injustice. If ever want our situation to change, we should start rethinking of our actions and mistakes and revision should be considered at the highest levels."
The man's messages cut off some time after that, with his fate unclear. In one of his last messages he again lamented that the group had lost Fallujah, "because of the injustices we have committed against the people".
Mosul is Iraq's second largest city, and has been under the control of ISIL fighters since 2014. The ISIL force that routed the Iraqi Army is believed to have consisted of little more than a thousand fighters, yet it managed to defeat a much larger force over the course of a six-day battle. The unlikely initial success of ISIL in Mosul is believed to be a product of the widespread unpopularity of the Iraqi Army forces that had been stationed in the city. These forces were predominantly Shia, and were alleged to have carried out sectarian abuses against the city's mostly Sunni local population.
In a series of messages delivered over the course of the summer, a man currently living in Mosul who reached out to the Jordanian religious scholar described his despair over the future of the city ‐ trapped under the harsh governance of ISIL fighters and facing an assault by potentially vengeful Iraqi government forces.
"I am writing this account because I see our end is near. I live in Mosul, I am a devout Muslim, but not a member of ISIL and I don't intend to join them anytime soon. I am writing this account to explain our dire situation in this city. Although like many residents of Mosul, we saw the Shia government of Baghdad as a bigger danger and a threat to our lives than ISIL. But as our life conditions deteriorate rather rapidly from bad to worse, some have started thinking of what was unthinkable few years ago: preferring Shia Baghdad's dangerous rule to ISIL."
While the man had once welcomed ISIL as possible liberators from the oppressive central government, the brutal treatment meted out by ISIL members to the local population had changed his perception.
"While Mosul is under siege and a war against it is looming in the horizon, the people there have lost trust in everything that comes from ISIL. They even are reluctant to pick up arms to defend the city because of mistreatment and harassment they have been subjected to. We even started hearing those who are saying: it does not matter any more who comes and take over Mosul. [ISIL's] behaviour and aggression against the residents of Mosul and their capturing and enslaving women from others faiths has turned people away from them....
...People's morale is down, and I saw that coming, and expected even worse because of how they treated the population and created enemies throughout the region. The situation here is very difficult. I am very confused about the future and often ask myself if we should stay home and await the knives of the Shias when they eventually come to kill us. Should we flee to the desert with our women and children, or keep our families at home and carry arms to defend ourselves?"
In the autumn of 2015, the Iraqi government stopped paying the salaries of public sector workers living in Mosul. While the decision to starve ISIL-controlled areas of funds made tactical sense, it financially left the city's residents impoverished.
"People are exhausted by poverty; they desperately need money especially after the Shia rulers of Baghdad cut off the salaries more than a year ago," the man wrote. "Eighty percent of the people here are government employees, so they are directly impacted by cutting their salaries off and face severe problems of trying to feed and take care of their families."
The callous response by ISIL leaders to this apparent suffering had further embittered the man and other Mosul residents.
"Remarkably, while all this is taking place, ISIS couldn't care less about the people or how they feel or what they are going through. Every Friday during the prayer sermon, their preachers insult the local population and attack them for not going off to Jihad with them and accuse them of being cowards and hypocrites. Their [morality police] is manned by young men and teenagers who insult and attack older and grown men. These young teenagers often issue tickets and fines to elderly men because they for example shaved some of their beards off, even though people barely have money to eat let alone have any to pay imposed fines. They also often yell at women because they slightly showed their faces or eyes from under their veils."
In the run-up to the government offensive against Mosul, many Iraqis have reportedly made plans to flee the city by paying local smugglers. In his letters, the man says that ISIL refuses to let people flee the city through normal channels, claiming that those who flee territory under its control are apostates from Islam itself. The man said that he had tried to reason with local ISIL officials on behalf of the women, children and foreigners present in Mosul, to no avail.
"I advised some of ISIL men who I knew in the city to let the women and children out of Mosul before the war starts, especially western women - French, Swedish, Danish, British and others because they have no place else to go. Unlike what happened in Fallujah where Iraqi women fled to other Sunni areas in advance of the battle and found shelter in tribal areas. Western women and their children have no such option. I told them they should give them back their passports and have them go to Syria or elsewhere before the war starts, because the Kurds and the Shia are coming for revenge and they will murder and rape those women. But they mocked and threatened me and refused to listen.
What makes me more confused is that Raqqa is part of House of Islam, [under the control of ISIL] so why can't they allow people to escape there? Furthermore, ISIL allows Syrians to come from Syria to shop and engage in trade in Mosul, but does not allow Iraqis to go to Syria and do the same thing. I, like many other residents of Mosul, find this very troubling."
In his last messages, the man said that he initially hoped that ISIL would govern Mosul in accordance with his own understanding of Islamic law. But now, he lamented, "what we see here today is everything else but God's conditions and instructions. We see injustice rule us, we see aggression and murder take place everywhere around us."
"Under these conditions we live in, I don't think any of us would have the power or the motivation to fight the Shias when they eventually come to destroy us," the man wrote. "Our situation is dire and is much bigger than us, we can only ask God for his help and his forgiveness."
#1
To the first one I would say, be grateful that the difficulties you are enduring succeeded in Allah's desire that you realize your dreadful error. Now turn your guile and your weapons against ISIS. When you have killed as many of them as of the civilians you previously abused and murdered, and of your violations of Sharia, then you will have shown Allah that your repentence is sincere. And when you have additionally killed among the fighters and rulers of ISIS as many more as you killed of those fighting against ISIS in Fallujah and elsewhere, then you can pray Allah will once again accept you as a true Moslem instead of an abomination hateful in his sight. For the words of repentence without actions to repair the wrong done is the farmer's apology to the pig he puts on the truck to the slaughterhouse.
As for the civilian gentleman in Mosul, Allah has given him exactly what he wanted, good and hard. Let him learn from this to be more modest in his desires in the future.
Oddly enough, no one writes to me seeking advice in such matters.
Around sixty gunmen defected from Al Nusra Front terrorist group in the Zawiya Mountain in Idlib countryside, when they tried to flee into the eastern areas of the countryside of Hama.
The escaping militants were heading to the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group in order to pledge allegiance, before being arrested by Al Nusra gunmen in the southern countryside of Idlib.
They have to wait in jail until their trial is scheduled.
It is noteworthy that this is not the first defection of its kind among Al Nusra ranks, but it had already happened in more than one region in Syria, as several leaders defected after talks between Al Nusra and other factions brought to light.
ALEPPO – Jihadis of the Islamic State (ISIS) started moving their families from the city of al-Bab in Syria’s northern Aleppo province to Raqqa, in a bid to avoid confrontations with Turkey-backed rebel groups and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Dozens of families of ISIS militants were moved to secure locations in Raqqa province–the ISIS de facto capital in Syria.
This comes just a few days after the radical group evacuated its headquarters in al-Bab city. Informed sources in al-Bab reported that major ISIS headquarters in the city were seen empty last week.
The evacuated ISIS headquarters in al-Bab included the Sharia Court, al-Hisba police department, jihadi training camps and weaponry storage centres.
“The Islamic State members started moving their families on Saturday. Since then, dozens of vehicles were seen existing al-Bab, carrying women and children believed to be family members of the ISIS jihadis,” local media activist Nassim Babi told ARA News.
The evacuation also included families of foreign militants.
“They have secured a route towards Raqqa, where their families could be safer after the group lost much of its power in northeastern Aleppo,” the source reported.
This comes as the Kurdish-led SDF forces continued their advance towards the al-Bab city in northern Aleppo. Also, the Turkey-backed rebels of the Euphrates Shield Brigades announced readiness to fight ISIS in al-Bab and other areas in northern Syria.
“ISIS has been under heavy pressure in al-Bab. The decision of evacuating their headquarters comes after the SDF forces made further advance towards the key city after retaking Manbij from the radical group,” SDF officer Habun Osman told ARA News.
In the meantime, activists said that clashes may erupt between the SDF and Turkish-backed rebels if both forces tried to storm the city of al-Bab after ISIS departure. Sporadic clashes took place earlier in August between Turkey-backed armed forces and Kurdish-led SDF troops near Jarablus city in northern Syria.
Al-Bab city has been under ISIS control since 14 October, 2014.
Posted by: badanov ||
09/20/2016 00:00 ||
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Turkish armed forces have liberated more than 5,000 square kilometers of Syrian territories from the militants of the “Islamic State” (IS, aka ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) terrorist group, the TRT Haber news channel quoted Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying Sept.19.
Erdogan noted that currently, Turkish troops stationed in Syria are moving to the south as part of the ‘Shield of the Euphrates” operation. The ongoing terror in Syria is a problem not only for Damascus, but for the whole world, he added.
Which is why he's clobbering the Kurds...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2016 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.
[DAILYCALLER] Late one night in February 2011, a group of U.S. soldiers and civilians on a dusty airfield in Jalalabad, Afghanistan conspired to steal and sell jet fuel to a mysterious Afghan contractor. Little did they know that night that the scheme would evolve into a months-long racket that likely ended up funding the Taliban’s ongoing insurgency.
[RFE/RL] Partial results show that Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov is leading with more than 97 percent of the vote in Sunday's election of the regional chief. 
As we say at the range: "Good shootin.'".jpg)
[DAWN] Taking notice of a "hostile narrative being propagated by India", Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen 
