Houthis: "Watch us."
Aden- Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid Bin Dagher said that the sudden disappearance of liquid cash from both Sanaa and Hodeidah Central Bank branches, in addition to the registered deficiency in the bank’s ability discharge the payroll of employees is a reason for great concern.
Citizens are directly affected by the delayed salaries. More so, civilian life has been rendered to absolute torment and difficulty by the Iran-backed militias who wreaked havoc over Yemen.
Hundreds took to the streets of Yemen’s capital Sanaa and the southern port city of Aden on Sunday to protest a liquidity crunch that has prevented authorities from paying salaries for the past three months.
Security forces loyal to the anti-government Houthi rebels dispersed dozens of protesters in Sanaa. They also maintained a heavier-than-usual presence throughout the capital in anticipation of renewed protests.
Demonstrations staged by soldiers and civilians were faced with Houthi cruelty and violations of civil rights, however, Mr. Dagher says that public rage cannot be diminished or overcome by brute force.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants cracked down on several protests by public servants demanding months of unpaid salaries, residents said on Sunday.
Militiamen cracked down on the protesters using live bullets, rounding a number of them up. Houthis are facing an acute cash crisis as the internationally-recognized government relocated the central bank headquarters to Aden, saving national assets from Houthi monopoly, depriving them from a vital source of finance.
Bin Daghr added that it is time for Houthis to lean towards realizing a peace settlement for the war-torn country, which could only manifest through coup gunmen withdrawing from chief territory such as Taiz and Hodeidah.
Turning in arms is also a predominant factor to realizing a political peace solution, as Houthis and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh loyalists are requested to surrender all illegal artillery to a third neutral party, so that the arm power gets to safekeeping and is never raised again against the national institution and public.
Okaz newspaper commented on Yemen, saying that despite all attempts and initiatives undertaken by the Kingdom, other Gulf States and the United Nations to extinguish the flames of the Yemeni crisis and restore the missing security and stability, Houthi intransigence and continuous deception of supporters of ousted Saleh have thwarted any attempt, initiative and effort for solving the crisis.
The paper called on the international community to take a tough stance against Houthi militias and ousted Saleh loyalists
Why? It's not like President Trump is going to support anything Secretary Kerry does now, when he can renegotiate a more congenial result. And his people already warned the White House not to start any new initiatives, so that outcome oughtn't be a surprise to anyone.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... arrived on Monday in Muscat to try to revive efforts to end the 19-month long war in Yemen.
According to Oman’s offical news agency ONA, Kerry is scheduled to meet with Omani Foreign Minister Youssef Ben Alaoui after being received by Sultan Qaboos.
This is one of his last journeys as head of the state department before the end of the B.O. regime on January 20.
During his visit in Oman, Kerry will be discussing the possibility of restarting peace talks which have stalled between the 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 ... militias and the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The war in Yemen, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives according to the UN, has caused a serious humanitarian crisis in this country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
#1
"Muskrat? Muskrat! I tole youse I wanted beaver pelts."
"No, no, Muscat."
"Muscat?! That cheap ass, foul tasting dessert wine? Worthless. The Induns won't drink that stuff."
"No, no, the Muscat of Oman..."
"Don't give a rat's donkey where it's made. Don't want it."
"But Jawn Kerry..."
"You best stay away from that mule-faced liar. The man's crazy."
"...and Sultan Caboose..."
"Oh now you're jess makin' stuff up. Good day to you sir!"
[Dhaka Tribune] War crimes Sherlocks say they have evidence that Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... chief Maqbul Ahmad perpetrated crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
"Our investigation against Maqbul has made headway but we’re yet to wrap it up," Hannan Khan, coordinator of the war crimes tribunal’s investigation agency, said at a media briefing yesterday.
"The evidence we’ve gathered so far makes it clear that he was a Razakar," Hannan said, reports Bangla Tribune.
He clarified that they recently got complaints against Maqbul. "We started investigating him based on a report run by an online newspaper."
Hannan said the investigation is at the primary stage, adding that they would decide later whether to charge the Jamaat chief with war crimes.
Jamaat-e-Islami openly opposed Bangladesh’s independence and formed auxiliary forces like al-Badr and Razakar to help the occupying Pakistain army carry out genocide on Bangalees.
An estimated three million people were killed in the war and millions of others forced to seek refuge in India.
The government put war crime suspects on trial after forming the International Crimes Tribunal in 2010. Most of the war crime convicts belong to Jamaat.
Maqbul was named the party’s Ameer after its former chief, also al-Badr commander, Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... was executed in May this year.
There are a number of allegations against Maqbul.
Feni freedom fighter’s commander Meer Abdul Hannan claimed Maqbul headed the district’s Razakar unit during the war.
He allegedly ordered the killing of East Pakistain Chhatra Union leader and freedom fighter, Maulana Waz Uddin.
Local freedom fighter commander Shariatullah Bangali claimed Hindu households were torched and 10 Hindus were burned to death in Lalpur village under the upazila’s Joylaskar Union on Maqbul’s order.
He alleged that the Jamaat leader had also ordered the killing of freedom fighter Ahsan Ullah.
Investigators went to Feni to investigate war crime charges against Maqbul at the tribunal’s order.
Maqbul hails from Omarabad village under Purbachandrapur union in Dagonbhuiyan upazila. He became a full-time politician after retiring from Feni Model High School.
He reportedly has not visited his village home after the Awami League took over the government.
Maqbul had been Jamaat’s acting chief for nearly six years since Nizami’s arrest.
Meanwhile Jamaat-e-Islami in a press statement yesterday evening said the claims of war crimes allegation found against Maqbul is untrue.
Nayab-e-Amir Mujibur Rahman said: "The chief of Jamaat Maqbul Ahmed was not a Razakar member or commander, or affiliated with the Peace Committees in 1971."
"In 1971, Maqbul Ahmed was teaching at a prestigious high school in Feni.
"Allegations against him of criminal masterminding the murders of people including a freedom fighter are untrue.
"I request the authorities concerned to refrain from presenting baseless accusations to harass Maqbul Ahmed for political gain," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
Idaho’s four presidential electors say they have been getting harassing phone calls, emails and Facebook messages urging them to become "faithless electors" and not cast their votes for Donald Trump in the electoral college.
"A lot of ’em use bad, rough language," said Layne Bangerter, one of the four electors. "Nothing I feel intimidated over. But we’re watching it very closely. They’ve got our home phone numbers, our cell numbers, our emails, our Facebook. We’re just getting an orchestrated barrage from the left."
Idaho’s other three Trump electors are Jennifer Locke, of Coeur d’Alene, Caleb Lakey, of Kuna, and former state Sen. Melinda Smyser, R-Parma. "Caleb told me he had over 200 and something when he checked this morning," Bangerter said.
Locke said, "It is concerning to me. It does feel like some level of intimidation."
She said one message urged her to "vote for Jeb." Others questioned Trump’s qualifications or charged sexism and racism. "They’re not even from this state ‐ it’s Oregon, New York, California, Massachusetts, a lot of these is where I’m getting messages from," she said.
Bangerter, who worked for U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo for more than a decade, said he’s received around 40 messages on Facebook alone. "They attack my religion, they attack my politics, they tell me that I must be a terrible father, I must be a terrible American, they use foul language ‐ every swear word," he said. "They’re just trying to steal this thing. They won’t be able to do it, but they’re trying."
Bangerter said the messages have included automated robo-calls.
Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney said, "While there is no federal requirement binding electors to their pledge, and while Idaho is one of 21 states that does not have state-level legislation to force an elector to comply, attempting to sway an elector’s commitment to their party through insults, vulgar language or threats simply lacks civility."
He said, "These are people who have volunteered to represent our state and their party in a process that goes back to the founding of our nation."
Denney said if people want to provide input to the presidential electors, they can send a letter or email to his office, and he’ll provide it to the electors before they hold their formal meeting Dec. 19.
Bangerter, who said he considers the Dec. 19 meeting "a formality," said the messages have urged him to vote for Hillary Clinton, or for anyone but Trump. He won’t; he’s the Idaho director of the Trump for President campaign and is a member of Trump’s transition team.
In U.S. history, only 157 electors have been "faithless" electors, failing to vote for the candidate their state endorsed.
Sixty-three of those came when Democratic nominee Horace Greeley died after the election in 1872 but before the electoral college convened; those 63 abstained.
The most recent incident of a faithless elector came in 2004, when one Minnesota elector voted for the same candidate for both president and vice president.
The outcome of a U.S. presidential election has never been changed by faithless electors.
Washington is among the majority of states with state laws barring faithless electors; if a Washington elector departed from his or her party pledge, a $1,000 fine could be imposed.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
11/15/2016 08:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Unless you want a second civil war, it's over, believe me.
I can't speak for Darth, but I don't think so, #8 Skid.
"Ignorant" can be fixed with education about whatever one is ignorant about. (For instance, I'm ignorant about the inner workings of a diesel engine, but I could be educated if I wanted or needed to be.)
These clowns can't be educated because they refuse to acknowledge their ignorance.
Hence, they're stupid. Dangerous, but stupid.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/15/2016 20:52 Comments ||
Top||
#11
A $1000 fine? How much is a presidency worth?
A whole lot more than a thousand dollars.
Donald Trump will work to pass legislation designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, said Walid Phares, a foreign policy advisor for the president-elect.
Speaking to the Egyptian news outlet Youm7, Phares said the legislation, which was already approved by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year and referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was held up due to the Obama administration’s support of the group.
Clarion Project spearheaded a campaign to educate legislators and move the bill forward over the past year. The bill currently has bipartisan support.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
16 years late. Thanks for some rational behavior in the legislation stream!
#2
The Clarion Project was founded in 2006 as the Clarion Fund Inc. It calls itself, "an independently funded, non-profit organization dedicated to exposing the dangers of Islamist extremism while providing a platform for the voices of moderation and promoting grassroots activism." Though it calls on many thoughtful individuals it is still not clear who the independent funders are.
[Daily Beest] It’s the most important battle in the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State to date: the fight to retake Mosul, the terror group’s Iraqi capital. But so far, the U.S. military does not know how many ISIS fighters have been taken prisoner, a senior defense official explained to The Daily Beast.
Iraq’s security forces have allowed the U.S. military to interview fewer than “a handful” of detained fighters under Iraqi control since the Mosul offensive began in mid-October, a U.S. defense official told The Daily Beast. The official could not say if any of those detainees were captured before the Mosul offensive, or after it began. Asked by The Daily Beast whether the U.S. military knew the number of ISIS fighters that had been captured, the official replied, “Nope.”
In contrast, the U.S. military during its last war in Iraq had access to thousands of Iraqi prisoners—and the intelligence they provided. But observers said the lack of detainees this time around reflects an ISIS eager to fight. And it shows the limits of a war in a city littered with bombs and tunnels, and home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Pappy ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
But so far, the U.S. military does not know how many ISIS fighters have been taken prisoner
Mosul- Thousands of Mosul refugees have suffered from a total lack of services in the three camps established to shelter them. Asharq Al-Awsat visited the Hassan Shami camp and heard many stories of suffering from people who lost family members, or left all their belongings to escape ISIS and found themselves in this shantytown without any relief aid and amid upcoming hard conditions with the beginning of winter.
Abu Mohammad, 62, is one of the camp’s refugees and has lost his son who was captured by ISIS. He said that he lives with his 15-member family at Hassan Shami and suffer like many other people from a huge lack of services.
He said his family members live in almost empty tents and has nothing to provide to them. The man added that he suffers from chronic diseases and that he had lost all his medicine.
Najat Hussein al-Tai, a legal consultant, said that people’s suffering began when ISIS decided to separate both sides of the city after its militants bombed the third and fifth bridges, which obstructed people from crossing to the left side of Mosul, controlled by the Iraqi security forces.
Even on the left side of Mosul people suffer from a total lack of food and medical supplies, particularly after the influx of thousands of refugees who escaped from ISIS, she added.
Tai revealed that more than one million people live under the fear of getting caught in the crossfire of international coalition and Iraqi forces on the right side of the city, which has been completely controlled by ISIS.
The consultant said that families in that area have been banned from leaving their homes and from hospitalizing the injured.
Minister of Migration and Displaced Jassim Mohammad has warned from a humanitarian crisis that threatens the life of thousands of refugees in the city due to the lack of food, water, and basic services.
He also said that since the launch of Nineveh’s liberation operations on October 17, camps established by the ministry have sheltered 37,184 families.
International organizations have expected the displacement of more than a million people during the ongoing military operations to liberate Mosul from the terrorist organization, which controlled it in June 2014, while more than two million people still besieged in the city.
Posted by: badanov ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[IsraelTimes] A dozen families that entered the Strip unofficially through tunnels have no status, work or aid, and cannot leave
Like millions of Syrians, Wareef Hamedo fled the civil war in his homeland in search of safety and security. But in a decision he now regrets, he chose to go to Gazoo.
Hamedo’s family is among 12 Syrian households that found refuge in Gazoo after the civil war erupted in 2011 and are now trapped in the war-battered territory, ineligible for most social services granted to Paleostinians but also unable to travel abroad.
"We are trying to get out of Gazoo to any European country or where a Syrian refugee can find care," said Hamedo, a chef from Aleppo who is an unofficial front man for the Syrian families here. "Gazoo was a phase for the Syrians. We came to it because of the conditions that forced us to."
About 250 families from Paleostinian refugee camps in Syria made their way to Gazoo in the first two years of the Syrian civil war. As Paleostinian refugees, they were eligible for services such as health care, education and food assistance from UNRWA, the UN agency that assists Paleostinian refugees.
About two dozen Syrian families also chose to migrate to Gazoo after initially fleeing to Egypt. As the situation in Egypt deteriorated, they entered neighboring Gazoo through smuggling tunnels. Some managed to leave before the Egyptian army shut most of the tunnels in 2013. But half still remain.
Egypt closed the tunnels following the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who had been a close ally of Gazoo’s Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, rulers. The loss of the tunnels, along with a devastating 50-day war with Israel in 2014, caused Gazoo’s economy to collapse. Unemployment has soared, and the cash-strapped Hamas government has failed to provide shelter for the Syrians.
"We got many promises, but nothing was done," Hamedo said.
While UNRWA serves Paleostinian refugees, the main international body assisting displaced Syrians is the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, which has no offices in Gazoo. The Paleostinian territories also have no official Syrian diplomatic mission, so the families cannot renew passports or register their newborns. And because they entered Gazoo illegally through the tunnels, they have no way of exiting. With no legal status, work or aid, the Syrians can do little but wait for a miracle to leave.
Majed al-Attar wistfully recalled his life in Damascus, where he said he had a spacious home, two cars and a warehouse full of cement and building materials. His expired passport is full of Jordanian, Egyptian and Saudi stamps he collected in his business travels.
The house and its surroundings were hit from the air "and everything was wiped out," the 49-year-old said. So, he moved with his wife and child to Egypt in 2012.
In the run-up to the 2013 military overthrow of Morsi, things quickly deteriorated, and the options were to join migrants colonists on "the death boats" to Europe or move to Gazoo, he said. The second option seemed smarter since his wife is originally Paleostinian and had relatives in the Gazoo border town of Rafah.
In Gazoo, al-Attar was displaced again during the 2014 war, when he had to flee bombing and sleep in UN school shelters for several weeks. "It was a disaster for us," he said.
Now unemployed, he cannot afford to buy kindergarten clothes for his son who was born here in 2014. The boy has no official documents or citizenship, only a hospital notification that shows his name and date of birth. Most of the money he earns as a day laborer goes to the rental of a half-finished, sparsely furnished apartment. His wife managed to qualify for some UNRWA benefits, including schooling for the boy, but most benefits are out of reach because al-Attar is not Paleostinian.
"I regret coming here," he said. "We just hope to get out from here next month or the month after with my wife and children to live in dignity and freedom and with a secure future for them."
As Gazoo struggles to rebuild damaged homes, over 11,200 families are still displaced after the 2014 war with Israel. That has made it even harder for the Syrian families to find adequate shelter.
Amer Foura’s family, originally from the southwestern Syrian city of Deraa, has found shelter in a hospital.
His wife, Kholoud, a 39-year-old mother of five, has developed muscular dystrophy and is now hooked up to a respirator at Gazoo’s al-Wafa hospital. Her husband and children sleep in beds and mattresses in her hospital room.
"I have lived in al-Wafa hospital for about a year and a half," said the husband, who is unemployed. "My only home is al-Wafa since it’s able to provide and take care of me.
The Syrians scrape by with menial jobs and occasional donations from local charities.
Hamedo, the chef, is full of nostalgia, spending time daily flipping through pictures from his life in Aleppo, where he ran a restaurant called Café D’alep.
He pointed to a photo of a blond woman. "This was my girlfriend. She died in an Arclight airstrike," he said.
He enjoyed some initial success in Gazoo, opening a restaurant that enjoyed early popularity, but ultimately went out of business because of the weak economy, constant power outages and shortages of cooking gas. He has since married a local woman and last month, they had their first child, a girl.
"We just need to get the basics secured in our stay here," he said.
#1
The restaurant where Wareef had worked never re-opened and he has not found stable employment since.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has a strong presence in Gaza, but its mandate is to assist Palestinians,
(UNRWA is unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees. It has contributed to the welfare and human development of four generations of Palestine refugees, defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” The descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, are also eligible for registration)
not Syrians, and thus their $770,000,000 budget can provide no aid to 12 Syrian households.
[IsraelTimes] Sources say Imad al Alami replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who is likely filling Khaled Mashaal’s shoes as politburo chief in Doha
The Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror organization recently appointed a founding member with close ties to Syria and Iran to replace Ismail Haniyeh as the effective political leader in the Gazoo Strip, sources said Sunday.
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... , who has been in charge of Hamas’s political activity in the enclave, left in early September for a series of visits to Arab and Moslem states, apparently aimed at paving his way to replace Khaled Mashaal as head of Hamas’s political bureau 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... Mashaal has said he will not run in the next leadership elections, scheduled to take place by the end of the year.
Haniyeh’s replacement, Imad al Alami, 60, was born in Gazoo, but only returned there a few years ago.
He lived for some time in Tehran, then moved to Damascus in 2008. He returned to Gazoo after being the last Hamas leader to leave the Syrian capital; relations with Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad had soured at the start of the uprising there.
Al Alami has so far avoided the media spotlight. He does not take part in pressers and uses neither Facebook nor Twitter.
Nor does he visit mourners’ tents as his Hamas colleagues do. In recent months, he has taken part in only one public event.
Amid shifting political sands in the Middle East, Hamas has in recent years walked a tightrope in attempting to maintain support from both Gulf states like Qatar and their Shiite rivals in Iran, Syria and elsewhere.
Haniyeh, who has been based in the Qatari capital Doha since leaving Gazoo, along with Mashaal recently met with Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... there. Haniyeh’s participation in that meeting is a further sign that he is on the way to becoming Hamas’s top boss.
It is his continued absence from Gazoo and his relocation abroad that has prompted Hamas to appoint al Alami as a temporary replacement until official leadership elections are held in the Strip in the coming months.
Al Alami suffered serious leg injuries during the Israel-Gazoo war in the summer of 2014, in circumstances that are not totally clear.
According to one claim, he was hurt when an elevator collapsed inside a tunnel in which senior Hamas members were hiding.
Another rumor says he was injured by gunfire during a battle between Hamas activists. He was treated in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... .
Because heaven forbid the towns called "refugee camps" be subject to the same laws as the rest of the West Bank.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UN’s top official on the Israeli-Paleostinian grinding of the peace processor said Monday he was concerned the West Bank’s largest refugee camp could "explode" if intra-Paleostinian festivities worsen, during a rare visit to the Balata camp.
In what his officials said was the first visit in "years" by a top UN official to the camp near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Middle East peace envoy Nikolay Mladenov met with civil society figures and politicians including those believed to be opposed to President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... Balata has seen an uptick of violence in recent weeks, with Paleostinian security officials attempting a series of raids to capture alleged criminals in the camp -- leading to shootouts.
Analysts say Abbas sees the camp as a base for support for his political rival Mohammed Dahlan, who is currently in exile in the United Arab Emirates.
Mladenov said he had visited the camp to send a message that the "international community is watching" the situation on the ground.
"If you forget about these communities they will explode," he said in an interview with AFP.
Balata, where 30,000 people live in 25 hectares (62 acres), is the largest Paleostinian refugee camp in the West Bank and played a key role in previous Paleostinian intifadas, or uprisings, against Israel.
The lives of residents have worsened as the camps have been left behind economically compared with major Paleostinian cities, said Mukhaimer Abusada, professor of politics at Azhar University.
"Dahlan, who is the main competitor against Abu Mazen, has exploited the situation in the camps by offering some assistance to those in the camps," said Abusada.
Dahlan, Fatah’s former strongman in Gazoo, was expelled from the party in 2011 but is now believed to have strong support in a number of key Arab states in the battle to replace Abbas, who is 81 and has been in power 11 years.
Mladenov met with local civil society leaders and teachers and also the camp’s Popular Committee -- a politicianship body -- in a meeting closed to the media.
Abusada said a number of the committee’s members were believed to be allied to Dahlan.
Mladenov stressed the UN was not interfering in Paleostinian politics but was trying to stop political differences crossing "over into an environment that becomes violent in which Paleostinians stand against other Paleostinians with weapons."
"Our role is to be able to talk to everyone and to send everyone a very clear message that violence is not the answer."
He added the UN remains supportive of Abbas’s efforts to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
"Abu Mazen is the person most committed to nonviolence and a peaceful resolution. If he is undermined that will affect the Paleostinian cause," he said, using the Arabic nickname for Abbas.
In the run-down camp residents were wary of talking politics but one who did not want to be named said the Abbas-run Paleostinian Authority was deeply unpopular.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
[ARA News] Qamishli – While in areas held by the Syrian government or the opposition polygamy and underage marriages are allowed and even promoted, the Syrian Kurds are the only ones providing a secular model in which polygamy and underage marriages are banned.
Since July 2012, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) took control of most of the Kurdish enclaves in Syria and since the siege of Kobane in September 2014 have gained international attention for being one of the most effective groups to fight the head-cutting militants of the Islamic State (ISIS). Local administrations were set up in northern Syria, known in Kurdish as Rojava.
Also, unlike the rest of Syria, in the Rojava there are females commanding units and actively fighting as part of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), the female branch of the YPG. These female fighters fought to the death to defend the city of Kobane, breaking thoughts about the role of women in the Kurdish society. Now they are involved in fighting ISIS in Raqqa.
Continued on Page 49
[Free Beacon] Nearly a dozen Arab nations accused Iran on Monday of sponsoring "terrorism" throughout the Middle East while increasing support for jihadist groups since signing the international nuclear deal last summer.
In a letter to the U.N. General Assembly, 11 Middle East and North African countries condemned Iran for continuing "to play a negative role in causing tension and instability in our region" through "expansionist regional policies, flagrant violations of the principle of sovereignty, and constant interference in the internal affairs of Arab States."
They cited Tehran’s backing of Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon while also accusing the Islamic Republic of supporting "terrorist groups and cells" in Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, the Associated Press reported.
The Arab nations also charged Iran’s religious and political leaders of calling "for the export of its revolution to other countries." They said the only solution for the region would be for Tehran "to comprehensively change its foreign policies and end hostilities."
The letter was signed by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Yemen.
U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based NGO, said the letter was important because it was initiated by Muslim Arab countries, the Times of Israel reported.
"Iran likes to dismiss all criticism of its human rights violations and brutality at home and abroad as part of a western plot, but that’s hard to sustain when the accusers are all Muslim governments, including recent allies of Iran like Sudan," U.N. Watch director Hillel Neuer said in a statement.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
11/15/2016 01:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Note the absence of the words 'Shiia and 'Sunni'.
In which sundry bloodthirsty maniacs accuse the president-elect of being a bloodthirsty maniac.
[DAWN] From Afghanistan to Algeria, Death Eaters plan to use Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's shock United States (US) presidential victory as a propaganda tool to bring new fighters to their battlefields.
Taliban capos and supporters of the Death EaterIslamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group say Trump's campaign trail rhetoric against Moslems ─ at one point calling for a total shutdown of Moslems entering the United States ─ will play perfectly in their recruitment efforts, especially for disaffected youth in the West.
"This guy is a complete maniac. His utter hate towards Moslems will make our job much easier because we can recruit thousands," Abu Omar Khorasani, a top IS commander in Afghanistan, told Rooters.
Trump has talked tough against Death Eater groups on the campaign trail, promising to defeat "radical Islamic terrorism just as we won the Cold War."
The president-elect later toned down his call for a total ban on Moslem entry to say he would temporarily suspend immigration from countries that have "a history of exporting terrorism."
But he has offered few details on his plans to combat various radical groups, including IS, the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which represent a wide spectrum of political views.
"He does not differentiate between Death Eater and moderate Islamist trends and, at the same time, he overlooks (the fact) that his extremism will generate extremism in return," Iraq's powerful Shia holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Free Beacon] The former CIA official who led the agency’s clandestine service under the George W. Bush administration said he hopes Donald Trump reinstates now-illegal interrogation methods, including waterboarding and sleep deprivation, when questioning terrorist suspects.
Jose Rodriguez, who backed the Republican nominee during the presidential race, said those "enhanced interrogation measures" were necessary to obtain information vital to U.S. national security, the Daily Beast reported on Monday.
"We have to be able to capture terrorists. We have to be able to interrogate them. We don’t do that anymore," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez was a key architect of George W. Bush’s interrogation program following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He wants the Trump administration to drop current cases against CIA officials who helped carry out the controversial measures and said the president-elect must craft new techniques.
"Enhanced interrogation techniques are well known to the enemy and we would have to come up with something else," he said.
Congress barred the Bush-era interrogation methods in 2005. The Senate last year passed a torture ban that directed government employees to only use the interrogation measures listed in the U.S. Army Field Manual, enshrining a law an executive order President Obama issued in 2009.
Trump has repeatedly said he would "broaden" the law to compete with brutal tactics used by militant groups like the Islamic State.
"These savages are chopping off heads, drowning people. This is medieval times and then we can’t do waterboarding?" Trump said earlier this month.
Rodriguez said he has no interest in returning to Washington despite speculation that Trump is considering him to lead the CIA.
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.
[Dhaka Tribune] War crimes 
Moqtada 
