[Libya Observer] The member of the Presidential Council of the UN-proposed government, Ali al-Gotrani, proposed Sunday a transitional phase under the governing of what he called "the national army" led by Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... in order to have a full grip tightened on Libya and then reorder the political issues in accordance with other parties.
In a statement to Sputnik, al-Gotrani said the new proposal will end the role of all the institutions in the state except for the House of Representatives, while the "army" will be the supreme authority in the country.
"Every city and district in Libya will be ruled by an appointed military governor and the army will then start disarming the civilian people so that it can control all the country’s borders." He indicated, adding that the state of emergency will be declared across Libya and provisional laws will be applied around the country.
"Once our country is stable, democracy can take place and all parties can take to the ’safe polls’ as the constitution drafting committee would be then resuming work as well as presidential and parliamentary elections would take place." al-Gotrani remarked.
He stated that Haftar has the right, among all parties, to be nominated for presidential elections if he desired.
Answering a question regarding al-Gotrani’s statement, the front man of the Presidential Council (PC), Ashraf al-Thalthi, said in a presser Monday that al-Gotrani’s words speak for himself only and have nothing to do with the PC.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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[Libya Observer] The corpse count of Sirte liberation war has risen to 715, the spokesperson of Misrata Central Hospital told The Libya Observer on Monday.
Akram Qaliwan said more than 3250 fighters have been maimed during al-Bunyan al-Marsoos military operation to eradicate ISIS from Sirte.
"Between 10-15% of maimed fighters are in critical health conditions," he indicated.
Sirte was announced fully liberated from the Death Eaters of ISIS last week after seven months of fierce festivities in the city and its suburbs. The majority of casualties are from the city of Misrata.
Qaliwan declared that doctors had conducted more than 2000 surgeries so far, adding that Misrata Central Hospital was overcrowded during the seven months of fighting, stressing that it had operated with 125% capacity.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I found myself packed into a corner, confused, like I had a Ford Cologne V6 spinning on my head, and low on oil. I found my legs, wobbly, and took a step into despair, failing to move, cannot see, cannot hear. Seconds turn into years. Clarity as I understand Maisha is in front of me, dark and quiet, desperately trying to not make noise as she fought the choking dust.
The moonlight flickers through Maisha's window, sparking the dust on the bottle of Caliph Calvert. The swig is muddy....near miss, RPG I would say by the smell. Oh no! moving by memory to my favorite seat, my fear is confirmed. The drawing by Mahmoud the Weasel is destroyed! Did the RPG miss us, or hit the target?
#2
My question is who hates Eddie Mercx so much they'd burn an RPG round on such a poor likeness? The BBQ here is bad, like the Camel Calvert, magic-8-ball sez lite out.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Egypt to "fight terrorism together" after a bombing killed 25 people in a Coptic Christian church in Cairo.
"Israel condemns the reprehensible terrorist attack at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo," a statement from the premier’s office said.
"Israel shares in the grief of the families of the victims and of the Egyptian people. We must unite forces and fight terrorism together."
Sunday’s was the deadliest attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt since 2011, when more than 20 were killed outside a church in the northern coastal city of Alexandria.
Media in Israel say the Jewish state and Cairo cooperate in the struggle against jihadists fighting Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
Israel gave its green light for the Egyptian army to use tanks, aircraft and infantry against jihadists in the Sinai, which was demilitarized under the peace treaty the two countries signed in 1979.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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[All Africa] Despite its reluctance to officially set up a negotiating committee to hold talks with snuffies in the Niger Delta, the federal government has continued discreet talks with the belligerent groups in the region, THISDAY learnt yesterday. But don't tell nobody 'cuz it's a secret.
It was gathered that at least three meetings had taken place in the last few months between the snuffies and federal government emissaries coordinated by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Mohammed Moguno (rtd).
The backroom discussions, which have incorporated other smaller aggrieved groups, are continuing, it was learnt, just as there is growing anxiety among elders and leaders in the region over the inability of the government at the centre to formally name its team of negotiators about six weeks after their meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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[THEEAGLEONLINE.NG] The Governor of Adamawa State, Senator Muhammad Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, is considering to have a temporary review of the use of hijab in security prone areas as part of measures to contain jacket wallahs.
Bindow stated this through the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mallam Ahmad Sajoh, on Sunday in Yola.
Sajoh was addressing newsmen on the outcome of an emergency security meeting on Friday’s twin kabooms in Madagali market that killed and injured many.
Sajoh said Bindow would meet with members of the Adamawa Moslem Council and other stakeholders to discuss the possibility of taking that temporary measure, adding that those that carried out the Madagali suicide kaboom were in hijab.
Sajoh said the meeting also underscored the need for people to be more vigilant during this festive period and in places like markets, motor parks, churches and mosques.
He said: "We also resolved in the meeting, based on security recommendations, to assist members of vigilance groups in the areas in view of their contribution to security agencies.
"We also want to appeal to the media on sensational reporting and the need to verify their facts before reporting.
"The media need to know that the gunnies are banking on such sensational reports."
The commissioner said victims of the attack were responding to treatment in Michika General Hospital and already the governor had directed all health personnel in neighbouring Hong and Mubi Local Government Areas to move to the affected area.
Sajoh said: "The State Emergency Management Agency has also been directed to give urgent support to victims and relations of victims."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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[NIGERIANOBSERVERNEWS] The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai has charged Nigerian soldiers to finish off Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... remnants on time to enable Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) return to their homes.
The Chief of Army Staff gave the charge when he visited troops of the 81 battalion in Damboa Local Government Area in Borno state.
Buratai who reiterated the determination of the army towards enhancing the welfare of troops, said rotation of soldiers would take place after every six months of deployment.
"I am sure you have read and heard the message I sent across. If you are aware of it then we must work to get out of this place. We must work to get out of this operation very quickly. We must defeat Boko Haram.
"I was in one of the barracks and many of the troops were already there and I have assured your families that many of you will go back next Year.
"81 battalion is my unit too when I was a lieutenant Colonel This unit has seen it all. You fought along with the Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... ian troops in this battle which means you are better placed to deal with this criminals.
"We must continue with the aggressive actions, patrol and ambush. You must move into all the hideouts of these criminals and fish them out. Some of your colleagues in Sambisa Forest are dealing with them properly.
"You are better equipped, better motivated and mobile.The army has provided you with better equipment to fish Boko Haram out and deal with them completely.
"I wish to commend your effort and I urge you all to maintain the momentum and keep it high. Nigerians are proud of you. President Muhammadu Buhari the Commander in Chief is also pleased with you," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Bahraini court ruled to uphold a nine-year jail sentence handed down to Ali Salman, leader of the country’s dissolved al-Wefaq National Islamic Society. A judicial source said the verdict was issued during a Monday trial session.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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[Defense One] The drums of war are starting to beat in Washington over North Korea. On Dec. 1, retired Gen. Walter Sharp, former commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration must be ready to launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korean missile sites the next time Pyongyang is preparing to conduct a test of a long-range rocket capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. A Council on Foreign Relations task force report, issued in mid-September, warned that the United States might have to consider military actions against North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities. And now the Pentagon is revising its contingency plans for military strikes on these missile sites.
All of them should holster their weapons.
Under the Obama administration U.S. efforts have failed to halt and reverse the growing North Korean nuclear and missile threat--in fact, it has grown worse over the past eight years. As a result, the Trump administration will find itself in a real pickle once it takes office. Progressively tougher economic sanctions have failed and will continue to fail to slow down the North’s progress on nuclear-armed ICBMs. Nor will it inherit an ongoing diplomatic process that might slow-down the North’s sprint to the finish line. Continuing the policies of the past eight years will guarantee the situation will be much worse and the options available to the United States even more narrow and dangerous four years from now.
[AnNahar] The German city of Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... Monday announced a ramped-up police presence, more CCTV and a fireworks-free zone at upcoming New Year's Eve celebrations to avoid a repeat of last year's mass sexual assaults.
Hundreds of women that night described being mugged and groped in a crowd of men of mainly Arab and north African appearance, incidents that shocked Germany and fueled criticism of Chancellor 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... 's liberal refugee policy.
Cologne police chief Juergen Mathies said 1,500 officers would be deployed on the streets of the western city this year, up from some 140 last year, when police came under fire for failing to properly respond to the chaotic events.
Mathies told news hounds he regretted that officers last year were "not there for people when they needed the police."
"This must never happen again," he said at a presentation of the city's security plan for New Year's Eve.
The city will also be stepping up its video surveillance, with hundreds more CCTV cameras and more officers wearing bodycams, Mathies said.
Much of the increased security will focus on the square between the city's iconic Dom cathedral and the train station where most of the assaults took place.
Cologne mayor Henriette Reker said access to the square this year would be tightly controlled, with no firecrackers or other pyrotechnics allowed in the safety zone.
The square will also be flooded with light as part of a video and light installation by German artist Philipp Geist that will be projected onto the Dom.
Of the roughly 1,200 criminal complaints filed about last year's New Year's Eve incidents, more than 500 were for sexual assault, Cologne police reports showed.
The majority of the perpetrators were never caught. Of the suspects who were identified, many were migrants colonists from Morocco and Algeria.
Apparently, many of those arrested for their activities that night were "unaccompanied minors" so they were let go, though it's likely 2/3rds of them were actually fully adult males.
Similar assaults were reported during end-of-year festivities in other German cities.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A Pak official has admitted that some leaders of the Haqqani terrorist network are based in Pakistain but rejected that the terror network uses Pak soil for terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistain’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry also claimed that the majority of the Haqqani terrorist network leaders are based in Afghanistan.
The Afghan officials have long been criticizing Pakistain for allowing the terrorist network and the Taliban group leadership councils to use the Pak soil for planning and coordinating attacks in Afghanistan.
Chaudhry was speaking during an interview with the state-run television and said Islamabad has categorically told India and US that the Pak soil will not be used by anyone or group for terrorism in any shape.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I thought they were always based in pakistain.
Posted by: chris ||
12/13/2016 9:10 Comments ||
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I suppose we'll have to stock a photo of him now. It'll be a change.
[DAWN] Former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres was sworn in Monday as Secretary General of the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , becoming the ninth UN chief in the body's 71-year history.
The former UN refugee chief was elected to the top job by acclamation in the General Assembly in October.
He takes over from the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon on January 1.
Guterres, 67, performed well in answering questions before assembly members and his executive experience as prime minister and as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005-2015 propelled him to first place among 13 candidates vying for the job in informal polls in the council.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Another Socialist asshole - hope Trump defunds these fuckers.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Angry protesters on Sunday have stormed a meeting held by Iraq’s former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the country’s most southern city of Basra.
News of Maliki touring Basra prompted protesters to take to the streets asking the former premier from 2006 to 2014 to leave the city. Maliki was scheduled to hold the meeting at the Cultural Center in Basra.
In one of the videos published, protestors outside the center were heard chanting: "Maliki you are trash, head of the thieves."
Iraqis from the south to the north have long complained about their living conditions and standards compared to the prosperity enjoyed by their politicians, whom they deem as corrupt.
In another video, one protester said: "In truth, Maliki is corrupt, a thief and a murderer," adding that since Sunday early morning, "we were looking out for him."
Maliki was also Iraq’s vice president from 2014 to 2015. He is currently secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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[Jpost] The United Nations humanitarian adviser on Syria Jan Egeland said in a tweet on Monday that the Syrian and Russian governments must be held responsible for atrocities committed by militias loyal to President Bashar Assad in Aleppo. I wonder who he thinks should be held accountable for the atrocities committed by the "pro-Western" rebels?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder who will be held accountable for allowing this farce to carry on in the first place.
"I'd like a second opinion..."
[ARANews] Raqqa – Kurdish-Arab alliance of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday continued their progress against Islamic State’s (ISIS) jihadists in Syria’s northeastern Raqqa Governorate.
The SDF seized control of four new villages in western Raqqa, including Bir Shallal, Um Salim, Safakher and Ajaj.
“The advance came after the Syrian Democratic Forces hit ISIS headquarters in western Raqqa with heavy artillery,” a spokesman for the SDF Media Office told ARA News.
“ISIS evacuated those four villages subsequent to clashes with the SDF,” the source said.
At least 18 ISIS militants were killed in Monday’s clashes.
In the meantime, the Syrian Democratic Forces called on ISIS jihadists in Raqqa to “surrender or die”.
“To the jihadists of the so-called Islamic State, the SDF fire will soon reach Raqqa downtown and by then you won’t be able to escape. This is a final call: Either you surrender to the Syrian Democratic Forces or die under our fire,” the SDF said in a statement on Monday.
This comes just one day after the SDF expelled ISIS militants from six other villages west of Raqqa.
“The liberated villages included Merwaniya, Krajah, Hamer Saghir, Hamer Kabir, Qerefdan and Draniya,” an SDF spokesman told ARA News.
The Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday announced the begin of the second phase of Euphrates Wrath Operation to combat Islamic State’s militants in their de facto capital Raqqa.
The SDF and allies have so far liberated 37 square-kilometer in western Raqqa as part of the second phase of the operation.
“This stage is aimed at liberating the western countryside of Raqqa from ISIS, beside completing the isolation of Raqqa City,” said Cihan Shekh Ehmed, spokesperson of the SDF-led Euphrates Wrath Operation. “The operation will continue until all goals are accomplished.”
During the first phase of Euphrates Wrath, SDF soldiers captured an area measuring approximately 560 km2, containing dozens of towns, villages and farms. Military sources told ARA News that more than 200 ISIS jihadists have been killed since November 6. The operation’s long-term objective is the isolation and elimination of the Islamic State in Raqqa.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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Iran and Turkey held secret talks on peace proposals for Syria in 2013 and as recently as this year, but the talks broke down amid mutual suspicions, according to a new report to be published on Tuesday. The report on the Iran-Turkey relationship by the International Crisis Group (ICG), is based on interviews with top officials. It is being published as pro-regime forces, including Iranian-led militias, storm the last rebel-held districts of Aleppo amid reports of massacres.
The report is the latest of a series of accounts of failed diplomacy throughout the nearly six years of the Syrian conflict, which has cost the lives of up to half a million people. It says that in September 2013, three months after the election of pragmatist president Hassan Rouhani, Tehran presented Ankara with a peace proposal that had been formulated in consultation with Qassem Suleimani, the head of the powerful Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard.
The plan envisaged a ceasefire followed by a national unity government and constitutional reform aimed at constraining presidential powers. Most importantly, there would then be presidential and legislative elections under UN supervision. The plan was the subject of several months of shuttle diplomacy between the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu, but it eventually collapsed over the future role of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
“We agreed on every detail, except a clause in the final phase of the plan which called for UN-monitored elections. Turkish leaders wanted Assad barred,” Zarif is quoted as saying in the report. “I noted that this should not be a concern in an internationally monitored election, particularly if, as Turkey holds, Assad has a dreadful record and a minority constituency. But Davutoğlu refused... and our efforts came to naught.”
According to the report, titled Turkey and Iran: Bitter Friends, Bosom Rivals, the Turkish government did not believe that Assad would accept any transition process that would weaken his grip on power and Ankara still thought his military defeat was inevitable.
The Turkish president at the time, Abdullah Gül, told the ICG “our government did not pursue an agreement with Iran because it thought Assad would be toppled in a few months”.
“From Ankara’s perspective, Assad’s battlefield losses would remove need to compromise or at least improve a deal’s terms,” the report said.
The ICG said a second opening for a Tehran-Ankara deal presented itself after the abortive military coup in Turkey in July this year, when Iran promptly stated its support for president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, creating a temporary thaw in relations and a resumption of talks on Syria. At the same time, military advances by Kurdish YPG forces in northern Syria had led to a simultaneous reconciliation between Ankara and Moscow.
Although the Iranians and Turks still disagreed on Assad’s fate, they focused their discussion on other issues, including whether there should be a presidential or parliamentary system and how power should be shared in general. After two high-level rounds, the report says, the talks got mired in mutual distrust heightened by Turkey’s decision to intervene directly in Syria, in an operation codenamed Euphrates Shield, to prevent the YPG securing all the border zone for the Kurds.
“Iranian officials expressed surprise Turkey had not notified them of the operation despite the presence of a senior Iranian official in Ankara the day before. Turkey may have feared that Iran would tip off the YPG,” the report suggests.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Iranian officials expressed surprise Turkey had not notified them of the operation
[DAWN] Iran has proposed the formation of a bloc of Moslem countries to fight terrorism and boost economic cooperation that would include its regional rival Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani told a security conference on Sunday that the two countries, along with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Egypt, Iraq and Pakistain, should join hands to promote "regional peace based on Islam, defending the Paleostinian people, fighting terrorism and [boosting] economic interests".
Iran and Saudi Arabia are bitter rivals, and support opposite sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran in January after Iranian demonstrators stormed Saudi diplomatic facilities in protest against the execution of a prominent Saudi Shia holy man.
Larijani said Saudi Arabia and other nations should know that Iran "is not their enemy". He said Iran was opposed to "warmongering in Syria and Yemen" and wanted to resolve regional conflicts through "national solidarity governments resorting to democratic methods".
"Iran is not after creating an empire and hegemony in the region," he said. "Our viewpoint is aimed at improving unity."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran has proposed the formation of a bloc of Moslem countries to fight terrorism
Bwahaha! Looks like the Iranians have a sense of humor in there somewhere after all!
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.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
