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Today: 65 articles and 188 comments as of 12:28.
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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Jordan sentences 5 Islamic State members to death
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Mullah Omar not visited Pakistan over the past 25 years, claims Taliban
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban group founder and ex-supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar not visited Pakistain over the past 25 years, the Death Eater group claimed Wednesday.

The group released a statement to reject a report regarding a meeting between Mullah Omar
... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality...
and a Norwegian diplomat in a luxury hotel in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistain.

"A western newspaper ’The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
’ published a report citing a Norwegian diplomat ‐ Alf Arne Ramslien ‐ who claimed initially talking twice on the phone??? with the late Amir ul Mumineen Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him) and even meeting him at a later stage in Pakistain during the year 2009. This report has then gone on to write many fabrications under this title," the statement said.

The statement further added "We categorically reject this report from start to end. The late Amir ul Mumineen Mullah Muhammad Omar (may Allah have mercy on him) had not visited Pakistain over the past 25 years nor did he talk with anyone via telephone following the American invasion. And neither did he have the habit of meeting with diplomats especially with foreign diplomats during the time of occupation when he had millions of dollars of bounty on his head."

According to the group "It is plausible that this diplomat has made such assertions for his own fame or that he was duped by some individual."

This comes as Taliban’s top commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah confirmed earlier in August last year that Mullah Omar did not die naturally but was assassinated, confirming the reports suggesting Mullah Omar was mysteriously killed in April 2013 in a hospital in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
city of Pakistain.

Mansoor Dadullah is the brother of the former senior Taliban capo Mullah Dadullah who was actively operating in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province before he was killed during an operation in Helmand province in 2007.

The Afghan Intelligence ‐ National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
(NDS) earlier said Monday the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was mysteriously killed in a hospital in Karachi city of Pakistain.

Mullah Omar’s death was first confirmed by a splinter group of the Taliban ‐ Afghanistan Islamic Movement Fidai Mahaz, which claimed that he was assassinated Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansoor and Gull Agha.

The group’s front man Qari Hamza said last year Mullah Omar was killed two years ago in the month of July.

Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Him not write either.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/29/2016 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Kind of had to visit when you live or are buried there.
Posted by: 3dc || 12/29/2016 15:03 Comments || Top||


Afghan Special Forces killed over 400 Taliban leaders in past 9 month: MoI
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Over 400 leaders of the Taliban group were killed in the past 9 during the operations conducted by the Afghan Special Forces, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) officials said Wednesday.

MoI front man Sediq Sediqi said the Minister of Interior Taj Mohammad Jahid praised the Special Operations Forces of the Afghan National Police during an event in Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
today.

Minister Jahid said the ongoing violence in Afghanistan is not having roots to insurgency led by Taliban and ISIS loyalists.

He said the Afghan nation is facing a major undeclared war but insisted that the Afghan people have never surrendered to oppression.

Jahid further added that the enemies of the country have done all they could do to kill the Afghan people in the past 16 years.

According to Jahid, the enemies of the country were looking to take control of the major parts of the country and close the highways for the traffic and passengers but they continuously failed in their attempts.

The remarks by Jahid calling the ongoing violence in the country an undeclared war came as the Afghan officials have long been emphasizing that the insurgency in Afghanistan has external roots.

The officials are saying that the leadership councils of the bad boy groups are based outside the country from where they plan and coordinate attacks in Afghanistan with the help of the regional spy agencies.

Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  What's a "leader"? You'd think a few snuffies would be killed along with the "leaders".
What's it take to be a "leader"? E4?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 12/29/2016 6:10 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algeria Says 54,457 Tried for 'Terrorism' since 1990s
[AnNahar] Nearly 55,000 people accused of committing "terrorist offenses" have faced legal proceedings in Algeria since the country's devastating civil war in the 1990s, the justice minister has said.

It was the first such revelation by the authorities, which use the term "terrorists" for armed Islamists active in Algeria where the civil war killed 200,000 people.

The brutal conflict broke out between armed Islamist groups and security forces after the army canceled a 1992 election that Islamist politicians were poised to win. It ended when Algerians voted in a referendum in September 2005 to approve a reconciliation deal that led to 15,000 Islamists being pardoned in exchange for surrendering.

Justice Minister Tayeb Louh told parliament on Monday his ministry had set up a database on the number of people who have "faced legal proceedings for terrorist crimes." The database, set up in 2014, shows that from the 1990s to December 21 this year, authorities instigated legal proceedings against 54,457 people.

Louh said the number includes those who were pardoned under the terms of the referendum, but he did not spell out the exact nature of the proceedings, nor did he give details about the other cases.

Algeria has sentenced hundreds of people to death, but no execution has been carried out since 1993.

Groups affiliated to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) remain active in the northeast where they carry out regular attacks on the security forces.

Authorities have also reported attacks by the Jund al-Khilafa Death Eater movement which is linked to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

More than 100 suspected Islamists have been killed by the Algerian army since the beginning of the year, according to an AFP count compiled from official statements.
If we assume this is the average over the past quarter century, the total number who died to make others Allah's slaves would be a mere 2,500. I suspect that number is off by quite a bit.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Egypt’s army destroys 1,700 meter smuggling tunnel in Rafah
[AlAhram] Egypt’s state news agency MENA reported that the tunnel was used to smuggle persons, weapons and ammunition

Egypt’s military has destroyed a new 1,700 meter long smuggling tunnel in Sinai Peninsula in its continued effort to combat terrorist activities, state news agency MENA reported on Wednesday.

According to the agency, the passageway, located at the international borderline with Egyptian border city of Rafah, was prepared and used to smuggle people, supplies, weaponry, and ammunition.

The army’s second field army was able to demolish the tunnel and eliminate all six openings to block all Death Eater groups and smugglers from using it again.

This is the second time that the Egyptian army has announced in December that it had discovered and destroyed smuggling tunnels.

Earlier in December, the army said that it had torn down seven smuggling tunnels connecting the Israeli-besieged Gazoo Strip with the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt has long portrayed the tunnels as a passageway for arms and bully boyz that it has been fighting in North Sinai, posing a risk to the country's security.

In 2014, the army officially announced that it had destroyed a total of 1,813 smuggling tunnels since January 2011.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Africa Subsaharan
Police declare war on cultism in Edo
[DAILYPOST.NG] The Police in Edo have declared war on cultism following the death of three persons due to cult-related killings in Benin, the capital City of Edo.
What kind of cult? Are these takfiri Moslems, killing any who are not pious emgh regarding the placement of cucumbers and tomatoes, or are they talking about witches or voodoo, where virgins or albinos are cut up for the magical properties of their parts?
The Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr Haliru Gwandu, stated this while confirming the killings to newsmen in Benin on Wednesday.

The commissioner said 51 suspects had been tossed in the calaboose
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
since the renewed cult festivities on Christmas day.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that three persons were killed in different parts of Benin on Wednesday.

One of the victims, identified as Godspower, was killed at about 4 a.m. in front of his residence on Second East Circular road, Benin.

The dear departed was scheduled to travel out of the country on Saturday. His bereaved mother, who refused to give her name, sat on a walkway and wept profusely.

She placed curses on her son’s killers before coppers came to take the corpse away. Witnesses said they heard Godspower begging for his life before he was shot.

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Yellow Wolf clutched at his chest and fell from his horse...
a farmer, who identified himself as Joseph Agbonma, has sent a Save Our Soul message to the police to save his only son, Evans, from the hands of suspected cultists.

Agbonma said his son was attacked by suspected cultists at Ugbogui village where both of them worked as farmers.

He said his son escaped with serious injuries and appealed to the police to protect the man.
Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Oman joins Saudi-led Islamic alliance against terror
[Saudi Gazette] Oman has joined a Saudi-led coalition of Islamic countries to fight terrorism, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The sultanate announced its decision to join the 40-nation Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism in a letter delivered to Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense.

The letter from the Omani Minister Responsible for Defense Affairs Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi was handed to the Deputy Crown Prince by Sayyid Ahmed Bin Hilal al-Busaidy, Oman’s ambassador to the Kingdom, in Riyadh on Wednesday.

While lauding the Omani decision, Prince Muhammad appreciated the Omani leadership’s support to the Saudi efforts in leading the alliance.
Saudi-led Islamic allianceOman is the last Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country and the 41st Islamic country to join the alliance.

Member countries include heavyweights in the Islamic world such as Pakistain, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, Egypt and Malaysia. More than 10 other Islamic countries, including Indonesia, the most populous Moslem country, have expressed their support for the alliance.

Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman announced the creation of the alliance on Dec. 15, 2015 in the wake of the growing threat of ISIS (the so-called IS) and other terrorist groups as well as 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, posing a big threat to the region and the Islamic world as a whole.

The alliance is based in a joint command center in Riyadh.

Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia


Bangladesh
Militant Suspect Trisha: She called her parents during police raid
[Bangla Daily Star] Parents of Trisha Moni had been waiting to hear from her for eight long months. They finally heard from her early Saturday, but they had no idea what trouble she was into.

Trisha, wife of “Neo JMB” leader Maynul Islam, was then in the middle of a police raid at their Ashkona hideout.

“At 3:30am [Saturday], I saw a missed call on my mobile phone,” said Trisha's father Abdus Samad. He thought the call came from a Bagmara hospital where his wife was admitted due to her illness.

He called back immediately. “Abba, can you recognise me ... I'm Trisha,” she told her father.

“I felt a chill down my spine as I talked to her. We've been looking for them [Trisha and her family] for so many months,” Samad told this correspondent.

Trisha told her father that police had cordoned off their house for their involvement with “Neo JMB” and asked him what she should do.

“I began shivering with fear when I heard about her links with militancy. I asked her to surrender before the police and tell them the truth,” said Samad, a fish trader, at his Saipara village home, around 40km from Rajshahi city.

He said Trisha was crying and suddenly hung up the phone. Hours later, she surrendered along with her four-month-old daughter.

Trisha again called him on Saturday evening and said she was in police custody. Two hours later, a police officer called him and asked him to go to Dhaka with clothes and food for Trisha's daughter, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)


Musa told wife to blow herself up
[Bangla Daily Star] After police cordoned off the Ashkona myrmidon hideout early Saturday, Maynul Musa instructed his wife Trisha Moni to wear a boom jacket and blow up herself along with their four-month-old daughter instead of surrendering to law enforcers.

Trisha, however, did not carry out the instruction as her motherly love for the baby stopped her from detonating the vest.

So, she decided to surrender, according to her statement to an official of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the DMP during interrogation.

Sensing that police encircled the den, Trisha communicated with her husband using an encrypted messaging app and wanted his advice about the next course of action.

"Musa then asked his wife and all other women to wear the boom jackets and blow themselves up," the official said.

Musa took the helm of radical group "Neo JMB" as most of its top leaders died in anti-terror operations following the July 1 Gulshan café attack. The other top leaders are either tossed in the slammer
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
or under police surveillance, officials say.

The last time Musa visited the Ashkona flat on the ground floor of a three-storey building was on Tuesday when he brought bombs and grenades there.

Two other forces of Evil who go by the name of Firoz and Selim in theorganization also used to visit the den.

Replying to a query, the CTTC official said "Neo JMB" still has one expert bombmaker. Other bomb experts are dead or behind bars or on the run.

A police source said a myrmidon, aged around 18, managed to escape from the flat just before the operation.

Another woman, Jebunnahar Shila, widow of Major (retd) Jahid alias Murad, surrendered along with her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and with a 9mm pistol and six bullets during the anti-militant operation codenamed "Ripple 24".

According to CTTC officials, Trisha has expressed remorse for being within myrmidon circle. But Shila has not.

Also during the operation, a suspected myrmidon named Shakira detonated her boom jacket while rushing to police with her four-year-old daughter Sabina in an apparent motive to blow herself up in the midst of coppers. She was, however, still a few steps away from the law enforcers.

Shakira was killed in the blast with part of her body badly damaged and Sabina suffered severe injuries. A police official was also maimed.

"Analysing our intelligence and information from the forces of Evil who surrendered, it seems that the woman [Shakira] could carry out suicide kabooms with her daughter elsewhere [had she been alive]," CTTC unit chief Monirul Islam told news hounds at Ashkona yesterday evening as a search was going on in the den.

Shakira first married Iqbal, father of Sabina. After Iqbal died from cancer, she married Suman.

Suman, a suspected myrmidon, has been missing for over a month, the official added.

Around 7:30pm yesterday, a police team left the spot with the body of deceased myrmidon suspect, 14-year-old Afif Kaderi, for Dhaka Medical College morgue. Morgue sources said the body reached there around 11:30pm.

Afif, son of "Neo JMB" leader Tanvir Kaderi, who did away with himself during a raid at Azimpur on September 10, got killed around Saturday afternoon during the operation.

Rejecting the call for surrender, Afif shot up police, and the law enforcers retaliated by firing shots and gas grenades.

Officials say the boy did away with himself or died in the police firing.

Monirul said the forces of Evil burnt Tk 12 lakh, a laptop, some mobile phones and documents. It seems that they were using the hideout as their office, he added.

During the search starting at 10:30am yesterday, bomb disposal unit of the CTTC recovered seven grenades, two boom jackets -- one with six bombs and the other with four -- and two unwent kaboom! bombs from the vest that Shakira detonated.

Two 9mm pistols with two live ammunition, and huge bomb-making materials were also found at the den.

Officials later defused the grenades and bombs.

Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)


‘Neo JMB Leader' Musa: He covered his tracks to stay off dragnet
[Bangla Daily Star] Before leaving home for the so-called Jihad, runaway "Neo JMB" holy warrior Maynul Islam Musa destroyed everything that could link him to his home, so that law enforcers could not track him.

The last time Musa visited his village home at Baghmara in Rajshahi was in early April, just days before he went traceless. He had told people at home that he was going abroad.

He then destroyed all his photos and belongings there.

"His photographs were in our family albums. He cut those out one by one with a pair of scissors and set fire to those. He did not even leave one of his shirts for me before leaving," said his mother Sufia Akter.

"I do not have anything of my son," she sighed.

When asked about the reason, Musa told his mother, "Photographs will bring no good but sins."

Musa went to his in-laws place about 12km from his village home and destroyed all photos and belongings of him there as well, said his sister-in-law Nisha Moni.

According to police, Musa is one of the top leaders of "Neo JMB", who is trying to reorganise the outfit and carry out a assassination.

To cover his tracks, Musa, once an English teacher of Life School in Uttara-13 in Dhaka, destroyed documents and evidence from his Uttara home and the school before becoming traceless, his former colleagues and police said.

He was very active on social media but he removed his friends from his Facebook account and eventually deactivated his account.

"When his involvement in militancy came to light following the killing of Maj (retd) Jahid, I found his phone switched off. I tried to see his Facebook page but did not find it," one of his former colleagues at the school told The Daily Star preferring anonymity.

Major (retd) Jahid, who was killed in an anti-militancy drive in Mirpur on September 2, and Musa used to live in the same apartment building in Uttara. They had both left their homes almost at the same time.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
police found and recovered some information about Musa from the documents and computers police seized from the school in mid September.

The evidence allowed law enforcers to track Musa to the Ashkona den on Saturday. Musa managed to evade arrest that day during the counter terrorism unit-led operation codenamed "Ripple-24".

During the drive, a female holy warrior suspect, Shakira, killed herself by detonating a boom jacket while 14-year-old Afif Kaderi, son of slain holy warrior Tavir Kaderi, was killed in the shootout with police.

Before that, two female holy warriors, Musa's wife Trisha Moni; and Maj (retd) Jahid's widow Jebunnahar Shila, surrendered to police. Musa was then texting them to commit suicide.

MUSA LIED TO ALL
Days before going into hiding, Musa told his mother that he would go to Bahrain to work with one Bahrain expatriate Faisal.

After the death of his father Abul Kalam Azad in December last year, he went to his Buzrukkola village home to take Tk 3 lakh.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
he told Nisha that the Life School was sending him to 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...
"The school has similar institution in Saudi Arabia and he would be provided with a job there. We are in a hurry as the school authority gave us the offer but we have to collect certain amount of money within a given time," Nisha quoted Musa as saying.

Mizanur Rahman, principal of the school, told The Daily Star yesterday that they had no branches in or outside the country.

"We, eight people, have set up the school in 2014 investing our savings," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)


Europe
German anti-terror services 'ranked Amri a low threat'
German anti-terrorism experts believed Berlin truck attack suspect Anis Amri was unlikely to commit an assault, even though he was a known Islamist who had volunteered for a suicide attack, a report said Thursday.

Minutes before Amri allegedly rammed the hijacked truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, he sent an SMS, saying: "My brother, all is well, according to God's will. I am now in a car, pray for me my brother, pray for me."

The message, as well as a selfie taken in the truck's cab, was likely sent to a 40-year-old Tunisian arrested in Berlin on Wednesday, said the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.

Investigators seeking to discover if Amri had accomplices said the detained Tunisian suspect "could have been involved in the attack".

Counter-terrorism officials have a detailed file on Amri, they knew he was tightly linked to Germany's radical Islamist network and had looked up instructions online on how to build pipe bombs, the newspaper reported. The latest version of their file on Amri, which included information on his eight different identities, was updated on December 14 -- just five days before he allegedly killed 12 people in the Berlin attack.

Duesseldorf police deemed Amri a Salafist and radical fundamentalist, while Dortmund police had rated him a sympathiser of the Islamic State group.
But they couldn't touch him because...
Amri had been a regular guest at a religious school in a Dortmund apartment run by a notorious radical known as Boban S. that was believed to be a recruitment ground for jihadists.

Nevertheless, on an eight-point scale assessing an individual's potential danger, with "one" the highest threat, counter-terrorism experts rated him a "five" -- meaning they considered an attack possible but unlikely.
Sounds like the 'scale' needs some calibration...
Amri's phone was recovered from the site of the truck attack.

Citing Berlin government sources, the newspaper said the lorry's automatic braking system activated on impact, possibly saving lives. The truck had ploughed into the crowd but swerved to the left after 60 to 80 metres (200 to 260 feet), crashing through a stall before coming to a halt.

Shortly after the rampage, authorities admitted that counter-terrorism services had been watching Amri, suspecting he may have been plotting an attack. But surveillance was dropped in September, as police thought he was primarily as a small-time drug dealer.
That's how he funded himself until he was activated...
Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered a sweeping review of the security apparatus after the attack, so that any necessary reforms could be agreed and implemented quickly.
More bureaucratic hind-end hiding...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/29/2016 08:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  So he was a drug dealer but still allowed in the country.

SO WHO'S ON THE HIGH THREAT LIST?!?
OH and WTF are they not on a plane right now?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/29/2016 9:07 Comments || Top||

#2  So he was a drug dealer but still allowed in the country

He had orders to go back to Tunisia, but that could not be done until his new passport arrived from home... and he was left to his own devices in "migrant" housing -- instead of jailed -- until the day he left.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/29/2016 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  They are all low threat, but low threat x 1000000 ...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/29/2016 15:10 Comments || Top||


Berlin attack suspect Amri better connected to extremists than thought
[Deutsche Welle] Tunisian-born Anis Amri traveled to 15 different mosques - 12 of which were located in the western Ruhr region, according to a report from German public broadcaster WDR's "Aktuelle Stunde" television program.

Amri used one of eight aliases to apply for asylum in the western German city of Oberhausen, the report said citing a multi-page profile on the Berlin attack suspect put together by security authorities. Starting in February 2016, Amri was located mostly in Berlin although he should not have been allowed to leave the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where he registered for asylum.

The state criminal investigation office in Düsseldorf classified him as a threat on May 10.

The profile stated that Amri behaved in an especially conspiratorial manner when he was in Berlin and had frequent contact with people who security services said had ties to the radical Salafist-Islamist scene. Two of the men Amri came into contact with were under suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.

Back in North Rhine-Westphalia, Amri also had two contacts in Dortmund who had ties to the so-called militant "Islamic State" (IS) group, the report said.

Revelations that Amri had been on a federal list of persons regarded as a potential threat and had been monitored by authorities for months has prompted sharp criticism toward security failures in Germany.

IS claimed responsibility for the Berlin attack, while German authorities are investigating to what extent Amri may have received support before or after the assault.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surely he's just a well-connected lone wolf.
Posted by: gorb || 12/29/2016 3:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Another Known Wolf, nothing done...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/29/2016 6:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Whodathunkit?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/29/2016 6:40 Comments || Top||

#4  we don't need to worry about trying to infiltrate and police islamists if we simply ban muslim migration and deport those illegals who came in the past 5 years

what's the hold up?

straight back to the last port of call or country of origin

no more family reunion visas, no more migration from the 56 muslim countries of the OIC, and prosecute those who spread sharia for treason.
Posted by: anon1 || 12/29/2016 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  we don't need to worry about trying to infiltrate and police islamists if we simply ban muslim migration and deport those illegals who came in the past 5 years

They shouldn't be too difficult to spot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/29/2016 8:49 Comments || Top||

#6  terrorism is only a tactic being used in the Isalmist colonisation project.

It's our job to thwart the colonisation project, not to "fight terrorism"

so what are we waiting for? defeat?
Posted by: anon1 || 12/29/2016 18:41 Comments || Top||


Berlin attack suspect better connected to extremists than thought
[DW] Christmas market attack suspect Anis Amri visited 15 mosques in Germany and had contact with two men with ties to IS, according to a media report. Security authorities also reportedly labeled him a threat back in May.

Amri used one of eight aliases to apply for asylum in the western German city of Oberhausen, the report said citing a multi-page profile on the Berlin attack suspect put together by security authorities.

Starting in February 2016, Amri was located mostly in Berlin although he should not have been allowed to leave the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where he registered for asylum.

The state criminal investigation office in Dusseldorf classified him as a threat on May 10.

The profile stated that Amri behaved in an especially conspiratorial manner when he was in Berlin and had frequent contact with people who security services said had ties to the radical Salafist-Islamist scene. Two of the men Amri came into contact with were under suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.

Back in North Rhine-Westphalia, Amri also had two contacts in Dortmund who had ties to the so-called krazed killer "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....
" (IS) group, the report said.

On October 13, 2016, surveillance information gathered by state-level security authorities was supposed to be passed on to Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), WDR's "Aktuelle Stunde" reported. Domestic intelligence work in Germany is generally conducted by authorities in the country's 16 states.

Revelations that Amri had been on a federal list of persons regarded as a potential threat and had been monitored by authorities for months has prompted sharp criticism toward security failures in Germany.

Amri is suspected of driving a truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market last Monday, killing 12 people and wounding 48 others.

IS grabbed credit for the Berlin attack, while German authorities are investigating to what extent Amri may have received support before or after the assault.

German authorities detain man for possible link to Berlin attack

[Ynet] German authorities detained a Tunisian man who may have been involved in last week's attack on a Berlin Christmas market in which 12 people died, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The suspected attacker, Anis Amri, a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia, had the mobile phone number of the 40-year old Tunisian, whom they did not name, stored in his telephone, prosecutors said. Officials raided his home and business premises, they said.

"Further investigations indicated that he could have been involved in the attack," said prosecutors, adding that he was arrested. "To what extent suspicions against the arrested person will be hardened up remains to be seen after further investigation," said the prosecutors, adding they would decide by the end of Thursday whether to issue an arrest warrant for him

Berlin Attacker Took Bus from Netherlands to France

[AnNahar] Suspected Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri traveled by bus from the Netherlands to France before heading to Italy where police shot him dead, sources close to the investigation said Wednesday.

Two days after the December 19 attack on a Christmas market in Berlin left 12 dead, the 24-year-old Tunisian boarded an overnight bus at the Dutch city of Nijmegen, near the German border, that took him to Lyon in central France, one of the sources said, confirming a French media report.

Wim de Bruin, spokesman for the Dutch public prosecution service told AFP: "We believe he was in Nijmegen, most likely last Wednesday."

"There are video images and it's very likely him," De Bruin said, adding that "it's most likely here where he received a SIM card," which Italian police later found on his body.

Amri got off the bus at the Lyon-Part-Dieu rail station, another source said. Surveillance cameras filmed Amri at the station last Thursday.

From there, he took a train to the French Alpine town of Chambery before heading to Milan, in northern Italy.

Italian police shot Amri dead in the early hours of Friday after he fired at officers who had stopped him for a routine identity check.

A train ticket from Lyon to Milan via Turin was found on his body.
Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


The Grand Turk
Turkey puts broadcast ban on Russia envoy’s killing
Shhhh! It's a secret.
[Saudi Gazette] A Turkish court has put a broadcast ban on reporting of the investigation into last week’s murder of the Russian ambassador to Ankara Andrei Karlov, state media said on Tuesday.


A Turkish policeman opened fire on Karlov while he was delivering a speech at the opening of a photography exhibition, in an liquidation that stunned Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....

An Ankara court agreed to a request by prosecutors for a ban on broadcasting images of the liquidation -- which was caught on film -- as well as the investigation itself, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.


This includes news concerning witnesses, victims or suspects in the murder.


The ruling said such news could be prejudicial to the investigation and to national security. The ban will last for the duration of the investigation.


It was not clear what had prompted the ban one week after the December 19 murder but it came one day after the daily Hurriyet published a detailed interview with the sister of the murderer Mevlut Mert Altintas.


The sister, named as Seher O., said her brother had been "brainwashed" while attending police school in Izmir.


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
has said Altintas was a member of the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
blamed for the July 15 coup.
However this has yet to be echoed by Russian officials, who say it is too early to comment on the investigation.


In recent years, Turkish authorities have repeatedly placed broadcast bans on sensitive issues and in the wake of attacks, citing national security.
Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  That's the way to do it! Close and lock the barn doors after the horses been stolen!
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 12/29/2016 13:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Full text of John Kerry’s speech on Middle East peace, December 28, 2016
[IsraelTimes] Very, very long.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

Lurch has to have one more fit act before leaving the stage.
Posted by: Dopey Grumble5261 || 12/29/2016 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Did Castro pass along his gift for oration to John Kerry when he died?
Posted by: gorb || 12/29/2016 3:26 Comments || Top||

#3  "You can either be Jewish or Democratic"

Was that a message to American Democrats?

Has the DNC finally come out and said that they have figured out that there is a lot more money to be gotten from Muslims than Jews and they are switching sponsors?

The 70% or so of American Jews who are still Democrats have really, really crossed the line into useful idiot territory if this is the case.
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/29/2016 5:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Self-hating does seem to include rather a large number of jews.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/29/2016 6:59 Comments || Top||

#5  The asshattery that is US Foreign Policy.

Maybe Mr. Kerry and his handlers would prefer a Jewish Theocracy?
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 12/29/2016 8:20 Comments || Top||

#6  "You can either be Jewish or Democratic"

I listened to the complete diatribe live on RT and I gave up to understand this inanity.
Posted by: Willy || 12/29/2016 10:10 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 12/29/2016 11:39 Comments || Top||

#8  It's not just Democrats who happen to be Jewish who will be forced to choose:

Dems offer mixed reactions to Israel speech

[Ynet] Democratic lawmakers are offering mixed reactions to Secretary of State John Kerry's speech deploring Israeli settlement-building and defending the US move not to veto a controversial UN resolution.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York says his former Senate colleague "seems to have forgotten the history off settlements in Gaza" and warns Kerry's speech may have "emboldened extremists on both sides."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says Kerry reaffirmed America's commitment to Israel. But she also says she opposes UN efforts, a reference to the Obama administration's decision on the resolution.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is also avoiding direct criticism of Kerry. But he says the resolution "will not bring peace closer."

All three Democrats are members of congressional leadership.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/29/2016 20:12 Comments || Top||

#9 
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 12/29/2016 21:38 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
U.S. calls Pakistan student group wing of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba
[IN.REUTERS] The United States on Wednesday announced it was adding the student wing of the Pakistain-based krazed killer organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
, to its list of "foreign terrorist organizations."

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or Army of the Pure, is an anti-Indian krazed killer group with historical ties to Pakistain's top spy agencies. It has been accused of orchestrating numerous attacks, including a 2008 assault in Mumbai that killed 166 people, six of them Americans.

The State Department move against the student group, al-Muhammadia Students, came as the Treasury Department added two Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders to the U.S. list of "specially designated global terrorists," subjecting them to U.S. sanctions.

LeT was banned by the Pak government in 2002 but it has continued operating through front organizations, according to U.S. officials, and their leaders conduct public rallies and interviews.

The State Department announced that it amended the designation of LeT as a "foreign terrorist organization" to include what it called the group's student wing.

"Since the original designation occurred, LeT has repeatedly changed its name and created front organizations in an effort to avoid sanctions," the State Department said, adding that the student group aided senior LeT leaders in recruiting and other activities.

The State Department action subjected the student group to sanctions, including a ban on Americans providing or attempting to provide it with material support.

The Treasury Department said it was adding Muhammad Sarwar and Shahid Mahmood to the U.S. list of "specially designated global terrorists," freezing any U.S. property or other assets they hold and banning Americans from doing business with them. Both are involved in fund-raising activities, it said.

Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Government Announces Truce Backed by Russia and Turkey
Peace in our time.
The Syrian government and its most important ally, Russia, announced on Thursday that they had reached a cease-fire agreement with Syrian rebels and with Turkey — a potential turning point in a civil war that has lasted nearly six years and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

The announcement follows the retaking of all of Aleppo, once Syria’s industrial capital and a stronghold of the opposition, by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and negotiations in Moscow that involved Mr. Assad’s government, Russia, Iran and Turkey — but, pointedly, not the United States.

Not included in the agreement is the Islamic State, which controls territory in eastern Syria and across the border with Iraq; the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, which is strongest in the country’s northwest; and “groups linked to them.”

It was not clear which of the scores of rebel groups scattered across Syria had agreed to the cease-fire, nor whether those that had not been consulted would abide by it.
That assumes Rooshuns would 'consult' anyone, which isn't likely...
Throughout the war, rebel forces have failed to form a united leadership, and infighting among groups has been common.

It was also unclear what criteria the Syrian military and its Russian allies would use to define groups “linked” to the jihadists. In the past, they have dismissed much of the armed opposition as “terrorists” who could not be distinguished from jihadist groups.

Russia, Mr. Assad’s backer, and Turkey, which supports some of the rebels, will guarantee the truce, to begin at midnight on Thursday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said. Minutes later, the Syrian military said it would halt operations nationwide starting at midnight.

The two sides actually signed three agreements, Mr. Putin said: the cease-fire itself; an agreement detailing how it would be carried out; and a third expressing readiness to begin peace talks for a settlement to the conflict. Mr. Putin said that Mr. Assad’s government and the opposition would take part in peace talks in Kazakhstan, but he did not announce a date.

The Russian defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, said the truce would include 62,000 opposition fighters across Syria, and that the Russian military had set up a hotline with its Turkish counterpart to allow immediate communication about the truce and whether it was being met.
And whom to kill...
In a brief statement, the Syrian Army said the cease-fire came “after the victories and successes that our armed forces accomplished in more than one place,” an allusion to the recent retaking of Aleppo by government forces and allied militias.

The cease-fire agreement appeared to reflect the changed geopolitical reality since Donald J. Trump’s election as president of the United States. Mr. Trump has called President Obama’s Syria policies a failure and has backed the removal of remaining support for Syrian rebels, vowing to make fighting terrorism virtually the entirety of his administration’s Syria policy.
Prior to that, NYT, it reflects the complete failure of the 'red line' put forward by Champ. He failed to honor his words and so Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran decided that they were free to do whatever they wanted, including war. Mr. Trump correctly recognizes the failure, and understands that not only has the horse left the barn, the horse has been shot and the barn has been razed. That's why he isn't going stand up for the Syrian rebels, a fair number of whom are as odious as Pencilneck himself.
Mr. Assad has called Mr. Trump “a natural ally” in that fight, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Thursday that Mr. Trump’s administration would be welcome to join the peace process after he starts on Jan. 20.

“I would hope that, after the Donald Trump administration takes office, it will also be able to join these efforts,” Mr. Lavrov said at the meeting, shown on state-run television.
I expect Trump to give Assad a cold shoulder.
In Turkey, the government said that the Lebanese militia Hezbollah — which is backed by Iran and has sent thousands of fighters to battle Mr. Assad’s forces — should withdraw from Syria.
Don't count on it...
The foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told the Turkish news channel A Haber on Thursday that Turkey would guarantee rebel compliance with the cease-fire agreement, while Russia would guarantee adherence by Mr. Assad’s government. Iran would also help monitor compliance by Mr. Assad’s government and by allied Shiite militias, including Hezbollah, he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/29/2016 08:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Twitter Suspends Accounts Of Extremist Cleric And Al Qaeda Supporters
[IBTIMES] Twitter has suspended the accounts of an holy warrior holy man and two other radical Moslem scholars believed to be associated with the terrorist outfit al Qaeda.

The accounts of Jordanian preacher and al Qaeda spiritual leader Abu Qatada
...who apparently was killed most recently in September in Kirkuk, but elsewhere several times previously, unless there's more than one by that name...
.and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi,
...who was imprisoned in Jordan, last we heard...
another influential jihadi scholar, who is considered to be a close friend of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
, and al-Siba'i
...sorry -- he doesn't seem to be in our files...
were suspended.

Qatada’s deportation in 2013 to Jordan was orchestrated by the then British Home Secretary Theresa May. Qatada, originally an asylum-seeker who had settled in the U.K., nearly two decades ago was extradited to Jordan as the latter wanted to try him on terrorism charges. However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning...
he was eventually cleared of all charges.

Cole Bunzel, scholar of jihadism at Princeton University, said that Qatada and Maqdisi, known for their attacks on 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....
group (ISIS), had immense followers and estimated they had tens of thousands of supporters.
Posted by: Fred || 12/29/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
13Islamic State
5Taliban
4Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
3Boko Haram
2Hamas
2Abu Sayyaf
2Commies
1Houthis
1al-Qaeda
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Moslem Colonists
1Sublime Porte
1Govt of Pakistan

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2016-12-29
  Jordan sentences 5 Islamic State members to death
Wed 2016-12-28
  Yemeni (Saleh) army commander defects
Tue 2016-12-27
  Top Taliban leader leading Kunduz battle killed in Ghazni ambush
Mon 2016-12-26
  Phoenix cops arrest alleged ‘jihadist’ plotting midnight Mass attack: ‘Get down with this ISIS s-t’
Sun 2016-12-25
  Buhari: Last Boko Haram base taken in Sambisa Forest
Sat 2016-12-24
  4 Suspects Charged Over Alleged Christmas Day Terror Plot in Australia
Fri 2016-12-23
  Suspect in Berlin Christmas market attack killed in Milan police shootout: Official
Thu 2016-12-22
  ISIS issues order for arrest of its missing finance minister
Wed 2016-12-21
  Syrian Army enters east Aleppo neighborhoods for first time in 4 years
Tue 2016-12-20
  At least 12 dead in 'terrorist attack' after truck crashes into Berlin Christmas market
Mon 2016-12-19
  Russian ambassador to Turkey assassinated
Sun 2016-12-18
  Sirte officially declared Liberated
Sat 2016-12-17
  22 ISIS targets hit in airstrikes in Palmyra
Fri 2016-12-16
  Belgian Police Move on Libya Arms Smuggling Ring
Thu 2016-12-15
  11 headless bodies found in Aden

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