[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militia leader has confessed that both Iran and Hezbollah have been heavily involved in training their fighters.
Abu Mohammed, who was in charge of rocket attacks in the al-Nihm district in Yemen, made the confession after surrendering.
He said that there were Iranian experts and Lebanese from Hezbollah militias currently in Saada helping run secret training facilities.
The confession comes a month after a report by independent research group Conflict Armament Research (CAR) suggested that there is an arms "pipeline" that extends from Iran and Yemen.
Iran’s Islamic Theocratic Republic News Agency (IRNA) last year admitted that missiles made in Tehran were recently used in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... by Houthi militias in cross border attacks against 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 Zelzal-3 rockets are Iranian-made solid propellant missiles that has been known to be used by Iranian, Syrian and Hezbollah forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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Recent satellite imagery shows no indications that North Korea is close to carrying out its threat to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, but the communist nation is capable of conducting a launch at any time, a U.S. website monitoring the North said.
"While North Korea threatens to test an intercontinental ballistic missile ... commercial satellite imagery from November 2016 through January 2017 of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station provides no evidence of an imminent launch or engine test," 38 North said in a recent report.
"However, the site does remain capable of conducting a launch or engine test at any time and with little warning," it said, adding that activity at the Sohae launch facility over the past three months indicates both long-term preparations for an engine test and further infrastructure developments, including the paving of roads, constructing support and warehouse facilities, and continuing housing development.
The Sohae site, also known as the "Tongchang-ri" site in the North's northwest, is where the North's main rocket launch facilities are. The North has carried out a series of long-range rocket launches from the sites, including two successful ones that put a satellite into orbit in late 2012 and again in February last year.
North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un said in his New Year's Day address that the country has entered the final stage of preparation to test-fire an ICBM, a thinly veiled threat that Pyongyang is close to developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the continental U.S.
U.S. officials said the country is fully capable of defending itself and allies against North Korean missiles, with Defense Secretary Ash Carter saying the U.S. would shoot down a missile if it were coming toward the U.S. or allies. Incoming President Donald Trump has also vowed to stop the North from mastering ICBM capabilities, saying Pyongyang's development of a missile capable of striking the U.S. "won't happen."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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Original de Welt article is here if you read German.
The economies of the developing world cannot keep pace with an increase in population, meaning millions of people from Africa will likely migrate to Europe, a new report has found.
The report, from the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO), states that the economies of developing nations in Arica, Asia, and South America cannot keep pace with the number of young people entering the workforce. The result, especially in Africa, will mean that many are ready to migrate and look for jobs elsewhere – and their main target will likely be Europe Die Welt reports.
For some reason Africans can't seem to manufacture jobs as fast as they manufacture people...
Economists expect that the number of unemployed in African states will skyrocket, as the slow growth of African economies may only produce a few hundred thousand jobs over the next year. By contrast, the ILO expects there to be millions of young people entering the job market across the African continent.
Unemployment in Africa currently stands at around eight percent, but the total number of those unemployed will rise by over a million from 37.1 million to 38.3 million, of which nine million are in North Africa.
In sub-Saharan Africa, which has some of the highest birth rates in the world, an estimated one-third of all people say they are willing to migrate for work. Some migrants are willing to look for work in neighbouring countries, but for many the ideal destination is Europe; specifically Germany given its current status as the strongest economy in the European Union.
Though Germany’s economy is largely positive, the rest of the European Union is struggling to create enough well-paying jobs. In Spain around 400,000 jobs have been created, but many of them are part-time or low skilled, resulting in many young people not able to find careers that match their educational background.
Made worse by all the university grads who refuse to take a job that doesn't mandate having a degree in their specialty...
The report also notes that almost half of the unemployed people in the European Union have been looking for work for the past twelve months or more.
The ILO report’s findings reflect those of an Austrian Army Intelligence report which estimated the possibility of millions of African economic migrants flooding into Europe by 2020.
Frontex, the European Union border agency, has also noted the trend towards increased African economic migrantion. Last year they released a report warning that West African countries could soon eclipse the Middle East and Central Asia in terms of the number of migrants coming from those regions.
2016 saw the largest wave of migrants crossing from the African continent into Italy over the Mediterranean sea, but Italian lawmakers have vowed to tackle the issue and begin deportations of migrants who fail their asylum claims or are migrating for purely economic reasons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists
#1
millions of African economic migrants flooding into Europe by 2020
Which of course can be prevented by turning a swath of North Africa and access to the Med into a radioactive 'No Travel' hazard zone.
#8
This "farming," we find, is too feminine;
Manlier far -- not for women --
Is sittin' and thinkin',
Abetted by drinkin'...
And anyways, work is too slimmin'.
No need for a fight. Best way to doom the EU army is to tell Juncker and his fellow-believers to go right ahead and build one -- and that when the EU army is ready to stand on its own, the US will be withdrawing its remaining military forces. We won't be needed, after all.
#1
EU army is almost a non sequitur. Plus it would be so top heavy with the Brussels bureaucrats sitting on top wanting to tell the field marshals what to do and how to do it.
#2
The EUSSR army is there to suppress anti EUSSR dissent.
It will be used to crack down on areas that want to leave the increasingly disastrous maladministration.
#3
Dave Cameron could have killed the EU last year by immediately stopping payments from the exchequer to Brussels right after the Brexit vote. That is, if Cameron wasn't a Europhile.
[Hurriyet Daily News] Some 70 percent of Turkish navy vessels played a role in coup activities on July 15 night as their personnel were previously informed about the attempt by the orchestrators of the failed bid, according to Ankara prosecutors.
In an indictment sent to an Ankara court of serious crimes on Jan. 13, prosecutors who are seeking sentences against 72 naval suspects, said a total of 29 military vessels at the Gölcuk, Aksaz, Mersin, Istanbul, Karadeniz Ereglisi and Foca naval bases were mobilized at 9 p.m., 20 minutes before the first notification about the coup reached the command, to implement "their plans to gather personnel" for the coup activities.
The indictment said 29 vessels, amounting to 70 percent of the main vessels, particularly those in the Marmara area, were advancing in areas of mobile phone reception and that most of them could have followed the coup activities from visual media such as TV on the vessels.
Some 71 of the 72 suspects are charged with attempting to change the constitutional order, attempting to abolish the Turkish Parliament and attempting to abolish the Turkish government and face three aggravated life terms each.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
In the first days of 2017, the lira's value declined so rapidly that even the Turkish Central Bank’s actions could not stop the drop. On Jan. 10, the bank lowered the level of foreign exchange reserves so it could add $1.5 billion of liquidity to stabilize the lira's value.
The Financial Times observed on Jan. 10, “Turkey appears closer to a full-blown currency crisis than at any point since the ruling AK [Justice and Development] party took power in 2002. In the past three months, the lira has lost almost a fifth of its value against the dollar, as both global and domestic investors lose confidence in their country’s economic prospects.”
[The Christian Science Monitor] Conservatives and the Obama administration have long disagreed about the threat of terrorists coming across the Mexico border. Data suggest the threat is not insignificant. Now, the Trump administration is poised to make it a priority.
Islamic militants purchase a nuclear device from a sympathetic official in Pakistan and ship the weapon on the flip side of a drug trafficking route through West Africa to South America. Next, the package is smuggled north to the United States-Mexico border.
Although this sounds like the plot line of a spy thriller, it is a scenario laid out in an online magazine produced by the Islamic State, the apocalyptic Syria-based terror group also known as ISIS.
"From there it’s just a quick hop through a smuggling tunnel and ... presto, they’re mingling with another 12 million ’illegal’ aliens in America with a nuclear bomb in the trunk of their car," the 2015 ISIS article says.
The debate over security along the US-Mexico border isn’t just about the millions of unauthorized migrants who have crossed the international boundary seeking work and better lives. And it isn’t just about the drug smugglers and assorted other criminals who routinely use the border as an easy back door into America.
There is potentially a greater threat from a porous southern border.
What a relief that the grownups are taking charge again. Truly God watches over drunks, fools, and the United States of America when President Obama was running things.
#4
I'm sure it has been attempted. Just that the FBI (and by extension, Homeland Security) has rather good detectors and given the nature of nuclear bombs, both nuclear explosive and dirty types, I'm sure the agencies involved is keeping it very quiet to prevent panics.
How good are the detectors? FBI once detected and caught a guy going down I-5 in Washington State, turns out he was transporting his pet cat that just had radiation treatment for feline cancer.
So I'll say it's very difficult, if not impossible, to smuggle nuclear anything into USA without massive clearances from various agencies.
[DAWN] South Asia is among a few regions in the world where nuclear weapons could be used in a regional conflict, the outgoing US Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... warned on Saturday.
In a recent speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, Mr Biden hoped that the incoming Trump administration would continue America’s leading role in reducing nuclear weapons around the globe.
"Not just North Korea, but Russia, Pakistain, and others have made counterproductive moves that only increase the risk that nuclear weapons could be used in a regional conflict in Europe, South Asia, or East Asia," he said.
"Working with Congress, the next administration will have to navigate these dangers and -- I hope -- continue leading the global consensus to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our world."
Mr Biden urged Republican and Democratic politicians in the US Congress to rise above party politics and deal with the nuclear issue with the seriousness it deserves.
"Nuclear security is too important to be a party policy, for our nation and for the world. Although we no longer live in the daily dread of nuclear confrontation, the dangers we face today require a bipartisan spirit," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#5
Mr Biden urged Republican and Democratic politicians in the US Congress to rise above party politics and deal with the nuclear issue with the seriousness it deserves.
So, where was Joe when Obama was enabling Iran's nuclear weapons program? Lobbying for his participation trophy is my guess.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/16/2017 13:51 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... said that India's attitude "that it will not have a dialogue with Pakistain" is unreasonable, and that "Pakistain will not compromise itself to establish peace with India".
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to establish himself as a "hegemonic power" in the region and his entire election campaign was built around an "anti-Pakistain sentiment", Aziz said while talking to DawnNews on Sunday.
He accused India of hampering the efforts Pakistain had put forth for holding a dialogue to establish peace between the two countries, saying Modi "does not want to discuss the Kashmire issue except for examining the terrorism there".
Aziz said that India tried to divert the focus on problems at the Line of Control and pushed the "terrorism rhetoric" when the Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani was murdered.
He said the world has "seen the human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... violations by India" in the region and various reputable rights group have reported them.
"We will not have a dialogue [with India] if there is no discussion on Kashmire," he asserted, saying Pakistain will never accept "India's hegemony".
"Pakistain will not compromise itself to establish peace with India," the adviser maintained.
Aziz hoped that once the provincial elections in India are over, "its attitude toward holding dialogue with Pakistain will change".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Face it nothing in the whole universe is tolerated by Pakiwakiland.
[DAWN] Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Sunday telephoned Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. to condole over the loss of life in recent terror attacks in Afghanistan and build rapport with Pakistain, said a statement issued by military's media wing.
Inter-Services Public Relations chief Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted the statement, which read that the army chief "pressed upon Afghanistan to cooperate in stopping the to and fro movement of hard boyz from across the border".
The army chief suggested installing a "robust border management mechanism and intelligence cooperation" to restrict the movement of terrorists.
"Elements inimical to peace in the region are strengthened by blame game," the statement read.
"All safe havens of hard boyz have been eliminated from Pakistain," the army chief was quoted as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
lost the ISI phone number did he?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2017 10:31 Comments ||
Top||
[Ynet] Over 70 countries reaffirm commitment to two-state solution; diplomats say subliminal message sent to Trump administration; Britannia has 'particular reservations,' doesn't sign; French FM says basis of peace talks remains pre-1967 borders; Israel is relieved by final communiqué, while Paleostinians are pleased.
In other words, almost-president Trump's message has been received. He doesn't do subliminal, and British Prime Minister May is working hard to make up for offending when Britain voted for that UNSC thing by demonstrating she stands firmly with President Trump against such egregious nonsense.
If the Palestinians reverse their recognition of Israel in accordance with the Oslo Accords, the border crossings into the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip will be locked down tight.
[IsraelTimes] Defense Ministry notes record number of trucks bringing goods to the Strip, Paleostinians entering Israel through checkpoints.
In 2016, Israeli security personnel prevented 1,226 attempts to smuggle illicit goods like drones and scuba gear into the Gazoo Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, a significant increase over the previous year, the Defense Ministry announced Sunday.
On average, nearly 500 trucks entered the Strip loaded with goods each day in 2016, a 13 percent increase from 2015, according to the ministry.
In order to prevent the production of weapons and the digging of so-called terror tunnels, Israel’s Coordinator for the Government’s Actions in the Territories (COGAT) maintains a strict list of what goods may not be on those trucks.
For instance, certain chemical compounds, gas tanks and drilling equipment are not allowed into Gazoo at all. But also some "dual purpose" materials, like electrical cables and cameras, which can be used for either benign or nefarious ends, are heavily regulated, if not outright forbidden, by Israel.
To circumvent those restrictions, smugglers attempt to bring illicit items into Gazoo hidden inside or among permitted goods.
Earlier this month, for instance, the Shin Bet security service busted an alleged smuggling ring that was bringing contraband into Gazoo hidden inside television sets and refrigerators.
Over the past year, members of the Defense Ministry’s Crossing Authority, working alongside agents from the Shin Bet security service, foiled 1,225 other attempts to smuggle model airplanes, commando knives, truck motors, diving gear and other forbidden materials into the beleaguered coastal enclave.
"The Defense Ministry’s bitter war against smugglers has demonstrably slowed the buildup of terrorist forces in Gazoo," Brig. Gen. (res.) Kamil Abu Rokon, head of the Crossing Authority, said in a statement.
It was a 66 percent increase over 2015, when some 740 smuggling attempts were prevented through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, the Defense Ministry said.
The crossing is the main avenue for bringing goods into Gazoo, along with Egypt’s Rafah Crossing, which is often closed, and illegal smuggling, either through tunnels or by sea.
The Erez Crossing is used predominantly for people to enter and exit Gazoo, though when necessary it too is used to transfer goods.
Abu Rokon credited the increase to new technology and scanning protocols at the crossing.
"In the past few months, we have been using a merchandise scanner at [the Kerem Shalom Crossing], which is one of the most advanced in the world, and we have added technologies and new checking procedures that aid us in our daily fight against smugglers," he said.
The Crossing Authority is responsible not only for Kerem Shalom and Erez, but also for many of the checkpoints into and out of the West Bank. On that front as well, the authority noted some record numbers for 2016.
The past year also saw a record number of Paleostinian pedestrians crossing into Israel through Defense Ministry checkpoints: 13 million. It was an increase of more than 1.5 million from the year before, and more than 4 million over 2014.
October 2016 was the Crossing Authority’s busiest month, with approximately 55,000 Paleostinians passing through its checkpoints each day, the Defense Ministry said.
Israeli politicians, on both sides of the aisle, have called for renovations and improvements for West Bank checkpoints, which are often overcrowded and slow.
[Straits Times] Eight Indonesians deported by Singapore early this week and questioned over suspected links to Daesh have been released. The men, aged between 16 and 37, were released on Thursday, police spokesman Saptono Erland said yesterday, after police concluded that they were not associated with Daesh.
On Tuesday, the group of eight was stopped by immigration officers who found a photo of a "shoe bomb" on the smartphone of its leader. Indonesian authorities identified him by the initials REH, and said he is a 37-year-old religious teacher.
"The group has returned to Padang, West Sumatra, after we cross-checked with the West Sumatra regional police, who confirmed that all eight men, including the teacher and his students, were from the Darul Hadith Islamic boarding school in Bukit Tinggi," Erland said.
He noted that Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, Densus 88, as well as provincial intelligence officers also determined that the group had no links to Daesh.
The men, from Bukit Tinggi in West Sumatra, had spent seven days travelling in Thailand and Malaysia before heading to Singapore on Tuesday.
Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed that the men were deported to Malaysia because one of them had "images of security concern", including that of a shoe bomb and another of Daesh fighters.
Riau Islands police chief Sam Budigusdian said the group left Padang on Jan 3 and flew to Kuala Lumpur to preach in Bukit Jalil. They later travelled to Malacca and Perlis, as well as Pattani in southern Thailand, before arriving at Woodlands Checkpoint from Johor at about 1am on Tuesday.
General Sam said Malaysian investigators also concluded that the eight men did not embrace ISIS ideology and that REH had downloaded the illicit images into his smartphone from a WhatsApp chat mes- saging group, which he has since left.
This was the third such case in the past one year involving Indonesians deported from Singapore over suspected links to Daesh.
Last month, a man and a woman were sent back to Batam after it was discovered that he was helping the woman travel to Syria to join the militant group. Last February, four Indonesians from an Islamic boarding school in West Java were stopped in Singapore and deported because they had planned to travel to Syria to fight for Daesh.
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A report by Al Arabiya has revealed the secrets of the Iranian electronic army and its intelligence and cyber activities against states and institutions.
It also examines the details behind the murder of Mohammad Hussein Tajik, its former commander.
Tajik was sacked from his post, detained and tortured over accusations of spying and leaking information to the opposition Green Movement inside Iran, according to sources confirmed by Al Arabiya.
One of those sources is journalist and reformist activist Roohollah Zam. According to him, Tajik was one of his most important sources.
Zam is close to the Green Movement and currently resides in La Belle France.
Iran’s Ed Snowden?
During an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya, Zam said he did not believe the leaking of information was the main reason behind the murder, adding that if Tajik had left Iran and decided to work against the regime, he would have become "Iran’s Snowden".
But Iran’s security apparatus would have never allowed someone with as much insider information as Tajik to ever leave the country, according to Zam.
Tajik had said on multiple occasions that that he did not intend to leave Iran before his trial was over.
Inner workings of Iran’s cyber attacks
Zam said that the Khaybar center for information technology was established in 2011, adding that its units carried out several operations against the United States such as attacking a dam, a number of banks and power stations.
He noted that as a result of those activities, four Iranian hackers were sanctioned.
The Khaybar center also hacked Saudi banks, the Saudi kingdom’s statistics center, caused a 12-hour power cut in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and attacked a number of Israeli institutions and satellites, Zam said.
Tajik’s father, also named Mohammed and known by his nickname Hajj Vali, is one of the old members of the Iranian intelligence ministry, Zam said, adding that he was one of the first to take over the Savak in 1979 following the revolution.
During the 1980s, Hajj Vali and some of his comrades traveled to an Arab country and built a secret network that works for the Iranian intelligence, Zam added.
That network included three murderous Moslem figures who graduated from universities in Cairo and Pakistain.
Zam also said that if Tajik had not been close to him, his murder would have remained a secret, adding that Tagyk’s father even detained and tortured his ex-wife ‐ Tagyk’s mother - and broke her neck because she spoke about her son’s murder.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Hurriyet Daily News] Some 70 percent of Turkish navy vessels played a role in coup activities on July 15 night as their personnel were previously informed about the attempt by the orchestrators of the failed bid, according to Ankara prosecutors.
Joe 
North Korea
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
