[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs group can carry on insurgency for a very long time, Pakistain’s foreign affairs adviser 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 as he insist that the Afghan leaders to review their "fragmented" approach to peace talks with the Taliban on containing and ending the resilient insurgency.
Aziz made the remarks during an interview with the Voice of America.
He said the group may not be able to capture (the) bulk of Afghanistan or the capital or any other (major urban) place.
"Their approach to talks with the Taliban is very, very fragmented. We want the (Afghan) government of national unity to succeed, to establish its writ, we want them to send a clear signal to the Taliban and other groups that the whole world wants them (insurgents) to talk (to 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.... ) and solve the problem because nobody wants fighting in Afghanistan to continue," he added.
Aziz also added "I think they will come under greater pressure and so, if serious negotiations begin in 2017 that will be our best hope for peace in Afghanistan."
The Afghan government adopted a strict stance against the Taliban group and other turban groups after they rejected direct peace talks plea and decided to pursue violence by announcing their spring offensive in mid-April this year.
Earlier, the Afghan government was asking Pakistain to take actions against the bandidosmurderous Moslems pursuing violence, a step that should be taken in line with the agreement reached in Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG).
The coordination group was formed earlier last year with an aim to help revive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban and the group consisted of representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistain, China, and the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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The army yesterday warned that al-Shabaab insurgents will pay for “inhumanly” executing a Ugandan soldier whom they captured in August 2015. The outgoing army spokesperson, Lt Col Paddy Ankuda, said al-Shabaab had violated the international law which protects prisoners of war from being killed by the belligerent forces.
“We have watched the video and it’s obviously unacceptable,” Lt Col Ankunda said. “The al-Shabaab is breaking international law, they will answer for their criminality.”
Lt Col Ankunda does not say how al-Shabaab will pay but insists action will be taken. Under Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1949, prisoners of war are not supposed to be mistreated.
Since Al Shabaab are not signatories, that does not apply.
The execution of Pte Masasa, who hails from Busia District, is captured in a graphic video released by al- Shabaab on Tuesday. The video titled ‘’So they may take heed; the final message from Ugandan prisoner of war [POW]’’ shows Pte Masasa being shot twice in the head.
He was captured by the insurgents when they attacked a UPDF base in Janaale in South west of Mogadishu and killed 19 soldiers.
The insurgents also forced Pte Masasa to make a statement saying that Ugandan soldiers went to Somalia “just for the money”. He goes ahead to tell Ugandan soldiers to stay in their own country and not to deploy to Somalia. “It’s possible to get a salary even back in Uganda,” he says in the video.
This is the third video the insurgents are releasing after his capture. The first two videos were released last year when he made an emotional appeal to President Museveni to rescue him and also sent greetings to his wife he called Eva Achan and children. Despite his plea, the government has not come out to issue any statement on the soldier’s fate.
After the attack on Janaale UPDF base, the outgoing Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Katumba Wamala, set up a board of inquiry chaired by Brig Jack Bakasumba, which found out that the commanders didn’t handle the operational requirements well.
The inquiry also found that the Janaale UPDF defensive position, manned by 200 UPDF troops, was overwhelmed by the al-Shabaab attackers who were estimated to be between 350 and 500 in number.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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Somebody, or somebody plus a copycat, is having a little too much fun. Here's hoping the little idiot is soon found.
[Ynet] A Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was briefly evacuated after a false bomb threat on Thursday, Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... 's Jewish community association AMIA said in a statement, a day after dozens of similar episodes were reported in the United States.
[Bangla Daily Star] Colombia announced a deal Wednesday to hold peace talks with its last active rebel group, the ELN.
The move aims to seal "complete peace" after the signing of a historic deal with the bigger FARC guerrilla force, President Juan Manuel Santos said.
"I can tell you we have come to an agreement" on launching talks, having settled a dispute about the release of a hostage that National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels were holding, Santos said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... Delegations from the two sides meeting in Ecuador said later they had agreed that the ELN would release the hostage and the government would in return grant pardons to two members of the rebel group.
The talks will then start on February 7, they said.
"We have been trying to start these official negotiations for three years now and the truth is it has been a very difficult process," Santos said.
"This second stage that is going to begin next month is extremely important because it will allow us to achieve a complete peace, not only with the FARC but with the ELN, too."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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North Korea on Friday repeated its threat to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at any time and place ahead of the imminent launch of the Donald Trump administration.
North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un claimed in his New Year's address that his country has reached the final stage of ICBM development, followed by the foreign ministry's Jan. 8 assertion that Pyongyang can run an ICBM test at any time and place if its leader orders it. On Thursday, the South Korean military said the North has probably built two ICBMs and placed them on mobile launchers for a test in the near future.
"An ICBM test-firing is a fair self-defense step to counter the U.S. threat of a nuclear war against us (the North) that nobody can argue," the Rodong Sinmun, a daily of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said in a commentary.
The U.S. has nothing to say about whatever the North makes and tests to counter its nuclear blackmail, the daily said.
"We don't care what others say, and our ICBM will be test-fired at a certain time and place which our leadership will decide."
It's simply a robber's sophistry for the U.S., which conducted a Minuteman III ICBM test last year, to regard the North's ICBM test as a provocation and intimidation, the daily said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
If they tested it on Mecca during Eid, I wouldn't really mind
Legal Insurrection has the report at the link. The original article in German is here. This is not limited to Gülen opponents but extends as well to various Turkish dissidents. Sultan Yippie is not amused.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAILYCALLER] A group of parents in Southern Indiana has expressed alarm because their children in the local taxpayer-funded middle school are learning that Sharia law is a delightful concept beloved by women forced to live under its yoke.
The Sharia-related assignment at issue is for seventh-grade students at Highland Hills Middle School, just north of Louisville, reports The Courier-Journal, the main regional newspaper.
The assignment provides a reading passage ostensibly written by a 20-year-old woman named Ahlima who resides in 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... Ahlima says she feels "very fortunate" to be governed by Sharia law -- the notorious Islamic penal code which, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, includes the practice of cutting off the hands of criminals who steal. She observes that she is about to become some guy’s second wife. She supports the repressive clothes women in Saudi Arabia must wear. "I understand that some foreigners see our dress as a way of keeping women from being equal," Ahlima writes. "I find Western women’s clothing to be horribly immodest."
From the referenced The Courier-Journal article, it's all in the teaching:
Coletti said she developed the original lesson nearly 20 years ago to fulfill state social studies standards requiring middle school students to learn about culture in the Middle East. Ahlima, the character in the lesson, is based on an interview she saw on an interview in a news program with a woman who held many of the same ideas about Sharia law, she said.
Initially, the curriculum was two consecutive activities – one focusing on Ahlima and one focusing on an Israeli woman of a similar age who served in the army and wanted to attend college. Coletti said she later combined the two lessons for clarity.
She said that despite the change, the goal of the assignment was the same: to help students think for themselves and arrive at the conclusion that the Israeli has more rights and freedoms than the Saudi woman of the same age. If they don’t arrive at that conclusion, she said, the teacher is expected to help the student understand.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Try it on for size at school. Make the girls wear barbeque covers. Beat them if they show anything above the wrist or ankle. In fact, make them stay at home and cook. As for the guys, chop off their hands or lash them if they steal another kid's iPhone or get high.
#2
She observes that she is about to become some guy’s second wife. She supports the repressive clothes women in Saudi Arabia must wear. "I understand that some foreigners see our dress as a way of keeping women from being equal," Ahlima writes. "I find Western women’s clothing to be horribly immodest."
Why would we take as instructive the fawning praise of a *prisoner* who attempts to justify the rules her captors have set out for her?
The problem is Islam. The problem will always be Islam until it is relegated to the ash bin of history.
#4
they're not teaching kids the truth unless they show "ahlima" telling the kids how her cliteris is chopped off and she'll never enjoy sex, and how she thinks gay students should be thrown off the highest roof because the hadith said so
#5
oh yeah, and it lies unless "ahlima" can tell the students how her husband is allowed to marry and have sex with little girls aged 9 because Mohammad did
Wednesday detained, Thursday arrested. The Turkish police are moving fast.
Two suspects, including one police officer, were arrested Thursday in connection to the assassination of Andrey Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, Anadolu reported.
Police detained five suspects Wednesday, including police officer Sercan Baser and tradesman Enes Asim Silin. The pair was remanded later by an Ankara court pending trial under accusations of "being members of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO)".
The court approved the release of three other suspects under judicial control.
Karlov was fatally shot Dec. 19 by Mevlut Mert Altintas as the diplomat delivered a speech at an art exhibition in the Turkish capital. Altintas was later shot dead in an exchange of fire with security personnel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] A enjugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! co-chair of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has said the arrests of the party’s politicians were planned by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) "hour by hour around a table."
"The process that brought us to jail was an organization planned hour by hour and day by day by high-level AKP members sitting around a table," HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas told daily Cumhuriyet from the prison in which he is kept in the northwestern province of Edirne, adding that they decided to arrest the politicians, including the party’s other co-chair, Figen Yuksekdag, after the grinding of the peace processor between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the government ended.
Demirtas also said the fact that the HDP passed the 10 percent election threshold in the June 7, 2015, and Nov. 1, 2015, elections affected the AKP politicians’ decision to arrest the deputies.
"In the June 7, 2015, elections, the HDP’s equilibrium in politics turned in favor of the people and against the hegemonic clique, and that’s when the AKP pushed the button. It was seen that voting could change a lot in the June 7 elections and because it can’t be directly and openly forbidden, voting for the HDP was banned.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... it was seen in Nov. 1 elections that this didn’t work and with the HDP passing the threshold once again, they saw that the HDP didn’t allow the AKP to change the constitution without a referendum. The arrest process targeting us was started then," he also said.
Noting that the AKP made the arrests possible by declaring a state of emergency and issuing emergency decrees, Demirtas said the AKP saw it as "essential" to push the crowds represented by the HDP out of politics.
"According to the surveys, support for the presidency never past 42 percent. The plan was to raise nationalist and chauvinistic feelings through midnight operations against the HDP, to raise the support above 50 percent with the nationalism of the AKP and the MHP [Nationalist Movement Party] and to present the charter amendments to parliament," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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Every minute brings Donald Trump closer to putting his hand on the Lincoln Bible, and a group of 41 men closer to a lifetime of internment at the U.S. military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Looks like 0bean is trying to come up with something that Trump can't undo.
But lawyers and Obama administration officials are working down to the wire to get remaining detainees out of Guantánamo before Trump throws away the key, potentially for good. With less than 24-hours remaining before President-elect Trump becomes president, Foreign Policy has learned that the White House has made four more transfers, the last of Obama’s administration. The Pentagon announced their names and destinations -- one to Saudi Arabia, and three to the United Arab Emirates -- later on Thursday evening.
In a letter on his last full day in office, President Obama urged House Speaker Paul Ryan one last time to close the detention center. Sorry. Schedule full this week. Try again Monday.
"If this were easy, we would have closed Guantánamo years ago," Obama wrote. "But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to bring it to a responsible end." The key word here is "responsible".
The White House publicly acknowledged for the first time this week what has long been the grim reality for the legal teams representing the detainees and the administration officials charged with their fate: Obama would not be able to make good on his campaign promise and executive order to close Guantánamo, issued almost eight years ago to the day. Actually, they were kidding and 0bean took it seriously.
In defiance of Trump’s Twitter edict not to make any more transfers, the Pentagon sent 10 detainees to Oman on Monday, and the last four midnight-hour moves come just hours from the moment Trump takes the oath of office on Friday. The 10 men transferred on Monday, as well as five others, have been cleared by six national security agencies as no longer posing a threat to the United States, and several of them, the government has admitted, were cases of mistaken identity. "We found the missing evidence, your honor. It was hidden."
"But the evidence was on display . . ."
"I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find it."
"That’s the missing evidence department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?"
"Yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter did not sign off on the transfers of several of the remaining cleared detainees in time for the legally-required 30-day congressional notification. Legal teams for two detainees on this list -- Abdul Latif Nasir, a Moroccan, and Sufyian Barhoumi, an Algerian -- filed emergency motions with federal courts to grant their repatriation before Friday. But the Obama administration opposed the requests, despite judicial orders to prepare the detainees to be moved immediately in case of a favorable ruling. On Wednesday night, the court ruled against Barhoumi, and on Thursday afternoon, the Moroccan’s request was shot down.
Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights, A communist front group...
which still has four clients remaining at Guantánamo, slammed the Obama White House for saying it wanted to close the facility but then stating unequivocally it wouldn’t follow the ruling if the judges ordered the already-cleared detainees to be released.
When Trump takes the oath on Friday, Kadidal will be in the air on his way to Guantánamo, where he’ll break the news to Barhoumi.
"I’m actually going to see him now, unfortunately, since he’ll still be there," Kadidal told Foreign Policy Thursday, "as the photos get switched from Obama to the orange-colored buffoon."
Barhoumi was initially charged with war crimes but they were later dismissed. Another of CCR’s clients, Ghaleb al Bihani, a Yemeni, was transferred with the group of 10 on Monday, but his older brother, Tawfiq, who has also been cleared, was left behind.
Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas, a military lawyer defending several Guantanamo detainees, said they’ve tried to keep their expectations low because, "It’s just too heartbreaking." His client, Abdul Zahir, was picked up in 2002 because the "government mistook him for someone else who shared a nickname." Zahir was surprised by the election result, telling Thomas, "’Americans and detainees in Guantanamo now both have to figure out the way forward.’"
On Monday night, the Pentagon still hadn’t informed Thomas whether Zahir was in the group that was transferred that day. Zahir is now Oman.
Of the 41 men who remain as of Thursday, only 10 have been charged with war crimes. The vast majority have been detained for more than a decade, and none were captured by the U.S. military.
If the rest do not make it onto a military plane by Friday, lawyers say, they will likely die at Guantánamo along with the 26 other men known as "forever prisoners" -- including the alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks -- the U.S. has determined will be detained indefinitely. The 26 are eligible for their cases to be reviewed periodically.
Many of the detainees are deeply involved in their own defense, and they are aware that Trump’s victory has raised the stakes, according to legal teams who represent them. In recent conversations they’ve expressed their concern if they don’t make it out before Trump enters the Oval Office, they’ll be stuck.
Trump made his own campaign pledges to "load [Guantánamo] up with some really bad dudes," and "bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding." While he’s since toned down his vows to return to illegal government torture -- at the behest of retired Gen. James Mattis, expected to be confirmed as defense secretary on Friday, who told him torture wasn’t effective -- he hasn’t ruled it out. He’s never backed off his plan to keep Guantánamo open, and has doubled down on expanding it, even suggesting he may try U.S. citizens in military commissions there.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said his team is planning executive orders for Friday and Monday, including his own, as well as rescinding Obama’s prior dictates. In his "100 Day Action Plan" the New York businessman vowed to do so.
Spicer declined to comment as to whether Trump will issue his own orders for Guantánamo, but given his strong public stances, he is likely to move early to undo the four executive orders on U.S. detention and interrogation policy that Obama issued on his first day in office.
One promise Obama did keep was not to add a single detainee to the population at Guantánamo, relying largely on the federal justice system and foreign partners to deal with the handful of terrorist suspects captured on global battlefields since 2009. For the rest: lethal drone strikes, according to analysts.
Barred by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress from closing Guantánamo and moving the remaining "worst of the worst" detainees to a maximum-security facility on U.S. soil, Obama administration officials have steadily chipped away at the population through the transfers to third-party countries, ultimately moving 196 of the roughly 800 once held at Guantánamo.
Trump has echoed lawmakers’ concerns that Obama has been releasing dangerous terrorists who could return to the fight alongside Islamic State. But in contrast to a lengthy process that Obama’s own supporters and officials have criticized as unnecessarily onerous, President George W. Bush released more than 500 detainees, with few measures in place to protect against terrorist recidivism. Most of the transferred detainees that the Intelligence Community assesses have returned to terrorism were released under Bush, with 14.1 percent of detainees transferred before Obama’s inauguration being suspected of returning to terrorism, and only 6.8 percent of detainees released after, according to the latest report from the Director of National Intelligence.
The Obama administration, as well as supporters of closing Guantánamo, such as Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.), also have argued the cost of maintaining it is unjustifiable. The operational cost last year was approximately $445 million, according to the White House; with the president’s last transfers bringing the total to 41, that’s more than $10 million on average per detainee.
The government also pays for lawyers to defend detainees, including those being charged as co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks, whose cases before military commissions are expected to stretch on for years.
James Connell, who serves as expert counsel for one of these "high-value" detainees, Anmar al Baluchi, said they joke about Trump -- "’What are we going to do with this guy?" But Baluchi is also concerned about the incoming president’s broader policies toward Muslims, in particular Syrian refugees. Under Trump, Connell anticipates every Guantánamo detainee left could become a "forever prisoner." "They’ll stay there until they die."
Trump may similarly find himself as confounded as Obama by the unanswered questions of the war on terrorism, Connell predicted.
"Obama hoped it would go away," he said. "But it won’t."
#1
The one thing a hotel and resort manager hates is empty rooms. I hope Trump fills up Gitmo with the same guys just released (plus a few more) and renames the resort "Barack Hussein Obama Forever Stay Prison"
#2
One promise Obama did keep was not to add a single detainee to the population at Guantánamo, relying largely on the federal justice system and foreign partners. For the rest: lethal drone strikes.
Ironic, isn't it? Send no one to prison to determine guilt, just send folks presumed guilty, and a few nearby persons of unknown guilt, to their ultimate destination.
(Good news)It does save the cost of care and feeding at Gitmo, (bad news) but at the cost of a Hellfire missile.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/20/2017 8:04 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder, did his extra-judicial, remote-controlled executions tail off since the election?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/20/2017 8:10 Comments ||
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[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The media is raising concerns about a drone bombing at the 58th Presidential Inauguration on Friday.
On Thursday's "Today" show, a report indicated that U.S. Secret Service has put in place several anti-drone efforts out of concern that an I-inspired "flying IED" will smash into the crowd, or worse.
The report quoted an official from DroneShield, a drone countermeasure firm, saying that the Inauguration "is not something I would feel safe at."
Reports of violent protests and attacks has Washington on edge, though past threats have never come.
But the "Today" show report, headlined "Drone Danger At Inauguration? Dealing with a new high-flying security threat," noted that drone bombs have been seen flying over coalition forces in Iraq at least once a day.
"When strapped with a bomb, a worse case scenario especially with hundreds of thousands of people gathered at one spot like the Inauguration," the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAILYCALLER] Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a bill on Tuesday that would declassify information about the terrorist activities of detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba who have been released or transferred since Election Day.
The move came after a report that the B.O. regime recently struck a deal with Oman to transfer 10 detainees from Gitmo. The move brings the total number of detainees down to less than 50.
Cruz and other Republicans have been heavily critical of Obama’s transfers and of his promise to close the facility before leaving office. Republicans point to a statistic that 30 percent of detainees released or transferred from Gitmo either return to terrorist activities or are suspected of doing so. Obama has also been criticized for transferring detainees with known links to terrorists. Several close associates of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest... -- drivers and bodyguards -- have been transferred from Gitmo.
Cruz’s bill would allow the public access to the same information that the Defense Department and White House have used to determine whether detainees can be released or transferred.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps this will keep 0bean from releasing the last tranche of prisoners . . . .
[DAWN] Protesters threw stones at supporters of five missing Pak activists on Thursday and demanded that police charge the missing men under a blasphemy law that carries a mandatory death sentence.
The activists, who have posted blogs criticising the political influence of the military and speaking up for the rights of religious minorities, have all gone missing separately since January 4, and it is unclear what happened to them.
Shortly after their disappearances, blasphemy allegations against them appeared on social media and in a complaint to police.
About 100 members of Tehrik-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah arrived at 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... Press Club and started hurling stones at people gathered there to support the missing activists.
They rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud asking police to file blasphemy cases against the missing activists and carried banners that read: "Beheading is the punishment of blasphemers."
The activists' supporters were forced to withdraw into a nearby building.
Civil society activists said that instead of giving satisfactory answers over the recovery of the missing activists, the government and its institutions are trying to "veil their incompetence and wrongdoings by running a malicious campaign against the abductees".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The number of Islamic State troops at the borders between the provinces of Diyala and Salahuddin has tripled in the past few months, a senior leader at al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) ha said.
Udai al-Kahdran, a commander at the militias fighting IS along with the government forces, told Alsumaria News on Wednesday that the fact indicates the extremist group’s willingness to distract security forces. He said the increase in militants at that region came as many had regularly sneaked from Kirkuk’s town of Hawija, an IS stronghold, to Salahuddin’s Mutaibijah and surrounding areas.
IS is trying to create “a new hotspot to preoccupy security forces”, and to “put hurdles on the way to liberating Hawija, according to Khadran.
IS is currently losing much ground at Mosul, the group’s biggest stronghold in Iraq, as security forces have liberated half of the city since operations launched in October 2016. But the group has stepped up violence against security and civilians in other provinces, which observers believe is an attempt to distract government forces and to make up for losses in Mosul.
On Wednesday, IS attackers killed four tribal combatants and six policemen, and kidnapped five police personnel in the east and south of Salahuddin’s city of Tikrit. Another attack in Hamreen killed nine members of Diyala police forces.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] A senior Jordanian military commander says the kingdom faces a growing threat to its border as 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.... forces of Evil in neighboring Iraq and Syria are being dislodged from their strongholds by military offensives.
Brig. Gen. Sami Kafawin told news hounds on Thursday he expects some IS fighters, increasingly on the defensive, to make their way to southern Syria and Jordan's border. Kafawin commands the border guard forces.
He says there has been a "big difference" in threat levels over the last three years and that nearly half of Jordan's military personnel and resources have been deployed along the Iraqi and Syrian border--a sharp increase from before the 2011 outbreak of the Syrian conflict.
He says Jordan is deploying "more and more forces" at the border to safeguard against IS.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Malaysia has called for an organization of Islamic countries to help end the persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya Moslem minority, while Indonesia has offered to be a controller to find a solution to the ongoing crisis.
Prime Minister Najib Razak told the opening of a special meeting of foreign ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that the violence against Rohingya, which has galvanised Moslems in Southeast Asia, was no longer Myanmar's internal affair as it has fuelled an exodus of refugees that could destabilise the region.
He claimed that the violence must end otherwise gangs including 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.... of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIS, as know as ISIS) could infiltrate the Rohingya.
"OIC member states are well aware that terrorist organizations such as ISIS could seek to take advantage of this situation," Najib said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar are accused of widespread abuses against the Rohingya, including killings, rape and the burning of thousands of homes that have driven an estimated 65,000 refugees across the border into Bangladesh in the past three months.
Myanmar's army began the latest crackdown in Rakhine state in October after nine coppers were killed along the border with Bangladesh.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iran has summoned Danish Ambassador to Tehran Danny Annan to express the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s strong condemnation of an assault on Iran's embassy in the Scandinavian country.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi announced on Thursday evening that the ministry's director for Northern and Eastern Europe affairs had called in Annan to roundly criticize the attack on Iran's diplomatic mission in the Danish capital Copenhagen by "four anti-revolutionary elements," and state that such an act had taken place in violation of international regulations.
The senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official further censured the Danish government’s laxity in ensuring the security of the Iranian Embassy ...You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy!... and its staff members, calling on Danish officials to seriously and responsibly deal with the perpetrators and report the results.
Annan, for his part, voiced regret over the attack, describing the incident as "unacceptable."
He pledged to relay Iran's protest to his government as soon as possible, and notify Iranian authorities of the outcome.
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01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Key Syrian gangAhrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... said on Wednesday it will not take part in peace talks between the government and ’opposition’ factions in the Kazakh capital next week.
The group decided not to participate in the negotiations in Astana that start on Monday due to "the lack of implementation of the ceasefire" in force since December 30 and ongoing Russian air strikes over Syria, it said in a statement.
Ahrar al-Sham was among gangs that signed the ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and terror backer The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... last month.
The truce has largely held across Syria although fighting has persisted in some areas, allowing Russia, Turkey and Iran to organize the peace talks in Astana.
Ahrar al-Sham said the army’s offensive against the gunnies in Wadi Barada, an area 15 kilometres (10 miles) northwest of Damascus that is the capital’s main source of water, was among the reasons it would not attend the talks.
The Syrian army has pressed an assault to retake the area from the bandidosbandidos krazed killers after mains supplies were cut last month, leaving 5.5 million people in Damascus and its suburbs without water.
Ahrar al-Sham said however that it was giving its support to other gangs represented at the Astana talks.
Mohammad Alloush, a prominent figure of the Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... (Army of Islam) faction, will in Astana head a "military delegation" of around eight people, backed by nine legal and political advisors from the High Negotiations Committee umbrella group.
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01/20/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Do the rebels have a progressive liberal faction or something?
[Hurriyet Daily News] 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) murderous Moslems in Raqqa sent footage from inside the Reina nightclub in Istanbul’s Ortaköy to prepare ISIS hard boy Abdulkadir Masharipov to carry out the attack, according to testimony from the Uzbek hard boy that was released to the press.
Masharipov, who was caught on Jan. 16 in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, said in new testimony that he watched the video over and over because he was not familiar with the interior of the posh nightclub on the shore of the Bosphorus.
Continued on Page 49
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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.
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
North Korea on Friday repeated its threat to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at any time and place ahead of the imminent launch of the Donald Trump administration.
Every minute brings Donald Trump closer to putting his hand on the Lincoln Bible, and a group of 41 men closer to a lifetime of internment at the U.S. military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The media is raising concerns about a drone bombing at the 58th Presidential Inauguration on Friday.
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
