[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Chief Executive of the Government of National Unity Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... has arrived in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... as the province has been witnessing fierce festivities during the past two days.
The Office of the Chief Executive confirmed his arrival in Helmand as he leads a high level delegation to meet with the local officials.
Local officials in Helmand also confirmed that CE Abdullah has arrived in Helmand is currently busy meeting with the local officials.
Provincial governor’s front man Omar Zwak said the Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior are among the bigwigs accompanying CE Abdullah during his visit.
He said the meeting has been organized with the local officials in 215th Maiwand Corps of the Afghan National Army.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, earlier said a high level delegation will visit the province to review the security situation.
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02/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Cairo- Egyptian experts said that ISIS has activated its cells in the Nile valley away from the peninsula of Sinai, where it targeted security officers over the past three years. These warnings came with the release of a local study highlighting the flow of huge financial sums to fund terrorist operations in Egypt. According to the study, such sums have played the biggest role in the revival of the Takfiri movements. These reports coincided with many significant measures taken by the Egyptian authorities.
Egyptian observers have highlighted the increase of ISIS attacks in and around Cairo during 2016 compared with 2015, during which attacks were focused in Sinai. Observers saw that the organization has sought to expand its terrorism plans out of Sinai.
ISIS’ al-Haq News Agency published addresses of 5000 police officers in Egypt who live far from Sinai, along with the types and colors of their cars and pledged to make use of these addresses soon. According to reports, these officers serve in Delta and the Valley region.
It is worth noting that ISIS claimed responsibility for the biggest and most dangerous attack that targeted the Coptic Church in Cairo in December; the attack killed 28 people and provoked local and international convictions.
Back to “Takfir”
On another hand, a recent Egyptian study said that terrorist groups in the country received huge funds, which highly contributed to the revival of Takfiri movements. Some old groups like “Al-Jihad” and “Jamaa Islamiya”, which used to focus on preaching, announced that they have adopted violent approaches. They have also resumed their speech of Takfir, and some of their members have pledged allegiance to ISIS.
For his part, Security Expert Alsayed Abdul Mohsen said that ISIS’ operations in Delta depend on small groups that work discretely and intercommunicate through social media websites like Facebook and twitter to launch new attacks that would be adopted by ISIS later. He added that ISIS also uses social media to recruit new members to work according to the lone wolves strategy.
ISIS succeeds on the financial level
Back to the study conducted by Dar al-Iftaa, it said that ISIS’ economy, which makes part of the global economy, has been one of the major reasons behind the group’s survival in the Arab and international arena despite all the hits it has faced.
ISIS Amaq News Agency reported that terrorist attacks launched by ISIS in 2015 ranged between 50 and 60, then, surged to 80-100. This number of attacks requires huge amounts of money. According to the study, attacks launched on “one day” cost USD15 million. It has also revealed that ISIS’ economy is not random as many think and does not only depend on taxes and drug smuggling, but also on more important resources that can cover the huge costs of the group’s war.
Money laundering
The Egyptian study said that terrorist organizations cooperate with businessmen, corruptive groups, and commercial companies in some countries to cover their suspicious economy in money laundering. Groups use these discrete operations aiming at investing these funds and securing their growth in order to cover the war cost, and to deepen their investments through international networks working in the global economy.
The study also said that the extremist groups’ economy depends on weakening economies of countries fighting terrorism by hitting the sources of national income like tourism and oil.
Reports of the Egyptian Ministry of Interior
The Ministry of Interior announced the capture of many cells that belong to ISIS; arrested members held banknotes and plans of attacks. Some security analysts considered that ISIS’ focus on Egypt makes a logical step following the loss of its territories in Syria and Iraq.
Security experts asserted that ISIS has sought to change its strategy in Egypt by targeting Delta and Nile Valley regions to confuse security bodies.
Observers suggested that security forces should concentrate intelligence activities to collect information and reports in cooperation with Sinai’s residents to halt activities by armed cells and to control the routes they use to smuggle money and weapons.
[Ynet] In a dirt-floored room in the town of Agadez in Niger, a pair of flip-flops and a cold pile of ashes are all that remain of what was once a teeming stopover for migrants colonists preparing the fraught journey across the Saharan Desert and onwards to Europe.
Less than a year ago, Agadez was a boomtown - a hub for smuggling networks that profited off migrants colonists seeking a better life and opportunities in Europe. But that was before the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , working with Niger's government, bankrolled a crackdown on the trade.
"We have seen the numbers fall dramatically since August," said Marina Schramm, deputy chief of mission at the International Organization for Migration, which monitors migrant flows at two points in the Agadez region.
"Before, we saw several thousand passages per week. Now we're close to zero ... several dozen," she said, noting that numbers normally fall in the winter, but not by so much.
I seem to recall that the west coast of Africa has some extensive experience, going back several centuries, in the collection and packaging of people for shipment to another continent...
[FOXNEWS] The Iranian-backed suicide kaboom targeting a Saudi frigate off the coast of 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... on Monday may have been meant for an American warship, two defense officials told Fox News.
The incident in question occurred in the southern Red Sea and was carried out by Iranian-backed 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 ... rebels. Two Saudi sailors were killed and three were maimed. At first the ship was thought to have been struck by a missile.
But based on new analysis of a video showing the attack, American intelligence officials now believe this was, in fact, a jacket wallah whose small boat rammed the side of the Saudi vessel.
In the audio heard on the video, a voice narrating the attack shouts in Arabic, "Death to America, Death to Israel, Death to the Jews."
U.S. defense analysts believe those behind the attack either thought the bomber was striking an American warship or that this was a "dress rehearsal" similar to the attack on the USS Cole, according to one official.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Iranian-backed Houthi
Good. It's easier to tell who is on what team when they wear their Iranian uniforms on their backs.
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02/01/2017 13:28 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV] Austria’s ruling centrist coalition has banned Moslem women from wearing full-face veils, such as burqas and niqabs, in public places like schools and courts.
On Tuesday, Austria became the latest European nation to take such measures and has announced that it is mulling the prohibition of headscarves for women working in public services.
The measures are part of a reform package issued by the ruling Social Democratic party (SPÖ) and the center-right Austrian People’s party (ÖVP) aimed at preventing the collapse of their coalition which almost fell left week during crisis negotiations.
"We are committed to an open society, which also presupposes open communication. A full-face veil in public places stands in its way and will therefore be banned," said a statement released by the coalition.
A government front man noted that tourist destination, such as ski resorts, and Vienna’s center are also included in the ban.
Other new policies were also agreed upon such as the increasing of the country’s CCTV network and a mandatory "integration year" for refugees, during which they have to commit to learning German and work in charitable organizations.
Similar restrictions have also been adopted in La Belle France and Belgium since 2011 while the Netherlands introduced a partial ban in 2015. Last year, Germany's Chancellor Merkel also called for banning the full-face veil.
Ibrahim Olgun, the director of Austria’s Islamic Faith Community, has slammed the ban, stressing that it would "pull the rug" from under attempts being made to establish a good working relationship between the Austrian government and the country’s Moslem population.
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[Iran Press TV] Turkish authorities have detained two politicians from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the latest move against party members ahead of a referendum on constitutional amendment.
The HDP's official front man Ayhan Bilgen and another politician representing the eastern province of Kars were taken into custody on Tuesday by a court order before a trial following his arrest by police on Sunday at an Ankara airport, after which he was transferred to the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in the country's southeast, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
According to the report, Bilgen was detained and held on charges of "membership in an armed terror organization."
The other prominent HDP politician, identified as the party's legal expert Meral Danis Bestas, was also taken into custody after being initially incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! at her residence in Diyarbakir.
The party described the arrests in a statement as a bid to prevent the HDP from campaigning against constitutional changes sought by embattled President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... following a coup attempt last July and terrorist attacks across the country. The changes are expected to dramatically expand his powers after a referendum planned for April.
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02/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Thousands of Canadians from coast to coast have sought to show their support for victims of a shooting spree on a Québec City mosque, as the country struggled to comprehend how one of Canada’s safest cities had become the setting for an attack described by the country’s prime minister as an act of terror.
Just steps away from the mosque, residents braved the bitter cold to leave flowers and handwritten signs of support in nearby snowbanks.
Alexandre Bissonnette, a 27-year-old university student, was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five charges of attempted murder on Monday. Those who knew Bissonnette described him as pro-Donald Trump, anti-immigration and sympathetic to the far right, prompting many to ask whether the current political climate had laid the ground for the attack.
He's a native of Morocco, Muslim, and mentally disturbed, but don't let any of that stop you...
Isn't that the second one, whom the authorities decided was actually a witness?
The gunman unleashed a scene of “unspeakable brutality”, the Québec City Islamic cultural center, also known as the Grande Mosquée de Québec, wrote on its Facebook page.
“Gunshots, deaths, loading of ammunition, the cries of the injured. Blood on the prayer rugs. Practically a scene of war, here in our home of Quebec City, our city known for its peacefulness. Children witnessed this vile cruelty.”
Six men – all fathers – were fatally shot in the back as they prayed. Another 19 people were injured. On Tuesday, two remained in critical condition in hospital.
“It’s horrific. Horrific … in our magnificent city, it’s horrific,” said Régis Labeaume, Québec city’s mayor.
Home to just over 500,000 people, the city saw just one homicide in all of 2016. Now it has become the setting for one of Canada’s worst mass murders in recent years.
Over recent months, the mosque had been targeted in a series of attacks that rattled the city’s tight-knit Muslim community. Swastikas had been spray-painted on the walls of the mosque and a gift-wrapped pig’s head was left on the doorstep of the mosque during Ramadan, with a note reading “bon appétit”.
Weeks later, neighbours received a pamphlet alleging ties between the mosque and terrorism. “Security at our mosque was our major, major concern,” said Mohamed Labidi, the facility’s vice-president. “But we were caught off-guard.”
Administrators of the mosque had installed security cameras both inside and outside the mosque, said Boufeldja Benabdallah, the mosque’s co-founder. “We don’t live in a climate of fear, but we do take precautions.”
Similar measures have been taken at mosques across Canada. Within just three years, the number of police-reported hate crimes against Muslims in Canada more than doubled, from 45 in 2012 to 99 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.
“Islamophobia has killed innocent Canadians,” the Canadian Council of Imams said in a statement on Monday. “As we pray for those who have lost their lives, the injured and their loved ones, we ask all decent people to stand against hatred of Islam and Muslims in all forms.”
Some pointed to the political right for helping to create a climate that fostered the escalating hostility towards Muslims. “This mosque attack is no accident,” MP Michael Chong said on Twitter on Monday. “It’s a direct result of demagogues and wannabe demagogues playing to fears and prejudices.”
Chong alluded to Trump, as well as Kellie Leitch, an MP who of late has floated the idea that all immigrants, refugees and visitors to Canada should be screened for anti-Canadian values before being allowed in the country. Chong and Leitch are among more than a dozen candidates running for leadership of the federal Conservative party.
“It’s time to say, ‘enough.’” Chong added in a Facebook post. “Playing footsie with hate is anathema to Canadians’ values. It is dangerous, it is cynical and we need to root it out.”
Leitch released a statement saying: “This outrageous act of violence is an attack not just on those gathered in a house of worship, but on the very fabric of Canadian society.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
The gunman unleashed a scene of “unspeakable brutality”
Because reversing the natural order of things - Muslims do such to infidels several times each week?
#3
We'll be hearing about this for the next half century or so. Watch for the declaration of a National Day of Mourning, an official song of mourning, and possibly an officially declared day of self flagellation to celebrate the event.
[IsraelTimes] At least 17 Jewish community centers across the United States were targeted with bomb threats in the third wave of such mass disruptions this month.
Paul Goldenberg, the director of Secure Community Network -- an affiliate of the Jewish Federations of North America that advises Jewish groups and institutions on security -- said the threats were called in late Tuesday morning. Some of the messages were live, he confirmed.
"[I]n the past we know that the numbers can grow exponentially," he said,
..though they haven't thus far, which seems suggestive...
adding that perpetrators have been "leveraging technologies to make mass calls."
Goldenberg confirmed that threats had been called into JCCs in Albany, New York; Syracuse, New York; West Orange, New Jersey; Milwaukee, San Diego and Salt Lake City.
The JCC in New Haven, Connecticut received a live call at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday threatening violence. The JCC is housed in several locations following a Dec. 5 fire, and evacuated about 100 people from those places following the call. After law enforcement determined that the threat was not credible, the evacuees returned. The New Haven JCC was also targeted in a wave of bomb threats about two weeks ago.
"We recognize that we live under a new set of circumstances that we have to be responsive to, and take every possible precaution to keep our people safe," said New Haven JCC CEO Judy Diamondstein. "While we are disrupted, we refuse to be daunted by this."
Diamondstein said the JCC has drilled safety protocols extensively in order to be prepared for a situation like this. Diamondstein had a previously scheduled meeting Wednesday afternoon with an FBI officer to sharpen procedures for dealing with an active shooter.
"We have been diligent in looking at our security for a while now," she said.
On Jan. 18, some 30 Jewish institutions in at least 17 states received bomb threats. On Jan. 9, such threats were called into 16 JCCs across the Northwest and South, forcing the evacuation of hundreds.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Masud Barzani, Iraq’s Kurdistan President, announced that he would declare independence for the autonomous region if Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki returned as Prime Minister, he said on Monday.
"The moment Maliki assumes cabinet chairmanship, I will declare the independence of Kurdistan without consulting anybody. No matter what happens. I am not staying in an Iraq ruled by al-Maliki," he was quoted as telling Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
Kurdistan gained autonomous governance based on the 2005 constitution, but is still considered a part of Iraq. The region was created in 1970 based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, ending years of fierce fighting, IraqiNews reported.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report has accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq of torquing up to 17 alledged ISIS child soldiers.
"KRG authorities have established policies against acts of torture, which strongly prohibits physical and psychological torture of inmates," Dr. Dindar Zebari, the Head of the Kurdistan Regional Government High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports said on Sunday.
The HRW has also claimed that the KRG have at least 183 alledged ISIS child soldiers in jug without access to a lawyer or charges put against them.
"Legitimate security concerns do not give security forces license to beat, manhandle, or use electric shocks on children," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"Many children escaping from ISIS are victims who need help, yet face further abuse by Asayish forces," Fakih added.
"KRG authorities should ensure the well-being of children captured after living under ISIS and not mistreat them," Fakih said. "The brutal abuse of children produces false confessions, can cause lifelong suffering, and blurs the moral line between ISIS and its foes."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
"The brutal abuse of children produces false confessions, can cause lifelong suffering, and blurs the moral line between ISIS and its foes."
I guess Kurds are more interested in survival than moral superiority, Lama.
#2
The HRW has also claimed that the KRG have at least 183 alledged ISIS child soldiers in jug without access to a lawyer or charges put against them.
Once again mistaking the treatment of accused criminals in civil society with that of captured enemy combattants in war. The fact that they are ISIS Lion Cubs changes that only somewhat., as does the fact that many of them likely did not originally put on their uniforms willingly.
[Iran Press TV] Israel has announced plans for the construction of 3,000 new settler units in the occupied West Bank, its latest step in a construction binge which started directly after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... The announcement was made late on Tuesday via a statement released by the Israeli ministry of military affairs, which stated that Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu have approved the new plans.
Following the January 20 inauguration of Trump, a pro-Israel figure, Tel Aviv launched its major settlement expansion drive.
The latest move come just days after the Tel Aviv regime announced some 2,500 new settler units in the West Bank and around 500 more in East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Last week, Netanyahu said that Israel’s settlement approval is just a "taste" of new measures, which will be taken now that Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... is no longer the US president.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't forget the interlocking fire positions and don't spare the rebar.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Antony J. Blinken, former Deputy Secretary of State in the B.O. regime, called on Trump to directly arm Syrian Kurds to take Raqqa, regardless of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s opposition, Ara News reported.
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... Blinken also urged President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... to help Turkey to take al-Bab city in northern Syria and to kill the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the report continued.
This is contradicted by the fact that the Syrian Kurds are mostly a part of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) who are the Syrian wing of the PKK.
"The only fighters capable of seizing Raqqa belong to our most effective partner on the ground -- the Syrian Democratic Forces, a mixture of Arabs and Kurds dominated by the People’s Protection Units, a Kurdish militia," Blinken said.
"The SDF can succeed only if it is armed to overcome 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.... ’s ferocious urban resistance of snipers, jacket wallahs and improvised bombs," he said.
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02/01/2017 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iran says missile tests are an "inalienable and absolute" right of the Islamic Theocratic Republic in order to defend its security and national interests, stressing that no country or international body can have any say in this regard.
"I emphasize the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran’s principled stance that conducting any ballistic missile test by the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran is in full compliance with its absolute rights and international obligations," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday.
He reaffirmed the "defensive nature" of Iran’s missile programs and said none of the country’s ballistic missiles had been designed to carry a nuclear warhead and they were, therefore, not banned under the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Security Council Resolution 2231.
Resolution 2231 was adopted on July 20, 2015 to endorse a landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.
Under the resolution, Iran is "called upon" not to undertake any activity related to missiles "designed to be capable of" delivering nuclear weapons. Iran says it is not involved in any such missile work and has no such warheads.
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[Iran Press TV] The head of Iran’s JCPOA follow-up committee says his country has never stopped the enrichment of uranium even for a single day.
Abbas Araqchi, who is also a deputy foreign minister, added that Iran will restore its nuclear activities to a pre-JCPOA level if other parties refrain from honoring their commitments.
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Security Council -- the United States, La Belle France, Britannia, Russia and China -- plus Germany started implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on January 16, 2016.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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.
[Ynet] In a dirt-floored room in the town of Agadez in Niger, a pair of flip-flops and a cold pile of ashes are all that remain of what was once a teeming stopover for 
[ALMASDARNEWS] A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report has accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq of torquing up to 17 alledged ISIS child soldiers.
