General Baba Jan, the commander of 707 Pamir Police Unit, on Wednesday said that up to 600 foreign fighters and their families have moved in to some provinces in the northern parts of the country.
According to Baba Jan, the total number of militants fighting security forces in Samangan, Balkh, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul and Faryab provinces is estimated to be around 7,000.
He said the Afghan security forces are determined to clear insurgent hideouts in the northern zone next spring in order to prevent any further advancement.
“Up to 600 foreign militants and their families are in our area of responsibility,” said Baba Jan. However, no details as to the origins of these fighters were given.
Foreign militants are deployed in Kohistanat, Balcharagh, Garizwan, Ghormach and Dawlat Abad districts of Sar-e-Pul and Faryab where they frequently engage in armed confrontation with security forces, he said.
Baba Jan said some police commanders have handed over their weapons to some powerful elements in the north in a bid to secure their own survival.
Investigations are underway to regain these weapon and to identify those involved, he added.
“Some of our commanders provided weapons and vehicles to powerful persons for their own survival and now they are not able to take them back, it is a major violation,” said Baba Jan.
Meanwhile, civil society activists in Balkh have also raised deep concerns over drug smuggling in the northern regions of the country.
“There are some elements who exploit families of those addicted to drugs,” said civil society activist Abdul Hamid Sefwat.
“When they get the men addicted to drugs, then the smugglers ask them for their daughters in exchange for heroin,” he added.
There are huge concerns among the people in Balkh that the security will further deteriorate in the northern regions of the country if government does not take solid action against drug smugglers and take back the weapons handed over to powerful persons.
#1
It only seems fair that if the militants are there to mess with the locals' families that the locals ought to be able to mess with the militants' families.
The U.S government's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said in its latest quarterly report, issued on Tuesday, that 6,785 Afghan security force members were killed between January 1 and November 12 last year, with another 11,777 wounded.
Going on previous reports, this is an increase of about 35 percent against the same period in 2015, when some 5,000 security forces were killed.
The SIGAR report stated that the “majority of ANDSF casualties continue to be the result of direct-fire attacks, with IED explosions and mine strikes accounting for much lower levels of casualties.”
SIGAR’s analysis of the most recent data provided by U.S Forces in Afghanistan (USFOR-A) suggests that the security situation in the country has not improved this quarter.
The numbers of Afghan security forces are decreasing, while both casualties and the number of districts under insurgent control or influence are increasing, the report stated.
USFOR-A found that about 57.2 percent of the country’s 407 districts are under Afghan government control or influence as of November 15, 2016 – a 6.2 percent decrease from the 63.4 percent reported the previous quarter ending late August, and a nearly 15 percent decrease since November 2015.
Of the 407 districts of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, 233 districts were under government control (83 districts) or influence (150), 41 districts (in 15 provinces) were under insurgent control (9) or influence (32), and 133 districts were “contested.”
The report describes contested districts as having “negligible meaningful impact from insurgents,” contending that neither the insurgency nor the Afghan government maintains significant control over these areas.
USFOR-A identified the regions/provinces with the largest percentage of insurgent-controlled or -influenced districts as Uruzgan province, with five out of six (83.3 percent) of its districts under insurgent control or influence, and Helmand with eight out of 14 (57.1 percent) of its districts under insurgent control or influence.
The region with the most districts under insurgent control or influence is in northeast Helmand province and northwestern Kandahar province, and includes the Helmand/Kandahar border area, Uruzgan province, and northwestern Zabul.
This region alone accounts for 16 of the 41 districts (or 31.7 percent) under insurgent control or influence.
The report states that USFOR-A attributes the loss of government control or influence over territory to the ANDSF’s strategic approach to security prioritization, identifying the most important areas that the ANDSF must “hold” to prevent defeat, and focusing less on areas with less strategic importance.
“This is an insurgency that still enjoys sanctuary and support from outside the country; that’s very difficult for the Afghans to defeat,” said General John Nicholson, Commander Resolute Support and U.S Forces-Afghanistan in an earlier interview.
However, USFOR-A noted that the insurgents failed in their eight attempts to capture a provincial capital this year.
SIGAR stated that at least 9.2 million people, almost one-third of the Afghan population, "live in areas that are contested," but that about 2.5 million people live under the control or influence of the insurgency, down from 2.9 million over the past three months. The majority, 20.4 million (63.5%), live in areas controlled or influenced by government, the report stated.
Meanwhile, head of Kunduz provincial council Amruddin Wali accused government of incompetence in terms of carrying out successful military operations.
“This incompetence by government and its unsuccessful military operations paved the ground for militants to expand their territory and increase fear among the people,” Wali stated.
“This would have bad consequences. For instance, Taliban took control of Musa Qala and then the war extended to Nad Ali, Marjah and southern districts of Helmand,” deputy head of Helmand provincial council Abdul Majid Akhundzada said.
Commenting on the report, Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said: “We managed to foil the enemy’s goals and we thwarted their plans. The reason behind an increase in our casualties in 2015 and 2016 was that we carried out the operations independently.”
If you look at the pic at the link, the colonists migrants are sitting in a shiny, new Zodiac boat. Where are the smugglers getting them, and why isn't that market shut down?
Libya’s UN-backed prime minister, Fayez al-Serraj, has said Nato or EU ships could be permitted to operate in Libyan waters alongside the national military coastguard to slow the flow of people-smuggling across the Mediterranean.
Easier to transfer the colonists migrants to EU ships that way...
The move came as a report claimed elements of the Libyan coastguard were complicit in the smuggling and said returning anyone caught on boats to coastal detention centres was risky since conditions there were horrendous.
Complicit? They're business partners...
Serraj’s comments after talks at Nato on Wednesday will be a boost to EU plans to move its anti-smuggling mission Operation Sophia into Libyan waters to help prevent migrants from reaching Europe. The EU is due to discuss a comprehensive plan for Libya at a special heads of state summit on Friday.
“If there is something to be carried out jointly between the Libyan navy and any other party interested in extending a hand to the Libyan navy, that would be possible,” Serraj said. “Of course, we have to modernise our navy flotilla and enhance its capacities. Nato or any other friendly nation on a bilateral basis could extend a hand in this.”
Smugglers’ boats currently can only be turned back to Libya if they are stopped inside Libyan waters, but both Nato and the EU need Libyan government consent to operate inside its sovereign waters.
Why? And what Libyan government?
Serraj, struggling to gain authority inside Libya, is under pressure not to be seen to be succumbing excessively to outsiders.
On Wednesday Italy pledged €200m (£170m) in funds to several African countries as part of its drive to reduce migration at source. The foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, said the fund – aimed at Niger, Libya and Tunisia – would help bolster the “fight against human trafficking and illegal migration”.
He said Europe was not trying to build a wall but helping countries to reduce the incentive to migrate.
A report by the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch thinktank, drawing on first-hand research, said migrants intercepted or rescued at sea by the Libyan coastguard were sent to detention centres “where they often spend months languishing with no legal recourse, subject to the whims of their jailers”.
That's supposed to make the next wave of colonists migrants think twice...
It said some smugglers tortured migrants to secure the release of more money from their families, or forced them to work in order to continue their journey. “Moreover, migrants are reportedly sold to criminal groups if they cannot pay for their voyage across the Mediterranean: for €15,000 they were sold to groups, mostly Egyptians, who are involved in removing and selling organs. Finally, based on self-reporting by migrants, up to 40% of migrants are forced on to boats.”
The report added: “Particularly in the northwestern part of Libya, migration is accompanied with absurdly high levels of crime and violence, and migrants are subject to the whims of the group that controls the area they are in. The line between smuggling and trafficking runs thin here, as cases of kidnapping, torture, sexual violence and killings are widespread, and the situation in and around detention centres for immigration is horrific.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nato or EU ships could be permitted to operate in Libyan waters alongside the national military coastguard to slow the flow of people-smuggling across the Mediterranean.
That would imply that Libya had a navy of some kind, and that their dinghies could keep up. And that they had a government that deserved any respect.
[Daily Caller] Were the U.S. to go to war with North Korea, there is no guarantee that it could be contained to the Korean Peninsula, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed in the latest issue of Joint Forces Quarterly, a National Defense University publication.
Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford asserts that a war could threaten American allies and the U.S. homeland.
"There was a time, not long ago, when we planned for a conflict that might be contained to the peninsula. But today, North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile, cyber, and space capabilities could quickly threaten the homeland and our allies in the Asia-Pacific region," Dunford wrote.
The North is believed to have made significant advancements in ballistic missile technology. Last year, the reclusive country conducted around two dozen ballistic missile tests.
Germany has ruled out giving Turkey unfiltered access to imagery gathered by its Tornado fighter jets operating out of the İncirlik Air Base in southern Turkey as part of a broader fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the German Defense Ministry said, according to a report on German website Bild.de on Jan. 31.
The statement came after another German media outlet, Der Spiegel, reported a diplomatic cable as saying that Turkey had linked its approval of German housing investments for its troops at the İncirlik base to getting access to imagery from Syria and Iraq collected by Germany’s six Tornado reconnaissance air crafts based in the same air base.
German lawmakers, concerned that Turkey could use the high-resolution aerial imagery in its military campaign against autonomy-seeking Kurds in Syria and Iraq, have put strict limits on how German forces can share the data they gather. The lawmakers also fear the imagery can reach Russia, after Turkey’s recent rapprochement with the country following nine months of highly-strained relations due to Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet along its border with Syria on Nov. 24, 2015.
The thorny issue, emerging a few days before Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to travel to Turkey on Feb. 2 to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, could cause further strain in the already frayed relationship between the two NATO allies.
The cable published by Der Spiegel described Turkey’s push to tie the imagery issue to German plans to build new housing at the base as “blackmail.” It said two senior Turkish officials, a senior military officer and a policy adviser of Erdoğan had issued the demand.
A Defense Ministry spokesman said the German air force flew its surveillance missions in strict conformity with the underlying parliamentary mandate and provided the imagery “solely to the anti-ISIL coalition,” according to Reuters. He said the German military followed a careful process to ensure the data was not misused for other purposes, Reuters added.
The German Defense Ministry confirmed that the blueprints for the buildings aimed at being built inside the İncirlik base for the about 250 German troops have long been waiting to be approved by the Turkish side.
“The signing by Turkey is out, the reasons for the delay are not known to us,” Bild.de quoted the ministry as saying.
German lawmakers last year voted to extend support to the U.S.-led fight against ISIL over the end of 2017, including deployment of over 250 soldiers at İncirlik. But this was only after Ankara reversed its position and allowed German lawmakers to visit the base. Turkey had angered Berlin by temporarily blocking visits to İncirlik after German lawmakers voted last June to declare the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces in 1915 a “genocide.”
The two countries have also been at odds over Turkey’s crackdown on dissidents after the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt, and Turkey’s claims, which Berlin rejects, that Germany is harboring Kurdish militants and other enemies of the Turkish state.
Turkey’s Defense Minister Fikri Işık over the weekend said that Germany should reject requests for asylum from some 40 former Turkish soldiers that Ankara suspects of having links to the coup attempt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
In a statement released Monday, Department of Homeland Security secretary John Kelly announced that Daniel Ragsdale had been replaced with Thomas Horman as acting ICE Director, all without mentioning Ragsdale's name once. While it is not clear what caused the sudden swap, many speculated it was connected to Yates's dismissal and representative of the administration's attempts to appoint people who will best comply with Trump's ban.
In a separate statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ragsdale will now be returning to his former job as deputy director.
#1
From the linked article "In a separate statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ragsdale will now be returning to his former job as deputy director."
Okay I'll admit I'm slightly befuddled, why dismiss Ragsdale and keep him as deputy director of of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement?
Wikipedia article on Daniel Ragsdale, I couldn't find a bio on Thomas Horman at this point. (Not enough time to wade through a couple thousand google search results, most of has nothing to do with the ICE acting director.
Assuming the somber duties of commander in chief, President Donald Trump made an unannounced trip Wednesday to honor the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a weekend raid in Yemen.
Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, was the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump took office less than two weeks ago. More than half a dozen militant suspects were also killed in the raid on an Al Qaeda compound and three other U.S. service members were wounded.
Trump's trip to Delaware's Dover Air Base was shrouded in secrecy. The president and his daughter, Ivanka, departed the White House in the presidential helicopter with their destination unannounced. A small group of journalists traveled with Trump on the condition that the visit was not reported until his arrival.
After returning to the White House, Trump commented on the trip at the swearing-in of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.
"I just returned from an amazing visit with a great, great family at Dover," Trump said. "It is something very sad, very beautiful. Ryan, a great man."
Marine One landed at Dover shortly before a C-17 believed to be carrying Owens' remains touched down. The president met with Owens' family during a two-hour visit to the base. The sailor's family had requested that Trump's visit and the return of Owens' remains be private.
Owens joined the Navy in 1998 and was the recipient of two Bronze stars, a Joint Service Commendation and an Afghanistan Campaign Medal, among other honors. In a statement following his death, the Navy Special Command called Owens a "devoted father, a true professional and a wonderful husband."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Most likely Trumps first combat mission that he approved. Has to be sobering to realize that your first order as Commander in Chief resulted in the death of good man. Something he has never had to experience before.
Pakistan has refused to grant identity cards to the family of Shakil Afridi, the jailed doctor who helped the US hunt Osama bin Laden, his lawyer has said, in effect denying them passports and voting rights.
Afridi has been in prison for more than five years after his fake vaccination programme helped the CIA track and kill the al-Qaida leader.
His lawyer, Qamar Nadim, said officials were refusing to renew Afridi’s wife’s ID card, which expired in December, because her husband’s card had lapsed in 2014. He has also been denied a new card. Officials were similarly refusing to grant new cards to his two children, said Nadim, who has been denied access to his client for more than two years.
ID cards are a key proof of citizenship in Pakistan. Without one, Pakistanis cannot get passports or vote, register for a phone number or get utilities installed, buy property or enrol children in school, and could face delays at security checkpoints, among other things.
“Why are they punishing the entire family? It’s not justice, it’s cruelty,” Nadim said. He said he would challenge the decision in a court in the north-western city of Peshawar this week.
Officials from the interior ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The refusal to grant ID cards means Afridi’s son and daughter face problems getting admission to college, the doctor’s brother, Jamil, said. “So the family can’t go abroad and the children are facing difficulties in continuing their education.”
Afridi was jailed for 33 years in May 2012 after he was convicted of ties to militants, a charge he has always denied. Some American politicians said the case was revenge for his help in the search for Bin Laden.
Last year a US threat to cut aid to Pakistan led a tribunal to cut 10 years off his sentence – but since then US pressure for his release has tapered off.
Donald Trump vowed during his election campaign last May that he would order Pakistan to free Afridi.
“I’m sure they would let them [him] out. Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan,” Trump told Fox News at the time, adding that Pakistan “takes advantage like everybody else”.
The comments sparked a blistering rebuttal from Pakistan, whose interior minister branded Trump “ignorant” and stated the “government of Pakistan and not Donald Trump” would decide Afridi’s fate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Wow!
Pakistan has a ID card mandate and the US doesn't?
#3
The comments sparked a blistering rebuttal from Pakistan, whose interior minister branded Trump “ignorant” and stated the “government of Pakistan and not Donald Trump” would decide Afridi’s fate.
Israeli security forces began the long-threatened eviction of hundreds of hardline Jewish settlers from the illegal outpost of Amona on the occupied West Bank, hours after the government said it was approving the construction of thousands more settlement homes elsewhere.
Amona is just northeast of Ramallah.
The move, by several thousand police who descended on the windswept hilltop on Wednesday morning, came after years of foot-dragging and political controversy over the outpost, which is built on private Palestinian land.
The court-ordered eviction was expected to continue late into the night on Wednesday, as police moved in to drag out hundreds of mainly young supporters from the several dozen prefabricated homes in which they had barricaded themselves.
At least 13 police officers were injured in sporadic clashes with the settlers as teenagers set fires, threw objects and scuffled with officers as they swamped the outpost. A bulldozer and water cannon were brought up as residents were told to pack up their belongings.
Hours before the operation to seal the outpost of Amona, Israel announced 3,000 new homes in the West Bank settlements. Some 6,000 new settlement homes have been announced since Trump’s inauguration last Friday. Next week, Israel’s parliament is expected to vote on a bill to allow the “legalisation” of a tranche of other illegal outposts built on private Palestinian land.
As the police descended on the Amona site, Israel’s far-right education minister, Naftali Bennett, demanded the annexation of the “entire West Bank”.
About 250 people in 50 families live in Amona, but in recent weeks dozens more people have arrived to face off against Israeli forces. Residents had said they planned to resist their evacuation peacefully.
“This is a dark day for us, for Zionism, for the state and for the great vision of the Jewish people returning to its homeland,” Avichay Buaron, a spokesman for Amona, said as the operation began.
Far-right lawmaker Moti Yogev, whose Jewish Home party is part of Israel’s governing coalition, was among those who joined the settlers in a show of solidarity and linked the demolition to the prospect of further construction elsewhere.
“Yes, Amona will be destroyed,” he said, “but against Amona we are going to build 3,000 new homes.”
Israel’s supreme court ruled in 2014 that Amona was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished. It has set 8 February as the final date for it to be destroyed. Amona is the largest of around 100 unauthorised outposts erected in the West Bank without permission but generally tolerated by the Israeli government. The outpost, built in the 1990s, stretches out over a rugged, grassy hilltop and looks out across the valley on to Palestinian villages.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[The Nation] Steel cooking-gas cylinders weighing 15 kilograms or less have been banned in southern Thailand except with permission from the provincial energy office. The ban was issued by Fourth Army commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanich to prevent militants making use of the cylinders for bomb-making and to prevent violence in the far South.
The Internal Security Operations Command Region 4's Front Command said that people violating the ban would face a criminal charge which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and/or a Bt40,000 fine.
CAIRO, Egypt: A Syrian opposition figure who says he controls 3,000 Arab fighters has told Reuters they are training with US-led coalition forces in preparation to help drive Islamic State from its de facto capital in the city of Raqqa.
Ahmad Jarba commands the Syrian Elite Forces, described by the US military as a significant component of the coalition assembled against Daesh.
Its involvement in the battle for Raqqa, alongside the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is welcomed by Washington, which is keen to broaden the political base of the opposition forces in the area.
“Now we are preparing for the battle of Raqqa,” Jarba said in an interview in Cairo. “There is a training program with the coalition forces. We will be ready to enter this battle in force and we are in the process of preparing for it to liberate our lands.”
The SDF launched an operation in Raqqa province in November aimed ultimately at seizing the northern city from Islamic State. The first two phases captured territory to the north and west of Raqqa and the third will seek to take remaining areas.
One decision awaiting US President Donald Trump is whether to directly provide weapons to Kurdish fighters as they push toward Raqqa. Trump has made defeating Islamic State a key aim and ordered his joint chiefs of staff to devise a plan in 30 days to defeat the group.
Arab contingent
The United States considers the Kurds allies in Syria but has said the Raqqa operation should be predominantly Arab, the ethnicity of most of its residents. The SDF already includes an Arab contingent, the Syrian Arab Coalition, but recruiting Arab allies has been a priority to ease ethnic concerns locally and in neighboring Turkey.
Jarba said he had struck a deal with the US-led coalition in December to deploy his all-Arab force in the fight for Raqqa.
“In the last two months there have been meetings with senior officials of the American army and the international coalition forces against terrorism,” he said.
Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve, described Jarba’s men in December as a “notable” force, and said the Syrian was an influential player in the region.
The SDF also confirmed in December that Jarba’s forces would be joining it from the second phase of the attack on Raqqa.
Feud with terrorists
Jarba enjoys strong ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and commands what he says is a force of 3,000, currently deployed between Deir Al-Zor to the east, Raqqa to the north and Hasaka in the northeastern corner of Syria.
He aims to attract new recruits among locals who helped expel President Bashar Assad’s army from northeastern Syria in 2011-12 before losing ground to Daesh, which swept through the area in 2014.
“There is a feud between us and this terrorist organization,” said Jarba, who hails from northeastern Syria.
He welcomed Trump’s move to heal differences with Russia, a key Assad ally whose military support has swung the six-year civil war in favor of the government.
“What we are hoping for is that there will be a American-Russian agreement, because the differences between America and Russia are what have harmed us as Syrians,” he said.
Jarba said he would likely visit the United States in the coming months and may also travel to Russia.
Syrian opposition representatives will have talks with Turkish officials in Ankara on Feb. 6 in order to set a course for the upcoming talks in Astana and Geneva, a Turkish official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Hürriyet Daily News.
The second round of Syria talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana is expected to take place on Feb. 8, between the regime and opposition fractions with the participation of guarantor states Russia, Iran and Turkey.
Representatives of the Syrian government and opposition groups recently came together in Astana on Jan. 23 and 24 with the participation of Turkish, Russian and Iranian diplomats, as well as the United Nations’ special representative for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. Moscow, Ankara and Tehran agreed to monitor government and rebel compliance with the shaky cease-fire in Syria.
A joint communiqué released on the aftermath of the talks underlined the need for the continuation of the nationwide cease-fire in Syria and noted that talks would be held once more under the auspices of the U.N. in Geneva on Feb. 8.
But the convention in Geneva was postponed to Feb. 20, according to de Mistura, in order to allow a cease-fire to take hold and to give the opposition time to present a united front. De Mistura said at a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the postponement would help bolster preparations for the talks aimed at ending the nearly six-year war.
“We want to give a chance both to the government to become seriously engaged in discussions and the opposition … to actually be able to be given a chance to come with one unified opposition,” De Mistura told reporters after the meeting.
“If the cease-fire becomes as solid as we hope, that will only help the Syria talks,” said the envoy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week announced they would be delayed, without providing reasons or a new date.
De Mistura warned that if the opposition failed to agree on the composition of the delegation by Feb. 8, he would be selecting the representatives from the various groups, who will come to the peace table. The Syrian opposition has been divided over representation in the talks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
The Trump administration has said it was “officially putting Iran on notice” in reaction to an Iranian missile test and an attack on a Saudi warship by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen but gave no details about how Washington intended to respond.
The threat was made on Wednesday by the national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in his first public statement since taking office. Speaking in the White House briefing room, Flynn said a missile launch on Sunday and a Houthi attack on a Saudi frigate on Monday underlined Iran’s “destabilizing behavior across the Middle East.”.
Flynn did not specify how the new administration would respond. Asked for clarification, the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, said the president wanted to make sure the Iranians “understood we are not going to sit by and not act on their actions”.
At a White House briefing, senior administration officials repeatedly refused to rule out any options for a US response, including military intervention.
“There are a large number of options available to the administration,” one senior official said. “We’re going to take appropriate action.”
Asked if measures under consideration included a military option, the official replied: “We are considering a whole range of options.”
The official declined to say whether the White House had sent a message to Tehran putting it on notice.
“We are in the second week. We do not want to be premature or rash or take any action that would foreclose options or unnecessarily contribute to a negative response.”
The announcement was not accompanied by any change in the US military stance in the region, nor any immediate additional deployments.
“We saw the statement as well,” said a spokesman for US central command, which runs operations in the Middle East. “This is still at the policy level, and we are waiting for something to come down the line. We have not been asked to change anything operationally in the region.”
Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group in Washington, said: “It’s either an empty threat or a clear statement of intent to go to war with Iran. Both are reckless and dangerous ... In an attempt to look strong, the administration could stumble into a war that would make the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts look like a walk in the park.”
Thanks Mr. Expert. I think that makes clear your opinion, though it didn't shed any light on the situation.
During the election campaign, the Trump team repeatedly signaled that it would take a much tougher line towards Tehran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
...as expert warns the White House could 'stumble into war'.
So they drag out one guy from a Soros funded Tranzi org with absolutely zero insight into the issue to cast the most ominous prediction. Globalst panic mode appears to be setting in quickly.
[Task & Purpose] The Navy SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden has a book coming out about the Abbottabad raid. Notice how he waited until the 'real' UBL killer had left office.
The Navy SEAL Team Six veteran who gained fame when he went public saying he killed Osama bin Laden has a book coming out this spring about the May 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
"The Operator" by Robert O’Neill, will be published on April 25 by Scribner and will cover O’Neill’s career that spanned more than 400 missions with the SEALs. Most notably, the book will include details on the raid on bin Laden’s compound, according to the Associated Press. O’Neill was also on the missions that helped rescue Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell from Afghanistan and Capt. Richard Phillips from Somali pirates.
In a statement through Scribner, O’Neill said he wished to show "the human side" of the battles fought for the United States.
#1
pshaw! We all know Barack Obama killed Osama Bin Laden! He said so, many times
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/02/2017 8:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
...I am hoping that there will be a Navy 0-6 somewhere in the E Ring whose sole job will be to annotate every single page for the charges that will be brought against him for violating his NDA.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/02/2017 9:15 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Does rather seem like talking out of school.
But "Shoot bin Laden in the Face" could be a great video game. OK, the title needs work.
Personally, I hope the book contains all the black op details, including the mind control rays and remote operated squirrels. You know what could power a helicopter and be relatively quite...warp drive powered Yautja batteries.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Nation] Steel cooking-gas cylinders weighing 15 kilograms or less have been banned in southern Thailand except with permission from the provincial energy office. The ban was issued by Fourth Army commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanich to prevent militants making use of the cylinders for bomb-making and to prevent violence in the far South.
[Task & Purpose] The Navy SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden has a book coming out about the Abbottabad raid.
