Reports reaching us from Togdheere region in northern Somalia indicate that pro-government forces have for the first time in more than 2 decades seized control of Buhodle town.
Gen Abdifitah Isdid, a senior Somali military commander said he is leading the Somali federal government troops controlling the city, which has been in Somaliland admin hands for years. He said, the troops seized control of the town are loyal to the newly elected President of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, who was picked by the federal MPs in February 8.
Speaking to the local Media, General Isdid said Somaliland and Khamuto states will not back in control of the strategic city after it fell to the Somali National Army (SNA) soldiers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2017 00:00 ||
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Compose yourself to calmness, dear Reader, as you prepare to receive the wisdom of King Salman as filtered through the ears of this very special Pakistani sheikh.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] To be the leader of the Pak Moslem scholars’ council amid religious turbulences is never an easy task. At a time when terrorist groups are prospering in the name of Islam, and in a country neighboring both Afghanistan and Iran, Sheikh Hafiz Mohammed Tahir al-Ashrafi is working hard to stand against all sorts of extremism both in Pakistain and across the Moslem world.
AlArabiya.net sat down with Sheikh al-Ashrafi to seek his opinions and impressions on some of the most volatile issues in the Middle East.
Can you tell us what is the reason for your most recent visit to Soddy Arabia? Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
What's filtered through Jabba the Hut's fat fucking ass every day - 20 Big Macs?
#2
the last 3 weeks we've been snowed with pro-Saudi propaganda
Those f***ers who exported their poison ideology around the world and smashed the world trade centre
just you remember: King Salman is in favour of full sharia, slavery and gender apartheid. He thinks he's better than you because of Islam and he wants your country to be islamic just like his.
His country is the enemy and after him, Iran.
I would like to see Mecca, Medina and Riyadh as 3 large glowing green craters sometime in the very near future.
[GatestoneInstitute] - In Sweden, comments that object to sexual violence against women in the Quran are prosecuted, but calling homosexuality a "virus" is fine.
- Antisemitism has become so socially acceptable in Sweden that anti-Semites can get away with anything, and no one even notices, as Nima Gholam Ali Pour reports.
- One of Sweden's main news outlets, in fact, described anti-Semitism as simply a different opinion. Clearly, in the eyes of Swedish authorities, neither homosexuals nor Jews count for much.
- Swedish authorities also give large sums of money to organizations that advocate violence and invite hate preachers who support terrorist organizations such as ISIS. One of the speakers SFM (Swedish Federation of Muslims) hired was Michael Skråmo, who has publicly called on his fellow Muslims to join ISIS and has appeared in propaganda videos, posing with assault rifles alongside his small children.
[Free Beacon] A leading European counter-terrorism official is facing criticism after claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, are not terrorist groups.
Peter Neumann, an Austrian counter-terrorism official charged with working to combat violent extremism under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) attracted criticism this week after stating that both the Brotherhood and IRGC are not terrorist groups and should not be formally designated as such.
Neumann's stance elicited criticism from U.S. terror experts who told the Washington Free Beacon that this line of thinking would not help European officials combat a rising threat from radical terrorists, many of whom have become radicalized through extremist doctrines promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood and the theocratic regime in Iran. The position also runs counter to views held by the Trump administration, which has vowed tougher action on radical organizations.
A senior White House official who spoke to the Free Beacon about the matter disclosed that the Trump administration is keeping a keen eye on all of these groups and will not hesitate to take action as the administration works to combat radical groups.
"Like with Muslim Brotherhood, the main argument against designating them as terrorist organisation is that they aren't one," Neumann stated on Twitter Tuesday, a day before he was appointed as a special representative on radicalization for the OSCE.
Neumann, who also serves as director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence based in London, is tasked with helping the OSCE combat the rise of Islamic terrorism amid reports of growing threats across the continent. An estimated 10,000 individuals from OSCE member countries are reported to have traveled to Syria to wage jihad.
Neumann's stance appears to clash with the national security vision backed by the Trump administration and many U.S. lawmakers, who view both groups as terror agents and have sought to formally designate them as terror outfits.
The White House is already considering a designation for the Brotherhood and could pursue similar designations for the IRGC.
[AlAhram] A Syrian migrant went on trial in Austria on Wednesday for allegedly executing 20 wounded government soldiers in his home country. The 27-year-old was arrested in a refugee shelter in western Austria last June after being denounced by a fellow Syrian. He has been charged with 20 charges of "murder as a terror offence" and faces life in prison if found guilty.
According to Austrian media, the accused had boasted to other asylum seekers about shooting unarmed or wounded troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar-al Assad.
After his arrest, the suspect initially admitted to the 2013-2014 killings in the western city of Homs and the surrounding region but later retracted his confession.
Austria cannot extradite the man to face charges in Syria because of the bloody six-year civil war pitting Assad's government against rebel groups.
Once again President Trump moves the Overton Window., though the article itself is a longish mix of obfuscation and special pleading on the part of the journalist and those he quotes. Contrast the AFP article provided by An Nahar with the following from PJ Media, which has facts, figures, and links for further exploration:
[DeutscheWelle] Germany's domestic security and intelligance agency (the BfV) said on Wednesday that the radical Islamist scene in the country had grown considerably, from only about 100 people in 2013 to some 1,600 today. Indeed, according to BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen, the number had jumped by several hundred in a matter of months.
"We receive between two and four credible tips on planned terrorist activity in Germany each day," Maassen said. "We have to recognize that we are living in a different situation now than was normal."
The BfV explained that part of the reason for the uptick was the heavy press coverage of terror plots, as well as the increased ease in connecting with extremists online. It also cited an increased danger in young people being radicalized online, saying that then their friends and relatives might not be able to see what is happening.
Of the 1,600 Islamists living in Germany, Maassen said that about 570 of them were considered "dangerous," that is, capable of plotting an a terror attack.
[ARA] Co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag faced increasing pressures on Tuesday, with Demirtas being sentenced to a prison sentence of five months, while Yuksekdag was stripped of her status as a member of parliament ahead of the Turkish presidential referendum in April.
The HDP said that ongoing arrests of its members since the failed coup in July 2016 are part of an attempt by the government of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... to exclude the Kurds from the referendum.
"The revocation of HDP Co-Chair Figen Yuksekdag’s membership in parliament as a fait accompli is unacceptable. The revoking of her position in parliament once again tramples the constitution, and it is an effort to give the government’s political decision the appearance of legality," the Central Executive Board of the HDP said.
"The Erdogan-AKP government is trying to overcome its own political deadlock as well as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s social and economic crisis by violating the law and attacking the HDP. It has become clear that the Erdogan-AKP government will not be able to attain the referendum results they expect within the context of this crisis, so they are once again resorting to the same foul methods they’ve used in the past," the HDP said.
"This mentality, which sees all manner of breaking the law as legitimate, continues to make preparations for a state of lawlessness following the referendum," the HDP added.
According to the HDP, the revoking of its co-chair Figen Yuksekdag’s MP status is an attempt to intimidate the party and the Kurdish people.
"We have not knelt down or given in against these attacks until this day. Just to spite those who try to intimidate us with repression, police custodies and arrests, we will continue to say ’NO’ with full force. We continue our struggle with our co-chair Figen Yuksekdag’s words ’We will still not give in! We will be the bane, the curse, the end of the coup-dictate regime’. We will definitely be the ones who will win," the HDP said.
Turkey is expected to hold a referendum on a stronger presidency on April 16. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the HDP oppose the referendum and are campaigning for a ’no vote’, while the ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Erdogan’s AKP are in favour of a yes vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Canada will resettle 1,200 Yazidi refugees who faced persecution by ISIS, the immigration minister said Tuesday.
Some 400 have already been airlifted to this country.
"Our operation is under way and individual survivors of ISIS have been arriving in Canada for resettlement in the last number of months and this began on October 25, 2016," Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, using an Arabic name for ISIS.
"Our government will resettle approximately 1,200 highly vulnerable survivors of ISIS and their family members in Canada," he added.
The initiative follows Parliament's resolution last fall to take in Yazidis facing "genocide" in Iraq at the hands of ISIS.
The original aim was to bring over women and girls at risk, but Hussen told a news conference that Ottawa had learned that "ISIS has also deliberately targeted boys and as such we are helping to resettle all child survivors of ISIS."
Hussen said the migrants colonists are arriving on commercial flights at a "controlled pace" to avoid overwhelming Canada's refugee system.
The operation is expected to cost Can$28 million (US$21 million).
Since coming to power in late 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has resettled 40,000 Syrian refugees.
The Yazidis taken in have been subjected to comprehensive security checks and medical examinations, Hussen said.
Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking minority with a pre-Islamic religion thought partly to have its origin in the Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia. They are neither Arab nor Moslem and ISIS considers them polytheistic heretics.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
"Since coming to power in late 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has resettled 40,000 Syrian refugees."
Since coming to power in late 2015, Prime Minister Justin Turdeau's gummint has spent an approximate shit-ton of money we don't have.
Vice President Pence on Wednesday made a surprise visit to a historic Jewish cemetery near St. Louis to condemn the recent vandalism that took place there.
Anyone think Joe Biden would have done this?
“From the heart, there is no place in America for hatred or acts of prejudice or violence or anti-Semitism,” he said.
Pence called Missouri’s response to the incident “inspiring" while standing next to Eric Greitens (R), the state’s first Jewish governor.
Pence decried the vandalism as “a sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil” during a speech earlier Wednesday in St. Louis. After his remarks at the cemetery, the vice president and the governor listened to a prayer from a rabbi and then cleared brush with volunteers taking part in a beautification project.
Vandals toppled more than 100 headstones on Monday at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in University City, a suburb of St. Louis. The incident added to questions about a rise in acts of anti-Semitism around the country.
The vandalism occurred on the same day that 11 Jewish community centers across the country received phoned-in bomb threats. The calls, which have all turned out to be hoaxes, have targeted 54 community centers in 27 states so far this year. Federal investigators are looking into the threats.
President Trump on Tuesday condemned the anti-Semitic acts after coming under pressure from Jewish groups, who criticized his previous response to the incidents as lackluster.
“Anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to stop and it has to stop,” Trump told MSNBC during a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
President Trump on Tuesday condemned the anti-Semitic acts after coming under pressure from Jewish groups, who criticized his previous response to the incidents as lackluster.
Trump knows who his audience is for these comments. And it isn't who what I would refer to as Missourians.
#2
Give Gov Greitens credit for inviting Pence and give Pence credit for accepting it.
The right thing to do.
What the Admin really needs to next is to name and shame the anti semitic industry in academia.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/23/2017 9:15 Comments ||
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#3
New paradigm under President Trump.
Yesterday I added an update to the story about JK Rowling tweeting about Muslims raising funds for repairing the gravestones. What my update failed to mention is that the Muslims raising funds are not just moderate Muslims, but genuine Jew-hating, Hamas-supporting BDS activists. See here. Even CAIR (!!!) is getting in on the act, offering a $5000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the idiot calling in bomb hoaxes to Jewish community centers.
They really, really don't want to be listed as terror-supporting organizations.
[IsraelTimes] The New York headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League received a bomb threat on Wednesday morning, the latest Jewish institution to be targeted in a wave of similar scares.
ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt said that the organization treated the anonymous threat seriously, but law enforcement found it to be "not credible."
"This is not the first time that ADL has been targeted, and it will not deter us in our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and hate against people of all races and religions," Greenblatt said in a statement.
On Tuesday, another hoax bomb threat was emailed to a Jewish center in San Diego.
The threat against the ADL comes days after at least 10 Jewish community centers were hit with bomb threats, forcing many of them to evacuate. In all, there have been some 60 threats against dozens of Jewish community centers around the country since January.
.
This was the first threat against the ADL.
Trump said earlier Tuesday that anti-Semitic threats to the American Jewish community were “horrible” and “painful,” as well as a “sad reminder” of evil
[SCMP] The children, aged from three to 16 and mostly Shiite Moslems or minority Yazidis, began referring to their own families as apostates after they were schooled in Sunni Islam by the Lion of Islam fighters, he said.
The boys were separated from the girls and infants, undergoing indoctrination and training to become "cubs of the caliphate" ‐ a network of child informers and fighters used by the jihadists to support their military operations.
The complex in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ’s Zuhur district, which had been home to local orphans until they were kicked out by 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.... , was one of several sites the jihadists used across the city.
It is now shuttered, its doors sealed with padlocks by Iraqi security forces.
Islamic State withdrew before Iraqi forces launched a US-backed offensive in October to retake the city, but during a visit last month there were still reminders of the group’s attempt to brainwash dozens of children.
A saying attributed to the Prophet Mohammed is painted in black on one wall, urging children to learn to swim, shoot and ride horses. Inside the building is a swimming pool, now dry and full of rubbish.
In another room sits a stack of textbooks Islamic State had amended to fit its brutal ethos.
Arithmetic problems in a fourth grade maths book use imagery of warfare, while the cover bears a rifle made up of equations. History books focus exclusively on the early years of Islam and emphasise martial events.
Another textbook entitled English for the Islamic State includes ordinary words like apple and ant beside army, bomb and sniper. Martyr, spy and mortar also appear alongside zebra crossing, yawn, and X-box.
The word "woman" is depicted by a formless black figure wearing the full niqab covering. All faces in the books ‐ even those of animals ‐ are blurred, in keeping with an Islamic proscription against such images.
The orphanage worker, who was cowed into staying on after the turbans took over in 2014, said girls who were brought to the centre were often married off to the group’s commanders.
The man asked not to be named for fear of reprisals by Islamic State, which still controls the entire western half of Mosul. He was shot in the leg during recent festivities.
He said the Lion of Islams, mostly Iraqis, taught the Shiite children how to pray in the tradition of Sunni Islam and forced the Yazidis to convert.
They memorised the Koran, were taught to treat outsiders as infidels and conducted physical exercise in the yard, which has since grown over.
A pair of colourful plastic slides and swing sets now sit untouched amid shattered glass, casings from a grenade launcher and a jacket wallah’s charred remains ‐ signs of the Lion of Islams’ fierce resistance as they retreated late last year.
Rooters could not independently verify the orphanage worker’s comments. But local residents gave similar accounts, and Islamic State has published numerous videos showing how it trains young fighters and even makes them execute prisoners.
New batches of children arrived at the Zuhur orphanage every few weeks from outside Mosul, including a few from neighbouring Syria, while older boys were sent to the town of Tel Afar west of Mosul for intensive military training for duties including with Islamic State’s courts or vice squad, residents said.
"After six months at the camps, some of the boys came back to spend a weekend with their younger brothers. They were wearing uniforms and carrying weapons," the orphanage worker said, fingering black and yellow prayer beads.
One of the boys, Mohammed, was killed last summer during the battle in the city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, he said, recounting how the other children wept upon learning the news.
A few weeks before the Mosul offensive began, Islamic State cancelled lessons and sent the boys to guard an airfield near Tel Afar which pro-government forces later seized, he said.
"I told them, ’If you see the army, drop your weapons and tell them you are orphans. Maybe they will spare your lives’".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2017 00:00 ||
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Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was the biggest winner Wednesday night in the battle over the Supreme Court’s future, with three of four justices appointed by the Judicial Selection Committee either reflecting a more conservative approach to the law or being on her list of acceptable non-activist judges.
Shaked had pushed for Jerusalem District Court Judge David Mintz, a conservative Gush Etzion resident, to be named to the Supreme Court. Haifa District Court President Yosef Elron was primarily the Israel Bar Association’s and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s candidate, but was viewed as acceptable by Shaked.
In contrast, the three justices on the Judicial Selection Committee did not get any of their preferred candidates, sufficing with Haifa District Court Judge Yael Vilner, who is Orthodox and was also viewed positively by Shaked as a compromise candidate to fill a seat expected to go to a woman.
The fourth appointee, Tel Aviv District Court Judge George Kara, was as close as the justices’ bloc got to having its own candidate, as he was selected over Tel Aviv District Court Judge Khaled Kabuv, preferred by the Bar Association. But even that appointment was not seen as a real win for the bloc.
Shaked declaring it "a historic day... the flagship boat of our judicial system changed its direction tonight."
[Ynet] In a series of experiments, the upgraded Iron Dome successfully hit both a rocket and missile fired at the same time with the new Tamir interceptor missile, which was jointly developed by Israel and the US.
[IsraelTimes] 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.... affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula took responsibility on Tuesday night for firing two rockets into Israel a day earlier.
The terror group posted photos on Twitter showing jihadists preparing the projectiles for launch.
The two rockets, which struck an open field in southern Israel and did not cause any damage or injuries, were fired shortly after the group accused Israel of killing five of its operatives in an Arclight airstrike Saturday.
In a statement on social media, the group said it had fired two Katyusha rockets at "southern Paleostine," according to the Walla news site.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday dismissed the threat posed by the Islamic State terror organization’s affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula. Liberman said that while IS in Sinai is "annoying" and "hindersome," it does not possess the means to pose a serious threat to Israel’s security.
"If you are talking about Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", and Hezbollah, then [IS’s Sinai force] is not even a terror group," he told Army Radio, describing the group’s capabilities as "random [amateurs] who decide to build themselves an army."
"We need to see everything in proportion," he added.
Asked if Israel was behind the Saturday Arclight airstrike in the Sinai, Liberman responded sarcastically.
"Like always, the special forces of Lichtenstein probably took out a few bandidoshard boyz from ISIS in Sinai," he said, using the Arabic name for the Islamic State. "We do not let anything go without a response," he declared.
The United States should act in order to fulfill its promise to make Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) forces leave Syria’s Manbij in line with Ankara’s request or Turkey would have to reconsider an operation there, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık said Feb. 22.
“One of the crucial aims of Turkey is to end the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] - PYD presence in Manbij. If the United States does not do so, Turkey will have to re-evaluate this operation,” Işık said on Feb. 22 in a televised interview.
Turkey does not want PYD forces to go to the west of the Euphrates River, agreeing with the U.S. that PYD forces would leave Manbij and retreat to the east of the Euphrates following the town’s liberation from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The full withdrawal has not yet been realized, according to Turkey.
“This is something that will affect the Raqqa operation. Our advice, as Turkey, is to do this with the right actors who will solve the problem permanently in Raqqa,” Işık said, noting that they might not need Turkish ground troops in the Raqqa offensive.
“We do not think Turkish troops will be needed much in the Raqqa operation,” he stated.
Işık said the U.S. was aiming to finalize its plans for the Syria offensive.
The new U.S. administration has closer perspective toward Turkey, compared to the previous Barack Obama administration, he said.
Elaborating on Turkey’s proposal to launch the Raqqa offensive with Arab elements instead of cooperating with the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), Işık stated that Washington was concerned of a possible delay in the Raqqa operation. In his meeting with new U.S. Defense Minister James Mattis in Brussels, Işık stressed that he opposed the idea of uniting Syrian Kurdish cantons in northern Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Wasn't that President Obama's promise? He who was the lover of all things Muslim Brotherhood? Why in earth would President Trump, who considers the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terror organization, consider himself bound by such a bad deal?
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.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] To be the leader of the Pak 
[Free Beacon] A leading European counter-terrorism official is facing criticism after claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, are not terrorist groups.
