[Libya Herald] The Zintan Military Council has rejected claims by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it is now holding Saif al-Islam Qadaffy and that he recently survived an liquidation attempt.
They described the allegations by ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda as "completely false".
The comments from the military council came after Bensouda told the UN Security Council she had received unconfirmed reports that someone had tried to kill Qadaffy’s son. She also said that her office had received reliable information that Saif had been handed over to the town’s military council by al-Ajmal al-Atiri, commander of Zintan’s Abubakr al-Siddiq battalion who first seized him as he tried to flee across the desert in 2011.
There have been rumours, denied angrily in Zintan, that Saif had in fact been released. It was also said that he had simply been moved to a different place of detention.
Apart from a one-minute TV interview in 2013 Saif has only been seen in a Zintan courtroom when he was charged with trying to escape and in 2014 by video link to Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... ’s Hadba prison at the start of his trial along with 37 other top regime figures. In July 2015, he was one of eight of those defendants found guilty and sentenced to death by the court.
The UN has condemned the trial as unsatisfactory while Bensouda and the ICC have continued to demand that Saif should be handed over to the court in the Hague in answer to a warrant issued for him in 2011. At the time, warrants were also issued for his father and Qadaffy’s security supremo Abdullah Senussi ...former Libyan supremo Muammar Qadaffy's right hand man. He looks like you always expected Luca Brasi to look.... , who was also sentenced to death by the Tripoli court. Both Saif and Senussi were accused by the ICC of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemeni President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi discussed on Thursday with the UN envoy Ismail Ould al-Sheikh Ahmed in Riyadh ways to resume peace talks with the 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 ... militias.
In August 2016, UN-sponsored talks for establishing peace in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... collapsed without any breakthroughs.
The attempt for pushing for peace comes amid cynicism blanketing the Yemeni situation.
The UN envoy is also expected to meet with officials from the Arab Coalition to discuss ceasefire.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... the Saudi forces have ended a battle with Houthi militias early Thursday at the border Saudi city of Jazan near Yemen.
Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent said that Saudi forces have foiled a big attack from the Iran-backed Houthi militias near al-Dafina and al-Qiran villages in Jazan.
Military sources said that the battle has continued for two hours, where at least 40 Houthis were killed including one leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The United States has approved a possible $2 billion worth of missile sale to the United Arab Emirates, a key member of the Saudi-led military campaign against Yemen, says the Pentagon.
The State Department authorized the sale of 60 Patriot missiles with canisters as well as 100 Patriot guidance enhanced missiles, among other military equipment to the UAE, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said Thursday.
"This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of an important ally which has been, and continues to be, a force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East," the DSCA said.
"The UAE will use the capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense. The UAE has fielded the Patriot system since 2009 and will have no difficulty absorbing these additional missiles into its armed forces."
According to the Pentagon, the deal, which must also be approved by Congress, will be supported by an office of the US Army's Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command (AMCOM) that is already in the Arab country.
During an international exhibition of weapons and military equipment held in Abu Dhabi in February, the UAE struck arms deals worth of over five billion dollars, including a $740-million one with US weapons manufacturer Raytheon.
Also in April, the Arab kingdom signed another deal with Germany to buy 203,448 detonators for 40-mm mortar shells as well as 134 million dollars worth of armor-plating for military vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
So they're in the enviable geolocation to be the first line of defense when Iran comes across the gulf at Saudi Arabia.
#2
Skid, I thought Iran had maneuvered to make their approach on KSA through Iraq and wouldn't need to come across the gulf, unless that's part of a pincer move.
[Dhaka Tribune] BNP chairperson the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... has promised in the party’s election manifesto, titled Vision 2030, that they will change several government policies, laws and constitutional provisions if the party comes to power.
Khaleda unveiled the 256-point manifesto at a presser on Wednesday at a city hotel.
BNP leaders and activists are saying they are optimistic about participating in the upcoming national election, and the announcement of the manifesto was a positive move that will prepare the party for a potential early election.
Reading out the manifesto, Khaleda said BNP wants to bring an end to political and social divisions in the country by uniting the spirit of Bangladeshi nationalism.
"After coming to power in 2009, Awami League brought 15th and 16th amendment to the constitution through which the systems of referendum and caretaker government system during election was abrogated," the BNP chief read from the manifesto.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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[NBCNewYork] Federal officials say Bryant Neal Vinas cooperated extensively both before and after he was taken into custody nearly a decade ago, but they say his crimes were extremely serious.
A Long Island man who joined al-Qaeda and once plotted to bomb LIRR trains heading to and from Penn Station will be released from prison this summer.
...the American-born child of Catholic South American immigrants who after a brief stint in the army fell under the sway of Islam and ran off to join Al Qaeda in 2007, where apparently he met everybody and was told all their plans. A year later the Pakistanis arrested him, then turned him over to the Americans -- he's been singing like a bird ever since, and would like to make it his profession...
, who also plotted attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan while he was a commander of an al-Qaeda branch there, pleaded guilty to charges connected to the train bomb plot in January 2009.
On Thursday a judge in Brooklyn federal court sentenced Vinas to time served plus 90 days. On his release he will be required to continue cooperating with the government.
"I apologize for my actions. There is no excuse for them. I blame only myself," Vinas said in court. "I want to turn a bad thing into a good thing."
Government officials say Vinas has cooperated in more than 30 terror investigations; some of his interviews were prior to his arrest, and authorities say he was instrumental in exposing the LIRR plot he was involved in, which apparently was never set in motion.
U.S. authorities credit the Patchogue native with helping them identify al-Qaeda members, pinpoint their hideouts, understand their communication structure and disrupt terror plots.
The government took no position on whether to release him. Federal officials acknowledge Vinas's cooperation could not have been "more timely," but say his crimes were extremely serious.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis said he was "... cautiously optimistic he’s learned from the error of his ways."
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Iraqi Ministry of Defense has announced that the entire djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... area will be under control before Ramadan.
This announcement came through army Chief Osman al-Ghanmi during his inspection of the operations taking place against ISIS in the city of Mosul.
Al-Ghanmi praised the progress of the Iraqi forces, stressing at the same time the need to protect the lives of civilians.
It seems that al- Ghanmi based his statement on the progress of the joint forces and their recent control over more than one region near Mosul, such as Al Haramat Al Thanya, Al ma’amel,
As for the industrial zone, the joint forces announced that they continue to rid the area of ISIS militia after the killing of dozens of gunnies and the detonation of boom-mobiles.
On another note, a security source in the province of Diyala said that joint forces of the army and the police launched a large-scale military operation with the support of the warplanes to end the presence of dormant cells belonging to ISIS in villages east of the province.
According to Captain Habib al-Shammari, the operation targeted the headquarters where the organization's imported muscle were housed, as well as weapons stores.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
1st day of ramadan in iraq will likely be May 27
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/12/2017 0:10 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Moscow supports the resumption of dialogue between Israel and Paleostine, Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... said Thursday, as his US counterpart 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... prepares to visit Israel.
Putin said Russia "will continue to give its full support to the resumption of direct dialogue between Paleostinians and Israelis", following talks with Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... in the southern Russian city of Sochi.
"The peaceful coexistence of the two states -- Paleostine and Israel -- is an indispensable condition to ensure genuine security and stability in this region," Putin said.
Abbas meanwhile said Paleostine "values Russia’s counter terrorism efforts, as well as its contribution to strengthening security and stability in the Middle East, including in Syria," Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency reported.
After Putin’s meeting with Abbas, Russia’s defense ministry said that Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had called his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Thursday.
The two ministers discussed defense cooperation between Russia and Paleostine as well as regional security issues, the ministry said in a statement.
Abbas said Thursday he welcomed "President Trump’s desire to help find a solution" to the Israel-Paleostinian conflict, according to a transcript published by official Paleostinian news agency Wafa.
"I told him that we were completely ready to cooperate with him and undertake efforts to reach a historical peace plan to end the conflict between us and the Israelis," Abbas said.
Abbas said Tuesday that Trump was expected to visit the Paleostinian territories "soon" and that he was ready to meet Israel’s prime minister as part of the US president’s peace efforts.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] With hostilities subsiding on Syria's western battlefronts, Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's army is seeking to head off US-backed forces fighting Islamist murderous Moslems further east, analysts and military sources in Damascus say.
Violence has diminished in parts of central and western Syria after a deal signed last week in the Kazakh capital Astana to introduce four "de-escalation zones" aimed at paving the way for a lasting ceasefire.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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[ARA] The Rojava Self-Administration, led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), has recluse the Kurdish National Council’s (KNC) office in Syris northeastern Qamishli city, after the party reopened the building subsequent to it’s closure last week. 13 members of the KNC were nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! by the self-administration’s Asayish security forces on Tuesday.
"In a new step of intimidation, and continuing in its authoritarian approach, the Democratic Union Party’s ( PYD) gunnies stormed the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Kurdish National Council in the city of Qamishli ‐ the Siyahi district ‐ and closed it for the second time after it was reopened following a sit-in in front of the office condemning the closure," the KNC said in a statement obtained by ARA News.
Furthermore, 13 members of the KNC were arrested, including Fasla Yousif, Narin Metini, Mahmoud Mullah, Muhsin Daher, Abdul Samed Khalef Bro, Fethi Gedo, Ahmed Aje, Mahmoud Haj Ali, Ferhad Temi, Mouhamed Amin Husam , Nuredin Fatah, Tahi Hesaf, Qasim Sherif .
"The Democratic Union Party took this step to eliminate KNC’s opposition voices and to continue forward with their [PYD’s] project that aims at ending political life in Syria’s Kurdistan by force of arms, taking advantage of the international consensus on the priority of fighting terrorism, beside forcing the Council to recognize their administration in order to cover their failure in managing the Kurdish region," the KNC said.
"The terrorist practices of this party show the falsity of their claims and their democratic slogans. And stresses their fear of the national democratic approach of the Council [KNC] and isolate them from the masses that are increasing day after day. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... this will rather increase our determination to move forward in our national project to defend our people and stand in the face of the practices of this party, which emptied the Kurdish region to serve the agendas of the Baath regime," the KNC said.
After several PKK and YBS fighters were killed in festivities between the KDP-linked Rojava Peshmerga forces and the PKK-affiliated Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) on 3 March in the Yezidi area of Sinjar (also known as Shingal) in northern Iraq, the Rojava Self-Administration urged the KNC parties ‐backed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)‐ to register their offices.
Furthermore, the Asayish security forces led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria’s Kurdish region (Rojava) have arrested over 40 members of the pro-Barzani Kurdish National Council (KNC) after the Sinjar festivities.
This while the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)-led security forces arrested 23 opposition protestors, of which six are still being held in prison in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement to ARA News called on both the PYD-led and KDP-led administrations in Iraq and Syria to release prisoners that were arrested after festivities between Kurdish forces in Sinjar on 3 March.
In late April, the security forces of the PYD’s Rojava Self-Administration reclosed an office of the Kurdish National Council (KNC) in Qamishli city, in northeastern Syria, after the KNC decided to reopen it.
On 7 May, five members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDP-S) were released along with two members of the Kurdish Future Movement after two months of imprisonment in Kobani.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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[ARA] At least nine foreign volunteers, who had joined the ranks of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to combat ISIS in Rojava-Northern Syria, were incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! by the Asayish security force in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, media sources reported on Thursday.
Foreign volunteers are increasingly becoming victim of the problems between the Kurdish parties.
"Internationalists Callum Ross (Rizgar Ciya), Ozgan Ozdil (Dêrsim Agir), Anthonî Degatto (Rustem Fist), Justin Schnepp (Servan Agir), Mirko Bruna (Mirko Cûdî) from Italia, Paola Andolina (Azadî Raperîn) from Italia, Damien Rodriguez (Sêrzad Azad) from the US, Fernando Sanches Grassa (Ciya Azadî) from Spain have been fighting ISIS in the ranks of the YPG [People’s Protection Forces] in Rojava for a while," the pro-PKK Firat News Agency (ANF) reported.
"The foreign volunteers crossed into Southern Kurdistan to go back home from Rojava but they were arrested by KDP forces at an Asayish (public security) checkpoint 1,5 km to Hewler [Erbil]," the agency said.
Macer Gifford, a British volunteer with the YPG, told ARA News that there are dozens of imported muscle that participate in the Kurdish-led operation to take Raqqa.
"Maybe there are 30 [Western] volunteers, or more," he said.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... this is not without risk for foreign volunteers. "In Manbij the casualty rate [among imported muscle] was very high. Many were maimed, and some badly injured," Gifford said.
Since 3 March, when festivities broke out between the Kurdistan Workers Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Sinjar (Shingal) district in northern Iraq, tensions have increased between both sides in Syria and Iraq and both have arrested each other’s supporters. Last week, the local Asayish in Rojava affiliated to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) arrested 13 supporters of the pro-Barzani Kurdish National Council (KNC) in Syria.
Now foreign volunteers are also victim of the intra-Kurdish conflict.
Steve Kerr, a foreign volunteer with the YPG, told ARA News that the Kurds should work together "instead of fighting each other."
"Talabani, Barzani, Ocalan, we are all Kurds and let’s get in there and fight ISIS all together. The Kurds should forget their differences, get rid of ISIS, and then solve all the problems and politics later. Get the fighting done first, that’s my philosophy, but sadly it never works that way," he said.
In late March, a Swedish foreign volunteer was allegedly held against his will by a PKK-affiliated force in Sinjar. But he was eventually allowed to return to Sweden. He however denied he was held hostage.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... said that de-escalation zones proposed by his ally Russia were a chance for rebels to "reconcile" with Damascus and drive out ISIS murderous Moslems, but vowed to fight on calling UN-led peace talks fruitless.
Assad pledged, in an interview with Belarusian TV Channel ONT aired on Thursday, to defend the zones and to crush, with the support of Iran and Hezbollah, those who try to breach them.
Efforts over the past year to halt the six-year Syrian war have fallen flat, and a ceasefire agreed to by the government side and militia in December was violated early on.
Russia’s proposal for zones took effect last week, covering areas in the west of the country and Damascus has suggested there could be a role for Russian military police.
Assad said the primary aim was to protect civilians.
"The second goal is to give the Lions of Islam who want reconciliation with the state a chance ... to settle their cases, hand over their weapons in return for amnesty," he said.
Damascus has said rebels should help drive ISIS groups out of the de-escalation zones, and sees so-called reconciliation agreements, which have involved the evacuation of militia from besieged areas, as an alternative to peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
"Reconcile"; noun, used here to express the likelihood that all the little fish will 'settle up' with each other, thereby opening up a clearer field of fire in relation to the survivors.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/12/2017 20:27 Comments ||
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But Israel has sturdy bomb shelters within easy reach throughout the country, not to mention counterbatteries. How much of Hezbollahstan can say the same?
[Iran Press TV] The Secretary General of Leb's Hezbollah resistance movement, Sayyad Hassan Nasrallah, says no part of the occupied Paleostinian lands will be immune to resistance missiles and its fighters in any future conflict.
Nasrallah made the remarks on Thursday, during a speech made to honor the movement’s top military commander, Mustafa Badreddine, who lost his life while fighting foreign-sponsored Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorist groups in Syria last year.
Honoring the memory of the slain commander, the Hezbollah chief said Israel knows that any future conflict will be inside occupied Paleostine.
Nasrallah noted that Israel will be defeated during any military confrontation with Hezbollah fighters.
The Hezbollah leader went on to say that Lebanese resistance fighters have fulfilled the task of securing the border area with Syria and dismantled krazed killer outposts in the region.
He stressed that Hezbollah has made enormous sacrifices to defend all walks of the nation irrespective of their religious background.
Nasrallah also strongly dismissed allegations that Hezbollah is seeking demographic changes in neighboring Syria, emphasizing that Takfiri krazed killer groups, backed by the United States, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and some Persian Gulf states, are forcing such changes in Syrian towns and cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2017 00:00 ||
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#2
But Israel has sturdy bomb shelters within easy reach throughout the country, not to mention counterbatteries. How much of Hezbollahstan can say the same?
Hezbollahstan has "World Opinion" on its side: Israeli civilians are legitimate targets, but Arabs...
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.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
