[Al Jazeera] The six years since the Libyan people's successful uprising to end Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... 's rule have seen the country divided between rival governments, various gangs, ethnic militias, and a renegade general.
A once united rebel front has now broken into innumerable armed factions loyal to their home cities, political or religious ideology, or foreign backers.
The conflict has claimed the lives of thousands of fighters and civilians alike, slowed the country's economic development, and given space for groups, such as the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) group, to establish a toehold in the country.
Regional powers, such Egypt and the UAE have become deeply involved in the country's complex conflict by backing renegade General Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... , and carrying out air raids against his opponents.
The country's deterioration has led many inside and out of the country to question whether the country was better off during Qadaffy's 42-year-long reign.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
...It is worth remembering how Gaddafi Duck met his end - dragged from where he was hiding in a sewer pipe, and then stabbed in the buttocks repeatedly. His last words were, "Do you not know right from wrong???" Clearly, someone did; he was shot seconds later.
And yet someone has the ba11s to suggest that the people of that beknighted land were better off with a man who:
*Executed dissidents, opponents, and anyone else he just didn't like live on television
*Held for ransom/revenge the remains of those who opposed or fought him (including the remains of the F-111 crew lost during Op Eldorado Canyon, and quite possibly the crew of US Sloop Intrepid, lost in the early 1800s - and he ordered on at least one or two occasions a hunt for the missing crew members of the legendary Lady Be Good, after he removed the plane's wreckage from its resting place and put it under armed guard)
*Pranced around with his 'Amazon Virgin Guards', who were noticeably absent when the shiat finally hit the fan
*Stole/wasted billions in oil revenues
*Lost every war he started, including one with Chad, f'r God's sake
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/21/2017 13:03 Comments ||
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#2
But now they've a hundred little Gaddafis Mike.
[NEWSWEEK] The Pentagon is reluctant to attribute the ambush to any specific group, but the Defense Intelligence Agency told ABC News it is "highly likely" a group linked to ISIS is responsible.
The group, known as ISIS in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), has been active in Niger for roughly two years. In 2015, the current leader of the group, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, severed ties with an Al Qaeda affiliate and pledged allegiance to 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.... and its leader, His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... . But ISGS has not been formally recognized as an official branch of ISIS, according to ABC News.
"[ISGS] primarily operates along the Mali-Niger border in Mali's Menaka region, but its reach may extend as far as Niamey, Niger," Robyn Mack, a spokesperson for AFRICOM, tells Newsweek. "The group has conducted small-scale attacks against regional security forces."
AFRICOM is one the Pentagon's six geographic combatant commands and is responsible for military relations with African nations, the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and African regional security organizations.
ISIS recently suffered a major defeat when it was driven from Raqqa, a Syrian city that became the de facto capital of its self-declared caliphate. But the attack in Niger highlights the terrorist organization's continued global appeal, even as its presence in Iraq and Syria dwindles.
Al Qaeda's presence in the region is much more significant than ISGS.
Other terror organizations are also active in the region where the ambush occurred, including Al Qaeda's rebranded Mali-based affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Moslemin (JNIM).
"JNIM is an umbrella organization of regionally-focused terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Sahara Emirate, al-Mourabitoun, and locally-focused groups Macina Liberation Front (MLF) and Ansar al-Din (AAD)," Mack says.
The group has grabbed credit for at least 35 attacks since it formed in early March, "including the June 18 attack on a Western-frequented hotel near Bamako, Mali, and probably are responsible for the August 13 attack on a Western-frequented cafe in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... ," Mack adds.
Experts were surprised to hear ISGS is being blamed for the ambush.
Jason Warner, an assistant professor at the Combating Terrorism Center and the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, tells Newsweek he was "surprised" when he heard the October 4 ambush was being blamed on ISGS.
Warner, who's done extensive research on terrorism in Africa, says he "never really heard anyone mention ISGS in a serious way" and the group has "not really ever come up as a real threat" in conversation.
"When it first came out that these four Americans were killed, for most of us who watch this region, it seemed unlikely it was ISGS since they haven’t been so active," Warner adds.
In Warner's view, if the attack is indeed "pinned down to [ISGS], it would be the most ideologically significant" it has been involved in thus far
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2017 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] After a tumultuous marriage of more than 27 years, South 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... appears to be edging closer to divorcing the north in a move politically and financially sponsored by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In the southern coastal city of Aden, unified Yemen's familiar flag of three horizontal bars has all but vanished, replaced by the former Communist nation's emblem of a red star within a sky-blue chevron, while pictures of Emirati royals adorn the hallways of government buildings and ministries.
Military units once loyal to the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi are also distinctly absent. Instead, local militias and Yemeni soldiers are flanked by Emirati troops - tasked with guarding key installations and protecting Aidarous al-Zubaidi - the UAE's 'man in the south' and leader of the southern secessionist movement.
Perceived by some as the only credible rival to Hadi, the 50-year-old militia leader set out his vision for the region on Friday saying an independence referendum would be "held soon."
Speaking to a raucous crowd of southerners hungry for secession, he announced the formation of a new 303-member parliament, a body analysts say will be administered under his presidency.
Mansoor Saleh, a senior member of Zubaidi's Southern Transitional Council (STC), told Al Jazeera that plans to hold a referendum were still under review, but the STC would be willing to push ahead without the approval of Yemen's internationally recognised government.
"The only way to restore our country [south Yemen] is through liberation," Saleh said.
"A referendum will be held on terms set by the STC. Hadi is a partner to us, just like the Arab coalition. But he has never supported the STC and is not playing any role in this process."
Hadi's government, which was forced by 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 to relocate to Riyadh two years ago and has made only sporadic visits to Aden, has yet to comment on the announcement. But sources close to the presidency said they were ready to thwart any effort to divide the country.
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10/21/2017 00:00 ||
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[NATION.PK] Pakistain has extended the detention of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... by another month yesterday. And no dessert, dammit!
Saeed has a $10 million US bounty on his head and has been under house arrest since January following a government crackdown on the outfit.
"Hafiz Saeed's detention has been extended for a period of one-month," a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said the detention was extended by a three-member review board of Lahore High Court headed by Judge Yawar Ali.
JuD, listed as a terror outfit by the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , is considered by the US and India to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... (LeT), the krazed killer group blamed for the attack on India's financial capital which killed more than 160 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2017 00:00 ||
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[CATCHNEWS] In a statement fraught with repercussions for militancy in the Kashmire Valley, Pakistain Occupied Kashmire based Death Eater conglomerate United Jihad Council (UJC) has for the first time publicly branded Zakir Musa, the chief of the Al Qaeda affiliate in Kashmire, as an Indian agent. The UJC termed it "a deadly game" geared "to pit Kashmiri against Kashmiri".
Using the facade of Zakir Musa a new Ikhwan (pro-government insurgency group) is being created in the name of ISIS and Al Qaeda for the past several months. Paid Indian agents are being recruited for this brigade. They are being hailed by Indian media and impression is given these paid agents are the real heroes of the Kashmire freedom struggle," UJC front man Syed Sadaqat Hussain said in a statement to a local news agency, CNS.
"Over the past few days, Indian print and electronic media is busy in cooking a cock and bull story claiming Zakir Musa’s meeting with Lions of Islam who had managed to enter into Valley through the Gulmarg route. We appeal to people of Kashmire to be alert and expose such types of conspiracies".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2017 00:00 ||
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[TRIBUNE.PK] Security has been tightened after intelligence agencies issued a warning of a possible terrorist attack at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and adjoining National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... According to Express News, police have been warned about the threat through a letter that states that al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) is preparing to attack public hospitals, where snuffies can hold doctors, staff and patients as hostages in coming days.
There is also a possibility of severe destruction through planned kabooms at nuclear plants and oxygen reserves in the vicinity, according to the letter. Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gang war commander killed in Karachi encounter
Following the tipoff, Rangers and police personnel have taken over the security responsibilities and increased the number of paramilitary forces deployed at the two hospitals.
Overnight, a search operation was also carried out and special commandos were deployed at key positions.
Jinnah Hospital’s Executive Director Dr Seemi Jamali and NICH Director Prof Jamal Raza have been directed to restrict movement and increase security measures at the hospitals.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2017 00:00 ||
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Iraqi oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi said he had sought clarifications from Russia's biggest oil company Rosneft about contracts it signed with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Rosneft "assured that the contracts are preliminary and not ready for implementation," the minister told reporters in Baghdad, giving no further details.
Rosneft agreed on Thursday to take control of Iraqi Kurdistan's main oil pipeline, boosting its investment in the autonomous region to $3.5 billion.
The Iraqi government has warned companies against signing deals with the Kurdistan region and Baghdad's forces this week wrested control of the oil-rich Kirkuk from Kurdish forces.
So Kurds do have a backer.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
10/21/2017 13:33 ||
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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.
[NEWSWEEK] The Pentagon is reluctant to attribute the ambush to any specific group, but the Defense Intelligence Agency told ABC News it is "highly likely" a group linked to ISIS is responsible.
