[ATimes]The latest plot twist in the endless historical saga of Afghanistan as a graveyard of empires has thrown up an intriguing new chapter. For the past two months, Beijing and Kabul have been discussing the possibility of setting up a military base alongside Afghanistan’s border with China.
“We are going to build it [the base] and the Chinese government has committed to help financially, provide equipment and train Afghan soldiers,” Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, admitted to the AFP.
On the record, the Chinese Foreign Ministry only admitted that Beijing was involved in “capacity-building” in Afghanistan, while NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, led by the United States, basically issued a “no comment.”
The military base will eventually be built in the mountainous Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of territory in northeastern Afghanistan that extends to China and separates Tajikistan from Pakistan.
It is one of the most spectacular, barren and remote stretches of Central Asia and according to local Kyrgyz nomads, joint Afghan-Chinese patrols are already active there. True to Sydney Wignall’s fabled Spy on the Roof of the World ethos, a great deal of shadow play is in effect. Apparently, this is basically about China’s own war on terror.
Beijing’s strategic priority is to prevent Uyghur fighters of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), who have been exiled in Afghanistan, crossing the Wakhan Corridor to carry out operations across Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in northwest China. There is also the fear that ISIS or Daesh jihadis from Syria and Iraq may also use Afghanistan as a springboard to reach the country.
Even though the jihad galaxy may be split, Beijing is concerned about ETIM. As early as September 2013, the capo of historic al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, supported jihad against China in Xinjiang.
Later, in July 2014, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh said: “Muslim rights [should be] forcibly seized in China, India and Palestine.” Then, on March 1, 2017, Daesh released a video announcing its presence in Afghanistan, with the terror group’s Uyghur jihadis vowing, on the record, to “shed blood like rivers” in Xinjiang.
At the heart of the matter is China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or the New Silk Road, which will connect China with Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
For Beijing, the stability of one of its links, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is seriously compromised if terror threats abound in Central and South Asia. It could also affect China’s sizable investments in Afghanistan’s mineral mining industry
#2
It wasn't ever a graveyard of empires, despite the catchy name. Nobody ever wants wastelands. Ever wonder why no one fought over the Scottish Highlands? It's no big mystery. Not worth the candle. The only real use it's ever had is as a way station to other, juicier targets. Genghis's armies had to pass through the region to get to India and the Middle East. Alexander's armies had to pass through it to get to India. The British needed to keep it neutral in order to reduce any Russian military threat to British India.
[StrategyPage] United States has adopted a new strategy in Afghanistan that concentrates on using the American advantages in terms of intelligence, air power and special operations forces. There are only about 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan but because of satellite communications thousands more in the United States operate as if they were in Afghanistan by remotely operating UAVs and analyzing intelligence data. Over the last few decades American intelligence has collected a lot of details on how opium and heroin production operates and can direct air attacks to the most valuable (to the drug gangs) targets and then monitor the economic impact on the drug operations.
As the old saying goes, “amateurs study tactics while professionals study logistics.” It’s lack of cash and inability to rebuild production and distribution capability that hurts the Afghan drug gangs. That plus the majority of Afghans opposed to this particular business and the competition (other places on the planet that can replace much of the Afghan production) makes the drug gangs vulnerable and the Islamic terror groups they finance to provide security very vulnerable.
The Taliban like the cultivate the idea that they are a frugal operation that can survive on contributions from wealthy Arab religious conservatives in the Persian Gulf area along with donations (not all of them voluntary) from Afghans the Taliban encounter. That is what Islamic terror groups would like it to be but since 2002 lots of business records belonging to major Islamic terrorists groups have been captured and examined. Thousands of Islamic terrorists have been interrogated and some have voluntarily provided detailed information on terror group finances. The bottom line is these groups are expensive to operate in the long term, very expensive.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group in Afghanistan says the group prefers dialogue in a bid to end the ongoing conflict in the country.
The group has issued a new letter to the American nation saying the group can play a constructive role in finding a peaceful solution for issues and that the chances of dialogue are not exhausted.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... Taliban warns that the group’s call for peaceful resolution can never mean that they are exhausted or their will has been sapped.
The new letter by the Taliban group has been issued almost a month after the US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... rejected the possibilities of the early talks with the Taliban following a series of deadly attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country.
President Trump said late last month "I don’t see any talking taking place. I don’t think we’re prepared to talk right now. It’s a whole different fight over there. They’re killing people left and right. Innocent people are being killed left and right. Bombing in the middle of children, in the middle of families ‐ bombing, killing all over Afghanistan."
"So we don’t want to talk with the Taliban. There may be a time, but it’s going to be a long time. We’re all out, and that’s taking place right now, and it’s a whole new front. And it’s a whole new set of principles that we’re being governed by," he added.
Condemning the recent Taliban attacks, President Trump said "When we see what they’re doing and the atrocities that they’re committing, and killing their own people, and those people are women and kiddies ‐ many, many women and kiddies that are totally innocent ‐ it is horrible."
"So there’s no talking to the Taliban. We don’t want to talk to the Taliban. We’re going to finish what we have to finish. What nobody else has been able to finish, we’re going to be able to do it," he said.
The Taliban group has not mentioned the recent wave of violence that mainly claimed the civilian lives and the Afghan and US officials have not commented regarding the new Taliban letter so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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#2
They are so arrogant.
Most if none of the locals like them except for the monies but maybe now some will just go back to the farm instead of playing with these useless brutal assholes.
In the mean time, I will find someone else too that will destroy the taliban totally.
#4
The old Paris Peace Talks(c) gambit. Getting your ass handed to you on the battlefield, return to the negotiating table in return for a cease fire by your opponent.
[RADIOSHABELLE] Mahad Hassan Mohammed, the deputy Security Minister of Somalia’s central the Federal State of Galmudug ...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth... has accused the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Development Programme [UNDP] of failing to pay its Police forces.
In an exclusive Interview with Radio Shabelle via phone, Mohammed said the State Police soldiers went on strike for lack of salary for several months, blaming the UNDP for behind responsible for the crises.
He added that Galmudug state is planning to stop relying on the UNDP financial aid and pay to its security force personnel. The UN Agency was not available for comment on the allegations.
This comes as the newly trained Police forces of the Federal State are on strike in Adado town for days over lack of delayed payment by the UNDP.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] A video released earlier this week by Egypt's deadliest terrorist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis has drawn widespread attention in the country after revealing that the son of Moslem Brüderbund leader Ibrahim El-Deeb, Omar, had joined the group’s ranks in Sinai before he was killed by police last year.
In the video, a bearded El-Deeb appeared wearing army fatigues and promised "dark days" for "infidels and apostates," referring to members of the Armed Forces. He said that he and others in the group have attacked several military checkpoints.
The video has renewed public discussion about the links between the banned Moslem Brüderbund and the North Sinai-based ISIS affiliate Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has grabbed credit for a series of deadly attacks against security forces and civilians over the past few years.
Continued on Page 49
[Al Jazeera] Amnesia Amnesty International has said Egypt must cease use of cluster bombs "immediately" after the weapons had featured in an official video by the country's military on their recent operations in North Sinai.
The human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... group said in a statement on Wednesday that its experts analysed the video and concluded that the footage showed military air force personnel on February 9 loading Egyptian fighter planes with the internationally banned cluster bombs.
They were identified as US-made CBU-87 Combined Effects Weapons, each containing 202 BLU-97/B bomblets.
"Cluster bombs are inherently indiscriminate weapons that inflict unimaginable suffering for years after their use, and they are internationally banned for this reason," Najia Bounaim, Amnesia Amnesty International's deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in the statement.
"Their depiction in this video suggests that the Egyptian air force has either already used or is intending to use them, demonstrating a blatant disregard for human life."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Amnesty International has said Egypt must cease use of cluster bombs "immediately"
Is it just me, or are these people really really annoying?
[StrategyPage] Research has shown that mothers are more effective at radicalizing children than fathers. Another reality is that “deradicalization” programs are a failure, especially in situations like this. Then there are the public exhortations by ISIL leaders for these widows to return home, help organize new attacks and radicalize their children for future attacks. That has already been happening in several European countries and is not a theoretical threat.
European nations have finally come around to acknowledging that Islamic radicals and their supporters, especially those in Europe, are eager to radicalize their children and produce another generation of Europe based Islamic terrorists.
Posted by: 3dc ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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[VladTepesBlog] It all started Monday, three weeks ago. That Monday evening, Uta Ogilvie, an ordinary woman from the suburbs of Hamburg, went downtown, to the posh Hamburg shopping street Jungfernstieg. She held a pink sign, “Merkel must go”, and just walked the street in silence. She was all on her own.
Uta Ogilvie has no political affiliations, she is a practicing Buddhist, and no organization whatsoever was involved in this. It was just one woman’s personal protest.
After a while, some passers-by joined her.
The next Monday, two weeks ago, about 60 people joined her in silence.
The arc of events is exactly as one would expect in these troubled times, including Antifa and a certain slant to the newspaper headlines.
#1
After the events of 2/12, Mrs Ogilvie has given up on organizing and/or participating in demonstrations citing the threat of violence against herself and her family.(link in German)
Translation of her facebook post's conclusion:
"In other words, it is the state itself that threatens me. But while the fascists and their sibling organizations are funded to the extent of millions (of Euros), I can not expect any state protection. I would only get that if I went into politics, I was told.
In short, the state is muzzling me.
Hence my appeal: Spread my story, talk with family, friends and colleagues. Think about it together: We live in a country where we can not live our fundamental right to freedom of expression. Maybe, I hope, one day we will be so many that this condition will come to an end.
I myself will now retire a bit and think. But do not worry: Nobody will break my lion heart.
Uta Ogilvie"
[DAWN] Pakistan has been engaged in lobbying efforts with different countries around the world to thwart a move by the United States and its European allies to get Pakistan placed on a global terrorist-financing watchlist with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), it emerged on Thursday.
Responding to a calling attention notice about Pakistan's possible placement on the FATF 'grey list', Minister of State for Finance Rana Afzal told the Senate that the move to put Pakistan on the terrorist-financing watchlist is a political manoeuvre on the part of the US and UK.
He said the US banding together with Britain to place Pakistan on the watchlist is a "dangerous step" intended to pile political pressure on Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The man who shot Mashal Khan and 12 others given various jail terms for participating in his lynching on Thursday challenged their convictions in the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. High Court (PHC).
The 13 men were among those convicted by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) earlier this month in the Mashal Khan murder case. The ATC had awarded the death sentence to prime accused Imran Ali, life imprisonment to five other convicts, and three-year jail terms to 25 others.
Syed Akhtar, the counsel for the 13 convicts, on Thursday filed an appeal against the death sentence handed to Ali and the jail terms awarded to five others in the Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Circuit Bench of the PHC on Thursday.
Akhtar told DawnNews that he had earlier also filed appeals on behalf of seven other convicts. A total of 13 appeals have been filed against the convictions announced by the ATC over the course of this week.
The counsel pointed out what he termed contradictions in the detailed judgement, and urged the high court to release his clients after setting aside the ATC verdict.
"The verdict is not accordance with the law as no witness appeared in the trial court to testify that Imran Ali had opened fire on Mashal Khan," Akhtar said. He also claimed there was no proof or video evidence to show that Imran was present at the time of Mashal's killing.
Akhtar challenged the verdict on the grounds that as per the medico-legal report, the cause of Mashal's death was torture and beating, not gunshot wounds, which he claimed proved Imran's innocence.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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[THECIPHERBRIEF] The Trump administration has given Pakistain a new "hit list" of nearly a dozen top Death Eaters to detain, to show its willingness to fight terrorism, but the U.S. won’t share intelligence that would help lead to their capture, and has snubbed Pak requests to meet CIA chief Mike Pompeo in Washington, a senior Pak official tells The Cipher Brief.
"The feeling is there is nothing we can do to make a difference," the senior Pak official said. "They are scapegoating Pakistain for their failure to bring peace in Afghanistan despite more than a decade of conflict."
In response, senior U.S. administration officials would only say that Washington has asked Pakistain to take "specific" action against the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... and the Haqqani network, which have been blamed for recent violent attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan. The officials tell The Cipher Brief that Pakistain’s intelligence service and military have failed to sever ties with either myrmidon group and continue to protect their top leaders within Pak territory.
"We have seen Pakistain take some modest steps that appear to be responsive to some of our concerns, but we haven’t seen the decisive action against the Taliban and Haqqani network," one of the officials said. "They are doing the minimum necessary to alleviate the pressure."
The he-said, she-said highlights the continued tension between the Trump administration and Islamabad that spiked in January when President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... greeted the new year by tweeting that Pakistain has shown "nothing but lies and deceit" in return for U.S. aid.
Two Pak officials say that since that tweet, Islamabad has turned over more than two-dozen Death Eaters to Afghanistan who were on an earlier list of Death Eaters the U.S. asked Pakistain to "lawfully detain." That includes the big shots of the Haqqani network, the official said. Siraj Haqqani is at the top of that list, as he’s wanted by the FBI for his roles in running military operations for both the Haqqani network and the Taliban, according to Bill Roggio of FDD’s Long War Journal.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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[Iraq News] Fear of Dire Revenge from tribes is holding back hundreds of displaced Iraqi families of 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.... fighters from returning home in Anbar, a local official was quoted saying.
Almaalomah website quoted Ragea al-Essawi, a member of anbar Province Council, saying that tribal feuds are preventing 500 families from returning to areas Iraqi forces had recaptured from the bully boys.
"There have been attempts (for reconciliation) by some tribal leaders, but victims’ families insisted not to let the bully boys’ relatives back, and threatened to kill them in Dire Revenge," Essawi stated.
He said those families, scattered across refugee camps in the province, will "disrupt the security situation at liberated areas" should they return home".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"Let bygones be bygones?"
Nice try. Kill em
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2018 7:08 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Jazeera] Human rights groups and indigenous activists have accused Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of inciting the military to commit war crimes after he offered a $384 bounty for each communist rebel killed.
Duterte's "incendiary rhetoric" encourages violations of conventions on armed conflicts, Carlos H Conde of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement to Al Jazeera on Thursday.
"Duterte's pronouncements normalise the idea that government security forces can do as they wish to defeat their enemies - including committing summary executions," said Conde.
Last week, Duterte said he would train indigenous people, or lumads, to become paramilitary fighters and pay them 20,000 pesos ($384) for each communist rebel they kill in their communities in the southern island of Mindanao.
"You want money? I'll give you money," he said. "I will make it 20,000 pesos per head."
The controversial comments followed an earlier report quoting Duterte as telling the military to shoot female communist rebels in the genitals, to make them "useless".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
How much per head for "Human Rights Watch" operatives?
#3
Well, if anything is reliable, it's the old saying that you get more of what you subsidize. Human rights groups and indigenous activists never had a problem for ACORN paying for every voter registration collected.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has commented on the developments in Syria, including the issue of arms supplies to Kurds from the US and the American military presence in al-Tanf.
"The Americans have sent the Kurds convoys with weapons through the territory of Iraq, provoking The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... . Turkey, in turn, has continued its military activity against Kurds in the Afrin area in northwestern Syria as part of the Operation Olive Branch," Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday, noting that the ongoing battles between Ottoman Turkish troops and Kurds were fierce.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!... in Leb, the US Secretary of State, who is expected to head to Ankara, addressed the issue after meeting with the Lebanese president, stressing that the US has "never given heavy arms to the YPG," (the People’s Protection Units) a Kurdish Lion of Islam group that Ankara has deemed to be a terrorist organization.
The Ottoman Turkish officials have repeatedly claimed that the arming of the Syrian Kurds is one of the major factors that have contributed to the deterioration of Ankara-Washington relations. Turkey has claimed that the US was making a mistake in supplying weapons to the YPG. Ottoman Turkish officials say the YPG is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization in the country, and claims that the American weapons they received could be directed against Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2018 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Screw em.
Provoke Turkey, who gives a damn? I wish we could get Russia on board to bitch slap them. I love to see someone drop a JDAM on Erdogan's butt.
#2
If Sec Tillerson says "never given heavy arms to the YPG," but Turkey say it is a major issue, who is arming them? Deep State Special Access Program or other rogue spooks? Why does the right hand never know what the left is doing?
#5
If Sec Tillerson says "never given heavy arms to the YPG,"
That might be sleight of hand. We haven't, but we may have provided funding or even spoken to third countries to provide those arms. And what do we mean by heavy weapons?
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 latest plot twist in the endless historical saga of Afghanistan as a graveyard of empires has thrown up an intriguing new chapter. For the past two months, Beijing and Kabul have been discussing the possibility of setting up a military base alongside Afghanistan’s border with China.
[StrategyPage] United States has adopted a new strategy in Afghanistan that concentrates on using the American advantages in terms of intelligence, air power and special operations forces. There are only about 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan but because of satellite communications thousands more in the United States operate as if they were in Afghanistan by remotely operating UAVs and analyzing intelligence data. Over the last few decades American intelligence has collected a lot of details on how opium and heroin production operates and can direct air attacks to the most valuable (to the drug gangs) targets and then monitor the economic impact on the drug operations. 
[StrategyPage] Research has shown that mothers are more effective at radicalizing children than fathers. Another reality is that “deradicalization” programs are a failure, especially in situations like this. Then there are the public exhortations by ISIL leaders for these widows to return home, help organize new attacks and radicalize their children for future attacks. That has already been happening in several European countries and is not a theoretical threat.
[DAWN] Pakistan has been engaged in lobbying efforts with different countries around the world to thwart a move by the United States and its European allies to get Pakistan placed on a global terrorist-financing watchlist with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), it emerged on Thursday.
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
[Iraq News] Fear of 
