[ALLAFRICA] About a week ago, the Nigerian Army and security agencies nabbed a convoy of 33 buses ferrying 486 people of Northern origin in Abia State, on the suspicion that they could be members of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... terrorist group. This is not the first time Northerners have travelled to the South and vice versa. The suspicion was based on several factors.
The gunnies in the North brag they want to Islamise Nigeria. Eastern Nigeria has less than five per cent of its indigenes who subscribe to the Islamic faith. "Abubakar Shekau", the leader of Boko Haram, has been boasting that he would soon start targeting the South. Governor Kassim Shettima of Borno State, who is often seen as a hidden supporter of Boko Haram, recently warned that the turbans would soon spread their activities to the South and other parts of the country. There have been reports that "Fulani herdsmen", the murderous gangs attacking villages in North Central Nigeria and raping women, have infiltrated parts of Enugu State.
When, in the midst of it all a convoy of 33 buses carrying mostly young men with virtually no luggage, moves into Igbo land at 3am under the cover of darkness, there is bound to be suspicion that they are up to no good. No normal human being will see this kind of strange influx in his neighbourhood and fail to raise an eyebrow. On further investigation, we have already been informed that a high ranking, wanted Boko Haram kingpin has been discovered in their midst. The Coordinator of the National Information Centre, Mr Mike Omeri, also dropped an ominous hint that the findings about the 486 suspects would shock the nation, though he went no further than this.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
A sad sordid tale.
My Inner State Department says these people just need to get along.
My Inner Henry Kissinger says they are fighting because they can't get along.
My Inner General Mattis says just kill them all.
Aw, they just need a little law and order. One Ranger, one Nigeria, eh?
#2
Napalm. Keep the people on the bus and napalm the lot of them. Scrape the remains onto the side of the road as a reminder and deterrent.
Islam will continue to push until they get pushed back, harder. These people aren't sane -- they're animals. They need to be treated like animals. When animals go rabid, you shoot them. Just sayin'.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/01/2014 13:46 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] OPERATION Zarb-e-Azb against the TTP and its associated forces is in full swing. While the operation appears to enjoy public support, one must understand the nature of the conflict and its significance for Pakistain.
For years, the categorisation of the conflict in Fata has been contested. Recent legislation concerning Fata — including the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation 2011 (AACP) — suggests that the federation has started recognising the conflict in Fata as a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) under international law.
Previously, the conflict was characterised as internal disturbances. While the AACP is far from according adequate protections required under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), it frequently utilises IHL jargon, and is reflective of the IHL framework when it outlines the treatment and limited protections afforded to 'miscreants'.
Under international law, two factors determine whether violence crosses the threshold to be classified as an NIAC: the conflict's intensity and organization of the parties to the conflict. The intensity test provides that an NIAC should be "similar to an international war", but the conflict itself must be confined within the boundaries of a particular country.
The state must regain control over its territory. The nature of engagement between state forces and turbans in Fata confirms the presence of an NIAC. International criminal tribunals have found the existence of an NIAC in much lower levels of conflict intensity. There have been recognised NIACs of shorter duration, with smaller scale armed engagement, smaller troop deployments, fewer types of weapons used and targets identified, lower organizational capacities of Death Eater outfits and fewer displaced persons.
The existence of an NIAC does not automatically mean that the illusory sovereignty of a nation is undermined. In fact, recognising the conflict as an NIAC provides the state sanction under IHL to militarily defeat its adversary with lower levels of due process than what is available during times of peace.
Under international law the state can re-establish control over its territory in order to defend its national unity and territorial integrity with the caveat that other states cannot use the presence of an NIAC as justification for intervening, directly or indirectly. Furthermore, the presence of an NIAC does not exclude the applicability of domestic criminal law to Death Eaters, but ensures safeguards for civilians in conflict zones.
Basic protections under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions are applicable in any armed conflict. Acts prohibited are the mutilation, cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment and torture of persons; taking of hostages; and the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court. There is also the requirement that the maimed and sick be collected and cared for.
Historically, Pakistain has been reluctant to accept the conflict in Fata as an NIAC, probably because it has feared international recognition of Death Eater outfits or the conferral of legal status that grants them the privileges of combatants. These fears are misplaced, as the TTP is abhorred by nearly all states, and viewed as a global terrorist outfit by Security Council members.
Under international law, status principally depends on actual and sustained control and authority over the territory in conflict rather than the recognition turbans receive from third states.
An NIAC is presented in a state when "dissident armed forces or other organised gangs under responsible command, exercise such control over a part of its territory as to enable them to carry out sustained and concerted military operations". Only when such organization, command, control and capacity are disrupted does one come out of a non-international armed conflict. Without such organization or control, the turbans have no legitimacy whatsoever.
The federation should regain control over its territory and establish its writ in the troubled regions. This will automatically exhaust any legitimacy that the TTP claims to possess in Fata. However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... the armed forces must fight this war with transparency, and in compliance with IHL, which would mean that Common Article 3 protections are afforded and civilian immunity is fully preserved.
All civilians, including IDPs, should be adequately cared for and provided all basic facilities and protections. Reputed journalists should be embedded with the forces and given complete access to information so they can apprise the public of the ground realities.
The ICRC should be allowed a sizeable presence in the region. Such measures would prevent violations of IHL by all warring parties, and any war crimes committed by the TTP would further discredit them. Such steps would also reinforce the absolute legitimacy of the operation in the eyes of the international community. Pakistain has the wherewithal to militarily win this war in light of geo-political realities and the asymmetry of armed force.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] BANNU: The fate of almost half-a-million displaced rustics, 70 percent of them being women and kiddies, depends on the ongoing military operation in North Wazoo tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The offensive which Pakistain's military claims to be against all myrmidon groups, without discrimination of good and bad, will decide whether they will be able to go back to their motherland in weeks, months or remain in Bannu, a town adjacent to North Waziristan, for a long time. The military announced on Monday it has launched a ground offensive in this hilly tribal belt, which was once considered to be the epicentre of global terrorism. But for the displaced tribes, the peace in their motherland is as far as they are from their ancestral homes.
The North Waziristan operation has its national, regional and international significance. The links of most terrorist attacks at urban centres in the country were traced to North Waziristan. Several myrmidon groups have used the region as a launch-pad for attacks against US forces in Afghanistan. The international community will watch closely this operation with its binoculars because for them the terrorist outfits may have linkages with the Islamic fighters in Syria and the ISIS in Iraq. Washington faced embarrassment after the withdrawal of forces from Iraq, and it cannot afford the same script to be rewritten on Afghan soil, especially when it has announced withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
America's ruling elite is divided into two camps when it comes to foreign policy. One side, the neo-cons, sees the world as a collection of American provinces. Maybe administrative districts is a better term. They really thought they could turn Iraq into a fully functioning representative democracy.Not only that, they thought it could be a model for the rest of the Arab world district. I think that's a bit of a straw-man argument, and as I said before I'm tired of seeing all the people pointing at Obama trying to burn down everything the previous administration tried to build and saying "Gee, look at how stupid you were to try to build things." I mean, based on that criteria there's nothing America's done that isn't stupid, because I think the dumbass means to try to burn all of it down sooner or later.
The other camp is composed of people who think the other camp is dangerously wrong, but have no earthly idea why and they have no sensible alternative to offer. It is why Obama pulled the plug on the Bush deal in Iraq and went tromping off to Afghanistan. He and his flunkies had no idea what they were trying to accomplish. They just knew the old Bush hands hated it so that was enough.
The rest of the world is not willing to wait around for America's elites to figure out what their doing. Russia, in particular, is taking advantage of the Obama administration's petrified paralysis. Last year they made Obama look foolish by outflanking him in Syria. Putin followed that up with a stunning success in Ukraine. Now they are taking advantage of Washington's bungling to return Iraq as an ally in the Persian Gulf.:
The first delivery of Russian Sukhoi fighter jets arrived in Iraq on Saturday, the country's Defense Ministry said. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is hoping the jets will make a key difference in the fight against ISIS.
The Iraqi Ministry of Defense on Sunday confirmed receiving five Su-25 fighter jets in accordance with the deal with Moscow. The jets were delivered by a Russian An-124 transport plane in a dismantled state, and are expected to be set up and become operational within 3-4 days.
Until Bush the Lesser dethroned Saddam, Iraq was a Russian client state. Their military was equipped by the Russians and trained in Russian tactics. It is why they were good at running a secret police, but clownishly awful at large set piece combat. The Russians were never good at this type of warfare, which is why the Germans drove them to the gates of Moscow.
Now, the Russians have Syria, Iran and Iraq on board and that means they can build their pipelines without too much interference from the West. Running gas from the Persian Gulf through Iran to the Caspian Sea was never ideal and would allow the GCC-Saudi deal to compete on economic grounds. Running a pipeline over Iraq into Syria puts them in the Mediterranean. The only thing they must now do is get rid of ISIL.
The other bonus for Russia is they get to work on their modernization efforts. The Russians have been revamping their military and their tactics to face the threats of this century. They know they will not be fighting a tank war in Europe. Instead they will be fighting insurgents from their southeast. They saw how the Americans adapted and they are doing the same. Iraq is good practice.
"The Sukhoi Su-25 is an air-ground support and anti-terrorism mission aircraft. In these difficult times, we are in great need of such aircraft. With God's help, we will be able to deploy them to support our ground forces on a mission against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant militants within the next 3-4 days," Iraqi Army Lieutenant General Anwar Hamad Amen Ahmed told RT's Ruptly news agency at an airport receiving the jets.
The modern battlefield is four dimensional. Air assets attack ground elements with the help of specialized ground forces. That means choppers and jet aircraft that can be coordinated with those ground forces to bring timely and potent firepower on small targets. It takes practice to hone these skills and this provides the Russians with a chance to gets some saddle time.
There's also the fact the Russians will increasingly rely on mercenaries. Demographics are reducing the number of Russian males available for military service. The Russian military is close to being majority Muslim at this point. The solution to this is to create a military with a Russian elite and a Muslim militia. I doubt that works, but Iraq provides a training ground for how they intend to adjust to the demographic realities they face.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
07/01/2014 12:54 ||
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#1
"One side, the neo-cons, sees the world as a collection of American provinces. Maybe administrative districts is a better term. They really thought they could turn Iraq into a fully functioning representative democracy.Not only that, they thought it could be a model for the rest of the Arab world district."
One sentences contradicts the next. I think the second is accurate as far as the neo-con position. Call them niavely optimistic perhaps but not imperialist as the first sentences seems to indicate.
#2
Absolutely agree with RJ. Good intentions with poor results. Better to call them 'heathens and uncivillized' - per 19th century Brit. terrminology, and leave it at that. Conquer, seize the oil fields, and leave. Unpc borgboy.
[Iran Press TV] An American author and investigative journalist says CIA director John Brennan who is "a known Saudiphile" has played a key role in the creation and rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL).
Wayne Madsen made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Monday, saying Washington's trainings and provision of arms and cash to forces of Evil in Iraq and Syria gave rise to the brutal militancy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Brennan and Prince Bandar, we don't hear much from them these days do we? Perhaps ValJar could give us an update.
#6
the way to win a war is to kill the enemy and its supporters in whatever numbers are necessary to move them to acknowledge that the game is not worth the candle.
Always has been that way and most likely will always be that way. The U.S. has not really been into that option since WWII. It has caused us untold problems.
#8
According to boring old Kennan,
"An enemy's something to pen in."
The modern rejoinder:
"I'm more of a joiner --
"My mallet, your mortise, Mo's tenon."
[The Nation (Pak)] The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has changed its name to Islamic State (IS) and declared itself a caliphate. IS has made gains in Iraq since they captured djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and has had jihadists from other groups swear allegiance to them. Al Qaeda never went as far as to asset a caliphate, and in their ambitions IS may have surpassed Al Qaeda and if the global community hasn't already, it is time to sit up and pay attention.
For ideological jihadists, the caliphate is the ultimate aim, and IS has come closest to realising that vision. There exists a certain amount of nostalgia for the caliphate, and this publicity stunt will help IS recruit young turbans from all over the globe as well garner some conservative popular support from Mohammedan countries including Pakistain. Numbers of Mohammedan youth from the US, UK, the Sinai, Jordan, Gazoo and Indonesia have been reported to have traveled to Iraq and Syria to take up the IS cause as well as fight against the Syrian government.
The Iraqi government's pleas for international intervention may be helped by the declaration of a caliphate. What is the international community going to do? The US has been on the fence about what to do with Iraq; will they let the situation further escalate? Russia already has its plane in Iraq with Syrian support. The only counter to ISIS is regional. Turkey won't support the IS ideology and just had its diplomats kidnapped in Mosul. Iran is already countering IS and is sick of radial Sunnism. Iran doesn't want to lose an ally in Storied Baghdad that is more important than even Assad in Syria. They are reportedly airlifting over a hundred tons of supplies to Storied Baghdad daily, and forces have been deployed weeks ago. Yet, beyond the Middle East, in South Asia, in Africa and even East Asia, Mohammedans may actually agree with the Islamic State's call to arms.
Things are different this time around. IS doesn't want to destroy the US like Al Qaeda; it wants to carve out a state, and break territorial boundaries constructed by colonial rule. It wants to break the borders of Iraq, Jordan and Leb and free Paleostine. And by state, it means Caliphate. The modern nation state and its trappings hold no importance for IS. IS has assets in the low billions and a very efficient bureaucratic governing structure. It would not have made such a statement, if it wasn't ready for a backlash form opposing jihadist groups as well as international players.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
#1
So what country will be first to put an Embassy in the caliphate capital? Anybody? Anybody? Any such embassy would not only have to be a super-bunker to protect from the near guaranteed retaliatory strikes that will occur against the Caliphate before too long but probably a medieval fortress to keep the locals looking for hostages out.
#1
Cain was not to be killed. It was no use killing him because all men have a little Cain in them. The curse of Cain infects in many forms. Nazism, Communism and Islam are only a few examples of the disease. Instead Cain was meant to be a living example of the futility of evil. His accursed nature made him into a living symbol of death. Each thing he touched would be cursed by his existence.
When we remember what Cain is, when we know what his signs, the swastika, the sickle and the crescent, represent, then he is no threat to us.
We move him onward, we cast him out and drive him away before he kills us and we kill him and the cycle of bloodshed that he starts everywhere he goes begins again.
It is when we forget that he becomes truly dangerous. When Abel and Cain cannot be told apart, then Cain can pretend that he is the victim and that Abel was the killer. The blood soaks into the earth and he washes his hands of it and pretends that he knows nothing about it. Men begin playing detectives, they search for the root cause of Cain's crimes and try to understand what provoked him this time.
But even when the Lord does not speak to men, the blood can still be heard crying from the earth. A thousand years of blood, the blood of men, women and children from every race and every part of the world.
Cain has made a mountain of corpses. His Caliphate was built on bones. His code is cruelty and his holy book is written in blood on the flayed skins of his murdered victims.
A thousand years of blood calls from the earth. The cries of peoples long vanished from the earth warn us that we will either drive out Cain or his curse will fill our lands with blood and dust and all that we love and all that we have worked for will die at his cursed touch.
[Iran Press TV] Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... terrorist groups operating in the Middle East are enemy stooges to sow discord among Mohammedans and incite Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... across the globe, a political analyst tells Press TV.
"These groups have been created, supported and financed by outsiders of our religion for two reasons. One to divide the community and Mohammedan community and secondly is for creating such a bad image of Mohammedans as a wholeâ¦," said Massoud Shadjareh, head of the Islamic Human Rights Commission from Tehran, in a Monday interview.
"I am in no doubt that this was created to serve the purpose of Israelis and those who actually want to create havoc in the area," he noted.
The analyst argued that the Takfiri snuffies are in fact listening to the "call for Jihad of the White House" and said, "That is why you do not see any of them going to fight in Paleostine or Myanmar or Kashmire or Central Africa."
"If that sort of effort was put into any of these other areas, especially Myanmar and Central Africa, then thousands of Mohammedans would not have been slaughtered the way that they are being," Shadjareh added.
Over the recent years, several Mohammedan countries, including Iraq, Syria, Leb, Pakistain, Afghanistan and Nigeria have become the scenes of atrocious crimes against humanity by Takfiri terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL), al-Nusra Front, Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade, etc.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2014 00:00 ||
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...I have made an outrageous assertion: not that Leftists are indifferent to virtue, but are openly hostile to virtue.
Outrageous, perhaps, but there is no difficulty in proving the point; the Leftwing positions on abortion, on homosexual so-called marriage, on euthanasia, on so-called social justice, on egalitarianism, on secularism, on the glorification of violence and terrorism in social causes, are none of them secret. I assume all readers know the core Leftist positions, so we need not pause to recite examples.
The Leftist promotion of vice is not random. If it were random, then the Left would sometimes be on the right side of a moral question, just as a stopped clock is right twice a day.
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.
[ALLAFRICA] About a week ago, the Nigerian Army and security agencies nabbed a convoy of 33 buses ferrying 486 people of Northern origin in Abia State, on the suspicion that they could be members of the 
[DAWN] OPERATION Zarb-e-Azb against the TTP and its associated forces is in full swing. While the operation appears to enjoy public support, one must understand the nature of the conflict and its significance for Pakistain.
The nature of engagement between state forces and 
Wazoo
[Iran Press TV] An American author and investigative journalist says CIA director John Brennan who is "a known Saudiphile" has played a key role in the creation and rise of the so-called 
[Iran Press TV] 
