AFTER Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to the Islamic State, reportedly beheaded the American hostage Nicholas Berg in 2004, he became known in jihadi circles as the Slaughterer. Few people in the West are aware that he also went by the nickname He Who Weeps a Lot. Mr. Zarqawi was known for weeping during prayer and when speaking about Muslim women's suffering under occupation. (Skipping many paragraphs in the same vein)
As the West comes to terms with a new and growing threat ‐ horrifically evident in the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. ‐ we are not only confronting organizations and doctrines, but also a highly seductive subculture. This is bad news. Governments are much better equipped to take on the Slaughterer than they are He Who Weeps a Lot. Without that last paragraph, this would be pure enemy propaganda. It still is. NYT, sympathetic as always.
Someone is having just a little too much fun. This is the third school district that we know about (New York City ignored the threat they received, assuming it was a hoax). Will this one also turn out to have a German IP?
[WMUR] NASHUA, N.H. - School officials in Nashua said classes will resume Tuesday after all schools in the city were shut down because of a threat.
The threat came in through email. Officials said they exercised extreme caution in closing the schools Monday, but they later determined the threat wasn't credible, and it's safe for students to return.
Police Chief Andrew Lavoie wouldn't go into specifics about what was written in the threat or where it might have come from. Officials also wouldn't go so far as to call it a hoax, but they said they are confident that the school buildings are safe.
"We can say with confidence there is no current threat to Nashua public schools," Lavoie said.
Superintendent Mark Conrad said the threat was specific, mentioning the two high schools by name, Monday's date and the means by which students would be hurt.
"Over time, superintendents have learned that the more specifics, the more concerned to be about a threat, and this was a very specific threat," Conrad said.
Putting safety first, Conrad said he decided to not only close the high schools but all 17 public schools.
"Had we held school in the other schools, we would have had a very high rate of absenteeism, a high level of anxiety," he said. "This way, we could say every child was safe today."
One town over in Hudson, Superintendent Bryan Lane said he had his faculty search their emails. Even though they found no threats, he still took precautions.
"We put extra police presence in place at the high schools and also in the elementary schools," Lane said.
In Nashua, police called in the FBI for assistance. Police hand-checked windows and doors, and searched the buildings at every school.
"Literally hand checks of doors, windows. We had bomb dogs, the Nashua department bomb unit there. We had state police and ATF bomb K-9s assisting us," Lavoie said.
Lavoie said nothing suspicious was found.
"I certainly don't know the intent of the perpetrator, but we will do everything we can to find you, and you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," he said.
Nashua schools plan to have an increased police presence Tuesday, and briefings will be held in the morning for faculty and staff. Guidance counselors will be on hand for students.
"It's just something that you get used to nowadays and it's like everywhere, and hopefully everything goes by fine and nothing happens," Rodriguez said.
#1
"Over time, superintendents have learned that the more specifics, the more concerned to be about a threat, and this was a very specific threat," Conrad said.
You guys just on keep handing the enemy your protocols. What could possibly go wrong?
BTW, I wouldn't shut down an entire school system for an email threat.
#2
And if you don't shut them down, and there is an attack, you have a real problem. The first duty of a bureaucrat is to avoid that kind of problem above all else. It's called CYA.
[CNBC] Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill hit a 52-week low Monday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it is investigating another, more recent outbreak of a different strain of E. coli linked to the restaurant chain.
The CDC does not know yet if the more recent cases are tied to a larger outbreak that began at the end of October.
Five ill people were identified in Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma as part of the new investigation, on dates ranging from Nov.18 to Nov. 26, 2015. The new Illnesses are not included in the current case count, which is now at 53, the CDC report said.
On Oct. 31, an outbreak of E. coli was first linked to the chain, mostly in Washington and Oregon. Illnesses started on dates ranging from Oct. 19 to Nov. 13.
Twenty ill people were hospitalized during that outbreak, according to the CDC.
Chipotle announced it would revise its standards after reports of illnesses, with measures like high-resolution testing of ingredients, end of shelf-life testing of ingredients, continuous improvement in the supply system based on testing data and enhanced food safety training for team members.
[Guardian] A Boy Scout leader was pulled into a cave by a bear but beat the animal away with a rock hammer, authorities in northern New Jersey have said. I blame lingering salsiccia breath.
Christopher Petronino and three other Scouts were hiking at Split Rock reservoir on Sunday afternoon when he stopped to show the boys a cave, NJ.com reported. He dipped into a small crevasse leading to it, and the bear grabbed him by the foot and yanked him inside. It began biting his legs and shoulders, and Petronino fought it off. The three fellow Scouts with him then called for help.
"Petronino struck the bear twice in the head with a rock hammer. He then pulled his sweatshirt over his head and curled into the foetal position," Bob Considine, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said in a statement. "He yelled to the Scouts, who were outside the cave, to leave and go get help."
[Guardian] France's most famous brothel keeper, whose clientele included ministers, diplomats and business leaders in the 1960s and 70s, has died aged 92.
In her heyday, Fernande Grudet, under the alias Madame Claude, boasted a network of more than 500 young women and a handful of young men, as well as an address book that, she claimed, included John F Kennedy, the Shah of Iran and Fiat boss Giovanni Agnelli.
The clientele of her maison close afforded her some protection, but she mostly kept out of police trouble by secretly passing on coupons clients' pillow talk to the French authorities.
The second daughter of a modest family from Angers, Grudet was born in 1923. She fell into the company of criminals when she arrived in Paris in the 1950s, when she began to work in the sex trade.
However, she had greater ambitions. By the end of the decade Grudet had reinvented herself as the child of a bourgeois family and member of the Resistance, and adopted the name Madame Claude to launch a maison close for the rich and famous.
Actress Francoise Fabian, who played Claude [in the film 1974 film Emmanuelle], told Le Point magazine: "I was struck by her widely held cynical view of sex between men and women. To her, men were nothing more than wallets.
[Wash Times] Gay and bisexual men are now permitted to donate blood one year after their last sexual contact with a man, the federal government said Monday in its final recommendations to the blood-product industry.
The one-year deferral policy -- which mirrors several countries' policies on men who have sex with men (MSM) -- was decided by health professionals who considered blood safety issues as part of their plan to lift a blanket ban on MSM blood donations that was put into place in 1985, the Food and Drug Administration said in a 27-page guidance document.
"We have taken great care to ensure this policy revision is backed by sound science and continues to protect our blood supply," Dr. Stephen Ostroff, FDA acting commissioner, said Monday.
#10
Well, I've donated well over 6 gallons of blood in my lifetime, so I should get something good back.
The self donating is fine if you have time to plan it - like if you are going to have surgery. The problem is if you are admitted to the hospital because you are bleeding out, there's no time (or blood) to donate and get back.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/22/2015 23:23
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[Daily Caller] Islamic State is selling Yazidi girls and women in an underground sex slave market in Turkey, according to a report by Germany's broadcast service ARD. Little new here in the last several hundred years, simply under reported.
According to the report, the underground black market is based in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, close to the Turkish-Syrian border.
"IS [Islamic State or ISIS] offers women and underage children in a kind of virtual slave market with for-sale photos. ... The transfer of money, as the reporter discovered, takes place through a liaison office in Turkey," reports German station NDR (NDR is part of the German ARD media consortium).
The sale of the girls and women follows a sort of auction pattern, with the highest bidder winning. According to the reports, prices for the women can go as high as $15,000 to $20,000 each. After bidding, the money is transferred through middle men in Turkey, eventually reaching ISIS coffers.
#4
But do they provide them with taxpayer paid birth control?
The tradition is that sex slaves don't get to have babies, Crazy Fool. Babies make them uninteresting/unavailable while pregnant, and ambitious to compete for the interests of the child in competition with legitimate half siblings.
#5
The tradition is that sex slaves don't get to have babies, Crazy Fool. Babies make them uninteresting/unavailable while pregnant, and ambitious to compete for the interests of the child in competition with legitimate half siblings. Posted by trailing wife
....and a dynamic not the exclusive domain of the Islamic State, but one easily converted to a federally funded enterprise.
[Telegraph] Genes which make people intelligent have been discovered and scientists believe they could be manipulated to boost brain power.
Researchers have believed for some time that intellect is inherited with studies suggesting that up to 75 per cent of IQ is genetic, and the rest down to environmental factors such as schooling and friendship groups.
Friendship groups? So I'm smarter because I hang out here?
But until now, nobody has been able to pin-point exactly which genes are responsible for better memory, attention, processing speed or reasoning skills. Apple falling from tree theory confirmed ?
[Rooters] Investigators said on Monday that red balls had been placed in the eye sockets of a woman's embalmed head found a year ago in a case that may be linked to a growing black market for body parts.
Economy Borough Police Chief Michael O'Brien at a news conference appealed to the public for help identifying the woman, whose head was discovered in the woods by a child walking home in the rural town about 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Pittsburgh on Dec. 12, 2014.
Despite nearly 30 leads from the public following publication of artist renderings and a bust of the woman's head, she remains unidentified, police said. She was described as Caucasian and about age 50.
Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh said an investigation is under way and it encompasses a range of possibilities.
"There's a black market on body parts and that market is pretty extensive," Berosh said.
O'Brien said the head was found too far off rural Mason Road to have ended up there accidentally and animals moving the head had been ruled out because the embalming fluid would have made it unappealing.
[PJ Media] While our attention has been diverted by terrorist attacks and the security of the homeland, the war in Afghanistan has taken a decided turn for the worse.
According to the deputy governor of Helmand Province, the Taliban are on the verge of scoring a major victory by taking over the entire region -- a center of opium production and a major population center.
Helmand is considered the Taliban's home province and it was all that British and American troops could do to keep the Taliban in check. But NATO combat operations against the Taliban ended last year, and the Afghan security forces have proven unable to cope with the threat. Many of you will recognize the multi-million dollar astroturf soccer field constructed in 2011 inside the 'boardwalk' at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Base Kandahar.
#1
If combat operations ended last year then I would consider the war was considered over. Sounds like they just retaking what they had before. This is what all those ROEs get ya.
Posted by: chris ||
12/22/2015 8:15
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#2
It's just our new allies the "Moderate Tollybon™"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2015 8:47
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#3
..sort of like the 'Moderate Gangs' in the Chicago neighborhoods. Same strategy from the same pols.
[Huffpoo] People Are Waking Up to the Darkness in American Policing, and the Police Don't Like It One Bit.
If you've been listening to various police agencies and their supporters, then you know what the future holds: anarchy is coming -- and it's all the fault of activists.
In May, a Wall Street Journal op-ed warned of a "new nationwide crime wave" thanks to "intense agitation against American police departments" over the previous year. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie went further. Talking recently with the host of CBS's Face the Nation, the Republican presidential hopeful asserted that the Black Lives Matter movement wasn't about reform but something far more sinister. "They've been chanting in the streets for the murder of police officers," he insisted. Even the nation's top cop, FBI Director James Comey, weighed in at the University of Chicago Law School, speaking of "a chill wind that has blown through American law enforcement over the last year."
According to these figures and others like them, lawlessness has been sweeping the nation as the so-called Ferguson effect spreads. Criminals have been emboldened as police officers are forced to think twice about doing their jobs for fear of the infamy of starring in the next viral video. The police have supposedly become the targets of assassins intoxicated by "anti-cop rhetoric," just as departments are being stripped of the kind of high-powered equipment they need to protect officers and communities. Even their funding streams have, it's claimed, come under attack as anti-cop bias has infected Washington, D.C. Senator Ted Cruz caught the spirit of that critique by convening a Senate subcommittee hearing to which he gave the title, "The War on Police: How the Federal Government Undermines State and Local Law Enforcement." According to him, the federal government, including the president and attorney general, has been vilifying the police, who are now being treated as if they, not the criminals, were the enemy.
Ok, so now mash the fwd button.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket returned to flight Monday, on a mission for communications firm Orbcomm which also resulted in the first return of the vehicle's first stage to the launch site. Flying in a new "Full Thrust" configuration, the rocket depart Cape Canaveral at 20:29 Eastern time (01:29 UTC on Tuesday) with the first stage touching down 10 minutes later. The first stage is estimated to cost SpaceX in the neighborhood of $30,000,000 to build so reuse could be a massive cost savings. They have been quoted as saying the 2nd stage costs between $3-5 mil, and the fuel $128K-$700K depending on market prices. They have suggested that eventually a rocket with a previously flown core might sell launches as low as $11 million. This compares to $67mil for a current F9 or $120-160 million for an Atlas 5 launch from ULA. Access to space might get much cheaper!
The Orbcomm launch, which follows a similar mission last July, saw the Falcon 9 fly for the first time since June's failure which claimed the CRS-7 Dragon spacecraft that had been bound for the International Space Station.
The launch also marked the first flight of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust, internally known only as the "Upgraded Falcon 9âł -- which introduces upgrades that will increase the vehicle's capacity and increase the number of missions on which first stage recovery attempts will be possible.
The payload for this RTF mission consisted of eleven Orbcomm Generation 2 (OG2) satellites.
#1
hmm embed worked in the preview. It shows a chopper view of the landing. You can see it and other videos of the landing on
https://twitter.com/SpaceX
[AnNahar] A child jacket wallah detonated his explosives, killing himself, two other bombers and six people in Nigeria's northeast, in the latest bloodshed blamed on 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... Islamist group, the army said on Monday.
The attack in Beninsheikh in Borno state happened around 8.30 pm on Sunday when three suspected suicide bombers aged between 10 and 15 years, were stopped for security screening by civilian vigilantes in the area, Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement.
He said one of the bombers, who was strapped with explosives, detonated the bomb, causing the "death of nine people while 24 others sustained various degrees of injuries."
Usman said the three suicide bombers were among the dead.
"The security and emergency management agents have mobilized to the scene. The bodies have been evacuated and all those injured are receiving medical attention," he said.
Suicide bombings -- many by young boys and girls -- have fast become Boko Haram's preferred method of inflicting civilian casualties since it control of captured territory to a renewed military offensive by the military in recent months.
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12/22/2015
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[AlAhram] Russia will start constructing two nuclear reactors in Iran next week, as Tehran seeks to reduce its reliance on oil and gas with 20 facilities over the coming years, an official said Tuesday.
The start of construction follows a historic deal between Iran and world powers in July that ends a decade-long standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme.
And it comes a year after Tehran signed a contract with Moscow to construct two reactors at the existing Russian-built Bushehr power plant.
A series of agreements signed between the two countries last year foresees eventually increasing the total number of Russian-built reactors in the country to nine.
Work on the two facilities "will commence next week," state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
's website quoted atomic energy agency front man Behrouz Kamalvandi as saying.
Iran plans to build 20 more nuclear plants in the future, including four in Bushehr.
The accord does not limit Iran's development of civilian nuclear sites.
The two reactors will be financed by Iran, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom, said last year.
The two countries are allied in supporting Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... against opposition and jihadist groups, mainly 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.... group.
And they plan to boost trade volume, as they signed several joint development documents last month during 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... 's first visit to Iran in eight years.
On Monday, Iran's Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade, Mohammad Reza Nematzade, and his Russian counterpart, Denis Manturov, opened an industrial exhibition in Tehran.
The three-day fair by Russian industrial holding Rostec State Corp, along with hundreds of business leaders, aims to introduce Russian industries to Iran, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
's website reported.
Rostec owns 700 enterprises, organised into 14 holding companies, and nine of which are focused on the military.
Russia is "not afraid" of Western economic delegations trying to dominate Iranian markets after the lifting of sanctions, a Rostec official said Tuesday.
"Everyone is waiting for the sanctions to be lifted and every one wants to be the first" to enter Iran, international cooperation department chief Victor Kladov told AFP.
"We are afraid of nothing; we are certain of the quality of our products," he said.
"Iran and Russia have a long history, and we are trusted partners for each other," he added.
Fields of cooperation included transport, the auto industry, aviation, metallurgy, petrochemicals, oil and ship building.
Iranian engineers were examining the Sukhoi Superjet 100, in which the Russians travelled, Kladov said.
"As we are talking here Iranian technical specialists are examining it at the airport and they are flying over Tehran" to test it, Kladov said.
"If we can technically satisfy" Iran, a possible number "around 100 aircraft" would be sold to Iran, he added.
Rostec Helicopters was also in talks with Iran to sell new Russian medical helicopters. Rostec will also repair and upgrade a fleet of 50 Russian helicopters now operating in Iran.
Iran is to become a central maintenance centre in the region that services Russian-made aircraft from neighbouring countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, he added.
Apparently a different attack than the one reported two articles down, but both were published on December 21.
[AlAhram] Somali Islamist forces of Evil sprayed a Kenyan bus with bullets on Monday, killing two people, but a passenger said he and fellow Muslims defied demands from the attackers to help identify Christians travelling with them.
The attack took place in Mandera, in northeast Kenya. A year ago, al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... gunnies stormed a Nairobi-bound bus in the same area and killed 28 non-Muslim passengers execution-style.
Abdi Mohamud Abdi, a Muslim who was among the passengers in Monday's incident, told Rooters that more than 10 al-Shabaab forces of Evil boarded the bus and ordered the Muslim passengers to split away from the Christians, but they refused.
"We even gave some non-Muslims our religious attire to wear in the bus so that they would not be identified easily. We stuck together tightly," he said.
"The forces of Evil threatened to shoot us but we still refused and protected our brothers and sisters. Finally they gave up and left but warned that they would be back," he said.
In previous attacks, al-Shabaab has often killed both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Julius Otieno, the deputy county commissioner, confirmed the account, saying that the forces of Evil "were trying to identify who were Muslims and who were not," and that the Muslim passengers had refused to help.
The forces of Evil then expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, both men said.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab's military front man, said the group had fired shots at the bus.
"Some of the Christian enemies died and others were maimed," he told Rooters in a statement. The forces of Evil did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the role of Muslim bus passengers during the attack.
The 2014 bus attack shocked Kenya and led to a shake-up of security ministers. Since then, buses carrying passengers from Mandera have been given police escorts, but Kenya Police front man Charles Owino said that had not happened in this case because the bus had bypassed a police roadblock.
Owino said that in addition to the two deaths, four people were maimed.
Al-Shabaab has said it will continue its attacks on Kenya until Nairobi withdraws troops from an 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... force fighting the forces of Evil in Somalia. It has also said northeastern Kenya should be part of Somalia.
[AnNahar] Rocket and mortar fire into several regime-controlled areas of Syria killed six civilians and maimed several more on Monday, the SANA state news agency reported.
"Terrorists who call themselves Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... (Army of Islam) this morning fired a mortar round into the residential district of Barzeh (north of Damascus), killing one civilian and wounding nine people," it said, citing police.
Rebels battling Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... 's regime often shell the capital from the suburb of Eastern Ghouta.
SANA also said that in second city Aleppo in the north, "rockets fired by forces of Evil hit a residential district, killing three girls and wounding another two."
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the dead were "sisters aged between 16 and 19."
The Observatory, which has an extensive network of informants inside Syria, also said several people were maimed by rocket fire on the regime-controlled Aleppo neighborhood of Hamdaniyeh.
Syria's former economic powerhouse has been ravaged by war since 2012. It is split between the government-held west and hard boy-controlled east.
Aleppo province itself is almost entirely under the control of Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front, jihadist forces allied to it and 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.... jihadist group.
Elsewhere, SANA said, "forces of Evil targeted the town of Suqaylabiyah (northwest of the central city of Hama) with rockets, causing the death of two civilians and wounding eight, including a child."
The Observatory reported "25 maimed" in the Christian-majority region.
[DAWN] MANY people in Pakistain, seething at Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US, are rightly upset. In the same vein, those few who point out similar discriminatory practices against the Ahmadi community right here in Pakistain are also rightly upset. When the few were bold enough to make their grievance public, the state apparatus surprisingly took action. They proceeded to remove a hate-filled sticker in a commercial establishment and tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! the person who'd put it up.
In response, the many erupted into the streets to 'protect' their right to discriminate. They've now decided to escalate matters by asking the state to distinguish 'real' believers from 'fake' ones using ID cards (and maybe down the line, they'll force them to wear hats and badges). They've put up a few hundred more stickers and many new banners asking for everyone to discriminate against a particular community. The many say it's an obligation. This difference in numbers between the few and the many is one of the principle ideological chasms this country struggles with on a regular basis.
Continued on Page 49
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An employee working at the central bank of Somalia has been killed by suspected Al shabaab Gunmen in the capital, Mogadishu, witness said on Monday. Two pistol-wielding assailants shot and killed the officer who was identified as Abdullahi Mumin as he was walking out of his house at Nasteho nighbourhood in Wadajir district.
A witness confirmed to Radio Shabelle the assassination of the Somali central bank’s member of staff in Mogadishu, saying that the killers escaped before police arrived the scene of the shooting and cordoned it off.
Wadajir district has been the scene of frequent Al shabaab attacks that killed many Govt workers and security force members in the past few weeks.
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[DAWN] Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... said on Sunday that the current Indian government under Narendra Modi acts as if it is a regional superpower.
"Modi's India acts as if they are a regional superpower, we are a nuclear-armed country and we know how to defend ourselves," said Aziz.
"We also have evidence of Indian agency RAW's involvement in fuelling terrorism in Pakistain," added Aziz.
He also said that while Pakistain has evidence of Indian involvement in terrorism, India on the other hand only has propaganda against Pakistain.
"Propaganda against Pakistain is more important for the Indians, rather than giving us evidence," stated the adviser to the premier.
Sartaj Aziz also said that India wants normalisation on their own terms, they would like to talk about trade and connectivity but not much else.
He remarked, "If Kashmire is not an issue for India, why have stationed 700,000 troops in Indian-occupied Kashmire?"
The adviser to the premier also stated that India should hold a referendum in occupied Kashmire, and the people would decide their own fate.
"India should realise after the current episode that their tactics are not working, and they need to be sincere about dialogue with Pakistain," added Aziz.
Yesterday, the government decided to cancel the planned meeting of national security advisers with India, citing New Delhi's refusal to allow an expanded agenda and a meeting with Kashmiri leaders.
The Indian external affairs ministry immediately termed the decision "unfortunate" and tried to wash its hands of the controversy that led to the cancellation of the meeting by saying that it "did not set any preconditions".
The decision was announced after Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj virtually set a deadline for Pakistain to decide by midnight if it was ready to go ahead with the talks by agreeing not to meet the Kashmiri leaders and restricting the discussion to terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
AFAIC Mr. Aziz must mean OWG "Co-Superpower".
Safe to say that, as per the Artic, that PAKISTAN DEEMS ITSELF ALSO AS A SUPERPOWER = CO-SUPERPOWER WANNABE LIKE RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN [India?].
* WAFF > US ENGAGED WID PAKISTAN ON TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS: OLSON.
Richard Olson, US SpecRep for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Again, IMO 1980's Iran-vs-Iraq "War of the Cities/Scuds" has now devol into the Saudi-vs-Houthi "War of the Shorties" [SRBMS, SR SSMS] in Yemen. EXPANSION OF SAME OUSTADIE OF YEMEN QUITE POSSIBLE AT THE RATE THE SAUDIS + HOUTHIS ARE GOING AT EACH OTHER.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Quartz.com] PAKISTAN'S ARMY IS BUILDING AN ARSENAL OF "TINY" NUCLEAR WEAPONS - AND ITS GOING TO BACKFIRE.
"Micro" or "Nano" Nukes = GOOD FOR THE GLOBAL JIHAD???
D *** NG IT, PAKISTAN CAN'T DO THAT, THATS NORTH KOREA'S = PUDGY'S JOB!
Of course you know this means war between Pakistan + Pudgy, but first some Spicy Menudo.
[ALMANAR.LB] Energy-rich Azerbaijan, whose economy has been hit hard by falling oil prices, withdrew support Monday for its embattled currency and the manat plunged by nearly a third against the dollar.
The manat's plummet spurred jitters, with major retailers halting business in the ex-Soviet country and anxious consumers fearing for their future.
"The central bank took the decision to switch to a floating exchange rate for the national currency as of December 21," the regulator said in a statement.
It said the decision was taken because "falling oil prices and the continuing devaluation of partner countries' currencies has begun to negatively affect the Azerbaijani economy."
The manat was trading at 1.55 against the dollar on Monday, down 32.3 percent from Friday.
The country's central bank has spent more than half of its foreign currency reserves -- which it said had reached "critical levels" -- to support the manat, in free fall since the beginning of the year.
"I expect the manat to further devaluate," analyst Samir Aliyev told AFP. "The era of a stable manat has ended."
"The main problem is that the national currency's collapse will inevitably lead to higher inflation rates."
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#1
There is no limit to what you can't do once the money runs out.
[AnNahar] Indonesian police said Monday they were on their highest terror alert after foiling plans for a suicide kaboom in Jakarta and arresting bully boyz linked 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.... group.
Three-day raids across Java ending Sunday saw the confiscation of kabooms, an IS-inspired flag and nine arrests.
Several of the nabbed Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! men were allegedly linked to a planned suicide kaboom in Jakarta during the New Year celebrations, according to documents seized in the raids.
A total of five suspects were arrested from a cell linked to the Islamic State, and four more from a cell linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network behind several major assaults in Indonesia.
The gunnies were targeting shopping malls, cop shoppes and minority groups across the country, the national police chief said.
According to documents seized in the raids, police claim the two cells were identifying attack sites in Jakarta as well as West Java, Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo.
"We are taking preventive actions. We are implementing the highest alert," said police chief Badrodin Haiti.
"There are several things that (these groups) can do, like bombing or other violent acts such as shootings, burning, or unarmed attacks," he added.
Other security officials said nearly 150,000 police and military officers would be dispatched to guard important sites between December 24 and January 2, when police would be extra vigilant.
Haiti confirmed that the Australian Federal Police, the FBI and Singaporean authorities had assisted with uncovering the alleged terror plots.
The increased security comes as senior ministers from Australia and Indonesia agreed to boost intelligence sharing, including on terrorism financing, following bilateral talks in both Sydney and Jakarta.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, suffered several major kabooms by Islamic bully boyz between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
But a crackdown has weakened the most dangerous turban networks.
However the emergence of IS has sparked alarm that Indonesians returning from battlefields in the Middle East could revive them.
Indonesian police in August arrested three people with links to the IS group who were planning to launch kabooms during celebrations to mark the country's independence.
#1
AUSTRALIA = is repor warning that the ISIS/ISIL is recruiting and eyeing Indonesia as its new "Distant/Provincial Caliphate".
* See RELATED YAHOO NEWS > ISIS GOES GLOBAL: ISIL SPREADS TO INDONESIA.
* BREAKINGNEWS [Repost = Old] > AT LEAST 50,000 MALAYSIANS SYMPATHIZE WID ISIS, COUNTRY'S TRANSPORT MINSTER SAYS.
* TOPIX > [Washington Times] ISLAMIC STATE TARGETS BALKANS AS NEXT RECRUITMENT HOTSPOT.
* SAME > [Fox News] NEW ISIS OFFSHOOT GROUP GROWING IN AFGHANISTAN.
* RELATED GUAM DAILY POST [ex-Guam Variety] > ISLAMIC STTAE RADIO SEEKS NEW RECRUITS IN AFGHANISTAN.
FYI the ISIS/ISIL is also repor recruiting in INDIA, MYANMAR, + BANGLADESH.
VERSUS
* SPUTNIK NEWS > US MUSLIM RIGHTS GROUP USCMO = US Council of Muslim Organizations] URGES [1.0 Milyuhn] MUSLIMS TO REGISTER FOR 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL VOTE.
Looks like it won't be just the [Anti-Trump]HISPANICS that will be asserting their vote this coming November 2016???
* TOPIX > [Daily Mirror.UK] WW3 WILL BE A CYBER WAR [Information, Propanganda, + Marketing War], AND ISIS COULD WIN, WARNS CONTROVERSIAL EXPERT JOHN MCCAFEE.
* LUCIANNE > [Mediaite] GOP REP ON FOX: ISIS IS AN "EXISTENTIAL" THREAT TO US, BUT SO ALSO MIGHT OBAMA!?
[DAWN] GHALANAI: Three people, among them a security man, were killed and three personnel injured when two roadside improvised bombs went off in Baizai, some 25km west of Ghalanai area of Mohmand tribal region, on Monday.
Local officials said that Naib Subedar Naseer Khan and a taxi driver bit the dust in the first kaboom while the second blast left a civilian dead and three security personnel injured.
The injured, one of them identified as Lt Col Taimur, were airlifted to hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), 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. Officials said that security personnel were patrolling an area near Atam village in Baizai tehsil along the Afghan border when the blasts occurred.
After the incident security forces cordoned off the area and started search operation but no arrest was reported till late night.
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[DAWN] FRANKFURT: Police locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a Swiss national at Vienna airport, suspected of money laundering and tax evasion in connection with the trading of carbon emissions certificates, German prosecutors said on Monday.
Two suspects are being remanded in jug, and a warrant is out for two Pak nationals who may have returned to Pakistain, the Frankfurt attorney general said.
The move is part of an investigation relating to the so-called carousel trades made in 2009 and 2010, in which buyers imported emissions permits in one European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... country without paying value-added tax (VAT) and then sold them to each other, adding VAT to the price and generating tax refunds when no tax had been paid.
The 55-year-old Swiss man, whom Austrian police detained on his way from Zurich to Vienna on Wednesday, is suspected of having been a member of a gang making such trades and having evaded payment of taxes worth 125 million euros, the attorney general said in a statement.
"The accused is suspected of having been responsible for setting up and controlling an extremely complex international network of bank accounts with several companies (among others in Panama), which the gang members used for tax evasion," it said.
The statement said 10 people had been sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years and nine months to almost eight years for their involvement in carbon trading ... trading imaginary climate benefits for real dollars... scandals, which European police agency Europol has estimated cost EU governments more than 5 billion euros in lost revenues.
Also, Frankfurt prosecutors in August indicted seven current and one former employee of Deutsche Bank in connection with its carbon fraud investigations.
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[NYTIMES] President Obama said in a radio interview airing on Monday that Donald J. Trump, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, is exploiting the resentment and anxieties of working-class men to boost his campaign. Mr. Obama also argued that some of the scorn directed at him personally stems from the fact that he is the first African-American to hold the White House.
Demographic changes and economic stresses, including “flat-lining” wages and incomes, have meant that “particularly blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they are no longer getting the same bargain that they got when they were going to a factory and able to support their families on a single paycheck,” Mr. Obama said in the interview with National Public Radio.
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#1
Was he complaining that Donnie was taking a page from his play book?
#2
Blue collar folks despise a man that never held a real job, never worked with his hands, is an abject failure affirmative action know nothing screwing up our insurance and economy. My kids are stuck with working thirty hour work weeks and existing on my insurance thanks to this failure.
#3
exploiting the resentment and anxieties of working-class men to boost his campaign
Isn't that the point of the campaign, to hear the pain of the people? BO is grumbling because he/they never listened to real problems of the workers.
#4
Remind me again who killed the full time job in order to shove people onto the Obamacare plantation? And even with all that careful planning it really didn't work? Everything he touches turns to $hit.
#8
“That’s not to suggest that everybody who objects to my policies may not have perfectly good reasons for it,” the president added. He noted, as an example, that voters living in coal-dependent areas may blame him for the loss of their jobs.
I'm not sure if the NYT was going for subtlety, or was unintentionally ironic.
[IsraelTimes] 15-year-old was detained two weeks ago, but released when she claimed the blade was for home use, police say
Police officers in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem Old City on Monday tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! an East Jerusalem teenage girl found in possession of a knife, on suspicion she was planning to carry out a stabbing attack. This was the second time in two weeks the 15-year-old were tossed into the calaboose for carrying a knife, the police said in a statement.
The teenager "raised the suspicions" of coppers in the Jewish Quarter, who called for her to halt. The police initially reported that the knife had been found in the 15-year-old's purse, but later clarified that it had, in fact, been hidden in her sleeve. As a result, they brought the teen in for questioning.
When officers checked the girl's information, they found that she had been arrested two weeks before, under the same suspicion. The girl, who was not named, was released a few days after her first arrest, when she claimed the knife in her bag was purchased for use in her family's home. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... police now believe that she was preparing to attack Jewish Israelis.
"The way she took out the knife today -- and other pieces of information that have been collected -- increase the suspicion, and it appears as though the officers prevented the injury of innocent civilians today, thanks to their awareness and sensitivity to aberrations," the Israel Police said in a statement Monday evening.
Jerusalem's Old City has been a frequent site of stabbing attacks in the ongoing cycle of violence, with many attacks taking place at Damascus Gate.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli soldiers placed in durance vile Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! a Paleostinian woman after she brandished a knife while being checked at an army post in Hebron, the IDF said Monday. The woman was ordered to drop her weapon and complied, according to the army.
[IsraelTimes] The Shin Bet security service announces that it has uncovered an "infrastructure" of Israeli citizens in Jerusalem's Ras al-Amud neighborhood who were involved in "grassroots terrorism." In all, five have been locked away Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! and linked to the group, which the Shin Bet alleges was involved in rock- and Molotov cocktail-throwing attacks at Israeli civilians and security forces. Two of the arrestees are minors, the Shin Bet says in a statement.
In one case, on September 17, two minors from the group torched a bus in Ras al-Amud.
"The interrogations also revealed that during riots in the neighborhood, the activists would block the road with garbage cans and cut off the power, in order to draw in police forces and then attack them with Molotov cocktails," the statement says.
The five have been indicted for a string of alleged offenses, the statement says, noting that further indictments are in the offing for additional alleged members of the group.
[AnNahar] Nigerian troops have killed 12 Boko Haram fighters and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from the hardline Islamist group whose six-year insurgency has claimed thousands of lives, a military spokesman said.
"As part of their determined efforts to rid the society of all known Boko Haram terrorists enclaves and hideouts, troops... conducted a fighting patrol along Damboa-Njaba-Bale road in Borno state" in the northeast of the country, Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement late Sunday.
He said the soldiers "killed three suspected Boko Haram terrorists (who) had been terrorizing the communities around Sabon Gari and Damboa," on Sunday.
"Among those killed was the Boko Haram terrorist Ameer (leader) in Bulayaga," he said.
Usman said a cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the jihadists.
He said a second encounter with the insurgents in Mainari village also on Sunday "led to the killing of nine terrorists and recovery of weapons which include four AK-47s and one pump action gun."
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[DAWN] KARACHI: A suspected robber was beaten to death by an angry mob in Korangi area of 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... on Monday, police said.
An enraged mob got hold of a 'burqa-clad' couple who were escaping after staging an alleged robbery attempt at a beauty parlour in Korangi number 4 area of the metropolis.
The man, later identified as Mohsin Raza, 25, was severely tortured by mob before police took him to the hospital, where he departed this vale of tears, Korangi SHO told media.
The police officer said that the man breathed his last at Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) while his wife was rescued by the police. A pistol was recovered from the female suspect's purse.
Back in August, a suspected robber-cum-murderer, Gul Badshah, was killed in New Karachi in a similar way.
The police had said that the suspected robber along with his accomplice had tried to deprive one Hafeez Haq of cash and valuables in sector 5-M of New Karachi. When Haq offered resistance, the duo opened fire, killing him on the spot.
The incident infuriated the area people who caught one of the robbers and beat him to death while his accomplice fled, the police said.
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[ALMANAR.LB] Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... said on Monday that the Saudi-led coalition which has been launching an aggression against 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... carried out unlawful Arclight airstrikes in residential areas in Sanaa, causing civilian deaths.
The New York-based organization also slammed the coalition members and the United States, saying they were "required under the laws of war to investigate such attacks, but they have not."
"Human Rights Watch found no evidence of any military target in an Arclight airstrike on the Old City and on al-Asbahi neighborhood in September," HRW said in an article on its website on Monday.Destruction in Yemen
"Airstrikes that caused civilian casualties on homes on Marib Street and in the neighborhoods of Hadda, al-Hassaba, and Thabwa hit 200 meters or more from possible military objectives. These attacks failed to distinguish civilians from military objectives or caused disproportionate civilian loss."
The organization quoted Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director as asking: "How many civilians will die in unlawful Arclight airstrikes in Yemen before the coalition and its US ally investigate what went wrong and who is responsible.
"Their disregard for the safety of civilians is appalling."
One coalition attack struck a house in Sanaa's Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on the night of September 13, killing 18 civilians and wounding many others, HRW said.
According to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , most of the 2,500 civilian deaths, since the coalition began its military campaign in late March, have been from coalition Arclight airstrikes.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy... Human Rights Watch said it was unaware of any investigations by Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... or other members of the nine-nation coalition into these or other allegedly unlawful strikes, or of any compensation for victims.
"The US, by coordinating and directly assisting coalition military operations, is a party to the conflict and as such is obligated to investigate allegedly unlawful attacks in which it took part."
The coalition has repeatedly used aerial bombs with wide-area effect in populated areas, creating the likelihood of civilian casualties even when a military target is hit, Human Rights Watch said.
The attacks Human Rights Watch documented used large air-dropped bombs, weighing from 250 kilograms to as much as 1,000 kilograms. These would have blast, thermal, and fragmentation effects in a radius of dozens or hundreds of meters of impact.
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#1
"William Tecumseh Sherman to the courtesy phone..."
[ALMANAR.LB] The leaders of 24 Libyan municipalities on Monday signed the UN-sponsored agreement on the formation of a national unity government, in a move welcomed by UN envoy Martin Kobler.
"I'm very happy there are 24 signatures of the Libyan political agreement by mayors. This is a good sign," Kobler told news hounds after a meeting at Gammarth in Tunisia.
Lawmakers from Libya's two rival parliaments, as well as other political figures, last Thursday in Morocco signed a deal on a unity government despite opposition on both sides.
The signing went ahead despite a warning from the heads of the parliaments that the deal has no legitimacy and the politicians signing the agreement represented only themselves.
The heads of the two bodies instead back an alternative inter-Libyan accord signed early this month in Tunis.
On Thursday, Kobler acknowledged that much remained to be done to end the turmoil in Libya that has allowed turbans and people-smugglers to flourish since the fall of dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years until his people get tired of him and kill him... in 2011.
He called the signing ceremony "just the beginning of a long journey for Libya".
"It's very important that municipalities become part of the Libyan political agreement which was signed in Skhirat three days ago," Kobler said on Monday, emphasizing the provision of basic services.
Municipal signatories included the cities of Sabratha near 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... , Zintan to the west, Al-Baida in the northeast but also Misrata, an AFP journalist said.
The core of Fajr Libya, a coalition of Death Eater militias that backs the non-recognized parliament in Tripoli, is in Misrata some 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of the capital.
"People need clean water and need electricity and a strong government can deliver this," Kobler said.
"That's why I asked the mayors to go back to their municipalities and to tell their people to support the agreement in order to have electricity, to have water, to have functional hospitals and schools."
He also stressed that the door remained open for others to sign the agreement.
In an interview with AFP on Sunday, Kobler said his team is in contact with security officials in Tripoli to ensure that the new unity government can operate safely from the capital.
"We hope to have an agreement with everybody -- the regular army, the regular police but also militias," he said.
Kobler told AFP that the UN Security Council would vote on a resolution to recognize the new government as "the sole legitimate authority" in Libya.
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[NBCNEWS] A woman with a toddler in her car repeatedly plowed into pedestrians on the crowded Las Vegas Strip on Sunday night, killing one person and injuring dozens more in what police say may have been an intentional assault. But they simply refused to get out of my way !
Las Vegas Deputy Police Chief Brett Zimmerman said the incident was "not an act of terrorism" but appeared to be intentional. He said homicide units were investigating.
Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo on Monday identified the suspect as Lakeisha Holloway, 24. She is originally from Oregon, Lombardo said, but he added that authorities were "having difficulty obtaining her background."
The Las Vegas district attorney said Holloway will be charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon. Authorities are also considering charges of charges of child abuse and neglect, as well as attempted murder, he said.
Holloway had been in Las Vegas for a week as a homeless person, Lombardo told news hounds Monday. The unidentified 3-year-old child who was in her car was not hurt in the crash and was taken to a county emergency shelter.
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#1
What are we to think when the Sheriff says he is "uncomfortable" discussing motive? Why has the coverage been so relatively brief?
[DAWN] The Supreme Court has regretted that by raising arguments on the merit of the case and the sentence already confirmed, an attempt was made to re-argue the entire case on a review petition by the counsel representing Malik Mohammad Mumtaz Qadri, an Elite Force commando who had assassinated former Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... governor Salman Taseer for allegedly committing blasphemy.
"A review is surely not a rehearing of the main case and all contentions have already been attended to in the Oct 7 judgment under review in some detail," the apex court said in a five-page detailed judgment explaining why its three-judge bench had on Dec 14 rejected the review petition filed by Mumtaz Qadri through his counsel Mian Nazir Akhtar.
"No error patent on the face of the record was pointed out by Qadri's counsel against the Oct 7 judgment," said the verdict, authored by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who headed the bench which had dismissed the review petition.
Mumtaz Qadri, who is undergoing a jail term in Rawalpindi's Adiyala jail, was convicted of killing Salman Taseer at a market in Islamabad on Jan 4, 2011.
On Oct 7, the Supreme Court had accepted the federal government's appeal seeking restoration of the Oct 1, 2011, capital sentence handed down by an anti-terrorism court and partial overturning of the Islamabad High Court's March 9 endorsement of Qadri's plea to annul Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, though the high court had upheld the death sentence under the Pakistain Penal Code.
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[ALMANAR.LB] Police in Pakistain's port city of 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... said Monday they were hunting a network of women from well-off families acting as fundraisers for the ISIL group, highlighting its growing appeal among the country's middle classes.
Raja Umar Khattab, chief of the Counter Terrorism Department of Sindh province, said the hunt was launched after police placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... the suspected financier of a gun attack on a bus that left 44 people dead in May.
The attack on the bus was the first inside Pakistain officially claimed by ISIL, which has proclaimed a "caliphate" over territory it has seized in Iraq and Syria and is seeking to expand its global reach.
Khattab said the suspect, whom he named as Adil Masood Butt and who was arrested last week, confessed to police that his wife had established a religious organization in the city called 'Al Zikra Academy'.
"The academy has no organizational structure or offices," Khattab told AFP.
"A group of 20 women, all from well-off families, distributed USBs (computer memory sticks) containing ISIL videos, and also preached in support of terror organizations. They also arranged marriages among the group's followers," he added.
He said the group collected funds for snuffies in the name of "Islamic" charity which were later handed over to the accused.
"The wife and mother-in-law of the main suspect of the carnage, Saad Aziz, were also part of the network," he added.
Aziz, a graduate of one of the country's top business schools, was blamed by police for both the massacre and the shooting of peace activist Sabeen Mahmud in April. He was arrested in May.
Khattab said efforts were being made to track and arrest the women.
For over a decade Pakistain has been waging a war against homegrown krazed killer fighters that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.
The fighting has been led mainly by Al-Qaeda, the Pak Taliban and its affiliates, though there are signs that the appeal of ISIL is growing among the affluent and educated classes who are motivated more by the idea of global jihad than local causes.
Islamabad denies ISIL is a major threat, though the police chief of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, told a parliamentary standing committee in October that ISIL was behind the bus attack and that 14 people had been arrested for alleged links to the group.
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[ALMANAR.LB] Ceasefire 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... will be extended for seven days after it officially expires Monday, the head of the ousted government negotiation team said Sunday at UN-brokered talks in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... "The truce will be extended for seven more days and will then be automatically extended if it is respected by the other party," Foreign Minister in the exiled government, Abdel Malak al-Mekhlafi, told news hounds in Bern, referring to the Yemeni army and the popular committees who are confronting the Saudi-led aggression against the Arab impoverished country.
The decision, at the request of runaway president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, was communicated to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... , Mekhlafi said, noting that its automatic renewal had been part of the army and the committees' commitment to respect Security Council Resolution 2216.
The resolution, adopted in April, calls on the revolutionary committees allies, to withdraw from territory captured last year including the capital Sanaa, and to lay down their weapons.
Mekhlafi also called for the release of five prisoners held by the revolutionaries including ousted Defense Minister Major-General Mahmoud al-Subaihi.
The revolutionaries cleansed Sanaa on September 2014 from al-Qaeda-linked bandidosturbans who swept the capital, covered by Hadi's militiamen. The 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... s have since that time carried several suicide kabooms across Yemen, especially in Sanaa, targeting Mosques and popular markets.
Yemen has been since March 26 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition.
Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.
Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to runaway Hadi who is a close ally to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... Yemeni army, backed by the committees has been responding to the aggression by targeting several Saudi border military posts and cleansing several areas across the country, especially the country's south, from Hadi and al-Qaeda-linked militias.
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[DAWN] IN a set of regrettable remarks, the PTI chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... has threatened owners of the lands that surround his university project with forcible seizure of their properties if they don't consent to sell their lands at the price being offered to them. Apparently, the PTI chief wishes to build a stadium for Namal University in Mianwali on land that is adjacent to the campus; but the farmers who own the land have been refusing to sell it at the rates that are being offered to them. Although Mr Khan may not have the means to act on his warning, even to talk of forcible seizure is reprehensible to say the least. He threatened to invoke Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act once his party came into power, which he seems to believe is inevitable.
Ouch.
Though his party's steep losses in the recent LG polls would appear to belie his belief at this point, given that politics is a game of fluctuating fortunes, the PTI could do much better in the next general elections. This is one reason why a more mature attitude befitting a leader of a major political party should have been in evidence. Instead, his remarks were disappointing and revealed a dictatorial mindset, which can hardly prove a boon for Pakistain's democracy. True, there are others in the political pantheon that may also harbour what can be called a feudal mindset. Pakistain has seen several such politicians whose arrogance and determination to persecute those with differing views have proved to be costly mistakes. Perhaps, appreciating this, and also as a consequence of being censured routinely by a society more informed about its rights than it was previously, many politicians have seen the wisdom in being moderate in their approach, at least in their interactions with the public. It is hoped that Mr Khan, too, will see the wisdom in adopting a less belligerent tone.
But Mr. Khan doesn't do wisdom. He does beloved football star.
He must revise his opinion if he thinks that private ventures are automatically synonymous with the public good, and that putting pressure to achieve what he believes is a noble goal is justified. It is about time he understood both sides of the picture and refrained from pushing a personal agenda. In any case, Mr Khan needs to realise that his remarks were hardly those that one associates with national leaders of stature and that the land and people of Pakistain are not there to serve his private interests.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Six American troops were killed Monday in a suicide car bombing near the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, officials said. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the bombing near Bagram Airfield in northern Afghanistan, saying in a statement that their target was a joint Afghan-NATO security patrol.
“We’re deeply saddened by this loss,” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Wilson A. Shoffner, spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition, said in a statement. “Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families and friends of those affected in this tragic incident, especially during this holiday season.”
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a statement that six U.S. service members died and two other service members and a contractor were injured in the attack.
“It serves as a painful reminder of the dangers our troops face every day in Afghanistan,” Carter said. “As I saw firsthand during my visit to Afghanistan last Friday, our troops are working diligently alongside our Afghan partners to build a brighter future for the Afghan people. Their dedicated efforts will continue despite this tragic event.”
A member of the provincial council of Parwan, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said at least three members of the Afghan National Police were injured.
Bagram Airfield is home to one of the largest contingents of the remaining 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. About 5,000 U.S. troops are based at Bagram Airfield, a vast military installation where F-16 fighter jets, armed drones, and cargo planes fly on daily missions. U.S. troops still accompany Afghan forces on security patrols around the base to guard against Taliban and other militant groups.
Pentagon records show 16 U.S. troops and one civilian have died in Afghanistan this year, and an additional 68 were wounded in action.
Margaret Sullivan will conclude her tenure as public editor of The New York Times when her four-year contract expires in eight months, she told Poynter today.
“Yes, I am headed into the home stretch of my four-year term,” she said in an email. “The role really requires an outsider’s perspective, so I’ve thought all along that having a clear time limit serves The Times and its readers best.”
Editors at The New York Times have “already begun considering who should replace her,” according to POLITICO Media, which first reported Sullivan’s pending departure.
Sullivan signed a four-year contract in 2012 to replace Art Brisbane as public editor, the paper’s in-house ombudsman. The contract came with the possibility of extending her tenure to six years, an option Sullivan has opted not to exercise.
Most public editors at The New York Times have occupied the job for two years or less. An exception is Clark Hoyt, who held the job from 2007 to 2010.
Jill Abramson said to me early on, ‘What will happen here is you’ll stick around and eventually you’ll alienate everybody, and then no one will be talking to you, and you’ll have to leave.’ I’m about three-quarters of the way there."
Sullivan normally eschews press, preferring to let the criticism on her blog speak for itself. But she offered this wry reflection on the conclusion of her tenure in a rare interview with Longform’s Max Linsky this summer:
Jill Abramson said to me early on, ‘What will happen here is you’ll stick around and eventually you’ll alienate everybody, and then no one will be talking to you, and you’ll have to leave.’ I’m about three-quarters of the way there.
Sullivan has certainly pulled no punches since taking the public editor’s job. She has been critical of several high-profile stories from The New York Times, including the paper’s exposé on New York nail salons, its deep-dive into Amazon’s workplace culture and its coverage of Hillary Clinton’s email imbroglio.
For New York Times kremlinologists, Sullivan’s blog has also proved to be a clearinghouse of news about the inner workings of The Times. In recent months, she has reported word about changes to the Times’ comments section, quoted Maureen Dowd in defense of her news-breaking column about Vice President Joe Biden and shed light on the paper’s new fact-checking practices.
At least two people have been killed in an ambush on a passenger bus in Kenya’s northeast near the border with Somalia, an official and residents said. The bus was believed to be carrying more than 50 passengers when it was attacked between Kutulo and Daba village in Mandera county early on Sunday, Mohamud Saleh, the chief administrator of Kenya’s northeastern region, said.
“The attackers tried to wave the bus down but then sprayed it with bullets when the driver refused to stop,” Saleh told Al Jazeera.
“Two people were killed and at least three people were injured in the attack. It is not yet clear who is behind the assault, but I’m not ruling out that this was a case of banditry,” he added.
In November 2014, armed group al-Shabab killed 28 Kenyan non-Muslim bus passengers in Mandera county, in what it said was revenge for Kenyan police raids on Mombasa mosques.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/22/2015
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[DAWN] TWO months after the fall of Kunduz reverberated around the region and internationally, another Afghan province is in trouble. Parts of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province are virtually under the control of the Afghan Taliban and it appears only a matter of time before a major district falls. The fighting appears to be following a familiar pattern. The Afghan state has been unable to prevent incremental gains by the Taliban, making the area vulnerable to a seemingly sudden and spectacular collapse. The reasons too appear to be familiar. Afghan cops are under-resourced and low on morale, while the assistance of the foreign fighting forces is too small to prevent a Taliban takeover. If provincial collapse or the fall of key districts does happen, the response may also look familiar: global alarm will lead to the government in Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... , with the assistance of the US, assembling a force strong enough to beat back the Taliban, at least temporarily. But Helmand is not Kunduz. It is in the heart of the Taliban-influenced south Afghanistan, and not the distant north. Helmand also shares a border with Pakistain and as such could cause fresh tensions in the Pak-Afghan relationship.
Curiously, the fighting in Helmand, and thus the continuing of the so-called fighting season deep into December, does not appear to have dampened talk of an early resumption of negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Nor does continuing uncertainty over the unity and cohesion of the Taliban appear to have impacted the insurgency; indeed, it seems to have grown only stronger and more potent. Talk and fight -- or perhaps, more accurately, fight and talk -- appears to be the new Taliban strategy, borrowed directly from the pages of the strategy that the US has been trying to get the Afghan government to implement in recent times. It must surely be worrying for the administration of President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. , and his partners and supporters inside and outside Afghanistan that the Taliban are mimicking state strategy better than the state itself is able to perform. The continuing Taliban onslaught will also likely further strain intra-administration and inter-institutional tensions in Afghanistan. One half of the national unity government is quite openly opposed to the other half's preference for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban and outreach to Pakistain. Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats grabbed for his rosco... the intelligence apparatus, even after the recent resignation of the NDS chief, remains deeply suspicious of and hostile towards both the Taliban and Pakistain.
For Pakistain, the unfolding events in Helmand should be yet another reason to continue pursuing the twin approach of keeping the lines of communication with Kabul open while nudging the Taliban to the negotiating table. If Pakistain does both on a sustained basis, it may help address many of the suspicions of true state policy. The twin approach is also the right and sensible thing to do.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2015
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Good backgrounder to the Wonderful World of Intel. There really aren't all that many ways of gathering intel: open source, signals (COMINT, ELINT, etc-INT), HUMINT (agents), and PHOTINT. The different INTs confirm/deny each other. Usually the people expressing the loudest opinions are the ones who know the least about it. That fact that we have seventeen or so different bureaucracies is a disgrace.
#1
This reality applies even more in the struggle against ISIS, which would like nothing better than to catch American spies whom they can decapitate, or perhaps set on fire in a cage, for YouTube. Commandos from the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command, in tandem with the DO’s Special Activities Division (which is composed mostly of former military special operators), have regularly deployed in the Middle East against ISIS, but they’re not under cover in any meaningful sense, neither are they big-picture intelligence collectors.
Flag down - Operators probably have a much better grasp of the "big picture" and the reality of terrorism and intelligence collection than some politically motivated Federal bureaucrat at Main or Foggy Bottom...or the author if this POS.
John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he's also been a Navy officer and a War College professor. He's published four books and is on Twitter at @20committee.
Safely out of uniform, gov't service, and the requirement to pass a poly, putting others at risk by discussing 'sources and methods' appears to ok.... as long as his articles and book sales produce revenue.
Apologies to Pollard and the Rosenbergs may be in order.
#4
The lack of classifications markings does not negate the doctrine of 'need to know.' This fellow is writing about sources and methods from an insider's perspective which probably violates the non-disclosure agreement he signed when 'Read-Off' the programs or access.
In recent months, Denmark has taken a fairly harsh stance toward refugees. In September, for example, authorities published an ad in Lebanese newspapers carrying an unmistakable message to foreigners who might think about seeking asylum: Don't come to Denmark.
Now, the country is debating another and even more extreme step: The government is considering a law that would allow authorities to confiscate jewelry from refugees entering the country. The proposal is almost certain to pass Parliament.
The law would also impact refugees already in the country. It is included in an asylum policy bill that is expected to pass Parliament in January and would be set to take effect by next February. Police authorities would be allowed to seize valuables and cash amounts they deem expensive enough.
According to the Integration Ministry, "the new rule on seizure will only apply to assets of a considerable value." Foreigners are expected to be able to "keep assets which are necessary to maintain a modest standard of living, e.g. watches and mobile phones. Furthermore, assets which have a certain personal, sentimental value to a foreigner will not, as a main rule, be seized unless they have [considerable] value."
For example, Fatima's wedding ring...
There were discrepancies in how the two main political parties are interpreting the proposed law. "Absurdly, the minister of justice initially explained the law on television by saying that it would apply to a hypothetical asylum seeker arriving with a suitcase full of diamonds. This prompted the Danish People’s Party to point out that items of smaller value should also be impounded," Whyte said.
He thinks there is no need for the law. "Asylum seekers generally do not arrive in Denmark with large amounts of cash and jewelry," he said.
How about guns and ammo?
The proposal "has been branded petty and cruel, and some opponents have asked whether the government would also be taking out asylum seekers' gold fillings," Whyte said. The idea of seizing jewelry from people who are fleeing has a particularly bitter connotation in Europe, where the Nazis confiscated large amounts of gold and other valuables from Jews and others.
The Danish Integration Ministry emphasized, however, that current rules already required refugees with sufficient financial means to pay for their stay themselves.
That seems fair. Public support is for those who cannot support themselves. Denmark requires the same of their own citizens.
Although the seized valuables are supposed to pay for refugee-related expenditures, the financial impact could be of less consequence. Experts say the Danish government is more interested in sending a message.
"Europe currently receives a very high number of refugees," Denmark's Integration Ministry defended the law. "Denmark does take a share. However, [too many refugees] put pressure on the Danish society and make it more difficult to ensure a successful integration of those who come to Denmark."
"Refugees who have been granted a residence permit can make full use of the free Danish school, education (including tertiary education) and health system on the same level as everyone else in Denmark," the ministry said. Denmark also provides integration procedures that run up to three years and include language as well as job training, for instance. "The aim of the Danish integration effort is to support refugees in order for them to become participating and financially independent citizens," the statement emphasized.
If you're looking to send the message that the 'refugees' should go elsewhere, anywhere else, this is a good message to send.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Ynet] The United States and its allies conducted 15 strikes against 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.... in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Monday.
In Iraq, a dozen strikes near four cities hit several Islamic State tactical units, vehicles, weapons caches, fighting positions and other targets, the Combined Joint Task Force said.
Six strikes hit near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the Islamic State stronghold in northern Iraq, and four near Ramadi, where the Iraqi military on Sunday asked civilians to leave the city before a planned offensive. The remaining two strikes in Iraq were near Bayji, the military said.
In Syria, three air strikes near Mar'a and Ayn Isa hit one tactical unit, among other targets, according to the statement.
The coalition also reported a strike near the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa on Saturday, Dec. 19, that hit five Islamic State gas and oil separation points and two crude oil collection points.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
I think we're up to a strike-surplus of 37 or so.
[Ynet] Iranian hackers breached the control system of a dam near New York City in 2013, an infiltration that raised concerns about the security of the country's infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing former and current US officials.
Two people familiar with the breach told the newspaper it occurred at the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye, New York. The small structure about 20 miles from New York City is used for flood control.
The hackers gained access to the dam through a cellular modem, the Journal said, citing an unclassified Department of Homeland Security summary of the incident that did not specify the type of infrastructure.
The dam is a 20-foot-tall concrete slab across Blind Brook, about five miles from Long Island Sound.
#1
Seems like I heard about this - or something similar - a couple of years ago. Maybe in 2013? So why would it be news again?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/22/2015 8:20
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#2
It speaks to the tremendous hammering of SCADA controlled infrastructures by nationalized or contract threat agents. Government controlled, privately operated, public water containment facilities generally use the same flow control system software, tweaked to container volume hydrology cycles. Isolated events such as this on minimally secure templated, flood control 'feeder' systems can have been used to identify opportunities for causing cascading load failures downstream, while operating within normal parameters. Northeast reservoirs are now full from heavy winter rains which typically would have been snow.
#3
Bobby, here is the link to the Wall Street Journal article. The point is that cyber attacks on industrial control systems, already a matter of concern a few years ago, have increased significantly this year despite pleas from the government that utilities and industry disconnect their equipment from the internet.
#5
And here is the link to the 2013 article I was thinking about, but it was Chinese hackers, then. Maybe they sold the hacker tech to the Mad Mullahs?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/22/2015 11:39
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[Rudaw] The US-led coalition against 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.... (ISIS) said Monday it had shut down 90 percent of the group's oil export capacity, in some 9,000 air strikes this year in Iraq and Syria.
"Coalition forces curbed ISIS capacity in the export of oil by 90 percent," coalition front man Steve Warren said in Baghdad.
"The international coalition carried out 9,000 air strikes in Iraq and Syria during 2015," he said.
As Iraqi forces gear up for an major offensive to push ISIS out of Ramadi -- capital of the country's largest Anbar province -- Warren said there would be no US ground forces taking part in the operations, which Baghdad said would take place this week.
Warren said that thousands of ISIS gunnies had been killed in Arclight airstrikes, and that hundreds of shelters and buildings used by the gunnies or its affiliates were destroyed.
He added that 40 percent of areas that had been held by ISIS -- which stormed into Iraq and captured a third of the country in a June 2014 blitzkrieg -- had been reclaimed by Iraqi joint forces."The terrorist organization (ISIS) lost more than 40 percent of the land in Tikrit and Baiji, and soon in Ramadi," he said.
Warren also expressed pleasure at "the Turkish withdrawal from Iraqi territory," referring to an announcement by Ankara that it was pulling out forces that had been near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... The front man said that "the arrival of a US special force to perform (military) tasks was at the request of the Iraqi government."
He denied Russian allegations that the coalition was bombing Iraqi soldiers deliberately, saying those reports were "incorrect."
Iraq said Saturday that nine of its soldiers were killed when US-led coalition warplanes mistakenly struck the troops near the ISIS-controlled city of Fallujah.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
What the hell took ya so long? Deliberate indifference for over a year equals aiding the enemy.
Almost 80 percent of the industrial units in Iran are closed or semi-closed, Mehdi Pourghazi, head of the industrial committee of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce said.
Some 30 percent of the industrial units in the country are closed, Pourghazi said, Iranian semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Dec. 16. Meanwhile about 50 percent of industrial units work at half-capacity, he said, adding the statistics are alarming.
Don't worry, Champ is riding to the rescue...
Appropriate measures should be taken to resolve the industrial units’ problem, Pourghazi said. The government itself has not settled its debts to the industrial units, he added.
The Iranian government unveiled its economic policy package in late October, in a bid to stimulate growth in the stagnant economy through higher investment in production and encouraging consumer spending. The measures are envisaged for a duration of six months in the run-up to the removal of international sanctions against Iran.
The sanctions are to be lifted in the coming months, following Iran’s landmark agreement on its nuclear program, which was reached in July.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Bet you the "industrial units" needed for nuclear weapons manufacture are working.
[DAWN] The adviser to prime minister on foreign affairs, Sartaj PrunefaceAziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... , told Senate that the exclusion of some Islamic countries from the Saudi-led 34-nation anti-terror alliance will be discussed at international level.
Answering a question posed by Senate chairman on exclusion of Syria, Iraq and Iran from the Saudi-led alliance, Aziz said on Monday the issue would be discussed in upcoming meetings in the next couple of weeks and also in the upcoming Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit.
"We have some ideas about the issue which are yet to be discussed," he added. They're infested by at least 62 terror organizations, by their own admission. Their intel agencies are now or have been in the recent past involved in the creation, training and leadership if some of the most deadly terror organizations on the face of the earth, again by their own admission.
And they're complaining because they're not included in an anti-terror alliance?
Despite all the evidence that would mitigate against it, Pakistan is one of the 34 nations in the alliance. They're protesting because their dear friend Iran was not invited, and Iran's friends Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I think 'fox in the henhouse' disparages foxes.
Forces loyal to Yemen's government fought their way into the province surrounding the capital on Monday, tribal sources said, the closest they have advanced towards Sanaa since the Houthi movement seized it in September last year.
"(President Abd-Rabbu Mansour) Hadi's forces took control of two mountains in the Nihm district in Sanaa province," one tribal source said. The area is about 60km north-east of the capital.
Yemeni forces loyal to Hadi, backed by alliance air strikes, have made a number of gains against the Houthis in recent weeks. But the Houthis remain in control of much of the northern part of the country.
On Friday, Hadi loyalists captured the city of Al Hazm, the provincial capital of northwestern Al Jawf province.
Both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire that began with the start of the peace talks on December 15. UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had voiced deep concern at "numerous reports of violations of the cessation of hostilities" and set up a mechanism to strengthen compliance, a UN statement said. The peace talks are scheduled to resume on January 14.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Jpost] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, source denies that Turkish authorities have imposed restrictions on Hamas activities and officials living in country.
Hamas's top operative Saleh Al-Arouri has left The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... following unprecedented American and Israeli pressure on the Turkish government, a Hamas source said on Monday.
The source said that Al-Arouri was now moving from one country to another and was no longer based in Turkey.
The source told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that Al-Arouri had left Turkey several months ago. "He decided to leave Turkey voluntarily so as not to embarrass Turkey, which was facing big pressure from Israel and the US Administration," the source added, denying charges that Al-Arouri was involved in planning terror attacks from Turkey.
[Ynet] German prosecutors say they have locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! a man on suspicion of membership in a group that fought international and government troops in Afghanistan.
The federal prosecutor's office said Monday that the 26-year-old German citizen, identified only as Sinan Sefik A. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested after his arrival at Berlin's Tegel airport. The arrest took place on Friday and prosecutors didn't say where he had flown from.
Prosecutors accuse the man of joining the now-defunct German Taliban Mujahedeen during a trip to the Wazoo region on the Pakistain-Afghanistan border ...also known as Pashtunistan, home of ignorance, poverty, and automatic weapons... in late 2009 and early 2010. They say he was trained to fight and was involved in producing a propaganda video, but left the group in around February 2010 after clashing with other members.
We had a number of stories about the German Taliban Mujahideen between 2010 and early 2013. The key to their demise, I think, was when one of their number was caught in Berlin with some memory devices in his underthings.
[Ynet] Air defense system, capable of intercepting medium-range missiles, low-flying aircraft or cruise missiles, is now on course for deployment within the next four months.
David's Sling is designed to shoot down rockets with ranges of 100 to 200 km (63 to 125 miles), aircraft, or low-flying cruise missiles. It will fill the operational gap between the Iron Dome short-range rocket interceptor and the Arrow ballistic missile interceptor, both already in service.
The three systems incorporate a network of radar-guided interceptors designed to shoot down everything from the low-flying, Katyusha-style rockets of Hezbollah and Paleostinian guerrillas to the ballistic Shehab and Scud missiles of Iran and Syria.
The final test of the air defense system was conducted on Monday morning in a test field in southern Israel ahead of its delivery to the Air Force in the next four months. The system is scheduled to become operational in the coming year.
The IDF will deploy four David's Sling batteries, with the Air Force receiving two in the first stage. The batteries could either operate from one permanent location, similar to the Arrow air defense system, or be mobile, allowing the military to deploy it wherever needed, similar to the Iron Dome air defense system.
David's Sling is being developed and manufactured jointly by Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd and Raytheon Co, a top US arms maker.
Rafael also makes Iron Dome, which has been extensively bankrolled by the US Congress. Israel and the United States say Iron Dome batteries have proven capable of shooting down around 90 percent of Paleostinian rockets fired from Gazoo.
Israel is working on a directed energy defense system which would use lasers fired by drones to disable missiles. Hasn't got to test stage yet (or possibly it was tested but performed so poorly that they didn't want to release the results).
If Israel had this, it would essentially make the whole Iran missile and bomb program worth much much less.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/22/2015 11:04
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#6
I doubt it cost as much as the great f35. Will more than likely work better to.
Posted by: chris ||
12/22/2015 13:27
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[AlAhram] Tunisia said on Monday it has dismantled a cell in the northern region of Bizerte recruiting women to marry Islamist snuffies fighting abroad and has made four arrests.
The interior ministry said in a statement that anti-terrorist units led the operation to bust the "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... " radical Sunni Muslim network, without saying when the arrests took place.
The suspects had been "recruiting young people, especially girls, to send them to conflict zones for marriage to terrorist elements there", it said.
Tunisian authorities have stepped up arrests since a November 24 kaboom on a bus in Tunis claimed by 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.... Death Eater group killed 12 presidential guards.
An estimated 6,000 Tunisians have travelled to Syria, Iraq and Libya to join Islamist Death Eater organizations. Tunisia's minister for women's affairs, Samira Merai, has said that number includes around 700 women.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian Army and allies managed on Monday to control Maarata town in Aleppo southern countryside, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists.
Al-Manar correspondent reported that scores of snuffies fled the battlefield with the advent the troops of the Syrian army and its allies.
Maarata lies to the east of Khan Toman which the Syrian army and allies liberated on Sunday.
Hezbollah and the Syrian army launched a rocketry attack on the ISIL terrorists' gathering in Mortbiya, Roumyat, Dahr Ali, and Zamarani in Qalamoun barrens; consequently, many snuffies were reported to be killed.
The Syrian air force targeted one of the terrorists' headquarters during a command meeting in Khan Sheikh area in Damascus southern countryside, killing or injuring a number of Lion of Islams.
The Syrian military units also dismantled a booby-trapped car rigged with over 200 kilograms of explosives near a school in Akrama neighborhood in Homs.
The Russian warplanes also targeted the terrorists' gatherings in Salma city in Latakia, killing scores of them.
The Syrian army and allies further continued the anti-terrorist campaign in various provinces, claiming the lives of a large number of Lion of Islams.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Don't those poor fools know that for every jihadi they knock off, three more spring up in their place?
I think I read that in the newspapers.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/22/2015 11:42
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[ALMANAR.LB] Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah made a televised statement two days after the martyrdom of freed detainee Samir Kuntar in which he reminded Israel that Hezbollah will respond to the liquidation of any member of the resistance in the way, time, and date it chooses.
After sending his greetings to the Christians in the region and the world for the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ (as) , and to the Muslims for the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (as), Sayyed Nasrallah offered condolences over the departure of Sheikh Mohammad Khatoun who passed away Sunday, and expressed solidarity with the Nigerian people after the massacre that took place last week.
His eminence called upon the Nigerian president and government to release Sheikh Zakzaki whose three sons were martyred last year on the hand of the Nigerian Army during the procession of Al-Quds day in Nigeria. He further expressed his fear that Israel, US, or terrorist sides can be behind this operation in attempt to engage Nigeria in sedition like the case in many other countries in the region.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah made a televised statement from his bunker?
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.
[Guardian] A Boy Scout leader was pulled into a cave by a bear but beat the animal away with a rock hammer, authorities in northern New Jersey have said.
[Telegraph] Genes which make people intelligent have been discovered and scientists believe they could be manipulated to boost brain power.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...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...
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
[DAWN] MANY people in Pakistain, seething at Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US, are rightly upset. In the same vein, those few who point out similar discriminatory practices against the Ahmadi community right here in Pakistain are also rightly upset. When the few were bold enough to make their grievance public, the state apparatus surprisingly took action. They proceeded to remove a hate-filled sticker in a commercial establishment and 
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in 
[NYTIMES] President Obama said in a radio interview airing on Monday that Donald J. Trump, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, is exploiting the resentment and anxieties of working-class men to boost his campaign. Mr. Obama also argued that some of the scorn directed at him personally stems from the fact that he is the first African-American to hold the White House.
[DAWN] KARACHI: A suspected robber was beaten to death by an angry mob in Korangi area of 
[DAWN] The Supreme Court has regretted that by raising arguments on the merit of the case and the sentence already confirmed, an attempt was made to re-argue the entire case on a review petition by the counsel representing Malik Mohammad Mumtaz Qadri, an Elite Force commando who had assassinated former
[ALMANAR.LB] Police in Pakistain's port city of 
Six American troops were killed Monday in a suicide car bombing near the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, officials said. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the bombing near Bagram Airfield in northern Afghanistan, saying in a statement that their target was a joint Afghan-NATO security patrol.
Wazoo
[ALMANAR.LB] Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah made a televised statement two days after the martyrdom of freed detainee Samir Kuntar in which he reminded Israel that Hezbollah will respond to the 
