Wut? No money left to buy these things?
Dodging enemy gunfire in close-quarter urban combat, seeking to destroy enemy fighters hiding behind walls, rocks and trees and firing ammunition especially engineered to explode at a particular, pre-planned point in space ‐ comprise the highly sought-after advantages of the Army's XM25 "airburst" weapon.
However, despite the initial promise of prototypes of the technology in combat in Afghanistan as an emerging way to bring a decisive advantage to Soldiers in firefight, the future of the XM25 is now uncertain due to ongoing Army needs, requirements, weapons inventory assessments and budget considerations, service officials told Scout Warrior.
The Army's XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement airburst weapon system, in development for several years, was used to destroy Taliban fighters hiding behind grape-growing walls in Afghanistan during a Forward Operational Assessment of the weapon several years ago. Extensive analysis and adjustments to the weapon followed this operational combat evaluation, Army officials explained.
Army and Pentagon weapons developers and budget planners are now deliberating plans for the weapon, which could be formally produced and deployed within the next several years ‐ or passed over due to fiscal constraints.
While the XM25 would clearly be useful in a major force-on-force engagement or great power conflict, airburst attacks have particular value in a counterinsurgency type-fight wherein enemies seek to use terrain, building, rocks, ditches or trees to protect themselves from being targeted.
By attacking with an "airburst" round, Soldiers do not have to have a linear view or direct line of sight to an enemy target; if they know an enemy is behind a rock or tree (in defilade) ‐ the weapon can explode above or near the location to ensure the target is destroyed.
The weapon uses laser-rangefinder technology to fire a high-explosive airburst round capable of detonating at a specific point near an enemy target hidden or otherwise obscured by terrain or other obstacles, Army developers have explained.
Program managers had been seeking to expedite development of the system, refine and improve the technology, and ultimately begin formal production by the fall of 2014, however its current trajectory is now unclear.
"The XM25 brings a new capability to the Soldier for the counter-defilade fight, allowing him to be able to engage enemy combatants behind walls, behind trees or in buildings," former XM25 program manager Col. Scott Armstrong, previously explained in an Army statement.
"The weapon fires a programmable airburst 25mm smart round. It consists of the weapons system with a target acquisition control system mounted on top," Armstrong said.
The XM25 represents the state-of-the art in terms of airburst technology, consisting of a programmable 25mm round, a sensor and a fire-control system, former Army Chief Scientist, Dr. Scott Fish, told Army.mil following the assessments.
Using laser rangefinder technology, the fire control system on the weapon uses computer technology to calculate the distance the round must travel in order to explode at a particular, pre-determined point in space, he explained.
"The laser rangefinder sends a pulse of light out to the target. This light pulse hits the target and is reflected back, allowing the fire control system to calculate the distance based on the time it takes the light pulse to travel," Fish said. "Since the speed of light is known, the exact distance to the target can then be determined. Once you determine how far the distance is to the target, a computer then calculates how long it will take the round to get there."
The sensor and computer in the fire control system calculate the time it will take the round to reach the target by factoring in the distance it needs to travel and the speed at which it travels, Fish added.
The 25mm round is engineered with a small, chip-based sensor able to track distance in flight so that the round detonates at precisely the right distance, Fish said.
Earlier prototypes of the XM25 completed 14-months of Forward Operational Assessments in Afghanistan, an effort designed to provide Soldiers in combat with the advantage of having airburst technology and harvest important feedback needed to refine development of the weapon's final design for production.
"The Army has learned many valuable lessons from these deployments regarding how the weapon can be deployed and how tactics can be changed to better refine the design of the weapon. Based on feedback from Soldiers and contractor testing, we have already incorporated more than 100 improvements to the systems related to ergonomics, performance and fire control," said Armstrong.
During its initial Forward Operational Assessment, the XM 25 provided a decisive advantage to Soldiers in combat in Afghanistan, Army officials said.
Units using several prototype XM25s in theater were accompanied by teams of weapons experts focused on analyzing the system's performance with a mind to making needed improvements, Armstrong said.
While on patrol in Southern Afghanistan several years ago, Soldiers with the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division used the XM 25 to engage and successfully defeat enemy forces hiding behind three-to-four foot walls used by Afghans to grow grapes, Command Sgt.
Maj. James Carabello, MCoE, (Maneuver Center of Excellence) a combat veteran who recently led infantry units, told Army.mil following the assessment.
"We defeated any enemy force that we deployed the weapon against. The XM25 is a devastating weapons system that changes the face of battle when we are in direct fire contact with the enemy," he said.
#1
a devastating weapons system that changes the face of battle when we are in direct fire contact with the enemy
Therefore much too harmful for a 'kinder, gentler' military. The Fluffy Bunny and Baby Duck Society is grateful.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/24/2016 12:44
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#2
Didn't fit the Graft Plan or narrative of the Obola regime.
Not to mention the requirement to get rid of the army all together except for programs that are foundational for the Clinton Foundation money laundering.
#3
The weapon uses laser-rangefinder technology to fire a high-explosive airburst round capable of detonating at a specific point near an enemy target hidden or otherwise obscured by terrain or other obstacles, Army developers have explained.
Hiding behind a rock? Sort of runs counter to the Positive ID (PID) ROE, but who am I to question the logic.
#4
A squad or platoon weapon, does not need to be in every soldier. Then what about the rifle grenades and M203? couldn't they just make a M203 version witha programable round instead of a gold plated weapon?
#7
I'm guessing Raytheon has peddled it's new 'Pike' missile here. It's supposed to be basically a mini Javelin that you fire from an M40 grenade launcher, and uses existing Javelin directioning gear, etc.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/24/2016 17:32
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Leave the keys under the doormat and they get found. Leave the Top Secret plans on the internet and they get found. Ever heard of an airgap?
The Indian government is investigating the leak of more than 22,000 pages of documents that reveal secret data about its new high-tech fleet of submarines. Super graphic! Is that Sonora off in the distance ?
The leak, first reported by The Australian, includes sensitive information about the Scorpene submarines designed by French defense contractor DCNS for the Indian Navy. The documents detail the stealth submarines' sensors, torpedo launch systems, as well as communications and navigation capabilities.
"What I understand right now is that there is a case of hacking," Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar told reporters on Wednesday. "We have asked the Indian naval chief to investigate the matter and give a detailed report about the leak."
The Indian Defense Ministry said in a statement that "it appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India."
DCNS declined to answer questions on where the leak originated, or when it may have occurred.
"This serious matter is thoroughly investigated by the proper French national authorities for defense security," said DCNS spokesperson Marion Bonnet. "This investigation will determine the exact nature of the leaked documents, the potential damages to DCNS customers as well as the responsibilities for this leakage."
The Indian Navy ordered six Scorpene submarines from DCNS. The first boat, called Kalvari, was built in a Mumbai shipyard, and should enter service this year. The program has suffered years of delays, but the remaining five submarines are scheduled to be delivered by 2020.
The Australian posted redacted versions of the leaked documents on its website. They are marked "Restricted Scorpene India," and include volumes of technical drawings and operations manuals. The documents also include highly sensitive information on noise levels produced by the submarine.
Damage from the leak is likely to extend far beyond India -- Chile, Malaysia, Brazil have all ordered versions of the Scorpene. DCNS is also under contract to build 12 new submarines for Australia at a cost of $39 billion.
The new boats will be entering service amid a major submarine race in Asia. Already, 12 regional powers have submarines at sea, according to IHS Jane's, and at least eight want to buy new or replacement subs.
While defense spending in Europe is basically flat, Asian countries are increasing their military budgets by 5% each year.
#1
"it appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India."
Uhh, Bubba, when you put it on the internet, it really doesn't matter where they are.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/24/2016 17:29
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#2
"But we had Secret service agents standing there protecting it"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/24/2016 20:25
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If Congress had any balls whatsoever they could force him to comply using the power of the purse.
The Obama administration is withholding from Congress details about how $1.3 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds was delivered to Iran, according to conversations with lawmakers, who told the Washington Free Beacon that the administration is now stonewalling an official inquiry into the matter.
The Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice have all rebuffed a congressional probe into the circumstances surrounding the $1.3 billion payment to Iran, which is part of an additional $400 million cash payout that occurred just prior to the release of several U.S. hostages and led to accusations that the administration had paid Iran a ransom.
The Obama administration has admitted in recent days that the $400 million cash delivery to Iran was part of an effort to secure the release of these American hostages, raising further questions on Capitol Hill about White House efforts to suppress these details from the public.
The $400 million was part of a $1.7 billion legal settlement reached with Iran earlier this year. Congressional inquiries into how this money reached Iran are failing to get answers.
The State and Treasury Departments declined on Tuesday to answer a series of questions from the Free Beacon about the method in which U.S. taxpayer funds were paid to Iran.
The administration is also withholding key details about the payment from leading members of Congress, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Mike Lee (R., Utah), who launched an inquiry into the matter earlier this month.
The Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice all failed to respond to the inquiry by Monday's deadline, according to congressional sources tracking the matter.
"The already bizarre circumstances surrounding the $1.7 billion payment to the Islamic Republic have only gotten stranger in the weeks since we learned of the $400 million in cash that was sent to the Iranian regime last January 16th," Cruz said to the Free Beacon. "If this payment was, as the Obama administration insists, a straightforward settlement of an old debt that it would have cost America more to contest, why all the secrecy?"
The State Department said it does not know how the remaining $1.3 billion was transferred or to whom it was transferred. Cruz described this disclosure as "confounding."
"It is even more confounding that the State Department spokesman claimed Monday not to know how or to whom the residual $1.3 billion was transferred, although he does know the transaction happened," Cruz said. "That kind of money doesn't just transfer itself to a rogue regime still under heavy U.S. sanctions for its sponsorship of terrorism. Someone in our government must have the answers the American people deserve."
Cruz and Lee are seeking to determine if these payments violated U.S. law. They also requested information about the U.S. officials who negotiated and carried out the payments.
"While we are deeply concerned about the national security implications of the administration's cash-for-hostages scheme, especially in light of reports that Iran has already arrested additional Americans, the purpose of this letter is to inquire about the legality of the payment," the senators wrote in an Aug. 12 letter.
"It is imperative that the administration provide a full accounting of its conduct with respect to the $400 million cash payment to Iran," they wrote. "If the administration violated the law, then Congress and the American people should be made aware of it so that they can hold the appropriate officials accountable and take whatever steps necessary to strengthen the law and prevent any reoccurrence."
While the administration has remained silent about the circumstances surrounding the payment, investigative reporter Claudia Rosett recently disclosed that the Treasury Department transferred just under $1.3 billion to the State Department in 13 "large identical sums."
The funds, allocated for "foreign claims," could shine a light on how the administration moved taxpayer funds into the State Department's purview in order to provide the additional payment to Iran.
In 13 individual payments of $99,999,999.99, the Treasury Department moved a total of 1,299,999,999.87, which roughly amounts to the remaining money owed to Iran.
#1
Imperial power has been defined for the Presidency. Executive orders circumvent the need for statutory authority and executive privilege and. classification power trump oversight. The court has become a place of partisans disconnected from the integrity needed to actually follow the intent of the Constitution, and Congress has devolved into self preservation and cowardly timidity. The nation is divided into red states and blue states, urban masses and middle class, and the treasury is empty, and the dole in some form goes to well over a third of the citizens. The parallel to Rome is uncanny.
#7
I am pretty sure that O&Co has all the dirt on Boehner and Ryan to make them dance to his tune. They just ask, "How high, Massa?"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/24/2016 16:32
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#8
I am pretty sure that O&Co has all the dirt on Boehner and Ryan to make them dance to his tune. They just ask, "How high, Massa?"
Posted by: Alaska Paul
Yes, and if nothing else, Trump has been instrumental in flushing the worthless bastids out and belaying any remaining attogram of doubt we might have had previously.
BLUF: [Observer] There are other indications of Russian penetration of NSA that had nothing to do with Snowden. An espionage case that got too little attention was that of Jeffrey Delisle, a Canadian navy junior officer who was arrested in 2012 for passing secrets to Moscow. He admitted his guilt, specifically that for almost five years beginning in 2007, he regularly sold secrets to GRU, that is Russian military intelligence. Upset over his wife’s infidelity and short of cash, the sad-sack Delisle, who was assigned to a Canadian intelligence center in Halifax, simply downloaded secrets on a thumb-drive, which he passed to GRU every month or so.
Most of what Delisle gave Moscow wasn’t Canadian information but belonged to Five Eyes, much of which came from NSA. Yet the most interesting part of the Delisle case is what GRU did not want from him. As one intelligence scholar noted:
#3
The geniuses at NSA allow thumb drives in their facilities? They have computers on their internal networks that have USB ports where thumb drives can be inserted? This is sheer incompetence.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/24/2016 11:53
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#4
If GRU wasn’t interested in that when Delisle offered it to them, the only explanation is that Moscow already had that very sensitive information.
I call bullsh*t.
Posted by g(r)omgoru
#6
Back in the 90s I wrote technical documentation for a large server company. One project had the NSA and the CIA as customers. These servers had 10,000 dollar boards in them that when they had a problem my company wanted them back. The NSA and CIA said no dice, someone could write code to the NVRAM chips and get info out of their black sites so the boards stayed until we produce a program that could wipe all the NVRAm chips clean and verify they were clean.
Back then I understood all USB ports were crazy-glued shut.
Either things have changed big time, the Canadians are far more lax than their American counterparts, or something is wrong with this story.
[PJ] An Army spokesman has confirmed that a training slide that lists Hillary Clinton as an "insider threat" is real. The slide -- which shows Hillary Clinton pictured along with the Fort Hood and Navy Yard shooters -- became an internet sensation after it was posted on the U.S. Army W.T.F! Moments Facebook page on Sunday.
Via the Washington Examiner:
The other photos show retired Gen. David Petraeus, who gave classified information to his biographer and mistress; Nidal Hasan, who carried out the Fort Hood shooting; Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who exposed classified information before seeking asylum in Russia; Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter; and Chelsea Manning, who gave classified information to WikiLeaks.
Asked for comment, an Army spokesman confirmed that the photo showed a real training slide that was developed 18 months ago and used locally to teach best practices for handling classified information and maintaining operational security. Maj. Thomas Campbell, a U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command spokesman, said the training slide has been removed.
"As is common with Army training requirements, the local unit was given latitude to develop their own training products to accomplish the overall training objective. This particular presentation had not been reviewed or approved by the unit's leadership, and does not reflect the position of the Army," Campbell said. But it does reflect reality. You might as well just retire Tom.
Why not? She's perfectly relevant to the topic. There is no better recent example of what not to do with classified material than Hillary Clinton.
[PJ] Scholars at Johns Hopkins University released a new report on Monday which argues that there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that lesbian, gay, or transgender people are born with this sexual orientation or gender identity. I can almost see the government research grants drying up. "The idea there that sexual orientation is fluid, that people change as people grow," Lawrence Mayer, a co-author of the report and a scholar-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University's psychiatry department, as well as a professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University, told The Christian Post. "There are probably some people that identify as hetrosexual [sic] that then later on identified as homosexual, so it goes both ways. The importance there is the fluidity and flexibility that these things change in time."
The three-part, 143-page report, which appeared in the Fall 2016 edition of The New Atlantis, also investigated other commonly accepted ideas about homosexuality and transgenderism. Mayer and his co-author Paul McHugh, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins, challenged the claim that discrimination and social stigma are the only reasons why homosexual and transgender people suffer higher rates of mental health problems and are more likely to commit suicide.
#1
Remember, genetics is somewhat of a dice roll. When you start dealing with populations of 300 million or 6 billion those percentages start to show up in real numbers no matter how small the possibility. Unfortunately, those numbers are far smaller than the number or overall percentage of the group that self identifies. They use the rare exception as a 'Poster Child' to pursue their own agenda which more and more is becoming simply an issue of power.
#3
This has always been a two-edged sword. If there are physical factors then presumably those factors could be intentionally manipulated. In other words, it could be 'cured.'
#6
The three-part, 143-page report, which appeared in the Fall 2016 edition of The New Atlantis, also investigated other commonly accepted ideas about homosexuality and transgenderism.
I'm going to put this in the 'I wonder how much was wasted on this stupid study' file.
#7
I wonder how much was wasted on this stupid study
The Johns Hopkins psychiatric department has been doing and writing up studies on the subject for decades in both the scientific and popular press. This is their penance for having pioneered sex change surgery, then not sufficiently explained why they discontinued what they concluded was a counterproductive treatment for gender dysphoria. To be fair, it's difficult to explain sufficiently to those loudly uninterested in hearing it, but with each attempt more people are exposed to the idea.
#8
I thought they explained their stopping the reassignment surgery by the stats that the suicide rates didn't change after the surgery as expected which led them to believe the problem was far deeper.
#10
I find it hard to believe that anyone would make a conscious decision to be gay. Why put yourself through all of the hassles that go along with it if you don't have to? Of course, some people may be gluttons for punishment.
I happen to have some close friends who are gay. I recall years ago when one of them came out of the closet to me and I asked him, "when did you know you were gay?" His answer was in the form of a question, "when did you know you were straight?"
I thought about it for a moment and answered, "I guess when I started paying attention to attractive women a lot more and realized that I really liked looking at them."
His response, "it wasn't really any different for me, except I felt that same way about men."
#11
You think I'm "loudly uninterested in hearing it"?
The study of origins of such a sexual diaspora are fascinating. Of greater interest is the embolded empowerment of the sanctimonious butchers that perform such surgeries under the protective umbrella of academic advancement and why it is allowed to continue.
Pay for Play among the elite word merchant organizations, the government and the Clinton Foundation. The morphing of the American main stream media into a propaganda organ for the left (otherwise know as the Donk Party). The Donk Party is not the party of your fathers and mothers.
[Politico] NBC Universal, News Corporation, Turner Broadcasting and Thomson Reuters are among more than a dozen media organizations that have made charitable contributions to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, the foundation's records show.
The donations, which range from the low-thousands to the millions, provide a picture of the media industry's ties to the Clinton Foundation at a time when one of its most notable personalities, George Stephanopoulos, is under scrutiny for not disclosing his own $75,000 contribution when reporting on the foundation.
The list also includes mass media groups like Comcast, Time Warner and Viacom, as well a few notable individuals, including Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate and largest shareholder of The New York Times Company, and James Murdoch, the chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox. Both Slim and Murdoch have given between $1 million to $5 million, respectively.
#1
Given that Rupert Murdoch does not plan to live forever, and the fact that his two sons are flaming liberals, the rumors that Ailes, Hannity and a few others (Trump's name is circulating) are planning a new news entry into television makes sense.
A
[Hot Air] It has been a tough month for spokespeople at the State Department. During the daily press briefing today State Department spokesman Mark Toner was unable to answer basic questions about the timing or details of a $1.3 billion payment to Iran despite the fact that the payment appears to be listed on a government website available to the public.
The settlement the U.S. agreed to pay Iran (over an old arms deal) was broken into two parts, a $400 million principal payment and $1.3 billion in interest. The delivery of the $400 million principal repayment was made in foreign cash on January 17 of this year. We’ve since learned that payment was made contingent on the release of U.S. prisoners in Iran. President Obama said it was necessary to make the payment in cash because the U.S. did not have a banking relationship with Iran that would allow us to wire the money directly.
Monday the Weekly Standard highlighted a significant development in the story at the New York Sun. The Sun’s Claudia Rosett found the remaining $1.3 billion in interest was apparently paid from something called the Judgment Fund in a series of 13 identical payments:
[LI] The MSM can’t stop talking about Donald Trump having brought onto his campaign the Chairman of Breitbart News.
But Hillary’s closest aide being for 12 years an editor of an Islamist magazine that among other things blamed the US for 9/11? Meh!
On today’s With All Due Respect, guest co-host Alex Wagner seconded the excuse that the Clinton campaign is shopping. Said Wagner: "as you and I have both worked on magazines, we know that there are a lot of editors who do absolutely nothing but are listed on mastheads anyway."
John Heilemann similarly argued that while his title at Bloomberg Politics is Managing Editor, he doesn’t do any managing or editing. He went on to assert that not many voters care about Huma Abedin "one way or the other." Added Heilemann: "I know people on the right will hate me for saying that."
Heilemann and Wagner’s excuses don’t pass the smell test. For purposes of argument, let’s assume that in fact Huma didn’t do much work at the mag. But Huma surely knew what the magazine was about and what was in it: her mother was the editor-in-chief! So what was in it? Among other things, an article in essence blaming the US for 9-11. Another implying that women wearing suggestive clothing brought sexual violence on themselves. Another arguing that "single or working moms and gay couples with children should not be classed as a family," etc.
While dismissing the importance of Huma’s involvement with the mag, Wagner did acknowledge that her mother being editor-in-chief could be problematic for the Clinton campaign. But that misses the point, which is that Hillary Clinton has chosen as her longtime, closest adviser someone from a family that espouses these kinds of views. And far from rejecting her heritage, Huma chose to associate herself with that radicalism by, at the very least, having her name displayed as an editor for more than a decade.
#1
Magazines have long been a tool of propaganda and radical inspiration. Abadin's connection to the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs should come as no surprise.
Johnson, Ian. "A Mosque In Munich" Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010: 107
The most influential political movement to come out of this tradition was the Muslim Brotherhood, al ikhawan al-mulimum, more literally translated as the Society of Muslim Brothers (or Brethren), was founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a schoolteacher from a small town in the Nile Delta. At the time, Egypt was still under British colonial rule. It was modernizing quickly, going through wrenching economic and social changes: Cairo was industrializing, the peasants were moving to the cities, traditions were breaking up, and social mores were in flux. An avid reader of Rashid Rida's magazine [al-Manar], Banna was appalled by the combination of national opposition and rapid social changes.
[Guardian] Turkish troops have entered Syria in the opening gambit of a cross-border campaign to "cleanse" Islamic State militants from the town of Jarablus, the terror group's last major hub on the 500 mile (800km) border.
Turkey said its tanks had crossed the border into Syria on Wednesday morning after airstrikes and shelling that began shortly after midnight. It is the first time Ankara's ground forces have ventured into Syria, with the exception of a brief operation early last year to rescue the tomb of an ancestor of the founder of the Ottoman empire.
Turkey said it had hit 81 targets in northern Syria with F-16 warplanes as part of the operation, called Euphrates Shield, and had also shelled Isis positions in response to artillery strikes from within Syrian territory.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
08/24/2016
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#1
the kurds would have taken Jarablus last year if Turkey hadn't blackmailed them
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/24/2016 11:31
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#6
I have the odd feeling that Turkey is about to get their rear-end handed to them on the ground. The planes there is little ISIS can do, but Ground-game wise I expect some heavy losses when they finally hit a pocket of ISIS resistance.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/24/2016 17:14
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#7
^ #6)Charles, you are assuming that ISIS is their objective? "Italia Turkoman irredenta" (1) and "Death to the Kurds!" (2) seem far more likely as Turkish objectives.
[Ynet] In its largest raid of the year, five different battalions confiscated 22 lathes and 54 weapons from West Bank factories; two Paleostinians who allegedly ran the factories were arrested; operation was accompanied by violent disturbances, but nobody was injured.
Hundreds of soldiers from five different battalions rushed in at 1:30am Tuesday morning to improvised-weapons-making facilities in the Hebron and Bethlehem areas in an operation that was run by the IDF along with the Shin Bet and Border Police.
The widespread operation of the Judea and Samaria Division was the IDF's largest in the past year against the guns and rifles in the West Bank.
The operation was accompanied by violent disturbances, but nobody was injured, and it concluded around dawn at 5am, with 22 confiscated lathes on trucks and 54 seized weapons.
Two Paleostinians that the IDF claimed to be the leading owners and operators of these factories were detained for questioning. A senior officer in the division stated that these merchants, like many others in the West Bank, are not affiliated with terrorist organizations, and their activity is financially motivated.
Of the weapons seized, 39 were handguns, six were sniper rifles, four were hunting rifles, and one was an air rifle. The raid also confiscated dozens of weapons parts, some of which were made in the factories, and some of which came from Europe.
They join the 350 other weapons and 30 other lathes that have been seized since the beginning of the year in the West Bank. More than 140 persons have been tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in that timeframe on suspicion of involvement with the sale or creation of arms. The IDF still presumes that many more such illegal weapons remain in the West Bank.
This year, more than 30 terrorist attacks have been carried out using firearms.
The ongoing crackdown has already had an effect on the market, driving up the price of guns Col. Roman Gofman told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named last month. For example, a crude Carlo-style submachine gun cost around $500 a few months ago, whereas now it can cost upward of $2,500, he said.
[IsraelTimes] West Bank suspect admits to printing ID cards, work permits and Israel entry permits
Israel Police overnight Monday raided a document forging laboratory in the West Bank which produced hundreds of counterfeit Israeli identity cards, work permits and entry permits.
The fake documents could be used by Paleostinian residents of the West Bank to gain entry to Israel.
Police, together with the IDF, followed up on an intelligence lead and uncovered the lab in the village of Akraba, southeast of Nablus. A suspect, 32, was incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! and forces seized a laptop computer, a printer, raw materials, and fake documents.
The suspect admitted to printing hundreds of forged entry permits, work permits, Israeli identity cards and driving licenses that he sold for NIS 300 ($80) each.
Paleostinian residents of the West Bank need entry and work permits to cross the Green Line into Israel for work. Holders of Israeli identity cards, issued to all Israeli citizens, are permitted to cross back and forth across between the West Bank and Israel without the need for additional permits.
Police said the suspect will be brought for a remand hearing to extend his detention.
[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian not seen publicly since his capture by the CIA in 2002 has appeared at a US government hearing called to determine whether he should remain in detention at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Abu Zubaydah, who sat expressionless during the brief hearing, was the first high-profile al-Qaeda terror suspect captured after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the first to vanish into the CIA’s secret "black site" prison network.
The review panel issued no immediate ruling on his status. He has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006.
The US believed that Zubaydah, 45, was one of the most senior figures in al-Qaeda when he was captured in Pakistain. It has since dropped that claim. Zubaydah’s lawyers deny he was a member of al-Qaeda.
Zubaydah was born in 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... to a Paleostinian father but does not have Saudi citizenship.
Of course. Not being a member of the tribes, he could never be more than a resident alien hireling.
A statement read at Tuesday’s hearing by a U.S. military officer acting as Zubaydah’s personal representative said he wants to reunite with his family and "begin the process of recovering from injuries he sustained during his capture."
Only Christ-like bleeding stigmata would still be unhealed after fourteen years...and this gentleman isn't likely to be granted that particular miracle.
In a statement prepared for the review and provided to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Tuesday, a lawyer for Zubaydah asserts that he poses no danger to the US.
"Abu Zubaydah is not now and never has been an enemy of the United States and has been involved in no terroristic acts," the lawyer, Mark P. Denbeaux, says in the statement.
Oh? To whom was he an enemy, pray tell? Al Qaeda had big plans in his day.
At the hearing, the government stated that he played a "key role in al-Qaeda’s communications with supporters and operatives abroad" and that he was "generally aware" of the 9/11 attacks before they happened. It does not say he was an al-Qaeda member.
The government statement said he "probably retains an myrmidon mindset," adding that he has shown "a high level of cooperation with the staff at Guantanamo Bay." It said he has condemned 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 for its "atrocities and the killing of innocent people."
[TheAustralian] British woman dead, two injured in backpacker hostel stabbing
A French national allegedly shouted “Allahu akbar” during and after a stabbing attack that left a British woman dead and another Briton fighting for his life at a backpackers hostel outside of Townsville last night.
Possible extremist motivations for the attack are now being investigated by Queensland Police and the Australian Federal Police, with the man yet to be questioned by investigators.
Queensland Police Service Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the 29 -year-old French man shouted the phrase following the attack at the hostel at Home Hill, south of Townsville, but police had not determined whether the incident was terror related.
“While this information will be factored into the investigation, we are not ruling out any motivations at this stage, whether they be political or criminal,” he told reporters in Brisbane. “Investigators will also consider whether mental health or drug misuse factors are involved in this incident.”
Mr Gollschewski said a 21-year-old British woman was found dead at the scene, while another Briton, a 30-year-old man, was in a critical condition in Townsville Hospital. A local man was also treated for injuries, but had since been released from hospital.
Mr Gollschewski said the man yelled “Allahu Akbar” both during the attack and while being arrested by police.
The man didn’t have any known links to the Islamic State group, he said. “This person appears to have acted alone,” Mr Gollschewski said. “He is a visitor to Australia and has no known local connections, however investigations are ongoing.” He said charges were yet to be laid but police weren’t looking for any other suspects and there was no known ongoing threat to the community. “This is not about race or religion - it is individual criminal behaviour,” he said.
Mr Gollschewski said a dog was also fatally stabbed in the incident.
Dawson MP George Christensen said police had a video of the incident, where the backpacker shouted “Allahu Akbar”.
Mr Gollschewski said the man, who was lawfully in Australia on a temporary visa, and his alleged victims were all staying at the same backpacker hostel. Australian Federal Police Commander Sharon Cowden said her officers are working with international law enforcement agencies.
Queensland Police confirmed they were called to a building on Ninth Street 11.15pm last night following reports a person had been stabbed.
The alleged attacker, a 29-year-old Frenchman, was transported by police to Townsville, where he is being treated by doctors for non-life threatening injuries. Charges are yet to be laid.
Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said the man appeared to have acted alone. He had no known local connections and was visiting Australia. Authorities immediately contacted the families of the UK victims, via the British consulate.
The Home Hill Backpackers is a popular tourist stop for young travellers seeking work on local farms. The hostel is a favoured stop for French and British backpackers, who regularly post photos on social media of parties held in the north Queensland town.
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
08/24/2016
00:49 ||
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#1
"acted alone" is not, imo, soothing. If true, it means Islam, absent any organizing, supplying, or membership in a radical group is sufficient to motivate random murder.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/24/2016 7:23
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#2
Gee. No name yet. I guess they didn't have time to get that from him.
#6
Yesterday afternoon as police transferred Ayad from hospital to the watchhouse, he allegedly bashed two police officers, after they had to pull over on Woolcock St as he was lashing out in the back of the police paddy wagon. Both officers were hospitalised.Police were forced to use capsicum spray on Ayad to subdue him and the Bulletin understands it took seven officers to get Ayad into a padded cell, as he continued to scream “Allahu Akbar”.
Sorry, gotta click the link because the answers are in the form of an image of his twitter responses. Let's just say that he let us know what he is thinking in very few words.
The Yemeni army, backed by the popular committees, retaliated to the intensified aggression by the Saudi-led coalition, securing achievements in several areas across the border between Yemen and Saudi.
The Saudi-led coalition on Tuesday intensified its aggression against the Arab impoverished country, carrying out many air strikes on many residential areas in the capital Sanaa and in the border area of Saada.
Meanwhile, Yemeni media said that a Saudi soldiers was killed by a sniper fire in al-Kars post in al-Khouba which lies in Jizan, local media reported.
Also in al-Khouba the artillery force in the Yemeni army shelled al-Shabaka and al-Moannaq posts, inflicting losses upon Saudi-led forces.
Elsewhere in Asir, the Yemeni army and the popular committees destroyed an Abrams tank as they launched a rocket in to Saudi post there.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior informed on Tuesday that that a bomb blast to the south of Baghdad killed at least two persons and injured nine others.
Sharing details the source said, “This morning a bomb exploded near a popular market in Mahmudiya district to the south of Baghdad. Two people were killed and nine others were severely injured.”
“Security forces rushed to the area and transported the wounded to Mahmudiyah Hospital and the bodies of the deceased were sent to the forensic department. Security forces have taken tough measures, anticipating the presence of other bombs.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry informed on Tuesday that an Iraqi Army officer was killed and two other soldiers were injured in a sniper attack targeted at a security checkpoint, south of Baghdad.
Sharing details the source said, “A sniper attack at noon today, on an Iraqi army security checkpoint at Latifiyah to the south of Baghdad, killed an army lieutenant and injured two other soldiers.”
“Security forces rushed to the area and transferred the injured to a nearby hospital and the body of the dead officer was sent to the forensic team,” further added the source seeking anonymity.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – ISIS executed a six of its own leaders in Tal Afar, for they allegedly tried to escape to Syria.
Ismat Rajab, a Kurdistan Democratic Party official in Mosul, said, “The six ISIS leaders were executed by their counterparts using flamethrower. They were executed as they tried to escape to Syria.”
While speaking about another context, Rajab said, “Iraqi planes have dropped thousands of leaflets in Mosul, Tal Afar and Baaj in Nineveh province and have urged the inhabitants of those areas to stay away from ISIS headquarters and emphasizzing on the proximity of the start of the restoration process of the land.”
Posted by: badanov ||
08/24/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] During a Monday UN Security Council meeting over the Syrian conflict, Damascus’s envoy to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Bashar al-Jaafari accused French intelligence agencies of committing the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta back in 2013.
He continued by claiming it was committed to divert the attention of UN weapon inspectors from another case of chemical weapons committed by terrorist groups in Aleppo.
"The use of chemical weapons in the Damascus area was meant to prevent Dr. Åke Sellström [the head of the weapons inspectors] from going to Aleppo because [La Belle France] knew who had used chemical weapons in Aleppo," Jaafari claimed.
The August 2023 attack killed hundreds of people. UN inspectors described the attack as "the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them" in Halabja in 1988.
Damascus has consistently denied it committed the attack despite constant allegations from Syrian terrorist groups and their western allies.
"They wanted to prevent Dr. Sellström from reaching Aleppo by any means and therefore they used chemical weapons in Damascus with the involvement of French intelligence," he added.
French representative to the council, Francois Delattre, said that allegations were "absurd."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[Iraq Sun] UN Security Council (UNSC) has adoptedresolution No.1540 on the prevention of delivering nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons (WMD) to terrorists.
Al-Jaafari added at a UN Security Council session on resolution No.1540 that the council didn't move in spite of the facts that unveiled the terrorists' attempts to transport Sarin gas from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... into Syria.
"The dangerous violations of resolution 1540 are clear as a reality where Syria witnesses the using of chemical weapons by terrorist organizations many times against civilians and army personnel through a support by regional and Arab states," al-Jaafari said.
He added that terrorist groups in Housh al-Fara, threw a bomb, on June 13th, 2016, that contains chemical materials on a number of the Syrian army soldiers, and other Death Eaters targeted al-Awameed region in old Aleppo with shells containing poisonous materials that killed 6 civilians on August 2nd.
Al-Jaafari said that the terrorist groups have supplied 450 artillery shells, equipped with mustard gas, and sent them to djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
He added that Syria affirms its commitment to the international resolutions and conventions on cooperation and exchange of data, adding that Syria calls on UNSC to assume its duties and guarantee that Death Eaters don't possess WMD.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Units from the Syrian Army operating on the Darayya axes advanced on the embattled city and fortified positions on the train railway close to the building concentration in Darayya’s city center.
A ground source informed Al-Masdar that Syrian Army units launched a vicious attack today following accurate strikes by artillery weaponry capturing many building blocks until they reached the railway from the direction of Mas’oud Storage on a front extending 200 meters.
Many snuffies and vehicles were neutralized in this operation that had allowed the Syrian Armed Forces to reign fire control over vast areas of the railway.
Several jihadist groups are present in Darayya with the most powerful two being Islamic Martyrs Brigade and the Islamic Union of Ajnad Al-Sham, amongst them dozens of imported muscle.
Notable to say that army units were able to secure Nouriddeen Mosque and all the surrounding building blocks a few days ago. The latest advance places the government troops 500 meters away from cutting the remainder of opposition-held Darayya in two.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[WND] WASHNGTON ‐ Under Hillary Clinton’s leadership, the State Department was run like a mob-run shakedown operation, with more than half the visitors she met with from outside government paying money to the Clinton Family Foundation for the privilege, according to an Associated Press investigation of her calendars.
"It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president," reported the largest news-gathering organization in the world.
At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, the news agency reported Tuesday.
Combined the 85 "donors" contributed as much as $156 million ‐ with 40 donating more than $100,000 and 20 giving more than $1 million, according to the stunning report.
AP reports donors who were granted time with Clinton included:
an internationally known economist who asked for her help as the Bangladesh government pressured him to resign from a nonprofit bank he ran;
a Wall Street executive who sought Clinton’s help with a visa problem;
Estee Lauder executives who were listed as meeting with Clinton while her department worked with the firm’s corporate charity to counter gender-based violence in South Africa.
The AP report, which represents the first systematic effort to calculate the scope of the intersecting interests of the Clinton Foundation donors and people who met personally with the secretary of state or spoke on the phone, said "the frequency of the overlaps shows the intermingling of access and donations, and fuels perceptions that giving the foundation money was a price of admission for face time with Clinton. Her calendars and emails released as recently as this week describe scores of contacts she and her top aides had with foundation donors."
The 154 did not include U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives.
Related story: That’s not all! Hillary helped a crook get $10 million in taxpayer funds for a Haiti scam that left 500 earthquake victims homeless.
But, Clinton met with representatives of at least 16 foreign governments that donated as much as $170 million to the Clinton charity, but they were not included in AP’s calculations because such meetings would presumably have been part of her diplomatic duties.
The Clinton Foundation’s finances are so messy that the nation’s most influential charity watchdog put it on its "watch list" of problematic nonprofits last month.
Meanwhile, an investigation of the Clinton Foundation’s $140 million in grants and pledges in the year 2013 found that only $9 million went to direct aid to charities. The bulk of its revenues went to administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family and friends.
#3
Nobody who is currently supporting her will change their mind and vote for Trump or anyone else, or will stay home on election day, because of this.
Hillary could run against anyone on the planet and they would still vote for her having heard this story.
I wish it were otherwise but while people like those of us who visit Rantburg are voting for president to try and put in someone who will do the very few things government SHOULD do well, her supporters are voting for a mercenary who will defend their paychecks and indulgences from the regulatory leviathans, period, stop.
It's good to document her corruption and to have some record of our slide into banana republic status but I fear it will affect the outcome in November not one bit.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/24/2016 5:25
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#4
Sadly nmu, I believe you have nailed it. It is difficult however, for me to reconcile my association with a people and nation [evidently now a majority] whose belief system has been so corrupted. The phrase "In the world, not of the world" comes to mind.
#5
There's always the 2nd Amendment option. The founding fathers did not have duck hunting in mind when they put it in the Constitution. The left would like to see the 2nd disappear from the Constitution so they can green light the kinds of crap going on now without any scrutiny or oversight controls. Of course there are often unintended consequences to everything. Al Capone and Idi Amin would have been envious of the slickness and insidiousness way the gnawing away of freedom had been done in such a short time.
#7
Despite the exposed corruption and lies... the donks will still support her. After all, they have their noses in the trough too and like their handouts.
#9
Some will claim ignorance of her crimes. But they are in fact complicit, and cannot claim that they have not been told.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/24/2016 11:44
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Meanwhile, an investigation of the Clinton Foundation’s $140 million in grants and pledges in the year 2013 found that only $9 million went to direct aid to charities. The bulk of its revenues went to administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family and friends.
Sounds like the Clinton Foundation's favorite charity is the Clintons.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/24/2016 11:44
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#11
Despite the exposed corruption and lies... the donks will still support her.
#12
You realize that if there was a quid pro quo system at the State Dept for Clinton donations, it neatly explains why our foreign policy is so screwed up.
Nobody bid high enough.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/24/2016 17:41
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#14
...I believe that's Putin's position and since wet jobs are out of the question, expect a lot of surprises between now and November. BTW, she looks tired doesn't she?
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A Pak terrorist was incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! as he was attempting to flee to Pakistain after sustaining injuries during a shootout in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the terrorist was arrested by the Counter-terrorism operatives of the Ministry of Interior.
According to a statement by MoI, the detained terrorist has been identified as Shah Mahmood who was also famous as Rizwan son of Akbar Mesri.
The statement further added that Mahmood was opeating in Alingar district of Laghman province under the leadership of Samiullah, a terrorist group leader involved in insurgency activities in this province.
Mahmood was attempting to flee to Pakistain after sustaining injuries and was captured from the vicinity of the central city of Laghman province, MoI said.
According to MoI, Mahmood is originally a resident of Lahore city of Pakistain and was in contact with the military of Pakistain.
The anti-government armed bully boy groups including the Taliban turbans have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as the Afghan officials earlier said hundreds of thousands of foreign insurngents including the Pak and Arab turbans are fighting alongside the turbans in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least one child was killed and three others were maimed in an kaboom in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, local officials said Monday.
The incident took place late on Sunday afternoon in Qosh Tapa district as the children were playing in the area and struck with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) which was already planted.
Provincial police chief Rahmatullah Turkistani confirmed the incident but did not elaborate further on who had plated the explosives.
The anti-government armed bad boy groups including the Taliban snuffies have not commented regarding the incident so far.
Taliban snuffies and holy warriors belonging to the other krazed killer groups frequently use Improvised Explosive Device (IED) as the weapon of their choice to target the security forces but the ordinary civilians are often targeted in such attacks.
This comes as the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Assistance Mission in Afghanistan released the latest civilian casualties report late last month which stated at least 3726 non-combatants were killed or maimed between January and June of this year.
The UN mission said the civilian casualties in the country has reached to a record number since counting began in 2009, with 5,166 civilians recorded killed or maimed in just the first six months of this year, of whom almost one-third were children. The total civilian casualty figure recorded by the UN between 1 January 2009 and 30 June 2016 has risen to 63,934, including 22,941 deaths and 40,993 injured.
According to the UN mission, the anti-government elements remain responsible for 60 percent of the civilian casualties with ground engagements continuing to cause the highest number of civilian casualties, followed by complex and suicide kabooms and improved bombs (IEDs).
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Hezbollah carried out another powerful attack against the jihadist rebels of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Nusra Front) in the Qalamoun Mountains of rural Damascus on Monday.
Hezbollah’s media wing captured footage of the missile strike that destroyed the Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham headquarters near the Jaroud Jarajeer border-crossing.
This ATGM (anti-tank guided missile) attack by Hezbollah on Monday marks the second time in the last 24 hours that they have targeted one of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham’s positions near the Lebanese-Syrian border-crossing.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[LONGWARJOURNAL.ORG] Anwar ul Haq Mujahid, the commander of the Tora Bora Military Front and son of an influential Taliban leader who was instrumental in welcoming the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... to Afghanistan after al Qaeda was ejected from Sudan in 1996, has sworn allegiance to the Taliban’s new emir.
Anwar ul Haq’s pledge was announced on Aug. 21 by Zabihullah Mujahid, an official front man of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ‐ the official name of the Taliban.
"Son of Khalis Baba (RA), respected Mawlawi Anwarul Haq Mujahid declares allegiance to Amir ul Mumineen," the Taliban front man wrote on his official Twitter feed.
"Khalis Baba" is a reference to Maulvi Mohammed Yunis Khalis, Anwar ul Haq’s father, who led a faction of Hizb-e-Islami before his death in 2006. Khalis was close to Jalaluddin Haqqani ...founder and still titular head of the Haqqani Network. Jalaluddin is old and tough and very crafty, one of the few Pashtun warlords who was worth spit... , allied with al Qaeda, and advocated jihad outside of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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#1
In the nineteen eighties Pakistan General Zia ul-Haq was directly responsible for arming the Hizb-e-Islami of the Afghanistan commander Yunis Khalis and its brother organization in Pakistan the Harakat al-Jihadi Islami (HUJI). Both were active in the management and recruitment of Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. (A decade later the HUJI formed in Bangladesh under Shaukat Usman (AKA Sheikh Farid). By 2005 the Islamist HUJI operated in 24 countries and was especially active in Kashmir, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, northeast Bangladesh, and Arakan state, Myanmar. Since then, both the Hizb and the Harakat have been the playthings of the Pak military.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Jaish Al-Fateh (Army of Conquest) has had little rest in southern Aleppo today, thanks in large-part to the Russian Air Force’s nonstop Arclight airstrikes over the Al-Ramouseh and Al-’Amariyah districts.
According to a military source in the Aleppo Governorate, the Russian Air Force has conducted over 40 Arclight airstrikes inside the placid provincial capital’s southern districts today, targeting Jaish Al-Fateh’s defenses and movements.
Among the many targets for the Russian Air Force in southern Aleppo was the jihadist controlled Al-Hikmah School, which overlooks the southern buildings in the 1070 Al-Hamdaniyah Housing Project.
The Russians also zeroed in on specific jihadist targets like the Aleppo Artillery Academy, Muttah Hill, and Al-’Amariyah Farms; these sites had a large presence of Jaish Al-Fateh murderous Moslems.
Currently, the Russian Air Force is backing the Syrian Armed Forces and Hezbollah with Arclight airstrikes above the jihadist areas inside the Technical College.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[THEINTERCEPT] ON AUGUST 8, a coalition of rebel groups announced that they had successfully broken the long-standing Syrian government siege of rebel-controlled east Aleppo. Among the groups taking part in the offensive was Jabhat Fath al-Sham, formerly Jabhat 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 .. ... , al Qaeda’s local affiliate in the country. Video footage released by the group showed its contributions in key battles against regime positions around the city.
Days before the offensive to break the siege began, Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani appeared in an unprecedented video message announcing that his group had cut formal ties with al Qaeda and would henceforth operate under the name Jabhat Fath al-Sham. Jolani said members would "strive toward unity with all groups, in order to unify the ranks of the mujahideen and liberate the land of [Syria] from the rule of [Bashir al-Assad] and his allies."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A British engineer working with the bomb disposal unit in Iraq’s Anbar province was killed on Tuesday while defusing a bomb- a remnant from the battles between ISIS and Iraqi armed forces.
Speaking about it in details Ramadi Mayor Ibrahim Osaj said, “While defusing a bomb at Malaab in southern Ramadi that detonated at 7 am, a British national was killed and another person was injured.”
Osaj added that, “The British person was working with an American company that specializes in defusing bombs and booby traps,” he said, without disclosing the victim’s name.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A military source in Anbar province announced on Tuesday that a mass grave, containing the bodies of ISIS members, was discovered in Khalidiya Island to the east of Ramadi.
Sharing details the source said, “Security forces discovered a mass grave of ISIS members containing 20 bodies. The discovery was made during a search operation in Khalidiya Island, some 23 km to the east of Ramadi.”
It may be mentioned here that the security forces are continuing their cleansing operations in the areas and the villages of Khalidiya Island, searching for ISIS members, apart from dismantling mines and improvised explosive devices.
Posted by: badanov ||
08/24/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Mosul – Commander of special operations Maj. Gen. Sami Al-Ardedi, on Tuesday, said that Iraqi forces have swiftly advanced and stormed Qayyarah, a district to the south of ISIS-held city of Mosul. This came hours after the forces launched its operation against ISIS.
Ardedi, in a statement issued to the media, said, “The process to enter Qayyarah from three points began early today morning. Counter-terrorism units are also taking part in the operation alongside the Iraqi army.”
“Priority of the operation is to save and protect civilians in the area, as they are being used by ISIS as human shields,” Ardedi further added.
It may be mentioned here that the Iraqi Defense Ministry has urged Qayyarah residents to implement an immediate evacuation within this week and head towards a settlement near the district’s airfield or to Tibna village, which is under the control of Iraqi forces.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Nineveh operations command on Tuesday announced that ISIS leader was killed in Qayyarah after the security forces reportedly entered the district.
In a statement issued to the media Amir Wathiq, an official of the Nineveh operations command, said, “Iraqi troops and ISIS militants were engaged in a heavy gunfight today in Qayyarah, which destroyed 23 car bombs of the outfit.”
“In the battle, forces gunned down dozens of ISIS militants including Abu Futuhi, the Chechen ISIS leader in Qayyarah,” Wathiq further added.
In another statement issued to the media, commander of Nineveh operations Najim al-Jabouri, said, “Iraqi troops have entered Qayyarah in southern Mosul on the west bank of Tigris River.”
It may be recalled here that Qayyarah has been under ISIS control since 2014 and the airbase of the city was liberated recently by the Iraqi forces in collaboration with the international coalition aviation.
“Liberating Qayyarah and other ISIS-held areas to the south of Mosul will help the Iraqi army in drawing the last blood against ISIS in central Mosul- considered as the main ISIS bastion in Iraq,” further added Jabouri.
Posted by: badanov ||
08/24/2016
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[AllAfrica] The Nigerian Army on Tuesday announced the death of three key commanders of the extremist Boko Haram sect.
The army said the terrorists were killed on Friday in a major air strike on their location in the dreaded Sambisa Forest.
The spokesperson for the Army, Sani Usman, said the leader of the terrorist group, Abubakar Shekau, was also inflicted with with "fatal injury" during the operation.
Mr. Sani, a colonel, said the bombardment was carried out on Friday while Mr. Shekau, who the Nigerian military had pronounced dead several times in the past years, was leading his group in performing the Friday prayers at a secret location called Tayye in the heart of the vast forest.
The military has repeatedly claimed credit for killing Mr. Shekau. But the sect denounced the claims each time saying its leader remained alive. At times, Mr. Shekau would appear in a video to prove he had not been killed.
The military however insisted that the original Abubakar Shekau had long been killed, and that the so-called Abubakar Shekau said to be alive was a made-up character.
Giving further details of Friday bombardment, Mr. Sani gave the names of those killed in the raid as Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman.
Our correspondent in Maiduguri said the air raid was not immediately reported because journalists have no access to the location. Military insiders also said the air force had no idea how successful the bombardments were until late Monday when the Army became aware of those killed and injured in battle.
Colonel Usman's statement reads in full:
"In what one could describe as the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid, we have just confirmed that as a result of the interdiction efforts of the Nigerian Air Force, some key leaders of the Boko Haram terrorists have been killed while others were fatally wounded.
"The air interdiction took place last week Friday 19th August 2016, while the terrorists were performing Friday rituals at Taye village,
"Those Boko Haram terrorists commanders confirmed dead include Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others. While their leader, so called "Abubakar Shekau", is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders. Several other terrorists were also wounded".
A Turkish military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Sirnak province, killing two soldiers, security sources and private Dogan news agency said on Tuesday.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast in Uludere town near the Iraqi border. Turkey’s southeast has been hit by a surge in violence since a ceasefire with militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) ended last year.
The PKK claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack targeting a police station in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig last Thursday that killed three officers.
The attack was the largest in a series of bombings which killed a total of 10 people, mostly police and soldiers, and wounded 300 more within less than 24 hours.
It was an escalation of violence in southeastern Turkey that officials blamed on PKK militants, who Turkey, the United States and European Union label as a terrorist organization.
Since the collapse of the ceasefire, the PKK has carried out dozens of attacks on police and military posts in the largely Kurdish region in its fight for greater autonomy for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds.
Posted by: badanov ||
08/24/2016
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[ALMASDARNEWS] The World Food Program (WFP) have released a report claiming that it needs $52 million between now and the end of the year to be able to support over 700,000 people continue affected by 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... ’s insurgency in Nigeria’s north east.
The odds of that need being filled approaches zero, sadly.
According to the WFP, the food situation is in the ’emergency phase.’
"The news comes as in the past days alone, tens of people have been killed or injured in Nigeria and in neighbouring Chad, Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Niger ‐ an indication that Boko Haram violence is set to keep pushing more people into hunger and suffering," said Abdou Dieng, WFP’s Regional Director for West Africa.
’’Much of it, as well as medicines, vaccines and medical equipment, is being delivered through the WFP-managed United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Humanitarian Air Service, frequently used by the wider humanitarian community,’’ the WFP blurb stated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#1
Seems more cost effective to take the $52 million and hire a Private Military Contractor to hunt down the Bozos like rats at the dump. It's their presence that is the root of the problem.
Jubilation at the successful interception of a consignment of terrorist weapons off the coast yesterday was tempered today with news of more army casualties and the continuing deadly random bombardment of the city from insurgent positions.
Two members of Saiqa Special Forces died on their wounds sustained last week in an IED explosion that killed outright four of their comrades.
The capture of a launch towing plastic barrels packed with explosives and ammunition was a sign, said an army source, that the terrorists hemmed into Gwarsha and Ganfouda were running out of supplies. Yet the ability of IS and Ansar Al-Sharia terrorists along with their allies in the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council to keep on fighting has been one of the oddities of the army’s operation against them.
When in February, after months of fighting, the army finally overran the small port of Mreisa, to the west of Benghazi, it was assumed that the supply of arms and ammunition as well as fresh fighters had been interdicted. Yet the terrorists have continued to mount counter attacks and launch substantial truck bombs, such as that earlier this month which killed and wounded 100 soldiers.
Equally the two other terrorist enclaves in the city, in Sabri and Suq Al-Hud have continued to hold out. Indeed two troops were killed on Saturday when they tried to mount a raid on a property in Suq Al-Hud.
The terrorists have also been able to keep up random rocket mortar fire on areas of the city from which they were driven long ago. Today one man died and at least five other people were injured in such attacks.
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08/24/2016
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The task team assigned to probe the fall of Dahna-e-Ghori district of Baghlan, last week, said on Tuesday that preliminary findings show the Taliban reportedly infiltrated the area without facing retaliation from security forces.
The task team said that it will refer its findings to the president in a few days – once their investigations into the fall of the district have been finalized.
"There was sufficient forces deployed in the district and no fighting was reported (or reports received) to say that they (Taliban) seized control of the district after heavy attacks. The president ordered the issue to be investigated, so we are trying to get to the bottom of the matter," said Dawoud Gulzar, a presidential advisor for tribal affairs.
"The question is whether you are trying to tackle the issue of Dahna-e-Ghori from an ethnic perspective or a military standpoint; if you deal with it from a military viewpoint, then it was necessary that it should have been dealt with from a military profile by the probe team, but not by a presidential advisor for tribal affairs," said Sher Mohammad Jahesh, a civil society activist.
Last year, a similar delegation under the chairmanship of the minister of borders and tribal affairs, Gulab Mangal, was assigned to investigate the fall of Dand-e-Ghori district to the Taliban. This came after a controversial deal was made with the Taliban and local government officials that no attacks from either side would be allowed. Mangal had been involved in the deal at the time - a deal that sparked strong reactions in the country.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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... has foiled an attack on a mosque in Um Al-Hamam village in the Shiite-dominated enclave of Al-Qatif in the kingdom’s Eastern province, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
The man, who attempted the attack on Al-Rasoul Al-A’dham mosque, was wearing an boom belt and was eliminated by Saudi security forces, the channel’s correspondent said.
An accomplice in the attack, meanwhile, was incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! . Both men were not Saudis but residents in the kingdom.
The thwarted attack comes after a series of bombings taking place in early July this year, which includes a blast near Prophet Mohammed’s mosque in Madinah, two suicide kabooms in Al-Qatif as well as a bomb targeting near the US consulate in Jeddah.
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08/24/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] An kaboom targeted the Afghan and the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... forces in Bagram district of northern Parwan province late on Monday evening, local officials said.
The NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission confirmed an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack targeted the Afghan army vehicle during a partnered patrol.
RS further added that no Resolute Support or US soldiers were hurt in the attack.
In the meantime the local security officials in Bagram district said a jacket wallah detonated a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) near a convoy of the US forces.
The officials further added that three coppers sustained injuries in the attack that took place around 6 pm local tme in Qala-e-Nasro area.
Accroding to the officials, the police forces were escorting the convoy when it came under the attack.
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08/24/2016
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[Dhaka Tribune] The identities of the five holy warriors involved in the deadly terror attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, Dhaka have been confirmed through DNA tests
Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) made the announcement yesterday afternoon.
"The five attackers were identified previously, but their identities have been confirmed after matching their DNA with their family members," he told news hounds at his office.
DMP’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) unit received the results of the DNA tests on Monday, according to which the DNA of each murderous Moslem matched with the sample provided by their family members, the deputy commissioner said.
The identity of Holey Artisan Bakery’s pizza chef Saiful Chowkidar was also confirmed after the testing, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[Iraq Sun] The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, has expressed deep dismay at the execution of 36 people in Iraq in relation to a 2014 massacre during which hundreds of military cadets were killed.
"[The High Commissioner] urged the authorities to ensure that any trials conducted in connection with the massacre respected due process and international fair trial rather than be fuelled by vengeance," C"cile Pouilly, a spokesperson for OHCHR, told the press today at a regular briefing in Geneva.
"Unfortunately, this was not the case," she added.
In June 2014, some 1,700 cadets at the Camp Speicher military base were killed in an attack by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, Da'esh) fighters.
In the aftermath of the killings, the UN human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... chief had expressed that the "magnitude and brutality of the Camp Speicher massacre was exceptional" and that it was important to respond to the plight of the survivors and families of the victims.
At the briefing today, the OHCHR spokesperson said that the executions, carried out on Sunday, were particularly worrying given serious due process concerns and fair trial shortcomings.
"The individuals who have been executed were convicted only on the basis of information provided by secret informants or by confessions allegedly extracted under duress," she noted, adding that the claims of 19 defendants that they were tortured to induce confessions were never investigated.
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08/24/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The flights of Russian warplanes from the Iranian airbase in Hamedan have not been suspended, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Tuesday.
"The flights haven’t been suspended. Iran and Russia are allies in the fight against terrorism," Larijani said. He added that Iran’s Shahid Nojeh air base in Hamedan is only "used for refueling," not for permanent deployment.
The speaker responded to last week’s statement of MP Mahmud Sadeghi that 20 politicians had sent a letter to the parliament’s presidium demanding explanations about the use of the airbase. "The request will be certainly considered," Larijani said.
Last week for the first time ever, Russia’s military used an airfield in Iran to attack turbans in Syria. Long-range bombers, namely Tupolev-22M3 and Sukhoi-34 front-line bombers participated in the raid. Earlier, these aircraft flew sorties from airdromes in Russia and front-line bombers, from the Hmeymim base in Syria.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry official front man Bahram Ghasemi told news hounds in Tehran that Russia stopped using the base in Iran.
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08/24/2016
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A heavy contingent of Sindh Rangers on Tuesday carried out a raid at Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s makeshift office in Karachi’s PIB Colony, Waqt News reported.
According to local media reports, the paramilitary force carried out the raid at a wedding hall, which is being used by the Muttahida as a temporary office, in PIB Colony.
The Rangers personnel also checked national identity cards (CNICs) of every person present in the hall, including MQM leader Amir Khan who was attending a meeting pertaining to local government elections.
In a separate development, Sindh Rangers Director General Maj-Gen Bilal Akbar visited MQM stronghold Nine Zero. He also reviewed security measures taken by the paramilitary force.
Earlier on Tuesday, Dr Farooq Sattar in a press conference at Karachi Press Club announced MQM’s decision to sideline party’s London-based supremo Altaf Hussain.
“In wake of the prevailing situation, MQM has decided to distance itself from anyone, be it a worker or the party chief, who speaks against Pakistan’s sovereignty and integrity,” said Dr Sattar.
Following Dr Sattar’s press conference at Karachi Press Club, TV anchor Amir Liaquat Hussain announced his decision to quit the party.
“I’m not a traitor. As I distance myself from the party, I apologise to everyone. Pakistan is everything to me. God bless Pakistan,” local media reports quoted Amir Liaquat as saying.
The development came after Altaf Hussain launched a barrage of anti-Pakistan tirade. According to local TV channels, Altaf in his Monday’s speech told protesters "to storm the offices of TV channels".
Violent protesters later stormed the office of ARY News in Karachi’s Saddar area. They also set a police mobile on fire. The incident claimed one live and injured five others.
Later in the day, Sindh Rangers arrested Dr Sattar and Khawaja Izharul Hassan when the two were about to hold a press conference in wake of the attack on ARY News office.
Major General Akbar said that the paramilitary force will examine camera footage to identify perpetrators of the attack. “We won’t let anyone sabotage law and order in Karachi,” said the Rangers chief.
The paramilitary force also arrested several other Muttahida activists, including Amir Liaquat, Amir Khan and Sajid Ahmed. Media reports say the arrested MQM activists will record their statements.
After arresting key Muttahida leaders, including Dr Farooq Sattar and Amir Liaquat, Sindh Rangers sealed MQM stronghold Nine Zero after confiscating communication equipment.
According to local media reports, a heavy contingent of the paramilitary force arrested three party activists from Nine Zero. They also took control of the headquarters’ control room.
While cautious calm prevailed over some sites on the frontline in Taiz, the national army and the Popular Resistance continues to advance and control large areas of the western front that was formerly controlled by Houthi militias and forces loyal to the ousted president Saleh.
Whilst legitimate forces in Taiz are making advances, rebel militias are attempting to drive them away with military reinforcements in areas in west Taiz that saw violent clashes yesterday. Soldiers on both sides were killed and injured.
This fighting coincides with the arrival of the first food convoy funded by Saudi Arabia in the city of Taiz after the western Dubab front was liberated. The convoy was loaded with more than 40 tonnes of relief assistance for the people of the province.
In order to fully complete the liberation of the western front and clear it of rebel militias, national army troops and those belonging to the Popular Resistance headed for Al-Rabeei and Hudhran where there are still some rebel militias in some locations.
Military operations to takeover continue in Taiz with the support of the Saudi led Arab coalition’s aircraft, and Houthi leaders have been killed and injured. Some of them fled to the Al-Hooban area in the east which is controlled by Houthi militias.
The leader of the Popular Resistance told Asharq Al-Awsat that the “legitimate forces yesterday liberated a number of sites in the Al-Rabeei area” from the rebel militias and that the area will soon be completely cleared of them. Rebel militias are keen to protect the positions that they still control because of their strategic importance after Mount Han was liberated.
[AFP] Most of the terrorists behind a series of bombings in Thai tourist towns are people from the kingdom's far South, Thailand's police chief said yesterday. It was the first clear indication that officials think a southern militants played a role in the attacks which killed four and injured dozens this month.
Police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said investigators believe a group of "more than twenty people" were behind the co-ordinated attacks. He said, "Most of them are from the area of the southern border provinces police operation center."
Chakthip added that investigators had recently searched a school where he believed some of the suspects had studied or graduated from. Asked whether the suspects were Thai nationals he replied: "They are not Buddhists."
Analysts say Thailand's military leadership fears any admission that southern insurgents were responsible might harm tourism and raise questions over the regime's ability to ensure security. However in recent days the police investigation has increasingly pointed southward.
One arrest warrant has so far been issued for a named suspect over the attacks, a man from the southern province of Narathiwat. Local reports say that the man, Ahama Lengha, has a history of involvement with militants.
Police chief Chakthip said he believed the perpetrators were previously unknown to police, not veterans from within the Malay insurgency who might be easier to catch and identify.
[AFP] The Philippine government said it hoped to reach a peace deal with Maoist militants within a year, as the two sides began talks in Oslo aimed at ending one of Asia's longest insurgencies. Philippine chief of negotiations Silvestre Bello said, "On the part of the [government] panel, we have imposed a timeline of nine to 12 months."
The two sides hope to renew the peace process by discussing simultaneously issues of social and economic reform, political and constitutional change, and an end to hostilities. Previous peace negotiations have addressed one issue at a time.
President Duterte has made the resumption of talks with the communist rebels one of his top priorities. He has even floated the possibility of forming a coalition government with them.
The head of the rebel delegation, Luis Jalandoni was more cautious in his optimism about reaching a political settlement after 30 years of failed talks. He said, "I think we will try to do it in one year but it might take a little more time because the negotiations on social and economic reforms could take more time. It's more complicated than some may think."
The Communist Party of the Philippines launched a rebellion in 1969 that has so far claimed the lives of 30,000 people. Its armed faction, the New People's Army, is now thought to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s.
The communists said their own ceasefire would only last until August 27, but a rebel statement said they were willing to discuss a longer truce. However, this would only be possible after the government freed all 550 guerrillas now detained.
[USNEWS] Donald Trump is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Clinton Foundation donors were able to exact favors from Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Daniel Webster ... 's State Department, accusing federal Sherlocks of failing to adequately probe whether the charitable organization was used to cross legal and ethical lines.
"After the FBI and Department of Justice whitewash of the Clinton email crimes, they certainly cannot be trusted to quickly or impartially investigate Hillary Clinton's crimes," Trump told an audience in Akron, Ohio, on Monday night. "The Justice Department is required to appoint an independent special prosecutor because it has proven itself to be a political arm of the White House."
Trump's call followed the disclosure of emails from top Clinton aide Huma Abedin in connection with a lawsuit by the conservative group Judicial Watch, which has raised new questions about whether Clinton granted special access and favors to high-rolling donors to her family's foundation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[HOSTED.AP.ORG] More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Hamilton Fish ... while she was secretary of state gave money - either personally or through companies or groups - to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.
At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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#1
This woman should have never ever been running for POTUS. Ethical standards have been tossed out the window.
[LATIMES] The Taliban and Afghan government forces were wrestling for control of districts in northern Afghanistan on Sunday as officials vowed not to let the strategic city of Kunduz fall back into bully boy hands.
Kunduz, the country’s fifth-largest city, was briefly captured by the Taliban nearly one year ago. At the time, the loss marked a devastating blow to the struggling 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.... government and its beleaguered security forces, and prompted the U.S.-led military coalition to deploy dozens of troops and Arclight airstrikes to help the Afghans regain control of the city.
Early Saturday, the Taliban launched another major effort to take Kunduz, attacking two districts on its eastern flank. The Lions of Islam were then able to capture Khanabad.
While Afghan ground forces backed by Arclight airstrikes late Saturday recaptured the district of Khanabad, east of Kunduz, Lions of Islam seized the district of Qala-e-Zal, west of the city, officials said.
"Unfortunately, the center of Qala-e-Zal district fell to the Lions of Islam last night, but we will soon retake the district," Gen. Murad Ali Murad, deputy chief of army staff, told news hounds.
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08/24/2016
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[TIMESOFISRAEL] In Sunday night’s bombardment, the Israel Defense Forces struck "key Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, strategic assets" in the northern Gazoo Strip, military sources said Tuesday, shedding more light on the harsher-than-expected response to a rocket attack from the coastal enclave.
After a projectile from Gazoo landed in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Sunday, the IDF retaliated with what has become the routine response of a limited strike, hitting two Hamas installations in the northern Gazoo Strip, the army said.
Hours later, the IDF conducted another, considerably larger barrage, carrying out approximately 50 strikes against Hamas infrastructure in the Gazoo Strip, using both tanks and aircraft.
These targets were not directly related to the rocket launch, nor were they only an attempt at creating a deterrent effect. Rather, the IDF took advantage of the opportunity presented by the attack to take out Hamas strategic assets.
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08/24/2016
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[SAToday] Czechs do not want a larger Muslim presence in the country, according to Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
“We have no strong Muslim community here, and to be honest, we do not
want a strong Muslim community to become established here,” he said
in an interview with the Pravo newspaper on Tuesday.
The Czech Republic shared Germany’s desire to stem the tide of
refugees from the Middle East, he said, “but we have different views
on how to achieve this.”
The comments by Sobotka, who heads a three-party governing coalition,
came two days before a visit to Prague by German Chancellor Angela
Merkel.
The Czech Republic, along with fellow Visegrad states Poland, Hungary
and Slovakia, is against a permanent refugee quota system for European
countries as advocated by Merkel. They believe it should be up to
national governments to decide how many refugees to take in.
“The bottom line is that it is national governments which must guarantee the safety of their citizens,” he said.
[Mindanao Examiner] At least three Philippine soldiers and a militiaman were killed in fierce gun battles Tuesday with Abu Sayyaf militants in Basilan province. One civilian was also injured after being hit by stray bullets.
Officials said the fighting broke out in Tuburan town where security forces are pursuing the Abu Sayyaf. No other details were immediately available, but the military previously captured two Abu Sayyaf encampments in Tipo-Tipo town and claim to have killed at least 45 militants – although no bodies have been recovered – in a month-long operation in Basilan.
The clashes coincided with an Abu Sayyaf grenade attack on the residence of Catholic priests in Jolo town in Sulu province . No casualties were reported in the attack carried out by two men riding tandem on a motorbike.
[AA.TR] At least five Philippine troops have been killed in festivities with a ISIS-linked group as fighting resumed outside three towns in the Moslem south from which the military recently pushed back Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... myrmidons.
Richard Falcatan, dxN0 radio station manager, told Anadolu Agency that three soldiers and two government forces of Evil were killed in two separate festivities Tuesday in the troubled island province of Basilan ...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts... , where the military recently overran Abu Sayyaf encampments.
He quoted Governor Jim Hataman-Saliman as saying that three soldiers and a militiaman died in fighting in Tuburan town, where the Abu Sayyaf reportedly fled after government troops captured at least three of their hilltop strongholds in Tipo-Tipo town last week.
A second encounter broke out after Abu Sayyaf members reportedly fired on forces of Evil verifying reports on the presence of turbans in Sumisip town, leaving a militia volunteer dead and three others maimed.
Meanwhile in the neighboring island province of Sulu, the Abu Sayyaf was blamed for a hand grenade attack on a Catholic convent in a dawn attack in which no casualties were reported.
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Why get your huevos rancheros caught in a vice if you don't need to? Avoid entangling alliances. You tried twice in the 20th Century to save them at great expense in men and resources. And they enjoy the lavish military welfare you fork over to them while dealing behind your back and showing no real indication that they are as concerned about their own future. They expect the US to commit suicide (nuclear exchange) on their behalf. Really?
#4
The amount of damage Obama did with the red line he wasn't serious about is incalculable. Biden can pretend to stand tough right now. I don't see Germany ramping up to defend the Balkins at this point and most of Europe is distracted as well.
Basically Biden should be telling the Balkin nations to lay low and be nice to the Big Bear and hope sanity and responsibility returns to the west.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Al-Hasakah, Syria ‐ The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) launched a large-scale offensive in the southern countryside of the Al-Hasakah Governorate on Tuesday, targeting the strategic city of Al-Shadadi, which is currently under the control of the U.S. backed "Syrian Democratic Forces."
ISIS managed to seize three villages from the Syrian Democratic Forces this morning after overrunning their defenses at the southern countryside of Al-Shadadi.
Following the capture of these three villages, the Islamic State Lions of Islam advanced north towards the village of Al-Sheikh ’Uthman, where they were confronted by a small SDF unit.
The Islamic State Lions of Islam managed to seize Al-Sheikh ’Uthman after a fracture in the SDF’s first-line of defense.
Despite the nonstop Arclight airstrikes from the U.S. Coalition, the Islamic State Lions of Islam are still pushing north towards Al-Shadadi, as they continue their large-scale offensive.
[ARA News] HASAKAH – The Syrian Kurds on Tuesday took control of most of the city of Hasakah in a battle that lasted for seven days.
Several negotiations took place to stop the fighting between the Syrian regime and the Kurds, but they did not succeed to stop the fighting until Tuesday reaching a ceasefire agreement.
During seven days of clashes, regime jets carried out air strikes for three consecutive days and without air strikes the Syrian government forces were not able to resist Kurdish advances that took control of around 90 to 95 per cent of the city.
US-led coalition jets prevented in the past few days Syrian regime jets from striking Kurdish positions. However, sounds of regime helicopters and unidentified air planes remained in the sky of Hasakah in northeastern Syria.
The agreement said that all the Syrian troops and affiliated militias had to withdraw from Hasakah city and that areas captured by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) would stay under their control. Most likely they will be replaced by civil police.
Speaking to ARA News, YPG fighter Abdulsalam Omer (20) said that only the security square is in the hands of the Syrian government, and confirmed that many Arab fighters joined the Kurdish-led Asayish security force and the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“We joined to protect our honour, land and people,” he said.
The truce also stressed that both sides should release their prisoners, open roads that were closed because of clashes, and civil servants that were fired to be reinstated in their jobs.
“Yesterday night we have reached a ceasefire agreement,” Ismail Rasho, a YPG official told ARA News in Hasakah. “Only the security square is left, the rest of the city is liberated like Gweran and Nashwa districts.”
“There is not much left for the regime, only the municipality area,” he added.
The Kurdish forces were helped by the fact that the Syrian regime jets couldn’t strike the forces–that have been backed by US-led coalition jets in the fight against ISIS.
“From the beginning the regime jets carried out strikes for two or three days, but after that they stopped,” Rasho said.
Sheikh Salih Obeid, an official in the YPG military relations office, thanked the Americans for their indirect support. “I also thank President Obama,” he said.
[ARA News] HASAKAH – After one week of heavy clashes between Kurdish forces of the Self-Administration and pro-regime troops in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah city, the conflicting sides today reached a ceasefire agreement.
The truce was reached between the Kurds and pro-Assad forces after a Russian mediation.
This comes after the Kurdish forces captured large areas in Hasakah, including Gaweran and Nashwa Sharqiya districts beside a number of public institutions in the city.
Speaking to ARA News in Hasakah, Kurdish officer Alan Kousa said: “We have been fighting for nearly ten days. Our forces made remarkable gains. We captured several new areas such as Nashwa Sarqiya, Allailiya and the central prison of Hasakah, beside taking parts of the central market. The regime’s militias are now surrounded by our forces inside the Security Complex in the city.”
“We are now waiting to see whether the truce agreement would be effective to stop the fighting, that’s why we haven’t broken into their final stronghold,” the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Taliban have been doing this systematically since 2014, Boko Harem and ISIS since 2015. Its relatively easy for an Iman or even a well briefed trainer to brainwash twelve to fourteen year olds and kids are good at getting through checkpoint and climbing through small holes in fences.
Posted by: lord garth ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Tuesday ordered residents to evacuate a Turkish border town that lies opposite the Syrian town of Jarabulus controlled by ISIS holy warriors, television reported.
Police warned residents through loudspeakers to evacuate "for safety reasons" the town of Karkamis which was hit by a series of mortars fired from ISIS-held areas.
Reports have also suggested Ankara-backed rebels are preparing a major operation to seize Jarabulus from the holy warriors.
Turkey has been shelling ISIS positions in Jarabulus to help allied Syrian rebels secure it. Rebel sources say they have been mobilizing in Turkey, ready to cross into Jarabulus.
Turkey pledged Tuesday to give "all kinds of support" to push ISIS turbans out of the city, near the two countries’ border.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made the promise amid the reports that Ankara-backed rebels were massing on the border in anticipation of an impending operation against ISIS.
"We will provide all kinds of support to the Jarabulus operation," Cavusoglu said, promising to help "cleanse" ISIS from neighboring countries.
"We do not want ISIS to exist in Iraq and Syria," he told news hounds, using an Arabic acronym for the ISIS group.
Turkey on Tuesday pounded ISIS positions in Syria with artillery strikes after a deadly attack near its border killed at least 54 people.
"We shelled ISIS positions across the border," said a Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Turkish media reported that tanks and armored vehicles amassed on the Syrian border.
In a live interview with private NTV television, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Turkey was closely monitoring the developments on the Syrian side of the border, adding that Ankara sees this "as a national security matter."
"What we have said, since the beginning, is that having Jarabulus or any other city held by ISIS is unacceptable," he said.
Turkish artillery shelled 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.... targets across the border in Syria for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, a senior Turkish official said, amid reports that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... -backed Syrian rebels are preparing an offensive against an Islamic State-held border town.
The latest developments have thrust the town of Jarablus onto center stage in the ongoing Syrian civil war, putting U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, who have been the most effective force against Islamic State in northern Syria, on track for a confrontation with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... ally Turkey over control of the town.
Jarablus is a vital supply line and the last border point that directly connects the Islamic State group with Turkey and the outside world, and separates Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria.
The town is 33 kilometers (20 miles) from the town of Manbij, which was liberated from the terror group by Kurdish-led forces earlier this month. Taking over Jarablus and the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab farther south would be a significant step toward linking border areas under Kurdish control east and west of the Euphrates River.
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08/24/2016
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[HINDUSTANTIMES] US security assistance for Pakistain, which has been declining for years as a reflection of the deteriorating ties between the two erstwhile allies, has plummeted by more than 75% since 2011.
From $1.2 billion in 2011, it is now $316 million, as requested by the US administration for 2015, according to a report of the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Relations between the two countries hit a new low in 2011 after US Navy SEALs found and killed al Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be alive but now he's not... in the Pak military town of Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... .
Over the same period, total US assistance, including economic aid and compensation for helping coalition military forces, is down from $3.5 billion to $814 million (as requisitioned), the report released earlier this month said.
"Ties never really not recovered since 2011, if you look at statements from congressional leaders combined with their refusal to clear the F-16 deal and the introduction of the non-waivable exemption clause," " a congressional aide said.
"You can make a persuasive argument that the link between declining security assistance and deteriorating ties is causal and not mere coincidence," the aide added.
"Duplicitous" is a word frequently used by politicians from both sides and even in the media for Pakistain, a non-NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ally, specially on account of its patchy counter-terrorism efforts.
The US has been pushing Pakistain to act against holy warriors operating from its soil, such as the Haqqani Network that attacks foreign forces in Afghanistan, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... , which targets India.
Islamabad, however, has been found to be focused more on holy warriors that target Pakistain, the "bad" terrorists, and not the "good" holy warriors that serve its strategic goals.
Frustrated by Pakistain’s continued ambivalence, US senators came together earlier this year to block a US proposal to sell to Pakistain eight new F-16 jets at subsidised costs.
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08/24/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Retired General Mohammad Ali Falaki, who is currently one of the Iranian forces leaders in Syria, has recently revealed that Iran has formed a "Shiite Liberation Army" led by Quds Force commander, General Qassem Soleimani.
The Quds Force also known as Pasdaran in Persian is a special forces unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and is responsible for the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s extraterritorial operation.
"The Shiite Liberation Army is currently fighting on three fronts - Iraq, Syria and Yemen," he told Mashregh news agency, which is close to the IRGC, in an interview published on Thursday.
The retired general said "This army is not only composed of Iranians but it recruits locally from the regions witnessing fighting."
Falaki, who is leading part of the IRGC fight in Syria to give support to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... ’s regime, advised that it was "not wise to directly involve Iranian forces into the Syrian conflict."
"The role of our personnel should be limited to training, preparing and equipping the Syrians to fight in their areas, " he added.
Eradicating Israel
Falaki said that the main objective behind the formation of the first nucleus of the ’Shiite Liberation Army’ is to "eradicate Israel after 23 years, especially that these battalions are now on Israeli borders."
The general, who is also an Iranian-Iraqi war veteran, also criticized Tehran for its failure to recruit Afghans and not creating a strong group with a tough leader for them on the lines of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement or militia group and its head Hassan Nasrallah.
"We’ve been considering Afghan refugees as dangerous offenders and mercenaries for the past 30 years," he said. "We did not work on having Afghan groups and leaders like we did with the Shiites of Leb, 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... and Bahrain."
The UN says there are about 950,000 registered Afghan citizens living in Iran but Tehran puts the total number at around 3 million.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... Falaki praised sacrifices by the ’Fatemiyon’ Afghan militias in Syria. He said that they only receive $100 for volunteering to fight there, dismissing reports that they expected to receive large sums of money.
He said the Afghan militias in Syria are "sacrificing their lives for nothing" especially that their 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.... has decided to arrest those who fought in Syria, with up to 18 years of jail sentence.
IRGC is still having "trouble when dealing with the Afghans in a friendly and brotherly way, because through Iranian eyes they are seen as inferior."
He said Paks have their ’Zeynabioun’ militia group, Iraqis have their ’Heydarioun’ while the Lebanese have Hezbollah.
Falaki also said there is another division for the Hezbollah, grouping both Iraqi and Syrian militias.
All of these militia groups are fighting under IRGC’s command, all wearing the "same uniform" under the same flag.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Seven people with links to terrorist networks, at least three of whom were planning attacks, have been tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! in La Belle France this month, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday.
Cazeneuve said at a presser that French police had arrested as many people for terror links in the first half of 2016 as for the whole of last year.
He gave no details of the latest arrests, however.
On August 8, a 16-year-old girl from the Gay Paree suburb of Melun was remanded in jug on charges of planning a terror attack. The teenager was an administrator of a group on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app that was used by two snuffies to plan the murder of a priest in Normandy in July.
According to Sherlocks, she "relayed numerous ISIS propaganda messages calling for attacks" and also expressed a personal desire to "take action".
Cazeneuve and his German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere on Tuesday asked the European Commission to consider legal measures that could be taken against the operators of encrypted messaging services such as Telegram.
After a meeting between the two ministers, Cazeneuve said such legislation could "impose obligations on operators who show themselves to be non-cooperative, in particular when it comes to withdrawing illegal content or decrypting messages as part of an investigation."
Meanwhile a 19-year-old from the Riviera city of Nice -- who was born to a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses but converted to Islam -- was on Tuesday sentenced to three years in prison for glorifying terrorism.
He was sentenced for his regular visits to turban sites on which he posted "nauseating" comments and photos, said a source close to the investigation.
French security services are scrambling to prevent further violence after two attacks in July that shocked the country just as it was starting to rebound from the turban bloodshed in Gay Paree in November.
On July 14, a 31-year-old Tunisian rammed a 19-tonne truck into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 86 people and wounding more than 400.
And on July 26, two 19-year-olds stormed a church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and slit the throat of an elderly priest.
Several major cultural and sporting events were cancelled in the wake of the attacks on security grounds.
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08/24/2016
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Law enforcement has recently uncovered that newly activated terror groups are recruiting scores of women, especially university students, to expand their reach.
These radicalised women pose a new kind of threat that security experts say Bangladeshi law enforcement are not prepared to handle.
In his confessional statement, Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Shaykh Abdur Rahman said they had some 50-60 female bandidosforces of Evil who were mostly wives of male members of the group.
Their duties were to continue Dawati (indoctrination) activities and inspire family members to be ready for jihad, he had said.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... law enforcers have been able to arrest very few female bad boys. In all its operations against JMB, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! 45 women members and 634 men of the group. Police could not provide any information on its arrests.
On May 8, Bogra police arrested Masuma Akter, wife of JMB’s Chittagong wing commander Raisul Islam Khan alias Fardeen, who was killed earlier while making bombs. Two other women were also caught with her.
On July 24, Detective Branch of Sirajganj police arrested four female JMB members, one of whom was found to be the relative of JMB leader Tarikul Islam Jewel, who was killed alongside Fardeen.
But law enforcement’s attention has only recently been drawn to the risks these female bandidosforces of Evil pose. The arrest of several female bad boys, specially the one in Dhaka by RAB on August 16 brought this issue into focus.
Tangail’s Kalihati police on July 6 arrested three female JMB members, aged between 19 to 30, who were later claimed they were members of a suicide squad. They were living with their husbands and children. Their husbands expeditiously departed at a goodly pace and one was later killed in an encounter.
RAB arrested four suspected members of JMB female wing from different areas of Dhaka. These four are highly educated and from wealthy backgrounds, similar to some of the Lions of Islam involved in the Gulshan and Sholakia attacks. One of them is an internee from Dhaka Medical College and other three are graduate pharmacy students of Manarat University.
From them, RAB learned that at least 20 more women were involved in the group, though only 10 names could be extracted. RAB 4 senior ASP Shamsul Haq yesterday said the names were code names and RAB was still trying to identify them.
One RAB official said the documents they found from the four women indicate that they were formerly members of Islami Chhatri Sangstha, the female students wing of Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... . But they had become further radicalised, said the source.
RAB sources said they had received information that the terrorist group was using girls and women to carry small arms.
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[ARA News] AMUDE – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday reported that Abdulsettar Al-Cadiri, commander of the newly established Jarabulus military council, was assassinated by unknown attackers. Syrian Kurds accused the Turkish intelligence service of carrying out the attack. Turkey has so far not responded to the allegations.
Turkey for over a year has said that Jarabulus is a red line, and the Kurds are not allowed to take the town of Jarabulus–which has been under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS) for over two years. However, since crossing Tisreen dam and taking Manbij city from ISIS two weeks ago, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have got closer to the town of Jarabulus on the Syrian-Turkish border.
The SDF-backed Jarabulus Military Council was announced in a statement on Monday. After three hours, al-Cadiri was killed by sniper fire in the town of Sheykler.
The Kurds say two agents of the Turkish intelligence were captured by the Jarabulus Military Council and are being interrogated.
“We in the military council of Jarabulus warn the Turkish government for its aggressive actions. We stress we will not stand idle towards such hostile acts,” the council previously said about Turkish plans to back Syrian rebels to take over Jarabulus.
The assassination will most likely result in more tensions and violence between the SDF forces and Turkey.
On Monday, Turkish artillery also hit an SDF position in northern Manbij.
The SDF leadership said in a statement that they fully backed the newly established council in Jarabulus.
“We support the statement released by Jarabulus military council against Turkish attempts to use military groups in order to spread its influence on the region,” the SDF said.
The western-backed SDF stressed that the opposition rebel groups that are supported by Turkey are no different from ISIS and will destabilize the region.
“We [SDF] confirm our readiness to defend the country against any schemes which consider direct or indirect occupation,” it said.
The SDF also called on the US-led coalition to support the SDF forces in its fight against terrorism.
“As a result of the serious challenges and plots by regional powers against the will of the people, and obstacles put for the local [federal] project [in northern Syria] by pushing out terrorist groups, we call on the coalition to abide by its pledges in securing an international protection for our country,” the SDF said.
The Pentagon said that coalition partners –such as Turkey– should fight ISIS, and not the SDF forces.
“Our concern and focus remains ISIL [ISIS] and doing everything we can to target ISIL and to keep the focus on ISIL, including making sure that the efforts of forces on the ground stay laser-focused on ISIL itself,” Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook said on Monday.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] During a dinner, New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... (NYT) editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein met with writer Scott Anderson. They agreed to work on a feature on the threats facing the Middle East post-Arab Spring. Work on the story ‐ described as an epic as it is longer than 40,000 words ‐ lasted 18 months.
It is a really interesting piece, particularly in terms of the investigative journalism involved. An Arabic translation of the article, entitled "Fractured lands: How the Arab world came apart," was published in Ash-Sharq al-Awsat. It addressed economic factors as it looked into the prospects of disintegration in the Arab world, and how states have been crushed and institutions weakened.
The piece noted: "The scattershot nature of the Arab Spring makes it hard to provide a single answer. Some nations were radically transformed, even as others right next door were barely touched. Some of the nations in crisis were relatively wealthy (Libya), others crushingly poor (Yemen). Some countries with comparatively benign dictatorships (Tunisia) blew up along with some of the region’s most brutal (Syria).
"The same range of political and economic disparity is seen in the nations that remained stable. Yet one pattern does emerge, and it is striking. While most of the 22 nations that make up the Arab world have been buffeted to some degree by the Arab Spring, the six most profoundly affected - Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and 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... - are all republics, rather than monarchies."
Social and cultural defects
There are major factors that are relevant to the prospects of disintegration and division in some Arab Spring countries. The Arab Spring exposed many social and cultural defects, awakening tribal affiliations as sectarianism fed off raging protests. This can clearly be seen in Syria, as the revolution shifted from a desire to achieve change to a struggle between Alawites and Shiites on one hand, and Sunnis who oppose the regime on the other.
This negative awakening makes countries such as Libya, Yemen and Syria an easy target for disintegration and collapse. This in addition to economic disparity in each country. We can complete Anderson’s note about monarchies by saying they are more able to adapt to global changes. The Arab Spring renewed their legitimacy as their citizens renewed their allegiance to them. In return, the states took developmental measures and devised programs and plans.
Since the days of Egypt’s late President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the era of Arab nationalism, some Arab republics have idolized some leaders provocatively, and outrageously idolized certain events, coups and revolutions. Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors... people suffered from economic bankruptcy and institutional collapse. This made societies completely separate from politics. As time passes and idolization decreases, a desire for Dire Revenge and accountability surfaces.
Even if people remain under the governance of a dictator for more than half a century, like in Libya, Syria and particularly Yemen, they will still find a way to avenge themselves. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... monarchies are distinguished for their rare wisdom, authentic awareness of societies’ needs, and being close to the people. This has created a social system that is radically different than those in Arab republics that adopted certain ideologies.
Therefore, the possibility of disintegration, as discussed in the NYT piece, will continue to exist because the situation on the ground is not stable yet, and these disturbed countries will not move toward peace anytime soon.
Although some crises are very bloody, they are still in their beginning stages, and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, the possibilities range from disintegration to division and ongoing civil war. Perhaps the best-case scenario will be ’stable chaos’ within fragile economic entities.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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#1
Maybe I'm in a particular pessimistic mood this morning but I'm of the opinion it (chaos and disintegration) could happen here (USA); particularly in view of the widespread criminality going on in the govmint and the reluctance by the govmint to clean its house and address it.
#4
You missed this part JohnQ. The NYTs was taken to task by none other than Eleanor Roosevelt.
What I have also gather from other sources, is the the governor was called and asked for the Guard to be sent in. He quickly concluded that their brothers (in arms) from the very recent conflict were just as likely to join up rather than suppress those in Athens. Given the amount of sleaze and corruption you can imagine in the capital, probably was a good idea not the force the issue.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The US State Department said on Friday that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has formally requested the extradition of US-based Turkish holy manFethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... but not on issues related to the recent coup attempt, which Turkish leaders have accused him of inspiring.
"We can confirm now that Turkey has requested the extradition of Gulen," State Department front man Mark Toner told a briefing. US officials earlier said they were reviewing documents submitted by Turkey but were not able to say they constituted an extradition request.
Toner told news hounds the formal extradition request from Turkey was not related to the attempted coup earlier this year but was for other issues for which Gulen was being sought by authorities in Ankara.
[Hurriyet] A total of 586 colonels have been retired from the army according to decisions taken at a meeting of Turkey’s Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) on Aug. 23, which convened for the second time in less than a month after the failed coup attempt of July 15.
This downsize and reorganization of the military is separate from the purge of thousands of accused Gulenist officers. More details at the link.
Meanwhile, the total projected term in service of officers was decreased to 28 years from 31 years, in a move to reduce the high-ranking officer buildup gradually.
The YAŞ also witnessed a new composition, with Turkey’s defense, foreign, interior, justice and deputy prime ministers participating in the meeting for the first time under the leadership of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, according to a decree law to increase the civilian authority to avoid future coup attempts.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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#1
"NO"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/24/2016 20:05
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#2
Gulen is a Klingon [regime change] 'lady in waiting.' I predict a tragic motoring accident, or galloping and untreatable Stage-4 cancer.
[ENG.MAJALLA] March 2, 2016 was the day that (finally!) heralded official recognition of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization by an important bloc of countries in the Arab World. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—comprised of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman—announced their decision to designate the Shi‘i Lebanese Militia a terrorist group based on Hezbollah’s engagement in “hostile acts” throughout the region and its endangerment of “Arab national security” through arms smuggling, inciting violence, and recruiting terrorists. While the momentum for this decision had been building for some time, it can still be understood as an escalation of the regional rivalry between the Sunni Arab monarchies and their arch-nemesis—Shi‘a Iran.
But the real question remains, what took so long for Hezbollah to be revealed as the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing that it has always been? The answers lie in the perfect storm that has emerged in the post-Arab uprisings period in which Iran’s expansive, destabilizing ambitions have gone too far to remain uncontested by the Arab World; Hezbollah pretense of championing the Palestinian cause has been revealed to be a farce; and chaos in the streets from Tunis to Sanaa have led Arab regimes to renew their emphasis on security, and to clamp down on terrorists of all stripes and their funders.
There was a time in the Middle East and North Africa that Hezbollah enjoyed approval ratings in the high nineties, and its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was seen as Batal al-‘Alam al-‘Arabi (a hero of the Arab World) alongside Saddam Hussein and others. In fact, the organization enjoyed this status as recently as 2006 in the immediate aftermath of its war with Israel. So what happened? It finally became clear to the majority of the Arab World that Hezbollah was not an indigenous socio-political resistance movement dedicated to fighting Israel—a cause that most of the region could rally behind for much of the 20th century—but rather a dangerous Iranian puppet whose ideology, training, funding, materiel, and direction were coming directly from Tehran. Now while the Gulf Monarchies seem to be acutely aware of this reality in light of their ongoing proxy-war with Iran, it has in fact always been apparent.
Hezbollah’s 1985 manifesto very clearly pledged loyalty to then Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , and urged the creation of a greater Islamic State governed by Imam Khomeini, in keeping with his idea of wilayat al-faqih (authority of the jurist-theologian). These sentiments were regularly echoed by Nasrallah himself as early as his undated speech from the late eighties prior to assuming his position as Secretary General of Hezbollah, and as recently as his televised speech at the 2015 Second Annual Conference of Renovation and Intellectual Jurisprudence of Imam Khamenei. Iran has been directing Hezbollah toward these aims since the beginning. For example, during the Fourth Conference on Islamic Thought in Tehran in 1986, several key meetings were held between the Lebanese and Iranian clerics to work on a constitution for the so-called Islamic Republic of Lebanon, modeled on the Iranian constitution. This republic, had it emerged, would have retained local authority, but would ultimately be answerable to Tehran.
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#1
Shakes down into another Sunni vs. Shi'ite struggle except we have the balance a bit by sending a ton on money to Iran who supports the Hezbullies who resides on Israel's doorstep. Thanks a hell of s lot Obama; what a blithering, bungling idiot.
[Foreign Desk News] Europeans in a number of countries are seeking to arm themselves with guns and self-defense devices in growing numbers following a series of attacks by gunnies and the mentally ill.
Some weapons sellers also link their increased business to the arrival of huge numbers of migrants colonists in Europe, although a German police report stated that the vast majority do not commit crimes of any kind in the country.
The picture is patchy, with no up-to-date data available at a European level, leaving national and regional authorities to release statistics that are far from comprehensive and not always comparable. Reasons also vary for civilians to own guns legally, including hunting and sport as well as self-protection.
Nevertheless, applications for gun permits are climbing in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , Austria and the Czech Republic. Their larger neighbor Germany has not followed the trend in lethal firearms, but permits for carrying devices designed to scare off assailants, such as blank guns and those that fire pepper spray, have risen almost 50 percent.
Little research into the reasons for the recent apparent trend has yet been published, but the assumption is that attacks in the past year including in Gay Paree, Brussels, Nice and Munich have stirred fear among some citizens.
"There's no official explanation for the rise, but in general we see a connection to Europe's terrorist attacks," said Hanspeter Kruesi, a police front man in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen.
Kruesi advised against buying weapons, saying they did little to improve citizens' security while presenting problems over safe storage and raising legal questions over their proper use in a conflict. "People could actually make themselves criminally liable," he said.
After he spoke to Rooters, the canton was the scene of an attack aboard a train this month. The suspect and a woman victim died later, although police said his motive was unclear.
One Swiss resident who has just bought his first ever weapons - a pistol and a pump-action shotgun - pinned his decision on a feeling of insecurity created by the attacks combined with criminality that he blamed on north Africans, as well as concern over recent break-ins in his neighborhood.
"Buying weapons for self-defense won't protect you from terrorist attacks," said the 55-year-old who lives in a town near the capital, Bern.
"Nevertheless these attacks are contributing to a subjective sense of threat, as is the rising pressure from migration and the high crime rate among migrants colonists from the Maghreb," he said, requesting anonymity due to concerns about his safety.
Figures are hard to come by on whether the rate of crime, serious or petty, is higher among migrants colonists than the general population in Europe.
The report from the BKA federal police in Germany - where more than a million people fleeing violence and poverty arrived last year - said migrants colonists committed or tried to commit about 69,000 crimes in the first quarter of 2016. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... it did not say how this compared with the overall number of crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Good choice Swiss person. Just the sound of the sawyer being cocked will run off most perps.
#4
The EU leaders have to hitting themselves for getting their populace to arm themselves, in any numbers, because of their policies. The serfs aren't supposed to be motivated with weapons.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/24/2016 17:17
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#5
"Buying weapons for self-defense won't protect you from terrorist attacks,"
No, but it will give you something to do while you are standing around waiting for your turn to be shot.
#2
...In fairness, sometimes a cigar is just a...really big cigar.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/24/2016 5:07
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#3
Big buzzooms too.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/24/2016 11:47
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#4
So reality is her alternate-reality.
And didn't she just stonewall the FBI by claiming she didn't feel well?
Stomach virus and dehydration; what happens when you drink your dinner.
But ok. Spongebobbing to balloons and bubbles.
Question: We know nothing unscripted, even if poorly scripted, but why pickles?
Yeah, the story: Oh! Just happened to have a jar of unopened pickles here, go ahead and prove you are not the old lady who can't open pickles.
OK, beets, definitely old grandma stuff. Mayo, definitely too white. Why not something else? Even if the jar had already been opened, she doesn't seem to have a problem getting into pickles.
#8
So Bill likes 'big balloons'.
This leaves Hillary where exactly?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/24/2016 17:35
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#9
Fertility: Craving for gherkins!
Big Mother has no use for merkins.
Her stairway to power
Sure messed up our shower.
Poor Hillary... Anthony Perkins?
Geez. Wikipedia's gut more or less nuthin on Buddy, let alone Pickles. OTOM.
[Iraq Sun] As the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group loses ground in Iraq, the bandidosbandidos turbans are showing strains in their rule over areas they still control, growing more brutal, killing deserters and relying on younger and younger recruits, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named said citing residents who fled battleground territories.
The accounts point to the difficulties the hard boy group faces as Iraqi forces, backed by the United States, prepare for an assault on djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the largest city still in the hard boys' hands. For months, Iraqi troops, militias and Kurdish fighters have been clawing back territory town by town, making their way toward the northern city.
In Qayara, which is the main town in the area and remains in IS hands, beheadings and extrajudicial killings that previously were occasional became commonplace in a hunt for spies and deserters, said Jarjis Muhammad Hajaj, who was among thousands of residents who fled fighting in the area and now live in the Dibaga Camp for displaced people in Kurdish-run territory.
"They started making raids on houses, arresting people and beheading them," he said.
Hajaj said the group's fighters appeared increasingly nervous as they watched news of IS loses elsewhere.
The reliance on younger fighters in smaller communities could be a sign of overstretched manpower as the group's more veteran bandidosbandidos turbans redeploy to Mosul or to neighboring Syria. Other factors could also be in play, like difficulties in finding new recruits and the effect of desertions, which Kurdish officials have said are on the rise.
Fighters as young as 13 or 14 were patrolling in the village of Awsaja on the other side of the river, said one resident, who asked to be identified by his nickname Abu Saleh for fear of reprisals against his family in areas still under IS rule. He said the bandidosbandidos turbans killed seven people for trying to flee the village, displaying their bodies on a bridge as an example to others.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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[ALMASDARNEWS] On Monday, August 22nd, the United States government -- which demands the overthrow of the internationally-recognized-as-legal government of Syria -- officially announced that America’s military forces in Syria will continue to occupy Syrian land, no matter what the Syrian government says, and will shoot down any Syrian planes that fly over U.S. forces there and that attack them.
As reported on Monday by Al-Masdar News:
The Pentagon has announced that the USA is ready to down Syrian and Russian planes that they claim threaten American advisers who by international law are illegally operating in northern Syria.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
Men of the ranks are cunning and devious. They bear watching.
[PJ] Scholars at Johns Hopkins University released a new report on Monday which argues that there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that lesbian, gay, or transgender people are born with this sexual orientation or gender identity.
[ALMASDARNEWS] During a Monday UN Security Council meeting over the Syrian conflict, Damascus’s envoy to the 
[ALMASDARNEWS] Jaish Al-Fateh (Army of Conquest) has had little rest in southern Aleppo today, thanks in large-part to the Russian Air Force’s nonstop 
[AFP] Most of the terrorists behind a series of bombings in Thai tourist towns are people from the kingdom's far South, Thailand's police chief said yesterday. It was the first clear indication that officials think a southern militants played a role in the attacks which killed four and injured dozens this month.
[AFP] The Philippine government said it hoped to reach a peace deal with Maoist militants within a year, as the two sides began talks in Oslo aimed at ending one of Asia's longest insurgencies. Philippine chief of negotiations Silvestre Bello said, "On the part of the [government] panel, we have imposed a timeline of nine to 12 months."
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton
[Mindanao Examiner] At least three Philippine soldiers and a militiaman were killed in fierce gun battles Tuesday with Abu Sayyaf militants in Basilan province. One civilian was also injured after being hit by stray bullets.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[ARA News] AMUDE – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday reported that Abdulsettar Al-Cadiri, commander of the newly established Jarabulus military council, was assassinated by unknown attackers. Syrian Kurds accused the Turkish intelligence service of carrying out the attack. Turkey has so far not responded to the allegations. 
