Enjoy.
An increasing number of Android applications are attempting to track users without their knowledge, according to a new report.
Over recent years, companies have started hiding "beacons", ultrasonic audio signals inaudible to humans, in their adverts, in order to track devices and learn more about their owners.
Electronic devices equipped with microphones can register these sounds, allowing advertisers to uncover their location and work out what kind of ads their owners watch on TV and which other devices they own.
The technique can even be used to de-anonymise Tor users.
"Throughout our empirical study, we confirm that audio beacons can be embedded in sound, such that mobile devices spot them with high accuracy while humans do not perceive the ultrasonic signals consciously," reads the report from researchers at Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany.
They found that, while six apps were known to be using ultrasound cross-device tracking technology in April 2015, this number grew to 39 by December 2015, and has now increased to 234.
The study hasn’t named any specific programs, but says that several have millions of downloads and "are part of reputable companies", including McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme.
"They embed these beacons in the ultrasonic frequency range between 18 and 20 kHz of audio content and detect them with regular mobile applications using the device’s microphone," the research adds.
Since consumers need to have the apps open in order for advertisers to use them for tracking purposes, the privacy threat isn’t quite as worrying as it could be.
However, the researchers believe it could grow into a serious issue "in the near future".
As ever, users should be selective about the apps they download.
If you can’t work out why an app is asking for certain permissions, such as access to your camera or microphone, think twice about installing it.
[ArabNews] It is named after a mythological figure and drills deep into the heart of a volcano: "Thor" is a rig that symbolizes Iceland’s leading-edge efforts to produce powerful clean energy.
If successful, the experimental project could produce up to 10 times more energy than an existing conventional gas or oil well, by generating electricity from the heat stored inside the earth: In this case, volcanic areas.
Launched in August last year, the drilling was completed on Jan. 25, reaching a record-breaking depth of 4,659 meters (nearly 3 miles). At this depth, engineers hope to access hot liquids under extreme pressure and at temperatures of 427 degrees C (800 F), creating steam that turns a turbine to generate clean electricity.
Iceland’s decision to harness geothermal energy dates back to the 1970s and the oil crisis. But the new geothermal well is expected to generate far more energy, as the extreme heat and pressure at that depth make the water take the form of a "supercritical" fluid, which is neither gas nor liquid.
A Nordic island nation, rich in geysers with fountain-like jets of water and steam, hot springs and breathtaking volcanoes, Iceland is currently the only country in the world with 100 percent renewable electricity. Geothermal accounts for 25 percent, while the rest comes from hydroelectric dams. But is Iceland a model for clean energy?
The answer is complex, according to Martin Norman, a Norwegian sustainable finance specialist at Greenpeace. Although geothermal energy is still preferable to gas, coal and oil, it is not "completely renewable and without problems," he said.
"As soon as you start drilling you have issues to it, such as sulfur pollution and CO2 emission and they need to find solutions to deal with it," he added. Not perfect; not good enough for Greenpeace!
Albertsson agreed but said geothermal emissions were only "a fraction" compared to those produced by oil and natural gas. He added that recycling methods are progressing rapidly.
Iceland prides itself on being at the forefront of renewable energy, yet "it is far from meeting the international objectives in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Norman said.
The Institute of Economic Studies (IES) at the University of Iceland said in a February report that the country will not be able to abide by the COP21 climate change agreement signed in Paris in 2015. All green, but not green enough? That's not good news!
Greenhouse gas emissions are rising in all sectors of the economy, except in fisheries and agriculture, it said.
And they are predicted to rise by between 53 and 99 percent by 2030 from 1999 levels, a far cry from the island nation’s COP21 summit pledge to slash carbon pollution by 40 percent compared to the same benchmark.
Iceland’s heavy and energy-intensive - aluminum, silicon -- industries and booming tourism are some of the causes.
The land of ice and fire, with a population of 338,000, expects to welcome more than 2 million foreign visitors this year. With the frequent landing of charter planes, coaches weaving through the interior of the country, quads and powerful 4x4 driving over the black lava landscape and hotels sprouting up in the capital, the growing volume of holidaymakers is taking a toll on Iceland’s environment.
Norman, of Greenpeace, fears the capital will turn into "a Costa del Reykjavik" due to the lure of the profits to be made and result in Icelanders giving up the country’s unique nature.
In an interview with AFP, Iceland’s Environment Minister Bjort Olafsdottir said she hopes her nation will find the political will to reach its COP21 goals.
"If we do nothing, if we do not take strong actions, we will not reach the Paris agreement goals. But that is not the plan," she said.
The current government has doubled taxes on CO2 emissions and financial incentives for polluting industries have been removed, she argued. "It is the first step, probably it is not enough. We have to do it with the help of the industry," she said.
Iceland’s long-term goal is to reduce the country’s dependence on hydrocarbons by having all cars run on electric power.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2017
13:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Not perfect; not good enough for Greenpeace!
Greenpeace is not for clean energy - they're against cheap energy.
#4
Since we should all do anything that will reduce CO2 (except nuclear power, of course), we should immediately implement this all over the world. Of course, if we don't happen to have active volcanoes handy, we can just drill into the earth until we reach magma.
/sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/08/2017 15:49
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Iceland, a fairly big and cold country has the highest per capita energy consumption in the world.
#7
Actually we could run all of North America from the heat of the lava pool under Yellowstone.
Of course it would be a major change of course for the Interior Dept, the National Park Service and all the eco-groups. I don't see it happening even at Armageddon. Too many closed minds!
Went through the geothermal steam plant about 45km SE of Reykjavik about 5 years ago. What a plant! They had high pressure turbines, then they took the exhaust from that and fed a group of low pressure turbines. The place was alive when you went to the well field. It is impressive, and then a 1 meter diameter insulated pipe with hot water flowed to Reykjavic city for district heating. Wotta place!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2017 21:01
Comments ||
Top||
[BBC] Israel's prison service has released a video purportedly showing the leader of a three-week-old hunger strike by Palestinian inmates eating in his cell.
The service said Marwan Barghouti had been filmed consuming cookies in secret on 27 April and a snack bar on 5 May.
It did not say how he obtained the food, but sources told the Haaretz newspaper that he had been set up.
Barghouti's wife said the footage was "fake" and intended to break the morale of the hunger strike's participants.
More than 890 prisoners have been refusing food since 17 April in protest at conditions in Israeli jails.
They have issued a list of demands including better medical services, more frequent family visits and an end to detention without trial.
1/2 cup haram lard or vegetable shortening, melted and cooled
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter-flavored lard from back fat, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar plus additional for coating the cookies
1 large owl egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
[Mil.com] U.S. Army weapon officials announced Wednesday that the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) will be the first unit to receive the service's new Modular Handgun System.
The announcement comes as the service waits for the Government Accountability Office to rule on a protest filed by Glock Inc. in February against the Army's selection of the Sig Sauer P320 as the replacement for its current M9 9mm pistol.
The GAO is expected to make a decision in early June, but the service is free to continue work on the effort.
[Zero Hedge] In the new story over at Survival Dan called "During The Collapse: Where To Go And What Places To Avoid", he reports that when IT hits the fan, America’s ’population hubs’ will likely explode with violence, looting and the total breakdown of law and order as resources become next to impossible to get and the masses suddenly realize the government isn’t coming to save them.
Whether that be via total collapse, WW3 coming home to roost upon US soil or a ’grid event’ that leaves tens to hundreds of millions either without power or access to the money in their bank accounts, the video directly below from a WalMart in Mexico gives us a very small taste of what that world without law and order can quickly devolve into.
Showing what happens when suddenly ’lawless people’ realize that there aren’t enough security guards in a Wal Mart store to stop them, we witness the kind of all-out ’free for all’ that we’ll likely see in a collapse event, though the smart people would be carrying out food, toilet paper and other necessities instead of flat screen TV’s. And in an all-out SHTF event, we’d expect that the people will likely be fighting with each other for the few remaining resources as they are now in Venezuela where children are literally starving to death.
Following Alt Market’s Brandon Smith warning that ’a full spectrum crisis is about to take place’ a Wal Mart in Mexico gives us a small glimpse of what might happen here once it all comes crashing down amid more signs that what we’re witnessing in Venezuela may be coming to America.
[RT] Biotech giant Monsanto is being accused of hiring, through third parties, an army of Internet trolls to counter negative comments, while citing positive "ghost-written" pseudo-scientific reports which downplay the potential risks of their products.
The documents emerged during pre-trials on 50 lawsuits against Monsanto which were pending in the US District Court in San Francisco. The plaintiffs allege that exposure to the biotech giant’s flagship product, the herbicide Roundup, caused them or their relatives to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, while Monsanto concealed the potential risks.
In March, a judge ruled, despite Monsanto’s objections, that the documents obtained by the plaintiffs could be released. The court papers are being gathered at the website of food-safety whistleblower organization US Right to Know.
#2
PAKASTANI HAIRCUTS PROTEIN AND MINERALS!VOICE BETWEEN THE SATELLITE TELEVISION STATIONS SOUNDS LIKE CONTROL FREAK PARANOID WANT TO BE HAS BEENS TO ME!
[PJ] Showing a generosity of spirit, Emory University made the exciting announcement that they would fund 100% of financial aid packages for illegal aliens based on need.
No comment from international students in the country legally who have to fund their own education.
Breitbart:
Although international students are expected to pay full tuition, undocumented undergraduate students at Emory will have "100% of demonstrated financial need" covered by the university.
"Emory meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for undergraduate Undocumented Students (with or without DACA) who are admitted as first-year, first-degree-seeking students, and who graduated from a U.S. High school through a combination of grants and scholarships, institutional work study (DACA students only), and institutional loans. Undocumented Students without DACA status may receive an institutional loan in place of the typical work study award," the university’s website states.
Speaking to The College Fix, Megan McRainey, a spokeswoman for Emory, claimed that providing full financial aid relief to undocumented students reflects the university’s commitment to welcoming students from diverse backgrounds.
"Emory accepts undocumented students for admission and financial aid, including those under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program," McRainey wrote, adding that providing financial aid coverage to undocumented students aligns with Emory’s goal of welcoming "students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds."
International students, who are not afforded the same aid privileges as undocumented students, will be forced to foot a $70,000 per year tuition bill if they wish to attend the prestigious Georgian university.
The solution is simple. If you're a citizen of another country in the U.S. legally on a student visa, drop out of school, sneak back into the U.S. illegally, and reapply at Emory claiming you're "undocumented." Forget all those fuddy-duddies who might say it's not fair that someone who broke the law to get here is entitled to benefits that law-abiding students aren't eligible for. You're behind the times, man. Get with it. Illegals are the new black -- it's so cool to be undocumented.
Of course, there won't be much opposition from international students here on legal student visas. They know to keep their mouths shut lest they arouse the SJWs to single them out for harassment. Illegal aliens are a favored "oppressed" people and saying anything against them marks you as a racist/xenophobe/imperialist.
Face it. You're just not "diverse" enough to rate a freebie at Emory.
[Right Scoop] The study said that in the aftermath of many officer-involved shootings, the suspect involved was found to have been subjected to reports of police misconduct by the press and on social media.
Bongino, a former Maryland congressional candidate, said he speaks with police officers regularly and they tell him they have become apprehensive because of the ongoing media narrative.
He said they are now less likely to intervene in situations unless they are expressly called by their dispatcher to do so, in case they should risk a "YouTube moment."
"If they’re not called out on a radio run, they won’t stop for a discretionary police action because they could end up on YouTube," he said.
#5
Only those parts of America that are disarmed by the usual suspects. I don't recall looters wandering into other neighborhoods that could possibly fight back and whose ROEs could easily be determined to be self defense of life and property.
from a WAPO review of a new biog. of Obama below is the sentence that gives it away,
Garrow, who received a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Martin Luther King Jr., concludes this massive new work with a damning verdict on Obama's determination: "While the crucible of self-creation had produced an ironclad will, the vessel was hollow at its core."
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/08/2017
08:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
h/t Instapundit
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday signed a bill that would ban sanctuary cities in his state.
The bill, which Abbott could be seen signing on Facebook Live Sunday evening, establishes criminal and civil penalties for local government entities and law enforcement that don't comply with immigration laws and detention requests, the governor's office said.
[DallasNews] On a Fort Worth corner, near a freeway offramp, Joe Jasper combines one of the oldest restaurant chains with some of the newest foodservice technology.
Jasper's McDonald's, one of 20 local outlets he owns, was the first in North Texas to install order entry kiosks - eye level, oversized touchscreens - that allow burger lovers to bypass the cashier and order and pay electronically. But it has nothing to do with overpriced order-takers. Read on!
In the kitchen, workers log fewer steps as a conveyor belt silently transports neatly wrapped breakfast sandwiches to a bagger who stands a few paces away. You're next. Mr. Bagger!
In the offing? Mobile ordering via smartphones in which "geofencing" and GPS allow restaurant employees to connect customers who order off site with their correct meal. Better get your tinfoil hat on, because the NSA will be tracking your movements and eating habits and providing the data on burger consumption to the life-insurance folks.
The futuristic focus is part of a broader push at McDonald's, and within the restaurant industry, to court a new crop of diners who want better quality food and an experience that incorporates their gadgets. How about just better food and better service? Like Chick-Fil-A?
Jasper installed four kiosks in his Airport Freeway location in December. Since then, nearly half of the consumers who come into the restaurant use the kiosks. Several said recently they find it easier than sometimes having to repeat the order to the cashier. Too many dialects. "They're always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case," Secretary of Labor Ray Puzder previously said in an interview with Business Insider.
Yet most restaurant operators bristle at the suggestion that the push to automation is really a bid to push workers out the door.
"There is no labor efficiency with the kiosk," said Jasper, as a worker in a neatly pressed uniform helped a customer navigate the new technology. "We changed how we use the resources. The people delivering instead of being cashier - they now are bringing it to the table. You remember the restaurants with the little trains that carried your food to your location? They're coming back!
"We've actually added people," he said. "It doesn't reduce crew [size], what it does is make them faster and more efficient. People say you're doing it to get rid of people. No that's not the case. Table delivery requires more staff."
Puzder has made a connection between the campaign for an increased minimum wage and the lure of technology to restaurant operators.
Officials with the Fight for $15 campaign declined to discuss the implications of increased technology on the workforce.
Instead, they released a statement from Anggie Godoy, a Los Angeles-based McDonald's worker who is a leader in the campaign.
"If fast-food companies could replace us with machines, they would have done it already," she said. It has nothing to do with cost-benefit ratios; it's all about worker oppression.
"The fact is, we are in the service business and fast-food restaurants are always going to need good workers. Just ask McDonald's executives, who have said that machines won't replace employees because we are an important part of the company's success." And if you can't trust management, who would you trust?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2017
07:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
When will golden boy C3PO be busing your tables at the Golden Arches?
[Bureau of Investigative Journalism] Industrial pollution from Indian pharmaceutical companies making medicines for nearly all the world’s major drug companies is fuelling the creation of deadly superbugs, suggests new research. Global health authorities have no regulations in place to stop this happening.
A major study published today in the prestigious scientific journal Infection found "excessively high" levels of antibiotic and antifungal drug residue in water sources in and around a major drug production hub in the Indian city of Hyderabad, as well as high levels of bacteria and fungi resistant to those drugs. Scientists told the Bureau the quantities found meant they believe the drug residues must have originated from pharmaceutical factories.
The presence of drug residues in the natural environment allows the microbes living there to build up resistance to the ingredients in the medicines that are supposed to kill them, turning them into what we call superbugs. The resistant microbes travel easily and have multiplied in huge numbers all over the world, creating a grave public health emergency that is already thought to kill hundreds of thousands of people a year.
When antimicrobial drugs stop working common infections can become fatal, and scientists and public health leaders say the worsening problem of antibiotic resistance (also known as AMR) could reverse half a century of medical progress if the world does not act fast. Yet while policies are being put into place to counter the overuse and misuse of drugs which has propelled the crisis, international regulators are allowing dirty drug production methods to continue unchecked.
#2
Yet another downside to the United Nations that exempts 'poor' countries from drug patents and so we have almost unregulated manufacture and consequences such as this.
[IsraelNationalNews] "We’re not going to give up territory. We’re not going to give gifts for the huge opportunity to talk to the Arabs. I think it’s important that we focus on building a powerful economy, high tech entrepreneurship and co-existence with our neighbors, but everyone knows we’re not going to form another Palestinian state," added Bennett. If Paleos want their own state, let them immigrate to France.
#7
Naftali Bennett's Wikipedia page is here. An interesting man who heads the party I would be voting for, were I Israeli, his path is similar to Bibi Netanyahu's a generation earlier, and therefore he became a serial tech entrepreneur rather than a highly educated business consultant. I love his image of his soldier comrade choosing to live with shrapnel in his bottom because the operation to remove it would cripple him -- an evocative formulation of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
He has apparently been saying things like this for a while, which has not been a barrier to serving in Prime Minister Netanyahu's cabinet in various capacities.
[Wash Times] Obamacare co-architect Jonathan Gruber, who once credited the "stupidity of the American voter" for the passage of the sweeping health-care exchange bill, said Sunday that President Trump was to blame for its decline.
After being told that Iowa’s lone insurance company in 94 of its 99 counties is considering dropping out, Mr. Gruber said, "Look, and whose fault is this?"
"Before President Trump was elected, there were no counties in America that did not have an insurer," Mr. Gruber said on "Fox News Sunday." "Since President Trump has been elected ... "
Host Chris Wallace then interrupted Mr. Gruber and said, "Wait, you’re going to blame the problems with Obamacare on President Trump?"
An MIT economics professor, Mr. Gruber was widely criticized after a video surfaced in 2014 in which he said that the "stupidity of the American voter" was key to Obamacare’s passage.
#3
I blame the ACA failure on that elitist twit Gruber. You could also throw Obama, Hillary, and other left-wingers under the "elitist twit" sobriquet.
BOSTON ‐ Former President Barack Obama, in his first public comments about the ongoing debate over his signature health care plan, implored members of Congress on Sunday to demonstrate political courage even if it goes against their party’s positions.
Obama briefly returned to the spotlight as he accepted the annual John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at JFK’s presidential library in Boston. The award is named for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Kennedy that profiled eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled though unpopular positions.
In his approximately 30-minute speech after accepting the award, Obama steered clear of partisan attacks and never mentioned his successor, President Donald Trump, who has often criticized the previous administration and has worked to undo many of Obama’s initiatives, including the Affordable Care Act.
[Daily Caller] Barack Obama’s presidential foundation is barely two years old, but he is taking it down the same controversial -- and by some accounts illegal -- post-presidency path of his predecessor Bill Clinton, according to documents reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.
Federal law requires tax-exempt entities like the Barack Obama Foundation and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation to stick closely to their IRS-approved missions. For former chief executives, that mission has been building and operating libraries to house their official papers for posterity.
In a relatively unnoticed series of steps during the first six-years of its existence, the Clintons converted their foundation from focusing solely on the presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., to a $2 billion globe-trotting political influence-peddling machine. (RELATED: Clinton Foundation Deceived IRS On Tax Exemption From The Start)
The transformation moved the Clinton non-profit from its declared exempt purpose in 1998 "to design, construct and initially endow a presidential archival deposit," to the vastly expanded 2004 description of "dual missions of constructing and endowing the Clinton Presidential Center and park in Little Rock, Arkansas, and continuing the work of his presidency to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence."
#5
I dunno. What if Moochelle runs for Senate? shudder
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/08/2017 11:05
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Federal law requires tax-exempt entities like the Barack Obama Foundation and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation to stick closely to their IRS-approved missions. For former chief executives, that mission has been building and operating libraries to house their official papers for posterity.
Will Bill Clinton's black book eventually be on display?
#7
Does anyone seriously think that the foundations run by Democrat ex-presidents will get a serious audit examination by the IRS? Not gonna happen, ever.
[PJ] How could Marine Le Pen have lost in a landslide?
Why, after the Brits chose Brexit, and Americans chose Trump, did the Dutch fail Wilders, and the French fail Le Pen?
How could a country that has been hit by several major terrorist attacks in recent years, and that has undergone a more profound social transformation owing to Islamic immigration, vote for business as usual?
Wilders, buoyed by the Brexit and Trump victories, said that 2017 would be a "Year of the Populist." So far, alas, it's not turning out that way.
Yes, there are positive signs. The Sweden Democrats are on the upswing. And Wilders did gain seats in the Dutch Parliament.
But if you've witnessed the reality of Islamization in cities like Rotterdam and Paris and Stockholm, you may well wonder: what, in heaven's name, will it take for these people to save their own societies, their own freedoms, for their own children and grandchildren?
I'm not the only one who's been obsessing for years over this question. I've yet to see a totally convincing answer to it.
One way of trying to answer it is to look at countries one by one. For example, the Brits and French feel guilty about their imperial histories, and hence find it difficult to rein in the descendants of subject peoples. The Germans feel guilty about their Nazi past ‐ and the Swedes feel guilty about cozying up to Nazis ‐ and thus feel compelled to lay out the welcome mat for, well, just about anybody. The Dutch, similarly, are intensely aware that during the Nazi occupation they helped ship off a larger percentage of their Jews to the death camps than any other Western European country, and feel a deep need to atone.
Postmodernism, of course, is a factor. According to postmodern thinking, no culture is better than any other ‐ and it's racist to say otherwise. No, scratch that ‐ other cultures are, in fact, better than Western culture. Whites, by definition, are oppressors, imperialists, and colonialists, while "people of color" are victims.
And Muslims are the biggest victims of all.
Update at 12:50 p.m. EDT from the internet for the record (no link):
Votes won with 99% reporting Over 50% votes needed to win
Macron (EMA) 66.1% 20,753,797
Le Pen (FN) 33.9% 10,644,118
I'm sure there's a way to do tabs, but I haven't any idea how to accomplish that here. Sorry.
#2
A client state of Islam? History, why must it repeat itself ?
The Vichy regime was the French government which succeeded the Third Republic from July 1940 to August 1944. It was proclaimed by Marshal Philippe Pétain following the military defeat of France and the July 10 vote by the National Assembly to grant extraordinary powers to Pétain, who held the title of President of the Council.
The “French state,” (L'État Français) in contrast to the “French Republic,” willfully collaborated with Nazi Germany to a high degree: raids to capture Jews and other “undesirables” were organized by the French police not only in the northern zone - occupied by the German Wehrmacht - but also in the southern “free zone” which was occupied only after the Allies invaded North Africa in November 1942.
While Pétain collaborated with the Germans, Charles de Gaulle claimed to incarnate the legitimacy and the continuity of France. Following the liberation of France after Operation Overlord, de Gaulle proclaimed the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) in June 1944. The GPRF was recognized as the legitimate government of France by all the allies on October 23, 1944.
Link
#10
If as reported 1/3 of French ballots were returned unmarked or damaged, it suggests that apparent mandate for whatsisface is not exactly solid. I wonder what local elections will look like.
#12
Dunno much about French media. Dunno what role it played in shaping French opinions. But if it's anything like ABCNBCCBSCNN - WAPO - NYT then it's possible the people of France are getting a lot of fake news, yellow journalism and slanted stories. Kinda hard to run an election that way.
I don't understand the guilt over imperialism and WWII either. Muslims are NOT Jewish.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/08/2017 11:44
Comments ||
Top||
#13
I don't understand the guilt over imperialism and WWII either. Muslims are NOT Jewish.
They take the parochial view that both Jews and Muslims are (or have been, in the case of Muslims in certain communities) small minorities in Europe. They ignore the fact that the Jews were also until the establishment of Israel a small minority everywhere in the world, while Muslims are the vast majority in a large chunk of it. In other words, opening the doors to Europe's Jews back in the day would have got them 8 million or so more at most, while opening the doors to the world's Muslims today could bring in 1 billion of them, from a culture that conquers rather than assimilates.
Incidentally, as of Israel's Independence Day a few days ago, there are 14.4 Jews worldwide, 43% of whom live in Israel.
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/08/2017 12:48
Comments ||
Top||
#15
TW, I presume that is 14.4 million, but even then it still a stunningly small number,
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/08/2017 16:27
Comments ||
Top||
#16
14.4 million
*sigh* Yes, thank you for catching that, dear Whisky Mike. I caught all my other mistakes, but missed that one. :-( There are so many ways to belong to a small minority, including hanging out at Rantburg, that belonging to one of the smaller world religions doesn't make me feel unusual -- but that may be a specifically American experience.
#17
Don't preach, if you please. It's all peachy.
We world-weary French won't get screechy
Till Russians reach Clichy,
Elites flee to Vichy,
Or headscarves are no longer chi-chi.
#18
Oh, TW. Thanks for kind words yesterday. I meant ot reply -- often intend to, actually --but that rollover time's problematic -- I'm usually distracted, nodding off, or running out the door in that slot, depending... Anyway, I knew it wasn't working, but also knew I had to get something down so it wouldn't drive me crazy all day. Thanks for humoring me.
#19
At some point the French will fight back and it will be a very nasty civil war. I put my money on the French but the longer they wait before confronting the obvious problem the worse the odds.
And I wouldn't count on American doughboys coming getting involved this time.
#20
I meant ot reply -- often intend to, actually --but that rollover time's problematic
I have the same problem, Zenobia F. I get involved in finding articles for the next day or whatever, then don't get back to see what's been said until it's too late. You can always post comments in the O Club, though -- I check that regularly, and there's no rollover. For the record, the O Club is just a chat spot for all Ramtburgers who want to chat, not restricted to certain personnel. Poke your head in, and I'll be happy to buy you an imaginary drink of your choice. ;-)
[Iran Press TV] Israeli military forces have rubbed out a young Paleostinian woman in the Old City of the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack.
Israeli police spokeswoman, Luba al-Samri, said the Paleostinian woman was shot after she purportedly approached Israeli coppers stationed at the Damascus Gate entrance, while holding a knife.
Israeli police front man, Micky Rosenfeld, said in a statement that no coppers had been injured in the alleged attack.
The Paleostinian Ministry of Health identified the girl as Fatima Afif Abd al-Rahman Hjeiji, 16, from the Ramallah-area village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, Maan news agency reported.
On April 26, Israeli forces shot and injured a Paleostinian man after he supposedly sought to carry out a car-ramming attack near Huwwarah checkpoint south of Nablus, located approximately 49 kilometers (30 miles) north of Jerusalem al-Quds.
The development came shortly after Israeli forces tossed in the calaboose Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! a 23-year-old Paleostinian woman in the Tel Rumeida area of al-Khalil (Hebron) after she purportedly attempted to attack them.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Yemeni national army has made significant progress towards the Aqaba mountains in the border town of Al Jawf, while Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias were hit with heavy artillery fire in Sarawah province.
This comes at a time when the soldiers of the third battalion are besieging the militia in al-Majd mountain.
Elsewhere, leadership in Taiz announced the Yemeni National Army’s - with support from the Arab coalition - control of the Omari camp west of the province after festivities with Houthis.
According to the leadership, forces of the National Army tightened control over the mountains after fierce fighting with the militias.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET]US and Afghan troops killed the leader of the ISIS’ Afghanistan affiliate in an April raid, US military officials confirmed on Sunday.
The raid in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province targeted the leader, Abdul Hasib, US-Forces Afghanistan said.
His group is affiliated with ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the US military calls it ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K.
US-Forces Afghanistan said earlier that if confirmed, the death of the Hasib and his associates would "significantly degrade ISIS-K operations in Afghanistan and help reach our goal of destroying them in 2017."
The compound was located near the tunnel complex where the US military on April 13 unleashed the "Mother Of All Bombs" -- a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast device that the Pentagon said was the biggest non-nuclear weapon it had ever used in combat.
Afghanistan’s government meanwhile confirmed Hasib’s death on April 27th.
"He had ordered the attack on 400 bed hospital in Kabul that resulted in the death and injuries of a number of our countrymen, women. The Afghan government is committed to continuing its operations against ISIS and other terrorist groups until they are annihilated," it said in a statement, using another name for ISIS.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
In parliamentary democracies like Israel and Germany, the president is an elected ceremonial figure with only the power of moral suasion garnered from his achievements. It's the actions of Germany's prime minister and foreign minister that matter.
[An Nahar] German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sought to move past a diplomatic dispute between his country and Israel while visiting Sunday, saying ties were strong enough to endure "turbulence."
Steinmeier's visit, his first to Israel since becoming president in March and first to any country in that capacity outside Europe, comes after a recent row between Germany's foreign minister and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The foundations (of the Israeli-German) relationship are so broad that I think they can endure some turbulence like that taking place in the last 14 days," Steinmeier said at the residence of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
Netanyahu had canceled an April 25 meeting with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel after the visiting diplomat declined to call off meetings with rights groups critical of Israel's government.
"The unique relationship of our two states is too important to be measured solely by the question of who a legitimate interlocutor should be," Steinmeier said.
Steinmeier, who is not scheduled to meet any potentially controversial group during his visit, said trust and understanding between Israel and Germany should result in no limitations.
"We should not impose any restrictions," he said.
Gabriel had met members of Breaking the Silence, which seeks to document alleged Israeli military abuses in the occupied Paleostinian territories, and B'Tselem, which works on a number of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... issues and strongly opposes Israeli settlement building.
Netanyahu's rightwing government says the groups unfairly tarnish Israel and strengthen the arguments of its enemies.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Just because we still trying to solve 'the Jewish Problem' (using 'Palestinians'), doesn't mean we can't be friends - does it?"
[An Nahar] Jordan and the United States kicked off annual military exercises Sunday known as "Eager Lion", with about 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations taking part, officials said.
U.S. and Jordanian officials said the maneuvers would include border security, cyber defense, and "command and control" exercises, to bolster coordination in response to threats including terrorism.
"Joint efforts and coordination and the exchange of expertise... are needed at the time when the region is facing the threat of terrorism," Jordanian Brigadier General Khalid al-Shara, who will head the exercises, told news hounds.
U.S. Major General Bill Hickman, deputy commanding general for the American army in the region, said this year's "Eager Lion" exercises -- the seventh so far -- are "the largest and most complex to date."
The highlight of this year's exercise, he said, will be that "for the first time ever a global strike mission" will be conducted by "two U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber aircraft" -- a long-range multi-mission bomber.
A statement by the Jordanian army said troops from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Arab Gulf region are taking part in the exercises which run to May 18, including from Britannia, Japan, Kenya and 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... About 6,000 troops from Jordan and the U.S. took part in last year's exercises -- a joint operation first launched in 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Ynet] Security officials say a Christian man has been rubbed out by suspected Islamic bully boyz while inside a barber's shop in Egypt's turbulent northern Sinai.
The late Saturday killing in the coastal city of al-Arish came one day after 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's local affiliate warned it would escalate attacks against Christians.
[An Nahar] Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives secured a strong win Sunday in state polls in northern Germany, early results showed, lending a boost to her bid to retain power in September's national elections.
Voters in the small, northern state of Schleswig-Holstein handed her CDU party 34 percent, while the center-left SPD clinched 27, according to public broadcaster ZDF. Another public broadcaster ARD gave the CDU 33 percent and the SPD 26 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Merkel by proxy also won the election in France yesterday.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/08/2017 10:52
Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Dozens of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group fighters cornered in a northern part of Syria's Tabqa are holding off U.S.-backed forces that hold almost all of the city, a monitor said Sunday.
Tabqa sits on the Euphrates River and on a strategic supply route about 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of Raqa, the Syrian heart of IS' so-called caliphate.
In their drive for Raqa, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have captured more than 90 percent of Tabqa, but have not been able to fully clear the jihadists out of the city or the adjacent dam.
"The SDF hasn't been able to seize complete control of Tabqa because IS fighters are still present in the neighborhoods of Wahdah and Hurriyah," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The two districts are in the city's north near Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest.
Abdel Rahman said "dozens" of IS fighters were laying mines and engaging in small-scale skirmishes with the SDF, but had not deployed jacket wallahs in recent days.
An SDF commander inside Tabqa told AFP on Sunday that his forces were locked in "violent festivities" in the northern part of the city.
"The operation is going slowly because of the presence of civilians being used as human shields by IS," the commander said, saying his forces were trying to advance "carefully and accurately."
"Soon we will be able to announce the city fully cleared of ISIS," he added, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least nineteen snuffies including hard boyz affiliated with 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 Syria (ISIS) terrorist group’s offshoot, ISIS Khurasan, and foreign hard boyz fighting with the Taliban ...Arabic for students... snuffies were killed in a series of Arclight airstrikes in three provinces, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Sunday.
At least eight of the bad boys, all ISIS loyalists, were killed in an Arclight airstrike in Achin district of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province, MoD said, adding that a commander of the terror group was among those killed.
The Ministry of Defense further added that at least six snuffies belonging to the Taliban group were killed, including four foreign snuffies in an Arclight airstrike conducted in Zebak district of northeastern Badakhshan province.
A vehicle belonging to the Taliban snuffies was also destroyed in the same Arclight airstrike, MoD added.
According to MoD, at least five snuffies were killed in another Arclight airstrike conducted in Khanshin district of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province and one of their vehicles was also destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Two jacket wallahs of 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 Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were blown up by their suicide kaboom vests before they manage to target the Afghan cops.
The provincial police commandment in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. said the incident took place in Achin district on Saturday as the Afghan forces were busy conducting clearance operations, Hamza operations, in Mamand Dara area.
A statement by the police commandment said the two suicide bombers were looking to get close to the Afghan cops and detonate their boom jackets but were instantly killed after their explosives went off prematurely.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
They need to test all these things before deploying them.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least seven hard boyz affiliated with 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 Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in an Arclight airstrike in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan on Saturday.
The provincial police commandment said the hard boyz were targeted in an Arclight airstrike carried out by the foreign forces using unmanned aerial vehicle in the vicinity of Chaparhar district.
The source further added that the foreign forces engaged the ISIS hard boyz in Spari area of Chaparhar.
The local residents and security forces on the ground did not suffer any casualties in the Arclight airstrike.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan (MoI) said Sunday that 37 Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Lions of Islam including 5 of their prominent commanders were killed during the operations in Qala-e-Zal district of Kunduz.
MoI front man Najib Danish told news hounds that additional troops have deployed to Qala-e-Zal district.
He said the clearance operations are still underway in Qala-e-Zal district and at least 37 bandidosLions of Islam including five prominent commanders of the group have been killed during the operations so far.
Danish further added that the Taliban leaders killed during the operations have been identified as Qari Belal, Shamshad, Jabir, Abdul Rauf and Habib.
He also added that a delegation of the ministry of defense has arrived in the northeastern Badakhshan province.
According to Danish, the areas under the control of the bandidosLions of Islam in Zebak district will soon be cleared of the holy warriors.
This comes as the provincial council officials in Kunduz said Saturday that the control of Qala-e-Zal district fell to Taliban after almost 24 hours of heavy festivities.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government reacted at the remarks of a Pak general regarding the killing of at least 50 Afghan troops during the clash in Spin Boldak district located along the Durand Line, dismissing the claims as baseless.
The head of the Government Media and Information Center Sediq Sediqi the Afghan government rejects the claim by Pak general regarding the killing of 50 Afghan troops by the Pak militia forces.
Sediqi further added that only two border police forces bit the dust along with civilians and not what the Pak authorities are claiming.
He said the claims that 50 Afghan troops were killed are absolutely wrong and the Afghan government strongly rejects the claims.
Sediqi further added that the Afghan troops prevented the illegal movements of the Pak militia forces inside the Afghan soil and it was the Pak troops who launched the attack first.
This comes as Pakistain’s Inspector General Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations.... (FC) Major General Nadeem Ahmed claimed today that Afghan forces targeted civilian population while Pakistain targeted their check-posts, leaving 50 Afghan troops dead and 100 others maimed.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the Afghan officials are saying that the Pak militia forces were conducting census inside the Loqman village which is located inside the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar and the festivities started after the Afghan border forces interfered to prevent the Pak forces activities inside the Afghan soil.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[SHABELLENEWS] Heavily armed Al shabaab bandidosbully boyz have launched a major overnight attack on a military base belonging to Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) in Gedo province, residents confirmed.
A resident, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , told Radio Shabelle over the phone that the attack took place at Taabta area, located some 50Km west of Bardere district in Gedo region.
The Al shabaab fighters encountered a stiff resistance from Kenyan forces after the attack that sparked a heavy clash. Both sides used artillery and machine guns during the skirmish.
Somali military commanders in the region have confirmed the over night attack, but declined to give further details on the casualty figures on KDF, as well as Al shabaab fighters.
Kenyan defense ministry is yet to release its own statement concerning the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[SHABELLENEWS] Kenyan has released 48 Somali nationals, including women and kiddies from jail and transferred to Jubbaland authorities in Dhoobley town in southern Somalia on Saturday.
One of the freed Somali citizens have told Radio Shabelle that they been held in containers, abused and tortured by Kenya Police for illegally entering Kenya.
The people have been smuggled through Somali-Kenyan border by smugglers before being captured by the border Police last month, according to an official in the town of Dhoobley.
"They were transported in containers and smuggled in Kenya in the pretense they will be taken to Dadaab refugee camp. But they were held in Mingi village near Garissa, he said.
Some of the released citizens were airlifted to Somali capital, Mogadishu, and willing to reunite their families, while the rest are still being held in the border town of Dhoobley.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
[SHABELLENEWS] The Federal government of Somalia confirms that a senior Al shabaab commander has been killed in recent US Navy SEAL raid on Darusalam area in Lower Shabelle region.
The minister of Information Abdirahman Yarisow said Moalim Osman Abdalla Badil was slayed in the US-Somali commando operation against Al shabaab in Darusalam, some 60Km west of Mogadishu in May 5.
A U.S, Navy SEAL was killed, and two of his team were maimed during the raid which was aimed to neutralize a senior Al shabaab commander planning attacks on US and AMISOM forces in Somalia.
Al shabaab, for their side has claimed to have botched the night-time US attack in Darusalam area near Bariire town in Lower Shabelle region, and inflicted heavy casualties on the Navy SEAL team.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[PNA]Four more Abu Sayyaf militants were killed after troops encountered two squads of rebels in two separate forested areas in Sumisip, Basilan on Saturday afternoon.
Military spokeswoman Jo-Ann Pentinglay said the slain rebels were part of a group of 15 to 20 terrorists. She said the bandits were in two separate groups when intercepted by the army's 4th Special Forces Battalion and 18th Infantry Battalion under the Joint Task Force Basilan who were on patrol.
The first firefight occurred at 2 p.m. Two rebels were killed and several others were injured. Troops later intercepted the fleeing rebels, killing two more at 9 p.m. Troops clearing the area discovered a temporary encampment near the encounter site.
Last week, two prominent Abu Sayyaf sub-leaders were killed in separate clashes in Inabanga, Bohol and Indanan, Sulu as the military stepped up its attacks on the terrorist group. Alhabsy Misaya, one of the most feared militants operating in Sulu, was killed by marines.
Days after Misaya's death, security forces intercepted and killed Muamar Askhali, alias Abu Rami, who was behind the beheading of two Canadian and a German hostage.
On Sunday, suspected Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters set off an improvised bomb along the national highway in Datu Hofer, Maguindanao, the second roadside bombing in the province in less than 24 hours. Captain Arvin John Encinas said, "The roadside bombs were meant for government forces cruising the road network."
Encinas said the Army had launched artillery attacks toward nearby Datu Salibo town in Maguindanao where the BIFF was planning to overrun an Army base in the village of Pagatin.
Posted by: ryuge ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf (ISIS)
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Agreement has been reached to evacuate maimed fighters of the hardline Islamist group formerly known as Nusra Front from Yarmouk, in the southern suburbs of Damascus, to rebel-held Idlib province, Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar TV reported on Sunday.
The agreement is the second phase of an earlier deal to evacuate people from two towns besieged by rebels, and two towns besieged by pro-government forces, the first phase of which was implemented last month, al-Manar reported.
The maimed fighters and some others accompanying them would form a group of about 50, reported the television channel, which is based in Leb. Hezbollah, also from Leb, is a close military ally of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... Nusra Front was the official branch of al-Qaeda in Syria until a year ago, when it broke formal allegiance to the global jihadist movement and renamed itself. It has since joined a number of other Death Eater groups under the new name Tahrir al-Sham.
Both Nusra Front and later Tahrir al-Sham have at times fought alongside other rebel groups, including those that operate under the banner of the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , against the government and at times have clashed with them.
Yarmouk, in the southern suburbs of Damascus, is the location of a large Paleostinian refugee camp. Parts of the area are held by the government, parts by rebels including Tahrir al-Sham, and parts 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.... An earlier deal involved evacuating civilians from the rebel-besieged Shi'ite Moslem towns of Kefraya and al-Foua in Idlib province in return for the departure of civilians and Death Eater fighters from Zabadani and Madaya, near Damascus.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[FOXNEWS] Two Massachusetts doctors were found in their luxury Boston condo Friday night with their throats slashed, police said.
Authorities in Boston identified the couple as Richard Field, 49, and Lina Bolanos, 38. They were found dead on the 11th floor of the Macallan Building in their residence, Fox 25 Boston reported.
Police tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Bampumin Teixeira, 30, in connection with the murders. The station reported that police responded to a call of a man with a gun in the area. As police arrived, Teixeira began firing at the officers. Police returned fire and hit the man several times, but did not kill him.
Teixeira has a criminal record. He pleaded guilty to two bank robberies ‐ one in 2014 and the other in 2016. In both instances, he passed the bank teller a note saying he had a weapon but never brandished one. Fox 25 Boston reported that he will be arraigned Monday on a long list of charges.
#4
Field was a doctor at North Shore Pain management and served as an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist. Bolanos was a pediatric anesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.
Young doctors with access to drugs living in a luxury penthouse were targeted by a suicidal thief? How did he access the top floor condo if he was not known to them? Not a random act of violence but if their throats were slashed, why did the man with a gun not shoot them?
Charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) search and rescue coordinator Michele Trainiti said, "There's never a 'too soon' when you speak of rescues. According to the rules of the sea, as soon as one of these dinghies leaves land it is a vessel in distress, because it has over 10 times the number of people it could legally carry.
"It doesn't need to send a distress signal, it doesn't need to call for help, the law of the sea says it is a boat that needs assistance, full stop".
The flimsy dinghies used by traffickers are launched from the North African coast with an average of 122 passengers crammed aboard.
Christian refugee converts in Germany face violent attacks
5 May
[DW] Recently, an Afghan woman who converted to Christianity was murdered. More and more refugees in Germany are being targeted for turning away from Islam. Representatives of church organizations helping refugees told DW that such incidents occur quite often.
German migration authorities probe 2,000 asylum cases after high-profile fraud
5 May
[DW] Thousands of refugee cases are to be scrutinized as a result of the Franco A. scandal. The German soldier managed to register as a Syrian refugee, allegedly with plans of carrying out terror attacks. The selected cases were chosen based on similar patterns to the Franco A. case, such applicants without papers and single applicants of a certain age group.
Aarhus man sentenced to six months’ prison for making bomb in basement
2 May
[TheLocal-Denmark] A 25-year-old man of Somali nationality has been sentenced to six months in prison for making a bomb in the basement of his Aarhus apartment block. Also sentenced with conditional deportation, the man was found guilty of making and possessing a bomb, prosecutor Lars Petersen of East Jutland Police told news agency Ritzau.
The bomb was discovered in October 2016 by a neighbour on residential street Peter Fabers Vej in northwest Aarhus, who alerted police.
Sweden to end ID checks on trains from Denmark
2 May
[TheLocal-Sweden] Sweden is to end ID checks on buses, trains and ferries travelling between the country and Denmark, the Swedish government has announced. At the same time however, border control spot checks by police in place at some of Sweden's borders will be tightened to cover more travellers, and extended further. The controls will now include x-raying of vehicles and additional CCTV surveillance.
The temporary ID checks for rail, bus and ferry companies were introduced in January 2016 as Sweden struggled to get to grips with an influx of refugees to the country. Last extended by three months in February, they are due to expire this week, and will not be extended.
Since the checks were introduced in early 2016 the number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden has reduced by around 80 percent, Ygeman explained, dropping from 10,000 per week to less than 500 per week at present.
Spies in Hesse say they're keeping close watch on halal shops
2 May
[TheLocal-Germany] State intelligence services are closely monitoring the ultra-conservative Salafist scene in the central state of Hesse, including observing potential meeting places like fitness studios - or even halal shops, the president of Hesse’s intelligence services told DPA on Tuesday.
Oliver Bertrand of the Frankfurt Research Center on Global Islam at Goethe University explained that the Salafist scene is extremely active in recruitment efforts, and teenagers who go to stores alone are often solicited to join. This can also happen at fruit shops or while young people are grilling at the park.
Across Hesse, 4,150 people are considered by intelligence services to be Islamists, and of these 1,650 are classified as Salafists. Intelligence sources further consider 40 of this group to potentially capable of committing a violent act. Two-thirds of these potentially dangerous extremists are either outside the country or in prison. Nationwide, there are 616 people considered by intelligence services to be potentially dangerous Islamists.
Norwegian rejection of Afghan family reunification linked to sharia law: report
26 April
[TheLocal-Norway] Parwin, a 30-year-old Afghan woman, told newspaper Aftenposten that she fled the country with her daughters, who are now with relatives in Pakistan, to escape an arranged marriage planned for one of them by her husband, who was also abusive towards her. She has now been denied family reunification with the daughters by authorities, who cited a lack of documentation for her right to custody – something that does not exist in the sharia law under which she married.
In its conclusion, UNE (Immigration Appeals Board) refers to Afghan civil law, which states children are automatically the property of the father, reports Aftenposten.
Claim: Dutch Police Bribe Newspaper to Bury Data on Criminal Asylum Seekers
4 May
Dutch police hiding statistics revealing asylum seeker’s involvement in crime, even attempting to bribe journalists into ignoring the topic, it has been claimed.
Paris Migrants ‘Blame Europe’ for the Migrant Crisis
3 May
At the largest migrant camp in Paris, just outside the Porte de La Chapelle metro station, hundreds of migrants live in tents. Many of them blame Europe for not giving them documentation or free housing.
German Minister and African Union Head Reject Migrant Camps in North Africa
2 May
Germany’s foreign minister and the African Union chief say setting up camps in North Africa will not solve Europe’s migrant crisis and that stabilizing African countries is a better strategy.
EU Wants Migrant Crisis Border ID Checks in Germany and Sweden Stopped this Year
2 May
The European Union says it will allow Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and non-EU country Norway to prolong ID checks at their borders but want the migrant controls phased out by November.
Macron Threatens Poland with Future Sanctions over Refusal to Take in Migrants
30 April
Polish lawmakers are furious at French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron who has proposed potential sanctions on the country for refusing to take in migrants from other European Union states.
Gallup: ‘Syrian Refugees Not Welcome in Eastern Europe’ — 70 Percent of Hungarians Oppose Admission
6 May
A Gallup poll released on Friday shows that large majorities in Eastern Europe oppose allowing Syrian refugees admission to their country.
Germany Arrests Syrian Suspected of Islamic State Membership
5 May
German authorities say they have arrested a 29-year-old Syrian suspected of membership in the Islamic State group. Federal prosecutors say the man was arrested Thursday in the Leipzig region.
In a statement Friday, prosecutors said the suspect joined a military unit of the Nusra Front in Syria. He allegedly rose to become the unit’s ’emir’ in the Raqqa region and took part in the conquest of the town of Dibsi Afnan in Novemer 2012, and the town of Tabka in February 2013. After the Nusra Front clashed with the Islamic State group in early 2013 he defected to the latter.
The man was identified only as Ahmad A. A., in line with German privacy rules
Dutch Court Convicts Asylum Seeker of Raping Woman
4 May
An Eritrean asylum seeker, age 33, in the Netherlands has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old woman after attempting to strangle and drown her. The rape in September led one local mayor to suggest a curfew for residents of a local asylum-seekers’ center.
#1
I suspect the incidence of crimes and attacks has not fallen significantly since the early days of the migration in late 2015, but there seems to be considerably less interest in reporting it, either by the news media or the police. And possibly some have adopted the attitude that these little assaults are not worth fussing about, like the Czech Girl Scout photographed confronting a neo-Nazi, who told him that if raped by immigrants she would just get over it.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi army troops raided on Sunday the northwestern axis in western Mosul, a military source has said.
“The 9th armored division, covered by the Iraqi and international coalition fighter jets, stormed the 30 Tamuz (July 30th) district,” Cap. Jabbar Hassan, from the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, said
“Fierce clashes are ongoing against the Islamic State militants,” he added. “The operation started from two axis heading from Mesherfa region, one day after driving the militants out of it.”
The militants, according to Hassan, “now basically depend on snipers.”
Meanwhile, a leader with the paramilitary troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Tal Afar town declared arresting a Moroccan IS member while attempting infiltration toward the Syrian borders
The Iraqi troops opened last week a new front in the northwest of Mosul seeking crackdown on the militants in the Old City after weeks of attempts to invade the area from the south.
The 9th armored division, Federal Police and Rapid Response troops retook more than 30 percent of al-Haramat al-Thaniya district, the Kurdish-owned Rudaw network reported earlier on Sunday indicating fierce clashes ongoing there.
The troops tightened the grip on more than 50 percent of al-Zanjili district, the report said adding that the airstrikes targeted two IS booby-trapping workshops.
The report quoted military sources as saying that three armed militants were killed during the clashes.
On Saturday, the Nineveh Operations Command declared full liberation of Mesherfa region. Previously, the troops announced gaining full control on Hawi al-Kanisah region and taken over 50 percent of 17 Tamuz (July 17th) region in western Mosul.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A Libyan senior leader of the Islamic State was killed in western Mosul on Sunday as Iraqi security forces sweep through districts on a new axis of operations taken last week.
Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said Khaled ibn al-Waleed, a prominent IS leader, and five of his sentry, were killed when security troops pounded the group’s main police headquarter in the city.
He also said 40 IS members were killed in police bombardment on al-Zanjili district, and became close to the fifth of bridges linking western and eastern Mosul.
Jawdat added that other IS casualties fell down when a drone guided by militants mistakenly bombarded their gathering near the Grand Nuri Mosque in the Old City, an area besieged by the forces for weeks.
The developments come as Iraqi commanders say they recaptured Mesherfa and most of Haramat and 30 Tamuz (July 30th) districts which fall on the northwestern axis of operations, a new front which Iraqi forces resorted to having found it difficult to invade the Old City from the south.
Iraqi troops took over eastern Mosul from the Islamic State in January, and have been advancing through the west since mid February, recently claiming control over 70 percent of that region. Google Map at the link
Iraqi forces advance toward al-Haramat al-Thaniya district
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Federal Police have declared killing dozens of Islamic State militants and destroying their anti-aircraft weapons as the troops advanced toward al-Haramat al-Thaniya district, in central Mosul, on Sunday.
Clashes erupted between the Rapid Response forces and the militants while combing al-Haramat, according to Lt.Gen. Shaker Jawdat, chief of the Federal Police.
The troops, according to Jawdat, “killed dozens of IS members, blew up several booby-trapped vehicles, destroyed three anti-aircraft weapons and ammunition stash and defused 50 bombs.”
Jawdat added that the troops advanced toward al-Haramat al-Thaniya reached near al-Jisr al-Khamis regions in central Mosul.
Speaking to Youm 7 news website, Jawdat said the troops are besieging the Grand al-Nuri al-Kabeer mosque, located in the Old City. The militants are taking shelter through thousands of the civilians in the densely-populated city.
The troops are 300 meters away from the mosque, which is besieged from three axis. Jawdat said, adding that the troops are now in control of the high buildings.
Meanwhile, Abdul-Ghani al-Assadi, commander of the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Forces, revealed ‘strategic’ changes to liberate the rest of the western side of Mosul.
“Strategic changes to the military plan will eliminate the presence of IS in Mosul,” according to Assadi, who did not rule out possibility of changing the locations of the military units at the final phase of fighting in the city.
Mosul (Reuters) Iraqi forces faced stiff resistance from Islamic State in northwest Mosul on Sunday after opening a new front against the militants there in a push to rout them from the city after seven months of fighting.
Trapped in a steadily shrinking area of the city, the militants are fighting back with a barrage of suicide car bombs and snipers concealed amongst hundreds of thousands of civilians they are effectively holding hostage.
Having gained a foothold in the northern Musherfa district last week, Iraqi forces are trying to push down into the handful of remaining districts held by Islamic State in Mosul, including the Old City.
The Iraqi military said on Saturday the Musherfa district had been fully retaken, but officers told Reuters on Sunday there was still fighting there and smoke could be seen rising over the area by a Reuters reporter in east Mosul.
“Fighting Daesh in Musherfa with a large number of families still locked in their houses is making the battle more complicated,” said a colonel from the ninth armored division, which is taking part in the offensive, referring to Islamic State by its Arab acronym.
The new push from the northwest began last week after other fronts in the city’s southern districts stalled around the Old City where the iconic mosque from which Islamic State leader proclaimed a modern-day caliphate is located.
Iraqi forces are backed by a U.S.-led coalition which is carrying out airstrikes and advising them on the ground.
Iraqi officers said additional reinforcements from the Rapid Response Division had arrived in northwest Mosul on Sunday to help clear areas on the banks of the River Tigris that bisects the city.
“The brigade will participate in the battle to retake Hawi al-Kanisa and also help the ninth army division step up pressure on Daesh fighters,” said a Rapid Response officer on condition of anonymity.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A missile attack launched by Islamic State members has killed and injured civilians in western Mosul, a source was quoted as saying.
Four civilians were killed, while nine others were injured due to a missile attack launched by the militants against stores that sell food commodities located near Fathi al-Ali mosque in Mosul al-Jadida region, the source, who preferred anonymity, told Sputnik on Sunday.
Meanwhile, local residents said civilians were killed and injured on Sunday as airstrikes launched by the U.S-led coalition targeted IS havens in western Mosul.
One civilian was killed, three others were injured due to the airstrikes launched by the international coalition against al-Iqtisadiyeen district, northwest of Mosul, the residents told Shafaq News website.
In March, the Pentagon said it was going to investigate reports that coalition jets killed more than 200 people in western Mosul’s al-Jadida district.
On Saturday, the Nineveh Operations Command declared full liberation of Mesherfa region. Previously, the troops announced gaining full control on Hawi al-Kanisah region and taken over 50 percent of 17 Tamuz (July 17th) region in western Mosul.
The Iraqi troops opened last week a new front in the northwest of Mosul seeking crackdown on the militants in the Old City after weeks of attempts to invade the area from the south.
Flaunting new arms it first announced in late April, ISIS has posted images showing its use of a rocket-mounted vehicle in a suicide bombing in northwestern Mosul.
The images showed the attacker inside the vehicle before he carried out the attack targeting Iraqi forces, the vehicle advancing on its target and the detonation he purportedly orchestrated.
But they did not illustrate the novel feature ISIS had advertised as key to the new weaponry – the firing of rockets mounted on the vehicle.
The group had said this would maximize destruction caused by the attacker as he advanced towards his target.
At least two people were killed and six injured when multiple ISIS suicide bombers attacked a base in northern Iraq where US military advisers are stationed, security sources said on Sunday.
In addition, two of the militants died when they detonated their vests at the entrance to the K1 base overnight, and three more were killed by Kurdish peshmerga forces who control the Kirkuk area where it is situated.
“They were wearing uniforms like the Kurdish peshmerga and had shaved their beards to look like us,” one officer told Reuters.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it had killed and wounded dozens of “crusaders and apostates,” referring to the peshmerga and Western military advisers.
Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition are fighting to dislodge ISIS from Mosul, 140 km northwest of Kirkuk, but large pockets of territory remain under militant control, including Hawija, which is near the targeted base.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Deir Ezzor (SyriaNews.media) A security source informed that troops of the Syrian Arab Army, backed by Syrian Air Force, carried out operations targeting fortifications and hideouts of the Islamic State group, in the city of Deir Ezzor, Syria News reported on Sunday.
The source said that Syrian Air Force bombed the headquarters of the Islamic State group in the vicinity of Deir Ezzor Military Airport, Junaid battalion and the cemetery area, destroying several fortifications and large quantities of weapons.
Furthermore, army troops engaged with Takfiri jihadists in the vicinity of the airport and the cemetery area, and shelled their hideouts and headquarters, inflicting heavy human and material losses on the terrorists, the source added.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Iran Press TV] Following Saudi deputy crown prince's comments about moving the battle to Iran, Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says if the Saudis do anything stupid, all of the kingdom -- apart from Mecca and Medina -- will be destroyed.
Dehqan gave the warning in an interview broadcast on Arabic-language al-Manar TV on Sunday in response to remarks made by Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said any battle between Riyadh and Tehran would take place on Iranian soil. "We will work to have the battle in Iran rather than 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... ," prince Mohammed had said.
"We warn them against doing anything ignorant, but if they do something ignorant, we will leave nowhere untouched apart from Mecca and Medina," said Dehqan.
He referred to the Saudi bombing campaign on 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... -- in which over 12,000 people have died -- and said the Saudis think they can do anything because they have an air force.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
As-Suwauda (SyriaNews.media) A security source revealed that three persons were injured in improvised explosive devices blasts in Shahba road, north of As-Suwayda Province, Syria News reported on Sunday.
The source said that five improvised explosive devices, emplaced by terrorists on the roadside near Kou’ Hadr area, exploded while a passengers bus was passing in the area, injuring three passengers and inflicting damage to the bus.
The area of Kou’ Hadr is linking between the countryside of As-Suwayda and Daraa, while terrorist and Takfiri groups, deployed in the surrounding area, are trying to smuggle mercenaries, weapons and different ammunition between al-Badiya area in the east and al-Lajat area in the west.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Two important security events took place 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... within a few days. A terrorist attack in the eastern city of Saihat, where two coppers were killed after being attacked by an gang who fled afterward.
The second was the announcement by the Saudi Interior Ministry of the al-Harazat cell, which included 46 members who were incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! . The cell was responsible for the attack on the Prophet's Mosque in July 2016.
Despite the ideological and doctrinal differences between the two groups, the common factor between them is that they are both armed. Violence is their way of imposing ideas, breaking the law and the authority of the "state".
Exclusionary behavior
Terrorism is not related to a specific doctrine, but rather is an exclusionary behavior practiced by groups with an unilateral, radical thinking that does not believe in the right of the other person to have different opinion, or in conversation as a means of communication, change and reform.
The stand against violence must be clear, without ambiguity or hesitation because the danger of raising weapons against security personnel and citizens, goes beyond the goals declared by fundamentalist groups, which threatens to undermine civil peace, and the spreading of social and sectarian conflicts.
At the same level of danger comes the question of "sectarianism", as a symbolic and intellectual terrorism that establishes physical violence, gives legitimacy to the accusation of disbelief, exclusion and desecration of the other.
After every terrorist act in Saudi Arabia we find that the social networking sites are filled with many provocative tweets that pushes elements of society into conflict.
Incitement
Hundreds of tweets incite those following one doctrine against the other. Questions that have a sectarian and racist nature would increase the level of social tension.
Intellectuals should pay attention to the game of ’sectarian questioning’ and not to fall into its trap. It is a game that supports the ’doctrine’ instead of ’country’, of which each believer wants to present themselves as if they are the owners of original thought and pure blood!.
It is strange that terrorism is ascribed to a particular city or sect, or to the people of Buraydah, Qatif, Riyadh or Abha, and demand declaration of their innocence of terrorism every time a member from these cities points out his blind gun towards the citizens, repeating their clear position over and over, as desired by ’Twitter’ provocateurs.
The common logic in social media most of the time is common, instinctive logic, and tends to overwhelm the individual by narrow ’sub-identities’.
The right vision requires that we reject racism, sectarianism and incitement, at the same time rejecting terrorism and violence. Otherwise, we will be contributing to the spread of conflicts instead of suppressing them.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
[An Nahar] Philippine police believe a Shiite Moslemholy man was the likely target of kabooms that killed two people in Manila, an official said Sunday, rejecting 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.... claims of involvement.
Six others were maimed when two kabooms rocked the office of the imam, Nasser Abinal, in the capital's busy Quiapo district on Saturday.
Oscar Albayalde, head of police forces in the capital, said the bomb was apparently intended for Abinal who is also government tax officer for the Manila region.
He was not at the office at the time.
"He admitted there were threats to his life in the past" while being questioned by police, Albayalde told AFP.
The bomb was carried in a package by a hired delivery man who handed it over to an aide of Abinal just before it went off, killing them both.
As police were searching the blast site late Saturday, another kaboom rocked the area, possibly from a second bomb planted earlier, said Albayalde.
"This has nothing to do with terrorism. There is no indication that this was done by a terror group, local or foreign," he said.
The Islamic State group has claimed it staged the kaboom.
"Five Shiites were killed and six others maimed in a kaboom by Islamic State fighters in the center of Manila," said a statement from Amaq, IS' propaganda arm.
Albayalde said this was just the IS custom of taking credit for any such incidents.
The Islamic State has carried out attacks in other countries on Shiite sites and events.
But Albayalde said the attack seemed to be targeting Abinal, adding that it may be for personal reasons, his work or his religion.
Tension remained high after the blasts, with police cordoning off the area again on Sunday after a suspicious bag was spotted.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] A suspected Islamist holy warriorwent kaboom! and another was rubbed out after Bangladesh's anti-terrorism officers raided their hideout early Sunday, police said.
Police cordoned off a one-story building in a remote village in the western district of Jhenaidah on a tip-off that gunnies were holed up there.
"There was an exchange of fire between counter-terrorism police and the holy warriors. An holy warrior was killed," district police chief Mizanur Rahman told AFP.
"And when we came closer to the building, another holy warrior carried out a suicide kaboom. He was struck down in his prime," he said, adding two coppers were also injured in the blast.
He said the gunnies were members of a new faction of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), blamed for a a wave of deadly attacks against religious minorities and foreigners in the Moslem-majority country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
[SHABELLENEWS] An Intelligence officer has been maimed after a bomb planted in his car went kaboom! on Maka al-Mukarama road in Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday night, Police and Witness said.
The spy officer ‐ Abdirisack Mohammed Farah has sustained serous injures in the blast which took place near a hotel on the busy Maka al-Mukarama street after evening prayers.
The maimed Intelligence agent was immediately rushed to a hospital in Mogadishu.
No group has claimed credit for the boom-mobile, aimed to kill Farah who is serving with NISA ‐ National Intelligence and Security Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[Daily Excelsior] Security agencies are not ruling out the possibility of the banned ISIS trying to create a base in the Kashmire valley, noting that internet chats and establishing of contacts with possible handlers in Syria and Iraq by some youths have grown in the last six months.
Officials in the security establishment, who are not authorised to speak to the media, said on condition of anonymity that there have been small pockets in the Valley from where some youths are trying to get in touch with one or more handlers in Syria and Iraq.
Last month, two masked gunnies appeared at the grave of a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist in Pulwama during which they asked the gathering to follow the rules laid down by Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... and ISIS and not support or raise slogans in favour of Pakistain.
They gave fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... speeches for over three minutes in which they spoke about pan-Islamisation and the importance of having Shariat as a law, the officials said.
While Death Eater outfits including United Jehad Council, a conglomerate of terror outfits based out of Pakistain-occupied Kashmire, as well as the local unit of Hizbul Mujahideen were quick to downplay the incident, security officials viewed it with more seriousness.
The agencies felt if the growing influence of ISIS was not checked, it could be detrimental to the situation in the Valley.
The officials said that the activities on the internet from the Valley to some accounts in Syria and Iraq have been tracked during last one year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[BenarNews] Six Thai border policemen were slightly hurt Friday in an unusual attack when militants detonated a bomb from the Malaysian side of a narrow river that separates the two countries, according to officials.
The late-afternoon attack occurred in Na Nak, a sub-district of Narathiwat province that lies across the border from Kelantan state in Malaysia, when militants standing on the Malaysian side of the Golok River triggered the roadside bomb.
The attackers had planted the improvised bomb on the road and connected it to wiring that stretched across the river to a detonator on the bank in Kelantan, officials said. The militants set off the bomb as a truck carrying the border guards passed it.
The deputy investigator at Tak Bai district police station said, "The assailants triggered a bomb to try to kill the BPP [Border Patrol Police Company] 4413 who were patrolling the street along the Golok River. ... We found pieces of improvised bomb near a water gate (on Thai side) and the trigger-wire ran across from Malaysian side."
Such an attack is rare, but leaders of militant groups are thought to be hiding out on the Malaysian side of the border. Insurgents at times have crossed the frontier to carry out attacks on the Thai side before slipping back into Malaysian territory, according to Thai sources.
The Golok River, which is also known as the Kolok River, is where a suspected Islamic State militant from Malaysia is thought to have fled across to Thailand as he escaped from Malaysian security forces.
This week, Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar announced that his department had arrested six suspected IS members in raids in several states of Malaysia between late March and late April. But a seventh suspect, Muhammad Muzaffa Arieff Junaidi, was believed to have escaped into Narathiwat province, Thailand, on March 22.
On Thursday, the chief immigration police in Narathiwat, said his department had records showing that Muzaffa had crossed into Thailand and returned to Malaysia "several times," through a border checkpoint at Sungai Golok.
"The latest trip was on April 21 of this year. He has both countries’ immigration stamps. This happened before he was accused being an IS operative," said Noppadol Rakchart, the immigration police bureau chief in Narathiwat.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The candidates running for the upcoming Iranian presidential elections on May 19 exchanged accusations during the second round of debates that took place on Friday and were broadcasted live on the Iranian state TV channel. The debate tackled political and cultural issues.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has strongly criticized his conservative presidential rivals, for trying to disrupt the nuclear deal with the West. He accused the Revolutionary Guards of working to sabotage the deal through their ballistic missiles program.
During the debate that was held between six candidates, Rouhani said there are some who appraised the range of ballistic missiles and wrote slogans on missiles in an attempt to sabotage the nuclear deal.
He also accused the conservative candidate, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, of launching a campaign that harms the negotiating team, by waging a counter-campaign by covering Tehran with billboards against the nuclear deal.
The debate was attended by Iran’s current President Hassan Rouhani, his deputy Eshaq Jahangiri, member of the Assembly of Experts Ebrahim Raisi, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, and two former ministers Mustapha Mir-Salim and Mostafa Hashemitaba.
’Bad for Iran’
Raisi accused Rouhani’s government of signing "some points in the nuclear deal that are bad for Iran, allowing other parties to target Iran’s facilities," adding that this is "a very bad message for the negotiations."
Despite all its problems, Raisi considered "the nuclear deal to be a national document for Iran and its counterparties."
He also criticized the performance of Rouhani’s government regarding the outcome of the nuclear agreement, saying that it did not improve the economic and living conditions and did not lift the economic sanctions on Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[AFP] Police investigators said that a Muslim cleric was the likely target of explosions that killed two people in Quiapo, Manila, on Saturday, rejecting the Islamic State claim that it was behind the attacks. The blasts that occurred three hours apart injured six persons. The explosions rocked the office of the imam, Nasser Abinal.
Oscar Albayalde, head of the National Region Police Office, said the bomb was apparently intended for Abinal, who is also government tax officer for the Manila region. Abinal was not at the office at the time.
"He admitted there were threats to his life in the past," while being questioned by police, Albayalde said.
The bomb was carried in a package by a hired delivery man who handed it over to an associate of Abinal just before it went off, killing them both.
As police were searching the blast site late Saturday, another blast shook the area, possibly from a second bomb planted earlier.
Albayalde said, "This has nothing to do with terrorism. There is no indication that this was done by a terror group, local or foreign."
The Islamic State group has claimed it staged the bombing. A statement from Amaq, IS's propaganda arm, said, "Five Shiites were killed and six others wounded in a bomb blast by Islamic State fighters in the center of Manila."
Albayalde said this was simply the IS custom of taking credit for any such incidents. He said the attack seemed to have targeted Abinal, adding that it may be for personal reasons, his work or his religion.
Just over a week ago, another blast wounded 14 people in Quiapo as Southeast Asian leaders were meeting for a summit a few kilometers away. The IS also claimed responsibility for the April 28 explosion.
[An Nahar] Suicide attackers from 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 killed two Kurdish peshmerga forces Sunday in an operation against a base in northern Iraq, officers said.
"Two members of the peshmerga were killed and five maimed in a suicide kaboom on K1 base," a major general in the peshmerga told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said five gunnies wearing suicide belts attacked the base, where he said foreign advisers from the U.S.-led coalition assisting Iraq against the jihadists were stationed.
"The attack was thwarted and all the attackers were killed," the officer.
Wista Rasool, another senior peshmerga officer in the area, confirmed the attack, which targeted a base between the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk and the IS-held town of Hawija.
IS has been trying to defend the city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , its last major stronghold in the country, against a massive six-month-old offensive.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Fallujah (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police arrested a senior Islamic State area mayor during a security raid on Sunday on the city of Fallujah, Anbar, according to a police source.
NRTTV quoted the police source saying forces had arrested the governor of Islamic State’s so-called “Wilayat al-Janoub” (Southern State) along with three others during a raid on Amiriyat al-Fallujah.
The source declined, however, to give details of the suspect’s identity, saying all of the arrested were taken for interrogation over involvement in attacks that had targeted security and civilians.
Islamic State militants have held Anbar’s western towns of Annah, Qaim and Rawa since 2014. Fighter jets from the Iraqi army and the allied U.S.-led coalition have also regularly pounded IS locations in the province. Local officials believe Islamic State is holding thousands of civilians at its western strongholds to use them as human shields against any future security offensive.
The Iraqi government and army commanders say they will aim at IS havens in Anbar once it is finished with eliminating the group from Mosul, its biggest bastion in Iraq.
IS has escalated its attacks against army and paramilitary forces in the province over the past few months, leaving several personnel and civilians dead. Google Map at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Afrin (SyriaNews.media) A checkpoint of Jabhet Fateh al-Sham (formerly Nusra Front) stopped 11 bankers, including Kurdish persons, coming from the city of Afrin in Syrian Kurdistan, and seized thousands of dollars, Syria News reported on Sunday.
Local sources said that a checkpoint in the city of Sarmada belonging to Jabhet Fateh al-Sham, arrested 11 bankers, who were coming from the city of Afrin, and seized their money.
The checkpoint’s members robbed thousands of dollars from the bankers, the sources added.
One of the bankers, known as Muhammed Nawazi, revealed that the checkpoint’s members stole 300 thousand dollars from him, while another one said that they took 130 thousand dollars.
The sources also pointed out that Jabhet Fateh al-Sham accused the bankers of supporting PYD forces and the Islamic State, in order to seize their money.
(Reuters) The Syrian army seized control of the village of al-Zalakiyat north of Hama on Sunday amid a heavy bombardment, a war monitor reported, despite a deal brokered by Russia, Syria’s main foreign backer, to reduce fighting.
Violence has raged in the countryside north of Hama for over a month, since rebels there launched an assault against government forces that was quickly reversed and has now turned into an army push into areas the insurgents gained last year.
Under an agreement that took effect at midnight on Friday, fighting was intended to subside over six months in four “de-escalation zones” where violence between the army and rebels have been most intense.
Fighting also took place in the Qaboun district of Damascus, said the Observatory, a Britain-based group that monitors the war in Syria via a network of contacts around the country.
The deal was agreed during ceasefire talks in Astana in Kazakhstan between the Syrian government’s backers Russia and Iran, and the main rebel sponsor Turkey.
Syria’s government said it supported the proposal but added that it would continue to fight what it called terrorist groups around the country. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said previously that all the rebel groups fighting to oust him are terrorists.
Opposition groups rejected the deal, saying that special zones threatened Syria’s territorial integrity, that any role for Iran was unacceptable, and that Russia had been unable to get Assad to respect previous ceasefire agreements.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] ISIS mufti Hussam Naji, who was captured in late 2014 by Iraqi security forces, tells Al Arabiya how he met the Death Eater group’s leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... in US prison in 2004.
Naji told Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent Majid Hameed in Baghdad in an interview for the weekly "Death Making" program that the ISIS leader was an "isolationist" who "did not talk very much" during their time in prison in Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Unlike his quiet demeanor at Camp Bucca, Naji said Baghdadi’s "personality was different."
"He became sharp-tempered, aggressive and no longer the introvert I used to knew in Bucca," adding: "He drove a fancy car."
Ones Islamic personality changes when one finds out the jizyah tax can be great boodle. The best way to show infidels how inferior they are is for the Imam to drive a fancy car when colleting jizyah protection money.
#2
Imposing a Muslim tax on believers might not be a bad way to get Muslims to renounce their religion. The jizya was how Islam became the dominant religion almost everywhere a Muslim ruler held sway.
[Iran Press TV] Israel is pushing for a bill, which, if passed, will downgrade Arabic from its current status as an official language in the occupied Paleostinian territories to a non-official language.
The provocative bill was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday and now waits to pass a number of rounds of legislation in the Israeli parliament, Knesset, for further readings before becoming law.
Both Arabic and Hebrew are now the official languages of Israel, but according to the new bill, "the national language [of Israel] is Hebrew." The bill further states that "the right to realize self-determination" within Israel "is unique to the Jewish people" and the occupied territories are their "national home."
The bill was initially proposed in 2011 by a member of the hard-line Likud Party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It came up for ministerial consideration in 2015. The bill, however, failed to pass through the ministerial committee at the time.
If the proposed law, which substantially harms the rights of minorities, is ultimately passed by the Knesset, it will turn into a fundamental law and will become an essential ingredient of Israel's central body of legislation. It will also encode the structure of the occupying regime.
This has been proposed in the past, but thus far has never passed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You know that Arabs' (& their friends) biggest problem? They vastly overestimate Israel's self-restraint.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Four people were wounded Sunday when bomb blasts hit areas in east and south of Baghdad, according to police sources.
Alsumaria News quoted a police source saying that an explosive device planted near a road in Jisr Diyala region, east of the capital, exploded, wounding one woman.
Another bomb, according to the source, exploded next to a road in Arab Jubour, al-Doura, south of Baghdad, wounding three others.
Violence and armed conflicts claimed the lives of 317 Iraqis and caused injuries to 403 others during the month of April, according to a monthly United Nations count.
According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Nineveh, where U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops are caught up in battles against Islamic State militants in Mosul since October, was the most affected governorate, with 276 casualties (153 killed, 123 injured). Baghdad governorate followed with 55 killed and 179 injured. Salahuddin came third, with 15 killed and 43 injured.
While several blasts were not followed by a claim of responsibility, Islamic State militants said they had been behind some bloody explosions and attacks that hit the capital in the past months, leaving casualties among civilians and security troops.
[AmericanMilitaryNews] U.S. and Afghan officials revealed Sunday that the head of ISIS in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib has been confirmed dead as a result of a join U.S. and Afghan operation carried out on April 27th. The raid was carried out by 50 U.S. Army Rangers which are part of Army Special Operations and 40 Afghan commandos.
A Pentagon spokesperson previously said that Hasib was most likely killed but there has been no confirmation until now.
Hasib's predecessor, Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed in a U.S. drone strike.
The 90 troops were dropped by helicopter into Nangarhar Province, close to where the U.S. MOAB, or "mother of all bombs," was dropped on April 13. Upon landing the Rangers were met with heavy fire and called in air support from drones, Apache helicopters, F-16s and an AC-130. Gen. John Nicholson said in a statement that "This successful joint operation is another important step in our relentless campaign to defeat ISIS-K in 2017," and continued, ‘This is the second ISIS-K emir we have killed in nine months, along with dozens of their leaders and hundreds of their fighters."
The statement said that 35 ISIS fighters and high ranking commanders were also killed in the raid.
It was previously reported that two Rangers, Sgt. Josh Rodgers and Sgt. Cameron Thomas were killed during the raid and the Pentagon is investigating whether they were killed by friendly fire or not.
Posted by: DarthVader ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#4
Virtical Airborne Insertion (parachute or airmobile) and the execution of extreme violence. The end of fighting from Patrol Bases, FOB's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken on the 'Boardwalk' at Kandahar. Someone appears to be planning to bloody win for a change. I believe such a transition was recommended right here some time ago.
#5
"Disaster for pastoral herders,"
And rarest of sightings for birders.
Please, maestro, a drum roll:
See someone not Rumpole
Recall the Penge Bungalow Murders!
[Iran Press TV] The Turkish army is set to deploy forces to Syria’s holy warrior-controlled northwestern Idlib province and establish military bases there, a report says.
The Beirut-based al-Mayadeen TV channel cited sources as saying on Saturday that the Turkish military had sent a telegram to holy warrior groups operating in Idlib and informed them of the deployment.
Turkish forces, it said, would not attack the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front, but would engage in a "diplomatic" process and push them to evacuate Idlib and hand over their positions to the Turkish army.
A Turkish envoy had personally conveyed the message during a meeting with holy warrior ringleaders in Idlib, the report said.
"The Turkish forces will temporarily deploy inside the border villages with armored vehicles and infantry forces as a first step," the telegram read.
It further urged the gunnies not to consider the Turkish troops as forces of occupation as it issued "security warning" against any resistance.
The report quoted a breakaway Syrian officer with the gunnies as confirming the Turkish army's preparation to enter Idlib and establish military bases there.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... the governor's office in the southern Turkish province of Hatay denied the report.
"Such statements that were claimed by some Arabic websites and social media accounts saying that the Turkish army will enter the Idlib region are not reflecting the truth," it said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2017
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
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.
[BBC] Israel's prison service has released a video purportedly showing the leader of a three-week-old hunger strike by Palestinian inmates eating in his cell.
[PJ] Showing a generosity of spirit, Emory University made the exciting announcement that they would fund 100% of financial aid packages for illegal aliens based on need.
[Right Scoop] The study said that in the aftermath of many officer-involved shootings, the suspect involved was found to have been subjected to reports of police misconduct by the press and on social media.
"They're always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case," Secretary of Labor Ray Puzder previously said in an interview with Business Insider. 
[Bureau of Investigative Journalism] Industrial pollution from Indian pharmaceutical companies making medicines for nearly all the world’s major drug companies is fuelling the creation of deadly superbugs, suggests new research. Global health authorities have no regulations in place to stop this happening.
[Wash Times] Obamacare co-architect Jonathan Gruber, who once credited the "stupidity of the American voter" for the passage of the sweeping health-care exchange bill, said Sunday that President Trump was to blame for its decline.
[PJ] How could Marine Le Pen have lost in a landslide?
[Ynet] Security officials say a Christian man has been 
[SHABELLENEWS] The Federal government of Somalia confirms that a senior Al shabaab commander has been killed in recent US Navy SEAL raid on Darusalam area in Lower Shabelle region.
[PNA]Four more Abu Sayyaf militants were killed after troops encountered two squads of rebels in two separate forested areas in Sumisip, Basilan on Saturday afternoon.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Daily Excelsior] Security agencies are not ruling out the possibility of the banned ISIS trying to create a base in the 
[BenarNews] Six Thai border policemen were slightly hurt Friday in an unusual attack when militants detonated a bomb from the Malaysian side of a narrow river that separates the two countries, according to officials.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] ISIS mufti Hussam Naji, who was captured in late 2014 by Iraqi security forces, tells Al Arabiya how he met the
[AmericanMilitaryNews] U.S. and Afghan officials revealed Sunday that the head of ISIS in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib has been confirmed dead as a result of a join U.S. and Afghan operation carried out on April 27th. The raid was carried out by 50 U.S. Army Rangers which are part of Army Special Operations and 40 Afghan commandos.
