[The odious and despicable CNN] Washington - How four US service members were killed in Niger -- and President Donald Trump's response to the attack -- has left the federal government searching for answers.
The Defense Department has opened an investigation to explain how about 50 ISIS-affiliated fighters were able to ambush a 12-man Green Beret-led team and why the team lacked sufficient support to ward off the attack.
The swirling story culminated in a remarkable moment for the Trump administration on Thursday: Chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general whose son was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, stepped into the White House press briefing room to defend his boss' handling of deaths in Niger.
Kelly described what happens to fallen soldiers and explained how the President came to tell a widow that her husband knew what he got into when he signed up to serve.
Kelly's remarks were the crescendo in an ongoing saga over the deaths in Niger. But it was the dozen days of silence from the President that has led to questions about the White House's attempts to handle the incident.
Trump first weighed in on the attack 12 days after the soldiers were ambushed, letting his spokespeople and the Defense Department take the lead.
The President, a very prolific Twitter user, never tweeted about the attack -- the deadliest US military exchange of his presidency. In the meantime, Trump used his preferred social media platform to lambast fellow Republicans, the NFL and the media.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
10/20/2017
10:02 ||
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#1
SOF (Special Opns Forces) fighting terrorism are stretched thin in that LOC (location) and elsewhere in Africa. Not enough drone/intelligence coverage, not enough dedicated CAS (Close Air Support, not enough QRF (Quick Reaction Force). SOF MTT's (Mobile Training Teams) have been deploying to that VIC (vicinity) for decades with numerically few incidents.
I had read that the Niger patrol was 'no different than the past 25-30 patrols in the same VIC.
No intent to 'arm chair QB' but it was likely an 'Extortion 17' type of ambush event. The old definition of insanity.... "do the same thing over and over again and expect different results" does not apply. You could very easily get more.... 'different results' than you can handle. Not to be overly simplistic or callous, but it's a very dangerous business in a very dangerous environment. Tribal meeting went on longer than anticipated? Bad juju.
Now 40 years ago (as of 4 May 2018), one of the most successful counter-terr, vertical insertion operations in history was launched. The Battle of Cassinga. Modeled after the Son Tay and Entebbe raids, this is how it is done correctly. But there will very likely be friendly casualties. Drone zapping "eaches" won't get it! You need forces on the ground to engage and kill the enemy in large numbers.
The leftest media hype is just more political rubbish and kak slinging. More Americans were killed on the south side of Chicago last month than in all of Africa this year. As with Cassinga, win or lose, the liberal, disgusting press (read that CNN) will still find fault. Just my penny farthings worth.
#4
Shooting didn't start until the team went to their vehicles to depart the meeting. Locals in one location, team in another. That should tell everyone something.
[Free Beacon] CIA Director Mike Pompeo expressed his support for President Donald Trump's recent decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal during an interview on Thursday before more generally discussing the agency's goal to be "more vicious" in fighting its adversaries.
BLUF:
Speaking broadly about his future actions at the CIA, Pompeo said it would "become a much more vicious agency" in fighting U.S. adversaries.
[NRA Shooting Illustrated] In 1983, an article written by a Salt Lake City police officer named Dennis Tueller was published in a law enforcement journal. The article was titled "How Close is too Close?" It dealt with the premise of a man armed with a holstered handgun defending against a man armed with a striking or stabbing instrument. Through experimentation, Tueller developed what became known as the "21-Foot Rule," which concluded if a bad guy armed with a knife or a club was within 21 feet of you, the reasonable conclusion would be you were within his danger zone. In other words, the bad guy could cover 21 feet in about 1.5 seconds‐before you could draw your handgun and neutralize the threat.
Two important things occurred as a result of Tueller’s observation and the resulting article. As trainers became aware of Tueller’s postulate, various drills appeared that were designed to replicate this 7-yard assault. The cumulative result of trainers and students practicing these drills, talking about them and writing about them was a tactical axiom: If an armed individual was within 21 feet of you, you would be justified in shooting to defend yourself.
According to Dave Starin, retired SWAT officer and former director of training at Gunsite Academy, "It changed many agencies use-of-force policies and training programs and has also been used for decades in use-of-force reviews and court cases."
[Institute for the Study of War] Key Takeaway: A collapse of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga under joint pressure from Iraq and Iran shortly after the Kurdish independence referendum on September 25, 2017 empowers Iran and could destabilize northern Iraq rather than unify the county.
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew from disputed areas across northern Iraq on October 16th and 17th, 2017. A combined force of Iraqi Security Forces and Iranian proxies gathered south of Kirkuk starting on October 13th in order to compel Iraqi Kurdistan to relinquish control of the oil-rich city. The combined ISF-proxy force moved in to secure the city as well as nearby military bases and oil fields on October 16th after the Peshmerga abandoned their positions. Peshmerga forces also withdrew from areas in Ninewa, Salah al Din, and Diyala Provinces. The Iraqi Government and Iran likely signaled their intent to use military force to compel the Peshmerga withdrawals in those provinces, if necessary.
The Kurdish retreat is a win for both the central Iraqi government and Iran, whose proxies have seized new key terrain and consolidated control over previously contested cities. Iran has downplayed the role of its proxies in order to legitimize them as instruments of the Iraqi state. Western media coverage and statements from US officials have assisted Iran with this deception by denying the role of Iran's proxies in Kirkuk.
Kurdish populations now under the control of the Iraqi government and Iran's proxies may drive an insurgency, however. Civil unrest against Iraqi forces and Iran's proxies began in Kirkuk and Khanaqin on October 18th. Prime minister Abadi reportedly ordered a handover of security in Kirkuk to local police, and early reports indicate Iraqi forces and Iran's proxies may have drawn back from Khanaqin in northern Diyala. It is unclear whether these withdrawals will pacify the Kurdish population.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
10/20/2017
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#2
They need to start working on the mine/IED-cum-ambush attacks that have been employed by just about every guerrilla force since gunpowder was invented.
h/t Instapundit
[Townhall] Key Democrats met secretly to confer about the party’s future as America approached the one-year anniversary of their stunning and hilarious humiliation by Donald Trump. The key question they sought to answer: "How can we Democrats appeal to those Jesus-loving, racist idiots who hate science and don’t live on the coast like everyone we know?"
After opening the seminar by refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Chuck Schumer gaveled the meeting to order, sparking widespread protests. "Hammers are violent tools of oppression that cause oppressed people to literally shake. We need a national conversation about assault gavels that use automatic high-capacity clips," sputtered the 112 year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein. "Sure, we should be able to have them, but not those, those ... little people out there. They don’t need gavels."
The assembly quickly agreed that in 2018 Democrats must prioritize sensible hammer control, including gavel background checks and ending the tool show loophole, and to enlist Lawrence O’Donnell in their campaign to stop the hammering.
[IsraelNationalNews] There is a need for a monument (in addition to a state) for the Kurds. We need to name them on the streets, our poets (nowadays there are very few) have to pen verses in their honor and our politicians must visit them by offering them solidarity and contracts. The Kurds (with the help of the US) have just liberated Raqqa, the city where ISIS was hanging and crucifying and stoning and planning massacres of Europeans.
The Kurds opened their cities (like Erbil) to Christians displaced by Islamic fundamentalists. Only among the Kurds do you find Western volunteers who have gone to fight, not for the Caliph, but against him. The only place in the Middle East where today, apart from Israel, a Jew can show a kippah without being attacked is Kurdistan.
Nine months after Trump promised to defeat ISIS "quickly and effectively," the US armed forces and their Kurdish allies took Raqqa, which until Tuesday was the capital of the the Caliphate. After scornfully minimizing ISIS as a "JV team", Barack Obama realized his egregious misnomer, but then said that "it will take time" and "it is a long-term and complex challenge."
Joshua Keating, writing for the left-wing newspaper Slate, noted that Trump had instructed the Pentagon to loosen the rules for air strikes to the minimum required by international law by eliminating the White House surveillance procedures to protect civilians and ordering the CIA to resume targeted killing (America has just bombed in Yemen for the first time). Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a well-known Trump critic, praised this "dramatic change" over Obama's politician's management. The result is quite obvious.
In July, ISIS was expelled from Mosul and this week Raqqa was freed. Trump did in nine months what Obama did not accomplish in three years.
And Europe, the famous multilateral Europe? Angela Merkel sealed the pact with Erdogan's Turks, those who are bombing the Kurds, and Macron's France tightened the ranks around the covenant with Iran, the force that pushed the Kurds out of Kirkuk. Europe is still held prisoner by the syndrome of Munich.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
10/20/2017
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#1
The way you have treated the Kurds after all of this I shall always remember... Forever.
Time and Heaven will un-ravel you all for this.
I never forget so warn your kids. It's going to be a rocky ride until you all find the Rock.
#3
What the Middle East needs for real peace, a two part plan:
1. Move every last mother-loving Palestinian to Kurdistan.
2. Move every Kurd to the East bank and Gaza strip (and Golan Heights perhaps).
#6
Sorry, RJ. But that's ours. Together with Judea & Samaria, and Transjordan, and anything else we might snap. Still, leaves plenty of space for Kurds - in their own places.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday criticized President Donald Trump's policies, warning that he risks driving Iran towards nuclear proliferation and worsening a standoff with North Korea if he ends the nuclear deal with Iran.
"If you want to negotiate with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un, and your goal is to avoid war and try to be able to have a diplomatic resolution, the worst thing you can do is first threaten to destroy his country in the United Nations," Kerry said in a private lecture delivered at Geneva’s Graduate Institute, according to Reuters.
#6
Kerry is losing credibility, even in the Ivy League. He recently was appointed a visiting professor of something at Yale and gave his usual pontifications. The last issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine contained 4 letters about it--none of them favorable. I was pleasantly surprised.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/20/2017 11:52
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#7
If Kerry is upset, that's a solid indicator we are on the right track. Piss him off more please.
#8
Ending the deal could lead to Iran hiding fissile production facilities “deep in a mountain where we have no insight”,
Iran's probably already hiding these facilities.
and I thought we were done hearing from Lurch sigh....
Posted by: Jan ||
10/20/2017 16:01
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#9
they are already hiding sites and refusing access
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2017 21:00
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[IsraelNationalNews] France on Thursday condemned Israel's approval this week of new homes in Judea and Samaria.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration approved marketing for 300 housing units in Beit El, a promise Netanyahu made to residents five years ago.
The approval of construction in Beit El came a day after the Civil Administration issued 31 building permits for a planned housing project in Hevron, the first permits for new Israeli construction in the ancient city in decades.
"France calls on the Israeli authorities to reverse this decision and to respect their international obligations," read a statement by the French foreign ministry quoted by the Turkish Anadolu news agency.
"The uninterrupted pursuit of the policy of colonization, confirmed by these new projects, only adds to the tensions on the ground and undermines the prospects for a just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution," it added. IMO, that place was a lot nicer when it was ruled by Italians
[TMZ] Sean Penn is using a full-court press to either block or re-edit a Netflix documentary that suggests Penn ratted out El Chapo by alerting the United States Dept. of Justice of his whereabouts.
Multiple sources involved in the documentary -- due out Friday -- tell TMZ, some of the people interviewed suggest that Penn alerted the DOJ that he was traveling down to a secret location in Mexico to interview the drug kingpin for a Rolling Stone article.
TMZ has obtained an email from David Broome, the Executive Producer of "The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate del Castillo Story," in which he worries ... "My concern is that we are taking an immense amount of pressure from all directions related to Sean Penn and currently Netflix has done a great job of hanging tough -- but their nerves are on edge."
Broome goes on ... "I'm worried that there's a chance Netflix hits the brakes for a while."
Penn, del Castillo and 2 others met Chapo on Oct. 2, 2015. Twelve hours after the meeting, Mexican authorities raided the site but Chapo had already left. He was captured 3 months later.
We've learned several lawyers working for Penn repeatedly contacted Netflix to, at the very least, eliminate any references to their client allegedly contacting DOJ prior to meeting Chapo.
Our sources say Penn's concern is that if Chapo's associates in the world of drugs believe he set Chapo up for capture, there'd be a target on the heads of Penn, his family and his associates.
Penn's spokesperson, Mark Fabiani, tells TMZ, "It is reprehensible that, in their ongoing, relentless efforts to gain additional attention and publicity, Ms. del Castillo and her team (who have zero firsthand knowledge) have sought to create this profoundly false, foolish, and reckless narrative."
The rep goes on, "The notion that Mr. Penn or anyone on his behalf alerted DOJ to the trip is a complete fabrication and bald-faced lie. It never happened, nor would there have been any reason for it to have happened." Wonder if Spicoli may be rethinking his position on personal protection of the non anti-Madonna variety?
Representing unethical cowardly losers since the 90's: Clintons during impeachment, Dean Spanos (Ex-San Diego Chargers owner), and Sean Penn
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2017 10:22
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#6
Say what you want (no really, go ahead) about Sean, but he can take a punch.
Oh wait. That was his ex-wives: Madonna and Robin Wright
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2017 10:28
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#7
Who's bringing the popcorn? Not for the movie but for the unfolding of events surrounding this douche bag. This is probably the only time he has ever thought about someone else than himself. So, I call BS on his concern.
#12
Yet another lefty douche learns actions have consequences. He has a habit of backing dictitorial losers. In the words of Bill Murray in Ghostbusters II...
#13
Couldn't understand Jane Fonda going to Hanoi. Couldn't understand Sean Penn going to meet El Chapo. I guess I'm just a scaredy cat but I tend to stay away from dangerous thugs and murderers. Leave that to the army and police who have the training and fire power to properly deal with such misceants.
Posted by: Ho Chi Glogum7220 ||
10/20/2017 12:58
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#14
I suspect the cartel doesn't care, there's no reports of threats, etc from the cartel to Netflix.
Really, it reads like a publicity stunt originated by Penn with Netflix cooperation to generate interest in the "show".
[DAWN] Spain said on Thursday that it will press ahead with suspending Catalonia's autonomy after the region's leader warned he may declare independence, heralding an unprecedented escalation of the country's worst political crisis in decades.
The central government in Madrid had given separatist leader Carles Puigdemont until 10am (0800 GMT) on Thursday to say whether or not he was declaring a breakaway state in the semi-autonomous region following a chaotic referendum on October 1.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] Speaking at a Khatm-e-Nabuwwat Conference in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. on Wednesday and campaigning for the NA-4 seat at the same time, the emir of the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI), Sirajul Haq ...current head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Siraj was born in 1962 and entered politics shortly after that... , criticised his opponents in the upcoming NA-4 by-poll for not praying at Mumtaz Qadri's funeral as he did.
Qadri, a former commando of Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... police’s Elite Force, was sentenced to death by an Anti-Terrorism Court in October 2011 for assassinating former Punjab governor Salman Taseer in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market.
Qadri said he had killed Taseer over the politician's opposition to Pakistain's blasphemy laws.
"As emir of the JI, I have taken it upon myself to ensure that his [Qadri's] four-year-old son gets an education," Haq said on Wednesday.
Also calling for immediate action against whoever attempted to modify or repeal Khatm-e-Nabuwwat (finality of prophethood) laws, Haq said even the scent of paradise was 'haram' ‐ forbidden ‐ on those who were unwilling to lay down their lives for the sanctity of the belief.
Accusing the government of 'attacking' the law in its haste to amend election laws to allow Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... to continue as chief of the PML-N, Haq demanded that the advisers and ministers responsible for violating the 'sanctity' of the belief should be thrown into jail and punished "for hurting the sentiments of Moslems."
"These people have ruled the land again and again without doing anything for the people. What do they want, to rule the heavens as well?" he railed.
"Till the thieves sitting in Islamabad are taken to task, our campaign will continue," he said. "We will wage war against the land, drug and corrupt mafias," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Kurdish Peshmerga troops have killed army and paramilitary personnel in western Nineveh, commander said.
“Peshmerga troops intersected a convoy of Iraqi army and al-Hashd al-Shaabi [Popular Mobilization Forces] near Rabei’a village, northwest of Nineveh,” Masrour Barzani, commander of the Peshmerga’s Zervani troops, told the Kurdish network Rudaw on Thursday.
The troops, according to Barzani, hampered the convoy “while on way to a border exit, destroying five military machines and killing several army and paramilitary personnel.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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MOSCOW (AP) — A presidential bid by a celebrity Russian TV host drew conflicting reaction from the country's beleaguered opposition Thursday, with some accusing her of playing into the Kremlin's hands and others welcoming her move.
Though President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied that the Kremlin has encouraged Ksenia Sobchak to run, some opposition figures say her move would allow the government to counter voter apathy and at the same time sow discord in opposition ranks.
The 35-year old Sobchak announced her intention to run in the March 2018 election Wednesday, saying the country has grown tired of stagnation and needs change.
She is the daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, the reformist St. Petersburg mayor in the early 1990s. President Vladimir Putin once worked as her father's deputy.
Sobchak, who joined anti-Kremlin protests in 2011-2012, said she had warned the president of her intention during a recent meeting, adding that Putin didn't seem to like it.
Putin hasn't yet said whether he would seek re-election, but he's widely expected to run and is poised to convincingly see off the same set of lackluster veterans of past campaigns. More at the link
She participated in the anti Kremlin protests a few years back.
She is known as a television news reader, but she also has a television cooking show. Russian military journalist Aleksandr Kots quipped on Twitter that (going from memory) "...now cooks can run the state."
I guess you hadda be there to appreciate the humor
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Twenty-four protesters were killed and injured in Khanaqin during shootout by security troops, as members of Kurdistan Democratic Party were attempting to break into Federal Police station, an informed source said on Thursday.
“Several members of the KDP gathered in Khanaqin in a protest outside a police station to voice demands of handing over security to Peshmerga,” the source told Alghad Press on Thursday. “The shooting started as the members attempted breaking into police station.”
“Number of wounded protesters has reached up to 23 wounded, in addition to a victim killed during the confrontations,” the source added.
On Tuesday, Iraqi government forces recaptured Khanaqin within wide-scale operations to regain areas disputed with Kurdistan Region.
[ChinaBystander] Xi Jinping Thought comprises 14 bullets points that, in short, reiterate that the Party leads everything. However, the sense of marking an epoch is as palpable as it is deliberate.
Xi portrays his China as one that will have become a global leader with international influence, a modern economy, advanced culture and world-class armed forces.
This future will come in two 15-year phases, 2020-2035 and 2035-2050.
The first phase will focus on turning fast growth into high-quality development, the deliverance of a "moderately prosperous society". The second will turn China, by then likely the world's largest economy, into Beautiful China, some nirvana-like flowering of a great modern socialist country-cum-superpower, and to do so, conveniently, in time for the 2049 centenary of the revolution that brought Mao and the Party to power. (Poverty is to be eradicated by the centenary of the Party's founding, 2021.)
The first phase involves moving ahead with the rebalancing of the economy towards consumption-led growth that has been haltingly underway for some time. The financial system will become more market-based, and state-owned enterprises will be turned into world-class, globally competitive firm. China will become more open to foreign investors. Rule by law will be enhanced. Greater environmental protections introduced. The modernization of the PLA will be completed by 2035, giving China a world-class military, for which read on par with or better than the United States'.
Diplomatically, China will pursue global development in partnership with other countries, though it will create an alternative (and Beijing-led) global order architecture to be the framework for that. Alongside that, it will seek to strengthen its cultural soft power. Meanwhile, internally the anti-corruption campaign will continue to ensure the Party does not rot from the inside. And loyalty to the party and central leadership group must be absolute. I'm not sure which is worse, a future led by China or a future led by our existing globalist elites.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
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#1
I'm not sure which is worse, a future led by China or a future led by our existing globalist elites.
[NBCNEWS] A shake-up is underway at the Democratic National Committee as several key longtime officials have lost their posts, exposing a still-raw rift in the party and igniting anger among those in its progressive wing who see retaliation for their opposition to DNC Chairman Tom Perez.
The ousters come ahead of the DNC's first meeting, in Las Vegas, Nevada, since Perez took over as chairman with a pledge this year to unite a party that had become badly divided during the brutal Bernie Sanders ...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords... -Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... 2016 primary race.
Complaints began immediately after party officials saw a list of Perez's appointments to DNC committees and his roster of 75 "at-large" members, who are chosen by the chair.
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[DAWN] Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... , his daughter Maryam Nawaz and her husband retired Captain Mohammad Safdar were indicted by an accountability court in Islamabad on Thursday in connection with a reference pertaining to the Avenfield flats filed against them by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), DawnNews reported.
All three accused pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the charges. After their indictment, Maryam, Safdar and Nawaz Sharif's pleader read out the following statement:
"I do not plead guilty. Charges are not only groundless, baseless and unfounded but also frivolous, and on top of that we are being denied our right to fair trial. The charges are being framed on a report that is incomplete and controversial. It will go down in history as [a] mockery of justice and travesty of justice. Moreover, the charges are being framed without awaiting the detailed order of the Supreme Court in the review petitions."
Sharif, who is currently in the United Kingdom, was also indicted in the al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment references as well. His sons, Hassan and Hussain, were named co-accused in the charge sheet in the references.
The court had proceeded to indict Sharif, Maryam and Safdar after rejecting three applications filed by the trio requesting suspension of the indictment.
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[An Nahar] Israel responded with tank fire into Syria on Thursday after a Syrian mortar shell landed in the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights, the army said.
"In response to the projectile that hit Israel earlier today, the Israel Defense Forces targeted the sources of fire in the Syrian Golan Heights," it said in an English-language statement.
It did not identify the sources of the Syrian fire nor say whether it considered it to be a deliberate attack or unintentional spillover from the Syrian civil war, as in several previous incidents.
It said the mortar shell fell on open ground and caused no injuries.
On Monday, Israel carried out an air strike on an anti-aircraft battery in Syria after it fired at its planes on surveillance flights over neighboring Leb.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Twitchy] In a powerful speech at this afternoon’s White House press briefing, Gen. John Kelly called out people who have shamelessly been using the death of Green Beret La David Johnson to score cheap political points. Kelly singled out Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson, saying, ""I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing."
"John Kelly's trying to keep his job. He will say anything," says @RepWilson in response to Trump's staff chief who ripped her for disclosing details of controversial call with soldier's widow. "There were other people who heard what I heard." I tried to find an appropriate .jpg, but could find nothing ugly enough.
#2
She hates the military based on her voting record. Those of her race that served to defend the Constitution are more useful to her per her twisted thinking in death than any white, brown or Asian American soldier who are alive and still defending our freedoms. Trash like her thinks just because he is black and dead she can now use him to bash others with.
[The Hill] As he prepared to collect a $500,000 payday in Moscow in 2010, Bill Clinton sought clearance from the State Department to meet with a key board director of the Russian nuclear energy firm Rosatom ‐ which at the time needed the Obama administration’s approval for a controversial uranium deal, government records show.
Arkady Dvorkovich, a top aide to then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and one of the highest-ranking government officials to serve on Rosatom’s board of supervisors, was listed on a May 14, 2010, email as one of 15 Russians the former president wanted to meet during a late June 2010 trip, the documents show.
"In the context of a possible trip to Russia at the end of June, WJC is being asked to see the business/government folks below. Would State have concerns about WJC seeing any of these folks," Clinton Foundation foreign policy adviser Amitabh Desai wrote the State Department on May 14, 2010, using the former president’s initials and forwarding the list of names to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s team.
The email went to two of Hillary Clinton’s most senior advisers, Jake Sullivan and Cheryl Mills.
The approval question, however, sat inside State for nearly two weeks without an answer, prompting Desai to make multiple pleas for a decision.
"Dear Jake, we urgently need feedback on this. Thanks, Ami," the former president’s aide wrote in early June.
Sullivan finally responded on June 7, 2010, asking a fellow State official "What’s the deal w this?"
The documents don’t indicate what decision the State Department finally made. But current and former aides to both Clintons told The Hill on Thursday the request to meet the various Russians came from other people, and the ex-president’s aides and State decided in the end not to hold any of the meetings with the Russians on the list.
Bill Clinton instead got together with Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader’s private homestead.
"Requests of this type were run by the State Department as a matter of course. This was yet another one of those instances. Ultimately, President Clinton did not meet with these people," Angel Urena, the official spokesperson for the former president, told The Hill.
[BREITBART] The Times of Israel reports: Overjoyed at the city’s liberation from the Islamic State, a woman ripped off the black outer garment she had been forced to wear by the extremist group, as US-backed forces took control of Syria’s Raqqa.
In a video posted by the People’s Defense Units (YPG) on Saturday, the woman welcomes her Kurdish rescuers, hugging them and thanking them, as well as offering prayers along with her family. All women living under the reign of IS were forced to wear the loose black outer garment, known as an abaya, as part of the terror group’s strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
The fighters battled hundreds of Islamic State group jihadists holed up in the last pockets of Raqqa, as the former extremist stronghold stood on the verge of capture.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Suspected bandidosturbans have kidnapped four British nationals in southern Nigeria, police and community leaders said on Wednesday.
The four had been providing "free medical care and religious activities" in the Burutu area of Delta state, said Chief Theo Fakama, from the local Enukorowa community.
Fakama said locals were "saddened" by the kidnapping as the victims had "brought succour to residents of the community for the past three years".
The front man for Delta state police, Andrew Aniamaka, confirmed the kidnapping, which happened on October 13.
"The victims are of British nationality, two of whom are a couple, and have been rendering humanitarian services in the area for a while.
"But unfortunately, they didn't let the authorities know of their presence in the area all this while.
"There is a bully boy group that has been operating in the area and we believe they are the ones behind the abduction.
"Immediately the bandidosturbans struck, they whisked the victims to the interior regions of the creek where we believe they are being held for the past five days."
It was unclear whether any contact had been made with the kidnappers or the motive for the seizure, he added.
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10/20/2017
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#1
The four had been providing "free medical care and religious activities"
[DAWN] The chief of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pak Taliban ...Arabic for students... , has been killed in a US dronezap, a front man for the group confirmed to AFP on Thursday.
"Chief of our Jamaat-ul-Ahrar Umar Khalid Khorasani, who sustained serious injuries in a recent US dronezap in Afghanistan's Paktia province, departed this vale of tears Wednesday evening," JuA front man Asad Mansoor told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Continued on Page 49
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10/20/2017
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#1
"Americans would also like to thank Mr. Asad Afridi for providing the coordinates for the dronezap location. His order of temporary curly-toed slippers should arrive from Amazon soon"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2017 10:51
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[DAWN] Thirty-five people were maimed in two grenade attacks in Mastung and Gwadar in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... on Thursday evening.
Men on a cycle of violence hurled a grenade near a mobile market at Safar Khan Chowk in Mastung, injuring 15 people, police inspector Abdul Quddus told DawnNews. The injured have been shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Mastung.
Police have cordoned off the area and are conducting a search operation, DawnNews reported.
Chief Minister Balochistan Sanaullah Zehri has condemned the incident and asked the authorities to submit a report on the blast.
20 injured in Gwadar
Later in the evening, 20 people were maimed when miscreants lobbed a grenade at al-Zubair hotel on airport road, Gwadar.
Most of the injured were labourers from Sindh who were having their dinner when the attack took place. The assailants sped away on their cycle of violences, police sources said.
The injured have been shifted to DHQ Gwadar.
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10/20/2017
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Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two people were killed on Thursday when a bomb hidden beneath a civilian car exploded south of Baghdad, according to sources at the capital’s police.
Alsumaria News quoted the source saying that the bomb exploded at al-Maalef when the vehicle was passing by at the area, killing two people on board.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Four civilians were wounded in a bomb blast in north of Baghdad, a security source said on Thursday.
“A bomb planted in the industrial district in al-Taji region, north of Baghdad, exploded on Thursday, leaving four civilians wounded,” the source told SNG news website.
“Security troops cordoned off the blast spot and transferred the wounded to hospital,” the source added.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
[DAWN] At least four suspected holy warriors were killed in a dronezap in Afghanistan's Paktia province near the Pak-Afghan border on Thursday.
Security sources told DawnNews that a suspected United States (US) drone fired two missiles targeting alleged murderous Moslem hideouts in the area, killing four 'militants'.
This is the second dronezap in Paktia this week. At least six suspected Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain holy warriors were killed in an earlier strike, with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar chief Umar Khalid Khorasani reportedly injured in the assault. Khorasani was evacuated following the strike and unconfirmed reports claim he is dead.
The recent unprecedented increase dronezaps in the Pak-Afghan border region appears to be reflective of a change in policy in Washington, with at least 70 strikes ─ both drone and ground ─ conducted in Afghanistan in the past three weeks, and over 30 people killed in strikes near the border in the last few days.
The Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and ISPR, the army's media wing, had both claimed that the strikes had been carried out in Afghan territory and Pakistain's airspace had not been violated, amid speculation that the strikes had targeted holy warriors inside Pak territory.
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10/20/2017
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[DAWN] At least 43 Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban ...Arabic for students... -claimed suicide kaboom on a military base in Kandahar on Thursday, officials said, the third assault on a security installation this week.
Officials said the Taliban carried out two suicide boom-mobileings at the camp, setting off several hours of fighting that began late Wednesday.
Afghanistan's ToloNews cited security officials saying that 60 soldiers were deployed to the base in the Chashmo area of Maiwand district.
Just two soldiers are known to have survived unscathed after the attack on the base, the defence ministry said in a statement, adding that nine soldiers were maimed and six unaccounted for.
Defence ministry front man Dawlat Waziri told AFP the attackers detonated at least one explosive-packed Humvee vehicle and razed the compound in the early morning assault.
"We think the forces of Evil used an explosive-packed Humvee vehicle to detonate the gate of the base and we are looking to see if there was more than one," Waziri said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2017
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[Libya Herald] Armed forces commander-in-chief Khalifa Hafter has ordered the establishment of a new Libyan National Army (LNA) unit in Bani Walid in a move which will advance the LNA to a strategic position half way between Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and Misrata.
The new 27th light infantry brigade’s commander is to be Abdullah al-Warfali from the locally-powerful Warfala tribe. The unit is being formed and equipped by LNA trainers. It is not clear when it will become fully operational.
The brigade will be part of the central or Gulf of Sidra military zone, whose Rada* (Deterrence) units are commanded by Brigadier Mohammed al-Nayel. The western boundary of the Sidra zone had until now been Sirte. Bani Walid is some 220 kilometres further west from Sirte.
The establishment of this new formation comes days after Hafter created a new Rada force headquartered in Ajdabiya.
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10/20/2017
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[Libya Herald] The water supply in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and the sounding area has one again stopped after a pro-Qadaffy militia in the south of the country carried out its threat to turn off the valves the Man-Made River valves if its leader were not released by the Rada ("Deterrence") forces of Abdul Raouf Kara.
Al-Mabrouk Ahnish, a member of the Magarha tribe from Brak al-Shatti, was captured at the beginning of the week in the Wirshefana area along with several Sudanese fighters and handed over to Rada. He is being held at Mitiga. Three days ago, Mabrouk’s brother, Khalifa Ahnish, threatened to stop the Man-Made River water supply to Tripoli if al-Mabrouk were not released within 72 hours. The deadline has now expired.
In a separate video, forces of Evil threatened to blow up the gas pipeline in the south heading to the Mellitah oil and gas complex and from there feeding into the Greenstream pipeline to Italia if Mabrouk Ahnish were not freed.
"They’re quite capable of doing it," said one member of the tribe. "Ahnish is quite crazy and doesn’t care about anyone in authority," he added, warning that the situation could escalate even further if there were not immediate negotiations. But he doubted whether Kara would free him.
Khalifa Ahnish has appeared in yet another video claiming that he and his fellows were not mercenaries unlike, he said, those supporting Khalifa Hafter and other forces in the country. He was with Ali Kani, he said. However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... Kani, the pro-Qadaffy Tuareg commander based in Obari, is now reported to be denying that the Ahnish brothers have anything to do with him.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2017
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
No water? Send beer!
Posted by: Ho Chi Glogum7220 ||
10/20/2017 12:48
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[Libya Herald] Few Libyans in the west of the country believe that new elections will end the country’s current situation, an opinion poll published today has indicated.
Carried out in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and four west Libyan towns, it suggests that no more than eight percent of respondents believe that new elections will resolve the crisis. Moreover, only 37 percent ‐ a little over a third ‐ say that they will take part in them when they occur while 27 percent say they will not. Another 37 percent say they have not made up their minds as yet.
As to how they might vote, just 17 percent say they will trust political parties. The other 83 percent reject this, saying they can support only independents.
The poll, carried out in the capital, Gharyan, Sabratha, Sorman and Zuwara, also shows that of those asked, there is little faith in a consensus government solving the country’s problems: a mere 7 percent back it.
Support of Saif al-Islam Qadaffy taking over the country fares only marginally better, with just 10 percent supporting the idea.
The way out of the crisis most favoured by those polled is the establishment of a constitution (with 34 percent support), dissolution of the militas at 26 percent and military rule 12.5 percent.
The findings were unveiled today in Tunis, ironically at the same Africa Hotel where yesterday the Qadaffy family lawyer claimed that Libyans were eagerly awaiting Saif al-Islam’s return to political power.
Asked who is responsible for the current crisis, 29 percent blame the militias, 26 percent the country’s successive governments since the revolution, 20 percent outside influence and 12 percent Libyan political parties and movements.
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[An Nahar] The Iraqi Kurdish regional government said Thursday it was open to talks with Baghdad after central government forces seized a swathe of disputed territory from Kurdish fighters.
"The cabinet welcomes the initiative of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on starting negotiations with the regional government to solve pending issues according to the constitution," it said in a statement.
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10/20/2017
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[An Nahar] US-backed forces who captured Raqa 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 prepared Thursday to hand the Syrian city over to a civilian authority, with some of their fighters already headed to the next battle.
Inside the city, positions that had long been manned by fighters of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces were abandoned, though some remained in the central al-Naim square, dancing and ululating as they celebrated their victory.
The SDF battled for more than four months, with US-led coalition support, to capture the city that was once the de facto Syrian capital of IS's self-styled "caliphate".
They announced the end of combat on Tuesday, though operations to clear explosives and seek out sleeper cells were ongoing.
Raqa's capture leaves the jihadists with little remaining territory in Syria, most of it in neighbouring Deir Ezzor province, where some SDF fighters were already headed to continue the campaign.
"Some of the forces withdrew, others will remain in the city until we finish the minor combing operations, then the city will be handed over to the civil council," said SDF commander Rojda Felat.
"After the end of military operations, a large part of the forces have moved out of Raqa to other areas, including Deir Ezzor," added Mustefa Bali, front man for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the SDF.
SDF front man Talal Sello said two days of mopping-up operations had so far uncovered no additional IS fighters, but that interrogations of those who were captured or surrendered during the battle were ongoing.
"SDF intelligence is investigating them, including a number of foreigners," he told AFP.
Responsibility for the city, which lies in ruins and empty of civilians, will be assumed by the Raqa Civil Council, a body of local officials formed six months ago.
The official handover is expected to come as early as Friday, but the body has already spent months working on reconstruction plans.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2017
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[An Nahar] The threat of fresh attacks on the West by imported muscle fleeing the fallen 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.... stronghold of Raqa is set to dominate a G7 meeting of interior ministers in Italia.
The two-day gathering, which kicks off Thursday on the Italian island of Ischia, comes just days after U.S.-backed forces took full control of the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital.
Continued on Page 49
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Basra (IraqiNews.com) Two children were killed as a landmine left over by Islamic State militants exploded in Basra, a security source said on Thursday.
Speaking to Alghad Press, the source said, “a war leftover landmine exploded in Basra, killing two brothers.”
According to the source, the children were born in 2013 and 2014. “They were transferred to hospital, where they succumbed to death due to the profound wounds.”
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Civilians were killed and injured in an attack launched by Islamic State militants against a village for Kakai people, south of Kirkuk, a security source said.
Speaking to Baghdad Today on Wednesday, the source said, “an attack launched by IS against Sayed Walid Qalhani village, left one civilian killed.”
“The village, which targeted the village, located in Daquq, left people wounded as well,” the source said, adding that “confrontations against the militants are still ongoing.”
Posted by: badanov ||
10/20/2017
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[An Nahar] Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",' leader in the Gazoo Strip said Thursday "no one" can force it to disarm or recognize Israel, after Washington demanded it meet those conditions as part of a unity government.
"No one in the universe can disarm us. On the contrary, we will continue to have the power to protect our citizens," the Islamist movement's Gazoo head Yahya Sinwar said.
"No one has the ability to extract from us recognition of the occupation."
Sinwar made the remarks during a speech to young people that was provided to AFP by Hamas.
Earlier in the day, a top aide to U.S. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... said an emerging Paleostinian unity government must recognize Israel and disarm Hamas, Washington's first detailed response to a landmark reconciliation deal signed last week.
Trump's special representative for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt, who has repeatedly visited the region to seek ways of restarting peace talks, laid out a series of conditions.
"Any Paleostinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognize the state of Israel, accept previous agreements and obligations between the parties -‐ including to disarm Lions of Islam -- and commit to peaceful negotiations," Greenblatt said in a statement.
The U.S. conditions were roughly in line with principles previously set out by the Quartet for Middle East peace -- the United States, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , Russia and the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... .
"If Hamas is to play any role in a Paleostinian government, it must accept these basic requirements," Greenblatt said.
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[An Nahar] A Syrian general accused over the 2012 deaths of prominent U.S. journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik has been killed by an kaboom in the east of the war-torn country.
Issam Zahreddine's death in the city of Deir Ezzor, where Russian-backed regime forces are battling 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, was reported by pro-regime media in Damascus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said he was killed Wednesday when an bomb went off in Deir Ezzor city, most of which is now under the control of regime forces.
With his handlebar mustache and bushy gray beard, the 56-year-old general was a recognizable figure in Syria and had a cult following among diehard supporters of the regime.
Involved in the early days of the repression of a 2011 revolt against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... , he led the battle that expelled rebels from Syria's third city of Homs five years ago.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. in 2016, Colvin's family alleged that her death was the result of shelling of the media center where she and Ochlik were, in a plan "formulated at the highest levels of the Syrian government."
"The plan was executed by Syrian military forces under the command of Major General Issam Zahreddine of the Syrian Elite Republican Guard," it alleged.
Zahreddine had recently commanded the 7,000 forces that were besieged by IS in Deir Ezzor until more government troops were sent in and broke the jihadists' stranglehold on the city.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Zahreddine had recently commanded the 7,000 forces that were besieged by [100] IS in Deir Ezzor
Kirkuk (iraqiNews.com) A retired flying officer, with a rank of colonel, has been killed by gunmen in south of Kirkuk, a security source from the province said on Thursday.
Speaking to Baghdad Today, the source said, “unknown gunmen opened fire in the evening against retired colonel Yassin abu Nour in the celebrations area, south of Kirkuk, which caused his immediate death.”
“Security troops cordoned off the accident spot and conducted investigations, while ambulance took the victim to forensic medicine department,” the source added.
Iraqi troops, backed by Popular Mobilization Forces, took over Kirkuk province from Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on Tuesday, fulfilling instructions made earlier by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to retake areas where sovereignty is disputed with Kurdistan Region’s Government.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/20/2017
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Aden – Yemeni Deputy Premier and Minister of Civil Service Abdulaziz Jubari and his accompanying delegation survived an armed ambush in Tur al-Bahah district of Lahij governorate on their way back from Taiz where they spent two weeks.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Dagher’s convoy was ambushed as well in the same area. Al-Sabiha tribes residing in the area denounced this act and apologized to the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, legitimate government consolidated its presence in several liberated and semi-liberated areas, especially in providing services, salaries and solving other issues.
Observers believed that these incidents may be linked to the insurgents who are trying to create chaos in the liberated districts.
Yemeni political observer Baleegh al-Mekhlafi told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that recent measures taken by the governmental envoy in Taiz had inconvenienced these forces and people of personal agendas and that is why there had been several attempts against Jubari.
In latest field developments, a number of Saleh and Houthi militants were killed during army military operations backed by the popular resistance in al-Baydaa district in the center of Yemen.
Tribal sources informed Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that intense clashes erupted between the army backed by the resistance and militias in az-Zahir district, following a failed infiltrating attempt.
Army commander, Sheikh Ali Taher stated that the military operations of the resistance resulted in the death and injury of several militants.
Taher explained to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the army and popular resistance are rearranging and reorganizing troops in areas within their control. He added that the areas witnessed several clashes between the army and the militias who are trying to advance and infiltrate into Al Hmyqan sites, however, they are met with fierce resistance.
Taher also stated that every now and then, Houthis raid on residential areas and civilians.
In Hajjah district, on border with Saudi Arabia, Saudi-led coalition intensified its air raids on militias sites and clusters in Harad.
Local residents told Asharq Al-Awsat that the coalition launched about 15 air raids over several areas in Bani Haddad, al-Mazrak, and center of Harad.
Sources reported that the national army thwarted militias infiltrations towards several areas in Midi city and forced the attackers to retreat after several militants were killed and injured.
Also, National Army forces raided on several militia clusters in al-Akda area of Usaylan district in Shabwah governorate, south Yemen.
Military sources reported that the raids came few hours after a fire exchange between both sides in al-Khaydar area.
[An Nahar] With the return of Kirkuk to Iraqi control, the balance of power appears to have shifted between the ethnic communities in the Kurdish-majority city, to the delight of its Turkmen residents.
"Before we couldn't proudly declare that we are Turkmen, now our flag is flying over Kirkuk's citadel again," said Omar Najat, 23.
Three weeks before, the disputed city's Kurds were gleefully taking part in a Kurdish independence referendum in open defiance of Baghdad.
Today, the election posters have been torn down, as well as those of the September 25 referendum's chief advocate, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani.
Huge Iraqi flags have been strung from palm trees and across buildings, although Kurdish flags have been left flying from lampposts.
In the Kurdish neighborhood of Rahimawa, business has been slow for the few shops that have reopened such as tyre salesman Abu Sima, 36, as he awaits a return to normality.
His nephews and nieces had to wait for schools to reopen in the wake of the upheaval on Sunday as Iraqi forces entered the city.
In three days and with barely any resistance from Kurdish peshmerga fighters, Iraqi forces took control of the whole of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... whose ownership has long been disputed between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in the north.
For fear of violence on Sunday, Abu Sima and his wife joined thousands of other families, mostly Kurds, in fleeing the city. But like most others, they have returned.
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At least three soldiers were killed when Boko Haram fighters ambushed a military convoy in northeast Nigeria, security and civilian sources told AFP on Thursday.
The attack, which happened on Wednesday near the town of Damboa, on the edge of Boko Haram’s Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno state, is the second against the military within a week.
Source: AFP
Posted by: badanov ||
10/20/2017
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[An Nahar] Days ago in Syria's Raqa, die-hard jihadists made their final stand in the city's national hospital. On Wednesday, it stood eerily silent, its entrance inhabited only by swarming flies and two rotting corpses.
Each body lay next to an overturned cycle of violence on the side of a thoroughfare leading to the abandoned, bullet-riddled complex, which U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced on Tuesday was clear 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.
The national hospital and the city's football stadium were the last two IS holdouts in Raqa, once the notorious capital of the group's self-styled caliphate, and their recapture marked the end of the jihadists' three-year rule over the city.
Outside the hospital, one of the two charred and decomposing corpses wore an boom belt.
Scattered on the rubble-littered ground nearby were Korans, boxes of medication and gauze, and a tiny black notebook full of dates and phone numbers for IS administrative bureaus in the city.
One Syrian number was marked "Whatsapp number for my wife, Umm Islam the Moroccan."
The SDF said 22 foreign jihadists were killed in the final operation to take the medical facility, which is expected to be thoroughly searched and cleared of mines in the coming days.
At least two blasts, likely mines left behind by IS, could be heard across the ravaged city on Wednesday.
- 'They humiliated us' -
At the abandoned national stadium, two bulldozers were working to clear the field, pressing metal fences, dirt, and rubble into compact mounds along its edges.
Underneath rows of seats, an oval hallway was lined with makeshift cells where civilians accused of breaking the group's ultra-conservative rules were kept for days.
SDF member Ahmad al-Hassan was one of them.
The young man was detained in 2015 after he tried to prevent an IS fighter from arresting his wife for showing her face briefly in the street.
On his first visit back to Raqa on Wednesday, he returned to the stadium to see the barren room where he was kept for seven days with 35 other men.
He stood wide-eyed and silent in the darkened corridor, barely able to speak.
"This is where they humiliated us. They humiliated us civilians," he muttered.
In another cell, a handwritten message was scrawled in black marker on the wall: "God save us. God help us."
- 'What rebuilding?' -
The months-long drive by the SDF to capture Raqa was backed by heavy U.S.-led air strikes and artillery fire.
The outer neighborhoods of the city, the first to be taken, were heavily damaged.
But closer to the city center, where fierce, urban festivities raged for weeks over strategic multi-story buildings, the devastation is also striking.
Entire neighborhoods look like they have been put through the shredder, with homes and shops reduced to nearly indistinguishable piles of concrete cinderblocks, pipes and wires.
With no civilians in sight, the only clues that Raqa was once home to tens of thousands of people are now sprinkled in the filthy streets: a student's notebook, teardrop-shaped crystals that once hung from a chandelier, a heart-shaped cushion emblazoned with cartoon characters.
A battered blood-red couch hung out of the gap in a building where a balcony used to be. A wardrobe inside is exposed, its door flung open revealing an untouched row of men's shirts.
SDF fighter Ismail Khalil, also from Raqa, strolled through a ravaged street leading away from the al-Naim roundabout, site of some of the jihadists' most notorious crimes.
He gingerly took a few steps into the massive Harun a-Rashid park, once a favored gathering spot for families and couples but now reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland.
"They say want to be rebuild Raqa. What rebuilding?" the stocky 35-year-old said, shaking his head.
"It won't be rebuilt in 20 years. This city has been completely destroyed."
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) At least ten Islamic State militants were killed in airstrikes launched by army near borders with Syria, the military media said.
“Iraqi fighter jets launched airstrikes that destroyed three vehicles in north of Akashat region, west of Anbar,” the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell reported on Thursday.
“The shelling left more than 10 IS militants killed,” it added.
In late September, Iraqi army announced the total recapture of Annah. Troops also liberated Akashat region, between Rutba town, on borders with Jordan, and Qaim, on borders with Syria. Iraqi troops were able to return life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them in 2015 and 2016. Anbar’s western towns of Qaim and Rawa have been held by the extremist group since 2014, when it occupied one third of Iraq to proclaim a self-styled Islamic “Caliphate”.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[TheConversation] One year ago, the American warship USS Mason defended itself from attacking cruise missiles while patrolling the Red Sea. It was a minor affair with few shots fired and no one hurt. But it was noteworthy for its global security implications.
On Oct. 9, 2016, Mason’s radar detected two anti-ship cruise missiles launching 48 kilometres away from rebel-held areas of Yemen. They flew low over the water at about 1,100 kilometres an hour, and would reach the ship in just over two minutes.
#1
Call me crazy, but is it okay to ask if the Aegis, or some other system, can calc the launching point?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/20/2017 6:20
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#2
So they fired 3 interceptors for zero hits. One missile crashed on its own and the other MAY have been winged. I guess nobody noticed that in the article.
#4
HA9366, without visual confirmation there is no direct evidence of missile kills. So, at least give the article credit for being on the cautious side.
#5
@Richard - unless the launch was seen on radar it isn't calculatable because cruise missiles don't follow a mathematical path such as a parabola - they are steerable or programmed to mask the launch point via movement.
[An Nahar] Former Yemeni president former President-for-Life former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... said he has undergone surgery in Sanaa by Russian doctors after a rare suspension of a Saudi-led coalition air blockade.
A front man for the Arab coalition did not respond to requests Thursday for comment on the lifting of the blockade for the Russian medical team.
Saleh, 75, said the coalition had authorized the entry of the Russian team for cataract surgery, for which he had waited "more than a year", in an interview broadcast 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... Today television.
He said the operation was "a success" and that a medical examination had confirmed he was "in very good health."
The coalition enforced the closure of Sanaa airport after its intervention in Yemen's war on the government side against a rebel alliance of Shiite Huthis and forces loyal to Saleh.
Only select U.N. flights are authorized to land by the coalition, which controls Yemen's airspace as well as a string of ports on the country's coastline.
A high-ranking source in the government told AFP that the United States, an ally of 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... , had facilitated the entry of the Russian medical team because it wanted Saleh to be "in good health.".
Posted by: Fred ||
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To stress the gravity of the Clinton Foundation’s Russian Uranium One scandal, Ortel told Infowars.com that he believes Clinton Foundation financial reports are criminally fraudulent in failing to report payments received in relation to the Russian Uranium One Scandal.
[...]
Take 2009 results , for example, completed during 2010," Ortel argued. "You will not find combining results for the Clinton Foundation, by "Initiative" on the Clinton Foundation website as these are purposefully omitted. But you will find these key results on versions of the required audit that are obtained here in New York (punch in EIN: 31-1580204) and look at the 2009 filing."
Chris Hemsworth says he didn’t understand men’s fashion
Sponsored by Connatix
[...]
"These show total contributions (normally these are from the general public) of $82.9 million and total grants (normally these are from governments and from foundations) of $162.9 million," he continued. "Focus on the column "CHAI" (Clinton Health Access Initiative) that shows contributions of $15.5 million (19% of the combined total) and $159.7 in grants (98% of the total). Clearly "CHAI" existed during 2009 as a material portion of the Clinton Foundation."
Ortel then poses an important question to Corsi: "who contributed $159.7 million to "CHAI" in 2009?"
"By going here, we find that a Swiss NGO called UNITAID may have contributed $85 million during 2009," Ortel then points out.
"There is no $85 million grant from UNITAID listed and there is no grant listed in 2009 that may have been routed through CGSGI from Russia or from any other source‐in fact the combining statement shows $100 (not a typo) in contributions, and only $1.5 million in grants for ’CGSGI,’" Ortel concludes.
Prior to the Obama administration approving the very controversial deal in 2010 giving Russia 20% of America’s Uranium, the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were involved in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering in order to benefit Vladimir Putin, as previously reported by The Gateway Pundit.
The Department of Justice decided to continue investigating this for four years without Congress or the public knowing, according to The Hill’s reporting.
Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at the same time the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investments UNANIMOUSLY approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear company Rosatom, ultimately giving Russia 20% of U.S. Uranium.
[AMERICANTHINKER] It is now clear to anyone who filters through all the media chaff on condolence calls that the FBI and Department of Justice allowed a criminal conspiracy to proceed, endangering national security but enriching the Clintons, and have been covering up the evidence. The two people responsible for targeting the special counsel on Trump and Russia are directly responsible for the cover-up.
Yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing produced plenty of video clips of Al Franken badgering Jeff Sessions, making him look off-balance. That might comfort the sensibilities of Trump-haters, but it is all a phony distraction. It is now clear that real collusion with Russians did take place ‐ between Secretary Clinton's machine and the Russians.
Greg Jarrett, a lawyer and fearless Fox News correspondent, lays out the case that racketeering laws apply to the Uranium One scandal (hat tip: Jim Host, Gateway Pundit).
There is much more to this clear-eyed presentation, including Jarrett's call for Mueller and Rosenstein to resign, since they were responsible for the investigation, kept quiet and allowed it to unfold, and kept it secret. It is well worth five minutes.
The old bromide that "the cover-up is worse than the crime" derives from Watergate, a third-rate burglary, criminally. Endangering national security through racketeering could be a serious crime, indeed. But the cover-up, implicating the pinnacle of our justice and law enforcement hierarchies, could be even bigger, if you think about it. When you lose the police and prosecutors, you are no longer a functioning democratic republic.
No matter how much chaff the media generates, about half the public (46%, according to a poll released today) believes that the media make up stuff about Trump. And the Truth will out.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
Mueller needs a special prosecutor ON HIS ASS. He needs to resign his charge in disgrace
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2017 7:09
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#4
The entire Trump - Russian thing is a distraction. If Clinton had been elected (as was predicted) none of this unpleasantness would have seen the light of day.
Her only hope now is (as it was before) to win the next presidential election. If not under criminal indictment prior to 2018, I suspect she'll be running again.
#8
When you lose the police and prosecutors, you are no longer a functioning democratic republic.
It's not just the police and prosecutors; its also the bought judges who support a personal ideology rather than to follow the rule of law. Congress has a role as well. If this happens, you become no better than a corrupted banana republic. I blame the Clintons and the Obama administrations for the tainted government.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) An Islamic State suicide attacker was killed by security troops in Salahuddin province, a security source said on Thursday.
Speaking to AlSumaria News, the source said, “one of the personnel of Samarra Operations Command at a checkpoint opened fire in the evening against a suicide attacker who tried to approach Dijla weapon stash, northwest of Samarra, which caused his immediate death.”
“Security troops took precautionary measures fearing similar attacks,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.
Federal Police announced, late September, liberation of eastern Shirqat, the group’s holdout in north of the province. 225 militants had been killed since the launch of operations in Shirqat.
Posted by: badanov ||
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[DAWN] La Belle France's answer to "America's Got Talent" is being taken off air after the show's linchpin, Canadian entertainment figure Gilbert Rozon, was hit by allegations of sexual misconduct involving nine different women.
Rozon, who also founded Montreal's prominent "Just For Laughs" comedy festival, is a jury member on "La Belle France Has Incredible Talent," whose 12th season had been due to premiere October 26 until broadcaster M6 pulled the plug on Thursday.
Nine women went public Wednesday with allegations of sexual misconduct by Rozon, triggering a shockwave in Quebec hard on the heels of the revelations targeting Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul accused by dozens of actresses of sexual harassment, assault and rape.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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.
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Kurdish Peshmerga troops have killed army and paramilitary personnel in western Nineveh, commander said.
MOSCOW (AP) — A presidential bid by a celebrity Russian TV host drew conflicting reaction from the country's beleaguered opposition Thursday, with some accusing her of playing into the Kremlin's hands and others welcoming her move.
...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords...
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary 
[The Hill] As he prepared to collect a $500,000 payday in Moscow in 2010, Bill Clinton sought clearance from the State Department to meet with a key board director of the Russian nuclear energy firm Rosatom ‐ which at the time needed the Obama administration’s approval for a controversial uranium deal, government records show.
[DAWN] The chief of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pak 
[DAWN] At least 43 Afghan soldiers were killed in a 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Aden – Yemeni Deputy Premier and Minister of Civil Service Abdulaziz Jubari and his accompanying delegation survived an armed ambush in Tur al-Bahah district of Lahij governorate on their way back from Taiz where they spent two weeks.
At least three soldiers were killed when Boko Haram fighters ambushed a military convoy in northeast Nigeria, security and civilian sources told AFP on Thursday.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) At least ten Islamic State militants were killed in airstrikes launched by army near borders with Syria, the military media said.
"There is no $85 million grant from UNITAID listed and there is no grant listed in 2009 that may have been routed through CGSGI from Russia or from any other source‐in fact the combining statement shows $100 (not a typo) in contributions, and only $1.5 million in grants for ’CGSGI,’" Ortel concludes.
