[ToloNews] The UN says that parties must ensure compliance with their obligations under international law.
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... in Afghanistan reminds all parties to the conflict of their responsibility to protect civilians and to comply with their obligations under international law, as the latest UN documentation shows that civilian casualty rates returned to record high levels in the month of July.
Continued on Page 49
[ToloNews] The Ministry of Defense says there is no "ghost soldier" among the Afghan National Army personnel.
The Ministry of Defense on Saturday rejected a report by a top US watchdog on the existence of "ghost soldiers" ‐ nonexistent personnel ‐ in the structure of the Afghan National Army, saying more than 99 members of the Army have been recognized by the biometric system.
In a report to the US Congress on July 30, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the number of ANDSF troops fell by nearly 42,000 compared to the same period last year.
Defense Ministry front man Rohullah Ahmadzai said that at least 100 percent of Afghan National Army personnel have "physical presence" on their duties and that those who were involved in corruption are under investigation by the ministry.
"There is no ’ghost soldier’ in the ranks of the Afghan National Army," Ahmadzai told news hounds. "SIGAR has not contacted the Ministry of Defense when it made the report and it has not asked for information from the Ministry of Defense."
This comes as the Afghan forces are fighting the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... and other Death Eater groups in more than 20 provinces. Casualties among the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have also increased in recent years.
"This is the main reason behind casualties [among Afghan forces]. The creation of the 40,000 [nonexistent] soldiers, the selling of their weapons ultimately resulted in the killing of 45,000 soldiers," military affairs analyst Atiqullah Amarkhail said.
[KhaamaPress] The U.S. envoy for Afghan peace Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has said withdrawal from Afghanistan will be condition-based.
Ambassador Khalilzad said in a Twitter post that the presence of the United States in Afghanistan is condition-based.
Furthermore, Ambassador Khalilzad said the United States is pursuing a peace agreement not a withdrawal agreement.
He also added that he has arrived in Doha and that U.S. is ready for a good agreement with Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... According to Khalilzad, the Taliban are signaling they would like to conclude an agreement.
This comes as certain American media outlets had earlier reported that the United States is prepared to withdraw thousands of U.S. forces from Afghanistan if a peace deal is concluded with Taliban.
So why is Riyadh ready to spring the dough for the over-engineered and under-gunned corvettes?
First of all, the Saudi Arabian Navy is primarily dedicated to operations in littoral waters of the Persian Gulf, where shipping of ultra-valuable oil tankers faces harassment from Iran’s unconventional naval forces, and the Gulfs of Oman and Aden, where Saudi ships seeks to interdict arms and agents smuggled by Iran into Yemen.
Littoral combat ships, as their name suggests, were built for speed, maneuverability and stealth in coastal waters: they are agile and have shallow drafts ideal for “knife-fighting” small ships close to shore. Even their light armament—inadequate versus conventional warships of equivalent size—is optimized for sparring with smaller fast boats within visual range.
Saudi LCSs will also serve as a useful platform to deploy some of the ten advanced MH-60R Seahawk helicopters purchased by Riyadh in a $1.9 billion deal, the first of which was delivered in September 2018. The multi-mission choppers can help locate ships using their infrared sensors and multi-mode radars, perform search-and-rescue duties, detect submarines with their ALFS dipping sonar and attack them with Mark 54 torpedoes, and even blast surface targets with Hellfire missiles and laser-guided APKWS 70-millimeter rockets.
Second, the Saudi LCSs are of an enlarged 4,000-ton model called the Multi-Mission Surface Combatant which ditches the (unsuccessful) mission module concept for more powerful fixed sensors and weapons, and a crew expanded by fifty percent to between 110-130 personnel. Lockheed Martin was paid $450 million for the design and long-lead materials for the new variant. You can see photos of an MMSC model here.
Posted by: 3dc ||
08/04/2019 12:22 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#1
makes more sense than a full-size cruiser
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2019 12:44 Comments ||
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#2
Work for American shipwrights. Which heroes in the Senate will try to block it?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/04/2019 14:00 Comments ||
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#3
Can we sell them the slightly-used ones we already have?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2019 14:20 Comments ||
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#4
That Saudi up-gunned LCS looks like a proper warship. Can we buy some of those?
Foreign governments expect quality American equipment for the money. Can you name anyone fired on the American procurement team for delivering something less than expected?
#8
Sigh. #7, no, I cannot. Graft is a very generous word at this point for our procurement procedure. Graft as recently as the 90s still regularly resulted in stuff getting done. It has gotten to be like the famous kleptocracies of Detroit and California.
[IsraelTimes] Demonstrators demand release of 36-year-old, sentenced last month to nine months in prison for contempt of court.
For perspective, Mr. Robinson is halfway through the two months and a bit he is actually expected to serve.
Demonstrators carrying England’s flag were gathering Saturday in central London to demand the release of far-right activist Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defense League.
Singing "We want Tommy out," demonstrators congregated at the city’s Oxford Circus thoroughfare. Strict conditions were imposed by police on the demonstration and a counter-demonstration planned by activist group Stand Up To Racism.
London’s Metropolitan Police warned that anyone breaching the conditions could be arrested and prosecuted.
Commander Kyle Gordon warned police would ensure "anyone who is intent on violence is dealt with swiftly and robustly."
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was given nine months in jail, minus the time he has already spent in prison, reducing his term to 19 weeks, of which he will serve half before being released. The 36-year-old was arrested and placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! for filming defendants in a criminal trial in Leeds, northern England, and broadcasting the footage on social media despite reporting restrictions.
The live-streamed footage was of men accused of the sexual exploitation of maiden of tender yearss, while the jury in the second of a series of linked grooming trials was considering its verdicts. Reporting restrictions postponed the publication of any details until the end of all the cases, in a bid to ensure all defendants received a fair trial.
Robinson denied any wrongdoing, saying he did not believe he was breaching any reporting restrictions and had only referred to information that was already in the public domain.
Robinson was placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! for 13 months in May 2018 after being found in contempt of court on the day of the broadcast.
He served 10 weeks in prison before being freed after the original finding of contempt was overturned by the Court of Appeal in August.
But the case was then referred back to Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, who announced in March that it was in the public interest to bring fresh proceedings against Robinson.
Robinson, a former soccer hooligan, set up the EDL to protest against Islamic demonstrations in his home town of Luton, but it soon attracted a far-right crowd as it became a nationwide movement. He has long campaigned against what he says are crimes committed by Moslemmigrants colonists.
His recent legal woes began after he was first convicted of filming inside a court building ‐ an offense ‐ during a gang rape trial in Canterbury, southeast England, in May 2017, a year before the incident in Leeds.
[AlAhram] Over 160 migrants colonists were seeking a safe port Friday after two charity vessels that had rescued them found themselves banned from entering Italian territorial waters.
The Open Arms, run by a Spanish-run NGO, and the German Alan Kurdi are caught in the latest stand-off with far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini, who does not want charity ships to bring migrants colonists to Italia.
Salvini may soon have to take his fight to two more rescue vessels.
Prosecutors in Sicily on Friday released the Mare Jonio -- run by the Italian left-wing collective Mediterranea -- which had been seized after a rescue in May.
The collective said it was preparing to set sail again as soon as possible.
It will be joined by the Ocean Viking, run jointly by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which is due to set off shortly from Marseille for waters off Libya.
The Proactiva Open Arms group said its vessel had plucked 69 migrants colonists and asylum seekers -- including two children -- from a boat in trouble overnight Thursday.
They included people bearing "terrible signs of violence" and a nine-month pregnant woman having contractions, it said.
Open Arms on Thursday had already rescued 55 people from a sinking vessel, including two babies and some 15 women.
As they crowded together on deck under the shade of tarpaulins, the charity ship headed north but its destination was unclear.
Salvini has signed an order prohibiting the ship from entering Italian waters.
He has done the same for the Alan Kurdi, which is run by German NGO Sea-Eye and has 40 rescued migrants colonists on board.
After initially heading to waters off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, the ship said Friday it had changed course for Malta.
Those on the Alan Kurdi, rescued Wednesday off Libya, hail from West Africa and include a pregnant woman, three young children and a man with gunshot wounds, according to Sea-Eye.
All migrants colonists rescued by Open Arms have been disembarked in Spain since the middle of last year.
But the Spanish authorities have forbidden the ship to return to the waters off Libya, saying it would face a fine of between up to 900,000 euros, according to the charity.
During its last rotation off Libya in early July, the Alan Kurdi rescued 109 migrants colonists and disembarked them in Malta.
Salvini has insisted since taking up the interior ministry post in June 2018 that rescued migrants colonists can only land in Italia if an agreement is already in place with other Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an countries to look after them.
On Wednesday Salvini agreed to let 116 migrants colonists on the Gregoretti coastguard ship disembark after EU countries agreed to share responsibility for looking after them.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/04/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
[DAWN] The Indian army earlier this week used cluster ammunition to target the civilian population in Azad Jammu and Kashmire (AJK) across the Line of Control (LoC) in violation of the Geneva Convention and international law, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Saturday.
According to the statement, the Indian military on the night of July 30/July 31 targeted innocent citizens including women and kiddies in Neelum Valley through artillery using cluster ammunition. The attack left two civilians, including a 4-year-old boy, dead and 11 others were critically injured.
"This is [a] violation of Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law," the military's media wing said, adding that the use of cluster ammunition is prohibited under the Convention on Cluster Ammunition because of its severe impact on non-combatants.
[Jpost] Pakistain accused India on Saturday of using illegal cluster bombs, killing two civilians and wounding 11, in the contested Kashmire region that both countries claim.
In the latest flare-up of tensions between the two countries, India denied it had used such weapons.
Pakistain's military released images of what it said were bombs used by India during shelling along the contested border in Kashmire on July 30 and 31, and photos of civilians, including a 4-year-old boy, who it said were killed and injured by the weapons.
"Use of cluster bombs by Indian Army violating international conventions is condemnable," Major General Asif Ghafoor, chief front man for Pakistain's armed forces, said in a tweet.
Two Indian army officials told Rooters that shelling across the border was proportionate and a response to firing by the Pakistain army.
"Such responses are only against military targets and infiltrating bully boyz who are aided by Pakistain army," a statement released by the Indian army said.
One of the officials said that at least one of the images released by Pakistain was of a mortar shell and not a cluster bomb.
Oh. Never mind!
Cluster bombs emit deadly exploding shrapnel and are prohibited under the Geneva Convention governing international warfare.
Pakistain's accusations come a day after India said Pakistain-backed forces of Evil had planned attacks on Hindu pilgrims in Kashmire, leading to an evacuation of thousands of tourists from the region on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2019 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
...Amazing how Muslim nations never seem to understand that it's a good idea to move the (REDACTED) civvies out of the gorram operational area.
Or is that a feature, not a bug?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/04/2019 10:53 Comments ||
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#2
Seven of their Border Action Team guys are lying in our Keran sector, since last night. Six bodies whole and one with a leg and some jaw missing.
They were infiltrating like Beagle boys in a cartoon, tip-toeing to cross a 5 ft. wall and feeling very proud until the first tracers hit them.
The video is funny to say the least. It'll soon be released. If not I'll UL it somewhere. A group of sitting ducks is seen clearly in night vision, making like ninjas in a Sho Kosugi film. And then they start dying.
[DAWN] Arifwala police have arrested a lawyer on charges of sharing through social media `blasphemous and hate content.’
Usman Farid Chishti faces proceedings under the PPC 295/C and other relevant laws for sharing a post having blasphemous content and hate material against security establishment and superior judiciary.
The FIR was registered on the complaint of Ijaz Ahmed, also a lawyer.
Arifwala Circle DSP Ghulam Muhammad confirmed the arrest of Chishti on the recommendations of a committee headed by Pakpattan DPO Ibadat Nisar.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2019 00:00 ||
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[Jpost] Amid mounting tensions between the Paleostinians 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... , the Paleostinian Authority is considering dispatching a senior delegation to Riyadh for urgent talks with members of the Saudi royal family and government officials on ways to avert a further deterioration.
There seems to be one problem, however: the Saudis are not responding to Paleostinian requests to arrange such a visit.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/04/2019 01:26 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#3
The Yemen situation is vexing the saudis mightily. They have no incentive to continue supporting entities that have truck with the iranians simply to claim "solidarity" with the paliswinians.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/04/2019 9:17 Comments ||
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#4
"Obviously, we are headed toward a major crisis between Saudi Arabia and the Paleostinians," said a retired Paleostinian academic who worked for more than three decades in various Gulf states.
"There’s a feeling that things are quickly spiraling out of control. If we don’t fix the situation, the Paleostinians in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries will pay a heavy price. We must not forget what happened after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait," he said, referring to the 200,000 Paleostinians who fled or were driven out of Kuwait in 1990-1991. "We paid a heavy price after Kuwait was liberated because of our support for the invasion. Let’s make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past."
...Wanna know why I think this dude isn't Palestinian? Because he thinks they might not make the same mistake twice.
Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/04/2019 10:50 Comments ||
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#5
Paleo Proverb: "Any mistake is worth repeating oncetwice endlessly"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2019 12:22 Comments ||
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#6
It's been 20 years since I worked in Saudi. But back then, they imported about 3 million workers from almost every Moslem nation on earth to do the actual work. But Palestinians and Iranians were very conspicuous by their absence, even back then.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/04/2019 13:27 Comments ||
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#7
#6: Next to winning the lottery the most difficult win is a Palestinian getting approval to work in Saudi Arabia.
Hat tip Alaska Paul. A week old, but still of general interest, I think.
[Gcaptain] Somewhere on its journey from the waters off Iran, around Africa’s southern tip and into the Mediterranean, the Grace 1 oil tanker lost the flag under which it sailed and ceased to be registered to Panama. Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... later claimed it as its own.
The ship carrying 2 million barrels of Iranian crude was seized by British Royal Marines off Gibraltar, raising tensions in the Gulf where Iran detained a UK-flagged ship in retaliation.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/04/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
This administration is implementing sanctions with teeth unlike other sanctions in history. Iran understands the actions and others are doing things to comply. The MMs are feeling the heat.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/04/2019 10:07 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Where's the 12th Imam when they really need him? Needs to quit hiding in that well and get to work.
[Jpost] Roughly 1,200 ISIS fighters are now in Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... , warns Nathan A. Sales, the US State Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism ‐ and that more terrorists, inspired by what he called the ISIS "brand," are trying to cross borders, according to an official US State Department report released on Thursday.
To ensure this won’t happen, he said, the US must help front line states to carry out UN Security Council Resolution 2396, which calls on them to use screening tools like bio-metrics and watch lists to prevent dangerous individuals from crossing borders and importing terror.
"The Russians... deny many things that we believe are facts," Sales said regarding Syria and the various operations Russian forces are doing there.
"We’ve helped broker a handful of ceasefires there; they keep on falling apart and the bombing continues," added Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS James F. Jeffrey.
The anti-ISIS coalition includes 80 nations. iIn Syria, the US mainly works with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF); in Iraq it works with the Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga forces, which are mostly Kurdish.
In northeast Syria, ISIS is suffering from diminutions of capabilities, Jeffrey said, but that’s "only where we are." The jihadist group is still active, however, in Idlib and south of the Euphrates.
Roughly 10,000 ISIS fighters are now held by the SDF in Syrian prisons. Some 8,000 of them are Syrian and 2,000 are Iraqi citizens; work is underway to ensure that the Syrians face trial and the Iraqis are brought to Iraq for the same purpose.
Roughly 70,000 people, both immediate and extended family members, are related to those captured ‐ and are now in the al-Hawl displaced persons camp in northern Syria, close the Iraqi border.
About 10,000 people in the camp are related to the 2,000 foreigners who came to serve ISIS.
Sales mentioned Kosovo and Kazakhstan as two countries that were able to bring back their own citizens who once fought for ISIS with their families, prosecuting the forces of Evil for crimes while rehabilitating and re-integrating their family members and children.
He added that former fighters in Syria are held in make-shift prisons, and it would be better if they are placed in proper prisons in their own countries, as they may try to escape.
In that, too, the US is leading by example, Sales said. Four American males and one female were flown to the states to stand trial for what they did in service of ISIS. So far, one of these five was convicted.
About a dozen Arab-Israelis are reported to have fought in the ranks of ISIS in Syria and are currently being held in captivity. It is unclear whether Israel has an official policy about them and their future.
WHILE ISIS had taken on much of the world’s focus, al-Qaeda had rebuilt itself and is as strong as ever, Sales warned.
He emphasized that ISIS is still active in Afghanistan as ISIS-Khorasan, in Egypt, the Islamic Maghreb and the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... in Africa.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/04/2019 00:00 ||
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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.
[ToloNews] The UN says that parties must ensure compliance with their obligations under international law.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
[IsraelTimes] Demonstrators demand release of 36-year-old, sentenced last month to nine months in prison for contempt of court.
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[DAWN] Arifwala police have arrested a lawyer on charges of sharing through social media `blasphemous and hate content.’
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
