[PJMedia] The Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... ’s defense minister, Maulvi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, recently responded to news that the U.S. plans to station 2,000 troops at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul by presenting what he considered to be a tit-for-tat: according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the austere diplomat tweeted: "If America wants 2,000 English [i.e., American] troops at its embassy in Afghanistan, we also want 2,000 Fidayeen Mujahideen [i.e., jacket wallahs] from the Fateh Force at the embassy of Afghanistan in America." Two-thousand suicide bombers in Washington! It’ll almost be like Congress, but bigger.
MEMRI explains that "fidayeen is another term used by jihadi groups for their suicide bombers. ’Fateh Force,’ or ’victorious force,’ is a ’martyrdom force’ within the Badri 313 unit of the Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan]. Badri 313 is named after the Ghazwa-e-Badr, the first Islamic battle led by Islam’s founder Muhammad in which 313 Moslems defeated thousands of non-Moslemrustics."
Continued on Page 49
[Garowe] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... [EU] anti-piracy mission risks losing permission to pursue pirates in Somalia's waters due to local politics, the Observer reports, in the latest dramatic development in the Horn of Africa nation.
In December 2021, Somalia's federal government agreed to extend a UN mandate for the EU operation, called Atalanta, for just three months. Somalia has a coastline of 3,333 kilometers.
And its future intentions were "rather ambivalent" and "to be doubted", according to an internal EU foreign-service paper, dated 5 January and seen by EUobserver.
Somalia's new "posture towards the international presence [is] ... to be seen in the context of [Somalia's] ongoing electoral process, notably increasing tensions and electoral fragmentation," the EU said.
And as they prepared for presidential elections "likely to take place in June", the Somalian powers that be wanted to make a point.
They wanted the EU or other "future partners to reinforce [the] Somali national coasties and navy", instead of policing the region.
They also wanted Atalanta to focus more on illegal fishing and toxic-waste dumping, amid "destabilizing information stating that the operation [Atalanta] 'protects the illegal fishing vessels," the EU foreign service said.
And they wanted the text of any long-term UN resolution "to notably reduce the perceived negative language towards Somalia".
If the current UN resolution expires in March, then there would "be no more legal basis for Atalanta to fight armed robbery in Somali territorial waters or on its territory, and ... to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia", the EU noted.
The EU mission could still fight pirates on the "high seas" and could still perform "secondary tasks", it said.
These include protecting food-aid ships, enforcing a UN arms embargo on Somalia, pursuing drugs traffickers, illegal fishing boats, and illicit charcoal traders.
But "capability ... to pursue pirates and armed robbers in Somali territorial waters remains indeed important for an effective counter-piracy mission. Ability to act on land would be even better," the EU foreign service said.
The EU planned to "increase pressure " on Somalia to get, at least, another nine-month extension. It also aimed to use other EU military assistance to Somalia's armed forces "as a political leverage".
And they are seeking to extend their presence, with pending accords on Atalanta anti-piracy operations also in the waters of Djibouti, Mauritius, and Seychelles, the EU internal paper indicated.
The developments come amid increased instability in the region caused by Æthiopia's civil war. They also come amid heightened geopolitical tension, as China and Russia compete with EU interests in Africa.
In the meantime, Somalia's formal position was that "piracy is no longer posing a significant threat to the regional peace and security," the EU report noted. But the EU concern over Atalanta's potential expulsion from the country's waters indicated that that was far from true.
[Al Ahram] Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his Paleostinian counterpart the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase.... discussed efforts to reconstruct the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip during a meeting on Tuesday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.
President El-Sisi reiterated to Abbas Egypt's "firm" stance in support of the Paleostinian cause, emphasising the importance of achieving "a just and comprehensive settlement" to this issue in accordance with international legitimacy.
Egypt is keen to back the current Paleostinian diplomatic efforts, internationally and regionally, to encourage the resumption of peace negotiations, El-Sisi stressed to the Paleostinian president and his delegation.
President Abbas expressed his appreciation and gratitude for Egypt's "sincere" efforts under the leadership of President El-Sisi to support his country's cause and enable the Paleostinians to overcome the various challenges facing their cause.
He also said that Egypt has "a historical role" and "a stable, firm stance" to reach a just and comprehensive solution to the Paleostinian cause, a statement by Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said following the meeting.
In November, Egypt called for the drafting of an "integrated vision" to fulfil the needs of the Paleostinian people and help the Paleostinian Authority (PA) overcome the economic crisis in the Paleostinian territories.
The economic crisis in the Paleostinian territories has worsened on the heels of the latest 11-day Israeli war on Gaza in May -- ended by an Egyptian mediation — in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, and delays in the payment of salaries by the PA.
Following the mediation of a ceasefire between the Israeli and Paleostinian sides, Egypt allocated $500 million to reconstruct the Strip.
Egypt has also dispatched massive engineering equipment and crews to participate in the Gaza Strip reconstruction alongside tonnes of humanitarian aid.
In November, Egypt and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... have signed agreements to supply fuel and basic construction materials to the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli siege since 2007.
El-Sisi and Abbas also spoke about the latest developments on the Paleostinian arena, at the local, regional and international levels, Rady noted.
They discussed "recent intensive" regional efforts by Egypt in this regard and reached a consensus on the need to continue intensive consultation and coordination -- with the participation of Jordan -- at the bilateral or trilateral levels in order to revive the grinding of the peace processor, according to Rady.
Egypt and Jordan have been in talks with several international sides to resume the Paleostinian-Israeli talks.
Tuesday's meeting, held on the sideline of the fourth edition of the World Youth Forum, was also attended by Head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel.
[AlAhram] Egypt’s official gazette published on Wednesday a cabinet decree to legalise the status of 50 unlicensed churches and 91 Christian service buildings that had been operating without a permit.
According to the information released in the decree, the churches and service buildings approved are mostly Egyptian Coptic Orthodox, with the minority being Protestant.
Coptic Orthodox Christians make up around 90 percent of all Christians in the country.
The newly legalised churches and service buildings are located in Cairo, Alexandria, Sharqiya, Daqahaliya, Menoufiya, Minya, Assiut, Qena, and Sohag.
In 2016, Egypt’s parliament approved a long-awaited law regulating the building and renovation of churches.
The committee to legalise the status of unlicensed churches was established in 2017 by Sherif Ismail, the prime minister at the time.
Since its formation in 2017, the committee has legalised the status of over 2,000 churches and service buildings in the country.
#1
Very welcome news. Welcome to religious freedom, Egyptians! It's wonderful!
Posted by: Tom ||
01/13/2022 11:43 Comments ||
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#2
They live in a part of the world where there are many good reasons to be wary of religion. We live in a world where the newest religion of the Godless is COVIDianism, of which all should be skeptical, if not scared.
So, brave? Yes they are. Hear the Good Word.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/13/2022 11:46 Comments ||
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#3
Presidents Sisi’s government has been doing this for several years now. It doesn’t stop the local village governments from harassing local church congregations, but at least they’re legal now, which helps.
Nifty uniforms. And the holes in the mask are a grand idea!
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2022 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: Fulani Herdsmen (Boko Haram)
#1
Those regimentals are way ahead of the new ⭔ in the woke department. I think the mask is copied from Hannibal Lecter? Which, given it's the sub-sahara may just be a thang.
[DW] In December, the Home Office sent a rejection letter to a Syrian asylum-seeker, saying it was safe for him to return. That would have been first case of its kind in the UK. Now, authorities appear to have backtracked.
The case concerns a 25-year-old Syrian man who came to the UK in May 2020. He reportedly evaded forced conscription into the army in 2017 to avoid being forced to kill fellow Syrians.
The man, who has not been named for his protection, has said returning to Syria would put his life in danger. He would be targeted as a draft dodger, arrested and possibly killed, he said.
In its rejection letter to the man, reported by The Guardian newspaper, the Home Office said he could safely return to Syria. "I am not satisfied to a reasonable degree of likelihood that you have a well-founded fear of persecution," the Home Office wrote, according to The Guardian.
In what appears to be a U-turn, the Home Office tweeted on Tuesday that "under the current circumstances we are not returning people to Syria. The UK government agrees with the UN judgement that Syria remains unsafe for them."
The Home Office confirmed its statement to DW.
'FAIR BUT FIRM'
In 2021, the UK introduced a major overhaul of its immigration and asylum system. Addressing Parliament In December, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the new law represented a "comprehensive, fair but firm long-term plan, which addresses the challenge of illegal migration head-on."
"Asylum-seekers deemed to have arrived in the UK illegally will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive in the country via legal routes," Patel said. "Even if their claim is successful, they will be granted temporary refugee status and face the prospect of being indefinitely liable for removal."
"Asylum seekers will be able to be removed from the UK while their asylum claim or appeal is pending, which opens the door to offshore asylum processing," she said.
A WORRYING MOVE
Though information on the applicant's case in question remains scant, the government's stance is a disturbing and surprising development, said Rim Turkmani, the research director for Syria with the Conflict Research Programme at the London School of Economics.
Turkmani, who has given expert evidence to the UK's Foreign Affairs Select Committee on the Syria crisis, said that, although the level of violence had abated in parts of Syria, the safety of individuals was still at risk, particularly where political motives are involved.
"Evading conscription in Syria after 2011 is indeed a political statement by men who refuse to join an army that is attacking civilians, committing war crimes, and where they may be positioned in posts where they have to take part in attacking civilian areas themselves. Seeking to avoid conscription puts the person at risk of detention, which, as documented by many human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... organizations, could mean torture and even death. The mere fact that this person has applied for asylum puts him at risk if he is sent back to Syria," she told DW via email.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Special report by Alexander Kots:
[KP] - Honestly, at some point I thought that everything, kapets the country, - a familiar local businessman meets me at the railway station of Almaty . - There was a feeling that everything fell apart, especially when the security forces completely disappeared from the city for two days. I underestimated Tokayev (President of Kazakhstan - Ed.), I thought he would fly to Rostov.
We are barely trudging through the dead traffic jams that suddenly fettered Alma-Ata, along which armed militants were running just a few days ago. My friend gets angry because he doesn't understand the nature of such congestion. Traffic cops are standing around, directing the creeping streams to bypass the center. But as soon as you try to go around the block that has arisen, new traffic cops appear and again drive you into a traffic jam.
Suddenly, a cortege accompanied by armored vehicles bursts past us into the center of the city, cleared of cars, and a helicopter flies along its route from above. By it, I understood for the next half day - where it is definitely not worth going by car. The "spinner" accompanied the convoy of the President of Kazakhstan, who came to his hometown to meet with the relatives of the deceased security officials - their portraits are now on electronic screens along the city roads. And look at the consequences of the pogroms.
"ELITE BANKS AND TURKISH SHOPS Marauders DIDN'T TOUCH"
I will say this - I expected to see a more apocalyptic picture in Alma-Ata . Reports from here in the first days of January drew a battle canvas on which no stone was left from the city. In fact, the looting affected only a small part of the city in the direction of the movement of the pogromists. But for Kazakhstan this is also unprecedented!
At the same time, the looting was suspiciously selective. In the middle of the smashed windows stands an intact supermarket of the Turkish chain. And the avalanche of marauders stopped just before the junction, behind which the offices of all the largest banks in Kazakhstan begin in fashionable buildings made of glass and concrete. Obviously, someone controlled the marauders and did not let them approach the elite facilities where they could take out all their class hatred.
Traces of urban battles (and I have seen enough of them over 20 years of work in "hot spots"), too, were found not many. Moreover, where the terrorists met with resistance (for example, at the local police department), they retreated without getting involved in long skirmishes. And where there was no resistance, and there is no need to shoot.
In essence, it was a classic terrorist attack with clear targets for which the militants were not going to inflame a lot of resources. Capture police station arsenals. To take control of the entrances to the city and the airport, through which help could come by air to the security forces. To speak on television, announcing some "South Kazakhstan" velayat and raise the "green banner of Islam" over the burned down akimat. The pogroms and robberies provoked by professional coordinators were a screen and proceeded in parallel with the capture of the city. It's just that no one expected that the central government would issue an order for harsh suppression - the curators did not warn about this from the “werewolf” security forces.
And nobody expected the CSTO
SHOOTING AND CUTTING OBLIGATELY PROFESSIONALS
However, a lot of blood was shed anyway. And in Alma-Ata they are sure that the official figures of the victims of the pogrom are at least three times underestimated.
The local ambulance station refused to give me exact numbers. But they told how the doctors had to work in real combat conditions, being attacked by militants. And they shared some interesting, previously unheard details.
- From 4 to 7 January 11,500 calls were received. We served 9100. A third is injuries, gunshot, cut, beaten, - the acting Acting told me. Director of the Ambulance Service Andrey Lozhkin. - We could not get to many patients because of the cordons and riots, because the brigades were attacked. We did not divide: strikers, non-strikers, policemen, not policemen. They could not be made out. Many of the strikers changed into police uniforms.
- Do you know that for sure?
- The policemen dressed in civilian clothes, because they were really killed there! The strikers did not allow us to provide assistance to the police. For this purpose, they stopped us. They searched cars, looked for police officers.
- What was the state of the people? And what are the injuries?
- In the beginning, of course, they were of moderate severity. Then they went already heavy, when weapons began to be used. Our guys and corpses were taken out, because they were captured. Basically, serious injuries from the evening of January 5th and 6th, gunshot. Head, chest and cut. The legs were mainly hit in the thighs, in the gluteal region, so that there was a lot of blood loss. Most likely, they were some kind of professionals ...
The thiefs took the corpses of their people
- 5 of our workers were injured - two drivers and three paramedics, - Shaykhidin Badirov, the deputy director for the medical department, shared with me. “The bandits say: don’t help the police, take care of our people. Leave those.
- They say the thugs took the corpses of their accomplices from the streets ... Is it true?
- It was so. At the 4th substation, the bandits forcibly took one ambulance brigade to take out the corpses from the Republic Square.
- Did the militants take out the corpses of their people?
- Well, yes.
The paramedic of that very substation Sergazy Abyllayev was attacked near Republic Square.
- On January 4, closer to ten, shooting began, grenades, noise. At that moment, a call was received to provide medical assistance to a police officer. Three people were loaded into our car, one of them was unconscious, two were seriously wounded. At that moment, our ambulance was attacked. They started throwing stones at us, broke the windows, the side door, opened the back door, threw a tear grenade. The second grenade was either a combat grenade or some kind of noise grenade. We managed to throw it out through the window.
- And what kind of people were they? Were you able to see them? Is it local? Not local? Are they Kazakhs or foreigners?
- There were different nations. I cannot say that only Kazakhs. They were young, yes, maybe 20-25 years old. Well, it was hard. They don't even come into contact with you in order to talk calmly.
From 4 to 7, 11,500 calls were received
- Have you tried?
- Yes. I tried: calm down, please. They don't listen to you. They swear: give us a policeman, don't help him, let, roughly speaking, die here. But we have completed this matter anyway. And they were hospitalized in the hospital urgently.
[DW] The highest number of asylum requests came from Syria, while over 17% of first-time applications were on behalf of children born in Germany under the age of one.
More asylum applications were filed in Germany in 2021 than at any time in the past 4 years, according to figures published on Wednesday.
Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said that, in 2021, 190,800 asylum applications were submitted.
It's the highest number since 2017, when more than 222,600 people applied.
HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THE FIGURE?
Since 2017, the number had fallen to 165,938 by 2019, with only about 122,000 asylum applications in 2020.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... in releasing the figures, the German Interior Ministry — which runs BAMF and compiled the figures — pointed out that any comparison with 2020 was not very meaningful. This was due to the impact of travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic.
Some 148,000 applicants were foreigners applying for asylum in Germany for the first time.
About 17.5% of those applications were submitted for children born in Germany under the age of one.
WHERE ARE THE APPLICANTS FROM?
The biggest national group of people applying for asylum came from Syria — more than 70,000 people — as has been the case for several years, as the civil war there continues to rumble on.
The number of people from Afghanistan who applied for asylum has risen in the wake of the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... takeover, with more than 31,000 Afghans applying in 2021.
Former local staff serving the Bundeswehr and other German institutions in Afghanistan, as well as their families, did not have to apply as they had received advance acceptance. This was also true of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. activists and others who were promised admission by German authorities based on activities that could see them persecuted by the Taliban.
Statistics showed a significant rise in the number of people applying from North Macedonia, although the number from neighboring Kosovo was down.
The Interior Ministry attributed an increase in delayed asylum decisions to the complication of secondary migration within the EU and the changed situation in Afghanistan from August.
Germany also saw more than 11,000 migrants colonists enter the country via Belarus and Poland in 2021, although the figure was trending downward by the end of the year.
[An Nahar] Victims of torture in Syria and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activists say they hope the upcoming verdict in a landmark trial will be a first step toward justice for countless Syrians who suffered abuse at the hands of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's government in the country's long-running conflict.A court in the German city of Koblenz is scheduled to deliver its ruling Thursday in the trial of Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian secret police officer who is accused of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2022 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Breitbart] Nearly nine in ten suspects involved in fatal shootings in Sweden are either born abroad or are from migrant backgrounds, statistics reveal, as the country continues to deal with record levels of fatal shootings.
In 2021, Sweden saw another record high number of fatal shootings as the country continues to see fatal gun violence largely driven by criminal gang activity across the country.
According to statistics obtained by the French newspaper La Croix, the average age of suspects in fatal shootings in Sweden is 23 years old and claim that 85 per cent of the suspects are either born aboard or come from immigration backgrounds.
Swedish police claim that there are as many as 2,500 members of gangs in the city of Stockholm alone and that the dismantling of prior gangs made of up migrants from the Balkans who came to Sweden in the 1990s, has led to the formation of smaller and more violent gangs.
The gangs often operate in so-called “vulnerable areas” also known as no-go areas, with Swedish authorities noting that in around sixty neighbourhoods, gangs have an influence on the local community.
The statistics cited by the French newspaper echo statement made last year by Greater Gothenburg police commissioner Erik Nord who commented on the connection between mass migration and fatal gun violence.
“It is no longer a secret today that much of the problem of gang and network crime with the shootings and explosions have been linked to migration to Sweden in recent decades,” Nord wrote in an opinion article for Swedish newspaper Goteborgs Posten.
“When, like me, you have the opportunity to follow matters at the individual level, you see that virtually everyone who shoots or is shot in gang conflicts originates from the Balkans, the Middle East, North or East Africa,” Nord added.
Nord has not been the first to connect migration to gang crime and gun violence. In October of 2020, Linda Staaf, head of the intelligence unit of the National Operational Department (NOA) of the Swedish police force, noted that second-generation migrants had created a new form of gang culture in some no-go areas.
“Overall, we have three types of criminal structures: criminal organisations, such as criminal motorcycle gangs; family-based criminal networks in clan structures; and a new type of culture and network – that is, loose networks that are mainly gang criminals in vulnerable areas,” Staaf noted.
“The loosely composed networks often consist of second-generation immigrants. Parts of the clan structure are brought with them like honour and blood vengeance,” she said.
#10
All a white person has to know is "your best will never be good enough." You can't hand over enough money, bow deeply enough or die painfully enough.
So why even try?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/13/2022 11:21 Comments ||
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#11
Another vignette from the Great Western Civilization Twilight on display. I keep waiting for the Aragorn Men of the West speech from someone, because Mordor is rising folks...
[IsraelTimes] Despite never being charged, group has spent collective 85 years in prison opened two decades ago for so-called ’war on terror’ detainees in wake of 9/11 attacks
The US government has approved the release of five more prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison, according to documents posted online this week by the Defense Department.
#4
And speaking of Americans, there are the 911 first responders discussed here.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/13/2022 11:00 Comments ||
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#5
Since they started calling teachers and every single person at the hospital a "first responder," they devalued that too. JoeFlation. It can devalue everything!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/13/2022 11:04 Comments ||
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#6
Making room for U.S. citizen "domestic terrorists" i.e. parents who question what their children are taught in school.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/13/2022 13:15 Comments ||
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[DAILYCALLER] A veterans activist with the Vietnam Veterans of America, Kristofer Goldsmith, described in a previously unreported 2008 video committing acts that an expert said could be a war crime that could carry a punishment of death or life in prison.
Goldsmith said in the video that, as a soldier, he sabotaged Iraqi allies’ rifles while they slept so that they were rendered defenseless. He said he spread the idea to platoon members who joined in, disabling the rifles of an entire Iraqi company fighting on the same side as the U.S.
Goldsmith is now the associate director for policy and government affairs at VVA, a congressionally chartered group that was involved in a town hall with Rep. Alexandria Sandy Ocasio-Cortez Dem Congressgirl from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details. She was the inventor of the Green New Deal, though she doesn't talk about it much anymore... on April 17. The New York Democrat said of the Department of Veterans Affairs, "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" — a position on the VA at odds with the majority of veterans groups.
Goldsmith is married to the editor of The New York Times
... which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... ’ At War blog, Lauren Katzenberg. He has testified before Congress and has done research into internet hoaxes that has spurred a congressional investigation. Numerous major news outlets, including CNN ...the organization formerly known as the Cable News Network. Now who knows what it might stand for... , The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have featured Goldsmith.
He’s also been fiercely critical of the last two Republican administrations.
Goldsmith now says his claim that he sabotaged Iraqi troops’ rifles was fake.
"Yeah, so there was a time when I was an anti-war activist," he told The Daily Caller News Foundation. "No, it is not true ... I wish that stupid shit would go away."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2022 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
#1
“I joined the army to kill people. To kill Iraqis, to kill Muslims,” he said. “I remember … standing up the day after 9/11 and talking about how we should use chemical weapons or biological weapons over the entire Middle East to make it so the religious land, the Holy Land, is not an issue that harms Americans.”
[IsraelTimes] Gathering seen as move of defiance by terror group as Beirut seeks to mend relations with Riyadh; ties had hit a new low in October when minister criticized Saudi war in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah hosted a conference for Saudi opposition figures in its stronghold south of Beirut on Wednesday in a defiant gesture certain to anger the oil-rich kingdom.
[IsraelTimes] British Council announces the release and return of Aras Amiri, amid ongoing negotiations in Vienna between Iran ...They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and world powers.
An Iranian employee of the British Council arrested in Tehran and later sentenced to 10 years in prison over internationally criticized espionage charges has been sprung and traveled to the United Kingdom, the organization said Wednesday.
Iranian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the release of Aras Amiri. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... it comes amid ongoing negotiations in Vienna between Iran and world powers, including the UK, over its tattered 2015 nuclear deal.
The British Council said Wednesday that an appeal her lawyers made to Iran’s Supreme Court ...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations... had been successful. Amiri worked for the council’s London office.
"We have always refuted the original charges made against Aras," the council said in a statement. "We are very proud of her work in our London office as an arts program officer supporting a greater understanding and appreciation of Iranian culture in the UK."
In Tehran, her lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, confirmed that Amiri had been released in an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. He said Iran’s Supreme Court had determined that her earlier espionage conviction in the country’s Revolutionary Court was "against Shariah," or Islamic law. He did not elaborate.
Kermani said she left Tehran on Monday but had been free from prison in recent months as she appealed a travel ban.
Iran announced her conviction in 2019. Authorities there accused her of spying on cultural activities in Iran. The British Council previously said she traveled to Tehran to visit family on a private trip that didn’t involve her work at the nonpolitical organization, which is involved in arts, culture and education.
[IsraelTimes] Supporters of Fariba Adelkhah say Tehran ‘cynically using our colleague for external or internal purposes that remain opaque,’ adding that authorities are endangering her health.
Adelkhah was sentenced on May 2020 to five years in prison for conspiring against national security, accusations her supporters have always denounced as absurd.
The surprise move by the Iranian authorities to move Adelkhah back to prison comes at a hugely sensitive juncture in talks involving France and other world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 deal on the Iranian nuclear program.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian complained Tuesday that the pace of the talks in Vienna is “too slow,” in marked contrast to the more upbeat tone from officials in Tehran.
[JPost] Let's go Brandon/Kerry The US has granted South Korea a license to pay damages owed to an Iranian company, possibly a gesture from the US to Iran to move nuclear talks forward.
The US permitted South Korea to pay damages owed to an Iranian company, in an exemption to sanctions on Tehran that can be viewed as a trust-building step in the ongoing nuclear talks.
The US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control granted South Korea a "specific license" earlier this week to pay Dayyani Holdings, which is linked to the Iranian government. The amount has not been determined, but Seoul owes the company $63 million since 2018, which was not paid due to US sanctions on Iran.
The move came days after South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun met with US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, as well as the Iranian and European delegations to the Vienna talks.
Iran says South Korea owes about $7 billion for oil cargo, which it has not paid after then-US president Donald Trump left the Iran deal in 2018 and imposed "maximum pressure" sanctions.
The negotiations in Vienna, which are in their eighth round, are for the US and Iran to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which restricted Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the gradual lifting of sanctions until 2030.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2022 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[An Nahar] Austria's foreign minister said Wednesday that the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... wants to help Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia... escape its economic meltdown, but only if the country's leaders clean up Beirut's affairs.Alexander Schallenberg told news hounds after meeting his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut that Lebanon should reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund, move forward with the investigation into the August 2020 port blast and restructure the hard-hit banking sector.
Lebanon's economic crisis, which started in 2019, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the small country's political class. Bickering between rival groups has so far prevented economic reforms demanded by the international community in order to release billions of dollars of investments.
"Frankly we are very concerned about what is going on in the country," Schallenberg said. "Our message is, help us to help you."
"Austria will continue to stand on the side of the Lebanese people but what we want to see is action on the side of Lebanon," he said.
Lebanon's economic crisis has been described by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the 1850s. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs since October 2019 and the Lebanese pound lost more than 90% of its value. That leaves nearly 80% of the population of 6 million, including 1 million Syrian refugees, in poverty.
Amid the crisis, Lebanon's government has not met since Oct. 12. Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... and Amal have demanded that the judge leading the investigation into the port blast be removed. The Aug. 4, 2020, explosion in the center Beirut killed more than 200 people.
"The solutions are in the hand of the leaders of this county," Schallenberg said, adding, "they're the only ones who can get this country and the people out of this."
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the government is working on reforms, including in the corruption-riddled electricity sector. Bouhabib added that he hopes that Beirut will reach a deal with the IMF by the end of February.
Schallenberg said that there has to be a deal between Lebanon and the IMF, "in order for us as a European Union to give economic assistance."
The Austrian foreign minister said his country will continue to help Syrian refugees in Lebanon, with the eventual goal of returning them to their country.
Schallenberg is scheduled to visit Austrian peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2022 00:00 ||
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