[RADIOSHABELLE] Tension has remained high in Mandera town for the fourth day now with reports that troops of the Somalia National Army troops are converging along the border, planning to raid a hotel where a Jubbaland minister is allegedly holed up.
Somalia has accused Nairobi of harboring runaway Jubbaland security minister Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur.
Mr Abdinur, also known as Abdirashid Janan, is alleged to have escaped on January 28 from a Mogadishu prison, where he had been held since August 31, 2019.
He is accused of committing grave human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... violations and killing civilians in Gedo.
FEAR
The majority of the people living along the borderline have sought refuge at their relatives’ homes in other areas within the town.
Mr Hussein Abdow, a resident of Bula Tawakal in Mandera, said many left their homes on Thursday, when the Somali security forces started appearing at border.
"We are not sure of what will happen but once thing I know is that in case the Somalia forces cross into Mandera, many innocent people will lose their lives," he said.
Ms Abdia Giro, a milk vendor from Bulahawa, a Somalia town neighbouring Mandera, said military officers from the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) started arriving in the town on Thursday.
"The situation has not been the same because the officers have taken positions and are running our town," Ms Giro said.
FGS CLAIMS
Ms Giro claimed on Friday that FGS officers clashed with Jubbaland forces loyal to the minister, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers.
"Two Jubbaland soldiers, who had crossed into Bulahwa from Mandera in search for food, clashed with FGS troops. We are very worried," she said.
It has been reported that the wanted minister has been assembling forces loyal to the Jubbaland state government in readiness for a clash with FGS forces.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is set to give final approval to a $2.6 billion deal for military helicopters from U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) ahead of a proposed visit by U.S. President Donald Trump this month, defense and industry sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is trying to pull out all the stops for Trump’s trip in a bid to reaffirm strategic ties between the two countries, which have been buffeted by sharp differences over trade, to counter China.
India’s defense purchases from the United States have reached $17 billion since 2007 as it has pivoted away from traditional supplier Russia, looking to modernize its military and narrow the gap with China.
Modi’s cabinet committee on security is expected to clear the purchase of 24 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters for the Indian navy in the next two weeks, a defense official and an industry source briefed on the matter separately told Reuters.
“It’s a government-to-government deal, it is close,” said the industry source.
To cut short lengthy negotiations between Lockheed and the Indian government, the helicopters that will be deployed on India’s warships will be bought through the U.S. foreign military sales route, under which the two governments will agree details of the deal.
Trump is expected in India around Feb 24 on his first official visit to the country, although no formal announcement has yet been made.
Both countries are separately working on a limited trade agreement ahead of the trip, after earlier imposing tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s imports.
Trump has called India the “tariff king of the world” but the Modi government has been trying to address some of his concerns.
Trade officials have pointed to large-scale U.S. arms purchases, from surveillance planes to Apache and Chinook helicopters, as proof of India’s willingness to tighten strategic ties.
The multirole helicopters will be equipped with Hellfire missiles and are meant to help the Indian navy track submarines in the Indian Ocean, where China is expanding its presence.
Many of India’s warships are without any helicopters because of years of underfunding, and the navy had sought their acquisition as a top priority.
The government outlined only a modest rise in its 2020/21 defense spending to $73.65 billion in the budget on Feb. 1, of which a part will go toward making a down payment on the helicopter purchase, a defense official said.
“We expect a positive announcement soon on the helicopters,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of service rules. “There are limited resources, but there is an allocation.”
The U.S. State Department approved the sale of the choppers to India last year along with radars, torpedoes and 10 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
The clearance came after the Trump administration rolled out a new “Buy American” plan in 2018 that had relaxed restrictions on sales, saying it would bolster the American defense industry and create jobs at home.
Posted by: John Frum ||
02/11/2020 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON, February 10, 2020 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to India of an Integrated Air Defense Weapon System (IADWS) for an estimated cost of $1.867 billion. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on February 7, 2020.
The Government of India has requested to buy an Integrated Air Defense Weapon System (IADWS) comprised of: five (5) AN/MPQ-64Fl Sentinel radar systems; one hundred eighteen (118) AMRAAM AIM-120C-7/C-8 missiles; three (3) AMRAAM Guidance Sections; four (4) AMRAAM Control Sections; and one hundred thirty-four (134) Stinger FIM-92L missiles. Also included are thirty-two (32) M4A1 rifles; forty thousand three hundred twenty (40,320) M855 5.56mm cartridges; Fire Distribution Centers (FDC); Handheld Remote Terminals; Electrical Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Sensor Systems; AMRAAM Non-Developmental Item-Airborne Instrumentation Units (NDIAIU); Multi-spectral Targeting System-Model A (MTS-A); Canister Launchers (CN); High Mobility Launchers (HML); Dual Mount Stinger (DMS) Air Defense Systems; Vehicle Mounted Stinger Rapid Ranger Air Defense Systems; communications equipment; tool kits; test equipment; range and test programs; support equipment; prime movers; generators; technical documentation; computer based training equipment; training equipment; training towers; ammunition storage; training and maintenance facilities; infrastructure improvements; U.S. Government and contractor technical support, engineering and logistics support services; warranty services; Systems and Integration Checkout (SICO); field office support; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The total estimated cost is $1.867 billion.
This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to strengthen the U.S.-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of a major defensive partner, which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia region.
India intends to use these defense articles and services to modernize its armed forces, and to expand its existing air defense architecture to counter threats posed by air attack. This will contribute to India’s military goal to update its capability while further enhancing greater interoperability between India, the U.S., and other allies. India will have no difficulty absorbing these systems into its armed forces.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.
The principal contractors involved in this program are The Raytheon Corporation and Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace. There are no known offset agreements proposed in conjunction with this proposed sale; however, the purchaser typically requests offsets. Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the Purchaser and the prime contractor(s).
Implementation of this proposed sale will require 60 U.S. Government or contractor representatives to travel to India for a period of six weeks (non-concurrent). Activities will include de-processing/fielding, training, and technical/logistics support.
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.
This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.
All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov.
Posted by: John Frum ||
02/11/2020 00:00 ||
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#2
Possibly Dron66046 is busy with security issues in Kashmir, Lex — Sunday apparently was a busy day, being as it was the annual fuss over two Pakistani sock puppet jihadis having been hanged.
#4
Spread the wealth: Kongsberg Defence Systems (KDS) is one of four wholly owned subsidies of Kongsberg Gruppen (KOG) of Norway and the supplier of defence and space related systems and products.
#5
This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to strengthen the profits of the military-industrial complex.
Come on, it doesn't advance the interests of the American people. But boy, Raytheon executives are gonna get bonuses all around!
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/11/2020 11:02 Comments ||
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#6
Come on, it doesn't advance the interests of the American people.
Killing Pakis backed by China doesn't advance the interests of the American people?
#7
This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to strengthen the profits of the military-industrial complex.
And if you believe that, I have an Admiral Gorshkov to sell you.
#8
Herb's "American People™" don't coincide with, ya know, actual Americans
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/11/2020 11:32 Comments ||
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#9
Killing Pakis backed by China doesn't advance the interests of the American people?
I don't see how it does. How would it help us? Pakistan has a surplus of worthless young men, we can kill all we want and they have more waiting. Didn't we learn anything from Afghanistan? Hell, body count was bullshit in Vietnam.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/11/2020 15:41 Comments ||
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#12
...aaaand nobody has told us how killing Pakistanis is going to help the interests of the American people.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/11/2020 16:57 Comments ||
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#13
I’m all for killing every Pakistani that rears up on its hind legs shouting for jihad. Even better if India steps up to join in to help wipe out those carrying the idea that they get to rule the world merely because they are members of what they fondly believe to be the Master Religion.
Though if this coronavirus is as virulent as some are saying, in a few years the idiots of the Ummah won’t have the population to be a threat to anyone.
#14
Bottom line? The only way to stop the latest effort at totalitarian conquest — previous efforts being Nazi, etc. national socialism and Soviet, etc international socialism — is to kill believers in large enough numbers that the idea itself becomes a laughingstock. Large enough numbers has been demonstrated to be in the tens of millions of dead plus the destruction of the host economy.
It isn’t about immediately benefitting the American civilian, but putting an end to the dhimmi tax on civilized societies. Or do you think it is acceptable that we have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars keeping track of radical Muslims and their friends who may or may not one day decide to run amok killing all within reach?
#15
Awans in America, Pakis terrorizing in Britain, yet Herb sees no plus in arming and enjoining India. His agenda of isolation, demilitarization, and disarming to please Smedley Butler is a path to caopitulation. Agitprop with milk and sugar
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/11/2020 18:34 Comments ||
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#16
Totalitarian conquest. Wut.
So the Pakistanis are going to boil out of Pakistan until they're coming out of landing craft to storm the beaches of Florida? I'm not sure what's being prevented here.
to kill believers in large enough numbers that the idea itself becomes a laughingstock.
We've killed huge numbers of people in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, the list goes on. It's not working.
Large enough numbers has been demonstrated to be in the tens of millions of dead plus the destruction of the host economy.
Jesus fucking Christ. Hitler only killed 6 million.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/11/2020 19:48 Comments ||
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#17
NASAMS will be the innermost ring of the air defence around the Delhi capital region. The middle ring will be the Russian s400 system and the Israeli Spyde systemr. The outermost ring will be he Indian BMD system.
Posted by: John Frum ||
02/11/2020 20:24 Comments ||
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#18
Yeah, Herb, we're WORSE THAN HITLER
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/11/2020 22:17 Comments ||
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#19
Hitler only killed 6 million.
Learn history, Mr. McCoy. The Nazis killed over 11 million in the concentration camps alone, six million of whom were labelled as Jewish. Then there were all the others starved to death in various conquered territories like Poland and the Netherlands, killed on various battlefields around the world, eradicated in localities like the Warsaw Ghetto, lined up in front of ditches and shot, etc. and so forth ad nauseum. Look at what we had to do to persuade the Germans that national socialism is so dangerously stupid that it results in the entire wealth of the nation being turned into rubble in the middle of winter, along with a significant number of the population dead — soldiers and civilians, innocent and guilty alike.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian officials deny recalling Security Council resolution, saying move is temporarily delayed for consultations after watered down draft fails to meet their basic demands.
How the poor darlings do suffer, rejected by the world that used to love them so. God bless President Trump for being the anti-Obama.
The Paleostinians have abandoned their request for a vote at the UN Security Council Tuesday that they hoped would reject the peace plan of US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... , whose administration has put heavy pressure on critics, diplomats said.
[AlAhram] The United States has agreed to extend a waiver for Iraq to import Iranian energy supplies, including gas, two Iraqi government officials said on Monday.
They did not immediately say how long the renewed waiver would last. Washington has repeatedly extended the exemption for Baghdad to use crucial Iranian energy supplies for its power grid for periods of 90 and 120 days.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/11/2020 00:00 ||
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[11127 views]
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[IsraelTimes] Arrival of Cairo officials in coastal enclave comes after Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, admitted it was rebuked by Egypt over chief Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... ’s visit to Iran.
Egyptian intelligence officials arrived in 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 on Monday, in their first visit to the coastal enclave in several months.
The delegation, led by Ahmed Abdel Khaliq, the head of the Paleostinian bureau in the Egyptian General Intelligence Services, entered Gaza by way of the Erez crossing, the sole pedestrian passageway between Israel and the small territory, several Paleostinian news outlets reported.
The last visit of Egyptian intelligence officials to Gaza took place on September 8, the Hamas-affiliated Paleostinian Information Center reported.
Tensions have recently spiked between Hamas and Egypt after the terror group’s chief, Ismail Haniyeh, visited 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... in January and participated in the funeral of slain general Qassem Soleimani , many Arabic-language news outlets have reported.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said in late January that Egypt rebuked Hamas over Haniyeh’s visit to Iran.
"Our brothers in Egypt scolded us for visiting Iran, but [Hamas] has its own independent stance," Hayya told news hounds in Gaza on January 21.
[Jpost] Egypt 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... are among countries concerned that calls for demonstrations against Trump's peace plan are creating instability in the region.
Paleostinians are again planning mass protests against US President Donald Trump
Continued on Page 49
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.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian officials deny recalling Security Council resolution, saying move is temporarily delayed for consultations after watered down draft fails to meet their basic demands.
[IsraelTimes] Arrival of Cairo officials in coastal enclave comes after 
...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 
