[ONLINE.WSJ] U.S. prosecutors and BNP Paribas have reached an agreement on the general outline of a deal that would require La Belle France's largest lender to pay between $8 billion and $9 billion in fines for allegedly covering up $30 billion in transactions that violate U.S. sanctions, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal would also require BNP plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and a temporary ban on making transactions in U.S. dollars.
Prosecutors claim that BNP used regional overseas banks between 2002 and 2007 to route funds linked to companies and government agencies based in Sudan. The Journal reports that most of the transactions were related to oil deals. In 2007, the bank announced that it would no longer do business in Sudan, which was being accused by the U.S. and its allies of committing genocide in that country's Darfur region.
In all, U.S. authorities scrutinized $100 billion in suspicious transactions before concluding that $30 billion was willfully hidden to avoid detection by sanctions enforcers. Investigators say that BNP also facilitated similar transaction for countries like Iran and Syria as recently as 2009.
Sanctions Sherlocks told the Journal that BNP went to extensive lengths to disguise transactions from the U.S. Treasury Department's screening system. The bank allegedly used a network of banks in East Africa, the Middle East and Europe to make it appear as if dollar-based transfers were unconnected to Sudan.
The Justice Department's prosecution of the case has brought protests from the highest levels of the French government. French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... blasted a proposed blanket ban on BNP trading in U.S. dollars as "unfair" and "disproportionate," adding that a total ban would threaten the bank's survival.
In addition, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius slammed a mooted $10 billion fine as "not reasonable" in an interview with French television.
"If there is a an error or a violation, then it's normal that there is a fine, but the fine has to be proportionate and reasonable," Fabius said that the time.
"What would be reasonable?"
"About a penny to the dollar."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] After a week of captivity, the grandson of retired General Khalifa Hafter's sister has been released by his kidnappers and returned to his family.
Mahmoud Mustafa Ahbeel Al-Zawi, age 22, was kidnapped last week near a petrol station in Ajdabiya. Gunmen reportedly fired shots at the car he was driving to force the car to stop, then grabbed Al-Zawi.
After a phone call was made by the kidnappers to the family, detailing the location of where he had been left, he was found alive, with his hands tied, near a power station in Zueitina on Monday.
It is not known if he had been beaten or otherwise abused. Al-Zawi reportedly did not know who his kidnappers were.
The kidnappers demanded a ransom of a million dinars. Security personnel suspect the kidnapping was not motivated by Hafter's Operation Dignity campaign but was perpetrated by a criminal gang looking to make money. It is not known if any ransom was paid.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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Yada yada.
By noon, only 200,000 had cast their vote, election officials said, blaming hot weather. Yada.
Without a functioning government and parliament, Libya is struggling to impose authority over heavily-armed former rebels, militias and tribes that helped oust Gadhafi but who now defy state authority and carve out their own fiefdoms.
Libya also has a budget crisis. Protests at oilfields and shipping ports by armed militias have reduced oil production, the country's lifeline, to a trickle.
Tripoli's partners in the West hope the vote will help it to begin rebuilding a viable state. Its nascent army, still in training, is no match for fighters hardened during the eight-month uprising against Gadhafi.
Many Libyans fear the vote will produce just another interim assembly. A special body to draft a new national constitution has still not finished its work, leaving questions over what kind of political system Libya will eventually adopt. Yada.
Divisions need to be bridged between Libya's west, once favored by Gadhafi, and the neglected east where many demand autonomy and a greater share of the nation's oil wealth.
The vast desert country has several power centers. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, rooted in rural western coastal cities, is vying with tribal areas in both the west and east for control of the oil producer.
Electoral authorities tightened registration rules by requiring voters to show a national identification number, which many Libyans lack given the collapse of state services.
The new parliament will again be made up of 200 seats, but will be called the House of Representatives. Thirty-two seats are allocated to women.
Around 1,600 candidates were on the ballot, about 1,000 fewer than in the previous parliamentary vote. Some candidates put up street posters or platforms on social media, but the announcement of the election a month ago left little time before voting began, and there has been no real campaigning.
[IBTIMES] Despite more than $1 billion in annual funding from Bill Gates and others to eradicate polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... , the disease is still endemic in some regions of the world that are dominated by anti-Western murderous Moslem groups like Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
Boko Haram, which is thought to be responsible for the kidnapping of 91 people from villages in Nigeria's northeast on Saturday, is responsible for thousands of deaths in the region over the past few years, including children who never receive vaccinations against polio and the health workers who try to help.
"The polio program is operating in the face of targeted violence, with more than 25 front-line workers having been killed because they are associated with the polio program," says a report from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Even though doctors created a vaccine for polio in 1955, the crippling and potentially fatal virus is still endemic in Nigeria, Pakistain and Afghanistan. Extremist groups such as Boko Haram and the Taliban have targeted health workers they view as possible spies for Western governments, a theory supported by the fact that the CIA used a fake vaccination campaign to track down the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest... in 2011.
"Things took a turn for the worse as far as direct targeting of vaccinations workers after it came out that the U.S. used a polio vaccination campaign in Pakistain to locate Osama bin Laden," said Amy Pate, expert on Boko Haram at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
"Once that information came out, it sort of justified some of their earlier narratives that these organizations were just stooges for foreign governments," she added.
Worldwide, more than 2.3 billion children around the world have been immunized against polio since 1988, bringing global cases down by 99 percent, according to the GPEI. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... since 2013 there have been 53 reported cases in Nigeria and 93 in Pakistain. Last month, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan officially declared the situation a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Even though doctors created a vaccine for polio in 1955, the crippling and potentially fatal virus is still endemic in Nigeria, Pakistain and Afghanistan
Lands of the Devout
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/26/2014 12:07 Comments ||
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#2
They Kill Polio workers?
OK, let their children die.
One day they'll face facts, If they survive.
If not well, Allah wouldn't help them.
Posted by: Redeck Jim ||
06/26/2014 16:39 Comments ||
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#3
Arab worries: Dr. Salk (a Jew) discovered the antidote.
[Osun Defender] General Yakubu Usman (rtd) was the chairman of the Northern States Governors' Forum committee on insecurity. The retired general who contested the Bauchi South Senatorial seat in 2011 and lost in this interview speaks on the ongoing insurgency in the north saying it is not the presumed job of the military to confront the bad boys.
Excerpts:
Given your military background, do you think that the security forces in the country are doing their best in tackling the problem of insurgency in the Northeast?
You see when you talk of the military first and foremost, we have to be very clear on what the role of the military is. Their number one constitutional responsibility is to defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria against external forces, therefore any other role given to them is secondary. This clearly indicates that the role the military is performing now is a secondary one.
They are just supporting the civil force to bring insurgency under control and by right, it should have been the responsibility of the civil force like the police and Department for State security Service but since the insurgency has grown beyond the power of civilian forces, the military was called in.
There are a lot of interventions here and there because the military is not operating independently and even though we are aware that military is not operating independently, they are under a constituted authority and the environment within which they operate is not a conducive one. Be that as it may, you will agree with me that the military has achieved quite a lot even though their achievements may not be 100% okay.
If the military had not intervened in this insecurity crisis, only God knows what would have been happening in the Northeast by now. These snuffies were attacking so many local governments in the north, but the military has now intervened as the attacks are now minimized compared to before. For instance, Maiduguri was a no go area before but now you can go to Maiduguri because life has come back to the streets and the snuffies have been pushed out to a restricted area around Sambisa forest. So if the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... boys come into the city, it is a hit and run affair compared to the situation in the past where they would hit and remain. So given the environment and the situation they are operating, they have achieved a lot but they can definitely do better because there are areas that need improvements.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#4
That's so true Borg, but he fell in love with his army. Worst things I guess. The Army of Northern Virginia on the other hand fell in love with their Generals.
[ABCNEWS.GO] Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi says he is saddened by the deadly kaboom at an Abuja shopping mall shortly before his team played Wednesday at the World Cup, and that his team's progression to the second round is unlikely to offer any solace to the country as it suffers terrorist attacks.
"How much of a victory is football going to give for those lives?" he said.
Last week, a bomb struck a World Cup viewing site in Nigeria, killing 14.
Wednesday's kaboom was blamed on Islamic snuffies but it was unclear if it was timed to coincide with the match.
"What are they doing these guys? They did it the first game, and now they did it again. It is sad," said Keshi, who was unaware of the second incident when asked about it immediately after the match.
Nigeria became the first African nation to reach the knockout stages in Brazil despite losing 3-2 against Argentina. It earlier drew against Iran and beat Bosnia-Herzegovina, earning second place in Group F.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[Guardian Ng] THE Akasoba of Kalabari and Chairperson, Akasoba Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ACPCR), Her Royal Majesty, Queen Akasoba Duke-Abiola, has expressed deep concern that the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Death Eater sect has not released the Chibok school girls despite local and global pleas that the girls be freed unharmed. We all have to hope, really really hard!
In a statement signed by the Secretary, Dr. Jen Clarence, ACPCR noted that in order to facilitate the release of the school girls, Queen Akasoba had directed the investigative arm of the ACPCR (the Strawberry Group) to quietly negotiate with the Boko Haram representatives in Borno, Chad and Niamey pleading with them to "Let the Chibok Girls Go". You're not hoping hard enough! Poor Tinkerbell! She's flickering!
According to the statement: "In the course of the negotiations, Boko Haram representatives promised to do so stating that the Akasoba Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution's (ACPCR) approach was pragmatic and sincere, avoiding publicity and advising against the use of violence.
"The ACPCR therefore expresses concern that the Boko Haram members, rather than free the girls are seeking for an exchange of captured snuffies and making other demands like the change of the National Anthem, national flag, prosecution of ex-president Obasanjo and the resignation of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
"The ACPCR is not a political organization, it is, as the name implies a Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution. The continuous and harrowing abduction of the Chibok school girls is not only abominable but it is unprecedented in the history of mankind.
"Let it be known that the ACPCR will continue to demand on very peaceful terms that Boko Haram must "Let the Chibok Girls Go".
"The ACPCR's position, therefore, is that it is ready to provide food and medication to both the girls and their captors until the safe return of the girls.
The ACPCR further urges Boko Haram to drop their guns, arms and ammunition, submit themselves to the laws of the land and embrace peace. Members of the ACPCR's Strawberry Group are doing their best and ACPCR assures Nigerians that very soon the Boko Haramists will have to simply "Let the Chibok Girls Go."
"The ACPCR is a success story. We did it before with the Niger Delta Death Eaters. We will prevail against Boko Haram," the statement concluded. Ummm... Boys and girls? I think Tinkerbell's about to peg out...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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a few reporters are commenting but almost every exec in news, almost every anchor, almost every newspaper columnist, almost every editor is still hanging on to the religion of peace mantra
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/26/2014 10:47 Comments ||
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#7
News reporting.... pay very low.
WH appointment.... pay very high.
#8
Dave D., we've had a lot of new Rantburgers in recent years, who therefore never saw your thinking on different approaches to dealing with the War on Terror, or rather in the jihadi menace. I would be grateful if one Sunday you would submit it as an original opinion piece.
I consider it the single most useful thing I have read on the subject, Richard Fernendez's "Conjectures" included,
#12
Thanks, TW. That's awfully high praise, I hope I'm worthy of it...
Going back through my comments, I found this one from May of 2006; is that the one you were thinking of?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/26/2014 19:02 Comments ||
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#13
That's not praise, Dave D, but my considered judgement on the subject. It was the pivot that changed my conceptual world.
Your link shows where you worked out the idea. It was the combination of comments 38 and 69 that ended up as a more polished version on your web page, but the link I had to that died some time ago.
Incidentally, on rereading that thread I find myself nodding my head and arguing with the posters once again, and then then when I came to 11A5S at #77 I had to stop for a moment. Because the worldwide craze for fracking is removing the power of petroleum from the Middle East right now, just as he predicted. The next stage of the War Against the Jihadis is going to be very different as a result.
[AnNahar] The United States on Wednesday designated the finance chief and a senior public relations official of Pakistain-based krazed killer group Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... as "global terrorists," placing tight economic sanctions on the two.
The U.S. Treasury said Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry, one of the two hit with sanctions, has been a big shot and strategist for LeT since the early 2000s, while the second, Muhammad Hussein Gill, is an LeT founder and its chief financial officer.
Both were labeled "specially designated global terrorists," freezing any assets they might have in U.S. jurisdiction and banning Americans from any transactions with the two.
"We will continue to target LeT's financial foundation to disrupt and impede its violent activities," said David Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
LeT, already officially named a "foreign terrorist organization" by the U.S. government, has carried out attacks on India and Indian forces in the Indian Kashmire region since the early 1990s.
It was blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that left 166 people dead. The group has denied responsibility Nope. Nope. Wudn't us. .
More recently, LeT was blamed for an attack last month on an Indian diplomatic mission in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... , Afghanistan that left two coppersmaimed.
But the group subsequently denied involvement in that attack.
[DAWN] The central leader of Awami National Party founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism.... , Asfandyar Wali Khan, on Tuesday called for conducting military operation in North Wazoo without any consideration for good and bad Taliban.
He said that displacement of tens of thousands of tribal people from North Waziristan Agency was a human tragedy that would affect adversely the post-operation scenario in the region.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... on Wednesday called for a meeting of all the like-minded parties on June 26, DawnNews reported.
A meeting between chief of the Awami Moslem League, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, leaders of the Pakistain Moslem League — Quaid (PML-Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, and Qadri was underway at the latter's Lahore residence.
During the meetings consultations and discussions were held over the next plan of action to be taken regarding the formation of an anti-government grand alliance, which would be announced tomorrow on June 26.
Earlier during the day, chief of Tehrik-e-Subah Hazara Baba Haider Zaman and Pakistain Peoples Party leader Shaukat Basra and Makhdoom Shahabuddin also called on Dr Qadri and discussed the prevailing situation and the future course of action to be taken.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM), Majlis-e-Wahdatul Moslemeen (MWM), PML-Q and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) have agreed to Qadri's invitation and will be attending the meeting.
The meeting headed by Dr Qadri will discuss a future joint action by all the parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... doesn't know any Qadri.
"I don't know which Qadri you are talking about as there are tens of thousands of Qadris in the country," the chief minister told a questioner while dispatching first consignment of relief goods from the Punjab government for internally displaced persons of North Wazoo.
He declined to talk further on the issue.
The CM briefed the media that Chief Minister's Relief Fund has been set up with a sum of Rs500 million for the Pakhtoon brothers and sisters displaced in the war against terrorism.
The Punjab cabinet and assembly members, he said, would donate their one month's salary to the fund.
On behalf of the provincial government, he said, relief items worth Rs100 million were being sent to the IDPs.
The first consignment of 50 trucks carrying relief articles including rice, flour, pulses and other commodities is being sent immediately, while more relief goods, if required, will also be provided.
He made an appeal to philanthropists and well-to-do segments of society to extend maximum help to their affected brethren and sisters and donate generously towards the relief fund.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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"Thoughtfully considering the Kurds offer and declining so as not to get sucked back into Iraq would be one thing, but thats not what happened according to Barzani. Apparently, we simply didnt respond."
#1
Until earlier this year the United States had only a skeletal interests section operating in Kurdistan. They finally opened a Consulate and then staffed it with "short timers".
#4
[Obama's] genesis as a national figure was his opposition to military action in Iraq; hes not going to spend his last two years as president cleaning up a mess he didnt personally make, whatever responsibility his country may have had in making it. Except that he did help make this mess, whether he realizes it or not. Read Peter Beinarts indictment of O for refusing to do anything over the past five years to pressure the Iraqi government to reconcile with the Sunnis and Kurds.
The war was over for Mr. Obama back in 2008; nothing was going to alter that.
#6
Typical of this administration to ignore things that they can't use for immediate domestic political leverage. Obama is a Chicago ward boss writ large
Hezbollah's past operations in Iraq show that a limited number of experienced "consultants," working with Iran's Qods Force, could significantly increase the lethality of the local Shiite militias currently gearing up to counter the ISIS offensive.
[Washington Post] Embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... appeared to bow to U.S. pressure on Wednesday, striking a conciliatory tone as he called for political unity to tackle al-Qaeda inspired snuffies as they swept forward in the western province of Anbar.
Maliki called on political parties to lay aside differences before the first session of Iraq's newly elected parliament, expected to take place next week. Secretary of State John F. Kerry described the comments as "precisely what the United States was encouraging."
But while Maliki's comments may have gone some way to appeasing the United States, for most of his political rivals it is too little, too late. With conflict threatening to tear apart the country, some are trying to rally support around alternative leaders, raising questions as to whether Maliki can cling on.
As the prime minister spoke Wednesday, snuffies from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) pressed forward in Anbar, closing in on the placid provincial capital of Ramadi and on Haditha, home to a huge hydroelectric dam that is crucial to the country's power supply.
"The situation in Anbar is on the edge of a cliff," said Mohammed Fathi, a front man for the local Sunni al-Wafa political party based in Ramadi, which lies 80 miles west of Storied Baghdad. "It won't improve until we have a real political process. We are all partners in this country."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[NEWSWEEK] UNITED NATIONS (Rooters) - The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... on Wednesday issued an unusual call for military force, with a senior U.N. official saying the advance of Islamist forces of Evil throughout the north and east of Iraq must be dealt with militarily, though success will hinge on a broad political consensus.
Nickolay Mladenov, who as U.N. special envoy to Iraq heads the world body's political mission there, said Iraq's key southern oil reserves remained safe. But he raised the estimated civilian corpse count to at least 1,300 since the recent fighting began, up from Tuesday's estimate of more than 1,000.
His remarks came as hardline Sunni forces of Evil attacked one of Iraq's largest air bases.
"The part of the crisis that has been caused by the advances of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) must be addressed militarily," Mladenov told news hounds at U.N. headquarters via video link from Storied Baghdad. But he cautioned that military solutions alone would not suffice.
He said political cooperation must improve between Iraqi Kurds and the Storied Baghdad government. Also, military solutions must be based on an Iraqi-led plan and reflect a national consensus.
"The threat that is posed by ISIL affects every community in this country," Mladenov said, reiterating previous U.N. calls for an inclusive Iraqi government.
He added that much of Iraq's oil supplies remain safe.
"The largest refinery in Iraq at the city of Baiji continues to be disputed," he said. "Government forces still remain in control of the refinery itself, however fighting is continuing."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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Peace is what we want and will have plus a piece of anything that you have.
WASHINGTON - Time magazine revealed in an 8-page report a plan to divide Iraq into three states. Kurdistan in the north, a Sunnis state along with Syria, and a Shia state in the south of Iraq that includes large areas of it.
The Magazine added that this new Shiite country would be heading south to Kuwait, to deduct vital areas from it and include some parts of the north-east of Saudi Arabia. Anybody ask Kuwait and KSA about this?
Baghdad was considered within the Sunni state, while Kirkuk was according to the maps published by TIME inside the Kurdish state, but on the line of contact with the Sunni state, according to the report. The report speaks about the annexation of the Kurdish areas in Syria to a Kurdish state in addition to the inclusion of some Sunni areas of Syria's Sunni state.
It is worth mentioning that Time magazine is considered fish wrapowned byclose to the U.S. administration and express their point of view all the timemore often.
Josh Earnest, the White House mouthpiecepress spokesman, said that the decision of the Iraqi government is up to the Iraqi people who decide how it should develop its own maps, adding that Obama administration would prefer to work with Iraq's political leaders together to find a political solution. Little late for that.
#1
The Magazine added that this new Shiite country would be heading south to Kuwait, to deduct vital areas from it and include some parts of the north-east of Saudi Arabia.
Oh, hell no. The Saudis and Kuwaitis will draw down on US before that happens.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/26/2014 8:03 Comments ||
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#2
And which parts of Turkey are they going to contribute to Greater Kurdistan?
It's really sad when someone who's supposed to be a professional journalist lets themselves be played this way; I suppose since 'O' got in office, they've all got used to it.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/26/2014 8:19 Comments ||
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#3
Joe Biden, you magnificent bastard - they read your speech!
#6
Agreed, hell can't we just get the lazy ass British to get back to work and redeclare the damn empire? Things are going to hell in a hand basket, they know what to do, but they've gotten lazy. Let the RN know we are no longer going east of Bermuda.
#8
Guarantee one thing, the Kurds are NOT taking a single step back from the areas the control now, which are well forward of most of these map lines, especially around Mosul. And the City of Kirkuk will remain Kurdish as well. If you thought digging Sunni militias and AQI from Fallujah was bad, just try rolling in on the Peshmerga in Kirkuk. There's not a military in the region with either the muscle or the guts it would take. So granis salis regarding a lot of these maps
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett told Israel Radio on Thursday morning that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a "mega terrorist" for aiding Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons with the monthly transfer of funds.
Bennett stressed that by transferring Palestinian Authority funds terrorist prisoners, the PA was supporting the murder of Jews. That makes anybody who transfers funds to Palestinian Authority a what?
[Ynet] Senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official Mahmoud Al-Zahar said that Hamas can fire rockets at any city in Israel. "Today we have the ability to hit any city in occupied Paleostine," he said.
If true, then the current squiffs being shot off, many of which do not get as far as the security fence, really are boys playing with toys.
#2
But can you survive the response?
Current dealings between Israel and the PA is stuck at the 'teaching your child not to touch a hot burner on the stove' stage.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/26/2014 7:27 Comments ||
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#3
well the Presbyterian Church USA has taken a stand in favor of Hamas
Of course the PC-USA may be down to only a few thousand members in a decade or so as chruches renounce membership and church members die off or leave otherwise.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/26/2014 18:54 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Jordanian sources say kingdom's cooperation with Israel has only increased as situation in Iraq has tanked amid ISIS offensive.
Cooperation between Israel and Jordan is growing as armed Sunni men from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) make additional gains in Iraq, near the Jordan border, Jordanian sources told Ynet, detailing Jordan's position regarding the ongoing crisis and potential US intervention.
"There is a very good cooperation between us regarding ISIS' growing presence in Iraq and Syria, but also on issues relating to other radical forces in the Middle East which have their sights set on Israel and Jordan," the diplomatic source said.
ISIS is affiliated with al-Qaeda and together with the aid of Sunni primitive has in recent days managed to take over — albeit only for a short period — parts of the tribal border between Iraq and Jordan. And a recent report in Al-Arabiya claimed Jordan will send military forces to the area.
Speaking with Ynet, the source said cooperation with Israel has only increased as the situation in Iraq has tanked.
"The developments on the other side of the border (between Jordan and Iraq) are still unclear, but the Jordanian army is already doing whatever it can to quell any threat from the area.
"As of now the border crossing is operative. Jordan is holding talks with regional forces to find a solution to the political conflict in Iraq. This is not just the ISIS issue, but a deteriorating political situation," the official said.
What is Jordan's position regarding US military involvement?
"The US has a military agreement with Iraq. This is a illusory sovereignty related issue between two countries and has nothing to do with Jordan. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... there are some regional players who think the US must become involved to neutralize radical forces. We have no preference, it is not our issue."
Last weekend saw a pro-ISIS demonstration in the Jordanian capital of Amman. What significance do you attribute to this event?
"It is no secret there are radical forces in Amman. The developments in Iraq have helped encourage fanatics to admit they support the organization. Nonetheless, as of now, we have seen no real connection between those who expressed support and ISIS in Iraq. "
Oil and death in Iraq Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake... US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... visited Iraq as fighting continued in a number of key cities.
On Monday, two Jordanian officials said the border crossing almost 575 km (357 miles) from the Iraqi capital and nearly 320 km (199 miles) from Amman was effectively closed after gunnies took control of the crossing
An army source confirmed that army units had been put in a state of alert in recent days along the 181-km (112-mile) border with Iraq, redeploying in some areas as part of steps to ward off "any potential or perceived security threats".
The UN, meanwhile, said more than 1,000 people, most civilians, have been killed in Iraq so far this month, the highest corpse count since the US military withdrew from the country in December 2011.
A weeklong fight for control of Iraq's largest oil refinery stretched continued Tuesday with helicopter gunships attacking what appeared to be formations of Sunni Death Eaters preparing for another assault on the facility in Beiji, a top military official said.
Chief military front man Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi has denied reports that the facility has fallen to the rebels.
Government air forces also reportedly bombed the town of Qaim near the Syrian border on Tuesday, days after it was seized by Islamic Death Eaters in Anbar province, west of Storied Baghdad. Provincial government front man Dhari al-Rishawi said 17 non-combatants were killed.
West of Storied Baghdad, authorities found the bodies of 12 coppers killed as Death Eaters seized the Anbar town of Rutba this weekend. Militants also stole at least 6 billion Iraqi dinars (about $5 million) from the town's state-run bank, the authorities said, declining to be identified because they were afraid of retaliation by the murderous Moslems.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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US reportedly will disband anti-terror force in Philippines
[FoxNews] After more than a decade of helping fight Al Qaeda-linked militants, the United States is disbanding an anti-terror contingent of hundreds of elite American troops in the southern Philippines where armed groups such as Abu Sayyaf have largely been crippled, officials said Thursday.
But special forces from the U.S. Pacific Command, possibly in smaller numbers, will remain after the deactivation of the anti-terror contingent called Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, or JSOTF-P, to ensure Al Qaeda offshoots such as Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah militant network do not regain lost ground, according to U.S. and Philippine officials.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
06/26/2014 10:18 ||
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#1
Flying under the political radar and getting the job done. Time to go...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/26/2014 12:32 Comments ||
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#3
It really started to wind down after the Burnams were freed and the original leaders were all captured or killed. The ASK leadership was originally hard core Islam Mujahedin fighters from the Afghan soviet war. They cane back and found the MNLF to be too soft and set their own priorities. They were more ideologically driven and much more violent. Once the leadership was killed, they digressed into criminal actions, kidnapping etc... I'm sure they will keep small elements for intel fusion and FMF advisors.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/26/2014 13:49 Comments ||
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#4
This is written by COL(R) Dave Maxwell. We called him Mad Max. He is the only guy I know that was as comfortable in the halls of the war college as he was on the ground in a combat zone, a true scholar warrior. He humored me and mentored me back then. Col "Mad Max" Maxwell, COL Fridovich, and the rest of the team were the architects of the JSOTF-P and the Basilan model. He and the rest are hero's to me and unsung hero's to our nation. These are his comments on the news reports of JSOTF-P shutting down.
My view on this is quoted in the article below.
Three additional comments that are not in the article.
First a better description of the organization and the mission is that this was a special warfare approach to counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. The majority of the units making up the joint special operations task force were special warfare forces that do not have counterterrorism as their primary mission but instead were focused on unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, psychological operations and civil affairs.
Second, one of the most important contributing factors to the success of the operation was that it was built on the foundation of a comprehensives assessment in October 2001 from the strategic to the tactical level conducted by a handful of special operations personnel, including supporting intelligence officers and logisticians. This assessment as well as the continuous area assessment conducted in accordance with SF/SOF doctrine informed the campaign plan and strategy to this day. One important lesson from this operation is the importance of assessment and it is heartening to hear the emphasis on assessment in Iraq from President Obama because although the conditions are vastly different one thing that can contribute to success in Iraq (or determining if success can even be achieved) will be the assessments conducted by the SF soldiers on the ground.
Lastly, when the assessment and recommended courses of action were briefed in October 2001 by then-Colonel now retired LTG David Fridovich, the CINCPAC (we called him CINC back then) ADM Blair asked how long would this mission take and LTG Fridovich said it would take about 10 years or so to achieve lasting effects.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/26/2014 23:52 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] The gray Nissan Murano used in the bombing that targeted last week an Internal Security Forces checkpoint in the eastern town of Dahr al-Baydar was reportedly rigged with explosives in the eastern border town of Arsal, As Safir newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The daily said that the army intelligence is investigating if any illegal border crossings between the Syrian town of al-Qalamoun and Arsal are still accessible or if the car was prepared with explosives in Arsal.
It reported that the analysis of the telecom data indicates that the jacket wallah driving the Murano planned to target a high-ranking official in the attack.
General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim had driven past the site of the kaboom in his convoy shortly before the blast.
According to the report, another booby-trapped vehicle was spotted in the area of Sawfar before it disappeared.
The suicide kaboom killed one person and maimed 30 others.
Early Tuesday another suicide kaboom in Beirut's southern suburbs, 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... 's main bastion, killed a security officer and maimed 20.
No one has claimed the attack, but an audio recording posted on YouTube by Abdullah Azzam Brigades ... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed... said there would be more "strikes" if Hizbullah does not pull out of Syria.
The Abdullah Azzam brigades is an al-Qaeda-linked group that has previously grabbed credit for other Syria-related violence in Leb.
The last kaboom to hit Leb occurred on March 29.
Earlier in the year, a series of boom-mobiles struck Shiite areas across Leb, killing and wounding hundreds of people.
Hard-line Sunni groups have grabbed credit for those killings, saying they are meant to punish Hizbullah for supporting Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... .
[AnNahar] The local unit of Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch in the tinderbox town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border pledged loyalty Wednesday to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... , giving ISIL control over both sides of the frontier.
The move is also significant because it reflects how ISIL is fast gaining the upper hand in eastern Syria, where it has been locked in combat with fighters from Al-Qaeda franchise Al-Nusra Front and allied local rebels virtually all year.
Al-Nusra's oath of loyalty in Albu Kamal comes days after Iraqi security forces abandoned Al-Qaim, just across the border, and ISIL and other Sunni snuffies seized it on Saturday.
ISIL, which aspires to create an Islamic state that straddles Iraq and Syria, has spearheaded a lightning jihadist offensive that has already captured swathes of territory north and west of the capital.
ISIL waded in to Syria's civil war in the spring of last year on the side of rebels seeking to oust Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... , but its systematic abuses and quest for hegemony quickly turned Syrian rebels, including Islamists, against it.
As a result, fighting broke out in January between ISIL and Syrian rebels, which eventually drew Al-Nusra in against its fellow jihadist organization.
Despite the fighting, which has killed hundreds, activists say the offensive in Iraq has empowered the group, partly because its fighters have captured large amounts of heavy weaponry from fleeing Iraqi troops.
On Wednesday, Al-Nusra's Albu Kamal branch "pledged loyalty to ISIL," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
"They are rivals, but both groups are jihadist and bad boys. This move will create tension now with other rebel groups, including Islamists, in the area," said Abdel Rahman.
An ISIL jihadist confirmed the reports on Twitter, posting a photo showing an Egyptian Al-Nusra Front commander shaking hands with an ISIL leader of Chechen origin.
An opposition activist in Albu Kamal told AFP via the Internet that "there is a lot of tension, and the situation is only going to get worse."
Using a pseudonym for security reasons, Hadi Salameh also said the merger would "cause a big problem with the local tribes, who will not welcome this change."
Another activist said the move comes days after local rebel brigades who had been working with Al-Nusra signed a declaration demanding that it take a clear stance against ISIL.
"The loyalty oath (to ISIL) comes after tension between Al-Nusra and the local rebels," said Abdel Salam al-Hussein.
He also said hundreds of thousands of people, including displaced families from neighboring Iraq as well as flashpoint areas in Syria, are living in Albu Kamal, and that it would be a "catastrophe" if fighting broke out in the town.
Hussein said: "ISIL fighters are now positioned at the entrance of Albu Kamal, on the Iraqi side."
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Deir Ezzor province's rebel front man Omar Abu Leyla warned that "Albu Kamal is a red line." If ISIL fighters cross over from Iraq, he said the opposition "Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... will fight them."
Rebels fighting ISIL and the Assad regime distributed amateur video footage of a rebel parade in Albu Kamal, which Abu Leyla described as a warning to the jihadists positioned just across the border.
Abu Leyla complained that "the FSA has received no external support at all, even though we are fighting ISIL."
Separately Wednesday, the Syrian air force raided ISIL-controled Raqa in the north of the country and Muhassen in the east.
In Raqa, "12 civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed in the air strikes. Not one strike directly hit an ISIL position."
The Assad regime has rarely targeted ISIL-held areas, except in recent days after the group and other Sunni snuffies launched an offensive in Iraq, wresting control of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and other pars of Iraq.
A Syrian government newspaper reiterated frequent regime claims that the United States and Israel are behind the rising violence, and that they are vying to "divide Syria along sectarian and religious lines."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
How come 2+ million Alawis could kick ISIS ass, but 20+ million Iraqi Shia can't?
Internet flooded with images and videos of executions from Sunni militants aiming to topple Iraqi government
At least five die in Kenya attack just days after Al Qaeda-inspired group Al Shabaab kill 60 in twin massacres
Islamist militants Boko Haram feared to have snatched 90 villagers in Nigeria after kidnapping 300 Christian girls
Attacks between Christian and Islamic militia in Central African Republic 'risk creating conditions for genocide'
Sudanese woman freed from death row for marrying a Christian is re-arrested for not using her Muslim name
Middle East security expert: 'All the evidence shows that extremism is on the rise - but Islam is not to blame'
Andreas Kreig, a Middle East security analyst at King's College London in Qatar, said he had noticed a rise in extremism in recent weeks and months, but said Islam wasn't to blame. "No. no! Certainly not!"
He told MailOnline: 'All the empirical evidence shows that it is on the rise. You're seeing it in all the headlines, then you're looking at Iraq, you're looking at Syria, you're looking at Nigeria. "Certainly I would be the last person to deny the undeniable..."
'But in all three cases this has nothing to do with Islam. "Tut tut, my good man!
I think people in the West may think it is because they feel alienated by Islam. There is alot of Islamaphobia,' ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... Mr Kreig said more and more communities - often disillusioned by austerity or other grievances - have turned to religious groups as an alternative to secular regimes in recent years. Why were they disillusioned before the austerity and such set in?
He said: 'When communities become disenfranchised - and lot of them are muslim - they use Islam to further their particular cause. Is there a reason Christians aren't the ones chopping people's body parts off?
'They adhere to a radical interpretation of Islam, but it has nothing to do with the religion.' That statement makes no sense whatsoever.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Lest we fergit, ...
* WORLD NEWS > [Examiner] CP [Clarion Project]: "THERE IS NOW WAY TO SEPARATE THE TERROR CONFLICT FROM THE SECURITY OF THE WEST".
By definition, the Terror Conflict is an EXISTENTIAL THREAT to the West.
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.
[IBTIMES] Despite more than $1 billion in annual funding from Bill Gates and others to eradicate 
[Guardian Ng] THE Akasoba of Kalabari and Chairperson, Akasoba Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ACPCR), Her Royal Majesty, Queen Akasoba Duke-Abiola, has expressed deep concern that the .png)
Wazoo
[DAWN] Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) chief Dr 
[DAWN] Punjab Chief Minister 
Wazoo
Nouri al-Maliki
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
