[ARABNEWS] Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, who is also president of the Council of Senior Scholars, has warned young men against perverting the concept of "jihad" (struggle) and wreaking havoc in Mohammedan countries by killing innocent civilians in the name of Islam.
Al-Asheikh also urged youth not to fall victim to such rhetoric propagated by terror groups.
"We continuously witness ugly crimes on television that have been perpetrated by the enemies of Islam. These various futile sects shed blood for no reason and kill fellow Mohammedans in the name of Islam, but what they are doing is nothing but organized terrorism and theft."
"Indeed, these criminals cover up their crimes under the garb of jihad," asserted Al-Asheikh.
"Living in peace and security is a natural necessity and a religious interest," he said. "Murdering innocent people not only distorts the religion's image, but places great distress on the family of these victims."
Islamic law abhors bloodshed and encourages followers to fulfill the purpose for which they were created, he said.
Al-Asheikh alluded to the sanctity of human life in the Koran and the Sunnah (the sayings of the Prophet, peace be upon him).
"This is reinforced in the Koran, which asserts that 'whoever kills a believer intentionally shall abide eternally in Hellfire'," he said.
Al-Asheikh urged followers to reread the many verses and sayings to this effect, reiterating the need to stop these barbaric murders.
"God likens unjust killing to polytheism, while the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) included murder in the list of seven deadly sins," he reminded the faithful.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
didn't name a single group it seems
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/10/2014 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
ISIS might conquer Saudi Arabia one day, lord garth, and would remember being named. Not to mention that a number of powerful Saudis may still be personally financing them.
[JPOST] The Guardian, one of Britannia's most influential daily newspapers, used its editorial on Friday to warn of the dangers of European anti-Semitism that has been fueled in recent weeks by the tumult in Israel and Gazoo.
Citing the numerous violent attacks against Jews, synagogues, and other institutions on the continent in recent years, the newspaper condemned "the conflation of Jews and Israel" while denouncing those who would exploit their anger over Israeli policies toward the Paleostinians by attacking Jews in the diaspora.
"The controversy has gained extra heat because of the alarming increase in anti-Jewish racism," The Guardian wrote." As we reported [on Friday], during the course of a single July week, eight synagogues in La Belle France were attacked, one of them Molotov cocktailed by a 400-strong crowd, whose chants and banners included 'Death to Jews' and 'Slit Jews' throats'."
"More chilling still, given that country's history, Molotov cocktails have been hurled at synagogues in Germany, where chants heard at pro-Paleostinian protests have included 'Jew, coward pig, come out and fight alone', and 'Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Hamas, Jews to the gas'."
The newspaper was prompted to tackle the subject after last week's controversy surrounding London's Tricycle Theatre, which refused to host the UK Jewish Film Festival unless organizers rejected funding from the Israeli embassy. The theater raised the demand in response to the Israeli military operations in the Gazoo Strip.
"It should not need saying, but it does: people can be as angry as they like at the Israeli government, but to attack a synagogue, threaten children at a Jewish school, or throw a brick through the window of a Jewish grocery store is vile and contemptible racism," The Guardian wrote.
No mention by The Guardian, of course, is the virulent British anti-Zionism that is rapidly morphing into antisemitism so open Britain's Jews daren't speak up to criticize it... and The Guardian's prominent place in promoting the former while ignoring the latter.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 12:05 ||
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#1
that "Europe anger over Gaza Op" is just a convenient excuse to bash Juice, scream leftist/Arabist slogans, and be general assholes
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/10/2014 12:42 Comments ||
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#2
Haha! The Guardian is one the most anti semitic mainstream newspapers and one of that contributed most to anti semitism in UK, they are now seeing what they build.
#3
Agreed - along with the BBC, they have been fomenting Jew-hate for a long time. Now is a little bit late to feel guilty about it.
My daughter and I scroll through the Daily Mail almost every day - it's one of our guilty pleasures, and you can of course skip over those stories of celebrity drama. They do cover stories from the States that our very own dear media won't touch with a ten-foot pole. Even so, down-market and to the right of the political spectrum, the anti-antisemitism on display in any stories to do with Israel is horrifying.
A Uighur judicial official and five Han Chinese businessmen have been murdered in separate incidents in the western Xinjiang region of China, local officials said this week, blaming a group of ethnic Uighur suspects for the brutal slayings.
Nurmemet Rozi, the director of a township level justice department, was killed on July 18 when he was tracking down Uighurs who had attended special prayers during Ramadan at a village mosque in Aktokay township in Uchturpan (in Chinese, Wushi) county in Xinjiang's Aksu prefecture. The five Han Chinese businessmen were stabbed to death after the suspects waylaid their car in Aksu city on July 12, the officials said.
Chinese state media has not reported the two incidents so far, possibly to prevent the suspects from fleeing the prefecture or to avoid publicity that could deter Han Chinese from taking jobs in Xinjiang.
[Ynet] To prevent future rehabilitation of conflict-torn Strip's military capabilities, European sources say continent willing to negotiate lifting naval blockade with use of European observers.
So clever, those Europeans, undermining Egypt, Israel, and the West Bank Palestinians, all in one well-intentioned swoop.
A European source told Paleostinian media outlets on Friday that Europe was willing to establish a sea route between the Gazoo Strip and Larnaca, Cyprus — meant for both people and merchandise.
According to the initiative, European observers would be present both in Gazoo and Larnaca in order to prevent security violations.
The source noted that Europe was interested in finding a comprehensive, permanent solution in order to save from having to rehabilitate the Strip every few years.
"We want to find a solution to the Gazoo problem by reactivating the 2005 agreement on the crossings — including the crossing between the Gazoo Strip and the West Bank." The source said that Europe has consulted with all relevant parties on the matter — including the Paleostinian Authority, Israel, and Egypt — and is still waiting for their response.
Political sources in Jerusalem clarified Friday that Israeli will not negotiate while forces of Evil in Gazoo continued to fire rockets on the south, though Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has expressed an interest in continuing the talks.
Since 8 am, when the temporary ceasefire expired, dozens of rockets have been fired on Israel from Gazoo. At the same time, the Paleostinian delegation to Cairo met with Egypt's intelligence chief — though a similar meeting last night produced no results.
Senior Hamas official Hossam Badran announced: "We have made it clear from the beginning that we are not interested in an indefinite ceasefire and in Cairo talks that have no deadline."
Badran stressed that "there would be no extension of the ceasefire unless we are given something in return. Our demands are non-negotiable. Our forces have not been hurt, and we are capable of managing a long war of attrition, that Israel will not be able to stand."
On Wednesday, diplomatic sources in Berlin said Germany, La Belle France, and the United Kingdom offered to send a European delegation to help open the Rafah border crossing. But Egypt expressed no interest in having European observers on the border, preferring members of Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ' presidential guard.
The other demands made by the Paleostinian factions in Cairo included: Establishment of airport and seaport in Gazoo, rehabilitation of the Strip and convention of emergency committee of international donors, implementation of fourth wave of security detainee to be released as promised to the PA, and the release of Shalit deal prisoners incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... during IDF Operation Brother's Keeper.
#4
They are superior, cultured Europeans, AlanC. Just as babies and brides are by definition beautiful, so too Europeans are by definition well intentioned -- no evidence needed.
Therefore it isn't their fault if what they do makes everything they touch considerably worse.
[Ynet] Moroccan imam Raoudi Albdelbar reported to have said, 'Oh Allah, count them one by one and kill them to the very last one,' during sermon at mosque near Venice.
Chosen to represent the many incidents of repercussion now occurring in the civilized world as the drunken uproar against the Jews over the war in Gaza starts to subside. Politicians and private citizens alike are playing the price for their provable viciousness -- not all, or even most, but at least some of the most egregious and publicized. Details of the imam's story at the link for those interested.
[Iran Press TV] Political figures from different Egyptian opposition groups have reportedly gathered in Turkey and established a "revolutionary council" to work against the military-backed government in Cairo.
According to a Saturday report by Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News, representatives of Egypt's opposition groups, including former ministers of the deposed Moslem Brüderbund administration, officially declared the establishment of the "Egyptian Revolutionary Council" in Istanbul.
Mohammed Sharif Kamil, the council's front man, pointed to the military-led ouster of Egypt's former President Mohammed Morsi last July and said the new group in Turkey seeks to unite "all revolutionary forces and youths who are opposed to the military regime" in Cairo.
"The revolutionary and national forcesâ¦are capable of confronting the bloody terrorist coup which stole our revolution, killed and imprisoned our people, sold our country and spread destruction and fear through the land and kidnapped Dr. Mohammed Morsi," Kamil added.
The Egyptian politician also called on all governments and nations in the world to support the council's "cause of freedom, justice and human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. in Egypt."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Yippy just keeps on antagonizing Egypt and Sisi
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/10/2014 12:54 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] The Islamist State, the al-Qaeda offshoot that has been terrorizing and executing its way through Syria and Iraq in recent months, may have its sights set on Turkey next, a rare interview with one of its members published Saturday indicated.
The hardline Sunni group, which some American officials have dubbed "a terrorist army," recently overpowered lightly armed Kurdish units in a blitzkrieg that has threatened the Kurdish region and the American personnel stationed there, causing US military forces to respond with Arclight airstrikes — and drawing Washington back into the Iraqi fray.
But now, the Islamic State may have a new target — Turkey.
In an interview with an Islamic State operative in Raqqa, Syria, where the group's stronghold is located, VICE news hound Medyan Dairieh — who was said by VICE to have gained "unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria," and who the Turkish Hurriyet daily said was the first journalist to expose the inner workings of IS — was told that the "apostate" Turkish state would have to capitulate to IS's demands — or be conquered.
These demands are, chiefly, the reopening of a Turkish dam on the Euphrates River, preventing drinking water from reaching neighboring Syria.
The Ataturk Dam, located close to the Turkish-Syrian border, was closed earlier this year.
"I pray to God that the apostate [Turkish] government reconsiders its decisions [to close the dam]. Because of they don't reconsider it now, we'll consider it for them by liberating Istanbul," warned the IS operative in the interview, which was conducted on the banks of the Euphrates, with the operatives' children splashing about in its waters in the background.
Dairieh, who was embedded with IS for three weeks, then asked the operative if his words were meant as a threat.
"Yes, this is a clear threat, and God willing, if they don't open it, we'll open it from Istanbul," he warned.
Dairieh's report, which was aired in two parts starting August 7, also showed a Belgian IS member indoctrinating children to kill "all infidels" — including in their native Belgium and Europe — and revive the Islamic Caliphate.
The roots of IS hark back to the uprising against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... and the attempt by Western-backed rebel groups to overthrow his Ba'athist regime. As the months passed, the fighting morphed into a brutal civil war, causing the country to descend into chaos and creating a vacuum into which Islamist terror groups — as well as more extreme breakaways such as IS — could step.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
If the "Islamic State" actually commits an act of war against NATO member Turkey, does that mean the rest of NATO has to go to war against IS? Isn't there a long-standing treaty to that effect?
Hush, children, hush. Sit down very quietly, and watch how the The Smartest, Most Powerful Man In The World thinks about one of his problems. If you listen very hard, and are particularly clever, perhaps you will learn some small piece of what makes him great.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is too strong, and Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... too weak, for the two leaders to fully cooperate and make the concessions needed in order to achieve a long lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Paleostinians, US President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... asserted Friday.
Speaking during an interview with the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... ' Thomas L. Friedman, Obama said he believed Netanyahu's high approval ratings among the Israeli populace contributed to the stalemate in peace negotiations, since Netanyahu was consequently less inclined to engage in risky and divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... political endeavors.
Netanyahu's "poll numbers are a lot higher than mine," Obama admitted, adding that the Israeli prime minister's favorable ratings "were greatly boosted by the war in Gazoo."
The president argued that "if [Netanyahu] doesn't feel some internal pressure, then it's hard to see him being able to make some very difficult compromises, including taking on the settler movement. That's a tough thing to do."
Obama contended that as opposed to Netanyahu's solid backing in Israel, Abbas lacked popular support from the Paleostinian people and as a result was constrained in his ability to push a peace agreement forward.
"In some ways, Bibi [Netanyahu] is too strong [and] in some ways Abu Mazen [Abbas] is too weak to bring them together and make the kinds of bold decisions that [Egypt's president] Sadat or [Israeli prime ministers] Begin or Rabin were willing to make," Obama said.
"It's going to require leadership among both the Paleostinians and the Israelis to look beyond tomorrow. ⦠And that's the hardest thing for politicians to do is to take the long view on things."
When asked whether he was concerned over the fate of Israel in the future, Obama replied that the Jewish state's extraordinary achievements over the decades since its creation, along with the country's military might, provided him with solid reason to believe no threat existed to the survival of the nation.
Never mind that pesky little problem of Iran's nuclear bomb program. The Great Man has deigned to pronounce from his vast stores of knowledge and wisdom.
Obama said the he was instead troubled by the challenges facing Israel with regards to the country's ability to uphold democratic values and maintain security on the one hand, while at the same time not denying rights from Paleostinians on the other.
"I think the question really is how does Israel survive," Obama said.
"How can you preserve a Jewish state that is also reflective of the best values of those who founded Israel. And, in order to do that, it has consistently been my belief that you have to find a way to live side by side in peace with Paleostinians. ⦠You have to recognize that they have legitimate claims, and this is their land and neighborhood as well."
Earlier in the interview, the US president weighed on what the New York Times described as the "disintegration" of the familiar world order, including recent Russian aggression in Ukraine, military advances of the radical sunni Lion of Islam Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and the shifting attitudes towards American intervention in embattled countries across the world.
Tensions between Netanyahu and Obama have run high recently over American efforts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, in Gazoo, with Israeli officials aiming sharp criticism at the administration in Washington for its handling of the negotiations.
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... , left, talks with Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiyah Saturday, July 26, 2014, at the US ambassador's residence in Gay Paree (photo credit: AP/Charles Dharapak)
Under particular scrutiny was US Secretary of State John Kerry's choice of turning to Qatar and Turkey as mediators, ostensibly undermining an earlier Egyptian ceasefire proposal. Turkey and especially Qatar have close ties with Hamas, while Egypt has shown deep animosity towards the Islamist group since the toppling of Cairo's Moslem Brüderbund government last year by now-President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
#2
Please forgive the poor, indolent fok. He can only think in sports terms. He sees his job as ensuring next season's draft is done equitably, that everyone has an equal chance of winning.
#4
Netanyahu's "poll numbers are a lot higher than mine,..."
Yeah, and if you took a poll you would probably also find a bent sh!t-can would out score you as well.
#5
"bent sh!t can" remark. LOL! If Obumble did not think he is so infallible, he might just ask: "Why are Netahyahu's numbers greater than mine? What is he doing right? What am I doing wrong?"
#3
Would anyone be surprise if a concentration of Cuban spies were in Miami's Little Havana and not Dearborn (or in a Silicon Valley fund raiser for Obama for that matter)?
#4
The Intercept, an online magazine, posted secret documents from the National Counterterrorism Center’s Directorate of Terrorist Identities showing that as of 2013, 20,800 Americans and non-Americans permanently living in the United States were believed to be known or suspected terrorists.
And then there are the misguided American-born wannabee jihadists and those coming in via the Mexico-American border that have not been counted.
[ARABNEWS] Pakistain Saturday said it has crippled the command and control system of local Talibs adding that the likelihood of a backlash to the ongoing military offensive in the troubled northwest would be "minimal."
Addressing a national security conference in Islamabad, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... said the ongoing strikes against the turbans were inevitable because peace talks had failed to proceed.
But he played down the likelihood of turbans being able to hit back.
"If there is a reaction to the operation Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... it would be very minimal," Sharif said in an address broadcast live on television.
Pakistain began an offensive in the northwest following a brazen attack on the country's busiest airport in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... which killed dozens and left a nascent grinding of the peace processor in tatters.
More than 500 turbans and 27 soldiers have been killed in the assault so far, according to the military, though their corpse count for snuffies cannot be independently confirmed.
In a statement issued to the media after conference, military officials said they were confident that the command and control system of the Pak Taliban (TTP) had been "crippled."
The statement added that "all political and religious parties agreed that state has to fight and eliminate militancy."
Sharif added that his nation needed to do more to improve relations with its neighbors.
Both Kabul and Islamabad accuse each other of not doing enough to tackle cross border militancy while Pakistain has long had frosty relationship with India.
"We need to have cordial relations with our neighbors if we want to progress, Pakistain cannot live in isolation. We don't have relations with a single neighbor to be proud of," he said.
He added: "We want good relations with India."
After sweeping to a landslide election victory last month, India's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Sharif to his inauguration in a surprise move seen as a significant olive branch to India's Moslem neighbor.
Pakistain's semi-autonomous tribal areas on the Afghan border have for years been a hide-out for turbans of all stripes — including Al-Qaeda and the homegrown TTP as well as imported muscle such as Uzbeks and Uighurs.
Washington pressed Islamabad for years to take action to wipe out sanctuaries in North Wazoo, which turbans have used to launch attacks on NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
More than 800,000 people have been forced to flee from North Waziristan by the assault, with most ending up in the nearby town of Bannu.
There have been fears that many top turbans also fled, including fighters from the feared Haqqani network which is blamed for numerous bloody attacks in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Taleban command system crippled, claims Islamabad
ISI radios on the blink?
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/10/2014 13:52 Comments ||
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...who has most impressively gone over to the dark side since agreeing to countenance Operation Defensive Edge...
met with the President of the International Committee of the Red Thingy and presented him with the guidelines, found in the pocket of a terrorist in Saja'iyya.
The page includes clear-cut instructions on how on the proper conduct during battle in order to cause maximum damage to Israel's public image, while using innocent civilians as human shields.
Among the recommendations included in the manual, which admits that "the IDF limits the use of ammunition to avoid harming the civilian population," Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials wrote: "The IDF limits the use of fire against civilian population centers — we recommend to attack from there; shooting from within homes of civilians is in Hamas' interest because it intensifies the hatred against the Israeli army."
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... the complex tunnel system operated by Hamas during the fighting has also been exposed: London's Times newspaper interviewed a commander of Hamas' military wing named Abu Laith, who told how Hamas activists spent entire days underground.
He said that Hamas runs a command and control operation that includes 30,000 combatants, and that the majority of its cells work separately. Abu Laith further added that during the fighting, one such cell was trapped underground in Saja'iyya for ten days without food or drink after their tunnel collapsed on both sides.
[DailyStar] At least 20,000 civilians who had been besieged by jihadists on a mountain in northern Iraq have safely escaped to Syria and been escorted by Kurdish forces back into Iraq, officials said Sunday.
The breakthrough coincided with US air raids on Islamic State fighters in the Sinjar area of northwestern Iraq Saturday.
Shawkat Barbahari, an official from the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq put the number of people who escaped the siege and crossed back into Iraqi Kurdistan at 30,000.
"The Kurdish peshmerga forces have succeeded in making 30,000 Yazidis who fled Mount Sinjar, most of them women and kiddies, cross into Syria and return to Kurdistan," said Barbahari, who is in charge of the Fishkhabur crossing with Syria.
"Most of them crossed yesterday and today, this operation is ongoing and we really don't know how many are still up there on the mountain," he told AFP.
Lawmaker Vian Dakhil, who is from the Yazidi minority most of the Mount Sinjar displaced belong to, said 20,000 to 30,000 had managed to flee and were now in Iraqi Kurdistan.
"20,000 to 30,000 have managed to flee Mount Sinjar but there are still thousands on the mountain," she told AFP. "They have arrived in Kurdistan."
"The passage isn't 100 percent safe. There is still a risk," she added, as the international community ramped up efforts to provide food and water by airdrops to those still stranded.
Thousands of terrified people, mostly from minorities that have been persecuted by the jihadists, ran to the mountain a week ago when forces of Evil overran the Sinjar region.
They found themselves trapped on the mountain in the searing summer heat with little to eat or drink.
Dakhil and others have said that many children and elderly people have already died and warned on Saturday that many more would perish if decisive action was not taken in the following 48 hours.
A front man for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Iraq said officials had been reporting to the U.N. that 15,000 to 20,000 people had escaped the siege.
"Local authorities are telling us that 15,000 to 20,000 beat feet from the south side of the mountain, traveling across to Syria and crossing the border back into Iraq," David Swanson told AFP.
He stressed that the U.N. was not directly involved in the exfiltration and could not confirm those numbers but stood ready to assist those crossing back into Kurdistan's western Dohuk province, where the U.N. has a presence.
Kurdish forces from Iraq, Syria and Turkey have worked together in a bid to break the siege of Mount Sinjar and rescue the displaced.
CNN adds the personal touch for details of the horror. We're going to have to return to 19th century methods, proven to work against such tactics, or else Dave D's brute conquest and subjugation (see #38 here). Nothing less will do.
[AnNahar] The first consignment of British aid to civilians sheltering in the Sinjar mountains of northern Iraq is expected to be dropped "imminently", Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Saturday.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... he warned that aid drops were only a short-term solution and said officials were looking at how to help members of the minority Yazidi community who fled Islamic State murderous Moslems to a safer place.
Two Royal Air Force (RAF) C-130 transport planes took off from Britannia earlier Saturday carrying reusable filtration containers filled with clean water, tents, tarpaulins and solar lights that can also recharge mobile phones.
"We can expect a continuing drumbeat of airdrop operations working in co-ordination with the U.S. and potentially with others as well," Hammond told news hounds following a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee.
"But more widely we are looking at how to support this group of people and get them off that mountain, how we are going to facilitate their exit from what is a completely unacceptable situation."
The United States has already started dropping food and water on Mount Sinjar and is conducting air strikes against Lion of Islams, although Britannia has said it currently has no plans for any military intervention.
Britannia's Department for International Development on Friday released 8 million ($13 million, 10 million euros) in emergency humanitarian aid for Iraq.
This includes 2 million of emergency supplies for 75,000 people, including the Yazidis.
Fascinating how there was no help forthcoming when it was only the Christians who were suffering. Still, the impulse to help the people of an even more ancient and anthropologically fascinating faith facing genocide is to be encouraged, I suppose.
[FOXNEWS] President B.O. braced Americans on Saturday for a sustained military involvement in Iraq, saying the United States is prepared to continue with air strikes to protect U.S. diplomats and citizens and others under attack from the ISIL terror group.
"I don't think we're going to solve this problem in weeks," the president said on the South Lawn of the White House. "This is going to be a long-term project."
Obama laid out a three-part strategy for heightened U.S. involvement in Iraq, one day after U.S. aircraft began launching air strikes on ISIL military installations and dropping humanitarian aid for the estimated thousands who have fled from the terror group into the Sinjar mountains, in the northern region of the country.
The president said his immediate goals are to help those stranded on the mountain, provide safe passage for them to return to the region around the Kurdish regional capital Irbil and to continue to help Iraq establish a functional and inclusive government.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... Obama, who departed after the speech for a one-week family vacation on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, gave no specific timetable for his plan.
"Even as we continue to deal with the immediate situation, we seek a broader solution," he said. "There's not going to be a U.S. military solution to this problem."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"There's not going to be a U.S. military solution to this problem."
No mil solution? Then why are you dropping bombs on ISIS? Have you not been able to locate the.... moderate ISIS elements yet ?
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/10/2014 14:18 Comments ||
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#9
Ron Paul's contribution to this discussion, one hour ago:
Ron Paul @RonPaul
How many more years & how many more lives lost must we endure attempting to justify such a miserable failure in Iraq? bit.ly/1sClobi
[BREITBART] Saturday from the White House South Lawn, President Barack Obama Because I won... blamed "intelligence estimates" for not anticipating the speed in which ISIS would capture large sections of Iraq.
So it's not that he did anything wrong. Of course.
The president,who has been under harsh media criticism for likening ISIS to an Al-Qaeda JV basketball team in January said, "There is no doubt that their advance their movement over the last several of months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates and I think the the expectation of policy makers both in and outside of Iraq."
The president also made clear no troops would go into Iraq during this operation of humanitarian aid and military Arclight airstrikes on ISIS.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
How about replace that with bad leadership from the State Dept and Whitehouse?
#7
Rantburg had been posting stories of increasing levels of violence in Iraq for years. The average regular at Rantburg.com may not have known with any specific detail about what was going on in Iraq, but we knew it wasn't Peace, Love and Three Days of Music either.
#9
Obumble never takes responsibility for anything. That will be his legacy. Brennan seems to be Machiavellian and a little too cozy with Obama and the Muslims. If he was tossed by Obumble, his replacement would probably not be much better.
#12
If we knew and he didn't perhaps he should read Rantburg.
I'll expect a donation of at least a billion from the White House come next bleg.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 11:35 Comments ||
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#13
He couldn't blame Bush, although all of the liberal blogs and MSM tried, so he had to blame someone.
What the hell ever happened to "The Buck Stops Here?"
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/10/2014 11:42 Comments ||
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#14
Brennan is the end product of the failure to clean out and reform the CIA after their spectacular failure of 9/11, and sabotage-by-leak during the Bush administration.
Now more than ever the CIA needs a cleaning, with a figurative flamethrower.
#16
The slogan's been changed to "The bucks stop here."
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/10/2014 13:10 Comments ||
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#17
So when ISIL killed off the Free Syria commanders and said join us or die, nobody noticed?
When AQ expelled them for being too violent, nobody cared?
When McCain's buddies in his picture were said to be really bad people, nobody checked?
When the Kurds were banging on the alarm, nobody looked?
When Fallujah was captured, nobody winced?
When ISIL released a series of highlight and recruitment flicks over weeks, nobody watched?
When ISIL captured that Christian town in Syria and purged it, nobody took notes?
Look, I'm just some dude who reads Rantburg and between being on belay for my toddler and cleaning kitchen is just now finishing my morning coffee - this is my professionaly trained and asset equipped job. Bad or no intelligence is chicken crap.
So enjoy your Czechoslovakia Mr. President. I'm sure like that group who waited a good 8 minutes after receiving your TOWs to join ISIL, everyone will keep their word - and you, you lying SOB. Come to think of it, all other parties have been pretty straight forward about where they stand.
#19
O'Reilly showed videos of hundreds of ISIS vehicles entering the barren Iraqi desert. They had no cover whatsoever. Why did US allow them to walk right in?
Iraqi military responded with a 'feet don't leave me now" moment.
#20
...well, the western coalition gave them practice on that. The problem is that the ISIS is not constrained by silly things like protestors and lawyers and just butchers the captured.
[AnNahar] U.S. President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... vowed Saturday to help rescue thousands of civilians besieged by jihadists on an Iraqi mountain, as an MP warned they would not survive much longer.
He gave no timetable for the first U.S. operation in Iraq since the last American troops withdrew three years ago and put the onus on Iraqi politicians to form an inclusive government and turn the tide on jihadist expansion.
Trying to set up a new government in the middle of a war is about the quickest way to lose a war that I can think of. They don''t know anything useful, and don''t have time to learn before decisions must be made.
"The United States can''t just look away. That''s not who we are. We''re Americans. We act. We lead. And that''s what we''re going to do on that mountain," Obama said. U.S. and Iraqi aircraft have air dropped food and water to the thousands of people,
...something like 30,000 has been mentioned elsewhere, but go on...
many of them members of the Yazidi minority, who have been stranded on Mount Sinjar since they fled Islamic State attacks on their homes a week ago. Obama said he had received "strong support" from British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... , who had both agreed to provide humanitarian assistance.
French troops are busy in Mali and such, being effective against the local jihadis, last I heard, and Britain needs to clean out the taqfiri infestation committing soft jihad in their schools.
Amid reports that the children and elderly among them were already dying, Obama justified the decision to intervene Thursday with the risk of an impending genocide against the Yazidis. Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil, whose poignant appeal in parliament this week made her the public voice of her community, said time was running out. "We have one or two days left to help these people. After that they will start dying en masse," she told Agence La Belle France Presse Saturday .
Food and water are raining down upon that mountain, dear lady, with more ton come. It won''t be enough, but it will help until the Kurds arrive.
The Yazidis, who worship a figure associated with the devil by many Mohammedans, are a small and closed community, one of Iraq''s most vulnerable minorities. After a first day of U.S. air raids on fighters who had moved within striking distance of Kurdistan, a top official in the autonomous region said the time had come for a fightback. "Following the U.S. strikes, the peshmerga will first regroup, second redeploy in areas they retreated from and third help the displaced return to their homes," Fuad Hussein told news hounds Friday in the Kurdish capital Arbil.
That third item strikes me as a bit ambitious for both the defense-minded Kurds and the situation vis-a-vis the current ISIS wave of conquest. But I''m not any kind of top official, let alone a military strategist.
The first U.S. bombings struck IS positions and at least one convoy of vehicles carrying forces of Evil west of Arbil. Obama said he had authorized the strikes in Iraq to protect U.S. personnel serving there. "And, if necessary, that''s what we will continue to do," he said Saturday. Federal and Kurdish officials, who had been at loggerheads since IS fighters launched their offensive exactly two months ago that has brought Iraq to the brink of partition, have said they were now working together and with U.S. advisers. But it remained unclear how much longer and deeper inside Iraq U.S. warplanes would intervene and Obama stressed the real game-changer would be the much-delayed formation of an inclusive government.
There he goes, showing off his intelligence again.
"The most important timetable I''m focused (on) now is the Iraqi government getting formed and finalized, because in the absence of an Iraqi government, it is very hard to get a unified effort by Iraqis against" IS, he said. Many Iraqis see Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as partly responsible to entrenching sectarianism and providing IS with a fertile ground in Sunni areas. He won April elections comfortably but the holy warrior onslaught launched in June ahs been his position untenable. Washington, Tehran, the Shiite religious leadership and much of his own party have pulled their support but has dug his heels in and apparently not yet given up on seeking a third term. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq''s most revered Shiite holy man, on Saturday alluded to Maliki when he complained "there were some people who do not want the good of the country." He was being quoted, after a meeting in the city of Najaf, by Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako, whose community was displaced on an unprecedented scale this week. Up to 100,000 Christians were forced to flee from their homes in a matter of hours on Thursday, completely emptying the country''s largest Christian city Qaraqosh of its population. Among the hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes in northern Iraq were several other minorities such as the Shabak and Turkmen Shiites. UNESCO chief Irina Bokova called it an "emerging cultural cleansing".
"The U.S. should strike Sinjar, even if there are civilian casualties. It''s better than letting everyone die," the Yazidi MP, Vian Dakhil, said. Obama said he was confident the U.S. could prevent IS fighters "from going up the mountain and slaughtering the people who are there" but added the next step of creating a safe passage was "logistically complicated". The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is providing emergency care to around 4,000 people who crossed safely into neighboring Syria.
Pretty bad when Syria is viewed as a safe haven.
"They suffer from dehydration, sunstroke and some of them are seriously traumatized," the IRC''s Suzanna Tkalec told AFP, adding that many had walked all day for several days.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Saving 30,000 Yazidi? Sounds like an "American solution"....which Champ said yesterday, simply cannot be. We'd better proceed with caution. This could lead to other "American solutions" or Allen forbid, western success against Islamic jihad.
#3
He will probably drop leaflets assuring them that if they like their doctors and their insurance, they can keep their doctors and insurance...and by the way don't forget to vote Donk--we can make that happen.
[BLOOMBERG] Israeli cabinet ministers said the Gazoo Strip's Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rulers must be crushed while the myrmidon group vowed to keep fighting, as efforts to piece together a shattered truce faltered.
Should missile fire from the Paleostinian territory continue for weeks, "we won't have any choice but to defend ourselves and win this battle," Minister of Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz told Channel 10 television, a day after the three-day truce unraveled amid a hail of rockets. "This means we will have to seriously consider the possibility of taking full control of Gazoo for a number of weeks."
Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum promised the group's hard boyz would continue "resistance with all our might and with all means."
The cease-fire was negotiated as a possible springboard for a more lasting settlement after three major military confrontations in less than six years. Talks in Cairo mediated by Egypt failed to extend the agreement and rocket fire resumed before the truce expired.
Hamas said Israel hadn't agreed to its demands, which include allowing Gazoo to have a seaport. Israel said it wouldn't rejoin negotiations while under fire.
The rising rhetoric "is a classic example of each side trying to prove to the other side they have no need for compromise," said Cameron Brown, a researcher at The Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
[Ynet] Over 15,000 supporters of the Moslem Brüderbund hold protest in Amman, call on Paleostinian factions to intensify rocket fire into Israel.
Jordan's very own Fifth Column. Because having ISIS licking its chops on the outside isn't bad enough.
More than 15,000 Moslem Brüderbund supporters gathered at a pro-Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rally in Jordan's capital on Friday, with many chanting "death to Israel" and urging the bully boy Paleostinian group to step up rocket salvos against Israeli towns and cities.
The evening rally, the largest such protest in Amman in years, saw scores of masked youths dressed in the uniform of Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stage a mock military parade to the cheers of a flag-waving crowd.
The Moslem Brüderbund, the ideological counterpart to Hamas and Jordan's largest political group, is seeking to take advantage of a rise in anti-Israeli sentiment arising from the Jewish state's month-long offensive in the Gazoo Strip.
Gazoo officials say at least 1,880 Paleostinians, many of them civilians, have died in the offensive, which Israel says is aimed at ending Hamas rocket strikes on Israeli territory and rooting out the tunnels the Islamist bully boy group uses to funnel supplies and launch raids.
Most of the more than 7 million people in Jordan, a staunch US ally, are of Paleostinian origin — they or their parents having been expelled or fled to Jordan in the fighting that accompanied the 1948 establishment of Israel.
Politicians and analysts say Hamas's popularity also has soared among non-Paleostinian Jordanians as a result of the group's determined fight against the much-superior Israeli army.
On Friday, Moslem Brüderbund speakers prodded Hamas to step up its attacks against Israel to avenge Paleostinian deaths.
"In the coming phase, after negotiations failed, the only thing left is the flag of resistance which was behind the victory in Gazoo," said Zaki Bani Rusheid, deputy head of the Moslem Brüderbund in Jordan.
In contrast to other Arab states, where the Moslem Brüderbund has been banned and its followers persecuted, Jordan has tolerated the group's presence.
It enjoys a large following in major Jordanian cities that are Islamist strongholds, while Hamas has large grassroots support in Paleostinian refugee camps in the country. Jordan is home to the largest number of Paleostinian refugees.
Private and public institutions have rushed to raise donations for the Paleostinians in Gazoo, and Jordan's King Abdullah donated blood on Tuesday. Prayers have been held in mosques to commemorate those killed in Gazoo.
Jordan, which along with Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, this week rejected calls by demonstrators, opposition parties and some mainstream politicians to expel Israel's ambassador and severe ties, saying it would be a counter-productive move.
Israel is Jordan's only effective ally against ISIS. It would be a very bad idea for Jordan to go further than verbal posturing to please the internal ravening hordes.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
Maudlin feeling this am.
Do you remember that Black September,
When the Arab Legion went batshit crazeee?
If you remember that Black September,
Then full auto, auto, auto.
[IsraelTimes] International media outlets, including The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... and the BBC, have raised serious questions regarding Gazoo civilian casualty figures as recorded by health officials both in the Strip and abroad.
The outlets maintain that the hard data does not support the notion that the Israel Defense Forces is engaged in "indiscriminate" killing of unarmed residents in the Paleostinian enclave, as was suggested by several international leaders over the past month.
Citing figures released by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the BBC's head of statistics Anthony Reuben found that the number of civilian men killed in the fighting outnumbered the number of women by a factor of nearly 3.5:1. According to the UN, 725 men were killed in the conflict as opposed to 214 women. When the 216 confirmed "members of gangs" were included in the figures, the disparity grew even larger. Israeli military officials said 750-1,000 Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and other gunnies had been killed in the fighting as of Tuesday, August 5.
"If the Israeli attacks have been 'indiscriminate,' as the UN Human Rights Council says, it is hard to work out why they have killed so many more civilian men than women," Reuben noted dryly.
The question echoes a New York Times analysis from earlier this week, which showed "that the population most likely to be murderous Moslems, men ages 20 to 29, is also the most overrepresented in the corpse count: They are 9 percent of Gazoo's 1.7 million residents, but 34 percent of those killed whose ages were provided. At the same time, women and kiddies under 15, the least likely to be legitimate targets, were the most underrepresented, making up 71 percent of the population and 33 percent of the known-age casualties."
Both analyses do not, in any way, suggest thon the lam numbers of Gazook civilians haven't suffered and died in the fighting. But they do give rise to the option, in Reuben's words, "that some of the conclusions being drawn [from death-toll figures] may be premature."
The death-toll statistics may constitute decisive evidence that, contrary to the claims of organizations such as the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... , and others, civilians were not the targets of Israel's strikes in the Strip. Deliberate targeting of civilians would amount to war crimes under both international and Israeli law. Israel has stressed that it is seeking to avoid civilian casualties as it tackles Hamas rockets and tunnels, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday the international community should hold Hamas responsible for all Gazoo civilian deaths since it uses Gazoo civilians as "human shields" for its terrorist infrastructure.
Health officials in the Hamas-ruled Gazoo Strip say at least 1,867 Paleostinians have been killed since the fighting began, most of them civilians and many of them children. The UN and Gazoohuman rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. groups monitoring the corpse count have said that more than 75 percent of those killed in Gazoo were civilians. But an Israeli military front man, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said last week that about 900 members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , and other Paleostinian terror groups had been killed by Israeli forces during the war.
In a conversation with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Sunday, another military official had said at least 300 bad boyz were potted. Lerner said the figure of 900 snuffies killed was an approximation, based on reporting from individual Israeli units, but provided no further details. Later, in an official blurb, the army said between 750 and 1,000 murderous Moslems had been killed.
The IDF also said it had struck nearly 4,762 terror targets — most of them rocket-launching sites, nearly 1,000 of them command and control centers, about 240 buildings of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, nearly 200 weapons storage and manufacturing facilities, close to 150 terror training compounds, and 1,535 additional terror sites.
On the Israeli side, the war in Gazoo has claimed the lives of 64 soldiers, 11 of whom were killed by Hamas gunnies emerging from tunnels dug under the Gazoo-Israel border, and three civilians. Over 3,300 rockets have been launched at Israeli cities in the month-long conflict, according to IDF figures.
The Israeli government has blamed Hamas for the death and destruction in Gazoo, since it emplaced its rockets, rocket launchers, cross-border tunnel openings and other military infrastructure in homes, schools and mosques.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF last week presented an assessment of a possible reoccupation of the Gazoo Strip to the security cabinet, saying that the cost of reestablishing Israeli control over the entire territory would be hundreds of soldiers' lives, endangering peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and tens of billions of shekels per year, Channel 2 reported Tuesday night.
According to diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal, the report — presented to ministers as they debated the future of the Gazoo operation — said the cost in civilian Paleostinian lives would spike into the thousands.
The clearing of the territory of terrorist threats, including 20,000 gunnies as well as rockets, explosives and weaponry would take no less than five years. Israel could also face numerous soldier abductions by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.
"We would long for [the days of Israel's occupation of] southern Leb," an IDF official said, adding that building a coherent intelligence network on the ground to create order in the chaos would take years.
Severe disorder, riots and unrest would also be expected in the West Bank and among Israeli Arabs.
According to Channel 2, some ministers doubted the report, telling IDF officials it was "pessimistic" and was intended to dissuade them from action. The military responded that the report's estimates were sound.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked if any of the ministers backed such a plan, none of the ministers raised their hand.
#2
Who is interested in considered the cost of purging the world of terror, and of how many lives of civilians & soldiers that will take? The cost seems to be inflating particularly rapidly in these last few months.
[Ynet] Al Jazeera news hound speaks to Gazoosnuffies inside attack tunnel, who claim they spent at least 21 days locked underground.
Al Jazeera aired footage on Friday documenting al-Qassam Brigades bully boyz in a Gazoo tunnel, less than a day after airing similar footage of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,snuffies inside an attack tunnel.
Tamer Al-Mishal, one of the Qatari network's news hounds, showed in the latest video a tunnel in the town of Al-Qarara, on the eastern end of Khan Yunis — the site of fierce fighting between the IDF and terrorists.
Four and a half minute Al Jazeera video can be seen at the link -- just click on the headline, above. It is in Arabic, but for those with knowledge of construction, the visuals are the key, anyway. Given all the Rantburg engineers, I am hopeful for useful comments,
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... the snuffies made no claim that the terror tunnel was a passageway across the border into Israel, differentiating the tunnel from those targeted by the IDF during the 29-day-long Operation Protective Edge.
Al-Mishal's story has won praise on social media networks as a "miracle" after the news hound managed to talk to members of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' military wing, who claimed they had been locked inside a tunnel for at least 21 days with no supplies.
Of the 29 Death Eaters who were in the tunnel during the operation, only 23 were left. They claimed that parts of the tunnel had been bombed by Israel, and six of the bad boyz were potted either fighting the IDF or in rescue operations after the tunnel demolition.
One of the terrorists, who — according to the report — belonged to an elite unit in the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed that he and his friends were locked inside the tunnel for days without contact to the outside world.
"We couldn't believe it⦠we found a water source deep in the ground," he said, who claimed the group accumulated water in buckets. He also showed the remains from the dates they ate, claiming that the group split the dates in two to provide them enough energy during Ramadan.
The claims in the report could not be independently verified.
On Thursday, Al-Mishal interviewed Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, operatives and field commanders, one of them stressing they do not intend to leave their posts following the ceasefire and that they were ready to renew rocket fire and terror attacks against Israel if their demands — among other things, the lifting of the Gazoo blockade and the building of a seaport — are not met.
"Our rockets are still aimed at the Israeli vehicles and tanks that are staying in one place. We've blown up more than one of the enemy's tanks in the border area," one of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Death Eaters serving at the armored unit told the news hound who toured their posts.
#3
That sentence, before it passed through Fred's little translation machine:
...and six of the terrorists were killed either fighting the IDF or in rescue operations after the tunnel demolition.
As Fred is neither Jewish nor of Jewish descent, the conclusion presents itself. The results of the translation machine are denoted by a light grey dotted underline.
#4
Disclosing that the tunnel sits somewhere near an aquifer might be problematic for these folks. I can't believe, that in that part of the world, these wouldn't all be seriously mapped by 'someone'.
Although they might have just busted in to a sanitation sewer.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/10/2014 11:30 Comments ||
Top||
[Iran Press TV] The Syrian government is trying to reconstruct the areas that the army has taken back from foreign-backed krazed killers, Press TV reports.
In May, a deal brought back the central city of Homs under the government's control after its infrastructure was heavily damaged.
The government is now taking measures to reconstruct the city in an effort to bring back those displaced to their hometown.
"The damages are estimated at over a billion dollars. The electricity, water, and sewage infrastructure is destroyed and people, who have been forced out of their homes for two years are short on resources to reconstruct their houses," said Nazem Kanawati, an engineer in Homs.
The city authorities are also warning the residents of the explosives left by foreign-backed krazed killers.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... soldiers of the Syria army are engaged in battles at different fronts with foreign-backed snuffies and Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorists.
On Saturday, the soldiers attacked Takfiris near the country's border with Leb.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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A taste on one critical point from each, but well worth the reader's time to go to the links. StrategyPage reports are information dense, with no energy wasted on elegant writing.
So far this year ISIL has shifted more of its attention to Iraq, where it believes it has more opportunities because the Shia led government there is considered less competent (there is some truth to that). In Syria the Assad forces are taking advantage of the ISIL shift as well as the continuing battle between ISIL and all the other rebels. This has significantly weakened the rebels, to the point where a government offensive to regain control of Aleppo appears to be succeeding. The Syrian civil war, now in its fourth year, has left over 170,000 dead so far. The current fighting is killing nearly 5,000 people a month. The Syrian government seems to consider ISIL an ally as in some parts of the countries the ISIL is killing more rebels than the nearby government forces are. The ISIL gains in Iraq mean that the Assad government is no longer the main ISIL target in Syria. This also means that the Saudis and Iranians have to pause their growing Sunni-Shia feud because both countries have more to fear from ISIL Sunni Islamic terrorism than from each other. Western nations know they are already on the ISIL radar and are cracking down on ISIL fund raising and recruiting in the West.
While Saudi Arabia and the other Arab Gulf states are officially opposed to ISIL, their intelligence and police agencies report that over 5,000 young men from the Arab Gulf states are currently fighting for ISIL. About 75 percent of those are from Saudi Arabia and these Gulf Arabs make up nearly a third of the front line ISIL strength. Moreover, most of the foreign cash contributions for ISIL come from the Gulf Arabs. As it has for over a thousand years the allure of a united Islamic state (the caliphate) still appeals to many young Moslem men. Older Moslems know better (that the caliphate never worked as intended and why). Until Moslems figure out how to deal with this deadly fantasy the bouts of Islamic terrorism will continue to periodically deliver death and destruction on the Moslem world.
This fanatic ISIL attitude is backfiring. In the eastern Syria the alliance ISIL had with the local Sunni tribes is falling apart. It's an old story being replayed. The local tribesmen are not happy with ISIL efforts to force a strict Islamic lifestyle on them. Also unpopular is the ISIL attitude that anything they do is above reproach. That resulted in a recent ISIL edict that anyone in the areas they control who says (in person or via the media or Internet) anything hostile to ISIL will be severely punished. There have already been some executions of critics. This has recently led to several battles in villages as the tribes went to war with ISIL and won. More astute ISIL leaders have caused ISIL forces to refrain from escalating the fight and there appear to be efforts to negotiate the problem. In Iraq the same thing is happening. The Sunni tribes that ISIL expected to be allies and take care of administering the newly conquered territories have, increasingly, refused to impose the strict lifestyle rules ISIL demands. While the Sunni tribes like the measure of law and order ISIL has imposed they are not willing to accept all the other features of ISIL rule. The secular Sunnis (mainly the surviving Baath Party organizations) initially believed they could work with ISIL have since turned against the strict forms of Islam ISIL insists on. Meanwhile ISIL has antagonized many Islamic conservative groups by destroying shrines and even mosques ISIL considers heretical despite the fact that most Sunni Arabs tolerate these places because they are very popular, and bring in a significant amount of tourist business from foreigners and religious pilgrims.
The loss of support from secular Sunnis is a particularly debilitating defeat for ISIL, which only has about 15,000 armed men in Iraq. That is not enough to control all the territory they have access to in western and northern Iraq. ISIL expected skilled Iraqi Sunni Arabs to join them and this included the Baath Party. Saddam's many supporters in the Baath Party are largely secular but also fanatic and hostile to Shia Iraqis. Baath contains many specialists and experienced Islamic terrorists that could be helpful to ISIL. But ISIL is full of religious fanatics who, not surprisingly, were not pleased with the general lack of religious fervor among the Baath members. Similar unstable alliances are coming apart wherever ISIL has taken control in it new caliphate of eastern Syria and western Iraq. The original caliphates all fell apart for the same reasons. Some ISIL leaders were aware of this possibility and they may yet gain enough control over the organization to create a more accommodating approach. Given the recent history of Islamic terrorist organizations, this is unlikely.
If this is true, we may not need support for a sustained effort from President Obama for the Kurds to prevail. It seems to me the Saddam Hussein loyalists and the Sunni tribes in the medium term have more at stake in dealing with their Shiite enemies than those hillbilly neutrals to the north. Now if only President Obama would stop sabotaging Kurdish oil sales via the Turkish pipeline!
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/10/2014 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
A sharp,hammer blow against ISIS leadership and any units where the foreign elements are concentrated would likely be enough to put them on their heels at least temporarily. And once its apparent that you are no longer the strong horse...
#2
Until Moslems figure out how to deal with this deadly fantasy the bouts of Islamic terrorism will continue to periodically deliver death and destruction on the Moslem world
Lessee... vast majority of casualties have been Arab, the 99% of the states threatened are Arab (I'll include the "black flag over the White House" remark in this one) and Hamas is essentially devoid of Arab support this time around...
All of which would happen, if one takes into account the Arab mind...
#3
The Arab, sublimely indignant,
Thinks Israel's sly and malignant,
But the Hebrew's jiujitsu
He proudly admits to:
The Jew's secret weapon is Sigmund!
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.
[ARABNEWS] Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, who is also president of the Council of Senior Scholars, has warned young men against perverting the concept of "jihad" (struggle) and wreaking havoc in 
A Uighur judicial official and five Han Chinese businessmen have been murdered in separate incidents in the western Xinjiang region of China, local officials said this week, blaming a group of ethnic Uighur suspects for the brutal slayings.
I can envision only one possible downside. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir .jpg)
Wazoo
[FOXNEWS] 
David Cameron
Alternative, and much more economical "terrorist purging" methodologies are certainly available. 
