[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has reportedly banned pigeon breeding in its self-proclaimed "caliphate" -- areas under its rule in Iraq and Syria. "No squab for you!"
According to the Daily Mail, a senior ISIS cleric, issued the decree after the group claimed the sight of the birds’ genitals is offensive to Islam. Zat mean Moslems can't eat anything with genitalia?
In the decree, which was written in Arabic, pigeon breeders were given one week to stop the practice or face public flogging. "Things without genitalia" kinda narrows the field of edibles, doesn't it?
The short document, which was allegedly made public senior administrators, starts with a warning to locals who keep pigeons on the roof of their houses. In fact, it'd narrow the field to invertebrates and vegetation.
From my high school biology textbook: "The flower is the genitalia of the plant." They definitely got 'em.
“All those who keep pigeons above the roofs of their houses must stop doing this entirely within a week of the date of the issuing of this statement,' the document read. I guess they could eat worms, and maybe crickets and that sort of thing. A lobster would probably be pushing the envelope.
Earthworms are hermaphrodites, so have two sets of genitalia each. Those other things have bits that can be found with a small amount of dissection.
“Whosoever violates it will be subject to consequences of reprimand including a financial fine, imprisonment and flogging,” it read. Mutton would certainly be forbidden, as would lamb.
In January, the group reportedly arrested 15 boys who were rearing birds before executing three of them. A place where pulled pork barbecue is forbidden is my idea of Hell. No pit beef would be way over there in the fathest corner.
The families of the other boys were obliged to pay as much as $1800 each to secure the release of their children.
Making it up as they go along, to strip more money from the conquered.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
His views on pudenda of pigeon
May move infidels to derision,
But rearing is dear to
The prudes that adhere to
Mohammed's stupendous religion!
#2
"Why so sluggish and sad, nudibranch?
You get double the bang from a wank!"
"You might think that's a perk
But it's twice as much work
When you've got lady parts and a crank."
#5
"In fact, it'd narrow the field to invertebrates and vegetation."
Which, if you think about it, pretty much sums up ISIS.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/04/2015 7:46 Comments ||
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#6
According to the Daily Mail, a senior ISIS cleric, issued the decree after the group claimed the sight of the birds’ genitals is offensive to Islam.
#11
#10 I hate pigeons. Flying rats.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-06-04 14:10
In that case, come to one of my adopted hometowns - Akron, OH. Decades ago the city fathers put peregrine falcon nests on the taller buildings, and the birds thrived...on the pigeons. Pretty impressive to see a pigeon getting ready to do something rude on the sidewalk and then literally disappear in a burst of feathers...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/04/2015 14:13 Comments ||
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[PJMedia] Usaamah Rahim, the Islamist who was fatally shot after threatening police officers with a military knife in Boston on Tuesday, was originally plotting to behead anti-Jihad blogger Pamela Geller, law enforcement sources told CNN. He changed his mind because he he didn’t want to wait and thought “the boys in blue” were an easier target than Geller.
Geller drew national attention last month after an off-duty police officer working security thwarted an attack at her organization’s contest for Prophet Mohammed drawings in Garland, Texas. She’s president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which includes subsidiary programs Stop Islamization of America and Stop Islamization of Nations.
“They targeted me for violating Sharia blasphemy laws. They mean to kill everyone who doesn’t do their bidding and abide by their law voluntarily,” Geller told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
“This is a showdown for American freedom. Will we stand against this savagery or bow down to them and silence ourselves?”
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Mafia and terrorist groups are annually receiving $70 billion from narcotics in Afghanistan.
Zabihullah Daim, an official at the Ministry of Counter Narcotics said that Mafia and terrorist groups receive the illegal money from poppy cultivation, producing and smuggling of narcotics.
He said that the investigation conducted by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics shows that nearly $2 billion of this amount is going to Pak Taliban which is one of the causes behind the raise in insurgency both in Afghanistan and Pakistain.
A survey conducted jointly by Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics and United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) showed that an estimated 224,000 hectares of land was planted with poppies in 2014.
United Nations said that Afghanistan was still producing some 90 per cent of world's illicit opiates and that the country is world's third largest opium producer after Myanmar and Laos.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. has promised strict actions against poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.
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06/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs group in Afghanistan rejected that the authorities in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... have extended travel ban for the group's big shots who were freed from Guantanamo last year.
A statement by the Taliban group said the released Taliban leaders "will live freely anywhere the Islamic Emirate deems necessary in accordance with the agreement."
"Reports circulated by the media about extension of conditions are untrue while the Islamic Emirate considers all further action by America concerning the stipulations as a violation of the principles of the agreement and international law," the statement added.
This comes as a US official said earlier this week that the authorities in Qatar have agreed to temporarily extend travel bans on five senior Taliban leaders released last year from the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
The official further added that the ban would remain in place until diplomatic talks for a longer-term solution are completed.
The five senior Taliban leaders -- Khairullah Syed Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohamad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari, who were in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
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06/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Mohammad Mohaqiq, Second Deputy to Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... , spoke on Wednesday at a gathering in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province. He said the government of Pakistain has forsaken its promises to Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... , failing both at getting the Taliban to the negotiating table and stunting their summer military offensive.
Mohaqiq's comments come at a time when relations between Kabul and Islamabad are shifting behind the scenes, at times offering promise and at other times reverting back to familiar animosities. Even among Afghan leaders there seems to be very little coherence in vision and strategy when it comes to dealing with Pakistain. Indeed, the only consensus that has emerged is that Pakistain is the key to reconciling with the Taliban.
"Our neighbor country Pakistain promised that it would do two things: first, bring the Taliban to the negotiation table, and then, try stop summer the summer offensive [...] but unfortunately none of these promises have been fulfilled," said Mohaqiq, considered the preeminent leader of Afghanistan's Hazara communities.
The location of Mohaqiq's appearance was in part a reflection of Pakistain's inability - or lack of desire - to follow through on the promises it has made to Kabul regarding the Taliban. Over the past few months, Balkh province, along with a number of other northern provinces, has seen security conditions rapidly deteriorate as thousands of Afghan and foreign bandidosfaceless myrmidons have streamed across the border from Pakistain in order to launch a Taliban offensive.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... Mohaqiq did not focus on military stratagem or geopolitics in his speech. Instead, he looked to appeal to the better nature of his audience. "First we should love all human beings and should be brothers and prevent any form of violence against each other," Mohaqiq said on Wednesday. "We should consider all human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... equal and consider them members of one family."
In addition, Abdul Rauf Tawana, the secretary of theShura-e-Okhowat Isalmi (the Islamic Brotherhood Council) in northern Afghanistan, also spoke at the gathering. Speaking as a holy man, Tawana called on the religious scholars community in Afghanistan and around the Moslem world to help bring peace and justice to Afghanistan.
"The Second Deputy Mohammad Mohaqiq must deliver the message of this city's people to the president and CEO: we agree with the constructive engagement with the Moslem world [...] we are people of logic and we are against making enemies," he said.
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06/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Tolo News] A new study by World Justice Project (WJP) illustrates Afghanistan is the second-worst country in rule of law after Venezuela topped the list of 102 countries ranked in the report.
The U.S.-based non-profit association -- which aims to advance rule of law around the world -- released the index on Tuesday which was prepared based on responses from 1,000 people in each country and a total of 2,400 experts on how ordinary people see rule of law in their country.
Also in the regional-level ranking, Afghanistan is placed in the last position, report reads.
The survey was based on 44 indicators under eight categories which are: constraints on government power; absence of corruption; open government; fundamental rights; order and security; regulatory enforcement; civil justice; criminal justice and informal justice.
In corruption, Afghanistan is ranked 102, the worst country according to WJP report. The judicial sector of Afghanistan is shown as the second-worst sector, ranked 101 followed by criminal justice which is ranked 100 in the list.
"The rule of law is not the rule of lawyers and judges; all elements of society are stakeholders," the report said. "It is our hope that, over time, this diagnostic tool will help identify strengths and weaknesses in each country under review and encourage policy choices that strength the rule of law."
WJP executive director, Juan Carlos Botero, emphasized that the study could help countries produce their own indicators on these issues.
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06/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] The Independent Joint Committee for Monitoring and Evaluation of Corruption (MEC) has found that a group of officials from within the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled have systematically embezzled about $8 million a year from the ministry for the past few years.
Based on a report by the committee a syndicate from within the ministry has continuously taken money meant for the disabled.
"Mafia at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled must be punished. But more importantly, peoples' rights must be respected and the distribution process must be changed," says Yama Turabi, Chairman of the Joint Committee for Monitoring and Evaluation.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled acknowledge there are problems in the ministry.
"The investigating body might have documents as evidence in this regard. We don't have any documents that could show the people involved and something on the basis of which we could take actions. But I can tell you that there are concerns," says Ali Iftekhari, front man for the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled.
Another report by the same committee regarding appointments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicates that in the past and current government most of the appointments at this ministry are based on personal relations between the government officials, powerful individuals and MPs.
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[AnNahar] From hit and run attacks and massacres to a shopping trip, Somali-led Shabaab Lions of Islam are on the march in northeastern Kenya.
With large numbers of troops in southern Somalia but seemingly unable to effectively police its own outer regions, Kenya must react quickly to stop the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists from gaining significant ground and finding a new generation of recruits, Western security officials say.
"The Somalia theater is no longer of interest to the Shabaab," a Western security source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Continued on Page 49
[Libya Herald] A meeting of eastern tribes in Gandula south of Beida yesterday demanded the 1951 constitution be re-instated. It also called for the army to given all the equipment and support it needs.
Accepting that that the House of Representatives (HoR) was the only body that could question or sack the government, the meeting expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... s about it, particularly allegation of corruption from the Audit Commission.
Delegates also complained about the Constitution Drafting Assembly. It was working too slowly and what it had produced so far, they said, was unacceptable. Instead, there was a near unanimous demand that the 1951 constitution under which Libya became an independent federal state, be revived.
The meeting looked at the situation beyond 21 October, widely believed to be the date when the HoR's mandate expires. Fearing that there would then be a political vacuum in the country, delegates called on the HoR to produce a road map for the post-21 October period. It should be ready by July at the latest, they insisted.
The meeting issued seven recommendations:
1. The government should answer questions about its performance and these be reported in the media;
2. Full support had to be given to the army and the police;
3. The HoR had to have full control over state institutions including the Central Bank of Libya;
4. A return of the 1951 Constitution;
5. The HoR to pass an amnesty law (which would effectively nullify the Political Isolation Law and forgive those involved with the former regime);
6. and The establishment of a committee comprising of representatives from the country's municipal councils and of community elders which would work to ensure the other recommendations were implemented.
Hosted by the prominent eastern Barasa tribe, the meeting is seen as a response to the one that finally took place last week in Cairo but which many Libyan tribes boycotted.
Although the gathering was supported to draw representatives from the whole country, there was none from the south or east. This was largely because of dangers of travelling from one part of Libya to another, although a lack of sympathy among some tribes in the south and west linked to Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... and with little sympathy for those in the east supporting the HoR may also have played a part.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
I have a copy of the 1951 Constitution and it is a pretty good one.
It was a big surprise, given how conservative and old fashioned old King Idris was. Freedom of Religion, women's rights, etc., seems Idris recognized that in order to have international trade you had to play by international rules and have a ex-pat population that might want to go to church and wives that might want to drive a car and go for a swim at the beach.
[Libya Herald] With tribalism very much a key determinant in shaping the future of Libya's political scene, those attending the Libyan tribal leaders' conference in Cairo last week tried to putting up a united front, but differences emerged on a number of issues. One of the main ones was the distribution of Libya's natural resources, mostly located in Cyrenaica.
The discord was made abundantly clear minutes before the final statement was read. A brawl broke out in front of Egyptian Prime Minster Ibrahim Mahleb who, with Nabil el Araby, Secretary General of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and numerous Arab and non-Arab ambassadors was attending the final session.
Continued on Page 49
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[Libya Herald] Libya's UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi has warned the EU that it must deal only with the internationally-recognised government in Beida and parliament in Tobruk if it wants a UN Security Council resolution on the Europeans' plan for military action in the Mediterranean against people smugglers to succeed.
"The position of Libya is clear," Dabbashi has said in an interview with AFP. "As long as the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and some other countries are not dealing with the legitimate government as the sole representative of the Libyan people, they will not get any consent on our part."
The draft resolution by the four EU members of the Security Council -- permanent members La Belle France and the UK plus Lithuania and Spain -- authorising the use of force inside Libya's territorial waters by an EU naval flotilla against the smugglers requires Libya to give its consent to such action.
Ironically, in a rare display of unity, both the Thinni government and its rival in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , have opposed the plan which would include destroying smugglers' boats to prevent them being reused. The prime minister of the Tripoli regime, Khalifa Ghwell last week described it as "colonial thinking" and "completely unacceptable in the modern world". The Europeans, he said, could not go back to the world of 1911 (the year Italia invaded and took the country from the Ottomans). The Libyans would defend its territorial waters and borders, he declared.
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06/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] A Lebanese businessman accused by the United States of providing financial support to the Lebanese turban movement Hezbollah left Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... at the weekend in compliance with an expulsion order, government sources said.
Husayn Tajideen, known locally as an importer of rice and flour to the small West African country, was accused of "unacceptable business practices that are detrimental to the Gambian economy", state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said last week. It added that he had 30 days to close all local businesses.
[BBC] More than 7,000 men and boys have died in Nigerian military custody during its fight against 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... over the last four years, Amnesia Amnesty International says.
They are among more than 20,000 people who have been tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! during operations against the Islamist Lion of Islams, the rights group says.
The military has rejected the allegations, calling the report biased and the statistics "spurious".
At least 17,000 people have died in the conflict since 2009, says Amnesty.
That means around 40% of all deaths have been in military custody.
About 1.5 million people have also been displaced and hundreds more kidnapped since Boko Haram launched its violent uprising to impose Islamic rule in 2009.
The report comes as Nigeria's new President Muhammadu Buhari makes his first foreign trip since taking office - to Niger - to discuss regional operations against Boko Haram.
'Deliberately starved'
BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross says Amnesia Amnesty International and other human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups have accused Nigeria's security forces of carrying out many atrocities before.
But this report goes further as the UK-based rights group names several senior officers - including major generals and brigadier generals - and calls on them to be investigated for murder, torture and enforced disappearance, he says.
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[AnNahar] A soldier in fatigues furiously pedals his bicycle through the alleyways of Diffa, puffing away after the biggest town in southeast Niger banned cycle of violences -- vehicle of choice of jihadists.
Situated on the border with northeastern Nigeria, the heartland of 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... hard boys, Diffa is on high alert since it was attacked in February.
Continued on Page 49
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[AnNahar] An American among several believed held by Huthis in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... was freed and receiving treatment Tuesday in neighboring Oman, which has been hosting talks between Washington and the Iran-backed Iranian catspaws.
A diplomat in Muscat said the talks between the Americans and the Huthis were aimed at promoting a proposed peace conference in Geneva, which the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... has so far failed to persuade the warring parties to attend.
But the State Department said only that Anne Patterson, the top U.S. official for Near East affairs, was in Oman for discussions "about many issues".
News of the release of American journalist Casey Coombs came as Omani state media reported that a Singaporean had also arrived in the sultanate on his way home.
"I can... confirm that U.S. citizen Casey Coombs has departed Yemen and has arrived safely in Muscat," said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
"He is in stable, pH balanced condition. The U.S. ambassador and a consular official met him at the airport upon his arrival and are providing all possible consular assistance."
Pictures released by Oman's official ONA news agency showed Coombs being stretchered into an ambulance with a brace around his head.
"We are grateful to the government of Oman and personally to Sultan Qaboos for assisting with the safe passage of a U.S. citizen to Oman," said Harf.
Coombs, who had been working as a freelance journalist in Yemen since 2012, writing for publications including Time magazine and The Intercept, had been held by the Huthis for two weeks, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
[Ynet] Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders says he plans to show cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Dutch television after Parliament refused to display them.
Wilders said Wednesday he would show the cartoons during television airtime reserved for political parties, in a move likely to deeply offend Moslems. The announcement came a month after Wilders gave a speech at a contest in Garland, Texas, for cartoon depictions of Muhammad. Shortly after Wilders left the event, it was targeted by two men with pistols and assault rifles. Security guards shot and killed the attackers.
Wilders says he wants to air cartoons from the Texas competition to support people "who use the pen and not the sword."
[AnNahar] The FBI warned politicians Wednesday there was no way to monitor encrypted online communications among Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... sympathizers and called for new laws to require technology firms to unlock any secret messages among jihadists.
The IS group often moves sensitive online conversations about possible attacks to an encrypted "dark space" beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement's surveillance methods, said Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI's counter-terrorism division.
Encrypted communications has "afforded a free zone by which to recruit, radicalize, plot and plan," Steinbach told the House Homeland Security Committee.
He said the situation was "troubling" and acknowledged law enforcement agencies did not know the volume of the hidden online messages.
"We're past going dark in certain instances. We are dark," Steinbach said.
Michael McCaul, chairman of the committee, called the problem a "tremendous threat to our homeland."
The senior FBI official urged Congress to grant new authorities to law enforcement agencies that would allow them access to encrypted online communications, either stored messages in an archive or messages in real-time.
"We suggest and we are imploring Congress to help us seek legal remedies towards that," Steinbach said.
And the government is also "asking companies to help provide technological solutions" to address the threat, he added.
Civil liberties groups oppose such proposed measures but Steinbach insisted privacy rights would not be endangered by the approach.
"We're not talking about large scale surveillance techniques," Steinbach said.
US authorities would still have to seek permission from a court and prove that its request for surveillance was justified, he said.
His comments came at a hearing titled "Terrorism Gone Viral" that focused on the implications of an attack in Garland, Texas last month in which gunnies inspired by the IS group's social media tried to storm an event featuring caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
"This event highlights the growing threat our nation faces from a new generation of terrorists, often operating from afar, who use social media to find like-minded associates within our borders who can be motivated to violence, attacking with little or no warning," John Mulligan, deputy director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, told politicians.
#3
I love how UK/US governments routinely suggest there are areas of the internet which they just can't monitor.
There may be methods in which to encrypt data but to suggest security can't see it's transit is ludicrous.
Once they know the data's end-points, they just tap the data in its unencrypted state, either whilst the sender writes it, or recipient reads it, by relying on hardware level backdoors, OS level backdoors, or installed software backdoors, which we all know the big vendors provide into their systems.
Posted by: frozen al ||
06/04/2015 11:04 Comments ||
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#3
Simple: Send they some place where they have sharia law and they'll be happy, right?
Ship them to KSA via Yemen.
Works all the way around.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/04/2015 12:04 Comments ||
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#4
According to our leaders, the statement "BEHEAD Those WHO INSULT ISLAM" is itself an insult to Islam, the Religion of Peace. These people thus, logically, should behead themselves. Can we encourage them to do so?
The way this is done in the Middle East is byhaving them form mutually hating groups with the same message, who slaughter each other. The government of Iran does this by subsidizing them all.
Perhaps this is why our government now goes out of its way to please that government.
Unfortunately this approach is a disaster to all innocent bystanders.
[DAWN] 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... has said that foreign forces, with the help of local elements, have been promoting terrorism and violence in the country.
Addressing an all-party conference here on Tuesday, he said Pakistain had suffered $110 billion losses in the war on terror over the past few years, but "we are determined to eliminate terrorism and extremism from our country".
The APC on the security situation in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... was convened by Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch in the wake of the Mastung carnage.
The prime minister said the Mastung massacre was a great tragedy, but leaders of Baloch and Pashtoon communities demonstrated patience and farsightedness to keep the situation under control. "The enemy wants to divide us on sectarian and ethnic grounds by pitting one sect against the other," he said.
He said the law and order situation in the province had improved to a great extent during the past two and half years. Political and military leaderships were working together to thwart the enemy's nefarious designs, he added.
"Complete peace has not been restored but a change is visible because of efforts made by the provincial government."
Mr Sharif said it was a good omen that all political parties and stakeholders unanimously supported the China-Pakistain Economic Corridor.
Referring to India's objection to the $46 billion CPEC project, he said the Chinese leadership had also rejected Delhi's stance.
It is difficult for the enemy to see Pakistain moving forward on the path of development, "but we will achieve the goal of progress and prosperity".
He said the politicianship decided to set up speedy courts and devise a National Action Plan and implement it. "Our enemy wants to damage our political harmony," he said.
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[DAWN] Casting further doubts on the transparency and fairness of the May 30 local government elections in the province, Senior Provincial Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai has termed the polls in his native Swabi district massively rigged.
In an unprecedented move, he demanded of Election Commission of Pakistain to declare the Saturday's elections null and void and hold re-polling in the supervision of army.
[DAWN] Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday said that Pakistain and Kashmire are inseparable, and that Kashmire is "an unfinished agenda of partition".
The statement was tweeted by Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa.
Addressing a conference at the National Defense University, the army chief said, "While we wish for peace and stability in region, we want Kashmire's just resolution in the light of United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... resolutions and as per aspirations of the Kashmiri people to bring lasting peace in region."
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[AnNahar] Interpol has identified over 4,000 imported muscle who have joined jihadists groups in conflict zones, mainly in Syria and Iraq, Interpol head Jurgen Stock said Wednesday in Barcelona.
"In September 2014 less than 900 foreign terrorist fighters had been identified by Interpol. Today, in less than a year, more than 4,000 profiles are available in our database," he said.
All those jihadis posting the standard smile-holding-kaffir-head photos on Facebook makes it ever so much easier than it used to be, donchaknow.
Stock was speaking at the opening of a meeting in the northeastern Spanish city of police forces from around the world with Interpol which aims to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
Stock said nations needed to boost their information sharing and improve access to the data they have for organizations like Interpol if they wanted to curb the flow of foreigners to jihadist groups.
"We must remember that while information is increasingly being shared across borders, it is much slower than it takes for foreign holy warriors to recruit and travel to and from conflict zones," he said.
"A gap still exists between the number of foreign terrorist fighters we have identified and those estimated to have reached conflict zones. We need to work to close this gap," he added.
A recent U.N. report showed an increase in the number of imported muscle from last year, with more than 25,000 foreign jihadists from more than 100 countries now involved in armed conflicts.
A large number of fighters were traveling from Tunisia, Morocco, La Belle France and Russia, but the report cited new flows of jihadists from the Maldives, Finland, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as from some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
[AnNahar] Thousands of Iranian and Iraqi fighters have been deployed in Syria in past weeks to bolster the defenses of Damascus and its surroundings, a Syrian security source told AFP on Wednesday.
Showing Iran's priorities?
"Around 7,000 Iranian and Iraqi fighters have arrived in Syria over the past few weeks and their first priority is the defense of the capital. The larger contingent is Iraqi," the source said on condition of anonymity.
"The goal is to reach 10,000 men to support the Syrian army and pro-government militias, firstly in Damascus, and then to retake Jisr al-Shughur because it is key to the Mediterranean coast and the Hama region" in central Syria, he added.
Syria's government lost control of Jisr al-Shughur in northwestern Idlib province on April 25, as a coalition of opposition forces including al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front swept through the region.
Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted elite Revolutionary Guards General Qassem Soleimani as saying "in the coming days the world will be surprised by what we are preparing, in cooperation with Syrian military leaders."
The agency cautioned however that it "takes no responsibility for the information."
Iran is a key ally of the Syrian government, and it has provided Damascus with financial and military support throughout the conflict that began in March 2011 with anti-regime protests.
But in recent months, the Syrian government has lost territory in several parts of the country to both an alliance of rebel groups including al-Nusra, and to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group.
Faced with those setbacks, the government has appealed to Tehran and ally Russia to step up support, a Syrian political figure close to the regime told AFP.
A diplomatic source in Damascus said Iran had been critical of the regime's failure to achieve the last major offensive operation it undertook -- a February bid to cut rebel supply lines to the northern city of Aleppo.
Tehran had opposed the operation, citing lack of preparation, the source said, and subsequently insisted that Syria change its strategy to focus on holding less territory more securely.
Analysts and observers have said the Syrian government now appears ready to accept the de facto partition of the country, focusing on the defense of strategically important areas and leaving others to rebels or jihadists.
According to one source close to the regime, it considers the coast, the central cities of Hama and Homs, and the capital Damascus as vital.
It also regards the Damascus-Beirut and Damascus-Homs highways as "red lines," the source said.
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[AnNahar] The second hearing in the Iran espionage trial of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian will be held on Monday, Isna news agency has quoted his lawyer Leila Ahsan as saying.
The trial of the 39-year-old Iranian-American began behind closed doors on May 26 in Branch 15 of the Tehran revolutionary court, which usually presides over political cases or those related to national security.
At the first session, which last about three hours, Rezaian was presented with the charges against him, including espionage, said MizanOnline, a news agency linked to the judiciary.
Rezaian is also due to answer allegations of "collecting confidential information", "cooperating with hostile governments" and "propaganda against the regime".
Ahsan on Wednesday confirmed the date of the second hearing to AFP, but gave no further details. Iranian law forbids revealing information about closed door trials.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... she repeated that there is "no proof" against her client.
The news hound's brother has dismissed the charges against him as "laughable", and the Washington Post's executive director, Martin Baron, has said that "the fate of a good, innocent man hangs in the balance".
The United States said it was monitoring the case "as closely as possible".
"While we call for this trial to be open, we also maintain that Jason should never have been detained or put on trial in the first place," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said on May 26.
Tehran does not recognize dual nationality, and says the case is a purely Iranian matter.
Rezaian's wife Yeganeh Salehi, who worked for the English-language newspaper The National based in Abu Dhabi, was tossed in the clink Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! along with him in July last year but released on bail after spending two and a half months in jug.
An unidentified woman photographer arrested on the same day as the couple was also released on bail.
A date for the trial of the two women journalists is not yet known.
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[AnNahar] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group is a "global threat" which will take a generation or more to defeat, Washington's envoy for the U.S.-led coalition fighting the jihadists said Wednesday.
Despite "strategic momentum" against IS -- or Daesh as he called it -- General John Allen conceded that the fight would continue for several years in a keynote speech to the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... .
And he added that if IS was not defeated it could "wreak havoc on the progress of humanity".
"This will be a long campaign," he said.
"Defeating Daesh's ideology will likely take a generation or more. But we can and we must rise to this challenge.
"In an age when we are more interconnected that at any other time in human history, Daesh is a global threat."
In a wide-ranging speech, Allen added that IS also poses a new type of threat because of its "depravity".
"As someone who has spent nearly four decades as a United States marine, I have come closer than many to the reality of inhumanity.
"But I have never seen before the kinds of depravity and brutality in this region that ISIL represents and, in fact, that ISIL celebrates," he added, using an alternative acronym for IS.
Allen was speaking the day after attending talks in Gay Paree with ministers from around 20 coalition countries.
The meeting followed the fall of the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest province Anbar, to IS.
That loss has been described as the worst defeat for the coalition since it formed nearly a year ago.
U.S. Pentagon chief Ashton Carter blamed Iraqi forces, saying there was "an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight", in comments that angered Baghdad.
Iraq on Tuesday pleaded for more global support in the fight against IS.
The loss of Ramadi in Iraq plus the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria has led some to question the effectiveness of the U.S.-led coalition in recent weeks.
Allen said the coalition had achieved some gains against the turbans.
He noted that IS had been defeated in many places in Iraq and that it has "lost over 25 percent" of the populated territory it once held in the country.
Another area of coalition success, Allen claimed, was its ability to disrupt the group's access to finance.
"We are sharing information to block their assets to the global financial system. We are uncovering their points of access in the region and abroad for financial support," he said.
He said the coalition had gained valuable intelligence on the organization's financial enterprises, but admitted that "Daesh still maintains financial resources".
These included extortion, looting, kidnapping for ransom, and human trafficking, said Allen.
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#1
It's been going on since the sixth century, general---don't they teach history at West Point?
#3
"Retreat/Pullback is World Peace", Ex-Sole-Superpower-now-OWG-Co-Superpower Globalist Amerika likes protarctive, indecisive "long wars" now, not decisive or conclusive "short wars" anymore.
MORE ANARCHY-N-CHAOSES = MORE SOCIALISM + THE
BIG[GEST] GOVT.
[AnNahar] More than 10,000 jihadists have been killed in air strikes against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group over a nine-month coalition campaign, U.S. deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
So five thousand each in Iraq and Syria?
"We have seen enormous losses from Daesh (IS), more than 10,000 since the beginning of the campaign and this will end up having an impact," Blinken told French radio, without specifying whether the losses were in Iraq or Syria.
Blinken was speaking a day after an international conference in Gay Paree in which 20 or so representatives of the anti-IS coalition pledged support for Baghdad's plan to claw back territory from the marauding jihadists who have conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The coalition's strategy has been criticised for relying on air strikes without committing boots on the ground, but Blinken stressed there had been "significant progress".
Islamic State now controls "25 percent less of Iraq after nine months, a lot of their equipment has been destroyed and many Daesh members have been eliminated," said Blinken.
He nevertheless acknowledged the "resilience" of the group after the coalition has launched about 4,000 air strikes on them.
In a separate French radio interview, Iraq's ambassador to La Belle France, Fareed Yasseen, said the allies had heeded Baghdad's calls for more weapons to combat the group.
"The Americans have promised us and will shortly deliver missiles that will make the difference against these truck bombs ... which made us lose Ramadi," a key Iraqi city close to the capital.
"The French will be giving us similar weapons, ammunition and we are discussing other cooperation projects," the ambassador told Europe 1 radio.
Western and Arab states carrying out air strikes on Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters backed Iraq's plan for retaking territory on Tuesday, after being accused by the Iraqi premier of not doing enough to help Baghdad push back the krazed killers.
"At the start of this campaign (we) said it would take time," Blinken said. "We have conceived a three-year plan and we're nine months into it."
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[The Right Scoop] The Obama administration intends to transfer up to 10 detainees from the Guantanamo detention center to other countries this month, a senior defense official told Defense One. These would be the first since transfers came to a pregnant pause in January.
You're likely to see some progress in June," the defense official said Wednesday. "I just talked to the National Security Council and State [Department], so we can say maybe up to 10 -- no specific timeframe, but in the near future. And then we're actively engaged with a number of countries in additional negotiations regarding the 57 that are eligible. But sometime this summer, maybe June, up to 10."
Of the prison's 122 detainees, 57 have been cleared for transfer to other countries by the Pentagon as part of an interagency review.
Last year, the Obama administration sped up transfers in a race to empty the detention center before the Republican-led Congress could block attempts to close it. Those transfers came to a halt in January. In April, theWashington Post reported they might start again, and today, the official told Defense One that some June transfers are likely.
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.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has reportedly banned pigeon breeding in its self-proclaimed "caliphate" -- areas under its rule in Iraq and Syria.
[PJMedia] Usaamah Rahim, the Islamist who was fatally shot after threatening police officers with a military knife in Boston on Tuesday, was originally plotting to behead anti-Jihad blogger Pamela Geller, law enforcement sources told CNN. He changed his mind because he he didn’t want to wait and thought “the boys in blue” were an easier target than Geller.
[Ynet] Dutch anti-Islam 
[AnNahar] The FBI warned 
[DAWN] Prime Minister 
