[Daily Caller] Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, had some difficulty understanding the ethnicity of two Hispanic GOP presidential candidates. Matthews, it turns out, isn't sure if Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are truly Hispanic.
In a discussion with The Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel on the two senators and their performance in the Fox Business Channel debate, Matthews expressed confusion as to whether or not the two men were really Hispanic.
"So you're trying to insinuate that Marco Rubio, a fellow, uh, Spanish surname [in reference to Cruz], I'm not sure the right word is Hispanic for them, because they are Cuban nationals or whatever, or come from Cuba," Matthews wondered.
[Jpost] A new Egyptian assault on the group now seems a matter of time following the bombing of a Russian airliner, which murdered 224 civilians
The bombing last month of a Russian passenger jet that has been attributed to ISIS in Sinai will likely result in the group getting funds from ISIS Central, to pay for more smuggled advanced weaponry, which the organization can use to target both Egypt and Israel.
Wilayat Al-Sinai, previously Ansar Beit Al-Makdes, has been buying arms trafficked into Sinai from Libya using them to launch a series of deadly attacks on Egyptian security forces.
Its ability to plant a bomb on board a civilian airliner that took off from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport represents a step up in its terrorist capabilities. The bombing might be rewarded by ISIS Central, in the form of funds sent to Wilayat Al-Sinai to further enhance the group's capabilities.
Following its bombing attack on the Russian airliner, which murdered 224 civilians, the status of Wilayat Al-Sinai can be expected to rise in the eyes of ISIS Central in Syria and Iraq.
The terrorist financing could go towards purchasing anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, mortar launchers, assault rifles, and rockets.
On the flip side of the equation, the organization, mostly made up of local Sinai Beduin members mixed with some foreign volunteers, will now face an even more intense Egyptian military campaign to destroy it.
Egypt has over the past year carried out two major military assaults on ISIS in Sinai. On the ground, Egyptian commando units, armored vehicles, and special operations units have been battling the group, while in the air, Egypt has deployed F-16 fighter jets and Apache assault helicopters to launch air strikes on the organization.
A new assault by Egypt on Wilayat Al-Sinai now seems a matter of time, after the group caused enormous damage to Egyptian tourism and its economy.
ISIS continues to operate, on a far lower scale, in the Gazoo Strip as well, with a small ISIS-affiliated group firing a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday night. According to Israeli intelligence assessments, the rocket was fired in the course of an ongoing dispute with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, which salafist ...also known as Wahhabis, salafists are against innovation in religion or in anything else. They eat the same things every meal of every day and all their children are named Abdullah or Mohammed. Not all salafists are takfiris, but all takfiris are salafists. They are fond of praying five times a day and killing infidels... jihadis in Gazoo have sought to undermine.
A radical jihadi-Salafi group calling itself the Omar Hadid Brigades is behind the rockets. The group is named after a key figure who helped Abu Musab al-Zarqawi set up and run al-Qaeda in Iraq nearly a decade ago, planting the seed for 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.... in Iraq, which eventually turned into ISIS when it crossed into Syria.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that "Hamas is not happy about rocket and sniper fire from Gazoo. It is working to stop this," Ya'alon said.
On the other hand, Hamas has in the past been willing to cooperate with ISIS in Sinai, allowing it access to Gazook weapons and training when possible, in exchange for access to the Egyptian side of Rafah tunnels.
Egypt has however been highly successful in blocking off the Gazoo-Sinai smuggling tunnels.
#1
FTA: "Europeans will need to do much more to promote stability, save failed states and avert huge outflows of people within parts of Africa itself, as well as in the Middle East."
Does anyone really know how that might be accomplished?
#2
Machine guns and flamethrowers work pretty well. It's not nice but it does tell people that you're really not keen on people trying to cross the border. Minefields can also work, but are a bit less specific.
#7
Procopius2k hit the nail on the head but nobody has the stomach for it. What we need is the Ottoman Empire to re-claim her old territories but the Turks aren't trustworthy.
[Hurriyet] It was quite intriguing - or maybe not - when, shortly before the Nov. 1 elections, a staunchly pro-President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... columnist for daily Yeni Akit claimed that Mr. Erdogan would become the "new ['ecumenical'] caliph" once he has won the executive presidential powers he much desires. Since then no one has denied Mr. Dilipak, one of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Islamist rulers' Islamist darlings of the press.
The last Ottoman sultan to have the honor, although it was a ceremonial title, was Abdulmecid II (in 1922-24), the 101st caliph in succession. Since then there have been no caliphs with universal recognition. The Sharifian Caliphate existed only briefly, between 1924 and 1931. But there are two contesters at the present time: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Caliphate (since 1908) and, neighboring Turkey, 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Under the last Ottoman caliph's rule the ailing empire allied with Germany during World War I. In 1924, when modern Turkey abolished the caliphate, Abdulmecid II, a gifted painter, was given 2,000 English Pounds in cash, then placed on the "Orient Express" with his wife, daughter, private secretary and two members of his harem, bound for Christian Europe -- first stop Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... . He eventually settled in Gay Paree where he would die in 1944. In Switzerland, he said: "My deposition and the abolition of the caliphate are fundamentally sacrilegious and void!"
While for millions of Muslims he was still "Commander of the Faithful" and "Vice-regent of Allah," Abdulmecid II chose to live in a huge, sun-drenched Riviera villa, high above champagne-soused Nice -- where he regularly corresponded with the grand mufti of Paleostine.
Nearly a century ago, the Turkish government asked the British government not to allow the restoration of the caliphate anywhere in imperial British lands, particularly not in Jerusalem. Today, restoring the caliphate in the personality of an Ottomanist Turkish sultan sounds like music to many Turkish ears -- especially if the throne should be restored in Turkish-controlled Jerusalem.
But Mr. Erdogan should first negotiate with ISIL before claiming the throne. The problem is, he does not view ISIL's caliphate-fetish jihadists as Muslims, and ISIL's jihadists view him as an infidel. Dealing with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Caliphate may be easier, though it may be hard to convince the Ahmadiyya Muslims to give up the holy seat. The final step before the restoration of the mantle would require diplomatic skills and some powers of persuasion: How to convince the world's over one billion Sunni Muslims that they should unite under the caliphate of a descendant of the Ottomans.
Why should, say, the Indonesians and Malaysians - and all the Sunnis of the world - unite under the caliphate of a Turkish man who wants to be the sultan? That may be more difficult than finding 13 opposition deputies to vote in favor of constitutional amendments so that the executive presidential system he so much craves could be put to a referendum.
There is one important parallel between the last caliph and the future one: They both hate alcohol because it is not permissible in Islam. In an article he wrote in the 1920s, Abdulmecid II argued that the primary reason why the Ottoman Empire collapsed was the "drinking habits of his ancestors [former sultans]." There are differences, too. Unlike one of his predecessors, Sultan Abdulhamid, Abdulmecid II was not "feared."
But a recent study found that only a quarter of Turks are "not afraid of President Erdogan." As many as 68.5 percent said they are afraid of him. Ironically, since Mr. Erdogan's popular support is rationally measured at 50 percent, 18.5 percent of his own supporters, too, are afraid of him. The emerging caliph is feared. The last official one was not. And the country is supposed to have progressed for about a century...
Turkey looks like the final days of the Ottoman Empire its leaders are so powerfully longing for: A near failed state whose leaders prefer to ignore and live in illusions of grandeur. Add the "palace fetish" and the picture would be more telling.
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.
[Daily Caller] Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, had some difficulty understanding the ethnicity of two Hispanic GOP presidential candidates. Matthews, it turns out, isn't sure if Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are truly Hispanic.
[Jpost] A new Egyptian assault on the group now seems a matter of time following the bombing of a Russian airliner, which murdered 224 civilians
