[AnNahar] An Afghan soldier was responsible for the killing of two American troops a day earlier, an official told AFP Tuesday, in what appears to be the latest example of an insider attack.
The US military on Monday said two of its troops had been killed in action in Afghanistan, but did not provide any additional details, pending notification of next of kin.
Mohammad Qasam, a deputy police chief in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, said the attack took place at an Afghan army base during a visit by US forces.
"Initial information was two US forces have been killed and one more maimed," Qasam said.
US Forces-Afghanistan declined to comment.
In a statement to AFP, Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... front man Zabihullah Mujahid said an Afghan soldier, not an infiltrator, had killed the two.
"A patriotic Afghan soldier opened fire on them and killed them" in the attack in Kandahar, Mujahid said.
Bahir Ahmadi, the Kandahar governor's front man, also said the incident occurred at an Afghan army base.
On July 17, an Afghan army soldier shot and killed an influential Afghan army colonel while he was conducting a security assessment in Ghazni province.
The Taliban grabbed credit for that killing.
Insider attacks, sometimes referred to as "green on green," are a constant threat in Afghanistan for international and Afghan forces alike.
An awful lot of words and statistics, but not very well organized, I’m afraid.
[ToloNews] The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... documents 3,812 civilian casualties during the first half of the current year.
The UN mission in Afghanistan in its mid-year report has noted a 27 percent reduction in civilian casualties in Afghanistan compared to the same period in 2018.
Continued on Page 49
It remains to be seen whether he can have this particular heart’s desire, the enemy getting a vote and all that.
[KhaamaPress] The U.S. Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... has instructed the authorities to reduce the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan by next presidential elections in the United States.
The Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday informed regarding the latest directive he has received from President Trump.
"He’s been unambiguous: end the endless wars, draw down, reduce. It won’t just be us," Pompeo was quoted as saying by Rooters.
Pompeo further added "We hope that overall the need for combat forces in the region is reduced."
Pompeo’s comments underscored a shift that has apparently taken place since talks with the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... opened last year, according to Rooters.
This comes as comes as the U.S. and Taliban representatives have held 7 rounds of talks 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. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i capital of Doha so far.
The U.S. envoy for Afghan peace Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad is expected to resume talks with the Taliban leaders in Qatar in coming days.
Counter-terrorism assurances, U.S. troops withdrawal and intra-Afghan negotiations are among the key topics of discussion between the U.S. and Taliban representatives.
[AlAhram] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... has deposited $250 million into the central bank of Sudan to support its financial position, the Saudi Finance Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The financial grant is part of a package with the United Arab Emirates worth $500 million announced in April. Both countries pledged an overall $3 billion in aid, with the rest going towards fuel, wheat and medicine.
The grant is aimed at alleviating pressure on the Sudanese pound and achieve stability in its exchange rate, the ministry said.
In April, President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. was ousted after mass protests.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... Sudan's economy is still haunted by Bashir's legacy -- the penalties imposed for his support of murderous Moslem groups and for the offensive he launched to crush rebels in the western region of Darfur.
Because Sudan is still listed by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism and has $1.3 billion of IMF arrears, it is unable to tap the IMF and World Bank for support. Sudanese banks have struggled to re-establish correspondent relationships with foreign banks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/31/2019 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Sudan’s feared spy agency, the National Intelligence and Security Service, which was a key tool of ousted President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. to repress dissent, has been renamed by the head of the country’s military council, the agency’s chief said Monday.
The agency, widely known as NISS, launched a sweeping crackdown on street protests, which erupted in December against now ousted leader Omar al-Bashir.
NISS will now be called General Intelligence Service (GIS), its chief Lieutenant General Abu Baker Mustafa said in a statement.
He said the name change follows a decree issued by the head of the country’s ruling military council General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The council took over after the military ousted Bashir in April and is now working with an alliance of protest and opposition groups on a power-sharing deal.
"The change in the name comes at a time when the security apparatus is being restructured to keep pace with the political changes in the country," Mustafa said.
"The name change also reflects increased professionalism in the agency to help protect the country and national security."
During the ironfisted rule of Bashir, NISS oversaw repeated crackdowns on government opponents and the media.
Its agents frequently confiscated the entire print-runs of newspapers that criticized government policy or reported on anti-government protests.
When agents of NISS targeted anti-Bashir protesters, the crackdown left dozens dead, hundreds maimed and thousands arrested in the months-long protest campaign before the army ousted Bashir on April 11.
The crackdown was overseen by the former head of the agency, Salah Ghosh, who resigned from his post soon after Bashir’s ouster. He was replaced by Mustafa.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2019 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Egyptian Moslem Brüderbund journalist Omar Hassan has posted on Facebook an audio recording of a meeting of group leaders in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor... where a leading member is accusing other high level members of financial corruption.
In the recording, a leading member believed to be Amir Bassam, accuses the current MB secretary-general Mahmoud Hussein, the MB representative in Africa Mahmoud El-Beheiry, and the MB spokesperson Ibrahim Mounir of being corrupt.
"How can anyone imagine that Mahmoud Hussein cruises around in a BMW worth 100,000 euros when the students here [in Turkey] struggle to get 200 Ottoman Turkish Lira a month?" Amir can be heard saying on the tape.
Amir also said on the tape that Hussein and other leaders have admitted in their meetings to owning buildings and cars in their names.
Apart from the companies around the globe owned by Brotherhood members, the MB has been depending on donations from its wealthy members as a major source of financing after the confiscation of its members’ companies and assets in Egypt, which has designated the group a terrorist organization.
It is not clear who Amir is speaking to in the tape.
Amir has not confirmed or denied the authenticity of the recording. He said on Tuesday that he expresses his opinions on his personal Facebook account and that he is open to discussing his views.
While insisting that the Moslem Brüderbund was "pure," he did say on his Facebook account, however, that there have been mistakes committed by Brotherhood leaders and members.
On the other hand, Hassan, who released the recording, said that he did not care if the "pro-regime" media in Egypt use the audio leak against the group, "but the current leadership of the Brotherhood has left us no choice."
In another post, he said that if the leaders of the group do not step down from their posts for the sake of the "youth starving in Turkey," he would release another audio recording of an advisor to Egypt's late president Mohammed Morsi speaking about the "mercenaries and corrupt" individuals leading things in the Moslem Brüderbund.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/31/2019 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash says 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. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... ’s complicity in an attack that was carried out in Somalia in May proves Doha’s ties to terrorism.
"In the Qatar crisis with its neighbors, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report on the mediator and the Qatari ambassador in Somalia documents Doha’s relationship with extremism and terrorism. The recording is dangerous and can not be denied with an urgent statement that was not accompanied by an investigation," Gargash said in a tweet.
"Resorting to terrorism against the UAE is a regrettable escalation and affirms the correctness of the actions of the four countries [Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt]," he added.
A businessman linked to the Qatari Emir told Qatar’s ambassador to Somalia that an krazed killer attack in May was carried out to advance Doha’s interests in the country against the UAE, an audio recording obtained by the New York Times revealed.
According to the New York Times report, in the recording Khalifa Kayed al-Muhanadi tells Qatari ambassador Hassan bin Hamza Hashem that "the bombings and killings, we know who are behind them."
"Let them kick out the Emiratis, so they don’t renew the contracts with them, and I will bring the contract here to Doha," al-Muhanadi says.
The ambassador then tells al-Muhanadi that the attacks were taking place "to make them run away," referring to the UAE, whose Dubai state-owned port operator DP World has a presence in the Horn of Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2019 00:00 ||
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[Breitbart] The U.S. has requested naval cooperation from Germany in the Strait of Hormuz as tensions with Iran escalate, but the political leaders of the European nation have refused to assist their NATO allies.
The German Federal Foreign Office said that Washington has approached them to contribute to a new surveillance mission in the Persian Gulf but had rejected the appeal saying there was no prospect of a contribution, German tabloid Bild reports.
Germany’s allies, including the U.S. and the UK, have been attacked in the Persian Gulf by Iran in recent months. and under the doctrine of collective defence guaranteed by the NATO alliance, Germany is duty-bound to come to the aid of its allies if asked. Yet senior members of Angela Merkel’s left-centrist coalition government have made clear working with the U.S. is out of the question.
#4
Does Germany get any oil through the Straight of Hormuz? Would I be a bad person hoping the next tanker to be detained/damaged/sunk was destined for Germany?
Or is that pre-karma?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2019 8:31 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Nah, she's already traded Germany's soul to Putin and Russian pipelines.
#9
Germany imports 80% of it's oil from Russia, Norway and the UK.
I doubt they have much exposure in the Persian Gulf. Hence they gave the No.1 sign to the rest of the world.
That's ok, I doubt they have the navy to be of any use.
#10
under the doctrine of collective defence guaranteed by the NATO alliance, Germany is duty-bound to come to the aid of its allies if asked.
This is wrong. It only applies if one of us is attacked, and only then in Europe or the North Atlantic. You think the organization drew its name from a hat?
NATO Article 5:
"The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
07/31/2019 12:53 Comments ||
Top||
#11
NATO's death rattles falling on deaf ears. Though, I think Trump too once said it's outlived its purpose.
#13
We need to recognize we are dealing with the Fourth Reich. France and Italy are all in, just like the last time. We need to decide what we want to do about Poland and all those other far away countries we know little about. Time to reorganize Nato around real democracies.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/31/2019 19:53 Comments ||
Top||
#14
..while you are at it, get a replacement for the UN with (classical) democratic countries that recognizes each others sovereignty.
If you lost Switzerland
[Jpost] Switzerland suspended payments to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) until completion of a UN investigation into ethical misconduct among senior officials in the organization, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
[DAWN] The Sindh home ministry on Monday issued a code of conduct for collection of sacrificial hides on Eidul Azha according to which parties and organizations that collect the hides should get permit from the commissioner or deputy commissioner concerned.
Officials said the home ministry had stated that on Eidul Azha various political, religious and social welfare organizations or parties collect the hides of sacrificial animals.
"It becomes a matter of competition among the organizations and parties which creates law and order problems for the provincial government," said a notification of the home ministry.
"Keeping in view this situation the government has decided that for collection of hides, approval from the concerned commissioner or deputy commissioner is required."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... says it is suspending funding to the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees after an ethics report revealed alleged mismanagement and abuse of authority at the agency’s highest levels.
The internal report by UNRWA’s own ethics department, a copy of which has been seen by AFP, includes allegations of sexual misconduct, nepotism and discrimination.
The Swiss foreign ministry tells AFP in an email that it had already made its annual contribution of 22.3 million Swiss francs ($22.5 million, 20.2 million euros) to the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Switzerland "attaches particular importance to good governance of international organizations," the foreign ministry says, describing UNRWA as "an important multilateral partner for Switzerland."
But Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis in May called UNRWA "part of the problem" in the Middle East, as it fueled "unrealistic" hope among Paleostinians of return after 70 years of exile.
This goes well beyond the Palestinian Territories. Ain el Hellhole in Lebanon and other so-called Palestinian refugee camps across the MidEast will feel the pinch.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Around $10 million in aid for the displaced in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province, where ISIS was based, has been embezzled by its runaway ex-governor, the country’s anti-corruption commission said on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Integrity Commission told AFP that its Sherlocks had uncovered "invoices from developers in Iraqi Kurdistan."
But, he added, "no receipt was found" for these debited sums, which were meant for the rehabilitation of two hospitals in the northern metropolis of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , capital of Nineveh.
Many of the province’s inhabitants are still displaced as public services have not been fully reestablished.
Currently, 1.6 million Iraqis are still crowded into camps for the displaced, of which 40 percent are originally from Nineveh, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
A total of 11.3 billion Iraqi dinars ($9.4 million) had been allocated to the Provincial Council by the Ministry of Migration and Displaced, according to the commission.
"It has been debited and doesn’t appear in any provincial authorities’ bank accounts or in the Provincial Council funds," he said.
"It was transferred to Kurdistan," an autonomous region where the sacked governor of Nineveh, Nawfel Akoub, is thought to be in hiding, along with several other officials wanted by Baghdad.
He has been on the run since a ferry sank in Mosul on Mother’s Day in March, killing 150 people.
In April, the commission said that more than $60 million of public funds were diverted by officials close to Akoub from Nineveh’s budget of $800 million.
Graft is endemic across Iraq, which ranks among the world’s worst offenders in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index.
Since 2004, a year after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, almost $250 billion of public funds has vanished into the pockets of shady politicians and businessmen, according to parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] After story of East Jerusalem boy’s summoning goes viral, drawing reactions from Arab MKs and PA officials, authorities show they ordered father, not son, to come for questioning.
Sri Lanka’s Muslim ministers who resigned en masse in the wake of the deadly Easter Sunday bombings have rejoined the government, after police cleared them of any involvement with extremists.https://t.co/fij30okBnQ
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani and reiterated his call for a de-escalation of tensions between Iran and the United States, the Elysee said.https://t.co/hi5I7GKzcL
#3
Notice the other Rantburg article today about Germany not wanting to honor potential NATO obligations in the Gulf? The FR/BEL/GER Troika™ rears its head again...
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.
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
[KhaamaPress] The U.S. 
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor...
...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. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Around $10 million in aid for the displaced in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province, where ISIS was based, has been embezzled by its 
