[KhaamaPress] The U.S. military has warned the Taliban ...Arabic for students... group that there would be responses if the violence could not be reduced, emphasizing that all sides must return to the political path.
The U.S. military spokesperson Col Sonny Leggett in a statement said "This moment is an opportunity for Afghanistan — for the people of Afghanistan to say clearly to all who listen that they want peace."
Col Leggett issued a statement in response to a statement released by Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid who had asked if General Scott Miller’s message was a warning for war or peace?
"While it may be a long and difficult road, the military forces of all sides have a unique role in setting the conditions for. Reducing the violence is an absolutely necessity — and this is up to the leaders of all military forces — Afghan Security Forces, Taliban fighters and, yes, the Coalition. Attacks general attacks, while restraint produces restraint. All sides must choose restraint to prevent more killing and violence. If the violence cannot be reduced — then yes, there will be responses," Col Leggett said.
He also added "All sides must also return to the political path. The release of Taliban and Government of Afghanistan prisoners should be accelerated to stems the spread of COVID-19 and to foster an environment for Intra-Afghan negotiations. Afghans should sit down now and begin talking about the future of Afghanistan together. The international community has called on the Government of Afghanistan to settle their political differences and begin Intra-Afghan negotiations."
"In Doha, we agreed US and Coalition force would continue to partner, support — and when necessary defend — out Afghan brothers and sisters. We take our responsibility very seriously," he said, adding that "I assure you General Miller understands the unique and historic opportunity we have worked hard to create for Afghanistan. To date, the U.S. has not conducted a single offensive strike or operation since before the start of the reduction in violence period."
This comes as the Talibs have recently intensified attacks against the Afghan forces despite ongoing efforts to find a negotiated political settlement to end the conflict in the country.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan government released a group of 98 Taliban ...Arabic for students... prisoners in a bid to help the process and the ongoing fight against the novel coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... (COVID-19).
Javid Faisal, a spokesperson for the Office of National Security Council said the government released the prisoners on Saturday.
"Pursuant to President @ashrafghan’s decree, 98 Taliban prisoners were released yesterday (May 2nd) based on their age, health and length of remaining sentence as part of our efforts toward peace and battling COVID-19," he said in a Twitter post.
This comes as efforts are underway to expedite the release of prisoners in a bid to help the grinding of the peace processor and subsequent launch of intra-Afghan talks in a bid to find a negotiated political settlement for the ongoing conflict.
The Taliban group had earlier claimed that the group has released of a group of 52 prisoners of the Afghan government.
[RADIOSHABELLE] The President of Somalia, Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed "Farmaajo", has today officially declared that Somalia’s outdated and draconian Penal Code of 1964 will be reformed to protect journalists and freedom of expression. "We're gonna," not "we did."
In his official message for World Press Freedom Day, President Farmaajo said "Journalism is a noble profession & Penal Code of 1964 will be reformed to ensure it is not used against journalists. My administration fully supports the de-criminalisation of journalism & free expression through legal reform."
Somali Penal Code is one of the biggest threats to media freedom in Somalia as it contains provisions of Insult, false news, sedition and certain types of defamation laws, which expressly criminalise various types of expression, preventing the media to report fairly on matters of public concern and the citizens on debating such matters. This archaic law is routinely used to arrest and jail journalists, leading to self-censorship and a stifling of public debate on critical issues.
In its World Press Freedom statement, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) called for the de-criminalisation of journalism and freedom of expression as journalists are regularly punished under the provisions of Somali Penal Code, and in this morning NUSOJ appealed to President Farmaajo to use his constitutional powers to safeguard journalists’ rights and freedom of expression from this repressive law.
"While we commend the President for taking this important and remarkable step, we urge the government and the members of the Federal Parliament to speedily reform the penal code in line with the international standards of freedom of expression and pass a progressive criminal law that respects and protects civil liberties of the citizens," said Omar Faruk Osman, Secretary General of NUSOJ.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Not The Bee. Dang!
It's a long road, but I wish them success in their attempt to become an actual country.
#2
The government of Somalia actually has governance of about eight square blocks around the capital buildings, such as they are. After that it’s all militia theater and clans.
#4
In San Diego, they have multigenerational crime families who drive a fleet of taxi's, and have taken over apartment complexes, so they can use the scouting of the taxi's to work theft and scams.
Member of the House of Representatives (#HOR), Ali Al-#Tekbali said #Turkey was the godfather of the terrorist Operation #Fajr Libya in 2014 that overturned the election results and took control of the capital #Tripoli. #Libya
[LIBYAREVIEW] The President of the House of Representatives (HOR), Agila Saleh, issued a statement over a week ago in which he advanced a political solution to the Libyan crisis that consisted of establishing a new Presidential Council and appointing a Prime Minister.
The statement led to divisions in eastern Libya after it was welcomed by the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Special Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the US Embassy, suggesting that the HOR head had clearly deviated from the Libyan National Army’s (LNA) pursuit of a military victory in western Libya.
After Saleh’s statement, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly... called upon Libyans to decide who they wanted to run the country, which in turn led to people taking to the streets to support Haftar and protest Saleh.
It became clear that divisions between the two men were worsening and that Saleh, with the support of foreign actors, was hoping to launch a political grinding of the peace processor that excluded the LNA.
On Monday, Haftar issued a second statement in which he announced the LNA would accept the people’s mandate to govern Libya. He also nullified the Libyan Political Agreement in territories under the LNA’s control.
Saleh, in an attempt to curb public outrage, carried out an interview with Al Hurra to explain that his statement was misunderstood and that his proposal did not contradict what Haftar had said.
Saleh also said that he beloved the LPA was no longer a viable political framework, adding that the HOR would remain as the country’s sole legitimate body while a new government was formed.
However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... Saleh later appeared to return to his initial statement in a meeting with representatives of the Obeidat tribe, during which he diverged from the LNA once again.
The meeting concluded with a statement that was constructed to suggest the Obeidat was siding with the HOR over the LNA.
Many of the tribal representatives that attended the meeting issued statements of their own to underline their support of the LNA’s self-proclaimed mandate to rule Libya.
By midweek, tensions went kaboom! in eastern Libya and pressure amassed against the HOR’s President. This forced Saleh to clarify his position and realign with the LNA in an interview with Al Marsad.
Sources close to Saleh told Libya Review that several actors had hoped to utilise Saleh in order to spur the political process forward without the LNA and had been applying a lot of pressure on him to do so.
According to the same source, these actors had assumed that the LNA had lost influence in eastern Libya and were not expecting to see such overwhelming support for the armed forces.
Today, the HoR issued a statement officially aligning itself with the LNA and condemned international forced that are "working to destabilise the LNA’s mission" and declaring that the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) is no longer valid.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2020 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has rejected US claims that it is helping Venezuela ...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... to rebuild its oil industry, saying the accusations are designed to increase pressure and disrupt the two countries’ trade ties.
Elliott Abrams, the envoy leading US efforts to topple Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolás Maduro ...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground. Unlike Qadaffy and Hugo Chavez, he's not dead yet... , has alleged that the cash-strapped country is paying Iran in gold to restore the troubled sector.
US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... ’s administration has imposed unilateral sanctions aimed at ending oil exports from Iran and Venezuela, both major crude producers.
Iran’s foreign ministry in a statement calls Abrams’ claims "baseless," without directly addressing accusations that the Islamic republic is being paid in gold.
It accuses Washington of trying to increase "pressure on Venezuela’s government and disrupt trade between Iran and Venezuela."
It says US policies against Venezuela including "economic sanctions, military threats and a recent transition council" had failed.
Washington was now "trying to create obstacles in Venezuela’s plan to rebuild its refineries and produce oil products such as petrol, which is in short supply due to cruel US sanctions."
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but analysts say that the sector operates below capacity.
The country’s economy has been collapsing, with millions fleeing as they lack basic goods.
Iran has also taken a hit from US sanctions after Trump pulled out of a nuclear accord and reimposed them in 2018.
Maduro has withstood more than a year of US-led efforts to remove him and retains the support of the military.
Iran has repeatedly expressed support for Maduro against opposition leader Juan Guaidó ...Venezuelan politician, a member of the social-democratic Popular Will party, and serves as a federal deputy to the National Assembly representing the state of Vargas. In 2019 he was appointed by the Popular Will party to become the president of the National Assembly, after which he declared he was acting president of the country, challenging Nicolás Maduro's presidency and starting the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis.... , who is recognized by some 60 nations as interim president due, to reports of irregularities in Maduro’s 2018 re-election.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/04/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
They probably have no real intention of doing so, either.
They took the gold up front, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/04/2020 14:16 Comments ||
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[JPost] - Mohammed Aref Massad, a former Palestinian security prisoner, has demanded that Israel stop transferring tax revenue funds to the Palestinian Authority on the pretext that the money is being used to fund terrorism and corruption.
Massad, who currently lives in Haifa, made his demand in an urgent petition he filed last week with the High Court of Justice against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and the Knesset Finance Committee.
The petition demanded that the funds be directly transferred to Palestinian workers and needy families.
Massad was born in a small village near Jenin and by the age of 13 had joined the ruling Fatah faction. At one point, he even became a member of Fatah’s armed gang, "Black Panther", whose gunmen carried out numerous attacks against Israelis and Palestinians during the First Intifada. He was arrested by the IDF and spent more than seven years in prison.
In his petition, filed through lawyer Michael Litvak, Massad asked the court to order the Israeli government to explain why it won’t halt the transfer of tax revenue funds - collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians - to the PA.
Massad told The Jerusalem Post that he decided to file the petition out of concern for Palestinian workers in Israel and their families. "These people are being deprived of the money," he said. "We want the money to go directly to the workers and needy families. The Palestinian Authority government is very corrupt, and there’s no reason why Israel should be transferring millions of dollars to this government."
[SYRIAHR] Reliable sources have informed the Syrian Observatory that a large number of inhabitants of Kharba village in the western countryside of al-Suwaidaa, near the administrative border with the eastern countryside of Daraa, returned to their homes in the past 24 hours, after being forced to displace in 2014.
According to SOHR sources, Kharba village used to be inhabited mostly by Christian citizens who were forced to displace years ago fleeing the military operations their. After the return of Russian-backed regime forces to impose their influence on south Syria, tens of the village’s residents were able to return under agreements with factions which mediate reconciliation deals with the Syrian regime, especially the affiliates of the Russian-backed 5th Corps.
According these agreements, the 5th Corps has emptied the village of the Bedouin who displaced to it over the past few years, clearing the way for the return of tens of indigenous families. The families returned to their village yesterday in the presence of a Russian delegation and another delegation including commanders of Russian-backed factions which mediate reconciliation deals, Christian and Moslem clergies, elders and dignitaries form Daraa and al-Suwaidaa.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2020 00:00 ||
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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.
...Arabic for 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south...
