[AlAhram] The Egyptian Armed Forces have cleared 25 million landmines, explosive objects, and ammunition from the country’s Western Desert in recent years, Armed Forces front man Gharib Abdel-Hafez said in a statement on Wednesday.
The government has been able to undertake various urban and development projects in the areas where these remnants of war have been cleared, the front man said.
These efforts reflect the Armed Forces keenness to provide security across Egypt and to enable the country push forward the development process and establish more urban projects, Abdel-Hafez said.
The mine clearance operation also includes the El-Alamein area, which paves the way for farming and housing projects as well as establishing important projects like the Dabaa nuclear plant.
Projects established in areas where war remnants have been cleared include cultivation and reclamation projects, the al-Hammam Canal, as well as petroleum exploration projects, the front man said.
The Armed Forces has also cleared the area of Alamein city in northwestern Egypt, which has enabled the ministries of agriculture and housing to establish development projects, Abdel-Hafez added.
Everyone Knows Buhari Treats Fulani Terrorists With Kid Gloves; He Can’t Remove Himself From The Evil Visited On Nigerians, Governor Ortom Lambasts Presidency | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/ylUpKVlOgXpic.twitter.com/Vc0quzlipr
[FoxNews] One expert says the Mexican cartels are run just like a Fortune 500 company.
Mexican drug cartels are rapidly expanding fentanyl production, pushing more of the deadly drug into the United States and profiting markedly from an easily produced, highly addictive substance.
"Even seeing just one lab in Mexico pressing pills was something unique that we were seeing. And this was only a few years ago," said Uttam Dhillon, the former acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"Now we're seeing literally a million pills being seized in Los Angeles, for example, just a few months ago. So the growth has been massive."
The Sinaloa Cartel and its rival the Jalisco Carte are responsible for much of the fentanyl manufacturing and smuggling into the U.S., according to former officials and analysts.
In 2019, the United States successfully lobbied the Chinese government to bring fentanyl under a stronger regulatory regime. That cut fentanyl shipments from China to North America and opened an opportunity for Mexican cartels to manufacture the drug themselves.
"The Mexican cartels run a global enterprise. They run it like a Fortune 500 company right now," Derek Maltz, a former DEA special agent, said on Fox News’ "America’s Newsroom." "They implemented a strategic, deceptive marketing plan to drive addiction and to drive profits."
"All they need are the precursor chemicals," said Dhillon. "Once they have those chemicals, they can manufacture those on an industrial scale."
Unlike cocaine and heroin, fentanyl is manufactured synthetically with chemicals produced largely in China and without crops grown in fields. The drug is acutely powerful in small doses, meaning smugglers can feed a market in the U.S. with far smaller shipments.
"If production costs a few hundred dollars, the sales in the United States will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars or potentially even more, depending how it is cut," said Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors at the Brookings Institution.
"The profitability is also higher because the means of smuggling and transportation are greater, and the ease of evading law enforcement is great."
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada allegedly leads the Sinaloa Cartel. The U.S. government is offering up to $15 million for his capture and $10 million for alleged Jalisco boss Nemesio "El Mencho" Cervantes.
In 2016, the U.S. government successfully partnered with Mexican counterparts to capture Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel, after his years of successful escapes and evading law enforcement. Since then, that bilateral relationship has changed dramatically.
"The current administration in Mexico of President Andres Lopez Obrador has really eviscerated the cooperation," said Felbab-Brown.
"Mexico's decision not to cooperate effectively with DEA anymore is definitely frustrating," added Dhillon. "DEA and our law enforcement efforts — that cooperation is cooperation that we've had with Mexico for decades — it's critical to aggressively attack the cartels where they live in Mexico."
President Lopez Obrador has embraced a policy of "hugs, not bullets" in dealing with the cartels, arguing that combating the criminal groups only creates more violence.
The DEA refused to comment for this story.
"CBP has made unprecedented investments in surveillance systems at our borders, deployed new nonintrusive inspection technology at POEs, and we leverage enhanced intelligence analysis and information sharing with other federal agencies and foreign partners," a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland said in a statement released to Fox News.
A record 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 70,000 of those victims were killed by synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
The U.S. and Mexico announced a joint effort to capture a woman and four men suspected of being smugglers
The individuals, whose names are unknown, are said to be involved with transnational criminal organizations that smuggle migrants and drugs
The smuggling incidents have taken place in Arizona in areas that are under the vigilance of the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma and Tucson Sectors
The photos of the suspects are being placed on billboards, bulletins, and posters in Mexico
Their images will also be displayed at U.S. Border Patrol stations, immigration checkpoints, and international ports of entry in Arizona
'The 'Se Busca Información' (Information is Sought) initiative promotes unity and encourages the public to anonymously report information about wanted criminals,' said U.S. Customs and Border Protection deputy commissioner, Troy Miller. 'This is another example of the work the United States and Mexico are undertaking to continue to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and secure manner.'
The initiative was launched jointly in 2016 by the United States and Mexican governments to combat human and narcotics trafficking across the 1,954 miles of the border area.
So not a new initiative at all.
According to the monthly southwestern border report issued by CBP on August 15, the Yuma and Tucson Sectors ranked third and five, respectively, in encounters with migrants stopped for the unlawful crossing of the border in fiscal year 2022.
Of the 1,816,353 interdictions that were reported by U.S. Border Patrol agents between October 1, 2021, and July 31, 2022, a total of 259,895 took place in the Yuma Sector while 211,714 were documented in the Tucson Sector.
Border officials hope that the latest initiative can help prevent smuggling of dangerous border crossers like Josue Murrillo Solis, a 30-year-old Honduran national who was a sex offender and convicted felon, who was arrested this week by Yuma Sector agents.
Or even a smuggling attempt that could have turned deadly last Thursday when Tucson Sector agents rescued two children, an 18-month-old and a four-month-old, who were abandoned by smugglers in the Sonoran Desert.
The children – whose nationalities were not released – were found after agents stopped a group that had been smuggled from Mexico to the United States. The 18-month-old was crying and the four-month-old was lying face down and unresponsive. An agent provided first aid to the infant while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Both children were taken to a local hospital for medical treatment.
[DW] Displaced people are still in limbo at Ter Apel's asylum center in The Netherlands. Migration experts blame Dutch politicians and the lack of housing facilities for the asylum reception fiasco in the country.
Their words are of welcome, but their actions show dislike and resentment.
[PJMEDIA] Federal law enforcement authorities have been tracking a disturbing recent trend that could be a significant security threat. The Department of Homeland Security believes that up to 30,000 individuals with Middle Eastern names are traveling on Mexican passports that they may have obtained fraudulently.
The 30,000 individuals are undergoing "additional investigation," says DHS. The government is trying to determine if any of the 30,000 Mexican passport holders traveled to the United States and whether there were any patterns in their travel.
Given the porousness of our Southern border, even the usually quiescent DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appears a little worried. He said that the United States risks losing its "first line of defense" because of the "unsustainable" amount of illegal immigration at the border.
Washington Free Beacon:
There are fears that terror groups such as al Qaeda could take advantage of the strained immigration system. Last April, for example, two 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... i nationals on the terrorist watch list were apprehended at the southern border. Law enforcement officials appear concerned that bad actors could abuse the legal travel system to enter the country with passports obtained from Mexico, and enter the United States legally. Roughly 20 million Mexican citizens easily travel to the United States as tourists each year, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
"This investigation highlights that criminals often use legal travel to facilitate criminal activity," the senior DHS official told the Free Beacon. "The nexus to Mexico should cause the public and politicians to reflect on how a mostly non-existent border can be even more dangerous.”
Indeed, the bulk of the investigations is left to a little-known but vital piece of our first line of defense against attack. Since 2001, Custom and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center in Sterling, Va., has worked nonstop to catch travelers and detect cargo that threatens U.S. security.
The concerning passports were identified by the agency’s National Targeting Center, the memo states. The lesser known subagency, created shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "works quickly and quietly to identify people and products that pose potential threats to our Nation’s security, and to stop them from entering the United States," according to a 2014 public memo.
The National Targeting Center also assists Immigration and Customs Enforcement with deporting money launderers and child predators, the senior DHS official said. The National Targeting Center regularly partners with other agencies on investigations involving terrorism or global criminal networks.
Obviously, not all 30,000 fraudulent passports are from terrorists. But a false passport is a necessity if the holder wants to engage in criminal activity. The ease with which criminals can cross the border to conduct their business should make breaking any fraud ring responsible for creating false identification a priority.
[Rudaw]- A group of Yazidis from Shingal have been stranded outside refugee camps in Greece for nearly a week, as they are denied both entry into the camps and the right to return to their homeland by Greek authorities, according to one of the migrants colonists.
"We are nearly 150 migrants colonists from Shingal. For almost a week we have been sleeping outside camps in the city of Serres as they do not allow us to enter the camp," Eido Khalaf, one of the migrants colonists stuck in Greece, told Rudaw English on Thursday.
Greece is a key route used by refugees and migrants colonists as an entry point into the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... "There are over 20 empty caravans in the camps, but they do not allow us to enter as they say they are reserved for Ukrainians," said Khalaf, claiming that they have reached out to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... for help but were told that it was out of their control.
Scores of people, mainly youth, from across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq take to smuggling routes on a daily bases out of desperation, in hopes of escaping the endless crises in the country, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
The lack of job opportunities and security are the main reasons driving civilians to leave Shingal, according to Khalaf.
Murad Ismael, President of the Sinjar Academy, drew attention to the increasing rate of migration out of Sinjar indicated by civilians selling their properties to afford the process. He advised the people not to sell their real estate, saying "this is the land of your ancestors and fathers, and you must keep it wherever you go."
Sherzad Pirmusa, head of the Duhok-based Aland Organization, told Rudaw English that a total of 4,377 Yazidis have migrated out of Sinjar and refugee camps in Duhok since the start of August.
Khalaf mentioned that at least two people from the group, a child and a teenage boy, had died along the way.
Over 90 people from the Kurdistan Region have died on migration routes in the past year, according to unofficial numbers from Pirmusa.
Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis fled their homes in the summer of 2014 when the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) seized control of their homeland, seeking shelter on Mount Shingal, and then in the Kurdistan Region with a limited number resettled in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and North America.
The killing of the Yazidis by ISIS has been recognized by several countries as genocide. During the first days of ISIS' campaign, around 1,293 people were killed and over 6,000 people were kidnapped, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Office for Rescuing Kidnapped Yazidis. Over 2,000 remain missing.
The bodies of three Kurdish migrants colonists who drowned in the Greek coast were returned to the Kurdistan Region in July.
At least 16 migrants colonists from the Kurdistan Region died in the English Channel in December, in what the International Organization for Migration (IOM) called the "worst disaster on record" since the body started recording data in 2014.
[Shafaq News] On Tuesday, the Ministry of Peshmerga received military aid from the Global Coalition.
The Ministry stated that as part of the plan to reorganize and unify the Peshmerga forces within the Ministry, the Global Coalition delivered military aid to the 22nd Brigade of the Peshmerga forces, including military vehicles."
It is worth noting that the US-led Coalition provides much aid to the Peshmerga forces, including medical assistance, training, and military equipment.
Both sides also cooperate in the fight against ISIS alongside the Iraqi Army.
Ever more of the Middle East is being emptied of its ancient minorities, remnants of history that dates back in some cases to the Bronze Age, The Jews were driven out following Israel’s independence in 1948, then over the years the Christians left for greener Western pastures, and now everyone else, creating the homogenously Muslim paradise their radicals claim to want — though in Afghanistan under the Taliban and in ISIS’s caliphate we’ve seen how that turns out ...
[Shafaq News] The administrator of Snuny sub-district, Khedida Joky, revealed that the number of Yazidi families leaving Iraq for Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... is increasing.
Joky told Shafaq News agency that more than. 3500 members of the Yazidi community have recently left Iraq noting, that more than 4000 passports have been issued for Yazidis in one month.
Many reasons push the Yazidis to take such decisions, including the genocide they were subjected to by ISIS, as well as the bad living conditions and unsolved problems they are going through,.according to Joky.
For his part, the head of "Alend" organization, Shiraz Mohammed, revealed that 1273 people have left Iraq in less than a month, through illegal means, heading to Europe through The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... In addition, 85% of the migrants colonists used to live in displacement camps in the Kurdistan Region.
Until today, more than 3000 Yazidis are still missing since ISIS invaded Sinjar in 2014, not to forget that more than 1400 families left their homes in the district due to the deteriorating economic conditions.
[IsraelTimes] Boeing KC-46’s to arrive in 2025 at the earliest; deal to cost Israel nearly $1 billion, with funds coming from military aid Washington provides to Jerusalem.
Probably too late for the current need, but useful for future projects.
#3
#1 Those old KCs are hard to unload.
Posted by: Skidmark 2022-09-02 02:29
Skid,
These are brand-new KC-46 birds, fresh off the assembly line at Renton. The Israelis have pretty much worn their tankers out and need new ones desperately, but given the heartburn we've had with the -46 (short version: Boeing forgot how to build airplanes again) they might have been better off getting a few KC-135Rs or KC-10s from the boneyard.
[IsraelTimes] Amid tensions over gas field and threats by Hezbollah, unanimous resolution extending UNIFIL deployment stresses ’risk that violations... could lead to a new conflict’.
The Security Council on Wednesday renewed the mandate of the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... peacekeeping force in Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ... for one year, and asked it to continue providing logistical support for the Lebanese armed forces for another six months.
The peacekeeping force, known by its acronym UNIFIL, has been in Lebanon since 1978. Composed of nearly 10,000 soldiers, it is deployed in the south of the country as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, which remain technically in a state of war.
At the request of the Lebanese authorities, the Security Council decided to extend its mandate until August 2023, expressing concern about "violations" of the ceasefire that ended fighting between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 that were detailed in a report by the UN secretary-general.
The resolution adopted unanimously by the 15 members stresses in particular "the risk that violations of the cessation of hostilities could lead to a new conflict that none of the parties or the region can afford."
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged threats in recent weeks as tensions remain high over an Israeli gas rig in disputed waters. The US has been brokering talks between Jerusalem and Beirut over its maritime border dispute, with negotiations reportedly close to a resolution.
In his report to the Council on Wednesday, António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... noted that while the "underlying drivers of the conflict have not dramatically changed since 2006, UNIFIL does face new challenges in the conduct of its operations," including restrictions on its freedom of movement.
At a time when the country is facing a deep economic crisis, he also points out that all state institutions "are overstretched by the financial conditions."
That means the Lebanese army and other security forces are "especially critical for the country’s stability and require renewed political and material support," he wrote.
The Security Council asked UNIFIL to support Lebanese armed forces for the first time last year. This provision to provide non-lethal equipment such as food, fuel, medicine, and logistical support was renewed for six months, until February 28, 2023.
But the resolution stressed that the support was "temporary" and "should not be considered as a precedent... nor a long term solution."
Last week, UNIFIL complained that it has recently observed at least four illicit shooting ranges in its area of operations and has informed the UN Security Council.
Lebanon’s Armed Forces confirmed to UNIFIL that it did not operate the shooting ranges.
[IsraelTimes] Two Lebanese cabinet ministers were seen throwing rocks toward Israeli territory during a border-area tour reported by local media on Tuesday.
The clip was broadcast by al-Jadeed TV, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
During the border tour, in which eight Lebanese ministers took part, Energy Minister Walid Fayad and Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar were seen hurling rocks toward the border.
Both are linked to Lebanese President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... ’s Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... Fayad is a regular interlocutor with US envoy Amos Hochstein, who is seeking to broker a maritime agreement between Israel and Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...a strong argument in favor of European colonialism, even French colonialism... Egged on by others at the scene, Hajjar commented at one point that "practice makes perfect," according to a translation by MEMRI.
In another segment, a tour guide is heard referring to northern Israel as "Paleostine" and calling the Israeli towns of Kfar Giladi and Kiryat Shmona "settlements."
[IsraelTimes] Washington confirms draft pact to revive JCPOA sent via EU mediators, will study it and respond, after Tehran says its reply was ’constructive’
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/02/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Forty years since Hezbollah was founded at the height of Israel's 1982 invasion of Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , the group has morphed from a ragtag organization to the largest and most heavily armed murderous Moslem group in the Middle East.
The Iranian-armed and funded Hezbollah, which has marked the anniversary with ceremonies in its strongholds in recent weeks, dominates Lebanon's politics and plays an instrumental role in spreading Tehran's influence throughout the Arab world.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
[Rudaw]- A group of Yazidis from Shingal have been stranded outside refugee camps in Greece for nearly a week, as they are denied both entry into the camps and the right to return to their homeland by Greek authorities, according to one of the 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
Hezbollah
...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ...
...a strong argument in favor of European colonialism, even French colonialism...
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
