[ArianaNews] The leader of Hizb-e-Islami says that ISIS does not have a significant presence in Afghanistan and that the group carries out its attacks by "buying people who are ignorant and uninformed about Islam".
At a meeting in Kabul, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... said that terrorist groups including ISIS do not have a physical footprint in Afghanistan, and the attacks claimed by this group are organized outside the country.
"Their numbers are very few who carry out terror acts and operations," said Hekmatyar.
"Those who commit such actions are ignorant and unaware of Islam and they are being paid."
He has described the concerns of Russia and Central Asian countries about possible attacks against nations in the region emanating from Afghanistan as "pointless". He called on the Islamic Emirate to take measures to thwart the plots of the country’s enemies.
According to him, Russia is forming a front against Afghanistan under the pretext of ISIS.
The Islamic Emirate meanwhile said that Dash has been suppressed in Afghanistan and is not considered a serious threat.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/21/2023 01:36 ||
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[ShabelleMedia] The minister of information for Somalia’s northeastern Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... State Mohamud Aided Dirir said the ailing al-Shabaab ...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... emir is "being given VIP treatment" in Somaliland, a breakaway region in the north of the country.
During an interview with a local TV, Dirir announced that Ahmed Diriye, also known as Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah is receiving a medical treatment at a hospital in Hargeisa.
Continuing, the regional minister added that Somaliland authorities are aware of this and gave the al-Shabaab leader access to arrive in the city under their protection.
He stated that the al-Qaeda-linked group is currently in the process of picking a new emir to replace Abu Ubaidah, who has been ill for several months as it faces military presure.
Last year, US said it was increasing its reward for information about key leader of al-Shabaab to $10 million apiece, a move that follows a spate of deadly attacks by the group.
The US statement said Diriye, who has been leader since September 2014 after the killing of Ahmed Abdi Godane in a US strike near Barawe city in Sep. 1 of the same year.
Abu Ubaidah was designated by the US as a "specially designated global terrorist" in April 2015, and slapped with UN sanctions the same year.
Somaliland is yet to respond to the grave allegations by Puntland minister that it treats al-Shabaab "emir" Ahmed Diriye in undisclosed Hargeisa hospital.
The accusation comes amid ongoing LasAnod battle, which Somaliland accused Puntland of playing a role and sending troops to back the SSC fighters who are in control of the city.
These kinds of projects take years to develop, suggesting much was going on in the shadows before President Trump moved the Overton Window.
[IsraelTimes] The United Arab Emirates and Israel reveal their first jointly created unmanned vessel, illustrating their growing military ties as maritime threats rise in the Gulf region.
The craft, which has advanced sensors and imaging systems and can be used for surveillance, reconnaissance and detecting mines, is unveiled off the coast of Abu Dhabi during the Naval Defence and Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX).
The unmanned surface vessel or USV was created by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Emirati defense consortium EDGE.
The busy Gulf shipping lanes have suffered years of missile and drone attacks blamed on neighbor Iran.
"We are for the first time demonstrating a mutual project that shows the capabilities and strengths of both companies" in securing coastlines and countering mine threats, says Oren Guter, who leads IAI’s naval program.
Guter, a former captain in the Israeli navy, says the vessels will counter "threats here in the area" but that the aim is also to deploy them abroad.
IAI was looking to bolster cooperation with the UAE in air defense and hopes to help the wealthy Gulf state improve its naval capabilities, he says.
The UAE and Israel have steadily deepened their military partnership, including defense procurement, since they normalized relations in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords.
[An Nahar] The Gulf nation of Bahrain plans to put three religious reformers on trial Tuesday for allegedly questioning the foundations of Islam, a case that has divided the Shiite majority of the country ruled by a Sunni monarchy.
The three are members of Tajdeed, a local Shiite cultural society that advocates open discussion of religion, and whose members have questioned Islamic jurisprudence and scholarly opinions. Such questioning is taboo in many parts of the Moslem world, where religious and political authorities enforce orthodoxy.
Prosecutors specializing in cybercrimes referred three individuals to a criminal court, accusing them of "deliberately undermining the basics of the Islamic religion on which all Moslems and sects agree," the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported.
Jalal al-Qassab and Redha Rajab were summoned to appear in court, tweeted Nader Rajab, a founding member of Tajdeed. They face up to a year in prison if convicted. The third suspect has not been publicly identified.
Tajdeed has produced a series of YouTube programs that have angered prominent Shiite holy mans in Bahrain, who have portrayed the group's work as an attack on Islam and called on people to ostracize its members.
Tajdeed says it does not question the Koran or the teachings of the Prophet Mohammad, which are at the heart of Islam, but rather the opinions of religious scholars and others who came later, including modern-day holy mans.
Nabeel Rajab, a prominent pro-democracy activist muppet in Bahrain who has been enjugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in the past for his political views, has weighed in on the controversy, saying the "systematic incitement" against Tajdeed is a "flagrant violation of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... "Human rights are legislated for all, and we cannot highlight them in one place and overlook them in another," he tweeted.
Bahrain was rocked by pro-democracy protests led by the Shiite majority against the Sunni monarchy in 2011. Authorities quashed the protests by force with aid from Saudi 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. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... and the United Arab Emirates, but Bahrain has continued to see low-level unrest over the years.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2023 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Devout Moslems
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Solo pickets demanding to stop the criminal prosecution of Abdulmumin Hajiyev and release political prisoners were held today in Makhachkala by activist Salim Khalitov and journalists Magomed Magomedov and Idris Yusupov.
Because the right to raise funds for ISIS is sacrosanct!
The " Caucasian Knot " has reported that Abdulmumin Gadzhiev's
...as far as I can tell, Kavkaz Uzel likes using both spellings of the gentleman’s name — or perhaps Google Translate gets overexcited...
colleagues consider his criminal case a political persecution and regularly hold single pickets in the center of Makhachkala in support of him. They are attended, in particular, by the founder of "Chernovik" Magdy Kamalov, the deputy editor-in-chief of the publication Magomed Magomedov and the journalist of "New Business" Idris Yusupov.
On February 13, the police officers took explanatory notes and checked the documents from Magomedov and Yusupov, who were holding pickets, but did not try to disrupt the action.
Three single pickets in support of Hajiyev took place today at the intersection of Gamzatov and Dakhadaev streets in Makhachkala, Chernovik reported on its Telegram channel.
One of the pickets was held by activist Salim Khalitov, he stood with a banner: "Freedom for Abdulmumin Hajiyev." "We demand freedom for the journalist Abdulmumin Gadzhiev and we demand the termination of the absurd criminal case," says the publication about Khalitov's picket.
Salim Khalitov held pickets in support of Abdulmumin Hajiyev before. On February 6, he told the "Caucasian Knot" that he had known Gadzhiev since his school years, as they were classmates , and now many of his friends and acquaintances share the opinion that Abdulmumin Gadzhiev is innocent.
Another picket was held by Magomed Magomedov, he stood with a banner: "Freedom to journalism!". Idris Yusupov went to his solo picket with a poster: "Freedom for political prisoners!", follows from the photographs that illustrate messages in the telegram channel of the publication.
The published photos do not show police officers. As of 14.48 Moscow time, the publication did not report on the attempts of the security forces to disrupt today's single pickets in its Telegram channel.
Recall that the editor of the Chernovik newspaper Abdulmumin Hajiyev, as well as the head of the Ansar charity fund Abubakar Rizvanov and Kemal Tambiev, have been in custody since June 2019 on charges of financing terrorism. Investigators believe that they collected 68 million rubles and 200 thousand dollars for the terrorists under the pretext of building mosques and helping poor Muslims.
The investigation connects the defendants with Israil Akhmednabiev, a Dagestan preacher and founder of the Mukhadzhirun Islamic Foundation, known as Abu Umar Sasitlinsky, who has been put on the wanted list in a terrorism case. The defendants plead not guilty.
On February 9, the court appointed a new examination of Abdulmumin Hajiyev's articles, in connection with this, the hearings on the case were postponed indefinitely, the journalist's wife told the "Caucasian Knot". The next hearing on the criminal case is scheduled for March 2 at the Rostov District Military Court, Hajiyev's lawyer Arsen Shabanov told the "Caucasian Knot" on February 13.
The European Union will impose sanctions against dozens of Iranians, including judges, for their role in imposing death penalties on protesters, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said on Monday.#EUpic.twitter.com/LEoBT85lyk
[IsraelTimes] Tzachi Hanegbi and Hussein al-Sheikh have met once and held several calls via line established to tamp down tensions, pass along warnings, Paleostinian official says.
From Sunday. Israel’s deep state is fighting openly for control:
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the Conference of Presidents that, while Israel is "in the midst of a little debate on judicial reform" and he would like to discuss it at length and tell his audience "why you shouldn’t worry," he cannot elaborate.
He is prevented from doing so "because I’ve been given a gag order," he tells the US group’s annual mission event in Jerusalem. "I’m not making this up.... After all, who am I? I’m just the prime minister of Israel — what have I got to say about this thing that is gripping the nation?"
He calls the order — a reference to the 2020 conflict of interest agreement that allows him to continue to serve as prime minister while on trial, but not to deal with matters that might affect the trial — "patently ridiculous." And he says he and colleagues, including President Isaac Herzog, are "working on it."
He says there are three key points he will make, however.
One, "Israel is a democracy and will remain a democracy, with majority rule and proper safeguards for civil liberties."
Two, "All democracies should respect the will of other free peoples, just as we respect their democratic decisions." The comments follow the remark by US Ambassador Tom Nides yesterday that Israel should "pump the brakes" on its contentious plan — a call Nides has just repeated to the conference.
And three, "There’s been a lot of rhetoric that is frankly reckless and dangerous, including calls for bloodshed in the streets and calls for civil war." This is a reference to rhetoric voiced during the widespread protests against the judicial shakeup, which the coalition says constitutes incitement to political violence.
He says this has encouraged Hezbollah and other enemies "to believe this nonsense."
He says Israel’s enemies will be disappointed. "Israel’s enemies, if you are waiting for civil war — there will be no bloodshed, I hope, none at all."
Israel has heated debates and is a rambunctious democracy, he says. But "we are one people, with one destiny, with one country, one faith," he says, vowing to continue to build the one and only Jewish state.
"We will continue to work to secure that homeland for generations to come."
[IsraelTimes] Far-right national security minister said to fume at annual arrangement, which he has condemned in the past as capitulation to terror
Despite combative rhetoric from firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... s in the government, Israel, as in previous years, is set to bar Jews from entering the Temple Mount holy site during the last 10 days of the Moslem month of Ramadan, according to a report Sunday.
The Kan public broadcaster cited a stormy meeting held over the weekend regarding the Israeli policy, which has prohibited non-Moslems from entering the flashpoint Jerusalem location during the culmination of Ramadan, when Moslems traditionally sleep at the site that they revere as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, or the Noble Sanctuary.
With the current government widely viewed as the most right-wing in Israeli history, the report said the measure is facing staunch opposition from far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a longtime proponent of changing the current status quo under which Jews are not allowed to pray at the Temple Mount and face numerous other restrictions on entry.
Ben Gvir reportedly argued during the meeting that the previous big-tent government "closed the Temple Mount for fewer days than what you want" — nine versus 10. He also made clear he believes the site, the holiest place in Judaism, should not be off-limits to Jews at all.
Last year, Ben Gvir and his far-right running mate Bezalel Smotrich — now the finance minister — slammed the government’s move as a "surrender to terror."
Nonetheless, the ban on Jewish entry during the last 10 days of Ramadan seems set to be applied this year too, the report said.
The Moslem holy month has traditionally seen violence spike, in particular around the Temple Mound, where the situation has been especially volatile of late. The Mount is the holiest site for Jews, as the location of two biblical Temples, while the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Mount is the third holiest shrine in Islam, turning the area into a major flashpoint in the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.
Under an arrangement that has prevailed for decades, Jews and other non-Moslems are permitted to visit the Temple Mount during certain hours but may not pray there. In recent years, Jewish religious nationalists, including members of the new governing coalition, have increasingly visited the site and demanded equal prayer rights for Jews there, infuriating the Paleostinians and Moslems around the world.
In January, Ben Gvir paid a visit to the Temple Mount — his first since taking office in the new government — leading to furious condemnations from the Arab world. Jordan summoned Israel’s ambassador for a dressing down.
Later in the month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Amman and discussed maintaining calm on the Temple Mount. According to media reports, Netanyahu promised Abdullah that the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem would be preserved.
Further fueling tensions is Ben Gvir’s ongoing crackdown in East Jerusalem, which he ordered in response to recent terror attacks.
Last week, Channel 13 reported that Shin Bet security service chief Ronen Bar had spoken to Ben Gvir and warnied him that the enforcement operations could provoke further violence.
Security sources told the channel that they see a spike in violence as a foregone conclusion, given that efforts to calm tensions in the capital have failed and noting the approach of Ramadan.
[An Nahar] Israel has told the Biden administration, the same old faces in slightly different places, the same old ideas, the same old graft ...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation... it will rein in the approval of new West Bank settlement outposts, the prime minister's office said Monday, a day after a potential diplomatic crisis was averted at the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... over Israeli-Paleostinian tensions.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not greenlight any new wildcat settlements in the West Bank beyond nine such outposts built without authorization that it approved retroactively earlier this month. The statement, however, made no mention of the thousands of additional settlement homes in existing settlements officials say are to be soon approved.
A contentious U.N. Security Council resolution pushed by the Paleostinians and their supporters slated for Monday would have condemned Israel for settlement expansion and demanded a halt to future activity. According to multiple diplomats, the Biden administration managed to forestall the vote by convincing both Israel and the Paleostinians to agree in principle to a six-month freeze in any unilateral action they might take.
"Israel notified the U.S. that in the coming months it will not authorize new settlements beyond the nine that have already been approved," Netanyahu's office said.
Dozens of unauthorized outposts dot the occupied West Bank, in addition to scores of existing settlements. These outposts, which sometimes are little more than a handful of trailer homes but can also resemble small villages, are built without authorization but are often tolerated and even encouraged by Israeli governments. The international community considers all Israeli construction on occupied land to be illegitimate or illegal.
The U.N. vote presented a headache for the Biden administration at a time when it is focusing its diplomatic efforts on Russia's war with Ukraine, which is coming up on one year this week. Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday.
It also highlighted the deep differences between Biden's administration, which supports Paleostinian statehood and opposes settlements, and the Israeli government, which is made up of ultranationalists who oppose Paleostinian independence and have pledged to ramp up settlement building.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2023 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iran ...They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... on Monday denied reports that it has enriched uranium up to 84 percent, just below the 90 percent needed to produce an atomic bomb, state media reported.
The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday evening that it was in discussions with Tehran after Bloomberg News reported that the watchdog's inspectors in Iran last week found uranium enriched to 84-percent purity.
The front man for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behruz Kamalvandi, on Monday described the report as "slander" and a "distortion of the facts", according to state news agency IRNA.
"The presence of a particle or particles of uranium above 60 percent in the enrichment process does not mean enrichment above 60 percent," he added.
A diplomat outside Iran meanwhile confirmed to AFP the figures reported in the Bloomberg report, saying: "The percentage is correct."
The IAEA is "giving Iran the opportunity to explain because it's apparently possible that there can be so-called 'spikes' of higher levels of enrichment," the diplomat said.
Iran was last known to have enriched uranium up to 60 percent. Uranium enriched up to 90 percent purity is considered nuclear weapons-grade.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said on Monday that his country is "committed" to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and its safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
He warned against the politicization of the role of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, saying it "distorts its position."
"The agency should act within the framework of specialized tasks," he added.
The report of the 84-percent enrichment comes amid stalled negotiations to revive the 2015 deal over Iran's nuclear program.
The accord promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon -- something Tehran has always denied seeking.
But the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting it to begin walking back on its commitments under the accord.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Iranian believibility. From Islamic Web: "Nine tenths of religion is taqiyyah (dissimulation), hence one who does not dissimulate has no religion." (Al-Kafi vol.9 p.110) This shows us that Shi'ites have to lie to us as if they don't then they will not be called Muslims by other Shi'ites....it shows us how sick is the Shi'ite faith.
[An Nahar] Hezbollah has rejected a recent request from Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... chief Jebran Bassil for meeting with the party’s secretary-general Sayyed His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... , a senior Shiite Duo source said.
"The dispute between Hezbollah and Bassil remained under control until the latter called Hezbollah Liaison and Coordination Officer Wafiq Safa to ask him to set up a meeting for him with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah to consult with him over the list of presidential candidates that he (Bassil) had prepared," the source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Monday.
"Safa asked Bassil whether the list contained the name of Marada Movement the personal militia of Suleiman Franjieh, president of Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war, currently Syrian toadies, but you never know when that could change... chief ex-MP Suleiman Franjieh and Bassil answered that it did not, which prompted Safa to ask him about the reasons behind excluding him, especially that Nasrallah had informed him when he met him that Franjieh had the higher chances to be nominated for the presidency," the source added.
This pushed Safa to "frankly tell Bassil that there is no need for him to meet with Nasrallah in the foreseeable future as long as he has not changed his stance," the source revealed, noting that the phone call took place last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2023 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.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...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. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
Hezbollah
...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation...
...They hate 
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
