Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and Embraer Defense & Security today presented the first United States-built A-29 Super Tucano light air support aircraft in a roll-out ceremony with the U.S. Air Force and government officials, industry and community representatives, and news media. Built for the mission.
#1
....And when I saw the picture of Hilary on the website, I looked at the plane and considered its mission and thought.."At this point, what difference does it make?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/26/2014 8:54 Comments ||
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[Libya Herald] Bani Walid today marked the second anniversary of the GNC-authorised attack which disarmed its militias on the grounds that they were the last remnants of the Qadaffy regime.
The GNC's Law 7 of September 2012 cleared the way for the Libyan army and assorted militias to attack the town. The bitterness felt by the locals, who maintained that they were once at the forefront of the revolt against Qadaffy but were never supported by other cities, remains deep. Bani Walid leaders protest that this was why they remained on the sidelines during the revolution rather than because of any loyalty to the Qadaffy regime.
The precursor to the attack was a demand by the GNC for the hand-over those accused of killing Misratan revolutionary Omran Shaaban. The town's refusal or inability to comply cleared the way for the offensive . Army units -- dominated by Misratan forces -- launched a full-scale attack on 18 October 2012 and broke through the last defences seven days later.
Today the predominantly Warfalla tribal townspeople remembered what they see as a grave injustice with an event held in front of a backdrop of pictures of the 20 people killed in the GNC-authorised assault,
Bani Walid has recently become a refuge for people fleeing the fighting in Warshefana and the bombing and tensions in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... . In the last three days it is understood that at least 600 families have arrived in the town and neighbouring villages. They have joined reportedly more than three thousand other households that had fled earlier fighting in the capital as Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... forces drove out Zintani militias.
The pressure on the council and civil society organizations in caring for these people has been intense. Today a collection of food and essential supplies was delivered to needy refugee families. The authorities are warning that greater flows of aid will be necessary.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The European General Court, part of the Court of Justice of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , has lifted financial and travel restrictions on Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... 's cousin, Ahmed Qaddaf Al-Dam, dismissing arguments from the EU Council for keeping them as unsubstantiated, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the court.
"The General Court annuls the retention of Mr. Qaddaf Al-Dam, cousin of Muammar Qadaffy, on the list of persons subject to restrictive measures against Libya," the statement said. "The Coucil has not justified the reasons for keeping his name on that list from 2013 to 2014."
Sanctions were placed on Al-Dam and a number of other persons connected with the Qadaffy regime by the EU Council in February 2011. The restrictions included an assets freeze and a ban on entry into or travel through EU territory.
According to the EU General Court, Al-Dam was put on the EU sanctions list because he had commanded an elite army battalion in charge of Qadaffy's personal security and because he had allegedly been involved in planning operations against Libyan dissidents abroad and was directly involved in terrorist activity.
Al-Dam's name was kept on the list by the EU Council in April 2013 and in June 2014 under the same decision from February 2011, but the court has now determined that this substantiation is no longer valid, even though he "still represents a threat to restoring civil peace". The court has taken the view that because the Qadaffy regime is no more, sanctions should not apply.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni has requested that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) remove the 850-tonne chemical weapons stockpile that remains in Libya.
Under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention all chemical weapons must be destroyed within the country of origin. Furthermore, it is the obligation of the country of origin to maintain the security of the stockpiles until they are destroyed.
The Libyan government, however, says that at this time it cannot assure the security of the weapons, as parts of the country are no longer under its control. It has asked the OPCW to draw up a plan for the removal of the weapons so that they are not seized by a rogue or bully boy group or battling militias.
The facility used to store and destroy the weapons is in south-central in Ruwagha, 700 kilometres outside of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... . Some 850 tonnes of Category 2 chemical precursor materials are still there.
Libya signed the UN Chemical Weapons Convention in 2004 and declared 26 metric tonnes of sulphur mustard; 1,390 tonnes of raw, precursor chemicals; 3,563 unloaded aerial bombs; and three former chemical weapons production facilities.
The nation immediately began destroying the arsenal of unloaded aerial bombs with a bulldozer -- a cheap, fast and reliable method of disposing of munitions components, according to OPCW. After a hiatus of some six years, in October 2010, work started on destroying chemical weapon agents.
This was suspended, however, when part of the destruction facility malfunctioned. When the 17 February Revolution broke out, just months later, the embargo placed on Libya meant the spare parts could not be ordered. By the time of the revolution 51 percent of the sulphur mustard and 40 percent of precursor chemicals had been destroyed.
After the revolution, in February 2012, efforts to resume destruction were restarted by the government. It resulted in the entire arsenal of Category 1 usable chemical weapons being destroyed with the assistance of the US, Canada and Germany. This was completed in January 2014.
Two of its three production facilities were also completely destroyed, and a third facility was converted, with approval of the OPCW, to a facility for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.
The country is operating under a deadline of December 2016 to destroy its remaining Category 2 chemical precursor agents.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Over 120 Islamic scholars from around the world, many of them leading Moslem voices in their own countries, have issued an open letter denouncing Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... Lions of Islam and refuting their religious arguments.
An array of Moslem leaders and groups have publicly rejected the Islamist movement since it imposed its brutal rule over large areas of Syria and Iraq this summer. Five Moslem nations have also joined a US-led military campaign against it.
The 22-page letter, written in Arabic and heavy with quotes from the Qur'an and other Islamic sources, is just as clear as those groups in condemning the torture, murder and destruction Islamic State Lions of Islam have committed in areas they control.
"You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder," the letter said. "This is a great wrong and an offense to Islam, to Moslems and to the entire world."
Its originality lies in its use of Islamic theological arguments to refute statements made by self-declared Caliph His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... and his front man Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani to justify their actions and attract more recruits to their cause.
The letter is addressed to Al-Baghdadi and "the fighters and followers of the self-declared 'Islamic State'," but is also aimed at potential recruits and imams or others trying to dissuade young Moslems from going to join the fight.
Nihal Awad of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which presented the letter in Washington on Wednesday, said he hoped potential fighters would read the document and see through the arguments of Islamic State recruiters.
"They have a twisted theology," he said in a video explaining the letter. "They have relied many times, to mobilize and recruit young people, on classic religious texts that have been misinterpreted and misunderstood."
Prominent signatories
The 126 signatories are all Sunni men from across the Moslem world, from Indonesia to Morocco and from other countries such as the United States, Britannia, La Belle France and Belgium. Including Shiite or women signatories could have discredited the appeal in the eyes of the hard-line Islamists it addresses.
Amongst those who signed were the current and former grand muftis of Egypt, Shawqi Allam and Ali Gomaa, former Bosnian grand mufti Mustafa Ceric, the Nigerian Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar and Din Syamsuddin, head of the large Muhammadiyah organization in Indonesia.
Eight scholars from Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the highest seat of Sunni learning, also put their names to the document.
In the letter, the scholars not only denounced the killing of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines as murder, but also rejected it based on the Moslem custom of protecting emissaries between groups.
The letter described as "heinous war crimes" several cases of Lions of Islam killing prisoners, totalling at least 2,850. To stress this point in an Islamic way, it gave several quotes from the Prophet Muhammad forbidding such practices.
It said that Arab Christians and the Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, were both "people of the book" meant under Islamic sharia law to be protected. Both groups were driven to flight as Islamic State Lions of Islam swept across northern Iraq.
"Reconsider your actions, desist from them, repent from them, cease harming others and return to the religion of mercy," the letter concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 ||
09/26/2014 5:58 Comments ||
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#2
The keep on saying that these extremist murderers aren't Islamic. Okay, so the next ones we kill bury in a mass pit or set them on fire. Lets see how the moderates react then.
[AnNahar] The State Department has ordered a cut in the number of American government staff in Yemen after Iranian catspaws appeared to have seized much of the capital city, a U.S. official said Thursday.
"We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution and in response to recent political developments and the changing, unpredictable security situation in Yemen," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki ...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State... said.
#1
Didn't, the "ONE" hold up Yemen as a great success story the other day in the WOT (or whatever euphemistic phrase these clowns in Washington are calling it these days).
#2
IRAN is repor refusing to help fight the ISIS/ISIL until AFTER its Nucprog issues wid the US-West + Israel are formally resolved.
* WORLD NEWS > [ZeeNews] US AIRSTRIKES ARE PRESSURING AL-QAEDA'S SYRIA GROUP [Al-Nusra] TO JOIN WID ISIS.
Iff true, this puts the KSA-led GCC in the position of having to rely on RISING IRAN + PRO-IRAN MILITIAS, + ANTI-ISIS/QAEDA SUNNI GROUPS for security agz the Soon-to-be-Nuclear Global Jihad.
To include SYRIA'S BABY ASSAD, whom both Obama + the KSA desire to get rid of.
IFF THE US AIRSTRIKES FAIL TO DEFEAT OR SLOW DOWN THE ISIS + ALIGNED, WE MAY SEE A SITUATION WHERE IRAN MAY HAVE TO MILITARILY INVADE THE KSA IN ORDER TO SAVE IT FROM THE ISIS???
OWG Globalist Amerika may end up not only allowing Iran to have Nukes, but may also end up dev + modernizing Iran's military-industrial complex, etc. in support of the anti-ISIS REGIONAL, GLOBAL THREAT???
[ARABNEWS] A major international conference, which opens at the Moslem World League (MWL) headquarters in Makkah on Sunday, will discuss solutions to tackle the issue of growing extremism among Moslem youth. The conference will also confront the challenges posed by terrorism.
"The conference will try to counteract erroneous perceptions among Moslem youth by providing them with proper guidance," said Abdullah Al-Turki, secretary-general of the MWL.
Makkah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah will launch the three-day conference, entitled "Islamic Culture: Origin and Reality," on behalf of King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
"The main reason for the increase in extremism and terrorism among some Moslem groups is their ignorance of the true teachings of Islam," Al-Turki told Arab News.
He said it was the joint responsibility of governments, Islamic scholars and the media to fight extremism in Moslem communities.
The conference will discuss King Abdullah's recent call urging the Islamic scholars to stand up to terrorism and extremism, he pointed out.
He said the conference would bring together a large number of prominent Islamic scholars from the Kingdom and other parts of the Moslem world.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[ABNA.IR] The Yemeni government has reduced fuel prices by around 15 percent following a deal with the Ansarullah revolutionaries.
The country's state oil company made the announcement on Wednesday, cutting back a price rise introduced back in July that triggered nationwide protests.
The company said the price of petrol and diesel was cut to 150 riyals ($0.69) per liter, down from 175 riyals earlier.
This is the second time Sana'a is reducing fuel prices in the poorest country of Arab world.
On Sunday, Yemeni government and Ansarullah fighters reached a peace deal that called for an immediate ceasefire and the formation of a technocratic government.
Ansarullah activists, also known as Houthis, have also been staging demonstrations in the capital for more than a month, demanding the formation of a new government.
They say the government is corrupt and marginalizes the country's Shia community.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] A terror suspect rubbed out after he stabbed two Australian counter-terrorism coppers may not have been acting alone as originally thought, a lead investigator said Thursday.
Numan Haider, 18, was killed Tuesday after he stabbed two officers during a meeting outside a Melbourne cop shoppe. Police initially said Haider appeared to be working on his own, but Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said new information suggests that might not be the case.
"There's some information that he was certainly talking to other people around the time that he came to the cop shoppe," Lay told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "It's just a little unclear to us at the moment whether there were actually people at the cop shoppe with him, whether they dropped him off, whether they were waiting for him."
Haider caught authorities' attention about three months ago, after police say he began displaying a series of troubling behaviors, including waving what appeared to be an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... flag at a shopping center. His passport was canceled about a week ago on national security grounds.
Lay said police visited Haider's home earlier Tuesday to set up the meeting. When the three met outside the station Tuesday night, they exchanged handshakes before Haider began stabbing the officers. Police said one of the officers then fired at Haider, killing him. A second knife was later found on Haider's body, police said.
The Victorian police officer who was stabbed was expected to leave the hospital on Thursday, Justice Minister Michael Keenan told Parliament. The federal police officer, who received the most severe injuries, remained hospitalized but was doing well, Keenan said.
Some experts suspected the attack was inspired by the Islamic State group's recent call to supporters to wage terrorism in their home countries.
In an address to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... on imported muscle, Prime Minister Tony Abbott blamed Islamic State for the attack, describing the group as a "death cult" that had "declared war on the world."
"It's hard to image that citizens of a pluralist democracy could have succumbed to such delusions, yet clearly they have," Abbott said.
Earlier this month, Australia raised its terror warning to the second-highest level, citing the domestic threat posed by Islamic State supporters. Last week, police detained 16 people in counterterrorism raids in Sydney and charged one with conspiring with an Islamic State leader in Syria to behead a random person.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] French Moslems were on Thursday called to rally against the "barbaric" beheading of a hostage by Algerian forces of Evil with links to radical Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) Lion of Islams.
Dalil Boubakeur, the president of the French Council of the Moslem Faith (CFCM) -- an official representative for the country's estimated five million Moslems -- called for the gathering at the Gay Paree Mosque on Friday afternoon.
He urged Moslems and their friends to join a "moment of contemplation and solidarity" after the beheading of 55-year-old Herve Gourdel, which has plunged the country into shock and grief.
La Belle France's Moslem community, the largest in Europe, has spoken out strongly in recent weeks against the Lion of Islam group.
The CFCM condemned the beheading as a "barbaric crime ... an act reprehensible to all universal human values."
The Moslem community is battling to combat radicalization that has seen hundreds head to Syria and Iraq to fight with the IS group.
La Belle France is on high alert for the return of these fighters who they fear may commit acts of terrorism on home soil.
"This is an unprecedented threat which requires great composure," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] he European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... is quietly increasing the urgency of a plan to import natural gas from Iran, as relations with Tehran thaw while those with top gas supplier Russia grow chillier.
Two "ifs" - the removal of sanctions on Iran and the addition of some pipeline infrastructure - are not preventing EU planners preparing, a European Commission source involved in developing EU energy strategy told Rooters.
"Iran is far towards the top of our priorities for mid-term measures that will help reduce our reliance on Russian gas supplies," the source said. "Iran's gas could come to Europe quite easily and politically there is a clear rapprochement between Tehran and the West."
Russia is currently Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas, meeting a third of its demand worth $80 billion a year. The EU has imposed sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, increasing the need for gas from elsewhere.
[IsraelTimes] On Thursday, about 1,000 Kurdish activists arrived at the border after a more than 750 mile (1,200 kilometer) overnight bus ride from Istanbul in response to a call for mass mobilization by the imprisoned leader of the PKK rebel group, Abdullah Ocalan.
The activists held a rally chanting: "Down with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... and AKP partnership," referring to Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, as black smoke and the sound of gunfire from the battle between Islamic State and Kurdish Death Eaters drifted over the border.
Turkey vehemently denies it has supported ISIS, which until recently was holding dozens of its diplomatic staff hostage. Officials have also said in recent days that they remain committed to the grinding of the peace processor with Kurds in Turkey.
But many Kurdish activists say they believe that Turkish intelligence trained the Islamic State group and provided it with the heavy weaponry that it is using in an offensive against Kurds in Iraq and Syria. Analysts say that the Death Eaters seized much of their heavy weaponry from garrisons, especially when they captured djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in Iraq in June.
Activists who came to the border said they planned to camp there until Turkish authorities let them across. Some were prepared to join the fight to protect Kobani, a Syrian city just miles (kilometers) away that has been under siege by the Islamic State and emptied except for the Kurdish fighters protecting it.
Ramziye Bozkurt, a 35-year-old woman, originally from Diyarbakir in Turkey's Kurdish heartland, accused the Turkish government of ongoing support to the murderous Moslems, saying that participation in the coalition "was just a show."
"The Islamic state has taken these villages and killed our people," she said, gesturing at the smoking hilltop in the distance. "This is just a new way for Turkey to suppress the Kurds."
For Bozkurt and others, the ultimate evidence is that Turkey was preventing them from crossing the border to support the fighters.
"If Turkey were not supporting the Islamic State, why wouldn't they let us go?" she said.
Turkish law bans people from going to war in a foreign country, but Turkey has tolerated other Death Eaters transiting its borders to fight the government of Bashir al-Assad. Despite Turkey's efforts to stop them, many Syrian and Turkish Kurds have been finding ways to cross over to Kobani in recent days -- and it's not clear how robust Turkey's efforts have been to block them.
Ahmet, a 30-year-old man, who declined to give his last name for fear of repercussions, said that he had come on the orders of "Apo," as Kurds refer to Ocalan, and would join the fight across the border.
"We came here to die," he said. He added that he wanted peace in Turkey, but that if Kobani fell, the grinding of the peace processor would be dead and violence could break out again in Turkey.
Over the last week, the Islamic State offensive has taken the group to within miles (kilometers) of the city, but since coalition Arclight airstrikes began this week, Kurdish fighters and officials in the city say the attacks on their defenses have eased.
Mesut Yegen, a sociologist at Istanbul Sehir University, who focuses on Turkish nationalism and Kurdish issues said Arclight airstrikes may have saved the grinding of the peace processor.
"It is a highly likely that if the United States had not intervened and Kobani had fallen, the grinding of the peace processor could not have continued," he said.
#1
Not sure about officially "backing" ISIS, but the Turks certainly have not lifted a finger to interdict them prior to now, and have been (allegedly) a conduit for Qatari money (and logistics) going to ISIS.
[AnNahar] Kurdish rebels on Wednesday cast doubt on continuing a truce with the Turkish authorities, accusing the ruling party of fighting a "war" with Kurds amid the advance of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) Lion of Islams.
The statement by the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) -- considered the urban wing of the mountain-based and outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- is the latest sign of the worsening climate between Turkish Kurds and the authorities.
The KCK said its executive council had decided the "state of no conflict" had been effectively ended by the actions of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
It said it resolved "to step up the fight in every sphere and by using any kind of measure to reciprocate the war waged by AKP against our people."
The statement accused the AKP government of exploiting the PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan's efforts for peace, saying this made the truce "meaningless."
The truce has been in place since March 2013 as both sides seek to find peace after a 30-year insurgency by PKK bully boyz in search of self-rule that claimed some 40,000 lives.
Battling an influx of refugees from Syria, Turkey has blocked attempts by Turkish Kurds to enter Syria to join the fight against IS, sparking protests at the border.
To the fury of Kurdish Lion of Islams, Ankara appears to be deeply concerned that involvement in fighting IS could embolden and strengthen the PKK.
"In the face of the AKP's policies, our executive council has been tasked to take any kind of political and military step and invalidate the inauspicious and dirty policies pursued against Kurdish people," the KCK statement said.
It accused the government of "playing for time" and creating a perception a solution will be found by continuously talking about the grinding of the peace processor.
Ocalan this week issued a statement through his lawyer expressing impatience with the AKP's stance on the grinding of the peace processor and accusing the authorities of being more ready to negotiate with IS than Kurds.
The PKK's military chief Murat Karayilan, who leads the armed rebels at their Kandil Mountain base in northern Iraq, has gone even further, saying that the grinding of the peace processor has "ended".
"But Ocalan has the final say," Karayilan was quoted as saying.
Ankara has welcomed Spain's decision to send Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey to replace Dutch units which are pulling out under a NATO agreement, Anadolu agency reported.
Should deter the Syrian air force from getting frisky against the Turks...
The Dutch mission in the southern Turkish province of Adana close to the Syrian border will end in January after acting for two years as a NATO defense unit against potential attacks from Syria. Spain's move comes after the Dutch government announced last month it would not extend its mission.
A statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry read: "We welcome the decision by the Spanish government to backfill the Dutch Patriot unit that will be leaving Turkey in January 2015, with its own Patriot unit and approximately 130 military personnel."
The U.S., Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries in 2012 to bolster Turkish air defense in response to a request from Ankara for NATO assistance. The U.S. and German contingents will remain in Turkey.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Forward leaning CAP run outta Incirlik would actually mean something.
[ABNA.IR] Despite security threats and tense atmosphere after the recent sectarian killings in Rawalpindi, the Punjab government has withdrawn security provided to top leader of Majlis Wahdatul Moslemeen (MWM).
Seven police guards, deputed on the security of MWM Secretary General Allama Nasir Abbas, have been called back by the Punjab home department.
The MWM front man, Mehdi Shah, said apparently the move was aimed at pressurising his party to withdraw support to PAT's Inqlab March.
"But if anything happens to Allama Nasir Abbas, the prime minister and the Punjab chief minister will be nominated in the FIR," he added.
Rawalpindi has recently witnessed two sectarian killings, one of Mufti Amanullah of seminary Taleemul Koran who was rubbed out on Sunday, and the other of a person who died when a Shia mosque and some shops in old city, Rawalpindi were burnt in reaction.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Rangers raided the MQM office on Abul Hasan Isphahani Road on Wednesday night and picked up several workers, the MQM said.
The incident sparked protest in the area as shops were closed and traffic thinned.
There was no official word about the raid from the paramilitary force.
A police official told Dawn that Rangers had carried out the raid on information about the presence of some suspects at the office and detained some people for interrogation.
MQM's coordination committee said in a statement that the office of an MPA had been raided and several workers were held.
It condemned the raid and said that about 500 workers, including women, were attending a meeting at the MPA's office when Rangers raided the place, ransacked the office and detained several activists.
It alleged that the Rangers stopped members of the committee, MNA Muzammil Qureshi and MPA Faisal Subzwari from entering the office.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The leadership of the Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) and the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) are planning to allow participants of the sit-ins to go home before Eidul Azha. A senior PAT leader said the recent announcement by the party chief regarding extension of the movement against the PML-N government to other parts of the country was part of the strategy to allow participants to go home before Eid.
"The PAT leadership was expecting the prime minister to resign, dissolve the assembly and call for re-elections within a week due to pressure from the sit-ins but when the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) decided to support the government and the democratic system this became a dream," the PAT leader said.
A senior member of the PAT central working council (CWC) added that the party leadership believed that while it had not been easy for the participants to stay in the capital for over a month the circumstances could take a turn for the worse if the party leadership failed to take initiative for the safe return of the marchers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Police in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... have enjugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! at least one man suspected of invovlement in the murder of Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) leader Zahra Shahid Hussain.
"We have arrested one suspect [in connection to Zahra Shahid's murder], while there are others who will soon be arrested," Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo told news hounds at a presser Thursday evening.
"This was not a robbery; this was an incident of assassination," Thebo told news hounds.
"We are carrying out further investigation and interrogation, and will share facts as they are further revealed. We are not able to share further information at this stage," he said.
"The suspect originally belongs to Hyderabad but lives in Karachi" in the DHA area, he said.
Police further claimed having uncovered clues leading to the possible arrest of further suspects.
Thebo declined to give any further information into the arrest or investigation.
Police sources had earlier told Dawn.com that up to three men have been arrested in connection to the PTI leaders murder.
The sources claimed the arrested men, said to be affiliated to a political party, have admitted to the murder of the PTI leader during interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A senior military commander called on Wednesday for action against terrorist groups in southern Punjab and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , saying the successful Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... operation was not enough to end the terrorist threat in the country.
"Terrorism cannot be eliminated without intelligence-based operations throughout the country -- particularly in Southern Punjab and Sindh," Corps Commander Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani said while briefing on Zarb-e-Azb at the National Defence University.
The operation in North Wazoo, started in mid-June, is said to be progressing well. The feared blowback that delayed the operation for years, the army says, was pre-empted by about 2,200 intelligence-based operations throughout the country in which about 42 bad boyz were potted and another 114 incarcerated Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! .
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] The IAEA rejected a resolution Thursday, at an annual conference of the UN atomic agency, circulated by Arab countries criticizing Israel over its alleged nuclear arsenal, in a diplomatic victory for Western states who opposed the initiative.
Nations meeting at the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference voted 58-45 against the resolution on Thursday, while 27 abstained.
Backed by 18 Arab states, including Syria, the resolution expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... "about the Israeli nuclear capabilities," urging Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and put its nuclear facilities under international oversight. Israel has never acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons.
Separately, the conference voted 117-0, with 13 abstentions, in favor of a resolution submitted by Egypt that called on "all states in the region" to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
On Wednesday, Arab countries circulated the resolution that singled out Israel.
The draft echoed previous such resolutions at annual meetings of the Vienna-based ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency.
Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, started flying weapons to Iraqi Kurds early morning Thursday - an operation that it says will eventually see it equip around 10,000 Kurdish fighters with 70 million euros of weapons, Anadolu agency reported.
According to a statement on the Bundeswehr's website, among the 25 tons of cargo on board the 2 a.m. Royal Netherlands Air Force KDC-10 were 50 bazookas and ammunition, 520 G3 rifles and 20 type MG3 machine guns. The shipment - the second of which should follow in October - also includes medical equipment for first aid personnel and 4.000 thousand protective goggles.
By the end of the operation, Germany anticipates around 10,000 Kurdish fighters to be equipped with around 70 million euros of weapons from Bundeswehr stocks, according to the statement.
The German government announced in August that it would send more than 600 tons of military equipment and weapons to the Iraqi Kurds, but ruled out joining airstrikes or sending troops to the region to fight ISIL militants which have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more in Iraq and Syria in a bid to establish a cross-border "caliphate."
Germany will continue to provide weapons and military training to Kurdish peshmerga troops until the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is completely destroyed, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has said.
Leyen said that Germany had sent explosives and bomb disposal equipment for the first time to the Kurdish region on Thursday, in a joint press conference with President Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). Leyen said: "ISIL equips the places it seizes with bomb set-ups (explosive devices).
"This equipment will be used to defuse these explosives and speed up the process for people to return home."
Emphasizing that the KRG is now hosting more than one million refugees from Iraq and Syrian Kurdish regions, Leyen said the administration needed more humanitarian aid than it had already received.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Rival Paleostinian factions Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah said they reached an agreement for the return of their unity government in Gazoo ahead of crucial negotiations with Israel next month.
The Paleostinian rivals had set up a unity government of independents in June but it never took hold, with Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... accusing Hamas of running a "parallel" administration as de facto ruler in the Gazoo Strip.
Hamas in turn accused Abbas's Paleostinian Authority, headquartered in Ramallah, of not paying its 45,000 employees in Gazoo.
"Fatah and Hamas have reached a comprehensive agreement for the unity government to return to the Gazoo Strip," Jibril Rajoub of Fatah said.
Senior Hamas official Mussa Abu Marzuk and Fatah's head of delegation, Azzam Al-Ahmad, confirmed that an agreement had been reached after two days of talks in Cairo.
The talks were crucial for internal Paleostinian divisions to be set aside and to agree on a unified strategy during talks with Israeli negotiators in October.
The October talks, under Egyptian mediation, are aimed at reaching a durable ceasefire between Israel and the Paleostinians after the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[Jpost] Washington to give more than $70 million in humanitarian assistance to the Gazoo Strip.
The US State Department announced late Monday that it plans to provide over $71 million in humanitarian assistance to the Gazoo Strip, a large portion of which is earmarked for the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Thus neatly avoiding working through the Palestinian authority, undermining the current truce discussions hosted by Egypt, and ensuring that the majority of the money will flow directly into Hamas coffers.
UNRWA has been a subject of controversy in Israel over its perceived sympathy toward Hamas and its actions during Operation Protective Edge.
UNRWA admitted to finding Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rockets in their facilities on a number of occasions during the Gazoo operation. It said it handed them over to local authorities "answerable to the national unity government."
The State Department rebuked Israel after the army struck UNRWA facilities it claimed was used by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, as cover to launch rockets and mortars.
Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported Hamas used violence and threats against UN personnel in Gazoo during Operation Protective Edge.
During the operation, Hamas was hiding weapons in facilities run by UNRWA, and firing rockets from close proximity to its schools, it was discovered. UNRWA workers were subject to Hamas threats at gun-point during the operation.
In a number of incidents, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,snuffies threatened to kill UNRWA personnel if they revealed that the Islamist group was using the UN facilities for purposes of war, to ensure that they would not speak out about Hamas's activities.
Details have also emerged of the fate of medical supplies and food that were intended to be distributed by UNRWA to residents of Gazoo in need of humanitarian aid. On a number of occasions, armed Hamas operatives forcefully confiscated the supplies, taking them for their own use.
In a few cases, both during and after the Gazoo war, trucks carrying supplies to UNRWA facilities were intercepted and taken over by Hamas terrorists.
What's the over/under on this one? Somewhere between one day and six weeks, perhaps, depending on when Abbas admits that Hamas never intended to abide by any agreement made with the one they plan to overthrow.
[IsraelTimes] Rival Paleostinian factions Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah reached a "comprehensive" agreement Thursday for the return of their unity government in Gazoo after two days of talks in Cairo, negotiators from both sides said.
"Fatah and Hamas have reached a comprehensive agreement for the unity government to return to the Gazoo Strip," Jibril Rajoub of Fatah told AFP.
Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk and Fatah's head of delegation, Azam al-Ahmad, confirmed that an agreement had been reached.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene... a senior Paleostinian official said President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... 's government, which runs the West Bank, will press forward with a United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... bid to set a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of lands captured in the 1967 war, after efforts to enlist American support for the effort ran aground.
"Work with the Americans about the possibility of joint action in the Security Council has reached an impasse," said chief Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erekat ...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state... , adding that he expects the Paleostinian delegation in New York to propose a UN resolution on the issue within three weeks.
The purpose of the resolution is to set the groundwork for the formal establishment of a Paleostinian state.
The Paleostinian rivals had set up a unity government of independents in June but it never took hold, with PA President Abbas accusing Hamas of running a "parallel" administration as de facto ruler in the Gazoo Strip.
Hamas in turn accuses Abbas's Paleostinian Authority, headquartered in Ramallah, of not paying its 45,000 employees in Gazoo.
The two-day talks, which began on Wednesday, come after a joint Paleostinian delegation and Israel agreed to resume separate indirect talks in late October to thrash out a lasting truce after this summer's 50-day Gazoo war between Hamas and Israel.
Officials said the two Paleostinian factions also agreed that the Paleostinian Authority will manage Gazoo crossings to allow construction material and humanitarian aid to pass ahead of an international donor conference in October.
The talks between the two sides were crucial for internal Paleostinian divisions to be set aside and to agree on a unified strategy during talks with Israeli negotiators in October.
Under Egyptian mediation, Israel and the Paleostinians agreed on August 26 to a ceasefire that ended the July-August war which claimed the lives of over 2,000 Paleostinians -- half of them combatants, Israel says -- and 72 Israelis, including a four-year-old child.
The conflict ended with an agreement to hold future talks on Paleostinian demands to end an eight-year blockade of Gazoo -- imposed by Israel and Egypt mainly to prevent weapons smuggling --and exchange prisoners in Israeli jails for the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in Gazoo.
[ARABNEWS] Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal on Thursday called on the international community to take "practical steps to weaken the Syrian regime," while reaffirming the need for the political isolation of Bashir al-Assad.
Prince Saud also vowed to take deterrent measures to combat extremism and curb terror outfits, such as the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) and Al-Qaeda, while urging international action to end the conflict in Syria.
Speaking on behalf of the Kingdom at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, Prince Saud identified the conflicts in Syria and Iraq as an immediate and urgent priority.
"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... 's position was and is still in support of the moderate Syrian opposition and the fight against terrorist groups on Syrian territory, but our battle with terrorism must begin with the elimination of the injustice that produced it in the first place," he asserted.
Prince Saud's speech came at a time when US and Arab allies unleashed a round of Arclight airstrikes against IS murderous Moslems in eastern Syria, targeting a dozen small oil refineries on Wednesday and Thursday.
US officials have confirmed that the latest round of strikes was designed to hit so-called "modular oil refineries" -- essentially small, IS-built refineries that the terror group uses to fuel its vehicles and to fund its operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
OK. And who or what are you going to replace him with? Or shall we just have one of those Hobbsian free-for-alls where the most savage comes out on top? And how is Libya these days, by the way?
#2
Now SteveS, aside from the fact that you preempted my comment on Libya, do you really think that these bufoons could possibly think ahead like that?
#6
OTOH see DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US TOP MILITARY OFFICIAL [USJCS Chair Gen. Martin Dempsey, USA] ADMITS SOME ARAB ALLIES FUNDED ISIS.
As due to the failure of the Free Syra Army [FSA] + similar to get rid of Baby Assad.
Which is IRONIC since the FSA claims it was the failure of the Obama Admin to support them which led to their defeats.
LAVROV = RUSSIA is basically saying to the UN that the last thing Syria needs is another Obama/US-induced, IRAQ, LIBYA-STYLE POST-ASSAD FAILED GOVT HENCE THE US SHOULD JUST LEAVE ASSAD ALONE.
[IsraelTimes] Asiya Ummi Abdullah doesn't share the view that the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group rules over a terrorist dystopia and she isn't scared by the American bombs falling on Raqqa, its power center in Syria.
As far as she's concerned, it's the ideal place to raise a family.
In interviews with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, the 24-year-old Moslem convert explained her decision to move with her toddler to the territory controlled by the group, saying it offers them protection from the sex, drugs and alcohol that she sees as rampant in largely secular Turkey.
"The children of that country see all this and become either murderers or delinquents or homosexuals or thieves," Umi Abdullah wrote in one of several Facebook messages. Living under Shariah, the Islamic legal code, means that her 3-year-old boy's spiritual life is secure, she said.
"He will know God and live under His rules," she said.
Ummi Abdullah's experience illustrates the pull of the Islamic State group, the self-styled caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria. It also shows how, even in modern Turkey entire families are dropping everything to find salvation.
Ummi Abdullah, originally from Kyrgyzstan, reached the Islamic State group only last month, and her disappearance became front-page news in Turkey after her ex-husband, a 44-year-old car salesman named Sahin Aktan, went to the press.
Legions of others in Turkey have carted away family to the Islamic State group under less public scrutiny and in greater numbers. Earlier this month, more than 50 families slipped across the border to live under Islamic State, according to opposition politician Atilla Kart.
Kart's figure appears high, but his account is backed by a villager from Cumra, in central Turkey, who told AP that his son and his daughter-in-law are among the group. The villager spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he fears reprisals.
The movement of imported muscle to the Islamic State group has been covered extensively since the group tore across Iraq in June. The arrival of entire families, many but not all of them Turkish, has received less attention.
"It's about fundamentalism," said Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "It kind of becomes a false heaven."
Like many others, Ummi Abdullah's journey to radical Islam was born out of loneliness. Born Svetlana Hasanova, she converted to Islam after marrying Aktan six years ago. The pair met in Turkey when Hasanova, still a teenager, came to Istanbul with her mother to buy textiles.
Aktan said the relationship worked at first.
"Before we were married we were swimming in the sea, in the pool, and in the evening we would sit down and eat fish and drink wine," he said.
Aktan said his wife became increasingly devout after the birth of their son, covering her hair and praying frequently. In her messages to the AP, Ummi Abdullah accused her husband of treating her "like a slave."
"I was constantly belittled by him and his family," she said. "I was nobody in their eyes."
Ummi Abdullah found the companionship she yearned for online, chatting with jihadists and filling her Facebook page with religious exhortations. In June, she and Aktan divorced. The next month, she took their child to a Turkish town near the Syrian border, before leaving for the Islamic State group.
Aktan says he hasn't seen his son since.
The Islamic State group appears eager to advertise itself as a family-friendly place. One promotional video shows a montage of Moslem fighters from around the world holding their children in Raqqa against the backdrop of an amusement park.
A man, identified in the footage as an American named Abu Abdurahman al-Trinidadi, holds an infant who has a toy machine gun strapped to his back.
"Look at all the little children," al-Trinidadi says. "They're having fun.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
As far as she's concerned, it's the ideal place to raise a family.
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.
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Wazoo
