Almost every Westerner I once knew here has left the country for good, their missions suspended or shut down, and several of my longtime Afghan acquaintances and colleagues have fled abroad and sought asylum.
The few old friends who remain stationed here, mostly professionals from international agencies, are either away for the holidays or shuttered inside guarded compounds, ordered by security consultants to avoid public places and unable to visit the projects they sponsor.
In the past two months, the militants have bombed or stormed foreign symbols and sanctuaries around the city — aid agencies, guest houses, even a performance at a French cultural center, while warning that they will treat Western civic activities exactly like military enemies.
In the past several weeks, I have not seen a single Western face on the streets. For the first time since ATMs were installed here several years ago, there is no one in line to use them, and they are not constantly running out of dollars.
The only nativity scene I have encountered was in a refugee settlement on the outskirts of the city, where I ventured on Christmas to interview people.... I tried to explain to the camp leaders what this sight meant to me, but they were politely baffled. I am baffled that she even attempted to explain anything about Christianity in such a place and at such a time.
As the clock runs out on 2014, the new American-brokered government has failed to produce a cabinet, the last NATO combat forces officially depart at midnight Thursday, and the insurgents are howling at the gates of the city.
Since leaving Somalia in the 1990s, Musa Haji Mohamed Ganjab has been a landlord and entrepreneur and served as a representative of the Somali government, which the U.S. is backing to fight the jihadist group al-Shabaab. He also has ordered that arms intended for Somalia’s government be delivered instead to an al-Shabaab commander, a confidential United Nations report alleges.
This is just one of the discussions, the report says, that Mr. Ganjab has had about illegally arming groups in Somalia, including the government.
The report shows the complexity of the struggle against extremism in Somalia, a country that is a U.S. national-security concern because of its local al Qaeda-linked group. Al-Shabaab recently launched two attacks just across the border in Kenya in which it slaughtered all non-Muslims, including killing 36 at a quarry-worker camp early this month and more than two dozen in an attack on a bus in November. On Christmas Day, it attacked an African Union base in Mogadishu, killing three soldiers.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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Mr. Barlow told Mr. Ganjab that would require U.N. certification the shipments were legal, said a person familiar with the meeting. This person also said a South African government official brokered the meeting and attended. Spokesmen for South Africa’s government didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Yes, yes of course, SA gov't approved and everything. Can't we have a UN look just to be the safe side? Not to be harde-gat [a hard arse] but second set eyes as it were, might be helpful and give me a bit more insurance in the unlikely event things go badly and yours truly is stuck holding the pot....again. Things can go badly in Africa you know.
MOGADISHU -- Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency has denied that Kenyan government seized wanted Al Shabaab official Zakariye Ismael Hirsi on Tuesday, Garowe Online reports. In a press statement seen by GO, Somali intelligence confirmed that Hirsi remains in the hands of Somali authorities, saying it is a rumour that Kenyan forces snatched Somali terror chief.
Meanwhile, it unveiled, following a joint information sharing between Somalia government and the United States, airstrikes near Saakow left Al Shabaab Intelligence Boss Abdinasir Hassan Barakow Tahliil and two others dead.
Hirsi, a man with USD 3 million bounty on his head surrendered to Somali government forces in Gedo last week.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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Hopes are fading for the release of Australian journalist Peter Greste, who has been in jail in Egypt for a year, after Cairo sent mixed signals about his case, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Monday.
Greste, Egyptian-Canadian acting bureau chief Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed were arrested a year ago Monday in a case that has sent shock waves through the media in Egypt. The Al-Jazeera reporter is serving seven to 10 years for crimes that include spreading lies to help a "terrorist organization" -- an allusion to the Muslim Brotherhood group which is banned in Egypt.
Bishop last week raised the possibility Greste could be freed before an appeal hearing set for Jan. 1.
"We had indications that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi would exercise his authority regarding a pardon or a clemency plea in advance of the appeal," Bishop told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
"Yet, in the meantime, the Egyptian foreign minister has said to me that we have to await the appeal, so there are different messages coming from the Egyptian government," Bishop said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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The Egyptian Jailers have not finished the "Egyptian Prison" treatment such establishments are so well know for.
I have it on good sources the prison in question is not too far from the traditional site of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/31/2014 6:59 Comments ||
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I dunno about Gomorrah, but the traditional site of Sodom is known very accurately.
[Ynet] Egypt said Tuesday work will begin next week to double the width of a buffer zone being built along the border with the Gazoo Strip to prevent gunnies infiltrating from the Paleostinian enclave.
A 500-metre (546-yard) wide buffer zone is now being built along some 10 kilometres (six miles) of the border, with some 800 homes being demolished in the process.
Work will begin next week to expand it by another 500 metres, North Sinai provincial Governor Abdel Fattah Harhur said.
At least as many complaining families will be moved out, and their property destroyed. An unfortunate side effect of profitting from a decade or more of Gazan smuggling.
We've said this at the Burg before, but an effective buffer would be a canal, very deep and very wide, running along the border between Egypt and Gazoo. Fill it with alligators if you must...
DHAKA: Bangladesh's war crimes court Tuesday sentenced a leading Islamist to death for rape, mass murder and genocide during the country's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
A.T.M. Azharul Islam became the 16th person and the 11th Islamist to be convicted of atrocities by the International Crimes Tribunal, which found him guilty of being a key member of a notorious pro-Pakistan militia. The 62-year-old is the assistant secretary general of the nation's largest Islamist party, the Jamaat-e Islami.
"I am innocent!" he shouted as the presiding judge Enayetur Rahim ordered him to be "hanged by the neck" for the genocide of more than 1,200 people in a flood plain in the northern district of Rangpur.
"No doubt, it was mass murder," Judge Rahim told a packed court, which was blanketed by tight security.
Those killed included hundreds of Hindus — a minority in mainly Muslim Pakistan — in one of the worst episodes of the nine-month war. The conflict ended with the former East Pakistan seceding from the regime in Islamabad, with the help of Indian troops, and becoming Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina created the controversial tribunal, a domestic court with no international or United Nations oversight, in 2010. It has mostly focused on the trials of the Jamaat leaders who opposed the break-up of Pakistan and saw the liberation war by Bengalis as a conspiracy by majority-Hindu India.
Defense lawyer Tajul Islam rejected the charges against Islam and said his team planned to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
"Azharul Islam was a 19-year-old student during the war and in no way was involved in war crime. The charges against him are false and fabricated," the lawyer said.
Jamaat condemned the verdict, saying Islam did not get justice.
"Islam is a victim of the government's continued conspiracy to murder the Jamaat leadership," acting party chief Maqbul Ahmed said in a statement, accusing the government of "arranging false witness statements by its party people."
Jamaat also called a nationwide strike for Wednesday and Thursday.
Previous death sentences handed down against Jamaat leaders, including its supreme and spiritual leaders, plunged Bangladesh into its deadliest unrest last year. Thousands of Islamists clashed with police in nationwide protests over the verdicts and other issues and some 500 people were killed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Russia: US sanctions may hurt talks on Iran, Syria
Russia on Tuesday angrily criticized the latest US sanctions, saying they could derail cooperation with Washington on dealing with the Iranian nuclear standoff and the Syrian crisis.
Russia-US ties have plunged to post-Cold War lows over Ukraine as Washington has introduced economic sanctions against Moscow for its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. In the latest move, the US has imposed sanctions on four Russians under a law targeting Russian human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. violators.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday dismissed the new US sanctions as unfounded and warned Washington that its actions “are putting in question the prospects for bilateral cooperation in settling the situation around the Iranian nuclear program, the Syrian crisis and other acute international problems.”
“We haven’t left, and will not leave, such unfriendly gestures without response, as Washington might have seen,” the ministry said.
Russia has cooperated with the United States and other global powers on efforts to negotiate a settlement on the standoff over the Iranian nuclear program. Washington has said that Moscow has played a constructive role in the Iranian nuclear talks, despite US-Russian differences on Ukraine and other issues.
Russia has staunchly supported Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... ’s regime during the nation’s civil war, but Moscow has recently tried to broker talks between the Syrian government and the opposition. The negotiations have been tentatively scheduled for the end of January.
Meanwhile the US Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed economic penalties on six people and three companies accused of helping Iran’s government obtain hundreds of millions in US currency or evade existing sanctions.
David Cohen, Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said the action showed that the B.O. regime is serious about enforcing sanctions already on the books even though it does not support additional sanctions while the US and its partners work to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program.
Obama has threatened to veto any new sanctions legislation while American diplomats continue their push for an accord that would set multiyear limits on Iran’s nuclear progress in exchange for an easing of the international sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. Senate hawks are still trying to build a veto-proof majority of 67 votes with Republicans set to assume the majority next month.
Those accused of helping Iran convert various currencies into hundreds of millions of US dollars include Iranians, citizens of Afghanistan and St. Kitts and Nevis and a Dubai-based trading company. Iran’s Douran Software Technologies is targeted for helping government censorship activities. Another tech firm, Abyssec, is blamed for supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard corps in cyber tradecraft.
Americans can’t do business with those blacklisted. Any assets they have in the US are now frozen.
#1
Russia on Tuesday angrily criticized the latest US sanctions, saying they could derail cooperation with Washington on dealing with the Iranian nuclear standoff and the Syrian crisis.
"Cooperation with Washington" should be progressing quite satisfactorily. After all, Champ is well beyond his last election and by his own admission, he has "more flexibility."
#2
Of all the reasons for busting Putin's balls over Ukraine, his lack of support for us in dealing with Iran is the only one I can think of that has any merit. But then, even with Iran, support for Obama is a dodgy business.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/31/2014 16:29 Comments ||
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North Korea last Thursday launched a taskforce within the State Security Department to prevent Sony Pictures' film about a plot to assassinate leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un from being smuggled into the North, according to a source.
The regime seems to have now turned its attention to blocking pirated DVDs of the caper "The Interview" from being smuggled into the North after it failed to prevent its release despite a hacking attack and threats against Sony Pictures.
A three-star general in the State Security Department assisted by about a dozen officials has launched a taskforce at the provincial security office in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, the source said last Friday. He told senior security officials, police officers, border guards, and a squadron in charge of cracking down on foreign media content to block the smuggling of the film.
"The regime has started cracking down on the black market, while keeping close watch on smugglers in the border area," the source added. "Officials are visiting homes and checking computers and DVD players."
Meanwhile, the off-the-rack caper starring Seth Rogen has become an unlikely Internet sensation. The film has been illegally downloaded 750,000 times on BitTorrent around the world, press reports said. This figure shows that the illegal downloads soared in the first 20 hours of Sony's release of the film on some websites on Wednesday and figure will likely grow.
Pirated DVDs are already circulating in China, from where they stand the best chance of being smuggled into the North.
On Chinese microblogging site Weibo, the film can also be streamed with Chinese subtitles. It has had more than 500,000 views on file-sharing websites, suggesting millions of Chinese have watched the film.
Judging by online comments some enjoyed it, many were bored, and a few suspected a marketing stunt by Sony for a movie that would otherwise have sunk like a stone.
Sony will get far more back from this than they would have if they had released it as planned. And it gives us a chance to mock the Fat Boy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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"The regime has started cracking down on the black market, while keeping close watch on smugglers in the border area," the source added. "Officials are visiting homes and checking computers and DVD players."
One word: Betamax.
Bwahahahahaha!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2014 9:24 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday to review progress on the implementation of the National Action Plan for countering terrorism in the country.
Take that, Iftikhar...
During the meeting, PM Nawaz said those involved in the killing of security personnel and innocent people would be sentenced by the special trial courts. He added that the special courts were part of the anti-terrorism national action plan, and measures were required to tackle extraordinary problems.
Nawaz stressed the need for improving coordination between the federal and provincial governments and law enforcing agencies to deal with the problem of terrorist financing. He said the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) should be pro-active in countering terrorism and clearly state the help it requires in undertaking its official obligations.
ISLAMABAD: There is “no constitutional room” for military courts in the presence of an independent judiciary, said former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (r) Iftikhar Chaudhary, on Tuesday while talking to media in the federal capital.
He termed the military courts “unconstitutional” and said the implementation of court orders were the sole responsibility of the former or present governments.
“The basic structure of the constitution cannot be changed,” he said, adding that the basic constitutional framework guarantees the independence of judiciary.
He said the existing judicial system should be strengthen and refused to comment on the treason trial while adding that he will be moving to the court against Imran Khan for leveling allegations on him.
Iftikhar said, “Military courts are illegal and unconstitutional. The basic structure of the constitution guarantees an independent judiciary, and military courts cannot be established in the presence of an independent judiciary."
He said that no amendment or law could be made which challenged the fundamental basis of the constitution. He said that judiciary was not responsible for any delay in terrorism related cases; however, he added that existing judicial system should be strengthened.
He said that he would move the court against the allegations levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan against him, but he refused to comment on the accusations levelled by PML-Q’s Pervaiz Elahi. On issue of high treason case against Pervez Musharraf, the former chief justice said that he would not comment on the issue as the matter was sub judice.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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A United Nations Security Council draft resolution that set a deadline to establish a sovereign Palestinian state was defeated Tuesday night after it failed to receive the nine votes that are needed for adoption in the 15-member body, The New York Times reported.
The United States and Australia voted against the measure. France, China and Russia were among the eight countries that voted for it. Britain and four other nations abstained.
The draft resolution, which was introduced by Jordan on behalf of the Palestinians, sets a one-year deadline for negotiations with Israel, sets down targets for Palestinian sovereignty, including a capital in East Jerusalem, and “full and phased withdrawal of Israeli forces” from the West Bank by the end of 2017.
The defeat could potentially lead Palestinian officials to seek recognition in other ways — including by joining the International Criminal Court.
Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said that the resolution was “deeply imbalanced” and set deadlines that did not adequately take account of Israel’s security needs.
“Today’s staged confrontation in the Security Council will not bring the parties closer to achieving a two-state solution,” she said.
Secretary of State John Kerry had sought to defer a vote on the resolution, which America and some of its European allies feared would inflame tensions before the Israeli elections that are scheduled for March and strengthen the position of Israeli hard-liners. Jeff Rathke, a State Department spokesman, said that Mr. Kerry had called 13 ranking diplomats over the past two days to express his concerns about the measure.
While Mr. Kerry failed to get the vote deferred, he managed to line up enough abstentions so that the United States did not need to wield a veto to block the measure.
Wuss. Veto and own it.
Jordan, which represents Arab countries on the Council, had earlier pushed for compromise language that would win the full support of the Council, but Arab diplomats ultimately backed the Palestinian bid to put it for a vote by the end of the year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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As per GROONG, the US also intends to reject any application by UKRAINE for formal NATO Membership at this time.
The Spanish newspaper ABC reported Tuesday, that the number of teenage girls from the West, who fled to Syria and Iraq, has highly increased during the past two years, pointing out that 20% of the terrorists, who traveled to join ISIS, were young women.
So "Maria", "Isabella", and "Catalina" travelled to Syria and Iraq?
The newspaper also added that the phenomenon of Western girls seeking to join such organizations is not so strange, but what raises concerns is the number of teenagers, which has increased due to the influence of such groups on the social network channels all over the internet.
How many of these young women find life in the ISIS to be exactly what they imagined it would be?
Who cares? Jihadis are getting laid at long last. They certainly don't!
Well let's do the math. 20% of the recruits are wimmins. Since ol' Mo said that a 1:4 ratio of men to cattle wimmins was about right, that means (carry the 3, square root of Pi, minus two toes) about 5% of the men are getting laid. That means the other 75% are getting nothing, which is likely what they were getting back in Espana. Which means the only new thing in life for them is the chance of getting killed. For nothing. Figures...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 00:00 ||
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Methinks that if Juan, Jose, and Nestor would put down their IPads and do some homework with their ladies, the ladies wouldn't be tempted to scoot off to Syria to be rogered by a bunch of randy Islamic psychonutjobs.
Obviously the bad boy image of the typical ISIS fighter has some allure to the ladies in the EU sitting around twirling their hair trying to get a man to do what a man is supposed to do.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/31/2014 6:55 Comments ||
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Perhaps I am using the term "man" rather loosely to describe the IPad addicted self absorbed asexual males of the EU???
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/31/2014 6:56 Comments ||
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IPad addicted self absorbed asexual males of the EU??? Posted by Bill Clinton
That phrase [less EU] is official stolen and saved for future use elsewhere. Well done Bill :-)
#5
#2 Perhaps I am using the term "man" rather loosely to describe the IPad addicted self absorbed asexual males of the EU???
IMO it's a worldwide phenomena. Most likely these women who join up are also IPad self-absorbed women/girls whose fate with ISIS will not be glamorous or exciting--Their role being relegated to that of being hookers or camp-followers.
#6
You can always count on 'Bill Clinton' to understand women :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2014 10:41 Comments ||
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The term EUnuch would seem to apply here
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/31/2014 12:26 Comments ||
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Rex,
Nicely played, can I borrow that?
Yep, I really understand women, because I've had so much practice at pissing them off that by the process of elimination I have reduced the number of rage provoking behaviors on my part...of course having wife number three being a psychotherapist doesn't hurt...
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/31/2014 20:28 Comments ||
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[Ynet] After Israel?s 2006 war with Hezbollah, the IDF vowed to bring its reservists up to shape, but new data shows Israel?s reserve forces are still short on training and gear.
Long article at the link, with lots of detail for those who are interested in such things. I suspect, however, that this is a problem for reserve forces everywhere.
#1
I'm well into a first read of Michael G. Waltz's 'Warrior Diplomat, A Greeb Beret's Battles from Washington to Afghanistan.' A great read, but Waltz takes a bit of privilege in his description of the Gulf War mobilization of the 20th SFG(A) and it's go-to-war readiness. The 20th is a National Guard unit which Waltz was assigned to at the time. The facts will show that a great many of the 20th mobilized were not ready for various reasons and were sent home from Fort Bragg as undeployable.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong... but I believe the UK reservists 'Territorials' still employ an active augmentation [filler] scheme. Less attention paid to stodgy officer hierarchy and promotion, more attention paid the soldier and actual requirement.
Soldiering be hard. Soldiering part-time be harder still.
#3
Big Deal. Gulf War I experience. Mother nature doesn't care what war planners want. The active duty who train and exercise daily are weeks ahead of those who only can get occasionally exercise and hard training*. There's no magic pill with 48 hour results. You can only go as fast as the slowest man in the unit or you leave them behind.
* whose immediate focus is to feed, cloth, and house his family. Ask the retention officer, mama.
[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian census published Monday claims that Paleostinians living in Israel, the West Bank and Gazoo will outnumber Jews in the same area by 2016.
The census, taken by Paleostinian Central Bureau of Statistics, cited the number of Paleostinians in the area at 6.08 million, compared to 6.10 million Jews.
Except that from the Israeli perspective, only the number of Arabs in Israel matters, not the number in the Palestinian territories. And they do their own count there, no doubt not riddled with the problems of over counting births, double counting Jerusalem residents, and undercounting deaths and emigration that has so troubled Palestinian census numbers in the past. Remember when it was discovered they had a cool million fewer people than claimed?
The census, carried by the Paleostinian Ma?an News Agency, predicted that by the end of 2016 both groups will number 6.42 million people. By 2020, according to PCBS, Paleostinians will number 7.14 million with Jews only making up 6.87 million of the population.
See comment above.
The numbers highlighted what Israeli Jews call the ?demographic threat? posed by continuing to hold on to the West Bank, with the possibility of the country having to choose between being democratic or Jewish. However,
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France tops aliyah chart for first time with 7,000 newcomers; Ukrainian numbers triple as civil war rages
Jewish immigration to Israel hit a ten-year high in 2014, with over 26,500 people making aliyah over the course of the year, the Jewish Agency said Wednesday.
According to statistics released by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption Ministry, Israel saw a 32% rise in immigration compared to 2013, and the highest immigration rate since 2002, when 33,539 made aliyah.
According to Central Bureau of Statistics data, emigration rates are also declining. The figures released in recent months suggest that Israelis are much less inclined to permanently leave the country than they were 10 or 20 years ago, with 2012, the last year for which figures on long-term emigration are available, showing the lowest emigration rates since the founding of the state in 1948.
With regard to emigration, I suspect the Palestinians cannot say the same.
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.
Almost every Westerner I once knew here has left the country for good, their missions suspended or shut down, and several of my longtime Afghan acquaintances and colleagues have fled abroad and sought asylum.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
