[Iran Press TV] Hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen from more than 100 banks in 30 countries by a complicated cyber attack in 2013, a new report revealed.
A group of European, Russian, and Chinese hackers carried out the attack in late 2013, stealing some USD 300 million in one of the world's largest bank robberies, The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported on Saturday.
The hackers used malicious software that gave them long-term access to banking systems, the report added.
According to the report, Russian cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab was called to investigate the event after an ATM machine in Ukraine's capital city of Kiev started dispensing cash at apparently random times of day without anyone putting in a card or touching a button.
To avoid detection, the hackers transferred the money in small-value amounts to bank accounts in various countries.
Most of the stolen money was taken from banks in Russia, but banks in Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... and the United States also came under attack.
The sophisticated operation was designed in such a way that the hackers could pick up money from ATM machines that had been forced to dispense cash at specific times and locations.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2015 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] President of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Afghanistan, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. has strongly condemned yesterday's deadly terrorist attack on a mosque in 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. that left 21 worshipers dead and more than 50 others injured.
President Ghani in a statement issued by the Presidential Palace here on Saturday called the attack a "brutal act".
"Killing of defenseless individuals, particularly those offering prayers, is solely un-Islamic and inhuman act that is never justifiable." president Ghani is quoted as saying in the statement.
President Ghani has offered condolences and sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims.
President Ghani emphasizes that terrorism is a common threat for the region and the word and that firm struggle is required in fight with them.
The attack took place in Hayatabad area of Peshawar where about 800 worshipers had gathered to offer Friday prayers in Imamia Masjid Imamabargah, leaving 21 worshipers dead and more than 50 others injured.
Terrorists entered to the mosque in Police suits with the initial reports indicating that three of the suicide kaboomers carried out kabooms inside the mosque while fourth one was killed in the exchange of fire with the security forces.
Jundullah, a splinter group of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) grabbed credit for the attack saying that it was a Dire Revenge for Doctor Usman's execution.
Doctor Usman was hanged based on terrorism charges in December.
Judullullah also threatened more attacks.
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02/15/2015 00:00 ||
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KISMAYO, Somalia -- Jubaland administration in southern Somalia said, allied forced will commence military offensives against Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants in March, Garowe Online reports. On Saturday, the second Vice President of Jubaland Abdulkadir Haji Mohamud (Lugadere) unveiled that Jubaland forces along with African Union peacekeepers will liberate Al Shabaab-held areas, a day after a visit by AMISOM head and AU envoy to Somalia, Ambassador Maman S. Sidikou to the southern port city of Kismayo.
“AMISOM and Jubaland forces will jointly push ahead with the operation. We discussed the plan for liberation with AMISOM officials,”Mohamud told reporters during a press briefing in Kismayo.
The remarks by Jubaland Vice President have come after AMISOM delegation visited Kismayo on Friday, and held talks with Jubaland officials on the ongoing stabilization operations.
Strategic Kismayo town fell to Kenyan-AMISOM troops alongside local forces in September 2012.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2015 00:00 ||
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BAIDOA, Somalia -- A cleric aligned with the paramilitary group of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamea was gunned down in Bay regional capital of Baidoa on Friday evening, making the third to be killed within a month, Garowe Online reports.
Late Sheikh Adan War-Isho was shot and killed by two masked gun men who immediately escaped from the scene of the crime on his way home from a nearby mosque according to witnesses. Southwest state administration officials said, they captured three suspects in subsequent search operation.
On January 18, chairman of Bay’s Ahlu Sunnah umbrella Sharif Siidkey was targeted in similar assassination shortly after evening prayers. On February 3, unidentified assailants gunned down Sheikh Hassan Hussein of Ahlu Sunnah inside a mosque.
Beleaguered Al Shabaab was not quick to claim credit for the killing of late Sheikh Adan War-Insho.
"Wudn't us."
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[Jerusalem Post] The visit of Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled to South Africa has riled that countryâs Jewish community which has announced that it will hold a protest against the former airplane hijacker in Cape Town on Friday.
Khaled, now 70, is a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and took part in two airplane hijackings between 1969 and 1970, is now in a speaking tour. Arrested after the second incident, she was later freed in exchange for hostages held by the PFLP.
In an email to supporters announcing her tour, the South African BDS movement termed Khaled an icon of the Palestinian struggle, showing an image of her clutching an automatic weapon and comparing her to late South African president Nelson Mandela. Credit where credit is due. Mandela and Khaled, an entirely accurate comparison.
[AnNahar] The United Arab Emirates and Spain said Saturday they had suspended operations at their embassies in Yemen following a Shiite militia takeover that has prompted an exodus of foreign diplomats.
The UAE foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official WAM news agency that it "has suspended embassy operations in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and evacuated all staff.
"This decision comes in light of the increasingly deteriorating political and security situation" and the "unfortunate events with the Huthis undermining legitimate authority in the country," it said.
The move came a day after Sunni-dominated regional powerhouse 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... announced it had also evacuated all its staff from the embassy in Sanaa.
The United States, La Belle France, Germany, Italia, Britannia and the Netherlands have also closed their embassies in Yemen and pulled out staff because of security fears.
Spain said it was suspending embassy activity in Yemen "in light of the current situation of insecurity and instability in Sanaa".
"Spain trusts that the causes of this decision will be resolved shortly and that the embassy can soon resume its duties normally," the foreign ministry said. "The government reiterates its support for a process of democratic transition in Yemen that leads to the forming of an inclusive government that can meet the desires for freedom, democracy and prosperity of the Yemeni people."
It said that the embassy had contacted all members of the "small Spanish community in Yemen" and advised them to "temporarily" leave the Arabian Peninsula country.
Sanaa -- Yemen’s Gulf neighbours urged the United Nations Saturday to act forcefully over the deteriorating security situation there, including possible military intervention, as more governments closed their embassies in Sanaa.
Foreign ministers of the six GCC member countries called on the “UN Security Council to take a decision under Chapter Seven of the United Nations Charter”, which allows the use of military force if there are breaches of the peace or acts of aggression.
They also called for an urgent meeting of the Arab League and of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Oh that'll be a big help. How about asking for EU forces while you're at it...
In a statement at the end of their meeting, they called for immediate international steps to guarantee the safety of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, now under effective house arrest, and of his prime minister.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that Yemen is falling apart and called for Western-backed Hadi to be restored to power.
Here's the deal: the GCC and Saoodi-controlled Arabia have militaries. You have modern western weapons. You have plenty of young men. You want Yemen fixed? Go fix it. We'll vote a UN resolution to give you political cover, but you supply the military and the resources to take care of the problem. There's a precedent for this; Egypt went to Yemen a half-century ago to settle their hash. It even worked for a while.
So go ahead and handle this "regional security" problem yourselves. Let us know how it turns out.
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Some 700 British artists pledged to boycott Israel on Saturday in reaction to what they termed the Palestinian catastrophe, the British newspaper Guardian reported on Saturday.
The artists, who include Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Richard Ashcroft, and others, pledged that they will not engage in business-as-usual cultural relations with Israel. I'm crushed
#1
The so-called Oxford Oath was derived from a resolution carried by students of the Oxford Union, by 275 votes to 153, on 9 February 1933 that "this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country". The resolution resulting from the King and Country debate was more commonly known as the Oxford Pledge.
Following the headline above, the majority of Americas might consider boycotting the Hundreds of British artists who include Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Richard Ashcroft, and others, that pledged they will not engage in business-as-usual cultural relations with Israel.
Artists = Business men and women who "create" non essential esthetic items, which have a limited market.
If their market dries up, good luck living on air.
North Korea's total grain production last year reached its highest level since the country's economy began its collapse in the mid-1990s. According to the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the North produced nearly 5 million tons of rice, corn and beans in 2014, an increase of 130,000 tons from a year earlier.
That doesn't mean that the average Kim in North Korea has anything more to eat...
While data from the UN bodies show that the regime's food production has gradually increased since leader Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011, North Korea is still not self-sufficient, lacking the bare minimum of grain needed to feed its people.
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It was all shoveled onto Pudgys plate. Pudgy made all gone.
Posted by: Steven ||
02/15/2015 2:17 Comments ||
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And I should believe these statistics more than I believe our gov'ts fiction why?
North Korea has unveiled a new ship-to-ship missile and a new stealth high-speed boat to carry them. The official North Korean media on Saturday carried photos of the new boat firing the missile as corpulent leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un looked on.
"Scientists, engineers and workers in the munitions industry have succeeded in developing a new anti-ship rocket at a cutting-edge level," the Rodong Sinmun daily said.
A military source here said the missile was fired on Friday afternoon from near Wonsan on the east coast and flew some 100 km. It is believed to be a KN-01-class missile copied from Russia's Kh-35 Uran missile.
Russia sold the Kh-35 to Burma, India and Vietnam in the mid-1990s. It is 3.85 m long, weighs 480 kg with a payload of 145 kg, and has a 42 cm diameter and a maximum range of some 130 km. It can be fired from an aircraft or the ground as well as from a ship. The North is believed to have already test-fired it from an aircraft several times last year.
North Korea experts here speculate that the North reassembled the missiles after secretly buying them from Russia or a third country.
The missile is hard to detect with radars or intercept as it can fly at a speed of 300 m/s at a low altitude of about 15 m and launch a surprise strike on a target at an even lower altitude of 3 to 5 m when it comes near.
It threatens South Korean Navy's ships guarding the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border.
"The South Korean Navy has so far focused on how to respond to the threat from North Korean submarines because the North has many old ships that are susceptible to detection by radar," the military source said. "But recently unveiled North Korean vessels such as stealth high-speed boats and wave-piercing boats carrying torpedoes are posing a new threat."
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In which the Darwinian culling proceeds apace, as the foolish and the vicious volunteer.
[Ynet] For parents in Antwerp, ruling in trial for those accused of fostering Islamist violence in Syria will never explain why their two teenagers, with no Moslem heritage, abandoned comfortable homes to take up arms in Middle East.
As Belgium braces for a verdict in Europe's biggest trial for those accused of fostering Islamist violence in Syria, much attention is on poor Moslem immigrant communities struggling in a region blighted by youth unemployment.
For parents in Antwerp, a city on high alert since the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... massacre in Gay Paree and police raids on Belgian jihadists, Wednesday's ruling will never explain why their two sporty teenagers, with no Moslem heritage, abandoned comfortable homes to take up arms in the Middle East.
And whatever sentences may be given to their sons, Brian De Mulder's mother and 's father both say the damage done by those who recruited them - harm that includes lost jobs and disrupted homes for parents and siblings - cannot be undone.
"For me there is no difference to a sect," Dimitri Bontinck, 41, told Rooters. Local group Sharia4Belgium enticed his then 18-year-old son, Jejoen, to travel to fight in Syria, he said, leaving him and Jejoen's Nigerian-born mother distraught.
"The way they are groomed, the way they are initiated, the way they take on new names, the way they have their rituals", it all attracted youngsters going through moments of adolescent angst, Bontinck said - in Jejoen's case, a failed teen romance.
With Belgium outstripping its European neighbors in providing imported muscle for the likes 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.... and al Qaeda - some 350 from a country of just 11 million - Bontinck made national headlines by risking his own life to travel, three times, to the war zone, eventually managing to bring his son home.
Now 20, Jejoen Bontinck has been a key witness in the trial on terrorism charges of leaders of Sharia4Belgium. But he also faces up to four years in prison himself as one of just nine of the 46 defendants present. The other accused, like 21-year-old Brian De Mulder, are still in Syria. Or may already be dead.
De Mulder's Brazilian mother Ozana Rodrigues says she still weeps every day for her son, once a promising youth soccer player. She believes it was being dropped by his professional club, at age 17, that led Brian to religious extremism, and violence.
Disdain for infidels
Like Jejoen Bontinck, Brian De Mulder was converted to Islam and quickly became very devout, dressing in robes, insisting on halal meat and criticising his mother and sisters for dressing immodestly.
One day he announced he wanted to volunteer for charity work in Syria: "I argued with him saying that there were plenty of opportunities here," Rodrigues said. "He told me he didn't want to because all the people here were infidels."
She moved the family from Antwerp to the countryside. But Brian kept in touch with his radical friends. One morning, Rodrigues said, "I went to his room and noticed he had gone. They had taken my son."
Two years have since passed. Brian has sent word he is in Syria but they have little contact.
"An event can happen in the life of person that acts as a catalyst," said Ghent University's Bilal Benyaich, a political scientist who has studied the radicalization of young Belgians. "They find themselves outside of the system and believe it's society's fault they have suffered."
"They find solace in radical Islam. There's black and white and good and bad ... You feel liberated from this uncertainty and you suddenly have a goal."
But disruption and stigma hurt others. Dimitri Bontinck and Ozana Rodrigues both lost jobs. Brian's mother and 13-year-old sister are also homeless, relying on friends and family to house them.
The defendants have little sympathy from a public shocked by raids on jihadist cells last month that police said showed some Belgians were returning from Syria to attack their homeland. Two died in a shootout a week after Islamists killed 17 people in Gay Paree, at Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish grocery. Last summer, a gunman killed four people at Brussels' Jewish Museum.
European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... leaders will agree to tighter counter-terrorism cooperation at a summit in the Belgian capital on Thursday. One priority is combating the radicalization of young EU citizens.
Dimitri Bontinck hopes the court will let his son seek a new life far from Belgium. Prosecutors want him to serve four years.
They have also demanded 15 years for Sharia4Belgium front man Fouad Belkacem, 32. He denies recruiting imported muscle for Syria.
Rodrigues hopes the judges will punish those she blames for taking her son but sees no consolation: "If my son had died in a car crash or got hit by a bullet, I could bury him," she sobbed. "I could say goodbye. But my son is in Syria. What can I do?"
#2
What upsets these parents the most is the thought their government checks might shrink because junior's not at home. Let junior rack up some murders, though, and they'll be busting with pride. Let junior die on the battlefield and their biggest concern is whether they're on his "let into paradise" list.
They raised fanatics. That doesn't happen overnight.
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02/15/2015 14:05 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Shoah survivor asks Americans to listen to Israeli PM as planned Congress appearance splits US Jews along ideological lines.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel is lending his support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech to Congress on the dangers of Iran's nuclear program ‐ an address that has antagonized the White House and divided American Jews.
An outspoken New Jersey Orthodox rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, said on Thursday he is placing full-page advertisements in two of the leading US newspapers, The New York Times
Continued on Page 49
A very odd tale, full of expenses and incompetence.
[IsraelTimes] Former al-Qaeda operative claims he was solicited to ram into Egyptian president's aircraft with private jet
In the terrorism trial of a man accused of being one of al-Qaeda's early leaders, an American described being asked in 1995 by the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be alive but now he's not... to kill Egypt's president by ramming his plane with his own in midair.
Continued on Page 49
[FOXNEWS] U.S. troops who risked their lives battling insurgents in Afghanistan for years faced another unseen enemy at bases across the country: toxic fumes from open-air “burn pits” that were used long after orders to phase them out. Just as a whiff of nuoc mam or fermented (i.e., rotted) duck eggs can take me back almost fifty years in an instant, so can a 55-gallon drum full of poop mixed with diesel fuel burning ever so merrily in the fresh morning air. Don't believe me? Ask someone who was there. To almost quote General Sherman: "War is smell."
A scathing new watchdog report details the extent of the “indefensible” practice. There's lotsa things you have to get rid of, to include poop. Them crappoires gotta be emptied now and then. If there's no recycle center close by -- the Karzai brothers coulda made millions if they'd thought of it! -- y'gotta do it yourself.
The report says the U.S. military even spent millions on incinerators as a trash-burning alternative, yet several of them did not work or were never turned on, wasting $20 million and leaving troops to breathe pollution from the burn pits instead. An incinerator that didn't work, versus a burn pit that did. I see their problem: You're supposed to put the burn pit in the incinerator. You still have to set fire to it, regardless of what the EPA says.
“Given the fact that [the Department of Defense] has been aware for many years of the significant health risks associated with open-air burn pits, it is indefensible that U.S. military personnel, who are already at risk of serious injury and death when fighting the enemy, were put at further risk from the potentially harmful emissions from the use of open-air burn pits,” John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), said in his findings. Basic load for a U.S. infantry company doesn't include an incinerator. They'd have to bring back the mules to carry it. It does include a few packs of matches and somebody might even be carrying a Zippo.
The report coincides with a separate class-action lawsuit -- by hundreds of veterans who say they were sickened by exposure to burn pits over the course of the 13-year war -- that is moving closer to a trial. Unless you've whiffed a 55-gallon drum full of poop and diesel fuel burning you don't know what sickened is.
That suit, lodged against private contractors KBR and its former parent company Halliburton Co., is headed back to U.S. District Court in Maryland after the U.S. Supreme Court declined in January to take up the defendants’ appeal for a dismissal.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I remember the site management contract allowed the local administrator to determine when prevalent conditions would allow a burn. He would get a payoff from a local crew to hold off until they had picked through the debris. Salvaging apparently continued until the wind was blowing into the camp.
[Iraq Sun] A "drastic social change" is taking place in 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)-controlled Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... following the killing of captured Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh, with more and more religious residents expressing resentment and anger toward the Lion of Islams, a local resident-turned-anonymous blogger has reported.
The account of life in Mosul was posted on the on February 13. Mosul Eye is the pseudonym of who has been secretly documenting IS's activities in Mosul since the turbans overran the city in June. While it is not possible to verify the blogger's identity, believe the accounts are credible.
According to Mosul Eye, IS's recent murder of Kasasbeh was "the main direct factor" -- though there have been others -- that led to the significant change in the attitude of religious Mosul residents toward the holy warrior Sunni group.
Kasasbeh was captured by IS on December 24 during a bombing raid, after his F-16 war plane developed mechanical problems and crashed. showing Kasasbeh being burned alive in a cage was released by IS on February 3. Activists in the Syrian town of Raqqa reported that IS showed the immolation video on large screens in the city.
The objections being expressed by Mosul residents toward IS are toward the Lion of Islams' theory and application of Islamic Shari'a law, Mosul Eye said.
"The big question people are asking today in Mosul is how [IS] is well-correlated to true Islam," Mosul Eye reported.
When IS first took over Mosul, local people were afraid to get involved with the turbans or even mention them, but that has changed, Mosul Eye.
"Nowadays, people talk openly in the market about [IS] and its cruelty," Mosul Eye said.
While talking about religion had become almost taboo in the Iraqi city over the past months, the burning of Kasasbeh led people to question IS's interpretation of Shari'a.
Mosul Eye quotes a 25-year-old university student, named only as Samir, who said that he did not sleep the night that Kasasbeh was burned alive.
"The idea that Allah, the merciful God I learned about in my childhood, is giving the pretense and justification to kill in his name, has scared me a lot," Samir was quoted as saying.
Samir said that he told everyone that the immolation of Kasasbeh was "not an act of Islam."
"I went to the nearby mosque...and I talked to the imam there. I asked him about the legitimacy of burning. The imam kept silent and did not want to give me an answer.... I left the mosque knowing that this is the last time I'll ever enter the place," Samir said.
According to Samir, an IS imam gave the sermon in the mosque the next day and told the congregation that burning was legitimate and that God had authorized it.
Mosul Eye described Samir as "one among a small but very significant population in Mosul who was struck by [IS's] brutality."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"I went to the nearby mosque...and I talked to the imam there. I asked him about the legitimacy of burning. The imam kept silent and did not want to give me an answer....
Therein lies much of the problem. Our boneheaded betters (sarc) in Washington keep insisting that terrorism is not religion-related. Therein lies another part of the problem.
#2
one among a small but very significant population in Mosul who are on the Special High Intensity Treatment list compiled by ISIS. That list will be getting ever shorter.
[Jerusalem Post] Iran has opened up six fronts against Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday at a send-off ceremony for outgoing Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz.
These fronts are Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Sinai, as well as Iran's efforts to carry out terrorist attacks abroad, and its march toward nuclear weapons. A possible rehearsal for his address to Congress.
[Rooters] The United States is readying plans to resupply Jordan with munitions in the coming weeks, possibly including precision-guided arms, expediting support for the kingdom as it expands its role in Arclight airstrikes against 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), officials say.
The State Department and Pentagon declined comment on any future moves to assist Jordan with requests for weapons. But several U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said that planning was well underway to help replenish Jordan's supplies of ordnance.
U.S. efforts to expedite delivery of munitions and other weapons follow a vocal appeal from Jordan's King Abdullah to American politicians last week for greater U.S. support.
A source close to the Jordanian government told Rooters the kingdom believed its supplies of bombs are being stretched too thin as it expands its role in strikes following the Islamic State's grisly execution of a Jordanian pilot.
Jordanian military experts say the kingdom could struggle to sustain the intensity of the air strikes, even as Abdullah has ordered his commanders to prepare for a bigger military role in the international coalition fighting Islamic State.
He met with U.S. politicians in Washington last week, saying he sought precision munitions along with aircraft parts and additional night vision equipment, and noted delays in working through normal U.S. channels.
That prompted a letter from the Senate Armed Services Committee, led by Republican Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... , urging the B.O. regime to process Jordan's requests "with a sense of urgency reflecting the pace of events."
"If the (Obama) administration does not up its game with Jordan in terms of equipment for their military, help on refugees, there will be strong pushback from Congress," Senator Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... , a Republican committee member, told Rooters.
The U.S. officials said they are working to expedite support for Jordan but declined to discuss delivery timelines for specific systems, including munitions and aircraft parts.
At his meeting with politicians, Abdullah remarked that Jordan's military had become adept at using unguided bombs but stressed the need for precision-guided munitions, according to a Senate source at the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... .
Sources in the United States and Jordan say the kingdom has requested Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, which can modify conventional bombs to convert into precision-guided systems, using global position system (GPS) technology. JDAMs are manufactured by Boeing (BA.N).
The United States provides more than $300 million in security assistance to Jordan annually, a figure that is expected to grow. On Feb. 3 the United States and Jordan signed a new memorandum of understanding that committed the United States to increase its assistance from $660 million to $1 billion per year for 2015-2017.
Lapid - who was fired by Netanyahu in December for his outspoken criticism of the prime minister and the government (there's your problem, right there)
- also lambasted the premier over his controversial address to the US Congress scheduled for two weeks before Israel's March 17 election.
"This speech causes real damage, not only to relations between Israel and the US, but to the justified struggle Israel has waged for years against the Iranian nuclear problem," Lapid charged. Words fail.
Netanyahu was invited by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) to address a special joint session of Congress and is expected to advocate for a different policy on Iran that US President Barack Obama has pursued.
The prime minister has been criticized for accepting the invitation to speak and breaching the protocol of the White House extending invitations to foreign leaders. Netanyahu has also been accused of using the appearance to influence the Israeli electorate.
According to Lapid, the address has caused Israel to loose influence on American lawmakers who support new sanctions on Iran. JINO's are not your friend, Mr. Lapid.
"Israel almost had the majority of two-thirds of the American Congress to thwart any veto by the president [Obama] against sanctions, and we lost most of that," Vapid Lapid stated. (This guy must read lots of fantasy novels in his spare time.)
Democracy as practiced in Israel is a full contact blood sport, akin to American football before helmets, shoulder pads, and cups. Then, too, it's a parliamentary democracy, so it's all about who can build the largest coalition afterward. Key in this election, as far as I can tell, is domestic economic policy; almost everyone believes President Obama is not Israel's friend.
[IsraelTimes] 'If Herzog supports Zoabi disqualification, he can forget about being prime minister,' warns Hassan Jabareen
Officials in the American and European embassies in Israel are advising Arab leaders to encourage their community to participate more significantly in the upcoming national elections in order to hinder racist legislation
That should be "racist" in scare quotes...
in the next Knesset, a senior Arab human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activist told The Times of Israel on Monday.
Hassan Jabareen, founder and head of Arab civil rights group Adalah and legal counsel to controversial MK Hanin Zoabi and her party the Joint Arab List, said that Western diplomats serving in Israel are concerned about the future status of Israel's Arab minority -- 20 percent of the country -- if a right-wing Knesset is elected on March 17.
How kind of them, to be sure.
"When [diplomats] in embassies in Israel speak to Arab public officials they always say that a higher voter turnout will increase our representation [in the Knesset], which could help block racist laws against us," Jabareen told The Times of Israel. "You hear these things from any of the EU embassies, from the US [embassy], and from people you sit with from the Paleostinian Authority."
Oooooooh, kind and concerned!
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has warned of an increase in anti-democratic legislation
...in which warnings the definition of democratic is curiously undefined...
over the past four years, with many laws targeting the Arab minority in particular. Jabareen told journalists in Jerusalem last week that the recent wave of anti-democratic legislation
See above
is the highest it's been since the 1950s; pushing even the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel to break its longstanding call for an election boycott ahead of the March vote.
Jabareen has personally been told by Western diplomats that the newly formed Joint List -- uniting the Arab parties of Balad, Hadash and Ra'am-Ta'al -- should win more than the combined number of seats its constituent parties hold in the current Knesset.
Why?
"We used to hear this in the past too, but more now," he said.
The US embassy in Israel denied that it was urging Arabs to vote: "These reports are untrue. The United States is firmly committed to the principle of non-intervention in Israeli elections."
The US embassy in Israel denied that it was urging Arabs to vote: "These reports are untrue. The United States is firmly committed to the principle of non-intervention in Israeli elections."
David Kriss, a front man for the EU delegation to Israel, also said the EU's unequivocal policy was not to intervene in Israeli politics ahead of elections.
"EU policy is to remain neutral in these elections and not intervene in them in any way, shape or form," he told The Times of Israel.
"EU policy is to remain neutral in these elections and not intervene in them in any way, shape or form,"
As for the Paleostine Liberation Organization, its official position is also to stay out of Israel's domestic politics, Jabareen said. But on an individual level, PLO members are also increasingly urging Arab Israelis to vote.
"It's wishful thinking," he said. "They're happy that there's a Joint [Arab] List and that it has [good] chances The longstanding understanding between the PLO and Arabs in Israel is that neither side intervenes in the politics of the other."
'If Herzog supports disqualifying Zoabi, he can kiss the premiership goodbye'
The announcement last week by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni's Zionist Camp that it supports the disqualification of MK Hanin Zoabi over inflammatory public statements has greatly angered the Joint Arab List.
Even as Israel's Army Radio reported Monday that the Zionist Camp would defer its decision until hearing the position of the attorney general on Thursday, the Joint List issued a statement Monday calling Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "two sides of the same coin." Zoabi posted a video to the website of Channel 2 news insisting that there was no real difference between Herzog, Livni and Netanyahu with regards to the Arab population in Israel and the future of the grinding of the peace processor.
"The Zionist Camp is proving yet again that there is no Zionism that isn't racist," she said. They miss no opportunity to prove to us that there's no difference between the extreme right and the center."
Jabareen, too, was unequivocal about the Arab List's response to a decision by the Zionist Camp to go ahead with the disqualification bid.
"If Herzog votes for the disqualification of Hanin Zoabi, he will be voting for his own disqualification as a candidate for prime minister," Jabareen said. "He can sit home or try to maintain his number of seats, but he won't be prime minister. This is a red line; for Arabs he would be joining the extreme right. In politics, national minority groups must also be respected."
[Hurriyet Daily News] Any resolution to the fighting in Syria must involve Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... envoy to Syria has said in the first such acknowledgement by the UN.
"President Assad is part of the solution," Staffan de Mistura told a joint presser with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna on Feb. 13.
"I will continue to have very important discussions with him," de Mistura added, noting: "The only solution is a political solution." This was the first time a UN envoy on Syria has explicitly named Assad as part of a peaceful solution after nearly four years of fighting between government forces and rebels seeking his overthrow.
De Mistura's remarks drew condemnation from the key opposition National Coalition as well as from activists on the ground in Syria.
"I think De Mistura is fooling himself if he thinks that Assad is part of the solution," coalition member Samir Nashar told AFP by telephone from Istanbul. "Assad is the problem, not part of the solution."
Najib Ghadbian, the National Coalition's UN envoy, described the "brutality" of Assad's regime as the root cause of the conflict. He also warned the U.S.-led alliance fighting 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- which has seized swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq -- that its efforts would fail unless world powers get serious about a peace plan for Syria.
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[ARA] Following the participation and coordination of the U.S.-led international coalition forces with the Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG), in battles against 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 (IS/ISIS) in Kobane (Ain al-Arab) in northern Syria, observers expect a new phase of relations between the Democratic Union Party (PYD) ‐politicianship of the YPG‐ and the United States.
Sinam Muhammad, head of the PYD, talked to ARA News about the recent developments on political and administrative levels.
"The Democratic Auto-Administration in Rojava (Syria where Kurds constitute majority) is an essential part of Syria, and it is established on a democratic basis that combines most of the social components in the region," Muhammad said.
"During the past four years, we preserved our areas, and this is the main cause behind the formation of the Auto-Administration," she told ARA News, stressing that the United States has not yet recognized the PYD-led Auto-Administration.
Mohammed's comments came after statements by the spokeswoman of the U.S. State Department, Jen Psaki ...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State... , who stressed that Washington would not recognize any autonomous administration in Syria, showing the American opposition to the division of the country.
"The U.S. rejection of Syria's division is identical with our idea; we do not aim at dividing Syria into separate states," said the head of the PYD, pointing out that the U.S. did not formally rejection the Auto-Administration in Syria.
"On the contrary, the international community has become more positive in dealing with this administration after the heroic accomplishments of the Kurdish forces against the bad boy group of the Islamic State in Syria," she told ARA News.
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The nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are aimed at clinching an accord that would ease Western concerns that Tehran could pursue a covert nuclear weapons program, in return for the lifting of sanctions that have ravaged the Iranian economy. Judging by the actions of our now CiC, I believe the concerns of this part of the West have been (irrationally) eased quite enough, thank you very much.
[AnNahar] Meet Nassrin Abdallah. With her diminutive height and broad smile, it doesn't seem like she should strike fear into the hearts of hardened 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.... jihadists.
But this 36-year-old Syrian Kurd woman has been at the tip of the spear of the Kurdish forces that last month liberated the symbolic city of Kobane from IS holy warriors.
"In Kobane, women were fighting on all fronts, in all the trenches against a brutal enemy," she told cheering crowds during a visit to Gay Paree this week.
As the head of the armed wing of the Kurdish PYD, "commander" Nassrin has led both men and women into battle against Islamic State fighters who have overrun large areas of Iraq and Syria.
"We kept the promise we made to the people and we won the day," she said to thunderous applause.
According to Nassrin, around 40 percent of the Kurdish fighters battling over the town on the Syrian-Turkish border were women.
Some, like her, are hardened warriors but also joining their ranks were mothers who sent their children over the border to the safety of Turkey, then rushed off to join their sisters in arms.
Fighting alongside Nassrin are other powerful female commanders who have achieved legendary status on the battlefield.
Women like Narine Afrin, who played a key role in the defense of Kobane. Or Arin Mirkan, who blew herself up on October 5, killing dozens of IS fighters encircling the town, according to Kurdish sources.
In total, there are 4,000 women fighting in the armed wing of the PYD, say Kurdish officials, who refuse for strategic reasons to disclose the total number of people who have taken up arms.
Over and beyond the military aspect of the victory over IS in Kobane, it has been seen as a triumph for women, who are repressed in areas under IS control, obliged to wear the veil and, in the case of the Yazidi minority, forced into slavery.
"Daesh is a major danger for women and their status," said Assia Abdallah, co-president of the PYD, using an alternative name for the IS holy warriors.
The PYD has close links with the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency in southeast Turkey and is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Ankara and some of its Western allies.
But in a sign of growing international recognition, Assia Abdallah and Nassrin Abdallah held talks on Sunday at the Elysee Palace with French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... -- the first such meeting of its kind.
Like the PKK, the PYD has a policy of placing equal numbers of men and women at the head of their political and military structures.
In the Kurdish zones of Syria, they decree that women should have the same rights as men and forbid girls from marrying before the age of 18.
They have also outlawed "honor crimes" and "violence and discrimination" against women, as well as polygamy, which is nevertheless permitted in Islam.
Nassrin, a former journalist from the north-east of Syria, is unmarried but otherwise gives away very little about her private life.
The hardest thing about the battle is the lack of weapons and ammunition, she says.
Is she not frightened of these Islamic State fighters, who have videoed beheadings and burned hostages alive?
Quite the reverse, she says.
"They are scared of fighting against women. They believe they will not go to Paradise if they are killed by a woman.
#3
Absolutely. When everyone was trying to sweep Kobane under the rug, they banged loud and well. Brought enough attention to force Edragon to call off his fence.
And at a time when the free world was dithering over the next great hashtag, the Kurds were not only putting up resistance to the ISJV blitz, they were providing an alternative, positive narrative.
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.
[Jerusalem Post] The visit of Palestinian terrorist 
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[FOXNEWS] U.S. troops who risked their lives battling insurgents in Afghanistan for years faced another unseen enemy at bases across the country: toxic fumes from open-air “burn pits” that were used long after orders to phase them out.
John 
Lindsey Graham
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
