[Tolo News] A front man for the Attorney General's office has said that a group of senior attorneys are reviewing Farkhunda's case and nothing will stop them from enforcing the law where the murderers are concerned.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe headed for second base. He almost made it. Then Sheila slapped him.... Kabul police said that another two key individuals believed to have been involved in the brutal murder were recently placed in durance vile
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Police were on Monday looking for people who may have aided the Lions of Islam who killed 148 people at the Garissa University College.
Investigators believe the bandidosholy warriors must have worked with locals in Garissa County to plan and execute the deadly attack.
Police are particularly looking for those who might have sheltered them, helped in hiding their arsenal as well as offering them transport.
Those who helped in carrying out surveillance at the prior to the attack are also being sought by police.
A guard at the university was being held for the fourth day after he was linked to the four terrorists' response units killed, including the fifth, who went kaboom!.
Mr Osman Ali Dagane, a Kenyan was found in possession of jihadist material and it is believed he let the attackers into the compound. His colleague was rubbed out at the gate.
Mr Rashid Charles Mberesero, a Tanzanian, is also being held. He was tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! within the university precincts after the attackers were killed.
Another Kenyan arrested together with the Tanzanian is also in jug. Three other suspects were arrested at the border as they attempted to sneak into Somalia.
Other than the five, whose arrest was announced by the Interior ministry, the Nation learnt that relatives of Kenyan Al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... commanders in Somalia were also being interrogated.
At least 10 suspects are on the government's watch list, but it is not clear how many of their relatives were being questioned by police.
Top on the list is Mohammed Kuno, who has a Sh20 million bounty on his head. The other is Abdifatah Abubakar Abdi aka Musa Muhajir, wanted in connection with last year's Mpeketoni attacks.
The government has offered Sh2 million for information leading to Abdifatah's arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] The trial of 77 people in Tunisia charged with involvement in a murderous Moslem attack that killed eight soldiers was adjourned Monday after the defence asked for more time to prepare.
Only six of those charged are in jug: 70 more, among them around 50 Algerians, will be tried in absentia. Another is not in detention.
"The trial was postponed until May 18 for oral arguments to be heard," said Rafik Ghak, the lawyer for four of the defendants.
One high-profile defendant is Seifullah Ben Hassine, alias Abou Iyadh, a Tunisian rebel chief and Afghanistan veteran Tunisia says has fled into neighbouring Libya.
The 77 are being tried for their alleged role in an ambush on July 29, 2013 in which the eight soldiers were killed on Mount Chaambi near the border with Algeria.
If convicted, they could be sentenced to death, despite Tunisia no longer carrying out capital punishment.
The defence argues that those in jug are minor accomplices who did not realise they had ties with an gang responsible for dozens of deaths in army and police ranks since December 2012.
"The detainees in this case... are virtually unknown," Ghak said. "They were trapped and did not realise the scale of the operation or the magnitude of the crime."
Since the January 2011 revolution, Tunisia has experienced militancy that has killed dozens of members of the security forces.
On March 18, tourists were targeted for the first time, with 21 foreigners and a policeman killed by two gunnies at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis in an attack claimed by 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.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[Intel Briefs] No country is totally immune from extremism and as such every country should be very vigilante and device measures that will keep it a minimum and 'harmless'.
Morocco has formed an anti-jihadist 'FBI', Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, which is charged with the task of collecting intelligence and at same time wage heavy war against any suspected Islamic holy warriors. The task force is backed up by trained imams who preach tolerance to the Moroccan people.
Over 130 terrorist cells have been dismantled, over 2700 suspects tossed in the clink Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! and close to 300 plots thwarted.
Earlier in the week, the unit that has been labeled the Moroccan FBI announced the breaking apart a cell that had pledged allegiance to 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.... Morocco has been to shield itself from most terror attacks seeing as it is a constant state of high alertness making it the most stable country in the Northern Africa region.
One of Morocco's security strategies that were launched in 2008 was to train the imams to promote tolerant and non-violent form of Islam that is in line with the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. This project cost close to 20 million euros.
The trained imams train on the importance of security and stability in the people exercise of faith. The tolerant Islamic teachings imparted especially on the young Moroccans have helped shun a lot of attacks on Morocco.
Countries that are affected by Islamic gunnies should take a page from the Morocco's book in their fight against Islamism seeing as most of the multi-national Islamist groups get in their countries through already established jihadi terrorist cells.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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Making friends and influencing people in that inimitable Barack Obama way. Because everybody just loves being lectured by Mr. Holier-Than-Thou -- especially when he's so obviously wrong.
[ALMANAR.LB] The Gulf states face a greater threat from within their own countries than from outside forces such as Iran or ISIL (acronym of the so-called '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' takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group), US President Barack Obama That’s just how white folks will do you.... has said in an interview explaining the nuclear deal struck with Iran last week.
Speaking to the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , Obama insisted the US was committed to GCC security but "a tough conversation" needed to be had with Gulf leaders over their internal issues.
The Arab states faced more pressing threats such as "populations that, in some cases, are alienated, youth that are underemployed, an ideology that is destructive and nihilistic, and in some cases, just a belief that there are no legitimate political outlets for grievances," Obama said.
"... I think the biggest threats that they face may not be coming from Iran invading. It's going to be from dissatisfaction inside their own countries. ... That's a tough conversation to have, but it's one that we have to have," he added.
Obama also said he would tell Gulf states they needed to be more active in addressing regional crises.
"I think when you look at what happens in Syria, for example, there's been a great desire for the United States to get in there and do something," he said during the interview published on Sunday.
"But the question is: Why is it that we can't have Arabs fighting the terrible human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... abuses that have been perpetrated, or fighting against what Assad has done?" he added, referring to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Oh Lord they are recycling the war on poverty in our foreign policy
#6
I'm pretty sure they know who their enemies are.
Posted by: chris ||
04/07/2015 2:36 Comments ||
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#7
Practicing for his campaign to takeover the UN?
The arrogance is monumental. This thing actually seems to believe that he knows everything about everything. He has to show everyone the error of their ways, I'm surprised he hasn't taken credit for fixing Tiger's golf game.
#13
ValJar is the most dangerous voice speaking into DumShits ear these days. She is unquestionably an Iranian agent/sympathizer and at the source for a range of foreign policy catastrophes. But now her grip on Champ is actually endangering the stability of a critical part or the world. How can people not see the disaster in the making as we cede the Middle East to these vipers (Iran). God help the Republic.
[Iran Press TV] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says he is "dismayed" that the Saudi-led coalition refrained from consulting the UN Security Council before initiating its attacks against Yemen.
"Right now (the operation) does not have any foundation in international law. Of course we were a little dismayed, to put it mildly, that the operation was begun without any consultations," AFP quoted Lavrov as saying during an interview on Monday.
He added that the even though Russia values its relations with 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... and other members of the coalition, "they came to the Security Council post-factum, and started asking for approval of what they had begun."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
The Saudis have more sense than to waste time watching the UN dither over Yemen, after all the UN watched this happen without as much as a catered luncheon to discuss it.
Methinks the current King in KSA has a pretty good grip on what needs to be done...even if it means an "understanding" with Israel.
Come to think of it, when was the last time anyone in authority in KSA has said anything about Israel?
#7
Bad, those reports are probably Saudi National Guardsmen - true Bedouin, to whom this shit is tribal medieval blood feud. The intent to literally decimate their enemy - including the all elements of the tribe if necessary (and they see it as a necessary thing)
[DAWN] A Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader lost his final appeal Monday against a death sentence for overseeing a massacre during the 1971 independence war, a move which clears the last legal hurdle to his execution.
Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, the third most senior figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, could now be hanged within days for the slaughter at the so-called "Village of Widows".
Any execution is likely to fuel tensions in the troubled nation.
In a brief session at the Supreme Court, Chief Justice S.K. Sinha ruled that a review petition filed by Kamaruzzaman's lawyers had been dismissed and a death sentence passed in 2013 should stand.
The 62-year-old's only chance of avoiding the gallows will be if he is granted clemency by President Abdul Hamid.
But analysts say prospects of a reprieve are remote as the ruling effectively confirms allegations that he was one of the chief organisers of a pro-Pakistain militia which killed thousands of people.
A controversial domestic war crimes tribunal had convicted Kamaruzzaman in May 2013 on charges of torture, abduction and mass killings in his role as a leader of the al-Badr militia during the war, which led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh from what was then East Pakistain.
Prosecutors said he presided over the massacre of at least 120 unarmed farmers who were lined up and bumped off in the remote northern village of Sohagpur.
Three women who lost their husbands in the massacre testified against Kamaruzzaman in one of the most emotive of all the war crimes trials.
Testimony challenged
Kamaruzzaman's lawyers had tried to convince the Supreme Court there were "serious discrepancies" in the witness testimonies.
Kamaruzzaman would be only the second Islamist so far to be hanged for war crimes if the sentence is carried out. Another Jamaat leader, Abdul Quader Molla, was executed in December 2013.
Defence attorney Shishir Monir said relatives of Kamaruzzaman would meet him later Monday.
"It's now up to him whether he will seek clemency from the president," he told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Twitter has complied with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's request to remove photographs of a prosecutor held at gunpoint by far-left Lion of Islams, an official said on Monday, and a ban on it ended hours after being imposed.
YouTube, which authorities also banned after an Istanbul court ordered social media to remove any content showing the kidnapped prosecutor, remained blocked late on Monday as talks with it continued, the official said.
Mehmet Selim Kiraz, the Istanbul prosecutor seen in the pictures, was later killed in a shoot-out between his hostage takers and police last week.
"Twitter has agreed to shut down accounts and remove images relating to last week's hostage-taking. The website will reopen to access very shortly," the bigwig told Rooters before the site became accessible again.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[ArutzSheva] James Bezan, the parliamentary secretary to Defense Minister Jason Kenney, told the Canadian CBC News that Canada will only consider removing sanctions on Iran if it is sure the latter "finally and honestly" neutralizes the military aspects of its nuclear program,
"Until then, we are going to be very conscientious and skeptical of the outcome here," concluded Bezan.
There goes Canada, yet again punching above her weight.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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Goody. Which state was it that just passed a no-license concealed carry law?
[DailySurge] Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson says dozens of Americans who traveled overseas to train with ISIS militants are now back in the United States.
"As I understand it, of the 180 Americans who have gone overseas to fight in Iraq and Syria, 40 have come back," said 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl.
"I assume you're keeping close tabs on those 40?" she asked Johnson.
"We have in fact kept close tabs on those who we believe have left and those who've come back," Johnson responded. "A number have been arrested or investigated and we have systems in place to track these individuals. But you can't know everything."
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
"...But you can't know everything" > Whew, that's a relief!
#7
Keep track of them? They are traitors who left to fight alongside America's enemies against America and her allies. They should have been arrested immediately upon return and then dropped from a B-52 over ISIS territory.
Any preachers invovled in that bunch could be given the Holy Option of being dropped upon Mecca instead.
#8
The only way I could support not immediately arresting them is if you wanted enough to come in to get a real bombing run going before arresting them in a sweep as I suspect the human bombs will dry up once the arrests start.
[AnNahar] Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a callous terrorist who carried out the 2013 attack to wage holy war and punish America, the prosecutor argued Monday as his trial neared an end.
Three people were killed and 264 others maimed in the twin blasts at the city's marathon -- the worst attack in the United States since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Tsarnaev's defense has not denied he took part in the attack, and his fate hinges on whether it has convinced jurors he was bullied into this by his older brother, or was an active plotter.
"He wanted to terrorize this country. He wanted to punish America for what it was doing to his people," assistant US attorney Aloke Chakravarty told the court in an emotional closing statement after a one-month trial.
Tsarnaev, a Moslem American of Chechen descent who was a 19-year-old university student at the time, faces the death penalty if convicted.
"That day they felt their were soldiers, that they were mujahideen and they were bringing their battle to Boston," added Chakravarty.
Prosecutors spent four weeks building their case, calling 92 witnesses in an effort to paint Tsarnaev as an active and willing bomber alongside his elder brother, who was killed while on the run.
They portrayed a cold, callous killer -- a marijuana-smoking, laid-back student who had recently failed a number of exams and become an avid reader of the Islamist literature that Sherlocks found on his computer.
Chakravarty showed the jury photographs and video clips, filling the court with the screams of victims, as the camera closed in on blood on the ground, the panic, fear and chaos after the April 15, 2013 attacks.
Government prosecutors say Tsarnaev carried out the attacks to avenge the deaths of fellow Moslems overseas after learning how to build pressure-cooker bombs through al-Qaeda English-language magazine "Inspire."
Eight-year-old Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu, 23, were killed in the bombings.
Jurors were shown photographs of Tsarnaev casually buying milk just minutes after the bombings, then laughing and joking with friends.
- 'He did what murderous Moslems do' -
Chakravarty read aloud from a message he left in a boat in a suburban garden, the hideout where the defendant was placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! four days after the attacks
This appears to justify the bombings by criticizing the U.S. government over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Ultimately he did what murderous Moslems do... he wanted to tell the world why he did it. He wanted to take credit," Chakravarty said.
Tsarnaev, wearing an open-necked button-down shirt and dark blazer, sat still as the prosecutor faced the jury.
Judge George O'Toole spent one hour, 15 minutes Monday outlining the law to the 18-person jury as part of incredibly detailed jury instructions.
He explained each element of 30 separate counts related to the April 15, 2013 attacks, and the subsequent murder of a police officer, a car jacking and a shootout with police while on Tsarnaev was on the run.
Seventeen of those charges carry the possibility of the death penalty under federal law. Three of the 30 charges are conspiracy and 27 are substantive offenses. Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to all.
The defense will later Monday follow the prosecution in making their closing statement, before O'Toole advises the jury further on the evidence.
The defense called just four witnesses during the trial. Lawyer Judy Clark admitted he was responsible for the bombings, telling jurors in her opening statement: "It was him."
Her team sought to portray the older Tamerlan as the architect of the bombings, arguing that his younger sibling had fallen helplessly under his influence.
If Tsarnaev is convicted, the trial will enter a second stage when the jury determines whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life behind bars without parole -- the only sentencing options available.
Born in Kyrgyzstan, Tsarnaev took US citizenship in 2012.
#3
Her team sought to portray the older Tamerlan as the architect of the bombings, arguing that his younger sibling had fallen helplessly under his influence
Shouldn't The Rolling Stone Cover Boy at least get credit for running his brother over?
#4
Sounds like the defense attorney is trying the same strategy that Lee Boyd Malvo's did - blame the other guy. (Malvo was the trigger man in the Beltway Sniper attacks in 2002.) It sort of worked - Malvo only got life without parole. John Muhammad, the mastermind, was executed.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/07/2015 15:07 Comments ||
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[DAWN] The Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...a pak religious party. It is usually part of the govt, never part of the solution... (JUI-F) has said it will attend the joint session of parliament called to discuss the Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... crisis on Monday and give its point of view on the matter.
"Since we don't know about the government's policy and the way it wants to deal with the situation, our party has decided to first listen to it and then give our opinion on the matter," JUI-F spokesperson Jan Mohammad Khan Achakzai told Dawn after a consultative meeting of the party held at the official residence of its chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... here on Sunday to discuss the Yemen crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] KARACHI: The Sindh government has asked Islamabad to provide it lists of the banned religious outfits, which are 're-emerging' with new nomenclature, in order to enable the provincial government to effectively curb their activities, it emerged on Sunday.
Officials said the provincial home department had requested the federal ministry of interior to provide detailed lists and other related information about the activities of the banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations, which had never become dormant despite having been slapped with repeated bans.
"Such organizations are not to be allowed [to hold] public gatherings or meetings. Action is being planned against such proscribed outfits which have re-emerged with new names or titles," said a bigwig in the home department while speaking to Dawn.
Take a look: Supreme Court wants govt to make public list of banned outfits
At a recent briefing given to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, decisions were made to take action against office-bearers and activists of such organizations, said officials.
Three committees titled execution, intelligence and media, which were subservient to the so-called Apex Committee, had been entrusted the task to supervise the operations against such groups, they said. In a decision taken at the meeting, the provincial government asked the authorities concerned to regularly update data on such groups and individuals and share it with the National Counter-terrorism Authority (Nacta) and the provinces.
On their part, officials said, the provincial authorities had identified and listed 60 religious outfits in Sindh, 67 Death Eaters had been killed and 26 had been placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! during three months of the current year.
They said the authorities had recovered 2,574 weapons in three months during action against illegal and legal weapons. To make it difficult for Death Eaters hiding in thickly populated areas of 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... , the Sindh government had notified the Sindh Information of Temporary Residence Ordinance 2015, however, more legislation was under way requiring tenant and buyer of a property to seek no-objection certificate from local administration including the cop shoppe concerned and utilities of gas and electricity, said officials.
Besides, Sindh has also decided to ask Islamabad to reactivate and establish links of Pakistain Automated Finger Identification System between provinces and Islamabad.
In addition, the National Database and Registration Authority had been asked to provide details of registered refugees residing in Karachi and other districts of Sindh, they said.
Media space to banned groups
Officials said the provincial government was taking measures to discourage media from giving space to individuals associated with the banned groups.
For this, they added, the media committee of the Apex Committee had held two meetings with its members and met once with the representatives of the cable operators and All Pakistain Newspapers Society.
"We are taking measures to ensure that media interviews of members of such banned organizations are discouraged," said an official.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Iraq won the battle to retake the city of Tikrit from 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, backed by a coalition of the unlikely in Iranian advisers, Shiite militias, and US-led Arclight airstrikes, but the country now faces what could be its most important battle: Winning the support of the Sunnis.
Sunni tribes played a key role during the US occupation fighting back al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic State group's predecessor, and their distrust of Baghdad's Shiite-led government eased the myrmidons' takeover last summer. But as Tikrit now sits in ruins, still patrolled by fractious Shiite militias, the powerful Sunni tribes remain as distrustful as ever as further offensives in their heartland loom.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
#2
looks the Iraq govt did take Tikrit but w/o the Shiite militias it would never have happened (in fact the March-April 2015 is the 4th time the Iraq govt has tried to take it back from ISIS).
the Shiite Militias will be much further from their population base when/if Iraq tries to take back Mosul which ISIS has had since the ignominious collapse of govt forces in June 2014
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/07/2015 7:10 Comments ||
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#3
Yes, Garth, but in Mosul ISIS could have to deal with the Kurds and the Iraq govt. That could prove harder for them than the Shia militia and the Iraq govt.
[AA.TR] The representative of Iraq's regional Kurdish government to the U.S. said Monday that Kurdish forces fighting Daesh are being deprived of sufficient military aid from Baghdad and the U.S. coalition.
"Peshmerga, although valiant, heroic and committed to fight ISIS, are under-equipped, some of the weapons date back to the Second World War," Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman told a panel at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center, using an alternative abbreviation for the myrmidon group.
Despite the inadequacies, peshmerga -- Kurdish security forces -- have liberated about 95 percent of Kurdish territory from Daesh in nine months of fighting, said Abdul Rahman.
She acknowledged U.S. support for peshmerga but added that in order to conduct a more effective fight against the myrmidon group, more military assistance is required.
"In the early days of our fight against ISIS, emergency military equipment arrived from friends in Europe and America," the Kurdish representative said. "Since August, however, we have seen numerous delays in the coalition's effort in train and equip peshmerga."
She added that the Iraqi central government delayed and blocked a vast majority of the military aid given by the U.S. through an Iraqi train and equip program.
The White House requested from Congress last November the approval of $5.6 billion to support a strategy to "degrade, and ultimately defeat" Daesh.
Within that funding, the B.O. regime asked for $1.6 billion for an Iraqi train and equip program.
But the Iraqi central government failed to provide the Kurds with sufficient arms and aid from the assistance, according to Abdul Rahman.
"Of the 250 MRAPs, mine resistant armored vehicles, sent to Baghdad we received only 25," she said. "Through the train and equip program only three Kurdish brigades are authorized to be trained."
She said that there are more than 150,000 peshmerga troops. Three brigades would number 9,000 - 12,000 troops, less than 10 percent of all peshmerga forces to be trained in the program.
The Kurdish envoy also criticized Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for blocking a Kurdish budget and remaining indifferent to the problems in the Kurdish region.
She said that during a presser with Masoud Barzani -- the leader of the regional Kurdish government -- the Iraqi prime minister "just chuckled" and "bat away" the question about blocking the Kurds' budget.
"That is not good enough. We are all Iraqis. Prime Minister Abadi is my prime minister, too. Does he not care about the refugees in the Kurdistan region just because they are in Kurdistan," she said.
The Iraqi government is required to fund the Kurdish budget for $1 billion per month as per an agreement signed last December, but so far Baghdad has released about $250 million in January and $450 million in February.
Another payment for March is expected shortly but funding for the 2014 budget, which constitutes more than $10 billion, still remains unpaid.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
I think this failure to supply is a demonstration of how much the Irq govt and the Turks fear the Kurds. They need them right now, to survive ISIS, but they want them to destroy each other. Iran also is concerned about the Kurds, which would explain Zero's very limited support. Even if I knew nothing about the Kurds I would favor supporting them to the max, just because the Turks, the Iranians and the Iraqis (and ISIS) don't like them.
[AnNahar] Iraq's prime minister said Monday that "only" 152 homes and shops were burned in Tikrit, where pro-government forces have been accused of carrying out abuses after retaking the city.
Haider al-Abadi did not specify who burned the structures or when the fires took place, but pro-government gunnies have admitted to torching houses in other recaptured areas and allegedly did so in Tikrit as well.
Security forces and allied paramilitaries retook the city last week from 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) group, which overran large parts of the country last year, but misconduct has marred Baghdad's biggest victory yet over the jihadists.
"Only 67 houses and... around 85 stores were burned, and it is a very small number for a city with a population of 100,000 people," Abadi told a news conference in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil. He said those figures were confirmed by brass hats including the governor and police chief of Salaheddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital.
Columns of black smoke rose from burning homes and shops even as Abadi visited Tikrit last Wednesday to celebrate its recapture from IS.
During the visit, pro-government gunnies looted and put graffiti on shops in central Tikrit while journalists looked on.
The premier's office said Friday he had ordered security forces to "deal with cases of vandalism" in Tikrit, blaming it on "gangs" seeking to tarnish the achievements of government forces and their paramilitary allies.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite holy man who is revered by millions, urged the forces to "preserve and guard citizens' properties in areas that have been liberated."
Doing so is a "religious and national and moral duty," Sistani said in remarks read at Friday prayers in Karbala.
Additionally, "it has an important role in encouraging those who have not yet decided to participate in liberating their areas to decide to participate," he said. "This is an important gain for all."
Pope Francis called on the world to give tangible help to persecuted Christians on Monday, highlighting the plight of people he described as modern "martyrs" after nearly 150 people were killed by Islamist militants in Kenya. Wrong address Your Holiness
#3
Sometimes I wonder just what kind of crap he learned in Argentina. Not the hard leftists that opposed Benedict in Germany, nor the truth of Communism that Saint John Paul the Great saw in Poland.
[IsraelTimes] Fearing military strike if talks break down, Guards reportedly ready to close Strait of Hormuz, where they drilled to attack US forces weeks ago
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#1
...and upgraded to the latest version of Photoshop.
[AnNahar] Talks on ending the war in Syria began on Monday in Moscow but the absence of key opposition groups meant there was little hope of progress in resolving the conflict.
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... , Bashar al-Jaafari, is heading the government delegation for the meetings with members of the domestic "tolerated" opposition, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC).
But the main Western-backed exiled Syrian opposition National Coalition stayed away, and another leading domestic opposition activist remains under a travel ban from Damascus.
The discussions, which run until April 9, are expected to focus on humanitarian issues and plans for future talks, while also serving as a way for Russia, a main backer of the Syrian regime, to build its profile as a potential mediator in the conflict.
A source in the Syrian government delegation told AFP that the opposition would spend Monday and Tuesday meeting with Russian mediators before the two sides sit down together Wednesday.
"The main idea this time is to agree on a precise agenda for further negotiations," the source told AFP.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov played down hopes for any breakthrough saying Moscow was disappointed by the decision of National Coalition not to attend.
"We are not setting any final deadlines given that so much blood has been shed in Syria and that there have been so many false starts in this process," Lavrov said.
The talks follow a similar round of meetings between the government and officially tolerated opposition in Moscow in late January that failed to make any concrete progress towards resolving the deep-rooted conflict.
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[AnNahar] The southern Paleostinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hellhole has long provided a stable, if destitute, bolthole for Paleostinian refugees, some of whom have lived within its walls since fleeing their homes more than six decades ago.
But the war in neighboring Syria has transformed parts of the southern camp into a safe haven for jihadists traveling to fight there, creating districts where even Paleostinian security forces fear to tread and raising tensions among residents.
In the camp's al-Taware' neighborhood, the black flag of the Islamic State
Continued on Page 49
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.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
[DAWN] KARACHI: The Sindh government has asked Islamabad to provide it lists of the banned religious outfits, which are 're-emerging' with new nomenclature, in order to enable the provincial government to effectively curb their activities, it emerged on Sunday.
[AnNahar] Talks on ending the war in Syria began on Monday in Moscow but the absence of key opposition groups meant there was little hope of progress in resolving the conflict.
