[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The former provincial governor for western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province and jihadi leader Mohammad Ismail Khan has urged the people not to use the photographs of the late President Dr. Najibullah in their cars.
Dr. Najibullah is widely regarded as a patriot late leader who was murdered by the Talibs following the fall of Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... city in 1996.
In his address during a gathering in Herat province, Khan said the people of Herat should not allow the photographs of Dr. Najibullah to be displayed in the cars, calling him ’Killer of the Nation’.
He also criticized the government of national unity leaders for maintaining peace and stability in the country, insisting that they have failed to do so.
The former governor said he will not wait for the decision of the unity government leaders if the security deteriorates in Herat and warned that an armed campaign will be launched to fight the Lion of Islams.
Khan was previously serving as the Minister of Energy and Water has long been criticizing the government of national unity for failing to bring peace and stability in the country.
Earlier, he urged the government to get assistance of former Mujahideen leaders in fight against terrorism while criticizing the government for sidelining the jihadi leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Nigeria's security services have hailed the arrest of the leader of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... splinter group Ansaru, Khalid al-Barnawi, saying it will lead to them to other senior Islamist commanders.
"The arrest of Barnawi is a huge success and will have a profound effect on counter-terrorism operations in Nigeria and beyond," one security source told AFP.
"He is a known transnational terrorist and the backbone of all Al-Qaeda affiliate groups in West Africa."
Barnawi, designated a global terrorist by the United States since 2012, was detained on April 1 with three others in the Kogi state capital, Lokoja, and found with four Thuraya satellite phones.
The phones "provided several leads" to "high-profile Boko Haram and Ansaru elements" in the capital, Abuja, Lokoja and the central city of Jos, said another source.
"This has been our biggest breakthrough against terrorism in Nigeria ever," said a third.
"We still have other high-ranking holy warriors on our radar based on the information gathered from the phones of Barnawi and his three comrades. We will rope them in at the right time," he added.
Barnawi is certainly a major prize for Nigerian intelligence, the Department of State Services (DSS), which called him "a trained terrorist commander" who also recruited for Al-Qaeda affiliates.
He is accused of criminal masterminding a string of kidnappings of Westerners between 2011 and 2013.
"This arrest is a major milestone in the counter-terrorism fight," the DSS said in a statement on April 9, with an accompanying mugshot of Barnawi.
But while security analysts agree he is the most high-profile capture since the start of the Islamist insurgency in 2009, it remains unclear what effect it will have on operations on the ground.
Boko Haram has been pegged back by an aggressive fightback from the Nigerian military since January last year, losing territory and its capacity to mount conventional attacks.
President Muhammadu Buhari has gone so far as to say the snuffies were "technically" defeated, even if suicide and kabooms have continued in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... , Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Niger.
Yan St-Pierre, from the Modern Security Consulting group, however, said Barnawi, who trained in Sudan, Afghanistan and with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria, was "influential".
But he was "only one" part of a disparate organization.
His arrest "should not change much in terms of Ansaru's terrorist activities", St-Pierre said, as the group has not carried out many operations since 2013.
"Where things could change however is in the recent openings some Boko Haram-affiliated groups have made to AQIM in the last few months, and Khalid al-Barnawi was a huge part of that," he said.
"His arrest will affect the dynamic of the discussions between AQIM and those he represented" at a time when the Nigerian snuffies were reaching out to jihadists further afield.
Ansaru, which is more ideologically aligned to Al-Qaeda, is believed to have been formed as a result of disapproval at Boko Haram's indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/18/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
the country would be forced to sell $750 billion in Treasury securities
I suppose that's better than borrowing the $18-20 billion to make ends meet, mentioned a few weeks ago. Why they could probably pull $300-400 billion in cash from the sale. [Full disclosure: I am an engineer, not a financial wizard.]
And selling securities - paper - ain't the same as 'pulling assets'. Does The Daily Mail have an agenda, too?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2016 13:17 Comments ||
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#2
Good luck finding a buyer, unless you're willing to take a small bath.
#3
Saudi Arabia is behind the lower gasoline prices in its attempt to put US frackers into bankruptcy. But now Iran, with our president's lifting of sanctions is going to flood the market with oil to hurt the Saudis.
You think the China melt down was bad, there is more to come.
Posted by: Ho Chi Crinens5363 ||
04/18/2016 14:01 Comments ||
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#4
Most likely would be better for the US in the long run if the Saudis fucked right off.
#9
Or better yet encourage the Heshimites to restate their claim as guardians of Mecca and Medina. I think without Uncle Sam providing assurances for the Saudi's they'd be rolled over and as long as it wasn't Christian soldiers charging into the Magic Kingdom the rest of Islam probably wouldn't mind so much. With oil wealth Jordan might be positioned to take on ISIS.
#13
The US government should just tell Intel, Cisco, and Microsoft to activate the backdoor kill switches on all of their hardware inside the sand kingdom. Turn their lights out, and their air conditioners off. I bet they'll come around to our way of thinking right quickly.
[AnNahar] The U.S. Supreme Court weighs a major immigration case Monday that could impact the fate of millions of people facing possible deportation and further raise the stakes in the 2016 White House race.
The eight justices are due to determine the legality of an ambitious bid by President Barack Obama I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something... to shield from deportation nearly five million undocumented immigrants colonists.
Continued on Page 49
#1
"No one individual state should be allowed to disrupt federal immigration policy."
Left unstated - "Only a few select individuals are so empowered."
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2016 7:36 Comments ||
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#2
This has nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with a president refusing to perform one on his primary responsibilities: defend our borders.
#4
If SCOTUS doesn't recognize the legal standing of states when their schools, hospitals and social services are being overwhelmed by illegal aliens then we really do live in a dictatorship.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/18/2016 10:36 Comments ||
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#5
I suspect they Court will find the States do not have jurisdiction to address immigration. The question will be do they then have no standing to contest Federal immigration law enforcement - or lack thereof. In fact does anyone have standing to contest it? The best outcome the states are likely to get is a 4-4 split, returning the status to that of the various lower courts.
#6
It's not even an immigration fight. It's all about selective enforcement of law. The law as applied to illegal aliens. People who entered the U.S. illegally, whether for good intent or evil.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2016 12:57 Comments ||
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#7
Well the oligarchy in DC benefits from illegals, so I expect the SC to at best be deadlocked in this and at worst confirming their power over the states and the people by telling them to shut up and color or lose federal funds and possible jail time.
Every once in a while we get the rest of the story.
[Ynet] Shatila Abu Iyadh, 22, who carried out a stabbing attack in Rosh HaAyin earlier this month was indicted for attempted murder at the Central District Court in Lod on Sunday.
According to the indictment, a dream inspired the Kafr Qasem resident to become more religious and kill Jews as part of her new religious obligations to Allah.
She set about purchasing the necessary materials to produce a bomb, which she learned to assemble from the internet, and intended to plant the explosives in two restaurants in Afek industrial park in Rosh HaAyin.
She also visited the restaurants a number of times prior, according to the indictment, and made contact with an individual in order to acquire an automatic weapon. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... having failed to purchase a gun or produce a bomb, Iyadh decided to carry out a stabbing attack in which she stabbed one woman in the hand before being overpowered and jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!.
Iranian Major General Qassem Suleimani has flouted an international travel ban and flown to Moscow for talks with Russia's military and political leadership on Syria and deliveries of Russian missiles, sources said on Friday.
Suleimani met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday, one source said. A Kremlin spokesman said a meeting with Suleimani was not on Putin's schedule.
Asked about Suleimani's visit, the Iranian embassy in Moscow said it had no information about it.
The main purpose of his visit was to discuss new delivery routes for shipments of Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, sources said. Several sources also said Suleimani wanted to talk about how Russia and Iran could help the Syrian government take back full control of the city of Aleppo.
Suleimani's visit is likely to be seen as a sign that the tactical alliance of Russia and Iran over Syria remains strong despite some reported differences over battlefield strategy.
A senior regional source told Reuters last year that Russia's military intervention in Syria was set out in an agreement between Moscow and Tehran that said Russian air strikes would support ground operations by Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces. Iran has committed troops to help prop up the Syrian army, sometimes sustaining heavy losses, and Suleimani has been reported to be spending time in Syria, where he is thought to have helped coordinate operations.
Suleimani, the commander of foreign operations for Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, flew to Moscow in July last year to help Russia plan its military intervention in Syria and forge an Iranian-Russian alliance to support Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. He helped reactivate the stalled S-300 deal, which Russia had put on ice in 2010 under pressure from the West.
He remains subject to an international travel ban by the U.N. Security Council. The U.N. ban remains in place despite implementation of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that triggered sanctions relief for Tehran.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Secretary of State John Kerry raised concerns about reports of Suleimani going to Russia in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday, but added that Washington was not in a position to confirm the visit.
Kirby said U.N. sanctions on remained in effect, "so such travel, if true, would be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and we believe, then, a serious matter of concern to both the U.N. and the United States.”
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States would continue to insist that Russia and other countries comply with U.N. obligations "and prevent the international travel of Suleimani."
"We also intend to continue to raise the issue in New York," the official said, referring to the United Nations.
Posted by: Pappy ||
04/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[Jpost] "The Islamic State is still a force in the region, but, this drop in revenue is a significant figure and will increase the challenge for the group to run its territory in the long term," expert says.
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.... ’s monthly revenue has dropped almost 30 percent in the past year and the terrorist organization has resorted to imposing fines to make up the funds, new analysis released Sunday by IHS revealed.
In mid-2015, Islamic State’s overall monthly revenue was around $80 million, but it had declined to $56 million as of March 2016 as oil production fell to 21,000 barrels per day from 33,000.
"The Islamic State is still a force in the region, but, this drop in revenue is a significant figure and will increase the challenge for the group to run its territory in the long term," said Ludovico Carlino, a senior analyst at IHS. " According to the report, the decline is highly likely to reflect the intensification of the US-led coalition’s military and, to a lesser extent, Russian efforts to degrade Islamic State’s capability to produce oil.
About half of the group’s income is from taxation and confiscation and around 43% from oil revenue with drug smuggling, electricity sales and donations making up the rest.
In addition, the population that Islamic State controls is dropping, further affecting revenue.
"The Islamic State has lost about 22% of its territory in the past 15 months," said Columb Strack, also a senior analyst at IHS. "Its population has declined from around nine million to around six million. There are fewer people and business activities to tax. The same applies to properties and land to confiscate."
The report was issued by the team responsible for the IHS Conflict Monitor, which tracks events in Iraq and Syria from social media and other open sources.
To make up the shortfall, Carlino said IHS research determined that Islamic State is increasing taxes on basic services and coming up with new ways to get money from the population.
"These taxes include tolls for truck drivers, fees for anyone installing new or repairing broken satellite dishes and ’exit fees’ for anyone trying to leave a city."
Carlino also pointed out that fines are being imposed for driving on the wrong side of the road or not answering questions about the Koran correctly.
Furthermore, according to the report, Islamic State began accepting payment for violations instead of the corporal punishments proscribed under Shari’a law.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/18/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"we now accept EBT cards"
Snark of the day.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2016 9:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's amazing how many battles are won by the power of the purse.
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.
Iranian Major General Qassem Suleimani has flouted an international travel ban and flown to Moscow for talks with Russia's military and political leadership on Syria and deliveries of Russian missiles, sources said on Friday.
