[Khaama (Afghanistan)] When two C-130H aircraft arrived at Robins in the fall of 2013, each would play a significant role nearly two years later in a country over 7,000 miles away.
The nose of one aircraft, scheduled to be retired, served as a donor to a second C-130. The second had experienced a hard landing and suffered structural damage to its nose, prior to its arrival for unscheduled depot level maintenance at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex. It was that second C-130 that received the most attention ‐ a new nose section that would not only breathe new life into the aircraft, but assist with efforts to provide increased tactical airlift capabilities and mobility operations throughout Afghanistan.
The successful PDM of that C-130 resulted in a successful aircraft delivery supporting operations with the Afghan Air Force.
The C-130 with the donor nose was the fourth aircraft delivered to the country in June 2015. Since its arrival this year, it has continued to serve as a valuable resource to the AAF.
"Adding a fourth aircraft to the Afghan Air Force’s C-130 fleet has led to a significant increase in Afghanistan’s strategic airlift capabilities," said Lt. Col. Michael Morales, 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron commander, with Train, Advise, Assist Command-Air.
TAAC-Air groups work to support NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... ’s Resolute Support mission, which trains, advises and assists Afghan partners to develop a sustainable air force.
"The C-130’s night, all-weather airlift capability provides vital, rapid and agile support to Afghan National Defense Security Force counterinsurgency operations throughout the country," he said.
A Robins team plays a support role in further assisting with the ongoing needs of the four Afghan C-130s. That can include awarding and sustaining contracts to tech order responsibilities.
"Anything that an active duty C-130 unit would normally do, the contractor does that within their capabilities. We provide oversight for them to do that," said Robert Burleigh, Afghanistan Security Assistance program manager. "That mindset of a high density/low demand asset really comes into play. They fly them every day, and use them to fly troops in and around the country, as well as move their maimed around. The more they have available and the more crews they have trained to fly, the better off they are in fighting that war. In our program, it’s one day at a time, because something always changes."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Wow, wonder if they can transplant integrity and backbone?
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United States pressed Pakistain to follow up on Islamabad’s expressed commitment not to discriminate between terror groups amid reports that the deadly 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.... attack was plotted and carried out by the notorious Haqqani terrorist network.
Elizabeth Trudeau, Director of Press Office for the State Department, said "We have consistently expressed our concerns at the highest level of the Government of Pakistain about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups such as the Haqqani Network operating from Pak soil."
She was speaking during daily press briefing in Washington DC and responded to a question regarding the Kabul attack as reports suggest the deadly attack was plotted by the Pakistain-based Haqqani terrorist network.
"And we did again ‐ after this week’s attack, we have pressed the Government of Pakistain to follow up on its expressed commitment not to discriminate between terror groups regardless of their agenda or their affiliation by undertaking concrete action against the Haqqanis," Trudeau added.
At least 64 people were killed and 347 others were maimed in the attack on a unit of the Afghan intelligence in capital Kabul on Tuesday.
The Taliban group grabbed credit behind the attack which followed days after the group announced its spring offensive, vowing to carry out more such attacks across the country.
The attack was initially launched by detonating a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) near the Directorate of Security for Prominent Figures, triggering shootout between the remaining Death Eaters and Afghan cops.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[www.army.mil] EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- A Special Forces noncommissioned officer has returned to full active duty service two and a half years after his hand was amputated to free him from underneath a vehicle before a suicide bomber could strike a deadly blow against him and his team.
Sgt. 1st Class Ivan Morera, a Miami native and a Special Forces Medic, continues to serve with the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), despite being severely wounded in a vehicle roll-over in Afghanistan.
In August 2013, an insurgent on a motorcycle drove up to the front-left tire of the MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle that Morera was driving. Aware of intelligence reports stating insurgents were employing suicide bombers on motorcycles, Morera swerved to avoid the attacker. The insurgent pursued Morera's vehicle, even as he swerved multiple times. The final time Morera swerved, the vehicle went off the road. When he over-corrected to return to the road, the vehicle began to roll over. While the vehicle flipped, the driver's side door next to Morera broke off its hinges and combat lock.
"I woke up and noticed my hand had been crushed. I called out for my team sergeant. He unstrapped himself and put a tourniquet on my arm," said Morera recalling the aftermath of the roll-over. "He called over my junior medic who put an additional tourniquet on and they had to complete the amputation in order to pull me out of the vehicle."
In addition to the loss of a hand, he suffered severe damage to his left shoulder and knee during the roll-over. After Morera was medically evacuated, the motorcycle-borne suicide bomber returned to attack the Special Forces team, killing himself by detonating his improvised explosive device and wounding a number of the Green Berets still at the scene of the accident.
The Government Uganda said it is demanding $10 million as compensation for the war and tear of equipment used in Somalia.
From whom?
The Ugandan troops in Somalia have not been been paid to a tune of over Shs200 billion. This detail is contained in a report by Parliament’s Defense and internal affairs committee to parliament .
The government is also demanding another $10 million, approximately 34 billion shillings, as compensation for the war and tear of equipment used in Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Libya’s Vice President Ahmed Maetig has expressed hope that the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... will enter into an agreement with his country similar to that between the EU and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... restricting the flow of migrants colonists to Europe.
Maetig made the appeal while in Rome meeting with Italia’s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.
"The vice president has asked that we proceed with an agreement between the European Union and Libya based on the one between the European Union and Turkey," a statement by Alfano read, without giving further details.
According to the March 18 agreement, Turkey agreed to take back all migrants colonists arriving in the Greek islands, in an effort to relieve the pressure on the European Union that saw one million migrant arrivals since early 2015.
In return Europe promised to resettle one Syrian refugee for every Syrian taken back by Turkey, to grant visa-free travel to Turks within the border-free Schengen zone and to reassess Turkey’s stalled EU membership bid.
Maetig "thanked Italia for aiding the Libyan people, and expressed hopes that Italia would continue to play a key role in the national reconciliation process towards the construction of a united and democratic Libya," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt has tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! dozens of activists ahead of an anti-government demonstration planned for Monday, a group of lawyers said.
The group published a list of 59 people they say were detained since Thursday, arrested at cafes and at their homes in Cairo, adding "the arrests continue".
Opposition groups -- including the April 6 movement, which spearheaded the popular uprising that ousted former leader Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in 2011 -- have called for the rally mainly in protest at the government's deal to hand two islands in the Red Sea to 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... On April 15, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in central Cairo in the biggest protest in two years demanding "the fall of the regime", with police firing tear gas to disperse them.
That protest was called for by both secular and Islamic activists, and while originally about the islands became a wider demonstration against the Sisi government.
Demonstrations not approved by the police have been banned.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Embassy of Russia in 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.... has rejected reports regarding Moscow’s cooperation with the Taliban group in fight against the loyalists of 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 Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in the country.
According to a statement by the Embassy of Russia, the statements by the Russian Presidential Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov have been repeatedly altered.
Dismissing the reports as baseless, the statement further added that the reports have sparked anger among the Russian officials, specifically the misinterpretation of the statements following the deadly attack in Kabul.
The statement also added that rumors circulating in social media are aimed at provoking the public view against the Russia, warning that such moves will have a negative impact on relations between the two nations.
The Russian Embassy also insisted that Moscow’s stance towards the Afghan grinding of the peace processor is clear, emphasizing that the Taliban group should accept the Afghan constitution, refrain from violence and terminate links with al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks.
The statement said Russia remains committed in supporting Afghanistan to bolster security and capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces.
This comes as reports earlier emerged regarding the growing concerns of Moscow as the loyalists of the Islamic State are expanding foothold and terrorist related activities in Afghanistan.
Moscow is mainly concerned that the loyalists of the terror group are looking to further expand foothold by infiltrating into the Central Asian countries and Russia.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[NYPOST] A Christian brother and sister from Syria felt blessed to have been among the dozen refugees selected to start a new life in Italia -- but now say their savior, Pope Francis, abandoned them on a Greek island, according to a report.
Roula and Malek Abo, who had been housed in a refugee camp on Lesbos, said they thanked their lucky stars when they found out the Vatican had selected them during the pontiff’s visit to the island last week, the Daily Mail reported.
Their dreams were shattered, though, when they were informed the following day that they would not be traveling to Rome. Instead, three Muslim families were taken.
Asked why they were all Muslim, Francis said there was something wrong with the papers of a Christian family on the list.
The siblings arrived in Greece on April 1 -- 10 days after a controversial European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... deal called for asylum-seekers in Greece to be returned to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Their hopes to avoid deportation now hinge on their applications for asylum.
"If they can do this for 12 people, they can do it for more," Roula, 22, told the paper. "If you have promised to take people back to Italia, will something like registration papers stand in your way?"
Community Sant’Egidio, the charity that organized the trip, and the Vatican would not explain the process involved in choosing the migrants colonists.
"The problem here is the three Syrians arrived after the March 20 deadline. They arrived just after the agreement between the European Union and Turkey," front man Massimiliano Signifredi told the Daily Mail.
"Our staff went to Lesbos and spoke with the people who were selected. But everything was decided by the Vatican," he said.
"The question why the pope took only Muslims is difficult to understand and he was suffering, I think, because he wanted to do something also for Christians as the chief of the Catholic Church. But he couldn’t because there is this international agreement [with the EU]," he said.
The Vatican declined comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
What a useless man. not that he kicked them out of the popemobile into dusty camp, but that he said he would take them and expect everyone else to take them
To hell with you pope. You are adverse to all wisdom and knowledge of Heaven you pre-madonna communist scumbag.
To hell with you. You do not know who you work for.
#3
With utmost respect (and a dash of quaking terror); questions wholly rhetorical, natch...
A newc kind of mind: Anaxagoras?
His pure righteous anger: cantankerous!
Old soldier, or spook?
Nous, news, noose, or nuke?
For Rantburg he's almost too rancorous.
#4
Flattery gets you everywhere Zenobia Floger6220.
I cannot believe rantburg has put up with me either. My angry swear words and self righteous pinions.
I have regrets of staining this Family site with vulgar representations distaste for the perverted turns of this world.
I'm embarrassed I sink so low and use gutter language for what should be a well written Synod of current events with eloquence worthy of Shakespeare.
I used to have a code for writing (not really).
You should see my twitter account! It's magnificent!
I lost everyone pretty much right after I started it and cussed these same peoples out.
I'm so ronery.
Anyways, Thanks for putting up with it. I really could have shown all of you more respect, but these days, who knows where that really is coming from anymore?
#9
newc, thanks. Entertaining, motivating reading, as usual. I'll try digging up that Twitter feed when I'm halfway organized. I should stress that while I'm inexplicably permitted to speak through Rantburg, I'd never presume to speak for Rantburg, let alone weigh in on anyone's right to post. Rock on!
#10
I hear that Benedict XVI is quite healthy still.
"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
Maybe the wrong pope retired
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/24/2016 21:10 Comments ||
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Some 300 people gathered on Saturday in St. James Monastery in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem and held a ceremony commemorating 101 years to the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
The ceremony was held after a mass that was led by Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian, and was attended by the leaders of Armenian community in Jerusalem. The service honored the memory of some 1.5 million Armenian victims whom Ottoman forces killed between 1915 and 1923, mainly in Syria.
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: Decision on a request made by the PML-N government for the formation of a judicial commission to probe the Panama Papers leaks will be taken after Chief Justice of Pakistain (CJP) Anwar Zaheer Jamali returns from his visit abroad, acting CJP Saqib Nisar said on Saturday.
Speaking on the sidelines of his oath-taking ceremony as the acting CJP, Justice Nisar said he did not have the powers as the acting chief to constitute the judicial commission.
The CJP will consult other judges before making any decision regarding the commission requested by the government, said Justice Nisar. He made it clear that every government department or agency would be bound to cooperate and assist the judicial commission if it is constituted.
Registrar Supreme Court Arbab Arif told media personnel that although the letter by the government about the commission has already been sent to the chief justice, "the decision will be made after Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali returns".
The oath was administered to Justice Nisar by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa in a ceremony at the Supreme Court.
Justice Nisar will serve as CJP during Chief Justice Jamali's stay in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , where he will participate in the annual ceremony of the Turkish Constitutional Court. He is expected to return on May 1.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... in his state address on Friday announced the writing of a letter to the chief justice to investigate allegations made against the premier's family in wake of the Panama Papers leak.
Soon after the announcement, the government issued an SRO under which a three-man commission under Section 3(1) of the Pakistain Commission of Inquiry Act, 1956 is appointed.
Constitutional expert S.M. Zafar said that the acting chief justice has the authority to take decision on the government request to constitute a judicial commission to probe the Panama Papers allegations.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... "the acting Chief Justice Saqib Nisar is not willing to take any decision on the government’s request," sources said.
Many, including former advocate general of Punjab, Khawaja Haris, were of the opinion that any decision by the acting chief justice will not be prudent because the opposition is demanding for a CJP-led commission to investigate the Panama leaks scandal.
"In all probability, the acting chief justice will prefer to stay away from the controversy," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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That's because those Juices are so powerful they can break anything they set their minds to.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... told world leaders at a UN ceremony Friday that Israel must stop "destroying" the climate in the Paleostinian territories.
"The Israeli occupation is destroying the climate in Paleostine and the Israeli settlements are destroying nature in Paleostine," Abbas told the gathering of 175 countries signing a landmark climate deal.
"Please help us in putting an end to occupation and to putting an end to settlements," said Abbas after signing the agreement.
The Paleostinian territories were among a group of 15 countries and parties that immediately presented their already-completed ratification of the accord aimed at tackling global warming.
Abbas signed on behalf of the observer state of Paleostine, a status the Paleostinians obtained in 2012 at the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... and which allows them to join international conventions and agreements.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#4
You are right G(R)Om. "Democrats" learned their tactics from the third world. They forgot the times we tried communism here where everyone almost DIED.
[Iran Press TV] Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi says Tehran has offered Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's family an asylum in Iran, but he refused, arguing his family is no different from other Syrian families.
The Syrian president was informed about the offer by Major General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), but Assad "declined the offer", saying his family "is like the rest of Syrian families and they will remain in Damascus," said Alavi in an interview with Lebanese television station al-Mayadeen.
The Iranian minister went on to say that the "plot against Syria" began when Damascus sided with the Leb's resistance movement Hezbollah on the Israeli aggression on Leb in July 2006.
During the 34-day war, known as the July War, Israeli regime waged a full-scale war on the Lebanese soil and killed some 1,300 people of the Arab country, displacing about a million others. The war also severely damaged Lebanese civil infrastructure.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Alavi also said that the ISISTakfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorist group has been hatching "plots and conspiracies" against Iran from the city of Raqqah, its de facto capital in the Syrian soil, among other places, adding that if Iran had not fought terrorism in Syria and Iraq, it would have had to do so in its western provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2016 00:00 ||
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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.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] When two C-130H aircraft arrived at Robins in the fall of 2013, each would play a significant role nearly two years later in a country over 7,000 miles away.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Libya’s Vice President Ahmed Maetig has expressed hope that the 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
