[Ynet] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi met Sunday amid signs of a rapprochement between
Cairo and the Islamic Death EaterHamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", group that could shake up Gazoo's political landscape and sideline the Paleostinian president. Officials close to Abbas said the Paleostinian leader had requested the meeting to seek clarifications on what appears to be an emerging power-sharing agreement between Gazoo's Hamas rulers and an exiled Abbas rival, former Gazoo strongman Mohammed Dahlan.
Under the deal--parts of which have been confirmed by other parties involved--Hamas would retain control over Gazoo's security, while Dahlan would eventually return to Gazoo and handle its foreign relations.
Separately, Dahlan and Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, reached several understandings, according to officials on both sides. Abbas’ aides said such contacts would only have been possible with Egypt’s blessing. Dahlan is a former leading figure in Abbas’s Fatah movement who fell out with the Paleostinian president in 2010, went into exile and has since forged strong ties with the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
The officials said they were told that as a first step, Dahlan was expected to disburse $50 million in UAE funds to the families of those killed in the Hamas-Fatah street fighting of 2006 and 2007. One of his main lieutenants, Samir Masharawi, an exiled Fatah leader from Gazoo, was to return to the territory to start implementing the deal.
Qatar made a series of secret agreements with its Gulf neighbors in 2013 and 2014 barring support for opposition and hostile groups in those nations, as well as in Egypt and Yemen.
The existence of the agreements has been known, but both the content and the documents themselves were kept secret due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and the fact that they were agreed in private by heads of state. The agreements were exclusively obtained by CNN from a source from the region with access to the documents.
The Gulf countries have accused Qatar of not complying with the two agreements, which helps explain what sparked the worst diplomatic crisis in the Middle East in decades.
Abiding by the agreements was among six principles the Gulf nations set as requirements to mend relations with Qatar in a statement released last week.
In a statement to CNN, Qatar accused Saudi Arabia and UAE of breaking the spirit of the agreement and indulging in an "unprovoked attack on Qatar's sovereignty."
The first agreement -- handwritten and dated November 23, 2013 -- is signed by the King of Saudi Arabia, the Emir of Qatar and the Emir of Kuwait. It lays out commitments to avoid any interference in the internal affairs of other Gulf nations, including barring financial or political support to "deviant" groups, which is used to describe anti-government activist groups.
The agreement, referred to as the Riyadh agreement, specifically mentions not supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Gulf allies have repeatedly alleged Qatar supports, as well as not backing opposition groups in Yemen that could threaten neighboring countries.
In justifying their boycott launched last month, Qatar's Gulf counterparts accuse Doha of financially supporting Hezbollah and other terror groups, in addition to backing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
In the first agreement, the countries also vowed not to support "antagonistic media," an apparent reference to Al Jazeera -- the satellite news station based in Qatar and funded by its government -- which other Gulf states accuse of trumpeting opposition groups in the region including Egypt and Bahrain.
A second agreement headlined "top secret" and dated November 16, 2014, adds the King of Bahrain, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Prime Minister of the UAE. It specifically mentions the signatories' commitment to support Egypt's stability, including preventing Al Jazeera from being used as a platform for groups or figures challenging the Egyptian government.
The second agreement specifically mentions Al Jazeera, and not other media outlets like the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya. After the agreement was signed, Al Jazeera had shut down a channel dedicated to Egypt coverage: Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr.
A supplemental document to the 2013 agreement signed by the countries' foreign ministers discusses implementation of the agreement.
It includes provisions barring support of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as outside groups in Yemen and Saudi Arabia that pose a threat to security and stability of Gulf Cooperation Council countries, a six-nation group that includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar.
The agreements do not single out Qatar, as the provisions included apply to all countries who signed it.
In response to CNN questions, a Qatari spokesman said in a statement that it was Saudi Arabia and the UAE who "have broken the spirit of the agreement."
"A full reading of that text will show that the intent of the 2013/14 agreements was to ensure that sovereign GCC nations be able cooperate within a clear framework," said Sheikh Saif Bin Ahmed Al-Thani, director of Qatar's government communication office.
"Their demands -- that Qatar close down Al Jazeera, force the breakup of families, and pay 'compensation' -- are demands that bear no relation to the Riyadh agreements," he added. "Further, at no point did Saudi Arabia or the UAE use the mechanisms in the Riyadh agreement to communicate their concerns to Qatar."
Al Thani said that the current list of demands put to Qatar "represent an unwarranted and unprecedented attack on Qatar's sovereignty, and it is for that reason that they have been rejected by Qatar and condemned by the international community."
"This crisis was triggered by a hacking, fabricated statements, and a coordinated media campaign against Qatar," he said. "From the beginning, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have attempted to conceal facts from the general public, including their own citizens, going so far as to block Al Jazeera and other media outlets within their borders."
The documents hint at longstanding tensions between the countries in the GCC.
In March 2014, for instance, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar because they alleged Qatar was not implementing the first agreement's pledge not to interfere in other countries' internal affairs.
But the agreements also appear to be an attempt to improve relations. Citing "extensive deliberations in which they conducted a full revision of what taints the relations between the [Gulf Cooperation] Council states," the first agreement states that the parties agreed to "abolish whatever muddies the relations."
But the agreements also provide new insight to help explain why nine Middle Eastern countries, led by Saudi Arabia, cut ties with Qatar in June over its alleged support of terrorism.
Qatar has called the allegations leveled last month "unjustified" and "baseless."
Four of the Arab States that boycotted Qatar submitted a list of 13 demands to end the diplomatic crisis, including shuttering Al Jazeera.
The list also included demands to cut ties to extremist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah and ISIS, to halt the development of a Turkish military base in the country and to stop the practice of giving Qatari nationality to their citizens.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said last week that Qatar's had responded negatively to the demands, saying Qatar's response was "overall negative and lacked any substance."
Qatari's foreign minister argued some of the demands violated international law.
"If you are looking at the demands -- there are accusations that Qatar is supporting terrorism -- they are shutting free speech, shutting the media outlets, expelling people. ... So there are a lot of demands which are against the international law," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told CNN's Christiane Amanpour last week.
Trump administration officials are hoping they can help broker a resolution to the diplomatic crisis. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is making stops in Qatar and then Saudi Arabia this week as part of his trip through the region, where he was already meeting Monday with officials in Turkey -- allied with Qatar in the dispute -- and Kuwait, which is playing a mediator role.
R.C. Hammond, a State Department spokesman, said the purpose of Tillerson's trip was "to explore the art of the possible of where a resolution can be found," and the US was "looking for areas of common ground where a resolution can stand."
"We've had one round of exchanges and dialogue and didn't advance the ball," Hammond told reporters. "We will work with Kuwait and see if we can hash out a different strategy. ... This is a two-way street. There are no clean hands."
President Donald Trump also spoke last week to the leaders of Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
When the Gulf countries first cut ties with Qatar, however, Trump appeared to support the Gulf countries cutting ties with Qatar, saying that Doha had to stop funding terrorism. Trump's comments came following his visit to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as president, and contradicted his secretary of state.
[Ynet] Germany began on Sunday to pull its troops out of a Ottoman Turkish air base where they have supported international operations against 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.... following a row with Ankara over access, a German defense ministry front man said.
The withdrawal from the Incirlik base, approved by the German parliament last month, marks a further step in one of many bilateral disputes, ranging from a post-coup clampdown by Ankara to Ottoman Turkish political campaigning in Germany.
German tornado jets were due to keep operating out of Incirlik at least until the end of July as part of a mission providing reconnaissance aircraft to support US-led coalition operations against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
In the meantime the necessary material was to be moved to a new air base in Jordan, where the planes are scheduled to be deployed by October.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/10/2017 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Joining massive crowd protesting crackdowns, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey opposition leader finishes 25-day trek from capital in protest of imprisoned politician
The leader of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s main opposition party completed his 25-day "March for Justice" from the capital Ankara to Istanbul Sunday and joined hundreds of thousands of supporters at a rally protesting a large-scale government crackdown on opponents.
Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu launched the 450-kilometer (280-mile) march after a parliamentarian from his party was imprisoned in June. The march grew into a protest of the massive crackdown on people with alleged links to terror groups that began after a coup attempt last summer.
"If only there was no need for this march and there was democracy, media freedoms, if civic society groups could freely express their opinions," Kilicdaroglu told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named as he headed Friday into the final stretch of his marathon march.
Once seen as feeble in his role as opposition leader, Kilicdaroglu has emerged as the voice of many Turks and been likened to India’s Mahatma Gandhi, who led a nonviolent march against British colonial practices.
Tens of thousands of people have joined Kilicdaroglu throughout his march in scorching heat, chanting "rights, law, justice." Hundreds of thousands of people greeted Kilicdaroglu while waving Ottoman Turkish flags and flags emblazoned with the word "justice."
Organizers said the weeks-long event expressed "a collective, nonpartisan desire for an independent and fair judicial system" that they claim is lacking in Turkey. No party flags or slogans were allowed on the march.
The government has accused Kilicdaroglu of supporting terrorist groups through his protest. Turkey’s President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... has said he is violating the law by attempting to influence the judiciary.
Turkey’s definition of supporting terror is so broad that it has caused an impasse in the country’s bid for European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... membership.
Parliament member Enis Berberoglu was sentenced last month to 25 years in prison for revealing state secrets, convicted of leaking footage to an opposition newspaper suggesting that Turkey’s intelligence service had smuggled weapons to Salafist tough guys in Syria.
In a New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... op-ed Friday, Kilicdaroglu called the case against Berberoglu "the last straw in a series of antidemocratic moves" by Erdogan’s government "targeting tens of thousands of Ottoman Turkish citizens -- politicians, journalists, academics, activists or ordinary citizens."
Following last year’s failed coup, the government imposed a state of emergency leading to the arrest of more than 50,000 people and the dismissal of some 100,000 civil servants. A dozen politicians from the pro-Kurdish opposition party have also been tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! Ordinary citizens, sacked public employees and high-profile figures have joined Kilicdaroglu on his march. Novelist Asli Erdogan and leading Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk, both released from jail pending trial on various terror-related charges, as well as Yonca Sik, the wife of a prominent journalist currently in prison, were just a few.
Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin said 15,000 coppers were providing security at the post-march rally.
The US Consulate issued a security message asking American citizens to exercise caution as "forces of Evil have targeted political rallies in the past, and that demonstrations and large events intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence."
[India Today] Over three dozen personnel from different armed forces including some commando units are undergoing law enforcement training at the Krav Maga headquarters at Saket area of Delhi.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the first PM of India to visit Israel in seven decades with many defence deals signed, a lesser known modern martial art technique from Israel -- Krav Maga -- is helping the Indian armed forces in thwarting terror attacks and also in maintaining law and order.
Over three dozen personnel from different armed forces including some commando units are undergoing law enforcement training at the Krav Maga headquarters at Saket area of Delhi. The personnel are learning tactics to arrest a suspect without killing him. Also, they are learning the tactics to survive knife attacks, stick attacks, multiple attackers and using their rifles and handguns as a 'cold weapon'.
"I brought Krav Maga to India in year 2002 after intensive training in Israel. This is the only self defence technique that is being evolved every moment and that is why it is the best," said Vikram Kapoor, head instructor at International Ultimate Krav Maga Federation.
Krav Maga (which literally means Contact Combat in English) is the most modern self defence technique developed by (Late) Imi Lichtenfled, a Hungarian born Jew, during the World War 2. During the attacks by Nazis on the Jews, Imi developed the technique for the minority to survive the bullying on the streets. Later he served in the Israeli army and developed the technique. The Israeli Defence forces (IDF) mandatorily train in Krav Maga and also Special Forces of many countries.
[IsraelTimes] Deputy speaker calls measure a ’declaration of war’ on Paleostinian Legislative Council; Abbas threatens ’economic sanctions’
The Paleostinian Authority cut the salaries of 37 Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",politicians as part of a series of measures to get the terror group to cede control of the Gazoo Strip, Paleostinian media reports said on Sunday.
The PA finance ministry informed MPs from Hamas’s Change and Reform bloc who are living in the West Bank that they would no longer receive their salaries, First Deputy Speaker of the Paleostinian parliament Ahmed Bahar, told the news site Safa.
Bahar called the measure a "declaration of war" against the Paleostinian Legislative council.
The speaker of the parliament, Aziz Dweik ...Dweik has been associated with The Moslem Brotherhood and Hamas since as early as 1992.... , was among those who had their salaries cut, Bahar said. According to Paleostinian law, Dweik would become Abbas’s temporary successor should the 82-year-old PA president no longer be able to continue his duties.
The Paleostinian parliament has not met since 2007, following a battle between Hamas and the PA’s ruling Fatah party.
Bahar noted the PA cut the salaries of all Hamas MPs living in Gazoo following the terror group’s takeover of the Strip in 2007.
Since April, in a series of measures meant to force Hamas give up control in Gazoo, Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has cut funds for Israeli-supplied electricity to Gazoo by 35 percent, reduced by one-third the salaries of tens of thousands of PA employees in Gazoo, reduced the medical budget for Gazoo by a reported 90% and forced more than 6,000 PA employees Gazoo into early retirement.
The Paleostinian Authority argues, along with Israel, that Hamas puts taxes it collects into its own coffers and military, while Ramallah pays the bills to keep the Strip’s institutions and infrastructure running.
In June, with Egyptian mediation, Dahlan and Hamas reportedly agreed to establish a new "management committee" of Gazoo, which would see the Fatah strongman share control of the Paleostinian enclave.
Why is President Sisi undermining President Abbas?
In an interview published in the Pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat on Sunday, Abbas said he would make a decision after his meetings in Cairo whether to impose "immediate financial sanctions" on Hamas’s leadership should it continue what he called "the coup on the institutions of the state of Paleostine in Ramallah."
Abbas did not make clear how he would implement the sanctions or what they would be.
[IsraelTimes] Terror group official says move is to prevent fugitives sneaking into the coastal enclave it controls in wake of assault that killed 23 Egyptian soldiers.
HT Muqata on FB
The $7.6 billion deal that Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz announced last Thursday morning, during President Donald Trump's visit to Warsaw, revolves around Israeli Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' technology without which the Poles would have nothing to do with the deal.
The US-based Raytheon is Rafael's close partner in the development and production of Stunner, the interceptor of the David's Sling system, which is possibly the world's most advanced interceptors in its class‐it can be fired at ranges from 25 to 300 185 miles. Stunner works well with both Rafael's David's Sling system and Raytheon's Patriot system, and the Poles want the Stunner inside their Patriot system.
Macierewicz announced on live TV Thursday that "a memorandum was signed tonight that the US government has agreed to sell Poland Patriot missiles in their most modern configuration." A memorandum signed between the US and Poland includes and American commitment to include in the deal technology related to SkyCeptor missiles and the 360-degree radar.
The 360-degree radar peripheral defense is also a Rafael development.
Macierewicz said on Thursdays that he had told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that the SkyCeptor missile and 360-degree radar technology are critical, and without them there would not deal.
Here's a cute note: Victor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of the Russian magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland," told RIA Novosti that Patriot is an "aging system that doesn't bear comparison with Russia's S-400 missile system."
"This system does not represent a threat to Russia," Murakhovsky insisted. "You have to remember that despite its gradual modernization it has a number of shortcomings. Secondly, after all it is a defensive type of system and is not capable of using any type of attack missiles. If you compare it with Russia's S-400 air defense system, the Patriot is inferior in a range of parameters, in particular with regard to its mobility and ability to combat high-precision ballistic missiles."
Which suggests the Russian are very worried.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
I believe it, actually. The Soviets always had the best SAM tech because they had much more to worry from aircraft.
Neither Assad nor Erdogan will be too happy about that, I s'pect
[ARA News] The Rojava self-administration in the Cizire canton in northern Syria has started to implement a tax income law to support public services in the region, local sources reported.
The tax income will go to support institutions and public services in Cizire canton–Hasakah province.
According to the pro-Rojava administration news agency ANHA, the tax income will be used in support of the health and education services, and to enhance the local security system and to back women rights.
The move only includes the Hasakah province, in northeastern Syria.
According to the local administration, tax laws exist everywhere in the world to back public services in the country.
Every citizen that earns a maximum income of 100,000 Syrian pound (around 200 dollar) per month will be taxed.
Most likely this will include 75 per cent of all citizens of the Cizire canton.
[IsraelTimes] Netanyahu says Israel will welcome ’genuine ceasefire;’ will monitor Tehran’s movement in region given jitters over ’Shiite crescent’
An open-ended ceasefire in southern Syria brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect at noon on Sunday, an hour after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gingerly endorsed the deal.
The ceasefire, announced after a meeting between US President Donald Trump
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Hezbollah building at least two subterranean facilities to manufacture medium-range rockets, sources tell Intelligence Online magazine.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group is constructing at least two underground facilities in Leb for manufacturing missiles and other weaponry, according to a report by the French Intelligence Online magazine.
While reports of these subterranean weapons facilities have been published in Arab media outlets before, the Intelligence Online article included two previously unknown pieces of information: the type of weaponry being produced and the approximate locations of two factories.
Sources told the French industry magazine that one of the factories is being built in northern Leb, near the town of Hermel in the eastern Bekaa Valley. The second facility is reportedly being constructed along the southern coast, between the towns of Sidon and Tyre.
According to Intelligence Online, the Hermel facility is being used to produce the Fateh 110, a medium-range missile. The southern facility, meanwhile, will be used to make smaller munitions.
The Fateh 110 has a range of approximately 190 miles (300 kilometers) -- enough to cover most of the State of Israel -- and can carry a half-ton warhead. It is considered fairly accurate, though to what extent is a matter of debate, according to a US Congressional Research Service report.
Israel’s David’s Sling missile defense battery, which went operational in April, is meant to protect the Jewish state against medium-range rockets like the Fateh 110.
In March, the Kuwaiti al-Jarida newspaper reported that Iran had established multiple facilities some 50 meters belowground and protected them with multiple layers of defenses from potential Israeli aerial bombardment, citing an unnamed deputy head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Iranian general was quoted by al-Jarida as saying that the decision to produce rockets indigenously in Leb came after Israel bombed weapons factories in Sudan and supply routes for Iranian rockets via Syria.
The new factories would mark a dramatic upgrade in Hezbollah’s ability to acquire additional, and more precise rockets than ever before.
Rockets produced by some of the new facilities have already been used by Hezbollah in battles in Syria, the Kuwaiti report said.
The latest developments highlight the depth of Iran’s involvement in Syria and Leb, something that both Israel and some Arab states have warned against in recent months.
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said last week that Israel is in the midst of a major campaign to thwart attempts by Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah to arm themselves with increasingly accurate missiles.
Addressing the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, Eisenkot said that the primary concern for Israel was what he called the "accuracy project" -- efforts by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah to equip themselves with accurate missiles.
"We are engaged in a whole campaign against the accuracy project and it is our top priority," he noted.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/10/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
We'll hear a lot of that, not, right there with which self identifying community commits a gross disproportionate amount of violent crime. Things not to be seen or heard in the LSM.
#2
94%? Yes, but, but, but this goes against the meme/narrative that has been pushed for so long. The basket of deplorables/unredeemables/war fighters seem to have gotten this.
#3
But, but, what about all the incidents of Islamophobia? The rolled eyes, the frowns, the failure to acknowledge the glorious things Islam has contributed to America?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/10/2017 8:59 Comments ||
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#4
statistics
a lot depends on definition of terrorism
a lot depends on the start and end time of the data
the part that the Islamic apologist miss or intentionally ignore is that, in muslim majority countries, Islamic terrorism is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of muslims every year
and since Islamic terrorism is Islam in a more virulent form, to me, the real killer of muslims is Islam itself
also, fear of Islam is real and is justified
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/10/2017 8:59 Comments ||
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#5
Read the article. The distinction is between "terrorist incidents" and "terrorist fatalities". If you count terrorist incidents, then 9/11 is counted as one incident, and so is the beating to death, in prison, of a pedophile by an Aryan brotherhood inmate, and so is the Oklahoma bombing, and so is a hate crime directed at a muslim mosque. Counting terrorist FATALITIES factors in the seriousness of the incident, which puts Oklahoma at #2 and 9/11 at #1. Of course, leaving out 9/11 skews the measures further. Oklahoma accounted for most of the remaining 6%.
As expended, The leftist trolls responding to the article clearly avoid the point, insisting on counting incidents instead of fatalities.
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.
[Ynet] Germany began on Sunday to pull its troops out of a 
