Man allegedly identified as Abu Elias found living as US citizen in Washington DC
He claimed it was 'f***ing lies' that he was involved in the terror attack in 1988
This comes after daughter of former terrorist claims Ahmed Jibril led the plot
Elias dismissed claims made by author Douglas Boyd that he was Jibril's nephew
A man suspected of planting the Lockerbie bomb has been discovered living in a suburban town in Washington DC under a different name.
Once allegedly identified as Abu Elias, the Syrian-born American father claimed it was 'complete lies' that he was involved in the terror attack that killed 270 people 30 years ago.
Elias hit out at former Cold War spy and author Douglas Boyd who claimed Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrah - the man convicted of the attack - was falsely imprisoned.
And the suspect, who lives 20 miles from the Lockerbie Cairn Memorial at Washington, told the Daily Mirror he was innocent.
Author Boyd claimed the man is now working at a school in the US capital under the name Basel Bushnaq.
Mr Boyd told the Mail on Sunday that shortly after the disaster, the Paleostine Liberation Organisation, keen to boost its credentials as a political rather than terrorist organization, published an 80-page report claiming the PFLP-GC had been paid to blow up the plane ‐ by Iran.
It also named Elias as a prime suspect for breaking into the Pan Am baggage store in Heathrow and planting the bomb. The baggage handling area had been broken into with bolt croppers shortly before Flight 103 took off.
Campaigners have long claimed it was Elias who planted the brown Samsonite suitcase on the flight before it took off for New York.
This comes after the daughter of a former terrorist said her father admitted to relatives that his cell leader, Ahmed Jibril, led the 1988 plot to down Pam Am flight.
Jordanian Saha Kheersat, 43, claimed her father Marwan Khreesat left his wife a dossier of evidence showing that Jibril - Marwan's boss in a Paleostinian terror group - was paid millions of pounds by Tehran to criminal mastermind the attack.
Author Boyd, in his recent book Lockerbie: The Truth, claims it was Jibril's nephew Elias that broke into the baggage storage at Heathrow to plant the device.
The Paleostine Liberation Organisation and the CIA have also previously named Elias as the suspect of the bombing.
Asked by the Daily Mirror if he was ever known under the name of Abus Elias, he said: 'No. I have been subject to more than 90 hours of investigation from Scotland Yard and the FBI, and they are through with me.'
He added: 'I'm not the nephew to no one. The bit you are talking about is full of f***ing lies. It's a bloody lie.'
When asked by The Daily Mirror where he was on December 21, 1988, he said: 'I was in the United States. The FBI saw my journal they know I was in South West Washington DC handling my job.'
He later admitted that the identity he is currently living under is not his birth name.
And the suspect branded Mr Boyd a 'son of a b***h', the Daily Mirror revealed.
Author Boyd wrote in his book: 'Megrahi was convicted on a tissue of lies. Little of the evidence against him can be taken at face value.
'It is a story of incompetence, vengeance, political expediency and then a cover-up orchestrated from the highest levels in London and in Washington ‐ where the real bomber is said to live today, under cover of a witness protection scheme.'
The former Libyian security officer Megrahi was convicted in 2001, the only person found guilty of the bombing.
He was locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! for 27 years but died of prostate cancer at home in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... aged 60 in 2012 after being released on compassionate grounds in 2009.
It is believed he planned to reveal Elias' identity before he died in a bid to clear his own name.
But shortly after he was freed SNP politician Christine Grahame used Scottish Parliamentary privilege to identify the man she named as Elias.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) announced earlier this year that a full review of the case is to be carried out to decide if a fresh appeal against Megrahi's conviction can be made.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force will receive seven new light attack and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft with the first delivery scheduled for next month.
"The Afghan Aviation Modernization Program (AAMP) seeks to address ANDSF aerial fires and lift gaps and replace the Mi-17 fleet with U.S.-made helicopters while ensuring sustainment costs are affordable," the Department of Defense said in its latest report on Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan.
According to the report, as of the end of December 2018, DoD has delivered to Afghanistan 30 UH-60s for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) and the first five new armed MD-530 helicopters to add to the 30 that were fielded previously.
The report further added that the first AC-208 attack/ISR light fixed wing aircraft will be delivered in January 2019, with a total of seven scheduled to be fielded through March.
"The AAF pilot training is maintaining pace with AAF growth milestones and incoming platforms," the report said.
[BREITBART] Austria has announced plans to automatically block asylum for migrants colonists who arrive with the help of smugglers, with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stressing the importance of "smashing the business model of human traffickers".
Asylum policy in Austria "must head in this direction" in order to make the system fairer, stated interior minister Herbert Kickl this week, telling Kronen Zeitung that the "existing system" in which migrants colonists who pay criminal smuggling gangs have a significant advantage in reaching Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... "is the most unjust and inhumane one possible".
Appearing on Austrian public broadcaster ORF to speak on the issue of third world migrants colonists taking boats to Europe, Chancellor Kurz struck a similar tone, telling the channel’s Report programme: "It is not the poorest who flee, but the ones who can afford to pay [people-smugglers]."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually a very clever idea. The left is process obsessed and this will catch them in a major bout of hypocrisy. I hope Trump is taking note.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/23/2018 10:35 Comments ||
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[APNEWS] A French judicial official says the alleged gunman who shot and killed five people in a Christmas market attack this month in Strasbourg 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.... group.
The judicial official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, said Sherlocks have found a video stored on a USB key in which Cherif Chekatt had claimed allegiance to the bad boy group. The video was at Chekatt’s home.
Chekatt, 29, died in a shootout with police two days after his Dec. 11 attack at Strasbourg’s popular Christmas market.
Shortly after his death, the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency claimed he was a "soldier" of the group. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had rejected the claim as "totally opportunistic."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"It's a mystery, we'll probably NEVER know his motivation...
This just in: Annnndddd.... it's Islam"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2018 9:56 Comments ||
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[APNEWS] Spain’s Foreign Ministry gave permission Saturday to an aid boat carrying 311 rescued migrants colonists to set course for Spain after Italia and other Mediterranean countries did not answer its request to dock.
The boat belonging to the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms saved 313 migrants colonists Friday in waters near Libya. A baby and its mother were then evacuated from the boat.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said Malta denied the aid boat permission to dock and the boat’s calls to Italia, La Belle France, Tunisia and Libya have gone unanswered.
The aid group said it now has permission to enter the Spanish port of Algeciras. On its Twitter account, Proactiva said "it will be many and difficult days sailing, but we have a safe port."
[DW] Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insists Italian ports "are closed" after the latest docking request by a Spanish migrant rescue ship. The populist Rome government has taken a hard-line approach to the refugee influx.
Although the number of migrants colonists crossing from Libya to Italia has fallen sharply since its peak last year, this part of the Mediterranean has been the deadliest for those attempting to make it to Europe. More than 1,300 migrants colonists have perished trying to reach Italia or Malta since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Despite obstruction by some European countries, several charities, including Germany's Sea-Eye are still operating in the Mediterranean. One of Sea-Eye's rescue ships set off from the southern Spanish port of Algeciras earlier this week, as the narrow stretch of water between Morocco and Spain has increasingly become the preferred route for migrant crossings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... would take over the fight against the krazed killerIslamic 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 in Syria after pullout of US troops from the country, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, in the latest upheaval wrought by Washington’s abrupt policy shift.
The surprise announcement by US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... this week that he would withdraw roughly 2,000 troops has felled a pillar of American policy in the Middle East. Critics say Trump’s decision will make it harder to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s seven-year-old conflict.
For Turkey, the step removes a source of friction with the United States. Erdogan has long castigated his NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ally over its support for Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters against IS. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group and an offshoot of the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), fighting for Kurdish autonomy across the border on Ottoman Turkish soil.
The roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria, many of them special forces, were ostensibly helping to combat IS but were also seen as a possible bulwark against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , who had retaken much of the country from his foes in the multi-sided civil war, with military help from Iran and Russia.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Suuurrre, they will. Just like they fought ISIS until that reporter looked inside the humanitarian supoles trucks and found neatly stacked weapons, courtesy of the Turkish government by way of, as I recall, the same IHH that attacked Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmara during the first Gaza flotilla.
[PRESSTV] Thousands of protesters from all over The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... take to the street in Istanbul to demonstrate against the rise in the cost of living in Turkey.
Banners held in the protests make references to the "yellow vests" movement in La Belle France, which began as a demonstration against fuel price rises but snowballed into anti-government protests.
The protest, organized by the KESK, a confederation of public service workers unions, drew people from all over Turkey, including the northwestern provinces of Edirne, Bursa and Yalova.
They shouted "work, bread, freedom" and also carried banners saying "the crisis is theirs, the street is ours" and "Haziran" which means June in Ottoman Turkish. June refers to the mass 2013 demonstrations against President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... , sparked by the planned redevelopment of Gezi Park in Istanbul.
Saturday's protest comes almost a week after thousands of people demonstrated in another KESK rally against the cost of living in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
The Ottoman Turkish economy has come under heavy strain since a currency crisis in August and inflation reached 25.24 percent in October, a 15-year-high. Although inflation dropped to 21.62 in November, the price of everyday goods remains high.
Since the start of this year, the lira has lost nearly 22.5 percent in value against the US dollar. The country's economic growth has also slowed down raising fears of a recession after the economy contracted by 1.1 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter.
A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of shrinking output based on a quarter on quarter comparison.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Nearly 300,000 Syrians have returned to their country after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's two cross-border operations in northern Syria, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Turkey has carried out two operations, dubbed "Euphrates Shield" and "Olive Branch", against Kurdish YPG militia and 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.... in northern Syria. Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization.
I’m afraid I do not see any cause and effect here. But that 300,000 Syrians felt safer in Syria than in Turkey is certainly a significant change, regardless of the reason.
#1
Alternatively... Turkey depopulates areas of pesky Kurds, such as the Afrin area, and repopulates it with more tractable residents. This is an old, old Ottoman Empire tactic -- the *old* residents want to kill the new settlers who are forced to become loyalists to the Sultan in self-defense.
[Telegraph] A group awarded more than £140,000 of EU funding hosted a speaker who described Zionism as a global "criminal enterprise" that seeks control of "democratic rights".
Speaking a fortnight ago on a panel organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission,
... a non-profit based in London since 1997, the group has been described as “the most conspicuous promoter of Khomeini jihadism in the UK, ... [and] is said to be close to Iran.” They advocate for Sharia law, BDS, and Muslim prisoners, and are a key organizer of London’s annual Al Quds Day activities...
Ramon Grosfoguel, a Puerto Rican academic, said the state of Israel was an "extremist organization" that has the "audacity" to label Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, and Hezbollah, the holy warrior groups, as terrorist organizations.
Addressing the IHRC's conference in London, Prof Grosfoguel also claimed that "Zionists" were "encouraging the rise of extreme right new fascist ...anybody not a leftist... groups".
The disclosure comes after The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that the European Commission had signed off more than £140,000 in funding to the group.
The Telegraph can also disclose that the IHRC published a post on its website praising Omar Abdul Rahman, the krazed killerholy man convicted for conspiracy to levy a war of urban terrorism against the US.
In the 2013 post, while he was in prison, the holy man is described "a living example of courage and unshakable faith for the Moslem Ummah today."
The IHRC urged supporters to write to him during Ramadan, with a sample letter stating: "Your life is such an inspiration to me ‐ how you battled the challenges in your life to continue to struggle for what you believed in."
Last week The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that the European Commission had allocated more than £140,000 to the IHRC in 2016.
The group organises the annual Al Quds rally in London at which demonstrators call for the destruction of Israel.
The European Commission said last week that it was preparing to "terminate" its funding agreement based on allegations that the IHRC had "expressed anti-Semitic views."
Addressing the IHRC conference earlier this month, Prof Grosfoguel said: "The Israeli State is an krazed killer organization that practices and promotes terrorism.
But at the same time they have the audacity of declaring terrorist and anti-Semitic the same organization that resists their atrocities."
In a video of the event posted on the IHRC Facebook page, Prof Grosfoguel is seen describing Zionism as "a criminal enterprise that pretends to be normalised everywhere and that has the audacity to criminalise everybody who resists them."
He added: "There's a Zionist industry that has put together a global institutional framework to put things upside down and make us believe that what they're doing is defensive and resisting the terrorists.
"In the process of shaping the institutional framework to criminalise critics of Israel and to criminalise support to the resistance, they are contributing to the elimination of basic democratic rights in the west and encouraging the rise of extreme right new fascist groups."
Dave Rich, head of policy at the Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism, said: "This speech evokes classical antisemitic conspiracy theories, with its talk of global Zionist frameworks and lobbies controlling what people think, and it does so to encourage people to support terrorist groups that are banned in this country. It is yet another example of the IHRC's extremism."
He added that it was "appalling" that the European Commission had agreed to fund the IHRC. Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, a counter-extremism group, said it was "disgusting" that the IHRC's website contained a "fawning" message about Abdul Rahman.
He said: "How can this convict who wanted to destroy innocent lives, masquerading as a Sheikh, produce anything but revulsion in anyone for his collusion in a major terrorist plot? "
[Rudaw] Border officials at Ibrahim Khalil customs zone report a 17%-decrease in trade between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... and the Kurdistan Region.
Truck drivers who used to make two trips across the border a day are now down to one.
Truck drivers crossing the border daily carrying good from Turkey say that the increasing number of check points and tariffs on Iraqi roads has led to the slowdown of trade between the two countries.
Two thirds of all imports from Turkey is destined for the Iraqi market.
One trader said that some Ottoman Turkish businessmen are now taking their cargo to Iraq by sea and to the port of Basra, bypassing the land border with the Kurdistan Region.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] The Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, resistance movement says it will not agree to the creation of a Paleostinian state in the Gazoo Strip, warning that US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's so-called "deal of the century" is aimed at the establishment of a Paleostinian state in the impoverished coastal enclave only.
"We reject this deal, which seeks to undermine the Paleostinian cause by taking the issues of al-Quds and refugees off the table," Sami Abu Zuhri ...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... said in an exclusive interview with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s official Anadolu news agency.
He added, "Our right extends to the whole Paleostinian territories, not only the Gazoo Strip. Our major goal is not only Gazoo, but the liberation of all Paleostine."
As that otherwise sophisticated perfesser fella said, in insistent innocence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.”
The senior Paleostinian official further noted that the "deal of the century," the details of which Washington has yet to disclose, is a plan for regional peace rather than a solution to the Israeli‐Paleostinian conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] A French official says his country has pledged backing for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed anti-Damascus alliance of mainly Kurdish holy warriors, amid the planned withdrawal of American troops from the Arab country.
The Elysee Palace official said that advisers to French President Emmanuel Macron had assured SDF of their support in a meeting with the group's figures, including co-chairs Ilham Ahmed and Riad Darrar, in Gay Paree on Friday.
"The advisers passed on a message of support and solidarity and explained to them the talks La Belle France had with US authorities to continue the fight against ISIS," the official added.
The remarks came two days after President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... unexpectedly announced that the US would be pulling all its 2,000 forces out of Syria. He also claimed victory over 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... terror outfit in the war-torn state.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... La Belle France, a leading member of the US-led coalition, purportedly fighting ISIS in Syria, said that it would keep troops in Syria.
"For now of course we remain in Syria," La Belle France's European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said on CNews television, noting "the fight against terrorism is not over."
Separately, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Gay Paree had started talks with Washington on the timeframe and conditions for the US's Syria withdrawal.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps holds the main and final stage of massive exercises in the Persian Gulf, launching an "offensive" component in Iran's defensive strategy for the first time.
The Great Prophet 12 drill entered its final chapter in the general area on Saturday, with IRGC chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari saying "we hope the enemies have more than ever grasped the power of our response."
"This was a response to allegations made by the enemies who should know that the defense capabilities of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran are deterrent, and as the Eminent Leader [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ...the successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the actual dictator of Iran... ] has said, 'if they try to hit us once, they will definitely be hit 10 times more'," Jafari told news hounds.
The IRGC Ground Force’s chief Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said the drills take place on a strategic and defensive level proportionate to the enemies’ potential threats.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"They're 'offensive' ?"
"You bet, they stink on ice!"
(H/T to Mr. M. Brooks)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/23/2018 7:13 Comments ||
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[Rudaw] The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... is concerned about an estimated 6,000 civilians human shields trapped by ISIS in Hajin.
"We are of course aware of continuing reports of intense fighting in and around Hajin enclave, with estimated 6,000 civilians human shields trapped by Da’esh in desperate conditions," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told Rudaw’s Majeed Gly on Friday.
"Sustained access to civilians displaced by ongoing hostilities in the immediate vicinity of the Hajin area has remained very challenging," he added.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) broke the back of ISIS defences in Hajin last week, after weeks of stalemate, but are fully in control of only 35 percent the town, estimated SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali on Friday.
And ISIS is fighting to regain territory. The SDF forces came under an intense attack by gunnies in Hajin’s Abu Khatr village, said Bali. The Kurdish-led forces were defending themselves against ISIS boom-mobiles and heavy weapon fire, with the aid of coalition air support.
The civilians human shields are caught in the middle. Conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 200 civilians in the last month of fighting in eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
Some 1,700 civilians were able to flee the town as the SDF advanced, but the gunnies also executed more than 700 of its prisoners when it was under military pressure.
Civilians who do escape are sheltering in makeshift circumstances and Dujarric said they have difficulty accessing the IDPs as "the area remains largely inaccessible due to current instability."
The UN's warning and ongoing intense festivities firmly contradict US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s recent claim that he "defeated ISIS in Syria."
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said that Trump’s announcement and order to pull American troops out of Syria "may have given it [ISIS] a new lease on life."
A "military free-for-all" if ISIS has the space to regroup and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has the freedom to attack the SDF, will "have devastating humanitarian consequences," ICG warned.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) urged the US to reconsider its decision to withdraw from Syria.
The defeat of ISIS "is an integrated process based on drying up the intellectual resources and addressing the social and cultural factors that help the emergence and spread of the terror epidemic that threatens the entire world," said Saadi Pira, PUK spokesperson, in comments published by the party’s media.
Pulling out of northern Syria, a region that has become a headquarters in the fight against extremism in Syria, "undermines the balance of power" in the country and the region, ultimately weakening global counter-terror efforts and puts at risk efforts to find a political solution to the Syria conflict, he argued.
The result will be "new wars... and bloody conflicts," and puts the Kurds in Syria at "imminent risk," he said.
America’s allies have widely criticized President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s shock decision to declare ISIS "defeated in Syria" and bring US troops home.
Defense officials are considering an option that would allow small numbers of US special forces to be based in Iraq and “surge” across the border on raids, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous military officials. This would allow the US to continue its support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and would keep up the pressure on ISIS.
By all reports, the Pentagon was not involved in the decision. Trump’s Secretary of State James Mattis resigned over the matter.
Defense officials are considering an option that would allow small numbers of US special forces to be based in Iraq and "surge" across the border on raids, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported, citing anonymous military officials. This would allow the US to continue its support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and would keep up the pressure on ISIS.
La Belle France and Britannia, who both have troops on the ground in northern Syria, have said they will not follow Trump’s lead and order a withdrawal.
Aid agencies have warned that the US withdrawal could result in a new humanitarian crisis.
Pulling out some 2,000 US troops and American air power "will create a power vacuum that will likely lead to a new round of conflict," said Hardin Lang, vice president of Refugees International.
"Renewed fighting will disrupt communities, displace additional populations, and could trigger another humanitarian crisis," he said.
Civilian populations in northern Syria have few options of where to go if they have to flee. The border to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... is closed off to the north and west. Areas to the south are controlled by the regime, include expanses of desert, and end with the closed border to Jordan. The only option may be to go east, to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
Middle East analyst Daniel Benaim advised the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to develop a humanitarian contingency plan in case of a resurgent ISIS in Syria or a Ottoman Turkish attack on the Kurds.
[DailyMail] Brett McGurk (center) has moved up his departure date two months after very publicly stating the possibly catastrophic outcome that could result should President Trump (right) elect to pull American forces at this time. The veteran diplomat, who got his start in the administration of George W. Bush and was appointed to his current post by Barack Obama teachable moment...
What, dear Reader, are the odds that he’s a closet NeverTrumper?
now joins Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (left) in an administration exodus of experienced national security officials. Mattis, who is the most respected foreign policy official in the administration, announced on Thursday that he will leave by the end of February.
McGurk’s letter, submitted Friday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was described to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Saturday by an official familiar with its contents. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before the letter was released and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump is acting to pull all 2,000 US troops from Syria and has now declared victory over ISIS, contradicting his own experts’ assessments. Many politicians have called his action rash and dangerous.
The decision will fulfill Trump’s goal of bringing troops home from Syria, but military leaders have pushed back for months, arguing that the ISIS group remains a threat and could regroup in Syria’s long-running civil war.
That sounds like it was not a sudden impulse responding merely to the mood of the moment...
McGurk said at a State Department briefing on December 11 that "it would be reckless if we were just to say, ’Well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now.’ I think anyone who’s looked at a conflict like this would agree with that."
Clearly not.
A week before that, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US had a long way to go in training local Syrian forces to prevent a resurgence of ISIS and stabilize Syria. He said it would take 35,000 to 40,000 local troops in northeastern Syria to maintain security over the long term, but only about 20 percent of that number had been trained.
Considerably more than that have been trained, but they kept skiving off with their weapons to join Al Nusra and similar groups instead of sticking to the plan.
McGurk, 45, previously served as a deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran, and during the negotiations for the landmark Iran nuclear deal by the B.O. regime, led secret side talks with Tehran on the release of Americans imprisoned there.
Did he, indeed? Fascinating.
Taking over for now for McGurk will be his deputy, retired Lt. Gen. Terry Wolff, who served three tours of active duty in Iraq.
Jim Jeffrey, a veteran diplomat who was appointed special representative for Syria engagement in August, is expected to stay in his position, officials said.
#2
No one remembers the calls for 'On to Berlin' and Eisenhower's decision to stop at the Elbe. He didn't think it was worth the amount of American lives it would take when someone else would do the job. There would be complications because of that decision. However, we sit here now and those complications have all long since evaporated.
#3
The problem with this article is the reference to Syria's northeast. If that refers to Syria's Hasaka Province, there are indications that the region, heavily populated by Kurds, will receive the support of US forces. The fact that US forces will leave Syria does not indicate that US forces will leave Iraq Kurdistan, and Kurdish troops in Hasaka can be supported by US forces present in and around Irbil.
#7
I also thought leaving the battle space was a bad idea. As it turns out the President had a plan in motion already to swap US forces for Saudi and Emerati forces. That they were able to pull this off without telegraphing the plan is impressive. Perhaps it is another explanation for Kashoigi’s demise.
#10
Trade a Muslim Brotherhood journalist life for those of our troops on the line. Don't make me choose. Someone who gets paid a lot more than me, to make those decisions is in place.
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.
[DailyMail] 
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force will receive seven new light attack and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft with the first delivery scheduled for next month. 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[APNEWS] A French judicial official says the alleged gunman who shot and killed five people in a Christmas market attack this month in Strasbourg had pledged allegiance to the 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[Ynet] Nearly 300,000 Syrians have returned to their country after 
...anybody not a leftist...
[PRESSTV] The 
[PRESSTV] A French official says his country has pledged backing for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed anti-Damascus alliance of mainly Kurdish
...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...
