[ToloNews] The number of police forces has reached nearly 200,000, a bigwig of the MoI said.
Speaking at a presser in Kabul on Sunday, the Deputy Minister of the MoI, Noor Jalal Jalali, said that security has improved in the country.
"The security is improved 90 percent compared to before. Countering criminal activities, corruption and narcotics is serious," he said.
Jalali said that ISIS is being eliminated and that its attacks have recently decreased.
"Wherever the Islamic Emirate rules, It (ISIS) is being eliminated. If you compare the previous incidents with the current, it is way less," he said.
Jalali also talked about the general amnesty announced by the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, and said that the decree has been observed.
"The commission to facilitate the return of Afghan politicians is part of this decree. You see that influential leaders of Afghanistan who worked as members of parliament, as well as governors, and ministers have returned. This itself is the implementation of the decree," he said.
According to the MoI, the forces of the Islamic Emirate have uncovered 29 drug factories over the last year.
It has detained 2,222 people on charges of selling drugs.
[KhaamaPress] The "martyrdom brigades," aka jacket wallah units, are a part of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... security forces and the group’s "pride," said Mawlawi Noor Jalal Jalali, the Taliban’s deputy interior minister, in a presser.
At the presser for the Ministry of Interior’s annual report held on Sunday, August 28, the Taliban official stated that "the martyrdom brigades (suicide bomber battalions) are an integral part of our Jihad and our source of pride, their small or large number is confidential, which we do not see it necessary to explain."
The Afghan military and security forces’ organization has never before included suicide bomber forces.
These suicide bombers were used by the Taliban in the attacks against foreign forces that resulted in numerous civilian casualties.
Last year, a ceremony honoring the suicide bombers who killed thousands of civilians, American and allied forces in Afghanistan was held in Kabul by the Taliban’s acting interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani ...son of Pashtun warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, still titular head of the Haqqani Network.... Haqqani reportedly welcomed and embraced the families of the suicide bombers, hailing them as "heroes of Islam and country," giving each family $125 and pledging them a plot of land.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head, has previously stated that his organization, the Haqqani Network, has carried out more suicide operations than any other group.
Haqqani revealed at a recent conference in Kandahar that 1050 members of the Haqqani network ...a branch of the Afghan Taliban, based in Pakistain. The network is a family business founded by the later Jalaluddin Haqqani... had conducted suicide kabooms in the previous 15 years.
[KhaamaPress] Former Afghan National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) director Rahmatullah Nabil claims that the Pak military has started an operation against Tehrik-e-Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... Pakistain (TTP), aka Pak Taliban, in the territory of Afghanistan.
The former Afghan official wrote on his Twitter handle on Monday, 29th of August, that Pakistain has launched operations to suppress the TTP in Afghanistan for days, without the consultation of the Taliban officials.
"Pakistain’s military operation against TTP has actually started since few days ago in Afghanistan’s territory," Nabil tweeted. "Either Mullah M Yaqoub has not been consulted or he is trying to pretend that they are independent."
Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid, the Taliban’s acting Minister of Defense, did not mention the Mighty Pak Army’s presence in Afghanistan during a presser held in Kabul on Sunday. Nevertheless, he urged Pakistain to cease allowing US drones access to its airspace.
Pakistain, on the other hand, has dismissed assertions made by the Taliban’s acting defense minister that the US has performed drone operations in Afghanistan through Pak airspace.
The Pak statement in addition to denying the allegations called on the Taliban authorities to fulfill its obligations under the international instruments to not allow its territory to be used by terrorism while labeling the Taliban minister’s remarks as "conjectural allegations."
Nabil’s remarks come as a CIA dronezap killed the al-Qaeda leader in the Afghan capital, Kabul, almost a month ago, while the Taliban alleges the drones accessed Afghanistan through Pakistain’s airspace.
The Taliban in Afghanistan has previously been able to secure a temporary ceasefire between the TTP and Pakistain and are actively mediating and facilitating peace talks between the two parties.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/30/2022 02:36 ||
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Fighting was reported in a volatile area of northern #Ethiopia, local sources say, despite urgent international appeals for a halt to the renewed hostilities between government forces and Tigrayan rebels.https://t.co/DI3qtwQOWI
Withdraw Security Agents From Akwa Ibom Creeks, Territories Immediately Or Risk Total Destruction Of Oil Facilities– Militant Group Threatens Nigerian Government | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/qZIfAmD5Jjpic.twitter.com/2Z2O2HRcQm
It's like they're trying to manipulate your emotions to achieve the ends of the deep state in DC. Huh, Facebook employs psychologists, don't they? Weird. Just a coincidence, I guess.
The Intercept is the toy of Pierre Omidyar, yet another Progressive internet billionaire who also donates to all the usual causes and organizations. In his case, the French-born Iranian-American gave us eBay, which he ran until 2015. Under the circumstances, certain prejudices are de rigueur.
[TheIntercept] AFTER A SERIES of Israeli airstrikes against the densely populated Gaza Strip earlier this month, Palestinian Facebook and Instagram users protested the abrupt deletion of posts documenting the resulting death and destruction. It wasn’t the first time Palestinian users of the two giant social media platforms, which are both owned by parent company Meta, had complained about their posts being unduly removed. It’s become a pattern: Palestinians post sometimes graphic videos and images of Israeli attacks, and Meta swiftly removes the content, providing only an oblique reference to a violation of the company’s "Community Standards" or in many cases no explanation at all.
The poor darlings.
Not all the billions of users on Meta’s platforms, however, run into these issues when documenting the bombing of their neighborhoods.
Previously unreported policy language obtained by The Intercept shows that this year the company repeatedly instructed moderators to deviate from standard procedure and treat various graphic imagery from the Russia-Ukraine war with a light touch. Like other American internet companies, Meta responded to the invasion by rapidly enacting a litany of new policy carveouts designed to broaden and protect the online speech of Ukrainians, specifically allowing their graphic images of civilians killed by the Russian military to remain up on Instagram and Facebook.
Meta put their thumb on a scale? I’m shocked. Shocked!!
No such carveouts were ever made for Palestinian victims of Israeli state violence — nor do the materials show such latitude provided for any other suffering population. To know who rules you, simply find who you are not allowed to criticize.
The Ukrainians? But Mr. Omidyar is — well, was — Persian. Now he follows the Dalai Lama and tries to do good in the world, as he sees it. Sometimes he is right.
RIGHTS ADVOCATES TOLD The Intercept that the exemptions made for the Russia-Ukraine war are the latest example of a double standard between Meta’s treatment of Western markets and the rest of the world — evidence of special treatment of the Ukrainian cause on Meta’s part since the beginning of the war and something that can be seen with media coverage of the war more broadly.
Though the majority of users on social platforms owned by Meta live outside the United States, critics charge that the company’s censorship policies, which affect billions worldwide, tidily align with U.S. foreign policy interests.
Sometimes, no doubt. When the U.S. government is in Democratic Party hands. They were decidedly oppositional when Donald Trump was in the White House.
Rights advocates emphasized the political nature of these moderation decisions. "Meta was capable to take very strict measures to protect Ukrainians amid the Russian invasion because it had the political will," said Shtaya, "but we Palestinians haven’t witnessed anything of these measures."
Meta’s public-facing Community Standards rulebook says: "We remove content that glorifies violence or celebrates the suffering or humiliation of others because it may create an environment that discourages participation" — noting a vague exception for "graphic content (with some limitations) to help people raise awareness about these issues." The Violent and Graphic Content policy places a blanket ban on gruesome videos of dead bodies and restricts the viewing of similar still images to adults 18 years and older.
In an expanded, internal version of the Community Standards guide obtained by The Intercept, the section dealing with graphic content includes a series of policy memos directing moderators to deviate from the standard rules or bring added scrutiny to bear on specific breaking news events. A review of these breaking news exceptions shows that Meta directed moderators to make sure that graphic imagery of Ukrainian civilians killed in Russian attacks was not deleted on seven different occasions, beginning at the immediate onset of the invasion. The whitelisted content includes acts of state violence akin to those routinely censored when conducted by the Israeli military, including multiple specific references to airstrikes.
Oh dear. Ukraine = Israel. That’s going to upset some of our new visitors. Others, of course, will be pleased, as they’ve been saying so all along.
#2
It should be obvious - showing disgusting videos of dead people provokes a disgust reaction - making people super angry at Russia. Censoring the same videos prevents people from getting super angry at Israel.
You think the psychologists who specialize in manipulating the emotions of huge numbers of people don't know this?
#3
showing disgusting videos of dead people provokes a disgust reaction
Very true. But, psychologically speaking, disgusting images are those of rotting flesh, feces, or vomit. The graphic images from the Ukraine-Russia contretemps (because we oughtn’t call it a proper war, according to Russia) fall under the heading of distressing and, as I recall, psych studies show that most people prefer to avoid being distressed if they can — a very different response. What those who love Palestine post, on the third hand, is correctly termed propaganda, being either selectively edited or created by the Pallywood specialists out of whole cloth.
[DW] Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi tells DW that a scheme to offer seasonal work visas to Bangladeshis will start soon. Some migrants colonists are critical of the plan, saying it offers no long-term security.
And of course they will all turn around and go back home when their visas expire, like the Turkish guest workers before them.
[GEO.TV] After months-long hectic efforts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board Monday approved the seventh and eighth review of the stalled $6 billion Pakistan programme, announced Finance Minister Miftah Ismail. Just what Pakistain needs -- borrow more money.
The finance minister announced the development on his Twitter handles saying: “Alhamdolillah the IMF board has approved the revival of our EFF programme. We should now be getting the seventh and eighth tranche of $1.17 billion.”
The finance minister also thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif "for taking so many tough decisions and saving Pakistan from the default".
"I congratulate the nation,” said the finance minister.
IMF INCREASES LOAN SIZE; EXTENDS DURATION
In a statement issued in this regard, the Fund announced that the executive board completed the combined seventh and eighth reviews of the "extended arrangement" under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan.
"The board’s decision allows for an immediate disbursement of SDR 894 million (about $1.1 billion), bringing total purchases for budget support under the arrangement to about US$3.9 billion," the statement read.
The global lender also approved to increase the loan size and extended it till June 2023.
The Fund further added that in order to support programme implementation and meet the higher financing needs in FY23, as well as "catalyse additional financing, the IMF Board approved an extension of the EFF until end-June 2023, rephasing and augmentation of access by SDR 720 million that will bring the total access under the EFF to about $6.5 billion."
[Jpost] "The Iranian regime is lying to the whole world and we proved it," said former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.
The Mossad carried out a significant number of operations against Iran's nuclear program, including deep inside Iranian territory, former Mossad head Yossi Cohen said at a World Zionist Organization event in this Swiss city on Monday.
"The Iranian regime is lying to the whole world and we proved it when we brought thousands of documents from the Iranian archives, documents that proved that the Iranians lied to the IAEA," he said, using the acronym for International Atomic Energy Agency.
"I can guarantee that Israel will do everything necessary to delay and prevent the Iranians from building atomic bombs that would threaten the State of Israel," Cohen continued.
IRAN'S SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM
Cohen also addressed Iran's state support of terrorism, which he described as another threat facing Israel besides Iran's nuclear aspirations.
"The regime in Iran is the global financier of terrorism in the world," said Cohen. "This [Iranian] administration calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and wiping it off of the map."
Cohen added that "Iran is trying to besiege Israel from the south in Gaza and from the north in Syria and Lebanon." Iran "trains and finances terrorist organizations. The administration allows terrorist organizations to send thousands of missiles towards Israel."
AN AGENT OF PEACE
Regarding the Abraham Accords, Cohen said, "the work of the Mossad is not only intelligence gathering but also the promotion of peace. We saw these results in the signing of the Abraham Accords. I pray that more nations from our region will join the peace trend."
Cohen spoke at a conference initiated by the World Zionist Organization in honor of the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress in Basel. The event has seen the participation of over 1,400 Jewish leaders, entrepreneurs and philanthropists from around the world. The conference deals with the implementation of Herzl's socio-economic vision and formulating a response to the challenges of the Jewish people in the coming decades.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
08/30/2022 00:00 ||
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#3
The logical outcome is for Israel to ignore the nuke facilities and instead decapitate the Iranian mullahs' regime. Persians are sick of it anyway, so two problems solved in one stroke.
[JPost] He chose...poorly
34-year-old Jewish man Eliahou Haddad was allegedly killed by his Muslim roommate in Longperrier. Here's what we know.
A 34-year-old Jewish man was allegedly killed by his Muslim roommate in Longperrier, a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. The National Bureau of Vigilance against Antisemitism (BNVCA) provided the identity of the man: Eliahou Haddad.
"The BNVCA received requests of many correspondents who see information circulating [online] about the murder of a man of Jewish faith, from Djerba in Tunisia and whose family lives in Beer Sheva in Israel," reads a press release form the BNVCA.
"The assassination was committed by a suspect of [the] Muslim faith. The concern is heightened by the silence surrounding this case," the organization added, likely referring to the murder so other Jews like Sarah Halimi.
"The Crif expresses its full solidarity with the family of Eliahou Haddad, killed on August 19 in Longperrier," Yonathan Arfi, president of the Crif Jewish umbrella organization in France, tweeted. He added that "we hope for information quickly [about the murder] and ask that all possibilities be examined at this stage, including the possibility of the aggravating factor of antisemitism." Some of the reports suggest that he was murdered on August 20, not the 19th.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/30/2022 00:00 ||
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[BenarNews] The convict who helped assemble the bombs used in the 2002 Bali bombings is claiming it was a "mistake" to be involved in Indonesia’s worst terror attack that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Indonesian bomb maker Umar Patek, who has completed at least half of a 20-year prison sentence and may be up for parole this month, made the remark in an interview with a prison official that was uploaded on YouTube on Saturday before being removed on Monday.
Counterterrorism officials have touted Umar as a deradicalization success story, but news of his impending release has outraged people and officials in neighboring Australia.
In an interview from inside the Porong Prison in Sidoarjo regency, East Java, Umar said that after his potential release, he hoped to educate Indonesian youths about the danger of religious extremism.
"My mistake was to be involved with the Bali bombing," Umar said in the video, about the Oct. 12, 2002 terror attack. "It was like a prank, you know?"
Rika Aprianti, a spokeswoman for the Directorate General of Corrections at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, declined to comment on the video while confirming Umar had regretted his actions.
"One of the assessments is that the inmates, while serving their sentence, know that they have made a mistake and regret it," Rika told BenarNews on Monday.
Umar could be released this month after he received a five-month sentence reduction on Aug. 17, Indonesia’s 77th Independence Day. Rika declined to provide exact information on when Umar may be freed.
"The parole program is still in process," she said.
If parole is not granted, Umar could remain enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! until 2029, according to media reports.
Umar, whose real name is Hisyam bin Ali Zein, was arrested in Pakistain in 2011 and tried in Indonesia. In 2012, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison instead of receiving the death penalty .
Umar’s Filipina wife was granted Indonesian citizenship in 2019, with authorities at the time saying the move was a reward for his good behavior behind bars.
"He is an example to fellow inmates both in terrorism and other cases, and also appeals to those outside to return to the right path," Suhardi Alius, who was leader of the National Counterterrorism Agency, told BenarNews back then.
#1
The convict who helped assemble the bombs used in the 2002 Bali bombings is claiming it was a "mistake" to be involved in Indonesia’s worst terror attack that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
"....So, we're cool, right?"
Sorry. Believe him when he's curly-toed slippers up, and not one minute before.
[AnNahar] A submarine has found the remains of at least 10 migrants colonists who drowned when their boat sank earlier this year off the coast of Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia... with about 30 people on board, the navy announced.
The boat, carrying dozens of Lebanese, Syrians and Paleostinians trying to migrate by sea to Italia, went down more than 5 kilometers from the port of 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... , following a confrontation with the Lebanese navy.
Ten bodies were recovered that night, including one of a child, while 48 survivors were pulled from the Mediterranean Sea. According to navy estimates, 30 people were believed to have gone down with the boat.
Since Monday, the small, 3-person underwater craft -- a Pisces VI submarine -- has been searching for the remains. The wreck was located on Wednesday, at a depth of some 450 meters (about 1,470 feet).
The circumstances of the vessel's sinking are disputed to this day. Survivors say their vessel was rammed by the Lebanese navy, while the military claims the migrants colonists' boat collided with a navy vessel while trying to get away.
Capt. Scott Waters, who operated the craft, told news hounds at a presser in Tripoli Friday that the first body they found was outside the wreck but much of it had decayed since the sinking, with mostly bits of clothing and some bones remaining intact. He said the second body was found coming up from the wreckage.
Waters said the crew identified four more bodies inside the wreckage and a substantial amount of debris around the vessel. At least four other bodies were found away from the wreck.
Some of the people who tried to escape the boat, he assumed, got "tangled in that debris."
"One of the very last footage and images we took," he added, was of the remains of a person, an arm around another. "They died holding each other."
Tom Zreika, a Lebanese-Australian and the chairman of Australian charity AusRelief that helped bring the submarine to Lebanon, said the boat was a "fair degree under silt," making it difficult to retrieve it.
Zreika said what's next is for Lebanon to bring the sunken boat out but that remains a difficult task.
Lebanon's navy chief, Col. Haitham Dinnawi, said all the video footage from Waters' crew will be handed over to the judiciary as it investigates the sinking.
Tripoli politician Ashraf Rifi helped lease the submarine for cash-strapped Lebanon through Zreika and his own brother, Jamal Rifi, who lives in Sydney. Rifi and Zreika told The Sydney Morning Herald last month that an anonymous donor had given just over $295,000 to lease the submarine.
The April sinking was the greatest migrant tragedy for Lebanon in recent years and put the government further on the defensive at a time when the country is in economic free fall and public trust in the state and its institutions is rapidly crumbling.
With a population of about 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, Lebanon has been mired since 2019 in an economic meltdown that has plunged three quarters of the population into poverty.
Once a country that received refugees, Lebanon has become a launching pad for dangerous migration by sea to Europe. As the crisis deepened, more Lebanese, as well as Syrian and Paleostinian refugees have set off to sea, with security agencies reporting foiled migration attempts almost weekly.
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.
...son of Pashtun warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, still titular head of the Haqqani Network....
...a branch of the Afghan Taliban, based in Pakistain. The network is a family business founded by the later Jalaluddin Haqqani...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
[Jpost] "The Iranian regime is lying to the whole world and we proved it," said former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.
"The regime in Iran is the global financier of terrorism in the world," said Cohen. "This [Iranian] administration calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and wiping it off of the map."
...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia...
