The acting defense minister, Masoom Stanekzai, on Sunday said they have increased their military operations against Daesh fighters in parts of the country and that the security forces have succeeded in suppressing the militant group in some areas over the past few days.
"Daesh that does not have identity or any objective as a group is trying to destroy the image of Afghanistan. This group is the enemy of Afghanistan's national interests," he said.
Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Daesh is still a serious threat to the country.
"Daesh, off course, is a serious threat to Afghanistan's security. We urge our international allies to support us in order to suppress the terrorist group," said Sediqqi.
According to reports, Daesh is more active in eastern Nangarhar province compared to other parts of the country. The group has a presence in five districts of Nangarhar.
Based on some official sources, at least 144 Daesh fighters have been killed and 58 others wounded in joint military operations over the past 10 days.
In addition, nearly 800 Daesh rebels have been killed in Nangarhar over the past six months, reports say.
Video report at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Somalia received a pledge of aid for $50 million from Saudi Arabia this month on the same day it announced it was cutting ties with Saudi rival Iran, a document seen by Reuters showed.
Oil is at $30 a barrel, but the Soddis do have funds for what's important...
The government, which did not confirm or deny the pledge, has said there was no link between long-running Saudi financial support and its diplomatic decision to break ties with Iran.
"No, no, certainly not!"
But diplomats said it was the latest sign of patronage used by the kingdom to shore up regional support against Iran, a rivalry that deepened this month when Sunni majority Saudi Arabia executed a Shi'ite cleric and Iranian protesters responded by torching the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
"The Saudis currently manage to rally countries behind them both on financial grounds and the argument of non-interference," a diplomat said, referring to what Sunni-majority countries see as Iran’s habit of cultivating ties to their Shi’ite minorities.
A document from the Saudi embassy in Nairobi to the Somali embassy in the Kenyan capital showed the kingdom pledging $20 million in budget support and another $30 million for investment in Somalia, a nation trying to rebuild after two decades of war. The two grants would come from the Saudi Development Fund, according to the document that was dated Jan. 7, the same day Somalia cut ties with Tehran.
Somalia cut relations with Iran saying Tehran had meddled in Somali affairs and threatened national security. Mogadishu gave Iranian diplomats, among the few stationed in the Somali capital where bomb attacks are frequent, 72 hours to leave.
Somalia's Finance Minister Mohamed Aden Ibrahim declined to comment on the pledges, but said any financial assistance from Saudi Arabia was not related to Mogadishu's stance against Iran.
"Our relationship with Saudi Arabia was long-standing and is not something that has just started," the minister told Reuters.
Several other Arab states such as neighbouring Bahrain, a long-time close ally and recipient of Saudi largesse also cut ties. Other wealthier Gulf states withdrew envoys.
Sudan, which like Somalia and Saudi Arabia is a member of the Arab League, said it had cut ties with non-Arab Iran.
Somalia's ties with Saudi Arabia have grown as it tries to rebuild a nation while battling an Islamist insurgency, although Western powers and Turkey remain among the biggest and more prominent donors to the country. Somalia's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud in Saudi Arabia in October. A Saudi team had visited Somalia in late 2015 to discuss further Saudi support for the country.
"Any financial and other requests that we made to the Saudis were way before" Somali cut ties with Iran, Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer told Reuters.
Of course. Of course...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Several Kenyan soldiers injured in an al Shabaab attack on an African Union base in El Adde, Somalia were flown to the country on Sunday. Four of the Kenya Defence Forces soldiers were received at Wilson Airport in Nairobi following the attack whose number of casualties is yet to be released.
In a statement at the airport on Sunday, Defence CS Raychelle Omamo said other soldiers were earlier flown in via Moi Air Base. Details will be sent directly to families, Omamo said, adding: “Allow the families privacy as they mourn. Full details of those injured and killed will be made public after families affected are notified.”
“The soldiers who were airlifted were critically injured. Be patient, information will be availed to you. We are determined to bring our soldiers home.”
The soldiers were airlifted for specialised treatment, Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery said in Mombasa, adding the number of casualties will be released soon. Nkaissery said al Shabaab suffered the higher number of victims during the siege on Friday that lasted more than 12 hours.
“They lost more than we did. Let’s not pre–empt the outcome of the attack. A statement will be released soon,” he said.
Al Shabaab claimed on Sunday that it had captured some Kenyan soldiers during the attack butdid not say how many. It also raised its number of slain soldiers from 63 to 100.
The CS said more KDF troops, alongside others serving under Amisom, will be deployed to the camp, about 550 km west of Mogadishu. He said Amisom troops were combing the area for militants behind the ambush, which has been described as the worst against the KDF since their incursion into Somalia in 2011.
Nkaissery said Kenyan troops are winning the war against al Shabaab in Somalia. He said they have set up elaborate strategies against the terror group, which he said has lost its strongholds.
He added: “We have cautioned against the sharing of bloody photos of the dead. This emboldens the enemy and brings grief to their loved ones. We are investigating a few individuals; action will be taken.”
Chief of Defence Forces Samson Mwathethe, who spoke at Wilson Airport, said al Shabaab raided the camp in three vehicles loaded with explosives. Mwathathe said the government’s priority is pursuing the attackers behind the Friday ambush and going on “a search, rescue and recovery mission”.
“Our troops are currently engaging al shaabab. We do not wish to divulge more information,” he said. The KDF and Amisom have not given details of the attack.
He said bodies of soldiers who were killed will arrive today.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] Nigerian army soldiers fired six bullets at Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, seriously injuring the Shia holy man when they raided his residence to arrest him, says a member of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).
Professor Dahiru Yahaya of Bayero University Kano (BUK), who has visited Sheikh Zakzaky, said he was told by the holy man that he was severely maimed after the soldiers fired six bullets at him. The academic made the remarks in an interview with Hausa Radio, the Africa desk of the IRIB (Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) world service, on Sunday.
Zakzaky is the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). He was injured and tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... during the raid by the army on his home in the northern city of Zaria, Kaduna State, in December.
Yahaya said the condition of the holy man has improved. The academic is currently working with a committee set up to follow up on the well-being of Sheikh Zakzaky.
The university professor described as "very bad and repulsive" the treatment of the committee members by army officials upon their inquiry about the sheikh, adding that the police also denied them a meeting with Zakzaky.
He said Sheikh Zakzaky is currently detained by the intelligence ministry, adding that the Nigerian government only permitted three members of the committee to visit the holy man.
When asked about Zakzaky's opinion on the recent developments in Nigeria, Yahaya said the holy man only sufficed expressing his "deep regret." The academic said the conduct of the Nigerian army had been "truly inhumane."
On December 12 last year, Nigerian soldiers attacked Shia Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in Zaria, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army's chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him. The Shias have categorically denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not!
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
reload, dammit
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2016 10:00 Comments ||
Top||
#2
They might have hit him with six, but how many did they actually fire?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/18/2016 13:51 Comments ||
Top||
Yemeni Minister of Human Rights, Ezzedine Al Asbahi has described the human rights situation in Yemen as ‘frightening’ and urged the European Union and international organisations to pressure the rebel militias to comply with UN Security Council resolution 2216 and implement the agreement concluded at the recent peace talks in Biel, Switzerland.
"The human rights situation (in Yemen) is dire because the rebel militias continue to commit criminal acts. They have arrested hundreds of people in unknown places and prevent their families from even knowing their whereabouts," the Yemeni Human Rights Minister said during a meeting with the European Union's Ambassador to Yemen, Bettina Muscheidt.
The rebel Houhti militia and forces loyal to now-ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh continue to violate human rights and crack down on politicians, civilian activists and journalist number of Yemeni governorates.
In addition, he noted, the rebel militias launch systematic attacks on schools and turn them into prisons and military camps. They are attacking residential neighbourhoods, hospitals and medical teams for helping injured people, he added.
Al Asbahi said the rebels continue to block humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in Taiz and other besieged cities. "This threatens peace and is in violation of international human rights laws.”
The EU ambassador to Yemen stressed that the EU supports the country's security, stability and unity and calls for implementing the UN Security Council resolutions and restoring the legitimate government to all Yemen's governorates.
#1
Dire human rights and hell holes go hand in hand. When my kids were young and would say that life was unfair my response was that is why we have a military.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/18/2016 7:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I wonder when they weren't dire in Yemen
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2016 10:01 Comments ||
Top||
[Iran Press TV] The UK bombing campaign in Syria has motivated some British citizens to join the militancy in the war-torn country, says an analyst.
"What is the UK doing that's making the situation worse? And we have to say the first thing they're doing is they send in bombers. And they're supplying the bombing carried out by La Belle France and the United States," said Nigel Flanagan, political commentator, in a Sunday interview with Press TV.
The comments follow recent remarks by the UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, that a total of 600 UK citizens have been caught trying to enter Syria to join the ISIL and other holy warrior groups since 2012.
Speaking on a visit to southern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Friday, Hammond said a further 800 UK citizens had managed to enter Syria in the past four years, with half of those believed to still be inside the country.
Now Flanagan believes the UK Syria policy has made the situation worse.
The analyst also blamed "the stigmatizing of Muslims by certain members of the government; by certainly the media in the UK, is making the situation even worse."
He said, "Although the vast majority of people in the UK oppose the bombing and oppose British government policy in the Middle East, the government is still determined to prove itself a loyal ally of the USA."
The UK foreign secretary has said British and Turkish intelligence services had worked together to apprehend hundreds of Britons on their way to Syria, stopping some at the UK border and seizing others on planes or trains arriving in Istanbul.
Some had been returned to the UK, while others remained in Turkey for breaching laws on attempting or intending to cross the border into Syria without permission, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Islam is a religion for predators. The only thing that can deter then from "militancy" is a certainty of swift, and excessively brutal (they're not very smart), retaliation.
[Express] Li Shaoxian, vice-president of a think tank with ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, said "many hundreds or thousands" of Uighurs from Xinjiang province were involved with Daesh in Syria. He said, "Whether there are Chinese citizens involved in ISIS, the answer is certainly yes. I don't have the specific number but I think there are possibly many hundreds, or thousands, of them.
"As a researcher I have been following the situation closely. I believe there are quite many Chinese citizens fighting in Syria, not just with the ISIS but also other forces in Syria, where there are all kinds of groups who have people fighting who are from China."
Li, who heads the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, warned returning jihadis could pose a major threat to China. He said, "I believe this will be a major source or threat because if these people come back to the country of origin they could constitute a considerable threat to the security of the country of origin."
Senior Chinese officials warned last year that Uighurs were joining Daesh. Zhang Chunxian, Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang province, said in March, "The organization has a huge international influence and Xinjiang can't keep aloof from it and we have already been affected. We have also found that some who fought returned to Xinjiang to participate in terrorist plots."
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#4
"I believe there are quite many Chinese citizens fighting in Syria, not just with the ISIS but also other forces in Syria, where there are all kinds of groups who have people fighting who are from China."
Funny how they're "Chinese citizens" when it comes to this; not so much for everything else.
[DAWN] RIYADH: The oil deluge from Iran is expected any day. Sanctions could be lifted in days. And crude markets are wobbling with its possible impact. Others factors are coming into play too.
"China macro concerns and to some degree the continued strength of the US dollar have been providing headwinds for the oil markets. The supply side is still very resilient. Demand is not great and inventories are likely to keep getting quite a bit higher," Citi analysts said while summing up the scenario.
Markets have lost some 17pc within the first two weeks of 2016. Any additional oil would only add to pressure. Barclays said it had raised its estimates of Iranian oil supply, by almost 700,000 bpd more in the fourth quarter of 2016 than over the same period in 2015, once sanctions are lifted. This has resulted in lowering their forecast for the average price of Brent and WTI in 2016 -- to $37 a barrel this year, down from $60 and $56 previously.
"With no apparent signs of strengthening demand, and only further indicators of future global supply growth, the outlook for oil prices is leading most market watchers to ratchet down estimates for oil prices in 2016 and 2017," analysts at Cenkos Natural Resources said.
"In the very short term, another price drop cannot be excluded in particular after sanctions against Iran are lifted," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritch told Rooters Global Oil Forum. "That means a drop toward $25 is quite possible."
"Most of the bearishness is coming from worries over Iranian sanctions being lifted," said Daniel Ang, of Phillip Futures. "I won't be surprised if prices continue falling toward $25 per barrel."
Morgan Stanley says WTI will fall to $20 as the US dollar strengthens. That was bullish compared to the one made by RBS for oil to hit $16 a barrel. Standard Chartered is suggesting oil prices to "fall to as low as $10" before the sell-off "had gone too far."
A few analysts however, are taking the line that Iran's return would have a muted effect, as it was already priced in by the markets. "The lifting of the sanctions has been widely expected and it is difficult to say that it is not yet priced in Brent at $30 a barrel," said Olivier Jakob of Swiss-based consultancy Petromatrix.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
So in other words, no one has the foggiest notion what the "New Reality" is.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/18/2016 13:44 Comments ||
Top||
#3
IMO it comes down to the various OWG Global Federal Unions vying for their Union-specific "market shares" vee future "SPACE MARKETS" + TRADE IN SPACE-RELATED STARTEGIC COMMODITIES + REQUIRED MATERIALS, TECHS, SUPPORT SERVICES, ... @ETC.
OTOH PRAY HARD + KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED THAT OUR MIGHTY OWG GOVTS-PERTS FINALLY GOT THEIR ACT TOGETEHR + CAME UP WID A COMMON CONSENSUS ON THE TRUTH-VS-FICTION ALA "PEAK OIL"/RESOURCES INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE STATE OF WORLD OIL RESERVES THRU AT LEAST THE YEAR YEAR 2100.
And wid a common or "universal" accepted Plan(s) of Action [POA] in support of Deep Space Exploration and Colonization.
Iff the OWG Globalists includ Space + "Peak" Perts miscalculate, the danger is there that all of this xtra oil production will result in just rapidly using up the world's limited supply of "cheap oil", resulting in de facto GLOBAL OIL/ENERGY DECLINE-BREAKDOWN-N-COLLAPSE AFTER YEAR 2030-2050 [2070].
Weirdly-n-mysteriously, but of course only coincidentally + PCorrectly, in inverse parallel to the rise of the Global Nuclear Caliphate + Muslim Nuclear Napoleon.
* CHARLES KRAIUTHAMMER = "SAY IT WID ME, AMERIKA, OOOOOOPPPPPPPSSSSSIES ..."!
Prospect of the Islamic Republic pumping an additional 500,000 barrels a day sends stock markets in Dubai and Saudi Arabia into tailspin.
Stock markets across the Middle East saw more than ÂŁ27bn wiped off their value as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply.
All seven stock markets in the Gulf states tumbled as panic gripped traders. London shares are now braced for a second wave of crisis to hit when they open on Monday morning after contagion from China sent the FTSE 100 to its worst start in history last week.
Dubai's DFM General Index closed down 4.65pc to 2,684.9, while Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All Share Index, the largest Arab market, collapsed by 7pc intraday, before recovering to end down 5.44pc at 5,520.41, its lowest level in almost five years.
The Qatar stock exchange, fell 7.2pc to close at 8,527.75, and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange shed 4.24pc to finish at 3,787.4. The Kuwait market returned to levels not seen since May 2004 as it slid 3.2pc lower, while smaller markets in Oman and Bahrain dropped 3.2pc and 0.4pc respectively.
The Iranian stock index gained 1pc, making it one of the best performing markets in the world with gains of 6pc since the start of the year.
The dramatic moves came following the historic report from the UN nuclear watchdog, which showed that Iran has met its obligations under the nuclear deal, clearing the way for the lifting of sanctions. Not certain what to make of this but it can't be good. The DOW has been bracing for this for two weeks. As oil plunges, my guess is it will slip 300-400 before noon tomorrow, possibly more. No trading today. Worst case, the winds of war btwn the Persians and Soodies.
Less money for pet jihadis can only be a good thing.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
More results of Champ's legacy.
Unintended consequences?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/18/2016 7:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
My guess is that it was... expected. And that there will be a raft of domestic-political attempts both during (e.g. increased excise taxes on fuel to "make up for the shortfall" and further restrictions placed on exploration) and afterwards (e.g. increased CAFE standards, another government-funded push for 'alternatives', etc.)
[Rudaw] A number of migrants have recently returned to the Kurdistan Region only weeks after they arrived in Germany and more are signing up for voluntary repatriation with the local authorities.
"I prefer my own country to here. I have been here for five months, but nothing has been done for me," says Mohammed Mahmoud who recently arrived in Germany in search of a better life. "I intend to return and I insist. Even if there is no job... it is better than here."
Many such new migrants as Mahmoud and some Iraqi Arabs have contacted the Iraqi embassy to obtain temporary travel documents that would allow them to return home.
Most of them are residents of the Kurdistan Region.
A majority of the new migrants came with the influx of Syrian refugees who flooded the gates of Europe last year.
European authorities have imposed tough asylum laws and migrants and asylum seekers have to wait months in camps before a hearing on their case.
"We are bored. They give us only 70-80 euros [per month]. We cannot afford clothes or anything else, but only food. We are forced to return, repent...repent," says Amir Khafaf, another Kurdish asylum seeker from Germany.
Those intent on returning home have decided not to follow through with their asylum applications or seek the assistance of charity organization for subsistence.
The Iraqi embassy does not provide a specific figure about the number of the returnees, but German officials have said that the voluntary return is more common among migrants from the Kurdistan Region.
Hamid Majeed the owner of an airline travel agency in Berlin has helped many new arrivals get on the plane home.
"I cannot provide an accurate data, but since the last October 50 migrants or so have come to us each month, seeking repatriation to the Kurdistan Region," Majeed told Rudaw.
"On January 13 alone, 86 migrants voluntarily returned to Erbil through a direct Berlin-Erbil flight...they did not want to stay here."
With its open door policy Germany received more than 1 million refugees and migrants last year but in recent weeks the authorities have passed new laws that would expedite the return of failed asylum seekers or those breaking the German law.
Berlin has also made it clear that Syrian refugees are given the priority while others will be treated as economic migrants with slim chances of acceptance.
#2
"We are bored. They give us only 70-80 euros [per month]. We cannot afford clothes or anything else, but only food."
Well, if you had made a reservation at least 30 days in advance, with a substantial cash deposit, you would have received more commodious accommodations, and a do-nothing job that pays very well.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/18/2016 13:49 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I took a freight train north to Berlin City,
Folks back home thinking Ima doing fine,
By day I wash der cars,
By night I bombe der bars,
I dun wanna go home
I dun wanna go home
Lawz Allah dun make me go home.
[Rudaw] As fighting continues between the Turkish armed forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) southeast of the country there are reports that the military is building new bases in the area.
In the Sur district of Diyarbakir which has been the scene of most of the fighting in recent weeks the Turkish army is said to be erecting five bases to reinforce troops stationed in the region.
Sur has been under curfew for more than 45 days where Turkish soldiers and PKK fighters have been locked in daily battles and street fight.
The Turkish military has said that in the beginning of the festivities they were fought by supporters and sympathizers of the PKK but later more experienced fighters infiltrated the town to face the army.
According to official statements more than 2,000 soldiers and police personnel backed by tanks and heavy weaponry have been deployed to the region for this fight.
Human rights activists say that more than 200 people have been killed so far and thousands of others have fled Sur for safety elsewhere.
The Kurdish fighters have dug trenches and built sand barriers on major streets.
Reports from inside the city suggest that this month alone nine soldiers and six coppers have been killed.
The Turkish army says it has killed at least 94 PKK fighters.
[The Hill] he couple who carried out the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack last year also tried to detonate a bomb in the building, the FBI said Friday.
David Bowdich, the bureau's top investigator into the Dec. 2 attack, said Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik likely attempted to detonate a pipe bomb hidden inside of a bag at the Inland Regional Center, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bowdich said the agency is still unsure whether the couple planned to detonate the bomb on first responders or paramedics tending to the wounded after the attack.
Farook brought the bag carrying the bomb into the facility when he arrived at 8:37 a.m., Bowdich said. The bomb was "armed and ready to detonate," and police found a remote control for a toy car in the couple's SUV.
The couple drove around San Bernardino and Redlands for several hours before their deaths in a gunfight with police. During that window, they did not stray far from the building.
A federal official previously told the Times that they may not have been able to set off the device because the remote was out of range.
Bowdich said the mystery remains unsolved, as they have not been able to find any schematics or written plans indicating how they might use the bomb. Still nothing on the types or source of the explosive material? I thought not.
"And I will be quite frank: I am not sure we will ever know that answer," he said. So why don't we just take the FBI's word for it and move along.
[PJMedia] The evidence is overwhelming that the United States had several rescue teams ready to go during the 2012 Benghazi attacks, but someone -- possibly the president himself -- prevented them from acting. So said Emmy Award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson to talk show host Steve Malzberg in an interview on Wednesday.
This week on her show, "Full Measure," Attkisson looked into the aborted rescue mission in an in-depth two-part report, "Rescue Interrupted," which you can watch here and here. She spoke with a Green Beret commander who told her that there were actually Special Forces on their way to Benghazi who were turned back.
Col. Andrew Wood had once commanded a Special Forces anti-terrorism team protecting Ambassador Chis Stevens and other diplomats in Libya. In October of 2012, Woods told Congress that one month before the attacks in Benghazi, his team had been removed from Libya by the Obama administration, despite the numerous warnings of impending terrorist attacks. Wood told Attkisson that Special Forces (the ones mentioned in the "spinning up" email from Jeremy Bash) were on their way to Benghazi, but were ordered to turn back. Pappy's "13 Hours' bad, 'Zero Dark Thirty' good?" comment and link from yesterday.
[DAWN] As the government sets up a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe any possible Pak link in the recent attack on India's Pathankot airbase, attention is also focused on the Mumbai case, which was also preceded by a similar JIT.
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Indian government blamed Pakistain for the attack. The PPP government at the time had constituted a JIT to probe any possible local links. On the basis of the JIT's investigation report, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in February 2009 started the paperwork but haven't done much else against Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ...an asset of the Pak govt and a big turban in Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is actually a redundant statement. Zak was the criminal mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attack. Despite what India's provided there is not enough evidence in this world for a Pak court to convict him or even to keep him in the calaboose for very long... , the alleged criminal mastermind, and six other suspects for sponsoring, planning and abetting in the attacks.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[BLOOMBERG] The first 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.... -linked attack on the world's most populous Muslim nation puts more pressure on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to give the military a bigger role and add legal heft to anti-terrorism efforts.
Unlike some countries facing threats from Islamic State, authorities in Indonesia lack laws to arrest returnees from Syria and Iraq. Giving security forces greater leeway to lock up Islamists is a sensitive issue in the Southeast Asian nation, which until 1998 was a military dictatorship.
Last week's attack on central Jakarta which killed four civilians was relatively unsophisticated. But it brought home to Indonesia -- and the region more broadly -- the risks of Asians going to fight in the Middle East and then returning skilled and more radicalized. While Widodo, better known as Jokowi, has urged countries to "wage war" against terrorism, he has not moved to bolster laws to tackle the threat.
"All that is needed is political support, but that is difficult in Indonesia," said Ansyaad Mbai, a former head of the country's anti-terror agency. "At the highest level people are afraid of being accused of being anti-Islam."
Revoking Citizenship
On Friday, Police-General Badrodin Haiti said he wanted to be able to revoke the citizenship of Indonesians fighting with IS abroad. National intelligence agency chief Sutiyoso said laws were not sufficient to arrest and track bully boys. He said Malaysian authorities can attach electronic tracking devices to suspects, while the U.S. and La Belle France were able to strike a balance between human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... and the need for firm action.
"Those countries respect human rights and freedom," he told news hounds. "But when national security is threatened by terrorism, they can prioritize the intelligence process."
The police chief on Saturday called for anti-terrorism laws to be strengthened to allow preventative detention. "We can detect a terrorist network but we can't act before they have committed a crime," he said. "That is the weakness of our laws."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Reuters] Last week’s attack on Jakarta showed for the first time that Daesh violence has arrived in Indonesia, but experts believe the group’s footprint still has limited influence here because militants are competing to be its regional leader.
Police have identified Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian based in Syria, as the mastermind of the attacks that left all five attackers and two civilians dead on Thursday. But perhaps the region's most influential jihadi is a jailed cleric, Aman Abdurrahman, who with just a few couriers and a cell phone is able to command around 200 followers from prison.
Abdurrahman sits at the head of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, an umbrella organization formed last year that experts believe could become the unifying force for Daesh supporters.
Police believe that Naim, an Abdurrahman supporter, was trying to prove his leadership skills to Daesh leaders in Syria by plotting the Jakarta attack. Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said Naim's vision was to unite now-splintered groups across Southeast Asia that support Daesh.
Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah was the last transnational group to successfully launch large-scale attacks in the region, including the 2002 Bali bombings. JI, founded by Indonesian and Malaysian militants who returned from battling the Soviet Union in the the 1980s and early 1990s, has largely fallen apart due to internal rivalries and a sustained crackdown by security forces. Regional governments fear that Malay-speaking militants returning from Syria and Iraq could form a similar regional organization.
In Malaysia, former university lecturer Mahmud Ahmad is thought to be behind recent attempts to unite militant groups, including the Abu Sayyaf, from three Southeast Asian countries.
Abdurrahman remains perhaps the weightiest contender for Daesh leadership in the region. While serving a 9-year prison term for funding a militant training camp in Indonesia, he has managed to encourage hundreds of Indonesians to join the jihad in Syria and Iraq.
Prison authorities have tried repeatedly to silence Abdurrahman. According to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, ten phones were seized from his cell in September 2014, but just a month later he got hold of a new phone and his sermons to followers resumed.
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[AnNahar] The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said Sunday.
The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions.
But the timing of the announcement, one day after the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord, will be seen as pointing to a broader clearing of the decks between the old foes.
U.S. President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."
"For the United States, the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. There was no benefit to the United States in dragging this out," he said.
Kerry said the claim was in the amount of a $400 million trust fund used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States prior to the break in diplomatic ties, plus $1.3 billion in interests.
Iranian-U.S. ties broke down in 1979 after revolutionaries -- angered at U.S. support for the Iran's deposed monarch -- stormed the American embassy and took hostages.
In 1981, the Iran-U.S. Claims tribunal was established in The Hague to settle outstanding debts between the two countries, and Tehran filed a suit demanding the arms payment be returned.
Kerry described Sunday's payment of the 35-year-old trust as a "fair settlement," but it is sure to draw the ire of those in Washington who think he had already made too many concessions to secure the nuclear deal.
"Iran will receive the balance of $400 million in the Trust Fund, as well as a roughly $1.3 billion compromise on the interest," he said, in a statement. Better than a 300% return. Not bad, not bad at all. Sure beats the Social Security Trust Fund.
"Iran's recovery was fixed at a reasonable rate of interest and therefore Iran is unable to pursue a bigger tribunal award against us, preventing U.S. taxpayers from being obligated to a larger amount of money."
Kerry went on to say all of the U.S. claims against Iran at the tribunal had long been settled and had netted American companies and individuals $2.5 billion.
But he added there are more Iranian claims pending and that the United States would try to negotiate to resolve them.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/18/2016 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
U.S. President Barack Obama defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."
They asked for a trillion dollars and the nuclear bomb. He only gave them $1.7B and the nuclear bomb.
#3
U.S. President Barack Obama defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."
This from a man who spends $8,000,000. on a two week Hawaii vacation.
#14
To continue the thought to the next level: members of the Master Religion may not pay interest. Dhimmis exist to be sheared like sheep and harvested like a field of grain, so them (us!) paying compound interest that increased the amount we have to hand over by an order of magnitude is just fine.
#15
It is clear to me that outrage is beyond the emotional scope of many of the people who live here. They literally accept any tripe as appropriate, and Champ and ValJar have destabilized the middle east to the point of war. As soon as the funds were released the Iranians pledged to buy 114 airbus aircraft, a huge act to dissuade any European power from participating in the SnapBack snactions that we are going to claim after they violate every aspect of this ridiculous agreement with Iran. Kerry is as dumb as he sounds, and Champ is anything I ever imagined an American President could be and not be impeached.
#18
The US as per Nuke Deal is repor also supposed to halt any + all US-led INTERPOL investigations of a number of Iranian nationals = Bad Boyz/Shias???
[Iran Press TV] Syrian civilians who have been evacuated from two bad boy-besieged northwestern towns recount their suffering under terror.
The civilians were allowed out of the towns of Kefraya and al-Foua in the Idlib province last December after Syria's army and allied Lebanese resistance fighters of Hezbollah reached a truce deal with bully boyz on their evacuation.
Press TV's correspondent met with the community of the internally-displaced in the suburbs of the capital Damascus.
"When we were leaving Kefraya, bully boyz did a strict checking to terrify us and provoke us. They also terrified our children," said an evacuated Syrian.
Another said, "Convoys delivered aid to al-Foua and Kefraya, but they are not enough. Militants used to rob the essential materials of these convoys."
"We appeal to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... and all the humanitarian organizations to stop the siege," said one male as bully boyz maintain the siege and keep violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
"We are here for emergency cases. Most of the cases are neurological damage and amputations due to lack of healthcare and all of those evacuated have malnutrition cases," said medic Ashraf Haj Ahmad, who serves as a first aid clinic, set up in Damascus countryside to see to the different health problems of the evacuees.
Humanitarian crisis threatens the towns as the truce agreement is about to end next month and a new evacuation process is direly needed.
Some 400,000 people are under siege in Syria as the foreign-backed militancy is wreaking havoc across much of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[REUTERS] Iran's release from sanctions testifies to its new relationship with the United States as it moves from pariah state to regional power, a status that could come at the cost of 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... , Washington's chief Arab ally.
Enemies and allies alike must adjust to Iran becoming an uninhibited power broker in the Middle East after its nuclear deal with world powers and Saturday's lifting of sanctions that bring it to the top table of international politics.
The swift release last week of U.S. Navy sailors after they drifted into Iranian waters marked the new era in relations following decades of hostility with the West.
After the 1979 revolution that brought Shi'ite Muslim holy mans to power, Iran would typically use hostages to extract concessions from its western adversaries.
Early on, it held 52 hostages taken from the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days. That incident ranked alongside Iranian-backed suicide kabooms against Western embassies and troops in Leb, the hijacking of planes and the kidnapping of Western hostages in the country.
All this left deep scars and incited hostility towards Iran as an outlaw, in the region and the world. Yet last week's naval incident contrasted to 2007 when Iran captured British sailors in similar circumstances, but accused of them of spying and held them for two weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"US-style", US-par", OWG Co-Superpower in joint wid the US, that is.
* IIRC WORLD NEWS > MANAGING A WORLD OF "GREAT POWERS".
Global "Great Power" competition returneths to Mankind in the post-9-11 21st Century.
This comes most of the way through the article, after dwelling on the "exchange" of prisoners. [WASHINGTONPOST] Calling a recent missile test by Iran a "violation of its international obligations," Obama said the United States as a result "is imposing sanctions on individuals and companies working to advance Iran's ballistic missile program."
The Treasury Department said the new sanctions apply to, among others, the Mabrooka Trading Co., based in the United Arab Emirates, and its networks based in that Persian Gulf country and in China. It said they have used front companies to deceive foreign suppliers about the true end-users of "sensitive goods for missile proliferation."
Saturday's coordinated moves to implement the nuclear deal and free prisoners cemented a major diplomatic victory for the B.O. regime, which won significant nuclear concessions from Iran in an effort to defuse an international crisis that threatened to spark a new Middle East war. The agreement also frees Iran from crippling economic sanctions and opens the way for ending decades of diplomatic and economic isolation.
But the agreement also contains significant political risk for a White House that is staking its legacy on Iran's willingness to comply with unprecedented curbs and extensive monitoring of its nuclear program. The pact -- which has been repeatedly condemned by the Israeli government as well as by members of Congress from both parties -- drew fresh attacks over the weekend from Republican presidential contenders, some of whom blasted the deal as a sellout to Iran's holy manal rulers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
More B.S. sanctions to fool the rubes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2016 1:03 Comments ||
Top||
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.
[Iran Press TV] The UK bombing campaign in Syria has motivated some British citizens to join the militancy in the war-torn country, says an analyst. 
[Express] Li Shaoxian, vice-president of a think tank with ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, said "many hundreds or thousands" of Uighurs from Xinjiang province were involved with Daesh in Syria. He said, "Whether there are Chinese citizens involved in ISIS, the answer is certainly yes. I don't have the specific number but I think there are possibly many hundreds, or thousands, of them.
