[VOA] With the onset of the "fighting season" in Afghanistan, small pockets of anti-Taliban ...Arabic for students... resistance appear to be forming across much of the country.
The development, coupled with a spike in deadly attacks by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... terrorist group, could threaten the Taliban's hold on power eight months after their takeover of Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, about a half-dozen previously unknown "resistance" groups have announced their existence, vowing to fight the Taliban alongside the National Resistance® Front, the only prominent anti-Taliban group.
The new groups have names such as the Afghanistan Freedom Front and the Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation Movement. But beyond claims made on social media, little is known about their kinetic power.
Researchers who have studied the groups say while they all share the goal of toppling the Taliban’s eight-month-old government, they are hobbled by a lack of unity and coordination.
"It will take some coordination and unity to be able to have a more decisive effect in terms of contesting Taliban governance," said Peter Mills, Afghanistan researcher at the Institute for the Study of War, who recently published a study of anti-Taliban groups.
As a result, the anti-Taliban groups have been unable to coalesce into a broader resistance movement, said Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a nonprofit research and analysis organization.
"In that regard, they still retain relatively low levels of capability overall," Schroden said.
But lack of coordination is not the only weakness preventing them from becoming an effective fighting force. Among other things, Death Eater groups require external support. Yet in contrast to the 1990s, when Russia, Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... and India all backed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, no country has rushed to the new anti-Taliban cause.
Consequently, in the short term, Schroden said, the groups will likely represent little more than "low-level annoyance" for the much-better-armed and numerically larger Taliban.
For their part, since routing the National Resistance® Front from the Panjshir Valley in September, the Taliban have largely dismissed these groups as opposition propaganda.
But insurgencies have a way of persisting for many years, experts say, and what may be a small, inchoate patchwork of cells today could turn into a full-blown, bloody insurgency.
In the long term, several factors could tip the scales in the fight, Schroden said: the anti-Taliban groups’ success in finding a "state sponsor," their ability to coalesce under a "common banner" and growing popular discontent with the Taliban regime.
Here is a look at the anti-Taliban groups:
National Resistance® Front of Afghanistan
Led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the National Resistance® Front of Afghanistan (NRF) is the "most well-developed" of all the anti-Taliban outfits, said Mills, who estimates it has a few thousand fighters.
In addition to its homebase of the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the group operates in the nearby Andarab valley through an affiliate known as the AndarabResistance® Front, a collection of small cells headed by local commanders who have declared loyalty to Massoud.
The two fronts sometimes "interoperate," Mills said.
"We know, for example, that the NRF was providing support and sending forces to work with the Andarab Resistance® Front and fighting in the Andarab," he said.
The NRF claims to operate in at least a dozen provinces, including Panjshir and Baghlan. In a recent interview with the London-based Afghanistan International Radio, Ali Maisam Nazary claimed the Taliban had "suffered repeated defeats in Panjshir, Andarab and other parts of the Hindu Kush mountains."
The claim could not be independently verified. But Mills said the NRF has demonstrated that "they’re able to hold some rural, remote kind of valley, some of this remote, rural mountainous terrain in places like Baghlan, parts of Takhar, Panjshir, parts of Badakhshan."
Afghanistan Freedom Front This group popped up on March 11 when it announced its launch on Twitter and Facebook with the goal of "fighting for freedom of the country from occupation."
It has not disclosed its leadership, but recent reports have indicated that General Yasin Zia, a former defense minister and chief of general staff, is one of the Front's leaders.
Zia, who served as an aide to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud in the 1990s, could not be reached for comment.
In the weeks since the March announcement, the group has claimed attacks on Taliban targets in several provinces, from Badakhshan in the north to Kandahar in the south, offering as proof nighttime videos of fighting.
While the dark videos are not always easy to verify, "we know at least some of these attacks that are being claimed and discussed are real and are happening," Mills said.
One incident Mills said he was able to confirm was an April 8 video of a daytime hand grenade attack on a cop shoppe in Kandahar.
"We were able to see someone actually throwing a grenade into this cop shoppe in Kandahar," Mills said.
Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation Movement This is believed to be the only major Pashtun anti-Taliban group. Led by Abdul Mateen Sulaimankhail, a former Afghan Army special forces commander, the group launched on February 16. Sulaimankhail has said he set up the group in response to the Taliban’s alleged killings of former military personnel, calling their amnesty a "lie."
In an April 13 interview with the Afghanistan International TV network, Sulaimankhail claimed his group was engaged in "military and political activities" in 26 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, a claim questioned by researchers. Citing security reasons, he declined to say how many members his group has.
The group has grabbed credit for attacks in its home base of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. and several other provinces, but it has offered little proof of the attacks, with videos posted on the group’s Facebook page showing armed masked men indoors vowing to fight the Taliban.
While the group’s recent claim of killing a Taliban commander in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... appears credible, Mills said its "actual capability seems to be limited."
Other groups
In recent weeks, small cells of self-styled anti-Taliban fighters affiliated with Tajik warlord Ata Mohammad Noor have appeared in videos purportedly shot in northern Afghanistan.
In a recent video, one of several masked gunnies describes them as members of the "high council of resistance," led by Noor, former Balkh province governor. The man then vows the group is prepared to launch "guerrilla attacks" as soon as they receive orders from Noor, who is believed to be living in exile in the United Arab Emirates.
Noor's nephew Sohail Zimaray was killed in a shootout with Taliban forces in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif late Thursday, police said.
While the so-called "Noor guerillas" claim to be operating in every province in northern Afghanistan, Mills said he had "not seen them carry out any attacks or claim any attacks."
Other groups that have publicized their efforts in recent weeks include Freedom Corps, Liberation Front of Afghanistan, Liberation Front of Afghanistan, Soldiers of Hazaristan, Freedom and Democracy Front.
[AlAhram] An Alexandria Criminal Court sentenced on Saturday a 60-year-old man to death for murdering Coptic Orthodox priest Arsanios Wadid last month in the Egyptian coastal city.
The court verdict was issued after the grand mufti — the country’s top Moslem legal authority — approved the punishment, as the mufti’s non-binding consultative opinion is legally required in death penalty cases as per the Egyptian penal code.
The 56-year-old victim — a priest at the Church of the Virgin Mary and Mar Boulos — was stabbed to death on the evening of 7 April as he was walking along the Mediterranean corniche in Alexandria’s Sidi Bishr District.
The assailant was apprehended hours later and confessed to the crime.
The defendant later adjusted his confession, however, claiming that the knife found in his possession was just for self-defence and that he was not aware of what he was doing on the day of the incident, according to the prosecution.
The prosecution added that a mental health evaluation determined that the man showed no signs of a psychological disorder and was fully cognisant and possessed agency while committing the crime.
The prosecution also checked surveillance cameras at the scene of the crime and obtained the testimonies of 17 eyewitnesses.
Furthermore, the prosecution later learned that he had joined krazed killer groups and he had also previously served a 20-year prison sentence for joining an outlawed group.
Oddly enough, the suspect refused to be defended by a lawyer, choosing instead to simply deny the charges levelled against him.
On 18 May, the court referred a preliminary death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... for the defendant to the country’s mufti.
Today’s ruling is not final and can be appealed before the country’s Court of Cassation.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS] The National Salvation Government’s authorities have released a statistic showing the shocking number of victims of mines and cluster bombs left behind by Saudi-led coalition forces.
The Mine Action Executive Center said in a statement that the total number of victims of mines, cluster bombs and remnants of war during the first week of June of the current year 2022 AD is 21 people, including 3 martyred and 18 injured.
According to the statement , Saaada governorate took the largest share of casualties.
"Ten civilians were maimed, including four children, and six others were maimed in Hodeidah governorate. The rest of the victims were concentrated in Nihem district of Sanaa and Taiz," according to the center.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2022 00:00 ||
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Follow up to this story from yesterday. Movie trailer can be seen at the link.
[IsraelTimes] Officials accuse Qari Asim of attempting to limit free expression after rallies against screenings, as well as inciting anti-Shiite hate
The UK government on Saturday dismissed a Moslemholy man from his role as an official adviser, accusing him of fomenting protests against a new film about the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad.
Alleging "The Lady of Heaven" is blasphemous, Moslem groups protested outside UK movie houses this week, forcing the world’s second-largest cinema chain to cancel all screenings.
Cineworld’s announcement came after Qari Asim, a holy man and lawyer in the northern English city of Leeds, posted on Facebook Monday that the film had "caused much pain and hurt to Moslems."
While noting that his own group had not taken part in protests, and expressing support for freedom of speech, Asim publicized details of one protest in Leeds coming up that evening.
In a letter to Asim, the government said the Facebook post was incompatible with his status as deputy chair of an official working group on anti-Moslem hatred.
Terminating the appointment "with immediate effect," the government said the campaign against the film "has led to street protests which have fomented religious hatred."
"This clear involvement in a campaign to limit free expression is incompatible with the role of a government adviser," it added, alleging the campaign had incited anti-Shiite hatred by Sunnis.
There was no immediate comment from Asim, who also served as an independent advisor to the government on Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... until his dismissal.
The drama is billed as the first film on the life of the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah, and draws links between the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in the 21st century and historical figures in Sunni Islam.
Malik Shlibak, executive producer of the film, complained to The Guardian newspaper that cinema chains were "crumbling to the pressure."
The lame teams up with the halt for the three-legged race.
[Rudaw] Iran ...They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Venezuela ...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... signed a 20-year deal on cooperation between the two allies subject to US sanctions during a visit Saturday to the Islamic republic by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground. Unlike Qadaffy and Hugo Chavez, he's not dead yet... The inking of the agreement "shows the determination of the high-level officials of the two countries for development of relations in different fields," Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said.
Maduro, speaking at a joint news conference in Tehran, said the cooperation covered the energy and financial sectors as well as "work together on defence projects".
Alongside the likes of Russia, China, Cuba and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , Iran is one of Venezuela's main allies. And like Venezuela it is subject to tough US sanctions.
"Venezuela has passed hard years but the determination of the people, the officials and the president of the country was that they should resist the sanctions," Raisi said during the news conference.
"This is a good sign that proves to everyone that resistance will work and will force the enemy to retreat," the Iranian president added.
In addition to the 20-year accord inked by the two countries' foreign ministers, "Iran and Venezuela signed documents on cooperation in the political, cultural, tourism, economic, oil and petrochemical fields," state news agency IRNA said.
"We have important projects of cooperation between Iran and Venezuela in the fields of energy, petrochemical, oil, gas and refineries," Maduro said.
- DIRECT FLIGHTS -
From July 18, direct flights would operate between Caracas and Tehran "in order to promote tourism and the union between our countries," he said, adding that "Venezuela is open to receive tourists from Iran".
Iran's president said direct flights would pave the way for enhanced "trade and economic relations as well as bringing the two nations closer together".
The two presidents took part via videoconference in a ceremony marking the delivery of the second of four Iranian-built oil tankers to Venezuela, IRNA reported.
Ties between the two oil producers were strong under late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez and have been further bolstered under his successor Maduro.
In May, Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji met with Maduro during an official visit to Venezuela, which sits on the world's largest proven crude reserves.
Owji also held talks with his Venezuelan counterpart Tareck El Aissami on how best to cope with US economic sanctions.
The oil minister's trip to Venezuela came just weeks after a surprise visit by US officials following the sharp rise in world oil prices triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.
The US delegation even held a hushed meeting with Maduro, whose very legitimacy as president Washington disputes.
Iran is a major oil producer and said in April that its output capacity was back to the levels seen before the reimposition of US sanctions by president Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... in 2018.
In 2020, Venezuela received two shiploads of fuel and derivatives from Iran to help address chronic domestic shortages.
Iran is the third country Maduro has visited this week after trips to Turkey and Algeria.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/12/2022 01:29 ||
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Cowards. If they really meant it they'd protest in front of a mosque.
[IsraelTimes] Rabbi says group may have been celebrating attempt by Ottoman Turkish-German dual national to set house of worship on fire; local residents told far-right group to leave
Men flying banners with far-right symbols gathered outside a synagogue in Germany on the anniversary of its attempted torching, allegedly by a Ottoman Turkish citizen.
Gathering June 5 in Ulm near Munich, about 10 men displayed one banner reading: "White lives matter, stop the White genocide." Another banner depicted the black sun symbol, which is popular among neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously and purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... s.
Local non-Jews confronted the demonstrators and made them leave the scene, according to T-Deutschland.
The date of the event was the one-year anniversary of the attempted arson at the synagogue, which authorities say was perpetrated by a 45-year-old dual citizen of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... and Germany. He poured gasoline on the facade and set it ablaze. Rapid intervention by neighbors and firefighters prevented the flames from spreading into the building.
The suspect fled Germany and is hiding in Turkey, which is refusing to extradite him.
T-Deutschland said this week’s demonstration may have been intended to celebrate the arson attempt. The local congregation’s rabbi, Shnuer Trebnik, did not rule out the possibility that the neo-Nazi gathering was to celebrate the actions of the Ottoman Turkishrunaway.
"We experience so many absurdities, it’s possible. They might have a common interest," he told T-Deutschland. Far-right forces of Evil are generally hostile both to Jews and to immigrants colonists from Moslem-majority countries.
Police are investigating the incident outside the synagogue.
In 2021, German authorities recorded 3,027 antisemitic incidents, a 29% increase over the 2,351 incidents recorded in 2020, a report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution said.
As in previous reports, the government report said that the vast majority of incidents were attributable to neo-Nazis.
Leading watchdogs on antisemitism, including the Berlin-based RIAS, have disputed this assertion, which they say is based on faulty methodology in the government’s reports.
[IsraelTimes] Oslo says foodstuffs from outside recognized borders ’must be marked with area from which the product comes’; Jerusalem warns move ’will negatively impact bilateral ties’
#1
Much more to this story. Norway to track all purchases.(Soon the future here with government and medical conjoined) Markets to send in reports of customer purchases.
#4
You have that backwards, Pholing Crererong6639. Norway is demanding that Israel redefine part of its population as not Israel, including the nation’s capitol. That’s like saying Norway must admit that Oslo is really part of Sweden.
[Rudaw] Coordination between the Iraqi counter-terrorism service (CTS) and the Kurdistan Region's counter-terrorism units has resulted in the arrest of at least 21 "high-profile" bully boyz since the start of the year, the spokesperson for the Iraqi CTS told Rudaw on Saturday, adding that he disagrees with the notion that there has been an increase in Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) activities in the country.
"Since the start of the year to this day, more than 21 high-profile members of terrorist organizations have been arrested through this coordination and intelligence cooperation between the [Iraqi] counter-terrorism service and the Sulaimani and Erbil counter-terrorism," Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the Iraqi CTS told Rudaw’s Rozhan Abubakir.
The services have cooperated together on more than 10 missions this year, according to Numan, adding that the arrestees were captured in the provinces of Sulaimani and Erbil, and were mostly Iraqi nationals.
The spokesperson disagreed with the claim that there has been a spike in ISIS operations in recent months, stating that the Death Eater group has been conducting "small" operations in areas far from the centers of the cities in ways that do not threaten the security of the country "according to our assessment."
In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 12 attacks in Iraq from June 1 to June 7, killing and injuring 16 people.
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06/12/2022 01:29 ||
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Attacks by Iranian proxies against bases housing U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Syria are increasing, U.S. officials say, and Washington has not responded with force since 2021.
There were seven attacks in May, as many attacks that month as February, March and April combined, and there have been a total of 29 since October without a kinetic U.S. response.
No Americans have been killed in these incidents, but a U.S. intelligence assessment found Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... may believe its proxy groups have killed and injured Americans, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the assessment. Iranians often boast about battlefield successes that are not substantiated. Earlier this year, Iranian officials claimed to have killed Israelis at a safe house in Irbil, which turned out to be untrue.
The attacks have been carried out by Iranian-backed militias, the U.S. officials say.
In a statement, the White House National Security Council said, "There is nothing that President Joe Biden ...... 46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass. Don't say he didn't warn us...... takes more seriously than the security of U.S. personnel deployed overseas. Shortly before we entered office, U.S. personnel and facilities were under regular attack in Iraq and Syria. This included the largest rocket attack against our embassy in Baghdad in over a decade, which took place in late 2020. We immediately deployed a number of tools, including military strikes, diplomatic engagement, sanctions, and other measures to both protect our personnel and decrease risks of further attacks. The spate of attacks has decreased significantly since the middle of last year."
"Not every response will be seen or visible, but Iran fully understands that the United States is prepared to respond directly to any threat against U.S. personnel."
The Trump administration made clear it would respond if Americans were maimed or killed in an attack, but the Biden administration, the same old faces in slightly different places, the same old ideas, the same old graft ...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation... has not drawn a similar red line for retaliation and a possible response would not be contingent on a U.S. casualty.
Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who follows the militias closely, says "there’s been an increase" since April in attacks that appeared to be designed to send a warning.
The impetus for the uptick in attacks was likely the stalled negotiations on the 2015 nuclear deal and signals from Washington that it may increase economic pressure on Tehran if the talks completely collapse, he said. He believes the attacks are meant to send a message to Washington that more pressure on Iran will trigger more attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
"A lot of this stuff seems to be in the manner of a warning, like — ’We’re coming. We’re warming up. This is what we could do if we wanted to. [T]hey’re reminding us that they could [kill us],’" Knights said.
"I think it’s an indication that they are warming up their capabilities and they’re showing us that they are warming up their capabilities."
When contacted by NBC News, Iran’s U.N. mission said it had no role in incidents in Iraq or Syria.
"We do not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and therefore are not responsible for what is happening there," said Shahrokh Nazemi, spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... .
He added that events in Iraq or Syria had no connection to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.
"The developments in the region have nothing to do with the JCPOA," the spokesperson said, adding the U.S. "must honor its commitments" under the nuclear deal.
In October 2021, five so-called suicide drones packed with explosives and shrapnel attacked the U.S. garrison at al-Tanf in southern Syria. No U.S. troops were killed in the assault, but several structures were badly damaged. Iran was behind the attack, according to three U.S. defense officials and two administration officials, with its proxy forces carrying out the attack with the intention of killing U.S. troops.
Iran launched the attack in retaliation for an Israeli strike targeting advanced missiles parts in Syria that killed and maimed Iranian citizens, the U.S. officials said. The U.S. military had a warning that the drones were inbound and was able to move most of the 200 U.S. troops away from the base, which the officials said may have been the only reason no troops were maimed or killed.
After the al-Tanf attack, the U.S. sent a message to Iran through diplomatic channels, warning it not to strike again. Since then, U.S. troops have been attacked on at least 29 separate occasions, according to a list provided by a senior defense official. The most recent attack was last week when an Iranian-backed group fired five Katyusha rockets into al-Asad air base in western Iraq.
The Biden administration carried out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Syria in February 2021 in retaliation for rocket attacks, and against Iraqi militia targets in June 2021 in response to drone attacks, but has not retaliated against Iranian proxies for any attack since al-Tanf.
The Biden administration has told the Iranian regime it holds Tehran responsible for attacks from militia groups in Iraq and Syria and officials insist Iran knows that the U.S., from President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem machine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family, the guy who bungled Afghanistan... to the U.S. military, is fully prepared to respond.
Officials also insist that just because the U.S. is not responding with airstrikes does not mean it is ignoring the attacks.
The Iranian-backed groups may be trying to draw the U.S. into a situation that could escalate, and some Biden administration officials argue it is smarter to work with the Iraqi military, focus on diplomatic messaging or consider sanctions. The U.S. shares intelligence with the Iraqis and their counterterror forces have been effective in hunting down militia groups after attacks.
Most of the recent attacks have been ineffective or easily defeated, and the Biden administration takes the scale of the attack into account before deciding on a possible response.
The Biden administration has not seen any indication that Iran's Revolutionary Guard has made a decision to escalate attacks against the U.S. in Iraq or Syria, but officials warn that could change and a significant escalation against the U.S. could close the door to a new nuclear agreement.
Most of the attacks were carried out by indirect fire, but U.S. officials are concerned about the increasing number of unmanned one-way drones, often referred to as suicide drones. There was also a probable SA-6 surface-to-air missile attack on two U.S. F-16s in Dayr az Zawr, Syria, that has not been disclosed.
After the al-Tanf attack, the Biden administration called for options to respond. Within hours, the commander of U.S. Central Command at the time, Gen. Frank McKenzie, briefed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on options to retaliate, which included airstrikes in Iran that could lead to the deaths of Iranians.
White House officials bristled at the possibility of Iranians being killed and called for more options. After several rounds of possibilities presented, the Biden administration decided on a diplomatic message rather than a military response, angering some U.S. military leaders who wanted to respond with strikes. A U.S. military response against Iran would require White House approval.
If clear approval to conduct a retaliatory strike does not come within 72 hours of the original attack, the strike is very unlikely to happen, according to U.S. military statistics, which show that to be true of every strike against Iran since 2007.
The more the White House and the National Security Council ask for various options, the less likely the U.S. is to do anything kinetic, the statistics and U.S. military officials say.
One U.S. military official described the situation between the U.S. and Iran as being on "an escalation ladder," citing the liquidation of a senior Quds Force leader in Tehran, Iran’s seizure of two Greek oil tankers, and Israel’s recent military exercise simulating strikes on Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2022 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Amid global tensions with the West over its nuclear activity, Iran’s atomic agency chief announced that it has begun injecting gas into newly installed advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges.
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, who made the announcement during an interview with Iranian national TV on Thursday, claimed the decision was in line with international regulations.
Eslami did not specify where the centrifuges in question were located. But his announcement came on the same day the UN’s nuclear watchdog reported that Tehran had informed it of its plan to install two new cascades of advanced centrifuges at the underground Natanz nuclear facility that will allow it to rapidly enrich more uranium.
The moves come as countries at an ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna voted Wednesday night to censure Iran. The rebuke deals with what the watchdog refers to as Iran’s failure to provide "credible information" over man-made nuclear material found at three undeclared sites in the country.
But even before the vote, Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... shut off two devices the IAEA uses to monitor enrichment at Natanz. Then, on Thursday, the IAEA reported that Iran is removing 27 surveillance cameras from nuclear sites around the country, raising the risk of its inspectors being unable to track Tehran’s advances as it enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA director-general, warned that in three to four weeks, it would be unable to maintain a "continuity of knowledge" about Iran’s program. "This would be a fatal blow" to negotiations over Iran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers, Grossi said.
Iranian officials also threatened to take more steps amid a years-long crisis.
"In the last 20 years, all the methods, behaviors, psychological operations, sanctions, and resolutions that they have exercised and imposed have been in line with the policy of stopping the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran," Eslami said during Thursday’s interview regarding the IAEA censure.
"It is regrettable that an international institution has been exploited by an illegitimate regime and its reputation has been destroyed," he said, accusing the UN agency of being "hostage to the Zionist regime."
Asked about the decision to disconnect the IAEA monitoring devices, Eslami said: "We kept the cameras in place in accordance with the [nuclear deal] to show our goodwill, but now that false and unacceptable accusations have been made against Tehran, the recent decision was made."
Iran and world powers agreed in 2015 to the nuclear deal, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. In 2018, then-US president Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...... unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, raising tensions across the wider Middle East and sparking a series of attacks and incidents.
Talks in Vienna over Iran’s tattered nuclear deal have been stalled since April. Since the deal’s collapse, Iran has been running advanced centrifuges and has a rapidly growing stockpile of enriched uranium.
Nonproliferation experts warn Iran has enriched enough up to 60 percent purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — to make one nuclear weapon should it decide to do so.
Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, though UN experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003.
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06/12/2022 01:58 ||
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Damascus International Airport will be out of use for some time after the Israeli attack, likely weeks, possible months. Planes unable to move, runways taken out, big strikes on each runway. Remaining flights redirected to Aleppo, huge cost, air travel in Syria paralysed.
[Shafaq] Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who is accused of leading forces that killed U.S. and allied troops, is disabled. A resolution of his case would involve finding a country to take him into custody.
A disabled Iraqi prisoner at Guantánamo Bay has reached an agreement with military prosecutors to plead guilty to war crimes charges related to his role as a commander of krazed killer forces in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, lawyers disclosed in court Friday.
The secret agreement in the case of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi is the first reached during the Biden administration, the guys that caused the debacle in Afghanistan ...the collection of boodlers, grifters, hangers-on, and self-proclaimed experts affiliated with the Biden Crime Family. Entrusted with an entire nation as the result of a suspicious election, they set about happily implementing stuff they absorbed in college, all of which blew up and splattered the rest of us... , which has indicated it would support plea bargains to resolve long-running, sometimes stalemated war crimes cases at Guantánamo Bay. Prosecutors are also negotiating with the five men who are accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a process that is expected to be more complicated because of the crime and the punishment sought, the death penalty .
But the case of Mr. Hadi is poised for a more swift resolution.
Lawyers disclosed in court Friday that they had reached a preliminary agreement in May and completed a document on Thursday that accounts for his crimes as a way of averting a trial.
Prosecutors had sought at most life in prison in a case that cast Mr. Hadi as the late Osama bin Laden ...... who is no longer with us, and won't be again...... ’s liaison to the Taliban ...Arabic for students... and as a commander of Death Eaters who had attacked and killed American and allied forces as well as medical and humanitarian relief workers in wartime Afghanistan and Pakistain from about 2003 to 2004. He was also accused of helping the Taliban blow up monumental Buddha statues in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan ...a place in Afghanistan that used to have some historically interesting statues of the Buddha carved into a mountainside. Then the holy men showed up and now all they have is some big holes... Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in March 2001.
A busy and ambitious man. Think of what he could have accomplished, had he chosen lawful good instead of lawful evil.
Details of the deal, including for which of those attacks Mr. Hadi has agreed to accept responsibility, could be disclosed as early as Monday.
At a hearing Friday, the military judge, Lt. Col. Mark F. Rosenow of the Air Force, revealed the existence of the agreement but noted discrepancies in documents he would use to question the prisoner on his understanding of the crimes, and whether he had voluntarily entered into the agreement. Prosecutors and defense lawyers said they would work through the weekend, in tandem with the Pentagon brasshat who had approved the deal, to address the judge’s concerns.
Most details of the agreement were under seal Friday, including the length of the sentence a military jury would be asked to consider.
But in a portion of the pretrial agreement that was signed in May, both sides agreed to postpone the prisoner’s sentencing hearing until 2024
...allowing Mr. Biden a final win for his presidency, assuming he is still functioning and in charge at that point...
to give U.S. diplomats time to find a country to take custody of him and provide him with medical care for a degenerative spine disease that has become acute during his military detention.
Bet it hurts...
Mr. Hadi, who says his true name is Nashwan al-Tamir,
Add that to his file, Fred!
has been disabled since 2017, when guards found him partially paralyzed and incontinent in his cell as a result of degenerative disk disease. With a hurricane heading toward the base, the Navy rushed in a neurosurgical team for the first of five operations that disrupted the timeline toward trial. Last year, a Navy neurosurgeon recommended a sixth operation to correct one of the earlier surgeries.
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.
[VOA] With the onset of the "fighting season" in Afghanistan, small pockets of anti-
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
This group popped up on March 11 when it announced its launch on Twitter and Facebook with the goal of "fighting for freedom of the country from occupation."
This is believed to be the only major Pashtun anti-Taliban group. Led by 
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
...They hate 
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
[Shafaq] 
