Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2014
15:18 ||
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The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of blocking the Air Force from retiring the A-10 gunship next year.
The Republican-controlled chamber late Thursday approved a series of amendments to its fiscal 2015 defense spending bill, including a provision that would prohibit the Pentagon from spending any money to retire the fleet of Cold War-era aircraft.
The measure, which passed 300114, was sponsored by Reps. Candice Miller, a Republican from Michigan, and Ron Barber, a Democrat from Arizona.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2014 15:20
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#2
This crap will only end when -
1 - the A10 system, it's personnel authorization, and budget slice move to the Army.
2 - when senior AF GOs are told, don't bother sending any promotion lists to Congress to rubber stamp for the next couple of years.
3 - or reconstitute the old Army Air Corps with guess who as subordinate to the CSA.
#3
Band aid. Good to have for now but the A-10 needs to go to the Army.
The Army needs to come up with something either drone like or a hybrid like the Osprey for their own CAS. The air force won't be able to give them much with the fast movers.
#4
We never seem to hear the Army or Marines clamoring to take this baby from the Air Force. Given the numerous tales of how the happy BZZZZZ of the A-10's gun brings joy to guys on the ground and it's almost perfect evolution as a CAS platform, one would expect some kind of noise from the ground forces.
#5
SteveS - its because the Generals who sit in the budget meetings are politicians and too busy kissing ass. They aren't the ones who need CAS. The ones who do love the A-10s don't get to manage those big expensive programs. If that budget could be added, without cutting the rest of Army Aviation (which is the big fear), the Army would take those in a heartbeat. Train them in Ft Rucker, base them in Ft Bragg (SOCOM Supt ABN SUpt, and regular Army mission), Ft Hood (Desert, Regular Army) and Ft Carson CO (High Altitude/mountain). Permanent OCONUS bases Desiderio Army Airfield Camp Humphries Korea (Obvious), and the 12th Combat Avn Bde in Ansbach (For USAEUR, until its moved)
#6
#5SteveS - its because the Generals who sit in the budget meetings are politicians and too busy kissing ass.
Unfortunately what appears to have always been bad, is now far worse. Today's Army "leadership" have their collective heads buried deeply within the gluteal cleft of the regime. Only their shoulder boards prevent a full envelopment.
h/t Instapundit
For the first time since World War II, the number of people forced from their homes worldwide has surged past 50 million, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.
Syrians fleeing the devastating civil war and a fast-growing web of other world crises accounted for the spike in the displaced, the UNHCR said in its annual Global Trends Report.
#6
Gentlemen, a reminder that this is a family site. Let's keep those pictures limited to a PG rating, please. GBUSMC kept the racy stuff behind more innocent pictures.
#7
When I saw both Pappy and tw in the list, my psychotic powers told me someone was in trouble.
/me puts on the PHB hat and declares:
Gentlemen, there is no T&A in the War on Terror.
.... ok, T&A are there, but they are kinda far apart and in different words.
#9
SteveS, you well know that's not what in trouble looks like here.
Gentlemen, to put it another way, the trailing daughters started reading Rantburg over my shoulder when they were 10 and 12 respectively, and commenting a few years later. Mine have not been the only offspring to grow up here, and we now have several second-generation commenters. It is for the youngsters now reading that our language and image rules exist.
#11
A distraught headline writer in Yonkers
Who thought augmentation was bonkers:
"Bony Lumpkin in Gown!"
"Now She'll Never Drown!"
And "Beanpole Nicole Stoops to Honkers!"
On the other hand, if the woman actually ate, and didn't run with Tom Cruise, my life story would read "stalk, escape, repeat." So there's that.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has seized a facility that produced chemical weapons under Saddam Hussein, but the site includes old and contaminated chemical weapons that U.S. officials said would be ineffective and hard to move.
Officials told the Wall Street Journal the weapons at the Al Muthanna complex are also hard to relocate, further complicating any effort by ISIS to use them in its offensive against Iraqi security forces.
Despite confidence that ISIS won’t be able to make the chemical weapons operational, the U.S. remains “concerned about the seizure of any military site" by ISIS, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the paper. "We do not believe that the complex contains materials of military value, and it would be very difficult, if not impossible to safely move the materials."
#1
Special Commission Team Supervises Destruction of Iraq's Chemical Weapon Arsenal
The first chemical weapons destruction team of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) supervised the destruction of 463 122mm rockets which were loaded with sarin, a nerve agent. Destruction activities took place at the Khamissiyah Storage Site, 400 km. south of Baghdad, from 21 February to 24 March 1992.
#6
the site includes old and contaminated chemical weapons
Hmmmm...guys, these are people who have no problem martyring themselves to kill other people. Why would they be concerned about dying from rad exposure just to make sure a lot of apostates do the same?
#8
"We do not believe that the complex contains materials of military value"
CNS: Although the damaged Bunker 13 at Muthanna contained thousands of sarin-filled rockets, the presence of leaking munitions and unstable propellant and explosive charges made it too hazardous for UNSCOM inspectors to enter. Because the rockets could not be recovered safely, Iraq declared the munitions in Bunker 13 as "destroyed in the Gulf War".
Destroyed. By non-recovery. Still lying inside Bunker 13. But the spreadsheet has a tick for destroyed, so like that they no longer exist, pose no threat, and are not of military value.
(Munich-Mossul, Kirche in Not) After the capture of the northern-Iraqi metropolis Mosul by Islamist forces, all the Christians who were still living there have now fled. The Catholic Archbishop of the city, Amil Shamaaoun Nona, corroborated this while speaking with the worldwide Catholic relief service Aid to the Church in Need.
“All the faithful have left the city. Who knows whether they will ever be able to return,” Abp. Nona said. “In 2003 there were still 35,000 faithful living in Mosul. Three thousand were still there in early 2014. Now probably not one is left here, and that is tragic,” the Archbishop declared. The city of Mosul, with a population of three million, was already mentioned in the Bible as Nineveh, and for thousands of years it has been a place of Christian civilization.
Archbishop Nona reported on the capture of Mosul: “We have never experienced anything like it before. A major city like Mosul has fallen victim to chaos.”
The fighting, he said, began on Thursday, June 5; at first, however, it was limited to several districts in the western part of the city.
“The army began to bombard the areas that were affected, but then the armed forces and the police suddenly left Mosul during the night between Monday and Tuesday, leaving the city at the mercy of the aggressors.”
More than half of the inhabitants and the entire Christian community immediately fled to the nearby Nineveh Plain.
“At around 5:00 on Tuesday morning we took in the families of refugees and tried to lodge them in schools, catechism classrooms and abandoned houses,” Nona reported. He is presently staying in the village of Telkef to the north of Mosul.
According to official statements, the attack was carried out by the terrorist organization “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” (ISIS), which is notorious for its cruel assaults on the Christians in Syria. Archbishop Nona thinks, however, that other groups participated in the attack also: “We do not yet know which groups they were. Many people talk about the ISIS; others think that it might have been members of various groups. We must wait a while in order to understand the actual situation better. It is certain that the extremists are here. Many people have seen them patrolling the streets.”
Archbishop Nona asks the Christians in Europe for their help and their prayers for Iraq. “We continue to pray for our country, that it might finally have peace,” he explained. “It is not easy, not to lose hope after so many years of suffering, but we Iraqi Christians are steadfast and unshakable in our faith and have to keep our hopes up despite the persecution. After what has happened in recent days, that is an enormous challenge.”
Aid to the Church in Need supports the Christians in Iraq especially in the Kurdish autonomous region in the northern part of the country, to which most of the people have fled.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2014
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I firmly believe Sunni Islam is less tolerant than Shia Islam and at its core is our best friend Saudi Arabia.
[DAWN] Pakistain on Thursday condemned recent drone strikes that took place near Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... in North Wazoo, and said there was no connection between the strikes and ongoing military operation.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam in her weekly briefing said Pakistain condemned the recent incidents of US drone strikes that took place near Miranshah in North Waziristan during the early hours of Wednesday.
She said there was no link of these drone attacks to the military operation in North Waziristan and that it was completely misleading and wrong to attach these strikes with the ongoing operation.
The spokesperson added that Pakistain regarded such strikes a violation of its illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity. She also said these strikes also had a negative impact on government's efforts to bring peace and stability in Pakistain and the region.
Referring to previous statements and efforts of Pakistain on the drone issue, the spokesperson said Pakistain had agitated the issue at various international fora and presented and passed a number of resolutions against drone strikes.
She said a resolution, sponsored by Pakistain, was also passed by the Human Rights Council on drone strikes and that Pakistain had also taken up the issue of drone strikes with US officials at various levels to lodge its protest.
In response to an other question about the military operation in North Waziristan and contact with the Afghan leadership, the front man said Pakistain has conveyed to the Afghan leadership that this operation was the need of the hour and to purge the area from hard boy and terrorist elements.
She said there was a need for better border management and parallel steps on the other side so that no terrorist could escape into Afghanistan.
She said Pakistain has emphasised that there should be better management across the border this time and the Afghan government should also take adequate steps so that there could be no disturbance and interference from Afghan side in this operation.
Responding to a question about asking the Canadian government to stop Dr Tahir ul Qadri to travel to Pakistain as he is Canadian citizen, the spokesperson said although there were international norms in this regard but Tahir ul Qadri was also a Pak citizen, therefore, this law was not applicable.
Commenting on the forthcoming visit of Advisor to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to the Russian federation, the spokesperson said he will attend a conference but he will also meet his Russian counterpart during this visit and discuss bilateral relations and regional situation.
The spokesperson said Pak-Russian ties had been on a positive trajectory in the last few years and these relations in different sectors were improving.
She said Sartaj Aziz will discuss with he Russian leadership to find ways and means to further improve these ties, especially in trade and economic sectors.
Replying to a question on latest situation in Iraq, the spokesperson said, "We are concerned about escalation of violence in Iraq."
She said "Pakistain wants stable, peaceful and calm, not only in Iraq but also in the region."
The spokesperson said Pakistain's envoy in Storied Baghdad had informed that all the Paks living in Iraq were safe and sound as they were living away from the disturbed areas.
Replying to a question, the spokesperson said there were 281 Pak in different prisons of China.
She said 90 percent of these Pak prisoners were held on charges of drug and illegal trade activities while very few were in the jails on the charges of illegal entry or stay in China.
On the question of any contact between Pakistain and India, the spokesperson said two sides were in contact with each other.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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[JSONLINE] Prosecutors allege Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fund raising among conservative groups to help his campaign and those of Republican state senators facing recall elections during 2011 and '12, according to documents unsealed Thursday.
In the documents, prosecutors lay out what they call an extensive "criminal scheme" to bypass state election laws by Walker, his campaign and two top Republican wardheelers — R.J. Johnson and Deborah Jordahl. This marks the first time prosecutors have disclosed the details of their probe.
The governor and his close confidants helped raise money and control spending through 12 conservative groups during the recall election campaigns, according to the prosecutors' filings.
The documents include an excerpt from an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson is also Walker's longtime campaign strategist and the chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a prominent conservative group.
"Bottom-line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it will be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state (and Twin Cities)," Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011.
Beginning' in March 2011 there were "open and express discussions" of the need to coordinate the activities of entities like Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth, the Republican Party of Wisconsin, the Republican State Leadership Committee' and the Republican Governors Association, special prosecutor Francis Schmitz wrote. Conference calls were held between the Walker campaign, the governors associaton and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, he wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
Yet these 'proscutors' haven't filed charges? And precisely what law was broken? Gee, that seems like something real prosecutors are required by both the canons of ethics and the law requires them to do... Or maybe they just want to surrender their law licenses now and avoid the rush.
#3
Walker looks like the best potential candidate in the Republican stable - attacks like this suggest the Democrats agree. How he handles them will determine viability.
#4
This means they're afraid of him. If they are that afraid, he must run.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/20/2014 5:26
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Walker is under EXTREME attack from the NEA, unions, and local Madison left. There are marches and protests in on or near the State Capital nearly weekly. The Feds fund and monitor the Wisconsin Gov't Accountability Board and election process very, very carefully. If there was an once of truth to this and the long list of other accusations, they would appear here.
#6
the Milwaukee journal has an intentionally misleading headline
it should have been
"John Doe gang falsely alleged..."
that is what two judges found
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/20/2014 7:21
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"You've got two judges, both a state judge and a federal judge, who said that they didn't buy into the argument that has been presented at this point,"
Typical donk strategy: Stir up trouble where there isn't any. File under BOGUS CLAIMS and/or metastatic growths.
#8
The Federal Judges found that Walker and his administrative staff didn't do any campaign work on Wisconsin's dime. The governor, and campaign staff, did campaign and work with 'outside groups' to help him get re-elected during off-time. Both actions are legal, therefor both the John Doe investigations had no merit in investigating Walker or his administrative staff. That put the left into a spin.
In disclosure, the original John Doe did find a couple of Walker's staff, when he was the Milwaukee County Administrator, working on campaigns during 'work' hours. They weren't campaigning for Walker, though. Walker actually instigated the first investigation. These two were fired. The Dem prosecutors decided that, once they had a toe-hold, they go for bigger fish.
Now that the sealed John Doe documents are released as requested by the 'Club for Growth', it now becomes a serious issue for the prosecutors in revealing what extent they (the prosecutors) actually broke the law in this investigation. The full disclosures required by Club For Growth's counter-suit would require full discovery.
From what I'm hearing locally, the prosecutors records contain numerous instances where they collaborated heavily with the 'D' party both locally and nationally during the 2012 recall election AND released personal records of the folks they were investigating to these same groups.
Recently, these investigators approached the Governor's lawyer to cut a deal stopping the investigation (and removing future 'Discovery' in the process). Don't believe Walker would agree to that, though.
The left and media (well, kinda the same) will throw a very few selective pieces of these investigations into the air for us to view. Mostly in the form of 'Walker Was Accused Of...' The 'ballast' will remain invisible.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/20/2014 8:49
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just like the media kept the Iran Contra controversy and the "Iran Hostage to screw Carter" conspiracy alive in the news for both of Reagan's terms.
They use the same play book over and over again...
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/20/2014 14:08
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they're really afraid of him, aren't they?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2014 14:42
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Yes, they are.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/20/2014 17:08
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There are marches and protests in on or near the State Capital nearly weekly.
Not just weekly, EveryD*mnDay, Mr. B.
Going in or near the Capitol in Madison during the week is to run the gauntlet of 'Screamers'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/20/2014 17:13
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I couldn't take it Rich. Maybe out in Green County, near New Glarus. I'm too old for Mad City and the nut cases.
#14
Two courts did not find anything. However, the Donk prosecutor has appealed to the U.S. 7th Circuit. Jeeze, these donk prosecutors are like Gila Monsters; they take a bite in the morning and don't let go until sundown--give Pit Bulls a bad name.
#16
File charges against the prosecutors for libel and slander if they continue to make public assertions after 2 judges have already dismissed their cases. Both prosecuors re COUNTY prosecutors, and both of them ar Dems and in lefty pockets - very very very partisan. And the JournoSent prints lies in banner headlines.
[BLOOMBERG] Felipe VI, proclaimed King of Spain today, pledged to lead a process of national renewal, saying all Spaniards should be able to live together within the nation.
"The constitution recognized our diversity as a characteristic that defines our identity," Felipe said in the National Parliament in Madrid after swearing an oath of loyalty to the 1978 constitution.
"There is space for everyone," he said. "All feelings and sensibilities, all the ways of feeling Spanish. Feelings, particularly at a time of European construction, should never cause conflict, divide, or exclude people." He used the Catalan, Basque and Galician languages as well as Spanish to thank his audience at the end of his speech.
Felipe, 46, takes the throne from his father, Juan Carlos, with Spain facing challenges to its territorial and moral integrity and the economy emerging from a six-year slump.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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There is space for everyone," he said. "All feelings and sensibilities, all the ways of feeling Spanish. Feelings, particularly at a time of European construction, should never cause conflict, divide, or exclude people.""
"Except for you fooking Moors"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2014 14:54
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all Spaniards should be able to live together within the nation
May I advance the notion of establishing a 'Kickstart' program to fund charter flights from TX and AZ with 'loads' of non-resident Spanish speakers. There's space for them back in the old mother country.
[DAWN] The military-mullah nexus has become somewhat of a political aphorism in Pakistan, especially favoured by the country's beleaguered "liberals". Every now and then, you hear the odd journalist or politician claiming that this nexus is dented, fractured, or may even be crumbling. But rarely has the military's liaison with the mullahs received any critical scrutiny.
Lately, however, some scholars have questioned its theoretical and practical utility for making sense of national security politics and policy in Pakistan...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
A careful analysis of military publications, such as the different editions of the official Pakistan Army Green Book (2000, 2008, 2011) and the National Defense University (NDU)s journal and annual strategy papers (2000-2012), shows that the military still considers militants as Pakistans first line of defence against India as part of a strategy tripod, whose other two legs are conventional force and nuclear deterrence.
In fact, senior officers continue to take pride in the militarys capability to conduct proxy wars against India to offset its conventional superiority despite the disastrous blowback of that policy on Pakistan in the form of terrorism and international isolation.
That is interesting. Has any senior military authority written an article in NDU explaining the offensive against the criminals in North Wazoo? It would seem important to give guidance to the junior officers.
BAGHDAD/ Aswat al-Iraq: Chairman of (Sons of Iraq) bloc Sheikh Abbas al-Muhamadawi called the Iraqi government to expel the US ambassador and his personnel, charging Washington to be a part of the "conspiracy" to destabilize the country.
Muhamadawi called for enhancing Iraqi relations with Iran, Russia, East European countries and China to buy arms, instead of the United States.
US president Obama pre-conditioned an agreement among Iraqi politicians before
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2014
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[Telegraph UK]Russia is secretly working with environmental groups campaigning against fracking in an attempt to maintain Europe's dependence on energy imports from Moscow, the secretary-general of Nato has said. I wonder if the KGB is doing this in the USA? Do bears poop in the woods?
Greenpeace dismissed Mr. Rasmussen's comments as "preposterous". Who is funding Greenpeace again? The bear... May be part of the deal that sprung those watermelons last fall.
Ten Muslim militants and seven soldiers were killed yesterday in one of the bloodiest battles in the southern Philippines in recent months.
Soldiers were approaching a known Abu Sayyaf hotbed on the island of Jolo when the fighting broke out. The Abu Sayyaf initially fired on the soldiers, killing an officer. Ten minutes later, six more soldiers were killed and many others injured when the Abu Sayyaf attacked them with mortar shells.
The fighting left a reported 10 Abu Sayyaf fighters dead, although only one body was recovered, and 24 soldiers injured, the military said. A military statement said, "The remaining troops are still in the area of operations while the casualties were evacuated."
The attack comes after the Abu Sayyaf suffered a series of setbacks including the capture last week of one of its leaders, Khair Mundos. Days later, two of his followers were also arrested.
Posted by: ryuge ||
06/20/2014
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#1
I feel bad for the Philippines' soldiers. Sounds like they didn't have good intel.
[REUTERS] The United States on Thursday cut aid to Uganda, imposed visa restrictions and canceled a regional military exercise in response to a Ugandan law that imposes harsh penalties on homosexuality. Cultural imperialism, anyone?
The White House said in a statement the measures were intended to "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity." "We will impose our values on anyone smaller than we are that we can bully."
Homosexuality is taboo in most African countries and illegal in 37, including in Uganda where it has been a crime since British rule. But pro or con or neutral, it's their problem, not ours.
Uganda's new law, signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February, imposes jail terms of up to life for "aggravated homosexuality" which includes homosexual sex with a minor or while HIV-positive. It's a good thing there aren't any more urgent problems in the world at this moment.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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The White House said in a statement the measures were intended to "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."
Not surprising. We leaned on the Saudis the same way, right? What's that? You don't say! Well, I'm sure that is different. Somehow.
#3
In fact we're not coming back, or sending any more aid until you completely renounce what those evil colonial missionaries taught you about Christianity, the scriptures, sex, animals, sanitation, diet, etc.
#4
So what is the Islamic take on homosexuality as long as you're putting stuff like this into effect? Or is it one set of rules for the Brotherhood and another set for Christians?
[Iraq Sun] Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said he will not quit as a condition for air support against Sunni militants after US President Barack Obama came under pressure from senior politicians to persuade the leader to step down, a British daily reported Thursday.
"Our focus needs to be on urgent action -- air support, logistic support, counter-intelligence support to defeat these terrorists who are posing a real danger to the stability of Iraq, to the whole region," the Guardian quoted Maliki's spokesperson Zuhair al-Nahar as saying in a radio programme Thursday.
He added that Maliki, a Shia Muslim, had "never used sectarian tactics".
Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Wednesday urged the US to launch air strikes against militants threatening Baghdad but senior US politicians want Obama to persuade Maliki to step down over what they see as failed leadership in the face of an insurgency.
Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said Wednesday that Maliki's government "has got to go if you want any reconciliation", and Republican John McCain called for the use of US air power but also urged Obama to "make very clear to Maliki that his time is up".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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[Iraq Sun] A group of 44 foreign nationals, including four Turkish citizens, who were kidnapped Tuesday by tribal groups in northern Iraq, have been released, a Turkish diplomat said Thursday.
Deputy security chief of Kirkuk in northern Iraq provided help for the release of the foreign workers, the diplomat told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
"They are travelling to a secure place today.
" On Tuesday, a group of armed militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) raided a construction site of a hospital near Kirkuk in northern Iraq and kidnapped about 60 foreign workers, including 15 Turkish workers, a released hostage was quoted as saying, adding that the kidnapped foreign workers also included Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepal and Turkmenistan nationals.
On Thursday, Turkey's foreign ministry urged its citizens in Iraq to leave the country immediately after militants abducted some 80 Turkish citizens in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, capital of Nineveh province.
Last Wednesday, a group of ISIL militants took control of Turkey's consulate general in Mosul, and abducted 49 staff and family members, including the consul general.
Another 31 Turkish nationals were also taken hostage by the group at a power plant in the Gyarah region of Mosul.
Also, a group of 40 Indians, who mostly belong to Amritsar, Batala, and Gurdaspur areas of Punjab, and were working as drivers, sanitary workers and construction labourers in Mosul, have been abducted in the strife-torn country.
Rescue efforts are on to ensure their safe return.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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[Iraq Sun] Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry Kissinger ... , a presidential probable for Democrats, has said that she never fully believed that the Benghazi terror attack was triggered by a protest over a movie that insults Islam's most revered figure of Prophet Mohammed.
The surprising remark from the former secretary of state came even as the State Department had pushed that narrative for days when she was at the helm.
In a sit-down interview with Fox News, Clinton suggested Tuesday that she had doubts from the outset about the theory of connecting the anti-Islam movie and the deadly attack on the US mission in Benghazi that killed four Americans including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
"This was the fog of war," Clinton said, as she was asked about the administration's disputed explanation of the strike that marred her record as the top American diplomat.
It also poses one of the biggest hurdles in the way of the likely Democrat presidential hopeful to run for the post in 2016.
"My own assessment careened from the video had something to do with it, the video had nothing to do with it -- it may have affected some people, it didn't affect other people," she said in the interview with Fox News' Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren.
"There's no doubt bully boyz were involved."
The Fox news suggested that Clinton appeared to "offer a nuanced explanation for how her department came to initially embrace the video explanation".
She said was she personally unsure about what caused the violence. "I was trying to make sense of it," Clinton said, referring to intelligence community talking points citing the video.
The State Department put out a statement immediately after the Sep 11, 2012 attack on a diplomatic and CIA compound citing "inflammatory material posted on the Internet".
In a separate interview with the CNN, Clinton welcomed the capture of a suspected criminal mastermind of the assault, Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by a US team over the weekend. He was being brought back to the US where he faces criminal prosecution.
In the CNN interview, Clinton said that she was still looking for many answers to solve the mystery behind the attack.
"There are answers, not all of them, not enough, frankly," she said.
"I'm still looking for answers, because it was a confusing and difficult time."
Clinton said the arrest of suspect Khattala in Libya may help the US better understand what prompted the attacks.
"We want to know who was behind it, what the motivation of the leaders and the attackers happened to be," she said. "There are still some unanswered questions. It was, after all, the fog of war."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
"This was the fog of war," Clinton said,
... so we went with something totally implausible.
#2
Well, for not "believing" it, she was certainly pushing the vid narrative awfully hard now wasn't she? For foks sake, what a bloody piece of work and a pox on Fox for their shameless softball interview.
#3
So she's good with lying to people, as long as it's an official lie. Prepare yourselves for the Ministry of Truth.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/20/2014 7:18
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#4
This woman, I served in Bosnia Hilda, will say anything to further her political career. 3:00 a.m. Hilda is as big a narcissist and would be as big a problem as Obummer.
Donald Sterling wasn't allowed to walk back what he uttered in private, why should this one get away with what she uttered in public? /rhetorical question
#6
Upon hearing reports of Iberians hidden within the treeline, Gaius Flaminius immediately blamed Greek Pottery and began smashing his store of olive oil.
#7
She stated that it was a fact that the video caused the riots in Egypt happening at the same time. I was unaware that was a fact yet nobody questioned it.
This has been a difficult week for the State Department and for our country. Weve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. Weve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing do to with.
now she'll say she was referring to Cairo, but she said "embassies". Lying Bitch
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2014 14:40
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#10
Yet another undeniable truth of eternity Frank. There is no justice on this side of the clouds.
#12
At her fishy ascent's twists and bends,
Whole shoals of her friends met their ends.
Feel like taking the hook?
Wanna cook from her book?
Better go for the 'Green Smoothie Cleanse'
[Iran Press TV] At least six Syrian people have bit the dust and nine others injured in a car kaboom in the western city of Homs.
A Syrian television report said the victims of the attack in the restive city of Homs included women and kiddies.
The blast targeted an Alawite neighborhood in the Akrameh district. The residents of the district are reportedly the supporters of the Syrian government.
This is the second such attack in the city in the past week
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, said that four people were killed in the attack.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack yet, but similar bombings in Homs were carried out by foreign-backed Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... gunnies fighting against the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ...
On June 12, seven Syrian people were killed and 55 others injured after a boom-mobile detonated in the Wadi Dahab district of the city.
Homs has been cleared of gunnies by the Syrian army, but boom-mobilekabooms recurrently take place in the city.
On May 12, a final group of foreign-sponsored Takfiris left the city as part of a deal reached between the Damascus government and the gunnies on May 4.
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[Iran Press TV] Ukraine's new president says he will sign the economic portion of an association pact with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... next week.
On Thursday, Petro Poroshenko announced the plan to sign the pact on June 27 during a parliamentary vote of confidence for the new foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin. The political part of the agreement was signed by interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk back in March.
The economic section asks Ukraine to open its doors to EU's free trade zone.
One condition set by the EU economic deal is that Kiev should lift import barriers. Ukraine has imposed restrictions on EU products to protect farmers and steel mills in the industrial east from direct EU competition.
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#1
Ukraine has imposed restrictions on EU products to protect farmers and steel mills in the industrial east from direct EU competition.
[Iraq Sun] With the spectre of civil war looming, Iraq has formally called on the US to launch air strikes against jihadist Sunni faceless myrmidons who have overrun several key cities over the past week. The White House indicated that President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... has not yet ruled out air strikes in Iraq.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was quoted by news channel Al Arabiya as saying: "We request the United States to launch air strikes against murderous Moslems."
"A military approach will not be enough. We acknowledge the need for a drastic political solution," the Iraqi foreign minister added.
Top US military commander Gen Martin Dempsey confirmed the news to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee: "We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power.".
Obama on Wednesday is to meet with the majority and minority leaders of both the House of Representatives and the Senate for a classified briefing on possible military action in Iraq. He has rejected the deployment of combat troops but is reportedly considering the use of drones or bombs.
The developments came as the Sunni faceless myrmidons launched an attack on Iraq's biggest oil refinery at Baiji, north of Storied Baghdad.
The Sunni murderous Moslem groups attacked the largest oil refinery in Salahudin province sparking a huge fire. Hundreds of gunnies, including the faceless myrmidons linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL), an Al Qaeda offshoot, waged an attack at dawn on the refinery compound in Baiji city from several directions with machine guns and mortar rounds
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... earlier urged Iraqis to unite against the murderous Moslems.
He has also warned that the escalation of violence in his country will spill over to those countries which led a "conspiracy" against Iraq.
"We will face terrorism and we will bring down the conspiracy. But be sure they will flee to you and your countries will also be burned by sectarian wars," Maliki said in his weekly televised speech, referring to the countries that Iraq earlier accused of supporting terrorist groups.
"What happened in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... was a setback, but not a defeat," he said.
On Tuesday, Maliki's office had issued a statement accusing neighbouring 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... for "financing and supporting" the myrmidon groups in Iraq.
Riyadh rejected in a statement any foreign intervention in Iraq's affairs and urged Bagdad to ensure the participation of all factions of the Iraqi people in determining the future of their country on an equal footing
On Wednesday, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant faceless myrmidons were engaged in fierce fighting with Iraqi security forces for control over the country's largest oil refinery in Baiji.
By afternoon, roughly three-quarters of the refinery had fallen under ISIS control, according to an Iraqi official speaking on the condition of anonymity to Rooters news agency.
Authorities had evacuated foreigners from the refinery the night before in anticipation of the attack.
Adding to the tense situation are the reports of kidnapping of 60 construction workers on Wednesday, including 40 from India and 15 from Turkey.
Iraq's military also said its forces had regained parts of the strategic city of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, which ISIL captured on June 16, according to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the "Iranian people" would spare no effort to protect Shiite holy sites in the Iraqi cities of Karbala, Najaf and Samarra, amid the Sunni myrmidons' advance, state-run Mehr news agency reported.
Ahead of the meeting with Obama, Senate leader Harry Reid ... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ... , a Democrat, said he did not "support in any way" getting American troops involved in the Iraqi "civil war".
Gen Dempsey told a Senate panel that it was in US' national interest to counter [ISIS] wherever we find them".
UK Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... told Parliament in London that ISIS was also plotting terror attacks on Britannia.
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#1
given Obama's behavior, Iraq should use reverse psychology and say "DON'T launch air strikes on the militants!"
Then Barak can launch strikes just to show them who's boss.
Al
Posted by: frozen al ||
06/20/2014 11:29
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From what I have been watching, Iraq has been actively engaged in a civil war since Christmas and nearly constant ops against ISIL for over 90 days.
Civil war is not looming, it had done been here and set up house.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
06/20/2014 15:04
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[Israel Times] Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon signed an order Thursday declaring the Islamic Relief Worldwide charity an unlawful organization, for funneling funds to Hamas.
The order bars the global relief organization, headquartered in the UK, from operating in Israel and the West Bank and prevents it from transferring money to West Bank residents.
The defense ministers decision was reached following a tip from the Shin Bet security service and a recommendation from Israeli courts.
This is an additional financial source for Hamas, and we dont intend to let it run and assist terror activity against Israel, Yaalon said. This is another step in our measures against Hamas in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], and in the pressure we are applying on it, the goal of which is hurting the leaders and members of the organization, as well as its civilian infrastructure, which forms the basis of the organizations activity among the [Palestinian] population.
In 2006, the Gaza project director of IRW was arrested by Israeli forces and later deported, after admitting to transferring money to Hamas institutions. Iyaz Ali, a Pakistani-born British national, told Israeli interrogators he was aware of the nature of these organizations, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
Israeli forces have embarked on a massive campaign to locate three kidnapped boys while simultaneously destroying parts of the Hamas terror infrastructure in the West Bank.
The military has been conducting nightly raids and sweeps in cities across the West Bank since the teenagers Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frankel, 16, and Gilad Shaar, 16 disappeared last Thursday, arresting some 300 suspected terrorists, many of them Hamas men, since last week.
[Iran Press TV] Supporters of Afghanistan's presidential candidate, Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... , have staged a protest rally in the capital over alleged election fraud.
On Thursday, Abdullah's supporters erupted into the streets of Kabul and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against outgoing President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... and the Independent Election Commission to mark the first public rally against the presidential election.
The demonstration came after Abdullah on Wednesday accused the government of engineering a widespread fraud. He said that according to evidence obtained by his campaign team, some ballot boxes were filled with votes a day before the June 14 run-off.
He also demanded that vote-counting be stopped.
"We suspend engagement with the (election) commission and we have asked our monitors to leave their offices," Abdullah said, adding, "We are asking for the counting process to be stopped immediately."
He accused his rival, Ashraf Ghani, President Karzai, and the election commission of attempting to change the results.
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[DAWN] As Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... is bracing itself for the influx of people from North Wazoo after the launch of military offensive against turbans there, the federal government is understood to have decided not to ask the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... and other foreign relief agencies for help and support for the internally displaced persons.
An official dealing with the ongoing relief activities told Dawn on Wednesday that the federal government had stopped the relevant agencies from receiving assistance from foreign relief bodies, including the UN.
"We (the federal government) have issued clear directives to all concerned not to ask the UN or any other bodies for relief assistance," he said.
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[DAWN] KARACHI Two Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain suspects, including one allegedly involved in the killing of army soldiers, were bumped off by the Pakistain Rangers, Sindh, in separate encounters on Wednesday, officials said.
The TTP local leader was rubbed out by the Rangers in Mauripur in the early hours of Wednesday, the police officials added.
The law-enforcers came under attack when they raided a hideout of gunnies in Musharraf Colony. In an ensuing exchange of gunfire, one suspected murderous Moslem was rubbed out, the police said.
The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
"He was identified as Zuhair, a local TTP commander," said City SSP Sheraz Nazeer.
The murderous Moslem was allegedly involved in the killing of 10 soldiers and other Frontier Constabulary personnel in the tribal areas, the officer said, adding that the TTP leader had come to Karachi to target some "political and religious leaders".
The other TTP suspect was killed in an encounter with the Rangers in Ittehad Town on Wednesday night, the area police said.
They added that acting on the information about the presence of suspected TTP murderous Moslems, the troops raided a place in 'Cottage Area' behind Mohammed Khan Colony where an exchange of fire ensued. In the shootout, the TTP suspect was rubbed out, the police said.However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... the police did not disclose the suspect's identity.
A Rangers spokesperson said that the dear departed was identified as Imran alias Umer alias Qari. He was allegedly associated with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (Swat).
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[Iraq Sun] Iraqi government forces battled Sunni rebels for control of the country's biggest refinery on Thursday as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... waited for a U.S. response to an appeal for air strikes to beat back the threat to Storied Baghdad.
Sunni snuffies hung their black banners on watch towers at Iraq's Beiji oil refinery, a witness said Thursday, suggesting the vital facility had fallen to the bad boys, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... a top Iraq security official said the government force protecting the refinery was still inside Thursday and that they were in regular contact with Storied Baghdad, according to the AP.
At the refinery, 200 km (130 miles) north of the capital near Tikrit, troops loyal to the Shi'ite-led government were fighting bully boyz from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) and its allies who had stormed the perimeter a day earlier, threatening national energy supplies.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Sky News says the Iraqi army took it back. Link
On a side note, when they give a time, is it UTC if not otherwise stated? If the server was smart it would determine my timezone and adjust the time accordingly. I don't know how it works. Anybody?
#3
Good catch, Squinty. Let's call it the fog of war, and wait until the fat lady sings. ;-)
I've been frustrated about the lack of consistency of time stamps, too, but choose to assume that it is local time until further evidence appears or a definitive ruling is made by someone who knows.
[Ynet] The number of Syrians who are housed in refugee camps and cities in neighbouring Turkey has reached 1.05 million, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference on Thursday.
Ankara has maintained an "open border" policy to refugees fleeing the conflict between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels in Syria.
[DAWN] The opposition parties in the National Assembly on Thursday demanded the government to withdraw the FIRs registered against Dr Hussain Mohiuddin, the son of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri and his followers over the Model Town incident.
Commenting on a point of order, Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah, belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said that the government had failed to adopt the political strategy to handle the situation in Lahore.
"The government played the role of Gullu Butt in Lahore incident," he said.
Shah said that the PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri also organised a huge protest against the PPP government during its last tenure in Islamabad but the party leadership dealt with Dr Qadri by adopting the political strategy of reconciliation with the support of its coalition parties.
He also said that it is the constitutional right of the people to protest peacefully while the loss of precious lives in Lahore incident was a big failure of a democratic government.
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[DAWN] US President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... on Thursday said he was ready to send 300 military advisors to Iraq and if necessary to take "targeted" and "precise" military action to counter radical Sunni fighters.
Obama said Washington was ready to deploy advisors to study how to train and equip Iraqi forces and had already increased its surveillance and intelligence capabilities in the country.
The US teams could set up joint operations centers in Storied Baghdad and near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the northern Iraqi city that fell to myrmidon rebels last week, the president suggested.
"Going forward, we will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it, "Obama said at the White House after meeting senior members of his national security team.
Obama said it was a good investment for Washington to intervene in Iraq if it prevented Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) fighters establishing bases which could eventually pose a threat to the West.
But he repeatedly insisted US troops would not be going back in to direct combat in Iraq, two-and-a-half years after the last American soldier came home from the war.
Obama did however pledge to help Iraq bolster its own forces against the advance of the radical Sunni fighters.
"We're prepared to send a small number of additional American military advisers, up to 300, assess how we can best train, advise and support Iraqi security forces going forward," Obama said.
The president also renewed US warnings that only non-sectarian leadership could rescue Iraq from its current plight -- an apparent implicit rebuke of Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"Shia, Sunni, Kurds, all Iraqis must have confidence that they can advance their interests and aspirations through the political process rather than through violence," Obama said.
"It is clear, though, that only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the iraqi people together and help them through this crisis."
Obama warned that he would not authorize political operations that were designed to promote one sect in Iraq over another.
And he said that he would dispatch 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... to Europe and the Middle East this weekend to consult with US allies on the next steps forward on the Iraq crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"What kind of military action?"
"Precise military action. None of the flopping around like you guys usually do."
#3
Personally, + given the Bammer's stubborn defense of his "red lines" from Libya to the Ukraine-Crimea Crisis, I'm interpreting "precise" as PCorrectly-Deniably synonymous wid LIMITED = SELECTIVE = MINOR SUPPORT OR MILACTION.
* TOPIX > [IOL.CA] AMERICA [Obama?]LEAVES ITS ALLIES IN DANGER.
Which one day in future may result in ... ...
* TOPIX > [Freerepublic] TERROR GROUP ISIS [Etal?] MAY BE COMING TO AMERICA.
D *** NG IT, DON'T BE RIDICULOUS, MORIARITY, AMERICA = AMERIKA MAY HAVE LEGAL SHARIA LAW BY THEN, + ISIS, ETAL. MAY HAVE NUKES-WMDS ALSO!
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to carry out a 'targeted operation' in the capital to eliminate terrorist elements, DawnNews reported.
To wipe out sleeper cells of faceless myrmidons following the commencement of a military operation in North Wazoo, a door-to-door search operation is expected to be launched in Islamabad which will act on intelligence reports.
Rangers and police personnel would conduct the targeted operation, however, troops of the Pakistain army would remain on standby for their support.
The operation would be initiated from the suburbs of the federal capital.
According to sources, there were intelligence reports that Death Eaters have some strong connections in Turnol and Bhara Kahu areas, adjacent to the capital city.
Earlier this month, two Lieutenant-Colonels were killed in a suicide kaboom in the Turnol area near Fatah Jhang.
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[DAWN] The Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) of Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... on Thursday submitted a First Information Report (FIR) application seeking nomination of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... and his son MNA Hamza Shahbaz among others in the Model Town killings case, DawnNews reported.
At least eight people including Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) supporters were killed when they clashed with local police on Tuesday.
The application for registering the FIR, against a total of 21 people, was submitted by a delegation of the Minhajul Koran Trust to the Faisal Town Police Station's Muharrir in absence of the SHO.
Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Law Minister Punjab Rana Sanaullah and State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali were also named in the application.
The trust also named former DIG Operations Rana Abdul Jabbar and former SP Model Town Tariq Aziz in the application.
Chief Minister Sharif had vowed to resign from his post if found responsible for the brutal incident.
Earlier today, PAT chief Qadri's son Hussian Mohyuddin's name was taken down from the FIR due to lack of evidence available against him.
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[DAWN] IT is among the many wonders of this land of the pure that charlatans renowned for their closeness to state institutions can spout rhetoric about the use of 'state terrorism ... any action taken by a non-Moslem state that constrains the violent impulses of Moslems or their allies ... ' against innocents. So it was earlier this week when Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... — and his various spokesmen — reacted to the government's use of force against his supporters.
Qadri is not wrong in noting that such incidents can trigger a chain of events that shake up the entire political order; it is another matter that what he suggested was the start of his long-prophesied 'revolution' seems much more like a shift in the wrong direction for Pak democracy.
This is not to suggest that the Sharif brothers are proving to be adept defenders of our extremely weak democratic foundations. To the contrary, they are giving their detractors, and, more crucially, the establishment and its lackeys, every opportunity to not just snap at their heels, but potentially cut them off entirely.
The use of such excessive force in an upscale neighbourhood of Lahore defies logic. Indeed, one cannot help but wonder whether or not the whole incident was engineered precisely so that the already under pressure government is pushed further into a corner.
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[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: A mock exercise conducted in Islamabad on Wednesday revealed the preparedness and the vigilance of the police force. It also tested the response time of different cop shoppes, as external help was also acquired.
During the drill, Shahzad Town cop shoppe was attacked by a group of five 'terrorists', armed with modern and sophisticated weapons and explosives, the police sources said. Reluctantly, a policeman was 'killed' and two others 'injured'. However the police team managed to gun down two attackers and incarcerated Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! three.
Continued on Page 49
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[DAWN] Member of National Assembly belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM), Tahira Asif passed away late Thursday night from injuries she sustained after being shot in Lahore a day earlier, DawnNews reported. Wasn't she getting better yesterday?
She had been hit by a bullet in lower torso and left thigh and was taken to Sheikh Zayed Hospital in a critical condition on Wednesday.
According to police, she was in a car, along with by her 25-year-old daughter and a handicapped servant, when she was shot at near Iqbal Town's Moon Market.
Iqbal Town SP (Operations) Dr Farrukh Raza has said Ms Tahira of Wafaqi Colony, Johar Town, was going towards Karim Block when she stopped apparently to buy some fruit from a vendor.
As she opened the door of the car, two men on a cycle of violence who had covered their faces with a piece of cloth approached her and tried to rob her.
Quoting a couple of witnesses, including the MNA's servant, the SP said the suspects first snatched a gold necklace from her, but fired at her when she tried to resist them.
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[CNSNEWS] Public confidence in television news is at an all-time low, according to a survey released today by Gallup.
Only 18 percent of the Americans surveyed expressed either a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in that news medium.
Gallup has been asking the following question annually since 1993: "Now I am going to read you a list of institutions in American society. Please tell me how much confidence you, yourself, have in each one--a great deal, quite a lot, some or very little?" (See Gallup Confidence Survey.pdf) One of the institutions listed is "television news."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I would like to see an age demographic of that %18.
#2
Another example of the demographic 'die off' in effect. The remaining percent may be dwindling but at least they have money the program sponsors are looking for.
#3
I have an 84 year old widowed brother-in-law who has successfully flipped the switch. No newspapers, no Fox News or CNN. His greatest mystery is what the 'Meals on Wheels' lady will be bringing for dinner, and the Sunday church brunch menu. It took a mild stroke, but he seems carefree and happier than most. Don't tell me providence is not in control.
#5
My confidence in TV news fell off the table when Walter Cronkite went bonkers over Hue and said we were losing the war when we were kicking Charlie's butt all over the field...
Throw in the nonsense and false information about Reagan about Iran Contra and Iraq...
I don't trust anyone on network TV and I barely trust a newspaper anymore. More often than not when I read an article about Obama, I assume the truth is about 180-degrees from what the article says.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/20/2014 13:57
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#6
More often than not when I read an article about Obama, I assume the truth is about 180-degrees from what the article says.
That is exactly why I find Susan Rice to be so helpful.
#7
My confidence in TV news fell off the table when Walter Cronkite went bonkers over Hue and said we were losing the war when we were kicking Charlie's butt all over the field...
That would be the Walter Cronkite who was a reporter in the ETO when the Germans kicked solid ass in the Ardennes destroying an entire American division and taking a load of POWs. Another surprise attack. Even though the line was stabilized and the bulge was pushed back, the costs in personnel were far beyond any of the losses in Tet. Yet one was triumphed in the media as a resounding victory, the other a defeat, though when the dust settled we held the same territory as before the battle and the enemy's ranks were severely mauled. That Walter? /rhetorical question
[BBC] Tens of thousands of people are fleeing North Wazoo tribal region in north-west Pakistain after the army began an offensive against hard boys.
A camp for displaced people has been set up near Bannu but it lacks food, water and electricity, locals say.
Many displaced families are seeking shelter with friends and relatives.
A curfew has been lifted to allow people in North Waziristan to escape - and officials expect thousands more to flee to safety in the coming days.
The army says at least 160 Death Eaters had been killed since it began air strikes on hard boy targets in Shawal and other areas of North Waziristan on Sunday.
There is no independent media access to the area and no way of confirming the casualty figures.
Tanks and troops are also being sent in for a full-scale operation to target Taliban and foreign hard boy networks based near the Afghan border, the military says.
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#1
I take it that they are fleeing because the mighty Pak Army doesn't give much credence to the concept of human shield.
Britain set up a colonial regime in Iraq after a long military campaign during World War I. In response to Iraqi resistance, including a country-wide uprising in 1920, British forces battled for over a decade to pacify the country, using airplanes, armored cars, firebombs and mustard gas.
Air attacks were used to shock and awe, to teach obedience and to force the collection of taxes.
Winston Churchill, as responsible cabinet minister in the early years, saw Iraq as an experiment in high-technology colonial control. Though officials in London sometimes had qualms about the violence, colonial administrators on the ground like Gertrude Bell expressed enthusiasm for the power of the imperial military enterprise. Link
#3
I learned a lot from that link. Found a brief bio of Gertrude Bell, who had a lot to do with the structure of post-WWI Iraq: Bell is thus both the model of a policymaker and an example of the inescapable frailty and ineptitude on the part of Western powers in the face of all that is chaotic and uncertain in the fashion for "nation-building." Despite the prejudices of her culture and the contortions of her bureaucratic environment, she was highly intelligent, articulate, and courageous. Her colleagues were talented, creative, well informed, and determined to succeed. They had an imperial confidence. They were not unduly constrained by the press or by their own bureaucracies. They were dealing with a simpler Iraq: a smaller, more rural population at a time when Arab nationalism and political Islam were yet to develop their modern strength and appeal.
But their task was still impossible. Iraqis refused to permit foreign political officers to play at founding their new nation. T.E. Lawrence was right to demand the withdrawal of every British soldier and no stronger link between Britain and Iraq than existed between Britain and Canada. For the same reason, more language training and contact with the tribes, more troops and better counterinsurgency tactics-in short a more considered imperial approach-are equally unlikely to allow the US today to build a state in Iraq, in southern Afghanistan, or Iran. If Bell is a heroine, it is not as a visionary but as a witness to the absurdity and horror of building nations for peoples with other loyalties, models, and priorities.
[NY Times] After a humiliating censure by Congress four years ago for failing to pay taxes and other ethical lapses, Representative Charlie Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Rangel Congressman-for-Life from Harlem, who became what 20 terms in Congress turns you into ... has steadily lost power in Washington. After nearly 44 years in office, it is now time for him to yield to the next generation. In Tuesday's Democratic primary for New York's 13th Congressional District, we recommend Adriano Espaillat, a New York State senator, who will be a better representative of this district stretching from Upper Manhattan into parts of the Bronx.
Mr. Espaillat has been spent his 18 years in the States Legislature, mostly fighting for tenants, day-care staff and farmworkers. He has pushed for in-state tuition at public universities for undocumented children, called for a repeal of exorbitant tax breaks for expensive apartment buildings and has strongly supported immigrants' rights.
He fought Gov. Andrew Sonny Cuomo's ill-considered property tax cap that has hobbled poorer school districts in the state. And he was one of the Democrats who marched out of the Senate chamber rather than vote for a scandalous redistricting proposal in 2012 that created district maps designed to keep politicians from losing their seats.
Another candidate, Rev. Michael Walrond Jr., a Harlem pastor and community activist, is a passionate speaker, but Mr. Espaillat, who nearly won this seat two years ago, has the best chance of replacing Mr. Rangel.
It's time for a change, and Democratic voters in the 13th Congressional District should cast their ballot for Adriano Espaillat.
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#2
Sorry Chollie, but we at the NYT think you've outlived your usefulness. But don't think we're ungrateful - you'll have a marvelous obituary personally written by Pinchy when you pass on.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] A white man speaking 'fluent English' was in charge of an Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... which bumped off at least 60 people in a Kenyan coastal town on Sunday evening, according to witnesses.
Several residents in Mpeketoni reported that they saw a pale-skinned man who spoke English and Arabic giving orders to the gunnies.
The eyewitness accounts support the theory that the men were sent by al-Shabaab by a seasoned foreign jihadi unit now working with the Somali Islamists.
'I saw a white man who was speaking in fluent British English commanding the rest of the attackers,' said Mary Gachoki, a teacher who lives in Mpeketoni and speaks good English told The Telegraph.
Today the Inspector General of Police said several people have been tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! including suspected ringleaders.
David Kimaiyo also said that someone had been arrested for using social media to say that al-Shabaab was behind the attacks.
'We have arrested several suspects in connection to Mpeketoni incident including the owner and driver of one the vehicles used by attackers,' Mr Kimaiyo said on Twitter.
'Also in police custody is a suspect who was operating social media accounts purportedly used by al-Shabaab to claim responsibility.'
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#1
Was he carrying a white cat and look something like this?
[NATIONALJOURNAL] House Republicans on Thursday elected Kevin McCarthy ...the GOP house majority whip. He replaces Eric Cantor, who got whupped because his politix are like Kevin McCarthy's... as their new majority leader, elevating the 49-year-old Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,n to the No. 2 position in GOP leadership and triggering a subsequent contest to replace him as majority whip.
McCarthy defeated Rep. Raul Labrador in the race to replace Eric Cantor, whose shocking primary loss last Tuesday set the stage for Thursday's secret-ballot special election. After the vote, Labrador asked for the results to be recorded as unanimous—a gesture appreciated by his colleagues.
Shortly after McCarthy's victory, Republicans elected Rep. Steve Scalise to replace him as whip on the first ballot. Scalise was the front-runner throughout the three-man race between him, Rep. Peter Roskam, and Rep. Marlin Stutzman; the only question was whether Scalise could win an outright majority on the first ballot and avoid an unpredictable head-to-head contest with either Roskam or Stutzman.
Roskam attributed Scalise's first-ballot victory to "a great campaign," adding that he will "actively support" the new whip.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Roskam is my congress critter. He talks a good line but doesn't listen to anybody who disagrees with anything he has strong opinions about. In my case it was the suggestion he think about leveling the economic incentives to choose a H1B Visa holder over a US citizen for employment. He insists that citizens are too poorly educated for the jobs in this market and will not consider other reasons citizens are loosing out. I haven't dropped support for him yet but would consider outsourcing him and his buddies to H1B visa holders.
#2
And McCarthy doesn't have to worry about tea-party types nailing him like Cantor. California, and all.
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06/20/2014 7:16
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but would consider outsourcing him and his buddies to H1B visa holders.
At this point, I would be willing to ship 535 congress critter and the president to Mexico in exchange for an equal number of H1B visa holders. However, I don't think the Mexicans would take the congress critters and president.
#4
He insists that citizens are too poorly educated for the jobs in this market
Isn't that obama's position on voters, that's why he's importing so many new ones.
BTW, why does he vote to fund one of the most expensive job training programs in the US, the Department of Defense. There are a lot of foreigners with that job skill that won't need as much training. Or is there something about allegiance and loyalty that are valued over bottom dollar?
[BREITBART] Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) has just been elected House Majority Whip by his Republican colleagues.
Scalise defeated Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) in a three-way race that was decided by one ballot.
In the days prior to the vote, Scalise took great pains to project strength and inevitability.
"We're going to win," he confidently told news hounds Monday.
His supporters huddled Thursday before the vote in the John Dingell ...Octogenarian Dem representative-for-life from Michigan. He was first elected in the Upper Jurassic, when (D) stood for Dinosaur... room at the Rayburn House office building before marching over to the House Longworth building where the vote was taking place.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Gee, and I was kind of hoping the Pubs would elect a woman to the job... err.. Majority Whip
[Iraq Sun] Under pressure to come to the aid of the embattled Iraq government, President Barack Obama said the US is prepared to send up to 300 military advisers to Iraq, but won't be returning to a combat role there.
The US advisers would be deputed to Iraq to "assess how we can best train, advise and support Iraqi security forces" in the face of advancing Sunni fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), he said Thursday.
But "armed forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq", Obama said in a White House announcement after a meeting with his national security team on options that also include the possibility of future air strikes.
Obama also announced a series of steps designed to improve intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance of the militant army that has taken several Iraqi cities and is threatening the capital in Baghdad.
The president also announced that he will dispatch Secretary of State John Kerry to the region for diplomatic efforts that include demands for a more inclusive government in Iraq.
Asked about some allies call for removal of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Obama told reporters that "it's not our job to choose Iraq's leaders".
In addition to military advisers, Obama said he is planning to create "joint operation centres" with the Iraqi military to help coordinate plans and designate possible targets among the militants.
While the US has an interest in preventing civil war in Iraq and making sure it does not become a new haven for terrorists planning to attack the US and its allies, Obama said ultimately it's up to Iraq to solve its problems, .
The advisers will not be combat troops, and "I think we always have to guard against mission creep", Obama said.
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#1
OTOH see WORLD NEWS > [WaPo] CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: [POTUS Obama = USA's]ABDICATION OF FOREIGN POLICY RESPONSIBILITIES HAS A PRICE.
Outcome(s) which may include but isn't limited to the following .. ....
* SAME > [IRNA] [Saeed] JALILI: IRAN BECOMES AN INTERNATIONAL POWER.
IMO also read, GLOBALIST-DESIRED, SOON-TO-BE-NUCLEAR, US-STYLE? OWG CO-SUPERPOWER.
IMO again one of many.
* TOPIX > [Reuters] OBAMA ISN'T THE ONLY ONE WID A PASSIVE-AGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY.
true, but from Libya thru the Ukraine-Crimea Crisis, + possibly now ISIS-threatened Iraq + Rising China?, US MILPOL CREDIBILITY AS A SUPEROWER GOES DOWN WHILE THAT ITS [OWG Globalist] SUPERPOWER-WANNABE RIVALS OR PROTAGONISTS INVERSELY GOES UP.
#3
As per CNN this AM, the Bammer wants to see more + fairer representation of Sunnis + Shias, + Kurds in a newer = better Iraqi Govt. as a condition for continued US support.
Looks like IRAN is in broad or tacit agreement ...???
* WORLD NEWS > [IRNA] IRAQ IN DIRE NEED OF NATIONAL CONSENSUS TO FIGHT BACK AGZ ISIL MILITANTS : [Iran] DAILY.
[POLITICALTICKER.BLOGS.CNN] He's said over and over that he won't run for the White House a third time, but a new poll indicates that if Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals.... changed his mind and made another bid for president, he'd be the frontrunner among Republicans in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire.
According to the Suffolk University/Boston Herald survey, which was released Thursday, 24% of Granite State Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say that Romney would be their first choice for their party's presidential nomination.
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So, the good ship GOP is stuck on a sandbar, so we'll pretend this is where it's docked.
'Meant to do this.'
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/20/2014 7:20
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Romney ran a poor campaign in 2008 for whatever reason. IMO Romney, as President, would have spared the country much of the disaster that is currently afflicting the country.
[MEDIAITE] We've established before that Harry Reid ... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ... 's vendetta against money in politics isn't exactly consistent, but Reid raised a few eyebrows today when he said Republicans have plenty of billionaires while Democrats don't have "many." CNN's Jake Tapper caught this odd statement and called out Reid for overlooking all the billionaires who actually do support Democrats.
Tapper played the video of Reid and said, "The left doesn't have many billionaire backers? Oh, really? Well, you could name George Soros, David Shaw, Irwin Jacobs, to name a few." He also singled out Tom Steyer, the billionaire philanthropist and environmentalist who has taken on climate change and killing the Keystone XL pipeline as big issues.
Tapper spent the rest of the segment on Steyer himself, and a representative for the liberal billionaire explained that Steyer actually is no fan of the Supreme Court's decisions to boost the influence of money in American politics. But as long as conservatives are doing it, Steyer does not want an uneven playing field, so he's gonna keep giving money to who he can.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Harry "the Hack" Reid has a disconnect between brain and mouth. Truth pays the price.
#2
Oprah, speilberg hoolywood diretbags.. wall street weasels, green energy (al gore) cronies, apple, amazon and microsoft stoogies.... do not count since they do not pay taxes.
[IsraelTimes] Hamass attempt to release prisoners from Israeli detention by means of the kidnapping of three yeshiva students has backfired, the head of the IDFs Central Command, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, said Thursday, pointing out that the group had suffered many new arrests following the abduction.
In a letter penned to troops involved in Operation Brothers Keeper, Alon, who is in charge of IDF forces in the West Bank, explained that the wave of arrests of Hamas members 50 of whom had been released as part of the prisoner swap for the return of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 undermined the terror groups original aim.
The arrest of 50 terrorists freed as part of the Shalit deal by our forces will delay their return for many years. Thus, Hamass attempt to release prisoners brought about the opposite result, he wrote.
A statement from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbass office on Thursday condemned the arrest of the former prisoners, saying it constitutes a gross violation of the [Shalit] release agreement.
Among the 50 convicts freed in 2011 and rearrested Wednesday overnight, four were in the midst of serving double life sentences; 13 had been serving life sentences; 19 had been sentenced to over 20 years; and five had been slapped with sentences of up to 20 years. The convictions included murder, manslaughter, producing weapons, maintaining contact with the enemy, and shooting attacks.
#1
A statement from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's office on Thursday condemned the arrest of the former prisoners, saying it "constitutes a gross violation of the [Shalit] release agreement."
I still have a hard time with NRO being declassified.
The U.S. Air Force has begun the process of conducting the first launch services competition since awarding the monopoly United Launch Alliance (ULA) an exclusive 36-core deal last year that sparked a lawsuit from upstart competitor SpaceX.
The Air Force posted a draft request for proposals June 4 to loft the National Reconnaissance Offices NROL-79 satellite next year.
Officials hope to get the work on contract this year, but that could be a thorny path as SpaceX cannot win national security launch work without certification. And its certification plan, which company President Gwynne Shotwell and launch program executive officer Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski both describe as ambitious, is slated to take all year.
On the flip side, this could be SpaceXs first chance to win national security work since the Air Forces issuance of the multi-billion-dollar December contract prompted the company to slap the service with a lawsuit claiming anticompetitive practices.
[Rooters] MANILA -- Philippine and American troops are set to hold naval exercises this month near a disputed shoal, which will almost certainly anger China with tension already high in the South China Sea.
China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, potentially rich in oil and gas and fisheries.
The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan also claim parts of the waters, and China has viewed with suspicion what it sees as U.S. moves to "provoke" tension by supporting its regional allies, notably Vietnam and the Philippines.
Vietnam and the US are regional allies? Who knew? Must be ValJar's doing.
It'd be the first reasonable thing she's done then...
Five warships, including a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, and about 1,000 troops will take part in week-long Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercises, which include live-fire drills 40 miles off Zambales, on the western shores of the Philippine island of Luzon.
#4
I can think of another good reason not to come to the aid of Vietnam: the administration has as its secretary of state not just the sort of person who would sell them out, but a person who did. And if the left is always gonna undo every victory we achieve on the battlefield, whether in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan, there's no real point in supporting any sort of aggressive foreign policy.
In the Dark Web world of cyber hackers, "Slavik" achieved legendary stature years ago, then purportedly retired. Instead, authorities say he went on a dazzling crime spree that used more than 1 million infected computers to reach directly into U.S. banks and businesses to steal millions.
The details of Slavik's handiwork continued to spill out Tuesday after the FBI named him as a leader of a computer crime syndicate that spanned several continents and funneled money around the globe — often without being detected.
The FBI has identified Slavik as Evgeniy Mikhailovitch Bogachev, a Russian national whose whereabouts remain a mystery. Prosecutors say he is responsible for two of the most sophisticated and destructive forms of malicious software in existence — Gameover Zeus and CryptoLocker
His alleged bank heists topped $100 million, including nearly $7 million from a bank in North Florida, $374,000 from a PNC bank account belonging to a plastics company in Pennsylvania, and $190,800 from the bank account owned by an assisted-living facility in Pennsylvania, court papers say.
Bogachev allegedly controlled a vast worldwide network that included computers in Canada, Germany, La Belle France, Luxembourg, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. But the backbone of the infrastructure resided in the Ukraine, according to a senior U.S. law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak publicly because of the pending court cases.
The operation to dismantle the network began on May 7 in Donetsk and Kiev, Ukraine, two cities convulsing with political violence. Ukrainian police seized and copied key computers in the network, prosecutors said. On Friday, the FBI, working with police around the world, kicked off a 72-hour operation to shut down every command-and-control computer in the Zeus network.
By Saturday, CryptoLocker had ceased working. By Monday, police had freed more than 300,000 computers from the Zeus network.
Bogachev, 30, who lives luxuriously in Anapa, Russia, a beautiful seaside resort town of 60,000 on the northern coast of the Black Sea, and often sails his yacht to various Black Sea ports, remains a runaway.
[Tolo News] A number of jacket wallahs attacked the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces parking lot in Torkham Port border area in 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.. province early Thursday morning, local officials said.
Mohammad Hassan, Nangarhar police supply unit commander, said the incident occurred around 5 a.m. local time when four Taliban suicide bombers attacked NATO forces' supplies parking lot that was protected by the Afghan forces.
"There were four suicide bombers," Hassan said. "One of the suicide bombers driving a corolla detonated his explosives and paved the way for the three others to enter the parking area and begin clashing with the Afghan forces."
According to Hassan, roughly 37 vehicles caught on fire and two civilian drivers were maimed.
The clash continued for two hours and ended around 7 a.m. local time, with smoke and fire coming from the parking lot, Hassan added.
"All suicide bombers were bumped off by the Afghan forces," he detailed.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack in a statement they released to the media.
The Torkham-Jalalabad route was temporarily closed to the public for about four hours.
This was not the first attack on NATO's supplies parking lot. A number of suicide bombers attacked NATO's parked supplies in Torkham Port exactly seven months ago on Wednesday December 18.
Torkham is one of the major border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistain, located on the Durand Line border. It connects Nangarhar province of Afghanistan with Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... .
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Ynet] Around 150 Australians have fought with radical militants in Syria and Iraq, raising government fears of a terrorist threat to Australia if the fighters return home, the foreign minister said on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had cancelled a number of passports on the advice of security agencies in a bid to reduce the security threat to Australia. She did not say whether the passports were canceled to prevent Australians leaving or returning.
#3
"Oh then, g'day mate, 'et's throw another kufir 'on the bar-b"
Am I the only one who is looking at the Jihadi All-Star game and thinking, better them over there? Or is it disturbing so many are gathering on the New Caliphate is It! commercials? Both I'd say; did get the Grande Order of the Passport Stomping ceremony.
#5
'Twas Muslim Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the fighting craze;
He slew and ate the Christian horse that served him many days;
He dressed himself in baggy clothes, a badge of black enamel,
And hurried off to Syria and bought a mangy camel;
And as he pulled it through the gate, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning ISIS cameleer said, "Brother, can you ride?"
[DAWN] AS is regrettably usual in Pakistain, delays, confusion and obfuscation in government and administrative circles have left citizens facing an uncertain future. After months of back and forth over talking to the terrorists, it was the assault on Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... airport that apparently proved the fulcrum and prompted the state to send military forces into North Wazoo. Was the fallout on civilians fully thought through? Operation Zarb-e-Azb has been under way for just a few days and already the director of the Fata Disaster Management Authority says that some 92,000 people have fled the region since the military started launching air strikes, mostly going to the adjoining Bannu district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . On Wednesday, in the wake of authorities easing the curfew in some parts of the region to let civilians leave — taken by some as an indication that the campaign is likely widen into a ground operation soon — an exodus of around 30,000 has occurred. More continue to pour out, carrying with them whatever they can. Apart from fleeing to the provinces, thousands of people have also gone across the border into Afghanistan's Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... where, according to Afghan authorities, they lack basic facilities including food.
Some camps for these internally displaced people have been set up and reportedly registration points are also in evidence to deal with the influx of people. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... the camps remain largely empty; it seems that many families prefer to make their own arrangements. This, unfortunately, is understandable to an extent since the plight of the tens of thousands of people similarly displaced during earlier military operations and who ended up in camps is fresh in the region's memory, even if it has been forgotten by the country on the lam. Overcrowded and underequipped, living conditions at these camps were far from satisfactory and led to the deaths of many. It took the state several years to sort out the problem of those displaced in earlier rounds; this time, the problem is likely to be far worse since the operation appears to be taking on bigger and more sustained dimensions.
In this regard, it is outrageous that the Sindh and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... governments have sent out signals that they will not allow internally displaced persons to seek refuge here. Certainly, there are valid concerns: violence-hit Balochistan worries about gunnies slipping through amidst the flood of refugees, while Sindh is concerned about the further spread of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... — figures given a couple of days ago put the number of unvaccinated children poised to flee North Waziristan at about 300,000. But both matters can be resolved through an efficient registration and checkpoint system. It behoves the country and its provinces to square up for the challenge. Making citizens feel unwelcome is only going to exacerbate the alienation from the mainstream that many in the tribal areas already suffer.
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[Iran Press TV] The United States is keeping more than 6,000 security and back-up forces in Iraq. Sources say these forces are former military members who have remained in the country after changing their official job title.
The US military presence in Iraq comes as the administration of President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... has recently ordered the urgent deployment of several hundred troops to the troubled country.
Washington is said to be after military operations in the Arab country under the pretext of fighting terrorism there. This is while a recent poll by a US firm shows that 74 percent of Americans oppose sending US forces to Iraq.
The United States and its allies invaded Iraq in 2003. A couple of years before that, they also invaded Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... over a decade after these invasions, the two war-torn countries are still grappling with rampant militancy and a high humanitarian cost.
The USA is also pressing ahead with its drone strikes in the region that has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistain and Yemen.
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Everyone seems to agree that the Sunni extremists who are striving to carve out a caliphate in Syria and Iraq have upended the region, but there is no consensus on what to call the militant group, in English at least.
Many news outlets, including New York Times, have been translating the group's name as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS for short. But the United States government and several news agencies call it the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL (The BBC, curiously, uses the ISIS acronym, but "Levant" when spelling the name out.)
Neither way is an exact rendering of the group's Arabic name "al-Dawla al-Islamiya fil-Iraq wa al-Sham". The difficulty is with last word "al-Sham", which is the Arabic term for Damascus and its hinterlands.
Al-Sham is the classical Arabic term for Damascus and its hinterlands, and over time, it came to denote the area between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, south of the Taurus Mountains and north of the Arabian desert. Similarly, in Egypt, "Masr" may refer either to Cairo or to the whole country. Used in that sense, al-Sham takes in not just Syria but also Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and even a part of southeastern Turkey.
That is fairly similar in extent to what Western geographers call the Levant, a once-common term that now has something of an antique whiff about it, like "the Orient." Because of the term's French colonial associations, many Arab nationalists and Islamist radicals disdain it, and it is unlikely that the militant group would choose "Levant" to render its name.
The scum find the term "Levant" to be insulting. ISIL it is!
#1
The scum find the term "Levant" to be insulting. ISIL it is!
Is our Federal government going to act to change the name by pulling trademarks as they have with the Washington Redskins? Does their reach go as far as Syria and Pakistan?
#3
we can call them late for dinner if we want Don't forget to add the appropriate hyphens and diacritical marks in the right places to show how multicultural you are, e.g.: Qǖṝǻʼn, isn't that the correct spelling?
[MEDIAITE] Ever wonder what all those White House correspondents talk about while they are waiting for President Barack Obama Because I won... to step up to the podium? Well now thanks to a live feed and a hot mic, we know what MSNBC's Chuck Todd and Fox News' Ed Henry really think about Sen. John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... (R-AZ).
Before Obama entered the briefing room to make his statement on Iraq, Todd leaned over to Henry to ask him what McCain, who supports air strikes in Iraq, must think now that General David Petraeus has come out against further military action. In video captured by The Right Pundit, Todd asked if anyone had "checked on" McCain since Petraeus made his statements. "I've got to think McCain must have had heart palpitations," Todd joked.
"What's funny is that McCain was on our air an hour ago saying we should send Petraeus to Iraq," Henry remarked, referring to an earlier appearance the senator did on Fox. But meanwhile, Petraeus gave a speech a day earlier saying the U.S. "can't be the air force for Iraq."
"That's what's amazing," Todd replied. While McCain seems to want Petraeus to take charge on Iraq, the general appears to have no interest in doing so.
The things these guys will say when they think they're not on the airâ¦
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#4
Todd asked if anyone had checked on McCain since Petraeus made his statements. Ive got to think McCain must have had heart palpitations, Todd joked.
Whats funny is that McCain was on our air an hour ago saying we should send Petraeus to Iraq, Henry remarked, referring to an earlier appearance the senator did on Fox. But meanwhile, Petraeus gave a speech a day earlier saying the U.S. cant be the air force for Iraq.
SLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that Pakistan is fighting a defining battle of the nation's history and terrorists will be defeated.
The prime minister made these remarks while chairing a meeting on national security, which agreed that the operational success in North Waziristan is linked to national unity, peace and stability. It said there is a need to extend full support to the troops in the combat area. The meeting resolved that all possible resources would be allocated to look after the IDPs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Prime Minister Nawaz said that the operation "Zarb-e-Azb" requires countrywide harmony, and added that a peaceful environment in the country would benefit the soldiers fighting in the North Waziristan Agency.
He expressed confidence that militants would be defeated in this war and the internally displaced persons from North Waziristan would be provided with every possible facility in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The meeting was attended by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Information Minister Parvaiz Rashid, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq and SAFRON Minister Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch. During the meeting the Punjab chief minister briefed the prime minister about the Lahore incident. The chief minister said that "severe action" was being taken against those people who were involved, and no compromise would be made on justice.
The prime minister is said to have showed his displeasure over the role of his close associates in the entire saga. According to informed insiders of the PM Secretariat, Prime Minister Nawaz kept asking Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Hamza Shahbaz who ordered opening of fire on the unarmed civilians. "I will not let it go," the PM reportedly said. Nawaz Sharif, according to sources, was angry over the fact that he was kept in the dark while the protest was developing into a tragic incident.
[IsraelTimes] An explosion in a tunnel near Gaza's border with Israel killed at least five members of Hamas and wounded several others Thursday, Palestinian officials said.
"Five martyrs were killed in a resistance activity in Saghira neighborhood" in eastern Gaza City, the local Hamas information office said, without elaborating. The Hamas members were reportedly taking part in "operational activities" when the tunnel collapsed, Palestinian media reported.
The IDF was not available for comment with regard to the incident.
On Wednesday, sources in Gaza told the Times of Israel that citizens in the Strip were preparing for war after Israel accused Hamas of kidnapping three Israeli teens.
Israeli forces, aided by PA security, have been engaged in a widespread operation against Hamas in the West Bank since the kidnapping Thursday night south of Jerusalem of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gil-ad Shaar, 16 and Naftali Frankel, 16. As of Thursday, approximately 250 people had been detained in the operation, according to the IDF.
Gaza residents have expressed concern that an escalation could disrupt preparations for the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which begins in 10 days. The weeks before the holiday are known for intensive shopping, and residents have reported shortages of fuel and other supplies at gas stations and stores in Gaza as a result of a deepening economic crisis.
Encouraging signs have emerged that the collapse of federal government control in Iraq may have slowed and that Baghdad is beginning the transition to counteroffensive operations to regain ground. Massive mobilization of largely Shiite volunteers has given Baghdad an untrained but motivated "reserve army" that can be used to swamp cross-sectarian areas around the Iraqi capital. All available formed military units have been pulled out of reserve and brought toward Baghdad to defend the capital. In this effort, all Department of Border Enforcement units have been relocated from the country's borders, and Iraqi army and Federal Police units have been redeployed from southern Iraq. Isolated federal government units are scattered across northern Iraq, in some cases hanging on against Sunni militants with the support of adjacent Kurdish forces. Fighting is now taking place on five fronts:
1. Southern Salah al-Din. In the Tigris River valley (TRV), the government is fighting to regain control of the mixed Sunni-Shiite areas up to sixty miles north of the capital, with the northernmost point being the "stop line" at Samarra, beyond which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dictated there be no further retreat. This line appears to be holding. Between Samarra and the massive army depot at Taji, on Baghdad's northern flank, the federal government is contesting insurgents' control by using its ground and aerial forces, seeking to maintain highway lines of control to Samarra.
2. Diyala River valley. To the northeast of Baghdad, in the Diyala River valley (DRV) and adjacent corridors, the government is fighting to protect Sunni-Shiite areas on the main highway between Baghdad and the Iranian border. The Badr Organization, an Iran-backed paramilitary group, has historically maintained a close focus on Diyala and today dominates Iraqi military and police paramilitary forces in the province. Baquba, the provincial capital, is now under attack from insurgents led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
3. Western Baghdad "belts". In Baghdad's outer suburbs to the west (Falluja, Karma, Abu Ghraib) and the south (Jurf al-Sakhar, Arab Jabour), ISIS-led forces are probing the capital's defenses, and other militant groups are periodically shelling Baghdad International Airport. The insurgents seem to have lifted the government's siege of Falluja, but for now nearby Ramadi remains loosely under combined federal and provincial government control.
4, The Kurdish front. The Kurdish peshmerga have moved into the disputed districts claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), filling the vacuum left by collapsing Iraqi army units. Though the Kurds are mostly holding back from attacking ISIS, they have inherited areas such as Jalula where ISIS was fighting the Iraqi army and regularly killing Kurdish civilians before the uprising. Skirmishes meanwhile have been reported all along the KRG's new front line, and a number of Kurdish troops have been reported killed in social media martyrdom statements.
5. Jazirah and Mosul. In the upper TRV and the Jazirah desert abutting Syria, the insurgents are consolidating their position in the absence of government forces. However, in Bayji, an oil-refining center, and Tal Afar, a large Shiite Turkmen town west of Mosul, the government still holds pockets of terrain and is reinforcing its outposts with small contingents of air-transported Iraqi special forces.
More in the article. They try to answer the big "if":
If Iraq's government makes painful compromises to win back Sunni Arab and Kurdish support, U.S. security cooperation with Iraq will increase, as evidenced in President Barack Obama's speech today.
#1
I saw the following on Small Wars Journal regarding Kurdistan:
Kurdistan is not going to become independent until it finds a way to fund itself. 90% of KRG budget comes from Baghdad which Maliki has cut off since beginning of 2014 for all but 2 months. There have been months of protests in Kurdistan by government workers about not being paid. Around 70% of KRG budget goes to public workers. It's estimated that KRG would have to export around 1 mil/bar/day to earn enough money to sustain itself. Currently KRG capacity is only at 400,000 bar/day
#2
Apparently, Small Wars is unaware that last month a huge shipment of Kurdish oil departed Cehyan, Turkey for Europe. A pipeline was built by indeigenous Kurd to connect with the Turkish pipeline, and reports this week indicate that (1) Kurd oil continues to flow through the Turkish pipeline, and (2) Kurdistan govt (which now unites the major families) plans to increase pipline flow. The present government in Kurdistan feels that they never did receive the percentage of funds that wass legally owed them through agreement reached in Baghdad. Kurds believe that US special ops has been operaating for months from at airstrip north of Irbil.
#6
What Base + alleged NatSecCoop is that, I say???
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [VOA News] STILL WAITING FOR ORDERS, US MILITARY HAS ISIL IN ITS SIGHTS.
They may be awaiting for a while yet.
* WORLD NEWS > [Daily Star.LB] IRAN SAYS OBAMA LACKS THE WILL TO FIGHT TERRORISM IN IRAQ.
* CHINA DAILY > IRAN MILITARY CHIEF: ISIS CREATED, SUPPORTED BY US + ISRAEL, ostensibly in reaction to Baby Assad = Syria Crisis. IRAN not to cooperate or ally wid US in Iraq due to ISIL [aka ISIS] being a US Proxy.
Iran Chief of General Staff Hassan Firouzabadi.
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [World Tribune] FAILURE IN IRAQ + VIETNAM [SE Asia War] RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT US RESOLVE IN UKRAINE + EAST ASIA.
As we all hope, it will change the bully boy landscape of the country besides having a far-reaching impact on the political and strategic dynamics of conflict in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
So far, snuffies in North Waziristan were the ones least challenged by the state's counter-terrorism efforts. The tribal agency is (or was) considered the last resort of bully boys, which is why a comprehensive military campaign was required to establish the writ of the government.
But when news of the offensive first broke, one thing many Paks found themselves submerged in was questions:
How long, how large will this operation be?
What happens to the 'good Taliban', to those who reportedly wanted peace?
Will a successful operation mean an end to terrorism?
Below, I've sketched a picture of the security scenario which the ongoing operation might create. It may answer the questions above to some extent.
Comprehensive and all-out
It is an inbuilt compulsion in the North Waziristan operation that Pakistain should go after the snuffies comprehensively and objectively. It will make Pakistain's position difficult both on international and domestic fronts if snuffies continue using the tribal territories for hiding and launching operations both in Afghanistan and Pakistain or elsewhere.
The Arclight airstrikes going on in North Waziristan are mainly targeting foreign snuffies but boots will be on the ground soon in the second phase of the operation.
Good and Bad now hard to distinguish
The operation will eventually lead to termination of all the peace treaties made by the government with some of the bully boy groups in the past and distinction between the good and bad Taliban will become blurred.
Most importantly, it will become harder for Haqqani snuffies to stay in the tribal agency as their argument of having sought shelter in uncontrolled territories will no longer be valid.
Even during the operation, distinguishing between the good and bad snuffies would be difficult.
Just a day before the launch of the military operation, the government was trying to resolve some issues with a so-called good Taliban capoHafiz Gul Bahadur ...a member of the Madda Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Waziris. Educated in a Deobandi madrassa located in Multan, he is affiliated with the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the group's overall naib amir under Baitullah Mehsud, who was based in South Wazoo, but has largely distanced himself from the TTP due to rivalries with the Mehsuds and disagreements about the TTP's attacks against the Pak state.. , who heads local Taliban's council, Shura Mujahideen.
He had signed a peace agreement with the government in 2006.
Bahadur was not happy about military's surgical strikes, before the launch of operation, and warned the government of revoking the peace agreement. A tribal jirga mediated and tried to convince Gul Bahadur to clear the region of foreign bully boys.
Perhaps Gul Bahadur was among the few who were certain that the military was going to launch an operation in North Waziristan. He had asked the residents to leave North Waziristan before June 20. His announcement, which asked people to move towards the Afghan border instead of going to relief camps in Bannu, expressed his anger over pre-operation military strikes, which he declared a violation of the peace treaty.
Though considered a "good Taliban" commander, Bahadur is known to have provided sanctuaries to foreign snuffies from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Al Qaeda. His friendly attitude towards anti-Pakistain bully boy groups and special affiliation with the ETIM was frustrating for the security establishment.
Sajna's future hangs in the balance
Apart from Gul Bahadaur, the future of Said Khan Sajna has also become uncertain.
Sajna was recently trying to emerge as a new good Taliban capo. He was planning to organize a new Taliban alliance to replace Mullah Nazir group, which is currently headed by Bahawal Khan. In 2007, Mullah Nazir successfully threw out Uzbeks from South Waziristan; Uzbeks snuffies again started pouring in after Nazir's death in a drone strike in January 2013.
Though Sajna is trying his best to be bracketed with the good ones, his group's network in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... has become a matter of trouble for him. His faction is involved in criminal and terrorist activities in Karachi.
The Gul Bahadur episode reflected that the government considers it important to make the anti-state bully boy groups including the TTP weak enough before 2015 so that the Afghan Taliban would not be able to use them as a bargaining lever and should continue to look towards Pakistain for political support.
Lots to decide for the Army
Eventually it is the military leadership that will have to decide the fate of the bully boy groups based in North Waziristan during the recently launched offensive.
On the face of it, it appears as if the security establishment has decided to eliminate or push the bully boy infrastructure towards the other side of the Pak-Afghan border.
Now, when the operation has been launched, past peace deals with the snuffies have no legal and moral grounds. At the same time, allowing Haqqanis to live in and operate from Pakistain's tribal belt will not be strategically suitable as it will raise questions about the ability of Pak troops to hold its own areas after clearing them of the bully boys.
TTP elimination not guaranteed
The military operation in itself is not a difficult task. Pakistain army has capabilities to reclaim and hold the area in a minimum time-frame.
The post-operation situation seems hazy and subject to different scenarios. For example, a full-scale operation in North Waziristan cannot guarantee the TTP's elimination.
There are two reasons for that:
First, the TTP and its local and international affiliates have expanded their networks in other parts of the country, and the number of terrorist sleeper cells is increasing.
Secondly, the North Waziristan snuffies can relocate to Afghanistan like Fazlullah did after Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... operation. Some media reports suggest that the foreign and local snuffies from North Waziristan had already started fleeing to neighbouring Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... of Afghanistan, even before the launch of the operation.
It is not yet certain if the North Waziristan operation entails a strategic shift in the government's approach. Questions abound plenty, and we'll need more time for more answers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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[Iran Press TV] A large majority of people in the United States have pessimistic views about Congress, according to a new opinion poll.
The poll by Gallup showed only seven percent of adults now have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress.
According to the poll, half said they have "very little" confidence in the institution.
This is the lowest rating any major American institution, including television and internet news, big business and organized labor, has received in any of its polls dating back to 1973.
The respondents said Congress is gripped by partisan gridlock and is struggling to pass even routine measures.
Confidence in Congress has varied over the years, with the highest levels in the low 40 percent range recorded in the 1970s and again in the mid-1980s.
Confidence rose in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but has declined since 2004, culminating in this year's historic low.
The poll surveyed 1,027 adults by phone between June 5 and June 8.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
And yet almost every one of them will be re-elected in the fall.
#3
Wake me up when Iran Press TV runs a story about Iranian confidence in their government.
No, wait. I don't want to sleep that long!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2014 7:26
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#4
Someone needs to point out to the constituents while they may think 'their guy' is OK, he/she is still the one voting the leadership into the positions which delivers the results they have a distaste for. There is only one way to cut those people out the the positions and that means your good old boy/gal has got to go.
[DAWN] Police held Gullu Butt, the baton-wielding man who was caught on camera damaging vehicles outside the Minhajul Koran Secretariat on Tuesday, on Wednesday for damaging vehicles.
Butt, also known as Sher-e-Lahore, battered the vehicles of Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) workers in the presence of police.
Butt was being kept at some location on Raiwind Road.
According to law, he should have been locked up in Faisal Town cop shoppe. Police say he was kept at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location for people might have attacked him in the lockup.
Faisal Town Police Station In Charge Sanaullah and investigation officer Rafique denied the arrest of Butt.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... had directed the inspector general of police to arrest Butt.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
Couldn't find his Butt with his own hands.
Posted by: Steven ||
06/20/2014 1:46
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[Iran Press TV] A court in the Turkish city of Istanbul has ruled that 230 military officers sentenced to lengthy jail terms for allegedly plotting against the government should be released.
Turkey's local media said on Thursday that the 4th Heavy Penal Court of Istanbul's Anatolia Courthouse ordered the release of the military officers, saying their jail sentences should be suspended until they stand a retrial.
Some of the officers were reportedly released on Thursday afternoon.
The ruling came a day after Turkey's Constitutional Court announced that the original trial of the officers has been flawed and their rights have been violated.
The request for the retrial had formally been proposed by the Turkish army in December last year.
"We share with all our heart the happiness of our personnel and their families and hope that their new trial will reach a just verdict," Turkey's Chief of Staff General Necdet Ozel said in a statement, welcoming the verdict.
Back in September 2012, a tribunal near Istanbul handed down 13 to 20-year jail terms to scores of officers and retired generals on charges of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... 's government in 2003.
The ruling came under criticism by rights groups who questioned its impartiality.
The officers were also accused of plotting to bomb mosques and trying to trigger a conflict with neighboring Greece in order to justify a military coup.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The Soviets did more or less the same thing when the Germans attacked.
[DAWN] It was a day for voting on the government's budgetary demands in the National Assembly on Wednesday but Gullu Butt of Lahore overshadowed the first part of the session.
At least it seemed so for every now and then some MNA, mostly from the opposition benches, would stand up and ask the ruling PML-N to disclose the identity of Gullu Butt, the man caught on video by television channels smashing private cars during the bloody police crackdown on Allama Tahirul Qadri's followers outside his Minhajul Quran Secretariat in Lahore the previous day.
No sooner Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was finished with the formality of seeking approval of his 'demands for grants', three opposition woman MNAs sprang to their feet to demand the treasury benches to tell if Gullu Butt was a PML-N worker as speculated.
Dr Shireen Mazari of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Dr Nafeesa Shah and Shazia Marri of the PPP, all in one voice raised queries about Gullu Butt, whom media have reported an office bearer of the local PML-N chapter. Gullu was the guy seen on the news channel merrily torching cars and chatting amiably with the coppers standing by. Dar claims he doesn't know any Gullu or Ullu Butt
Dr Nafeesa Shah was spot on when she asked the government to clear its position with regard to the Lahore incident and Gullu Butt because, "front pages of today's newspapers show as if battlefield has shifted from North Waziristan to Lahore where police have killed people in broad daylight."
The politician from Sindh said if this was the government's plan to beef up national internal security, then the opposition was right in demanding cuts in the budgetary allocations the government has included in the budget in the name of security.
Though she wasn't allowed time to speak, Dr Mazari of the PTI demanded a statement on Gullu Butt from the government side. Dr Mazari claimed that Mr Butt had vandalized private vehicles on the instructions of the provincial government.
Ms Marri too wasn't provided time by the speaker. She wanted a statement on Gullu Butt by some government minister. The house should be informed about the whereabouts of Gullu Butt. Gullu by now has a brand new passport with a new name and is on his way to Riyadh or maybe London, unless he's met with a terrible accident.
Sheikh Rashid of Rawalpindi equated the Lahore incident with the famous Jallianwala Bagh massacre under the British rule when British army opened fire on peaceful protesters back in 1919 in Amritsar.
According to Mr Rashid this time the Punjab government had made a major crime which it wouldn't be able to wish away.
Dr Muhammad Azhar Khan Jadoon of PTI lawmaker from Abbottabad, informed the house how a child in his family surprised him with a question about Gullu Butt.
"The child asked me whether as a sitting member of the National Assembly I am more powerful than Gullu Butt and frankly speaking I have no answer to his innocent querry."
If this trend continued, next generation will fantasize Gullu Butts than law-abiding citizens of the country, warned Mr Jadoon.
However, in response Senator Dar angrily retorted, saying, once the Punjab government had constituted a judicial commission to investigate the incident, legislators sitting in the house should wait for its outcome.
"I don't know who is this Gullu or Ullu (owl) Butt, however, since a judicial inquiry is underway everybody should wait for its findings."
The MQM members of the National Assembly attended the session with black armbands, as the party had declared one day mourning to protest the Lahore incident.
Unlike routine days, on Wednesday opposition front rows of the National Assembly were empty as main leadership of the PTI was in Lahore to show solidarity with Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT).
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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[IsraelTimes] Hamas leader currently living in Turkey is believed to be behind the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank last week, an Israeli security official said Thursday.
The official spoke as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the attempts to bring home the three Israelis were making progress We today know more than we knew a few days ago, he said.
According to the unnamed official, Saleh al-Arouri a former West Bank resident deported from the region after serving a prison sentence in Israel for several years, who is now a leading figure in Hamas overseas operations is thought to have been a key figure for years in attempts to initiate terror attacks in the West Bank, funding and arranging the training of terror cells.
The official claimed al-Arouri, who used to live in a village north of Ramallah, has urged West Bank operatives incessantly to set up terror cells and perpetrate kidnappings. Al-Arouri has financially sponsored these cells, which were trained and directed to abduct Israelis. Often that money was transferred through charities to obfuscate their real destination, the would-be kidnappers, the official said.
The official conceded that Israel had no smoking gun proving al-Arouris involvement in the kidnapping last Thursday night of Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frankel, but I have no doubt that al-Arouri was connected to the act. There is an increasing belief in the Israeli security services that the kidnapping was directed by Hamass overseas hierarchy, he noted, adding that al-Arouri is answerable to Hamass political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal.
Israeli forces have made some 280 arrests in the West Bank in recent days, and have also targeted Hamas funding networks, confiscating computers in banks and other evidence. Elite IDF units are on call should there be a need for any particularly sensitive operations, Channel 2 news reported. It added that the three Israelis are still believed to be held in the Hebron area, and said further arrests were expected.
We are making progress, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said. Well get to the terrorists in the end, and well get to our kidnapped boys.
In the past two years, dozens of al-Arouris emissaries have visited the West Bank after obtaining entry through Jordan, the Israeli official said. Several of them were arrested, but a number escaped the notice of Israeli security officials and were able to leave the country with their missions accomplished.
Those who were arrested brought money and written messages on behalf of al-Arouri, which explicitly directed the establishment of terror cells for kidnappings.
It must be understood that [Hamas] is not a standard army, and there are no direct orders, but only general directives, and even now the directive to kidnap stands, he said.
Overall, the source explained, there are four primary Hamas sources which can organize and commit attacks the Hamas branch abroad, in which al-Arouri is a key figure; the Gaza leadership; operatives in the field, who the official claimed were more constrained by Israeli security; and terrorists held in Israeli prisons, whose freedom of movement is similarly restricted.
The official said it was less likely that Hamas in Gaza or prisoners released to the coastal enclave as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange were behind the attack.
Although they have also tried to perpetrate attacks, their chances of success were lower.
Overall for Hamas, the official said, the bargaining chip of having Israelis held hostage is immensely valuable, notwithstanding the negative consequences for the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation process. And even though Hamas is less interested in an escalation of hostilities [with Israel], that does not mean kidnappings that could be successful should be stopped. For Hamas, there is one explicit instruction, and that is to continue to kidnap Israelis.
[Iran Press TV] Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress should hold President Barack Obama Because I won... responsible for launching an illegal war on Libya and destroying it, instead of playing a political football over the September 2012 Benghazi attack, a political commentator says.
Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and radio host in New York, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday, commenting on the recent arrest of a suspect of the attack on the US diplomatic compound in the Libyan city of Benghazi that left four US diplomats, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, dead.
According to CNN, up to 35 CIA operatives were working in Benghazi during the attack on September 11, 2012, but it has never reported how many of them died or injured.
"This incident in September 2012 has been a political football between the Democrats and Republicans of the United States where instead of holding President Barack Obama responsible or culpable for conducting an illegal war, destroying a country, murdering the nominal head of state, [committing] all international war crimes, violation of American and international law, instead of holding him responsible for that, they fight over the killing of the US ambassador, who also apparently was the CIA station chief there during the entire takeover of the country -- and several of his aides. That is what the focal point has been," DeBar said.
"And now that this guy has been grabbed assuming he even had anything to do with it, we are going to be seeing all kind of allegations paraded out here while he is in a condition of complete non-contact with the rest of the world, and everything that comes out from 'him' is gonna be controlled heavily by the US military and security forces," he added.
"You know, there's a major crime that took place in Libya, which was that the United States and its allies devastated the country, conquering it essentially, and leaving chaos in its wake, that is not being examined whatsoever, instead we have this circus -- this is one of the three-rings, I guess, that we are going to see over time -- where the Republicans and Democrats can point fingers at each other over an incident that is really nothing but a collateral incident to the devastation of Libya," DeBar concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
they fight over the killing of the US ambassador, who also apparently was the CIA station chief there during the entire takeover of the country -- and several of his aides. That is what the focal point has been," DeBar said.
missed it by thaaaat much
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2014 15:22
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[IsraelTimes] Hamas and Fatah clashed on Thursday over a conciliatory speech delivered by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in which he justified security cooperation with Israel, saying that the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers last week was "destructive" for Palestinians.
Abbas delivered a principled condemnation of the kidnapping during a speech Wednesday to Muslim foreign ministers convened in Saudi Arabia, also saying the American citizenship of abducted teen Naftali Frankel was irrelevant to the PA's efforts to retrieve the three boys. "We told them [the US administration] that whether Israeli or American, he is a human being," he said.
His stance quickly drew fire from Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, who blasted Abbas for "basing his statements solely on the Israeli narrative, without presenting any true information."
Hamas MP Mushir al-Masri joined Abu Zuhri's criticism, accusing Abbas of preferring the three Israeli youths to thousands of Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails.
"The occupation said it is pleased with Abbas's statements regarding the kidnapped soldiers (sic)," Masri wrote on his Facebook page. "How dare Fatah defend his statements? Is this not a blow to the legacy of the martyrs and an offense even to Fatah's prisoners?"
Later, Masri juxtaposed a photo of Abbas with a photo of assassinated Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, affixing the text "we want our children home" to both. But while Yassin's photo was matched with a smaller picture of Palestinian prisoners behind bars, Abbas's was paired to a photo of the three Israelis. "The difference between truth and lie," commented Masri, adding "the most important is the three Shalits."
Fatah, which had remained largely silent on the week-old kidnapping, issued a detailed statement on Thursday, condemning the Hamas statements and defending Abbas's stance.
"[Hamas's] cheap accusations concerning the prisoners are nothing but words," read a statement on Fatah's official website. "Everyone knows that president [Abbas] has placed our heroic prisoners at the top of his agenda �... his insistence on freeing the fourth batch of veteran prisoners halted the negotiations. We did not agree to what Hamas has agreed to, namely the deportation of prisoners abroad, far from their families."
The Cairo reconciliation agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas in May 2011 explicitly called for "peaceful and political resistance," the statement continued; the kidnapping, it implied, constituted a breach of that accord.
As the IDF expanded its West Bank operation on Wednesday to target Hamas's civilian infrastructure as well as its military one, the Islamic movement found itself more diplomatically isolated than ever before.
In an interview with London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi Thursday, Hamas official Salah Bardawil admitted that Egypt "was not interested in what's happening," adding that Egypt has not contacted Hamas since the kidnapping last Thursday.
Hamas was in touch with Abbas, however, demanding an urgent Palestinian diplomatic drive "to stop the Zionist attack against the Palestinian people," Bardawil said.
Extremists in Syria and Iraq targeting new generation of young American jihadists
The FBI are investigating up to 15 Somali-American men believed to have traveled from Minneapolis-St Paul, MN to follow the ISIS call to jihad
As many as 50 American jihadists believed to be fighting in the Middle East
'Outgoing party-lover' from Minneapolis and father of nine Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, confirmed among them
Security experts blame social media for 'blurring lines' and encouraging people to see themselves as part of jihadist movement
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
As long as they get to be little yucky scattered parts.
Posted by: Steven ||
06/20/2014 1:39
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#2
Maruf and Beledi both had joined al-Shabaab and died in Somalia, with Beledi becoming the second Minnesotan suicide bomber in the Horn of Africa country.
There seems to be no advancement in this position as a suicide boomer. Might have done better working for the IRS.
#5
When they get done there they can work for china and harry reid fixing chinas oil interests that ISIS is capturing on behest of Saud Hillary MC Cain and Inbred European Crew guppie fish pastey skin google eye beard freaks trailer trash crew dumb fucks traitor criminals! Or they can work for the BLM shooting women and children for China!
#6
When they get done there they can work for china and harry reid fixing chinas oil interests that ISIS is capturing on behest of Saud Hillary MC Cain and Inbred European Crew guppie fish pastey skin google eye beard freaks trailer trash crew dumb fucks traitor criminals! Or they can work for the BLM shooting women and children for China!
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: Unidentified gunniesrubbed out two persons, including a faith healer, in separate incidents in Jamrud on Wednesday.
Khasadar officials said that masked men bumped off a young man, Yousuf Khan, in Gudar area and then escaped.
In a similar attack in Shakas area, unidentified motorcyclists rubbed out a faith healer, identified as Bali Shah.
Also in the day, Khasadar force exchanged fire with a group of suspected turbans.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... no one was hurt in the crossfire as Death Eaters escaped the area after Khasadars retaliated to the attack.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... in Landi Kotal, a woman and her teenaged daughter were buried alive when they were hit by a landslide.
Sources said that the woman and her daughter were digging mud for repair of their house when a mudslide buried them alive. Family members later retrieved their bodies.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
Sources said that the woman and her daughter were digging mud for repair of their house when a mudslide buried them alive.
Now that's poverty. Similarly lack of multiple food "choices" is not poverty, lack of food is poverty.
#2
...they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
We have our snake handlers in this part of the country. Unfortunately, some of them must not be living the good life as they get bitten and don't survive.
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: At least 23 more suspected snuffies were killed in the ongoing Zarb-e-Azb operation launched by the Pakistain Army in North Wazoo tribal region, according to a statement issued by the Inter Services Public relations (ISPR) on its website.
At least 15 suspected snuffies were killed in Zartatangi mountain heights, east of Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... are in North Waziristan tribal region late on Wednesday when one of the main suspected communication centers of snuffies was targeted by Cobra gunship helicopters of the Pakistain Army.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout Montefiore's foot was still stuck and the hound had completely soaked his uniform with slobber... eight Uzbek snuffies who were planting improvised bombs (IEDs) on Miranshah-Mirali road were also killed near Miranshah by military snipers.
Security forces were also cordoning off residential areas sheltering suspected snuffies in North Wazirstan tribal region.
The military also claimed that several attempts by snuffies to flee from the cordoned off areas were foiled.
The ISPR statement further said that the evacuation of civil population from Miranshah and Ghulam Khan areas of the region had begun today, adding that check points had been established at various places where internally displaced persons IDPs were being provided all administrative support incl food items and medicine by security forces.
Moreover, an IDP camp was established at Bannu while the number of registration points at Saidgai post were increased to 20, including 10 for men and women, for speedy and organised evacuation.
The army launched its long-awaited major operation 'Zarb-e-Azb' in the tribal region a week after an attack on the airport in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , deploying troops, tanks and jets to the area in the crackdown on the Taliban and other bully boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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[Iran Press TV] The United Kingdom has banned the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) bully boy group that is wreaking havoc on Syria and Iraq.
British Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire told politicians on Thursday that the move will send a message on just how strongly the UK condemns terrorism.
The ban will make it a criminal offense to be a member of or to provide support to the ISIL.
British Home Office officials have said that the move was triggered by the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group's actions in Syria, but developments in Iraq had underlined the need to ban the group in Britannia.
The latest developments come as ISIL is waging a war that has engulfed a large swathe of both Iraqi and Syrian territories.
Fears are growing that European Death Eaters trained and hardened in Syria may carry out terrorist attacks once they return home.
Hundreds of Europeans have gone to Syria to fight against the Damascus government.
On June 3, British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... said the terrorist threat from Syria was more dangerous than threats from Afghanistan or Pakistain. Cameron also said that British security services had to work hard to prevent a terror attack in Britannia.
European opponents of the Syrian government voice concern as Death Eaters appear to be biting the hand that feeds them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
Were they not helping them in Libya sas captured by farmers with explosives by pipelines they just don't have a written contract with the House of Saud like the Bammy people and the State Department and so on down the list of dumb asses! Brand New Toyota TAN (ROUND HAT LEGGINGS WALKING STICK POWER LINES SUMMER 2009)before fall ALL SOLD OUT TAKE CARE KIDS!
#2
Were they not helping them in Libya sas captured by farmers with explosives by pipelines they just don't have a written contract with the House of Saud like the Bammy people and the State Department and so on down the list of dumb asses! Brand New Toyota TAN (ROUND HAT LEGGINGS WALKING STICK POWER LINES SUMMER 2009)before fall ALL SOLD OUT TAKE CARE KIDS!
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Authority on Thursday called Israels actions in the West Bank in recent days collective punishment, while a senior Fatah official said kidnappings were the only means to secure prisoner releases.
Meanwhile Hamas threatened to open the gates of hell upon Israel should it deport group members it has arrested following the abduction of three Israeli teens near Hebron last Thursday.
The PA condemned the continuous arrests of Hamas operatives and closures in the West Bank as an infliction of collective punishment on the Palestinians.
In a statement from PA President Mahmoud Abbass office, the wide-ranging operation was denounced as an excuse to impinge on Palestinian rights.
Israel is using the disappearance of the three teenagers as an excuse to harm the rights of the Palestinians, the PA statement said, according to Ynet. Abbas also strongly criticized the arrest of ex-convicts freed as part of the prisoner exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, and called for international condemnation and intervention.
On Wednesday, Abbas came out in support of the security arrangements with Israel, calling for the return of the boys and claiming there will never be a third intifada. His statements were met by strongly worded denunciations by Hamas.
Meanwhile Fatah official Jibril Rajoub told a Palestinian TV station Thursday that After 20 years of talks, we understood that kidnappings are the only language Israel understands. It became clear to us that this is the only way to free our prisoners, whose numbers rise every day, from jail.
Still, Rajoub claimed that he did not condone abductions.
Also Thursday a Hamas spokesman warned Israel against deporting the prisoners in its custody, stating that it would open the gates of hell in response, and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be sorry for the wave of arrests of its constituents.
Abbass statement on Thursday came as Netanyahu called on Abbas once again to dissolve his pact with the murderous terror organization.
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon insisted the investigation to track down the three kidnapped students was progressing, but was unlikely to be over in the near future.
We know more today than we knew even a few days ago, but there is still ways to go, and we must have patience and perseverance, the prime minister said.
Yaalon said we are progressing. We will eventually reach the terrorists and our kidnapped boys, he pledged.
Quoting Psalms, Netanyahu said Here, near the city of our forefathers [Hebron], I promise you: We will pursue our enemies and overtake them, and we will do everything to bring our boys home.
Israeli forces have embarked on a massive campaign to locate the three kidnapped boys Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frankel, 16, and Gil-ad Shaar, 16 while simultaneously destroying parts of the Hamas terror infrastructure in the West Bank.
The military has been conducting nightly raids and sweeps in cities across the West Bank since the teenagers disappeared, arresting more than 250 suspected terrorists, many of them Hamas men, since last week.
The teenagers were last seen at a hitchhiking post in the Etzion bloc in the West Bank last Thursday night. Israel has maintained Hamas is behind the attack, but the terror organization has denied the allegations. In the past, abducted Israeli citizens were held as a bargaining chip for the release of incarcerated Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
#5
I just watched the video of ISIS capturing unarmed truck drivers and executing them. I am at the point where I believe we should pull all of the Americans out. Then send in the B2 and work the nuclear option. From there put Iran and Soddie on notice or they are next. This Religious war is moving west, I do not want it in America.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/20/2014 11:35
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#6
Rather than try to play whack-a-mole wherever these terrorist organizations may pop up, what we have to do is to be able to build effective partnerships.
And you've been sooo effective at that, haven't you, Champ. Can you - or anybody! - name one 'effective partnership'?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2014 13:24
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#8
So, the empty suit administration is about to recant on their positions about the "Global War on Terrorism"?
Geez, how are they going to spin that without admitting Bush was right about it all along and maybe his Iraq incursion and Afghanistan were the right thing to do at the time?
I wonder how San Fran Nan is going to spin that?
And the "George Bush is a war criminal" crowd how are they going to spin that now?
What is the empty suit regime going to call it? It has to be something that will not insult radical Islam.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/20/2014 14:02
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#9
and us laying down a more effective counterterrorism platform that gets all the countries in the region pulling in the same direction.
Yeah because we all know what a success that Unity of Vision stuff has been so far.
[Iraq Sun] 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... stressed Thursday that any US intervention in Iraq to help stem the advances by Islamic bully boyz is not meant to support the country's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"This is not about al-Maliki," Xinhua quoted the top American envoy as saying in NBC's Today programme. "Let me stress, what the United States is doing is about Iraq. And nothing that the president decides to do is going to be focused specifically on Prime Minister al-Maliki."
There is a growing chorus of calls in Washington for Maliki to step down and pave the way for reconciliation among the country's dividing sects, though the White House has not publicly endorsed the idea.
Asked about slow US response to the lightning advances by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), whose fighters are pressing on to the capital city of Storied Baghdad after seizing two major cities in northern Iraq -- djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and Tikrit -- in recent days, Kerry said: "Not the least of which is we didn't have operational capacity at that point in time, partly because Prime Minister Maliki denied the kind of permissions necessary."
The US moved its aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush from the North Arabian Sea into the Gulf days ago.
Kerry said the US is "deeply concerned" regarding the advances by the ISIL, an offshoot of Al Qaeda. "They represent a threat to every country in the region," he said. "They are more extreme even than Al Qaeda, and they are threatening the United States and western interests."
The White House said Obama has put all options on the table, except for sending back US troops into combat in Iraq, including Arclight airstrikes as requested by Maliki.
The Pentagon has planned to send Special Forces to Iraq, with focus on intelligence gathering, according to a CNN report.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
Are there some unsecured Donk votes over there?
#2
Not the least of which is we didn't have operational capacity at that point in time, partly because Prime Minister Maliki denied the kind of permissions necessary.
What a bunch of horseshit. On his never ending campaign trail Obama needed to say he ended the war in Iraq. You can be sure the 300 military advisors now have diplomatic immunity.
[Iraq Sun] An Iraqi man accused of being a senior member of al-Qaeda was formally charged by the U.S. war crimes tribunal in Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday with conspiring to bomb Western forces in Afghanistan and killing civilians and U.S. soldiers.
Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi did not enter a plea during his arraignment on five counts that also included attacking a U.S. military medical helicopter. His attorneys said they wanted to file pretrial motions before entering a plea.
Court documents filed by prosecutors described Hadi al-Iraqi as one of al Qaeda's top military operatives.
Military prosecutors contend Hadi al-Iraqi served on al-Qaeda's senior advisory council, tried to acquire chemical weapons and issued orders to kill Americans and their allies. His orders also authorized al-Qaeda gunnies "to view civilians and medical personnel as acceptable targets," according to prosecutors.
Hadi al-Iraqi is accused of criminal masterminding an April 25, 2003, attack on a U.S. military convoy at Shkin, Afghanistan, that killed two U.S. soldiers and injured numerous others. After another one of his attacks on Oct. 25, 2003, killed two more U.S. soldiers, Hadi al-Iraqi's fighters shot at injured coalition soldiers, prosecutors said.
A roadside kaboom set by Hadi al-Iraqi's fighters killed four U.S. soldiers on May 29, 2004, in Qalat, Afghanistan, the court documents say. In a Nov. 16, 2003, attack, Hadi al-Iraqi is accused of paying Taliban fighters $200 to $300 to kill a civilian U.N. worker near Ghazni, Afghanistan.
Judge Captain J. Kirk Waits agreed to Hadi al-Iraqi's request to replace Army Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Callen as his defense counsel with a civilian attorney. Callen is scheduled to be released from active duty in September.
The arraignment was monitored by Rooters over closed-circuit television at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Hadi al-Iraqi is the 12th person accused of terrorism to be charged before the Military Commission at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. He has been held there for seven years and the U.S. military classifies him as one of 16 high-value detainees.
Following the arraignment, Callen said Hadi al-Iraqi "has great concerns about the fairness of this process."
Chief Prosecutor Brigadier General Mark Martins defended prosecution by a military commission, saying, "The military commissions have rules of evidence that are better-suited to a battlefield."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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#1
It's important to get his 'street cred' up before we trade him for tickets to Disney World.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/20/2014 7:23
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[DAWN] Despite administrative and police threats, the Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) and Tehrik Minhajul Koran will establish 10 camps in various areas of the garrison city on Thursday to welcome Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... at Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... International Airport (BBIA).
The camps, titled 'condolence camps' will be set up at Tench Bhatta, Pirwadhai, Khanna Bridge, Kuri Road, Adiala Road, Dhoke Ratta, Morgah, Sir Syed Chowk, Dhoke Chiraghdin and Golra Mor.
PAT Rawalpindi spokesperson Suhail Abbasi told Dawn that these camps were being established to receive condolences for the tragic incident in Model Town where more than 11 civilians bit the dust.
"The local administration and police are terrorising our people. Our leaders have received messages from the police asking them to submit plans to the relevant cop shoppes or the City Police Office," he added.
He said: "The police have sought information on those attending the welcome reception at BBIA and their families."
"We will not give details to the police as we are independent citizens and have the right to express ourselves. Rallies and public meetings are democratic and a basic civil right," he said.
He added that the rally will go from Rawalpindi to Lahore and will be led by Dr Tahirul Qadri.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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[DAWN] PESHAWAR: A suicide kaboom on the residence of a peace lashkar chief in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... capital killed at least two people and maimed five others, DawnNews reported on Thursday night.
The attack took place at the residence of Adezai peace lashkar's chief Farmanullah Khan in Adezai area on the outskirts of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
Khan confirmed the incident saying two people including the jacket wallah died in the attack on his hujra.
"Suicide bomber entered my hujra and went kaboom! himself," he told Dawn.com.
Farmanullah took over as the chief of Adezai Peace Committee after the death of his elder brother Dilawar Khan who had survived a number of attacks on his life as well.
Officials in Lady Reading Hospital confirmed that two bodies have been brought to the hospital and seven including a child are injured.
The SSP Operations Najeebur Rehman Bagwi also confirmed the incident and casualties.
Peshawar is on the edge of Pakistain's tribal region, the main sanctuary for al Qaeda and Talibs in the country.
The attack came days after Pak armed forces launched Zarb-e-Azb military operation against local and foreign faceless myrmidons hiding in North Wazoo tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Dozens of bully boy hideouts have been destroyed and hundreds of suspected snuffies have died in first five days of the military offensive.
No one has yet grabbed credit of the attack, but the city has frequently been attacked in the past few years by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain bully boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2014
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Why, they might even scare the Invincible Mad Mullah Mighty Military Machine™, even with their stealth, hypersonic, supercavitating torpedo/missile/plane/drone thingy.
P.S. Somebody ought to tell those guys they can't ride in the open bed of a pickup truck - it's not safe and dangerous and against the law!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2014 7:51
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#2
And don't even bring up the seat belt law...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2014 9:16
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#3
Bet they don't have a permit for that heavy automatic assault rifle either.
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.
(Munich-Mossul, Kirche in Not) After the capture of the northern-Iraqi metropolis Mosul by Islamist forces, all the Christians who were still living there have now fled. The Catholic Archbishop of the city, Amil Shamaaoun Nona, corroborated this while speaking with the worldwide Catholic relief service Aid to the Church in Need. 
Wazoo
[BLOOMBERG] Felipe VI, proclaimed King of Spain today, pledged to lead a process of national renewal, saying all Spaniards should be able to live together within the nation.
[Telegraph UK]Russia is secretly working with environmental groups campaigning against fracking in an attempt to maintain Europe's dependence on energy imports from Moscow, the secretary-general of Nato has said.
Ten Muslim militants and seven soldiers were killed yesterday in one of the bloodiest battles in the southern Philippines in recent months. 
Hillary Clinton
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Nouri al-Maliki
Harry Reid
Charlie 
Don't blame the Champ, 
[Rooters] MANILA -- Philippine and American troops are set to hold naval exercises this month near a disputed shoal, which will almost certainly anger China with tension already high in the South China Sea.
John 
[IsraelTimes] An explosion in a tunnel near Gaza's border with Israel killed at least five members of Hamas and wounded several others Thursday, Palestinian officials said.
No, I don't have much faith in Congress. 
[Iran Press TV] Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress should hold President 
David Cameron
[Iraq Sun] Secretary of State 
Starts January 4, 2014.
