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Geelani, Yasin Malik meet Pak envoy after India calls off talks
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Swedish Jewish Woman Savagely Beaten for Wearing Star of David
Moved to Short Attention Span Theater, where we are clustering all antisemitic incidents. Where they occur doesn't really matter any more, merely the increasing rate at which they occur.

Such brave lions of Islam, gathering together to beat up a girl! And such brave descendants of Vikings, who did not so much as protest the violence in their midst.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 02:38 || Comments || Link || [336107 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In a, totally unrelated, news: Sweden to get 100,000 refugees in 2014
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 7:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Thisyear's income so far has arrived mostly from Syria, Somalia, Libya, and Eritrea. Another reason for the hike in numbers is the worsening situation in northern Iraq.

Insanity. What does this do for Sweden? Zip so far as I can see. Much like our open southern border. There is "mucho dolor" down the road.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/20/2014 8:13 Comments || Top||

#3  What does this do for Sweden? Zip so far as I can see.

You're looking in the wrong place . . . .
Posted by: gorb || 08/20/2014 9:58 Comments || Top||

#4  What does this do for Sweden?

Assuage their guilt feelings for being successful (because their forefathers made far better choices than the 'refugees'). Remember the Left hates success.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/20/2014 13:46 Comments || Top||

#5  A few blood eagles will likely put an end to this.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 08/20/2014 17:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Swedish oikophobes organise 100,000 colonists in 2014

FIFY
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/20/2014 17:51 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali Pirate Leader Arrested in Mogadishu
MOGADISHU -- A Somali police official says security forces arrested a senior pirate commander in Mogadishu. Capt. Mohamed Hussein said Monday that Mohamed Garfanji, considered to be the second-ranking leader of Somalia's pirate industry, was arrested in Mogadishu Sunday for possessing illegal arms
...like getting Al Capone on tax evasion...
and other charges related to piracy.
"You're under arrest for being a pirate. Cuff 'im, Md. Joe."
Garfanji is the second top pirate leader arrested. Belgium arrested pirate kingpin Mohamed Abdi Hassan last year with a trick which lured him to Belgium to work on a documentary about piracy.

The arrest comes as the Somali government continues a disarmament campaign in Mogadishu that has seen hundreds of guns seized.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336080 views] Top|| File under: Pirates

#1  Do they still keelhaul pirates?
Posted by: Steven || 08/20/2014 2:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Traditional sentence for pirates is hanging. And left there.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/20/2014 8:40 Comments || Top||


Vehicle burnt as gunmen attack police station in Garissa
Suspected Al-Shabaab militiamen attacked Bodhai Police Post in Garissa County on Monday night and injured an officer.

The attackers also burnt a police vehicle and a water boozer, Garissa County Commissioner Harun Rashid Khator said. He said gunmen attacked the police post, which is located near Boni Forest, at around 9pm but security officers repulsed them.

A senior officer who did not want to be named said residents fled their homes when they heard the gunshots. The officer said two G3 rifles were also missing and that a woman was injured in the incident. The woman is said to be the wife of one of the officers working at the police station.

The injured police officer and the woman were admitted to Masalani Sub-County Hospital.

Mr Khator said security officers had been deployed in the area to pursue the attackers. The county commissioner led a team of security officers to assess the situation.

Bodhai is located near the Garissa-Lamu border.

Recently, armed gunmen attacked the Mpeketoni area in Lamu County and killed 67 people. They also attacked several villages in Tana River County. The attacks led to a major operation in Boni Forest involving Kenya Defence Forces.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Four Decapitated Bodies Found in Sinai; IS 'Copycats' Suspected
Four decapitated bodies were found north of the Sinai Peninsula Wednesday morning, about 15 kilometers from the border with Gaza.

Residents of Sheikh Zaveid found the bodies; security forces in Cairo estimated that the deceased were kidnapped from the Egyptian capital on Monday morning.

According to one police prediction, the four - who were last seen in a car - were kidnapped by a local terrorist organization on suspiscions of giving over information to Egyptian police and military forces.

A security source told the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily that the organization responsible for the murder, which he called Orfei Harsha'am (lit. "rear their heads"), are trying to imitate the methods of the execution of the "Islamic State" (IS; formerly known as ISIS), the terror group tearing through large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 13:11 || Comments || Link || [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh wow, I'm _sure_ noone was ever brutal to each other in the middle east until ISIS came along.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/20/2014 16:38 Comments || Top||


Egypt carries out wide scale operations against terrorism in Sinai
The Egyptian army continued to act against terrorists in Sinai on Tuesday, arresting 75 suspects, a day after it killed two, arrested seven, and destroyed two tunnels from Gaza.

The 75 suspects were arrested at the entrance and exit points of Rafah, which borders the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

A day earlier, Egyptian forces killed two terrorists, made arrests in the Sinai towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah.

Security forces also destroyed two tunnels on the border near Rafah and destroyed a number of terrorist hideouts, according to MENA.

Egypt is battling an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai.
One which is based in Gaza
Quite. You don't s'pose that's why Egypt's mediation clearly was not biased toward Hamas?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 02:58 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under:


Government pulls plug on Wataniya and Rasmiya TV channels
[Libya Herald] Libya's two state-owned TV channels, Al-Wataniya and Al-Rasmiya, were effectively switched off today by Nilesat, the Egyptian satellite broadcasting company controlled by the Egyptian authorities.

The company stopped rebroadcasting the two stations after the Libya government requested they be stopped. According to a Media Ministry front man, the request was made by Culture Minister Habib Al-Amin, who is also acting Media Minister.

Both stations are in the hands of Islamists and anti-government forces and have refused to broadcast and coverage of proceedings the House of Representatives (HoR).

Wataniya was taken over on 4 August by forces belonging to Abdul Rauf Kara, who is in effective control of Mitiga airbase. They ordered staff not to broadcast the inauguration that day of the new parliament and in future to support the Misratan-led Libya Dawn operation in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
The boss of Rasmiya, Nizam Tayyari, likewise has pursued a determinedly anti-HoR and ant-government line.

At the beginning of the month he was expelled from Tunisia after he attacked the Libyan government in a TV interview there in which he accused the acting Interior Minister Salah Mazegh of being a Qadaffy supporter and having worked for Qadaffy's security apparatus. The accusation provoked a furious denial from the Interior ministry who in turn accused him of lying for political purposes.

Because the two stations are government-owned, Nilesat which broadcasts some 700 TV channels and 100 digital radio channels by its three satellites, was obliged to shut them down when asked to do so by Al-Amin. However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
the Egyptian authorities, known to be opposed to Libya's Islamists, are believed to have fully supported the move.

Last year the government requested Nilesat to stop two pro-Qadaffy stations but it turned out they were not being broadcast by it. In July 2011, a Cairo court ordered it to stop broadcasting TV stations controlled by the Qadaffy regime.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Libyan militia fire rockets into affluent Tripoli residential district
[IN.REUTERS] Libyan snuffies fired rockets into an affluent district of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
early on Tuesday, moving a battle with a rival armed faction closer to the centre of the capital after fighters on one side came under air attack.

Rebel groups who united to topple Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
in 2011 have since turned their guns on each other,
Unexpectedly.
spreading anarchy in oil-producing Libya and raising fears it may become a failed state destabilising the wider North and West African region.

An air force controlled by renegade General Khalifa Haftar were responsible for strikes on Islamist-leaning militia in Tripoli on Monday, one of his commanders said, after weeks of fighting for control of the capital and its airport.

Hours later after nightfall, unidentified snuffies fired Grad rockets
...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km....
into the Hay Andalus and Gargaresh districts, among the most well-to-do in Tripoli, killing three people, residents said. A health ministry official had no casualty figures.

The neighbourhoods, home to the Libyan bourse, elegant cafes and foreign brand outlets such as Nike and Marks & Spencer, had been buzzing with shoppers until recently.

A Rooters news hound saw a furniture shop with a large hole in its showroom from a direct rocket hit. Cafes and residential buildings were also damaged, while power was cut off in much of the capital for the day.

Heavy shelling could be heard also in other parts of the Mediterranean coastal capital until late on Tuesday.

The air attacks escalated a struggle between Islamist and more moderate militias as well as between forces from different cities all vying for power and spoils in the OPEC-member nation.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336078 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
Saudi Death Sentence for Militant who Kidnapped, Killed U.S. Man
[AnNahar] A court in Riyadh has sentenced an al-Qaeda member to death for the 2004 kidnap and murder of U.S. citizen Paul Marshall, local media reported on Tuesday.
It is possible his name is actually Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr., which would explain paragraph 3 of this article.
The court specializing in terror cases also imposed jail terms of four to 30 years on 13 co-defendants, including two Syrians who were members of the same al-Qaeda cell, in a verdict announced on Monday evening.

Johnson was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in Riyadh in 2004, held hostage and beaten to death, then beheaded by his kidnappers who posted a video of his execution on the Internet, Ashaq Al-Awsat reported, citing the indictment.
A reminder that ISIS is doing nothing new, just an awful lot more of it.
The 14 defendants belonged to a 50-member al-Qaeda cell that is alleged to have murdered the American, been involved in an attack on Riyadh police headquarters and to have planned strikes on the U.S. and British embassies in the Saudi capital, official SPA news agency reported.

They were also convicted of smuggling in heavy weapons from Iraq, launching armed attacks on police, belonging to al-Qaeda and showing disrespect to Saudi rulers, the news agency said.
Goodness. The lads have been busy.
The court is expected to give a verdict in the next few days on the other members of the cell.
"Guilty, all o'yez! Bailiff, send them to our deepest dungeon, and tickle their feet for 'em! If it's good enough for foreign "drug dealers", it's good enough for the likes o'them."
Saudi courts began in June 2011 to pass sentence on hundreds of people accused of involvement in bloody al-Qaeda attacks across the Gulf kingdom from 2003 to 2006.

The government launched a relentless crackdown on the bad boy network, including a campaign of arrests, to wipe out the local al-Qaeda branch.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336088 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  A reminder that ISIS is doing nothing new, just an awful lot more of it.

The talking heads on TV make fine distinctions between AQ, ISIS and others. Not worth bothering with such distinctions. Savagery and barbarism resides in all of these groups. AQ pulled of 911; it doesn't get much worse than that. However, it could if we don't control our borders.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/20/2014 7:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Savagery and barbarism resides in all of these groups.

...because savagery and barbarism are the foundation principles of their shared creed/religion.
Posted by: AlanC || 08/20/2014 7:31 Comments || Top||

#3  savagery and barbarism are the foundation principles of their shared creed/religion.

Disagree. Savagery/sadism and endless appetite for other people property is part of their basic nature. Muhammadanism allowed them to cooperate with each other in---making, really extensive, acts of robbery and murder possible.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 7:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Muhammadanism allowed them to cooperate with each other in---making, really extensive, acts of robbery and murder possible

Yes, it was (is?) quite effective at uniting and disciplining disparate tribes.

Which is why the Left seems so fascinated with it, and would be more so, if it weren't for the religion and a few other icky parts.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/20/2014 8:44 Comments || Top||

#5  It seems a change at the top is having some results. Just last month Prince Khalid bin Bandar was named to the post of chief of general intelligence. In little more than a year's time he has held the posts of deputy defense minister, and previous to that governor of Riyadh region. He is the son of Prince Bandar, who it was reported was forced out. He is said to be much more purposeful and much less the schmoozer than the old man. It is said that he wanted to make an example of the terrorists, and he may be having his way.
Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832 || 08/20/2014 10:41 Comments || Top||

#6  The only way terrorism is actually going to be defeated will be when society's multiple buttholes become terrified at the thought of becoming a terrorist. It has to lead to either painful death or to a deep dark dungeon attended by an albino.

Whichever path they take, it has to be accompanied by a roundup and punishment of their immediate friends and acquaintances. The father who sez "he wuz framed" should get his own place in the dungeon and the mother who sez "he wuz a good boy" should join him.

Vespasian would have handled the bastards like he did Massada. Naturally the UN would want to try him for war crimes.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 11:00 Comments || Top||

#7  One thinks of General Sherman's 300,000, and the crucified Jews stretching the length of the road from Jerusalem to Rome, if I recall correctly, and the claim of one billion Moslems in the world... and prays there is another way to achieve the same end.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 15:42 Comments || Top||

#8 
Posted by: Jerkface Killa || 08/20/2014 21:58 Comments || Top||


Armed Yemeni Rebels in Sanaa Sit-Ins ahead of Friday Deadline
[AnNahar] Hundreds of armed Iranian catspaws staged sit-ins on Tuesday on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, where supporters are mobilizing in a campaign for the fall of the government by Friday.
What a very strange place Yemen must be.
Activists in the Ansarullah, or Huthi, rebellion put up dozens of tents at the western edge of Sanaa.

Guarded by hordes of gunnies, other rebels were busy erecting similar camps in the north and south of the city, Agence La Belle France Presse journalists reported.

Around 5,000 men arrived in the capital from Saada province, traditional stronghold of the Ansarullah rebellion.

Rebel leader AbdulMalik Huthi on Sunday ordered his followers to march on Sanaa to bring about "the fall of the government, which has failed."

He set the authorities a deadline of Friday before other forms of "lawful" action will start. He gave no details.

Huthi's supporters are opposing a recent sharp increase in petrol prices, which have a major impact on household budgets in the impoverished country.

Tens of thousands of Iranian catspaws demonstrated in Sanaa city center on Monday.

The program of protests will go on until Friday and "we will not yield", a rebel told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi should listen to the voice of the people, or we will overthrow this corrupt government which has starved the people," the bully boy said as he took part in one of the rebel sit-ins.

Security forces have stepped up their presence at the western edge of Sanaa.

"We have been charged with ensuring safety and preventing gangs from entering Sanaa," Abdulghani Tajeddin, commander of a local unit, told AFP.

"We will confront any gang seeking to harm the country's security and stability."

The face-off could degenerate if the rebels seek to escalate their action, political sources said.

"We won't accept the status quo that the Huthis want to impose on us by force of arms," warned Mohammed al-Sabri, head of a political coalition including Islamist party Al-Islah, a Sunni bloc.

"If they make an attempt to enter Sanaa... it will be suicide for them," he said.

Ansarullah controls Saada province in northern Yemen and is suspected of wanting to broaden its sphere of influence in a future federal state, potentially comprising six provinces.

Huthi forces reached just outside Sanaa in July when they took the city of Amran, although they later agreed to withdraw.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  The Huthi are Shiites and according to some recent reports are being armed by Iran.
Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832 || 08/20/2014 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  The Huthi are Shiites and according to some recent reports are being armed by Iran.

An important point, Beldar Sloque3832. I believe Iran has been arming and encouraging Shiite communities wherever they might be, not to mention anyone else they can co-opt against the Sunni status quo and/or Israel. Though hopefully they haven't got much farther than spying on the Shiite community in Dearborn, Michigan.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 14:06 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canadian Doctor Acquitted in Terrorism Trial
[AnNahar] A Canadian doctor of Pak heritage who once auditioned for a televised talent show on Tuesday became the first person in Canada to be acquitted at trial of terrorism.

Khurram Sher, a 31-year-old pathologist, was incarcerated
You have the right to remain silent...
in a dramatic police takedown with two other suspects in 2010.

He pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to facilitating a terrorist activity. One of his co-accused was convicted last month of belonging to a homegrown terror cell and is awaiting sentencing. The third man has not yet gone to trial.

Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland in his ruling said Sher likely harbored jihadist sympathies but that the evidence did not prove he intended to join the conspiracy.

Evidence presented at trial included circuit boards said to be for use in detonating a bomb remotely, "terrorist" books, manuals and videos, as well as a wiretap of a dinner conversation in which the group discussed attacking a military base in Canada.

Other police intercepts, however, suggested that his alleged co-conspirators did not believe Sher was fully committed to "violent jihad."

At trial, Sher admitted to contributing Can$400 to the group but said he believed it was intended for Kurds in Iraq. Records showed he contributed regularly to charities.

In 2008, Sher had auditioned for the television talent show "Canadian Idol," putting on an exaggerated accent and telling producers he immigrated from Pakistain.

Dressed in a traditional shalwar kameez and pakul hat, he appeared in a YouTube video of the audition performing Michael Jackson's famed moonwalk and a robot dance for the judges.

He also butchered Avril Lavigne's hit song "Complicated," prompting this posting on a Facebook page: "I for one am glad that he is attempting to show the nation that 'moslims' are not all Death Eaters."

Sher was born and raised in Montreal and graduated from one of Canada's most prestigious medical schools.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336114 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland said Sher likely harbored jihadist sympathies but that the evidence did not prove he intended to join the conspiracy.

Evidence presented at trial included circuit boards said to be for use in detonating a bomb remotely, "terrorist" books, manuals and videos, as well as a wiretap of a dinner conversation in which the group discussed attacking a military base in Canada.


Don't all you Canadians feel so much safer now that this guy can practice medicine on you?

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 08/20/2014 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  I never was fond of that expression "practice medicine" because I want the Doc to be all practiced up BEFORE he gets to work on me.

Other point is I wonder if "Doctor" Sher will be able to easily remove the chip we had implanted in his buttocks while he was in custody.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 08/20/2014 19:49 Comments || Top||

#3  the chip we had implanted in his buttocks while he was in custody.

You mean someone will have to tease out all his conversations from the more immediate sounds of bowel movements and the pleasures of married life, Canuckistan sniper? Hopefully there's a clever little computer program for that.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 20:21 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Jerkface Killa || 08/20/2014 22:03 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Airstrikes kill 48 militants in northwest Pakistan
[ARABNEWS] Airstrikes targeting suspected Taliban hide-outs in a restive tribal district of northwest Pakistain killed 48 holy warriors on Tuesday, the military said, as six civilians died in a roadside kaboom.

The armed forces have since June been waging an assault to wipe out strongholds of the Pak Taliban and other holy warriors in North Wazoo and other tribal areas, killing at least 600 holy warriors according to the military.

An initial round of strikes killed 18 holy warriors on Tuesday morning, a statement from the armed forces said, and 30 more died in later attacks from helicopter gunships.

"Five hide-outs were wiped out in Khyber and seven were eliminated in North Waziristan," the military said.

Security officials said a house belonging to Taliban capo and Al-Qaeda-linked warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadar was destroyed in the strikes. Bahadar had already fled the area, officials said.

The roadside kaboom was mounted in the Salarzai area of Bajaur, another tribal area on the Afghan border which has recently been attacked by holy warriors from across the frontier.

Officials said the dead included three female schoolteachers and two of their infant children.

"According to initial reports, six civilians, including three lady teachers, two children and one passerby have embraced martyrdom," a security official said.

Local administration official Sohail Khan confirmed the incident.

Another official in 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.
said the van was carrying the women and their children to a community school run by an aid group funded by international charities.

No group grabbed credit, but Islamist holy warriors hiding in the lawless border areas have carried out such attacks in the past.

Pak jets and artillery began hitting rebel targets in mid-June to try to regain full control of the district and ground forces moved in on June 30.

Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Geelani, Yasin Malik meet Pak envoy after India calls off talks
[Dhaka Tribune] Defiant Kashmiri separatist leaders continued to meet Pakistain's envoy to New Delhi on Tuesday, a day after India cancelled talks with its nuclear-armed neighbour that prompted a strong reaction from the Pak media and the United States to term the move "unfortunate."

Syed Geelani, a big shot of the 26-party Hurriyat Conference, and Jammu and Kashmire Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik
...chairman of one of the two factions of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. JKLF is a Kashmiri nationalist organization founded in Birmingham, UK in 1977. Branches weren't actually established in Kashmir for another ten years. It has the usual demands for separation of J&K from secular India so it can become an independent Islamic rathole. It seems to have no interest in Pak Kashmir breaking away to join it. In 1994 Malik renounced violence after he was released from jail and from that point he and his organization pursued peaceful means to impose their will on the region...
met Pak high commissioner to India Abdul Basit, but it was not immediately clear what they spoke about.

Basit met separatist leader Shabbir Shah on Monday, ignoring the Indian government's warning that doing so could jeopardise the foreign secretary-level talks that were planned for August 25.

Speaking to news hounds before his meeting with Basit, Geelani criticised India's decision, saying it was undemocratic.

"We have been visiting Pakistain embassy several times to hold talks," he said, referring to an almost two-decades-old practice of Kashmiri separatists holding dialogue with Pak officials, including during the tenure of the previous BJP-led government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"The issue of Jammu and Kashmire is an international issue and it should be solved. As long as promises made to us are not fulfilled, this issue will remain unsolved," Geelani said.

India's move was seen as dampening expectations that the two countries would resume a tentative grinding of the peace processor under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who raised such hopes by inviting South Asian leaders, including his Pak counterpart 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...
, to his inauguration in May.

Following Monday's decision by New Delhi, that bonhomie is looking like a distant dream, prompting Washington to call the move "unfortunate."

"It is unfortunate that planned talks between India and Pakistain have fallen through," US state department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf told news hounds after the cancelling of talks.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336111 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Two militants killed in 'encounter'
[DAWN] Police on Monday night claimed to have killed two suspected bad boys, one allegedly involved in the killing of a caretaker of an Imambargah
...since Pakistain is very religiously correct™, Shia Moslems can't call their houses of worship 'mosques,' which are reserved for Sunnis. It's not clear if imambargahs are used for explosives storage like mosques are...
and his daughter recently in an alleged encounter in Baldia Town.

Officials said that acting on a tip-off police carried out a raid in Ittehad Town's Shanti Nagar and during an exchange of fire two suspects were killed.

They were identified as Baday Mehsud and Arshad. The dead men were alleged members of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, said SSP-West Irfan Baloch.

He said Baday Mehsud was also involved in the killing of Kazim Ali Shah, Imambargah caretaker, and his daughter in Surjani Town recently.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336091 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Four killed in 'sectarian' attacks across Karachi
[DAWN] Four young men have been bumped off in two 'sectarian' attacks in the city, police said on Monday.

Two of the victims were targeted in the Hussainabad area of Azizabad and the other two were chased before being targeted in the Pirabad area, they added.

The police Sherlocks said four people sustained gunshot wounds in the attack on Lajawab Bakery in Hussainabad. It was around 1.45am when four suspects riding two cycle of violences appeared there, two of them disembarked and opened fire on the people sitting in the bakery before fleeing with their waiting accomplices.

The victims were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced Fida Ali, 32, and Zeeshan Ali, 30, dead, while Akhter Ali and Mumtaz Ali were admitted for treatment.

Fida and Zeeshan worked in a factory as accountant and salesman, respectively.

"It appeared to be sectarian killing," said Azizabad SHO Haseebullah Qureshi.

The area police said Fida was Shia and Zeeshan was Sunni.

The Azizabad police said this was the second gun attack on the bakery as in the 2012 attack, a worker, Zubair, was killed.

In Pirabad, two men were bumped off apparently in sectarian attacks at around 7.30am on Monday, police said.

They added that Kashif Rizvi, 35, and Jaffer Hussain, 45, left their home on a motorbike and were near Qalandria Chowk when they were attacked.

Both were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.

SSP West Irfan Baloch said: "It appears to be a assassination case linked with sectarianism."

A Pirabad police official said the victims resided near an Imambargah
...since Pakistain is very religiously correct™, Shia Moslems can't call their houses of worship 'mosques,' which are reserved for Sunnis. It's not clear if imambargahs are used for explosives storage like mosques are...
in Qasba Colony. He said Kashif had a cable business.

Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the pastor had finally been wrestled from the pulpit.
Y'got the wrong guy! he yelled just before Sergeant Malone's billy club landed...

the funeral prayers for a local leader of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat
...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi...
were offered in Taiser Town before his burial in Surjani Town graveyard on Monday.

ASWJ leader Abdul Qadir aka Mufti Abdul Manan was targeted along with Nazeer Muavia in Nazimabad late Sunday night, according to the Hyderi Market police and the ASWJ spokesperson. The maimed were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Mufti Abdul Manan was pronounced dead on arrival while Nazeer was admitted for treatment.

The police said the condition of Nazeer was said to be critical and he was not in a position to record his statement.

ASWJ leader Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi said their party workers were being frequently targeted but the government failed to arrest the culprits involved in it. He asked the chief justice to take suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard...
notice of the sectarian killings.

Earlier, Allama Rab Nawaz Hanafi who led the funeral prayers demanded that the coalition partners in Sindh step down if the government could not maintain peace.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan


ASI, passer-by shot dead in Gulshan
[DAWN] A police officer and a passer-by were rubbed out in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Monday night, police said.

They added that Assistant Sub-Inspector Ali Nawaz riding a cycle of violence was attacked by assailants on another motorbike near Moti Mahal. The ASI and a civilian passer-by, Waseem Ahmed Sheikh, also riding a cycle of violence, were maimed in the attack, said Gulshan-e-Iqbal SHO Aurangzeb Khattak. They were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), where doctors declared both of them dead.

"It was an act of assassination of the police officer," said the officer. He added that the victim was returning home after work in F.B Area. He was in police uniform when attacked.

Man rubbed out in van

A 35-year-old man was rubbed out in a moving van in the Korangi Industrial Area on Monday.

Police said two suspects riding a cycle of violence intercepted the van near Chamra Chowrangi and opened fire on Tajuddin after identifying him. He was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors pronounced him dead
He's dead, Jim!
Labourer killed

A labourer was rubbed out while another was maimed in Shah Latif Town in the early hours of Monday, police said.

They added that Abdul Hakeem, 35, and Asghar Ali were sitting outside their home in Mari Goth when suspects opened fire on them and fled. The maimed were taken to the JPMC where Hakeem was declared dead.

Two women murdered

A 22-year-old woman was stabbed to death in the Bin Qasim area.

Police said Saima was killed inside her home in Railway Colony allegedly by her brother-in-law, Amanullah. The suspect fled after the incident. The victim's husband works in the Middle East.

Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene...
a 30-year-old woman was found murdered in F.B Area, Block-14. The police said she was hit in the head and face with a hard and blunt weapon. The body was taken to the ASH, where her identity could not be ascertained immediately.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under:


111 Brigade takes up positions in Red Zone
[DAWN] As twin protests in Islamabad entered a fifth day on Tuesday, the Pakistain Army has put its troops in Islamabad on 'high alert', with the 111 Brigade positioned in the Red Zone.

The 111 Brigade has often been used to secure Islamabad - as well as used in military takeovers.

Fearing any untoward incident taking place if the PTI or PAT enter the Red Zone, Lieutenant General Qamar Bajwa, Commander 10 Corps, contacted brass hats of the Islamabad Police for coordination to ensure security of key government installations located on Constitution Avenue.

The troops were deployed in the federal capital under Article 245 of the Constitution. The government had taken this controversial measure for securing Islamabad amid the spectre of a political showdown. The army is however not bound to act in aid of the Islamabad police in the enforcement of this section unless Chief Commissioner Islamabad orders them to do so.

In an earlier report, a military source put the number of troops stationed in the capital for security duties at about 350. But the city administration had told news hounds that over 500 soldiers had been deployed.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
One man's defence of ancient faith triggers mass executions
[Dhaka Tribune] When Islamic State murderous Moslems stormed into a northern Iraqi village and ordered everyone to convert to Islam or die only one person refused. But that did not satisfy the Sunni Lions of Islam who are even more hardline than al Qaeda.

The holy warriors, who have seized much of northern Iraq since arriving from Syria in June, wasted no time after the village's leader, or sheikh, stood up for his ancient Yazidi faith.

Khalof Khodede, an unemployed father of three who escaped with his life, recalled how 80 men in the village of Kocho were killed and all the women and girls were kidnapped.

His account, one of the first eyewitness reports of last Friday's killings, could not be independently verified but other Yazidis and Iraqi officials have given details of Islamic State's attack on the village.

"First they wanted us all to convert to Islam and we said yes just to save our lives. We were all very afraid," said Khodede from a hospital bed in the town of Dohuk in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Dohuk is now home to thousands of refugees from Iraq's minority Yazidi community which has paid the heaviest price for Islamic State's ambition to redraw the map of the Middle East.

"Then our sheikh said 'I won't convert to Islam'. And then they gathered us inside the village school," he said.

The men were taken to the first floor and the women to the second after the villagers' money and gold jewellery were seized, probably to fund the group made up of Iraqis and other Arabs as well as imported muscle.

Then the Yazidis were loaded onto minibuses in groups of 10 to 20 and transported outside the village after being told they would be taken to Sinjar, the ancient homeland of the sect.

The vehicles stopped abruptly and the murderous Moslems opened fire without warning. "They started shooting at us randomly. They had heavy guns like machine guns. I was hit in my leg and on my pelvis," said Khodede, showing where he had been maimed.

The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism who are part of Iraq's Kurdish community, are not strangers to oppression.

Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.

But nothing could have prepared them for the wrath of the Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria it controls.

To survive, Khodede had to hide under the dead bodies of friends and neighbours, people who had practised the mysterious Yazidi faith with for a lifetime - beliefs that Islamic State fighters condemn as "devil worship".

After trying to stay motionless for about an hour, Khodede saw Kurdish fighters in the distance, peering through gaps in the bodies.

They were not Iraqi Kurdish fighters who had held towns and villages in the north for years after the fall of Saddam in 2003.

The Kurdish fighters had come from Syria after hearing that fellow Kurds were being routed in neighbouring Iraq by Islamic State murderous Moslems who seized several towns, a fifth oilfield, as well as the country's dam for some time in recent weeks.

Like many Yazidis, Khodede felt abandoned by the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters who acquired a reputation for being fierce warriors mainly because they challenged Saddam's troops. The Syrian Kurdish fighters cleaned up his wounds, took him to a hospital in Syria and then brought him back to Iraq.

Others were not so lucky.

"Islamic State kidnapped about 400 to 600 people in our village and the majority of those people are women and kiddies. They killed most of the men," said Khodede, in the emergency room of a teaching hospital where he arrived on Monday night.

His uncle and sister are by his side as blood drips into a bag hanging from his bed.

In the chaos and panic after the latest Islamic State offensive, rumours swirled about the fate of kidnapped Yazidi women, usually referred to as "slaves" for Islamic State.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  If you are a Methodist...or a Presbyterian, or perhaps even a Seventh day Adventist you could be expected to convert to Islam or die. Who would say No? Practically everybody in Massachusetts and California for starters...surprise surprise would say yes.
I expect most of the members of Congress would kneel and bow. No? you don't know human nature very well, do you?

Everybody who works for a Newpaper? Butts in the air. In a heartbeat. Polish a moslem boot with the oil on your nose. But you won't own a nasty gun or say anything that isn't PC, will you? America is short on people who CAN fight. Finish your milkshake, Nancy. Am I lyin' to you?

Islam is the religion of Peace? Sounds PC to me. How about you?
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 || 08/20/2014 9:24 Comments || Top||

#2  A little too much rote there, Hemingway. Same schtuff you've used in your other posts.

Go for a walk. I hear it's nice in Georgia this time of year. Read a book. Get some new ideas.

Have a milkshake, nancy.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/20/2014 11:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Jane Austen.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 12:16 Comments || Top||

#4  just finished northanger abbey and persuasion. good reads.
Posted by: Nero Uneang8429 || 08/20/2014 13:21 Comments || Top||

#5  So saucy a scribbler was Austen,
Her milkshake caused global defrosting.
Throngs were drawn to her yard
To convey their regard,
Though to waltz with them all was exhausting.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 08/20/2014 14:35 Comments || Top||

#6  throngs

Also burghers.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 08/20/2014 14:37 Comments || Top||

#7  *giggle* But burghers doesn't scan, so that's that.... unless the line were changed to

burghers drew to her yard, etc.

Mansfield Park will suit our Hemingway best. In addition to the utterly inappropriate Mr. Crawford and Miss Crawford, siblings, there are the scandalously salacious doings of Lord Bertram and Mr. Bertram at the estate in Antigua, so accurately depicted in Mr. Bertram's sketchbook.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 15:14 Comments || Top||


IS fighters recapture Tikrit
[Dhaka Tribune] Iraqi forces halted a short-lived offensive on Tuesday to recapture Tikrit, home town of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, due to fierce resistance from Islamic state fighters who have also threatened to attack Americans "in any place".

In Geneva, the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
refugee agency announced a major aid operation to get supplies to more than half a million people displaced by fighting in northern Iraq.

Buoyed by an operation to recapture a strategic dam from the jihadists after two months of setbacks, Iraqi army units backed by Shi'ite militias launched their offensive shortly after dawn on Tikrit, a city 130 km (80 miles) north of Baghdad which is a stronghold of the Sunni Moslem minority.

But officers in the Iraqi forces' operations room said by mid afternoon that the advance had stopped.

South of Tikrit, the government side came under heavy machinegun and mortar fire from the hard boys, a group of Arab and imported muscle hardened by battle both in Iraq and over the border in Syria's civil war, the officers told Rooters.

To the west, landmines and snipers frustrated efforts to get closer to the city centre in the latest in a series of attempts to drive out the hard boys. Residents of central Tikrit said by telephone that Islamic State fighters were firmly in control of their positions and patrolling the main streets.

Sunni Moslem fighters led by the Islamic State swept through much of northern and western Iraq in June, capturing the Sunni cities of Tikrit and djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
as well as the Mosul dam, a fragile structure which controls water and power supplies to millions of people down the Tigris river valley.

However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
on Monday fighters from Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region said they had regained control of the hydro electric dam with the help of US air strikes. US President Barack Obama
Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back...
also announced that the dam had been retaken.

The Islamic State has concentrated on taking territory for its self-proclaimed caliphate both in Syria, where it is also fighting the forces of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
, and in Iraq. Unlike al Qaeda, the movement from which it split, it has so far steered clear of attacking Western targets in or outside the region.

However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
a video posted on the Internet warned Americans, in English, that "we will drown all of you in blood" if US air strikes hit Islamic State fighters. The video also showed a photograph of an American who was beheaded during the US occupation of Iraq that followed Saddam's overthrow in 2003.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  "we will drown all of you in blood" if US air strikes hit Islamic State fighters.

Just as soon as Obama returns from vacation he will take care of this problem--or maybe not. The news media (and one of their own is involved) is inflamed about this so maybe something will be done about these rampaging psychopaths.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/20/2014 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  What's the down side of helping out the Iraqi forces by Arc-lighting Tikrit for them?
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/20/2014 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Downside of not doing it? They'll hate us. Downside of doing it? They'll hate us.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/20/2014 11:18 Comments || Top||

#4  No, they downside his Obama's poll numbers will suffer. Oh wait, you mean for us.
Posted by: Charles || 08/20/2014 11:22 Comments || Top||


Iraq Forces Hit Militants as U.N. Readies Major Aid Effort
[AnNahar] Iraqi forces battled Sunni gunnies along a string of fronts on Tuesday, including at Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit, as the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
readied a massive aid operation for displaced Iraqis.

Kurdish and federal forces, who wrested back control of Iraq's largest dam, fought jihadists in the country's north, buoyed by intensifying U.S. air strikes and Western arms deliveries.

Other security forces backed by murderous Moslems and rustics are also fighting jihadists in flashpoints north, west and south of Baghdad, officials said.

The counter-offensives against the gunnies came as the U.N. refugee agency said it was launching a major operation this week to help "close to half a million people" who have been displaced.

U.S. President Barack Obama
If you have a small business, you didn't build that...
hailed the recapture of the djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
Dam but warned Baghdad that "the wolf is at the door" and said it must move quickly to build an inclusive government.

The dam was the biggest prize yet clawed back from the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group since it launched a major offensive in northern Iraq in June, sweeping aside Iraqi security forces.

"This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working together and taking the fight to (IS)," said Obama.

"If they continue to do so, they will have the strong support of the United States of America," he promised, in his clearest signal yet that the 10-day-old U.S. air campaign was far from over.

U.S. and other officials have repeatedly stressed that military cooperation between the Kurds and Baghdad was key to any successful counter-offensive, but their alliance remains uneasy.

"We are the ones who liberated the dam, not the peshmerga," said one of several members of the federal special forces who climbed on top of two vehicles to shout at journalists gathered at a Kurdish checkpoint.

Fighting erupted Tuesday in the area surrounding the dam and U.S. warplanes carried out fresh strikes targeting IS, a senior officer in the Kurdish peshmerga forces told Agence La Belle France Presse.

U.S. experts have warned a breach of the dam could result in a flood wave 20 meters (yards) tall at the city of Mosul to its south and cause flooding along the Tigris River all the way down to Baghdad.

As anti-jihadist forces tried to reclaim ground lost earlier this month in the north, the government launched an operation to recapture the city of Tikrit, further south.

"The Iraqi army and (Shiite) volunteers, backed by Iraqi helicopters, are taking part" in the operation to retake the hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein, a high-ranking army officer told AFP.

Tikrit fell on June 11 and has since been controlled mostly by Sunni bully boy groups, including former members of Saddam's ruling Baath party.
"Honey, I'm home!"
The government, whose forces folded when jihadist-led gunnies swept across five provinces more than two months ago, has made Tikrit a priority but has already failed twice to retake it.

U.S. military aircraft have carried out 35 air strikes against IS gunnies in Iraq over three days, destroying more than 90 targets, the Pentagon said.

Obama justified the strikes, the first U.S. military intervention since troops withdrew in 2011, with the risk of genocide against the Yazidi minority and a threat to U.S. personnel in the Kurdish capital of Arbil.

Washington has so far resisted growing calls in and outside Iraq to expand its air strikes beyond targets in the north.

Two months of violence have brought Iraq to the brink of breakup, and world powers are relieved by the departure of divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
premier Nuri al-Maliki, who stepped down last week, hoping his successor will be a unifying figure.

In the north, members of minority groups including Christians, Yazidis, Shabak and Turkmen, remain under threat of kidnap or death at the hands of the jihadists, while tens of thousands of others have fled, prompting the U.N. to announce the major aid operation.

"Conditions remain desperate for those without access to suitable shelter, people struggling to find food and water to feed their families, and those without access to primary medical care," said Adrian Edwards, front man for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths...
IS supporters launched their latest social media effort, starting the hashtag "#AmessagefromISIStoUS" to mark posts on microblogging site Twitter, threatening the United States with remarks such as: "We will drown all of you in blood."

It was hijacked by American users who retorted with jingoistic rhetoric, including one user who posted a picture of a drone firing missiles along with the message: "This drone is for you".
*snicker*
IS also warned that the U.S. "will soon disappear... at the hands of the knights of the Caliphate."
Y'all can certainly try...
The jihadists, who declared their "caliphate" over a vast region straddling the Iraq-Syria border, have also came under attack in their Syrian stronghold of Raqa by Syria's air force.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336079 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  I once had a night of cauliflower. Made me take an ISIL so stank the neighbor's dog called animal control on me.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/20/2014 14:25 Comments || Top||


Islamic State beheaded American journalist
[reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
Tribune] e White House said on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence agents were working to verify the authenticity of a video purported to show the murder of an American journalist James Foley by Islamic State.

"We have seen a video that purports to be the murder of U.S. citizen James Foley by ISIL. The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity," White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

"If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends."

The video, titled "A Message To America," was posted on social media sites.

Foley, who has reported in the Middle East for five years, was kidnapped on Nov. 22, 2012, by unidentified gunnies.

A Twitter account set up by his family to help find him said early on Wednesday: "We know that many of you are looking for confirmation or answers. Please be patient until we all have more information, and keep the Foleys in your thoughts and prayers."
More from Rooters, posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418. Si vis pacem, para bellum shared the video.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336080 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  The religion of peace strikes again. Satan is smiling.
Posted by: Remoteman || 08/20/2014 1:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Red on red.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 2:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Apologies form Britain, the murderer was an islamic colonist from here.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/20/2014 4:44 Comments || Top||

#4  True, BP, but think of the massive street demonstrations that moderate Muslims in the UK will put together to protest this atrocity. I'm expecting at least a million.
Posted by: Matt || 08/20/2014 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Its hard to feel sorry for Journalists. I think I will go take a pee.

And Moslems all over the world are OUTRAGED that the sacredness of American life ( and the newspaper lifestyle ) have been so insulted. They might go right out and kill a jew just on general principles. You know how tender and sensitive the feeling of your average Moslem is.
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 || 08/20/2014 9:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Gitmo protestors with be in the street in 5,4,3,2....oh, wait. Never mind.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/20/2014 12:23 Comments || Top||

#7  The consequences of this new atrocity will be more outreach to Muslims, more political pandering, more appeasement etc.; and less freedom and more sharia for non-Muslims in the West.

Islam is peace!
</sarc>
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 08/20/2014 13:55 Comments || Top||

#8  The video, titled "A Message To America"

BO: "Message received. Now watch this putt."
Posted by: regular joe || 08/20/2014 14:59 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Mohammed Deif: dead or just resting?
An Israeli diplomatic source confirmed Wednesday morning to Walla! that Israel tried overnight to eliminate Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas's "military wing," the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.

Hamas has claimed that five bunker-buster bombs were fired by Israel targeting the elusive mastermind behind Hamas's terror war.

"The wife of the great leader (Deif) was martyred with his daughter," wrote Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk on his Facebook page Tuesday night, not indicating the fate of Deif himself.

While Deif's condition is currently unknown, local health officials quoted by Reuters said three people were killed in a strike on a house in Gaza City, including a child and a woman, possibly Deif's wife and daughter. The third death was not identified, leaving speculation open that the IAF may in fact have hit its mark.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/20/2014 02:48 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4560609,00.html
Posted by: Flick Snore3762 || 08/20/2014 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  three people were killed in a strike on a house in Gaza City, including a child and a woman, possibly Deif's wife and daughter

OK, so who were the child and the other one?
Posted by: Hupolush Grundy1293 || 08/20/2014 15:10 Comments || Top||


Fighting resumes in Gaza as Israel, Hamas trade rockets, air strikes
[THEGLOBEANDMAIL] Egyptian attempts to broker an end to a month-long war between Israel and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, collapsed in heavy fighting Tuesday, with Paleostinian turbans firing dozens of rockets and Israel responding with Arclight airstrikes across the Gazoo Strip. At least three Paleostinians were killed.

The burst of violence, which erupted in the hours before a temporary truce was set to expire, left the Egyptian mediation efforts in tatters and raised the likelihood of a new round of fighting in a war that has already claimed more than 2,000 lives, most of them Paleostinians.

The fighting broke out when Gazoo turbans fired several rockets into Israel Tuesday afternoon. Israel quickly withdrew its delegation from the Cairo ceasefire talks and resumed its campaign of Arclight airstrikes, and fighting continued into the night.

Three people — two women and a 2-year-old girl — were killed in an air strike on a house in Gazoo City, Paleostinian medical official Ashraf al-Kidra said. The target of the air strike wasn't immediately known.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
in Cairo, Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas big turban, said the dead included the wife and a child of Mohammed Deif, the Islamic murderous Moslem group's elusive military chief, who has escaped numerous Israeli liquidation attempts in the past. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas leaders in Gazoo.

Twenty-one people were maimed in a separate Arclight airstrike that hit a building that houses offices of Hamas's Al Aqsa TV station, al-Kidra said. The fatalities were the first since a temporary truce was reached last Wednesday.

Israeli officials said at least 50 rockets were fired late Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens throughout southern Israel and as far away as the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. There were no reports of injuries, though a piece of a rocket that was intercepted near Tel Aviv fell on a busy road.

Israel's civil defence authority, the Home Front Command, ordered authorities to reopen public bomb shelters within 80 kilometres of Gazoo.

In Cairo, Paleostinian negotiators declared the ceasefire talks over, and said they would leave Egypt on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Three people — two women and a 2-year-old girl — were killed in an air strike on a house in Gazoo City,

so was Mo Deif in drag? Figures
Posted by: Frank G || 08/20/2014 9:40 Comments || Top||


Gaza Operation: Day 44
[IsraelTimes] The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Wednesday, August 20, the 44th day of Operation Protective Edge. Hamas breached a truce on Tuesday afternoon with a rocket salvo at Beersheba, prompting Israel to quit the Cairo negotiations on a long-term ceasefire. Rocket fire and IDF counter-strikes intensified later Tuesday and overnight.

Rockets target Jerusalem, Tel Aviv; IDF told to prepare for ground incursion. U.S. blames Hamas for breaking ceasefire.
An Nahar has the American statement, for those interested.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336103 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  From tw's link: The United States blamed rocket fire from Gaza for a breakdown in indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian authorities on a durable ceasefire

That may be the proximate cause for the 'breakdown in talks'. But the fundamental reason is Hamass is determined to kill Jews. Until they are disabused of notion, all the jaw-jaw in the world won't make a bit of difference.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/20/2014 1:51 Comments || Top||

#2  That may be the proximate cause for the 'breakdown in talks'.

The administration is chock full of surface thinkers. Proximate is as close as they can get to fundamental. At least they got proximate right this time, so I'm willing to be impressed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 7:03 Comments || Top||

#3  It's getting close to midterm elections, my dear tw.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/20/2014 8:47 Comments || Top||

#4  'Struth, Pappy. And the latest polls have Jewish approval of the president at 55%, as I recall, continuing that downward trend from 78% in 2008. What it will be by November they ought to tremble to contemplate, not to mention how the next two years will impact the image of the Democratic party in a few key constituencies, after nice words have been said but missiles, etc were still withheld for additional review.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 10:47 Comments || Top||

#5  The President isn't running for office in Novemeber, so his personal approval ratings don't matter. If he can absorb all the disapproval among Dem voters and leave the Senators and Representatives untarred then the elections may go just fine for the Democrats. Never underestimate the ability of the Stupid Party to blow it.
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/20/2014 10:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Not necessarily; the democrats are attempting to sneak into the governorship of Kansas - counter ads tie the candidate right to Obama.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/20/2014 12:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Reviewing after the rollover in Israel, I thought this item at time marker 1:14 interesting:

Fighting between Palestinians youths and PA police near Hebron

There are violent clashes between Palestinian youths and PA security forces in Yatta, south of Hebron, Channel 2′s Ohad Hamo reports.

Earlier in the week, thousands of Hamas supporters on their way to the Jewish neighborhood of Hebron were met by hundreds of PA policemen, who were beaten and chased away by the pro-Hamas crowd.


It looks like Hamas hasn't given up on trying to take over the West Bank, needing some sort of win to justify continued patronage by Qatar, Iran and Turkey.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 18:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Also, the union men crossed the BDS picket line, time marker 23:51:

Israeli ship unloads cargo in California despite protests

Officials say an Israeli-owned commercial ship has unloaded its cargo at a port in California after being delayed for days by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union spokeswoman Jennifer Sargent said about 30 workers unloaded cargo from the Piraeus at the Port of Oakland starting Tuesday night despite the presence of a small number of protesters.

According to Sargent, workers had refused to unload the ship after it arrived on Saturday because of safety concerns raised by the presence of protesters and police.

The protesters were demonstrating in response to recent Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 19:04 Comments || Top||

#9  "The protesters were demonstrating in response to recent Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip."

Then perhaps they should haul their collective asses to Israel and protest there.

I'll chip in a few buck for one-way tickets for them.
Posted by: Barbara || 08/20/2014 19:30 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Jordan Air Force Captain Turned Jihadist Killed in Syria
[AnNahar] A Jordanian air force captain who joined jihadists in Syria to fight against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
's forces was killed in battle on Tuesday, a Salafist source said.

Ahmad Atallah Shbeib al-Majali reportedly deserted to fight alongside Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian franchise of Al-Qaeda, before joining the krazed killer Islamic State group.

"He was martyred Tuesday" in Hasakeh, northeastern Syria, said the source, who declined to be identified.

"His family announced his death and will be receiving congratulations at their home in Karak," southern Jordan, the source added.

He also said that another Jordanian jihadist was also killed in Syria the same day.

In July 2013, Majali's family told Agence La Belle France Presse that the air force captain took leave from his unit and traveled to Syria via Turkey to join rebels fighting to oust the regime.

Jordanian Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
have said there were more than 500 jihadists from the country in Syria.

On Tuesday, a monitoring group said the Islamist State has more than 50,000 fighters in Syria and had recruited 6,000 last month alone.

"The number of IS fighters has passed 50,000 in Syria, including 20,000 non-Syrians," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Hizbullah Eliminates ISIL Emir behind Explosive-Rigged Vehicles in Lebanon
[AnNahar] An emir of 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...
in the Syrian Qalamun was killed in an attack initiated by Hizbullah
...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
and the Syrian regime forces.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Tuesday, Abou Abdullah al-Iraqi is reportedly responsible for training jacket wallahs and preparing booby-trapped vehicles used in attacking several Lebanese areas.

Hizbullah has been engaged since weeks in heavy fighting with gunnies positioned between Arsal and the Syrian region of Qalamun.

Tensions skyrocketed in the area earlier this year with a major influx of refugees and fighters after Syrian forces backed by Hizbullah recaptured most of Qalamun.

Despite the Syrian regime's advances, pockets of opposition forces, including jihadists from al-Nusra and the ISIL, remain in the area.

Al-Akhbar reported that al-Iraqi had fled the Syrian Yabrud last March after Hizbullah and the Syrian regime forces seized control of the area.

However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
the daily said that Hizbullah continued to pursuit al-Iraqi.

The report pointed out that al-Iraqi "personally supervised the process of buying vehicles from Leb and rigging them with explosives in al-Qalmoun, only to send them again to Leb to use them in attacks."

The newspaper added that Hizbullah also attacked a villa in Qalamun that was being used as a venue to prepare the booby-trapped vehicles.

Later, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the news.

He "was one of the officials in the Islamic State in charge of preparing suicide kabooms", the group said.

"He was killed by a roadside kaboom planted by Hizbullah that detonated as his vehicle passed by," the NGO added, saying three other jihadists were also killed in the blast.

In March, the Syrian army and Hizbullah seized full control of the rebel bastion Yabrud, dealing the opposition a heavy symbolic and strategic blow in the Qalamun region adjoining the Lebanese border.

Hizbullah's involvement in Syria has prompted retaliatory bomb and rocket attacks by krazed killer groups against areas in Leb sympathetic to the movement. The attacks have mostly killed civilians.

Hizbullah and Lebanese security forces have said many of the boom-mobiles used in those attacks originated in Yabrud.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/20/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
9Islamic State
8Govt of Pakistan
5Hamas
2Arab Spring
2al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Commies
1Govt of Iran
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Govt of Syria
1al-Shabaab
1Hezbollah
1Houthis
1al-Qaeda
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Pirates
1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan

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Wed 2014-08-20
  Geelani, Yasin Malik meet Pak envoy after India calls off talks
Tue 2014-08-19
  Kurdish PKK trains Yazidis to fight back against Islamic State.
Mon 2014-08-18
  Apple employee took assassin's bullets for British colonel
Sun 2014-08-17
  Jihadists kill dozens in north Iraq 'massacre': officials
Sat 2014-08-16
  Iraq Sunni Tribes Take Up Arms against Jihadists
Fri 2014-08-15
  ISIS jihadist poses with severed head as Caliphate seize more key towns
Thu 2014-08-14
  Boko Haram Appoints New Emir for Gwoza
Wed 2014-08-13
  Prince Saud: Israel has no right to self-defense
Tue 2014-08-12
  "Convert by noon today or we will kill all of you"
Mon 2014-08-11
  Iraq PM to sue president, security forces deploy across Baghdad
Sun 2014-08-10
  Al-Qaida Militants Kill 15 Yemeni Soldiers
Sat 2014-08-09
  Gazans back in UN schools as Israel resumes blitz
Fri 2014-08-08
  Widening of Zarb-i-Azb operation likely
Thu 2014-08-07
  Iraq forces, Peshmerga kill 240 ISIL terrorists
Wed 2014-08-06
  Iraq air force to back Kurds fighting Islamists

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