[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force has received five new MD-530F Cayuse Warrior helicopters as efforts are underway to boost the fighting capabilities of the Afghan armed forces.
MD Helicopters, Inc. (MDHI) announced today the delivery of the first five (5) MD 530F Cayuse Warrior helicopters to the Afghan Air Force in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Delivered in less than 10 months from the September 2017 contract award, the first five aircraft reached Kandahar on August 8, 2018, and were readied for active service in less than 10 days, a statement by MD Helicopters stated.
The statement further added that the aircraft are the first of a new generation of MD 530F Cayuse Warriors with improved systems and equipment.
This comes as efforts are underway by the Afghan government and the international allies of Afghanistan to boost the capabilities of the Afghan national defense and security forces, specifically the Afghan Air Force.
The coalition forces officials in Afghanistan had earlier said that the size of the Afghan Air Force will be tripled over the next five years with the addition of new equipment and aircraft.
On the other Pentagon announced last week that a new contract worth $1.8 billion has been awarded to Sierra Nevada Corporation in support of the Afghan Air Force.
"Sierra Nevada Corp., Centennial, Colorado, has been awarded a ceiling $1,808,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contract for potential procurement, sustainment, modifications, ferry, and related equipment for the A-29," Pentagon said in a statement.
The statement further added "Work will be performed at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia; and Kabul, Kandahar, and Mazari Sharif Air Bases, Afghanistan. Work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2024. This contract involves foreign military sales to Afghanistan."
[AnNahar] A man being held after a knife attack that injured seven people along a canal in Gay Paree was not under the influence of drugs at the time, a legal source told AFP on Tuesday.
The suspect, believed to be an Afghan citizen in his 30s, was described by witnesses as acting drugged when he began striking people with a knife and iron bar on the Canal de l'Ourcq late Sunday.
Two British tourists and an Egyptian visitor were among those injured, and three people were still in hospital as of Monday evening, including one at death's door, a source close to the inquiry said.
The attacker was finally overpowered by bystanders, some of whom tried to stop him by throwing petanque balls.
"He seemed to be on something. He definitely didn't seem normal. He had a blank look... He didn't say anything. Even when we hit him, he didn't shout," one witness, Hamani Bouadjema, told AFP.
But blood tests of the suspect, who was still in hospital as of Tuesday, did not reveal any traces of drug use, the legal source said.
Although tourists were among the targets, "nothing at this stage suggests a terrorist attack," another source said.
[IsraelTimes] A Swedish court of appeals overturns a deportation order against a Paleostinian man who Molotov cocktailed a synagogue, saying he’d be in danger from Israel because of his crime if sent to the Paleostinian Authority.
The Wednesday ruling by the Court of Appeals for Western Sweden is on a motion filed by one of three men who in June were convicted of the attempted arson of a synagogue in Gothenburg in December, hours after locals marched in the southern city against the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The appellant, who was not named in the Swedish media, was sentenced in June to two years in prison and ordered to be deported after serving that term. But whereas the appeals court kept in place the conviction, it overturned the deportation order citing Israel, the SVT broadcaster reports.
Since the man committed a crime that "could be perceived as a threat to other Jews," and Israel "might be interested in the matter," the appeals court ruled that one "cannot safeguard the man’s fundamental human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... if he is deported to Paleostine," the broadcaster quotes the judge as writing in his opinion.
The three Arabs who were convicted of trying to torch the synagogue were part of a group of more than a dozen men who hurled Molotov cocktails at the building. Teens from the local Jewish community were attending a party inside the synagogue complex at the time.
[KhaamaPress] The authorities in Pakistain have announced a new ban on Afghan nationals to visit Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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. city as the country is busy taking security precautions for the Day of Ashura.
The latest move is apparently aimed at maintiang law and order in Peshawar city, the thriving provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
According to the local media reports, Peshawar’s district administration has barred Afghan nationals from entering the thriving provincial capital while people have been prohibited from standing on rooftops along the procession routes and 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... s for 10 days.
The ban was imposed by Peshawar’s Deputy Commissioner Dr Imran Hamid Sheikh through a notification issued on Tuesday, according to The News.
This comes as numerous incidents involving attacks on Shi’ite targets during the Ashura Day by the myrmidon groups have been reported in the past years.
The authorities in Pakistain beef up security during the first ten days of Muharram in a bid to prevent violence and possible attacks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/13/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"Beautiful Downtown Peshawar"
Not the words I would have used to describe the town. Even their bottled Coke tasted of dust.
[AlAhram] The United States threatened Monday to arrest and sanction judges and other officials of the International Criminal Court if it moves to charge any American who served in Afghanistan with war crimes.
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton called the Hague-based rights body "unaccountable" and "outright dangerous" to the United States, Israel and other allies, and said any probe of US service members would be "an utterly unfounded, unjustifiable investigation."
"If the court comes after us, Israel or other US allies, we will not sit quietly," Bolton said.
He said the US was prepared to slap financial sanctions and criminal charges on officials of the court if they proceed against any Americans.
"We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States. We will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system," Bolton said.
"We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans."
Bolton made the comments in a speech in Washington to the Federalist Society, a powerful association of legal conservatives.
Bolton pointed to an ICC prosecutor's request in November 2017 to open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by the US military and intelligence officials in Afghanistan, especially over the abuse of detainees.
Neither Afghanistan nor any other government party to the ICC's Rome Statute has requested an investigation, Bolton said.
He said the ICC could formally open the investigation "any day now."
He also cited a recent move by Paleostinian leaders to have Israeli officials prosecuted at the ICC for human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... violations.
"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton said.
"We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We certainly will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own."
The ICC defended itself, noting it has the support of 123 member states and that even the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council has found it valuable, asking it in 2005 to investigate genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
"The ICC, as a judicial institution, acts strictly within the legal framework of the Rome Statute and is committed to the independent and impartial exercise of its mandate," it said in a statement.
Bolton said the main objection of President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's administration is to the idea that the ICC could have higher authority than the US Constitution and US illusory sovereignty.
"In secular terms, we don't recognize any higher authority than the US Constitution," he said.
"This president will not allow American citizens to be prosecuted by foreign babus bureaucrats, and he will not allow other nations to dictate our means of self-defense."
He also condemned the court's record since it formally started up in 2002, and argued that most major nations had not joined.
He said it had attained just eight convictions despite spending more than $1.5 billion, and said that had not stemmed atrocities around the world.
"In fact, despite ongoing ICC investigations, atrocities continue to occur in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , Sudan, Libya, Syria, and many other nations." he added.
Bolton was strongly criticized by rights groups. Liz Evenson, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said Bolton's threats "show callous disregard for victims of atrocity crimes."
"The slaughter of civilians in Syria, Myanmar and elsewhere shows the ICC is needed more than ever to act where it can," Evenson added.
She said a move to block the complaints against US soldiers in Afghanistan and against Israel would show the US "more concerned with coddling serial rights abusers... than supporting impartial justice."
[AnNahar] The International Criminal Court on Tuesday said it would continue its work "undeterred" after Washington threatened to prosecute its officials if they charge Americans with war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
"The ICC, as a court of law, will continue to do its work undeterred, in accordance with those principles and the overarching idea of the rule of law," the court said in a statement.
#1
The ICC defended itself, noting it has the support of 123 member states and that even the United Nations Security Council has found it valuable, asking it in 2005 to investigate genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
In the field of Pharmacology there is the adage that: "All medicines are Poisons." The ICC is either irrelevant normally or toxic in its side effects...
I also remember reading about some of the Polynesian miniature (quote) countries (un-quote) included in that grandiose 123 member states that were bribed into joining the ICC by generous offers of aid from the European Union. It all makes sense if the ICC is considered a method of waging lawfare on the US by the EU...
[AlMasdar] Nearly 250,000 refugees have returned to Syria from abroad since the campaign for the return of refugees began, Head of the Russian National Defense Management Center Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev said at a briefing on Wednesday.
"Thanks to the measures taken, a total of 1,472,637 Syrians have been able to return home," he said, adding that "1,230,342 internally displaced persons have returned and another 242,295 Syrian refugees have come back from abroad," the Russian general added.
He pointed out that more countries were joining the efforts aimed at facilitating the return of Syrian refugees. In particular, Morocco’s authorities have expressed readiness to pay the travel expenses of those willing to return to their home country and provide the refugees with the financial assistance of $150 per person.
Mizintsev also said that Armenia had been providing assistance to Syria on a regular basis, planning to carry out another humanitarian mission in the province of Aleppo in the near future.
The general pointed to the ongoing work to reconstruct Syria’s infrastructure facilities. "Over the past week, 143 residential dwellings, two schools, two medical facilities, two kindergartens, two bakeries, seven water supply stations, three power substations, three motor bridges and 14 industrial facilities were rebuilt," Mizintsev said. The reconstruction of schools, pre-school facilities and other infrastructure facilities continues in 160 Syrian settlements.
Attempts are being made to discourage refugees residing in Syria’s neighboring states from returning to their home country, he added.
According to him, special questionnaires allegedly sponsored by a United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... high commissioner are being used for that purpose.
"These questionnaires are aimed at raising doubts in the minds of Syrians who have decided to return home and make them eventually change their decision," the Russian general said.
"We do not rule out that these questionnaires are used by forces not linked to official United Nations agencies," he added.
Alexander Morozov, an academician with the International Academy of Psychological Sciences, in turn, said the list of questions proved that those compiling the questionnaires did not try to remain impartial and use neutral words but sought to exert psychological pressure on refugees.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/13/2018 08:41 ||
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Returned, or forced out of their refugee states?
[AlMasdar] The newly appointed U.S. special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, announced on Friday that his nation will not be pulling their forces from Syria this year.
"The new policy is we’re no longer pulling out by the end of the year," Jeffery announced.
Jeffery said that the U.S. is no longer in a hurry to withdraw their forces from Syria, despite the fact President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... told a crowd of supporters five months that he wanted to pull all forces from the country.
This announcement by Jeffery reveals what most observers have speculated for several months in regards to the U.S.’ current policy in Syria.
With the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) nearly defeated, the U.S. is now shifting their attention to the Iranian presence inside the country.
[AlMasdar] Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... rebel group denied it is preparing for a new battle in northern Syria as the Syrian Army mulls full-scale offensive.
“The reports released by SOHR about going for a new battle in Aleppo are groundless”, Jaish al-Islam spokesman, Hamza Bayraqdar, said.
Bayraqdar added that the monitor group didn’t cited an official source from Jaish al-Islam, rather its reports were merely speculations.
“We just released footage for the group’s general commander, Issam Bwaidani, while touring our fighters’ positions in northern countryside of Aleppo”, he commented.
Last week, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed it had obtained ‘credible information’ about recently-made deployments for Jaish al-Islam fighters.
Thousands of the Saudi-backed militants were evacuated with their families to Syria’s north coming from East Ghouta region as per a deal with the Syrian government.
[Ynet] Iran has between 3,000 and 4,000 active centrifuges, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Wednesday, according to the Tasnim news agency‐still within the limit allowed under its troubled nuclear deal with world powers.
The rare announcement of specific data on the nuclear programme came days after Iran's nuclear chief said it had completed a facility to build advanced centrifuges‐Tehran has said it will increase its capacity to enrich uranium if the nuclear pact collapses following Washington's withdrawal in May.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/13/2018 00:00 ||
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Can’t know the players without a program, so here it is. Published just before the fight began.
[AnNahar] Hailing from far and wide, they flocked to Syria to wage "holy war". Now foreign jihadists face a fight to the last to hold onto Idlib, their final bastion.
Syrian troops, backed by Russia and Iran, have massed around the northwestern province ahead of an expected onslaught against the largest rebel-held zone left in the country.
Since 2015, Idlib has been home to a complex array of anti-regime forces: secular rebels, Islamists, Syrian jihadists with ties to al-Qaeda -- and their foreign counterparts.
Continued on Page 49
IN WHICH President Trump continues to help the Democratic party specifically, and Progressives in general, to define themselves as being vehemently against all that is right and good. And at each step more voters are peeled away from the Democrats, even if they don’t actually go all the way over to the Republicans.
[Jpost] The matter in question is whether opposing Jewish self-determination in the ancestral Jewish homeland of Israel, a political movement known as Zionism, should be considered antisemitic.
A debate over the definition of antisemitism that has paralyzed Britannia’s Labour Party made its way across the Atlantic this week, amid news that the Trump administration would apply a similar standard on discrimination toward Jews under scrutiny there at the US Department of Education.
The matter in question is whether opposing Jewish self-determination in the ancestral Jewish homeland of Israel, a political movement known as Zionism, should be considered antisemitic. Several Western government agencies, including the foreign and justice ministries of the US, Britannia and Germany, have policies that deem anti-Zionism a discriminatory practice that uniquely denies Jews the right to govern themselves.
Continued on Page 49
#4
Notice the dichotomy in the Left's GoodThink: "American Civil War totally caused by Slavery/Racism!" and "Anti-Zionism has nothing to do with Israelis/Antisemitism." The mental gymnastics isis dizzying.
#6
Zionism is not technically anti-semitism but those that appose Israel and those that are anti-semitic have a near 100% overlap so I'm not sure the difference is meaningful.
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.
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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.
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka 
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
[AnNahar] Hailing from far and wide, they flocked to Syria to wage "holy war". Now foreign jihadists face a fight to the last to hold onto Idlib, their final bastion.
