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Iraqi Forces Launch Operation against Militants near Fallujah
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Afghan presidential rivals sign unity deal
Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates signed a deal to share power in a unity government, capping months of turmoil over a disputed election that destabilised the nation at a crucial time as foreign troops prepare to leave.
Over-under for how long this deal lasts?
Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister who will be named president under the deal reached on Saturday night, embraced rival Abdullah Abdullah after they signed the agreement on Sunday.

The ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul, still occupied by outgoing leader Hamid Karzai, was broadcast live on television.

Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said Ghani is expected to be sworn in as president within a week. He said one of Ghani's first acts would be to sign a long-delayed bilateral security agreement with the United States to allow a small force of foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014. The deal was signed on the same day that the final results from a recount are to be announced.

Preliminary results released in July showed Ghani ahead of ex-foreign minister Abdullah with 56 percent of the vote. The early results prompted street protests from supporters of Abdullah, who charged massive fraud and said he was the rightful winner.

Final results have been delayed for weeks by a UN-monitored audit of all eight million ballots cast in the June 14 runoff vote between Ghani and Abdullah, the top finishers of the first round in April.

Reporting from Kabul, Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse said the new government will face a number of challenges.

"Afghanistan remains heavily dependent on international aid, corruption is widespread and the extended election process has left Afghans suspicious of politicians," she said. "They want a government which will unite them, and help get the economy back on its feet."
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Somalia: New Intelligence Boss named
Mogadishu -- Federal Government of Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has named head of Mogadishu-based military court Abdirahman Mohamed Tuuryare as the new National Intelligence Chief on Sunday, Garowe Online reports.

The nomination comes shortly after Somalia President agreed to the sacking of former Boss Abdullahi Mohamed Ali Sanbaloshe who was fired in extraordinary cabinet meet.

Tuuryare sentenced dozens of suspected Al Shabaab members to death during his tenure of office.
I like him already...
Human Rights watchdog criticized
...which is pretty much all they ever do...
Mogadishu-based military court for carrying out sentences that run counter to international standards.
It's a civil war. None of those are ever pretty, and none are fought by rules that HRW would ever endorse...
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Egypt To Host Post-Gaza War Talks This Week
[IsraelTimes] Egypt will host a brief round of indirect talks this week between Israelis and Paleostinians on a sustained Gazoo ceasefire deal, as well as negotiations between Paleostinian rivals Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah on who should run the territory, a Paleostinian official said Sunday.
What odds that nothing will come of it, dear Reader, and things will continue to bumble on as they've done since the Gazans stopped firing off rockets in a vain attempt to hit Israel?
Both sessions will be held Tuesday in Cairo, said Azzam al-Ahmad, an aide to Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
. Israeli government front man Mark Regev declined to comment.

Israel and Gazoo's ruling Hamas fought a 50-day war that ended in late August. Under the deal that ended the fighting, Israel and Hamas were to return to Cairo within a month to hold indirect negotiations on a broader deal for Gazoo.

The Islamist group Hamas demands that Israel and Egypt lift their blockade of Gazoo, which was imposed after Hamas seized the territory from longtime rival Abbas in 2007. Israel has said it can only end the closure if Hamas disarms, a demand the group has rejected.

Neither side appears eager to resume fighting, but they could be dragged into another war if no solution is found. Hamas has used sporadic rocket fire at Israel as a means of political pressure, but Israeli leaders have said they would not tolerate any attacks from Gazoo.

Al-Ahmad said the indirect talks between the Israeli and Paleostinian delegations would be brief and would continue after the Jewish High Holidays, a 10-day period that begins Wednesday evening.

Israel and Egypt consider the Western-backed Abbas as a guarantor of any Gazoo border deal, but there have been signs of growing disagreement between Abbas and Hamas over who would run Gazoo.

In the spring, Abbas, the leader of Fatah, reached a tentative agreement with Hamas under which he would head a temporary unity government of experts in both the West Bank and Gazoo. However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth...
major issues were left unresolved, including the fate of 40,000 government employees, hired during the Hamas era, and control over the Gazoo security forces.

The gaps have only widened since the end of the war. Hamas had struck the unity deal at a time of a severe financial crisis, but it has become emboldened since the end of the war, because fighting with Israel boosted its popularity among Paleostinians. At the same time, Hamas needs Abbas as a link to the West.

Al-Ahmad, the Abbas aide, said Hamas must step aside and let the West Bank-based Abbas govern.

"We will say this government needs to govern Gazoo the way it governs the West Bank," al-Ahmad told the Voice of Paleostine radio station. "We can't have two political regimes, one in Gazoo and one in the West Bank."
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Qaeda Tunisia Offshoot Offers Backing to IS
[AnNahar] An Al-Qaeda-linked Tunisian group has offered backing to the Islamic State organization that has overrun chunks of Iraq and Syria, becoming the third jihadist group to do so this week, a U.S.-based monitor says.

Okba Ibn Nafaa, whose turbans Tunisian armed forces have been hunting in mountains near the Algerian border for two years, has identified itself with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the international jihadist network's North African branch.

On Tuesday, AQIM and the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) urged jihadists in Iraq and Syria to unite against the common threat from a U.S.-led coalition assembled to fight IS.

"The mujahedeen brothers in the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade from... (Tunisia) are supporting, endorsing, and strongly sustaining the State of the Islamic Caliphate," the group said, quoted by SITE Intelligence Group late Friday.

"They are urging it to move forward in breaking the borders and crushing the thrones of the tyrants everywhere," SITE quoted a statement on Facebook as saying.

The Tunisian army accused the jihadists in July of killing 15 soldiers in the restive border region in the bloodiest day in the army's history.

Several weeks before that, the group claimed an attack on the home of the interior minister.

Since the 2011 revolution that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has faced a resurgence in activity by jihadists, who were among Islamist groups suppressed by the previous regime.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Arabia
Saudi Shia Cleric calls Minister of Education to Dismantle Radical Thoughts
[ABNA.IR] Sheikh Rida al-Salman, a senior Shia holy man from Al-Ahsa, directed on September, 12, a speech to the Minster of Education Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, demanding him to dismantle some of the radical thoughts which dominate the society for decades.

The statement which was a part of Friday seminar comes after the vicious campaign against Shiite that was launched in Twitter from some ultra conservative figures on September 5, on the background of printing a photo of Sheikh Abdullah al-Sinawi, a Shiite holy man, unintentionally on the cover of one of the religious books which is taught in Saudi international schools.

Al-Salman said that "Shiites rejoiced after Prince Khaled Al-Faisal issued a statement condemning intervention in sectarian issues inside schools but unfortunately nothing applied on the ground".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Dismantle thoughts"???
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/22/2014 2:48 Comments || Top||

#2  #1 "Dismantle thoughts"???

Mahmud the First aimed to dismantle
A thought he proclaimed insubstantial,
But he, having trampled
Out every example,
Still heard that damned chorus of Handel!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 09/22/2014 3:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Dismantle his head and his thoughts will follow...
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 12:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like a case for the Thought Police.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/22/2014 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Works for me, Dr. White! :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 09/22/2014 14:08 Comments || Top||


Yemen State Media: Prime Minister Resigns
[NY Times] Yemen's prime minister resigned Sunday, the state news agency reported, following days of violence that left more than 140 dead and prompted thousands to flee their homes.

The official SABA news agency gave no details on the move by Mohammed Salem Bassindwa, and it was not immediately clear if his resignation had been accepted by the president.

Bassindwa took office shortly after former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
was forced to step down in 2012. He has been in office since February 2012 and has since been the target of sharp criticism for his inability to deal with the country's pressing problems.

The resignation came as Iranian catspaws, known as Hawthis, took control of a key military base and Iman University on Sunday afternoon in the capital Sanaa, according to military officials. The university was seen as a bastion of Sunni hard-liners that is seen as a recruitment hub for myrmidons.
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Bangladesh
Muhith: Jamaat could go underground if banned
[Dhaka Tribune] Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said banning Jamaat through a legal initiative could have troubling consequences as the party might continue to operate from going underground and start killing ordinary people.

Speaking to news hounds yesterday after a meeting with Asian Development Bank Executive Director Maliami Bin Hamad at the secretariat, Muhith also termed Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
a "bloody party."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korea Struggles with Nascent Market Economy
A struggle is underway in North Korea between supporters of the free market and those who back a more planned development scheme, according to an expert in Dandong, China.

The same thing happened in China in the mid-1980s as it attempted to embrace capitalism.

The expert said there are 25 open-air markets in Pyongyang alone with 4,000 stalls. Two traders share each stall taking turns every other day, which means that 8,000 people are selling products in each market or 200,000 in Pyongyang. Assuming the average North Korean household consists of four people, that would mean some 800,000 people in Pyongyang rely for their income on the nascent market economy, or 40 percent of the capital's total population.

"North Korea is crossing the point of no return," the expert said.

But there are fears that the regime could some day pull the plug on these developments, just as it did following a botched currency reform in 2009, by cracking down on traders.

Hyun Dong-il at Yanbian University said, "Major changes are taking place in North Korea, but the ruling elite says it is still intent on adhering to the planned, socialist economic model."
The planned, corrupt, socialist-fascist-corporatist-thugocratic, "where's mine" economic model...
North Korean academics studying at Yanbian University apparently say that the changes are "temporary" measures aimed at dealing with the problems in the state rationing system and that any signs of a free-market economy will be snuffed out once the system is up and running again.

But other experts have a different take. Lee Jong-rim at Yanbian University said, "North Korean academics probably have to say that to sound loyal to the regime. When I meet them, I talk to them about the path China has taken."
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  They're gonna "snuff it out" when the rationing system is up and running again? When do they figure that'll be?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/22/2014 12:25 Comments || Top||

#2  A nascent market economy denominated in Choco-Pies.

"...the ruling elite says it is still intent on adhering to the planned, socialist economic model."

Hey, maybe it will work this time. I've been told socialism does indeed work, it's just that no one has done it right.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/22/2014 15:06 Comments || Top||


N.Korea: Nukes Needed to Protect Human Rights
North Korea in a quixotic report on Saturday claimed that its nuclear weapons development is "indispensible" for the protection and advancement of human rights. The report aims to counter the first UN discussion at ministerial level on the North's dismal human rights record.

In a section titled "Prospects for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights" in the 128-page report, the North said, "human rights is secured and guaranteed by the sovereignty of each country and nation, not by the interference and instruction of any country or international organizations."

It added that this sovereignty is protected by the gun and claimed that its nuclear weapons form the backbone of strengthened defense capabilities, which in turn guarantee its independence and rights.

The report claims the human rights of North Koreans are based on the disastrous "juche" or self-reliance doctrine of nation founder Kim Il-sung. "In case a state loses its sovereign right, then human rights of the people and its promotion will remain a paper argument," the report added.

The thrust of the report is clearly to divert as much attention as possible from the regime's egregious human rights violations and protest instead against what it sees as outside meddling in internal affairs.

But it also claims that political freedom is guaranteed, citing fantasy figures showing support for the regime. "Approval rate was 97 percent in election of provincial level, 95.4 percent in the level of city and 96.9 percent in the level of county," it said.

It also insists that freedom of religion is alive and well in the repressive country and claims the regime never forced North Koreans to believe or not to believe in religion, but that the people freely chose to support the "juche" ideology.

North Korea has been reliant on international food aid for decades and has at no point achieved even a semblance of self-reliance in terms of basic necessities.

The report also states that there is no uniform human rights standard the international community must uphold and that the issue should be interpreted by individual nations. "Human rights standard based on the American view of value should never be applied to [North Korea] and used for the political purposes and precondition with development of relations," it added.

The North also praised its state-distribution system which allegedly freed its people from worrying about food and housing. The system has in fact collapsed.

The report makes no mention of political concentration and labor camps where thousands are interned on the flimsiest grounds and which UN human rights officials have repeatedly cited as among the gravest human rights violations.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Because nothing promotes human rights and dignity quite like the ability to sent someone a nuke via ox cart.
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/22/2014 7:50 Comments || Top||

#2  "All is well!"
Posted by: Pappy || 09/22/2014 8:20 Comments || Top||

#3  "the prison labor camps are necessary for freedom"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/22/2014 15:25 Comments || Top||

#4  The report makes no mention of political concentration and labor camps

Pol Pot's CCC camps were seldom mentioned either.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/22/2014 15:29 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Syria Refugee Flood To Turkey Hits 100,000
[IsraelTimes] The number of refugees seeking shelter in Turkey from 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. ....
group's advance across northeastern Syria has hit 100,000, Turkey said Sunday as festivities broke out on the border between Turkish security guards and Kurds.

The head of Turkey's AFAD disaster management agency, Fuat Oktay, said the figure relates to Syrians escaping the area near the Syrian border town Kobani, where fighting has raged between IS and Kurdish fighters since Thursday.

The UN refugee agency earlier Sunday said some 70,000 Syrians have crossed into Turkey in the past 24 hours, and that it was preparing for the arrival of hundreds of thousands more.

The Syrian refugees -- most of them ethnic Kurds -- have been desperate to reach Turkey and escape the advance of religious forces of Evil barreling across Syria.

On Sunday, heavy festivities broke out between the Islamic State group and Kurdish fighters only a few miles from Kobani, which is also known as Ayn Arab.

The Islamic State group was bombarding villagers with tanks, artillery and multiple rocket launchers, said Nasser Haj Mansour, an official at the defense office in Syria's Kurdish.

"They are even targeting civilians who are fleeing," Haj Mansour told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named by telephone.

As refugees flooded in, Turkey closed the border crossing in Kucuk Kendirciler, a small village about 2 kilometers (roughly a mile) from Kobani, to Turkish Kurds, with local police saying they were seeking to prevent Kurdish fighters from entering Syria.

Clashes broke out as Kurds trying to approach the crossing from inside Turkey scuffled with security forces, which attacked crowds with tear gas, paint pellets, and water. The state-run Anadolu Agency reported Kurdish protesters had hurled stones at the security forces.

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions' Party said two people were seriously injured in the festivities, including one Kurdish politician who was hospitalized. The party said the Kurds were protesting the Islamic State group's attacks as well as the border closure.

The sound of gunfire could be heard from the Syrian side of the frontier where refugees were piling up after authorities shut the crossing. It was not immediately clear whether they were unable to cross or simply waiting to see what would happen.

Mohammed Osman Hamme, a middle-aged Syrian Kurdish refugee who managed to make his way across, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named he fled with his wife and small children from the village of Dariya in the Raqqa province 10 days ago after hearing that the Islamic State group was headed their way.

The family walked for three days, passing the town of Tell Abiad, near the Turkish border, where they saw four severed heads hanging in the streets, he said.

During the interview a tear gas gun went off, causing Hamme's terrified daughter to start screaming. Later Turkish police used armored cars to push people back from the village.

The situation inside Syria is dire.

The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State group has taken control of 64 villages in northeastern Syria since the fighting began there early Wednesday. It says that the fate of 800 Kurds from these villages is unknown, adding that the Islamic State group executed 11 civilians, including two boys.

The Aleppo Media Center, another activist group, said that Sunday's battles were concentrating on the southern and eastern suburbs of Kobani. Mansour said the battles are taking place about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the town.

UNHCR spokeswoman, Selin Unal, said most of those coming across the border are Kurdish women, children and elderly.

She urged the international community to step up its aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey, already numbering some 1.5 million.

"Turkey is assisting with all needs but it's huge numbers," she said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  D *** NG IT, THATS RIDICULOUS - THE MSM-NET THIS AM SAYS ITS NOW 130,000 - 200,000!

Slackards.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/22/2014 20:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Turnover makes it harder for DHS to stay on top of evolving threats
Long, long piece at WaPo. Just what you'd expect from the Department of Homeland Security -- is there a more dysfunctional department in all of government?
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But they are all dedicated facists gestapo public servants.
The job evidently doesn't have the perks they thought. Maybe they just realized the whole idea can't possibly work, and don't want to be the one left holding the bag when the next one goes off.
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/22/2014 8:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The job evidently doesn't have the perks they thought. Maybe they just realized the whole idea can't possibly work, and don't want to be the one left holding the bag when the next one goes off.

More like a very bad combination of organization (the head of DHS has no administrative powers to hire, fire, set budgets, etc.) poor initial personnel manning at the management level (think opportunists and f-kups who couldn't rise any higher in their original agencies,) ingrained attitudes (Secret Service personnel initially ran the TSA and treated it like they treat their high-turnover uniformed service - and worse,) a convoluted and counterproductive acquisition system, half-baked hiring procedures, and good old fashioned politics and bureaucracy.

Personally, I'd rather see DHS broken up into its core elements. Put airport security either back to private operation with Federal supervision, or better, move it under state control. Contract out IT, with streamlined acquisition procedures. You can't - and shouldn't - dismantle all of it. But it can be done better.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/22/2014 8:35 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll nominate the IRS. I walked in some overdue returns in the Boston office on Friday , and it took 1 hour, mostly waiting for one of the five meathead drone hacks that felt like showing up to stamp five pieces of paper. Same (state version) tax returns two blocks over at the Mass. DOR - three minutes.
Posted by: Raj || 09/22/2014 9:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Jeh "ya doesn't hasta calls me Johnson" Johnson is the epitome of a political hack.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 09/22/2014 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  For this they rewarded Janet Napolitano with a cushy job as president of the UC system. Ya did such a wonderful job, Ms. N!

I have to suspect dysfunction by design. If Baraq Obama doesn't want a secure border what better way of making it insecure than presiding over a mess like DHS?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/22/2014 12:35 Comments || Top||

#6  As a former TSA supervisor, I can tell you our Deputy Director was a former FAA Special Agent and she got to carry a gun. Knew jack sh!t about supervising/managing people but did have a huge problem with retired NCOs ( of all services) It so happened all the supervisors were retired NCOs. She actually wrote me up for doing my job.....
Karma being what it is, she got canned about 2 months after I quit.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 09/22/2014 14:58 Comments || Top||


Dem Rep: 40 American ISIL Fighters Have Already Returned to the United States
[FREEBEACON] Rep. Tim Bishop (D., N.Y.) warned during a recent speech that up to 40 radicalized U.S. citizens who have fought alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS) have already returned to the United States, where they could pose a terrorist threat.

Bishop claims that of the 100 or so Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to join ISIL's ranks, some 40 have returned and are currently being surveilled by the FBI, according to his remarks, which were filmed and uploaded to YouTube last week.

"One of the concerns is the number of U.S. citizens who have left our country to go join up with ISIS," Bishop said during the speech. "It is believed there have been some number up to 100 that have done that."

"It is also believed that some 40 of those who left this country to join up with ISIS have now returned to our country," Bishop said, eliciting shocked responses from some in the crowd.

These 40 individuals, Bishop said, "are under FBI attention and surveillance. So they are known and being tracked by the FBI."
Oh goody. What could go wrong?
Lawmakers have warned that radicalized ISIL fighters could clandestinely enter the United States through the porous southern border.

U.S. officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other security agencies have said that while the southern border poses a risk, they are more concerned about lone wolf attacks in which an isolated radicalized individual with sympathy to ISIL carries out a solo terror attack.
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  These 40 individuals, Bishop said, are under FBI attention and surveillance. So they are known and being tracked by the FBI.

The same strategy in the Fort Hood and Boston Bombing fiasco. The FBI is about as concerned about this as the Chicago Police Department is concerned about shootings in the hood. They've got their civil service protection and retirement lined up. So what.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/22/2014 9:50 Comments || Top||


Tennessee man accused of DWI and threatening to join ISIS and kill cop
Marco Dominguez, 24, was arrested early Thursday morning after pulling into a gas station with a smashed car and vomit on his pants. "I am going to join ISIS and when I do, you will be the first person I kill," Dominguez said during his arrest to threaten the Nashville officer.
Appears Marco has just renounced his citizenship, if he had any. Off you go, drop us a line from Mosul.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does he realize if he goes Moslem that his drinking days are over? Just wondering.
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/22/2014 8:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Apparently you've never heard of Saudi weekends in Bahrain...
Posted by: Pappy || 09/22/2014 9:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry, we have idiots here too.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/22/2014 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Apparently you've never heard of Saudi weekends in Bahrain... Posted by Pappy


Yep, they come across the causeway and into Manama. Lots of booze, music, and LBFMs.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/22/2014 10:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through lie son.
Posted by: regular joe || 09/22/2014 11:43 Comments || Top||

#6  He's not from around these parts.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/22/2014 13:16 Comments || Top||

#7  LBFM a phrase from the past......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 09/22/2014 15:01 Comments || Top||



India-Pakistan
Here to unite communities, Imran Khan tells Karachi gathering
[DAWN] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) Chairman Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
on Sunday addressed thousands of Bloody Karachi
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


India terms Bilawal's Kashmir statement 'far from reality'
[DAWN] India on Saturday described as "far from reality" the reported comment of Pakistain People's Party chairman Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari
...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandon of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As far as is known, Bilawal has no particular talents other than being pretty and being able to memorize political slogans, but he had the good luck to be born into the right family and he hasn't been assassinated yet...
that his party would get back entire Kashmire for his country.

New Delhi also asserted that integrity and unity of the country was "non-negotiable", the Press Trust of India said.

"We are in the process of looking forward and looking forward does not mean that our borders will be changed. We made it very clear that as far as we are concerned, the integrity and unity of India is non-negotiable," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.

He said the comment was "far from reality which takes us back into the past century".

Mr Zardari was quoted as telling his party colleagues on Friday that the PPP would get back the entire Kashmire from India.

"I will take back Kashmire, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because, like the other provinces, it belongs to Pakistain," he said.

When he made these remarks, PTI said he was flanked by former prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's former prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics could be awe-inspiring ...
and Raja Pervez Ashraf.
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


12 vaccinators suspended over rise in polio cases, poor immunisation
[DAWN] KARACHI: The provincial health department has suspended 12 polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
workers in the wake of findings of a federal government-funded survey that placed the immunisation coverage below 29 per cent in Sindh, it emerged on Saturday.

However,
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


ATC orders release of Parveen Rehman murder suspect
[DAWN] An anti-terrorism court on Saturday ordered the release of a suspect in the Parveen Rehman murder case for want of evidence.

Bilal, alias Tension, was tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
for his alleged involvement in the murder of the Orangi Pilot Project director and social activist, Ms Rehman.

According to the prosecution, Ms Rehman was bumped off by two men riding a cycle of violence on Manghopir Road on March 13, 2013.

The suspect, Bilal, had already been sent to jail in other cases when the police formally arrested him in the philanthropist murder case in July. The police interrogated the suspect for around two weeks after the court remanded him in their custody. Later, he had been remanded in judicial custody.

In a report filed in the court, police investigating officer Fariduddin stated that during the course of investigation no concrete evidence was found against the suspect to link him with the alleged crime. The officer sought his release under Section 497(2) of the criminal procedure code.
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Police foil Maoist attempt to hold meeting in Hyderabad
Police on Sunday foiled attempts by civil rights organisations to organise an event to mark the tenth anniversary of the formation of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) party and the launch of “Forum for alternative politics” in Hyderabad.

The police descended at Sundarayya Vignan Kendra, the venue of the meeting, and arrested several activists amid high drama and tension. Noted revolutionary poet and human rights activist P Vara Vara Rao was kept under house arrest at his Ashok Nagar residence here as a precautionary measure.

The police also took into custody over 60 other CPI (Maoist) activists and sympathisers from railways stations and bus stands and moved them to undisclosed locations. The police claimed that “Forum for alternative politics” was a frontal organization of the banned naxalite outfit.

Despite the house arrest of Vara Vara Rao, a Maoist sympathiser, the organisers made attempts to go ahead with the celebrations to mark completion of ten years of the formation of CPI (Maoist) by merger of the erstwhile People’s War Group (PWG) with Maoist Communist Center (MCC). However, the government thwarted the move by deploying a huge contingent of police at the venue. The organisers had planned to hold a seminar and take out a rally. This is the first instance of a confrontation between the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in the new state of Telangana with Maoist sympathizers. A section of political observers and the opponents of Telangana statehood movement have long argued that creation of separate Telangana would lead to strengthening of Naxalite activities.

Telangana, comprising ten districts including Hyderabad, was once a stronghold of Naxalites whose influence has declined over the years, thanks to a tough policy adopted by successive governments of the combined state of Andhra Pradesh. The opponents of the state’s division had warned that Maoists would gain ground if Telangana state was created. Reacting to the developments, Vara Vara Rao said: “I feel as if the dark days of emergency are back. Within days of coming to power, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his TRS are displaying such blatant intolerance and misuse of power. It is an attempt to muzzle anyone whose ideas or views they do not like.”

However, official sources pointed out that permission was denied because the police had credible information that the participants in the proposed rally, particularly from neighbouring Chhattisgarh, could cause law and order problems. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Zone) V K Kamalasan Reddy told reporters that the Forum for alternative politics, headed by Vara Vara Rao, was nothing but a frontal organisation of the CPI (Maoist).

The Police clarified that the permission was denied because the high court had earlier rejected Vara Vara Rao’s plea for permission. “After the high court denied permission, how can we allow the rally and the meeting,” Kamalasan asked
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Iraq
Shia Iraqis protest against US interference
[ABNA.IR] The demonstrators were holding pictures of Shia holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
during the protest on Friday.

Senior religious and political figures in Iraq, including, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have in recent days called on the Baghdad government not to rely on foreign powers in the battle against the ISIL Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
terrorists.

Ayatollah Sistani has repeatedly called on all Iraqi people and political factions to unite and support the government and army in the fight against ISIL.

The United States says it is planning to intensify Arclight airstrikes against ISIL positions in Iraq.

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that ground forces may be needed if current efforts to combat the ISIL fail.

Political experts believe that the real objective of the so-called international coalition recently formed by Washington to fight ISIL is to expand the US military presence in the region.
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  Until he goes on the Haj and wears a white turban he's just another ignorant goat herder spewing nonsense.

As you can tell the Iranian influence is very strong in Iraq...thank you nowhere man...and they want to be the heroic savior of Iraq and don't want to share the applause with the US.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 09/22/2014 11:39 Comments || Top||


One-Eyed Baby is Used as an ISIS Recruiting Tool
[ABNA.IR] Isis Death Eaters are spreading photos of a one-eyed baby they claim is the Masih ad-Dajjal -- the Islamic equivalent of the anti-Christ. The Death Eaters are using the images as a recruiting tool, claiming that the child's birth heralds the Apocalypse, and the end of the world.

The pictures have gained hundreds of thousands of views. The posts show pictures of real children born with one eye, who were born in Bolivia in 2008 and India in 2006. The child in India later died.
Poor thing doesn't appear to have a nose, either.
Those disseminating the images claim that the baby is the ad-Dajjal who was born in Israel.

The children were born with cyclopia, a rare defect linked to the use of experimental anti-cancer drug Cyclopamine.

Apocalyptic propaganda

Experts said that apocalyptic imagery had been previously used by Isis in its propaganda campaigns, and there had been a sudden surge in its use.

"The ideological core of 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 really believe this stuff," Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC told news website Vocativ. "It's definitely a part of outreach to new recruits."

Though there is no mention of the Apocalypse in the Koran, the Hadith, a book of saying attributed to Mohammed (PTUI!), claims that the end of the world will be heralded by the birth of the ad-Dajjal.

According to the text, the ad-Dajjal will appear near Iran and Syria at a time when homosexuality and drug use have become prevalent. It predicts that he will lead an army of 70,000 Jews to war against an army of the righteous led by Christ and a warrior named the Mahdi.

The righteous are predicted to be victorious in the battle, and rule the world until Judgement Day, when they will ascend to heaven, and all others will be damned.

Islamic scholars point out that in the text ad-Dajjal is described as having one eye, but not being a cyclops.

Isis' religious justifications

Isis' mission to establish an Islamist caliphate across the Middle east is steeped in eschatological thinking.

"Issa (Jesus) will come down here, and al-Dajjal will come out here, it is the land of epics and the land of resurrection," said the leader of the Chechen Isis contingent In December last year, reports the Jamestown Foundation.

In a presser recently chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey warned that Isis was an "apocalyptic" organization.

"They can be contained, but not in perpetuity. This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision which will eventually have to be defeated," he told news hounds.

Though Isis has not yet proclaimed its leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
as the saviour, experts believe it is only a matter of time.

"Once the caliphate is firmly established, then the likelihood of a Mahdiyah being proclaimed increases," notes jihadism expert Timothy Furnish on his blog.

Other Moslems though have warned that al-Baghdadi is ad-Dajjal.

"One should also beware of the likelihood of a false messiah claimant appearing among them, who would in fact be the ad-Dajjal," writes the author of the Wahhabism Unveiled blog.
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  How do you explain the 3-breasted woman? Huh?
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/22/2014 13:13 Comments || Top||

#2  #1 How do you explain the 3-breasted woman? Huh?

In France, where les femmes tripartites
Are deemed 1.5 times as sweet,
They use this assistance
To raise great big infants,
Predestined to form their elite.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 09/22/2014 13:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Okay. Australia.

Of underclothes unique to Oz,
Least odd are their three-cornered bras.
Since all willing sheilas
Need 1.5 feelers,
All hands must lend paws to the cause!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 09/22/2014 13:58 Comments || Top||

#4  You've been cooking with gas lately, Zenobia F!
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/22/2014 16:05 Comments || Top||


Gen (R) Jim Conway: Champ's ISIS Strategy, not "A Snowball's Chance In Hell Of Succeeding"
[Business Insider] The man who was the top Marine general from 2006 until his retirement in 2010 says President Barack Obama's strategy to defeat the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is doomed to fail.

"I don't think the president's plan has a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding," retired Marine General James Conway, who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, said at the Maverick PAC Conference in Washington, D.C. Friday, according to a source in attendance.
A U.S. 'success' against ISIS was never part of Champ's plan. Subduing the Jewish hawks and enabling the Iranian moderates, that was and remains the plan.
What does "moderate" mean to the mullahs? And what does it mean to President Obama?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  The sad fact is: we no longer have any idea who is actually running the show in America. . It sure as hell isn't Obama – he’s simply never on the job. He’s on the golf course, or at fund-raisers, or on vacation, or at celebrity events. He is never working. That’s not mocking – that’s simply reality. Barry put the USA on auto-pilot, and went golfing – several years ago.

Joe Biden? Hah! He probably spends half of each day trying to get each of his shoes on the correct foot.

John Kerry? Lurch simply wanders the earth “looking for a clue” - appearing stupid, and sounding foolish.

Chuck Hegel? He has his hands completely full with the task of slashing the size and capability of the US military – while elevating gays and trans-genders to command operations.

The White House Chief of Staff? OK, now - don't cheat: do you even know who is currently in that position? Perhaps he's not the guy in charge.

Who is running America? Seriously?

Who is actually charting the course for the most powerful country in the history of the world?

It cannot be any of the idiots named above.

Susan Rice? Valerie Jarrett? Harry Reid? Janet Yellen? John O. Brennan?

(if it must be one of these, PLEASE let it be John O. Brennan).

So - we are going to support the "moderate" blood-thirsty, murderous, jihadi, maniacal rebels? Whew, that surely makes me feel better.

And to think - just a few years ago - we were all laughing at: http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/clint-chair-borowitz.jpg

Posted by: Lone Ranger || 09/22/2014 1:21 Comments || Top||

#2  No sh*t, general?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/22/2014 5:21 Comments || Top||

#3  It's already serving it's purpose, i.e. giving NYT and WaPo something to yammer about.
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/22/2014 8:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Wagging the dog
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 09/22/2014 11:35 Comments || Top||

#5  I've never been able to make any sense out of what this regime is doing.

The most persuasive scenarios I've read all deal with building up the Iranians and pressuring Israe. Most everything the clique does seems to fit someway into that.

I said yesterday that at this rate Bammer will either have WWIV or a new Civil war here by the end of his term.
Posted by: AlanC || 09/22/2014 12:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Obumble's entire administration doesn't have a snowball's chance of hell of being successful for America.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/22/2014 13:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Darth, which means HE is successful since the devolution of America has been his goal since day one.
Posted by: AlanC || 09/22/2014 15:02 Comments || Top||

#8  General Mattis' take on ISIS and Mideast terrorism.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/22/2014 16:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Political snark of the day from James Kunstler: Does any tattoo-free American adult outside the Kardashian-NFL mass hypnosis matrix feel confident about the trajectory of US policy regarding the so-called Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL)?
Maybe if I get a couple of tattoos, I will feel better about the whole affair.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/22/2014 17:04 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Champ taps General Mike Nagata to build moderate Syrian rebel army.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/22/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And as another career approaches incandescence, right before bursting into flames and crashing...
Posted by: ed in texas || 09/22/2014 7:57 Comments || Top||

#2  A moderate Syrian rebel army...you mean like ISIS?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/22/2014 12:45 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
ISIS Statement
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 09/22/2014 01:30 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ......and after reading this you will agree with Obumbles ("mule of the Juices"), J f'n K ("uncircumcised old geezer") et al, that these guys can't possibly be Islamic, no no no; there are only about 100 or so citations from the Holey Crayon in it
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 09/22/2014 3:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Not reading every word, but it seems like everyone else is in the service of the Juices, including the Saudis and the Mad Mullahs.

"It's us against the world, baby!"
Posted by: Bobby || 09/22/2014 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Wordy bustards, ain't they?
Posted by: Fred || 09/22/2014 11:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Shut up and fight already...
Posted by: Steve White || 09/22/2014 12:03 Comments || Top||

#5  they are obsessed with prestige.... had to bring down the world trade centre so burj dubai a muslim tower could be the highest. then we have this from the ARSIS statement:

O Allah, you have placed them above us by their airplanes. O Allah, you
know we have no power nor strength against their planes except through You. O Allah, do not
let them be above us while You are above them. O Allah, do not let them be above us while
we are higher than them. O Allah, do not let them be above us while we are higher than them.


--
could they be planning another plane attack?

could they have serious psychological issues to do with being short and unlovely?
Posted by: anon1 || 09/22/2014 13:43 Comments || Top||

#6  bobby how could you not read every word of all 11 pages... Oh Allan, smite him!
Posted by: anon1 || 09/22/2014 13:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Helluva rant! Fred didn't name this site 'Rantburg' for nothing! For short version see Lord Laurence Olivier's Mahdi rants in the great flic "Khartoum".
Posted by: borgboy || 09/22/2014 16:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Typical crap they hear in the mosques every Friday.
Posted by: KBK || 09/22/2014 20:26 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
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badanov
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trailing wife
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2014-09-22
  Iraqi Forces Launch Operation against Militants near Fallujah
Sun 2014-09-21
  60,000 Kurds Facing ISIS Advance In Syria Flee To Turkey
Sat 2014-09-20
  Acting JMB chief among 7 arrested; plans included snatching jailed Ansarullah chief
Fri 2014-09-19
  U.S. Targets IS Training Camp in Iraq for First Time
Thu 2014-09-18
  Ringleader in Canada Terror Case Pleads Guilty
Wed 2014-09-17
  Jordan Arrests Brotherhood Leader For Incitement
Tue 2014-09-16
  Saudi court jails 13 Islamists for fighting abroad
Mon 2014-09-15
  19 Suspected Al Shabab Arrested In Uganda For Planned Bomb Attacks
Sun 2014-09-14
  Russian officials: Tsarnaev defense team claimed to be FBI
Sat 2014-09-13
  Malala Yousafzai's assailants arrested in Pakistan
Fri 2014-09-12
  About 400 bodies found in mass grave northwest of al-Mosul, Iraq
Thu 2014-09-11
  BREAKING: Captured Fijian Peacekeepers Cross Into Israel
Wed 2014-09-10
  Militant group appoints new leader: Syria
Tue 2014-09-09
  Al-Azhar: ISIL serving Zionist plot to destroy Arab world
Mon 2014-09-08
  Hezbollah-backed Syrian troops kill Nusra Front commander responsible for kidnapping Christian nuns

Better than the average link...



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