The so-called Islamic State (IS) group is weak and Australia has no plans to send combat troops to fight it, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says. His remarks contrasted with former prime minister Tony Abbott's description of IS as a "death cult".
Mr Abbott, now serving as a backbench MP, called for Australia to commit combat troops to the Middle East after the Paris attacks.
Mr Turnbull told Australia's House of Representatives that IS relied on its propaganda network and "we must not be fooled by its hype". Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has rejected calls to send combat troops to the Middle East. But the group must be defeated militarily in Iraq and Syria, where it has overrun vast swathes of territory, he said.
"Let someone else do it."
"Its ideology is archaic, but its use of the internet is very modern. ISIL has many more smartphones than guns, more Twitter accounts than fighters.
"It does not command broad-based legitimacy even in those areas under its direct control. It is encircled by hostile forces. It is under military pressure."
Mr Turnbull made the comments as part of national security statement to Australia's parliament.
Tony Abbott never backed away from his description of the so-called Islamic State (IS) as a "death cult".
When terrorism experts said IS would be delighted that his colourful description promoted the group's propaganda aims, Mr Abbott was dismissive. "I think we should call things what they are," he said in June this year.
Fast-forward five months and Australia's political landscape is very different. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who deposed Mr Abbott in September, wants to undercut IS's effective propaganda. Rather than boots on the ground, Mr Turnbull is focusing on a war of ideas.
Mr Turnbull said the government of Iraq believed the presence of large numbers of Western troops in that country would be "counter-productive". He also said the consensus of world leaders was that there was no appetite for a large-scale invasion of Syria.
The deployment of Australian combat troops to either Iraq or Syria would be neither "feasible" nor "practical", Mr Turnbull said.
Former defence minister Kevin Andrews and Liberal MP Michael Sukkar had backed Mr Abbott's call for "boots on the ground" following the Paris attacks.
Currently there are around 90 Australian special forces soldiers advising counter-terror agencies in Iraq, as well as around 300 soldiers training members of the Iraqi national army. Australia also has six aircraft bombing IS positions in both Iraq and Syria as part of the US-led coalition.
Mr Turnbull said Australia's commitment to the Middle East conflict was already large given the country's size and geographic location. "Larger for example than any European nation, larger than Canada or any of the neighbouring Arab states," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Send blankets and juice packs, that should cover your soul well enough.
#2
Australia imported a HUGE number of Sunni Islamist migrants in the 1990s
Now we are reaping the whirlwind. They have used Saudi money to establish a hugely well-organised movement
They are in control of vocal lobby groups. The Sunni Islamist faction is in control of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils which has branch councils in every state
They are funding think tanks on university campuses and are pumping their members through the academic mill so they are the next generation of commentators
they are commanding media coverage - every time media turns for comment from muslims the only muslim groups and leaders to step forward are the Sunni Islamists. They also work to tear down the lone secular voices like Dr Jamal Rifi
Secularism is the only solution to Islamism eg Banning sharia
but australia has a huge problem now because Islamists are firmly in control particularly in the multicultural lobby
they have also been logging and documenting Islamophobia to use as a weapon
Years of propaganda of *islam is the religion of peace, dont blame islam* means ordinary people are just blaming all islam and have no idea of the secular - theocrat split.
This is feeding the Islamophobia mill as they predictably lash out
Turnbull will not be able to govern the nation if he goes to fight in the middle east because the Islamists will turn their cultural power against him as they did on Tony Abbott
they forced Abbott out they would do the same to Turnbull and he knows it
#3
Sorry Ship, they may not know it but the AU is struggling to maintain their own national WASP identity. Their only reason to participate in the SE Asia festivities is to polish strategy, practice tactics and create data feeds for export back home. The north coastal states are as overrun with Indonesian migration as the southern US states bordering Mexico.
#4
Australia should create a foreign legion to go fight. Let radicals sneak their way in. Then when they get to the area make it easy for them to go MIA. Then cancel their passport. I'm fairly confident you'll get no true want to help my new nation volunteers but if you do that works even better.
BERLIN -- Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on Wednesday to stick to her open-door refugee policy, defying criticism at home and abroad which has intensified due to growing fears about a potential security risk after the Islamist attacks in Paris. In a 40-minute speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Merkel said the security threat level in Germany was high but insisted that people must carry on with normal life.
"The strongest response to terrorists is to carry on living our lives and our values as we have until now -- self-confident and free, considerate and engaged," she said to loud applause.
"We Europeans will show our free life is stronger than any terror," Merkel added, battling with a croaky voice.
Merkel stressed her commitment to her disputed refugee policy, saying Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, has a duty to protect those fleeing war and conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
In a nod to critics in her conservative party, especially in Bavaria, where most of the migrants enter Germany, she said that migrants who do not need protection must be sent home.
Being orderly persons like the Germans they wished to become, they will of course accept that judgement and go quietly, right?
"But simply sealing ourselves off will not solve the problem," she said. Merkel repeated her "we will cope" mantra and reiterated her argument that Europe must tackle the causes of the crisis by working for peace in Syria
...an interesting concept...
and engaging Turkey as a partner in the refugee crisis.
...an even more interesting one.
She countered politicians in some countries who have warned that the refugee crisis has exposed problems in Europe's Schengen passport-free area, saying that states must develop it further by agreeing on migrant quotas.
"A distribution of refugees according to economic strength and other conditions ... and the readiness for a permanent distribution mechanism ... will determine whether the Schengen area will hold in the long term," she said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2015 10:53 ||
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#1
New Years is probably going to be interesting... if she survives until then.
On average, 8000 refugees cross the German border each day.
That's 3 million per year. Umm no, sorry, this won't go on in 2016.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/25/2015 17:08 Comments ||
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#2
I meant her New Year's Speech
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/25/2015 17:09 Comments ||
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[Irish Times] “We cannot receive more refugees in Europe, ” French prime minister Manuel Valls has told foreign correspondents in a group interview focused on the November 13th attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.
Mr Valls said he will repeat that message when he addresses the SPD congress in Germany on December 12th. “I told [vice chancellor and chairman of the SPD] Sigmar [Gabriel] we cannot receive any more,” he said.
“This doesn’t mean I’m criticising Germany. Germany made a choice which is to her honour, but she has to assume her responsibilities. Do you think Belgium or France will receive more refugees today? No. No. No. For me, things are very clear. The solutions are over there [in the region].”
[AnNahar] Italia has expelled four Moroccans who were found with a video inciting people to "fight the enemies of Islam," judicial sources said Tuesday, in the first such move following the Gay Paree terror attacks.
This year, Italia has already expelled some 60 Islamist radicals, including four imams, but these are the first expulsions since the November 13 strikes in the French capital.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano signed the expulsion warrants for the four men, who were known to intelligence services. The video was found at their home.
Italia has ratcheted up its security alert to the highest level possible in the absence of a direct attack on the country after the Gay Paree carnage.
European countries have also tightened security and Brussels is in lockdown as police hunt a suspect amid fears of an imminent terror strike.
Since Monday, some 2,000 police have been deployed across Rome ahead of the Vatican's Holy Jubilee Year of Mercy which kicks off on December 8 and is expected to attract millions of visitors.
[AnNahar] La Belle France will install security gates at stations in Gay Paree and Lille for the Thalys cross-Europe rail services by December 20 in one of a raft of measures introduced after the Gay Paree attacks, minister Segolene Royal said Tuesday.
A Thalys train from Amsterdam to Gay Paree was attacked by a heavily armed man in August, but he was overpowered by passengers.
The French government has decided "to install gates for the Thalys in Lille and Gay Paree before December 20," Royal, who is ecology minister but has responsibility for transport, said.
The high-speed Thalys service links Gay Paree with Lille in northern La Belle France, the Belgian capital, Brussels, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the western German city of Cologne.
Passengers boarding those trains do not currently have to pass through security checks, unlike for the cross-Channel Eurostar train services to Britannia which have airport-style security.
Royal indicated that Belgian, German and Dutch authorities would also install security gates, although those countries have not yet confirmed that.
She said La Belle France was also considering bringing in a system of named tickets for Thalys passengers.
La Belle France has tightened security at its borders and within the country following the jihadist attacks of November 13 on the French capital in which 130 people were killed.
[Hurriyet] Ankara and Moscow must ease tensions, said U.S. President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... , while commenting on the downing of a Russian fighter jet by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , as he higlighted that Turkey has a right to protect its borders.
"Turkey, like any other country, has a right to defend its territory and its air space," Obama said during a joint presser with French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... "It's very important right now for us to make sure that both the Russians and the Turks are talking to each other to find out exactly what happened and take measures to discourage any kind of escalation," Obama said.
He said downing of the Russian plane points to an "ongoing problem with Russian operations near the Turkish border."
It sounds like our beloved president doesn't like Russia anymore.
The U.S. president said he expected to be in communication with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... in the next several days.
Not a priority to the White House, then?
Obama also said that Russian strikes against moderate opposition there only serve to bolster Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's government.
He also said the United States and La Belle France will stand united to fight 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) hard boyz following the Nov. 13 attacks in Gay Paree, pledging to step up efforts to combat terrorism alongside its European partners.
"As Americans, we stand by our friends in good times and in bad, no matter what," Obama said.
[Hurriyet] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said Turkish information over downed Russian jet's air space violation was correct contrary to the Russian claims.
"The allied assessments that we have are consistent with the information we have from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ," the NATO chief said after an emergency meeting in Brussels on Nov. 24.
"We stand in solidarity with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey, support its territorial integrity," Stoltenberg said.
Russian officials had said earlier in the day that the jet did not violate the Turkish space and the jet was hit on the Syrian side of the border.
There has been no direct contact between Russia and NATO so far, he said, adding that Ankara and Moscow have already contacted.
He called for more contact.
The situation is serious and tensions should be eased, he said, adding that measures should be taken to prevent any repetition of such an incident.
"The common enemy is ISIL," he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, adding that Russia should be guided by that.
#2
Yeah, I'm sure that everyone in the Middle East is hanging on every word that Obama says - sort of like these Arab journalists: https://youtu.be/UXodRLLkth4
#7
This SOB is yet going to get a lot of us killed for the wrong damn reason.
Posted by Shipman
But he's what the Pro-Choice, LGBT, 'me generation' and 'basement dwellers' wanted. Their demise at the hands of their anointed worshipful master would certainly follow the historical pattern of tyrants and despots. We should not be surprised at such an outcome.
Knowledge, wishful thinking, or trying to defer the inevitable when the truth comes out?
[Hurriyet] Two pilots who auto-ejected themselves after a Russian jet was shot down by Turkish F-16's on Nov. 24 near the Syrian border are alive and well and are in the hands of rebel groups in the area, according to security sources in Ankara.
The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) is in contact with the rebel groups to hand over the pilots alive to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , the sources said.
Earlier reports had suggested that Turkmen rebels' claimed they rubbed out the Russian pilots after they auto-ejected from their jet with parachutes.
Speaking to the Dogan News Agency, Turkmen Deputy Commander to the 2nd Coast Division Alpaslan Celik had claimed that both pilots were killed.
"We shot the pilots while they were landing with parachutes. Their bodies are here," Celik said.
"Our friends are carrying the bodies from the other side of the mountains. Their IDs will probably be found on them," he added.
#3
Are they outclassed by that much? They're local, they have better logistics, their Air Force is fairly modern, and their pilots are likely decent. How outclassed are they?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2015 8:20 Comments ||
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#4
Dr. Steve, according to Hurriyet, Russia is now taking security vis a vis Turkey seriously:
Russian General Staff has deployed one of its largest air defense ships at the foot of Turkish territorial waters in the Mediterranean, in a move to revise security measures after a Russian SU-24 was downed by Turkish aircrafts.
According to Russian RIA Novosti agency, Russian General Staff boosted security measures after the recent incident.
In this perspective, Russian bomber aircrafts will be supported by chasers and any kinds of threats will be responded instantly, military spokesman General Sergei Rudskoi said.
Accordingly, “the Moscow,” one of the Russian Navy’s two largest warships and the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, will be deployed where Turkey-Syria territorial waters connect.
The warship is known to have an air defense system similar to S-300s, allowing the ship to immediately respond to any perceived threat.
Russian General Staff also decided to cut off all military communication with Turkey.
Moreover, Russia Russia is sending its most hi-tech air defence system to its airbase in Syria, the defence minister said Nov. 25, as Moscow ratchets up its firepower over the war-torn country after the downing of its fighter jet by Turkey.
"The S-400 anti-aircraft missile system will be deployed to the Hmeimim airbase," Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.
#8
How outclassed Turkey is depends upon how much heat Putin wants to apply. I'm pretty sure Russia could destroy the Turkish Navy rather quickly and turn every coastal Turkish city to rubble if they wanted.
Battling over the skies of turkey is a different story with anti-aircraft and defensive fighters but the Russians wouldn't really need to go there to prostrate Turkey.
#9
How outclassed Turkey is depends upon how much heat Putin wants to apply.
The issue is the Bosporus. The Russians have the means (and the will!) to provide protection for their air ops. At the first sign of access problems in the straits, the Russians will go full Ivan. Remember that business in Crimea? It wasn't about territory. It was about access to the Med.
I doubt Turkey feels assured of NATO support at this point.
[Rudaw] The situation following the downing of a Russian jet by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is very serious, NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... Secretary General told Rudaw Tuesday, urging all sides to remain prudent and prevent further escalation.
"I think I've expressed very clearly that we are calling for calm and de-escalation," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Rudaw at a presser. "This is a serious situation. This is a situation which calls on that we all are prudent and that we all contribute to de-escalating the situation."
Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border after it violated the Turkish airspace, said Ankara.
Turkish officials said the Russian jet was warned about the violation.
Stoltenberg said that his organization urges Ankara and Moscow to talk over the incident and make sure similar situation won't happen again.
"There has been contacts and we would welcome even more contacts," he explained. "To partly to solve this concrete incident, but also to continue to work on the development and also the strengthening of mechanisms to avoid these kinds of situation in the future."
In response to a Rudaw question about NATO's position, Stoltenberg said, "Actually, inside the Alliance we are discussing how we can develop better and improved measures for transparency, for predictability, and for risk reduction."
He added: "Because we have to avoid this kind of incidents. We have to avoid that situations, incidents, accidents spiral out of control."
Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... described the shooting down of the jet as 'a stab in the back' by Turkey as he warned there would be 'serious consequences' in Moscow-Ankara relations.
Shortly after the incident Turkey called an emergency meeting of the NATO where Stoltenberg told news hounds, "I have previously expressed my concerns about the implications of the military actions of the Russian Federation close to NATO's borders," he said.
"As we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO Ally, Turkey," he added.
At the presser the NATO secretary general told the Wall Street Journal that all sides including Russia should focus on the main enemy that is 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).
"The common enemy should be ISIL," he said. "And I would welcome all efforts to fight ISIL. And it is important that all of us, also Russia, is guided by the overarching goal of defeating ISIL."
#1
In response to a Rudaw question about NATO's position, Stoltenberg said, "Actually, inside the Alliance we are discussing how we can develop better and improved measures for transparency, for predictability, and for risk reduction."
Just like the UN only smaller and a boat load more expensive.
The newly elected Liberal government in Canada will resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year and 15,000 by the end of February. The government had previously promised to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the year's end. The Liberals committed to bringing the refugees in during the recent election campaign.
CBC News had reported that the federal government will limit the resettlement to women, children and families only. As confirmed on Tuesday, those who will be considered refugees include families, women at risk, gays and lesbians and single men who are part of the LGBT community or accompanied by parents.
"We want them to have a roof over their head, and the right support," said Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Minister John McCallum. "It takes a bit of time to put that all in place."
"We're happy to take a little more time that originally planned to bring our new friends into the country."
The refugees will be both privately sponsored and government assisted, either registered with the UN Refugee Agency or with the government of Turkey.
Government officials promised "robust" health and security screenings, to be done overseas, and said military and private aircraft will assist with transportation of refugees to Canada.
Is that "Obama-style" robust screenings or true robust screenings?
Refugees will go to 36 "destination" cities, 12 in Quebec and in the rest of Canada.
Seems like 25,000 refugees could be settled in a fairly concentrated area so that resources could be focused. Also makes it easier to help the refugees return to the homeland when the shooting there stops.
Mr McCallum said the attacks in Paris did not affect the government's decision to slow down the transport of Syrian refugees, citing the logistical struggles with completing the pledge.
Never let facts interfere with ideology...
Newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made Canada's acceptance of Syrian refugees central to his campaign. After the Paris attacks, he reiterated his commitment to ending Canadian air strikes in Syria and Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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Local reporters are doing what the national reporters won't. It may be that the one source is right: you can't win them all. Given that it only takes a few refugees with malice and weapons to stage an attack, we should be more careful. I'm not saying that shouldn't take in refugees, but the current administration doesn't seem to acknowledge the risks.
ATLANTA -- A Channel 2 Action News investigation uncovered refugees deported from the United States at a skyrocketing rate for violent crimes. That includes refugees deported from Georgia.
The terrorist attacks in Paris put a big spotlight on refugees around the country. To get into the U.S., each went through a vetting process that took two years. But experts and elected leaders called Investigative Reporter Aaron Diamant's research a game changer.
Diamant dug into a decade's worth of data on a massive federal immigration database. The numbers revealed that from 2003 through 2013, federal authorities deported 1,033 refugees, including 89 from Georgia. In those overall numbers, 713 refugees got kicked out of the United States for committing aggravated felonies, including dozens of assaults, sex crimes, drug crimes and homicides.
Those numbers concern Jessica Vaughn with the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit research organization.
"I do think that the public and policymakers should be concerned about these findings," Vaughn said. "Refugees face more screening that any other immigrant group, but this demonstrates that even in the refugee category, we are not able to screen out all the individuals who pose a threat to our communities."
Diamant looked even deeper into the statistics and found the numbers of refugees deported from the United States has soared from only nine in 2003 to 185 in 2013.
"It may mean that the screening procedures have been relaxed somewhat in recent years," Vaughn speculated.
After French investigators confirmed ISIS operatives involved in the terrorist attacks in Paris slipped in among waves of refugees from Syria, leaders in Georgia and more than 30 other states pushed back and took steps to refuse any of the 10,000 Syrian refugees the U.S. is poised to accept over the next year.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal defended his decision by saying, "We think that it's appropriate for us to take care of our people here in Georgia, and we think this is the appropriate step."
Diamant also looked into where the refugees deported for serious crimes came from. They represented 73 countries. The most, 247, came from Bosnia. Ukraine was next at 77, followed by Haiti, Cambodia and Sudan. Only two came from Syria.
Gainesville Rep. Doug Collins is on the House Judiciary Committee. He's one of many members pushing for a top to bottom review of the federal refugee screening process.
"I think what you're going to see in the House over the next month or longer is dealing with this total issue as a whole, taking into account some of the numbers (Diamant) has brought up," Collins said. "The numbers give us cause to believe there may be something else we could be doing."
Still, Georgia State University counterterrorism and criminology expert Robert Friedmann said there is no solution to root out every potential bad person.
"Anybody who tells you that that can be insured is either deluding themselves or deluding you," Friedmann told Diamant. "I don't think that that's possible."
Vaughn is more optimistic and believes federal authorities will find critical clues to reduce the risk.
"They should be examining each and every one of these cases to find out what went wrong."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2015 10:52 ||
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A Pakistani man extradited from the UK to the US has been sentenced to 40 years in jail for plotting attacks in several countries. Abid Naseer, 29, was sentenced by a federal judge in New York.
US authorities said he had been part of a plot to attack Manchester, New York City and Copenhagen.
In March, a jury found him guilty of providing material support to al-Qaeda and conspiracy to use a destructive device.
FBI assistant director-in-charge Diego Rodriguez said that Naseer, who moved to the UK to study, failed to use the British education visa system to make the best of his life. Instead, he exploited it "to take away the lives of many others in large numbers", said Mr Rodriguez.
Naseer was first arrested in the UK in 2009, along with 11 other men, suspected of planning a bomb attack on the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester over the Easter weekend. No explosives were found but the men were ordered to leave the country. Mr Naseer avoided deportation after a judge ruled it was likely he would not be safe if he returned to Pakistan.
Abid Naseer says he's not guilty. He defended himself throughout the trial, but his legal advisers say they'll appeal - and not just against the sentence which they believe is overly harsh. They say this was not a fair trial and Naseer should have appeared in court in the UK, not in front of a jury in a post 9/11 New York.
But US prosecutors say the 29-year-old was capable of mass murder. They say he remains a threat and they're delighted by the sentence. They hope it sends a message to terrorists that they will be caught and they will be put behind bars for life.
Naseer appealed to the judge that he was not - nor had he ever been - a "career criminal". But Judge Raymond Dearie had a response.
"I know you're not," he replied. "You're a terrorist."
UK officials arrested him again in 2010 at the request of US prosecutors. In 2013 he was extradited to the US, where prosecutors argued Naseer was part of a broader al-Qaeda conspiracy to attack various Western locations, including the New York subway system and a newspaper office in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The US Department of Justice said the plots were "directed by and co-ordinated with senior al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan".
Evidence at Naseer's trial included a document found in the raid of the Bin Laden compound and MI5 officers testifying in wigs. His defence was largely based on his own testimony and cross-examining prosecution witnesses.
Prosecutors brought in MI5 agents who had previously tracked Naseer in 2009 at a shopping centre in the UK. They also relied on the testimony of two co-conspirators who pleaded guilty to the subway plot - Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay. Prosecutors say coded emails show all three men were under the direction of the same al-Qaeda handler.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] A Rudaw team has found a tunnel in Shingal, fitted with lights and electricity, that was under construction to protect bigwigs 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 fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group (ISIS).
The Rudaw team, guided by two fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is the first media team to film inside the tunnel, which is 1,000 meters long.
"They dug this tunnel to protect themselves, they have constructed this tunnel differently," said one of the PKK fighters.
Video about five minutes long with English subtitles can be seen at the link.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Very probably the Rudaw reporter then sold a much longer article to the Associated Press, which was picked up by The Times of Israel. In that article he reports that in Shingal ISIS people have dug over 30 such tunnels. Link. I imagine that, like the Gazans, the natural activity of ISIS men is tunneling through the earth.
[Rudaw] The head of the Nineveh provincial council says the newly liberated city of Shingal "desperately needs" $100 million to provide basic services such as electricity and healthcare before the possible return of some 400,000 refugees--both Yezidis and Muslims--from the area.
Bashar Kiki told Rudaw he had visited the city after it was recaptured from ISIS snuffies and saw "a devastated town" which "makes it impossible to secure a safe return for the refugees."
"We have already asked all parties, including international aid agencies, to give us donations or help us reconstruct the town," said Kiki, who headed a provincial delegation to Shingal immediately after Peshmarga forces declared the area was under their control last week.
Shingal, which is a predominantly Yezidi town, still has a sizable Muslim community which includes both Muslim Kurds and Arabs.
The region where the city is located is part of the so-called disputed areas under the Iraqi constitution and is claimed by both Kurds and Arabs. A referendum in 2007, which was indefinitely postponed, should have decided the fate of the town along with the rest of the disputed areas in Iraq defined by article 140 of Iraq's constitution.
Though historically and politically under Kurdish influence, Shingal is outside the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and is part of Nineveh province, where djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... is the capital.
Some 400,000 refugees fled the area after the ISIS takeover in 2014. Authorities hope to gradually return the refugees to their areas now under Kurdish control.
Kurdish and foreign experts have already begun demining the city after ISIS turned Shingal into a mine field in order to halt Kurdish offensives into the city.
Authorities also fear that ethnic tensions between Yezidis and Muslim Arabs in the area could deteriorate into sectarian unrest, as many Yezidi families in the past year have accused their Arab neighbors of collaborating with ISIS in attacks on Yezidis in the city and villages.
This is partly why various Kurdish political parties justify their armed presence in Shingal where no central authority exists yet.
"Not all of Shingal is liberated, let's free all areas and the people there, normalize the situation, reconstruct the city and return self confidence to the people, then there is no need for us to be here," Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) spokesperson Demhat Jvian told Rudaw.
But Kiki from the provincial council said the presence of armed forces in Shingal has complicated things, as many buildings are "occupied" by various Kurdish forces.
"We have asked them to evacuate the city buildings, and if they don't, we will bring the case to the court of law because our civil servants need these offices to work," Kiki said.
He added most Kurdish political parties, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the PKK have occupied public buildings, which he said had impacted the work of city officials.
KDP official Qasim Rasho told Rudaw they have done so to protect the town and "whenever police forces arrive, KDP forces will withdraw."
More than 12,000 Peshmarga supported by US-led Arclight airstrikes effectively pushed back ISIS from Shingal and retook control of the city on November 12.
#1
Some 400,000 refugees fled the area after the ISIS takeover in 2014. More than 12,000 Peshmarga retook control of the city on November 12.
Maybe they didn't just run away, the nomadic culture could be resurfacing. If it hadn't been so easy to leave maybe it wouldn't be so expensive to return.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the US of trying to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines and urged Iraqis to withstand any such plans. It was not clear if Khamenei was referring to a specific incident, but Iran has protested about US policy in Iraq several times this year.
“The Americans must not be allowed to consider Iraq as their personal property ... and dare to openly talk about disintegration of Iraq,” Khamenei said according to his website.
“The Iraqi people, Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and Arabs have been living together peacefully but some regional countries and some foreigners are trying to amplify differences among them,” he added.
In August, outgoing US Army chief of staff General Ray Odierno drew condemnation from Baghdad and Tehran when he said reconciliation between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq was becoming harder and that partitioning the country “might be the only solution.”
In the instability resulting from the rise of Daesh , Iraq’s Kurds have expanded the reach of their autonomous regional government to include Kirkuk, which sits on substantial oil deposits.
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11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#2
Divide Iraq? Half the Iraqis already hate the other half and that half hates the previous half plus some other people besides. Which is pretty much the Middle East in nutshell.
#9
Tour boats sail the trinitite surface:
"Folks, all this was glazed with a purpose --
Oh, look, there's a camel
Performing a Hamill! --
This place is where Allah met Curtis."
Two men have been charged by a military court in Thailand in connection with the bombing of a shrine in the capital Bangkok. Twenty people were killed in the attack on the Erawan Shrine in August.
Authorities say Bilal Mohammed, also known as Adem Karadag, and Yusuf Mieraili have both confessed to their roles in the blast. The two suspects have been indicted on 10 charges, including murder, but not terrorism.
A lawyer for one of the men told the Reuters news agency that the charges included premeditated murder, illegal possession of weapons, and murder.
"The court has accepted the 10 charges that prosecutors formally brought against the two men," said lawyer Schoochart Kanpai.
The two have been in custody for nearly three months.
Documents sent by prosecutors to the court said both men were Chinese nationals from the Muslim Uighur minority. China has long faced criticism for the perceived harsh restrictions it places on religion and culture in Xinjiang, where the majority of Uighurs live.
Here's two examples of why China does have a point...
Thailand recently found itself in the spotlight following its forced repatriation of more than 100 Uighurs to China.
Here's two examples of why Thailand does have a point...
Police have released warrants for a total of 17 people over charges stemming from the attack. They believe many have fled the country.
The motive for the bombing remains unclear.
It's manifestly clear: a bunch of Islamicists blew up a shrine belonging to another religion.
The Erawan shrine - with its four-faced golden statue of the Hindu god Brahma - is considered sacred by Thai Buddhists, and attracts many foreign visitors.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Also looks like the Turkish Gray Wolves might've had a part in it. But the Turks are far away, and they don't bring foreign-aid gifts.
Iran expects July's landmark nuclear deal with major powers to enter into force in early January, when Tehran will have implemented its commitments, Iran's deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.
Champ is already letting the bank sanctions slip...
"We expect it will be in early January," Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Vienna after meeting the head of the UN atomic watchdog, which is tasked with verifying the accord.
Under the July 14 deal that ended a potentially dangerous decade-long standoff, Iran undertook to dramatically scale back its nuclear program. This includes reducing by two thirds the number of centrifuges, machines which purify or "enrich" uranium, making it suitable for nuclear power generation but also for a nuclear bomb.
In addition Iran agreed to to reduce its stockpile of uranium and alter a new reactor it is building at Arak. In exchange, the six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - will lift painful sanctions.
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11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Yesterday, a State Department memo sent to Congress admitted that Obama's nuclear agreement was never signed by either party and thus is neither a treaty nor a legal accord. "Sham" it was, and sham it is.
[Rudaw] 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) is planning to infiltrate and destabilize Iran but has been unsuccessful in its attempts, said the commander of Iran's revolutionary guards, adding that the group's secret cells are under surveillance.
Not so secret then. Bummer.
Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander in chief of Iran's armed forces told the media that great amounts of explosives were recently seized in different cities across the country.
"Groups like ISIS have many support networks and not long ago we confronted one of them and all other groups are under complete surveillance and in time we will face them," Jafari was quoted by Nasim news agency as saying.
The news agency also reported that on Sunday the cells of "two terrorist groups" were unveiled and captured in Sistan and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and Azerbaijan provinces by the security forces.
"One of the groups was supported by regional countries and had tried to destroy the communication system of Rasik-Iranshehir by detonating 150 kg of explosives," an Iranian interior ministry official told Nasim on condition of anonymity.
Also on Saturday Iran's state minister told his country's Chanel 1 that a number of people had entered Iran to carry out "terrorist acts" during the Ashura ceremony.
These recent comments by Iranian security officials follow a statement by the intelligence minister Mamoud Alavi earlier this month who said that more than 10 cells of gangs had been broken up across Iran.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/25/2015 00:00 ||
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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.
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.
BERLIN -- Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on Wednesday to stick to her open-door refugee policy, defying criticism at home and abroad which has intensified due to growing fears about a potential security risk after the Islamist attacks in Paris. In a 40-minute speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Merkel said the security threat level in Germany was high but insisted that people must carry on with normal life.
[Irish Times] “We cannot receive more refugees in Europe, ” French prime minister Manuel Valls has told foreign correspondents in a group interview focused on the November 13th attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
