A bit of hyperventilating -- it is the Express, after all -- but heads up at the airport as we head into the Christmas holidays, guys.
[Express] TERRORISTS are plotting to blow up five European passenger jets in a Christmas "spectacular", security experts say.
The threat has been taken so seriously it came close to leading to an outright ban on all hand luggage, a senior insider has revealed.
Mobile phones and electronic devices could still be banned from plane cabins, with the threat of a 9/11-style coordinated attack on London and other major cities feared imminent.
Continued on Page 49
[IraqiNews] A new group of the Kurdish Peshmerga elements have arrived in Turkey to replace the former group in the Syrian Kobani town.
Some Turkish sources stated "The new group will replace the former group that is currently fighting the ISIL murderous Moslems in the Syrian Kobani town of northeastern Halab city."
Presumably this is the same group that was to have arrived in Kobani on Sunday.
#2
Turkey has intercepted and confiscated international aid to hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees in Turkey. With a hard winter bearing down this is equivalent to genocide.
Is Putin looking for new allies as Europe and America harden their position on the situation in Ukraine?
[AnNahar] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on Monday held talks in Ankara with his Russian counterpart 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... aimed at boosting trade and strengthening relations, despite sharp differences over the crises in Syria and Ukraine.
Continued on Page 49
#3
Like a chess match we sit back and watch Putin make his moves. I see a natural symbiotic relationship here. Perhaps an EU of Asia in the works. Say what you will, Putin is more of a man of action than a flowery man of words. His wealthy associates will mingle well with the Turks. This economic connection is very much needed by the Turks. Especially for Erdogan. I see many benefits for Erdie.
#5
I suspect Putinist Russia has a covert agreement wid Erdogan Turkey in that, in exchange for Russian energy or fuel + minimal criticism of what Russia does in the Crimea andor Eastern Ukraine, Russia will look the other way as Turkey expands southward + nationally = geopol modernizes unto new OWG Co-Superpower status???
AYUB Siddiqi's home is located in a long narrow lane of uneven blocks of apartments in the C-Area of Liaquatabad. His home has been in the news after 26 young girls were recovered from there some days ago. You're gonna be ever so surprised. The story involves three dozen girls of middle school age or younger, an unpaid debt, an unlicensed madrassah around the corner from the head of Jamaat-e-Islami, affiliated with Jaamia Binoria, and a harridan headmistress. But really the tender young maidens weren't being trafficked into lives of slavery or prostitution. There's really a very logical explanation. It only looks like the kind of sordid criminal activity we've come to expect when there are holy men involved.
As soon as I entered the street, a woman said: 'The girls were brought here on Monday [Nov 24]. But by Wednesday, people in the neighbourhood started asking questions. Some of them fed the girls as they looked famished.'
Others in the neighbourhood were not that forthcoming and pointed towards Ayub's home for further information.
Granted bail a day ago, Ayub was not at home but his wife Tahira reluctantly agreed to speak. Blocking the small doorway to her home, she said she had no idea how a woman landed at her place with 26 young girls.
'My husband worked at the madressah in Jamshed Quarters and had taken Rs350,000 as a loan from Imran, the son of the owner Hameeda Khatoon, to start his own business. We couldn't pay the entire sum at once, so it was decided we would pay Rs25,000 every month. It went on for four months. But last month we couldn't pay the required sum,' she said, adding that her husband was still at the Liaquatabad Supermarket police station.
Ayub's one-room apartment has two single beds in the main living area and an attached bath with a washing machine next to it. Tahira said they had a daughter who got married a year ago. Apart from that she refused to divulge much. The neighbours too seemed weary to talk of what they referred to as a 'high-profile' case.
People are also fearful because of the large number of politicians and media personnel that descended the day the home was found on a tip-off by the area police. Apart from the 26 girls, seven other girls discovered in a house in Fatima Jinnah Colony in Jamshed Quarters were reunited with their parents.
Speculation is rife that the case involves human trafficking, but Gul Mohammad Momand, the head of the Landhi-based welfare organisation Anjuman-i-Naujwanan-i-Bajaur, denied this impression, saying, 'What's really wrong about the case is that the young girls were dumped at another man's place because of a petty issue over money. But when people question the presence of such young girls in a madressah, the answer is the operation and strife in Bajaur.'
He went on: 'Sending children to Karachi is a norm that started six years back when the armed forces clashed with militants in Bajaur. People were forced to send their children, boys and girls, to get religious education and food and clothing at madressahs.'
Momand said that many people have relatives, who are daily wage earners themselves in Karachi, and who were also present the day the girls were found. 'But due to the presence of political officials and police, they were not allowed to speak up, as they were considered potential kidnappers.'
Speaking about Hameeda Khatoon, who owns the madressah in Jamshed Quarters and another in Korangi, Momand said that she is well known and a 'resident of Dir and neighbour of Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq'.
Across the road from the C-Area neighbourhood, the SHO of the Liaquatabad Supermarket police station, Hasan Haider, reiterated that according to initial investigations it is not a case of 'human trafficking but one regarding a delayed payment of debt'.
Speaking about the dealing between Ayub and Imran, he said the former worked in the clearing and forwarding department of the private madressah located in Jamshed Quarters. 'Ayub had taken a loan of Rs450,000 from Imran and didn't pay it back in time. Imran's mother, Hameeda Khatoon, who has been running the business for the past four years, got angry on learning about the transfer of funds without her knowledge, and took the 26 girls to his home. Ayub is not well-off as is evident from the state of his home. The case was highlighted only because political parties got involved. Otherwise there's not much to add to it,' he added.
The madressah from where the loan was taken is a two-storey bungalow in Jamshed Quarters. The main door was locked and the curtains drawn as a watchman from the adjacent building said it was a 'religious school running for the past four years'.
A Jamia Binoria spokesman, Mohammad Jawad, said the real issue was the non-registration of madressahs across the city. Speaking on the phone, he said, 'This was a private madressah inside a house no one knew about. It is an unregistered madressah. But what's surprising is how the issue was highlighted differently for point-scoring and taken up by people without questioning the purpose behind it.'
However, Rauf Siddiqi, an MQM politician, said that the story doesn't add up. 'Whoever is calling it a matter of a debt gone wrong, does not understand the nature of such issues. I had my doubts from day one and will continue to question why the girls were dumped in that house in the first place.'
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
Perhaps more damning is the massive overwhelming silence = underwhelming outrage from US, Western Feminists on this + way-too-many prior other incidents.
[IraqiNews] The tribes of southern djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... expressed their readiness to fight the ISIL Lions of Islam to liberate Mosul city.
The chieftains of Qayara, Hamam al-Aleel and Shoura districts of southern Mosul stated to IraqiNews.com "We are ready to support the security forces to fight the ISIL Lions of Islam to liberate Mosul from them."
The only one of the four horseman left is famine, and at the rate they're going, he'll show up soon enough.
[Beirut Daily Star] When ISIS fighters swept into northern Iraq's second city djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in a lightning June offensive, their propaganda trumpeted a better life for the people under jihadi rule.
Nearly six months later, residents are suffering from a lack of clean water and also a shortage of medicine to treat illnesses caused by it.
The group's latest name, "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.... ," is a clear pointer that the group seeks to rule as well as to conquer, having declared a cross-border "caliphate" spanning parts of Iraq and Syria.
But despite spearheading the June offensive that also overran the surrounding Nineveh province and swaths of other territory, ISIS has been unable to provide basic services in these areas, ultimately undermining the state to which it aspires.
"The impression given in [ISIS'] propaganda is a group offering a better quality of life than before that is also more just for locals," said Aymenn al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum who is an expert on jihadi organizations.
But "the hardships of the locals ... undermine [ISIS'] claims to be a state meeting the needs of the people and offering them real security."
One resident of east Mosul whose wife became ill because of contaminated water said by telephone that the "disruption of the water treatment stations" had led to sickness among many people.
"The biggest and most dangerous problem now is because of our harsh circumstances and the absence of services," Abu Ali said.
Some people have even turned to digging their own wells to get water because of interruptions in the mains supply, which Abu Ali said could be cut for a day or even a week.
Problems with basic services already existed in much of Iraq before this year's crisis erupted, but these have been compounded in Mosul by skilled government employees fleeing jihadi rule.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
I read this as cholera, although nobody seems to be saying it.
#3
Why hasn't Ebola been more of a factor here. Seems ripe for explosive outbreak. They killed 10 Doctors. That should speed things along. I guess like here they bury the news.
[AnNahar] Washington ruled out Monday any imminent plans to create a no-fly zone along the Turkey-Syria border, brushing aside reports that the White House is in talks with Ankara about a refugee safe haven.
President Barack Obama If you like your coverage you can keep it... 's front man Josh Earnest told news hounds the U.S. was "open to discussing a range of options with the Turks" but that a no-fly zone over Syria was not on the table "at this point."
Turkey has been pushing for a buffer zone inside Syria to shelter refugees from the three-way fight between Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's regime, rebels and 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.... jihadists.
But Ankara, which has seen fighting on its southern frontier, has so far failed to persuade its NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ally Washington, despite US jets already hitting IS targets inside Syria, to put its might behind the plan.
Since the civil war erupted in Syria in early 2011 there have been repeated calls for a no-fly zone to protect the rebels and refugees.
Former top U.S. diplomat Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Liberatress of Libya and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another William H. Seward ... was apparently in favor of creating such a zone, but Obama has consistently ruled it out, concerned that Washington would be drawn deeper into the conflict.
This weekend U.S. media reports suggested Washington's stance is shifting after a visit to Turkey last month by Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... , but Earnest insisted this was not the case.
The Wall Street Journal reported that as part of a deal between the U.S. and Turkey, a protected "safe zone" along the border would be set up that would be off-limits to Assad's aircraft.
Narrower than a formal no-fly zone, it would not need any air-strikes. Instead the U.S. would quietly warn the Assad regime to stay away, the Journal said.
In exchange U.S. and coalition aircraft would use Turkey's Incirlik base as well as others to patrol the zone to make sure that rebels operating on the Turkey-Syria border do not come under attack.
The reports came just as Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... was heading back to Brussels for talks on Wednesday with ministers from the 60-strong global coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
He will be accompanied by General John Allen, the U.S. pointman forging the coalition to counter the threat from the group, also known as ISIL, which has captured a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria.
"It's an opportunity to take stock of where things stand, obviously discuss what needs to happen from here, provide updates on where countries stand," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki ...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State...
She said Washington continued to review a number of options including a no-fly zone, but insisted such discussions were "ongoing."
"We continue to have differences" with Turkey, Psaki told news hounds, stressing "we haven't made a decision about a specific course of implementation, we're just continuing to have a discussion with Turkey."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Ynet] Day after reports said Gill Rosenberg, who is fighting IS in Syria alongside Kurds, was kidnapped by terror organization, she posts on Facebook to discredit 'bullshit stories.'
So does ISIS have someone else, or were they just blowing smoke?
Gill Rosenberg, the Israeli-Canadian, who joined Kurdish forces in their battle against the radical 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.... terror group and was said to have been taken captive by the group, posted on her Facebook page Monday night to say that she was "safe and secure."
"I don't have Internet access or any communication devices with me for my safety and security," she wrote. "I can't reply regularly and only happened to have a chance to log in and see these buklshit (sic) news stories. Ignore the reports I've been captured."
Rosenberg finished her short post with "Yalla, Acharai!", a phrase combining Arabic and Hebrew which means "Come on, follow me!"
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
I'm sure the MSM is very disappointed with this development.
Posted by: chris ||
12/02/2014 6:18 Comments ||
Top||
[Ynet] Iran will convert more of its higher-grade enriched uranium into reactor fuel under an interim nuclear deal with six world powers, making the material less suitable for building atomic bombs, a diplomatic source said Monday.
Iran and the United States, La Belle France, Germany, Britannia, China, and Russia failed to meet a Nov. 24 deadline for resolving their dispute over Tehran's nuclear program. They gave themselves until the end of June for further negotiations.
It was the second time this year they had missed a self-imposed target for a comprehensive agreement to scale back Iran's nuclear programme, in exchange for phasing out sanctions that are hurting its oil-dependent economy.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
...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...
[Beirut Daily Star] When ISIS fighters swept into northern Iraq's second city 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Joe 
