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Today: 59 articles and 120 comments as of 10:30.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Drone Strike Kills 4 Qaida Suspects in Yemen's Mukalla
Today's Headlines
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Afghanistan
Suicide attack thwarted in Kapisa
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A would-be jacket wallah who planned to carry out attack has been nabbed
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
by the National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
(NDS) -- Afghanistan's intelligence agency -- in Kapisa province.

A statement issued Monday by the NDS identifies the arrested attacker as Hazar Gul S/O Kajal a resident of Kara Taz area of the thriving provincial capital of Kapisa province.

NDS statement adds that "A boom jacket, two Kalashnikovs, a pistol, seven hand grenades, 12 kilograms of bombs, hundreds of rounds of different weapons and military equipment" were seized with the assailant.

This comes as the country is witnessing a tough time from the murderous Moslems.

Clashes are ongoing between security forces and bully boyz in several parts of the country causing heavy casualties holy warriors but national security forces also suffer casualties.

Also, a suicide kaboom claimed the lives of three people and maimed 18 others in capital Kabul on Monday.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Ghani says 19 abducted passengers freed without prisoner swap
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
said the 19 kidnapped passengers were freed without prisoner swap and denied the government has paid any ransom to the murderous Moslems.

The anti-government armed murderous Moslems released 19 of the 31 kidnapped passengers and were handed over to the local authorities in Jaghoori district of southeastern Ghazni province.

This comes as a member of the provincial council Asadullah Kakar said earlier that the hostages were released in exchange of 22 Uzbeks including women and kiddies.

President Ghani said the government's policy does not allow prisoner swap and no detainee who is serving for his crime has been sprung in exchange of the kidnapped passengers release.

He said a number of children were swapped in exchange for the release of the hostages.

According to President Ghani the children were family members of a number of foreign murderous Moslems who had taken refuge in Badakhshan caves and were killed after they detonated explosives while humanitarian workers approached to assist them during the winter time.

President Ghani also added that the government is working to free the remaining kidnapped passengers but did not elaborate further.

The 31 passengers were kidnapped by the anti-government armed murderous Moslems while they were travelling in two buses in southern Zabul province in the month of February.
An Nahar adds:
Nineteen of 31 Shiite Moslem men kidnapped in Afghanistan in February were released Monday in exchange for scores of Uzbek holy warrior fighters held in government prisons, officials said.

Asadullah Kakar, a provincial council member of Zabul province, told AFP the Hazaras were freed "in exchange of 22 Uzbek holy warrior fighters".

Kakar said "these Uzbek holy warrior fighters were detained when they entered Afghan soil from the bordering North Wazoo tribal area of Pakistain."

But Hasan Reza Yousufi, a provincial council member in Ghazni province, claimed there was a lower number of the exchanged prisoners, saying "10 to 16 Taliban detainees from Chechnya and Uzbekistan" were part of the swap.

Hazara Moslems are often the target of sectarian violence at the hands of Sunni Moslem gunnies in Pakistain, though such attacks have been relatively rare in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
At least 2 soldiers shot dead in Kismayo
Kismayo -- Unidentified gunmen have shot and killed 2 Interim Juba Administration soldiers in the coastal town of Kismayo in southern Somalia’s Lowere Juba region, witnesses said. A witness said that gunmen armed with pistols killed a local soldier, collecting taxes from small shops in Fanole area in Kismayo, adding that the killers escaped from the scene.
As if they'd never been there, except for the dead guys...
Meanwhile, another soldier was shot and killed by masked gunmen near army checkpoint in Kismayo town, the capital of Somalia’s Lower Juba region, according to witnesses.
Masked gunmen. Lone Ranger?
All the attackers who carried out the assassinations fled from the shooting scene before Juba forces arrived at the crime spot, said a witness who spoke to Shabelle Media in Mogadishu.

Kismayo, a town is situated 328 miles (528 km) southwest of Mogadishu is under control of Somalia National Army, along with AU forces from Kenya.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Rebels Kill Eight Malian Soldiers in Restive North
[AnNahar] Eight Malian soldiers were killed Monday in the country's restive north in an ambush by fighters from the west African nation's main Tuareg-led rebel alliance, humanitarian and security sources told AFP.

"During an ambush of the Malian army by the rebel Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) between Timbuktu and Goundam on Monday morning, eight Malian soldiers were killed and several maimed," an official from a charity in the area said.

The source said two Malian army vehicles had also been set on fire while the rebels lost one of their vehicles.

The Malian army refused to comment officially but a military source linked to reinforcements sent to the scene confirmed the information.

"We have eight dead and 10 maimed, and soldiers who are missing for the time being," the source said, adding that it was not yet clear if the CMA had sustained casualties.

A Timbuktu-based military source from MINUSMA, the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
peacekeeping mission in Mali, told AFP the rebels had waited in four vehicles for the troops, who were due to take over a patrol.

"This is a carefully prepared ambush," the source said.

A CMA leader told AFP the rebel movement had "ambushed the Malian military" and that "the corpse count was not yet known."
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Libyan military shells Turkish cargo ship
Another version here.
Benghazi -- Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognised government said on Monday they shelled a Turkish ship off the Libyan coast after it was warned not to approach, and one crew member was killed in what Turkey described as a “contemptible attack”.

Libya is in a perpetual state of violent factional chaos with two rival governments backed by various armed groups vying for control of the oil-producing North African state including its ports, four years after rebels overthrew Muammar Gaddafi.

The dry cargo ship was targeted about 10 miles from the coast on Sunday after it was told not to break a ban on approaching the eastern city of Derna, Libyan military spokesman Mohamed Hejazi said. The forces of Libya’s internationally recognised government have said they will hit any ships approaching Derna to stop supplies getting to Islamist militants based there.
So what did the Turkish captain do? First sensible thing is to stay away from Derna. Second sensible thing is to phone home for advice. Third sensible thing is to retreat to the fleshpots of Naples. But no, he wasn't sensible...
The Turkish foreign ministry said the vessel was shelled as it approached the nearby Mediterranean port of Tobruk and then attacked from the air as it tried to leave the area.
Tobruk isn't exactly next door to Derna but apparently it wasn't far enough away...
“We condemn strongly this contemptible attack which targeted a civilian ship in international waters and curse those who carried it out,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Ankara had protested to the authorities in Libya.
I think the Turks, with that mealy-mouthed statement, qualify for admission into the European Union...
The third officer on the Cook Islands-chartered Tuna-1 vessel died and other crew members were wounded in the attacks, according to the Turkish statement.
Sounds like a job for the mighty Cook Islands Navy!
It did not specify the assailants, but said the vessel was carrying plasterboard from Spain to Tobruk and was 21km from its destination when it came under fire.

Hejazi confirmed that one crew member was killed and said one other person was wounded.

A Libyan military source said the vessel was on fire and being towed to Tobruk terminal. But a Turkish foreign ministry official denied this, saying it was returning to Turkey.

“Turkey approached the United Nations and the IMO (International Maritime Organization) in connection with the matter. A note was given to Libya’s Ankara embassy and Istanbul consulate seeking an explanation,” the Turkish official said.

Internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni said in February his government would stop dealing with Turkey because it was sending weapons to a rival group in Tripoli so that “the Libyan people kill each other”.

Turkey denies taking sides in the conflict, saying it supports UN-led efforts to broker a peace.

Attacks on foreign ships in waters near Libya may complicate European Union efforts to stop traffickers sending thousands of migrants to Europe in often unseaworthy vessels.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "the vessel was carrying plasterboard from Spain"

I wonder if there might be something "interesting" hidden under that plasterboard.
Posted by: tipover || 05/12/2015 2:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder what was IN that plasterboard. Drywall is packaged in stacks wrapped with steel bands.

You could hollow out an area and pack all sorts of things in there.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/12/2015 7:45 Comments || Top||

#3  But how are home flippers supposed to redecorate in the face of this onslaught? Next it'll be the granite countertops.
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/12/2015 9:08 Comments || Top||

#4  ^ "Tonight on 'Flip This Hovel' - from Derna..."
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2015 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  He died for Sheetrock.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2015 10:44 Comments || Top||

#6  There appears to be some kind of wide spread prejudice against Turkish shipping. Navi Marmara, and now this.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/12/2015 10:48 Comments || Top||

#7  OTOH compare wid DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAN WARSHIPS [Navy] WILL ESCORT YEMEN-BOUND CARGO SHIP: IRNA - YAHOO NEWS.

To HOUTHIS-CONTROLLED YEMEN PORT OF HODAIDA.

versus

* TOPIX > [Times of Israel] IRAN THREATENS WAR [agz any Country] IFF "AID SHIP" TO YEMEN ATTACKED.

* SAME > [Xinhua Net] US URGES IRAN TO DIVERT/REDIRECT YEMEN-BOUND CARGO SHIP TO AVOID POTENTIAL CONFRONTATION WID SAUDI ARABIA.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/12/2015 22:21 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
'Two Cameroon Soldiers Killed' Fighting Boko Haram near Nigeria
[AnNahar] Two soldiers from Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
have been killed and at least two others maimed in an attack by Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
fighters near the Nigerian border, security sources told AFP on Monday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one Cameroonian military officer said two troops were killed, and an officer and a soldier injured in a clash on Saturday with the Islamists.

A security source said the troops had been ambushed while patrolling Krawa-Maffa, a northern village located one kilometer (less than a mile) away from the Nigerian border.

On the other side of the frontier, "the Nigerian army is striking Boko Haram's positions almost every day, while the holy warriors are trying their hardest to cross over to our side," the Cameroonian source said.

Nigeria's military has claimed a series of major victories over Boko Haram across the northeast during an operation launched in February with support from Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

But the snuffies still hold positions along the Cameroonian border with Nigeria, in the Sambisa Forest and Mandara mountains.

Nigeria's authorities say they are winning the war against Boko Haram, and that they aim to recapture the group's Sambisa stronghold by May 29, when president-elect Muhammadu Buhari is due to take office.

Chadian and Cameroonian forces have also seized Boko Haram positions nearby.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Drone Strike Kills 4 Qaida Suspects in Yemen's Mukalla
[AnNahar] Four suspected al-Qaeda members were killed Monday in an apparent U.S. drone strike on the Yemeni port city of Mukalla, which the jihadists overran last month, an official said.

The drone targeted a vehicle at the entrance to a presidential palace in Mukalla, capital of the southeastern province of Hadramawt, the official said, asking not to be named.

"Four al-Qaeda members were killed, including leaders, and others maimed," he said, without being able to name those killed.

A U.S. drone strike last month killed the senior al-Qaeda official who appeared in a video claiming the deadly January attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo
...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
, a monitor said Thursday.

Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi was killed in the April strike along with his eldest son and other fighters, also near the palace in Mukalla.

The announcement of his death came in a video posted last week on Twitter by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
-- which Washington considers the international terror network's deadliest branch.

The United States is the only country that operates drones over war-torn Yemen.

Al-Qaeda has exploited fighting between rebels and beleaguered government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition to consolidate its grip on Hadramawt province.

Washington has acknowledged that al-Qaeda is gaining ground but has vowed to keep up its battle against the group.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Heavy bombing on Yemen border area by Saudi forces and Houthis
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Yemen's Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
militia and Saudi forces traded heavy artillery and rocket fire in border areas on Monday, residents said, a day before a five-day humanitarian truce
..The purposes of a truce are twofold: 1.) bring up more arms, ammunition, and reinforcements; and 2.) get the enemy to relax his vigilance. A truce is not the same thing as a ceasefire, and a ceasefire doesn't mean you have to stop shooting...
was due to take effect.

The Houthis said they fired Katyusha rockets and mortars on the Saudi cities of Jizan and Najran on Monday, after the Saudis hit Saada and Hajjah provinces with more than 150 rockets.

Saudi planes also struck positions of the Iranian-allied Houthi group in the central city of Taiz and in the oil-producing Marib province east of the capital Sanaa.

There were no immediate details on any casualties.

More than six weeks of air strikes by Sunni Moslem Gulf monarchies' jets have failed to push back the Shi'ite Houthis and militia and army units loyal to the Houthis' ally, ex-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...
The rebels, whose ties to regional rival Iran has rattled the Gulf Arabs, remain the dominant political force in the impoverished Arab country that borders Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, the world's top oil exporter.

Saudi Arabia has offered a five-day ceasefire starting on Tuesday evening to allow delivery of humanitarian supplies into the country, but warned that the truce depended on the Houthis abiding by that deal.

A group of 17 international aid agencies said on Sunday that five days was not sufficient to provide relief to the country, which after weeks of an air and sea blockade is suffering severe food and medicine shortages.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  A group of 17 international aid agencies said on Sunday that five days was not sufficient to provide relief to the country

I'm sure a year isn't long enough. You'll have to make due with 5 days or become targets
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2015 9:54 Comments || Top||


Strike force at Yemen border
[ARABNEWS] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
announced on Monday that a strike force had arrived on the border with Yemen.

It happened as Yemen's Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
militia and the Saudi-led coalition forces traded heavy artillery and rocket fire in border areas on Monday, residents said, on the eve of a five-day humanitarian truce
..The purposes of a truce are twofold: 1.) bring up more arms, ammunition, and reinforcements; and 2.) get the enemy to relax his vigilance. A truce is not the same thing as a ceasefire, and a ceasefire doesn't mean you have to stop shooting...
The Houthis said they fired Katyusha rockets and mortars on the Saudi cities of Jazan and Najran on Monday, after the Saudis hit Saada and Hajah provinces with more than 150 rockets.

Saudi planes also struck positions of the Iranian-allied Houthi group in the central city of Taiz and in the oil-producing Marib province east of the capital Sanaa.

A Pak expatriate died and four others including a Saudi child were maimed when a mortar launched by the Houthis fell on a school and house in Najran, said a front man of the Civil Defense in the region.

In Jazan, a Saudi died and four others including a citizen and three expatriates were maimed when another Houthi mortar fell on a residential area in Harth, said Maj. Yahya Abdullah Al-Qahtani, front man of the Civil Defense in Jazan.

The latest fatalities bring to 11 the corpse count in Saudi Arabia since the Houthis began firing rockets and mortars over the border last week.

Civil Defense front man Ali Al-Shahrani told a local channel that the school and residential area in Najran came under fire at 7 a.m. on Monday.

A group of 17 international aid agencies said on Sunday that five days were not sufficient to provide relief to the country.

Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake...
a Moroccan F-16 fighter jet taking part in the anti-Houthi air campaign has gone missing, Morocco's armed forces said early Monday. The plane had been missing since 6 p.m. the previous day, a statement carried by the state news agency MAP said.

The pilot of a second jet has said he did not see pilot of the missing jet eject. The MAP statement said an investigation was under way into the whereabouts of the missing jet.

On Monday, Houthi militias broadcast a video they said was showing wreckage of the missing jet.

Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Bangladesh
Another Bangla blogger hacked to death
[CNN] Ananta Bijoy Das was killed Tuesday morning as he left his home for his job at a bank in the northeastern Bangladeshi city of Sylhet.

Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan said four masked men attacked him, and hacked him to death with cleavers. The men then fled. Because of the early hour when the attack happened, there were few witnesses.

Imran Sarker, who heads the Blogger and Online Activists Network in Bangladesh, said, "It's one after another after another. It's the same scenario again and again. It's very troubling."

Das' death was at least the third one this year of someone who was killed for online criticism of Islam. In every case, the attacks were carried out publicly on city streets.
That's part of the message...
Das was an atheist who contributed to Mukto Mona, the blog that Roy founded. Mukto Mona contains sections titled "Science" and "Rationalism," but most of the articles hold science up to religion as a litmus test, which it fails.

While critical of fundamentalism and attacks on secular thought, he was mostly concerned with championing science, according to a fellow blogger.

He was the editor of a local science magazine, Jukti (meaning, Reason) and wrote several books, including one work on Darwin. Sarker said, "He was a voice of social resistance; he was an activist. And now, he too has been silenced."
Posted by: ryuge || 05/12/2015 03:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  brave, brave man. Now he's dead. It's for men like this that I proudly wear cartoons of mohammad on my t-shirts, every day a different one.
Posted by: anon1 || 05/12/2015 4:06 Comments || Top||

#2  It is the official policy of the current US administration that the future not belong to people like Mr Das.

Shouldn't the White House or the State Department actually offer some measure of public praise and recognition for these 'masked men'?

</sarc>
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 05/12/2015 17:35 Comments || Top||

#3  He was asking for it. He deserved to die. /western journalists
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/12/2015 17:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey, no foul. He failed to issue trigger warnings so they failed to offer him a safe space. What is the problem here?
Posted by: Alpha2c || 05/12/2015 18:27 Comments || Top||

#5  ...coming to a street corner near you.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 05/12/2015 19:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey, if that's true, it's coming to Texas, I'll have to start ensuring I put spam in the hollow points:p
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/12/2015 20:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Ex-CIA officer jailed for 3.5 years in Iran leaks case
[IsraelTimes] Jeffrey Sterling revealed a classified plan to trick Tehran by slipping flawed nuclear blueprints through a Russian intermediary

A former CIA officer has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for leaking details of a secret mission to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Jeffrey Sterling had faced a recommended sentence of 20 years or more under federal sentencing guidelines for violations of the Espionage Act.

A jury convicted him in January of telling New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
journalist James Risen about a classified plan to trick the Iranian government by slipping flawed nuclear blueprints through a Russian intermediary.

Prosecutors sought a stiff sentence at Monday's hearing in federal court in Alexandria. The defense said his punishment should be more in line with that of former CIA Director David Petraeus. He got probation last month for leaking classified information to his biographer, who was also his mistress.

The classified operation at the heart of the trial involved using a CIA asset nicknamed Merlin, who had been a Russian nuclear engineer. Merlin traveled to Vienna in 2000 to foist deliberately flawed nuclear-weapons blueprints on the Iranians, hoping they would spend years trying to develop parts that had no hope of ever working.

Former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testified at Sterling's trial that the Merlin mission was one of the few options available to the US as it sought to stop Iran's nuclear program. She said the mission was one of the most closely held secrets during her time as national security adviser.

Risen published details of the Merlin operation in his 2006 book "State of War." He had tried to publish a newspaper article in 2003, but Rice persuaded Times editors to kill the story, saying its publication would put lives at risk.

Sterling was under investigation for years as a potential source of the leak and was charged in 2010. The trial was delayed for four years, though, in part because of legal wrangling about whether Risen could be forced to testify. An appeals court eventually ruled against Risen, who sought immunity from a subpoena on First Amendment grounds.

Ultimately, though, prosecutors opted against putting Risen on the stand after he made clear that he would be uncooperative. Prosecutors were also hamstrung by then-Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder
... aka Mister Fast and Furious...
, who restricted the questions they could pose to him and reduced their leverage by promising that the Justice Department would not seek to jail news hounds for contempt of court if they refused to testify.

Without Risen's testimony, prosecutors built a circumstantial case against Sterling. They introduced evidence showing regular contact between Risen and Sterling by phone and email, though they never produced evidence to show that the two discussed classified information.

Prosecutors argued that Sterling was motivated by spite to retaliate against perceived mistreatment at the agency. Sterling, who is African-American, had sued the agency for racial discrimination but had a lawsuit tossed out after the CIA invoked a state-secrets privilege.

Defense lawyers had argued that Sterling had talked about his misgivings with the Merlin operation to congressional staffers who oversee intelligence agencies and that those staffers were likely the source of the leak.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sterling went rogue. Leak Central was not involved. Lesson to the rest, coordinate your leaks through the proper office. BTW, be advised, the 'race card' is not accepted at these levels.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/12/2015 15:29 Comments || Top||


US supporter of Islamic State gets 4-1/2 years in prison
[Ynet] A Virginia woman was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison on Monday for lying to US investigators about using social media to promote and recruit for the militant Islamic State group.

Heather Elizabeth Coffman, 29, of Glen Allen, Virginia, pleaded guilty to the charge in January. She admitted that between approximately June and November last year she used several Facebook accounts to promote the group and claimed to have Islamic State contacts in Syria.

During that time she was in a relationship with an unidentified foreign national outside the United States, whom she tried to help travel to Syria to fight for Islamic State. They communicated almost daily on Facebook until he backed out of the trip after their relationship ended in September.

Coffman listed "jihad for Allah's sake" under her "work and education" on Facebook, according to the FBI, and was in contact online with individuals she believed were ISIS facilitators in Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
Bomb Kills Six in Pakistan Tribal Area
[AnNahar] bomb kaboom on Monday killed at least six people including a pro-government tribal elder in a restive Pak region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The attack took place in the village of Barkamar, part of the Bajaur tribal district where the military has been battling Taliban and other bandidos hard boyz linked to Al-Qaeda.

"An improvised bomb planted along the roadside went off as the vehicle of a local pro-government tribal elder, Malik Muhammad Jan, passed by it, leaving him and five others dead," senior district official Fayyaz-ul-Haq Sherpao told Agence La Belle France Presse.

He said Malik Muhammad Jan was a leading member of a local peace committee, which in Pakistain work to apprehend bandidos hard boyz operating in their areas.

Another local official, Shah Nazeer, confirmed the incident and casualty toll.

No one has so far grabbed credit for the attack, but the Taliban have often targeted pro-government tribal elders in the area.

Bajaur is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along Pakistain's mountainous western border. They became a hotbed of Islamist bandidos hard boyz following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
ISIS demands ransom for the release of 212 Assyrian hostages
[ARA] The Assyrian Network for Human Rights (ANHR) revealed Monday that the negotiations between some Assyrian leaders and 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....
(IS/ISIS) on the release of the Assyrian hostages were suspended after the group asked for $22million as a ransom for their release.

Speaking to ARA News, civil rights activist from the town of Tel Temir in Hasakah province, northeastern Syria, said that secret negotiations were taking place between some Assyrian leading members and the Islamic State group, mediated by Arab tribal figures.

"The group, through asking for such a big amount of money, is trying to put more pressure on the U.S.-led international coalition," an Assyrian source said on condition of anonymity, pointing out that the group may kill some Assyrian abductees in an attempt to force negotiators paying the ransom.

Ransom returns are deemed as a main financial resource of the radical group to cover the costs of its military operations in Syria and Iraq.

About 212 Assyrian hostages are held by the IS Lions of Islam in Hasakah province, after the group stormed Assyrian villages in the countryside of Tel Temir in the province. Among the hostages there area at least 84 women, 39 children, and dozens of elderly men.

The ANHR expressed its deep concerns about the fate of the Assyrian hostages, appealing to the international community to intervene and assist in releasing them from fist of the murderous Moslem group.

The Islamic State kidnapped 235 civilians in the countryside of Tel Temir on February 23. Of them, 23 have been released, while 212 others are still held by the IS bad boys.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


ISIS blows up west Mosul bridge to stall Peshmerga
[RUDAW.NET] 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....
Death Eaters continue to reinforce defenses in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
province, on Monday detonating a bridge in the western sub-district of Ayaz, a well-placed security source inside Mosul told Rudaw.

"After the capture of many Kurdish areas, including Shingal, Zumar and the sub-district of Rabia in Mosul, the Islamic State has begun bombing bridges fearing the Peshmerga might launch a surprise assault to capture areas from ISIS," the source said on condition of anonymity.

According to the source, the Islamic State, or ISIS, has been planting most Mosul bridges with bombs to be ready for any attack.

Last month, ISIS destroyed Badoosh Bridge near the eastern Tigris River in Mosul.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  bastards
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2015 14:41 Comments || Top||


Source: ISIS car bomb 'mastermind' killed in Fallujah
[RUDAW.NET] An ISIS leader described as the murderous Moslem group's "criminal mastermind of boom-mobiles" was killed along with several turbans in Fallujah in Anbar province, a well-placed source in the provincial police told Rudaw on Monday.

"After the bombardment of several ISIS arsenals and weaponry bases in the south of Fallujah by the coalition Arclight airstrikes, Abu Jaber, the ISIS criminal mastermind of making boom-mobiles was killed along with several other turbans," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The source added: "The Arclight airstrikes are still underway and we are monitoring ISIS maneuvers in nearby areas in order to bomb them and their positions, especially areas around Fallujah."

Fallujah has been firmly under control of the turbans since it was overrun by ISIS in January 2014. According to reports from the front, there has been little progress in efforts to retake it.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraqi forces recapture oil fields in Anbar, Salahaddin
[RUDAW.NET] Iraqi joint forces have seized oil fields from ISIS jihadists in the Salahaddin-Anbar border area, central government officials said.

"Forces from the Iraqi Army with Hashd al-Shaabi militias, police, tribal gunnies and with air support from the US-led coalition have been able to recapture oil fields in Ajil, east of Ramadi [Anbar province], and the Mount Hamreen border district with Salahaddin province," the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced in a statement Monday.

"An unknown number of Daesh gunnies were killed during the operation and several of their vehicles have been destroyed," said the statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Rashid Bayati, a member of the Salahaddin provincial council, confirmed to Rudaw on Sunday that Iraqi joint forces had successfully cleared Mount Hamreen from the holy warriors and have secured the oil fields by doing so.

"The Iraqi forces have killed at least 30 ISIS fighters during the Mount Hamreen operation, while destroying five armored vehicles," Bayati said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanese Troops Shot at from Syria after Mines Found near Northern Border
[AnNahar] A Lebanese army patrol came under gunfire from Syria on Monday as it was inspecting landmines near the border with the neighboring country, Leb's National News Agency reported.

"It came under fire from the Syrian side of the border but no casualties were reported," NNA said.

"The situation is calm at the moment," it added.

Earlier in the day, the agency said "a metallic barrel and two plastic crates containing several landmines were discovered on the Lebanese bank of the Grand River in the outskirts of the Wadi Khaled border town of al-Hisheh."

An army statement issued later on Monday said the barrel contained "a large number of anti-personnel landmines."

The landmines were "detonated on the spot by a military expert" as Military Police launched a probe into the incident, the statement added.

Ever since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, several border areas in the North and the East have come under cross-border gunfire and shelling.

The undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border has facilitated the flow of gunnies to and from Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They went to the border, found landmines, and were shot at from across the border.
How often do you guys get out of the barracks?
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/12/2015 7:48 Comments || Top||


72 Dead as Syria Army Battles to Free Loyalists
[AnNahar] At least 72 fighters were killed in a single day as the Syrian army battled to relieve some 250 besieged regime loyalists under rebel assault, a monitoring group said Monday.

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
had personally pledged to rescue the trapped troops and civilians, who are said to include senior figures and have been holed up in a hospital complex since rebels captured the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughur two weeks ago.

As the relief column fought its way to within two kilometers (just over a mile) of the complex on Sunday morning, the rebels launched an all-out assault, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 40 rebels and 32 government troops were killed in the heavy fighting that erupted inside the complex and with the advancing column, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The festivities continued into the early hours of Monday with the rebels retaking some ground from the advancing troops before being pushed back.

Among the 250 people holed up inside the complex are around 150 government troops, including "high-ranking officers," as well as their family members and some civil servants, Abdel Rahman said.

It is unclear how much food and ammunition they have left.

The rebels assaulting the complex include fighters of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

They seized the rest of Jisr al-Shughur on April 25, extending their gains in Idlib province, where they have also captured the picturesque provincial capital and a military base in recent weeks.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Jaysh al-Islam kills 25 soldiers east Damascus: statement
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Jaysh al-Islam has killed 25 Syrian regime soldiers in a surprise attack, the main rebel group in Eastern Ghouta Suburbs said in statement Sunday.

The Saudi-backed group launched a surprise attack late on Saturday on military posts in Deir Salman and al-Zamania villages east of Syrian capital, leaving 25 soldiers dead and dozens maimed, according to the statement.

Islam Army has seize a large number of weapons, the statement said.

Eastern Ghouta district has witnessed a fierce fighting between Islamist groups and Bashir al-Assad forces.

Activists say Assad wants to raise his supporters morale by making gains on the ground near Damascus but the remarkable victories of the armed opposition have embarrassed him as well as have increased the panic state among Alawite minority.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Barrel bombs hit Red Crescent's aid stores in Aleppo
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syrian air force has targeted aid stores of Syrian Red Islamic Thingy in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, leaving huge material damage, Zaman al-Wasl news hound said.

The barrel-kaboom on the aid store in al-Ferdous neighborhood was the second in two days targeting Red Islamic Thingy facilities in Aleppo.

International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) has always demanded all conflicting parties in Syria to protect SRC team and volunteers as well as to avoid targeting its convoys.

Last week, one female volunteer was killed in rebel-held city of Douma near Damascus when Bashir al-Assad's warplanes hit their aid convoy in the city.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Bashar al-Assad's spy chief arrested over Syria coup plot
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The Assad regime has placed its intelligence chief under house arrest after suspecting he was plotting a coup, in a sign that battlefield losses are setting off increasing paranoia in Damascus.

Ali Mamlouk, the head of the country's National Security Bureau, and one of the few officials still to have access to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
, was accused of holding secret talks with countries backing rebel groups and exiled members of the Syrian regime.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

There seems some dispute about this.

http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/did-ali-mamlouk-assads-spy-chief-try-to-carry-out-a-coup/
Posted by: BernardZ || 05/12/2015 7:21 Comments || Top||


Syrian regime air force pounds rebel-held town, 10 civilians killed
[ARA] The Syrian regime's warplanes bombed Monday the Christian village of al-Qinya in the northern countryside of Jisr al-Shighur in Idlib province, killing at least ten civilians, including children and women, and wounding more than 24 others, local activists reported.

Speaking to ARA News in Idlib, journalist Hashem al-Abdullah said that al-Qinya village --where Christian constitute majority who currently host displaced families form neighboring areas-- was struck by the pro-Assad warplanes with two missiles.

Similar attack hit a number of villages around Ariha town in Idlib province, including Gorrin village. No casualties reported.

In the meantime, forces of Evil of al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front (Syria's branch of al-Qaeda) stormed Monday the regime's main stronghold of the National Hospital in Jisr al-Shugour city, where a number of regime's high-ranking commanders were stationed.

Activists in the vicinity of the hospital told ARA News that fierce festivities continued until Monday evening between Nusra fighters and pro-Assad forces in the area following the Nusra-led attack that caused casualties in the regime forces' ranks.

On Sunday, the Syrian regime forces sent several military convoys of the National Defense militia, the Afghan Fatimids brigade and Lebanese Hezbollah militias to Jisr al-Shugour in order to lift the siege on soldiers trapped inside the National Hospital, amid heavy bombardment by the pro-Assad air force on the vicinity of the hospital
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


ISIS slammed by airstrikes on Mosul-Tal Afar road
[RUDAW.NET] Warplanes from the US-led coalition have bombarded ISIS positions near the main djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
-Tal Afar road, killing 10 of the group's myrmidons, a Peshmerga official on the Mosul Dam front told Rudaw on Monday.

"The warplanes managed to target the forces of Evil in the villages of Peshta and Tal-Saman," the Peshmerga officer said.

The strategic road has been hotly contested for months. In March, a powerful force of an estimated 500 ISIS fighters mounted a massive assault on Peshmerga frontlines near the intersection of the Hardan and Tal Afar roads. At least 30 gunnies were killed in the festivities and four Peshmerga were maimed.

Tal Afar, a city and district in northwestern Mosul province, is located approximately 63km west of Mosul. The area has been held by ISIS since last year
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Terror Networks
US, allies conduct 18 air strikes against Islamic State militants
[Ynet] US-led forces targeted 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....
turbans in Syria with nine air strikes from Sunday morning through Monday morning and conducted another nine strikes against the group in Iraq, the US military said on Wednesday.

Most of the Syrian strikes, six, hit targets near Al Hasakah, where they destroyed Islamic State fighting positions, vehicles, mortar positions, heavy machine guns and a supply point. There were also air strikes near Ar Raqqah and Kobani, according to a military state.

In Iraq, forces struck targets near Bayji, Fallujah,
... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids...
Haditha, djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, Ramadi and Sinjar.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Baghdadi immobile: IS to 'elect' stand-in leader
[ARABNEWS] The chief 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....
holy warrior group has reportedly been moved from Iraq to Syria amid tight security, holy warrior defectors told US-based news site The Daily Beast in a report on Sunday.

The transfer of 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...
to the northern city of Raqqa, which is the capital of the group's self-declared caliphate, comes two months after serious injuries that left his spine damaged and his left leg immobile.

In March, British media had reported that Baghdadi was maimed in an Arclight airstrike launched by the US-led coalition.

However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
Pentagon front man Col. Steve Warren had told The Daily Beast: "We have no reason to believe it was Baghdadi."

A group of nine doctors was also transferred to the Syrian city to treat the leader who was moved after top commanders decided he would be safer in Raqqa than djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, where an Iraqi offensive is expected to start later this summer to recapture Iraq's second largest city.

Although mentally alert and able to issue orders, Baghdadi's wounds led the group's religious governing Shoura Council to make a final decision on a momentary stand-in leader.

The substitute leader, who is expected to be under the rule of Baghdadi, will be a super deputy to the caliph, according to the news website.

He will be expected to travel back and forth between front-lines in Syria and Iraq and handle day-to-day leadership in the caliphate.

The name of the super deputy to the caliph is due to be announced this week by the Shoura Council.

Some names who emerged as potential contenders included Abu Ali Al-Anbari, a Mosul native and former major general in the Iraqi Army as well as former physics teacher, Abu Ala Al-Afri and the current Islamic State governor of Raqqa, Abu Luqman.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Is that immobile as in paralyzed or immobile as in Yasser Arafat immobile?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/12/2015 1:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Are bedpans halal? Colostomy bags?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/12/2015 17:29 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Sat 2015-05-09
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Thu 2015-05-07
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Wed 2015-05-06
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Mon 2015-05-04
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Thu 2015-04-30
   Iraqi forces make hard gains in rough Ramadi
Wed 2015-04-29
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