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IS Attacks Syria Druze Village, Battles for Palmyra
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
2 21:29 Iblis [9]
6 16:26 SteveS [3]
10 12:59 Besoeker [4]
18 20:01 Frank G [6]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
House Benghazi panel subpoenas Sidney Blumenthal
[Rooters] Congressional investigators have issued a subpoena demanding that former Clinton White House adviser Sidney Blumenthal testify next month before the House of Representatives committee investigating the 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

The subpoena, a copy of which was made available to Reuters, demands that Blumenthal appear before the House committee on June 3 to give a deposition. The subpoena is dated Monday but carries a notation indicating an unnamed deputy U.S. marshal served it on Blumenthal's wife on Tuesday.

The copy of the subpoena contains no further details about the subject matter of the deposition.

"I can confirm Mr. Blumenthal has been called for a deposition by the committee," Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, the Benghazi committee chairman, said in response to a Reuters query.

More than two years ago, a set of emails sent by Blumenthal to Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state were posted on the Internet by a hacker who called himself Guccifer. Blumenthal did not work for Clinton when she was secretary of state and sent those emails as a private individual.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/20/2015 11:50 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now, that could be (but probably won't) interesting.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/20/2015 12:53 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd stay away from Fort Marcy Park, or any other secluded stop over for the time being.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/20/2015 14:22 Comments || Top||

#3  He won't roll over on her. He's a POS true-believer and practitioner of the sleazy arts, just like his anti-semite offspring Max. A truly twisted and despicable family tree that would be better off hit repeatedly with Societal RoundUp™.


Note: he was even too cravenly evil and untrustworthy to be allowed into the Hildabeast's Dept of State by Obama
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2015 14:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Not wishing anyone harm, but as the plot thickens, I suspect we'll begin to see some classic Clintonian...... die off.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/20/2015 15:37 Comments || Top||

#5  ..another season of Game of Thrones:New World?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/20/2015 18:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Friends, plumbing the Clintons' "depends"
Means risking, ascending, the bends,
And some never rise,
But no one ever dies --
They just come to mysterious ends.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/20/2015 18:35 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Syria: Come for the falafels, stay for your demise
A British jihadist who skipped bail and claimed to have fled the UK to join Isis in Syria has purportedly released an e-book guide targeting Western recruits that compares territories under the extremist group to a “plush holiday resort”.

Abu Rumaysah is named as the author on a document entitled 'A Brief Guide to the Islamic State' [2015]' which was released on Monday and is being shared across social media.

The 46-page document presents a utopian view of life in the terror group's Iraqi and Syrian strongholds under the headings: "food in the caliphate", "weather", "transport", "technology", "people" and "education".

Some of the many outlandish claims include that Isis is "dead serious" about its transport networks. "The natural progression for the transport network in the Islamic State has to be trains then ships and aeroplanes," it states, "but everything is on the table: zeppelins, hovercrafts, trams [and] microlites."
Posted by: badanov || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Some of the many outlandish claims include that Isis is "dead serious" about its transport networks. "The natural progression for the transport network in the Islamic State has to be trains then ships and aeroplanes," it states, "but everything is on the table: zeppelins, hovercrafts, trams [and] microlites."

"We are working in coordination with California Governor Brown's High Speed Rail"
Snark of the Day
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2015 9:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, but do the hovercraft come with the eel options?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 05/20/2015 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Yandelvayasna grldenwi stravenka!
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/20/2015 12:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Polish, RM?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/20/2015 12:56 Comments || Top||

#5  They might find that subway systems can do double duty as bomb shelters.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 05/20/2015 14:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Hungarian g, from The Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/20/2015 18:53 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Judge sentences 11 Afghan police over lynching of woman in Kabul
[DAWN] An Afghan judge sentenced 11 police on Tuesday to one year in jail for failing to prevent the mob killing of a woman in Kabul who was accused of burning a copy of the Koran.

The incident happened when a frenzied crowd beat and kicked the woman, named Farkhunda, to death on March 19 and set her body on fire as several coppers looked on near a shrine in central Kabul.

An Afghan judge sentenced four men to death, including the caretaker of a shrine who falsely accused the woman of desecrating the holy book.
The judge freed eight other officers accused of failure to carry out their duty for lack of evidence.

The beating death of the 27-year-old woman, sparked outrage and demonstrations in the Afghan capital even before it was revealed that she had not desecrated Islam's holy book.

Earlier in the month, Afghan judge sentenced four men to death that includes the caretaker of a shrine who falsely accused the woman of desecrating the holy book.

Several protests against religious extremism and violence against women sprang up in Kabul after the lynching.

It is the first time since 2001 that a popular movement has been mobilised in support of a woman.

Women's rights were enshrined in Afghanistan's constitution after the Taliban were ousted by a US-backed military intervention, but the society largely remains deeply conservative.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Government agrees new homes for Benghazi; Zintan to get medical faculty.
[Libya Herald] The government has approved the construction of 2,000 new homes units in Benghazi.

At a presser yesterday in Beida, government spokesperson Hatem Al-Oraibi said that the government has accepted a proposal by the General Projects Authority to build 2,000 new housing units in Benghazi. The government wanted them to be built in accordance with the latest regulations but at the lowest price possible, he said.

A year of bitter fighting in Benghazi between Operation Dignity and the Libyan National Army on one side and Islamist revolutionaries on the other has left parts of the city badly damaged, if not completely destroyed, and the government has set its reconstruction as a priority.

However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
there are still large numbers of empty blocks in the city, unfinished at the revolution, comprising thousands of potential new apartments. Built mainly by the Chinese, the construction companies had refused to finish them until compensation was agreed for the loss of work during the revolution.

In health sector, Oraibi said the government had agreed that Zintan Surgical Hospital should come under the authority of the Health Ministry and be developed. Also it decided to establish a faculty of medicine in the town.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Tobruk soldiers protest over salary non-payment
[Libya Herald] A group of army protestors who had blockaded the entrance to the regional military headquarters in Tobruk, claiming their had not been paid for nearly a year, today stopped their action after being promised that they would be given a month's backpay immediately and the rest in instalments.

The protestors, who started the blockade last Thursday and had threatened to go on strike, are part of a fourth batch of some 1,200 soldiers who had been trained for the post-revolution Libyan army. They started their training in Tobruk in 2013 and graduated in February last year. "Since then, we've not had any salary from the army", one of the protestors said on condition of anonymity.

Most of the 1,200 have been working in Tobruk and the surrounding area in various military institutions and, according to another protestor, never stopped working despite the lack of payment. They had met officials from the Libyan army chief of staff to discus the problem but they still did not get paid, the protestor claimed.

He said that what prompted them to take action was the discovery that the group of soldiers who graduated after them had been paid.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  See Ferguson.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/20/2015 8:49 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Is Saudi Arabia seeking nuclear weapons from Pakistan?
[CNN] A Saudi defense official on Tuesday dismissed as "speculation" a media report that 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...
is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistain amid growing fears of a nuclear-armed Iran.

The Sunday Times of London reported that the Saudis had "taken the 'strategic decision' to acquire 'off-the-shelf' atomic weapons from Pakistain," citing unnamed senior American officials.

Contacted about the report by CNN, a Saudi Defense Ministry official said: "I don't understand what the story is. This has been in the news for 18 years and will continue to be for the next 15 years."

The official added, "The ministry does not comment on rumors and speculation."

A U.S. State Department official noted Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

"It has committed never to acquire nuclear weapons, and to apply full international safeguards to all peaceful nuclear activities," the official said. "We attach great importance to Saudi Arabia's continued implementation of these commitments."

The Sunday Times reported the move by the Saudis -- said by the newspaper to have been bankrolling much of the Pak nuclear program for three decades -- comes amid concern among Sunni Arab nations over a framework deal on Iran's nuclear program that aims to limit Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  "It has committed never to acquire nuclear weapons" yada yada yada.
OK. A Pakistani Air Force transport lands at King Khalid air base, is towed into a hanger, and plugged into base power and support. Doors close.
"We don't have the bomb. The Paks have the bomb"
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/20/2015 7:31 Comments || Top||

#2  I call BS on anyone who doesn't believe there is some truth to this rumor.

The KSA will get a nuke SOMEWHERE, even if they have to buy it from the Israelis to counter the mad mullahs in Teheran.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/20/2015 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  The Saooodis already paid for it in Pak R&D costs. They'll get one
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2015 9:02 Comments || Top||

#4  A U.S. State Department official noted Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

I thought Iran was too. So no problem, right? /sarc
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 05/20/2015 11:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes - next question
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/20/2015 12:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Fox is reporting the Israelis are considering...
Posted by: 3dc || 05/20/2015 12:49 Comments || Top||

#7  I'd say that Saudi, Jordan and Egypt all sign secret peace agreements with Israel and come under the Sampson Option Dome, an attack on one is an attack on all. Very kinda per WWI with secret alliances.
Posted by: Ebbatle Slinesing1040 || 05/20/2015 14:02 Comments || Top||

#8  So like the Saudis to buy instead of build.
Posted by: regular joe || 05/20/2015 14:48 Comments || Top||

#9  Quantity discounts?
Posted by: Daffy Brown4464 || 05/20/2015 21:39 Comments || Top||

#10  This is old news.
They either have several or means to have them delivered. They don't need anything too large, it's only going to Tehran.
Posted by: jvalentour || 05/20/2015 23:42 Comments || Top||


Europe
'Europe should address roots of extremism': Turkey FM
[AA.TR] Europe should fight against social exclusion of marginalized groups to tackle extremism and radicalization, says The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Speaking at the Council of Europe's annual Committee of Ministers on Tuesday in Brussels where foreign ministers across Europe are expected to adopt measures against imported muscle, Cavusoglu said Europe "should address the root causes of radicalization."

"Extremist groups have different cultural, psychological, and structural characteristics; there is no one-size-fits-all solution," Cavusoglu said.

"This is where the Council of Europe programs for fighting against the social exclusion of persons belonging to marginalized groups become essential," he said.

The Council of Europe's protocol aiming to prevent terrorism has so far been signed by 44 of the organization's 47 member states. It will require countries to criminalize acts of intentionally fighting with terrorist groups abroad.

The plan comes following the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo
...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
magazine in Gay Paree and anti-terror raids across Belgium in January, and twin shootings in Denmark in February.

Cavusoglu's comments on addressing social exclusion of certain groups in Europe echoed EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove's calls on EU member states in late January to fight against discrimination and Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
in Europe as part of an anti-terror strategy.

Officials say around 5,000 Europeans have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with myrmidon groups such as Daesh. Many return to Europe militarily trained and ideologically brainwashed.

EU officials have warned of discrimination against European Moslems in order to prevent radicalization, especially following anti-Islam protests in Germany and a series of arson attacks on mosques in Sweden.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is nothing but a brazen demand for danegeld and political surrender.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 05/20/2015 6:02 Comments || Top||

#2  "'Europe should address roots of extremism': Turkey FM"
Wouldn't this require bombing Turkey?
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/20/2015 7:26 Comments || Top||

#3  It was done before. They called it a Crusade. Given the leadership currently in Europe, a repeat would be just as (in)effective.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/20/2015 7:50 Comments || Top||

#4  After all, the Turks have done sooooo well with the Kurds...
Posted by: Pappy || 05/20/2015 9:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Export all Mooselimbs to Iraq and nuke all Mooselimb countries.

Got it Mr. Turkey man. Thanks!
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/20/2015 9:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Is he suggesting that Europe nuke Mecca?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/20/2015 14:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Muslims are insulted by everything about the West. The west should start denying them Visa's (and turning back immigrants and encouraging one-way trips back) to protect them.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/20/2015 14:51 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pervaiz Rasheed madrassa faux pas: Khawaja Asif attempts damage control
[DAWN] Defence Minister Khawaja Asif defended Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed's earlier statements calling religious seminaries "centres of ignorance and illiteracy" in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

He said Rasheed had referred only to a few seminaries against whom there is evidence of involvement in terrorism.

The defence minister asserted that out of the approximately more than 20,000 seminaries in Pakistain, only about three to four per cent assist miscreants or directly facilitate terrorism.

He went on to say that putting up banners or announcing fatwas against Rasheed is not a service to Islam.

He added that the information minister had already apologised and offered a clarification on his remarks in Senate, so the matter should be let go.

Pervaiz Rasheed faced heavy criticism from religious elements, mainly belonging to the Deobandi school of thought, following an address to a conference in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on May 3 where, speaking about madrassas, he said "These universities of ignorance, to whom we give donations and hides, are giving an ideology of hatred and conservativeness to the society."

Seminaries have come under greater surveillance following the December 2014 attacks on Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
's Army Public School.

Reports released by the Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
(KP) provincial governments investigating seminaries revealed 147 foreign-funded seminaries in Punjab, and 145 'highly-sensitive' seminaries in KP.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Gaffe: when a politician speaks the truth.
Posted by: Elminesing Glutle8691 || 05/20/2015 20:14 Comments || Top||


Nawaz praises Qaim's efforts
[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
telephoned Sindh chief minister and appreciated his efforts and that of the law enforcement agencies, especially police, on arresting four persons responsible for Safoora Goth incident.

While congratulating the chief minister, Nawaz expressed the government's sincere resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism from the country.

He said the arrest of plotters of this heinous crime in such a short time proves that Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
operation is going in the right direction and that our law enforcement agencies have the capability of handling such challenging tasks.

At least 43 people were killed and 13 others maimed on May 14 when gunnies opened fire inside a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community near Safoora Chowk in Karachi.

Sindh Police Inspector General Ghulam Haider Jamali said 60 people were on board the bus when six gunnies entered and executed 43 passengers.

He added that the gunnies used 9mm pistols to take out bus passengers from close range. The attackers managed to flee after the attack.

Ahmed Marwat, a front man for Jundullah, which is a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), had grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Uzbeks among 6 killed by US drones in Shawal
[DAWN] At least six suspected myrmidons, Uzbek nationals among them, were killed on Monday evening in a dronezap in North Wazoo's Shawal valley, near the Afghan border.

According to sources, two drones fired four missiles into a compound and a stationary vehicle in Zoi Naray village about 5km from the border, leaving six people dead and two others injured.

The dead included snuffies from Uzbekistan and local rustics affiliated with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), the sources said. Two of them stood guard outside the compound. "The vehicle caught fire after the attack," the sources said.

This was the second drone attack in the tribal region this month and the seventh this year, raising the total number of those killed to 41, including American hostage Warren Weinstein and Italian Lo Porto. The United States said senior Pak and American Al Qaeda leaders Ustad Ahmad Farooq and Ahmad Ghaddan were also killed in last month's drone strikes.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Iraq
Roadmap to be prepared for liberation day in Shingal
[RUDAW.NET] Policies for the reconstruction of a warzone are usually only made after the area is liberated, causing a delay in implementing necessary measures. To prevent that, two Kurdish NGOs are working with international aid groups on a roadmap for rebuilding the Sinjar region, where last August hundreds of thousands of Kurdish Yezidis fled when 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....
fighters entered.

"The military is working in freeing the region, so our plan is ready for the moment they succeed," said Chnar Abdullah, speaking for the Ashti Women Leaders for Peace Group and the Emma Organization for Humanitarian Development. "So no time is wasted to begin the healing and rebuilding process."

The former Kurdish minister of deaders presented the roadmap during a presser in the Kurdistan capital Erbil together with former Iraqi MP Tanya Gilly Khailany.

It is the result of the First Lalesh Conference for Peace and Coexistence that in March brought together aid workers, politicians, religious heads and officials from the governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan region. Funding and guidance came from the independent Dutch organization Hivos.S

The report put together the work of five workshops, with data about Yezidis from Shingal and their plight, and more general information about the numbers of internally displaced persons and the economic situation of Shingal before ISIS captured the region.

At the same time, it stated that there is a lack of solid data, with exact numbers for missing Yezidis still not available. The report mentioned an estimated 5,000 men, women and kiddies missing. One of the recommendations, therefore, was to work to provide more reliable data.

According to Abdullah, the report also showed "all the stakeholders how to work together, the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities, the NGOs."

"We have provided the data and this will help the Planning Ministry to make its own planning. We just did their preparatory work for them," she said.

Of the multitude of recommendation, some are original, like the suggestion to open a special directorate at the Kurdish Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal to collect, record and research all details about genocide-- and the one against the Yezidis in particular.

Another one is to open up a national museum on top of Mount Shingal to show the world what happened there when ISIS captured the region.

New also is the suggestion to open a helpline and other support channels to help get more Yezidi girls out who are still held by ISIS. Many different actors are currently working separately to free the girls-- from NGOs to families and government departments--but the help is splintered.

The suggestion to make a special team to receive and "handle" rescued women and assign "properly trained female detectives" to investigate their cases, is meant to save the traumatized women the agony of having to deal with many different people and tell their story over and over again.

The report made recommendations for revitalizing the economy and agriculture in the Shingal region to be able to offer the refugees jobs and income when they return. It did not mention how much money is needed, nor where it comes from--considering Iraq is going through an economic recession because of the war against ISIS and low oil prices.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Science & Technology
Cyber attacks against govt expose fatal cracks in Pakistan's digital fence
[DAWN] While the government focuses on fighting terrorism and extremism under the National Action Plan (NAP), another threat seems to be looming on the horizon: cyber warfare. Sources have told Dawn that government assets are now increasingly coming under attack from hackers and subversive elements that may be looking to steal sensitive information or intercept privileged communications.

The threat of cyber attacks really raised the hackles of the country's security establishment when, just before the recent visit of Chinese president XI Jinping, computers at the country's Foreign Office (FO) were hit by a cyber attack. The fact that it was the FO's China desk that was targeted alarmed many and, sources within the department say, intelligence agencies are currently investigating the nature of the attack.

Although an FO spokesperson denied that anything like this had occurred, this account does figure into the larger picture: coordinated cyber attacks against governments, corporations and militaries around the world have picked up steam and some of the world's leading cyber security firms are attributing a recent spate of state-level cyber attacks to Russian state-sponsored hackers.

In a report titled 'APT28: A Window into Russia's Cyber Espionage Operations', leading US network security firm FireEye has tracked attacks on government, defence and educational infrastructure in at least 26 different countries, including Pakistain. According to the report, Russian hackers used the technique known as 'phishing emails', which involves sending a user emails with content of their interest, which usually has a malicious software embedded in it.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  their omnipotent electrical and telecommunications grids are vulnerable, for the 8-10 hrs a day they function?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2015 9:06 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Rescued migrants say many beaten, thrown overboard
[AA.TR] Apples, water and cigarettes - the first requests from seven Bangladeshi men recently rescued from the sea after jumping from a human trafficker's ship headed for Southeast Asia.

In a single-file of bowed heads, the men - some of them violently sobbing - were this week marched back through Bangladesh's docile docks at the coastguard base in Teknaf - a remote port town that sits on the edge of the river Naf, directly across from Myanmar.

The men had jumped off the crammed ship carrying them after seeing one of the traffickers, who they said were heavily armed, push the injured overboard.

"Twenty-eight days had passed and there were two or three people from Burma [Myanmar], they were sick, so the traffickers threw them into the water," Mahmoon Mullah, a 19-year-old shopkeeper from Jhinaidah in south-western Bangladesh, told Anadolu Agency.

Mullah said it was then that he and the others decided to risk swimming to safety after having been beaten regularly by the crew.

The men are just some of the thousands of impoverished Bangladeshis who have been attempting to travel by boat to Malaysia in the hope of economic salvation.

Since 2012, Rohingya Moslems - who the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
consider to be the world's most persecuted ethnic minority - have also been fleeing Myanmar on the boats in droves, in fear of violence that some human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
groups consider to be state-sponsored.

The desperate passengers pay people smugglers around $3000 to take them to foreign shores, but it has been far from plain sailing. Outside of being beaten and abused, many of the passengers have been kidnapped and held in Thai smuggling camps while the smugglers have demanded ransoms from their relatives back home.

Since Thailand launched a crackdown on trafficking in its southern region May 1, boatloads of the migrants have been turning up on Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian shores, while many more remain at sea.

Another of the returnees, 37-year-old Mohammad Jashim, also from Jhinaidah, said the crew, delayed by the pushback against trafficked migrants in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, had encouraged the jump.

"They said, there are problems in Thailand, there are problems in Malaysia, it could take a month, a day, a year," said Jashim.

The crew, who he claimed were from Myanmar, would beat others simply for not understanding their language, he said.

"When they beat people, they got maimed and the wounds became infected, then they threw them into the sea," he said, adding that the passengers were so tightly squeezed on board that many had to sleep on each other's laps.

Their sustenance, according to Mullah, was a few sips of water and plain rice with three chillies.

He said that the traffickers had singled out a Bengali woman. She was separated from the rest and from then on, they rarely saw and never spoke to her.

Both men claimed that they had been kidnapped; Mullah saying that a broker had tricked him by saying that he could visit two of his friends who he was to help travel to Malaysia, but had not yet departed.

But when he got to Cox's Bazar, he was taken.

They said "'if you don't go, we will cut your throat and throw you into the sea'," said Mullah.

The seven men were found in Myanmar waters by local fishermen, who dropped them at a Myanmar village.

"They told us this is a Moslem village, go to any house and seek shelter," said Mullah.

The local Imam took them in and then later arranged for another group of fishermen, these ones Bangladeshi, to take them to the nearby Bangladeshi island of St. Martin's, where they were rescued.

According to Bangladesh's coastguard, there are at least four trawlers sitting in Myanmar waters; waiting for the focus on trafficking to blow away.

"We know there are some trawlers in Myanmar territory because in their own language, the smugglers have given their signal that 'we are not clear,'" Lieutenant Commander M Shahid Hossain Chowdhury, the Teknaf coastguard's station commander, told Anadolu Agency

Dickson Chowdhury, the St. Martin's Island commander who brought the men back to land, pointed to one of them as he explained that the trafficking was on pause.

"When he went to the port the first time, he could see 13 trawlers ready to go," said Chowdhury.

"This time, he saw only three."
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Files UN Complaint against Jordan: Amman Training Terrorists
[ALMANAR.LB] Syria accused Jordan of training terrorist bully boyz on its soil, as it urged the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
to take a firm line against Amman over the issue.

In a letter sent to the UN Secretary General and Head of the UN Security Council, Syrian foreign ministry said that Jordan had allowed terror organizations to take over border crossings, official news agency reported.

The letter added that Jordan had established training camps for bandidos Lions of Islam on its land, adding that it had recently facilitated the entry of thousands of Nusra Front bandidos Lions of Islam to Busra al-Sham city in Daraa province.

The ministry described the Jordanian conduct as a "grave violation" of the UN Charter, international law and the UN counter-terrorism resolutions.

Meanwhile,
...back at the mall, Clarissa suddenly spied Mr. Bartlett at the checkout counter. He was buying Grecian Formula!...
Damascus warned Amman that the scourge of terrorism won't stop at Syria's borders but will affect all the countries backing terrorists.

The ministry concluded by calling on the UN Security Council to take a firm line against the Jordanian regime and enforce its counter-terrorism resolutions.

Last month, terrorist groups seized the key Nassib border crossing between Syria and Jordan, the last post between the countries that remained under government control.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Terror Networks
US allies build up intelligence efforts
Responding to a jihadi movement that is successfully recruiting people from around the world, France and Canada are both passing laws that would dramatically ramp up their surveillance apparatus...Analysts say it's not so much a question of diminishing cooperation with the U.S. -- the revelations of Edward Snowden have ultimately done little to harm relationships between allies -- as a push to increase domestic capacities ill-equipped to face the rising threat of Islamic State and other jihadi groups.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/20/2015 11:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2015-05-20
  IS Attacks Syria Druze Village, Battles for Palmyra
Tue 2015-05-19
  US drone strike in North Waziristan leaves six 'militants' dead
Mon 2015-05-18
  ISIS confirms Ramadi capture
Sun 2015-05-17
  US special forces kill senior IS leader in Syria: Pentagon
Sat 2015-05-16
  Jury sentences Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for marathon attack
Fri 2015-05-15
  Belmokhtar's Jihadist Group in N. Africa Pledges Allegiance to IS
Thu 2015-05-14
  ISIS acting leader al-Afri killed by US-led airstrike
Wed 2015-05-13
  Iraq Blast Kills Four including Peshmerga General
Tue 2015-05-12
  Drone Strike Kills 4 Qaida Suspects in Yemen's Mukalla
Mon 2015-05-11
  Terror recruiter with roots in Minn. linked to Texas shooting
Sun 2015-05-10
  Houthis agree to five-day cease-fire in Yemen
Sat 2015-05-09
  Pakistani Chopper Crashes into School, 2 Ambassadors Killed
Fri 2015-05-08
  ISIS controls 80% of Baiji refinery in Salahuddin
Thu 2015-05-07
  Fighting continues in Benghazi despite fall of Mreisa
Wed 2015-05-06
  Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq repel a major ISIS attack southeast of Fallujah


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