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Today: 64 articles and 102 comments as of 15:30.
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U.S. Drone Strike Kills at Least Eight in NW Pakistan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
These Are America's Secret Elite Warriors
More to be thankful for.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And these are just the ones the government lets the public know about.

There are others...more deadly and more secret, often in innocuous sounding units in odd places with unusually large travel budgets and magical disappearing general officers and colonels.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 11/27/2014 12:07 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Puntland police arrest former Mudug Governor
GAROWE, Somalia -- Puntland police forces have arrested former governor of Mudug region Abdirashid Ali Hashi for criticizing regional president Abdiweli Mohamed Ali for administrative drawbacks on Tuesday evening, Garowe Online reports.

In an interview with Puntland-based independent station, Radio Garowe, Nugal governor Abdiqani Hashi Ali has unveiled that Hashi made public incitement, referring to remarks being made by the former official a day before his arrest.

"[Former Governor] released a statement that could incite the public, spawn violence and destabilize the region," said Nugal governor, adding that Hashi put Puntland existence at stake.

Former Mudug governor accused President Ali of cementing family's power and failing to deliver on presidential election promises.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Egypt plans blanket anti-terrorism law against 'disrupting order'
All the kewl kidzz are getting them...
[TODAYONLINE] Egypt's cabinet approved on Wednesday a draft anti-terrorism law that would give the government blanket power to ban groups on charges ranging from harming national unity to disrupting public order.

Authorities have cracked down hard on Islamist, secular and liberal opposition alike since the army toppled elected Islamist president Mohammed Mursi last year after mass unrest against his rule, dashing hopes for a more robust democracy stirred by the fall of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
in 2011.

The government already has broad security powers and has been able to exercise them largely at will - jailing thousands of Mursi supporters and more recently many leading lights of the 2011 uprising - because of many Egyptians' weariness with lawlessness that crippled the economy after Mubarak's fall.

The draft legislation, however, would help enshrine the security crackdown in the criminal code by permitting authorities to classify groups as "terrorist" according to a long list of offences, some of them non-violent.

"A terrorist entity is considered any organization... which practices or seeks in any way to disrupt public order or exposes society's integrity, interests or security to harm," the draft legislation reads.

Any group designated as terrorist would be dissolved, the draft stipulates. It also allows for the freezing of assets belonging to the designated group, its members and financiers.

The government is already able to seize Brotherhood assets based on a specific court order; the new legal draft would ease such action against other groups.

The proposal must be approved by a judicial advisory body before Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as head of the armed forces ousted Mursi in July 2013 and was elected president in May this year, can sign it into law.
Posted by: Fred || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Egypt Reopens Gaza Crossing For First Time In A Month
[IsraelTimes] Egypt reopened the Rafah border crossing with Gazoo on Wednesday for the first time since its closure in late October after a bombing in the Sinai Peninsula, officials said.

The crossing, which is the only access point to the Paleostinian territory not controlled by Israel, will open for four hours on Wednesday and Thursday, a government official said.

"The crossing is being opened for two days to help traffic mainly from Egypt to Gazoo," the official said, suggesting that for now, the reopening was only temporary.

An AFP correspondent on the Paleostinian side confirmed the terminal had been opened but said he saw nobody crossing into southern Gazoo during the first hour it was operating.

It was not immediately clear whether Paleostinians stranded outside Gazoo had been informed in advance of Cairo's plans to reopen the crossing.

Paleostinian officials said the terminal was operating in only one direction -- allowing people in but not out.

"This measure only applies to those who are stuck outside of Gazoo and wish to return and not to Paleostinians who want to leave Gazoo," Maher Abu Sabha, director of border crossings in the Gazoo Strip, told AFP.

The United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
says more than 3,500 Paleostinians have been stranded on the Egyptian side since the crossing was closed after a suicide kaboom killed 30 soldiers in North Sinai on October 24.

The attack, in an agricultural area northwest of placid provincial capital el-Arish, was the deadliest assault on Egyptian security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

The closure of the crossing has also prevented thousands of Gazooks from accessing medical treatment or higher education in Egypt and beyond, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest report.

During the first six months of the year, when the crossing was closed for a total of 22 days, an average of 6,400 people crossed each month, it added.
Ynet adds:
The month-long closure marooned around 6,000 Paleostinians in Egypt or third countries, while around a thousand people in Gazoo are desperate to get out for medical treatment in Egypt, officials in Islamist-ruled Gazoo say.

Egyptian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said outbound traffic would be allowed from 12 pm to 4 pm (1000-1400 GMT) on Wednesday and from 7 am to 4 pm (0500-1400 GMT) on Thursday.

Rafah is the only major border crossing into the impoverished Gazoo Strip, a narrow, densely populated enclave on the Mediterranean coast, that does not go through Israel, which blockades the territory.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Arabia
Yemen Tribesmen Blow Up Oil Export Pipeline
[AnNahar] Armed rustics blew up Yemen's main oil pipeline on Wednesday halting the flow to the export terminal on the Red Sea coast, tribal sources and an industry official said.

The 435-kilometer (270-mile) pipeline, which links the Safir oil fields, in Marib province, east of the capital, to the Ras Isa terminal, near the port of Hodeida, has been a repeated target of sabotage.

The latest attack hit a section of pipeline in the Sarwah district of Marib, tribal sources told Agence La Belle France Presse.

It brought the flow to a "complete halt", an industry official said.

The motive for the latest sabotage was not immediately clear.

But Yemen's heavily armed tribes frequently target oil and other infrastructure in a bid to extract concessions from the central government.

Yemen is a minor producer but relies on oil and gas exports for 90 percent of its foreign currency earnings.

Attacks on infrastructure cost the impoverished country $4.75 billion over the two years from March 2011 to March 2013, according to government figures.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Britain Unveils Tough Anti-Terror Bill despite Concerns
'Cause no one does kewl like the Brits do kewl.
[AnNahar] Britannia on Wednesday unveiled draft legislation to ban turban preachers from universities, increase surveillance on suspected Death Eaters and stem the flow of jihadists joining the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill has already come under criticism from Moslem rights campaigners and civil liberties groups who have raised concern about measures not subject to review by the courts.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  concern about measures not subject to review by the courts
Sounds familiar.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/27/2014 1:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Not there yet, but not forgotten !
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/27/2014 8:07 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Israel Warns of N.Korea-Iran Nuclear Link
Israel on Thursday claimed to have intelligence that Iran acquired missile and nuclear technology and expertise from North Korea in exchange for huge amounts of financial support over the past years.
We know about this at the Burg but it's interesting that this is hitting the general press now. Almost as if someone has an agenda...
The claim was made by Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli minister of strategic and intelligence affairs, according to the U.S. news website World Tribune. It comes in the context of a wider Israeli campaign to shore up U.S. support for a hard line on Iran.

He noted that the international community has failed to keep North Korea from developing nuclear weapons despite years of talks with the North, and claimed Iran too could bypass international sanctions.

"We all know that Iran, Syria and North Korea are very close to each other," World Tribune quoted Steinitz as saying, "Any nuclear accord with Teheran would be meaningless without addressing its alliance with Pyongyang."
Posted by: Steve White || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, do ya suppose the Juice could take out the Nork nuke facilities, too?

Well sure, they'd hafta refuel...

And the odds of them doing it are greater than our CinC doing anything.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/27/2014 8:04 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Erdogan Attacks U.S. 'Impertinence' on Syria
[AnNahar] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
on Wednesday slammed U.S. "impertinence" on the Syrian conflict, exposing the extent of strains between Washington and Ankara days after his key meeting with U.S. 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...
Ties between the the U.S. and Turkey have soured in recent months over the reluctance of Turkish leaders to intervene militarily in the U.S.-led campaign against 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....
jihadists, who have taken control of swathes of Iraq and Syria.

In an indication of the tensions that remain between the two NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
allies, Erdogan accused the U.S. of being "impertinent" for pressuring it to help save the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, which is within sight of the Turkish border.

"Why is somebody coming to this region from 12,000 kilometres (7,000 miles) away?" Erdogan said during an address to a group of businessmen in Ankara, in a clear reference to the U.S.

"I want you to know that we are against impertinence, recklessness and endless demands," he said.

Biden had personally stung Erdogan last month by suggesting his policies in supporting Islamist rebel forces in Syria had helped encourage the rise of the IS Lion of Islam group, a slight that prompted Erdogan to warn his relationship with the U.S. number two could be "history".

Washington is pressing Ankara for the use of the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey by U.S. jets launching assaults on IS.

But Turkey has refused to bow to the pressure, setting several conditions for playing a greater role in the coalition.

"They looked on as the tyrant (President Bashar) al-Assad massacred 300,000 people. They remained silent in the face of Assad's barbarism and now they are now staging a 'conscience show' through Kobane," Erdogan said.

"We will resolve our problems not with the help of a 'superior mind' but with the help of our people," he said.

Biden wrapped up a three-day visit to Turkey on Sunday without a breakthrough on military cooperation in the Syrian crisis.

But Erdogan's comments contrasted with the relatively upbeat assessment of U.S. officials that the meeting with Biden had brought closer the two sides' positions.

On Monday, Erdogan accused the West of coming to the region for "oil".

"I'm always meeting with them but it does not go any further than what I say. They don't have any sensitivities. They have only one sensitivity: oil, oil, oil..." he said.

So far, Turkey's sole contribution to the coalition has been allowing a contingent of Iraqi peshmerga Kurdish fighters to transit Turkish soil to fight IS Lions of Islam for Kobane.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We need to kick these Islamist f*ckers out of NATO. Abandon, then destroy Incirlik on our way out.
Posted by: Frank G || 11/27/2014 15:18 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
EU Ready To 'Play Role' In Pushing Israeli-Palestinian Talks
[IsraelTimes] New EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini called on Israel and the Paleostinians Wednesday to resume direct peace talks, as the European Parliament debated whether to recognize a Paleostinian state.

"The sense of urgency is getting higher and higher in the absence of a political context," Mogherini told politicians at the start of what she said was a "timely" debate.

"There has to be a direct dialogue."
"Right. Which means the EU has no place in the middle of things. Please go tend to your own problems, instead of sticking your nose where it does not belong," will unfortunately no Israeli prime minister say ever.
The former Italian foreign minister, who has taken over as diplomatic chief of the 28-nation European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, said the bloc was ready to "play a role" in moving the grinding of the peace processor forward.

She also reiterated her support for a two-state solution to resolve the crisis.

MEPs will hold a symbolic vote in December, following resolutions passed by the British and Spanish parliaments, and an official decision to recognize Paleostine by the Swedish government.

La Belle France's National Assembly is set to vote on a non-binding resolution on December 2.

Brokered by the US, Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks restarted in July 2013 but collapsed in April, with tensions and violence mounting again dramatically in recent weeks.

The European Parliament was initially due to vote on Thursday on the motion to recognize a Paleostinian state but it was postponed until December at the last minute.

There has been international alarm over a spate of deadly terror attacks carried out by Paleostinians inside Israel along with rioting in East Jerusalem and the deadlock over peace talks that are fueling fear of another flareup after the Israel-Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, war earlier this year.
But wait! There's more!! It seems all is not sailing smoothily in Euroland:
EU holds bitter debate over whether to recognize Palestine

[IsraelTimes] In Wednesday's debate, European Parliament members appeared sharply divided on what policy to endorse. One politician branded Israel "a state of child killers and land robbers," while another likened a Paleostinian state to 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....
terrorist group.

A vote, originally expected Thursday, was put off until December.

Recognition of a country is a decision for national governments. But Mogherini told the politicians that the bloc needs to forge "a united and strong message" to influence events.

The ultimate goal, Mogherini said, is creation of an independent Paleostinian state and securing Israel's right to live in "security, safety and peace." She said one cannot happen without the other.

Germany, Israel's closest European ally and the EU's most powerful member, is a leading opponent of recognizing Paleostinian statehood before Israel does. To do so, German officials say, would do more harm than good.
In other words, there will be no EU position on the subject, thank goodness
.Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom...
said Friday it was better to focus on getting Israel-Paleostinian talks going again, although "that appears very difficult in the current conditions." She added that "we also believe that unilateral recognition of the Paleostinian state won't move us forward."

Rosa Balfour, director for the Europe in the World program at the European Policy Center, a Brussels-based think tank, said Mogherini, a former Italian foreign minister, appears to have made a personal commitment to trying to achieve an Israeli-Paleostinian peace deal.

"Both she and the EU see that conflict as being at the heart of European foreign policy," said Balfour.
Why?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why?

Because of who, or rather what, European elites are.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/27/2014 3:56 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
France To Beef Up Presence In Jordan For ISIS Fight
[Ynet] The French government said that six Mirage fighter jets would be deployed to Jordan Thursday to assist in the fight against ISIS.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a weekly cabinet meeting that the deployment of the six fighters would "strengthen our presence in this theater of operations," according to government front man Stephane Le Foll.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls had already Sunday announced the deployment of the fighters to Jordan, to join forces against the krazed killer group in Iraq but the arrival of the warplanes was expected at the end of the month.

La Belle France already has nine Rafale fighter jets in the United Arab Emirates as it participates in U.S.-led air strikes in Iraq.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hat tip in melody !
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/27/2014 14:10 Comments || Top||


Islamic Jihad Threatens Israel Over Glacial Pace Of Reconstruction
Yadda yadda yadda. Pay attention to meeeeeeeee!!
[IsraelTimes] Israel's violations of the ceasefire agreement it reached with Gazoo's armed factions will lead to a new round of confrontation, the deputy director of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group warned on Wednesday, as a powerful storm battered a Strip recovering from this summer's conflict.
They're cold, they're wet, their wives and children are unhappy, and Egypt has all of Gaza shut down. Naturally they blame the Joooooos.
In comments posted on the terror group's official website, Ziad Nakhaleh cited recent Israeli violations of Gazoo's illusory sovereignty in the "no-go zone" along the border with Israel and along Gazoo's coast, and what he said was Israel's hampering of reconstruction efforts in the enclave.
No mention of the smuggling tunnels destroyed by Egypt or the Rafah crossing that's been locked tight for a month, of course.
He said that the military capabilities of Islamic Jihad -- the second-largest political group in the Gazoo Strip, avowedly devoted to the destruction of Israel -- were greater now than they were before Operation Protective Edge, noting that the movement has gained much experience by engaging the Israeli army in battle over the summer.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad


Spy Balloons Give Jerusalem Police An Eye In The Sky
[IsraelTimes] Israeli police are watching from above in their attempts to keep control in Jerusalem in the face of the city's worst wave of violence in nearly a decade.

Police have been flying surveillance balloons over the city's eastern sector and Old City -- the location of its most sensitive holy sites -- to monitor protests and move in on them quickly. They say the puffy white balloons, which carry a rotating spherical camera pod, have greatly helped quell the unrest. But the eyes in the sky are unnerving Paleostinians.

"They want to discover everything that's going on. (They see) who is going, who is coming, who is that person," said Imad Muna, who works at a local bookstore.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They can see thru the curtains and under your bed, they control your cats, the microwave and the horizontal and vertical.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/27/2014 6:47 Comments || Top||


Israelis And Palestinians Held Secret Back Channel Talks -- Report
[IsraelTimes] Israel and the Paleostinians engaged in secret backchannel negotiations that made breakthroughs on major issues during last year's peace talks, but the efforts fell apart after it became clear the Paleostinian negotiator didn't have the backing of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
, according to a report published Wednesday.

According to The New Republic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's close associate Yitzhak Molcho met with an unnamed Paleostinian confidante of Abbas during the 2013-2014 American-moderated peace talks and held secret side negotiations.

What Israeli officials weren't aware of at the time was that the backchannel talks apparently took place without Abbas's support.

Contacts between Molcho and the Paleostinian negotiator, whose name wasn't published by the US magazine for fear of reprisal, began in 2010.

According to the report, during the 2013 meetings, the two built upon understandings previously reached on borders and Paleostinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

The two negotiators were reportedly close to reaching an understanding on the Paleostinian refugee issue, but couldn't break ground on the sticking point of Jerusalem's status in a final agreement.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment on the report to The Times of Israel.

US 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...
, Obama's Middle East envoy Martin Indyk, and chief Israeli negotiator and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni were all aware of the secret channel and received regular briefings while they took place, the report said.

As the two sides were close to reaching an agreement on key issues in December 2013, wind of the talks reached the press. While Netanyahu's team declined comment, Abbas denied there being secret negotiations and said that the the official talks were the "the only channel of communication I have with Netanyahu."

When Kerry tried to merge the official and secret negotiation tracks in early 2014, "Abbas completely rejected what had already, supposedly, been accepted by his own negotiator," the report said.

According to the magazine, Abbas's rejection of the side channel, and Netanyahu's refusal to budge from what Molho and the Paleostinian negotiator agreed to, played a role in the collapse of talks in April, after nine months of negotiations.

"Netanyahu is angry at Kerry for opening up understandings that everybody considered a done deal, just because Abbas had changed his mind," a minister was quoted as telling the magazine while talks were still ongoing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority


Southeast Asia
Malaysia Plans Anti-terror Law amid IS Fears
More kewl kidzz...
[AnNahar] Moslem-majority Malaysia will soon introduce a new anti-terrorism law to counter a potential security threat from supporters of the murderous Moslem 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) group, Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Wednesday.

Najib told parliament his government also would strengthen existing security-related laws as authorities express mounting concern that Malaysians who have joined the IS jihad in Syria and Iraq will return home to spread murderous Moslem Islam.

"Looking at the potential threat from this group, we fear the return of Malaysians from the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq will be detrimental to national security," Najib said.

He expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
that returnees will come back with battlefield expertise and could carry out "lone wolf" attacks, but did not elaborate on what the new terror legislation would entail.

Najib made the announcement as he introduced a government white paper on the terrorism threat that said 39 Malaysians had gone to join the fighting in Syria, and that five had been killed.

The document also said that as of November 13, authorities had tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
40 Malaysians at home for suspected IS links.

Twenty-one had been charged with various offences, while the rest were released due to lack of evidence but remain under police surveillance.

In August, police said they had foiled an IS-inspired plot to bomb pubs, discos and a Malaysian brewery of Danish beer producer Carlsberg, arresting more than one dozen people.

Malaysia, which has traditionally observed a moderate brand of Islam, has long kept a lid on murderous Moslems.

But conservative Moslem views have gained increasing traction in recent years as the long-ruling government's controls have loosened.

Last month, Malaysia's defense minister labelled efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to push back IS fighters in Iraq and Syria as "ineffective", and called for regional cooperation to prevent jihadists gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia.

The subject of security laws is controversial in Malaysia, whose government is frequently accused of trampling civil liberties and abusing security-related legislation to silence dissent.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Christians Hold Out in Syria's Aleppo despite Jihadist Threat
In case you wondered how the Christians are doing in Syria. Unfortunately, those are not stories often reported in the non-Christian press, and so we do not often post them.
[AnNahar] Tens of thousands of Christians have fled Syria's war-wracked second city Aleppo but many others are determined to hold out despite their dread of 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.

Christians of various denominations make up around 10 percent of Syria's population and Aleppo alone was home to some 250,000 before the civil war reached the city in 2012.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


U.N. Seeks more Cross-border Aid Deliveries to Syria
[AnNahar] The U.N. Security Council will move to allow cross-border deliveries of relief supplies to Syria for another year, the president of the council said Tuesday, as new figures showed more Syrians were in need of aid.

The Council in July agreed in a resolution to allow truckloads of much-needed aid to cross into rebel-held Syrian territory without the consent of the Damascus regime.

Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan, whose country chairs the 15-member council this month, said his country along with Luxembourg and Jordan will move quickly to seek a 12-month extension of the aid deliveries.

"We will be having consultations urgently over the next couple of weeks about extending that mandate for 12 months," said Quinlan.

The UN's top humanitarian aid official Valerie Amos asked the council to renew authorization for the aid deliveries that are due to end in January.

While the convoys have not reached as many people in need as hoped, "they have made a difference," said Amos, the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Aid.

Over the past six months, 30 UN convoys carrying food aid, medical supplies, water and sanitation equipment have been sent from Turkey and Jordan.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition said in a statement that the convoys had "reached only a fraction of the 3.5 million it was intended to assist" and called on the UN to ramp up deliveries.

The Australian ambassador told news hounds following closed-door council consultations that "there is a sense that we will be able to scale up."

The nearly four-year war in Syria has forced almost half of Syrians to flee their homes, many of them multiple times.

There are now 7.6 million people displaced inside Syria and 3.2 million others have fled the country, mostly to bordering nations.

"This is the largest number of people displaced from conflict in the world," Amos said.

Some 12.2 million Syrians are in need of aid, up from 10.8 in July.

Amos asked the council to press all sides in the Syrian war to stop blocking aid deliveries and to push for an end to the violence.

A U.N. report this month said that 10 requests by the World Health Organization to deliver aid since October had gone unanswered by the government of Bashir al-Assad.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura has proposed setting up special zones in Syria to "freeze" fighting to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and to create space for political negotiations.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tripoli is Target for Islamic State Group
[AnNahar] Jamal Hayak is finally fixing up his restaurant, damaged a month ago in festivities between the army and bully boyz in this northern Lebanese city. But he has little doubt violence will erupt again, and he says he fears next time it will be Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group fighters battling in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
's streets.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


General Security Confiscates Weaponry Belonging to Detainee Linked to Asir
[AnNahar] The General Security seized on Wednesday arms and ammunition that belongs to Hisham al-Danab, who was locked away
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
a day earlier in the southern city of Sidon.

According to the state-run National News Agency, the directorate's Intelligence Bureau confiscated the weapons, in coordination with the Army Intelligence, from the area of Sharhabeel, near the town of Abra.

Among the confiscated items are four hand grenades, two arms and four ammunition belts.

The army intelligence detained al-Danab, who is linked to runaway Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir
...Leb Salafist holy man with the usual grouch against Shiites. Currently on the run, he seems intent on reigniting the Leb civil war...
, along with two Lebanese and a Syrian on charges of forming a terrorist cell in Sidon.

The 45-year-old holy man, who supports the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
, had gone into hiding following deadly festivities between his supporters and the army near Sidon in June last year.

Sidon's festivities were the most intense bouts of violence in Leb linked to the conflict in Syria, and have resulted in the death of at least 16 troops.

The gunbattles concentrated in the area of the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, where Asir was a preacher, and nearby buildings in Abra.

Judicial authorities have issued a detention order for Asir and 71 of his supporters, including Singer turned runaway Islamist Fadel Shaker.

Last week, the trial of Abra suspects ended in a fistfight between one of the detainees and the Internal Security Forces after the military court postponed the trial to December 2.

The suspects could face the death penalty if convicted.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Qahwaji Says Army Foiled Plot to Ignite Lebanon, Create Sectarian Strife
[AnNahar] Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed on Tuesday that the military foiled a plot by terrorist groups to divide Leb and change its features, thwarting a Sunni-Shiite strife that "could have burned the country."

"The army achieved a huge accomplishment," As Safir newspaper quoted Qahwaji as saying.

He pointed out that the situation in Leb has changed from the one that prevailed before the festivities that occurred in the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.

Jihadists from the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group and al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra
...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant...
Front briefly overran the town of Arsal in August. The Islamists withdrew from the town, abducting with them a number of troops and security forces.

Three hostages have already been killed by their captors, and the country has been on edge for months over the fate of the remaining soldiers and coppers.

Leb is deeply divided over the war in Syria.

Qahwaji revealed that the army has the full "political cover."

"The army is united and fortified against any emergency," the army commander pointed out, considering that the last round of festivities in the northern port city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
busted all the terrorist cells and "turned the scales."

The high-ranking military official considered the arrest of turbans Imad Jomaa and Ahmed Miqati a key issue in thwarting a plot to ignite a Sunni-Shiite strife in Leb.

Miqati was jugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in October in the northern town of Assoun during a deadly army raid on an apartment that he and several murderous Moslems had been residing in.

He was later charged with belonging to an armed terrorist organization with the aim of occupying several northern villages.

His arrest set off the spark that led to a deadly fighting last month between holy warriors and the army in Tripoli and surrounding areas.

A battle between Lebanese troops and murderous Moslems in northern Leb was widely expected after members of the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, 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, launched several attacks in areas on the border with Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Activists Raise Tuesday's Raqqa Strikes Death Toll To 95
[Ynet] Activists have raised the death toll from a series of Syrian government airstrikes on the Islamic State group's stronghold in northeastern Syria to at least 95.

The strikes targeted Raqqa Tuesday. Some of the air raids struck a market near a museum and an industrial neighborhood in the city, causing many civilian casualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights raised its death toll Wednesday to 95. Its director, Rami Abdurrahman, said they include 52 civilians whose names the group was able to document. Other activists estimated more than 100 people had been killed.

The Associated Press could not independently confirm the death toll -- one of the worst single-day tolls in the city.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/27/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



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Thu 2014-11-27
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Sat 2014-11-22
  Black Panthers Indicted On Federal Gun Charges, Pipe Bomb Plot Near Ferguson
Fri 2014-11-21
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Thu 2014-11-20
  Libya Dawn commander injured in continued Jebel Nafusa clashes
Wed 2014-11-19
  Jundullah vows allegiance to Islamic State
Tue 2014-11-18
  Taliban insurgent murders 3 members of his own family in Faryab
Mon 2014-11-17
  New U.S.-led strikes on Syria's Kobane
Sun 2014-11-16
  Islamic State claims it has beheaded US hostage Kassig
Sat 2014-11-15
  Over 35 wounded in Druze vs. Muslim Arabs clashes in northern Israel
Fri 2014-11-14
  IS, Al Qaeda affiliate reportedly unite to fight US-backed rebels in Syria
Thu 2014-11-13
  At Least 33 Dead In Yemeni Clashes, US Drone Kills 7

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