[AnNahar] This small Gulf nation, known for its soaring skyscrapers and mercantile bent, is making itself into the most stalwart ally of the Arab world's biggest country.
The United Arab Emirates has pumped billions of dollars into Egypt and is lining up investors to try to stabilize its damaged economy, while building military cooperation. In their deepening relationship, an economically exhausted Egypt benefits from the UAE's finances, and the U.S.-allied Emirates gets a heavyweight with extensive manpower on its side in a region deeply unstable with threats of turban violence and Iranian expansion.
"We are among the vanguards calling for stability in Egypt, whose security represents a cornerstone of Arab world security," Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan told a full house during his speech at a governance conference held in Dubai last month. "We cannot keep our fingers crossed about achieving stability and development in Egypt."
Continued on Page 49
[AnNahar] Divided into rival armed factions, plagued by drug trafficking and at the mercy of jihadism, northern Mali will only find peace through reconciliation among its warring tribes, experts say.
And that isn't likely to happen, barring the ascent of a vicious strongman of the usual type.
The west African nation's vast desert north is riven by ethnic rivalries, a Tuareg rebellion and an Islamist insurgency and has struggled for stability and peace since a military coup in 2012.
The holy warrior Tuareg movement has launched four uprisings since 1962 to fight Mali's army over the territory they claim as their homeland and call Azawad.
[AnNahar] The African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... has endorsed the creation of a regional force of up to 10,000 men to join the fight against the Nigerian Islamist group 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... , diplomats said Friday.
The force, the idea for which was adopted at an AU summit in January, will be based in Chad's capital N'Djamena, the pan-African bloc's Peace and Security Council said.
According to an AU diplomat, who asked not to be named, the troops will operate around the Lake Chad Basin but not on Nigerian soil -- explaining that Nigeria "has a problem with agreeing to having foreign troops on its soil."
It will be mandated "to prevent the spread of Boko Haram activities and other terrorist groups" and "eradicate their presence," the body agreed in a meeting this week.
Diplomats said Chad, Nigeria, 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... , Niger and Benin have committed to providing troops, who would "operate freely" in a still-undefined region.
According to an AU diplomat, who asked not to be named, the troops will operate around the Lake Chad Basin but not on Nigerian soil -- explaining that Nigeria "has a problem with agreeing to having foreign troops on its soil."
Without the ability to intervene in Nigeria, the force would only be able to counter cross-border attacks by the Lion of Islams. The diplomat, however, said close coordination with Nigerian troops could see Boko Haram fighters effectively sandwiched.
The AU has said it will seek U.N. Security Council approval in the form of a Chapter 7 resolution authorizing the use of force, plus a U.N. "Trust Fund" to pay for it.
Diplomats said that while "logistical support" would be forthcoming, financing remained the key obstacle to collective action.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Go easy on the rations and be sure and issue them plenty of No-Doze.
[YEMENONLINE.INFO] Yemen's dominant Shi'ite MoslemHouthi ...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 seized the offices of a political conciliation body late on Wednesday, hours after the president refused U.N.-brokered talks with their powerful movement unless they withdrew from Sanaa.
Yemen, a neighbour of top oil exporter 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... and global security worry because of its strong al Qaeda presence, is caught in a stand-off between Western-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthi clan, now the country's de facto rulers who are supported by Iran.
Last month, Hadi fled Houthi house arrest to the southern port city of Aden and re-established his presidency there. Soon afterwards, 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... announced it would mediate in a dialogue between the two sides, warning that Yemen was sliding towards civil war.
Around 15 armed Houthis forced their way into and searched the offices of the National Dialogue's secretariat in Sanaa late on Wednesday, the general secretariat said in a statement.
With these actions, the Houthis, who left armed guards in front of the building, were hampering a potential political settlement, the secretariat said.
"As everyone knows, the general secretariat is a technical apparatus which is neutral ... It cannot work under the authority and control of any political party," it said in the statement.
An employee at the secretariat told Rooters that Hadi has told it to relocate to Aden and continue its work from there, but the statement asked for the Houthis to let the secretariat continue its work in Sanaa.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[DailyMail] Lutefisk farts are nothing to sneeze at either!
o Telemark Battalion is an elite mechanised Norwegian Army infantry unit
o Soldiers known for wearing patches with Marvel character's skull emblem
o Antihero from comic series is vigilante who slaughters criminals
o Patches honour comrade killed by Taliban roadside bomb in Afghanistan
o Fifty fighters will travel to Irbil in northern Iraq to help Kurdish forces
o Peshmerga troops are locked in bitter armed struggle with Islamic State
Good for Norway. Bring lots of ammunition, gentlemen. You'll be sure to find use for it... or the Peshmergas will.
#1
Eldest son, on his first tour of Afghan with the 173rd, told me Norwegian SF guys he met there were some of the hardest dudes going. Things like packing a wetsuit into the mountains, so as to hide out in a water hole (glacier water runoff), to wait for whoever might come by.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/07/2015 12:34 Comments ||
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#2
agreed, leave the skis at home and pack more ammo....
#3
Have you ever seen the freaking Norwegians in the Olympics with their obsession with the 10, 20, and 100 km cross country ski races?
If those are the athletes, and I have been told, long distance ski racing is a national "pass time" in Norway, can you imagine how tough the fully trained soldiers would be? I think they might be as tough as the Speznatz French Foreign Legion.
If you are a good shot and able to move effectively at night with stealth, any where the ISIS are is a target rich environment. I don't believe they get much training in cover and concealment AND besides, I sincerely believe that many of those enlisting in ISIS are less interested in winning than they are in 72 virgins and paradise. Sort of a conundrum for their leaders, how can you attain victory if most of your troops are only interested in getting killed?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/07/2015 12:48 Comments ||
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#4
The muzzies die to go to paradise to lounge around. The vikings die to go to Valhalla to await the last great battle in Ragnarok.
[Hurriyet Daily News] A lawyer who withdrew March 5 from defending suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holy warriors, saying that the defendants were "neither beasts nor human beings," said he was threatened the very same day.
The police have now provided a guard for him, said Nail Gunduz, one of the three lawyers who withdrew from the case after being appointed by the Bar.
An unidentified person called him on the phone at 4 p.m. and asked "What kind of a lawyer are you? Why didn't you defend them?" before threatening him, Gunduz said.
"Defending a person, even an animal, is a blessed thing. Everybody has the right to be defended, lawyers cannot avoid this. But these defendants are neither beasts nor human beings," Gunduz had told news hounds after the hearing.
What they are is considerably worse: they're jihadis.
A court has postponed to June 17 the trial of suspected ISIL gunnies who attacked a Turkish gendarmerie post in the Central Anatolian province of Nigde, after the lawyers of the defendants withdrew from the trial on March 5.
This was the third delay of the hearing into the case of 11 suspects in a shooting attack that left three dead and five injured, including a Turkish gendarmerie soldier and a police officer, on March 20, 2014.
All assailants, including German citizen Benjamin Xu, Swiss citizen Cendrim Ramadani and Macedonian citizen Muhammed Zakiri, are suspected of being members of ISIL. They attend the hearings via video conference due to security measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has confirmed that an ISIL terrorist leader has been hospitalized in a facility in west of the country, further proving links between Ankara and the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... s who are wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.
A statement from the Denizli Governor's Office confirmed Friday recent media speculations that a commander of the Takfiri terrorist ISIL group is receiving medical treatment in the western Turkish province.
According to the Turkish daily Today's Zaman, the statement said that the terrorist, identified as Emrah C, has been admitted to the Pamukkale University Hospital after being injured in a bombing in Syria.
"Judicial procedures regarding his injury were carried out when he crossed into Turkey from Syria. His treatment is still underway in Denizli in accordance with the right to receive medical attention, just like a normal citizen," said the statement.
The suspected terrorist initially went to a hospital in the border province of Antakya before coming to Denizli where he has relatives there.
Turkey has been one of the major supporters of holy warriors operating in Syria since the crisis began in the Arab country in 2011. Ankara did not stop its backing for the hard boyz even after the militancy spread to neighboring Iraq in 2014 where thousands of people have been brutally killed by the ISIL holy warriors.
Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc (pictured above) recently revealed that thousands o f Turkish nationals have joined the terrorist groups operating in Syria.
Last month, Turkey and the US signed a deal to train and arm who they called moderate holy warriors fighting against the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... .
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[Yahoo] From its official Twitter account, the National Security Council said
Why, in the name of all that's holy, is the president's own National Security Council tweeting to the public like it was a couple of Kardashian sisters heading out on a shopping spree, instead of working on matters of national and international security?
journalist Fareed Zakaria had an "interesting take" with his article noting all of the times Netanyahu had been wrong about Iran over the past 25 years:
And why, in the name of the same holiness, are they wasting their time reading anything by that plagiarist Zakaria instead of DoD, CIA and State Department reports and analyses that will shape their discussions and the advice they finally give to the man charge with being the decider?
The article, titled "Netanyahu enters never-never land," argues that Netanyahu's speech before Congress last Tuesday was "utterly divorced from reality." In the address, the Israeli prime minister harshly condemned the White House's still unannounced agreement with Iran, in which Tehran could agree to scale back its nuclear program if the US and other powers roll back economic sanctions. plix.
That's certainly one take on things. Another would be that, had the US and Israel not sabotaged Iran's nuclear effort repeatedly over the years, Iran would have nuked Israel years ago, and Mr. Zakaria would instead be reminiscing about what a rich, vibrant, productive little country the Jewish state had been before it was turned into radioactive glass during what is now called The Second Holocaust, after which President George W. Bush felt compelled to do the same to Iran as a lesson to any other countries with similar ideas.
#3
Honestly, I do not think I can take 635 more days of their shit. Its bad enough the way obuma is tearing the country apart, but to also having to hear him speak All the time on tv is like being in a special ring of hell.
Posted by: chris ||
03/07/2015 0:26 Comments ||
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#10
If one gives dire predictions to motivate nevessary action, then that action occurs and the dire prediction is deflated because of the action. Is it teally accurate to say the dore prediction was wrong?
Niave and petulant children are in charge of the gov.
[DAWN] The banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... (ASWJ) marched from Lal Masjid ...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been... to the Parliament House on Friday in protest of "murders and kidnappings" of its representatives.
The proscribed outfit marched today to protest against what it called a recent surge in acts of violence against its representatives. The march was led by ASWJ Islamabad President Ghulam Mustafa Baloch in light of which police cordoned off the street near the headquarters of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) with containers.
Following a dialogue with the Islamabad police, the outfit agreed to end its protest after an assurance was given that the murders of its workers would be probed. The additional deputy commission Islamabad, the SSP and other police officials said that a special investigation team to be led by SP Captain (retd) Ilyas was being formed to investigate the killings.
ASWJ, a reincarnation of the banned Sunni Death Eater group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... (SSP), had been banned in Feb 2012.
Despite the ban, the ASWJ continues to operate in the country with religious conferences and demonstrations held in different cities from time to time and no apparent action from the authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A bill proposing an amendment to the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 has been approved 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.... Assembly. Under the new law, parents and holy mans who allow the marriage of underage children will face greater penalties than they had under previous versions of the law.
Among the revisions to the law are the imposition of a six-month prison term and a fine of Rs50,000. In addition, there will be a prison sentence and fine imposed on the holy man overlooking the marriage ceremony.
Previously, parents faced a month-long prison sentence and a fine of Rs1,000, while holy mans were not penalised in any way. The changes have been made after the Punjab Assembly had, earlier this year, discussed the possibility of amendments to the law.
The Sindh Assembly passed a Child Marriage Restraint Act in 2013, making it the first provincial assembly to do so.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] 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... food agency said Friday it had been forced to withdraw aid from nine Syrian refugee camps in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... due to a lack of funds, calling on donors to step up.
"Unfortunately, in February, we were forced to ask the Turkish government to take over assistance in nine camps where we could not continue providing aid because we lack funds," said World Food Programme spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs.
Speaking to news hounds in Geneva, Byrs said WFP was facing a $71-million (65-million-euro) shortfall for its aid programme in Turkey this year.
"Getting more funding is really essential," she said.
The U.N. agency needs $9 million each month to provide hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the country with food aid, she said.
It had, in cooperation with the Turkish government, been providing some 220,000 refugees with electronic vouchers in the form of debit cards credited with money, allowing them to purchase the food and supplies they need in stores.
But it had been forced to cut the number of recipients to just 154,000 last month, Byrs said.
The Turkish government, which had already been contributing 40 percent of the monthly value credited to the cards, has for now stepped in to close the funding gap.
But the country, which is hosting some 1.7 million Syrian refugees and which has already spent around $4.5 billion to assist them since the Syrian conflict began four years ago, will not be able to foot the bill on its own forever, Byrs warned.
The lacking funds also threaten WFP's plans to expand the vastly popular "debit card" voucher system to refugees living outside the camps in Turkey.
"Predictability of the financing is essential if we want to expand the program," she told Agence La Belle France Presse.
It would be a tragedy if WFP cannot expand the programme or is forced to permanently scale it back, Byrs said, stressing that the electronic vouchers allow refugees to choose for themselves what they eat and is far more efficient and less expensive that simply handing out meals.
And since the refugees spend the cash in Turkish stores, WFP estimates the programme has pumped nearly $700 million into the Turkish economy since 2011.
At the same time, Turkey became WFP's top food supplier worldwide last year, when the U.N. agency procured food worth $380 million from 28 different Turkish suppliers.
This is not the first time WFP has been forced to cut aid due to lacking funds.
Late last year, the U.N. agency briefly suspended food aid to more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Leb, Iraq and Egypt, blaming a financing emergency.
It resumed that aid after donors chipped in around $90 million following an urgent appeal for funds.
#2
or quit catering UN lunches from 5 star restaurants?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2015 9:04 Comments ||
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#3
"stressing that the electronic vouchers allow refugees to choose for themselves what they eat and is far more efficient and less expensive that simply handing out meals"
So, actually getting involved in doing your job has become too tedious, huh?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/07/2015 13:14 Comments ||
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#4
Sell that prime real estate in new york, buy your ass cheaper land in the middle east or africa. Take surplus put towards their food.
Posted by: chris ||
03/07/2015 22:44 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iraq's top Shia holy man Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has censured the targeting of the country's cultural heritage, particularly the destruction of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, by the ISIL terrorist group.
Addressing Friday Prayers sermon in the holy city of Karbala, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, who represents the most influential Shia holy man in Iraq, said the ISIL Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... elements have destroyed so many artifacts in the djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... national museum and destroyed some archeological sites in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh.
"This once again demonstrates their [ISIL] barbarism, savageness and antagonism towards the Iraqi people not only at the present time but throughout history and its ancient civilization which dates back ages," al-Karbalai added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"except that Christian shit, you can go ahead on that stuff"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2015 9:05 Comments ||
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#2
Notice he very carefully didn't say it was unislamic or against Islam.
#4
Ah Yes, Urban renewal Muslim style, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani didn't get his cut, so he's pissed. Otherwise, these heathens don't give a sweet sh*t, if it didn't start with the child molester MO, it aint't worth keeping.
Posted by: George Craque3122 ||
03/07/2015 17:38 Comments ||
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[IraqiNews.com] On Thursday, Salahuddin Provincial Council announced the launch of a force of 600 fighters from the sons of al-Alam district to liberate their areas after finishing their training in Samarra camps, indicating that the force will join the Volunteer Forces (al-Hashd al-Sha'bi).
The head of the Council Ahmed Karim said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, "The provincial council sent at dawn today the heros of al-Alam district after finsihing their training in Samarra camps to al-Alam east of Tikrit to liberate it from ISIS."
For his part, the head of the Security Committee in the Council of Salahuddin, Jassim Jabara informed IraqiNews.com, "The fighters of al-Alam district are fully prepared to liberate their district from these groups," noting that, " They are going to the battlefields equipped with all military equipment required."
He added that a number of 600 fighters from al-Alam district will participate in this operation backed by the Volunteer Fighters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[Medium.com] But in the future, Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold--the chief of Air Force Special Operations Command--wants install an airborne microwave energy gun on the Ghostrider, similar to the infamous Humvee-mounted heat ray the U.S. deployed briefly to Afghanistan.
He also wants to add a big, high-powered laser in place of the 105-millimeter cannon. Instead of blowing things up from the air, the future Ghostrider could zap them into cinders.
#3
You just know given a laser, a little boredom, and the right circumstances a simple, albeit murderous jihadi is going to see a bush spontaneously combust and if a Commando Solo is around, hear the voice of gawd.
"The reports come as Iran and the Western powers race to formulate a nuclear deal before the end of the month -- a deal Khamenei will have to sign off on in order for it to pass." Succession in Theocracies can be messy and unpredictable. Ergo the Obama rush to get something signed before Khamenei begins selecting burkas for his virgins. Better the Devil you know, and all that.
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp52169 ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] As the Lebanese army continues to press an offensive against Islamist gunnies on the outskirts of the northeastern border towns, in cooperation with the Syrian military and Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... , gunnies are still exerting efforts to infiltrate Leb.
As Safir newspaper reported on Friday that the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda-affiliate 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 are currently controlling around 992 kilometers of the outskirts between Syria and Leb on the country's Eastern Mountain Range, with 450 kilometers inside Leb.
The number of gunnies entrenched in the area is around 3,000, including 1,500 fighters that defected the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... and joined the two Islamist groups.
The report said that 750 pledged allegiance to 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 .. ... and 800 to ISIL.
According to the newspaper, ISIL and al-Nusra are controlling the outskirts of Asal al-Wared in the Syrian al-Qalamoun, and the upper outskirts of the northeastern border towns of Arsal, Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa.
The bad boys' area of control reportedly oversees Lebanese areas in the Bekaa Valley, including Brital, Baalbek and Nahlet Younnine.
The daily said that the illegal crossings in Arsal, in particular the Syrian encampments (14) outside the Lebanese army's area of control, are the main funding source for the gunnies.
The two groups reportedly possess a wide range of heavy and light ammunition, in addition to hundreds of rockets, including anti-tank missiles, and a small number of tanks and armored vehicles.
The report comes in light of a military operation on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek in line with efforts to secure villages near the eastern border with neighboring Syria. The Lebanese army seized last week two hilltop positions in the area.
Three soldiers were maimed in the operation, during which bad boy positions were shelled with artillery and heavy weaponry, the army said in its communique.
The statement did not name the bad boys, but most are believed to be from the Islamic State group.
They and Nusra Front have been holding around 20 Lebanese soldiers and coppers hostage since August.
The army frequently festivities with the gunnies in their hideouts near the Syria border.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Were is all the usual big talk from Hezbollah?
Posted by: chris ||
03/07/2015 0:18 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... imposed additional sanctions against Syria on Friday, targeting backers of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... as the bloody conflict gets worse with no prospect of a peace deal.
"Seven persons and six entities providing support to the Syrian regime as well as benefitting from it have been targeted," a statement said.
"This brings the number of persons and entities targeted by EU sanctions over the violent repression against the civilian population in Syria to 218 persons and 69 entities," it said.
The move follows a December decision to extend the sanctions regime to hit Assad and his supporters.
The European Union will publish the names of the individuals and entities in its Official Journal on Saturday, bringing the measures into effect.
More than 220,000 people are believed to have died in Syria since a March 2011 popular uprising against Assad turned into a bloody sectarian conflict which has displaced millions and destroyed much of the country.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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#2
Horrors! This will cut of the vital supply of Fiats and Spanish champagne!
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/07/2015 13:11 Comments ||
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#3
Oddly you don't see that many FIAT Technicals. Hard to understand I know, who wouldn't want to blaze away at the enemy of the day from the bed of a fiercely red Strada?
[Beirut Daily Star] The United States Friday prodded rival Lebanese leaders to elect a president without counting on foreign deals to help them choose a new head of state and accused Hezbollah of harming Leb's stability over its role in Syria.
The remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Leb David Hale were the latest foreign appeal to Lebanese political factions to act to elect a president as the deadlock, now in its 10th month, has paralyzed Parliament legislation and is threatening to cripple the government's work.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star] The U.N. Security Council Friday approved a U.S.-drafted resolution that condemns the use of toxic chemicals like chlorine in Syria without assigning blame, while threatening militarily enforced action in the case of further violations.
All members of the 15-seat council approved the resolution except for Venezuela, which abstained.
The resolution follows last month's condemnation by the world's chemical weapons watchdog of the use of chlorine in Syria as a breach of international law. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' fact-finding mission concluded "with a high degree of confidence" that chlorine was used on three villages in Syria last year, killing 13 people.
The OPCW did not assign blame, but some council members like Britannia and La Belle France have blamed Syria's government for the attacks, pointing out that the fact-finding reports linked chlorine attacks to helicopters and that only Syria's government has helicopters.
Russia Friday again expressed skepticism about blaming the Syrian government, which is its ally. Syria denies using chlorine or other chemical weapons and blames "terrorists" for such attacks.
"The Syrian government has nothing to hide," Syrian envoy Bashar Jaafari told news hounds after the meeting. He also lashed out at some council members for blaming his government for atrocities related to the "so-called chemical issue" and other issues.
"These people are like hyenas. The more they kill, the more they are hungry," he said, adding that Venezuela "did the right" thing by abstaining.
Venezuelan envoy Rafael Ramirez said the council should wait until any investigation into the use of chlorine is complete before taking up the issue. The South American country, which has an antagonistic relationship with the U.S., has long defended the Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... 's regime.
The resolution threatens action against further violations under a council resolution in 2013 that banned Syria's use of chemical arms. The resolution also applies to any party in the Syrian conflict, which is about to enter its fifth year and has killed an estimated 220,000 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Venezuela is on the UNSC? Wow, how bout Madagascar?
Posted by: chris ||
03/07/2015 0:32 Comments ||
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#3
Venezuela is not only on the Security Council the number two in the delegation Is the Infanta Maria Gabriela. It was the only way Maduro could wedge her out of Miraflores.
[Iran Press TV] Russia says 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... cannot use force or impose sanctions against the warring sides in Syria for using chlorine gas without providing any proof.
On Friday, Russia's Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin (pictured below) said the international body needs to offer proof about the use of chlorine gas in the Syrian conflict before taking measures under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
Earlier in the day, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution denouncing the use of chlorine gas in the Arab country.
The resolution did not apportion blame on any side for the chemical attacks, but threatened to take actions under the UN's Chapter 7 in case of further violations.
According to the resolution, the Security Council "decides in the event of future non-compliance... to impose measures under chapter 7" of the UN Charter.
Out of the UNSC's 15 member states, 14 approved the resolution. Venezuela was the only country which abstained, citing lack of evidence for the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
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[AnNahar] At least 46,000 Twitter accounts have been linked to supporters 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.... in late 2014, a research report released in Washington showed.
Somebody hopefully is tracking their locations and connections and such...
The study released Thursday by the Brookings Institution found that even though many accounts were suspended by the messaging platform, the numbers remained high.
"From September through December 2014, the authors estimate that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by ISIS supporters, although not all of them were active at the same time," the report said.
Authors JM Berger and Jonathon Morgan said analysis of the social media efforts of the murderous Moslem Islamic group also known as ISIS needs to go beyond the core leadership.
"Previous analyses of ISIS' Twitter reach have relied on limited segments of the overall ISIS social network," they wrote in the report commissioned by Google Ideas.
"The small, cellular nature of that network -- and the focus on particular subsets within the network such as imported muscle -- may create misleading conclusions."
Analyzing the location embedded in the tweets, the researchers found the largest number of ISIS supporters in 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... , followed by Syria, Iraq and the United States.
Nearly one in five of the IS supporters tweeted in English, they found, with three quarters tweeting in Arabic.
The supporting accounts had an average of about 1,000 followers each, higher than most Twitter users. Accounts that tweeted most often and had the most followers were most likely to be suspended.
The authors said social media companies and the U.S. government "must work together to devise appropriate responses to extremism on social media."
They noted that "although discussions of this issue often frame government intervention as an infringement on free speech, in reality, social media companies currently regulate speech on their platforms without oversight or disclosures of how suspensions are applied."
Twitter said this week it was working with law enforcement officials on unspecified threats, amid reports that the social network had been targeted for blocking accounts linked to the Islamic State.
A page on the online bulletin board Pastebin showed an image of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in what appear to be the crosshairs of a rifle scope and a message in Arabic.
SITE Intelligence, a U.S. group that monitors jihadist threats, said the post was made by 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... al-Maqdisiya, a pro-Islamic State media group.
A translation of the message by SITE said that Dorsey and Twitter are now being targeted by Islamic forces of Evil for suspending certain accounts.
"You began this failed war, and we have told you from the beginning that it is not your war! But you did not understand. You shut down our accounts and we quickly return, but when our lone lions shut down your breathing there will be no return!" the message said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
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#1
1 could more than likely be traced to the white house.
Posted by: chris ||
03/07/2015 0:29 Comments ||
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#2
I find it strange that a area having a war, with failing services such as electricity and water, manages to have functioning internet linkage.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/07/2015 9:25 Comments ||
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[The Weekly Standard] Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn report in the Wall Street Journal on the latest developments in uncovering how the Obama administration actively played down the threat of al Qaeda during President Obama's reelection campaign. Photo at right is of LTG(Ret) Mike Flynn, former Director, DIA and source of the Hayes/Joscelyn WSJ article.
In spring 2012, a year after the raid that killed bin Laden and six months before the 2012 presidential election, the Obama administration launched a concerted campaign to persuade the American people that the long war with al Qaeda was ending. In a speech commemorating the anniversary of the raid, John Brennan , Mr. Obama's top counterterrorism adviser and later his CIA director, predicted the imminent demise of al Qaeda. The next day, on May 1, 2012, Mr. Obama made a bold claim: "The goal that I set--to defeat al Qaeda and deny it a chance to rebuild--is now within our reach."
The White House provided 17 handpicked documents to the Combatting Terror Center at the West Point military academy, where a team of analysts reached the conclusion the Obama administration wanted. Bin Laden, they found, had been isolated and relatively powerless, a sad and lonely man sitting atop a crumbling terror network.
It was a reassuring portrayal. It was also wrong. And those responsible for winning the war--as opposed to an election--couldn't afford to engage in such dangerous self-delusion. Now, with this in hand, will someone please take it one step further and investigate the political theater that we know as the Abbattaba raid and the scapegoating of Pakistani Dr. Shakeel Afridi ?
#7
So the President lied to get re-elected, and suppressed the facts explicitly demonstrated by the Benghazi attack, and cooked the books on unemployment, the economy, the mandates in the ACA, stalled through his AG on a raft of issues like Rosen, F&F, IRS targeting.....
How would any President escape impeachment by now? Seriously, can we impeach the white half of this jackass?
#10
Flynn, who was a former intelligence adviser to retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Iraq and Afghanistan Business Insider
Flynn and McChrystal both were good, experienced officers. They both went against the regime's narrative of the WOT; both dug into the fragile ego of the ONE and both ended up out of the military.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AnNahar] This small Gulf nation, known for its soaring skyscrapers and mercantile bent, is making itself into the most stalwart ally of the Arab world's biggest country.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[IraqiNews.com] On Thursday, Salahuddin Provincial Council announced the launch of a force of 600 fighters from the sons of al-Alam district to liberate their areas after finishing their training in Samarra camps, indicating that the force will join the Volunteer Forces (al-Hashd al-Sha'bi).
[Medium.com] But in the future, Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold--the chief of Air Force Special Operations Command--wants install an airborne microwave energy gun on the Ghostrider, similar to the infamous Humvee-mounted heat ray the U.S. deployed briefly to Afghanistan.
"The reports come as Iran and the Western powers race to formulate a nuclear deal before the end of the month -- a deal Khamenei will have to sign off on in order for it to pass."
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[AnNahar] At least 46,000 Twitter accounts have been linked to supporters of the 
