[AnNahar] Claims 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.... group carried out a deadly suicide kaboom in Afghanistan raise questions about whether the culprits are the real deal or Taliban turncoats now waving the IS black flag.
Either way, war-weary Afghans seem to be in for the bloodiest fighting season in a decade.
Continued on Page 49
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04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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War-Weary Afghans?! Please!!! War is the central chromosome in the Pashtun DNA.
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04/20/2015 10:36 Comments ||
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War is the central chromosome in the Pashtun DNA.
[AnNahar] Afghanistan and Iran announced Sunday plans for enhanced security cooperation to combat threats 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, including possible joint military operations.
Standing alongside visiting Afghan leader Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. , Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the tumult hitting the region meant intelligence must be shared.
His comments came after IS, which holds swathes of Syria and Iraq, said it was responsible for a suicide kaboom in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad which killed 33 people.
The attack on Saturday at a state-owned bank where government workers were drawing their salaries was the first in Afghanistan claimed by IS. More than 100 people were also maimed.
Ghani's two-day visit to Iran is his first since taking over from president Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... in September, and he was accompanied on the trip by his foreign minister and minister for oil and mines.
The Afghan leader has repeatedly raised the prospect of IS making inroads in his country, though the jihadist group has never formally acknowledged having a presence in Afghanistan.
A former finance minister and World Bank technocrat, Ghani said IS presented "a serious danger and different form of terrorism".
"People die daily, we face barbarism," he said at a joint presser, prompting Rouhani to nod in agreement.
"And without greater cooperation a macabre phenomenon such as Daesh cannot be contained," Ghani said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
Rouhani said: "We have agreed to cooperate further in the fight against terrorism, violence and extremism in the region, especially in border regions.
"We need intelligence sharing and, if necessary, cooperation in operations because the problems that exist are not restricted and gradually spread throughout the region, affecting everyone."
The two leaders did not specify further what they thought could be done to confront IS, which swept into Iraq from Syria last June. The group holds djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Iraq's second city.
Iran has been central in the Baghdad government's fightback against IS, coordinating Shiite militias and providing military advisers from its powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The largest such operation saw IS cleared early this month from Tikrit, a city north of Baghdad and the childhood home of executed Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have seen defections to IS in recent months, with some voicing their disaffection with their one-eyed supreme leader Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... who has not been seen in almost 14 years.
A person purporting to be an IS front man said in a call to Agence La Belle France Presse that the group was behind the Jalalabad bombing. An online post allegedly from IS made the same claim, but could not be verified.
Iran and Afghanistan have close ties. In 2001, Tehran took the rare step of cooperating with Washington in a U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime from power in Kabul.
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04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
IRAN repor is in favor of Trilateralism or better for AFPAK.
[AnNahar] Arab military chiefs will meet this week in Cairo to discuss the forming of a joint military force to fight the region's growing murderous Moslem threat, an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... official said Sunday.
After Arab League leaders agreed to create such a force at a March summit in Egypt, army chiefs from member states will hold talks on Wednesday on details of how the force will be created, its role and its financing, a League source told AFP.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi pushed for the creation of the force after 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.... organization executed a group of Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya in February, prompting retaliatory air strikes from Egypt.
The plan gained further momentum after 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 several Arab allies launched air strikes on Iran-backed Shiite Houthis in Yemen.
IS has emerged as the most brutal murderous Moslem group in the region, carrying out widespread atrocities and winning the support of several other jihadist organizations.
On Sunday it released a video purportedly showing the execution of some 30 Æthiopian Christians captured in Libya.
I am so looking forward to the time when the last of the Arab Spring problems have passed through the system.
[AnNahar] Egypt's ex-president Mohammed Morsi faces being sentenced to death Tuesday on charges of inciting the killing of protesters in the first verdict against him nearly two years after his fall from power.
He also faces the death penalty in two other trials, including one in which he is accused of spying for foreign powers, and escaping from prison during the 2011 anti-Mubarak revolt.
Skhirat, Morocco -- The UN envoy for Libya said on Sunday that rival factions in the strife-torn North African country have reached a draft accord which is “very close to a final agreement”.
Sure they are: next year they'll be as close as they were last year...
Bernardino Leon also told reporters in the Moroccan resort of Skhirat at the end of the latest round of negotiations between the factions that preparations were under way for armed groups to hold direct talks.
“I can tell you that we have now a draft which looks like something very close to a final agreement,” he said.
“Eighty per cent of the text in this draft is, let me put it this way, is something that the parties can agree,” said Leon.
The other 20 percent leads to seething, mustache cursing and generalized mayhem...
He said the factions would return to Libya for consultations and return to Morocco “not this coming week but the following one” to finalise the agreement.
The envoy stressed however that any deal would need the approval of fighters on the ground, adding that his mission was hoping to convene a face-to-face meeting next week.
“This will be the first time the armed groups, the people who are holding weapons and who are fighting on the ground, might meet,” he said.
“This is very important because all this work, all these efforts, will not work, will be useless, if we don’t bring completely on board all those who are taking decisions on the ground, who are fighting on the ground.”
Leon cautioned that “not everything is good news”, referring to fighting inside Libya and a video purportedly showing Daesh militants executing some 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
Friday’s fighting near Tripoli between pro-government forces and armed groups killed at least 21 people, according to military sources.
“We know that the enemies of peace, the enemies of the agreement, will be active and be even more active in the coming days and weeks,” Leon warned.
Libya has been divided since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with two opposing governments and parliaments and armed groups battling to control its cities and oil wealth.
On March 24, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya unveiled a six-point plan to end the crisis, including the formation of a transitional unity government until a new constitution is adopted and elections held.
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04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Nineteen people were killed in Thursday night's attack on a 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... ian village by Nigeria-based 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... murderous Moslems, a security source said in an updated toll, adding that most of the victims had their heads chopped off.
"The final toll from this attack is 19 dead, with a majority of the victims decapitated," a security source said Saturday on condition of anonymity.
Security sources had previously said 10 non-combatants were killed in the cross-border raid on the village of Bia in Cameroon's Far North region.
The attack comes after a regional military offensive -- which includes Cameroon -- has claimed a string of successes in their fightback against the Islamist snuffies in Nigeria in recent weeks.
Bia, which borders Lake Chad, has been identified previously by security forces as a recruiting ground for Boko Haram murderous Moslems.
The source speaking to Agence La Belle France Presse on Saturday said security forces were slow to react to the raid on Bia, located in an area with several military bases.
"We noted a late response by our forces,", the source said.
"Many huts were burned down," the source added.
Also during the night from Thursday to Friday, Boko Haram Islamists attacked a Cameroon army position in Amchide, on the border with Nigeria.
"They burned houses in Amchide, but without losses on our side. The attack was repulsed. We don't know yet about casualties on the enemy side," a security source told AFP on Friday.
The insurgency by Boko Haram -- which is seeking to create a hardline Islamic state -- has killed some 13,000 people in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... and sent 1.5 million fleeing their homes since 2009.
The group had in recent months widened its attacks into neighbouring nations, prompting Chad, Cameroon and Niger to launch a joint offensive with the Nigerian army, resulting in a series of rebel-held towns and villages being recaptured in Nigeria's northeast.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... 's perceived inability to end the six-year insurgency was a factor in his election defeat last month.
Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to rid the country of the "terror" of Boko Haram.
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[AnNahar] With its campaign against Yemeni rebels at full throttle, 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... has spared al-Qaeda which has capitalized on the chaos, but experts say Riyadh will have to hit them eventually.
Faced with the Iranian catspaws' march on Aden, President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's southern refuge, Riyadh assembled a Sunni-Arab coalition that launched a campaign of air strikes on March 26.
Continued on Page 49
[AnNahar] With conflicts raging across the Middle East, the U.S. is seeking to reassure its Gulf allies that it has a regional strategy which will be bolstered, not shredded, by any Iran nuclear deal.
The U.S. administration appears increasingly caught in a game of whack-a-mole as it confronts a series of complex challenges, with Saudi-led Arclight airstrikes in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... just the latest complication in a regional tinderbox pitting Sunnis against Shiites, and even Sunni against Sunni.
Continued on Page 49
Aden -- The Yemeni commander of a vast military district covering half the country’s border with Saudi Arabia pledged support on Sunday to exiled President Abde Rabbo Mansour Hadi, local officials said.
The announcement puts at least 15,000 troops in the desert and mountain border area on the same side as Saudi Arabia, which backs Hadi and has waged an inconclusive three-week bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen who are allied with Iran.
“Brigadier-General Abdulrahman Al Halily of the First Military District announced today his support for constitutional legitimacy as represented by President Hadi,” one of the officials said.
The declaration was also broadcast on official radio in the city of Seiyun, the main city of the Hadramawt valley area where the district’s main military base is located.
Most of Yemen’s military is loyal to powerful ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces are fighting alongside the Houthi militia in battles stretching across Yemen’s south and east.
But the defection of the northeastern troops brings to about 10 the number of divisions that back Hadi. It may point to an increasing sense in the military that momentum favours the president, who fledran away resides in exile in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Beginning last week, most of the army divisions along Yemen’s eastern Arabian Sea coast evacuated their posts and handed security of their bases and Yemen’s Masila oil fields, the country’s largest, to armed Sunni tribes. Other powerful tribes followed suit on Monday within the First Military District, announcing after a vast gathering that they supported Hadi and the Saudi-led military operation, in a move which likely encouraged the commander’s decision.
“The announcement followed that of the tribes. It would be impossible to oppose their will and continue to live side by side, and there was likely some pressure from Saudi Arabia, which is keen to secure its border,” Radhi Subaih, a political analyst in Seiyun, said.
Citizens from Hadramawt, Yemen’s largest province which stretches from the coast to the Saudi border, are linked closely to the kingdom by family and historical ties.
The remainder of Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen encompasses the northern stronghold of the Houthi guerrillas, who are avowedly crazy hostile to Saudi Arabia.
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[AnNahar] Security will be boosted at Anzac Day commemorations in Australia's state of Victoria, as its premier on Sunday urged people to turn up despite arrests linked to an alleged 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.... -inspired attack plan.
Police tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! five men in counter-terrorism raids in the state's capital Melbourne on Saturday and charged one of them -- 18-year-old Sevdet Besim -- with conspiring to commit a terrorist act on Anzac Day on April 25 when ceremonies are held across the nation to remember fallen Australian and New Zealand Army Corps troops.
An unidentified second 18-year-old who was arrested but not yet charged was being held under a preventative detention order that could last for up to two weeks, a Victoria Police spokeswoman told Agence La Belle France Presse Sunday.
It is believed to be the first time a preventative detention order -- meant to help police when there is a threat of an imminent terrorist attack or to collect evidence after an attack -- has been used by the southern Australian state's police force, the spokeswoman said.
A third man, also 18, was released and is expected to be charged with weapons offences, while two others aged 18 and 19 were freed without charge as investigations continued.
Premier Daniel Andrews said he hoped "as many Victorians as possible will be at the Shrine of Remembrance and other Anzac Day services right across our state", adding that his family would be attending the events.
"The Victorian community can rest assured that Victoria Police in co-operation with the Australian Federal Police and other security agencies will have in place on Anzac Day the best possible arrangements to do everything that can be done to keep Victorians safe."
There will be an increased police presence at some sites, including at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne where thousands of people are expected to attend an Anzac Day dawn service.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Saturday said he expected security to be ramped up at other Anzac Day events.
He urged Australians to attend the ceremonies "in the largest possible numbers", a call echoed by Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten.
"I would encourage people not to be deterred by these raids yesterday, but rather demonstrate together, side by side, what we can do and that we will not be deterred by a fear of terrorism," Shorten said Sunday.
This year's events have assumed added significance as the day marks a century since the bloody World War I Gallipoli campaign in what is now The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... .
Some 11,500 of the 60,000 Australian and New Zealand troops who joined the 1915 campaign died.
Australia has warned of the threat from "home-grown" Islamic State-inspired Lions of Islam and has unveiled new security measures including revoking citizenship for dual-nationals linked to terrorism.
Canberra raised its threat level to high in September and carried out a series of counter-terrorism raids last year.
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04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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h/t Instapundit
Italy's foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, is now calling for military airstrikes strikes against the Libyan coast in order to protect Italy from Muslim terrorists who want to enter the country through the coastal border, or bombard Italy with some sort of attack.
[Dawn] Pakistan's position on the Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... conflict will not lead to the expulsion of Pak workers from the Middle East, says Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
The minister told a news briefing in Washington that Pakistain and 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... had signed a military protocol in 1982, which entitles the kingdom to seek Pak troops.
"But this agreement was for a different purpose and it is not in national interests to talk about it," he said.
"God forbid, we do not want to create the impression that we are not with Saudi Arabia. I am a sinner but I am willing to die defending the two holy mosques."
Mr Dar, who was addressing the Pak media at the end of a three-day visit to Washington, was drawn into the Yemen dispute while vowing to take the country's foreign exchange reserves to a record $18.5 billion by the end of this fiscal year.
A journalist reminded him that the largest contributor to foreign exchange reserves were overseas Paks who sent a record $13.3 billion in last nine months. But some Arab countries were threatening to expel those workers because of Pakistain's refusal to send troops to Saudi Arabia.
"I am almost sure that we will not face this situation," said Mr Dar. "The parliamentary resolution on Yemen was misunderstood in some Arab countries but we have clarified our position."
He said Pakistain had a particularly close relationship with Saudi Arabia and wanted to retain those ties.
"Pakistain will stand shoulder to shoulder with Saudi Arabia in the event of a threat to its territorial integrity," he said. "We have condemned the Houthis and support the restoration of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. No gang should be allowed to oust a government."
The finance minister said Pakistain and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... were playing a reconciliatory role and wanted to bring the two groups to the negotiating table.
Mr Dar, who was in Washington to attend spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF, said the IMF would hold the 7th review of its programme for Pakistain from May 1 to 9 in Dubai and he was confident that it would be a positive review.
He said the country's foreign exchange reserves had risen to $17.67 billion and would increase further later this year.
The State Bank of Pakistain held $12 billion, while private banks had the rest of the total reserves in the country.
"Our next target is to cross the past highest level of $18.29 billion in reserves this year. We are targeting $18.5 billion," he said.
The minister said that these achievements were particularly significant, as the previous government had brought the country close to bankruptcy.
Mr Dar cited a series of macroeconomic indicators -- GDP growth, low inflation, successful return of the country in the international bond, Sukuk and equity markets -- to support his claim that the national economy was not only out of the red zone but was also progressing steadily.
He said the "unprecedented completion" of six levels of home-grown reforms with the IMF had also enhanced the confidence of international financial institutions in Pakistain's economy.
Mr Dar said Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistain would take ties between the two countries to new heights.
A charming example of the clear and incisive thinking so astoundingly prevalent in the Land of the Pure.
[Dawn] Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed on Sunday accused the US and the 'Jewish lobby' of portraying the ongoing crisis in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... as a conflict between two major religious schools of thoughts.
"The war in Yemen is neither a Shia-Sunni dispute nor a conflict between Iran and Soddy Arabia
Continued on Page 49
#1
So what he's saying is that the Muslims are so weak-willed and money grubbing that the US & Israel can talk them into going to war against each other.
Since there are no Israelis or Americans involved in the fighting there's no alternative.
Those folks have never been very good at logic are they?
[AnNahar] More than 90,000 people have fled fighting between pro-government forces and the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group in the Ramadi area of Iraq's Anbar province, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... said on Sunday.
"Humanitarian agencies are rushing to provide assistance to more than 90,000 people fleeing festivities in Anbar governorate," the U.N. said in a statement
"Our top priority is delivering life-saving assistance to people who are fleeing -- food, water and shelter are highest on the list of priorities," it quoted Lise Grande, humanitarian coordinator for the U.N. in Iraq, as saying.
At least 2.7 million people have been displaced in Iraq since the beginning of 2014, including almost half a million from the western province of Anbar, the U.N. said.
IS spearheaded an offensive last June that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, including swathes of Anbar.
Anbar is a vast desert province that stretches east from the Baghdad governorate to the western borders with 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... , Jordan and Syria.
Parts of Ramadi and all of the city of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... to its east have been out of government control for since early 2014.
Iraqi security forces performed dismally in the early days of the IS drive, but have regained significant territory with backing from mainly Shiite paramilitaries, a U.S.-led coalition and Iran.
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04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
I saw where al-Douri was reported killed the other day - Izzi still dead?
[Rooters] A former intelligence officer for the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was the mastermind behind Islamic State's takeover of northern Syria, according to a report by Der Spiegel that is based on documents uncovered by the German magazine.
Spiegel, in a lengthy story published at the weekend and entitled "Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State," says it gained access to 31 pages of handwritten charts, lists and schedules which amount to a blueprint for the establishment of a caliphate in Syria.
The documents were the work of a man identified by the magazine as Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, a former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein's air defense force, who went by the pseudonym Haji Bakr.
Spiegel says the files suggest that the takeover of northern Syria was part of a meticulous plan overseen by Haji Bakr using techniques -- including surveillance, espionage, murder and kidnapping -- honed in the security apparatus of Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi national was reportedly killed in a firefight with Syrian rebels in January 2014, but not before he had helped secure swathes of Syria, which in turn strengthened Islamic State's position in neighboring Iraq.
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04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Sunday that inspectors would be barred from military sites under any nuclear agreement with world powers.
Gen. Hossein Salami, the Guard's deputy leader, said on state TV that allowing the foreign inspection of military sites is tantamount to "selling out."
"We will respond with hot lead (bullets) to those who speak of it," Salami said. "Iran will not become a paradise for spies. We will not roll out the red carpet for the enemy."
Iran and six world powers -- the US, the UK, La Belle France, Germany, China and Russia -- have reached a framework agreement to curb Tehran's nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions, and hope to strike a final deal by June 30.
A fact sheet on the framework accord issued by the State Department said Iran would be required to grant the UN nuclear agency access to any "suspicious sites." Iran has questioned that and other language in the fact sheet, notably that sanctions would only be lifted after the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency has verified Tehran's compliance. Iran's leaders have said the sanctions should be lifted on the first day of the implementation of the accord.
The fact sheet said Iran has agreed to implement the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would grant the IAEA expanded access to both declared and undeclared nuclear facilities.
But Salami said allowing foreign inspectors to visit a military base would amount to "occupation," and expose "military and defense secrets."
"It means humiliating a nation," Salami said on state TV. "They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams."
Iran allowed IAEA inspectors to visit the Parchin military site in 2005 as a confidence-building measure, but denied further visits, fearing espionage.
Western nations have long suspected Iran of secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian program. Tehran denies such allegations, and insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.
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04/20/2015 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Obama: "We'll just have to accept this. It's a cultural thing that we shouldn't expect them to change, like the "Death to America" thing. The important thing is we have an agreement"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/20/2015 9:33 Comments ||
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[Rudaw] A top Syrian diplomat says Damascus will continue to provide Kurdish fighters in Syrian Kurdistan with military and financial support.
Syrian reconciliation minister Ali Haidar told Rudaw he conducted "constructive talks" with Kurdish officials on a recent visit to Syrian Kurdistan, or Rojava, where he met with local officials.
"We have been providing all possible military assistance for the Kurdish forces in order to empower them against terror," Haidar said. "We are still providing them with our support in order to defeat the terrorist organizations," he added.
The Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) declared autonomy in the three regional cantons of Rojava last year. It has been locked in fierce fighting with the so-called 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.... (ISIS), and categorically denies any collaboration with Damascus and regards the Syrian government as "oppressive."
Haidar said he assured his Kurdish hosts in Rojava of the Syrian government's support for talks about a range of issues, including the political status of Rojava "within Syria."
"The response from the Kurdish officials was positive," the minister said. "They told me their project (for self-rule) could be revised and altered since all the projects are designed to find a solution within the sovereign state of Syria."
With a population exceeding 1 million, Rojava is currently a Kurdish administrated region divided into three cantons. The PYD and its armed wing the Peoples' Protection Unit (YPG) are the authorities in the enclave.
PYD has denied links with the Syrian regime, though no festivities have taken place between them and the Syrian army since the uprising began in 2011.
"Qamishloo is Syrian soil," Haidar said, referring to the Syrian city in Rojava where his meeting took place. "My trip was an effort to alleviate any danger and to repair bridges between the Syrian leadership and the people of this area more profoundly," he said.
Regarding Kurdish flags hoisted at checkpoints in Rojava, the minister said his government had no objection as long as "everything remains within a united Syria."
Haidar said he had also been in talks with other groups in the region, including the Christians and the Arabs of the region.
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04/20/2015 00:00:00 ||
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[ARA] and security situation continue to deteriorate in Syria, children's abductions and human trafficking have become a common scene in the city of Damascus in the last few months.
The Syrian capital, which has suffered multiple crisis-related issues over the past four years, now faces an unprecedented phenomenon, that of "human organ trafficking".
Speaking to ARA News, Nadia Kamal, mother of an 8-year-old girl in the al-Qadam neighborhood of Damascus, said: "My daughter, Raghad, had disappeared from a park in the neighborhood. After failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! s to find her in any hospital, I've posted an notification online about her disappearance, but yet nobody responded."
"However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... ten days later, an unidentified person contacted me on the phone, saying my daughter is in a good condition and I can receive her," she said, adding that the girl was handed over by a masked man.
"Indeed, I received my daughter. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... impacts of a surgery were apparent on her body. After investigation by a doctor we discovered that her kidney was removed," she said.
Muhammad Ali, from Rukn al-Din neighborhood of Damascus, told ARA News that more than four children were kidnapped in their area recently.
"Last week, an gang kidnapped several children, in front of their homes, from the city of Daria and then let them return. Their families reported that several organs were removed from their returning children."
According to the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... (U.N), an estimated 4.25 million people are homeless inside the country ــ half of whom are reportedly children.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... the issue of human organ trafficking "inside Syria" has not been yet put on the table of the humanitarian organizations or handled by the U.N. organizations. There is no accurate mentioning of those victimized children, who still endure the conflict inside their war-torn country, beside those who suffer exploitation in refugee camps in the neighboring countries.
The overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees are women and kiddies. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, exploitation and sexual abuse. Amid the lack of statistical evidence, one phenomenon that has been witnessed among the Syrian refugee population is marriage to Syrian refugee girls in exchange for money, which is a practice that is regarded by human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... activists as a form of human trafficking.
[ARA] Syrian human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... activists documented 87 violations by the Syrian regime to the U.N. Security Council's resolutions banning the use of chemical weapons.
In a report issued on Sunday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights confirmed that the Syrian regime used weapons containing toxic chemicals in its war against the opposition, which is a clear violation of Resolution 2118 of the U.N. Security Council.
The report said that the Syrian regime forces has used chemical weapons 87 times since September 27, 2013, the date of the adoption of resolution number "2118". The report said that 59 violations took place in 2014, and 28 others since the beginning of 2015.
The chemical attacks by the Syrian regime's army caused the death of 58 people from suffocation by toxic gases, including 23 civilians (among them, 11 children and 5 women.) The attacks also caused the death of seven members of the pro-regime forces who were imprisoned by the opposition fighters.
The period from March 22, 2015, to the moment of issuing this report, saw an increasing number of attacks with an average of nine attacks, six of which were on Idlib province in northwestern Syria, which is primarily outside the control of the Syrian regime forces.
The report stressed that these attacks violate the international humanitarian conventions that ban the use of such weapons, considering it a war crime. Additionally, these chemical attacks may reach the degree of crimes against humanity according to Article VII of the Charter of the Rome Statute, especially when systematically conducted.
In March, 2014, the Syrian regime dropped barrel bombs containing chemical agents on the city of Sarmin in Idlib province, which claimed the lives of six people from one family, including three children under the age of ten, all of whom died by asphyxiation.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Guess that red line that was drawn didn't mean shit to anyone
Posted by: chris ||
04/20/2015 22:29 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged his armed forces Sunday to increase their "defensive preparedness," denouncing a U.S. warning that military action is an option if there is no nuclear deal.
In a speech to commanders and troops, the supreme leader said "the other side with insolence threaten us all the time," denying Iran was seeking an atomic bomb and insisting its military doctrine is defensive.
Khamenei's remarks came after General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated last week that should nuclear talks with Iran fail "the military option... is intact."
Not that the nuclear talks will be permitted to fail be deemed a failure, so that's ok.
[AnNahar] Young Syrian men in regime-controlled areas are using any means necessary, including violent protests, to avoid military conscription -- even if they support the government.
More than 80,000 soldiers and other pro-regime fighters have been killed in the four-year-old conflict, out of a total of roughly 220,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"I'm with the regime but I am a deserter, because military service in Syria means death," said George, a Christian student from Damascus. "Very few young men accept to enlist because at our age, no one wants to die."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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Paris -- The first French weapons from a $3 billion Saudi-funded programme will arrive in Lebanon on Monday as allies seek to bolster the country’s defences against the Daesh group and other militants pressing along its Syrian border.
Anti-tank guided missiles are set to arrive at an air force base in Beirut, overseen by French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Lebanese counterpart, Samir Mokbel.
France is expected to deliver 250 combat and transport vehicles, seven Cougar helicopters, three small corvette warships and a range of surveillance and communications equipment over four years as part of the $3 billion modernisation programme.
It is being entirely funded by Saudi Arabia, which is keen to see Lebanon’s army defend its borders against militant groups, particularly the Daesh group and Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra, instead of leaving the job to Hezbollah. The contract also promises seven years of training for the 70,000-strong Lebanese army and 10 years of equipment maintenance.
“This project is to help us re-establish a Lebanese army capable of responding to new security realities,” said a French defence official.
Only if western technical support is part of the plan...
Since the conflict in neighbouring Syria broke out in 2011, Lebanon has faced mounting spill-over threats, first from the millions of refugees pouring across the border and increasingly from militants.
“There are an estimated 3,000 armed militants based on our border, waiting for the moment to penetrate into the Bekaa valley,” said Hisham Jaber, a former general now at the Middle East Centre for the Study of Public Relations in Beirut.
“They haven’t come for tourism or to go skiing.”
Elk hunting?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2015 00:00 ||
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Weapons in excellent condition - never used, only dropped once!
[Allen West blog] American Pastor, Saeed Abedini, has been held in prison in Iran since 2012. Abedini, who was born a Muslim but converted to Christianity was sentenced in 2013 to eight years in prison supposedly on charges of "undermining national security" in Iran because he was holding private religious gatherings in Christian homes.
He has not seen his family in three years. The Obama administration has seemingly made little to no effort to free him -- even while they sit across from his captors, attempting to negotiate a deal.
Now reports are surfacing that Abedini is facing new and more horrible forms of torture in Iranian prison. ACLJ.org reports, "Iranian officials are ...psychologically tormenting him...the prison guards have become increasingly hostile.
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.
Goodluck Jonathan
[Rudaw] A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Sunday that inspectors would be barred from military sites under any nuclear agreement with world powers.
[Allen West blog] American Pastor, Saeed Abedini, has been held in prison in Iran since 2012. Abedini, who was born a Muslim but converted to Christianity was sentenced in 2013 to eight years in prison supposedly on charges of "undermining national security" in Iran because he was holding private religious gatherings in Christian homes.
